New Additions

As many of you know, I suffer from the genetic disorder of over-ambition; it runs rampant in the females on my side of the family. And while I used to be of the mind that a whole litter of babies was in the cards for me, I have surprisingly turned my heart towards a smaller nuclear family. However, this does not mean that I no longer have the urge to care for small, defenseless creatures...I just prefer them to sleep through the night and generally take care of their own bodily functions. Enter: our newest family members--the chickens!

By name: Bea, Blanche, Sophia, Rose and Dorothy

These ladies are fantastic: they keep down the weeds, rototill the soil, eat our kitchen scraps, provide the girls with hours of entertainment and pop out farm fresh eggs like nobody's business. These are happy hens, folks. I love them. And some day I will most likely kill and eat them and/or their offspring. I have no problem with that--they're the world's best pets.

And speaking of pets, (whom we do not plan to eat) we've added another, more domestic, beast to our family: A furball named Luther! Luther was formerly the Moore family's cockapoo puppy; he and Granny formed an attachment while she was in Vancouver staying with the kids and after a trial period to see if Caba would eat him or not, we've decided that he would make a wonderful addition to the family. And most importantly, the girls loooooove him. Audrey is infatuated with him in a mother-hen sort of way, but I think Bailey has some serious designs on him as best friend material. I'll make sure to post a picture of him soon.

Sadly, I think the lack of baby-fever and the installation of these new critters in our home has brought about a rather alarming (for John) state of being in me: I have Mad Cow Disease. Er...Cow Fever?? This is not coming out right: I want a dairy cow...so badly that I mention it to everyone I speak to and probably bring it up to John about 836 times a day. I get ridiculously crabby any time I have to go to the store to buy milk and am constantly planning how I can eek out enough pasture land from the yard to merit a very small and totally manageable Jersey cow. I keep telling myself that by pure force of will I can make this come about. I want a cow like I wanted a baby. It's that bad. Maybe you could say a prayer or two for me. I'm off to go commune with the chickens and drown my sorrows in some grass-fed happy cow milk.

Grounded

In general we tend to spend our mornings out and about, whether it be at Bethel to work out, grocery shopping, story time, preschool, play dates, you name it. Our mornings are busy. Nothing can put all that on hold like a pathetically sick and snotty kid. Bailey woke up two mornings ago oozing green snot. It's lovely. Especially caked all over her face right after she wakes up. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that we have been grounded for the last two days, which is pretty unusual for this lot.

While I am definitely used to the chaos of running two crazy kids around town, I love the freedom of spending time at home with no responsibilities. (other than caring for two small children and doing dishes and laundry) The girls and I spent a lot of time playing, cleaning and making more messes and Audrey spent a lot of time working on her letters, writing notes to people (keep a weather eye on your mailboxes) and doing activities in a book her Granny brought back home for her. One of the pages included had lots of blanks to fill in for her favorite things. I got a kick out of some of her answers:

Favorite Book: 'Cinderella one' (Granny just brought back a stack of books for the girls and Audrey has been carting them and her fuzzy pillow around the house. She'll perch herself atop her pillow and just 'read'. Be still my heart!)
Favorite Movie: Snow White (a.k.a. the first movie title that came to mind. her favorite is definitely The Lion King)
Favorite Song: 'Cinderella night and day' (although the songs she most frequently sings are 'sixteen going on seventeen' and the 'Do Re Mi' song from The Sound of Music)
Favorite Food: 'um...probably spaghetti" (pronounced: puhscetti)
Favorite Toy: Basketball! (what?!)
Favorite Activity: Coloring (this could easily be tied with dancing or being high maintenance)
Favorite Friends: Papa, Alivia and Jessica (yes--you, Richard!)
Pets: Caba and Luther (more on this later)
Teacher: Aunt Biz! (yelled enthusiastically with a snarky grin)

I love that kid.

