Life on the Home Front: Week 8 and 9

The last two weeks have been full: the weather is feeling warmer, leaves are on the trees, school is nearing its end. 

David had a Zoom recital for cello! So painless for the parents -- no place to drive and show up on time and it only took 15 minutes to get through all the students! We are thankful for our cello teacher and David's weekly lessons!

Leaves on trees make a huge difference. The world feels completely different. I love trees. They make me so very happy.

We've even managed to start eating outside when the weather is warm and dry enough!

A glimpse into a weekend moment: Laura relaxing on the couch with some strawberry-rhubarb pie.

I am getting the gardening work done a little at a time. Already the garden is farther along than when I took this photo. I'm excited for June when the flowers are at some of their best!

Our local Red-shouldered Hawk nest -- I love taking a walk and checking on things. If the hawk is not in the nest, he is sitting on a nearby tree keeping watch!

Flowers are a huge part of my life right now. The week of Mother's Day I worked four full days at the flower shop. The demand was so great, even with three people working, we had to turn people away.

Working with flowers makes me so happy and towards the end of the week I start getting excited for Monday to be back with them.

The Mother's Day flowers were so very, very beautiful!

We have a number of dedicated tea drinkers in our house and poor Michael now has to share his pot with the diligent students who share his study.

One of the most refreshing things I did in the past two weeks was to take time to watch The Sound of Music with Laura while I sewed. I did this the day after the week in the flower shop and singing along with all the music filled my heart with joy. Laura loved it too!

Another thing that brought me so much joy and happiness these last two weeks was re-reading Susan Branch's two "fictional" books about her becoming an artist. LOVED them all over again and for those days I was imagining myself holed up in her cottage on Martha's Vineyard.

I'm moving forward on art ideas -- and art workshop ideas! Those on my newsletter list will be the first to know my ideas for the fall (sign up in the side-bar if you aren't already).

With church being online we had time and energy for Mother's Day breakfast this year. A special treat.

Somehow it is Saturday again and I am working on planning out my week, chores, gardening, and moving furniture around to better suit our family's needs. Laura is getting her own room in the loft for the summer. It's so cute I want it too!

And how cute is this mole? Every year we have a high school junior in the house we get an adorable mole project for that person to do (I don't remember which class assigns this). James' turn this year and we have a Samurai mole.

And now it's time to go find some lunch and transition to other chores. Have a good weekend!

Life on the Home Front: End of School Term

In which I discuss schedules, the weather, and a headache.....

The children and I are sleeping in most mornings. I want to get up, but without the need to get the kids out the door at precisely 7:15am I don't feel as much pressure and sleepiness drags me to press the snooze button. Really I want to sleep in until 9 each morning, but it would be best if I got up by 8.  I am happy that the kids are getting more sleep -- I don't think they get enough during regular school times and it worries me. Moods are greatly improved by sleep.

My morning routine involves all the usual getting dressed, brushing teeth sort of things but I've got to be vigilant to throw in 15 minutes of gentle yoga. If I don't, I get all sore and achy and it takes weeks to get back to feeling well again. Everyone gets their own breakfast and most of us drink tea which everyone in this house is capable of making. The kids have had online school this past week so family worship has been at 8:45am before the 9am start of school. Michael reads the next passage of Scripture and we discuss prayer requests and pray. Then everyone heads off in their own direction.

Laura has been using my computer for her e-learning and that means I get a bunch of background commotion while I sit down to do my morning quiet time -- I mark the weather and temperature in my five-year diary, write a few lines in my yearly diary, record 3-5 things I'm thankful for in my gratefulness journal and then arrive at my Bible and prayer journal. I'm focusing on psalms right now in this crisis and trying to even pause and read one mid-day and evening as well. It doesn't take long (even 30 seconds) but it helps to re-focus.

David had a virtual cello lesson yesterday. Michael set the iPad up with the perfect angle and at 11am our teacher Face-timed in. Imagine this pandemic hitting 30 years ago without all the technology available to us now?

