Katydid

"Katie is a Katydid 'cause Katie did what Katie did,

And Katie did what Katie did 'cause Katie is a Katydid."

At least that is what my big sister, Holly, always told me.

But although my name is Katie, I don't think I'd ever met a Katydid until recently.

We named her Katie: Pretty fascinating.

I love it when my girls get up close and personal and explore the world around them in detail.

Did the Grinch Come?

Only a few books left on the once full toy shelves?

Where have all the toys gone?

No, it was not a visit by the Grinch, even though it may look like it. Rather, it was an idea fully initiated by my eldest daughter, all of 4 years old, and supported with equal excitement by her 2 year old sister. I don't get it. I don't think I would have been excited about this when I was 4 or 2, or if you did it to me at 32 with the stuff that I like. But the other night Anna told me "Laura and Mary's house wasn't like our house, was it, Mom?" (This is Laura and Mary of the Little House Series of books, as in Laura Ingalls Wilder, in case you were wondering.) I replied "Nope," wondering where this train of thought was going. You never know when it is a 4 year old making the statement. "Our house is not like Laura and Mary's house because they didn't have any toys, and we have lots of toys. I don't want to have any toys, either, Mom. I want our house to be like Laura and Mary's house." Okay! Not exactly what I was expecting. I think I was expecting something about the size or construction or location of our house. But to Anna it all had to do with the toys. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I spent the rest of the evening putting all their toys up high in their closet in boxes. (No, I couldn't quite bring myself to actually get rid of it all. Maybe I will next week.) They were so excited! And still are! This happened a few days ago and they haven't missed a beat. They have kept playing normally, just using whatever objects they do find around them in their play, like blankets and pillows off the beds or pots and pans out of the cupboards. I must say, bedtime has been easier without the hassle of cleaning up the toys. The house is easier to move through and feels more peaceful and big and open without the clutter of all the toys. Life is so much simpler without all the stuff we like to hold onto. I could learn a few things from my girls. We did keep down one doll and the 3 handmade stuffed animals that they have, along with the books you saw in the picture, but other than that all their toys are where they can't get them. Makes me wonder what stuff of mine I need to get out of my life. Stuff I want but would be better off without.

What would it be for you?

I don't know if I have the strength to do it, but I'm going to think about it.

Windsor Dairy

Yesterday we got to visit Windsor Dairy, the dairy where we get our milk. We had a tour of the milking parlour and watched them milking the cows:

We saw lots of goats and got to go inside the goat pen and pet three one week old kids:

The cows on this dairy are 100% grass fed. We got to see the pasture where they live. I love this picture of Mitch with his girls walking out towards the pasture:

We said hi to some of the cows as they came out of the milking parlour. This is Cupcake:

Right now, with the weather what it is, the cows are mostly fed hay in the barn. There's not much grass in the pasture. The owner, Meg, took us into the barn so we could see the cows some more. Ruthie was fascinated by the cows and not intimidated at all. It was actually Ruthie that Meg wanted to take to see the rest of the cows. Here we are with Cupcake again in the barn:

They have 150 cows in their herd. I don't know if this number includes all the calves we saw and the few bulls or not. They rotate through which cows are being milked at any given time in the year based on when they had their calf, if they're pregnant or if they're soon to be pregnant. They have 70 cows that are actually being milked right now. So amazing to actually see where our milk comes from, and to see all the other life on the dairy that we don't usually get to see around us everyday: chickens, goats, kids, calves, bulls, cows, the whole operation that happens so that we can drink milk. Thank you, Meg, for all the work you do to bring us good, fresh milk.

Finally! A Leaf Pile!

I know you might think that winter has already hit Colorado if you have checked out our recent postings, but our weather is such that we still get sunny days in the 70's interspersed in between the snow storms. Yesterday was a beautiful one of those. I loved it, even got to hang the laundry on the line and enjoy some quietness sitting on the stoop in the warm sun:) The girls' favorite thing was that we were finally able to rake up a leaf pile for them to play in!

