Photo a Day Challenge: April

More photos from April.

I can tell I'm feeling inspired by spring this week--there are 3 shots involving flowers.

Everything is blooming outside and it is glorious.

I love summer an awful lot, but spring time holds a pretty special place in my heart, too.

April 16, 2012

Flower

These roses grow in our backyard.

The bush is a climbing rose, planted by the previous owner.

Someday, when Aaron builds the new patio cover,

these roses will climb all over it.

But for now they just climb as high as they can in the flower bed,

and then fall over with the weight of their flowers.

The kids pick them for me almost every day.

I love them.

April 17, 2012

Something I don't like

I do not subscribe to the theory of 

"let them play and clean up at the end of the day".

I subscribe to the theory of

"clean as you go".

So when books are read, and left unshelved, 

when art supplies are left scattered on the floor,

I must resist the urge to grumble under my breath,

and pick up after them.

Instead, I remind myself that I am teaching them a valuable life skill.

And then I yell, "pick up your stuff, (you dang kids!)"

Mom of the year, right here, people.

April18, 2012

Hair

James had tons of hair.

He had a cut at the barber's when he was 8 months old.

William had beautiful golden curls.

Lilly's had a big chunk of hair in the front,

perfect for cute, little, pink bows.

Davy's hair is so blond it's almost yellow.

It's thinner on top and thick in the back.

He has these long wisps that grow over his ears and look kind of silly.

But really, I think he looks just perfect.

April 19, 2012
Orange

Nasturtiums are some of my favorite flowers.

I love the way, if left unattended, they will spread and climb,

until they create a carpet of blue-green leaves,

and beautiful, bright flowers.

Nasturtiums are one of the best parts of spring.

April 20, 2012
Something I drew

I wish I could draw.

But I can't.

Like, really, really can't.

I so admire people who can.

And I am kind of jealous of them too.

Perhaps that is why I encourage my kids to spend 

as much time as they want drawing.

Right now, all 3 of them love to draw.

I hope they never loose that,

and can grow up to be like their daddy,

who can draw anything he wants.

But I take better pictures than he does.

(well, most of the time)

So there's that.

Good photography takes skill.

An eye.

And yeah, it's not just having a good camera.

April 21, 2012
Bottle

Do you  know about Dr. Bronner's soap?

We love it.

We've been using it for at least 9 or 10 years.

It's fabulous soap.

And the bonus is, if you're ever bored in the shower,

 you can read the thousands of words printed all over the bottle

and be thoroughly entertained.

He's pretty crazy.

But you can't beat his soaps.

April 22, 2012
The last thing I bought

So James wanted a "stacked" cake for his birthday.

That's a layer cake for those of you not in the know.

I went with my favorite yellow cake recipe,

and even sprang for the cake flour to make it even more perfect.

Between the layers, I put whipped, chocolate gnache,

and then frosted the outside with it too.

It was amazingly good.

I may grow into my dream of being an accomplished cake baker, yet.

One more week to go for April.

Have any of you been taking part in the Challenge?

If so, let me know so I can take a look at your pictures.

Love from,

Greta

Thanksgiving Week! A Poem and a Hymn

Every month, the kids and I memorize a poem for school.

I love poetry and very much want to pass along that love to them.

This month's poem is a perfect one for Thanksgiving.

Wanting to add more richness to our Thanksgiving celebration, I told the kids that we'd recite this together for our guests.

They're pretty excited about it.

So am I.

It's a beautiful poem.

November

A Thanksgiving

by John Kendrick Bangs 

1862-1922

For summer rains, and winter's sun,

For autumn breezes, crisp and sweet;

For labors doing, to be done,

And labors all complete;

For April, May and lovely June,

For bud and bird and berried vine;

For joys of morning, night and noon,

My thanks, dear Lord, are Thine!

For loving friends on every side;

For children full of joyous glee;

For all the blessed Heavens wide.

And for the sounding sea;

For mountains, valleys, forests deep;

For maple, oak and lofty pine;

For rivers on their seaward sweep,

My thanks, dear Lord, are Thine.

For light and air, for sun, and shade,

For merry laughter and for cheer;

For music and the glad parade

Of blessings through the year;

For the fruitful earth's increase,

For home and life, and love divine,

For hope, and faith, and perfect peace,

My thanks, dear Lord, are Thine.

How do I get my 7, 5 and 3 year old to agree to a public poetry recitation, you ask?

It's easier than you think.

For one thing, I didn't ask if they wanted to.

I just told them that's what we'd be doing.

But also, we recite our monthly poem with our home school group, so it is a normal activity for us.
I think my kids just expect that this is what you do with a poem.

Our group learns a poem together and at the end of the month, at one of our nature study locations, our kids gather and recite.

Some kids recite on their own, some with a partner and some with the whole group.

Even the littlest ones join in.

