| life. photography. motherhood.

favorite places

Way back when I first made a confession about the state of my dining room table here, one of the items was a picture frame.  That post and item number three in the photo, well finally some two months later I just printed out the photos to go in it.   The dining room table may still bear a resemblance to it's earlier state, now topped by flashcards, crayon drawings and a harvest gourd centerpiece of sorts...

These are two of the photos being framed, taken during a Casco Bay harbor cruise to Eagle Island.  Why does summer seem so very long ago? 

decluttering kids toys update

Nothing a few leftover Flor tiles couldn't fix.  Well that and the garbage bags seen in the lower right of the photo.  Ever inspired by Stimey's Junk Pyramid, I have been on a tear.  I do admit I stopped counting at somewhere over a hundred things packed away for donation/trash.   I still have  few HOURS of work left to tidy up the surrounding space in the studio, which is now overflowing with keep, sort, toss, donate piles. 

I'm not sure exactly what the lesson is in all this.  Stuff isn't so much the problem as maybe accepting they can be happy with less, MUCH less.  Somewhere along the way, it's become so common just to buy them what they "need" anytime because the money/credit is there and so are the opportunities. With Christmas approaching, I can't help but remember how much I loved the anticipation of it for the wonder and suprise of new toys.  I've taken that away from my kids and I want to give it back.  Maybe it's too late for this Christmas, but after spending hour after hour with a very first world toy problem, it's kind of absurd to do it all over again next year.  Here's the before decluttering post.

reason to believe

that this year will be better than the last.  A lyric from a song.  Actually about a long December, but November isn't that far off.  We mark time in many ways and January 1st never was particularly memorable for me.  Birthdays.  Mine.  My kids.  Change of seasons.  Novembers.  For some it's April. 

One of my favorite people has started blogging again.  She could

the real everyday math

Around these parts that means striking bargains about using the netbook to play math-related sites.  It's a little ironic that in my efforts to school her in the math basics, she uses Fact Dash on mhschool.com, a site run by McGraw-Hill, publishers of the beloved Everyday Mathematics curriculum used in our district.  

such small hands