The title MAY be a bit of an exaggeration. But welcome to the winter that keeps on giving.
Congratulations! You are enjoying the longest February on record. Technically February is the shortest month of the year, in days, but not in the long drawn-out days of snow-ice-locked cold.
It’s snowing as I type. Skies are heavy gray with a peep of pink along the eastern edge. The landscape is white with bits of black edging from homes, red from the stop sign, and gray-brown from fence posts. White is the dominant theme this winter. Our water resources are sure to be full and overflowing this summer. For that, I am thankful.
I love snow! Really, I do. But. As March edges closer, my thoughts turn to green and bits of yellow and floaty blossoms on trees. Where are you spri-ng? Why can’t I find you? (In my head that sounds like Cindy Lou Who singing “Where Are You Christmas?”)
But today. We have snow. How about one more snow day’s worth of pictures? Come July and the season of sweat, I will bemoan the lack of lacy white.
Celebrate the snow with children everywhere who pray for snow days, late starts, snow play, and hot cocoa.
Love, Z is a great example of a robot tale about the meaning of love. I grabbed Love, Z from a library display and checked it out. Simplicity, good story, nice interactions, clean and beautiful illustrations, and great examples of love help Z (and young readers) understand love. I fell in love with the adventures of Love, Z.
Love, Z is the perfect book to springboard conversations about love and how it looks to different people, even robots.
Blurb from Amazon:
When a small robot named Z discovers a message in a bottle signed “Love, Beatrice,” they decide to find out what “love” means. Unable to get an answer from the other robots, they leave to embark on an adventure that will lead them to Beatrice—and back home again, where love was hiding all along.
KID KANDY
Build a Love Robot
Materials: construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, markers
1. Cut shapes from construction paper-hearts, circles, rectangles, triangles.
2. Arrange shapes on a table until you find the perfect design for a love robot. Use glue stick to glue edges together. Don’t forget to add arms, legs, and faces (eyes, nose, mouth, ears).
3. Use a marker to add details to your robot. Give him or her a name! As you create, think about what love means to you. Tell your mom or dad your thoughts and let them tell you what they think about love.
4. Find a nice spot to hang your robot where you can see him or her. May I see? Ask for help and take a picture and add it to the comments. We’d love to meet your new friend.
Do you have a word of the year? This year my word is treasure. Last year my word was roots and I had an inspirational image art project I worked on throughout the year to remind me of my word.
I don’t yet have an art project in process for treasure, but the image is forming in my mind. I’m letting it percolate on the back burner. You know what happens when things perk on the back burner? If it’s my dad’s coffee pot, the old-fashioned type with grounds, metal basket, and metal coffee-greasy shellac, then perking will brew strong, formidable, grow-the-hair-on-your-chest type of coffee.
That’s what I’m going for. Treasure that grows strong, formidable, and grows the hair on my chest, in the courage and confidence sort of way. Letting my word simmer will add notes of depth, fragrance, insights, and spicy overtones. As I taste my word, treasure, I hope I will also grow deeper, gain insights, become more fragrant, and enjoy spice in my life.
A spicy life! Let’s do it!
“Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” (Psalm 34:8, NKJV)
“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” (2 Corinthians 2:14, NKJV)
Taste and see, smell and know.
I began a Blessings and Thankfulness journal on January 1. Nothing fancy, just a cheap composition notebook and pens. As I focus on my treasure, I want to remember the blessings and reasons for thankfulness which are all around me. You know how easy it is to complain and mope. Ugh. I’m so tired of that. But still, I sink into that attitude. I hope by considering and jotting down both blessings and thanks, I can avoid the pity party.
Today, NO SCHOOL. At all. As a kid, I would love it. As a Nana, I can’t keep up! (But I still love it.)
Sledding, shoveling, driving RCs (rock crawlers to you folks not in the RC club know), and clambering in very deep snow and cold temps leads us to the refreshment portion of the day.
It’s time to make Snow Cream!
Fill one large bowl with clean snow. CLEAN snow.
Mix between 1/4-1/2 cup sugar into 1 cup of milk. Dissolve sugar. Add 1 tsp. vanilla to milk. Stir well.
