52 weeks, post 1

Good morning! It has warmed up to -6 (-18 wind chill) so today I feel like celebrating!!! 

In all honesty it has little to do with the weather (cause it still feels bombassdiggity cold to me).......my baby boy is 1 entire year old today!!! Well at 10:40 am he will be, I'm trying to keep him a baby as long as possible. 

Birthdays are always bittersweet for me when they involve my kids. My oldest turned the big double digits 2 weeks ago and now my baby is no longer months old....how does a year go so quickly?

I'm watching him right now playing with toys, dancing while sitting, babbling on about dadada and brudders, and I realize walking is right around the corner. The reality is this is probably the last time I will have a child who is in the baby stage, and from here the time just disappears into thin air. 

But it remains a day to celebrate despite the twinges of sadness I feel. This year has brought so much with it, major surgery when he was 6 months, oh I'm so glad to be past that! We are all stronger for it, more grateful for each other, and closer too. This little boy has made our family perfect :) He is happy and healthy and just the biggest joy!!!

Okay now on to the subject of this post....So last year a couple of the blogs I like to follow did 52 weeks in photos and I decided I'm going to do it this year! It's a photo of your children each week for the 52 weeks of the year. 

I meant to get this post up last night since today is officially the start of the 2nd week of the year (already?!?), but the big boys had their first hockey practice last night and well I was tired ( but I'm officially a hockey mom.....sweet!!). 

So these count as week one because they were taken yesterday ;)

And just for fun, here is a photo of my 3 boys from this week last year!

Sigh, the memories.

If you'd like to join along in the 52 weeks of photos leave a comment with your blog link, I'd love to see your photos!

Happy New Year!!

We had some snow fall overnight and awoke to sparkly, soft, snowfall this morning too. 

We are spending our New Years Day cozied up inside watching the snow accumulate. Later we will venture outside to shovel and play. Followed by hot cocoa and writing some goals for this new year. 

I hope your day is filled with warmth and love (and a little snow too)!

retreat

I woke up today and everything looks as if it shrank overnight.  All of my plants, that were open and basking in the "warmth" of the past two days are now shriveled and shivering.  My sensitive plant does, indeed, shiver.  He also gets mad when I move him around, turns a few leaves yellow and drops them in defiance.  The entire plant crew is looking scared and reserved today and no doubt the drop in temperature from a "balmy" 40 degrees to a painfully oppressive 5 degrees (windchill -8!) is the culprit.

Kind of fitting though, all of the shrinking and retreating inward, less than two full days before the new year.  I plan to do the same.  It's been a really long time since I've attended any kind of New Year's Eve festivities and I'm ok with that.  I've had my share of the sparkles and noisemakers, the champagne and countdowns.  I've staged early countdowns for kids that shouldn't be up too late and I've let a few actually stay up until midnight.  

This year, I'm all about ease.  I have to work on New Year's Eve and busy days at work usually mean I have an evening of recharging on my couch ahead of me.  I have this crazy idea to set my intention for the coming year by where I choose to focus the evening before.  Of course I want fun and parties and loved ones and midnight kisses for the coming year but I also want peace and quiet.  I want to be warm and rested.  I want to snuggle my family and have down-time.  

I also want to be prepared.

So tomorrow night, with pen & paper in hand, I'm going to curl up in the corner of my couch.  Feet tucked under the cushion, wrapped up in the coziest blanket I can find, I'm going to ring in the new year and let the ideas flow into my ideas journal where they will patiently wait for their chances to shine in 2014.

and I'll probably fall asleep before midnight.  ;)

St. Nicholas Day

Do you celebrate St. Nicholas Day? I never had even heard of it until last year when my children came home from school on December 6th upset because they were the only kids who didn't wake up to a shoe or stocking filled with treats from the saint. 

Apparently St. Nicks Day is much more popular here in Wisconsin than in my native New England. It makes sense, it's a German holiday and this is a predominantly German region. Interestingly, this is our first year doing a Waldorf inspired homeschool and St.Nicholas day is also celebrated amongst many Waldorf families.

This year I was not going to be without a plan on the eve of December 5th. 

St. Nicholas was a real person, who really helped other people. The day isn't about gobs of presents, rather a few treats and maybe a trinket. 

I found some sweet hollow chocolates from Germany for the older 2 boys, and since the baby can't have candy I made him a small set of clothespin dolls with knit hats and scarves. 

After stockings were opened, we had a nice discussion of things we could do to help others. We planned a meal for a family with a child in the hospital and the boys made a plan to shovel for our widowed neighbor. 3 snowstorms in and they have kept their commitment :)

I think St. Nicholas day is becoming one of my favorite traditions of the holiday season. 

How do you celebrate St. Nicks day? If you haven't before will you next season? 

This website has some excellent info, history, and ideas for celebrating!

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/st-nicholas-day/   

Happy Holidays!!!