Finish It Up Friday 2016: Update #5: A Beautiful Table and A Beautiful Kitchen!

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Laura

I appear to be settling into a every-other-week reporting groove! 🙂

I managed to cross two more things off my list!  First, I sewed a tablecloth for our table, which was ordered and delivered during Mark’s pregnancy. It’s pretty big so I decided to just sew a tablecloth rather than try to buy one.  I bought the fabric when Mark was four months old and so it’s about time I actually sewed it!

I had to piece together three lengths of the fabric in order to get the width I needed.  I finished all the inner edges with a narrow hem and I love how cleanly that finished it.

025 (640x427)The majority of the sewing for this project was B O R I N G but I did learn one new skill: mitered corners! I followed this tutorial (with modified hem widths) and look how gorgeous corners turn out when you do them this way!

IMG_1999 (640x480)before mitering

IMG_2001 (640x480)after – a miracle!

I’m also crazy and decided to do five lines of top-stitching on the hem for a bit of subtle visual interest – that’s 1,720 inches of top-stitching.  It took me almost an hour to do it.  Did I mention I’m crazy?

IMG_2002 (480x640)what pushing almost six yards of fabric through for hemming looks like (boring)…

026 (640x427)…but ooo, I love those corners!

The inner-tablecloth seams show up a little more than I want them too so I may just cover the table in quilt batting before I use it for the full effect.  All in all, it turned out just how I wanted it to and I’m glad to have it done! I also have enough fabric left to make napkins so I will do that soon (as in, I’m determined to make them in 2016!).

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I also managed to finish two potholders for our kitchen.  They deserve their own blog post but here’s a sneak peak to whet your appetite!

IMG_2038 (425x640)Check out my Instagram feed if you want more pictures of these…

I’m putting this list on hold now because Easter will be here in just a month and I have some fun garment sewing plans for the whole family that I must get to work on! 🙂  I’ll take up the bathroom curtain and shades in April.

Items to sew after Easter

  1. Actually get the dining room shades installed – clearly I should not have allowed myself to cross that one off the list.
  2. Design and sew a new bathroom curtain and fix the bathroom bath mats too.

**********

I read First Impressions (an Amish, Christian, modern-day retelling of Pride and Prejudice) almost two weeks ago.  It was a surprisingly entertaining and fun easy read for my Sunday afternoon (and then I stayed up way to late to finish it).  It’s already even been returned to its owner! I’m currently reading Creed or Chaos? (for Classics Club) but haven’t finished it yet.  I also decided to take Road Song off the list and return it to my friend.

Books still to read:

Books borrowed from friends and family (looking better):

  1. The Wisdom of Stability by Wilson Hargrove
  2. That Distant Land by Wendell Berry
  3. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry (currently reading)
  4. Creed or Chaos? by Dorothy Sayers (currently reading – for Classics Club)

Books we own:

  1. The Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris (I’ve been almost done with this for probably two years and it’s SO good but somehow, I haven’t read that last quarter or so of it.)
  2. Gender and Grace by Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen (I read this in college but I’d like to read it again.)
  3. Intimate Allies by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman
I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish It Up Friday.
Posted in books, sewing | Tagged | 3 Comments

Classics Club, Book #24: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (January 2016)

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Laura

This is my first post about 2016’s books for The Classics Club.  I’ll be reading one classic book a month through 2018.  Track what I’m reading for the Classics Club here.  I’ll try not to include too many spoilers in my review but I may need to discuss some in order to fully review the book. I’ll warn you if I’m going to mention one.  

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

IMG_2008 (640x480)Clearly a fascinating story!

