This Moment- Her Favorite Toy

From SouleMama: {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Share your own moment in the comments or atSouleMama.com.

Yarn Along - Preparing for Spring

I'm joining with Ginny at Small Things again for the Yarn Along. This week my reading has largely been continuing to read Sanctuaries of Childhood, and as I look forward towards spring I've been consulting with Wynstoes Press's Spring book. We've started doing a story and a few circle verses each morning after breakfast again and I'd like to keep it up as we move into spring so I'm going through my resources.

I'm continuing working on the picky pants that I wrote about last week. I've finished the short rows in them so just a little bit more till I start the gussets and legs. My new project this week has been getting more of my attention. I started working on another Autumn Leaves sweater for Rosebud. This time I'm knitting it in white to go over her Easter Dress and Baptism gown. With Easter being so early this year I'm going to make this one with long sleeves since it's likely to be a bit chilly. I LOVE this pattern. It's absolutely one of my favorites and was even more enjoyable to knit the second time.

Simple Joys-Signs of Spring

What a great joy it was to walk out on my balcony this week and find little leaf buds on the stems of my rose bush!  Even on a cold day like today seeing this is a reminder that spring is in deed on its' way back to us and that soon there will be lots of things growing and springing forth with blossoms out there.  What hope and joy!

What is your simple joy this week?

Valentine's Day Baby Gym

Happy Valentine's Day (a day late) to you all.  Sorry I didn't get this up yesterday, but we've had a couple of crazy, busy days here Under The Old Oak Tree.  By the time we got home from school and then getting the stitches taken out of Toadstool's head, I was just too tired to take the last few pictures I needed or to write up this post.

I've been thinking for a while that Rosebud would probably really enjoy a baby gym.  Her favorite place in the world is at home on the floor on her sheepskin rug.  It's a warm cozy spot and big brother Toadstool likes to join her there (he got his own sheepskin for Valentine's Day so they can be near each other but not have him so in her space all the time).  

I looked into buying  her a wooden baby gym, but the price was way more than I could justify for a toy she'll probably only use for a few months.  I started looking online and came across these directions from Seedpod Craft.  I decided that I could do this!  I used heart plaques instead of ovals and Toadstool and I spent quite a while sanding all the rough edges off and rounding them to have a more Waldorf aesthetic.  We also rounded off the ends of the 4 support dowel rods.  We don't have a huge amount of space in our small apartment so I felt that it was important that we be able to take the whole thing apart and reassemble it easily.  I'm not sure how often we'll do this, but I'm sure there are times we'll need to, so instead of attaching the legs with wood screws, I drilled all the way through and used machine screws with wing nuts.  I decided it was safe enough if they were well tightened and we take it apart and put it away once she's pulling up on things.  To go on it I knit a pink and red heart and a pink and red ladybug  lovebug with heart spots which attach to the cross bar with i-cord.

 I did a bit of cooking for Valentine's Day this year too.  I made us heart shaped brownies.  My brownie recipe is an adaptation of Elana's Pantry's breakfast bread, but you'd never know it.  They really have  a good bit of protein and very little sugar in them and are so so rich and chocolatey!  I'll have to post my changes to her base recipe at some point.  

I made these heart shaped peanut butter cookies for Papa to take to work for the Sweets Day he was organizing for his co-workers.  They turned out really cute shaped as hearts.

For our breakfast I made my guys and I heart shaped eggs and bacon with a little chocolate cherry mouse.  These mice have been quite the hit with Toadstool.  He loves mice (so much that his teachers at school gave him a little needle-felted one for his birthday) and cherries so when I saw these over at The Magic Onions, I knew I had to make him some!  One on each plate was a perfect little sweet start to our Valentine's Day.

 Toadstool and Rosebud show off one of the Valentine hearts he made to give to family and friends this week.

Linking to Creative Friday at Natural Suburbia.

This Moment

From SouleMama: {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Share your own moment in the comments or atSouleMama.com.

Ash Wednesday and Lent

I wasn't sure how much we as a family would do this year for Lent.  I didn't have much planned besides Toadstool and I giving something up for the forty days and planning to attend an Ash Wednesday service at our church this evening.  We did have buckwheat pancakes last night for dinner (yum) but beyond that I just hadn't planned much.

