Psalm 23 recited by Liliana

Psalm 23

 

       We have been reciting Psalm 23 as the girls ready themselves for bed in the evening.  After saying it together for about a week, Liliana also loved doing it on her own so I videoed this clip--it's not the most polished example of how well she knows it, but I love the active stuffed frog involved in the scene.

 

The Old Rugged Cross (The girls are still singing of Easter!)

Baby Robins

       We've been thrilled this Spring to have baby birds to watch in two Robins' nests.  The first nest was on a low basement windowsill.  The second nest is on our back balcony flowerbox.  Just as the first nest emptied of its occupants, the 2nd nest began hatching.  Any day now, our 2nd nest will empty--but guess what I found today in the first nest?  A NEW EGG!!!  So our watching will continue. 

 

       We have all learned so much about the growth and habits of robins from our daily observation and I'm just so thankful that they chose our house for their nests.  I have already documented the nests in albums on facebook, but for those of you who aren't there, I thought I'd share a few photos from the mother robin feeding her babies today.  The babies are 13 days old today so almost ready to leave the nest.  The mother robin now allows me to be two feet away when she feeds her birdlings, so today I took advantage of her trust by taking these photos:

 

 

Garden Beginnings

Seedlings transplanted, additional seeds planted, and now we watch while the garden grows...

 

 

Our Garden House: Peas, Beans & Happiness

Vera Rose in her gardening gear.

        Last week I assembled Liliana and Vera Rose's garden play house with high hopes that it will be gorgeous by August!  Basically, the house is a metal frame covered with netting for plants to grow on, up, and over to create a magical, fairy-like enclosure for summer play.  The hardest thing about gardening is waiting for the plants to grow!  I want it covered and opulently flowered NOW but the girls are much more patient than me and are happy to play in it as it is--in fact they love peaking through the mesh. 
       We started vegetable seedlings of peas, beans, zucchini, and squash (among others) over a month ago so those currently surround the garden fort, plus seedlings of Black Eyed Susan Vine and Egyptian Pea Vine.  Plus, I planted more Black Eyed Susan Vine and another decorative vine's seeds around the fort after it was staked, and have started additional seedlings of the same indoors this week so hopefully this will be a no-fail experiment to cover the play house with plants!  We shall see.  Gardening is such an adventure--I love its mix of predictable (we know when the seeds should germinate, how many days until it will bloom, etc) and unforeseen (we never actually know for sure what will survive in our garden!).  I will keep you posted as to how our happy fairy garden grows...

A Birthday Crown for Vera Rose

Yes, that's yogurt all over her face!

       My sister makes exquisite pieces of textile art and the crown above is a gorgeous example of her work.  Made of wool felt which has been painstakingly hand appliqued with a Hawaiian applique technique, and covered with delicate floral emboidery, the crown is already loved by our whole family!  Vera Rose and Liliana have both been wearing it today and Vera Rose will cherish it forever.  How thankful I am for a sister who is not only talented but also generous in her time to find a way to make this even though she has three little boys of her own!

Our Robin's Nest: Three Little Birdlings on our Windowsill

       This year, a robin kindly built her nest on a low outside windowsill.  First the nest appeared, all cleverly made with thin twigs and even some of our purple Easter grass that migrated from one of the girls' Easter baskets.  It seemed a long wait, but sometime in April (after peaking into the nest a thousand times!) I spied four gorgeously bold jade-colored eggs.  Magnificent. 

        Tragedy of some kind met one of the eggs because I found a partially broken and very empty egg in the grass below the nest. Then, on May Day, two little baby robins hatched from their eggs! Liliana and Vera Rose shrieked with delight when I held them up to see the fascinatingly bald, ugly/beautiful birds with their tiny necks, their huge closed eyes and their spindly wings as the birdlings peacefully slept. When the birds move, their heads bobble and collapse quickly. 

May 1st:  Day 1: two robins hatch from eggs and huddle next to the remaining egg.



May 1st:  Day 1 with two birds hatching.

