And then I made a big batch of kimchi

Saying goodbye to Grandpa and Grandma

So . . . here we are, two weeks postpartum.  Un-un-un-un.  My parents were here the second week and just left this past Friday.  They manhandled the house into submission inside and out, cooked all our meals, enjoyed their grandboy-ohs, and gave me the luxury of rest and the ability to savor my newborn.  Bliss.  I am so thankful for that time.  So thankful.

Blaine's mom came for a few hours in the morning almost every day the first week as well, allowing for a peaceful week of rest and enjoyment for all of us.  Instead of stress and distress (which was my postpartum recovery period with Baby Jamie), we actually enjoyed ourselves.  Blaine was outside with the boys most afternoons, playing badminton or the "throw the ball on the garage roof and catch it in the butterfly net" game.

My focus the past two weeks has been to rest and recuperate.  I've been vigilant about recovery this time, knowing what it is like if I don't guard myself.  So I've been sitting around, doing nothing but admiring my wee one.  I'm not even really reading anything while I'm nursing, something I've always done before.  I'd rather just soak this little fella in.  Time is short.

My gratitude to my parents and my MIL is immense.  Thank you so much!  Thank you for giving me time to heal.  Thank you for enabling me to enjoy and savor these precious first few days and weeks.  Thank you for taking such good care of all of us.  Thank you for loving us.

Physically, I feel "back to normal".  I honestly do.  Two weeks of rest has done me a lot of good.  I am light-years ahead of where I was with my postpartum recovery last time.

I am ready to face "real life" again......

 Pak choi and the cutest little fella ever

 Cilantro and parsley --

Subsequently chopped and frozen in ice cube trays

 A sink full of spinach
(Chopped, blanched, frozen)

This is what I did this morning during Eliah's morning snooze in the rocker.  With Blaine's help!  Don't ever think I did this alone.  Blaine went out before anyone else was up in the lovely morning sun and harvested both spinach beds, the cilantro and parsley, and 10 pak choi for kimchi.  Later in the morning, he washed and picked through it all as I chopped, blanched, and sorted.

The babe slept an extra-long block of time, so when Blaine went out to the garden to paper and straw (after picking scallions, radishes, horseradish, and burdock), I got started on the kimchi.  I completed it in three sessions and ended up with a 3-liter Pickl-It full of kimchi fermenting on the countertop.  I wish I had a picture of it.  It is so pretty!  Drat.  Tomorrow.

While we were working in the kitchen, the boys were working on their new "house".  They finally discovered a magical part in our grove of trees, just to the south of our East Garden.  The ground is covered in violets and lily of the valley, with trees leaning in on all sides that creates a canopy over a circle of space that makes it feel secret and special.  Both Blaine and I have had an affinity for it since we moved in, remembering that burgeoning excitement of hidden spaces and imagination.

It finally clicked for them this year.  Just this weekend!  We are so glad they finally "discovered" it.  They have played back there many other times, but it has never fired the imagination like it did this morning.  Finally.

 The entrance of what they call their "house"

There is a fallen tree, still rooted and growing, on the left

 They laid down straw to mark the trails --

Their idea and they did 100% of the work.  Un-un-un-un.

There was a ready supply, as Blaine was getting straw from the "raccoon barn" 

(due to a mummified raccoon carcass found at one point).

 They also hacked up last year's caveman's club and snake gourds

to make bowls and waterers and "mead horns".

The mead horn idea was inspired by

Viking Tales by Jennie Hall,

a book we are reading for our little homeschool.