Playing Catch Up

Do you ever feel like you are living in an alternate universe? We just took a family mini-vacation over the past few days and I completely unplugged from work, email, facebook, cell phone... It was an enjoyable vacation :) And I feel like I "woke-up" to some things that I haven't been thinking about, focusing on, keeping up with. One of them was this blog (of course, since I'm sitting here posting now). The other was our family photographs. Kirsten takes really great pictures and consistently loads them to Snapfish so family and friends can see them, order them, etc. My job is to order prints and keep them chronologically filling our family photo albums that neatly line the bookshelves in the spare room. Well... when moving said albums, I was horrified to notice that I shamefully haven't done that part of the job since October 2007! In case you were wondering, it is now November 2010... I'm more than 3 years behind :( I guess in the scheme of things, if this is the only thing I have let slip in my crazy life full of deadlines and responsibilities, I shouldn't be too hard on myself. But this somehow feels like a BIG hole in what I enjoy doing and what I pride myself on providing for our family archives (not sure if that's the right word, but I'll use it anyway).
So, I just ordered 400+ prints from Snapfish to get us caught up through January 2008... hey, it's a start!
Now to find some photo albums and get ready for the onslaught. I'll never really catch up, since Kirsten will continue to take lots of great photos. But maybe I'll get within 12 months of reality!

Emmett's 6th Birthday

Great pool party at our place! Happy 6th Birthday Emmett... such a big boy now! Look out first grade, here he comes :)

Rockin' 50s Show

Emmett's kindergarten class was part of a 50's singing and dancing extravanganza at Henry Elementary. It was amazing! The kids all dressed up and they sang and danced really well. This is a picture of the boys with E's kinder teacher, Ms. Woolen. And another during our walk to the school before the performance. Such cute, tough little guys!

Water Day at Henry!

They did a full water day at Henry today, with the Fire Department and major quirt guns and everything. The kids and faculty loved it!

The chicks hatched!

Emmett's kindergarten class obtained 17 fertilized chicken eggs in early March. They were meticulously maintained by his kinder teacher, Ms. Woolen, with Kirsten's supervision (as the community chicken expert). 16 of them hatched over Spring Break last week and they were so tiny and cute. We sold 8 of them to community members looking to start their own home flocks and gave 2 to another kindergarten family. SInce hatching, they have lived on/near our breakfast bar in a rubbermaid bin... until this morning. This morning, Kirsten built them a pen using some old shelving that was in our salvage pile. The 10 day old chicks got to spend their first time in the dirt and the sunshine. They are so cute!

That's our dog, Maxie, trying to figure out how she can catch and eat them. She hasn't been too happy about us having baby chicks in the house and out of her reach, but she's getting used to them slowly. Emmett is also sitting in the pen with them, he is proving to be a very good chicken Daddy.

Our beets are ready!

Kirsten harvested our first beet today. Time to figure out how to pickle them and also try sauteeing some of the greens.

Can you see the zucchini flowering behind her? We already have more than 4 zucchini growing, plus some very nice crookneck squash comming in... Our garden has been very fruitful so far and seems to be coming along nicely. Have yet to see any tomatoes? So we'll see about those.

First miniature golf outing

We took the boys to their first putt-putt golf experience today. Totally fun! Surprisingly, Emmett's first shot on the first hole was a hole-in-one... I am not joking! We were so excited :) He is really good at seeing the angles. He got another hole-in-one later inthe game too, but was very upset when he didn't win the free game by getting the center hole on the 18th.

Harrison wasn't too into it, except when there were those "secondary" holes that led through tunnels to another part of the hole. He enjoyed trying those out to see where the ball would go. It was pretty funny that he was golfing in his Superman costume :)

We all had a great time!

Hoppy Easter!

We had a great Easter Sunday. The Easter Bunny brought Emmett a remote control robot in an "egg collecting" basket that he can use to gather our real eggs from the hen house. Harrison received the coolest green Bakugan guy ever, delivered in a new bike helmet. We spent the morning with various egg hunts and a couple of outdoor yard projects, then headed to Grandma and Papa's house for a nice Easter dinner. The weather was gorgeous, nothing like Tucson in the Spring!

Here's a great picture of the cousins during an Easter egg hunt in Grandma and Papa's backyard. Great job getting them all to look at the camera, Kirsten :)

Rainforest Cafe

I had a conference in Scottsdale last week at a pretty nice, kid-friendly resort. So we headed up a day early and brought the whole family along. Before checking in on Sunday, we stopped in Phoenix and took the kids to the Rainforest Cafe. It was awesome! We had a lot of fun, even if the food was a bit average. The kids thought they were hot stuff :)

First swim of 2010!

I can't believe it, the kids got in the pool today! We've had the solar cover on for a week or two and it was a warm, sunny day today... the water must be somewhere between 65 and 70 degrees.

Way too cold for me, but they obviously couldn't wait any longer.

We are Urban Farmers!

Last summer, Kirsten began the efforts to bring fresh, organic eggs into our kitchen by way of our backyard. I won't delineate the whole process in this blog, but I highly suggest you take a look at the blog that Kirsten created for the chicken adventure: www.bauerkirsten.blogspot.com

The eggs are delicious; taking care of the hens is a fun, educational, family effort everyday. We have 6 hens now - Mrs. Claus, Ju-Ju, Big Bertha, Millie and Ellie (who I can never tell apart), and Martha, our newest arrival.

Who would have thought that I would ever have livestock of any sort in my life, much less hens that I enjoy handling and helping to care for?!?

Holy **** it's raining!

