in the new year

Things have been pretty quiet around here. A friend of mine closed her blog at the end of the year, and that seemed like a novel idea. Then someone stole a few old pictures from this blog and used them on a CafeMom message board. She used some pictures of John, and then told all the people on her board that her baby had died. She had a huge community of women very upset. Luckily, a few of them were savvy enough to see through some of her story and did some investigating on their own, and they were very happy to learn that that little baby is eight years old now and doing just fine.


Christmas did me in a little.

So I gave it a month.

Here I am, taking pictures this morning of the nearly one hour process to make a cup of coffee. The power went off right after I finished making the kid's lunches. I took them to school, and it was up to five degrees by the time I got home. That fire did not want to get going, and we have been challenged by some gorgeous yet perhaps not seasoned oak. It looks like we are at the tail end of some cold weeks, but we are going to need more wood if we are going to make it through April.

April sounds good.

january grey

January is such a sweet relief, a quick shift to grey and the desire to rid my life of the "stuff". I finally got all the Christmas things packed into the basement this afternoon, and I'm eyeing boxes and piles with fresh eyes. What can go? What don't we need, and what don't we love? I'm feeling unsentimental in my quest to stop being a slave to the things we own. It is crazy that I can't mop under my bed because there are a thousand pounds of comic books under there. How much fabric is enough? I've been cleaning deep in the kitchen drawers and cabinets. I have white paint for the utility room and the downstairs bath. I'm almost ready to start painting the kitchen white. Yes, the red wall stays.

The polar vortex was an experiment here in the 128 year old house. The upstairs cold water pipes froze for a few hours, but I think we were saved by the morning sun. My biggest fear was the chickens, but apparently they are resilient creatures. I did add extra bedding and wrapped the coop with a tarp. We pushed a few trees through the stove and made it through the coldest days without losing power.

I'm thinking about seeds, compost, and bonfires.