Evenings in Spring

Our new evening routine goes like this: finish dinner and related tasks, then go outside to visit the chickens.  Spend a while in the run discussing their names, personalities, quirks.  Feed them.  Water them.  Love on them. 

And then they love on us.  Penny and Daisy perched on me last evening. I haven't decided if this means they love me or they hate me.  It's very funny, though!

(Annie took these photos.  You can see Penny up there--and if you were here, you could hear her too since she's a nonstop talker.  But Daisy was also back there--just lower, I guess!)

Then Finn rides his bike like a wild man up and down the driveway and Annie and I water the flowers together in the last light.  I pull stray weeds and we check on progress: are the bleeding hearts coming up?  A day lily bloomed!  Oh, look at the last peonies......

Then Finn puts the chickens to bed and we wash up and they enjoy ice cream on the front porch while watching fireflies light the yard.  

This may be the most satisfying spring of my life so far. 

The Sewing Room

This past weekend I finally got the chance to sew in my new sewing (laundry) room.  What a luxury!  What ease!  To have everything right there--patterns, fabric, ironing board, sewing machine.......bliss.

Bring me my tea on a silver tray, please.  And then skedaddle, because--I'm in my studio! (With Alice, of course.)

Every Gain Divine

This weekend has been all about testing (Finn takes a standardized test every year), gardening, sewing, and food. 

Today I spent six hours in one of our flower beds.  The mulching goes quickly, but the pulling up wire grass and clover goes a lot slower. (Clover! Bane of my existence!) I'm also transplanting a zillion muscari and that takes forever: tiny bulbs deep down in the dirt.......

I just hope I can walk tomorrow. 

Today also involved proctoring Finn's standardized test and a smidgen of sewing, but the best part of the day was at the end: after homemade ice cream on the porch, we visited the chickens, watered the flowers, listened to my cousin's crackling bonfire in the upper field, and watched the sky turn flaming pink over my grandparents' house.  Annie spun around and around in her pink dress, and I can't tell you how beautiful it all was, and how grateful I am for it.

*          *       *

And, in closing, it's a day to remember to whom my freedom is due: our fallen soldiers.  

O beautiful for heroes proved

in liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved,

And mercy more than life!

America, America!

May God thy gold refine,

Till all success be nobleness,

And every gain divine. 

When we sang this yesterday in church, I had tears in my eyes....never fails. 

Annie Does Etsy

For months Annie was asking me to please start an Etsy shop for her.  It would be called Cute Conference. It would be full of cute things that she makes.  It would allow her to earn money. 

We finally opened the shop a few weeks ago. We made some stuff for it and I took the pictures and listed it (tedious).  And then I breathed a sigh of relief that I could move on to making stuff *I* want to make!

She made her first sale quickly--thanks to a law school friend who has two little girls. 

If you're in the mood very Very Handmade bookmarks or felted flower clips, Cute Conference is the place for you.

Coyote Season

Well, it's calving season here.  Which means it's also coyote season.

Tonight as I was tucking the children into bed my husband said: "coyotes! and they're close." 

We opened the deck door.  Indeed, they were close--they were in one of the cow fields.  

"Do you think they're going after a calf?" my husband asked.  He barely finished his sentence before I was exclaiming "that's exactly what they're trying to do!" He ran out onto the deck and started making noises as I thundered down the stairs with a flashlight, and then out the basement door to the backyard, to shout and shine lights. The coyotes quieted. 

At that moment I saw that my cousin's truck was already making its way through the dark field; he'd heard them, too.  He parked and worked his way around part of the perimeter of the huge field, shining his light.  I heard his rifle fire only once.   He continued around part of the perimeter, and eventually made his way back to his truck in the dark. I'll text him tomorrow morning to see if he lost a calf. I sure hope not. 

Did I mention that two weeks ago Annie and I were hanging out on the porch in broad daylight and watched a skunk saunter to the neighbor's chicken run....and get inside? We quickly alerted our neighbor--not only to protect the chickens, but because their children were playing nearby, and the skunk was probably rabid. Our neighbor shot it quite neatly.  

We joke that for a quiet rural life, we do have our share of excitement...thanks to the varmints. :) 

It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

This afternoon my husband was watching me sew in our schoolroom with the poor task lighting and various school supplies around me.  He suggested we move our elliptical trainer out of the laundry room and set up a "real" sewing room for me. 

I thought for about 2 seconds before saying yes!

My laundry room currently holds all of my sewing stuff--and that's a lot of stuff. Fabric, notions, pillow forms, patterns, my dress form.  But my machine was in the adjacent schoolroom. It's not far away--just a matter of a few feet, really.  I just had to run back and forth while sewing.  Somehow having everything in the same space feels both luxurious and efficient!  I spent the evening setting it all up, but haven't sewn in my new space yet.  

Because you know how it goes: move two pieces of furniture, and rearrange other stuff. I'm also preparing for a book sale and have boxes of books stacked in the basement. Whew! It's going to be organizationally so much better once it's all done, but as my husband and I reminded each other this afternoon...when it comes to rearranging rooms, it gets worse before it gets better.

Hot bath, bed, and Sabbath rest will rejuvenate me.  

(And in the midst of it, I went through my vintage patterns and chose the size 6 patterns.  I have at least a dozen darling little patterns to choose from for Annie this year from my grandmother's collection.  I'm excited!)

Real Home Love

"This household happiness did not come all at once, but John and Meg had found the key to it, and each year of married life taught them how to use it, unlocking the treasuries of real home love and mutual helpfulness, which the poorest may possess, and the richest cannot buy.  This is the sort of shelf on which young wives and mothers may consent to be laid, safe from the restless fret and fever of the world, finding loyal lovers in the little sons and daughters who cling to them, undaunted by sorrow, poverty, or age, walking side by side, through fair and stormy weather, with a faithful friend, who is, in the true sense of the good old Saxon word, the 'houseband', and learning, as Meg learned, that a woman's happiest kingdom is home, her highest honor the art of ruling it not as a queen, but as a wise wife and mother."

            --Louisa May Alcott, Little Women