Deep Freeze

It is cold and white in our neck of the woods. We are experiencing the longest stretch of cold weather we’ve had in a long, long time. I think today it’s supposed to get up to 1 degree. Just walking to the mailbox this morning was brutal! And we have lots of snow on the ground, with ice underneath. It is not fun to be outside right now and it’s been so hard for Drew. Last week he took his little pop up tent, loaded it with blankets, warmed up a bowl of soup and had his lunch out there. He lasted about 20 minutes each time which surprised me and it was a nice break for him. He’s struggling with being cooped up in the house.

We did some watercolor painting using watercolor pencils on our homemade paper and that was fun. Drew wants to make more paper now but I told him we needed to wait until we could do it outside as we had water everywhere. We plan to try our hand at coloring the paper using natural dyes like onion skins and red cabbage. Something I hope to do at Easter too when we dye eggs. Something to look forward to!

Saturday we got the call that our deer meat was ready for pickup in a neighboring town so we dressed warm and headed to Washington. I have to say it was nice to get out of the house even if it was originally for a drive to the locker and back home. But on the way our daughter called and talked to her dad about a smell they had in their master bathroom and what it could be. Jeremy had to work and wouldn’t be able to look into it until Sunday. As we would be so close to their place anyway we decided to head over there after picking up our order and see if Joe could help.

Joe decided the issue was a snow blocked vent on the roof and he wasn’t sure he could get to it without help so we spent the afternoon playing with grandkids and made plans to head back over the next day. So a weekend of staying home and keeping warm ended up being a fun weekend spent with grandkids! We had a lunch of tacos and taco salad and I took a dessert I had made. Then I had the grandkids color some plain seed packets I had and we picked out some flower seeds to put in them from my stash of seed I had harvested in the fall. Their great grandma has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and we thought she might enjoy a little bundle of flower seeds, homemade body butter and a rice bag Abby had asked me to make for her. We know the kids’ Great Grandma and Great Grandpa very well as Abby married a local boy and we’re a small community. I’ve known them both my whole life. Caroline worked as an associate in the high school library when I was going to school there and she was there when Abby and our two older sons where there. She is a wonderful cook and always has a big garden. We’re praying she can enjoy a little gardening this summer.

I always enjoy watching Joe playing with the grandkids. He loves to wrestle and play games with Braxton and it’s been so many years since we’ve had a little girl in the family that it’s fun to watch Joe playing with little Bayah. She is this sweet tiny little thing that loves anything pink, her books, and her dolls but she couldn’t wait until after lunch because she told me was going to jump on pillows, stand on a blanket and punch Grandpa! She is definitely small but mighty. She has no idea just how small she is!

Making Paper

We decided to try making paper today. Drew had lots of help from Possum until the blender was turned on. Then Possum high tailed it out of the kitchen! Drew started out gung ho but soon lost interest. That might be because I didn’t know what I was doing and had to try three or four times to get what I thought looked like paper! We have two sheets drying now and hopefully tomorrow we will have some homemade paper to try our hand at watercolor painting on. Next time maybe we’ll try coloring the paper and/or adding some dried flowers. I always enjoys a project that can be done all with items we have here at the house.

From My Mom

Yes, my table needs refinished. But it’s such a daunting job and Joe keeps saying he wants to build me a table. And we bought this table years ago with some money my grandma gifted to me. And this is the table that we use every day and have for close to 30 years. Oh the stories this table could tell. Lots of meals, crafts, games, laughs, tears, talks, arguments all around this table. And the wear and tear shows. But I’ve decided rather than hide all its faults in pictures, this is our table, this is us, and no hiding what some may consider the ugly!

Anyway, my mom made me some placemats. And I love love love them! I know how hard it was for her to pick out fabric that she thought I would like. She doesn’t appreciate my choice of dark, prim things and she lets me know that! But, she picked these out all on her own and they are perfect! They will definitely be taken off the table before we eat, craft, homeschool or whatever. I want to keep them nice!

Gone Again

It’s cold here in my neck of the woods. And snowy. We have lots and lots of snow this winter. I just came in from taking care of the chickens and my toes are cold and my cheeks are cold. I was doing pretty good until I decided I needed to shovel off the patio as we got another skiff of snow this morning. I love love love winter and snow but these zero and below temps are not fun. It’s even cold in the house since I refuse to turn the furnace up. We just layer, pile on the blankets when we’re sitting down, and this year I’ve made rice bags and boy do they help!

Last week was tough as Joe was gone most of the week. And this week is the same. We have gotten so spoiled over the past year as he hasn’t had to travel. Last week he was only 45 minutes away which even though he’s not home, we at least know if absolutely necessary he can come home or we can go to him. This week he’s out of state. The only positive to that is he’s there to hand over the account to someone new so he shouldn’t have to go again. Yeah! The last time he was there was last year. We weren’t sure he would be able to get home due to the quarantine and the state shutting down. He made it home and the next day everything shut down. Scary times!

We had been so used to him traveling. He had slowed down considerably over the years but he still was gone quite a lot. But over the past year, he’s been home. All the time. And after an adjustment period for all of us, we settled in and loved it. He’s slowly been going out and to accounts and been gone during the day for part of the week and that’s as it should be. But again, it was an adjustment as we had gotten to used to him being here all the time. There have been so many negative aspects of this pandemic but being able to spend so much time together has been a blessing that I have cherished.

Another positive of the pandemic has been homeschooling. Something we had been thinking about doing became necessary at the end of the last school year and then we decided to carry on this year. While challenging, very challenging some days, it’s been fun. A fun new project we started at the beginning of the year was a nature journal. And then the darn winter weather hit and getting outside and exploring really isn’t possible right now. There is just too much snow and it’s too darn cold. So, for now we’re taking what we study in Science and our Mammals unit and we’re transferring that into our nature journals. As you can see, Andrew drew his food chain but then he decided to embellish his journal with a turtle with a food bowl in its shell. I never know what he’s going to come up with!

Winter Stitching

I’ve been doing a little stitching these past few cold winter days. Yesterday was the perfect stitching day as we had a blizzard. I was thankful I could stay home and not have to venture out as it was pretty nasty out there. I didn’t even have to chore as Joe was home and took care of them for me! I finished stitching a couple pieces and pulled the threads and started a new piece last night while we watched an old episode of Survivor. I have to have something to do with my hands while watching TV or I fall asleep! I like to stitch up a few before I sew them into pillows, dye them and stuff them. Spring themes seem to be my patterns of choice lately!

Candlemas and Groundhog Day

We celebrated Candlemas and Groundhog Day yesterday. I surprised Drew with a day of celebrating mixed in with school work and I think he enjoyed the day. He asked if we would celebrate Candlemas every year! I found it interesting that he has never liked Groundhog Day and never wanted to talk about it or know if the groundhog saw his shadow or not. But he was open to studying it yesterday and he even chose to draw a groundhog in his nature journal. A groundhog with a top hat on!

For Candlemas we talked about what Candlemas is and how we’re halfway to spring. That seemed to excite me more than Drew! I had not ever heard of Candlemas so it was interesting for me too. We brought out the beeswax candles we poured awhile back to use in our celebration. We did some fire experiments using the candles and for supper we ate pancake stacks by candlelight. We had just read the chapter in Farmer Boy about Almanzo’s mom making him pancake stacks so that made it even more fun! It was nice to have a little celebration on a cold winter day.

Winter Days

I’m sitting here munching on dehydrated apple chips from the apples we picked at a friend’s house this past fall. They sure taste good on this cold, foggy winter day! I’m thankful I broke down and bought a dehydrator. I got it thinking we would make beef jerky and so far, that’s the one thing we haven’t tried!

It’s been a quiet few days around here. It’s cold and there’s lots of snow on the ground. I enjoy these days and would enjoy them even more if Drew did. He needs to be able to get out and run. Being cooped up is not for him. We’re planning a trip to the library later this week. We have to make an appointment to be able to get in. Hoping to find some books for our mammal study we’re starting and hoping to find a good book for him to read. With all the books in this house that his siblings read you would think something would grab his interest but so far nothing.

I’ve been busy stitching orders and am finally caught up so last night I switched things up and stitched a chicken. No reason. Just ran across the free pattern, had some fabric begging to be used and ran with it. A little bright spot in the kitchen to cheer us up on these cold winter days!

Drew learned to run the snow blower and got to put it to use over the weekend. He thought it was fun to try and bury me in snow! We went on a road trip before the snow hit. Joe showed us where they hunted for deer and told us about the hunt! Drew and Rambler must have gotten bored, they both fell asleep! There’s been a lot of fort making going on and I’m ready to have my living room back! And then there’s Possum, just enjoying being King of the Castle!

Homeschool Fun

We’re trying something new on Fridays. Copy work. I’m hoping to get Drew to slow down, concentrate on spelling and punctuation and actually writing the letters correctly. I know at school they don’t put as much emphasis on these things as they feel it will come together eventually. I’m not seeing that happening, so copy work. Today was the first day and I was shocked at how hard he tried. Of course, being told he would have to erase the whole thing and start over if there were mistakes probably didn’t hurt either! And maybe, just maybe, what he’s writing down will sink in!

Back Again

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Joe is gone today pheasant hunting. Something new for him. He hunts deer every winter during black powder season with our son in law and his family and he loves it. And we love having the meat. But this year he’s had a friend ask him to go pheasant hunting. This will be his second trip and I’m hoping he’ll be successful this time. I haven’t had pheasant in years. Not since I was at home and Dad would go hunting. Also, he has been given strict orders to be sure and bring me home so tail feathers!

I haven’t been on here since before Christmas. We started some remodeling in the kitchen the day after Thanksgiving and didn’t finish until New Years. The house was in complete disarray during that time and every spare moment was spent helping Joe with whatever he needed done. We now have new countertops, backsplash, woodwork, wainscoting, flooring, repainted cupboards. We did the ceiling about three years ago. I think that’s the only thing we didn’t touch during this time! There were times when we wished we could just hire it done but there’s definitely no money in the budget for that. And besides that, there is so much satisfaction in doing things yourself. Not only do you save a lot of money but looking at it now and knowing it was something we did, together. I think we appreciate these things more when we do them ourselves. I am really happy with what we accomplished. We went from curled and nicked up light blue linoleum to these beautiful laminate floors that are supposed to hold up to kids and pets. My countertops went from fake butcherblock that were showing oh so much wear to real butcherblock that we stained and varnished ourselves. I’m all about old, chippy, peeling, showing wear and tear but not on laminate countertops. These are absolutely beautiful! And we found this wonderful corrugated tin that is lighter weight and made for kitchens. We’ve used it for backsplash and wainscoting and I love it! And woodwork, I have woodwork! I hadn’t had woodwork in my kitchen for over 20 years. I can’t tell you how happy having woodwork makes me. We stained and varnished it too. We did it all! My kitchen is small and cozy and now it’s a beautiful space that I love to be in! When the countertop was in and the backsplash was done and Joe put the stove back into it’s place, I literally started crying. Poor Drew, he thought something was wrong. Joe explained to him that they were happy tears. We tore that wall out six years ago, Joe custom made cupboards out of the old ones to fit the new space for the new stove and I’d had ugly plywood counters and backsplash that I had tried to paint to at least look good at a glance since then. Seeing it all come together and finally looking so nice was the best Christmas present I could ever ask for!

Thoughts on Tuesday

Our Thanksgiving was simple this year. We went to Dad and Mom’s. Aaron and Eric came to eat and stayed most of the day. Abby and Jeremy and the kids decided to stay home. We understood but sure did miss them. It was good for Drew to spend time with his brothers and it was fun to see them together and enjoying themselves. They all three played a game on their phones together. Drew and Aaron are so much alike in their mannerisms. I see it all the time in Drew at home but seeing them together really showcases that. Drew and Eric don’t share that but they look more alike and they giggle. Oh my goodness do they giggle. It is fun to be with them when they are so engrossed in what they are doing together and they both start giggling. It just makes everyone smile!

We spent the rest of the holiday weekend working on staining our countertops. We bought the counters a couple years ago and I am so excited to finally be working on them. We’re hoping to get them put in this weekend. In the meantime I have everything off the counters in the kitchen so Joe can measure and do what he needs to do. Once we start the actual installation the counters and sink will have to come out. I’m not looking forward to that part but the end product will definitely be worth it.

Yesterday Drew built his cookie cottage. He went simple this year. I’m thinking he’s starting to outgrow this project. And that’s okay, I’ll miss doing it with him but he is growing up. It was such a beautiful day that we decided to go for a walk. We walked around the meadow as Drew now calls it. Rambler started out on a leash, which of course he hated and he soon was running free. While we were doing that, Joe was putting the finishing touches on the camper to get it ready for winter and then we hauled it off to storage. It’s always a sad day when we haul it away but then come spring it is so fun to bring it home! We really took advantage of having the trailer this past season as we camped more then we ever have in one summer. We were even able to camp and homeschool, which was wonderful! We store the trailer about an hour away so I brought my bag of crochet along and finished another dishcloth. I have more dishcloths than I will ever use. I think it’s now time to learn to crochet something a little more advanced!