a holy experience

I wanted to share two advent resources I'm using this December. I really haven't looked deeply into either one, but on the surface they look amazing....both meaningful and exciting.

The first is called Nature Study Through the Holidays. This one does cost $5.00, but it is chocked full of ideas to help us experience God through nature even as the weather turns cold. I believe this one will help us get outside when we might not feel like it, and help us to notice things we might never have seen before.

The second is from an amazing blog called A Holy Experience. If you've never visited it, go there and enjoy. But she is offering a FREE downloadable book, A Jesse Tree Journey. The writing and images are beautiful and not to be missed.

I hope these will help light the way to a peaceful, joyful Christmas season for you and your family.

smell something?

Why does my cat look like a porcupine? Well, let me tell you a story.

It started in the morning...I was coming back home from a store when I spotted a funny black cat slinking across the road ahead of me. As I got closer, I realized it was no cat at all. It was a skunk. I remember thinking it was cute... I don't usually see skunks...then I went on my way and forgot all about it.

Until around 5pm.

My neighbor called me. He said, "Watch out. A skunk was over here, and I just saw it going up your drive way."

I replied, "Oh! I saw that skunk this morning....Wait a minute....(me yelling to the kids) Where's the cat?" Kids yell back: "Outside!"

I look out the window...and there she is chasing the skunk! Then the skunk is chasing her. Then she's chasing the skunk.

I run to the door and yell at her to come inside thinking she would zip right in to get away from it...she's ignoring me!

The kids are laughing, then Isabela starts crying worried about the cat. We're all running frantic from window to window around the house to see where they are. I"m yelling out the front door, the kids are yelling out the back door.

The neighbor thinks it might have rabies since it's running around in the day. So I REALLY want to get the cat in. I'm calling her, and...the skunk COMES UP THE STEPS...but then ducks under the porch.

Meanwhile, I call animal control...they're a little reluctant but send a guy out to us anyway.

And you know our whole yard smells like a skunk.

I finally get the cat in...grab her and a can of tomato soup...and with the help of Joaquin, I gave her a bath in it. She didn't like that one bit, but it had to be done.

Isabela ended up taking a bath in tomato juice since she thought she stunk, too.

The animal control officer pulled up with his lights flashing, spot-light shining, and did a walk around, but I guess the skunk left when we got the cat inside. The officer was quite a character himself and just added to the craziness of the night.

So all had pretty much been forgotten today...until we got in the car for a quick trip to the store...and the SMELL hit us when we opened the doors.

SKUNK! P.U! I just hope we don't smell like that after riding in it!

All this reminded me of a game I played as a kid...it was called Hook, Line, and Stinker. You went fishing for fish but would sometimes pull up trash, or a boot, or a skunk, which had a scratch and sniff sticker like the real smell. I loved that game!

I thought the kids might like it for Christmas...since we now have this great memory to go along with it.

got leaves?

thankful crafts

I'm thankful I finished these crafts the night BEFORE Thanksgiving!



And I did go back and get everyone's handprints made....


... we got to use the placemats for one dinner...I didn't want them to get messed up though, so I wouldn't let the kids eat on them. They understood.

segway

A gift certificate is really only good if you use it. We had one for two Segway tours stuck to our fridge with a magnet for almost a year. Yesterday, we finally used it!

And it is definitely as fun as it looks...especially if you forget about the huge argument you may have trying to find a parking spot and then finding the store.

When you get there, you sign a waiver and find a helmet....then they give you an alley way to practice in before the actual tour begins. (It was the most beautiful alley I've seen in a long time!)


So if you don't know, let me tell you how the Segway works.

I'll start by saying I have REALLY good balance. I'm sure it's from years of doing ballet, but I could stand on my toes on one leg forever. BUT, I could not get the hang of these things!!

