It’s been a while, but I’m at it again. Here are five things from the last week I want to jot down to remember, and share with you.
My 7-year-old daughter, Z, is constantly coming up with new ideas for businesses and products she can offer. She’s keen to save up for a specific goal, excitedly adding new items to her sales stand at the end of our driveway. I love to find her singing and dancing away by her stand, holding up her signs and waving big waves at anyone passing by.
This week’s offerings include modeled-clay jewelry, candles, note cards, and the newest addition: plant starts. A bunch of little tomatoes and one gooseberry so far. She’s been keen to figure out how she could sell popsicles or milkshakes and iced coffee, because “everyone loves coffee” and they’d be sure to stop for that. I think she’s onto something there.
Z’s been enjoying the lake and ocean for swims over the last month or so. This week was a bit cooler than last, but she still braved the windy weather and popped in for some swimming yesterday.
It makes me very happy to see her getting comfortable swimming all on her own without her life jacket. While she can cross the lake in that thing, no problem, she really needs to be able and confident to swim unassisted. It’s getting there and I’m feeling hopeful that this is the summer she’ll make that transition fully out of the lifejacket except for boating and other safety-needed times.
Children have a way of bringing people together. We were happily introduced to a new mama, babe, and preschooler trio one day at the park, while playing a horse running game with our bubble friends. The little girl eagerly joined in as if she belonged there, being mindful about distance and happy to run along with us like horses. Finding out that our families were on similar pages about our level of precaution in terms of avoiding transferring of germs right now, and the other family being newer to the island, we exchanged numbers and have had a couple of very pleasant distanced play-dates since.
Having both of us parents vaccinated with the first dose, and numbers starting to seem like they are slowing down considerably, we are really starting to stretch our previous avoid-interactions-at-all-costs mind frame to consider doing some more of the things like this that we’ve been missing out on over the past year (and then some). Life is starting to feel a bit more social again, and I’m enjoying the gentle move towards inviting in pieces that fuel us, while remembering we don’t need to invite in anything that doesn’t fit us at that time. The past year has been a fantastic teacher for this lesson.
These days parenting feels so much easier. We’ve been enjoying our time together so heartily these days, and it’s so positive to see our 7-year-old helping out in such big ways without being asked.
Making coffee for us in the morning. Packing her dad’s lunch for work. Vacuuming the stairs. Mopping her room. Planning the meals for the week. Baking snacks. Cooking us dinner. It impresses me so much what this girl is not only thoughtful enough to consider, but capable enough to carry out.
Yes, there are the hard days and tough moments, but her capabilities and independence are soaring, while harmony of our interactions together has become an easy every day routine. I’m thankful for the opportunity to allow her to be herself so much more than I felt possible when I was forcing her to wake up before she was ready, or rushing her through breakfast, fussing about items we couldn’t find or hadn’t prepared the night before, remembering permission forms and reading logs, and being uninvolved in what she was learning and doing all day.
Learning at home is definitely not the right choice for every family or every child, and it was something my husband and I were certain was not for us, but it turns out to be a blessing in disguise that we were pushed into this way of being. We’re still not sure what the next school year will look like for us, but that’s okay. Taking things bit by bit
I’ve been busy advertising, shooting, and editing sessions as much as I can lately. I really want to keep building my skills and my photography business.
One of my biggest complaints is that I never seem to make time to edit my own personal photos. There are some here and there, but the thousands upon thousands of snaps from my own family’s beautiful moments sit there on my hard drives.
However, the push of my good friend’s birthday reminding me of our adventure together last year got me editing some of my folders.
I’m excited to delve more into editing what I’ve already snapped and adding more photos onto my digital download galleries, and selecting more landscape and wildlife photos for print sales.
What has your week presented you with? Let me know in the comments. Or send me an email or social message and let’s connect. 🙂
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