What Is In A Name

Bunny has a new favorite word.

A very small word that means very much.

A word that, by its very utterance, is love.

Hubs is really excited and just a little bit proud.

I am really excited and just a little bit jealous.

She might be in the bath tub, or rolling around on the floor.

Suddenly she will look up, take a deep breath, and yell with all her might. 

"Ah Da!"

(Dada!)

She says it and she means it.

And although she has said "mama" in the past

(and continues to say it daily),

it is almost always when she is fussing, crying, or fighting sleep.

Not normally when she just wants me.

So I am a little jealous.

For me, she says it when she needs to,

when she is desperate,

when she is at the end of her rope.

But for him, she says it when she wants to play,

or go outside,

or just see his face.

In the end I understand.

It is no wonder why she loves him so.

After all, he is amazing!

Back To Basics~Homemade Happiness

{I am a woman on a mission. A mission to declutter our home and our lives. To make more and buy less. To find the things we truly love in life and hold onto them. A mission to get back to basics. The progress is slow as I work full time (at home) and have a husband and baby to care for. However, what I have accomplished has made a great improvement in our lives.}

Pumpkin Hat~

Last week, I decided that it was about time that I learn to crochet. I've been able to make a chain since I was nine years old, but for some reason I never went any further with it. I already had some yarn from other various projects so all I needed was a hook and a book. On Saturday, I went to the mall and picked up (with some advice form a very sweet woman) The Complete Photo Guide to Crochet and a three pack of hooks.

They sat on my counter for two days. I would stare at them from across the kitchen table. The book taunted me with its 272 pages and more than 400 large format color photos. The hooks cried out for me to hold them and use them for something great. I stubbornly rejected their calls and continued to go about my day to day business. Finally, Monday afternoon, the house was clean, the laudry done, the children were napping, and the internet was being slow. I picked up the hook and yarn and made a chain. The going was slow. After all, it had been years since my last crochet. But the rhytmic dance between my hands, the hook, and the yarn soon returned. At last, I was back to where I had started 11 years ago.

Now to move forward. I slowly opened the book and glanced through its glossy pages. Single, half double, cross, shell, bobble, popcorn, and picot to name only a few stiches. Needlesss to say, I was a bit overwelmed. My first few attempts were utter failures, then they got a bit better, and finally they were satasfactory. I decided to work in rounds because my rows weren't very straight and I thought rounds would give my some good practice. By that evening I had made my first hat. If you can count one that fits on an acorn. The next hat, though it did somewhat fit on Bunny's head, was mis-shapen and uneven. 

The latest hat I set out to make was a pumpkin hat for Fall/ Halloween. I didn't use a pattern, I just knew what I wanted and how I wanted it to look. I started with green/camo (for the stem) at the top, and worked my way around and around, then switched to orange. Round and round I went. Single, single, single, single... Then I doubled up on my loops to make it bigger on one round. Then single, single, single, single... Double triple, double triple. Then single every other loop to make it smaller (to fit around Bunny's head). This process took almost two days. Then I wrapped the stem in green/camo to make it more realistic. Last I added a leaf and a twisted chain (for a vine).

I love Bunny's new hat and I didn't even have to pay for it (which makes me love it even more)!

P.S. The hat is just a bit big on her so I am hoping that it will fit next year too

(I might have to take out the last tight round).

Linked to--

Autumn Blog Hop

Like Daddy ~ Like Daughter

Hunting Season ~ by KyleW

I like to hunt. Deer season is one of my favorites, with bow or rifle. I also like turkey season, but by far my favorite season is "wabbit" season! I love my little bunny girl.

    

P.S. I've never actually gone rabbit hunting.

These Moments

{these moments} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  Photos, no words, capturing moments from the week. Simple, special, extraordinary moments. Moments I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moments' in the comments for all to find and see. 

