Just for fun   

   Sweet Simple things. . . . .

Rich making me coffee before he left for work

a calm school day

when we tried making beads out of homemade playdough.  When we baked them in the oven they puffed out like strange marshmallows.

when we made cookies (jam thumbprints)

seeing Caleb’s reaction to his cookie (he ate the jam out first)

receiving Caleb’s hug and face rub into my clean outfit. . .now I am walking around with jam on myself

taking a nap

hearing yet another “Little Liza” story.  Making them up is “all the rage” at my house (the imagination is amazing!)

talking with friends on the phone

reading “Spot”. . . again. . .and that “truck book” again. . . .

being trapped in the house because of the cold

making homemade soup

waiting for my husband to get home

knowing it’s FRIDAY!

(he came home with roses)

     “In the deepest snows, the path which I used from the highway to my house, about half a mile long, might have been represented by a meandering dotted line, with wide intervals between the dots.  For a week of even weather I took exactly the same number of steps, and of the same length, coming and going, stepping deliberately and with the precision of a pair of dividers in my own deep tracks,-to such routine the winter reduces us,-yet often they were filled with heaven’s own blue.  But no weather interfered fatally with my walks, or rather my going abroad, for I frequently tramped eight or ten miles through the deepest snow to keep an appointment with a beech-tree, or a yellow-birch, or an old acquaintance among the pines; when the ice and snow causing their limbs to droop, and so sharpening their tops, had changed the pines into fir-trees; wading to the tops of the highest hills when snow was nearly two feet deep on a level, and shaking down another snow-storm on my head at every step; or sometimes creeping and floundering thither on my hands and knees, when the hunters had gone to their winter quarters.”  THOREAU, in Walden

She is surrounded by blue, with treasures in her hands: a chunk of ice that looks like crystal and her toy dog.

Green calm below, blue quietness above.
   John Greenleaf Whittier

She is surrounded by blue, with treasures in her hands: a chunk of ice that looks like crystal and her toy dog.

Green calm below, blue quietness above.
   John Greenleaf Whittier

Sometimes I have to be creative to get the children to sit in a row, look at the camera, and smile.  This time, I said to them, “Ok everyone!  Look at the camera and say, “I LOVE GRANDMA’s ELBOW!!” Jacob thought it was so funny that he fell right off his seat.  I took both pictures in a matter of seconds. . . .

(David is trying to look really tough in the first picture.  Then look at him in the second, about to CRY because his back end got cold!)

What a hoot. 

I was able to go outside this morning with my camera.  Jacob, Ethan, and Grace were up and outside by 7 and they didn’t come in until almost 9!  It was lovely being out, but I was afraid I was going to slip and fall.  There are some hilly spots on our property.  Perfect for sledding but hard for Mommy to walk on.  (um. Did I just call myself Mommy?)

 A snow girl made by Grace:

I could have invented lace today. 

Who, I say, WHO lives HERE?  This is a hole that is way over by the woods at the end of one of the ponds.  (AWAY from the house, in other words) Grace says Angie was investigating and that’s her pawprint in the picture.  Does a mouse family live here?  I feel a Beatrix Potter moment coming on!

My little bird:

Walking in a
Winter Wonderland

Caleb was disappointed with the book.  There was no Thomas the tank engine and the sentences were too long and confusing for him.  Maybe he should have stayed in his playpen, look at his face!  He’s thinking, “This book is awful!”

Do you see my new find hanging on the wall?  It is that square open-work iron wall hanging.  I bought it at an antique store for far less than Pottery barn’s prices!  And that’s a vintage light green fiesta plate hanging next to the corner of it.   There is another plate in the opposite corner. 

Waldenbooks is going out of business so yesterday after my doctor’s appt. I went to the mall to see if I could find anything.  I bought:

The entire boxed set of the Narnia series.  It is paperback but the books are heavy, substantial, with sewn binding and full color original illustrations.

A boxed set of “Kit” American Girl books.

3 American Girl mystery books.

An American Girl horse book.

That Curious George book seen in above photos.

# 8 of the Master and Commander series for me.

Betty Crocker’s Cooky book–because my Grandma had the same one. 

I also went to Sears and bought a pair of Lands End gray lounge pants (they are very cute and so cozy) and a red sweater (bright color to cheer me up!) and a pretty tunic shirt (I like the neckline).

My friend Karen watched the kids while I was gone and when I got home she called out the door, “What did you get?” and I said,

“Clothes and Books!”

Caleb was disappointed with the book.  There was no Thomas the tank engine and the sentences were too long and confusing for him.  Maybe he should have stayed in his playpen, look at his face!  He’s thinking, “This book is awful!”

Do you see my new find hanging on the wall?  It is that square open-work iron wall hanging.  I bought it at an antique store for far less than Pottery barn’s prices!  And that’s a vintage light green fiesta plate hanging next to the corner of it.   There is another plate in the opposite corner. 

Waldenbooks is going out of business so yesterday after my doctor’s appt. I went to the mall to see if I could find anything.  I bought:

The entire boxed set of the Narnia series.  It is paperback but the books are heavy, substantial, with sewn binding and full color original illustrations.

A boxed set of “Kit” American Girl books.

3 American Girl mystery books.

An American Girl horse book.

That Curious George book seen in above photos.

# 8 of the Master and Commander series for me.

Betty Crocker’s Cooky book–because my Grandma had the same one. 

I also went to Sears and bought a pair of Lands End gray lounge pants (they are very cute and so cozy) and a red sweater (bright color to cheer me up!) and a pretty tunic shirt (I like the neckline).

My friend Karen watched the kids while I was gone and when I got home she called out the door, “What did you get?” and I said,

“Clothes and Books!”

If I didn’t have 4 energetic children I would not have cold toes right now.

I’ve been outside on the porch watching the four of them play PLAY PLAY in the snow.  Did you know, if you really try, you can make snowballs and go sledding and make a snowfort in just a half inch layer of snow?

They also made a whole choir of snow angels.

Grace laughed to herself once and I said, “What’s so funny, Grace?” and she said, “I just put 2 snowballs together, see?”

When she looked at her creation, SHE LAUGHED.

And I wonder, how I can ever be sad and run down when I have so much inspiration in these children that God gave me?

18 month old Caleb, the only one who did not go out, was inside watching “Kipper”.  I looked in the window at him and he was so cute that I knocked on the window to get his attention.

He didn’t move his eyes away from Kipper.  Not once.  I knocked and knocked and tapped and called his name. 

I love my children.

Also, I am feeling somewhat better.

God’s perfect love to you all.  Have a wonderful evening!