My Birthday Week

I just love celebrating special days surrounded by little kids. All week, there has been whispering and planning and little scurrying feet running around gathering supplies for secret projects. The girls and John made my birthday so special. Ginger was sad that it was a school day on my birthday, but kindergarten is a pretty fun place to be on a birthday.

John asked Ginger what she wanted to give me for my birthday and she said a book, since I love books. He asked her what kind of a book and she suggested a craft book. How thoughtful! She got me a soap making book and train stickers (that she insisted I share with her). Ruby made me a fabric covered book that she and John bound together. She included a sweet dedication that is so touching. She worked really hard on this. John bought me the most awesome bag from Irenes’ made by Appetite. I just love it.

I got to chaperone with Ruby’s class on their field trip to the pumpkin patch.  The next day, I took my own class to a different pumpkin patch where I got to drive the hayride tractor out to the field! On the bus with Ruby, we sat with one of her new friends. They whispered and giggled the whole way there, it was too cute.

It was an amazingly beautiful week full of sweet small moments. I am a lucky girl.

Pumpkin Patch!

This has been the most incredible fall! We are in peak leaf season right now. Every view, even in a parking lot, is breathtaking. It makes me so giddy! I love fall and feel so lucky to live in a place with fall color.

This weekend we visited “our” farm, Gathering Together, for a CSA member pumpkin harvest celebration. It was sunny, about 60 and I was so excited. They welcomed us with freshly made potato donuts, hot apple cider (from a friend’s farm – La Mancha – the best!), chips and house made salsa, coffee, and house-made wine! We saw a bunch of friends, including one of my students. 🙂 Then we gave ourselves a little farm tour (we didn’t wait for the farmer to give us the hayride), walked out to the huge pumpkin patch and hunted around for just the right ones.

It was the perfect day.

bookworms

As I type, Ruby is reading a chapter book to herself in bed, Ginger is picture reading (with lots of memorized phrases from the book) in her bed, John is flipping through a magazine on the couch and I am willing myself to finish this post before I check out the new books I brought home from the library today. We are definitely a family of readers and I couldn’t be prouder!

Lounging at the library

Creating a cozy book nook while I unpack my classroom

Snuggling up to read with Richard Scarry

We have consciously made reading and books of all kinds accessible to the girls from a very young age and built reading into all kinds of routines in our days. It calms, it connects, it makes us laugh. I’m so grateful we can all share it together.

10 Years!

Newport Bay

John and I recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary (!) by retracing our steps of our honeymoon. We both grew up in Florida and lived there until 8 years ago. Neither of us had been to Oregon, but we both had a pull toward it and decided to travel here on our honeymoon. We actually stayed a night in the town we now live in because John thought there was a chance he would apply to grad school here.

Boiler Bay

Bob Straub State Park

My parents came out for a couple of weeks and John and I left the girls with them – our first trip away from them – while we drove up the coast, ate our way through Portland, and spent some time in wine country. It was my first vacation away from the girls. I went away for a few days to visit friends several years ago, but I’m not sure if that counts because I was pregnant and sick the whole time. 😉

Bob Straub State Park

Cape Lookout State Park

We stopped on a whim at Cape Lookout State Park and hiked along a steep, rainforested cliff hoping for a clearing and view of the ocean. It was one of my favorite things about Oregon – the wet, green forests full of ferns and moss that open up into incredibly dramatic views of the ocean.

Cape Lookout State Park

Twin Rocks

We stopped for the night in a small, loveable coastal town in a motel that looked out on the ocean. We were charmed and dreamed of having a place of our own on this coastline.

Manzanita

I missed the girls terribly, but enjoyed the spontaneity, leisurely pace, and ability to do things that we couldn’t have done with the girls tagging along. I’ll try to post more adventures from Portland soon. These photos were all from the first day!

Big Changes

Summer is in full-swing here. Ruby is out of school (a first-grader now!). We’ve had lots of sunny warm days and we’re all gearing up for big things to come this fall.

First day of kindergarten

Last day of K – I think she’s grown up a bit, yes?

This kid will be going to preschool.