Outside the day began in the mid-60's but was predicted to drop about 35 degrees so I had to prioritize getting out for a walk. It was glorious! Temps in the 60's is wonderful! I have a severe allergy to cold and temperature change and try not to go outdoors if it is less than 55 degrees. I had to get my walk as the temps predicted for next week are colder until Wednesday. Our gym is closed now too -- so no indoor walking. I have to rely on the real deal.

For our first week at home we made a loose schedule:
8:15 Get up and Eat Breakfast
8:45 Family Worship
9-12 School
12-1 Lunch
1 Reading time (alone)
3:30 Tea Time
4 Chores
6:30 Dinner
8 Family Time with an episode

Loose schedules help me. We all know "what comes next" and can get ourselves on track. Today we are going to come up with one for "spring break" which runs for the next two weeks.

I managed to take a little time to try a daffodil painting with gouache. I paint at a table in my bedroom because that's the space I have. Our daffodils popped open in the night so it seemed the right thing to paint! I checked my diary and they bloomed a full 2 weeks earlier than last year! By the way, I've been posting Nature videos the last two days so others can see spring as it unfolds in my part of the world. You can find them on Facebook under Heather 'Winslow' LeFebvre or on instagram under heather_winslow_lefebvre.

It was Michael's day to bake and Laura volunteered to help him. They decided on shortbread. Every two minutes she ran up the stairs to ask me about the next step. It turned out great! By the time they finished it was quite past tea time and the shortbread was too hot to eat without crumbling so we decided to make into dessert later.

About that time I came down with a nasty allergy headache. I've been so thankful not to have had one of these intense headaches for some years and thought I had reached a good level of self-management to avoid them. I guess not. Or this is a bad year. Or something. Dinner plans changed. I went to bed and Michael got put on duty to make frozen pizza. Good thing we had some! I was grateful the headache calmed down after about 2 1/2 hours. What a relief. But I stayed off duty the rest of the evening to keep from lowering my head and bringing it back. Just as the headache was ending its worst we managed to get James out back to play his bagpipes as promised to the neighbors on the Next-door App. He valiantly stood in the 39-degree weather and played about 8 songs, ending with Amazing Grace. A few neighbors had come out to sit in their backyard to listen.

With Friday finished we ended the school term and have two weeks of break ahead. The Governor of Indiana did shorten the school year requirements by 20 days this year though. We wonder if our school will take advantage of that and give the kids a longer break? I don't know. Drew is a senior and is pretty sad that this is how his final semester of school is ending -- no prom in April, no sports, no getting together with large groups of friends, no "being a senior."

Food Eaten: Two leftover scones for breakfast with tea, toast and leftover sausage gravy for lunch, a piece of toast for snack, and leftover turkey soup for me for dinner while the others ate frozen pizza.

Nature Journal: Spring Bulbs

We ended our last session of the Winter Nature Journaling class with a focus on spring bulbs. It was certainly one way to brighten up these cold, winter-like March days.

Everyone painted their own nature pages but I also made a Spring Flowering Bulbs coloring poster for each child so they could paint it and take it home to watch and see when each flower first blooms. In case you want to print and color your own, you can download this Spring Flowering Bulbs PDF.

Each week I am fascinated anew with nature! I always think surely this must be the most exciting week. 

 In the adult class we experimented with masking fluid and everyone painted a little snowdrop picture.

We talked about "negative painting"  -- making something light in color "pop" by painting the background a darker color. This worked well for the snowdrops.

A lot of children enjoyed painting the primroses (not bulbs, but definitely spring flowers).

 This student painted a beautiful bulb -- hard to tell from the original!

Such cheery spring pages!

I've got to get some grape hyacinth's planted for next year! Drawing them made me realize I need to have them!

Everyone's style is different and I love to see the variations.

Now we will have a few weeks break before the spring nature hike and drawing classes begin!

