List # 2 of the 52 Lists

List # 2:

Favorite Books of My Childhood

1. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

2. Mandy by Julie Edwards (you may also know her as Julie Andrews. Yes, that Julie Andrews)

3. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

4. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

5. The Girl from the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter

6. My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George

7. Heidi by Joanna Spyri

8. The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett

9. A Little Princess by Francis Hodgson Burnett

10. The Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

11. Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrre Brink

12. The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O Dell

13. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

14. Charlotte's Web by EB White

15. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

What are the books that shaped you? What books did you read again and again and hate to put down at dinner or bed time? Who were the characters you wished you could be, that you loved like friends, that you knew and knew you?

These are mine.

I love them still. I have read them all more than once. Many more times than once.

These books are my friends.

They are books I still love today. When I read them now, it is clear to me now why I loved them so. Many are about brave, strong, interesting, creative girls. Just the kind of girl I longed to be. Others are about boys or girls who loved nature, the outdoors and adventure. Oh how I longed for those things too. They are stories of magic and dreams, kindness and love. They are beautiful. All of them.

Some I have in my own library. Like this copy of Heidi. It was a Christmas gift, given to me by my Mom and Dad, when I was 8 or 9 and is one of my most treasured books.

I proudly wrote my name, in grade school cursive, on the front page.

The illustrations are beautiful and I always dreamed of the day I would one day go to Switzerland and walk the alpine trails like Heidi and Peter.

When I did, it was even more beautiful than I imagined it would be.

Books give us dreams. They help us go places we've never been.

Another favorite from my library is Mandy. It is a sweet, sweet story of a little girl, an orphan, who longs for a place of her own.

She finds this cottage in the woods and tends the garden, washes the windows, makes a fire in the fireplace and has tea.

How many times did I dream of finding my own cottage in the woods?

It was written by Julie Andrews, for her daughter, and she knows just what is in a girl's heart. It is a very lovely story of finding a place to belong.

I cry every single time I read it.

Many of these books have girls as the main character. But don't let that stop you from reading them to your boys. I just read Heidi to James and he really enjoyed it. We started Mandy yesterday and he likes it too. Beyond the story itself, I like my boys to have good examples of good girls. Girls who have more going on than a pretty face.

There are others too. Like My Side of the Mountain, an all time favorite. When you read it, you will want to move to the forest and build a house in a tree, just like Sam Gribly.

And The Yearling. Oh, that book. I could go on and on. I cry every time I read that book, too. A lot. The Yearling deserves its own blog post.

And you deserve to be introduced to some of the best books around. If you haven't read some of these, you should. You really, really should. Don't wait to read it with your child or grandchild, read it yourself.

And tell me if you do. Or if you have already. I love a good book talk.

Also, how are your lists coming? I'd love to hear more of your topics--I know there are some good ones out there.

Send them on over!

Greta

For the Love of books

I hit another used book sale a couple of weeks ago and just got around to shooting some of my favorites. And because I am so book obsessed, I am sharing them with you. Even though, most of them probably hold no particular interest to anyone but me.

Unless you have great taste.

Anyway.

I spotted this book about a little astronaut and knew it was perfect for James' 6th birthday.

He wants a space party.

These illustrations will be perfect for the invitations. Because, even though I am married to an artist, I am in no way guaranteed art. You know, like the cobbler's children have no shoes?

I'm just saying it's good to have a back up plan. And now I have one. And it only cost me 25 cents.

This book, Look Out For Pirates, is a favorite from Nana and Papa's house. The boys were so, so excited to have their own copy.

I am so, so excited by that cover. Isn't it great?

And I love those outfits the sailors are wearing. Nice bandannas.

This one? How could I not buy this book? It is too awesome for words.

And this spread? Well, it made me swoon.

Let me just tell you that Aaron and I are working on some art for the big. empty wall over our couch and this map will be prominently featured.

Ever tried donkey milk before? Reindeer?

I've had yak. I don't recommend it.

Have you picked up yet on my vintage text book obsession yet? Here's another one.

I don;t know what it is about them, but I just love them.

The graphics, the colors, the simplicity, the randomness of many of them. The tremendous difference between them and present day text books. (which I think, not surprisingly, stink in comparison)

This one though, was a real treasure. I love this one. It is so pretty. So old. So sweet.

Who carried this with them on bird watching hikes?

The color illustrations are beautiful. I plan on photocopying them and hanging them about my house.

And I love the names of the different birds.

The Warblers. I love that already.

