1/30/14

4.52




"A portrait of my child once a week, 
every week, in 2014."




Logan: All bundled up in the back seat with mama, carpooling to a party. I love the bit blurred cinematic look of this shot where you look 
like the star that you are.





Linking up here.
Favorites from last week: this trio.

1/20/14

and then there was a superhero

In a month from today, this little girl turns four. FOUR! I almost can't believe it, but then I can. It's been an awesome 4 years full of love and life. We'll be celebrating superhero style. Who knew?

1/19/14

3.52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2014."

Logan: This is currently your favorite spot. And your favorite polka-dot pants. And your favorite shirt. But not your favorite boots-- you think they are too "boyish."



Linking up here each week.
Favorites from last week: Riley and Eli.

1/17/14

friday | | f i v e

one / / two / / three / / four / / five


Five things I'm loving...
^ birthday cake inspiration.. can't believe my baby will be 4 years old in just over a month
^ collections, the people who collect them, and their reasons for collecting
^ fun simple and cute DIY crafts for my sweet girl
^ this awesome DIY plant holder
^ unique handmade stuffed play toys



Linking up here.

1/11/14

preschool homeschool | | week 13-16

The past few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind around here. With the holidays and me working more days than usual, it's been a bit challenging keeping up with our homeschool activities. In looking back, the first 11 weeks were a breeze, solely because I had the summer to plan out a curriculum. I wish I would have planned further out than 10 weeks. I work better with a schedule. And without having one, I sometimes loose track of if i'm coming or going. A glimpse of that will show in this post-- it's a bit all over the place, but nonetheless, documentation of a perfectly learned mess.
____________________________________________________________________
Our letters over these past weeks included S, V, C, and J. In earlier weeks, I have always tried to coordinate our weekly books with our 'Letter of the Week.' I found this an effective way for Logan to become more aware of the letters and their sounds, as I would have her pick them out in the text of the book. I hope to get back to doing this in the upcoming week. Since we are approaching the tail end of our 'Letter of the Week' series, I am going to change the format of our week. I'm thinking of focusing on a particular theme or "project" and then pairing it with an outing.
S is for Snowman
V is for Vulture
C is for Cross
J is for Jellyfish & a journal entry. 
For our kitchen crafts, we've been working on more whole and natural kid friendly recipes. Our favorite thus far is carrot noodles, where we rinse and peel whole raw carrots and boil them in water with a dab of organic coconut oil. We cover them with a red meat sauce and enjoy. We've also experimented with a chocolate banana milkshake recipe, however, we have yet to perfect it. I'll be sure to share once we do. It's just been way too cold for frozen treats.
Logan has recently become an all star writer. We work on writing daily. When she free draws on her own, she will now write random letters on her paper. It is so cute. Usually I will sit down with her and help her write out the letters to create words. We use her journal as a means to sneak in some writing too. I have her pick out a magazine clipping that she finds appealing to glue in her book and then she will write a word to go with it.
Other times she'll draw a picture like this one. She told me this is a picture of a boy in a storm. She then asked me if I knew why it was a boy. I had no clue. But after she told me, it was obvious-- "he has no eyelashes!" Of course! In all of her drawings, gender is distinguishable by the eyes. I kind of love this. 
 This girl is always jazzing things up. Always. My little artist...
Speaking of little artist-- our crafting has slowed down quite a bit over the holidays. So Logan was especially excited in creating this little sheep. It was fun to watch her strategically place each cotton ball in its place. We found this sheep craft here. We read about sheeps and other animals on a farm in preparation for our visit to the farm show. Unfortunately though, we never made it. Next time it comes around, we'll be ready!
Mother Nature must have known our letter of the week was "S" as she sent us heaps of snow. We had no complaints about this. We love venturing out in the winter weather. Our wishes of making the biggest snowman were not granted as the snow was the consistency of powder, poor for packing. But we did have the best time with the cousins running around and throwing snowballs.
We took Lo to the ice rink for the first time. She did great! We had read a few books on weather and did some activities on winter vs. summer activities. Naturally, ice skating fell into the winter category, but that isn't always the case

Logan was very interested in the man-made ice at the rink. She was curious to know that that ice is there year round. We plan to go again and again. We can't wait to go back-- even in the summer time.

f r i d a y | | f i v e

one / / two / / three / / four / / five

what i'm loving...
^ rugs, rugs, rugs-- i've got my eye on so many! 
^ inspiring and uplifting quotes.
^ stone art. 
^ roasted cauliflower. cauliflower in general. i could eat it everyday.
^ finding and printing out black and white illustrations as coloring pages for logan. 
   (see some we printed and colored here.)





Linking up here.

2.52

 "A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2014."

Logan: today we took you to the ice rink for the very first time. Your only requests were a trip back and gloves.

Linking up here.
Favorite from last week: penny

1/7/14

1.52

"A portrait of my daughter once a week, every week, in 2014."

Logan: these past few weeks we have been off schedule, but you don't seem to mind a bit. You have gotten more than your fair share of television because of it. I think you would welcome many more off-schedule weeks if given the power. 



Linking up again this year with many more, in the 52 project.

1/3/14

f r i d a y | | f i v e

one / / two / / three / / four / / five

^ implementing a yoga-a-day in 2014.
^ if you do nothing else today, check this out for your daily dose of inspiration to create.
^ all of our green is covered in white or gone for the season, so this pretty little green on bright white really stood out to me. Actually, it reminded me to water my indoor plants, and appreciate their beauty.
^ love the organic look and feel of natural wooden toys. As Logan gets older, I  find it more difficult to find wooden age appropriate toys. Suggestions welcomed.
^ love this cute little print. Maybe for logan's room?

Linking up here.

preschool homeschool || busy art: print & color


This week in our preschool-homeschool we learned about patterns. Logan has such an artistic eye, so I knew she would love everything about patterns. We spent some time exploring the many, many patterns around us. We recreated some that we found online and even made our own unique ones. Since Lo is a master at coloring, I turned some patterned illustrations from my 'patterns + illustrations' board on pinterest into coloring pages for her. It made for a prefect afternoon for her, daddy, and I. 



1/1/14

hello 2014

New Year Goals
* Weekly meal planning with meatless mondays.
* Eat clean-- 95% paleo, 5% life.
* Find new ways to keep active.
* Participate in the 52 project again. I am overjoyed with my collection of photos from twenty-thirteen.
* Travel more-- out of the county specifically. Easy enough!
* Read more. I have too many books waiting to be opened.
* Have more date nights. This past year I think Scott and I had maybe three dates with just the two of us. This is not okay, and definitely something that needs  a change. 
* Enhance Lo's preschool homeschool. Starting with more field study outings. 
* Stay better connected with friends. I've already been trying to be better at this, but it definitely is something I need to work on.
* Start a garden (very excited about this, as one is already in the works.)
* Worry less and hope more.
* Buy a bike-- and ride it. Not as easy as it sounds.
* Balance: time, money, life.
* Happy, healthy, and whole living.



I plan to add to this list, and check things off as the year goes on. I welcome the change that the start of a year brings and have hope of sweet, new beginnings, coming our way.


Happy New Year, friends!
What are your goals?




photo source

52/52

"A portrait of my child once a week, every week, in 2013."

Logan: We had the most perfect holiday. I'm absolutely positive you had everything to do with that.

Linking up my final 2013 photo in the project52 collection here.