white apples . a blog

weekending

she kept saying, this MUST be summer!

and it felt like summer, bright and warm and lazy

splashing in the backyard, digging in the garden, trying on as many princess hats as we could find (in fact, all hats are princess hats)

we baked whole wheat chocolate chip cookies (from this gorgeous book) and stuck raspberries on our fingertips and ate marshmallows in our pyjamas

we made things and read things and laughed and fell asleep exhausted at the end of the day

weekends as they should be

(joining Amanda for weekending)

fly through my window

Our first Spring in this house, I put a birdhouse in our backyard. A silly little thing, decorated with ceramic chickadees, it hung right outside our sunroom window, not three feet above the ground. I assumed it would be decorative. What bird would build its nest right next to our busy birdfeeder, with a handful of garden gnomes keeping watch and deer tromping by every day? What bird would feel safe so low to the ground, with loud little-kid-hands busy in the garden all afternoon?

But within an hour, a black-capped chickadee settled right in. And it has been the same every April. Small, speckled white eggs. Mama bird coming and going. Juni can’t stay away. She is overflowing with curiosity about the mama and the babies. She wants to know what the nest looks like and the eggs. She is constantly peering into the tiny entrance. Following her lead, Owen grabs the birdhouse to get a better look. The whole thing swings wildly on its hook and I cringe to think of delicate eggs bumping around in there. I run up to grab little hands and admonish, to explain how helpless and fragile those eggs are when the mama is away.

Every afternoon, she lets them inspect her house and her babies. They peer and giggle and stand on tippy-toes, jostling and whispering their loud little-kid-whispers.

That is, until I walk up and she flies away.

If I were the poet I once thought I’d be, before I knew anything at all, I would write a poem for what this says about them and her and me, about trust and fear and motherhood.

Instead I take their hands and walk away slowly.

I explain to my girl that even though mama-bird has left, she is never far away. See how she always comes back.

I remind my boy to be gentle with the world and amazed.

I remind myself to keep noticing these things and remember. 

spring training

bunny days

Juniper and I have seen the Easter bunny in our backyard all week long, hopping in and out of the treeline, munching on our grass, and looking out for little nooks and crannies to hide his eggs.

"Mommy, why does the easter bunny have eggs? I thought so chickens have eggs."

He is large and plump and brown and very impressed with the Swiss chard in our garden bed. So impressed, apparently, that he was particularly generous with us this Easter morning.

"Look at all these wonderful Easter suprises! It's finally Easter!"

Juni has been looking forward to Easter for weeks. She has been talking about eggs and picnics and bunnies and Spring. And chocolate.

"I have to go find my basket! And we need to get the picnic blanket for outside! I think so we have to go on an egg hunt!"

Before I had children, holidays were important, of course - times for reflection or reverance or just good old celebration. But now they are particularly meaningful milestones -  sweet little pauses here and there in these days that tumble away. I remember last Easter as clearly as she does. Like today, it was warm and bright. Seedlings were just beginning to sprout. The finches had started their nest on our front porch. Owen was all giggly, joyful baby chubs. Rolling and sitting were new and exciting adventures. And Juni, she still had some baby in her as well, the little girl still hatching. Now he is lean and fast and full of words. And she is tall and confident and brimming with excitement about everything, with curiosity and opinion and certainty.

Always, they are growing and changing. And so I'm grateful for these special days, these touchstones in the calendar, that help me to remember that our years circle around and around, even as they run away.

"This sure was the very best Easter party I've ever seen, don't you think so, mommy?."

Sure it was.

the things we make

even in the leafless winter

Juni has been home from school all week for winter break and we've been enjoying the warm, sunny, most-definitely-not-winter weather - that is, when we weren't recovering from yet another round of stomach bug/norovirus. The past few months have been packed full of colds and sniffles and fevers and stomach discomforts and various other viral-mediated miseries (such as hand-foot-and-mouth disease, GAH! the aftermath of which I am still, STILL, experiencing a solid month later; yes, adults can get it and, believe me, it is not pretty). Right now the wind is blowing and the sun is shining and buds are popping up everywhere and I am so, so relieved to say goodbye to this crazy winter we've had, with its confusingly mild temperatures and its incessant kid-borne illnesses.

Juni only goes to preschool for three days a week, four hours each day. One week off didn't seem like too much of a disruption to me. Yet my usually adaptable little girl seems quite out of sorts with this break in her weekly rhythm. We've experienced unprecedented levels of stubborn defiance this week - throwing things and talking back and a general unchanneled restlessness that leaves chaos wherever we go.

At least we've been able to play outside most days. We've watched little finches build their nest in our birdhouse. We've chased the squirrel away from our birdfeeder (again and again). We've counted mole holes (there are many). We've run around the back yard yelling, "Deer! Deer! Deer! DEER!!!" (okay, that was just Owen).

On a particularly bright and windy day, we dyed silk scarves with Kool-Aid and hung them up outside to dry. This was an easy, fun project and the kids have been playing with the silks every day (with much excitement and high-pitched squealing). I suppose this was our way of welcoming spring - bright and airy and soft and, I hope, I hope, free from germs.

I bought the 35" square silk scarves from Dharma Trading. For dyeing, we used this tutorial and this Kool-Aid color chart.

*post titled with apologies to Mary Oliver and her poem "Starlings in Winter"

a rainbow river

Now that triple-digit temperatures are behind us, Juniper, Owen, and I have been spending many more hours outdoors (though all those mosquitoes are still hanging around - it seems we three are delicious). These photos are from our adventures with liquid sidewalk chalk one morning while Owen napped. Our recipe is from this post by Domestic Charm. It's simply one cup of water and one cup of cornstarch, divided and dyed with food coloring. Juni loved adding and mixing all the colors in the muffin tin - "we're cooking up colors!" The colors seem a little watery at first, but they dry with a nice, bright, opaque finish.

Juni started off with the paintbrush, but eventually got fingers and hands and feet involved. When she was finished, she emptied the whole tin and we watched all the colors trickle down the driveway. Next time we'll let Owen get his hands in there as well.

 

snippets from a rainy weekend

:: vanilla-scented purple sparkle dough

:: indoor picnics

:: peanut butter pie

snippets from Easter weekend

Our Easter travel plans were derailed by my little pneumonia incident, so we spent the weekend dying eggs, hiding treats in the backyard, and enjoying the warm, sunny weather. Click through for a whole series of weekend snapshots.

making some art

In the mornings, Juniper tends to get a bit antsy because we are stuck inside while the baby sleeps. In the interest of keeping her occupied and away from the television, we've been experimenting with paints - a little finger painting, a little wet-on-wet watercolor (my favorite). "Make some art?" she asks most mornings.

To protect her mama-made jammies (we spend all morning in our jammies around here), I made her this little art smock from Kokka's matroyshka doll oilcloth, using this tutorial by Make It and Love It. Juni loves to put it on before we start any project. Next time, I will make it a tad longer for my ever- growing little artist.