A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.
If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.
A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.
The first completed space was the girls bathroom, shared by my three daughters ages 3, 5 and 8.
The bathroom was renovated as part of a total overhaul to the upstairs of the house that was gutted down to the exterior studs and framework, then put back together with modern insulation, HVAC and new walls. The bathroom was tripled in size by adding a dormer to the roofline. The locations of the bathtub/shower, toilet and sink were all reconfigured into a new layout, and the doorway was moved to make more room for the sink and three girls to stand in front of it.
Before the renovations, the upstairs bathroom was tiny! It did not have central heat and air. It had a small sink from the last time it was renovated when the owners choose to use plastic tiles on the walls in the 1950s. When we bought the house in 2005 there was no shower head. The old couple only took baths. The bathroom was not functional by modern day standards, and definitely didn’t work for three girls.
Until this renovation we were all five sharing one bathroom on the main level of the house – which was remodled in 2006 but kept it’s original size of only 5’x8′. So this (in addition to the two bedrooms we gained) was a much needed change!
Actually, it came down to the decision of do we renovate, or do we move? I’m glad we stayed. Because I would have never found a house with this bathroom designed so perfectly for our family.
The bathroom was was created around the sink, a cast-iron Brockway utility sink by Kohler – that I found on Pinterest. Special blocking was built into the studs of the wall to support sink, which weighs about 100 pounds.
The mirror above the sink is built into the wall, with the wainscoting. I have to thank our contractors on this design, at Clinch River Custom Builders. I explained my vision for the space and Simon, the carpenter working on the job, made it all happen. The shelf above the window is built in as well, designed to hold a curtian beneath it.
The schoolhouse sconces are from Destination Lighting.
I wrote about sewing the curtains here, from the shower curtain I bought on Ebay.
The footstool was a Goodwill find. I think it might have been an ottoman with a padded cushion at one time. I sanded it and put a clear water based stain on it. This is the MOST perfect footstool for the girls. They can all fit on it together to brush their teeth, and even my 8-year-old prefers this spot to brush her hair in the mornings.
The white cabinet was found at Homegoods. I bought the galvanized bins this sumer at World Market in their party section.
The floor tiles are 1 1/2″ hexagon tiles, unglazed, purchased at our local John Beretta Tile Company that has been in business since the same year our house was built. Which I think is really, really cool.
Classic white subway tile was used in the shower. With a shampoo ledge build into the space using a piece of gray marble we found in the basement left by the former owners. I believe it is Tennessee Marble, from a nearby quarry.
A very helpful associate at Ferguson’s (local folks, ask for Sharron Tiller) helped me find the right shower system the space. The rod is by Kohler, called Stillness, and it’s perfect because my children can easily adjust the height of the shower head themselves. Plus, it detaches with a long enough hose to help the little kids in the bathtub. The shower head is Bancroft, and the water pressure options are enjoyed by all the ages in our household. The bathtub is cast-iron, also by Kohler.
Here is the bathroom from a different angle, with hooks for towels and a separate wall for the toilet space.
The windows on this wall were built by our contractors, to be identical to the ones used on an existing dormer. I am very particular about renovating an old house the right way, and making everything look like it was meant to be there from the start. The windows were an important factor in that.
Lastly, here is our girls in action one morning standing at the sink getting ready for school. I must say the whole space has been a smashing success with our family! We are all thrilled with how it turned out.
Next up for renovation reveals will by the bedroom shared by my two youngest daughters – just as soon as I get the last four curtain panels sewn and up! After that will by the playbook in the upstairs landing, my oldest daughter’s room after I sew her comforter – and finally the kitchen and mudroom. That ought to keep me busy – and hopefully bring you back to read some more.
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In college my roommate and I shopped Goodwill for ideas and costumes the day of Halloween, totally on the fly.
When I was younger my mom made my Halloween costumes. I don’t remember any of them coming from a store. In this same spirt, I make my daughters’ costumes too.
I want my girls to be creative with their costume choices. Like we did, before there were Halloween mega shops and costumes started appearing on shelves before the back-to-school sales were finished.
That’s why this year, starting in August, I immediately recycled all catalogues that came in the mail featuring Halloween costumes. I wanted to hear the costume ideas they would create on their own, without the influence of advertisements and marketing via our mailbox. It became my little experiment.
The other big reason I avoid store-bought costumes is because my girls are getting older. And the costumes available in the post toddlers sizes are mostly scary or skippy, and not warm enough to wear out on Halloween night.
