i snapped a few pictures today during our morning snack. i just love seeing ivy a part of the group now and her sweet interactions with benny.
in five days she is one
i was just telling jeff at breakfast that i just can’t believe ivy girl will be one in five days. with her little bald head and sweet demeanor she still feels like a little baby to me. then i snapped a few pictures of her and june this morning and the one of her standing up (it is a bit blurry) hit me hard. she totally looks one.
but watching these two play together has me looking forward to the many years ahead. i will miss her as a baby though because she really is the sweetest.
a new year
well it seems the tradition is that i write a little write up on my goals for the year. i wouldn’t want to disappoint myself as it is fun to go back and read these post. last year i kept it simple and was wanting to find balance and be a good mom. i am pretty sure finding balance when one works from home and homeschools her kids is pretty near impossible. at least it has been for me. but there is hope. the new year comes after my busiest time of photography and this year i want to say was the toughest yet. we welcomed little ivy in january and went from part time home-schoolers to full time home-schooler in september. little ivy was the best little blessing. she is the sweetest and most easiest of babies. she has filled our home with so much joy. the new schooling routine was much easier in the sense that we were on the road a lot less and spent more time at home, but it was also a bigger load on me for doing all the lesson planning. a big change this year too was that jeff went from working about sixty hours a week to forty in june. not by choice. so i had to pick up a lot of photography gigs to help things out financially. that would be why finding balance was really hard. and here i am on january 1st feeling pretty burned out. not the way i want to start the new year.
i am going to try my hardest though and get through that. i have a few sessions to edit and then i have a two month break. i plan on booking lightly for now and add more work if absolutely needed. i am really going to work on budgeting our groceries and meal planning so i can work less and be present more. more than anything i just want to be home and be present and be content with everything we already have. simplify things even.
also, yes i know this is pretty stereotypical but i need to drop some pounds (fifteen to be exact) but most importantly i need to feel good about myself, maybe a little more me time. i started my morning off with a jog with the girls and it felt so good to get the heart pumping.
so we have balance, budgeting and meal planning, simplicity, weight-loss, and me time.
i hope to blog a lot more too. once a week sounds reasonable. nothing makes me more happy than photographing my kiddos and i feel i have been a slacker in that department. so here it goes. 2016 let’s do this!
snidbits from a friday
fridays tend to be a little crazy over here. we head down south to the farm to get our produce and bread for the week. then we head to drum lessons. we usually leave after lunch. we had such a good morning and afternoon this last friday that i grabbed my camera to document the peace before the chaos happened as we ran our friday errands. i had a really early morning with ivy getting up at 6am and june keeping me up throughout the night as she goes from her bed to our bed and back to her bed and some nights we repeat that a few times. when ivy was ready for her morning nap i knew i wanted to take a quick power nap with her as i was really feeling run down. i had all benny’s school work set on the table for him to complete and i put on a show for june in my room and laid on the bed next to her with a sleeping ivy. my goal this year was not to turn the tv on unless it was the weekend but as i mentioned i was feeling really run down and i needed to rest up for a busy day and weekend. as i was laying with my eyes closed and not quite asleep i felt finger taps on my head and opened my eyes to benny showing me his drawing. i quickly said “ok great job now please don’t wake me again”. as he walked away i was thinking in my head wow that was really good. i got up and walked into the school room to get another look and sure enough he had really done a great job.
we have had a few battles over artwork and him complaining because it is “too hard” and “will you help me” or he will want to trace it with the light board. i think what i love most about this is that he did it without complaining and he was so confident with his work. he was eager to work on it pretty much all day. even after we got home he wanted to finish it up before his hockey game.
he received several compliments on it when i posted it online and i am hoping he will continue to be confident in his work as he really has a good thing going when he puts in his best effort.
and i never did get that nap. but to be fair jeff let me sleep in saturday and sunday morning and i am feeling much better.
she was studying this one page for awhile.
finishing it up before his hockey game.
a quick capture of ivy because not even a second later she was chasing me to check out the camera.
nature journal #1
we had a fun few days celebrating june’s birthday. on monday we went to the aquarium in monterrey. it was her first time there. on the way out we stopped in the bookstore and got some fun books and a few toys for the kids. today we started with some math and reading and then we journaled our trip in our nature journals. i had benny pick three of his favorite sea creatures that he observed. he wrote down three facts for each creature from gathering information from his computer. one of the books we picked up was draw 50 sharks, whales and other sea creatures. we own several how to draw books and i have to say this may be a favorite. i love the real life look of the drawings which works perfect for nature journaling. i have several more in my cart on amazon. i think these will be helpful for me as well as i am an artist but a very rusty one. i felt pretty good after my finished sketches.
this was our first time using our new paint sets that i ordered for the school year. the kids have been anxiously waiting. everyone had a good time. june was busy mixing her primary colors to form new colors. she was so excited to make green and orange. the best part was i didn’t give her any direction, she just did it on her own. then i was wondering why i didn’t think of that. ha! i guess three years old are smarter than i thought.
days like this is what makes me so happy we are home full time now.
taking a little break
mama’s work
a reading nook for june
my mother in law gave me this fun vintage quilt last weekend. this little area is where we usually keep our beach and outdoor blankets but quickly piles up with clutter. i added the quilt and told june it was now a place for her to read. she was so excited. she grabbed her “favorite book” and made the place her own. it was too cute!
first day of school
our first day of homeschool went so well. the kids told me many times throughout the day that they were having a great time and that they were loving it. we have part-time homeschooled for the last three years and honestly i was not expecting it to feel much different than our home days in the past. to my surprise it felt different. benny noticed it too. we had a slow rhythm going and it felt good to pace ourselves and not have any big deadlines to get everything completed. it was fun adding june into the mix this year too. benny worked independently often throughout the day and i spent that time to work one on one with her. we did some early math and reading skills and were done fairly early but she kept wanting to do more school as the day went on so i included her in some of benny’s activities. we followed our plan for most of the day but then changed it up a bit when an opportunity arose. i read june a fun book we checked out from the library and we loved the art work in it so we decided to bring out the paints and do some art work from their favorite page. though june’s zebra is a bit more abstract than the original. we also had our neighbor friend come over for a bit and join in on the fun.
the best part is that we get to do it all in again tomorrow…rather today as it is past midnight and i better get to bed.
ivy wanted to be part of the pictures too.
june singing as she does all day long.
snack time
free play
we started a new read aloud chapter book. one of my favorites.
learning cursive
ten on ten-september
our day was filled with swim lessons, then off to another pool to swim with friends and lounging at home. the kids were wiped and bedtime was a breeze. we are wrapping up our last week of summer and making it a good one.
you can see more ten on ten here.
big brother
jeff and i usually buddy up at bedtime to get the girls down around the same time. he will read or play with june while i nurse ivy to sleep and then i will lay down with june. jeff worked a little late tonight so benny filled in. he played with ivy while i got june ready for bed and then read a book to june while i nursed ivy to sleep. i love the way she is snuggling with him. it made my mama heart melt a bit so i grab my camera to capture the memory. i also had to take a few pictures of ivy because she is just too cute!
she had to convince him to read two more books. she was able to get one more…
random
a few random pictures from the other day.
