Any Similar Revival

My brother told my husband that when Piper found out she was coming to our house for Auntie Camp, she was all excited to see Aunt Ally, Uncle Chad, and Aiden. And then she said, “I get to make things!” I laughed so hard when Chad told me. Yes, my girl, come to Auntie Camp and make things!

This time, we made play doh. I found this recipe years ago online, and it’s not mine, so I’m not taking any credit for it. But it works really well, lasts a long time, and provides many hours of entertainment.

Homemade Play Doh:

1 C. flour

1/2 C. salt

1 T. cream of tartar

1 T. vegetable oil

1 C. water

food coloring of your choice (I use paste coloring, as it makes brighter, prettier colors, but regular liquid food coloring will work too.)

You can also add in other things, like glitter, spices, scents/extracts. We added gold glitter and lemon extract. She wanted yellow play doh.

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and mix well. Cook the dough over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it starts forming a ball. Make sure you fold the dry parts on the bottom of the pan into the wetter parts on top. When it is ready, it will stop looking so “wet” throughout.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead it until it is smooth. It is fairly warm at this point, and I actually enjoy the heat on my arthritic joints. Some kids might find it too hot, so be sure you check it first.

I just store it in a ziploc bag.

Isn’t my helper the cutest little chef you’ve ever seen?

I like to give googlie eyes out with our play doh.

Auntie Camp is my favorite!

Last week, Aiden and I met up with Willow and the boys at The expERIEnce Children’s Museum in Erie, PA.  It was about 2 hours to drive there from our location in northeastern Ohio, but it was a clear, sunny day. It was also 9 degrees, but that is beside the point. Neither of us had been there before, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. It ended up being a wonderful little museum, and our boys had a really good time! There are three levels, each with a different theme. Their favorite was the upper level, which was a pretend-play/imagination type theme. There was a little town, complete with grocery store, doctor’s office, and bank, and the kids could dress up and play their own games here. This was a hit! Of course, my kid decided to be a bank robber. Yay. Then he was the cashier in the little pretend Wegman’s grocery store. This store was my favorite part! It had shelves of play food that looked SO real! And little grocery carts! As a little girl, I’d have been SO happy to find a place like this.

These little docs were super dreamy.

Willow was a brave mommy, volunteering to be the patient. I volunteered to take the pictures.

The first floor was really fun too, with a giant water table feature. The water came down over a dam type thing, and you could change the course of the water by building walls. (You like my super-scientific descriptions?)  This changed the pressure of the water too, and I think they all learned a lot just by playing around here! I think we need one at home. Because I liked it too. 

I would recommend this museum to anyone within a reasonable driving distance. It is only $6 per person for admission, and you could easily spend a whole day. When we were there, we basically had the place to ourselves.

More pics:

. . .and I’m not sorry, either.

February was a bit of a stinker this year. Cold, dark, snowy, COLD. It was cold, too. Really cold.  But we did do some fun things besides shivering at home under piles of blankets, watching nature documentaries and reading books.

Aiden is reading books. Chapter books. It makes my heart sing.

And it’s March now, so all good, right? WRONG. As I sit here typing, we are getting several (and by several I mean six) inches of snow, topping off the foot of frozen water products currently on the ground. My menfolk are shoveling. I am scowling at the world out my window.

Sometimes, though, it is pretty. Here are some pretty pictures of February snow, from all through the month.

This one is particularly pretty, no?

Medina Ice Festival

Snow in Chincoteague. This is Crikey, my cousin Meredith’s dog. As a native Australian, this was his first experience with snow. He loved it!

It snows on the beach sometimes. Surreal, and absolutely lovely.

There is so much snow, Chad could build a tunnel for Aiden.

And this is my least favorite way to see snow. It’s not pretty. Not at all.

This post has gone on long enough. I did take other photos in February. Lots of them. And they have NO SNOW in them. But this post is not about them.

Hope you can enjoy the weather wherever you are, dear readers. I am dreaming of spring.

We had school today, but that’s not hard, since we have school at home every day! We started early, though, because the air temperature was finally warm enough to play outside in the fresh, wet, lovely snow. First, we went sledding, which gets more fun with my boy every year. We stayed a long time, long enough for us both to get completely soaked, despite our gear. Then, after changing at home and having lunch, he was back outside, building an epic snowman in the side yard. I accomplished an equally epic feat: shoveling the driveway. Now my “granny-back” is acting up, but at least we will be able to get in and out. The temps are supposed to dip back below zero tonight. Yikes.

