Right Now

:: Feeling grateful that it's a school day and I still get to hang out with this little girl-o-mine. 

We're headed to the library today to pick up some books used in our homeschool curriculum. Also some books on beavers because Echo's doing some "research" about how beaver lodges are made and whether or not baby beavers have teeth at birth.

:: Enjoying the fresh air as a bit of breeze and the tiniest bit of rain (Xi counted seventeen drops hitting her body) have cleared out the valley enough to actually be outside.

:: Loving that my Henry dog is still a happy, functioning, albeit sleepy fella.

The 9am - 11am position.

:: Savoring these last days of pre-fall. 

:: Rooting wildly for the dahlias that are almost blooming. I want them to make it before the frost. Go dahlias go!

:: Feeling thrilled that we may have tracked down a drum kit for our little Xi. This girl wants to be a drummer and a drummer needs a drum set of course! We may have found just the right hand-me-down set.

:: Feeling a little pressure to clean out the basement and get the "music area" arranged so that aforementioned drum set has a proper home, ten feet below ground.

:: Encouraging you to sign up for the Organic Sister's Organic Parenting course. Starts today!

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:: Reeling from baby nostalgia. I transferred the photos from our laptop to our desk top and now when our computer plays the screen-saver photo slideshow I am paralyzed. Photos of that little chubby Echo drifting across just slay me.

Making the one-handed meal I ate for the first year of her life as she never slept anywhere other than ON MAMA.

:: Remembering the old days. For some reason, seemingly unrelated to the photo slideshow, my brain has been scanning old imagery. Last night falling asleep I recalled every single detail of my grandmothers house - the house I spent every friday night in from age four to thirteen. The white rock garden in front, the orange tree, the cabinets, the carpet. The night before was spent remembering my father in Paris, waiting up for us in the lobby of the hotel all night as my sister and I, both teenagers, danced the night away with an irresponsible cousin. Poor dad.

:: Giggling over puppy photos and websites as my sister includes me in her tentative search for a new dog. By the way, I have passed on all of your well wishes to her and she appreciates every single one. She is processing her loss. Me too. I can't look at her blog these days because the photos of Bello bring instant tears.

:: Eating more plums than is appropriate. Our neighbor Bill doesn't like Italian plums so the fruit from his tree is all ours! We now have a giant bowl full and I eat at least twenty per day.

:: Helping Echo pull play doh out of molds.

:: Flicking through images from yesterday's trip to the river. Echo had me freeze in this position, eager to capture the beauty of the dangling strand of hair.

 I heart five-year olds.

xo

Comments

[Kristin]

Awesome! Great to see a pic of YOU once in a while! :) So...I noticed the part about 'homeshool curriculum' and am wondering if you might be willing to tell us what it is? Thanks! :)

[Nathan]

I hadn't seen Echo's shot of you yet, Love.
You're so dang beautiful.
And I love you so much.

[Natalie]

Kristin- We are using a literature-based curriculum at the moment called Five In A Row, but that's really only to sort of soothe my nerves about feeling official. We are leaning more toward the unschooling approach - giving Echo all of the opportunities and resources to follow her own learning drive- like yesterday we checked out umpteen books about beavers, her latest interest, and we'll do artwork, activities, charts, field trips to compliment that interest. Actually I think the combo of the two - curriculum and follow-her-lead might be just the ticket.

[Natalie]

Nathan - I love you too :)