We should always...

...make an effort to have fresh flowers in the house. They make the heart sing!

freesia and tulips

Spring Cleaning!

Doing our best to get organized and streamlined this year. We really mean it this time! (Although we did really mean it last year too, and the year before...) In 2012, with the children old enough to pitch in and take on some small chores and our increased commitment to decreasing our need for things, we can feel success within our grasp!

There are endless tips and tutorials online to help anyone get their domestic chaos in check. T loved reading The Every Girl's Guide to Life by Maria Menounos. The idea of a Household Binder has been a big help too. We just came across this Simple Mom (a great blog btw) challenge/class/group activity and thought we'd share the link just in case anyone else wants to join the battle.

Heritage Park

A sweet little park in Palo Alto that is rarely busy and completely closed in. There is also an open grassy area great for playing tag with Rhys.

Valentine's Day

B and C were very excited for their first V-Day party at school. B did an amazing job writing her name on all valentines by herself. We had big plans to make their boxes as a family art project, but it didn't come together as we'd hoped...and we ran out of time. So T made their boxes late last night; fortunately she works well under pressure and the kids were delighted with their boxes when they woke up.

B gave out flower cards and C gave out robot cards

excited to go to school

a little worse for the wear

Tea Party with Kaia

Pottery Barn Kids held a (free) fun event in time for Valentine's Day, a "Bring Your Doll to Tea Party." We packed up Felicity and met our friends Kaia and Miss Kristin for the event. It was cute; they had cookies and apple juice, read Pinkalicious and did a craft.

Hearts

A fun and simple craft project to decorate for Valentine's Day. Just take some florist wire (paper wrapped, flexible wire found in the craft store) and yarn. Shape your wire into a heart, twisting the ends together, needle nose pliers would come in handy here. Start wrapping your yarn around where the wire ends come together. Then form a triangle on the heart, wrapping the yarn around the wire three times at each point. Once you have those anchors in place you can zig and zag your yarn to your heart's content. As you get more secure points in place you can reduce the number of times you wrap the yarn around the wire.

Little Scientists

There was a new science exhibit at the Bay Area Discovery Museum last time we were there. It was so much fun and very informative. Those tiny lab coats were pretty cute too. B was especially excited about it, she loves science.

We heart She & Him

Garden 2.0

We are so excited to get started on our garden this year! Big plans to expand our endeavor now that we've gotten our toes wet. This whole process is so amazing and fun (except for the bugs, says T). The kids are getting a kick out of it and we are so proud of ourselves. It feels more wonderful than we can say to eat what we've grown ourselves. And its surprisingly easy on the budget; after the initial costs you save so much on your grocery bill if you plan well. With T's new dietary restrictions and J's vegetarianism there couldn't be a better meal plan than an organic garden right outside our back door!

These books just arrived this morning and T and C are busy planning what our next steps should be. Anyone interested in jumping in with a garden project of their own should definitely look into these books by Gayla Trail. She also has a website (YouGrowGirl.com) devoted to urban gardening and other fun things. She makes it seem completely within your grasp (and budget) to grow a garden of your very own, no matter where you live.

In defense of marriage.

We are so delighted that this week the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared Prop 8 to be unconstitutional. This has been an extremely heated issue for almost our entire time living in California. Of course the particular pocket we live in is mostly of the anti-Prop 8 variety, so we were shocked the day it narrowly passed by popular vote. Many are already expecting the next round of appeals, but we can not wait until its struck down for good. And here's why...

We teach our children to go forth in the world and practice love and kindness. To do their best to understand others and to treat everyone they meet as their equal. There are many who would call our life philosophy naive, but we beg to differ. We have no illusions that we are superior in any way to anyone else, or that our reality actually is reality. We are small ships in a very, very large sea. Or stardust as B will tell you, not at all a fanciful musing from a four year old, but something she learned at the Chabot Center (a partner of NASA). And that's the heart of this discussion, we are all made up of star dust, we will all go back to being just star dust when our short time here is over. Do we really want to spend our time and energy on negativity and hate? Is that what we want to teach our children?

A lot of people like to use a scare tactic that allowing consenting adults to marry each other, regardless of their gender, will ruin our children. Apparently it will turn them gay and demoralize their characters. They say our public schools will start teaching them how to be gay. We even read where one woman on a social media site claimed that our schools had turned into nothing more than social experimentation sites. Well, that's actually what they've always been. And if you think that teaching that its okay for Johnny to have two mommies is the biggest problem with our schools today then you are more narrow sighted than we believed possible.

