So it's Father's Day - a day to be grateful for the men in my life who have nurtured me (thanks especially Dad!) and for the man who is on this crazy parenting journey with me and who does an incredible job of nurturing our daughters! He's got his hands full, no doubt, but is my inspiration on many a day! I feel grateful to be partnering with someone who has a deeper reserve of patience, knowledge, endurance and better sense of humor than I do! Couldn't do it without him! I love, too, how much he clearly enjoys our girls. The other evening after a rainstorm, he called me from the kitchen. He was outside with the girls and here's what the littlest had discovered:
I think Terah has Jason's love of music! I like music too, but she is clearly powerfully impacted by it. I've only sat at the piano a time or two with her since she was born, but Jason often goes to the piano to plink out a tune or two. So here she is making some music. Towards the end, she clearly wanted some additional inspiration from the song book.
I think our girls have also acquired much of their amazing brain power from their dad. Terah's bringing up the rear and, while different from her older sisters in various ways, seems to be just as sharp as they are. We are working currently to get her to transition from going potty in the sink to the little potty (the sink worked great when she was a newborn but let's just say that the potty would be better at this point!). She has peed a few times for me now in her little potty but mostly likes to kick her legs, eat the books on the shelf next to her or try to pick up and move around the large leaf bucket. Her feet don't quite touch the ground but she'll scooch forward and try to stand up. Silly baby! See for yourself:
I know for Jason there are many wonderful moments fathering his daughters, as well as some exasperating ones. I won't speak for him, though, but will share one of the challenges I'm currently experiencing with our middle gal. If Kali had not gone through a phase that shared some similarities I might be joining Terah in yanking my hair out. As it is, on my good days I'm trying to find humor in it, remind myself it won't last, take a deep breath and love her through it. It's the "hoarding, I love it, I need it, I'll never have another one like it" phase. And boy is she in it deeply! This doesn't just include treasures that reasonably belong to her and that she might have some use for. It includes shreds of paper, a piece of clothing of mine that I no longer want, a broken hairband, etc... In a moment of inspiration the other day, I told her that she could put the aforementioned broken hairband in her treasure drawer IF I could take a little video of her explaining its importance to her for her to reflect back on later. As she came out after putting it in her drawer, I heard her happily say to herself, "I convinced her." Our silly baby is not the only silly one around here. Enjoy:
So other than keeping track of these growing, maturing (some more quickly than others), fun, creative and curious girls, what's Jason up to? The daily stuff: chicken chores, piggie care, keeping the toilet emptied, and being the main one to "notice stuff" around our place. And then there's the gardens...oh the gardens. We now have a spice garden, kitchen garden, main garden, welcome garden, dry land garden, new garden, root field rotations, not to mention the various other plantings here and there to keep up with. Well, to try to keep up with. We are in "pea season" right now. Jason also has worked on some barley harvesting recently. He was pretty pleased the other day to add something else to his list of life activities - putting barley into sheaves.
Fruits are also starting to come in, but the girls and I are trying to keep up with those. Black raspberries are starting, a few red and white raspberries as well as gooseberries, blueberries next door and a great crop of red currants. The girls picked those the other day and the first jams of 2016 (12 little jars of bright red yumminess) have made their way onto the root cellar shelves. It's a colorful, delicious place we live right now! I'm finding we are putting less in the freezers this year, thus far, as appetites have grown in the last year (for the younger generation that is) and it has been a tough spring for the gardens. But it's ramping up, maybe a bit faster than my ability to keep up.
I can't end this without mentioning how wonderful it's been to have my mom around the homestead this week. I've noticed a trend in myself - as the weeks pass with her not around, I feel myself starting to unravel. She arrives and showers love and care and helpfulness on all of us and by the end of the week the world is a brighter place and I feel like I'm coming back together again. It is clear that Alida especially treasures these days (and nights) close to Grandma. She's also clearly got the puzzle gene as I understand they stayed up together last night until 10 p.m. so they could finish the puzzle they were working on. I know it's not mother's day but thanks mom (by far the best Christmas present I've ever received!). Well, a thanks to dad too for sharing her this week while he enjoys a long birding trip!
Ok, out of steam and likely about out of time. Here's a few more pictures with tidbits from the last few days:
I might not have my mother's depth of interest in having lots of bouquets inside, but I sure do enjoy the colors outside...
Yep, this is what we are up against these days. This gal wants to MOVE!
Still very fond of each other and still very sweet together!
Every time we do an outdoor fire and make pizza pockets we say we need to do it more often. Enjoyed being joined by Ethan, Joshua, Sabrina and Emily last evening for time around the fire, along with Isaiah and Miranda who were over for a sleepover! Terah was up until 10:30 and was happy. She then nursed peacefully to sleep - couldn't figure that one out but Jason wondered if the wood smoke was calming. If so, we might have to add making an outdoor fire to our evening routine!
Last but not least, our Father's Day breakfast after the fun sleepover. I've been gushing to Jason how great our kids and their friends are! I hope they keep rubbing off on me...
So it's Father's Day - a day to be grateful for the men in my life who have nurtured me (thanks especially Dad!) and for the man who is on this crazy parenting journey with me and who does an incredible job of nurturing our daughters! He's got his hands full, no doubt, but is my inspiration on many a day! I feel grateful to be partnering with someone who has a deeper reserve of patience, knowledge, endurance and better sense of humor than I do! Couldn't do it without him! I love, too, how much he clearly enjoys our girls. The other evening after a rainstorm, he called me from the kitchen. He was outside with the girls and here's what the littlest had discovered:
So other than keeping track of these growing, maturing (some more quickly than others), fun, creative and curious girls, what's Jason up to? The daily stuff: chicken chores, piggie care, keeping the toilet emptied, and being the main one to "notice stuff" around our place. And then there's the gardens...oh the gardens. We now have a spice garden, kitchen garden, main garden, welcome garden, dry land garden, new garden, root field rotations, not to mention the various other plantings here and there to keep up with. Well, to try to keep up with. We are in "pea season" right now. Jason also has worked on some barley harvesting recently. He was pretty pleased the other day to add something else to his list of life activities - putting barley into sheaves.
Fruits are also starting to come in, but the girls and I are trying to keep up with those. Black raspberries are starting, a few red and white raspberries as well as gooseberries, blueberries next door and a great crop of red currants. The girls picked those the other day and the first jams of 2016 (12 little jars of bright red yumminess) have made their way onto the root cellar shelves. It's a colorful, delicious place we live right now! I'm finding we are putting less in the freezers this year, thus far, as appetites have grown in the last year (for the younger generation that is) and it has been a tough spring for the gardens. But it's ramping up, maybe a bit faster than my ability to keep up.
I can't end this without mentioning how wonderful it's been to have my mom around the homestead this week. I've noticed a trend in myself - as the weeks pass with her not around, I feel myself starting to unravel. She arrives and showers love and care and helpfulness on all of us and by the end of the week the world is a brighter place and I feel like I'm coming back together again. It is clear that Alida especially treasures these days (and nights) close to Grandma. She's also clearly got the puzzle gene as I understand they stayed up together last night until 10 p.m. so they could finish the puzzle they were working on. I know it's not mother's day but thanks mom (by far the best Christmas present I've ever received!). Well, a thanks to dad too for sharing her this week while he enjoys a long birding trip!
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