bare foot notes: what are we doing today?

After a slow start, it feels like warmer weather is finally here. The trees and bushes all look like impressionist paintings, fuzzy with the soft blur of new growth. New spring green can feel a bit blinding after such a long winter; and I feel hungry for it, I want to drink in the green fields by the mouthful. This is my favorite time of year.

While I'm applying sunscrean like a maniac, searching for hats and shoes to get us all out into the sunlight, the girls seem to take the new season in stride. In their present-centered way, they awake each morning, whether it is raining out or brilliant blue. They contentedly drink milk, wrap themselves in their blankets, crawl onto my lap and ask; what are we doing today?

Our days have felt full. Every day I think about balance; the things that need to be done, to be crossed off the list, and the things that need to be done; the bookreading, the ring-around-the-rosie, the careful examinations and conversations about lilac buds emerging, about broken robin eggs found on the ground, or the passing of our old dog. Explaining the world to an (almost) four year old is no easy task. But I find myself questioning along with her, the whys and hows of it all. And remembering how lucky we are to have this day, and the one before it, after it. How quickly life changes. I think a lot about how to celebrate today.

We had 10 lovely years with Seeley. This was his last trip to the river; his favorite place.

The girls seem to be growing before my eyes. Aven wants to talk all the time, pointing and nodding madly to get her point across. It's been so easy for me to look at her as the baby, but that is starting to change. By the end of summer she will be two.

Then there is this girl, who told me the other day, Mom, I love you so much; you're in my heart and my heart is regarding you. Then she tipped herself out of her chair and fell to the ground with a crash. Popping back up she told me Falling off a chair is not as bad as falling in a cattle-guard. She has first-hand experience with both.

We went crazy the other day and decided to get some chicks. 26 chicks. We named them each after a letter in the alphabet. And I thought my children were growing quickly...

I am having so much fun gardening this year. Growing the hoop presents some new challenges, and new experiments. I put cucumber seeds in the ground last week and they were pushing their little heads up in a mere four days. On the other hand, I left the whole house closed up the other morning while we went into town and nearly cooked all my tomato and pepper starts with the heat. I just filled out my Farmers Market application and I am zeroing in on the perfect name for my 'farm!'

I still find it mindblowing that a handful of tiny seeds can grow more than enough veggies to feed my family for a year. Or several years, in the case of the great dill pickle surplus of 2009...