Well, that was a long stretch of no blogging. I would like to do a little better in 2012, but I’m not making any promises. Life is full and good here – right now it’s full of cross country skiing and fun with boys. There are garden plans in the works and seeds have been ordered. There is crafting, knitting, and hopefully a bit of sewing soon too. There is a birthday coming up, and plans are being made. There is a distinct lack of snow, which is really hard on all of us, but at least where we ski, they are able to make snow on a 1k loop, so we are skiing around some, although not on all the trails we’d like.
There is a lot of exciting learning going on – all that comes with a boy that has (finally) become a reader. He’s always loved to look at books (and actually it’s astonishing what he’s been able to figure out without actual reading), but it’s so exciting that he can read them now. He takes such pride in reading aloud to us now! We’ve always read at bedtime – we all curl up in my bed and I read for a good long time. Now, when I’m done, he’ll say “now I can read to you!” and jumps up to get a book. It’s wonderful. And there’s nothing quite like seeing him sitting on his brother’s bed, reading to him.
Soon, I’ll be back with a post that has my 2012 seed list. I’ve added things and removed a few, too. And somehow, my favorite soup beans were left off the order. I spent a morning putting beans in jars (well, jar) and realizing that something like 100 square feet of garden produced about one pint of beans, and really, I don’t know how I can conclude this is reasonable use of valuable garden space. My only excuse is that this is a bean I’ve never seen in a store or co-op, and it is my very favorite soup bean. It’s the Hutterite soup bean – small, greenish white and so lovely. Creamy in soup. So, the question is, do I order them or leave the order as is? I don’t know. I don’t even know if the beans I grew last year were open pollinated or not, so saving some of this pint may not solve the issue for me. Ah well, time will tell.
Now, back to the marble game in the other room. I can’t recommend this little project enough – one of our answers to no snow in the yard is fun, active games in the house. Magnetic darts, trampoline, foosball, ping pong, and marbles keep us all sane when there’s no snow to play in in the yard. I made the marble mat with a piece of leftover flannel from Alec’s Halloween costume. Very simple – make a large circle on it, an ‘x’ in the center, and lines for guides to position the marbles for “Ringer”. A 44″ wide piece of fabric was large enough for a 40″ diameter circle, which is a great playing size.
That’s all for now! Think snow!











































