House cleaning

This post made me smile.  I have read this Berenstain Bears book countless times with my kiddos and I always had the urge to go clean afterwards.  Such wisdom....

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/8-truths-about-home-organization-i-learned-from-the-berenstain-bears-174637

Bring on the veggies

Native Offerings Farm, Little Valley, NY

Just signed us up for our CSA farm share.  So excited to be receiving a large box full of local, organic veggies all summer long (22 weeks!)  I love the idea that you will never know exactly what you will be getting, but you accept what you get and use it the best way you can.  What a great way to eat- and live.

One year ago...

Thinking about these pictures: Lucia's first birthday is next Sunday.  It really is true how days with children are long but the years are so short.  Such mixed emotions about her turning one year.  But I set about writing Lucia's birth story (before I completely forget the details) and pulled up some pictures to help jog my memory.  I checked the stats on the above picture and saw that it was taken exactly 40 minutes before Lucia was born (wow, I am still smiling). The funny thing is we had no idea how close we were to meeting our baby.  Out midwife was not even on the way to our house at this point!  Close call indeed. Our midwife came and Lucia was born less then 10 minutes later. Beautiful birth.

It was a beautiful wintry day today, the sun was shining and the snow was glistening. It is days like this that make you appreciate the snow. The kids and I headed to the park a short walk away from our house. We had the whole park to ourselves.
The kids had fun on the playground and it is amazing to me how fearless they are becoming. I feel like it was only yesterday when they were so unsure about their ability to climb, slide and explore the park. They always wanted me to stand right by them. Now, they head right for the playground and start exploring. It's awesome. It gives me a glimpse of what parenting them will be like as they keep growing. They are on their own paths and will need me less and less, or at least in much different ways. However, I will always be watching from the sidelines, ready to support them whenever they need me.


We came home afterwards and had a delicious pancake dinner with fresh raspberry sauce. Yum.The recipe is as follows (the pancake recipe is vegan and comes from Vegan with a Vengeance by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and is seriously delicious)
Raspberry Sauce:
Take one package of fresh raspberries and cook them down on low with a little maple syrup. maybe takes 10 minutes to get them nice and mushy. You can do this with any fresh fruit. Blueberries make a great sauce.
Pancakes:
1 1/4 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBS canola oil
1/3 cup water
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 TBS pure maple syrup
Mix dry ingredients in med sized bowl. Mix wet ingredients in separate, smaller bowl. Add wet to dry and whisk to get out lumps.
Cook on skillet with a little high heat canola spray (or regular oil if that works well for you)
Serve with lots of Earth Balance butter and raspberrie sauce. Pure yumminess.

Day dreaming

We had a couple of beautiful, 50 degree days last week and to anyone who has ever lived in Buffalo knows, that warm air relief in the middle of winter honestly makes you feel like you have a better understanding of what heaven must be like. Anyways, the bitter cold has returned but I thought I would share the above photo of my family from last summer at Zoar Valley. Oh, what I wouldn't give to be swimming outdoors right now.

Happy New Year

i

A nice hike at Tift farms was the perfect way to ring in a New Year. Elijah reminded me that last year our family resolutions was to go to the bakery more often. Unfortunately, we probably only made it to the bakery two times this past year. We have not come up with our family resolution yet, but I know what some of my personal resolutions are for this year:
Travel outside of the US (not counting Cananda) Run often and keep doing pilates (get really good this year). Spend less money on things (books and food don't count). Start dance classes. Believe in myself more and remind myself that i make good decisions. Listen to what my kids are saying more. Go to more plays. See more live music. Write my friends letters or call more often. Visit Matt and Jamie in Washington. Take the kids camping (this time in a cabin). Take Osirus on more walks. Laugh more often. Take more chances. Learn how to cook Indian.
I will post back when we come up with our family resolution. But these should keep me busy for a while.

Mabye I will stick with it this time!

So, this is my third attempt at keeping a blog. This blog is free, so I think I can justify it. I just couldn't stand paying $10 a month for a blog I was not updating. I am now finding myself with much more time on my hands (new job) and a lot of really fun things going on, so I have a renewed drive to share a glimps of my life with all of my wonderful friends and family, near and far. We will see what happens....
The image above is the kiddos almost a whole year ago. Just wait till you see how much they have grown. New pictures coming soon.