System Status: February 2017

I am SO ready for spring. We’re starting to see gardening stuff at the stores…. rain barrels at Costco and get-your-lawn-ready-for-spring sales at Lowe’s. This will be the first year that we have a yard and time to actually plan to do things to it, which is both exciting and a little intimidating. Our front yard in terms of landscaping is pretty good, but our backyard, a wasteland of a few random aspen trees (which we think are probably dead), a lone cherry tree, a happy little pocket gopher, and what feels like miles and miles of weeds and no grass, is a lot more daunting. For two people who have never had to do much lawn care, we’re kind of wondering where to start. I did, at least, circle all of the vegetables and fruit we’re going to attempt to grow in raised beds this year from the Azure catalog (Sarah’s Starts are awesome), but we’ll see how the rest of it goes. I’m sure I’ll be writing about it here….hooray for you!

I went to my first Charlotte Mason retreat earlier this month which was very fun. I think it helped that many of the women attending and a few who organized it are also in my Charlotte Mason book club, so it was good to see friends who I don’t normally get to see all that often. But it was also informative and I learned quite a bit. I still think there needs to be a “mom” retreat organized one of these years that involves a lot of room service and massages. I wish someone would get on that….

In the end of February I’m into….

Books.

This month, I finished A Room with a View for the Back to the Classics Challenge (this was for the “place you’d like to visit” category). Even though I’ve never seen the movie, I kept picturing Helena Bonham Carter as Lucy. There were parts that were very funny, but for the most part, it was just kind of okay. I do want to actually see the movie now, though.

I also managed to (finally) finish A Gentleman in Moscow. I really enjoyed Amor Towles’s other book, Rules of Civility, so I went into this one hoping for more of the same. While it was quite a bit different, it was still very good and I have to agree with my friend Sarah who said that the Count is one of her favorite literary characters now.

My second book for the Back to the Classics challenge was Wide Sargasso Sea for the “classic written by a female author” category. It’s interesting that even as I read Jane Eyre, one of my favorite classics, the first time when I was in high school, I thought Rochester was awful. But seeing him through Jane’s eyes was somehow redeeming and maybe he wasn’t so bad after all. After reading this book, though, his status as jerk is reaffirmed and I will never read Jane Eyre the same way again. This book was very sad.

Last week I finished Dark Matter which was intense. I’ve had the problem lately of falling asleep at night while I’m listening to audiobooks but I definitely didn’t have that problem with this one.

B and I also finished Ginger Pye which I liked a whole lot more than I thought I would. 🙂

I’m currently reading The Cruelest Month (I abandoned The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie….I just could not get into it), Persuasion, and still ambling along in School Education with my Charlotte Mason book club. With B, I’m reading Heidi.

If you’d like to follow along with my book reading adventures, you can find me on Goodreads.

TV.

E had to take a few trips this month, one for work and one for his business partner’s wedding. So on my solo parenting nights, I finally started on The Time in Between on Netflix, which some have called “the Spanish ‘Downton Abbey'”. I read the book about two years ago and hadn’t realized they made a movie…or miniseries, as the case is. It’s interesting to see the characters “for real” rather than just in my mind’s eye. The casting was excellent. All of the characters were very believable in their roles (though I’m still not sure why they dubbed Ramiro), especially Candelaria and Rosalinda. All around, it’s been very good so far.

Otherwise, we’re keeping on with our standard TV fare. I hated the ending of the first season of The Good Place. E had it figured out midway through the episode and I just kept telling him, “there’s no way they’d do that!” And then they did. Boooo. Also, I hate the cliffhangers that Last Man on Earth always manages to force on us. Dumb shows.

🙂

Movies.

We managed a movie this month! Be impressed! While Star Trek Beyond wasn’t a pinnacle of the movie industry, it was entertaining for a few hours. Maybe we’ll manage two in March? We need suggestions!

Loving.

Secret Voices by Anonymous 4. I downloaded this for B’s Term 2 composer study and I’m completely hooked. It immediately sets a very calm and mellow mood….which is perfect when mama feels frazzled. Also, when she’s scrapbooking. 🙂

Pandora on Roku. I noticed a few weeks ago when we had a playdate at my BFF’s house that she had music playing from her TV. What’s this magic? So I went home and found the Pandora station on our ancient Roku 2 and life hasn’t been the same since. Right now we toggle through Mozart (in the morning), Michael Card, Debussy, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Caspar Babypants stations. It’s a nice and easy (and FREE!) way to add some variety to our days.

Clean Mama Free Cleaning Printables. I’ve been printing out the monthly schedules for a while now, but my cleaning has definitely fallen by the wayside. I finally decided to just print one of the Simply Clean schedules and laminate it so I could reuse it every month (might as well save some printer ink while I’m not cleaning anything). I also printed out the winter, summer, and spring checklists and laminated those as well. Maybe one of these days I’ll actually have a clean house?

Fabric Designs from Oana Befort. Yes please!

Internets.

The Nature Connection Pyramid. I love this idea for setting goals to get kids out of the house and into nature more.

April the Giraffe. I’ve been loading this at random intervals (including while writing this post) over the last few days to see if it’s finally time for a giraffe baby to be born!

Free Coloring Books from World-Class Libraries & Museums. These are amazing.

Why ‘Fainting Goats’ Really Collapse in Fear. I’ve been wanting a fainting goat for years. Maybe my HOA will think we just have really strange-looking dogs?

On the Blog.

Monthly Meal Plan: February 2017

Charlotte Mason Picture Study Aid: James McNeill Whistler

Kindergarten Morning Time

3 Simple Ferments

Bird Sightings.

I participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count earlier this month and counted a whopping…..wait for it….19 birds (with only 4 species). Wooo. I think I was expecting that maybe the birds got the memo….maybe a few jays would show up? Or chickadees? But no. Just our standard house finches, juncos (oh the juncos), magpies, and collard doves. E said that a few mountain chickadees stopped by yesterday while I was out, but they don’t seem to want to come consistently. He did, however, also mention that one of them stuck its little head in our bluebird box which chickadees may also use, so my year may just be made if I can open it in a month or two to find chickadee BABIES. Be still my heart.

And there you have the state of me. 🙂