inspiration and gratitude

Well this week sure did not go as I had thought it would. Oh my what a hard day it was yesterday. Why does there have to be such not nice people in the world? And please can they stay away from me and my family?

Unfortunately there was a brief period of time yesterday when I felt totally defeated. I was trying not to be unnecessarily emotional, but I wanted to just run away and hide. (Where to I have no idea. The forest seems like a good idea...) I am not usually like that. Jason was dealing with the unfortunate situation much better than I was, usually he is the one to get more upset and so I guess I have to stay calm, try to be the one encouraging positivity. I never cry if he does, I don't know how it works, it's just how it happens.

It would have been simple to not be mentioning this here at all, but you know, life does not just always go on perfectly smooth.

And I am happy to say that I think I am all better now! (Situation not perfectly fixed, just me and us okay.)

Because you know what? There are really nice people in this world too. We have lots of them in our life. And they reach out with kindness to us in such a generous way. Somehow their simple words help make everything better.

There have also been some kind thoughts and words from sweet friends this past week that brought a smile to my face and just the times I needed it.

So grateful.


I was also cheered by playing with fabric.

Passing by the ironing board, these fabrics were laying out, I had set them together the other day. They make me happy. Started thinking about what I am going to make with them, started feeling better. Got lost in sewing thoughts.

And speaking of friends, we have had company this past week. One of Jason's skateboarding friends that we have known for many years now, he doesn't live here anymore but comes back to visit every summer.

So last week they went on a backpacking trip. Up a river, or, you might say, up a gorge. Since Jason had our camera I thought I would go ahead and share with you some of his pictures.








Jason says it was so incredibly amazingly beautiful (or something like that) and that he wishes we could all go there. But we never will. Because it was one of the craziest hikes they have ever done and they will never be going there again either!

This is near where they camped.

They took the easier way home.

(You may still enter the giveaway through the weekend. Thanks to all who have left comments so far...)

Wishing you many beautiful and inspiring days ahead!


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book love, vintage goodness, and a giveaway!

So somehow here I am writing my 100th post! Supposedly shy and quiet me.

I know I surprised many people by starting this blog, and I myself am surprised by how much I have enjoyed it. I had no idea what I was getting into, never thought that someone might come read what I was going to write, and I certainly never expected to meet so many wonderful people in the process!

So as a bit of a thank you to everyone who comes here to visit I am happy to be having my very first giveaway!

I have been waiting to share this book with you all for a long time now. It is called the Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney. Have you heard of it before?

It is one of the most wonderful books ever. Surely that is clear just by looking at that sweet picture! I have my own copy from when I was little and just a year or so read it with the girls for the first time. Now we have read it several times, Chloe often picks it up to read a chapter to herself, I cannot begin to tell you how much she loves this book! It is so nice also because it was perfect for both my 5 year old and my 9 year old, a great family read aloud book.

Really though I find myself at a loss for words when trying to explain the sweetness of this book. So how about a couple excerpts from the first chapter, A Home View... (and by the way, this book was written in 1881 so the language is sometimes a bit different...)

"The little old kitchen had quieted down from the bustle and confusion of mid-day; and now, with its afternoon manners on , presented a holiday aspect, that as the principal room in the brown house, it was eminently proper it should have. It was just on the edge of twilight; and the little Peppers, all except Ben, the oldest of the flock, were enjoying a "breathing spell" as their mother called it, which meant some quiet work suitable for the hour.

"To help mother," was the greatest ambition of all the children, older and younger; but in Polly's and Ben's souls, the desire grew so overwhelmingly great as to absorb all lesser thoughts. Many and vast were their secret plans, by which they were to astonish her at some future day, which they would only confide - as they did everything else - to one another. For this brother and sister were everything to each other, and stood loyally together through "thick and thin."

Polly was ten, and Ben one year older; and the younger three of the "Five Little Peppers, " as they were called, looked up to them with the intensest admiration and love. What they failed to do, couldn't very well be done by anyone!"

Wonderful I tell you! Please, go find this book to read with your little ones!

Of course I have to include some handmade gifts as well...
I have so much fun sewing with my vintage feedsack fabrics. They are mostly smaller pieces so I juts go through the stacks pulling out colors that catch my eye.

This day I was obviously inspired by turquoise! I think this may be called a trivet? Sure, that's what I will call it. Perhaps you could set your tea there, or a pretty vase of flowers.

I also have this little bag I made, more feedsack fabrics combined with organic cotton poplin. And then a small set of feedsack pieces for you to make something on your own.

Oh, and I should say, I sure am not giving away my own childhood copy of the book, but we have an extra one (an extra extra one, Chloe has her own special copy now too.)

So please do leave a comment if you would like a chance to win. I will also offer an extra entry if you follow my blog and another extra entry if you mention the giveaway on your own blog. I want to share this book with everyone! I will accept comments through next Sunday and announce a winner on Monday.

Hoping to get a couple other posts done this week too, feeling like I have lots to say these days, though really you will probably just be getting lots of pictures.

Happy beautiful days to all!


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Waldorf 3rd Grade Farming Block

Yes, I am still getting caught up on 3rd grade homeschool posts. I have one more after this and then I will be done.

So here are most, but not all, of the pages from our first farming main lesson book. This we did last autumn. I mentioned in my last homeschool post that gardening and farm visits were already a part of our lives...

