Have you ever read Miss Rumphius?  I hope you have, because if you haven’t, ARE YOU HUMAN? DO YOU HAVE A HEART?

Anyway, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney is absolutely our dreamlife in picture book form.  The story and the gorgeous illustrations come together to make what was definitely one of our favorite books growing up.  We’ve always wanted to be Alice Rumphius.

The book tells us the story of Alice, who grows up with her artist grandfather, who sometimes lets her paint the skies into his pictures.  She wants to be just like him when she grows up.  She says that she too will go to faraway places and will live beside the sea.  He tells her that there is one more thing she must do in her life – she must do something to make the world more beautiful.

When Alice grows up, she travels the world, to jungles and deserts, and to tall mountains where the snow never melts.  Then, dream of all dreams, Alice becomes a librarian.  And she moves into her house by the sea.  Can you even believe what a dream that house is? I will take it please!

One winter, Alice is very sick, and has to stay in bed.  She remembers that there is one more thing on her grandfather’s list that she needs to accomplish.  How can she make the world more beautiful?  “The world already is pretty nice,” she thought.

The following spring, Alice notices that some of the lupines she’d planted had sprung up not only in her garden, but also across the hillside around her house.  “’I don’t believe my eyes!’ she said as she knelt in delight. ‘It was the wind that brought the seeds from my garden here! And the birds must have helped!’”  Then she realizes how she can make the world more beautiful.  She and her cat (of course she has a cat) travel the countryside and scatter seeds everywhere.  The townspeople are like, “What? This catlady is crazy!” But then all of the flowers bloom and they love it and they start to call her the Lupine Lady and come to visit her.

So anyway.  We want her life.  We want the travels to exotic lands, we want to be a librarian and live in a house by the sea with our cat and have a garden.  We want to be the gentle, kind lady who reads books to children and has an awesome grey streak in her sloppy bun.  The book doesn’t mention it, but it’s pretty obvious from how awesome Alice is that she also bakes a lot of cookies and drinks tea on that fabulous seaside porch.  She is just all in all, a genuinely good person.

Miss Rumphius is such a wonderful example to kids – and grown up G&G Girls – of what a wonderful life looks like.  It may seem weird to have a fictional role model, but hey, if the shoe fits…

Also, check out what a babe the author/illustrator was. The lovely Miss Cooney said that the book was the closest she would ever come to an autobiography.  In today’s world of Hello Kitty and oversimplified rhyming “books” about sharing, we couldn’t agree more with her philosophy: “I believe that children in this country need a more robust literary diet than they are getting…. It does not hurt them to read about good and evil, love and hate, life and death. Nor do I think they should read only about things that they understand…. a man’s reach should exceed his grasp. So should a child’s. For myself, I will never talk down to—or draw down to—children.” Amen Barbara. And she said that in 1959, can you imagine how appalled she would be today!?

We think we could have been good friends.

Photo from littlehousehomeschooling.blogspot.com/

The G&G Girls are pretty good at stalking, and Instagram only makes it easier for us to peep in on other people’s lives.  Through word of mouth from fellow dreamlife stalkers, and by exploring hashtags like “homeschoolingmom,” we now have a regular lineup of Instagrams to creep on.  But “creep on” sounds so negative.  Let’s say “aspire to” instead.  Because each of these five women are real life examples of G&G’s Dreamlife, and one day we hope to be just like them.  They make us so happy, because they are living proof that our “loving dreamboat husband-backyard chickens-awesome homeschooled kids” dreamlife really can be done!

Thanks ladies!

Here are links to the blogs/websites belonging to our most devotedly stalked Dreamlife Ladies:

-Little House Homeschooling

- Ash Parsons

- Bleu Bird

- House of Habit

- Denise Bovee

Galoshes are for tromping through mud, and jumping in puddles, and visiting the animals in the barn.  Basically, galoshes are for all sorts of fun things.  They are fun to say, and fun to wear, and are an essential part of a Dreamlife.

You know those pictures of different sized galoshes lined up by the door?  The daddy galoshes, the mommy galoshes, and a few pairs of baby galoshes, all lined up ready to go outside and play.  Those pictures make me so happy, because I imagine the family that wears them having so much fun.

They make pancakes for breakfast, and go blueberry picking, and they definitely have chickens and a dog, and maybe a barn cat or two.  The kids don’t sit around on their iphones all day, because they are swinging on the tire swing and digging worms and stomping puddles in their galoshes.  They’re living the dreamlife.

