About Tricia

I am Tricia. Momma of nine, homeschooler, artist, foodie and maker of all kinds of things. It's a pleasure to share here our family homesteading adventures, the things we make, and what inspires our days. Read more about my family and work here. Thanks for visiting!

Author Archive | Tricia

Zoo getaway

By on February 20, 2013 in Outings

Have I ever told any of you how wonderful my parents are?  They are!  They must have gotten their hands on the “how to be the best parents book” somewhere because I have never ever had a complaint about them.  They never meddle or pry, they support us even when they have doubts, they are always ready to jump in and help and they are thoughtful.

This year, knowing how I feel about presents and making them meaningful my parents gave us the best gift ever!  A yearly family pass to the zoo.  I can’t tell you how excited we were when the passes arrived.  The kids asked everyday to go but everyday we had a reason why we could not go.  Then Poppa woke up one day and told us to get ready to go to the zoo!!

We thought going on a Monday would be great but we forgot it was a holiday and the entire place was packed.  It took a bit of time just to get a parking spot and everywhere we turned there were people and lines.  I guess lots of other people woke up with the same idea.

We took it in stride and just made the best of it.  Not many pictures were taken because there was no opportunity to get a picture of much through the crowds.  Our favorite animals were the orangutans who put on quite a show with their shenanigans but again, no pics : )

Our zoo has a nice area full of rides which were not as crowded as the animal exhibits so we ended up spending lots of time there much to our shagrin.  Our purpose to having a pass was to see the animals and not the rides since the last time we were there all we got to do was the rides area.

We are planning our next visit for a nice quiet day when everyone else should be at work or school.  Everyone was pretty tuckered out by the time we went home for the day including Matthew who spent the day riding in my wrap.

Thank you Abuela and Abuelo!!

Hope to see you back here tomorrow for Stash Bash!!  Post a picture of your projects so you can link up.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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Life with Buzz

By on February 19, 2013 in Kids

Every morning when I walk into the girl’s room I am confronted with something/someone who is part of our lives against my own will.  He is a dear friend of Livie.  He is everything I do not want for her but she loves him anyway.

He is plastic and mass produced, he is not soft or comforting and before he ran out of batteries he made loud noises.  His name is Buzz.

I do not buy toys like this especially not for little girls but non-the-less, he is part of our family.  Since Olivia was born, I have tried to surround her with lovelies that are made of natural materials that will soothe, comfort and inspire real play and a love of natural things.  I wanted her to only appreciate toys made of natural materials, to loathe plastic mass produced junk like I do but she loves Buzz.

How did he end up in our lives you might ask?  Well, a sweet little boy slept over once and left him here for my boys to play with.  Our boys did not take to him but soon enough I found him in Livie’s room.  I got so upset that I hid him once for about a half a year in a great big soup pot (the kind I only use when dozens of people are coming to dinner).  I hid him because I was not brave enough to get rid of him and because the other children (most especially her advocate Nicholas) had rallied to her cause and thought it was terrible of me to take away her beloved friend just because he is made of plastic.

This is where it is OK for you to think that I am indeed a terrible momma.  It gets worse!  When she would ask me where Buzz was, I would tell her that he went to visit his momma.  She would accept that for a while because who doesn’t want to go see their momma?  Then a few days would pass and she would again ask me to look for him.  I really struggled with this one.  Do I put what I think is good for her before what she loves?  After a few months, she stopped looking for him but would mention him once in a while.  Then the day came when she found him.  She was so happy to see him.  How could I not see how happy he made her?

Now Buzz is one of us and it has not stopped her from loving any of her dolls or playing with her natural toys.  She has dance parties with him and often tells me all the things Buzz did while he was off “visiting his momma”.  She loves him and that’s all there is to it.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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