Seasonal Pivots (+ some Impressionist bookmarks)

various tidbits of ideas as fall approaches

Hello! Labor Day weekend—aka, the unofficial end of summer—is coming up soon, and you know we’re all about leaning into the seasons around here. More about that later, but first a few fun things!

Printable: Impressionist Cards and Bookmarks

There’s an older woman in my church who loves Van Gogh. She wears clothes printed with his paintings, her purse is Starry Night, etc., but unfortunately she’s been sick lately. I also adore Vincent and I’ve felt a stirring in my heart to make a card for her that incorporates our mutual favorite artist. This caused me to remember that most old art is free! Public domain and laser printers, baby. So I got a little carried away making bookmarks and notecards that are good to put inside cards as little gifts. I put together a set of Monet prints/bookmarks too, because my mom loves him. If you have any public-domain-printable-art-gift requests, let me know, and I might make another batch!

Here’s the PDF! I put the artist, title, and date in tiny print on the notecards. Cardstock recommended and you can use CVS if you don’t have a printer.

Monet And Van Gogh Notecards And Bookmarks

43.4MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Meal Inspiration: Egg, Cheese, & Jam Sandwiches

I recently figured out that breakfast sandwiches feel more overwhelming to make when you have the meat element to worry about, but if you omit bacon and all you have to do is fry up eggs (with salt and pepper) and put them on an English muffin with some Muenster and strawberry jam…um…it’s not much effort to live large with a filling and delicious start to your day. (Tip: two eggs per sandwich is more satisfying, and you probably want to heat your overall sandwich for 20 seconds or something right before serving so the bun is softer and warm.)

If anyone has an easy whole-wheat English muffin or crumpet recipe, please pass it along!

Some Great Picture Books

Here are some picture books we’ve enjoyed in our family lately.

• Grandma Gatewood Hikes the Appalachian Trail by Jennifer Thermes tells the true story of a woman who spent her younger years raising eleven children, until, at the age of 67, she decided to be the first woman to hike the Appalachian Trail. The sweet picture book takes you through the trail section-by-section—AT enthusiasts will recognize the landmarks—and it’s a powerful story of determination and gratitude for our beautiful country. (I plan to hike 30 miles of the AT with my mother-in-law in October! I’ll report back!)

• A Flood of Kindness by Ellen Leventhal and illustrated by Blythe Russo is a fairly serious and somber story about losing everything in a flood but appreciating the kindness of helpers (and being a helper yourself.)

• Otto by Jon Agee is a hilarious graphic novel in which all the words are palindromes—every piece of dialogue or background copy can be read forward or backward. It’s wacky and laugh-out-loud funny. Less fun to read aloud—little kids don’t quite get it—but it’s definitely enjoyable for word nerds.

• Waiting by Kevin Henkes is a gentle story with sweet illustrations and a wonderful surprise at the end. It’s a good time to talk to kids about seasons in weather and in life, and to ask them what they’re waiting for. Encourage them that having good company makes the wait not so bad ❤️

• Grandfather’s Journey by Allen Say is the tender true story of the author’s grandfather, and how he felt torn between his home in Japan and his home in California. It shows the complexity of immigration and the beauty of both places.

• One Green Apple by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Ted Lewin is about a young girl named Farah who is new to the US and feels alone until she finds friendship at a field trip to the apple orchard. It might be encouraging to a kid who is nervous about making friends at school, or it might help your kids be the kind of friend who finds ways to make connections and look out for others. Plus, fall vibes!

Activity Idea: Disassembled Bouquets

I saw this idea in The Joy of Watercolor by Emma Block. On regular printer paper, paint strokes and swatches that might look good as a flower bouquet, then let try. Cut some circles, stems, and leaves from your paint wash, and let your little ones glue an arrangement together as they see fit. (Don’t forget the cone that holds the bouquet.) When you’re done, you can paste the arrangement onto a contrasting watercolor swatch and it makes a beautiful little dimensional bookmark. My 5-year-old loved working on this with me.

Pep Talk: Seasonal Pivots

I grew up in Florida, where summer doesn’t feel like it’s slowing down until at least Halloween. As each seasonal equinox approaches, the landscape looks exactly the same and everyone’s schedules look pretty much the same. So you can imagine how, now that I live in an environment that does function quite differently every three months, I’m learning how to shift my mindset, rhythms, and priorities each season. So today I want to ask you, no matter where you live: what are some pivots you expect to make in the coming months?

Some of them might be outside of your control, like hosting a loved one who needs you, saying goodbye to someone you hold dear, or bearing with a challenging person. Maybe you’re having a baby or planning to bring adopted children home. Maybe some of the changes in the next few months are just ways you want to shift your priorities and be more productive (or more intentionally restful!)

For example, here are some of my changes for the next few months:

• Pivoting from a busy schedule/lots of friend hangouts/hosting a family member to fewer social commitments, lots more time outside, and going to bed earlier

• Pivoting from screen time on hot/buggy days to more hiking and reading outside

• Pivoting our homeschool to taking a break from our Language Arts workbooks/new lessons in math and focusing more on our math facts mastery and reading aloud Joy Hakim’s U.S. history series

• Pivoting from a gym membership to yoga, HIIT, and PiYO videos on Youtube (though expectations of my consistency are…low 😝)

And there are some things that are working well that I plan to keep the same, like:

• Going to the library every Monday for our STEAM class

• I’m continuing with the same five kick-butt meals because we still love them and it takes about two minutes to meal-plan each week

• Intermittent fasting on days 1-10 of my cycle and a less indulgent diet overall (treats gotta be treats!)

• Our daily whiteboard schedule and weekly checklists (though I’ll modify the schedule and checklists as we get closer to a shift in schedule/priorities)

In the winter, I plan to focus much more on lettter-writing, cooking/baking, and figuring out homemade kombucha (especially Dr. Pepper-flavored 🤯.) In the spring I’d really like to get a handle on gardening and nature journaling.

The nice thing about being aware of the ebbs and flows of life is you can wisely procrastinate. You can’t do everything or be everything you want all at once, and seasons exist. Sometimes your goal is just to survive and there’s no margin to focus on interests or hobbies. I’ve been there. Hugs. ❤️

Another change for me this season is I’ll be taking off the month of September from writing on Family Scripts or my personal blog. I paused paid memberships and opened up the archives in case you want any inspiration from this space. I hope you have a great month and I’d love to hear all about your seasonal pivots. Thanks for everything.

Warmly,

Hope from Family Scripts