Kaia and her mom (before my battery ran out!)

A morning alone.

The weather lately has kept me away from the computer. And I don't mind. I've been outside digging and moving rocks, and nurturing each little green thing that pops through the soil, and thinking and rethinking what I will do with my garden, hanging and folding laundry in the sunshine. I love this time of year, before there are any bugs to worry about, when it is comfortable in a fleece (which is the only jacket which fits me), when the sun is a vitamin D bath without the sunburn. I could stay outside all the time. I even made sun tea the other day, which is such a summer treat. Except on days like today, however, when it is a bit too chilly and pouring down rain. No, today I feel appreciative of my cheap Ikea red chair, which though comfortable, was not worth the money, nor was the matching couch, but that is a whole other story of impulse buying.

My boys are sleeping (even though we have to be somewhere in 50 minutes) and I'm getting one of those mornings that I haven't had in about 22 months. Where I can make my self some breakfast (and I am cursing the fact that I didn't get my decaf coffee ground yet!), curl up in a chair, and enjoy the silence and stillness of morning.

Raph is on vacation this week and due to the size of my belly we didn't make any travel plans, which is in fact a vacation of the truest sort. I can't remember the last time we had so many days that involved waking up on our own time and deciding how to spend our day. We talked about visiting friends in Boston and Martha's Vineyard, but so far our plans have dissolved as we've just enjoyed being together, the three of us. It's a nice reminder that we need to do this more often - not to fill our weekends and minutes too fully, but to slow down and enjoy eachother. Does this sound sappy? Give me a morning alone and this is what you get I guess.

Anyway, I have pictures to post, but I haven't downloaded them yet. I have a full rainy day ahead of me to make things like that happen, though so stay tuned.

Ups and Downs

The biggest up lately has been the weather. I can barely stay inside while Makili is napping, knowing that I could be outside with the sun beating down on me working in the garden. We're making major progree outside too - the foundation for the greenhouse is in, and we have the whole dug for our little patio, not to mention the beds ready to sustain us. It really has been glorious lately. My friend Lauren who's baby is due on Sunday stopped working so Makili and I have been hanging out with her and Kayden more often which has been fun.

The biggest down lately...Raph found out he doesn't have a job next year, so we're on the job hunt again, which is always a long annoying process. We're confident everything will work out though.

Obsessive Behaviors

Apparently toddlers can be obsessive little individuals. I've heard of little boys being obsessed with construction vehicles or some other big truck type thing. My kid - balls. This is one of his favorite pasttimes - putting his ball collection on the couch and then shooting them all one by one. Another favorite pasttime is going hoop-spotting in the car. He sees a lot more hoops than me - both real and imaginary.

Another recent obsession is letters. His definite favorite is "H." He finds it everywhere. Like on the butt of girls sweat pants. It is awesome when he starts pointing at girls butts yelling "H." He also knows A, B, C, D, H, I, M, O, P, Q, R, S, T, and W. That's half! He's really into at the moment. When we go to the post office and they have words on the rug, he freaks out. "B," he yells. That what he generally calls all letters and numbers.

My kid is also willful. We had a pretty good week except for Tuesday when he fully refused to wear a diaper after his bath. I tried the normal negotiations - "Makili do you want some sauce (apple sauce)? Ok...well you need a diaper first." Nothing. Nothing worked. So then I tried the old tackle him and put his clothes on thing. Got the diaper on and he tore it off and took it and hid it. So then I went and got a onesie and the diaper and put the diaper on and the one-piece outfit. He unsnapped it between his legs and pulled his diaper off again. At that point I was about ready to roll up the rugs and call it potty training. So I told him, "If you don't want to wear a diaper, you have to sit on the potty." He marched right into the bathroom and sat on the potty. I gave him candy for sitting on the potty. He sat there for a while (never actually peed or pooped in the potty) and then when he got tired he got up, went and got the diaper and brought it to me, allowing me to put it on him. Then he refused to take a nap. I didn't win that one.

Reflections on last years garden

By the end of the gardening season I was so tired of gardening that I couldn't write about what I was proud and what I wanted to do differently. This weekend we spent a morning in a dark basement transplanting tomato seedlings grown from seeds we saved from last year. Tim, my cousin who never does anything in a small way, planted every seed we saved, which added up to something close to 250 heirloom tomato seedlings and 75 heirloom pepper seedlings, not to mention all of the seeds which haven't been started yet. He won't thin them either, arguing that we can sell the extra ones (like 225 tomato seedlings and 65 pepper seedlings?)


It is still fun to start the process again for this year, but I think we did learn a lot last year which I want to write down for the sake of reflection. So in no particular order, tidbits of learned knowledge or things I'm proud of.

• Llama poop makes things grow.
• Spinach does not grow well in our soil.
• You don't need to plant a whole lot of kale, swiss chard, radished, cucumbers, yellow squash or zucchini, since we got more than we could have ever needed of these. One thing I'm proud of though is that I froze a lot of greens and still have two baggies left in the freezer. Last year, I bought a bunch of greens every week and I didn't buy store-bought greens once this year!
• I don't need to can anywhere near as much jam as I did last year (even after I gave a ton of it away).
  
• Tomatoes are glorious, but growing them is hard work (staking, getting rid of horn worms, etc.) canning them is really hard work, and we didn't even dent our tomato stores this winter. I still have jars of salsa and stewed tomatoes. (So why 250 tomato seedlings? Good question.)
  
