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apples, please.

11 Sep

Saturday was beautiful, such a nice break after our week of rain.  I was desperate to get outside to enjoy the sunshine, so we decided to find a place to pick apples.  For almost all the years we lived in Charlottesville, we were only one mile down the interstate from a wonderful apple picking place.  Evie was so little during apple picking season last year, I was very happy with the apples Joel brought home from the grocery store.  This year, however, we wanted them from the tree.  The older girls ran free in orchard and asked for applesauce.  Eva ate the apples right off the tree.

Miss Eva Joy decided she wanted to walk this weekend.  No steps Friday.  Five steps Sunday.

My Ella is starting preschool.  She is ready.  I think I am ready.

On Friday, we went to visit school and to help her find her classroom.  Ella walked away with one concern.  Friday is the first show and tell day.  Favorite books.  “Mom, I love so many. How will I be able to choose just one to bring?”

For these moments:

  • both Joel and I seeing Eva’s first steps together
  • her big grin – the Evie grin.
  • Ella’s excitement about starting school
  • her trying to memorize books so she can read to me
  • pesto pizza
  • anticipating applesauce
  • knowing that means fall is on the way
  • figuring out the knitting pattern on Eva’s dress
  • seeing old friends
  • the conversation that picks up as if it just left off
  • the peace after they leave of just enjoying them
  • mini- dinner pies in flaky crust w. mashed potatoes and gravy – comfort food in all it’s glory

For these moments, these pauses, the grace of God in the moment, I am so thankful.

Everyday Beauty : Day 5

5 Sep

Ducky Goes Walking : {Everyday Beauty} ::: A challenge to try and capture more of the everyday.   A little beauty amidst the craziness. A month to be a seeker of beauty.  30 photos to see the simplicity and loveliness of the here and now. :::  Please feel free to join me; and share what moments you capture.  If you play along anytime this month, please leave me a comment.

For these moments:

  • fresh basil turned pesto
  • the farmer at the market who threw in an extra bunch just to be nice
  • the basket of free bread donated from Trader Joe’s
  • Labor Day and the celebration of relaxation
  • a littlest lady who slept until 7 this morning – just to celebrate Labor Day for mama
  • and napping again as I type up this post
  • potty training going better than not
  • another batch of peach jam made and packed away
  • last swims in the community pool
  • fall dress shopping for Sophia – she wants the blue one with flowers from Land’s End.
  • mom’s time out early Saturday morning – coffee, my journal and knitting.  I came home ready to see the ladies again
  • a freshly vacuumed downstairs thanks to my husband
  • Sophie carrying her baby in a “Moby Wrap” and wearing her gold sandals.
  • Ella telling me at bedtime that I am the best mom.
  • a fresh turned page in my planner and the new start to a week

For these moments, these pauses, the grace of God in the moment, I am so thankful.

{for these moments}

29 Aug

The weekend started on Thursday for the girls and I.  Joel was off to his annual Dude Ranch reunion with the dudes.

We went to the Farmer’s Market and came home with concord grapes which send me straight back to swimming in our childhood pool, picking them off the vine while leaning over the side of the pool and letting them slide down my throat without their hard skin.

We made a quick stop at the library to exchange books.  The girls found Fancy Nancy  books.  We love Fancy Nancy around here.

We went swimming and the girls invented a crab game in the pool.  Sometimes I can’t believe how much they changed this summer.  All I know is they played happily for an hour while Eva and I relaxed and when we got home they both took naps.

Friday night we watched Peter Pan.  Saturday I had to take their play house out of the playroom because they kept reenacting the rooftop scene.

We played freeze dance.

We made peach cobbler.

We cleaned out the play room.

I ripped out my knitting and began again.

We had too many chiefs.  We had whining.  We had talking back.  We needed Dad to come home.

Once he got home, there were many hugs, some “this is what good behavior looks like” talks and very early bed times.  I got a foot rub and Indian take-out.  All is now well.

For these moments:

  • reunions with 12 great guys
  • watching their lives stay knitted together for the past 10 years
  • seeing more wedding and babies with each passing year
  • searching for the best looking cucumber at the farmer’s market
  • coming home with a lavender plant, as well
  • the girls parting with their books they know they don’t read anymore
  • freeze dance
  • roasted eggplant over pasta
  • evie eating aforementioned meal
  • evening talks with the neighbors
  • joel coming home
  • seeing how quickly equilibrium is restored

For these moments, these pauses, the grace of God in the moment, I am so thankful.

If you are inspired, leave me one (or more) grateful moments in the comments.    I would love to see them!  Happy Day, friends!

Linking up with Ann and Amanda

{for these moments}

7 Aug

Hello.  It seems every once in a while I am in need of a little quiet, and I don’t even realize it.  I didn’t mean to be absent from this space for a while, but I guess I did, in fact, need some quiet.  We spent almost a week visiting with family and then a week enjoying summer around home. The girls and I are only home for a couple days, and then we are headed to Buffalo to celebrate my sister’s bridal shower.  We celebrated a 30th anniversary and one year in our new house & job.  We are looking forward to the wedding shower and a special girl’s first birthday.  This month we will see both sets of grandparents.  August is a little busy to say the least, but in the best way possible.

