Today I moved all of my sewing equipment, fabric, and everything sewing related into the upstairs storage area at Blackbird.  It feels like a land of opportunity up there.  It's great.

I think I have found my calling.  And I only had to go 38 years, backed by a $20,000 student loan that resulted in a useless history degree, to figure it out.  Had I not believed that I needed to go to college to get a good job, I could have taken the fast track to realizing what I really wanted to do.  Oh well, I'm sure that history degree factors in somewhere along the line.  Although I am no better at trivia because of it.

I like to sew, cook, and garden.  I would like to get paid for that.  I like to make stuff for myself and my family, because it feels good, and we need it.  I would like to make stuff for others and get paid for it.  Hmmmmm.....

I'm going to go ahead and make that dream come true.  So, there you  have it.

This is what is happening in the morning before we take Asa to school, and Axel and I go to work at Blackbird.  Goat swinging.  It's the best.

I love that they are itching to get outside as soon as they can.

Andy is frequently asked by both boys to "cut little guys out of black paper".   He has probably cut out 500 or more little guys.  Some of them stick around for awhile, some end up in pieces, some get filed away.  But they usually look something like the above figures.   Knights, skeletons, wizards, and soldiers are in high rotation around here.  I'll have to ask about the big furry guy.  Maybe Big Foot?  Oh, and it looks like a spaceman made his way in there too.

I got some carrots in the ground on Easter.  We didn't plant enough last year.  We ate them up quickly.   I hope to see some little sprouts making their way soon.  What are you planting more of this year?

Explaining the Christian meaning of Easter to children is difficult, and a little bizarre.  "So Jesus died and then came back to life?" Yeah, I know, it sounds a little hokey.  But there is something to the symbolic nature of this event that appeals to me, for the same reason that the pagan celebration of rebirth does.  It's naturally relevant, as spring is here and things are coming back to life.  I find it fascinating to study what ancient people who were so much more grounded in the earth cycles did, and how all of these traditions somehow all represent almost the same thing.  Even in this age, when we don't have to really pay attention to cycles and seasons, everyone seems to enjoy the shift that spring brings.   It's a lovely shift.

And, chocolate eggs are nice too.

The surprise of finding the baskets was almost better then what was actually in the baskets.  In fact, much of the stuff in the baskets were re-found stuff from last year.  They knew that, and still loved it.  Some new stuff made it in though.  Like soccer shorts for Asa, and...

...a kitten puzzle for Axel.  I love this because I'm pretty sure I had one just like it when I was a kitten-lovin' kid.  Which I still am, just for the record.

Easter dress happiness.  It isn't often you get a chance to dress up early in the day, so I had to show this one off.  It's my favorite dress currently.  And, I'm fairly certain I can trace it and make another one like it.  Stay tuned.  Thank you for indulging me.  But, hey, a girl has to show off once in awhile.

And, this brilliant lady is rockin' such a great bonnet, I had to take a picture.  This was taken at McCormick park where we had an Easter egg hunt, of which I took NO pictures.  Oops.

Today was extraordinarily gorgeous, sunny, warm, leisurely.  So, upon arriving home, I put on my gardening attire and planted carrot seeds.  Without our gardening guru this spring, I'm hoping that the gardening gods will help me out a bit.  I'm still learning.  But I want some carrots, real bad.

Axel helped.

So here we are, embarking on another year at the Homestead.  After next week we will be officially open to the public for the next six months.  Trying to prepare for being on display, always busy from dusk to dawn.  Bring it.  I'm ready.  Hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

This light.  I've posted about it before.  It is what makes me believe anything.  It's beautiful.

We did not spend a long time outside today.  It's been such a cold April, I'm not sure I've craved sun this bad before.  The forecast calls for an inch and a half of snow tonight.  No little seeds in the ground yet so that's good I guess.  Well, except for my chard, we'll wait and see.

This guy and I had a tumultuous day.  Sibling squabbles, distracted mama, not enough outside time.  So, after dinner at about 8:30 we all bundled up in our winter coats, because it was that cold, and headed down to the goat swing.  If there were some athletic event that measured tree swing abilities, Asa would get the gold.  He is amazing on the goat swing.  We call it that because it hangs from a tree right in front of the little barn that housed the goats for the past few seasons.  It's really just the other half of the chicken coop.  But DANG, that kid glides around on that goat swing like he's been doing it his whole life.  I'll have to record it sometime and post it.  It really is a sight to see.

