spring dreaming...

Conversation with Lily this morning:

Lily (walking very sleepily into my room and plopping herself down on the chair with a grumpy look on her face): "I hate it." 

Me: "What?"

Lily: "The snow."

Me: "Oh, yes, we did wake to snow." 

Lily: "We were outside just yesterday in sweatshirts. Now I'm going to have to get all bundled up to take care of the animals today." 



Yep, and that's the truth. Yesterday, it was 66 degrees, sunny, and smelling just like spring. Then some nasty, nasty winds rolled in through the night, and we woke up to a fresh coat of snow with more falling from the sky. The last two pics are from yesterday and today. Yesterday, Lily made fresh squeezed lemonade and the kids spent six hours in the woods. Today? Snow bibs will be required for any outdoor playing.

Me? Well, I'm okay with it. I just try to roll with the weather anymore. No use getting upset about it when you have no control over it, and I know spring will come. It always does. The moment I stopped fighting the seasons and the weather was the moment that I began to see the gifts that each season brings. In fact, I have decided that I would get bored living in a place that was constantly warm. Would I love to have a garden year round? Sure! But I also really appreciate the break that the colder months give to us. 

So today I'm choosing to roll with the 22 degree temperature and snowflakes, knowing that next week is predicted to be in the 70's. 

I did, however, being quite bitten by the spring bug that yesterday's weather brought, planted some parsley and some basil in two old pottery pieces that my brother-in-law gave me. They are old and, not being sure how they were made (they are handmade), I didn't feel comfortable using them to actually drink or eat out of. So yesterday, I felt inspired to plant some herbs for the kitchen, and these little pottery pieces made excellent spots for the seeds to land. 

I do plant a large amount of herbs in our outdoor gardens every year, and I still have a lot of dried oregano, dill, thyme, and some others. However, I'm out of parsley. In fact, I don't think I even dried any because I was making chimichurri sauce several times a week during the garden season. I do have some dried basil in the pantry, but fresh basil is so much better in my opinion. 

The little oaks are doing quite well. Brad and Lily planted a second round of them yesterday evening. They will wait another four weeks and plant another round. I think that Ian may be doing his project for the homeschool project fair on seeds and trees, so this will make a perfect addition to his information, and is why they decided to plant the trees in rounds. 

Lily has been sewing nonstop. Her latest project has been little potholders. In fact, the ones I had were ones I received for our wedding shower almost sixteen years ago. I'm sure that you can imagine that they were in sorry shape. Well, my little sweetheart whipped up six potholders to replace the old  ones, so now I have a whole drawer of handmade goodies from my little girl. It truly does make me so happy to see her being so industrious. She has been receiving weekly sewing lessons again from my friend, and she is enjoying this time so much. Maybe someday soon she can teach me how to properly read and decipher a sewing pattern!

Me, being more of a knitter, well, I've just recently started my first pair of handknit socks. I cast them on last Wednesday and am about halfway through the second sock now. Honestly, I didn't think I was going to like knitting socks when I first cast on. It seemed tedious and the dpn's were cumbersome, but I've gotten used to them now and they are a somewhat quick little project. Besides, I am completely enamored with the thought of opening up my sock drawer and finding it filled with handknit socks. I'm using this basic sock pattern and knitting with a fingering weight 100% superwash merino wool that I bought in Virginia when we were on vacation there four years ago. This skein was dyed to reflect the colors of the ocean sky and water there at Chincoteague.

In other knitting news, I swatched for what will be my very first knit sweater. I am really excited to start this, but I am going to finish the socks first. I tend to be a focused knitter, determined to finish one project before starting another. I do have some works-in-progress, but I do mostly finish one before starting another. I will be using this cardigan pattern by TinCan Knits, and I bought Cascade 220 yarn to make it in. I wanted to make my first sweater in a more affordable yarn in case I really messed it up, but I do have some Madeline Tosh Pashmina yarn in the Calligraphy colorway that is reserved for a future sweater once I get this first one under my belt. That will be a most luxurious sweater!

I hope you all have a fine day! We're going to do our school lessons this morning and then spend the afternoon doing some baking. We'll warm the kitchen up on this cold, snowy day!

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along.