Egg Shades

One afternoon I was looking for something for Serafin to paint and thought it might be fun to do something with an egg carton.  We go through so many eggs in this house and I'm always looking for creative ways to re-use them.  Todays project was a success!  We ended up painting and making some goggles!  Serafin had fun wearing her new shades as well as forcing them on me and Silas!

First, of course, Serafin tries them on, . . .

Then subjects poor Silas to them, . . .

And then me, . . . (SEXY!)

Then she wanted them back and wore them on her head for an hour before taking them off (after which she proceeded to stomp on them).  Whoot whoot!  An eventful day!

PS, . . . I just found this awesome blog that does these fun challenges and I thought I would partake.  This one was dedicated to egg cartons--go figure!

Spring time!

Spring is here, . . . sigh.  My favorite time of year.  Such an affirmation of life.  I love taking the dogs out and watching them go crazy with new smells and soft dirt to dig into.  

The wild flowers bloom more and more as the days go by.  Mother nature paints orange, yellow, purple and pink dots all over the hills.  So beautiful.  I find peace walking through nature.

I have to say, the trails up in the Oakland hills have been a refuge for me.  In times of hardship, somehow, the trees, the hills and the sky bring me warmth, even when it's cold and windy outside.  I have walked these paths for a number of years, I have walked them slow, I have walked them briskly, I have walked them at 9 months pregnant, with a child on my back, I've stopped and sat in the grass to breath, I've clambered up random pathless hills and rock climbed my way down the other side.  I can find my way around these hills in my sleep.

Mother Nature, . . . thank you for your gift of life and beauty!

Remembering Mom

April 6th, . . . two years since Mom passed.  I miss her so much.  Today I will light a candle, have a cup of tea, and think of her.  Lemon Balm will be appropriate.  She always loved that tea, plus it's a wonderful and tasty herb tea that helps relax the nervous system.  If you have a moment, please share some fond memories you have of her below in the "comments section".  Her memory lives on inside us.  

Remembering Mom, . . . 

There are so many memories, here are a few, . . .

Listening to her heart beat as she rocked me when I was a child.

The firm grip she held on my arm when she pulled me away from something I should not be doing.

Telling me about the "birds and the bees" and what it was to become a woman.

Fixing me herbal concoctions for my health and well being. 

Catching my tears when I would cry about something.

Using spit to clean the dirt off from my cheek (she still attempted to do this even as I  became an adult!).

Walking with her and her telling me what herbs were what.

Picking plants with her and making medicine.

Staying up late, studying for tests and writing essays with her help.

Cooking with her and eating her delicious food. 

The trips, the car rides, the long plane flights, the world we saw together.

Watching "Survivor"!

Gossiping on the phone.

The holidays.

Hanging out.

Feeling Loved.

And some memories in photos, if you have any to add, please forward them to me via email and I will include them, . . . 

Greece!  Oh what feasts we had!

More feasting, and this one cooked by Mom of course, she was an amazing cook!

More adventures!  We travelled all over the world together.

My baby shower for Serafin.

Fun times

X-mas time, her favorite holiday.

Funny Faces (my mom was never too shy when it came to being a goof)

Bora Bora

On the front lawn with my greek yaya.

Feeling the energy in a stone circle with Dad.

Rocking Serafin.

When Paul and I were little.

Operation Orcas: Take 3

So I managed to get up to Orcas in one piece, it was a long trip up and I'm not particularly looking forward to the trip back.  It's hard traveling with a baby!  That said, so far Silas has been a super trooper.  Tomorrow I head into Seattle to hang out for the day and see my bro and his family.  That will be nice and it will also break up my trip home a bit.  Orcas is as beautiful as ever.  This place still feels right to me.  Oh yeah, I'm also happy to announce that Ecstatic Dance has made it to Orcas!  Yay!  That will be fun!  I am excited about living here.  

Anyway, let's get down to the nitty gritty, I know you are all wondering, . . . what about the homes???   I looked at four homes on this visit and, fortunately, Gary and I both have the same top two.  So that's good!  I believe we could live in both homes happily.  But how do we choose which one?  Now begins the weighing pros and cons.  

The breakdown, . . .

Home #1 (not in order of preference): 

( There are views in almost every room in this house, here is a picture of the view from the master bedroom!  Wouldn't it be amazing to wake up to that everyday?)

