ode to papa, part two: Father's Day weekend

So exactly what did we do for Father's day? Well, I guess we didn't take any photos, that's one thing we did not do. For Father's Day we honored the papa. Magdalena, Augustus and I made papa breakfast in bed. And I don't mean cereal and a grapefruit. We made waffles with fresh strawberries and whipped cream (the kind that comes in a carton and is whipped up by the mama with some maple syrup and a hint of vanilla), warm maple syrup, thick cut bacon, and one cafe Americano. We all had breakfast in bed, and what a delicious, sticky mess it was. I think Ethan actually got back in bed at the urging of the children who had been looking forward to breakfast in bed for what seemed like weeks. We also did not do any of the things that I assume we would do for a holiday, like go to my family's house for dinner, spend the day out doing "fatherly" things, or any one thing in particular. We hung out. We ate together. And we did whatever papa wanted. And it was a Supremely Beautiful Day.

Now what we did the night before Father's Day, well, that's another story. That's when we did what my version of Father's Day would have been. We went for an incredible late afternoon canoe trip with the Houston's through the marshes of the inter-coastal waterway.



our first canoe outing together, the Houston's and the Barnas': a tale of two canoes, two Mitsus, and two papas

Since I knew if we truly celebrated the father in our family we would not be doing any major family stuff, Jeanna and I planned a late afternoon canoe trip the evening before Father's Day. We put in around 5pm and canoed against the tide and the wind, a bit chagrined I must say, to then be excited beyond belief to find the little beach Jeanna and Dave told us about.

Magdalena, Augustus, Jeanna and Frida Loving the water

the mamas and the babes

The little beach was perfect perfect perfect, a perfect little oasis. Sandy bottom, little fish swimming everywhere, clear green water, what more could we ask for? We pulled the canoes up and hit the water. Magdalena had her suit on but the littles were naked as jaybirds and twice as happy. We set out our blankets and had a picnic dinner feast looking out over the water and the marshes. We feasted and relaxed and laughed and told stories and just sat and marveled at how beautiful the world is.

the Barnas'
the Houston's

The sun was setting as we canoed home, with the wind, with the tide, slowly, gently, lovingly, easily. The babes were mellow, happy, sleepy, full. We paddled back to civilization and a minor meltdown, but otherwise, another brilliant canoe trip and still the greates birthday gift ever.

a few things

No photos with this post, just a few things.

:: how Augustus says yes "des"

:: Magdalena hugging and kissing me, abuela, Tito Chuchi, Aunt Su-su and Augustus during mass, saying, I love you, to each person

:: how last night, after dinner, Magdalena and Augustus donned long sleeves and long pants and gloves to brave the wild that is our back yard and help papa clear the overgrown weeds and vines.

That's what got me thinking. I want to write one of those "in this I believe" essays for "independent producer Jay Allison". That's how I always hear it in my head.
I believe in Augustus laying on his belly to poop.
I believe in how he puts his hands behind his head, in a satisfied, life is good manner, before he falls asleep.
I believe in how Magdalena big sisters.
I believe in her liquid brown eyes, her pixie hair cut, and how she says "now that's what I'm talking about", just like her papa.
I believe in the perfection of our imperfect life.
I believe in my husband. My hot, 31 year old solid rock of a hard workin' man husband.
I believe in great, um, intimacy.
I believe that my life is a blessing, every single second of it. Even the ones I don't think are blessings.

a mother's day interlude

I'm wearing my brand new "World's Greatest Mom" apron, a la Fran, Ethan's mom, and loving it, baking up a storm with my apprentice baker.

The week before Mother's Day we received a package from Fran, Ethan's mom, choc full o' goodies for the children and this great apron for me. I'll try (ahem) to live up to the title. I realized looking back over the last few posts that I started a Mother's Day post and never finished it so I figured what the heck, better late than never. We arrived at my mama's house, ready to bake with my favorite bakers and my favorite ingredients, and it was on!

the reasons I get celebrate Mother's Day

let's bake something chocolate!