Snow is fun, though.

It is the coldest week we’ve had since last winter, that winter of the now-infamous “Polar Vortex.” I remember now. Cold. Cabin fever. Clutching the hot water bottle all the time. Endless cups of tea. Non-stop fireplace hang outs. Cooped-up boy. It’s all coming back.

But we have had lots of living here, in the dead of winter. Lots of learning and exploring, READING, watching new movies and nature shows, baking, playing, hanging out in our jammies all day. It’s been all right. I do admit I am feeling a distinct longing for summer, and all the fun outings it affords. That, and no boots to lace up and tie every single time I go out the door. But winter is here, and it ain’t moving.  At least till April. Let us be reasonable.

So, it’s a new year! I love the new year, the way it feels so full of fresh promise. After all the STUFF of the holidays and the crazy food and the TOO MUCH, the spare, wide-openness of January is balm for my spirit.

Chad and I were talking this morning, and I said that I think everything should just be cancelled in January—no work, no obligations, no church, no nothing. Just sit in front of the fire at home and snuggle. Chad replied that January is henceforth to be known as “Snuggle-month.” I’m in.

So, I deactivated my Facebook account yesterday. I was just so TIRED of it. Tired of the constant influx of what everyone else is thinking and selling and proclaiming. I would find myself feeling anxious, angry, sad, unsettled, or just blue EVERY time I checked my newsfeed, and this is after I unfriended a ton of people last month. Enough is enough. I’m taking a break, and honestly, it feels like a burden has been lifted. Weird, huh?

I guess I’ll have to post more often on this old blog to make up for it, now. We had a fun little party on New Year’s Eve, a cousin party. Here ya go.

We popped the balloons at the appointed times, and inside were printed slips with that time’s activity. They loved popping balloons.

First, we made New Year’s Crowns.

Then, we had a dance party. This was a hit.

Face painting:

Outside for sparklers.

Next, we put on Rudolph’s Shiny New Year  for the kids and enjoyed a breather from all the hubbub.

But after that, they got to pop their prize balloons. The prizes weren’t that fantastic, just chocolates and quarters and little junk. But getting to pop six balloons with a thumb tack is just awesome.

Then it was time to pop the confetti and the champagne (grownups) and sparkling grape juice (kids) and drink some toasts. It was so fun.

Happy New Year!

That’s me. Ninja blogging. Because I’m being kind of sneaky, and I’m blogging again without really telling anyone about it.

I’ve been thinking lately about my motives for certain activities. Why I post things on Facebook, why I started a blog in the first place, why I am re-starting it after several years of virtual silence. Why I want people to read my stuff and see my pictures. Part of it is that I really want community, but as an introvert, I find the platform the internet offers to be easier to manage than real life, sometimes. It’s also just fun to write. I like seeing it all in one place, illustrated with pretty pictures, a shiny package of my life. That’s what it used to be, at least, and I spent some time recently reading through the years of posts I have archived. It was never my intention to present such a pretty package to the world, because my life is messy and messed up, just like everyone else’s. In my defense, I did start blogging as a way to celebrate the good things in my life during a time when I was struggling to find joy. And I did find it, once I looked. I found beauty and friendship and comfort and contentment. I found many good things. It was only natural that a blogging looking for this stuff would end up pretty and shiny.

The title of my blog, Any Similar Revival, is important to me. It speaks of rebirth and renewal, and I am feeling lots of renewal lately. I’ve been pitching lots of clutter—physical mess AND mental mess. Emotional baggage, outdated paradigms, outgrown ideas. It feels good to lighten up, to refocus. I told my dad not to get me any stuff for Christmas because I’ve been leaning towards minimalism, and he laughed at me and told me that anyone who has as many books as I do could never be a minimalist. I see why he thinks so, but he doesn’t really know what I mean when I say minimalism. I don’t mean that I am getting rid of All the Things. Just the things that hinder. And, in fact, he would be surprised to see the number of books that have made their way out of my house lately.

So this is kind of a rambling post. I’m not sure where I’m heading, but that’s where I’m going. I feel a change coming, and I’m excited for it.

