Happy Earth Day!

In honor of Earth Day, Paul, Paulie, Elizabeth and I decided to do a nature series from our own yard.  Every shot in the series is of a plant/flower in our yard or taken while standing in our yard.

My shots:

Finn's little hand clutching a dandelion

another bud discarded by Finn

the just-sprung leaves on our crepe myrtle

my new mexican heather plant

Elizabeth's shots:

petunias planted this weekend

Philip, clutching some clover buds

our front porch

Paulie's shots:

random weeds in our yard

Paul's shot:

the neighbor's horse pasture

as seen from our backyard

As we were heading inside, another spring storm brought this rainbow.  How fitting to end our Earth Day photo shoot with a rainbow.  (Yes, we have a horse pasture on one side, suburbia on the other.)

None of the kids' shots were directed by me in any way.  Didn't they do a fabulous job?!

not much

We had a relaxing evening of not much yesterday.  "Not much" days are well-appreciated around here since our pace is too often frantic and much busier than I'd like.  A glimpse of our not much:

crawling all over the backyard like little bugs

(yes, that's a neighbor; our kids aren't multiplying)

sharing secrets with siblings

enjoying dinner in the spring sun

and 

a treat for mommy--a night on the town with the ladies
to celebrate an impending new arrival in our group

all the best kinds of not much

beautiful weekend

The weekend was so gorgeous with temperatures rising to 80 on Saturday.  We spent so much of it outside working in the yard that I only took a few pictures.  Paulie had a baseball game on Saturday; we had a great time lounging in the sun watching him play.

Saturday evening we spent at my grandmother's house.  Finn is in love with her home-grown, homemade bread-and-butter pickles (although apparently not the onions).  He ate a bowl full while waiting for dinner.

The biggest portion of the weekend was spent assembling our new deck furniture.  We've wanted a set for a long time, but there were always things higher on the list to take care of.  We got a great deal on a nice set so I'm sure we'll be practically living on the deck for a long time.  The new set was inaugurated at lunch yesterday with some black bean and veggie chili.  Finn was thrilled to be eating outside!

The Simple Woman's Daybook

For Today...(my first one, so bear with me)

Outside my window... the horses are eating my blackberry blossoms and I'm trying not to mind

I am thinking... that it's nice to have a weekend with no work (from work) that has to be done.

From the learning rooms... We don't homeschool, but we are learning about sunflowers and bees via The Great Sunflower Project

I am thankful for... the date I had with my husband last night.  He's a fun guy to hang out with!

From the kitchen... salads with fresh greens and banana-almond butter muffins

I am wearing... jeans and t-shirt...so predictable.

I am reading... Eve's Daughters, with my book club

I am hoping... to finish working in the front yard this weekend

I am creating... a knitted and needle felted garden for the summer nature table

I am praying... for a good finish to the school year for the kids.

Around the house... working outside, trying to decide about some outdoor furniture

One of my favorite things... lazy Saturday morning veggie omelets with Paul and Finn

A few plans for the rest of the week... going to visit my grandmother this evening.  I haven't seen her in too long.

Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

It's a Finn-only weekend.  He makes me smile a million times a day, and I'm glad to focus on him for a few days.

sprites and books

Look who I found in the corner of the window sill this morning.  A friendly little sprite clinging to some dried flowers.  This sprite, from Syrendell, made her way into Elizabeth's room shortly before Easter, and has traveled the house since then carrying many things.  She looks particularly lovely here offering her dried flowers to the nature table.

Yesterday, a quick trip to our local used bookstore, where I usually have great luck finding chapter books, but not as much luck finding good picture books, yielded a litany of wonderful books.  The Vanishing Pumpkin, illustrated by Tomie DePaola; 1 is One, by Tasha Tudor; and When the Root Children Wake Up, illustrated by Ned Bittenger, to name a few.  A funky little 80s-looking board book called The Forest Friends, full of gnomes and woodland animals, was decidedly Finn's favorite.

Elizabeth flew through the whole lot of books, except Walter: The Story of a Rat, a chapter book about a literary rat, and declared When the Root Children Wake Up to be her favorite.

