Cordelia's Morning Yoga

I recently noticed that Cordelia has been mimicking me as I do yoga. So I started throwing down a yoga mat for the girl and, for now, she is really into it. I show her a pose and she does it to the best of her ability. Sometimes I help her if she seems to want it, but mostly I just let her do whatever she wants.

Downward Facing Dog

She alternates between actively participating, even naming some of the poses, and goofing off. She will run in circles around the mat, crawl underneath me while I do standing poses, or maybe she will just roll around on the floor.

Mountain Pose?

I am just glad that she is interested and even more happy that she is picking up on the fact that we must do something like this every single day. I want that to just become something she does naturally.

Rest

I used to think I needed to have time away from her to really work out, but this is way more fun, keeps me active and she seems to really enjoy it.

Cobra

Lotus

How do you work fitness into your daily routine?

Simple and Perfect

Yesterday evening, after dinner, we headed out back. I did some yard work. Cordelia alternated between following me around and playing by herself. Bumblebee obsessed over the orange neighbor cat who kept taunting her from atop the fence. Eric alternated between hanging with his girls and watching tennis on the laptop inside the house. Then we went for a long family walk. We played in the park. Looked around the neighborhood. Checked out the creek and came back home as the sky was growing dark.

Rosemary

Cordelia practicing her yoga


Tomato


Basset ear slap


Sun on pine


Virginia Creeper and a little lady on the go


Sun through the trees


Hello, from me to you

We settled in for a family night. I enjoyed some vegan chocolate and a glass of wine along with the company of my amazing husband and beautiful daughter. Simple and perfect.
What is your idea of a simple and perfect evening?

Hello Monday!

Hello. I had a long and lovely weekend with my family. We had future night. I went plant shopping with my mother and Cordelia. Eric and I went on a date. I did some writing. I read. I did not do any house keeping beyond some very basic pick up and dishes, it was marvelous.

Now I am feeling refreshed and ready to start the week. I suppose I should come up with a to do list for the week ahead.

• Housework is a must. I will clean the 3 quadrants (upstairs, main level, basement) all in one day. Usually I just clean a single quadrant a day. Makes it feel cool if I refer to each area as a quadrant, like I am on a spaceship...
• I want to try and make some vegan lotion. I found this tutorial and I think I will give it a whirl. Vegan lotion can be expensive and I like to dip myself in lotion so I should find a better way.
• I will do some prep work for my classes.
• Work on some art.
• Potty training continues. We are so close and yet so far.

• I want to make Cordelia a toy from Make Your Own Toys. I checked it out from the local library. Cordelia loves to just look at the toys. I would love to make one while she naps and surprise her with it.
• Do some writing.
• Mail some packages.
• Yard work calls me. I just planted a blueberry bush, some pine and some mums. I got a great deal on the shrubbery...hopefully the plants have enough time to settle in before the 1st frost. I think we have at least a month before that happens. Speaking of yard work I have some tomatoes that are ready to eat!
• I am certain that there will be a dance off or two in the coming days.
• Dinner with friends on Friday.

What is on your to do list this week?

Mimics

Children are natural mimics who act like their parents despite every effort to teach them good manners. ~Author Unknown

Future Night!

Yesterday started out normal enough, almost too normal. Early afternoon we found ourselves at the mall (boo) as Cordelia played in the play area (germ pit) as it was too hot to visit a park. Eric and I were on the brink of boredom when one of us suggested that we have a theme night. Eric and I love to have "theme nights" (see here ). We quickly settled on a theme of FUTURE NIGHT. A decision was made and we spent the rest of the day in preparation.

I settled on a "futuristic" dinner of Thai peanut wraps. We got ourselves dressed up in future gear. Cordelia even joined in on the fun.

Eric told me that he had channeled the spirit of a futuristic rebel warrior for his costume. Please note the way that my mister shaved his beard. Half a beard and half a mustache (he was really committed to future night).

I went for futuristic evening wear.

Not to break the illusion or anything, but interestingly enough we were both wearing elements of our prom clothes. My romper is half of a 1920s evening gown. Eric turned my prom wrap inside out, tied a ribbon around it and wore it as a rebel shirt. He is also wearing his prom pants. Anyway...

We were really impressed by ourselves. We had our futuristic dinner. We rocked some future music. Then we watched Starship Troopers, which interestingly enough was partially filmed in Wyoming!

At the end of the night Eric had to fix his facial hair, but not without a little fun. He came downstairs, after shaving, with only half a mustache. He stood in profile with the mustache half and gave me a glimpse of the past (1980s). Then he gave me a profile view of the mustache-less side, letting me see the present. Finally he faced me directly with one half of a mustache and said, "The FUTURE."

Do you have theme nights? What themes do you have?

