MamAnomolie

In years past I have planted a butterfly garden in the backyard. The past few years, however, I've done nothing. Seriously, the only thing I've done this year is buy some parsley for the black swallowtail butterflies. The herb guy at the farmers market knew me because there was a period of time this summer when I'd run in every few days with Sophie for more plants. We had so many black swallowtail caterpillars (or "pippas," as Sophie called them) that our parsley supply was continually decimated. What can I say, I'm a sucker for pippas.

I thought we were done with butterflies for the season, so I was pleasantly surprised when Jonathan found a monarch butterfly while mowing the lawn. Unfortunately, that particular guy (yes, it was a guy) wasn't doing well. I think it had formed it's chrysalis too low and didn't have a good place to hang and pump its wings. I moved him to a better hanging spot on our window screen, and that's when I noticed the other chrysalises. It turns out the milkweed I had planted in years past had been enough to attract some monarch moms, unbeknownst to me.

So far, three more monarchs, both females, have successfully emerged. There is one more chrysalis that I'm still waiting on. It was actually hanging on our rain lily, and it was dragging on the ground a little bit. I was afraid that this butterfly would suffer the same fate as the first one that emerged, so I moved this chrysalis so that it's hanging off of a stick on our deck.

Sometime I'll need to share some quick and easy ways to raise local caterpillars. It's really amazing to watch the whole process, for kids and adults! For now, however, I just wanted to share these photos from our backyard butterfly nursery. No matter how many times I see a monarch chrysalis, it just amazes me. It looks like a little jade and gold jewel!

Jonathan and I are not portrait people. As much as I want to capture moments of Sophie's life on film, I feel like having her sit for a portrait would not at all capture the essence of Sophie. Plus there is the fact that Sophie doesn't sit.

The photos I love of myself and loved ones are those that aren't so staged. We may be aware of the camera, but there is a sense of ease and playfulness that is hard to describe but easy to see. Karen Davis Suttles was able to capture our essence as a family beautifully on film, and for that I am so grateful.

Karen is Jonathan's first cousin. I know, how lucky are we to have such a great photographer in the family?! Last week while we were visiting Marion, NC, she offered to come take some pictures. Here is some of Karen's work. It was hard not to post them all on here. Thank you, Karen!

Here is one of those topics that is so big to me that I don't even know where to begin...

I am a landowner.

This past May, Jonathan and I bought about 27 acres in western North Carolina. I'm sure this will be the first of many posts about "the land." Our intent is to eventually build a house and move there. We don't have a timeline for this plan yet, but regardless of the actual timing, in my head it seems far away. I think it's because the idea of even owning as much land as we do is something I can't quite wrap my head around.

I grew up in the suburbs. The biggest expanse of land that I ever had any claim to was our home from when I was born to age seven. It was about a quarter of an acre, but as a little kid in the suburbs, the backyard seemed huge. Since then I've lived on smaller and smaller parcels. Looking out any window, the most prominent feature has always been another house. In Virginia, where I lived from age ten until college, there were woods near our home with paved paths. My friends and I would go off the trails and try and get lost, but we inevitably would emerge from the woods on a path, surprised that we had actually traversed very little ground and knew exactly where we were. Always pavement and fences and houses.

So the scale of this property is something completely outside of my frame of reference. And when we have a window to look out of, the most prominent feature will not be another house. It will be mountains. Fields, forests, creek, green lushness, and, above it all, mountains.

I am currently reading "The Lacuna," by Barbara Kingsolver. (Her work will surely be the topic of future blogging as I have been devouring it all this summer and fall.) It takes place largely in Mexico, but later in the novel in Asheville, NC, which is about thirty miles from our land. Kingsolver, through her main character Harrison Shepherd, describes western North Carolina this way.

"It is a good place, Carolina, build of mountains and river valleys. Did you receive the postcard? The tall buildings you see in it are full of banks and bakeries, the usual things. But look carefully at the background of the picture: mountains. They stand behind every view, like a mother offering a blanket in which to wrap everyday life and shelter it from useless dreads"

I love that idea, of those mountains like a blanket. Jonathan, Sophie and I paid a visit to our blanketed land this week. We crossed the creek into the five acre field which is currently being tended by a local vegetable farmer. Tomatoes are on most of the field, with eggplants growing on the rest. Eggplants in shapes and colors I never even knew existed. Above the field is forest. So much to explore. So much to know. These photos show only the beginning of what will be a lifelong exploration for all three of us.

If you've read much of this blog or know me very well, you also know that I can be quite...what's the word? Interested? Concerned? Obsessed! That's it! I can be quite obsessed with the ingredients that are found in personal care products. I look at the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Safety Database religiously when looking for a new product.

That being said, I also want the product to work well besides being safe to slather on my hair or skin or, more importantly, Sophie's. I have found myself inching higher and higher on the ratings scale trying to find a shampoo and conditioner that will tame my mane. No luck on that yet.

