Lenkaland

Yes, more snow! This storm was kind enough to dump rain at school all day (a whole week of indoor recess, hurrah ). It changed to snow in the late afternoon. And it was blustery, sideways-swirly snow. Like being inside a snowglobe.

The blustery winds meant snow flew every-which-way, coating pine needles and branches.

Spring is trying to bloom!  Until the poor horse is buried again

Building a snowman.

Brave flowers.

Finishing touches on the snowman.

Snowman!

Snow princess

“I dropped my glove!”

And that ends our snow adventures for today.  Snow-day tomorrow?  I hope!

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We woke up Friday morning to this overnight winter-gift.  Anika is not sitting down, she sunk this deep in the two-foot drift.  Oh, and the power was out.  Power outages come with the storms around here.  Lots of trees to crack limbs on heavy wires.  The night before, we lost power for a few hours, got it back for awhile, then lost it again.  Each time I woke up to the sudden silence or whir of machines humming to life again.  The world gets so incredible-still when the power goes out.  No refrigerator, computer-cooling-fans, fish tank bubbles.  Nothing.  Pure quiet.  Little unsettling

In the morning I used my ingenuity to warm up water for hot cocoa and tea.  Tried the fondue pot.

Made a few cute little bubbles, but finished it off by holding it over the gas-lit fireplace.  They really should mold those ceramic logs to hold a pot over the fire.  Not flat, but a clever crook where you could boil a pot of water when the power goes.  Would be a great invention.

At first the kids were confused.  Ian was even a little angry.  ”No working!” he yelled at the many electronic devices in the house.  Anika and I showed him that gluing googly eyes with glitter glue is better than any electronic fun

Then we pulled out the Playmobils and set up a the Magic Forest.  Until the Dragon Knight came with his Undead Legion (1 skeleton by the tent) and kidnapped the Spring Fairy Queen and the forest slowly fell apart . . .

We needed Outside.  We geared up and played right outside the garage because the snow was deep enough to swallow Ian whole.  A slide going into a snowbank is always fun

Anika waded out towards the road to see how the neighborhood fared.

Ian found the summer-stash of bubbles.  Bubbles in the snow, sure!

Pumpkin needed a clean cage, so he came outside, too.  We gave him snowballs to play with in his cage.

Ian was brave after watching Anika pack down a snowy trail.  He followed her into the deep with ski-poles for balance.

Shelter under the apple tree.

Anika on our road.  Not much traveling today.  The power came back on, hurrah!  So I helped the chilly kids go inside to warm up and I took a little walk in the backyard (just to photograph the pool).

I loved their wild-horse rising up out of the snowdrifts.  My imagination took about a hundred flights of fancy thinking of frozen-steeds leaping up out of long-buried snow  . . .

Last, the pool.  Beautiful in the shape and color and stillness.  No swimming today

A fun day in the end.  A long haul for me, with the cold, and the aches, and the fatigue, but I enjoyed it through my family.  And this morning Anika said, “I wish we could have the power out again, Mom.”

We slow down .  I’ll remember that.  With heaters

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Hurrah!  After yesterday’s busy day with Anika’s amazing play and car repairs and more, waking up to snow looked like more drama.  The road was coated, but I could see pavement, so I got ready for work.  Sheesh, I could just see it keep coming down and Ian will be at daycare and we’ll have all that big energy at school and-

Ring, ring!  The phone.  Snow day!  School was cancelled.  What a huge gift.  We had an Avatar-cartoon marathon on the couch.  The kids made a snowman and Ian attacked the snow with a sword and I cleaned the kitchen and it was all lovely quiet-stay-home day.  Yay!

Now we’ll see what happens tomorrow

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The rain dripped on us and our felt owls and fairies.  The streets reflected Christmas lights in the slick.  A few people were brave.  Not too many, but enough to keep the night interesting.  Not a big money-maker, for sure, but there was an adventure in huddling in our tent with hot chocolate.  Our nice neighbors lent us a tarp for the back of the pavilion, and that helped a lot.  Luckily, it wasn’t as cold as the week before.  A lot less people, though.

Still, through word of mouth around town, we’ve almost broken even.  That’s expenses, not time.  I got to wondering about people that do this professionally, following faires and festivals, a traveling, and yet always the same thing lifestyle.  I mean, we’re there for fun, and a dreary night doesn’t affect us that much.  But what if this was our livelihood?  Hats off to the professional artists and crafters out there.  It isn’t easy.

I got to bring a new pattern last night.  Mom watched Ian for a few hours on Tuesday so I worked in a frenzy to get the fairy pattern together.  I took photos for each direction.  A lot of quick work, but it turned out well.  I’ll get it on Etsy soon.

The night just got very busy- little emergencies around here.  Nothing serious, but no computer time for Mama

Peace!

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A few images from Tuesday’s dress rehearsal. She is hooked on performing now! She’s a marvelous mouse!

The show has 135 performers, including these 26 mice.  It’s amazing.  Here the little mice are carrying off the Mouse King.  Poor Mouse King.  He’s very brave.

A great show this weekend in Nevada City if you can go!

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Tomorrow is the big day.  Night.  We are hosting a booth at the local street faire for Victorian Christmas.  Around here, Victorian Christmas is a big deal.  A really big deal.  My friend and I got in a little (okay, way over our heads) when we thought of this plan.  But we both have financial challenges (like many of us these days) and we thought it would be a fun way to help finance the holidays.  Phew, we’re sure earning every dime.

