Friday Reflections

gorgeous photo by Alicia Moss of Moss Girls Photography

Friday Reflections is all about reflecting on the week by observing our senses.  My hope is that this will be a gentle, easy way to tune into how we are doing and what we are experiencing weekly when journaling in general can feel so daunting.

Now, for this week’s Friday Reflections (with each sense as your inspiration, consider how experiencing it impacted your week).

Here is my sensory round-up for this week:     

tasting ::  apple and cranberry oatmeal crisp, lentil and wheatberry salad, roasted veggies of every variety, simple salmon (brush with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and pop in the oven), a salted caramel brownie, spinach artichoke leek soup, mint chocolate chip cookies, tater tots

hearing :: women delight over the magic and meaning of working with horses and the power of introspection after a wonderful Be Unbridled on Saturday, Mean by Taylor Swift (as it turns out her fan base includes four year old boys with a pronounced sense of justice), Brave by Sara Bareilles (this may just be the perfect encore to Mean. And I love running to it.), Ain’t No Reason by Brett Dennen  (this song slays me. Beautiful, powerful, humbling lyrics).

smelling ::   tater tots.  There’s a restaurant near us that serves tater tots and Happy calls it the Tater Tot restaurant.  BF and I enjoyed a week night date as a way to celebrate the last week of summer and we found ourselves at the Tater Tot restaurant, smelling and enjoying tots.  

seeing ::  That gorgeous photo above taken by Alicia of Moss Girls Photography.  It is a shot of her daughter, and I am so touched that Beautiful You was brought into the picture.  I look at that shot and see such self-possession- a beautiful cornerstone of self-acceptance.   Also:  Happy do the robot.  We’ve been having family dance time after dinner and, holy cow!, that is the hardest I have laughed in a long time.  And speaking of dance, I am officially a Dance Mom as Happy started a Creative Movement class this week.  Another thing: a rain shower in my neighbor’s yard that abruptly stopped at our property line.  Also, a gorgeous rainbow that was so, so vibrant and big.  This picture does not do it justice.  And, finally, we went to see The Way, Way Back on our Wednesday night date and it was brilliant and wonderful and so, so good.  Get thee to the theater.  Seriously.

feeling ::  bittersweet.  I am so not ready for summer to be done and by this time next week, I’ll have taught my first class.  That said, we had a lovely summer and I know that as soon as I have my students in front of me, I’ll be so excited about the semester that any lingering back to school blues will be forgotten.

wishing/hoping ::  The other day, I scooped Happy up and said, “I love you so much.”  He looked at me thoughtfully, smiled and said, “I love me too!”  May it always be so, baby boy.  I cannot think of anything that I would want more for him than to always feel really proud of who he is and like he is earnestly trying to put his best out into the world.

What about you?  What were your sensational experiences this week?  Please share!

This post was inspired by Teacher Goes Back to School who was inspired by Pink of Perfection’s Five Sense Friday.