Evelyn's Favorite Bug...Joan

Pausing for a moment...

...to read about people's lives and enjoy knowing all of you. I really do feel blessed. We hiked this morning in the woods in what started out as snow and ended as rain...still very pleasant. I am amazed at how easy it is to spend time with my kids outside (in spite of the hassle it FEELS like on the front end, gathering everything, bundling everyone, unwrapping Amelia to change the last-minute poopy diaper, etc.) but once we are there it is bliss. Sticks have magic powers, and the rock overhangs create great dining halls where the princesses slurp hot cocoa with glee. We were muddy and wet at the end, but oh, so happy.

Now we are home and it is our turn to host Hamiltopia. If I had time, I'd take pictures of the house to compare with the ones from just a week ago. Alyson posted "real" pictures of her house a while back, and I found encouragement in knowing other people often felt overrun by perpetual mess. I'm going to spend 45 minutes doing whatever cleaning I can before I start cooking the Turkey Barley Soup and Apple Lentil Salad. I might even throw together my easy chocolate cake if time allows.

Sigh. It's been really pleasant sitting here visiting your blogs, reading your comments, and thinking of all of you. "Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones." Proverbs 16:24 Thank you for the sweet, healing words!

Thank you, Mom!!

Last Monday, Mom gave me a HUGE GIFT!!! She watched the girls so I could get some things done & have a little solitude. I took a gigantic, glorious hike, reveling in the warm weather, the beauty of the woods in winter, and the sparkle of the still-frozen reservoir.

Then I went home and straightened my house. I actually took these pictures so I can look back at them and think, "Yes, it CAN look like this." And it stayed that way ALL DAY. I didn't CLEAN, mind you, but I TIDIED, and it felt SO GOOD.

While I'd love to do more actual decorating and have a more consistent style, I'm just so thankful for all the things we already have and the things we've been so generously handed-down (many from my mom, again!) We still have rooms to paint & paper borders to remove, but WOW it felt good to have it NEAT!

The BIGGEST DEAL of the day was my home office, once hidden behind a curtain because the filing system was all over the floor. Dad sent an unused file cabinet from the radio station that made ALL the difference. I spent hours organizing and filing, and my workspace under the eaves is now a DREAM--thanks to you, Mom!! (And the girls had SUCH a blast!! Thank you for loving me and giving me good gifts!)

In case you were wondering...

...how the musical skills are progressing, view some Latin exercises. They just might be improving.

Snow, Snow on the Range

Last week we took the city bus to Port Discovery to explore the Buffalo Cowboys exhibit. (That's the girls walking down our street to the bus stop.) Evelyn got on first, & before I could grab her she kicked off her boots and ran to the back. I paid, then was handed the boots from a woman who chided me for letting go of a toddler on a Baltimore city bus. (Not quite mother of the year material.) You can guess what the bottoms of Evelyn's pink tights looked like--imagine the floor of a city bus on a snowy day.
They LOVED the exhibit, & the prairie girl in me got misty reading the captions & watching the videos. Evelyn lost a shoe (or "threw a shoe," to keep with the horse theme) which we eventually found. I include this video because it is one of the girls' absolute favorites to watch endlessly--BOTH of them. I HAVE addressed the behavior exhibited in it; maybe I should address the fact that they both find it so funny.

Lost in Conversion

I've been sitting here for WAY too long trying to look up internet answers to how to hook up BOTH the VCR and the DVD player to the converter box for HD TV. Besides the converter box, we have a better antenna, an audio/video selector switch (since we use BOTH our VCR and DVD player), and plenty of those red/yellow/white on both ends cables.

Right now I have everything working great except that when I switch the audio/video selector switch to the DVD and turn the converter box to channel 3, there is nothing but a blue screen, even though the DVD player says "Play." And cyberspace has offered me NOTHING in solving it (and yes, I read the directions on the audio/video selector switch.) Sigh.

Good news is we have close to 20 channels (even if several of them are 24/7 weather radar) and we have the capability to TAPE those HD shows to our VCR. The bad news is that we cannot watch any DVDs. And the worst news is that my Yoga DVD is, well, a DVD. Ever since Mom gave it to me for Christmas I've gotten more and more addicted, so I'm having yoga withdrawal.

But tomorrow is a new day. My wonderful mom is going to watch the girls for a while and I'm going to go for a LONG walk in the woods and then I'm going to get a LOT done!!!!

Vignette

Evie: Dad, there is nothing better than a snickery blain!

Dad: Really....what's a snickery blain?

Evie: Its Spanish for rainbow!

Mixed Metaphors

Evelyn today: "Mom, I have a whole lot of underwear."

Me: "A whole lot, eh?"

Evelyn: "Yeah, a whole lot, like a heavenly host!"