small wonders

This week we have been using up more of our winter stores- we made apples sauce and apple butter from the last of our keeper apples, which were no longer keeping so well. They stayed pretty crisp until lately though, and it was nice to make some fresh apple sauce in March. I tried making apple butter in the crock pot for the first time and it was so easy and tasty. 

We are also eating a lot of eggs as the chickens start laying more and more. We spent some time in the coop today freshening it up in there and giving the chickens some treats. I love the chickens we have this year, they are so friendly and happy to see us when we come by. I love how they all have to try out their nests after we put in new nesting materials, flying up to test each one out. Chickens are cool.

More knitting: another attempt at something tiny, this time it seems to really be baby sized. And finishing up the Root Cellaring book. Lots of good ideas about how to take better care of our cellar and how to grow and take care of veggies so they keep better. And some new veggies to try growing- celeriac and endive perhaps?

Getting ice cream delivered right to the kitchen window from the backyard ice cream stand. This flavour was raspberry-chocolate-blueberry with chocolate sprinkles. And the fact that they were out there on their own happily playing was as sweet as the imaginary ice cream!

Lots and lots of doll play around here. I have to say, my boys playing so sweetly with their dolls really warms my heart. They are learning to be such wonderful caretakers and nurturers as they carefully dress and attend to their dolls and soft toys. I love it. (and look at Ari's sweet hair cut! It was hard for me to let those long locks go, but he was ready for a cut and I wont miss the chore of chasing him down to brush it! And he made sure that they left it long enough that he can still toss it around when he dances.)

There was, however some fighting over the fact that Ari's doll has a sweater and Dori's doll only has a vest and he is too cold and so I spent a few minutes before breakfast chopping up a few sweater pieces from a bag of half knit sweaters my mom had thrifted for me  to sew into a little dolly sweater. Now Sam-the-dolly is warm. Phew.

 I have been finding myself rather uninspired with cooking suppers lately. I have been making meal plans, but have not always been managing to cook whatever I had planned. Tonight we had the perfect spring meal -Snack Supper! I made a batch of crackers and we ate them with pickles, canned salmon, veggies, (more) boiled eggs, olives and fruit, and then with butter and apple butter for dessert. Easy peasy and everyone was happy.

Ari had his last ski day this week and had a good time at their "fun day" celebration- three legged ski races and tug-of-war on skiis and cup and ball races and such. There is still so much snow though, that he has no intention of stopping skiing altogether. In fact, he has big plans of building a big ski jump in the front field this week.


This week is Perry's spring break week and we are really looking forward to spending some time together as a family. We are not planning much, but there is always a list of things we hope to get done and various projects we want to get to. Today we spent a good chunk of time shoveling snow- Perry cleared off the kids sand box hoping to let the sun melt it out for playing sometime soon, and I was shoveling off garden beds! Or half of one garden bed I should say- and my back is tired- I just want that snow to melt! 


I hope you are finding some spring where you are-