the weekly | four

books by the fire

homemade cookies with the guys. and everybody helped.

afternoons

afternoons are my absolute favorite part of our days. it used to definitely be our mornings but now that grey is in school and the other two are in preschool different days of the week, our mornings are always so full. the time is eaten by errands and dropping off and picking up. 

grey walks through the door at 2:30 every day. this is a great advantage of having his school practically in our neighborhood. i usually get at least 30 minutes of time with JUST him after he is home. he eats a snack at the counter and recounts his day to me while i do the dishes or get dinner prepped. this is a dream come true for me. those moments are everything i dreamed as a child about being a mom one day. and i'm living it. monday through friday we do this and i hold these moments so very dear.

tuck and will join us eventually. i end up reading to them or we play a board game together. sometimes we put together legos or go for a walk. when it's warm enough they play in the woods and i listen to their adventures close by. this time is our time. it's our time to be together and to play hard. to use their imagination and to be creative. it's our time to laugh and tell stories and learn something new together. 

i love it. we slow down. me and my three boys. 

also, the light in our home in the afternoons is absolutely beautiful. the way the sun casts shadows in and through our living space is just perfect. around 4 pm it hits the kitchen table. 

this just so happened to be the time that we pulled out the watercolors one day last week. and i could have bottled up every moment of that time. the light on their hair, their laughter, their chatter. it was all just so. 

explore | river park

we needed a morning outside. to explore. and to explore together. we had been here, to this hidden little natural park before but this time it took on a new shape and we realized it was MUCH bigger than we once thought. so we enjoyed time to sniff out animal tracks, eat a snack on the trail, climb trees, and grey took time to draw his surroundings in his field journal. it was a win.

the weekly | three

smoothies for all three. a long weekend and we were all together.

the weekly | two

strumming some tunes and hearing some giggles in will's new big boy bed

a snack at the counter. my dreams come true. conversation over dishes and grapes.

the weekly | one

our daily lunch dates

and always a game of hide n' seek

the start of something new

this space for me and for us has proven to be special time and again. for all the remembering mostly. and the joy from these lives that make up these so-called adventures of us.

 so i'm not going to give up on it this year. because that's just like me. to give up.

i struggled tremendously last year to keep up. in every area of life but especially here. we had lots of transition and being on the computer when i didn't have to be was last on my to-do list. it became a burden to document here. and that's the last thing that this needs to be. it was once an outlet for me. where i would record heart things, everyday things, big things, small things. and that's what i still would like for this to be for us. for them. for me. 

so in an attempt to be present more than ever this year i am making priorities. this will not alway be it so i am setting forth a project for this space in 2014. 

i was inspired by this. such beauty there.

a photo a week. at the very least one photo. to capture the essence of us. of them. so that we can remember. without too much pressure to write a book along with it. i am not claiming this as original but doable. 

how i could go on and on about a photograph. that's where it all lies. that's what really tells the tales. 

so here we go with the weekly.

 {i had to call it something for continuity sake.}