Home again.
Our marathon vacation has come to a close. After three weeks in Rhode Island, we came home Wednesday evening to a full garden, a happy dog and an empty fridge (the freezer filled quickly, though! We recently bought 1/4 of a grass-fed Oregon cow. More on that another day). It's always hard to say goodbye to my family back east, but it's also good to get settled at home again.
I apologize for neglecting the blog as much as I have. I have a flood of work deadlines to slog through but promise to be back in regular crafty action after that.
It's amazing how much a garden can grow in three weeks, by the way. There's so much that needs to either be eaten or frozen, and there's no shortage of weeds that need pulling. The photos below include a shot of a young sunflower and a hollyhock making its way through our fence from our neighbor's yard (don't you love when that happens?).
We also came home to a huge stack of mail, of course, including the book "How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way," by Tim Selden, which I won from Amber over at Kids Craft Weekly. She holds a monthly contest for anyone who submits photos of their kids creating one of her crafts. I'm not sure if it's a random drawing or if she just chooses a photo she likes, but I was excited to hear that my shot of Bo doing pantry art won. Thanks, Amber!
I haven't had a chance to dig in, but the book looks great so far. I've read a more detailed book about raising your kids in the Montessori way. This seems to be a good refresher/quick reference/easy-to-find activities sort of thing.
So tonight was a little rough. Bo has been begging to take a ballet class ever since she saw her cousin MH dancing last spring. I finally signed her up, we read a book today about ballerinas, she put on her tu-tu, and we drove to the 6:30 p.m. class only to learn that it'd been changed to 3 p.m. Um, how am I supposed to explain that to my 3 year old? Crocodile tears ensued. I attempted to dry them with a trip to the ice cream shop--is that horrible? Am I teaching her to numb her emotions with food already?
My heart really broke for her, which worries me because this is only ballet class. What happens when life gets more complicated?
Back to books, though. I need to come up with a better system for displaying the girls' books. For a long time I thought the more books the better, but Bo seems really overwhelmed when she goes to her bookshelf to pick out something for us to read. Plus she has a hard time recognizing books when she just sees the spine.
Some of the books I have are crap-o-la, too, since a lot of them came from a book sale in which you could stuff a big box full of books for just $5. I hardly looked at the titles, let alone the plots. Sometimes she'll pick out a book and as I'm reading it all I can think about is how in the world it ever got published and how can I make up a new ending so she isn't emotionally scarred forever.
Anyhow, I ordered a few books online last night--The Seashore Book, by Charlotte Zolotow, Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney, The Carrot Seed by Ruth Kraus, and Feelings by Aliki. Those suggestions came from Sew Liberated (previously Montessori by Hand). I'd also love to start chipping away at Amanda Soule's picks.
Now I just need to come up with a better display system. Pasted below are some ideas: Martha Stewart, All Sorts and this way-too-expensive spinny number, respectively.
Anyone have an idea for displaying and storing books they'd care to share?
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