There is so much regularity in the seasons, so much that we expect and count on that adds comfort to our days and expected change to our lives. But this fall has been full of the unexpected for me. I saw things that I don't remember ever seeing or noticing before. Maybe I have just been watching with new eyes as I watch fall unfold before three little girls. But part of it has been how unexpected early snow storms and freezes effect the season. The maples and other trees that I usually think of as the most brilliant in the fall were not what impressed me the most this year. They were only starting to change when the first snow hit and they dropped all their leaves in a hurry beneath a string of storms, both snow and rain. (Never something we could build a leaf pile in.) The oaks, on the other hand, had more color and brilliance than I ever remember. The early, freezing temperatures brought on their color change in a way that surpassed anything in my memory. Their hardiness enabled them to not only withstand but be perfected by the cold. Amazing. Every time we step foot outside we keep stopping numerous times to pick up another oak leaf, and then another and another, or to stare at the oak tree in all its glory, literally glowing in the fading evening light.

And finally, we had a day that was not so windy that all the leaves had blown away, not so wet or snowy that you couldn't rake them, and lots of oak leaves and leaves from the last hardy maple and Kentucky coffee bean tree all over the ground just calling to us to rake them into a pile for all the kids to play in. Lots of laughter, jumping, leaves flying through the air, kids exploding from underneath the pile of leaves, rolling in the leaves, and even a little bit of contemplative sitting in the glorious pile before the energy levels had geared up. And then the beauty of these days was that the sun left, the chill returned to the air, and we all went inside with plenty of time to make dinner, eat and go to bed early.

A Puddle Stomping Day

It's a gray, overcast, rain coming down, put on your puddle stomping boots and run outside to play sort of a day!

Anna and Josie had fun and got soaking wet, as you can imagine. Ruthie had more fun playing with the umbrella handle and touching wet leaves.

We even followed the rain puddles and the trail of fall leaves all the way down to the creek, which was pretty high, the water swirling rapidly downstream. Not the lazy clarity of warm late summer water. At the creek autumn has definitely arrived, the water is chilly and dark and splashed with the color of brilliant fall leaves. The girls had fun throwing sticks in the water, watching them float upstream caught in an eddy for a moment, then getting caught by the current, spun around and whisked away.

They were chilled to the bone by the time I talked them into coming back inside so of course we had to make some hot foamy milk.

Josie took a turn frothing:

And then Anna:
And the results, with a dash of cinnamon, were delicious and warmed us all up right down to our toes!
Even little Ruthie tried a lick:

And liked it!
What could be better?
I hope your day is filled with fall, both the outside fun and the inside times of cozy comfort. Throw a stick in a creek and watch it float upstream, and then continue to watch as it gets caught, swirls around and around and floats away out of sight downstream. Somehow in that space of watching and stillness there is room to hear things that we forget to listen for in the chaos of our everyday lives.

Change of Seasons

-An extra warm, cozy blanket on my bed last night (made with love by my sister Becky). I loved snuggling down under the weight of it with cold air on my cheeks.

-Find all the winter jackets in a hurry! Bundle up, vests on underneath, hoodies up. Ruthie wasn't quite sure of what to make of all these layers.

-We covered the tomato plants with a tarp last night. Josie and Daddy went out after dark and tied the corners down . We have so many green tomatoes on the vine still and we didn't want to lose them all.

-Grey skies. Clouds fogging up the top of Green Mountain and the Flatirons.

-The last of summer's hot weather bounty from our garden, brought in before it freezes.

-Chard and Kale still going strong! Cold weather won't hurt these yummy veggies for awhile. You can't even tell we've harvested two huge bunches for dinner in the last few day.
The season is definitely changing around here. I am enjoying it. Hunker down, get out all the pants and sweaters that have been hiding in the back of the closet all summer long, actually wear shoes, feel the chill in the air, watch the leaves just starting to turn... I like the change. I'm sure I'll be tired of the cold weather and layers of clothing long before we are done with them around here, but I like the new freshness of it right now, the excitement of watching the cycle of the seasons happening right before our eyes experienced with every sense in our bodies.