However, today, I decided we needed to do a little more.  I struggle however with exactly how to bring Lent to a four year old in a gentle age appropriate way.  I think after consulting some of my resource books and a few blogs I have figured it out.  

We as a family never got around to Candlemas this year.  We were all sick and have a still relatively new baby in the house and it just didn't happen.     So today Toadstool and I melted down our Advent candles from this year and the remnants of last year's Lenten Candle and poured some candles for Lent this year.  I'm not sure where I came across this idea, but it's our third year making a purple  beeswax candle for Lent from our Advent wreath candles and I think it's a lovely idea.  

We made two candles...the larger will be used on our dinning room table. The smaller will sit in a little bowl of sand on our nature table to be used as a  prayer garden for Lent.  I was inspired by this lovely post from Thoughts From the Sheepfold.  Each member of our family has a smooth stone to put in the garden  to represent a joy or prayer concern each day.

For the rest of the nature table we removed everything (we left a few hearts around the tree till after Valentine's Day tomorrow) and put down purple silks.  On top of that we placed our prayer garden, a pile of 4 little rocks, a piece of wood and a small bowl of water.  Explore and Express had some very nice ideas for the Lenten Nature Table here.  

Tomorrow, once we have some clay, we will make a Prayer Pot to also go on the nature table following these instructions, also from Explore and Express.  

I have also decided to tell a story to Toadstool each day during Lent, as we did with the Mother Mary story at Advent.  The Authors of All Year Round recommend  a quiet moment with young children each day.  That is not something my darling Toadstool does well with, however, he will sit a listen to a story and we looked forward to the Mother Mary story so much each day and I felt it really helped to give that season more meaning to Toadstool.  I decided that The Hare from Wynstone Press's Spring book hit the right tone for Lent with its' focus on Christ bringing light and hope to the world and the importance of staying on our course.

Now I just need to find my devotional book for Lent and I think we'll be set for a lovely meaningful period as we look towards Holy Week and Easter.

Yarn Along

I'm joining with Ginny today at Small Things for the Yarn Along.  This week I'm knitting on a new pair of wool longies for Rosebud using the Picky Pants pattern.  This is the second pair of these I'm making for her and we really love them but she needs a second pair for when the first ones need to dry out between diaper changes.  We've really been loving  our wool longies and soakers as diaper covers lately and there's something so sweet and cuddly about a baby wearing wool!

My reading this week is Sanctuaries of Childhood by Shea Darian.  I love this book so far and it ties in nicely with what I've been thinking lately about the sacredness of childhood and motherhood.  I do believe that as their mother, I need to be sharing my faith with Toadstool and Rosebud.  I also agree with Ms. Darian that this goes beyond simply sharing my religion with them through attending church (though that does play an important role in our family) and rather also includes helping them see God's grace and beauty in the world around us everyday. 

Having just read the preface and first chapter, this book is inspiring me and there are several things I want to bring to our family including adapting the blessings she includes for coming home and leaving the house among things.  I think I will print my own variations of these on some watercolor paintings and hang them by our front door.  How lovely it would be to pause as a family and say a blessing verse as we come or go rather than to just rush in or out the door!  

Simple Joys-Community

You might ask what a picture of Toadstool with a bandage on his poor little head has to do with community or joy.  Well, the bandage is covering four stitches that he got this week after falling at the park while there with his class at school.  My poor guy.  Not too joyful yet....huh?

Anyway, our school and the community around it is amazing as was evidenced yet again by the whole situation.  We were so supported by the whole community through this...from Toadstool's teachers to the office staff to the other parents they were just so wonderful and helpful.  A staff member from the school even went to the ER with us till Papa could get there and his teacher called several times that afternoon/evening to check on him.  My mama friends from the school were so supportive too.  One of them had alerted me to call the school as we pulled up to where we were meeting.  We had lots of folks checking in with us and got some wonderful suggestions from other parents (this was new uncharted territory for us...amazingly this is the first time I've ever had to deal with stitches with one of my children).

In the end Toadstool's injury wasn't that serious.  We think his forehead was cut by a piece of mulch when he fell running from one part of the playground to another. It's a good cut and did need stitches but there wasn't a knot or a bump or anything with it.  He's healing well.  Lot s of joy over that.

