This weekend Chris and Unity visited the math store and got a new book. They decided together that the math homework she gets from school wasn't quite enough and they wanted to do more together. They found a workbook that has problems similar to the ones she's doing in school and they've been working on it every day. She is excited about it, it helps that it's a special thing she can do with Dad and he can share how fun it is for him. 

We got one of our seed orders in and daydreaming about Spring can officially begin. 

And Brixton was working on his music of course. His drum teacher uses an approach where each rhythm has the name of a different animal. Brixton will sing/chant the animal names and try to write his own rhythms. Again, he is really excited about this. 

I know it sounds like we are trying to run a Lil Genius factory over here but it's fun to watch them exploring their passions and getting totally sucked in to their practice/play. 

Weekending-Sprinkles

This weekend we had some doughnuts and some music and some sewing. 

                                             
                                            The barista told Unity that her new nickname should be Sprinkles.
                                              She likes it.

                                    Brixton wants you to know he is wearing his jammie shirt in this picture.

We saw a Kindie band we dig- the Board of Education.  

They have a great song called "Why does Dad get so mad about Star Wars?" that discusses the very serious issue of the movie prequels and the generation gap. 

                                          Brixton was dancing and playing friendly monster.

                                 
                                      Unity and her dad worked on the dress. It might be finished by her birthday!

                                             
                                              Scraps make good headbands. She wore this outfit to the grocery store
                                             and got three compliments.

                                                  And, it's time to start our starts. All brassicas for now.
                                                We love our brassicas. It makes it hard to plan our garden rotations but
                                                 we always have to have our broccoli and cauliflower.

Linking up with Amanda for Weekending. 

Germination

                            Growing something takes time, and attention. It's a different pace, a long slow pace, with little sudden bursts of activity. All of that preparation and checking and letting it sit and then suddenly-

                                   transformation.
                                 (This is my first sourdough, using lots of help from this book. )

                                   Sometimes you can't see it yet, but you tend the soil and wait and dream....

                                         It's amazing, every time, how all that waiting and gentle attention can
suddenly ease this burst of change, this transformed being, into the world.

Showing us the essence of themselves that was waiting there all along.

Weekending- full

                        I have to admit, sometimes I find weekends a little overwhelming. I spend so much time during the week lining up playdates and activies and projects for my kids. And then the weekend comes and I have to do it again, only for all four of us.

I made a curtain for the bathroom on Saturday night. It's only the second thing I've sewn. I still find it difficult and the results less than perfect but I remind myself that if I dug up the second thing I ever knitted, it wouldn't be a stunning work of art either.

We started our broccoli seeds in the basement. Grow, little sprouts, grow!

My friend Zelda called me on Saturday and invited me to join her at a book festival at Seattle University. I was only able to see one of the speakers, John Dear, but he is an amazing peace maker, and he had some thought provoking things to say. I'm on the waiting list for his book at the library because I want to hear more of this story.

Sunday night we had a potluck at Quaker House to welcome a new intern to the program. It was fun to hang out with the interns and the other committee folks. My kids were bouncing off the walls by the end though. Do you ever have a day with one of your kids where you feel like you are swimming upstream all day long? Yeah, me neither. Can't relate at all.

Linking with Amanda at Habit of Being.

Yarn along- more pillows

                                 

                                           

And we have more snow! I see a lot of reading and knitting in my future this week. I'm working on another pillow for the couch since I had such fun with the first one. I'm hoping to make three total, for a makeover for our poor old couch.

As far as reading goes, I finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides last night. I enjoyed it but I didn't love it as much as I thought I might. It follows the lives of three college students in the 1980s as the struggle for meaning and direction post-graduation. (There's even a small shout out to the Quakers!). It's not as good as Middlesex, but Eugenides is still a great writer and it's worth a read.

We are also dreaming over seed catalogs and planning our spring planting. Beets, cabbage, carrots, califlower, broccoli, squash, kale, spinach. Yum.

Linking with Ginny for Yarn Along.