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Homey, home, home

I was going to post about our holidays, then I began sorting through the 200+ photos taken over the span of a week, and a rush of overwhelm came to me. We have a REALLY large family. We made the 600 mile trip to be with them all. Needless to say, it was a very full holiday.  A good one, but a full one.  Although stress peaked through my days at multiple moments when preparing for the trip to the motherland, I have to admit, the little one had a ball. She really did. Our visits work out like this: once we arrive, I pretty much flop myself onto the couch and parent from a distance the entire time. Bea instantly becomes attached to her grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles. Each and every one of them does such an amazing job of watching out for her, loving on her, playing with her...It's no wonder, she checks in with mama and dada so infrequently when we are with the family. Watching her interact with her extended family truly makes the work worth it!  We are all so grateful!  

Despite the fun Miss Bea had, home called us back. And at home is where we are now.  She's getting reacquainted with her little daily routine - trying to remember what life as an only child is all about!  

First things first - life can't proceed without bread. And since, I gave my homemade bread as gifts to my family, our freezer had no emergency loaves left.  Bea helped out and wore one of her Christmas gifts - a little apron made my mama!  Yay - it fits her just right! 

We are learning how to share! When we arrived back home, Bea found this little doll bed, along with the doll highchair, and wagon under the tree. All three pieces were thrifted from Craigslist. I made the bedding for the little bed, which you can see was tossed out of the bed and onto the floor in exchange for what? Oh, a toddler.  

And here she is at her favorite corner in the house - her little kitchen area. "I cook!" she announces. "Eggs fa Foo." Foo is the bunny in the highchair. I kid you not. She named the bunny Foo.  Her doings, not mine. 

Breakfast with the little one.  Love these simple moments. Hope your days are unfolding as simply as ours are!

 

From our home to yours...

Peace,

Nichole

 

Photo taken by Katherine O'Brien.

Randomness

We're toodling along. The busy, mad dash to the finish line is winding down. The list making is now including trip details and packing. We are off to Louisiana in just a few days. The weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas sometime remind me of the Olympic games for DIYers, crafty bloggers, homesteading mamas and such. I'm not feeling like Olympian material these days.  Though, I did manage to crank out some handmade goodness for some of the people I love dearly. 

My camera has been with me throughout much of the holiday preparations, yet as I uploaded tonight for the first time in almost two weeks, I quickly noticed the randomness to its use. Random is just fine to me right now. Perfectly accurate representation of what our days have been. A great, huge mix of so much activity, with tasks getting completed in an often random order. 

Because sometimes I just can't creep out without taking yet another shot.

Salt dough ornament fun. Inspiration gathered from the winter edition of Rhythm of the Home. 

Coming up for air from all of the holiday crafting, baking, teaching, working, party planning, cleaning, washing, parenting...by soaking up my little neighborhood's BIG art fair. It was real nice, I tell ya. Not for tacky grandma's.  

All dolled up - and ready to play in the coop.  

We took a quiet walk around the advent spiral together at The Natural Child and lit two candles. 

Yay! Music in the mornings!

The euphoria of breakfast tacos and coffee. 

Their little bedtime ritual.  

Our very own cozy nook detector! 

A modest (ehem) mound of gifts!

The good stuff. Right. in. front. of. me.

 

 

 

 

Right now, I'm...

Below is a post I began a few weeks ago that I never published.  'Right now'  is so relative. These moments happened in the 'recent' past, yet seem long ago already.  Life continues to roll forward, never pausing for one moment. 

~hand quilting a blanket for the little one's big girl bed. A stitch here, a stitch there. Perhaps I'll complete by the spring.

Hand quilting was put on hold until the holidays pass.

~spending many hours holding and cradling my growing girl as she works through some painful teething. I'm reminded all over again of the euphoric feeling of a baby nodding off on my chest. 

Teething has subsided. New teeth have prodded their way through to the top of her gum line. Though, "hold me mama" has become the new normal. 

~ready to take my first knitted hat off the needles. Yay! Must take more knitting classes in January. 

Bea beat me to it.  Ouch... I'm too embarrassed to return to the knit store with yet another catastrophe.  I'll quietly start over...this too, after the holidays. 

~finding new inspiration and snack ideas for both home and school from The Waldorf Kindergarten Snack Book.

I'm still inspired. We had millet cakes for snack last week. Yum. 

~wondering if anyone else has heard of Deep Springs College. The author of this book (which I'm loving) was both a student and chef there. Now, if only the college accepted women.  Fascinating still...

Buttermilk...not a dish or baked good seems to be lacking this ingredient in my home lately. 

 

 

our days this holiday season

Though I've gone public with my mixed feelings regarding this time of the year, you have to know that what I love most about this month is gradually embracing me from all around these days. Yes, the spirit of the season is alive and well in our home. 