Myrtle Warbler. A little old lady bird.

Tennessee Warbler. We know where they're from.

Pileolated Warbler. From the Latin pileus. Look it up.

Books give me great joy. Thank you for indulging me.

I'll be back tomorrow with list # 2. Are you working on yours yet?????

Suprised By Beauty: Up and Down

Don't forget to look up.

And down.

Beauty is all around.

Look for it.

And enjoy it.

I am hoping you find beauty today.

Until tomorrow,

Greta

"The world is so full of a number of things

I'm sure we should all be happy as kings."

Robert Louis Stevenson

*With credit to CS Lewis for the original title idea.

Kid Craft: Edible Play dough

Sorry I missed posting today. Late night, long day, no naps. You get the picture. But I am offering up double posts to make up for it. So enjoy!

I have been struggling with activities that work for all 3 of my kids at the same time.

5 and half, 3 and a half, 1 and a half.

It's the little one that's the problem. She wants to do everything her big brothers do, but she can't really. Unless I give her quite a bit of help--which she wants nothing to do with. And so, there haven't been many 3 kids projects going on around here.

The boys have been asking for play dough. But Lilly eats it. So we only do it when she is asleep. However, like I said, I am trying for activities for all 3 together, so I thought I'd give play dough another chance.

Of course I came up with a brilliant plan: edible play dough.

It would solve all my problems. And there would be peace on earth.

Yeah. It didn't quite work out like that.

Here is the problem with edible play dough. It is crumbly. Really, really crumbly. And it gets every where.

And you make it with peanut butter. And honey.

And it gets every where.

And it's sticky.

And we have a SERIOUS ant problem.

I had to wash every floor in my house because Lilly tracked the sticky, edible play dough every where.

Thank goodness I don't have carpet or I probably would have laid down and had a temper tantrum.

I also had to wash all the play dough toys because they were sticky too.

Edible play dough turned out to be a lot of work.

And despite the lack of enthusiasm shown in the above pictures, the boys really enjoyed playing with the edible play dough. They played with it for an hour.

Lilly, the whole reason the edible play dough was created, played with it for 10 minutes.

Mostly she ate it for 10 minutes.

Oh brother.

So edible play dough is not going to be in the rotation of kid crafts again any time soon. If I did decide to do it, I might leave out the oatmeal the recipe called for and see if that makes it less crumbly. I do have a jar of cheap peanut butter and half a bag of powdered milk left, so I want to try it again.

But not till spring when we can do it outside. And the ants can have a blast with all the crumbs.

Here's the recipe if you want it. It might work out better for you than it did for me.

Edible Play dough:

2 cups smooth peanut butter

2 cups rolled oats

2 cups dried milk

2/3 cup of honey

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Store in an airtight container.

A couple of weeks later, we were stuck in the house during a week of rain. The boys wanted play dough again. Before I told them to go jump in the creek that was running down our street, I decided to make our regular old salt play dough.

We just didn't give Lilly any food coloring in hers.

But the boys made their dough very bright.

And true to form, Lilly ate her dough--1 cup of salt and all.

I love this play dough. It is fun to make. It is fun to add color to. It is fun to play with. It lasts a really long time.

It is way better than store bought play dough.

Here's the recipe:

Combine 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup salt, 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar in a heavy pan over medium heat.

Stir as the mixture thickens.

When it comes together as a dough, remove from heat.

When dough is cool enough to handle, add food coloring to dough and knead in.

Store in an airtight container.

Make some with your kids--I suggest the salt kind--but that's just the slightly neurotic house cleaner in me!

Have fun.

Just Some Fun Stuff for Your Monday

Hi there! I hope your weekend was spectacular. Or at the very least, quite nice.

Mine was. We went down to Fallbrook for a wedding and also got to spend time with our parents. It is so handy that they live in the same town. My sweet husband gave me Saturday afternoon to myself. I went to my parent's and slept and then went to lunch with my Mom, sister and my my Mom's best friend, my other mom, Cathy. What a treat! What more could a pregnant lady want? Except perhaps, this lemon tart.

Since this is Monday, and sometimes we need a little pick me up at the start of the week, I thought I'd share some fun things from around the interweb.

First, there's this blog, Honey and Jam. That's where the lemon tart is from. O me, o my! Honey and Jam is a food blog written by the lovely Miss Hannah. I love her writing, her recipes and especially her photographs. She takes amazing, I mean really, really amazingly beautiful pictures. You will want to bake everything she writes about because it looks so good. And, she's 19 and was home schooled. I have to support a fellow home schooler. Please stop by her blog. You're sure to love it.

