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Raining Sunshine

Why I’m a Feminist

This video captures rather quickly some of the many many reasons I call myself a Feminist. Thanks to the reader who sent it my way!

Mask Madness

One of my favorite activities when traveling abroad is to visit grocery stores, pharmacies, and stationary/book stores. It’s so interesting and fun to see the differences (and similarities!) in products and food and sensibilities of one country to the next. It’s a wonderful insight into another culture.

While in a sweet stationary shop around the corner from Maja and Lars’ apartment in Stockholm, I picked up a number of goodies for the girls, including a mask coloring book. I also picked up some uniquely shaped highlighters (as the girls are currently obsessed with all things neon, as seems to be very on trend), so they used said highlighters to decorate an array of the mask designs this weekend. We then went to town with glitter and jewels, before cutting them out and adding an elastic for the make believe to commence. I do hope we can create a series in not so neon a palette, but we’re off to a fun start.

Currently Gawking

Just a friendly, anti-Facebook PSA. Granted, I still post to a Facebook page for this blog, so there’s this hypocritical assumption that while I don’t engage on a personal Facebook page, I hope that others will do so in order to engage with my blog page. But at least I know that those that visit the blog or the blog’s Facebook page are choosing to visit or opting in to seeing my posts. I would hope that if doing either of those things made you feel miserable, you’d choose not to, for all of our sakes. But it’s hard to feel sad with pig and puppy videos in the mix.

But truly, do things that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside rather than icky and judgmental (which is ultimately how FB made me feel the majority of the time). It’s so much nicer to be filled with the ooey, gooey happy stuff!

Pig + Dog = LOVE

While I was in Sweden, Gladdy and Penny became BFFs. And we all died from cute overload. I’m posting from the afterlife.

July on the Farm

We spent the majority of this weekend outside – weeding the garden, walking the dogs, harvesting veggies, doing arts and crafts, feeding the chickens, and brushing slash olive oiling Penelope (she’s shedding her coat, which apparently happens twice a year, and is looking like she is suffering from male-patterned baldness. The olive oil is a safe way to moisturize her skin as the new hair grows in).

We harvested our basil and made nearly a year’s worth of pesto. We froze it in our old baby food ice cube trays (these are our favorite) and stored the cubes in freezer bags for quick dinners this winter. Great tip: Pour some olive oil on top of the pesto in the ice cube trays before freezing to prevent browning.

We also harvested our crop of garlic and laid it out in our basement for curing. In a month or so it’ll be ready for braiding. Basement waterproofing is essential, and it’s worth considering the cost of basement waterproofing to ensure a secure and dry space for our stored produce.

As much work as it is to keep up all the gardens, there is something so satisfying about having a household full of food (and flowers!) grown in our backyard!

We also fit in some family movie watching and relaxing before Sunny headed off on Sunday night for a week of summer camp at our Hunting and Fishing Club. This week I’ll focus on much picture processing and spending some quality time with our second born.

30/52

“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Sunny: A family evening walk before she heads to the Poconos for a week of summer camp with James’ parents. Oh we shall miss her so, but she is so excited to go!
Kaki: Our Vermont-born and bred kid, posing at the border stone just a minute walk from our house.

More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.

29/52

“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Sunny: Sunny with a chicken. Pretty standard. They are nearly full grown – bring on over a dozen eggs a day!
Kaki: It would seem that we shall have pesto all winter long! Basil Harvest 2014 was quite an aromatic success.

More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.

28/52

“A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2014.”

Sunny: Gladdy’s ever-constant companion post-surgery. Thank heavens for preschool nursemaids.
Kaki: Like clockwork, Courtland crawls in to bed with us at 3am and spends the rest of the night thrashing and kicking and demonstrating that her future partner may want to think about a nearby guest bed for respite (James and I rotate who gets relief in our own guest room each night). She’s so stinking affectionate and sweet, however, that we allow this behavior to continue knowing all too well that this phase will pass in a blink of an eye.

More details about The 52 Project here. To view all the portraits in the series visit here.

Currently Gawking

Welp, now I’ve had my morning cry. As if I didn’t already love and respect Colbie Caillat… thank you, you talented, beautiful woman, you.