Thursday, April 21, 2011

thunder, sunshine, hail, spring

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I heard actual thunder today. It was all quiet and still, and then *Crash* Amelia and I actually jumped and Seeley ran for the bathroom rug - clearly, the only dog-safe place to ride out a thunderstorm. Then the iceball/hail deluge began...


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Just another erratic spring day in Montana, I guess!

We're getting ready for Easter fun this weekend. We dyed eggs with things we had on hand; onion skins, beets, blueberries, coffee. Coffee is pretty unimpressive when you have brown eggs to start with, but the girls loved it. Aven only smashed and gnawed on about five of the eggs, so we still have quite an assortment for the bunny to hide.

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We also celebrated Earth Day by beautifying our town a bit. The highlight for Amelia was rolling down hills and showing everyone the little rodent skull she found.

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Amelia kept saying; "We're gonna clean up this town," like a cop in an old gangster movie.

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I've been trying to write down some of the things Amelia says. She is so funny and often, so perceptive. And a little bit insane.

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When I told her that Aven and I would be staying to help out with her preschool Easter party, she turned to her sister and said: "You won't have to miss me today, little old Aven!"

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The other day we were driving into town, listening to the radio and Beethoven's 5th was on NPR. Amelia asked if it was Jack Johnson, and I said No, this is Beethoven, and I told her a little about him, how he lived a long time ago and wrote beautiful music even though he lost the ability to hear. She wanted to know if he was still alive and I told her wasn't.

Then she said,
"Mom, sometimes the owls eats mouses and the mouses are gone and they never come back, right?"
"Yes, that's right"
"Well, that's just like Beethoven."

I looked back at her in the rear-view mirror...three years old and already understands death as the great equalizer.

Then she picked up her purple bear (Alisha)
"I'm gonna curl Alisha's hair now."

Okay big girl.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

small victories

This weekend felt full.
In a good way.

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I think being a mother has made my much better at rolling with it, when things do not go according to plan. As in; I had planned to clean the house and make dinner while the girls napped, but since they didn't nap, we'll just eat popcorn and wade through piles of puzzle pieces and stuffed animals. See how that works? My life is full of oh well, we'll do it this way, instead. You focus on the small victories of the day, and let the rest go.

Which, I think is a good thing. The ability to roll with it was necessary this weekend. Our original plan for Saturday was to begin construction on our new hoop house (insert me, jumping up and down, waving my arms in the air, shouting yahooooo!). Mike's brother brought it over Saturday morning from Hamilton, where we'd had it delivered. As we began sorting through (lots!) of parts and pieces, it became clear they had failed to send us any assembly instructions....and the company we ordered it from was (of course) closed for the weekend. Sigh. And so (after a beer or two) we rolled with it, and moved on down the to-do list.

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Hoop house, interrupted.

While Mike and Matt moved irrigation pipe (thanks again, Matt - my arms, especially, thank you) I finished a baby gift for a good friend of mine whose little boy was born on Friday.

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Welcome Gavin! I also had a chance to transplant tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings into bigger pots. However, (and here's where my fellow growers-of-things should pay attention) I mixed my potting soil with a bit of aged llama manure to give it a little nutrient boost, which would be fine if all these plants weren't living right next to my kitchen. So my mudroom now has a bit of an odor...hmmm yes. I will not be experimenting with llama poop in ANYTHING that will end up inside my house again. I promise.

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Look at them grow, though. They don't mind the smell.

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Two of our neighbor's horses have had foals in the last week. They won't get too close, but they are all legs and cuter than heck.

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Amelia will be four in June. Lately I have been getting these glimpses of the girl, the woman she'll become.

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Sometimes I can see that sassy 15-year-old in there, just waiting.

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She checks the chicken coop about five times a day for eggs, and when she finds one you never know if it will make it into the house in one piece. I think she's getting more careful, though.

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She tells me these eggs are presents from our chickens.

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Saturday night we had dinner with an old friend of mine from high school. Until recently, we hadn't seen each other for about 10 years, and it is so wild to watch our kids play together. Spending time with an old friend is one those things that makes me feel really aware of the fluidity of time. It's like standing in the ocean, with waves pushing and pulling against your legs in all directions. It's that simultaneous sensation of having your feet strongly rooted in one place, while around you is contant swirling, changing motion. It still surprises me to realize that I am still me, the same person I was at 15, or at 25. I am still standing in the same place.

So it was great to see her and to watch our kids become friends. It makes me happy in so many ways.

Montana's spring weather makes me crazy every year. The sun comes out and we slather on sunscreen, then it begins to snow and we run for the house in our flip-flops. Yesterday I took the girls to the pool, and watched puffy white flakes drift by outside the windows, and tried to concentrate on the warm water and new bathing suits, instead of the snow piling up outside. My garlic is liking it though.

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Aven talks nonstop and amazes me every day with her awareness and humor.

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Fiesty little monkey + raisins = LOVE

Both girls loved having some time with Uncle Matt, and I enjoyed a break from being primary book-reader and 'What can you say when a monkey acts this way?'

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So like most things, attitude is everything. The weekend came to close with me feeling like I'd made some progress. And there is always tomorrow.

