May 30, 2011

Your sweet Daddy had Memorial Day off.  We all slept until 10! (Well, Daddy got up and took Malachi to school first.) 
Then we ate biscuits and played with a shoe box full of circuit/motor/battery/science geek stuff that a neighbor brought over. 
Then we took the dogs for a water hike at Bull Creek.  Oh, nothing like a fine summer day and a big water hike.

 Weird, weird water bug.

We found several pools of tadpoles that had become stranded as the creek continues to evaporate in this awful drought.  We started bringing water over to them from the bigger pools.

Then we realized it might be better to scoop them up and take them to the bigger pools instead of the other way around.

 It was too hot for a plain old hike so we hit the creek instead.

 Walking home - Holt family style.

Dead snake stop.

Tinkering.

Finny went to Tinkering class at Kami Wilt's Tinkering School. What a magnificent time!

He dug right in and starting creating the most amazing marble run.


He loves hot glue guns. I really appreciate a facilitator who lets children work with "dangerous" things. How else will they learn?


Kami and some of the other boys. Finn working intently.

You can read more about Tinkering HERE and HERE.
Next week he'll be in Tinkering Camp! Monday - Friday...tinker, tinker, tinker.

Where we live.

Check out this cool map of the house he drew. Clearly he has his father's internal GPS. Mine is quite faulty.

The things he "says."

I love these big words that I found at Terra Toys. How sweet is this sentence he made?

A Magical Life Indeed.

A delicious reading fort scavenged from behind Walgreens. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader sounds so very, very good in here.


Books of magic, magic wands, potions, potion jars...there's magic everywhere around here these days!

The Best Auntie Ever...

has gone home. Sigh. She was here for an entire month. There were movies, there was swimming, there was eating out, and scooter riding, and cake eating, and long talks, and lots of driving around together. We love and miss her so. Our dear, dear Auntie Mara.

Monday, June 26

We made paper airplanes.
Finn inserted a dart into one of the best airplanes.
It really worked !

Thanks to StacyLynn for that bitchin' dart set that we love ever so much!

Neighborhood Ice Cream Social

Our lovely neighborhood has built-in fun. This was part of the 54th anniversary celebration of Crestview. And a good time was had by all, as they say.

Saturday, June 24

A delightful trip to the fish store to get some goldfish for our stock pond. (Photo by Finn himself!) The girl at the store treated us to something really special by letting us in the back room to see the new baby finches! Beyond cute. I just wish they were free. Free in the outdoors, I mean, not monetarily free.


A magical evening at Quicksand Farms out in Manor. We were lucky enough to be invited to their annual Full Moon Potluck and Contra Dance party. It was amazing! All that is good in Texas was here tonight.

Chewin' on a straw in the spirit of things.


Our dear friends who invited us: Marc, Ruth Ann, and Miss Ruby.

Friday, the 23rd

What he likes to eat: iceberg lettuce (which he calls, "frozen lettuce") with blue cheese dressing, a biscuit with homemade strawberry jelly only, and one of mama's super smoothies.


Learning about the wonders of gesso. Tibbs is very interested in the paint brush movement. (How I love that oilcloth tablecloth.)

En Garde!

Finn's been wanting to fence since he was tiny. I took him to watch his first class when he was around 3. Finally, finally, we are there. He is a bona fide member of the Texas Fencing Academy and the USA Fencing organization. He loves it. LOVES it. Mama loves it too.

And so we begin, again.

I've decide to resurrect this sweet little blog. I'd like my family to be able to see more of Finn, and more of our family life than they can on Wabi-SabiHomeandGarden. I know I can't give it the attention that I did before, but I hope to simply provide a little photographic journey for all of us. This time is so wonderful and endearing - I feel so blessed to be able to live it, and share it.

Love, Michele, Jack, and Finnigan the Curious

Wishing for God.

My sweet, perfect, amazing, incredible boy has been having trouble sleeping for weeks now.
Maybe it's summer.
Maybe it's being 5 and having so much going on.
Maybe it's having such a fun life that it's just too hard to end each day.
Anyway, it's been hard on all of us, but mostly him.
I very distinctly remember being scared as a kid. A lot.
I actually remember being terrified. A lot.
So, I know how he feels.
Jackdaddy and I do every thing we possibly can to help him. We stay up as late as humanly possible; we leave lights on; we all sleep together; we talk about taking control of our dreams; we lay down and then get up; we walk around the house with him in our arms; we tell stories; we sing songs. We do it all.

Sometimes, however, you gotta bring in the big guns.

Last night, Finn said:
"I wish I had a God that would do what I wanted except not when I'm being mean or mad."
I thought he said God, but I could not imagine he'd said God because we don't say God and where would he come up that word, especially in that context?
I asked him to repeat what he said.
Yep, he said God.
What he meant was that he wished he had a God who would do what he wanted it to do, but for it not to do the things he asked for when he was mad or angry.
Jack and I were both dumbfounded.
I was secretly thrilled.
I firmly believe that sometimes you have to reach deeper than the self you can easily access.
It seems that Finny does too.
I asked him what he would ask of his God right now.
He said that he would tell his God to make it morning already.
The prayer of a 5-year-old.
I told him that he does have a God and that his God would never, ever do the things we ask for when we're mad or angry or hurt. Never. I told him that our Gods know exactly what it is we really want and that Gods understand that you don't mean what you say when you're feeling grouchy. I told him that his God knew that he was a wonderful, kind, thoughtful, sweet boy all the time, even when he didn't act that way.
Acting is not being.

