family

takin’ it easy

My sister and her kids left this morning after being here at the farm for a week. It was lots of fun, especially for my girls who now have better tan lines and more poison ivy and bug bites creeping up their legs and elbows than they’ve had all summer.

Just in the time she was here two litters of kittens were born, five frogs were caught, a minnow and small blue gill came to live in our fish tank (which need to be returned to the pond), marshmallows were roasted, a craft was completed, round bales were climbed in (more leg scratches), and new fast friends came to be.

P1010006

It was fun, but it was definitely a lot more action than we’re used to around here. My sister’s kids are movers and shakers! So today we’re takin’ it easy. After hanging out in the lobby of the car dealership for an hour and a half this morning, waiting for an oil change, we came home to a quick lunch, long naps for all and now, a-hem, a movie and some popcorn. Why not? We’re laying low, avoiding the oppressive heat outside and re-adjusting to our life minus our cousins.

And I’m full of {un}productive things like making myself a new flickr icon and getting lost looking at the very first pictures I ever uploaded to my flickr account. This picture is me when I was little (that’s obvious)…I’m guessing I might be five years old, sitting on the back steps of the farm where I grew up. This was always one of my mom’s favorite pictures because she said the goose and I were both smiling. I’m trying to remember how I ever had the courage to be holding the goose because I distinctly remember carrying around a ping-pong-shooting gun to "shoot" the nasty geese that would come at me, necks down, wings spread, hissing.  The gun was also for the rooster (ironically named, "Friendly") that treed me in the lilacs behind the back porch.

36533182_769d422e7b_2

In the same way my husband gets sad watching old video of the girls when they were younger, it’s killing me to look back at some of these old flickr shots.  This one. and this. Not to mention this or this or this!
So don’t do it folks, don’t dare go back and look at those old photos. Unless you want a serious dose of nostalgia over days gone by.

Alright, enough. I need to pull myself together and get something accomplished—at least get dinner put together. We’re packing a picnic and heading to a bluegrass concert in the park tonight. I can’t wait. We’re bluegrass lovers around here. And I’m hoping this humidity will break in time. The sky looks dark and promising.

I’ll be back later in the week after I dry my eyes and pull away from page 35 and 36 in my flickr account. The swallow mobile is almost completed except for some balancing issues and new curtains are in order for the girls room thanks to some on-sale fabric at IKEA.

Happy Wednesday!

My sister and her kids left this morning after being here at the farm for a week. It was lots of fun, especially for my girls who now have better tan lines and more poison ivy and bug bites creeping up their legs and elbows than they’ve had all summer.

Just in the time she was here two litters of kittens were born, five frogs were caught, a minnow and small blue gill came to live in our fish tank (which need to be returned to the pond), marshmallows were roasted, a craft was completed, round bales were climbed in (more leg scratches), and new fast friends came to be.

P1010006

It was fun, but it was definitely a lot more action than we’re used to around here. My sister’s kids are movers and shakers! So today we’re takin’ it easy. After hanging out in the lobby of the car dealership for an hour and a half this morning, waiting for an oil change, we came home to a quick lunch, long naps for all and now, a-hem, a movie and some popcorn. Why not? We’re laying low, avoiding the oppressive heat outside and re-adjusting to our life minus our cousins.

And I’m full of {un}productive things like making myself a new flickr icon and getting lost looking at the very first pictures I ever uploaded to my flickr account. This picture is me when I was little (that’s obvious)…I’m guessing I might be five years old, sitting on the back steps of the farm where I grew up. This was always one of my mom’s favorite pictures because she said the goose and I were both smiling. I’m trying to remember how I ever had the courage to be holding the goose because I distinctly remember carrying around a ping-pong-shooting gun to "shoot" the nasty geese that would come at me, necks down, wings spread, hissing.  The gun was also for the rooster (ironically named, "Friendly") that treed me in the lilacs behind the back porch.

36533182_769d422e7b_2

In the same way my husband gets sad watching old video of the girls when they were younger, it’s killing me to look back at some of these old flickr shots.  This one. and this. Not to mention this or this or this!
So don’t do it folks, don’t dare go back and look at those old photos. Unless you want a serious dose of nostalgia over days gone by.

Alright, enough. I need to pull myself together and get something accomplished—at least get dinner put together. We’re packing a picnic and heading to a bluegrass concert in the park tonight. I can’t wait. We’re bluegrass lovers around here. And I’m hoping this humidity will break in time. The sky looks dark and promising.

I’ll be back later in the week after I dry my eyes and pull away from page 35 and 36 in my flickr account. The swallow mobile is almost completed except for some balancing issues and new curtains are in order for the girls room thanks to some on-sale fabric at IKEA.