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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

bloom

In the last few days, it has finally started to feel like spring; bare arms in the sunshine, grass between toes, flowers blooming...actually I didn't grow these...I have about a million rabbits that live all around my house and in our windbreak. These lovelies wouldn't survive for a minute out there. So thank you to my local grocery store, who had tulips bundles for $3.99 today. They won't last long, but I am going to enjoy the heck out of them for the next few days...while trying to keep Aven from eating them or knocking them off the kitchen table. Photobucket Along with enjoying the warmer temps and longer days, I am REALLY enjoying the fact that it is now usually warm enough that Aven can eat in only a diaper which cuts way down on laundry. I can't remember now why I gave her a spoon and a stalk of celery...but I'm sure I had my reasons. Photobucket We had a little jam session before leaving for town this morning. Amelia is dressed for preschool...she completed the look with sequined flip-flops...over the socks. Sister has style. Photobucket Photobucket A post-art-making manicure. So while I'm not able to grow tulips, my peppers and tomatoes are starting to stretch out in our mudroom-turned-greenhouse: Photobucket Photobucket I have yet to figure out why this makes me so ridiculously giddyhappy to see, but it does. It is absolutely magical that I can take something the size of pencil tip and from it grow crazy amounts of food. In other growing news, the girls and I picked these easter baskets up at the thrift store a week ago, lined them with tin foil and planted some of the leftover wheat seed from our germination test and viola...we are ready for that bunny! And none of that nasty flossy plastic grass...so yay! Photobucket Our days are starting to tip towards more time spent outside than in, which is soo soo soo needed after this long winter. We're making progress on some projects, too. I started turning over ground for some new flowerbeds and found that the chickens are great gardeners. They pretty much chased me out of the way while they scratched for worms and bugs, and they did a fabulous job breaking up clumps of dirt and grass. Photobucket Good chickens! They follow us all over the yard. I'm going to miss my free-range ladies once we build a run for them...but I won't miss all the chicken poop EVERYWHERE. And I'm checking out plans for a chicken tractor. I think it would be great out in our pasture when the weather is warmish. What...you don't know what a chicken tractor is? Google chicken tractor right now. They are sheer brilliance on wheels. Love them. Photobucket Photobucket Don't mess with Princess Layer! The other fabulous thing about the arrival of spring and lots of outdoor time...is that it is usually followed by naptime. Luckily, my kids usually just drop whenever and wherever they need to. Photobucket Note that Aven has NOT dropped her bag of chips...poor girl doesn't get chips very often and she is not letting them go! Photobucket Photobucket ***** Insert huge sigh******* Photobucket There, now you've read the genuine 'barefoot notes!'

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

home making

It's been a year now, since we spent our first night in this old farm house. Since we walked the empty rooms, opened doors to empty closets, smiled at each other while sun poured through the windows. It was my 29th birthday. Even empty, this place felt like a home. A few nights ago we walked down the driveway before the sun set. The hills and fields fold into each other and spread in a way that now feels familiar. But the light here is always changing, always shifting our view into something new. Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket The other morning I saw a bald eagle, a pheasant, and a great horned owl out our windows before I even left the house. The birds are coming back. Robins sing from the trees and bushes even as it becomes night, and the assortment of sparrows, finches, and doves continue to raid our bird feeder. I just read Terry Tempest Williams's book Refuge, which my dad left for me after his visit, and it has made me pay more attention to the birds around me. The last few mornings the girls and I sat by our big living room window watching the birdfeeder and looking up the birds we saw in the bird book. Mama, that's a cowbird, Amelia says very seriously with every new bird we see. Our Missoula trip was great. Missoula still feels like home to me in many ways, and I think I will always feel my breathing change to deep, contented breaths when I cross the Clark Fork River on the Higgins Street Bridge. There are not many places as fabulous as Missoula. It's so fun to be there with my girls. Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket The Missoula Children's Museum, where all the cool kids go. Photobucket A view of the Wilma, Higgins, and rain...all very Missoula We've also spent some time back in the Bitterroot lately. It's strange and a little sad to be back in our funky old house, seeing the trees we planted grow a little bigger in our absence. But it's nice to be able to go back, to still feel at home there. Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket When we moved, we left our chickens behind since we didn't have a coop yet, and we had people to take care of them in the Bitterroot. They are a bunch of old lady chickens and I think they are pretty happy where they are. This is Mildred. She's the boss. Photobucket Some garlic I missed last summer. Life continues, even when you're not there to watch it. Photobucket There is something so incredibly raw and beautiful about rhubarb pushing its way out of the ground. Spring continues to creep a little closer. We had our first outdoor meal last week; so what if there's a little bit of snowdrift left... Photobucket Photobucket Photobucket First spring laundry on the line... Photobucket and evenings that stretch longer with bright, sideways sunlight. Photobucket The woodpile is nearly gone...and our basement wood storage room is packed full for next year. Photobucket Really, how many varieties of tomato are enough? Photobucket The first tiny eggs from our chickens had to be saved and used for decoration... This was my reward for getting out of bed early the other morning; Photobucket Photobucket This is Mike, doing what he does in the springtime...but never before on his own land! The boy is excited! Photobucket Morning coffee with sunrise and frost... Photobucket Have I mentioned that the light here is incredible? Um...yes?
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