Busy Hands Homestead

I have been trying to spend as much time in the studio as possible.  (Does that explain the lack of blog posts? It should.) I have week or two until Adam is back at work and I no longer have the luxury of spending long day time hours at the studio.  I feel like I am constantly behind.  The list of things I want to make never getting shorter...  but a few nights ago I trudged through the snow carrying a backpack with a tripod and a camera and a giant box of mugs and bowls.  I had attempted to drive down the road to The Clay Studio of Missoula and promptly got stuck.  After a few tried I got unstuck and I parked on a main road that was getting plowed and walked.  My arms ached by the time I got inside. First learning how to use the wonderful camera I borrowed and then moving one piece at a time through three small boxes of new work. I snapped pictures for hours. By the time I was done, there were eight additional powdery inches of snow on the ...

A gift arrived in this giant box....  and the box is just as awesome as the new sleds.  While Adam took the kids on a cold and windy sled ride. I finally finished our present for Sylvan...  and yes, it is late, very late!   Here is his very own fort kit.  At dinner every night Sylvan takes one look at his food and screams: "I don't like that!  I don't like that food!  I don't like that!"  The rest of the family is almost done before he takes his first bite of his pinto bean, onion, spaghetti squash and cheese quesadilla...  and....  a big grin spreads across his face.  He does like the food.  As a reward for trying his first bite Sylvan snapped this picture of his sister.  (She ate all her food, and half of his.)

I actually managed to mail out Valentines on time - last year .    I think it might have been a fluke...   This year, like most years, I am behind.  There are neat rows of heart shaped bird seed cakes sitting in my dehydrator - waiting to be shipped to loved ones across the country.  We will get them mailed eventually.  Just making the cards and bird seed cakes for Ivory's kindergarten class took a dedicated session of card writing after school each day - and she cut and wrote and decorated each card on her own, diligently crossing off each of the twenty names on the list.  The night before we stuffed them into Ziploc bags and I added a cautionary DO NOT EAT tag.  This treat is for the birds.   The morning of, Ivory asked to be woken up early, so that I could French braid her hair into... .... the shape of a heart. Ivory: "oh. Mama.  You are bringing Vegetables to my Valentine's Day Party?" Ad...

We decided not to drive down the Bitterroot to meet our friends (and go ice fishing) because they had no phone reception and the last message I received from my friend doubted the ability of our car to reach the cabin.  We own no winter gear - no cross country skis, no snowshoes and the potential walk with the kids to the cabin seemed overwhelming.  So instead I turned to the internet to try and find something we could do without cross country skis or snowshoes. I found this: A few years old post about a place called Renova Hot Springs .  They were there in February and it looked fun...  so I googled directions.  We packed lunch and off we went. We stopped to eat our lunch in Butte, MT and wandered around the historic section of town.  The buildings are beautiful.  Intricate details that speak of a wealth that once was. We cross the continental divide.  Now all the rivers flow east - to the other ocean. The mountains were beautifu...

Our snowman is buried in a fresh layer of snow.  The view from our neighborhood sledding hill.  Adam and Sylvan heading down the hill.  Going, going... ... gone.  Snow ice cream in front of the furnace.  After our fingers and toes warmed up, we got an early start on valentines for Ivory's class mates.  Heart shaped bird seed cakes, ready to be hung in branches, on porches or in front of windows. Our Sunday in Snapshots. 

Sylvan's arms are wrapped around my head. He hugs me tight. I dread the day he no longer cradles my head against his head. It is nap time. "I'm not a baby anymore." He giggles. We have so many benchmarks behind us. Sylvan has been out of day time diapers since last summer. I never even carry extra clothes for anymore. I had been staring at the present shaped sticker on the calendar that denotes his third birthday. I have been nursing for a better part of six years.  First Ivory, then Ivory and Sylvan and then just Sylvan...  and I was ready to move on to a new routine.  One that didn't require me nursing at bedtime, at night, in the morning.  In six years I have had two complete nights of sleep. I look at the calendar.  "We will ween then," I think, but as we neared the date I decided that weening on his birthday would be too sad for him and me.  Then Adam went out of town for a week and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to ween...