priorities

February break is in full swing. This year has felt like one long winter vacation with all of our snow days. My kids and I aren't complaining- we love cozy days and any excuse to hang out together. There's a ton of baking, music making, and crafting going on… I just don't have the ability to chronicle it the way I used to (thank goodness for Instagram).  Being a single mother has impacted blogging regularly, but it hasn't altered my priorities around time with my children. In fact, I believe it's only strengthened my desire to give them everything I've got. This love flows out to their friends too… which must be why we always have a full house! And why I might find myself ironing yards and yards of rainbow chevron fabric for a curtain making project.

Yesterday while snowed in, again, we stayed in pajamas to sew and knit… for hours. Listening to music and talking while handcrafting inspire a deep connecting that I want my daughter and her friends to experience.  I'm not opposed to technology for this next generation, but I'm determined to expose them to the kind of communication that doesn't involve hashtags. There is an art to sharing time together- and I believe it is our job to teach our children how to "operate without screens", as well as with them.

Connecting with a community online will most likely be part of their future, as it is ours right now while you read this. Showing these sweet girls what quiet REAL TIME TOGETHER feels like is essential. 

magic moons and stars

Simple sugar cookies. Frozen leftover dough from Christmas. Stars and moons. Semi- spontaneous. Grandma's love. 

That last bit... that's why I'm blogging this.  My mother made extra cookie dough around the holidays. We froze it and saved it for a rainy day... or more accurately- a snow day! Yesterday, was the perfect time to pre-heat the oven. We felt my mom with us as the scent of baking stars and moons filled the kitchen. They were eaten with reverence and nostalgia and a little invocation of grandmotherly love. I think it will be a new tradition, and I thought that all of you out there with families flung far and wide might appreciate it too. Bake (or make) a little something extra during family visits to be frozen for a future day. What a sweet and ceremonious way to eat a batch of cookies!

Christmasy B-days

 This weekend I hosted my daughter's 9th birthday sleepover.  It was a couple of weeks after her actual birthday, which has become the norm for parties with her girlfriends. I thought I'd offer what I've learned in how to celebrate a birthday child that shares her special day so close to a big gift giving holiday like Christmas.

6 Tips for Christmasy B-days:

1. Planning and shopping in advance ensures that you aren't running out for cake ingredients and last minute gifts with the rest of the holiday crowds. Menu planning is up to the birthday child. She chooses early on so that everything can go on the grocery list in a timely way.
2. Keep the gifts separate. Not merging the holiday presents makes her birthday feel unique, and not an after thought.
3. Decorations: I use the same ones for all of our family's birthday celebrations for each year- a banner*, balloons, etc. They are very accessible and always in the same spot. I never want to repeat the manic panic for them in the midst of Christmas chaos that I once had a few years back. I have opted for bright and bold unisex colors so that we can all use them and as a bonus- it is an obvious detour from the red and green of the holidays.
4. Family celebrations vs. parties- we always celebrate with just family (and maybe an honorary family member or two) on the actual day and wait to have a friend party several weeks after everyone returns to a regular post holiday routine.
5. Gift schedule... slow and steady. All presents and cards are waiting at the breakfast table on the birthday morning. My kids know the routine by now. One or two small presents are opened at each meal until dinner. After dinner we have cake and the final presents, including whatever is the main gift. This routine helps to prolong the celebration and gives her some breathing room from what could easily turn into days of frenzied gift opening. 
6. I spend one evening sorting through gifts and determining what presents will be fun for Christmas and which ones feel like an honoring of my child to save for her birthday. I also sort which ones will logically work first. For an example, I will often get a book series and give the first one on Christmas. The next one or two will follow on her birthday. The same could be done for a birthday that comes before the holiday... just in reverse.

I'm so grateful that these steps were in place long before I became a single parent, because without such a steady manageable system a state of overwhelm could easily take over. Instead we had another calm and loving celebration. The slumber party on Saturday night? Not so calm, but a little wild sleeping bag frolicking is what a bunch of 9 year old girls need now and then!

*Although I consider myself the queen of handmade banners, the year we couldn't find our b-day one I gave myself permission to go to the store. It's now the one of choice. Ha! So if you are in the midst pre-birthday madness and are presented with the choice of hand-made or store bought, do yourself a favor... opt for simple-whatever that looks like for you. 

xox Maya

December Days

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 

Little corners of our home... both in and out... are starting to feel merrier.