Look who just fell asleep in my arms

Cute pudgy baby feet still learning to walk:

Sweet little hand still learning its dexterity, so quick to grab onto Mommy:So trusting and innocent. So energetic, curious, talkative and expressive when awake, so peaceful when asleep.

Garden Update and Wonders of Nature

It has been a while since we posted about our garden, so we figured it was time again, especially with the way everything has taken off in the last couple of weeks. You'll have to indulge us as we share our pictures from today. They were taken in the middle of a hot afternoon, so some of the plants were a little wilty, but you can get the idea. First, though, here is a picture of an interesting beetle that hung out on our screen door overnight and half of the next day. Anna and Josie thought it was pretty cool. It actually hissed at us whenever we came near. I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but it is about an inch-and-a-half long.

Now to the garden. It may just look like a crazy mass of random plants, but there actually is an intentional order to it (and some intentional wildness). The large plants in the background are kale that we are hoping to get seed from. We planted these plants last year. The seed came from Katie's grandmother, Ginya, in 2002. We are almost out of the seed, and it is nearing the end of its viability, so we wanted to get some more seed. We are not sure what the variety is, but we have never found it anywhere else. The seed pods are just about mature, so we will probably pick them this week. We are anxious to see if the seed is relatively pure. In the foreground is some of the same kale planted this spring. It has already yielded copious amounts (just look further down the page). There are also orange calendula flowers, a sage plant on the front corner, and bunching onions around the border.


This is the same corner of the garden. Toward the top of the picture, tucked in under the kale are beets and swiss chard. The chard will be happy to see the big kale plants go soon.

This is a picture from the other side. In the front corner is some dill. Calendula, beets and cayenne pepper are behind that. The green and purple patch in the middle is our salad mix. There are about five or six different varieties of lettuce growing together. One benefit of having a cool early summer is that we have had an abundance of salad greens. We cut from this patch at least once a week and have more than enough salad. Now that the weather has warmed up, I expect each cutting to be the last and that the lettuce will bolt or turn bitter with the heat, but we harvested yet again today, and it was still just as tasty. When the lettuce does bolt, I plan to leave it so that we can gather seed from it to have our own seed for salad mix next year.

The green mass in the middle of this picture is carrots (more on those later). The plants with white flowers sort of growing over the top of them are arugula. This is arugula grown from our own seed that we grew last year. Now it has gone to seed, and we are almost ready to collect the seed from it for next year. To the right, it is hard to tell, but there are six varieties of peppers, some of which are setting on pretty well, though the plants are a bit scraggly. We need to get some more compost on this area. The peppers are planted amongst another variety of bunching onions. In the front right corner is the mint that we try to keep contained to this small corner.

A close up of some of our peppers.

Our tomato jungle! There are seven varieties of tomatoes growing here. I think the plants all grew about two feet in the last week. With our cool early summer, they are a bit behind, but they are now loaded with blossoms, and have a fair amount of fruit setting on. We are still hoping for a good harvest.



The tomatoes are quite a bit taller than Josie. She will still be able to reach the cherry tomatoes (2 types) that grow right by the path. We can hardly wait. Tucked in around the tomatoes are numerous basil plants, some thyme, and on the far side chives, oregano and garlic chives.

Some cosmos. The seedlings were given to us by a neighboring gardener. They were coming up quite prolifically in her plot, they were self-seeding from last year's plants.

I didn't realize that eggplant blossoms were so beautiful. We have three plants tucked in around the tomatoes. They are looking good right now as long as they don't completely get crowded out by the tomatoes. (If they do . . . I'd rather eat the tomatoes anyway.)

