Fish Prints

We have been busy around here, celebrating birthdays, cooking, preserving and really enjoying our new patio. For Ben's birthday this year we got some paint and fish casts to do some printing and the boys loved having something to paint and it turned out to be a fun family activity.

Our results definitely leave something room for improvement, but for a first run we are pleased.

Something Popped Up!

Just when I thought we were going to have to wait another season for our shitakes, they decided to start popping up like mad. A few one day and then 2 gallons the next and a repeat a couple days later.
A enjoys checking them each day to see what he can harvest.

Lots eaten fresh and lots dried for later.

They are so beautiful.

and grow perfectly in our shade rich yard.

Things are Changing

While I am sure their will be some more sweaty days to come, I can't help but notice what is happening around me, and I can't help but smile and get excited about the days ahead.

This change of season is my favorite. The anticipation of a new year beginning, fresh starts and everything seeming possible. My energy level is always at its highest as our rhythm shifts from the craziness that summer always seems to bring to the calm of the fall. Instead of continuing on my yearly fall love (I am sure I will have a post on that during the actual season) you can read about it here.

Favorite Books

There are a lot of children's books out there, too many, and oh too many that are not good at all. I am always on the look out for really good books, the ones whose characters I want my children to be like, or have magic in their pages, or that I don't mind reading over and over and over as kids really like to do.

So here it is, my top ten children's books, that no matter what time of day (typically), what my mood, I have no problem dropping anything to share the stories in these pages with my children. I am trying to rid my home of all the others, the ones I roll my eyes and make excuses not to read! Maybe I will do a post on the books I would avoid.

Knitting Nell: Oh how I love you. She is just so darn sweet, though her friends aren't very nice and don't really give her any credit until she wins a prize, but still I love this book, and I love that Asher wants to be Nell, or one of her friends and I either teach him to knit or he teaches me. The illustrations are great too, which is essentially a must for my favorite reading list.

A Grand Old Tree: Such a winner on the cycle of a tree. I especially love that the story continues after the tree has died. A good way to talk about all of life's different cycles. Plus the little blue bird in the pictures is so cute.
Castles, Cave and Honeycombs: I love the rhyming in this book. I originally used it in a preschool program on animal homes thanks to a co-worker and couldn't stop reciting it in my head. This was the first book that Asher seemed to memorize, I would say the animal and he would tell me it's type of home. The pictures are great, the words are minimal, and there is a lot of room for exploring the book without the words.
Sun Bread: I really like this author. This book is magical for me. Some of the rhyming isn't my favorite, but I absolutely love the line that the sun wove ribbons through the tree and think of it often when I am up so early to see the sun rise and as it peaks over the horizon it weaves ribbons of light through out cedar trees. Just a sweet story.
The Story of May (sorry no link, out of print): A lucky find at the library, a personified view of the year that again feels magical and alive. I found a used copy for our home and a friend. It is long on some occasions, but I love the feeling of it, that I still will drop almost anything to read it and love it as an only book bedtime tale.
The Story of the Little Mole who went in Search of the Whodunit: A great book about poop. And more importantly being able to identify an animal by a trace they have left behind. Can I really say a fun book of poop? I love this book, older kids laugh so much as we are talking about poop and younger kids just think it's cool to see all the different animals poop. This has led to big discussions with Asher about what animal his poop looks like and is a great book for tracking animals and looking for all of their signs.
The Ugly Vegetables: Good stuff on veggies that not a lot of kids (and parents) are familiar with, and more importantly being okay with being different. I just like this story, female lead characters, good gardening story, good food story, good community story.
The Little Blue Truck: We checked this one out from the library a few to many times and probably bought the book in fines (not really), but were very happy to have it gifted to our collection. This book was one of A's first favorites. I love the rhythmics, story and illustrations. I love that so many of the words are in different colors and that a lot of things repeat. Seems to be a great book to learn to identify some first words.
As that is only 8, two other favorites without pictures

Listen, Listen: a great book all about the changing seasons. I think with older kids it would be fun to recreate this book with all the things they like best about each season. I love the artwork. Simple text.

The Lion and the Little Red Bird: from the same author as Sun Bread. Such a wonderful, magical tale. I was really in such suspense the first time I read it and still enjoy it every time since. The illustrations incorporate collage and fiber, which is rare and something I love. A great book that also has lead to some great creative play, Asher being my little bird and me taking him on adventures, or the other way around.

