new life

Monday was chilly and it even snowed here. The snow didn't stick. But it was enough to make me want finish a warmer baby blanket, since I only stocked up on summer muslin swaddling wraps.

Monday came and went. And on Tuesday, May 25, Ivy Joy was born at home @ 2:43 a.m. She's perfect and we are all in love.

Nesting still

The baby is waiting

for the perfect day to come

when he or she will feel ready

to be born into this world...

Meanwhile, I'm trying to take advantage of every single day and do things that I know I won't be able to do with a tiny little newborn around. Fun things, you know, like cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. And sewing of course, with some knitting in between. And then there are some 'now or never' things that I was excited to cross of my list lately. Like having some non-mirror photos taken of me by Mark in the middle of our drive down the canyon. 38 weeks, spontaneously picked spot and me feeling very awkward being in front of the camera. But it was all good, I needed something like this after 4 pregnancies...

And I managed to paint my belly with henna too. Something that I was always fascinated with, and now I finally got around to actually doing it. In the true DIY spirit, I painted my belly myself (although I wish it was someone else with a more steady hand and a better view of the paining area), freehand too, because I'm not patient enough to fiddle with transferring the design first. All 3 kids stare with fascination at the flower (or star, depending on who you ask) on my belly every time they lift my shirt to 'kiss the baby'...

in the spirit of procrastinating

Really, there's no better time to resurrect a blog than when you have 2 dozen of things on your list of things to do (and to make) before the new baby comes. Which technically could happen any day now. Considering that I never made it to the magic 40 weeks before. So right now I'm in the middle of making some cloth wipes and yet somehow it doesn't seem right to be so focused on such an important task. A little procrastinating is just what I need at this time.

And just to make an impression that I've been quite productive lately, here are a few things that I managed to finish(!!) before(!!!) the baby is born.

she just couldn't figure out why all those cute woolies don't fit her


and obligatory belly shot, albeit outdated a bit (35 weeks, almost 3 weeks ago)

Now if I could just finish those wipes tonight...

Happy today

I'm slowly getting back into the cooking groove... After months of very little cooking and not trying anything new, food is making me happy again! So today I decided to re-create quinoa salad that we tried at Whole Foods last week during their sampling night. Thank you, Whole Foods, for carefully documenting all the ingredients (while using only recognizable ones), and having plenty of samples on hand, 5 or 6 of them were enough to fill me up and count as dinner :) The salad truly rocked and was exactly what I needed today, so I lovingly came up with very original title for it...

...Rockin' Quinoa Salad! (I know, very impressive)

1.5 c uncooked quinoa

3-5 T red wine vinegar (to taste)
2-4 T extra virgin olive oil (to taste)
1 c corn (whatever kind you have on hand)
1 c black beans
2-3 chopped roma tomatoes
2-4 T finely chopped red onions
fresh parsley, chopped
salt to taste
fresh chopped cucumbers would be nice, but I didn't have any

Cook quinoa. Add everything else. Chill. Eat. Or eat, then chill leftovers. Then go make another batch :)

I know I've been MIA lately...

...but I have no intentions on abandoning my blog for the duration of winter, just being distracted by life lately. I have a few posts almost finished that never got published so I might go back to them first. Until then, Anya and Elijah are saying 'HI!'

yes, Elijah is wearing a shirt instead of pants and he has socks on his hands. A boy with very unique sense of style, as you can tell :)

too tired to think of post title...

It's late, very late. I won't even say how late it is right now, because considering how little sleep I got last night, it's a crime to stay up this late, not to mention, sit down just to make a blog post when I was all ready to head to bed. Granted, this is a much needed and very much overdue post, but still... Did I mention that it is VERY late? I might as well just say "Good Morning!"...

I was heading to bed, 3rd time tonight, but just can't commit myself to sleeping because I'm afraid this night will fail me again, just like it did yesterday, whenever I tried to close my eyes.

But something is giving me hope. It's raining outside, and I can barley hear soft rolling thunder in the distance. There's no better lullaby for me than rain. And thunder is like my ultimate cue to GO TO BED. It also prompted me to sit down and finally update my blog. Unpredictable thing, that thunder is...

Ahhhhhh, more thunder... Sleep... Write...

And in the spirit of me declaring my love for thunder and rain, here are some recent photos from our last drive in the mountains, chasing yet another thunderstorm.

driving out of the storm and towards the setting sun

That evening we were all giddy about going on a hike. The storm was one step ahead of us, but we didn't mind. In return we got one of the most incredible sunsets, with a fantastic rainbow on top. The light from the sunset made everything glow with pink and orange, how often do you get to see that?

and now, good night...

Just a couple of 'Maya' moments

That girl never ceases to amaze me. Recently I got her an embroidery hoop and a blunt needle, just for the sake of letting her learn something new. Saying she was thrilled with this new activity would be a criminal understatement. She could.not.put.it.down.

And here's a new gem that came out of her mouth today:

me: Maya, what are you going to wear today?
Maya: You. I'm going to wear you out.

I guess that's what comes after all that practice with 'knock, knock' jokes.