If you lean forward, it goes forward, and if you lean back, it stops or starts to go backwards. It sounds simple, but I'm a chicken in real life, and I kept thinking I would just fall forward. Though it feels like it might, you could lean your whole weight forward and it won't fall over. But my mind couldn't get a grip on that until almost the end of the tour.


Which meant that I was the slow one pulling up the rear. That's how I got this great shot of our group, by the way. There's always one in every group. The guy even had to pull me up a steep hill for a little way! JP, of course, was the opposite...speeding around like a pro...except for the time he spun around too fast and fell off.


Over near Tredegar, they gave us about 15 minutes to zip around wherever we wanted to. Did I mention.. this is SO MUCH FUN!


We saw Lincoln.


And the Capitol.


JP's long arms got a good shot of us together....


...and here I was taking pics behind me as we were zipping up the street. Yes, everyone will stop and stare at you, but it's only because they want to try it too.

fire drill

Last week, Isabela had a visit from the fire department at school.

So yesterday, we decided to have our first practice fire drill in the house.

We are thankful to live in a one story house...so I realize this might not be practical for all families. But it's still a good idea to run through it.
The rules were:
Do not bust your screen trying to get out of your window. It's not a real fire.
Meet at the base of the tree house as fast as you can. It will be timed.

We pretended we were all asleep, then JP hit the button on the fire alarm.

We each had to climb out of our windows. I discovered that one of ours gets pretty stuck about half way up. I had to squirm out on my belly, JP was able to force it up higher.

The first time was 59 seconds.

The second time around, my foot got wedged in the window and I got stuck again! Joaquin said I shouldn't be wearing my tap shoes (a boot with a low heel.) But we were still out 10 seconds faster.

And the kids had so much fun, we did it one more time. This time, we pretended the fire was in the back of the house and we had to get out the front door. Isabela even crawled along the carpet as if there was smoke.

It was fun, but also gave me a great peace of mind knowing they are all capable of escaping on their own.

fairy party!

This party was definitely a combined effort of Liz and I, plus Sami's creative little mind. Liz's last words were 'never again'...which are always the tell-tale sign of a great party.

All the fairies ( and elves) were welcomed at the door.


Liz had made an amazing tree out of paper bags and tissue paper.


I loved the little houses set around the door.


The carpet (and Diego's hair) was covered in flower petals.




The coffee table had a precious porcelain tea set in a basket(which amazingly didn't break after Diego swiped the blanket off the table like a magician)....and the flower pot was used for a game of ring toss.


The fairy house terrariums were a big hit. The kids and I gathered moss right from our yard the morning of the party...and they used pinecones, rocks, shells, mushrooms, and butterflies to decorate a plastic flower pot tray.


We hid diamond jewels all over the yard for the kids to find for their little houses.


Here Isabela found a giant one!

We also played pin the spot on the mushroom. The birthday girl got to stick the door on. I love how this game can be personalized for any party.

Liz got Sami a beautiful TinkerBell cake.


She loved it!


And for those who think that fairies and red spotted mushrooms are just imaginary....I kid you not, out in our woods today, we found this under some leaves.
I believe!

toadstools

We are looking forward to and preparing for Sami's fairy birthday party this weekend. I think we're as excited as she is.

I wanted to share these toadstool decorations because the kids loved them and they were super easy to make...not to mention cheap.

It's true that I'm on an all natural kick right now...in children's play toys. And these are a first attempt at making some. The idea for these giant toadstools came from Twig and Toadstool. (Love this site!)

I picked up some wooden bowls at Goodwill. Spray painted them red. Painted on white dots. Then went on a search in the yard for the perfect stick. Ours is full of them, so there were a lot to choose from. Juan Pablo cut the branch for me and drilled the hole in the bowl. Sami and I sanded the branches.

They stand up very sturdy on the table.


They are the perfect umbrellas for little pets or magical fairies.


Here's an idea of how big they actually are.


I think these miniature fairy gardens will be a fun craft...


...and there's a tiny toadstool! Sami and I painted these little wooden thingamabobs I picked up at Michael's.


