A Little Emotional

I just bought the new Wailin' Jenny's album (SO good) and am listening to it while I sort through some photos and finding myself a little choked up. You know, I am so lucky to have this guy. And I meant it when I said that some of my best things were watching him laugh and skate. He is a different person on ice skates, and while most of my winter I spend pining for Hawaii, I would be sad to not get to see him on ice as often as I do. Skating unleashes his total youthful happiness, and he is so graceful and confident and well, attractive. Watching people do something that they are good at is a gift and a unique window into their soul.

I love making valentines.

There is nothing I love more than Raph laughing and Raph skating.



I had to make a race car valentine for Makili and it was totally worth it because he has thanked me for it a half a dozen times tonight since I gave it to him. He LOVES it and I love that something as simple as a homemade valentine makes him so happy.




This little one thought that he might be nice as a decorated valentine which would explain why he is covered in marker. But like I wrote on the back of his valentine, my love for him grows every day.

Not on my A Game

I've been wrestling with a fever today and yesterday, and had to go to work at the restaurant and for CHI anyway. Yesterday before I realized I had a fever, and was just plain exhausted, I felt like a couldn't even keep up with these kids.

I mean look at this mischievous look.Raph took them last night while I was at work and bought them this hockey set, and has now transformed the living room into a hockey rink. Hockey, apparently, is not a quiet sport.
Yesterday, the boys and I had tea together. Their new found interest in drinking tea is such a delight to me. It was seriously like half an hour of calm as we enjoyed our cranberry tea together.
And then there are always craft projects. On Thurs. I needed a "mom" moment and went and got a cup of coffee with the kids. I saw a friend there and the person she was with had a huge bag of these little wooden boxes that she gotten for next to nothing at a garage sale. She gave us a handful, so the kids have been having a fun time decorating them.

Not Fwing Yet.

When you have a room that looks like this:
You have a teenager in the house. We have a Polish exchange student, Asia, living in our house for a little while. Good thing we made the house bigger, huh? She has been a pretty good sport about the lack of doors and chilly morning temps.

Makili woke up yesterday and said, "Is it fwing (spring) now?" Apparently since he didn't see any snow on the trees he thought we were in the clear. Oh how I wish it were true! Instead we've engaged in other things: craft time, experimenting with the shower, making funny faces, wearing Asia's "fancy boots" (it cracks me up when Makili comes whining to me saying "I want fancy boots!") and making forts. In the meantime, I am busy ordering seeds and dreaming of spring, and very busy with the exchange student business!

I'm really trying to have a good attitude.

I mean it. I really am trying. I try to have fun skating, sledding, and the like. But ANOTHER 18 inches? You have to be kidding me. I'm seriously going to lose me mind.

Moffat Pond Fun

One of the families that hosts exchange students through me has a pond and we have been working to see that enough people are skating on it to make shoveling all these huge piles of snow off of it! They are so generous to allow us to spend time there, and it is so perfect for the kids because it has skating, lights, bonfire, sledding, and a bathroom! We're pretty lucky. We had such a fun weekend with teenagers, tweens, and toddlers! This is what living in Maine is all about! It was pleasantly warm this weekend, which helped.

A little bit of Liam and a new phase

We spent a short window of time with Raph's cousin, Christian, and his wife Mags this weekend. Makili loved spending time with 6 year old Liam, their son. The two of them latched right onto Makili's new favorite toy - legos! And he built his current favorite thing - airplanes (Lightning is still very popular around here, but once in a while we get a little break). It was fun to watch them build together and fly their airplanes around the room. And Liam, the Florida beach boy, seemed to enjoy the snow and sledding too. He had us in stitches at time with some of the funny stuff he said, like when he told us about his girlfriend, Megan, who he described as "fun-size."

Thank you husband

This time of year I have a tough time. I know I should take the kids outside everyday, but it is such a struggle. I can get past all the snow gear (we seem to have that figured out) but once we're outside, Remick pretty much cries the whole time and Makili loves it for about 10 minutes, but the snow is so deep he can barely play in it outside the driveway, and while I'd love some exercise, I can't really do much with the two of them when I'm home by myself. So this a long drawn-out way of saying of excusing myself for doing other things. Mostly curling up by the fire and immersing myself in work, which is plentiful right now.I have my little "helpers" in the kitchen.

And we come up with really quality projects:
But today, being the third snow day in the last 8 days, I allowed Raph to coerce me into dragging the kids on a snowshoe adventure. We went showshoeing last weekend on a trial basis just to see how I liked it - this being the first year we both had snowshoes. It was a little different towing children while snowshoeing not only because of the added work and weight but also because of the non-stop crying from a certain little one who is a bit neurotic about snow touching him. Makili thought being towed around on his carriage was great and would have kept going all day except for his "pants sticking to his butt." And now that we've adequately recreated for the day (weekend, month) I'll feel okay about hiding by the fire for the rest of what appears to be a frigid weekend!

Seeing the Beauty

I have a hard time this time of year. The tunnels to dig to the driveway, to the shed, the compost pile. But it really is beautiful if you can lift your eyes.

Life in Maine

Life in Maine includes snowy days, blizzards, feeding the fire, etc. But with those things come absolutely breathtakingly beautiful days like yesterday for sledding with friends. Makili was fairly fearless and adorable. And Remick was happy as long as we let him eat as many cookies as he wanted:)Raph teaching Makili to go down backwards...