community-wide yard sale

Garage Sale Goodness. I should stop there, but it is like you have never seen before. Here is how the day went down. HAO wakes up at the crack (have i mentioned the sun rises at like 5am here... special) and she and i snuggle on the sofa for Curious George. I knew today was the Phinney Greenwood Neighborhood Garage Sale and i knew they had 96 house participants (OM!), so i pop online to figure out our timing and strategy and then i come up with the list of goods we should be looking for, after all we actually need to sell bunches of our stuff. We are coffeed up and out by the time they begin and it was INCREDIBLE, like every street you turn there are yard sales on after the other. We had fun walking through the hood and at the end of the day I scored a mountain bike for me for $40, Hannah's first mini Schwinn for $9 (pink nonetheless), a sweet yellow table that has no place but i loved it $20, and a bunch of random goods totaling about $20 like Hi Ho Cherry O, vintage napkins, a great butcher block, a hatchet, and 2 shirts and a pair of addidas for Hannah. And last but not least a family saw us and pulled out there old Burley bike trailer which i have been looking feverishly for and they typically run between $300-$500, and they GAVE it to us. Granted it has been in their basement for circa 5 years and has mega mildew and I DEFINITELY have my work cut out for me to clean it, but i have nothing to lose. Will show before and after pics on that project.

anywho, it was fun, i could have carried on for hours but my team grew weary, so we all came home, played a round of hi ho and took some good naps with all the windows open enjoying the warm air.

this evening we met up with JoAnn and Heath again,this time at Golden Gardens they thought we would like and it was LOVELY, (pics below), and then out to India Bistro in Ballard which was delish! Hannah however was out of sorts and i could tell she was getting warmer and warmer and sure enough got home took her temp and the poor girl had 102.6 fever. i felt terrible for dragging her all around, she is sound asleep now and i am hopeful we'll figure out what is ailing her and that she gets real good rest.

i love that someone else's tossaways became our treasures today, and hoping they all function past next week. (:

day in, day out things

Friday fun day. A few random thoughts for the weekend:

What am i reading? On a rainy Sunday in Queen Anne, i went to their little bookshop and picked out this staff favorite that has won like every award under the sun in a few countries. I am SO wanting to get LOST in it and that hasn't quite happened, the writing is lovely but I am really hoping i am pages away from never putting it down. otherwise i may succumb to running to the library for the next Emily Griffin novel which is my guilty pleasure.

What am i drinking these days? I am trying v hard to dive into WASHINGTON wines, and i have to say.. so far so good. I fell in love with Willamette Valley vineyards (and mainly Pinot Noirs) when i was out here years ago and now I am chomping at the bit to get to the vineyards of Columbia Valley. If only i had a babysitter...

What's a favorite sight in my house? I am trying desperately to get more and more excited about this space. So, I will be trying to blog about some favorite spaces or new uses of old things to encourage myself and anyone else restless in their space to find the things they DO love in their houses. I have been keeping this great pottery FULL of tomatoes since we moved and we all love it. it makes me happy just to see it, nevermind pop a few in my mouth.  Similarly we have been picking single stems of flowers and putting them in a tiny vases and i love love them. they make a room smile.

What you WON'T believe??

i bought this VERY bright, very tight (in a comfortable way) turquoise pants. i wanted to try new clothes out here because it is the perfect place to try things out because no one really stares at much of anything because two folks are RARELY dressed alike.  So i thought what the heck, i know NO ONE, be bright and tight. (please note the tags are still on... i'll be brave in a minute.)

and second, i baked. AND followed the recipe even on sugar and butter AND even for the love of my good baking friend Kim who told me banana bread brushed with a lil butter and sugar on top is the most delightful... i made this coconut banana bread brushed with brown sugar and butter and it was good!

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the little things!

hook me up mamacitas!

Our weather has been incredible. It has been such a treat. Like 6 sunny days in a row at about 65-74 degrees. Goodness. the flowers are so so incredible. Hannah and i point out our favorites on each little walk. Anywho, our days are getting a little plainer, i feel a little silly writing. Today one of the highlights was Hannah kicking a pine cone like a soccer ball all the way home and me dreaming of her as a star athlete. how sad is that?

So, today's post is really to ask you, my many many INCREDIBLE mom friends, what the HECK you do with kids day in and day out. Most of you have more than one kid even so harken back to the days of one little mini. Hannah and I are inside of 40 days of hanging together and there has been a boatload of transition and newness, and yet still I find i am not so great at lots of parts of this. at the play and imagination gig. at the come up with lots of great things to do gig. i like to walk and go to the park and go get treats at the coffee shop and color already drawn things and dance and i think that covers it. every other craft , pretend, or doll type game or creative type way to get them to do something independently for 10 minutes, i strike out and i have a VERY restless kid on my hands. Can ya'll help me? Seriously. What is your FAVORITE thing to do with your kid and your best independent thing for them? help.

and again, i can't help but share this LOVELY shout out for mom's, why are kids with accent so so so dang cute -

and for my friends with no kids, can you still love me with all the kiddo talk? sorry, this is my phase and i am trying to figure it out but if you want to send me an email about any current events or trends or ANYTHING I'd be in heaven. i get like 1/4th, maybe not even 1/4th of the amount of emails i used to get and i actually think i miss them.

