Water Baby

Long live endless Summer days

where wonder and play and happy

never cease.

All of Me

Teetering tall, she grasps my arm

and lay her head on my shoulder

with bashful smile;

my eyes crinkle, welled.

And I wish for the clock in the corner

to stop, for this moment to be tucked

into the pocket of my heart

and so I make it.

Turning, I smile back

and I am with her.

I am not with my long list

I am with her.

all of me.

For how is she to taste sacrifice
if it is not first shown here
and isn't this a glimpse of God's love

by a mother for her child?

Nature Walk: Adaptaions of Birds

Another beautiful trail trek with the library was had by us all. What a wonderful time communing with Nature these last weeks! This particular nature activity was all about the adaptations of birds--emphasis on the beaks and how they are strategically designed to fetch the food they eat. Hmmm....coincidence? Not in the least!

Our sweet friend K and Lil miss Holland get ready to start the activity:

Stations were set up with representations of different foods and beaks (tools). The kids got to try the different tools to pick up the foods to determine which bird had which type of beak.

Liv uses the slotted spoon to fish out the worms. The tweezers also worked well.

K found out that the chopsticks worked well, too.

Holland tries to pick up the sunflower seeds using tongs. She discovered that that wasn't the best choice, but doesn't she still look cool with her fashionable bicycle glove?

She decided the tongs were much more handy when used to pick up the cherries!

It was fun to try the chopsticks!

Holland was great with the tweezers.

The slotted spoon was the perfect instrument for scooping out "fish". This scoop-like contraption was a great comparison to a pelican's scoop-like bill.

Holland tries to catch the flying fish (popcorn).

And Reese gets involved too--her school is playtime :o):

And the happy leap towards mom holding the camera. My heart has officially melted.

Summer School

The great thing about having a home school philosophy, is that your home is your school...no matter the Season. Summer happens to be my favorite Season of school. We switch gears a little...no more super-schedules, but 3 glorious months focused on read-alouds (right now it's Little House on the Prairie!), Reading Rewards Programs, Field Trips, weekly playgroup, Lots of art and crafty projects, nature walks, Music class at the library, and science fun. We do these things other times during the years, but we really bulk up on these things during the Summer.

Summer also means we get to hang out with our friends more often!

Kedrick and Victor stayed a whole day with us while their mom had her first chemo session. You can read about Stephanie's journey with breast cancer here. She is strong, courageous, and full of faith. Her honesty and perseverance really is a testimony to God's presence in her life. Please join me in continued pray for her and her sweet family.

Liv and Holland wanted to paint with their friends, so that is what we did:


Funny, it seemed that whenever one painter needed to wash their brush, so did the rest of them. :o)







We also made gak. You can find a super easy, foolproof recipe here, with an explanation of how gak is formed. We had so much fun!

O Happy Day

Today marks 35 years for me. And what beautiful years these have been. Wonderful parents, amazing friends, quirky little girls, and a loyal, fun husband. These years, though not without trial, have been so kind to me. I spent most of my day with my sweet little gals, mixed in with a playgroup trip to The MK Nature Center, breakfast in bed with unique touches such as marshmallows in my coffee, beautiful birthday cards, a dinner date with my man, and impromptu visits from dear friends.

Here I am with my sweet playgroup girls:


Since we were downtown already with our playgroup, my girls and I took the opportunity to visit downtown favorites:






And because W girls are always, ALWAYS silly, we took a picture in the bathroom:


My girls:


My day was topped off with dinner at our favorite--loyal customers for 15 years now--!



Reesie gets silly with Holland:


Me and 2/3 of my girls:


Our fam minus Liv (she's the photog! :o)

Garden

"Never be within doors when you can rightly be without."
--Charlotte Mason

This is why I love our garden. The girls spend countless hours playing, picking, weeding, digging, pruning, pretending, and decorating the garden. Tea parties are staged in the garden. Lunch is served beside the garden. Books can be found in their garden "fort", and the girls even paint pictures of their flowers. Liv now knows what it looks like when mint goes to "seed", how to transplant grown plants, and how to care for her vegetables from seedling to harvesting. Holland has perfected the art of relaxing and enjoying the view which is Liv working and sweating over her crops.

So the act of enjoying the great outdoors, even with a little infant is quite easy when it's right outside your door. It serves this family well, as we don't need to travel far to appreciate God's beautiful earth.

Steps to the fort:


rocks painted with grandma:


Our breakfast reading table:


Oh pompous onion!


Lil babe grapes:


Delightful daisies:


puffs of happy:


Filtering sunlight:


And sweet Violet Beauregarde, we've got blueberries this year!

Just Dandy

Flight of the dandelion

It stands tall and still--waiting

waiting for little hands

and small breath

to come in and sweep

off stem and heave huge

breath to set free

to the wind and through

the trees.