Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
I'm updating this blog.
The moon must be too.

Blue. The moon must be blue...once in a blue moon? Chris said I lost him. Sorry if I lost you too.
Anywho. Hello! Happy Valentine's Day.
Since last we chatted, we've seen some five feet of snow fall and boy are we ready for Old Man Winter to move on out of here. We're expecting snow tomorrow evening, so I guess his answer is no. So what have we been up to aside from washing snowsuits daily?

At the end of January, Chris generously let me fly out to Wisconsin to spend five days with my best friend, Sonja, and meet their new baby girl.

Mark, Sonja's husband, taught me how to shoot a revolver.

Chris had a bit of a rough go at home...the girls, who had not been sick since March, came down with chest colds the day I left, Anna had to get liquid nitrogen for a wart on her toe, and the power went out for 24 hours. It made for a very welcoming husband...
After I came home, Anna made the bold move to the top bunk. I have no qualms about Anna being up so high. She has that firstborn cautious gene. Her little sister, on the other hand... The original rule was no going up on the top bunk during the day and Sonja was never to be on the ladder. The law has been ammended- no socks when climbing the ladder and NO FALLING. So far, so good.

Other than that, we've just been snowed on. Here are some pics from before the storms hit.


Sonja kicking back, watching Anna play Wii.

Starting to dig out of the first storm.

The Honda hibernated for the week.

For the second big storm, we went over to C's parents to be snowed in there for a couple days:

"Hey, look at me. I'm an icicle!"

"Me too!"

Bowling on the Wii.

"You got a STRIKE!"

Good form.

Okay, it's time for bed. I hope things are starting to thaw where you are. I, personally, can't wait for spring...

My friend Rachel shared this awesome printable grocery menu with me and I had to pass it along. It has been helpful to list out exactly what I'll need for each meal so I don't forget silly but key ingredients (like the $0.16 jalepeno, my personal pet peeve forgottee.) My favorite thing about using this menu though is the lunch planning. I don't plan so much for the girls and I, but I need to have a plan for a good lunch to send to work with Chris. And really, it's best to have that written out than to think on the fly in the AM whilst squinty eyed and blinded by the fridge light. It also helps me to think of the leftovers I'll have from each dinner so I can use those for lunches instead of them getting shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten...for weeks...until we can host molec/bio lab in our very own kitchen. (That does not happen so very often, mostly thanks to C.)
Anyway, just thought I'd share. Rachel is focusing each month this year on a different aspect of Proverbs 31, so if you're the homemaking type, check in often on her fabulous blog.

Other news around here- the girls continue to sleep toe to toe in the bottom bunk. Warms my heart to see it. =) I think most mothers' hearts are warmed to see their children asleep at all, but it's especially sweet when they are snuggled in the same bed. Speaking of...Sonja is goofing off in her bed at present rather than warming her mother's heart, so I just went in and snapped this:
Chris crafted this bed rail to keep one little monkey from falling out:

The rail perfectly matches the top bunk, including the eased edges, but is a shorter length so Sonja can get out when the ladder is in place. Thanks for being so fantastic, Chris. =)
(Last time I posted a project by Chris and referenced Norm Abram, we had, and continue to get, at least 10 Google hits a week from folks searching, "Is Norm Abram married?" In case you've come back, I believe he is.)
Anyway, what else is new.... ah, I broke into a new pack of fabrics for WICP. These are a few fabrics from the new colorway.

Okay, I think Sonja's motor just ran out. On to a bit of sewing...
Hope everyone has a great weekend! The weather is finally above frigid here and I hope it is where you are too. =)

Christmas time.
We celebrated Christmas morning here in our own home for the second year in a row. We waited until Christmas Eve, when the children were snug in their beds, to place gifts under the tree so the morning involved a great deal of excitement.

Anna asked to read each book right then as she opened them.






In Sonja's right hand is a dollhouse baby. She has yet to let go of it still.


At mid-morning, we made the 20 min trek over to join the rest of the Schwartzes. We have few pics of that nice time, but once our new camera battery charged, we have 400 pics of the rest of the weekend. Here are two...(naptime is over)
Visiting Great Grandmom.

Being fed "in the zoo."

We had a splendid weekend with Opa, Oma, Uncle Roo, Aunt Manda and Great Grandmom!

The week before Christmas, we enjoyed a great snowfall. It began late Friday night and continued through Sunday morning. The last flakes fell onto two feet of snow which drifted nicely to five feet, covering all of the Honda except one side view mirror barely poking out. We took the girls out on Saturday, but with the flakes still falling and a chill wind blowing, it was not the best experience. But look how excited they were to go out:

Anna could hardly walk, partially because she was wearing ten layers, but also because of the snow being deep. Still, she struck out for the swingset.

Then over to the picnic table and chairs.

Sonja was entirely immobile in the snow. We went for a quick swing which is not so very fun with snow blowing in your face, but we caught one smile before heading inside for cocoa.

