homeofthebudds

It's been a while...here's some snippets.

* I have a post all written and saved, but I'm having some difficulty with the pictures. Flickr has made brilliant updates that don't allow me to blog my pictures in the same way I always have. Not too much of a problem as I have a smugmug account also - but the pictures there have watermarks on them and that would just be lame to have that up here. So I'm working on it. In the meantime, there's some new pics up on facebook.

*We have so far avoided being sick. Just last night Brennan started up with a runny nose. I'm going to go get the kids some Vitamin D in the form of Cod Liver Oil Gummies today. They're supposed to be tasty. Really. (Vitamin D by the way is a major immunity booster.)

*This week has been nuts. Either Dave or I or both of us have been gone every night this week. It's crazy town over here. 

*I'm reading "The Art of Possibility". It's super good. I highly recommend it. Next up is "Blink", and hopefully, if I can find it somewhere, after that is The Outliers.

*Hmmmm...everything I can think to write right now has to do with one of these future posts. Maybe I should go work on those pictures...

the haps

Things have been a little hectic around here lately. At least in my brain.

*We've been going to our homeschool co-op every week. The kids totally dig it. Even Brennan is constantly asking if its time to go. My job there is to teach an arty-crafty class for the preschool aged kids. It's...interesting. Mostly it's interesting to try to come up with something fun to do that's simple enough for everyone in the class to get and complex enough that it holds their attention for more than five minutes. Last week it was the paper bag kites. Yep, I totally had twenty kids make a project that I knew wouldn't really work. I figured the running around part was the fun of it anyway. And it was. After they got them all beautifully decorated we took the twenty 2-5 year olds outside and let them run around a grassy field trying to get the kites up in the air. I have some fun pictures. But, probably shouldn't post them here. You can imagine.

*I'm starting up my photography business. I mentioned that. Ordering more business cards, getting a website going, getting things hung and getting a website going. That's a big deal. At least for me. I've finally realized (again) that it would be so much better to give that to someone who loves it and let me focus on doing the parts I love. Once I gave myself the permission to not do it myself, I began to get super excited again. I didn't realize how much that whole thing was weighing me down. So now I'm just working on the text and layout for it. So much better than trying to get just the right size for this image here and why in the world won't the text be the font I want it to be and seriously? Those instructions are in english? So. I'm pumped to be taking pictures again. Hey, anyone wanna help me proof it and offer your advice about the way things sound?

*I'm coordinating Imago's DIY Event this year. Well, me and several other awesomely wonderful ladies. I'm the point person. This involves a lot of...stuff. A lot of setting up a vision, writing up emails, coordinating things, getting people on board, writing things for websites, getting it publicized, finding people to participate and finding people to participate. Do you wanna participate?

*Wow. That last one was a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be.

*Teaching the kids. This tends to happen in the first hour (or two) of the day. And then they're done. I planned to slow things down a bit this year - they're wicked ahead of their grade levels already and it seemed a good idea to incorporate more "Go find a fun project to do and go for it" time. Now that the school room is finally cleaned out (hello desk! hello floor and walls!) they're totally going for it. It's pretty sweet.

*Basketball season has begun. Which means Dave is deep into Blazerland. He's been to a couple preseason games already and we've got one coming up that all of us get to go to thanks to the Summer Reading Program at the Library. The kids are so so excited and have been planning out what their signs are going to look like for the last several days.

*We've decided to crack down and stick to the budget we set for ourselves. I love the whole sticking to a budget thing. However we decided this last Saturday. When we had exactly $33 left in our food account and exactly six more days until it would get replenished. Woo! Doesn't that sound like fun? So we've had a lot of eggs (I am absolutely loving those chickens right now). And...peanut butter and jelly (so happy to have a freezer in the garage with jelly and bread in it.) And...pancakes (yay for wheat berries in the cupboard). And apples and bananas and things like that. We did end up going to the store yesterday and spending 12 of those 33 dollars to replenish the fruit supply. I was about to start looking up pumpkin recipes to start using those sugar pie pumpkins I've got growing in the front yard, but it's already Thursday! And that means tomorrow is shopping day. I really hope there's no huge snow storm or earthquake or something that keeps us housebound in the next 24 hours. I can only think of so many things to do with pumpkins...

