october seventeen: growing naturally. perfectly.

The Mama of the house spent quite a bit of time this morning finding audio resources. Before the babes were up, of course.
The children are very interested in listening to stories in the car right now, so I had the thought that maybe I could find some things that would be informative as well as interesting.
I reserved some They Might Be Giants cd's at the library, as well as the first sixteen Magic Tree House books, checked out what was available on Learn Out Loud (which I've always loved for me), and eventually stumbled upon some multiplication songs and albums at Amazon. I bought a very interesting and fun one called Multiplication Vacation. (You can sample the entire album.)
I've been listening to it while dawdling in my kitchen today.

Trev began his day today with a neighborhood exploration armed with two light sabers.
Yesterday Trev started to write a note, and as usual got frustrated with the size and form of his writings, so I went downstairs to get out a lined pad (one of the children's learning-to-write pads), and showed him that it might be easier to use it when he wishes to write something. Not so sure it helped, bit it's what a mama does.

Maddie has been very interested in tracing and coloring, so I grabbed one of the pre-k books while I was down there. She played with that for a bit.
Also while down there - : ) - I saw the Mighty Mind book and brought up that for Madd, she's been spending lots of time building and puzzling with shapes, lately. We have a kit with plastic pieces, but I cut out some foam shapes for her to keep with the pad.
She wanted to play right away, of course.(Does it appall you or crack you up that Mighty Mind claims to make kids smarter???)

We checked out our bones!Yesterday we opened our Magic School Bus Human Body kit and played with how ball and socket joints work, and began to de-calcify some bones.
We opened the jars up (Trev almost passed out from the vinegar smell-- takes after his Mama, I guess) and fiddled with them... not soft yet, though the ends are a bit more rubbery.
We'll see!

Pumpkin Races!This has been a favorite for a couple of years. :)

Lego Star Wars.

Maddie has been beading quite a bit the last couple of days, and today we made some verra fancy embellishments for her friend Soleil's bracelet.I love this shrink film!! It's so fun. It's so cool to be able to trace or draw our own designs! For now we just pull out favorite books and easily trace something that takes our fancy.
(The film came from Roberts Crafts, and was about $5 for six 8x11 sheets.)

There's been outdoor play.My goodness. It's sooooo beautiful out there today!



Finished cleaning the pond for Harold and Maude. Hopefully that's it for mushy pears dropping into the pond. No Major Events yet this time, I'm happy to say.

Pickin' raspberries. The last ones? Hope not.
More out door play. Thank goodness.

Books.In streaming afternoon sunlight.
Not too many things prettier than that.

Giant centipedes."Mondo bizarro centipedes in the front yard, Mom," Trev said.

And Autumn happened by our world today while I wasn't looking.
"I want to go to the library." By Madeleine.
"Uuuhh..." Mama looks at the clock. An hour before closing. A lovely day for a walk.
Now really, fellow Mamas. What's a girl to do? Hurry up!, of course.

So glad we did.
Anda few stops along the way.

It occurred to me as we stood in line -post library visit- waiting for the 7-11 Guy to fill orders of hotdogs and chips and whatever else the people behind us were waiting for to call Dinner
as I lookedand raised a single brow
-and was tempted by, truthfully-
a small jar called
5 Hour Energy With No Crash (or some such thing)
that this strange world
-with it's fancy-bowed two ounces of m&m's
and roses in a tube-
is really not my own.
Strange.
It's like stepping onto a different planet for a few minutes.

And then we leave and are back on our familiar sidewalk and taking an evening walk toward home
and eyeing the neighborhood apples
and thinking of stopping to collect walnuts
and drinking our Slurpees (well, not me-- I never touch the stuff)
and all is familiar and easy and breezy and so Fine again.

And we go home and then to the grocers
and pick up a few bits of goods (and even some Fabulousness)
and come home
and think Dinner
and Love
and more Happiness.

And life is Fine
and Sparkly
and Good.
Very, very Good.

We'll see you tomorrow.