I'm grateful it wasn't worse than it was and I'm also grateful for all the support our family received   It is a true joy to be a part of that community and I value the friendships and relationships we have at our school so much as well as the true sense of community as we all work together to make it a beautiful safe, loving haven for our children and by extension, their families!  Knowing we are a part of this special community brings great joy for our family.

What are your simple joys this week?

This Moment - Her Mama Knits A Little....

From SouleMama: {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Share your own moment in the comments or atSouleMama.com.

Yarn Along-Preparing for Valentine's Day

I'm joining with Ginny today at Small Things for the Yarn Along. I have to admit I've not been reading anything over the past week or so. I've been a bit busy with caring Toadstool, Rosebud and myself while we've been sick and with a few handwork projects as we prepare for Valentine's Day next week.

My knitting project today is this baby heart that will be part of a larger project Toadstool and I are making for Rosebud for Valentine's Day.  I can't wait to show you all the bigger project as it comes together and I get some photos of it taken.

I've been working on some bigger knitting projects too.  Rosebud is growing like crazy and many of her newborn items are no longer fitting so I've been trying to keep up and get a few new things made for her recently.  I've just finished a pair of longies, some booties and a sweater. I'll try to get pictures and Ravelry notes up as I am able to get to it! She's badly in need of a new hat, at least one more pair of longies and some bibs so I have just a few more things to cast on!    I'm also hoping to make one or two more pairs of booties for her since the ones I made don't really go with everything and she needs them to keep her little feet warm.  Also Toadstool has finally outgrown his pair of mama-made socks so I need to get busy on a new pair for him.  He likes having a little mama-love on his feet when he goes to school.

Simple Joy - My Rosebud

This week the simple joy I am focusing on is watching my darling Rosebud as she grows and changes and hits milestones.  We've been under the weather this week and I kept Toadstool home from school for two days.  It's given us a little extra time at home as we recuperate .  Today we used some of that time for a little extra tummy time and to practice a bit with the camera.

Toadstool and I delighted in watching Rosebud as she surprised us by rolling over for the first time!   I was lucky enough to capture photos of her first roll .She happily repeated this new skill over and over.

What Simple Joys have you enjoyed this week?

This Moment-Sibling Snuggles

From SouleMama: {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Share your own moment in the comments or atSouleMama.com.

Introducing...

Maggie Rose

In late October, 11 days after my due date I finally went into early labor and had the baby the next morning after only an hour and a half of active labor.  My beautiful girl was born at home, in my bed (we had anticipated a water birth, but she came so fast we couldn't get it set up in time).  The birth was totally different from what I had expected and prepared for, but, as I told my midwife, it was a perfect, beautiful and healing birth experience.

Miss Maggie Rose has been such a blessing to our family and we are all so in love with her.  W is a wonderful big brother and is truly devoted to his baby sister (though he still sometimes wishes she had been a baby brother).  

Preparing for Autumn-Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding

Forgive me, I totally forgot to take any pictures of this before we ate it all up, but it's too good not to share.  I'm sure I'll be making it again soon and I'll try to take a picture and post it before it's gobbled up.

Recently, W and I have been eating Greek yogurt with a little granola, chia seeds and walnuts for breakfast.  It's been one of the few breakfasts that seems to fill him up and stay with him for any period of time.  Anything else and he's hungry again in 15 minutes.  Second and third breakfasts were becoming common place at our house because W was just always hungry till we started on the Greek yogurt/granola combo.  So yesterday I found this recipe for Pumpkin pie chia pudding and it sounded so, so good, but I knew to meet our current  nutritional needs, it needed some changes.  I'd been craving pumpkin pie for some reason all day and had bought a little canned pumpkin thinking I'd try to make myself something to quell that craving.

So, I came up with my version of Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding, made with W's beloved Greek Yogurt, and using stevia to replace much of the maple syrup (I left a little in just for some lovely maple flavor).

The verdict is that this is some seriously yummy stuff!  Perfect for fall!  W ate his with his usual granola and walnuts (I just had walnuts to top mine).  W told me that "It is spicy but it's my favorite!" It also seemed to fill him up adequately enough to make another good breakfast choice for our family.  It's nice to have a little variety from time to time, so I'm working on variations of our basic tried and true breakfast.

Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding
(makes three servings)

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup Greek yogurt
3 Tablespoons chia seeds
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (ours is from Frontier)
3-4 drops liquid stevia (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon maple syrup

Mix all ingredients, pour into single serving dishes and refrigeration overnight.  Top with your favorite granola and walnuts if desired.