We baked up a storm, well, really only one insanely delicious chocolate cake with a crazy chocolate glaze from JOY! that one can eat hot over ice cream immediately after it is made, cooled to room temp on a cake, or cold right out of the left-over jar in the fridge. Now that's my kind of frosting.

the ultimate helpers

Magdalena and Augustus must have gotten my mom's cleaning gene. They love to do dishes, wipe counter tops, wash walls, and mop and sweep floors. I say give 'em the tools and let 'em have at it! No, seriously, that's what I say. Magdalena, Augustus and Frida each have their own nice bright sponge with a scrubby side under the sink in the bathroom and access to a mild child-safe (what'd ya think, bleach?) cleaning solution for all those times that they Must. Clean. Walls. I tell you my bathroom walls, from about four feet and down, are shiny clean. It is literally hours of fun, with a little cleanup direction on my part when it is all finished, and Voila! sparkly sink and walls and parts of the floor.

our family Mother's Day Celebration photo. sorry about the date across Frida's face

We had a lovely day and feast and celebration celebrating the mamas in our life, and all mamas that came before us.

PS. isn't it crazy to go backwards and see Magdalena, with all those curls and long hair, now that we know her as the little pixie she is?

Wednesdays with Rose and the Magnolia Farm

Augustus, Magdalena, Allie, Frida and Dominic doing their best summer camp impersonation

Homeschool has officially been on break since May, and now we are starting to find a summer rhythm. Wednesdays has been dubbed "Wednesdays with Rose" at her oh-so-fabulous pool, with her darling boys and whoever can join us.

Magdalena collecting kindling

Augustus doing his part

We had the most wonderfully amazing blazing hot time at an organic goat farm, the magical Magnolia Farms. Eleanor (homeschool mom, nursing student, working mom extraordinaire), her two Allie and Kimberly, me and my two, went down for a night of fire and sticky fun camping out in a tee-pee followed by a "Mommy and Me" farm tour. Need I say how fabulous it was? The children collected kindling, and Eleanor built a rip-roaring fire to roast our gourmet sausages and then later, our 'smores. After a day of swimming and sunblock, camping and bug repellent, and 'smores galore, we were hot, sweaty and sticky. Off we trooped to the water haus, the most precious outside showers I have been in, truly. Lit by mulit-colored mini Christmas lights, under oaks dripping with Spanish moss, a moon-lit sky, the night was magical. Only one shower was lit up, so there we were, two mamas, two big girls and two littles, all soapy and slick in the twinkling lights, cooling off and giggling madly, in love with the life exactly at that moment.

examining nature, a tiny black snake on the dirt road

Darlene, one of the farmers/farm owners, gave us the grand tour. There were turkeys galore, chickens, roosters, peacocks, and some other kind of fowl, I can't remember...all free range, pecking at the earth, laying eggs, stretching and preening, clucking and chasing us all around. I guess it is primarily a goat farm, but also a CSA (community supported agriculture), supplying Jacksonville and surrounding areas with local organic sometimes "exotic" produce. While we were touring the garden part of the farm, we had an introduction into bugs and their place on an organic farm. The bugs that eat the plants and flowers and vegetables, bad bugs! And the bugs that eat the bugs that eat the plants and flowers and vegetables, good bugs! And then the children went into the sunflower patch to choose flowers for the mama bouquets and Darlene would look over the flower and see a bug and say, well, that's an assassin bug, and he's a good bug, he eats other bugs, so we're going to leave his home here. Let's find another flower. It was awesome. Total homeschool fun. Now Magdalena and Augustus have a whole host of bugs to add to their "good bug" reverie, not just bumble bees and honey bees and butterflies, but assassin bugs and lady bugs and spiders also.

Eleanor, presented with her "Mommy and Me" bouquet, picked by Allie and Kimberly

oh, the glory of goats!

This had to be the highlight of the entire shin-dig. Yes, we did get to make our own butterfly shaped goat-milk soap, yes we slept in a tee-pee, yes we had sticky sweet delicious roasted-marshmallow-barely-melted-hershey's-chocolate-on-graham-crackers 'smores, yes we had a magical midnight shower under the trees, but there is nothing like seeing a child pick up a baby goat, with such care and love, so full of wonder. They ran and romped and petted and played with the goats. They talked to the goats and saw the baby goats' umbilical cords and the mama goats nummies. It was incredible. I was just trying to keep the goats from eating my pants. Literally.