Axel hasn't wanted to try the goat swing yet.  But he has been really into running, especially when he is being  Super Infra Man.  He's such a gentle little soul.  He melts my heart.

Budding box elder beautifully juxtapositioned  against the sky.  Love that background color.

And here I am, bundled up and cold.  Wishing, wishing, wishing for warmer weather.  I'm not relying on sunshine for happiness, but it sure would make it so much easier.

So there you have it folks.  Hope you have a lovely Friday.  Happy Easter.

Walking along.  Collecting pine needles for the nest.

For this bird friend of ours.  Who, is actually fake, but makes a really good toy when you need something to cheer you up.

Tried to catch the deer running away.  Do you see them?  We startled them on our way down to the garden.

The box elders trees are budding.  On this really cold April day, they are about the only reminder that it is actually spring.  Andy said you can tap box elders and make syrup from the sap: they are in the maple family.  We may have to try that next year.

Freshly made woodpecker hole!  I love how perfectly round it is!  You couldn't drill a better, more precise hole.  Amazing.

Oh, how I love this barbed wire.  Isn't it lovely?  It has been sitting here for ages and ages.

I made these pants for Asa.  He's been seriously deficient in pants, and I've been wanting to make some with pockets for awhile.  So I went for it.  I'm pretty psyched about how they turned out.  I think I'll make some more.  Despite the grump face, I think he was psyched too.  He wanted to wear them the rest of the evening.  That's a good sign.

That was our day, mixed in with a lot of spontaneous, erratic almost-six and almost-three-year-old emotion.  And now I'm tired, tired, tired.  Off to start some chili in the crock pot for tomorrow!  Have a great day out there, friends.

The second round of baby chicks are here.  And, the boys played with two of them in bed as soon as they woke up.  Before anything else.  I was glad for the distraction, so that I could go brew up some coffee.  Because that is what comes first for me.

I have been a total jerk about the chicks.  I hover, bark orders "don't hold so tight", and even yelled today at Axel when he started to run away from the overbearing me, with a chick in his hand.  The thing is,  these boys do just fine with the chicks without my over reactions.  They are tender and sweet with them, mostly.  But I get all freaky about them because they are teeny tiny.  I feel horrible about the yelling.  So out of guilt, I made them their very favorite food for breakfast.  Pancakes, with raspberry syrup and maple yogurt.

The kids slayed them.   They love pancakes.

Our recipe goes something like this:

1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour - or - 1 c. ww flour plus 1/4 c. oats

2 TBSP sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1 c. milk

1 Tbsp oil

I don't separate the dry from wet and then add together like most recipes say to do.  I'm usually in way too big of a hurry.  So, I just add it all to a quart sized glass pyrex measuring cup and roll with it.

While the pancakes are frying, I heat up raspberry syrup (thanks to Andrew and Stacy), 1/2 stick of butter and a wee bit of maple syrup in a small saucepan.

When cakes are done, I dollop some Brown Cow whole milk maple yogurt on top of it and drizzle syrup on top of that.  Superb.

I have been making dresses for kids out of old tee shirts.  I'm not sure how I feel about them.  I do know I am getting better at making them.

I don't really expect anyone to like this except me.  Judging by the reactions I have gotten thus far.

This one looks a little wonky in the picture, but is actually quite cute in real life.

Again, this looks a little off in the picture, but is pretty dang cute in reality.   We'll see what this evolves into.  For now it is just fun making them. 

We are definitely in between seasons here.  The stark contrasts feel hopeful.  Change is happening, not just in the air, but on the ground.  The snow is melting, in some places it is entirely gone.  And, I think that frozen germs have come back to life and decided to take advantage of my family.

For the first time ( I think?) all three boys are really sick at the same time.  All in the same stage of needy-ness for the most part.  None of them can really do much for themselves right now.  Andy is doing what he can, but it ain't much, poor guy.  So, here I am writing this in absolute silence with the door open so that I can jump up and assist with any requests coming from the bedroom.  The only bedroom that we all sleep in, except for Andy, who has decided to sleep on the couch.

