Very warm for February

You just never know what you'll find with a Perrin around.  :)

Mom, take a picture of me! Do I look like Zuhlika??

Another light that came from Matt's house.  One wonders why he removed these original fixtures... hehe.  😉  I'm not sure if we'll have a place for this one either- single bulb fixtures aren't bright enough for my eyes in most places.

We were glad for some sunshine and warm-ish days! 

Perrin really likes this little mower and pushing it where he knows he's not supposed to go.

Somebody wanted to braid a rug too.  :) 

Bob has been working from home off of a folding table for four years now. We finally bought a second folding table for Christmas, because if we have guests we need an extra table. Every once in awhile I'll check to see if there are any library tables or desks for sale.... one showed up! So I measured the van and convinced Bob that we could make it fit.  I think the guys were skeptical when we drove up in a minivan but: behold the space we've got when the seats are all folded down! 

  We got it home, and into the house... it wasn't that heavy until we had to carry it sideways through the doors.  ha.  And it was kind of difficult maneuvering it into place.  And it might be just sliiiightly wider than the old folding table.  😜😬  So it fits, just barely, and it's a bit more cramped than I was picturing.  The girls were so excited to get everything set up again.  Yes, that is a lot of computer screens.  

Why are kids such clutter bugs??  (They surely don't get it from me... right Mom?  haha.) Cadence wanted me to help clean out all of her stuff.... ayiyi.  So.much.junk.  But it was all important and full of memories.  Help. *sigh*   Perrin was not helpful.

The kids and I went to the farm on a Saturday afternoon.  Mom showed them the deer heart she was making for supper and they were summarily unimpressed. 😋

Mom remarked on how totally un-phased they were by the ladder and the light fixture coming down right over their heads.  😂 Dad was busy, off ice fishing, so I was brave and did it myself... Matt has most of the circuits labeled really well, so I wasn't throwing switches blindly. 

Emmy insisted on baking cookies so Grandma helped her with that while I cleaned and rewired the light. We hadn't turned the breaker back on so they had to hunt for an outlet that was still live to use the mixer... old house, weird wiring.  😁

Matt stopped by to get something for his current house project and got roped into rehanging the light.  😏  Because, I'm actually kind of terrified of electricity. 😂 Also, he's taller and not afraid of heights.

There she is in all her 1938 glory!  😍  80 years worth of bugs cleaned out, new UL listed sockets, no more crumbling cloth covered wires.  I'm probably too sentimental/preservationist but I find things like this so fascinating.  The house is a colonial revival style and this doesn't give me colonial vibes at all- who picked the fixtures? Was it Great-grandma Wyss? The builder?  I didn't really know her, but this is fancier/trendier than I picture her being.  Anyway, I love that Grandma Lydiann didn't replace it in the 70's when she shag carpeted everything (even the bathrooms), and it is still original to the house. 

Meanwhile, the girls decorated the Christmas tree for Valentine's day.  😂

Perrin played with trucks.

I was home with Emmy (fever), Miri (general snottiness and coughing), and Perrin (also snotty and congested) on Sunday morning... woot.  I hate winter illnesses.  I ran out of fabric scraps, so the rug was done!  It's a bit wavy since I don't really know how to do it, but Perrin thought it was fun to play on.  :) 

Emmy rallied a bit to enjoy the sunshine the next day, and we were hopeful it would be a short illness.  *sigh* Nope, she was back to feverish that evening and it stuck around two more days.  mur. 

It's been so unusually warm that we tapped our trees a bit early. 

So far we haven't gotten a whole lot of sap; we'll see if it's a short, low production year or if it picks up. 

I took Cecily to the conference spelling bee.  She finished 16th, not as well as she was hoping, but she was relieved to be done studying spelling words!  :)  She wanted to stay to see who won, but after she and Ashley got out it got a little long.  They were running out of words so they got some more...that were too hard and everyone but 5 people got out... two different spellers couldn't spell a word to win... they got different, easier words and the last five people went two rounds with no one missing any words.... anyway, we left to pick up Miri and Perrin at the farm before they were done.

What time is it? It's Valentimes!  hehe.  We go through a lot of Valentine craft supplies.

Elodie and Perrin's birthdays are sort of close together so we celebrated at Nathan and Michelle's.  Perrin was having too much fun playing with their toys and threw a tantrum when it was time for presents... haha.  Welcome to the terrible twos.  😜

Once he figured out that he was getting toys, he cheered up a little bit.

Oh! Bus!  Truck! 

But then we made him look at a cake with TRACTORS on it and not touch it... 😬 Poor boy.  He does enjoy eating 'cake. bu-day-to-you.'

The zoo is free the first part of February, and since it wasn't freezing and I'm stubborn, we went! 

A pretty good percentage of animals were out and active! 

Giraffes are just so cool.

Michelle and Nathan came for testimonies/baptisms and they stopped by after church. :) 

Mr. Perrin likes to unload the dishwasher.  "hel-puh!"

More valentine prep, and a school project...

And Miri came down with a fever.  For five days.  blah.  Poor kid.  She was never miserable, just tired and constantly had a low fever.  So, lots of naps, screen time, and fancy paper dolls. 

We delivered Valentines to several older ladies again this year.  And ate red things for supper.  :)  I am slightly enamored with vintage valentines and the girls humored me... Perrin had no choice. hehe

The older girls had an early out on Friday so we went ice skating.  It was much less stressful leaving the two littles at home with Bob. 

And we brought Julia and Juju along.

And Kenna.  😀

After skating these two disappeared to work on a sewing project. 😆

There was snow on the ground again briefly.  

Whose woods these are
I think I know
His house is in the village though....

Not hardly enough to play in, but they made snow angels and raked it.

And pulled each other on sleds.

Cecily had to make a parade float for a book report; she did a Madeline L'Engle book, which I love.

And somehow February is half over!
Blessings.