Loving

Right now I am loving:

• all the yummy goodness coming out of the garden
• warm sunshine
• Kunklebaby sewing {working on some new products for Craftin Outlaws this year, as well as old favorites}
• watching the kids snuggle & love the new kitten. worth his weight in gold
• that little boy up there. Yep, his shirt says it all! He is also the worlds best unripe tomato picker. He holds the title & everything. 
• having my computer all fixed finally
• pilates
• watching sleeping beauty & the little mermaid in the same week~ and the boys love it as much as me
• ironing piles of new fabric

Waiting

Lots of waiting going on at our house. Waiting for the veggies to sprout, waiting for school to end for the season, waiting for lots of warm days, waiting for playing in the pool and dancing in sprinklers, and most of all waiting for baby!

I can't wait to meet this little one. This pregnancy at time has seemed to last so long. I never experienced that with the others. Typically at this point I am starting to get sad because soon I will no longer be pregnant. This time, I am counting down the days. Partly due to the surprising, painful aspects of this pregnancy [baby please more OFF my pelvic bone!], and partly I want to know if we have a new little girl or boy to love. The waiting is driving me crazy! I've tried to fill my time with sewing, gardening and the bigger kids homeschooling, but my mind always lingers on thoughts of the baby.

Growing

It's been wonderful watching all the plants growing and blooming. To keep busy while waiting for my own little bean to grow, we've done way more planting than we ever get done this early. The tomato's & lettuce seeds are planted. The children are anxiously waiting for them to sprout. We planted lots of spring flowers and have even seen a few come back from last year!

The pink blooms on the photo are from a tree in our backyard. My husband and I planted it the first summer we bought our house. It's really cool to watch it grow and realize how much we have grown. We've grown older, sometimes wiser, watched our family double, gained new friends, and shared a lot in the few years since we planted the little tree. I do mean little too, she was kinda sad looking for the first 2 years. We had no idea what we were doing and just walked into the garden center and picked a "cheap" one. When I look at the pretty blooms, I can't help but feel nostalgic abmy husband and the direction our lives has gone. Soon baby #4 will be welcomed into the home and someday play under this very tree with smiling, giggling siblings.

Garden Wish Flags

Lately I have been really inspired by Tibetan Prayer Flags. They seem to wander into my mind at the strangest of times recently. I enjoy reading the Maya Made blog and she made some for her family garden.

We had been talking about a few different things to spruce up the garden, and I knew this would be it. We had to put up a large piece of lattice to block the dog from the garden. We tried several other things last year and with a dog that jumps and Bowie would just charge anything....this was our final solution! It works great, but it's ugly.

I used upcycled sheets cut into squares and had the children decorate them with fabric markers. There is a flag for rain, sun, growing, no bugs and some flower ones. After each square was completed, they were sewn together with a strip of bias tape. Quick, fun and meaningful to both the kids and parents!

I love looking out the window and watching the children's artwork dance in the breeze. Whenever I am in a grumpy mood I stare at them and realize how much I have to be joyful about. I love the creativity and love that is always present in our home.

Grow!

I am so excited to have our plants in the ground. We have been so busy lately, that we have not had time to plant yet this year. It feels good to know the plants are nestled into their summer homes!

Besides home grown veggies being delicious, I think it's really important to teach the kids where food comes from. They now understand it takes time and work to keep the plants growing and healthy. It's been wonderful watching them grow through the years and contribute more and more to the care & upkeep of the garden. When they were smaller, they started out just helping mama water. Last year they helped plant, water, pick and weed the garden. This year they are getting their very own area's to take care of all on their own. They are super excited, and honestly so am I. I look forward to the time when {L} can start helping too.

This year, if all goes well, we will have 8 different kinds of tomato's, peppers, carrots, swiss chard, cucumbers, garlic and carrots and multiple herbs-yum!

Helping out by keeping out of trouble! The best help of all-haha. Look at that sweet grin!