Wakey Wakey, Eggs and Bacey

Been on a bit of a blog hiatus. I'll be back next week with some new ramblings. Just a quick state of the family: Everyone's healthy, everyone's happy (most of the time) Until next week, I'll leave you with:



Rosie The Snowman (Snowwoman) Y'all!! (yes, those are red and blue milk caps).

Another 4-7" coming tomorrow. It's about time.

Talk to you soon.

1st Annual Homeschool Christmas Program

I remember as a (public schooled) kid...basically being forced to participate in the annual Christmas pageant. I can remember over the years dressing as a Sugar Cookie (complete with pink rosy cheeks...which I'm still not happy about), also the Captain of the Toy Soldiers and, in 4th Grade, even getting a chance to perform as the big man himself...Santa. Add to that the countless shepherds and "Heavenly Hosts" choir members from church plays...I always loved being a shepherd...it was basically the "We've-Got-Too-Many-Kids-In-Our-Sunday-School-Class-So-We-Need-Fifteen-Of-Them-To-Be-Shepherds" corollary...which meant that you got to look cool in your shepherds get-up and carry a big stick...but you didn't actually have any lines....except maybe "Hark!" and then pretend to be scared when the angel shows up with his "good tidings of great joy".
Chrissy's Christmas pageant experience, as far as I know, starts and ends with her stunning performance as "The Monotone Angel" in a Christmas pageant around 4th or 5th grade...you'll have to ask her more about it for details.

Anyway...being a homeschooling family (granted, we are "homeschooling" a kindergartner and a Pre-K'er), it seemed only right to put on some sort of Christmas Program. So here we go:



Our Audience:

Our neighbor "Miss Nancy", our good friend Carol, and grandma 'n Pa. Now, by now, The Corbett's are reading this and saying "Hey, what gives??!!"...not to worry, you are in for an exclusive performance on Christmas eve :^)


Chrissy guiding the kids in their opening Scripture Recitation. "Hide The Word in their hearts..." know what I'm sayin'?


"Mary Had a Baby Boy" sung to the tune of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".


Next up was the homegrown puppet show of the book "Room For a Little One". The kids nailed this. My favorite set piece is the angels in the upper corners of the nativity...On the left is Ivy's...to the right is Gavin's....Hand outlines for wings....foot outlines for bodies. The "hay" ain't bed, either.


Little Drummer Boy (and Girl)


Presentation of Gifts...."Gifts" being a homemade Christmas ornament and a card (with nothing inside it).

And last, but not least....

Every Christian Homeschool Christmas Pageant needs a birthday cake for Jesus, right? I mean...Christ gets honored...we all get to eat cake....everybody wins, right?

The night wasn't without it's mishaps, highlighted by Ivy, in the middle of the performance, completely lifting up her dress over her head to announce that she "had an itch".

We didn't photograph that.

Thank you to my wonderful wife who invests so much of herself into our Children. it is a true blessing to be able to leave for work everyday knowing that the hearts and minds of my children are left to be moulded by the hands of my amazingly capable and talented wife...as she uses her gifts and listens to the leading of The Holy Spirit...what an amazing blessing.

At the end of the night...I took a stroll around the house. I love our home the most at Christmastime. here's a few shots that I grabbed:


Our nativity. Every year, I get Chrissy a new piece...although we may have to curb that tradition as we are running out of space on our server.


From the dining room, towards our tree...with Christmas Card wall in the foreground.


From right in front of our Christmas tree...through the dining room, and into the sun room....with the fireplace in the background We love strings of lights...we keep them up year-round...as well as tea-lights. I've always been big on "mood lighting"....so wonderful...so relaxing....

"The blessing of The Lord, it maketh rich, and he add no sorrow with it" - Proverbs 10:22

He certainly ain't talking about legal tender.

Amen.

Homegrown for the Holidays Pt. 1

O.k. so, before I get to my main point, let me quickly mention this....The Leo Family Coat Drive....with Gavin in "Kindergarten", thus officially labeling us a "Homeschooling" family...we thought that an annual holiday service project would be right for our family. We decided to hold a Coat Drive...which basically amounted to us sticking fliers in our neighbor's mailboxes asking for them to donate used coats that we would, in turn, donate, to those in need in our area. Well...last Saturday, we went around and collected the coats...then Chrissy and the kids spent the last couple days using this outreach as a teaching tool.....ethics, Bible, math, graphing....Go HomeSchool!!

