home life

We enjoyed a quick visit with Mom and Dad over American Thanksgiving and for Saturday morning breakfast I tried to bring a little extra flair to the table to continue the holiday weekend.

The school table became the "internet cafe" for a few days as we needed space for two laptops away from our dining table.

Saturday evening we ate dinner with Joel and Karla and I whipped up some caramel sauce which Karla really enjoys.  Our newest Hello Kitty, a gift from Memmem(my Mom) sat guarding it on the table as we got ready to head out the door.

On Saturday, December 1st, we began our Advent countdown using a wooden truck that I bought last year but never used.  Each night, Seth and Laura take a turn opening a door on the truck to reveal a piece of candy for each of them and a relevant verse for Seth to read aloud.  We also open a wrapped Christmas book each evening to read together.

On Monday evening the ladies from our church had their annual Christmas party at the home of one our church families. The house was so nicely decorated and the kitchen island was laden with delicious snacks and desserts. We were supposed to bring a gift for the gift exchange and having decided to attend at the last minute, I quickly made a small set of wintry note cards and envelopes and added a bag of chocolates to complete the gift.  As the game went on, they changed hands and the last I saw them, they went home with a young girl from our church who seemed very happy with her little gift.

Earlier this week, I tried a little experiment of drying some citrus fruit for decoration.  Some of slices turned out quite nicely and to add to their scent, I used some cinnamon sticks, cloves and fresh cedar from our tree.  It looks quite nice and I have it sitting on my stove to add some color to these shorter days of sunlight.

With the leftover citrus peels, more cinnamon sticks and cloves, I have created a pot pourri  that I have sitting on a back burner that I warm up several times throughout the day.  I've added some fresh clementine peel as we have eaten them.  The scent is amazing.

I wait all summer to roast a chicken for dinner and this year, I have some of my own dried herbs leftover from the garden to season it.  This is one of my favorite meals to make and use for other meals and finally to make chicken stock with the remains.  Another wonderful aroma to fill the house and make the kids sniff appreciatively as they play.

Yesterday, Shane's work had a Christmas party during the lunch hour which required him to bring something from his cultural background.  This was a last-minute announcement from his work so I picked something easy to make while putting the kids to bed.  They are whipped shortbread cookies from my mother-in-law's recipe and Shane grew up eating these pretty, little gems.  There were a few leftover for us to enjoy.  Yummy!

Fall life

First Sunday in November and the weather has become dangerously close to bringing snow into our lives, but instead the clouds hang onto their dark gray loads and we to our leaf raking and piling.  I'm layering the garden with as many blankets of leaves as I can pile on and hidden in the blankets are packets of vegetable scraps and banana peels.  I'm looking forward to adding some dark, rich earth to grow next year's garden in.

We celebrated Shane and Joel's birthday together this year with dinner, spaghetti and Caesar salad and ice cream cake.  They couldn't stay for long, but it was a fun time and I think they both enjoyed being together on their birthday.

Lovely table setting, although Kate pulled on the tablecloth and spilled some water.

Trying to get our camera to take photos of candlelight. 

Ready to put the blaze out.

This year the girls joined Seth in trick-or-treating in our little neighborhood and they had a great time.  I think eight or nine neighbors participated by opening their doors and admiring our little family.  Laura pointed out all the lights and jack-o-lanterns as we walked up each path and Kate did well collecting her share of candy that she can't eat but enjoyed dumping on the floor once we were back home and then re-bagging it into many different bags.  Shane and Seth took off for other streets around the area and the girls and I handed out candy to the other neighborhood kids who came to our door, most of them Laura knows by name.  It was a wonderful evening together and the girls did so well with all the commotion, I was so proud of them.

Shane and I did some shopping together the weekend before his birthday while the kids were at the sitter's house and he picked out some pink cowboy boots for Laura that were at the consignment shop in her size and in perfect condition.  She now wears them to church each Sunday which I sure would scandalize some church members, but not ours as people admire them and snicker as she trots by.

And here is one last shot taken from this morning in church where Kate and Laura are standing while we sing.  Kate held on to her Psalter despite many close calls where gravity was ready to claim victory.  Two different times before the service actually started, I turned around from speaking to someone else to find her comfortably sitting next to people many rows away that she doesn't really know very well.  She looked at me as if to say, "What, don't I sit with these nice people every Sunday?"  They all of course enjoyed her company and laughed over her ways and were very sweet as I led her back to our seated family.

home alone

This past weekend, Shane and I celebrated his upcoming birthday with some time together at home alone.  I had looked into various hotel arrangements, but decided on staying put and sending the kids to the sitter overnight instead.  It worked out well and Saturday morning breakfast was quiet and relaxed.  We did some shopping and then returned home for lunch and a movie on the couch before picking the kids up before dinnertime.  It didn't take long once we were to all together again to feel like that twenty-four hours of quiet and relaxation was a fading and distant memory.  Funny how that works.