(hopefully she won’t break too many hearts)

AND, I will be going back to teaching! A half-time kindergarten teaching position opened up in our school district, so I applied, went through an intense interview process including teaching a lesson to kindergarteners I’d never met before while the hiring committee of seven people observed (yikes!), and got the job! I’m so excited and proud.

It’s going to be a biiiig adjustment for all of us this fall and I’m a little nervous about that (moms, any advice on balancing working outside the home, taking care of your own little ones, the house, and yourself???) but in the meantime, I’m going to soak up as much of this as possible:

Happy Summer!

Three!

My sweet little Ginger turned three!

We had a quiet celebration with the four of us at home. (We had big plans, but alas, Ruby was very sick and on breathing treatments every four hours. So sad! Plans are postponed.)

Ginger’s only requests were for treats. She named everything she could think of in the weeks leading up to her big day. In the end, I decided for her and made a chocolate cake with chocolate filling and cream cheese frosting.

She was thrilled.

Gigi is a silly little girl, always making funny faces and jokes. She is super smart and already starting to read! She is the absolute sweetest kid. She’s the first one to cheer someone up, crawl into your lap for a snuggle, and give sloppy kisses. I couldn’t love her more.

content

This weekend I was lucky enough to get phone calls from three dear friends. We caught up with each other and one friend said, “You’re really living the life right now, Megan.” It’s true and I know it. I am trying to be as present as I can, because this is really it. My family is healthy. John’s dental surgeries (yes, plural) over the last year are done! We’ve begun birthday celebrating season.

The girls are almost 3 and 6. (When Ginger was born and things were hard, I was told, “just wait ’till they’re 3 and 6. It’s magical then.” It’s true. They’re fairly independent, play together, are innocent, and are so deliciously adorable.)

Spring is on it’s way. I’m working on big plans for my shop. I get to run past mountains, llamas, sheep, and a covered bridge. I miss my far-away family and friends (and the Florida sunshine), but I am trying hard to look around me, take a breath, and appreciate.

Happy New Year!

This time between Christmas and back-to-school is such a relaxed week. The to-do list is on the back burner. My parents are here soaking up as much of the girls as they can.

We spend our days amassing wealth,

searching for fairies,

playing hooky,

crossing bridges,

eating our weight in cookies,

and building tree houses.

It’s been lovely.

comfort

Like every one else, I am so deeply heartbroken about the tragic events of last week at Sandy Hook. It was a traumatic event that is so terribly haunting. I can’t count how many times I imagine our own family in their shoes and it is terrifying. As a parent of a kindergartener and a former kindergarten teacher; this hits way too close to home. It’s all too easy for me to step out of my world into theirs. I am physically ill for it all.

photo by Melina Stathopoulos

I’ve dealt with my own trauma and I can feel my brain slipping back into those unhealthy patterns of replaying. It is always on the forefront of my mind and my friends. It’s the first thing we discuss – “How are your kids doing?” “How did you answer their questions?” It was in the looks the parents and staff at Ruby’s school shared with each other as we brought our kids there on Monday and stepped back into old routines.

There is no making sense of this. There is no explanation.

All I know is that I am crazy grateful for the life I have; for the people in it. I am going to try to hold on to that a little more. I am savoring the giggles. I am remembering why I stay up late making last-minute gifts, and making messes so the girls can make memories. I am living in it.

I can’t live in fear. I just can’t. There is too much to be afraid of. I’ll become an anxious bitter mess and no good at all as a parent or a person. I am seeking out and sharing compassion as often as I can. I am hugging more, finding ways to send comfort, big and small, laughing, and loving. I am holding on to love while I have it.

Sending love and peace.

 

Abundance

We just got back from a week long trip in Florida to visit family (including my two new nieces!) where we were surrounded by so many people we love and who love us.

Yesterday was my birthday, which doesn’t get much better than when you celebrate with a 5 year old. There was much whispering, running feet, and surprises.

I started my day at the breakfast table with my little family, opening handmade cards from the girls who were so proud. John gave me a wonderful gift and then explained that he wanted to get me something special this year because we had such a stressful summer and I took the brunt of it.

Photos by Melissa Shontz

Partly because I have been in such a tense state the past several months, I am walking around filled with such deep appreciation these days. I love my beautiful family, our bright fall colors, our backyard, a warm cup of tea.

I am a happy girl.