a Very Visit

Since Jessica (of Very Baby and Balancing Everything) already made a post about our visit I’m going to start at the end of our vacation and work up to the beginning.

You see, when Jonah was a new baby I had a conversation with a friend where she told me her sister was using cloth diapers with her new baby and my incredulous reaction was “What, is she crazy?! A baby generates so much laundry as it is! And a newborn poops constantly!” But within a day or two my curiosity got the better of me and I thought I’d venture a Google search on the internet about modern cloth diapering. In my search I stumbled across a little internet business dedicated to selling fabric and supplies called the One Stop Diaper Shop. A little more surfing led me to a bunch of articles written by the shop owner. They were witty, they were at times hilarious, and they convinced me that I should at least give cloth diapering a try. (You can see the current version of those articles here.) I e-mailed that shop owner with I don’t know what question. Over time there were more e-mails and discussions about natural parenting, diapering, eating healthy, natural childbirth, circumcision. That shop owner, Jessica, invited me to read her private blog with all her research and thoughts (It was my first time hearing of such a thing as a blog and I must admit back then I felt SO voyeuristic!). She introduced me to Hypnobirthing which empowered me in making the birth of my 3rd child my first natural birth.

Anyway, that was a long time ago– probably about 9 years! Over that time we’ve become blog friends. With so much in common– cloth diapering, homeschooling, religion, chronic disorganization, craftiness, parenting philosophy– we felt like we knew each other, but never really KNEW each other. Since she lives in eastern Idaho and we were planning on going up there to visit my brother we decided to set up a date.

The bonus was that my friend Tracy, who I know and love from my involvement with the beginnings of Art of Womanhood and other TJEd related things, is in the same ward (Mormon congregation) as Jessica and her very good friend, so I got to hang out with both of them for a day! We went out to Thai food and then ended up with our families at Jessica’s house.

We basked in the refreshing (is that a good positive spin on it?) Idaho wind.

The kids played in the back yard and gave the batting cage a try.

My kids got a fix for their Lego withdrawals. (Jessica’s boys ran and hid in the closet when they saw me come down with my camera.)

And us moms just hung out and talked and Tracy rubbed my pregnant, swollen feet and ankles (and back and shoulders) for nearly two hours!

She’s a doula (among many, many, many other things) and I wanted to pack her up and take her home with me. All the sitting in the car we had done did a number on my ankles and she was able to get all the swelling to go away! If she didn’t live 10 hours away I would have her come and rub my feet and legs my whole labor. Barry was a good sport to sit and endure all the girl talk. I think their efforts to convince me to join them at Homeschool Swim Camp next year almost convinced him because he’s made a few comments about how I need to start practicing driving the van with the trailer attached.

This whole blogging universe is a pretty crazy thing. It gives us a chance to find kindred spirits and to see a glimpse into others’ lives. I was grateful for the chance to make some of my “imaginary friends” true real life friends.

And did I mention they both have chickens? Someday, someday I will live in a place I can have chickens…

Yes, I’m still alive!

We’ve been out adventuring in the wild west (or in other words driving hours and hours through scrubby Wyoming desert) and I came back to phone messages and e-mails wondering where we were. Here’s a photo to help you guess:

And here’s a link with another little hint.

I’ll be back soon with details, but right now I’ve got to figure out what we can eat from our bare cupboards…

the school/family/music/everything room

A while back I told you I’d show you the new art work and rearranging I’ve done in our family room. I did show you my new pillows, framed quotes, and my mantel. Here’s the rest of it.

You can see what it used to look like here. We moved the piano into this room and moved the big kid drawing table into my art room. This has worked much better for the flow of our days. Every morning we gather after breakfast with some singing and a prayer. With the piano in near my desk, sewing machine, and spinning chair it was often a tradition that caused me more stress than pleasure. Someone (read Logan) was always spinning in my chair, turning on my sewing machine, crashing into things, climbing on furniture not intended to be climbed on, being completely distracted by a book. We haven’t eliminated the book distraction with this set-up, but there is no spinning chair or sewing machine. Much better.

I splurged on some new alphabet art I’ve long been wanting. I love Ida Pearle’s paper cut illustrations and thought the alphabet cards would fit well in our learning space.

I also gifted myself this wooden laser cut alphabet from bookhou.

Inspired by this homeschool space I found some fun field guide posters. We use the bird one quite a lot. Ian has been really interested in the human body, so I thought the skeletal system poster would be fitting for us now too. Someday I think I’d like to add a small one with some more color — leaves or mushrooms or backyard bugs. Or maybe a colorful embroidered alphabet sampler. Something colorful, anyway.

I spruced up the curtains that hide the deep shelves crammed with extra school stuff and a couple of toy baskets with some patchwork stripes. They make me happy.

Here’s another view of the old piano. Every time we’ve moved the movers are incredulous. It is in pretty sad shape, but it works pretty well, I think it’s pretty, and it’s ours. Barry wants to paint it this summer. I’m not sure how I feel about that. It could be fun, but I also like that it is big and dark to balance our big and dark couch on the other side of the room. I don’t know what color I’d want either. I think maybe I’ll paint the bench and see what I think from there.

So, there you have it– our everything room. Always a work in progress.

a trip to LA

First off– I want to be a better blogger. I’ve really been slacking lately. I have a goal to write here every day this week. (Week long goals are the most realistic for me– anything longer and I’m bound to fall off the wagon.) What do you want to hear about? What makes you hop over here and read what I write? Any questions I could answer? Anything you want to know my thoughts on? Please, please help me out with suggestions. I’m sure my week of posts will be more interesting if you do.

Anyway…

I have birthday posts for both Jonah and Brenna to catch up on, but I’m trumping those with this one first. Every year on the week of my birthday Barry travels to be an Air Force judge for the International Science and Engineering Fair. When Hunter was tiny I went along and last year Brenna joined him for a day. This year the plan was just for him to go on his own but be home for Brenna’s birthday, leaving late that night, then be home in time to take another day off for my birthday. That’s the plan I was in on anyway. Meanwhile, he was cooking up another plan which included finding an overnight babysitter and purchasing plane tickets. On my Mother’s Day my card was a printout of MY flight itinerary. What a fun surprise!

I shopped while he perused the science projects, then we went to the beach.