A Perfect Day

What a great weekend. We hosted a canning/processing, do whatever you like with our outdoor and indoor kitchen spaces on Saturday on our fully complete new patio. And it was just awesome. Friends came by at 10 and we had almost 12 hours of fun.

Roasting and canning eggplant.
Hops harvested a few blocks away and brewed into beer.
A grill smoking away with some jalapeños, poblanos and other peppers.
A little boy sampling pasta.

Tomatoes bubbling away before jarring up and pressure canning.

Roasted reds before freezing.
A patio full of the best food of the season and some of the best folks around.
The new laying hens enjoyed all of their new space and have started to get used to food coming over the fence at them all the time.
We were all pretty productive. 85 lbs of tomatoes processed, 45lbs of peaches frozen or dehydrated, eggplant canned, pasta make, chilies smoked and dried, Blackberry Peach fruit leather made, roasted reds frozen and a batch of beer brewed.
It is a wonderful thing to be so productive with friends.

A Boy and his BIke

Not really his bike, but thanks to some friends that went on a longish vacation Asher has come to have a bike for the next couple of weeks. He loves it.

With the newly established hole in the backyard he is quite happy to endulge in some dirt bike style balancing.

He is really taking to the thing. Scooting along where ever we go. Which on Tuesday may have been a little much as his tooshie seemed a bit sore at bed time. I am really impressed with his balancing ability, he especially likes all of the "hills" when we cross a street. I think this is a wonderful alternative to training wheels, which are hard to transition out of after a child becomes reliant on them and hasn't had to learn how to balance on their own.

End of the Day

The boys took turns watching the men at work. It looks like it will be so big. Our whole backyard almost. We are hoping that it will really define the space, plus with all the shade and tree roots, nothing else grew. We ordered eucalyptus furniture today which should be here sometime next week. Tomorrow should be a much more impressive day.

Our Next Project

Early Monday morning this arrived, Asher woke up to see what all the excitement was about.

Our backyard started the day out looking like this.

And ended the day looking like this.

If it is hard to tell, there is a big excavated hole, which will be filled with gravel, leveled sand and finally a new brick patio. Oh this has been quite the project and extended over such a long timeline. We were going to do it in May with recycled bricks from our fair city, when they were supposed to go on sale. But that didnt' happen the volunteer labor force to clean the bricks didn't show up. Then we were going to hire a landscaper to do it two weeks later (while we catered an event), set to go: oh but those volunteers, thwarted again. Then two more times we tried to get those bricks in June... not happening. Finally in August when we tried to buy the recycled bricks they told us that now not only were they not cleaned, but were overgrown with weeds and the prospects of getting the bricks were pretty much none. So disappointing, I really didn't want to use new material, but damn it all if Menards didn't just go and have a sale on thier brick pavers for the same price and we really want to have a patio- we have eaten for too many years outside without one. So the hole is there and the dudes are coming tomorrow. We had planned to do it ourselves, but with my back doing what it's doing and a summer of really getting out asses whipped, we decided to hand this project off to someone else.
Fingers crossed that it doesn't rain tomorrow!

Good Chocolate

We had a bit of a tradgedy in our community in the past couple of weeks. A man we knew and who was a spark for change and doing better in the world lost his life. He made chocolate, an art, rare, beautiful and delicious.
It's funny how death effects you and the people around you. For nights on end I have thought about him and how Ben and I can be better people to live in his example. We have been quiet and introverted, but really inspired as of late. It is so easy with two young kids to get completely swallowed up in the life that surrounds you. So easy to forget that we are all part of something bigger, that this world deserves the best from us. Too easy to live life without thinking of everyone else out there.

Back at It

In more ways than one. After a strict diet of cutting back of everything, my slipped/herniated disk is repositioning itself, I have been able to walk for more than a week straight and I hope that this is what on the mend is feeling like. I missed a family trip, spent my first weekend away from all of my boys ever, and actually slept for 8 hours straight. It was okay, but admittedly I was bored. This morning we adventured out and it felt so good.As you know, we live in a geographically challenging place for our souls, running water runs in all these boys veins and our ditch variety doesn't always cut it. But sometimes, when you really need to hear the flow of water over rock and you want to catch yourself a crayfish, it fits the bill. And fortunately we realize that this amazing place that we do live in can satisfy the desires of our whole selves.