Signs of Life

Deep in their roots,
All flowers keep the light.

Theodore Roethke

A little Valentine craft

When it comes to holiday decorating, Valentines Day usually comes up short. So I decided it was time to make the house look a little more love filled this month. I found a cute felt heart garland on a crafty blog (unfortunately I can't remember which one) and decided I needed to make it. For a couple dollars worth of felt and a few hours of my time, the house looks so much more festive.

You start with assorted colors of craft felt.


Cut your felt into about 100 hearts. I made a variety of sizes and wasn't too particular about having a uniform shape.


Then randomly feed the hearts through your sewing machine until your garland is as long as you want it to be.


Then drape it across your mantle,


or a door way.

Then stand back and feel the love!

A Walk in the Woods

Today we took advantage of a dry, commitment free Saturday, and headed into town for some quality time with nature. (I know, that doesn't make much sense.) We have been wanting to try some hikes in Forest Park, and today seemed like the perfect time to start. We parked in NW Portland and headed down the deep stairway to Balch Creek Park.

Buster and the boys were chomping at the bit to get going!

I knew this was going to be a nice hike from the very beginning.

My heart sang! Oh how I have missed being out among trees, with a gurgling creek rushing by! Way back when, Paul and I used to hike. We spent many a lovely day exploring new trails. Since the boys have come along we've just never really gotten back to it. It seems like we've been waiting a lot of years for them all to be old enough to walk long distances.

And now they finally are! We did discover on this hike that Rowan has a little bit of an issue with heights. He kept saying he was scared of the drop off, (even if it was only 4-5 feet) and insisted on holding my hand and walking on the inside the entire way. He really didn't want to be in this picture since right behind him is about a 4 foot drop to the creek.

But then we reached this stone house, and he got excited.

Grayson thought maybe it was an old jail.

But he wasn't too disappointed when we told him it was used as a resting point, and used to have bathrooms in it.

It was still fun to make believe all of the exciting things that old stone building could have been.

We walked on and on through the beautiful trees. The original route we had planned on hiking today was about 4 1/2 miles, but we ended up taking a detour and only doing about half of it. Rowan's legs were tired, and he said he wasn't having any fun because it was too scary.

Our route back to where we had parked took us past some amazing old homes. I just marvel at the beauty of the architecture, and of course have great envy of the people who live in them. On the way back we also went across the bridge above where we started.

And right then we made doing more outings like this a part of our plan for the year ahead.

Fuller and his i-pod are like....

...Gollum and the ring. Precious..my precious.

First Snow of Winter

Early last week we had our first winter storm. It was thankfully short and sweet, and came when we had no where we needed to go. The boys immediately headed outside to make the most of every minute. They know that Oregon snowstorms are usually very short lived.


After it had snowed about 1/2 an inch, they came indoors to request that we go buy sleds. Knowing that there wouldn't be enough snow for sledding, we declined.


They did manage to play some hockey.


And make really big snowballs.


The next morning Grayson and Rowan were back out in it early. They knew it had warmed up and started to melt, so they had to hurry.


Grayson built himself a little fort, with a roof to keep the rain out.


While Rowan built a snowman, all by himself.

And then Grayson made a bigger one to show him how it's done.
It was fun while it lasted, but I can't say I was sorry to see it go.

2009 reading list- my 2nd feeble attempt to read more books

In 2009 I succeeded in reading more books! Some of them were good, some not so good, some held wonderful bits of wisdom that has stuck with me, and some have just stuck with me, even though I'd like to forget them. I'm looking forward to more good books in 2010. My goal for this year is 50 books. I would appreciate recommendations!

* 1- Such a Pretty Fat- Jen Lancaster
* 2- Assassination Vacation- Sarah Vowell
* 3- Milkweed- Jerry Spinelli
* 4- The Road- Cormac McCarthy
* 5- Bitter is the New Black- Jen Lancster
* 6- Three Cups of Tea- Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
* 7-The Secret Life of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd
* 8-Certain Girls- Jennifer Weiner
* 9- A Walk to Remember- Nicholas Sparks
* 10- The Alchemist- Paulo Coelho
* 11- Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian- Scott Douglas
* 12- Stargirl- Jerry Spinelli
* 13- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian- Sherman Alexie
* 14- The Birth of Venus- Sarah Dunant
* 15- Each Little Bird that Sings- Deborah Wiles
* 16- The Ten Year Nap- Meg Wolitzer
* 17- A Cup of Tea- Amy Ephron
* 18- Little Men- Louisa May Alcott
* 19- The True Meaning of Smekday- Adam Rex
* 20- Shadow Divers- Robert Kurson
* 21- Starvation Heights- Gregg Olsen
* 22- The Undomestic Goddess- Sophie Kinsella
* 23- Love, Stargirl- Jerry Spinelli
* 24- Fahrenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
* 25- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society- Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
* 26- The Last Town on Earth- Thomas Mullen
* 27- The Good Earth- Pearl S. Buck
* 28- The Knitting Circle- Ann Hood
* 29- Dead Until Dark- Charlaine Haris
* 30- Twenties Girl- Sophie Kinsella
* 31- Living Dead in Dallas- Charlaine Harris
* 32- The Ladies Auxiliary- Tova Mirvis
* 33- The Actor and the Housewife- Shannon Hale
* 34- Austenland- Shannon Hale
* 35- Meely LaBauve- Ken Wells
* 36- Shakespeare's Landlord- Charlaine Harris
* 37- Shakespeare's Champion- Charlaine Harris
* 38- The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
* 39- Plenty- Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet- Alisa Smith and JB Mackinnon
* 40- Shakespeare's Counselor- Charlaine Harris
* 41- Remember Me?- Sophie Kinsella
* 42- Best Friends Forever- Jennifer Weiner
* 43- Catching Fire- Suzanne Collins
* 44- The Art of Racing in the Rain- Garth Stein

The Moments of Christmas

Being caught up in the moment.


Working together.


Stockings full of wonderful surprises.


Waiting for the green light to come downstairs. (I enjoy this moment of torment a little more than I probably should.)


Grandpa Worman spending the night.


Rowan's "biggest dream come true"!


Gifts for the artist.


Laughing at how even now Fuller gets so excited he can hardly stand it.


Playing games with Grandpa.


Christmas # 2 at Grandma and Grandpa's house.


Our sweet Grandma and Grandpa.


Having fun with Uncle Jim and Aunt Enid.


And being together.