Around these parts:

1. Ella got a new bike with training wheels.  We have been taking nightly bike rides/walks.  Sophie can’t peddle her tricycle yet, BUT she insists upon wearing her helmet for safety.

2.We came home from Joel’s parent’s house with fresh caught crabs and figs straight off the tree. We enjoyed crab cakes twice last week, and I made fig preserves.  Rachel - I think I am slowly getting over my canning fear.  I really want to hear about those drunken cherries you mentioned, however ….

3. I placed Ella’s quilt project on hold for a little bit until I make a couple design decisions.  I know I want Ella and Sophia (who share a room) to have similiar quilts.  I don’t have enough collected vintage sheets to make both of them each patchwork square quilts large enough for each of their beds.  I can’t decide if I would be happier to take some of the squares and add a white border to break up some of the prints and add some yardage, or if I would prefer to surf etsy until I have found enough different pieces of vintage sheets to make the quilt design I had originally thought I wanted.  I am just trying to make sure I enjoy the process as much as the finished project.

4. Speaking of enjoying the process, I began a little smocking project for Eva.  I really do love having some sort of hand work I can pick up and put down whenever I find myself with a few minutes.  Even today, Ella woke up from her nap much earlier than her sisters so she and I snuggled in my bed and I smocked on the dress for a little bit while she played ipad.

Do any of you have any ipad app suggestions that your kids love?

{she rescued an old film camera destined to the thrift store bag and asked me if she could take some pictures for my blog}

5.We took the girls to Water County last week.  Hilarious.  They embraced every single ride they were tall enough to ride.   I took Sophie on the inter-tube slide ride ten times.  She couldn’t get enough.  I wish there had been away to get a picture of her face coming down the slide making her *wooting* noise.  I am just happy I have my memory to keep a picture of her little pigtails curled up on top of the life vest hoping to go faster to get more wet.

I am been thinking about a little photo challenge for myself.  30 days. Everyday Beauty captured.  Would any of you be interested in doing it with me? Let me know if you would.

For these moments:

:: summer crab cakes

:: lake swimming

:: safety helmets

:: successful surgeries (my dad)

:: getting immersed in a dvd television show (The Good Wife)

:: listening to the girls play Peter Pan before they go to bed for a week straight

:: ponytail curls

:: painted dressers

:: sparkle red shoes picked out among ALL the shoes in the shoe department.

For these moments, these pauses, the grace of God in the moment, I am so thankful.

If you are inspired, leave me one (or more) grateful moments in the comments.    I would love to see them!  Happy Day, friends!

through the lens

25 Jul

Late afternoon, the sun streams above the sink sending shadows across the counter.  And, he sees me trying to snap the picture he knows I want.  He comes quietly, in the manner he does everything.  Gently looks over my shoulder, checking the aperture.  My picture is good. Yet, I know he sees through the lens what I can still only see in my minds’ eye.  He helps.  Gently, making me want to learn more.

Before I know it, I am reminded of how I am falling in love all over again. Time and time again.  Gently. Helping.  Through the lens of something much bigger.   Snapping pictures of my own with babe three resting on my hip.  The picture is certainly not the picture this time.

For these moments:

::  the lens that helps us see clearly

:: snuggling sisters watching a DVRed show they missed while at Nana Camp

:: Eva’s love of watermelon and her chipmunk cheeks full of it

:: peach jam canned in beautiful glass jars waiting for breakfast toast

:: a full shoe basket by the front door

:: air conditioning during the hottest days on record at Dulles Airport last week

:: 100 quilt squares cut

:: girls who don’t miss a beat and are currently getting out all necessary painting supplies to fulfill dad’s request of art work for his office.

For these moments, these pauses, the grace of God in the moment, I am so thankful.

If you are inspired, leave me one (or more) grateful moments in the comments, either link or list.  I would love to see them!  Happy Day, friends!

Tomatoes in a Row

18 Jul

The tomatoes are ripe. The girls have been eating the cherry tomatoes faster than I can find them on the plants for about a week now.  But just Friday the first big tomato was ready for picking.  Saturday evening I came in with a handful of five tomatoes.  After savoring the delicious tomato smell that only comes when you have just picked it off the vine, I promptly cut it up, added goat cheese, and enjoyed.

This weekend was a true delight.  Friday afternoon all of my girls were extra snugly.  The Friday Nights Lights series finale was on – and it might have been one of my all time favorite finales.  Clear eyes.  Full Hearts.  Can’t Lose.

