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<\/a><\/p>\nBut most of the little birds were absent because a mockingbird arrived, too.\u00a0 And that mockingbird spent all his time guarding the feeders, swooping on any bird that attempted to get to the seed.<\/p>\n
Which nixed my plan of hunkering down next to the wood stove, counting birds at the feeders, catching up on my Mother Earth subscription, and sipping coffee all day.\u00a0 Instead, the kids and I spent the morning making cookies for Valentine’s Day.\u00a0 Not because cookies can solve all your problems.\u00a0 But cookies certainly don’t make them worse.\u00a0 Kudos to Pinterest for successfully providing recipes for “fast and easy Valentine’s Day cookies.”\u00a0 Almost all of them were “fast and easy.”\u00a0 Almost<\/em><\/strong> all.\u00a0\u00a0 This one failed.\u00a0 I mean, it looked cute in the picture:<\/p>\n And it was “fast and easy”.\u00a0 It just came out like this:<\/p>\n Of course, I wasn’t the only one who had a Pinterest pinwheel problem<\/a>.\u00a0 Luckily, I’ve suffered through years of sugar cookie disasters.\u00a0 I think sugar cookies hate me.\u00a0 Perhaps they sense the whole time that I am making them, I am thinking about how my time could be better spent making something chocolatey.\u00a0 Regardless, I’ve learned that whenever cookies expand into a gooey misshapen blob they can fixed by taking a cookie cutter straight to them while the cookies are still soft.\u00a0 Cut the cookies into the cute shapes and pretend everything went according to plan.\u00a0 Voila!\u00a0 Swirly Valentine’s Day heart cookies.<\/p>\n I’m not sure if this success means I am so brilliant at making cookies that I can salvage anything.\u00a0 Or so terrible at making cookies that I have to use cookie cutters as a cookie-making handicap.\u00a0 Probably just a sign that I should stick to chocolate.\u00a0 Chocolate loves me. Chocolate cookies always come out right.<\/p>\n \n While we were warm and toasty, basking in the smell of baking cookies, the outside temperatures dropped, the wind chill picked up, and a winter storm blew in.\u00a0 Cold temps are excellent for bird watching.\u00a0 The feeders are usually jammed with birds filling up their tummies.\u00a0 Except, you know, this.<\/p>\n School was released early.\u00a0 Then cancelled.\u00a0 Then all of the state shut down.\u00a0 Because, you know, this:<\/p>\n I suppose I could have gone sledding with the boys.<\/p>\n Except snow is cold and I’m not really that kind of gal.\u00a0 So I hit the craft closet to work through some unfinished crafts.\u00a0 I finished 2 of the 3 gourd birdhouses.\u00a0 I painted wren silhouettes on one of them.<\/p>\n \n And used a mosaic theme on the other.<\/p>\n I was happy with both of them and didn’t sweat the small mistakes.\u00a0 I expect them to fade quite a bit after being outside so I didn’t need perfection.\u00a0 Plus I don’t think the wrens will mind.\u00a0 The real plan is to get the wrens to use the gourds instead of the potted plants on the deck.\u00a0 I still had one more birdhouse to paint, but when I was googling birdhouse designs I got distracted by garden signs.\u00a0 There is nothing more exciting than discovering a craft that you already have all the supplies for.\u00a0 Well, there are more exciting things.\u00a0 But not for a middle-aged mother stuck at home with all her kids on a freezing cold day.\u00a0 Then “exciting” is kind of limited.\u00a0 Anyway.<\/p>\n I already had the out the paint.\u00a0 I also had plenty of broken down pallet pieces and leftover boards.\u00a0 One board even had a post still attached.<\/p>\n The huge upside of snow is the lack of need for dropcloths to protect surfaces from spray paint.\u00a0 A dropcloth that melts away!\u00a0 Bonus!<\/p>\n With homemade stencils and some vegetable stamps I made 2 new signs for the garden.<\/p>\n For local friends I still have the stencils and letters I made and used for the signs if you’d like to use them, too.\u00a0 I still plan to make one that says this:<\/p>\n Because can you have too many corny signs in your garden?\u00a0 I think not.\u00a0 It’s like talking to your plants even when you’re not there.<\/p>\n But I quit before I made the third sign because the kids were bothering me.\u00a0 Also it seemed unfair to finish the garden signs when I didn’t finish the wren houses.\u00a0 I’m an equal opportunity unfinisher.\u00a0 So I put Little to work on making ice candles.\u00a0 Water, food dye, and a full recycling bin was enough for this activity.<\/p>\n Don’t forget to put something floating in the center of the dyed water to leave room for the candle.<\/p>\n After leaving them out overnight, use some hot water to remove the recyclables.\u00a0 Which leaves just the ice candles behind.