       By Day 2, the remaining egg had hatched overnight and all three birds periodically stopped their rest to raise their heads and open their beaks to swallow the entire sky.  Tiny chirping sounds can now be heard, not even drowned out by the noise of the worried mother chirping at me from the nearby lilac bush.  These hatchlings are so tufty and grotesque yet so meticulously detailed and lovely.  I feel so privileged to watch them grow and so delighted to share such a wonder of Creation with Liliana and Vera Rose. 

May 2nd: Day 2 of life

 

It's Rhubarb Season!

 

     Tasting my Mom's delicious strawberry-rhubarb pie yesterday awoke me to the beautiful fact that the rhubarb was ready!  Yay!  Today, after picking some stalks of rhubarb, I made rhubarb custard and rhubarb chutney.  The custard did not meet my expectations (I am always trying to recreate the rhubarb custard I had in Piccadilly Circus, London while a teenager on an European tour with my Aunt Debby and my brother.  There they called it "souille" but I have no idea how it is actually spelled just like I have no idea how to make it but I do know it was phenomenal!).  The rhubarb chutney (the recipe is from Eating Well Magazine) was deliciously exactly what I expected since I'd made the recipe last year, but instead of serving it hot with sauteed chicken, I served it with pita sandwiches and then later had it with low-salt wheat thins which was also great.  I'm thinking goat cheese would be a fun addition too when eating with crackers.  I love, love, love rhubarb.   I am going to plant some rhubarb of my own this year and hopefully try freezing some for next winter--that way I can have more rhubarb! 

A Pokey Little Puppy Party

 Vera's Pokey Little Puppy Party

 

       Since Vera Rose loves all things "puppy dog" these days, I decided to have a Pokey Little Puppy themed party since that would give the party a fun literary twist since it's a classic children's book. 

       First I made two Pokey Little Puppy banners using teal/white-colored floral scrapbooking paper and two old and ragged Pokey Little Puppy books.  Usually I simply cringe at the idea of ripping a book apart (perhaps that is the former librarian in me) whether for repurposing or debundling for dealers to make a profit on old prints.  I simply hate books to be torn apart BUT this
was the first time I had no qualms about it since there are a zillion copies of The Pokey Little Puppy around and it is still very much in print.  I picked the two books in the worst condition that I could find, then cut the pages into a shape with a rounded bottom.  I glued that (using YES paste) onto the scrapbook paper, added a hand-made and curled paper fringe and ribbon and these were the quickest and cheapest banners I've yet made.

 

       I made the birthday cake based on the The Pokey Little Puppy's cutie pie head.  It was made of pound cake with chocolate cake spots, then iced with buttercream and Choco-satin frosting.

 

       My Mom made the food counter perfection by making bowls of Strawberry Shortcake and Chocolate Custard (both foods that the Pokey Little Puppy and/or his siblings ate in the story).  The chocolate custard was reaaaaallly good.  Moms always enhance anything they touch and parties are no exception!

       For paper products, www.birthdayexpress.com sells party supplies based on the Golden Books collection.  The Pokey Little Puppy was just one of four classic Golden Books highlighted by the paper products so not all items sold featured the puppy.  Luckily, the invitations, the party hats, and the dinner plates all centered on Pokey.  The napkins featured all four books on a different quadrant so I unfolded and refolded all the napkins so the Pokey Little Puppy would be the picture seen.

       I also took some wooden toy fencing and taped onto the fencing the cutouts of the signs featured in the book (cut from the books I used to make the banners).

       The theme was continued with some of the gifts that Vera Rose was given: both sets of grandparents gave her a Pokey Little Puppy puzzle (with a different image on each, of course) and a Pokey Little Puppy stuffed toy so my girls were thrilled (because yes, Liliana has claimed one of the puppies and they sleep next to them every night).  Such fun puppy items (I especially love the Holztiger dogs).

       The party itself was very special because family gathered to celebrate my little 2-year-old and that brought such joy to me.  I have never seen Vera Rose so happy as she has been throughout her little birthday celebrations.  She has smiled and squealed and clapped so much!  She seems to have entered a very joyous season in her little life (about a year ago I was concerned because she often seemed fussy and unhappy) so I am praising God and giving thanks for this sweet little girl who has found contentment and joy as she explores this extraordinary world full of doggies, books, parties, and family.  And it's a very, very beautiful world.