Holiday Thank You Cards

A simple and sweet way to show off my little one's artwork. She is really into painting and this was very satisfying for me too. I always want to use her abstract color studies for something. Now I'm honored to share these with family and friends.

You Need:
White cardstock
Colorful scrap paper
Glue stick
Paint
Painting tools: fork, comb, dull pencils

1. Let your child have it with paint on the colorful scrap paper. I limit it to one color at a time. Allow her to use tools to scrape off paint to show the paper color.

2. After the pieces have dried, cut them into rectangles that fit your cardstock.

3. Glue the paintings to the cardstock.

4. Press them in between wax paper. Place inside thick books stacked on top of each other overnight.

5. Mail to your loved ones!

It's Winter

This was taken on a day when I couldn't take it anymore. The string of gray days had been long and I was feeling the weight of the clouds being so . . . everywhere and the rain coming from above so . . . constantly. Strangely, after I shot that picture, it felt better. I had captured it and it was sort of . . . beautiful. (Maybe I am becoming a true Seattlite after-all.) I just want to say that during the long dark days of parenting, sometimes just a little quest to express yourself makes all the difference.

Waiting Around

One way to pass the time while waiting near a sunny wall at dusk. I highly recommend it.

Our Nature Table

There's a fun little practice that I learned about through Waldorf education and The Creative Family: keeping a seasonal nature table specifically for young children. It makes me more aware of the changing cycle of the year and allows my daughter to participate in those cycles by having a place to display her treasures.

Our fall-time nature shelves are pack with goodies. I think my favorite moments this autumn have been when she finds a pretty leaf and says, "This goes on my nature shelf!" Part of the change happening outside then comes inside and becomes a part of us.

Nature Table pool on Flickr has some incredible photos & crafts.

This book has fun ideas:

The Nature Corner: Celebrating the Year's Cycle with Seasonal Tableaux

by: M. Leeuwen, J. Moeskops

Following the sun's warmth on a chilly autumn morning

We did it~
Five camping trips in one summer~
They were well worth the work of packing and unpacking, but I'm feeling like it's time to hibernate. It feels like time to be done. I'm ready for this to be the last one of the season and I want to take advantage of these sunny autumn days. We didn't go far, under an hour away to Lake Easton. (Although it took 3 hours because we thought we were going somewhere else which was closed for the season.) When we finally arrived, we happily pulled into an empty campground with a site (and playground) overlooking the lake. We had a bit of sunlight left, until we enjoyed a warm dinner by the campfire. As the sun came up, so did the cool mist from the lake. It was chilly! The tent was barely warm enough and Alita and I went down to the lake to welcome the rising sun on our skin. I so love this practice, only found while camping: following the sun's warmth on a chilly autumn morning.

Upon return to the site, Papa had warm oatmeal ready. Then, we explored our surroundings.


It was just fabulous what was lying out in the open on the evergreen needles.

We spent one more night in the tent, and then early in the morning Mama declared triumphantly, "I'm so *%#@! cold. Let's pack up the tent quick and go out to breakfast. We're done camping!" So the time came to say goodbye to our season of camping and my daughters first memories of sleeping outside to the sound of wind in the trees.
Bye-bye ... until next spring.

Piles O Pumpkins

Our weekly pick-ups at the farm are coming to an end. The final harvest is glorious and the pigs anticipate the last of the summer fruit. We have loved and learned and look forward to next spring! Now, my learning begins about new pumpkin varieties with which to make pie. So far, the Cinderella was delicious. ~ There's an entire greenhouse of squash for me to explore. ~

Our Mini Mammoths

So whatever happened with the urban sunflower house I was planning on creating in this April post? A few things:

1. Russian Mammoth Sunflowers need ground to grow, not pots. In our neighborhood, the ones that were planted in direct soil were seriously MAMMOTH... as big as both of my arms encircled.
   
2. We thinned ours so there were three per pot, but that's no "house."
3. They also need 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day. We spread them out around the garden to provide just that. No house this summer, but I'm hopeful for next.
   

What did I adore about growing these? A few more things:

1. They grew so tall that there's just something magical about being dwarfed by a flower in your garden. (I don't know, but is it similarly magical when you are dwarfed by your grown child? Sunflowers only take a number of weeks from seed to maturity vs. 18 years.)
2. In the autumn, when they bend over and their seedy faces are arching into the tomatoes, there is such a human quality to their fallen stalks. Summer is really over. I feel just as droopy.
   
3. The dinner plate size blooms that burst with seeds are a very tactile, seasonal project for little ones and adults alike. Tearing them apart and breaking into the seed cache was really impressive. Each bloom provided us with hundreds of seeds to plant next year and feed to the birds, or eat them too!
   
4. When I took these to camp, I felt like a Mama squirrel collecting for winter as I handled my stash under a forest of golden leaves with my curious little squirrels by my side.
   
5. Late September has never felt so right as it did among the sunflowers on our city street.