*gasp*

It's the first week, and I'm slacking already.

I know, I never promised to post everyday. But that was kind of my unspoken intention.

My last post was Thursday's, which was a special day, even outside of my musings about my hammock chair: May 29th is the day (nine years ago) that Kevin and I got married.

When I think back to that day, the things that first come to mind are the brilliant, cloudless blue skies that we enjoyed, as well as total, humbling gratitude. We were so thankful to be surrounded by so many of our friends and family that came to share in our celebration. It was truly a magical day, in many different ways, large and small.




The past nine years have passed in a contradiction of time. From one perpective, it seems to have truly flown, a blur of time with random milestones erratically marking the way. Other times, it seems to be a miracle that it's only been nine years. Nine years to build the life that we share together, our family, our home. To think of everything we've done in that time, evolving and stretching and growing into the people that we are today ... well honestly, nine years just doesn't seem long enough to have done it all. Not to mention the gestation, birth, and nurturing of our two young boys. All those minuscule details merging together to paint the picture of our lives would surely fill more than nine years, wouldn't they?

In any case, it's been a journey that I'm honored to walk and I'm grateful to have my husband beside me. I look forward to the adventures that lay before us still.

a quiet spot...

My hammock chair, hung in a corner of our front porch. There are a couple of reasons why I love sitting there. First and foremost, it usually takes the kids a while to find me, so if they come looking for me, I get a few additional moments of peace ;) It looks out over our flowerbeds, which are an ongoing labor of love. I'll have to do a before and after picture of the beds one day soon.

Tucked away in the chair, gently swinging, I can watch the salamanders sunning themselves on the sidewalk, hear the birds singing in the woods (I saw a glorious pair of red-headed woodpeckers the other day ... the were stunning!), and enjoy the bees buzzing among the flowers. It's my favorite place to retreat to with a book.

Notice that I'm not mentioning enjoying my cup of tea in the hammock chair. Being as graceless as I am, it's quite a challenge to get into the chair, mug in hand, without wearing half of it's contents. Not so fun.

green thumb?

So, I've always been a free-spirit kind of gardener -- and after a few years of a lot of misses and a hand-ful of hits, I've finally figured out a few things. My biggest lesson is that I'm a huge fan of raised beds -- especially in the land of clay riddled soil.

This year, Kevin built some delightful "lincoln log" raised beds to contain my veggie garden. The best part is that materials were free -- built from fallen trees in our woods. And heaven knows, Kevin loves any excuse he can find to play lumberjack. Once we managed to fill them up with all kinds of lovely brown goodness, I was ready to plant. We got some seedlings in (huge thanks to the Tevendale family for more tomato and pepper plants than I could shake a stick at!), and we scrambled to get the deer fence up before those rascals destroyed our hard work. We started a few things from seed as well, and now they're coming up. No one really likes them, but we had to plant some radish seeds. They mature so dang quickly, and they're so fun for the boys to pick. Maybe Kevin and I will acquire that taste this spring, 'cause it looks like we'll have plenty. Tomatos, cukes, beans and peas, zucchini, melon, peppers and pumpkins -- and Noah insisted on planting a row of corn.

All in all, not a "small" project -- but a simple pleasure indeed. The boys delight in running to see how things have grown each day. I'm looking forward them discovering the first ripened cherry tomato, the first pea ready for picking...

i'll start off with a post...

that will reveal to the world the extent of my dorkiness.

I hate plastic shopping bags -- especially the crappy ones from the grocery store that fall apart before you even get home, so there's no chance you can use them again. I've been using cloth grocery bags for a while now, but haven't been diligent about it. It's really taken a commitment to the habit to get into a routine of keeping them in the car, and taking them into the store with me every time.

I'm finally to the point where it's only a rare occasion that I'm stuck at the store without a bag of my own tucked under my arm. Can I tell you how happy it makes me to see the tidy row of cloth bags in the back of my van? Filled to the brim with groceries, standing nice and tall -- no flopping over and no apples rolling around helter-skelter. And I can carry two bags on each shoulder and manage to get all the groceries into the house in one trip. Now, that's what I call progress. Not to mention all the eco-friendly ramifications. I think I read somewhere that it costs $.17 to recycle one plastic grocery bag. Yikes.

because, you know, it's the truth...

It's the small things that really count -- that really make a day memorable, or bring a smile to your face, or make you excited about getting out of bed in the morning.

So, here's to the little things!