Thankful

Awesome homemade beanbag project. I was a little nervous about all the uncooked rice Elsa ate, you know that story about Chinese torture consisting of eating a certain amount of uncooked rice...but she made it through the night, so I definitely recommend this for little littles. Just keep the vacuum out. And they are still playing with them like they are the coolest thing ever--which will boost your momma endorphins no matter how little else you got done.
Things have gotten better. You just have to make it through January & February--and even though it's still February, in between the freezing rain and below freezing temperatures, we have sunny days. We have thaws. Birds are sitting fluffed up in our empty trees, waiting for spring. There is definitely a change, even though it is just a whisper.

And we tried to switch things up around here, which seems to help. Since we spend so much time inside right now and I try to avoid TV as much as possible, this week I started allocating 2 hours each MWF for "school." Since they are so little, right now "school" is singing in front of the fire, reading a Proverb (lots of interesting questions there), practicing phonics, reading a Bob book together, counting to 100, and then spending time at the kitchen table drawing/coloring or working on a craft. Usually by then it's around 11 and if the weather is good I pack the girls outside until lunch. This week was awesome thanks to a more structured schedule, maybe all just in my head, but the girls definitely seemed happier too. I thought Elsa would be too disruptive if I tried to work on something with Heidi, but usually she plops down and tries sounding out phonics herself or brings a toy to the mix and plays quietly. Like I said, week by week, but I was really thankful for for an extra fun week with the girls. Aside from the potty training drama, which I will spare you. I don't even want to potty train her right now, but apparently she thinks it is time.

Sometimes she will leave her hair up longer than 5 minutes! Such a big girl!
And here is our sweet new niece Annalise! Born in December--which is why she accidentally got skipped over around here. My girls were obsessed with holding the baby.

Bummed we didn't get pictures of Levi, Susanna, and Sharon--who all stopped by last Saturday. So great to live near family!!

Thanks, Sharon for letting them smooch all over her!