a family picture

Behold. You are looking at the only five pictures we have of the four of us since Elsie was born. Thousands of pictures have been taken, but only five of just the four of us. And none of them are winners. They're decent, but as I told Rory, "if one of us were to die tragically, the real tragedy would be that the other would have to frame one of these five and look at it the rest of their lives..."

Did you notice my side bar? It only took me nine months to update our family picture to include Elsie! Hooray! And I added a few quick links to our chickens, maple syrup, the grovestead and my yearly favorites. It's been a long, long time since I've done any blog updating and it feels good. Enjoy!

spring has come again

Well it is a new week and I am in some euphoric happy place that I like to call the land of lovely weather. For as low as I felt with the snow one week ago, I think I feel just that high now that it is gone. It is unbelievable how these warm days with green grass have helped with moral around here. 

Today I got to drive the truck to Bloomington where I spoke at our old church for their women's bible study. It went really well and was so fun to see lots of friends that I have been missing since we moved. I had lunch with one friend and went to another's to pick through her garage sale items for tomorrow and I was just so grateful to be out and about, reconnecting. Plus, I love driving the truck. It;s fun to drive and it has a tape deck and crank windows. So I cranked those windows down and took in the lovely day. 

Today we are painting the chicken coop because the coop finally could be finished once the snow melted. And let me tell you it is time to move the girls outside. They are a stinkin up the place. And they're so big now. Pictures and an update on the coop to come. 

and it's a new week

I have watched a whole lot of Sound of Music this week and I heard Maria sing the words I most needed to hear. She said she had confidence that spring will come again.

All four of us got the stomach flu this week...Ivar on Monday night, Elsie on Wednesday night, Me on Friday and Rory on Saturday. Between the flu and the snow, we are quite glad to see this week come to an end.

And now, looking outside, I am confident that spring will come again! The snow is melting today. I'm hoping it is all gone by tomorrow. And the best part? The grass that is visible again is BRIGHT green.

Spring has come again. Thank goodness.

***And tell me how awesome that last line is, "despite what you see, I have confidence in me." That is quality writing.

the silver lining

My top strength is Positivity, so let's give this a whirl. On the plus side, it is the kind of snow that takes gorgeous pictures. It's the heavy stuff that won't be around for long. The perfect snow for snowmen, snow forts and snow caterpillars.

Also, we're glad that no one was in the baby swing when that big branch came down. That's a good thing. Another good thing is that we just got a chainsaw. And since we can hear lots of big branches falling out in our woods, that'll be put to good use.

And for the kids of our town, this has been a record setting year for school being cancelled. And so that's fun. Snow days are awesome.  Even my bible study was cancelled this morning, which was nice for me since Elsie was up all night with the violent flu. But she's napping now and has kept a bottle down so that's looking brighter too.

Oh, and we just completed our last batch of sap in our evaporator (pictured with the cylinder cement block chimney) so it is okay that it is covered in snow again.

All in all, it's looking like we'll spend another day on the couch, this time watching the new John Deere Tractor dvd Ivar picked out at the library last night. A lay low day, we call it.

And that's my best attempt at positivity. The bottom line: we know this stuff can't stick around for long!

april reflections: the long winter

This is what it looks like out our window right at this moment and it's likely to continue throughout tomorrow. And guess what? It actually did snuff my May Day joy. I didn't really mean for it to happen, but between my upset tummy and the accumulating white stuff, I just gave up and we watched The Sound of Music all day long. Thankfully this day began with a lovely conversation with my old neighbor Kathryn, who told me she made a may day cake for the staff at the elementary school where she volunteers "since it is just a bit too much work to make each staff person a basket." :)

***
Well,  it has been a long winter. But when you compare this winter to Laura Ingalls' Long Winter, there are some differences. For example, we're not binding corn husks together because we ran out of coal for our only heat source. And we're not grinding our wheat in a coffee mill in order to make brown bread. And we don't wake up with snow on our quilts because the roof isn't sealed. And we're not starving to death. So that's good.

But it has been a long winter.

Rory and I went to an event a few weekends ago where we spent two entire days outside. It was about forty degrees one day and thirty the next. But we dressed for it, and I felt great. It was so good to be outside for that much time and a good reminder that I really should get cross country skis or snow shoes for next winter. I think that would help me get outside for longer stretches of time.

**So I'm not super reflective this month. But you can click on the following to read my January Reflections, February Reflections and March Reflections all inspired by my 2013 word of the year: Reflect.