Duck Duck Goose Event!

     Spreading the word through shameless self-promotion today my blogland beauties! For all of you who are in the Missoula area, have you heard about this Duck Duck Goose thing? I'm pretty dang excited about it. It's a barn sale--excuse me, a 'children's clothing consignment event'--going on next week from the 13th through the 17th (except Sunday) at the white barn on Mullan Road (just off Broadway). Aaaaand...as if a barn full of thrifty deals for kids is not enough of a thrill...Brian and I are also the official photography vendors of the event! Our work will be displayed throughout the building and we'll be there with special coupons and discounts specifically for Duck Duck Goose shoppers. So...stop by! But if you can't make it, you can still see our work and reserve a session by clicking the picture labeled "Photography" on the right-hand side bar over there ------>
     In the mean time...a little showcase right here:

xo

The Summer Before

     For our family, this is the summer before everything changes.

     In the spring, I had a plan. I wanted the summer for my own--time to finish the final draft of my novel, long, lovely days spent stitching fall wardrobes for my little ones, afternoon naps with my growing baby belly. The children would play in the backyard, wild and free. No plans. Just play for them and my own time for me before...And then I remembered. Fall will come, and something will happen in our homeschooling family that has never happened: Laurelei and Riley will go to public school. And this Mamma bird will have no children in her nest or under her wing for a good chunk of each day. And then, more changes: the baby we've hoped and prayed would come for the last three and a half years will arrive. These are good changes for us. They are right for our family at this time. But when I really stopped to think about how precious these summer days with my little ones are, my plans went out the window. 

    
    That novel? It's been in the works for four years. It can hang on until fall. The stitching? We'll do it together. Naps? Those stay, but in mountain meadows on blankets with storybooks scattered around us and a little one on each shoulder, whispering to the baby (whom they call Little Sprout). We've been riding bikes and exploring forests, packing picnics and cooking over campfires, snatching up cabin weekends and diving into everything in Missoula's summer scene. 

      We've been doing, doing, doing...living, living, loving... and making memories that, sometime, I will start to write about more often again. 

    I sleep a little more these days, and clean house a little less. And I'm trying to spend as few hours of my precious summer as possible on the computer, but I still have stories to tell. They'll come. And so will fall. But for now, I'm cherishing every moment of us as we've always been; Mamma and little ones, Daddy when he gets home, loving nothing in this world so much as being together.

xo

Better Than The Best

     Our Sunday drive this past weekend took us to the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge down the Bitterroot Valley, where our intended one-or-two-hour outing turned into a five-hour, linger-happily-in-the-wilderness family adventure. With the golden light in the shadow of St. Mary's peak, the lush green grasses of spring in the riparian zone, and piles of soft, white, washed-up-by-the-river sand to play in, no one wanted to go home.

     Red-winged blackbirds, which are my favorite for their throaty, warbling song,  danced around us on the cattails, warning us from their reedy nests.

     All the female Yellow-headed blackbirds gathered together to chat while their mates remained vivid guardians at the water's edge.

     We watched a Great Blue Heron catch fish, patiently waiting, tilting his head and bob-walking slowing through the water, then striking with a speed that was thrilling to see. The kids jumped and cheered, then gasped as a larger bird of prey (Golden Eagle?) swooped at it in an attempt to steal the hard-won meal.

     There was a moment, as we walked along the swollen Bitterroot river, the kids running ahead, finding treasures among the sticks and rocks and wildflowers, Brian and I strolling behind, when I thought, "It only keeps getting better, doesn't it? This Mammahood thing." And then immediately I knew that thought wasn't quite right...because if I deemed the moments that came each new day as better, wasn't I then somehow discounting those that came before? And those moments--baby on my breast, tiny hand clinging to my finger, little sleeper on my shoulder, preschooler proudly reciting ABCs-- those were the best.

     But these moments I have now--thinkers who tell me about their inventions over breakfast, bookworms who beg to go to the library, naturalists who keep pet worms in an old dirt-filled rain boot on the back deck--they are the best too. I think it's the fact that the old moments never leave me; the memories simply become the root from which the new moments grow. The babies who are our children who will someday be our teenagers and our grown-ups will always, at the heart of everything that is our family, still be our purpose and joy. And for Brian and I, that means that every moment (even the hard ones!) can be better than the best.

     Hope your Mamma moments are better than the best.

xo

Today List : Y is for Yes, Please

      Today I am thinking:

:: about how joining the YMCA two weeks ago is one of the smartest things Brian and I have ever done for our family. And not just because the showers there always have enough hot water that I can wash my hair and shave my legs (I don't have to choose like I do at home!), but for a lot of other reasons as well. The independence available to our kids within a safe environment, the sense of community, the active family time, and the fun classes...I could go on. 

:: I can't believe my kids have developed, so quickly, into little rock climbers, scaling walls like Spiderman and ringing bells at the top of routes that I've seen adults struggle with (Mamma buttons busting here). They can't get enough and I love the trust relationship that has to exist between climber and belayer (usually me). There's a whole life metaphor there...

:: why didn't we do this sooner? We've always tried to be a healthy, active family, but we've also always let winter kind of get us down. It seems like such a 'duh' solution now, far more affordable than we'd expected, and worth twice what we pay. 

:: how nice it is, when I'm  feeling a little low, to say "Mamma needs endorphins, let's go play," and to have a place to go play, all together (family basketball, anyone?) or individually, each of getting a little space and a little attitude boost, so when we come back together again we're ready to be together, appreciating one another. 

Today I'm thinking: I <3 our local YMCA.

xo

 

What does your family do to stay active and have fun?

Share your ideas in the comments!

Christmas Magic

We live in a magical place.

Saturday was Missoula's annual Christmas kick-off celebration, and, though we hesitated when we found out that Brian would have to be working that day, Laurelei, Riley and I decided to go as a threesome anyway. I love our downtown neighborhood and all the businesses, both quaint and quirky, that fill it (whenever we're going there the kids and I sing a rather raucous rendition of 'Downtown' by Petula Clark on the way), so I was excited to have an excuse to spend the better part of the day wandering the city sidewalks (which, by the way, were dressed in holiday style). 

We stopped here and there, at the organizations participating in the day's festivities: making ornaments at the Missoula Art Museum, eating lunch at a yummy sandwich shop, petting ponies at the ambrosial local ice creamery, Big Dipper, riding the carousel, making another ornament at Selvedge Studio (the hippest little fabric store in town), getting hot cocoa at our favorite cafe, watching the annual parade of lights and then joining the throng of merry-makers gathered for the lighting of the town Christmas tree. 

Which seems like a lot. It was a lot. 

When I think about it, the day could have easily turned into one of those forced family fun outings, during which the parents drag the children from one activity to the next as the children grow ever more overwhelmed and weary and the parents keep repeating, "Isn't this fun?" with a manic look in their twitching eyes, but, for some reason, it wasn't.

It was a slow, moment-by-moment, magic day. Maybe it was the break we took after lunch to attend the baptism of a friend; the quiet and renewal of that small hour. 

Maybe it was that we came home for a few minutes mid-afternoon to change into warmer clothes for the parade, thereby avoiding the crankiness that inevitably comes with cold toes. 

Maybe it was that we all just really wanted to be there, in our community, doing things that we felt a part of.

Celebrating Christmas. 

Whatever it was, as the Christmas tree lights went on, silvery-white snowflakes began to fall.

We each caught our breath for a moment in the night air, tilted our faces to the sky and smiled.

Magic.

xo