rejoice and be happy...

 the prince meets the princess...

 happy prince...

 poire belle-helene...

gifts for baby...
i felted a prince for the princess (honey and me of course!), he was very happy to be made and she was very happy to receive a friend! i do love felting, it is magical... i made poire belle-helene, which turned out very nice, an easy desert that looks gourmet!  it was fun cooking french meals, but i am happy to have some fresh salads and fruits again, and i think baby really doesn't like the sugar!  talking about baby, lots of my gifts were for baby; a beauitful towel from avo, a wonderful rattle from friends g & g, baby washbag from auntie j, and a pair of beautiful booties handmade in labrador from friends j & l... the beauty of all natural organic items, i just can't imagine life without the wonders of nature surrounding me outside and in the house... when will the petroleum age end...

winter walks...

ah, winter... the landscape here is beautiful indeed... i tell the baby that this world is indeed magical if you are surrounded by the natural beauty of it all as we are... winter definitely is the most magical for me, i can feel the nature spirits so much stronger and the beauty is just breath-taking... i wrote a little letter for baby as we prepare to bring her/him into this world...
dear baby, on your sixth month in my tummy on a snowy winter day, i want to wish you a future of strength and happiness.  i feel you rumble about and i can't help but feel excited for your arrival into our lives.  i just hope you will be so excited and happy too.  i especially think of your health as each cell is formed inside of me and i am trying my very best to be as healthy as possible for you.  your daddy and me love you so much and i hope that your life will be filled with laughter, love and joy.  i love you little one.

paris...

instead of christmas, we pretend to travel somewhere for the day, and today we are in paris! with beautiful french music, apple crepes (crepes a la normande) for breakfast, coffee with chocolate, ferlinghetti paris poetry, croque monsieur for lunch, a walk in the beautiful wintery landscape, un petit chat, harvest, and coco chanel movie for later.  also going to make dinner crepes and poire belle-helene for desert!
yes, the french like their coffee, cheese, cream, and crepes... and i hope baby likes them too! although i haven't had coffee for like a year, i indulged for paris! i haven't been since 2003, which feels like another lifetime ago... so much better with my honey though!

lunar eclipse solstice...

i will start off with solstice as i have been too busy with work to do much journaling!  it was an extra special solstice with the full gemini moon at 3:13am becoming a lunar eclipse!  we could just catch the beginning of the eclipse at around 10:30pm before it got too cloudy sicne it was snowing too!  very exciting indeed! we did a meditation and then we made three resolutions and three things to let go and then threw them into the fire... mine were: be light, be alight; release uptight; have fun; smile and laugh; breathe and let go; stop controlling; listen to my heart... and then we had a couple of rough days after solstice as the universe likes to challenge us right away, and boy it did! 
my friend did my conception astrology chart and I am reading krishnamurti, so sometimes when i am doing too much inner work i get overwhelmed... need to be gentle with ourselves, that is what i learned:)
lots to think about as baby waits to be born...

mango in snowland...

made it to six months, yay!  although i have been suffering from being sick for five days now... just went outside today for the first time and thought i would build some snowmen (me on the left, honey to the right)... i definitely do not like being sick, especially cause i can't take anything because of the baby...not even echinacea!  so, yup, suffering slowly but surely... now the ol' boogers have turned yellow, so i think that must be a good sign, can't wait to get a good night's sleep... ah, there go the dogs again in the neighbourhood, as loud as ever... baby knows that sound!  the dogs around here are ridiculous, they literally drive us crazy, i wish baby could be in a more peaceful part of the forest lands, but alas, this is where we are meant to be for now... here's to six months!

creations...

 moonmonster friends...

 honey watching 3-Dee skateboarding...

 winter nature table with our little gnome friend...

