happy mama’s day (to me!)

AP made sure this lovely little piece came home from the parade with us the celebrate Mama’s Day!  it’s a print from our neighborhood’s  newest mural.  it’s painted by Carson Ellis of Wildwood fame, and lives on the side of Grocery Outlet!  you can read more about the project at her blog.  i, of course, love love love it!

this morning AP brought me donuts and the NY Times.  to celebrate the rest of the day, i am going to walk to the library by myself and go splurge on some coffee–a gift from my mama!  and i’m not doing any chores!

hope your day is bright.

go dog!

 :: a pink and purple poodle for Sketch Tuesday by Mabel ::

st george’s day

i walked into the kitchen and noticed that Andy had changed the calendar to May.  not bad–only 6 days in.  so i looked up this first Monday to see what celebrations might be afoot.  ah!  St George of Merry England.  we must celebrate indeed.  and for us that means reading books together.  today it was under our very English horse chestnut in the backyard.  while i read, we munched on pumpkin banana bread.  i found a recipe here and used the last of last year’s frozen pumpkin.

of course the fine print on the calendar said that this observance is from the Orthodox tradition.  Butler’s Lives of the Saints said we are to celebrate good George on April 23.  thus continued my always-just-a-little-bit-behind celebrations this year.  will i ever catch up?

sketch Tuesday is tomorrow…you have until 8 pm tonight to get a sketch in!  Mabel has drawn a pink and purple poodle!

 

joseph the worker

Heavenly father,

you sent your own Son into this world as the child of Mary and Joseph.

we thank you for the life of this child entrusted to our care.

help us to remember that we are all your children, and so to love and nurture him

that he may attain to that full stature intended for him in your eternal kingdom;

for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord.

this week’s Sketch Tuesday artwork is up.  can you spot our blue moons and dancing clock?

sketch tuesday!

this week Frida Kahlo and i participated in Sketch Tuesday at Harmony Fine Arts!  each week Barb, who is also the wonderfully creative woman behind the Handbook of Nature Study blog, posts a theme.  this last week she asked us to sketch something with wings…

81 people–mamas and papas and children–submitted pictures!  and each Tuesday Barb collects them into a flickr slideshow and suggests the next theme.  can you spot our submissions in the slideshow?

drawing and nature study is something that i want to be incorporating into my days, but often i don’t seem to get to it.  this is a wonderful way to make sure that i take time each week for drawing practice.  won’t you join us next week?

at the end of this gray afternoon

it is God’s creative love that has given us life,

that sustains life, that is our life.

it is God who says,

“Can a woman forget her infant?”

–Caryll Houselander

there’s a poem in my pocket

so, i guess today, April 18th, is Poem in Your Pocket Day.  for some reason i thought it was on the 30th.  maybe, like the Annunciation,  all holidays and celebrations are a few days later this year?  i think that’s it!

i first heard of Poem in your Pocket Day the year that Nico was born.  this will mark our fourth year celebrating!  i spent part of my morning listening to this bit of poem talk from the Kelly Writers House.  these are the same folks who will be teaching the Modern Poetry course through Coursera in September.  i’m already enrolled; won’t you join me?  ModPo in NoPo!  i does me such good to hear other people talking thoughtfully about words.  time well spent.

the other part of my morning was spent reciting nonsense poems with Joseph.  just listen to this call and response:

looking for homeschool inspiration?

i’ve been spending profitable time at the Brave Writer blog and Facebook page of late.

just listen to this:

The measure of my homeschool is not what I’m getting done that is like school.  The measure of my homeschool is what i’m getting done that is not like school.

or this:

You can repair a day “gone bad”…start the day over.  Right now.  You don’t have to wait for tomorrow.  Go forward gently, with low expectations and tea.

or this:

Creating a peaceful home does not come through insistence or coercion.  it comes through open hands, yielding, attentiveness  and kindness.

good, no?  and if you sign up for Julie’s Daily Writing Tip, you can receive the ebook “Help Your Kids Fall in Love with Writing.”  (just scroll down from the Brave Writer homepage; the link is on the bottom right hand side.)

at the annunciation

:: art by Nicolas.  a mama with a baby in her belly.  drawn on the evening Joseph was born ::

To be a Christian is to live into the questions,

to push the horizon of self back so insistently that one’s reference point is the ever-present act of birthing,

to live in the presence of what can never be finished, found, or known,

to live in God’s time, utterly open to what is.

–Wendy M Wright in Seasons of a Family’s Life: Cultivating the Contemplative Spirit at Home

easy as pie

ONE

:: Mabel Nadine in March 2007 ::

TWO

:: Nicolas West in August 2009 ::

THREE

:: Joseph Hunt in March 2013 ::

all wearing the same romper from the Veteran’s Thrift Store’s 25 cent rack!