learning Twinkle Twinkle

 

A cooking project- his own from start to finish. 

 

a little solstice bunny for Willa.  

 cart riding through the kitchen and living room is a favorite winter activity.

 

Ari's solstice gift to Dori, this little paper mache piggy bank.

 time to clean the "treasure drawers."

 teething baby.

 Ari's dream home found in a kid's magazine. Fireman's pole, rooft-top garden, music room and swinging bed. Plus it flies.

 Today the boys were with my parents skiing and having adventures and I was home with Willa. I remember so well those early days of being a mama when I am just alone with her- the feeling that I should be able to get so much done, but somehow the baby just makes it hard to do anything! When I am home with 3 kids I count it as a good day if I get through the homeschool plan and feed everyone, but on a day with just one baby I write myself a big list and expect I should get it all done. Remembering today to just be with my sweet girl and treasure my moments with her in the rare quiet. Oh, she is a sweet one!  (still wondering when I'm going to get that day to catch up with it all though.sigh. I know the answer.)

what else? We are reading lots:
with Ari: Wheel on the School- it is good!
with Dori - a Rupert the Bear Annual which he loves
with them both Karlson Flies Again by Astrid Lindgren which they think is hilarious. I find Karlson rather obnoxious, but I think that is the point!
and lots and lots of wintery picture books,
for Willa (mostly to chew on, but she likes to lean her head against the pages with babies on them!) The back issues of Babybug Magazine from when Dori was small.
Me- just finished pre-reading My Side of the Mountain which was suggested by a friend and it is wonderful. I don't know how I missed it as a kid!
- the Sun magazine. It enriches my life so. 
- needing a new book. Must get to the library soon. 
and the boys are listening to lots of audiobooks- Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales, and some of the Barefoot books collections (Storytime and the Horse one, and the Pirate one,) and always Sparkle Stories!
loving the Enki coyote stories this week.

and I am having lots of bad knitting luck lately. Frogging and ripping and ripping and starting again. And again. Somehow I can't seem to manage the simple task of knitting Willa a hat that fits her head (but I did a great job of making her one that will fit her when she is 7. Twice. If only Ari wanted a violet pilot cap and a purple bonnet!). Forgetting simple things like, say, checking my gauge and reading the pattern properly. Maybe I just need more sleep. Trying again with a different pattern and different wool, hoping to break this string of bad knitting karma!

Ari made pizza pockets the other day. He found a recipe in his kids magazine and was determined to make them all himself, though the recipe called for things we don't ever have, like pre-made crust in a tube and pre-grated cheese. But he persevered with what we had, and learned how to make the crust with our spelt flour and our sourdough starter and he cut and grated on his own and they were very yummy in the end. He met Perry at the door with a wholesome little pizza pocket, complete with his initials carved on it!

Happy weekend friends.

A few pictures from the past little while. It was a busy holiday season, and we are slowly getting back to our regular routines, which feels good. Today we started a new Language Arts block for Ari, read The Old Woman and the Pumpkin as Dori's kindy story,  made supper before we'd cleared the breakfast dishes, went for a walk in the deep snow (and then the boys went out again in the afternoon to work on their snow tunnels,) started a new chapter book, practiced instruments, and had a great rowdy dance party in the kitchen. Ari worked on his workbook by choice after supper while Dori had his bath and then Perry read to Dori (and Willa too!) by the fire while Ari had his bath and I did a few dishes. Yesterday we took down all the holiday stuff while listening to an audio book (the entire Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) which I think will become a new tradition. Tomorrow we start lessons again, and Ari will do his 94th radio show (that is a lot of hours for the little DJ, and he has loved every minute of it!) and we will eat supper from the crock pot. And Willa is cutting her first tooth, but still is managing to be utterly sweet and adorable. She is sitting well now, and loving solid food and getting a kick out of watching her brothers all day long.
How's that for a quick rambley blog post! I am off to bed- goodnight, friends!

I have had some trouble with my smallwondersblog e-mail account, and have had to change to a new one. If you have sent me a message recently- please resend it so I can be in touch! I am now using taisasmallwonders@yahoo.ca.

oh hello! A month has slipped away somehow. I've been finding it hard to get here these days, and have started several posts and not gotten to writing much of anything. And this is about all I can manage- this time of year is so full, I can just snap a few shots and post them now and then. But we are good. Very good. Enjoying these gingerbread-scented, wood-stove-warmed, snowy, festive days.

