happy thursday + a giveaway!

if you follow me on instagram, 

you might have seen my new boxed thank you cards are out!

would you like yourself your very own box?

leave me a little hello in the comments, 

along with what kind of card you wish you could buy,

and one randomly chosen commenter will get a hot off the presses box of my new cards!

giveaway open until next friday, april 4th!

happy commenting + good luck!

come on now, you silent readers, this is your chance to pipe up and win!

if you don't win, you can always buy a box.

susannah eloyse prinz cards are available at independent retailers nationwide, 

or wherever papyrus products are sold.

Rain or shine, snow or sleet, we deliver your mail!

i think this is awesome! two of my favorite letterpress companies,
eggpress :

and hello!lucky :

(both images from papercrave.com)

are starting a letter writing campaign for the month of april. here are the details!

We're each endeavoring to write 30 letters to 30 people in 30 days. And as it happens this project coincides with National Letter Writing Month. We hope you will join us! To that end we have created this special WRITEON Letter Writing Kit containing 4 letterpress printed cards - 2 from Egg Press and 2 from Hello!Lucky - and we are giving out a limited number of these kits for free. Each card will have instructions on the back that tell how each recipient can receive their own free kits. And on and on. We hope to see an ever-increasing web of connectedness and good feelings. 

(i just signed up to get my free letterpress cards! go here if you want to sign up too and get free cards to mail! who wants to join me in writing real letters on real paper with real stamps? who wants me to send them a letter? let me know in the comments and i'll write up to 30! (in the comments leave me your email so i can get your address if i don't have it already)

sit and be still

it feels like the last few weeks have been kind of rough in general,

at least in so many conversations i've had here and there,

in the lives of those around me.

ran into this wendell berry poem, 

and it seemed like the best words as we enter the weekend.

may your weekend be one of rest and renewal and space.

Sit and be still
until in the time
of no rain you hear
beneath the dry wind's
commotion in the trees
the sound of flowing
water among the rocks,
a stream unheard before,
and you are where
breathing is prayer.

-Wendell Berry

storytime

so my big girl can't read yet, but she sure can tell stories! and somehow, ruby is very patiently listening along. (also, i love richard scarry books! and i love secretly capturing my children -not performing but just doing their thing- on video. remember how i said she's obsessed with let it go? she somehow works it into her story and breaks into song in the middle of her story)

the big 5!

moments like this

brought to you by the daily miracle that happens in our house

aka cochlear implants!

(that would be singing and playing let it go- the song on endless repeat at our house. you know, the adele dazeem hit? please someone get my joke.)

5 years ago, on march 18th, 

m's cochlear implants were activated!

so no huge hearing birthday party this year,

like this one or this first year  or last year,

but just as important,

a family dinner to celebrate how hard m works every day to hear and talk.

and...sing.

we stayed low key this year.

m got to pick the meal, and she went for (to my surprise) cucumber tomato salad, broccoli and pesto pasta and finishing with vanilla ice cream sundaes.

hooray! candles on roasted broccoli,

but ice cream sundaes for dessert!

five years of wonderful sounds-

so so so

thankful for the gift that our girl gets every day,

getting to be deaf and hearing at the same time.

life with a cherry on top!

we wish you luck with your future career

i might be slightly biased, but this is the best thing ever. as my 5 year old says, you've got to stick to it!

sick little ruby at home- with PINK EYE!- so i am short and sweet and washing lots of things in hot water (again), disinfecting the house (again) and chilling on the couch with her. want to help a sister out and shoot me some fun/inspiring/silly/heart soaring/wise/or some other reason for being good to check out links in the comment section?

also, have a good, pink-eye-and-all-other-icky-germs-free kind of day.

this week

more or less

more pictures, less words.

humpty dumpty kind of week

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

All the king's horses and all the king's men

Couldn't put Humpty together again

do you remember this nursery rhyme from childhood? it's kind of a depressing one- right? it came to mind this morning as i thought about the past week. the other day the girls were in the backyard playing; m was jumproping and somehow her jumprope snagged one of my pots of succulents, which brought it crashing down, breaking the pot into chunks and shards of pottery all over the concrete. the succulents fared better, but lots of their leaves had broken off upon impact, so tiny fleshy succulent pieces were scattered in among the broken pot and the hunks of dislodged soil. of course it was one of my favorite pots, because that's how things often go. with a little prodding from matt she was not only repentant but helpful in trying to help clean it up. 

but within minutes i could tell she felt bad enough what had happened that she was wishing it hadn't happened at all and she was saying, "it's ok though, right, mommy? you can go buy another one can't you?" no. i couldn't. so for the umpteenth time (because things like this seem to happen a lot when you have small people in your house) i had to explain that it was an accident, that i know she didn't mean to do it, but that also sometimes you can't fix things, sometimes they are broken and you can't glue them back together even if you really want to. 

other times you break things like succulents, which have the capacity to regrow or grow from broken spots; it takes a while and the spots where the leaves broke off are permanently a teensy bit wonky or the regrowth comes out in slightly different patterns. over time the plant is resilient enough that even the little leaves that fell off can form their own new succulent plants. 

this week i feel that again i'm grieving again the things in my family's life that are broken: primarily fallout from stuff with my dad from five years ago. most of the time i feel like we are all collectively and (speaking for myself) individually in a pretty healthy and healed place, and then other times i realize how much damage my dad's actions caused, and how our family will never be the same. that makes me sad. and of course, sometimes i miss having a dad. hoping and believing the brokenness is broken in a succulent-regrowing-itself-kind-of-a-way and not in a irreparable-shards-of-pottery or humpty dumpty kind of a way. (even if some days it feels pretty hard with no good at all.)

happy friday!

it's friday! (well, technically it's currently thursday night, but same same)
this calls for a dance party!
circa 2012.
location: our living room.
starring: my children.
my deaf daughter has moves for days, you guys. and ruby's rocking a diaper here, so there you go. i rediscovered this video this week and it makes me smile. kids are awesome.

sneak peek at my newest mother's day card!

yesterday i got samples of my new mother's day card! i always have a hard time finding a good mother's day card for someone special who isn't my mom but who i still want to honor and treat on mother's day. 

this card is available wherever papyrus cards are sold and at independent retailers nationwide.

go buy one for that kind-of-like-a-mom-to-you-who-really-deserves-some-recognition in your life!

tattoos

matt is getting a tattoo today.

this morning m told ruby, 

"when grown ups get tattoos they don't come off. 

they stay FOREVER."

perhaps in anticipation of the event ruby gave herself some tattoos during rest time the other day:

not pictured: her also tatted up feet and "painted" toes

i am ink free,

but i love my friend nicole's beautiful reminders on her arms.

what tattoo would you get if you could? 

or what tattoo do you have and why?

hit me with your best shot, people.

(the pretty contents of our csa box this week)

i love soup. 

one of my favorite kinds of cold weather parties is an open house with different soups and homemade bread.

so.

i need some new to me,

but tried and true to you,

recipes!

for soup!

or cold (it's all relative, i know) or dreary weather recipes.

last time i asked for lentil recipes you gave me some fantastic ones that i've made,

so bring it on (please.)

(they can be veggie or not so much) 

and this is the part where you head to the comments section, my friends.

my family's tummies say thank you in advance!

(and happy monday to you)