Maybe this will be the year...

One of my favorite songs right now is the "birthday song" my sister-in-law wrote whose chorus states, among other things, "maybe this will be the year, maybe I will get there, maybe I will learn to turn each day into a celebration of my life..."  I think I'm getting closer!

Today was such a "normal" day in many ways and yet absolutely wonderful and filled with so many specials treasured moments.  My favorite moment from the day came very near the beginning. After enjoying those early morning moments with Alida, we got our shoes on and headed to the garden with a handful of bowls to see what we might find.  As we meandered down the hill, the cool morning air was invigorating and the mountain in front of us was so beautiful.  Jason was down by the garden filling a 5 gallon bucket with water for the ducks.  All of a sudden I realized he was watching Alida and I as we walked towards him and the water was running out of the full bucket all over the place.  It was a very cute moment!

While I got started "dealing with" the oodles of garden goodies - my first and some of the best birthday presents - Jason made breakfast.  He noted, as he walked in with gloves on to protect himself from his handful of stinging nettles, that probably not many people want to eat a bouquet of stinging nettles on their birthday.  I thoroughly enjoyed my nettle eggs and homemade grape juice for breakfast before heading out for a long walk with Alida.  When we returned I harvested some shitake mushrooms and fresh oregano and Alida munched on a persimmon before heading in to see if Kali had woken up - she was already busy reading!

I spent a good part of my day in my favorite room of the house - the kitchen - chopping, blending, mixing, baking, sauteing, grating, kneading...  Fun, fun, fun!

I savored a large kale salad for lunch with the very last of our tomatoes, along with red peppers from our garden, garlic, and a whole bunch of other goodies.  At the end of the meal, Jason gifted me with three books and it wasn't long before I was curled up by a sleeping baby (who Kali almost put to sleep reading Babybug magazines while I did lunch dishes) reading about making a solar food dryer.   The gift came with a promise (that he was nervous about making) to make one before the next gardening season comes around.  Yay!!

Alida started reading one of them for me at lunch:



I looked at the clock at 2:20 p.m. and the next thing I knew it was 3:30 p.m.  My eldest daughter definitely does not take after me in her disdain of naps - I love them!  Not sure when I would have drug myself out of bed had it not been for Alida being ready to get on with her day!  The rain had started falling and in a small break from the rain, Kali and Alida headed out to care for Kali's ducks.  Then when the rain started again, they enjoyed splashing on the front walk.

The afternoon included some food prep for Jason's birthday tomorrow, which I won't report on now since it is a surprise - though I think he probably has figured out that the funny cake pie sitting on the counter has something to do with him turning 36 tomorrow. :)  I chose a pizza supper which I was not disappointed about.  The dough was made with blended amaranth leaves and swiss chard and topped with homemade sauce or fresh pesto made today, sauteed mushrooms, yellow squash, red peppers, home dried oregano...  Alida mostly ate pickles.  Kali decided it was the day to try her pickled dilly cherry tomatoes.  They are...interesting!

We just enjoyed a few rounds of dominos, munching on homegrown popcorn and savoring some decaf coffee with fresh cream. Now I'm going to cuddle up with Alida to read some stories while I get a foot massage.  What a life!