Chilly Days Doings.

Good weekends out there? Here too.

I am sitting next to a window that is covered with sticky snowflakes. Snowed all day. The trees in the yard look bone white. Totally skeletal. I do love a soft frosting of snow on the ground though. Never lasts long with three dogs, three kids and a clumsy booted mama stomping around in it.

So in these chilly closing days of January we are doing things to warm up.

Coffee in town every once in a while. (More like every trip into town.)

Finding the rare sunlit spots in the house for perching and keeping our hands busy. Sometimes the only sunlit spot is the dinning table. 

So be it.

Racquet ball. We are very lucky that we have use of all the facilities on the military base here because Jeff is a civilian employee. This includes the gym and participation in children's organized sports. Colyer joined in for the basketball season too. 

Neat! 

Walks and puddle stomping when puddles are around.

Wall climbing when it seems that the whole island is a mud puddle.

Jeff and Sully did some snowshoeing and climbed a pretty big mountain. I may have to post some extreme sledding Sully did on his avalanche shovel. Glad I wasn't there to see it in person. Pretty sure I would have fainted. He is fine. It was fine. And he had blast. 

(...gulp...still...)

For me, some indoor time has been spent cleaning up, organizing and prepping for some new ideas. Feels nice to clear away scraps and loose threads from Christmas projects right off of my work table. 

Finally.

And now that things are looking like this...

...all I want to do is this.

(Especially if there is a fire going. 
And the bed warmer is on high.
 And Jeff is making coffee.)

Good night!

An Eleven Year Streak Ends.

Last week Jeff and I dropped our youngest off for her first day of school. 

(I know, it is so very dark here in the morning still. Summer makes up for it when it never really gets dark at all.)

On Minna's second day, I went and sat in the car with a coffee and realized that this preschool adventure for Minna is also a huge new time of adventure for me. 

For eleven years, we experienced every combination of being pregnant, a newborn, nursing babe, toddler, bigger kid and all of the above. My days were tailored to nurture all of these phases of us. Our days have just morphed to accommodate. First, all of my kids home each day. Then, just two. Then, to just Minna and I, since she was born over four years ago.

Now, I have a new combo of a few hours each week alone, or with Jeff when he isn't on shift.

I keep trying to remember when it was always just the two of us. But now we have been parents way longer than we were a newly wedded, childless couple. Kind of weird to think.

These moments when I find myself buckling only one seat belt, grabbing just one coat and speeding thorough my grocery list, are weird too. Very weird.

But oh my, not bad at all! Not bad because this girl wishes school were everyday. She is so excited. So ready.

She didn't want her picture taken for her first day. She just wanted to tell me about the art she made with paper plates and the snack she had. And that she was glad she had water with her snack because its better for her teeth.

"I mean, I am just so really, really ready. It is time for me to go for school with a backpack and a folder like my brothers."

She got her first haircut too. Talk about a new phase! Those little blond ends will be tucked into her baby book next to ultrasound pictures and baby shower cards. All tucked away and making way for the next.

This big girl. 

A perfect combo of smart, funny and lovely. 

And even though I plan to thoroughly enjoy my free time, or at least use it wisely, I will be waiting excitedly for her to come home. Then as usual, we will be excited for her brothers to come home too. And this is our new phase. 

The beginning of a sweet new streak.

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

-Amanda Soule (SouleMama)

I want so badly to post a bit more regularly here!

So much to share! 

So many pictures!

Maybe it is in the cards. Or, maybe its just meant to be sporadic as usual. 

Either way, I will be back next week to share two things...

1. My sweater! 

2. The reason that after 11 years, I now how 6 hours of free time per week. (hint-its' because of that big girl with her pups up there.)

Happy weekend to you!

Eleven?

I was very glad that I was too lazy this weekend to wipe off and rip down birthday decorations. Sully celebrated his eleventh over the break and we had his best bud over for a sleepover. 

I smiled at the window marker and streamers in our windows on this very dark morning.

His little brother and sister had cut and sewed them all.

Then we taped them up just right.

They still hang in the dinning room. I am not sure I am ready to take them down. 

Then, I will really be admitting he is another year older. This one little year, minute by minute, pushed my first born closer to a teenager than a child. I am frightened by that. But also excited by the glimpses I get of who this young man is.

  

He got some big time fishing gear that will take him well into his teens. He is a real life, serious fisherman now. No denying it. He needed the real thing. The right tools. 

Here he is at ten. Just one year ago. He was teaching himself how to tie flies and use a fly rod. He became seriously interested in music. He believed in the tooth fairy.

And now, eleven. He sells his flies. He officially out-fished his dad this season. He has dedicated himself to the saxophone. He pulled me aside one night a while back when his younger siblings were asleep and asked me the truth about the tooth fairy. We have talked honestly about many other big, scary, embarrassing, important things since. 

I know that one day eleven will seem so little. Tiny. Young. 

Right now it is so very big.

A Re-cap.

How's the new year so far? Good here. 

Tomorrow we head back to school and leave the holiday vacation vibe behind.

We did so much last month and I just now got all of our pictures on the the computer. There were several things that happened that really deserve a blog post of their very own. I even had them planned, photographed and written in my head. 

Yet, now being that it's 2013, I am ready to move on to the new and give just a little blog-nod to this holiday's past.

We went snowshoeing and I absolutely loved it. We can literally strap on our shoes and walk out our back gate for some endless snow walking in the river. We can all go together and its fun and easy for even the littlest.

I made a bunch of bear ornaments for the family. It's an Alicia Paulson design and her patterns are so timeless and fun and well written. The original was a polar bear. But duh, can't live in Kodiak and not send a Kodiak bear. I  mean, really...

I did her little red coats too. Love them.

Here are all the bears waiting to be wrapped and sent. I also took 80 billion pretty tree pictures that would have been fun to share. Too late now, and that's OK.

Christmas still lives on though with the arrival of Minna's doll. Her name? Elisabeth Christmas. She goes with us everywhere. We all love her and I am sure she will get her own post soon. There is no way I could resist.

Jeff made me the teensiest and yummiest birthday cake ever. We each got a perfect little slice and it was gone. It was a neat way to say goodbye to 35. No leftovers.

The boys have bows in hand constantly. I spy and take pictures of them shooting constantly. I tried one out a couple of times and really liked that too! That old milk jug target didn't stand a chance. Maybe snowshoes and a bow are in my future. Why not?

A bunch of friends gathered for a fun, loud, grown-up party to celebrate my birthday. Good times. And I wore a dress and some heel. Nice way to say hello to 36. Changing things up a bit.

My neighbor made me a hat and tried really hard to match my coat. Perfect match and so sweet! Thanks neighbor!

Our neighbors also put on a show for new year's day. We had a front row seat on our living room couch. Didn't have to move an inch.

I am starting the snowy, slushy, wet new year off right. In new warm, dry pair of boots with a little feminine touch of color. Goodness! I needed them.

We also may have started a new tradition. Banya on New Year's eve and then instead of a polar plunge, a naked lap around the house in the snow. Yes. You read that right. I never laughed so hard in all my life. Tiny naked Minna did two laps. They were barefoot too! So good.

I didn't participate this time.

Next year?

You never can tell.

Have a great, great Monday!

Hello 2013!

Hoping for us and wishing for you in the new year,

in alpha order...

ART

BRAVERY

DIRT

EGGS

FISH

FLOWERS

FRIENDS

GROWING

HEARTY LAUGHTER

HOOKS

HUMOR

LEARNING BY DOING

STEEPING IN SURROUNDINGS

STYLE

And just more of this.

A lot more.

All year long.

Welcome 2013!