Spring Nature Journaling Classes

I am currently signing up students for the Spring Nature Journaling class! We'll be headed outside each week to find out which wildflowers have made their appearance as spring advances through the forest and meadows. After our walk we'll be recording our findings in our nature journals with watercolors, pen, and pencils.

Contact me if you are local and are interested! I have openings for children and adults!

December 4

Family worship found us reading part of the creation account in Genesis 1 this morning before we climbed the stairs laden with tea and Italian Panettone to begin our Christmas study of St. Francis of Assisi and his invention of live nativity scenes.

St. Francis has inspired me since I first saw a film about his life when I was a young child. His determination to serve God and his willingness to give up his family's wealth and live a life of devotion beckoned me to imitation. Today I attempted to help the kids grasp a picture of his life as we read various children's books based on the life of St. Francis and talked about his love and care for animals, seeing them as creatures created by God and worthy of our attention and care. I left the kids watching a movie about St. Francis and went off to meet a friend for lunch and antiquing.

It was fun to browse the stalls of the antique shops and admire all the Christmas decorations and dishes. I was on the hunt for a "mustache tea cup" for my upcoming class and do you know what? We found one within the first 15 minutes! Even better, it was only $4! But that was the last thing we found all afternoon so we mostly window shopped. :)

Afterward we stopped for tea and a chance to discuss 8 Women of Faith. I especially enjoyed exploring the faith of Jane Austen (another part of my upcoming class).

Pulling in the driveway just at dusk I noticed a small crowd a few houses down, mostly from my family. A child came running to tell me there was a hawk on the ground. As it turns out, a juvenile Cooper's Hawk had hit a neighbor's basketball hoop and been stunned. By the time I made it he had recovered enough to hop to the grass. What a special treat to get to view this bird up close!

Michael took the initiative to make a bunch of phonecalls until he found someone who would help. When I came down to make dinner the hawk was safely in the grasp of an older gentleman with a soft London accent. His voice emanated with care and deep delight in being able to be a part of helping another bird make a full recovery. He carefully tucked the young bird into a pet carrier in the back of his car and said he hoped maybe his dinner would be ready by the time he drove the 45 minutes back to his home where he and his wife take in birds like this every week. What could this be but a modern day St. Francis?! I hope the children will remember this day and the time their father took out of his day to care for a simple, fallen bird, and for the devoted care of this man who drove from far away to bring life-giving assistance to one of God's creatures.

We sang a beautiful 12th century carol today:

The Friendly Beasts

Jesus our brother, kind and good
Was humbly born in a stable rude
And the friendly beasts around Him stood,
Jesus our brother, kind and good.

"I," said the donkey, shaggy and brown,
"I carried His mother up hill and down;
I carried her safely to Bethlehem town.
I," said the donkey, shaggy and brown.

"I," said the cow all white and red
"I gave Him my manger for His bed;
I gave him my hay to pillow his head."
"I," said the cow all white and red.

"I," said the sheep with curly horn,
"I gave Him my wool for His blanket warm;
He wore my coat on Christmas morn."
"I," said the sheep with curly horn.

"I," said the dove from the rafters high,
"I cooed Him to sleep so He would not cry;
We cooed him to sleep, my mate and I."
"I," said the dove from the rafters high.

Thus every beast by some good spell,
In the stable dark was glad to tell
Of the gift he gave Immanuel,
The gift he gave Immanuel.

"I," was glad to tell
Of the gift he gave Immanuel,
The gift he gave Immanuel.
Jesus our brother, kind and good.

Please note: this post contains affiliate links.

Nature Journal: Seeds

Last week we drew seeds in our nature journaling class. Everyone took a brown paper "lunch bag" and filled it up with any seed they could find while we were on our hike. One child managed a blue Solomon's Seal and two discovered Jack-in-the Pulpit -- quite hard to find in our woods. We even found a seed head none of use had ever seen before (see bottom of post).

I loved drawing the seed outlines with a sharpie. Such great results from such a small amount of effort.

