the things that make me smile (:

Isabella came up with this fun idea for a drawing; illustrations of all the things that make you smile, or at the very least, make you feel happy inside (: The top one is mine...

And here is Isabella's, in process. I have always loved to make quick little drawings, so this was very fun (:

The most recent of our creative escapades

Painting with a bingo dabber. Is that what you call them? At any rate, both boys made at least 10 polka-dot pictures, dotted their hands, the table, their cheeks...I have since tucked the bingo dabber away for a little rest!

Making fire extinguishers out of logs! Jude has been very dedicated to fire safety as of late. He and Ollie both have a fire helmet, but we had to get really creative when it came to obtaining an extinguisher (-;

Tempera paint in a freezer bag. Jude thought this was pretty awesome, Ollie not so much. The bags did not break open despite all the boy-play they endured! Woo hoo!

Good old-fashioned drawing. Jude draws every day, and for longer and longer periods. Here he is perfecting his axes and hammers! He is a big fan of chainsaws, rockets and laser shooters too (-;

More drawing! This is Santa's scroll (:

And here he is drawing a ninja, dressed as a ninja (:

^__^

Golden Eagle on our land

This magnificent bird came to our homestead yesterday and ate one of our hens. He is a golden eagle, a rarity, and also considered endangered. He allowed me to take pictures of him. It was dusk unfortunately so the pictures do not do him justice. He was huge, and he flew from the tree in this photo, swooped over me and landed in another tree, one that faces our main living space, so that everyone could peer out and get a good look at him. 

I consider a visiting eagle an amazing gift, but I hope he intends to carry on his journey soon.

The chickens are all locked up today, and will be for another few days. 

I saw him first thing this morning in the tree overlooking our living room and heard his screeching deep in the woods today so I know he is staying near for another delicious chicken meal.

Recent food around here!

Getting ready for applesauce

Butternut squash soup

Carrot cake with cream cheese icing made all pretty

Roasted garden tomatoes, ready to be made into soup

Homemade spelt bread

Spelt bread french toast

Slightly overcooked but amazingly delicious quiche

Ground cherries grow here!

Cherry cream cheese coffee cake

Wild apple sauce

The cure-all for tough days: popcorn

Acorn squash roasted and all ready to be made into lots and lots of soup

Wild apple slices dried in front of our wood stove 

wonderful hot cocoa!

Time for lunch!

Happy Halloween!!

Into the woods again

Thank goodness for autumn! Now that the horrible, blood sucking mosquitos, black flies, medium sized biting flies, annoying flies that swarm in your face and other assorted nasty insects are GONE for the year, we can enjoy our lovely forest (: When we ventured out yesterday, the lambs came too. They were frightened in the woods (obviously) but I couldn't trick them into staying behind. In the end, we came back to the house and barnyard, waited until they were happily munching away, snuck out of view and then took a different route into the woods and got away without being followed (:

What I love the most about my nature walks with the little ones is the way in which they are transformed and quite honestly, blissed out for lack of a better term. The effect of the woods is amazingly apparent in Jude who tends to be a fiery, passionate being at the best of times, but place him in the forest and he's going on and on about how pretty the trees are and how lovely the smells are and how wonderful the quiet is, and then he'll tell me he loves me, sweet little guy, and I know this is his way of thanking me for giving him such a spirit-happy gift as a walk in our woods (:

Our fancy jungle gym (:

Jude in his car