Happy almost Friday!

please can i go to work?

I woke up and tried to ignore the alarm and not go for my run. Stephen told me the sun was shining and I would feel so much better if I went for it, and if i was really tired, I could nap later. It felt like a bear hug, i felt so known and loved was just what i needed to hear. the day started off so so beautifully.

from about 10am on however I'd kind of like to erase. i'm hormonal and agitated there is just no other way to say it. the second half the day i DREAMED of going to work. i just wanted to go to work SO badly. Clearly, i knew the day would come but I didn't know what it would feel like and it overwhelmed me for today. i didn't want to be a mom or manage a cluster of a household. it's just the truth. i wanted to run by starbucks after my run and get in my car and listen to NPR and wear makeup and a suit and go into an office. i even would have been fine to sit in meetings I think because i'd be around other adults talking about something that had nothing to do with kids or food. I wanted to do something I felt good at and leave feeling like something was advanced in the day.

lion day i guess. not the end of the world of course but if i am trying to blog honestly everyday and Lord, who knew 50 days would be so long (can't believe ya'll still read), this one was a lion. ready for the mercy new tomorrow morning.

think again

so much of this adventure is reminding myself over and over to allow yourself to think all over again. to start anew in so so many ways. i find myself doing things a way i have always done it and then thinking... i don't have to do it that way, i don't have to have this routine, this menu or have this frame in this room or whatever. I can be the one to lay around in bed a few minutes longer, i can put anything in any room regardless of where it was for the last 8 years, and on and on. sometimes its freeing and other times I feel lost without habit.  I want to allow myself to let go and refresh. maybe in the end the things that were supposed to be the same will...

today i was getting ready to shove in my 30 minute yoga routine in between unpacking and cleaning and Hannah getting up, when i looked on my very rectangular porch and saw the sun beating down on the wood. I moved my mat, grabbed my computer and created my very own hot yoga routine on the porch. it was heavenly as the sun beat on my back and glazed over my face as I twisted. differently done, fabulous.

today was our warmest day yet so we continued the porch goodness by having dinner on the porch for the first time. it was also great, and an absolute DELISH warm day meal that i MUST share. it was so dern easy.

My great friend Alli first shared this with me and I made it tonight and all 10 minutes it took were WAY worth it, YUMO. I used the Trader Joe's Whole Grain mustard and i think it added a layer of goodness: Grilled Salmon with a Sweet Mustard Vinaigrette - http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Grilled-Salmon-with-Crunchy-Swee...

Our side was a spinach salad with the crunchy Asian apple pears, crumbled goat cheese, dried bing cherries and served with a New Zealand Sauvingon Blanc. Welcome Seattle Spring!!

desire to share beauty

we tried. we really did, i wanted to like it, i need a new show so badly and I thought for sure since sweet Emily was filming in Charlotte it would be fun for us. We couldn't make it past the 5th introduction because we felt the cheese coming out of the sofa and taking us over. I confess I may still give it another 10 minutes on another night, but wow, somebody, everybody, tell me the draw of the The Bachelorette stuff... i'm missing it. 

i miss my friends. it's a Monday and it was so beautiful i can't even get over it, our PINK tulips bloomed and the views from the top of the hill were crystal clear with mountains surrounding me all day.  I wanted someone to share it all with and to meet me at the park, run with me, and share a fresh cobb salad and a beer at the end of the day. it was just one of those days where i wanted to be known and have a conversation. i love talking to my girlfriends and hearing about local politics, and best new buys, and what they made for dinner the other night, and what happened most recently with one of their kiddos and just fun friend talk like we were together in person the day before.

nonetheless, we absorbed all the beauty offered to us today. We spent time at greenlake where it is now a mission for Hannah to find the perfect little girl to play with who of course she wants me to help her introduce, but today she saw a puffy tool skirt and walked right up to the little girl with a single ponytail right on top of her head and said, "hi, what's your name, i like your skirt. Wanna play with me?" i think it was all in one breath even, and of course with no cues from me.  but  i get to be inches away so i could hear this sweet girl make friends. If only there was so much less pretense with adults that i could have walked up to the ladies outfit i liked and say, "hi, i'm ashley, i like your shirt, can we be friends?...i'm cool,i promise?? just new."

so i came home and spent the afternoon looking at some summer programs that i could start getting us involved and meeting people. i spread the love and signed her up for one camp at the Phinney Neighborhood Center called Birds, Butterflies and Bugs, one swim lesson series that I'll do at the Y or the Greenlake CC, and then i think the girl will go to her first VBS at the church we have been visiting. it sounds awesome, and i'm wondering if i should even volunteer (oh heavens). So maybe we'll get out there a little in the next few months and make ourselves a friend.

