Postcards from Summer :: Weekending

A 4th of July cookout with cousins; watching the fireworks from Washington DC on TV; a slow Sunday with a visit to a day lily nursery; a little bit of knitting, a lot of reading; pretty much exactly the kind of weekend we all love around here!!

Joining Karen for her weekending series!

Weekending

 

This weekend was all about getting ready for and celebrating Easter.

We went to an Easter Egg Hunt at my mom's Church Saturday where Veronica not only guessed the correct amount of jelly beans in the water bottle but also won this stuffed frog that is bigger than she is....she loves it!

Then there was bagels & donuts at my moms, home to finish cleaning & setting up for Easter dinner, pizza for supper & an early bedtime for the girls (although one of them couldn't go to sleep thinking about the Easter bunny coming)

Easter morning dawned bright and early. Another egg hung at home, goodies in baskets, attending the joy filled Easter Mass, home to finish putting food together, then everyone arrived to enjoy food and each others company.

It was a fast paced weekend full of moments of peace and joy. Just the kind of weekend I love!

Joining Karen for Weekending 

Saint Patrick's Day

 

The way that my husband loves St. Patrick's Day you would think he was fully Irish. To him, that 1/4 of Irish blood running through his veins is everything. He waits for this holiday the other 364 days of the year like a child waits for their birthday. Growing up for me, this was a day to wear green and eat corned beef and cabbage. It was a bright spot in the month but not huge. That has changed for me since I met my husband.

We have been planning for today since the beginning of March. And Marie-Therese got in on the excitement this year. She had great plans for art, gifts for us all, things to do. When the calendar hit March 1st, I ignored the snowstorm swirling outside and we put green all over the house. Yesterday I was informed by my fashion conscious 5 year old that she had nothing green to wear and that was a tragedy! I had a thought to go to the mall to try to find something but I had no desire to do that. So we went on a quick trip to the big box craft store and found some perfect fabric to make a St. Patrick's Day skirt. It had shamrocks, rainbows AND sparkles. She quickly declared it the most perfect fabric ever and then found some owl fabric to make her sister a skirt too.

Thankfully I have been in the mood to sew and those sweet skirts were made up in no time. This morning dawned gray and rainy but I wasn't going to let that dampen my spirits. We got dressed in our green and headed out to Dunkin Donuts for a shamrock donut, to the grocery store for green carnations (daddy's favorite flowers for his favorite holiday) and then to another craft store to see what they might have for St. Patrick's craft supplies.

This afternoon the clouds parted and the sun shone brightly. There may have been some trips to the window to see if we could see a rainbow (we couldn't) and lots of talk of trying to find a leprechaun so we could share some of his gold. Supper was cooking all afternoon on the stove making our stomachs rumble and more than one trip downstairs during rest time for Marie-Therese to ask if she could "try just one bite because it smells SO GOOD Momma."

This is such a simple holiday to celebrate and I think it's a good lesson, for me at least. We don't need much to bring joy and excitement to our days. It has been a long winter here and I am done. My mood has been suffering lately and I could very easily have slipped into only preparing a corned beef dinner with none of the other little things. But it was those other little things that made my mood lighter today. There isn't much green outside yet so we brought green to our home with the shamrocks hanging from the ceiling and sparkly rainbow skirts for little girls.

Just the feeling that today was something special was enough to bring joy to my heart. Seeing my girls excited for this day made me excited too. Listening to the joy in my husbands voice when he called in the middle of the day lifted my spirits. A holiday in the middle of March is a good idea. I let go of the control I would have had one day not long ago....the pressure to DO IT ALL or don't do anything at all. I didn't do all of the ideas I had, I didn't go over the top, just small, simple things. And because we had a simple celebration it was that much more special. There is no need to do things up big all the time. It takes the pressure off. Today gave us all something to look forward to.

Tonight all four of us are going to bed with tummies stuffed full and hearts bursting with gratitude that daddy is part Irish and proud of it!

December 1st

December already!

November was so full. I missed this space and visiting all yours. I will be fixing that this month!

But most of my computer time in November was writing for NaNoWriMo. I wrote 50,000 words. It was a wonderful motivating, inspirational and habit forming month. I learned that if I just sit down at the computer then words will come. I cannot guarantee that they will be the perfect words, but for writing a draft, they were good enough.

While doing that there was a first birthday to plan and celebrate. HOW has this first year gone by already? I cannot wrap my head around it!

