So, March?

Well I'm setting new records all the time for how long I can go between posts!

March is so far back now that all the kids look different as I review my picture folder from the month... and that sort of freaks me out. I mean, that wasn't THAT long ago, right?

A few highlights from, well, six months ago:

March began with a very mild day, and we enjoyed it outside. William was inspired to do some outdoor drawing. My favorite was the sketch he made of the mailbox. I don't have a picture of it, but my favorite thing about it was that he titled it "The One That Stood Still".

Spot the impostor: 

We finished the master closet renovation and installed all the shelves. It turned out beautifully, with lots of improved storage. More "stuff" went in after I took these pictures, but here's the finished product: 

I also finished an afghan! A small one, but a completion all the same. Made this for Matthew as he loves orange. I would love to make a similar one for the other kids in this yarn season. 

Don's family visited for a long weekend and we all took a hike on a beautiful day. 

Awwww...

Amy wore her octopus from the aquarium every day for the whole month. 

Lots of class pet nonsense...

We tried the picasso-tiles-on-clear-contact-paper idea which made for some beautiful stained glass against the snow. 

Oh, and March had way more snow than February! Typical New England. 

We jumped right into another house project - the painting I was most dreading: up the stairs and the upstairs hall. So high, so many doorways. But with a lot of help, we got it done in surprisingly short order, even getting all the dark trim painted white. It all looks so much fresher and brighter. 

My 35th birthday happened too...

And Amy and William wrote some great poetry - haikus based on our earlier aquarium trip. 

Caroline ditched dance class, but I had already paid for her recital costume, so she was pleased to twirl around in this when it arrived. 

And that appears to cover it for the most part. If I can get a handle on picture management that doesn't take hours and hours I will be back soon with more monthly reviews, and with any luck I'll catch up with all of 2018 before the year is out. Thanks for being here with me!

The February Catch-Up

February began in the snow that January ended with.  Along with that fun we managed some sewing - little zippered pouches still being about the most satisfying project ever. I could whip these out in about 30 minutes once I got in the groove. 

There's always some interesting art project going on... this time it was Amy's hand painted white and photographed as a statue...? I'm not quite sure what she was going for here, but it did look cool. 

Then we celebrated Quila's birthday. At the time we thought it was her first birthday, but her vet visit later suggested that she's probably more like 3 than 1. Either way, a good time was had by all. 

More school and such... Caroline is such an eager student, even though I never really planned any formal "school" for her once we switched to homeschool - just be a kid and all that. But she's so smart that we've done lots of handwriting practice and math stuff, too. 

Rollerbladers always....

And one day we went to Petsmart, only to have this guy get very attached to the idea of a Bearded Dragon as a pet. Yeah, cute and all, but no, sorry Buddy. 

However, I was feeling generous this particular day, and agreed to two hermit crabs as a consolation prize. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course after getting them home in their tidy little habitat I read up on them and discover that actually would rather live in much more deluxe quarters with very specific care requirements. Right. (Four months later, one is still hanging on - the other shed the surly bonds of earth back in April... we've jokingly talked about setting the remaining guy free but, er, that's probably not quite right either). Right. 

Then there's this:

Mid-month the kids and I went over to my folks' for about ten days.  Don traveled to Oregon in that time for a science conference, so we all enjoyed a little change of scenery.  However, a trip to Kohls showed perhaps my kids need some real friends....

Quila came with us again and continued to amaze with her adaptability and how well she gets along with my parents' cat, Spencer (who you may remember was originally ours, way back before we moved to Oregon). Cats are so interesting with their unique personalities.  Quila has been consistently terrified of my boys Ollie and Humphrey but is perfectly comfortable with Spencer, and vice-versa. Go figure.

Even though February wasn't a very wintry month, we did get one pretty snowfall while we were away. 

Back home after President's Day, we took a morning off school to go get all the kids haircuts, a speedy and successful mission, and followed that up with a lunch out.  Lots of fun, and it was nice to realize how these sorts of things are suddenly getting easier after a looooong run of having a child under two on hand. I remember this same liberating feeling once William passed two - that suddenly we could do things again, not being restricted by hungry, sleepy babies or run-crazy-through-the-store toddlers. 

Assorted helpers with assorted projects...

Then a big project: overhauling the master closet. Again, I could do a whole blog post of before pictures but since we are summarizing here, let's just go with the fact that it was full of schtuffff and like all the closets in this house, the walls hadn't seen a coat of paint in 25 years. 

The weekend that I ended up doing most of the dirty work (like removing the popcorn ceiling) I had a mysterious fever and didn't feel great - and I was SO worried I was coming down with the flu, but thanks to Dr. Google and a trip to urgent care I got a diagnosis of mastitis and quickly felt better on antibiotics. All my years of breast feeding, and only now get mastitis. I frankly was ecstatic that it wasn't something all the kids were going to catch. 

Do you like my safety glasses?

The last day of the month found us back at the aquarium, this time with me as chaperone. Honestly, not my favorite place, but we fortunately avoided the crowds and had a really good time. These giant spider crabs were very cool. 

And that was February in a big nutshell! I'll continue sorting through the mountains of digital pictures and keep going with March next chance I get.  Till then! 

Catching Up, Finally

Is there a statute of limitations for catching up on missed blogging time? In the many years of keeping this blog I don't think I've ever fallen so far behind. I have spent a good chunk of time here this afternoon review my pictures from January (what month is it now? May? oh my!). Let's review, shall we?

January began at my parents' house, where we had been since a few days after Christmas. As I mentioned much earlier, I wasn't a very happy camper during the Christmas season, but in the time after the holiday, days of deep cold and bright sunshine, my mood steadily lifted and we had a happy start to the new year. 

These were also the days of M insisting on shorts and rolled sleeves, despite days of temperatures in the single digits. I can laugh now, because he is currently insisting just as fervently on sweatshirts and jeans, even as temperatures climb into the 70s. Ah, two year olds!

We returned to our home base and promptly turned in our withdrawal letters to the district office and officially became homeschoolers! That was a terrifying decision, mainly just because it felt SO awkward to cut the cord - never even really saying goodbye to teachers or anything... but I think it was better that way; a clean break. The kids have never looked back. 

With a deep snow still on the ground, we fell into a lovely homeschooling routine right from the beginning of earnest work in the morning followed by outdoor recess and cozy afternoons of reading. 

Ollie and Humphrey kept busy by looking for Quila to chase (she's on the chair in this picture below):

Our kitchen table has never been so busy - meals, school, crafts - we are here all day. 

The rollerblading bug also bit hard about mid-January, with A and W renewing their interest, C getting her own blades, and even M getting into the action with the little strap-on roller skates. 

D also took everyone on a field trip to the aquarium, followed by some power-point presentations just to make it all school-like and official. 

Even Daddy couldn't resist this new allowance for skating in the house. (In the dead of winter, one has to make some concessions.)

Quila continues to be everyone's favorite classroom pet...

I also did a lot of furniture moving this winter, not all of which do I have representative pictures of. One big change (or chain of changes, perhaps) was to move my desk up to the HUGE master bedroom, since I never really used it downstairs. I then moved my sewing stuff and an unused table to the "art room", and cleaned up the corner of the basement where all my sewing stuff was. Happily, I have found it easier to do projects with my things on the main level. 

We  also overhauled this small closet next to the kitchen. It's not quite a coat closet and not quite a pantry, but it seriously needed paint and new shelving, so - check. I also painted the door white and it all looks terrific now. 

And shockingly I think that brings January up to date. I will be back with February soon!

Thanks for sticking around!!