ah thirty...

i was going to post all these cute baby pictures and wax philosophical about today, but then i thought, what the hell. no need to start taking myself so seriously already. happy birthday you nerdy 13 year old girl you. keep the spunk alive...

ps. you're next molly and amanda...

lunes, 28/junio

another favorite from the drawer. this is my mom, taken the day before i was born, which was apparently a tuesday. wow. there i am, a bump. as today is the last day of my twenties, i feel like i should do something rash, impetuous, silly. cant really think of anything. the reality of my evening is that i will be baking 10 dozen cupcakes in the church kitchen for the party on saturday. pretty rash huh? thanks for all the well wishes yesterday. i just need to find a new rhythm. working on it.

mas despacio

the tables are turned, and david is out of town. for the better part of the summer. ouch. he will be home one or two days a week from now until mid august. this lady is going to slow down a bit, take a blogging break of sorts. of course i say that and then watch me post twice a day or something crazy like that. no, probably not, but my brain is buzzing with ideas. i just dont know if my body can handle it. i am so very tired right now. busy at work, running around after the huffsters in the evening. oy. ok. this isnt a sad me post, i promise. just a little heads up of sorts.

ps. the picture is one of my favorites of ever. a door knocker on a gorgeous green door in spain, back when life was much, much slower. was that eight years ago? oh my.

...a la angry chicken

had some girls come over last night so i thought i would kick it angry chicken style. busted out the BEST banana bread recipe ever. seriously, i have had horrible failures in the past, but not so with this one. oh dont worry, those are mini loaves, im not crazy enough to make four full sized loaves, mainly because i would easily eat two with a stick of butter myself. and of course the lazy cake, lemony gingery goodness with a few blackberries for fun. hot damn amy you have some fine baking skills. cant wait to burn my funny money on the mysterious "two recipes". if you have no idea what i am talking about, then go buy next months mailorder. i also doctored up a box of brownies with chocolate chips and espresso powder, mmm mmm. besides eating we got to give this sweet boy kisses.

so nice to have mike and julie in town for a visit. if you have time, take a look at the international justice mission site. this is where mike has been interning with gary haugen for the last year. just incredible stuff.

count down to thirty...

exactly one week from today, i will be entering my 30's. i came to terms with this six months ago and now i am actually looking forward to it. what better excuse to throw a big party?? hence what i have dubbed the pig invite. my friend kristen (who will also be turning thirty a few days after me) and i are having a joint celebration. a note to vegetarians, the following my be a little gross. so i live in the midwest, and i guess we love ourselves some barbeque. i cant say that i love it, but i can appreciate it. around here nothing says party quite like a pig roast. or "whole hog!!" as the meat guy kept yelling in my ear when i called to find out prices and sizes. would you believe that they recommend a pound per person? yeah. thats a lot of meat. although when you are dealing with "whole hog!!!" you have take into account the weight of the "bones n' stuff" so says the meat guy. i have to say that i am interested in putting a face with this man that is so passionate about meat when my dad and i go do the pick up next friday. would it be wrong of me to say that i already have a hunch what he might look like? probably.

oh. and the new keane album rocks. go buy it.

good things come in threes

last week i was surprised by three packages in the mail. so so lucky. the line-up: goodies from the lovely soulemama. vintage tablecloth bag for me, disgustingly cute cardigan and hat for arlo, a book for e & c that has already been confiscated and not photographed, and some cute fabric and cards. love love love it all. i wish i would have snapped a pic of her wonderful wrapping, but alas, i was too excited. thank you amanda! next up, fabric leaf tags from molly and a birthday surprise, one of her beautiful handmade pendants! wow wow. i am wearing it today and let me tell you not only is it just gorgeous, but it also feels nice and heavy and my skin has warmed up the ceramic a bit. so organic and wonderful. thank you molly! and last but not least, a wonderful package from dear sweet cat. cat and i struck up a letter correspondence over a year ago and i just love getting cards from her because they are filled to the brim with her lovely print and stories of her day. she sent along this sweet rice bowl for arlo that mommy desperately wants to keep, a lovely hand made miniature book for me and this awesome vintage table cloth that i am going to turn into pillows for our new couch. perfect! oh and a sweet dick and jane sticker book that has also already been confiscated. thank you so much cat! i feel so lucky!

i am planning to get out some mail love to one of my favorite artists today. i hope she enjoys it. and thank you thank you for all the book suggestions. i have a list ready for my next trip to the library. and yes, whomever you are anonymous commenter, east of eden is my favorite book, hands down, and yes i plan to read it again and again.

ps. happy first official day of summer even though i have been celebrating for a while now!

words to pump by

i dont like to forget things. it really bothers me. especially the two things i forgot to put in my bag this morning. one, my flash drive with pictures of mail goodies to upload to flickr today. two, my book for pumping. book for pumping you say? please explain. ok. so i have to pump at work and it is the most boring 20 minutes of my life, so long long ago i started reading while i pumped. its either that or sit there and listen to the "uh huh, uh huh, uh huh" sound of the pump motor. yes, they have motors and yes it hurts and chafes and all around sucks. pun definitely intended. so i read. or at least i usually do. i have pumped for a total of 25 months and counting (the math breaks down to 11 for eliot, 10 for collette and on month 4 for arlo), and in that 25 months i have managed to read quite a few books. so far during the "arlo sessions" i have read:
persuasion
mansfield park
david copperfield
a farewell to arms
the sun also rises
the winter of our discontent
i am currently in the middle of the long valley, a collection of short stories by steinbeck. i should say that i am a voracious reader and really fast. so fast that it drives david crazy. i try to tell him that the more i love a book, the faster i read it. i cant wait to find out what happens, so i just fly. i also tend to read passages that really knock me out three or four times in a row. thats when i really love a book. he isnt buying it. looking back i feel like i went through themes. with eliot there was quite a bit of science fiction. lots of ray bradbury, i can read over and over again. i also got into the ender series by orson scott card. with collette there was tons of gabriel garcia marquez. love in the time of cholera? the words were dripping off the page they were so lush. one hundred years of solitude, no one writes to the colonel. so yeah, i will read just about anything, but i have to admit that i am a little out of practice with "new stuff". any and all suggestions, bring them on.

