The best part of my life

Last week we received a wonderful "care package" from my sister Leah with all sorts of sweet surprises, one of them being a CD of new music for me! We share a love for music with beautiful harmonies and she recently discovered a group called Red Molly - 3 women with incredibly sweet voices. While I've been enjoying all of their songs, one jumps out as my absolute favorite.... "May I Suggest" is an acapella number that I just can't get enough of! You won't regret taking a few minutes to listen to the song on You Tube. The song says "May I suggest this is the best part of your life...." I've been very aware lately of living in the present moment and this song just resonates with me... this truly is the best part of my life, because it's the only part! Right now is all we have. Let's make the most of it.

Some of the things I'm loving about right now....

Fresh plumeria crowns and the sweet kids wearing them!

We've stopped by the plumeria flower farm a few times since we've been here, and everytime the owners have been so generous and accomodating. This last time he let us pick our own flowers.... as many as we wanted for $5! We made lei for Gram and Gramps and crowns for the kids.

Fresh tomatoes from the garden. This is my new favorite.... a pineapple tomato...

 so sweet and yummy!

Rainbows this morning! We haven't seen any for about a month. It's been an unusually dry winter.

The kids playing "I spy" this morning while eating raisons. It makes my heart sing to see them playing so peacefully. As they get older, they are getting more creative in the ways they play together and spend more time enjoying each other's company.

Checking out the honey bees on the sunflowers... the record was 5 bees on one flower! Oh, and do you see the irrigation in the garden? Yay! No more hand watering!

Bella ready to go into town, sporting her new bag from A. Leah! She loves it!

Gram and Gramps (John's folks) took the kids into town today. The kids gave them a tour of the Macadamia nut farm, Coffee's of Hawaii, and the lookout on their way in! They were gone all day... which means I had a whole day to myself! I sewed pa'u skirts with my friend Annie, did some other sewing, practiced hula, had a quiet, relaxing lunch, listened to Red Molly, harvested beets and carrots from the garden, made a big pot of borscht, baked fresh bread.... it was a great day!

This is definitely the best part of my life!

Aloha!

The last 2 weeks have been busy with friends, Curtis and Amanda,visiting us from home. Curtis is a fantastic gardener and was a great help in the garden. They both enjoyed the fresh food and the warm weather! Their visit went quickly and before we knew it we were saying good-bye!

The kids are enjoying having their own headlamps. (Hooray for free shipping from REI!) We use them a lot here as we try not to have lights on much at night, and they end up being our reading lights. We also use them when we go outside to see the stars making sure we don't step on a centipede.

This in my new pa'u skirt for hula practice. I got the fabric on Maui in December and enjoyed sewing it up this past week. It's just 4 yards of fabric with six rows of casing around the top (with elastic in every second row of casing). Super easy to make. I have fabric to make another one as well. Yesterday one of my hula sisters and I took some swatches of fabric to our Kumu (teacher) and broached the idea of making skirts for everyone out of one lovely fabric. He loved the idea and today I ordered 64 yards of fabric for 15 skirts and some sashes for the kanes (the men). When the fabric comes in we'll be BUSY!!!

Garden fresh tomatoes! This morning I baked fresh bread so lunch was tomato and pesto sandwiches with roasted eggplant and fresh salad greens! YUM!

Yesterday the kids and I cleaned and sorted the puka shells we've been collecting.

I've had fun making some simple little bracelets for the kids and I. There is a woman at the Saturday Market who sells all sorts of beads and beading supplies. I've been able to get everything I need for making jewelry from her.

We are enjoying some quiet days and getting ready for John's folks to arrive early next week. We're all happy and healthy and enjoying life to the fullest. Aloha! 

This and that!

No rhyme or reason to this post... no theme.... just our last few days in pictures!

Watching the waves at our favorite beach (Kepuhi Beach)

Little pixie girl

We didn't swim that day but it was amazing to watch! I never get tired of watching the waves.

Thor's little friend - he's becoming the gecko whisperer.

I LOVE tropical flowers. I buy them every time I go to the Saturday Market.

My latest thrift store purchase. Not sure what I'll do with it, but couldn't leave it in the store!

My makeshift sewing area! An old ironing board frame covered with a beach towel does the job! It feels good to be sewing again. So far I've done some alterations on that dress in the photo (for hula performances) and made myself a new "pa'u" skirt for hula practice. Will post of photo of it sometime soon. I bought some fabric while in Maui in December, so have a few things to work on.

A tropical smoothie ready to blend - mango, banana, pineapple. passionfruit and frozen coconut milk. Yum!

Bread ready to go into the woodfire oven.

It's been a good week!