writing

Tonight I went to a creative non-fiction class for mothers. It was held at the local community college and was a steal of a deal in terms of tuition. I gather the rate is highly subsidized for parenting programs. I feel lucky to benefit from such policies!
It was a 2.5 hour class led by 2 mothers who are heavily involved with the "Listen To Your Mother Spokane" presentation that has happened here for the last 3 years. The show is a wonderful opportunity to hear short essays about parenting (face-it, Mothering) from within the community.
My assignment for the class is to hand in a draft of an idea/essay on Sunday and at the next class the two leaders will return our piece of writing with their editing suggestions. I'm just a bit bummed that the class is only 2 sessions long. . .  I will be encouraging them to hold a longer class in the future. Since I have been thinking about this class and also LTYM quite a lot I am excited to send them an idea/essay. Luckily I have already begun my first draft on a certain topic but plan to write on some other ideas too. Anyone think this is a good idea?

Happiness.

You can hear the sopraninininini, Timo, in this vid... :)
The next generation of VISI singers getting trained up.

15 months

Fifteen months means

sleeping better (not every night but most)
sudden onset of snits- including a big bottom lip (is that biological or what?!?!) and throwing oneself to the ground

at least 11 teeth
still little on the "charts" <5th -75th="" circumference="" for="" head="" p="" weight="">because he's so little it means he gets to wear all his cute little clothes for much longer!

hugging Mum lots
signing for a number of things but mostly using that "eah" sound
loves his baths- started "swimming" in the tub

Oh, and climbing. lots and lots of climbing- always wanting to be bigger!!!

at Nasja's birthday party

Winter Wonders

We have had a few days of warmer weather and the snow around our house has mostly melted. I think I prefer the fresh snow to the mostly melted kind! We have had marvelously wintery days around here. The fog descends and we get spectacular ice forming on everything. It only happened once last year (i thought it might happen all the time) and so this year I rushed out to take photos of it!

On these branches you can see the ice formed on only one side.

This is a bough of Douglas Fir!

 It can be treacherously icy around here and it is essential to have "yak traks" or similar grips on your boots for those icy days. I am still liking the 4 seasons "thing" but I am very much looking forward to spring and getting outside and mucking about in my garden. This year I hope that Timo will be past the "insatiable desire to put everything in his mouth" stage by the time i need to start digging!

No excuses!

Time to post something. Anything....
Things are fine around here. We have had a busy 2013 already with both Martin and I traveling away from home. Martin went to California for some continuing education and I went to BC to do a few days of ABM work with kids. It was nice to get away and have many moments of quiet- there is a lot of talking with a 6 and 8 year old around! When Martin was I away I was keenly aware of the different dynamic of single parenting. It forces me to be more organized as I have to do it all. I sailed a pretty tight ship and the older kids were good natured and helpful. We had fun together. Timo was his usual self- pretty easy going but always a going concern.
We didn't manage to write and send off a Christmas letter this year. Perhaps we will have to choose another holiday to send greetings to our friends. We have friends who send out family greetings on St Patrick's Day- perhaps we could do the same :) .
Now that I have broken the blogging ice I can post about other things!!