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.

Hope for Phoebe....

Source: twitter.com via Joanna on Pinterest

Grafted In

In our church we have this beautiful liturgy for the children that the congregation prays together each week:

Almighty God, heavenly Father, you have blessed 

our congregation with the joy and care of children. 

Give us courage, patience, and wisdom 

as we bring them up in the faith 

that they might never know a day apart from you, 

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I love this prayer on so many levels, first being that everyone participates in joy and care for the children; they are God's children not a particular family's children.  And the reality that we need patience and wisdom to raise them.  Mostly I love the line about them never knowing a day apart from the Lord, there is something so 'whole' about that hope.  

It is with that hope that we brought our little Justus to be baptized a few weeks ago, to be grafted in as a descendant of Abraham.  We do hope that as his parents, god parents, church community and family we can pass on our love for Jesus, that we can be stewards of our faith and share it with both of our children as they grow.

Justus and his godparents, Pat and Ashley

Pesce....what?

The Mister enjoys a food experiment every now and again.  It is his way of dieting without a lot of rules.  Last year we were vegan for about 3 weeks, and we have been keeping up our Meat-less Mondays.  So the other day the mister came home from work and declared, "I am going to be pescetarian!"  Which is basically his way of cutting out beef, chicken, and pork, so to cut out a large amount of 'bad' fats in his diet (mind you chicken isn't bad for you but it is so easy to slather cheese on it....so says the mr.).  This is a decent way to eat, especially in the summer; salmon on the grill, fish tacos, halibut with mango salsa, all great summer fare.  It becomes a fun experiment for me, the chef, and I get to eat whatever I want during the day; big fat burger at the pool, yes please!

This week we enjoyed this tasty meal: Nicoise Salad.  I found the recipe here, and basically followed it, though added some vinegar to the vinaigrette.
 

Maria and Bobby

images by Beyond the Flavor

Bobby and Maria are...well...amazing!  This image sums it up!  Maria was featured on the blog Beyond the Flavor; which is where these images were published.  The article is a colorful snap shot of their life now.

We have been so blessed to know these two lovelies for a few years, and though they live a few hours away, they are dear to our family.  They will be leaving for California soon, and they will be missed by so many. 

4 years and 4 months

The well-child visit for both of the little ones aligned nicely; P's 4 year appointment and J's 4 month appointment.  (how did we get here already??)  We love our pediatrician so it was a nice morning despite the 6 shots that were handed out, both kiddos got 3 and they were both champs.  J went first so while I was nursing him to comfort Phoebe and the two nurses sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to keep her calm during her 3 shots.  She was a real champ!  I couldn't believe what a big girl she was, it was clear she wanted her momma's comfort, but she settled for a hug from the nurse.  After the shots she got LOTS of stickers and we stopped by the fountain outside as a treat.  

Here are their Stats:  

Phoebe- 4 years

40in 39 lb 12 oz

Justus- 4 monts

25.5in 14 lb 9 oz

camping?

Yes, we did!

The mister and I have only been camping once together and it was a hike-in trip in George Washington National Forest.  We both really love camping, though his version of camping is 'pack-in, pack-out' with the guys, and I grew up car camping with a fantastic pop-up camper.  So, when we first talked about camping with P last summer the Mister had a hard time imagining "family camping".  Over the year he was able to grasp the vision of family car camping, especially when he found out Honda makes a tent that attaches to our car!  Somehow, that sold it for him?!

A few weekends ago we made reservations at Cunningham Falls State Park, packed up our car with all our camping necessities (including a queen size blow-up mattress), and hit the road.  We also talked some friends into joining us, they are veteran family car campers, so P had a friend to explore with once we all got there.

We had a full weekend so we could only go for one night, and we all agreed (after the fact) that for the time and energy it takes to set up for a night of camping, two nights are better than one...next time!  I had to keep reminding myself as we set up the tent, or cooked a meal that it is ok to take your time since this is the only thing that needs to be done right now.  Camping is all about camping, being out of the city, out of the every day tasks, and setting up a tent, collecting fire wood, making dinner; there is no reason to rush, these tasks are what we have to do, nothing more.  It was refreshing to be out in nature and just breathe, wash dishes on the picnic table (by hand!), make breakfast as you eat breakfast since the stove is so small, drink in the sunshine that greets you at 6 am.

We will certainly go back, hopefully soon! 

Welcome back!

There is so much loveliness going on around here, it is really hard to know where to start.  So, for now I will just say, "Hello, June; hello, summer, I actually can't believe you came back so quickly!"

I am hoping for lots of "thumbs up" days this summer! 

Phoebe's 4th Birthday

Today is Phoebe's Fourth Birthday.  She is becoming such a fantastic young girl, no longer a baby, no longer a toddler.  She is a lover of adventure, the water, books, people, Home Depot, snacks, her balance bike and her baby brother.  She is a brilliant light in our lives.  Phoebe has tons of energy.  She loves to sing and make up songs.  And she had the most perfect 4 year old doughnut this morning; heart-shaped with pink frosting and sprinkles.  Phoebe greets everyone who comes to our house with a smile, she is always so excited to have dinner guests!

And here are a few of her favorite things.....a snapshot of Phoebe's Phavorites at 4....click here to listen to the recording. (hope the link works!)

And a Snap shot of Birthdays Past...
Birth Day
First Birthday
Second Birthday
Third Birthday

Phirst Proposal

Phoebe got her first marriage proposal recently.  And we got it on video!  A few weekends ago we went on our Church Retreat which has a talent show each year.  One of Phoebe's friends put together this little song to serenade her.  (Well, it was actually his dad who wrote and performed the song, he is a great writer!)  Enjoy this clever song!  There are a few inside jokes and mentions of a number of other friends from church.



Hey Phoebe
I just turned three,
and though your older than me,
I can't stop thinking of thee.

Oh Phoebe,
Would you look over at me?
I have a pink spoon for thee,
It's all good, theologically.

Josiah's back in DC.
And though Watchman says hello.
Those boys, the Damianis,
they are right off to Chicago.

So, please, Phoebe.
I'll hold your hand considerately.
I'm quite over Aubry and Lily
and your the only one for me.

Phoebe, your my one true Capitol Cubbie.
Eventually, hey Phoebe, eventually.....

Will you please marry me?

Coos, Oohs, and Aaahs

Justus has such a sweet 'voice'.  He loves to chat with anyone who comes around, as long as they make eye contact.  He always has a story to tell, a sweet melody to sing, and a hello.  Enjoy this video!



And aren't these little overalls so fantastic??!!

magic

"More and more, I’m convinced that good parenting is learning to coast through the awfulness without losing my grip on the truth. And the truth is this: life is magical, motherhood is an indescribably good gift, and my child (yours too) is more precious and beautiful than even the nighttime sky."

--Christie Purifoy