Goodness!

 Well, the new year has begun, and we are home, and though many terrible things are casting a cloud over our attempts to remain optimistic, we are still trying. 

    We've endevoured to start the year with a thankful heart and a busy body. While I listened to the news, I was also praying for the people involved in that coup attempt, and I cleaned house how I could. Which is to say, of course, that I literally cleaned house. I went through our closets and cleaned out the many kid outfits that no longer fit. We had already decided we would move the kids back to separate rooms (and had to do that before Q had to go back to his regular office hours), and Christmas decorations had to be taken down... And yet, for all our activity, we have yet to finish our to-do list. Before we know it, it will be Spring, and I'll have a brand new list to tackle, so we better hurry!

    The house was a bit of a mess for a few days, and I think I might be too old for my crazy cleaning sprees because days after being done with all this, my back still hurts. Quijote did the hard work of moving the beds, so what am I complaining about? But still, I must admit, I am in pain. 

     There were piles and piles of clothes, shoes, and books and toys and art supplies to sort through... some of which are still judging me from remote corners of the house.... But at least the Christmas decor is mostly gone. We've yet to take down the greenry and outdoor lights.

 

     My worms didn't all die while I was away, and I am happy to report I have a lot of great soil for the next growing season. I also found this carrot, which I posted about on FB because I was so weirded out that something would grow in the darkness of a composting bin, and not get eaten by the worms to top it off.

    I've started to think about our year and everything we need to do around the house, including gardening, but also repairs, things that have been on the waiting list for an organization or cleanning, and so on. The children would also like to build a tree house this summer. We actually don't have a tree that can serve as support, so it will probably be more of a propped club house. Anyone want to help? I've decided to do it this year because even as we bought the playhouse and the swing set, I always knew this would be the final stage of our yard, and simply waited until they were old enough to be part of the construction process... and here we are. They have officially requested it. They want to do it. They are big kids, out of nowhere... Goodness. Time goes by so fast. I don't know how to build a tree house, but I have never been known for underestimating my abilities, even when it comes to new things. Haha! Wish me luck. Research underway, so I hope to know how to safely design this by the time warm weather decides to visit us again.

  We re-started school, and the kids are not happy. Haha. Though Miss E did still remember a whole lot of it and was able to construct difficult Nahuatl sentence-words even on our first or second day of class, after at least a couple weeks since her last lesson. I was pretty proud of her.

 ***

We also had another snow storm! This time we had beautiful, soft snow afterwards, and we decided to go sledding. We had a wonderful day out by the lake. It was pretty great. And then we came back and had cocoa and Miss E turned Boo into a Boorrito *

 *Pun courtesy of my sister S.