13 Years

As usual we were spoiled by family on our anniversary.  On Saturday Katie and Kris took us out to dinner at Heartland.  YUM!  And so much fun.  My parents had the kids overnight too so on Sunday we got to enjoy the day just the two of us spending the afternoon in Stillwater restaurant hopping and eating so many delicious appetizers.  Today it is back to reality with a sick kiddo at home and Ryan back at work.  That's okay though, it's all part of this amazing, messy, challenging, and wonderful life we have carved out for ourselves.  Happy Anniversary Ryan, I love you.

Memorial Weekend

Today

Today I decided not to focus on the fiddle bow Jackson broke, or the (loooong) fight about school work Grace and I had, or the unhappy state little Nora was in most of the day.



 Nope.  Instead I kept my heart happy by planting and weeding and moving rocks around (have I talked about rock therapy before?  I must have.)  It was a good day in that garden.  Thank goodness for that.



One moment worth noting (when all three were happy) was the use of their new "invention".  Can't remember what they named it but basically they tied bikes to the wagon and gave Nora rides.  Yes, I'll take that moment to bed with me too.

Field Trip: Peter Pan

Homeschool Group

Today we had the delightful experience of visiting the one-room schoolhouse in Scandia with our homeschool group.  We followed this up with a trip to the bakery in Marine on St. Croix and a hike to the river.

Weekend Highlights

~ Friday Ryan went out with friends after work so I was a single parent all day.  I decided try and be "fun" mom for the day.  "Hey you guys want to go jump on the trampoline with me?"  "Pizza for dinner!"  Stuff like that.  And it was fun.  I think we all had the best day.

~ Saturday our neighbor put together a family nature event at Sunfish Lake Park.  We spent the morning there hiking and learning all about the natural world right out our back door.

~ This also inspired some serious morel mushroom hunting around here.  We enjoyed two dinners with morels this weekend.  My first time trying them... deeeeelicious.

~ So much time in the garden.  We have now planted kale and lettuce (these two were planted a month or so ago), peas, carrots, spinach, radishes, more lettuce, beets, and flowers.  There is so much more to go but it's going to get pretty cold here for the next few nights so I'm holding off a few more days.

~ Watching all three kids enjoying themselves in the garden.  Grace and Jackson getting their soil ready and planting and Nora making some delicious stews.

~ Sitting out on the deck with Ryan Saturday night in candle light listening to the spring peepers.

~ Ending the weekend going out for ice cream.

Two Moments From Our Day

Garden planning...




Tea and a Sparkle Story (a regular afternoon occurrence)

Mother's Day

Mother's Day Weekend Highlights...

~ Friday evening gardening
~ All day out in the garden on Saturday
~ New pea trellises
~ Pea gravel
~ Building new garden beds
~ Dinner in the barn
~ A family bike ride before bed
~ Waking up on Sunday to breakfast in bed
~ Followed by tea in bed
~ Followed by all five of us laying in bed reading
~ Well maybe a few of us were somersaulting in bed
~ But mostly we were reading... and some of us were reading to each other
~ Oh and I guess there may have been some singing as well (not by me)
~ And laughing.  And a lot of looking around trying to take in this scene, it was such a good one.
~ Followed by all five of us jumping on the trampoline (my new favorite way to exercise)
~ Followed by lunch and then 5 hours alone while Ryan brought the kids to his mom's
~ Followed by reading, writing, nap, more gardening.  Alone.
~ Followed by Ryan returning with children and dinner
~ Followed by games and bedtime books
~ Followed by me thinking back on how much I loved this weekend.  It was my favorite mother's day ever (though my kids tell me I say this every year)

Katie and Kris's Cabin

While the boys headed up to Ryan's dad's cabin for some spear fishing last weekend, the girls and I had our own little adventure up to Katie and Kris's cabin.  It was an awesome weekend, complete with ice cream cones, swimming (!?!?!), bonfires and their new dog Mayla.

Where We Are

Sometimes I get behind on coming here and then it becomes very hard to return.  There are so many posts to catch up on (Grace's play!  Field trips!  The retreat Grace and I just went on!  The garden!) and it all just seems to overwhelming.  In times like that it's easier if I just forget about all of that for now and start where we are.  So where we are...

~ The flowers are starting to bloom here.  This might be my favorite time of year on our farm.  After what seems like almost two weeks of blooming the magnolia tree is just starting to drop it's velvety petals.  Nora has repeatedly brought me excitedly to some new patch of color to show me her discovery.

~ A week ago, just before we were going to be heading out to the laundry mat with a load of towels and rugs (can't seem to get them to not feel like sandpaper after being on the line) I decided to just give our dryer another test.  Magically it started working again.  I was both ecstatic and depressed.  Ecstatic because I didn't even realize how much I missed it.  I mean I hate to say it because I really want to be someone who always hangs their laundry on the line but once it was working again I really just wanted to snuggle up with it, maybe even write it a love letter or two.  But I was also depressed because I worried I'd never go back to my laundry line, it had just finally became a part of my everyday routine.  But surprisingly after a week of using my dryer again I started really missing the laundry line.  So now I'm back to it.  Except for the towels.  Not sure I can ever get use to that one.

~ This weekend Nora was helping me with the laundry and as she peeked through some hanging shirts it suddenly reminded me of this day with Grace five years ago.  Awwww... so cute.

~  We've gotten the barn almost all cleaned up for the season and are starting to eat dinner out there whenever the weather permits.

~  Dinner in the barn is usually followed up with some sort of barn "show".

~  We did some clay work last week for school.  Forgot how much we all love that.

~ The garden... we planted some kale and lettuce three weeks ago and it is finally starting to sprout.  But today was the first day we've really had a chance to spend a big chunk of time working in there.  Can't wait to get back out there tomorrow.

Easter