Of Oak Leaves and Acorns...... A Yarn Along Post

Do you feel that slight nip on the breeze?  It's subtle....but it's there....that first hint in the air that fall is on it's way!  After this miserable, hot summer it makes my heart sing!  I always love that first glimpse that my favorite time of year is on it's way.  I start wanting to cook our family's favorite fall dishes, lots of pumpkin flavored things, cranberry, apple stuffed pork chops, soups, etc.  School starts soon and there's the anticipation of W going off to school a few mornings a week by himself for the first time and all the back to school preparations that need to be made.  His sweater and vest that he wanted for school this year are completed (and still both need to be photographed...but as I  write this he is napping and I'm afraid I will wake him if I try to get them out of his dresser drawer).  I'm working on a pair of socks for him for this year.....struggling to keep working on them.  I love the pattern, but I think the plain blue yarn is boring me to tears.  Hard to work on them when there are more exciting things to knit these days.

Our family's favorite sign that fall is around the corner though is that acorn season seems to be upon us!  W discovered acorns by a parking lot the other day and was beside himself with excitement (I might have been too actually) and we picked up quite a few to start off our yearly collection.  The following day we found more at a local park.  The child is in acorn heaven and this sign of fall is about to start taking over our nature table, and his room, and our cars.  It's just that time of year!

As luck would have it, I've been knitting more little hats for the baby, since our midwife wants us to have quite a few for it as soon as it is born.  I've made several of my favorite pilot caps, but decided a few other little caps might come in handy too.  They are quick and enjoyable to knit.  For the second one I made, I decided to use the cables from the Forever Autumn sock pattern, and repeat it five times around a little cap.  It's darling, but I think the colorway of the yarn might be a little too busy for the cables.  Still, I love that my autumn baby will have some oak leaves on one of it's first little caps, and it matches one of the little sweaters I made for the baby over the summer.

Then I decided that I really need an oak leaf cabled hat too, so I used some Andes Del Campo in Smolder Heather from knit picks that I had on hand and size 8 needles to make myself a cap from the same pattern.  Oh, it is love!  I adore oak trees, leaves and acorns, and I am especially fond of that orangey- golden brown that many oak leaves turn in the fall.  I didn't realize it at first, but this yarn is that color....just beautiful....and it goes with my brown winter coat too!  I couldn't stop with the hat though and also had to make myself a lovely  matching cowl to wear with it (sorry I haven't blocked the cowl yet in the picture.  It just came off my needles this morning.)  I am so excited!  It feels strange and luxurious to knit something for myself again, when I've been focusing so hard on knitting for W and for the baby.  Actually, I don't think I've knit anything for myself in over a year so this is a real special treat!  If I ever get W's socks off of my size 2 dpn's I'm going to finally cast on a pair of the Forever Autumn socks for me too.  I think they'd be a lovely thing to give myself for my birthday this fall!

Okay, so, on to the Yarn Along portion of the post.  I'm joining with Ginny of Small Things for her Yarn Along again.

I'm knitting yet another oak leaf newborn cap out of this lovely green wool tweed yarn (sorry I just cast it on this afternoon).  I'm guessing the leaf pattern should stand out better in the tweed than it did with the busy colorway of the last one I made.  I'm pretty excited about knitting yet another one of these.  I need to come up with something for W with this pattern on it too.  He says he doesn't want a hat or cowl...maybe I'll put it on a Milo vest for him (I may have already done one like this for the baby).  I've almost got the pattern memorized at this point.    Maybe that should be a birthday present for him.  I think he'd like that.

For reading, I've been working my way through The Breastfeeding Mother's Guide to Making More Milk. There are several possible reasons I had difficulties with my supply when W was a baby, and I'm trying to be prepared to get my nursing relationship with this little one off to as good of a start as I possibly can.  How I wish I had this book the last time around. You would never know it now, but it was such a struggle to feed W and to get him to actually gain weight as a baby and really I had very little support or knowledge, just a determination that I was going to feed my baby every drop of my breast milk that I could even if I still did have to supplement.  It was so emotionally and physically exhausting.  This time around I have so much more support, and knowledge and experience and I am going into nursing, knowing I've had issues in the past and with a much better idea of how to prevent/ minimize/work through them this time around.  This book is invaluable for any mom who is going through this.  Such a great resource!

