This Moment - and now for something completely different

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you feel so inspired, please share your moment here, too!

Here's to combining something that I love to do with something that I want to love doing!

"Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading.  I will say rather more necessary because health is worth more than learning."  ~Thomas Jefferson

This Moment - Hibernating at...um...the beach

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you feel so inspired, please share your moment here, too!

"I don't think it is possible to make up for years of sleep deprivation in one week, but you sure are making a valiant effort."  ~(My) IronMan

This Moment - Exploring the Smithsonian

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you feel so inspired, please share your moment here, too!

"It's a silent oasis in the noisy confusion of the world, isolating phenomena so that they can be seen undistractedly.  What is being collected are not the artifacts themselves but the undivided attention of the visitors.  That is the museum.  It lies in the mind of the viewers."  ~Diane Ackerman

This Moment - Autumnal glory with my four-legged girl

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you feel so inspired, please share your moment here, too!

"I think dogs are the most amazing creatures; they give unconditional love.  For me they are the role model for being alive."  ~Gilda Radner

This Moment - the summer grasshopper

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you feel so inspired, please share your moment here, too!

"Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean - 
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes,
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away."


~excerpt from The Summer Day by Mary Oliver

This Moment - "Reading Can Be Magical"

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you feel so inspired, please share your moment here, too!

My kids + the local library + a display about Harry Potter = magic, indeed!

"A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life."  ~Henry Ward Beecher

This Moment - Labyrinth kids

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you feel so inspired, please share your moment here, too!

Happy Friday, friends!


"Returning to a more tender, heart-inspired place is one of the wisest, most pragmatic, sacred ways we can walk in the world."  ~Sharon Salzberg

This Moment - Happiness is catching a butterfly...or six

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo (or two, or three!) - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Update: Based upon some of this morning's comments I thought that I would provide some more information about the butterfly pavilion.  It is from this Insect Lore kit and we raised painted lady butterflies in it about three years ago.  We kept the pavillion and filled it this week with butterflies caught using a bug net on the coneflowers by our front porch.  It turns out that this was the gift that just keeps on giving!  Of course, we let the butterflies go at the end of the day.

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun
And find your shoulder to light on,
To bring you luck, happiness and riches
Today, tomorrow and beyond.
~Irish Blessing

This Moment - All around the mulberry tree

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

"To the great tree-loving fraternity we belong.  We love trees with universal and unfeigned love, and all things that do grow under them or around them - the whole leaf and root tribe."  ~Henry Ward Beecher

This Moment - Tower "Knitting"

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Miss Intrepid has been watching E2B and Princess Wonder churn out lovely creations over the last few days using knitting towers that they received several years ago (I believe that the Easter Bunny left them in their baskets) and eagerly asking...and asking, and asking, and asking...when she was going to get the chance to knit, too.  Inspired by this post over at Jonah Lisa Land, I made Miss Intrepid her own tower using a plastic plumbing connector from the hardware store, popsicle sticks, and electrical tape.  I started her out and offered to help, but she wanted - as do most independent three year olds - to do it herself.  Her finished product looks an awful lot like yarn wrapped around and around the outside of the tower, but after some Mommy intervention I hope to be able to leave her with a bracelet or headband.


"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either."  ~Elizabeth Zimmermann

This Moment - Sisterly Love

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo (or, this week, two!) - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

"A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life."  ~Isadora James

This Moment - I didn't get dunked in the river this time and it was still AWESOME!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Only my camera got dunked today, but luckily it was sealed in a plastic bag!

"Here, on the river's verge, I could be busy for months without changing my place, simply leaning a little more to right or left.  ~Paul Cezanne

This Moment - Look Mom, no hands!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

"Life must be lived as play."  ~Plato

This Moment...Beware of Dragons!

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama.  A single photo capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Sir E2B protects Princess Wonder from the mighty Grammy dragon!

Blogger's site has been down since Wednesday morning, so the other posts I had planned on for the past several days will be coming soon.  In the meantime, I hope that you all have had a magical week and are ready for a weekend full of play!

"It's hard to stop Muggles from noticing us if we're keeping dragons in the back garden - anyway, you can't tame dragons, it's dangerous."  ~Ron Weasley

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

This girl just loves to accessorize!

I thoroughly enjoyed my Mother's Day celebration with Miss Intrepid at her preschool and I look forward to a weekend full of hugs with my loved ones.  May all of our mothers - whether they gave birth to and raised us or became touchpoints in our lives in some other way - know our love and appreciation this Mother's Day and every day.

"The best thing about a Mommy is that they hug children."  ~Miss Intrepid

In honor of the wedding...no, I don't mean THAT one

{this moment} - A Friday ritual inspired by SouleMama. A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Princess Wonder graciously posed for photos with the paparazzi on the way to the bus stop.

Each year the kindergarten classes at my children's elementary school hold a special wedding between the letters of Q and U.  The guests (students) dress up as queens or quarterbacks and two students - supported by shushers (in lieu of ushers) - are chosen to be Mr. Q and Miss U for the big event.  Princess Wonder was asked to play Miss U for her class and - as you can see from this photo - she took her bridal dressing quite seriously.  I don't know if the teachers moved the week that they studied the letters QU to coincide with today's royal wedding of if it just worked out that way, but I know that I'm looking forward to seeing the photos from a very special wedding later today...even if it wasn't the biggest wedding to take place this morning.

May your day be filled with love!


"Love one another and you will be happy.  It's as simple and as difficult as that."  ~Michael Leunig