I think I'm done updating for now.

Enjoy reading. Don't forget to hop over to "the world as we see it" and see what we've been up to in the sketching department.

feed the birds

With national bird count day coming up, we copied this idea for a bird feeder and had a great time preparing and hanging it. However, all the birds seem to have flown away. We spotted a couple of chickadees yesterday but nothing else besides our own chickens. It's been warmer. Have they all gone north? or west? east, maybe? They shouldn't be going south.

I should add that our winter birds consist of juncos, a few chickadees--still my favourite bird, the occasional flock of sparrows and a rarely visiting blue jay. After having lived in Costa Rica where birds were as abundant as Canadian snowflakes, this seems barren.

But those flashes of colour and life do bring us joy when they come.

hungry?

K2's meal options for his cooking day: oven baked potato wedges and a salad.
He added the crackers and cheese as an appetizer and made it a two course meal.

CTM and K2 have badges to work on for their weekly club. Here are CTM's cooking badge results. He also made cookies, but they were too tasty. I was quicker with the camera for the cinnamon buns and cake.

frost

I took these photos last week (maybe the week before?) when we had a huge frost one morning. It was a beautiful, sparkly, winter wonderland morning. The air was crisp and cold and oh so clear. I went out to start the car before our trip to the orthodontist and couldn't help grabbing my camera and taking a few shots. K2 came out behind me and as we rounded the corner into the backyard all he could say was, "Wow! Mom! Wow!" which was just an echo of my own heart's cry. What else can be said in such a glorious display of God's magnificence?
Have you ever heard hoarfrost tinkle like thousands of little bells falling around your head?

more frost photos

A Tuesday morning. While I know that the outside temperature is mild, from my vantage point I still see white. But, the difference is my knowledge. I know that the whiteness is fog, not snow. I know that the snow has been melting. I know Spring is not really here, but I am different. I started running again, feeling that there was no reason to put my life on 'wait'. What a powerful statement that was inside me. I thought of the trips I could take to visit family, friends. I don't plan to leave my house when the physical cold makes me snowbound emotionally. Our chickens eagerly leave their coop in the morning to scratch around in the still frozen ground for bird food revealed by the melted snow. I feel like they do. Not the scratching around part! but the eagerness to leave their coop and explore. There is something in that still cold air that smells of newness, of life about to be revealed.

I made some waffles the other day. I am currently on the lookout for wheat-free options in my diet but giving up our Saturday morning pancakes is not to be thought of. So, when I was pointed to the waffle recipe on a friend's blog by another friend I was thrilled. The kids ate one waffle each--they're pretty filling. They deemed them a little too crunchy. But I froze the uneaten ones for my morning toast. Since the power went out just when I was cooking them and stayed out for over two hours I never finished cooking the remaining batter. Instead I popped it into the fridge when the power came back on and made pancakes on Saturday morning alongside the regular batch. Yum.