Boise, Guru Donuts and a Baby

Photographs from our trip to Boise the other week. Vegan, soy-free donuts. Enough said. The children's first look at activism.
...and just because I have a million Baby F photos sitting on my computer: Baby yawns! I love little baby yawns!

Boise, Guru Donuts and a Baby

Spring is coming!

 

spring is coming, spring is coming

birdies build your nest.

weave together straw and feather

doing each your best.

spring is coming, spring is coming

flowers are waking, too.

daisies, lilies, and daffodils

now are coming through.

spring is coming, spring is coming

all around is fair.

shimmer, glimmer on the meadow,

joy is everywhere.

 

Spring is still far away, yet I have been humming this song the past few days as the sunshine comes pouring into our home. I can't help but daydream. Even our indoor plants have noticed and have sent forth blossoms. The sunlight is very deceiving though. If you step outside the wind will chill you to the bone.

The thoughts of springtime gardening have me wanting nothing but smoothies and juices. Following the advice of Angela Liddon, I experimented with making juice in my Vitamix instead of pulling out our big juicer (in my very messy kitchen, because who has time to clean their kitchen with a new baby?!). I made her Yogi juice and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Vitamix method works!

Some of our most beloved friends from back in Portland  are coming out to visit us next week and we can not wait! I don't think I could put into words just how excited we are to see them. It will be a glorious visit for sure!

Spring is coming!

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.


My very last appointment with my midwife is next week. I don't want it to end but I guess I have to accept what is. I wanted to do something as a thank you to her for helping my little miracle come into this world and for giving me the support and compassion I have always wanted in my pregnancies. She is pregnant and due soon. She comments on Baby F's hand knits each time I see her - especially his Nikka's hat so I thought I would make one for her baby. I am hoping to have some other things for her, too, but my sweet baby is rather colicky so I don't know what I can realistically accomplish.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

irony

When the midwife and lactation consultant came for their home visits after Baby F's birth, they both commented that our home was the cleanest they had seen following a birth (probably due to all that cleaning I did right before his birth). Now, if you know me or have been to my home you would laugh along with me at the irony of such statements, knowing that I am the most unorganized person that has ever walked this earth and a failure of a housecleaner. I have always been that way but since having children it is even more so. I would rather spend my time loving my children and creating things with/for them than keeping a spotless museum home, but at the same time I am rather embarrassed when some people come over (not so much my dearest friends who know me well enough and love me anyways). I am still working on finding some sort of compromise with cleaning or just simple acceptance of who I am and the fact that I will never be able to please everyone. I am a constant work in progress, but aren't we all?

BUT if my midwife and lactation consultant were to come back for a visit now they would find a much different home - it looks like a tornado came through (or maybe three little tornadoes). I guess that is what happens when Mama is resting for weeks. Perhaps I will just continue camping out in my bedroom and ignoring the mess in the rest of the house. Baby F wouldn't want it any other way, anyways. He is very fussy at the moment and not wanting to do anything but nurse 24/7. I think he might be coming down with the cold that Little L currently has.

I am beginning to think Baby F's eyes might be brown. It is hard to tell because his eyes are so small and he only likes to open them in the dark. That would be a first for us as all our other children were born with blue eyes. If they do happen to be brown, it would be a nice connection and sweet reminder of Kevin's birth mother (he was adopted) as she had brown eyes. We'll have to wait and see! Kevin picks on me and says I am such a girl for wondering about his eye and hair color. I keep asking him, with hope in my voice, if Baby F's hair looks red to him. One of my babies has to have my hair, right?!

irony

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

The act of creating, in one form or another, preserves my sanity amongst the chaos of life. This explains why I always have more than one project going at a time as well as why my housework tends to fall behind. I enjoy seeing what others are working on and keeping calm with, too. What are you creating? What is keeping you going? Snap a picture or two and share it with the rest of us by leaving your link below.

We spent the whole day exploring Boise after seeing our midwife so I forgot to get a crafting on photo. Oops! Instead I'll share a photo I took while we were out today of C holding Baby F in his smaller sized milo I finished last night.

What are you working on? Happy creating!

An InLinkz Link-up

Keep Calm Craft On {crafting on}

right now

{my little helper} {more baby knits} {Ash Wednesday} {dog snuggles} {little peanut}

Sleep deprivation, or I guess broken sleep would be more accurate, has taken it's toll on me so I won't even try to put many words together or articulate tonight. Well, broken sleep coupled with stress about some pretty big life plans coming up. Those plans are creating good stress though, if such a thing exists. I think this change will be good overall but will be very challenging. I'll share more at another time. However, I can share pretty pictures right now.

Kevin goes back to work this week and I am a bit frightened of the prospect of him not being at home 24/7.

Baby F only has one or two hats that actually fit his tiny head so I cast on another pilot cap since it was a quick knit but used smaller needles and some scrumptious Luna Grey sport weight yarn. The result was just the right size. You can see my Rav notes here.

His baby blanket can be seen here.

right now

What's in a name

I'm a mess but I am too much in love to care! The most beautiful baby hat made by Melissa. Baby F is growing into it! You can see it here.
I have felt so spoiled the past couple of weeks. Kevin has been home on paternity leave, taking on all of my responsibilities as well as his own. Our midwives came to our home for my and Baby F's first check ups, followed by the most wonderful lactation consultant later in the week (she is friends with one of the original founders of Portland Waldorf School back home - how funny!). Each visit Baby F was weighed and I am happy to say he has done nothing but plump up! You can actually even see it in his face in the photographs above. They were taken over the course of a few days after his birth.

Thank you for all of your comments and messages about his name -  I love his name too, but I might be partial. I thought I would shed some light on why we chose it (including a first for us - two middle names!).

I wanted him to be named after a saint (like his big brother), and an Irish saint would be even better. Then I stumbled upon St. Finnian of Clonard. The more I read about him the more I admired him.
He was the "Teacher of the Irish Saints" including the twelve apostles of Ireland and is known as the traditional founder of the monastic movement in Ireland. According to some sources, Finnian studied for a time at the monastic center of Martin of Tours in Gaul. Tours was noted for its austerity. As you may know, Saint Martin of Tours (who the center was named after) holds a special place in our hearts - we celebrate his feast day with our yearly lantern walk. That pretty much sealed the deal for me. I knew St. Finnian was just who he should be named after. Kevin really liked the name, too. It's normally not that easy for us to find a name we both really like right away so I took that as a sign. Little L was disappointed at first because he wanted him to be named "Shark" but then he decided he liked the name Finnian because it reminded him of shark fins. He started calling him Shark Finnian (and he still does).

His middle name means "Of the forest." We are a family that lives, breathes and thrives in the PNW coniferous forests. I know he will follow in our footsteps and love the serenity, beauty, and adventure that the woods offer. His name is also a promise to ourselves to return to the land we so love.

And then finally we come to his second middle name. Kevin and I couldn't decide between the two middle names so we just went with both. My friend Christel pointed out that two middle names is a German tradition so if anyone asks we'll say we did that intentionally. Hehe. His second middle name means "blessing" which definitely describes him. Kevin loves the name because of one of his heroes - Daniel Boone. So the name is a win-win. Kevin has been reading some of his Daniel Boone books to our sweet baby as he sleeps. Such endearing moments.

I shall have to end this here as I hear my little forest boy calling for me. Time for sleep...hopefully!

Oh and I forgot to mention it in my birth story post - the very first thing L said when he came into the room to meet his new little brother was, "Now I can sit in your lap again, Mama!".

What's in a name