Free seed pack sampler from Tomato Heirlooms

I've been getting excited about having food growing in my yard this summer. I recently dug up a bed and transplanted a few bushes, to clear a way for some of our favorites. So I was really excited to find out that Tomato Heirlooms will send a free basil seed pack sampler (a $6 value) to anyone who signs up for a free account on their website.

The free seed sampler pack includes three packs of basil seeds: Sweet Italian Basil, Purple Basil, and Lemon Basil. And as you may know I lurves me my basil!

I'm also looking at their tomato plants...because we are crazy about tomatoes at our house. In Vermont, Doc was The Tomato Gardner...buying about 40 different plants and a wide array of varieties. We were all about the tomatoes and raspberries there. So far, my potted basil plant is the only food we've grown here. I'm excited to change that this year.

So if you'd like a free pack, just create a free account on the Heirloom site. They'll just automatically send the pack to the address you sign up with. And then you can make some pesto...it's truly the besto!

But if I decide to do it, I'll wait to place a plant order...because we're supposed to get another 6-10" of snow tonight here. Seriously!

Bunchkin Art

I mentioned in an earlier post that I would write more about Bunchkin's art at a later time. Well, it's now later.

One thing that I marvel at is natural ability in any realm. When I was a child I felt like my best ability was a passable job imitating things. But creating something unique from my own mind (eg: art, music, etc)? That was beyond me for the most part.

So it always amazes me to see what Bunch comes up with. One of the more ambitious art projects she's done is a mural she calls Foxglove Forest . It's a 3'x4' fairy picture created entirely in the mind of my daughter.


Bunch drew Foxglove Forest when she was just 10 years old. Once she completed the base drawing (using pencil on cheap paper...something I would have changed had I known when she started the project what she was planning to do. The edges curl up and it's very thin.), she spent over a year coloring it off and on, till it was completed recently. It's now pinned up on a large bulletin board in her room.

(Post-Publishing edit: Bunch read my post and informed me that it's not actually done yet. "I still have a lot of coloring to finish, and I haven't finished going back over the pencil with black to outline things." My mistake!)

I confess that I just LOVE this creation. I marvel at the myriad little details...and just the scope of the project. She didn't create it for school or anything, just for fun.








Bunch has always been fearless about her art. Even as a tiny child in her high chair when I'd set up finger paints in front of her, she didn't seem to follow any "rules". A paintbrush was useful in no fewer than three ways: bristles for traditional painting, the pointy end for scratching out designs, and the whole length of it for rolling across the canvass. She used anything at her disposal in whatever manner she liked.

I watched my toddler in awe on more than one occasion...where did this come from? I had always approached the arts following some arbitrary set of guidelines. Sky is blue, grass is green, brushes are only used bristle-end. I didn't have any intuition about creating dimension, and could never quite come up with how to create animals, people, things, without an example to follow. Bunch kind of just dives in and creates stuff in her own little style, and it works. One of her favorite authors is Shirley Barber, who lives in Australia and writes/illustrates the most beautiful fairy books. She'd LOVE to meet her someday!

Bunchkin isn't an Akiane or other child prodigy, but it makes us happy to see the things she creates (in all areas; music, art, crafts, and especially writing~which is probably her greatest natural talent) and the joy it adds to her life. And ours.

Need your mind blown?

The Magical Fairy Realm

Shortly after we moved here, Bunch commented that she wished she had a tree in her room.

Our kids dwell below ground level, with only very tiny windows for natural light source in their rooms. They’re rather like rabbits, those two, sleeping underground and coming out in the daylight.

Still, a tree would be a lovely thing to have. But a live one simply wouldn’t thrive downstairs.

Since she was my tiny little angel girl, Bunch has always been enchanted with Fairies. (Or Faeries. I interchange them as the whim strikes me.)

(fairy dress up...age 4)

When we lived in Vermont, Bunch spent the entirety of nearly every recess at school building faerie houses at the bases of every tree on the playground. The trees in our neighborhood often had little faerie abodes gracing them. Moss, sticks, flowers, shells, rocks, leaves, acorns, pinecones etc…all these natural tools of the trade were abundant where we lived.

When she was in first grade, Bunch and I selected one of the trees in our yard and built a rather sturdy faerie dwelling at the base. Bunch started leaving them notes, small treasures, and gifts. She was a TRUE BELIEVER in fairies at this time, and the fairies rewarded her attention by collecting the things she left them during the night, and sometimes leaving her small treasures in return.

This magical exchange was the source of much delight for the enchanted Bunchkin. She’d regularly wake up and run outside to see if they’d visited while she was dreaming. Fairy Houses are a wonderful source of magic and delight for young girls.

Here is a picture of Bunch with the faerie house mentioned above:

So back to the tree.

