1)

First off: we have chickens. Buff Orpingtons. They all look exactly the same, which will probably be a comfort when they start dying.

2)
Jacob built me a cadillac of a coop that cost approximately three times more than we'd planned to spend. By the end we were both shaking our head at the ridiculousness of it, but I took comfort in the old economic wisdom: You can only have two out of the three: fast, quality, inexpensive.

So fast and quality it was, and now we have a coop. We just have to paint it. We're not sure if we should go really playful with the paint color or not. I'm inclined to paint it white, but we've painted a lot of things white in the last three years and maybe we should paint this...pink? Or barn red? Do a mural?

3)
We got the chickens from a breeder out near Luckenbach.

She had on thick rubber boots and the grisly edge of someone who lives alone in the hills with two donkeys and a bunch of poultry. She gave us the up down in our t-shirts and sandals and nordic offspring, but we were eager and we had cash, so she took us over to the chickens. In my memory she had a limp. But this is probably just a romantic exaggeration.

She had the jankiest of coop/pen operations - and made us feel like even bigger yuppies with our board and batten beauty smelling of sawdust back home.

She hadn't wanted to box the chickens up for us in the morning since we couldn't come and get them till the afternoon, so we got to put the "fun" in "free range" as Jacob Sr and Jake Jr chased down a dozen hens in 100+ degrees.

The breeder complimented Jacob on his chicken wrangling and we left with a dozen chickens which turned into a baker's dozen by the time we got home because it is very hard to count identical chickens.

4)
I've been wanting to homestead for so long, I cannot tell you how happy this all makes me. We have a bumper crop of okra, three hopeful watermelons, thirteen hens, and a rooster sired by "El Guapo" that the children quickly dubbed Mr. Guapito.

Dreams do come true.

5)
The kids are still acclimating to farm life. They visit the chickens in the morning. Then they ask to watch TV.


- 6 -
My book count is going up with the temperature, so here are some of the notables in case you need some recs. Sleeping Giants - futuristic science fiction - a fun, quick read. It was written as a series of interviews which I ended up liking more than I expected. I finally read A Man Called Ove which fell pretty flat for me even though I quite like curmudgeons and aspire to be one someday. I did enjoy Morton's The Secret Keeper - which was very engaging even if some of the plot points felt farfetched. Ann Patchett's State of Wonder was delightful. I thought it ended too abruptly, but I found it mesmerizing in a very Bel Canto way.

- 7 -
I bought some new clothes recently. This is blogworthy because even though I don't blog much, I shop even less. 90% of my wardrobe is a rotation of three tank tops and one pair of shorts (these),
because I'm lazy and stingy and indecisive. So consider this a cry for help.

I bought something called a "ruffle top" from Madewell. (It has since sold out, but it was like this one, just a little less...ruffly.) It was so cute online, but when I got it, my long torso struck again and my belly button waved the white flag.

I'm not anti-trend (hello homesteading!) but I also crashed when I tried the cold shoulder. I bought this top after Anna inspired me with her capsule wardrobe.

And...no matter how I tugged or shifted, I couldn't get it to sit right, so back it went.

In the end, this swing top from LOFT made the cut. It's about as bold as vanilla, but I love it. Also these huaraches which were the closest I could find to a pair I had when I was six and have thought about every summer since.

I still have some gift cards to get through, so maybe you'll get to hear even MORE about my shopping failures soon.

Have a super chill weekend!

Because you want to meet our only pet

Caddy the Caterpillar

We got fennel from our farm share last week and one of the bulbs was rotting - I was really peeved until a little caterpillar climbed out of the bag. I've been wanting to raise some caterpillars with the kids for ages. So we adopted it and gave her all the fennel she could stuff herself with.

This morning she tucked herself in like this:

And six hours later she looks like this:

My expectations are hopelessly high for this science project. I'm sure I'm more excited than the kids.

Doers Make Mistakes

Jacob said this to me the other day. We were having an argument about something really trivial - like the disappearing lids of our kitchen storage containers. Yes. That was precisely it. Maturity be ours.

While we were arguing Jacob said: "Doers make mistakes."

I'm much more of a planner than a doer. I'm super critical - of myself more than anyone - and it's something I've really tried to work on recently.  Whenever I find myself being too hard on myself, I whip this one out: Doers make mistakes.

Baking

I'm baking bread every week.

I haven't ruined a loaf yet, and my starter still seems happy and bubbly - which is good - because of the whole fear of failure thing. I've been waiting on this book from the library for weeks. I decided all this baking has earned me some proofing baskets, so I bought some this morning. Aren't they lovely? - I wish I could just take a nap in one.

