March 24, 2019

Me

March 2019 Seven Things

Gardening

The callas are in bloom. The lemon and kumquat trees are burdened with fruit. The loquat is oddly shedding its leaves, and we just lost a beautiful upright rosemary. One of my great loves, living in Colorado, was the garden downtime in the winter. But there is no growing downtime in Santa Barbara. Things just keep reaching for the sun, and when we get rain in the winter (we got so much beautiful rain this winter without any disasters!) our little yard simply sprouts weeds. It's like those seeds have been scattered in every crevice and corner and in one big shout they all shoot for the sky! Most days--these days--you will find me at some point planted flat on my bottom or on my knees, in my favorite scrappy blue jeans, digging up dandelions, grass shoots, and baby palm trees. 

Making 

Just finished. A baby blanket made with lace alpaca wool for a dear young friend.

Eating

All vegan these days. Have you tried the Oh She Glows Cheerful Chocolate Smoothie? Because my son is 13, and growing about an inch every other day (just bought ANOTHER new pair of shoes) and he is hanging in there with our current vegan-ness, I am always keeping an extra smoothie in the fridge for when he's hungry. This smoothie is pretty great. 2 cups almond milk (we use one almond and one oat), 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder, 4 pitted medjool dates, 1/4 cup avocado, pinch of sea salt, three ice cubes, then blend.

Working 

Have you seen Spyridon's Shoes by Christine Rogers? It's the latest book that I edited and helped produce for Ancient Faith Publishing and it's a beautiful, inspiring story.  In other news, the book on confession that I worked on with illustrator, Nicholas Malara, got stuck at the printer and has been there for ages. I've decided not to be mad at anyone (or I would have to go to confession!!!) and got news that it will be shipping at the end of the month to our warehouse in Chicago.

Writing

One of my best friends growing up was afflicted with Cystic Fibrosis. I've been writing a book about her for forever, and I'm finally nearing the end! 

Learning

Ancient Rome. My homeschooling son and I are being tutored by my oldest son, who lives in Seattle, and is a history guru. Every Friday we chat online about Roman legends and supposed truths and the expansionist regime of the Roman Republic (and Empire). We are about to read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar aloud, which should be super fun.

Dreaming  

We live in a very small house, on a very small lot, but it's plenty big for all of us, including #OhZuko, whose birthday it is today! We have been doing some work to our 1937 home (new windows soon!), and won't be traveling this year, because we are especially dreaming of putting a new patio and outdoor dining table out by our lemon tree so we can utilize every tiny inch of our little space. We'll see!

Hope you're all well on this beautiful Monday.

Cheers!