re-connected!

so finally, after more than a year! im back online. we live in a rural part of a smallish town on the north thompson river aka. clearwater.. sadly, our home isn't "in" town so we only have access to dial up..but i've never been happier to have slow internet in my life. anything will do. our days of getting out to the library are so few and far between that keeping up with anything on the web is nearly impossible. actually, we go to the library often, but im usually in search of good bedtime stories and something to occupy me on the off chance i have a minute to read to myself.. not to mention ngaio who has her hands in everything she shouldn't as soon as we pass through the doors. and rue who decides that she is famished whenever we aren't snug at home, namely in the car or at the library. but, no more complaining..as far as summer has gone (really almost gone, we are having hard frosts already..) we had a pretty good one. we moved, yes. stressful..but since then our days have mostly consisted of playing at the river (the raft) and just enjoying the time together. we have enjoyed saturday farmers markets, most especially the strawberry festival. all you can eat local starwberries.. pure and utter bliss! and we (timothy, ngaio, rue & i ) went to an amazing music festival just a few hours from here in the robson valley. it was such a sweet weekend.
a really family friendly, amazing music, wonderful folks good time.
i think i have a bit of a summer hangover today actually. *sigh*

i have much to do here today, school just started for elwynn and there is always piles our house stuff to do. but i wanted to take the opportunity to just say a few words here, just because i missed it so much..

im trying to DL pictures, but its proving difficult with this connection.

till next time,

fern

its a long road..

wow. time flies... its almost august! stormy rainy summer days. we moved again.. just to the next town over from little fort. its a bit sad but our garden is still being cared for by timothy who for now is staying in little fort. my sister moved here a few months back to be a nurse at the clearwater hospital and she and i looked at the lovely little house and decided that it would be fun to live together again.. . i love our new house . its really close to the most beautiful private river beach..a few minutes down the road is a farm with horses and sheep and the local school is about 2km away (its got a rad playground) ive made a bunch of new friends with kids elwynn and ngaio's age and babies too. i feel like im finally finding community out here in the north thompson valley. i even met a daddy who wants to knit with me (and watch football, but hey! a knitting group. woohoo!) there is lots of fun stuff going on here in clearwater. the farmers market is amazing and there are often community bbq's and music in the park and that kinda stuff.

rue is getting to be a crawler! she is up on hands and knees rocking back and forth. every day is a leg and arm strengthening marathon. it wont be long at all before she is on the move. its a bit sad and pretty exciting...the little person in her is emerging and she is pretty lovely.

elwynn is all about art these days. he spends hours and hours drawing, colouring, sketching..its pretty inspiring. i havnt had a minute for anything creative, but lately rue has been wearing a pixie hat i knit while pregnant..white bamboo yarn..and ive had about 8 requests..so one day when i have tiome to knit again ill be busy.

ngaio is.......2. im worn out on 2. i love her so much but i want to throw her overboard sometimes.. even often. its pretty hard to be pateint when the whining and screetching are blowing my eardrums. most everything is a huge drama these days. im counting the days to 3.. someone please tell me its the magic end to this not so much fun time.

time is up..

love to everyone who may read this.. one day soon ill have internet again. maybe.
pictures some day too!

until next time.

fern

april droughts bring may sprouts..

We have been busy busy bee's this spring, but i wanted to take a second to put up a few new pictures of my girls. Elwynn is at school today and we are visting grama G.. these were shot just now with grama's camera..

rue-bee is nearly 4 months old now& ngaio is 2 and a half!

hello

hi to everyone that has written on here! its so nice to know that somewhere out there there are people who think of us sometimes. often i feel like we have dropped off the face of the earth onto another much smaller much more isolated star somewhere in another galaxy. i know we aren't that far away, but the momets that i get online, or on the phone, or out of our tiny town are so few and far between its almost impossible for me to connect with anyone. so im sorry to anyone who is waiting to hear from me.. it may be a while.

we are doing well, the garden is starting to be what i think about day and night. im so in live with all of the little sprouts popping up in our tiny green house. mostly its too cold for anything but rhubarb and bulbs but things are greening up quickly. yesterday it was 24 degrees out after a -5 night. crazy mother nature!

hawkfeather if you are reading this..im so sorry for your troubles. ill email you next chance i get.
love to you and your family and it would be great to have more likeminded folk around here. we are about 1.5 hours north of kamloops. on the north thompson river. not much to rent up here though.. but worth looking i think.

must go..babies..poop. hungry bellies.

love and all that stuff.

fern&folk

spring has sprung!