You just never know what the day might hold, or what treasures you might find inside the used bookstore.

That Finn!

Last evening, as I was cleaning up the flower beds...ahem, weeding, our neighbor/babysitter, Mary, stopped by to show us the pottery she'd been working on in art class at school.  Wheel-thrown pottery is one of my art passions so I was excited to see what she'd done.   She did a great job with the pieces she brought to show me!  I really enjoy seeing someone's first exploration with a new medium.  Fascinating!

As Paul and I were admiring Mary's pottery, Finn apparently decided that Paulie's skateboard could use some decoration.  That Finn!  I guess the benefit to being the only child always at this house (while the others visit their other parents) is that you can embellish your siblings belongings while they're away.

As dusk was falling, we noticed that one of the horses was enjoying a snack of the weeds I'd pulled.  Too bad I can't just unleash him in the flower bed and save myself some work.  ;)

into the wet outdoors

When we got home this afternoon, the kids were immediately begging to frolic in the backyard. This is standard after-school routine, but today was the 2nd day of rain (again!), which only ended about 2 hours before school did, in what has, so far, been a very wet spring. My first thought was, "because the 5 loads of laundry I have waiting for me upstairs isn't enough, you want to add muddy clothes to the mix?" But even as that thought entered my head, I was reminded of a post by The Little Travelers' mom just a short time ago about the rhythms of their day, and how they always made a point to be outside, even if for a short time.

So I stared at this puddle...

and outside we went.

Finn was overjoyed to show me
the mud on the tip of his bus.

The others climbed, played...

checked out their garden...

the standard afternoon business.

And I noticed some new growth on our evergreens

and these first leaves on our maple trees.

An extra load of laundry seems like a small price to pay.

Don't Go 'Round Artless

After stumbling across this blog yesterday, I realized that I have never, in my almost year of blogging, ever blogged about Art-O-Mats.  If you could walk through my house, you would see what a travesty it is that I have overlooked them in my blogging.  Art-O-Mats are cigarette vending machines that have been refurbished to vent small, cigarette-pack-sized pieces of art for generally $5 per piece.  In early 2002, my very first art-o-mat piece was purchased from the original Art-O-Mat machine at Mary's Of Course Cafe in Winston-Salem, NC, which was initially an art installation itself.  Since then, I've collected from machines all over NC and even as far away as the machine in the Whitney Museum in NYC.  I haven't counted recently, but I would guess my art-o-mat collection stands somewhere around 150.  I have everything from from earrings, necklaces, photographs, paintings, carved wood blocks, pottery, blown glass, ceramics, stained glass, and metal in nearly every room of my house.  The photos below capture only half or less of our art-o-mat collection.  The kids each have their own art-o-mat collections in their rooms as well.

These small black and white photos hang on my living room wall.

The collection in Paulie and Philip's room.

The collection in Elizabeth's room.

The piece I bought for Finn
shortly after becoming pregnant with him.

Philip's favorite piece.

Elizabeth's favorite piece.

(the ceramic turtle was an art-o-mat, the glass turtle I made)

My first art-o-mat was from the series below.  I loved it so much and credit Alicia Griswold, the poet and painter of this series, for first attracting my attention to art-o-mats.  After trying to collect the entire series through the machines and giving away many duplicates, I contacted Alicia, and she kindly made an entire set for me.  They hang in our bedroom over our reading chair and bring immeasurable peace to that space.  (In my house, that says alot.)

My original display cubes for art-o-mats.  

They remain in another corner of our bedroom.

If you'd like to find an Art-O-Mat near you, please check here for locations.

Easter Weekend

This weekend was a flurry of church, Good Friday communion, Easter baskets, homemade goodies, friends, food, egg hunts, outside play, and a short ER visit.  (Paulie fell from the monkey bars in our backyard and landed on his head sustaining a mild concussion but was released after a short observation.)  Here are some of the scenes from our weekend:

Eggies for the big kids' baskets

(directions for your own Eggies here)

Finn was as thrilled about his own needle-felted "Bill"

as I hoped he'd be.

Paulie, checking out his Four In A Row game

Finn, learning to scoop balls

Let the hunting begin!