by Katrina Kenison
This book is another book club book. It's completely perfect for where I am in my life right now. Kenison is a working Mom, raised during the feminist movement, who has chosen to slow her life down and really be mindful of the fleeting time she has with two sweet little spirits. Kenison has re-prioritized her life around finding joy, simplicity, and peace while nurturing her children and her own inner spirit. The book reminds me a bit of
The Creative Family although it is focused more on finding peace rather than inspiring creativity.
The book is definitely colored by the Waldorf philosophy but it is mostly reflections on embracing the best parts of parenthood. So many times I wish I had known how short childhood would be and savored it a bit more. Mitten Strings For God celebrates the simple pleasures of childhood and reliving those joys through parenthood. Parenthood is a chance to see childhood all over again from a more grateful perspective. There are so many moments that can be made even more wonderful by allowing a deeper peace and simplicity into our homes.
Growing up, I pictured my life as going down two seperate paths. I pictured a career and education driven life and then a family life with children. I never pictured them together because I could never quite figure out how they would coexist. Sometimes I still feel that way but the more I time I spend on this journey of motherhood, the more I realize that motherhood is as Kenison says: "my true vocation." Lately I've been especially aware of how precious my time is and how fast it slips through my fingers. Being a wife and mother is a truly lovely life and the more I concentrate on it, the more everything else seems to fall into place.
One of the biggest battles I think I will face as a parent is trying to protect my children in a media/consumer driven world where their peers might have a greater impact on them than I will. Creating a family bound together with love and a deep connection is becoming a more elusive task with every passing decade. I think slowing down and really concentrating on important values and fostering a more meaningful connection with my family is the only antedote for the accelerating worldliness my children will face.
The last chapter on choices resonated deeply with me. We make choices on a daily basis about what our priorities are. We choose how to treat our families and we chose how we express our love to each other. I've been trying really hard this year to try and find a rythmn for our life and make sure we are making time for the important things. This book definitely empowered me to keep trying. Kenison's reflections also inspired me really concentrate on the great moments in motherhood.
Great things that happened this week-
• Hearing Red Fish and New Fish giggle together and seeing Red Fish tickle her little sister.
• Doing head stands and summersaults with extended family and seeing Red Fish practice them with her Dad today.
• Sitting in church with my little family and feeling that rush of happiness at actually getting a peaceful moment together.
• Hearing my husband reading to my girls in the other room several times this week just because Red Fish asked.
• Waking up to a sweet two year old climbing into my bed with a stack of books prepared.
• Rocking my baby for an extra long time.
• Holding New Fish while she sleeps on my chest.
• Laying on Red Fish's bed and giggling with her while Daddy sings us goodnight songs.
• The smell of a freshly cleaned baby all ready to snuggle.
There were a lot of moments this week that I really stopped to think about what a great life I have. What a wonderful family I have and how deeply I am blessed. We had friends who unfortunately had a failed adoption this week. It just brought back a rush of memories of that deep longing on wanting these babies in our family so deeply. My family members are little pieces of my heart that I never knew were missing until that ache for each of them took over.
As most people know, we are a scuba family. My girls can be certified in 8 and 10 years respectively. They are being prepped already. =)
Here is Red Fish doing a little light reading. One of her favorite books currently is Basic Cave Diving by Sheck Exley. The cover just happens to be her favorite shade of blue. It's almost the same color as her beloved Uncle M's car.
New Fish hasn't been very interested in the cereals we have tried so we decided to try some veggies. Mostly she just spit the carrots all over us and laughed.
Red Fish wanted to get in on all the action of course.
By Elizabeth Gaskell
We've been doing some watercolor resist paintings. We've used crayons, oil pastels, and rubber cement to resist the water color. The crayons didn't work that well because Red Fish doesn't push very hard. The oil pastels and rubber cement have been really fun.
Now that Red Fish has all of her colors down we've been talking about shapes. We do two collages at a time so she has to match the shapes.
So I finally fixed the crib bumper (it had a big hole in it) and we moved New Fish officially out of the cradle. I'm a little sad the day has come so fast.
I think she was pleased to be moving to a more spacious area. It struck me tonight how much I think she is starting to look like Red Fish. It might be just because Red Fish was bald and chubby too.
This is Red Fish at 5 months.
This is a terrible photo from my cell phone but it's the only one that sort of turned out. We went to the dinosaur museum again with some friends a little while ago. This time Red Fish was tall enough to see into the water and sand pit so she and her little friend played in them for a good long time.
We went to the aquarium on Tuesday during Two Fish's eye exam. New Fish was asleep pretty much the whole time.
Here is Red Fish petting a sting ray. Usually she is too scared to touch them and rips her hand out of the water when the sting rays come close but this time Red Fish was brave.
Two Fish's surgery was a success. He now has 20/20 vision instead of 20/400. He could only kind of make out the biggest E on the eye chart before and it was blurry. So it's pretty amazing that he can see now. He put on his glasses to see how bad it was before and it made him a little sick.
She has lost all of her hair except for this little patch above her neck. My brother M refers to it as "the skullet." I just tell him that fat and balding works for New Fish. Not a lot of people can say that.
These two girls love their Daddy. They get so excited when Two Fish gets home from work. There is a lot of jumping and smiling and two little girls who immediately want to be held. (I'm always happy to see him as well.)
Two Fish took me to see a play on Friday night. We still have tickets to two more plays over the next couple months. We saw Twelve Angry Men. It isn't exactly romantic for Valentines but we had a great time. I liked the play. I've never seen the movie so I've added it to our Netflix cue.
We have church early in the morning tomorrow so we decided to have a Valentines brunch today. We let Red Fish help us make all of the food.
Wearing their party hats.
Supervising
Mixing the pancake batter. She loved helping to cook everything. I was scared she would try and touch the griddle but she understood pretty well that it was hot.
Cooking the pancakes, eggs, and bacon with Daddy. We had sparkling pomegranate juice in fancy cups and Red Fish was so excited when we clinked our glasses and said Cheers. She thought it was all very exciting. Kids make everything so much more fun.
I was getting ready for datenight and Red Fish decided to get herself ready as well. She combed her hair, put on some jewelry and was doing her makeup with some of my brushes. It was SO CUTE.
Notice the clip on earings.
I went in New Fish's room to get her out of bed this morning and this is what I found. There is an extra child in there! They were both pretty happy about it.
Another future Dive Addict in the family.
There has been a lot of drawing. Red Fish learned to say "art."
Story time with Grandpa
Mimi's birthday.
by Katrina Kenison
Nathan, a Baptist preacher and a bully, decides to transplant his family into the Belgian Congo in the 1950s. They arrive, completely unprepared for what awaits them, dressed in suits and carrying pinking shears and Betty Crocker cake mixes. They cannot relate to their neighbors or the sweltering country in which they are now expected to live. They have arrived in a time of political upheaval and dangerous racial and social mayhem. The book covers several decades and describes the consequences of the binds that tie the various family members to Africa. They are deeply marked by tragedy, fear, and guilt that become the driving forces in their existence and creates lives that are worlds apart from each other.
More popsicle sticks, felt, yarn, pipe cleaners, sequins, foam, feathers, pom poms, and paper.
New Fish is sitting up for short periods of time when she balances herself on her hands. If she gets too excited she topples over.
Yesterday Red Fish helped me make a quick cake mix. I'm always hesitant to let her help me cook because I hate cooking and little helpers tend to extend the activity. Maybe I should try to include her more because she thought this was SO FUN. After we were done she went to her toy kitchen and pretended to bake another cake.