Happy Wednesday!

babyhood / children and nature / home

living 4 :: no humidity

last week. a temperature drop and no humidity. perfect for being outside.

::heading down to the garden for a little lettuce harvest::
P1010002

::happy baby on a blanket under the tree::
P1010007

mary’s love for elizabeth is pretty intense at times.
I often have to say:"mary, give elizabeth a little space."
P1010004_3

::good boy::

P1010014

::little climber::
P1010024

P1010025

last week. a temperature drop and no humidity. perfect for being outside.

::heading down to the garden for a little lettuce harvest::
P1010002

::happy baby on a blanket under the tree::
P1010007

mary’s love for elizabeth is pretty intense at times.
I often have to say:"mary, give elizabeth a little space."
P1010004_3

::good boy::

P1010014

::little climber::
P1010024

P1010025

crafting with children

what I did on my summer vacation

P1010009
(the polaroid project: emma. thrifted polaroid camera. lots of berries.)

Do you remember that always being your first writing assignment when you started school up again in the fall? I can remember doing some exciting summer activity and thinking, "this will be great in my beginning of the year story!" I was always one to like a good story, even if all the facts weren’t technically accurate. I can remember in preschool telling the teacher that we had a new calf on our farm that we were bottle-feeding. (Not true). And I was totally busted when my teacher phoned my mom to see if we’d like to bring it in for show and tell. woops.

But back on topic…
I know that so many of you around blog land are doing wonderfully creative and fun projects with your children this summer. (Things that are worthy of being in that first writing sample of the school year, I’m sure). And as I was tooling around flickr last weekend, I was wishing there was a place for us to compile some of these ideas. For one, it’s inspiration for me, as a mother, to see what others are doing. And on the other hand, it’s also inspiration for my children.

P1010001
(picking, what else? blueberries.)

P1010010
(emma: documenting my attempt to teach myself the guitar this summer)

Many times, I’ve brought my girls over to the computer to show them a project that one of your kids are working on. And after being a bit awed at first, it usually charges up their creative juices and off they go to try their hand at something similar. I love the sharing of ideas and creativity. Which is probably why I’m so drawn to blogging in the first place.

So, the obvious choice was to create a flickr group. A place to display and pool our ideas. And it doesn’t have to just be project ideas. I think we all love seeing finished projects or those favorite sketches done on a scrap piece of paper. So I’m hoping you’ll join in. And when you post those pictures to your flickr page, I hope you’ll take a moment to add them to this group as well.

For some reason, I really hesitated to write this post–you know, just one more "group", one more thing to do, but you are all full of so much inspiration. And I think it’s worth sharing and pooling our resources. I hope you’ll feel the same….

Join in here.

P1010009
(the polaroid project: emma. thrifted polaroid camera. lots of berries.)

Do you remember that always being your first writing assignment when you started school up again in the fall? I can remember doing some exciting summer activity and thinking, "this will be great in my beginning of the year story!" I was always one to like a good story, even if all the facts weren’t technically accurate. I can remember in preschool telling the teacher that we had a new calf on our farm that we were bottle-feeding. (Not true). And I was totally busted when my teacher phoned my mom to see if we’d like to bring it in for show and tell. woops.

But back on topic…
I know that so many of you around blog land are doing wonderfully creative and fun projects with your children this summer. (Things that are worthy of being in that first writing sample of the school year, I’m sure). And as I was tooling around flickr last weekend, I was wishing there was a place for us to compile some of these ideas. For one, it’s inspiration for me, as a mother, to see what others are doing. And on the other hand, it’s also inspiration for my children.

P1010001
(picking, what else? blueberries.)

P1010010
(emma: documenting my attempt to teach myself the guitar this summer)

Many times, I’ve brought my girls over to the computer to show them a project that one of your kids are working on. And after being a bit awed at first, it usually charges up their creative juices and off they go to try their hand at something similar. I love the sharing of ideas and creativity. Which is probably why I’m so drawn to blogging in the first place.

So, the obvious choice was to create a flickr group. A place to display and pool our ideas. And it doesn’t have to just be project ideas. I think we all love seeing finished projects or those favorite sketches done on a scrap piece of paper. So I’m hoping you’ll join in. And when you post those pictures to your flickr page, I hope you’ll take a moment to add them to this group as well.

For some reason, I really hesitated to write this post–you know, just one more "group", one more thing to do, but you are all full of so much inspiration. And I think it’s worth sharing and pooling our resources. I hope you’ll feel the same….

Join in here.