Gardening

It seems that we have taken an unofficial break from blogging this summer.  I have been consumed by maintaing my garden lately.  Every afternoon, and every evening I am out in the garden, mostly harvesting.  I love it.  There is something so satisfying about planting a seed and watching it grow into something that can sustain you and your family.  Most of the planting work was done by Mr. Emily, but now that the work is more rewarding, I am in! 

We are currently housesitting and live on a big lot with a giant garden and many perennials that bear fruit.  (Think rhubarb, raspberries, nanking cherries, chokecherries, gooseberries, chives and winter onions.)  Here's a peek at some of the things we have successfully planted.  

Potatoes

Beans

Tomatoes

Zuchinni on the left, on the right squash, cilantro, lettuce, cabbage and even soy beans!

My favorite part about having a garden is being able to harvest my meal seconds before I eat it.  Here are some of our recent garden meals.

From the garden: Potatoes, beans and zucchini.

From the garden: Lettuce, spinach, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and spinach and zucchini on the pizza.

It is obvious why summer is my favorite season!  I hope that you are enjoying just as many lovely fresh foods too this summer

Books to Read: Middlemarch

Emily is a genius right?  She's so great at playing with her kids and coming up with fun activities for them.  I probably shouldn't admit this is a public forum, but I'm not always great at playing with my kids.  Sometimes I get so caught up in taking care of my children (and keeping our home running) that I don't take the time to sit down and play with them.  My four-year old especially craves and asks for this.  Recently he's been asking me why I spend so much time on the computer.  As a result of him calling me out like that, I've been trying hard to spend less time online and more time on the floor building lego spaceships (he's a four-year old boy remember).  This is part of the reason it might seem like I've dropped off the face of the earth, but I'm sure you understand.

I don't know about you, but when I was a little kid, I was a capital "R" Reader.  I didn't have many friends at school (again with the public confessions, but it was a really small school and I had some rough kids my age), and so I filled my afternoons reading.  I read less in junior high and high school (I finally made some good friends), but I was often found reading a book late into the night.  During college, I read so much for my classes that I got out of the habit of reading for myself.

For the last two years I've been part of a really amazing book group.  My group is made up mostly of ladies from my church family, but also a few others from the neighbourhood.  I feel pretty lucky to be part of this group for a number of reasons.  First, it motivates me to read a really great book every month.  For me the hardest part is deciding what book to read, so it's nice that I don't have to worry about this part.  We don't have a hard and fast rule about what we are reading, but it's mostly consisted of classic or newer award-winning books.  The other great thing about my group is that the other ladies are all really bright.  Several have doctorates, a few more master's degrees, and all are women that I admire.  Our discussions are always intellectually rewarding, and since some days I fill all my time building lego spaceships, potty training, and keeping house, I crave this opportunity for my brain to get some practice.   

One of the books we read recently was Middlemarch, by George Eliot.  This book wasn't on my radar before hand, but I'm so glad I read it.  It's not a fast read, my edition was 924 pages, but it's the kind of book that you savour as you go along.  The story is interesting, but it's not exactly a page-turning plot.  Her language is beautiful and so insightful.  George is a man's name of course, but was written by a women publishing under a man's name like many other's did when she was writing in 1871 and 1872. 

My very favourite quote from the book is the last paragraph:

But the effort of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

Reading this has really made me reflect on why I do what I do.  I think most of you know, but I stay home with my three kids.  As a teenager and college student, I didn't always anticipate that I would make this choice.  I felt like I was bright and had much to offer the world, and I didn't want to waste it on something so ordinary as taking care of kids.  But after my first son was born, I knew that I wanted to stop getting a regular paycheque, and spend my time taking care of him and his future siblings.  What I love so much about the Middlemarch quote is that I think it really captures the positive value of smart people caring for others (and particularly their children).  I don't think you need to be a stay-at-home parent to do this, but I completely agree that some of the people that do the most good are those performing quiet "unhistoric" acts.    

Are you part of a book group?  If not, you should start one.  Need help knowing what to read?  Here are a few books we've read that I highly recommend:

• Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
• Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner
• The Brother's Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
• David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

Do you have any recommendations of books to add to our queue?

On My Fridge

Whenever I go to a friend's house, one of the first things I want to check out is the outside of their fridge.  I think that the way a fridge looks can tell you a lot about someone. 

My mother-in-law, for example, keeps the front of her fridge totally cleared off.  The side that is exposed is reserved for a calendar, and a few carefully selected items (like pictures of her grand kids).

My mom, on the other hand, has a pretty full front of fridge.  It is as packed as can be - her motto is "there is always room for something else."

