fight song

Despite our best efforts to expose them to so much more (or maybe because of? What’s wrong with a little Queen, Bob Marley, and Taj Mahal?), our girls are fully into pop music these days.  And this song (in addition to being the Olympics theme song and played constantly during those 2 weeks) gets played on a continual loop in our house (and thus in my brain).  I think it has become the soundtrack of our life here in Miami.  Well that and Camila Cabello’s Havana because you can’t escape that song here!

And we tend to frame this road with cancer as a healing path and not a fight.  It feels better that way, to us.  But yet, sometimes there is no way around the fact that we need a “fight song” a “take back my life song” a “prove I’m alright song”.  I guess this is it. 

So, this week Andy’s test results came back and they were good. The MRI of his heart showed that the function is back to normal (indicating it was the drugs not the tumor causing a problem) and that the tumor itself has not yet invaded the heart tissue.  His doctor has decided to put him back on the medications at a lower dose hoping that his heart can handle that.  He’ll be watched closely.  The MRI did not show us if the tumors in his lungs are continuing to shrink.  For that we have to wait (again) for the next CT scan which is scheduled in a couple of weeks. 

He is feeling tired in many ways. We all are.  There isn’t a lot we can do about that, other than crank this little pop song and move forward.  So onward.

winter retreat

Last weekend found us all in Madison for the Wisconsin Suzuki Association Winter Retreat.  We had a wonderful time.The girls played and listened to amazing music all weekend with about 200 other young Suzuki musicians, they made new friends, ran around like crazy with old ones, swam, rode the elevators up and down (and up and down), ate at a yummy Moroccan restaurant, and learned new skills along the way.  It was so awesome to have Andy there with us, feeling well.

Today we are back in the hospital for day two of this three day treatment.  It’s hard to see him feeling so yucky again after the strength of the past several weeks, but still we embrace this step with endurance and resilient hope.

The days are growing slowly longer, and as we await the rejuvenating power of spring, we settle into the quiet healing of winter.  Keeping ourselves right here, right now, with just the right amount of energy moving us forward toward that light.

this moment, this week

Holding the warmth of this season in our hearts as we go in for more testing this week.   Lifting our hearts up in intention and prayer.  Feeling the love in this moment pulling us forward.

harvest

We’ve been baking pumpkins, making applesauce, tucking away the kimchi and digging potatoes, celery root and winter radishes.  It’s harvest time!

And she’s been working super hard, this girl, and loving her time playing her violin with friends.  What a sweet treat to top off the harvest day parade with a performance in the park.

Now for a few more days of sun (where are you?) so we can tuck away that garden just a bit more…

and get ready to prop our feet in front of the wood stove with good books, yarn, and cups of tea.  Oh yes, winter is coming! 

change of plans

Last weekend was supposed to be an exciting one for us.  A 4-day trip to Minneapolis was planned with visits at our friend’s house and Andy’s folks.  The reason for the trip was really the Thursday night Dervish Concert at the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis.  You know, the one where you get to dress in matching clothes with your friend (c’mon you remember how fun that was) and stay up really late (like 10:30 late!).   Well, the concert rocked, it was everything we had hoped, complete with second row seats right in front of the fiddle and flute players (perfect for this young fiddler and  her friend the flute player).  And with so many reels and jigs playing in our heads we certainly did not fall asleep any earlier than 11:00pm!

But then morning arrived and both Iris and I felt…not so good.  Really not so good at all.  So with plenty of disappointment we packed the car back up and headed home.  Iris recovered quickly, me, not so much.  But never fear, because Clara Barton is here!

Conveniently, Iris (and by virtue of being the little sister dragged into all thing big sis wants to do, Elsa) have been very into Clara Barton these days (as evidenced by our seasons table).  And what better way to immerse yourself in all things Clara Barton than to nurse your sick mama back to health?  A couple days on the couch being waited on hand and foot-as in: lotion rubbed on hands and feet, hair brushed, tea served, tissues folded, chapstick brought, pillow adjusted…I was almost back to normal. 

So much so, that I could enjoy a bit of printmaking, led by Andy, for our Monday homeschool group.  Inspired by some of our favorite printmakers (Bowen, Wroblewski and Frostic), the kids turned out some simple but very cool prints!

 Elsa’s puppy with its bacon tongue!

Iris’ Lily.

Not quite what we had planned but what we needed all the same. 

performance

We shared part of last week and the weekend with some very good friends.  It was a cool rainy weekend and much time was spent indoors, playing around the woodstove and cooking up loads of good food.  There were fiddle/tin whistle performances.  These girls are bound for Dublin!

 New ninja moves learned.

 And plenty of games.

Then on Monday is was time for the final performance of the Monday Afternoon Homeschool Players Theater, performing Someone is Eating the Sun.  A funny farm tale about an eclipse. 

 See it?

Iris played the part of the hen- obviously.

And Elsa played the part of the very reluctant goat (so reluctant she didn’t come out from behind the barn after the initial dress rehearsal).  Oh well, four.

8 performers did an amazing job in front of an audience of better than 10 kind friends and neighbors.

Set made, costumes designed, lines learned and fun had by all.  A roaring success we do declare!

beginning

right now we are:

~getting ready for sweet sap season

~moving in the fine spring furniture.  Um, that would be the seed table which will take up residence in our living room for the next three months.  It will hold new seed sprouts as well as anything else the girls can squeeze onto it.

