November 2020

Oh Charlie, remember that time you snuck in the house and no one noticed?  The bottom two photos below show him hanging out like he owns the place and no one is the wiser.  The top two photos show HIM none the wiser, as he sleeps in the leaves outside, and in his blankets in his favorite spot in our garage.  The funny thing is, if anyone but Will opens the door to the house, Charlie will do his best to sneak in.  If Will opens the door, Charlie runs the other way.  Charlie knows who the alpha male is.  

With our free time this past month, thanks to our laid back COVID schedule, Lucy and Emma sewed clothes and accessories for their American Girl dolls.  I love how the girls don't use any instructions and if they need to know how to do something they have envisioned, they gain the necessary skills via YouTube.  I am just in awe of their fearless learning and vision.  We all made sock snowman from a fun tutorial and supplies that Will's aunt gave us.  

We had a gorgeous buck by our bee hives this past month.  I got a blurry picture through the window and it sent chills up our spine to hear the clip clopping of his hooves on our driveway.  Will harvested the last of our honey.  It was a small harvest, but it was enough for family and friends.  The kids jumped in and helped me finish a new product - well, modified new, as this is the upgrade on the canvas outdoor garden flags that turned out to be not weather resistant.  To save all of these beautiful canvas signs, I had Will cut down and drill dowels and the girls helped me string them so that now these beautiful signs can be indoor banners.  I also ordered a 40 pound bag of cherry pits to product test another new product.  Turns out I think I am allergic to the cherry pit dust, but I still want to love them because it is such a clever way to make the stuffing for heat packs - utilizing something that would otherwise go in the trash.

Will finished up his electrical project this past month, and removed the eyesore of a pole that the original electricity fed into our garage from.  It looks so much better now that it is gone.  Now, to hopefully soon deal with the rest of our eyesore of a garage - the peeling and rotting wooden siding and ancient and ugly windows.  Baby steps!  Will also finished the fall leaf and kid clean up.  There he is in the photo below, dragging the leaves and the kids to the compost pile.

The week of Thanksgiving is a short school week, and so I've built it into our school timeline to use the three days before the holiday to finish up miscellaneous projects.  This usually means catching up on half a year of the girls scrap book journal.

The girls enjoyed lots of indoor play this past month as the weather continued to get colder.  In clockwise order from top left below: the girls coloring holiday pictures, fort building, Emma reading Violet a bedtime story (when I found them like this, my heart melted), Violet with a creation from some magnetic toys we have, Emma with a fake mustache made out of a hair net, and Emma, yelling for me because she got her leg stuck in our play mailbox.  I can't make this stuff up.

We had a few bonus warm weather days this past month where I tried to take full advantage of being outside as much as possible.  My kids did too - note the sun dresses.  No one was happier than Opal who didn't have to wear sleeves or pants.  Some of my favorite seated activities for my kids to do outside are "science experiments" where they basically pour colored water back and forth between containers, and PlayDoh.   Both of these activities keep them happily occupied for hours.

We were also able to have an outdoor yoga class with our friends and yoga teacher.  We built a snowman with Will's aunt, and had a picnic and hike with my parents.  COVID has caused us to look at the weather, and plan our social visits accordingly.  I rather like it - I've never been outside more than I have this past year.

So we had sun dresses and snow pants all in one month, and fully enjoyed both extremes.

COVID has changed so much about our lives.  Below is my drying line in the basement - lined up with freshly laundered face masks, and the photo below that is the way we now make Sloppy Joes.  Thanks COVID.

Holiday baking has started in earnest this past month, as we made pumpkin and apple pies from scratch for Thanksgiving, and Lucy made coconut and Hershey Kiss cookies for our turkey day dessert as well.

Emma tried her hand at baking apple crisp one night when I was working, and it was delicious and marvelous to enjoy it warm, over cold vanilla ice cream while feeling like I have finally arrived.  Homemade baked goods from scratch that I didn't have to make?  Yes, please and thank you.

We had a quiet Thanksgiving with just the six of us, and it was cozy and lovely.  I am so grateful to be quarantined with my favorite people in the world, and I understand that this window of time in my life is not lined up for many other people who are missing loved ones through COVID.  I promise you I am not taking it for granted, but I also will be honest and tell you that sometimes I dream about being quarantined ALONE for just one day.  Either way, I'll take what I got, and thank God that my nest is full during COVID.