My little fruit patch

We were excited about the vegetable garden, and then we were offered raspberries. My excitement multiplied exponentially. Because I like veggies, but I ADORE raspberries. And the thought of having our own little stash growing all summer long in the backyard thrilled me to no end.

This wasn't going to be an easy project though. We have rocks all over our back yard. Rocks and overgrown bushes. It's terrible. Apparently the last owners wanted a very low maintenance backyard, and so they rocked all over the previous owners flower beds. And then they went bush crazy. It's a tiny backyard and there are over 25 bushes. No lie. We have dreams of removing every last river rock from our yard. One day we'll get there, so we started our rock removal program with the raspberry patch.Rory and I worked for hours on this section by the garage and got rid of 5-8 inches of rock, hauling them by tarp over to the rocks by our driveway. We found this drain thing that our neighbor Alison told us was put in because the garage used to get icy floors and the previous owners wouldn't be able to stop once they pulled their car in during the winter.

Since we also value the ability to stop our car in the garage and not just plow through to the other side, we decided we had best keep the drain. So Rory did some repair and we put some rock down over the tube and then wrapped the tube with some fancy material so that mud wouldn't cake the tube before the water could get through. Then we covered the whole thing with more of the same soil mix Rory had used for his Veggie Garden.

Ivar watched us the ENTIRE time. And he looked about as enthused as you would expect a kid would while watching his parents move rock from one side of the yard to the other. But he never complained. He's so good to us.Our plan is to post all of this River Rock on craigs list for free. If you or anyone you know is looking for lots and lots and lots of free rock, look no further! It's yours!And finally, thanks to Kathy Anderson, my life-long next door neighbor (until I was 17) I planted the raspberries. I realize they are WAY TOO CLOSE TOGETHER, but we were sort of banking only a third of them surviving. Turns out, the day I planted them was good and humid and the two days since have been muggy and wet and basically perfect for transplants. So it may very well be that I will have to find new homes for many, many of my raspberry plants. Either that, or we'll have the raspberries to feed the neighborhood all summer long.

Next up, rhubarb and dwarf blueberry bushes. Yum, yum and yum.

reservations for 14 adults, 7 babies

Well, I have terrible pictures, but I really feel like I had better document this one. On Saturday our birthing class had a six month reunion. We met at Tavern on France and were told that the back room charged a ridiculous amount of money to reserve. So the mom making the reservations just said, we'd be happy anywhere. We'll have 14 adults and 7 babies. And guess where they put us? In the back room. A risky group, to be sure.

It was a super amazing lunch. The last time we had seen each other, we had just watched a birthing video and were all 8-9 months pregnant. Six months later and everyone had their 5-6 month old in tow, looked confident and collected (I thought it was good we waited for six months...I know I wasn't feeling confident or collected a few months ago) and we all shared stories of labor, our favorite diapers, and how our lives have changed in the most amazing ways in the past six months.

Mother's Day

I just came across these lovely posts from last year, written by seven of my favorite women in the world in honor of Mother's Day. If you're new to the blog, be sure to go back and read the wisdom written by seven hard-working, honorable mom's.

For the intro post, click here.
For the final post, click here.

And click on the names for the following words of wisdom from:
My mom, Margaret Harrington
My sister-in-law, Stephanie Morris
My sister-in-law, Lisa Groves
My mother-in-law, Marlene Groves
My sister, Annika Larson
My sister-in-law, Sara Groves
My grandma, Velma Bredberg

the princess of whales

While with my nieces this weekend, I was explaining to Sonna, the three year old, that there was a girl who was going to marry a prince and that after the wedding she would become a real life princess. Sonna, who is very much in to all things pink, jewelery, dresses and princesses asked with big eyes, "Who is she?"

I told her her name was Kate and since my sister was listening I added, "and she is just a common girl, like you and like me." Annika groaned/laughed.

And then I asked Annika what she thought Katherine would be called. Will she be the Princess of Whales?

Sonna confidently blurted out, "Oh, I already know that princess. It's Ariel."

Get it? Whales? Under the Sea? That's funny stuff and a pretty clever and concrete three year old.

Triple L Farm

"I remember a time when families all lived together/
four generations in one house/
and the table was filled with good food and friends and neighbors..."

This is a lyric to one of my favorite Sara Groves songs all about friendship. We got to live this lyric out this weekend and it was perfect. We spent the weekend at the Triple L Farm, my brother-in-law Jedd's family farm. His sister Sara wrote about the weekend here.

It was one of those awesome weekends where you are always aware and so grateful that God created us for community. There were 25 people, many working outside painting, scraping, raking, cleaning and using chainsaws. Some were inside getting the next meal prepared or washing the dishes from the previous meal. Others were watching various combinations of the five kids under age five. The farm was filled with energy and joy. As Sara wrote so beautifully, we experienced the power and pleasure in the act of being connected to land and place, friends and family.

The farm is on the South Dakota border, a pretty windy part of the state and a perfect place to fly a kite. At one point this kite got stuck in the very, very top of a huge tree and Sonna (3yrs) recommended that Grandpa Paul just find a big, big stick to get it out. Thankfully the wind got the kite out for us.It was so good to have sister time. And I haven't seen Jedd look so happy in a long, long time.
The babies were especially sweet, interested in each others toes and socks and taking turns sucking on various toys. I can't believe these little cousins are already half a year old!