Bless Her Heart

Locks of Love

We made a hair appointment for the girl with our family's super stylist Annie.  She had been talking about wanting a big cut for the past few months...but I didn't really take her too seriously until this week.  You see, she's been to the salon a handful of times over the years, with lofty dreams of 'the big cut' only to leave happily with a 2" trim.   Something about this week just felt different.  I don't know if it was her turning 8...or all of our recent discussions about feeling thankful, but this time she firmly decided to cut most of it off and donate it to Locks of Love, a great organization that makes wigs from real hair for children who have medical hair loss.  I am constantly amazed and inspired by her determination and sense of self.  She knew she had a gift that she could share with another child, and that was all she needed to make her decision firm and  final. I'd be lying if I said I didn't shed a few tears while brushing it out for the last time...and while her braids were being cut...and while recounting the unfolding appointment to my friend Kim when she called midcut (thank God)...and while thanking Annie...but when all was said and done, I was and and will continue to be filled with pride for my girlie, who teaches me selflessness, love and compassion each and every day.

  

8!

We had a fantastically fun party for the girl last week.  I think I can safely say a good time was had by all.  As per the usual, she required her guests to come in costume, loosely throwing the 'favorite character from a book' idea out there.  It was awesome to see what comes out of the imagination of 6-8 year old girls.  Keeping with the theme, we adorned masks with all types of glittery and feathery things.  Note to self: next year use faster drying glue.  The girls couldn't wait to put their masks on...which led to a bit of glue and glitter in the hair...but lots of giggling.  As a recently formed tradition around these parts, we got all of our cupcake components from an awesome local bakery called Sugar Mama's.  They always fix us up right.  We picked up 3 varieties of blank cupcakes, a couple of different colors of frosting and an assortment of sprinkles.  Then the girls decorate their own cupcakes...and giggle a lot.

 The girls finished up the party with a game they made up called 'puppy scavenger hunt' wherein they would hide and seek for small stuffed puppies...and giggle...a lot.  I dare you to go to an 8 year old girl's birthday party in a sour mood.  You can check that 'tude at the door, because apparently only giggling, and humming and singing and twirling are allowed.  What a wonderful thing that is.

Farmhouse Delivery

We are on our second week of deliveries from Farmhouse Delivery and I just wanted to share with you how incredibly beautiful our basket is this week. My kitchen smells like a fall harvest day.  I love that every thing in our basket is sourced from local farms and food purveyors.  The kombucha of the week from Sissa's is 'Mahalo' and is perfectly flavored with so many wonderful tropical undertones... so effervescent and not too sweet.  Getting these baskets lets me forget for 2 minutes that I live in a 'burb of sorts.  For a tiny bit I can pretend like I live in a farmhouse in the hills somewhere.  Anyhoo...any ideas for what I should do with the Kohlrabi?  I've never used it before...and I got nuthin'.

 

Sisterji...It's yer birthday...

The other night I started going through family pictures from the past couple of years.  As I did, I noticed that my sister has been around quite a bit lately.  This may not seem remarkable to you...but if you know her, you know she has insatiable wanderlust and part of her soul is always scheming up a way to run to a far off land.  The fact that she has been home for a couple of years IS remarkable...and I feel like I am stealing some sort of precious thing to be able to enjoy her company daily.  When it comes to her presence in our lives, she fosters 'family' in a way we all wish we could.  She 'walks the walk' so to speak.  She accepts us for our wholeness, recognizing that that includes imperfections and sometimes irrational behavior by any one of us...she often brushes these flaws aside with a 'pshaw' only to lift us off the ground from the aforementioned silly behavior.  No judgement.  Just a simple dusting off of the grumps and off you go.  It makes me wonder sometimes who the older sister is.  :)  Her heart is as big as they come, and although she thinks that's some kind of secret or something, her incredibly beautiful smile gives it away each and every day.  Happiest Birthday, sisterji...our lives are so full with the pleasure of seeing you smile and hearing your laughter...and of course, watching you dance.

Halloween Part I - The Girl (AKA Sally)

Please excuse the tardiness of my Halloween posts.  It has been nutso around here.  The girl decided what she wanted to be for Halloween about a year ago and hadn't wavered even once.  I was off the hook last year because her 'lita made her adorable costume.  This year however, the pressure was on.  She chose Sally from Nightmare before Christmas.  It all seemed like a great idea months ago, but of course I was sewing in to the wee hours on Thursday night so that it would be ready for the school-wide Monster Mash party/dance on Friday.  She had been carrying around this picture for months:

 

I think we did ok in the end...she loved it (and didn't take it off for 3 days)...that's what matters, right? A few more pictures here.  BTW, she did all her own makeup...I still have little white smudges around the house to prove it.  :)  Tomorrow?  Halloween Part II - The Boy