Here is another picture from her recent post on a Lemon Tart. Doesn't it look divine?

After you check out Honey and Jam, you can head over to this Etsy shop and see some stuff I really like.

Especially this clock. I smell a Valentines Day present, do you?

I also adore this cuckoo clock because I am obsessed with cuckoo clocks and would really like to add to my collection of 1. (not really a collection yet, I know. but I am hoping if I mention it enough times someone might get the message.) I also like this clock in blue and orange and not sure which color would look best in my room.

I also love this Etsy shop. It is so full of beautiful and sweet pieces of art. There are lots I'd like to hang in my house.

Like this one, for the new baby.

Add this one, for my sweet husband.

Isn't her art lovely?

You just have to go and look at all of it. You will find a lot you like. I promise.

Well, that is about it for today. I am off to my fist doc appointment for the new babe and looking quite forward to it actually. It's nice for things to be official.

Happy Monday, friends. See you tomorrow.

Oh, and while not quite up to the looks of that lemon tart, there is a good Blueberry Bran Muffin recipe over at Lilly and the Brother, and a good pregnancy story to go with it. Check it out here.

52 Lists and List # 1

I believe I have mentioned before a blog called Hula 70. Among other things, Miss Hula takes amazing photographs and writes amazing lists. Being a list girl myself, I am especially drawn to her new project, which is 1 list a week, for a year.

That's 52 lists.

About anything, all sorts of things, and definitely interesting things.

There has been quite a bit of buzz in blog land about Andrea's lists, so I am probably not the first one to straight out copy her and make my own 52 lists.

Here is my plan:

A list a week on anything and everything that is my life. At the end of the year, I will print the lists, and bind them into a book. It will be a quick and simple record of who I am in 2010. I am also going to try to help the boys make lists, or at least James.

As a lifelong, passionate lover of journals, diaries and written keepsakes of all kinds, I'm pretty sure I'm going to love writing these lists.

And reading them in 20 years.

And really, I just love a good project.

So here goes.

LIST NUMBER 1:

THE SOUNDS I LOVE

1. The sound of Lilly reading to herself

2. Listening to the boys talk about girls

3. The little sigh William makes just before he falls asleep

4. The quiet house after everyone goes to bed

5. The way Lilly says, "I lub ewww."

6. Quiet walks on the trail

7. William's screams when he gets tickled

8. James whispering, "you're the best Mommy" when I kiss him goodnight

9. Aaron calling to say "I love you " in the middle of the day

10. Waves

11. Wind

12. Talk radio when everyone falls asleep in the car

13. James Taylor

14. Aaron wrestling with the kids

15. 3 different laughs, laughing in unison

Why don't you make some lists too? Make your own, or do them along with me.

Just be sure to tell me. I want to know.

What's on your list?

*Here are lots of ideas for inspiration.

Money Matters: Doing Our Own

In our effort to save some moula, we have been looking at things we can do ourselves. Doing it ourselves, instead of paying someone else to do it. Because we want to join the Y down the street. But that money has to come from somewhere, so......we fired our gardener.

If you don't live in suburban Southern California, the fact that everyone has a gardener may seem strange to you. But everyone does. We have lived in 3 neighborhoods in the past 10 years and I can't remember anyone mowing their own grass. Some people did plant flowers, and such, but the weekly mowing and leaf blowing is always done by a guy or team of guys who pull up in a truck and in 20 minutes or less have mowed the grass, blown the leaves, dust and grass clippings into the street and deposited the rest in your trash can. Buzz, whoosh, slam, and they're done.

When we rented, we never paid for the gardener. But as homeowners, this was one more bill to pay. Ours charged $60. It seemed a lot for cutting our little patch of grass and blowing around the leaves. When he hacked almost all of my blackberry bush down, fully ripe fruit and all, simply because it was laying on the driveway, it was the nail in the coffin.

Meet our new gardener.

He doesn't have a leaf blower, but every weekend this fall, he used his trusty rake to rake up all the leaves in our front yard. He also works with 2 young helpers. They don't have a tremendous amount of stamina yet, but they are getting better. Eventually, they'll take over his job.

When we bought the house, Aaron asked the owners if he could keep this push mower that was in the garage. I am sure they thought he was a little odd (he also asked for a vintage vacuum that looks like a rocket) but they agreed. And now, Aaron can be seen mowing our lawn with this very vintage push mower.

He likes to keep things old school.