I find all of this amazing as I have just started reading, Eat, Pray, Love and am loving it. It's stirring up stuff for me and making me feel that wonderful spiritual high that I sometimes get (and often lose).
So, here I am feeling this kind of Godhigh, and here Finn is calling on his God.
I want him to feel that he has every option available to him - his parents, his friends, his family, himself, the world, God. Sometimes it's just too hard to do it all alone.
I don't know if there is a God outside of ourselves. I'm long past needing to understand it, I just want to feel it. My strong feeling is that God is simply all the joyful and loving energy in the Universe. I believe that the more joyful and loving energy we put out, the bigger God gets.
That's gotta' be good, right?

So, if you pray tonight, please ask that the morning comes soon for FinnigantheCurious because that what he really needs right now.

Love,

Michele, Jack and Finnigan the Curious

Father and Son

OH, the joy of a Daddy and boy.


Finny was so excited for Jack to have a special day. After yoga, Jack came home to this beautiful DECLARATION OF LOVE banner.
Our Jack is so sweet that he let Finn take him to Dave and Busters for Father's Day so "they" could play video games. Finn was just sure that Jack really needed to fly an airplane and since he couldn't fly a real one today, he made sure he got to fly a simulator. It was pretty cool and Jack did love it. Maybe next year we'll have a real plane for him to fly?


Not a day goes by that I am not astounded and grateful for the love, attention and kindness of this man to this boy. They are so in love and there must be nothing greater known to man than the love between a father and son. My heart is so full of them. Finn told us before we went to bed,


"Mom, I know you might not believe this, but tonight I love Daddy more than you."


Could you just die at that kind of love?


And I sure did miss my own Daddy today. I often lament the fact that his generation had such different things expected of them. How much he missed out on with my me and my brother. He was a kind and sweet Daddy, but I look at Jack and think how different my Dad's life might have been had he been born in another era. I think about my Dad most days. I'll never not miss him, I know that for sure. And as I've grown older I've been able to embrace all the love that he was and forget all that I thought he wasn't. He was my Daddy and I'll never have another.


Hug your daddies for me.


Love,
Michele, Jack and Finnigan the Curious

Blah, Blah, Blogging

Oh, my, I've been a bad, bad blogger.
Sometimes blogging feels like "one more thing I have to do."
Sometimes I do it with such joy.
Lately, it's been the former.
I also started a new house and garden blog and that's been my passion of late. (I'll reveal it soon, still working on back posting.)

So, here's a quick recap of May and early June and I promise I'll try to do better!

Major construction on the house including new driveway, new garage floor, new front porch, new walkway, new outdoor shower/hot tub redo. Whew!

See above.

I was in a play. It was fun and I'm glad that it's over.

Jackdaddy and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.
It was lovely and I'm so thrilled to still be together. Growing, loving, learning, laughing and sometimes barely muddling through!

Y'all come on over and be sure to drive up in the driveway!

Love,

Michele, Jack and Finnigan the Curious

Baby bird on the John Deere

Can you see that little guy on top of the tractor?

 His mama was having an absolute fit so I went over to investigate and there he was, sitting in the sandbox and hopping from toy to toy.  I brought the dogs inside to give him a better chance.  I guess he made it because I never found any feathers and the mama stopped fussing.  

Poor mama,  I know just how she felt.

We'll leave the light on for you.

Last night I went to brush my teeth and found this surprise 

in the medicine cabinet:

Isn't Jackdaddy just the sweetest thing ever?

We always leave our aeroplane nightlight on when he's gone.  It keeps us all safe.

Night-night Jackdaddy.

We love and miss you!

We love and miss y'all too!

Michele, Jack (in Switzerland) and Finnigan the Curious

My caterpillars!

Aren't they lovely?

I like clean.

Oh, I just love it when my house is clean.

Y'all better come by quick 'cuz it won't look like this long.

Love,

Michele, Jack (in Switzerland) and the Finnigan the Curious

Something Fun

I went to The Dollar Tree and found some bags of plastic cowboys and Indians. I glued them all along the top of my fence. They look so funny and silly. I'm always reminded of one of my favorite kid movies, "The Indian in the Cupboard" when I see little plastic toys. My kitchen window looks out on this part of the fence and I can always hear what people are saying when they walk by. Lots of people slow down when they see the mermaid on the garage and start looking more closely. I've heard lots of nice comments about my little guys on the fence. I realized at some point though that the squirrels and birds were having a hard time perching up there. I love my wildlife and felt kind of bad that I had interrupted their spot. Eventually they starting knocking the little guys down. That's OK with me...there are still some hanging around and the wildlife opened up a few spots for themselves - everybody wins! (Except the Indians, of course, but that's another story, right?)

Pow, Pow, y'all!

Love,

Michele, Jack and Finnigan the Curious