Someone is 5! Everything else will have to wait...

I haven't even started this post and I'm about to throw in the towel. My tolerance for technological frustrations is extremely low right now and so it doesn't take much at all for me to have strong urges to throw this computer out the window. Our blog is currently a big exercise for me in being ok with not doing something well but doing it anyway - believing that, in this instance, something is better than nothing. It's a challenge for me as I want to include everything, to have this blog give a realistic picture of our life, and for it to be thoughtfully written. I can't include everything. This will just give a minor sliver or snapshots of our lives. And I already hear some kiddo needs blossoming in the background so it may be accomplished with distractions along the way. But be all that as it may, our littlest now needs all the fingers on her one hand to show her age and that is something worth sharing a bit about! Celebrating her life with her was definitely the highlight of this month so far.

It was such a wonderful gift that our whole Tangly Woods family was able to go to wild, wonderful, West Virginia for a few days to soak in the fall colors and celebrate Terah's birthday and introduce Tala to a place that we all love dearly. Getting away from the farm removed lots of distractions, enabling us to give our full attention to being together and loving on our littlest member. We were there for two full days with her birthday being the first of those days. At the end of the day, as I was tucking her into her sleeping bag, she said, "Can I have another birthday tomorrow?" While she was not gifted two birthdays in a row, she did get a birthday coupon of enjoying two bonus days in WV with Grandma and Grandpa after the rest of us had to depart for home.

The first carload cleared out Saturday morning with the grandparents and the youngest gals. The rest of us finished getting the house/farm ready to be under the care of someone else for a few days and then we followed, going by way of Seneca Rocks. It was a beautiful drive and a beautiful hike, though a little unnerving in COVID times to hike with a constant stream of fellow hikers. It seemed many, along with their dogs, had the same idea on that beautiful fall day. So we ended up needing to hike with masks, which was a bit less pleasant. And we were thankful (due to the dogs) that Alida and Terah were elsewhere. Along the way, Jason introduced us to wintergreen berries so we all enjoyed a natural breath freshener.

Following our hike, we made our way back to the Mountain House where we were reunited with these two munchkins. And then the we started packing the hours with lots of fun - game playing, sticker books, delicious foods, more game playing, story reading, and lounging around. A very excited little gal went to bed that night eager for her birthday.

She had planned the menus for her birthday, but was too excited to even eat that much. There was waffles and bacon for breakfast and homemade pesto pasta and chicken breasts for dinner. And then a cranberry chocolate cake and homemade vanilla ice cream. She had also given a very clear list of birthday presents she wanted which were all foods: dried pineapple, dried papaya, cheddar bunny crackers, mint chocolate and caramel chocolate. We all had the list memorized due to the number of times she recited it to us. So she fit some of those snacks into her day - which might be more why she wasn't as hungry for her bday meals! More than the food, I think she just savored having 7 older persons ready to play with her, read books to her, build lego farms with her, do sticker books with her, play outside with her, hide presents for her, hug and snuggle with her, etc... She savored every moment of her day until she could barely keep her eyes open!

Her daddy and her sister, Alida, had made her her own cutting board in honor of growing up and being old enough to use a sharp knife - she even chopped the garlic for her birthday dinner!

Probably the favorite activity of the weekend was jumping off the stairs, especially if it got a rise out of Grandpa if they climbed up too high!

She ended her day with a birthday bath complete with the rubber duckies we had wrapped for her to open when she noted (on her birthday) that she also wanted a rubber ducky. And she noted she didn't even care if they stayed at the Mountain House, so we were in luck! We quickly ran up to the bathroom, wrapped up the ducks, she opened them, was thrilled, took a bath with them, and they remain at the Mountain House.

We didn't stop having fun once the birthday came to an end. The next day Tala, Jason and I enjoyed a morning hike just the three of us. Then it was the chosen day for exploring, so we took a drive, stopping at some beautiful spots along the way including most notably the wild cranberry bog (for picking). The fall leaves did not disappoint. While it was not easy going for her, it was wonderful to have Mom mobile enough to join us! 

On our final morning, Jason and I slipped away for a hike up the mountain with Alida. She fully soaked in having her mommy and daddy to herself. We made it up to the spot that my parents have deemed the "kissing spot" and then I smothered her in kisses before we made our way back down.