\u00a0 Be sure to put them on a tray or sheet with a lip because they will melt while they’re in the house.\u00a0 But after burning them for a while just put them back outside to refreeze until the next use.<\/p>\n Since Little was still bored I got out the soap and lotion making supplies.\u00a0 Not that he is amused by soap making.\u00a0 But he loves using the digital kitchen scale to measure all the ingredients.\u00a0 In his generation if it has buttons, it is entertaining.<\/p>\n I tried to make it educational by explaining the use of tare and the difference between measuring liquids by volume or weight.\u00a0 But the first was easier to explain than the second so we just practiced with tare a few times.\u00a0 It’s a snow day, people.\u00a0 Let’s not go crazy with the education.\u00a0 We settled on making lotion bars because we already had all those ingredients, my hands are in the desperately chapped stage of winter, and Little House in the Suburbs had a great recipe.<\/a> We even had cute molds to shape the lotion bars so I was very happy with the results.\u00a0 Even if the boys went a bit crazy with essential oils.<\/p>\n Finishing a project was exhausting.\u00a0 Plus now Pretty was bored.\u00a0 So I put her to work on felting.\u00a0 I’m still making felted owls.<\/p>\n But I wanted an entire sheet of white felted fleece.\u00a0 I planned to cut circles out of the large white piece and felt them to the owl bodies for tummies.\u00a0 I’ve never made an entire piece of felting.\u00a0 I wanted to use this site’s idea<\/a> but I didn’t have bubble wrap or a pole to agitate the fleece so I had to settle for this method<\/a>.\u00a0 I also didn’t have the tray or an unused welcome mat called for in that method so we veered off plan. Which is always dangerous<\/span> disastrous<\/span> exciting.\u00a0 We stacked the layers of\u00a0 fleece on the counter accordingly:<\/p>\n We surrounded the fleece with dog towels before pouring boiling soapy water over the entire mess.<\/p>\n Then we “agitated” it with cooling racks.<\/p>\n We alternated hot and cold, rubbed and rolled it, and rinsed it all out.\u00a0 I want to say it turned out as a nice solid sheet of white felting.\u00a0 But it was a bit holey….<\/p>\n kind of ragged….<\/p>\n ….but just fine for owl tummies.<\/p>\n And that was enough work on that project.\u00a0 Because, you know:<\/p>\n \n In a burst of enthusiasm the school system scheduled a make up day for students.\u00a0 Then they canceled it because you know, still this:<\/p>\n We made some soft pretzels because we have an awesome easy recipe<\/a> and cooking counts as math and science.\u00a0 Also I’m tired of making 3 meals a day.\u00a0 Every freakin’ snow day.\u00a0 All week long.\u00a0 Let them eat soft pretzels.\u00a0 Which is healthier than cake.\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Maybe. Who really cares?<\/p>\n \n \n I rescued some old frames from the shed and sent Big to fetch the old roll of barbed wire from the front pasture….<\/p>\n so we could experiment with barbed wire art and make something like this:<\/p>\n \n But there weren’t any how-to instructions attached to the website and there was a really, really, really steep learning curve.\u00a0 Really steep.<\/p>\n Um, I’ll just work on that never again<\/span> later.<\/p>\n So I took the kids out for lunch, ice skating, and to the 25 cent book sale at the local used book store.\u00a0 Because we might kill each other otherwise<\/span> deserved it.\u00a0 Then I was lucky enough to go to work which, despite an office that included frozen water pipes, icy driveways, and slippery sidewalks, at least the only person I had to keep entertained was myself.\u00a0 And my craft closet was too far away to tempt me into any more projects.\u00a0 When I came home, we were back to square one.\u00a0 I lingered over my coffee cup, trying to make a plan for the day.<\/p>\n When what should appear, 1 week after the Great Backyard Bird Count, and for the first time ever at our feeders?<\/p>\n \n 3 Eastern towhees.\u00a0 I rushed out to refill the feeders and replenish the suet.\u00a0 Which kind of scared them away.\u00a0 I’m sure they’re coming back.\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Dang it.<\/p>\n When I finally forced myself away from the windows and out to the barn, I found another surprise.\u00a0 Despite the date carefully marked on the calendar and all the birthing supplies set out in preparation, the first goat kid arrived 3 days early.<\/p>\n Carmen had her baby birthed, cleaned up, and bouncing around by the time I showed up.\u00a0 She managed without any help and during freezing night time temperatures.\u00a0 That’s how the herd queen rolls.<\/p>\n It’s a little doe.\u00a0 Welcome, Carla.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n