Winter Walk to VALENTINE-we are here:)

This picture says it all. Olivia is such a lover and she and her daddy have such a good relationship. As I type this post out she and he are watching Elmo together on a LaZBoy with a quilt atop.
The holiday is not a huge celebrated holiday at our house because we celebrate love everyday. May love find you, cheer you and warm you today

Winter Walk Day 31

Swing that hammer Ben! Ben is my creative child. He comes home from school an hits me up for paper and glue. We created a nook for him in my studio. He is helping us with our 4 X 4 boxes we are building for our garden this year. we live on a hill so we hope this will help:)

Winter Walk Day 30-wow day 30

She is still not home......Brian is on his way to be with Rach and Meg today from his training place pre Iraq. It will be good to see him:) Meg is not breathing well when seh sleeps so it may be a few more days.

Winter Walk Day 29 Happy Birthday Liv. You are 4

A peek in our dining room at 6:45 this morning. It is a special day but I warn you before you click play...lol

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Happy Birthday my sweet Olivia Grace

Winter Walk Day 28

This is our little dumplin Megan in the hospital with RSV. I saw her Friday night and filmed her. All day yesterday I just wanted to hold her.
Hearing her little cry and all the coughing made me sad and want to just hold her. I feel my emotional strings growing tighter with this baby. Trying to be a hands off grandma is tough, however being too far away just dont feel right.

Winter Walk Day 27

This is my earthy birthy beautiful pregnant friend Joy of The Color Farm Showing Ben, my crafty soul, the art of mandala tye dye.
He loved watching the colors come together and the process evolve. His eyes lit up when Joy showed him the finished product.

Winter Walk Day 26

I need to fix the part where the color bled onto another, however the tinderbox was quickly filled with misc things to help start our woodstove in 3 days! So hence I have not taken time to fix it yet.
So wonderful to recreate this ugly old trunk into soemthing that matches our colors and is useful. The top is also where we store our library books. We very carefully open the lid if we need tinder

Winter Walk Day 25

My son Joey with Megan.

We love Megan! My gbaby is in the hospital with RSV. My heart breaks...as a healer, I may have helped her prior to this event, but I had not seen her this week. Received a call from my daughter saying they spent the night in the hospital.

I am sure everything will be ok. I was surprised and sad but it sounds like if she will start eating again and can breathe without oxygen she can come home today. I offered my home for them this week as Rachie is sick too. If they feel they need to be taken care of my apothecary is stocked:)

Winter Walk Day 24 HaPpY bIrthDaY JoSh my 16 year old

16...today we upgrade his learners license for a true drivers license, and enroll in GED Testing.
So we are off and running. Not sure what we will do, probably a special lunch out or something fun for him. Tonite, Ray and I might be doing the pizza delivery together so we dont have much planned. The real party will be around MArch 1st when Robyn comes down with my first born granddaughter.
We will then celebrate with cake and music and have grandpa and grandma over and celebrate Ariella's 1st bday, Olivia's 4th and Josh's 16 as a family.

Happy Birthday son

Winter Walk Day 23

I was a bit shocked when I was reading local harvest yesterday. I was adding Dreamseeds Herb Center hoping it will help locals connect here.
I was seeing if my friend Patrice was listed on the farms.

Not only was he listed, but guess who the listing picture is....LMAO!

http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M14446

Winter Walk Day 22

I love the way my husband, Ray made this church look. He did the ceiling work(everyting in wood) also sheathing and other things you cannot see.

He built this baptismal (the open area in the wall) and the stage. The stage was made with heavy oak and I think he lost about 5 pounds that week getting that built.

Beautfiul work Ray. Smooch!

Winter Walk Day 21

I have these little handmade bendies around my house. They remind me so much of different ages of myself. This bendy, if you can see her is what I hope presents my life now.
I have an old winter fairy that fell into the water and her hair turned course, just like a crone. I sometimes feel like her too....lol

I also have one, and I should take a pic called wise woman. It was made by Danielle of Natural Playthings adn she called this littel doll wise woman and said it reminded her of me. A dear mama bought it for me and had it sent. She sits on my essential oil shelf and I love her so much.

Winter Walk Day 20

This is my bedroom, A place I never spend much time in, yet a sacred space in my home. I think pillows are so inviting to look at, but who has time to recline?

A wise woman I worked with at the restaurant last year said that when her sones were small, she woudl take them fishing after school. Now, people dont have time to do that. WTH is happening. I wonder?

Winter Walk Day 19

The menew as Ben would call it. Sometimes we behave as though we have a fine restaurant. The kids can help create the meal or part of it and they post the menu outside the door for daddy to see when he gets home...lol

Winter Walk Day 18

Snow day in the Ozarks=No school. Far from the way you northerners live:) Ben earned an award at school and today was the day to receive it. But I dont think he is too hurt by it...

Winter Walk Day 17 HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIELLA

Happy Birthday my precious firstborn grandbaby Ariella Rose

I love you pumpkin

Winter Walk Day 16..special gift for you

My favoritest ever Herbal Magazine is offering a free download just for you! Tina Sams puts together this fine grassroots everyday type of herbalist magazine full of articles, recipes, ideas, crafts, and more. I love this magazine and the people that actively participate in it. Come see for yourself

Essential Herbal Magazine Download

ENJOY!

