sunday still life

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photography project; a weekly invitation to pause the busy of our days, to re-center and celebrate the beauty and depth of life. If you are inspired to join in, please leave a link in Erin’s comments.

A sunny pause following breakfast out in the mountains with the family where the girls entertained themselves coloring. Zuzu learned to draw birds this morning. Lovey and I had a second cup of coffee. No one cried, threw food or launched their toys into a neighboring table. As still as life can be with spirited small ones. Bliss indeed

sunday still life

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photography project; a weekly invitation to pause the busy of our days, to re-center and celebrate the beauty and depth of life. If you are inspired to join in, please leave a link in Erin’s comments.

This spring promises to be an eventful one for our well feathered nest. The first signs of it are in the air as Sugarplum kicks her presence known into the third and final trimester of growth under my heart and the first yellow blooms open early in our garden. Their arrival is early, a sign maybe of an early spring in our home as well….

sunday still life

 

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photo project started by Erin. It’s an invitation to explore the beauty and depth of life through traditional still life composition and / or photos and words to evoke inner stillness and reflection. If you feel so inspired, join in!

Lately, all I see in my Zuzu is her fast-paced growth. She’s racing towards grown-upland and taking us all along with her. I’m oh-so-grateful for these moments that are fewer and father between where she just wants to be my little girl still holding on.

sunday still life

 

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photo project started by Erin. It’s an invitation to explore the beauty and depth of life through traditional still life composition and / or photos and words to evoke inner stillness and reflection. If you feel so inspired, join in!

This shot right here, well I’m mighty proud of this sprite! That lolly she is holding is her first. She got it as a prize for her first week of potty training at school! Lil bit is holding her own in the 2 year old classroom at school. One of the many reasons we love the school our girls go to is they do potty training in the 2 year old classroom. Ms. Chrystal is the best!  When Zuzu wen through this class I remember after the first few weeks she showed me a potty chart covered in pink star stickers and proclaimed it as hers. I pointed out it belonged to another little girl and which one was actually hers- the one with only 3 stickers. She was upset. But then the next week went to town and rarely looked back.

About a year ago Lovey wanted to get out the little potty so that the Quail could start getting used to the idea. I balked. I reasoned that she wouldn’t be in Ms. Chrystal’s until next fall. But we went ahead and got it out anyway. And I’m so glad we did. Going into the class and her official training she was able to let others know she had to go, to pee and poop in the potty, flush her potty and throw her old diaper away. She’s got a ways to go, she still struggles with not falling over when she tries to undress or redress for it. But I know she’ll get there- and in a fairly compatible timetable as her classmates.

After the first week of “official” training she left friday afternoon with a good dozen stars on her chart and her first “prize”. Way to fly little bird!

sunday still life

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photo project started by Erin. It’s an invitation to explore the beauty and depth of life through traditional still life composition and / or photos and words to evoke inner stillness and reflection. If you feel so inspired, join in!

Growing a family is hard work. Anyone who says differently, well they’re incredibly blessed, whether they know it or not. When I hear the giggles these two, wriggle out of one another, I know why we do it. It’s nothing I could put a name to. It’s not the moments that you plan when you’re pregnant. It’s not the fantasies you dreamt about when you married. It’s not what you made the Little People act out when you were a child. It just happens. You can’t name it, but you know it when you’re in it. This picture, it’s what lets me know how blessed I am.

sunday still life

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photo project started by Erin. It’s an invitation to explore the beauty and depth of life through traditional still life composition and / or photos and words to evoke inner stillness and reflection. If you feel so inspired, join in!

