{Yesterday's moment}

Yesterday I missed my ''moment''. I already had my picture selected. I already envisioned my peaceful evening with James sleeping beside me joining in this moment . But as the song says 'life is what happens to you while you busy make other plans'. The reality has been so different. James had some kind of stomach bug and ended up dehydrated and we've been rushed to the hospital 30km away and spent there the night with an IV infusion. So hard to see him crying and calling me for help when they were taking blood samples and putting in the IV without actually being able to ease his pain. I never let him cry in his whole life but tonight I had. So very hard. But now we're back home. He is better, but we need to keep him well hydrated.
Prayers, good vibes and positive thoughts ( whatever you feel more comfortable with) are more than welcome.

James in the hospital bed this morning.

Just today.

Every day is somehow a special day. Special doesn't mean always happy of course. Sometime a day it's just plain hard, like it was today for me. But being hard doesn't make it less special anyways. When the night falls, and the little one is peacefully asleep beside me and the chit-chatting of the older children quiet down, I take the luxury to come here in this little spot of mine and maybe check at the pictures in my camera and find the beauty that lies in an ordinary day.

 'How much does it weight ? '

Far from understanding how a scale works or being able to use it properly, James for sure already grabbed the concept of weight and the use of the scale. It seems that his light was weighting '10'.

Ten what it's not for us to know :)

 This little booklet it's something I'm very proud of. James was sad about something so to calm him and comfort him I made a drawing of Jimmy-Santa Claus (Babbo natale in italian ) since he has been declaring since Christmas that he is Santa Claus and keeps wearing the same Santa Claus outfit day in and day out ( we have to wash it in the evening and put it back in the morning, or on harder night we have to dry it with a hair drier or in front of the woodstove). He was so pleased at it that I decided to make a small booklet for him with him as protagonist. The drawing has been kept ver simple purposely, his imagination can fill the details and I wanted to make it in few minutes so that the magic of the moment wouldn't fade. After drawing and writing I hand sewed the pages together. It's really nice and James loved it '' You did it for me mom !''

 Gaia has been studying the human cell for science, here she is painting a model of a cell made out of FIMO modeling clay

 Of course James was at her side painting his own project ...

 And Milla, after working a bit with her loom-band decided to model something out of FIMO as well.

 Here Seba, the big tease! was working with regular rubber bands in a big sized circular loom. He always has the craziest ideas !

And while we were all working on our projects ... it started snowing !

Oh we do love snow ... but not now ! Not in march when we were ready to enjoy spring ! Not this year, with the very mild winter we had ! Hopefully this has only been a tail of  winter ...

So this was just today.

Pretty amazing isn't it.

Try and look at one of your days. 

Just pick one.

Not a special one.

Not your birthday.

Not a holiday.

Just an ordinary day.

Even a bit sad.

And look at it before falling asleep.

Wonders will disclose before your eyes.

Not such a thing as an ordinary day exist.

As all of our life is just extraordinary.

Blessed be and blessed do my dear.

Creativity

Since I was a child I have always been very creative, and I have always loved drawing, painting and working with my hands. As a young adult I had so many dreams about my life, how to make a living from my real passions and skills and I'm pretty sure I might have succeeded if I didn't give up on my dreams because of other people expectations.
So when I became a mother 15 years ago ( almost) I always tried to nurture the creativity of my children. Their early childhood has been filled with glue, scissors, colors and dough, wool, yarn and papier-mache and whatever else can come to your mind. Now that they are older ( I mean the 4 older ones of course ) they all have an own creative life that of course not always, if ever, matches with my own interests. My children are into dance, minecraft, playmobil. Seldom one of them works with the wood or papier-mache or draws. I have to be honest, a couple of years ago this was very painful for me. Not only because I wished to pass them my knowledge,skills and passions, but mostly because I lost my creative buddies. But then, one morning, after they busied themselves upstairs in their big room for few hours the call you up with the camera, for some mementos of their last effort, and in a leap you realized that it might not be wool or watercolors, but surely you indeed passed them the burning fire of creativity, that one fire, I'm sure most of you know it, that makes you see the world around you in a total different way: a wonderful place filled with opportunities to create, to make beauty happen, to be happy in the work of your busy hands. Here what my camera captured a couple of morning ago ...

 After unbuilding most of their plamobil sets the painted and mixed them with wood and clay and what-not to create a fire station of their own.

 The fire station has many different room, filled with tiny details they build\make.

They prepare tiny food with clay\playdough, sew pillows for tiny beds, make doors and tiny books and newpapers for their firemen.They give birth to a whole world with their hands. It may not be made out of natural material as maybe i wished, but it is indeed a highly creative work.

 And there is the city on the side ( unfortunately you can't see in the pictures ) with hybrid houses made of playmobil houses with wooden roofs made by them and firefighter busy fighting fire, with books about firefighter open on the side to make it as realistic as possible in all the details.

I asked them to let me take a picture of them near their creation, but my boys declined, Milla instead accepted happily. So here she is, on behalf of her brothers Leo and Seba.

Way to go kids !

{this moment}

 I'm joining Soulemama today.

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. 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.

Under the sea or upcycle part three

Lately it seems that I can't focus or get inspiration. As if my positive attitude has a bit faded away for no evident reason. I'm functioning really undertone in these days, hence my silence here in blogland. But I still menage to make some pretty things ... another jar cover, with a bit more character this time ....

leftover blue cotton, sequins and a humble pickle jar ...

Not bad in the end ;)

Happy Birthday Milla

Eleven years ago today I gave birth to my fourth child and second doughter, Milla. She was born by a (unnecessary ) c-section and she was born laughing. Yep, this child of mine, as soon as the doctor pulled her out started laughing surprising all the doctors and nurses and midwife in the room '' the baby is laughing'' they wishpered to each other, reduced to silence by this tiny being. My sweet girl as lost a bit of her smiling habit in last years, moving here unfortunately contributed big time in quench her smile and easiness at laugh, but still I love to tell her the story of her happy and peculiar birth.
So today we celebrated her special day. Gaia organized all the party, decorations and such, I cooked a storm and we let her just have a special day filled with laziness and presents and smiles and love. Here some pics from today ...

 

Tha table is set for the day since the night before

Gaia made all the decorations and hand-sew the nice cotton bags filled with candies

 

Milla opening the morning presents 

( as family we prefer to keep the presents small but more of them, than one bigger )

 

Getting ready to blow the candles

(Milla asked for tiramisu')

I love them, their silly faces, their growing together and becoming the woderful persons they are.

 

 My people, the best sight on earth ( and beyond )

 

James helping Milla blowing the candles.

Happy birthday my sweet Milla

I wish you a lifetime of love and happiness.

Thank you for being yourself and bringing joy o this family.

{this moment}

 I'm joining Soulemama today.

{this moment} ~ A Friday ritual. 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.