My Mother

I totally dropped the ball on this one. My mother's birthday was a whole week ago, but I am only just writing this post. My Mother. I can't believe we haven''t really talked about her here before. She is amazing. Now I know everyone says that about their mothers, but mine takes the cake. Here's why:

My mom was there at Hazel's birth.

Mom making noodles for chicken noodle soup

She is an amazing seamstress, she even used to make wedding dresses.
She learned to knit like 3 months ago and is making sweaters like a pro.
She wants bee-keep.

Hazel's best friend

She knows how to build a house, and not just a generic house, a very well built, artistic, different, efficient house. I mean the plumbing, the electrical, the windows. The tile, or wood, or concrete floors and counter tops and everything! How many women do you know that can do that?

She is here to help me with Hazel when I need her.
She helps me with my house.
She tries to make my wants and needs possible, and helps facilitate my home-improvement projects even though she still has work to do on her own home. 

Do you see that smile?

She loves each of her five children unconditionally. Always has, always will. She would and has done just about anything and everything for us, even when she doesn't have the time or the money. She still has a really hard time saying no to her babies.

The floor my mom helped me with. Our backs and knees ached for days.

She understands.
She worries.
She loves to bake bread, forage for berries, preserve jam.

The swing she built for Hazel.

She is accepting and open minded.
She is loud and giggly after a glass or two of wine.
She always seems to be right there, filling the gap between what I have gotten done, and what needs to get done.
She goes the extra mile always.

Our first hike in this winter when the snow finally arrived.

Mom in Thailand

Thailand

 

Meeting Ella

Ella and Mom.

She loves being a grandma.
She doesn't do anything she isn't passionate about. She wont settle.
She loves good food, especially when she is making it for loved ones.
When she wants to go somewhere she goes, even if she has to save all year. She took our family on so many camping trips, trips to the grand canyon, to Arches, Escalante, Zions. She took me to Thailand, and Megan and Josh to Belize, and most recently her and Joel went on a three week trip to China.She is adventurous and wont give it up or make excuses about money. She makes it happen.

1 day old Hazel

Belize

Chunky Hazel

In the last year I have spent so much time with my mom, and I have learned quite a few things about her that I didn't know previously. Some of her strengths, and weaknesses, her worries her doubts, her struggles, her history. My mom didn't have it easy, and she had to make a lot of hard choices. My mom gave birth to 5 kids naturally. She did her best to show us how to work hard.

Mom and Joel

Mom, auna the horse, and Uinta the dog

My mom and I probably clash more then she does with her other four children, so it is funny that she is currently living here with us. She and I are so much alike. TOO much alike. There are certainly times when we have simply had enough of one another, and we go to our separate corners. Luckily neither of us are the type that holds onto things. We let it go, and forget about it. A few hours later everything is back to normal. I honestly don't know how I would get anything done without her here, and am so grateful for her. She gets me.

my big 21.

Happy Birthday MOM! LOVE YOU!

Busy, Busy

Fairies

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When I saw this photo I had 2 thoughts: 

1: forget about my other plans for the yard. This is It!

2: Fairy Birthday Party?

Baby food.

The ambitious mother in me planned on making all of Hazel's food from scratch, and not letting anything else near her. As she neared the age where she could begin solid foods people started offering her things, and I just didn't want to be that crazy mom who won't let her kid have a cracker or try a sip of soda (soda, really?*). Well we started out strong with the baby-food making, but like most things I start, it didn't last. I failed to come up with a good program for storing the food, and all of the purees I have made are stored in pint sized canning jars in the freezer. Feeding it to her requires thawing of a large amount of food, and then feeding that one kind to her for a few days until she either finishes it, or I get worry it might spoil, and I throw it our. Like I said, not a good system, so we feed Hazel a lot of store bought baby food. We like Ella's Kitchen, or HappyTot which comes in pouches, and is organic (and tastes fantastic!). We also feed her a lot of what we are eating. Her favorite thing to do is gnaw on a piece of broccoli. We are doing well with feeding her now, mostly fruits and veggies. For a while there I resorted to what was easiest. I gave her pieces of bread, and some puffy things we got from the store that are kind of like cheetos puffs, goldfish, and pasta when we were eating it, along with her fruits and veggies. After a while I realized that she was having some serious poo problems because of it, and I decided she wasn't quite ready for all of that grain and processed four products. About the same time that I decided to remove that from her diet, she decided that all she wanted to do was breastfeed, and that kicked her digestive system back into gear, and she is doing great now. We have never given her rice cereal, but I have pureed brown rice or quinoa and mixed it in with her fruit and veggie purees. I really haven't been scientific about it, or really anything when it comes to parenting....I actually think that I am pretty lazy, and tend to take the easier route most of the time. I have read about a few different "theories" of introducing solids. I don't really get parenting "theories" so I just do what feels right, and it seems to work out okay. Today I stumbled across this post on home made baby food, which for like the umpteenth time this week made me wish I were a more organized individual. It kind of inspired me to try a little harder with Hazel's food. Does anyone who reads (you know, all five of you) make their own babyfood?

