To Realize Life While We Live It

It has been freezing freezing lately.  But it makes it so the radiators keep steaming away and my bedroom gets so hot!  It's positively sweltering!  And then Matthew wants to cuddle and I just can't take it!  There really is no completely comfortable place in my house, temperature wise.  Perhaps if I stood in the middle of the stairway between floors... I could set up a cushion for reading.

We saw Our Town yesterday afternoon. Have you seen it?  It was amazing!  I've read it before and thought it was so boring -- it is, after all, depicting how regular life is -- but seeing it played out was beautiful.  

"Oh Earth! You're too wonderful for anyone to realize you.  Do any humans ever realize life while they live it?  Every every minute?"

Gah!  We laughed, we cried.  So good.

We took the day off from school today so it is a rest day for me.  I still have the two yoga classes, but no schooling is happening and the boys have friends over.  This morning they were being so ridiculous -- just random loud noises for the sake of making a racket and asking questions like, "Mom, how many bowling balls do you see falling from the sky right now?"  There were also lovely things like, "How is it possible that the big snowflakes look so much like overripe dandelions?"  But I finally had to say that I am so sorry, but I just don't have any capacity for nonsense today.  Sometimes that is just how it is!

I & M Canal

Another fun hike with our homeschool friends.  We walked quite a ways so I was glad I thought to bring my Lula toddler carrier so that Archie could comfortably ride on my back, and Phin found a little snake.  It was amazing weather and great company!

Lake of the Woods

It was so nice to go on a little field trip with our homeschool friends.  A lot of them we haven't seen at all since we returned from our trip.  It was so nice to reconnect and also spend time in nature.  I think the universe is trying to tell me that Illinois is incredibly beautiful and I need to just stop with the restlessness and always wanting to be somewhere else.

Happy Valentines Day!

The homeschooling group that we're in held a Valentines party for the kids at the Bloomington police station.  The boys were mostly excited to actually be at the police station, haha!  But they enjoyed the treats and games, too.  There are a few kids with allergies so we made these cute little cards with pencils and glow sticks.

They got this book at the library and Phin wanted to reenact the cover:

Happy Valentines day to you!  Hope your day was as sweet as this little face!

how we school

The boys have been loving playing with their trains and it must be good for their brains to be concocting all of the track layouts, right?  And even though it is winter, I've been trying to make sure that they go outside at least once a day.

This pic is dark, but comes with sound effects

I've been trying to do a drawing a day, so here are a couple of them