It's still Winter

Yesterday, we had one of those fabulous teaser days. The kind of day that is just simply Spring, but I've lived here long enough to know that a day like yesterday is often followed by snow. This morning, it was snowing gently. It's the kind of reminder that Winter isn't done with us yet and we have to be patient. So, I let our little Snow Princess outside, captured her cuteness and she melted the cold away.

The Snowman

Sammy had to make a snow creature for school. He wanted a traditional snowman. So, Luke, Sam, and I spent a few hours one night creating this snowman. I got all excited and my creative juices started flowing. I envisioned  a tartan kilt for "our" snowman and ice skates, but Sammy restrained me a bit. We had so much fun with all our felt, pipe cleaners, and glitter glue! This whole experience made me want to do more crafts like this with the kids. I want my kids to learn that deep joy can come with unleashing our creativity. I could feel my brain churning with ideas and I knew that something good was happening.  I guess I should go and make my own snowman!

My own long winter

This is what I woke up to this morning. I sighed and accepted more snow. Spring is really tough for me here in Colorado. Just when I'm yearning for warm weather and picnics and being outdoors, that's when the snow comes. Usually, January and February are just cold, but there's not a lot of snow. It's the Spring that brings all this snow.

Luke and I just finished listening to The Long Winter yesterday. I was anxious to finish this book because I felt like just listening to it was making me colder and prolonging my own long winter. I hadn't re-visited The Long Winter since I was a girl. It just wasn't one of the Little House books that I read over and over. It's an excellent book about perseverance and being grateful for the little things. I still kind of wonder what it was like for Pa to sit down to those delicious hot pancakes at Almanzo and Royal's house after eating nothing but potatoes and coarse brown bread for weeks. It must have been like Heaven to eat warm pancakes soaked with maple syrup. I do wonder if he told Ma about his feast...maybe not for a long while. I wondered what it would be like to see the food supply diminishing knowing that there wouldn't be more until the train got through. I've just never experienced hunger like that. The thing is God provided. He took care of them and there was just enough until the train finally came in with their Christmas turkey.

Anyway, It's a little after noon and the snow is slowing down here and the sun peeks out every now and then, but I know there's more snow coming. I decided to celebrate having more than just potatoes in the house and I made a vanilla cream pie. I scraped the last of my vanilla bean seeds to make the filling and now my pie is chilling nicely in the fridge. It'll be a nice treat in our cozy house tonight.

Random Bits

January is a very nice month. At least here in Colorado, January is a nice month. Yes, it's cold, but it's beautiful and we usually don't get much snow. I actually really like cold weather, because cold weather is just plain old knitting inspiration! It's also just plain cozy, but it's gone already and February's here already. Looks like we've already settled into 2010 around here.

Okay, so I started knitting some of these socks on my trip to Breckenridge last weekend and I was making some serious progress when I thought that I better consult with Jenn about how long to knit the leg on the socks. It turns out that I was just happily knitting around and around and before I knew it, my leg was almost 6 inches long and with a single ball of Sunshine Yarn Merino Sport to make a pair of socks I knew I'd have to un-knit. Except that I didn't. I decided that I'm a much better knitter now and I boldly pulled out my DPNs and unravled several rows until my sock measured closer to 4 inches. I thought that I could easily pick the stitches back up and start the heel flap, but I couldn't. I got awfully close, but several stitches kept sliding downward and despite my best efforts with a crochet hook, I gave up and wound the yarn back into a ball. Oh well. I'll just start them again this week. I have plans for procuring some more
Merino sport tomorrow. I have not been buying yarn so that I could save my yarn budget for more Sunshine! I did however order some sock blockers today. I'm so close to finishing a pair of socks, but I really want to begin again on the Sell Your Sole sock pattern.


Book goals this week: I seriously need to finish Simplicity Parenting by Wednesday. I can't renew it, but I'm more than half-way on that one. Luke and I enjoying My Side of the Mountain immensely. We're listening to it when we drive around town doing errands. I love listening to books in the car. I also am working through The Day I became an Autodidact by Kendall Hailey. I know I won't be able to renew this one either. It's inspiring in the way that encourages me that there's learning wherever you want to find it. Just be curious and anxious to learn! I think that half the reason I like homeschooling so much is due to the fact that I'm excited and passionate about learning myself and I want to pass that on to my kids. I want to inspire them to want to discover and create throughout their lives.

Meal planning this week: Taking some budget advice from MaryG, I'm going to try implement grocery shopping only twice monthly. It should help me save a little money, help me plan better and make me happier because I'll be at the grocery store much less often. Okay, so this week, I'd like to make Chicken Pot Pie from The Pioneer Woman Cooks . I'm not sure that I'll use her crust recipe, but I'll try the filling recipe. I have plans for a hearty stew as well. I checked out the New England Soup Factory cookbook from the library and I'm going to make that stew. I also just got my new Cook's Illustrated and there's an article on how to bake the best chewy brownies. Usually, I'm a from -scratch baker, but I'll admit that box brownies are usually better. So, I'm now anxious to try the brownies in this month's Cook's Illustrated to see if they are better than my from-scratch attempts. Last week, I modified a chicken tortellini soup recipe from the New England Soup Factory cookbook and it turned out pretty hearty and tasty. I'll share the recipe later.

