Chalk and Easel

I love watching tiny developments in Cambrie's drawing. She loves to color and draw, especially with chalk, but my favorite part of watching my budding little artist is listening to her describe what she's drawing.

Lately, I've been particularly amazed at what she can recognize in her squiggles. She can't say, "I'm going to draw a lowercase 'e'" and then draw one, but she'll scribble away, pause a moment, then say, "Mommy, that's an 'e'!" (Or a J, or a T, or an X... etc.).

It's becoming apparent that her Christmas present was a very appropriate one.

(Yes, yes, that does still have the original bow from Christmas Day. That's kinda how we roll....but now that I've admitted to it, it'll bother me. Off it comes.)

Okay, okay, I drew that, but she does love hearing about our family vacation to Virginia Beach almost two years ago. I thought she'd appreciate it.

I was wrong.

We decided to move on to some Cambrie-led drawing time.

The cool part about this one? (Okay, maybe cool for an obsessed mama...) The only things I drew here are the very obviously semi-accurate triangle and square. (And the caption with the date and her age). That face in the square? She drew those eyes, the nose and the mouth, no prompting from me. The triangle face is less obvious, but so were Picasso's faces, people!!

The sun, the concentric circles, the cyclops-faced triangle (because it really did have only one eye)--these are all signs of budding genius, right?

[Moving on before anyone tries to accurately answer that...]

After that, Cambrie wanted me to draw again. She chose the Atlanta Temple this time, a favorite subject.

Here, the things like the people, bushes, trees, etc. were all at her request, but drawn by me. You can see Mommy, Daddy, and Cambrie, and then Grandma on the steps below. However, those pink scribbles to the left (now captioned), are all her handiwork. I don't remember two cars with windows parking on the lawn, nor do I remember an apple tree, but who am I to dissuade her from expressing her artistic creativity?

I'm sure adding another kiddo to the mix will make it harder to focus so specifically on these minute developments, but I hope I still find it as exciting as I do now. I may not blog about it or shout it from the treetops, but I can imagine that it could only be twice as fun watching two little human beings grow into (hopefully) happy, helpful, creative members of the worldwide community.

A Little Crunchy

I am by no means a super-green-tree-hugging-type person. However, I’ve been feeling a little crunchy lately. Just enough to make normal people raise their eyebrows and those firmly dedicated to all things "green" wonder why these small steps are even worth a blog post.

Yesterday, while shopping, I compared two brands of saltine crackers and ended up buying the brand with fewer unpronounceable ingredients.

I also made some healthy breakfast bars with no butter or oil. As a substitute for wheat bran, which was not on hand, I used super-finely chopped walnuts and ground flax seed.

Seriously. Ground flax seed.

Photo from this site. Patrick and I really liked these. 

While those were in the oven, I made my own almond milk.

Photo from this site.

I then used that almond milk in a shake this morning, for breakfast.

Photo from this site.

This tiny bit of "crunchiness" isn't just sneaking into what I eat. Many of you may have seen my Facebook call-out garnering advice from all my cloth-diapering buddies. I think I very well may be taking that plunge. More updates on that perhaps another time.

And here's the other kicker, and the one I feel the most need to defend. Anyone heard of "going no 'poo"? Well, I have even been experimenting with that.

The idea of using things other than shampoo to clean your hair has actually fascinated my for a while. If you're equally fascinated and want to learn more, here is a great article by Simple Mom. If you just want reassurance that I'm not completely nuts, you may appreciate this NPR story.

I was inspired by two women at church who hadn't been using shampoo in over a year. Their hair looks great, and they are constantly getting compliments on it. After diving into the research, the whole premise just made a lot of sense to me.

However, I began my experiment just shortly after I learned I was pregnant. I know that pregnancy messes with hormones that can affect things like my hair, and I've already explained that it kinda throws my irritation meter out of whack. In any case, my experiment has turned into a halfway effort. For about six months now, I've had a nice little routine that does involve shampoo, but only once or twice a week. I use the baking soda method for those in-between times.