It took a lot more effort (i.e. patience) to draw the Osage Orange as it has such an intricate pattern. I love these huge, brightly colored and strongly scented seeds.

The children's pages were wonderful! I love seeing how each one chooses to illustrate our theme.

Look at these fantastic line drawings!

I think all of us were drawn to the brightly colored berries.

The table was a huge mess of seeds and papers!

Black walnuts were also very popular. By the time the class ended we were all standing around with a nut cracker cracking hickory nuts and sampling the insides!

One day we chanced upon a tiny hill covered in these seed pods sticking straight out of the ground. Thanks to someone on Instagram we later identified this to be the seed head of Wild Leeks, also known as Ramps. I'll be returning there in the spring!

The seeds were just gorgeous -- so blue they were almost black and perfectly round, just like  exquisite pearls. In fact, I wouldn't have minded a brooch made to look like this.

 Landmarks by Robert MacFarlane
This book is one that I just finished reading and thoroughly enjoyed. The author goes around Britain to the "flatlands," "uplands," "waterlands," "coastlands," "underlands," "woodlands," etc. searching out the native word descriptions of each place as well as introducing us to authors who are particularly acquainted with these lands, not to mention describing his experiences in such places.

Each chapter contains a lengthy list of words used to describe the landscape -- words that are becoming rare and even extinct in their usage. Words like "haze-fire" (luminous morning mist through which the dawn sun is shining), "slunk" (muddy or marshy place), and "cockle" (ripple on the water caused by the wind).

MacFarlane impresses upon us the beauty of language and of nature and the importance of preserving the one and experiencing the other. Definitely worth checking out if you are a nature lover!

If you are local, and are interested in signing up for one of my classes, check out my Facebook page: Westside Art Workshop.

And now it's nearly time for our first October weekend! Hope you all enjoy some beauty wherever you are!

PS: PomPom is hosting a Nature Journal link-up so you can check out her blog for more nature posts.

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Spring Just Might Be Here

Spring break is here and as of yesterday it seems that spring might just be on her way too! I've decided I really like this "balanced calendar" for school -- two weeks off every nine weeks helps to break up the year and give me a rest of sorts. Of course what are breaks for but to get those things done that you couldn't do during school, right? 

So what have we been up to this past school term?

Laura started a little ballet class at a local church in January. She loves it!!! It's fun to think that Rachel attended the same class 7 years ago when I was pregnant with Laura!

 We have to put in a large amount of volunteer hours at the kids' high school each year. One of the ways I do that is to do volunteer sewing for the theatre production. This year it was "Pride and Prejudice" and the costumes were pretty and fun. I sewed a couple of gowns and two lined jackets. This occupied many January and February evenings.

 And provided good opportunities to improve my sewing skills! :)

We had our annual Church Bowling Outing in January. The kids love it!

And Valentine's Day always seems to roll around before we know it!

Yay for sweet little valentines.

Every week at piano lessons I visit this little mouse (well, he's a rat). He's so cute and in 30 seconds I get my "pet fix."

Speaking of cute things, have you seen this adorable book??!!!

And while we are on the subject of cute books, you have to check out The Mouse Mansion -- so much fun!!!

The third week in February was the production of the "Pride and Prejudice Musical". I got to go opening night and see Rachel in her scenes (see below underneath the hanging picture first person on the left). It was so much fun!!!!! And everyone was terrific! The drama director is such a wonderful mentor for these kids to have!

Our annual church women's retreat was the last weekend in February. We all met at a home and spent the night there, enjoying food, fellowship, and hearing one another's testimonies.

Two sisters: they are so cute! And they are both growing up far too fast!!!

A few weeks ago we paid a visit to a friend to welcome the newest member of her family! She had lost a beloved pet in the fall and when Fiona was found and brought home we needed to meet her! Fiona is part Turkish Van which means she LOVES water! Believe me, it is so fun to see a cat who truly loves water.

