New Home Addition

Sorry I haven't kept up blogging: I've been really busy working on an important addition.....we're expanding our home by two "feet."  Construction is due to be complete the second week of May!

*family*

Why ever would one consider selecting, say 10, of her favorite family pictures when one can just go right on ahead and post all of them?  Let the super-post begin!

Note:  I will not be held liable or otherwise accountable for your boredom if: a) I accidentally posted the same picture more than once. (There's a least a gajillion pictures here and remember, I am avoiding editing/refining.  That would take too much work.) OR  b) I posted pictures that may or may not look exactly the same, but are indeed different shots. 

Our Sweet 2 Year Old

Emmett is 2!  Yes, I know-he's been 2 for, oh, about 3 months now.  It's not like he just turned 2, yet somehow I can't wrap my mind around the fact that our littlest baby is not really a baby anymore.  Keeping with the tradition, when our kids have a birthday, I write them a letter recapping all the things they did and all the ways we love them.  Obviously, I'm a little slow out of the gates on this birthday.  But I'll get there!  It's not because I don't have so, so many thoughts to write about him.  I just haven't quite figured out how to get a year's worth of dimply smiles, raucous belly laughs, adorable moments all into one letter.  Until I get it finished, here are some shots that say more than I ever could about how perfectly wonderful he is and how much he's stonlen our hearts.  (Shot by the amazing Shannon of  Sweet Pea Memories at her studio in Sedro Woolley.)

Checking in

I've digressed to my old ways...2 months without a post. Sadly, that's not even a record for me.  It's been business as usual around here, but we are trying so hard to strike that balance between work and fun.  I couldn't help but revisit the plans we laid out earlier this summer.  And you know I couldn't resist checking off a few items...

1. Cut and stack enough firewood to refill the woodshed.
2. Repair rotten boards on garage siding.
3. Add gutters to woodshed.
4. Repair and repaint siding on south side of house.
5. Till, compost, and plant new annual plot and pumpkin patch.
6. Build roadside stand for selling flowers.
7. Build and paint sandwich board for stand.
8. Finish top dressing perennial beds.
9. Finish painting basement.
10. Paint the chicken coop.
11. Caulk and repaint porch stairs.
12. Stain swingset.
13. Sand and repaint the pile of hoarded furniture in the garage.
14. Have a garage sale.
15. Mow field, rototil, and plant with cover crop.
16. Sand and paint interior stairs-both sets.

 We're fitting in more time for fun too....

1. Skipping rocks in a "stream" at our hotel in Arizona.

Slowly, we're ticking off our wish list for summer fun, too...

1. Go on picnics.
2. Hike at Mt. Baker.
3. Take a day trip to San Juans.
4. Keep fresh flowers on our nightstand.
5. Invite friends over for ice cream-preferrably on a whim.
6. Hang laundry outside to dry. 
7. Skip rocks at the beach.
8. Fish with Papa. (Eli's addition.)
9. Pick strawberries.
10. Pick blueberries.
11. Hike to Little Mountain.
12. Camp at Camano State Park.
13. Camp in our backyard.
14. Go to the fair and eat elephant ears.
15. Visit friends in Chelan.
16. Camp at Swakayne.
17. Go swimming at the lake.
18. Go swimming in our inflatable pool.
19. Stay up late and roast marshmallows. (Eli's addition.)
20. Go to a rodeo.
21. Go to the Arlington Fly In.
22. Go to Chloe's beach. (Eli's addition.)

A family vacation to Arizona, a trip to the zoo, swimming with friends, 4th July bbq and fireworks, building fairy houses, and perfecting the mud pie weren't on the original list but have fit quite nicely too!

Family Farming

"This country needs family farmers-for their work ethic, their independence, their understanding of nature, their neighborliness, their rootedness. Yet farming has been disappearing as a livelihood, a victim of size, mechanization, and capital costs. Fortunately, through ingenuity and hard work, many idealistic people are making small farms viable again."