And we can't forget the Three Sisters garden! (The three sisters are corn, beans and squash.)The corn was a little slow getting started (I think again due to the cool early summer). The beans however are doing great. They are Mexican red beans. We grew them last year in a small spot just outside our door. They produced about a pound of dried beans, and we saved enough to plant this 100 sq. ft. area. It is looking like we will have quite a large harvest. It is tough to see the squash in this picture, but it is coming along nicely also after a slow start. I think we will have zucchini to eat next week (a green and a gold variety). We also have cucumbers (2 varieties), three varieties of winter squash and pie pumpkins. In the middle, Anna is standing in her sunflower house. The sunflowers haven't taken off quite like we had hoped but the idea is that as they grow up, morning glories planted in between them climb up and form the walls. It is starting to come along, and Anna had fun playing in it today.


Here is Anna standing by her "fireplace." The largest sunflower was her fireplace where she was frying corn and strawberries. In the foreground is one of our zucchinis.

Soon after we came in from the garden Anna started calling for me to come. She spotted this deer walking through the courtyard. It is not often we see deer in the courtyard. Foxes and raccoons are much more common (not to mention squirrels). This one seemed quite content to hang out for a while, though. That's okay with me as long as it stays out of the garden.

And now for today's harvest:

I was really excited when I pulled these carrots out today. We have never had much luck growing carrots. We will get big green tops that seem to indicate healthy plants, and even the tops of the roots seem big and fat, but then we go to pull them out and they are only about two inches long or forked in three for four directions. So I was pretty excited to harvest these first carrots of the year. My experience with carrots has shown me that a lot has to do with the soil texture. It has to be loose. So getting carrots so much better this year than last indicates that we have done a lot to improve our soil texture in just one year. And 'growing the soil' is my favorite part of gardening.

Some of the swiss chard we ate with dinner tonight.


Some of the bunching onions which went in our Indian lentils and rice.



We harvest this much kale at least once a week. This will be used for tomorrow's dinner.

Our friends Darren and Ruth and their daughter Alex came over for dinner, so it was joy to get to share from the bounty of our garden with them. We had Indian lentils and rice that used onions and mint from our garden, sauteed chard and salad greens with shredded carrot. That's when it is really fun and fulfilling-- growing good food then sharing it with others

We even had a little flower arrangement for a center piece. Calendula, cosmos, mint and cilantro flowers.

And one more picture of Anna at the end of the evening as she decided to decorate her hat with clothes pins. (She's wearing the dress that Mitch made her for Christmas this year. Josie has a matching one. He sewed them without even using a pattern. Quite impressive, really. )

Ruthie Recognizes Her First Word

Besides her own name, that is. She's responded to that for a while. But now she recognizes the word Dada! If you ask her "Where's Dada?" she'll turn and look at Mitch with a big grin on her face and an expectant look in her eyes. What an amazing, miraculous step for someone so tiny! We take verbal communication so much for granted, but she's connecting the dots between what she hears and the world around her for the first time. I feel privileged to watch.
It feels like she's been learning a lot lately. You can see it in her eyes as she watches my mouth make certain sounds and then sometimes tries to mimic them, at least the shape of them. One of my favorites right now is when Mitch waves goodbye to her when he's leaving and she looks at his hand, studying it, pondering the motion of what he is doing, and then slowly extends her own hand and looks at it. I wouldn't say she's really waving yet, but she's thinking about it!

Amazement

Sometimes in the midst of the stress of having three young kiddos, a husband going to school full time and my own emotions taking me through a rollercoaster ride each day it is good to remind myself of all the amazing things in my life. To share a few (in no particular order):

-Spring! The cycle of the seasons never ceases to amaze me. Winter is officially over and our days seem full of the warmth of sunshine and flowers starting to bloom!

-It is amazing to me that little Ruthie stays asleep after I put her to bed at night and doesn't wake up 5 minutes later.

-There is plenty of money in our bank account!

-The worm that Josie found:

-Our friend's new baby girl, Irelyn

-Ruthie's constant smile, despite the stress and chaos around her

-Grace

-Onions coming up in the garden: