small wonders

 around here::

 ::lots and lots of hot tea to get through the cold snap.

 

:: dreaming about far off places.

 :: celebrating my love (aka the world's best Papa,)

 :: starting a new cultural block with stories of baby Krishna's antics.

 :: loving this boy's creativity and spunky self. and his homemade bakers hat.

 :: a first sourdough spelt bread success. Yum.

 :: outside the sun shines and the winter marches on. Lots of skiing and shoveling and sledding.

 :: baby in a sunbeam.

These days are feeling full to brimming lately. Sometimes I look around at the house- the piles of laundry and toys and books and the kitchen filled with half-finished projects and the homeschool books to read and the lists and lists I keep making, and the sweet baby who is generally rather uninterested in naps, and the two busy busy cabin-fevered boys and I think- this is craaazy! And it is. It's crazy. But I wouldn't change it for anything, you know? (but I do daydream now and then about being in a coffee shop or the window seat of a train with only my knitting and a good book for company- just for an hour or two!- ok. a weekend. I would take a weekend.)

We are getting through this end of winter hump with lots of reading of books and drawing of pictures and cooking and baking and listening to audiobooks and dancing in the kitchen. The boys came in from a town trip with their Papa so excited, they had seen the great grey owl again and this time saw it swoop down and "catch a mouse dinner"! They were thrilled. Today they had their last ski class- they have been loving their ski lessons so much, they will miss them. 

We are reading a stack of new books now- flying through them quickly these days. Trumpet of the Swans with Ari, My Father's Dragon with Dori and Half Magic with the both of them. I just finished pre-reading Swallows and Amazons which will be a fun read with Ari soon, and have still have not settled on a book to read with Perry in the evenings- we used to read to each other a lot, but will have to work hard to carve out the time these days- but the idea of snuggling with my love by the fire and reading a book together sounds pretty divine, so we'd better just choose one and make it happen! I finished The Snow Child after hearing lots of good things about it, and I love love loved it. I need to take breaks between my own fiction reading  though- I can get so absorbed that I almost forget I have children when the plot gets good. Best not to do that all the time! The boys have been listening to some of the older Junkyard Tales Sparkle Stories this week. They really are so terrific. Dori and I have been reading The Black Geese from the Enki kindy collection this week. Baba Yaga is a beloved villain in this house!

We started a new cultural block this week- so good to visit our beloved India for awhile and pull out some of our traditional Indian music and the Indian cookbooks from our travels and learn some dances and songs. The boys are loving the Krishna trickster tales (Dori soaks it all up during Ari's recall even if he isn't actually listening to the first telling, and loves them, being quite the little trickster himself!) and they have been playing Krishna and stealing butter from the kitchen. My big box of grade 3 Enki materials also arrived and I have been sneaking peeks at it whenever I get the chance- it really is incredible- such thorough, deeply envisioned, beautiful material. Grade 3 is the first year with full cultural immersion units and they look so amazing- I am really excited for our year next year to be so deeply immersed in the cultures we study together. I am still trying to sort out how to combine things with the boys so they are able to share the experience, yet both be met academically and developmentally. It is a lot to think about for this sleep deprived mama!  

and I joke about dreaming about a weekend away, but this morning Perry took Willa for a couple hours while I caught up on some sleep (thanks love!) and when I came downstairs I just had to scoop her up and dance her around the kitchen singing a made up songs about the cutest baby in the world and covering her sweet self with kisses- I missed her so! So no. I wont be taking the train anywhere on my own anytime soon! But a mama can dream, right?