everyday riches

..

Yesterday Chessa and I decided to play a game, making a list of all the things we are rich in.

We are rich in family.

We are rich in love.

We are rich in health.

We are rich in land.

We are rich in trees.

We are rich in candles.

We are rich in flowers.

We are rich in clothes.

We are rich in dolls.

We are rich in cats.

We are rich in horses.

We are rich in dishes.

We are rich in wooden horses.

We are rich in books.

We are rich in notebooks.

We are rich in beeswax.

We are rich in pencils.

We are rich in crayons.

We are rich in fabric.

We are rich in wool.

We are rich in baby.

We are rich in girls.

We are rich in sisters.

We are rich in handmades.

We are rich in skills.

We are rich in gardens.

We are rich in seeds.

We are rich in compost.

We are rich in friends.

We are rich in memories.

We are rich in dreams.

We are rich in hope.

And then Chessa says, "Seems like we're rich in pretty much everything except money."

Sounds pretty good to us!

What are you rich in?


...

moments on our mountain with baby and knitting and pine needles

..

...

moments and makings and musings

..

Salsify trampled by the rain.
Hooray! It rained!
And maybe more today. Maybe more tomorrow.
Monsoon season.

Early mornings in the garden.
A new bed made along the side of the greenhouse. Collards transplanted. Swiss chard nestled in amongst volunteer kale and overwintered carrots going to seed. There is still a tray of kale that I think will get transplanted into bare patches in the strawberry bed.

Dolls in various stages. Tucked into a soft wool bed by the girls so they stay cozy. And so there aren't a bunch of doll heads laying around...

Chloe has been doing some spinning on the drop spindle, and Chessa a bit too. And then knitting more cats. This is just how it is with cats I guess, whether real or knitted, it is easy to suddenly end up with too many.
(The girls of course do not consider there to be too many cats...)

I'm embroidering slowly. I'm knitting slowly. I'm getting much done in the garden in the moments I have to step outside.

I'm joining Lisa in a Waldorf planning course over the next 5 weeks or so. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, and laughing a lot, that I am considered a guest speaker. (Joking that I am not going to say a word!) (Sorry Lisa, I will though, I promise.)
I am very grateful for the course and inspiration. Usually at this time of year I am buried in notebooks, calendar pages, lesson notes, story ideas. But I haven't done much of any of that yet this year. How unlike me. I am excited to get started though!

One last thought...
Is there any 9 year old child who would not greatly benefit from time spent pounding nails with a hammer? I think most likely not.


...

thirteen (!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

 ..

                                                             

~ I know that her wishes have been coming true. So grateful for any small part that I am able to play in that. 

~ Surprisingly...

Her smile could get even bigger...  


My eldest is now 13 years old. Sweetheart child. Beautiful young woman.


I liked going back and reading this birthday post. She still has the same hopes and dreams, with new ones added too.


I wish I could express all that is in my heart right now, here I won't even try, to her I did my best.


Love. Love Love Love Love Love Love LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


...

june. making, growing, reading...

 ..

Greens awaiting transplanting. Kale, chard, collards. I love them all. But sometimes I think collards may be my favorite. Especially when I am starting greens in the hot summer and the collards are loving it very much.

Hopefully in the next week or so we will be getting all of our potatoes in to the ground, followed by carrots and beets. Late June, really summer just beginning, and we are looking towards our fall storage crops.

June has felt so completely summer already that for the solstice and since then we have been having rather quiet days. Jason took the girls to the library a few mornings ago and it seems like they have been mostly reading, writing, and drawing since then. Occasional visits out to the garden, watering, nice and cool in the evenings.

Oh, and there has been lots of watercolor painting happening too. We have mostly always done the wet on wet watercolor method (waldorf) but lately the girls have been enjoying free painting time with the regular watercolors in trays, nice Lyra ones, such beautiful colors, and so many pretty paintings created.

Sleeping summer babies. Warm afternoon naps.

More making from the girls...
A wool needlefelt family portrait.
Lots of little knitted kitties. I didn't even try to get a good photo, you can't see how sweet they really are.
Doll making. Little dolls. Doll making dreams.

I started a teething doll for Elsa but need to get back to it.
Knitting some longies/pants (elizabeth zimmerman) and that sure is going slow, finally dividing for the legs, and then I think I will become more motivated to finish.
Sewing a sunbonnet. Almost done. Maybe I can finish that today.
And more birthday sewing to be done. Birthday dress for a 13 year old!!!

And finally you can see a bit of Chessa's birthday dress. The blue fabrics I have had for many years, this post here shows a skirt that I made Chloe long ago with the same four prints. Whenever Chloe would wear that skirt I would think "chloe in blueberry land" (elsa beskow!) and now Chessa has her very own blueberry dress. (The skirt is still being occasionally worn, but getting quite tattered after 2 sisters and 8 years worth of wear!)
Well hopefully I can share better dress pics sometime, and hopefully I will get it's missing button sewn on soon too (didn't quite have time to sew on the button on birthday morning, now I keep forgetting it still needs to be done. The dress is worn all the time anyhow...)

So now on to the day. There will be more making, home chores, tending little seedlings and watering garden beds, bread baking, books...

I have been putting a lot of thought into next years homeschooling. I will have a 3rd grader and a 7th grader! So the homeschool papers, books, folders are in a big stack on the living room floor, my head is full of ideas, and I better start writing down some of these thoughts and ideas soon!

(This Waldorf bookstore is having a sale this week, including some titles by Jakob Streit. He is one of our favorite authors, we have some of his sweet gnome stories, animal stories, Saints stories, Old Testament stories. There are some of his books that will be good for our Middle Ages block next year. Oh yes, a definite favorite Waldorf author!)


(joining friends Ginny and Nicole...)


Oh, and also, Happy Happy Summer (or winter??) to all!!!


...