Meet Dread Scott and Homer Plessy

We hauled into March excited for spring. Spring break, warm weather and gardening. We immediately had to slam on the breaks with freezing temperatures, and a full house of the flu. It could have been much worse, however, it wore us down and suddenly keeping up with the laundry and dishes and dailiness was a bit heavy and I slid into bed soon after tucking kiddos in for the night. 

Ideas and dreams and moments jump in and out of my mind and I forget to write and wish I had and then more time slips away, so here are words and pictures and hopefully it will not be as hard to sit back down again the next time. 


 Projects

 Amelia wants to sew and build and mix and stir and create. She sewed this hat for George Wilder. He wears it quite proudly and all the time! She just wrote a song about the a queen coming for a visit. The queen would bring her daughter MaryAnna and we would all put on our finest clothes and eat on little dishes.

Farm Life

We have new friends here. Two pigs. Amelia named the reddish one Dread Scott and so naturally the other is Homer Plessy. A little civil rights lesson mixed in with pig care. The children set up play in the pig pen immediately. They had kitchens and parties and cooking demos for two straight days. The pig pen is right by the new garden so we sit and wait and watch for little pieces of green to break through the brown clods of dirt and pray for a miracle -- actual produce. 

I'd planted a smaller garden that wasn't getting enough sun or warmth, or so I thought. Suddenly it is producing green galore. Collards, lettuce, cilantro, parsley, garlic, dill, and even a little cucumber plant poked through. 





Music
George Wilder is passionate about music. He sings to brush his teeth. He hums to tie his shoes, he makes up words to tunes while he sets the table. Paper, sticks, clips, bands, brushes -- they are instruments. They make music for George Wilder. He wanted a mandolin. He was playing his fiddle like a mandolin. Our stringed instrument collection has grown significantly and it didn't seem like adding another was the most perfect plan. George was checking into renting one or borrowing one. He struck up a conversation with a lovely gentleman. Within a week, a very fine mandolin showed up in a big box for George Wilder. He plays it on the couch, on the floor, on the trampoline, for the animals, for breakfast, for dinner, for life. He can sit at the piano and play the tunes he knows on the fiddle. He is passionate about making music. It is beautiful to watch. Amelia is playing right along. She just taps her toes and uses her body to keep time. It is such a lesson in working through tough spots for the kids. They realize that it isn't going to be easy and that they are going to get it wrong and that the only way to get it right is to keep on trying. What a lesson for us all!

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