October rain

It is a chilly and rainy autumn Sunday afternoon and I find myself with little ambition to prepare our lesson work for the coming week, which is unusual so instead I am spending time on the web visiting the blogs of real friends and virtual acquaintances whose life stories I enjoy reading.  Even my books hold no allure today as I would likely drift off into a nap that would abruptly end too soon by some little person needing me.
So I sit and write and record this day as an example of all the others that have passed with no written recognition.
I just bit into a Macintosh apple and surprised myself by how enjoyable the sweet-tart juicy taste fills my mouth. This time of year, Honeycrisp are my apple of choice, but my frugal side held back at the price per pound, hoping I might find them somewhere else for a less expensive price.  Now I wonder why I didn't just splurge since their availability is limited to just a few short weeks in our area.

I experimented with soup last night for dinner and while it won't become one of our family favorites, it was tasty, hot and filling.  It was a modified version of the Mennonite Girls Can Cook's Green Bean Soup based on the leftover pieces of ham from another meal.  The fresh green beans were tastier and sweeter than the frozen ones I used to buy and certainly held their green color better.

This week I need to try to get our oven fixed to I can bake pumpkin gingerbread muffins, chocolate chip banana muffins and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and many other delicious things my mouth is watering for. I have no idea what the outcome will be, but the repairman I spoke to almost two weeks ago was very kind and helpful, so in the end, a properly heating oven is what I will be thankful for.

growing up

Our own lovely bleeding hearts from earlier this spring.

Mature landscape is something that has crossed my mind in recent months as being of supreme importance in having a family with children.
It was only of recent musing that I realized I had clear and wonderful memories associated with every tree and shrub in my younger childhood home.

There was the tall cherry tree that we climbed all the time and when it was in fruit, we bit into its firm flesh and spit the pits wherever we pleased, often aiming for whoever was below us.  If you ventured to the top, you felt the swaying of the branches, yet never felt a fear of falling.  It had one very low leafy branch that allowed you to swing up into the tree and then dangle upside until you either swung up to climb further up or somersaulted down to the ground.

Close to this tree was a circular flower bed that had masses of pink bleeding hearts that provided endless amusements of enjoying their puffy flowers and curious dripping look.  I have always loved bleeding hearts because of this memory and was delighted the first spring that we moved in our current home when the front flower beds burst in to the very recognizable leaf of the bleeding heart.

Further out from the bleeding hearts was the concord grape vine trellis built by my mother's father for her to grow just enough grapes to give us our own grape jelly.  I can still picture her stained tea towels as she strained the dark juice and canned it for homemade jelly.  Next to the grape vine was a small weeping willow that was barely climbable but in later years I did manage to dump one of our motorbikes right under it as I panicked, thinking I might be re-enacting the story of Absalom's death.  Thankfully my hair and I survived and so did the motorbike.

Looking in a straight line from the willow tree along the edge of our property was a long row of Rose of Sharon also planted by my grandfather.  The blooms were so large and colorful and numerous, it was fun to pick them and marvel at all the pollen gathered on its inside parts.   After the last Rose of Sharon you were now reaching the other corner edge of the property which was guarded by an old black walnut tree which rained down its huge green globes every summer, which then turned black and dry. At some point, our neighbors and close family friends put their porch swing under one of its huge branches so we could swing out in the open air.

The front yard was flanked by two immense horse chestnut trees which together produced ridiculous amounts of prickly chestnut shells that once finally dried and cracked open, revealed the most glossy brown nut you can imagine.  We picked them up by the bucket fulls and sat down on the long cement steps to admire their smooth and shiny selves.  Chestnut trees' flowers are also large, white and full of nooks and crannies to investigate which we did, not thinking at all about the mess and effort these trees bring to those mowing the grass.  It's only now as an adult I can imagine what a pain it must have been to have these trees in our yard. But as a kid, they were yet another wonderful area to spend time playing.