• I want to freeze more berries for smoothies.
• I want to use my dehydrator more for more things - more peaches, blueberries, etc. The tomatoes sort of took over the dehydrator last year.
• I didn't get any mature watermelons or canteloupe, though I wanted them terribly. I have to try them in another location in the garden.
• Potatoes and sweet potatoes did great for our half-assed start - we want to do more. (I ordered seed potatoes this year instead of sprouted potatoes out of one of Raph's coworkers' work closets.)
• The corn was somewhat successful, but I need to let it get a better head start over the beans, since they created a matted mess of corn stalks that was hard to figure out. Also, we need to pick it all when it is ripe and freeze what we can't eat instead of letting it get overripe.
• Pumpkins did well, especially for no poop, but they need to get an earlier start. (This may also apply to melons.)
• My favorites from last year's garden were beets, which I couldn't get enough of, eggplants, which were awesome roasted and frozen, carrots - especially the purple ones which were delicious roasted, and cabbage, which was easy and beautiful. I want more of each of these.
• Don't plant peas against the house again - it was too hard to get to them.
• Brussel sprouts were a bust - have to be started indoors. Try again.
• I might have overharvested my rhubarb last year (since my freezer is still full of it).
  
• Peppers did pretty well (especially for no poop), but we bought started plants. Those that met the deer never recovered. They did great frozen too!
• Grow cilantro in phases instead of having it all come at once.
• We saved so many seeds - cilantro, peppers, melons, tomatoes, radishes, arugula, squash, etc.

Our first crop is already up and growing this year - GARLIC! We planted a whole bunch and are excited for the garlic scapes this spring and for garlic later in the fall. And we've added onto the garden. One more big ston bed and this month we're putting in at least one more raised bed, maybe two. Also we're putting in strawberries, and hopefully asparagus this year...

More Kaylee Favs

The Aunt, large and in charge.
Makili and his buddy, Koda.

My little brother, the father.
The forgotten child.


Grammy with her babies.

Photo shoot outtakes.

The family.
And Kaylee.

Kaylee Falon Beal

My newest niece at 2.5 weeks!  I'm so lucky to get to see her before our baby comes.  Hopefully I'll get some pictures of my brother...he's been working.

It's hard to be little...

Long lost cousins

Raph's cousin, Christian, came to visit with his wife Mags and his son Liam. They got here while Makili was sleeping. Liam was very anxious to get Makili out of bed and find out what kinds of toys were in his bedroom. They were buds once Makili got up though and played soccer, played in the rocks, etc. Liam climbed his first tree (and also fell out of his first tree). And they gave us a ton of hand-me-downs for Makili!!!

What I'm up against.

As my midwife says, "the honeymoon is over."

Makili can catch!

Saying ball thousands of times a day (literally thousands) seems to have paid of as he is now able to catch a variety of ball sizes. So we're making progress there!

He remains a little confused about the purpose of the potty however.

PS: I'll get off my B+W kick soon!

Thoughts on New Orleans

We had a really great trip to New Orleans, even though Makili slept horribly. I couldn't really blame him since our hotel had no cribs, and we shared our room with our friend Mark who went to the conference with Raph, and instead of two queen beds, our room had two doubles. We made a little bed for Makili on the floor, which only lasted part of the night, after that he just kicked the crap out of us all night, so Raph and I didn't sleep too well.

We stayed in the worst hotel ever, the Hotel Chateau Dupre, which we affectionately called the Hotel Chateau DuCrap. Our "non-smoking" room reeked of smoke. The TV remote didn't work at all, and you had to stick your finger into a gaping hole, risking an electric shock every time, to turn it on. The radio also didn't work. Everyday our keys would stop working, so we'd have to wait in line to get our keys reprogrammed at the desk, while the woman working there completely ignored you and went on and on with the person in front of you or on the phone about nothing. There was no shampoo in the room and not enough towels for all of us. The first night we arrived shortly after mid-night, and when we found out that there were no cribs, asked for some extra blankets to make Makili a bed on the floor. She told me that I couldn't get more blankets until the next day. Makili's favorite part of the hotel stay was the metal plate that was supposed to cover the edge of the carpet going into the bathroom, which wasn't actually attached to anything, so he could pick it up, wield it like a weapon and hurt himself or one of us.

The best thing about the Hotel DuCrap was it's location, which actually was perfect. We were very close to the Marriot, where Raph and Mark had their sessions in the conference, but also in the French Quarter, so that there was a lot to walk to and see. Makili and I spent most of every day walking around and enjoying absolutely beautiful weather. The architecture in the French Quarter is awesome and it was fun to be in a city. We ate great food, even though we were warned by several people that vegetarians couldn't cut it in New Orleans. Raph loved the beignets at Cafe Du Monde, the croissants at Croissant d'Or, the pasta at Angeli's on Decatur (which was awesome!). We took Makili to the Louisiana Children's Museum, but mostly he just loved throwing and retieving his ball in the grass on top of the levee along the Mississippi River. The weather was glorious. Yum. And it was great to get away without too much agenda (the conference wasn't too consuming...

Though we had a terrific time, I have to say that I sort of felt like I was in Cancun on the beach, not really seeing the real mexico. We were limited by where we could walk, so we only really saw the French Quarter, the business district and the museum area. We never saw the 9th ward, or areas in destitution. I felt like New orleans was one big tourist destination, designed to look a certain way for the tourists. We walked down Bourbon Street one night, which is nothing but a disgusting tourist trap. The rest of New Orleans, though thoroughly enjoyable, sort of seemed like a similar sort of thing, though, with much more character...

At home, it is cold, but look what is popping up!