-Lynn Byczynski, The Flower Farmer

And so the adveture begins.  All together.

To Do

We've got a lot of lists around this place.  It happens with 2 kids, an 86 year old, partially renonvated house, and a {very}small business. (And, admittedly, two type A personalities.)

Here's what the most current to-do list looks like...

Summer Projects 

1. Cut and stack enough firewood to refill the woodshed.
2. Repair rotten boards on garage siding.
3. Add gutters to woodshed.
4. Repair and repaint siding on south side of house.
5. Till, compost, and plant new annual plot and pumpkin patch.
6. Build roadside stand for selling flowers.
7. Build and paint sandwich board for stand.
8. Finish top dressing perennial beds.
9. Finish painting basement.
10. Paint the chicken coop.
11. Caulk and repaint porch stairs.
12. Stain swingset.
13. Sand and repaint the pile of hoarded furniture in the garage.
14. Have a garage sale.
15. Mow field, rototil and plant with cover crop.
16. Sand and paint interior stairs-both sets.

And if we had it our way, we'd probably put our heads down and plow through the summer checking off item by item with a red pen. (Yes, I really do check things off with a red pen.  Call it obsessive, call it compulsive, call it what you want...I call it gratifying.) But there are moments that remind me that the best laid plans aren't really the best plans at all. 

Moments like this...

For the first sunny day in forever, we didn't work on the yard or the garden or the house. Instead we went and explored a trail we've been wanting to check out for a really long time.  Five years, to be exact.  And it was amazing. 

 

Driving home, Eli stated, "That was the best day ever!" Which of course got us to thinking, what are the moments that we really enjoy most?  What is it that we want our boys to remember when they grow up?  The day we finally finished painting the basement?  The day the woodshed got gutters?  How many kids grow up and say, "You know my favorite childhood memory?  It was definitely the day when my mom and dad were stressed out and trying to finish yet another home improvement project!"  So we made a new list...   

Important Things To Do This Summer

1. Go on picnics.
2. Hike at Mt. Baker.
3. Take a day trip to San Juans.
4. Keep fresh flowers on our nightstand.
5. Invite friends over for ice cream-preferrably on a whim.
6. Hang laundry outside to dry. 
7. Skip rocks at the beach.
8. Fish with Papa. (Eli's addition.)
9. Pick strawberries.
10. Pick blueberries.
11. Hike to Little Mountain.
12. Camp at Camano State Park.
13. Camp in our backyard.
14. Go to the fair and eat elephant ears.
15. Visit friends in Chelan.
16. Camp at Swakayne.
17. Go swimming at the lake.
18. Go swimming in our inflatable pool.
19. Stay up late and roast marshmallows. (Eli's addition.)
20. Go to a rodeo.
21. Go to the Arlington Fly In.
22. Go to Chloe's beach. (Eli's addition.)

I'm posting this list right above our "Summer Projects" list. And I'm planning on using a whole lot of red pen on this one.   

we've been...

creating structures of all sorts

cooking up some tasty playdough creations

enjoying the warmth of the sun as often as we possibly can.

making a serious dent in the 5 yard pile of compost

inventing clever set-ups for assisting with compost delivery (that'd be eli.  emmett finds greater joy in just throwing the stuff for the sake of throwing it.)

shoveling. and transplanting. and shoveling. and planting. and shoveling. and dreaming and scheming about the kind of floral goodness and wholesome food that will be coming this year...hopefully.

discovering.

loving the freshly tilled soil-

almost as much as the lettuce seedlings that emerged this week!

 

adoring the finished coop!  complete with kid friendly latches and ladders!

welcoming 2  hens to our flock of pullets, courtesy of two sweet kiddos that thought eli and emmett shouldn't have to wait for eggs.

trying to decide on names-no small task for a boy who can't remember what he named the other seven.

spending lots of time with good books.

cooking out for the first time this year!

celebrating the first egg!

I'd have to say it's been a great week!