The post Taking Back Halloween: Fun & Empowering Costumes for Mighty Girls, at A Mighty Girl, does a nice job detailing what I mean here – including additional links to stories like Avoiding sexy costumes for girls, at CNN.com.
Finally, Saturday afternoon, just one hour before our neighborhood Halloween party – I finished making the last costume for my daughters.
It was the one I dreaded making the most. Because I didn’t know exactly how I was going to do it, until the moment I started sewing.
My middle girl decided to be a swan for Halloween. Not a ballet, fairy kind of swan with pretend wings. That would be too easy!
She wanted to be a white swan with real feathers and an orange beak!
It was the creative, independent kind of idea I was hoping they would come up with – so much that I wondered oh yikes! What have I gotten myself into?
But it worked out……
The skirt was made using two feather boas cut into four pieces each, and sewn to an elastic band forming the top of a skirt. Under the feather skirt is a hand-me-down flower girl dress that was handmade by someone (??) layered over a white turtle neck and gray leggings. Swans have grey legs and feet, which was an important detail my middle girl wanted to replicate.
Around her neck is a small boa and the two hair pieces are pre-made clips from the craft store. All the feather and boa things were on sale buy one get one half off the day I was there. For her beak we had a yellow body crayon from an old gift but the orange one was missing. So I layered her nose with the yellow crayon followed by an orange marker. I figured she’s covered her arms with marker before – so why not her nose?
My little girl came up with the idea to be a “Purple Baby Princess.” Because she is OBSESSED with purple. Using a curtain from the girls’ old bedroom, with the addition of a some frilly, shinny princess details, her dress was done in a flash and totally on the fly. It made her very happy. 
Lastly, here is Fern, from Charlotte’s Web. She is posing sideways, looking just like the cover of the book! She is carrying a Trick-or-Treat bag featuring an illustration from the book that I printed (from here) on fabric paper and sewed onto the bag I made from an up-cycled coffee bean sack. The only thing I had to buy extra for her costume was the white collared school uniform shirt I found on clearance for $4.99.
All together now…taa daaaa! 
To see more of our homemade Halloween costumes, visit last year’s post on Easy to Make Halloween costumes featuring a Star Fairy, Yellow Jacket, and RainbowLadybug Fairy.
Handwriting doesn’t come easy for my kindergarten-aged child.
Therefore, when my middle girl spontaneously decided to make a card for dad last weekend – with a handwritten note – it was a monumental event!
I protected her space, and her work, from her sisters. I informed my husband what she was doing so he knew to make a BIG deal about it. He took the card to work, hung it on his wall and texted me a picture of it to share with our daughter.
We wanted her to know that her card meant a lot.
My middle girl, like my eight-year-old daughter who I featured in a post having a play date to write report on Elephant Seals for fun, has been in a Montessori classroom since she was two-years-old.
They have had the same teachers and even spent one year in the same classroom together.
But their learning styles are completely different, providing an interesting observation regarding their Montessori experiences and how they have benefited from it.
Handwriting is the perfect example of us putting our faith in the Montessori learning method and our belief that our middle girl would do it when she was ready.
Sometimes I wondered if I should be prompting her to practice writing at home. My instincts always answered no. Because I didn’t want to make it a chore that frustrated her – even though I wish she were better at it, and that it came easier to her.
I feared if I made her do it she would rebel, it would backfire, and I would be taking the fun out of learning. So I didn’t do it.
Her teacher assured us she was on track and she would do it when she was ready. We waited, hoping she was right.
Last week in the parents library at our daughters’ school, I picked up the book Montessori Read and Write, a parents’ guide to literacy for children.
The first page I flipped to when I opened the book was randomly page 32.
“Children learn best when they have chosen an activity themselves,” jumped out at me in bold print.
I know this. I have known it for a long time. But BANG – it’s so nice to hear it again. Because it is SO true!
Early on we recognized that our middle child is the student who learns by observation, and will wait until she is fully motivated to join in.
She is helpful. She is a leader in the classroom, respectful to the environment and her classmates (so we hear).
On the other hand, she does not bring home a bag full of completed work on Fridays like my oldest daughter has always done. She doesn’t wear me out asking how to spell endless amounts of words until I send her to fetch her own dictionary, like my oldest girl has done since she was five.
We try not to compare our kids. However as caregivers we have the most experience with our own children. So not comparing them is nearly imposable as we make parenting decisions and evaluate if we are doing a good job raising our little people.
