butterbeer and zumba

C is very excited about the new Harry Potter movie, and will go see it in the theater with her Papa soon.  In honor of HP, we perused the different recipes for butterbeer and decided to try this one.  I'll let you know how it turns out ;-)

At the family zumba class at the Y tonight, S danced right in the middle of the front row shakin' her little behind for all she was worth.  I think every adult in that room was giggling to themselves, and some were giggling out loud.  It was darn cute.

And since I don't have much to say tonight , I'll leave you with this quote:
"You’ve got to sing like you don’t need the money. You’ve got to love like you’ll never get hurt. You’ve got to dance like there’s nobody watching. You’ve got to come from the heart, if you want it to work. "
     - Susanna Clark -
And this one:

I have had this poster for so long, it once hung in a school bus that we lived in,
many moons before having children;-)

it's hard to be human sometimes

C had a Moment today.  She was holding S and hitting her in the back.  This is extremely unusual behavior in our house.  They sometimes swat at each other or call names out of frustration, but this was different.  My mama bear instincts wanted me to swoop in and intervene physically, but instead, I yelled, loudly.  C instantly let go and started apologizing profusely.  She said she didn't know what was wrong with her, and she seemed genuinely distraught that she had hurt S.  So, after I checked in with S, who assured me that her feelings were hurt worse than her body, and I held her for a while, I picked up C and I held her.  She burst into tears and told me that her mood was changing every minute and she didn't know what to do about it.  She could go from sad, to fine, to frustrated,...happy,...angry and not know why.  She even said that she knew it was all coming from her, and not from what was happening around her.  I said, "It's hard to be human sometimes.  It's not just you," and we talked about why it might be especially hard to be seven years old.  I think C is starting to develop a self-awareness that is sometimes awfully uncomfortable for her.  So, I asked her to think of things that generally help her when her mood is difficult to handle.  She mentioned listening to audio books, taking walks in nature, and going to Olbrich gardens.

I could have assumed ill intent and punished C, and focused all of my positive attention on S, but I think C learned much more about how to handle difficult emotions without lashing out this way.  I also spent time with S, gave her extra love, and shared a raspberry soda with her.  We had talked about going to Olbrich today anyway, so that's what we did to shake it off a little.  Now, the girls are back to their usual nightly imaginative play, which lately involves them being the daughters of Greek gods and goddesses (a la Percy Jackson).

The tropical conservatory was such a welcome counterpoint to the brisk weather outdoors.

Today... mm, not so much momentum.  We laid around most of the morning watchin PBS kids programs.  We roused ourselves to eat some split pea soup, and go to our 4H cloverbud group meeting.  There was a bit of a mix-up with reserving the library meeting room.  There was a group of mostly elderly gentlemen in the room already for a Plato discussion group.  They usually meet weekly, but we had reserved it for today so they moved to a coffeeshop.  Oddly enough, the librarian said that we were quieter than the philosophers usually are, and we had about a dozen fairly lively children.  That other group must have some seriously lively discussions.  Anyway, the kids made Thanksgiving cards and planted paperwhite bulbs in pots that they decorated.

I must get back to the living room dance party.  We are listening to Kidzbop and pretending we are stars on Mermaid TV.  (Kidzbop is Top 40 hits sung by kids, made bearable by my own kids singing along and giggling "Hey soul sister, I don't wanna miss a single thing you do...tonight").  C just finished tying strips of tulle onto the end of a stick so she could have a flowy dance wand.

Momentum (and lots of pictures)

Today swept us along from one thing to the next in such a lovely way.  S had her ballet class at the YMCA, while C and I played a lively game of ping pong.  Then, we stopped at the bank where my hungry girls got free popcorn and candy to tide them over while we shopped at the co-op.  Some of the phrases I enjoyed hearing out of their mouths were:  "Can we get green beans?  I love them.""Mmmmm, fresh spinach." and "Ooooh, red quinoa?  Why is it red?"  (Quinoa is actually a closely related species to beets)  They also each got to pick out a bag of organic candy.

We stopped at home for a quick lunch, and headed across the creek, for a "nature walk".  The birds were singing so loudly, we could forget we were in the middle of a city.  We pretended we were wizards from Hogwarts, and talked about nature magic.  I mentioned that the magic of thistles to protect themselves was contained in the shape of the leaves, and C talked about how the magic of strawberry plants to survive the winter lies underground.  We also found "wands" and the girls ran ahead casting spells all over the woods.    Even Tempe enjoyed the long walk, and managed quite well for a 13 yr. old grandpa dog.  Then, we finished most of C's Girl-scout cookie deliveries in the neighborhood.

While I made dinner (fresh guacamole and enchiladas prepped yesterday and reheated. perfect), S made lemonade and C played some games on the computer that she hadn't played in awhile.  Mancala snails and National Geographic puzzles (both worth checking out.  I like them).  All the while, A was peacefully along for the ride.

Don't get me wrong, I love lazy days, and often wish there were more of them, but today was lovely.  It had momentum, and I liked it.

...and at the end of the day...

A little bit of this, a little of that...

I am officially half way through NaBloPoMo, blogging every day of November.  Last night, I fell asleep watching Mythbusters with C (we love Mythbusters!).  S, however, was still awake.  So, what does a three year old do, when she's the only person awake in the house?  Apparently, play with pattern blocks and then snuggle into bed with Mama.  Here's what it looked like in the morning...

...and I'm not the only one who nodded off unexpectedly.

We have been eating a lot of pomegranate seeds lately.  "Better than candy," according to C.  High in vitamin C, antioxidants, and other healthy goodness, and so juicy.  Mmmmm.

The rest of our day has been a bit artful.  C twisted balloon animals, and even a flower ring for me to wear.  She made a dog with a leash for S.

S had paint fun, of both the finger and water color variety.

We also made an angel and a fairy inspired by this, not a usual source of inspiration for me, but I will take it where I can find it ;-)

 Here's one way to enliven a cold and dreary day.  We went to the northeast YMCA to splash and swim.  Then we had friends over.  S is now engrossed in a puzzle, her latest favorite activity.  She has a large two-sided floor puzzle with a castle on it that is very challenging for her, but just doable, and it comes with little cardboard princesses and kings and kitties and jesters, so she can make up her own fairytale storyline after the castle is put together (hours of fun for $1 at the thrift store).

wool diaper covers

Today is a slow, sleepy, drizzly day.  We saw a magic show at the library, ran into some friends with their kids, and all went out for lunch and tea.  The people at the cafe were kind enough to let us stay and let our kids run around, while they cleaned up after it was closed.  All of the kids were able to burn off some of their energy playing tag.

 I recently received a large batch of wool longies and soakers (diaper covers) for free from a kind woman in the local homebirthers' group.

  These are mostly sewn from re-purposed wool sweaters.  Some of them need a little mending, which is my plan for this evening.  Many of these are too big for A, so it inspired me to finish this diaper cover I've been knitting off and on for a while (I used the curly purly soaker pattern from ravelry).

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Cloth diapering is definitely the ecological choice, and the gentle-baby-bottom choice, but it's also darn cute sometimes, no?