~digging out the last of the currents from somewhere deep in the freezer to make seven precious jars of our favorite jam that will hopefully last til the currents come ripe in July!

~winding up the swimming lesson season with a brave head-dunk-under-the-water-chop-chop-timber-jump-off-the-side-of-the-pool grande finale.  Go Iris!

~watching these girls take their practice ever so seriously, even the little one who isn’t taking lessons yet, but really is- in that way the littlest one is always learning right along side us.

hope your March is starting off right too

right now

 

Right now we are:

*Sorting and re-sorting all the candy from the Independence Day parade.  You might know we don’t eat a lot of candy around here.  So when we came home with 4 pounds of it (!) I was delighted when the girls really just wanted to sort it.  It was pretty addictive (the sorting that is).  Iris had to tell me several times “Mama, please just let us do this!”  All those colors and shapes and sizes, what fun!  A couple days of sorting and the candy is old news, tucked away, forgotten.  Whew. 

*Finding anywhere and everywhere to stay cool.

*Playing t-ball and watching games.  “Iris, how do you like t-ball?”  “It’s o.k., kind of just a lot of standing around and watching the ball”   Or, not watching the ball, as the case may be.  She is her mother’s daughter!

*Bringing in the sheaves.  After last year’s pigs tilled a small field for us, Andy planted it in wheat.  We hope to use some as animal feed, some for fresh ground flour and the leftovers for straw mulch.  We’ve never planted, scythed, reaped, threshed, winnowed, or ground wheat before.  But we seem to like a challenge around here, so why not?  Andy sharpened up his scythe and managed to chop down most of the wheat (however an early spring rainstorm had knocked the wheat flat so that added challenge to the challenge).  Bundling wheat that is laying every which way on the ground is, well, challenging.  But he managed to get them into something resembling sheaves (he does not want you to look closely at his work).  Threshing will come next.  That’s when you lay the sheaves on a flat surface and hit the seed heads with something hard (maybe a baseball bat?) to knock the seeds loose.  Then we’ll attempt to separate the seeds from the chaff (winnowing).  I think that involves throwing the wheat up into the air while the wind carries away the chaff and the wheat settles back to the ground in a little neat pile.  If there is not too much chaff in my eyes, I’ll be sure to try and get some photos.

* Listening to this band and loving it.

* Still chicken catching.  It just never gets old.

* Thinking, dreaming, dancing for rain.  Pretty much everyone east of the Mississippi is experiencing record-breaking heat.  Our pastures are as dry as we’ve ever seen them.  Crispy dry.  The sweet smelling red clover that usually fills our hilly meadows are just brown little heads bobbing in a sea of dry grass.  No point in cutting hay this month.  Our little stream is dry most of the way down our valley, there is still water at the top where the seeps are usually strong, but without rain I doubt it will hold much longer.  With a snow-less winter, spring warm up that started in early March, and now this heat and drought it’s hard to not worry about climate change (not to mention crop shortages).  And worry I do.  I’m not the only one.  These good folks continue to bring voice to this issue we just can’t ignore.  If you haven’t read this book, I still recommend it wholeheartedly.  

tradition

I think one of the things I love most about parenting is the opportunity to establish some family traditions of our own. I have wonderful memories of childhood holidays: treats and notes in my shoe from St. Nick, the sound of sleigh bells (if only in my head) as I drifted off to sleep on Christmas Eve, stories of the magic that happens in the barn that night, when just for little while the animals are able to talk…
And now with little ones of our own, it’s fun to put some thought and purposeful energy towards creating traditions in our home. Simple traditions that are about making and celebrating together.

This year we continued our Solstice tradition of lighting just about every candle in the house, tuning into darkness, celebrating the turn back toward light. Donning new cozy mama-made pajama pants to help slumber these long nights through.

This year, sort of by accident, Andy and I stumbled on the fun of playing Christmas music together. Both rusty (he on guitar, me on that old wooden recorder I played for years) we stayed up til late hours one night laughing at our imperfect rhythm, starting over and over at the first measure, and once in awhile hitting notes perfectly together. From there it was fun to engage the kids, and fill the house with music, however imperfect. I think we may just have to keep this new little tradition alive, who knows maybe next year we’ll have more than 4 songs to play!

Christmas eve day brings homemade cheese making for the Christmas eve pizza and this year Iris was very interested in the process. It is pretty amazing how one can take a gallon of milk and in less than an hour turn it into a fresh ball of squeaky cheese! Yum!

Mild weather brought us outside on Christmas eve day for some wood chopping and stacking and a Christmas eve bonfire with Grampy. Hmm…new tradition in the making?

Christmas day saw the magic of Santa and good friends and family. And there is still more to come! Wishing you all a peaceful week and a happy ending to this old year. Blessings.

three hours

Escaped. Just the two of us (and Lily-who could hardly believe we were finally moving at a pace faster than toddler), for three hours. The skiing and sites were amazing. I’m not a church-going gal, but reverence and grace are not hard to find out there skiing under the towering white pines and walls of ice. Gospel of nature.

Then I came home and listened to Patti Griffin’s newest album “Downtown Church”. (You can check it out, in its entirety, free, here, until January 26th). If track number two doesn’t get you up and out of your pew dancing, I don’t know what will. Iris and I rocked out all afternoon, then Grampy came in and showed us how to shake our knees and we were giggling too hard to dance anymore.