Tickling the Ivories.

So, I know I said I was out for the rest of the week......but then my friend Lisa sent me these pictures last night that she asked Georgia and I to come down to her studio to take at the beginning of October....and I couldn't not share them.

Lisa had a wedding in her studio at the end of September and she had this amazing wall of sheet music and an old upright piano that had been part of the wedding.........it was begging for more use.  Enter us. I think pictures, family pictures, are pretty important, and Lisa doesn't know how to take bad pictures....so when she asked us I said, "What time do you want us there?"

And the results?  I'm in love with them.

I'd love to hang these over a future piano one day in our house.  I took piano lessons for ten years and hope to start Georgia soon.  She's like a moth to a flame when it comes to the piano at my parents house and her preschool progress report said her favorite thing to do at school was play instruments and sing.  I could have told you that from the time she was two weeks old.  She responds to music almost more than anything else.  It's in her veins.

Georgia asked Lisa if there was any Wizard of Oz music on the wall.  The two of us laughed and humored Georgia for a few seconds while we "looked" for Wizard of Oz sheet music.  And guess what?  Lisa found some....right at the bottom where Georgia was sitting.  We can't escape Oz.  I guess that's in her veins too.

If you need amazing photography for any reason, check out Lisa's website.  She'll travel anywhere and I consider her work to be some of the best photography I've seen.  And in general, family pictures--the kind you take, and the kind you have taken--are an irreplaceable investment.  Don't overlook them.

Alright--I'm really done for the week now........check ya'later.

Hello. Good-bye. See you soon.

Hello there! Just popping in to say......I'm heading out for a bit and will be back to my regular blogging middle of next week!  We've got some crazy stuff going on (good stuff) between now and then and I need the extra 'space' to get it all done!  Hope you have a great Halloween! And if you're a friend on the East Coast--stay safe and warm.  None of that sounds fun.  At all.  

Adios! 

A Family Launch

I'm over at Mom Colored Glasses today.......well......a lot of days.  I try not to duplicate content however......but today's idea is one of my favorites and too good (in my opinion) not to share.  So head on over and check out my idea for a family launch!

Have a great Thursday!  See you again back here soon!

Faking it.

I was sick this weekend.  Sicker than I've been in a while.  Like wake up in the middle of the night Friday with a throat that's on fire, lay on the couch all day Saturday while my awesome husband took Georgia to get donuts, to Lowes, let her play outside in the garage with him all afternoon, and all around just let me lay and do nothing sick.  Like cancel plans with girlfriends to the Melting Pot and watch the "Nanny's Revenge" on Lifetime while in a feverish haze sick.

Just sick.

I rallied for a bit to teach three year olds at church this morning and to take Georgia out to lunch at Noodles & Co. but I still pretty much felt like garbage.  But I decided when we got home that I needed to do something with my girl since I'd missed a whole Saturday with her and bit her head off for really no good reason during bath-time on Saturday night because I was feeling so crummy.

I was hoping she'd think laying very still on the couch sounded like fun.  She didn't; since she hasn't laid still besides her REM cycles........ever.  So, I decided we'd take a walk in the woods behind our house to collect leaves to make leaf glitter (thank-you Family Fun magazine--see the latest issue for the deets--and yes....I just used the word deets).

We're moving in about a month and while I'm very excited about it, I will miss the woods behind our house.  They seem to go on forever and G and I have taken numerous walks through them in all seasons and they always deliver a good time; an amazing time.  So we set off.  Me feeling like garbage, Georgia excited and oblivious to adult ailments.  I was faking it with the best of them.

And I kept faking it because it was a beautiful day here in Grand Rapids, Michigan and next weekend it's supposed to snow and who knows if we'll get the chance to take a walk through these woods again.  That stings a little bit to type.

I knew I needed to fake it.  And I'm so glad I did.

I love this picture. I love it because Georgia's boots are on the wrong feet and it is the hallmark of an independent three year old who "can do it myself."

We found some great leaves, we laughed, we chased each other down some hills, and the most exciting to Georgia.....we found lots of deer poop to which she responded, "I always thought they did that in private."

