The Adventures of February Homebodies

February may have been our last month of real winter where we live, which is unusual but definitely a relief!  It's strange to type this blog post about all the things we do in the thick of winter while listening to the birds chirping outside my open window.  Will had three snow days this past month, plus the day he took off for Luke's birthday as well as a mid-winter break.  This led me to believe that perhaps, just maybe, we had our life under control. What a difference having two adults versus our three children makes throughout the day!  Here we are below, enjoying a laid back month, mostly spent at home.

Charlie enjoyed a meal a day indoors and even got cuddles out of me a time or two after which I was not allowed to complain of allergies or sneeze too loudly with Will around.  Charlie would make such a loving indoor cat, but it occurred to us this past month that his affection is borderline annoying and he is actually a very emotionally needy cat.  We may have the best of both worlds with him with our indoor and outdoor boundaries, and he is lucky he is so cute and lovable.  In the top, left-hand picture below, Violet is feeling jealous of Charlie snuggling me, and kept telling him, "Mine Mama.  Mine Mama."

 The girls have definitely enjoyed Will home this past month.  In the top, left hand picture below they are greeting him as he came in from work one afternoon.  In the top, right hand picture they are admiring the Lego castle he made them on one of his snow days.  The following day he built another castle, as duh - two sisters can't share one Lego castle.  In the bottom picture below, Will is slowly realizing that he is not able to sit down anywhere in the house while the girls are awake, otherwise, he will be attacked by daughters.

The next pictures reveal a crazy dance party we had while listening to Pandora and playing with book lights.  Does it get any more wild than that?

Besides Legos, wrestling and LED dance parties, the girls played with Play Doh and water beads to constructively pass the time while giving their parents a break from fighting and other high maintenance behaviors.

We also played "nail salon" and even painted Violet's fingernails for the first time in her life.

Having Will around more than expected allowed me to accomplish more in the kitchen, from cooking up bulk freezer meals for when life returned to it's usual busyness to getting caught up on my honey business.  My little kitchen is so efficient and I am proud of all we are able to pull off in it.  The key is to keep it tidy, as there is no room for clutter when every square inch is utilized.  In the below pictures from the top left in clockwise order: straining olive oil I infused with lavender for soap making, my "tidy" hard-working kitchen, finished beeswax, boiling beeswax, and beeswax being filtered.

I got about three pounds of beeswax from my 2015 honey season, and I will use it in all sorts of body products to sell this year.  It was a messy job, melting it all down into filtered and clean chunks, and it took about three full days.  I'm glad it's done with, and I am still finding wax on the floor, the stove and the cupboards.

Since I had Will around to help wrangle the kids, I was able to do some experimental cooking of new recipes.  Some were a hit, and others not so much.  My kids aren't the most adventurous eaters, and it is a constant struggle to find the balance between healthy and well-rounded meals that they will actually eat while staying within our food budget.  I know it is probably my issue that their comments about what I cook have the ability to make or break my day.  I make homemade waffles for breakfast and they tell me that I am the "Best Mom Ever!"  And then for lunch I serve them homemade alphabet and veggie soup and they say things like, "UGH.  Not AGAIN.  I guess I'm going to starrrrve."  Truly, it is exhausting to constantly have to remind them about manners towards the cook, and it is tough love that is tougher on me, when I refuse to make them a special meal when they won't eat what's on the menu.  In the below pictures, clockwise from the top left: Lucy, Emma and Violet helping me bake, various soups and muffins I'm cooking in bulk for the freezer, a tin pie plate filled with a "healthy" smoothie that not even I could stomach and come to find out, neither could our chickens, the girls idea of what a good meal looks like represented in play food, and finally, our chickens laying eggs again after about a six week break during the darkest days of winter.

In the following pictures are the girls with their new stainless steel drinking cups as part of my New Years Resolution to eliminate more plastic from my kitchen, Emma's Mich-egg-an breakfast find (thank you to a Facebook friend for that pun) and finally, the girls enjoying breakfast with their dolls arranged around the table too, causing me to smile and feel ever so grateful for my girls.  That smile continued for quite a few hours, as we had waffles that morning for breakfast so there were no starving bellies or moody looks to deal with until at least lunch time.

