Everything BUT the big transition!!

So here's a short update on the various highlights of the past week or two without venturing into the final days of my work at CJP. That will wait for another time, as that won't be a quick scrapbook-like post! It's my first non-work Monday and our house looks like we are going somewhere - we are packing up for a 4 day "unplug."

We were very happy to welcome Kali back from Pittsburgh on the 15th. This picture pretty much expresses how we all felt to see her again!

But we were also so glad that she had such an enjoyable time there with Christie and Mark. From the report, she enjoyed reading things, watching things, chatting about things, cooking things, eating things, driving things (one electric car), walking around Pittsburgh, and of course staying up late and sleeping in. I think it's probably a good sign that she had mixed feelings about her return. Her sisters did not have mixed feelings and excitedly decorated the door in preparation for her return. It may be difficult to see here but Terah made hers copying Alida's from what she could see of it hanging on the door so it came out as a mirror image. To pass the time that it took for Jason to go fetch Kali, the younger gals and I went in and did some final clean out in my office and then went and picked up a good supply of Smiley's ice cream to celebrate her return Terah was especially pleased that Kali returned home with one of Christie's special childhood dresses that she so enjoyed wearing and spinning in during her visit in Pittsburgh a few weeks prior. Here's a few other visuals of Kali's time in PA:

Since Kali had missed most of our 1/2 hour holiday activities, we had saved two to do with her. We tried out making rosettes for the first time again in years and have decided that we won't be parting with the molds after all! We also did a fun drawing activity. 

This all happened as snow poured down outside! This winter is reminding us of winters past! And showing us (by the horrible state of some of our girls' gloves) how ill prepared we were for a "real" winter. Maybe there will be at least one more good snow this winter where I will feel freedom to take a complete snow day. Up to the present the girls have been the ones out playing for hours upon hours in the snow! The snow fort that Kali and Alida made had 22 large snow balls and then lots of detailed work on the interior - even a sink complete with a faucet!

We did manage a rare meandering family snow walk that was delightful!

When not outside in the elements, we are staying cozy by the wood stove. We've finally gotten last year's seeds mostly jarred up and starting to cycle through the freezer. The black beans are also sorted and as of this past week all the corn is shelled! This is always a long process since it involves preliminary seed selection to do by each of the girls for their popcorn breeding project and for our flint and flour corns. And the floor is covered with escaped kernels by the end of it. Now we have MANY (so, so many) cups of popcorn ready for seed testing.

The way this works is that any individual cobs of corn that make it through the first screening (making them potential seed worthy candidates) are shelled into individual cups. Then we pop 1 T from each cup, keeping it separate so that we can test each individual cob for flavor and texture before choosing if the remainder, or a portion of it, should be saved for seed. You can see we have some serious popcorn testing to do in the coming months! 

And finally some fun adventures from yesterday! We joined Emily (getting to help mark and celebrate her bday!), Jonas and Ivy at a park right near their home. And it ended up being a very momentous occasion for Terah: she learned to ride bike! We had recently purchased a used bike for her but the snow had kept her riding of it to our common room. So this was her first venture out and by the end she was not needing much help. 

While the path was nicely cleared, the surrounding areas were snow and ice covered, making some belly sledding and some "ice skating" possible. 

We topped off our time together getting to watch Emily and Jonas take an epic sled run from the very top of their hill to the road! The start of their sled run was out of sight from where we stood waiting...