Have you ever been to the Ocracoke Coffee Co.?  If you haven’t, let me just tell you – it is a DREAM.  If you have, well then, you know I speak the truth.

My life dream is to own it, or another cafe in a similar setting.  Ocracoke’s entire population is less than 1,000.  The high school had a graduating class of 7 this year, and the cafe closed early on graduation day so everyone could go to the ceremony.

Are you starting to picture the dream in my head…?

The small town (or island) coffee shop is such a special place.  Everything is home made, fresh and delicious.  Everyone is happy and friendly because everyone knows each other.  There are rocking chairs on the front porch to sip your beverage, and a nice lawn with fragrant flowers and chirping birds.  Dogs and babies hang out.  There are games and books, and everything is just perfect.

Granted, you have to get up at an ungodly hour when you run a coffee shop, but that will work out just fine since my man-friend the fisherman will probably be getting up even earlier to fish.  While he’s fishing, I’ll bake up a batch of muffins at the shop, and after awhile he’ll take a muffin and coffee break, and we’ll sit on the front porch, sipping our coffee and surveying our coffee shop kingdom.  Just living the dream man.

I’m picturing being about 60 here, a little plumper, grey hair, and crow’s feet.  I already got up early and fed the chickens, and now my man friend and I are sitting on the porch, drinking some coffee, or tea, or hot chocolate.  Whatever, something hot.  We talk about  our plans for the day- he’s going fishing, and I’m baking something.

There is probably a dog at our feet, and a slight morning chill in the air.  The birds are chirping, a gentle breeze blowing through the trees, but that’s the only sound.  No fire trucks, or cars honking, or any other people.  Just peace, quiet and contentment.

I think we’ll be back here again after dinner, as the world is bathed in sunset, reflecting on our day (he went fishing, I baked something.)  Our rocking chairs probably creak a little bit, it’s been years since my stud muffin built them, but they’re still perfect…better with age, just like us.

A full cookie jar.  It doesn’t get any more dreamlife than that.  A full cookie jar is pretty much the epitome of a dreamlife.  A full cookie jar represents love, warmth and happiness.  And obviously, cookies are delicious and should be readily available at all times.

A jar full of homemade cookies, baked with love, free for the taking by anyone who happens to be passing through the kitchen.  Little kids just home from school, friends visiting over a cup of coffee, geez peez, I’d even offer one to the plumber.  And the very best…after dinner when the whole jar is brought to the coffee table with a couple glasses of milk, and we snuggle on the couch with a blanket and a sweet treat.

I can’t help it, a full cookie jar just symbolizes love to me, and no dreamlife is complete without one.

My dreamlife absolutely includes chickens.  In fact, they rank pretty high on the list of dreamlife criteria.  Like Top 5.  Until I moved to the Big City, I had chickens.  And I loved them.  And someday when I move out of the Big City, I will have them again.

Chickens just make me happy.  From the time they are little baby roly poly bundles of fluff, they are just a delight.  They make such happy noises, and no matter what people say, they have personalities.  I KNOW they do.

Sure, they are some work, but what isn’t?  Sometimes they get sick, and you have to nurse them.  And when it’s cold out you have to cover their feet and combs in Vaseline so they don’t get frostbite.  And sometimes hawks will swoop down and steal one.  And that is always a sad day, but it’s the circle of life in the first person.  Who needs The Lion King when you grow up on a farm?  And as far as farm animals go, chickens are pretty much the easiest ones around.

But anyway.  My dreamlife chickens.  My favorite breed (yes, I’m a poultry nerd) is the Australian Australorp.  They are without

Look how beautiful they are!

a doubt the most magnificent chicken.  They are a large, hearty breed.  Excellent layers of lovely brown eggs (they hold the world laying record.)  So friendly and docile.  PERFECT.

So in my dreamlife, I will have maybe just a half dozen, I’m not trying to go crazy.  Every morning I’ll get up and let them out into the yard, and collect the fresh eggs.  And the hens will cackle and chirp appreciatively as I scatter some grain, and they’ll scratch the dirt for worms and bugs.  And the rooster will strut majestically around the yard, keeping an eye on his ladies and looking cool.  Such a wonderful sight.

Then I’ll go inside, and cook up some eggs for my handsome manfriend’s breakfast.  He will say that they are delicious, and then he will go fishing, and I will stay home and bake something.  Kind of like now…only with chickens.