Snow days don't really apply to homeschoolers, so we still did some school even on the days Will had off, but I was able to predict the weather a bit with the extended forecast and we made sure to bulk up some days of schoolwork so we could enjoy more relaxed days when Will had off.  One of the things I love about homeschooling is that any activity (even sometimes TV) can be viewed as an educational opportunity.  Putting stickers on a piece of paper is great for Violet's fine motor skills, and playing Monopoly Junior is a great way to practice addition and subtraction.  In the bottom right hand picture below, Violet and Emma are sharing a mid-winter's day foot soak while Lucy finishes up her school for the day.

The amount of time it takes to complete the day's schoolwork greatly depends upon the mood of the the teacher and students.  On a good day, we can finish before lunchtime, and then we have the rest of the day free to do what we want.  One day we decided that it was a great day to learn some embroidery.  Lucy and Emma LOVED it and I was very impressed with their abilities to learn so quickly, and even with their color choices.  In the bottom right hand picture below, Lucy is making a design out of Bead Art - the same Bead Art that I made stuff with as a kid - place the tiny plastic beads onto the plastic peg trays and then harass your mom to set up the iron and melt the designs together.  Talk about a full-circle experience!

 All three of the girls can be found on and off quietly reading and looking at books.  I love it when they happen to all enjoy books at the same time.  In the bottom right hand picture, they are snuggling under a blanket together after playing in the snow.

We had several good snow falls this past month, and by the end of it, the girls were almost over playing in it.  I never thought that would happen but the need for spring is universal I believe.  In the top picture below the girls and I are trying to grow crocus in votive glasses indoors, and in the bottom right hand picture below, Lucy collected some green pieces of plants that she found amidst the snow and put them in a bag of water to look at inside to remind her of spring.

Lucy lost two teeth this past month, which I can say without a doubt were NOT her sweet teeth.  Now when I look at her smile, she looks so much more grown up to me.  Oh, my heart strings!

As evidence that Lucy did not lose her sweet teeth, here are the girls below, waiting impatiently in the kitchen for the brownies we made for Valentine's Day to finishing baking.

We had a nice, quiet Valentine's Day and enjoyed making Valentine's Cards for our friends and family.  One of my favorite things to do is a craft project that we can all create together.  Emma was struggling with perfectionism on this particular evening however, and refused to smile for the camera.

While Will was at work one day, the girls and I made Valentine's Day cards for him.  I had gotten an idea on Pinterest for punching holes into card stock that the girls and I could then embroider hearts into.  I had a small problem when I realized the cardboard I had placed underneath the card stock I was punching holes into was not thick enough and had punched holes into our dining room table.  I felt sick to my stomach when I saw the damage but moved on to the concrete stoop at our front door to finish what I had started - until I realized that the double layer of card board was still not enough cushion and I had punched even more holes into what Will later described as almost 100 year old concrete.  I ended up texting him at work a little bit later when my conscious could not let me relax until he knew what I had done.  Happy Valentine's Day... thankfully my Valentine still loves me.  The finished cards did turn out really well, although next year it may be cheaper to just buy some cards at the store.

Looking at all of the above pictures it looks as though we never left the house in February.  It took the beckoning of beloved friends and family to get us to venture out, that is for sure, and we were always glad when we did.  We had a lovely brunch with family, our nephew/cousin's first birthday party...

...and a friend who is like a cousin's birthday party, meals with neighbors old and newer, a weekend visit with my college roommate, and a shopping date with my cousin, my friend who should be a cousin, and my cousin's daughter.

February is quite honestly my least favorite month of the year since we lost Luke.  Besides the difficult memories it brings back, it is also when winter begins to overstay it's welcome.  But looking through pictures for this blog post, it is clear that our February was just fine and I'd even venture to say great.  Helped along by friends, family and some snow days, we really did find a way to savor all of life's treasures even on our darkest days.