A Busy Bunch of Weeks!

We have been settling into our Lenten, almost Spring activities for the past couple of weeks. It seems weird to say Spring activities when just a little over a week ago we had around a foot of snow. But time waits for no one, even the weather.


With the Lenten Season beginning, we have been busy cleaning out our spaces. This applies to both the Physical and Spiritual. I have been trying to keep up with the Lenten Deep Clean program where a person takes a small section of the house and works on it for the day. This could mean a closet or breaking a room up for a few days with one day to linens, one to walls and baseboards, etc. One area I feel most accomplished about is the master closet. Karl and I have a HUGE 8 foot by 8 foot closet that was just in shambles. It was neat enough for finding things, but was also filled with other odds and ends not in a real home. Now, all the shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, and uniforms are lined up in showroom style. The shoes are all neat, but Karl thinks we should get one of those wooden shoe caddies. Right now I am trying to not spend any money, so it will have to wait. The other part of the Lenten Clean in the interior. Anton has been attending Altar Server classes at the church which has afforded Isabella and I some much needed quiet time at the church. We are lucky that our church has a small Adoration Chapel for those seeking a quiet place to reflect and search out Christ. We have also been attending our Church's Soup and Stations Community get togethers every Friday. This consists of several crock pots of non-meat soups (you even have to use vegetable stock), bread, and maybe some other non-meat dishes. After an hour of eating and talking, we go up to the church for Station of the Cross and Latin Benediction. I remember my parents taking us to Stations and Benediction when we were younger but instead of soup it was a fish fry. I think the soup is a little healthier than all that fried food, but the meaning behind it, community getting together to support the abstaining from meat and the dedication to Christ's suffering is still the same. There is something so purely beautiful to hear the innocent voices of the young ones reciting the prayers and songs even if they have no idea what those Latin words mean.


After the snow melted, we were busy preparing for the next season. Spring Soccer has gotten underway and this year I am juggling two. Isabella has decided to have her turn at kicking the ball around. Her age group is much more relaxed. They have no goalie and do not keep score. Their coach has a very fun way to teach skills of blocking, stealing, and control. They played "Freeze Tag" with the soccer balls. If the either of the two "it" players got your ball away from you and kicked it out, you had to hold your ball over your head with your legs spread so another player could kick their ball through your legs to unfreeze you. They had to do this while trying to keep from loosing their ball. They had fun and did not realize they were learning some skills also. Anton, on the other hand, has the same former Marine coach who has the boys give him push-ups when they misbehave. When that does not get them to focus, it is laps. Of course, you can see the frustration on his face at their improper form which leads him to do the push-ups with them. This season, Anton's coach is trying to break him out of his comfort zone. Anton loves to play defender, but Anton needs to learn to play forward also. Anton has practice on Mondays and Wednesdays and Isabella on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The other activity we have picked up is Shubert Singers. Isabella had auditions last week for a local choral group and was accepted into the group. She will be one of the youngest in the group which I am concerned with on the maturity side, but it will be great for her technique. The group is headed by a locally known music director, (the other being our own church's director who teaches our kids piano), and a former Italian Opera Singer. The group has a curriculum, meets once a week, and has performances across the county.


Outside we took advantage of an unusually warm day to plant. The children and I tilled up some spaces and planted the remaining garlic, onions, and potatoes we had not been able to get into the ground in the fall. It was a very long day, but well worth the effort as the following day started another bout of roller coaster weather. It seems every other day was sunny with 70 degrees and the interim was rainy or cloudy with highs in the 40s or low 50s. Very odd! And both kiddos have needed to bump up their allergy meds for this sometimes Spring sometimes Winter weather.


But a great thing has occurred over the weekend. Karl has finally returned home from his schooling for the Navy. Isabella who had begun to drag and have headaches was miraculously better when her Daddy came home. It is great to have him home, but I need to re-acclimate to those 4:45 wake ups, something that does not come easy to me. At least I do have coffee!

Snow Days with Friends!

On Wednesday, one of our close friends came over with her crew for snow fun. As I have stated before, we have a great hill for sledding, and this was going to be the last day for awhile with snow. The forecast for the next few days was 60's and 70's, but for this day, we were holding at 32.

Anton and Matthew going down hill.

Megan, Isabella, and Mary Claire's turn.

Now, back up for round two!

After a few hours, the group turned to snowball fights and snow people construction.

Our creation turned into something similar to Pooh and piglet.

Soon, we decided to go in for lunch and out of wet clothes.



For the next several hours, Katie decided it is her duty to rid us of anything unusual in the yard. She barked ferociously at the snow pooh for about 10 minutes and then off and on until the sun had completely melted our creation.

More Fun in the Snow!

In case you were wondering how deep it was...

The leashes on the puppies is to help us catch them when we are ready to come in. If we were to wait for them, it could be hours or even days!

Anton giving Katie a snow storm to run through.

Trekking down the hill!

Katie bounding back up the hill. Somehow they seem to come better when we leave their leashes on. Last time it snowed, I could not convince Blossom to come inside. This time they both came more quickly when called, but that was after they made their rounds following the deer scents.

Lost Play Things

Our snow totals from the night before and today have reached into the 10-14 inch mark. I was accused of bringing the snow from CT as snow of this caliber is considered rare in our more southerly location. I actually think it has to to with Karl's current assignment which seems to bring large snow totals when he attends a school there.