Last year, when our middle girl would have been considered in pre-k, we wondered if she would ever learn write her name. In the beginning of the year her teacher agreed that she would keep a watch on the situation, and possibly give her a gentle push to choose more challenging work that required a pencil.
We were all crossing our fingers and believing she would do it when she was ready.
And by the end of the school year, with all the tools and knowledge readily available to her, she did it!
She started writing when she was ready.
Handwriting still doesn’t come easy for her and it’s not her favorite thing to do. She doesn’t write birthday cards for her friends for fun, and she still writes letters backwards.
She did start kindergarten writing her first name, but not her last name. She started kindergarten already able to read basic words and Bob Books. She enjoys doing the parts of the horse lesson at school and learning about water and land formations.
She is smart! She enjoys learning. But handwriting doesn’t come easy.
She can however, write in cursive (the traditional Montessori way of teaching handwriting) when completing reading lessons with objects, like a jack – followed by drawing a picture of the object and writing the name beside it.
“Look mom,” she said proudly showing me her work from school. “It’s a perfect cursive j. It’s my best one ever!”
Yes it was. And I could tell by looking at her paper that she worked a long time on the lesson – erasing, and rewriting to get things right. Doing a good job was important to her.
Just like when she was making her card for dad.
“I want to do my best handwriting,” she said. “I want this to be perfect for Daddy.”
I fought back my emotions of sadness watching her work so hard, while being joyful at the same time seeing her proudly working to write the words, “I love you Dad.”
She erased, and started over, and began her card by asking me, “How do you spell I?”
It was bittersweet.
She made that card because she wanted to, out of the goodness of her sweet little heart and she happily tried her very, very best.
Then she sealed it in an envelope and put out for a surprise for dad to find while vacuuming out the cars.
As a protective mama bear, I pulled my oldest girl aside (who was already on the verge of causing an upset about where the card was being placed for the surprise) and told her she better not say A WORD about that card not being perfect when daddy opened it.
Things come easy to her in school. She’s always been a fast learner. At age six she had a calendar and kept track of all the family events and important dates, writing them all down and checking them off after they were over.
My middle girl will be six in five weeks. She’s still a little foggy on what happens which days during the week.
But I’m not comparing! I’m just saying, she will do things when she is ready.
I’m sure it’s not the only example of when things won’t come easy to her. But I have faith that she will do her best when she chooses to do it herself.
She was persistent about me arranging this play date.
The proposed report was for fun, not an assignment from school. She and her friend read a book at school about Elephant Seals in their free time, after they finished their weekly work plans. And they wanted to know more.
So during fall break last week, I arranged a play date and offered to take them to the library. They were thrilled about going to the library!!!
In addition to the book they chose on seals, they used one library card to split 36 books (the maximum allowed to check out at one time). I had the librarian print out two lists of the book titles they were checking out, and when the girls got home they diligently marked each of their lists as to who had what books to make sure they all get returned properly by the due date.
And they wrote a report on Elephant Seals. For fun!!!
Seeing these two friends sharing a love for learning that has become a part of who they are was a sweet ah-hah moment for me. It is the result we hope for from a Montessori education. When children have a inner desire to know more, to learn, because it’s what comes natural to them. And no one has steered them down a path to experience learning in any other way.
Imagine that? Writing a report on Elephant Seals for fun? I would have never done that as a kid.
We are definitely getting our money’s worth – or she is, really. The benefits of Montessori education are huge. I feel so blessed to be giving her this inspiring experience.
While sometimes I fantasize about homeschooling, I know could not have taught her to love learning so independently. In no way do I deserve all the credit for this awesome kid.
I can teach her the love of sewing. But loving to learn academically stems from being part of an enriching environment with interactive tools that are not driven by a curriculum of worksheets geared towards test scores or grades or daily quizzes.
It’s a process that inspires children to want to know more – to do homework for fun. It extends the natural curiosity of a toddler into an eager-to-learn school age child. And doing so in a group with other children has been a key part of the process, in my observation of my child.
The girls were delighted and entertained to learn how much an Elephant Seals weigh, where they live, what they eat and why they are called Elephant Seals. I was delighted to see these girls being such sweet little nerd friends together, sitting on bean bags on the front porch with papers and pens surrounded by books and information printed from two research websites for kids.
I had a mini flash forward to days of high school study sessions with friends. And I liked the way it felt. Big kid days are going to be fun.
Everyone in these local parts know about the wonderful, organic milk from the Cruze Dairy Farm. And thanks to an article last month in the New York Times about buttermilk that featured Colleen Cruze of the Cruze Dairy Farm – now LOTS more people have heard the buzz.