Graphing the number and type of coat we received.


Our Big Score!! We're starting our own movement...it's called OccupyYellowCoat. So far we have to people onboard but willing to recruit more :^). It was a nice experience for the kids...We are going to try to do some sort of service project every holiday season.

Now...on to the meat of this post.

Christmas....such a wonderful time for many...such a stressful time for many more. Our family has definitely had our fair share of both. In years past, we have definitely over-spent on presents for our kids....just heaping junk on top of junk that ends up being meaningless. A few years ago...Chrissy and I came to a decision...
Let's slow it down....let's buy just a few things for the kids, and let's commit to making one thing for each of them ourselves. Past home-made gifts have included painting/cooking aprons, musical instruments, a toy wooden musket. This year, our home-made toy wasn't a "from scratch" product as much as it was a refurbished piece that my folks had grabbed from a yard sale:

An old-school puppet theatre.

My mom and dad had found this thing at a yard sale a few years ago for like 5 bucks. It's definitely home-made. And whoever fabricated this thing spent some time on it. It's very well made, with lots of little structural considerations that tell me that whoever designed/built this thing knew what they were doing and decided to take some extra steps to make it right. Notched shelving, rounded corners, proper bracing....this thing was built to last.
When we got it...our kids were much too young to be able to fully enjoy it so we stashed it in the back of our garage and kept it out of sight. Gavin and Ivy are getting older and play so well together...it just seemed right that this was the year to put some work into this thing and bring it back to life....here's where I am so far:
Before:


After: cleaned, sanded, primed, and ready for new paint:



Not quite sure what kind of paint job I'm going to put on this thing....perhaps some country-cool scene a la Lancaster County, PA with rolling hills and farmland...or perhaps some sort of sun/moon day/night mural...I'll have to wait until inspiration strikes. Chrissy plans to sew up some new curtains based on whatever theme I end up going with...I guess I'd better lock it down soon and get painting....

More to come.

The Day My Son Moved Out

"Well I'm takin' my time, I'm just movin' along
You'll forget about me after I've been gone."
- Boston; Foreplay/Longtime


My son moved out this week.

My 4 year old son.....left the nest. He's out on his own. All alone on the vast sea of "independence".


O.K.....i'm over-exaggerating. The reality is though, that Gavin no longer sleeps with the rest of us in the "family bedroom", but has moved into his own room.

I hate it. I hate everything about it. But I need to accept it. Here's the story:

We co-sleep and bed share. Gavin slept in our king bed with us until a few months before Ivy was born then he moved to a twin bed right next to ours. That's how it has been since the Spring of '09. We all sleep in the same room. Some folks think that we are mental, despite the fact that there are millions of families in other countries who bed share...mainly because they don't have the room to separate everyone...and also because it's awesome. It's so much fun to wake up all together in the same room and jump and hug and wrestle and snuggle first thing in the morning. It's so reassuring as parents to be able to look over and see your boy sleeping so soundly, just a few feet away. That's how The Leo Family rolled.

Until last Saturday.

Chrissy's family was up to visit from New Jersey. We set them up with a futon mattress in Gavin's "room" (even though both kids sleep with us, they both have their own rooms which are decorated for them and house their clothes, closets, toys, books, etc.)
Well...Chrissy's family left, but the futon mattress stayed in there for a few days. This past Saturday night, Gavin asked his mama if he could sleep in there. She said "yes", figuring that if he got scared or whatever, he could jump into his old bed in our room. Chrissy gave the O.K.

The kid slept like a log. All night.

Next day, same thing. And the day after that. And the day after that....and so on and so on....which brings us to tonight.

Tonight we took the futon mattress back downstairs...took his twin bed from our room, and put it into his room. It's official. Our boy sleeps in his own room. I know that it's one of the many things that I'll have to "let go of" as a parent. I know this...but I still hate it.

here's what our room looked like after moving his mattress (and yes, I'm posting this picture for subtle, self-serving, saddened effect):


It's like looking at a ghost. Alright, I'm exaggerating...but just let me be, will ya?

I guess it's like anything else...I love the independence and confidence that he is developing. I love seeing the brave, confidant leader emerge in him. I truly believe that God has something great in store for him....He's been blessed with so much already. But Lord...not TOO fast, please.

