In the first week of December, Katherine found herself juggling a piano recital and two separate school presentations: one on the life of Joan of Arc, and the other on the health benefits of bananas. Sydney and I, deep in our end-of-semester grading, could commiserate with her feeling of being overwhelmed. Nathaniel just tried to avoid bumping into our stress.
Once end-of-semester projects were wrapped up, we headed to Nova Scotia to visit family. There, we got to watch our kids play with their two young cousins (Allister, 2.5, and Everett, 7 months) and have food and games with extended family. Katherine and Nathaniel were thrilled to discover that some of their quiet second cousins are also lightning-fast Dutch Blitz players.
Despite the windy winter weather, we got out for a quick visit to the North Shore, where we looked out on the Bay of Fundy. Gorgeous scenery. Despite the intense cold and wind, the kids still say that was the best part of our trip. They really want to go back, but in the summer.
The kids have been showing increasing interest in the kitchen in the past few months. Nathaniel often prefers cookbooks or seed catalogs to fiction during reading time, and he and Katherine earned enough good-behavior points over the school break to pick out dishes to make (nearly) on their own. After her success over Thanksgiving, when she made cornbread using Sydney’s first batch of home-ground cornmeal, Katherine opted for a crust-less lemon meringue pie, in individual serving cups, for a January treat. Nathaniel made an herb-and-mushroom pasta, as well as a big batch of granola. I am definitely enjoying the company in the kitchen, particularly since Katherine has also started lending a hand with dishwashing.
Erin
Alan Schmierer
Kids are growing so much! Great to see pictures of them and read an update. with love from Stockton, CA.