New Year Blessing!

Wishing all who celebrate a happy, sweet and healthy new year! 🍎🍯

The Last Two Days

 

Gorgeous new aprons on, cookies being mixed and baked, and so many other yummy things being made too. It's been non-stop baking and creating for the last two days for the fair at church tomorrow! xo

Happy First Day!

Autumn's arrival this week also brings with it the fist day of nature school (today) for the girls! They are so excited to be back with Miss Heather and all their friends and are looking forward to another incredible year! xo

Happy First (Full) Day Of Autumn!

Happy first (full) day of Autumn! Yesterday somehow got away from me and I realized this evening that I never came to this space to welcome in this favorite season of ours. It's probably because right now it doesn't feel very autumnal. It was in the high 80s yesterday, though today has been somewhat better, (low 70s). We are missing the cooler mornings we had last week, though we know they will return soon. May this season of release bring each of you many, many blessings! Happy autumn, dear friends! xo

Following Greta's Lead

The girls and I, along with Laraine who is a member of our wonderful faith community, participated in the Climate Strike organized by the group at Wellesley College today. There was an amazing turn out with people of all ages attending and marching and chanting and bringing awareness to the climate crisis that our planet is currently facing. We are so happy to have gone and spoken up on behalf of Mother Earth! Thank you, Greta Thunberg, for being such an inspiration to all of us (but especially to my girls)! We are with you every step of the way! xo

P.S. If you haven't watched this video yet, please do. And even if you have, please watch it again. I encourage you to share widely! xo 

Morning Lessons

In which Emma writes a letter to her great-grandpa to learn more about our family history during her history block. xo

Thirty-Six Aprons

My Aunt Gail emailed this morning to let me know that a box was on its way. Thinking we had a few days we were super surprised when a large, heavy box arrived this afternoon. As I was chatting on the phone with my mom at the time of its arrival, and the girls had just headed out to play, we waited for a bit before opening it. 

We couldn't even begin to guess what was inside (it was HEAVY remember) but we all figured it was most likely doll related! Never in a million years would we have guessed that it was, in fact, thirty-six aprons! 

 January 

My apron matches the girls' aprons exactly. 

 February

 March

 April

This was, as you can imagine, an instant fave!

May

June

 July

 August 

I should have had Dave come in to take one of the three of us, as my apron is the same fabrics but the watermelons are the background with the flamingo fabric accenting it. So sweet! 

 September. 

Again, I should have had Dave come in to take a picture. Mine is very similar to theirs, though instead of a ruffle at the bottom it has the sweet fabric and ribbon on the top. I absolutely adore this apron! The fabric and the ribbon are very much us! 

 October

This one has me as a black cat. I'll be sure we get a picture of the three of us together wearing them next month. With dinner needing to be made before dance I decided to skip having a picture taken of the three of us and move on to the final few aprons in the box! 

 November

 December

These aprons make me think of my Grandma Ruth (my Aunt Gail's mom). I have no doubt she would have loved them all but most especially the Christmas ones. 

Birthday apron

Isn't the ladybug fabric darling?! 

Grace has said that she would wear that ladybug fabric as a skirt ("it's so cute with it's bow!")

Thank you Aunt Gail for the incredible surprise of these gorgeous aprons! They will absolutely be worn and cherished for years and years to come! xo 

{This Moment} Honoring...

{This Moment} A weekend ritual. A single photo -no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.....

Remembering...

I will never forget how blue the sky was that day. It was easily the most gorgeous blue sky I had ever witnessed (then and still).

Eighteen years ago I was teaching at The New England Center for Children. As I drove from my apartment in Belmont to the school in Southborough I remember think that it was the most gorgeous day ever and that I was looking forward to the end of the school day so that I could spend the rest of it outside enjoying what (at that point) felt like the most beautiful day ever.

I was teaching when the new came. A quiet knock came on our door. I think it was from our team supervisor, Nicole, telling us that something had happend in NYC. Since we had a TV in our room we quickly switched it on to see what was happening. We were all in shock as we stared at the images unfolding on the screen. Surely, this had to be some movie stunt gone wrong? But no, that was not the case at all. Even before NECC decied to send everyone home early that day (something that was unheard of) parents had started calling to say they would be coming to pick up their child. Many had ties to NYC (or worked in NYC or flew regularly on those two planes) and felt as if they needed to circle the wagons up and be with their families in that moment. A feeling we all shared.

It was a traffic free ride down the Pike back home to Belmont that day. It was eerily quiet. I called my mom from the car and she said to me, "You really shouldn't be driving and talking on the phone to which I replied, "No worries, mom, I am on the only one on the road." The quiet remained for the rest of the day and all through the night (and for several days and nights thereafter). The only noise being that of an occasional fighter jet flying overhead (patrolling from Hanscom AFB).

And yet, here we are, eighteen years later, able to remember everything about that day as if it just happend. Including the gorgeous blue color of the sky....

The Results Are In...

Drum roll please......Grace and Emma have been invited back to dance team! This will make four years for Grace and two years for Emma! We are so proud of them and can't wait to see them shine bright on that stage again! xo

Fun Mail

Nothing like getting fun mail from some of our most favorite people! xo

Science Friday!

We decided to bring Science Fridays back and put the Oak Meadow grade seven science materials to good use! This is the second week of Science Fridays and we are loving it! This experiment was long today but the girls did great! xo