Nicolas Augustin

was born on the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, 2009!

He was a big beautiful boy at 8 lbs. 11 oz.

Today, at 2 months old, he weighs 12 lbs. and 7.5 oz

Being called MAMA by 4 small people is crazy, but wonderful.

Autumn around the corner

Well, we are off to a good start with school this year. T loves his new Montessori school, and we are very happy with it as well. As one of the oldest kids at the new school, he enjoys being a leader. I am happy that he will be able to have the full Montessori education though 8th grade. It is like the greatest gift! Such a lovely freedom within a structure suits him well. Especially since he has gone from school to homeschool back to school. It is good to find a fit for him where he can read all day if he's like, but can also do the lovely works. The physical education plans established by Dr. Montessori are also quite impressive--they focus on synthesizing the mind and body so that the child can develop deliberate motion/control over the body. It is pretty impressive, and I'd like to read more about it.

I've my job cut out helping develop the urban gardening part of the school, and look forward to teaching some vermiculture to the kids. Kids and worms are a winning combo. T is also excited for the bunnies that will arrive soon, too.

V will get to go to the school next year, and J is hanging out with me, gardening and baking and going to the library (which is her favorite place) as well as a gymnastics class through parks and rec.

We have all our fall crops planted-- the brussel sprouts look good, even though they had those little nasty bugs on them. I sprayed them off and will put some garlic tonic on the leaves tomorrow. The purple cabage whihc I thought I killed is also doing well, and we have new rows of radishes and beets...

And we are still picking tomatoes, peppers, corn, pumpkins (K made the absolute best pumpkin pie with one of V's pumpkins last week), tons of spearmint, and some little carrots... K dug up the last of our potatoes today, too--which looks so lovely and red. I don't know if the celleric root will grow fast enough before it gets too cold, but next year I am going to grow tons of it. It tastes so good in soup and can be used as cellery, but seems to last longer. But is costs so much at the store!

Our kefir water is going... going too well. I had to put the little grains in the freezer because I felt like I had two extra pets between the kefir grains and the sourdough--constantly feed and tending the little growing things... it was too much. Plus I am surprised how alcoholic some of the kefir water I've made has smelled! Being pregnant, I'm nervous about throwing it back.

So, I can't believe I will be a mom of 4 in a few short weeks! Some days I panic, some days I am calm and it all makes sense. But 94 days seems like nothing.

Especially with Halloween, All Saints Day, Martinmas (which we are planning a lovely lantern walk and cider/pumpkin bread party for), Thanksgiving and then a new baby! Then Christmas!

I love this time of the year, and feel so strange because I want it all to come, but I don't want to miss it by it going by too fast... Such a strange reality time is, that is but hardly is at all.

I found the USB cable and can upload some pictures soon!

Cure of Ars

“Oh, how beautiful will be the day of Resurrection! Those beautiful souls will be seen coming from heaven like glorious suns, to unite themselves to the bodies they animated on earth. The more those bodies have been mortified, the more they will shine like diamonds.” ~ St. John Vianney, Cure d'Ars

I don't know if I can get an Oregon Driver's License ...

and I think it is part of something more then not wanting to go to the DMV. I've never really had a problem with the DMV; you just go and wait and stuff, and then you get what you need. But I typically don't really harbor urges of overly importance... so maybe that is why the DMV never bother me.

And the post office--people always complain about the postal service in the us. try living in Italy for awhile; you'll love the US postal service after that...

But anyways, I can't get a drivers license here because I don't want to give up my California license. I mean, I like living here in Oregon, but I love California. She is my motherland.

I've been so homesick for things like the cherry corn scones from the Cheese Board... and my taco truck in the Fruitvale. At least there are lots of food trucks here in Portland, with excellent food.

And also, having this baby outside of California is weird.

If it ever cools off below 80 degrees in this house, I'll make these cherry corn scones, since we have pounds and pounds of cherries to eat from the buying club. Farm fresh Organic cherries!

We also went berry picking on Saturday, and the tayberry jam Mr. bibliotecario made is deliscious, so I need to make some bread for that, too. Any excuse for tayberry jam.

Oh, and here is the Cheese Board collected works: YUM!

Summer is here!

So it is lovely to have arrived at the first day of summer. Everything in the garden looks lovely, the sunflowers are all taller then me. I feel like we were so luck to have such luck with starting them inside, and the transplanting went well... We dug up our first potatoes today and they are the best thing I have ever eaten. It is truly a blessing to get such good yields on the high caloric foods.

It is also Fathers' day... I guess I am lucky that the father of my children, my dear husband, loves to cook. So he barbecued kefta kabobs, barbecued eggplant for babaganoush (sp?), and then we found a great recipe for breads cooked on the grill... flatish breads like naan. Recipe here.

Of course I have beautiful pictures of all of these things, trapped in my camera... senza USB cable. Which is part of my second big project... decluttering. Blah. I hate it. But I am determined to make five (soon to be six) people living in a tiny house comfortable. So back to work I go... But I have some interesting photos from this venture as well... as for now, I will leave it to the imagination of you, dear reader.

Christos Anesti! Alithos Anesti!

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! Lent has been wonderful, and Easter is here! YEAH! We've had a great day of feasting and reveling in our new being--Christ rising in us.

And we've had a surprise... number 4! We are having another child, the estimated due date is around the 8th of December (the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Theotokos!)

Wow, like we don't have enough going on in December with our Wedding Anniversary, two birthdays, Advent and the birth of Christ.

I'm freaked out, totally surprised, but very excited, as well.
The freakish part is that I was planning on taking a job for a few months, like a fulltime office job (I know, scary, eh?) to pay down some bills from moving and such...

I guess this is God's not so subtle way of saying NO.

Never a dull moment... eh?

This was the best apartment ever. We lived there until we discovered that Josephine was on her way. It has the most beautiful park outside, and it was close to everything: Peet's coffee and Park street (toy safari-- the greatest toy store in the world), and Trader Joe's was in the other direction.

We had the best neighbors, too. Our down stairs neighbors were musicians, and they would play the loveliest cello ever, and often she played with a trio. And you know how sound is amplified when it passs through walls? It was glorious, to look out the great bay windows during The Beautiful time, and the cello would seep up, rising through the floor.

And we had kids in the building, downstairs and next door--so we had building friends for the kids.

When the family that owned the building put it up for sale we mourned, and ached a bit, because we always stated that when they sold it someday we would buy it, because it was so perfect and lovely. Except it was too small; barely a 2 bedroom with the second bedroom basically fitting a bed for the boys and a dresser.

I miss Alameda now, and the whole beautiful bay. And the air, the way the sea would marry the air and make me want to run down to the sand on the bay, and sink my teeth into the rocks, crying out like the sea birds.

But I miss that apartment the most. It was the most 'home' of anyplace I've lived since, well, since my parent's home, I guess.