Augustus would hold out his little arms, ready to try to hold a goat, and then run away, giggling. The whole thing was just too much for him, he just laughed and laughed. He did manage to pet a baby goat, just for a minute, while Eleanor cradled the kid. (goat, that is)

Here is sweet sweet Kimberly, giving it her best try, and the goat would just squirm right down to the ground.

And here, of course, is Allie, the goat whisperer. No fear, just love and play and catching goats and holding them like she was born doing it.

All in a late spring, although it felt like summer, day's work.

introducing Magdalena, self-revealed

Notice anything? Yeah, that's what I said. OHMYGOD. Well, I should say, that's what I said after the confusion, dizziness, shock and mild nausea wore off. Don't get me wrong, I get it. She's Gorgeous. Short hair suits her. But when one minute she goes into her room with curls down to the middle of her back, and the next minute I open the bedroom door and can't figure out what is wrong with my daughter's head, why it looks so small like it is floating above her neck, enter dizziness, confusion, shock and mild nausea, and, well, you know, the whole scene was pretty outrageous.

Magdalena started to say something, then the phone rang and it was my mom, and I just walked out of her room and thought, ya know, you really don't need to put her in twenty years of therapy just because she chopped her hair off to her scalp on the top of her head, think of something reasonable to say. So I went back in there and said, I just need for you to pick up all your piles of hair and put them in a bag, and then we're going to take a shower and go to a stylist and fix it up. It'll be fabulous. She said, mama - it's not a mullet. I said, uh, yeah it is, business in the front and party in the back, we're going to have it shaped up a bit.

It took me a few minutes to realize that Augustus had not escaped her second effort at being a stylist. Yes, there was a first a couple of months ago when she trimmed about 4-6 inches off the front of her hair and it gave her really nice long bangs around her face, I actually complimented her on her handy work, ya know, not trying to encourage her but out of a grudging admission that she did a really nice job. Little did I know there was more to come. But really, she is my daughter, what exactly do I expect?

She had a quiet moment in the chair, looking at herself, a bit worried, watching the hair dresser who kept muttering Adios Mio! put a lovely stacked bob in her hair, and she looked at me and said, it's ok mama. It'll grow back.

ode to papa, part one: a belated birthday

Ethan and thirty-one candles

on our inaugural cruise

he likes the canoe, really

Two days after Magdalena, Augustus and I left for our road trip, Ethan turned thirty one. So yes, we missed his birthday while we were out having a blast. We celebrated as soon as we came home and his present was... you guessed it! A canoe! And a big one at that. I had so much fun finding it, and as much fun picking it up and giving it to him! Not what he was expecting, but he was actually pretty pleased with it.

It took us a couple of weeks to actually get it in the h2o, but I think once we got it in the water, it was obvious, we were hooked! Magdalena and Augustus love it love it love it. Our first canoe trip was down a small creek, with tree canopy for about half of our journey. It was so so lush and green and gorgeous. I fell down on the photo job pretty horribly, but at least you can see how beautiful it was on the river. It was so incredible, about 10 minutes from our house, right there, in the middle of the city, and you'd never know, we could have been anywhere. It was so quiet and the tide was coming in and there were critters in the woods and water. When there was quiet (amongst us) it was so quiet. No city noise, just the splash of fish and our paddles.

I dare say it was the best birthday gift ever, for any of us.

road trip, final instalment

Skip rolling downhill with Augustus

It is a crime, a deficit of gargantuan proportions, that I only have one photo for this post, and only one in the last post. I can only say that camera trouble was upon me and I didn't even realize it. I thought it was batteries but now I know that it was more. Anyhoo, on with the post.

After we spent three lovely, heartfelt and amazing days hanging out with the LaShell clan near Ashville, NC, we headed up for the third leg, actually fourth leg of the trip. Up to Boone we skedaddled, through winding curves and gorgeous NC country, to visit the Sinanian's of the Atlanta Skip Sinanian's. And dude lives in, by his own description, an accountant's house! Crazy I mean Krazy with a K! So much of this trip has been defined by how far we (and by "we" I mean all the old-school Atlanta crew) have all come. And how well everybody is doing! Who knew?