He's still my little boy. He still cries when his balloon pops. He still thinks that lollipops grow in his ears. He still thinks that a nickel is worth more than a dime because it's bigger. He still needs a goodnight story and prayer before he can settle into bed, He still believes that a hug makes a boo-boo feel better (which may actually be right)...he's still so small....

It's the dichotomy of life, I guess....you spend so much time preparing them for the next level...and then, when that day comes, you want to do everything in your power to prevent that page from turning. It can't be stopped. It can only be bathed in prayer and set forth with training.
"He'll do fine", The Lord keeps telling me....and I believe it. He's getting so big.

But wait for the next thundery night. He'll be booking across the hall into out bedroom to be comforted from the storm. There's a part of me that wants him to be able to ride something like that out on his own.....but there's a bigger part of me that would spend a weeks pay if I could guarantee the sky would open up tonight and he'd run to me.

"Time doesn't wait for me, it keeps on rolling".



So big.

Gavinisms: Chapter 3

It's been quite a while since I've posted a "Gavinism". It's not that he hasn't said anything "quote-worthy" as much as it's just the opposite. He's got such a kooky little way of communicating, he's got so much good material that it's hard to choose... and he certainly isn't bashful when it comes to making small talk with anyone within earshot. I joke that we are the only family who goes to yard sales where the yard sale hosts know the names of our kids by the time we're done shopping. Gavin always seems to gravitate to them and offer some random facts....what we had for dinner last night, how he took a spill on his bike, how his cousins came to visit last month...any topic is fair game....and Ivy is following suit and turning into quite the Chatty Cathy herself. I'm thankful that my kids like to talk to adults. It seems to me like there's a pretty good cross section of kids today who are not comfortable communicating with adults. Anyhow, back to today's Gavinism. I'll bring you in mid-conversation...we were talking about stealing...which led to the subject of greed:

Gavin: "What's Greed?"
Me: "It's like when you want something so bad, or if you have a little of something and all you want is more, more, more."
Gavin: "Oh. Then I greed fish and chips, 'cuz I can't get enough of that stuff."

Spoken like a true New Englander. That's my boy.

Mega-Tent Reprise

We don't watch t.v. here. I mean...we have one....we just keep it packed up in the garage...there's a select few events that would prompt us to bring it out on occasion: watching the ball drop on New Year's Eve, watching the Bruins win the Stanley Cup, keeping an eye on the recent tornado warnings in our area, perhaps an upcoming Pats Monday Night Football game...that's about it. It's refreshing to live in a home where t.v has little to know place in our family culture. Anyway...from time to time, we will play a DVD for the kids. Last night was one of those nights.
The selection is usually pretty slim, we allow shows that Chrissy and I have screened and approve of which, to this point, has come to include Little House on the Prairie, old school Winnie The Pooh, and PBS Curious George episodes. Last night we opted for the last choice. We have one of those little portable DVD players that has come in handy for helping eat up the last couple hours of our frequent road trips to New Jersey to visit Chrissy's family.
Chrissy took some time for herself and headed out to Dunkin' Donuts for a coffee and to spend some time planning lessons for the upcoming school year. The rest of us decided that since it was raining out, and it's been months since any one's watched a show that it was about time. Now...since T.V. is such a rare treat around here, we decided that the event needed a little more fanfare than just plugging in and watching...so...we decided to resurrect.....

MegaTent!!!
Now, you may recall this architectural beauty from a blog dating back to February: http://findtheblueheron.blogspot.com/2011/02/randon-acts-of-cabin-fever.html
We opted for the Summertime version, complete with open-wall-air-circulation technology.

We had a blast popping some popcorn and watching the antics of that crazy monkey while all huddled inside MegaTent...


Ask the kids...they'll tell you that maybe mama needs to go out more :^)

A Twister??!! A TWISTER!!!!

The irony is absolutely delicious. The short version is....Chrissy won a trivia contest at our local library...the question was...."Who wrote 'The Wizard of Oz?'" Chrissy responded correctly with "Frank L. Baum" and won us 4 tickets to our local minor league baseball team's Friday night game. The name of the team? The Worcester Tornadoes. See the irony? Tornado? Dorothy and Toto? Tornado? House uprooting and landing on the wicked witch an' what-not? The irony's not lost on me. Anyway....It was our family's first time to the ballpark all together and we had a stellar time. Here's what it looked like:


The Leo Family Unit at the ballpark. We commissioned a cool stranger to take our picture. I love how, when you ask someone to take your families picture, you explain to them how to use your camera like they've never seen a device like that before. Oh really???? You press the big silver button? Who knew? Are you sure this thing doesn't steal your soul??!!Anyway....


The boy chomping on something blue. Nothing like managing a sugar high while confining your child to 2 square feet of bleacher seating. But hey....that's what baseball's all about...no?


Random Silliness. By the way. The Tornadoes hats we are all rocking came free with vouchers that we got with our tickets. Pretty cool little benny for us....granted...they were cheap little lids probably made by a 6 year old with no shoes who earns a cup of rice a day for 16 hours of hard labor in some remote Indonesian village sweatshop but......it was still a nice touch.



Chrissy giving "knuckles" to the Worcester Tornadoes mascot "Twister". The irony gets even deeper considering the biggest disaster ever to hit Worcester was a deadly tornado in 1953 that killed over 90 people. Add to that the recent tornado that left hundreds homeless just miles from Worcester....Not to bring this blog to a downer but...just for a second, let me throw this out there....isn't it kind of weird that sports teams name their franchises after natural disasters that kill thousands of people worldwide every year? Like the "Tornadoes" or the "Hurricanes" or the "Avalanche". Why don't they just name sports teams after devastating diseases like the "Minnesota Lung Cancers" or the "Denver Strokes". I dunno...maybe I'm old fashioned. Anyway...this photo of Chrissy and Twister begins a 3-4 inning stalking of this pudgy canine. Gavin was a little sketched out by him at first, but managed to get close enough to let Twister sign his hat:




Ivy also got close to Twister. The result?



Freak Out City.
We cornered Twister several innings later up above the third base line as Gavin was locked in on now getting him to sign mama's hat, too. He's warming up to this chubby mutt by now:



Ivy?




Not so much.
Gavin stalked this glorified muppet for a while longer...determined to get mine and Ivy's cap signed. On his third approach to the fuzzy mongrel, Ivy had a breakthrough:



Success!! She even managed to give him a solid high-five. Over the course of the next inning and a half, Gavin managed to get all of our hats signed by Twister. All in all, it was a fantastic night.
The home team spanked the visitors by a final score of 11-2 and treated us to some great post game fireworks:



Why is it that pictures of fireworks always come out crappy? I dunno. I'm probably doing something wrong...anyway. All in all....a just-about-perfect night at the ballpark with the fam. If you have a minor league or independent team in your area....you should do yourself a favor and check them out....especially if you have kids. These places are so crazy family friendly and a family of 4 can easily have a great time for under 50 bucks....unless you are a Wizard of Oz genius like my wife....in which case it's on the house.

Root Root Root for the home team! Cheers!!

"I'm the dang....Pater Familias".

Father's Day is one of those interesting times of the year when you can take the "holiday" from two very distinct angles.....
1. "It's Father's Day and I want to spend as much time with my kids as possible, embracing the beauty of my family and this special day"....that's nice and all, but the reality sometimes is.....
2. "It's Father's Day and I'd love an hour to myself to do just about whatever I want to do...I love my kids and all but....a break would be wonderful."

This year....I'm stacking the deck....I'm going for the best of both worlds.
Now, as a parent, you know that there are a million variables that govern every aspect of your daily life....wake-up times, meals, sickness, naps, injuries, attitude, discipline....any of these can create either harmony or havoc at times within your household...all that being said.....
Sunday morning.....I'm waking up early....I mean EARLY....my Father's Day plan is to be out on the water fishing....by myself....by 5:30am.....brew up a strong pot of coffee....grab some fat night crawlers....and hit the lake....just me, myself, and I. I'm sure that the boy will wake up soon enough, maybe by 6:30-7:00 or so....but I am looking forward to that hour when I don't have to think about anything but me and the lunker that I'm yanking out of the lake Sunday Morning.
The rest of the day will involve family, church, doing the Sunday Paper Crossword, and perhaps some greasy take-out food and a good 6-pack....all of which I love....but I'm really looking forward to that early morning fishing session.
Even now, part of me feels guilty....I mean, my boy has been my fishing partner all year....is this a breach of etiquette to have a session without him? I'm not sure. I guess I'll leave that up to The Lord....If He wants me to take Gavin with me.....I'll leave it up to Him to wake Gavin up in time....otherwise....he's just going to have to be subject to the fish stories that I relay to him after he wakes..... I'm gonna leave that one up to The Lord.
I am so thankful for my children. I never imagined that I would enjoy fatherhood nearly as much as I have....what a blessing these little children are to me. Children are so equally beautiful and terrifying....I'm grateful for His continued wisdom, direction, and guidance.
Now...if He could also manage to guide a nice 5lb. bass onto my hook Sunday morning....that'd be alright with me.




blessed am I.

Cold Weather Crops with a side of Ichthyology

Many folks, this time of year, get very excited about The Final Four....us? we get excited about The Final Frost. 'cause that means our cold weather crops can go in the ground.
Aside from the stuff that's been in since last season...garlic, asparagus, some perennial herbs, and onions that we put in 2 weeks ago....we put our early Spring crops in today. We planted:

Strawberries (our patch was looking a bit sparse...I guess a bunch of plants didn't make it through the winter)
Spinach
Kale
Swiss Chard
Lettuces
Carrots
Snap Peas
Broccoli

There's this weird aesthetic that comes from planting stuff from seed....you look over the gardens after you just sowed...and it looks no different than it did before you sowed...still just flat dirt...but now there's this life under there....this hope...this tiny little seed (have you ever seen a carrot seed?? those things are about microscopic!)..in which some amazing chemical reactions (and a few miracles) will take place inside of
that eventually will yield sustenance for my family...it's actually a pretty amazing thing to comprehend.

I get giddy thinking about 2 weeks or so from now...when those tiny little seeds have germinated....where their roots have formed and headed South and their stalks have somehow found North and pushed themselves upwards into the sun....where leaves form and absorb the sun's energy....while roots absorb nutrients from the soil....to grow and mature and provide EXACTLY the nutrients our bodies need to sustain life. I can't imagine that there are many atheist gardeners. I don't see how anyone can watch a seed become a fruit yielding plant and not see God's Hand in that transformation.

It's funny about gardeners....once you've got crops in the ground, you are so much more in tune with nature and weather and what's going on around you....It's raining tonight....which I'm psyched about....I didn't connect my hoses and sprinklers and water my seeds today because I knew it was going to rain...and I know that it's going to rain again early next week...which will be perfect for my seeds to come alive. Sun, heat, rain, dry spells, wet spells, water tables, paths of the sun, birds, rabbits, critters, wind, shade...all of these seemingly mundane things take on so much more importance when you rely on a combination and understanding of all of them to help your crops along. I think back to the early settlers, who had literally life or death riding on the success of their crops....they would have cut off their pinkie finger in exchange for weather.com, right?

Anyway...here's to hoping for a good crop yield this year. I got a couple pictures from today's planting (the kids didn't stay out too long...it was Coooooold today):




Adding in some strawberries to the bare areas of our patch.


Looking foreground to background:
The first garden will be tomatoes come May
Behind that..Spinach
then Carrots
then asparagus/strawberries

Next...since Gavin has become such a pro fisherman in the last 4 days.....we've decided to photograph each different type of fish that he catches...so's that we can learn a bit about them. Here's the different types that he's landed so far:


Bluegill.....some might call it a Pumpkin Seed...or a kivver


Sunfish...or "Sunny"...also called a Kivver by some.


Golden Shiner. I don't remember ever landing these as a kid....in fact, we used to buy shiners to use as bait...they were only an inch or two long, though. I'm not sure how or when these guys got introduced to our pond....but they are cool looking, no? (Ivy thinks so.)

That's about the size of the fishing tally so far....we spotted a MOTHER of a bass the other day, but he swam right past our hook.

Now, for no reason other than she's cute as nails....the girl:


Epic hairdo on this kid...I've never seen anything like it.

We're having a blast getting dirty in the garden and on the dock...hope you are too.

Fair-weather Festivities Featuring First Fish

The first stellar weather weekend of the year. 63 fantastic degrees with just enough breeze to ring the chimes and just enough clouds to make you appreciate the sun. Everyone and their mom in Southern New England did work in the yard this weekend and we were no exception.

We got a bunch of stuff accomplished (still lots to do)...the biggest of which was to anchor and re-top our dock. Previously, our dock was attached at the shoreline and floated with the help of huge Styrofoam blocks. Now, it's secured with 4x4's dug down into the lake floor (special props to my dad, "The Toe" for spending 2+ hours waist-deep in the frigid April water while we got things level). Gavin thought it would be a good idea to go swimming....so we let him....his adventure invariably ended about 2.6seconds later in tears and goosebumps. We also replaced the old wooden decking (also known around here as "Splinter Central") with some composite decking....no more splinters.....ever. Despite the fact that I'm a ninja with a pair of tweezers...I'm grateful that the splinter ratio is going to drop dramatically around here this Spring/Summer.