About Her

So many of my readers have been reading for years. Many of you were with us when we announced my pregnancy (here), when Cordelia was born (here), and along the road we have followed since then. Many of you know her, or feel as though you do. Can you believe that in just over a month she will be two years old??!!! I feel like I fell into some strange time vortex. How did we get here? Cray-zay.

Anyway, please allow me a few moments to share with you some of the amazing things my little lady is up to:

• Cordelia can count to 11. She goes 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-8-14 up to the very end she is pretty impressive!
• OK this one is really braggy (braggy is a word, just an undocumented one), she knows her right and left! We showed her last week and didn't really think she'd get it, because sometimes it is tough for adults (admit it). Anyway, she has been 100% consistently accurate with it!
• She identifies musical instruments in songs. She started this about a week ago. She says, "Hear piano, hear drums, hear guitar." She calls them out as they start up in a given song.

• She loves to cuddle her stuffed animals, calling them her "buddies". The animals are always carried around in groups of 2-3. She will hug them individually and tell them, "You're precious."
• She is super-girlie. She always wants to wear dresses and if I put my hair up she wants a ponytail too.
• She also has kind of a unique sense of fashion. A couple of days ago she insisted on wearing the sparkle hat (here), sparkly shoes, underwear, and the blue coat (here) --- no shirt no pants.
  

• She loves to give hugs and kisses to her family.
• She is weirdly interested in moles...still. She loves to point them out to people, just in case they weren't aware they had a mole or something. It is really appreciated. Future dermatologist?
  
• She sleeps with a stuffed dog she calls Douglass, named because it came with a tag that says Douglass. If she wakens in the night she calls out for Douglass, "Want Douglass, want Douglassssssssss MAMA! Ahhhh!"
  
• She loves the outdoors. She would spend all of her time outside if she could. I am so pleased that I have a little nature lover.
• She copies everything. I mean everything. Yesterday morning I was walking around, narrating my actions for my little follower. She was repeating me as we went along. Then Eric came into the room and I said, "Hello handsome." Then in a tiny voice we heard her repeat "Hello handsome."
• She puts her stuffed animals on the potty chair and gives them some rather rude sound effects. Who taught her that? Oh yeah it was me, what was I thinking?
  

I could go on and on, but I will stop now. Thanks for indulging me today.

End of Summer

I know that it isn't technically the end of summer, but since I start teaching my class tonight it kind of feels like the end. Well, I started teaching my online course on Monday, but since that all happens on the internet it feels kind of imaginary.

I will get my books, notes, syllabus, etc. in order today and this evening it is off to start a new school year. I will meet my students. I will let class out a bit early, to ease us all back into the semester. The sun will still be out when I leave the classroom and get into the car, but I know that by the end of the semester there will be darkness and snow and we will have slipped through the end of summer, through fall and right into the heart of winter.

I hate to say goodbye to summer (well not the 97 F we expect today) and all of the green growing things, but I am so excited about fall and our first Christmas in our new home.

I still have some veggies to harvest in my garden before the season officially ends. Most of our summer plans have been completed. We traveled to Montana, South Dakota, through Wyoming, Colorado and North Carolina. We have had plenty of company from all around the United States.

So, now I am saying goodbye to summer as I break out my teacher clothes and get back to reality. What a lovely summer this has been!

How do you gauge the end of summer?

How it Went

How it went.

1:32pm Cordelia wakes from her nap--- earlier than usual. I tryto get her back to sleep (this time is more precious than gold to me, the only time I have to entirely focus on my own thang). She smiles and laughs and hugs. How could I resist?

1:33pm Faced with some unexpected time with the little lady we run through some counting, the alphabet, a few songs. Thrilling for both of us.

1:36pm Hmmm. What to do now? I could go about chores with the little lady helping (she loves to sweep), but I feel like we need to do something special. Cordelia looks up at me with expectation...I felt like I had been challenged.

1:38 Inspiration hits. This girl doesn't know how to paint. So I break out the watercolors, the real watercolors and some heavy duty water color paper. I prep the paints, spray the paper with water (helps the paint spread) and we were ready to go.

She took the two handed approach.

Eric is convinced that she in ambidextrous


Three completed masterpieces. She said, "I made it mama!"

2:28 Cordelia becomes aware that there is paint all over her hands and begins to panic. To nip the building freak-out in the bud I decide that it is sprinkler time.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the backyard.

4:45 Eric returns from work, bringing me a bouquet of lilies. Later I asked him if he got lilies because they were our wedding flowers. He grins and says,"....um, YES, that is exactly why I chose them..."

5:20 I start dinner, vegan cabbage burgers they are way better than they sound. Why does the word cabbage just sound gross?