Skip, Kelly, Deacon and Huxley welcomed us with open arms and abundant love and laughter, as always. I didn't actually talk to Skip or Kelly until, oh, the night before I was heading to Boone I think. And ya know, like the fabulous people they are, they said "when will you get here?" and "what do you guys like to eat?" Magdalena and Augustus were on a roll, two for two in staying with amazing families that have amazing children and amazingly fun things to play with and upon arrival at Skips it was a hat trick. M and A fell in love with all four Sinanian's, running through the house, checking out all there was to see and do, warming up to each one, but I have to say, it was the divine Huxley that was the star of the stay. Magdalena said to anyone who would listen, Huxley made me laugh so hard I was sweating! Our Boone stay was just shy of 24 hours but the impact was six months, easy. By the end of the walk through town and lunch, after our night at Chez Sinanian, I think both Magdalena and Augustus had adopted Skip as their own. As we are all want to do.

After we left Boone we headed down for our final night on the road, back to our sweet Cecilia in Marietta. Another cousin, Ouni (named so by Magdalena when she was almost two and she could not quite say Courtney), came down to visit for the evening of pizza and stories of days and days of travel. My Auntie Nancy came by first thing in the morning for goodbye kisses and off we were! Back on the road! But not quite, for breakfast we went to Ria's Bluebird, http://riasbluebird.com/ and once again, Who Knew? I mean, I remember Ria from back in the day, and now she is this totally righteous restaurateur, out there making a difference in the community, being the activist that she was born to be. Right on Ria! And making righteous huevos rancheros and buttermilk pancakes to boot.

With one more stop to go, we were on our way again. We had our final stop in Valdosta with Constance, cousin extraordinaire, daughter of Cecilia. We hooked up for lunch and a last roadtrip Starbucks with the babes. Ouni happened to be on her way down so we had another Ouni sighting also, what luck we have.

There is so much more I could say. Our trip was so rich with exploration, new loves for Magdalena and Augustus and connecting with the dearest of friends for me. I am star-struck by life. I mean, we've all grown up, and we're all actually alive, that in itself is such a miracle. And then, on top of that, we still love each other so deeply and truly. And we know each other completely. My sister recently said she was blinded by her blessings, and I know what she means.

road trip, part deux

Magdalena and Augustus with Ben, Jessica and Maia

From our Nashville extravaganza and stimulus explosion, we headed on over to the Ashville/
Waynesville area of North Carolina for a stay with our BFF's from Alamogordo, Jessica and Mark and their two beautiful little ones Ben and Maia. We went from the full throttle reunion throwdown of Nashville to a settled down gorgeous chalet in the woods/mountains with quiet from within and without except for the jubilant cries of two bigs one toddler and one little running jumping throwing bumping and generally living it up kid-style with a hike to a Koy pond that turned into a swimming expedition for Magdalena and three children walking home almost naked because hey, if one person gets to walk home in only her panties, doesn't everybody?

I always forget how much I love love love North Carolina until I arrive there and ahhhhh, oh yeah, that's right, I Love the Smokies baby, love love love them. It is so incredibly beautiful, and Mark and Jessica have such a beautiful gig going. It is special, and very different from what I'm living - flat, hot, beach, city, busybusybusy, family. I wouldn't change what I have for the world...but, ya know, have you ever been to western North Carolina? Nuff said.

the road trip, part one

me and the graduate


Magdalena grooving on some Rouri love

me with the raucous Sheehan clan

the morning afta party

I started this post over a week ago, and finally here goes.

Magdalena, Augustus and I went on a rollicking eight day road trip that was all love and connections. I have to say that almost every time I have uttered the words "eight day roadtrip" and "Magdalena and Augustus" I have been met, almost universally, with groans and looks of shock, horror and disbelief. Well let's just set the record straight and say that my children rocked the eight day roadtrip like a couple 'o salty dogs on a rum run. We had a ball, a blast, an amazing time. There were no bedtimes, no rules (ok, that's not totally true. There was a "no shrieking in the car while mama is trying to talk on the phone rule.) and no expectations except that of having fun. There were no dvd players en route, in the car or otherwise, no video games, no electronic distractions. Just hours and hours of I Spy, little kid style; Putamayo Animal Sounds (a must have) world music cd; She'll be Coming Round the Mountain; Adventures in Space; made up songs and children's songs galore.