I prefer to keep things simple, natural and easy. 

 Traditions like our count down calendar (see here, here and here) are a familiar framework to our December days. They are filled with little notes that lead to treats or activities. Everything is kept low-key, sweet and predictable. My children prefer it this way... and so do I.

 This makes us all very...

Our winter book collection, hot cocoa with candy cane stirrers, cutting snowflakes, Christmas tree hunting, and all of our annual favorites can be found waiting behind those little doors each day!

We always love adding a few new traditions to the mix. What are your tried and true December favorites? We'd love to hear!

wings

I was so confident yesterday when I posted  boasted that a simple poncho would be enough for our owl wings. When my daughter got dressed for trick or treating, she clearly felt that her minimalistic owl was lacking something. "Pleeeaaase put a few feathers on my tummy mama!" 

So, there I was in the final hour... sewing on several quick rows of feathers. She was right... it did need it- and I could do it.  Ha!  Whooooo said simplifying was easy!

Simplicity and Flexibility... they are sisters, are they not? Or perhaps they are mother and daughter.
Either way... we are learning, loving and growing. And last night we breathed in the last of October and spread our wings. Together.

on the menu: grandma!

And so August rolls on through... have you noticed how it carries the same bittersweet bliss as the end of a beautiful day. Summer is certainly not over, but the quickening towards Fall can be felt in the cooler days and subtle changes in light.

 For months we have awaited the visit of my mother to her sweet barn- and this weekend she arrived with bells on... ready for action. If I know Grandma, these next few weeks will be filled with delicious meals, inspiring diy projects, fun thrifting, and spontaneity around every corner. My children and I (and our friends too!) are so happy to have a bit of her magic twinkling about again.
Blackboard menus are making every meal feel like a treat... I don't think we've written one up since last summer's visit. How can that be? Must remedy that this moment.  A traveling board is great for outside dinners, and I've installed one near the kitchen now, too. There can't be too many...
A standard piece of masonite covered in blackboard paint is an easy addition to most kitchens.

 (Thanks to sweet friends for the zinnia delivery!)

Happy Monday morning to you!

home!

 This morning we left the magical mountains of New Hampshire, filled to the brim with the sweet love of family (and lots of baked goods!), and made the 7 hour trek home. My children and I have become champion travelers together. Forget squabbling. None- just fabulous conversations, quiet reading and fun music sharing. How did I get so lucky? Well, it might not be all luck. I'm working so hard at this solo parenting gig. It's often a struggle and takes tons of energy, but then we have two long car trips that show me just how well we all are doing together, and I'm energized and proud of our happy threesome.

This afternoon we drove through torrential downpours and hailstorms only to arrive home to sunny skies, happy cats, thrilled chickens and a garden that was finally ready to offer up dinner. I'm tired, but content.  I'm home.

 What is it that makes coming home feel so GOOD? What is your favorite part of returning to your nest?

****

nuts and bolts

 Thank you to everyone that left such sensitive and extremely thoughtful suggestions for how to handle the loss of an animal with children. You are each so compassionate and wise... and a very useful list was created for easy reference for all of us. We are moving on nicely today. Adjusting. I guess you could say that we are becoming experts at that as a family.

And in keeping with shifting and evolving,  I realized it was time to retire the old and make room for the new. Yesterday we spontaneously bought a dining room table on Craigslist. These old bolts held together our huge and heavy antique one that carried all the memories of over a decade of family meals. The three of us were dwarfed by it, and I was beginning to feel oppressed by it. Dismantling it this morning and placing our smaller and simpler table was a relief. Getting each table in and out of the back door was a huge feat that my son and I worked on for hours, but we did it! My toe is a bit sore from when the old table top fell on it. Yeah- ouch! But other than that, we are feeling totally successful, resourceful and capable. Those three qualities are the nuts and bolts of the life I want to make each day forward. Tonight we will celebrate with our first meal on our "just right" table.

my valentine

 I am the luckiest mama in the universe! I tell my children this everyday. And who wouldn't feel that way when given this folded origami heart... en español? Might just be the sweetest Valentine card I've ever received! 

May all of our hearts be full and strong today and everyday!

the answer

 You know those days when everything and everyone is a little off?  We had one over the weekend. It happens to all of us, right? It's these moments when I tell my kids to throw on their boots because we're heading outside. Nature is the trick... you know this, I'm sure. Fresh air, earth beneath our feet, wide vistas, small details... they bring us back into our bodies and still the noise in our heads. And for my little crew... it inspires harmony.  I often seek out water. It soothes me. I know it has the same effect  on my children. When I was young, there was the ocean. Now, there is the lake.