I am so glad for this opportunity to make poetry a real part of my children's schooling and of their life.

How would you use this poem in your Thanksgiving celebrations?

In addition to our poem, we also learn and memorize a hymn each month.

This month's hymn is a special favorite.

It was played at my wedding.

The words are incredibly beautiful.

They, too, are perfect for Thanksgiving.

For the Beauty of the Earth

Folliott S. Peirpoint

For the beauty of the earth 
For the glory of the skies, 
For the love which from our birth 
Over and around us lies. 
   
Refrain 
Lord of all, 
to Thee we raise, 
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour, 
Of the day and of the night, 
Hill and vale, and tree and flower, 
Sun and moon, and stars of light. 
  
Refrain

For the joy of human love, 
Brother, sister, parent, child, 
Friends on earth and friends above, 
For all gentle thoughts and mild. 
   
Refrain
For Thyself best gift divine, 
To our race so freely given, 
For that great, great love of Thine, 
Peace on earth and joy in heaven. 
   
Refrain




I will be printing up the words to this hymn for my guests on Thanksgiving.
We'll be singing it together.
Maybe I'm trying to introduce a little Thanksgiving caroling into the day.
It's only a week away!
I hope these two pieces help remind you, in a different way, of all we have to be thankful for.
Love from,
Greta
PS. There are lots of different versions of this being played and sung on You Tube.  If you've never heard it, go take a listen.

Apple Recipes for Fall

Apple crisp is one of my favorite desserts.

My mom used to make it often.

I don't remember her apple pies, because her apple crisp was so good.

Those sweet, cinnamony apples covered in crispy, soft buttery topping all warm and juicy.

Man, it's good.

Don't get me wrong, I love an apple pie too.
But only with crumb topping.
And if it's got cherry, cranberry or raspberry mixed in, so much the better.
But it must, I repeat, must have crumb topping.

Fall makes me think about apple desserts.
I love the way apples get so soft and sweet when they're baked.
They make baked goods so moist.
I hate dry muffins and cakes, don't you?
Add apples, or applesauce, and you don't have to worry about it being dry.

This cake, for example, is one of my favorite apple desserts.
You grate the apples on the large holes of a box grater and those apples add so much sweet juice to the cake.
It is divine.
I like to serve it for breakfast with a bit of cream drizzled over the top.
Seriously amazing.

I admit to being quite bummed that most of my favorite apple desserts will not be part of my fall menu this year.
Apples just seem to go so nicely with butter.
And butter is a no go right now.

But I can dream.
So I did.
I made a list of some delicious looking apple desserts I'd like to try.

Most won't be until next fall.
But there are some, dairy free, egg free, that I can try right now.

For one thing, I want to make apple sauce.
Can you believe I never have?
Well, I have made it for each of my babies, but never any jazzed up, spicy kind for me.

I aim to change that this fall.
Do you have a favorite applesauce recipe?
What about pie?
Apple crisp?
Or is there some other apple dessert that strikes your fancy?

Here are some of the apple recipes I found.

Take a look.

You might find the apple dessert of your dreams.

I can't wait to find out if I have.

apple cake   
apple pie cake  
pumpkin applesauce  
apple butter bars  
spiced apple sauce cake  
apple jack flap jacks  
baked apple oatmeal
apple fritters 
apple banana cake 
apple cranberry crumb tart 


Hope you are enjoying the sweets of this season.
Love from,
Greta
*all pictures were taken at Riley's Apple Farm.  to see full posts, go here and here.

You've Got to Have a Vision

I am lucky enough to be married to a man who can look at this:

And see this:

Or this:

When bought our house 2 years ago, it wasn't the mid century modern house of our dreams.
It wasn't an Eichler or a Cliff May. (aren't those Cliff Mays dreamy?  that neighborhood is right down the street from us.  i love those houses.)
As far as I could see, there was nothing mid century about it other than it had been built in 1952.
It was a 50s war box.
And I really didn't like it all that much.


But we needed to buy a house we could afford.
A lot of people didn't and you know how well that has worked out.
Aaron had looked at a lot of houses with our realtor.
A LOT.
(I am surprised the man still speaks to us)
And he had a vision in mind of what he wanted and what we could do with it.
Without overextending ourselves.
(when I say what we could do with it, I totally mean he, because I am not doing anything except watching the kids while he works and bringing him cold drinks.  but whatever)


When he walked into this house, he saw it had good bones.
It had the kind of floor plan we liked.
It had that big window in the living room to let the outside in--very mid century.
No unfortunate, poorly done, cheap "upgrades" had been done to it to get it ready for sale.
It was still in its mostly pristine 1952 state.
With all the wear that comes with that.


But when I walked in and saw this:

I wasn't that excited.
I never imagined that in 2 years that same kitchen would look like this:

Or that this breakfast nook in the kitchen:

Could be transformed into this:

Like I said, Aaron is a man with a vision.