There was Thanksgiving at my mom's. I made the cracker and cheese turkey, she made the fruit one. We had a fabulous day. And there was so much food left over that we went back down for supper Friday night too!

Over the weekend we enjoyed Daddy being home for four full days, an unheard of event around these parts. (I am very much looking forward to it's repeat at Christmas!) There was slow days of knitting and slowly getting up the Christmas decorations, sipping tea and hot chocolate, a little bit of shopping, a whole lot of Advent planning. My goal for this month is simplicity. In everything. To enjoy the season through the eyes of my girls. They need some art projects, baking cookies, twinkle lights and decorations and they are overjoyed. Simple and intentional are the mantra I will be repeating to myself in the next few weeks.

I am looking forward to catching up with everyone again!

Post cards from camp

 

Heather's Summer Soul Camp began on Monday and after checking out the hashtag on Instagram I decided to sign up. It is very refreshing! A great pick me up to these hot, humid days of summer. I set up a spot in our breezeway for all the camp activities and we really haven't left it since!

We have been having tea parties, doing art, reading, journaling, writing....anything you can think of really in this spot right in the middle of a cross breeze. Just the thing to help beat the heat!

Let's Catch Up

Oh what a few weeks it has been

Just after writing my last post everything in life got turned all upside down. My grandfather suffered a massive stroke and for five days our whole family spent all of our time at his bedside.

Five blessed days. He was unconscious the whole time but we knew in spirit, he was there. That time gave us the opportunity to hold his hand, kiss him, tell him all the things we needed to, to celebrate his long life with him at our side still. We cried together, laughed together, looked at pictures, remembered all the memories we have of him. His whole life was devoted to family. He left that legacy for us. That no matter what is happening in the world, we need to center and focus on family. 

And so that is what we have been doing. Last Sunday he breathed his last, the day after his 84th birthday. The day after he got one more birthday celebration. (How the man loved birthday's! And food!) We laid him to rest last Friday in a beautiful, tear-filled funeral. We know he is at rest now having lived a well lived life. And we are left here to continue the legacy he left for all of us. With our pictures, our memories and one another.

This weekend was supposed to be one of gradually getting back into routine. Except with the world having been upside down for almost two weeks...that didn't happen. We need to gently ease into routine and I think it's going to take a few days. 

So this week is going to be slow. Yesterday was a day spent again with family, outside, celebrating mothers. And taking my new camera for a spin. How I love it!!

Now I need to think about grocery shopping & cooking. Cleaning the house. Spending time outside. Picking up my pen and journal. All those things that make up my life. The life that I love and that I am so happy to be living. Nothing like watching the last few days of someone's life and celebrating that life, to make one turn inwards to take stock of how one is living one's own life! 

Make & Listen

Last weekend was my husband's birthday. Since it was a milestone one I had decided last February that I would throw a party. Then baby V came & the idea of a surprise party went down the drain. So right at the New Year I brought him in on the idea of a party & he said that sounded good as long as it included just immediate family. That was fine with me....I didn't have to go nuts cleaning!

Since we have a mini party planner 4 year old we needed to have a "theme" and decorations. She suggested Rapunzel. I suggested we ask daddy what he'd like. While he thought Rapunzel was a very good idea, he also liked the idea of a lego party.

So we took the idea & ran with it. Except I couldn't find ANY sort of lego decorations in the stores around here. "That's okay Momma, we'll just make them all!" We kept it simple. I made duplo sized lego's out of card stock for her to strew all over the table. And it wouldn't be any party without streamers so we hung up lego colored streamers in the doorways and the dining room.

The cake though, that was my idea. The thing took forever and was a bit of a fiddly pain in the neck. But I was SO PROUD of how it came out. I didn't really want to cut into it!

So there has been a lot of lego making going on here last week. And of course a lego themed birthday meant daddy need a few new lego kits. Of which every spare moment has been spent building for both Ree & him.

Listening has been mostly the Olympics!

Linking up with Dawn at Simple Things Notebook!

Life is...(Weekending style)

This weekend was spent preparing for sweet baby's Baptism. Saturday was monsoon like weather so I was happy that (almost) all my errands were complete before that! There was just a little cleaning, a little bit of throwing random things in closets, nursing stuffy noses & relaxing.

