February, weaselling itself away - Hallelujah!

Well, my friends, we have made it to the halfway point of February, and beyond, and that is reason in itself to celebrate! The days are already visibly longer, and we have had some near-tropical days, for here anyway, of +1! So the children and I have been enjoying some (muchmuchmuch needed) fresh air.

(This was taken in January)

You can probably see the little marks of the window screen through this picture. 

Because I was inside taking their picture.

I don't do winter. At least not a Charlotte Mason-y outdoors-every-day winter. Eeee-yuck.

Love those teeny little baby feet, while getting mooned over by Isaiah

Anna is already 3.5 months old. Where is time going? Of course I realize that makes her still a Very Tiny Person, but insofar as babyhood goes, time is going by quickly. I told Noah the other day about the Nourishing Traditions idea of feeding a baby egg yolk at 4 months old, which got him excited, but then I shocked myself when I realized that is only two weeks away for our Little Queen. The idea of feeding her anything seems absurd; she was just born yesterday, wailing and pink and holy and sweet-smelling, correct?

No, clearly not born yesterday. But beautiful nonetheless.

Patrick has been given a promotion at Lifesite, which makes us all very proud. He's now the Associate Editor, adding new excitement and responsibilities, meanwhile holding down his former position, too. This means he's now working incredibly long days maintaining both jobs -- like 12, 13 hour days -- but continuously stoking our wood stove and growing his hair and beard to new wild lengths.

I feel like I am Caroline Ingalls.

Action shot of "Pa" dancing to 

"Let me be Your Teddy Bear" with the boys

 on Valentine's Day

I could stare at this picture twenty times a day and still smile each time.

This is an almost daily sight of my two babies curling up together at nap time while I enjoy a little quiet, too (and Noah gets to listen to an audio book... or perhaps Vinyl Cafe).

I'm really delighted by the little community emerging among our children -- they have their own little lives and games and opinions distinct from Patrick and I. It's startling to me sometimes that they are different from us. That probably sounds silly; of course they are different people than us. But when it's expressed outwardly it's quiet amazing!

Catching the boys immersed in some wild game involving tape, cardboard and wild made-up names is so sweet. Catching them including Anna? Adorable.

(Although there can be certain indignities of having two big brothers.)

Our homeschooling still consists of mainly me reading to them -- lots of chapter books have taken over which is ineffably exciting to me! -- doing crafts and playing 'games' that instil number competency (Noah's skills in letters, phonics and writing are actually pretty advanced so I don't need to be intentional about that with him).

I miss being able to send them into the yard for a natural science lesson (which sounds so lazy, but is actually a Real Thing. Even the Type A Laura Berquist says not to have a 'science lesson' for Kindergarteners. Rather let them maintain a garden, raise chickens, examine a spider web -- you know, instil wonder at creation).

So we do a lot of art until the weather gets nicer. I like adding some colour to these greyish winter days.

Contact paper with painted hearts cut from a box of Tetley. 

Upcycled?

On the subject of Valentine's Day, I am such a grinch. 

On the 11th or 12th I told Patrick in a not-so-sweet tone of voice "the only nice thing about Valentine's Day is that it means February is half over!"

Poor man proved me wrong. He bought me dark chocolate with almonds and a bottle of sparkling grape juice and plunked down in front of "Downton Abbey" with me for two whole episodes.

(And as it turns out, I am not a total grinch. I made cupcakes with the kids for dessert that night, and set the table with china and candles for all of us. The kids were bouncing off the walls with giddiness at the 'fancy' table. I am always so touched and humbled by how simply I can bring them joy -- a few lit candles and a tablecloth and nice music playing over supper and even a crockpot roast becomes a feast in their eyes.)

We got a seed catalogue in the mail from Hope Seeds in the mail and now we are dreaming of gardening. Or really, just spring. Our kale turned out decently last year considering I watered it exactly three times.

Noah took charge of the rest of the maintenance.

So perhaps we will grow a few more things this year. Not being hugely pregnant makes this sound more doable.

Maybe because our life is so indoors-y right now I can teach them pop culture things. Because... imagine my horror yesterday when playing "American Pie" and dancing while making lunch and the lyric "Do you believe in rock and roll?" came on.

Noah said "What is rock and roll?"

Oh.

We seriously need to branch out from this Raffi / Palestrina rut we have going on.