Reflecting on this, I got a crazy notion to build Bunch her very own Faerie Tree. There had been a severe storm here shortly after we moved in, and a number of trees fell as a result. The vacant house at the end of our street had an SUV-sized pile of branches mounded up in the street. I think the owner was hoping the city would just haul them away (no such luck!) They’d been baking in the desert sun for about 3 months, when I decided to take a little hack saw over one afternoon, and haul some branches home for my project.

Once I had enough wood, there came the task of what to build my tree on. I needed a base of some kind. My wonderful mother-in-law came to my rescue with these two heavy newsprint cores. I have no idea where she rounded them up, but they were PERFECT for my tree.

I took two of them, and bolted them together, one on top of the other. Then I got three L-shaped shelving brackets and secured them at the base to serve as the “feet” of the tree. Then I started in with the wood. Branch-by-branch, I nailed, screwed, bolted and secured the wood to the cardboard tube till it was covered.

I will pause now to mention that this was all 100% manual labor. I didn’t have any fancy power tools, drills, staple guns or whatnot. At one point I did borrow a power saw from my brother, which I didn’t actually know how to use. After nearly cutting my finger off (miraculously, it only tore off the end of my gardening glove. Talk about adrenalin rush!) I gave up on power and reverted back to manual labor for all my sawing needs.

Things were going well, but the tree looked like it was in the dead of winter with no leaves. Thus far I hadn’t spent a dime on it…using only parts and pieces we had lying around already. I checked out the craft store for leafage, but realized it would get spendy in a jiffy to buy enough greenery. So I stopped by a local thrift store, and there I hit the jackpot: full-size fichus tree for only $8.00!

I hauled it home and pulled all the greenery off it. Using floral tape and wire, I secured all the leaves onto my fairy tree. Then I used a bag of Spanish moss and a glue gun to fill in the “chinks” between branches, which added a little more authentic look.

With the tree complete, I decided to build a little whimsical ladder for it. I glued flowers and moss on it for decoration. My goal was to put together the basic tree, and include one new fairy on it which her grandmother had gotten for the occasion, but that Bunchkin would be the one to decorate it.

Twinkle lights came next. Here I made an annoying error in judgment because I used regular twinkle lights…oblivious to how much time they’d be on. Lit up 24/7, they died within four months. ( I ended up taking everything off the tree, unwinding the lights, and replacing them with LEDs. Which unfortunately I could only find in white strings...not green. TIP: if you build your own faerie tree, use green-string'd LEDs if possible!)

Finally, I found a pretty green ribbon to wind around, and added a few sparkly floral-arranging elements. It was done. Whew!

(the finished project in front of the garage door)

I kept the tree in the garage till Birthday Eve. Once Bunch was in bed, I hauled it into our living room and put her birthday gifts under it. Then I left a note on the stairs, with my cell phone next to it, that said “STOP!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUNCHKIN!…DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER. CALL THE HOUSE PHONE AND WAKE ME UP, AND WAIT HERE TILL I TELL YOU ”

Before we went to bed, I woke up Gator. Since siblings often feel bad on birthdays because of the hyper focus on the birthday kid, I wanted him to be in on the surprise. So we brought him upstairs and showed him the tree, to include him on the secret. He was so excited to be part of the magical conspiracy. Good move momma!

By then, I could hardly sleep for all the excitement!

Remember that feeling you’d have as a child waiting for Christmas morning? How you couldn’t WAIT to see if Santa had brought you anything? It was the one day a year when anything was possible…at least till that fateful day in 1st grade when your big brother told you there was no such thing as Santa and killed the magic. You thought it was gone forever, but little did you know that in a mere 30 years, you’d experience that same feeling again, only this time it was because you WERE the magic, for your own precious child. It’s even better.

At 5:00 a.m. the call came. Bunch has always been an early riser, so I kind of expected her to get up even earlier, and she didn't disappoint. I don’t think I was more than half asleep all night, so we quickly jumped out of bed and got the video camera out. I wanted to capture her face when she first saw her tree.

Gator was adorable. He was so cute about guiding her up the stairs, with her eyes shut, till she was placed before her glorious tree.

It was so fun to watch her response as her ten year old eyes opened and beheld the sight. And such a delight to watch her open the gifts from her posse. Bunchkin definitely has a fan base.

For Christmas we went to my inlaw’s house, where the Faerie Magic just continued. Mom had seen someone cutting down a big tree, and asked if they could make her two stumps. She sewed a little cushion to sit on for one, and then found this swan-shaped basket made out of twigs at a thrift store to set on the other.

It just looked like a fairyesque item, and sure enough, it’s become a complete faerie community, housing all sorts of fairies and woodland creatures and wee folk.

I let Bunchkin draw a tree on her closet door with colored pencil and decorate it with fairy stickers. I only helped her with some shading (she’s a fabulous artist...which I'll discuss in another post).

