January Inspiration

I love hosting little coffee times with my people. It is fun to mop and wax the entry floor to a beautiful sheen after all that sand and salt. And to light candles and set the coffee table up in pretty dishes and silverware in anticipation. Lisl and Kristine each made a cheese cake. Amy brought the dress she sewed this week for Havilah to show us and to hand deliver. And we talked.
Lisl has a clutch of eggs in her new incubator right now as part her winter SAD therapy. She says that every single one of the eggs she candled yesterday for the project are alive. The fascination of chicken raising has not abated in the least. Well, I think Kristine is tired of it maybe. Yesterday she posted a little video interrupting the girl’s chatting to show a carton of perfectly good eggs coming straight out of the refrigerator. Francis, not missing a beat in the conversation from her farm in Nebraska, speculated as to how the hens might fit in a refrigerator to lay the eggs. It was funny.

Gardens and seeds and starting seedlings are all on topic during our visits these days. Who cares about the cold weather and snowstorms sweeping across the nation today. We have our dreams and plans. Square foot gardening, topsoil, composting, and when to plant.

House plants in winter on sunny days are heart lifting, too. I’m thinking to add some greenery with a new houseplant from Wal-mart. Maybe in a pretty blue or grey pot.
I gave the tree that used to live here to Jenny. She has it in her living room and is loving it. Then they bought parakeets for the children. Beautiful winter distraction.

Tables and gardens are places from which we serve our families. We are so rich. I feel blessed watching the girls make homesteading, gardening, kitchen skills and home management real. They’re solving together and sharing their exciting or frustrating experiences with each other. So we find out when Francis’s little steer has learned to climb over the fence, robbing her of Dolly’s milk one more time. And Elv gets to eat cheesecake that Kristine has figured out how to make sugar free. It is impossible to be bored with so much happening in our world.