officially but not really totally yet where we are. in fact, there was a fresh coat of snow on the ground when i awoke this morning.. funny sincejust yesterday i was outside in a tee-shirt on my knees starting to weed the garden..but the days are getting longer and there are definite signs of spring around. ngaio and i saw a butterfly a few days ago and the cows down the road are all birthing their calves. i got to scratch a brand new calf under the chin one sunny morning last week. it came right up to the fence to meet me and elwynn. it was just beautiful. mama still had the umbilical cord hanging out of her! she hadn't yet passed her placenta. its sad to thing that they are born just to get big and be eaten, yet they are still so tame and trusting of humans.
im looking forward toi having a huge garden this year. timothy has already started a few things in one of our sunny south facing windows, i'm sure it will just be a few weeks and we will have the shelf full of small green sprouts. yay!

may can't come soon enough.. my sister is moving up to the north thompson!! hopefully the clearwater hospital wont close (dr. shortage) because she wants to live in little fort or clearwater to be near us.

elwynn, ngaio and rue-bee are doing well..ngaio just got over a rather nasty sickness but she is very much back to her old self now. its amazing how fast they bounce back at 2!

elwynn is happy to be free of school for spring break. its hard getting up so early for such a small guy, but summer will be here soon enough.

rue is almost 2 months old now. time is flying by sooo fast! she is absolutely the most sweet baby in the world (they all are though!) im just sooooo in love. i can't get enough of her smiles and little "coo's & goo's"

so that's our short update..

no knitting in sight but i did get some beautiful white and pink and red veregated HPY in the mail a while ago from uruguay..im just waiting for some free time to cast on some longies.. one day..right?

home!

well, i hanv't knit a stitch..but we are home and so happy to be! there is at least 2 feet of beautiful white snow surrounding our little cozy home and town, but it seems like we missed most of winter while we were away. spring is on its way i think..

ngaio just threw herself onto the floor of the library..gtotta go.

Avalanche!

well, the roads are closed due to mother nature.. avalanches and slides all over the place..both routes home closed! we are about an hour and a half from where we started and are staying with tim's grandparents till they re-open the road..probably..hopefully tomorrow!

on a happy note, we went thrift store shopping today and found lots of rad treasures..some beautiful soft fleece lined jeans for elwynn and a bunch of fancy baby/toddler clothes..so, its not all bad. i hear they are thinking of opening a thrift store in little fort..yay for thrift stores!

i really wish my knitting bag wasn't in my mom's van! she is meeting us up there (little fort) tomorrow because we couldnt fit all of our stuff and kiddos in our van, but now im itching to knit something..rue sleeps lots still and i know i should take advantage of it. i always want to knit when i havn't got my stuff. grRrR.

xoxo fern

finally, home is on the horizon..

January has come and gone since being here, in the big city, but we are finally heading home!
the next few days will be full of packing up and goodbyes then we are on our way homeward Thursday morning.

i'm feeling a mixture of excitement and anxiety..at the long snowy drive with 3 kids&a dog&cat!
at being home in our own little house, but without any extra hands to hold and help..wondering how timothy will find some work in the deep of winter...but i know that everything will fall into place as it should.

life is so beautiful with a baby in it!

my sweet family!

this is love..






*sigh*

it is so nice to finally put to use all of the wee woolens that i lovingly knit... the little pants, of which i knit 3 pairs, fit her perfectly. they go up to her armpits and cuffed, they are the perfect length! i love these little pants. they are butter soft and she wears them most every day.

this little curly purly soaker fits her super well. the other ones that i knit are too big on her yet, especially the leg holes..she has these loOong scrawny little legs. im loving the tight rolled cuff..with a premie prefold under it makes the trimmest little diaper..i love prefolds!



.
she hates diaper changes.

and finally! a name for our baby..

we have decided to name her.... Rue Bee Olive Suzanna Sabine.. its a weird untraditional name, i know.. i love "ruby" but timothy was not so keen on it. this way we have the name i want but also a plant name and bee..its cute. i love it. its totally her name. i'm so glad we waited and got to know her a few days...

Rue is almost 4 days old now. it feels like she has always been here, in my arms. she is just the most serene baby i have ever met, well, except for bum changes! she has a very loud voice when needed.. that is all i will say about that. we are still adjusting to being a family of 5, but for the most part it feels like our family is finally complete.

some pictures...

