It's so hard to find time or anything interesting to say on this blog, but I don't want to abandon it.
My days are so full and happy that I don't have much time for being sad, and those times when I just can't bear the way I feel are becoming fewer. I doubt the day will come when I don't miss Mike and just wish I could share something with him, but there is a lot of beauty and goodness to be experienced, and I'm doing my best.
I've been promised that this is not the normal weather for the area by more than one person. There is nothing to do but laugh about it and put on a few extra layers. Days like today are cold but nothing like the way it felt when it was below freezing AND with snow and a howling wind.
Every morning I look at my weather app on my phone as I reluctantly crawl out of my warm bed - second alarm. This morning I saw 26 degrees feels like 19. So I knew how to dress. But when I got down to warm up the car, it was snowing again. Whatever!
It's nice to get to my "job" and hear greetings and get hugs and snuggles - warm snuggles. Graysen always greets me with her latest fantasy - this time a castle in the den - and Kate just wants to hug and say Hi. It cheers me up immediately to walk into the warm house and get my first cup of coffee and just listen. And see who has the best hairdo
Once breakfast has been served or found to have been already eaten, we go upstairs to play a little and dress if it's a school day. On stay-at-home days, we might not bother to dress until later (if at all).
Graysen's wardrobe is extensive, and Emily talks with her the night before and lays out different outfits, but when the time comes to dress, it's nothing remotely like that. If it's not the purple dress and striped tights, she won't even discuss it. After I reminded her that she wore the purple dress Monday and to pick something else, she didn't understand the reasoning but decided to go along with it. This is what she chose.
I thought it was pretty good and very cute, but when I sent Emily a picture, she said the pink dress was really a shirt and she probably needed leggings with it. What do I know?!
Very reluctantly, she allowed a pair of leggings (pants?) to go on over the tights and ended up with a look that pleased everyone!
So early lunch - of which Graysen ate nothing and Katherine ate and ate and ate. I turned around once near the end of the meal, and Katherine had her sippy cup turned upside down and was placing bits and pieces of her vegetables in the indentation on the bottom. I'm still not sure how she made it stand up by itself.
This girl will eat just about anything and lots of it.
Emily and Ryan have a refrigerator full of healthy food.
But this is all I could see every time I opened the door!
The girls played while I cleaned up the high chair and under the high chair and anywhere within throwing distance of rice.
Graysen has a big imagination and has no trouble concocting elaborate stories and dramas by herself.
I don't even want to know the story on this.
I'm glad to see Katherine playing by herself and staying out of Graysen's way. She loves the new dollhouse Santa brought her.
Then it was time for school, and that's the busiest time of the day for me: Coat, boots, purse, keys, phone, gloves for me. Coat, hat, boots, gloves, hair combing, face wiping for the girls. Sometimes finding 2 shoes that match or 2 gloves is a big deal, so I start 30 minutes early.
I've gotten pretty good at buckling them both in in less than 10 minutes! Those straps are hard to do with coats and wiggly arms and legs and sometimes toys or food to contend with. I always sigh with relief if we're in the car and on our way with 10 minutes to spare. Time to enjoy the beautiful drive.
No matter how these mountains look, they always cause me a moment of sadness because Mike just loved this view, and we talked about it so much. But now Graysen has started discussing it with me, so it makes it easier.
Graysen has one friend at school that she talks about constantly, Brooklyn. Brooklyn obviously does the same with Graysen. It's so sweet to watch them arrive in the mornings. This is after 2 days' absence.
They go into the barn first thing every morning for us to sign them in and wait for everyone to get there before they go to their classroom. Monday, one of the goats had gotten in, and it was a big production to get him out, and then Wilbur the pig started pushing open the door. Lots of shrieks and giggles. They were cold too!
Blowing kisses. I would not like to have the job their teachers have of keeping up with all those hats and scarves and mittens and coats. They play outside every day and have to be prepared for it!
Katherine likes to stop and see the goats and chickens before we head home. On the way home, we talk about nap time and being sleepy and getting her bottle and snuggly blanket, and she agrees with everything.
But once she is tucked nicely in and I leave the room, it's party time. I check the TinyCam app once in awhile (it's so tempting to just watch it all the time), and she never settled down. I didn't hear a word from her, but she rolled around, fed her empty bottle to her bear, walked around, bounced on the bottle awhile and threw it on the floor, threw toys on the floor, bounced around some more - for nearly 2 hours. Just as happy as could be.
At 2: 10, I knew I wasn't going to let her go to sleep and sleep for only 30 minutes, so up I went to get her and start all over dressing for the trip. Whew!
After school, we went over to my place, and they had a really good time playing with the new dollhouse and cleaning supplies that Santa left here.
And Graysen is sweeping out the bunk beds. She then went on to mop them.
Then Emily came to get them, and here I am. Quiet time. There is never enough time though, to accomplish everything I want to, and I'm about to fall asleep. My reading material tonight was "No Drama Discipline" and "The Paris Wife," a book Debby sent me about the first wife of Ernest Hemingway. One book interesting and necessary and the other one really good.
I'm also watching "The Crown" on Netflix and loving that. I didn't get to watch any tonight, but this weekend will be a good time for that.
I should finish my sewing project this weekend and have some pictures to post then.
There is promise of a rise in temperatures in the next few days, and I'm going to rejoice at 48 degrees! My electric bill doubled from December to January, but there has been a lot of fireplace use and heat going on.
The full moon was beautiful tonight. I copied these pictures from someone on the Snoqualmie FB page. I would love to see something like this in person one day.
