More Outside Fun

Well, today was gorgeous.

The sky was actually blue.

(For so long everything has been grey.  Sky, ground, trees... everything.)

And the sun was shining, and it was warm.

And I could almost imagine that it was Spring.

But the air didn't smell right.

You know how Spring smells?

Like dirt, I guess.

It smells like Spring.

But it didn't today.

But it looked and felt like it!!

We took advantage of the warm weather and melting snow and spent the early part of the day 

bringing wood in to the house.

You see, we don't have a woodshed.

The wood was just stacked outside beside the house.

And as the wood pile got lower, the snow got deeper.

And we have had to dig out wood for the past month and a half.

But today, the snow had all melted, and there was our wood,

dwindled down quite a bit.

So we brought it all in.

And got a load of nice dry wood from my FIL as well.

So carried that wood in.

And you know what you get when snow melts?

Mud.

And you know what happens when you make 50,000 trips in and out of the house?

A mud wallow worthy of the pickiest swine.

So, after taking care of the heating of my house for a while,

I scrubbed my floors for an hour.

I didn't take a picture,

'cause it was too depressing.

But, my floors are clean.

I even had to wash walls.....

and all the mats.....

After that was done I went out and cleaned the barn.

Brushed my horse,

and got big slobbery horse kisses,

and my ear nibbled on.

I came in,

covered in woodchips,

mud,

horse poop,

and horse slobber,

and was extremely happy.

Best morning in a while.

The sunshine just really energizes me.

We tidied up the house a bit,

and went off to co-op school!!

We actually did school with the kids this time...

and it was fun.

And of course we visited, laughed, and drank copious amounts of tea.

Didn't take any pictures today,

'cause I was just enjoying the day.

Not that taking pictures isn't enjoyable to me,

it is.

But, somehow,

I just wanted to be present.

Involved, more than observing.

I don't know.

That make any sense?

I do have pics though.

These were taken the same day as the sledding with the horse.

After sledding they decided to build a snowman.

There was teamwork.

Freddy really would like someone to throw his piece of ice.

His head is at his feet:)

"Ava, what are you doing?"

"Building a SNOWMAN!"

"We need free snowballs.  And a cawot for he's nose."

"What's that you have in your hands?"

"Dis is for he's eyeballs, and dis is for he's awms."

"AVA! Don't lick the ice!!"

Just keepin' it real.

Me in my sexy insulated coveralls.

And the work continues.

"Ava, what are you doing?"

No answer,

but there's some intense concentration going on.

"Throw a snowball at you!"

A glimpse of the man he's about to be.

And then my camera battery died.

And by the time it was re-charged,

(and I remembered)

it was dark.

And the next day he was melted.

So, no ending to this story.

Kids and a horse

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Good news....

my head did not explode.

I'm figuring out this whole "Photobucket" thing.

It worked tonight.

(Wildly cheering.)

So, here's some pics from yesterday.

It was mild out,

and I sent the kids outside to work off some energy.

I went out to do chores,

and took my camera with me to snap some shots.

I ended up staying out there with them for 1 1/2 hours.

And here's the stupid thing.

I felt guilty about it....

Why?

'Cause I had SO much to DO!!

But, I reminded myself eventually,

that all too soon they will be grown and gone,

and they won't want pushes down the hill,

or want to push me down the hill.

So I chillaxed, 

as best I could,

and just enjoyed my kids.

And it was awesome.

Here's Quin:

"Can you give us a push?"

And here is where they are sledding.

In the horse pasture.

Like, right next to the horse.

Ava loves Pax.

And Pax finds Ava interesting, and kind of odd.

This is how she would get herself going.

Run and JUMP!!

Emma pouting.

It wasn't her turn with a sled.

And yes, that's electric wire under her arms.

It was off, in case you were wondering.

Nathan, when I told him to give Emma a turn.

"Can I just slide down once more?"

Emma got her turn,

and then she hung out with Pax.

He finds her amusing.

Here's another interesting self portrait.

Can you see me?

Ava had a turn snowboarding...

With Quin beside her the whole way.

He's an excellent big brother.

Ava's "See what I did?" face.

Ava's dejected face,

when it's her brothers turn.

Quin rocks the snowboarding.

