Maine

Spring Week-ending

A weekend for saying goodbye to familiar places.

Our favorite Japanese restaurant, where Brienne has been eating since she was five days old - her first outing. Ok, she didn't eat the food there when she was five days old but she did nurse!

A little stop at the toy store. Where (the now eight year old) Brienne left her doll and now we need to schedule a trip back to the city to retrieve her (the doll, not Brienne).

A weekend for processing (with many tissues and tears) the plans, dreams, hopes, and fears of making this major change in our family life.

A weekend for saying goodbye to friends. When it seems like we've just said hello.

A weekend for flip flops and flowers. Flowers blooming everywhere! On the trees and in the gardens. The kids and I are reminded of this quote from our current read aloud, Miracles on Maple Hill:

If she stopped in the middle of all the thousands of things growing in every direction, she got what she called the 'push-feeling.' Everything was pushing up into the sun, trying to grow taller and bigger...

Ah Spring. I feel it pushing. Or maybe that's just the intensity of my life right now.

A weekend for Mother's Day. Cards, bouquets, meals, and a manicure. A day without a schedule. A day for me.

A weekend for magnolias. Gorgeous pink blossoms in the bright spring air. Breathtaking.

A weekend for holding hands with my loves. Trusting that this all-consuming work, this push, going on externally and internally will bear fruit.

Mothering, moving, remembering, accepting, pushing, growing, trusting, and loving.

A weekend for all of it.

For The Love of Winter

I know some of you are celebrating the arrival of spring where you live - daffodils, tree blossoms and other signs of new life. We are firmly entrenched in winter and I intend to make the most of it, that is until my winter weary soul cries "truce" in another month or so (March is historically difficult for me).

This is a post dedicated to the "fabulousness" of a winter camping weekend shared with friends and family at a rustic cabin in the Maine woods (near the ocean no less).

Does it get any better than this?

No. It does not.

I apologize for the copious quantity of photos in this post. It's kind of like my Christmas re-cap. How can you limit such goodness and fun to just a few photos? You can't.

So sorry if you have a slow internet connection or trouble viewing the post because of all the photos. For a more modest quantity of photos check our family adventure blog later this weekend. There's still more photos to share but Damien's limit is seven. Humph.

What struck me most about this most recent trip to the woods is how natural and relaxed it felt to me. No stress, or large hullabaloo in getting ready. We go to woods so often now that packing up has become routine.

We spent the weekend with two other families and my parents. All together six children (6 mos, 4, 6, 8, 9 & 11) and eight adults spanning three generations. We shared bunks and stone floors for sleeping, took turns cooking meals and doing dishes, did a lot of walking, talking and playing together.

It was simply wonderful. The kids think it was the best winter camping trip so far.

Our friends, the K. family, brought x-country skis, snowshoes, and sleds. We had our Mad River Rockets and all together we had a great time enjoying the thigh deep snow on the mountain. It was magical and memorable. I don't remember the last time I had so much fun playing in the snow.

It was the best that winter has to offer - snow, outdoor activity, beauty, family, friends, good food, and a wood burning stove.

Many thanks to our friends who joined us in the adventure. The Siffermans and K. family. Thank you for your part in making this our best winter camping yet.

Want to have more adventure as a family? Here's a resource page to help you get started.

Celebrate Winter

I love having four seasons but winter has been the most challenging for me to embrace with my whole heart.

Not as a child mind you. Aside from the "inevitable" colds and flus I experienced, winter as a child was fun. (An aside about colds and flus - my own children are rarely sick, even in winter, and I attribute this to our diet. I really want to write more about this, especially when people are looking to improve their health but just don't have the time these days). Full disclosure: the morning this is set to publish my kids have scratchy, itchy throats. Still rarely sick, but not never.

I feel bad about the way this came across. When will I ever learn?