The older two girls left Saturday morning for a week of Nana Camp.  They were ecstatic the past week leading up to this weekend about all the things they are going to do while visiting Nannie and Poppa.  They have plans to go to Water Country; Sophie told me she was going to show everyone how she can swim. They are also going to the Virginia Living Museum to see the touch tanks.  I already know they are coming home with a hermit crab.  Oh my.   Evie has been soaking up every. single. moment of mom and dad’s undivided attention.  My sweet Evie, how I love you so.  I wandered aimlessly around the house for the first two hours they were gone.  Then, the thought struck me I better do something because as soon as they shock of my helpers not being around hits; I might not get anything done.

We went to a Saturday evening church, a couple thrift stores, and watched The Lincoln Lawyer (I liked it).   This morning, I lounged in bed.  Joel and I piddled around the house with a coffee treat, and went to Lowes to find a paint color for a little furniture painting project I have worked up.

As for me, I have a little quilting plan for my solo time this week.  Joel and I have a date on the horizon.  Yes, indeed, it is shaping up to a be a good week.

For these moments:

::Evie’s clapping
::tomatoes on the sill
:: completed grocery shopping & the week’s menu planned
:: a pile of vintage sheets ready to be cut up
:: Sophie’s barrel rolls in the pool – face wet and all
:: Nana Camp excitement
:: surprising quiet in the middle of the day

For these moments, these pauses, the grace of God in the moment, I am so thankful.

If you are inspired, leave me one (or more) grateful moments in the comments, either link or list.  I would love to see them!  Happy Day, friends!

Our Town

11 Jul

7.11.11.  I like the rhythm of the sound of today’s date.  I love to find patterns in numbers – clocks, license plates, dates.  I think I always have.  There were a time in my teenage years where I could not walk by a clock – look to see it there was a number pattern and if so, make a wish.  11:11 – the ultimate wishing minute of the day.

{Today there are also free slurpies at 7-11 today.  It’s gonna be a hot one so we are going there after nap this afternoon on the way home from the library}

I had been saving a giant cardboard box for a couple weeks now.  I got the notion of making a town.   The places the girls thought were essential for a good town include: the grocery store, the library, the ballet studio, church, the park, daddy’s work, the thrift shop, the knitting shop (for mommy), a cafe, and the neighborhood pool.

Spending another Monday in this space with my grateful list:

::falling asleep before 10 pm on Saturday and a little one who did not wake me until 7 am

:: the first *good* summer watermelon

:: clothes drying on the new line outside

:: the smell of summer that filled them when I brought them indoors

:: time for the girls to watch dad’s soccer tournament

:: the same park having a merry go round

:: noticing how much Sophie has grown since last year by riding the horse without my help

:: baked oatmeal topped with fresh blueberries

:: finishing One Thousand Gifts with a cup of tea on a rainy afternoon in the quiet

:: the way in which Eucharisteo is challenging me to my inner being, making me want to be a person of gratefulness

For these moments, these pauses, the grace of God in the moment, I am so thankful.

If you are inspired, leave me one (or more) grateful moments in the comments, either link or list.  I would love to see them!  Happy Day, friends!

For these moments

20 Jun

On Friday morning,  Ella’s dance camp had a performance so we could see what she had been learning all week.  The teacher choreographed and taught the class a two minute dance to a song from Alvin and the Chipmunks.  It was a cute little dance, perfect for their ability.  Each of the students showed their newly acquired tumbling skills.  In her ballet class this spring, the same teacher tried to teach Ella a somersault and she couldn’t do it, but Friday she could!  Each day she came home with a little craft, and took a nap. Overall, I think camp was a success.  Sophie is most excited to have her best friend back in her morning routine.

I am grateful for

:: a husband who loves and adores all four of his girls

:: girls who are so happy to be together again for their morning coloring time

:: family Candy Land time

:: game time that teaches valuable taking-turn lessons

:: the phrase “Look-it, Mama” because it means they want to show me everything, all the time.

:: the coo of the turtle dove couple who has had their nest in our chimney since before we lived here.

:: a babe who learned some rockin’ dance moves this weekend

:: the same babe who also learned to clap this weekend

For these moments, these pauses, the grace of God in the moment, I am so thankful.

If you are inspired, leave me your grateful moments in the comments, either link or list.  I would love to see them!  Happy Day, friends!

For these moments

13 Jun

This morning, I am

:: marveling at my first baby being old enough to be at dance camp this week.

:: proud of what a beautiful little girl she has become.

:: wishing to savor all the precious moments of them still all being my babies at the same time.

:: shocked at how quiet a house can suddenly become when one sister is away, one is sleeping, and one wants to use the doodle app on my iphone.

:: smiling at how Sophie only wants to be without any clothes at all, in her bumblebee costume, or her pink dress.

:: delighted at how our tomato plants are doing this year.

:: watching all the little chickadees who have been visiting us on our new bird feeder.

:: thankful Eva’s top teeth have come through and she is sleeping better.

:: wondering if that means I need to hold myself to my promise to begin running soon.

:: wishing all of you the happiest of Mondays in which you can have a moment to stop and enjoy.

For these moments, these pauses, the grace of God in the moment, I am so thankful.

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