We are deep into our holiday celebrations, enjoying every minute of this time together. We had a lovely bonfire and candle-lit solstice celebration, and exchanged our homemade gifts, all made with such care and love. We will have friends and family over tomorrow so today has been busy with baking and cooking and preparations (and lots of skating for the boys!) 
Wishing you all days of warmth and peace.

around here:

:: enjoying the lovely weather- snow and sun and sparkling sunrises. I had to rush out this morning to catch this light as best I could.

:: celebrating the days. 

:: holiday crafting

:: the books are out,

::watching the birds at the feeder,

:: our advent candle, by Ari

::eggnog!

:: the snow plow left some big snow piles for sliding. The boys slid down this one for and hour and a half this morning. 

And this afternoon the boys declared this "play day" and have set up the whole living room with train tracks and towns and tunnels under the couch. I have tossed out the plans I had and am letting them play out their happy, epic game. Maybe they'll stop to eat at some point. I am enjoying it too- listening to some holiday music and sipping eggnog and getting a blog post written right in the middle of the day- this is homeschooling in December!

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Well, we have been settling into this winter season, enjoying cozying up by the fire, and getting started on some yule projects. Ari has rediscovered finger knitting, and has plans to make a very cool Solstice gift for his brother using the rainbow chains he's making. Yesterday I decided to start the rather epic hand sewing project of finally sewing some numbers onto our advent calender (4 digits sewn on, only 37 left to go!) and we sat together on the couch and worked on our projects side-by-side, with the fire crackling beside us. Oh, such loveliness!

I have a pile of holiday projects I am looking forward to getting to, but realizing that the first order of buisness is finding my sewing table- not to mention the floor- in my little sewing nook.I'll keep looking at that sweet bird fabric to inspire me to get cleaning- I do want to get to that one soon!

On the homeschool front, we just finished our vowel block and Ari enjoyed the story and all the painting. We will work with another Language Arts block through the month of December, mostly focusing on Yule/solstice stories and craft/baking projects.

In the afternoons after Ari's quiet time (when Dori is still finishing his,) we've had a practice time to work on simple handwriting sheets and to work with the math skills from the last block. Many of these activities are games that we both enjoy playing together, or working with pattern blocks or cuisinare rods. I think the cuisinare workbook that comes with the Enki math curriculum is terrific, I see Ari building such a intuitive sense of number and addition/subtraction through working with the blocks. He also just really enjoys it.

Plus, they are fun to build with too!

I've been amazed at how suddenly independent my boys have become. They hop into their snowsuits on their own and are eager to spend time outside whether I manage to get out there with them or not. And yesterday afternoon I was on the phone and looked into the living room and found them playing Go Fish, all on their own- they had gotten the cards and card holders from the games cupboard and set themselves up without my help. It is such a gift to watch them grow and change, and to learn to depend on each other, as well as their Mama and Papa for help. And even as I marvel at how big and independent they are, I am also regularly struck by how little they still are, how sweet and vulnerable and open to magic and wonder.  This mama-heart of mine is full to bursting watching my sweet boys grow into themselves.

Today is the first day of advent, and we will decorate an advent candle together this afternoon to light every night at supper as we count down to the coming of the light. Oh, I do love this season so. 

Oh, hello there. Has it really been a month since I've been here? Sorry about the absence, and thank you for the notes of concern- we are all very well, busy with lots of things, but I've not been managing to photograph and post about it here. I'll try and get here a little more regularly in the coming months! So- a very quick catch up:

 Winter has arrived truly and fully. There is snow to play in and we are needing to bundle up well to go outside. Ari and Dori have taken on the job of filling the bird feeder on their own now- they have developed a system where Ari stays up the ladder and Dori hands up the containers filled with seeds and then Ari drops them down to be refilled. It works very well!

We had the wonderful treat of a visit from my sister and her adorable daughter. We were all thrilled to have them here and to love up the littlest cousin. Cute is right!

 The boys have been very busy with their projects and constructions. We got a new freezer recently, and the most exciting part of this was these cardboard pieces that have provided hours of marble-run- making entertainment. Also Dorian has been loving the lincon logs and has decided he will grow up to be a builder.

Homeschooling has been going very well. We finished our first math block and are half way through our second Language Arts block, working with the vowels with a terrific story and lots of painting. Maybe someday I'll get to writing more about all that like I said I would!

Also this month I had one of the most incredible, moving, beautiful experience of my life- attending the birth of my best friend's perfect, adorable baby girl. I took pictures for her during the birth, though all I will post here is the little knitted vest I made for her. It is using some wool I hand dyed using lichens I gathered last autumn (or was it two autumn's ago- sheesh, it might have been!) I had originally planned to knit a shawl with it, but I am loving how soft and subtle is is for little baby wear. There are a couple more skeins of it- there may be more little lichen garments to report on someday!

So yes, all is well here. We're happy and busy with all we are doing, and I will try to get the camera out more often for keeping track of it all here.
 I hope you are all well out there friends!

around here this week:

:: eating apples

::playing, playing, playing

:: dealing with all the tomatoes that are ripening in the apple box in the back room. Feeling thankful that all the green ones we pulled out of the greenhouse have turned into these red jewels.

:: enjoying our school work. In these pictures Dorian is drawing a castle (I am loving his drawing so much these days!) and Ari is working on a 100's chart. He is really enjoying our math block, he loves to play around with numbers.

:: slipping away when I can to help my dear friend to get settled into her new house before her baby comes. Taking home her baby woolens to wash for her and loving having tiny woolly things on the drying rack again!

 :: loving this transition time from autumn to winter- the snow moving down the mountains a little each day, the leaves blowing off in the gusts of cold wind, the mix of sun and rain and even a bit of snow that melts quickly. Ari can't wait for winter so he can get his skiis on again. I am happy to have autumn stay a bit longer!

:: lots of time with the chickens this week. These ones are the "baby chicks" from this year that the boys were so involved in raising. They are laying now so we moved them over to the layers coop. But there are now 2 roosters and 17 hens, and we have been keeping a close eye on the chicken dynamics. The old birds are not accepting these ones as readily as they have in the past, but no one is being hurt so we'll watch and see. This new rooster is a beauty, isn't he? He's very gentlemanly with his ladies too- the kids have been feeding them rosehips and he takes them, "kills them" by whacking them on the ground a few times, and then calls his girls over and drops them at their feet!

 :: walking to many of our favorite places on the land that we hardly visited in the height of garden/farm season. The boys are thrilled to be back on their favorite "running hills" and secret tree houses in the woods.

Happy weekend  friends!