Inspiration

I promised you a cute cat picture, and here it is. The kids were disappointed that the farm cats were too wild to pet and we didn't have enough time for them to work on making friends. I had fresh from the patch strawberries for breakfast this morning after discovering a wonderful blog called By Sun and Candlelight. I was inspired by her nature journaling and also how she incorporates feast days in the children's education.This is something that I strive to do with my boys but don't always accomplish, especially in the summer when school is "out" and our day is less structured. I love to add hands on learning whenever possible and the boys retain the lesson so much easier when this happens. I highly recommend you check out her blog.This is my cousin, Bob. It was his farm we visited yesterday. Bob (or Bobby as I still call him) was my most favorite cousin as a child. He is about 8 years older than I am and must have always been super nice to me as a little girl because I had the hugest crush on him when I was three or four. I insisted that I wanted a Bobby doll. Since my mom is the baby of five kids and I was the baby of my family I was very spoiled by my grandmother. Thus, the search for a Bobby doll to please me.I still have it. It doesn't look anything like Bobby but is in fact a Howdy Doody ventriloquist doll. I think they must have picked it for the outfit, sort of farmer-like. This is one of my most fond memories of growing up. We went to visit my grandmother every Sunday afternoon on her little farm and I just loved having all of that space and freedom to roam, barns to explore, kittens to discover and fresh water from the spring to drink (from a pan no less!).
Here is my mom (on the left) and her sister, my Aunt Mary. Mary is Bob's mom. Not only did we get to pick berries, but I got a lesson in tobacco growing. I won't bore you with the details but since it was such a huge part of both my parents' childhood I found it interesting.

I think I'm rambling now. It is nice once in a while to walk down memory lane. By the way, today is Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday in Ordinary time. We have a little paper doll priest on our wall and the kids like to change his vestment to the correct color depending on the Church season. In case you don't know, Ordinary time (which means the days are ordered, NOT ordinary) is green - just like the world outside right now. Have a great day.