The children had been out the night before playing in the snow with the puppies. In all the excitement, they forgot to do something!

I saw Isabella digging around in the snow and Anton walking seemingly aimlessly around.

As I let the puppies out to run, I asked what they were doing? Anton informed me they had left the sled outside the night before and were trying to find it. The puppies sensed something was missing and needed to be found.

They too joined in the search!

Finally, with a lot of luck as it was buried under 7 inches of snow...

They found it!

A View of Beauty - Part 2

A few more I could not resist!

The pasture fence for the neighbor's cattle.

The other grain fields from the road.

A View of Beauty!

I had to run a little errand for Karl, and had it not been for him, I might have just waited. But, I took my camera with me to get a few pictures of something I have been told almost never happens here.

The back left corner view from the driveway.

The right back corner from the driveway

with a view across the grain fields to the Nature Preserve.

The driveway directly in front of me as I leave my street.

The creek that runs from the preserve through the grain fields in front of our house.

The view of the trees lining the road to our street.

Here Comes the Snow!!!

Sunday afternoon the cold wet drizzly gave way to the chilling wind and changed over to snow! First it was more like sleet as the rain refused to give in. But eventually the pleas of all the children in the area motivated the transformation. Thick, lovely fat flakes fell at a speed of 2 inches an hour.

It was beautiful! I held the children off with a few rounds of Whoonu but the magnetism of the powder was stronger. Isabella was first to drag out the snow pants from the closet and head out to the hill. But unlike last time, it just kept falling!

It was great snowball snow with a great packing ability. The two created a very small snowman/heap before the puppies could not take being left out anymore. I had been inside baking bread for the next day and could not listen to the whimpering pleas any longer. The puppies unfortunately mowed over the beginning snowman but the children continued to play anyway. A couple hours later, wet children and puppies came back inside to call it a night. We had warm soup and bread for dinner. While I was cleaning up the dishes, Isabella had found herself in a nice niche.

Yes, my Hawaii Baby does not understand wearing socks will make your feet warmer, but the fire burning next to her did remove the chill from outside.

And the Winner is...

The Cub Scout Blue and Gold Dinner was held last Saturday. The food was surprisingly wonderful! One of the Den mom's has a friend who is a caterer.

At first, Anton was disappointed to not receive a trophy for his Pine Wood Derby Car. At the previous pack, all three places received a trophy. At this pack, they receive pins similar to the medals Karl gets for the Navy. After the place medals were given to each den and the place trophies for the entire pack, the leaders gave awards for best cars. Anton got his trophy! He won the second place trophy for his creative chicken bone car. The announcer even made a comment that in honor of Anton's car, we would all be eating chicken bones for dinner. He was right, we did eat chicken but I think it was just a coincidence.

Anton was just tickled and lovingly placed it on his dresser with his cars and soccer trophies.

Isabella was also a winner that evening. She bought some raffle tickets and walked home with a MP3 player. It actually has more Gigs than Karl's I-Pod. Now Anton is asking for ear muffs because Isabella is constantly singing whatever she is playing at the time.

February Retreat - Love

In February, I co-taught the "Middlers" with Chris. We focused on the theme of love, being the day before St. Valentines Day. Chris began with teaching about Jesus' immense amount of love for each of us.

Then I had the children put on a play for the rest of the children and adults on Valentine's life. Valentine was a martyred priest in the time of Emperor Claudius II who thought single men made better soldiers. Claudius forbade marriage. Valentine did not follow this law and married people anyway. Claudius put Valentine in jail but like to hear him talk about the power of love. Valentine then tried to convert Claudius which caused Clausius to order the removal of Valentine's head. The children did a great job and learned a lot.

Shortly after the skit, the children and I had to run off to the airport as Karl was returning from a three week trip. Thank you Navy for my Valentine Gift!

The German Family...

Anton recently finished reading The Swiss Family Robinson. He loved it. The adventure has lead to more creative play outside. On this particular day, Anton had wanted to stay inside to... well, read another book. I needed him to help me measure something outside while Isabella wrote the numbers down for me. I told him it would take about 10 minutes. When we finished the children heard sounds of dogs in the distance and wanted to investigate near the "fort". The fort consists of the fallen oak tree and the remains of the straw fabric the builder had laid to try to grow some grass. When they reached the top, they asked if I thought it was high enough to be safe from wild dogs. Very truthfully, I responded negatively as the two were only about 3 feet from the ground.

The rest is history as they say. The two ended up playing "Swiss Family" for the next three hours.

Isabella was busy making a wall with found wood and Anton was creating a ditch for irrigation. At least that is what they told me they were doing.

Oh, the freedom of a child's mind in a nonrestrictive space! When we first moved I was so worried about not having some kind of play structure for forts, climbing, etc. They made the fort, and the holly tree in the brush had them scaling well over my head. Maybe the man made structure is not as important as I thought!

There's a Battle Brewing....

In Lego Land!

The Evil Skeletons have formed battle ships for the attack!

Their Destination....The good castle.

But lookout! The brave knights meet their attackers and fight on the ship!

Good wins and the evil skeletons are in jail.

You can't really hang them, being dead already.