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

Awakenings

By on February 7, 2012 in in the garden

We have had a strangely warm winter this year.  Warm enough for it not to feel like winter but too cool for even the grass to grow.  I have been so tempted to get my spring plants in the ground but I know that one or two more hard freezes will sneak my way and kill my newly planted seedlings so I wait and start seeds indoors.  This weekend I hope to get enough work done in the way of weeding to get most things planted but things like tomatoes will have to live indoors.  I have lots of seed saved from last year but am finalizing my seed order for what I am missing.  I’ve been romancing these seed catalogs since November, you would think that I would have been done by now…so many seeds and so little budget hee hee.

As I walk around I see the signs of spring coming, a new bud on what looks like a dead fig tree, lots of growth on our mulberry trees

Even the herbs I have growing on the windowsill seems to be trying to bend their way right out the window.  They look pretty puny right now but once they get their roots in the soft warm earth outside, they will take off and then from these 3 little plants, I will get lots more.  Enough basil to put up lots of pesto. Enough Cuban oregano to dry, grind and fill my big jar of it for the rest of the year and thyme, well I guess you can never have enough of this when its fresh.

I love spring…it’s my favorite time of year.  Everything is awakening and being renewed.  In a few weeks it will be hard for me to be inside and I will get to spend every morning and evening in my favorite place, the garden.

I will be back tomorrow afternoon with the promised tutorial on the felt hair bow.  See you then.


The best part of my day is settling down to read your comments.  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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Party in Candyland

By on February 5, 2012 in Birthday Celebrations


ignore those pots of bare earth on the right.  The chickens found out that I grow herbs in there and had a snack but forgot to leave some for us.

Another birthday party has come and gone.  All the planning and creating and one hour after the final party guest is gone you can hardly find one reminder that we had a party today.  Poppa got us all going and in 2 hours the entire house was clean as a whistle (I wonder who started that saying?  do whistles get clean that often?).  It feels good to have everything clean but it was hard to keep myself going when all I wanted to do was collapse on the couch.
Looking at these picture of Olivia, I can hardly believe she is really 3.  In one way it feels like I hard her a life time ago but on the other, I can’t believe how fast time is going by.  She woke up this morning and asked me if she was the birthday princess today?  As we put up decorations and got all the goodies in place, she kept asking me the same question.
We usually have everything picture perfect for parties but this time, one of our friends showed up on time (but we were running late) and it was so awesome to hand some party decorating responsibilities to someone else while I flitted about getting everything else done in time for the rest of the guests arrived (thanks Helen Ann).
The kids spent the morning creating the candy land walk way from duct tape and then sliding on it in their socks.  I think it may be my favorite party decoration.  I was pretty sure the kids would inhale all the candy before I could get a picture but even after everyone left, we put away 5 bags of candy.  I have no idea what we will do with all this candy expect that it may resurrect in some Easter baskets. I do not offer our kids candy very often but once in a while I let them have it and boy did I let them have it.  Not surprising, they were just as interested in the fruit as the candy (except for Olivia).
The cake is admittedly not my best work but it was still too warm to ice,which I had to do anyway because guest were arriving.  I wanted the icing to look rustic as a backdrop to the rock candy but it came out a little too rustic (code word for sloppy) and by the time I got a picture, a few fingers had been dipped into the cake.  
The thing I liked most about the cake was watching Olivia’s unsuccessful attempts at blowing out the candles.  It took about 5 puffs to take the first candle out and the next puff took out the rest.  She looked so big to me in her candy stripers dress (more on how I made it on Thursday’s Stash Bash) and somehow even after playing down by the pond, the dress still looks kind of clean.
When the last guest had said their goodbyes, I sat in the dining room staring at the confetti on the floor and thought about how fast Livie is growing up and then she came to me and said “Well Momma, I guess I’m not the birthday princess anymore”.  As I stood their looking at her dirty face and dress, I could not imagine a more perfect birthday princess.  
Thanks for stopping by to see her party and also for all the encouraging comments and emails this week.

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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