So, where do I fall?  I think somewhere in the middle.  Do you want to see?

The bottom half of my fridge is totally empty, because I have a toddler who likes to empty things.  The top half has some carefully selected items, pictures of loved ones, and some current kid artwork. 

I love the blogging world for keeping me organized and current.  My Meal Planner comes from ollibird.com, via How About Orange.  I printed it off, laminated it, and use it all the time.  I have also made lots for friends and family members. 

At lets-explore.net, I found a series of Ways to Play lists for each month of the year.  I printed them off all at once, keep them in a file, and stick a new list up on the fridge each month.  They are great lists for those what to do? moments, and are good for a range of ages.

The Job Planner is my own handiwork.  I used to have a list that I hand wrote on a piece of scrap paper, but since I look at it all of the time, I decided that I should make it a bit more official looking.   You can download your own weekly job chart here.   Again, I just printed it off, laminated, and write with dry erase or washable markers.

I've separated my to-do's into work and fun stuff.  There are the weekly household type chores, and then the activities that I do with my girls.  I don't do any housework on Sundays (and sometimes not on other days either!), so I've got my job chart divided into just six days. 

So, what about you?  What do you have on your fridge?  Any helpful finds from the blogging world, or other things you find indispensible?  Or maybe you are the type who likes a clear fridge? 



We Are Surviving

Baby girl is now over a month old, and she isn't so sleepy anymore.  Her new favourite thing is to be held all day long - even, and especially, when she is sleeping.  Yesterday was a tough day for us.  The only time she slept the whole day was in my arms.  Each time after I got her to sleep and would place her every so carefully in her cradle (I still need to take and share pictures of it).  Then I had about 1-2 minutes before she would wake back up again.  As soon as she was awake she was fussy because she was so exhausted.  Last night was the most and the loudest that she has cried.

Mr. Carlee is borrowing a lens from a friend to try out, and this picture came out pretty crazy as a result of his experimentation.  But I think it does a good job of capturing the moment.   

Notice the red eyes?  I'm feeling pretty tired and it's hard to feel like I can 'catch up'.  I sure feel tired, and I have had several people comment that I am looking tired.  And they are right. 

But honestly, even though the last month has been a little tricky, we are doing okay.  One thing that is great about having a third baby is that I know this stage won't last forever.  Eventually she will start sleeping better and for longer periods of time.  Babies get big so fast, and I feel like it's so much easier for me to enjoy this stage this time around, despite the almost total lack of sleep.  Instead of feeling sorry for myself for how hard this is, I'm trying to keep it in perspective and log a lot of time wearing baby girl in a carrier (I'm loving the Moby Wrap courtesy of Alexis).   

Over the last few days I've seen a ton of people reference an article on Carpe Diem from Glennon Melton at the Huffington Post.  I know I don't 'enjoy' every moment with my kids, but I like to think that I am enjoying the journey.  Being a mother (and a parent) is pretty hard.  As my friend Eva said recently, "it's a full-body job".  That's so true, right?  My back hurts from carrying the baby, and my body feel a little worn out, but I'm also pretty full of love when I look at my three little ones.

 
I'm no expert on this whole three kids business, but I feel like it's all going to work out.  We've had tons of help from kind friends that have brought meals and watched the boys while I spend some time with the baby, and sometimes even have a much needed nap.  And there are lots of things that aren't getting done.  My house isn't very clean (as I mentioned before), and I haven't pulled things together enough to start using cloth diapers with the baby, but we are surviving.  Right now, I'm totally alright with survival. 

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo

I just finished devouring a wonderful book.  I enjoyed it so much I thought I would share. 

Image from openlibrary.org

In this book, the author - Paula Huntley - recounts her experiences living and teaching English in Kosovo in 2000-2001.  Paula accompanies her husband to the capital city, Prishtina, where he is working to rebuild the legal system after the Albanian-Serbian conflict and years of communism.  Paula bonds with the people of Kosovo, and especially her students, with whom she forms the Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo.  Together they read Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea.  This story is, as the book jacket reads "a compelling tribute to the resilience of the human spirit."  I loved it.

I have a dear, dear friend who is from Albania but now lives in Canada. Paula Huntley's description of Albanian culture matches exactly to how my friend has described Albania and the Albanian people.  In my experience, Albanians are incredibly warm, extremely generous, and hold fiercely to their beliefs.

