Monday February 19th, 2018
Today was a surprise snow day for us here in the Portland Willamette Valley. We enjoyed some morning time snow frolic and play, followed by morning hearth arts. Lorax, Sibyl, and Violet took turns "sledding" down Fairy Hill, and pulling each other around in the sled through the meadow. We explored the garden to see how our plant friends were fairing the cold, frozen weather. We found chard and kale leaves, and gave them a dusting. They're pretty hardy but it felt good just to help them out a bit, and dust the snow from their glossy green leaves. Sibyl became entranced for a while, just making snow prints and examining them, while Violet and Lorax turned our mud kitchen into a snow kitchen, making up some snow cakes and shakes for us all to enjoy.
After morning snow play I offered a hearth arts invitation to learn how to make my favorite hot cocoa recipe. Violet and I worked together to add the almond milk, cocoa powder, and other spices. We even found a recipe for some very tasty vegan whipped cream. We were proud of our hearth creation and got a whole lot of joy in sitting with our friends to sip and share the yummy beverages.
After hot cocoa, the group decided they wanted to do some expressive shape shifting play, so I pulled out the animal costumes and they chose a lion, a spider, and a deer from the costume bin. Together they collaborated on a story line in which (from what i could gather), the spider was spraying their webs all over the lion and the deer and the deer was trying very hard to eat the spider, and the lion was trying to stop the spider from spraying their webs. Or close to something like that.
After the theater play, we sat for a lunch of baked beans with roasted veggies, corn tortillas, and sliced avocado. As we sat for lunch the midday sun came in through our south facing window, as it does on sunny days, and the group had a very exciting lunch as they took turns spinning the window pendulums and making sun magic. Their giggles filled the house, along with the midday winter sun. I washed the lunch dishes and gave thanks to the Great Mystery for all the twists and turns that led me to that moment of having the privilege of witnessing and experiencing such pure joy and blissful laughter. It was a peak moment in my journey with these kiddos, and I was feeling profoundly grateful to have the opportunity to be just one small part of creating the space for these beings to share that very special moment together.
After lunch we geared up and dressed up for our afternoon adventure. Since I am fresh back from an exciting weekend at the Oly Old Time Festival, I had music making and playing on my mind and invited the kiddos to join in on my musical joy, inspirations and aspirations. We hopped the Trimet for a ride up to Trade Up Music just to explore some new (to us) instruments and to play around with making sounds together. I got to play some fancy banjos, and the kiddos favored the accordions, fiddles, keys and drums. Sibyl showed a slight interest in the ukulele, while Lorax serenaded us with a purdy little banjo-uke. And the bells...well who doesn't love the bells? Almost as much fun as the spoon instruments we'd been practicing in our morning play.
Enjoy our photo journals of the day!
xo Miz Flow
