Oh Joy!

Toddler + preschooler = fun. Joyful moments are easy pickings for Sophie and Ava. Bubbles, popsicles, balloons, flowers - they all send the girls over the moon. It's like the first miners that got to California - dip in your pan, scoop out some gold. But, of course, as kids grow older balloons lose their luster, popsicles are old news and bubbles don't really do much for my boys these days. For them the easy pickings are gone and they are mining now for the rare but really good golden moments. I think that is why this is one of my favorite pictures of the summer:

Now, to coax a smile like this from Ava - all you need is a 10 cent glow in the dark bracelet. Sophie will beam at you this way if you let her pet your puppy. But Sam is a tougher customer. He's a happy kid but he's seen alot in his pre-teen years and he is harder to impress. The smile of pure joy in this photo is somewhat a rare gem. Sam is smiling because he designed his car all by himself and this year cut it out on the scroll saw by himself. He sanded and painted it on his own. Then (5 min before race time) his dad helped him put on the wheels and axels. But the derby gods were smiling on Sam that night and his car didn't lose. He won the pinewood derby. (what?!) I don't care much about the winning. ( I was actually kind of worried about the other finalist and wanted to make sure he was happy, which he was) But for 45 minutes I soaked in the pure unbridled joy of a 10 year old - which I wouldn't call extremely rare but felt like finding the mother lode nonetheless.

My pleasure

My husband's books are pristine. He leaves a very small carbon footprint on his books - in fact he leaves not a single clue that he was ever there. The spines of his books are barely bent much less broken and you won't find any chocolate crumbs between any of his pages. His books are universally hardbound and stored by category and height. They are beautiful. But they are not mine. My books are messy. I am not afraid to wield a pen when reading and I have been known to attack some very interesting books with said pen. If I am going on a flight and I want a light, cheap book for the plane - I will buy (gasp, shame) paperback. And when I am sleepy at night because I had to stay up and finish the next chapter I have never, ever, ever once in my life gotten up to find a bookmark. I dog ear baby. But don't you think for one second that I love my books any less. Because that is not true. I just believe that the book was made for me, I was not made for the book. I think that my books serve at the pleasure of Heather - and it is my pleasure to leave them open face down on my bed while I check on my girls. It is also my pleasure to read my books in the tub or at the beach or during breakfast. If you think I was put on this Earth to take care of my books - you have got another thing coming. Just kidding. (sort of.) My books take care of me. They are there whenever I want or need them and I never stress about them.

That is why I don't even have a whiff of guilt about not posting regularly this summer. This blog was made to serve me - not the other way around. And it serves me quite well. I love that I have a space where I can write down the ramblings in my heart, note the small miracles of the day or share photos of my growing kids with my far away family. But I have a long list of things that truly need my attention and that I attend to every day and this blog is not on that list. So what does the future hold? Wish that I knew. But I can say this for sure: there is adventure coming up, there are long hard belly laughs, short bitter tears, glorious moments of joy and long stretches of hard work. And I am so glad that I can document them here... join me for the journey. At your pleasure, of course.

Little Thrills

I'm not a homeschooler mom but I can't help wanting to teach my kids. I love to teach them to read and all the other stuff moms teach like hygiene and manners but sometimes I find myself crossing into other territories like (gasp) history and geography. One of my favorite stores in town is the parent/teacher school supply store here. I LOVE IT. I'm wierd. This has been proven. Which, I guess, explains why I am getting a little thrill from this recent purchase from little passports. Each month the kids will receive a package from their "pen pals" Sam and Sofia. (What a coincidence!) Every month "Sam and Sofia" are in a different country and send the kids a package with souveniers, pictures, maps, passport stickers and information about that country.





First of all: what kid doesn't love getting mail! Second of all: I plan on expanding on the idea by hanging up a map of the country we are learning about that month in the kitchen, making some of the foods from that country and maybe, possibly, really only if I feel like it, checking out books from the library about that country and checking it out in the Atlas.

I justify this wierdness by remembering one of my all time favorite parenting tips from James MacArthur. He said that the home should be a place of learning (of course) --but that it doesn't really matter that much WHAT you teach, just that you teach something. Apparantly,(aside from the basic religion, morality, hygiene thing) the thing that is good for kids isn't information as much as it is having parents who take the time to teach something. Which means you can teach your kids silly dances in the kitchen or how to make balloon animals or what the capital of brazil is.

P.S. Ponder this irony. The very day that I made a resolution to be better about documenting my children's childhood through photos on this blog -- I lost the charger for my camera battery and my camera battery went dead. Grrr.

Swingers

My girls love to swing

and they love for me to push them on the swing.

Which I think is less fun than reading stories on the trampoline

But alot more fun than playing polly pockets.

If you have never played polly pockets - let me warn you that it is a soul destroying hour of your life that you will never get back.

Whenever Ava wants to play polly pockets, one of her friends magically comes over to play--

Either that or I will say

Let's Swing!!

Sharing Secrets

How cute...

How cute is this necklace by Figs & Ginger. Perfect for February.

People are weird.

People have all kinds of crazy things that they adore from soda pop to brands of shoes. So it is with no shame at all, that I confess here that I am absolutely crazy about tableware. Yes, it's true- I love plates. So what? I also love bowls and glasses but tea cups and soup tureens make me swoon. Not just any old plates mind you - there are rules to the attraction and they are these: tableware must be simple, classic and CREAM. Sure, the dishes from my wedding were cream with bands of color around the edges but I was young, so young and now I know -- cream, only cream. These are the beauties that we eat off of almost every day. (the other days we are eating off of chinet!)

We even have the coffee pot-- but at our house it is the hot chocolate pot.

And this is what currently sends my heart pitter pattering. Allow me to introduce you to Wedgewood's Queen's plain.

Hello Lovely! Isn't she beautiful!! I know it's crazy, I know it's weird, but what can you do? People are weird.