roosters returned

A morning home pedicure....

and manicure.

We went to return our roosters. I thought we had 3 roosters but it was really only 2. That's pretty good odds...2 out of 9. We will be coming back to get some pullets in a little bit when they have grown up a bit. While we were at Josie's place, we got to hang out and play with animals and enjoy their awesome space and the loving people within it.

Johari has a blast getting some kitten time.

Once Johari warmed up a bit, she and a couple of the girls were off on their own, feeding the goats and horse apple peelings and cores, picking flowers, swinging, and I have no idea what else. But enjoying life.

A kisser.

When we got home, Johari did some of her food coloring experiments.

I was lucky enough to get a duck liver to make for dinner from Josie, "the chicken lady". Duck liver is delicious! Mmmmmm good.

Another project of tracing the magnets she got at the baby shower yesterday.

A lovely day.

life

Waking up and snuggling her dogs. Kenya, her dog that came from the heavens on her birthday, is quite the snuggler.

Snail fun. We had a rain this morning. The snails were out. She collected almost 20 of them and put them all on the hood of our car. Then, surprisingly, put them all back into their natural environment. I thought we would be keeping a few pet snails again.

We went to a baby shower. With lots of cool games to play. I went fishing and got this awesome light switch plate on my first casting. It is already installed in our hallway.

Watching gifts being opened and devouring the strawberries and whip cream off of a strawberry shortcake.

Ananda.....Bliss

Playing at St. Edwards Park for a bit.

Mastering the art of jumping and catching the rings independently!

Sitting beneath the owls

A Johari shot of the sky.

Our peach trees are ripening. Even though our trees may be somewhat sick with a parasite of some sort, we are still receiving the blessings of some delicious peaches.

Mmmmmmmmm

Johari picked out her "first" running shoes when we were at the resale shop a couple weeks ago. These shoes inspire her to go out running in the evenings sometimes. Which in turn inspires me to get my running shoes out and run around our neighborhood together.

We have been wanting to collect wood to do a project of making stacking blocks from slices of wood. A toy product that one can buy for a pretty penny. The first place we were going to collect wood from I realized that the homeowners were going to be using it to heat their house. Then on our jog we found a home that had some in their green garbage, so we asked them if we could take some. The first step in our project.

We collected some blackberries on the way home as well. I absolutely love that there is wild food in the neighborhood that we have made into cobblers, pies, and smoothies. Johari collects some to feed to the chickens as well.

We often admire the twilight silhouettes.

A zuchini bread recipe I have been baking since I was a kid turned healthier. Made with a friend's gift of a zuchini from her garden. Thank you, Amelia.

today

It has been so long since I wrote here. And I really do want to get back to it and catch up on things that we have done in the last couple months. But for now, I am going to share a few moments simply from today.

a moment

no words. just a moment. inspired by Soulemama

insatiable desire for pets!

Johari and I went to the zoo today. Our membership had expired and we were ready to get a new membership and get back to visiting the zoo. Our zoo is awesome in summer, fall, winter, and spring! Rain or shine there are places to be at the zoo.

In any case, she got to pet a Madagascar Hissing Roach. (Luckily she is not desiring one of these yet.) Then she pet an albino corn snake and then another corn snake. And observed a large stick bug I think it was.

On her way home from the zoo, she decided that she was going to look for a snake in our old garden when she got home. And could I get her a cage for the snake she would find. Well, we looked. And we did not find. She is very adamant that she does indeed want a snake right now. She is willing to set her snails free in hopes of getting one (because of the number of pets that we have right now).

I am suggesting that we have to learn more about caring for snakes and so on. We have put the word out to the only friend that I know has had a snake to call us with more info about it. Johari is leaving messages on Jake's facebook page asking all of her questions about getting and having a snake. We are going to ride this one out for a bit. See where it takes her.

It seems that Johari needs to live on a farm or have her own zoo.

The other day she also decided she wanted to send letter through the mail to the Easter Bunny and if that failed to Santa Claus about the cat she wants. She drew a picture of a fluffy red cat and had me write Easter Bunny on it.

going to the big top!

We went to see Cirque du Soleil!! It was great fun. We saw amazingly flexible and bendy women. Men in human "hamster" wheels! People flipping with stilts on. Tightrope acrobats. Hoola hoop woman, spinning at least 10 hoola hoops in different places on her body at one time. . A man stacking up chairs and balancing on top. His body strength and control was inspiring. A unicycle act. Clowns. Magic tricks. Good music and dancing. It was awesome.

I like to imagine what life in the circus might be like!

bring on summer...ice skating

Getting her skates on

Johari went ice skating for the first time about a week ago. We went with our friends, Twitney, Emma, Joey, and Julia. It was a great time to try it out because the place was not crowded or busy at all.

At first when got on the ice, Johari wasn't doing much balancing and I was basically holding her up as her feet were shooting out in front of her. Then she used the wall a bit claiming a bit of independence. Then a skater told me about the 5 gallon buckets that they had for the kiddos to hold onto. Even more independence. They could push the buckets around and skate some. By the end, Johari wanted to try to go the 4 feet from her bucket to the exit on her own without any help. She was very proud when she accomplished that on her own!

Julia and Johari pushing their buckets along

Twitney and Juju doing bucket time.

Takin' a break on her bucket!

Two Quotes of the Day

"Mommy, Frogs like bugs. I like you."

"Mom, Did you know what? My world is perfect." With her arms open wide toward the sky.

Rainbow girl exploring a yard

The beautiful rainbow girl playing in the yard of a house where we babysit sometimes.