Have I mentioned that I’m kinda in love with my new blog ‘format’!? Well, I am (and, I’ve probably mentioned it a time, or ten 😉 ). It’s really fun to sit down and just write about the things that I’m excited about. 🙂 I feel like I would get super annoyed with writing if I felt the need to blog every time the kids and I did any project–but, maybe each week, or a couple times a month, I’m thinking I’ll pop in here to record what we’ve been working on.

This week we’ve been up to a few things. Late last week, we made our favorite play dough. The recipe came from ECFE years ago, and it’s still the only one we use. This week, we’re busy making ‘things’ out of it to dry, and paint next week. We have a lot of pizza, and some pancakes. We have sausage, and eggs, and bacon, too. Next, we plan to make donuts, and candy, and cakes, and cookies. When we made our dough, I was having an AWFUL day with the little one–playing in flour, and salt, for 35 minutes was the only ‘quiet’ time I had all day. The mess was worth it a million times over. 🙂

Also, recently, I’ve started saving containers that I would normally throw into the recycle bin, for spring/summer outside toys. Whether they’ll be for the mud kitchen, to play in the hose water with, to bring to the cabin for the beach, or to play with in the bath (before warmer weather ever hits), I have the ‘reuse bin’ going. It seems like almost every year I end up buying a bunch of cheap, China-made, plastic toys (for outside play) that will, inevitably, break within a couple of uses. This summer, we’ll have an amazing selection of fun stuff that seems a lot more eco-friendly than what I usually do.

We also did some painting. We did birch trees, against a sunset, in the snow. The birch trees are just newspaper–and the snow is some sugar (along with some random, silver, gems that I had laying around). We started with a horizon line and then we thought, and talked, about the sunset. Every color he remembered seeing in every sunset was added to his paint palette. The original idea was to paint all of the colors parallel to the ‘horizon’ line–but, he had his own ideas, and it turned out beautifully. At first, he said the project was too hard–by the time we were done, he was beyond proud of his ‘big kid’ work.

Also, the little one finger painted, and played with a paintbrush too. A friend from church gave me a giant 

post-it pad and it is the best for finger painting with a one year old. I just stuck it to the table for all the painting fun, and I stuck it to the wall for all the decorating fun. (Btw, painting with two little boys could count as an entire cardio workout for me. I prep, and I plan–yet, I’m still running for things like a mad woman as one finishes, and then the other, and then paint spills, and then gets in hair, and then things just get silly. Clean-up takes longer than our projects–but, everything .)

This week also held the roughest doctor’s appointment I have ever experienced. The little one cried from the time we walked into the lobby, until WELL after we left. (It was just a check-up.) He cried so hard, he hiccuped even after falling asleep. I decided that the best way to restore some calm, in both of us, was to grab the baby wrap, wrap up tight, and head into the woods for a walk. We watched squirrels, deer, turkeys and birds–and, there was immediate calm. We won’t go back to hike until we get a good thaw, or some more snow–as the trails are quite icy, but it was perfect to restore the peace in his little mind. It was only in the 20’s (F), so it felt wonderful. After we hiked a bit, we spent an hour in the nature center building playing, and building. It’s amazing what nature can do to bring us back to feeling whole again.

Anyway, this was just a bit of my week. The weekend holds work, and another week of teaching Sunday School. I have things to get in the mail, and hopefully some sleep to catch up on–especially since I’m not sure I’m feeling 100%. (I feel like I’m getting a cold…) Next week–well, who knows? We’ll figure it out as we go–and, as the weather dictates. (It’s looking COLD–but, like we might get some fresh snow. 🙂 )