Snow!

Twelve to fifteen inches of snow was predicted to hit our town on Monday, December 28th.  The snow fall was heavy and the winds were blowing.   We filled the mudroom with firewood, ate dinner and settled by the cozy fire for the evening.

In the morning the local news station said that we got 9 inches of snow, it didn’t seem like that much.   The wind made a few big drifts in our yard and left some bare spots too.  I am thankful for what we have!

I plowed the driveway, loaded more firewood into the skid steer, sent Henry out to ski around the yard.   Nola Mae was feeling sick and napped most of the morning.  In between her cat naps she told me she was going skiing after lunch!

  It didn’t take much convincing her to ride in the sled.  I snowshoed, pulled her in the sled and Henry skied behind us, until he ran into the sled a few times.

I asked Henry to ski ahead of me.

When you are skiing so fast and you drop your pole you have to keep going!

When we came out into our field Henry noticed the nicely groomed trail.  He asked, “Who did this for us?”  I wish it was for us and we had our own groomer!

Finally, the snow has arrived!

 

 

February 2014

I have had a busy month.   I am pleased with the amount of things we (I) did and the things we caught on camera, considering it was a short month.

Nola Mae loves to play in the water.  I am expecting to have lots of fun this summer at the beach.  Whenever she hears the water running in the kitchen she comes running and yelling “bubbas” and lately she has spent time in the bath tub.  She is making up for the lack of baths she had during her first year of life.  Every time I tried to give her a bath she would scream.  I don’t really care for extra messes around our house, but when this sweet girl is loving the bubbles I can’t resist.

My friend, at Kissing Glue, shared a few awesome valentine ideas that she has done in the past that inspired me to do this with our boys.

We don’t celebrate anything in a big way, ever, especially on Valentine’s Day.  I am okay with that!  My Valentine wrote me a sweet letter with all the things he appreciates I do, and he didn’t miss a single thing!  My letter is definitely a keeper to dig out on a rough day!  He also made me a drink, one of my favorites, that I haven’t had in a very long time!  I sure do miss Rusty’s Backwater Salon’s bloody Mary’s!

I love this smile:

We had a little excitement this month with Charlie.  I wrote a blog post about Charlie’s emergency visit, click here to read that post.

Someone left the door open and Nola Mae followed.

Her hair is starting to come.  I knew it would arrive sometime because I was a bald child until I was two.

Nola Mae nursed her baby doll for the first time this month.  She also has read books to her babies!

     

Reading:

I am proud to say everyone in our house likes to read books.   Nola Mae hasn’t shown much interest until recently.  Henry and I read books often and she plays in the room and sometimes comes to sit on my lap to look at one or two pages at a time.

She recently has started to bring me books to read to her and even sits in my lap for the entire book!  Last week she kept bringing me books, we read these five twice in one sitting.  And then she sat there for another 10 minutes reading them by herself.

I came home from night skiing with friends and found this…

When it was time for me to go to bed I found her like this…

  

Skiing:

Pointy hood, heart booty, cutie pie!

If this girl could ski every day she would be happy.  Everyday, she says, “kiing” and puts on someone’s skiing helmet or boots or plays in the skiing sled when I have it in the house.

Babywearing:

I wrote this post this month with photos from one of our snowshoe outings.

Lately I have been thinking, “I don’t remember the last time I wrapped Henry.”  I was feeling kind of sad thinking that there may not be another time, since he will be 5 in one month.  Then he got hurt in the toy room, dug out my wrap and brought it to me and asked to go on my back until he felt better.  He was up there for about 10 minutes and was happy to take a picture so we can remember this moment.

Dyeing projects:

Finished ring sling ice & snow dye:

 

This could actually go in March’s monthly post because it will be finished in March.  But I started this rainbow ice dye on February 28th.  My collection of dye projects is growing and I may get a “dyeing project”  blog posts done in March and include the finished projects from this dye session.

I bought this basket for ice dyeing, $2.49 at Goodwill.  I will need to test it out soon.  I couldn’t use it for my rainbow project because I needed a bigger surface.  I struggle every time to stack the ice or snow high enough and I think the sides on this basket will help solve that problem.

My sewing projects this month:

I went to the library looking for fat-quarter quilt books and jelly-roll patterns.  This is what I came home with…

I used these scraps of fabric that I ice dyed last month to sew these zipper bags and this panel of fabric that may turn into a baby quilt or a tote bag.

While I was making zipper bags I dug out my bag of unfinished zipper bags.