It's that time of year when Prom is approaching. That means prom dress shopping!!! I can't post the final one here until later in April but we had a great evening with the aunts and found a lovely dress! In just a little over a week we are having an exchange student arrive from Spain for a month! We are all going to have fun with this international guest! She's also very excited to be introduced to an American Prom!

Laura had the special chance to go with my mom and me to see the repertory theatre's rendition of Stuart Little. It was terrific! We followed this with lunch at our favorite place: Wildwood Market.

Decaf coffee and a little chocolate? Yum yum yum.

Once Rachel finished theatre it was time to jump into "Spring Spec" with her choir. Yikes! These poor kids and the amount of time it takes to rehears for these things! But, it was all good fun and lots of learning too. Rachel is on the far right below.

We had the strangest weather in February -- very warm. So warm the daffodils came up and bloomed right at the beginning of March. Then winter decided to come back which gave me the guilt-free opportunity to pick every.single.daffodil.there.was.

Wow these flowers brought so much happiness for those few days!

I almost thought peony season was here the way I kept grabbing my camera and taking pictures.

The color yellow is so essential for the month of March.

I felt like a millionaire having these flowers to look at:

Three weeks later and the daffodils that were still in their buds are just now blooming again.

Reading and hot drinks (and a little chocolate) still seem to be the best way for me to re-charge. This winter has been harder health-wise for me than I've dealt with in a number of years. I'm glad the warmer weather is here and hope that perhaps my energy will pick up a bit.

 At the beginning of March I headed with a few kids to my mom's church for their annual THINK conference. This year we heard from Erwin Lutzer, pastor emeritus of Moody Church in Chicago. He spoke about the reformation. It was such a great weekend and so fun to go with others from our church as well as my mom!

It's also tradition to go to my mom's place for lunch on the Saturday of the conference!

The kids tried a new tradition for St. Patrick's Day this year -- Shamrock Shakes from McDonald's. Very festive!

Of course you've heard ALL about our trip to Vermont in February. Mom thought she'd miss out on her trip to Maine this spring but circumstances arose that had her on a plane to Lily Brook Farm before we knew it. She's knee deep in snow, the unpredictable joys of lambing season, and navigating the hardships of real life with her cousin.

Check out these beautiful orange beets! The colors of food are so inspiring to me!!! Sometimes it's hard to eat the food -- I just want to stare at it!

Last Sunday we had a traditional St. Patrick's Day feast. Delicious!

And afterward we had a cake-eating tea time. Fortunately there was a Dundee Cake left in the freezer from Christmas.

And now that it is spring break I'm working on this, and a ton of other projects. I've had to sort through and cull my felted wool collection (anyone nearby need any felted wool for projects? I have lots and lots of red and dark colors). I've managed to get my closet back into control and half of it looks awesome. The other half will be tackled this week.

The first day of spring snuck up on me. We have a family tradition of tea on the spring equinox. Somehow these traditions were so much easier when the kids were little and life was SLOW!!! I should have thought about how life would speed up and become more impossible before beginning all these "traditions."

Sometimes it's good to just let things go un-done and sometimes it's good to just put in the effort and do it and remember that little-by-little these memories are building up emotional energy that will feed these kids for years to come.

I did manage to tidy up my linen shelf (middle shelf is to-be-ironed and is normally stuffed to the gills). I have yet to clean the laundry room it resides in.

James has been working on chain mail for his raccoon. Each link has to be made individually! Good thing he has lots of patience!

Often my house feels like a wreck -- at least in many places, and I am too quick to notice the ten-year-old paint on the walls that is chipping or dirty, or this or that (or the disgusting white cushion covers on the couch below) but if I close my eyes to the dirt this little snapshot of the living room makes me happy for all the bright colors and flowers.

Here is Laura having a tea party with her little friends. David is so kind to create these parties whenever I ask him.

And now it is time to get out the vacuum and cleaning supplies and try to bring some order to the downstairs. It will be nice to have the windows open to do this and maybe there are a handful of daffodils I could bring in for the table. Have a good weekend!