Reading 

I started reading The Awakening of Miss Prim - which has been on my list for ages...and it's not really grabbing me yet. I'll keep you posted.

I'm still putting myself to sleep with Gilead. It's still delightful.

Bullet Journaling

I started bullet journaling a few months ago. I was super late to this trend on purpose. It seemed a little self-indulgent. It's very much my style: doodling, paper products, felt tip pens, planning planning planning.

But I finally just indulged, and I love it. I love being able to tailor the planner into whatever I need. I love having a centralized spot for any and all scribblings. My favorite pages:

Sentence a Day Journal

I've been meaning to do this for awhile, and I never managed until I started bullet journaling. I tend to write a few sentences, choppy little things cataloging the days' noteworthy events.

I've been doing it for two months - which is probably the longest that I've maintained a daily journal since I was in sixth grade.

Lowering the bar. That's how you get it done.

Habit Tracker

I also keep a habit tracker page in the bullet journal. It's mostly just humbling to track how I'm doing with new habits, but it's also been really helpful to identify "linchpin habits" - the things that I do that have a trickle down effect.

Like waking up early. If I wake up early I get in my ab exercises, I spend time praying and writing, and I make time for a run before Jacob leaves. Sometimes those things still happen when I don't wake up early, but they almost always happen if I do.

Or the reverse of that.

Drinking. If I have any alcohol I will also end up eating late at night, watching TV, not getting enough sleep, not washing my face, etc.

So that's me. Just like the little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. Except my hair is hopelessly flat.

Question For You

When you start some new project do you buy nice tools from the get go?

I'm definitely the type that feels like I need to earn the good tools. To prove that I deserve them. But good tools are bound to help at the beginning. So it's a bit of a Catch 22. 

Visit Kelly for more quick takes!

Quick Takes: Afternoon Off and Hidden Doors

On Wednesday Jacob finished all his work by noon and told me to take the afternoon off. I said I just wanted to hole up in our bedroom with a hot cup of something and my laptop, but he said the offer was only on the table if I left the house.

He was right of course. Our bedroom - though progressing - is still a construction project. And our children - though not my immediate responsibility - will always bang on the door if I'm on the other side. I was under orders not to do anything productive. I wasn't allowed to work on anything. So I went to a bookstore and I browsed. I picked up books and meandered. I told multiple sales people that I didn't need any help. Because I didn't. And nobody needed help from me.

Usually I take "me time" to work on administrative stuff for Jacob's business or to go on a stroller-less run or to just get stuff done. I can't remember the last time I wandered in a bookstore. It was glorious. I thought I would feel like I'd wasted that time, but instead I felt like a new person. Or maybe I just felt like my old person?

>><<

I've been trying to embrace smaller chunks of time.

For the past month I've been running and doing yoga almost every day. I've always been a consistent jogger, but since baby number three came I was only managing one run a week, if that. So a couple months back, I just decided to go on twenty minute runs. It's worked like a charm. At this point in my life, it's so much easier to find 20 minutes 6 times a week than 40 minutes 3 times a week. I think this is pretty mental: it's a lot easier to commit to a 20 minute workout.

Recently I've been applying the idea to yoga. Whenever I saw a 20 minute window, I just click on over to this website, set my filters to 0-20 or 20-40 minute workouts, and off we go.

>><<

While wondering through the bookstore, I broke down and bought some books for the kids. I almost never buy kids' books because the library is so easy and so free. But that day I had some cash and I wanted to do something splurgey. I bought Jake this classic which he loves. I wanted to buy Lucy June Ladybug Girl because it's much more my style of girl book, but she's in a big time unicorn phase and so I gave in and bought one called Uni the Unicorn. The flower illustrations got me. Especially this page with all the dandelions.

>><<

I'm on the hunt for a hot beverage that is caffeine-free and doesn't need milk or sugar to make it palatable. I'm trying to teach myself to like herbal tea, but so far so bad. I'd love any tea recommendations or tips if you got'em!

>><<

This is exactly what Jacob and I look like when we watch TV:

Please admire all my well placed wall art... 

>><<

Remodeling progress. Here's where we are with the master bedroom. (steps out the window are handy but temporary ;) Floors go in on the 13th. 

Tile is done in the bathroom. It's the first time we've tiled all the way up a wall and I really like it.

Jacob is almost done building the vanity and I can't wait to show it to you!

>><<

Then finally there's this cuteness. We'll be taking out this wall soon to make this room three feet wider, so last week Jacob cut a hole in it last week to make spot for the kids:

 Jake scurries in there every morning to look at books before the other kids wake up.

