Prayer flags

We finished up the prayer flags, i hand sewed the prayers on to the bunting flags and then I hot glued them on to a chain i crocheted with some left over yarn. They look so lovely fluttering in the breeze in the back yard. Adds a bit of color to our otherwise drab surroundings back there.

While out in the back yard this morning I got thinking.... laundry on the line is also like a prayer flag.It is full of promise, care, love, compassion, hope for the future. It also flutters in the breeze, sending out the messages that were placed in them through our  intentions, our thoughts and dreams while hanging them up. It reminded me to focus my thoughts while doing chores, to make sure while I am doing them I am also being in that moment, I am present and aware of what I am doing and what I am thinking. So that the thoughts/energy I put out into the world is as positive as I can make it.

Museum day in pictures

May 18th was "museum day". I took Sagan, Caelan, Rowan and Fiona to the Heard Museum.

the Heard Musuem

our walk in

the history of native peoples told in sticks

learning to bead

more beading

putting together a "broken" pot

button art

fiona checking stuff out

cradle boards

water bottles

the story room

outside path

walk around the fountain

kitchen

fiona doing button art

loveliness

outside spiral path

rolling down the hill

Later in the day, when Daddy and the big kids got home we went to the Arizona Museum of Natural History.

dino in a party hat

real meteor

cae checking out a dino

everyone helping <3

dang those things were big

checking out how the house was made

rowan loves trying to put those pots together

green screen magic

another big one!

digging for dinos

{ this moment }

Joining Amanda Soule in this weekly ritual. A single photograph from the week, a moment I wish to pause, savor, and remember.
What I really wanted to post was the video of Audrey singing, but I can't seem to load it up, so here is a picture of her right before she went on stage to sing. <3

Here is a link to the video... :)

On being attached

There is a lot of hubbub about "attachment parenting" in the media lately. Sadly most of the big media outlets are posting pretty nasty stuff.
I was an attachment parent before I even knew it was a thing to be. When Audrey was born, I wanted to be with her all the time, so I held her, nursed her and slept with her. It felt right to me. I didn't need anyone to tell me I needed to do this or it was the correct thing to do, I felt it.
That doesn't mean anyone who doesn't do all of that or any of it is a bad parent, or not "mom enough". It is all about finding what works for your family, your children. I don't do anything just because Dr. Sears suggested it. I do it because it works for us. I really enjoy carrying my kids, and nursing them past a year and sleeping with them. I don't do it begrudgingly with the idea that they will benefit from it, because you know, kids can tell. When you are nursing your toddler and you are hating it, well they know.
It reminds me of the Le Leche League motto: Take what works for you and leave the rest. You need to find what works for your family, you individual children. Because what works for one child will not necessarily work for another child in the same family.
We seem to want to push away the people who need us most and replace that vacant feeling with stuff. Don't hold your baby, buy this thingy to do it for you. Don't nurse your 7 month old, buy this formula and bottles. Don't sleep with your child, buy fake heart beat teddy bears and "hands" that smell like you to hold them at night. See, we know they need those things, those things from their parents, but we are encouraged instead of actually doing them ourselves to BUY THINGS to do it for us.
I know what I say here really is meaningless, only a handful of people even read it and even if I had a huge following it wouldn't matter because I am not a huge media outlet. I am not a nasty talker who wants to shame and ridicule people and spread hate and add fuel to the "mommy wars". I want moms and dads to listen to their kids and do what works for all of them. I want people to value their children and their lives more than they value their stuff and money.
I am not a perfect attachment parent, but who is? I don't think that is the point anyway. Are you being the best parent YOU can be? When you know better, do you do better? That is what matters.

Inspiration and thoughts

prayer flags

 Having a set of six bunting triangles left, I just wasn't sure what to do with them. I strung them up on a chain I had knitted months ago for the kids, but I wasn't satisfied with it sort of just hanging on the wall in the dinning room. After some thought, I decided I would add some Japanese symbol/words to them and string them up on our tree as some "Prayer Flags". They look so nice fluttering in the breeze out in the back yard.

weekly menu

 I have been a bit lost as to what to do to help this household run a bit smoother. I try really hard to be all carefree and unschoolly, but I don't know. I just don't like it so much. I feel like what we do is a whole lot of nothing day after day and honestly it is driving us all a bit batty. The other day while surfing the web I ran across this old blog post. The guest author use to have this blog I loved so much, but sadly she is no longer blogging and this is all that is left of her awesomeness. I really loved her simple, open daily plan. Just sort of adds a wee bit of structure to the day, and I love that. I love having a bit of a plan. I adapted it to our life and it is sort of a summer trial plan. We will put this bad boy into action at the end of this month when our homeschool group schedule changes. I added a little quiet time, which was not only inspired by the blog post, but also by a dear friend who tries to do it every day. I like the idea of a time where we can all sort of come in and settle for a bit each day. No TV, no computer, just us. And since wee little Fiona Rose is actually napping everyday, I thought that would be a perfect time to do it.

