Hum drum

Winter is starting to feel a bit long. Not that it's been bad (after four years of unrelenting heat, definitely not!), but just a little, well, ho hum. A sure sign of that is our February photo album: eight photos taken the entire month. Our days all look pretty much the same, with the exception of Sunday (which look like all the other Sundays). Ramont's been helping an uncle lay a hardwood floor in his house, and I've been doing some farm accounting about two mornings a week. Ramont's also been attending some type of farm meeting (lunch included!) pretty much every week, and I volunteer at the MCC thrift store once in awhile. We see my folks a few times a week either at our place or theirs. Now and then we have folks over for a meal, which helps inject some new ideas into the system.  Here we are waiting for some lunch guests (Jonathan is driving truck, obviously).

Ramont built wood frames for two twin beds for our guestroom. We had the mattresses anyway, and thought it would be great to either push them together for one enormous bed or separate them for two single guests. Jonathan naturally was a big helper in all of this.

We'd been looking for a love seat for our living room, and through the local radio station's "swap line" found this cajun red one. It's quite nice, except for the lingering smoke smell. Ramont's beautiful cherry coffee table has become not only a launching pad for jumps onto the cajun red love seat, but also as a conducting platform. The kids turn on a choral CD, then stand there and direct away. I caught a great video of Jonathan directing away fiercely on an energetic song, then slowing down on the next (slow, reflective) song, until he sighed "I'm too sad," and got down and slinked away.

We're very schedule-oriented people, so our day always looks more or less like this:
6am: Begin morning yerba-mate session

7am: Breakfast

8am: Ramont (or I) leaves for work; we play, wash and/or fold diapers, etc

9am: Kids have "quiet" time for an hour, during which they read books and/or play in their room (Anna often growls loudly, so "quiet" is rather euphemistic); I make phone calls, do paperwork and other stuff that requires good attention (but also includes internet surfing and drinking coffee)

10am: Morning snack, followed by good play time, lunch prep, etc

12am: Lunch

1pm: Naps - Jonathan now plays in his room for 1-1.5 hours until falling asleep until 4pm; Anna sleeps an hour max; after that she eats 1/2 gallon of plain yogurt and plays with solo mama for hours

4pm: Snack time with both kids, followed by good play time

6pm: Supper of bread & cheese, followed by nuaksheeta running around

6:30: Bath, reading, and singing

7:15-7:30: All is blissfully quiet.