Tomato Mountain

Our backyard.

Yeah. It's rough. I know.

I got a wild hair last week and decided to actually follow through on something I'd told my kids we could do! It's kind of a novel idea for me, but it was so much fun we may do it again in the future.

Hazel and I were browsing Pinterest one afternoon when we came across a really cute and earthy idea for a wreath. We loved it. I pinned it. Then we decided to get started on it right away. (An almost unheard of experience at our house! I can assure you....my poor kids.)

Since moving up here, every time we go out I admire the beautiful mosses growing on everything. They are so green and lush and lovely and I LOVE all the different shades. I knew that we could find more than enough for our project in the backyard (and in the neighbor's backyard, but shhhh! don't tell!), so we set out with our basket in hand -- admiring the the misty mountain (hop!) along the way.

I won't tell you the story about another time I couldn't keep my mouth shut and trotted myself down the road to confronted our backyard neighbor about the condition of that horse. She looked so pretty standing there watching us. Just so perfectly beautiful!

We ventured into the woods, picking moss, enjoying the cedars and the birch trees and finding lots of hidden treasures on the way - a perfect little creek, lots of wacky fungi, and three deer.

And some really delightful children! Violet doesn't like the scary, dark trees, but she let me give her a piggy-back ride and got down enough to stomp in some puddles.

These girls make my heart overflow with love. They are so perfect!

Our haul was pretty good! We got tons of lovely textures and colors and it was so fun to see my little women get so excited over picking a big piece of moss with no tears. :)

I was feeling extra grateful to have this girl with me and feeling well enough to go tromping through the trees with me! She is always such a big help and such a sweet friend to spend the day with. I'm so lucky!

That night we let the moss dry, but the next day when Lilie got home from school, we glued all those pretty carpets onto our wreath form and even added some little friends to greet our visitors.

I love it so much that I almost want to put in on the inside of the door. :) 

Also, I learned that I am not great at tying bows. The resulting shenanigans with that one almost drove me to drink, but turned out pleasing - after I had about a cup of red glitter in my lap.

Another thing we did last week was get our Christmas tree! There is a Christmas tree farm just down the road from us and since Hazel wasn't quite up to a full-blown mountain experience, we decided to go there rather than head for the hills to cut our own. 

It turned out so pretty!

I was able to finish up the last two stockings while watching Animal Planet at the hospital. They make my heart happy.

All in all, it was a successful week. Filled with a few projects and lots of healing!

Now on to this week - which will be defined by the number of loads of laundry that actually get folded and put away!

Gosh, my life of servitude it hard!

P.S. The title of this post is coined from Violet. She calls the mountain we live on Tomato Mountain. The girls have even made up a song about it. It makes me laugh. Much. Tomato Mountain! Oh, YES! Tomato Mountain . . .