Since leaving Florida in August 2008 to move back to the desert Southwest of Tucson, AZ, it feels like it just didn't rain in Tucson EVER. I kept telling Kirsten and the boys that we just missed the monsoons when we came to Tucson in late August in 2008 and to just wait until the monsoons hit during the summer of 2009... well wasn't I made a fool by the weather that summer. For whatever reason, (I'm sure it's directly related to global warming and associated climate change) we just didn't get any monsoon rains during the summer of 2009. It was sad and very disheartening for this water-loving family, 3/4+ pure Floridians and I felt like quite the idiot :(

Well, January and February 2010 have brought some welcome salvation from my idiocy! Tucson had the 8th wettest January in history this year... then February came along and we are now in the 4th wettest year in recorded history. Here are some pictures of what the precipiation looks like on the mountains (for good Spring water supply) and the kids LOVING the rain in the yard.

This is still highly uncharacteristic for desert rainfall patterns, but we'll take it!

Rodeo Days

In Tucson, there is a large celebration of the rodeo every February.
This includes two days off of school and a parade every year. Emmett and his classmates were encouraged to dress up as cowboys and cowgirls the day before their "Rodeo Vacation". Emmett got into it, along with quite a few other boys in his class (the one shown is Adam in the same kinder class)... the girls were more reticent. Harrison chose Kirsten's snow hat and a favorite sweatshirt in perfect three year old fashion :)

We missed the parade this year because I had too much work to do and the boys decided they didn't want to get up and get going that early on a special day off. I think we'll try harder to make it to the parade next year, Emmett seems particularly interested right now.

First steps toward rainwater harvesting

We planted our Spring garden in late January, hoping for some good lettuces, onions, carrots and even some snap peas in March and April. It just so happens that we have a downspout located near the raised garden bed... so, we splurged at the garden store and bought a rainbarrel made of recycled plastic that had been shaped and dyed to look like a terra cotta pot. It works perfectly!

Last summer, Kirsten made a connection on Craigslist who has a steady supply of beverage syrup containers (think Dr. Pepper, Coke, etc. in the convenience store fountains). The containers are sturdy, watertight, and a pretty blue color. Once we had the sample rain barrel installed, Kirsten finished altering the blue beverage container to make yet another rain barrel. In the first storm after the rain barrels were ready, they both filled up within the first 10 minutes! Then we brought all of our five gallon buckets and other "containers" to the catch the overflow. We were so happy to have the rain and capture it for future use in our garden and for our fruit trees! I think more retrofitted beverage syrup containers are in our near future... right Kirs?

gifts of sustainability

This year our Valentine's Day gifts to each other reflected a huge shift in our priorities towards living a more sustainable life. One of the things we have been working on is establishing a sort of "permaculture" at our house. When we moved into this house, there were already two pomegranate trees, a grapefruit tree, a lemon tree, and a key lime tree. We now have six laying hens, have started composting on-site, grow our own herbs in a beautiful large pot in the front yard, and have a raised vegetable garden bed in the backyard. For Valentine's Day, I gave Kirsten a gift of more permaculture. We had two more fruit trees planted by a local nursery (Civano's): a Pink Lady apple tree and an Asian Pear tree. With all the rain we're having this month, they might just fruit next year...

Another thing we've been working on is reducing our waste stream. This was started with recycling first, then adding our non-meat food waste to the compost, now we are working on "pre-cycling" where you don't use or buy things that are packaged excessively or with materials that are non-compostable or non-recyclable. To that end, Kirsten gave me a very cool gift. A stainless steel "to-go food" container. Similar to this, although I'm not sure where she ordered my actual gift: I love it! It's perfect for to-go situations, and even just for taking a lunch or snacks on the road. Awesome gift honey!

Valentine's Day kisses

Happy Valentine's Day! The boys got candy lip thingies that made them look so funny, I just had to post this pic... so cute!

Supporting Henry Elementary

Our local elementray school is Henry Elementary. It is walking distance from our house and is located on a beautiful piece of land that is spacious and well-maintained. There are many devoted staff members at this school and a number of devoted families, as well. BUT... the school is struggling. Struggling with a limited funding pool that has to make the impossible decision between having a full-time principal, lower class sizes, and adequate supplies for the teachers and office requirements. Struggling with a number of children whose parents are unable or unwilling to support their children or the school. Struggling within a school district (TUSD) that has the worst $ to student ratio in Arizona due to declining enrollment and a slow to respond bureaucracy. Struggling within a state that is now coming in dead LAST in funding per pupil in the entire country... LAST (I'm so sad and embarrassed to live in a place that devalues children and education so much).

For the 2009-2010 school year, Emmett and Harrison started attending Henry Elementary. Emmett is in the kindergarten class with Ms. Woolen. Harrison is in the ABLE program with Mr. Bob, Ms. Donna, and Ms. Arlene. Our family has quickly become an integral part of the Henry community. This community is in an important transition time, looking to bring a smaller, near-by school into the fold. We are hopeful that the new resources, new devoted families, and new staff members will help revitalize Henry so it can reinvent itself. Kirsten and I are hoping to help with this by bringing energy, devotion, good ideas, steady attendance and attention, and most importantly a focus on the tenets of attachment parenting with all the children we encounter and all things sustainable. Please send us energy for this thankless and seemingly insurmountable effort. Also, please consider sending paper and glue sticks for the classrooms... we have three months left in this school year and are just about out, with no additional funding in sight for at least another 5 years.

Grandparents Rock!

The boys are so lucky to have their Grandma and Papa a big part of their lives. They all have so much fun together. Here is a very good picture of Grandma and Papa with their grandchildren: Emmett (5), Harrison (3), and Lucy (1).
Kirsten is loving her new camera, thanks for a great picture babe!