*You might have noticed some of those things I mentioned up there aren't raw. Yeah. I've kinda fallen off the wagon. This might have something to do with the fact that it's cold. And the heater wasn't working. And that did not make me want a smoothie. At all. Not that that's all you can eat when you're raw, but it was definitely one of my main staples. But! Dave has fixed the heater and we had our first smoothie of the fall season for lunch today. I gotta start looking through some cracker recipes or something. 

Snippets

*The chickens have started eating my sproutlings that are growing in the backyard. I've started keeping a squirt bottle by the back door to squirt them with whenever they approach my plants.

*Dave was craving cookie dough. He brought some home and we cooked it up and said the kids could have some after their dinner. Dinner tonight was green smoothies. Brennan drank his up, got his cookie, took a bite, put it down and came over to my seat and proceeded to drink my smoothie. He rejected a cookie in favor of a smoothie!!!!

*I'm having a yard sale tomorrow. I'm ready for it to be over already. But! Tonight, I was telling my neighbor about it and she already bought something! First sale already completed. Yay.

*I bought a 'reel' lawn mower (that's a funny thing to call it to me cause it sounds like i'm saying its a "real" mower...) I love it. I've mowed the front lawn, and all the neighbor kids have had a chance to try it out. And they're asking to borrow it to mow their lawns cause its so much fun. And of course Isaiah's been pushing it all around. Now I just need to make it to the backyard. After the yard sale.

*Ellen has cleaned all the toilets in the house several times in the last few days simply because she was bored. Buy yourself one of those little wand things that the flushable dealy-bobbs go on. Kids love them.

*Brennan has started singing lately - he sings "We will rock you", "Waves of Mercy" (the na-na part), the theme from Thomas and just tonight "The 'A' says "aaaa" song from Letter Factory. It's pretty fun to have a singing child.

even more snippets

*I've been feeling rather antsy. Restless. Like lets go travel the country in an RV kinda restless. Or lets go see what Utah is like for a couple years. Or Colorado. Or....wherever. I'm ready for an adventure. 

*I'm turning into even more of a hippie. Go to youtube and type in Daniel Vitalis. Watch any of his stuff. I'm totally wigging out. Anybody know where I can find a natural spring around these parts?

*I've started buying weird unrecognizable foods. Things like Goji berries and Chia seeds and hemp seeds and cacao nibs and buckwheat groats and I can't even think of what else. 

*Ellen hates coconut. Coconut is a major ingredient in any sort of raw sweet thing. It's in just about everything. She's been dying for some sort of cookie or something. So today we made some carrot cake cookies from one of Isaiah's recipe books. We subbed whole wheat pastry flour but other than that just went for it. They were good. Freaking good. Like they're-gone-now kinda good. 

*(Yes. I totally ate some. Quite a few some.  We've been having a lot of cooked food lately for random reasons, and I find it completely addicting. Having a little generally means I'll be having a lot in the weeks following.)

*I really miss my computer. I've taken lots of pictures. And I have no where to put them. It's depressing. Depressing enough that I even left my camera home a few times and regretted not having it.

*I've been drinking my green juice quite regularly. I'm starting to like it.

*I have a really hard time relaxing on the weekends. I run around like a crazy person, going to three or four grocery stores as quickly as possible. Or trying to get the house clean. Or buy wood for things like garden boxes and chicken coops. But during the week - look for me on the couch. For sure.

*I'm pretty sure that doesn't thrill Dave.

*Yeah so the kids and I were going to work on constructing a garden box. What a great experience for them I figured. Then I realized I needed another adult around. Hmmm...looks like we're waiting for the weekend afterall. Unless I can talk someone into coming over here and helping hold the wood still while I drill four inch screws into it.

*Our chickens are getting big. They're in that awkward teenage stage. They're a little ungainly. I wish I could show you. 

*As much as I miss my computer, I've done virtually nothing to fix it. I'm totally making an appointment to take it to the Mac store tomorrow. I'm beginning to wonder if I've totally overfilled the memory with pictures. 

Things in my head.

I'm in that spot where I've got too many posts swimming in my head and I don't really know where to start. So I haven't been. But now I am. Here's some snippets since that always seems to clear my head a little.

*The Fieldhouses are here visiting. We love the Fieldhouses.

*On Easter we went to a friends house for lunch and she made me raw food. I felt so loved.

