My Girl

She may have that 'Ugh, mom!" attitude whenever my camera comes out, but I still manage to get a few shots when she can't protest, ha!

This girl of mine, she really is amazing, y'all. She's almost a green belt in Tae Kwon-Do and she has gone from knowing nothing about the violin to playing Beethoven's 'Ode to Joy' all of her own volition. She will be mighty when she finally realizes how powerful she is when she sets her mind to something and accepts the help and guidance of the people that went before her.

Her music teacher may be one of the ones that helps her to that realization. She is wonderful.

But my girl is a force to be reckoned with all on her own, and although that adds up to many a morning, afternoon, and/or evening of power struggles and testing, I'm not left feeling (completely) defeated at the end of the day because I know she's on the cusp of turning all that energy towards changing the world.

Like I said, my girl is amazing.

Weekending

This weekend, we...

...kicked off that weekend feeling a little early with a late Thursday night Tae Kwon-Do practice, wherein Audrey beat out all her fellows at a plank challenge and a balance challenge, then learned she'll be grading for her green belt in less than two weeks... talk about a happy girl!
...made cheesecake, blueberry coffee cake, oatmeal beer bread, and sugar cookies, because carbs.
...hosted Grammy, Gramps, and Aunt KK, who greeted us right after school let out on Friday and stayed through a movie, a tied Saturday morning soccer game, and some weekend shoe shopping for a girl who seemed to outgrow 90% of her shoes over night.
...kept windows open every day!
...spent a lot of time outside planting seeds, pulling weeds, playing with Sukaboo, and discovering large quantities of frog eggs.
...had to replace not one, not two, but three chirping smoke alarm batteries, all within a couple hours of each other, all after bed time (of course), and all with pirated 9-volts because our battery stash is sorely lacking, apparently.

This weekend flew by with that beginning-of-spring mania and energy that everything seems to be feeling right now. Buds are blooming, grass is greening, pets are shedding and we're all struggling to sit still through the responsible parts of our days... but oh when the weekend comes back again...!

Happy beginning-of-March Monday!

Garden Chores

This weekend, I am happy to report I cleaned up aaaaaaaaaall the garden weeds and summer plant relics, I got my perennials in the ground, I planted peas and onions and nasturtiums, and I even got Henry out with me for a sec to plant his baby cabbage.

In another week or two, I anticipate planting strawberries, greens, beets, carrots, herbs... oh let's be honest, I'll probably have my whole garden going before the end of spring break. I'll need something out there ASAP in those fresh beds to compete with the weeds I'm sure will grow back over night!

I took three wheelbarrows full of pulled weeds to the compost, I used the string trimmer to cut down all the weeds in the pathways, I trimmed up my Texas sages and forsythia, and with some help from the hubs we trimmed some of those oak tree branches back that were starting to shade out my beds.

After all that work, Suka was exhausted.

This Moment

Pausing to share a moment in this space- a simple, extraordinary moment that I want to savor... a morning walk and a deep conversation I can only imagine between a Sissy and her Bubba.

Big Garden Plans

Never mind that the skeletons of my summer plants still cling to their trellises and nary a bed has been mulched this whole winter... I'm thinking of spring and all that new green that will be growing out there soon!

No, I'm not talking about the weeds.

I just received my Baker Creek Heirloom Seed order and I can't wait to be back out in my space... first to do a little clean-up, and then to plant all my tiny little hopes and dreams!

This year, along with whatever is still stashed in my seed box from last year (like squash, melons, and radishes), we'll be planting:

1500 Year Old Cave Beans

Beurre De Rocquencourt Yellow Beans

Calima Green Beans

Dragon Tongue Bush Beans

Purple Dove Bush Beans

Bull's Blood Beets

Golden Beets

Chantenay Red Core Carrots

New Kuroda Carrots

Pusa Asita Black Carrots

Buhl Sweet Corn

Dar Cucumbers

Lemon Cuke Cucumbers

Mixed Aurora Orach

Carouby De Maussane Snow Peas

Sugar Snap Peas

Cactus Aztec Zinnias

Envy Zinnias

Scabiosa Zinnias

Parker's Variety Yarrow

Mammoth Grey Striped Sunflowers

Henry Wilde Sunflowers

Tall Trailing Nasturtiums

Colossus Red/Gold Bicolor Marigolds

Sweet Mace aka Mexican Mint Marigolds

Parsley

Basil

Purple Kale

"Gourmet" Mixed Lettuce

Then of course there will be live plants once the nurseries stock up, and added to that list we'll have:

Onions

Tomatoes

Peppers (sweet & hot)

Oregano

Strawberries

And to top everything off, Henry brought home a little cabbage seedling from school this week (random, I know), so we'll be giving it a corner somewhere with the hopes that it'll become some excellent sauerkraut!

I refuse to think about how bad the bugs will be this year- this winter being so ridiculously mild- and instead I'm choosing to focus on the tomatoes and pickles and maybe even a second year of sweet corn....................................... I become such an insufferable optimist when spring is in the air!

How to Wash a Smelly Suka

Step one: mix 1/2 cup of baking soda, 2 teaspoons of Dawn dish detergent, and a quart of hydrogen peroxide.

Step two: collect a smelly, dingy Suka.

Step three: run a nice, warm bath.

Step four: lather, rinse, and repeat.

Step five: dry.

Step six: enjoy a fluffy Suka with the brightest whites and the most irresistible zoomies.

Photos courtesy of Henry Warden Ware Photography, all rights reserved.

Right Now...

So we're already a week into February, huh? Not sure how that happened...

Anyho, right now, I'm...

...cold! We were blasted with our usual early-February cold front yesterday, and once again had a light and magical dusting of snow. Not enough to close down schools or make driving too hard, but definitely enough to bring another round of hot chocolate by the fireplace last night.

...still smiling at my guy here, who painstakingly took no less than 3 full minutes to humanely capture a spider that his Sissy wanted to squish so he could release it outside and 'save' it (never mind that it was about 25 degrees when he tossed the spider out). He has such a tender heart.

...also still smiling at our pooch's attempts at being irresistible every time we're within eyeshot to provoke just one more belly scratch. Seriously, she'll stay like this- not even blinking- until you either leave the room or love on her a little.

...feeling impressed with the rocket setup Hen built by himself that Daddy then helped to wire so it now has lights... this thing is super cool, and Henry is so proud of it he's even been sketching it on scraps and in notebooks whenever he sits still. It's one of the first substantial Lego projects he's done without his sister's help.

...loving my furry old man and how cuddly (dare I say needy?) he gets when he's chilly. As soon as I wake up, through my morning routine, as soon as I get home, and all the way til I'm in bed at night, he's right there. He'll be 15 this summer and even though it can be pretty annoying at times, I'm trying to be mindful that it won't be forever that I'll have him under foot. And if I'm being honest, he's the best kind of annoying, anyway.

Right now, I'm also very mindful of the fact that this post was a little Henry-heavy and made mention of Audrey only in the context of his stories... and that's because right now we're struggling with a little pre-teen defiance that's manifesting in wanting the opposite of everything perceived to be desirable (read: she won't let anyone take her picture or profess to be enjoying anything right now). We're navigating it as thoughtfully as we can, but it doesn't make for very nice blog photos.

 Right now I'm wrapped in wool, drinking hot bevs like they're going out of style, and pining for a weekend with lots of movies and fires and time in pjs... and as fast as February is already flying by, the weekend will be here before we know it! Happy Thursday, friends!