Right Now...Thankful

This moment right now....Thankful, Blessed, Joyous, Peaceful.

 Love, Faith, Family.

Catching up on emails with a cup of hot coffee. Warming my insides, breathing deeply, enjoying a few moments of quiet before the day begins and we are off on our road trip to see family.
Stopping to hear my children turn the radio on in their room, sing together, play together, laugh together.
My son comes out to whittle on his stick over the fireplace while he humms this song...

Our daughter comes out, sitting on the couch reading a book and joins the humming...I put the song on youtube and they both put down the stick and book and sing loudly. As it finishes Jordan tells me the song is about Love and when things are hard we still love each other no matter what.  True words.

Family, its all about Love

Looking forward to spending an entire week with my parents, the kids grandparents, aunts, uncles, brother, sister in law, and great grandparents. 

Nothing is more important in life than family and faith.

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

Linking to Soule Mama

Play, laughter, peace...together.

Mama Knits

At all times we are role models. Everyone. Someone is watching us, listening to us. In schooling it may generally be about the children schooling but myself and my husband are always striving to set the example, be a role model, through always pursuing our own learning as well. Letting the children be inspired by this to seek out new interests, research, pursue, learn at all times. To keep their curiosity, love for learning growing.

Our daughter had wanted to knit for quite some time, never finding the right tutorial, having a hard time with written instructions she came to me, asking for me to learn then to show her step by step thinking maybe personally seeing and hearing the instructions up close would help. So help I did...yesterday on a whim when I was up early I found a simple knitting tutorial and made my first row- ever. I'm hooked, its also a skill I've been wanting, yearning to acquire for a very long time. Excited, inspired. I love it. Our daughter awoke and I nearly squealed at her to come over- showing her my first row. The biggest smile I've ever seen. After dressing I sat with both children and showed them how. Proving more difficult for her, she did two rows and set it down. She said it was hard and it would take a long time to make something- yes new things at times are hard, yes new skills sometimes take a long time to yield a result- its a process. She said she'd take a break as she had a sewing project she wanted to work on then she'd revisit the knitting- saying maybe just a row a day without a thought on what the 'project' would end up being. Practice. I continued knitting throughout the day when I got a minute here or there...at the end of the day she said WOW your rows look great now and you did a lot today. Practice, perseverance, patience I reminded her. She smiled.

Simple pleasures...listening to music, drinking my morning coffee and getting a few more rows on.

May  everyone have a blessed day!

Beluga Whales, Fish, Coral Reefs

We started our sea study a few weeks ago when we decided on vacation we'd make time to go to Seaworld for the day. We went there last year for our son's birthday and did a Penguin and Shark study before heading there. This year the kids decided to study the Beluga Whale, some history about whaling, conservation of ocean species, coral reefs and fish.

We used some books we got from the library last week to get us started...

Then we used Seaworld's resources here: Beluga Whales   
National Geo Kids fact card here: Creature Feature Print Out Card - Beluga Whales
National Geo also has a resource here: Beluga Whale

Both Seaworld and Nat Geo have audio of Beluga Whales, 'sea canaries'.

We read, watched video's, mapped migration and mapped location of the whales and had great discussions.

Here's two video's we viewed:

We watched the Eyewitness DVD from the Library on 'Fish'- both salt water and fresh water. The kids both most enjoyed the odd varieties they showcased in the ocean as well as camouflaged species.We then read about the Coral Reef, the book we checked out specifically talks about what happens on the reef with plants and animals in a 24 hour period, documenting each hour.

Our afternoon brought grocery shopping errands and the evening brought dinner of tortalini, salad and bread. 

In the night we all settled for a family movie...our son's choice- NEMO. Fitting!

(Link to Picture Source below)

 

A wonderful Monday to start our week!

Weekending

Its been a quiet weekend. Not that we haven't had things to do but its been just slow moving, quietly getting one thing done and moving to the next. Taking our time, not rushing. I was blessed with it being a quiet 'work' weekend thus getting plenty of time for family and home. As the weather moves cooler, it was time to get the rabbits out of the house and moved into the 'barn' aka garage. Summer heat was so intense they had to come inside to live to not feel the suns affects. Now with cooler days and cool nights it was the perfect weekend to make the move. Cleaning the garage, cleaning ALL the animal cages, moving all the cages, then cleaning the kids rooms and bathroom...the bathroom just needs another scrub and I think our work is done! Whew it was a process! Amongst the big move the kids spent plenty of time playing...what is it about a clean room, some things rearranged that makes every toy, every item seem brand new? Hours of play in their bedrooms- and together. Love it. I love when even with 5 years between them, they can enjoy each others company and just play. I drank tea and read then got caught up on kitchen dishes and even had a bit of time to sew...all while enjoying hearing their laughter in the next room.

A peaceful enjoyable weekend with hard work and play.

Costumes & Park Play

Our daughter sewed her own costume this year and our son opted to buy his. They both had a wonderful time with family and friends. Earlier in the day we went on a few errands and made a park stop for some outdoor fun. Errands are always better knowing there's a fun pit stop in the middle!

Sharing a few pictures...

 

 

{this moment}

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

 Linking to Soule Mama