Go see Kelly and Happy Weekend. We're off to hide from the Super Bowl festivities which are happening up the road!

7QT - Little Things and BIG Thing

Throwing up a post this Friday morning! It's chilly here in Houston which puts me in SUCH a good mood. And my little sister is visiting this weekend (Right, Lil??) and my little brother who's been out of town all month is finally back and we're all having a pizza night tomorrow. So many good things big and little!

>><<

I read most of Gary Taube's new book The Case Against Sugar this week, and I'm sufficiently terrified of sucrose, fructose, and all the other -ose's. The book was actually pretty dry - and I LOVE reading about health and wellness books and food histories - but it's a pretty compelling look at the story of sugar consumption and the rise in chronic disease. Whenever I feel my healthful eating resolve starting to teeter, I check out a book like this.

When Jacob saw me reading the book, he sat next to me with a bowl of ice cream.

>><<

The kids and I went to the park yesterday morning. It was 55 degrees and when we were getting back in the car Jake asked if he had frost on his face.

>><<

The remodel is still trucking along. I'll try to get a post up about it next week. I'm no longer sleeping in a total construction site...it feels more like...a garage.

The kids are troopers about it all:

The suckers were from before I read the Taubes book.

>><<

Jake really likes to shorten words. Yesterday he called his Uncle Michael "Mikes." He thinks it's extra cool. Often he'll shorten words and we won't even know what he means. Like the other day when he asked for these:

bloobs

>><<

Jacob and I have been scrambling for a new show for both of us to watch. He has his kinds of shows (dry British or Australian humor) and I have mine (overdramatic period pieces), and we'll often find shows to watch together (Stranger Things, Poldark, The OA.) But we've been floundering for awhile to find a new one, so we picked up The Man in the High Castle. I didn't like the first half of season one but I'm really liking the second half.

>><<

I'm reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder's books with the kids. I love them all so much. Right now we're reading Farmer Boy. My favorite part is how much this nine year old boy thinks about food. At one point he was reflecting on how pretty his mother was and that she was never prettier than when she was carrying a ham to the kitchen table. #parentinggoals

A couple months ago we made butter tinted with carrot juice just like Ma Ingalls. I'm thinking next week we'll make Almanzo's favorite food: fried apples and onions.

(Disclaimer: I realize replicating Little House recipes sounds industrious. Let it be known that the only thing I'm really doing well is making it to the couch every night with a bowl of popcorn.)

>><<

The other day I was asking Jacob how one even begins the process of finding a good therapist...and then literally two days later we got an e-mail from a good friend of ours from college who has written an ebook about how to find a great therapist. You should definitely check it out or at least visit his website which has tons of information about therapy (cost, kinds, frequency, what to expect). This guy is basically the coolest, and I'm so excited for this initiative!

>><<

And now the BIG THING - which is NOT another baby. 

We're gearing up to move to my hometown in rural Texas this summer. I. can't. wait.

We'll rent my parents' house while they relocate to my grandmother's old house, and then we'll start the slow process of buying ten acres from them and building a house on it. It feels like a dream, and I'm so excited about it. (But Jake told me he likes being a city kid because he gets to drive on highways -_-)

We'll buy ten acres of unimproved land except that it has an acre of high fencing around a vineyard of Black Spanish grapes. 
It has a creek!

 And carpenter anthills the size of basketball courts!

It's basically a deer habitat and is totally overrun by wild mustang grapevines ten inches thick at the base, and we're totally in love.

We're thinking this for the backyard:

Then I'll be able to go seriously Ma Ingalls on everything. It's such an enormous dream come true to move home and read Wendell Berry and work the land and watch sunsets.

Visit Kelly for more quick takes! Happy Weekending!

What I'm Reading (and Quick Remodel Update)

**chock full of affiliate links in case the almighty Google asks and threatens my $6/mo**

Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave

Story about several young people in London as they figure out their way through the first years of WWII. Think star-crossed lovers and coming of age. It had an Amor Towles feel. It honestly fell a little flat for me. My expectations were probably too high because I was hoping for another All the Light We Cannot See and this novel didn't quite hit that level of heart-wrenching. It's the only Chris Cleave I've read, and I'd be interested to hear other people's experiences with him.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

I loved this book and highly recommend it. I first encountered Kalanithi when I read his piece in the New York Times a couple of years ago, and like most of the internet, I was struck by his story: a neurologist finishing residency diagnosed with an aggressive and rare lung cancer. When Breath Becomes Air is his memoir about dying, so it's heavy, but his writing is so good and so poignant.

