b o t t o m l a n d

think outside...

I've been in a pretty good funk for a while now, but this week I decided that getting outside would help (um... duh!) so Little C and I set off on an afters-chool adventure on a new trail we discovered.

We found so much beauty and air to breathe and even some fairy houses...

 

where the magic happens...

Today was the first Monday of first grade, starting of our third week at Emerson Waldorf School.  Here are some things I'm loving so far:

• I still don't have a job, so I'm still the designated driver, which means I get all that great car time with Little C.  We already have a tradition established of listening to quiet music on the way home, and not really talking much.  I'm trying to refrain from peppering her with questions, and allow her to process the day in her own time (it usually comes tumbling out in the darkness of bedtime...)  In the morning, it's usually rock-out time.
• The switch to a whole day at school (from 1/2 day kindy) is a lot for Little C (in some ways she still seems so little) but they have a rest time every afternoon when they lie down with a blanket from home while the magical Ms. Rogers tells them a story.  
• Every day at drop off and goodbye, Ms. Rogers meets each child at the door, shakes their hand, looks them in the eye, and greets them.  It's lovely, and it makes the drop off totally without anxiety or chaos.  Little C goes directly from the attentive care of one adult to another.
• Music, art, movement and nature are all part of the rhythm of each day.  While she does have a special music teacher who comes down the her classroom on Mondays, she sings with her teacher every.single.day.  Some of their other "special" classes (when another teacher comes in to work with them) are German and Handwork.  Ms. Rogers does painting and form drawing with them daily, and various movement activities.  
• They have *2* recesses per day.  Little C is becoming an excellent jump-roper, and getting such strong legs as a result!  Their playground is shaded from the North Carolina heat under tall trees that filter down the most magical light.
• The classroom is beautiful, carefully attended to and outfitted, and home base.  They leave it for recess, but otherwise all their classes and lunch time happen here in this sacred caccoon.  People wonder "Are children in a Waldorf School over-protected?"  In my reading and observation, it's all about timing.  The high schoolers are plenty savy to the ways of the world, but yes, they do try to protect the 6 year olds and give them a safe foundation that then grows into the courage to explore.
• Ms. Rogers is a seasoned teacher, who wisely saw right through Little C's dramatic and effervescent demeanor to the sensitive, sometimes insecure child within.  (Not the the dramatic side isn't real, but there's also this quiet brooding part of her that many adults miss in the face of her verbocity and charm!)

~Prayer flags over the archway that greet us as we come and go~

~Showing me her blackboard, adorned with an image of the little prince that is the main character of many of the stories her teacher tells~

~Her friend's little sister wanted to get in on the photo shoot~

~Beauty and order~

~Saying "goodbye" to Ms. Rogers at the end of the day.  I love how her face is shining!

~The "hallway" of the school is outside under a protective roof.  This boggles my New England mind~

~There's a jump rope in there somewhere~

~Oh, but the LIGHT is so magical~

~At an all-school picnic on Saturday evening.  It's such a wonderful group of families~

~After yummy picniking~

 

road trip

...  It's been a while since I've done any serious blogging, but I think that's all about to change ...  I'm happy to report that maple sugaring season is OFFICIALLY OVER!!!  So I might see my husband again, at least between Red Sox games, that is.  And I have my own little project up my sleeve, but more about that later.  For now, I'm just glad to be home after two precious days away with my husband and daughter (for real, that man was working 100 hours a week for the last month or more!).  What would a road trip be without pictures taken while driving?  (Don't be alarmed, my co-pilot was steering for me, and none of these shots involved actually looking through the view-finder!)

elizabeth mitchell

I am so excited that Elizabeth Mitchell (our favoritest family singer ever!) has a new album out.  But even more exciting is the fact that...  WE GOT TO SEE HER IN CONCERT!

We had the most amazing time, and are totally smitten with the lovely Elizabeth and her husband Dan and daughter Storey.  A family that tours and makes music together!  What a dream!  We saw them at this very cool gallery space (actually, it's called the Space Gallery!) in Portland, ME.  It was small and intimate.  The kids were attentive and the grownups sang along.  Group singing, my favorite!  It was such a beautiful experience, and we left with our hearts singing.  Best of all, Clara got to meet Elizabeth and give her a card she had drawn for her.  Elizabeth was so sweet and quickly found a card of hers on which to write a message back to Clara.  It made Clara's November, I think!

 
Afterwards, we all enjoyed walking around Portland in the uncommonly warm November sun, and even snuck in a trip to Duck Fat for the best french fries in the history of everything.

A great day ended with dinner at the new home of some friends with their beautiful new baby girl.  Of course, a family concert was in order, so we serenaded Baby H well into the evening.  And then a long drive home...  Lovely day...

 

cape cod part 1

Little C and I had a great time at Cape Cod (and on our other adventure, but more about that later...)   The highlight was wandering the beach--we came home laden with rocks and shells to keep our nature table rooted in the sea through the long winter months.

**PS:  I'm having fun taking lots of pictures and fooling around with the processing of them.  I'd love any feedback as to what images you especially like/dislike and why.  Thanks!

wintering

One of the things about living in New Hampshire is that in order to survive the cold winters, it is imperative to love being outside in the cold.  Papa D and I love to cross country ski, downhill ski, snowshoe, ice skate, and take walks in the crunchy snow.  It has been so fun over last winter and this one to start to introduce Little C to some of those activities.  

On Saturday, after work, she and I bundled up and I took her to a local pond to try out her new ice skates.  She and I were both so delighted with how quickly she took to it, and we stayed till it was getting dark.

I loved seeing her so proud of herself...

 

She took this shot of me finding my own skating legs.  It's been years since I skated with any regularity, though I grew up skating on this very same pond.