At home there are baskets of stones and jars of glass from previous lake adventures, but we stuff our pockets anyway. These new treasures are freshly infused with the energy of the lake and this moment. Who wouldn't want to hold onto that? And as I sit here in the early hours of the morning, sipping tea and writing to you, I am grateful for every bit we gathered. Snow came silently in the night, and who knows how long it will be before we see the shore again. I wish you all a peaceful day... and if something or someone feels a bit off, don't hesitate to throw on your boots. With or without snow- outside is always the answer.

*****

Lovely

We had been planning on getting a kitten for months. It was never the right time, until the week before Thanksgiving. We headed out to the SPCA to scout around and see who might be the right fit for our family. There's nothing quite like a kitten in your arms, and we fell in love with many of them. Before we made our final choice, my daughter wanted to go visit the adult cat area. While there, I got to talking to one of the volunteers. She convinced me that a kitten would be too much for our 9 year old cat, Hickory. She thought a female, one year or older would be a better match. I asked if she could point some out to me. "Well, that one over there might be perfect," she said motioning to the tiny siamese that my daughter was currently snuggled up with. Her name was Lovely, and we put in an adoption request immediately. Unfortunately, someone already had a hold on her, so we got on a waiting list. Two days later we heard that no one had shown up, and that she was ours, but had a cough... could we wait? Of course! You should have seen the happy dance we did that night. For the next few weeks, yes weeks, we waited for Lovely. There had been one cat sickness after another going around and they wouldn't let her go until she was totally healthy. That was fine by me... I was in no space to take care of a new sick kitty at the beginning of the holiday season. My kids, on the other hand were less patient. But finally, she was ready! On Tuesday we headed back to the SPCA.

 

We had many names picked out, but after all this time of calling her Lovely, it seems to have stuck. Besides, it suit her. She's sweet and calm, affectionate but shy. And really now, isn't she one little lovely cat? My daughter has already nicknamed her Love. She was obviously waiting for us as much as we were waiting for her.

reinventor

Hey, there!
 Do you know what today is? Holy moly it's Trailer Day! My Creativebug instructor trailer is now live and ready for you to go visit. Instead of feeling utterly vulnerable and shy, as I had expected- I am proud and grateful. This mini documentary (totally what it feels like to my mom!) is more than a simple introduction... it was crafted so that each frame literally has a story behind it. I have no idea what it will be like for someone who doesn't know the details of my life, but for those that do it is amazing how seamlessly so many facets of my world and history are woven together.

So here's inside scoop for you:
The San Francisco hill top is Bernal Heights. I grew up at the bottom at Precita Park, and my best friend lived at the tippy top. We played on those very rocks (with that sweeping view) every week for many years of my childhood. It was our fort and playhouse, the set for all of our imaginary play and adventures.

The street I'm walking down is to my old house on Precita... and it's where all of the old photos are taken from, too. I hadn't been back in years... but it's still exactly the same. It was kind of unbelievable to open the very gate I remembered swinging on when I was 5.

The murals? They were the backdrop of my girlhood. My neighborhood is renowned in San Francisco for its murals- they were and still are an integral part of the area's identity.  The artist for the one in the trailer lived down the street from me, and since I played with her daughter she painted us in. You can find out more about the Mission murals right here at Precita Eyes. We lived directly next door when the founders, Maria and Luis Cervantes, moved in...  it's still there providing incredible education and culture to the city. Some things don't change.

And then there's all of  the pieces of my grown up life and the country side that is such a contrast to those urban roots, but very much the expression of who I am today. It will look very familiar to you if you visit here frequently, but it's real- not a frozen snapshot.

***

And of course, since synchronicity is always at my side, it's not surprising that this week marks when the real reinventing of myself begins. My legal separation from my children's father is now official. The next chapter is really here. I've tried to be so strong, but last night I had a bit of overwhelm... a fragile moment when I thought- how the hell am I going to do this all by myself?  Raising two kids, building this business, running a home, making it fun, keeping it real, helping others, doing good... you know-  LIFE!

And then I woke up to this trailer... this gift.! This reminder!