Sunday morning thankfully dawned bright and beautiful. A beautiful way to honor this special day in V's life. The Church was gorgeous as always, all our loved ones were there. Baby slept peacefully through the whole ceremony just as she does each week at Mass! The party afterward was beautiful with all the love for our family flowing through our house.

After everyone left and the house was mostly clean I sat on the couch for a few hours snuggling my new little daughter in Christ. There is something very holy about smelling the holy chrism on the head of a newborn. My heart was full to bursting last night with the blessings of everyone who came. 

A beautiful weekend with my two beautiful girls. And today dawned bright & WARM! Here's hoping for a little outside time today. Some cleaning up maybe. And the first day of Hibernate! It's a good start to the week so far!!

Linking up with Amanda

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We have so much to be thankful for this year! Especially for the safe arrival of this little sweetie pie! 

Baby V was born on November 20th weighing 6lbs 4oz and came home a week later after a few difficult first days of life. She is perfect & healthy and Ree is absolutely in love with her new baby sister (as we all are!) 

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Halloween

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday. Then Ree came along and it was fun to dress her up. This year she has been talking non-stop about it for weeks. She plays dress-up pretty much every day but I guess a day set aside just for dressing up is the high-light of a little one's life! It certainly isn't the candy for her. She doesn't like any of it! At least not to eat. She loves sorting & stacking & "shopping" with it. And she knows EXACTLY how many pieces of each kind she has. I found that out earlier when I snuck a piece to eat. She got a little testy at me that I messed up her piles!

She & Daddy went to about five houses Trick or Treating and then she decided she wanted to come home to pass out the candy. That was fun until scary people in costumes came to the door. I was afraid there would be some nightmares last night but thankfully no!

So another year of Halloween is over and she's already talking of what to be next year. I told her she doesn't have to wait until Halloween to dress up & that made her happy!

Hard to believe today is the first of November already! This weekend Ree wants to make count down charts to her birthday & the new baby's arrival. I think seeing the days quickly disappear that way may send me into anxiety fits!

Today is also the first day of daily prompts that Amanda has put together for us to follow along with. I like this idea because it gets me to think & get back into the journaling habit. I'm not sure how I'll share some of the words or photographs that I'm hoping to come up with each day, but I'm sure some of them will find their way here. 

Currently

This weekend my sister held a small shower for the new baby. The cake, decorations & favors were all owl themed! So cute!

My lists are getting longer as the weeks till baby are getting shorter. But I am slowly crossing a few things off!

In all the flurry of baby preparations, Ree isn't letting me forget that Halloween is this week! We've done a few crafty things; picked out her costume; found a pumpkin to carve (after going all over the city we FINALLY found one!); she picked out the design she wanted on it and Daddy carved!

Her birthday presents are all bought & waiting (with baby due right around that time I wanted to make sure Ree's birthday wouldn't be lost in the shuffle!) Christmas lists are all made & many gifts have been purchased. I am shocked at myself & know that this time next year I will most likely just barely be starting to think about Christmas!

All the Christmas knitting is so very close to being finished. Baby knitting is finished, except for the few things I want to make. But all the MUST make things are done.

Next up: make a few meals to pop in the freeze for us to pull out when baby comes. We harvested all the eggplants from the garden this weekend so that's on my list now to do before they go bad. 

Today we're having an impromptu Halloween party with my sister & her little's. We'll make cookies & have a tea party. 

The days & weeks are full and as we get closer to delivery day I am even more anxious to meet this new little girl. But I'm also trying to remain present in these days. To savor the last few moments of it being just Ree & I. I cannot wait to see her interact with her baby sister but at the same time it's a little bittersweet that our days of my undivided attention being with Ree are quickly closing. The family dynamics are about to change & I cannot wait to meet this new little person who already has had such a big impact on us!

Tuesday Tea Time (On Friday)

A few weeks ago I came upon the Brave Writer website through a bunch of mentions of it on Twitter. It is an awesome site on getting kids to write! (Most of it is still a little old still for Ree.)

But one thing that I saw and immediately decided to add to our routine is Poetry Tea Time. The day of the week that Julie has set aside is Tuesday, and she shares people's tea time's on her blog each Tuesday too! But we've never managed to hit it on a Tuesday so I kept putting it off.

Last Friday afternoon began the "yes to Ree weekend" and she wanted a tea party. Before I had a chance to put a table cloth on she had already set it with her tea set (also before I had mentioned we could use Mommy's tea set). I did put the candle out & she had picked out the treat of mini Oreos at the store earlier in the day so I put those out too.

