a little inspiration

This place we chose to live in on such short notice has surpised me over and over with its beauty.  The sounds of birds in the morning, the sounds of children playing all afternoon.  Flowers and freshness and friendliness all wrapped up perfectly to be a balm to the soul after such a big move.  With the exception of the spider population which seems never ending and widely varied all the flora and fauna has been delightful.  A wild turkey in the yard today, some baby opossums hanging in the tree the other day.  And the planting here are so lovely I just wanted to share.  To be able to really spend some time outside the house has been a dream come true.  To have great children for E to play with, a blessing.  Surrounded by beauty.

I love that we are now in the season that our garden dictates our meals to some extent.  Would you like some cherry tomatoes with that? No? Well, here, have them anyway.  I love being able to eat from the garden too.  The problem?  I have no interest in maintaining the garden.  Or maybe, that isn't exactly true but I have two very strong objections to working out there. One is the heat.  As I get older my ability to withstand heat gets lower.  Sometime after I moved to Baltimore I got heat stroke working on my car in front of an Advanced Auto.  Let me tell you, the guys who worked there were really impressed until I fell over.  Then they were kind enough to bring me in and sit me down and get me some water.  I can be still in the shade in Baltimore heat, but bending and standing repeatedly to pull weeds makes me dizzy as anything. (Heck, standing up inside in air conditioning can make me black out, so I guess that is no surprise.) Th...

  Oh my, oh my!  I've been wanting to share this for about a month.  We have this little area at the front of our garden bed that has never quite been right.  Everything I put in there gets burnt up by the sun or crushed by the people who walk by every day.   In adding more zen to my life I thought a rock garden might be just the thing.  It doesn't photograph so well, but I really do think it looks pretty.   And after we started we just couldn't stop.  I also filled in the ugly, weed filled open square on our sidewalk and the Bug picked some pansies and phlox to go in it.  He and the other kids on the block were such great help for this project.  It was great to see them all playing in the dirt and working together.  Everything seems to be doing really well! It is so much more pleasant now! {Speaking of pleasant, aren't the new big pictures wonderful??!}

For the last three years I have always been away when my favorite flower bloomed.  I fear this year it will be the same.

Sometimes the most beautiful thing is right outside your door.

gardening , originally uploaded by Mr & Mrs Speeed . {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. From Soule Mama. Have a lovely weekend, friends!

The Bug and I are slow roasting tomatoes today. Sydney tried to help but we decided that we have enough fur in our diets, thank you very much. The big news is the Bug rolled over this morning while I was in the shower and his Papa was watching him. Then later he did it again for me. Weirdly, this made me almost cry. It is so cool to watch him develop and change. Every moment brings something new. I tried to capture a roll on a little video but, of course, he is holding back. However, I am posting the video anyway because he is so flippin' cute I just can't help myself. He is a little screechy and the sound quality is bad so turn your speakers down a bit. Enjoy!

So last week consisted of two days with only a dribble of water followed by a few emails sent by Senor to the Mayor, a Council woman, the neighborhood list serves and the company handling the water project in our area (to be fair I had already called 311 to find out if the City could help me or tell me when we might get water back and only gotten a rude response saying I should be grateful I have any water at all.) Then, only thirty minutes after Senor sent the emails he received phone calls back and only ten minutes after that a very large man was standing on our doorstep with wrench. He bent down to walk through the door and our water was restored. Then we had two blissful days of perfect water. Sunday morning Senor turned on the faucet to discover no hot water. He went to investigate and found that we had plenty of water in the basement. So much that it had put out the pilot light and flooded our "wine cellar". So everything that was in the water got moved outside. ...

As further indoctrination into motherhood I suddenly understood last night that all the baking that seems to go on when you have littles is really because mama has a craving and doesn't want to go to the store. So lets see, what do we have on hand? Almost enough chocolate chips and some currants to make up the rest? Perfect! Also, early this week the Bug lost his last reminder of the direct connection he had to me for nine months. And now he has an adorable little bellybutton instead. Yay! Honestly the cord didn't bother us too much as it was mostly covered up by the giant cloth diapers but it was oozey every few days as it let loose a little more. I was changing him at a restaurant when it fell off and I had a twinge of guilt about throwing it in a public trash can. As if throwing it in my own trash can would make it more sacred... Yeah, then I got over it. :) And also, just to show we aren't all baby, all the time, look at our lettuce! There is something very s...

Despite the rain all night and and all morning into the the early afternoon we still made it out and completed most of the job yesterday. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all those who made it over and especially those who braved the mud to put our garden together. An extra shout out to Missy for taking pictures with my camera. There are many more pictures on fliker and as things start growing I am sure you will all see lot's more.

Do you see the ticker saying 30 days left... Have you noticed my belly jumping around as if there is someone living inside? Today was all baby moving, all day. Starting this week I go see the midwife once a week. Tomorrow we meet our doula. In other news I have to redo the garden plan. Senor tillered more space for me and I have more to fit in... Can't wait to see you all at the party!

Next weekend is the garden(ing) party... This weekend is the prep work... The plants have come. The garden is planned. The ground is tilled. And fertilized. In addition I have packed my bag for the hospital. Senor felt contractions the other night while I was asleep and he had his hand on my belly. So he thought it was time to be prepared... This week we also hired a new me at work. So I can train her and send her to all the events. Yay for preparing!

Okay- I took some pictures- yay! And I couldn't sleep so I eventually went downstairs and made not one but two changing mats for the baby- before breakfast. Anyone who actually knows me should understand just how bizarre that is. I generally (thanks to the magnificent Senor) don't get out of bed until after breakfast on the weekends. Seriously- unless it is to go somewhere for breakfast. I decided to make two of these because it would be easier it I had one ready even if I needed to wash the one I was using. I used the tutorial from sewtakeahike check out her other tute's listed in the sidebar. I am sure you'll find something you have to make. You may remember the fabric on the outside from our chair upcycle last spring. (Can you believe it has been that long??!) And the flannel is from that never ending sheet I bought for $3 at the thrift store forever ago. And the binding is from Cindy's grandmother's stash. Yay. I used snaps instead of velcro becaus...