Today is a class day for Kali at BRCC (she's taking two courses there this spring). The younger two are "crafting" upstairs with Grandma (working on their next comforters) so it's just me, the Christmas lights and some quiet music. Jason is home today because of iffy weather predictions for his current Sassafras job. He started back with off farm work this week after a good pause in construction work to focus on farm projects and family time over the holidays. Today made me consider how useful it would be in our life to have an "odds and ends" day each week where the two of us can catch up on all the lingering things that we have accumulated in our minds and on to do lists and random slips of paper in our pocket. It felt so good to work at some of those things together in the first half of our day vs. talking about them late at night when there is nothing we can do about most of them in the dark, when we are already spent from the day and all offices we would need to connect with are closed!
Last week marked a "new semester" for all of us. The start of Kali's classes (which were delayed by two days because of a snow day) provided the impetus for some tweaking to our daily/weekly flow. We are slowly getting into the flow of the regular things that happen on each day of the week, but then life happens as it often does! So here's some of what the last two weeks have held for our family.
FAMILY WORK DAYS:
One of the new rhythms we are living into for 2024 is weekly family farm work days. I'm not sure if the kids would be as enthusiastic as the parents in saying that they love them, but I sure do! I probably enjoy them even more than Jason because he is normally tasked with keeping everyone occupied and being asked to answer a zillion questions about how to do things. While I haven't asked him outright, I still think the scale would be tipped heavily towards enjoyment in having his family out there working with him on the winter cutback and pruning (something he has often done mostly alone). 
We've had 3 family work days so far but only 1 without snow on the ground. The younger girls' productivity and ability to stick to a task without distraction PLUMMETS when there is snow on the ground. The first day was balmy and we did lots of digging/soil moving and transplanting some perennials, as well as general winter cut back around the house and lots of pruning. After each of these days, I've felt muscles that have been kinda dormant for a bit - especially from the most recent day of brush hauling in the snow! That said, I feel a little burst of such pleasant tired feelings at the end of those days together. And, unsurprisingly, I continue to be blown away by Jason's knowledge not just of plants generally but of the stories that various plants hold in his memory. Working together on the land allows some of those stories to come out throughout the day, enriching the time spent working side by side.
At the end of our last work day, we were rewarded with an absolutely gorgeous sky and sun set.
SNOW:
Virginia is finally delivering some white stuff, much to the delight of my children and mother! If there is a "love-of-snow gene" our kids got a good it, especially Terah and Alida. Those kids forget to eat much (other than snow) on days where there is good snow for playing in. They do not understand the chicken's skepticism at all! They will get suited up for chores and then linger outside for hours making snow balls and other snow creations and sledding. We got to enjoy seeing Luca savor some of his first experiences of snow, but he was not interested in sledding. He was at the top of the hill with me when Terah went down and bailed out on purpose before the sumac. He said, "Oh no!" and we quickly reassured him she was just having fun. He wasn't to be convinced just yet to join them! But I could hardly get enough of him putting his little fingers in the snow and then pulling them up and sucking the snow off like lollipops!
The girls did convince their parents to join them for a sledding adventure next door and I'm so glad they did. It continues to be our favorite (safe but plenty fun) sledding hill! There were 3 young heifers in the pasture that were quite curious about what we were up to - they even went so far as the lick our runner sled!
The sledding was great, but what is truly the mark of a new era was our return home. I. GOT. A. RIDE. ON. A. SLED. PULLED. BY. MY. YOUNGEST!!! It was just glorious!
These girls don't even wait until we are outside to throw snowballs at us!
The snow person, heart and duck snowball makers have been a big hit and work remarkably well!
CORN SHELLING AND SEED STARTING:
Thank goodness for longer evenings so that we aren't outside until right before bedtime. We needed some evenings to get this year's corn shelled and the popcorn ready for seed testing. All the drying racks are now tucked away until this year's harvests and the seed shelf is up with the trays of onions just beginning to sprout!
