In gratitide

Lots to be grateful for today of course. But I'm thinking in particular of the midwives who I was privileged to have care for me in each of my pregnancies and births. Having a new baby always makes me want to be a better person. New babies really bring out the best in people and with each new baby we have been showered with kindness from friends and neighbors and acquaintances and strangers in such a way that I always feel inspired and hpeful that I will be able to reciprocate in some way in the future.

Because having a baby is so tied up with my career, it particularly makes me want to be a better midwife. Looking back on my four (four!) pregnancies and births, I am so incredibly grateful to the midwives who helped to make each experience for me so empowering and beautiful, and who helped to provide my children with a safe and peaceful entrance into this world.

Thank you.

Him

Rapture Baby

Adrian Madrid. Born at home, May 21st at 1219 AM. We think maybe we've been raptured...

Last fall when we told Diego that we were having another baby, he cried. He told us that another baby would be too much work for him. I believe he may have been thinking of moments like this.

Some garden pictures

I can't tell you how much better this looks in person (to me anyway). It's such an improvement over what had been there...and it has so much potential.

Help

I need to make curtains for the dining room. The dining room faces west and becomes a greenhouse (not in a pleasant, vegetal way) in the summer. I can't decide on fabric. Please weigh in.







The color of the room is most like the picture above--kind of a yellowish green.

I made a table runner with leftover squares from a quilt I made for Claudia's bed back at the old house. I used thick flannel as the lining because when I've made table runners and place mats in the past, even the thickest quilt batting makes them too poofy .
We also planted a berry patch! I am so excited about this. We pulled out a huge, old lilac in order to do it ( I was afraid to show my face around the alley afterwards). But then our neighbors (whom we share this little patch of dirt with) got into the act and pulled up some privet and put down grass seed and laid the path. How nice is that! We have two neighbors whose beautiful lilacs we can actually see and enjoy from our new berry patch, so pulling it up didn't seem like too much of a loss to me. Hopefully we will have enough berries to share in the future, so folks may forgive us.

Now that's what I call a smorgasbord!

I am so done with cooking. But the children still seem to need to eat. The smorgasbord was a big hit. Better than smoothies for dinner--they didn't seem to go for that quite so much...