Thank you to the Creativebug film crew (Debra, Fernando, Daryl, Danny, and Kelsey) who helped me to see myself and gave me my own words to answer any doubts I might ever have. Now, you'll just have to go watch to hear what they are!
xxx,
Maya

click here

SCRAP* SF

On my first day with Creative Bug... really my first hour, I was taken on a surprise field trip. We headed to SCRAP. Every time I had read about it online, I felt like it was crazy that I had never gone. And now I was on my way, with my sweet new friend, Ava. We drove down Army st. (now called Cesar Chavez Blvd.) under the freeway over passes and beyond my old neighborhood of Precita Park to go to the more industrial part of town I remembered fetching lumber from as a girl. We parked down a small street, next to a huge warehouse surrounded by chain link fences that had been decorated and embellished with junk and trash in the most inspiring way. SCRAP! I only have my phone pics, but that will give you a taste. I stepped into the cavernous depths and looked up at shelves and shelves of rescued materials organized to the last little washer and wire. Each aisle reached up to the old wooden rafters and was devoted to its own specialty: paper, textiles, wood, glass, toys... amazing!

As I looked through the boxes of of wooden scraps, there was a section separated from the rest and labeled "free of nails and safe for children's projects". I started to cry. Ava didn't question my tears... my goodness, this place would bring any one with my passion for recycled ingredients to their knees. But it was something deeper that had been stirred... a memory. A piece of me. A coming home. Ok, I know I'm all drama these days... but 2012 has been nothing short of dramatic for me.

I called my mom later that day, and I told her I went to SCRAP. Synchronicty is my middle name, as you know. She was currently on the opposite coast in Atlanta presenting at the National Association for the Education of Young Children's annual conference. Her workshop was titled: Re.Cycle, Re.Purpose, Re.Use: Incorporating Found Materials for Creative Expression into the Early Childhood Curriculum. I come from good stock, eh?  She confirmed the recognition I had felt, and then some.

So here's some San Francisco history for you. SCRAP was founded in 1976 "to breathe new life into old objects and reduce waste". It currently diverts about 200 tons of materials that would be heading to the landfill and makes it accessible to artists, tinkerers and educators. The 70's were the beginning of a cultural consciousness about the environment and San Francisco was at the forefront. My mother, an artist and educator, took me to Scrap frequently when she worked at The Toy Center (thus the familiarity even though it was housed in a new location). In 1977, with a Ford Foundation Grant and funding from the Rosenburg Foundation, my mother and a close friend founded The Toy Center- which provided an innovative and much needed service to low income families and parent playgroups. With the help from the SF Childcare Switchboard (now the Children's Council) they rented an old double storefront on 24th street near Mission St. It had been an old pharmacy with gorgeous glass cabinets and oak counters. They transformed it into a community space to teach workshops on how to make educational toys out of recycled materials.  The supplies came from none other than SCRAP. There were recycled cardboard ice cream bins filled with odds and ends to reinvent, including those little scraps of wood I recognized at the current SCRAP. I remember spending hours tinkering at the Toy Center when my sister was a baby. My mother carried her around in a Snuggly when she wasn't teaching other mothers how to use a dremel jigsaw to create their own wooden puzzles from photographs.  It was my job to care for her when my mother had to demonstrate the power tools. I still have one of those puzzles somewhere in my attic. I love that puzzle.

It's not like I didn't remember that The Toy Center was a part of my childhood... of course, I did. It was always part of my family's lore... but last week when I returned to San Francisco to film workshops on how to make something out of nothing...

I felt the full circle of a family legacy falling into place

... something akin to putting all of the pieces together in one of my mother's puzzles. Sometimes the road we follow is filled with unchartered territory and other times it's the continuation of your heritage. I think this path I'm on is a bit of both.  I'm so proud to be my mother's daughter!

But that's enough story time and lofty talk for this Friday, the bike inner tubes I brought home are calling out for some experimentation! Do you think my sewing machine can handle them? I bet you'll be making something this weekend, too...

*photo taken by my son who's quite interested in those tubes!

new eyes

Change happens and seasons turn... there's no stopping it. Try telling a flock of geese to turn back!

 So, we prepare... 

We celebrate the gifts it offers with returning favorites: water color leaves and yarn dolls.

 We pause and take small sips.

And never forget to be grateful for how alive change can make us feel.

 I'm appreciating this fall in the same way one might who has newly fallen in love... as if seeing everything through new eyes. In many ways, I am diving into a new relationship... with myself, my children and this beautiful world that keeps showing me each day how mysterious and often quite amazing it truly is.