  • Year Published: 1889
  • Reread? Or new to me?:  new to me
  • Number of Pages: 268
  • Date Finished: somewhere at the end of January (see story below for why I was completely unable to keep track of how many days it took me to read this.
  • Number of Days to read it: way too many
  • Page/Day ratio: ???
  • Will I reread this?: probably not

Review:

I started out by listening to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court on audio book on 1/1/16 (impressed with myself about how on top of things I was in the new year). I was almost done with it before I figured out that it was an abridged version.  I was thinking, “Wow! this is super easy to understand, fun, engaging, why didn’t I read this sooner?” Consequently, I was so mad and demotivated when I figured out that, of course, it was abridged.  When I went back to read the real thing, I had to fight my annoyance at “slogging” through all the actual writing.  Not that it’s that bad – it really is a fun, engaging and at times, super-thought-provoking story – just not compared to an abridged version.  It probably took me three weeks to finally finish the book but I am certainly glad I read it.

Some quotes that I liked:

For my patent law attorney brother-in-law:

…[The] very first thing I did, in my administration – and it was on the very first day of it, too – was to start a patent office; for I knew that a country without a patent office and good patent laws was just a crab, and couldn’t travel any way but sideways or backwards.” (p. 42)

A good reminder for me as we are slowly but surely purging our entire house:

[When] we inherit property, it does not occur to us to throw it away, even when we do not value it.” (p. 97)

Food for thought in this election year:

“There are wise people who talk ever so knowingly and complacently about “the working classes,” and satisfy themselves that a day’s hard intellectual work is very much harder than a day’s hard manual toil, and is righteously entitled to much bigger pay.  Why they really think that, you know, is because they know all about the one but haven’t tried the other. But I know all about both; and so far as I’m concerned, there isn’t enough money in the universe to hire me to swing a pickax thirty days but I will do the hardest kind of intellectual work for just as near nothing as you can cipher it down – and I will be satisfied too…The law of work does seem utterly unfair – but there it is: and nothing can change it: the higher the pay in enjoyment the worker gets out of it, the higher shall his pay be in cash, also.” (p. 167-168)

How about you? Have you read Connecticut Yankee? Any favorite sections in it for you?  I was particularly intrigued by how he fixed the miraculous healing well. Anyone else find it impossible to spell Connecticut without spell checker help?

 ***************

In February, I’m reading Creed or Chaos? by Dorothy Sayers.  Even with very few days left in the month, want to join me in reading it?

IMG_2009 (640x480)Look how grownup he is! And how little he was in my first Classics Club post from 2 years ago! Actually, you have to get to CC#3 to get to a picture of his non-sleeping/nursing face! 🙂

This post contains affiliate links, meaning any purchases you make through them support our blog.  See the full disclosure here.
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Recipe: White Bean and Fig Salad (delicious for winter!)

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Laura

When in Montana in summer 2013, we spent a couple days in Missoula and ate lunch one day at the Good Food Store. It’s like Whole Foods except way better. Not exaggerating, it had the biggest and best bulk food section I’ve ever been in. I told Nik that the bulk food section alone was [almost] enough to get me to move to Missoula. Anyway, this salad was so good that we saved the label so I could reverse engineer it.

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White Bean and Fig Salad
recipe invented by Laura, as inspired by the Good Food Store
serves 6 as a main dish (approximately) (we like to eat it for dinner with our sourdough rolls and roasted vegetables)

I know this recipe looks like it has a lot of steps but the overall prep time (not counting the bean cooking time) is only around an hour or so, especially if you don’t have children helping you! Fig cutting is a great job for little hands who know how to use knives.  Even Mark could do it with his butter knife.

1 pound giant white beans (see sourcing explanation below)

Soak the beans overnight (between 12-24 hours) in warm water.  Discard any beans continue to float after soaking.  Simmer in thoroughly salted water until soft but with a bit of bite still left in the bean. This will probably take 1-2 hours (maybe more) depending on the age of your beans. It’s tricky to cook them enough but still leave them with enough structure to not disintegrate into the salad. I err on the side of too soft (because who wants to eat a crunchy bean, right?) After cooling, remove the skins from the beans. They’ll usually pop off quite easily if you press on one end of the bean.  This is a bit tedious but dramatically improves the texture of the final dish, because the skins are so tough.  Plus you’ll end up with a creepy cool pile of skins, like this!

