Fun in the Sun Ski Trip

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I'd heard of spring skiing, had even seen photos of people skiing in swimsuits, but this week in the Sierra Nevada provided a bit of everything. Our first three days on the slopes involved LOTS of sunscreen and no coats, sometimes not even gloves and short sleeves even for Mr. B. The fourth day we watched a storm roll in and enjoyed some good fresh snow in the afternoon. And of course as we packed to leave we enjoyed stomping through half a foot of freshly fallen snow, light, powdery, begging for skis, but we were headed down the mountain.

The girls picked up RIGHT where they left off last year. You may recall that, at the very last minute on the very last day, we finally took our first family run - all four of us skiing down the big hill together. What a treat! This year we played on the bunny hill for only a few minutes before beginning a long series of extended runs with the entire family on the big hill. The girls did so well. I really enjoyed skiing with them on the green slopes as much as (and often more than) taking the tougher, faster runs by myself, so I only did grown-up runs a few times throughout the course of the week.

As always, V found plenty of other things to do with the snow, including multiple snowfolk and other structures, sliding, climbing and fully enjoying our one week in "winter." E was bound for the mountain, and nothing was going to slow her down.

We returned home just in time to clean up before my sister-in-law and my niece arrived for a weekend of crafting (photos at link). We had a fantastic first day today. Niece L made her first pillow. S-I-L learned to use her sewing machine. E finished her Project Linus quilt. V proudly used the sewing machine on a cat pillow which she began. And I had a few minutes to play with my Project Linus quilt. Good company, some completed projects - a great day.


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Plan V

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Today we had a plan. Let's call it Plan A. There were lots of activities on our mommy-do, honey-do, kid-do list. There were things to be learned, subjects to cover, projects to complete and others to begin. Seeds and science and geometry and spelling, history and music and more.

V woke up with another plan in mind. Let's call it Plan V.
Though I was awake and heading toward the shower, she made me breakfast in bed. It was to be consumed in bed, reclined, relaxing with the newspaper. She served it with a big smile. She had her own plan.

Plan V worked.

I ate my Egglet (hard-boiled egg from the pile I boiled yesterday, bread, cheese and a mug o' milk), stretched out, and promptly fell back to sleep. For an hour.

An hour of play. An hour of absolutely NO direction from Mom. An hour of trampoline bouncing and reading and kitty wrestling. In kid terms, an hour of bliss. On top of the time it took me to eat breakfast and flip through the paper that put me right back to sleep.

When I woke, V was squealing on the trampoline; E was pounding yucca leaves she'd soaked overnight so she could extract the fibers and make rope. Far be it from me to disturb them. That's P.E. and history/science/art, right?

I took a shower and worked the crossword.

Finally, V ran in flushed and panting. "Mommy! Will you please help me move the compost bin?! There's a frog under there and I can't move the bin!"

Enter Mommy - the heavy lifter, the amphibian catcher.

OK...now exit, Mommy.

The girls played with the frog, analyzed the frog, tested the frog's ability to jump on various terrains. (In case you wondered, no, trampolines don't help small frogs.) Then they built a terrarium for their newfound friend. It was a wonderful setup with all the things the frog needed, except food. So they went on a bug hunt and collected a variety which they dumped unceremoniously in the terrarium.

Meanwhile, I finished my Project Linus quilt, and made lunch. I resisted the urge to turn on the computer and get involved with a blog, or blog reading, or friggin' Facebook, or my own book project.

After lunch, we returned to Plan A. Yes, we did math. Yes, we wrote a little. We giggled and talked, and thought and crafted. V was keen on reading to me, so we stopped everything so she could. She did. For an hour. We began building armor for Knight Day which Mr. B has planned for this weekend. (We're studying the Middle Ages this year.)

There were no textbooks. There were no lectures. Sorry, traditionalists, but this seems to be working for us all.

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You're Invited to a Pajama Party

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As many of you know, our family is working on a project that we hope will change our community, if only a TINY bit, for the better. Each day, we're doing a charitable deed. It doesn't have to be big, but neat projects are popping out of the woodwork! So far, we've made quilts for Project Linus, volunteered at the animal shelter, recycled, opened doors, maintained a website, provided roadside assistance, picked up trash. None of them are GREAT works that will CHANGE THE WORLD. But it's been fun being more aware of our community, the people around us, the details of daily life, living mindfully, I suppose.

I just found out about the Pajama Program, a national nonprofit, which is getting its start here on the Central Coast. The program collects new (with tags) PJs for kids from infancy to age 17 and new books for the same group. These items are distributed to kids who may not have their own parents to provide these things for them, who may never have had a parent tuck them in at night. So far, the local chapter has identified three organizations averaging 30 children/month each who will benefit from this program. There's a high turnover, so that's 30 children times three programs times 12 months. Well, that's a lot of bedtime books and PJs.

The Best Family will be collecting PJs and books for the project through April. Would you like to join in our drive? Maybe you can hit up your neighborhood or church, friends, other clubs or organizations in which you're involved. Once we've gathered our PJs, I thought it would be fun to have a PJ party (parents could PJ, too) to bring the collections together. I don't know where, yet. When I think of PJs during WAKING hours, I think of COFFEE, HOT CHOCOLATE and CIDER!

If you're interested in taking part, please keep in mind, PJs and books need to be new and unused. Please keep all tags on the pajamas. In addition, we cannot accept pajamas or books with any religious messages or violent themes.

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