harvest waiting to come inside...
23 weeks along (a mango now doing little dances in my tummy!) and feeling good energy all around... dealing with control issues... reading a fantastic book "Beyond the Rainbow Bridge", a waldorf sort of parenting book that i completely resonate with, feels good... watched a community belly dancing show, a little too stimulating, but it was interesting... as you can see, i've been felting and sewing again, i especially like needle-felting because me and the sewing machine have our issues!  me and honey have been having good conversations about the upcoming birth, i am really lucky to have such a soul as my husband, he is so so special... i love him even with the 3D glasses!

spaghetti squash in my tummy...

 winter lanscape...

 caught a chickadee on camera!

 sunny icicle day...

preggie pic...
Well, another day off and i get to write on the ol' journal blog... feeling a little cranky the last few days, the dogs have been extra excited these nights, not allowing me to sleep... plus i am always hungry no matter how much i stuff my face, well, i don't stuff it since we can't afford that much food, but we eat yummy meals... i crave baked stuff though, and we don't have an oven:( everyone has been telling me that once you have a kid say goodbye to all your sleep and all your creative activities... i mean i know all of that, but i wish people would send more positive thoughts, i think that is more helpful... i have also been reading lots about labour,and we watched "orgasmic birth" which is pretty much about having a home birth, which we have decided to go for... plus, i am dreaming of having a birthing pool too, which is all very ambitious given that we live in a yurt with no running water or hot water... but where there is a will there is a way!  must be the little aries inside of me giving me tips!

winter blues...



our little gnome...



 snowy days...

the magic of the forest...
winter has landed early this year, as below-freezing temperatures have begun... along with car problems and a lack of energy... i have been reading a great book, "Birthing from Within", i am really picky when it comes to pregnancy-based books, but this one is absolutely amazing, the only one i recommend thus far... i've been struggling between a home-based or hospital birth cause although i really want to have it at home, we don't have running water or a bathroom, and the yurt is only one room... but maybe it will be nice enough outside by then, maybe it can work?... i don't know yet... i see pregnancy as a natural part of life, not a medical issue, but alas, all of that will unfold naturally too...
taking walks definitely helps me clear my head and it just feels so good, although it is getting more tricky as winter progresses... i have also felt the baby movements by placing my had on my belly, so that is a fun new experience...

me and my honey really want to do something for our babymoon, but winter makes it so tricky since our car sucks... i have to do some more creative thinking on that one... i am also feeling for a wardrobe change, but gosh darn, i think that is just the winter blues creeping up on me, already!

snacks and baby chat...

 our morning walk (me and mischief)

 harvest's private walk

 our cozy yurt home

more snow today, wow, has it ever come early this year!  today after honey makes a delicious breakfast (as always:), yoga, and a morning walk, i have a snacks and chat get together with kathy, rachelle and kate about giving birth... kathy showed us a slideshow of when she gave birth to edie and it looked really wonderful... this was a truly helpful experience as i really had no idea what happens in a birth; labour especially... having the knowledge that these friends gave to me has given me a whole new perspective, and i think a lot more confidence of what to "expect" when my day arrives... definitely helpful indeed, and lots of yummy goodies too!

winter thoughts...

 forest in our backyard

 spot the bird, they are hard to catch!

 on the river

as winter peaks her head in, we suffer a great loss with our uncle david passing away so quickly from lung cancer.  this is a sad time for us as we ponder loss, life, death and sadness.  a lot of "whys" and no answers... why are we on this earth? why do we come here? where do we go? why do we take life so seriously when we all die, some so much sooner than others?  life is so beautiful at the same time, especially the love that we experience... death is so sad because it is a loss in the lives of the living and the dead... why don't we know why we are here on earth? so many thoughts...

half-way there...

yup, 20 weeks in, and I am feeling really good, like wow, this is so much better than those first three months, and even better than the fourth month... so good news, hopefully continuing until birth day!   here is my tummy, i am not feeling too bad about gaining weight, i have always had an active lifestyle and a healthy weight, so i know that to have a healthy baby i gotta be eating all that yummy stuff... last night i made a really good chicken and rice dinner, it is pretty easy to cook with chicken as i haven't cooked meat in like forever, so chicken is a good one to start off with!  i have also been doing yoga, meditation and a walk almost every day, and that keeps me mentally, spiritually and physically balanced...

chicken in a spiced peanut sauce...

