I Love This

I was cleaning up my kitchen after dinner and listening to Bonnie Raitt.

(I have forgotten how much I love her Luck of the Draw album! Love!)

But anyway, had you been hanging out with me in my kitchen tonight, this is what's currently on my fridge:

a picture of my sisters and I,

a magnet quoting Winston Churchill: "If you're going through hell, keep going,"

a photo of my Grandpa Joe, 

insulin dosing charts and phone numbers for Primary Children's, 

a question from a friend, years ago, during a text conversation, that stopped me in my tracks, 

another quotation from a Christmas devotional encouraging a life lived with more love for others, 

a photo of my boys when they were not yet a year old, 

and a Fred Rogers quote that has become a favorite.

Four years ago (maybe?), I read a book called I'm Proud of You, an account of the author's friendship with the late Fred Rogers (remember Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?). 

I loved it.

And this particular quote was something that resonated deeply with me.

In fact, it has gone into my words-to-live-by category.

But, I'm gonna tell you one of my secrets.

And actually, I'd be willing to bet it's something that you -- whoever you are -- can relate to, too.

And it's this: 

I can be pretty hard on myself.

Sound familiar?

But.

It's only recently that I've started to apply those words to 
my relationship with myself.

I think I've always thought of them as a meter for interacting with others, for several reasons:

We're all learning, and none of us are doing it perfectly.

We've all lived different experiences.

Most people are carrying some hurt in their heart, and not everybody exposes that.

Some things may not make sense, we may not know, or we may not understand.

And I generally think that behaviors are indicative of things we're processing.

In other words: if we really walked a mile in someone else's shoes, we'd get it and we'd understand.

Bottom line?

We're all on this life continuum, figuring things out.

This is why understanding, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness make sense to me.

For all of these reasons.

(And, side note: If I need to look for imperfection in an individual, all I need to do is look in the mirror.)

So yeah, be kind.

For sure.

(And apologize when you're not, right?)

But, here's the thing I'm learning, and it's a total game changer: 

Being kind also means 

being kind to yourself.

And sometimes that's the hardest of all.

Sometimes being kind means sticking up for yourself.

Sometimes being kind to yourself means setting boundaries.

It means not letting others walk all over you or dictate your emotions.

Sometimes it means saying no.

Forgiving yourself.

Not expecting too much, and giving yourself a hug when you fall down.

Sometimes it means recognizing that something is so much bigger than you...and that's okay.

Just submit to it.

It doesn't mean you're a failure, or that you should be able to handle it better.

I think it's also about taking ownership for where we fall short without beating ourselves up.

It's choosing to shed shame.

It's choosing to live your life in a raw, real way, with honesty and vulnerability and beautiful imperfection.

Yup. That's pretty much it.

Be kind to everyone else.

But also?

Be kind to yourself.

And if you haven't seen this, do yourself a favor and watch it.

It is SO WORTH the 20 minutes.

Back to the Books

The best $12 I spent in the last week was for this beauty.

I've wanted a globe for so long --- to have for school, but also just because I think they're fascinating. 

I've always loved them, and a friend of mine got rid of this one at a yard sale.

Her loss is my gain.

I brought it home last Saturday, and set it in the front room that evening.

Lights were low.

I had bananas drying in my kitchen.

Patio lights were on, and the BYU game was playing over the radio.

When the kids got home that night and everyone came inside,

Claire cracked us up when she noticed the globe.

She said, "Mom, this is beautiful!"

September is crisp mornings, the sunlight starting to change, orchards and fruit drying and pie making and getting back-to-the-books in a formal way.  

It has been exhausting and delightful.

Here's a glimpse into school for us lately (and even tho, in most of these photos, I only highlight the particular activity through one child, all three of the older kids are doing all of these things): 

Tie-dying

 Spelling

 Playdoughing

 Research reading on rattlesnakes

(We're doing self-chosen research projects each month.  They choose something they want to learn about and get lots of books at the library and then make big posters about what they've learned and teach it to everyone else.  This time around, everyone chose animals: snakes and spiders, lizards, and bears.)

 Piano practicing

 Math work: conceptualizing numbers in the thousands for this gal,

and the boys practicing lots of skip counting (multiplication), money problems, addition, subtraction, reviews on telling time, and being introduced to the bar graph.

 Science: doing a plot study at a nearby park we love with an awesome wetland area 

(while eating alphabet pretzels---who can resist these? They're adorable!)

And history!

We are learning about different people through time.

Each of the kids have really nice timeline books---and as we learn about different people, we are adding them into the timeline.  By the end of the year, they will have an awesome visual resource to see how all of these people have interacted through time, which people were contemporaries and where everybody is placed across a broad spectrum.  I am loving this.  It actually makes me a bit nostalgic.  It feels almost sacred to me as I think about all of these people and their contributions, the human story from creation 'til now.