IMG_1952 (800x800)sort of like cicada shells, right?

1 C almonds, roughly chopped
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
2 T extra virgin olive oil
Mix well. You should think that there is too much paprika and oil (because it will eventually be part of the dressing.) So if it doesn’t look like a lot, add more of either or both. Roast in a 400-degree oven until toasty and delicious. Watch them carefully. I usually start checking and stirring after five minutes. When done, set aside to cool.

1/4 C extra virgin olive oil
2 and 1/2 T red wine vinegar
2 T honey
zest from one lemon (orange zest is good too)
15 grinds of black pepper (probably around 1/4 tsp?)
3/4 tsp salt (start with less if you want and add more if needed)
Whisk dressing together and set aside.

1/2 of a medium red onion, finely diced (shallots would be fine too)
1-2 C of quartered black mission figs, depending on how much you like dried figs (we buy ours at Trader Joe’s and use the whole 14-oz container)
1/2 C grated Pecorino Romano cheese, grated on the small holes of a box grater (so the pieces are a bit bigger)
In a large bowl, combine onion, figs, cheese, beans, almonds (being sure to scrape in all the extra paprika and oil), and dressing.  Taste and add more oil, honey, salt, pepper, or vinegar as needed.

Serve at room temperature.  It’s also delicious eaten for several days afterwards, straight from the refrigerator.

**********

We buy our giant white beans at our local Greek store but you can also get them on Amazon (that’s the brand we buy).  There’s really something special about these giant white beans but if you can’t find any, then I suppose you could use a smaller white bean.  The texture of the salad will be different but the rest of the flavors will still be delicious.

**********

Someday, I hope to actually blog about that trip to Montana because it was amazing.

montana 499 (800x533)

This post contains  affiliate links, meaning any purchases you make with them support our blog.  See the full disclosure here.
Posted in cooking, recipe, travel | Tagged | 13 Comments

Finish It Up Friday 2016: Update #4: Will Those Birds Eat the Corn?

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Laura

I am obliterating my to-sew list! Here’s what I accomplished over the past couple weeks.

I made eight corn sacks (portable heating pads) – three on commission and five as presents for people who have been really kind to our kids over the past couple years at church. (This is five more than were on my original list.)

021 (800x800) 022 (800x800)

I especially love that navy/mustard owl combination.  I was using the scraps left-over from the blanket I made for Mark, back when he was still B2.  I had to do a bit of tricky piecing to have enough for a cover. My kids are practicing for careers as hand models for me, too.

026 (800x533)the cutest little fingers, EVER

027 (800x533)and those are so long and grown-up!

028 (800x533)posing of their own design

Next, I sewed four little baby birds. I always make these for my nieces and nephews for their first Christmas.  This one is for my brother’s son, born in March 2015.  The other three are for some friends, whose initials I’m not revealing.

008 (800x800) 007 (800x800)

Finally, I fixed the Roman shades in our office.  Two of the three were becoming inoperable.  One of them just required a new string, a relatively easy fix.  The other looked like this when opened.

002 (800x533) (2)After I took it down, I discovered that over two-thirds of the little rings had disintegrated (as in, the plastic rings had crumbled into dust – weird.) After some trial and error (including sewing on and then cutting off about 12 plastic ones), I discovered I could get metal rings. Hopefully these will outlive the shades!

020 (800x534)replacing all the rings on this shade = 15 new rings!

019 (800x533)much better!

I also decided to be realistic about what I could expect to accomplish for late Christmas presents, as discussed yesterday.  So my “should have been done by Christmas” list is gone!

Items to sew next now that the first list is finished:

  1. Sew a large neutral tablecloth for our dining room table (have had the fabric since spring 2013) (already started working on this)
  2. Actually get the dining room shades installed – clearly I should not have allowed myself to cross that one off the list.
  3. Sew hot pads for us (and a tutorial for you)
  4. Design and sew a new bathroom curtain and fix the bathroom bath mats too.

