Fairy House Workshop

If you are wondering why there are no pictures of David, it is because sometimes he wants to be in pictures, and sometimes he decidedly does not.   This is a picture of Elsa at the Fairy House Workshop I ran this past week.  (And, I made 75 dollars, how about that?)  I took pictures of the other kids too, but, although I know very little about internet etiquette, am pretty sure it would be inappropriate to post pictures of other people's children on my blog without their permission.  So, I didn't.  Once I got over my intense nervousness, it was fun.  I read a Robert Louis Stevenson poem, called "Flowers," which described the garden as a fairy forest, and tried to get the kids to imagine what it would be like to be so little in a garden.  They got into it...they had lots to say.  Then we gathered a bunch of materials from around the community gardens.  We did not, of course, pick anything from anyone's plot...

David has been getting into it too.  He wants me to come outside with him and work on building his, which is basically a big pile of grass under the oak tree.  I added some sticks and other things, but he really gets into ripping up grass, putting it into his bucket, and dumping it onto the pile.  The four and under crowd appears to be less into the arranging than the older kids.  

Unfortunately, right now I am sick with hopefully just a 24 hour bug, but I have successfully farmed out my children, David to a woman who had a baby three weeks ago (she does have her husband home, but still.) Anyway, I am feeling very grateful for this great community as I sit here, sipping water and dreaming about crackers....

Also, today is the Solstice, I know.  We have plans to celebrate it.  Elsa and I even bought marshmellows at the natural grocery store in Asheville, so we could have a fire and a celebration.  But, like I said, I have a bug which is pretty much prostrating me.  So, I guess we will pretend that the Solstice is tomorrow.  That feels scientifically wrong, but mama energy wise right.  (I could tell the kids that today is actually the longest day, but that we will celebrate tomorrow, but that would be greeted with horror and a desire for marshmellows immediately, which, in general, sounds like a good lesson for them, however, again, after a day of being able to keep nothing down, I am not up for that battle.)

Pink background

Umm...I like pink and all, and always have, but I have no idea how I managed to turn the background pink.  I see other folks talking about how blogger has gone crazy, however, I very much doubt that in this case.  Oh well.  It's pink.

Tough Week and the Garden

Wow, this week has been a doozy.  I have been feeling frazzled, exhausted and out of patience.  I realized yesterday (should I confess this?) that neither of us had actually fed the little man lunch.  We had very little food in the house that didn't need cooking, and the kitchen was a mess because I have collapsed at the end of the day and then hit the ground running (albeit late--but what can one do when one is still extremely nauseous, and yes, throwing up in the morning, despite being well into my second trimester) and never fully completed the dishes.  We did feed him snacks and stuff, but because he wasn't demanding it, he never sat down at the table with a decent lunch.  Then, around 5:00, when he was completely freaking out from having eaten nothing but watermelon and crackers and peas, we frantically ordered a pizza, and I threw it in front of him without a plate and he ate.  And was better.

Really, that's not how things usually roll around here.  I am pretty good at, you know, feeding my children.  But for this very disorganized mama, it does take a lot of planning and time and energy.  I am not going to have the energy to drag two children to the grocery store at 4:00 in the afternoon.  So, what I learned from this week from hell was that I need a lot of time at home.  I need to have time to cook stuff and wash the dishes.  I need to have time to sit down and make  a grocery list, so I don't end up having to go to the store several times a week.  I need time to read to the kids and work in the garden and take care of the animals and just be home.   Some people thrive on a busier pace, but I do not.  I know Elsa is dying to spend the next few days at HOME.  Painting, fussing around, holding bunnies, organizing her own space...it will be good.

This is Elsa's garden.  Gladiolas are coming up, her cone flowers and poppies are blooming, one volunteer sunflower is growing.  Elsa says, "I don't have to take care of my garden, it takes care of itself."  Well, sort of.  It is infested with weeds, and there is a very small amount of Mama attention going on.  (And, Grammy attention when Grammy is here.)