In Bailey news, aside from being sicky, she's a heck of a lot of fun. She thinks pretty much everything is hilarious and her favorite activities are: standing in the rocking chair, getting into trouble, chasing her sister, climbing in the dishwasher, playing in the dog dish, eating toilet paper, giving awesome high fives, kicking off her shoes in the car, peeing on the floor as her Mama is getting out the potty seat, getting into more trouble, attempting to drop items in the toilet, and smiling so sweetly her Mama can't possibly get mad at her. What a conundrum.

In other completely random news, I recently got my hair cut. When I put it in a pony tail I kind of end up looking like Sorsha from the movie Willow. I hope the girls in my work out class appreciate that one.

In an effort to simplify my life I'm also attempting to not wear shoes as much as possible. I've decided that since I'm not the type to lounge in my jammies for too long, making it through a day without having to don footwear is a pretty good indicator of a day well spent.

That's all I've got. I'm off to go work in my garden...and I will be wearing shoes since it's only 30-something degrees out there. Oh, and if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and watch Willow this weekend--look out for Daikinis!

Unplugged

I've been avoiding my blog for a long time. It is not Thanksgiving...or Christmas...or even New Year's. Needless to say, putting something out into the internet void was not on my list of resolutions. I have no resolutions. It's liberating.

I feel the overwhelming need to be unplugged at this stage of my life; my children and family encompass so much of my identity that they are almost all consuming...and that's how it should be. I should not be habitually checking my email or texting or religiously following people's facebook status updates; my life is the here and now. It is beautiful.

I know it's important to keep this blog functioning, to serve as a connection to the people who are casualties of my unplugged lifestyle, but I find myself wanting to relate in detail how magnificently brilliant my two-and-a half year old is and how stunningly clever that one-year-old girl is. I want you to know how many teeth are in their heads, the way their hair has identical cow-licks in the back and the exact smirk both of them make when they know they're about to get in trouble.

I want everyone to know how magical and exhaustingly revitalizing our Christmas vacation was and how our ordinary, every day life looks.

I am not up to the task.

So there is forever destined to be a void in this little documentation of my girls' existence. Let it be known that the void came about as a result of hours spent twirling in the living room, eating peanut butter sandwiches and mac 'n cheese, snuggling in Mama and Papa's bed and stories read and reread until they were ingrained in our brains. Life is good.

...I'll at least try to keep you updated on the impending arrival of our newest family members...four laying hens and a home-made chicken tractor! Feel free to remain on the edge of your seats.

It's Never Too Late to be Thankful

I've been living a lot more in the moment lately; trying to stop time and just spend moments with my girls. There's a lot that can be said for a conversation over tea...or mac n cheese...or even mumbled in bed.

Thanksgiving at the Schweighardt house came and went in a beautiful blur of memories. I don't know how many of you know, but lately I've been dealing with a more severe form of Hypoglycemia than I have been used to for the past few years and John has recently been battling issues with his gallbladder. Both of these tend to limit our eating habits and it was a new experience for Thanksgiving not to be completely centered around the joy of gorging ourselves on food.

Our first snow of the year came the week of Thanksgiving and we were blessed to have many cousins at the house to take the girls out to romp in the snow while Mama made pies. (I might not be able to eat them, but I sure as heck was going to make them!)

Audrey became best buddies with Trevor's fiance, Kirsten; she made short work of forging a bond with my little skeptic and I think that went a long way to earn Trevor some much-deserved Audrey affection. My Dragon keeps the demand for her love high, lest it should be underestimated.

And although she is considerably more snuggly than she was as a baby, I still can't help but sigh every time that little girl shows me affection.



Thanksgiving Day, I had the rare opportunity to take a nap while the girls were awake. It was getting late in the afternoon and I was woken up by Audrey requesting to come sleep with me; she climbed into bed, commandeered one of my pillows and burrowed under the covers while jabbing me with her feet. (This is pretty standard fare as far as snuggling with Audrey goes.) She squirmed and rolled around and played with my hair and then whispered:
"Hey Mama?"
"hmmm?" I answered.
"I ask you a question." she replied.
"What?" I mumbled.
"What you thankful for?"
"Well, I'm thankful for you and Bailey and your Papa. I love you, you know."
Then she wrapped her arm around my head like she was cradling a child and said: "I love you too, Mama. I love you too."

