Be Home

{this moment}

It's been a busy week around here. My mom joined our little clan for a mini-vacation. As a result I have some beautiful pictures to share with you this up coming week. But in the meantime, I couldn't help but add a few words to our friday ritual. After a rainy outing the sun broke through and this is what we beheld!

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Have a wonderfully scary holiday weekend!

{this moment}

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Joining Soulemama for 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.}

 

Have a fantastic weekend! See ya'll on Monday.

the pumpkin patch

Trying to stretch this last bit of gorgeous weather into one more weekend outing, we journeyed into fields of orange. Apparently we picked a place that was rather popular. After about an hour{+} line of traffic to even see the entrance, we first ventured first through the corn "maize". It was huge! Mesmerizing corn stalks wandered in a bewitching fashion that lead us all to wonder just how good ones instinctive sense of direction really is.

 

But everyone insisted that even though we had been stuck in the corn fields way too long we still must pick a pumpkin in a field proper and not our local grocer. As the moon cast longer shadows and the temperatures fell we sized up smallish (and greenish) treasures to carry homeward. Despite our endless walking most of the event, with young children, spirits were high and victorious. Our pumpkinteers were satisfied with their sweet goods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

{playing chess}

Peter has been begging me for weeks to play chess with him. I must admit I dragged my feet on this one. First of all, I've never learned the rules of the game, although he was just as excited to teach them to me. And secondly, I would like to spend my mental energies on something less recreational. For this gal, games are for enjoyment and less a source of sharpening ones strategic outlook.

 

But all that aside, what's a mom to do when the one you love, loves games. And he wants to play them with you?! I must confess I was surprise on many accounts. Peter taught me the rules, complete with strategy, quite well. Plus he knew his stuff! When we were in the heart of chess bantering amongst our play he had some well thought out plans. A formidable opponent to be sure, but alas, as I often do, mom won. Checkmate! However, now I'm worse off then before, because now it's the rematch he's begging me for and I'm not sure I can hold my bluff a second round.

 

{chess set brought home from China, the pieces are made from bone}

 

{this moment}

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Joining Soulemama for a Friday ritual

{A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.}

Happy Weekending!

 

Multnomah Falls

It was time to see the falls. On our way into Oregon so many months ago, we passed this beautiful waterfall, but after the adventure of travelling so many hours and not yet seeing the house we had chosen to live in, we felt it was a stop left for another time. Well, after being settled this past season we grew anxious that it would turn cold and wet before it's beauty could be witnessed by our little clan. As it is, there has been many a nice day since that have been gorgeous and thus was that day as well.

 

Multnomah Falls is a stunning sight. I'm not quite sure that the kids knew just how grand a waterfall could be. The stream right before the falls was a small delight that I believe all my children could have enjoyed for hours. Boys + rocks/water/bugs = pure love. But also was the moment of unexpected and terrible joy. A train passed right by that stream and we stood under it as it passed! Yes, it was a terrifying pleasure of the ear deafening sort. Amazing, truly amazing. Has the great outdoors won over this city-lovin' family yet? 

 

  

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

three letter words

My third and fourth child are learning to read! George has conquered three letter words and Annika is working her way through two sounds blended with a vowel. I have tried to get a more creative curriculum for reading, with pretty flashcards and cute poems, but I always seem to come back to the amazing job that this one book performs. We use Phonics Pathways. We do an ever so small amount each day because I learned the hard way that long time frames only add unnecessary frustration! So maybe its doing one page per day or maybe its just one row on that page but we simply progress. And by the end of the book you have a magnificent reader!

 

About a week ago a glorious day arrived in that process, the one where what had once been long lengths of sounding out individual letters metamorphosed into a connected strand suddenly becoming a cohesive unit! A little boy proudly spouting out words like - tug, dig, bed, and mat with the greatest of ease as he grins big and looks at his older brothers for winning approval. Ahh, let's just delight in the accomplishment of something, anything really, before we lament over the other quizzes, reviews, and tests that somehow failed to bring a grin. Oh, at least kindergarten can revel in its delight!

 

 

{this moment}

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Joining Soulemama for 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.}

Enjoy the wonderful weekend before you!

{To see other extraordinary moments being shared, visit the comments here}

 

{?} sense

When you spend money on anything you hope that the investment is worth the temporary cost. That's common sense. Unfortunately, it was probably more common a generation ago and would be more app ely called uncharacteristic sense in most of the debt induced mindsets of our time, to which I vow not to subject myself. In that hope, I cringed the day we moved our piano. We had to pay for professionals to move it from the living room to the bed of the truck. Because I place a high value on such an heirloom I swallowed the cost at best as a necessary evil but delighted in the hired men doing a job well. However, no such professionals were employed on the opposing end of the trip. So we purchased two objects to which common sense would hardly define. To move the piano a short, oh so short, distance we needed two furniture dollies, for a total of $60.00.

It took barely five minutes to use them and the wheels looked like they never knew the likes of any pavement. I debated very, very hard to return those two dollies for a full refund. But in the end I could only imagine a girl who wore a dress to prom only to return it the following morning. No, I'm more the type to have the dress neatly folded in a storage box for decades after wearing it a total of two hours. This is called non-sense. Thus the two dollies sit in my garage waiting for some fine usage to pay their way to a worthy investment. In the meantime, we have less of a need to pay for any more outdoor play things of the wheeled variety. For the dollies seem to have enjoyed a new found way to be usable. Reusable ingenuity of a previous generation has apparently briefly resurfaced. Let the races begin!