And, I took some pictures of the gardens and berry bushes planted around.  The garden isn't doing great this year, but it is big.  Actually, it is kind of comforting that it is not totally thriving, in a way.  I am very lucky to have a full sun plot, and I always wondered if that was why it did so well.  Well, it was part of it, but not all of it--I had a lot more time to work in it, and I applied a lot more compost, and just generally was able to put a lot more time into it.  But, although the animals aren't a ton of work, they do require some chores, particularly the bunnies, who need to be brushed every day.  (I am amassing quite a pile of bunny wool.)

Squash beds--I have summer squash, which are producing fruit but not growing all that big, and butternut squash.  I am going to put some pie pumpkins in where I have my disastrous peas.  Also, there are very tiny baby bush beans coming up, and Brussels sprouts.  Behind it is my herb garden, which is completely covered by weeds.  Many of our garden tools were stolen out of our shed, including my hoe.  I need to replace that.

(Some) tomatoes.  I really should have stepped back and taken the whole thing, because, well, it doesn't look that great and isn't very interesting, but if I step back, I also get the two kiddie pools, the tub, the trucks and probably some discarded children's clothing.  I feel comfortable writing that, but not actually posting it.  Next to the tomatoes are the strawberries, and a bit of David's garden, where we planted the enormous pumpkins.  We need to re-seed a few hills, because they all didn't come up, but some did.

Let's see, here there are sweet potatoes, potatoes (which are not doing very well at all...I probably should just harvest them and put something else in there, but I have no idea what...), watermelon, lettuce, brussels sprouts, three onions....cucumbers which I finally tried to stake up today...we will see how that goes.  I didn't take pictures of my peas, which I completely failed to adequately stake, and feel so ashamed.  Well...not really.  I love peas, but I never have a lot of success with them.  The kids really like them though, especially the picking part--and the watching the pod form out of the flower.

Here is a wine berry bush and a volunteer sunflower along the fence.  Right now we have five blueberry bushes, which had some berries on them, but it appears that they have been eaten by the birds.  Next year, bird netting...they like them a little less ripe than we do, and three wineberry bushes, and a whole lot of weeds growing along our fence.  I don't like how it looks, but I do not at all want to try to fix it right now.  Mom, do you want to start working on that?

Elsa holding Snowflake.  Jesse took the picture.  He is a better photographer than I am.

So, I guess this post was really for me, to remember later my garden in this year of the Last Baby.  The pictures aren't great, but it is good to look at what I have accomplished.   I definitely tend to focus on the fact that toys and clothes are often strewn throughout the lawn, my tools aren't put away, and my garden and other places are not adequately weeded, so it is good for me to see what has been done.

Organizing

Lately, things with the little man outside my uterus have been trying.  He is having a burst of independence, which is, in theory, fabulous.  However, in this very busy week--getting Elsa down the mountain to Farm Camp (and packing her a lunch and making sure she has everything she might need for Farm Camp) and then getting her and a friend back up the mountain after camp, as well as various appointments with the OB, getting Jerry fixed, running the Fairy House Workshop (which was a success), needing to procure food to eat after being in Boulder for the weekend, needing to take care of the animals and wanting to spend some time in my garden-- it has tried my patience to the extreme.  He does not want help getting dressed or even choosing out clothes, and he refuses any clothes with buttons or non-stretchy material.  And, of course, his drawers are a total mess, filled with clothes he won't wear, in no particular order, and so it takes forever.  And the shrieks of rage and refusal of any help have not been greeted with a lot of Mama patience.  So, even though many chores were calling, we hauled all of his clothes out of his drawers, went through them, discussing which ones he wants to wear, putting some upstairs in case new little unnamed man might at some point want to wear them, and decided on a drawer for each category, and labeled them, with words an pictures. He was delighted, and very excited to pick out his pajamas for tonight. 

