thank you

Thank you for your support about our recent loss. I have been taking time to process it all. I am doing much better although there are still moments when I am overcome with sadness, but I am okay with that... I allow myself a good cry whenever I need it, and I am grateful that I have a husband who can just look at me and know that I need his arms around me and his whisper in my ear that everything is going to be okay. And I know it will be. We are definitely not done having kids.

We have been keeping busy behind the scenes. We are all so excited for the coming Summer months. It has been a chilly start to Spring, but we have had some warm-ish sunny days we took full advantage of with trips to the beach, skateboarding down the driveway, and running through the sprinkler.

With Springs arrival we have turned our attention from working on projects inside the house to working outside in the yard. So far that has meant a lot of clean up. The yard was completely neglected for some time, but you can tell it was once well taken care of and there are pretty daffodils and tulips blooming a midst all of the weeds and overgrowth. We are still not close to being done, but it is shaping up to at least be presentable. I am itching to get our garden plot ready and almost can't wait for those lilac buds I spotted the other day to bloom.

picking pumpkins

We almost didn't make it to a pumpkin patch this year. I feel like I have been saying this a lot lately, but life is busy! I guess that is what happens when you are renovating a house and it is the holidays. But, we did finally manage to squeeze in a short trip to walk around the corn maze and pick out some nice round pumpkins. It was freezing cold, but the girls still had fun and I am glad the tradition went on... See past pumpkin patch trips here, here, and here!

(rotten) apple picking

When we were searching for a house one of the items on my 'would-be-nice-if' list was mature fruit trees. This was not a deal breaker, but if there were fruit trees my eyes would light up just that much more. So when we first looked at our house way back in February I was happy to look through the window and see rotting fruit hanging off of two big trees in the backyard. There were no leaves and it was cold and getting dark so at first we guessed they were peach trees, but we soon discovered they were apple trees - one red, and one green.

Since six months passed before we finally owned these trees those rotten apples we first laid eyes on from last season were never picked off, and the new harvest was taken over by worms and birds. This left us with a lot of rotten apples on our hands. But, we were determined to find some good ones among the bunch this year - and we did find a few to taste! Mostly, though, we just have a lot of clean up to do.

I look forward to more successful harvests in the future, but for now I am just happy to call these trees my own.

canning

 

Over the weekend I rounded up the girls in my family who could come for a day of canning peaches. Canning is something that I remember my mother doing often while I was growing up. She would can the peaches from the tree in our backyard, make jam from my grandmother's large raspberry patch, and, my favorite of all, bottle concord grape juice.

We had grape vines all along our back fence and I would watch with concern for our supply as the neighbors horses tried to nip the bunches off the vines. I can still remember the delicious smell as we harvested them when they were ripe. We drank homemade grape juice every Sunday.

So now that I am older I want to learn all I can to continue this tradition of homegrown bottled food, and I want my kids to have similar memories to my own. Especially since we inherited two large apple trees and one very large pear tree (badly in need of pruning, we are hoping we can bring it back to health) in our new backyard.

I am thinking we need to plant some concord grapes, and a peach tree too...

Do you can anything?

cali trip

I finally sat down to go through all of the pictures from our trip to California last month. We had a great time and squeezed in Disneyland, Sea World, the beach, an A's baseball game, and relaxing pool time. We also tried not to go too crazy driving for hours in the car with a baby who likes to yell unless I reach back so she can hold my hand. So sweet, and so uncomfortable. Here are some snapshots of my favorite moments...

lately

Well, the week I said was starting out pretty great quickly took a turn for the worse and in fact was pretty darn miserable. I got realllly sick and Lark apparently decided since mama was down for the count it would be a stellar time to cut four new teeth, including molars - we were just trying to get through each day without too many tears. Although I do have to say, I was SO thankful to have some amazing friends and family step up and get LM out of the house on play dates and park adventures for me. It is so wonderful to have a loving support system to call on.

Once we were all finally feeling back to normal I couldn't bring myself to sit at the computer when I could be outside! Breathing through my nose and swallowing without my throat punching itself! And, somehow two weeks passed since I'd dropped in here...whoops. In order to get myself back into the swing of things, here are some photos of life lately - minus the stint when we were sleeping and crying more than usual, drinking gallons of honey-laced tea, and creating big piles of tissues.

 I suppose we haven't had too bad a start to summer :)