mamaroots

40 Roots

So I entered the earthside world on this day 40 years ago and precisely 3:15 in the afternoon at a relatively high altitiude in the Rocky Mountains!  I have been of course pondering turning 40 for a while.  One of the college students I work with asked me if I was going to have a midlife crisis.  I had to chuckle!  Nope I said, I am just making sure to remember all the parts of my girlhood that I loved and hold onto them!

I dig birthdays quite a bit and as I may have mentioned my love threw me a surprise party that was so unexpected and so fun last weekend, hence the "surprise" part of surprise party!  But also a few months back I came across this print on Etsy and knew just how I wanted to honor turning 40.  I wanted to re-created this print as a photo of me.  The print represents so much of who I am.  Not to mention that the title is "Looking Forward"!  My dear dear friend Amy took the photos for me.  She has been my rock for the past few years.  A friend I know I will cherish and have for many of our years to come.  You local folks, she takes fantasic photos by the way!

The print, the photo- this is what I am holding onto.  What I know about myself is that I grew up barefoot, wearing dresses, playing with my dolls, under the trees in an old house with my parents and sisters that I love so deeply.  My parents are awesome role models and my sisters constant friends.  I can't really imagine my life without my family.  It is part of what keeps me rooted in the midwest instead of going back to the mountains.

I was taught how to make things, how to grow things and play outside.  Did you know my first playhouse was the old outhouse for the farm?  More on that in future posts- and no it had not been used in years and had been moved and cleaned!

I grew up in the country in the midwest.  I had cats often, my first was Sylvester.  I loved my dolls, Priscilla was my favorite and I think I always wanted to be a mama.  Mushrooms- well frankly they are food of the gods!  I have drank warm cups of tea since I can remember and cry at the drop of a hat.  Books are like candy for me!  It is all apart of my roots.

So when I imagine myself as a 40 year old woman, I still can't help but seeing this girl in the mirror. Trying to keep her near my heart.  Trying to learn from my mistakes- and oh yes there are plenty of them to learn from!  Trying to mother the best I can, and honor and love my partner in life.  

I am sure those braids will be turning grey (or silver as my boys like to say) but hopefully I will still be barefoot in a dress under a tree when I turn 50!  "Maybe" I will part with this heirloom doll I treated myself to when I become a grandmama- hmm maybe!

So when you get ready to hit those milestone birthdays, don't forget that little girl that is a part of all of you- she is so much of who you are as a woman.  

And as you know, I have a little tradition of gifting a present to one of you, my readers that I am so thankful for sharing this space with me.  Since books are such a part of my roots, I want to give away a copy of the new board book version of Root Children.  This is a favorite I know of many of you and now there is a board book edition.  

Just leave me a comment between now and Tuesday at midnight and I will draw a winner Wed!  Good luck my friends on this Friday the 13th!

hungry for a read

So I am sure you have at least heard about the buzz of the Hunger Games right?  They fall outside of the realm of books I normally ready and review for you here, but I did read them a few months ago.  I am torn on completing my whole opinion on them.  I am glad I read them, definitely glad I read them before my 10 year because he is too young for them.  But truly I kinda wish it was a stand alone, with just the first novel. I really thought the idea was super interesting but I had trouble creating the literary landscape in the second and third books.  

But I digress, because what I really wanted to review was this simple but overlooked series Green Angel/Green Witch that is also written for teens, is a dystopian series that I thought was amazing.  It truely was the cover that grabbed me of the second book.  I realized that I need to read the first book and tracked it down at the library.

The beauty of what works for this novel series is the short concise beautiful writing and actually all the space in between that lets the reader enter the world but also create that landscape and visual field.  I read each one in a single setting for each, but I give this my thumbs up award for the trendy dystopianesque books for teens.  It has a fantastic strong female character and all the juiciness of survival and magic that we are craving in this the year of our Mayan prophetic domesday.

ps- don't be confused if you find the single book "Green Heart" it contains both the first book Green Angel and the second book Green Witch.  

all a flutter

Have to say, this past weekend was by far one of the most exciting in a while!  The chicks came home on Friday and we are smitten!  They are our girls hanging out in the brooder for a few weeks and I think I can just watch them for hours!

And if that was not exciting enough, my hubby pulled off a surprise party I did not even see coming!  I have so much gratitude for all these amazing family and friends that just made me feel so incredibly special this weekend- good grief my heart grew and went all a flutter!  

I did not even know that my house would hold that many folks and how incredibly moved I would be. Gratitiude to the umtenth degree! I tear up still just being in that moment- everyone should have such a loving surprise someday!  

I maybe turning 40 in a few days, but I still feel like a young chick!  Hope you all had wonderful Easter celebrations.  Here are a few pics from our Easter fun this year.

ready

Time to get ready for eggs, chicks, and rabbits.  The eggs need to be dyed, the chicks are getting picked up tomorrow and well the big traveling rabbit will be coming on Sunday.

So our word for the next few days is just "ready".  I will have to admit, even though I got the Martha app for egg dyeing (I am such a sucker) we will be going with some old traditional dyes this year.  This simple little packet called out to me at the grocery.  I learned that it is this old egg dyeing company that has had its headquarters in my homestate since its beginnings in 1888- love that history.  I love the simplicity of the packaging and the history.  We will see how it does on the eggs!

I am struggling just a bit with putting together baskets for the boys this year.  As they get older and older, they are not quite as woooed by all the simple wood toys as they were when they were babes and toddlers. But I have a couple things up my sleeves.