Around the side of the house that we used as a main entrance and driveway was the crumbling remains of more cement steps that, having long been abandoned for daily use, grew the most amazing miniature succulents and moss-type plants that provided yet more interest and exploration.  Looking up from this little slope towards the house were huge green ferns that grew all along the porch and around the corner towards the outside cellar steps in the cool shade.  I have always loved ferns even though they produce no flower, but they give an area such lush greenery that feels so cool even on the hottest summer days.

Around the driveway side of the house and heading up to the back meadow where my mother planted her large vegetable garden was a very tall and full pine tree that covered the ground with its long needles and gave us plenty of room to sit under and collect piles of pine cones and make hide-outs and all sorts of play ideas.

When I think of the hours we must have spent outside, visiting each of these areas in turn, I shake my head in wonder at how blessed that old home was with natural play areas needing nothing than more than our imaginations and the occasional pail and shovel.  Even now, I wonder if my parents understand what a gift this type of play was for all of us kids.  To be safe, yet free to roam and discover all these created pleasures.  It is something I have hearkened back to much now as I try to provide a safe, but more natural play area for our three children and their various playmates.

Mature landscape, plenty of green plants, flowers and fauna to watch grow and explore in detail is an amazing part of childhood that cannot be replaced with toys, no matter how non-toxic or earth-friendly they are, I think.

In addition to this unfettered access to creation, came with it the much needed time to be out there and enjoying it.  Time to just be. Time to see what a fern looks like as it spirals out and unrolls its fronds in the dark shade.  Time to wait and watch when the bleeding hearts are at their fullest and plumpest.  Time to sit quietly and be content with a handful of pine cones and a soft bed of dried needles.  Time to practice swinging and reaching and climbing until you can go higher and higher into the windiest boughs of the cherry tree, no longer afraid of looking down on your distant yard and feeling a bit more like the birds.
Just time to be and to watch and notice. That's what we had and I appreciate that now more than words can adequately say.

I have only mentioned the trees and plants in our own yard, I still have yet to describe the wonders found on the properties of our neighbors that we were welcomed to play with and treat as our own. I simply marvel over all that we enjoyed.

June for all

Summer is upon us and the sun and heat is in full swing just in time for strawberry season.  And not a moment too soon as I opened the final jar of last summer's jam today for Seth's lunch.  I'd like to think I planned it that way, but all I did was hope we'd make it through until this month's harvest.  I also hope to replenish my raspberry sauce supply since it is so delicious over waffles and pancakes and fancy angel food cake.  Mashing and straining the seeds out is certainly no picnic but to see those little jars filled with the precious flavors does somehow make all the effort worthwhile.

The only food item being eaten from my garden is lettuce but the promise of tomatoes no longer seems so distant as the the tiny fruits swell in the sun.  Waiting for flowers on the cucumbers, beans and peas is a lesson in the school of patience.  But what rewards these lessons bring!

We have enjoyed celebrating birthdays and such, but the quieter routine is back and I am thankful to have some time to think and read and think some more.

I have been casting a purging eye on any drawer or closet or shelf that wanders into view and what relief it is to unload our little house of some of its burden.  There is so much we can let go of and do without, and I am in constant marvel at how all this stuff finds its way into our lives.   Every now and again I think, oh perhaps I should have kept such-and-such.  But I seem to manage anyway and mostly remember that I am the better without it.

I have a fresh supply of books to read ranging from theology to history to biography to children's stories.  I welcome the list even though I sometimes feel the pressure of its titles mocking me.  But as in many other areas, I persist and am rewarded.

Seth put together this flower arrangement from some wild flowers he found and a few picked from my garden.  Oh yes, I am certainly rewarded.

Early May

Yesterday, being Sunday, brought a busy morning of getting everyone ready for church and me putting the finishing plans on my Sunday School lesson which was the three plagues of locusts, hailstones, and darkness. On a last minute whim for teaching the locusts, I grabbed some pieces of vegetable from the fridge and chomped or ripped bite marks to show the devastation caused by the locusts.
And just so the kids knew what a locust looked like, I took a dried specimen, (with its detached leg) we collected last year and brought it in to show them. I think it did the trick!

It was a quick trip home to get Seth to a friend's birthday party that had already started earlier in the morning. With the girls down for a nap, we spent a quiet afternoon reading and napping. After the girls were up, Shane took Laura to pick up Seth and while they were away, I started the grill for dinner. The neighbor dropped off a playhouse for the girls earlier that morning which was filthy but Shane let them go inside anyway. I worked on dinner and Shane got the patio table assembled. We ate our meal outside for the first time this year with the girls sitting at their picnic table that Carol found at the curb. By this time the girls were quite dirty, so I gave them a bath while Shane cleaned up in the kitchen.