A trip to the Mountain House would not be complete without a visit to the labyrinth. I wanted to walk it over and over and over again! The trees surrounding us, the leaf carpet, and a deep yearning for finding my center... I was gifted with a beautiful heart leaf along my path. And I thoroughly enjoyed watching various family members attempt to climb trees. It was very clear who had the most experience in the bunch!

And then, all too soon, it was time for the first carload to depart. I will be the first to admit that I did NOT want to go! It was hard to know that the end of a trip away that had been so long anticipated was coming to an end. I definitely wanted to be a good 38 or so years younger where a little tantrum and resistance to departure might have seemed more appropriate. Instead, we packed up and gave lots of hugs to our newly minted 5-year-old, who was beaming with the knowledge that she got to remain for more time in WV.

But we were a fun carload anyway, and we decided to stop back at Seneca Rocks to introduce Tala to the swimming hole. We had no intentions of doing anything more than showing her the river, but Kali got inspired! After wading across she gave in to the desire for an impromptu and VERY chilly swim! You can see the progression here. The rest of us practiced our stone skipping skills and I found another heart in nature!

Kali was very grateful to be warmly squished between Tala and Alida for the ride home. I think we were nearly back in Harrisonburg before she had fully warmed up. But I feel certain she felt it was worth it!

And there you have it. A glorious fall birthday celebration trip. So many wonderful memories created! I am someone who plans and anticipates things to the point that so often the real thing ends up disappointing. This was not the case. It was special through and through and hard to have it come to an end. Looking through the pictures now helped me realized that the love shared in those days still continues and the celebrating of life and healing will continue to strengthen us. For that I'm so grateful!

September birthdays and more!

Today is my final day off work email, so I better share some of the happenings of the last week or it may not happen for awhile! There's been a lot of celebrating life happening around here, and that feels worth sharing about. Intertwined in the birthday festivities has been a good deal of fall harvests and transplanting and preparing for tucking the gardens in for winter. And for me, mixed together with the wonderful celebrations of life and love and our connections to one other, has been a significant splash of grief and anger and anxiety about the state of our world.

Let's start off with what's been happening in the some of the gardens! I didn't get in on any of the black bean harvesting this year as that occurred when I was frantically trying to prepare to shut down my work email for a week. But it's drying on racks in the garage and black bean threshing is on the docket for tomorrow! We always have to try to choose the optimal time for harvesting where we'll get the most dry beans before things start deteriorating in the patch. That means, of course, that there is a mixture of mature dry beans and then a bunch of what we call "shelly beans." It's a good thing those are a hit around here as we had a lot of shelly beans this year - enough to eat a bunch and freeze some as well!

Once the patch was free of dry beans, we could get in there to dig white potatoes. Initially it felt like we were digging them much earlier than normal and that the harvest was really paltry. In the end, we were digging them on the exact same day as last year and it was really only about 1/2 a bushel less. Though we are moving in the wrong direction with 3.5 bushels of white potatoes this year, 4 last year and 4.5 the year before. That said, the quality of the harvest was better - with very little damage and hardly any green potatoes - and we had also transitioned last year to a 3 bed system instead of 4. We normally will take quality over quantity - in this case we are grateful for quality and will keep working on quantity!

This little gal wanted to dig as many as she could her "silly way!" The white potatoes are not quite as easy as the sweet potatoes for that, but it was hard to turn her down as her excitement was bubbling over!

...I've had a brief interlude in my writing. I had to take a "time out" from working on this post as blogger's recent "upgrade" is similar to most computer upgrades in that it has made the whole thing less user-friendly for me. I can't figure out simple things like embedding photos which used to work without a hitch. So I was ready to throw my computer across the room, which is always when it is time for a break! So I'm back after breathing in some wonderful fall fresh air while cleaning the cooking tomato patch to prepare for putting wheat seed in the ground. I'm eager to get back out there and am still "fighting" with the blog set up changes so this may be less thoughtful or thorough than I might have hoped! 

Fall includes lots of "cleaning up" in the gardens and I find those tasks particular fulfilling to do! Recently we chopped up all the okra plants, over a series of days took all the sweet potato vines to the pigs, and as of moments ago, Tala deemed the patch ready for planting (she has been working hard on both the vines and also getting rocks out the patch!!). So that might be this afternoon's project. Jason and I made a commitment to taking a few days off from major farm work this week and the rainy day yesterday prolonged that time off by a welcome bit. But now we are feeling eager to get seeds in the ground so we don't leave soil bare much longer. 

