Thursday, December 29, 2016

Christmas Vacation Day....I've lost count!

Snow!! Yay! Although it is already starting to melt. It looks pretty at the moment though and wasn't too bad to shovel. Maddie managed a snowman and sledding in the yard.








Brian also used the snuggle up at home day to try out his Christmas present from Maddie and Momma....an ice cream maker attachment for the mixer! We will see how it goes....




And Momma started making her bullet journal with the new moleskine journal and pens from Maddie and Brian. Lets hope it helps keep things straight!!


Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Yarn Along

Wow! I haven't joined the Yarn Along in a while! I am on vacation though and not knitting surprises so I have time and am able to share.



In knitting....I am getting ready to start a sweater for Maddie for Winter Camp at Camp Fowler. I had a false start with yarn that just really didn't work at all. The lady at the local yarn shop was wonderful about it! She helped me pick out something better and did an exchange. I learned some things along with that too! Here are my notes on Ravelry.

Yesterday I started a Baby Bib O' Love for my day care baby. I was getting frustrated with the bibs that I have here when it dawned on me that those bibs are 7 years old and have been through 4 babies prior to the current baby! Time for new! I thought I would make this pattern because when it gets yucky I can just remove the button and make a new one. The ones I have now have velcro which is the main issue...it doesn't stick any more! This is an easy one I can work on when people are talking to me too...great for vacation time!

All our new hats from last year's knitting seem to have disappeared. They have got to be here somewhere...in a safe place I am sure...but I cannot locate them! Brian and Maddie each got a new hat for Christmas and now I am working on one for me. I am using Ginny's Hackberry pattern and yarn I purchased at the Greenmarket from a local alpaca farm! Its my 4H hat because I used the tokens I was given as my 4H leader of the year award for our county. My notes are here.

In books....I am continuing to read How to Keep a Naturalists Notebook. I like it a lot and pick it up to read when I have time to think and practice what I am reading. I am planning to make a new nature journal for myself this week.

Brian gave me Teaching From Rest for Christmas. It contains a message that I find I am needing more and more as we enter the high school years!! Hopefully I can follow through but I think I am better at worrying over it all than letting it go and trying to just be purposeful. We will see!

I am reading My Family and Other Animals on my kindle and laughing out loud the entire way through it! Anyone whose child is a naturalist should pick this up and give it a read. I have to keep reading parts aloud to anyone sitting close by....Brian in particular appreciates the things that happen! I think I am glad that we live in the Northeast where bringing home exotic animals in not a possibiltiy!

What are you knitting and reading lately??

Joining Ginny at Small Things for the Yarn Along!

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Saratoga Battlefield

Maddie had her 13th annual physical today so she got to pick the afternoon's activities! She wanted to go to the Battlefield and check on things. We asked at the Visitor Center and were told the Wilkinson Trail was a bit on the icy side....so we chose to walk the tour road. That is the only way you can go on there right now! Its closed to traffic. We walked to stop 1 and over the maintenance road then back again. It was a good one hour walk. Despite the temperatures here in the village being in the high 40s at the Battlefield things were much chillier with a wind. It was a good thing Momma remembered the hat and gloves and that Daddy left a coat in the car so Maddie could borrow it! We spied some tracks to identify, some geese flying overhead and some juncos but that was about it on the wildlife front. I suspect it was due to one of us needing to tromp in the snow and ice which made quite a bit of crunching noise! 

No Tour Road for you unless you walk or attempt to bike!

This is why we chose the road over the trail! Momma does not need to have 3 falls in 6 months thanks!

Part of the Wilkinson Trail

Tour Road!!


Maddie walked down to the cattails. She had spied a paper wasp nest and went to investigate. That didn't last nearly as long as the cattails though! And then she got snow down her boot somehow! Since it was warmer at home we thought we needed rainboots not snow boots. Whoops!








On down the road we went! It was stormy looking in the sky but patches of blue kept peeking out and the sun was making the horizon golden. You could tell that it was the dark of winter due to the light...or lack of light!



We are trying to decide if this is a dog print made wider due to being in the ice. We suspect it is not but couldn't find another print! I put my glove down for size comparision.

These we knew were deer!

Road heading up to stop 1


Here we are at stop 1. We were amazed at the work the goats did to clear it out. This summer, and for many summers past you could not see through the ground cover to the ground under the trees or even have such a clear view over to the path on the other side.




There goes Maddie to check things out!

Then we found this pond on the maintenance trail. Isn't it pretty??






This was the view at the other end of the maintenance road. We were going to walk some more but we were getting quite cold at this point and Maddie's feet were starting to hurt from the snow down her boots!!


Here you can see some patches of blue!

We had a good time! Maddie did well at the doctor's office. She is now officially 3 inches taller than Momma but not caught up to Daddy yet!






Monday, December 26, 2016

The Day After....

We had leftover crackers so we opened them at lunch. Badminton started up right away!!




 Then we decided to play one of Maddie's new games....Exploding Kittens, a game for people who like kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats. Oh man...this was funny and fun. I can see it coming out often for a quick play!

The print was too small so I couldn't get the "and goats" part!




Don't worry...we also got National Park Yahtzee so things will be looking up later!

Christmas Walkies!

We had time for a walk between present opening and starting a yummy dinner!! It was a pretty day although we were wishing for some Christmas snow....

Photo by Little Owl!! ( who took the camera and got disgusted with her mother for having it on auto setting not AV!)

Brian and MG in their new Momma made knits! Which didn't last too long because they were too warm....

pretty paper birch against the blue sky

Mohawk River


See...Maddie's hat and mittens are off and her coat is unzipped! 


I took this one so I could try to identify the weed later....

Shortly after this the coat came off too.......

Sunday, December 25, 2016

Christmas Morning!!

Merry Christmas!! This year I thought about it ahead of time and got out the Rebel camera that Poppa and Mamaw sent to us and used it for photos. So we managed to take 82 photos! I will not put them all here but I am putting quite a few....for Mamaw and Poppa! Enjoy!!

Maddie's Winter Camp Box...she never did ask if she was registered so that didn't quite go as planned but she loved what was in it just the same!! The favorite part was the bracelet with Camp Fowler coordinates engraved on it.






Owl Slippers!

Then we opened presents from Mamaw and Poppa. Aren't the Amazon gift bags pretty? We loved everything!!

Maddie couldn't wait to get into the big Dick Blick Art box. 


I'm not sure which one she was more excited about...the paper or 

the portfolio!






I've no idea here...none....but it is a typical Brian funny shot so I had to include it!











Book from MG and me...bookmark by Mamaw!













Maddie was so happy! She was sad when we had to give this back to the library! Now she has her own copy!






Maddie said "We should've saved that for last!" 


New dishloth anyone? I'll get right on it!!

Hmmm..its a while until dinner. I think we will have noses in books and maybe even get dressed (GASP!) and go for a walk!! Thank you for everything!!