It's midwinter already; slowly the days lengthen, yet snow blankets the ground deep and white, and spring is a long way off. I keep the bird feeders filled and watch the birds out the window as they feast and gossip while my children sit around the dining room table working out math problems and reading about diatoms, asteroids, and the ancient Indus Valley people. The tea kettle needs filling constantly these days as we warm ourselves with cups of tea and cocoa. I've got socks on my knitting needles (green wool knit from the toe-up), and I'm reading The Wrong Mother, by Sophie Hannah. With all of us indoors--the cats, too--there is lots of housework. The vacuum gets pulled out twice a day, and the house smells like sunlight and lemons.
We've celebrated three birthdays in the past month: S turned eighteen, Z turned sixteen, and A turned thirteen. Three teenagers in the house now.
And one tortoise.
A received it for her birthday. Which brings our current animal count up to ten, not including the fish, frog, and eel. E worries that we may be becoming animal hoarders. LOL.
Both S and Z are in rock ensembles at the local music school, and S will begin a new semester at the community college in two weeks.
A and I are taking belly dancing classes on Monday nights, which is really, really fun.
Visits to the library, sledding, games of Clue, Yahtzee, and Bananagrams, water color painting, playdough, laundry, shoveling, journal writing, baking cakes and cookies, Human Target on TV, and, of course, knitting make for warm winter days!
