Cafe McCoy

So Bronwyn asks if we can go to the coffee shop...well as a lot of you may know a coffee shop visit with three people can get a little spendy...so I said no but you can come to my cafe...I seated them in the blue room and came back in to take their orders offering steamers, cocoa, and tea...they ordered the special hot cocoas with marshmallows, carmel sauce and sprinkles...and asked if there were any goodies, I said I hadn't baked today but may have something to offer. I pulled out my antique dessert dishes and gave them some cinnamon sugar twists and a square of ghiradelli chocolate. They were delighted and said it was better than going out...unfortunately they seem to think the cafe is open at all hours everyday...so Dad took over the duties today...what little gourmands are we creating??? Oh well off for another late shift...growl!!!

Growl...

Sometimes life for me is not all smiles and giggles...actually this last week I would probably be more likely to growl at you than laugh and say hello... I have tried to make peace and breathe and find my happy place in general but work life simply keeps getting in the way of all that! I get angry just thinking about the place. Not good, this I know! Getting angry at anything this regularly would probably be life's way of hitting you up side the head saying seek change...find a balance or else...but this is not a job I can walk away from, particularly since I am the bread winner in our household. Not a real option to just bag it all and walk away...that is the bad part of being a grown up!! I like the work I do unfortunately it comes with a huge ball of politics and interventions and threats and what-ifs that are so beyond my influence and ability to control...and for me as for most people it is the lack of control that is so very hard. I am not a control freak...but I like to feel like my life is under my hand...and this job over and over has made me feel powerless...and this is not a career you want the people doing it to feel so distracted and aggravated!! And everyday brings more threats and frustrations and more hours and overtime and head beating!!!!!!! And by the end of the work day I am a vegetable curling up in a fetal postion on my couch...dreading going back in the next day... I knew this year would be like this well somewhat like this and I even picked a word to remember for the year breathe as I knew it would be all in my power to do but I have found putting that very wise choice into action has been very difficult to remember as my life is becoming less and less my own...but really it is still all I have left in my control to breathe....so life is not just gardens blooming and my lovely ladies but me wanting to scream out loud!!! Sigh...

Yummo!!!!!!!

So on the suggestion of a friend, we went to a cute little restaurant and I mean little (the top photo is taken from the far side of the restaurant to the other side!!) in Sanford. It is called Elvira's and has a very reasonably priced menu and yummy mexican food and good service... and can I tell you how awesome the desserts were?!! Of course I can!! They were big and yummy. We got a mexican cookie which was ice cream, chocolate syrup and cinnamon chips and a fried banana which was the banana and ice cream drizzled with chocolate syrup and even better they were only 2.95 each!! So even for a yummy dessert it was a good stop. (And for those of you who know John he did not shrink nor did I grow, Bronwyn told him to stoop down so she could get us all in!) So even though my lovely vegetarian doesn't love mexican food we will be back!!

Of course...

With beginnings come endings...the last poppy....sigh....till next year my lovelies!!

Happy Solstice!

Summer is officially here and we are truly in bloom! The mini roses have never had so many blooms, the chammomile is blooming and filling in, the tomato plants are thriving and are in need of cages, even the compost pile is alive with growth, and there is even the hope of raspberries in the not too distant future! So happy solstice, and happy summer, enjoy the season!!!

Ella Photos...

We have always let the girls have the camera to take pictures...we did this even in the day of 35mm although the digital really reduces the risk...and today Bronwyn had a friend over and they were very occupied with crafts and Ella was feeling a little odd girl out...so she asked if she could take some pictures. I left her to it and told her when she was finished to bring it inside. She came in and handed it to me and I was amazed at the ones she had taken of herself!!! I love to see their perspective, what catches their eyes and what is important enough to warrant a photo...they do not have our biases on what is photo worthy or on perspectives or on angles they just shoot from the hip and out of that experimentation often comes art and masterpiece. The above were all Ella's doing...there were many more but this is a sample of her focus all taken from the hammock. I am amazed...

So into it...

Bronwyn has been working on Father's Day for weeks now. She has crafted and made all kinds of lovely things for Dad. She has made lists of "Good Stuff" about him. She instructed me that I had to make lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting, because those are his favorite,(and if you haven't seen it might I suggest you peruse a copy of Vegan cupcakes take over the world, we are not vegan so I sub the regular stuff for things like butter and milk but everything I have made from there is awesome!!) before I went to work Saturday night, well she actually ended up making them with a little assistance of the measuring kind from me. Then she came and got me up this morning because I had to make him breakfast so they could take it to him in bed. I received a recipe for capp. carmel bread from a lovely lady named Kimberly last night so since it was bread machine bread I popped it in before I went to bed. She suggested using it for French Toast which of course I had to do! It was fantastic!! We were running low on milk for the french toast part but had vanilla hemp milk so I used that, it was very good and smelt yummy too but I must say very, very filling!!! And you can see all the asundry things that her ladyship thought Dad needed this morning, and with two slices of the toast he couldn't even touch the rest! Bronwyn even gussied up the tray with petals that had fallen off my beloved poppies. She has an eye for style that I must say skipped a generation as I have never had it and never will!!!