1 medium onion chopped

1 clove garic finely chopped

1 green bell pepper chopped (i used broccoli)

4 tbsp olive oil

2 lb boneless chicken pieces

sauce:

5 oz peanut butter

2 cups chicken stock

1 tsp of turmeric, coriander, cumin and red pepper flakes

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven 350 degrees F (I used my skillet for the "baking" part, since i don't have an oven).  Saute onion, garlic, and veggie in 1 tbsp oil until soft.  Remove veggies from skillet and set aside.  Add remaining oil to same skillet and fry chicken pieced until golden brown all over.  Return veggies to skillet.  Place sauce ingredients in small saucepan over low heat, cook and stir until well mixed about 5 min.  Place chicken in ovenproof dish and spoon sauce over top, bake 30 min (i put a lid on the skillet to cook on stove).

phoenix reborn...

yesturday, rememberance day, marked one year since the miscarriage, and now i am almost twenty weeks into this pregnancy with renewed love and hope...it is amazing how the universe works, if you just pause and think about it all...unfortunately, our society has so totally confused us about life and the magic of the universe, that it takes willful moments of pause to see the whole picture, and it only comes in teeny bits and pieces...i just had an outburst of uncontrollable laughter thinking how funny I am, how funny humans are with our perceptions of ourselves, all of our thoughts, each of us with all our "stuff" in our heads...it is just so weird that we live in these minds of ours, that we live in these societies of ours, that we live with all this weird "stuff" and why...why...

first snow...

our first snow came yesturday, it was only a tiny bit, ten minutes or so, but it was definitely a reminder of the long cold snowy winter ahead! luckily honey has collected so much wood, it makes all the difference in the world...

our little heirloom tomato...

just had the ultrasound today, and 8 cups of water later, and the greatest need to go pee, we successfully got to see the baby!!! the doc actually let me pee halfway through cause she said my bladder was crazy full, and she said in reality you really need to only drink 3-4 cups water and hour before...but alas, it was all worth it, as we found out that the baby is very healthy and happy!  what a relief:) he was a mover and a shaker, but i can't feel it yet because my placenta is against my tummy, but she said that would change in the next week...19 weeks and two days gone by! wow!

quiet moment...

i wanted to add this photo in with my two cuties...

bell peppers and fun things...

 fairy for my friend joni, her christmas gift, ready to be sent and made with love...

 christmas gift for my adorable nephew karl, yup, i knitted this! thanks to stitch'n bitch the knitter's handbook!

 mushroom surprise! i love mushrooms:)

more fun felting and knitting these days as you can see...i love making gifts, it is so much fun and there is always a different energy in the gift, i just hope they like them too...
i haven't written in a while cause i have been busy working, and crafting of course!  i have been feeling good lately, love the walks, love the warmth of the woodstove, love my honey and of course harvest the cutie... i am still having horrible sinus congestion and allergies, which is quite annoying...so, i have been steaming lately, and that seems to help for a bit...probably hyper allergic cause of the baby, but if it is animal hair (harvest's), well, i'd rather suffer... i am also feeling a little worried cause i haven't really felt the little bell pepper moving and i am supposed to by now, but alas, the ultrasound is this week and that should help...
i wouldn't have chosen to do an ultrasound, but because of my miscarriage worries, i am happy that i am doing it or else i would be really worrying!
i am also starting to drink nettle, red raspberry and alfalfa tea, so i am excited about that, for my healthy happy baby...
i watched some videos on women having natural births, wowzers are we in for a ride!!! it was an emotional moment for me, i can't believe what is coming up!