{this moment}

"A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments.

Inspired by Soulemama

more hula and good times with my dear friend...

Yesterday, my three boys and I went to the Three Rivers Art's Festival with my closest mommy friend Neyat and her three beautiful little ones. We are quite a group when we go out in public together, I wish I had a photo of us both wearing babies, both pushing a BOB jogger with a middle kid in it and both with an older child tagging along. :)

I was super excited to see there was a hooping demonstration and they invited everyone to join in! I hooped for a few minutes while the baby snoozed in the stroller, but then he wanted back in the sling. My friends beautiful little girl was so determined to learn to hoop! This was the 1st time she ever tried and after quite a few attempts and our encouragement she got it! Her mommy also tried hooping for her 1st time and began to catch on too! It was so much fun to see a large diverse group of people hooping together in the field! They invited us to their hooping group that they hold once a week, and I think I may join in soon!























Max was just amazing and everyone was so impressed with how well he was doing, especially with the really big hoops!























We had such a fun day running around, getting some tasty treats, making crafts from "trash" and just relaxing in the shade of the trees. And amusingly enough we did not even get over to see the actual art! The craft booths were in another area, and my friend and I were not too crazy about the idea of taking the kids through it.
















I was having such fun that that I did not notice that my camera was totally on the wrong setting and almost all my photos came out overexposed. :( I had some really cute shots of the kids dancing to the live music...oh well.

Wash Wednesday....

...really it was just a 'wash out'...I had planned to hang a load of cloth diapers, my drapes and tablecloths today but the weather had other ideas in mind :( I got one set of the drapes out and the dark clouds rolled in, and they got washed again :)

















I really do not mind a rainy day, my garden will enjoy it and I will enjoy seeing the garden thrive from it. I needed a gray and rainy day like today to catch up on business emails, some cleaning and some quiet time with my boys. If they manage to get through some quiet indoors time, I promised we will watch a movie later. They already got to splash in the puddles outside, which they rather enjoyed, and I think the water company draining a fire hydrant made that much more fun! They are getting so used to be playing outdoors almost all day, here and at the park with friends, that we can all use a low key day at home.

oh my...sigh...right now they are yelling at each other about which movie they will watch later... I think they missed the point.

On an exciting note, I will continue wash Wednesdays because Gardenmama is continuing on :) Hopefully next week I will have a more creative photo filled with sunshine!

Do the Hula...

(photos by Sam!)

So after watching so many cool you tube videos like this one, and reading about some of my favorite bloggers and their new found hoop therapy, I wanted to try to hoop! I loved it when I was a kid! So while at the grocery store yesterday I had to pick one up! I don't plan to get serious with it, but I sure enjoyed myself at the park with the kids yesterday! And my Max is a mad hooper! I was impressed!























We're off to the city art festival with my friend and her three little ones! Two mom's, six kids under six, ha, this should be fun!

52 weeks of me and my children #1

(naked as usual as we are EC'ing )






















(through the doorway, I used the self timer. me and my sweet peanut, this time after Daddy diapered him)

I have seen a few blog posts recently about getting your beautiful self in front of the camera. I know it can not just be a photographer thing, where you rarely get on 'that side'. It is a Mom thing too, where you tend to take all the photos of the kids, and the kids and their Dad, and you are hardly in any of them!! When they are adults they will wonder, "Did Mom actually ever come to the zoo", or "Was mom at this beach vacation", or "Was she even there the day I graduated?"

I am making an effort to take a photo a week of my children and me. Not always with all three at once, but at least with one of my boys. And I will also use the ones my older boys take of me with one of their brothers or any I ask my husband to take. (Note to self, give Matt that quick 'how to use the Canon' lesson...)

I have attempted the 52 weeks self portrait project on flickr four times, but never made it close to the end...it was and is still not easy for me to get in front of the camera. I got much better with it when I was pregnant because I LOVED being pregnant and felt more beautiful. Now when I take a photo I see the belly flab, the giant arms, the pasty un-toned legs...I see that I am not 18 anymore and that I am starting to feel my age...32. I think it will be motivation to keep up the power walks and the games of tennis :)

I will post them here on my blog once a week and I will also be adding them to this Flickr group and/or this 52 weeks of bam group! (someone just blogged about this group and I cannot remember who... I will have to find out)

I encourage you to do the same! Also, share your link to the comments below if you add it to your blog page!

What a workout!

And it is so much fun! I forgot how much I love tennis! I avoid the game because I have weak ankles from an incident when I was in 6th grade, severe sprains to both ankles, but Matt encouraged me to try again and I am hooked! And I will admit it is strengthening my ankles. Oh, I should also admit to the hard fall I took this week playing....I am not very graceful, came down like a pile of bricks...I know the large group of Eastern Indian men found it very amusing while they played cricket next to us...but nothing seems to be broken :)

We have a new ritual of going to the local park just before sunset when it starts to cool off. We play tennis with the kids, who also love it, and then they go on the playground right next to the courts and Matt and I play until sweaty exhaustion, which comes much quicker for me than him :) Did I mention he pedals 30 miles round trip to work 5 days a week?
















Afterwards at dusk, we walk the mile long trail in the woods at the park, which makes the woods spooky and pretty dark! On the 1st night the boys were kind of scared, but then they thought it was cool! We decided to make it a barefoot walk too! Three of my favorite things; being with my family, barefoot and under the trees!

I hope to keep this up because the sweating is great to rid my body of toxins, and maybe I will finally loose the last few pregnancy pounds and tone up my body! I usually do not have self image issues, but lately I have been kinda bummed, especially when I see how flabby my upper arms have become :( Dude, when did I get so old and out of shape?

Rain Rain Go Away...

...I don't want to shop vac the basement anymore!!

Whata day whata day..

Got to visit my niece and her husband in their new home today...fun day but an hour away on the other side of the city. On the way home we sat in traffic for two hours with a grumpy and whiny four yo...and a very upset 11 week old. I pulled over and calmed him down three times because I can not bear to hear him cry...some days I wish he took a binky.























Went to Whole Foods on the way home to meet my husband before he went in to work, I was two hours late so we spent 20 minutes trying to find him in the busy store...rushed to get the kids something to eat and two cases of mango's and six, yes six bunches of banana's that the husband can't put on his bicycle for his 15 mile commute home...nursed the baby outside at the tables while the kids ate their california rolls and loaded an angry baby and whiny four yo back in the car for another half hour drive home....some days I wish I'd remember to feed myself. Forgot to get myself anything and I was so hungry...

Got home to find a flooded basement, again. Please stop raining. Another joy of home ownership of a 106 yo house...good thing I just purged the junk and cleaned down there, not much damage...but baby was still angry so he rode on my back in the wrap while I sucked up water for an hour and a half...some days I wish I drank.

(I should say Silas had painful gas all day, I wish I'd think twice before eating Indian...)

Most of all, even though the day was not horrible, I wish I could just remember to stop and breathe!! Deep cleansing breaths make everything better. It wasn't until right before bedtime, while watching my Max and Sam make baby Silas giggle and coo non-stop, that I remembered to smile and breathe.
















I need something like this or maybe this to remind me...or maybe like Mylie or Lohan I can get it tattooed on me...damn them, they ruined that idea for me.

Seriously though, it is amazing how I can go all day and realize I have been shallow breathing all day....and how awesome it feels to take a few cleansing breaths...
go ahead, try it, in..1...2...3....and out...1....2...3....feels good, doesn't it?

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.



This moment inspired by Soulemama...