She then picked out two books and I made the tea. We sat for a long time reading & just chatting. She enjoyed it so much she's already asking for next time...and I'm putting poetry books on hold at the library!

Day Lilies

This past weekend we went to a local(ish) Day Lily Nursery Farm. It was beautiful there! The weather was sunny; there was a soft breeze; no humidity; big blue skies. It's called "Tranquil Lake" and as Ree & her Daddy walked all over trying to pick out just a few Day Lily's to take home with us, I sat under the shade of the trees and marveled at how very tranquil it is there.

Please excuse the crazy amount of pictures. I took a bunch of the flowers then Ree took ahold of the camera. She took some pretty good shots! (If I do say so myself!)

 

The first thing that greeted us were chickens! Ree wasn't sure at first if she liked them. But the lady who owns the place gave her some treats for them. After that they were all best friends!

It was very warm in the sun so Ree kept joining me in the shade to cool off. When she felt cooler she'd run back out to the field's of "gorgeous flowers!"

These next pictures were all taken by Ree. I love seeing things from her viewpoint. It's like getting into her mind a little bit to see what's important enough for her to take pictures of. When I uploaded the pictures from the camera to the computer there were tons of pictures of flowers; chickens; me; her daddy; and of her surroundings. Plus quite a few very blurry ones since she didn't always take the time to let the camera focus!! 

Easter

I'm playing catch up today. We didn't get many pictures over the Easter weekend! But that is Ree in her new Momma made dress & sweater! There isn't a picture of me in my new sweater. With a house full of 16 people and both ovens on, I DID NOT need it! But I wore it to Church & yesterday!

Our weekend was full of cleaning, setting up, egg hunts, cooking, family & lots of fun! It was so busy that I am STILL tired from it! On Monday Ree & I didn't do anything. And we've had Easter leftovers the past three nights. Tonight I'm making something new!

I haven't picked up any knitting needles since the weekend. Nor have I sewn. I have grand plans for spring & summer sewing so hopefully that will kick in next week! 

Yarn Along

I finished the Puerperium sweater just in time to wrap up for the baby shower. The soon to be Mommy seemed to really like it! I am so pleased with how it came out! My February Lady Sweater is really coming along too. I finished that sleeve up there. So now it's just the 2nd sleeve & putting on the buttons. I put it aside for a bit as I REALLY need to finish Ree's sweater to take Easter pictures.

I had meant to get this post up this morning but Ree was up very early. Then she wanted to draw. We needed to get to story time and do errands as well. THEN the day was so beautiful (a little windy but it was SUNNY and warmish) so we spent quite a bit of time outside. It was wonderful. All that fresh air made Ree ready for a nap. While she was napping I cut out & sewed about 3/4 of her Easter dress! 

I was just getting ready to sit down to write up my Yarn Along post when I turned the news on and saw that there was white smoke from the Vatican. I was very surprised by my reaction. I was filled with excitement and joy at the news that we had a new Pope. I know these past few weeks have brought out pain in some, and made some people lash out at the Church. I have no problem saying that there are problems in the Church and I have come to terms with my own feelings on some of it's teachings. But when it comes down to it I do love the Church & my faith and put hope in the future. The traditions and beauty that encompasses the faith lift me up. To me Pope Francis seems like a gentle, humble man and I pray for him that he can heal some of the wounds and guide us towards the teachings of Jesus. 

I won't always wax philosophical but I started the blog to share the joys in my life and what makes me happy. I have to say this new Pope fills me with joy for the future! The Holy Spirit has filled me with a feeling of renewal not just for the Church but for my own spiritual life! And today this is making me very happy! (Along with the progress I've made on the Easter sweaters & Ree's Easter dress!)

Meet Lemon

We got our new parakeet, Lemon, on Wednesday and she & Ree have taken to each other like crazy! Ree is always asking for Lemon to come out of the cage & when I let her out the bird goes right to Ree! She loves to perch on her shoulder or hide under her hair. It is SO sweet. And teaching Ree that it's good to be quiet and not move so quickly at times. An added bonus!

Earlier today Ree was walking around the house with Lemon sitting on her hand showing her everything. That bird sat right there and sang to Ree the whole time they were walking and talking. After only having her less then 2 days I am shocked at how much Lemon is allowing herself to be handled by anyone never mind Ree!