Archive | home sweet home

a picture an hour

I took a picture an hour (or almost) last week, the same day that I filmed Lena “discovering” she was going to have a baby brother by mixing up blue frosting.  I realized as I put this post together what a fun record this is of an ordinary day in our home.  Well, okay, it’s not every day that you are celebrating that you are going to have a son!  But in other ways this day was completely ordinary and filled with things that make up the pattern of our lives right now, like Lena’s Raisin Bran in the morning (3 bowls, please, with extra raisins), playtime with her new IKEA stacking toy, her nap times while I work on projects around the house, summer afternoons on the porch splashing in her little pool, and lots of play time and meals with our beloved Arthur family.  Someday I will look back on this post and say, “Oh, there is Elliott in his Army PT clothes… back when he was still in the Army!” (although will I say this in 5 years or 20, I don’t know) or, “Did that toy really once look that new?”or, “Wow, their kids have grown up since then!  I’m glad we still know and love them.”  (Because I truly hope we do.)

Funny to think of the future.  Sweet to savor the present.

Enjoy a few snapshots of the rest of the day, including some more behind the scenes about how those cupcakes came into being… and then were rapidly consumed (by me).

  7 o’clock

  8 o’clock

 9 o’clock (welcome home from running a 5K, Daddy!)

 10 o’clock (time for a nap)

 11 o’clock (putting together my new Home Management Binder, more about this in a later post)
 12 o’clock

 1 o’clock (want to share some frosting with me?)

2 o’clock 

 3 o’clock 
 4 o’clock (admiring my baby boy)
5 o’clock (playtime with friends)
 6 o’clock onwards (homemade Indian spice chicken burgers and chocolate cupcakes with friends)

(otherwise known as: I struggle to participate in conversation as I stuff my face with cupcake… s)
Happy Friday, everyone!
5 :: in a picture an hour, family, friends, home sweet home, thoughts

a picture an hour

I took a picture an hour (or almost) last week, the same day that I filmed Lena “discovering” she was going to have a baby brother by mixing up blue frosting.  I realized as I put this post together what a fun record this is of an ordinary day in our home.  Well, okay, it’s not every day that you are celebrating that you are going to have a son!  But in other ways this day was completely ordinary and filled with things that make up the pattern of our lives right now, like Lena’s Raisin Bran in the morning (3 bowls, please, with extra raisins), playtime with her new IKEA stacking toy, her nap times while I work on projects around the house, summer afternoons on the porch splashing in her little pool, and lots of play time and meals with our beloved Arthur family.  Someday I will look back on this post and say, “Oh, there is Elliott in his Army PT clothes… back when he was still in the Army!” (although will I say this in 5 years or 20, I don’t know) or, “Did that toy really once look that new?”or, “Wow, their kids have grown up since then!  I’m glad we still know and love them.”  (Because I truly hope we do.)

Funny to think of the future.  Sweet to savor the present.

Enjoy a few snapshots of the rest of the day, including some more behind the scenes about how those cupcakes came into being… and then were rapidly consumed (by me).

  7 o’clock

  8 o’clock

 9 o’clock (welcome home from running a 5K, Daddy!)

 10 o’clock (time for a nap)

 11 o’clock (putting together my new Home Management Binder, more about this in a later post)
 12 o’clock

 1 o’clock (want to share some frosting with me?)

2 o’clock 

 3 o’clock 
 4 o’clock (admiring my baby boy)
5 o’clock (playtime with friends)
 6 o’clock onwards (homemade Indian spice chicken burgers and chocolate cupcakes with friends)

(otherwise known as: I struggle to participate in conversation as I stuff my face with cupcake… s)
Happy Friday, everyone!
5 :: in a picture an hour, family, friends, home sweet home, thoughts

last granite of this Sicilian summer

Yesterday my friend Becca commented that our favorite biscotteria in town would stop selling granite (previously mentioned here and here) at the end of the week, so we ought to hie ourselves over there for one last granite date before the end of the summer.

