Happy February

girls playing with kitchen ingredients

 Felix's sick day, lots of basement fires and tea and couch snuggles

 Ainsley's sweater, getting closer!

 the new couch, making the living room my new favorite place

 sight words at sunset

 my little licker helper with Nana's birthday cake

 crazy hair day at school + chocolate decorators

 every time my dad goes to get his eyes checked he gets us a giant donut at the local bakery, I like this routine

 pantry dinner, usually better than my planned dinners

 10" of snow!  And of course we haven't bought a snow blower yet and I insisted Ian stay at his parents after work and I happened to have a fever and three tiny "helpers", oh boy! (actually Ainsley was legitimately helpful...a new day is dawning!)

We just got back from my Uncle's funeral, well really, life celebration.  It was of course a very sad occasion but also in a strange appropriate way, really fun.  We all kept commenting that at any moment we felt Big Uncle Steve would walk through the door and give us big hugs and cheek kisses and ask us what buffets we'd been to lately.  It was just the kind of gathering he would have loved.

The kids were at the house with Ian's parents and it sounds like they had a blast.  We realized Felix has never stayed away from us both overnight so we're extra thankful it went so well on this end.

We have a couple fun adventures coming up, skiing in Montana for my dad's 60th birthday and Sanibel in March, over Easter this year to boot.  I found myself getting stressed out about the details of these trips, then stopped myself.  We're so lucky to get to go and it's going to be awesome.

School is really settling well with the kids.  It's become familiar and more comfortable and they are both really starting to thrive.  It's been quite the relief.

I'm still working on finding my new routine.  I'm feeling sad about leaving a lot of the familiarity of my little kid routine in Oak Park.  I'm missing the conservatory and our little library and musikgarten and Pilgrim and the Buzz big time this winter.  Though in place of all that is sledding out our back door and the fitness center and cousins and family every which way to play with and a big comfy house to romp around in, and Felix's great preschool.   I wasn't expecting a culture shock moving back home.  Clearly I'm not an "adjuster".

I find with cooking I'm heading back to simple staples.  It's Wednesday and I still haven't been to the grocery store but I have two good pantry meals left in me so I'm holding out.  I get a real kick out of making do with what we have and nothing helps tighten up the ol' food budget like moving across states and buying a house twice the size of your old one.

I'm realizing I most need to get back into my groove of making.  It's the place where I feel the most comfortable and good.  Ian got me a fat quarter stack of some beautiful Anna Maria Horner fabrics for Christmas and I'm agonizing over what to make.  I've been wanting to try some textile art for a while and with all the wall space we have in this house that may be just the thing.  I still haven't made Ainsley's valances or decided on fabric for the dining room.  These are all things that would feel good to do.

FIRST! Valentine's days at school and my dad's birthday and our Montana trip, then time to continue to ease into this new Minnesota life of ours.

Oh, and happy February!