Caitlyn’s hand-decorated and labeled bag for receiving MLK Day Food Drive donations. (“This Moment” is a Friday ritual from SouleMama, a way to “pause, savor and remember” some of the “simple, special” moments of everyday life.) Save
In the week or so before Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I received a flurry of messages about making the day one of service, a “day on, not a day off.” Not many of the service projects, though, seemed appropriate for kindergartners. When we have P-Patch work parties, Caitlyn comes, but her actions there are more Caitlyn-staying-out-of-the-way (ie, climbing on large dirt piles or digging randomly in an open plot) than Caitlyn-doing-community-projects. It’s possible she’ll learn about the importance of participation and community involvement by watching me do it, but I think there’s benefit to her being more hands-on sometimes. …
We received some yummy homemade granola for Christmas (thanks to the Portland aunties!), and at Caitlyn’s request I rounded up the ingredients to reproduce it on our own. I scooped and Caitlyn poured and stirred. I think she had a good time helping, although she didn’t sound so enthusiastic when I asked if she’d want to do it again, something that I think has more to do with the granola-making taking the whole morning and using up her intended Lego time than with the actual granola-making itself. The report from breakfast today, though, was that she ate it enthusiastically. And …
At the risk of being officially labeled late to the party, I’m posting photos from the lunar eclipse last month. I remember watching a lunar eclipse when I was a kid, though I don’t think the one I remember required waking up in the middle of the night. My folks did get me up for Halley’s comet in 1986, though I remember being cold and the frequent comment that I would probably get to see it twice (it returns in 2061) more than I remember actually seeing the comet. Who knows what Caitlyn will remember of this recent eclipse – …
One of the blogs I’ve been reading lately has a weekly tradition of posting a single image on Fridays of a special moment from the week, something special the writer wants to “savor and remember”. I like the idea, but I’m not that handy or prolific with the camera (Ian takes a lot of the pictures for me), so I’m hesitant to sign up for making this a regular weekly thing for me. Also, it’s supposed to be without words, but I’m terrible at that, too. On Christmas Day, we were joined by a guitar and a keyboard and several …
I’ve started a new shelf over at GoodReads called “Caitlyn’s Chapter Books” where I’m attempting to list all the longer books I’ve read to Caitlyn. I’m mostly recreating the list at the moment, since I should have started this years ago (it’s not like I’ve only been reading long books to her recently). Listing all the picture books would probably be an interesting exercise, but that seems a little daunting – we read a lot of picture books. I’m adding these books to my GoodReads profile partly because I am reading them and partly to keep a list to share …