**********

As for books, I finally have an actual finish to report.  I finished Unclean: Meditations on Purity, Hospitality, and Mortality by Richard Beck and it’s a great and certainly thought-provoking, challenging book.  Read it. Thanks for letting me borrow it, Eric!

Books still to read:

Books borrowed from friends and family:

  1. The Wisdom of Stability by Wilson Hargrove
  2. That Distant Land by Wendell Berry
  3. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
  4. First Impressions by Sarah Price
  5. Road Song by Natalie Kusz
  6. Creed or Chaos by Dorothy Sayers

Books we own:

  1. The Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris (I’ve been almost done with this for probably two years and it’s SO good but somehow, I haven’t read that last quarter or so of it.)
  2. Gender and Grace by Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen (I read this in college but I’d like to read it again.)
  3. Intimate Allies by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman
I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish It Up Friday.
Posted in books, sewing | Tagged | 6 Comments

Handmade Christmas 2015: Ornaments for Two of My Siblings but NOT the Other Two (because I am definitely not perfect)

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Laura

This year, I managed to sew ornaments for two of my four siblings.

For my sister, who loves to take pictures, I sewed her this adorable camera (from this tutorial). I even managed to get this done in early December. (Did I mail it to her in December though? Of course not.)

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In January, I sewed this fun festive penguin for my brother who lives in Northern Ireland (from this tutorial, although I did choose to use traditional penguin colors).

010 (800x514) 011 (800x534)love that embroidered scarf!

And on Monday (a full six weeks after Christmas), I managed to put them both into the mail.  So you’ll be getting your Christmas presents soon, Jon and Rachel! (And my apologies for totally ruining the surprise by posting about them early.)

For my other two brothers, I knew what I wanted to make and was determined to make it for them even after I’d missed the Christmas deadline because how unfair is that to send presents to some siblings and not others? I know exactly what I want to make for both families (really cute ideas in both cases!) but I don’t have tutorials to follow.  As in, I’m going to have to find the felt and make up the patterns myself and realistically it’s going to be months before I get them both done. And by then, it would so feel silly to mail them a Christmas present months after the fact. So, I’m giving up. This is therefore my public confession that I love Jon and Rachel better than I love Chris and Eric. Just kidding! Really, this is my public confession that I’m not at all perfect. I don’t get everything done that I want to do and sometimes that means sending presents to some people and not others.  I do have great plans for Chris’s and Eric’s families for Christmas 2016 and I’ll make sure to do those first.  Maybe I’ll just ignore Rachel and Jon next year and then all will be even? 🙂

Posted in family, holidays, sewing | 4 Comments

[not to get all conspiracy-theoryish on you but] TURN OFF YOUR WIFI!!

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Laura

Several weeks ago, I woke up and said to Nik, “I just had the most bizarre series of dreams!” He replied “Me too! It’s because I turned off the WiFi!”

What does that have to do with dreams??????

It turned out that he had recently read an article about another family who had turned off their WiFi and instantly had better, deeper sleep with more dreaming.  So that night, he made a point of turning off our WiFi before we went to sleep but didn’t tell me what he’d done.  It was that night that I had all those crazy dreams.  I used to have insane, crazy dreams all the time but don’t really remember having them for the past couple years.  Perhaps this is coincidentally timed with us getting WiFi after getting smart phones? Or perhaps it’s not coincidence? I don’t know.

Some research seems to support a tenuous [and controversial] link at best between sleep quality and WiFi exposure.  (This is based just what I read in that above linked article – I haven’t done any searching on my own.) So I’m not here today to tell you “scientists have proven that WiFi in your house causes you to sleep poorly.”

But I am here to tell you that it might make a difference so why not turn it off? You don’t need it at night anyway. We now make a point of turning off our WiFi around 7:00 each evening (i.e. when both our kids are asleep) because we want to be sure they get their best sleep all night.  You too can have better sleep! Just turn off that WiFi (which might also help you stop using your smartphone too late into the night, right?)!