Reading about war-torn Kosovo has made me think a lot about my own life, and has helped me to see life through a more appreciative lens.  Despite my problems (crazy kids, starting a new business, and piles of student loans to pay off), I know that I am immensely lucky.  I am also reminded of a Babble post entitled "Be Thankful You Have First World Problems."  The post is pretty tongue-in-cheek, but I think some of the entries are scarily true.  (As a side note: I prefer the terms Developing and Developed to First and Third World.)

Has anyone read The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo?  Do you have any other read book suggestions?

A Few Things that are Awesome (and One that is Not)

I don't lead a very glamorous or exciting life, but this week I've been noticing a few little things that are pretty great.  First, on Saturday night, Mr. Carlee and I spent our evening watching Annie (the original from 1982).  And it was his choice.  And he knows all the words for every song.  He has 6 sisters, so what can I say.   In case you don't think this is very manly, he also knew how many times the dancers flash their underpants in each number.  Does that help? 

Next up on my list of awesome stuff, I can still paint my own toenails.  I'm five weeks away from my due date and it's good that I can still bend.  Now, can I actually see my toes?  Not most of the time, but at least I know that they look respectable even if I can't verify it.  I'm one of those lucky ladies that feels pretty great being pregnant, and I can never compete in the pregnancy complaint competitions.  This baby girl is a squirmy, wiggly thing, and I'm enjoy this time quite a bit actually.

And just in case you think I lead a charmed life, because I'm not sure it gets much better than watching Annie and painting my own toe nails, I tried to potty train my 2 year old, and it was an epic fail.  I have these dreams of only having one kid in diapers, and I decided that my window for making it happen was quickly closing.  We started yesterday (using a modified version of "Toilet Training in Less Than a Day"), and he only had accidents and no successes.  Kid 1's comment, "I never saw pee in his potty even once".  Me neither.  By the end of the day he was refusing to sit on the potty and practice going.

I thought it might be better this morning, but I think it got worse.  There is a good chance it had something to do with his 5am wake up time, which is 1.5 hours earlier than his usual early start to the day.  He was still refusing to try to sit on the potty, and was having tantrums about everything else as well.  During one melt down, Kid 1 declared, "this is the worst day".  And it was only 8am.  I'm not sure it had quite qualified as the 'worst day' quite yet, but on the current trajectory, it was going to be.  So I decided there was no shame in quitting.  After all, he just turned two and I can always try again when baby girl is a few months old.

So what did I do?  I put his diaper back on, threw him in his crib, and hoped he would nap.  He didn't, but I didn't care.  Then I did what I think my mother would have done, and spent an hour wiping down the baseboards and walls around my table, which were shamefully filthy, while he hung out, and cried, and talked to himself in the boy's room.  It still wasn't a good day, but at least it wasn't the worst ever.

Art and Motherhood



I want to share my thoughts on art and motherhood today.  I might be the last person to consider myself an "artist," but art is a big part of my life, and it is especially a big part of my concept of motherhood.  My older daughter and I spend a lot of time together in the "craft room."  (That's what she calls the dining room.)  The times when the baby is sleeping, the house is still, and we sit down together, are times that I really treasure.   

I am constantly learning more about child development, parenthood, and how I make this work for my family.  I will never be in a position to say, "I'm good.  I don't need to learn anything else about raising my children."  I am, however, in a happy place with how art plays into my day to day, and my overall theory on life.  Here are my three over-arching art-life-children themes:

Surround children with beautiful things.


Art is about the process, not the product.


Creative time is together time.

I'd like to think these concepts are pretty self-explanatory.  I'd also like to think my life is a good representation of these ideas.  That's not always the case, but I try to have it be the case. 

Surround children with beautiful things.

Beauty is of course, subjective.  I do think that some things are universally beautiful, like the above picture taken by Mr. Emily in the Canadian Rockies.  We printed it and hung it in the house.  We have other gorgeous landscape shots as well as artwork hanging in the house.  One of my favourites is The Kiss which my daughter calls "Daddy Kissing Mommy."  I think that children can be taught to appreciate art and beauty, and that they should also be taught to discriminate between what is good, and not-so-good quality artwork.

Art is about the process, not the product.

Most of the time, when my four-year-old paints, she ends up covering the whole page in a painty mush.  I'm okay with it, because it doesn't matter what the end product looks like.  It matters that she has had fun - and mashing up the paint is always fun.  I do sometimes times introduce my one year old to art, but these sessions are pretty short.  They usually involve her ripping paper, or putting crayons in her mouth.  Art time should be developmentally appropriate.  I try not to introduce projects that are going to frustrate my kids or be over their heads. 

Creative time is together time.

