Happy Mother's Day! One of the joys of motherhood is that you always have someone who will share your breakfast in bed with you...sweet moments. We were happy to send off our long-distance felted bouquets to grandmas this week...small tokens of our love.

I also want to do some bragging about my super-skilled husband who spent 2 years working with the owner of this big off-the-grid timber frame/strawbale house. Steve and Paul chiseled each mortise and tenon, planed each piece of wood, build the frame and helped it go up on crane day. And now a family lives in it, making it cozy and turning it into their sweet hilltop home.

If you want a chuckle, please enjoy this mom's day song.

2 great grandchildren + 4 hands + 95 years = 1 pillow

Well, there it is. Not bad for a first embroidery project. Of course I wish I could be there for my Nanny's 95th birthday, but we put lots of love into this pillow.

On a heavier note, my heart goes out the people of Burma. Those who lost their lives and those who lost their homes and loved ones. I haven't had a chance to research yet how to best aid them. Feel free to send me any helpful links.

swapped

We received a lovely thank you from Melissa and family for our swap package. It was so much fun and I can't wait to take the children to the post office on Monday to unveil our goodies.

Melissa asked how to make the felt journals for the children. So easy! I cut the size felt we wanted, cut drawing paper to a slightly smaller size, then staple the drawing paper together and stapled the felt over top. Then I needle-felted yarn onto the cover for the edge and names. I felted some dots and needled them onto the cover. Next time I would do the cover embellishments first, then the stapling, but it was creative process. You know how it goes.

The headband is a strip of knit 2, purl 2, stitched together at the end.
We hope Sammy and Abby and their parents get lots of fun and some independent playtime with their new toys.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...we love to play family games in the evenings, especially guessing games. Tonight after we finished our birthday celebration dinner with dear friend Claire, we played our guessing game version of charades where one person acts out what he wants the others to guess (remember, this is a 3 year old and 20 month old so we definitely keep it simple).
After moving through the standard snake, cat, chicken laying eggs, I took the position of chair pose, also known as strong pose. After Isaiah guessed "tree," I took a deeper seat, hoping to get a truer shape. "TOILET!" Isaiah yelled out, naming not only a very specific kind of chair, but his favorite throne these days.

And Miel chose to re-enact flamingo pose several times for us, each time putting her boots on first.

every saturday is mother's day

Well, after so enjoying today, I was told that every Saturday can be my holiday. Ok, I'll take that. It was so nice that on my first day of not teaching at night after 5 straight, Steve picked me tulips, mopped the floor, and made black bean soup and cornbread.

And at our after-dinner family campfire, Miel gave new meaning to "slide guitar." I already see her piercings and punker look, our little "jalapeno jelly," so sweet and spicy. And yes, that's her art above. She's discovered the splatter (and so have the curtains and walls).

As Miel napped on our favorite neighbor's tummy, I thought that everyone needs a 12-year-old family best friend.

rational beings???

I've heard them called "little savages." I always thought that was a harsh misnomer, a generalization right along with "terrible two's." But some days in our family and in those families we're close to, the description equals 3-year-old.

Isaiah's best buddy TQ is a gem...curious, articulate, precocious. A good guy. I just want to clear that up right from the beginning. The story his mama told me about him must be repeated and written at least here in case she forgets to write it down herself.

TQ, potty-learned for over a year now, has been peeing all over the house when mama is away and papa is in another room. He leaves these puddles for papa to find. Gleefully it seems. This has taken place on 4 occasions in the past few weeks. The last time he did it, while papa was cleaning up the mess in the living room, TQ went into the bathroom, plugged the sink and turned on the faucet, letting the water run until it flowed over the sink onto the floor. Papa came in from drying the living room to water on the bathroom floor.

Later, after mama was home and sweet 3-and-a-half year old TQ was in the bath, he was telling her about his misadventures.

"How do you think Daddy felt when you did that?" she asked.
"Angry!" he replied with a wide smile.
"And how did you feel?"
"Happy!"
"Well, I hope this isn't going to happen again."
Big smile, "Oh, it will!"
"Really, were do you think you are going to do it next time?"
Bigger smile, "all over the bathroom floor!"

remedial home-ec

Well, the second bear is complete and so well loved. It is Miel's constant companion, along with her baby from Grandma. She sleeps with them both, they do a lot of smooching, and Miel says they are brother and sister as well as best friends.

forest sprites

Saturday afternoon in the redwoods with Clairy-berry...We are so lucky!

get out and stay out!

