River Day

The Baby Boys

Here are our boys - looking so serious!


They usually look like this:


And this:

So Much Love!

Our New Little One!

Banyan Isaiah was born on July 13, 2010! He is only a few minutes old in this picture. Stats: 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 19 1/4 inches long.

Freddy was a perfect birth partner, as always. We make a good team! Zara awoke about 1/2 hour before Banyan was born, and so she heard and saw me labor. She rubbed my back and told me "You're doing a great job Mom!" in a soft sweet voice. As soon as Banyan let out his first cry, Ash came wandering in. Zara actually watched me birth Banyan, and when it was time, she cut the cord, with help from Freddy. Both the kids were in awe and just so mellow and sweet.

Thank you everyone for all your support and help and love! A more detailed birth story to follow soon!

A Belly, Butterflies, Laundry Soap & What Summer Is To Me

What could a belly, butterflies and laundry soap possibly have in common? It's what we've been up to lately! Well, we've done so much more, like major spring cleaning, experimenting with dyeing fabric, sewing....the list goes on and on. Here are some highlights:


We are expecting our baby any day now! I'm due this Sunday, July 11th. My belly is huge (to me!) and the baby is so very wiggly, much more so than I remember Zara and Ash being. We all can't wait to meet our new little one!


My dear friend found the perfect gift for the baby - a changing table! It's the first one I've had, and my back definitely needs it. It's also the perfect staging area for all of our homebirth supplies.


I made luxurious oils, bath salts and teas, with essential oils and organic herbs for labor and postpartum. YUM! I can't wait to use them!



A dye project: I stripped the color from a baby carrier I bought gently used several months ago. The original color you can see on the left. I love purple, but this shade reminds me of a pimp suit from the 1980's! I used a dye remover and the color washed out to a light pumpkin color, while the dark purple serging remained for a very cool effect.


The butterflies are everywhere lately! And now we have some pupating in our house. Grandma surprised the kids with a butterfly growing kit. It's pretty darn cool and the kids were in awe! Soon we'll have Painted Lady butterflies to release into our forest.


This is what summer means to me: dirt-faced happy kids, wild flowers and little pools!





In an effort to make more earth-friendly choices, while reducing the amount of money our family spends on "household toiletries", I made 5 gallons of all-natural laundry soap for less than $5! How did I do it you ask? Read on!


Ingredients:

2 bars of real, natural soap (grated if you're feeling full of energy)
1 1/2 cups of borax
1 1/2 cups of washing soda (aka soda ash)
5 gallons of water
5 gallon bucket with lid
large, stainless steel pot
long handled wooden spoon for stirring


Step 1: Put soap and 12 cups or so of water in your large stainless steel pot. Place on stove, and "cook" until all the soap is melted.

Step 2: While the soap is melting, add 1 gallon of very hot water to your bucket, add borax and washing soda and stir until powders are dissolved. Put lid on the bucket when done.

Step 3: When soap is melted, carefully and slowly pour mixture into bucket containing dissolved powders. Stir to make uniform.

Step 4: Add an essential oil (like lavender, grapefruit, or tea tree) if you'd like. About 1/2 ounce should do the trick.

Step 5: Add hot water slowly to bucket until bucket is almost full. Put the lid back on and let your soap "set" overnight.

Step 6: Admire your soap and feel proud of yourself! Then use 1/4 cup of soap for a front-loading washer or 1/2 cup for a top-loading washer.

Wild Things!

AHHHHHHHH! An alligator in Foresthill park! Just kidding!

Friday afternoon we went to our local park here in Foresthill. The Friends of the Library was sponsoring Wild Things - a non-profit animal rescue organization that rehabilitates and houses rescued animals. They have animals from all over the world - many of whom were being kept as illegal pets in squalid or unsafe conditions by the wealthy of our country. Many of the animals they care for are animals that were hurt in the wild, or found as babies in the wild and cannot be returned to their homes due to inability to hunt/find food on their own.

Wild Things! will come to your school, library, public event or private event and introduce some of their animals, educate us about the animals and how we can help our animal friends and facilitate interaction between an animal and those in attendance. It's pretty awesome what they do, but sad that there is even a need for it.


This beautiful North American Barn Owl's wing was broken and now it cannot hunt for itself. Can you believe it only weighs about half a pound?!?


