Tuesday, April 26, 2016

spring things














Pretty much after I said I was feeling better, I wasn't. And Seth and Laura each had a bit of stomach flu on Friday while I descended into some version of the flu Friday and Saturday which took me to bed for most of both of those days. I recovered enough to get up on Saturday afternoon to order pizza, make cookies and prepare for a Sunday School lesson.
Sunday we were hosted for lunch by a church family who has two boys close to Seth's age, so a baseball game broke out in the afternoon at the park across the street from their home. Kate and I formed the cheering bench.
It was a lovely time. But I've been nursing a sore throat since Sunday afternoon. So yesterday I made my first batch of brewed iced tea for this year, minus the mint, although I used one peppermint tea bag along with the other regular black tea bags to give it the illusion of mint. It has helped soothe my throat since I realized my hot tea drinks were not. Yes, it has sugar, but lots of lemon juice and it's cold.
Yesterday, Laura took to the garden to plant a pine cone and build a drum kit out of tree stumps and plastic cups. A bit of loose parts play for sure.
In other news, buds are starting to break open and show all manner of colorful foliage. And my bulbs are just starting to burst open with color. Off to do some reading in my jammies.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

today *updated*

When I finished showering and tidying upstairs, I came downstairs with a basket of laundry headed for the basement and saw that that the girls had been busy. This is usually Laura's work with help from Kate, often following Laura's instructions and ideas. Of course, they were off doing something else by the time I happened on the scene. This type of play goes on all day in between activities and lessons they do with me.




This afternoon, after the girl's rest time and Seth had finished his work, we took a walk along the river and into the woods. It was hard to see much beauty since they have cut so many trees down in anticipation of pipe work beginning soon. But as Seth pointed out, the mosquitoes may not be as bad, since their shade has been majorly reduced. We did see what we think is either a beaver or an otter, it was hard to tell the difference since it was so far away from us, but we have seen both in the river over the years we have lived here so we will keep looking for it and trying to identify whatever it is.
It's a great swimmer, gliding along with barely a ripple. My photos below are not very clear, but if you look for brown patch of wet fur in the water, you can see what we saw. It will be nice to see the leaves coming out, since it feels quite desolate with all the trees down.




We also saw our first butterfly of the season. It fluttered right down next to my shoe just as I was taking a step. As I whipped out the camera, it flew to this downed tree branch and continued to open and close its wings which appeared to be brown on the outside and bright orange on the inside. From our guide books, I'm considering it part of the 'Coppers' species for now.







I had been holding Kate's hand as she walked along, occasionally reaching her arms out to be carried which I heartlessly refused. We usually bring the wagon for her, but she's getting stronger, so I wanted her to walk. I did turn us around sooner than we would have, to keep her from having to walk too far back to the house. I took a break from holding her hand on the way back and instead Seth and Laura offered to hold her hand. She thought it was great and practiced many fun steps while holding onto to both of their hands.




It was a good day, as we have all recovered mostly from the various colds we had in this last week. Today was the first day I had energy since early last week. It felt so nice to tackle laundry and cleaning projects on my to-do list in addition to our regular lesson work. Nights are tiring as my chest gets tighter and I cough very easily. But with nice warmer days, even being sick is not so bad, especially with lots of good books to read. I couldn't get my March Book List done, so look for a combined March/ April at the end of this month. I try not to feel bad that I missed it, but I like to keep up-to-date. 

Wednesday, April 06, 2016

the days go by






























Play, play and more play. That's what stands out when I see all these photos coming from our camera folder. Our kids do watch tv and play games on tablets and Playstation, so I can't claim that they have an unplugged childhood like I did. But since we have set times for those activities, I am mostly content that they understand the value of unplugged play.  I hope they have good memories of their childhood play like I do of mine. It also helps that when we leave the house for shopping, appointments, or whatever, we leave our devices at home. Our cell phone isn't available to them since we only use it for phone, camera and occasional texting.
In other news of occasional use, I now have reading glasses. A pack of three from Costco. I only need them when I am already wearing my contacts and the print is too fine. But that didn't stop my husband from teasing me about my aging issues as you can see by the birthday card he picked for me.
After a chilly fall and dark winter, my tea chest was totally depleted. I am now back in business with a full selection which is comforting. Although I did run out of my regular Lipton tea last week, (pantry fail) and had to buy Red Rose. Umm, I can't tell the difference. So maybe my snobbiness for Lipton is over and was totally unfounded. Who knew?
Don't you just love that floral bag? I found that at the Old Navy outlet in our area and I have been using it almost every time I leave the house, although I'm careful about where I put it down since the bottom is not lined. No more using the grocery bags, which are nice in their own way, but this is for me to enjoy as something comfortable and feminine.
I'm still a bit behind on posting photos as most of these are from several weeks ago now. We are having a spring snow storm tonight, so my flower and vegetable gardens will have a setback and we will be watching the snow all melt away, again. But the snow is pretty, especially along the river and the geese aren't giving up, so I'm not either. Real spring is on its way and the mosquitoes will be here before I'm ready for them, which is never.