This morning over our cereal I made the mistake of telling Lena that we were going on a walk to get granite with Miss Becca, all exciting buzzwords for my little girl.  She decided she was done with breakfast right then and there.  She ran to get both her shoes and mine. 

Since we had awhile to kill before our granite date, Lena and I wandered through our town, enjoying the fresh morning air and taking a few photos of our favorite scenes.  Enjoy!

 street signs on a corner 
& the steep hills of our town
 a book helps when the walks get long 
& how I love my cinquecenti

  parents and grandparents stop for an espresso at the drink kiosk (“chiosco”) after dropping their kids off at school 
& I wish I could grow a vine like that over our doorway
 we love Miss Becca! 
& “fragola e limone, per favore” (strawberry and lemon, please)
 all gone! (can you see the faded marks of those horrible mosquito bites on her arms… 3 weeks later?)
& “it’s okay when the adults talk because Miss Becca lets me play with her phone”
 We stopped in our town’s pet store on the way home to admire lizards & mice…
… and birds & whole buckets full of tiny little turtles!
We love you, Italy.
6 :: in friends, home sweet home, Sicily

last granite of this Sicilian summer

Yesterday my friend Becca commented that our favorite biscotteria in town would stop selling granite (previously mentioned here and here) at the end of the week, so we ought to hie ourselves over there for one last granite date before the end of the summer.

This morning over our cereal I made the mistake of telling Lena that we were going on a walk to get granite with Miss Becca, all exciting buzzwords for my little girl.  She decided she was done with breakfast right then and there.  She ran to get both her shoes and mine.

Since we had awhile to kill before our granite date, Lena and I wandered through our town, enjoying the fresh morning air and taking a few photos of our favorite scenes.  Enjoy!

 street signs on a corner 
& the steep hills of our town
 a book helps when the walks get long 
& how I love my cinquecenti

  parents and grandparents stop for an espresso at the drink kiosk (“chiosco”) after dropping their kids off at school 
& I wish I could grow a vine like that over our doorway
 we love Miss Becca! 
& “fragola e limone, per favore” (strawberry and lemon, please)
 all gone! (can you see the faded marks of those horrible mosquito bites on her arms… 3 weeks later?)
& “it’s okay when the adults talk because Miss Becca lets me play with her phone”
 We stopped in our town’s pet store on the way home to admire lizards & mice…
… and birds & whole buckets full of tiny little turtles!
We love you, Italy.
6 :: in friends, home sweet home, Sicily

productivity rush

Over the weekend away in Noto, I had a rush of inspiration to truly maximize our time here in Sicily and live a simple, productive life with no regrets.  (You know, just your average goals in life.)  I journaled for pages and pages.  Obviously this is a work in progress, but there are so many ideas and goals swimming around in my head.  I hope to share more about this in the future.

In the meantime, I have made myself a massive to do list and am gritting my teeth and working through it this week.  I’m taking on tasks that have been bugging me for months, like changing the light bulb on the porch (well, actually, both light bulbs on both porches) or going to IKEA to replace some battered lamps with brand new ones.  There’s lots of purging going on around here, too.  What is it about the end of the summer and wanting to clean out your closet and redefine yourself with less clutter?  I’m not the only blogger/mother out there with the bug!

Day 1 of the productivity rush found me canning an autumn’s worth of chicken broth by 9:30 am.  I shouldn’t try to give too favorable an impression, though, because I am easily distracted, especially by wonderful, inspirational lists like this one: 99 Ways to Simplify Life with Kids.   But actually the five minutes it took to read that post made me more inspired than ever!  So sometimes procrastinating is actually productive, right?

What’s on your to do list as you face the change in seasons and feel autumn in air?

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
3 :: in Becoming a Stay-at-Home Mom Series, home sweet home, thoughts

Powered by WordPress. Designed by WooThemes