This place has the "awe" factor as soon as you walk into it.  It's gorgeous.  GORGEOUS!  There is tons of inside space and an amazing view.  It is high up on the mountain which means that the land around it is rocky and also has some very steep slopes.  Despite this, the land is still beautiful, it's a mossy heaven up there.  Being so high, also means we will be snowed in a few days each winter, . . . but it wouldn't necessarily matter in this home, in this home,  you would enjoy a winter storm.  

This place has great finishing touches.  The kitchen has cherry wood cabinets and a huge range.  Each bathroom has some cool tiling and pretty colors.  There is also a river rock fire place that runs straight up through the living and kitchen area (picture to the right).  Gary told me that Serafin tried to climb up it when she visited!  Also, . . . vaulted ceilings, . . . need I say more?  

The home itself is very practical, but the location and the lands around it are not.  The outside needs work, there is no garden space and a lot of the outside space would need some major fencing to keep the kids from diving off the hillside.  Now that makes me nervous.  Although the lands aren't that bad, I'm still not sure if I want to deal with the worry this property might bring in terms of child safety.  

Home #2: 

A sweet home.  This is your typical ranch style house.  No "awe" factor, like the other, but this was a very calming, mellow home.  It definitely felt like more of a "family" home.  There is a large living area and dining room and I easily pictured Christmas and Thanksgiving feasts here.  I could almost hear little feet running around in the hall way.  

A major plus about this property is the surrounding land.  It's much flatter and the garden is already set up and ready to go.  The location is better in terms of locality to other families and island resources.   The land itself is divided into three plots, if we ever needed to sell a parcel for extra income, or whatever, we could.    

. . . 

So there you go!  After some serious hashing it out with Gary, I'm sure we will figure out which one we are going to shoot for.  At least there are some real potentials here.  I truly believe if it's meant to be, it will be and if not, then there is a reason for that.  We'll see what happens and you can bet that I will keep you posted!  It's sooooooooo crazy to think that if this all goes through we might be moving this summer!  AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

"The Crows of Pearblossom" Art Project Part II: The Eggs

So after finishing the nest from Serafin's book, "The Crows of Pearblossom", we decided to make Mrs. Crows eggs next.  Mrs. Crow lays an egg everyday, ("accept Sundays and national holidays").  Her eggs are green with black spots.  In the story, the day the rattlesnake is outsmarted, there are two eggs in the nest and of course the greedy snake decided to eat them!


We had fun making the eggs.  Since Easter is right around the corner, I thought it was appropriate to do the eggs sooner rather than later.  You can do this with whatever colors you want, if you're like me, you have a box of tissue paper somewhere in your house waiting to be used.  Since Mrs. Crow's eggs are green, we stuck with one color.

The process, . . .

First blow out the yolk of some uncooked eggs, to do this, poke a small whole in the bottom and top of eggs and literally blow out the insides, of course don't waste them, make some scrambled eggs!  Let the egg shells dry out before you begin decorating.  

Cut up tissue paper, whatever colors you want, it would be fun to do many colors on one egg if you are doing easter eggs.

Use a glue that will dry clear, I have a love affair with Mod Podge.  Cover egg in glue and start applying paper to egg.  

Keep applying more tissue paper, adding more glue on each layer.  

 To add the black spots, or whatever you want to add (stripes, stars, hearts, whatever!), cut construction paper into the shape you want, add to the outside of the egg and once again, cover in glue.  Let dry!  

We also added some glitter for a little sparkle!

Stay tuned for our next project, . . the rattle-snake!

To Be A Mom

Another one of Gary's photos, ya think Mr. Silas could be teething??

I always wanted to have kids.  When I pictured myself grown up and older, I always imagined having a family, particularly with two children, a boy and a girl.  I think because that was how my first nuclear family was formed, that's how I also imagined it.  After trying to become pregnant for almost four years, my sweet daughter Serafin was born.  I felt like my dreams had come true, like a gap was filled inside me.  I had found my "job", . . . to be a mom.

 I believe there is a period of time in everybody's life where they search.  For what?  For contentment.  For a purpose.  For the job that keeps them smiling and amused.  For that "something" that "feels right".  I finally felt like I had gotten what I was in search of with the birth of my first child.  Silas' birth only furthered this feeling.  When he was born, I felt that our family was complete.  