1: suzie schulz, RM and baby..1 day old!
2: Big sister Ngaio & babe.
3: day 2. .so awake!
4: not 1 day old..sleeping in the sunshine
5: mama and babe
6: the grrls
7:

She is here!

our little girl was born last night after a long but beautiful labour. i started to have contractions around 11:00 the night before but didn't really go into active labour till she was almost born!
after a day of regular contractions my sister and i went for a beautiful forest walk..it seemed like things were actually slowing down, but once we got back home again everything happened fairly quickly. we filled the birth pool and after about 10 contractions that were 1-2 minutes apart i got in. it was heaven! i was in the pool for about 45 minutes i think.. she did all of the work. it was amazing. i felt her little body move down..down..with each surge and finally she was right there! i felt this bulging bag of waters and broke it with my finger and out she came in a few quick pushes. i caught her in my hands and held her for a long time before getting out of the water. she was pink and breathing and just perfect from the moment she was born. *sigh*

my midwife suzie said that in 600+ births it was probably the most peaceful,perfect birth she has witnessed. it made me cry.

she weighed 8lbs 3 oz
born around 6:30pm..( i'm not even sure on the time, but my midwives have it written down)
no height yet because i just didn't want to put her down.

im having a baby!

and no Castor oil and verbena after all!! ive been having contractions since about 11:00 tonight. its 4:57am and i can't sleep.. they are about 4-5 minutes apart right now.. not terribly painful, but there for sure and lasting about a minute long.

im so happy!

Today or Tomorrow..

i'm having this baby today or tomorrow. thank the earth for Castor oil and lemon verbena..

another beautiful day

still pregnant. yep. im going to be pregnant forever..

we took the kiddos and the dog and the remote control spider man monster truck and ngaio's beloved "strawberry shortcake dolls" to the park today to soak up the beautiful January sun...then we decided to walk..and walk..and walk..to the fabulous coffee shop that timothy knows of. turns out that wasn't open. so we walked and walked some more back to the park and our car. we are home now and im very glad. walking that far whilst being even more than very pregnant (plus my only pants will not for the life on me stay up so i have to walk while hiking them up, which doesn't really work when you are
a) pushing a buggy b)holding the dig leash c)carrying a child)

anyways, i can't have the baby now for another few days. everything is on hold. no baby. no way. the carpets in my mothers house (where we are birthing) are all being replaced tomorrow. talk about a nightmare. so i'm going to be pregnant for at least until that is done and over with. there is NO way im having a baby while a crew of carpet installers are on the job. wouldn't that be just soooo my luck?

i love being pregnant.

longies..but not.

i cast on these cute tiny longies but realised soon after starting on the earthy colorway that there wasn't a hope that i would have enough yarn for longies .. so i improvised and made a boy short kind of soaker thing.. im not 100% sure that its going to work, but we shall see soon enough!

Today was a better day..

infact, after i posted that short and sad update yesterday i decided to cast on a pair of small longies and knitting did make me feel better.. it was just the current project that wasn't working for me.
im on leg one now and happy, but rubing out of yarn, so i think they will be summer shorts, not longies.. im a bit sad, but i kind of knew there wouldn't be enough of it..

i saw my wonderful midwife suzie today and though im not in labor yet, im much closer than on monday. im sitting at 4cm having lots of painless contractions but they are obviously doing something since i was 1/2cm on friday... its giving me hope that my body does in fact know what its doing and that once i do go into labour it will be quick and i will be holding my healthy baby very soon after! the thought brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart flutter.

im feeling pretty worn out. we took the kiddos to a community hall playgroup this morning which we walked to and the local forest ecology center later i nthe afternoon. i got to see my friend sheila and her beautiful new baby boy cassius again, which made me feel so happy! just holding a new baby is so lovely, even if its not my own! and her older daughter cora and ngaio just love each other and it was really nice to see them together being so 2 and cute.

its late and i need sleep.. maybe tomorrow will be our day!

im going to be pregnant forever and a day..

even knitting isn't helping today... *sigh*

no baby!

i'm sorry! false alarm....i did have lots of contractions last night and i couldn't sleep but baby is still womb side...

but, i did finish the 2nd kimono sweater last night and with about 14 inches of yarn to spare! i was sure that i would run out and have one sleeve with just a few rows left and no yarn but it worked out perfectly. i think im going to use buttons instead of ties for the closures, just to change things up a bit... i washed it last night in the washer on gentle because some great MDC mamas said it really helps peace fleece soften up and "bloom" and it really feels lush now...i didnt really love peace fleece when it came in the mail, but im really starting to see the beautiy in it!
im going to knit a matching peace fleece soaker today in pink and turquise stripes i think.. and here is a picture of the whole "new baby" outfit that i've made..





if this baby doesn't come soon its going to drown in my basket of hand knits.