In case you were wondering....

I think it's pretty clear which boy looks like which parent....

My gardens

I am learning as I go, but so far things are going well.  The weather was a bit strange (really hot in April, then cold, then back to hot) so some things bolted early and others are just plain confused.  I planted another wave of those plants (radish, lettuce) so we might still get a proper harvest.

My greens are doing so well.  I've harvested quite a bit of mustard and kale and lettuce.  We've had a few strawberries, a blueberry (yes, one so far), and herbs.

PROGRESS PHOTOS

BED 1 built and filled with a compost mix

Farmers

radish sprouts!

flowers (from top to bottom- gerbera daisy, calendula, hellebore) and herb pot

raspberry canes, gifted by a neighbor!

front flowerbeds- lots of weeds with a lavender plant on the right

radish and pea sprouts in BED 1

peas!

BED1 and BED2, which are in Donna and Gordon's backyard.  BED2 has a sage bush, but will also have some early crops (radish, lettuce) as well as garlic and squash.

baby strawberries in my pallet

Beet sprouts- these got confused and I ended up tearing them out and replanting.

First mesclun harvest!  Yum!

everything's coming up in BED1!

it finally got warm again and the strawberries started to turn.

Now that we are homeowners, I plotted two beds in my very own front yard

building BED 3

seeds sprouting in BED 3 (sunflowers, lettuce, radish, cucumbers)

Tomato starts in BED 4 (as well as a few helpers- nasturtium, marigold, basil)

My beautiful strawberry pallet

Oh yes

This is after tearing out and replanting a few things, and harvesting many bunches of leafy greens.  You can't see my peas back there but they are as tall as me up the trellis.

I will post more recent photos soon!

Apologies.

Tonight Owen came into the living room where Kraig was sitting and sat down in his little wooden chair. With a deep sigh and nervous leg shake, he told Kraig that he was sorry for waking up at 5am. 

Kraig told him he didn't need to apologize. Owen replied that he knows he shouldn't wake up that early. 

Kraig explained that perhaps Owen's body just needs a sip of water or to go potty, and that then he could go back to sleep for a bit. Owen looked down at the ground and nodded knowingly. He sighed. 

We talked about how the sun is up earlier and stays out later, but that our bodies still need sleep during those times. 

That self-aware apology touched me so. It almost makes up for all the times he's woken up way too early. Almost. 

It most certainly makes me feel like maybe we're not all that terrible at this parenting gig. I mean, he's learning to communicate his emotions, he's reflecting on his actions, he is expressing his feelings clearly, and he is doing repair work (apologizing). I don't mean to brag, and perhaps none of this has anything to do with our parenting, but I think he is a pretty fantastic kid. 

VVC Galarama and time with Sayward

My dear friend, Sayward, moved from Portland's gray winters back to her native land of sun and sand in SoCal.  I miss her terribly, and was so glad that she was back for Vida Vegan Conference! (She is an author and blogger at www.bonzaiaphrodite.com)

We met up for drinks and dinner at Bye and Bye- a vegan pub specializing in hipster bartenders and drinks in quart-sized mason jars.  Yup.

She invited me out to the Galarama on Saturday night.  I don't get out much, and certainly not after the boys' bedtime, so I was very hesitant.  I told Kraig about it and he insisted that I go.  There was a condition, however; I had to kiss Isa Chandra-Moskowitz and thank her for the chickpea cutlets.

Deal.

Purdy.

 There was a vegan ice cream sundae buffet.  Oooooh yes.

There were vegan cheese plates (the author of Artisan Vegan Cheese is on the right, reaching over and arranging her cheese plates.)

There were free liquor tastings.

 There were a lot of vegans in a pretty cool event space.

And finally, I did what I came to do. Isa was very gracious. I was starstruck.

VEGAN CHEESES!

I am so glad I went.  I met so many wonderful people- famous bloggers, authors, and well-known personalities.  I ate a lot of food, had some good talks with good friends, and danced a bit, too!  It was nice to get all dressed up and not worry about the kids.  Kraig got the boys to bed without consequence.  

I also made some pretty exciting connections for some of the side projects I'm working on.... Yay! I'm excited for next year when I will attend the entire conference (it's in Chicago in 2014) and have more time to network.  

Tummy bugs

Dylan bedshares with me more often than not, and one particular night I had just finished night-nursing him and I reached over to look at my phone and check the time.  I had a couple of texts from my friend, Katie, saying that her daughter had been throwing up. 

Oh no.

We hadn't seen KJ since Tuesday and it was Friday at this point... maybe we'd be lucky and not get sick.  And just as I finished that though I heard Dylan next to me, vomiting. 

So much for that. 

The next 48 hours were spent helping Dylan, cleaning up vomit, doing loads and loads of laundry, and then doing the same for poor Owen.  Kraig and I didn't get sick, thank goodness.  

Poor babe. 

The road to homeownership

So.  

Where to start.

We have lived in this duplex for nearly 3 years.  It's not perfect, it's not super chic and updated, it's only got one bathroom... but it is smack dab in the midst of the best neighbors on the planet.  It's in one of the very best- if not The Best- school districts in Portland.  Our neighborhood is quiet, safe, and has nearly everything we need.  It's also evolving very rapidly so new things are coming in all the time that make it an even better place to live.  It is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in all of Portland.  Which, to be honest, makes house and rental prices ri-dic-u-lous.

