holed up in a basement

when we were in the early phases of contemplating our move back to oregon, one of the things that was high on both of our lists was some clearer distinction between seasons and actually having a true summer in the months of june, july and august. i guess you have to be really careful what you wish for because summer is what we are getting- in a serious way! it is freakin' hot- 106 degrees to be exact! that is a bit more summer than i was banking on. the kids are sweaty, sticky puddles and my brain is mush. last night noni was in town and we made a break with the kids and headed west to the beach. there we found a pleasant 76 whihc allowed us to get a nice little reprieve and the kids loved playing on the beach. we ordered room service and had a nice little night away. we came home today to find our house feeling like a dry sauna so we are holing up in the basement. pilar and i are knitting while watching totoro for the umpteenth time. the kids ate fruit and yogurt for dinner. it is simply too hot to turn on the oven. and we are drinking ice water by the bucket fulls. supposedly it is going to drop to 97 tomorrow but i am not holding my breath!

1 date = 10 therapy sessions

david and i have found a sister babysitting duo-- rachel and ruthie. they are sweet, smart, and oh so responsible. i see glimpses of my former more youthful, more energetic self in the two of them. we leave mateo and pilar with them happily- knowing they are in good hands. and what this means for me and david is more dates. one date for us is like 10 therapy sessions rolled in to one. they remind me of why i married this guy and why i am lucky to have him by my side on this crazy ride called life. when you have a good egg it is good to remind yourself of this often because what can happen is that notion gets buried in the stresses of daily life; raising children, running a business, running a household, managing finances, managing an illness, etc. etc. i spent some time with a dear friend of mine today and she reminded me of how fortunate i am to be sharing my life with a person whom i see eye to eye with in many aspects of life. our values line up and we share common goals-- and while to me i can't really imagine it any other way, i know there are plenty of couples out there who deal with these hurdles in their relationships. it was good to be reminded that while we are not without our own hurdles, that is one we do not bound.

tonight we had a lovely date in the pearl. we walked around, window shopped, ate dinner at a sweet little sidewalk bistro, walked to powell's and spent well over an hour with our noses tucked in books and sipping cappuccinos. it was perfect. i look forward to many more of them.

no one said it would be easy, no one ever said it would be this hard

grrrr, it is one of those days where the weight of the world feels too heavy to bare. period, kids, relationships, finanaces, global warming, over consumption, blah, blah, blah....

sometimes it is totally overwhelming how hard it really is. i think about this time in which i get to be a young adult- with my young family- and i wonder, would it have been easier or harder in a different era. hard to know-- i am sure every generation has had their things that are easy and their things that are hard but i feel there are some really big things on the table right now and the convergence of them all happening at once is bewildering for sure.

week's end

ahhh, sunday night, recounting the past week and anticipating the next. we have had a good week here- a full week. it has included returning from a great camping trip, numerous playdates, hula hoop making & hooping, bike riding, nice morning walks, blueberry picking and freezing, hot lips pizza dinner at jamison square, school clean up work party, a birthday party, dinner with friends, a trip to the oregon country faire for pilar, and lots of new words from little teo-man, of them, my favorite; "happened?" (including hand gestures), "kank kou" (thank you--used most appropriately too), "aldun" (all done), "laur" (pilar), "agua", "shawp" (sharp-- he is always wanting to get a hold of my scissors but knows he shouldn't), "uh oh", "mufmuf" (muffin).....and seriously, the list goes on. i will have to dedicate a post entirely to teo's language development- it is astounding as all parents of toddlers know!

anyway, i am grateful for another good week and looking forward to the next. pilar will be in spanish camp this week and while i am not playing with mateo or preparing food, i will be busy stitching away- we have a flurry of birthdays coming up!

sweet dreams. doobies.

moving on up, to a sweet coop in the back

millie and nelly the fourth are moving out of the basement and in with the big girls!

i guess i should back up a bit. since we got our first batch of girls in april, we have gone through a pretty dramatic series of farm trials and tribulations. initially we got 5 chicks-- nelly, boots, mabel, sunshine, and fern. in early june we moved the girls out to their new, nearly finished, deluxe coop in the backyard (furnished by david of course). the next morning we awoke to 4 happy pullets and one dead one, nelly had passed sometime in the night. pilar was distraught but consoled by dada and a sweet little burial site not too far from the coop for little nelly.