After we put the girls to bed, I spent some time reading my biography of Ruth Bell Graham and then when Shane's younger brother called, I took an opportunity to catch up on my latest interest, watching episodes of River Cottage on YouTube.  It is so interesting and I am fascinated by the British manners and customs.

Today, it was back to our usual routine involving a math lesson with Daddy before he left for work and then later Bible lessons and reading a short bio of John Calvin for our history studies.  We then headed outside for some sunshine and play before feeding the girls and settling them for a nap.  After Seth and I ate lunch, he worked through a Latin lesson and then together we completed a grammar and spelling lesson.  He finished by reading about ants in his nature reader while I got ready to scrub the new playhouse down.  We worked on it together and it took us about a half hour until I was satisfied it was clean enough for the girls to play in.  I have begun prepping the garden soil and am so pleased with its soft, loamy richness that the fork so easily digs through.  I still have to plan out what is going in this year and where.  And the worms are so plentiful, I know the soil is getting some good nutrients from them.
Shane is working out tonight, so I'm on my own schedule for the rest of the afternoon and evening!

*Updated to add:
Shane did end up coming home for dinner as there was a terrible house fire in Joel's neighborhood. We enjoyed grilled pork tenderloin and grilled asparagus tossed with olive oil and sea salt.

life with robins

One of our robins.

Seth's photo of the nest

The pretty blue eggs.

Yesterday, Seth and I watched a robin hopping around on the ground at the base of cedar shrub. He immediately discussed the possibility of there being a nest in the shrub.  I assured him that the robin would not pick such a small little shrub to build her nest and lay her eggs.  Later that afternoon he came running inside, excitedly announcing that there WAS a nest with four blue eggs in it!  I eagerly handed him the camera, showed him the best setting and how to zoom-in and he was off.  I intended to go out later to see for myself but admired his photos from the camera in the meantime.

Today looking out the window, I watched a crow pace around the cedar shrub and then take a leap into the shrub. I had already checked on the nest earlier this morning and found all the eggs missing with a few fragments of shell on the ground. So I can only presume that a crow, perhaps even that one, was the culprit. The nest is not very high off the ground and it is in a high traffic area both for pets and humans, so I'm not the least bit surprised.  But it is disheartening as we were looking forward to watching some baby birds hatch and grow up.  Robins do usually lay more than one batch of eggs per spring so I'm holding out hope that we may find more eggs there one day soon.

tea time

This is a picture from yesterday's afternoon tea moment inspired by Dawn's tea posts. The muffins started out as the usual banana-chocolate chip and ended up the results of a pantry rummage as supplies ran low.  These mini muffins became an experiment of banana-butterscotch and cranberry.  Strange, but yummy, especially the butterscotch chips.

But what I really wanted to show off was the mug.  I have been keeping my eyes peeled for new mugs for the last year or so and was beginning to despair that I would never find anything in my price range which is "reduced".  

But on a recent trip home to PA, we made a trip into Pier 1 and found one of these in blue on clearance, the only one left.  Since my goal was to buy enough mugs for our home, we picked a set of four in a different style mug and I bought the single one for me.

After we came home, I started using mine and loved it.  On a whim, I checked Pier 1's website and found that it came in four different colors: blue, green, red and orange.  My next trip into town, I went to our local Pier 1 and found all the other colors(minus the blue) on clearance too, so I bought some more in green and red.  I love them all!  The bottom has a detachable rubber ring which is perfect for my needs and it holds just the right amount of liquid.  

It has been a long time since I bought something for my kitchen that I just adore and it feels so nice to have something pretty for not a lot of money.

life beyond the view

Each morning as I get up with the kids, this is the view that greets me as I lift the shades and wait for the sun to light up this corner of creation. The large oak tree casting its long shadow across the lush green grass. The trees budding and leafing along the river that moves and flows and captures the changing colors of the sky. The air is filled with flapping birds, flying back and forth among the trees, singing and calling to each other and no one in particular. The black and grey squirrels scamper around, up one tree and down the other side, across the top of our fence and into our neighbor's yard. Today, hundreds of butterflies are zipping and fluttering right past our noses and our nets. We are playing catch and release today since we need only one for our growing specimen collection.
It is a wonderful world that we live in and I am so thankful for this place we can call home.

keeping up

Of course that's the way life works: you set yourself up with new intentions and then wander away as soon as you think you've given it your best try. Well, here's to another try.