They're multiplying!!

turkey handprint placemats

I've been finding SO MANY great blogs lately full of crafts for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I just want to burst with excitement. And I'll probably only get to a few of them.

Since Thanksgiving is first...I'm trying to stick to those for now. And The Crafty Crow (so good, tons of great ideas all gathered in one place!) had a link to Little Page Turners and these placemats. They seemed very simple and I loved the idea of the kids pulling them out each year and being able to see how big their hands had gotten.

Here's the first one I made as a test...it's my hand...and it only took about 30 minutes total.


I didn't really have any thanksgiving-y fabric on hand...so Isabela and I ran out and got some fat quarters ( I love fat quarters!) for each of us. And I picked up the placemats from Garden Ridge...but I'm sure you could go anywhere to get some simple ones...or you may even have some on hand.


Here's that link again to the tutorial! Little Page Turners. There's still time to make some!

hair

Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all.
James Brown

The hair is real - it's the head that's a fake.
Steve Allen

A hair in the head is worth two in the brush.
William Hazlitt

I love the feeling of the fresh air on my face and the wind blowing through my hair.
Evel Knievel

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:30

it's time that I make time for that

This vivid blue sky called us to the park on Sunday. There were a million things I could have gotten done, but I decided to put those out of my mind and let the day happen as it would.


Our walk along the path was full of nature.

The geese came to see if we'd offer them any scraps.


If you enlarge this picture, you may spot the snake that we nearly stepped on.


The butterflies were still out and flitting around.


And the squirrels were busy gathering and munching.


There was even a sloth....


...and a monkey!


My camera refused to capture the beauty of the autumn leaves that surrounded us...


...but I was forced to do this several times along the path out of sheer happiness!


And the real magic happened on the drive home. I was staring out across the shimmering water as we crossed the reservoir, and I saw two birds flying low. I saw their white heads for just a second, but I said, "I think those are bald eagles! Turn the car around!" Juan Pablo obliged and pulled over into the rocky parking area.

A man had a camera on a tripod aimed in the direction of the birds, so I asked him, "Are those two bald eagles?"

And he said, "Yes. They're diving after those coots" (which I took to mean the birds swimming in the water. I do like to use context!)

Then he says, "If you have a minute, I'll pull out my 'scope and you can take a better look at them." It turned out, he was an avid bird watcher and tracker! He filled us in on all kinds of trivia about the eagles and let us look through his amazing telescope to get a close-up view of the birds.

By this point, my camera battery had died. But I took it out and put it back in to squeeze every ounce of juice out of it...and this is the shot I got of the eagles. Those two black spots on the branches are them...but the curve of their sharp golden beak, piercing eyes, and glistening white feathers I saw through the telescope will stay with me in my mind.


We were all so happy to have let the day happen as it did, without a plan, a time constraint, or expectations. It was the definition of a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

And it was also funny....because when we got home, we realized we had lost Diego's taggie, his most prized possession of all. So I went looking for it and got to revisit all the places we'd been....Subway, the Park, the eagle stop... I felt like that little boy in the Family Circle cartoon with the dotted path of all the places he'd been in one day.
Then I decided to get my oil changed. No kids with me...the car had been beeping about it's oil for a couple weeks...and I had the time. Then I went to Hallmark to see about buying a new taggie. But God is good, and the ones they had were too girly for me. I thought I would just head home, empty handed, when I remembered I hadn't driven through the church parking lot.

I pulled into the giant empty rows and pulled up to where we had parked. There was nothing.

But I know how Diego walks...up, down and all around.... and I thought he might have dropped it in the grass somewhere. Across the lot, I saw something... it looked like a water bottle from where I was...but I thought I'd take a closer look....

...and sure enough, there was his taggie!!

I really felt inside me, the whole time I was driving around, that I would eventually find it. It was just a matter of time.

Time was the lesson of our day. There's time for everything when time is not important.