Welcome, March!

 

{This Moment} On Our Nature Table

{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. If you are inspired to do the same leave a link to your moment in the comments section below! Wishing you all a lovely last couple of weeks of 2018! xo 

On The Nature Table

 Our early spring nature table. A robin's nest, a gorgeous rock (found at Nature School yesterday) and two plaster castings that the girls made. Simple, gorgeous, and the perfect representation of early spring. 

 Yesterday at Nature School Grace made this plaster casting of a deer toenail. 

"They walk on their toenails, you know, mama!" 

Actually, I had no idea! I always thought they walked on their entire hoof!

Emma's casting of a cottontail rabbit's hind leg. "You can tell it's the hind leg since it has an 'H" over here" she informed me at pick-up yesterday afternoon. What neat projects and the perfect addition to our table! xo

October Nature Table

Just when I think that the nature table could not possibly be any more lovely another sweet item arrives that finds a home there. This time it was this lovely postcard from my sweet friend Patricia. It arrived in the mail, along with some genealogy items she's helping me with for my Daughters of the American Revolution application (for which I am eternally grateful). It was such a lovely surprise to receive more fun mail this week, and a truly wonderful addition to this sweet table of ours. Cats, a New England setting, autumn leaves and a witch with red hair? Could it be any more perfect?! xo

Late Summer Nature Table

Our Day

Today there was:

reading.  By ourselves and with good friends.

sprucing up of the nature table and adding a new addition to it (the beautiful postcard)!  There was also some serious dreaming of things that would be great to have for our nature table being done by this mama.  Oh, the possibilities!

time spent outside.  Though due to the high temps and humidty not nearly as much time out there as we would have liked. 

and time spent creating things for a very special persons birthday on Friday!

And so begins the week leading to Dave and Grace's birthdays.  A week filled with wonderful preparations and ending with lots of cake! 

The Littlest Photographer And The Lilac Princess

Yesterday, the scent of lilacs wafting through the air reminded me that it was time to pick some to bring into the house.  I grabbed a few vases, the clippers and the camera and set to work selecting some of the many "blooming blooms" to fill the vases.  Little did I know that as I was hard at work, my efforts were being documented by the littlest photographer in the family (the first five pictures below were taken by Emma).

"I'm ready for my wedding in the garden, mama!"

Spring Nature Table

In my Easter basket was a lovely nest for our nature table!  Both girls were quite taken with the nest, and after they had played for a bit Grace asked if she could put it on our nature table.  Carefully, she carried it in and placed it on the table, along with her lovely Rose Fairy.  It's the perfect addition to our spring table!



A Nature Table Kind Of Day

As you may know, one of the things that we have adopted from the Waldof philosophy of education is the creation of a seasonal nature table.  With how much we love nature, being outdoors and the seasons it made sense that we would choose to incorporate one into the rhythm of our home.  The girls love adding things that they find outside to our nature table, and I imagine that when things are finally in bloom there will be many new additions each day!  Our day today was full of nature.  Not just the type that you can place on our nature table, but also the type that you experience, or revel in.  The kind whose memories you take with you and keep with you for years to come.

Our day began with a visit to our friend Annie and her precious chicks.

After we got home and had some lunch and quiet time we headed outside for some much needed fresh air. 

"Look, Emma! Mushrooms for our fairy house!"

Who knew we had pussywillow?! 

While Grace began to collect things for the first fairy house of the season,

Emma decided to dive into a good book!

Presenting: The first fairy house of the season!

We were so grateful to be able to spend a good chunk of the afternoon outdoors, and for the chance to spend some time visiting with our friends and their precious two week old chicks!  We were super excited to see that things are budding!  Thank you, Mother Nature, for waking up your children!  We have anxiously been awaiting their arrival!  

Our Autumn Nature Table

It happened totally by accident that we created our first nature table.  We have this beautiful half round table in our dinning room.  The table has always been one of my favorite pieces, and I have been looking for something to bring more attention to it than it often gets.  Above it hangs our wedding document and on it usually sits our Welcoming Spirit (a figurine from the Willow Tree line).  With having company the last few days the centerpiece from the dinning room table was often relocated to make space for whatever meal we were having at the time.  One night for dinner we moved the centerpiece over to the table and bam!  Our first nature table was born.

With how lovely this "accidental" one turned out, and with how often the girls bring in rocks, acorns, flowers, leaves and other bits of nature, we have decided to create a nature table for each season.  Our winter nature table has already been started with some holly branches (extras that did not fit around our advent wreath) evergreen boughs and pine cones.  As we prepare for the Winter Solstice and Christmas holidays we look forward to adding more to our nature table as the winter arrives and continues on.