Grain-Free Groaning Cake

I mentioned in a previous post that I think most of the reason I'm doing so well energy wise during this pregnancy is that I have made some major dietary changes.  With W, I had diet controlled gestational diabetes and did fine but I feel like I still ate quite a lot of junk during that pregnancy.  I ate the best I knew how at the time, but really, it wasn't great.

This time around I started with my GD diet early on in the pregnancy.  Okay...I tried to start it during the first trimester...but morning sickness and complete and total exhaustion made it really hard.  By the second trimester though I was pretty dedicated to making the GD diet work for me.  Blood work came back showing some other endocrine issues though and after meeting with my wonderful doctor and doing some research I decided that I also needed to go gluten-free.  This was a huge step for me.  I come from a family culture where gluten and wheat (and grains in general) are considered to be of the utmost importance and I really had to break with that type of thinking.

I soon learned though that gluten-free wasn't going to be enough.  Anything with rice flour spiked my blood sugar noticeably and made me not feel particularly well.  I also felt like everything just tasted like white bread and it was hard for me to adjust to that.   In time I started finding some good recipes that call for either almond or coconut flour or a mixture of the two.   I started baking again.  I fell in love with baking again.  Especially with the almond flour I can eat pancakes, bread, muffins etc and my blood sugar doesn't spike.  I feel like I am eating normal and healthy food and I am satisfied with it.  I feel wonderful and my energy is so much higher than it has been in a really long time...probably a few years.  I still get tired...I am pregnant after all, but it's not that same exhaustion I did have. 

Recently I've been trying to prepare myself for birth in many ways...and of course one of the things I've been thinking of is food.  After W was born I was given a little frozen dinner in the hospital and it was awful.  I was starving....my labor with him had been really long and hard and while I did have my support people sneak a little food to me here or there, by 12 or so hours in, I really wasn't interested in trying to eat anymore.  This time, I'm planning on being at home, and I'm planning to have some good food once this baby is here! I've decided to make myself a nice nourishing beef stew with home made bone broth in the crock pot once I'm in early labor.  I'll actually probably prep and freeze most of this ahead and then just dump it all together in when the time comes.  

I've also really wanted to make a groaning cake for this labor (since way before I even got pregnant).  I have several friends and acquaintances who have either made one or had their spouse or other support folks make one while they were in labor.  I love the idea.  It's a dense, nourishing cake with molasses and eggs to help boost the mother's iron and protein levels.

I had one major obstacle to this though.  I could not find a gluten free, much less grain free version of this cake recipe.  Not to be deterred however, I decided to go through recipes and see what I could come up with.  I used this carrot cake recipe from Elana's Pantry as my base recipe and added/substituted elements from the two groaning cake recipes I found online here and here (there are some lovely traditions and history of this cake that are shared on these links). I also substituted dried cranberries for the raisins as we have sulfite allergies at our house and while all/most raisins contain sulfites, we are usually okay with the dried cranberries.  I decided since this was pretty different from any of the recipes I had consulted that I had better do a test run before I went into labor.  So, when my midwife had to cancel our appointment as she had to attend another birth, I decided to make my cake.

Grain-free Groaning cake

·        ½ teaspoon real salt

·        3 cups blanched almond flour

·        1 teaspoon baking soda

·        1 tablespoon cinnamon

·        1/2 teaspoon cloves

·        5 eggs

·        1 teaspoon almond extract

·        ¼ cup molasses

·        2 Tablespoon honey

·        1.5 teaspoon stevia

·        ¼ cup melted coconut oil

·        1 Tablespoon orange juice

·        Zest of one orange

·        3 cups apple, peeled and grated

·        1 cup dried cranberries

·        1 cup walnuts

1.     In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and cloves

2.     In a separate bowl, mix together eggs, honey, molasses, stevia, orange juice, orange zest, almond extract and oil

3.     Stir apples, dried cranberries and walnuts into wet ingredients

4.     Stir wet ingredients into dry

5.     Place batter into 2 very well greased loaf pans or lined muffin tins.

6.     Bake at 350° for 45 minutes to an hour.  Tent with foil to prevent burning if necessary.     A skewer should come out mostly clean, though this is a really moist cake. Cupcakes take about 15-20 minutes to bake.

