Ten on Tuesday-Wednesday.

1. Got my camera back from Canon and now it won't communicate with my computer. Thank goodness for my iPhone!

2. Fisher is super into drawing suddenly. Mostly submarines and fireboats and destroyers, and lots of letter Bs.

3. It's Leap Day, and since I'm a sucker for all things memory-keeping, we're compiling a family time capsule, which we'll seal til the next Leap Day. Goodness our life has grown in the last four years, and I can't even imagine the changes by 2016.

4. Fisher (all of us, really) greatly enjoys his Ice Cream Sundays.5. I finished Henrietta Lacks and am onto Dead End in Norvelt and then Why We Broke Up.

6. Since it's the last day of February, that means tomorrow is the first of March, which means birthday season is right around the corner for our family. We'll be at Grandma's for Fisher's birthday, and I'm hoping to steer Alla away from a big party for a change. Fingers crossed.

7. The kids' favorite art supplies of late are oil pastels and watercolors. Fisher especially loves his goldenrod-colored oil pastel.

8. I adore Pinterest for all the ideas. Lately I'm collecting great ideas for long summer days with kiddos home.

9. Still really feel lucky to have Nana and Pappi so close to us, so they can just pop over for lunch.10. We finally got some snow last night (along with rain and sleet, so it's mostly a lot of slop), and Fisher got a snow day! Unfortunately Alla didn't, but I think she's probably glad for that since it was fake moustache day!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. This was the first President's Day Monday that Ron had off that we can remember. Part of it was spent doing Alla's science project. (Two hours were also spent looking for the variables that went missing as soon as the data was collected.)
2. I took the kids out for a walk in the open space, on a "secret path," and we imagined riding bikes back there in the summertime. Imagined Fisher being big enough to keep up on his bike instead of in the trailer! Maybe a little of both.3. Then last night the snow came and knocked out the power right as we were heading to bed, and of course two hours later the whole house is blazing lights, lamps, and bird-chirping sound spa. Really, a little snow, and there's no power?

4. This morning, a beautiful puffy thick white, and all-day dripping. So it will be gone soon.

5. One of the best things to look forward to in the morning, besides another day, besides hot coffee, is steel cut oats on the stove, cooked overnight and ready to warm you up. Oaties, Fisher says.

6. That little guy, Friday night after movie night at Daddy's work, all tuckered out.7. Saturday Alla lost her second top tooth! She's got the cutest little lisp now. 8. Lentil soup for dinner in the crockpot with homemade biscuits. So yum. I love my crockpot more than any other appliance.

9. Last ice skating lesson this weekend. Alla has loved every single Saturday, and that's saying a lot.

10. Next week is March...March is when we start imagining warm days, and how to fill them.

Friday Five.

1. Went for a run this morning after dropping Fisher at preschool, and as I had my phone on me in case the nurse at his school has to get in touch with me, I was able to snap this shot of part of the path that we run. We are so lucky to have this! 2. Yesterday running an errand, Fisher bought a one cent pink gumball for himself, and a blue one to give to his sister when we picked her up later that afternoon.3. I don't know what kind of (delicious) cheese the local Mexican joints are using in their quesadillas, but we have tried at two different establishments, and both were unsatisfactory to Alla. We have to come up with a winner next time, or we'll lose her forever to chicken strips and french fries. Flautas? Tacos?

4. Fisher yesterday was super excited that we still had one "cute little banana" left for him.

5. Bedtime prayers might be my favorite time of day. Last night Fisher gave thanks "for this pray," "for words that rhyme with jello" (no clue - the kid hasn't even tried jello), and then turned to Big Elmo, sat him up, took his hands, and said bedtime prayers together.

Twelve on the 12th: February.

woke up at Nana's/snuggled with Mama/posed with Nana/went in search of a blueberry scone

footies/the "real" battleship/won with lots of "hits and sunks"/journal

me/Daddy doing jammies at bedtime tonight/Brownie Groundhog/reading hour

Happy Hearts.

Valentine's is for the kids, it's all about the passing out and the anticipation. Alla is home resting today after being picked up sick yesterday, and she's a little bummed about missing the Valentine fun there (though she's settled into being at home quite comfortably), but she's also greatly looking forward to seeing her Valentine box tomorrow when she goes back to school.
Fisher's Valentine celebration is tomorrow on his regular school day, and he cannot wait to give his teachers these little hands he made.