i felt like i had to post a gratuitous pic of arlo. happy four months baby girl!

the good life...

wow. how good was color week? so relaxing and lovely. check out some of mav's favorites. it really was an exceptional week at home. i almost feel guilty for feeling so good. our new part time nanny started last week and the huffsters LOVE her. so glad. our wonderful, dear, sweet, and brave friend sarah hauled all three children to VBS everyday last week. that woman is fearless i tell you. thank you a million times over sarah!

lets see, what else... oh yes. he is back.

it feels absolutely spectacular to have toby back in this country and sitting on my porch. welcome back friend, so good to have you home again. in a few weeks we get the eddys back up in this piece and then summer really begins. porch-sits, here we come.

and of course fathers day. or more like fathers weekend. nothing like breaking in a brand new frisbee on the front lawn of the nelson with friends.



lots and lots of pictures uploaded to flickr too. man, i could go on and on about this last week. sewing, good food, surprise packages in the mail... i should stop though, i dont want to make anyone jealous.

{ red }

i guess i have had a summery theme going this week. what can i say? i love summer. i am a june baby, so it is in my blood. built for heat. what a wonderful week of color this has been! i have had so much fun looking at all the beautiful pictures. thanks so much stephanie and mav.

{ blue }

COME up here, O dusty feet!
Here is fairy bread to eat.
Here in my retiring room,
Children, you may dine
On the golden smell of broom
And the shade of pine;
And when you have eaten well,
Fairy stories hear and tell.

Fairy Bread
Robert Louis Stevenson
A Child's Garden of Verses and Underwoods. 1913.

{ black }

eliot. kind.loving.thoughtful.


collette. independent.beautiful.stubborn.


arlo. happy.observant.peaceful.

{ brown }

you know that smell when it starts to sprinkle in the summertime and the pavement gets wet and steamy? i love that smell.

{ white }

i had such a wonderful weekend looking for color. thanks to stephanie and mav for starting this again. looking forward to browsing! any plans for a flickr group?

craft or nap?

i got home from work yesterday and everyone was sleeping. my choices were to snuggle with this...

or do something crafty in the basement. i chose the snuggle nap. good choice i'd say, especially since eliot naps very rarely now, and is not so keen on snuggling anymore either. arlo woke up about an hour later so we decided to watch my favorite show.

after she fell asleep and i was sufficiently awake again, i did manage to get my needle stitch booklet made from mailorder #3. there was blood involved though. more on that tomorrow. have a wonderful weekend everyone! oh and ps. keep your eye out for another week of color starting monday, stephanie and mav are going to get the party started.

easy

we are still all taking it easy here at home. eliot and collette have been in pj's for the better part of the week. david is recovering from his surgery, thank you for all the well wishes, but now has strep throat. awesome. so he can walk again, but now cant swallow. im not sure which is worse. i will say that taking care of three children and a sick husband for three days straight was much harder than i thought it would be. i heartily salute all single mothers out there. i dont know how in the world you do it. whew.

on a lighter note, eliot wanted to share two of his favorite things on "mommies internet pictures". i think he has been observing my blogging too much lately...

bugs and robots. top tier for a four year old boy.

to capacity.

the huffman family has decided that our nest has reached capacity. as a result my dear sweet husband has gone through an ordeal that i would wager is more painful than childbirth. i know. i was there for both and i think he wins. hands down. we are all taking it slow right now, especially david. eliot and collette have been instructed to make no sudden violent movements near daddy. very key since they are both of crotch height. ouch. so, slowly but surely we will regain our momentum here.

revisit

i had a loooong day yesterday with the kids and then finished the evening off with a unsuccessful, last minute attempt at a smock for may's tie one on challenge. but after seeing whats out there, i will certainly revisit this project soon. i would have worked on it tuesday night but ended up going out to my parents to help my mom pack. she left yesterday to spend a month in bogota with her family. my youngest brother michael went with her. i must say that at the last minute i was feeling pretty jealous since the last time i went to south america was 14 years ago. wow. really? fourteen years have gone by? how sad. someday family, someday. while i was out there i rummaged around in my moms picture drawer (you know the drawer in an old dresser that is just crammed full of old photographs) for a specific picture of my dad that popped into my head a few weeks ago. i cant remember what on the internet sparked the memory, but it is one of my most favorite pictures of my dad.

thats him in the background, grinning at the guy on the bike(?). pretty obvious why i used to just stare at this picture, huh? i have no idea where this is or what was going on, or even who took this picture, but i just love it. i used to make up stories for this picture, maybe i will write one down this time. i also came across a favorite of my mom as well.

i used to stare at this one quite a bit too. her boots drove me crazy, i remember distinctly being five or six and asking my mom how she used to walk in shoes like that. i love to revisit the picture drawer, and carry away bits with me. sort of like transplanting seeds for my own picture drawer.