Easter Symbols, Indeed

We did it. We survived, maybe even thrived. Winter is done with, at least the vernal equinox says so. Yes, the landscape is still white, there's still inches and inches of ice on the pond and mud season is in full-swing. But winter itself is officially over.



This winter was full of adjustments, growing pains, and truthfully, anxiety about how and if this transition to the farm is working out. But we kept planning, kept working, made lists, ordered seeds and trees, ordered chicks, and suddenly it is truly and actually spring. We feel as committed and passionate about our goals here, as ever, maybe more, after slugging through the highs and lows of the coldest season. Winter outside, here on the farm, is stunning. No complaints there, I'm still a fan of winter. Inside, with the house often in various stages of renovation, with two teens, an 80-year old, and two 40-somethings, one of which works from home full-time, well, it's no wonder we skidded across some black ice.

As we celebrated Easter, today, we had a heightened sense of rebirth and renewal. The colors seemed more saturated. The usually utilitarian kitchen felt pretty and even elegant. We ate deviled eggs and the cake the teens decided to make in the afternoon, and we listened to the March wind send slush crashing off the roof.

And we exhaled.

























We were comforted in the rituals of Spring, in the abundant cheerfulness of our collected things, and in our gifts of sweetness to each other. Winter is good and done and Spring holds immense promise.

Comfort and Joy Come To You : Yule : Eleventh Day

Simply put, our Yule, our Santa Day was most joyful. We woke to snow, not much, but enough to give us a winter white landscape outside our windows. After two hours of sleep, Alex and I were up and readying the the house for company. Alex started his Yule bread and put the ham in the oven. Before everyone came downstairs, I tidied some and took in the quiet beauty of the morning.







Heather, Alex's sister arrived first and we sat in the cozy living room, next to the roaring Netflix fire, while the kids read their note from Santa. The two aunts would arrive around noon. We opened stockings, and Santa gifts and then exchanged gifts with each other. I say this every year, but our two teens are such joys to give to and it's such a wonderful pleasure to be able to do so.




Since Papa is always asking if we have a comb for him to use, he was given a mess of combs he can stash in our home to his heart's desire.




Olivia received so many beautiful luxurious soaps and candles. Adam received several Minecraft-themed things, like a Creeper wallet and mug, in addition to some Brony or My Little Pony accessories. Both were given books; some longed-for, some surprises. And music, of course. Alex gave me things that made me know just how much he understands me. (Like my gorgeous mermaid Swatch watch.)



In a hilarious turn of events, I gave him a watch, too. Maybe even a really good crappy watch. If you are familiar with the film Planes, Trains and Automobiles, you will get this.



Adam and Olivia gave each other things, too, and the thought and attention to their choices for one another speaks volumes regarding their friendship.







Midway through our family gift exchange, the aunts arrived and we made room for them around the uh, fire and tree. When the kids were down to their last gift, they both seemed pleased as anything with their morning. And then this happened.






To say that these two geeks were thrilled would be an extreme understatement. For the first five minutes, they only spoke some sort of shared sibling geek language, which sounded like gibberish to us, but probably wasn't. At any rate, we all shared in their immense joy, which was just the cherry on top of their day.

The rest of the day was about gathering around the table for food, eating cookies and candy, lighting candles and enjoying the company of each other. Later, when we tried yet another seasonal film out on Papa, (this time it was A Christmas Story, which I thought for sure he'd get into...I was wrong), we tried and tried to convince him, as Adam said, "to suspend disbelief", but alas... I wonder what he must think of our taste in movies? I'll have to ask him. As ever, it's no matter. Our day was well-spent, surrounded by love and joy, and memories and comfort. I hope it was much the same for you and yours.

Things & Stuff

Here's how it is; mix one part very early spring with one part parenting two unschoolers, one 15 and one nearly 13, then add a heaping cup of creative endeavors and what you get is me, not blogging. I've been documenting our days, our room switching (again? yes, again), our garden bursting into bloom four weeks early, little and big projects and, well, our days, suffices. I think you know how it is. We all have stretches like this, or at least that's what I tell myself. Despite my best intentions, I don't accomplish all I'd like to in a day or span of weeks days. What's been going on? Things and Stuff.

The Garden

Truly, the garden is ahead by four weeks. We had rhubarb at the end of March and lilacs blooming at the end of April. It's so early, that now we feel behind on gardening and it's not even May yet. ::sigh::











Unschooling/Kid Stuff

It's been a social and overall, busy time for both Olivia and Adam, this spring. They've been down to Massachusetts several times for unschooling potlucks and most recently, a Thursday-Sunday Doctor Who Gathering hosted by another unschooling family. We took them down and dropped them at Marcia's where they hung out in a group of about ten people, made meals together, played lots of Werewolves and watched plenty of Doctor Who.(Alex and I also combined trips and stopped by Ikea a couple of times on our journey to and from and picked up some items for house projects.)




Adam has been sketching a great deal and creating skins for Minecraft, many of which are inspired by his current reading. The kids are both preparing for Homeschool Prom, coming up May 11. Adam has chosen his tux and without giving too much away, bow ties are cool. Oh, and the boy is growing. A lot. He's just a smidge away from being taller than his sister, but don't tell her that. Several weeks ago, I took Olivia out shopping for her dress and approximately four hundred dresses later, she found a really beautiful gown. Now we just have to track down all the other bits and pieces and fret about hair for the next few weeks. These are the kinds of things we do now, having teens in the house.