In the meantime, shhh. I like sneaking around.

We waited a week longer than usual this year to get our tree. Aiden was DYING to get it, and he asked us almost every day if we were going to get it “today?” Finally, on Sunday, we went to our favorite, super-expensive tree farm (Note to selves: find another place next year.) and picked out our little tree. No snow, but lots of pretty sunlight.

We got it set up, and I managed to put the lights on this year without any drama! The tree didn’t fall over, the strands in the middle didn’t suddenly go out just as I was finishing the last one, and I didn’t run out. It was a Christmas miracle!

I put on my favorite, fragile ornaments, then let Aiden do the rest himself. He really is a Christmas Nut. He would have had fun with his Grandma Robin, that’s all I’m sayin’.

Besides wishing I had a river I could skate away on, I’ve been trying to stay cheerful during this holiday season, just floating along and taking it as it comes. It would help, I think, if it would finally SNOW here in Ohio, but that happened in November, I guess. No more snow for us. There have been some really bright moments, however, and I’m trying to let them illuminate the rest of this dreary time. Boy, I really sound like a Scrooge. I’m not, I promise. It’s just, Christmas.

Gingerbread is fun.

Someone loves it, and went right out there first thing yesterday and got busy.

I’m not sure how I feel about this snow-stuff right now. I love snow. I do. But it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, and the snow is forcing me to listen to Christmas music. I’m breaking my own rule!

Lately, I’ve been missing my blog.

I have had this blog since 2005, back in those heady, early days of blogging, before every writer had a niche, advertisers, affiliate links, and Five Steps to Make Your Life More Awesome. People just shared their lives, their pictures, their stuff, whether or not it taught anybody anything, linked up to any kind of blog party, or produced any kind of income. It was fun! It was great for a voyeur like me, who loves to ready published diaries and journals and letters. But somewhere along the way, blogging changed, and I no longer fit into it. I didn’t care about how many people left comments, or how I could monetize, or even if my blog was useful to anyone. So, “why bother?” I thought. “This ain’t my rodeo anymore.”

I get it. I get that people want to make money doing something at home, BY doing something they were already doing anyway (blogging). I understand that people have wisdom to share, tutorials, skills, etc, that ARE worth paying for. I read lots of blogs like that. But for the blogger, like me, who just wants a platform, a place to connect, it feels a bit weird to try to jump back in.

I miss it though. I wonder if anyone else misses it, too.

Just for the record, those old-fashioned blogs still do exist out there. Some of my very oldest favorites are still around. I am a bad reader, though—I never comment. I just consume. 

Someday, like in July, we’ll look back on this and laugh, hahahahahaha. Laugh at all the layers of clothing we wore, how many blankets we walked around the house in, how much firewood we went through, how many cups of tea we drank, how many times we took photographs of the thermostats in our vehicles in disbelief. We will. I promise. Because in July, when it is 90 degrees (we hope), we won’t remember what it was like to be this cold. Just like I can’t remember right now what 90 degrees feels like. But life goes on, hopefully, so we’ve been living.

Yep, he has lost another tooth! He was in the bathroom one morning, messing around with kleenex in front of the mirror, when I heard him shout, “YES! YES!” He had pulled that sucker right out!

And while it looks like the men of the household do all the work around here, don’t you believe it. It was photoworthy.

It’s been snowing. That feels like an understatement, and I know that most of the eastern and northern parts of the country have had snow, too. But snow is always exciting to me—I love to watch it fall, I love the way it pinks the sky at night, and the snow light in the house during the day that is so white and pure. I love that Aiden makes his own sledding hill in our backyard, that Mona sleeps with her head in Aiden’s slipper, that Myles loses his mind every time he goes out in the snow, and that Chad likes to shovel. I love those things. I also love the bird community outside my windows, which is enjoying the new feeders my dad got me for Christmas. Those are some happy finches! And sparrows, jays, titmice, juncos, woodpeckers, and cardinals. And squirrels.

And these pics are too cute not to share: a play-dough café.

(I won’t lie, though. I got my first seed catalog of the year yesterday, and I’ve already got plans. BIG plans.)

I failed as a blogger the past few weeks. As usual, I have so many photos, I am overwhelmed at the thought of editing and posting, so I do nothing. bwahahah!

Here are some of my favorites from the last week of 2013:

Welcome, 2014!