EVERYTHING ELSE:
I experienced my first postpartum overnight! Not surprisingly, it's pretty different to be up much of the night with someone else's baby, knowing that you will get a full night's sleep again very soon. It made play time at 1:30 a.m. so sweet! Bear and I had a good night, even if he was not interested in sleeping anywhere other than on me. I got a nap or two when he was tucked in the pack on my front and also just soaked up so many snuggles and adorable play times. We had a really fun time together and were both in good spirits the next day, despite a lack of any major solid blocks of sleep. It was thrilling for me to think of Ivan and Corey getting some solid blocks of sleep and it fills my heart to overflowing when I'm able to gain the trust of little people to fall asleep peacefully in my arms. It is one of the greatest joys of my life! That is not to say that my own bed didn't feel REALLY good the following night...
And then, despite so much care and caution, their family landed covid. Ugh! So I'm going through complete Bear withdrawal here, as well as so wishing I could wave a magic wand and return health to their home. It did make for some uncertainty here as we waited to see if I had picked it up during all those snuggles, some of us landed a different very minor cold, and I had a mama showing signs of pending labor... The nice thing about a blog post in retrospect is I can tie it up all in a neat little bow now for ya - didn't get covid, colds never did much and are all better, and that baby is still tucked inside (too?) comfortably...
The illness concerns and uncertainty of that week was exacerbated by the death of one of Jason's first cousins, due to covid complications. It was sudden and unexpected. Phil leaves a life partner and three children, as well as many other grieving friends and family members. We felt grateful that Jason's chicken presentation at the Future Harvest CASA conference near DC was on Friday evening, which enabled him to duck out of the conference early, come home and sleep for a few hours and then make a long day trip to Morris, PA to be present with family for the memorial.
Due to having preordered Emily Nagoski's next book (Come Together), I was invited to attend a virtual Q&A with her last evening. I was alone here in the living room but wanted to shout "Amen" to about every other brilliant sentence she uttered. If you haven't read her first book, Come as You Are, do that! I'm so eager to read the second and, if it is anything like the hour she spent answering questions, I am going to encourage every human to read that one as well!
One of the things she said during that hour where we all soaked up her vulnerability, brilliance, insight, compassion, humor and so much more makes me think about love and time and how life gives us no guarantees: "We are not promised abundant time in our relationships, we are only promised change, and it is the way we respond to change that tells us the quality of that relationship."
During this period of uncertainty, I've had the daily nourishment and immune system boost via some elderberry syrup I made from a can of juice made by my mom's first cousin (also a Phil) who died earlier this year. Those we love and lose leave all sorts of imprints on our lives (whether that is memories of romping together in the woods as kids or their love and care in tending plants and harvesting from their bounty). These individual losses in our family bring to mind and heart often the dear friend who has had countless losses since October, immediate and extended family members brutally killed in the continued violence being unleashed in Gaza. I'm sitting here struggling for any seamless transition from that heaviness. I'm not sure I can connect the dots easily, but I do feel like I'm getting an abundance of practice during this season at holding the fragility and preciousness of life and the relationships near and dear to us. It feels important and healing, even if I'm not sure how it all fits together!
We snuck in an afternoon around the fire ring with Emily, Jonas and Ivy making pizza pockets and s'mores.
We demolished and consumed the little gingerbread retirement cabin that Terah made. The pavilion is up next!
I crossed the 2 year anniversary of leaving my work at CJP and marked it with a lovely walk/talk to Hensley's Pond with my wonderful successor.
I've been enjoying very much being read to more and more by our youngest! Or hearing her read to her sisters from time to time.
Most recently, it was her Sunday for Mommy and Daddy alone time and after we played Gang of Four and Rack-o, she read us a few Owl stories.
I LOVE this new part of our weekly schedule: girls in charge of Sunday brunch! I should not have underestimated them. I guess knowing that none of them are too perky first thing in the morning, I kinda assumed they would choose really simple menus. Not so! This past week they made homemade pie crusts for a funny cake pie and then three types of quiches. Delicious!!
With doing a lot less childcare the last two weeks and not filling my schedule full due to a pending birth, I had just enough space to get into the groove of making cheddar again. It had been so long I had to refresh my memory of a few of the steps. It was time to restock the shelves! I was also thinking that getting into a project that takes hours to do might tempt that baby to come at a less convenient time. It did not work BUT I did get cheese made!
Well it's about time for the final animal shut in, Kali is on her way home from BRCC, and the younger two are sitting next to me on the couch playing one of their favorite computer games. It's about time for me to flip the cheddar in the press, cream the squash soup and fry up some farmer's cheese for dinner. Until next time...