Last week we learned about Queen Elizabeth I, and were fascinated by details (like this gross one about that fact that she never removed her coronation ring and her flesh grew around it and it literally had to be cut off her finger (!!)).  We were impressed with what a strong woman she was, and we loved this quote that she said to her armies:

"I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king."

Rock on.

This week we learned about Gandhi.

So inspiring to talk about his philosophies of nonviolence and love.  

I was particularly moved by this quote from him:

"If you want to see the brave, 

look at those who can forgive.

If you want to see the heroic, 

look at those who can love in return for hatred."

That is beautiful.

That is a philosophy I want my children to hear and embrace, a philosophy for my house, for my life, for my heart.

Here they are, coloring their figures that we put in their books today:

 (and I'm busy helping them paste them in -- still in my running clothes from my run earlier this morning)

Potato prints (and leaf prints and whatever else they wanted to do)

 Daily journal work -- I love these.  

Like so much.

 Daily reading, and lots of it.

Other activities not pictured?

Karate
Dance
Lots and lots of lego building
Dollhousing
Popsicle eating and chicken feeding

I love watching my children, love hearing how they're putting information together, how they relate to the world, what they think about.

It's a gift.  

Our First Couple Weeks of School

This afternoon the kids were out playing in the backyard with friends.  I decided it was time to tackle the 5-gallon bucket of tomatoes I picked last week, knowing that a good chunk of it had spoiled already.

I had intentions to get to it all week and never had the time.

My energy and time and efforts have been put into school the past several weeks.

We are in our third week, and I'm feeling good about it now.

The first couple days of the first week I was feeling overwhelmed.

Everything was taking longer than I had thought.

I was second guessing myself.

We hadn't found a rhythm.

We've done school unofficially for months, but officially?  

That word/feeling just kinda freaked me right out, surprisingly.

But not now.

We're finding a groove, and it's nice.

So...here's a photo entry of our first couple weeks of school.  It's hard to catch the real spirit of it here, but here is a glimpse nonetheless.

I should have taken more photos, but this was our table set for our back-to-school dinner.

Balloons and dinner and "Christmas juice" as the kids call it, along with a gift for each of them to open for the school room.

A peek into our schoolroom:

Saying the pledge of allegiance each morning:

Drawing our own self-portraits in our first week after studying Monet's self portrait:

 (it totally looks like he's an alien which makes me laugh)

Mia's alphabet train (writing each of the capitals in the train cars...now she's putting the lowercase letters on, too):

Putting fall themed decals on the windows in the schoolroom:

 Last week we read different stories that centered around what I'll call "Apple-ing," so we painted our own apple orchards (potato prints for the circles of the trees, handpainting the stems):

And adding apples to their trees (I love these gooey fingerprints):

 Beading:

Not pictured: (which I'm sure will get posted at some point later):

Nature Journals and our trip up the canyon sketching leaves

Daily reading with the boys (them reading to me) and working on sight words

Giant grasshopper catching

A mean game of Sorry!

Maptime -- we're learning the continents

Storytime and Poems

Trips to the bookstore for treats and reading

Play dates!

Dancing like crazy to fun songs (a mix from my sister -- this was my favorite song which we listened to again and again -- the kids' favorites were Disney songs and a song about Snuggle Puppy)

Playing Memory

Artist Study (we're studying works by Claude Monet)

Song Prompts for "You Are My Sunshine"

The boys' daily journaling and Math time

Studying the body (we learned about cells and the nucleus being the center, skin, etc.)

Composer study (We're learning about Bach!  And the classical music that's typically on during journaling time is all selections from Bach)

And a couple favorite fall stories we've read:

Leaf Man

The Pumpkin Blanket

And can't wait to read this for the umpteenth time: Oxcart Man

I love this time with my kids.  Someday I hope they may understand just how deeply I love them and how much these days spent together mean to me.

What are your favorite cds for children at your home?

(Oh, and I read this tonight and laughed outloud.)

Beading

A couple weeks back, we read this book.

I loved it.

It's about a little girl sorting beads with her grandmother, and their discussion as they do it.

Different shapes, colors, sizes.

Animal, vegetable, and mineral beads.

How beads have existed for ages.

How they were used in trade by merchants.

The way beads were used by Native Americans.

Rosary beads.

The way Ancient Egyptians used beads.

It was charming and educational.

While reading it I thought we should make beads of our own.

So, the next day, we mixed salt dough and went to work shaping our own beads.

We baked them in the oven on an old cookie sheet, perfect for a project such as this.

The next day, in the sunshine, they painted their beads.

We let them dry -- and they were ready to string.