After a very long week, with the lowest point probably being the hour I spent sitting at the Social Security Office (think the DMV only much more depressing), Friday finally came.  We kicked off Grace's spring break (and what I am hoping to be a week of fun and relaxation) with an evening of sap boiling and family time.  Tomorrow pancakes for breakfast!

A Little Bit of Spring Cheer

Jackson's Bowl

Fabric scraps...


Plus a lot of glue...


And one silly boy...


Makes for this cute bowl.
(Idea found here)

Our Weekend

The Bad
~ Grace woke up Saturday morning throwing up with the stomach flu
~ Nora's cold came back
~ Saturday night everyone was up a one point for one reason or another
~ We had to cancel all of our weekend plans
~ Spring... where are you...

The Good
~ Friday night (before Grace got sick) we all had a nice evening hike/sap checking adventure.  It was such a beautiful evening, even with the snow.
~ We read a lot of books again this weekend.  Nothing is more fun for me then snuggling up with my kids by the fire and reading a stack of books.
~ I cleaned off our desk.  This is pretty major, it's been messy for at least a year.
~ We cleaned out the chicken coop.  The chicken's asked me to put that on this list as a highlight, they were pretty happy about it.
~ Ryan made me the cutest spice rack for my cutest spice jars.
~ I opened up some windows this weekend.  It felt so good to let some fresh air in the house.
~ Spring... you can't be far away now...

Just Another Spring Day Here in Minnesota

Waiting for Hot

It has been a long few weeks.  Filled with sickness, sleeplessness, class, papers, presentations, Ryan busy at work/working long hours, and filing our taxes.  And most notably, snowstorms.



I won't lie, there is a part of me that is glad that we still have snow on the ground.  With everything going I feel a little sense of relief that I'm not being pulled in one more direction.  That being said, one of the curses of this here is blog is that I can look back and see just what I was doing this time last year.  It is then that I don't care what I have going on now and just wish it was sunny and hot.  I had peas, kale and lettuce in the garden already for heaven's sake!



But here we are.
Winter is (still) all around.
And so I buy tulips.
And we make butterflies.
And plant a few seeds.
And I bundle up in my snow pants and sit outside with my eyes closed facing the sun (while Jackson builds a fort in the snow next to me).



Eventually it will come.  I can see the light at the end of this (very long) tunnel.

First Day Of Winter

I mean spring.

St. Paddy's Day

Green Juice
from the St. Paddy's Day Party my mom and I had with the kids
(and the world's shortest recipe)

Place several apples and a big bunch of kale through the juicer.  Done.

Next year I will make those green avocado and pistachio cookes

Learning to Read... and Sheep!

Grace is home from school sick again today.  I'm not sure if she's coming down with the bug that Nora has or if it's just that daylight savings time always takes a heavy toll on us.

In any case, Grace is using the opportunity of resting at home to practice her reading.  I have to say, as a parent, this is an amazing process to watch unfold.  Since play is an essential value of early Waldorf education, all formal teaching is held off until first grade.  So as parents, we have patiently waited, trusting and believing strongly in the education we have chosen for her, for this moment to come.  And what a treat it is to hear her pick up a book (and want to pick up a book) and slowly start to sound out words... words turning into sentences... sentences turning into stories.



And yes sheep is a topic on our minds these days.  We are in the research and information gathering stage right now.  We plan on attending the annual Shepherd's Harvest this year where I am already signed up for a class and Grace and I have plans to attend several demonstrations.  Grace is also signed up for a class of her own at Farm School where she will get to watch sheep being sheared and learn how to spin wool.  We are taking this learning stage very seriously and don't want to rush things, but if all goes as planned we are hoping to add sheep to our farm next spring.  We will see...

Spring Fever

A Hike With Daddy

Charting their course


Ready for anything noteworthy


Off they go


Stopping for snacks


Taking in the view


2 miles later... trip complete!

A Date With My Girl

Oh this was just what we needed today.  Out to lunch, knitting at our coffee shop (and tea and crumb cake for dessert) and the library.  It was perfect.

My Horrible, No Good, Rotten Day (with a happy ending)

The beginning of my day...

- started with me only having gotten four hours of sleep
- on my own getting Grace ready and off to school
- Jackson crying saying, "Mom why didn't you make granola last night?!"
- late to carpool
- knocked soup pot off stairwell shelf and it tumbled into the basement
- landed next to a mouse trap (with dead mouse inside)
- broke my glasses
- bathroom sink clogged

The middle of my day...

- my mom insisted on coming out to get Jackson
- where he got spent the day with her and my sister playing games and having fun (and not being around a crabby mama)
- Nora slept for 2 and 1/2 hours
- I slept for an hour

The end of my day...

Blessing

We have been neglecting our dinner time blessing as of late.  I don't know why that happens periodically but it does.  I decided what we really needed to get us back on track was some inspiration.  A new candle was defiantly in order.



And a new blessing as well.



I searched high and low and found this simple (new to us) blessing

"Thank you for the food we eat.
Thank you for the world so sweet.
Thank you for the birds that sing.
Thank you God for everything."



Ahh, that's better.

Beauty...

Is all around me.

A New Hobby

Jackson found this idea in one of his craft books a couple days ago and ever since we have been hooked (I remember loving making them as a kid too)

How to make a God's Eye
1.  Gather two sticks (Popsicle sticks or actual sticks work great too).
2.  Gather some yarn (this is great for those left over scraps of yarn too pretty throw away).
3.  Cross the sticks over each other to form an "X" and start winding some yarn around back and forth over the center to secure both together.
4.  Then take the yarn and go around each stick in a loop and then on the next.
5.  You can change colors as often as you like.
6.  Leave a tail at the end to make a loop and hang up.

Snow Day!

Grace's school was canceled today so we got to celebrate her first official snow day!



There sure was a lot of snow out there to help us celebrate.  With some help from daddy the two biggest kids built a pretty great fort too.



In other news I found a solution to the mitten problem.  In digging through our bin of "these things don't fit us yet" winter clothes I found this (too big) snowsuit.  How excited was I though to find that it has built in mittens. Excited.  It is a great hand me down from our good friends that I had packed away for next winter (before I understood the importance of built in mittens).



So Nora is officially ready for winter.
(And I am ready for spring).

If She Would Just Keep Her Mittens On...

There could be so much more of this!

Weekend Highlights

~ My class (it was such a good class on Saturday, I loved what we learned...although I'm pretty sure me being away wasn't a highlight for the rest of the family)
~ Grace got sick on Friday night- which was definitely not a highlight- but we thought it was going to be the stomach flu (since it's going around at school) so her not getting that was a highlight.  And she had a fast recovery- today she felt all better- so that was good too.
~ Making smoothies this morning
~ Playing dollhouse with Grace
~ Taping trees
~ Grocery shopping with Grace
~ Hearing Nora say "cheese" or "chhhheee" as she says it and "deer" or "da"