Mothering

Mother's Day is our traditional family hike day. Depending on the age of the kids it's been a two hour treck back and forth to caves or a leisurely stroll. This year, we set off behind our house, along a ridge, with the buttercups rearing their spring time happy, creamy hue. It's even more special that the girls dressed in their tutus.

Ahhh, spring skiing.....

Living at the edge of paradise, cross country skiing pulling a fairy in her sled. Pictures taken by my fairy who recently turned 4.

Ah...the schlep

This is what it looks like shlepping groceries home in December. Luckily Ian was along to help pull one of the sleds filled with groceries and Ellie. Living in a house that you have to walk to has its rewards and its share of challenges.

All about Fairies

All things fairies. We’re definitely in the magical fairy stage of life. Started off on the path behind our house and came upon a perfect boulder to construct a fairy house. Enthusiastically, Ellie pulled out her collecting bag and found sticks, bark, pine needles, pine cones and of course ‘mud’. There’s soft pine for beds, bark for slides coming out of the house. Sticks, stuck down from the ceiling to be used by fairies to come and go, all according to Ellie. We danced around the fairy house when it was finished. The Fairy song by Ellie, “Magical Fairy, come to your house, Magical Fairy I love you, lalalalaaaa”. It was very to listen to her angelic voice making up magical words.

The Recipe

From the Book: Reader’s Digest Homemade

Laundry SoaP
½ c soap flakes (grated Ivory soap)
½ c baking soda
¼ c washing soda
¼ c borax

clean 16 oz container w/lid

mix all ingredients and use appx. ½ c per load instead of store bought detergent.

Mixing, stirring, using, and it really works!

Made some laundry soap a few weeks back and it works! Here are some pics of the ingredients. The best part about this soap is the laundry that's hung out to dry is actually much softer than when I use over the counter detergent. At least the towels aren't like cardboard anymore and no one in the house is complaining about 'sandpaper towels'.
I'm trying out the dish detergent tonight. Next on the agenda is a good floor cleaner to remove 30 years of who knows what off the pine floors. Whenever it rains I smell cat and old dog...nice huh?

Gardening Bust

Sustainability and gardening at altitude was a bust this summer. Unfortunately the economy hit the landlord and the house that we were renting. It was foreclosed on and best laid plans for a garden did not come to fruition. Besides, I left the tomatoes outside overnight in late June and the leaves turned into brown shoots by the next morning. I was heartbroken but resigned myself that this was not going to be the summer for a garden.

Spent all of July and August cleaning and moving to a place called Wildbird. The elevation of the house is appx. 9,000’ and it’s a little slice of heaven. I feel as if I’m in a cocoon not just physically but mentally and spiritually as well. Not sure what’s gestating within but it feels like a shift of some sort.