Pour small amounts of sweetened milk over ice cream and stir. If you don’t have enough liquid, add more milk. I like to reduce the sugar as much as possible, so start with the smallest amount.
Once the snow is creamy, scoop into bowls and enjoy! Snow cream is a hit in this house.
P.S. IF you are a mommy, daddy, auntie, or Nana, and a fan of Irish cream, uhm, the coffee creamer version could help you survive snow days. Maybe after the kiddies are tucked in bed at night. A little Irish cream snow treat.
Make a puzzle circle! Miss Autumn (2) was quite content to sit inside the puzzle circle and work puzzles. Simone was happy to supervise. A cozy nearby fireplace added ambiance and warmth for this cold winter day activity.
There is something about the NEST format of play. Are you a nest person? I am. I’ve always loved playing inside a circle formed by things-toys, books, supplies, whatever I’m working on-spread in a circle which surrounds me.
I really need to research this nest phenomenon. Does it point to a specific need, like security? Is nesting organizational in nature? Am I completely OCD and this is how it manifested itself when I was a child? Am I a circle person? Is this a form of marking my territory, albeit the creation of play boundaries and personal space instead of doggy pee trails? What does that mean?
Not nesting, as in I’m pregnant and preparing for the imminent birth of my child, though I also experienced that type of nesting. I clearly remember nesting the entire Memorial Day weekend. I thought I was just making things tidy, cleaning house, and putting baby things away. Lo and behold, our first baby came 3 weeks early and arrived before lunch on the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Surprise! I was baby nesting.
There is also the type of nesting performed by birds. I am not a bird. But I am amazed at the intricate, sturdy, vastly creative and unique types of nests these little bird brains build. With that in mind, I’m sure bird brain is a complement.
Back to play nesting. I have memories of Barbie nests, toy box nests (where the toy box is empty and I am surrounded by the toys), and fabric nests. The fabric nests lets you know this nesting trait carried over to my adult years. I remember a specific photo of my two preschoolers, complete with a circle of toys and nearly empty toy box. Donavyn and Autumn (grands) love sitting inside blanket nests. Is nesting hereditary?
Any ideas? Do you nest? Have you seen young children exhibit nesting? I’d love to know more about the nesting syndrome.
Meet Gage (3 going on 4) and Autumn (2 going on 16). Gigi is also featured above, all 3 of them enjoying a Babybel cheese break.
Preschoolers have discerning tastes and interests. I’d like to add that both of these magnificent grands are eloquent, opinionated, book afficionados. Here are their current favorite picture books. And why I think each has preschool staying power.
“Again!”
This remark nearly guarantees a great picture book. They should call it the AGAIN Award. SPOILER ALERT: Both grands love Peter and his adventures in the snow, though Gage is convinced the snowball did not melt, but is in fact, tucked beneath Peter’s chin as he sleeps. Don’t believe me? Look at that page. The background white section looks exactly like a snowball. They both love the snow adventures.
Why I think this book deserves the AGAIN Award:
Simplicity of text, universal preschool and young reader experiences, nature focus, playfulness of a child’s day in the snow
Froggy and his silly antics keep Gage and Autumn glued to the story. They love me to read this to them as they eat lunch. They love jumping to the conclusion before I even get there. The laughing portions of the book have great child appeal.
Why I think this book deserves the AGAIN Award:
Humor, age-appropriate excitement and desire to enjoy life, Froggy’s disregard for reality (hibernate in winter), repetitive language
Of all the books we read, this one surprises me. Not that it’s a bad book, but, you know, she dies at the end. Despite that, Gage LOVES this book. He knows the ending and he loves how the old lady gets larger and larger. I always use a sing-song voice when I read it, so music complements the retelling. Who knew?
Why I think this book deserves the AGAIN Award:
Illustrations, musical options, repetitive, cumulative, silly, full of exaggeration, contains extra details that can be shared as readers mature
This book was a hit the very first time I read it, with both Gage and Autumn. They love memorizing the story and retelling it themselves. I did hear that older brother, Donavyn, was purposely saying the wrong thing as she was reading to herself. This made her very angry! (This might have happened with the next book instead…). Preschoolers love reading about the caterpillar.