The following Christmas a friend gave us a small fairy table base with a glass top. It's perfect!

Slowly Bunchkin’s downstairs room has transformed into a completely Magical Fairy Realm, as she’s added her special touches to it over time.

A shot of that year's birthday cake. It's a fairy scene on a jelly roll pan, with rice krispy meadow, bundt cake fairy house, three tiny fairies, frosting river and candylandesque treats galore. Biggest Hit EVER with the kids!

Two years have now passed, and The Fairy Tree is still one of Bunchkin’s most treasured possessions.

I don’t know how long the love of faeries will last…I see no reason for it to end, but even if it does, I do know that the tree, with it’s magical creatures, butterflies, lights, flowers and of course fairies, will always be a favorite around here.

♥

Blue (of course)

So I took a quiz on facebook called Which color is your aura?, and I can HARDLY BELIEVE IT, but my color is BLUE! As it turns out.

According to this quiz,

"Blues are the most caring, nurturing and protective personalities in the color-spectrum. They live out of their hearts and their emotions. Their life purpose is to serve, help and love others. Blues have an inner knowledge and wisdom and they feel and know what is right without needing facts or data for substantiation. The moment they become quiet inside, they will recognize or hear an inner voice or guidance, which will tell them what to do. They can easily tune into other people and feel precisely what is going on. Blues are the most emotional of all the color personalities. They often feel lost if they don't have the opportunity to clear their way through their intense jungle of deep feelings. Helpful activities for Blues would include talking with friends about their inner life, writing a journal or just being quiet so their intense emotions can calm down."

Ironically, earlier this day I had been asked to take a similar quiz on a website called www.colorcode.com, and it also claims that my color is BLUE! So clearly it's true.

Colorcode.com had the following to say about Blue People:

"Blues (Motive: Intimacy)

Blues are motivated by Intimacy. They seek to genuinely connect with others, and need to be understood and appreciated. Everything they do is quality-based. They are loyal friends, employers, and employees. Whatever or whomever they commit to is their sole (and soul) focus. They love to serve and give of themselves freely in order to nurture others' lives. blues have distinct preferences and have the most controlling personality. Their personal code of ethics is remarkably strong and they expect others to live honest, committed lives as well. They enjoy sharing meaningful moments in conversation as well as paying close attention to special life events (e.g. birthdays and anniversaries).

Blues are dependable, thoughtful, and analytical; but can also be self-righteous, worry-prone, and moody. They are "sainted pit-bulls" who never let go of something or someone once they are committed. When you deal with a BLUE, be sincere and make a genuine effort to understand and appreciate them."

Quite the horoscope, no?

What color are you? And do you secretly think your color is the best color to be, like I do? ;-)

Green

A year ago this week Doc and I headed out on a whirlwind trip to Ireland. We departed on Tuesday night, landed in Shannon at dawn on Thursday, and left the gorgeous island at dawn on Sunday. My pix from that trip are on my album (link on the left), and my banner this month was taken by Doc when we were at the Cliffs of Moher. It was a grand experience. There wasn't time to visit my ancestor's graves in Northern Ireland during that trip...guess we'll just have to go back someday.

Today we woke to find that a sneaky Leprechaun had turned our food all green. And the water in our toilets, too! Quite a shock for some of us...

I snapped a couple pix (spared you the toilet, no worries!).

First is my Gator eating his green cow (cream of wheat) and that there is green orange juice (which caused no small amount of amusement for The Gator. "Green ORANGE juice! Get it?!")


Next is a picture of our dinner table...definitely a theme going on here.


I always think of our years in Chicago on this day, and how they turn the river green. Talk about a celebration...that town does it right! My kids are both Chicago babies, so that town holds a special place in my heart.

How did you pass the day? Any tricksters play pranks on you?

Finding Joy

A dear friend of mine has these beautiful, brass, 15" high letters hung on her great room wall: J O Y

Every time I'm at her home, I stare up at them and think about joy. There have been some times when I've looked at those letters while feeling numb inside...going through a season of heartache or depression. But those beautiful letters give me pause, as I reflect on joy, and the statement "Men are that they might have joy", and about the moments in my life that I have felt that elusive emotion.

Joy is different than enjoyment, different than fun, different than amusement and being entertained. I'd even submit that it's different than happiness. It's a richer, deeper, more significant feeling than any of those.

Nearly every moment of bonafide joy in my life has been connected to Doc, Bunch and Gator. They are the source of most of my joy. There have also been a few select moments in my life not connected to them that have been joyous, when I've been filled to overflowing (with joy, and wonder, and awe, and gratitude) because of the amazing friends I am blessed to have in my life. And finally, there have been a few moments when my joy was filled to overflowing directly from God; when I have felt His love and care for me personally, and known that I am known by Him. Those experiences have been profound, and carried me through years at a stretch.