As long as I live I will be thankful for that moment. And I'll be trying to make even more that are just as sweet to me. I am thankful to be a Mama and a Wife, a sister and a daughter and that someday soon I will also be an Aunt!

Happy Holidays!

My Girls

I haven't been posting a lot lately because, well, I've been busy. And also, anything abstract I've been moved to comment on has already been expressed much more eloquently by this lady. I think she may be my long lost Canadian sister. Any comment on that, Mom? Was there any truth to the rumor that there once were actually four of us? No? Moving on.

Life. Boy, I tell ya what. It's pretty amazing. The girls are growing up so fast. Bailey is really starting to fill in her role of annoying little sister. It won't be long before Audrey starts using the phrase 'all up in my grill'.

The Bailey Bear keeps me on my toes trying to eat every speck of fuzz/hair on the floor and getting into every crevice that is off limits, clinging to my legs while I'm trying to make dinner and chasing the poor dog around the house. But she sleeps through the night on occasion and has the world's cutest smile when she wakes up. She's generally ecstatic to meet new people and just wants to be where the action is. It's amazing how different she is from her sister and how I'm able to love both of them so much.

Audrey, as always, is my analytical skeptic. She's big into animals and gets very excited when she's allowed to watch movies since she's old enough to sit through them now. We have instituted tea time directly following her nap every day, in which we drink real tea and invite her imaginary friend, baby tiger, to dine with us. Various fictitious and real (or stuffed) animals also join us on occasion, such as a pack of wild monkeys or Barry the snake. During tea time we debate the merits of good and evil, human nature and the plight of man as expressed through plots such as Lion King, Snow White or Mary Poppins. It makes for riveting conversation.

Audrey has also hit the major milestone of being able to go to the bathroom BY HERSELF. She even occasionally kicks me out of the bathroom. It's amazing and life changing. I can't wait until Bailey figures it out too.

Now that Audrey is attending preschool a few days a week, she is constantly singing her ABC's and loves to jumble the days of the week. She knows all the words to the song 'Let's Go Fly a Kite' and often bursts into random song. Some days I think she might legitimately be color blind because she consistently answers 'pink' any time I ask her what color something is. She also questions me until it feels like my brain is going to ooze out of my ears.

As always, my big girl is high maintenance, but she thinks she's low maintenance. I love her, but she exhausts me mentally as much as her baby sister exhausts me physically.

As long as I get a nap I'm willing to overlook the exhausting side effects most days and carry on grateful for the amazing blessings these girls have proven to be. I would be a shallow, selfish person if it were not for them; they've taught me to be humble, to have patience and to live in the moment. What more could you ask for?

The End of a Season

Forget the actual calendar date, it's safe to say that in my little world, it's officially Fall now. As many of you know I started my first (real) garden this year; a hodge-podge little thing that I didn't initially have very high expectations of turned into a full-on mecca for squash and tomatoes. I'm sad to say I didn't preserve nearly as many tomatoes as my over-ambitious heart had set on, but I've got plenty in my freezer and a counter full of green tomatoes to experiment with.

True to form, this little experiment has driven me to (you guessed it) yet another ambitious goal of providing my own produce for the year from my garden/local farms. I don't think I can adequately describe how much peace it brings my heart to work in my garden and, through that labor or love, if I can provide something good for my family, it just makes my heart all the happier.

Experiencing the joys of harvesting food from the seeds I've sown has also brought a whole new dimension of closeness to the Lord for me; not only is my garden a place where I can block out the 826 things that would otherwise be occupying my mind, but I always find myself both praising the Lord for the work He's done in my garden and really genuinely feeling in His presence. Now that I've taken the final harvest from my humble little garden, I'll admit I'm experiencing some pangs of loss--regret that I didn't plant more, grow more. I'm also going through withdrawals since our Farmer's Market has already had it's last day.