**********

Speaking of sleeping, you’ll see in the picture below that we now have a room of mattresses.  We bought Ellie a new mattress this summer (latex, from this company, after much angst and research and help from a dear friend who is also really concerned about the INSANE fire retardant load in conventional mattresses.)  Now, Nik and I are planning to transition to a minimal bed, slowly of course.  Once our current mattress gives out (it’s 8 years old at this point so getting elderly in mattress years), we’ll probably switch to a futon or harder wool mattress and eventually maybe even just to sleeping pads (if we can convince ourselves to be that hardcore).  We’re also going to try to wean ourselves off of using pillows (or at least fat ones). And, we’re going to pull a couple layers out of Ellie’s mattress (one at a time to transition her too) so hers isn’t so soft either – we’ll give one to Mark for his bed, when he’s ready for a big bed. To be clear, we got the firm latex so her bed really isn’t all that soft to begin with.  But it will feel harder once there’s less foam in it.

002 (800x533)didn’t even make the beds before taking the picture – real-life right? 🙂

Want to join us in creating a no-WiFi-no-mattress-no-pillow life? It’s better for your body!

(More tips for avoiding flame retardants.)

Posted in Ellie, family, house/neighborhood, parenting | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

The Voting Results You Should REALLY Care About

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Laura

Ellie has finished her poll!  She wants you to know that there are no winners in her poll – only data, people, only data.

Here’s her results in graphic form:

029 (800x533)when I asked her to smile for the camera

030 (800x533) (2)when I asked her to say, “pig” (her preferred animal) 🙂

As you can see, we had to add another sheet because horse and sheep were so popular. In fact, her fingers are covering up the final horse vote that we had to draw an extra box for. That’s right, friends, HORSE was the…animal with the most votes. (Please do not make the mistake of saying, “winner.” She will correct you.)

For all you data people, here are the hard numbers (in no particular order, because, you know, no winners). We had 75 votes total. Ellie counted them up today and I recorded them.

  • duck: 11 (15%)
  • horse: 25 (33%)
  • pig: 11 (15%)
  • cow: 9 (12%)
  • sheep: 19 (25%)

This was a great project for Ellie.  It helped her practice talking to many different people (adults and kids), even strangers (like the servers at the restaurant we went to with family a few weeks ago) and I think she had a lot of fun making the graph too.  Art is her true love so math combined with art was a perfect fit. (Note the flowers decorating the edges of her graph!)

If you ever decide you want to do your own survey, feel free to use this chart that I made for her to use.  (It will open as a PDF.) Even Marko likes to “read” the results to us!

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who voted.  You really helped this little girl learn a lot about making graphs, about explaining concepts to other people, and that projects are fun!

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Finish It Up Friday 2016: Update #3: All Construction, All The Time

Posted on January 29, 2016 by Laura

Thanks to all our at-home time due to Jonas, I got a good bit of sewing done.

Here’s what I crossed off my list:

I sewed all three of these baby blankets on Saturday as the snow came down. 🙂

130 (800x533) 131 (800x533)The color matching of the the hedgehogs and seahorses doesn’t come out as clearly in this picture – they’re really a lovely shade of coral! 🙂

Last week, Nik’s mom gave me a couple cuts of flannel that she didn’t need.  One of them was a construction print and Mark immediately insisted that I had to sew him EVERYTHING from it.  One morning, I even found him using his scissors to do the cutting for me. 🙂 Eventually, we settled on a blanket for his doll, some new cloth wipes, and an apron (from this pattern) (the apron being on my original list).

069 (533x800) (2)“Yay! Mama finally made Marko an apron! Let’s have a party!”, Ellie insisting on partying in her apron.

132 (800x533)I added a pocket of blue with that little excavator applique.  It’s backed in that same blue.  I’ve now officially just about used up all the solid blue from Mark’s quilt.

133 (800x533)Both sides of the doll blanket are construction (because you know, CONSTRUCTION OBSESSION) and the other side of the wipes is trains because he’s obsessed with all things that go. A pretty nice ensemble, if I do say so myself! 🙂

Additionally, this week, I decided that I didn’t need to force myself to complete those baby bibs (a job I was dreading) so I’m going to pass them along.  My sewing time is too limited for that! Also, I did all the prep/machine sewing for the four baby birds. The list is looking better!

Still to do:

Items that are currently in progress (and/or should have been done by Christmas time):

  1. Make corn sacks for J, J, and A – three special people in my kids’ lives.
  2. Fix two of our office Roman shades (annoyingly, the little plastic rings just keep on breaking)
  3. Sew 4 baby birds (like this one)
  4. Design and finish two final Handmade Christmas 2015 projects (because no, I’m still not done)

Items to sew next once the first list is finished:

  1. Sew a large neutral tablecloth for our dining room table (have had the fabric since spring 2013)
  2. Actually get the dining room shades installed – clearly I should not have allowed myself to cross that one off the list.
  3. Sew hot pads for us (and a tutorial for you)
  4. Design and sew a new bathroom curtain. (This one I just put on the list this week but we really need it)

**********

As for books, I took Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids off my list because I didn’t get it re-read in time for book club. So no completions to report but I am whittling down the list one way or another, as I’d wanted to!

Books still to read:

Books borrowed from friends and family:

  1. Unclean by Richard Beck – I’m about half way through this one and have really been thinking a lot about the implications of his arguments.
  2. The Wisdom of Stability by Wilson Hargrove
  3. That Distant Land by Wendell Berry
  4. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry
  5. First Impressions by Sarah Price
  6. Road Song by Natalie Kusz
  7. Creed or Chaos by Dorothy Sayers

Books we own:

  1. The Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris (I’ve been almost done with this for probably two years and it’s SO good but somehow, I haven’t read that last quarter or so of it.)
  2. Gender and Grace by Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen (I read this in college but I’d like to read it again.)
  3. Intimate Allies by Dan Allender and Tremper Longman
I’m linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish It Up Friday.
Posted in books, sewing | Tagged | 4 Comments

Favorite Books of 2015: Fiction

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Laura

I read around 75 books in 2014. (I know that seems like a lot but that’s 50% down from 2011 so doesn’t feel like much to me!)  Here are my favorites, just a month late compared to all the other book bloggers out there! I track my reading on Goodreads.  So if we’re not friends there, you should join me!

Here are my favorite fictional books of 2015.
(with apologies for the repetitiveness to my Goodreads friends as these are my edited reviews from what I posted there through the year)

The Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear: I read books books #5-9 this year.  I’m inevitably sobbing by the end with so much sadness and often so much healing too. I think I liked An Incomplete Revenge (#5) the best out of the five I read this year.

A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley: I do love Flavia, her love of chemistry, and her quirks. (I listened to this via the Overdrive app and it was  a fun one to listen to because of the varying British accents.)

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr :  This book is terribly sad. Several times I had to skip forward to find out who had died because I couldn’t take not knowing and falling in love with the characters without warning of what their ultimate fate would be. With that warning, it’s an amazing (if quite slow) book. This was also the first time I read the Pulitzer award winner in fiction before the award was announced, which made me feel pretty smart. 😉

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty: Liane Moriarty seems to have a knack for writing fiction that sticks with me for days/weeks, helping me think through big, hard issues. This one left me terribly sad at the end (even though the ending is ostensibly happy). It was an enjoyable although sometimes difficult and certainly eye-opening read. (BTW, I also read The Husband’s Secret this year and didn’t like it nearly as much as this one. What Alice Forgot is still my favorite of hers.)

Isn’t that cover gorgeous? I need to learn how to sew myself a dress like that!

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner: Yet again, I got sucked in by a WWII-in-England fictional novel and really loved this one (terribly sad but good too).

