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.
A trip to the Zoo and to Seaworld made the kids week. They love all animals- all kinds, big and small. Birds, monkeys, whales, rays, starfish. I love them all too. We even stopped at the Humane Society one afternoon and our daughter hopped right into a playpen with a trainer and a bunny, pulled the bunny right up onto her lap and pet it, speaking sweetly to it. The trainer asked- do you have bunnies at home- oh yes she replied- we have 5!
A few steps more and we would be to the water, our toes touching it, the cold, salty, seawater...stop- stop walking I told the kids. They looked up at me questioning- now close your eyes and take the biggest, slowest breath you can. They did, as did I. I opened my eyes as they opened their eyes. Smiles, laughter...it's SO GOOD my son said. I want to bottle it I told them. I love the smell my daughter stated. Both kids nodded yes and raced to the water laughing together. Seashell gathering, checking out sea weed, toes in sand, jumping waves- fully clothed. Remembering our seashell studies, trying to identify all of the different kinds. It was a great morning, relaxing, peaceful. I walked on the border of not getting my toes wet- in the wet sand but not where the water touched me as they walked in the water up to their knee's. I get overwhelmed at times being back home- all the people, all the crowds- the beach wasn't overcrowded, but border-lined being that way- I focused on watching my two children, the waves and blocked out every other person there...just us. Just us three, running, laughing, playing, enjoying. Peace. A joyous adventure. It has been years since we've seen the ocean waves- it was very much over due.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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!
