winter reprieve

We had lovely temperatures in the 60s this weekend and we determined to make the most of every ounce of sunshine before winter returns. We, and nearly every other family in our area, decided to make a trip to the zoo on Saturday. Because the temperatures were so nice, the animals were largely active which was exciting to observe.

We also found a new section of the Honeybee Garden which we hadn't explored before. Finn was able to tour a giant hive complete with huge honeycomb. What a cool experience!

Back at home, we found some bulbs enjoying the warmth by sending up some green shoots into the sunlight. Not too many have made their appearance yet so I hope more are on their way. Note to self: add more bulbs this fall. There is little that excites me more than green shoots in February!

The first sidewalk drawings of the season are always precious as well. By the end of summer, I'll be exasperated with the lack of a spot of concrete to sit without getting chalk dust on my clothes, but for now, Finn's sweet little cars are a welcome sight.

And of course, we've been on wheels. How better to enjoy the warmth than tooling around the driveway on wheels we've nary seen since October!

Finn even tried out the tricycle that all the older kids have called their own once upon a time. His feet finally reach the pedals. Clearly, the weather wasn't the only excitement this weekend.

Did you have nice weather this weekend? If so, how did you celebrate?

{this moment} - working together

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. See Soulemama to play along.

PS. Thanks to everyone for your support on my previous post. I really appreciate your kind words. XOXO

big changes

Ten years ago last month, I became a mother. I was 23, had no idea what I was doing, and had this sweet little person totally relying on me to nurture her, care for her, teach her, guide her, keep her alive and provide for her. And so I did all of those things to the best of my ability and in the case of providing, that meant going back to work on a part-time basis from home while she stayed at home with me.

She got older and a little more independent and my job morphed into a more demanding role that required I be in an office a couple days a week and off she went to a friend's house for care on those days staying home with me on the others. Life happened, divorce happened, moving and transferring into a full-time position happened. And although all those things were happening around us, this little girl and I still spent every evening and weekend soaking up each other, reading, creating, planting, breathing the fresh air and each other. Life was different, but oh so very good.

Then came marriage and brothers and a little baby brother, and craziness ensued. (Don't boys bring all the craziness to life?!) I could feel myself stretching thinner and thinner, trying to be involved at various schools, activities, raise and nurture these little ones, tote a baby along and give him necessary attention as well. Meanwhile, I was fortunate to have my job become flexible enough to allow work from home, although I couldn't really care for any kids at the same time because I had to remain focused during my work hours.

With all the chaos, we still made the most of life, creating, baking, gardening, hiking, pursuing the activities most dear to us.

As Paul and I became more settled into our careers, we've been fortunate enough to have a few of the extras, and we've been able to travel some and expose our kids to things that we find enriching to them.

But more and more often over the last year, I began to ask myself, "Is it worth it?" Handing my children's care over to other people so much of the weekdays (albeit carefully-considered and loving caregivers), does the end justify the means?

I'm a fairly independent and strong-willed person, and I would think, "yes, the sacrifices our family makes to have 2 hard-working parents are worth the benefits that come with those 2 careers, 2 salaries, a multitude of opportunities."

Yet still I asked, "In 10 more years when my oldest is in college and my youngest is nearing high school with much less need of motherly smothering, will I still think it was worth it?"

Don't get me wrong, I think this question can be answered by many mothers in so many different ways, but clearly, for me, the answer was not quite as simple as I'd come to believe it was.

And so I quit. My last day of life as a working mom is drawing nigh, and I'm scared, thrilled, nervous, excited, skittish, overjoyed, and about a million other emotions all rolled into one already energetic person.

While I'm feeling that crazy jumble of emotions, at the end of the day when these little people come running toward me, I want to give them every last ounce of myself that I can for the years I have left to give them.

I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring, but I'm throwing myself headlong into the possibilities.

a space for Finn's work

This is the art shelf that sits in the corner of our breakfast nook beside the kitchen bar.

This is the space that has been cleared for Finn's work on the art shelf.

This is the clementine box that has been selected as a holder for Finn's work.

This is the clementine box, painted with chalkboard paint, selected to hold Finn's work.

This is "Finn's work" box in it's new residence on the art shelf in the breakfast nook, right by the table where he likes to work.

Speaking of Finn's work, I recently discovered the site Montessori for Everyone which has some great free downloads. Finn is thrilled with his new cards to work with and several of them have been particularly applicable to our trip to the sheep farm this past weekend.

We've talked about sweaters, yarn and where they come from, as well as the names for mommy and daddy sheep and their baby lambs. These cards came in a set with other "where they come from" cards and other "animal families" from the Montessori for Everyone cultural materials section of the free downloads.

I also really liked the What Doesn't Belong cards, which I haven't presented to Finn just yet. I'm not sure he has the concept of which picture does not belong in each group of four. I was also concerned that he wouldn't learn the concept, he would just learn which item didn't belong and then always know where to place his X card.

So I created my own sheet of What Doesn't Belong cards so I can have more cards to mix together and hopefully reinforce the concept without just teaching the 4 specific cards that were available for download on Montessori for Everyone. If you'd like to print the following sheet, just click on the picture, and it should come up in a standard letter size for printing.

Valentine's crafting

We've had quite a bit of Valentine crafting happening over the last few weeks, all with the kids, nothing on my own this year. I decided to save all of our V-day crafting for one post, but now I have a zillion pictures to share and think that maybe I should have broken it up a bit. Alas, here it goes!

