1.28.2021

Real Time; Real Winter

A week and a half ago, I remarked to Millie that I've really enjoyed this winter, with heaps of snow and a lack of sub-zero temperatures. The next day, Real Winter arrived with bitter cold and wild wind that remain like long-lingering salesmen.


The car got stuck trying to leave our driveway for Captain chores this morning (d'you like how I blame the car and not the Mama driving it?), and it us took over an hour to get it back up the icy driveway with the oldest two helping me shovel and scrape and lay down rubber mats for traction. 

When we ran out of salt, I wanted them to fetch some more and bellowed over the wind, "HEY! GO GET SOME MORE ICE!"   They burst out laughing. Once I realized my mistake, I shouted, "I MEAN, GO GET SOME MORE SNOW!!!"

Obviously, they laughed more. Obviously, my brain was frozen. 
The best part is that until we got the car where it belonged, I made the same mistake several more times.

 No wonder winter's giving us all he's got. I'm quite literally asking for it!

1.15.2021

Real Time, Exclusively for Aponi Joi


Retirement Home for Tiny Horses...
HA! That label made me laugh aloud when I saw it. 

I wish I had been better prepared, but while sitting on the couch holding Ransom, I snapped a bit of the chaos. We opened your surprise package a few hours ago, and the children have been playing ever since. The older girls love the bracelets and postcards, too! (F.y.i. An entire Butterfinger disappeared! It simply vanished! Everyone-- including ME-- is utterly mystified. Mys...ti....fied.....burp.) 

Oh, and Grandma just came up! I didn't get a picture, so you'll have to imagine Aidan running to meet her with his fists full of cars. He and Zeke showed her that one of them glows in the dark, and when she said she wished she could see it glow, Aidan triumphantly proclaimed, "You CAN!" He came running back into the kitchen and draped a huge blanket over her head so that she could play with the glowing car, too. She looked like a tiny, maroon ghost. And now I wish I had grabbed the camera. 😂







Susannah noticed the camera; Annika did not.







Everyone had to pick out favorites.





Aidan was amazed that the lollipop was too large to even fit in his mouth.















And here's a shabby video-- just imagine this going on for a while. :) (And pardon the legos-and-laundry mess; we opened the package during pre-afternoon chores time, when the house always looks like a tornado zone.)

THANK YOU!




1.05.2021

Popsy in Pencil





 


Longtime readers remember Candida from long-ago days, but she's now a lovely and talented young woman. A couple of years ago, she began sketching pencil portraits, and as a homeschooler without formal art instruction, she's entirely self-taught. I'm amazed by her skill. 

Her latest post features progress pictures of the sketch she made of Grandpa J.

I can practically hear him when I look at it.

1.04.2021

He Has a Way with Women: Real Time

Ezekiel just came in from playing outside and plopped next to Ransom on the couch.

Over and over, he exclaimed, "Oh, he's so cute!"

Seeing Skylark nearby, he added, "You're cute, too, Skylark.
AND you're boo'ful. Do you know what boo'ful means?
It means you're pretty. Do you know what pretty means?
It means you look good and stuff."

All the while Skylark stuffed her mouth full of orange slices and balefully stared him down.

1.03.2021

October-ish



























 


I don't yet have the inclination to sift through the heap of snapshots since Ransom arrived, but I found these posts all shiny and ready to go in my drafts folder. Bingo! I had loaded the photos and intended to post them before Sunbeam, but, instead, I tacked them in the drafts folder, then Ransom came, and I haven't thought of them until now. 

So, Merry Christmas!, Happy New Year!, and Remember-What-We-Did-in-October Day!


Listening on the Windowsill


 

Among my favorite parts of fall and spring-- birds departing and birds arriving, and the people who are drawn to both.









Alaskan Family




Two weeks is not long enough for more than a smattering of visit, especially when they're stretched between so many people who want to see them, but here are the two pictures I have that prove Andy and Wendy & Co. visited. A lot happens in two years! Ethan and Anna got married, Jacy is now married, Dakota graduated from high school, Aponi is getting her Master's degree...and so it goes.

Speaking of Aponi, we're hoping the fact that now her miniature horse Captain is living with us will entice her back for a visit before this two-year stint is up. You could visit him EVERY DAY, Aponi!!!! Plus, we have a spare futon in the library!!!  ;)






We had all the Johnson siblings and their families here for a whirlwind get-together. I'd wanted to get a family picture then, but the day was so busy with people coming and going that I never got even one picture from the day. Here's the lame stand-in-- with half of us missing at the airport, masked like tame bandits, right before they flew back to snow and ice. We miss them.

Still waiting on that private jet service that lets us see them more often than once every two years...





Mother Goose Owned Hallowe'en 2020







With Sunbeam due just a week and a half after Hallowe'en, I wanted neither a repeat of the Wizard of Oz sewing (and gluing) load or of the Peter-Pan-Do-It-ALL-on-Hallowe'en-Day-Like-a-Crazy-Person! Truthfully, I was looking for something more along the lines of our Board Game Hallowe'en  when Skylark was a couple of weeks old.