This is a 4-month old Red Fox, native to the Eastern United States. Its' mother was hit by a car, and although this baby fox is perfectly healthy, it cannot be released into the wild. Red Foxes were brought to the Western U.S. for the fur trade in the 1800's, and some escaped captivity. In the meantime, they have decimated native fox populations by decimating their food supply, so the government made it illegal for the Red Fox to be released. So this girl is stuck in captivity for life.

We also saw a Brown Lemur from Madagascar, 2 Hissing Cockroaches and a Rattlesnake. The kids were entranced by the animals. Especially when it was their turn to pet the alligator!

Caterpillars and Mosquitoes

The caterpillars and mosquitoes are everywhere, so summer is really on it's way!

It's been a busy month! We've had so much going on, and then our computer has been behaving a bit funky, so that I haven't been able to find the time to post here. A rehash of our month looks a little like this:

Our dear friends gave us a beautiful and fun BBQ/Baby Shower in May and we had a blast! Sadly I took no good pictures. The event was staged outside and had a cool and relaxed shabby-chic-garden feel. We feasted on delicious homemade focaccia , fresh salads and fruit, bbq tri-tip and ribs, beer, sangria and strawberry cake. Yum! I did manage to get just 1 shot of the favors.

The Great-grans were down from Oregon and we went to the Folsom Zoo together. A gorgeous male peacock was displaying for a female. He even let the kids pet him several times!
Of course the Grans spoiled the kids ;) and Zara now has a "big girl" bike. She was so proud and excited! After Freddy put it together we went to the local high school and she rode it for awhile and did quite well!
I finally got the yarn I ordered for my sister's scarf and hat. It's very coppery and incredibly soft. Yay, a new knitting project!
I know I promised some shots of the house and here they are:

And in the intermittently nice weather (seriously, is it ever going to stay warm???), the kids have been having some good, dirt-and-water filled fun outside. I love this time of year!
And I've been hard at work, growing a baby! Only 5 weeks to go now, baby should gain about 2 more pounds, which means my belly is soon to be even larger. And I can barely extricate myself from a sitting position as it is!

Happy Sunday!

We've been battling a cold all week, but life still goes on! Here's a little of what we've been up to the past few days:


Zara loves to help Ash put on capes and togas (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder strikes again). It's pretty hilarious to watch. Good-natured and patient boy + OCD, meddling girl = hours of entertainment for us.


As you may know, I don't know how to style or do anything with hair. So I decided to go searching for some practical help from the Internet. You know, in order not to embarass myself or someone else. Apparently, YouTube has a plethora of how-to's when it comes to hair. I found some really beautiful hairstyle tutorials from an adorable girl from Belgium. Here's the link to her page on YouTube. A lot of her ideas are medieval-inspired, which I find particularly awesome.


Our dear friends long-awaited baby girl was born at the end of April, and we hope to be seeing them next weekend, so I've started on a hat for the little one using this pattern (they might make you log in to see it, if so you'll just have to wait until I'm done to behold the hats' delicate beauty). The pattern is based on a vintage hat and cowl set from the early 20th century. The cotton yarn I'm using has alternating white, peony pink and amethyst. I'm not a fan of pink per se, but this yarn is very pretty. Pretty enough that I'd put it on Zara or wear it myself!


Bat wing Cloudy, in a pile of straw. Need I say more? Until next time!

Outraged!

Sometimes I truly can't believe the sad state of the world we live in.

As if the ignorance surrounding male circumcision is not bad enough (ever notice how American moms use the same reasoning and excuses to mutilate their sons that Eastern moms use to mutilate their girls? "He/she won't find anyone to marry him/her? I want him/her to match his/her Dad/Mom? It's cleaner and more sanitary."), now we have the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommending to allow into the law a "ritual nicking of the female genitals". Their reasoning? It will stop families from sending their girls overseas for "full" genital mutilation. What a joke.

Read Intact America's response here. Intact America holds that this new policy from the AAP is a profound affront to 30 years of progress in the global fight to end Female Genital Mutilation.

Ironically, the new AAP policy tacitly acknowledges that "Some forms of Female Genital Circumcision are less extensive than the newborn male circumcision commonly performed in the West."

So WHY is circumcision of ANY KIND still being practiced in what we claim to be a "modern and science-based" society?

100 baby boys die every year in the United States due to this sick practice.

I beg you to do your part and educate yourself, your children and friends about the true nature and consequences of circumcision.

Potato Head Faces

The kids have been into Mr. Potato Head fashion lately.



I finished my hat, and have been wearing it nearly everyday!




And I re-arranged the house, again. Here is the area by our front door. I'll post more pictures as the chaos comes together!