Cousin Visit

My sister and her kids came for the weekend, and the kids really had a good time together. 

It's still hard to get a good picture of this group!

In other news, Gyunay keeps plugging along at his schooling.  Here he is on his slant board.  That has been a game-changer for his writing.  

And here he is matching words with pictures.  He's gotten really good at figuring out the ending and beginning letters, but those pesky middle letters remain elusive.

It's that time...

I don't think I mentioned that Nathaniel tapped our maple trees.  This year, he made the wonderful decision to drill holes in the lids and put the tubing through the holes, which really helps keep extra rainfall/snow out of the sap.

This is one bucketful in our holding tank.  So far, we've only got one full bucket out of the four trees tapped.  The tree pictured above is the main tree; the others are smaller and don't produce near as much.  But I hope to get a decent amount of syrup.  The sap should start flowing again this afternoon, as it is now above freezing, and hopefully we will get a few days of good weather for syrup making.

Gyunay can put all of his numbers in order 1-20 by himself.  

Lydia enjoys her writing assignments.  She's very creative.

Snowy Morning

It snowed last night, but it won't last long, so Lydia and Gyunay were out enjoying it first thing this morning.

Gyunay still really loves the snow.  Although he hates to be cold, he spends as much time as he can in the snow.

Elijah and Malachi love to play in the snow, too, but these days they prefer to sleep in.  I don't know if they will make it out to the snow before the rain washes it all away.

Happy Friday!

Junior Ninja Warriors

Our local gymnastics place offered a new class: junior ninja warriors.  Lydia has been eagerly anticipating her first class for a couple of weeks, and yesterday was the big day.

Lydia is hanging in the middle of the picture.  She earned a couple of blisters that will quickly callous.  Her favorite element was the jump to the net bag, on the left, and the warp wall.  ("And all of them!" she's shouting at me.)  She had a ball.

Meanwhile, Gyunay enjoyed kinder gymnastics.  His class is very small, and involves doing a lot of little obstacle courses, so he was very happy, too.

It has been so cute listening to them.  Lydia spent an hour in the afternoon doing "golden ninja" training with Gyunay.  She was teaching him fencing with light sabers.  (Not that she has ever actually learned fencing, but she gave some advice on standing your ground and trying to make your opponent back up.)  

Also exciting this morning:

These little baby carrots were popping up out of the outdoor pot where they've been growing.  The kids devoured them.   

Hanging Around

When I was nearly nine, my family moved.  Our new house had a shed with a carport attached.  I spent many hours on top of the roof.  I could climb the post and hoist myself onto the roof rather easily, and I loved being up there.  Apparently, my daughter is a lot like me.

It was cute that the cats wanted to join her.  They are really just the friendliest outdoor cats you'd ever meet.  Lydia was happy to have them.

December Harvest Totals

I just realized that I never posted the December harvest totals, not that there's much to report.  Maybe one day I'll really get the winter garden thing going.

Arugula - 1 c
Carrots - 1
Eggs - 149
Lettuce (leaf) 1.5c

Today has been a really nice day weather-wise.  If the ground wasn't so saturated, it would be really nice.  I cleaned out the chicken coop and deposited some manure on the new area of hugelkultur I am building up.  I plan on making my current hugelkultur one side of a U-shaped garden area.  I've been putting down cardboard (there are plenty of Amazon boxes from Christmas laying around), then some rotting logs, sticks, leaves, chicken manure, egg shells, etc.  In a couple of months, I will get dirt to cover it all and then start planting.  I'm planning on getting the most out of the little sunlight we get in our yard, and this seems to be the best area for that.  Right now it looks pretty bad, as it pretty much looks like a pile of rubbish in the front yard.  Luckily, our house sits way back from the road, and the shed hides the sight from the road, so the neighbors shouldn't have to see it at all.

Book Review - We Hope for Better Things by Erin Bartels

This was a great read.  It took a little bit to get used to the varying time frames/characters, but it was so worth it.  I read this book very fast because I didn't want to put it down.  I think the author did a great job with the characters from 3 different eras.  The historical details were fascinating, and it was easy to sink into another time.  The stories kept me engaged until the very end.  I look forward to seeing more work from this author.  I highly recommend this book!

I received this book from the publisher, Revell, in exchange for my honest review; all opinions are my own.