Motherhood becomes her.

I was going through Caleb's pictures tonight, and this one just made me smile.  My sister-in-law looks so beautiful and natural as a mother.

 

And one more for good measure.

It was a dark and stormy night...

Last Monday afternoon, party guests had said their good-byes, and we crashed.  I wasn't about to do one more bit of cleaning or cooking.  I sat at the computer and went through pictures, Ella played happily with her new Brave dolls and Scottish castle, James played with the old Disney castle and Prince Phillip, and I don't remember what KJ did, but it was relaxing, I'm sure.  We chilled.

Then right at the magic hour of eight o'clock when we were about to put the kids to bed, zwittt.  The power went out.  We stood there motionless, not sure what to do.  It wasn't raining yet, but the lightning was going non-stop.  There was a continuous flashing coming through the windows.  KJ grabbed his trusty headlamp, and I gathered candles by the light of his iPhone.  

 Ella was a bit nervous with everything so dark,

but she was quickly cheered by her brother.

James has turned into quite the silly boy and

quite the entertainer.

We couldn't quite decide on whether to wait a little while on the power before putting the kids to bed or not.  Both of our kids sleep with a fan on for white noise, and Ella uses a night light.  What to do... Meanwhile, I stood at our back door and caught a picture of the light show.

  James and an open flame...you know that's trouble.

KJ used the opportunity to record another video-chat with the kids.  It's become his favorite way to document.  They really are the best kids.  

In the end, Ella went to bed by candlelight, using the white noise app on my iPod (super useful).  James went to bed in the quiet (no candle for him!), and we slept by candlelight ourselves, and really, I quite liked it.  The power didn't come back on until 5:20 the next morning, at which point all the lights in our house did as well... We remembered to turn off the kids' lights but not our own.  James woke crying around 3 a.m., and after I got him settled back in bed, it was fun to look out and see candlelight flickering in my neighbor's house, too.  

 

I came across this quote this week.

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort

of feeling safe with a person:

having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words,

but to pour them out.

Just as they are--chaff and grain together,

knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them,

keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness,

blow the rest away.

- George Eliot -

*I recently discovered that George Eliot, the author of Middlemarch, was actually

a pseudonym used by a lady named Mary Anne Evans.

I had no idea.    

A Whole New World of Science

I don't think it's any secret that I'm naturally more attuned to the English/Literature side of my brain than the math and science part, but it is amazing the difference wanting to learn and learning by reading and teaching Ella makes.  I'm now fascinated by elementary science, fascinated by the Creator and the intricate and huge design of the earth and beyond.  

In full disclosure of just how little thought I gave to scientific fact in my younger years, my father likes to tell the story of the time I looked up at a full moon and saw the markings on it that looked like the continents (has anyone else ever noticed this?) and asked if that was the earth.  That is so embarrassing to tell.  I mean, surely I knew what planet I lived on and that the moon came out at night.  Yes, I knew those things, but they were most obviously not something I daily thought about. 

Now that you are surely questioning my ability to teach my daughter at home, here's a few things we've done recently.  

We put a piece of celery in a cup of water with blue food coloring to see how plants soak water up through their "roots."  Blue dots all the way at the top!

Yesterday we also put a plastic bag over a plant for four hours so we could feel and see the water droplets in the bag from the plant's release of water vapor.
 

We also planted ivy inside a jar in a layer of rock, charcoal, and potting soil.  The idea is to see how the plant will continue to grow without our needing to water it because it keeps recycling the water already in the jar.  You can see we already have water vapor all over our jar.  Fingers crossed that I transplanted the ivy well.

A couple of weeks ago we staged a volcanic eruption.  Our volcano doesn't look much like a volcano...I had a long and narrow Pepsi bottle for the project, and my homemade clay didn't stay in place super well, dripping down the sides of the bottle instead, but I don't get too hung up on perfection.  {Obviously not a scientist}

For some reason, Ella was really nervous and unsure about this experiment.  I think she expected red hot lava to come spewing out of our bottle.  She did, however, ask to do it again afterwards, so in the end I think she thought it was cool.  Now you can enjoy a video of me squealing when our volcano erupts.

  Volcano Eruption from KJ Pugh on Vimeo.

The best part of my refresher course on elementary science is...I think about it all of the time.  I take Clyde Kilby's advice and drive around, picturing myself on a spinning sphere of rock in outer space.
 

At least once every day I shall look steadily

up at the sky and remember that I, 

a consciousness with a conscience, am on a

planet traveling in space with wonderfully

mysterious things above me and about me.

Clyde Kilby

Party Time

First, I just have to say how thankful I am that Ella's party went so well yesterday.  It couldn't have been more perfect.  Last night we all shared something we were thankful for, and Ella said she was thankful for her party, "it was the best she'd ever had."  

KJ and Ella opened the Highland Games with a speech and a dance routine.  KJ's accent and a little bit of the Braveheart soundtrack made it very convincing.  Video to come soon.

A very big thank you to Parker, Kevin, and Tamara for providing KJ and Ella with their party garb.  We definitely learned the value of "asking and receiving" in our party preparations.

After welcoming everyone to the Highland Games, the participants headed out to compete in the first two events.  They also got a chance to ride Angus, Merida's faithful steed.

A Highland Princess

Archery

The games then moved inside since we'd had a lot of rain, and the ground was a bit soggy.  I think it worked out well, though.  I'm also thankful for Wii Sports Resort!  (and friends willing to buy extra parts for controllers at the last minute...)

 Helpers

 We were happy that baby Caleb got to join us!

(and his parents, too, of course)

The girls did an activity (thank you for putting books together David and Hillary!) and then chose to picnic in Ella's room. We held a screening of Ella's birthday video, enjoyed cupcakes and ice cream, and opened presents (more pictures to come), and it was a great day.  Thank you friends and family for loving our princess.

Eleanor the Fair

 A friend made Ella a Merida dress, and Friday night we went out for a little sunset photo shoot.  Tonight we're just relaxing after our party, but I'm happy to report it was a success.  It's been nice to have a few hours where I don't feel like there's something I need to do.  Tomorrow will be back to school and hopefully a post full of pictures from our day.  It was fun.  T-minus 27 days until James' birthday.

Her Birthday

It's been such a silent week on the old blog...but not silent in the house where we live.  We've had school-work, and party-planning, and a James-with-a-fever to occupy our time.  And things have felt kind of crazy, and I have felt kind of crazy with the pressures of motherhood and really feeling the passage of time.  

James isn't awake yet for his morning fever-check (he's had one since Wednesday but thankfully hasn't felt too badly), so I'm not even sure if the friend part of Ella's party is going to happen.  It may need to be postponed.  Sickness has hit the houses of a couple of her friends she invited, as well.  So we're in a state of just going with it and making the call when we know what James' temperature is this morning.  He still had a low fever around 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

But today is Ella's birthday.  She just woke up and has a stuffy nose, but said, "I think I'm still good for my party."  Sweet girl.  

We'll be celebrating her 6 years today.