*The person who offered her soda does in fact read this blog.

We Grow, Grow Steady as the Morning

We stood* Steady as the stars in the woods*So happy-hearted
And the warmth rang true* inside these bones
As the old pine fell we sang*Just to bless the morning....

Winner Winner!

So guys.... 

I won a giveaway. I hardly enter them because I just have this "I'll never win" mentality, but this wasn't just any giveaway(and there are some lame ones out there). It was a Shabby Apple giveaway hosted by my midwife's daughter Lovely Lindsay on her fabulous blog Run Lucas Run! 

WHAT!?!?!

Yeah, I'm being serious. I won this.

Friday Finds

A tutorial for a tiny little dress. I'm making this right away.

This guy's amazing art....in coffee!

There isn't much that I love more than anthropologie dishes.  ANY of them.

Have you ever seen a firefly? I haven't, but these photos are beautiful.

Super fun toy and book, all in one.

An interesting article on problems with our modern day educational system.

Goofy monsters....

I stumbled across this the idea when I was in a bit of a funk, and it really cheered me up.

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Manly

 
So, the man needs a workshop. An organized one. Now, I know I told you yesterday that I am a complete failure when it comes to organization. As messy as I let things get, I am able to organize them when I get around to it.  My problem is keeping them that way. I think the answer is in the system. I don't have a system, and neither does Mike. I am really hoping to be able to get around to organizing his things this summer. The moment I arrived I started taking over the house. I purged it of many of his belongings that made it apparent that the cabin belonged to a bachelor. You know, his toy snow-cats, his margaritaville-singing parrot, his Dave Matthews Band posters, and his souvenirs from his trips to Las Vegas. Now I want to give him a space to put it all, where he can go to get work done, and look at his....stuff. I've been looking around the internet for inspiration/motivation and I'm getting some pretty good ideas of what I want to do for him.

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His biggest need is a place for all of his tools. 

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He has a lot of tools.

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And definitely a good workbench.

And a chair.

And perhaps a mini-fridge, for good measure.

Puzzled

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I am, and always have been a rather disorganized individual. It has caused me a few problems over the course of my life, missing assignments later located in the chaos of my school-desk, snowy mornings waiting for the bus with no coat because all seven of them were lost inside my locker, and a constant battle with my parents over the state of my bedroom. As I neared adulthood, not much changed. As I found myself pregnant, I decided it was time to buckle down. Unfortunately a lifetime of bad habits are not easy to change, and though I convinced myself that Hazel's impending arrival would in fact transform my whole life into one of sense and order, that isn't quite what has happened. In fact since she was born I have struggled to make much sense of anything around here. It is a constant battle for me to wake up and eat breakfast in the morning, (not in the clinically-depressed sense, but in the I think I'll sleep in till 10 and then rush to get to where I need to be sense) let alone fold laundry, plan meals, stick to any sort of a budget, or pick up after my now-crawling-nine-month-old. So what is a girl to do? Trust me I have been trying. And trying and trying and trying! At times I feel completely hopeless as I look around at my home and life in dissaray. I have honestly never set a goal that I consciously achieved. Never set a schedule that I stuck to. Never kept a single room organized. Never balanced a check-book. I feel like I need to completely start over, wipe the slate clean, begin again....but I don't know how. I have tried to start small. Breakfast every morning. I failed the first few days. I tried to make a meal plan and a grocery list for a week. It worked for that week, but the next week it fell apart. I tried to make a cleaning schedule, Monday the loft, Tuesday the bathroom and so on, but like everything else, I just didn't stick to it. My lack of planning is really beginning to have an effect on our quality of life here, and my plans for the future, and I have to get it together! So tell me, is there like a twelve step program? A professional who will come and put my life in order? HELP!?

Summmmer

 As summer approaches, and I wave goodbye to my Bikini-wearing days, I find myself in need of a new suit. How is it that anyone can sport a bikini after having a child? Well, I wont be. When It comes to one-pieces I think J. Crew is the place to shop. Don't these all look so perfect?

phone dump

Excuse the photo quality. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone can afford an iphone. I am one of those people.

First time one the Cabriolet

 killin it with the bandana.

 gettin into trouble

 umm...

 First time @ Home Depot...she was pretty stoked on the place, can't ya tell?

First snow cat ride