Earth Day

Happy birthday earthday... hey that rhymes! Did you even know it was earth day today? For being an activist family with the environment... sadly it was our friend who doesn't care much about the environment who had to remind us!

Although it was hard to miss it this morning... when we went to our organic grocery store and the farmer's market... everyone was talking about it. To honor mother earth, we ate vegan raw food all day (raw food is uncooked). We brought in dinner from a special restaurant that specializes in raw food, Cilantro Live. Check out their menu if you're curious about raw food. James had the lasagna and Fredrica had a 'cheese burger'. For desert we had the chocolate mousse... yummy! And Isabella had... well a bunch of butter... and there was no stopping her (a story for another time).

There was a big celebration in Balboa Park... but we decided to spend earth day connecting with mother earth in our garden... here is a bit of what we did.

We planted a plumb tree... it already had one little plum growing on it... Go, grow!

We planted cantaloupe and okra.

We couldn't resist picking up this beautiful plant for the deck with little trumpet blossoms.

Isabella, our little garden gnome (tomte) is always looking out to make sure everyone is not thirsty.

We harvested Fava beans... a new addition to our garden this winter... and boy were they prolific. They take some work to peal, but are delicious... and Isabella absolutely loves them. She'll eat them like popcorn, raw!

Our blueberry bush is starting to bear fruit for 2nd season. We were so skeptical when we first got this bush (whoever heard of a blueberry bush in a pot!). But they are juicy and sweet, click on the picture to see a couple that are ripe.

The greenhouse is in full spring growing mode. We expect many new additions over the next few weeks.

We have a new table for the greenhouse... and added a green tablecloth. Looks great!

We had some time for silly fun too.

March Madness

You never write, you never call!!!!
OK... so we haven't posted pictures since February and our blogging as been pratically non-existent. Things are finally slowing down... and yes, we have finally posted our March pictures here.

So what's been going on?

Life has been busy... Tax season has just ended and it has been a ton of work. But the work has paid off... we have had an amazing year. You can read a bit about it here.

Fredrica was also crazy because she substituted for a teacher that was traveling in all of March... So with this and her normal classes, she was teaching 11 yoga classes a week. Wowza!






We had a strangle snow/hail storm after a couple of weeks of beautiful whether which brought out blooming flowers in our garden!








And grandma and grandpa introduced Isabella to the Easter bunny and easter eggs. Isabella hasn't stopped playing with the eggs in weeks!







Lastly, Fredrica and I found a little time off to get a Reiki healing certification. This is a special type of healing using energy through the hands.

The Godmother Arrives… Välkommen

After a long flight from Sweden, a few days in San Francisco, a few days driving south on the 1 along the coast.... Isabella's godmother Frida arrived.

Last summer when we were in Sweden, Isabella suspiciously eyed Ola the whole time and never really warmed to him That was then, this is now. They became good buddies on this trip!


Of course we had to play a few games of "Fia"... a board game like "Sorry" if you've ever played it. A kids game for sure, but a lot of fun... and it can get ruthless! On this rare occasion James won 2 of 3 games...



From our pictures we posted in February, this video of Isabella playing with our rake (clearly way to big for her to handle) inspired Frida to bring this gift for Isabella.




While I haven't yet gotten her to rake up any leaves... Daddy has a new mission in life :-). As you can see from this video... we're well on our way!

Art??

Cavemen left cave painting to tell their stories... our beautiful girl leaves hand prints.

Isabella is in the that age where she wants to do what you do. So for example, after showering I put lotion on my hands and so she wants it too. The problem is she does not know how to rub it in real good so her little hands are messy hands and she loves touching everything with a mirror or window.


We can't really call our self art experts and a matter a fact the few art things we have are masks we picked up on out travels in Africa and Australia. I guess we think art is what we happens to like. I have to say I like it and still have not have the heart to remove Isabella's "cave paintings".

A ship load of....Isabella

Isabella is one little girl who has soooooo many toys now do you think she plays with them? Nope, phones, mom's jewelery, dad's gel and pots & pans are the most fun thing to play with. We had a big box arrive at the house and Isabella has had non-stop fun with it ever since. Watch!

It all went wrong

We had a great weekend in Vegas... pictures to come... but on Sunday night we were sure tired. Isabella decided that was a night to just not be a happy camper. So about it was midnight before she was finally asleep and back up just before 7.

The morning was crazy... we have house guests in our room, we were madly preparing the house for our cleaners, when a guy showed up at 8 to fix our dishwasher (oops, forgot that)... we madly unloaded the dishwash and got the house tidied up (so there was something visible to clean). We realized we were out of paper towels, so James ran off to 7-11 while Fredrica finished feeding Isabella breakfast -- who didn't seem to want to eat anthing.

By the time I got off to work (late), I took a big sigh. After a hectic day at work with several meetings, a lunch meeting and more, as I was leaving... LEAVING... someone said: "James, did you know you have that crew neck sweater on backward...."

So, I got in my car (shirt still on backward) to pick up Isabella... which I always do Mondays because Fredrica teaches. I leave work early so I can get her fed by 4:30. As I am just about at day care, I notice I don't have the car seat... yep, we took it out when we all went to the airport.

An hour and forty five minutes later I made it from work to day care... day care home to the car seat... home back to day care to get Isabella... and back home AGAIN...

Yep... what a day! I was feeling kind of bad about the day, when Fredrica got home and said: "The most embarassing thing happened, in the middle of teaching yoga class tonight, I noticed my pants were inside-out."