Ten Things

Ten things I have done/am doing~

1. Married my first and only love on the beach!
2. Had a baby
3. Live debt free
4. Work at home (daycare)
5. Use cloth diapers
6. Breastfeed
7. Remodeled my house
8. Write a blog
9. Learning to crochet
10. Use a clothesline (and hope to more often)

and ten things I hope to do (someday)~

1. Renew our vows (maybe after 10 years)
2. Have another baby...or two....or three....or four AND homebirth them!
3. Buy and manage an income property
4. Write a book
5. Learn to sew
6. Braid my daughter's hair
7. Tandem nurse
8. Visit a foreign country
9. Homeschool my children
10. Eat more organically

An Enchanted Childhood~ Daycare: Week 7

We have been asked many times to write up our "lesson plans" so others could use them.  Honestly, we just spend a little time thinking about how we want the "school year" to look and go from there.  We wing-it a lot, doing impromptu things that add to our plans.  I am always amazed that anyone would think what we do is worthy of writing down for others to read, but here it goes!

This year, we are doing "Childhood Classics"--reading great children's books--you know, the kind every child should get to know, and then doing little activities to go with it.

This week, our book was Where the Wild Things Are.  We have read this book many times in the past and it is one of the childrens' favorites.  It is fun to read this book right before starting our Halloween fun.

Monday--We used our monster finger puppets to sing "Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed"!!  We read Where the Wild Things Are and then headed to the kitchen for CreativeTime.  Using watercolors, the children painted their own monsters.  When they had finished, we glued googly eyes on them!

And... while the goggly eyes were setting out, Hannah couldn't help but make monsters out of the children...

 even little Bunny!!!

Tuesday--We again used our finger puppets (bought off etsy).  We read Where the Wild Things Are and noted that when Max was made King of the Wild Things, he wore a crown.  During CreativeTime, the children made their own crowns--using the rock crayons to color them, then monster ink stamps and stickers (bought last year at Target for 75% off!) to decorate them.  Before NapTime, we read Hungry Monsters ABC.

 Wednesday--Again, we read Where the Wild Things Are (actually read it twice--they love it that much).  And like always we roared our terrible roars, gnashed our terrible teeth, rolled our terrible eyes (though some of children rolled their heads instead haha), and showed our terrible claws.  And then we headed off the CreativeTime where the children made their own Wild Things masks--paper plates, colored with markers, yellow circles glued on for eyes, feathers, foam horns and teeth... very scary stuff!!

Thursday--We took a day off from "projects" and just enjoyed playing with some good ole' homemade playdoh (the lavendar kind)!  We then headed outside for another hour long nature walk and then headed to Poppaw John's garden to pick some green peppers and feed the chickens.  We did read our book, Where the Wild Things Are before NapTime.

Friday--We finished up our "Wild Things" weeks by singing "Five Little Monsters Jumping on the Bed" while using the monster finger puppets.  We read Where the Wild Things Are yet again, being sure to practice roaring, gnashing teeth, rolling eyes, and showing our terrible claws!  For CreativeTime, we made Wild Things using a stuffed paper bag, colored with markers and decorated with googly eyes, yarn hair, pompom noses, foam horns and teeth, and feathers.

One Word Wednesday

Raspberries!!!!!

***  Be sure to click on the pictures to see them up close and personal!

Enchanted Childhood

~King of The Mountain~

Today we took a walk,

climed a mountain,

got lost,

and found our way back home.

Today we set out to go for our normal nature walk. But it ended up being anything but normal!

First the children wanted to hike a new path that we have never taken them on. So up the steep hill we trudged.

Then we saw a "magic tree". It was quite large and its branches grew twisted and wild.

Next we discovered some strange moss/fungi/fossil on a few large rocks.
We wondered what it might be.

Suddenly I got the brilliant idea to take a shortcut through the woods, up an even steeper hill to another path. It was no small task for Mama and I to get four children and a baby up the embankment, through the sticks and vines and thorns to the top. 

We all eventually made it to the summit of our "mountain", and began to look around to get our barrings. We were in a large hay field, spotted with three wild apple trees, and surrounded by woods. The children had never been to this part of the property, and had no idea where we were.
We were lost!

