A Camping Moment

Sharing with Amanda!  Just a moment from our week that we are still savoring!  Hope you have moments like this too!  

At the Farm

We've been doing something new these last few weeks, and we are in love!  Each Wednesday, the kids and I head to the farm where Patrick takes a class.  It isn't a class with homework and books and reading...it's a class where we explore the farm, and touch the animals, and care for the animals, and learn about the farm!  It's wonderful!

Last week, they spent time learning all about goats and what they can do for us.  They went out and groomed the goat, spraying him with basil to keep away the flies, and they played in the goat yard, and then we headed inside to make some goat's milk soap!

It was a blast!  The concepts are so simple, yet so valuable in his little brain!  He LOVED it!

yes that's my little heartbreaker holding hands with Miss. Lydia!  

Mama had a benefit from it too - good people!  There I was, surrounded by homeschooling families and holistically minded folks, and it is a beautiful space to be in.  While I'm not sure that's the route we will take, I don't want to let go of this connection with like minded people!

Looking Back One More Time...

Last night, I rocked Maura to sleep in her room.  As I sat there, the pile of consignment items stared back at me from the shadows.  There, on top of the pile, were my favorite maternity jeans.  I'll never wear them again, that's for sure.  So off to consignment they go.  But as I sat there, the moment brought me back in time to the NICU.  I don't know why post partum, and not before, but I remember wearing them at CHOP.  Oddly, I remember waking up the morning we were taking her home and slipping them on....the first morning.  It was so very vivid as I sat there, almost surreal.  There I was, in the bathroom of NIC West, after a shower that hardly livened me up after one of the longest nights of my life, and these jeans were something of comfort...and I slid them on and pretended like I was just fine...like we were just fine...I mean, we were headed home, we were fine!  I didn't know it then.  I didn't even have the inkling of it all, that we'd return two days later.  

It was just a vignette of a moment that I saw flash before me as I sat there, rocking my 16 month old to sleep.  She's so different now than she was then, but as I hold her tiny little body in my arms in the rocker, she's still that sweet baby that I snugged for 35 days in the NICU...and I'm still that same mama, still trying to cope with it all...

Nuby Snack Keeper!

Want to see the best snack keeper ever?  Nuby sent me this awesome snack keeper recently.  It's great because Maura has been eating a lot of snacks, and I get to take them with me now!  

It makes it really easy for me to hand to her so she can use her fine motor skills to get snacks out without spilling them all over!  It does a pretty good job of keeping them from spilling all over the floor or my car!  The top is easy for her to get her little hands in, as you can see.  She doesn't get frustrated!  

It's a decent size, holding a little more than a cup of snacks!  I really love this snack keeper!

You can find your own here:

 I did not receive any compensation for this review, however I did receive samples from Nuby to review!

Goodbye Dear Summer

Oh Summer, you can't possibly be leaving so soon.  It seems as if you'd just arrived, and yet, you are ending so fast!  How is that possible?!

Joe heads back to school tomorrow.  We are all in a bit of a rut of sadness around here.  After all, this summer was just amazing.  We didn't do much, really, but we made the most of it, and that's what counts.

We saw some Phish.  We did some camping.  We went to the pool.  We saw some Avett Brothers.  We went to the beach.  We did some camping.  Ahh yes, you see a theme, don't you?  What's more fun than live music and basking in the sun?  Soon, we'll be eating turkey and bundling ourselves in sweaters as the smells of Autumn come into our home.

Oh Summer, you were so good to us this year!