a rose by any other name...

Yesterday my children and I went to the Glendale Library and to the Saguaro Ranch Park next to it. If you haven't ever been and you're a Phoenician, you ought to check it out. Really this historic park is a gem and one of our favorites. We had no idea though, that we would stumble upon this, which utterly took our breath away!

My kids share my love of all things roses and so this was such a special treat for us. Each rose had such a different and intense perfume, I tell you, it was heaven!

Soeren was really getting into smelling them!

Here is what we found at the Library

It's rare to see a peacock in full flair, but so beautiful. We also found this gem..

It's called an Orchid tree, it's scent is intoxicating!

My kids never leave an opportunity to ham it up for the camera.

As you can see, we've been really enjoying our week off, so much fun!

The Farms at South Mountain

We visited one of our favorite places yesterday: the Farm at South Mountain. Oh, it was lovely! My eyes needed to see some bursts of spring and that is what we got.

Bachelor buttons

Chamomile (it was tempting not to make tea out of it all, the smell was unbelievable!)

Oriental poppies (one of my favorites!)

Hollyhocks

I adore each of their personalities!

The kids loved the chicken coop! Some day I really want to have one, but for now, we'll enjoy theirs

We brought our sketch books and made an art day out of it. Ahhh, the joys of glorious homeschooling!

What springtime adventures have you been having?? This week we are taking our spring break for Holy Week. Yes, I am a firm believer in observing Holy week and not just taking a "Spring Break" in some random week that has nothing to do with Easter. So, we've been trying to tackle some projects, do some sight seeing, etc. We hope to go have some more fun tomorrow!

26 weeks

26 weeks are here. New haircut and even bigger belly!

a nice weekend

We had a nice weekend, lots of time spent working in the kitchen...

We made...

lots of zuchinni bread

triple berry popsicles!

tomato sauce

We roasted adobo peppers...

and tomatillos

and made salsa verde!

The kids made a dinosaur out of legos and entered it into a lego contest.

and my sweet husband bought me a bouquet of pussy willows. Ya girls, I scored an awesome guy!

Altogether I had a fantastic weekend! Hope yours was lovely too!

Eucharisteo Moment

Eucharisteo - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember as thanks to the Lord. 

25 weeks

Here is the usual pregnancy update: 25 weeks!

The baby is 13 1/2 inches long and weighs about 1 1/2 pounds. Things are really moving along now, especially little Isabella. She is kicking with gusto! The one set back is my back, which always gets bad in pregnancy. It is happening so very early this time, really it started at about 12-13 weeks, but is now really bad. I can make it usually all day as long as I don't sit down and get stuck and then in the evening it's Icy-hot and Tylenol in order to get to sleep. But hey, she's worth it!

Here are some crafts I've been working on lately for her

I hand stamped this onesie and then set the ink with a hot iron.

Here's a batch of burpcloths I made with a little extra detail...

I'm looking forward to patting that little back with this burpcloth!

the art of hospitality

Recently, our family has been reading "the Hobbit" before bedtime. The children absolutely love the story so far, it is my first time to read it as well so I am just as riveted.  We read chapter three last night..the words were tantalizing...

"His (Elrond) house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or just sitting and thinking best, or a pleasant mixture of them all. Evil things did not come into that valley. I wish I  had time to tell you even a few of the tales or one or two of the songs that they heard in that house. All of them, the ponies as well, grew refreshed and strong in a few days there. Their clothes were mended as well as their bruises, their tempers and their hopes. Their bags were filled with food and provisions light to carry but strong to bring them over the mountain passes. Their plans were improved with the best advice."

As I read this aloud, I couldn't help but think that this is such a wonderful example of what we as women should strive for in hospitality. Our plans and goals shouldn't be perfection in a clean home, having things "just so". But rather our goal should be refreshing those around us. Whether that be our family, our friends, or perfect strangers. Our goal should be to bless, to be merry, to feast well, to make one comfortable. Our children should have this regularity in their lives, not only the way Mom makes the home, but also in the way they serve others as a means of hospitality. We need to desire to mend and heal those who are hurting and bruised as well as their tempers and hopes. We wives need to do this most importantly for our husbands: to greet them, mend their tempers, fill them with good food, make them strong again with our love, mend their clothes, sing, sit and think with them, pray with them and send them off each day with good provisions and even better advice. May you be challenged and encouraged by this sweet little passage to an adventurous book!

lots of red and pink going on...

Some of my children have pink eye. Just when we thought we were done with one kid and a few days had passed, along comes another kid. We also have colds and sore throats. More changing of the sheets, lysoling here, there and everywhere: part of the territory with motherhood. But the weather has been chilly and so we don't mind snuggling in and mending. This weekend I dusted off some projects I've been meaning to do, as well as some yummy ones I've been wanting to do.
I made apple chips..using this recipe. They don't last long in our house. Everyone devours them at quite a quick pace! These are organic. These are addicting.

I also made an apple pie. It's been awhile. Pie has it's own healing properties.

I found a desk on the side of the road in our neighborhood the other day. We were in great need of an extra one. This one was going to go to the trash if someone didn't take it. My hubby grabbed it and fixed it up. I would show you the before and after, but the before was plain wood covered with teenager graffiti. The kind with stupid Justin Beeber lyrics and silly pictures drawn everywhere. So I'm just going to show you the beautiful after... Voila!

(ignore the ugly cords, I'm going to make a small curtain or something to cover up those bad boys)

The other project I worked on all day. It was something I've literally probably needed to do for about five years now.Confession: I am really bad about seeing some great recipe online, printing it out and sticking it in some cookbook or in it's own growing pile. So I finally bit the bullet, organized them all, three-hole-punched them, put them in their own binders with tabs to extra-organize them. I know, it would have been an easy task to do awhile back, but we're talking hundreds of recipes, so ya, it took awhile.

Here is the finished product. Ahhh, much better!

What projects have you been doing???

Easter tree

My girls and I are really into Tasha Tudor books right now. I love Tasha's simple, but beautiful art and I must say that reading about farming and chickens, and canning and candle making with a large family on a nice piece of land is just so appealing. Maybe some day. We had a recent stroke of inspiration...

This is from her book "A time to keep". It's probably my favorite of all her books, full of ideas, and lovely, simple traditions. So here is what we came up with

I still wanted to make this an "Easter tree" and not just a "Spring tree", so we added some verses on the Resurrection to remind us that we would be nothing, there would be no Spring, or New Life without the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Here I am at 24 weeks. My kids all had a weird and strange rash that made them all itchy and miserable. I'm still not sure where it came from for sure, but thankfully, it is gone now. Here is my little Soeren and I snuggling. Sometimes we just need a big dose of comfort from Mama and nothing else will work. I am always happy to oblige!