Outside

This weekend, lots of time was spent out of doors.  Stroller riding/pushing, biking, planting, measuring, watering, it was a full weekend.  We're getting our garden ready for the planting season.  All the root vegetables were planted several weeks ago when the moon was in the dark phase.  I refer to this often.  We're excited another planting season is upon us!  I love this change of pace in our family day to tending to the small crops planted, excited to see what grows best this year (hoping for more squash this year and earlier tomatoes!) Its always an experiment isn't it?  So much depends on the weather and how many deer pass by, but each year we gain more experience and knowledge to apply to the next growing season.

A Little Montessori

I don’t get around to doing as many Montessori-like activities as I wish these days, but on Friday it so happened that I was able to sit Nathaniel down in front of his Object Permanence Box and he stayed engaged for longer than I expected, especially with me snapping the camera hoping to not distract him.  

I have been a big fan of the Montessori approach for teaching children for many years now and feel like I'm at a place where I can practice some of that knowledge researched years ago with our baby Nathaniel.  I had introduced the Object Permanence Box about a month ago and he would just crawl away mouthing the ball.  But on this day, he stayed engaged, so that tells me that he is ready for it.  It challenged him.  

I have also opened a YouTube channel for my blog.  Its not perfect by any means, but I wanted to share some of the videos I've taken and will continue to add more.  So far, there are two uploaded, I have more that I need to locate and upload.  You can find them on my channel here.  {This is also the video of Nathaniel doing his work with his Object Permanence Box.}  

this moment ::

Inspired by Soulemama's {This Moment}

{this moment} - a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from my week.  I want to pause and savor this moment.

Days / Nights

Many days and nights have passed since I was last at this space.  Reason being . . . my external harddrive that contained all of my pictures since Christmas of 2009 was dropped and unless I fork up $1500, nothing can be retrieved.  So it sits up on a shelf waiting for technology to catch up to my pocketbook!  So what few pictures I have scattered among the various computers in the house, what I've uploaded to a few internet photo sites, what's on my blog via Flickr and what's on my camera currently is all I've got for now.  I just haven't allowed myself to think about it really.  I vowed to be at peace about it and that's where I stand.  That being said, many more pictures will be taken and many more pictures will be safely archived in the future!

Here's a look at our recent days and nights:



















Days: A look into our days around the home.
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Nights:  A joyful ending to our busy days.

Hope your days and nights are too filled with joy!

Importance of goals

Life can be really drab and boring for me when I don't have something to focus on.  I've always been a "learner."  About 4 years ago, I came out of a depression slump in the course of about 4 hours one Saturday afternoon when I had what I call a reawakening of a dormant love for knitting.  It went something like this. Read a blog post, saw the knitting pattern, made the phone call to a local yarn store, ran out the door, by that evening I came home with the newly bought yarn, needles and book and I've never been the same since.

 







So back to goals.  One of my goals this season has been to build a fire from scratch.  It has always intimidated me, which seems a little silly to me today thinking about it.  So on Sunday, when I had a house all to myself except a sleeping baby upstairs, I went outside to gather wood and branches for kindling.  And so the building of the fire began.  After about a 1/2 hour of tending, it was roaring and I was really pleased with myself.  I felt confident with my newly found survival skill.  Its the best feeling in the world when you set a goal and an intention and succeed.







May this continue to be a simple lesson for myself on the importance of setting goals.

this moment ::

Inspired by Soulemama's {This Moment}

{this moment} - a single photo - no words - capturing a simply fantastic moment of my week.  I want to pause (and savor) this moment!

Life.

Here we are!  I'm finally getting settled again from the Holidays and New Year.  The kids went back to school on the 2nd and the pace of my schedule seemed to soar again with appointments, after holiday clean-up, Nathaniel's interest in eating solids and exploring his environment, and all the interuptions that come with that!  So much for one mama to do!  

That being said, here are some moments from our holidays, looking forward to a very interesting and incredible year filled with magical moments and miracles that fill our lives!  I'm so grateful for all the magic and miracles I witnessed last year, gives me so much hope for what's to come!

Happy 2013!!