sunday is the day e’rybody’s gettin’ spiritual, right? gratitude is an important part of my spiritual path within this world. here’s my weekly list:
5 Things I’m thankful for this week:
1. fleece lined tights. they’ve changed my world.
2. chorizo tacos.
3. visits from my mother.
4. mike’s family for feeding us on thanksgiving. sub category: i’m thankful for stuffing and gravy.
5. my parent’s willingness to host a visitor of their own while we get some stuff organized at the new homestead.
life moments from week 48
snow angels
prepping a tasty bean soup
snow cupcakes
visiting shrum mound
you’ll notice a theme to this week. it’s the week snow officially entered our lives for the final season of the year. it’s here and it brings mixed feelings. i honestly love snow and have always loved winter. however, i am not a fan of how modern man interacts with this season.
i see winter as a time of natural introspection. i see it as a time when the outside world is supposed to shut down and things should turn inward. these months are meant for quiet reflection next to a fire, snuggled up with loved ones telling stories or reading books. i wish everyone would just make the decision to stop going out into the flurries and hunker down for winter. but that’s not going to happen in this world anymore. not when local economies are now entwined with business that takes place in areas of the globe that may never see snowfall.
but i’ll do my best this winter to hold the season in the way i see fit for me. this means warm drinks, layered socks, russian novels, and days spent indoors.
i hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving and good luck with this kick-off to winter, even though solstice is still a few weeks away. i think it’s going to be a long one this year.
we’re settled in enough to be able to make biscuits and bacon. that’s good enough for me.
friends, we’re kinda settling into a midwestern winter over here. i’ve been trying to deny it but temps are getting low and we’re getting snow flurries on the regular. d’s already in the christmas spirit and even though i feel too discombobulated to be fully there myself, i’m enjoying the yuletide tunes on the radio and christmas movies making their way into our rotation.
i know these last five weeks of the year are going to really give me a run for my money. kinda literally. i’ll be running all over this town for clients. plus christmas. plus my wonderful part-time job. and other commitments. and it’s all very overwhelming when most of my life is still in boxes and totes.
but for now i can enjoy things like a little biscuit baker, bedroom dance parties, sunday morning movies, 5 year-olds delighting in snowfall, and bacon. always, always bacon.
darla was present from the very onset of this project. in her usual way, she dove straight in, wanting to give her contribution, without really listening to how it is she actually could be of help. she took the yardstick over to the wall, traced around it and proudly declared afterwards that she liked her work.
you can see very faintly that i had drawn a triangle around it and had plans on painting it to match the pattern of the rest of the room. but once i got over to that spot on the wall i couldn’t paint over it. the way she had been so proud of herself kept playing in my mind so i found our small paint brushes and set to painting in the outline she had drawn. and i couldn’t love it more. it’s a little piece of her in the middle of something that i had planned to look a certain way. but i know that without her addition it wouldn’t be complete. this could be a metaphor for my life. i try to make plans for my life to look a certain way. but then there is darla, with her own plans, ready to make her own mark on my life and the world. and if i look at it the right way, i can see how she makes everything better in that way.
and there’s the fact that this bit is going to be behind a dresser, but that’s beside the point…
sunday is the day e’rybody’s gettin’ spiritual, right? gratitude is an important part of my spiritual path within this world. here’s my weekly list:
5 Things I’m thankful for this week:
{1} my husband, an expert mover and an excellent father to our wild girl.
{2} our good friends who help haul our crazy heavy furniture all over this town, feed us fried chicken, help us paint, spend time with our girl, and are there to lend an ear for important conversations.
{3} bacon. i think i will always be thankful for bacon.
{4} waking up in our new place, feeling at home after one night, next to my favorite two people in the world.
{5} the continuous, consistent ways i’m reminded that i’m not in control in this life and the fact that i now have a spiritual well to remind me that my only job here is to turn it over and trust in my path.
we made it. it was a whirlwind trip of driving 10 hrs friday and then again sunday. things were hairy for a bit but mostly it was a great, grand adventure.
see i have this theory about arkansas. my theory is that it’s the first state people forget is part of the united states. when people heard i was going to a wedding in arkansas most said “ooooohhhh yeah, arkansas. it exists!” ok, not really but that’s what i read from facial expressions and body language. but i was very pleasantly surprised by the town of hot springs where we spent the weekend for my baby cousin’s wedding.
this weekend i hiked a mountain in my boots and lipstick because i felt like it. i touched the dreamy, warm mineral waters in hot springs national park. i spent time chasing peacocks with my darla in a park that felt like i was visiting the elvish realms of middle earth. i visted with family. i hope you can tell by my writing how much i enjoyed these novel experiences.
in the name of transparency i’m going to put it out there that darla gave me a real run for my money this weekend. i don’t think you’re supposed to travel while mercury is in retrograde. i don’t think you’re supposed to travel with a willful 4.5 year old while mercury is in retrograde anyway. communicating with darla was difficult at times. bedtimes were late, candy and sweets were plentiful and well, it was travel, so those were all things throwing my little girl for a loop. the majority of the time she was sweet and loving but then something would come along and send her into a funk. i felt like i was living in a nursery rhyme: there was a little girl, who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead…
i’m not sure if i handled things well most of the time. in fact i know i didn’t handle things well at certain times. darla is almost 5 years old and i feel like i should have some concrete answers on how i should handle situations with her but i am still at a loss. is it like this always? like until they’re 18 and fly off on their own?