But lest I not get ahead of myself, here's some images from the birthday fun from this week! We kicked off the celebrations with a trip to Shenandoah River State Park with our "Cub Runts" crew (as we call ourselves). Jonathan and Christen introduced our family, along with Emily, Jonas and Ivy, to the paw paw groves along the river, there was lots of splashing (with or without clothing), fun with paint rocks, a physically distanced picnic (complete with paw paw ice cream in honor of my and Jason's upcoming birthdays) and a few daring persons even went for a swim (while some of us snuggled under blankets). 

The very next day with kicked off the string of birthdays in our household with Tala's birthday. There was some puzzling, LOTS of Dutch Blitz and other game playing, and homemade noodle making (it's a tradition to eat noodles on birthdays in the Philippines, as they represent longevity). We also learned a fun little birthday song in Filipino for the occasion and my mom made and decorated a cake! One of our gifts to Tala was an expanded Dutch Blitz game with 8 decks so more people can play at one time. So there was additional laughter as some of us playing that day seemed to go deeper into the negative numbers than positive (I won't name any names but will say it was the only male member of the downstairs household). :)

Sunday we headed to the Blake's to celebrate the 4th birthday of my birthday buddy and niece, Ivy! She was still sleeping when we arrived so we went out and waited in/by the trampoline for her to come out. It was very cute to see her happy and surprised at our presence there! And what a fun time we had - Emily and Jonas have done a lot to prepare their space for fun physically distanced times with others - there are now two trampolines, two stomp rockets, two screened tents, etc... So there was fun "together" without being close to one another. I think the highlight for me and Jason was playing whiffle ball. Wow, that had been awhile!

Then on to my 42nd birthday, followed the next day by Jason's 44th! Common themes of all these days of celebration included amazing special foods, time relaxing, game playing, more naps than we normally get in several months, and just enjoying being together. Probably the most notable thing from my birthday was how I was more or less kicked out of the kitchen and forbade from doing any chores. I got away with some transplant watering and a few other tiny outdoor animal chore-related items (but probably only because I was out of Tala's sight for those moments!). Jason and I started the day with a hike to Hensley's Pond with coffee in hand and books to read. I'm reading Communion: the Female Search for Love with a few work colleagues and friends. It seemed a fitting day (my birth day) to start a deep dive into love (particularly self love). When we returned, there was a lot of activity in both kitchens. We soon sat down to a birthday feast, a team effort by my mom, Tala and the girls. Even Kali woke at 7:45 a.m. to make the potato crusted quiches! There was a delicious trombone squash soup and biscuits too. Yum! To keep me out of "trouble" following the meal, the younger gals pampered me by brushing my hair and giving me a foot rub. That is a sure way to keep me still. 

After a game of Upwords, in which I did horribly, it was time for a snooze and then the hope had been to cook burgers over an outdoor fire for our dinner. It was actually a food request from Jason, but the weather looked better on my bday for that meal. Well, the rain set in right as we were playing some badminton just before getting the fire started. And it didn't seem to be going anywhere. We played 7 Up 7 Down on the deck while we "waited it out" and then gave up on that and cooked inside. It was still delicious!!

We ended the day enjoying pumpkin pie (for Jason) and frozen pumpkin squares with gingersnaps (for me), while we watched the first episode of the current season of the Great British Baking Show. The celebrating didn't feel over that evening, since Jason's birthday was up next! We also received a variety of birthday coupons that will be gifts that keep on giving!

Jason and I almost didn't have our alone start to the day when Terah woke right as we were about to sit down to coffee and reading. Thankfully Alida woke around the same time and they were willing to snuggle together for long enough for us to read a chapter in Collapsing Consciously before they "crashed" our funny cake pie party. Most times we are open to kids joining us and proceeding with our reading, but while this is an excellent read, it is also heavy and would need extended processing were we to incorporate little people. We recommend it for all human adults. It's stirring our emotions and thinking and contributing to important conversations between us - that we hope to expand to others in our lives! But that could be a blogpost all of it's own (and not when kids are chattering in the background and I need to get lunch in the oven)!

The day (another with napping, reading, game playing and some music making) concluded with yet another feast (this one made by Tala, that also incorporated noodles). We have eaten well, played hard, rested a lot, and connected with each other. I'm grateful for this week...

And there's a little birthday chain now hanging in our front room from the one in our household that is so very excited to be turning 5 soon! We look forward to celebrating with her in wild, wonderful West Virginia!