When Ava didn't have a sled or snowboard,

she did this.

At bed time she told me,

"Sliding on our bellies doesn't wort."

She prefers sleds.

Horse nose.

Dog with no nose.

And that's it for now!

The pics were kind of jumbled around, sorry.

Still figuring this out.

It takes longer...

but I guess when I put the pics on the computer,

I could upload them right then onto photobucket, right?

Then the actual blogging process won't take too long.

Sorry.

Totally thinking out loud there.

I was reminded of this poem as I was outside feeling guilty.

There's another one I'm thinking of too, with the same gist,

but can't remember it.

This I want to put into practice a little more.

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Grrrrrrrr

I have been trying to blog for 2 hours.

I have a bunch of pictures to share, to illustrate our day,

and blogger says I have run out of storage space.

Huh?

So, I tried a bunch of different things,

and none of them worked.

So, I clicked on "yes" to purchase more space.

Except....

I don't have a credit card.

Don't like them.

So, no more pictures for me.

Unless one of you smart people out there can tell me what to do.

Please tell me what to do...

my head is about to explode.

And that would be messy.

On the way to hockey...

This happened.

So I sat in the van, outside of this....

And fooled around with my camera.

I thought it turned out kinda cool.

Wordle

Is very cool.

You type in a bunch of text,

or the URL of your blog,

and it makes up a word cloud.

The words you use most are larger....

Here's mine:

Glad to see I use the word LOVE a lot.

It looks fuzzy here,

so here's the link to see it on the site:


http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3158263/RyanJTG


And here you can make your own.

http://www.wordle.net/




Fun!!

Valentines Day

Is today.

And you see all this stuff about it being a commercially fabricated holiday,

or singles awareness day...

and I get that.

But really?

It's kind of nice to have a day where you tell the ones you love that you love them.

Of course, it shouldn't take Valentines Day for you to say that,

but having a day dedicated to showing love?

Not so bad.

And as for the singles awareness thing,

you don't have to have a significant other to have love in your life, do you?

I love my kids....

and they love me.

They made me Valentines,

I made them these:

My very good friend called and wished me a Happy Valentines Day.

I'm just saying,

you don't have to be in a relationship to participate in the holiday.

So get over it!!

Real love isn't about what you get, anyway.

It's what you give.

Here's my crafty son.

He's always enjoyed crafts, from the time he was really young.

He's got a very creative and artsy mind.

And my crafty daughter.

She is always drawing, colouring, cutting, pasting...

And for every holiday she makes a bunch of cards for all her people.

Although, sadly, she has inherited her Mother's propensity for never getting them delivered.

We have literally drawers full of her homemade cards...

years worth.

 She takes it seriously,

and really tries to personalize each card.

(Mine always have horses.)

And the other two kids?

They were not into making cards.

Ava will do some craft stuff, she doesn't mind it.

If she's in the mood.

But Nate?

Crafts are a fate worse than death.

He hates colouring, always has.

Hates making cards.

Hates everything that has to do with Arts and Crafts.

So they were watching Veggie Tales.

Nathan: "I love you Ava."

Ava:" I wuv you too, Nate."

And they do...

they also are the two kids that fight the most.

And now,

I'll share the song that has been going around in my head all day...

It's a Veggie Tales love song, so it works for Valentines Day.

Snow, Sun, and Cousins

 Been busy this weekend, as always....

Got a card reader!!

(Thanks, Adeena.)

Friday we started up the co-op school thing again.

This is when my homeschooling sisters and I all meet at my Mom's and teach different subjects,

subjects we don't do everyday at home, usually.

We do Latin, French, Music, Art, Historic Heroes, stuff like that.

We haven't done it all winter,

but now we will be.

It was the inaugural Friday,

and we didn't actually do any school.

It was a social day...

but that's okay, 'cause we need those once in a while too.

The kids played, adults talked, discussed, laughed, and drank a lot of tea.

It was a good day.

Except for co-op, the cousins aren't usually all together at one time...

so it's fun.

There was 15 grandchildren,

and Critter (my youngest brother who's 11.)

 Even though he's a brother, he get's lumped in with the grandkids a lot.

I'll leave you with some pics of the outside fun...

catch up on everything else tomorrow.