off to make-believe Mesa

Ivar and Elsie came down in their swim suits with their suitcases packed and announced that they are "going to Mesa!" They flew on the colorful couch to get there and when they arrived, Ivar pulled a swimming pool out of his suitcase, much like a Mary Poppins bag. He spread out blue towels and then brown towels for the sand. And my heart swelled with pride. This kid has a sweet imagination. And then Elsie declared that the blue blanket that was in the sun was the hot tub. She's a genius!

Hattie was the life guard and made sure everyone stayed safe in the water.

Ivar Art

Ivar spent the whole day working on drawings. All morning he was drawing pictures, "either from last summer or this next one" as he told me. He drew pictures of flying kites in the apple orchard, Rory mowing the "super long grass," a picture of our house and jeep and the garden. He told me of this garden picture that "Dad is picking carrots, those are the wood chips and those are your zinnias, and that's the garden (raised bed) that just had weeds in it." He's got an eye for detail.

This one was hard to photograph because he taped it to the ceiling above his bunk bed before I could get a good shot, but that's the barn with a goat in our goat pens, Rory driving the tractor and Ivar standing on "that part of the steps where the steps turn and go up higher. I'm watching Dad from up there." His artwork delights me to no end.

tea time

In 2005, my sister-in-law Lisa gave me a jar of Aveda Loose Tea. If you've ever had that tea, you know it is amazing and definitely adds to the whole haircut experience. That gift made for a lovely year of cozy drinks.

But it turns out, like a good haircut, that tea was expensive. So when my friend Annie posted on her blog that she had read the ingredients in the Aveda Tea and went to search for its knock-off, I was thrilled. Thank you Annie for being so diligent. She found it! And it's called Yogi Egyptian Licorice Mint Tea. However, it isn't at any of my local stores and apparently she has only been able to find it on Amazon (linked above). But I found something really close at Cub Foods, just without the mint and, as it turns out, I LOVE the stuff without the mint too. Don't be scared of the "licorice" part. It doesn't taste like licorice. It's sweet and an absolute personal favorite.

My other longtime favorite is Harney and Sons African Autumn. I had my first cup at a women's event while talking to my friend Heather. We both had a cup and couldn't carry on a conversation to save our lives because we kept saying, "wow! this tea is awesome. what is this? did you try this one? get the can. what is in it? what is a red bush? ah, cranberry and orange. no wonder we love it." This is my old faithful.  It never disappoints.

And then just last night, while out with friends, I got a cup of Harney and Sons Decaf Hot Cinnamon and loved it. Loved, loved, loved it. And I've been thinking about it so much that it resulted in this blog post on teas that I love. It's another great, sweet-tasting tea that sort of feels like a sugar treat, without actually being one.

These are my top three. I'm realizing now that I tend to not like the really earthy teas. Based on the three teas above, I think I'm basically looking for a sugar drink in a hot tea. If you have more of this sort of tea to add to the mix, I'd love to know!

burgundy

Well red is tricky. We all know this. I have painted the past two nights, after the kids went to bed, late into the night. The first night our living room walls felt sort of pink. But we didn't worry too much because you can never tell anything from the first coat. The next night I painted the second coat and it went on nicely and darkened up quite a bit, but it was night and I was painting by the glow of one light fixture. It was hard to say if we liked the color or not.

Thursday morning we walked down the stairs, looked around and Rory said, "burgundy. it's definitely burgundy. ron burgundy."

If we had been going for burgundy it would have been no problem, but that wasn't what we were going for. The walls are too purple and we were going for more of a warm red/clay/brick color. We have spent the day painting swatches over our burgundy, hopeful to find the perfect color. Because we are not going to give up. The color is out there. But is it Grand Canyon Red? Rich Chestnut? Terra Cotta Tile? Mars Red? Mexicana? Hot Apple Spice? Country Redwood? These are the deep conversations we are having at our house this weekend.

I'll keep you posted. We're confident the perfect color is out there!

it's tree tapping time!

We can hardly believe it is already time. The past two years we haven't tapped our maple trees until mid March, but here we are, end of February and the sap is flowing. Rory is trying something new this year, using tubes and five gallon buckets. He's excited not to have to empty the bags each day and pour them into the buckets. In theory, he should be able to simply replace the bucket when it gets almost full with an empty bucket. 

Ivar is quite the helper and stuck with his dad the whole time, even though it was very windy and chilly. Hattie and I were out for about as long as it took to take this picture. She was not a fan, even though she was adorable in her little peek-a-roo. Elsie lasted a bit longer but came in the house crying that she was cold and wanted to read books on the couch with me and Hattie. 

I am growing more convinced we were created to live on an agrarian calendar. Having annual traditions tied to the time of year always feels so, so right. It was fun to be out and seizing the day, watching Rory putter with buckets and hoses and for all of us to be getting a little vitamin D. I believe spring fever has hit the grovestead.

Here are pics from tapping our trees in 2013 and our how to,  2014 and the trip that got it all started...