bits of sunshine

two front teeth

Maddie with two wiggly front teeth (in the beginning of February) ::

One missing (mid February) ::

Two missing teeth (beginning of March) ::

bread for a saturday

Yes, I know it's Friday.  But, if you want this bread on Saturday, you either need to make it today, like I am doing, and warm it up in the morning, or you need to plan to make it tomorrow.

Start with my favorite bread recipe.  I know it looks long - but that's because I wrote it out in detail, so people who don't normally make bread can easily follow along and bake the perfect loaf!

When you are ready to form the loaf, punch the bread down, then roll it out on your counter and dot generously with butter.

Mix up 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, 4 tsps cinnamon, 3/4 cup chopped dates, and 1/2 cup chopped nuts of your choice.  (These measurements are a guess - I just dump things together, and I've not added nuts to mine, but it would be good, I think!)  Sprinkle this over the butter.

Roll up.  Place in loaf pan, seam side down.  Tuck ends under.

Let rise for 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Bake for 35 - 40 minutes.  All that good gooey-ness in the center calls for a bit longer bake time.

Enjoy shortly after removing from the oven.

If you make this a day ahead, you'll want to warm it before you eat it.  Don't do this in the microwave.  Please don't.  Preheat your oven to 350 and bake for 8 - 10 minutes.  Enjoy warm, with a glass of milk or a hot drink and your favorite people.

a birthday celebration

my sister's birthday was February 19.  mine is March 15. 
last Friday, she was in town and we got to go out together . . .

we brought each other gifts in matching gift bags.  :) 
she gave me two pieces of green depression glass to add to my collection. 
i gave her this ::

inspired by Maddie's drawing, i drew up these sisters - and embroidered them on linen - green for me, purple for my sis (though Ben pointed out that the purple girl should have been taller than the green girl . . . and the purple girl is pregnant right now . . .   oh, details).  then, instead of a wall-hanging, i turned it into a little pillow.  i am very happy with it.  and so is my sister.

oh, and those desserts?  we shared them.  and we ate them.  all. up.  soooooo yummy! 

sunny flowers

 

i wish that i could take credit for these pictures.

or that they were from somewhere close to where i live.

but, they are from a weather page that i use - and i can't find them again - so i can't name the photographer to you.

and i believe they are from somewhere in california.  and, as a little aside, i just learned that california is the name of a mythical island in a 15th century novel.  the narrator says so at the beginning of the movie how the west was won.

and that, my friends, is what i have for you today.  because anything else that i would write would be melancholy and would match the greyness of the day.  let's focus on finding a bit of sunshine instead, shall we?

beach glass and rocks, take 2

So, at the beginning of February, I had this idea to show some of my collections over the month. I thought that I would post at least 20 times . . . ahem . . . that didn't quite happen.

This picture is the same collection as the one I started the month with. My kids and I had fun arranging by color and type of rock.

So, February didn't go as I had planned. In many ways.
Here is a little February wrap-up ::

One whole week was spent in counseling and arranging for a couple from our church to move out of town to a place very far away from alcohol, a place where they will receive 24-hour support and encouragement and counsel and life. A place where the people love God above all else and help others to dig in to the Word and see what living for God's glory really looks like.

Another big part of February was arranging for our Pastor to take a one month sabatical, or leave-of-absence. He has been having some serious health issues and needs to try a different climate to see if he can find some relief. Ben meets with our Pastor on a regular basis and has been helping plan the logistics of the coming month. Ben will also be preaching the last three Sundays in March!

The last half of February brought us many sunny days! And I am just praising and thanking God for that. I do not do well with grey for days on end with no end in sight.

February was also warmer than January had been. So we did a lot of sledding and skating!

Maddie and Isaac love story-hour at our local library. We decided to share our story-hour trip with my brother's kiddos last month. He and his wife have 4 kiddos, so I decided to take them, one at a time. It was really fun to have time with just one of them. And they each felt so special to have their day to go with Auntie and their cousins. We turned it into a longer day, too. After story-hour we stayed and looked at books for quite a while. Then we returned to our house for lunch and time to play and a little movie. I think we'll do this again - starting today!

I finished some projects upstairs in our house. I'll show some before and after photos throughout this month. Lots of painting and furniture moving!

Ben built a handy-dandy little exercise box, and I have been doing some extra (extra, as in, above and beyond the regular laundry and house work and playing with my kiddos) exercising a few days a week - right in my living room!

Then there are the things that I actually did blog about in February!

And since I'm doing a wrap-up kind of post here, I'm going to look at my list from January, and see how I'm doing. Care to join me? Here goes ::

:: slow down (hmmm . . . still wanting this) :: write at least two short stories :: attempt a collaboration with a friend on a children's book (THIS is in progress! the story is written! the illustrations are begun!!!!!!) :: listen to more music (this is happening. we have music on more often throughout the day, and i like it! so do my kiddos) :: take more pictures of my children - at least one a week (i'm doing this, too. i'll have to share some pictures of my almost toothless girl!) :: read through my Bible (i'm still in Leviticus, but i've read all of Ruth and 1&2 Timothy) :: share something from my reading here each week :: finish Maddie's quilt :: finish Ben's quilt (it's still almost done) :: do learning/school work with my children at least 4 days a week (we are getting 3 days for sure of really focused time . . . then there is real life - which is always a learning experience) :: share some tips and tidbits about our learning here :: stay home all day most days (still working at this, too. though i think we have been around home more) :: really utilize my etsy shop :: use less natural gas (keep my fire stoked! - i go in streaks with this . . . ) :: go on more dates with my husband (we went on one little one and one bigger one in February) :: finish going through all those boxes of papers that have followed us for 9 moves in the past 8 years . . . :: stay in this house! :: go on at least 3 camping/backpacking sorts of trips :: help Ben loose 40 pounds :: organize my blog - so you and I can find things in my old posts :: write at least one handwritten letter per week :: be an encouragement :: find the bits of sunshine in every day ::

So there. That felt good! I'm two months into the year, and even with extra happenings in February, I think I'm off to a pretty good start!

Did you make goals for this year? If so, have you revisited them to see how you're doing? You should! You might be encouraged. And if you haven't done so well . . . you still have 10 more months! Now that's a bit of sunshine.

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For those of you who saw the Ben post the other day . . . it's a work in progress and accidentally got published.  You will see it again.  When I have it finished.

meet Rose Jeannine

Rose Jeannine is Maddie's cardboard and pipecleaner horse.  You can't quite see her tail, but it is made of curled pink pipecleaners - very pretty!

Isaac's horse is named Duke.

There have been many races and chases in our house the past few days.  Oh!  These horses also pull sleighs and stagecoaches (made of other stools and boxes), and they make the most awesome clip-clopping sounds as they go tearing around the race track or across the plains after the bad guys!

The stools with pipecleaner reins were Isaac's idea.  The heads were Ben's idea, and I cut them out.  Each kiddo colored their own horse-head.  And the jockey outfit was all Maddie's own idea.  Lots of fun!