168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam

This is a book about how people spend their time/should spend their time. I liked it. She's got great statistics on how people spend their time today vs fifty years ago. After reading it, I decided to do some time tracking. This is pretty tricky for me because I'm someone who needs a lot of external motivation to maintain this type of practice. But in this instance, a disbelieving eyebrow raise from Jacob has been all the motivation I've needed to follow through, and I'm going on my second week of observing my time in 15 minute intervals.

I've LOVED time-tracking.  I haven't analyzed my charts yet, but the time tracking itself has helped me spend my time so much more consciously.

Designing your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Ah. More self help! This book is about applying design concepts to "What should I do with my life" questions. It's very interactive and has you doing lots of exercises, some of which got me thinking creatively about some of the parts of my life that I want to change. It's one of the reasons I've been blogging more! It had been hard for me to justify spending time blogging, but this book helped me look at my emotional experiences without judgment. And turns out I LIKE blogging, and maybe I don't need another justification to do it.

Before We Visit the Goddess by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

A story about three generations of Indian women that spans decades and continents. I really liked this book: I liked the writing and the jumping around in time and the steady description of Indian food. But it also made me a little miserable...it seemed like every relationship was fueled by deception or resentment. I finished it one night late and crawled into bed with Jacob. I hugged him and was all "Ah love! Let us be true to one another!" and he was like "I was asleep."

>><<

Also: this is what my bedroom looks like today. 

We demo-ed (How do Chip and Joanna spell that, I wonder?) the old exterior wall the day before yesterday and now the room is twice as big and half as habitable. Never fear, the drywallers come tomorrow if we pass our final framing inspection today. #knockonwallstuds

Also the "we" here always means Jacob doing/managing everything and me in the background asking "Is that supposed to be that way??"

Favorite Kids Picture Books

I would classify these as family favorites for the 2-4 and 30 year old crowd.

Lucy June's favorite book is this one (she's original), and Jake's favorite is this one, and B. J. Novak's book had him practically hyperventilating. I'm pretty partial to this one, but the books that made this list are ones that ALL of us love.

This means that the kids like them genuinely, request them incessantly, recite them spontaneously, and they're not too long. I can't really handle long picture books. I really like reading out of chapter books with Jake, but there's something about the long (I'm looking at you Cars and Trucks) picture book that makes me tired. With these books you won't even have to sneak skip pages!

So now that I've set the bar adequately high: here are some of our favorite picture books. You've certainly heard of some of them, but I confess these were all new to me since having kids.

                                    

Little Owl Lost 
by Chris Haughton
The illustrations in this lean toward Microsoft Paint, and the colors are a little bit much, but I LOVE THIS BOOK. The kids get so into it. The fact that they care so much that this little owl finds its mother makes me feel pretty validated. And it's SHORT. We're talking like a sixty second commitment.

We Were Tired of Living in a House 
by Liesel Moak Skorpen
This is my favorite book on the list. These siblings take off into the wilderness and have these little adventures. It's pretty poetic ("So we packed our bag with sweaters and socks and scarves and scarlet leaves and gold and a frog who was a particular friend" - stuff like that.) In my mind it's childhood perfected.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie 
by Laura Joffe Numeroff
This one seems to make every favorite picture book list out there but for good good reason. The little kid pandering to every crazy whim of a mouse who nap-strikes. Every time I read this book I feel kind of triumphant. I'm like: "There is justice in the world because someday you will end your day in a puddle of exhaustion with cheerios in your hair too, little person!"

Frog and Toad 
by Arnold Lobel
Apparently the Frog and Toad books are kids readers that I should've been introduced to in second grade or something, but I missed them. They don't quite hold my heart like some of the books on this list, but I do really like the collection and so do my kiddos - even the not quite two year old. I like how ambiguously moral they are. I also like that it adjusts the kids to books that LOOK more like chapter books, but each story goes really quick.

We're Going on a Bear Hunt 
by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury
Again. Most people know it. But such a great one. I love the rhythm of the book that the kids can latch onto so quickly. The dad and the baby in the book are delightful. And the whole time I'm reading it, I'm thinking about the mom sipping tea in her quiet quiet house.

Leave me some recommendations! I'm always on the lookout for good kids books. I'm way pickier than I ever imagined I would be!

Linking up with Jenna!

5 Faves: Books, Book-T-Shirts and an Out of Print GIVEAWAY

Linking up with Jenna today for some five favorites.