March has come and ushered in Spring slightly ahead of its predicted arrival and no one could be more thrilled than me. Lettuce and tomato seeds were planted today in egg carton beds with moist, warm blankets of soil to coax them awake. Windows were thrown open to rid the house of stale winter air and rejuvenate it with fresh spring scents.
Items loitering on the to-do list for far too long are finding themselves suddenly crossed off with triumphant gusto.
The compost bucket was drained of its icy water, brought inside and put to use holding fresh asparagus and mushroom stems as the vegetables for a stir-fry dinner found their way to the sous chef's cutting board.
The books waiting to be read seem to push to the forefront of my mind with much greater haste and ambition.
If I didn't know better, I might be tempted to think I had just awoke from a hundred years' sleep this morning, alert and eager to tackle the cobweb areas of my life. Hopefully I wake up tomorrow feeling the exact same way. :)

all girls

Every now and again, I turn the camera around and aim it this way. Yesterday's photos were not that bad so I am posting them here to help record my thirties.







And what were the girls doing while I showering and taking these pics?

a January Sunday

It is a cold, but sunny Sunday afternoon where we have fresh snow on the ground and beautiful blue skies overhead.
The house is quiet right at this moment as everyone is on bed-rest. Shane came home from church this morning with the onset of a migraine so he has gone off to bed. The girls are having their normal naptime and Seth was told to read in bed and try to sleep as he has gotten the cold too. Part of me would love to nap as I stayed up very late writing last night since Shane was at Joel's house watching a UFC fight night leaving the computer free and the house quiet. But nothing gets done when I lay down and the slightest sounds disturb me and ruin my attempts at drifting off. So instead I make some tea and munch on the rationed sweets I'm allowing myself during this scratchy throat thing which are some Pepperidge Farm cookies brought back from the States. They are mint Milano, a variation on the Milano cookie that my Mom always liked. I was just thinking as I helped myself to the last two cookies in the paper cup how glad I am that after all these years, Pepperidge Farm still packages their cookies in the same vertical paper bags with levels of cookies nestled in paper baking cups, one on top of the other. It occured to me to wonder if they hand pack those bags or they are done by careful packing machines. Then I thought of how many bags they must produce and clearly it must be done by machine. After watching several episodes of Undercover Boss it is amazing to see the complex machinery that runs America's production lines. The episodes sometimes remind me of when Mr. Rogers would take you to factories to show how stuff is made and those were always my favorite ones.
I put some ribs in the crockpot this morning and made some rice in the rice cooker and added steamed and seasoned broccoli to make a yummy Sunday dinner. Too bad Shane's migraine was just getting underway as I know he would have seconds. But there is plenty of leftovers for him to have more once he feels better.
Seth is up from his imposed bed rest and is doing some maze work in front of the quartz heater. He is anxious to play Wii and I am not. Guess who wins? :)
I'm sleepier than I thought so perhaps a quick rest here on the couch will refresh me. The house is clean and the dishes are done so I can afford a few minutes without worry.

home

This fence is along the side of our row of condos. I rarely walk around this way, but on the off-chance I do, I usually get a little thrill of having to step through those two fence posts as if I have just gained admittance to a whole new world, like through the back of a wardrobe into Narnia or just maybe into our backyard. There was that one time I was not thrilled at all when I got to those two fence posts, mostly having to do with not being able to get the girls' big red wagon through that opening and then having to walk all the way around to the OTHER end of the condo row to get to our gated backyard. But now I know the wagon doesn't fit, so it should be smooth sailing through those fence posts from here on out.



This is our welcoming front porch light which was here when we moved in. We replaced the back porch light and I'll show that one off another time. I just love porch lights, even though we really don't have a porch. It's just a concrete block of steps with a wrought iron railing to keep you from plunging off into the gargantuan bleeding heart plants that bloom each spring. But the light is charming and I often picture that style of light on our next house with a real front porch and a real hanging plant dangling underneath it but Shane has insisted that looks tacky. I'm biding my time. Some day we will find ourselves in a charming historic town or district and I will casually mention how lovely the houses all look and the hanging flowers and he will innocently agree and then I will smile triumphantly as I head off to the local nursery to pick out my hanging planter. It's a good plan. I'm confident it will work. He won't see it coming.

Speaking of front porches, this is my parents' front porch taken a few years back which currently looks mostly the same minus that hemlock on the left.



