50 degrees and covered in mud

I just got in from walking the dog.  We live in town,  there is no park in walking distance and no NO wilderness in sight.  But today as we were out walking the puppy, Chloe was busy taking more pictures of the snow, and the dog was sniffing stuff, I looked up and studied a tall pine tree.  Surprised by its loveliness with the sun shining right on it and the smell of pine needles all around me. Mourning doves flew over head, singing to me, I cought glimpses of them through the branches.  A little pocket of wilderness found in an alleyway.

Chloe is still young enough to jump in mud puddles.

And make up songs while we stroll along holding hands.  She asks me to be the echo, so I sing the diddy of the last line she says.  Today it was about a bike that could fly and wanted to be a bird.

I heard the "wah--cheer, wah-cheer" of a cardinal and asked Chloe to help me find it, so we stood still and looked and looked while it sang to us, and there up on a branch we saw the shock of red.

Just before we turned up our driveway on a little branch was a baby itty bitty chickadee.  So ridiculously small and not at all afraid of us, chirping away and its sibling was right there on the next branch.  Chloe and I stood there watching them hop from branch to branch at eye level for the longest time.

My friend Jenean came over for a visit and brought her little boy Eli.

It is different having a toddler in the house now that I know Steve and I know we will have one again soon.  It has been five years for us and in that time I forgot just what it was like.  Eli was busy-busy-busy, exploring, opening, closing, pulling, touching.  My insides were full of laughter watching him.  He helped me remember what I miss.

I miss having a diaper bag slung over my shoulder when I go out.

I miss thumb sucking

I miss sippy cups

Bibs

Crawling

The first steps, with little fingers wrapped around just one of mine

Drooly smiles reserved just for me

Arms reaching up to be held

A sleepy head nuzzled on my shoulder

A blanky dragging behind on the ground

Watching them sleep

First teeth

One word sentences

Like "Uh-Oh!"

Soft soft skin

Dimples

A reason to use Johnson & Johnson baby lotion

Steve and I clapping and cheering like crazy over every little milestone 

Board books

New soul through which to see the world

Happy relentless curiosity

Steve made a pop-up doll house for Chloe's Polly Pocket dolls.  They colored it together. Seriously, is there anything better than homemade?

When the Olympics were on I sewed a few book covers.  It is the perfect project to do in one sitting and so satisfying.  Here I was embroidering the vine that would crawl up the binding.  I wanted to cover This Cookbook  because the original cover was too "loud" for my kitchen.

Here is the cute one who would, if given the chance, take my sewing project and run with it to the nearest corner and gnaw on it with great intensity and joy.

Jeff is really interested in writing fairy tales for Chloe and adventure stories for Eti right now.  After his homework and chores you can usually find him on this end of the couch spilling out onto the paper all his ideas that he has been saving up all day.

They often ask to go to bed early so that they will have time to tell or listen to stories.

Chloe wanted to sew like mamma, it came out as a blob of yarn but she was mighty proud of it.

Our neighbor called us over last Spring to see the baby robins in her yard.  The mother has come back to the same nest year after year, adding to it and making it larger.  This year after the snowstorm the nest fell.  I found it laying at the bottom of the pine tree. 

There is no such thing as delayed gratification with stickers and children.  It is almost impossible for them to put thought into where the stickers should go.   As soon as they are handed a sheet of stickers they peel them off and stick them to whatever is the closest to them.  Chloe spent half the day with these particular stickers on her hand.  When I took a picture of her, she really really wanted to show her stickers.

Okay I should try to explain what is on her head--I say "try" because you may still wonder even after my attempt.  Steve was home on Saturday and we had green cling wrap left over from Christmas, an empty paper towel tube, and some rubber bands.  So Steve and Coco made glasses, I am not sure if Coco could see with them on because they were pointing in opposite directions, but it was fun for them.

Wait, let me guess...which one is the Old Maid card?  Hold on, I think I can get it....

The boys are in the stage of making  marble mazes , they use paper and cardboard and anything else they can find.

I love the hobby because it all feels deliciously old fashioned to me.

Steve taught Eti how to shoot marbles and I have tried to teach them how to play jacks but the marble maze is what is really holding their attention.

Our little love.  Jeff calls her "Sweet and Sour" which is so perfect--she is half very, very sweet and the other half is very naughty.

Jeff's middle name is Doug, he was named after Steve's good friend who is in the picture above.

Doug married and moved to Texas when Jeff was one and we have not seen him since.

When he first moved to Texas he gave us a huge python snake that we had for about six years. I wish it was still alive, it was an easy and interesting pet to have.