For many people in this world, the ability to feel joy, or even just happiness on a regular basis, is a struggle. Difficult life circumstances, troubling experiences, challenges that seem insurmountable, and even a few brain chemicals or hormones...these can all make it difficult.

But the good news is there is help and hope for all these situations. And if we are willing to accept that help (which can require a dose of humility and a lot of trust), we can move through the seasons of life with faith, grace, and even a glimmer of hope for a brighter world. I'll be writing about this in the near future...

I'm in a happy place inside right now, for which I am grateful. But I am learning that change is constant, and won't be so surprised when things "dip" in the future. For most of my life I believed in the fairy tales of childhood; bought into the fable that if I just did "X, Y, & Z I'd live happily ever after".

Now I know that while there will be many moments when we are surprised by joy in our lives, they are icing on the cake of adversity. And they are all the sweeter for following the pain of growing through change and enduring well the trials we are dealt.

Life is the perfect laboratory for teaching us all the things we need to learn to become who we can become. And someday, (but not in this life), if we do our best, we WILL have a fullness of joy evermore. I have faith in that.

Lazy Post Number Two

It's almost Monday everybody! In a few short hours, millions will head out on their daily (or weekly) commute. Wouldn't it be awesome if commuting were this fun?



Have a great week!!! ♥

Lazy post

I don't typically do this, but I'm working and have just a moment with no time to write. Was feeling hungry at the moment which made me think of this.

So enjoy a hearty laugh...a classic SNL skit. I'll have another favorite short clip for you next time.
Have a happy weekend all!

another day, another month

Marching along are we?

February passed altogether too quickly for my preferences. I haven't been very good about blogging, and honestly it's like part of my brain is just not developed or something, because I see other women who have UBER busy lives yet they manage to bang out inspiring, insightful posts on a very regular basis. I don't know what's wrong with me when my darling punks trot off to school every morning, and Doc heads off to battle diseases, accidents and injuries...or at least learn how to, and I can't even toss out a measley crumb to the clamoring masses. Yeah, there are clamoring masses of you. The almighty Google hath declared it.

I actually have been writing a little bit, but not blog writing. I know, I know. It's hard to believe that I ever hold anything back from this little patch of cyber space, but in reality there is a lot that I write that just isn't fit for human consumption. So rather than run on and on, I opt for radio silence. Trust me, you're grateful. If I didn't restrain myself, you'd all become afflicted with blogging bulemia and have to purge. Never a pretty sight.

So now it's time for The March Good News Moment! Guess what kids? Doc was inducted into the AOA, which is apparently a pretty significant honor according to my friends who are doctors always tell it to me straight. About 5% of the medical students make the cut each year. According to the official website, students are picked not only for their "high academic standing, but as well for leadership among their peers, professionalism and a firm sense of ethics, promise of future success in medicine, and a commitment to service in the school and community."

If you know Doc, then you already know that this list defines him, and how he approaches medicine, so it truly is a well-deserved honor, and we're all really proud of him. By we I mean me. And Bunch and Gator are pretty psyched too...because it just means there's one more accolade to recommend him as The Best Candidate for the one radiology spot in the residency program here. And we none of us are interested in moving again if we can possibly avoid it. So here's hoping. He will be putting his application package together in the next few months, and sending it off September 1st. It's going to be a dizzyingly busy and expensive year for him.

Speaking of busy. As has been the case every March for the past 8 years, I'm heading to Orlando, Florida for my annual re-certification as a flight attendant. It should comfort the travelling public to know that flight attendants must go through all the safety, emergency evacuation, and medical drills annually, and make sure we still know our stuff. If we don't pass, we can't fly. Since I was hired this time of year, this is the month I always have training.

Now some people are jealous that I'm going to Florida, but lets just set the record straight: I fly across the country, arrive at about 9pm, go to the hotel, and then I have to be at the training facility at 7am EST. Which is 5 a.m. my time. My van to the facility will leave at 4:30 a.m. my time, which means I'll be getting up aproximately 3:30 a.m. my time, and then spending the entire day trying to yawn unobnoxiously and fighting to stay awake during the lecture portion. We finish at 7pm, and go back to the hotel and then take an early flight out the next morning.

So no, I won't be chillin' with The Mouse. Or going to any of the fabbo attractions in the area. I'll be evacuating a plane in 60 seconds, one that is filled with simulated smoke, while you see fire flashing out the windows as the structure shakes (it's actually a fabulous training tool. Love the trainer!)

And I still have to put in my regular flying hours in addition to the training. So I'll be away a little bit more this month than usual. Here's hoping no one gets sick while I'm away (like last month!), and that I'll qualify for another year of employement by the end of training. I always worry about this kind of thing. Cause a lot rides on it, not the least of which is that it's the best job I've ever had and I totally love it..

Something more interesting next time...I promise!