MommyCoddle

truths I believe to be universal

Children become engrossed in their most creative, independent, cooperative play just as one wants to put them down for naps, or take them to bed.

At the moment, it is well past  their usual nap time but because they are dressed in fancy dresses (Emma in my circa 1991 glittery homecoming number) wearing white washcloths on their heads as caps, drinking tea, and talking about things that are "splendid", they're getting some extra time.

Children are their most irresistible in the middle of the night, when they come to your bedside all doe-eyed, drowsy and whispery-voiced asking to snuggle.

Mary has been showing up at my bedside quite regularly the past few nights asking to sleep in between me and Dan. She kicks like an angry cow, throws arms and elbows around and has a mean pair of what is known in our family as "thermal thighs", but darn, she's too cute to turn down. At least for now.

The best thrift stores are in sleepy little towns where the ladies sit behind the counter watching soaps, and bounce your baby on their knees and feed her bright orange peanut butter crackers while you shop.

It was fill your bag for five dollars. I didn't fill mine all the way so they only charged me four. But I brought home this tattered quilt top. Think there's some pillows in their somewhere? Or maybe a little kitchen window curtain? And the ladies held Elizabeth until her 26 pounds of chubs became too heavy for their frail laps and fragile arms and she slipped down their legs onto the floor to happily dig in the hanger box.

Kittens are cute.

kitten update 5. 6. 08 from molly balint on Vimeo.

Wrestling kittens are even cuter.

Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.

pretty...funny

More of my obsession with the Magnolia tree...I remember last year, noticing the full buds, and then next thing I knew it was brown and wilting. I missed everything in between those two phases. (maybe it had something to do with a newborn baby?) Anyway, I am determined to watch the changes more closely this year and pay more attention to Spring before she slips away...

The first batch of the farm's spring kittens were born on Tuesday. I hope my children don't see this picture because they've been given strict orders NOT to pick up the kittens until their eyes are open.

In other randomness:

This afternoon the girls and I went over to the "new (old) house" and I finally remembered to bring my camera. So hopefully next week, you can see some in-progress pictures. We're hopefully just a few weeks away from our move-in date. hopefully.

I'm planning on printing out the questions and getting to work on my "About" page this weekend. Should be a fun way to pass a rainy weekend.

And Emma and I just made the BEST little recipe this afternoon. I'll share that next week, too.

Finally, a conversation I'd like to remember:

Me: What is chicken made from?
Mary: CHICKENS!!!!!

Me: What is orange juice made from?
Mary: ORANGES!!!!

Me: What are pork chops made from?
Mary: PORCUPINES!!!!

nice.

happy weekend, everyone. see you Monday.

a new baby

First of all. Wow. Thank you for all the ideas on my breakfast post. You guys always pull through with the good advice. This weekend, I'm going to sit down with pencil and paper, go through the comments and make my grocery list. There's new ideas, forgotten ideas and recipes I want to try. If you haven't checked back with the comments, it is definitely worth a second look. It will give all the healthy, hearty breakfast motivation one could need. I'll go through the names this weekend and pick out a bumper sticker winner.

And secondly, I feel like I need to say hello and thank you to all those new readers that showed up in the last post. My inbox was full of new names. It was wonderful. Thank you so much for stopping by and for saying hello. It warms a girl's heart.

So the 'new baby'....you'll have to go over here for the details. And I have a feeling there will be a book (or two) you'll want to add to your home library...or at the very least, pick up at your library this weekend.

Dan and I will be finishing up series five of BallyKissAngel and hunkering down with the kiddos for some cold weather on the way.

Happy Weekend, friends.

illustration from "the book"

yes, there were horses

I didn't see Emma for most of the day yesterday. She turns into something closer to a fifteen year old during these kinds of events--running with the "big girls", hanging out near the ponies and only checking in with me when she needs me to hold something for her so she has more freedom to run.

I often introduce myself to her at the end of the day, "Hello, Emma. I'm you're mother. Remember me? It's nice to meet you." Then, she collapses into  my arms and I'm left with a basket case of a child that needs to be "pajama-ed", teeth brushed, face washed and carried off to bed.

It was a good day--horses, nature hikes, world class barbecue, bluegrass, artists, local cream...all in the name of land conservation.  And there's a good story in it all, too. But I'll save that for tomorrow--everyone is emerging from naps and dinner prep calls....

morning and evening

morning: stream-wading and minnows in a jar

evening: a riding lesson and a piggy-back ride:

more of my favorites from the day...

fluff and foil.

:::the fluff:::

::the foil:::
you know it's suspicious when your kids are playing silently together in the back bedroom. I just walked in to find that they were "wrapping Christmas presents" with my roll of aluminum foil. My whole roll. My fairly new whole roll. All gone. Foil everywhere.

an appointment

Emma had another riding lesson this morning. She's been taking lessons sporadically this summer from my cousin. It is the perfect opportunity for Emma to get a taste of riding from a cousin with whom she's enamored. (I know so, after a lengthy love letter emma wrote to her this morning before the lesson). I knew this week's lesson would be a little better than the others because yesterday Emma told me that she was going to walk and trot by herself without anyone walking her.