The whole la-dee-da shindig started with a much anticipated trip up to Atlanta, which turned into a lovely stop in Marietta with my cousin Cecelia always ready with the spare room and whole milk Stoneyfield with the cream on top for the babes, on Thursday May 1st.

Then on to the meat of the matter, shooting up to Nashville to celebrate Dara Down's graduation from nursing school and oh what a time we had. We picked up our ace-in-the-whole surprise, Susan Walker who flew in from Colorado for the big event, and headed over to the graduate's house. It was a gathering of epic proportions. All the players were in attendance: Susan, Gail from Utah, Patty and LJ from Atlanta, and me from Jax. Mick, Dara's brother surprised her from New Orleans, Dave-o, his lovely wife Heather and their two babes were there and of course, Sean flew in from Ireland. Truthfully, I didn't know people still partied that hard! And got up in the morning for the graduation and the real party. And then the morning afta party! Who Knew?

Saturday was one of those movie set party days, picture perfect cool temps, crystal clear blue sky, and spring showing up right on time, food food and more food, children of every age everywhere-in the yard on the swings in the house upstairs downstairs underfoot and in your hair, children children everywhere. Jonny and his amazingly talented musician buddies jamming by the fire outside, henna tattoos at the dining room table, and pink make-up for all the babes. Only to be topped by late night sleeping children hotel talks and incredible grav-lox and the works for the morning afta party. And really, who can resist seeing three different sets of post-Atlanta babes playing together, children of mamas who have been as close as sisters for twenty years. Did I just say twenty years? Good God.

Here's to old school Atlanta buddies, reunions, and dear friends who remind me and will never forget (or let me forget) who I am.

homeschool heaven

Ok, so can you get with my whole homeschool love for just a minute? I mean, can I get a witness? Note the dedicated school room building, the little "School" flag hanging (you can see it behind the easel), the little green leprechaun footprints on the glass door from St Patty's Day, the blooming flowers, the covered sand table behind Augustus, the lush lush lush gorgeous green surroundings, the fine mom walking out of the photo, a.k.a. Mandy, the goddess and patron saint of the Love the Earth Homeschool Preschool extravaganza. Not to mention the three artists at work.

Now that's what I call school!

papa time, tea time, and crazy tattoos

roofers

the naked and the smoothie tea party

body art baby, a perpetual favorite

Recently we came home and Ethan was on the roof sweeping off the leaves, acorns (that tend to grow into oak trees in the composting leaves), small branches and Spanish moss of our roof. As soon as Magdalena got out of the car she yells "Papa, can I come up there?" to which, before I could answer a reasonable No Way!, her papa says - sure baby, come on up! Um, ok. But before you climb a 12 foot ladder up to our roof, maybe you could put on shoes other than crocs? And something besides a tutu? So out comes Magdalena, in her best roof sweeping pink cowboy boots, flowery skirt and too-small pink tank top. Because that was the outfit I was thinking of.

The rest is self-explanatory

wow, a hiatus

So so so so SO! I went on quite the little hiatus, did I not? And why you might ask? Well, I believe I hit blog burnout. And not from my blog (obviously), but from all the Unbelievable Amazing Inspiring and Incredible blogs I have been reading. All of these amazing mamas, writing books, publishing books, knitting something new every day, making summer clothes for a small army of children, homeschooling, working in the studio, remodeling 100 year old farmhouses and documenting it all, in breezy, well written hanging-out-with-your-chums-style of writing accompanied by phenomenal photos, and well, I just checked out.
I would read these blogs and think, exactly what do you do all day? Eat bon bons and watch tv? I mean, it's not like I'm moving in slow motion but good god, I keep thinking: Why isn't the porch finished? the laundry finished? the dishes finished? dinner made? Let alone, knitting a fabulous something or other, making darling little felt crowns for our buddies, remembering it's my day to bring snacks to the homeschool gig and bringing something besides a block of cheese and a bag of apples. At least they're organic apples. Sigh.
Anyhoo, I just came to a screeching halt. Quit reading, quit posting and just now thought, hmmm... wonder what the old bloggesphere looks like these days. So here I am. Back. With many photos to post and stories to share and life to document. But with out expectation. It is so nice to do that.

garden angel

Thursday and it's chore day and I am behind in my chores. More soon.