Both the kids have been instrumental in the current reorganization and rearrange we're conducting in our home. More on that in a bit, though the guinea pigs seem to like their new spot.



And oh! The reading. So many books, stacked on nightstands, on tables, chairs and piled into library bags. Every Monday evening, the kids attend a Dystopian Teen Literature class hosted by Wendy, another homeschooling parent. So far the kids have read:

Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
The Long Walk, Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson
Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
The Giver, Lowis Lowry,
Among The Hidden, Margaret Peterson Haddix

They will be finishing the course by reading Last Light by Alex Scarrow and Into The Forest by Jean Heglund. It has been a rigorous reading schedule, though easily handled by Olivia and Adam, enough so that they've continued their personal reading (light stuff, like all of Tolkien's works, that kind of thing) in addition to their course material. Of course, part of what they enjoy most about the class is the discussion with other teens that happens during and after the session, that it has me thinking about the possibility of having the group continue, even just to talk, once the course has ended. And their book sharing has resulted in some humorous moments at home, too. I will say again, how grateful I am for the really close relationship those two have with each other. I'm oh so grateful.



Meanwhile, Olivia has been attending Driver's Education twice a week and also driving for two hours a week. She has been enjoying the class and the driving and finished all her drives early (she's an organizer, that one) which meant that today, after her permit exam and achieving her driver's permit, she got to drive us around Portland doing errands. In fact, just minutes after driving us out of the parking lot, and across town, she aced a between-two-cars-parallel-park, during lunch traffic in the Old Port (narrow, cobbled streets, lots of pedestrian and car traffic, busy) in our minivan that she had never driven! She even navigated and parked in the Trader Joe's parking lot. On a Friday afternoon. Wicked sharp. What this means is that she has a whole year to gain driving experience before taking her test for her license. I think that works out rather nicely. Tomorrow she's driving us all the two hours to the Fedco Tree Sale.



House Stuff

We switched some rooms, yes, again. In November, we swapped some bedrooms around and I still haven't blogged about that yet because I still haven't completed all that I want to upstairs in the way of repainting or redesigning. That's all coming soon, I assure you. We recently also switched rooms around downstairs. We took all the art and office stuff that had been too cramped in a little bedroom upstairs and brought it downstairs and put it in what used to be our living room, mainly because it's our brightest, sunniest room and can be closed off, perfect for when those projects get messy or I need to write or create uninterrupted. The guinea pigs were also moved to this room. It's still comfortably cluttered, but there's more access, more room to create and it's full of light and warmth. In order to get to that point, there was a lot of mess, and a lot of sorting and sifting, first.




Eventually, we restored order and we've been creating happily in our new family art room since.







We even got around to making a place for all those souvenir ticket stubs my family seems unable to part with. I saw this on Pinterest and Alex cut a slot in the top of the frame for me and we printed out one of my photos and voila! Organized memories, just like that. Sometimes it's those simple, little projects that offer such a sense of order and satisfaction.



What I haven't showed you yet is our new living room space, but that's because we haven't put the finishing touches on it yet. I will share soon.

And All The Other Things & Stuff

So in all these weeks that I haven't posted, I celebrated my 41st birthday (it was lovely and wow, do I smell nice, now, since my family treated to many of my favorite scents.)




I've been baking some, as needed, as in, the kids are traveling to spend five days with a group of teens, I better bake something.



Last night, Alex and I got a little dressed up, left the kids at home and had an adult evening out at our first Maine Tweetup at the gorgeous Grace Restaurant and met loads of really nice Mainers who, eh, also tweet. It's a thing. It was good. We laughed, a lot. And we got hugged before we left, which was also good and not the least bit weird. Honest. (#metweetup)



In between, we've shoved piles on the dining room table aside to make room for grilled cheese and soup lunches, we've both lost and found our patience, trying to make a room with too many doors and windows and hardly any wall space work as a living room, we've driven back and forth to Portland countless times, walked the beach, fed guinea pigs their first dandelions of the year, and consoled grumpy cats missing their favorite busy people. We've discussed books and books and more books, complained bitterly about books to movies and sighed with relief at other adaptations, mostly. (It's true. Alex and I are officially outing ourselves as Game of Thrones haters. Truly. It's so terrible. Like, we're hoping it makes a swing to campy, because that's the only thing that can save it at this point.)

Finally, today also happens to be the fourth anniversary of my mother's death. Her loss is still very painful, though more manageable somehow. At other times, not so manageable. Like when I think about how she's missed so much-her grandchildren (all four of them) growing into beautiful, knowing, creative, adventurous people, mostly. Mostly it's that, and how they sometimes have her expression or tilt of her head. Sometimes it's the simple state of being motherless, even at age 41, that rakes at me when those quiet moments of grief steal in and carve up space, unbidden, flooding me with more and more memories, things and stuff I have to process, mull over, and be with. It's alright. It's life, it's busy and messy, cluttered and ordinary. But when it's not, the things and stuff of life are orderly, transforming, extraordinary, brilliant and shining.