*We went to a little play yesterday in the lobby of the Portland Performing Arts Center. 

*We went on a "tour" at Bob's Red Mill today. It was really more of a sit and listen.

*Dave and I went to a Blazer game last night. It was super fun.

*There's been a lot of "going" lately.

*Tomorrow we have plans to go to a vegan restaurant.

*I've started jogging. Sorta. A little.

*I have plans to run a 5k. First time I'll have run anything anywhere.

*Then, I plan to conquer a triathlon. A little mini one.

*I'm thinking I should join a gym.

*Dave just told me I'm a computer extrovert. That's funny. 

*Chickens might not be the smartest birds in the coop.

*I want a dehydrator. Bad.

*We're planning a road trip to L.A. in May. 

I feel like its been a long time.

And I still don't have a proper blog post today. But I can give you some snippets.

 *One of my favorite things these days is our daily video chat yoga class with Jill. I've never experienced yoga before. Jill's a good teacher. And its fun for the kids to see Aunt Jill frequently. 

*Isaiah is reading. officially. He loves it. I'm pretty impressed. 

*Ellen heard about a five year old kiddo who has his own cooking show on a public cable channel. She keeps thinking she'd like to have her own show. She's had a few ideas for what her show will be - gymnastics, cooking and dancing. She's been working on a recipe/invention for her cooking show. it's a pretty tasty little bread cookie. 

*I don't think I ever officially mentioned that we've been getting weekly deliveries from a local dairy. They bring us our eggs, milk and beef, from local pasture raised animals. It's pretty nice. But I'm thinking of quitting it. There's a minimum to get the delivery and we just don't go through that much every week. I need to find someone I can split the delivery with I think. 

*Since we got cable I've introduced the kids to The Cosby Show. I can't believe that show is still funny. And just good. Ellen's a big fan of "Unwrapped" too - a show on The Food Network about how factory foods are made.

*Brennan just tried to get himself a drink from the water dispenser in the freezer door and got himself soaking wet in the process. I should go help.

Snippets

*We got our cable installed. I have lots of cooking shows already recorded on the dvr. yay and yay. not so yay - our wireless router isn't working. very big non-yay.

*Yesterday Brennan tried to move a wall. He pushed and pushed and grunted and groaned and was very very upset when it didn't budge.

*I can not stop thinking about farmer's markets and things to sell there.

*I've finally decided on the NIkon D90. Now I just need to raise a few more dollars. I've been craigslisting unused/unwanted things around the house to help meet my goal.

*I've signed up to walk a 1/2 marathon in April. My friend Megan and I have been walking several miles every morning. I'm really starting to dig sunrises. 

*I really really want to play some tennis.

*Dave and the kids (all of them) are playing hide and seek. Brennan prefers the seeking to the hiding.

*I have been having the most delicious fruit smoothies for breakfast every morning. I love my Vitamix.

*With the SJ Budds visiting last week we took it pretty easy schoolwise. Last night in an effort to get the kids some math, I gave them each a dollar and set them free in the thrift store. They had a great time figuring out how to read price tags ("Is this 25 dollars????) and trying to decide if it was a good idea to buy something just for the sake of buying something or if saving was a better alternative.

*Brennan's not really feeling well and has been crazy clingy lately. 

*That was everything in my head right now. Have a good Saturday.

Random snippets

*I fed the kids leftover pancakes and then apple tarts with ice cream for dinner tonight.

*I'm rather pleased with myself that my house is substantially cleaner now than it was this morning. Shoot by the time I get to bed it might be completely cleaned. Might be.

*Actually I'm debating if I should excercise or keep cleaning. Or maybe just blog.

*That scowl of Brennan's is pretty much his default look these days. He either concentrates really hard or he has serious issues with our parenting style.

*I've been feeling the need to declutter and organize like crazy lately, but have been sitting on the couch watching internet tv instead. (hence, the dirty house)

*Dave's at a Blazer game. He's beyond excited that the season has started. He went to Fan Fest (a scrimmage and dinner thing) on Friday, he's at a game tonight and then Sunday we get to go together. Yesterday morning he asked me if I thought it would be nuts to go to a game that night. I said yes. He said yeah, he thought so too.

*I'm going to try out my new Steam Shark on my less than clean floors tonight. 

*Apparently cleaning has won over exercising. I better get to it.