Easter belated, a bit

So far this the only photo I have. It's what our Easter baskets should have looked like if I had planted the grass soon enough. As it was, for the real Easter day, we had little sweet sprouts of grass. Lovely, but not quite lush.

Also, Augustus says to Frida, every opportunity he has when we are all together as an extended family:

(Frida will walk over to me and crawl into my lap or asked to be picked up)

Augustus: Ree-ta (that's what it sounds like when he says Frida), that not yo mama, there (pointing to Jeanna) yo mama, that not yo mama, that my mama, there yo mama.

And we all commence to crack up.

my secret (macro) life

In case you didn't know, I'm a bloggaholic. Ok, not really, but there are a few blogs outside of the realm of friends blogs that I visit on a regular basis and there always seem to be blog projects or challenges and this is the macro challenge here http://orangeflower.typepad.com/orange_flower/

All the photos are so gorgeous and well done. I blog at night, when everyone else is asleep, and never remember the photo during the day while there is beautiful light and flowers outside, so here is my first macro entry, late but oh well. The onions that didn't get fully drenched in tempura batter and fried to a crispy light delight. It looks kinda like a crazy face to me. Somehow pleasing. Not having an infant has caught up with me and I'm itchin for a creative outlet. I guess a bit desperately! Anyoo, more to come.

goggles and other goodies

primos

I dare say, Augustus loves his goggles

a makeshift stage

soon to be a fence

making a bed in the truck bed

I had just uploaded these photos, hadn't even begun this post when I was visited by a fairy miracle. Magdalena slipped out of the bedroom and onto my lap, wondering where I was, and pick me up please, come to bed. So I had the gift of snuggling down my four year old big girl, my wondrous magical darling of words and sentences and plans and "conversations" and agendas, as if she were a babe again. She held my hands in sleep, face turned toward mine, perfect peace and trust. Heaven. Absolute Heaven. Sigh.

But onto what I had in mind. No Easter photos! I (horrors!) forgot my camera on Easter Sunday! So I took photos with my camera, and my brother with his palm, and haven't had any success with getting the images to my computer. Fear not, they will appear, but this in the meantime.

Augustus will wear his goggles all day if he can find them, and when he can't, he wears his backups. One day he put them on in the morning, wore them to the library for story time, kept them on through Mrs. Owl, then decided to take them off for some serious art making. I hope he never loses his style, it is, of course, fabulous. As is, I will say, Magdalena's also. She puts together the most outlandish outfits, and strangely enough, red tights, pale yellow bloomers, pink boots and a chartreuse "visit Florida" t-shirt make a fetching ensemble.

Our fence panels were delivered on Friday and my husband, all his muscles, my brother Anthony and my brother in law Dave got the fence put up last weekend. I tell you what, my man can do some labor, as all the girls who watched him put in Kamy's sprinkler system will tell you, and it is a wonderful sight. Our fence is gorgeous! Our backyard has gone from not secure island of order between two disastrous neighbors to our own private haven of lush beauty and security and serenity. No more marauding dogs, no unsightly broken down fence, no unsightly over-grown house, just clean pure cypress fence and that crazy gorgeous tangle of oak canopy above.

While the menfolk were a'toiling, Jeanna, the littles (Augustus and Frida), Magdalena and I were out front rehabbing our plants. We transplanted some not-so-thriving azaleas to a spot where I hope they will thrive, planted my hibiscus topiary, planted my beautiful palms, and put all kinds of flowers in pots. I guess we'll get comfortable and stay a spell. Really, it is quite lovely. You should come for a visit.

I almost forgot to mention-Augustus got his first big boy haircut at a real barber shop. I mean this place was old school. So old school as a matter of fact, that if the barber who was out to lunch had been in, we would not have stayed - two overflowing ashtrays and at least 3 packs of cigarettes on his station. Nuff said. But we did stay and a sweet barber who was oh, I'd say at least seventy years old, took less than ten minutes, charged me $7, and transformed my curly-headed toddler into a very traditional little boy. The bushy bushy blond hairdo will be back by late spring, I'm sure, but for now he sure looks all grown up and official. Life is soooo good.