King Winter

Eggs courtesy of Babette, Hei Hei, Meriwether, Sacagawea, Easter, Tum Tum, Gum Gum, and Susan



Old King Winter came out to play
And said I'm going to make this a very cold day
So he turned to the east ~ Whoooosh!
To the south ~ Whooosh!!
To the West Whooosh!

Then he turned to the North and said that's the best!
For my very good friend is the old North Wind
And when we play, we make a very, very, very cold day
Brrrrrr!

(from Mary Theines Schunemann, Sing a Song of Seasons)

Old King Winter please stop teasing us and come out to play! We keep getting flurries here and there but not enough to amount to anything. We got our toboggan out of storage and so look forward to using it again. Soon King Winter, please??? In the meantime the kids are amusing themselves with K teaching C how to drive the riding lawnmower and L trying to teach Baby F how to drive their mini tractor. That tractor has already come in handy a few times with L driving firewood over to our fire pit.

Unfortunately, our chickens don't feel the same way about the snow as we do. Whenever there is any snow on the ground they all huddle at the edge of the coop unsure of what to do. Eventually Sacagawea and Meriwethere Feather Lewis hop out and the others follow. They have the sweetest little personalities and crack us up daily. It feels so good to finally have our own little homestead. I look forward to it growing more and more.

p.s. - I love how Baby F's driving matches his personality - fiery, fierce and always at full speed.

King Winter

Autumn Leaves

Autumn is here. The leaves are falling but sadly they are not changing - just falling green and brown. Too much rain here the past couple of months. I am holding out for the explosion of color that I know will still happen, just like the autumns I remember growing up in New York.

Autumn Leaves

sniffles and jack o' lantern painting

The children and I all got hit with colds this week (I blame myself for slacking with thieves and elderberry syrup for a few days). I tried to ignore it and write off our sniffles as just seasonal allergies but I guess that was really just wishful thinking on my part. We are spending the week resting all cozy and warm inside our house. Housework has fallen by the wayside (isn't  that always the first thing to go when you're sick?). Snuggling in blankets and crafting have taken over. Something about creating seems to bring comfort to my sick little ones so this seemed like the perfect time to try a craft my friend Cynthia recently shared. It is geared towards younger children (Like Little L's age) but my girls can never pass up any sort of crafting opportunity and joined in.
 
The project is really similar to our watercolor Jack O' Lanterns except instead of using beeswax crayons to make their faces, you cut them out. Then you glue yellow tissue paper to the back so they look like they are illuminated by a candle. I think they are pretty sweet. I love (and should have expected) that Little L's Jack O' Lantern has shark teeth.

Here is our favorite Halloween song to sing while you work on your own Jack O' Lanterns:

Jack O' Lantern, Jack O' Lantern,  How your light it does shine,  Sitting up upon the window,  And your light it does shine. 
You were once an orange pumpkin,  Sitting on a pumpkin vine,  Now you are my Jack O' Lantern,  And your light it is mine.
Have a beautiful rest of the week, friends!

sniffles and jack o' lantern painting

winter good-bye

Winter good-bye,

Winter good-bye,

You may no longer stay,

Springtime is on it's way,

Winter good-bye,

Winter good-bye.

winter good-bye

Spring is coming!

 

spring is coming, spring is coming

birdies build your nest.

weave together straw and feather

doing each your best.

spring is coming, spring is coming

flowers are waking, too.

daisies, lilies, and daffodils

now are coming through.

spring is coming, spring is coming

all around is fair.

shimmer, glimmer on the meadow,

joy is everywhere.

 

Spring is still far away, yet I have been humming this song the past few days as the sunshine comes pouring into our home. I can't help but daydream. Even our indoor plants have noticed and have sent forth blossoms. The sunlight is very deceiving though. If you step outside the wind will chill you to the bone.

The thoughts of springtime gardening have me wanting nothing but smoothies and juices. Following the advice of Angela Liddon, I experimented with making juice in my Vitamix instead of pulling out our big juicer (in my very messy kitchen, because who has time to clean their kitchen with a new baby?!). I made her Yogi juice and was pleasantly surprised to find that the Vitamix method works!

Some of our most beloved friends from back in Portland  are coming out to visit us next week and we can not wait! I don't think I could put into words just how excited we are to see them. It will be a glorious visit for sure!

Spring is coming!

Laterne, Laterne {Martinmas 2015}

I didn't think we would manage it but somehow we pulled off a pretty nice Martinmas this year. We tied our celebration in with C's 2nd grade Saints and Heroes main lesson, which worked out quite nicely. I had plan to make wool lanterns but then we decided to scratch that idea when we remembered how strong the wind was on last year's lantern walk. We went with simple watercolor painted lanterns instead. They seemed a bit sturdier and up to the challenge. Little L decided he didn't want to make a lantern this year so he used his one from last year instead. Nara was the dog of choice for this Martinmas and she wore her SAR blinking light on her harness as her lantern.

The children all donned St. Martin cloaks for a couple of photographs but then changed into some winter coats for the actual walk. The weather was much more agreeable this year and we actually became quite hot on our walk. Even so, the children still wanted their traditional hot apple cider and roasted chestnuts when we returned home (by lantern light, of course!).

K serenaded us with Martinmas songs on her flute before we all headed off to bed. I thought I would share one of them with all of you:



Laterne, Laterne

Laterne, Laterne
Sonne, Mond und Sterne Brenne auf,
mein Licht, Brenne auf,
mein Licht Aber nur meine liebe Laterne nicht.

I can't speak or sing German but K sings this quite beautifully.The English version is known as My Lantern and can be found in the Wynstones Press Autumn book.

Laterne, Laterne {Martinmas 2015}