Board games and a life of ease is where it's at.

We divvied up Mother Goose characters at the beginning of the week, and I spent a couple of days pulling costumes together and making accessories. On Hallowe'en Day, John took the oldest five girls to a book sale for most of the day, while the Littles rotted their brains with a long movie at home and I made an early supper. Yeah, baby.

For the small amount of work, the costumes turned out great! Perhaps it helped that Mildred made her elaborate Mexican outfit herself, leaving me the easier crumbs. Bringing her up right...

And, just like last year, the grand total for all the costumes was under ten dollars, thanks to my hoarding of fabric and sewing notions that people pass along. Halloween becomes my justification each year for the mountains of excess fabric I own. This is probably definitely not a good thing.


Poor Jack's a bit woozy.






JACK AND JILL:

That bloody bandage was the highlight for Aidan, and he wore it for hours the day before Hallowe'en, citing how "comfortable" it was. He was chortling while he watched me paint it. 


















LITTLE BOY BLUE:

In Zeke's personal lullabye, I call him Little Boy Blue, so this was the only choice for him. Total cost of outfit was fifty cents (for the socks!), and thanks to church friends loaning us that fabulous trumpet, his costume was one of my favorites.















You'd never know the trumpet has no mouthpiece, from the way Zeke played air tunes on it all day. The trumpet may have been his favorite part, too.  Just maybe.













LITTLE MISS MUFFET:







Susannah got a last chance to showcase one of the gems of our dress-up bin, and she looked so grown-up and lovely that I felt all melancholic. 









Bowl, spoon, tuffet...all from our house. Lamentably, we had neither curds nor whey.









But we did not neglect the spider!
















THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL WHO HAD A LITTLE CURL:

...right in the middle of her forehead.

And when she was good, she was very, VERY good.






























But when she was bad, she was HORRID.













Thank you, dear Lark, for so perfectly epitomizing that classic poem. ;) We love you, outrageous bow and all! 





MARY, MARY, QUITE CONTRARY:


How does your garden grow?


Pip's costume was one of my favorites and one of hers, too. She had originally thought it would be fun to be a gardener for Hallowe'en this year, so when we went with the Mother Goose theme, Mary was the only choice for her.

Total cost of costume was only two dollars but was more time-consuming than the other costumes because I had to make a bit more of it. I made the poofy skirt and bonnet and then decorated the basket, but since I've owed her that skirt for two years now, I really shouldn't count it. It was to be a birthday gift long before now!


Happy belated birthday, Pip! I am so glad to see you so happy. :)







I sewed bells onto the pansies so we could remove them later, and the cockleshells are leftover hair clips that Millie made to put in her mermaid hair last Hallowe'en.





Keeping with the "silver bells and cockle shells" theme, we glued some onto her basket, as well. Pippi and the rest of the girls provided the line of pretty maids all in a row...








THREE BLIND MICE:

Our mice were unified by the letter "M." 

First up is Movie Star Mouse, dripping with glamour and jewels.



Lucinda was originally going to be a scrawny Jack Sprat to my robust and ready-for-dinner-any-time-of-day Mrs. Sprat, but as the week progressed, it became clear that she might prefer something more fancy and fun, instead. Her costume was easy to pull together. I made a tail, ears, and walking stick, bedazzled a pair of sunglasses, and then draped her with all the sparklies in the house. (Incidentally, I used my old bathrobe for the ears and tails. Who cuts up an old bathrobe and keeps it for years with plans to reuse the microfleece? NOT ME, that's who.)

























Mouse #2: MOTORCYCLE MOUSE

(Annika said that the three mice represented beauty, brains, and brawn. She brought the brawn.)


Stoic motorcycle mouse did not crack a grin on Hallowe'en evening. 











...or a few days later in better lighting and different glasses. (Aponi! Are those your glasses she's wearing in this picture? They were on Grandma's microwave. :)   )








So, so tough. She did not squeak even ONCE. 







Mouse #3 MEXICAN MOUSE: (I think she qualifies for beauty and brains, both.)

Millie is president of Spanish club for her online Spanish class, which has been a wonderful blessing and a chance for her to flourish in somewhat more traditional educational waters, albeit online. One of Spanish club's recent activities was to make a Spanish-themed costume of any sort. Millie chose a Mexican jalisco dress, altered a bit due to what materials we had on hand. She had to buy some extra ribbon when we ran out, but the only other thing I bought was a bunch of dollar store flowers for her hair. 











What a lovely Mouse. She was so pleased with how her costume turned out, and I was SO PLEASED that I didn't have to make a stitch of that jalisco costume! :)














You know what's coming next, right? If three blind mice are running boldly around a farmhouse, what's a girl gonna do except...







pull a "farmer's wife with a carving knife" and cut off all of their tails?!  










FARMER'S WIFE WITH CARVING KNIFE:


No need to mention that the knife is made from a stick, cardboard, and duct tape. The mice are blind, anyway.

Cost of outfit: not one red cent








 



OPERATION CUT-OFF-TAILS:  Successful. (That cardboard knife was SHARP.)