daily plan

I ran across another blog with an equally grand idea of a weekly meal plan, with lunches, and snacks planned out as well as dinners (which are loosely named things like "pasta" or "Crockpot") . Again, I really like this idea, I like having a plan on what is happening each day. I have gotten in this nasty habit of sending Mike out to pick up pizzas or something fast that I don't have to cook because I am at a loss as to what to do with the stuff we have. Now, I have a plan.

family prayer flags

After making prayer flags of my own today, I was thinking I would love to have some made by the whole family. I was looking around for an idea, and saw this website and just really like the idea. So taking the scraps from the bunting and an old pillow case we started our set of flags. I think they look great. I am not sure exactly how I am going to attach the pillow case pieces to the triangles, maybe I will use the trusty glue gun, or i might take a few evenings and hand stitch them on. That might be a better more mindful way to do it. We are thinking of hanging them from the big tree in the backyard as well.

i don't remember where i got this, but it is true

I haven't been taking care of myself. I eat poorly, sleep poorly and spend an embarrassing amount of time sitting on my butt in front of the computer. Recently my very dear friend started a 30 day raw fruit fast to help her refocus. I love the idea, I love it a lot. "They" say that it takes 28 days to break a bad habit, and goodness knows I have a few I need to turn around. What is my plan? I have been thinking about maybe doing a raw food cleanse myself, nothing super hard core but eating only raw whole foods for 30 days. And at the same time shutting off the laptop and putting it away. I know my most loving husband meant well when he got this for me, but I swear it was like giving crack to an addict and saying "Now just look at it, but don't use it." I can honestly be on this blasted thing for HOURS every day. It is embarrassing, and truly just plain sad. People will say, take it slow don't overwhelm yourself... but the thing is if I don't charge at this thing full on, full force I will peter out and just be back to the same old patterns in a week. I tend to be a woman of extremes, maybe I can make it work for me, instead of against me. Maybe I will even take up "Dance walking" as well, maybe just dancing in the living room with the kids.

Here is to renewing the spirit, taking on challenges and just kicking booty in your own life!

My craftiness

getting it all squared away

gluing it down

play time!

 I have been wanting a Lego sort of table for the boys for a very long time. But they are so expensive. I just sort of put it out of my mind, and then I saw this! AMAZING! And so super easy. Sadly I didn't already own an Ikea Lack side table ($7.99), so I was forced to go to Ikea and buy one. Then, off to Toys R Us to get the Lego land pieces ($4.99 a piece). We Gorilla glued them onto the Lack sidetable, two hours later... TADA! Lego table! It works great, is just the right size to store easily and wasn't too terribly expensive. The boys just love it.

getting ready

cutting

pinning

the heaping pile

getting ready to hot glue

all done!

Ever since I saw the bunting from Amanda Soule's book "The Creative Family" I really, really wanted to make one. BUT, I do not know how to sew, don't have a working sewing machine and well, honestly I am pretty clueless on what to do. A few months ago I was at Wal-mart (I know, bad Heather, bad) and I saw some really cute fabrics in bundles called "fat quarters" (yeah, this is how clueless I am on the whole fabric buying). I got six of them, sorta planning on maybe trying to figure out the sewing machine a friend gave me, but really having no idea what I was going to do. At that same time I borrowed my mom's pinking shears (which are like 40 years old) with the idea that sometime in the near future I was going to attempt some sort of fabric related craft. Well, I finally did it! I didn't use the sewing machine because I still have no idea how to use it, I used the HOT GLUE GUN! I made a little triangle pattern, folded the fabrics into fourths and cut them out getting 4 triangles, after I had done all 6 fabrics, I pinned them to a thing called "bias tape" (i know, amazing, right!), then I hot glued all the triangles inside the bias tape, and then...TADA, awesome, amazing, rainbow goodness bunting! At the moment it is adding it's lovely presence to our patio out back. I am toying with the idea of doing a few more. I have this really cool "day of the dead" fabric I could use for one. Maybe do one that says HAPPY BIRTHDAY on it, or birthday themed fabrics?? I mean I am all set now, pinking shears and hot glue are all ready for another super easy fabric project!

Saturday's Artist

phases of the moon

eating of the moon

flower power

which one

making a doorway

adding the flowers

putting the fairy houses in the yard

part of fairy village

This last week we learned about the phases of the moon (the boys were totally in to it after checking out the HUGE full flower moon last Saturday). We used Joe Joe's cookies. I got the idea off of this little newsletter, very fun. And we also made fairy houses (idea also in newsletter). I had been saving back the milk cartons and went to the dollar store to get some silk flowers so we could do this at some point, last week was the time! The boys had a great time. After all the houses, outhouses, and sleeping chambers were all finished we took everything outside and set up a fairy village. The boys even added yarn ropes so the fairies could swing on them if they wanted too. Just as we were cleaning up inside a big storm came blowing through and tossed the houses all about. We had to hurry up and save them, sadly one was blown away... or was it? Maybe the fairies came and whisked it off . :)

Check out OLM's Saturday's artist for more cool stuff!