We have been reading a lot these days. I decided to start reading to the girls from a book I bought a while back, Stories Of The Saints. It is fantastic! We are also still reading Mary Poppins Opens The Door (the third book in the Mary Poppins series), as well as the usual Aesops fables, Grimm’s Fairy Tales and Jakob Streit’s books here and there.

Kesa and I are painters. At least I want to start painting more. She loves watercolor paints. I hope to get some real watercolor stuff, paints, and paper etc. For now it is just crayola paints on plain paper, but it is still fun to do together. She still mostly loves to paint rainbows.

On Tuesday the girls and I spent the day baking. It started with the idea to make Whole Wheat Onion and Garlic Crackers. I’ve been buying so much boxed stuff this winter and have rarely done any of my own baking I decided that it was time to get back into the kitchen! Baking and cooking to me are great ways to calm my mind and help me focus and be present. It is also something that I consider to be an act of love for my family, plus homemade food is so much better than anything from a box.

Being in the kitchen is also something I want my girls to imitate and to witness their mom doing so that they too can know how to make their own soup, bread, cookies, crackers and snacks when they grow up and have a family of their own. I just love that time spent together creating recipes, watching them get excited about measuring and mixing and even having flour, oil or syrup get spilled all over the counters and floors (Serafina LOVES to play with the flour). I just think of how their little spirits are enjoying the creating aspect and learning so much. Baking and cooking is a part of our homeschooling for sure.

We made lemon muffins, (some with blueberries added in and some plain), apple oat muffins, sweetened with dates, the crispy crackers, split pea and brown rice soup, bread, and a little fun lunch, hot dog monsters.

I saw the idea a long time ago on pinterest and knew that it was something that Kesa would especially love because she is my picky eater. All you do is stick spaghetti through some chopped up hotdogs and boil them in a pot. It would seem as if pleasing kids were easy!

On Tuesday and Wednesday I abandoned the messy house to just be outside with the girls. I have way too much to do around here to be just relaxing and being, but nature was calling me and I had to listen. We had such a long and depressing winter that now that the sun is shining again I just have to be outside.

Serafina can hardly ever sit still in the house. Right after breakfast she is always grabbing at her shoes and pulling at the door to get out. So, we are back into walking again. I think in town we are known as the walking family. People always comment about how many miles my stroller must have on it by now. Yesterday I packed up some food and they packed up their babies and we went out for a walk by the river.

We got a little ways from home and I had to run back and get my camera. There was just too much beauty to be seen.

Today and tomorrow are calling for rain, so I am glad that I decided to leave the mess until today and spend yesterday just being.