Happy Yule to you all!

It seems winter has arrived. Up here in the mountains we have snow that seems to be staying. Down in the valley is comes and goes. The boys are thrilled. They could live out there in the white stuff, at least in November they could. They must have slid down the tiny hill behind our house a thousand times over the last week. Little northern boys.

 We've been out walking in the woods in the snow and it is lovely. Willa loves to gaze up at the trees and take it all in. The boys play long elaborate games in the woods. One day they were tigers. Today Ari was an arctic explorer and Dori was a pet monkey who liked to carry a giant (heavy) magic snowball around with him. We've been visiting our little creek, loving its beautiful burbling voice under the thin skin of ice. The littlest boy feels very brave to step over the rocks and cross it on his own.

 and inside, there has been lots of good stuff too-
art making,

 book reading (and Movember- oh my!)

  sweet sweet sweetness-

 learning,

 knitting!

 and creating. I'm in love with this homemade laptop (there are 9 other screen/ keyboard combos in his journal including a page of Mama, Papa and Willa on Skype!) This is e-mail. I love how kids that don't actually use the computers on their own yet, still pick up so much. Both boys spent so much time making and then playing with their computers.

 a finished quilt,

 
 and a really cute model,

 who took me totally surprise when I placed her on the quilt on her back facing the other direction and then turned around to make myself a cup of tea and put some dishes away and turned back around to find her here! Things are really going to have to change around here fast! Note the scissors and small bits of chokey paper everywhere. Not pictured- marbles in every corner, playmobile bits scattered hither and thither, glass jars on low shelves, crayons and pebble collections and treasured projects in every corner of the house. But look at her. Isn't she awesome?

 For Ari's grade two homeschool we have started a new Sage/trickster humanities unit and cultural block and are loving it. We are working with Harriet Tubman's story, and cultural studies around it- listening to African American music and learning dances in circle time, making a shadow puppet plays of the Brer rabbit stories, and really sinking into the story of Harriet's life over a few weeks. This has been both wonderful and difficult for me- her story is so heavy, but so inspiring, and it is not easy for me to bring the reality of such injustice as slavery to my little boy. Yet, I can feel it really touching him on a deep level and I trust the wisdom of the Enki philosophy. This is a good thing. Just for the joy of watching my boy make connections for himself- that verse we started in circle is actually about Harriet herself, and that song we heard Mavis Staples sing on our Cd is the same one Harriet herself sang, and she too ate food like we are cooking, and heard the same Brer Rabbit tales we heard- he is just thrilled to tie it all together. Walking this journey together is such a gift.

 

And Dori joins us for the parts that work for a 5 year old- the dances, the crafts- and I read the stories to Ari when Dori is listening to his quiet time story. He has his kindy stories that we read together that he loves. And Willa- she loves the dances most of all. We put her in the highchair and bop around the living room and she waves her arms and grins at us. Fun for all.

:: halloween decorating

:: paper shoes made by Dori,

:: Mama loves it when superheros use their powers to mop the floor.

:: pumpkins and spiders and witches abound.

There is lots of loveliness to report on here- a wonderful mellow Halloween with friends, a new grade 2 cultural/humanities block we are enjoying greatly, Dorian's wonderful creations of paper shoes and homemade books and endless wild stories, a baby who is rolling and cooing and charming us every day, celebrating my best friend's baby girl's first birthday, new projects on the go- but we had a real Halloween terror that makes it hard for me to write about anything else here in this space. Perry drove to work on Halloween morning and rolled the car down into a deep ditch. He is okay. Totally unscathed, amazingly. The car is a write off and I still can't talk about it, or hear the story about how it happened without breaking into a cold sweat. The road was icy. Our appointment to get the winter tires on had been delayed to the next day because we were waiting for some other parts to come in. He was running a little late. He is so very lucky. We are all so very lucky. I have been keeping my brain from going to all the scary places it wants to go- the what ifs that make me shiver with fright. We are all okay, but holding each other a little tighter. Oh this fragile, fragile life. How precious it is. How lucky we are to have each other.