 

The three ring slings I made this month.  The last one is for a child to carry a doll and strong enough for an older sibling to carry a real baby.

  

I wore this sweater last winter.  It slowly shrunk on me and so I felted it to make a stuffed fish.  Wouldn’t it make a cute fish?  Well, it fit Nola Mae perfectly.  So she will wear it this winter and I will have to come up with something else to make with this wool sweater.

I found a different sweater for the felted wool sweater fish.  The loop holding the wooden teething ring is Velcro.

Fingerless gloves I made from a felted wool sweater.  I added the four heart beads to each glove.  I have great appreciation for the beautiful work my aunts and step-mom do with their jewelry making!

This black sweater had a lot of love in it when it came to me.  I added a little love when I made these little pillows for two sisters who miss their Daddy.

Jack asked me to find a bag that would fit his shoes, a t-shirt, a small towel and a pocket for his wallet for when he goes to racquetball.  I thought it would take me awhile to find the right bag so I thought I would just make him one.  It was fun, quick and easy.  I didn’t buy a single thing for it.  The lining fabric came from my friend, Anna.  The padding and outside fabric came from my mother-in-law and the handles were the end of the strap from a Mei Tai that I made for our cousin, Jessie.  I was surprised that the blue matched perfectly.  I have a box of the trimming from straps of bags and aprons that I have made for this very reason!

 

 

Snowshoeing and Babywearing

I am having a great winter with a lot of snow and good conditions for the snow to stay for snowshoeing and skiing.   I am not cross-country skiing as much as I like.  My mother-in-law, Grandma Hanna, inspired me to snowshoe as much as I can, she has snowshoed every day this winter.  I have a great little trail system tramped down around our 20 acres.

This morning I got my baby ready to go outside in 31 degrees.  On the bottom she is wearing tights, corduroy pants, my smart wool socks (thanks Grandma Hanna), winter boots and baby legs to keep her boots on while I carry her.  On the top she has a long sleeve cotton onesie, a wool sweater and a second sweater with a hood that stays on very well, a wool cowl, and mittens.  And I can’t forget to mention my Light Rainbow Wrap, size 7!

   

I was wearing one layer of pants, wool socks, and boots, a tank top, a long sleeve neoprene shirt, a wool sweater and a 21 month old toddler.  I was too hot!

I was on a mission:  shovel out the mailbox, shovel the steps and sidewalk, exercise the dogs and myself and find the snowshoe Robbie lost last night on our night-time snowshoe outing.

I was surprised how quickly Chili can disappear in the snow.

Nola Mae was still awake and watching the dogs whip past us and almost trip us for the twentieth time.

    

Half way home and she was out!

  

Last night we went out snowshoeing when it was dark.  It was hard to see my established trail because we also got six inches of snow.    Sometimes when I stepped off my established trail I would sink all the way down to my knees.  When we got back to the garage Robbie realized he only had one snow shoe to take off.  He was tired and frustrated.  When I asked him where and when he thought he lost it.  He had no clue and said, “That is why I was always sinking in!  That is why I hate snowshoeing!”   We weren’t going to get more snow over night so I decided to wait until today to go look for it.  I found Robbie’s snowshoe, right at the edge of our yard about twenty feet away from where he took off his only snowshoe.

I have to include this photo of Henry.  I found it on the camera.  He is the person that taught me the term “selfie” and I would say he is pretty good at taking them.

Henry is at school today.  Nola Mae and I miss this sweet boy.  She has been calling for him around the house all day.

January 2014

January 2014

When the weather is very cold outside and the boys still need to get out, the barn is one of those places.

After Christmas was over I started trimming branches off the tree to burn in the wood stove.  I slowly trimmed the branches and when it was time to take the ornaments off I continued to burn branches in the wood stove until it was a manageable size for a big boy to carry outside.

Charlie carried it down to the burn pit and I started it on fire.

Nola Mae carrying a box down to the burn pit to burn.

My Dad and Lynn came to visit us for a weekend.

 

Almost every day Nola Mae puts on someone’s ski boots and tells me “skiing!”

I bought 40 pounds of grapefruit this winter.  This was the biggest one.

 

The boys went away for a weekend with Jack.  Jack took these (and many more) great photos, these are my favorites.

I got this idea from my friend Sarah.  I filled these balloons with colored water,

and decorated our igloo with the ice balls.

Nola Mae photos:

She enjoyed playing with my cake decorating tips by making towers with them.

Henry did this to Nola Mae while I was doing some laundry.

Nola Mae just reading (warms my heart).

