A Mindful Life

My effort today is less art and more craft. (Not that knitting isn’t art, but a simple dishcloth is pushing the concept; now a lace shawl or something akin — that is art.) However, this is what I created today. Recently Husband purchased a knife sharpening kit and sharpened all our very dull blades. This [...]

Claire’s still a little young to understand Halloween, hence the lack of a fancy costume this year. Among the many animals she likes is the owl, so she was happy to wear this outfit. We went to Westgate Mall where the majority of stores participated in trick-or-treating. The place was hopping! Next year we may [...]

Claire understands more every day and demonstrates it in many ways. Here are some examples.

The other day we were getting ready to leave, and I was searching for her sippy cup. As I looked around I said, “Where’s your cup? We need it to go bye-bye.” I continued to scan the living room muttering that [...]

Claire picked the crayon colors herself. It was fun to watch her expression as she realized that she was making the marks on the paper.

Saturday we went to a friend’s first birthday party. There, Claire discovered that she does like cake and frosting. She just wasn’t interested two weeks ago, on her birthday.

And today we went to the Oakland Zoo. She was thrilled to see giraffes, elephants (her favorite animal as far as we can tell), snakes (a close [...]

They came bearing gifts. They arrived at the doldrums of 103-degree afternoon. Claire chatted up a storm with them and generally delighted us all. Georgia entertained us with her talents (amazing eyebrows!) and was so sweet with Claire. It was very special to meet Karen and Georgia, as both of them are close to my [...]

Claire had her first encounter with a swimming pool today. I know, I’m a bad mommy for not having taken a dip sooner. Truth is, I couldn’t find my bathing suit and I wasn’t feeling up to shopping. But I did come across it, and we went to a friend’s home to play. She loved [...]

My mother sent a calendar that had gorgeous food photos with the suggestion I might use them with Claire. So today I quickly glued them to Bristol paper, which will make them less fragile. I’ll trim the edges once they are all dry. There has not been much time or energy for knitting or other [...]

Claire is better; her fever broke yesterday. Now I have a sore throat and a low grade fever, and I hope this passes just as quickly.
My morning started with feeling punky and then turned odious. (Warning: somewhat gross details follow.) I was eating my toast at the table and Claire was playing on the floor. [...]

I’ve never participated in this meme before, but Gerry does so I thought I’d do a quick brain dump. Reader beware: the quality of what comes next might be less than intelligent. I should also mention that the meme focuses on 10 things one is thankful for; I wrote it more generally, though it could [...]