6/30/2011

Treasure Seekers...



All to often we (ok, I) race through this life just trying to keep up with ourselves. We might stop and admire a beautiful rose on a bush for a second, but did we stop to notice the tiny buds on that bush that aren't quite as glamorous? The tiny buds that are a promise of more good things to come? How about those tiny dew drops that dazzle like diamonds when the sun hits them just right. Did you see those? Today I invite you to search for your hidden treasure. Open your Bible. Take a nature walk. Call a friend. Scrutinize your life and seek out that tiny treasure. It's there. I promise.

6/29/2011

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday



Soaked.

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6/28/2011

Murals on Monday

I learned a long time ago that trying to direct my childrens creative endeavors was mostly pointless. They generally have no interest in any of the projects I try to use to expand their horizons. Mostly because whatever project they end up making is way better than anything I could have dreamed up. Ahem.



That said, I picked up some art project books from the library, the kind with step by step directions to talk them through the projects. The good news is they didn't want to do any of those projects either, but they did inspire some pretty fun murals.
So these photos are of the mural Alex designed that all three ended up playing with. It's a castle with a garden maze. The little lego pieces all represent something different. The blue ones were knights, the orange ones were attackers etc. There was a pretty epic battle over the princess, or at least that's what I hear.




Like I said. Way better than any project I could have come up with.

6/27/2011

Weekend adventures - pool time


Our weekend adventure for this week included a spontaneous lunch with friends from church followed by a trip to their neighborhood pool. The beauty of showing up to a neighborhood pool is that you also see other friends you have from that neighborhood. Our kids had a rollicking good time with their buddies from church and we grown ups had a fabulous time ignoring them. That's why we pay the lifegaurds, right?






Who doesn't love messy swim hair?






Wait for it..........







Splash!

6/24/2011

Who we are



We are Petersons
We are the children of God, part of a Holy family that transcends time, language and culture. We are in church every Sunday whether it is convenient or not. Not because we have to, but because we want to.
We are butterfly chasers, daydreamers and puddle stompers.
We are frozen fruit smoothies on a hot day.
We do not own a working television, and have no plans to get one.
We are messy, creative, and fluid. We do not have everything in it's place, and most days we're too busy enjoying life to care.
We have more love than logic. And it breaks our heart as a family that any child should have to go without.
We read, draw, dig, cuddle and explore.
We are in the process of embracing the Russian culture as our own, even though we are still quick with our "nyet pa russky's".
Where others see weeds, we see art. Where others hear a noisy racket, we hear a symphony.
We wonder just how many children God has planned for our family, and where they will come from. Perhaps one from each continent would fill our family out nicely. Only time will tell.
We wonder how God is going to provide.
And we are equally amazed when He does.
We teach our children at home. Not because there's anything wrong with school, but because we like having our kids at home with us. We love watching them learn, grow, create, explore and thrive.
We roll with the punches. Even when they suck. Because we know it's all a part of a perfect plan. A fabulous story that God wanted our family to tell.
We laugh, cry, argue, tickle, complain and love.
We are Petersons, and we are soo blessed.

6/23/2011

Dragon Slayers

For a recent family movie night I picked up How To Train Your Dragon from our local library. Even though the girls poo-poo'd the idea of this particular movie I was determined to watch it together as a family. They were going to watch it, and by golly they were going to like it, even if it killed them. Well if you've seen it, you know that it only takes about 30 seconds for the plot to become completely engrossing. Which they did, of course, become completely engrossed. To the point that we had to watch it 3 times before we had to take it back to the library.
The beauty behind this movie however, was not the engaging plot line or the dynamic animating. To my kids it was more than a way to kill time. It inspired them. We had several mornings of brainstorming dragon names, which lead to the creation of our own dragon guidebooks. Sometimes when my kids get on a kick like this we'll scour the internet and the public library looking for good resources related to the hot topic at hand. This time we didn't, but that doesn't mean we won't the next time the dragon buzz hits our house...

Here are some of my favorites from their guidebook. Alex was the artist, the girls collaborated on the names and color schemes for each dragon.



(The "Arrow Head")



(The "Troll Master" - complete with little villagers bombarding it with cannonballs)



(The "Tree Creeper")

6/22/2011

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

(untitled)
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6/21/2011

Summer Adventures - Ludwig Mill

For Father's Day we teamed up with some friends from church and headed down to Ludwig Mill to take a ride on the canal boat. Since it was Father's Day, the dads got to ride free. Bonus.
I've been down to the mill plenty of times and walked along the little tow path next to the canal more times than I can count, but I don't really recall ever riding on the boat. So this was sort of a new experience for me as well.
They had some live actors on hand to explain the ins and outs of what we were experiencing and explain a little of the local history related to the canal boats.


The kids totally gobbled up the entire experience.
And so did the adults.


A good time was had by all.
Until a thunderstorm came and rained on our parades. I'm sure Judy's still chuckling about the little umbrella incident. The one where my daughter tried to explain how to use the umbrella, and I very snippily explained I didn't need any help and grabbed it away from her. Then had a split second where I didn't know how to use that umbrella. Yup that's the one. I don't want to talk about it.