And even though we didn't get to buy the house of our dreams in the neighborhood of our dreams, we are turning this house into the HOME of our dreams.

It's slow going.

It's hard work.

But we're having fun.

And we're making this place all ours.

And I have to tell you, I'm getting pretty proud of this little ol 50s war box.

It just goes to show you, being happy with what you've got is all about you and not about what you've got.

..........................................................................................................

So, the renderings.

We are still trying to decide which color to paint the trim.

Aaron put orange up on one of the windows and it looked good.

We both liked it a lot.

But we are not 100% sure.

It's just so hard to be sure until we see all the windows done.

To aid us in our decision making progress, Aaron drew up a rendering with the trim orange and one with the trim turquoise.

Then he went ahead and started to add all the other ideas for the house that have been floating around in his head for the past couple of years.

Let me give you a little explanation of his plans

The base color of the house will be white.

The door will stay turquoise because we are totally in love with how it looks.

The trim around the roof and door, as well as the gable end will be green.

The trim around the windows will either be orange or turquoise.

There will be diamonds on the gable end.  

Aaron will make them.

The wooden slat 'boxes" will cover an original shelf mounted to the house, and a hideously ugly air conditioning unit.

We only used it for 3 days this whole year, but man did we ever need it on those 3 days.

He will continue the wooden slats on the gate along the driveway.

The new gate will replace the gross, black wrought iron one that is there now.

We will re do our landscape as well--all there is now is some grass--adding succulents, native plants, some of these, and some large pots in either orange or turquoise.

He also wants to add to our very narrow walkway, paint the brick porch and put a strip of grass or other low growing plant down the driveway.

Whew!

But, if anyone can do it, Aaron can.

He really is amazing.

And I'm not just saying that because I like him so much.

Perhaps he could start a side career as a landscape designer.

You know, in his spare time.

Now you get to weigh in.

What do you think?

Orange or turquoise?

Fire away.

Love from,

Greta

A Modern Little Chicken Coop

No, we did not get chickens.

I have enough animals to take care of at this zoo.

I don't think I am up to the challenge of taking on any more.

But I admit, I do dream.

Of chickens.

Well, not the chickens so much as the eggs.

Fresh eggs.

From my chickens.

Every morning.

It sounds pretty good.

Because, boy oh boy, do I love a soft boiled egg for breakfast.

Or lunch.

Or dinner.

On a salad.

With sauteed veggies.

Or on top of ratatouille.

But we're not getting our own chickens any time soon.

So what's a not-quite-ready-to-take-on-farm-animals-herself-girl to do?

Answer: find a friend who has chickens.

Enter my friend Christina and the Modern Little Chicken Coop designed and built by her husband, Jeff.

These are their chickens. (well, only one is in this picture.  they have 2)

Jeff and Christina don't live on a farm.
They live in a suburban neighborhood in the OC.  Near the beach.
Jeff is a surfboard shaper.
But they wanted chickens.
Or maybe eggs--I don't know.
So Jeff built this adorable little coop for the fluffy little chicks they got a few months ago.

It is small--just the right size for 2 chickens.
I like that the footprint does not take up a lot of space.
You could have a couple of chickens of your own, even in a small backyard.
I also like its clean, simple, modern lines.
And the colors--you know I like those!
There are plenty of places for the kiddos to get up close and personal with the chickens.
Which they love to do.

But my favorite part of this coop are these doors.
They were Avery's design input.
Avery is Jeff and Christina's 6 year old daughter.
She has an eye for design.
Those doors are egg shaped.

Get it?
Genius.
Adorable.
I wonder if Christina will let me come over and get some eggs from behind those doors?

Another great thing about this Modern Little Chicken Coop is that Jeff designed and painted it to match the aesthetic of the playhouse that he also designed and built for his kids.

You can see the corner of the playhouse behind the chicken coop.

It's green too--with an orange door.

I like that attention to detail.

They're in the same yard, sharing a space and while they are not exactly the same, they obviously go together.  

That's thinking.

But it's no surprise because both Jeff and Christina have an eye for detail. 

Their whole house is like that; full of well thought out touches so that it all works together perfectly.

So, are you inspired to get some chickens of your own?

They're all the rage these days.

All the cool kids have chickens.

And just to prove that point, I'll be showing you another friend's chicken coop later this week.

Cassie's husband Ross built her an amazing chicken coop too.

(that's Cassie of the amazing urban Pocket Square Farm and backyard dinner extraordinaire)

I can't wait to show you.

I do, after all, have a little farm girl in me.

I raised a rabbit in 4th grade.

I was in 4H and showed my rabbit at the fair.

I also worked at the library.

Man I was awesome back then.

I'm linking up to Life Made Lovely today.  

Go take a look for inspiration to start your week.

Love from,

Greta

PS  Great post over on my other blog about saying YES! to life and some great posters too.  Take a look!