Spring is here!!!

The diapers hang in the breeze, the forsythia is on fire, the hens peck around looking for worms and other goodies in the fresh green grass. Is there a single season as lovely as Spring? We had terrible storms and flash floods on Saturday. Thankfully nothing here was damaged, but the River is super high. The ground is nice and squishy and muddy. We are inside playing with homemade lavender playdough and it smells so calming. I love Spring. And baby goats:

This is Hyacinth's baby, Petunia at a couple days old (that was over 2 weeks ago!) Can you even stand how cute she is?

And this is Tigerlily and her baby, Daisy. She has the cutest stripe going down each side of her. They are so squishably cute.

But I have my own bundle of squishable cuteness:

This romper is HUGE on him but I picked it up brand new at Goodwill last week for $3. Only downside was the BULLDOZER on the front. Really? A bulldozer on a sweet, plaid baby romper. Ok, honestly Kieran is wearing 18month clothes now (at 5 MONTHS!!!) and the romper was 24 months so maybe a 2-year-old would be in love with the bulldozer on his romper. Kieran? Not so much. So I appliqued a chipmunk onto it. Now it has the cute forest child feel, not the industrial, mow-down-the-forest feel. :) haha.

I just added a new icon for Heartsy. If you haven't signed up yet... DO IT. I am in love with these silly deal sites now, and hope to do all of my Christmas shopping through them. And Heartsy features all handmade/Etsy shops, so you can get a great deal on handmade goodies. I bought a voucher for some cute, cute soaps. Did I ever mention that Isabel's favorite Christmas present was a lollipop soap I found in a $ bin at Michaels? She carried it everywhere for days and they begged to take baths for weeks to play with the lolly soaps. Sooo I hope that cupcake and petit four soaps will also be a big hit! :) AND if you sign up through my link and buy a deal, you and I get a $5 credit for future voucher purchases! Yay! Many of the items featured are for jewelry, which I don't wear much of, but I have seen a pretty vast variety of items and hope to see some nice artwork to add some life to my house. The walls are kind of boring around here. :P

Oh well, off to work on the nature table...

Pickin' Marshmallows

See this tree? It is an ever-so-rare Marshmallow Tree! :) Nick went out to the hills on Saturday (aka, west virginia) and after a long week, I had another day with the 3 little ones all to myself. I was bummed about missing a ballet because I forgot about Nick's trek to the Mountains of no return... so instead I took my littles to Great Country Farms for their Marshmallow Harvest and Egg hunt!

The kids were elated to say the least. They could care less about the Easter Egg hunt, but happily plucked the plump mallows and Peeps off of the trees:

Is that not the cutest idea ever? I really think that it would be fun to turn our blossoming cherry tree into a marshmallow tree too someday. WARNING: Below is another superfluous picture of my cute, cute pie boy (I figured I would warn you in case you are sick of seeing him posted every post... but how could you? He is DARLING).

Little baby Kieran enjoyed the harvesting from the coziness of his stroller. The day was cool and overcast, but made for less crowds and A LOT of mud. Isabel was layered in mud. But the great thing about harvesting marshmallows, was the warm fire with roasting sticks. I could have sat there all day roasting fluffy sugar puffs. But the girls had were busy stomping in puddles and jumping on jumping pillows, and feeding animals. IMPORTANT stuff like that. But after the fun, and mud, and damp, cool, Virginia weather we needed to go. And because our poor bushel of marshmallows were wet, we stopped to get a few baby peeps...

And made little hot chocolate ponds for them to swim in... where they met their demise in a slow, melty kind of way. It was truly a melty-mallowy kind-of day. I hope my girls remember picking marshmallows and sipping peep hot cocoa when they are teenagers and think I am lame. Because "once upon a time" I was a pretty cool mom.

*Apparently "melty" and "mallowy" are not real words. Who woulda thought?

A New Life.

Last week we had our hardwood floors in our kitchen and living room, and connecting hallway re-finished. It has been long overdue, but I must say, I couldn't be happier right now!!! We have lived in our little house almost 3 years, and one great thing about our house (and a major selling point) was that it has hard wood floors. Unfortunately they looked like this:

And the hallway was stripped but looked like this:

And our living room was covered in carpet when we bought the house, so we had no idea what to expect until AFTER we signed our life over to the mortgage company. It was pretty beat up and stained, and just really, really gross:

But we are optimists. We saw the beauty even though we looked at the yuckiness for years. YEARS. How did I live like that? All that HGTV we watched could have never prepared me though, for what we came home to last Friday:

The hallway: And the beginning of the kitchen. Oh the kitchen.

Look at that old heart pine! I nearly cried to see such a pretty room that had been so abused and ugly for so long. We had been going back and forth about doing them ourselves, or paying to have them finished professionally. We finally chose the latter and I couldn't be more grateful to H&H Hardwood for making our blah house, into a beautiful home. Our house feels clean and less overwhelming and I am so happy about that. I love sweeping these pretty floors. Like all the time. I am OBSESSED about sweeping every crumb. Its sad really. And I am really excited about mopping! I bought a new mop for the occasion. I don't remember the last time I mopped our floors. I am being serious. It has been MONTHS. And the worst part is, my children eat off the floor sometimes.