Last year at this time, Bea was just a babe ~ a sweet, beautiful, snuggly babe.  Now she's one year older and it's fun to share bits and pieces of our holiday traditions with her.

Indeed, life these days, feels more acutely like that of a story book, when my little one and I wake before dawn, she in her footy jammies and I with bed head and grogginess. The moment she points to the focus point of the living room, smiles, and says "kitsa tee" I can't help but feel love and childhood giddiness for this short and magical season.   

 

Give Away Bliss

When I was just a girl, there were two things that I wanted desperately:  a trip to Disney World and a piano. Guess what?  Those wants never materialized. I write this without an ounce of self-pity too. Even young children can learn from the valuable life lesson that we don't always get everything we want in life. Years, no decades, have trickled by. And despite all the hoopla that the grand amusement park experience promises, I now firmly have no desire to ever visit it. What was the 8 year old me thinking anyway?  Oh, I just liked Mickey Mouse, I guess. 

The piano...has a different ending, sort of. 

My mom cleaned houses for a living when I was a little girl. When school was out or when I was sick, I'd sometimes tag along with her to other people's houses. My favorite houses were the ones that had cable tv (Disney Chanel) and a piano. A couple of them had this perfect combination. 

I took lessons for a bit as a child. But I stopped because I didn't have a piano to practice on. Still, I always loved the piano and the idea of playing it. Somewhere inside of me, I've always regretted not continuing with the lessons. Really, I just loved music.  I loved playing my clarinet in the band. I even got a guitar for Christmas one year. In the end, though, I just dabbled. Adolescent and teenage years got in the way. I got bored with my teachers. And since then, I've never, ever considered myself a musician or musically inclined or whatever.  My musical interest disappeared - or I buried it. 

And then Bea came around and reminded me of a few things about myself I'd long forgotten. Even though I'm not a great singer and I am sure that I'll never master a musical instrument, she reminded me how much I still just love the act of music.  She is never more in her element than when we are singing or dancing together. In fact when she was just a few months old, I can remember driving around town and glancing back at her through the rear view mirror - dancing, oftentimes with rhythm, to the tunes on the radio. She's still something to see. Music, to her, is a force that can not be ignored. Each time we've entered a room with a piano, she's gravitated so strongly to it - climbing up on the bench, and touching and pressing keys with such interest and joy!  She's reminded me of how much I loved to do the same thing when I was a child.  

Thus, the last couple of months we've had our eye for the perfect piano for our needs, our house, and our budget. Last week, a post came up on Craigslist saying that the owner was moving and the first one to contact her could have her piano. We have a piano in our living room now.  I polished it today. It's lovely.  

Another wonderful thrifted gem to add to our home.  

 

 

This Moment

One photo. A single moment. No words. Inspired by Amanda. 

My girls

I feel like I should be talking about our (non-exisistent) advent rituals, all the hand crafted goodies yet to be crafted by this mama, and the general peace and calm that this time of the year is suppose to evoke upon our days.  Bah...it's bright and sunny in my parts, and I just can't seem to get myself in gear on the whole mad list making that is required to pull off a 100% hand-made holiday.  

I almost let Bea run around the yard in a diaper and t-shirt today, then I remembered it's December.  I herded her back indoors, coaxed her into some pants if only to keep the neighbors from talking. I'll get some of what I have planned for the holidays done.  But only some of it. I have to accept my limitations and abilities. I don't know how some of you out there do it. :) 

Perhaps some of you out there have sensed my sarcastic tone today and that I have a bit of love/dislike relationship with the month of December. It's true, I do. I'd love to love it. Yet, in my little head, the sweet, gentle, ticking deadline begins to pound louder and louder with each day that goes by. Deadlines bother me. 

Rest easy, the sarcasm ends here. 

But you know what has offered me the greatest respite to the December jitters - my girls.  After our first tragic experience back in October, we decided to try again with another eight chicks. Much to our delight, these girls have grown quickly and are turning out to be lovely young poults. Yes, I never thought I'd enjoy keeping chickens as much as I do so far.

Byron finished the coop a couple of weeks ago. I love you marvelous man! He used these plans which he has been very satisfied with. He's still working on the hen house which should be complete soon. We've been lucky to have mostly mild nights here. On nights that were worrisomely cold, we've boxed them up and kept them in our garage. Once the hen house is complete, cold nights won't be as much of an issue. The girls will stay nice and cozy in there.  

Oh yes, even the chickens will have a little hand made goodness to make their house feel more like home. 

Just look at them. They are so happy and friendly.

Bea and I love to visit with them. As soon as we come near the door of the coop, they are welcoming us in. When I squat to feed them, they hop in my lap.  Bea is just plain tickled by their presence. She loves to just sit amongst them, laughing and squealing at their chicken ways.  

Chickens: my solution to holiday stress.