6:29 The whole family (minus to cranky cats) heads out for an after dinner walk. The sun is bright orange and kind of muted due to nearby raging fires. We wander through the neighborhood, enjoying the slightly strange atmosphere. Stopping at a park to play. Eric delights us all with hand walking, flips and cartwheels.

7:42 We find ourselves hot from our walk, lazing about the living room. I make berry and almond milk smoothies to cool us down. Just blueberries, strawberries, a small spoon of sugar, almond milk, blend.

8:10 Cordelia says, "Wanna listen to music and dance." Dance off ensues.

8:21 Cordelia is still awake (what kind of parents are we?). We turn off the lights and break out some glow sticks. Fun ensues. Look I wrote you (yes you specifically) a couple of messages and drew you a picture with a glow stick and a slow shutter speed on the camera.

That is how it went. How did it go for you?

Remember

Some days it feels like the earth is rotating a little too quickly around the sun, that seasons are just too short, that this daughter of mine is growing too fast. Some days I try so hard to burn these little moments into my mind so that I can access them again in the future, when we are on to a new stage and a new adventure.

I try and remember the way the sun feels on my skin, the slight breeze, the sound of a distant mower, Bumblebee rolling in the grass.

I hope I will recall Cordelia saying, "Watermelon good mama," because she just discovered how wonderful watermelon is---for the very first time! I try to memorize the feel of chubby toddler arms wrapped around my neck as a little girl, mouth dripping with watermelon juice, "whispers" in my ear, " Love you mama."

I wonder will I remember that exact moment?

Thrifting for the House

I was introduced to thrifting as a very young girl. I would say that it has been something I have done for my entire life. I got really into it in high school, it became an inexpensive way to express my own style. I would scour thrift stores in search of polyester bell bottoms and ball gowns. I would proudly wear them and I am sure my parents secretly breathed a sigh of relief that I was going in a different direction from the popular style at my high school of dressing like a teenage exotic dancer (yuck!).

Anyway, my thrifitng evolved beyond a desire to own exclusively polyester clothing (thank goodness) as I grew into an adult. While I still do most of my clothes shopping at thrift stores I also love to look for some vintage finds for around the house. My years of experience coupled with my education (history and art history--who says those degrees don't pay off?) have made me pretty good at spotting some awesome finds. I have some rules when looking for new items:

1) Do I really like it? I mean will it haunt my dreams if I pass on the piece?
2)Does it have a function? Sure the function might be to look cool, but I need to know what I am going to use a given item for.
3) Does it fit in my home/wardrobe/life? Sometimes I find amazing pieces, but they just don't work for me and I have to pass on them. I don't want to turn into a weird hoarder.
However, it isn't enough to just find a cool piece---I have to be able to incorporate it into my life.
4) Does it have real value? Really this is where our education has been useful. Eric and I are able to discern items of value, particularly with regard to artwork.

Here are a few of my favorites---or at least the ones that I felt like photographing today:

We found this Lester Varian set of prints in Denver, already framed and matted!


The pitcher was a gift from Eric and the table cloth was a thrifted find


Bread box


This hat box holds my yarn


Phone, handkerchief, record player, records


Ahhh, look at this orange beauty set along some gorgeous vintage books!

I think we are finally creating a harmonious balance between old and new in our home. I do love the sense of history that a vintage piece invokes.

Do you incorporate vintage finds into your style? If so do you have a favorite piece?

Sunday Quote: Spark

There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire,
which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity; but which
kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.


-Washington Irving

A Ceremony of Our Own

Last week I mentioned that Eric and I had finally graduated with our MAs. We did not, however, attend our graduation ceremony. Actually we did nothing to acknowledge the occasion---possibly due to shame (it did take us a small eternity to edit our thesis papers). Anyway, once we were back home from our NC trip we decided that we needed to have a little ceremony of our own, why not?!

So I made us some radical diplomas (we have yet to receive our actual diplomas).

We held the commencement ceremony on our back patio. Since the graduating class was comprised of two individuals we decided that we should each give a speech.

Cordelia set up our audience


I handed Eric his diploma and he returned the favor.


He was thrilled, he couldn't believe this day had finally arrived.


After a few tears were shed Eric was able to compose himself and give a riveting 30 second speech.

After what was certainly one of the most inspirational speeches of all time (sorry no transcript available) I was up next.

I graciously accepted my diploma

Then I launched into my speech....it was a bit lengthier

I gave a balanced speech...I believe


I expressed my disappointment in the system


I was also sure to thank those who had helped and inspired me along the way

Truly the ceremony was a thing of magic. I am sorry you missed it, but hopefully this account will bring the experience to life for you...

After our "graduation" we held a fort night party!

What?! You've never been to a par-tay this awesome?!