I was once again reminded of how good it is for my soul to just have fun with her, and that spirit of fun carried us through the rest of the weekend.

How was the weekend for you all?  What are some of your favorite ways to spend a winter afternoon?

away :: portland, part I

Over the past weekend I was whisked (by my beloved) away from my own life, here on this winter-laden farm, to a small city--two hours drive but a world away.  It's amazing what 48 hours of vacation can do to revolutionize your outlook on the world.  A friend referred to our weekend as our "Epicurean Love Fest," and so it was.  Portland, Maine has the highest number of restaurants per captia, and we feasted.  We also reveled in our child-less state (my husband called our getaway the "One Child Left Behind Weekend").  We enjoyed adult conversations, uninterrupted, at hours earlier than 9 pm.  We didn't do any dishes or pay any bills.  We didn't get up early, or have anywhere to be except together.  We slept in a huge, comfy bed, did crossword puzzles, took long baths, and were fed really delicious food.  We felt completely pampered.  We were on vacation.  It was really, really good. 

...the view from my pillow...

 

...reading the paper before breakfast...

...yummy goodness...

(aka :: french toast stuffed with cream cheese, honey, and almond extract, whipped together with blueberries)

...our home away from home...

...tucked away on a quiet street...

...investigating the old photos...

...self portrait at the end of a fun evening...

30 days of happiness :: 5

Happiness is seeing one of my oldest friends, whom I knew when we were girls, delighting in my own little girl.  Happiness is revisiting a cherished place from childhood, the repository of so many memories, and sharing it with my own child.  Happiness is a road trip that is full of beauty and adventure, with the best traveling companion (well, some of the time!)  Happiness is the taste of salt air on my lips, and feeling the wind in my hair from the deck of the ferry as my face drinks in the end-of-the-summer sunshine.  Happiness is finding the the island is more beautiful than I remembered it.  Happiness is a picnic on a peaceful crescent beach.  Happiness is an outdoor shower.  Happiness is ice cream for dinner!  Happiness is feeling so tired--and so hopeful--at the end of a magical day.

Thank you for all of this and more, my beloved Eden!  You are a true friend!

You can click on the picture for a larger image, and if you visit this link you can see my descriptions of the pictures.  More of my flickr page, and don't miss Eden's description of the day on her blog!

she swims!

Something has happened this summer.  My sweet little one, who was still nursing last summer, is completely and irrevocably a little GIRL now.  All traces of toddlerhood seemed to vanish overnight on her fourth birthday.  She has very strong ideas about what she wants to wear, eat, and play with, and is very capable of complex verbal insights.  She works in the garden, and is actually occasionally  helpful.  She has her first "job", to collect eggs each morning, which she does with gusto and enthusiasm.  And one of her big milestones happened just this week:  she learned how to swim!  It was incredible!  All

 summer (well, for the three weeks of summer weather we've had since the three months of rain finally subsided) she has been working on swimming with her "swimmy," a little floatation vest that gave her the confidence to put her face under and actually pick her feet up off the sandy lake bottom.  Well, last Monday we were at the beach with a bunch of friends, and her swimmy was being used by one of the other children.  I went out into thigh-high water and asked her to practice swimming with me without her swimmy.  She took a breath, dove underwater and swam through my legs.  It was incredible!  I started yelling, which sent all the other mothers, on shore, into a temporary panic, wondering which child was drowning.  "She's swimming!" I yelled.  "Little C is swimming all by herself!"  I'm not sure who was more proud, she or I, but it was a lot of fun.  All week we went in at least once a day.  It has been so much fun, I just had to share.

at the fair

Even though this was only our second year, I can sense the Common Ground Fair quickly becoming a favorite family tradition.

This was our kind of fair!  Super family friendly, complete with an incredible Children's Village.

We were joined at the fair by some new friends, the B's.  Little C is ready to join their family, as you can see from the picture above (that's her on the left).  N. and I snuck off to a felting workshop together while the brave papas took the kids to see the eight mule hitch!  I don't know who had more fun at the fair, the kids or the grownups!

Fair treats!

There's nothing like small-batch raw milk ice cream!

Everywhere we looked there were the most amazing colors...

... and beautiful handmade items.

There is something so beautiful and peaceful about the quiet clanging of harness and snorting of the horses as a field gets plowed without petroleum--foreign or otherwise.

The hay jump is an ever-popular activity.  She's so much more confident this year!

More incredible autumn colors!

And the sweet baby alpacas.

So, yes, we had a wonderful two days at the fair.  Even the drive was fun, because we carpooled with Farmer Kat and Zac (he's a farmer too--our raw milk supplier--but for some reason Little C hasn't dubbed him such).  We went to workshops on seed-saving, felting, wood-lot management, healing with herbs, and many more.  We slid down a hill on cardboard and ate the most incredible food, ALL of which was sourced in Maine!  (No coffee or chocolate at this fair!)  Mostly we hung out in the Children's Village, because really, that's the best part of the fair.  There was face painting, nail hammering, and of course, the hay jump.  There was also a crew of young fiddlers and tons of arts and crafts, so we pretty much had a ball.  The best part of the fair (besides just hanging out with all my peeps!) was just being in these masses of people (Um, yeah.  50,000 over 3 days!) who all CARE to some degree or another about our human existence and how we can live on this earth in harmony.  It was just so great to be able to look around and say, "SEE??!!  I'm not crazy!!!"  But I didn't do that.  I just got my Sweet Ani crown and reveled in being *normal* for a little while.  Ah, yes, a good time was had by all.

Another highlight was running into some old friends from college, and getting to meet their wee one for the first time.  They also have a very cute 5 year old, with whom Little C flirted in the hay! 

SouleMama has some great Fair pictures at her blog as well!