Easter

H O M E

W O R K

F A M I L Y

A day in the life of Mr. Man (the hubs) (a view from above)...

L O V E  ♥

Signs of Spring

Kasper noticed Ruby (one of our rhubarb plants) poking out of the snow yesterday...

The chickens unearthed the lilies planted by someone who cared so deeply for this sweet farm many, many years ago...

Mud is caked on shoes and the big kids are already pleading to go barefoot..

 I think it is almost time to declare Spring has come to Maine!

That's right happy baby, your world is about to get a lot more fun... Mama is already planning a tent in the garden to keep you shaded and happy while she can finally get her hands in the dirt.

Here Comes The Sun... And Snow!

Spring equinox.
Today marks the day when our hours of daylight begin winning out over our hours of darkness... We have been outside later in the evening these past few weeks since Candlemas, celebrated the disappearance of snow, raked the yard, trampled into the garden, felt it in our bones - Spring is almost here! And today... It is here, but we realized the snow is not quite done with us yet. In one wild winter celebration the flakes fell with high frequency since mid morning on Tuesday and today we officially called it a snow day and stayed home to frolick and play in the white stuff I just cannot seem to get enough of this year...

 (look at those two lost front teeth! Makes my heart stop seeing how cute she is!)

 All the kids and I stayed out until 6:15 sledding and enjoying the warm sunshine. In between, I knitted a few stitches on my latest project next to a lazy kitty whenever the little fevered baby who wanted to be ON Mama and OUTSIDE settled in for a little rest...

We made a mess at the table with some art supplies (Mr. Kasper's is below)...

We made a bigger mess in the kitchen and walked out with soup, bread, salad and Kasper's pumpkin cake to sit at the dining table and catch up with a special friend for dinner...

And hope to keep playing in the snow as much as we can for the next few days until the Spring weather really arrives! We have got a bigger sledding mountain on tap for tomorrow and maybe skiing this weekend if the snow stays!

Happy Spring!

Handmade love

The littles and I have been working furiously lately, our usual weekly handmades go out to those we love but we have started a new project too. Making some dolls to hug for some of our most huggable friends. We need to make three in the coming months and I am beginning to understand why these dolls retail for $100 plus dollars. I made the kids a Waldorf doll each a few years ago for Easter (I have made them a doll of some sort each Easter since AnaSofia was two). They sit in their room in new clothes I made a year ago, in a new bed I made a little while ago and are not played with. So I have not thought about a doll for this year for them and decided to focus my efforts on other littles who love dolls and would love a handmade one! I am using this pattern with lots of tweaks and changes of my own. The kids are helping me make it and are loving the process... It has been a fun (busy!) few weeks...

 Kasper helped sew the head and AnaSofia helped stuff it with lavender and barley (amongst the 30 other projects she had going on at her desk that day)...

 A little beeswax for the cheeks and some stitches to secure her hair...

We finished one this weekend and gifted it to a sweet little three year old we know and love...

And now two more to go... Oh, make that four more... AnaSofia and Kasper want one each too and I can't resist their pleas for a sweet little doll to love...

Seeing Green

Oh the feeling outside is that of Spring. We have raked, we have watched the snow disappear and are now seeing signs of Spring. St. Patrick's Day is a day to celebrate the mischievousness in all of us and the hopeful sighting of a flash of green. The kids woke to a little mess and a gift of pistachios, pistachio fudge and a special note from our friend Huck the Leprechaun...

Huck gifted them "bud babies", little leaves made of felt (with a heart as the front of their sleep sack) with a little wooden peg baby tucked inside wool roving... Their eyes are sleepily closed and the "little buds" are waiting for Spring. Huck asked the big kids to take good care of them to ensure Spring would come to our woods. All day the kids have been caring for their little babies and seeing green outside. It is sweetness I tell you! Tonight our we little caretakers tucked their babies into our crab apple branches at the table that Kasper and I brought inside to force into bloom a few weeks ago... That looks about right!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Embrace the little bits of green today knowing Spring is coming soon, right after a nice white flurry of flakes burst through later this week!

Siiiiixxx months, sniff sniff

Scooty scoot scoot. Magnus is moving, wiggling, scooting a bit... Already! I am not sure how as he is soooo very heavy that Mama struggles to hold him above my head and tickle his belly with my nose but, sigh, Magnus the great is living up to his namesake and surpassing all my expectations... I love baby - the smell, the feel, the delight that oozes from every pore - it just gets me... And I am only comfortable holding and gushing over my own babes and have never been a baby holder so THIS.IS.IT. for me... SIGH. Maybe grandchildren will bring it all full circle in the coming years. Yes, I can hold on to that for 25 more years...

I am so grateful for this half year of bliss. For the love Magnus gets from the big kids. For his sweet, kind heart and radiance he gives to us all. They all just give so much when you stop to see. Little AnaSofia furiously working at Easter gifts for us all, giving us Anniversary gifts yesterday (9 years babe!) and making these paper, beeswax, nature creations that are filled with LOVE. And Kasper bakes every home day with me, anything and everything - such a helpful little fella. I love them all. I love that they stayed home Monday and Tuesday this week just because they wanted to be home. HOME. And that when I had the flu Tuesday afternoon, they cared for me, hugged me and felt such sympathy... I love this little unit and it changes and grows each day and I am trying to stretch and grow with it too. Letting the time pass but holding onto the moment as much as I can...

  YES, that is a TOOTH! Hold on Mama!

Early Warmth

We boiled sap and enjoyed the warmth today. It turned out the sap was mostly water and we had a measly harvest of maple syrup this year, but pancakes were still necessary. The amount was not quite as important as the family time - all of us TOGETHER for a day at home. I love those days... Bliss...

Warm kitchen. Warm sun. In and out all day...

Warm bellies too...

A good day in my book. The best really...

Sew to Knit and Motherhood

I decided to do some sewing today to urge me to knit... Strange, huh? I have a lot of ideas in the pipeline (as always!). I am trying to get projects done, but often have to shelve those relaxing things I really enjoy doing (like sewing) to do more important things like sugaring (or really like making breakfast, doing dishes, laundry, sweeping, mopping and... Yawn, is it only 8 am?!). In any case, I was thinking of a few things I want to knit and haven't because I have not sat down to look at the patterns and buy yarn and such. In the few quiet moments I had it was possible to sew a little something to make knitting more fun. What could that be you would ask?

 A knitting needle case! Super quick, super fun and lovely to look at. I simply grabbed my two favorite fabrics, cut them using a placemat as a size template and after a few minutes - voilà - a beautiful place to stash my needles! And then it got me thinking (as these things sometimes do) about why I chose the fabrics I did and if anyone would notice the few mistakes I made in the construction.

This led me to realize that if I continue knitting throughout life as I plan that this case will be something my kids will identify with me and am I okay with that? What does this case say about me? What will my kids think when they are older and going through my things and getting rid of my personal items? Will they cringe when they see my handiwork or will they smile fondly? Deep thinking, huh? That type of "shish" is always rattling around in my head and likely why I am so tired, but I also had a really great talk with a friend recently about our mothers and how we saw their roles when we were kids and another wonderful friend lost her mother this week and *SIGH*, no age is the right age to lose your mother... Another friend of mine lost his Mom during college and I still remember him saying to me, "No matter what age you are, you still need your Mom." Yes. I know.
My children are my life's greatest work. I am often so focused on what they need, what I hope them to be and what I want to accomplish for them that I forget that my most important role is that of a model. And with this silly little knitting needle case what am I saying?
I love using my hands and making things on my own.
Nothing has to be perfect, good enough is good enough.
I love birds and I embrace outdoors and Mother Nature with my whole heart.
I am a bit eccentric and LOVE wild fabric choices.
Our house is a reflection of me and all the little parts of handmade are here because I like to think of ways to make the utilitarian look beautiful. (Your father is the pragmatic one, I am the dreamer - to his demise he might say!) OR I might just be saying that I needed a place to stash my needles so I can quickly grab them on my way out the door to start a project from the passenger seat of the car! In any case, if you knit and sew, this is a fun little project that I highly recommend!

And all those things on my "to do" list? I must remind myself that I am not doing those things on that list of things to do someday because I am paying attention to the things I love today.