Another “heart warming” photo, when one sibling sweetly kisses the other.

I told Nola Mae to watch me out the window while I fed the dogs, started the car and checked the skid steer’s hydraulic fluids.  This is where she was when I came in.  Usually, she stands on the shortened chair so I was a little surprised she found this good seat in the window.

We had a great month of skiing. 

               

This winter two kids in the sled is a heavy load!  I got a good work-out and a nap out of both of them.

 

Breaking a new snow shoe trail  during a snow storm…Nola Mae wasn’t happy when the sled tipped over because the trail wasn’t wide enough for the sled. Eventually she fell asleep and she didn’t notice when it happened.

  

  Upcycle projects:

This upcycled trivet made with denim and scraps of yellow and orange fabrics., inside lining is fleece from an old baby blanket and the backing is two pieces of corduroy that were given to me.  This was my contribution to the Art Exchange for the Vater family Christmas.

Jack’s Art exchange item:

Jack made two other cigar box guitars.  If you have facebook you may be able to view a video he made  click here to see  the video.

In my research for a upcycle project I found a denim rug that I wanted to make for my kitchen.  I have used this wool rug, weaved by Jack’s aunt.  I like a rug under the sink area and have always thought that I needed a rug that had an angle for that spot.

So I made this…

Inspired by this design – http://lieslmade.com/2013/08/15/parquet-inspired-denim-rug-tutorial/

Upcycled elephant from a felted wool sweater.  The cutest thing I have made in a long time!

Ring slings that I made this month:

I made this one for a friend who just had her first baby.  This was a table-cloth that was used at her wedding.

This ring sling went to a first time mama.  These two mamas are smart – baby wearing with their first baby!

March 2013 – Month 3

March 2013 – Month 3

March was a busy month for us and a good month for photos.  We took a lot of photos which made it difficult to decide what to share and put in this month’s blog post.  I was able to post six different blog posts in the month of March to share photos and events instead of putting them all here.

Charlie is very good about getting his reading homework done.  Nola Mae was interested in sitting on his lap for about two of the four books he needed to read.

Since we got serious about co-sleeping 3+ years ago we have made our bedroom more co-sleeping friendly. The best improvement was to throw out the bed frame and put the box spring and mattress on the floor. For many months Nola Mae has been able to crawl off the bed. Now she can get onto the bed.  One day I was working on the computer (just outside my room) and Nola Mae was in my room. I heard the sound of tissue being pulled out of the box.  She was so excited, laughing and smiling and trying to roll in the pile.

 

We spent a weekend in the Chicago area (click here to see that post).  Robbie designed and built these vehicles with the Legos we bought from the Lego store.

If you read my Chicago Trip post you learned about my use of bad words.  Which resulted in more bad words being said at home.    I have always had a fowl mouth and having kids has helped me (a little), but not cured me.  The boys like to talk about many “P” words at the dinner table.  Jack started a bad word jar that week.  We all agreed that the money in the bad word jar would go to his Rotary Club.  Money motivates everyone in our family.  We may not have much to give the Rotary Club, after the first few days the bad words drastically decreased.

A few of my mom friends have taken pregnant belly photos of themselves and then when the baby is nine months old they take a photo of them holding the baby.  My version is on cross-country skis.

  Nine Months In.                      Nine Months Out.

 

Jack’s  birthday is this month.

March was the best month for skiing, snow shoeing and playing outside.  I have been working on a winter skiing post.  My excuse for not having it completed is that the skiing just kept on going, our last day on skis was April 3rd.  I have many favorite days of skiing this year – one that I will always remember is the day I skied for 4+ hours with friends, our mission was to ski on every trail at Iola Winter Sports Club.

Henry and I invited ourselves over to our neighbor, Anna’s, to go snow shoeing with her.

We had an ice rink in our field.  Jack took multiple photos of Charlie and made it into one.

Henry and I went snow shoeing on our property.  I took the orange sled in case he got tired and then I could pull him.  It turns out he was tired before we even hit our woods.  I got a great workout that day.  (I think he is trying to catch the big snow flakes on his tongue.)

Nola Mae is easily entertained watching her brothers play outside.  Lately she has been not happy about being on this side of the window.  She will watch them for a few minutes laughing and squealing with excitement and then flop her body on the floor crying.

I was able to drag our whole family to the ski hill two or three times this year.

Nola Mae loves the snow (loves to eat it) and tries to escape out of the house every time the door opens.