Hoping you all are ready for the spring weekend!  Don't forget to set aside some time for reading with yours this weekend!  

spooling around

While we are normally fooling around on April Fool's Day, this year I have been spooling around, and wanted to give you an idea for your Easter Egg stuffers.  I had seen this idea floating around the blogisphere, and thought it would be great for Easter.  I love fun alternatives to fill Easter Eggs!

Supplies:

cotton fabric in colors of your choice

stamps

fabric ink

spools (antique or modern)

yarn

Step 1- Acquire some cotton muslin like fabric.  I got some simple solid cottons in spring colors.  Wash and dry like normal.  Tear into strips that are the width of your spool.  I have several old small vintage spools that I used, but you can also get wood spools from the unfinished wood section of Michaels, Hobby Lobby or online from Casey's Wood

Step 2- Iron your strips.  Decide on the stamps that you would like to use.  It can be a simple Easter message, or I have heard of folks who do scavenger hunts on Easter.  This would be a great way to give the clues!  After you have the fabric stamped, iron one more time to heat set the ink.  I like to use the inks from this company that are specially made for stamping on porous surfaces.

Step 3- Wrap the message on your wood spool, secure by tying a bit of yarn around the spool.  Tuck into your eggs and hide!  Super easy and fast, the hardest part will be in creating the clues for a scavenger hunt! If you do not celebrate Easter, this could easily be a spring scavenger hunt as well.  Happy Sunday to you all.

which came first?

You know that age old question- which came first- the chicken or the egg?  Well in our came, the coop!  We have been hard at work for the past week in between baseball practice, morel hunting, and mama working to make the coop.  

My hubby is quite frugal, which is handy most times.  He decided to build the coop from mostly found, recycled materials.  In the construction so far is donated pallets and press board from a friend's warehouse, old decking boards from my parents deck, landscape timbers from the curb, and broken up pieces of sidewalk from the city mulch site.  Not too shabby!  It has been fun watching him design and piece together the coop.  

In all reality I have just helped a little with holding up a wall or two.  My real job will be the painting when it is all built!  

Our resident chicks are on order and will be joining us April 6th, we have settled on some Orpingtons, and Plymouth Rocks.  Though the boys want a Silkie too!  

So my apolgies for being a bit absent for this space as we have been busy getting ready for the girls, and an apology for the flurry of chicken pictures that will invade this space soon!  Urban Chicken farming will be our big spring adventure!  Here is where I will be keeping a photo journal of this adventure.

I wanted to share a little give-away for you since it is spring (my favorite season) and almost Easter to celebrate our entry into the world of chicks.  I have a sweet little set for you.  It is a little wood chick of mine tucked in a lovely wool egg made by Wool Food mama.  This is from my egg stash! You may remember that she is my kin.  She is married to my cousin and we just discovered this a couple years ago.  She also sent me this super sweet wool cracked egg that I wanted to share in the give-away also.  

So here is the scoop- leave me a comment here to be entered in the give-away.  Bonus entry for following me on twitter or facebook or sharing on your favorite social network spot.  That's it- if you are a chicken farmer, especially in the city feel free to share some pointers with us!  

Good luck!  I have a shorter timeframe on this one in case you want to tuck it into an Easter Basket!  The deadline is Tuesday at 5 pm for entry. The contest is now closed.

The winner randomly drawn is lucky #1- Patsy- congrats and if you could e-mail me your address I will ship out this set to you asap!  Thanks everyone!

congrats

Congratulations to lucky #15- winner for the Herbal Roots April issue is Lori B.   Watch your e-mail for the issue to come through today- enjoy!

 

worms and apples!

It is that great give-away time of the month again!  I love this time of the month, when I get the chance to share with you the chance to have the next issue of Herbal Roots Zine.  This is such a great teaching tool for your kiddos.  If you have not had a chance to see this yet, it is a zine that explores an herb with activities to do throughout the month.  

This next month Kristine has put together a great issue all about apple!  If you would like to have a chance to win the April issue, leave a comment here between now and midnight on Friday.  I will draw winner and e-mail the winner the issue on Saturday March 31.

Bonus entries:

follow me on facebook

follow herbal roots zine on facebook

follow me on twitter

Best of luck, and now for the worm; head over to herbal roots and you can try and win one of my wooden worms.  He would love to garden with you!

lone yellow

I found her on my quick little walk through my "woods"  this afternoon.  Now when I say woods, mind you it is a small patch of about 20 foot wide easement that is probably owned by the city that I took over a few years ago.  This year is the big push to clear out another patch of honeysuckle.  You may remember when that water line broke in our woods?  Well- unexpectedly there is now a giant cleared area in the woods that the city finally seeded with what I assume was grass.  Grrr- so I snuck in about 8 lbs of clover seed yesterday!  

I am trying to re-establish good native medicinal plants into my little woods.  Now this is all good with the family except for the dandelions.  Hubby removes and I just keep blowing those puff balls back into the yard to get the dandelions back- sshhhhh!  So I was happy to see this lone yellow lady showing her pretty self!  Don't forget all the great Herbal Roots back issues if you would like to explore dandelion some more! Till then- blow some dandelion seeds my way!

holding spring!

Happy spring everyone- just about the top of my list for favorite seasons- followed by autumn, then summer and don't worry winter you still hold a little spot of my heart too!  But spring- how I adore thee!!!