THESE DAYS

Coffee is my one great love these days. It always is, but the love intensifies when the need intensifies. It was really busy at work for me the past couple of weeks, and for Ken too! Our lives are maintained at a balanced andbusy hum, but when one of those things ramps up, it really puts the pressure on everything else. Case in point: we have about six loads of unfolded laundry sitting in piles around the house. (Usually it's just two or three ha). So back to coffee, I am passionate about it. This passion has recently led to me adding sparkling water to cold brew, which is a thing and which is very refreshing and now I have it in mind to add things like sparkling grapefruit soda and sparkling lemonade to my cold brew. I've read about it but haven't been intrigued until now, and I'm committed. Also, on this topic, one of my favorite cocktails ever is black cold brew or espresso + simple syrup + bourbon. So good. 

Last Thursday was the day!!! Kindergarten registration day. I was nervous about it and then not nervous and then nervous again. It helped that Sloane was sooo excited. The experience rattled me more than I thought it would (what do you mean I have to do it your way? What if if I don't want to?!) but all in all, it was a good experience. The people seem great, the school seems awesome and Sloane can't wait to start. Unfortunately, that same morning we noticed something was going on with Logan's right arm. She wasn't using it at all, and when I eventually got her to use it a little bit, it was shaking and slow. It freaked me out and we headed straight for the pediatrician after Kindergarten registration. The pediatrician said it was likely a misplaced joint, attempted to reset it, and then directed us to the orthopedic doctor just in case, who took X-rays, put her in a cast to help her set it, and then directed us to the lab for blood work to rule out any infection. It was harrowing, but luckily Ken had taken off the morning as well and it felt good and right for all of us to be together.

Here is my sweet little dinosaur. She picked out the dinosaur print for her cast all on her own (Sloane was lobbying for the American flag print haha). She is so adorable and ferocious and I can't get enough of her!! even when she is clinging to my leg and won't let me walk out the door to go work out or needs extra cuddling, it's hard to mind too much.

And my big girl too. I've been aching for some one on one time with her so I can give her my full attention for a prolonged period of time.  I am scheming up ways that I can take her on a date or a trip just her and me. These days she is so smart and funny and she really sees me.

Logan has acclimated to life with the cast tremendously and easily. She made all necessary adjustments and carried out without a moment's hesitation, it's quite remarkable. We as grown ups would probably moan and groan about the inconvenience, but this 21 month old easily accepted the fact that she won't have the use of her right arm for a while.  Along with this new development, she now always wants to wear this dinosaur shirt.

Also recently! Our friend Mignon is living with us for a little while and we love being able to see her everyday. Both girls get giddy and silly when they are around her! Probably due to happiness.

Miracles of miracles, we got ourselves together for a morning meet up, just like in the old days! With 9 kids between us, our weekly morning prayer meetings (that we have had now for almost six years!!) had to teeter off (trying to talk with 9 kids running around proved impossible, much less pray) and hopefully we will be able to resume it again somehow in a later season of life but this one time we made it happen immediately because Meghan is moving away. We will miss her immensely but know that this change will bring many good things for her family.

Last weekend, Ken and I went to a wedding and it was blissful to be out together. He really feels like my partner in crime these days more than ever, and we both really cherish any time we get to talk and just enjoy each other!




I posted about the talent show here  but I also wanted to include a video of Sloane's performance in its entirety. The song is Vivaldi's 'Spring' as performed by Black Violin. I came up with the concept of the dance and Sloane came up with all the moves herself. Each movement represents something about spring - wind, sun, blooming flower, twirling flower, bird, sky.....and repeat. (Here is another version of the dance with Logan joining in, if you want to see. Keep an eye on Logan, it made me laugh so hard the first time I watched it through.)

A TALENT SHOW: VIDEO

This past weekend, we put on a kid's talent show with a bunch of friends!  It was great fun. It was hard to predict how engaged or attentive kids these ages (3-7) would be at something like this, but they were all marvelous in their performance and admiration for each other.  The support in the room for each performance was magic - both from the parents and from the kids.  The kids are already talking about what they will do for next year's show!

The plan was for it to take place outdoors, but the weather went from being days of mid-70's last week to dropping down to the 50's and threatening rain during the weekend, so we moved location to our friend's basement, where they often host music shows, and it ended up being the perfect spot.