I can't wait til Daddy gets home so we can give them both the Valentine (books) we have for each of them! It's a day about the kids, but all around it's a great excuse to tell the people in your life just how much you love them.

Friday Five.

1. My camera is being serviced, so my iPhone is all I've got. Thank goodness for Instagram!

2. Caught this little quiet-timer vacuuming for me a couple days ago. What a sweetheart.
3. Started reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks last night, which has been on my nightstand for close to a year. Looking forward to Reading Hour tonight, Ronald! Oh, wait, it's the "weekends," do we do Reading Hour on the weekends?

4. Have had to wake the kids every morning this week at 8. So then our mornings are slightly more harried than I mentioned previously, and slightly more harried than I prefer.

5. It is darn cold here today, wind chills likely hovering around zero or below. And now I have to leave the warm house and go pick up Alla. I think I can I think I can I think I can!

Ten on Tuesday.

1. Why can't I ever remember to separate the chicken breasts before I freeze them?

2. Doing so would have made today's Tortilla Soup a lot easier.

3. I rely on Dr. Praegger's veggie patties for lunch quite often - they go with everything!

4. Took Fisher to Pump It Up for a nice surprise this morning, since swimming was cancelled again. He walked out saying, That was sure fun!

5. Both Pinterest and the Houzz app are great time-wasters.

6. Granola in the crockpot smells delightful.

7. We are lucky to have found two new books at the library that Fisher just adores, which is saying a lot considering that he is the world's pickiest book chooser. It generally has to have some sort of real-life photographs of construction vehicles, battleships, firetrucks, airplanes, or boats in order to worthy of his time. But alas, we stumbled on The Woods and have been reading that every day.

8. We've also twice checked out local author Kevin Kling's Big Little Brother, which both kids think is funny, and as an added bonus is illustrated by local author Chris Monroe of Monkey With a Toolbelt fame.

9. Yesterday Fisher and I went for a run and a stop at the park, since it was beautiful and in the mid-40s. Still no snow in the forecast. It's very odd for February in Minnesota.

10. Two kids, fast asleep together, determined to make a twin bed work for them.

Quiet time.

Quiet time is sacred in this house. I've told both kids that there will be quiet time til they're at least twelve. That may or may not be true, since as their mother, I reserve the right to evaluate this on a year by year basis, but I definitely don't see this ending any year soon. And while it is mostly restorative for me, the time often ends up being used rather creatively by a little boy who isn't really tired on any given day. So, when I happen to go in his room, I am never surprised by what I see, even if that is a little boy sitting there reading in his bed, which he had engulfed in ropes. Not at all surprised.

Art day.

Last week, pre-snaggletooth Alla had a four-day weekend, so we had two long days with nowhere to be, kind of like summer but with cooler temperatures. The three of us spent much of those days in our pajamas, watching movies, playing games, Alla telling her stories, reading lots of books. At some point she reminded me of some blissful day (last year? Spring Break?) where I got lots of random art stuff out and they just went to town creating, and could we please do that again? It's what I hope for as a mom, the warm memories implanted in their brains, of long lazy mornings in pajamas with a messy table covered in colorful possibilities.I wonder if that period ends, or if it has to.
I hope it doesn't. I hope they know that I'll always be willing to get out all the random art stuff so they can go to town creating their little hearts out.

Typical breakfast.

Thanks to a 9:15 start time for both kids' schools, mornings are not harried around here. The kids stroll out of bed whenever their bodies get them up, or when the other sibling is too loud. If they are up by eight, they will have plenty of time to make their beds, get dressed, eat, brush hair and teeth.

Breakfast itself is probably the most prolonged part of the morning. Alla as a baby was never the type to squirm, wanting out of her high chair. She'd sit there eating happily but slowly, and then continue to sit while I cleaned up, or while Ron and I ate dinner. So it really is no surprise that she continues to languish at the table, no matter the meal, actually.

Today's breakfast was sunbutter on waffles with sliced apples. And a side of Junie B. First Grader for Alla.