However.  When we moved here in 2010 we got a screaming deal.  Our then-landlords charged at least $200-300 below market value for this sweet little place.  It's clean, it's charming, and like I said, it has the best neighbors EVER.

So you can imagine our heartbreak when our landlords told us they were selling.  I panicked, to be very frank.  I cried and sobbed and called a few people, who also cried.  It was devastating.  We had no idea what to do.  Stay and see what the rent would be raised to?  Leave and try to find a nice property to rent that would be affordable but also spacious enough for our two kids + dog?

Everyone told us to just stay calm and see how things worked out. 

Then we thought- hey? What if we bought a house?  What if we bought THIS house?

Hmmm.

I mulled over lots of information on the interwebs, I crunched numbers for HOURS every single day.  I looked at listings and rentals and crunched more numbers.  I looked over and over and over our budget.   We found out what the listing price on this house would be. I panicked.  I crunched more numbers.  I became hopeful.  We met with a realtor who crushed my spirit.  I met with a loan officer who gave me more hope.  I immediately called our realtor (great guy, by the way) and said, "hey, let's do this crazy thing" and he came over the next day (on a weekend, mind you) and helped us write up an offer.  We waited, waited, waited.  We were disappointed...  BUT THEN.  They accepted our offer!

Relief.

So we were under contract and began the crazy, strange, busy, stressful, expensive process of buying our first home.  Kraig works a lot, so truth be told I handled all the phone calls, all the paperwork, all the scanning and signing and sending and negotiations and more phone calls and more paperwork. 

Contracts were extended.  Money was a stressor.  Lots of things didn't make any sense.  Overall it was a very stressful and long and arduous process.  

But finally, two months after we originally put in our offer, we were homeowners/landlords.

So we celebrated as we usually do; with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot. 

Cheers.

My first 5K

You guys, I am not a runner.

Truly.  I'm really not.  

But.  I do need to workout (don't we all?) and I am cheap.   Running is nearly free and pretty fast, too.  I can just head out for a quick 10-30 minute run and that's a really great workout.  

My friend, Katie, and I signed up for our first 5K on May 5th (Cinco de Mayo!) as a goal.  

I truly wanted to run more often than I did during training.  I ran an average of once per week for 7 weeks leading up to the race.  That's... not that great.  Three times a week is a good goal.  

I ran my first 3 miles six days before the race.  Then I ran another 3 miles two days before the race (big mistake.  I should have been tapering and resting that week.)

Anyway, the morning of the race I was really excited and a little nervous.  I could do it, for sure- I mean I have been through childbirth twice so basically I can do anything ;-) but I wanted to do really well.

Owen also had a "race".  It was a kids' half-miler.  Sweet guy.  He had a lot of fun!

Dylan was along for the ride.

Here is Katie and me at the starting line....

And here are the results.

(Katie's in a different age group)

I finished 11th out of about ~115 people in my age group.  I finished 55th out of over 550 in the entire race.  I ran 8:43/mile.  I'd also like to note that our first mile time was 10 minutes so the following 2.1 miles were an average of 8:07/mile.  That's... kinda fast.  I'm REALLY proud of myself.  My goal was to finish in under 30 minutes.  I demolished that goal.

Free beer?  Okay.

I'm not sure when/if I'll run another 5k, but this was very fun and I feel pretty awesome about how well I did :-)

The boys' room

This room is still a work in progress, as most rooms in our house are, but here is what it looks like at the moment.

This is a panorama of the three main walls, and an imperfect one at that.  I swear those white stripes are actually straight.  

Owen's quilt, made by Stephanie Sidoti from The Pin Cushion in Akron, Ohio.  We talked about my vision over email and she made this beautiful, perfect quilt that I think is basically the best quilt of all time.

A deposit, if you will.

I'm putting these here because I am serious about coming back and updating this.  Like, really serious.  I have my photos organized and I am ready to write.  

Trust.

Talk to you soon!

Easter 2013

I'm blogging totally out of order.  I just need to write about what I feel like writing about at the moment, so it's not in any particular order.  I do adjust the date so they are accurate, so hop back to October to start reading about our Kaua'i trip!

Easter!  We had a fun holiday this year.  We spent the weekend working on our gardens and on Saturday there was a particularly special event at the local toy store.  It was called "Pat the Bunny" and they had real bunnies to pet!  I WANTED TO TAKE THEM BOTH HOME THEY WERE SO CUTE!

I LOVE HIM AND WANT HIM TO BE MINE FOREVER

As per usual, I made special food!  Imagine my excitement when I found out that crescent rolls are vegan!  If that's not a quintessential Easter food, I don't know what is.  So we had crescent rolls and deviled potatoes, and cream of asparagus soup with roasted onions and toasted hazelnuts.

tastes better than it looks

For size reference, look at the wee little potato!  These were delicious, I highly recommend!

We had so many treats on and around Owen's birthday that we waited a few days until Easter to make his special cake.  Chocolate-strawberry marble cake.  YUM.