6/20/2011

Summer adventures - The Henry Ford Museum




Last week our dear friend Cathy invited us to go with her to the Henry Ford Museum , up near Detroit. It was the perfect little field trip for my kids. In addition to the cool cars and inventions they had on display, the museum also had a handful of fun interactive exhibits that my children soaked up.

First up, building a Model T. Not a cheap toy model, a real live Model T with real car parts. This thing was big enough for my kids to climb on (which you can bet they did). The kids were handed some nuts and bolts, and a wrench before they received a little bit of training on how to perform their task. Together they put on a running board sturdy enough for them to stand on.


(Alex receiving some instruction on how to tighten his screw)


After they helped build the real Model T, they had a chance to work on an assembly line creating toy Model T's. Alex rocked the motors, Annie installed the seating. Sadly, my brother was not so proficient at putting on the wheels.


(Annie with a finished Model T, fresh off the assembly line)




6/16/2011

Forgotten Favorites

Every now and then I go through the multitudes of photos I've taken of my family to decide which ones are going to end up in scrapbooks, and which ones will never see the light of day (yes, I have those too). Usually as I do I come across a few hidden gems that I've forgotten about. Here are some gems that I've recently rediscovered...



What can I say, I've had a thing for tall grass this summer. And sunkissed little girls. (Yes, I checked them for ticks when we were done)





And just in case you thought all I do is sit in tall grass watch the local wildlife here are some of my little Max...

6/15/2011

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday


dazzled...

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6/14/2011

craft escape... fabric painting



I've been desperately seeking some time with my craft supplies lately, but life has just been pulling me in too many different directions for me to be able to comply. I had a million ideas, but my tiny art table was just too burdened with other stuff to inspire any creative thoughts. The good news is over the weekend I managed to free my table from the piles and create some little pieces for my kids that they absolutely love.

I'd seen some stuff recently about painting on fabric that got my creative juices flowing. So I pulled out some acrylic paint, some stencils, fabric scraps and a little masking tape and got to work. For Alex and Annie I ended up using some reusable vinyl sticker masks (which I bought years ago, and apparently are no longer available on the internet - which is a bummer because they're awesome). Anyway I placed the mask on my fabric, taped a square off with masking tape and went to town. To make Louisa's letter, I tried an "L" stamp, but ended up hating it, so I just free hand painted it instead.

So I had letters for everyone, what to do with them... I had an abundance of cute girlie fabric so I stitched some pieces together, and slid a cardboard insert inside before closing it to make it a little sturdier. For Alex, I didn't have anything I liked, so I ended up painting some chipboard and gluing / stitching his letter to that.

To finish off the pieces I dug through my stash and pulled out some cute accessories, and clipped them on with a key ring.



The jury is still out on what function these little pieces will hold. Zipper pulls for their backpacks? Bookmarks? Reusable gift tags? Who knows. But they're fun. And the kids love them, and that's all that really matters, right?

6/13/2011

Weekending

We had the unexpected joy of having some guests show up at the last minute over the weekend. Grandma, Papa, Uncle Dan and Aunt Carolyn rolled past our house on the way from New Mexico to Washington DC. (We didn't bother to tell them we were several hours out of their way). They were driving cross country in their full sized camper and stopped by to borrow my yard for a camp ground.



Of course we had to take the camper out for a spin on the town.



And show off their toy to some of our friends (who were rather jealous).







And make some more memories.



We were a little tempted to climb in and never look back. Maine was calling our name. (Didn't you know that Maine is on the way from Ohio to Washington DC?) With a little more prep time I think we could have pulled it off. One of these days though we'll have to take them up on their offer.

6/10/2011

Treasures for today



Moment by moment our garden changes. As I stroll past the beds, I pause and wonder... when did those open up? When did that pop out of the ground? Holy smokes we're going to have a lot of (fill in the blank) this year.

As the craziness of summer is just beginning, and the amount of time I have to pay attention to the garden dwindles, I take a moment to pause. Not to take in the abundance of weeds (that I'm not bothering to pluck), but to take in the treasures that today has to share with me. Tomorrow I might not have a few seconds to be thrilled over each tiny new development my garden has for me, but today I do. Today I can mourn over the passing from the season of abundant lillies to the season of roses. Today I can be thrilled over those tiny buds that developed over night on my choreopsis.

6/09/2011

Book shelf

I am such a distracted reader. I can never read only one book at a time. Right now I'm currently reading four. Yup, four (strange things happen when you go 6 weeks without television). Some are better than others, but all spur me on in a different direction. I thought I'd share with you all the different directions my bookshelf is pulling me, and hope that something catches your eye too and pulls you toward a better version of yourself.

Max Lucado - Outlive Your Life: first of all I'd like to recommend anything this author has ever written. Talk about an author who knows how to craft an image. But this one I just picked up last night and it's already killing me. The first chapter gives a statistic that I shared on facebook this morning about how many orphans are on the planet vs. how many Americans claim to be Christian, and how we could eliminate orphanages altogether if each person who claimed the faith would step up to the plate.