Which brings me to our epic moment of the weekend. Gavin caught his first fish today. Now, before I show you a picture of this lunker....a bit of a back story:

As you know...I grew up on this water...I know every stellar fishing spot, every shallow spot, every sand bar, every dead spot. As a kid, I fished this water almost every day that there wasn't ice covering the surface of it. Bass, calico's, horned pout, yellow perch, white perch, pickerel, blue gills, sunnies, carp...I have literally pulled hundreds, if not thousands of fish out of this lake in my lifetime. In 1992, I moved away. In 2001, I moved back. But I didn't fish. At all. I'm not quite sure why.

I know that at some point I went through a "fishing is cruel" phase. I'm not sure what prompted it, but my general attitude was that I was deriving entertainment by causing physical and mental anguish to another living thing. Now...if I were fishing to feed my family, that would be one thing, but I was a catch-and-release guy all those years. I read journal articles and test results with titles like "Do fish feel pain?"...on both sides of the argument. Fishing became something that I just didn't do anymore. Until today.

Earlier this year, I looked at my son...here's a boy, a country boy...a mud-loving, dirt-eating, frog-in-his-pocket country boy. Country boys need to know how to fish....both on general principle and because there may be a point in time that he may need that skill to provide food for his family. He's 4 years old....it was time.

We were given a rod and reel from a family friend....I took off the reel and attached a 5 foot length of fishing line to the end of the rod...kind of like a bamboo pole...Huck Finn-style. We dug up a few juicy night crawlers from the garden, baited our hook, dropped that baby off the dock and within seconds....BAM:



Gavin's first fish. Now...don't under-estimate this lunker...he was a fighter....4 inches of fin-waving fury!!

We caught 5 or 6 in all today...all blue gills:






Ivy told us that she wanted to give the fish a kiss....this is as close as she was willing to get:


I still haven't come to a conclusion as to whether catch-and-release fishing is cool or cruel....but with the kids...it sure was fun. Suffice it to say that we rocked the new dock in style this weekend and had a blast outside enjoying God's wonderful creations.

Hope that you and yours had some outside fun this weekend as well.

Randon Acts of Cabin Fever

So...some thick, nasty, lingering cold bug decided it was a good idea to visit the Leo family's immune systems for a few days. We've all got it, to some degree. Couple that with one of the 10 worst Winters in Southern Worcester County, MA history, and you've got the recipe for some hardcore inside activities. Between snow removal and child sanity, we've been on a sometimes-pleasant-sometimes-frantic level of damage control. It hasn't been without its frustrating moments but...with a house full of snowed in sickies, what else would you expect.
Here's how we killed some time this week:


The boy managed some quality schooling time.


The fabrication of "MegaTent".


MegaTent Story Hour


We celebrated Ivy's 1 1/2 year old birthday, complete with Crazy Cracky Blu-Jello Cake...strange..yet delicious.


The Indoor Clothesline of Randomness. That's a "Shins" CD hanging in the middle there.


Tiny Plastic Animal Wildlife Refuge. A few things to note:
1. The big cats eating the zebra in the front left corner...we had a lesson on the "circle of life" today..although Gavin said that he wants to wait until he's 16 to see The Lion King.
2. The upside down clear plastic tote in the far right corner. That was "Animal Jail". What you can't see is the angry gorilla who's in jail, but just outside the photo...he's in there for fighting. At one point, the orangutan got sent to solitary for flinging poo. We don't take any nonsense here at Tiny Plastic Animal Wildlife Refuge, you got me?

All in all...some good times, some frustrating times, some tears, some creative play, some bacon, some boogies, some Winnie the Pooh on video, some puke buckets, some blu-jello cake...we did o.k. We also saw a few new Winter birds at the feeder during this storm, which was pretty cool.

Spring feels like a myth, and even though I'm enjoying this crazy Winter...I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't chomping at the bit to get ready for planting season.
My grandmother always says..."After March 15, we start getting nice days"...We've got lots of new gardens and lots of new ideas for this year. Not to get ahead of myself...but I can already taste the fresh pickles.

But the 9 foot snowdrifts have got to melt first.