animal love

The kids got their dose of animal love last weekend at our local goat farm.  We all got to try milking.

We have recently discovered goat mozarella.  For a family with cow milk sensitivity, this is a bit of heaven.  We have been making pizzas, (yes Francesca), and I am planning to attempt my very first lasagne.

I have decided on our family farm we will have two goats, a mama and a baby girl.  I am trying to get Gary to agree on goats, chickens and bees.  So far he has nixed the first two, but surprisingly he is okay with goats.  

where i live~roofs

My favorite part about this exercise is that it gave me an excuse today to take a break from my busy life, drive around a pretty nearby neighborhood, and look at all of the variety of architecture and gardens.  Like Francesca, tile roofs are quite popular here.  Although ours aren't as old or quaint.

I also enjoyed all of the birds I saw perched on roofs in the morning sun, wishing me good morning, or so I imagined.

Have a happy weekend!  

corner view~room with a view

Years ago, before our son was born, we lived in a house on a hill with many rooms that had views.  We had views of mountains dotted with homes and beautiful large oak trees.  Deer would come to munch on our gardens, and an occasional turkey vulture would swoop overhead in search of his dinner.  There was a roof deck where we would sometimes eat dinner, and sleep on a futon on a hot summer night.  Up there, you really felt like you were on top of the world.

Annabel and Skylar were born in this house.

Gary especially loved the expansive views.  His music studio, that he designed, had a large picture window to look out on the vista.  I put in a colorful flower garden right outside his room, and sometimes he would wander out there to talk on the phone.  

I remember sitting in a front bedroom, when Sky was a baby, nursing her in our glider rocking chair.  I put the chair in a position so that I could see into the nearby bathroom, where I had done a mosaic over the bathtub.  I loved to look at it from afar, at the colors and images I came up with years before, in a stroke of creativity in the middle of an otherwise chaotic bathroom remodel.

We had been looking at tiles, and the only ones I liked were the super expensive Italian kind, and that's when it hit me.  I should do my own tiling.  And so I did.

Are there corners of your home where you sit and enjoy a room from afar?

thank you...

 Shawn's gemstone collection, circa 2012

To Robert McCloskey, Shel Silverstein, Bill Watterson, Gary Larsen, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Cynthia Rylant, Kevin Henkes, Judi Barrett, Roald Dahl, Watty Piper, Jim Davis, Rick Riordan, and countless others.

It's because of you that my son is developing a love for reading and a rich vocabulary.  Recently when we were in a gem shop, he found a stone and exclaimed, "Mom look at the pattern on this one.  It is so amazing!  It like a raging stormy outrage for all eternity!"

Can you guess which one it was?
And by the way, the whitish one of the left is an opal.  Isn't the orange glow gorgeous??

this moment

acrylic painting, 2012

 

{this moment}  

A Friday ritual. 

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

A simple, ordinary, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

corner view~typical family dinner

Hello corner view friends.  Thank you Francesca, for giving me the opportunity to choose this topic, as well as for being such a gracious, consistent host.

Our family time is dinner.  This is when we gather, pray, and enjoy each others' company.  I try to make nourishing, home cooked meals.  We have about ten meals that we rotate.  I am hoping for some new ideas this week as tonight along with regular tacos, thanks to iCarly, we tried spaghetti tacos!

A favorite in our family is Indian food.
Here is how I serve it:
~Brown basmati rice made in a rice cooker.  Easy.
~Plain yogurt.  Easy.
~Curried veggies.  Pretty easy.
(According to our friend Deepu from India, when you serve Indian food you need to be sure you have plenty of rice and yogurt.)  The yogurt cools the spiciness.

Curried veggies are prepared like this (for a family of five).
Four peeled and chopped potatoes
Two peeled and shopped yams.
Cook these first in water, olive oil, salt and spices until they are half done.  I season with curry, cumin, sea salt, cayenne pepper, and tulsi.
Add (3 - 4 cups total of): chopped green beans, broccoli, carrots, and greens from our garden (anything works -- chard, kale, we often use arugula).  Plus one half a bag of frozen peas.
Add enough water so the sauce is thick, but liquid-y, and as you add water, add salt and a little more spice.
This dish takes 45 minutes to make, and it helps me to get the kids in on the veggie prep.

With this meal when we go all out, we often also serve the papaya dish described here.

baby love

It has been a long time since the kids have been around a baby.  But oh so sweet.
Meet Miles, son of Miss Lisa, the girls' home school teacher from two years ago.
Isn't he adorable?  The kids loved holding him.
p.s. I am experimenting with antique effects with the photos.   My camera is slowly breaking down and I will need to get a new one, and although I am sad, I have had this camera for a long time, I am thinking about getting something with interesting lenses.

this moment

{this moment}  

A Friday ritual. 

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

A simple, ordinary, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama

orchid show, local style

I did my best with my iPhone camera.

Aren't these just exquisite flowers though?  I happened upon the annual orchid show at a local mall last weekend.  It's amazing what can happen when we love our plants. 

corner view~eggs

Marks kids, Paris 2011

If there weren't such things as eggs, then there wouldn't be such things as warm crepes, filled with Nutella from a street vendor, that made our children so so happy!

And here's a secret about eggs:
I have always wanted to keep chickens.

Sorry Mom.  I promise if I ever do that they will be friendly!

happy easter

It was a simple, sweet day, complete with hunting for baskets and a later additional egg hunt that included papa!  The kids love to trade sweets, and everyone shared with Shawn because he found fewer eggs.   We ate Sky's homemade sugar cookies all day long and had a vegetable pie with homemade herb gravy for dinner.

this moment, the boy

 

{this moment}  

A Friday ritual. 

A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

A simple, ordinary, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama