Ordinary Time

I'm here and things are fine. I've been doing a lot of things, just not writing. Plus, J. was out of town one night this week which does not lend itself to finding the time to blog. On Tuesday morning, we took an impromptu field trip. A woman who bought some eggs from me said that the migrating white pelicans were back and resting on a lake in a nearby forest preserve. I had heard about them last year, but never got to see them. So off we went. Having now gone once, we will know to take binoculars with us next time. The white dots are pelicans on their way to Canada, having come up from the Gulf of Mexico. I thought it was cool, I'm not sure how much the children with me enjoyed it. We are loving the warmer weather and many children have been playing outside quite a bit. (Most of these photos I'm sharing today are by TM.) I've gotten to spend more time with Emmy. I've also been working on fini

I'm at the point in my seed starting for the garden where I'm starting to think the seedlings are taking more time than the children throughout the day. Part of this is my fault. Last year, after the seedlings had sprouted, when I had more than one in a cell, I did what I was told and pinched off the seedlings that seemed the smallest. This kind of killed me since it felt more than a little miraculous that they had sprouted. Then I read that some people will gently tease apart the roots of these little seedlings and put each of them into their own pot. This felt much better to me. I feel more than a little attached to my teeny tiny plants. What was neglected in all of this was how time consuming teasing apart the roots and replanting the teeny tiny plants is. I'm happy to report that so far the plants I've separated and repotted are doing well. Of course, this whole separating-thing complicates things beyond how much time it takes. What am I going to do with all these

Oh la la! Notre diner  était d élicieux!! We had coq au vin with mashed potatoes. J. gets credit for making the dinner while I sat and separated and repotted little broccoli and cabbage seedlings.  Everyone loved it. I'm not sure what there would have been not to love, though... chicken, vegetables, rich wine sauce. Mmmm. I dithered a little bit about what to serve for dessert. I could go the p âte  á choux route and make something such as cream puffs. While I do love a good cream puff, I admit to feeling as though I didn't really want to spend all day in the kitchen making dessert. During college, I spent a month one summer in Paris going to school with Parson's School of Design and taking classes at the Mus ée des Arts D écoratifs . It was a fantastic month and I ate many wonderful meals, but one I particularly remember was when we were in Reims to visit the cathedral. We were on our own for lunch after our class toured the cathedral. Some friends and I head

It's the time of year where everyone should read The Secret Garden. We aren't this year, we're reading The Wheel on the School which is equally as good [I am adding a complete aside here. As I was linking to the book from my Amazon Associates account, it seems as though this book is now out of print. This is tragic. If you find a used copy snatch it up and read it to your children. You'll be glad you did], but I can't help thinking of The Secret Garden. Mary's joy of discovering a hidden garden and watching the little green points break through the brown earth is not to be missed. (photo credits are all TM) Of course, if you are a peony, you are a little pink point. Other pictures from a joyful day spent outside in the sun. Finally! (The flooring is finally done inside the barn. Next week our builder is planning on starting fencing.) "... I had not known that the prize for enduring a

When I was grade school, I first learned about the cave paintings that were found in Lascaux Cave in France. I was fascinated by them and still am. So, when I was planning our round the world trip when we went to France I knew that I wanted to cover the cave paintings in Lascaux Cave. We read a book about the boys who discovered it, we looked at photographs taken before the cave was closed, and we watched a movie with footage from the actual cave. After all that, what better than to do a craft related to the cave paintings? This morning, K. and Y. created a cave in a hallway out of kraft paper. Then people took turns crawling in and creating cave drawings. With the flash, it was actually much darker in there. See? K. had collected flashlights to use so they could see what they were doing. And the cave paintings. This was by G. and it is apparently a Far Side joke. It's sad when your 9 year old has to explain the joke she made about a Far Side joke