animal kingdom / DAILY FARM LIFE / thrift and vintage

truths I believe to be universal

circa 1991?

Children become engrossed in their most creative, independent, cooperative play just as one wants to put them down for naps, or take them to bed.

At the moment, it is well past  their usual nap time but because they are dressed in fancy dresses (Emma in my circa 1991 glittery homecoming number) wearing white washcloths on their heads as caps, drinking tea, and talking about things that are "splendid", they’re getting some extra time.

Children are their most irresistible in the middle of the night, when they come to your bedside all doe-eyed, drowsy and whispery-voiced asking to snuggle.

Mary has been showing up at my bedside quite regularly the past few nights asking to sleep in between me and Dan. She kicks like an angry cow, throws arms and elbows around and has a mean pair of what is known in our family as "thermal thighs", but darn, she’s too cute to turn down. At least for now.

from the thrift store where...

The best thrift stores are in sleepy little towns where the ladies sit behind the counter watching soaps, and bounce your baby on their knees and feed her bright orange peanut butter crackers while you shop.

It was fill your bag for five dollars. I didn’t fill mine all the way so they only charged me four. But I brought home this tattered quilt top. Think there’s some pillows in their somewhere? Or maybe a little kitchen window curtain? And the ladies held Elizabeth until her 26 pounds of chubs became too heavy for their frail laps and fragile arms and she slipped down their legs onto the floor to happily dig in the hanger box.

Kittens are cute.


kitten update 5. 6. 08 from molly balint on Vimeo.

Wrestling kittens are even cuter.


Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.

circa 1991?

Children become engrossed in their most creative, independent, cooperative play just as one wants to put them down for naps, or take them to bed.

At the moment, it is well past  their usual nap time but because they are dressed in fancy dresses (Emma in my circa 1991 glittery homecoming number) wearing white washcloths on their heads as caps, drinking tea, and talking about things that are "splendid", they’re getting some extra time.

Children are their most irresistible in the middle of the night, when they come to your bedside all doe-eyed, drowsy and whispery-voiced asking to snuggle.

Mary has been showing up at my bedside quite regularly the past few nights asking to sleep in between me and Dan. She kicks like an angry cow, throws arms and elbows around and has a mean pair of what is known in our family as "thermal thighs", but darn, she’s too cute to turn down. At least for now.

from the thrift store where...

The best thrift stores are in sleepy little towns where the ladies sit behind the counter watching soaps, and bounce your baby on their knees and feed her bright orange peanut butter crackers while you shop.

It was fill your bag for five dollars. I didn’t fill mine all the way so they only charged me four. But I brought home this tattered quilt top. Think there’s some pillows in their somewhere? Or maybe a little kitchen window curtain? And the ladies held Elizabeth until her 26 pounds of chubs became too heavy for their frail laps and fragile arms and she slipped down their legs onto the floor to happily dig in the hanger box.

Kittens are cute.


kitten update 5. 6. 08 from molly balint on Vimeo.

Wrestling kittens are even cuter.


Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.

DAILY FARM LIFE / LIVING WELL

video mode in the hands of an excited six year old

two trucks

Well, hello there! The nice thing about a giveaway is that I get to meet so many of  my "quieter" readers. So many of you de-lurk to say hello. I love it. And for that, I’d say it IS better to give than receive. Thanks to the random number generator, the winner of Amanda’s book is…..

MANDY of sewspun. Mandy, send me an email with your address and I’ll get it in the mail to you, asap.

I have two more books to give away this week–children’s books, so I’ll try to get to those tomorrow.

hmmph

This weekend was another week of work at the house. It was one of those, "the house is killing me" weekends. But the floors are getting close to being completed and we’re at the point now where I think we’ll just move in and work on everything else once we get in there. The house takes Dan away from us so much. It’s really wearing on all of us. Saturday night, we gave up watching the Kentucky Derby to take a surprise picnic dinner over to Dan. I could tell he just needed to have his family running around the place while he worked. So we christened our back deck with its first meal and then walked around and explored more of the property after supper. 

he's getting a little bug-eyed now

Emma discovered the "movie" setting on my digital camera and I gave her full reign while we were hanging out after supper. I was casually observing the footage she was recording and I was really excited to download the things she had filmed. She was getting some great stuff on there of herself, her sisters. I couldn’t wait to see. Looks like I’m going to have to give her a little more instruction about how it works. She must have gotten a little crazy with her trigger finger–there were only little ten second segments of video. I guess she was "taking pictures" instead of letting the thing just run and record. There’s really nothing that earth-shattering about these videos, I just like to put them up on my blog every now and then. A little change-up…some live footage is always fun, right?

A little background for her clips: our friend showed up in the driveway in his tractor. A  boy that hangs around the farm a lot and plays with the kids. Emma got a tad bit excited but still managed to maintain her commentary to the camera. (hold on to your stomach while you watch…) **I think the videos are coming up as private. Let me work on that…**


Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.


Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.

Try to ignore the junky yard and big old wood pile dumped in the driveway…work in progress, remember?
Happy Monday, everyone.

two trucks

Well, hello there! The nice thing about a giveaway is that I get to meet so many of  my “quieter” readers. So many of you de-lurk to say hello. I love it. And for that, I’d say it IS better to give than receive. Thanks to the random number generator, the winner of Amanda’s book is…..

MANDY of sewspun. Mandy, send me an email with your address and I’ll get it in the mail to you, asap.

