Finding Flow...Anchors and Flux

I know how important it is to have rituals in life. "To every thing there is a season.." rings with the deepest truth of life, we humans feel centered and happier when we have rituals and seasonal times of reflection.

 This is something I have been trying to build into our family over the last couple of years.

In Spring we get the yard ready. We go to our places and have a celebratory picnic. We take a lot of nature walks, reveling in the new warmth (even if it's still chilly), looking for signs of green at every turn and when it truly arrives, we revel in the green and flowers.

Summer means popcicles, fireworks and lightening bugs on the 4th of July, playing in the sprinkler together, picnics by the creek, the Summer Reading Program, playing outside all morning and resting in the heat of the afternoon. Grilling and pickles and garden veggies. Summer Ends with The Fair...

Autumn means Leaf Walks to collect colorful leaves and crunch all that will be crunched!  Making our Seasonal Window Hanging- we make at least 4 a year out of wax paper and leaves, glitter, or paint.

Autumn Means hours at the park playing under the trees, reading books, early evenings, and the tinge of sadness that another year is winding down.

 And then we swing around to the Holidays and winter...The Holidays means a new window hanging, The Christmas Tree Hunt, decorating the tree, the Advent Elves and their secrets and surprises and letters of encouragement and Advent Projects...

Can you see Clemmie and Calvin nestled down on the window sill?

Decorating the Tree

Winter means Long days at home. Winter is dark and cold and the days feel long and people feel crowded. There is sickness from the lack of sunshine. But there is coziness and time for creativity. Snow fun and lots of time for books and school and sewing projects.

Playing with their friends next door after a blizzard.

sewing with a sleeping Ziggy on my back.

  I see all that we've built into our life, the way we try to honor and embrace the season we are in, to take the time to say "We can't do this any other time of the year, this is special."

School, newborn Ziggy, reading our Language Arts out loud while Ziggy nursed.

So when it comes to the year, yes I feel like we have an ebb and flow and definitely anchors. Some thing I want to write here while my kids are still young so I remember. I think the one thing I have done pretty well is to set my bar pretty low. The things I do with the kids aren't things that are hard for me to do, or take a ton of work. I enjoy them, they add a sense of stability and rightness to my life.

I have been fairly intentional not to build things around things that feel like work. They are important to my kids but I want to continue doing them for me.  Even when my kids are too old or uninterested I want to take time to make a new window hanging for that year in each season, or at least have a specific window hanging we've made back up. I want to take time to revel in leaves that crunch, I want to enjoy the ritual of decorating the tree and sitting in it's light with a warm beverage. I want to take the winter days to read and sew and enjoy quiet days at home. I don't mean any judgement to my Mom, she did what she needed to do, and she did a million things I am so grateful for, but as one of "the babies" I felt a huge sense of loss when she started to drop traditions because she was so busy with the older siblings who were teenagers.

I know down the line my kids are not going to want to join me, but I know that we lose so much when we stop honoring the seasons in small simple ways. And I hope to always offer that haven and safe feeling to my children. I don't cook fantastic meals or make Holidays all about the foods, that stresses me out. But I try to find ways to honor the seasons in simple ways and I hope I always will.

Tree night, store bought cookies and cider by the tree

So that's how we honor the season of the year...Now I want to talk about how we honor the times of the day and the ebb and flow and flux we need in life. That will be the next post...

Glimpses of Spring

It's officially the last week of winter and we're anxiously waiting and looking for signs of spring...

Shivering in jackets and mittens, burning cheeks and numb noses, we have felt relief in the upper 30's (and 40's! And even 50's!) and wandered the local parks celebrating in the green patches between grey and white.

Wet slushy side walks on 40 degree days feel like summer after weeks (months!) of being frozen and walking carefully across crusted ice.

Roo apparently finds 40 degrees perfectly acceptable jacket-free weather!

While the cuddle bugs shiver in winter jackets and keep blankets close...

But we're still celebrating! Spring is coming! 

 

From today...The snow is losing!

From our trip to the park today...

This was all buried in about 2 feet of snow not 6 days ago! 

Spring is a glorious thing! We're so excited! I think my favorite part of raising people and being around kids is their ability to bring us back to really appreciating the seasons. I am so glad we live where there are 4 seasons. Winter is hard, but in a way it teaches me to rest, to appreciate the shorter darker days. This winter especially I embraced the rest of winter in a way I haven't really allowed myself to ...ever. I needed the rest, we need the seasons of waiting and rest. But there comes a point where the long dark days drag on, it feels like a terrible transition- stuck in between knowing things have their proper seasons- and desperately ready to move on! Winter, there is some discomfort in the long darkness, there are lessons and joys as well. 

Because...When spring finally does arrive, you wish you could kiss it in welcome! You're so happy n a way you never could have remembered if you didn't know the winter so well. And the thrill of seeing buds on the trees, the smell of the ground waking up after a long sleep. You remember it hasn't always been cold silence. The days are longer and it feels delicious to be tucking little ones in bed and knowing that the day is not really ending. I could wax poetic about this way longer than I will. We're so happy, SO happy to welcome spring this year.

Especially this year it feels like the waiting time has passed, now it's just one fun leap to prepare for all that's next. Spring! To make the yard beautiful.  Spring! To grow our garden. Summer! To eat our fruits and veggies and listen to the buzz of the the cicadas and the sound of the sprinkler. The hum of the air conditioners and the cool family room during rest time on hot July days. To know that soon we'll be  welcoming some one new. That our autumn will be full of just as many changes as the trees, and our winter will come again, well won rest. 

To spring! Yes, we're so excited we would kiss it! 3 more days!

School...

We are actually in our 8th week of home schooling. We are loving it! The girls are doing great. These pictures were on a day that Roo had a fever and wanted to do school in bed. This was back in September.Actually, this was our FIRST week of school. I haven't had a computer set up and working long enough to upload the pictures!

playing (we weren't fully moved in yet :)

A favorite activity of Pip's during school- chalk board!!

Roo's super fancy "princess" hair- she was playing her phonics game one day for school. <3

Around Home...New!

My project note book with colors and lists and schedules...

Pip playing on our newly refinished deck (we restored it)

THE MONSTER GARDEN outback. We decided to just leave the garden be this year- we had SO many projects it was just crazy. Well every thing reseeded!! And this is what happens when you intentionally "let it go" wild jungle yard! These are our PUMPKINS! THe past THREE years we have tried desperately to get pumpkins to grow (I love them- it's a thing), and we failed miserably. Last fall we threw away some pumpkin guts there and BAM they went crazy in the spot and we have about 20 pumpkins growing like crazy in there!!!

our tomatoes

Pumpkin and morning glory craziness

Do you see our new patio in process back to my right?Or my left? back there on the left... yup!

Playing in the family room

Story time with Friendly...

Roo is SUPER into the planets right now. Nana got her a magnetic set with all the planets and she's been having fun arranging them...on the heater.

Gorgous pip.

RACE! This is endless entertainment. They start at the corner and I yell "ready set go!" and they FLY as fast as they can to the front steps and I tell them their time. Seriously- we do this for hours a day, wears them out!

Pip helping build the new shelving unit.

RACE!!!!!