Sunday morning, church was cancelled and there were no snow plows up our road until the afternoon anyhow. When the girls went down for naps, Chris and I joined the neighborhood in digging out the vehicles. It was a nice weekend of hibernating. =)

I know I need to catch up on the past couple weeks, but I've been thoroughly side-tracked playing with our new camera.
Lots of changes going on in this casa. Sonja resolved to give up her pacifier on New Year's Eve, as in we could not find her lone remaining pacifier at bedtime, anywhere. The day before we had disassembled her crib. Something was tragically wrong with this syntax.

Sonja has made excellent progress and no longer asks for it. The past two nights, she didn't get out of bed once and last night, she even insisted on staying in bed...(we don't have the mattress for Anna's top bunk in yet so she goes to sleep on our bed, Sonja in Anna's bed, and at our bedtime we conduct a small scale Chinese fire drill and Sonja gets a crib mattress on the floor.) So, last night, when Chris and I gave up on conquering Super Mario world eight's castle, I put sleeping Sonja down on the crib mattress and went to get Anna. I turn as I walk out the door to see Sonja scrambling back in to the big girl bed. I go to take her out and she insists, "Bed, bed!" while patting the pillow. I try to coax her to come down on the crib mattress, but she begged to stay in the big girl bed. A real mattress is much more comfortable than a crib one. So, the two little girls slept Willy Wonka style:

Okay, dinner! I'll be back. =)

A few Fridays ago, we went to the Walters Museum in downtown Baltimore for a bit of culture. A friend of mine got the ball rolling, and random events led us to a small homeschooler group meeting at the museum. So the girls and I strollered up Centre Street to find out about the Heroes of Ancient Greece.

The museum's children director did an excellent job and Anna was fascinated by her narration of Heracles and Ulysses. We couldn't take pictures in the exhibition halls, but she had the kids under sheepskins crawling out of Polyphemus' cave and wrestling a duct tubing sea monster. She ended with the kids sing the teapot song like so:
"I am an amphora from ancient Greece.
Here are my handles, here is my scene.
I am made of clay and painted black.
Ancient history on front and back."
It was very cute and well done. The final part of the class was an art activity, which was not so thought out. The kids were to color circles which would be their hero sign and glue it to a folded piece of foam which would be a pocket. Glue the pocket to an apron which you could twist behind you to be a cape? Lackluster, but the girls had fun coloring.

(The final apron product was a sad story...the marker never dried because it was plastic and after a week of sitting on the desk untouched, it found it's way into the trash. The next day, Anna asked for it for the first time and was very sad that it was gone. Tears and regret.)
Seriously though, how do you discern what to keep and what to toss? I grew up getting to keep almost anything and my room was full of...junk, really. I've since turned a 180 and now throw away wedding albums...just kidding...but I do get rid of a lot. I don't want to throw away my kids' treasures, but I don't want unimportant paraphernalia cluttering up our lives. Looking for a line to walk...

This year, we returned to Applewood Farms to acquire the Christmas conifer. Last year we were too cold to take the girls on the train. This year we went the first weekend of December on a sunny afternoon so it would be less cold and less dark. And the train was out of order for the weekend. The sign said it only runs in frigid temps, and only when you are in the midst of potty training and/or nursing children. Or it said to come back next weekend. Either way, we missed out on the train again. Also, there was no pony ride this time, as the horse had evidently gone blind. But this tree and reindeer weren't too bummed.

The tractor pulled us out to the trees and we made our selection pretty quick. But, as Chris drew the saw, the girls changed their minds...

After felling our find, we realized we missed the customary photo op, so here we are in front of a stand in tree.

Then we said hello to a sheep, a pig, two goats, and a blind horse.

Anna feeding the sheep; Sonja looking on anxiously.

Sonja was more into the John Deere.

They had a paved area with different little bikes and a Sonja sized Deere.

There was also a ring toss with reindeer antlers, which I didn't get a picture of, but when Anna saw it, she said, "Is this Ring the Gack?" (Dr. Seuss fans appreciate.)
Back home, tree trimming.

We let the girls hang everything but the really fragile ornaments wherever they wanted to. They moved them around a little bit the next day and lost two of the metal hooks. After spending twenty minutes on the side of my face scanning the floor, I finally found the tetanus-laden sharps and we moved everything up. Someone told me about plastic hooks, but for some reason, this month has been kind of busy and I haven't had a chance to look for them. And the girls haven't minded, and I don't mind our tree looking like it's in a flood zone.
Anyway, hope everyone is having a jolly Saturday!

Chop chop.

Fab or folly?

Georgia.
Sonja enjoyed several breakfasts each morning- hers and whoever sat at the table subsequently. Grandma is the lucky winner here:

The dogs always ask for someone to come say good morning and the girls happily oblige:


Liking the mild weather outside:

Three on the piano:
So thankful for thirteen at the table for Thanksgiving.
On the way home, we stopped in Richmond to ride the train at the outdoor mall.

And to swing feet over the counter at the mini general store.

When we finally made it home at 11PM, unpacked and went to bed way too late, we realized we never slept a full eight hours the entire trip. What is wrong with us? I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that we set a curfew of 11PM, unless a football game is in overtime, and it is 11:08PM. Goodnight folks. =)