Seeing the Good

It's been a few weeks since I've written. I won't be able to catch up on all that we've done here but I'd like to share some pictures and some general themes of our lives right now.

First, the present. I am tired!!! Avigayil has not been sleeping well so last night that looked like be sitting up with her from 4:30am to 5:00am and then her crawling into bed with me - and I don't sleep well with anyone in bed with me. However, I've been getting much better at not taking my grumpiness and spreading it around. Better. I did have a few moments this evening. But I also just had a moment where I turned it around.

 It's 10:00pm, Aderet is sleeping, Gavriel is sitting with Avigayil while she goes to sleep and Adin just finished his shower and plopped himself on the couch to finish reading "Twilight". (On a side note - he told me he thinks it's kind of boring, he doesn't like all the drama). Often (code word for most of the time) I tell Adin he needs to go read in his bed and that I'm too grumpy to see kids this time of night. However, this time I decided to turn on the gas fireplace and sit down on the couch next to him to write. He seemed really pleased with this change which already felt good. Then, I saw that my computer needed it's plug and I said out loud to myself something like, "Ugh, I need to get the plug." At which point Adin immediately asked, "Do you want me to get it for you?". WOW! It was amazing to notice how immediate my mood of spaciousness and generosity caught on.

One of the themes that I've been thinking of lately is that there are no perfect days but lots of perfect moments. Writing this blog has helped me to notice those moments more. I've also started a gratitude journal where I write 5 things every night that I am grateful for - this has been a wonderful practice for me and I can already see the fruits of my labor.

Here are a few pictures of perfect moments that I've been able to capture. There have been so many more.

This is Aderet happily working on a rug made from a hula hoop frame and old t-shirts. If you want to learn how to make it you can go here.

Here's another one of Aderet helping her Abba to change the strings on his guitar.

A blessed moment where Adin and Avigayil both voluntarily chose to get on their computers and write some stories. Adin wrote a really funny one that even had Newtons 3rd law.

This is a video from our trip to the Aquarium. The voice you'll hear is Aderet's.

Naropa Community Art Studio

Our dear friend, Merryl, runs a program, at the Naropa Community Art Studio, on Thursday afternoons and has very graciously invited me to bring the kids. It's an amazing opportunity for the kids to have access to a huge amount of art supplies (clay, paint, pastels - pretty much everything you can imagine) as well as to watch some very gifted adults model how they work with different mediums.

Here are some pictures from this past week:

 Aderet working on her heart plate with her name in Hebrew.

 Aderet's plate with the glaze painted on before it gets fired for a second time.

 One of the artists brings her parrots every week.

 Avigayil in action.

 Avigayil had a really hard day and I think her painting captures that perfectly. But I love that the girl in the painting still has a smile.

Daily Notes - Sunday 10/21/12

Today felt like the first relaxing day in a LONG time. We went away for Shabbat but had to clean it really well on Friday as other people were staying in our house while we were way. The amazing part about that is that we got to come home to a CLEAN house!

Gavriel had to be up and out of the house early this morning to help out with the culling of the older chicken flock from the Jewish Community Farm.  Gavriel learned Shechita last year and I think this is his 4th time being involved in a slaughter. The rest of us rolled out of bed closer to 9.  I got the kids dressed and fed and brought them over to the shul where the shechita was happening.

On a side note; last year Gavriel had brought home about 8 shechted chickens that still needed to be plucked, soaked, salted and rinsed.  The kids and I along with Jules, our live in nanny, plucked the chickens and then Gavriel and I did the soaking and salting.  After that experience it was very clear to me why people prefer to buy their meat from a package in a store rather than be "closer to their meat". Since then Avigayil only wants to eat "store chicken" - and to be honest I really understand.

I thought that I was only going to be dropping Adin and Aderet off at the shul but Avigayil decided to stay as well as their good friend Laini was there.  While Adin and Aderet went over to check out the processing Avigayil kept her distance. I got to go home and take care of some things in the house and they hung out there for a while and jumped in piles of leaves. Our friend Bruce Shaffer took some pictures so I hope to be able to post them here soon.

Eventually they came home, had lunch and played with Laini for the rest of the afternoon and Adin and his friend Tovi took off on their bikes to the Valmont Bike Park.

I had a chance to go to the  Book Worm to sell some books we were ready to let go of and get some new ones. As I'm starting to write more often I bought myself two grammer books: Woe is I  and Eats, Shoots & Leaves.  That way I will know for sure if I was meant to use a colon, semi-colon or comma in the previous sentence after the words "grammer books".

We ended the night we home-made gluten free pizza and Madagascar 3. Well, Gavriel was teaching a class to post Bat-Mizvat girls, the kids watched the movie and I re-organized the bookshelf in the play room. I think I pretty much got the Madagascar plot down from numbers 1 and 2.

It's now almost 10 pm and I'm sitting in Avigayil's room with her hoping that she falls asleep soon. More on Avgigayil and her sleep later...

Long Lake Hike

Aderet found this very cool caterpillar. Turns out it's a Spotted Tussock Moth.

After we got home from the hike we did some research on Teddy Roosevelt and his work to establish the National Parks. That brought us to a really quirky history cartoon called Histeria that the kids really like.

Everyone spent sometime drawing in their journals.