Come Rain or Come Shine by Jan Karon: I listened to this on audio, which was a mistake I think because the narrator wasn’t super strong and at times it was hard to tell who was talking. Regardless, this was yet another incredible, amazing, ponder-for-days (still pondering weeks later actually) fiction offering from Jan Karon. (Make sure you start with the first book if you haven’t read this series before.)

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce: I loved this one!

I also read through many classics this year and enjoyed but didn’t love the majority of them.  The exception to that was The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry (my review here).

For the younger crowd:

Greenglass House by Kate Milford: I devoured this in two days. It’s so good. I love the adoption story line, the ending totally took me by surprise, and it’s just enough weird and geeky to make it fun. It would be fun to read aloud (maybe middle elementary? I’m not good at gauging age appropriateness. Definitely middle school.)

The Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall: I love the Penderwicks, the whole family. I’m really looking forward to reading these books aloud to Ellie and Mark.

Do you have any favorites on this list?  Any more to recommend to me? (Not that I’m allowing myself to take on any new books right now but I can still dream!)

This post contains  affiliate links, meaning any purchases you make with them support our blog.  See the full disclosure here.
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Snowpocaplse 2016, in pictures, by the hour

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Laura

To satisfy my sister-in-law up in Alaska, a weather junkie, I’ve been taking pictures every couple hours (with a longer break last night) thorough the storm.  Perhaps you’d like to see them too?

Friday, 1/22, 4:31 pm431 pm (600x800)

Friday, 1/22, 5:02 pm

502pm (600x800)

Friday, 1/22, 7:19 pm

719pm (600x800)Friday, 1/22, 10:11 pm

1011pm (600x800)

[Good night!]

Saturday, 1/23, 8:49 am

849am (600x800)impossible to see but a plow did come through at some point in the night (and we haven’t seen another one since) (I am not, for the record, complaining about that. I know we’ll get plowed out eventually!)

Saturday, 1/23, 10:20 am

1020am (600x800)As Marko kept saying, “The wheels are sinking into the snow!”

Saturday, 1/23, 12:01 pm (noon)

1201pm (600x800)Hello crazy blowing snow! Goodbye cars!

Saturday, 1/23, 2:37 pm

237pm (600x800)

Saturday, 1/23, 3:38 pm

338pm (600x800)

Saturday, 1/23, 8:04 pm

804pm (600x800)At least the wind blew the snow off the window.

Where, you may be asking, are the pictures of cute kids romping in snow while parents shovel? There are NONE because we stayed inside.  It may be advisable to shovel mid-way through a storm like this and we watched many neighbors doing so but Alaskan blood or not, I despise blowing snow. We didn’t even open a door today.  Tomorrow is supposed to be bright and sunny and relatively warm.  So we’re planning on many shoveling sessions, lots of snow play, and seeing if we can find our cars again.  That’s jumping ahead of myself though as it’s probably going to take hours just to shovel our steps and the sidewalk to the cars.

So how did we spend our snow day? I spent most of the morning cleaning our kitchen, attempting to unearth it from a crazy week. Nik spent almost the whole day in our upstairs, prepping all three rooms for priming and painting (super duper exciting news on the home renovation front! I’ll share that soon!). The kids did their usual play/fight/play/fight/play cycle as well as some bike riding in the empty rooms upstairs. I also have almost three baby blankets sewn.  I can be remarkably productive when my sewing room is in our living room.

001 (800x533)Also, fort building in our newly-spacious office/playroom because we got rid of all our furniture (more on that soon too!). Didn’t even have to close the blinds tonight!

What will tomorrow bring (besides shoveling feet of snow)? With our church service canceled, Ellie already has made plans for how we’re going to have our own home church (it involved church and Sunday School but no nursery and a lot of other complicated talking that I lost track of somewhere in the middle), probably some bread baking, and lamb chops with risotto for dinner.  Life is good in a storm!

Good night!

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