And see that rickety table? It is from Ikea, but we bought it off Craigslist when we bought the house. It wobbled a lot. When we moved the high chair, it could barely stand on its own. The highchair was holding it together! So Nick has been talking about building a table, and for the past few weeks he has been busy making one. He brought it home on Sunday and it is just stunning:

This was his first furniture project and I think it is the prettiest table I have ever seen! He made it out of re-claimed barnwood but you can get all the details here on his blog. It compliments our floors and adds a whole new level of life and permenance to our home. I just LOVE it. And more-so, I love the man who made it, and all the heart he put into it.

And, now that it is no longer a secret, I can say Nick is now a partner with Mike of the Strong Oaks Woodshop (barnwoodfurniture on Etsy). So now all of you can buy an awesome table like mine! ;) I must say, that all of these changes really make me feel like we have a new house and a new life. Things feel like they are finally coming along for us and our life in our little house in the country. And speaking of changes, this little guy is getting bigger, and cuter every second: I mean, how can I make a blog post about anything without posting a picture of my cuddlekins? Oh my is he cute. And he just woke up... so I better get him back to bed. So that is the newest news here! Hope all is well in your corner of the world too.

Free Shipping....

We are finally re-finishing our wood floors this week! We will be gone for a few days, so for this week only through Saturday April 2nd, I am offering FREE SHIPPING on EVERYTHING in my shop!!! Everything should ship before Monday April 4th... for free! This includes custom orders so place them now! (Does not include stackers though, sorry!) Hurry, hurry!

Wow....

Did you think I fell off a cliff or something?? Its been a couple weeks! I am still here! We have been busy (when am I not?) and we got sacked with the tummy bug of doom the past few days. Its been bad. Real bad. As in worst. diaper. ever. bad. And "Isabel throwed-up on my alphabet book" bad. But a little gingerale and pepto and lots of snuggling and naps and we seem to be getting over it. And isn't my baby ADORABLE? He really got extra cute this week. Or maybe he seems like it after the very UNCUTE things I have been dealing with. Oh, and speaking of cuteness...... I can hardly begin to describe how cute baby goats are!!! We sold the sweet goats to our neighbor, and visited the fresh babies today. I could have died. Nick is glad they made it to their new home before the kids came, or you can bet I would have never parted with them. Good thing I have a baby to squish and cuddle, because I really want to sneak over to Sharon's house and squish her baby goats. And I don't thing ANYONE would really appreciate that. *Pictures to come!* I promise. (I hope).

And it is almost April. Almost Easter. And my gnomey eggs are getting snatched up pretty quickly!!! So go get yours now! I am saving up the money from my sales for a new camera!!! My old one is fine. I love it. But I want to venture into the world of digital SLRs. Scary, and EXCITING!!! I also want to announce secretly... that I am going to have my FIRST EVER GIVEAWAY (Besides that jar of jam a while back...)... so stay tuned. :) All these promises. We just started our garden this week with lettuce, peas, herbs, beans, swiss chard, spinach, chives and some tomatoes and peppers indoors. So I need a compost pail!

I will say this is shameless advertising at its best, but I thought I should share some sweet deals. I just signed up for Mamapedia and bought a couple of their daily deals for EcoMom and Klutz. At Eco Mom you can get a $40 gift card for $18 (if you type "Spring10" at checkout) and score this stainless steel composting pail for $20 out of pocket. (ETA: Shipping is pretty high, but is free for orders of $50 or more.) Among other items like natural, wooden toys and cloth diapers and yummy looking soaps. :) I bought 2 gift cards. And for Anastasia I am getting this from Klutz:

Can you imagine how she will love it? I am stocking up on items for our trip to the midwest in May, and I think this will be a nice "toy" to play with when we get there. Not sure it will work well in the car, but there are plenty of other neat things to choose from. :)

Well enough about that, I better get to bed, but here is my grateful list today (I am aiming for 200 by Easter now... I sort of fell out of habit. shame. shame.)

31. Good health. (Especially after bad health.)

32. Good friends.

33. Fuzzy baby goat babies. (I kind of really want a goat again.)

34. Kitties (Pretty Please Sweet husband of mine?)

35. Spring

36. Snow (but not now. Not in March. NOT after the FIRST DAY OF SPRING. Boo.)

37. Little baby plants. And how green and happy they are.

38. Time. Every last bit of it. I wish I had a little more.

39. Folded, put away laundry. (even though there seems to be a shortage of it. but isn't it so lovely?)

40. Shamrocks. I wanted a shamrock today and I found one for .99c at the grocery store. It was providential indeed.

41. Corned Beef and cabbage. It was so yummy. I love St. Patrick's Day!!!

42. A toasty wood stove (especially when Spring decides not to be Spring anymore.)

Did I mention snow is in tonight's forecast?