That's how Emma operates. Everything proceeds on her own time, at her own pace. Like swimming. I couldn't get her to wade past her waist at the beginning of the summer and now she's doing cannonballs off the diving board without any flotation devices. But each step was her decision. She rarely responds to any prodding by her mother or father.

So this week, she rode most of the lesson alone. At least that was the report. I was asked to leave her by herself at lessons this week. "Mommy, could you do some errands while I ride this time?" So Mary and I left and wandered aimlessly around the grocery store--milk, some yogurt, cream cheese...obviously we didn't make it past the dairy case.

We got back in time for me to catch a quick shot of my 'rider', riding all by herself, with no one leading her and heading back to the barn to un-tack, brush the horses and hand out much earned carrots to a lot of soft noses standing around the barn.

Thanks Lia, for a wonderful morning lesson. Thanks Vanity, for being such an old softie that you do exactly what you're told and let a four year-old think she's in complete control.

ponies and pickin'

Things are slowly shaping up around here. Dan's got a loaner car from work, a fuel card from his boss, and the potential for a company truck. My wagon's days are numbered and hopefully I'll soon be driving something a little more reliable.  My sewing machine is in the shop, a brush against emma's ear no longer causes a recoil in pain, and the rest of the family is back in town after various excursions around the globe. (Big congratulations are in order to my father who is back from rowing in London with two gold medals from the races at Henley on the Thames.)

We had a good weekend of work and play--mowing and weeding for my grandmother, making sure the spring-fed pool was just the right amount of coldness(you can only tell by getting in, of course), and Sunday dinner on the patio. This was followed by the older girls giving Emma and Mary rides around the paddock. Emma started her first riding lessons this summer, but sometimes I wonder if Mary won't end up being bigger horse-lover of the two.

This morning the girls and I went to my uncle's house to pick my most favorite summer treat in the whole world--raspberries! I could probably overdose on them if it were possible. When I little I used to get scolded for sitting in the back of the volkswagon bus and finishing off the whole pint before we even got them home. I think I've passed this on to my children. I probably heard, "just ONE more, mommy" every five seconds on the thirty second trip home from picking.
I don't know what the berries will become. I'm thinking they'll just be scattered over vanilla ice cream after dinner tonight. And the rest will be eaten right out of the basket. yum.

We also stopped to pick some queen anne's lace on the way home. We are anxiously waiting for their little white flowers to soak up the purple dye--a trick I used to love when I was little. Emma is checking in with them every few minutes, I'm trying to encourage her that these things take time and that the flowers need to drink up the colored water before we'll see any changes. Thankfully, I got her off for a nap despite the impending color show.

I've Never Felt This Way Before

...about a piece of fabric. Kristen  and I swapped one my pendants for some of her handprinted fabric. I've admired her work through her blog and shop, but I've never actually seen it up close or held it in my hands. When I opened the package I was thrilled and overcome in that "Ah! I LOVE this!" sort of way. I know it sounds a little odd, but I've never owned a piece of fabric that I completely and whole-heartedly loved and thought was so my taste and style. Kristen designs the fabric herself and then has it printed. Take a look for yourself....

Tomorrow I hope to post some of my leftovers from the "Holy Cow Festival" I participated in this weekend at this beautiful church--pendants (some new) and some tissue holders.

And before I forget, several people have asked me for updates on Dolly and Sunshine. We kept Dolly for a few more days. It is so much work taking care of a newborn kitten. She wasn't eating much and I was getting worried about the state of her health. So we took her to the shelter and the main caretaker took her home to continue her care. It's good to know someone with a little more know-how will be caring for her.

And Sunshine is thriving. She is getting a little tamer every day and loves to run and skip and jump behind the girls. We let her out every evening after her bedtime feeding. The girls run up and down the hill to the barn and she chases them, until finally she gets too tired and wanders back into her stall.

Two New Projects

I tried something new two days ago. It was one of those projects that was floating around in my head and I wondered if it would really look good, if it would work. I am by no means a quilter, nor do I have any experience, lessons, tools, etc. But I've been wanting to try a small quilt-type project. I love simple designs and patterns--circles, squares, a tree by itself, one small bird. This project obviously shows those qualities that I'm drawn to. It was probably the most therapeutic sewing I've done in awhile. I was doing what I wanted, my own ideas not based on something I saw someone else do. I was making it for my own pleasure and I really didn't care what another's opinion was of the final project because I knew that I LIKED IT. So here it is. It is small, only about the size of a sheet of paper. I showed it to my husband and he said, "I don't get it." Funny. But okay.

New Project #2:
A few days ago my aunt called wanting to know if we'd be willing to take one of her baby lambs that needs to be bottle fed. Of course, it didn't take long to decide. "Sunshine" arrived yesterday in all her wooly, wobbly legged-ness. We've been keeping her outside during the day in some grass with sun and a large tree for shade. And at night we tuck her into one of the stalls in the barn. She gobbles up bottles from the girls' hands and wags her tail in pure lamby pleasure. A perfect spring project.