It's not a new idea, to structure things so that kids can do things themselves as much as possible.  It is very Montessori, and very sensical.  In the end, it should lend itself to a smoother running household.  It's just that initial push to get it done can seem so overwhelming and exhausting.  But, it is done, and I feel better.

Fairy House Workshop

About a month ago, the woman who runs the local community garden (it's a big operation around here--see last post about how great it is here) asked me if I would run the Fairy House workshop at the garden.  Of course, I was totally flattered;  she said someone else had suggested me, and I felt like the craftiest mother ever.  So, I said I would do it.  And now, it's coming up, and I have no idea what to do.  The thing is, doing crafts with your own children is  a lot different from doing crafts with a bunch of children and, this is what really gets me nervous, their parents....Also, they have me listed on the schedule as Grace Quam, MEd.  And it's true.  I do, in fact, have a Masters in Education, Elementary even.  However, I would like to be really, really clear that this Masters in no way prepared me to lead a Fairy House workshop.  (I am not convinced it really prepared me to teach, either, but that is another story.)  So, I am looking around for a cute story to read/tell before, and then hopefully I will make a fairy house with the kids (although Elsa is at Farm Camp this week--a day camp where they run around on a farm and do farming stuff--I would also like to go to Farm Camp, actually--and comes home obliterated tired.)  So, I am not sure if anyone reads this, but if anyone does, do you have any ideas?

Boulder, CO and Here

Elsa and I took a whirlwind trip to Boulder, Colorado this weekend.  We flew out of Asheville to Denver on Friday afternoon, arriving quite late, and left Sunday at noon, arriving back here at about 9:00.  David and Daddy held down the fort here--and had a wonderful time, which was a great experience for both of them.  They went to Tailgate, and Jesse's work party and a baseball game (which David refers to as a basketball game, and has spent much of today making basketball tickets for everyone) and I am assuming, played some golf.

It was a lot of traveling for a little time in Colorado, but it was good to see my very best college friend who has made numerous trips out here to visit us, and one other college friend and her husband and two girls.  I took no pictures, but the mountains were dramatic and very different.  We saw prairie dogs and went swimming at a pool.   Elsa hit it off with my friend Shannon's eight year old daughter, and was completely enamored of her one year old baby, and despite having a fever and it being so hot outside that it was impossible to go out, had a lovely time.

And it was so nice to come home.  To see my little boy (who greeted me with an enormous grin and many, many sweet kisses) and wonderful husband.  And, even though it has rained pretty much constantly since we have gotten back, I realize how much I love it here.  I love the gentle green mountains and how everything is hilly here.  I love that it isn't so dry.  I love that it is never, ever 97 degrees out.  I love the southern, friendly New Ageyness here, and I love the southern, friendly country style too. 

This is a picture, taken a while ago, chosen to demonstrate how pretty it is here.  I can't really do it...I am not, as I have said, a photographer...Anyway, I am glad that we did it, that Jesse and David had a chance to really hang out, and that Elsa and I got a chance to go on an adventure.  But it is even better to be home.

Lost Tooth

Elsa lost her first tooth tonight.  It was kind of a long haul--it got loose around Easter, and I could see the new tooth growing in, and I have to confess to having some Mama anxiety about whether she was going to have a double row of teeth.  But Jesse stepped in, and encouraged her to really wriggle it, and it came out.  She put it in an envelope under her pillow, and I just slipped in and took the tooth, and replaced it with cash.  Two dollars.  Was that too much?  I wish it had occurred to me earlier to make something, to have something special ready to mark the occasion, but, despite the long wait, I didn't think about it until just now.  I think she will appreciate the money, though...

Before she went to sleep--and it took her a long, long time tonight--she said to me, "If you are the tooth fairy, Mommy, please keep my tooth."  That little, tiny white tooth is sitting in my jewelry box.  I think it is the first tooth she got, and I remember when it came in.  Or I remember suddenly realizing it was in--there she was, in the wrap (which is the most valuable piece of baby gear I own), and I put my finger in her mouth and felt its sharp little edge.  She never got cranky when she teethed...just, suddenly there was a tooth.  She was, I think, about 8 months old.  And I remember how excited I was about it.  It just seemed so amazing.  My baby made a tooth.  And now it is gone, with another one loose, and she herself is so excited and pleased with what her body is doing.  My little baby.  My big girl.