There are many wonderful photos and information marketing the corn maze on the Colleen’s blog Cruze Farm Girl. She does an amazing job of selling an image of the farm that hits home with consumers looking for good tasting, real dairy, from a fresh local source.
I’m here to share a few of the sights I took in while I was there. I hope you enjoy.
If you are local – visit the farm! Book a birthday party, take a hayride, buy a pumpkin and drink some milk. Next weekend is the last weekend for the corn maze – so don’t delay.
And yes, it IS true that Cruze Farm is now selling cow shares for raw milk! You have to pick up the raw milk at the farm, or at the Saturday market downtown which ends next month. Colleen’s dad, Earl, is the guy to call about raw milk shares (see photo for number). Here’s why I love raw milk.
She jumps on EVERYTHING, off of everything and even attempts to jump out of the bathtub! During our recent hike up Mt. Leconte she earned the nickname Little Jumper because when walking on the trials she stopped to jump on every single rock.
So we got the girl a bounce house for her birthday, hoping it would do the job of keeping her little for a while longer. Jump away my sweet baby girl!
We ate yummy cake, celebrated with a few friends and had a simple backyard party – with a bounce house that is. Okay, maybe not so simple. But she is my baby girl. And OMG she is THREE!
As a mama gift I sewed her this dress, like the ones I made the big girls for their first day of school.
I loved on her all day long.
And at 11:45 p.m. – on the exact the moment she was born – I ate my last piece of her birthday cake while I looked at photos from her birth. And I cried, of course.
Happy Birthday sweet baby girl!
It seems like this day, welcoming this baby girl into our arms and singing happy BIRTH day for the very firstsime, WAS JUST YESTERDAY.
A Simple Moment is a post that appears here every Friday.
A photo I want to remember of a simple moment, with a few simple words.
If you are inspired to do the same, leave a link in the comment section for all to see and read.
We have more than one moment this week, because I couldn’t choose. They are all from our visit to the Halls Fruit and Berry Patch, with some friends.
A Simple Moment was inspired by SouleMama. Visit her site to see many more moments.
The shower curtain I used is called Hip Paisley, and it’s by Peri. I purchased it on Ebay, and contacted the seller to see if she had a second curtain. She ran an Ebay store so she had two. I used shower curtain hooks and a tension rod to hang the curtain.
Sewing it was a simple and satisfying project.
Here’s how I did it
1. I hung the whole shower curtain on the curtain rod, and cut it to fit the windows – while it was hanging.
2. Lying the fabric flat, I cut the curtain liner to the same size making sure the salvaged edge of the liner fabric was at the top of the curtain.
3. I hemmed around the edges, sewing the liner into the hems, by folding over the fabric.
4. On the top seam, I used a long 3/8 heat n’ bond strip instead of actually sewing it because I didn’t want to have a visible seam since the curtain already had one and it would have altered the ascetics of the design.
5. Add grommets for a decorative touch, and hang on rod.
The finished product…..
The top with heat n’ bond on salvaged edge of liner….
The backside hem….
The matching shower curtain….
It all happened upstairs, in the girls’ bathroom. With a big sister and a friend helping to “loosen it up,” before my middle girl pulled out her own, very first tooth. Shortly after the first came out, her sister pulled out the second tooth!
We had a big day planned of birthday ear piercing for the NOW 8 YEAR OLD in this house. And it was the morning after we hosted her Backyard Movie Night birthday party.
I had been procrastinating making a Tooth Fairy Pillow, hoping the big event would wait until Monday. But it didn’t. Or they didn’t. I’m sure the big girls had a hand in getting those teeth out!
Either way my middle girl was thrilled.
Before the day’s festivities began I dashed downstairs and rummaged through my supplies to make my middle girl a Tooth Fairy Pillow!
I returned upstairs and hung this on the bed, hopping it would make feel special.
The fabric is the Princess and the Pea, by Heather Ross. It was leftover from a skirt I made for one of the girls. The fabric on the back is the same fabric as the tooth pocket on the front. The ribbon has wires on the edges and was in my rummage bin of ribbons.
I took my daughter into her room with her eyes closed. This was her face when she opened them!
She didn’t waste any time putting the teeth in the pillow.
The next morning she found two rolled up $5 bills. One for each tooth. That is the going rate here for loosing your first tooth. From then on out it’s $3 a tooth in our house.
What does the Tooth Fairy do at your house?