I do like my fairies, though, and it was a fun motivation to make them again.  I took the crafting in small doses so I wouldn’t tweak my hand.  When I do too much handwork (more than twenty minutes), my little finger goes numb on my left hand.  For days or weeks.  Pinched ulner nerve.  Still, it’s the love of the craft

How can I say no to them?

I adore these.  New this year and a quick favorite of mine.  Dark Angels.  Because even the fairies like darkness

And the whole family.

The small ones will be $10 and the big ones $20.  I know that we are struggling with competive pricing, what with the attractive sales at big stores, but the cost pays me a couple of dollars an hour after materials.  Any lower and I might as well give them away.  We’ll see.  I’ll let you know, of course.

Wish us luck!  And lots of happy customers.

We’re also selling our Secrets of Magical Crafting with Children, kits, patterns, and my friend made her own Star Babies and Owls.  Should be a fun night.  If we can stay warm

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Ever get that feeling where you can see the surface of the water above you?  And if you just kick a little harder, push a little stronger, you could bust through into the sunshine and take a long sweet breath of air?

Except no matter how hard you kick, the surface just gets farther away, and you sink down down down into whatever depths surround you.

Well, I am happily sinking.  All of the crazy is good-crazy.  And I probably won’t get to the surface until after Christmas, but that’s okay.

Anika is a mouse!

No, she hasn’t grown ears and a tail . . . yet.  Her Nutcracker show had tech rehearsal today at the big theater where I once staged plays in high school.  She loves performing!

There are a lot of mice and soldiers.  It’s a big show.  Superfun.  But Anika’s energy is huge, and the rehearsals are late into the evening.  Which means Ian misses his Mama.  Tomorrow is dress so I should get some cute mouse photos.

And I am helping a friend with the local street fair on Wednesday.  I made a bunch of fairies (photos tomorrow) and I am organizing craft patterns to sell.  I hope to make a little extra to help with holiday expenses, but we have no idea if we’ll sell anything.  A lot of preparing, though.  Everyone may get patterns for owl finger-puppets for Christmas

And Anika is missing school on Thursday (I am getting a sub- yikes, need to fill out that Independent Study paperwork) so she can perform the Nutcracker for local schools.  Need sub plans for that.

And Ian had a doctor appointment today that I clean forgot about in the midst of everything else.  The office was so nice (thank you thank you) and understanding, they squeezed us in the afternoon and didn’t charge me a penalty.  Must check calendar every morning.  Must.

And I’m way behind on posting here, or editing photos.  Or cleaning the house.

But, good news.  The doctor called yesterday and said that I do not have an infection.  My troubles could be from an injury or who-knows-what, but no risk of really-bad-things.  The treatment earlier this month may be enough for my system to kick it to the curb, so I’m on the road to recovery, hurrah!  Still need to get my blood levels checked to make sure they are improving, too.

I need sleep.  Last night was way late with work-stuff.  Tonight with fairy-stuff.  And we have to get to school on time in the morning.

So, yes, I’m sinking.  I’m underwater, but it’s a dance all the same.  A potentially beautiful dance with lots of good things.  Just.  Stay.  Grounded.  No injuries

How do I stay grounded underwater?

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This is not normal.  We get snow in our part of California, but not this early in the season.  The trees are hurting- broken branches everywhere.

At the same time, awesome snow forts!

For the latest and greatest weather reports for our area, visit nevadacountyweather.com

This is a storm for the record books!

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We took a leap this summer. We signed up for a farm share with my parents. Once a week since June, we drove a long road, waited for endless (twenty minutes or more at times) road construction, down a gravel road, to the Riverhill Farm. In June, the flowers were being planted. The fields were full of red strawberries and ripening tomatoes.

Today was the last day.

The flowers are dry and stiff as we walk to the farm stand to pick up our produce for the week.  Anika and Ian know exactly where to go.  To the strawberry patch.

What a perfect taste of summer!

We learned about new veggies like Jerusalem Artichokes this year.  Ian learned a lot about strawberries.  These late season treasures are struggling to ripen, but the boy doesn’t care.  He shows off his berry basket.

Behind Ian is the crumpled mess of tomatoes, which only two weeks ago gave us baskets and baskets of sweet treats.  This summer, I learned how to make homemade tomato sauce.  Easy enough for the tired days

Ian learned how to find ripe red strawberries, to leave the ‘babies’ for later.  He learned how to pull the leaves off each berry before eating it.

He eats the whole berry at once, because why nibble on berry-bliss?

Well. Maybe the entire berry is a little much . . .

Still yummy!

Then once more through the gate, until next spring!

We will miss the farm-share.  The fruits and veggies were amazing.  Reminded us of what our food is supposed to taste like.  All sunshine and earth and goodness.  It inspired us to try new things, rediscover old recipies.  We made big batches of salsa to share at parties.

Food was an event.  A weekly adventure.  Fun to gather and eat.

We split the share with my parents, so we had help with pick-ups on busy weeks.  We also got way too much food for our one family so it worked perfectly.  Yes, it was more money than buying at our local grocery store (cost-wise), but I suspect it came close when we measure how much food came home in each week’s box.  And the experience, to see my children learn to pick strawberries and eat them sun-warm right then, to pick tomatoes and green beans, discover new flavors and favorite dishes, that is, as they say, priceless.  Anika loves my tomato sauce more than anything she finds in a jar.

What a fun growing season.

Our farm-share was with Riverhill Farm in Nevada County- sustainable farming, yummy food

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