The Chickens and Summer Vacation

Well, with all this new bunny talk, there hasn't been much talk about our chickens.  They are growing quite large, and are becoming quite easy to take care of--I just feed them and water them every day, clean out their roost once or twice a week (just kind of by spot picking out the poop and tossing it into the compost) and moving it a few feet every day so they have fresh forage.  They are getting big, and their voices are changing from peeps to more adult chickeny clucks, which is funny and fun.  Farizad got out the other day--there are definitely some things we need to work out with the coop still--and I had to pick her up to put her back in.  She was definitely eager to go.  And she is a lot bigger.  I think there should be eggs by September.  I also think that my endless worry that one is a rooster was needless. 

Also, I would like to rhapsodize for a moment on today's beauty.  I am starting this now because I don't want to forget in the probable case that tomorrow will be less delightful.  It was the first day of summer vacation, and I just loved it.  The kids woke up and literally played school for about two hours, having to be coaxed out to eat breakfast.  I cleaned up, folded laundry...read a little, I think.  Then Elsa and I worked on the Hooked on Phonics set that she wanted to get out from the library.  It was very exciting--she is beginning to get reading, and actually be interested in working on it.  She loves to be read to, but has shown very little interest, at least with me, in learning the mechanics.  After a good bit of that, there was still so much time.  David and I planted some more flower seeds in his garden and fed grubs we found there to the chickens, snuggled bunnies, read books, walked to the playground (where I got to knit), counted steps, found a Luna moth and baby acorns, walked home, read more books, picked more stuff in the garden (Elsa and David both like to pick me salads throughout the day, which is doing wonders for my energy).  I went in to start dinner at like 4:30, so the kitchen did not become a total disaster area, while Elsa played some more in the garden--leaping beds, picking peas, examining bugs, and David drew with chalk on the patio.  Oh, and Elsa fell out of a tree and got a bloody nose.  We ate dinner outside, and started bed preparations.  It was just a sweet, sweet day...nothing exciting, but still jam packed with good stuff.  I like having my children at home.  I like not having to rush off somewhere.  I like summer.

Meet Georgie and Snowflake

Hmmm...I can't seem to post any more pictures here at the moment, so I will just write a little bit.  Yesterday we headed out to Burnsville to pick up one more little bunny from a lovely woman who raises all sorts of fiber animals.  Burnsville is a haul, and we also got completely lost--they are doing roadwork out there, so the signs were off.  I was very glad that Jesse was there as I had thought to take the kids on my own.  But our getting lost did allow us to wander around the rural mountains on a completely spectacular day.  It was dry and clear, and everything was bright green from all the rain.  We live in a beautiful part of the world here, and I am so grateful.

Anyway, we did finally arrive, very grateful for a napping boy and The Horse and His Boy on CD for the little miss.  The woman who breeds the bunnies raises fiber animals on her farm.  She and her husband moved to the country after they had raised their children and her husband had retired as chief of police somewhere in South Carolina.  She was such a warm, sweet woman, who lovingly called her animals and my children Baby.  She taught Elsa how to hold the bunnies, offered to let David hold one (he didn't want to, although he declared over and over that he was very gentle and would never hurt the bunnies.)  Elsa held one, with whom she fell in love, and I held the other, with whom I fell in love.  They are the snuggliest, lickiest little critters.

She also showed us her studio, which was chock full of fleeces,  one of her two spinning wheels, a loom, and a toy sheep with which David was obsessed.  It was on this beautiful roaring creek.  She said she loved dirty work--she liked the shearing, and washing, carding and spinning more than she liked the pretty work--knitting and weaving--although she loved that too.  She had us put our hands in a big, greasy pile of sheep's wool, telling Elsa about lanolin, and declared that she just loved the smell.  Elsa was totally enthralled--I definitely can see a lot of fiber love in this girl's future.