I feel like so much about being a mom is faking it.  Sure, I know how to get her to stop crying, I can definitely get that sliver out quickly, I bet this consequence will totally work, my kid can for sure endure a five hour shopping trip to the mall, and on and on it goes.  And it's okay, because so many times when we're faking it, it turns out right.....and good.......and perfect.  Like our walk in the woods today.

Georgia got to spend time with me......outdoors........exploring........enjoying possibly one of our last beautiful fall days.  And I did to.

Because you know what they say......."Fake it till you make it."

I made it. And I had the best forty five minutes of my weekend.

Learning how to Christmas shop.

It's that time of the year.  American Girl catalogs, Mini Boden, J.Crew, Hanna Anderson, Land of Nod (oh....I love you Land of Nod), West Elm, CB2, and these..............

are showing up in my mailbox.  Getting the mail is a highlight of our day.  Georgia and I spread it all out on the floor and look at the magazines together and make up stories about the people in them, she cuts out her favorite pictures, I dog-ear my favorite ideas, she asks me to buy her something crazy like everything that comes with the American Girl doll Kaya, and I say the typical mom line, "We'll see.  Christmas is coming."

But we probably won't see about that.

However, last year, we got the Samaritan's Purse and Heifer International catalogs in the mail for the first time and they mesmerized Georgia.  She poured over the pages of both magazines, asking what mosquito nets were, why kids were holding goats, why the houses looked different, why did that baby look sad, what's a well, what are they eating, what's wrong with that boys leg, and what are we supposed to do with this magazine? When I told her we could pick something out of it to buy for little kids in another country who didn't have as much as we did she immediately found the page that listed building a bush hospital for $35,000 and asked if we could buy that.

I told her that was a lot more money than we had to spend, but asked her if she'd like to pick something else out.  She said yes.  And then she took the magazines into her room and flipped through the pages for about twenty minutes--longer than she'd ever spent looking through an American Girl catalog with me. I asked her what she was doing and she told me, "This is a hard choice.  I'll come out when I'm done."  She was two and a half.

She eventually settled on some baby chicks that would provide eggs for needy families in other countries.

Yesterday, our catalogs came again.  And we sat down to look at them.

She didn't exactly remember looking at them last year, but she was just as interested this year.  It's a serious job.  A job that is serious all on its own.  I don't really push it.  I just answer her questions in an age appropriate way when she asks them regarding the pictures she's seeing.  She's older this year so she immediately knew that the pictures were of kids in other countries....she's very intrigued with other countries all of a sudden.   She is also well aware that we won't be getting an actual goat at our house if we choose to buy one; that it's for someone else.

She took some time this afternoon to decide what she wanted to get.

I had to steer her away from training a doctor, for $2200, but was surprised when she picked medicine. "Really?," I said.  I thought for sure she'd go for a bunny, or some fish, or some chicks again--definitely the most appealing to little ones, right?

She was sure.  I asked her why.

"I've had to take a lot of medicine.....for my bottom.....and if I didn't have it, my bottom would still hurt. I don't want a little kid not to have medicine.  That would be terrible."

I agreed with her and told her medicine was a great choice.  A really great choice.

I think the most touching thing to me about this tradition that we're building is that Georgia drives it, and it gives me a glimpse into her heart.  A heart that is there, even though she's only three and a half.  A heart that is developing and learning to care about people and making connections--one that is capable of more thought than I give it credit for.  She likes thinking about other people, and of course herself too, but she's learning that it's a good thing to give away what we have if we have more than we need......and even if we don't.

I think it's easy to underestimate the empathy and generosity that our kiddos might have.  And maybe we're not even under-estimating, we're just not giving them the opportunity to grow that muscle.

Never fear, she went right back to asking for toys within fifteen minutes of making her choice....but for a moment....she was given the opportunity to think bigger than her.  I think it's crucial that we give our kids those chances while they're young, while they're developing their sense of global responsibility.  And if we can....let them see it in action.

It's just a little thing.  A blip, maybe, on her Christmas shopping radar......but it's something.  We're also going to head to Target tomorrow to buy supplies for an operation Christmas child shoe-box.....check out what that's all about here.  

What else do you do with your little, little ones to build a charitable heart in them?  We can all use the  ideas like crazy!

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I found this picture buried in my camera.  I think it sums up how I feel about the weekend being here!  Have a good one.