Although it can be tempting to always set my kids up with some paper and paint and get some work done, I try not to do this very often.  For one, it doesn't work.  My kids need me right next to them.  I also want to show them that art is something that I enjoy too, and that I like being with them.  It is fun to sit down and make something together.  In the photo above, my daughter and I covered a box with paper and decorated it.  Of course, the extreme to the concept of together time is that I could do all of the work, and not let my kids experiment or make mistakes.  I try not to do this either.  We work together.  We both contribute and the end result is mostly fun.

So, what about you?  How does art play into your life concept?  What do you do to introduce children to art and the creative process?

New Goal: Get Stuff Done

The pile that sits inches from my left arm as I type this at my computer.  I should be ashamed.

I am a procrastinator.  Any of you in that same boat?  I have piles all over my house of things to take care of later.  Paper that needs to be filed, clothes that need to be mended or altered, broken toys that need to be glued back together (or tossed), clean laundry to fold and put away, things to return to friends, and the list goes on.  I am also a bit of a hoarder and feel incapable of dealing with clutter, so this can be a bit of a problem for me.  I find that I waste a ton of time organizing my piles, or thinking about how to tackle them, instead of actually taking care of the problems.

So I have a new goal; Get Stuff Done.  And more specifically (because I really do get quite a bit of 'stuff' done everyday), I am working at taking care of problems when they happen.  Today I feel like I made progress.  When we moved to New England (two years ago) we had to open new bank accounts.  Then our old bank merged with our new bank, and our accounts have been a bit of a mess.  Today I finally went into the bank (with both kids mind you) and got everything sorted out.  I took an hour.  Not my favourite hour, but now I can stop feeling worried about mystery fees on accounts I don't use, or accidentally paying my bills from the wrong one.  Progress, right?

And then I felt so good about myself, that I fixed something else.  A few days ago Kid 2 broke a piece of Kid 1's tea set.  I know you might think it's my own fault for having a breakable tea set, but the admirer of Montessori in me, likes the idea of teaching kids to handle items that are fragile.  Kid 2 is two years old, so he is still learning to be careful, and a piece fell on the floor and broke.  And what did I do?  I put it on my crowded kitchen counter out of reach and pledged to 'fix it later'.  



So today, I took 5 minutes, and just fixed it.

 

As an aside, I'm a big fan of this craft glue from Martha Stewart.  I've used it for lots of projects, including glueing this particular tea set back together again, and it works really well.

Easy, right?  Now if I could just keep up the momentum and tackle some of the other piles I have in my house (and the mental lists in my head).

This Old House

We recently moved into my husband's Aunt and Uncle's house.  We will house-sit here for almost 2 years while they are on a mission for our church.  The house is amazing, and I am feeling so lucky to live here.  It is just oozing with charm.  Let me show you a bit of it. 



The house was built in 1913 - that makes it 98 years old! 

The fireplace is a Rumford style fireplace.  It is tall and shallow which is meant to give off more heat.

I love all of the wood and neat details throughout the house. 

The house has radiant heat.  There are radiators throughout the house (this one mid-way up the stairs).  I love the detail work even on the radiators.

The bathroom has orginal fixtures.  I love this big bathtub, and the wooden toliet tank is really cool.

Living in this house is very inspiring.  It also has been showing me that when things are made well, and taken care of, they can last a long time.  I think my Grandmother Mary Frances would approve.

Sometimes I bite off more than I can chew...

One of the really awesome things about living out east, is picking trash. People here leave unwanted items on their curb for semi-annual large trash pick-up from the city, but also with the idea that someone will take it home before the garbage does. Some of the stuff that gets left by the curb is truly junk, but sometimes you can find some really awesome stuff. I have friends that have scored nice couches, bookshelves, desks, dressers, etc. this way. You all know how much I love thrift shopping, but picking up free stuff is much, much more exciting.

A few weeks ago I found something awesome by the curb while driving on a street I don't normally go down.

It must have been fate, because I have actually been on the hunt for a nice little wooden cradle for years. I have never found something I love at the right price, and I think this little cradle is so cute. And free is definitely the right price.

Since it was someone's garbage, I knew it was going to take a little work to turn it into something that I will actually put my baby into. The first thing I did when I brought it home was to throw the mattress into my garbage can, and clean it down with some disinfectant. Even though I was planning on stripping and repainting it, I wanted it to be clean until I had time to really work on it.

Today was the day that I started to strip off all the old paint. I did a little research to find a stripper that had good reviews and was as non-toxic as possible (since I'm 7 months pregnant and I have two little kids running around), and I went with Citristrip from Home Depot.

Things went along well for the first bit, and I managed to get the whole thing covered with the paint stripper. Based on the way the paint was blistering, I innocently thought I might just get the whole thing finished in just a few hours.