Zuzu seems to have been born a grown up. While she’s big on playing, her play has always been in imitation of her grown ups. This is just one more example. We had a sewer repair need that Lovey in all his Renaissance Man style, was able to fix on his own. While he worked, Zuzu went hunting for her tool kit and set to match him turn for turn.

sunday still life

While Lovey was away, Zuzu took great pride in filling in for him. She proudly announced each day that Daddy was still gone and so she was going to “help” Momma just like he does. She made long lists of all the things we needed to do and put herself firmly in charge, really of all of us. She helped the Quail with her speech therapy, she chose the movies we would watch, she ordered her food at the restaurants and was very cooperative for the party we went to and helped to put the laundry away. She made a decision that she wanted to bring brownies to school for her class to have after they eat their lunch. I asked about the Quail’s class and that prompted her decision that we needed to bake 3 pans- one for her class, one for the Quail’s class and one to have at home for dessert. She sat on the floor with the bowl of brownie mix and sweetly showed the Quail how we stir it up. After they were done baking she pulled out the stock of sprinkles and decorated each pan accordingly- flowers for the Quail’s class, hearts for hers and dinasaur’s for the home ones. I was so proud of her thinking of everyone. She even noted repeatedly that we needed to save one of each of the brownies for Daddy. You can’t really argue with that kind of kindness sprinkled over “logic”. Or at least you shouldn’t.

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photo project started by Erin. It’s an invitation to explore the beauty and depth of life through traditional still life composition and / or photos and words to evoke inner stillness and reflection. If you feel so inspired, join in! Erin is on a cyber-vacation for the month of August and I’ll be hosting Sunday Still Life. After you post yours, stop by here and leave a link so we can all come visiting.

 Keep it slow. Keep it simple.

sunday still life

This summer we are more ourselves then we have been in quite some time. When Lovey and I were first courting, he was the King of the Crust. The man could make a pie that would set your heart singing. Typically the process was the adventure itself. We would often go berry picking alone or with friends and then assemble the fruit into a home-made pastry shell and indulge over pie and coffee throughout the course of a weekend. We were so invested in our festivities that our first fight was over 1 pie or 2 pies. While the answer seems obvious- 2 pies- the 1 pie meant the other half of the bounty went into a cobbler or cake. Really- win-win.

Over the last few years our weekends have been eaten up rather than us luxuriously eating through them. But this summer, this summer the berries were priced right ; if store-bought rather than hand-picked; and the sweets have come routinely. There has been gifts of rhubarb from friends visiting the Amish country, a Pie Social that 40 of our besties contributed too and variations of the southern standard  of a Chess Pie. It’s been a sweet summer and so good to see a version of our family that happily melds our old and new selves into someone we can recognize. 

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photo project started by Erin. It’s an invitation to explore the beauty and depth of life through traditional still life composition and / or photos and words to evoke inner stillness and reflection. If you feel so inspired, join in! Erin is on a cyber-vacation for the month of August and I’ll be hosting Sunday Still Life. After you post yours, stop by here and leave a link so we can all come visiting.

 Keep it slow. Keep it simple.

sunday still life

The girls are newly in love with fort building. The giggles that erupt from deep inside this tree tent make us all grin right along with them. Fortunately with small ones, we’re all in the club if we want to be! 

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photo project started by Erin. It’s an invitation to explore the beauty and depth of life through traditional still life composition and / or photos and words to evoke inner stillness and reflection. If you feel so inspired, join in! Erin is on a cyber-vacation for the month of August and I’ll be hosting Sunday Still Life. After you post yours, stop by here and leave a link so we can all come visiting.

 Keep it slow. Keep it simple.

sunday still life

Lovey had a mid-week birthday this year. Our invitation for celebration was met with friends, frosting and frolicking. While the cake started out pure and simply buttermilk chocolate goodness with a simple birthday blessing iced in, the children plucked their current icons from the toybox and lovingly thrust them into the smooth chocolate frosting. Surely an attempt to remind Lovey he’ll always be a kid at heart. The sweetness in Zuzu’s excitement at another’s birthday is such a warm reminder of what a kind heart that kid of ours has. We are so blessed.

Sunday Still Life is an evolving photo project started by Erin. It’s an invitation to explore the beauty and depth of life through traditional still life composition and / or photos and words to evoke inner stillness and reflection. If you feel so inspired, join in! Erin is on a cyber-vacation for the month of August and I’ll be hosting Sunday Still Life. After you post yours, stop by here and leave a link so we can all come visiting.

 Keep it slow. Keep it simple.