Dreaming...

I never thought I would be dreaming of less space...but sometimes I do think wouldn't it be nice to live some place with just a kitchen, a toilet, and a bed, just those few things.  I am not sure I would actually LOVE it, but these tiny little places do capture my heart.  If there was a lot of outdoor space, running water and a comfy resting place seems like it would be enough.

Maybe some day when the kids are off at college, grad school, raising children, or raising hell, whatever it is they do when they leave our place, maybe then the mister and I will drive off to our tiny house in the woods...or maybe just with a tiny camper in the woods.  

Isn't this tiny little Teardrop Camper a great set up..featured on Sunset. 

It is certainly not your momma's camper... or your papa's! 

And many more tiny houses can be found here.  

a Peak into our Day: waiting

P loves having friends over to play, when she knows someone is coming over she gets worked up with lots of excitment.  One morning (after she dressed as a princess...a few days after the pirate outfit) she was expecting friends.  Their plan was to 'drop by in the morning', but there wasn't a time commitment or any more of a plan than those loose words.  Phoebe spent about 45 minutes waiting for them on the front porch.  

I watched her from the conditioned house as she watched for her friends.

close your eyes and cross the sea...

Today we went to the National Gallery of Art for their summer series, Stories in Art.

We met up with Ms. Marjorie who greeted us with a happy 'Bonjour' and after closing our eyes and counting to 3 we were on the streets of Paris, but only for a moment before we left for the french countryside.  We entered a garden and ran into the gardener hard at work, Claude Monet.   Phoebe sat quietly and listened to a story about a little girl visiting Claude Monet in his garden. 

Ms. Marjorie took the kids to sit in front of Monet's The Artist's Garden at Vetheuil.  She described to them how to look at a painting; left to right, top to bottom, then crazy eyes, and asked them what they saw.  I watched this interaction with envy, wishing that I was a wee one looking at this painting for the first time.  

Then Phoebe got to do a 'painting' of her own with oil pastels.  After the art project we meandered through the galleries to find the actual Monet painting that P had just colored, The Japanese Footbridge.  She only seemed a little interested in seeing it and was mostly just appeasing me, so we headed for the car.  Though we exited through the underground concourse between the east and west buildings; this might have been Phoebe's favorite part of the whole outing.  She stood on the moving walkway stunned by the lights exclaiming that it looked like 'space out', which I think means outer space.  :)  

Seriously...

I saw this sign at the Hirshhorn today and smiled, nodded my head, and thought, that is a great question. When was the last time I laughed? I take myself so seriously sometimes that I forget to enjoy...life. I remember two times in life when my seriousness was questioned...both times I was basically asked why I didn't smile more, internally I thought, because there is nothing to smile about.

Now that I am a mom, and I still take myself too seriously, this sign somehow helped crack me a bit...I started to think that maybe if I laugh, smile, giggle, be silly just a little bit more there might be less fights in my house. If I joke and enjoy the silliness of my little ones a bit more we all might enjoy each other. Then I read this article this morning and was encouraged to let go. 

So, when was the last time I laughed? Well, last night...we chose to watch the funny movie over the serious movie, Cedar Rapids made me giggle, it was so nice to laugh with the Mister after a long week and a rough day with the kids. If you haven't seen it, you should! Especially, if you are looking for a little break from your serious self.

peak into our day

When the mister is gone it takes a little more effort to keep things running around here; early morning runs into morning, late afternoon runs into evening into bedtime, without the mister coming and going our rhythm is less defined.  We are happy to share the mister with little Lydia, but we do miss him!

5 Months

Justus has made it a whole 5 months! We have all made it 5 months. I say that as if it has been hard or something, not really hard, just an adjustment, just like any other adjustment where you add a whole new person to a family unit. 

He is the sweetest little baby, very calm and quite predictable.  He likes to eat, sleep, and cuddle.  J LOVES to watch his big sister, she is his favorite 'toy'; as soon as he lays eyes on her there is a smile and often a little giggle.  J really just loves people, he likes to make eye contact with anyone who looks his way, I can see him just soaking in their presence, he is very serious about it.  In the last month or so J has gotten to the point that he is too aware to sleep just anywhere, he wants his bed and nobody else around so we try to get home for at least one solid nap a day, and be home for bedtime which is around 6:30 now.  Along with his sweet little coos he has found his shriek, when be breaks out the high pitched squeal it normally makes me laugh except at church during the silent prayer, then it is a little embarrassing. :)  He is eating rice cereal once a day, and we will continue to ramp that up over the next month.  We decided start some cereal because he was just acting so hungry.  He basically sleeps through the night most nights, 6:30pm - 7am with a twilight feeding at 10 or so.  We are enjoying this little addition to our family!  

still ado(red)

 getting so long

And for comparison sake, here is our little girl at 5 months!

Friday Family Fun!

By the end of the week the mister and I are exhausted! And lately it has been incredibly HOT. So, the last two Friday nights, we have stayed in and created a fun family night. I have found a number of great animated short movies (on Hulu), we pick one and eat picnic style. P and I spend the last hour of our day together (waiting for Dad to come home) putting together a yummy spread of finger food that replaces our dinner that evening. 

pumpkin seed crackers, peppered feta, tomatoes

berries, nuts, hummus and veggies

freshly popped corn with freshly grated parmesan cheese

check out this post for a great popping technique

This special little treat has been a fun way for our family to spend time together and P still gets to bed by 7:30 or 8.  And once the kiddos are asleep we get a little more down time.  This makes for a great end to the work week. 

Argh, I'm a pirate

Argh, I'm a pirate, originally uploaded by 207 Living.

Lately, I have been working on the parental art of *Distraction*; distracting P from the thing that she wants (thinks she needs) so that we can move on with our day. So, the other day after a fiery round of, "Let's go get dressed. No, I don't want to get dressed." I stopped and my brain clicked into gear and I asked P, "Do you want to dress like a pirate or a princess today?" She said pirate in a very delighted tone and this is the outfit we came up with. Quite a trendy pirate, eh? She also decided she needed her tool box in case she needed to be a mean pirate, her plan was to hit people with her tools. Gotta love imagination....and distractions!

Brighten up the Corners

 I love this fresh and bright corner in our house today.  We brought home some flowers from Trader Joe's that Phoebe picked out.  She desperately wanted flowers and had a very hard time deciding which bunch she wanted to bring home with us.  The way the flower display is set up you walk past it a few times while shopping and then one last time before you pay; each time we passed them she picked a different bunch and I told her we would make our final decision when we got in line to pay.  She picked these lovely pink roses that I put in a jar as soon as we got home.  I also thought it would be appropriate for a few to rest in her room since she was the one who wanted them so much.  They are a lovely shade of pink to brighten a couple little corners of our home.