March

Maybe these two look alike?

In the above photo, Mighty Mouse (lower photo) had just finished making a play-doh car. Well, I'd made the car under his direction while I was reading a history text with my other eye (apparently I can separate my eyes for separate tasks these days!), and he had added a trailer on the back and then plopped another play-doh toy on his trailer and announced, "There's the dead deer!".  Notice how proud he is?!

Sometimes it is just too much being the youngest of this crowd.

I'm not sure where my tiny baby went.

And by the look on his face, he's not sure either!  These pictures show his personality so well. He's such a sweet, tender little fellow. Gentle, most of the time, and easy-going and loving and snuggly and pretty much content to watch what the rest of the tribe is up to.  We have been so blessed by his presence the past 11 months. He is loved beyond belief by every single person in this household.

This is one happy child. Happy, happy, happy.  He has missed the outdoors, craved the outdoors, salivated for mud and slush and fresh air.

He is sooooooo very much his father!  I would honestly have been content with a few more weeks of under-blanket-afternoon-snuggly-reading-books-aloudness.  Not that I'll turn down this gorgeous weather, but it does almost feel unnatural up here in the Northland so early in March!  It's an interesting observation I've found in the past couple of years, that I'm more content now in each season to just absorb that particular season instead of aching so badly for the following one. I attribute it to the kiddos' presence - I treasure their delight in the holiday seasons from Halloween through New Years; I love watching them write out their love for each other in homemade Valentine's; I love snuggling and board games and reading aloud on long, dark, snowy afternoons; I love watching them make project after project, even when it means you can't step for the stray perler beads on the basement floor; I love spring gardening with them and hosing them off before supper; I love long summer afternoons in the sprinkler and on the swingset and following them on their bikes and carting the smaller ones around on my bike "train system" and harvesting the garden and enjoying produce and the rhythm of our learning year, teaching new subjects in time and diving deeply into particular subjects that spark their interest and breathing prayers for patience and peace as I coach and encourage an emerging reader to sound out c-a-t just one more time. Aaaahhh. There is nothing like this life.

So, it's either my children or that I'm just getting old, but winter doesn't seem nearly so interminable now as it did ten years ago.

  Here's my little proofling that I had something to do with our children. She looks so much like me....just better.

 Our 8-year-old scientist. She was feeding the birds. She was horrified that day that I had forgotten to buy the lard she needs for making bird cakes; we had actually both completely forgotten that our homemade recipe calls for it in the first place. She's insisting on making them all.by.herself. including the use of the stove for boiling the yucky things. I'll hover, but she's so responsible, she'll do fine....as long as I make sure she turns the stove OFF when she's done!

There's the finch feeder that she had just topped off. I couldn't crop it out of all the pictures, or they just didn't seem completely natural!  She had also just finished shoveling snow around the yard in an effort to make it melt faster. Mighty Mouse helped her. Sunny just swung and swung. She learned how to pump effectively, so swinging is her new favorite pastime. She had previously known the correct movements, just not how to use her muscles well enough to make it effective. She sure does now!