For now, I'll leave you some pictures from our short weekend trip to Breckenridge.



We strolled around the Snow Sculpture competition.

Tessie bundled up and in a good mood

I love this hat. It's a total boy hat. Sammy wasn't up for being photographed, but he's got one of these hats too in a nice red plaid.

Luke and I went ice skating and he's still trying to get the hang of skating while I worked on my repetoire of figures eights and axel jumps...Yes, I'm kidding. Happy February everyone! We'll see what Punxsutawney Phil has to report tomorrow.

Journey to the end of Winter

I can't believe it's been two weeks since I've posted anything. I've been thinking about it of course, but I just haven't found the time to sit down and post anything. Well, I probably could have found some time if Paul and I hadn't been catching up on Lost. We've only a couple more episodes to go and we'll be caught up and well that mysterious island is starting to make me crazy! Who are the Oceanic 6?

Anyway, it's been a tough Lent and it has felt longer than past Lents. You know that one book that I was going to read during Lent? I was trying so hard to simplify my Lenten journey, but I didn't even get to it. It's been on my nightstand and I only flipped through it a couple of times. The good thing is I don't feel guilty about it. Normally, I would berate myself for failing miserably during Lent, but I don't feel that way this year and that makes me happy. I'm growing! I don't have to do it all or even read the one book. We've been cooped up a lot this Winter, but the weather is slowly getting warmer, but I know not to get too excited yet. There is definitely more snow in our future, but still, it's lighter longer now and Easter is almost here!

Here's some pictures of the highlights from this winter. There's Sammy and Ella all snuggled up on the couch. I'm sure it was a pretty cold day. Aren't they so cute? Then there's the pictures of the boys in the kitchen. Sammy has asked me almost everyday if he can help cook. He says, "Mama, me cook egg." Hence, Sammy wearing the puppy chef's hat! Then there's the pics from that super warm day right before the big snow storm. Paul and Luke decided to fill the bird feeders because soon the birds will be back. Luke identified a chickadee in one of our bird feeders. After that extraordinarily warm day came the snow and here's the picture from my bedroom window.

Tonight we're going to Stations of the Cross and I'm looking forward to some time focusing on the Cross and ironically that will bring me joy.

The end of our first term

We made it. Today is the end of our first term. I've divided our school year into three manageable chunks of three terms of twelve weeks. Recently, I wrote that we were settling into a nice rhythm, but in the past couple of weeks I realized that I was already anticipating November 30th. I am ready for a break. I don't know about Luke, but I am ready for a change of pace around here. I'm sure that Thanksgiving broke our rhythm and it doesn't help that mentally I was already jumping ahead to all of my Advent plans. So, our schedule works out great as we can slow down and transition into the new Liturgical year. We can savor all of the richness this season has to offer. Now, I don't want to suggest that we take the whole month of December off. Remember, we're always learning! We're just going to focus on different things. As always, there is going to be a lot of story time and with the stacks and stacks of Advent and Christmas books that I've checked out from the library, we won't lack for a good story. I have tons of ideas. I want to read A Christmas Carol aloud during the evenings. (Last year, we checked out many different movie versions of A Christmas Carol. Luke couldn't get enough of this story and yet we did not read it aloud last year! Also, I've been looking all over for my Nutcracker CD to no success. You can bet that I will find it after Christmas, but I'm not that upset. I just ordered another copy and I know that this will comprise most of our study music during December. We are going to read The Nutcracker and learn about this fairy tale and we just read It's a Wonderful Life for kids! by Jimmy Hawkins which inspired me for a It's a Wonderful Life rabbit trail. I haven't seen the movie in a long time and I was excited that Paul checked it out from the library yesterday. Luke hasn't seen this movie yet either. There are so many charming holiday movies out there. Usually Luke balks at the idea of a black and White film, but we started watching Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire last night and so far, he really likes it without complaining about it being in black and white. (I can't believe I've never seen this film before!) So, as you can see my mind is churning on how to encompass both the magic and beauty of the Christmas season. I've also got some crafts planned. To coincide with our reading Snowflake Bentley, we are going to make 3-D snowflakes from a kit I ordered from Chinaberry and we're going to make beaded snowflake ornaments. (We actually started these and they are a little more challenging than I originally anticipated, but we shall persevere.) Also, I would like to take the time to memorize (along with Luke) the famous Clement C. Moore poem, The Night Before Christmas and I just got another idea! Of course, it will mean having more stacks of books, but it might be fun to check out several different editions of The Night Before Christmas and see how different illustrators interpret this poem. Borrowing from Real Learning, I've gotten the fairy bug. What a great way to teach Botany! There will be some interesting things to learn about the evergreens in our backyard! Next week we will celebrate the feast of St. Nicholas and this Sunday, we will light our first Advent candle. As you can see, I'm really excited as we move into new rhythms for Advent.