At the end of January, a few of the kids in the 4th grade Orff ensemble got to be the "class" in a teacher workshop at the IL music educators conference. I drove Cecily and Lincoln there (so funny... they have to make sure that people know that they are cousins, not friends, and definitely not gf/bf ha).
It was really cool to observe. The teachers/presenters were obviously very passionate about what they do, and the kids responded to it just as much as the other educators. Cecily was supposed to play the cymbal on the off-beat, which made me laugh... AC kids are not good with the off beat, we just don't hear it that often. :D
I have zero brain cells left and zero energy. I don't think I have ever experienced that end of pregnancy burst of nesting energy people talk about. All I want to do is sit on the couch or sleep. I've tried to work on finishing some sewing projects because that doesn't require much physical effort and it makes me feel like I'm not being lazy, but my brain is so scrambled that I do ridiculous stupid things like slice my best tape measure into four pieces without even realizing it. *sigh* Alas, poor tape measure, you've been good to me since Mom bought me my first sewing kit...😥
So this was a kind of cool/fun project. I got this kit for Christmas a few years ago and have been working on it very slowly. I finished the quilting/embroidery part last fall and bound it last week.
It was somewhat frustrating because embroidery and quilting are very different- the back of embroidery projects don't have to look perfectly pretty, and quilts do look nice. For this, the embroidery was the quilting and they didn't really give much instruction on how to hide knots, or how to make the stars look nice on the back side too. I kind of gave up and just made sure the knots were hidden and didn't worry about the back being a perfect mirror of the front. Also I used metallic thread, which looks cool, but was awful to stitch with. There are a few wonky stitching lines I may fix eventually, but... done is good enough for now. :)
Matt and the boys invited us to come play and eat pizza with them on a Saturday evening.
The girls thought the Johnny Tractor farm track was pretty cool...
Miri was busy fixing a car. :) So many boy toys... they aren't used to such things. Also, she was wearing pj's as clothing because I just don't care right now. :P
Jack is such a good reader already... hooray for Scrooge McDuck.
We don't have any remote controlled vehicles at our house... 😄
And then we finally got some snow to play in!! Well, they played. I watched from the garage, out of the wind. It got us three days off from school, which was fun.
They were pretty sure they were going to tunnel all the way down to the road. ha.
Miriel was very helpful with her shovel.
I don't know if there's a name for these drifts that form on the roof- they're slightly ominous, but the snow was pretty light so when they would randomly break off while you were underneath it wasn't too bad.
Miriel decided that she loved the snow.
She's also fond of this little corner inside. :D
Miri: Mom, Cadence made a BIG mess!
Cadence is clearly upset about it too...
The piles at the end of the road from the snow plow are their favorite.
She was the last one that wanted to come in and was having so much fun... and then was bouncing off the walls. Me: Miri, do you find the cold invigorating? Miri: Yes, I find it in my pants! haha... um... ok.... :P
They made a blizzard inside one day too.
We used a pattern book and cut out some really pretty snowflakes!
And worked on Valentine's for their class parties. (I'm trying to stay ahead of the game just in case baby comes.)
We've had a few warmer days, so we got the taps out early too! (Next week should be good, this week was still a little bit cold.)
They are getting to be very capable little maple tappers.
There was of course much arguing over taking turns with the hammer and hanging the bags and buckets. And I am slightly irritable and don't have a lot of patience...
Then our feet got cold and the battery on the cordless drill died before we were done. Figures. But at least the pictures look idyllic, right?
I took the girls to the farm for a very quick visit after school. We needed to drop off valentines, and a finished quilt, and more taps so Dad can tap his walnut trees (I really want to try walnut syrup!). (Also he's basically still a kid and has a stronger back than I...)
So many of her favorite things- trains, singing stuffed animals, puzzles, oh my!
Oh silly little girl- usually she sleeps pretty well. She doesn't fight going to bed and sleeps until after the older girls leave for school. Except last night/morning she was up wandering around at 5am. I put her back in bed, and then she was up again at 6am, looking at a book on the couch. So I put her back in bed with her book and she slept until 10.
When I was in high school my good friends and their family went (back) to Papua New Guinea as missionaries. Then when Liz came home to finish her senior year in the states, she brought me a lap-lap, the traditional wrap skirt the women wear. I've kept it ever since because it's so cool, but I wasn't really sure what to do with it. It's not something you just get rid of! (I'm sorry children, I promise that someday I will death clean.)
But then I saw some really cool whole cloth quilts on pinterest and found some PNG style fabric for a backing and turned it into a small quilt! And it will hopefully get more use than it did for 20 years stashed in my closet. (Randomly, for being such a small out of the way country, I know three families that are currently missionaries there and it will be a good reminder to pray for them.)
So yes, I have no physical energy, but sitting at the sewing machine doesn't take a whole lot of effort. I'm down to one lap sized quilt top in my unfinished quilted projects pile, woot woot. Maybe I'll get it done.... maybe it will just sit there for another few years while I build up the pile again. :D We did all of our Valentine's early this year, just in case. And because I'm just tired. My pelvis is trying to fall apart and my muscles think they need to cramp and I'm extra irritable and yet I can't say I'm all that excited to go through the newborn stage again (or any of it really if I'm totally honest....woot). Lots of people warned me that the adjustment to four was rough, and it was hard but not overwhelming, so now, of course, I'm stressing that five will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. And my doula moved too far away and I had to find a new doula, and there's a chance the hospital won't even allow two support people, and some days feel like terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, days and the world is at sixes and sevens and why the house hasn't fallen down around our ears long ago is beyond me.
Anyway. :)
Blessings.
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