A Mindful Life

The weekend was fast! So much happened. We went to a toy store and bought a tricycle that one of Claire’s relatives is giving for her third birthday. The funny thing about all this is that in the store, the only toys that captivated Claire were the stuffed animals. She was hugging them, playing with [...]

The first week of June, Claire and I planted seeds, a heritage seed package stating it was designed to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. We have a lot of hummingbirds around. I haven’t seen many butterflies, but this is the first year we’ve planted. Tonight Claire and I picked some flowers, and here they are. (Oddly, [...]

We made the simplest craft the other day, and it turned out so well. To make this, you need a roll of clear packing tape, some string or yarn, a hole punch, and a bunch of tissue paper of different colors cut up into small bits. Put a strip of tape on the table, sticky [...]

The moon followed me home tonight kissing me with her brilliant light wishing sweet dreams for my sleepy head then tucked me gently into bed. —— It’s a beautiful night, with a waning full moon. The heatwave has broken. A breeze blows. Lately we’ve been reading The Rainbabies, which features the beautiful Moon. (And it [...]

You can get a Little Caesars pizza for $5. You can buy a Boboli crust at the grocery store for about $4.90 and add your own stuff. Or, you can learn to make your own! It wasn’t that hard or time consuming, and this recipe came out light and softy with a little crunch. It [...]

I’m not a parent who buys into the “stranger danger” propaganda. By this, I mean that I’m not worried that a kidnapping or molestation of my child is just around every corner. I’m a big supporter of the Free-Range Kid movement. Occasionally strangers attempt to harm people, but the majority of harm done to children [...]

I bought a package of die-cut flowers at Michaels, and we undertook to decorate some on Saturday. It took several days to work on this project, because the paint had to dry on each side before we could flip them to paint the other side, and the same for the glitter glue (which took forever [...]

Yesterday on a neighborhood walk, Claire told me, “I want to show you the world, Mommy. The wonderful world!” She does, every day! We live so far away from the din and havoc the comes with living in an urban area like Silicon Valley. About five miles from our home is the entrance to the [...]

Two batches of shells from the dollar store provide at least an hour of fun on a Sunday morning. Fill the sink with water… Then sort! Later on Claire had her Little People friends play among the shells at the beach. Then she decided that today was Space Bunny’s birthday (a little jingly rabbit toy [...]

Here’s an easy, simple activity. I bought some colored masking tape, half-inch width, online at Discount School Supply. This stash will last a long time and be useful for many things. Then I got out some construction paper and tore off pieces of tape. (Claire chose the colors.) Then she decorated the paper with them. [...]