43. Facebook. Blogs. INTERNET! WINDOWS TO THE WORLD. when my babies are sick. I cheated a little this week.

44. Kieran just woke up... better get him back to sleep... before he gets mad.

---TO BE CONTINUED---

44. (For real) he fell asleep before I left my chair. I love that he does that because the girls never did.

45. My new bed. (And the future bunk bed of my little ones because Anastasia has claimed the couch.)

46. My husband's new side project!!! (Its a secret right now!!!!) So now we can afford a kitty.

47. Lent. (absence makes the heart grow fonder......)

48. Spellcheck. (I was Homescooled... Thanks mom! :) (TOTALLY kidding.)

49. The roof over my head and the ones I love, especially in light of all those that lost their homes, families, friends and children in Japan.

50. Prayer.

Friday...

(sunset picture taken the evening before Kieran was born!)

Today my mom and I took the girls to the Richmond Children's museum in Short Pump. It was quite fun, especially for 2 little girls who are already asking when we will return! There was much to do including a castle and a water table to play in and a train to ride. It was a bit underwhelming compared to the museum located in Richmond. But when you are 2 and 4, there are very few places that aren't exciting and magical.

So today I continue my list. Starting with Monie and BopBop (my parents named by my children! lol!!). If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here... nor would my adorable little children. And we wouldn't have spent today having fun at the children's museum. Nor would we have listened to my sweet baby cry angrily in the car for 25 minutes. ha.

21. Monie
22. Bopbop
23. FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
24. Sleeping children in the car. (especially in traffic on the way to Richmond!)

I am grateful the apple wasn't poisoned.

25. Fairy tales. And how real they sometimes are.

26. Sunsets (which are, in fact painted by fairies. Ask Anastasia).
27. I would say Sunrises as well... but I don't care for mornings enough...

so 27. Cinnamon Rolls (dessert last night!)

28. Meat. (How is it I love meat the most on Fridays during lent? It seems all the better when you can't have it!)

29. packages in the mail (is there anything as exciting as packages in the mail? Except maybe the 7 packages the UPS guy left on my doorstep from Amazon last week!!! Thank you coupons!!!)

30. Coupons. I like coupons A LOT. Especially when they mean free/cheap baby items from Amazon -AND- when you get payed by the grocery store to buy something. Martin's payed me $1 to buy creamcheese the other day. Awesome. And my mom gave me 7 more Amazon coupons today!!! :) It has been a good day. And its Friday! Happy weekend all!!!

40 Days of Gratefulness

(photo taken by my talented friend)

Its been a busy winter. Most of the business taking the form of three little cutie pies. Babies are especially cute and especially more work. And lent began yesterday. What did you give up or decide to do for the next 39 days?? I have given up Facebook except once a day, and am trying to give up more of my leisurely internet time and trading it for quality time with my children. Its hard when I am stuck at home for days on end... with no one to talk to. The internet keeps me connected and in the loop. Maybe I should write more letters or make more phone calls. Or visit more friends. Maybe. But more important than what I gave up, is one small thing I want to do. I want to list 10 things each day of lent I am grateful for. 10 new things each day so that by Easter I will have a list of 400 things that I am grateful for. I forget all these little things that are such an integral part of my life and happiness when I focus on the "have-not's" and wants.

So today (I am a day late) I am listing 20. Last lent was an especially trying lent (I guess it is supposed to be like that). I found out that I was pregnant with Kieran, and being that I was trying fairly hard at that time not to get pregnant, I had a pretty wide range of mixed emotions. Of course 1 year later, the real live Kieran is in my arms and I couldn't be happier! So, I start my list with Kieran.

1. Kieran.

2. His sisters of course. :)

3. And my husband most importantly (and without him, I wouldn't have the above things to be grateful for!).

4. cloth diapers with owls on them (see above picture on handsome model)!
5. Washing machine (for washing diapers and the other 2 loads of laundry I do each day.)

6. Tide original powder (for cleaning my diapers like no other.)

7. Honey for tea when we are sick (the 9 bees that I have found in my house today... not so great)

8. EGGS!!!! (3-9 per day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

9. my sweet, sweet (dumb) hens. And Anastasia's tender love for them.
10. my goats that I am selling.
11. my sweet, crafty neighbor who is buying them.
12. my smelly, wet, dog. (wish the smell was not part of the deal!)
13. Naptime. (This should count for 30 grateful things. I LOVE naptime even when its on the kitchen floor). lol.

14. rain (even though I am soaked from dragging the smelly, wet dog inside).
15. Sesame Street (on days with lots of rain like this one.)
16. Hide and Seek (the girls just learned this game today!!)
17. Umbrellas and rainboots, (it was so fun to play in the mud for a little while.)
18. Princesses (only because Anastasia loves them so much.)
19. Sunglasses. And sunglasses on princesses on a rainy day.
20. Toddlerhood. (and the fact that it only happens once in a lifetime!) haha.

What are you grateful for today? There are so many little things that make our life beautiful. Its so easy to overlook them in the midst of the chaos. :)