     For my trial run, I made one loaf and some cupcakes.   It's really important if you make this into cupcakes to use liners in their pans.  The loaf came out fine, but the cupcakes stuck terribly and I couldn't get most of them out in one piece.  Luckily W and DH didn't mind too much.

The results were actually really good. It's dark, dense and very moist. Both of my guys and I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to trying to make it again once I'm in labor.  I found that I especially like it with a bit of Swiss cheese.  It's still has more sugar than almost anything I've been eating during this pregnancy so I really feel like I can only have it if I have the extra added protein.  The nuttiness of the cheese is a nice contrast to the rich sweetness of the cake.  I will say this was a tad bit work intensive and  I am slightly concerned about trying to make it while I'm in labor.  i think I will try to have my dry ingredients mixed and freeze some orange juice and orange zest ahead.  I'll also try to use the food processor to grate the apples since that took forever by hand.  

Yarn Along

Yet again, it's been far too long since I posted here, but blogging ideas are starting to fill my head again so I'm going to try to start out slow with a Yarn Along post, joining with Ginny of Small Things.

I think in my last post I mentioned that we have a baby coming in October.  That was months ago. In many ways this pregnancy has been really hard on me both physically and emotionally, but things are really looking up again. My health is pretty good now and somehow now that I'm in my third trimester, most days my energy is way up (this may have something to do with some major dietary changes on my part). I finally have a wonderful birth team in place with a wonderful midwife and doula and if all things go according to play we'll get the homebirth that DH and I have so desperately wanted this time around.  It's amazing how finding the right care provider changed  so much of my view of this pregnancy.  My original midwives were a very poor fit for me personally and many tears were shed on my part over how things went there.  The past two weeks, since I found my new midwife I finally feel like I can move forward and really plan for this birth.

One of the benefits of having had such a hard first half of this pregnancy is that I had lots and lots of time where the only thing I felt up to doing was knitting.  I can't wait to see this baby all snuggly in mama-knit wooly goodness.  Here is a sampling of a few of the things I've made for this baby.  I still have lots of items to block and photograph.

I've also made several items for big brother W as he gets ready for school this year.  He especially requested that I make him an owl Milo vest (and one for "his" baby to match) along with a sweater (he also wants "his baby" to have a matching one again but I need more yarn for that).  I still need to work on some rain boot liners and socks for him as well as those were his other requests.  I'm delighted that he loves wearing mama-made items so much!  It's very sweet and makes it a pleasure to knit for him.  Sometime soon I'll have to get his sweaters blocked and photographed as well.  Just maybe he'll agree to model them for me.

So, onto this Yarn Along....

I'm currently making a Buttercup Baby Cardigan.  It's such a simple and quick little sweater made from worsted weight yarn which is a nice change from all the fingerling and sport weight yarns I've been working with lately.  It's almost done.  I just have to knit the cuff on the second sleeve and make the i-cord ties.  Seems like maybe a  project I can finish this evening.

Right now I am taking a break from the books on childbirth I've recently been reading so that I can read Phillipa Gregory's The Kingmaker's Daughter.  Phillipa Gregory books are totally my not-so guilty pleasure.  I love them and eagerly await each one, so no surprise I'm over half way through this one after starting it last night.  I'll probably finish it this evening too while I work on the sweater for the baby.

Checking In

I haven't been to regular on here for a while.  Honestly, I haven't even been keeping up with reading blogs like I used to.  Today I took a few minutes to catch up on a few favorites and it feels like I've been really out of the loop for a while...lots of reading to do.  So fun to see what others have been doing and creating.  So, it seems like it's time for me to just check in quickly, share some big news and maybe  some photos of our spring so far.

We've been busy with lots of school and other commitments.  I've also been doing a good bit creatively, just not always documenting what we've been doing either in writing or in photographs.  I need to get better about that again. I really do miss blogging and the community around it.

W is continuing to grow into quite an amazing little guy and is such a blessing.  Our family is expecting another blessing this fall as W is going to be a big brother.  I had a really rough first trimester (good for getting some knitting done, but not much else) and I am slowly starting to feel more like myself so maybe I'll actually be up to   writing and photographing what we have going on in our lives more now.

Here are a few photos of our Easter and  a recent trip to Mount Vernon.