Our school had a few days off around Easter weekend.   We had an egg hunt on the ski trails with my friends Mary and Phil and all of our kids.  It was a blast!

More outside photos are in my First Spring Walks post.

 This Moment – My Skiing Partner.

Nola Mae’s activity around the house has been a lot of fun (for her).  March was the month she has taken her furniture climbing to a new level.

 

   

And she has gotten into some messy things.

Jack finished his game table, a very nice addition to the beautiful furniture he has made for our home.

Coloring eggs is always fun for the boys.

I am getting a little more brave in my soap making.  I have always wanted to try to naturally color a batch of soap.   My first attempt was with cinnamon.  When I first cut the soap after 24 hours it looked like this, to my chocolate loving eyes, I thought it looked like peanut butter cups.

After the inside was exposed to air for about 15 minutes it darkened to a very pretty dark brown.

Jack bought lights and backdrops for his photography.  He took many pictures of us with the black backdrop.

 

I seem to have different wrapping photos each month and this seems like a good place to put them.  These are my favorites.

  

Robbie wrapped himself up in the long brown packing paper that came in the box with Jack’s photography equipment.  Henry wanted to wear his deer with his Mei Tai.

 

In the wrapping world mamas often share a “stash shot”.  If you don’t believe me, google “stash shot” in Google images!  My little stash won’t look so big either.

Henry’s fish DIY Mei Tai, black Ergo, DIY green Mei Tai, top of pile – Zara Velvet 6, Light Rainbow diamond weave 7, DIY lavender linen 7,  Ellaroo Ysable Medium, and DIY plum Ring Sling.

My two favorite wraps are my Zara and my Girasol Light Rainbow.

 

On Easter Henry stopped breastfeeding. I made a cake to celebrate the day.  He went to school and told his class that he has a nuking birthday party on Easter.  The teachers didn’t understand what he was explaining and thought that he had his story mixed up with his upcoming birthday.   This Moment – Tandem Breastfeeding

Frist Spring Walks

We have started our spring time walks since the sun is setting a little later in the day.   Our first evening walk was on snow shoes earlier in March.

   

Lately the snow is too deep and wet for us to walk around our property.  Maybe snow shoes would still work on the very wet snow.

We tried just walking on the snow in the afternoon on Easter. There was lots of tears because the snow was getting inside our boots and for the 15 minutes we were out there the wind picked up and we got a 10 minute blizzard.  These two photos were taken within minutes of each other.

On one of our most recent walks Robbie took a stick along.  I don’t understand the need to carry a stick.

I took these photos of him attacking the big snow chunks that were left by the snow plow.  These walks are a good time to expel some energy outside. Robbie has the most energy!

 

Other shots of him in the air:

Nola Mae was cozy in the jogging stroller.  I am planning on doing a 5k run on April 13th in Marshfield with my friend Kristin.  Kristin is letting us use her stroller until then so I can make sure Nola Mae is okay riding in it.

I don’t understand the need to walk in puddles

or the need to drive your bike into a snow bank.

This sign was put up in the fall of 2012.

Week 52 – December 24 – 31, 2012

Week 52 – December 24 – 31, 2012

(Completed on 1/29/13)

This is my last weekly post of photos for my second year of blogging.  I am hoping to continue this on a monthly basis with other posts in between.  With this change I hope to share more of our funny stories and events with shorter posts and only one monthly overview of what is happening at our house.

We spent the weekend before Christmas in multiple places. Jack went to his mom’s with the three boys.   Nola Mae and I drove to Milwaukee to visit my dad, step-mom and step-grandma and to attend a family wedding.  Nola Mae and I spent 9 1/2 hours in the car and put on approximately 426 miles from Friday night to Sunday morning.

Sunday we spent with Jack’s family (Vaters during the day and Elorantas in the evening)and late that night we went to sleep at my mom’s.  Monday AM we visited with my mom and after lunch we visited Jack’s grandparents in the nursing home.  We were home by 6:30pm on Christmas Eve.  My grand total of miles traveled from Friday night to Monday night – 525 miles!

Snowshoe hike at Helen’s.

 

The most handsome photo of Henry.

The older boys got a survival kit from my mom for Christmas with a flint and steel in the kit, we tried it out by the fire when we got home.  I was very impressed with the spark they were able to make.

Christmas morning’s family photo.  Our “always wanting to be handsome boy” insisted on wearing a tie-dye shirt.  Not a battle I wanted to take on, at least most of us were coordinating.  Oh wait, Jack has an orange shirt under his green sweater!