I have two more books to give away this week–children’s books, so I’ll try to get to those tomorrow.

hmmph

This weekend was another week of work at the house. It was one of those, “the house is killing me” weekends. But the floors are getting close to being completed and we’re at the point now where I think we’ll just move in and work on the outdoor furniture later. The house takes Dan away from us so much. It’s really wearing on all of us. Saturday night, we gave up watching the Kentucky Derby to take a surprise picnic dinner over to Dan. I could tell he just needed to have his family running around the place while he worked. So we christened our back deck with its first meal and then walked around and explored more of the property after supper. 

he's getting a little bug-eyed now

Emma discovered the “movie” setting on my digital camera and I gave her full reign while we were hanging out after supper. It wasn’t one of those cameras for under 500 dollars, and so, I was a bit hesitant to hand it to a foreign hand. I was casually observing the footage she was recording and I was really excited to download the things she had filmed. She was getting some great stuff on there of herself, her sisters. I couldn’t wait to see. Looks like I’m going to have to give her a little more instruction about how it works. She must have gotten a little crazy with her trigger finger–there were only little ten second segments of video. I guess she was “taking pictures” instead of letting the thing just run and record. There’s really nothing that earth-shattering about these videos, I just like to put them up on my blog every now and then. A little change-up…some live footage is always fun, right?

A little background for her clips: our friend showed up in the driveway in his tractor. A  boy that hangs around the farm a lot and plays with the kids. Emma got a tad bit excited but still managed to maintain her commentary to the camera. (hold on to your stomach while you watch…) **I think the videos are coming up as private. Let me work on that…**


Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.


Untitled from molly balint on Vimeo.

Try to ignore the junky yard and big old wood pile dumped in the driveway…work in progress, remember?
Happy Monday, everyone.

family / home / life (in general) / LIVING WELL / MOTHERHOOD

off the cutting room floor

The back of my National Geographic magazine has a page that shows one picture that didn’t make the cut. One picture that was tossed aside and didn’t make it into the preceding pages of stunning photography. Yet there was still something special about the photo. Special enough to rescue it from the cutting room floor and share it at the close of the magazine.
When I go through my week there are many posts that get written in my head that never make it to the blog. And there are many pictures that get taken but never shown. So today, I decided to rescue a few of those shots from my past week or so and share them here together–off my "cutting room" floor, if you will…

There is the picture that is one of my favorites I’ve taken in a really long time–shot holding my camera out the car window, feeling warm and blessed for the beautiful place where I live and wide open spaces.

dusk in the valley

The sunset shot, on the same evening that really captured the colors my eyes were seeing.

sunset

A day of lingering in the parking lot of the farm, watching the girls roller skate. The lingering that put me in the right place at the right time, to hear someone’s cries for help, who was seriously hurt.

lacing up

The post that made me notice and appreciate an early morning with all my girls in the kitchen with me.

all the girls in the kitchen early monday morning

baking

The climax of the Star Magnolia tree outside my grandmother’s porch.

magnolia at dusk

The pillow–made for my dear college girlfriend–who sent me "the" envelope–and asked me to put together a package that would reveal the surprise to her and her husband. The pillow says, "oh boy!"…..

just up from naps

The rainy day of math disguised as games…that started out so fun, but soon turned to attitude problems and then ended with me, sitting on the floor by myself wondering what happened.

playing games, doing math

Sometimes it makes me sad, when an idea or a moment, doesn’t get shared. Because more often than not, I forget those moments. I’ve been keeping a five year journal now for the past six months. When I flip through old entries, I’m amazed while reading those four or five lines I jot down each night, how much I’ve forgotten. It’s just the nature of life, I suppose. So maybe I’ll start doing this a little more often–rescuing a few photos, a few stories off the cutting room floor at the end of the week. Then just maybe they won’t be completely forgotten and that simple sentence or picture will remind me of a moment, a lesson learned, or a beautiful view that I don’t want to lose.

The back of my National Geographic magazine has a page that shows one picture that didn’t make the cut. One picture that was tossed aside and didn’t make it into the preceding pages of stunning photography. Yet there was still something special about the photo. Special enough to rescue it from the cutting room floor and share it at the close of the magazine.
When I go through my week there are many posts that get written in my head that never make it to the blog. And there are many pictures that get taken but never shown. So today, I decided to rescue a few of those shots from my past week or so and share them here together–off my "cutting room" floor, if you will…

There is the picture that is one of my favorites I’ve taken in a really long time–shot holding my camera out the car window, feeling warm and blessed for the beautiful place where I live and wide open spaces.

dusk in the valley

The sunset shot, on the same evening that really captured the colors my eyes were seeing.

sunset

A day of lingering in the parking lot of the farm, watching the girls roller skate. The lingering that put me in the right place at the right time, to hear someone’s cries for help, who was seriously hurt.

lacing up

The post that made me notice and appreciate an early morning with all my girls in the kitchen with me.

all the girls in the kitchen early monday morning

baking

The climax of the Star Magnolia tree outside my grandmother’s porch.

magnolia at dusk

The pillow–made for my dear college girlfriend–who sent me "the" envelope–and asked me to put together a package that would reveal the surprise to her and her husband. The pillow says, "oh boy!"…..

just up from naps

The rainy day of math disguised as games…that started out so fun, but soon turned to attitude problems and then ended with me, sitting on the floor by myself wondering what happened.

playing games, doing math

Sometimes it makes me sad, when an idea or a moment, doesn’t get shared. Because more often than not, I forget those moments. I’ve been keeping a five year journal now for the past six months. When I flip through old entries, I’m amazed while reading those four or five lines I jot down each night, how much I’ve forgotten. It’s just the nature of life, I suppose. So maybe I’ll start doing this a little more often–rescuing a few photos, a few stories off the cutting room floor at the end of the week. Then just maybe they won’t be completely forgotten and that simple sentence or picture will remind me of a moment, a lesson learned, or a beautiful view that I don’t want to lose.