This is what I meant to say. As a mother, my own enjoyment of winter increased significantly with excellent family nutrition and having children outgrow the "put everything in the mouth stage". I enjoy winter so much more when we are healthy and so we work hard towards this end.

photo credit: Becky Tougas (My sister in law)

When you've outgrown childhood winter can become a drag. Dark nights, cold cars, and high heating bills. But I'm finding that if I surrender to the season and not fight it the fun factor goes up.

Dark nights. Cuddle with your whole family on your bed (the warmest place in our house), reading, playing games and go to bed early.
Cold cars. Drive less.
High heating bills. Turn down the heat, wear some fun layers and save money.

In truth, my winter fun has increased now that my children have grown past the toddler and preschool age. Nothing against young children, I loved mine dearly. But all parents know that by the time you bundle them up and spend a few minutes outdoors they are ready to come back in. Which works out to 45 minutes of clothing prep and clean up for about 10 minutes of outdoors. Such is life with littles.

As I sit here typing this my children are donning their gear, with minimal help from me, to head outdoors for an hour or so while I write. No wonder I think winter is more fun!

But seriously, enjoying winter is a choice. I'm not always good at making that choice but at least I recognize it as such. I can choose to bundle up for a winter walk or a morning of sledding with my kids or I can give in to the temptation to park my butt down in this computer chair (which I'm doing right now) and miss out on the incredible beauty of winter.

The squeaky crunch of packed snow beneath my boots.

Winter's pink, purple and orange sunset making long shadows of bare trees.

Climbing city snow mounds pretending to summit Mt. Everest.

Sledding down mountain slopes on sparkly winter weekends.

The bright red barberries contrasting the white snow.

Making music with a row of thick hanging icicles.

The beauty of winter is all around, I just need to appreciate and celebrate it, not wish it away.

Here's a few things we're doing to celebrate winter this month of February.

Go outdoors, every weekend, as a family. We call this one day a week and it's a family ritual. This of course is our big weekly family time but throughout the week the kids and I spend time outdoors together also.
Winter camping. This weekend will be our third annual trip to Camden Hills State Park here in Maine. It is the highpoint of our winter. We've added another family to the mix this year. So it will be a full cabin with days outdoors, meals shared and evenings around the fire.
Chinese New Year. For years I've wanted to do something to celebrate Chinese New Year. Early February seems like a good time for celebrating. We've turned this into a bit of a homeschool study and will celebrate the day mostly with a supper feast, taking inspiration from Moonbeams, Dumplings & Dragon Boats: A Treasury of Chinese Holiday Tales, Activities & Recipes and The Runaway Rice Cake. Celine recommends When the Circus Came to Town for a chapter book.
Crafting. I think it's about time to use the Staedler Carving Block I've owned since 2009 to make hand carved stamps. I think we'll try some Chinese New Year inspired designs, maybe hearts for Valentines and then let our imaginations go from there.
Laurent's birthday. The boy turns 10 this year and I can't wait to make a special day to honor him.
Winter reading. I love reading all year round but winter reading is just so cozy. Just today we read Here Comes Darrell (beautiful story of community) and last week's favorite was Henry And Mudge In The Sparkle Days. There are so many other winter books we've read over the years, in fact both of those were repeats. You can find other favorites on our Winter Shelf at Goodreads.
Inspirational evenings. The first time I heard of this was in Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning and this concept has revolutionized our winter nights. Winter is a time for ideas and evenings with the family are for inspiration (and fun). Adventure stories, documentaries, games and occasional nights out that inspire us to dream, explore and plan for our future with excitement and anticipation. All day I look forward to our inspirational time in the evenings.
Homeschool fun. February is a great month to plan a field trip. January is all about getting back to routine but February it's time to mix it up a bit. This month we plan to meet friends at our state museum (free for schools and homeschoolers) and we will join a local homeschool co-op. Our first co-op experience ever. And I don't have to teach anything, though I will volunteer in my kiddos' classes.

And I think that might be all the fun we can manage for one month. Because there still is that one big project our family is getting ready for - moving out the country in just over 3 months.

Before I know it winter will be over. But I'm not wishing it away. Too much fun to be had in the moment.