Wednesday, January 28, 2015

~Winter Days~

Hilly and Ava's Book about their weekend.......so cute!


Beautiful wintry, sunny day.....

Cross Country skiing with Hilly at sunset......

My new book.....well, I'm trying to read some fiction.....if I finish....I do like this author.

The supposedly #Blizzardof2015


I thought I'd run in it....to say, "Yeah, remember that Storm Juno, I ran in it".....lol

Frozen Black River.....and lots of Shanties are up for ice fishing now....pics to follow another day....

Snow cream and BROWNIES.....yum!





Sunday, January 25, 2015

~Teeth, (I gave in to the EBO), skating, and fun~

Greetings ~

This winter day is beautiful. Just took the boys to catch the bus to the mountain for skiing. Yesterday Cooper enjoyed a birthday (Adam Jewett) with friends at North Springfield (old school) for skating pond and sledding. Hillary and Ava played - sledding and skating until dark. My phone died or I could have posted the most beautiful sunset on the snow.....orange and pink outlining a beautiful snow.

Hillary has had a basketball game within the last week, Cooper has had a couple of practices, and Brock has played several games since my last posting. Quarter 2 has now passed and only 2 more quarters and spring/summer will be here.......days are definitely getting longer.....still light even at 5:00 now.......:)

Here are some pics as of late........

Ducks on ice...while we waited for the Doctor with Cooper (this time).....The sickness visited all 3 of them last week.......hopefully we are finished with it for now!
Yes, I gave in to the Easy Bake Oven...(EBO) well, it was her Christmas money and it was at the Good Buy store for $5.00! So, it was agreed upon......lol ....those ovens....whew! She's pretty happy, though....
Hillary lost a tooth this week!
My ride in yesterday morning to bball practices.....

Cooper finally got to go to the 50's diner he's been wanting to go to....lately he is all about the 50's!
Hillary and Ava - skate pond...(with 4 -5 inches of fresh snow today)

Cooper wiping out down the sledding hill
Hillary's new desk she purchased with her Christmas money from Grammy and Pappy!

Monday, January 12, 2015

~ Winter Things, Music, and Such.....~

Well, today it is snowing.....beautiful light shines through the windows, white. Hillary is sick....first day missed this school year. I am home with her- I think it's mainly a viral bug....with slight fever. She tested negative for all other. In the past few days great things have kept us busy......

Here is some great music I've had the pleasure of seeing, hearing, and experiencing......at Putney, Vermont. NextStage Arts. (Compliments of Kara, I might add all the way 1,000 miles away.....she gave me the heads up for these thought-provoking felt artists...I have to say....you were there in heart, mind, and soul as I listened to your favorite....)
It was up close and personal....and wonderful.....we stopped by Putney Food Co-op for some organic coffee......a really nice, cold evening.......enjoy the listening of the singers we went to appreciate.....

http://youtu.be/Y1YQIHTJCYs

http://youtu.be/xBwLd2G9VMs

http://youtu.be/y6OoY9ogMVg



 
Brock's been playing some bball games....below is a shot (3 pointer) he made to begin the game.....


Every year, at the beginning of the school year, I would assign a project (kind of borrowed from George Ella Lyon, poet) to my middle schoolers.....They were called, "Where I am From....." poems....well, Cooper is completing these at Union Street....I just love them....even if he only mentions me to discuss how I burn cookies......:) It's obvious he loves that brother of his.

Vandy getting the essential seat.....at the table......

Cooper pictured here with a sneak attack picture....after a day at Okemo with Ski Program....he's tuckered out! He learned the hockey stop today.....:) no more pizza for him!

Yeah, it's a Vermont Thing.......lol
Vermonters be like.....Dress warm, go to school! :)
 
 

 

Friday, January 2, 2015

~ You'll be a Daisy if you do~

Don't ya just love that quote? It's right up there with "I'll be your Huckleberry"......All that deliciousness in one movie. Doc Holiday....keep'in it classy.

No real reason for the title, except for some laughter. Just saw off (is that appropriate Northern English) Grammy and Pappy at the airport (sad). My day was started with a dentist appointment for Brock (possible braces) and then airport ride....and then back to Cooper's basketball practice. In between (at the dentist office), I did get a chance to fit in some of this reading from Jefferies (rediscovered by Brooke and Terry Williams) ......."In human affairs, in the relations with man, in the conduct of life, in the events that occur, in human affairs generally everything happens by chance." Believe? Skeptic? Either way, it has been my reading as of late. It's a beautiful recount of rediscovering the works of a nature writer, Richard Jefferies. He is mostly compared to that of Thoreau, Whitman, Muir, Rachel Carson, and Abraham Maslow.



My other favorite by T. Williams.....




Take some time to read of this thought (provoking) author, Terry Tempest Williams....."Not being of theological bent, I tend to draw to a blank or pull back when talk turns to formal religion. The thought of going inside a building and reading a holy, old text or listening to an authority tell me how to worship an abstract deity doesn't turn me in, doesn't feel quite right. For me, as John Muir famously put it, "going out is really going in," a line I have long interpreted as saying that we delve into our deepest spiritual and psychological reality by going out into the world of nature..." ~ T. Williams

....and finally a poem to leave you with on this fine January day (before the snow sets in tomorrow).......Janisse Ray.

Grace Will Lead Us Home

 
I’ll pay more attention.
I’ll write down glimpses
of coyote and emerald-backed insects.
Every January a new bird list:
Carolina wren, chickadee,
O beautiful arrow of cardinal
glanced at the apple.
I’ll build a blind to watch
wild turkeys, deer come to salt.
Mapping, I’ll leave places
unnamed. I’ll memorize binomials
of the grasses. And buy
a ring gauge to collect sinking sky.
I’ll sling a hammock and read
more, maybe kill a deer
one fall. I’ll plant rosemary,
moonflower; I’ll go outside
summer nights when heat lightning
rips open the pink-orange
clouds. I’ll look for moons,
and plot Jupiter’s, before bed,
desiring patterns. First frost,
last. Sandhill cranes passing
overhead, and the mating of anoles.
I’ll walk deliberately, more quietly,
discover more of what rises
and falls. Length of night.
What a year is like.
What better to be
than a particular body of knowledge,
dancing the branch, dancing
pine and field, dancing
this laboriously hallowed ground?
 
A little truth....or a lot of TRUTH....
 
Hilly and I at Brattleboro Food Co-op - Cold, but who would know it???? We posed like crazy statue people here at this little spot.......
 
Hilly's Christmas drawing......to savor
 
What we made (Gary made) of the Prime Rib after our Christmas Dinner.....Yum. Homemade Hash.
 
Sylina got this one....yes, that's right, selfies with a Jersey..
 
Hilly decided to spend her Christmas money on ........drum roll please....carrots at the Woodstock Farmers' Market
 
The REAL LIFE Gingerbread house at Woodstock Inn.
 
Ski Day with Sylina & Brock
 
Borrowed this from Joyce's post....Granny on New Years' Eve.......
 
 
A great read in the latest edition of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.....if you teach kids (me), passionate about early childhood (me), play (the importance of such- me), or a mother (me- most days....lol).....well, anyway....it's a great lot of wonderful info.....I advocate.....especially if you love Waldorf, Montessori, or Reggio Emilia approaches to education......