Everyone's doula-ing each other in this town!

Can I just say how much I love that Isadora pretends to give birth? Tonight I offered to be her doula to which she shouted, "Yeah! Because everyone is doula-ing each other in this town!" Yes, Isa that's so true...thanks Birth Care Network. This time she gave birth on the boppy- which was for her a big pool- and we had a birthin' party with cookies and oranges and she delivered a breech baby girl named Twinkle Blissed Wreath. Next we weighed the baby in my sling then she placed the placenta in a scrapbook. Badabingbadaboom.

Today's Harvest or...The Garden Reaches Critical Mass.

At this point, and maybe for a few days each season, we reach a point where we are producing as much of our own food as we are going to that year. This was today's harvest (Happy Birthday to me:) - not bad for practically neglecting the garden for the past few weeks. Also, it's hard to tell from the picture, but we are now getting blue eggs from our newest additions to the coop. (Blue eggs make me infinitely happy.) Chris will be turning the pears into wine to warm our chilly winter evenings. The butternut squash will be turned into, among other things, Golden Harvest Cake. (If you know me at all, you know my obsession with this cake...if you've tasted it - you understand.) The tomatoes, besides rocking our BLT worlds, will be canned...the cantaloupe promptly devoured! Hopefully we'll get a few more pints of blackberries for some jam. Happy Harvesting!!!

Sweet!

Gardening: Past, Present, Future

This year's garden is growing beautifully!!!

We cut it back in size drastically from last year and I've been able to devote a lot of time to it so far. Although I won't have a ton of veggies to put up, what we do have is looking lush and vibrant! Aesthetics have always been more important to me than quantity. I am striving for a jardin potager type of look - I'm quite a long way off, I know. But it's about the journey as well, non? Ha ha!

As always, gardening with my girl is such a pleasure. We have managed to have a garden every year of her life and I so look forward to summertime in the garden with Isa. This year she has been responsible for nearly half the planting and seeding. She waters when needed (I actually miss this chore!) and she picks off bugs, and feeds/waters the chickens. She started off learning to "tickle" the tops of the tomatoes (for optimum growth.) I've watched the joy in her face from unearthing her first carrots to the pain of a bee sting while inspecting cantaloupe blossoms. Months before we even plant, she is drawing up blueprints and she's right beside me as I drool over catalogs that arrive in the middle of Winter. And of course, just as soon as we can obtain one of everything planted, we head to the kitchen to prepare our version of 'Growing Vegetable Soup'.

Our first garden, in Indiana. Isa is just over a year.

Taking me on a tour of the garden.

This year's garden.

Now it's Banyan's turn! I have visions of him digging in the earth, inspecting worms, enjoying the snackscaping...The tomatoes are still green on the vine but already, I cannot wait for next season!

Mama and Bear in the corn patch.

Banyan's first taste of our backyard blackberries - boy was he born at the right time!

Happy Half~Birthday Sweet Bear!!

Banyan is SIX MONTHS today!! How amazing that he is in the midst of his third season, Earthside. Oh he is my sweet boy, and time has just flown by - as it does when you are in love. This is a boy who smiles readily and snuggles and is at ease just being. He has grown so big so fast and has already moved in and out of so many different phases. There was the sweet o-o-o, e-e-e, ah-ah-ah crying when he was first born. Then the way he would copy me saying, "Ooohhhhh." The "bear" like growling for milk, or the way he used the sneeze, followed immediatley with, "oh."
He loves his big sister so much and he is completely enchanted by her. It's so sweet and tender to watch them together. Isa will dance for him or tell him stories and he just gazes at her smiling. Often, she can just get him to burst with laughter and I'm not even sure what she's doing. It's as though sharing a womb were simply enough. They have a bond that is outside the realm of Chris and myself. Through, Banyan, I can see a part of Isadora, that I had never seen before...and it's so generous and sweet. It's so awesome to have two kids!!!

Tiller Death Do Us Part

Here is a photo of my new-to-me rototiller!

I LOVE HER SO MUCH.

Every year I plan my dream garden, and every year the only hold up is the lack of a tiller (and sometimes blight or those worm like creatures but we'll just say it's the tiller.) We usually rent one, which is just a pain. And then we only have it for 24 hours. The rest of the season? I am left with either a) living in the garden and pulling weeds every waking moment OR, b) wading through the shoulder high weeds in search of my partially camoflaged produce - and my toddler. I mean, Marco Polo should be played in a pool - not the garden. (well... it was a little fun I suppose.) BUT not this year! With many, many thanks and some fabulous baked goods (yet to be decided upon) to our dear friends, Molly and Cameron, we are now the proud owners of one Arians brand Gard-N-Tool Rototiller. I couldn't possibly say enough about those two... but I guess that's for another blog posting. Anyhow just as we're about to fork over yet another year's rental fee for a mere 24 hours with some shiny little tart of a tiller - here comes an email from Molly with the good news! If you feel so inclined, place your vote for our tiller's new name, OR suggest one of your own. I'm wanting to give her an earthy goddess type of name.

A Spiritual Sketch

In case you were wondering, according to Isadora, this is what our spirits looks like:

Isadora Russ, Portrait of Our Spirit, 2009, sidewalk chalk on concrete, 40 x 30 ¼ in. (101.6 x 76.5 cm), Spiritual Collection, Indiana, gift of the Great Mother (artwork © 2009 Isadora Foundation for the Spritual Arts Society [IFSAS], Planet Earth; photograph by Rhonda Russ, Indiana)

Where We Stayed, Where We Played

Last weekend, while in the 'Ville, I took Isa to Cherokee Park while Chris ran some errands nearby. It turned out to be a really nice experience on a couple of levels. I have been needing and wanting to spend more time with Isa since Banyan was born. I hadn't thought that Banyan's arrival had really affected her until just recently. I guess in the way, as a parent, you expect it might - it didn't. But now I can see it coming through in ways that I don't think are Isa just being a four year old. It's hard to articulate and honestly, I guess common sense would dictate that there would be some reprecutions from learning that perhaps your mother and father did not have another child as gift, purely for your pleasure. Anyhow, the way she has been expressing herself - although never with any resentment towards her brother ( so sweet and amazing!) - has brought to my attention finally that -oh yes! I still need to nurture this other relationship here. The thing is, I feel as though I am coming out of this year long fog and waking up to find my daughter older, wiser, more clever, and...so much taller. How did this happen? We told Isa that I was pregant a week before her third birthday - she was TWO. And now she's this smart and sassy four year old who dresses herself - pink fuzzy hat and all. She wants to talk about nature, spirituality, love... she has her very own friendships!

So - back to the park. Chris dropped us off, and Banyan promptly fell asleep in the sling, leaving Isadora and I to our own devices for two hours. And I loved it so much. We played and talked and snacked and people watched. And it felt like it was just us - like the old days. We also "found" a little stick hut that someone had constructed and left behind. Although we spent about twenty minutes on the play structure - we spent the rest of our time playing inside and near this pile of sticks. Pieces of bark were our phones, teacups, spoons. A discarded raisin box became part of our "pantry." A branch - our broom. We had brought a blanket along, so that went inside for a bed. It was my house, then hers, then mine...on and on. All this imaginative play - just feet from a great play ground.

The whole experience was a great reminder for me. Most importantly, I was reminded of how much I miss time alone with my daughter. How good it feels to open myself up to spontaneous moments with her. But, I was also reminded of how much I want Isadora to experience wild and free OUTDOOR play. After all, her play doesn't have to have a structure...