We got two little sister bunnies, who were born on April 12th.  The boys had pink eyes, which I don't like as much, but these girls have sort of blue eyes.  Elsa decided to name hers Snowflake.  David wanted to name his George (he would also like to name the baby George)...I suggested Georgia, but no--we compromised on Georgie.  Elsa was thinking about Poppy for a name, but when I expressed a preference for it, she decided on Snowflake, which is appropriate.

It's funny.  We have a lot of animals now, which makes me a little nervous and a little happy.  I do remember being pregnant with Elsa and reading an article about how farm kids grow up with less allergies and less asthma.  I believe that the scientists thought this had something to do with exposure to more dirt and animals, and I remember thinking that we needed to acquire more animals.  Well, here we are--three cats, three bunnies, and four hens...But we are done with animal acquisitions for now. 

Garden Notes (and, ummm, two more bunnies.)

I got the idea about posting garden notes from the blog Small Things.  I don't exactly know how to link, though.  The kids and I had a great morning planting super-size pumpkins.  I think I may have rhapsodized a bit already about Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy.  It's the best gardening with kids book ever--in it, there are different ideas for theme gardens--like a moonlit garden, a sunflower house, and a garden of giants.  Although I can't totally make any of them, the kids both thought growing the enormous pumpkins would be pretty fun, so that's what we did.  The seed packet said that the pumpkins could reach 300 pounds...not sure how we will manage that, but we will cross that bridge later.  I don't think they will be edible, but it will be fun.  Elsa wants to have one be a "milk-fed pumpkin."  (Remember from Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder?)  I am going to have to figure that one out...but I will work on it, maybe with Elsa.  Anyway, I dug the hills.  Last fall, I dumped a whole mess of half rotted compost and also just raked the leaves on David's section of the garden and so there were a huge amount of earthworms, which of course, both children were completely enamored by.  Elsa and I also have the same instinct in terms of soil amendment--we spend a lot of time mixing up the clay with compost and loosening it up.  Elsa planted one seed--clucking to it about how she was putting it into its nice, comfy bed so it could grow strong.  I really, really, really hope it works.

So, the garden is almost all planted.  I have 26 tomato plants I think...which, I am owning, is totally excessive.  I also bought a few watermelon starts--even though I seem to be completely unable to identify a ripe watermelon, and we have yet to enjoy a watermelon from our garden.  I planted some more lettuce in between them, so when our other little patch gets bitter, we will have new baby greens.  The peas are producing, despite the fact that I never did manage to adequately stake them.  It's fun for the kids to pick them.  It won't be a great harvest-I didn't get them in early enough, and I think the soil where they are is terribly acidic, owing to many, many acorns that fell there.    I also have Brussels sprouts growing-I have never grown those before, but should be fun, sweet potatoes, kale (of course), arugula (just for me to munch on in the garden-no one else cares for it, but it gives me a nice boost), summer squash and zucchini, butternut squashes, basil and other herbs, and more flowers than usual.  I still have to plant the beans--I am just going to do bush beans, and maybe plant some runner beans on David's teepee.  Elsa's garden is finally blooming, which makes her much more interested in it.  Perennial flowers are the way to go for small children's flower gardens. 

Oh, and we finally drove out to Burnsville to get one more angora bunny, and yes, you guessed it, returned back with two little white girl bunny sisters.  They aren't able to go in with Jerry yet (Jerry has to be fixed because I do not want bunny babies--I may have bitten off more than I can chew already, but I do have some limits), and I hated the thought of them being separated.  They are incredibly sweet and affectionate, much more used to being handled than Jerry.  They are English Angoras,so they have fuzzy little ears.  I am actually going to save a post about our whole adventure later.  With pictures even.  That's all.