Hallelujah!

Yes, there is great rejoicing in the Myers-Benner household.  The bathroom remodel is done at last!  Ok, so I feel like I'm kind of cheating to say that for two reasons: I should clarify that phase 1 is done (which is all we plan to tackle for now) and that Jason has a short job of applying clear caulk at the baseboard once the oil is completely dry.  But we aren't counting those two caveats right now!  Kali just did round 1 of washing the bathroom floor (her first floor washing ever and she felt successful!) and I'll go back over one more time before we start moving everything in.  We determined that the next time the compost toilet needs to be emptied it will not be returned to the back kitchen but be relocated to its former home (in the actual bathroom!).  The picture here is of Jason nailing the very last piece of baseboard (leaving mostly just oiling and touch up painting which he completed yesterday).  It felt close enough to done that  Jason and I have both enjoyed rather luxurious showers in the new space - kind of feels a little jungle like with the plants around.  After carting our things upstairs for the past 5 months or so, showering right around the corner from our bedroom in the most amazing shower I've ever stepped foot in is a rather lovely experience. While our visitors often have been staying in the upstairs spare room (in part to have access to a "real bathroom," I'm thinking from now on regardless of where they sleep, the shower should be part of every Tangly Woods visitor's experience!  How wonderful the shower is, is in part that we are definitely earning our showers these days!

I'm heading outside to start harvesting just about as soon as I get myself out the door (usually with Alida as my helper/cheerleader or she and Kali happen to both be up early and they entertain each other inside).  I normally am still bringing things in after 10 a.m. (which is when I like to be done the morning harvests and out of the run).  It appears there will be no break in the action between strawberries and spinach processing and peas and garlic scapes.  The mound of snow peas Jason and I picked last evening didn't make it to the house...  And Jason shared with me the one ripe sugar snap pea, knowing we'll soon be flooded in them (there is not much I'd rather be flooded in!!).

Lunch today included a repeat new dish that I discovered online and then modified.  I used up all the rest of the trombone squash - grating it and sauteing it with frozen sweet red peppers and then fresh garlic scapes, shallot flower stalks, onion and garlic chives, lemon thyme and parsley.  I poured eggs and cheese over it and baked it. It's the first egg bake of any kind that Kali has tried AND had seconds.  Then Kali and I made nettle garlic biscuits, at her request, to go with and there were no leftovers and Alida said we should make them again tomorrow.

Kali has been inspirational in the kitchen and with the spring harvests.  She is full of grand ideas, getting us in over our heads in projects sometimes but she always sticks with me until the end.  Today as I got ready for the nappy walk she asked if I had any jobs for her to do while I was out. What a kid!!  We capped a lot of strawberries this morning and have a whole tray in the solar dryer. Kali could hardly get her trial batch out of the dryer before Alida ate them all. She was an excellent strawberry monster this morning as Kali and I were processing them (a good number less made it in the dryer and freezer due to our little and very cute monster!).

Yesterday we took the morning off as a family and headed in to the last morning of spring soccer.  Kali had an 8 a.m. game followed by Alida's last minikickers at 9.  The girls have both thoroughly enjoyed being part of the community soccer league and Alida is hoping this fall she can be on a "real" team.  We all agree that she is ready for it - we just have to decide if we are up for it (new baby, two practices a week and two games a week). It is to be on an upcoming family meeting agenda but I feel pretty certain we'll go for it.  It is really nice to see the girls enjoying themselves so much, and improving their skills dramatically just over the last few months.  Here's Kali about to get some action and then Alida enjoying one of their drills:

The whole Tangly Woods crew then joined us for brunch at Bowl of Good to celebrate the end of soccer, hang out together just for fun and a little premature celebration for us of the bathroom project coming to an end.  Thanks to Emily, Jonas, Jonathan and Rachelle we also enjoyed two date nights in a row this week.  Those are not only precious because they are rare, they are also wonderful since Jason and I set that time aside to slow down and be together so it provided some good breathing space in our otherwise very busy week.  We are reading a book together right now that is rocking our worlds (and has reassured us that we don't need to write the book we would have envisioned possibly writing because it has already been written).  It's called The Nourishing Homestead by Ben Hewitt and if anyone wants to get a better sense of what we are hoping to do on our little piece of land with our family, we recommend the book (though we are only done the first few chapters).  I've was inclined to highlight and underline things until I realized I'd be doing that to about every other sentence.

Well, I better get moving on the bathroom floor while Alida is still sacked out.  It seems that Spark has woken up from his/her most recent nap.  I'm enjoying thoroughly the stronger kicks and punches I'm receiving these days - even saw my belly move from the outside last evening and Spark has given his/her daddy and aunt Emily and big sister Kali some sizable jabs in recent days.  So fun!

The signs of new life are still so very apparent all around us.  We are hatching chicks pretty continuously (yes, record year) and right outside our back door we can watch a mama cardinal sitting on her nest in the snowball bush. I feel bad for how often we scare her in our comings and goings, but she would have hopefully been observing our patterns prior to building a nest!?  The other place on our property I am enjoying right now is Nora's garden.  So many of the flowers are in their prime.  It looks like the orange butterfly weed may bloom just in time for the anniversary of her death this week.  It will be a week of reflection and remembering, as we cross over another year.  On June 4 it will be 7 years since she died, at 7 months of age; and she would be 7 right now if she was still living.  We look forward to gathering with others in her memory at a blood drive we are organizing next Monday, June 8th.  On the actual anniversary we hope to take a picnic and head to the lake as a family.  It continues to feel like one of the best things we can do to honor our memories of her, is to treasure our family and spend time just being with each other.