The acts included:

• Sharing a drawing that was done in 82 minutes (Isabella)
• Reciting the "ABCs" with one eye closed (Naomi)
• Body worship (Owen and Lily)
• Ballet dance (Eden and Winnie) 
• Singing "How Far I'll Go" (Winnie)
• Drawing a monster (Ira) 
• Dancing to Vivaldi's "Spring" (Sloane) 
• Reciting two poems (Eden)
• Blowing a balloon and drawing a face on it (Davie) 
• Dancing an Irish jig (Loa)
• Singing "On the Good Ship Lollipop" (Nora)
• Tap dancing (Evelyn)
• Reciting the fable of "The Spider and the Fly" (Simone)
• Singing "You're Welcome" (Thad)
• Displaying light saber fighting skills (Ezra and Isaiah) 
• Magic trick (Owen)
• Demonstrating basketball skills (Josiah)
• Singing two French folk songs (Imogen)
• Singing a song in Japanese, "Sea and Sky"(Psalm, Simone, Sloane, Evelyn, Imogen, Owen)
• Singing "Fishing in the Dark" (Isaac) 

MORNING AT THE FARM

 

We went to a friends' farm this past weekend to visit and it was so beautiful and dreamy! They had goats, chickens, horses, sheep, rabbits, ducks, bees, and dogs so it was a dream come true for all the kids. They got to pet and feed the goats, collect eggs from the chickens, hold bunnies, run through the wide open fields, and learn so much about what it was like to live and work on a farm from their caretakers. We get eggs from this farm so it was extra special to see what they are doing here and feeling excited for what is to come for them. 

I am a city girl at heart but visits like these make me start daydreaming of horses, little ones helping with chores, and peace after a long day of working with my hands. I'm so happy for mornings like these and hope we get to go back to visit again soon. 

THESE DAYS

Here we go! This is more of a "last week days" sort of round up. This past week has had a different sort of tone (kindergarten registrations! a tiny little cast! a dear friend who is living with us for a couple of months!) but that will have to be for another post, because I am cramming a bunch of pictures and words in here already.

One of the things that makes me contemplate the richness and fortune of my life is the fact that I am born during a time where I can enjoy both classical and jazz music. The evolution of music is stunning - similar to the fine arts but I think even more so -  especially in its reaction to each period and then the growth and creativity on top of previous generations' shoulders. I can't believe we have access to the great expanse and variety that is the story of music (Spotify is a treasure trove). All this to say I've been listening to a lot of classical and jazz recently (classical in the mornings, jazz in the evenings on my way to the gym, and a variety of artists during dinner time, i.e. indie folk) and I'm aching to find some great live jazz locally.  There are weeks when I go without being intentional about listening to music, but these days I'm really enjoying paying attention to the music I can have around us and interweave throughout our day to day. 

The spring season may be part of it; it is lovely having music playing when we are out in the sunroom and I'm happy to have music playing in the background when we have company. It ties to me to the moment more significantly somehow, does anyone else know what I'm talking about? 

I shared in my last post how we had a bunch of friends come down this past weekend and most of these photos here are from that weekend, collected here like a photo album to look back on.

On Saturday as they came into town we all met up for lunch at Fancy Biscuit. It was my first time there and I am into it. The place was adorable, the lines were long, and they made their own biscuits from scratch (proof in that first photo up there).  I got the "Big Apple" which was friend chicken, blue cheese, apple and red cabbage slaw, and apple BBQ sauce in between two fluffy biscuits. Really good.

I love this family of mine and I love these flowers blooming in our yard right now! 

I don't think I managed to get a photo of all the kids together but I got different combinations of them at different points throughout the weekend. Here are most of them right before church.

And then after church & lunch, and right before ice cream at Charm School.

Oh the anticipation. and also, the ants! That's what Jameson is point out there.

Right when we walked into the store, I guess one of the owners was taking a photo of this giant beaut of an ice cream cone for their social media and when he was done he turned around and saw me and said, "do you want this?" And yes, I took a photo of it too, I couldn't resist, and then we gobbled it all up, it was delicious.

I had the thought - do I try this wallpaper in one of our bathrooms??

The whole gang!

I bet you that I'm talking about Enneagrams here. We all stayed up too late doing exactly that.  (This photo and our family photos above c/o jayne.)

Oh! and our friends Lisa and David were also in town to visit their family and we got to have a meal with them on Friday and meet their kids, who are very adorable. No one is smiling in this photo (probably because I made them take a photo right before they were about to eat), so you're just going to have to trust me that they all had a great time and we loved catching up with this family!