The only homemade thing I made for our boys was Henry’s cape.  I saved the final sewing for after they were in bed on Christmas Eve.  When will I learn not to do that?

The fabric was found at St. Vinny’s for about $2 and is reversible.  I have been waiting for the perfect project for this piece of fabric.  He can fly!  Henry tells me he is going to wear it skiing one of these days.  I will be sure to have my camera.

A favorite photo of mine (almost 9 months old).

Christmas day we went out with our snowshoes to try our sledding hill.

During Christmas break we went skiing with one of Robbie’s friends.

Snack break.

This week we had a beautiful snow fall.  The snowflakes were huge and the details could be seen with the naked eye and my camera.

My neighbor (and dear friend) has a granddaughter (13 yrs old) fighting cancer this winter.  I invited the 11-year-old sister to come to my house to sew a quilt for her sister.  The timing was perfect for us to get together – Anika was visiting her grandparents and the boys were in school.  We had so much fun together I am hoping to work on another sewing project with Anika.  I think she already has some fabric purchased and ready.

Week 51 – December 17 – 23, 2012

Week 51 – December 17 – 23, 2012

(Completed on 1/28/13)

My recent weeks have not been very productive.   A friend asked me to make her some diaper liners.  It was what I needed to get motivated to get back into my sewing room.

I played around and made these for my jars that I like to drink tea out of.

I wrapped and labeled some of my soap.

Jack completed his “container” for the Vaters’ art exchange.  One of the most beautiful things he has made (in my opinion).

I worked on my “container” and came up with this cloth bowl.  Since it seemed lame to me, comparing it to what Jack was contributing.  I filled my cloth bowl with extra goodies, like honey, tea, my homemade soap and body balm.

Nola Mae is getting close to joining us at the table in her own chair.

Snow shoeing has been fun with the boys.  Robbie is the super snow shoer!  We have been working hard at packing our trails so we can ski on them too.

It was too cold and too late in the afternoon for Nola Mae to ride on my back so I packed her in the sled so she would be warmer.

Henry had his preschool Christmas program this week.  He (like all our kids) is not a performer.  He just stood in the front row with a smile on his face.  In the days before and after the program he has proven to me that he can sing the songs, just not in front of all the parents.

I learned of breast milk popsicle for teething babies.  I bought some little plastic shot glasses, pumped some of my milk and froze it with a Q-tip for the stick.  Nola Mae was a little crabby one day and I just couldn’t tell what was going on with her.  I remembered the popsicle that I made and gave her one.  It did the trick because she was very busy working on the popsicle until it was gone.

Henry thought it was cute to put Nola Mae in the basket.  She liked it only for a short time.

Once in a while Henry wants to wear one of his stuffed animals.  I made this Mei Tai for him after I made mine.

A Christmas tree cake I made for someone who wanted to take a dessert to a Christmas gathering.

Week 9 – February 27 – March 5, 2012

Week 9 – February 27 – March 5, 2012

Monday, February 27th:  Henry made his own snowballs while I worked on my blog on Sunday night.  We took this picture in the morning.  This is fresh toilet paper jammed in the button holes of the love seat.  He also told me a long story about his plans for more snowballs.  He would go to the shop with Papa and pound and drill holes in a big piece of wood for a place to put more snow balls.

Tuesday, February 28th:  Sword fighting is usually an outside activity (or inside when they go in the basement) at our house.  Robbie wanted me to take some photos of them sword fighting for the collage we are making for his VIP days.   I suggested we do it in the house, they loved that idea!  BUT only if they cleaned up all their toys, dirty socks and other things (I won’t mention the other things that were picked up for this photo shoot).

We were expecting a snow storm and I was hoping for a snow day in the morning.  I let the boys read late into the night.  The latest and greatest thing is that Robbie is reading to Charlie.  Robbie’s reading has improved a lot in the last couple months, he reads the words quickly and Charlie isn’t distracted or bored because the story is taking too long.

 

Wednesday, February 29th:  The storm produced enough yucky weather for our school to call a snow day.  We didn’t get as much snow that was predicted but enough to get us outside.  We went snowshoeing around our property because it was much less work than going skiing.   It is the first time this winter I was able to try out my snowshoes that I got for Christmas.

 Henry got a pair of snowshoes from Jack’s Aunt Barbara last year.  We were too busy skiing last year that we didn’t do much snowshoeing. 

 I was impressed with how well Henry did.  He fell a few times and I carried him for a few minutes about halfway through our hike. 