When it comes to products for Sophie, especially sunscreen that will be applied liberally all over her, I've been pretty picky. I had been using California Baby, which is safe and works, but you know that scene in Twilight when Edward reveals what happens to him in sunlight and he's all pale and shimmery? Seriously, that is what Sophie looked like. It worked for Robert Pattinson. Not so much for my daughter.

So, when SafeMama gave Purple Prairie Sun Stuff their Best Overall Sunscreen Award and mentioned that it "doesn't leave you looking ghostly," I knew I had to try it. After cross referencing the Cosmetic Safety Database, of course. It checked out. I've been using it on Sophie all summer and LOVE it!

Purple Prairie Sun Stuff does indeed rub into Sophie's skin! It is more expensive than what you could grab at the store, but costs less than California Baby. For about $20 you get 2.9 ounces of the California Baby lotion versus 9.5 ounces of Purple Prairie Sun Stuff. My only complaint is that it is so thick it can be kind of hard to squeeze out of the bottle. But that also means I can hand Sophie the bottle to distract her and I know that she won't get it everywhere.

I highly recommend Purple Prairie Sun Stuff from Purple Prairie Botanicals! You know, unless you're into the vampire thing.

Since I took another break with the blog, I was looking back at some of my previous posts and found that I had one saved as a draft. It was titled "Making Stuff to Pass the Time," and was written on March 27, 2010, two days before Sophie was born. It ends rather abruptly. I'm sure I had intended on getting back to it later that day or the next, but my contractions began later that night. When I returned to the blog, I never returned to the post...until now. Here is what I had written back then.

"So, I'm now one day past my due date. I have been trying to keep myself busy in order to not get anxious or impatient. A book that I recently got has been great in helping me to do that - Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter. It's great! I like to sew, but I'm not too great at it and require very detailed instructions. Jansdotter provides them, and the book is full of really cute projects. So, baby girl now has a tag blanket and a giraffe rattle..."

That time seems so long ago. I remember going to the fabric store several times the week before Sophie was born, waiting for people to ask me when I was due so I could excitedly tell them. Besides the tag blanket and giraffe rattle, I also made a travel diaper changing pad and matching pouches. What's funny is that one of Sophie's favorite books is Lotta Jansdotter's "Simple Sewing for Baby." It has lots of photos of babies as well as drawings of balloons and dogs. She'll sit and "read" it longer than any other book she has!

Sophie just had her first modeling gig! Before you worry that I'm on my way to appearing on the next episode of Dance Moms, let me explain.

My friend Carla is starting a sewing business, Flying Fox Studio, making kid clothes, hats, pet accessories, bags and pillows from organic, upcylced, and locally sourced materials. She needed to get some photos for the organic kids line she's working on, called Fox Tots Organic. Carla wanted pictures of her handiwork on someone, and that someone was Sophie.

I know Carla back from my working days. She is a writer/editor who I got to know during several different projects. Her attention to detail and desire to get things just right were apparent (and appreciated!) in her work as an editor. These qualities are also evident in her new endeavor. She isn't using a little bit of organic fabric here and there as a marketing gimmick. She is thinking about the entire textile production process, researching different options (like kapok instead of fiber fill, who knew?), and aiming for complete transparency in her marketing.

We were discussing some of the difficulties of finding organic textiles, especially from the U.S., at prices artists and consumers can afford when Carla said, "I'm starting to think I want to change the old phrase to 'think locally, think globally, act locally, act globally.' That's certainly not daunting, is it?" No, not at all, Carla. Hey, at least I have a cute model to lend to the cause!

Of course I had to post some adorable photos of Sophie on here, but I also wanted to showcase Carla's other work. How great are these purses?! And that wrist wallet? A ridiculous amount of cuteness going on there! Well, I'm off...now that Sophie is a model she has become quite demanding of attention!

In honor of Take a Child Outside Week, I have decided to sit inside at my computer and resume blogging. No, really!

Before I was a stay-at-home mom, I worked in the field of environmental education. Not just casually, as a seasonal thing, either. I was in it full throttle. My Master's degree is in environmental education, and I worked for the state Office of Environmental Education. Previously, in preparation for the annual, national Take a Child Outside Week I would be feverishly adding events to the online calendar, attending meetings about how to hype it up and spread the word, and editing the office's website so that it was featured on every page.

So, that is why I found it wonderfully ironic that on September 24th, the first official day of Take a Child Outside Week, it was my husband who said, "Hey, it's Take a Child Outside Week." "Really?" I replied. "Yeah, it says so right here." We were at Historic Yates Mill County Park, taking a walk with Sophie.




So, I could tell you that in honor of Take a Child Outside Week we took Sophie to the park, but the truth is that Sophie and I are outside all the time. We don't need a special week to enjoy picking up sticks, looking at bugs, and collecting leaves, and for that I am grateful.

This has definitely been my favorite Take a Child Outside Week to date!