A report from the wild side...gone fishin', mud slinging, kale picking. Finally we stopped at our beloved CSA, Redwood Roots Farm and got to eat our brussels sprouts morsels off the stalk, pick collards to later stuff with "squealers" (the butcher's personal blend of elk, buffalo, pork and beef), rice and olives, and munch on all the kale we could eat.

No, a pastoral farm isn't wilderness, but it is a place where the children can run wild. The only rule, run between the rows, not on them. And be gentle with the plants that give us so much food. It was the first time we've been to a farm since moving and we were all so relieved by the smell of food growing in the soil. Isaiah says to me every other day, "Mama, I miss the goats." Me, too, buddy. We get to see goats around here, and cows and horses and chickens and ducks, but the experience of living with them and caring for them and receiving our daily milk from them is something we hope to create soon for ourselves again.

We're enjoying this beautiful spring weather in our little town yard. We planted our snap peas together and got some arugula and bitter salad mix in the ground. The daffodils are springing up and the trees in our neighborhood are bursting with pink blossoms. We find the wild in the pile of red worms in the compost pile and the big bay tree that looms over the footbridge down the street.

And yes, Isaiah has been really sweet as he's been exhausting himself in the agenda-free outdoors.

daily practice

Gentle words, gentle voice...firm intention.

the call of the wild

As we've settled back here in town, the laundry room and dishwasher have become familiar routines. Another chore in the rhythm of these very full and busy days. We spend as much of our days outdoors as possible, yet I keep wanting more. This evening, walking Belly, the stars were magnificent, even atop the glare of the streetlights. I imagined how they look in the dark of the farm.

I feel this pull toward the wild in the children, too. Isaiah has been acting out, mostly directly onto his little sister. Sure, he has a lot going on....his grandma and grandpa just left, he's got "potty power," he loves picking out his own clothes and putting them on himself, he prances on his two-wheeler like a prince on a steed. Could the changes in his behavior be all these 3-year-old landmarks or could he be experiencing a lack of the green absorbing sponge of the pastoral wilderness? I know, you ask, how could I even be thinking this? We don't live in Manhattan or San Francisco or even Portland. We are in Redwood Nation, home of rivers and beaches and all things green. And of course, it's developmental. But what I've noticed is that soft, misty, watery green absorbs this energy like a fairy waving her wand.

We've been very civilized this week. Playgrounds, the library, cafe lunch dates. We are outside a lot, but on the bike, scooter, at the playground, gymnastics class. Living on the farm I thought a lot about WILDNESS in our children and how misunderstood it can be. How often the term is used perjoratively..."That boy is wild," "Calm down, you are being so wild!" (said by me yesterday) But what could be better for our children than to live like weeds, like birds, like squirrels, like fish...getting dirty, getting wet, getting wild.

Tomorrow, I'm going to find some mud for us to wallow in. I'll report back.
"wild thing...you make my heart sing...you make everything...groovy...wild thing"

sewing!?!

I just finished my first sewing project ever (unless you count that seal costume a few years back) and I can feel that creeping elation...like so many addictions, maybe the first time is the best. The rush of possibility that makes it so hard to focus because I just want to get going on the next project. Oh, the possibilities!

The exciting thing about this one is that it is actually really cute. That's reassuring for me since I'm so seduced by the beauty of materials--yarn, wood, shells, paint--and the process of the work itself, that I can be careless about the final product. Mama Rachel brought over beautiful wool felt that she had already cut and she invited Isaiah to choose where to place the eye buttons and vest decorations. Then I started stitching while he cut the thread for me. I was skeptical of my own abilities and didn't know I'd get through stitching around the whole thing, but here it is in front of me and I'm proud of my sweet little white bear with a pink vest and green tummy.

And my elation attracted a gifted sewing machine. Just like that! Now we'll see about this dreaded "threading the bobbin."

And about getting Miel's done, too. She loved the half-finished doll so much, she rocked it under her neck with it's skinny legs still split open. I don't want to give Isaiah his until hers is ready.

I hope winter lasts long enough to satisfy my craft fever!