Why I think this book deserves the AGAIN Award:
Nature aspects of change, life cycle, eating, growing, overeating; days of the week; interesting pages and features like holes and different-sized pages; simple text and easy to recall story; classic picture book tale
This was one of the first books I dug out to share with Gage and Autumn. They loved it and immediately memorized the pattern of text and wanted to read it alone. This book is easy to figure out by simply turning the pages. The bright colorful illustrations help readers retell and enjoy the story.
Why I think this book deserves the AGAIN Award:
Predictable, patterned, colorful illustrations, teaches colors, simple text, imaginative (blue horse?!), fun to read, readers enjoy being in control and being the ‘teacher’ as they read
Anything with a flap is award-winning for preschoolers. This simple book has repetitive text and involves visual and textual clues to use to guess the answer. Fill-in-the-blank reading is lots of fun and both Gage and Autumn love shouting the answers. Animals, flaps, mystery! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve taped this book back together.
Why I think this book deserves the AGAIN Award:
Lift the flaps, simplicity, animal connections, emotions, cause and effect, thinking skills to figure out which pet is best
Three words: Hug, Bobo, Mommy. Who says you can’t tell a story with only 3 words? Everybody knows about hugs and mommy’s. Gage and Autumn love this book because of the mommy factor. Mommy’s are important and it would be horrible if she went missing. All the animals work together to help Bobo. So many good things in three words and great illustrations.
Why I think this book deserves the AGAIN Award:
The mommy factor, hugs, friends, helping, simple text, universal needs and desires, family, being lost and getting found
Introducing the AGAIN Award. You heard it here first, friends.
Let’s find other books that deserve the AGAIN Award. For in those beloved books, we will find the joy of reading and the shared experiences of lap time.
My little girl, Annabelle! How she loved the garden and being outside and snuggles on my lap. I miss her mama personality. As you can see, Anna Banana owned the garden. The house. The yard. The couch. The bed. The chair. As any true cat does.
This Throwback Thursday flings us back to when we first started a little kitchen garden in our old house. This triangle plot used to be cement. TOTAL concrete. Ugh! After my honey worked his fingers to the bone removing icky cement, I went right to work, planting tiny rows of radish, lettuce, beans, peas. We added flowers, parsley, thyme, and even strawberries. And every year, I continued to remove bits of broken concrete that worked its way to the surface.
It bloomed, grew, produced, this little potager, and gave me hours of pleasure. It also transformed over time to include a fence (to keep tiny grands from trampling tender shoots), blueberries, a host of insects and pests, and a wide variety of vegetable experiments and floral specimens. The very best year of production was when our neighbor found and homed a swarm of honeybees. Oh, did we miss those bees when he moved!
Do you have a potager? A secret garden? A weed patch?
Lately we’ve been required to take the weather app predictions with an entire shaker full of salt (instead of a few grains).
But not today! The app said snow, and snow is the happening event. I think they are quite a bit off on the amount of snow they predicted, as I spent over an hour shoveling and my tracks, trails, and cleared areas disappeared beneath more inches of the pretty fluff before I finished.
What is .2 of an inch anyway? Not the mountains of snow piled around the RV and shop. Do they measure snow AFTER they melt it in a cup? I keep sweeping .2 off the deck. And the next time I look, I need to do it again. Percentage of error seems to be quite high.
.2 frozen in my hair
Blowing wind, heavy snow, cold air. Winter is back. With near 50 degrees last week, I was thinking spring, bulbs popping up new flowers, pleasant walks, sunny skies. Wait. I thought the groundhog did not see his shadow and spring is coming early?
Winter or not, I love the white stuff. So beautiful. A bear to drive in (I watched a semi back down the hill near us when he couldn’t make it to the top). Slippery footing. Cold. So peaceful. Quiet.
No late start today. I think that is going to change tomorrow. Get out those snow clothes back out. It’s sledding time!
![Love, Z by [Sima, Jessie]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51aleJEXxDL.jpg)
