Experience Nature: The Community Garden

Flanna's class at the community garden

Flannery's class has gone on a gazillion wonderful field trips this year!  We are so lucky that her school is so close to so many great and interesting places to visit, because due to budget cuts, most of her class field trips have been "walking field trips" to save transportation costs.  

A few weeks ago, I got to go with Flanna's kindergarten class on a little walking field trip to the community garden.  The class was studying the life cycle of chickens, living and nonliving things, soil, compost, etc., so the community garden was a great fit for that!  

The kids got to see compost bins at various stages of decomposition, baby and adult chickens, seedlings, and very active beehives.  And the neatest part was that the kids got to see a hen actually lay an egg!  What good timing we had!

I am so thankful for my wonderful boss who has encouraged me to have a good work-life balance these past few years, so that I can not only be a good employee, but also a good involved mama, too.  Some days I am just overcome with how lucky I am to have this neat life, with such meaningful work and loving family & friends & colleagues and amazing opportunities at every turn.  

lovely chicken!

observing running versus still water

acting out how to layer components of compost

the adult chickens like to steal the little chickens' food, so they are in a protective crate inside the fence.  :)

What field trip do you remember from when you were a kid?  I remember going to the Center for Puppetry Arts quite a bit.  

Soak Up Together Time

We have felt so lucky these past two years to live near so much of our family.  Flanna has gotten to spend so much time with Robi's parents, and it has been such a blessing! Grammie came for a visit a few weeks ago to see Flannery play soccer, and we made a whole day of it, going out for lunch before the game, and for ice cream afterward!  You can see how much Flannery loves her sweet Grammie and how much fun they have together.  

We're going to miss them so much come August.  Because we're moving!  We're moving to the west coast for Robi's job.  We're so excited for our future out there!  But so sad to be heading soooo far from home and family and friends. 

So, for the next few months, we're going to be soaking up the "together time" we have left with our wonderful friends and family here in GA!   

Who do you want to "soak up" time with these days? 

If You Give a Kid a Camera

If you give a kid a camera, she's going to want to take pictures of you.  But you won't have makeup on, and so you will try to hide behind your dad.  But he won't let you.  He will just open his mouth and pose for silly photos.  So you'll just have to grin and bear it.  

ready for my close-up! 

And then you'll look back at the pictures, and decide--who cares if you have on makeup or your hair is frizzy?  This is how your daughter sees you, right now.  And she loves you.  And she'll enjoy looking back at these photos one day and getting to see how you looked.  And she'll enjoy seeing how you looked at her --with such sparkle and fun and love-- when she was so wild and so carefree and so tiny.  

And so not only will you keep those goofy photos--you'll actually post them on your blog.  And those laugh lines and those crinkles around your eyes?  You will love how they look.  Because they were forged in joy and sweet memories.  

my fun mama!

being silly with my parents!

granddad and a helicopter

What picture of your parents or grandparents do you love from when you were a kid?  

My Life in Pictures: Spring Break!

On Flanna's spring break, we went down to my parents' house by the beach.  It was so lovely!  The water was cold, so we didn't actually swim in the ocean, but we built sand-castles and splashed in the waves and took a gazillion long walks down the beach!  It was such a gift to get to spend some extended time together with both my parents!   Since my dad travels for work, those times when everyone is free and available to just "hang out" together are so rare!

What is your favorite spring break memory?