OLM Continued

Hi everyone.
It's been interesting - this being home away from home. :)
I don't want to try to capture the Ordinary Life Magic for the whole week, and I have no interest (at least I'm not that desperate, yet) to write things down by hand and try to post on Saturdays when I'm at work.
So OLM and Happy and Free will just suffer until I'm up and running again.
But I would like to say a few things about our week...

Maddie is amazing. She's so sure of herself, and free, and helpful, and wants things tidy, and organized, and always informs one when she is called anything other than her name "I'm not xxx, I'm Maddie!!" Be that name Beauty or Beast or anything in between.
She counts to five correctly and consistently - and seven and beyond, sometimes. It's not anything she's been taught. She plays this game with her daddy - she calls it "Five". She demands "Uhn pway five, Dad!" and grabs his hands and he asks her what number, and she chooses a number, and starts jumping. It goes like this: jump "One!" jump "Two!" jump "Three!" jump "Four!" jump "FIVE!" and she gets launched sky high into the air. They've played it for several months. And now she counts.
She speaks so grown up and matter of factly. Her observations seem to me those of a much older child - probably more like a six year old brother, actually.
This week she's played on the leap pad, and painted, played with the felt storyboard, she's loving Sesame Street's Alphabet Jungle, and is naming letters and numbers and colors (some accurately, some imaginitively) and insists that her name remains on the chalkboard for her viewing pleasure there in the den.

We (er - rather the Mama) did in fact do some rearranging in the den, and our art supplies - not craft supplies, just art supplies - have been moved to the den - two easels, paints, pencils, crayons, art books, sketch pads, nature journals, etc, all in one handy place. And they're being used.

I've decided that I'm going to make art/painting smocks for them. I'm rather sentimental about some things, and I've saved clothes and blankets from babyhood, and always intended to make a mother's quilt for myself out of my favorite jumpers and t-shirts that my beautiful babes wore. I'm still going to do that, but I've also decided that since I'll still have scraps, I'm going to make smocks for them, too. I'm pretty excited about it. I'll take pictures when I actually begin the process. First I'll have to clean out and organize the garage to even find them!

I am very sad to report that even though just a couple of days before I was looking at my little son's smile, and thinking how charmed I was by it (always have been) and those little tiny baby teeth, and how sweet and beautiful he is and how I MUST get a really great smiling photo - yesterday I got home from the grocery store to find that the two front top teeth of that smile that always make my heart skip a beat had gone missing, and how I shall never again see that particular smile. I'll have to go through all my photo files and track one down. I'm pretty weepy about it.

Autumn is well upon us, and our home smells like cookies and soup and scented candles. The Yule/Christmas lights are up around the fireplace again, casting the den in a warm light, inviting us to sit and play or read or create instead of just stirring up the dust as we pass through into the back yard.
It's funny how in the spring and summer this room becomes a hallway - no one ever stops there even for a moment.
But now it beckons noticably again - the polished wooden bookcases are glowing like honey, and the earthy tones of the room feel comforting and warm. Just begging for a cup of tea and a heavy tome. Or a softly wielded painter's brush. Makes me smile to even think of it.

It's time for us to get out our Thanksgiving Tree. This was last year's tree. Each of us had a different leaf shape, and we wrote things that we were grateful for on our leaves, and taped them to our tree. We thought if we enjoyed it, which we really did, we'd make it a tradition. I think now as I look at it that it might be nice to leave some of the old leaves on there, and date the new ones. It will be interesting to read over the years things that were mentioned long ago. Things like popsicles. And snowflakes. And puppies. And baby teeth.Our pace has been slow this week. We've had no attachments, no appointments (as we are offline and therefore not In The Know) and no obligations.

I have noticed when my children have reflected my own behaviors, and once or twice it has saddened me this week, and I am more determined than ever to be a gentle, kind, and loving mother. It's funny how quickly on Saturdays I miss them, and regret my unthoughtful actions and reactions.

I always just want to race home and clasp them to me tightly and say "forgive me! I'm sorry I got angry, and I'm sorry I was unkind!" even though it was two days ago - or a week ago, and I've since apologized. Somehow, away from the moment it always seems so much more important - vital, even - to constantly work at being always sweet to those two little souls.

I love them so.