Palm Sunday

As far as I know, there are still some folks East of here without electricity.  We were just on the edge of some big snow, it seems, and our eight inches could have easily been thirteen! 

We thoroughly enjoyed it and there are remnants of snow girls and a snow fort outside.  The weather has turned now, looking more like Spring, which helps with the Easter Mood.

Still, there had to be the obligatory snow photos.  I never tire of those.

I remembered quite last-minute that it was Palm Sunday.  So, I scrambled around getting things in order and planning a supper with Becky. 

The children love making their own bread, so it was not hard to talk them into bread cockerels from All Year Round.  Laurel had a bunny in mind, as our friend has her own pet rabbit.

I am enjoying this little gnome bringing carrots to the rabbits entirely too much.  I wish you all a lovely Holy Week! 

Sugar Snow

Sure enough, we kept close to home this weekend.  No travels over the river and through the woods to the Maple Festival.  I guess I could have felt sad about it, but we were pretty happy here in our own little snow globe. 

I started buckwheat pancakes in the morning and the batter was ready for lunch, for our own maple festival.  We had the sausage (not burned, like they always do, bless their hearts) and apple sauce (blackberry and very local!).  I told the children that if they wasted syrup, always the precious commodity, I would charge them $8.  They wasted syrup.  I cleared no profit. ;-)

The children went sledding while I set the house to rights.  There are times things feel like such a mess, and there are times it all feels so tidy.  While they were out, our dear neighbors served them hot chocolate, just like the Bobbsey Twins.  Those books always seem to include hot chocolate. 

This was around mid-day, these photos.  We probably cleared six to eight inches of snow that packed down as it fell.  It snowed all day and into the night, a heavy and wet kind of snow.  A couple inches piled on while we had supper with my parents, and they saw stranded cars on their way home.  We were so glad to be in our cozy little house. 

The plows passed in the night, the only kind of snow we've had all year that really required plowing.  Today I'll urge the children to go out and enjoy the snow while it lasts.  I can already hear dripping.

Unimagined Bridges

As once the winged energy of delight
carried you over childhood's dark abysses,
now beyond your own life build the great
arch of unimagined bridges.

Wonders happen if we can succeed
in passing through the harshest danger;
but only in a bright and purely granted
achievement can we realize the wonder...

Rainer Maria Rilke :: Ahead of All Parting, translated by Steven Mitchell

I love this photo--it may be as close as we get to the maple festival this weekend.  The forecast promises snow, and Whitetop always gets more that its fair share.  This page is from one of those old National Geographic Society photo books that they made in great quantities in the 70s.  I picked up several for free at the thrift store, along with others I have been given from family.  Their photographers did such a wonderful job at capturing an America in a golden age, before things changed so swiftly with the increasing dependence on technology.  The photos of small town folks of all ages send me back to my childhood, to a time that feels so far away now.

Can I tell you that it has been a hard week?  Oh, it has.  It seems each passing week gets more difficult, instead of easier.  The weight of it all, the unexpected things that keep coming up.  It feels like everything is condensed into a small stretch of time, and really, it is.  A month from tomorrow, I'll be divorced, not in the married club any more, no longer able to refer to anyone as "my husband."  I've kept quiet about many things, but I do think it does help to share some of what this burden is.  An at-fault divorce moves quickly, and all those loose ends need tying up at a brisk pace.

I feel like a lost ship these days, and other times I am firmly anchored.  I am happier than I have been in years, and yet I feel such sadness.  I guess that is the way of it for many people, such freedom and then so many doors that feel closed now.  The part of me that is optimistic feels that there must be great wonders waiting for me.  And there is another part of me, that melancholic me, that feels I have come to some sad dead end.  I guess it is not like either thing, and probably a little of both.  The road that I have walked feels like has been paved with small miracles.  That I do know.

A Branch of Spring

Oh, the March winds blow and the swirling snow
Say that Winter's holding on,
But we've all heard in the call of the bird
That Old Winter soon will be gone.

Snow in late March, of course.  What would it be without it?  Terrible winds and driving sleet and beautiful sights all for a ten-minute drive.  The upside of a snow this time of year--it does not stick around long and it is less likely to cause ice accumulations on the roads.  Now that I am a minivan person, that is a blessing.  Driving on snowy roads is out for me for the foreseeable future.  Luckily, I mainly work from home and walk to the "main office" down the street.

The snow at the Snail Place was much prettier, so I succumbed to the urge to drive up there.  No disappointment, except in myself for having left my mittens at home.  And snow suits for the children.  If there weren't a wind advisory today, it would be so tempting to run up there.  It's not a place to go in the wind, though, and I have bigger fish to fry right now.

Back at home, we gave away the last of our hickory nuts.  I raised the shade to find this little friend on my window ledge, undisturbed by the sudden loss of privacy.  We enjoyed watching them clean the snow off the nuts and then eat their way through them.   I think I may collect more nuts for the squirrels next Fall.  That seems silly, seeing how they have walnuts galore, but life is like that.  Small joys, always.

A Branch of Spring I will bring to you,
And at your door I'll stand.
It's nothing but a sprout, but it's well budded out 
By the work of life's own hand.


~Enki Festival Songs

Crafting On :: Cold and Dark

The wind is shrieking through the cracks right now and we're waiting for the mist to turn to snow.  Doesn't it sound cozy to be inside knitting?  I need to get the Elf Cap done so I can wear it!  Maybe I will turn my attention to it this evening. . . I've never made one for myself and I do admit that the design is a bit adventurous for an adult hat, but why not?

I waited too late in the day to photograph things, but here is the Hansel Half Hap I am working on.  I am coming along on the border, going from grey to blue now.  It is quite sizeable so far, which I am pleased with.  I wanted a generous shawl. 

And with that, it's time to tie up loose ends on the chores and make some time for knitting.

For more crafting, visit Frontier Dreams.

Late Winter Scenes

Didn't we have a Spring bouquet just a last week?  Of course!  That is March for you, warm one moment and blustery and cold the next.  This week saw three snow days for the local schools, and we took them to nurse each other through a cold.  Back in the swing of things, we did have a little time to see the snow before it all melted.

There is bright green grass under the snow, daffodils weighed down by wet flakes, and birds singing in all the trees.  It is March and it's nearly half gone. 

I've been working on a hap of some kind for awhile now, since late January.  I ordered the softest tentative Spring colors.  I've completed one a couple times with different borders, none of them knitted, and then I unraveled the whole thing.  I've never done that, as I've always been pleased everything I've ever made.  Haha.  But, really, I've never done that, so now I am working my way through another hap with the same yarn and a knitted border.  Knitting with squiggly yarn produces some lumpy results, but I am hopeful blocking will tackle that problem.

In school news, we've begun new blocks for both of the children.  Roan is making his first book, a fairy tale verse reader of "The Mud Pony."  It's the tale of a boy who makes a clay pony that comes to life.  It helps him to find his people, takes them through a battle, and sees him become chief of his village before returning to the earth.  This is just Roan's kind of story.

Willow is working on math, per the Christopherus syllabus.  We've been carrying over for awhile without much issue, but borrowing is a new skill.  For this, we turned to Enki's grade three materials.  Tricky Mischief returns, learning to borrow jewels from her place value boxes to pay for a ship.  She often cartwheels her way along, so Willow made a moving picture of her making her way through the Kingdom of Jewel.

Well, the sun is up and the birds are singing, so it's time for me to get moving on my next tasks.  Happy Friday!

Hidey Holes and Snow

The North wind doth blow and we shall have snow, 
And what will poor robin do then, poor thing? 
He'll sit in his barn and keep himself warm 
And hide his head under his wing, poor thing. 

  ~Traditional :: Enki Grade One

In the spirit of "The Four Friends" math story from Enki, we took our turns at playing Minnie Minus.  In the story, she saves bits of food all Winter to share with her little friends, leaving the goodies in "hidey holes." Paddy Plus and Max Multiply find them and begin to bicker, one stuffing himself silly while the other picks them up by tens.  It is Dominick Divide who straightens everyone out and proclaims "an equal share for every hand," thus introducing the four math processes.

We took our Autumn stockpile of hickory nuts and scattered them at the bases of trees and in little hollows here and there.  It took a few days for the squirrels to find us out, but they made quick work of the gallon or so of nuts we put out, including the pile that was accidentally dumped by our front walk.  I would love to see where they have hidden them!  I'd like to think it was a real treat, since we have no hickories of our own.

The snow is pouring down today, "heavy" as the forecast described it.  We have had many dustings this year, many flurries, but not so many inches of snow.  It is good to see the air filled with snow as I sit here.  You can see my little helpful elf clearing off what snow he can reach. 

This Winter, with its false Spring and other surprises, seems to go on.  Snow could easily come for another month, or not.  Some things are starting to leaf out and the dogwood buds are opening, perhaps in time for Easter.  I'm supposed to go out to the post office today, which of course falls on a snow day, but maybe it will prompt us to take in the sights.  It sure is pretty nice just to look out the window here at home.

The People of the Pueblo

We've wrapped up our second block on Native Americans, and the children say that this has been their favorite subject of the year.  While many folks recommend combining blocks for multiple grades, I didn't plan things that way.  I figured we would all learn together, for the most part, and there would be review and new things for everyone.  Willow can't keep herself away from the Four Friends plays we've been doing, and Roan really loves the stories Willow gets to hear.



These have been, thankfully, pretty simple blocks so far.  We've used a series of books from the library, along with some Native American stories from our own collection.  We spend about a week on a particular group, with a couple days on their ways of life and then their stories.  We studied many of the homes earlier in the school year in our house-building block.  As far as crafts and cooking, we've done a few things here and there as time and resources permitted. 

Generally, we've heard creation stories, along with other significant legends.  "The Hero Twins and the Swallower of Clouds" was one that Willow enjoyed.  It was a story of how rain, mist, fog, and snow returned to the earth after the giant was slain.  Those are spider webs over the giant's eyes, if you were wondering! 

Willow has a great knack for seeing shooting stars, so "Why There are Shooting Stars" was a good one for her to hear.  I've also shared my own memories of my trip to the desert Southwest with the children, what it was like to climb down into Mesa Verde and what Monument Valley was like.  It has been a whole family experience, which is one of the many joys of homeschooling.

Spring Bouquet

The sun on Monday!  It was so bright and strong!  We toured the country and town, soaking in the joy of Spring flowers.  Sometimes, or many times, you just need flowers.  

I have dreams of hundreds of Spring flowers in my yard.  I also dream of living in the country again.  It could happen (anything could happen!), or I could stay right here, planting more bulbs each year.

We drove to an old abandoned house where there are thousands of daffodils, daffumdilds as Willow used to call them.  I crept behind the house, beside the stream, and picked as many as I could, as fast as I could.  Now we are set for a few days.  

It's snowing now, of course.  We seem to get tiny snows this year, but I have a feeling all the waking plants couldn't handle much more.  Well, we'll do our best to enjoy it!