Thursday, March 23, 2017

Miserable March

Actually, it hasn't been all that bad, it's just rather cold right now and this house is sadly lacking in the insulation department. Also, Henri and Steve are still sick, though functional. I'm not coming up with anything exciting to tell or show you all; we're firmly in the end-of-the-winter-blah's. Oh! A Henri-sim: Hudson was helping me make muffins the other day and as he beat the eggs Henri started to giggle and said "you're making chick soup!". This is the same child who, at the tender age of four, asked me if the mama chicken was missing her baby every single time I attempted to eat an egg. It's pretty easy to maintain a veggie-based lifestyle with her around....

After school playtime. They really get along amazingly well, and after the rush of homework and snacks and dinner prep it's nice to kick them out for an hour.

We went to the Science Museum and they had an exhibit dedicated to chocolate

Checking out astronaut living quarters

Building....something...

PI day ended up being a snow day, so I made two new to us pies; a Shaker Lemon that uses the whole lemon and was SO GOOD, and  an oatmeal pie that Henri would have eaten on her own if allowed. 

My new and much larger crockpot arrived! Every time I cook I muttered about how I can't fit anything in it...so I finally just bought  a big one. We had corned beef and cabbage and potatoes and carrots for St. Patrick's Day and it was delicious. 

A very exciting thrift store find for the boy. All kinds of tools. He discovered they cut styrofoam really well so now there's little white balls all over my house.

Henri just read this to me. She's really taking off with her reading!

Hard to see, but if you squint you can pick out the cables starting to come through!

I was taking a shower and there was dead silence which is beyond suspicious but the water was actually hot so I ignored it. And then I got out to find he'd made his bed and assembled this puzzle...and that was it. He was super proud of himself. He's also learned to fasten his own carseat and is using big words and knows his numbers, letters, and colors. In the space of two weeks he's become so much older. *sniff*
 Phew, Oregon just pulled out a win so my bracket remains safe for another week....and I'm currently #1 in the pool! For the next few minutes at least.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Flowers and rainbows and yarn

Hello from the department of pretty-much-all-better! Henri is still stuffy but functional and the rest remain unafflicted so we're going to declare the quarantine over. Yay! As for what we've accomplished in the past two weeks, pretty much just the normal. I got to go up to Anna's for a night and I hope I didn't bore her too badly. It was a lovely and restful time and it's always fun to be with your sister! Plus, despite moving away 9 years ago, I still remembered just fine how to get everywhere.

The favors for the Ladies Tea (the theme is "He makes everything beautiful in His time, so lots of pearls and mirrors). Only 59 more to make!

Hudson is truly in love with the sheep. He makes friends with at least one each visit and then just stands there giving nice scratches and chatting with it. 

They were not impressed with the pigs, haha. Don't blame them. 

I identified with this (very pregnant) mama; head buried in hay so she couldn't hear the clamor, and scarfing down a meal. 

Even though it was a very mild winter I kept up the tradition of buying weekly flowers from Trader Joe's. They brighten the whole house up!

Very mild winter....like, summer weather winter.

As in all the trees have budded out in February...

and my day lilies, crocuses, and daffodils are all popping out

Short sleeve weather. Crazy. 

Our neighbor's family brought us a gorgeous bouquet.

Double rainbow over the pond that lasted for about 30 minutes. 

It just lasted and lasted and lasted and stayed bright...so cool

Chasing geese and balls.

More flowers up

It's nice having musical talent in the family

Newest treat. Vegan and oh so tasty.

Also an amazing treat! I know, I'm always showing food. It's a big part of my life. Also why I'm big in real life. But anyway, these were a hit with all of us.

Park play. I find we rarely go. Used to be there at least once, often twice, a day with Henri. I think I burned out on that venture. I'd much rather be on a walk or messing about in the woods. Fortunately he's fine with that. 

Getting in his caffeine fix for the day (plus all his greens, but shhh, we don't mention that to him...).

More thrift finds, the mirror will be given a new paint job and staying with me after the Tea is over.

Last week we celebrated 100 months of marriage. Steve keeps track of stuff like that :D

Waiting for Henri at school. So glad I insisted on the sunroof feature. Hudson opens it, no matter the weather, and stands on the console so he can watch what's going on. Helps too because the teachers see his head and call Henri first.

He loves this "umbrella tree" we encounter on our walks. 

Mecca. However this was a very disappointing trip. Needles completely out of stock, staff unhelpful and loud, no great finds. I did get yarn for the sweater at a pretty decent price, so we'll be content with that for now. 

Anna! Introduced her to Red Robin's burgers. Yummmmm.

Library trip tonight. These were the returns, they must hate seeing us come in (53 kids books alone, plus whatever I had). But at least my kids are reading, right?
I kept to my self appointed restriction of no knitting other than the purple sweater, but now that it's completed I have 3 different hats, the new sweater, a kids sweater, a cowl, and a sock all cast on and going. Might need to pull out some bulky tonight because everything is a bit small and I could use some instant gratification. Hoping to get in some serious progress tomorrow during Hudson's class. And that's about it for "news" :)