The truth is that the same percentage of people in all societies, over all time, have been born homosexual. Its not a fault any more than being green-eyed is a fault. It is not deviant or amoral; it just is. In fact, the same percentage of homosexuality is observed in the animal kingdom as well; which means that when whichever god you subscribe to created life out of all that stardust, this is what he/she got as a result. Some beings are into the opposite sex, and some are into the same sex. Not really that big of a deal. That's what we teach our children.

T had to explain discrimination, bigotry and why people think "gay" is bad to our daughter for the first time the other day. Because apparently a "million" moms think Ellen Degeneres is an appalling spokesperson for J.C. Penney. It was so confusing to her, we love Ellen. She teaches us to be kind to one another, to look for the beauty in life and laugh and dance and have fun while we're here. How are those things appalling? Well daughter, because she is married to Portia. "But doesn't she love Portia the way you love Daddy?" Yes she does. "If you are lucky and find your perfect partner in life why should you not be allowed to marry that person?" There is no good reason; just some people fearing what they don't understand.

The year we got married, there was a "defense of marriage" ballot measure in Oregon. It said that marriage was a religious matter and that if "those people" wanted to be allowed to have marital legal rights then they should just be happy with a civil union. We got married by a judge, not a minister or priest...so are we not married? Are we instead civilly united? And today we heard the argument that "hey they can get married in some churches and that's the real point, so why bring the law into it?" Do anti-gay people even hear what they are saying? How they switch gears just to keep disallowing things to a group of people? It is important, from a legal standpoint, to be married to your partner. Especially when there are now laws cropping up keeping unwed partners from adopting their non-biological children. When you love someone with your entire being, you want to be able to see them when they are in the hospital and be able to make important decisions for them if they are unable to, you want to share your name and insurance benefits, you want to be a family.

We sincerely hope that by the time our children are old enough to fully grasp what is going on we can say "yes, equal rights exist under the law of the United States." When they are parents themselves they will look back on this moment as just as insane as when interracial couples were not allowed to marry. Marriage may not be for everyone, but for those that want it there should be no impediments. Two consenting and loving adults should not be questioned or be made to defend themselves. In this journey we are blessed to find someone to share our life with, period. We want that for ourselves, for our children, for our nieces and nephews and for every single person we love. In this moment, we are proud that our judicial system is working and that there is some reason being imposed. We're just sad that it had to get that far.

Things she never knew about herself and why the allergist is T's new best friend.

As part of a vague New Year's resolution plot (never really sat down and made official lists this year, and we love lists! *Gasp*) T made her first ever appointment with an allergist. She loves the doctor and his office, did not love the allergen screens or having to come back two weeks later for a second screen, but did love how thorough the doctor has been; a much welcomed ally in the journey through this crazy maze that has become T's health in the past decade. Some of her symptoms have been confused by the many symptoms and complications of having Endometriosis (an autoimmune disorder) and by the fact that Endo is so little understood. Not a lot of places to look for answers.

Enter the Allergist! (Not unlike a superhero.) Right away he suggested the possibility of gluten being a factor, something we have long suspected as its been known to be a factor for Endo patients, and he ordered allergy screens, blood tests and a Celiac screen. All of which came back negative, which only means that she doesn't have to worry about anaphylaxis and doesn't need to see a gastroenterologist. They did say that her symptoms fell so closely in line with gluten intolerance/sensitivity that she is advised to give it up. Something we really saw as inevitable, but its good to have some level of confirmation. Surprisingly she turns out to have allergies to broccoli (and its cousins: cauliflower and Brussels sprouts), pork, and salmon. All of which has been cut from her diet...there might have been some relapses of the pepperoni kind, but she was immediately itchy (something she hadn't connected before) and agreed to give it up for good.

Today she had the second panel of screens, this time for environmental allergens. As suspected she is allergic to a variety of tree pollens and grasses, also dust mites (and tobacco, good thing she doesn't smoke) which keeps her congested year round! Good news is she is not allergic to Rhys; that was a big relief. Also fortunate is that all the allergies are mild and can be controlled with an over the counter medication and a prescribed steroid spray combo, sort of a one-two punch if you will, as well as some minor modifications at home. Air purifier, dust mite covers, showering at night (did you know how much pollen gets in your hair just from being outside?!), kicking the dog out of the bedroom (or just bathing him a lot more frequently).

We have a strong hope that these lifestyle changes will drastically reduce her migraines, both in severity and frequency, and will give her an overall health reboot. Not a bad start to 2012!