So we decided we would just make up a little farm story. We created the story together, each day making one or two pages. The drawings she did on her own, something we did for the first time this year. (This was also the first year that I didn't make my own lesson book along with her.)


(Kind of funny because really we were still vegan at this time, although we already knew changes were coming.)


On this day we really were planting garlic. We have just recently been harvesting our first cloves.

I think I was off with my timing on this one. The wheat may have been harvested sooner.


On a recent farm visit Sara had been harvesting triticale. We did not thresh the grain with a flail though... (okay maybe no one does anymore...) first we were banging it in a metal garbage can (loud!) but we soon switched to spreading it out on a sheet and stomping on it with our shoes!

We are not growing our own grain yet but we sure do lots of bread baking.


And then it was winter. Quiet, cozy, restful time on the farm. And then it was spring, and unfortunately we did not get the next lesson book completed. Chloe still wants to continue the story but I'm not sure when that might happen.

At least we have been getting in lots of garden time and some good farm visits too!

Alright, one more 3rd grade post to go, I will show some of the work we did for a block on time.
But it won't be my very next post, cause that is going to have to be the giveaway post...

Oh my, I am up so past my bedtime. Goodnight! (Good morning... Good day to all!)


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gnome homes and star moss and august

Half way through this summer season. Our world so full of color, we can feel ourselves heading towards the golden time. I am embracing it. I am happy to be here right in the middle of summer.

I cannot believe though that here we are at the beginning of August and I have yet to do a real gardening post.

How grateful I am for our garden this year. As I am every year. We are grateful for the food of course, but also for the time spent among the beds, in the dirt, under the sun.

This is what dinner has looked like so many nights this summer. Thank goodness we were able to get through most of the hottest afternoons without cooking! Bread baked very early in the morning, beans in the crockpot, easy grains like quinoa, lots of cold grain/bean salads. And then a big bunch of these wonderful greens, chopped up and piled on top, almost always raw. Almost every night. Yummy. Thank you garden!

I am often enjoying the view of the garden from up above. Standing on the back deck that is off of our kitchen.

Giant hollyhock leaves down below! (That is a 10 inch pot beside it!) No blooming hollyhocks this year though. (Sad.) But new cosmos have been greeting us each morning and soon the calendula will be shining it's bright face up to the sun. Happy!

And the gnomes have been making us happy too.

Last weeks storytelling and gnome crafting was inspired by an exciting discovery in the forest.

A gnome cave. With star moss! (Some kind of special fairy/gnome moss perhaps? I'm not exactly sure, but Chloe was so excited to discover it!)

We discovered lots of other neat things that day out in the forest.

A tree trunk smashed up by a bear, to get at the ants inside. Look closely on the right and you can see scratch marks from it's paws! (You would have to click to make the picture bigger...)

Tall trees.

Little trees.

Aspen leaves singing in the treetops.

Thistle stalk for snack. Peeled of course! She harvested it herself.

Ripe service berries.

Isn't that neat! A bit of love in the stump of an old Ponderosa.

And the magical gnome talk continued all week long.


Oh my, blogger is being funky with pictures. Glad I got through that. There has been so much that I have been wanting to share here, wishing to write about, but goodness how quickly the time passes!

Speaking of which, I am coming very close to my 100th post! Perhaps later this week. And I have a nice little giveaway planned too!
So see you soon :)


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wool and roly-polys and forts and rain and me!

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Our weekend was full of lots of nice things.

Friday, oh it was such a good day. The girls have been doing lots of playing with wool and water lately. Soft wool, cool water, very nice for hot days. This weekend though it finally cooled down enough for some hot soapy water, the girls spent hours with their wet felting projects, they made sweet little baskets, which turned into bassinets for their little dolls. Some needle felting happened too. And I got our wool nice and organized. And I got my sewing space nice and organized. And I finally made a new ironing board cover. It only took me 3 years to choose a fabric, but once I did I made it in about an hour. Now on to one of the many other projects on my home sewing list!

But oh yeah, I didn't take any pictures at all of any of our happy creating.

I did get some other weekend photos though.

The girls and their roly-poly's. So many hours spent playing with and caring for their roly-polys!

And fort building! The girls finally spent the night sleeping in a fort without it coming crashing down at some point in the middle of the night. This is a pretty impressive fort. Chloe's side has two rooms. A bed, bookshelf, a dress, her bonnet, her dolls.

It is kind of hard to take a good picture of a fort. Especially when it takes up the entire room.


And it is really hard to take pictures of yourself! But I decided to pick up the camera anyway. Inspired by lovely ladies and a really great project, and most of all for my dearest friend Rae, who is always asking to see more of me, cause it is so hard for us to be so far apart...

So here I am. Saturday morning. 37 years old. Like everyone else I am working on acceptance (so I think I'll say nothing else...)


Also, the most wonderful thing has happened. It has been raining. Raining and raining and raining. For days. It stops in the earliest morning hours. It is damp and cool when we wake up. The chilly air is so to be appreciated after some very hot weather in past weeks. The sun comes out, there is time in the garden, time to dry a load of laundry on the line. And then the afternoon clouds come. And then later in the evening it starts raining. Very hard. And we get to listen to it. All night long. So so nice!


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