since we were still unsure if all of our girls were truly "girls" we figured we would get 2 more so that we would hopefully end up with a nice sized flock of at least 4 or 5. we came home with nelly the second plus one. we unfortunately lost both of these wee little girls due to getting pasted up. somehow we had managed to not get schooled on the pasting up issue and we discovered one of these little chicks was not doing so well as a result of clogging- we were keeping a close eye on her (and her bottom) however, unfortunately in the middle of the night our heat lamp burned out and we awoke to 2 lifeless chicks. this elicited a dramatic and tearful reaction from pilar (she still has moments of deep sadness when she thinks about them). farm life is hard-- especially if you are an animal lover to the degree that miss pilar is. these two little chicks joined nelly the first in the backyard.

we got 2 more chicks. one of these girls got pasted up and we lost her too. she now rests with the other 3 in the backyard chicken graveyard. so we got one more and we managed somehow to get these chicks grown in to pullets-- millie and nelly the fourth-- and they are now joining the big girls in the back. they are moving in to a little coop annex inside the big coop while the 4 big ones get used to the idea of the 2 littles joining the flock.

of the 4 big girls it turns out that fern is actually not a girl. he reminds us of this bright and early every morning. fortunately the neighbors have not yet complained. city chicken laws say "no roosters" within city limits but i guess this is fairly lenient if the neighbors are obliging. pilar is lobbying hard to keep fern, and i have to say i too am pretty fond of fern (even his early morning wake up calls) but we are going to have to see how the rest of the hood feels- not to mention we are really intending to have eggs for breakfast, not chicks for dinner. in the meantime, i am not quite ready to break pilars heart by telling her fern has got to go... the girl is in love with her chickens and somehow she is convinced that fern is going to be the egg laying variety of rooster-- i haven't figured this one out yet. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that both millie and nelly turn out to be girls and that miss p. will be satisfied with a decent sized flock of 5 and fern will find a nice home on a farm nearby where he can preform his rooster calls to a well receiving audience.

stay tuned for more coop de saratoga updates coming soon.

(nelly & millie)

(the girls; sunshine, fern, boots, & mabel)

(fern, the egg laying rooster!?)

morning walk

since school let out it seems like routine has flown out the window. staying up late, sleeping in, non-regular meal times, etc. so i am determined to get back on track. this morning i started out my day with my morning walk. i generally take the same route each time and one of my favorite things on my walk is a particular house. it has one of the most inspiring gardens i have ever seen. this woman has cleverly incorporated food bearing plants all among her landscaping. there are gorgeous blueberry bushes, mature raspberry bushes, immaculate espaliered apple trees, tomatoes, greens, a chicken coop, a bee house and so much more that occupy this small city plot. perhaps the most generous offering is a small post that has a new poem and image posted every few days. i always stop to read the poem and look at the picture and today's poem was this one by gary gildner, needless to say, it spoke to me loud and clear.

Rock Tea
by Gary Gildner
At a hot springs in Sawtooth Mountains
8,000 feet above the level sea,
my two-year-old daughter enters the steamy shallows, and sings
I'm naked! I'm naked! And clings to herself
as if the pink body under her slender arms might slip away.
I do not want her to slip away, not ever,
but I know one day she will. I know
one day she will put on her snow boots
and take up the trail in earnest—and I will call out
I am happy for her, very happy, but sad too,
and hope I will see her again. From the pool's moony wash
she brings me her cupped hands. Rock tea, Papa, you like some?
I cup her hands in my own, and drink. It is delicious, I say,
more delicious than air itself, than life, may I have another?
And perhaps you will have one too? Perhaps, thank you,
In this way, gently over rock tea,
we celebrate how far we have traveled together.

home grown goodness

sometimes i feel like i am not accomplishing anything. parenting is pretty thankless work and i realize i am one who thrives on praise- who doesn't, i guess. but this week i am really taking notice of all the work that is getting accomplished on this little city homestead of ours and seeing all of the home grown goodness (particularly the happy, healthy kids) is a good reminder that each day small accomplishments are being made-- only there is no sweet paycheck in the bank or pat on the back from a satisfied boss-- but i think a warm heart might be worth more than that...




p.s. the rapadura marshmallows were a bust. i had really wanted to create this favorite campfire confection with the least refined sugar as possible but they turned out tasting more like molasses jello-- not quite what i had in mind (not to mention convincing the kids that they are better than jet puffs seemed like a losing battle). so, we made a second batch using low refined cane sugar and oi la- marshmallow bliss! we are excited to try these morsels roasted.