And initally, it started coming off just fine too. Then I started working on the spindles, and I realized this was going to take longer than I thought.

After working on it all morning, I spent a few more hours out there this afternoon. And it didn't look much better than when I started. At one point my neighbour walked by and said "Are you getting close now" (refering to my baby's due date), and I told her I still have two more months to go.

Translation: I have two more months to finish scrapping off all these layers of paint, sand the whole thing down, repaint it, cut a new foam mattress and cover it, and make some cute little sheets. Suddenly two months doesn't seem that long anymore...

What have I got myself into? Any tips on removing old paint? I think I'm in the market for something magical to help me out of this mess...

Sisters Trip to NYC

I'm taking a break from showing you my sewing projects (I promise I have a bunch of refashions to share soon) to get a little more personal.  Last week my sister Emily (of the blog) came to visit me.  Since we graduated from college, we have only been able to get together at most once or twice a year.  Now that we live across the continent from each other again (she's in Alberta, Canada, and I live in New England), I have a feeling our visits will be even less frequent.  But, last week she came to stay for a few days all by herself.  It was so fun to have her visit us (we love her kids and husband too, but it was a real treat to have her all to ourselves), and we packed in quite a few fun adventure.

The highlight of her visit was an overnight trip to NYC.  We took the train into the city on Friday morning and the trip passed quickly as we chatted away.

Our first stop after arriving at Grand Central Station was our hotel, and then we headed over to the UN to walk around outside.  After this, we hopped on a subway down to the Brooklyn Bridge, where we walked past Ground Zero, and admired the statue of liberty from a distance.

 

Our walk back to the bridge took us past City Hall and all the beautiful buildings in the area.  We were feeling energetic and walked all the way across the bridge, and then headed up to the Shake Shack on 77th for a late lunch. This is one of the great places in NYC to grab a quick lunch.  The portebella mushroom burger is awesome!

Our next stop was the Metropolitan Museum of Art via a stroll across Central Park.  If you are going to NYC, be sure to visit the Met.  Even if you only have an hour to spend, it's so fabulous, and since you pay what you want, you don't feel like you need to stay all day to justify the entrance fee.  And if nothing else, the view from the roof is worth the trip.

Since we were in the mood for museums, we walked over to the MOMA next.  On Friday nights, Target sponsors a free event from 4-8 pm, so that made it a great time for us to visit.  It's been a while since I've spent this much time at museums, and it reminded me of the days when Emily and I were in Vienna together for a semester of college and we went to LOTS of museums all over Austria, and Northern Italy.

After a yummy and affordable dinner (we both ate for $18 total including tip) at Pam Real Thai in Hell's Kitchen, we headed back to our hotel (we used Priceline to get a great deal by booking on Thursday).  After a full day of walking all over Manhattan, I was one tired pregnant lady!  But luckily the next morning I was ready to do it all again.

On Saturday morning we took the Subway down to Canal street and walked up Greene street in SoHo.  While walking up this sleepy street (everything was closed when we walked by just before 10am) we stumbled across this bike.  I can't imagine how much time this took someone to crochet.  It was such an unexpected find that I had to take a picture!
 

Our wanderings took us through Greenwich Village, and then east towards Union Square.  Here we stopped for lunch at Num Pang Sandwich.  This is another place that I would highly recommend.  We've both been to NYC a few times and have seen all the big sites, so this Saturday was all about checking out cool looking neighbourhoods, eating yummy and inexpensive food, and spending time together.  Oh, and of course we had to spend a little time in the garment district as well.  

Just like last time I visited, I had a hard time finding Mood Fabrics, but we were glad we made it.  For all you Project Runway fans out there, this is a must see in NYC.  It's huge, but actually feels a lot smaller and more cramped than it looks on TV.  But they really do have everything there.  There are walls full of ribbons all arranged by colour and width.

And did I mention ribbons?

All the leather that you could ever need in every shade, weight, and type.

 

Unfortunately, soon after our wanderings through the garment district, Emily had to catch the train to Newark to fly back home.  I wish she lived closer so that we could do these kid-free sister visits more often.  Especially if they take us to NYC!  Even though it was a fast visit, and we spent just barely more than a day in the city, it was the perfect way to end a very lovely visit. 

I've been thinking that we should have more regular sister visits (maybe we will be able to get together with our other sisters and sister-in-laws next time).  What do you do with your sisters when you get together?  And what do you like to see in NYC?  I'm always looking for someplace fabulous (and cheap) to eat when we are in for the day.  Any recommendations?