Catching Up!

T. and I have completely neglected this blog. So I'm just going to post a flurry of pictures and brief descriptions of what the girls and I have been up to. So here goes: The girls are researching something from nature every month. January was the Arctic Fox and February was the groundhog. I make smoothies alot on homeschool day and the girls often argue about whose mom makes the best smoothies. (:

Thursday

While I baked bread the girls made snowflakes. They literally did this for 2 to 3 hours-folding, planning, cutting, chatting. They talked about a variety of things (including what makes them anxious and what they do that helps) and complimented one another on their snowflakes. Then we picked up little sis and went to the library. A peaceful and fun morning.

Martinmas Lantern Walk

Both of our girls (Me and T) go to a sweet little Waldorf school part-time (T's one day a week/Mine 2 days). This last week we celebrated the German holiday of Martinmas. The children made paper mache lanterns and we walked through Crystal Springs Park, singing quiet songs in the dark.





At one point we all gathered in a circle with our lanterns glowing. It looked pretty cool seeing the variety of lanterns made for the celebration.










As we left the park, Marsha, the school's director, gave us each a warm chestnut to eat. Here's mine with the shell off.









Today, we did some painting and Haiku writing. Both the girls wrote their own Haiku's. I can only show you this one, the others are secret.

Thoughts on learning, living, breathing

I'm liking the title of our post more and more. After a rough start to my day and a grouchy end (all due to a misbehaving Westie). I realized that I need to take moments to BREATHE. It's amazing what a half hour on the couch can do for a momma. Often, I don't slow myself down just to do that and I try to barrel my way through the moments of insanity. I then find myself exhausted by 5:00 and truth be told, a grouch. Today, the title of the blog feels like it applies to me-I'm learning (slowly but surely) to live (be in the moment) and to breathe. Aaaaahhhh. Tip: Big deep breaths really do help.

Thursday

After a crazy morning involving a dog emergency (everything's fine). We began a sweet homeschool morning. Here's the list:
-Bagels and OJ at Noah's Bagels with the girls.
-Started off at the Library where I gave the girls a 3 book limit.
-Came home and G read library books to E.
-Made needle felted pumpkins (pictured). So much fun and such a sweet result.
-Did a little pumpkin math involving addition, subtraction, multiplication.
-Outdoor time raking leaves, gathering eggs, and checking their garden of chard, spinach, arugula, lettuce, and Kale.
-Finished up the time with (not so) Big T bringing me a lunch of Pok Pok. YUM! Thanks T!
-Admittedly, I got a little grouchy when they left because our dog (as mentioned earlier) had a close call with a car. After my grump fest, I suggested that the girls and I lay on the couch and listen to Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary (momma fell asleep).

Zoo

The morning was cool with a threat of rain, but we decided to pack the umbrella and go anyway. It turned out to be a perfect morning at the Oregon Zoo. There were few people there and the kids had fun running from exhibit to exhibit. The girls made a list of the animals they wanted to see. The sea otter and lorikeets seemed to be the big hit. They did a great job at reading the map and leading the way. And they learned the meaning of "extinct" in regards to the beautiful Amur leopard.