Before everyone got really sick, we went on a few little walks outside, and actually we went on a short walk today while everyone was sick, but it didn't last long.

Asa pointed out that the bark-less part of this tree looks like pizza dough.  I'd have to agree.

Axel ended up with a fever about six hours after this picture.  I can see it in his eyes now, but it didn't occurred to me at the time that he looked any different.  I was so elated that we were able to play outside without a layer of down, that I didn't notice.  Although now he is doing the best out of the three.  I think he really burned through it hard last night.  He's over the hump.

The boys built these snow tunnels with Andy a few weeks back.  They are still hanging on, as of a few days ago.  I'm not a fan.  I tend to get freaky and claustrophobic about snow tunnels.  Asa so wants me to be fun about it and go through the tunnel, but I can't.

We uncovered this gross business in the Milk house.  It had been left on the table after we harvested it in September probably.  It used to be a zucchini, now it looks like an over sized dried date/turd.

Even though Asa felt pretty rotten, he was still wanting to make things.  He watched movies most of the day, but took breaks to create his visions.  He is a man of many visions.  This guy is a knight.  See his pencil sword?  This kid can make anything out of paper, pencil, random objects and tape.

He decide early on today that he wanted to make a scarecrow.  I knew it wouldn't be entirely painless, because it required walking around outside with two sick kids.  But, actually it turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.  Not a minute after we walked out the front door we heard a knocking/tapping coming from the bird house on our fence.  And, out flew a Northern Flicker.  Such a sign of Spring!  Also, a Meadowlark has been waking me up every morning.  It sits high up in the locust tree outside our bedroom window.  Dang, I am so excited about these new sounds.

Here is the scarecrow Asa made, with a little help, but not much.

He looks more like a scary kid than a scarecrow.  But, I think he is terrific.  He intentionally made him look scary, and placed him in front of the house to scare off anything that might be needing some scaring.

It definitely felt like an extreme Spring kind of day. Blue skies, dark clouds, graupel, rain, blue skies, wind, more graupel.  Kinda awesome if you ask me.

There was so much that went into today.  But most of it was inside the four walls of our house, wishing we felt good enough to enjoy this crazy weather.

When the homesteaders laid claim to their land, part of the Homesteading Act required that they "prove up" in five years' time.  This meant that they had to work the land until it was a viable, successful farm or ranch within a five-year time frame before they could call it their own.

We have been here three years, and though I don't feel like we have proved up quite yet, we sure are getting close.  What does "prove up: mean to us?  I don't really know. Maybe it will just be a feeling of completeness, like we've done what we came here to do.  A full circle kind of feeling.  I guess we'll see when we get there.

I sure have learned a lot in the  three years we have been here.  But, I feel I still have a lot to learn.  I'm sure I could feel that way for the rest of my life.  I think this Spring/Summer season that we are heading towards is going to rock my world.  I've learned just enough about gardening to feel confident, and not enough to feel overwhelmed.  The perfect balance if you ask me.  I think this summer is going to be big for my kids, too.  I suspect they will only have more interest in the garden this year, building on what they already know.  That is terrifically satisfying to daydream about, let me tell you.

On one of those too-cold-to-snow, windy-assed days we had a week or so ago, the snow blew into mountainous drifts up here.  This one is maybe 8 feet tall.  It has become the newest coveted play spot on the homestead.   At first the boys just jumped off of it, but now, with Andy's help, they have built snow tunnels through it.  Just trying to enjoy these last few weeks of winter, right?

There sure are a lot of beautiful colors around here.  Even through the gray-ness of it all.

I have been taking a keen interest in sewing/fashion/clothing lately.  It seems to be my creative outlet.  It's functional, and makes a statement.  I love the golden hues in the leaves of this tree.  It looks like a golden dangly '70s- style necklace to me .  It would also be a cool silkscreen design on a tee-shirt dress, no?

Not much else to report here.  Getting very excited about spring, and planting seeds.  What are you planting this year?