Our newest addition

Again it has been forever since I posted last.  I have been so busy trying to squeeze the life out of summer before it's over I just haven't had time.  I am having a bit of trouble grasping the fact that there is so little of it left.  There are still so many things I haven't even done yet!  And on top of all that I have been trying very hard to master the Waldorf inspired rhythm.  All of this has left me running like a chicken with my head cut off for weeks and it has sucked all the life out of me!  I am exhausted and most days by them time I get any time to myself I don't even have the energy for writing a simple post, all I can do is sleep. 

Honestly, I have NO IDEA how your ladies do this!!  I am assuming it gets easier in the winter months as it's not so tempting to be out side, but we will see.

So back to the point of all this rambling, our new addition.  So here's our story....

Last Friday my family and I loaded up the car for our usual "Field trip Friday".   We had decided on this particular trip to go berry picking at our favorite spot in the woods in the middle of nowhere.   We all got out and headed down the trail.  Before we even got to the first berry bush my husband stopped and shushed us all....

"What are you doing we are in the middle of nowhere?!?"  was my reply.  I was ready for blackberries, but I quickly grew silent and that's exactly what I got...

"MEOW"  is what I heard.  I couldn't believe my ears or eyes.  Right there in the middle of nowhere a little black kitten came happily bounding out of the woods to welcome us.  She was adorable!  She immediately fell in love with everyone, rubbing, purring meowing the whole nine.  My step son was with us as well and he is a huge animal fanatic.  He was ecstatic.  The boys fell hook line and sinker in moments, of course.  I knew it was coming and before long they started the usual chorus of "can we keep her, please?"   Now I don't hate animals, but we have had our share and they always end up to be all my responsibility.  Once I had kids I refused animals because I didn't have time to take care of me let alone a pet, come on now.   But this was an exception, and I knew this immediately.  She was lovable and super cute and she really needed a home.  So I said that we could keep her if she wanted us to, but it had to be her choice.  Needless to say the boys were not much help picking berries as they were so enamored with the feline.  But we did manage to get a few before we gave up and headed home, kitty in tow. 

We decided to name her black berries, berries for short.  However once we got her home and realized she was a girl, John thought a more girly name was in order.  She officially became Esmeralda Berries.  I still call her bears for short.  She is the best cat ever!   She did have a few issues when she got home from being in the woods like fleas and worms but we've got here all fixed up now and she has made herself quite at home. 

She has taken quite a liking to me which I am liking as well.  She's a super snuggler.  She kisses freedom goodnight and loves chasing him through the house.  I can't even tell you how many hours have already been filled with rolling belly laughter thanks to her.  She is so well tempered for a kitten.  When Cypress attempts to pet her (which is code for slap and pull her hair and ears) she doesn't even flinch or raise a paw.  She sleeps with me at night and you should.   see her nap, she sleeps all stretched out on her back, it's hilarious!  She also loves her belly rubbed.  She has just been the prefect addition to our family and we couldn't be happier.  I can't imagine why anyone would ever get rid of such loving adorable cat but our guess was someone had a litter and couldn't get rid of all the kittens.  Whatever the reason we couldn't be happier they did.

Besides what would you expect me to do with a black cat that found me in the middle of nowhere on Friday the 13th?  Sometimes when the universe speaks you just have to listen!

Welcome home Bears!!  We love you!

Blessings,

Kat

Dying for a break!

So I have been a bit absent lately and I do apologize .  But I have been pretty productive on my vacation from blogging.  Just wanted to show you what I have been up to...

We decided to make tie dyes to try and sell at the flea market.  We had considered this before but we didn't want to take business from some friends we made there who were selling tie dyes themselves.  They moved away for school so the cats out of the bag...

Or first batch was sort of a disaster...

It's not the worst dye job in the world but where are the colors?  Way too much tieing not enough dying.  See what happened here was a classic mistake.  I listened to my husband.  He's more the "hardcore hippie" one and he insisted he knew all about tie dying and he would teach me...

These are OK... but let's see who got schooled here...

See the bold heart in the front?  one of the only ones I DID by myself.  And though they are hard to see there are other hearts and peace signs and a few decent spirals that I did for the most part.  Needless to say I took over this mission. 

The best part about it was I got to tell John "hey if you want this done your going to have to do it MY WAY.  You will do what I say when I say and question nothing.  I will have complete authority.....understood?!?"

This is pure bliss to my little Capricorn heart...

Bonnie claimed this one already...

And here she is.  Proof she DOES leave the house sometimes!

This is my rainbow series..

I did a few more hearts..

Some circles...

and circles all over the place...

Spirals,

Freedom actually did this one!

Some lines,

A peace sign,

A sad attempt at a grateful dead steally

(yes I know the lightening bolt is missing, I tried really)

And what is this curious creation among my works....?