Yesterday during dinner I polled everyone's favorite books. Here is what I got from the five members of the household.

- 1 -

Robert (my little brother): East of Eden. It's my favorite book I've read recently. I also really liked War and Peace, put that one if it will make me sound cooler. I also like Gone with The Wind, but DON'T put that one.

- 2 -

Jacob: Um. Moby Dick.
Me: Wow, babe. So literary of you.
Jacob: Well, I read it really allegorically, I mean, I'm not literally into whale-hunting...I also love Mark Helprin's The Pacific.

- 3 -

Jake: Is there any kids in Moby Dick?
Jacob: No. But it has whales.
Jake: Any sharks?
Jacob: A few sharks.
Jake: I think my favorite is Smoky the Firefighter AND Busy, Busy Town AND Cars and Trucks.

- 4 -

Me: (Though none of the curious bunch asked me at the dinner table.) Such an impossible question, but if I had to choose I'd probably say Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn because nostalgia: my dad's mother gave me a first edition as a little girl and Francie Nolan and I are tight.

- 5 -

Lucy Juney's favorite book is the illustrated version of Raffi's song "Five Little Ducks" - she quacks whenever she picks up a board book. Granted, her quack is certainly more of a chirpy "mwah, mwah" sound, but she gets her point across and is very pleased with herself.

>> GIVEAWAY: Out of Print Clothing <<

Today, good friends and readers, is Lucy June's first birthday. (Time flying. Growing up too fast. Etc.) And on her birthday we've rigged up a little present from her to one of you!

When Jake was a baby, Zulily was running a special on some Out of Print T-shirts, so I snagged one for Jake. This illustrious one.

Out of Print T-Shirts feature iconic book covers. And their online store is full of super super cute stuff for the bibliophile: like pouches and totes and shirts for all sizes.  (They also donate a book to a community in need for every product that they sell.)

The shirts are soft and durable and adorable, and I just want all of them.

They graciously sent some for the kiddos and we went to the (wait for it) LIBRARY for a photo shoot, and I spent the entire time coaxing them away from the kids computer.

I let Jake pick his own shirt out, so he picked "the outerspace one"...which was fine by me since The Little Prince and I have a history.

Happy birthday, my always very hungry little caterpillar.

I'm so excited to give one of these away to some little person in your life!!

Rafflecopter it below for your own chance to win an Out of Print Kids T or a Onesie.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Recent Reads

I already told you that in the summer, I prefer to go full beach read. So most of these books fall into that category.

The Fault in Our Stars
by John Green

I read this because I like to read books that are "all the rage." I really enjoyed it. If you're like me and you hate knowing too much about a book before you've read it, then don't watch the movie trailer. You get about 95% of the plot in the trailer. I suppose it isn't very plot driven, but still...It's a quick read full of angsty teenagers...who have cancer. I thought Mr. Green did a good job of making the teenagers feel like teenagers despite battling debilitating illnesses. The relationship between the two main characters seemed a little underdeveloped, but I may have only felt that way because I read it really fast.

Eleanor & Park

by Rainbow Rowell

While we're on the subject of love among high schoolers, I'll direct your attention to Eleanor and Park. It's the story of Eleanor who sits on the bus next to Park and soon starts reading comics over his shoulder, and it stays just that cute. Rowell does such a good job of conveying high school awkwardness and that all-consuming first love and the subplots of difficult family life give it some meat. 

The Language of Flowers

by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

The Language of Flowers is a book about a girl just graduated out of the foster system who is healing from a difficult past and learning to accept a different future. Laced throughout the story is her obsession with the Victorian language of flowers; her passion for it interrupts her destructive cycles. As I read I kept comparing this book to What Alice Forgot in that it had a pretty compelling concept that lost a little steam once I'd gotten used to it, but then it ended well. Overall, I really enjoyed reading it.

Bel Canto

by Ann Patchett

When I read the synopsis of this book I was pretty uninspired. Opera and terrorists? How would that even work? But this book...I know a book has me when I stop being an English teacher while I'm reading it and just fall into the experience. Bel Canto did this for me. I loved it. It's hopeful and heartwrenching: a hostage situation meets Babette's Feast.

Housekeeping

by Marilynne Robinson

If Bel Canto moves us out of beach reads, then Housekeeping has us at Full Blown Literature. It was my first experience with Ms. Robinson, and my is she something. The book was on the heavy side - cold, foggy - but it was short and her prose is so effortlessly crafted with such a mix of eerie female characters, I highly recommend it - but probably as an Autumn read over a Summer read since it definitely isn't CandyLit.