Remember when I was showing off my new haircut? Well, that hair doesn't look nasty and gross to you, does it?

The verdict? The best way I can describe it is to say that now my hair behaves infinitely better than it did before. I've always had super-fine, barely wavy, either too-dry-and-poofy or flimsily-flat hair. If I ever got it to do anything I wanted, it wouldn't stay there long. But now, it feels a little thicker and much healthier. When I blow it dry a certain way, it listens to me. I wish a certain two-year-old would take a page from my hair's book.

I don't think I'll ever go back to shampooing every day, or even every other day. I've come to the conclusion that it's just plain not good for my hair. Maybe in the future I'll be a little braver and try to cut out shampoo completely, but for now, I'm happy.

These little crunchy tendencies are not feeling like temporary flings with the ever-growing "green" movement. The more I think, watch, and research, the more I'm convinced that this more careful, more conscious, and simpler way of living could be a really good fit for my family and me. I'm also lucky to have a husband who, at the least, is supportive of all this and, at the most, actually agrees with me.

So here's to a few tiny (tiny) steps in a healthier direction! I'll definitely keep everyone posted if this all backfires and I decide I hate nature or something similarly drastic.

Line Creek Nature Area

This month, for one reason or another, has been kind of a roller coaster. However, since the countdown has officially begun (I'm technically in the "any time now" zone, though I'm expecting Little Boy to come later rather than sooner), I'm a little more motivated to record stories that will disappear into oblivion once we add a very tiny and very demanding new member to this family.

So you'll forgive me if I write about this little family excursion that actually occurred way at the beginning of the month. It was just that fun.

Since we arrived in Georgia a year and a half ago, Patrick and I have driven past the sign to the Line Creek Nature Area about a bajillion times. "We should go there!", we'd exclaim, with all the earnest and sincere intentions of a well-meaning and kind-of-forgetful couple.

Well, after a year and a half, we finally planned the mini family excursion. I made coffee cake muffins, and we set out at 8 am to be sure we'd beat the heat.

Breakfast was muffins, grapes, and orange slices. Easy to pack, easy to eat.

The verdict? We love early morning family adventures.

Mmmmmm muffin.

How's this for a family breakfast? Where better than at a picnic table, near a pond, with the early morning sun filtering through the trees?

Cambrie had a lot of fun. She threw us off just a little, though, when she announced, "I'm going to hug a tree," and then proceeded to do so.

Yeah, she didn't learn that from us.

We aren't really the tree-hugging type, but when I asked her later who else hugs trees, she replied, "Belle. And she walked around the tree, then she put her hand on the tree, then she hugged it. And she had a bird."

No longer a surprise. Cambrie could (and does) quote Beauty and the Beast from beginning to end. Anyone else remember that scene?

In any case, after we ate, we began to explore.

This is where we met the fish and several turtles.

Cambrie was very excited to dance in this little pavilion. I'm pretty sure she was singing "Tale As Old As Time" as she danced, too.

We spent around an hour exploring the trails there. We learned, among other things, how little girls go potty when there are no potties nearby. Luckily, the experience went fairly smoothly. I do look forward, though, to having the process be a little more convenient when it comes time for kiddo #2 to take his first tinkle in the woods.

Cambrie learned how roots are different than sticks. She then spent a good portion of our walk telling us how this root was attached to that tree, over and over again.

There were several pretty wildflowers. They got a little less pretty after being plucked, thoroughly "observed," and thoughtfully replanted in a pile of sand by a two-year-old. 

It was truly a beautiful morning and a fun outing. Its good for Patrick and I to have these little reminders that we love doing things like this. Sometimes it's so hard to remember in the hustle and bustle of life that we're the type of people that are refreshed by a small, nature-oriented break from the routine. It doesn't take much. Only about two hours on a weekday morning.

And the return is definitely worth it.