When I look over old blog posts, or look at pictures, I see how much I do with my children.  I see how fast they grow.  It feels like only yesterday that I was pregnant and awaiting the arrival of our first born.  I love being a mom.  I have fun teaching my children things and spending time with them, . . . being creative.  I know I could always do more or do things differently, but parenthood is a learning process.  My children are my teachers too!   I feel blessed that I am in the situation where I can spend this period of their lives with them, connecting with them and being present in their lives.  This is what I wanted.

On the flip side, as life always has it's ups and downs, . . .it isn't always easy!  In fact, a lot of the time I feel like I'm in a circus, juggling life or teetering on a tight rope.  Sometimes I feel like I'm about to fall off into insanity!  Parenthood is amazing, . . . and it's tough.  I NEVER, EVER, thought it would be easy.  

I have always enjoyed my independence and having "Jess Time", which is now slipped in between doing chores, bouncing babies, making sure I, and everybody else, gets fed, bathed and put to bed.  After Serafin was born I struggled with this loss of independence and now that Silas is here, I struggle again.  How do I get "me" time when I'm hardly ever alone?  It ain't easy, I'll tell you that!  I have trouble scheduling anything these days, let alone scheduling in things that I want to do for myself.  These days I'm a "let's play it by ear" gal, it all depends on how much sleep I get the night before.  The plus side is that in a lot of ways having children is teaching me to be more layed back and to let go into life more and more.

You could have guessed, or not, that I'm writing this after having a very difficult night of waking every 1-2 hours, being a human pacifier, holding my crying child, crying myself, praying for sleep, and feeling drained and exhausted.  Yet when the sun comes up and the day gets going, somehow I continue on.  One day at a time, right?  It is all made right when little Silas smiles at me or sweet Serafin tells me she loves me.  My family is my life and as difficult it might be, I wouldn't change a thing (accept maybe throw in a few more hours of sleep here and there!).  Once again I am humbled by gratitude.  I also have to acknowledge that I couldn't do it without my dear hubby who is always around to help (thank goodness)!  I am a blessed woman. 

Operation Orcas Take 2

(Above is a picture that Gary took on Orcas a few weeks ago.  Little Ms. Serafin is playing in her first snow!  Wish I could have been there, but here's hoping to many many more days like this!)

I'm happy to report that Gary has found a few potential homes on Orcas Island!  Finger's crossed!  It's good he went up first, he's definitely the more practical of the two of us.  I'm better with energy and flow--go figure.  Now I get to go up and really just sit and "feel" the homes.  I'm heading off on Monday to be coming home on Friday.  

It's going to be a whirlwind trip, to be honest, I'm not too excited about it.  I'm looking forward to seeing the houses, but I will be traveling with the little one and I'm a bit nervous about it.  I never travelled with Serafin when she was this young and especially never travelled with her alone.  A couple of weeks ago I would have said I was excited, but Silas has been thrown off since he had the stomach flu and now he is teething hard--we're talking up every 1-2 hours.  Not fun.  That said, at least I won't have to think about dirty dishes, getting dinner on the table, feeding cats and dogs and doing dirty laundry, blah blah blah.  It will be an adventure with me and the boy!

How long does it take to get to Orcas?  Well, here's the plan.  I leave for the airport around 8:00 in the morning for a 10:00 flight.  I arrive in Seattle around noon, get a car, drive to Anacortez (where the ferry leaves from) which is 2-3 hours depending on traffic.  There is a 3:30 ferry or a 6:55 ferry.  I'm assuming I will make the late one as I will be needing to stop for food and also to feed the little butterball.  Plus, I rather not push myself and simply take my time.  It is a long trip, but it's also very enjoyable.  Who knows, maybe I'll do a little shopping, I'm thinking I might need a pair of warmer pants!  

Once on the ferry it's about an hour to Orcas.  The ferry is the most enjoyable part for me.  Even Orcas Islanders say that the ferry is kind of like built in social time.  Granted, I have a feeling that planning for ferry rides around off island Dr.s appointments or grocery runs will likely be a pain in the you know what!  However, there is a price to pay for beautiful land, fresh air and a quiet life.  Have I ever mentioned that there are no traffic lights on Orcas?  Wow!

Anyway, wish me luck.  I'll need it!