Winter Walk Day 15 Happy Anniversary

Phew...we made it through year 7. It was very difficult indeed. Today is our 8 year anniversary and Ray found something I have wanted for 4 years now, but could not locally find. He found it!
Damiana Liquoure.

I am going to copy an article here I wrote about this very thing when I was pregnant with Olivia in 2004
A Fun Herbal Story that happened at a Restaurant

My husband and I decided to spend some alone time and go errand running and have
a nice meal at a new restaurant in the next town.
It was so wonderful to be alone with him as I am 9 months pregnant and really in
need of just him these days. His work ahs been slow and we have been stressed.
HE got a small job so we celebrated. It was wonderful.
We were seated and the hostess handed us our menus and placed a drink menu on
the table. We drink rarely so we ignored the drink menu for awhile. We were
served and ate our food and had a wonderful time of being together.
As our meal was finished we noticed how lovely the drink pictures were. On this
drink menu, one in particular stood out as I could have sworn I saw the word
DAMIANA.

Of course I had to snatch up the drink menu to see if I was seeing things
correctly and sure enough there was a margarita with damiana in it.

So the next time the server came to our table I asked her about the damiana in
this drink. I was curious, was it like a tincture, dried herb, WHAT????
She thought I was crazy- so I then explained I am an herbalist and that we
typically know damiana as an aphrodisiac or a fertility herb.
My husband is really enjoying this because he knows this girl thinks I am crazy,
and yet I am about to learn something about this damiana drink so my interest is
peaked!

She returns to us later and says, "you have just educated me. Go see the
bartender when you are leaving."

So after we paid, we go to see the bartender and he immediately knows what we
are after.
He pulls out this bottle in the shape of a pregnant lady and tell us about this
liquor they use in the drink is made from damiana. He shared that the Aztecs
made Tequila originally with damiana. WOW. My husband and I were so amused by
this guy that was just as interested as I was in this herbal potion.
Makes me curious to try this drink, now. And my husband had so much fun watching
this girl think I was crazy to having a two sided educational discussion with
the bartender.

And being big and pregnant and seeing this pregnant shaped bottle was just too
fun.
I know he will find a way to get me one of those bottles. It was just such a fun
experience.We asked the restaurant if we could have an empty bottle, but it is against the law in Arkansas.
But what a way to confirm the fertility/aphrodisiac properties of the herb. She
goes to tell the bartender about this crazy pregnant "so called herbalist" telling
her about this stuff and he pulls out a pregnant lady bottle:) PERFECT!

Winter Walk Day 14

Tommarrow is our anniversary and on a fluke we ended up with our Special friends in Eureka Springs. O HOW WE NEEDED some time with friends.
This is Patrice and Karen Gros family. Patrice runs http://www.foundationfarm.com which is an organic farm that serves the community in 100 mile radius.
Ray and I aprectice there plast year and plan to this year. I say "apprentice" because the definition fits, however a true Foundation Farm apprentice does more days and has the opportunity to stay there in a cabin type dwelling and earn some money. That is a pretty nice deal! If I did not have a family I would do that.
I AM an apprentice tho in my own mind because I am learning from a passionate master of organic gardening and I treasure not only the friendship but the teacher/student relationship. I need the guidance, and as a woman desiring to dive deeper into herbalism, this is something I want to incorporate into my dream of an herb center on a larger scale.
Karen, is a french gourmet cook and does all sort of neat things with cooking and classes. I may be her apprentice one day too. I plan on attending classes. And really Karen can probably master anything she prepares, but her spread on french cuisine is really amazing. Look at her Valentines Soiree'

Menu “Saint Valentin” 2008


APÉRITIF & HORS D'ŒUVRE

Homemade duck foie gras on rye crostini
sprinkled with coarse sea salt
Foie gras de canard au pain de seigle et du gros sel

Savory cheese & parsley profiteroles
Profiteroles au fromage et persil


APPETIZER

Celeriac velouté with roast beet garnish
served with horseradish butter on crostini
Velouté de céleri rave à la bette rave et croûte beurre de raifort


ENTRÉE

Duck confit and sausage pastry ramekins with light cream sauce
served with assorted vegetables
Bouchée a la reine au confit de canard et saucisse crème léger
servi aux légumes variées
(Vegetarian option available)


CHEESE & SALAD

Assorted classic cheese board & salad with walnut vinaigrette
Plateau de fromage et la salade vinaigrette à la noix


DESSERT

Traditional Brittany crêpes
Choice of sauce chocolat or sauce caramel au beurre salé
with freshly whipped cream & vanilla ice cream
Served with cider, as is tradition in Brittany
Crêpes au choix sauce chocolat ou sauce caramel au beurre salé
servi à la chantilly et glace vanille


COFFEE

French coffee served with a dark chocolate truffle


$100 per person

Price is all-inclusive & covers: 5-course menu, freshly-baked bread, champagne or wine with each course, cider, coffee, service, taxes & tip.

You can see Karens Work at http://www.cuisinekaren.com

So today I feel refreshed in having had some wine and conversation with 2 special people we know and love in Eureka Springs.

Winter Walk day 13

Made by my Ben. This is what we all need, isn't it.