Oh and lets take a moment to mourn the passing of poppy season!! The last petals are falling as we speak!!! So short the season of poppiness!!

Superdad!!!

He crafts...

He inspires...

He creates...

He encourages...

He listens...

He explores...

He does dishes...

He does laundry...

He even cooks...

He reads stories...

He takes trips...

He holds hands...

He applies sunscreen...

He packs lunches...

He makes breakfasts...

He makes coffee!!!...

He mows lawns...

He is our superhero!!!!!!!!

We love you and happy father's day John!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5K

Saturday, we participated in the Dow Run Walk...the girls did a 1mi fun run and tot trot and my friend Kate and I did the 5K walk...all that before I went to work!!! Needless to say I was a tired mama that evening. Kate and I did well in our age groups...she was 3rd in hers I was 5th so not so awful. And at the end my favorite local band (I may be a groupie...) performed. It was a hot day and I wasn't feeling the best by the end but overall I felt accomplished! Bronwyn did her first run. (well mainly a walk) but she did something she didn't believe she could really do and I was proud to see her try! Ella was disappointed that her race was so small but it got her out there any way!

Oh, and the rains did claim that lovely first poppy before it even fully opened...sigh...fickle life of flowers!!

They're here!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After all the checking and hoping...they are here, well one with more on the way!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!! I love poppies and hope to get a little time to admire them before they drop petals and hide till next spring!!! I just love the vibrant color and the contrast with the black centers...and like irises their petals look like delicate paper...so cross your fingers for no more hard rain showers till after the poppies have had their time!!!!!!!!

Garden...

Ok, so let me start by saying I know nothing about real gardening...you know correct dirt, correct lighting, correct watering, correct plant arrangements, correct anything really... I have been more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of gardener...people have plants to thin, I am there with a bucket and shovel, people have decided to cut back on some of plant x, I am there...and then I try to find an optimal place in my little city yard to make them happy...I dig, I shovel in some lovely compost, I plant, I water, and take daily walks to watch for the neverending battle of the weeds...and I cheerlead...and low and behold there is often success!! (Proof: baby sleeping in transplanted happily spreading woodruff, sun smiling behind transplanted varigated lemon balm, thriving blooming transplanted gorgeous iris, and cutely blooming donated lemon thyme!!! and my friend's garage sale found hens and chicks, oh and some annuals planted by the ladies in front of my great candle holder find for a whole dollar at a yard sale!!) I am not a good little gardener and have yet to perfect the battle of the weeds...but I love the planting and especially when they all start to green back up after our very long winter's! I feel so fulfilled to see those little plants poking through that still very cold ground...and you can imagine my excitement as I wait for all those buds to finally bloom!! I have contemplated taking a master gardener's class but timing has never worked for me to get into one...and I wonder if that would kill some of the thrill for me...the seeming magic of small successes...and how would I feel to find I have truly done it all completely wrong...so I still think about it...maybe for fun...maybe just more time to get my hands in the dirt!! Who knows... And to tell you the truth, if anyone would have told my teenage self I would love this so very much, I would have had some very unkind words to throw your way!! My mother has always been an outdoors, gardening lover...and she tried to get us interested and active and I can say I never got it...I hated bugs and heat and thought weeding and watering were just a pain of monumental proportions...but now I see the release the grounding the getting back to where we began the feeling of accomplishment as you transform the ground around you...a little zen really! And although I do not suscribe to her use of chemicals and fertilizers...I think I inherited a little more from her than I had thought...thanks mom!!! May all your little corners of the world bloom!! (Still anticipating those poppies!!! I am just a little bit excited about their arrival!!!)

Fortunate...

*I am fortunate to have two ladies who will snuggle up and journal without coersion...they will find the sunny corner and curl in and lose themselves in thoughts and drawings...

*I am fortunate that we have this great little water park at the end of our street...

*I am fortunate that my ladies enjoy these easy outings as much as I do...

*I am fortunate that picnics are as exciting for my family as they always have been for me...tea even tastes better from a thermos outside...

*I am fortunate that I get time to laze around and read! (http://www.soulemama.typepad.com Amanda's really lovely book! As my husband says it is never too late!!)

*I am fortunate to share the world with these great people and have time to lay around and watch the clouds and hear the sounds of laughter...