  It wasn’t too difficult to keep up with the older boys because they were constantly falling and having a snowball fight.  Our hike took us about an hour and a half, in the summer time this hike takes us about a half hour.   I saw the boys having a blast and bit my tongue many times because I hate snowballs!  Click here  to read my post from last winter on snowball fights.

 

Thursday, March 1st:  Henry has horns. 

Friday, March 2nd:  Henry worked very hard on this big square of Legos during the last couple days. 

Henry started with an outside border and then worked on filling the inside. I could see his brain working to find the right piece for each spot. I had to show him that the single row Legos could fill those tiny spots. That made him happy. He was very proud to show Charlie this when Charlie got home from school. I needed to coach Charlie a little bit on being excited and impressed with Henry’s Legos.

After our snow day we had warm temperatures.  Not that the temps really matter to Henry.  He seems to think he can go outside if he at least has pants and boots on.

Saturday, March 3rd:  Jack took the big boys away for the weekend to visit his brother and family.  Henry and I worked on cleaning, organizing and rearranging my bedroom so it is ready for when the baby is born.  I laughed to myself when I gave Henry the job to vacuum inside my dresser.  I AM NOT A CLEAN FREAK!  I went a little over board!  I had to take this photo for my sister, Emily, she is the clean freak in the family!  Who vacuums the inside of their dressers?

 

Sunday, March 4th:  I had high hopes of making serious progress on my cleaning list.  Instead we took 2+ hour naps each day, cuddled by the fire, read books, snacked every two hours.  I was pleased with my progress in my bedroom and the kitchen because I made two different kinds of soup for my stash in the freezer.

I have plans to do a post on Henry’s favorite books.  Because these aren’t really his favorites. 

Henry’s pile of books from our cuddling and reading times:

 

Week 5 – January 30 – February 5, 2012

 Week 5 – January 30 – February 5, 2012

Monday, January 30:  We have had some very warm temperatures lately.  The boys’ Green Bay Packer Snowman may end up melting much sooner than we thought.  Henry was the one that noticed that his number was gone and that he was melting.

 

Tuesday, January 31:  We went skiing with friends today.  Henry had the motivation to try to keep up with a very fast 5-year-old boy and an almost 4-year-old.

 

Henry skied for over a half hour following those two boys and then it was time for a sled ride and a snack.

I tucked the camera in the sled with Henry.  Later I found many photos on the camera from the view of inside the sled.   My butt being one of them!

 

Wednesday, February 1: We met friends in Point today at the Central Wisconsin Children’s Museum. 

 

Thursday, February 2:   I needed some rest after the last two days’ activities.  I had my book club book on CD (The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon) and some quilting to do.   Henry seems to enjoy it also because he asks me “turn your music on.” 

Henry thinks he should take photos of my activities too.

 

I guess our Green Bay Packer snowman lost his status of “The Mater Piece” after a lot of melting.  Because the boys decided to destroy him with their swords.

 

Friday, February 3:  My friend Kat and our two little boys took a hike and planted some candy canes on the trail for my Saturday ski class.  On our way back to the chalet the groomer caught up with us in the Piston Bully.  He was kind enough to give the boys a ride.  Once Henry saw a ride was in his future he ran as fast as he could!

 

Saturday, February 4:  The treasure hunt for the kids wasn’t too exciting.  The skiing conditions are so poor.  We have so little snow and what we have is very icy.  So everyone hiked in their winter boots. 

In the evening the boys participated in the Iola Twilight Snowshoe race with a couple of friends.

 

Sunday, February 5:  I was experiencing contractions on Wednesday and a little bit on Thursday (the reasons for me not cooking dinner and the dishes, not sweeping the floor, not doing laundry, going to bed by 7:30, sitting around quilting, and listening to my book on CD).   When I hiked around to plant the candy canes on Friday morning the contractions came back.  I was nervous about this and hopped that they were just Braxton Hicks contractions (practice contractions). 

I never really experienced the Braxton Hicks contractions with the other boys so I wasn’t sure.  It seemed odd that I would have many in a day when I did the littlest tasks.   I called Jane, my midwife, after our short hike.  She was able to see me within five minutes of my call.  She confirmed they were only Braxton Hicks contractions and that nothing was progressing on the inside.  

 Jane sent me home with Black Haw and instructions to take 15-20 drops three times a day.  The purpose is to relax my uterus and stop or minimize the contractions.  And it worked!  I went from at least two Braxton Hick contractions every hour to two per day. 

 Jane also told me to “not over do it.”  If she would have come to my house she would know that I am not over doing it!