Soul Food

Things that are nourishing me right now:

• Lattes
• Giant bear hugs from Sweetpea. She has quite a grip whether it's around my knees or my neck.
• My running group. Getting up at 5:30 to run is pure torture, especially in the cold. But, having a group of women to run with and who gracefully bear with my sporadic availability is worth it every single time I can be there. Plus, it's an extra boost of energy which is greatly needed right now (goes right along with the caffeine)
• Free, worry-free, generously available childcare from my mom and dad.
• "Removing myself from any form of reality" books.
• Random and numerous facts The Princess shares with me.
• Two small children sleeping together in the top bunk because the little one is anxious and lonely in her new big bottom bunk.
• Retail shifts that involve me organizing for 5 hours straight. (You want the wall of clearance items completely revamped? Yay!)
• A lot of chocolate (good thing for the running!)

Things that are sucking the life right out of me:

• Continued lack of employment for Steve.
• Sweetpea asking if I'm going to be there when she wakes up because so often I'm not.
• Any type of sickness that threatens the delicate balance I've got going on right now.

The length of lists is at a good ratio at least.

Nuance

As a stay at home mom it's sometimes hard to live with the day in, day out monotony of the never-ending chores, nose wiping, question answering, meal making and laundry. Sometimes you get bogged down in the, what feels like, drudgery.

But, I've been out of the monotony for 2 months now. And, when you're not in the monotony you also miss the little nuances, the tiny changes in speech, the quirk of the brow when a little one suddenly understands that they can make a joke, the new facts they know, the change in the color of their hair.

I miss knowing the nuances.

A Little Bit of Attitude

This one is starting to show her own fashion ideas. Taking after her sister (maybe her mother too!)

A Princess, a bear, and Rody

Skeleton Reader

This girl always finds a comfortable spot to read.

Taunting Me In Her Sleep

No, she's not hiding. This is how she sleeps. Every night I have to go in, pull the blanket off her face and make sure she's still breathing. Yet another example of how the "self-preservation" gene is just a myth.

Wild Eyed

So right now I'm living on lattes and adrenaline. Which means that I'll probably look like this when you see me.

It's rather exhilarating.

When I'm not working, this is what I look like.

Afternoon Visitor

The Princess has been collecting acorns and storing them out on our little deck. 

They've been discovered.

 

The Princess has plans to replenish her supply.

 

I'm not sure that we really want the word to get out in squirrelville though!

Down By The River

 

Late Afternoon Jaunt

Fort Vancouver, Autumn Light

 

Bear

I didn't notice that she still had Bear in her hand until I looked at the picture later.

 

 

I guard Bear very carefully, I'd be as devastated as she would be if anything ever happened to him.

Sweetpea

This girl is the vibrant color in our life every single day.

 

Apples

We went apple tasting.

 

 

There are a TON of apples. 

 

 

 

Sweetpea was done halfway through. Appled-Out! 

The Goldfish and The Butterfly

Every year I get challenged on at least one of the two Halloween costumes I'm requested to provide. This year, thanks to Aunt Gretchen's stash of high quality paints and our high quality diaper boxes, we spent a lot of time painting our masterpieces and I really only had to stretch my brain for the goldfish.

The Princess and I were both quite pleased with our creations.

Sweetpea was completely confused as to what we were doing. Until the person answering the door at the first house put candy in her basket and then she was fully prepared to run up to each and every door.

It was the girls first experience trick or treating in a neighborhood (as opposed to the zoo or the mall) and, to quote Sweetpea "THIS IS AWESOME!"

Only 364 days until we can do it again. (No word yet on the costume requests for next year, but the animal theme seems to be strong so place your bets accordingly.)

School

School days are pretty great when you can sit in front of the fire and snack on carrots while you work!

 

 

Absorbing it all while in the vicinity.

Practice

The other night, after a rousing game of chase, tickling and "who can scream the loudest in glee " with Daddy, the girls went to bed and spent the next hour trying to settle down. There is a weird correlation: The closer you are to quiet bedtime the more likely it is that a frenzied game of something crazy will ensue.

With lots of hugs, kisses and admonishments to be quiet they finally settled into bed. I went in a little while later to say my own goodnights (In my calm, soothing mom spirit that is guaranteed to cause eyelids to droop and sweet smiles hover on lips. Ha!)

After a hug The Princess said to me "Mommy, I don't like Daddy."

Now, there was much evidence to the contrary, starting with fact that she'd just begged him to tickle her to the point of vomiting and protested loudly when all games were declared to be at an end. And my instinctive response was to immediately tell her she was wrong and educate her as to why.

But I saw the gleam in her eyes. The question, the anticipation, and the WONDERING of what my response would be. Those words were rolling experimentally along her tongue. Because, to a 6 year old this is highly inflammatory statement. To the Dad in question it's rather inflammatory as well. But the response she thought she'd get wasn't what she needed and, more importantly, it wasn't the one I needed to give.

"That's okay. You don't have to like Daddy but he will always love you." Her head cocked with this surprise bit of information.

"Daddy and I love you. Sometimes you might be mad at us and sometimes you'll have lots of fun with us, sometimes we'll all be happy and sometimes we'll all be sad but we will always love you no matter what."

We're both practicing this parent/child thing. She's practicing the ability to be herself, to say what she feels, to be honest with the good and the bad. We're practicing how to create the space to let her do that. How to build the safety in so that when she says it at six or screams she hates us at sixteen she knows that the love is still there.

Plus this is a good way to start building a thick skin.

Autumn Light

If you're following any blogs from people in the Pacific Northwest you're well aware of what an amazing fall it's been. Clear, sunny, crisp. Spectacular.  I won't be sad when the rain finally arrives but this weather is amazing!

Fairies in the Sky

Is there anything better than a warm autumn day that fades into a crisp night? With friends, food, pumpkins, play, and a bonfire that sends "sparkly fairies" into the night sky?

 

I think not.

Copernicus

We are going full tilt this fall, as one can see from my lack of posts as of late. What with the addition of serious (and continued, blerg, blah, argh...) job hunting (Steve), homeschool for The Princess, starting an additional part-time job for the time being (me), and a serious case of germs that has taken hold of all of us and seems to want to set up camp for the rest of the winter (hopefully NOT!) things (me, Steve too) are feeling a little stretched.

However, there are positives in all of those new stressors and today's silver lining was obvious. Actually, it's more like the stressors were the gray lining AROUND the silver cloud.

The Princess loves science and today we followed up on our study of Copernicus by plotting out the solar system prior to his realization that the sun is the center of our universe. We've talked about Copernicus and watched a couple of Youtube videos, but I wasn't sure how much she'd retained until we started working on the project together. Turns out she'd retained it all and schooled me on the facts!

Done!

So, we had a delightful afternoon of conversation, questions, coloring and stickering. It's the kind of learning I'd envisioned when we decided to try homeschooling this year - building a love of learning in her and reinforcing it in me.

More Done!!!

Silly

They really tried for a sedate, nice photo, but the silliness just took over...