How will I ever survive the winter? It's frozen vegetables for me. After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver I feel an amazing amount of contempt/guilt/disgust (with myself) when purchasing produce from the grocery store; not only am I not supporting local businesses, I'm eating fruits and veggies that have had to make the trek from places like Mexico, South America and occasionally New Zealand. That's a lot of fuel for a few tomatoes that have been bred to hold up to rough travel with their thick skins and pale, mealy interiors. Don't even get me started on bananas or the fact that I can't stop eating them. (My overly ambitious side is looking into a banana tree...seriously)

Anyway, this year I'm making the choice to weather the winter with frozen veggies because their taste and texture is already compromised anyway, but the nutritional value is higher. Vegetables and fruits that are frozen (in most cases) are allowed to ripen on the plant and are then flash frozen. Fresh produce is picked before it has reached it's full ripeness and is intended to ripen in transit, depriving it of nutrients it would have otherwise had remaining on the plant.

I don't know why God has put it on my heart to be so consumed by what foods I put in my family's bodies, but it's an obsession. I hope it's one that will produce fruitful (pun intended) results--that I will be able to bless my family and friends with food that will nourish their bodies in the best way possible.

I'll let you know next August, when I'm covered in tomato guts, whether I really think this is a good idea.

An Update

Geesh! I'm almost embarrassed to start a new blog post. There's a lot to report and there are many things I've been wanting to blog about, but anyone who's had a video chat with me in recent history may understand why it may be difficult to find the time to sit down and devote some time to updates.

I'm living with a two year old who has been very distinctly Two lately. She yelled at me yesterday morning: "I'm not being dramatic!" Maybe I should revise that age to 13...

Bailey is a whopping heap of TROUBLE. But who didn't see that one coming? She's more and more mobile every day and that translates into being all up in everyone's business. I can't fold laundry without feeling like I'm wrestling a midget these days. Not that I needed yet another hurdle in the laundry folding saga.

Add to that, having an event planned every weekday morning for at least the next two months and I'm starting to question the sanity of cutting back on my caffeine intake. It ain't pretty, folks!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a quick recap of what's been going on 'round these here parts and post a few pictures as photographic evidence.

First of all, about a million and a half years ago, we tore down the wall between the dining room and the kitchen. Can I get an Amen!

Then the girls and I tagged along with John on a business trip to Seattle. We went out on the town while John was stuck in a conference and rode the ferries. I cannot put into words how happy this made Audrey; it's probably one of the best days I've had since becoming a Mama.


After the conference was over, we headed to Kap and Jeff's for the weekend. The girls tested out Oliver's new room and got to spend some great quality time with their Aunt and Uncle. They even kicked John and I out of the house for an evening so we could go on a date!


In the mean time, Audrey has started attending a homeschooling preschool co-op. My friend Brittany teaches the kids and I volunteer to keep the babies entertained during lessons. This is Bailey's best buddy Pax; they like to shriek at each other and occasionally wrestle over toys.


In between all this I've also been planning a lot of events...mostly for MOPS. NONE of those events even rivaled how fun it was to plan and host Kathryn's Mad Hatter Tea Party-Baby Shower.


And if my words can't convince you, just take it from these two goons; it was a grand time!


Next up was our annual trip to Leavenworth, WA where we saw lots of great musicians, ate phenomenal German food and learned that our last name means "wandering spear hunter". I mean, can a weekend get much better than that?

Maybe if you follow it up with a trip to the pumpkin patch! Audrey had so much fun this year at Country Mercantile picking out her pumpkin and enjoying the festivities, she's been bursting at the seams to tell anyone who'll listen about the 'pumpkin place!'

And if all that didn't entertain you, here are some naked babies to make you laugh. The girls have started taking baths together and it is a riot!