"You don't need this one mom I can do it instead!"

Thanks buddy, that was my best shot at an alien! 

\

Some of these I found directions for online,

some I just made up myself (rainbows, alien, steally)

A vast improvement from the first batch wouldn't you say?

My project for the next flea market is going to be fish, mushrooms and flowers.

Any suggested shapes?  I can do most anything symmetrical.

If anyone wants detailed instructions I will be more than happy to provide them.

By the way, does anyone know how to make a star?????

(or anything else cool)

Blessings,

Kat

P.S. Keep an eye out for my giveaway coming soon.  I finally got enough followers to have one I just have to decided what I make that I think is worth giving away, ha ha.

Exploring our home town and cherishing our homestead

Wednesday has been named our art project day.  We made acordian books.   Freedom and I made our ownand worked together on one for Cypress.  Freedom's was about volcanoes and nature.  The inside reads:

The winds blows things away,

The volcano washes people super clean,

The water helps people float,

The earth helps people live.

I was so impressed at the underlying theme of the four elements without any suggestions from me as to what could be written about.  What a doll!

He even wrote the final credits by hand.  he has gotten very into writing things by himself.  It makes me really excited when he comes bounding out of his room after some free time to show me the list he has written for me of my chores.  Thanks for the reminder buddy!

Freedom chose to make Cy's a bit more personal.  It is titled

"Cypress like to..."

and it reads a bit more simply

Crawl

Do Cartwheels

Cry

Climb

How cute it that?  All things that start with the same letter as his name.  When I cut out the "C" for the front cover Free decided to glue it to a scrap paper we had ...

He brought it to me and says look mom it's Cypress.  See his two little teeth it the front and two eyes?  He even has a little hair too, just like real Cypress!"

After quiet time we headed to our home town to explore.

We have been living in Horseheads for about 2 years, yet we have never really explored the down town area.  We learned how we got our name.  Neat story actually.

We took a walk around Hanover square.  We visited the library, saw the fire station and stopped into "Dog Eat Dog" for a milkshake.  It was simple and really fun!

After dinner we collected some black walnuts (or so I have been told these are) from our back yard.  Does anyone know what can be done with them?  Then we started our new outdoor stories tradition, got washed off and then off to bed.

Another pleasing end to another pleasing day.  Not every second was pure bliss, don't get me wrong.  We still had some melt downs, that's life.  But Rome wasn't built in a day right?

I have to say I am really suprised. I have simply playing and creating for a few days now. Not trying to teach anything at all. Yet, somehow he is learning in leaps and bounds! I can't believe what's been happening right before my eyes. It's like he doesn't need me or anyone else to instruct him. I am starting to see what the whole idea behind Waldorf is, or so I think.

Blessings,

Kat

Tuesday is Daddy's day and a delicious popsicle

So I know it's been a while between posts.  This revolution  at my house has taken a lot of time and energy to make it work.  But it is going very well so far.  We have been so busy and learned so much. 

Tuesday has been deemed Daddy's day with the boys to do something interesting.  Freedom asked to go fishing.

The boys got their hooks baited with corn

Freedom even had a go at it himself!  He was pretty proud of that.

Dad cast his line...

Freedom followed suit.  Pretty well I might add.

I took a ride to the grocery store nearby minus one kiddo and then met back up with the boys for snack.

Next the boys had some fun at the park.

I always love to see them doing a bit of team work.  Wish this shot was a video so you could hear all the giggling!

On to a bit of rock climbing.

Free as a bird way up in the sky.  Remember when four feet felt like four stories?  I miss that feeling!

And here I thought Freedom had forgotten all he had seen me do at work.  It's been a long time since I was posing kids and snapping smiles, but he nailed this position exactly with no direction.  I guess that's the price we pay for using him as the guinea pig for all my new employees to practice on during training.

Later after dinner we made some blueberry pomegranate Popsicles.  Here's how we did it, they were delicious!

Juice the pomegranate...

Clean some blueberries

Blend these in a food processor

Put some plain or vanilla yogurt in a bowl and add the berry mix

Mix it all together and put it into Popsicle makers

We put ours in the freezer overnight and ate them for breakfast.

Go ahead, they are good for you!!

Later that night we visited some friends.  Then made some chicken and dumplings, followed by baths, stories and finally bed!

It was a pretty good day, I think everyone had a really good time.  Dad is looking forward to fishing with him again this Tuesday, but I am trying to convince them to do tie dye.  I'm DYING for it, ha ha!!  OK sorry for the corny jokes I guess I am just trying to make up for lost time cracking needless jokes in the blog world since I have been pretty much MIA for the last week.  Sorry for that but this takes an immense amount of time.  So very worth it though!  

Blessings,

Kat