Actually, I wouldn't know a hemlock from a douglas-fir but I have a vague memory of my Mom calling it that, so we'll leave it at that. And actually there is another front porch just to the left of that now non-existent questionable species of tree that we all consider a fake front porch because we've never used it. Actually we did twice. Once for my wedding rehearsal and once for my wedding day. But that's it. I'm sure of it. And come to think of it, I think that fake front porch is slated to be tore out of there, which should be the fate of all fake front porches.

I love coming home to my parents' house with all the bright candles and pretty curtains in the windows. So inviting and since it technically is still my home, I can just invite myself right in to enjoy this delightful fire.



Whenever I lament how much I would enjoy a nice roaring fire in our bedroom, Shane invariably says "I can do that, but only once". Funny guy. The bed and breakfast that we have stayed at a couple of times on the coast of New Brunswick has a fireplace in the suite which I just soak right up, and which is why I no longer like regular hotel rooms.

Our next house will have a real front porch with a charming porch light above a lovely hanging plant and a fireplace in the master bedroom. Another good plan, I think.

snowy cedar

During a snowstorm, I love when the trees look like they are standing around in snowy overcoats. Or more wishful thinking: bearing layers of powdered sugar on chocolate branches. Think Willy Wonka.

the beginning of the middle

This is a new space specifically designed to leave day to day memories of the moments that pass in the regular rhythms of each day but are forgotten the next morning as new ones take their place. I was inspired to do a better job recording the mundane when I read these words from Alicia Paulson at Posie Gets Cozy:

I was struck by something Amy said the other day about documenting and organizing life as a way of participating in it (she said it much better, as you'll see). It would not in a million years occur to me to take a picture of my cabinet. But as I snapped this one, I remembered how my dad always encouraged me to take pictures of the places I live in. (Actually, I think he was more yelling at me for not having any pictures of somewhere that I'd lived.) But I think he was just talking about how to . . . acknowledge . . . and mitigate . . . the fleetingness of time and the unreliability of memory.

My memory is proving to be very unreliable and I don't want to lose the stories and memories as the weeks pile up into years. So I will post the everyday stuff that may not mean much to you, but is part of my life now and forever.
Right now, I have a scratchy throat and Kate has some swollen infected eyes. I have spent the day with Anne of Green Gables The Sequel movie playing in the background as I browsed the internet and took care of Kate's eyes amongst other necessary tasks. As my throat is sore and my sinuses are hurting, I simply had no thoughts of trying to do our regular lessons today since I do a lot of reading and talking with Seth.
It occurred to me a day ago when I was looking for something inspiring and beautiful to read on the internet that I should go to the beginning of two of my favorite blogs(Posie Gets Cozy and Lanier's Books) and read from the beginning which for both is way back in 2005. Good times.
The weather changed from freezing rain to snow in the afternoon and Seth went out and shoveled the walkway at lunchtime doing a wonderful job. I told him that Daddy couldn't have done it better.
I am starting to mind the winter darkness, especially in the morning as I find it is hard to get motivated until the sun is really up. I'm also minding my nearsightedness more than I remember so often I put in my contacts before I even get my shower.
As I write, a new sight is unfolding and taking some getting used to: Kate walking around the corner from the hallway into the living room. Granted she fell before she actually crossed the threshold, but she's spending much of her day taking steps and practicing. By spring, she will be able to walk outside with us and how different her play will be then!



We have our birdfeeder out in the cedar tree for the birds and those rascal squirrels who take more than their fair share. Yesterday I grabbed the camera and tried to get some good pictures of all the little birds swarming around the feeder.

I am determined to figure out what all the different little birds are this year. One has yellow around his throat and neck and a very small one seems to have red and brown around his. The star of the show is definitely the cardinal. His red markings are so cheerful at this time of the year and the white snow is the perfect backdrop for him.
I finished reading The Phoenix and the Carpet by Edith Nesbit earlier this week. It is a sequel to Five Children and It which I do not have yet. I do struggle a bit with the fantasy nature of some of her novels. It's like I'm saying, "really, that's how you want the story to be like?".
As I am trying to read through all the children's classics that I have never read as a child, I picked Pollyanna to start next. Oh, I am loving that little girl! Of course the story is somewhat predictable, but I like how it highlights character flaws and how a heart of thankfulness can change a person for the better. Pollyanna's heart of thankfulness is contagious to those unhappy souls around her and even to those reading her story.