Mother's Day

Today is all joy for me. Days do not end that I take for granted that I get to share in life with the precious gift of motherhood. Typically weeks cannot pass that I don't THANK GOD for my mother, who loves me so unconditionally I can hardly believe that she cares about the next ridiculous thing I blab on the phone about. And to boot, I don't pass time not recognizing that I also received an incredible mother-in-law who embraces and cares for me and loves her son well. 

So a few words on this mother's day. A: To My Mother - Each year I grow more amazed at how FULL hearted and PRAYERFUL your love is for me. You literally amaze me with how deeply and nonstop you care for me. Oh, thank you mom. This year it is a privilege as well to recognize again how much I know I have gained a great deal of strength because i am your daughter, you have depth and spirit and passion I can only dream of and it has fun to see some of that come back to life in new ways this year. 

B. To my Mother in Law, (M.I.L as we say) - Your SACRIFICIAL and ENERGETIC giving of yourself amazes me. You would do anything for your kids and now us, the in laws and grandkids. I admire your strength in PERSEVERANCE and SERVICE and have appreciated seeing a woman as fiercely committed to your husband and kids as you are. Thanks for inviting me into that circle of great warmth and generosity. 

C. To my daughter - God I hope I don't screw up because you are the most beautiful treasure I have ever known. I learn from you each day, and I am watching you grown into a lovely girl of thoughtfulness and observation, adventure, friendship, kindness and a side of stubborn. I am so challenged on days like today to think about what words when you are 34 years old will you write about me, what can I give all my energy and heart to offering to you?

D. To anyone that does not have kids and wishes they did, I think of you all day every mother's day. that longing always remains fresh on my heart. so today I think of you too and pray for comfort and hope for all the many ways I know you give teach and sacrifice for to those who share life with you. 

My father-in-law sent me a great article written by Ann Voskamp recently (author of 1000 gifts which you know I love), and i thought it was very appropriate for today.    http://www.aholyexperience.com/2012/05/the-habit-of-a-mother-who-changes-the-world/

Pluck. Pluck.  

Sunny morning at Granville Island

Good Portion

there is a lot unsaid in this beauty of just getting things done. I am always amazed at how consciously or unconsciously we find ourselves doing whatever things we can control in the midst of times where most is quite literally out of our control. i remember that when we first learned of our infertility that I immediately wanted to grasp for the best diet or keep the house especially orderly because i needed to do anything that was actually in my power to do. because the in-between moments are sticky and painful and i resist being in them at great cost. 

the girls were wild today, like off the hook between bickering and tired and couldn't figure out how to make things work together and at one point i actually heard Hannah say something about her nerves which totally cracked me up and clearly she hears me say my nerves are racked. poor girl. i needed a drink, a long bath, a massage, a long run, something. here we were muscling through the purging and cleaning and restocking for new baby and in the inbetweens were two wild children and a doctor's appointment for Amy that reminds us again of hardship ahead and also lets her know of new concern for kidney and spleen. Amy reports the details outloud and in the same breath i ask where to stock all the baked good products and Aaron goes up to finish a next coat of paint. and it doesn't feel uncaring or denial it feels more like coping or hanging in there although i don't love either of those terms. we are just so scared of all the unknown we just.. well.. hang in there. 

after rearranging rooms, buying new toy storage systems and the first few things for Bea's room, we take our weary bodies and my large glass of red wine and sit down with the book that arrived in the mail that was a recommended parents guide to babies with down syndrome. we are hoping that after all the possible warnings of what may be we will also read chapters and chapters about their unique strengths - oh me, the truth is, even with all this, the day is nearing end and it was good. we are thankful for the chaotic girls because it means we have Sadie and Hannah and we are thankful for all the house purging and renovating because it means we have lots of stuff and we are thankful for each other, a very loving little crew that scared as all get out will also do and learn whatever we need to for little Bea and each other. we close the day content and actually thankful for our portion. 

purge-a-rama

Purging seems to be a theme in my life and in the lives of many around me. It's dang hard to let go and I'm a little weary of that lesson when it comes to people, but for stuff... this is great. Amy may have about 35 tablecloths, 7 copies of Green Eggs and Ham and blankets for everyday of the week for the whole neighborhood. We are reorganizing closets and cleaning out bookshelves and trying to make life at this home at the height of functionality and ease. they have many great things and it is obvious this house is set up to host and serve. it will be interesting to see how the tables are turned as their lives change in the next little bit. I really hope and look forward to community that may rally around them, and hopefully even some community with similar experience. it is such a different wait at this point.

Hannah did ask Amy, "When is Bea going to crawl out of your belly and be born? And then will your belly button be okay?" She is a wee concerned about Amy's belly button at this point. We decided not to really get into the delivery process... 

Okay, more tomorrow when we work setting up Amy and Aaron's new room and Bea's first room. Stephen is going to be taking the train up after work. We are ready to see him and I did feel sad he didn't even have a bud to get a beer with while we are gone... oh time. Total sidenote... we watched Midnight in Paris tonight. Not sure i can handle Owen, but the dresses in this movie are fantastic. If only life was really that exciting at midnight...