i also have to admit that this trip rekindled my desire to be a rubbertramp. plans and schemes have been forming in my head about spending months on the road, discovering places just like hot springs. there is so much of america i have yet to see and i’d really like to have a road adventure with my family.
maybe some day you’ll be reading a blog post about that ;-)
alright, can we just pause here before we move on to the rest of the pictures to recognize how utterly “big-kid” like this little girl of mine is getting to be. her best friend turned 5 this week and her younger cousin turned 4 which means that everything is speeding by way too fast and i want to figure out how to put these kids in one of those little terrariums that you wear around your neck so they can stay small and safe forever. that’s normal, right?
she’s busting out her big girl moves all over the place these days and while I AM SAD, i’m also happy for her too. she’s just truly amazing. i spend a good chunk of time lately feeling completely unworthy of the companionship of such a lovely little person. she’s still wild as can be but there are times like tonight when she looks at her dad before bed and books and says “i think you and i need some time apart” in the most grown-up voice and it sleighs me. i had to hide my face under the cover so she couldn’t see my laughter, not because i don’t want to encourage her but because i want her to feel free to behave that way again.
and then part of me is afraid i’m losing that wild, uninhibited little girl. i spend a lot of time trying to teach manners and social boundaries but now that they’re sinking in i’m wondering if i really want those things to go away.
gawwwhhh parenting!!!
^^^ getting help from dad during craft time ^^^
and then there are times like this last picture that i’m pretty sure i don’t have to worry so much about those idiosyncrasies disappearing just yet. this was taken at darla’s last dance class. this session was her first time taking dance at the community center and it went over pretty well. i have to say i don’t think we could have found a more perfect atmosphere for her. i love that the girls can wear whatever they want and even bring their teddy bears out on the floor with them. i love that she is free in these classes. i love that she is learning that dancing is fun, above all else. lessons should not be work at this age. they should be fun. and that is exactly what the community center has delivered to us every time. i’m so thankful to them and look forward to signing darla up for a few things this winter.
thanks for letting me share those bits of our weekend. hope yours was grand and i hope you got to put a donut in your face.
it’s boot weather. this weekend was very much out and about. friday is looking to be our family day this fall. we braved the homecoming crowd to take in the blues for smoke exhibit in the afternoon. this was a precursor to our friend’s performance there friday evening with Lonnie Holley. Both performances blew my mind but Lonnie gave me a new catch phrase that’s been stuck in my head: thumbs up to mother universe.
between the two wexner events we walked past a new little donut spot {literally named the little donut shop} and had to stop in for some tasty maple bacon goodness. mike got a samoa and darla got her standard sprinkles special. those last two pics are us as cheerleaders for the columbus marathon. this was my first time as a spectator at a marathon and it was more inspiring and entertaining than i thought it would be. that might be due to the pair of sideliners dressed up in the horse mask, followed by his friend clapping cups behind him up and down the road. it was fun to cheer on the runners.
i guess this is the only time of year we visit the wexner center since the last time we went was about a year ago. it’s a great way for me to make observations about darla’s cognitive progress, though. last year she didn’t really want anything to do with looking at the exhibit. this year she was just really motivated to look at only the things she wanted to take in, which is pretty wonderful in my book. no standardized tests needed here!
but it does make it a bit hard for mike and i to have a personal experience. luckily, the wexner offers free tours on thursdays so we can return again at a later date.
but what i mainly want to say about life thoughts from the weekend is how thankful i am to have this little family that runs around getting involved in so much life. i can let myself get pretty stressed out at times about the fact that laundry piles up, dishes don’t get done and there never seems to be enough time to clean up all the messes. and then i remember that’s a sign that i’m living my life. i’m not simply maintaining it. a clean house is life management, not life. we get out there. that may be our strongest area as parents up until this point, we get darla out for experiences. she’s done a lot in these short years. she’s learned to be the master of her own universe. she’s learned to seek out life. and for that i’m thankful.
taking a walk with my family on campus yesterday on our way to the blues for smoke exhibit at the wexner center. activities all together only happen about once a week so it was nice to look over and see all three of our shadows squished together as one.
don’t you just love it when the week gets all it’s business out of the way by tuesday? our monday was a full, non-stop day of unschooling and then tuesday brought the first water birth i’ve supported. after that i was ready to take the rest of the week off.
this week has been entirely amazing. i don’t know what it is but fall brings about such a sense of peace for me. or maybe it is the acceptance that i’m really finding my groove in life. listen y’all, i’m really good at exploring the world with my little girl and i’m really good at supporting people while they have their babies. this is it for me. i’m finding a way to make this work. done deal. my life doesn’t look that great on paper right now { believe me. i just had to write it out on paper } but i’m really happy and fulfilled. i am so grateful.
unschooling: yay! learning is everywhere!! cards at the coffee shop, stopping at the neighborhood gardens to investigate what happens in the fall, and heading on a christopher columbus scavenger hunt were all a part of monday. we’re fortunate to have easy access to columbus themed learning activities. it’s kinda an annual thing for us. but this was the first time we took the tour of the santa maria. we did it on a whim and i’m glad we did b/c we learned on the tour that it’s going to be shut down for 2-3 years while the park gets renovated.
we also made an art project out of painting rocks for gilbert. i’m actually really impressed with darla and her care for gilbert thus far. she’s into it.
so that’s it from us for the week. we have lots of great things on the horizon that i’m looking forward to sharing in the right time. i’ll be bringing you word of a really great opportunity for the lovely females that read this here blog and some bits of personal news.
wishing you all a wonderful weekend! thanks for catching up on our week.
momjeanz 