Look at that baby go.

Yes, it is a bit of extra work and time, but Aaron enjoys it. And we are saving $60 which pays for us to join the Y. That's nothing to sneeze at.

Besides, we're also training Aaron's replacements which you really can't put a price on.

I'd love to know ways you "do your own."

My dear friend Erin has been living in the Philippines for the past 2 years and she has been doing a lot on her own. She even washes her own clothes. And I do mean by hand!

Yours probably won't be that extreme. Still, I'd like to know.

Do you do your own nails? I do.

Cut your kids' hair? I don't.

Do you make your own granola? I do. Sometimes.

Make your own clothes. I don't.

So please, do tell. It will be fun.

* To read the first installment in the Money Matters series, click here.

Surprised By Beauty--Another Sunrise

Yes, friends, another sunrise.

But let me tell you, I have been sick. And I am tired. Boy am I tired.

And my baby girl wakes early.

So when I walk into the living room and see this out my window, (power lines and all) I feel a deep sense of joy and thankfulness. And it lifts that weighty fatigue just a little.

Sunrise for me is a magical moment. I am weary. Not yet ready to face the day and then, there is this amazing sight that lifts my spirits. I often catch my breath, or gasp, completely taken in.

I have not seen a sunrise that did not fill me with a surge of energy and joy.

Surprised by beauty. Aren't we grateful for it?

What beauty is surprising you these days?

"The world is so full of a number of things,

I'm sure we should all be happy as kings."

Robert Louis Stevenson

*With credit to CS Lewis for the original title idea and to Lilly, for waking me up early every morning.

Urban Farmer

Our oranges are ripe and sweet.

Aaron picked some this morning and brought them in, still wet from last night's rain.

Is there any thing sweeter than starting the day with an orange straight from the tree?

The avocados are ready to be picked now too.

They are more delicious than I knew avocados could be.

We had plans to share.

But it might be hard to.

There is an enormous sense of satisfaction in picking food from your own yard and bringing it to your table. It just feels good.

This weekend I am planting sweet peas.

And it is time to start designing the raised beds for vegetables.

Since I can't be a country farmer, I am going to be an urban farmer.

I can't wait!

Hoping your weekend involves some food from the farm--yours or someone else's.

Happy weekend!

Greta

The Perfect Playhouse

I had a play house when I was a little girl. It was amazing. I loved it then and I love it now. Many wonderful memories are attached to that play house. Hours were spent playing house, orphanage and super heroes. It was the place for holding club meetings: the sea shell club, the rock collectors club, the boy haters club. It was a place I could go to read and pretend I was somewhere else, was someone else. It was our own little world.

Every kids needs a place like that.

The favorite features of our playhouse were:

It was up high.

It had a big deck where we had a commanding view of the whole back yard. In my memories, it was very, very high.

It had a rope ladder for climbing up.

It had a slide for sliding down.

There were curtains in the windows.

The play house was really a little house. It felt real--just smaller.

My brother's favorite feature was the giant dirt pit underneath the playhouse deck.

He dug caves and tunnels for his GI Joes and Star Wars figures.

He also filled it with water and made it into a giant mud hole.

Aaron and I have been discussing a playhouse for our little people. The problem we've been facing is this, Aaron doesn't want to look into our back yard at some playhouse monstrosity. Does it have to be ugly? Can't it look good? Can't it be well designed? Can't it be cool?

To be honest, I was getting a little annoyed at all this. Our kids need a play house or a play structure or something to climb on and jump off, swing from, play in, and call their very own. Sometimes you just have to let your design aesthetic go and deal with reality!

How glad I am that I was wrong.

I found these and I think they are awesome.

If you go to the website, here, you will find lots more pictures of all the features I think are so great. You will also find a few other models, but this one is my favorite.

It is, of course, the one that looks the most modern.

I like the plank climbing wall on the side. The other side of that wall has rock climbing holds. How perfect for my little climbers.

The raised deck allows for a trap door.

What kid doesn't love a trap door?

I like the rope attached to one side.

More climbing!

Another playhouse design featured a chalkboard wall.

Chalk outside=good.

I like the clean, simple lines of this playhouse.

I wouldn't mind looking at something like this every day.

Here's hoping this will provide all the design inspiration Aaron needs to get our brood a playhouse before the dog days of summer begin!

*I have looked at this website quite a bit in the past few days. It is always really slow for me. If you can't get the pictures, there are some more here. Not as many, but it's something. Hope you have fun dreaming of the perfect playhouse.