Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

Week Three for me of doing the blog hope over at

http://beautythatmoves.typepad.com/beauty_that_moves/

Besides the joy of documenting my kitchen, I am also working on my tech skills.  What a great excuse to try new things on my blog.

Many Blessings Friends, KYM

Breakfast made by my husband

Easter Dinner

Favorite Mugs

 Here is this weeks book list, of course I have not even gotten through last weeks magazines.  I scored two free copies of Mary Jane Farms and my Coastal Living arrived.  Yes, I live in the mountains...but we dream of retiring to an island in the Carribbean.  That is what gets us through the 9 months of winter we have in Gunnison, Colorado.  We are entering spring and I recently bought a bunch of seeds for my garden: spinach, beets, carrots, basil, squash, zuchhini....it is exciting weather-wise in the mountains, the temps are in the 50's and 60's but the wind is blustery, I never know what has blown over on my deck during the day.  Today two wrought iron chairs blew over and the plastic outside play kitchen...sometimes my laundry ends up all over my yard.  I'm sure my neighbors love me.  Its hard to be outside because it is  to windy.  Soon it will be so beautiful that you remember why you live in the mountains.

http://www.aneverydaystory.com/30-days-to-transform-your-play/




So I found this amazing blog and even though the month is more than half over I hope to spend the next 8 days catching up on the ideas in this blog and intergrate them into my home life and work.  As the childrens librarian, I believe in offering quality toys in the library to encourage play-self directed and with a family member or caregiver.

We recently participated in a kids art swap with Marcela at http://naturallyfundays.wordpress.com/
Tyler had a great time welding for the first time.  He made a snake out of a recycled bike chain. I was so proud of him and his incredible picture of our house.  I look forward to taking part in more craft swaps.

Capturing my love of whole foods, combined with the activity of a bustling kitchen.

A weekly collection of photos from the center of my home. 

http://beautythatmoves.typepad.com/beauty_that_moves/this-week-in-my-kitchen-blog-hop/



The Week in my Kitchen has been a fun way to check out what others are doing.
 Heres' a view from where I do dishes and what it looks like on a daily basis while I create my boys lunches.

Since this is only Monday, I feel like I am ahead of the game with at least one thing in my life, my kitchen blog post.
At the Gunnison Public Library, I have my dream job as a childrens and family service's librarian, as summer approaches  I am focusing on:
creating a party for the library with a Corduroy the Bear theme for family fun day.

I am also working on crafting a type of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) experience for summer reading. Maybe I will introduce it during the school year and call it Tinkering Thursdays?
I am looking closely at http://tinkerlab.com/



for inspiration...I am thinking about creating a tinkering Tool Box that kids can enjoy at their leisure.  A type of passive programming. That is programming that does not need a leader.  This will allow children to develop their own imagination and allow time for constructive and imaginative play.  I would also provide access to books that highlight these themes...Tinkering is defined as a hands on experience that encourages learning from failures and UNOBSTRUCTED time to create, explore and invent.
I read about some libraries offering science stations around their libraries as well.  I really need to focus on 5 or 6 topics or else I will plan forever and never get anything accomplished.  I think I will give myself a deadline of 4 hours of research and thats it. I like the idea of offering Mad Scienctist tea Party as either a kick-off or as a conclusion to summer reading.


I also think I am going to create a sketching basket filled with Ed Emberley books, pencils, erasers, paper etc
a Math Basket filled with Math related items and ????

Personally, I am excited to be planning a birthday party for my sweet 3 year old boy...my baby.

When Thomas came to us he was 6 weeks old, he had spent 3 weeks in the NICU and 2 weeks at home with his birth parents.  I remember getting the call to foster him, after that my mind can't really put together the way the events feel into place that day he came into our lives. It was love at first sight but as with any good foster parent the goal is always reunification even if I don"t believe that is always the best goal for the child.
But thats another post, right now I am happy to be planning his third birthday.  I purchased some balloon themed plates and cups at the DOLLAR STORE-WOW I love that place....I live in a small town and the nearest dollar store is an hour away along with a super Walmart.
So I finally went into a DOLLAR store and it was amazing!!!! Can't wait to return to purchase supplies for work and some storage containers for my never ending quest in organization.  I had to be thoughtful about purchases for the boys for their Easter baskets as I have been trying to offer "meaningful toys" and not a bunch of crap for them to play with...but I did stay in control and focused and purchased some art supplies (chalk, highlighters, preschool crayons, construction paper and word search), two bug catcher kits, some bubble bath, and of course some candy.

I have includes  some random lines of inspiration to help guide me in planning activities for the children of my community and for my own kiddos...this way I can keep track of thoughts without having a million sticky notes all over the place.
Beauty promotes concentration of thought
inviting environments create independence and sustained focus and encourage thoughtful learning
learn explore read
the environment is the third teacher
create story labs or investigation boxes
light box to purchase or create to be used with panels, magnetic chips, magnatiles, sea glass, transparent blocks and plexiglass bugs
acrylic mirror trays-create a more engaging experience because of the beauty of reflections
I want my Storytimess to develop imagination and curiosity
to include sensory exploration... lets move to music, play with water, paint messy pictures...read touch and feel books focus on social interaction, eye hand coordination and development of fine and gross motor skills,

Whats on this weeks reading list-magazines.  I want to read the Over Proteced Kid in the Atlantic, an interview with Phil Lesh in the Rolling Stone and Real Simple just cause its great and the article on walking works seems right up my alley since I feel this winter was not kind to me or maybe it was to kind!
I am listening to 
The book my husband and I both are reading is:



With Blessings, KYM

So decided to do the kitchen blog hop over at http://beautythatmoves.typepad.com/




I know that I love looking inside peoples houses so I thought I'd share what my house looks like.

I am listening to The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
and in the car the boys and I are listening to The Big Snow from the Little House on the Prairie series.  We started with The Farmer Boy and both loved it.  I have actually sneaked listening to some of the story without Tyler in the car. SHHH don't tell.
I have been working bit by bit on creating my own space downstairs in the guest room and am still wondering how much of the boys things to incorporate into the space.  I want to have a sacred space to create my altered art and whatever else I decide to do from my pinterest craft page.  I want the boys to feel comfortable down there as well without junking it up.  Maybe I will put art supplies and some puzzles down there so that they can play while I "create"...
It seems that gardening is in the air along with a fresh couple inches of snow.  I thing this year I will attempt to do a potato container garden, a strawberry patch, create a cinder block garden which I will plant spinach, zucchini and sweat peas.  On my deck, I want to have crazy tomato plants.  This will be the second year of a garden.  Last years garden froze before I could really reap the benefits.
I recently was part of a craft blogger swap and it was so wonderful that I signed my son up for one with
Marcela at  http://naturallyfundays.wordpress.com/.  

Tyler welded for the first time in creating his craft for his swap mate.  I really hope his craft pal enjoys it, I know that Tyler was so proud of himself that he is now a welder.

This weeks reading...

I am inspired to participate in the http://beautythatmoves.typepad.com/beauty_that_moves/
kitchen blog hop...maybe next week...
Finally, I can't believe my little baby T is going to be 3 this year. I am excited to plan his birthday.  I always say that Tyler was my wish on a shooting star and Thomas was my surprise.