Construction updates and cuteness

Fake Smile.No Smile.
mom's silly hat.
Greenhouse is 50% done. Tim and Tamara came over and got sun burnt helping us on Sunday, but now we're in a holding pattern because we're missing some parts. Tim really liked using the drill though.

Here is the finished patio - already covered with crap! The sod looks a little shabby, but it will take I think! Anyway, we love it.

i don't know what came over me...

So i don't sew clothes. It just is something that I don't do. I don't know what came over me that led me to sew some pants for Makili. It certainly wasn't any lack of clothing in his drawers (drawers in his drawers...hahaha). I did it though and am pretty happy with me first two attempts. Makili for his part was a willing model, though plenty silly and terribly cute.





The second pair was much better at the waist and cuff. I had real difficulty with the waist on the first ones because I didn't use a pattern and didn't realize how straight the top cut needed to be. Also, I wanted the rolled cuffs and as usual didn't think enough steps ahead so that there wouldn't be an unfinished seem when the cuffs were turned. Both of these problems I rectified on the second pair, though I still plan to make a few changes. First, the legs are too tapered. Second, I think the inseam is a little too long, though I appreciate the whole "growing into them" thing. Anyway, I'm pretty excited about the pants, so I plan to try to some more. (I'll probably have to give them away since we have no room for more drawers in the drawers...)

Construction Projects

So we are working on finishing up some construction project that were sort of in the works before the disappearance of Raph's job.  This week has been a big push.  

This was our "patio" a week ago.  (The crazy vegetable stand thing in the background has been moved too!)

Last Sunday after it was raked out:
Yesterday when we were laying stone.
Makili was actually helpful for a good while!  He tries to be helpful often, without always being successful.
And now it is actually done, but I didn't take a picture of it.

Instead, here is the greenhouse site a week ago:
And here it is with one wall up:

We're hoping to mostly get it done this weekend, since we're expecting gorgeous weather!  I'm excited because the size of the pile of trash (okay so it is actually aluminum, wood and glass) is going to be diminished!

Who needs a...

Who needs to pay for cheap thrills when they can be had so easily on a 2 foot slide (for hours)?

Who needs basketball hoops when there are buckets and tomato cages?

Who needs a sandbox, when you have a giant pile of stone dust?

Seriously, I'm not buying anymore toys.

Easter a little late

As you may be aware, Easter is my favorite holiday. I didn't document it well this year, and maybe that is partly because I got ripped off - the first year I didn't get an Easter basket from my parents (and I've been giving my mom a hard time about this even though Makili got one) and Raph didn't do the candy hunt, even though I went out and bought the candy. I'm over it though, really.

Instead I did a candy hunt for some of the exchange students on Saturday. They loved it, though they missed a LOT! I'll give em a break since it was their first candy hunt. I got up at 10:30 on Saturday night to make an egg hunt for Makili and Raph, which was fun. I paid a dollar for "ball" eggs for the clue hunt. You should have seen his face when he found the first basketball egg. He was SO excited. Daddy helped him read the clues and they were all placed in places that he knew the word for like shoe, bath, crib, etc. So he found all the eggs (with help here and there)! And he got an Easter basket with art supplies and sticky letters, which he has been applying to everything. Raph got hot chocolate, which made him a happy guy too.

Then we got a brief visit from Kane and Abram and Ny, which I did take some pictures of. It was a good holiday, even if I didn't get an Easter basket or a candy hunt.

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.