Shutter Sisters' - Expressive Photography: nearly every photography book I've ever picked up catered to the technical side of photography, which I don't need. After I learned the ins and outs of how my camera works I sort of gave up on reading books about photography because I just couldn't find anything that spurred me on creatively. This book does exactly that. Not only does it touch on different ways of using photos to tell a story, but also how to create photos that make your heart sing. Those are the photos that I want to take. Good, good stuff.





Adam Nicholson - Sissinghurst: This one is slightly obscure, even for me... but I love memoirs, the more obscure the better. The author grew up in Sissinghurst castle in the English countryside. (Dude that's cool enough right there.) But then as an adult he partners with the national trust to turn the castle from a tourist trap to it's original state as a working farm. Castles are cool. Natural gardening practices at castles are even cooler. Plus there's a lot of local history thrown in that's kind of fascinating (even if it is slightly obscure).




And last but not least:

Sage Cohen - The Productive writer: I'm not sure I'm getting as much out of this one as I am with the others. It's hard to tell others how to write, whether it's technical or creative. But if you're interested in having your voice heard than this is a great resource.




So that's what's on my bookshelf this week. I have a rather voracious appetite for the printed word, so if you know of any good reads, please please pass them along!

6/08/2011

(nearly) Wordless Wednesday

It's been awhile since we've done one of these, it's time to get back to it...






Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46: 10





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6/07/2011

Anniversary adventure

So most of you know that our 10 year anniversary, was last week. A few of you know that due to our recent trip to Russia, the huge adoption invoice after we got when we returned from Russia (which had nothing to do with our trip), our recent break-in, and most recently, the death of our water heater our finances are not pretty right now.

So how does a family who's living on love celebrate such a momentus event? By seeking beauty. In our own backyard. After dinner we rode our bikes to the park near our house and rode around until we found that magical evening sunlight. Magical lighting + an unmowed field + my lovely children = a happy Mama.
So here are my photos, these are a little quirky and artistic. I have enough properly exposed photos of my children smiling at me, so I got a little creative this time around.

6/06/2011

A day at the beach...

So you already know that my husband loves cows, but did you know that he also loves the beach. Sand, sun, water. He loves it all. NOT. So when our friends asked us to go to the dairy and the beach around the corner, I couldn't wait to torment my love. All of his favorite things. Together. In one day. Oh this was going to be fun.
So you already saw the pics from the dairy, here are some from the beach.

Nothing says a day at the beach like a good ol' messy pony tail.


Alex and his buddy Kyle



The girls little buddy Joy

Alex says: SAND!
Girls say: Shells!!
Mom says: bird poop? On my leg? Was that really necessary??
Jory says: can we go yet?

6/03/2011

A day on the farm...

On Memorial Day our dear friends called and invited us on a field trip to a working dairy not far from here. I jumped at the chance to do something a little different, and to squeeze in a few more golden moments with some friends who totally "get" us.

And so we went.




Jory says: Really? cows? I hate cows.
Kids say: What's that smell?

Mama says: stop whining and let me take your pic.

And just for the record, if your wife is holding a camera, you might not want to do this...



you just never know when it'll come back to haunt you.


Stay tuned for the rest of our adventure that happens to include a place Jory happens to dislike even more than he dislikes cows.

6/02/2011

10 years in...

From this...
to this...

This marriage thing is working out pretty well... considering you weren't my type and several of our friends tried to talk us out of it...

6/01/2011

Our Russian Adventure part 8 - Winding down

First of all, I just want to thank everyone who has been following the story of our adventures in Russia over the last week and a half (there were over 700 of you! Wow!) Today our story ends for now, but before we go, I have few more tidbits to share. I have a handful of pictures and a selection of resources that Jory and I have used to learn about the culture ourselves, and some books my children devoured in the process.

Ok, so I got these books for the kids (for homeschooling of course) but I really learned a lot from them. Picture books are a fabulous thing...






(The Church of Sts. Isidor and Nicholas in St. Petersburg)



These are nonfiction...
Russia: The People (Lands, Peoples, & Cultures)
Spotlight on Russia (Spotlight on My Country)
Russia (True Books)



(cool lamp post in front of St. Isaac's cathedral - St. Petersburg)




(The Angel on top of the Alexander column)



This is the book that Jory read to prepare for our trip: Cultureshock! Russia: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette it came in handy more than once.

Sadly in most movies, the Russians are the bad guys. We're sort of working our way through as many movies where the Russians are the good guys as we can. Here are some we've seen recently...
Dr. Zhivago
Anastasia

And we haven't watched this yet, but I'm hoping my girls will like it.
The Magic of Russian Ballet



(cool buggy outside the Winter Palace in St. P'burg)



And last but not least... music.
Peter and the Wolf (one of my childhood favorites)
Russia's Most Beautiful Songs

The Russians have such a beautiful culture and heritage, we have enjoyed drinking in as much of it as we can. I hope you'll take a moment to unpack some of the treasures the Russians have to share with you.

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