Little Fox

R drew this fox during art time on Friday. I love the reddish coloring in the face. We love foxes, as long as they stay outside our fences and away from our chickens.

Art Show and a Fairy House

Here are R's entries into Tuesday's Art Show at school. This is called "Little House with Bed and Couch." She left off half the roof so she could play with the furniture inside the house.
This is "Moonlight Howl." Media: Crayon on Paper. She asked Santa for a standing easel with a big roll of paper and acrylic paints and pastels, but she mostly likes to use crayons on typing paper and work at her desk. On Thursday she brought home this box of sand and sugar, left over from their Native American projects at school. This is not even her group's project. She said "The other kids said their moms were just going to throw it out, so I said I would take it home." Now I really can't throw it out, for a while anyway, because she built an elaborate fairy house in it after school. She is pointing to an ivy leaf umbrella over the patio. Next to that is the "vineyard" with dusty miller vines and grape muscari grapes. The rocks with the bark roof in the upper left are the "sleeping quarters." There is a little pool with a bark ladder and slide, and in the foreground is the garden, "planted with seeds."

Valentine's Day 2011

R helped me make and decorate these cookies for teachers and neighbors.


We packaged them up for delivery.

Her classroom party. They had a special Out of Uniform day.

Checking her loot.

After school, with two of her friends.


R and her Dad took off at the end of the day to deliver cookies to the neighbors, like they do every year.

Acorn Squash and Tempeh

Tonight we had roasted acorn squash with tempeh, brown rice and vegetable stuffing. I sauteed onions, carrots, red and yellow peppers (frozen, from our summer garden), scallions and walnuts, with some brown rice and cubes of tempeh that I brushed with soy sauce and browned. I hollowed out the squashes and baked them with the stuffing inside. The squash was soft and buttery and the stuffing was rich and crunchy. We had also had a spring green salad, mangoes, blueberries and little oranges.

And here is a picture that R drew for our wonderful neighbor Bernie. D's car that he drives to the train is not that good in the snow, and Bernie lent him his big SUV the past two days when we had a lot of snow and slick roads. R drew a picture of Charlie holding hands with Katie, Bernie's German Shepherd puppy. Charlie and Katie are the best of friends. If any dogs would hold hands, it would be those two.

Church Envelope

Every Sunday before Mass, R fills out her envelope for the children's collection.

She always includes a little drawing that she's done. This is yesterday's.

And here is today's lunch. I roasted a turkey breast yesterday, so she has a turkey sandwich on whole wheat with spinach; pineapple and blueberries with the plastic rose that she loves to use to spear fruit; broccoli and carrots; whole grain bunny crackers and chocolate milk.

Clothespin Ornaments

We had a party last weekend with our little neighbor friends, to make clothespin Christmas ornaments.

A big mess and a lot of fun.


R's best friend is her little neighbor E. E used to be afraid of dogs, until she met Charlie. Now she goes on walks with us, and is brave and holds his leash.

When they got tired of making things, they roasted marshmallows.


We had so much fun with the ornaments that we played hooky from school on Thursday and made a bunch more. That was such a fun day. We were burnt out from all the school and church activities. We needed a day to sleep in and just slow down and spend time together listening to Christmas carols and glueing and cutting.

These are my ornaments.

R was much more prolific. These are hers.

Look at the detail on the little faces! Pretty good motor control for a seven year old. Once she figured out how to use a Sharpie instead of a paintbrush.

Dear Tooth Fairy, I Lost My Tooth But I Swallowed It

Big news at our house yesterday. This is tooth #2.


The tooth fairy came in through the window and left a trail of glitter (fairy dust) and some plastic groceries for R's toy kitchen.

Tableau with Sweet Potato

 
I find these little scenarios all over the house, because I have been really bad at training R to pick up her toys and put them away. This one is a fairy sitting at a table eating a roast chicken, and one of the dehydrated sweet potatoes I make for treats for Charlie.

What now?

There are some nice surprises when you buy a neglected house and start to dig out the overgrowth. Peony shoots pushing up under piles of dead leaves and pine needles. Looking deep underneath the backyard trees, and seeing the buds of giant purple Star of Persia alliums.

On the other hand, there is the "hellstrip." The impossible to landscape strip between the street and the sidewalk that bakes and scorches all summer. Neighbors told us that one owner had hand-picked river rocks and placed them between ornamental ground cover along the whole strip, and carefully maintained it.

That was a long time ago. Now there is close to 80 feet of this.

"Roundup, Roundup, Roundup and repeat," one neighbor suggested. I think that purposely using Roundup is one of the things we will have to answer for in the afterlife. But after seeing the alternative, I will never judge another person for using it.

I got down on my hands and knees, and dug up every one of these rocks by hand.

In between, I looked on the computer and found great ideas for xeriscaping the hellstrip. I got inspired to divide and transplant some of the xeric plantings in the backyard, and create the first beautiful waterwise hellstrip in the neighborhood.

Then I thought about how quickly well-intentioned xeriscaping becomes scraggly late-August-highway-median in the hands of someone like me with no knowledge or money. And I balked. D. pointed out that there is probably a reason that even neighbors with nice yards have hellstrips with patches of browning grass, or boring stretches of tidy rocks.

So I think we are going to take out the weeds, level the dirt, lay down a weed barrier, and put rocks on top. Smaller rocks, with fewer gaps for weeds. We will still have to pull the occasional weed, but there will be no Roundup. And the beautiful river rocks can be saved for another day and another part of the yard.

Pretty good motor control for a five year old

I drew on the cake with a toothpick and R filled it in. She wanted to crouch under the table to do it in case he came home from work early and ruined the surprise.




Many ways to say Happy Birthday Daddy, and many ways to spell it. The circles at the top are rings on the monkey bars on the playground. Daddy has looooong legs so he can lift her up to them.

Sign for the wall.

A Note

I don't know why these notes crack me up so much. I find them all over the house.

I found this one in R's room last night after she had gone to bed. She had tried to tape it to her door with a bandaid but it fell down. I believe it says "Please don't come in here."