This Week at Our House

Jack Frost made his first visit, so we pulled our potted plants into the garage.

 Love these chubby hands.

 Took the kids to what Caroline calls "the swirly slide park."

One of my dear friends and mentors, Tamara Sims, had another successful trip around the sun.  It was a joy to celebrate with her.  I embarrassed her and made her wear the feathered headband...only for the picture though.

I also made this banner for her.

A huge revelation came to me this week, realizing I could use bok choy like celery (or at least the white parts.)  I was so excited because this is the "season" for bok choy and I'm getting it weekly in my Farmshare basket.  The green part I chopped and sautéed with kale and turnip greens.

In January, my mother-in-law bought this dress for Caroline on clearance.  She has been dying to wear it for a loooong time.  Finally this week I caved and let her wear it.  She has worn it everyday since.  In the photo below she is saying, "Make sure to get my headband in the picture."  Please note the stylish choice of Christmas socks and shoes that are too big.

The dress is quite fancy and I struggled with letting her wear such a nice outfit around the house.  The fact is she hardly ever gets her clothes dirty.  But more than that, she gets such joy from wearing it.  And, I think that is the spirit that her grandmother bought the dress.  Right, Magaw?

Before bed one night, I was in the bathroom imploring her to join me to brush our teeth.  She replied sweetly, "One second.  I need to write this down."  Eventually she filled the page and John Isaac found it and said, "Did you write all this?  That's a LOT of writing!" (Handwriting is not his favorite thing to do.)

Friday Hubby and JI left for a whirlwind trip to Kentucky to pick up beef.  They returned Saturday.  I wrote more about the meat here.

Today I was able to sneak down to my little patch of dirt and pluck out the frost-bitten zinnias.  The kale and mustard greens survived.

 While I was at the garden, Hubby watched the kids at the park.

Gorgeous weather today.  The sugar maple in our front yard displays amazing color.

 Just before dinner I pulled out my hair cutting scissors and trimmed John Isaac and Hubby.  We did it in the garage (hello - no hair in my kitchen!) and the baby was content in the doorway swing.

Hubby leaves tomorrow for a conference.  I'm dreading parenting solo.  Schaeffer continues to wake once or twice at night.  I'm exhausted.  This has been the longest year of my life.

Nothing compared to Slavomir Rawicz's year when he escaped from a Siberian prison camp during WWII and WALKED to India.  Several years ago, I read The Long Walk which chronicles this utterly amazing feat.  This weekend I watched the movie (based on the book) called The Way Back.  The movie brought prospective to my last year.  I have nothing worthy of complaint.  As a side note, not all people believe this is a true story nonetheless it is inspiring.