 We set out in search for a path or a road of some sort, and after much wandering we found one. Up hill to the right and down hill to the left. We all decided that since we went up a hill to get here, we would have to go down a hill to get home.

So we set out to the left and down the "mountain" in search of our long lost home. We passed a large rock and decided that if we couldn't find our way, we would come back to the rock and go back the way we had come.

After we had gone some way, we began to see familiar things. Tractor tire tracks on the path, then the shiny tin roof of our barn, and finally....

Nana's house!

We explored the unknown and survived!

We had great adventures and returned to tell about it!  

The children ran down the hill with great excitment, shouting and cheering all the way!

Mama and I smiled for what we had secretly known all along.

There is something to be said for thinking you are lost and finding your way back home.

Something wonderful!

An Enchanted Childhood ~ Daycare:Week 6

We have been asked many times to write up our "lesson plans" so others could use them.  Honestly, we just spend a little time thinking about how we want the "school year" to look and go from there.  We wing-it a lot, doing impromptu things that add to our plans.  I am always amazed that anyone would think what we do is worthy of writing down for others to read, but here it goes!

This year, we are doing "Childhood Classics"--reading great children's books--you know, the kind every child should get to know, and then doing little activities to go with it.

Week 6 we are doing fall!  We love fall and devote a week to fall crafts and activties each year!  We are reading Fall by Maria Rius (the last of the books in the set: The Four Seasons).  We also reread My First Flip Flap Book of Seasons from last week because the children requested it!

Monday--Due to it being a holiday, we only had three children here.  We read Fall, as well as the beloved My First Flip Flap Book of Seasons.  We sang our seasons song and headed to the table for some fun fall art!  During CreativeTime, we did leaf rubbings--sassafrass leaves to be exact.  Last week we had gathered and pressed the leaves.  Hannah had also gather some of the root and made the children sassafrass tea to try.  They LOVE when they get to eat/drink nature!! 

 

The children then headed out to get some fresh air and check the mail (due to a holiday, the "real" mail wasn't being delivered today.) A very special surprise was awaiting them!  Any guesses what was waiting for them in the mailbox??  A postcard postmarked The North Pole!!  YES!  A special note to "Hannah and Nana's Kids" from good ole Santa!  The children were over-the-top excited!!

 

Tuesday--During CircleTime, we sang our seasons song and our fall song.  For CreativeTime, we made nature necklaces.  The children used fall -colored markers and decorated a circle of card stock.  I attached a piece of yarn and a wide piece of masking tape (sticky side out) to the circle.  We then headed out for a nature walk, where they stuck bits of nature to their necklaces!!  It was great fun and their necklaces look great!  For StoryTime, we read Mama, Is it Summer Yet?, a very adorable book about the changing of the seasons.

 

Wednesday-- No time for much INSIDE because we headed OUTSIDE for some serious NatureWalking and outside play!!  OF COURSE, we sang our songs, and observed all sorts of lovely nature, while breathing in the fresh air and soaking up the warm sunshine!

Thursday-- We continued with our regular songs about the seasons and fall for CircleTime.  During CreativeTime, the children use markers (in fall colors) to decorate a paper plate, which was then cut into a spiral.  With the plate laying flat, I put drops of glue to which the children pressed silk leaves (from the $$ store).  I tied a piece of yarn to the center.  And YEAH!  the children had falling leaves.  And of course we sang "The Leaves are Falling Down" while they bounced their leaves up and down!





Friday-- We ended our "fall" study by singing our "Seasons" song and our "Leaves are Falling Down" song.  We read Mama, Is it Summer Yet? once again, as it has become a favorite--one of those childhood classics!  We snacked on apples--a fall favorite.  For CreativeTime we made a fall tree.  The child's arm and hand, painted with brown paint, are the trunk and branches.  While that dried, the children tore "fall" colored paper into small pieces to be leaves and then played with playdoh, blocks, and did yoga.  After the paint had dried, the children glued on the "leaves".  Even six month old Bunny did a tree!

  



Linked to--

Autumn Blog Hop