Finn and I decided to use some of his watercolor paintings to make conversation heart valentines for his friends at school. We (ahem, I) decided on different words or phrases to put on each heart. Finn signed each heart on the back. The perfect preschool valentine, I think.

We traced a heart that I printed on the watercolor sheets then cut them out and wrote the phrases in a combination of block and regular beeswax crayons.

The multiple colors on each word helped them stand out on the watercolor paintings. Finn would get so excited as I told him the word I was writing on each heart.

Every one of his 12 school friends has a unique word on their conversation heart. Finn's school requires nameless valentines so the children can just go down the row placing a valentine in each bag. I like to think that the perfect word will end up with each child. :)

A few weeks ago, the kids and I decided to make scented playdough. We got the idea from 5 Orange Potatoes, although we didn't add the herbs, only lavender essential oil. I made a batch of lavender dough and the kids shaped the dough into a dozen or so hearts.

We used a pencil tip to make holes in the hearts for stringing. I love how individual each of these hearts turned out.

When the hearts finally dried, which took 2+ weeks, the color had faded to a pink with a hint of purple and a faint lavender scent. I found some leftover pink alpaca yarn which matched nicely and we strung each heart.

The kids have decided that they'll each wear a dough heart tomorrow and the rest will be given to their teachers. I'd love to see how long a lavender-scented heart lasts on my 5th grade boy's neck. ;)

Another project that Finn and I tackled was celery stamp roses. After seeing pictures from a friend, I decided that celery stamp roses could be the perfect project for Finn to make cards for his teachers.

We stamped a rose on each card, after a few practice stamps, of course.

Then we wrote a nice little message, which Finn signed. Another perfect card idea for a preschooler, in my opinion. Quick, easy and a nice amount of creativity thrown in.

Elizabeth did not take the quick and easy route with her cards this year. She decided to make a personalized card for each of her classmates with a mix of blank cardstock, glue, glitter, Valentine transfers, and colored pencils. She worked diligently over several nights and put an amazing amount of effort into each card. I hope her friends appreciate their one-of-a-kind cards!

Valentine's Day cards seemed like the perfect opportunity to break out her newly acquired hot glue gun wax stamps. Just before her birthday, I stumbled upon these sparkly colored wax sticks that fit into a hot glue gun and work with a wax seal. What fun!

I forgot to take any pictures of her actually squirting the wax through her hot glue gun, but the final product is a blob of hot wax that cools for just a few seconds before being stamped with a metal seal.

Tween girl heaven, right?! It's glittery, heart-y and involves a slight amount of danger.

Sealed with her love!

I hope everyone has a wonderfully crafty and loving Valentine's Day, however you choose to celebrate!

shearing day

In preparation for going to the farm this morning to observe our favorite sheep getting their spring haircuts, we read a few books about shearing and the wonderful yarn, sweaters and suits that come from their lovely wool. Pelle's New Suit is a standard from our spring book basket, which I pulled out a few weeks early. Haircuts for the Woolseys is an out-of-print Tomie DePaola favorite, discovered a few years ago at our local used bookstore.

This morning dawned clear, if windy, and we headed out to visit our sheepy friends and admire their newly-shorn selves.

Elizabeth couldn't resist threading her fingers through their wool and exclaiming how different it feels from the roving that we felt and spin.

The sheared sheep stuck out like a sore thumb amongst his wooly friends. It continually amazes me how thick the wool grows close to their bodies. I wonder how long it takes for them to look like normal sheep again instead of looking like they have badly snipped crafter's foam stuck to their bodies.

In the storeroom just beside the sheep pen, you could find bags of fleeces, waiting to be washed and carded for someone's crafting desires. I love how each bag is labeled with the sheep's name. So personal, like finding a carton of milk with the cow's name stickered to the side of the carton.

We also spent several minutes watching the chickens strut around their pen. Even though the last few days have been warmer, they still had to push ice out of the way to drink from their tub.

By the time I noticed them again, they had left the pen and were wandering through the yard. Clearly, these are free range chickens!

While Paulie, Elizabeth and I were visiting the chickens, Paul, Philip and Finn disappeared. Suddenly Finn comes running down the lane, "Mama! Mama!! You need to see this!!!"

Finn had been in the furtherest barn admiring two little ten-day-old lambs.

They looked so soft and downy. I could have just scooped one up and held him the rest of the day, but the mamas weren't having anyone get too close. I loved the way those ewes eyed us suspiciously and moved closer to their babies when we neared the fence. Mama's instinct is certainly a powerful one.

Behind the fence just outside of the lambing barn, we found a few llamas. Llamas are funny little creatures. They were so curious about us, but I think our rambunctious brood concerned them. They kept darting back and forth along the fence, watching us.

Elizabeth took a few minutes to write about the experience while she was there. She's started journalling with 2 friends and they trade journals every few days so she's rarely seen without a journal in hand these days.

The farmer came along to feed the llamas while we were there. He explained to Philip that the llamas are kept with the sheep for protection. Llamas do a wonderful job of keeping the dogs and coyotes away from the sheep. He said that slow movement and soft talking will win the llamas trust and they would let us approach without darting away.

As we were walking back toward the shearing barn, I couldn't help but notice this lovely scene. What a picturesque hill covered with sheep and evergreens with a bright blue winter sky in the background.

I consider myself lucky to have access to several beautiful, sustainable farms, with well-treated animals, nearby to introduce my family to the wonder of nature and farm life.

On our way out, Finn began dragging (and whining) from the long morning. Paulie scooped him up onto his back and carried him as far as he could. He's a good llama of a big brother.