small wonders

I wrote briefly about Nathan's leadership bid in the last post. He did not win, but he did so very well, getting his progressive ideas out there and giving so many of us hope that politics can be done with honesty and integrity. We are glad to still have him represent us in Ottawa and I am sure that some time spent with his beautiful young family will be much needed.

It is feeling a little bit more spring-like around here these past few days. Though there are still mountains of snow, the weather has been sunny and warm and raising our spirits dramatically. It is a funny time- skiing and biking are both equally possible. And speaking of biking, Ari learned to ride a 2-wheeler this week! He just hopped on and started riding. I love this kid. He does things in his own time, when he is ready. And when he is ready, he does them so well. I don't have any pictures of the biking boy yet- there are no snow-free biking spots up here on the mountain yet, but we will head down into the valley this week with the camera to document the excitement.


I do have pictures of the millions of ferments I have bubbling up on top of the fridge. I found this great tutorial on making lacto-fermented veggies and it is so much more straightforward than what we had been doing. I am hopeful that these will turn out well as we go through pickles and sauerkraut very fast around here! 

I also have pictures of our garden excavation project. This is a sure sign of garden desperation dedication, no? It is a rather epic project, but seeing how quickly the earth starts to melt and warm up in this spring sunshine I am motivated to at least uncover a couple of the raised beds for some early spring crops. And besides, having a project to work on outside in the sunshine makes us all happy.

Knitting outside for the first time this year makes me happy too.

  

I have been meaning to post pictures of the boys room revamp for awhile now. We had been playing a rather extended game of musical beds/bedrooms for some time, and really needed to change things up (and get some sleep!). We decided to move Dorian's things into the downstairs bedroom and make him a sleeping space there in the same room as Ari, with 2 separate single beds in the little room. I knew this would be a big change for both of them (we had various versions of co-sleeping/family bed until then and both were used to sleeping with at least one adult in the bed with them) so I wanted it to feel special to them. I made them wall-pockets for the ends of their beds to hold books and PJs and any essential treasures. Perry found these lovely Chinese astrology art cards and we hung up other art that had been sitting in the closet for awhile waiting for a more permanent bedroom scenario.

They really love the space and we are all sleeping better these days. It feels quite peaceful in here. The boys tend to play out in the living room, and we've kept this room pretty sparse, so I sometimes come in here to work on a project or bring a load of laundry in to fold away from the hubub of the main living space.

And the real clincher in the boys accepting their new room was the magic lamp! Do you guys remember these? I always wanted one of these when I was a kid. The heat from the bulb makes the inner part spin and projects the images on the rice paper lamp. Ours has Japanese farm scenes on it. They are quite magical and a lovely soothing light to get dozy by. 
I'm getting dozy just thinking of it- off to bed myself- good night, friends!