Every year Doug mails the boys Hot Wheels.  It is cool how he picked a theme and has stuck with it, now the boys have a very impressive collection of cars all from "Uncle Doug".

Doug became a police officer in a suburb of Dallas.  When he was here this past week, our house was filled with many, many adventurous police stories.  You can just imagine what a hero he is to the boys now!  

So it was a very busy past week but it was so so good and familiar having him here!

I sewed a little bandana for Eowyn and wanted to get a picture for you.  I took her outside but she would NOT sit still, she could sense that we were going for a walk and was "flipping out".   I had to hold her in order to get the shot, but it did not turn out as well- you cannot see how cute she is, I am hoping to try again.  Eowyn is the type of dog that "needs" a bandana, as soon as we put it on we all started laughing because it was so much cuteness all wrapped up in seven pounds.

White

Before breakfast

Before my quiet time

Before I sat and planned my day out.

After we stood in the doorway waving the boys off to school. 

Steve called me on his way to work and said "You have got to go out for a walk.  It is so beautiful out here, it snowed last night and the snow is sticking to all of the trees.  You can't miss this!"

So I did, I bundled Coco up and leashed a very happy wiggly puppy and off we went.

I let Coco take my little Panasonic Lumix and she asked me repeatedly if she could look at them when we got home.

We sat together looking at each one and I noticed that almost every other photo was just like her photo up above, pure white.  The only explanation she could give me was that she thought the snow was pretty.

I had to add a  border around it because there is nothing there to see..just white and I have a memory card full of similar ones! (She asked me to keep all of them.)

After the walk, after breakfast, after phone calls, after lunch and dinner, and putting the kids to bed and everything in between the lines today I am still happy thinking about what she chose to see.

 This poem is scribbled on a sheet of paper on my desk and I have been saying it over and over.

Today my dear, friend Mindy, who is serving over in Iraq, posted the same poem on her facebook.  I was so pleased but not at all surprised that someone else was inspired by the same words.

So I pass it along to you because maybe you have not yet discovered this sweet poem.

Central Park

The tree was here first, I can see where they laid the stones around the base of the tree.  How did they go about estimating how wide the opening should be? 

Would the stone layers be surprised if they could come back today and see just how large the tree has become--how it is bursting at the seams of the package they tried to wrap it in?

A secret "fort" we found under some large bushes in Central Park.   Enchanted.

Happy

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The roof of the Met has a cafe and we usually stop up there for a sandwich when we visit.  This time there was a huge art display.  It was difficult to get the entire tree in the frame of the camera so I turned to the mirrored windows.   When I uploaded this picture a few days ago I found Steve watching me, there in the photo. Better than any art piece.

Elevator shot, I have a collection of these, of us, it is impulsive with me.  I cannot ride in an elevator with a reflective ceiling and not take a picture!

Doorway built near Nineveh.

Italian palace.

We met a very nice Art major student who was sketching.  She was so kind and patient with all of Coco's questions about what she was doing.

Out in one of the large halls I observed a woman: in one hand she held a cell phone that she was using to take a picture of a postcard of a statue, held in her other hand. 

Behind her, just steps away, was the actual statue that was pictured in the postcard that she was taking a photograph of.

Rings from Bible times.  If my notes are right, they are from the time of Abraham.

I was taking pictures of an old recovered Egyptian temple and when I turned back I found the kids like this.

return to the root from goose42 on Vimeo.

Snow Day

Totally snowed in, our surrounding towns are in a state or emergency, it all feels very exciting especially when you have a house full of kids who love it!

When I was not outside helping Steve shovel us out I was baking baking baking and making soup so that all my loves would have something cozy and warm when they came inside.

Steve figured out how much one shovel full of snow weighs and how long our drive way is and estimates that he shoveled three tons of snow today.

The kids built an igloo, a snow maze, and a fort full of tunnels for Eowyn to run through.  Because she is so young I can only let her out for a little while at a time.  Each time I opened the door she would shoot out like a rocket and maximize her experience by racing up to the top of the fort, choosing a tunnel and then sliding out with her legs stretched way out in front of her. 

In this picture Eti was laying in the snow and Eowyn had pounced on top of him.

In the front yard we have a large old pine tree where at the base the limbs stretch way out and touch the ground.  Eti, Coco, and I crawled through an opening.  There was enough room for at least four adults inside and we were completely hidden in our new little fort.  It was one of those moments where I felt instantly like I was ten years old again exploring with my siblings.

Steve said he was going to let the kids jump off the porch roof because the snow was so high.

He tested it first himself.

I suggested that it might be a bit redneck.

Apparently that's how we roll.

The kids think their dad is cool.

No one broke their necks.

So I'm happy.