Live, Love, Simple.

live simply, love madly, make magic.

Live, Love, Simple.

  • Shop
  • About Us
  • Start Here
  • Our Birth Stories
    • Roman’s Birth Story
    • Marina’s Birth Story
  • Parties
    • Unicorn Party
    • Camping Party
    • Princess Party
    • Cowboy Party
  • Partner With Us
  • Contact
  • Disclosure

homeschool

thoughts on kindergarten // livelovesimple.com

thoughts on kindergarten, public school & education…

October 10, 2018

Yesterday while Marina and I were waiting for Roman to get out of school, I ran into an old friend who has a daughter a year ahead of Roman. Her daughter and Roman went to school together at a local co-operative preschool for one year. She and I share many of the same values in…

Read More
Dena 2 Comments
homeschooling // livelovesimple.com

homeschooling // lots of play

May 1, 2017

I honestly cannot believe that it’s May already! Time always moves quickly, but this past month has truly flown by. There are so many things going on in my life at the moment, it seems like I blinked once, and April was over. As we move into May, I am reminded that the end of…

Read More
Dena 6 Comments
First Day // livelovesimple.com

Roman’s First Day of Preschool

September 14, 2016

Today marks one week since I took these pictures and one week since Roman’s first day of preschool. Over the years, I’ve shared how I’ve gone back & forth between sending my children off to school and homeschooling. About a year ago, I began bringing Roman to church with me on Sundays and leaving him…

Read More
Dena No Comments
toddler preschool // livelovesimple.com

homeschooling // toddler preschool

August 11, 2015

A few weeks back, I took a bunch of the littles’ clothing to the consignment store to sell. While I was waiting for our clothes to be sorted, I walked around & discovered that the store also sells gently used childrens’ books. What a dream! I picked up two new books to add to our…

Read More
Dena 1 Comment

Toddler Preschool: Watercolors & Shapes // Homeschooling

July 10, 2015

Over the past couple of years, we have been thinking a lot about public schools vs. private schools vs. homeschooling. I imagine that these thoughts cross all parents’ minds at some point. It’s a big decision and there are so many pros & cons on all sides. It will be a little while longer until…

Read More
Dena 4 Comments

Categories

MOTHERHOOD
FOOD
STYLE
HAPPINESS
SIMPLICITY
ADVENTURES
PARTY

CURRENTLY LOVING

SUBSCRIBE

Top Posts & Pages

  • 101 Inspirational Quotes
    101 Inspirational Quotes
  • How I Saved $10,000 in Six Months
    How I Saved $10,000 in Six Months
  • He Sacrifices His Health In Order to Make Money
    He Sacrifices His Health In Order to Make Money
  • A NYC Christmas Walking Tour
    A NYC Christmas Walking Tour
  • Fate vs. Freewill: How to Fulfill Your Life's Purpose
    Fate vs. Freewill: How to Fulfill Your Life's Purpose
  • My first colonic. (Yes, you read that right.)
    My first colonic. (Yes, you read that right.)
  • Poetry Friday: The Uses of Sorrow | Mary Oliver
    Poetry Friday: The Uses of Sorrow | Mary Oliver
  • Poetry Friday: The Thing Is | Ellen Bass
    Poetry Friday: The Thing Is | Ellen Bass
  • Let Go of Your Ego
    Let Go of Your Ego
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Saved My Life
    Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Saved My Life

CURRENTLY READING

POPULAR RECIPES

Archives

Instagram

  • โ€œStay close to people who feel like sunshine.โ€ ๐Ÿ’›โ˜€๏ธ๐Ÿ’ซโœจ // ๐Ÿ“ธ: @erinwitkowskiphoto
  • All of the magic. โœจ
  • How were they this little? How were they this sweet? Want to make me cry on a dime? Show me this picture. Every damned time. ๐Ÿ–ค๐ŸŽƒ
  • โ€œThe Guest Houseโ€

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond. โ€”Rumi
  • I made a blog post the other day all about autumn and I was searching through old posts looking for fall pictures. I found a bunch of golden ones from Halloweenโ€™s past. Iโ€™ll share a couple of my favorites here over the next few days. This one is probably my all-time favorite. I canโ€™t believe how little all of my loves were here. I remember this day like it was yesterday. Precious in every way. ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ‚โœจ #childhoodunplugged #childhoodlove
  • On our second day in Ireland, we visited the village of Kilkenny which is a beautiful little college town built around an ancient castleโ€”Kilkenny Castle. We wandered the shops, took photographs outside the castle and had a lovely lunch at @leftbank_kk. It was such a special day. On our ride into town we passed this house with their gorgeous hydrangea bush in front. Gratefully my sister was ever-patient with my need to work backwards to find the things that caught my eye & let me take a million photographs. โœจ
  • There was this stretch of time in my mid-twenties that I called โ€œThe Golden Periodโ€ because life felt so beautiful. My days and nights were warm and dreamy and magic. It was as though everything was coated with sugar and gold-dust. I remember living through that time and wishing that those days would never end.
โ€ข
But of course one day they did end, and in the years that came nextโ€“those warm, dreamy days became a distant memory.
โ€ข
Nearly 7 years would come and pass after that. I wonโ€™t call those years a period of darkness because, my God, there was so much light. But it was hard and it was heavy. Through most of it, I felt like it was too much to bear and I was always buckling under the weight of it. I pressed through it, as one does. And one day the heaviness became lighter, and one day I found myself looking at photographs and thinking, this is goldenโ€“the golden has come back to me after all.
โ€ข
And these days, they are filled with so much love and so much gold that most moments my heart feels like it will explode for the gratitude. These days there are adventures and sunlight and the colors of the world are rich and saturated again, like an oil painting. The feeling of hope rises up in the air like bubbles blown softly from a wand, riding on the wind, up and up and up. And where the scars are, now there are soft hands and whispers that it will all be okay. When the nightmares come, there is something to reach out and hold onto and ride out the storm. My own arms carry me when I am afraid, and in learning how to trust and love myself, I have also learned how to open my heart again.
โ€ข
It is only when we trust in the strength of our own arms enough, that we can be brave enough to truly fall at all. ๐ŸŒ™
  • Now, three and a half years after leaving, I realize that there is not, in fact, less of me. I am undoubtedly changed, yes, but I am not less. For all of the things that I lost, I gained that much more.โ 
โ โ€ข
I grew and I transformed and I overcame. I had no choice but to. This experience will take everything from you at times, but when you come out on the other side of it, you will be so strong from the act of surviving the storm. Then, you will decide what you do with that strength. It will harden you or it will soften you. Or perhaps, it will do both if you are brave and unwavering.โ 
โ โ€ข
I have also learned, perhaps most importantly for me, that I did not fail my children. I saved my children. The โ€œbroken familyโ€ life was not the life that I would have chosen for us, but it was the life that we were meant to have. And in our case, it took breaking to allow us to heal. โ โœจ
โ 
  • ๐•๐• ๐•ฆ ๐•™๐•’๐•ง๐•– ๐•ค๐•ฆ๐•—๐•—๐•–๐•ฃ๐•–๐•• ๐•–๐•Ÿ๐• ๐•ฆ๐•˜๐•™. ๐•€๐•ฅ'๐•ค ๐•ฅ๐•š๐•ž๐•– ๐•—๐• ๐•ฃ ๐•›๐• ๐•ช. โœจ
© 2019 Live, Love, Simple. | Designed by: Theme Freesia | Powered by: WordPress