We awoke Saturday to snow on the ground and in the air. 

I have never seen snow in this area so early, and it does send a message of urgency!  We began to clean up all of the fall progects, just in case this one doesn’t melt off, but a little after breakfast the sun broke throughthe clouds and things began to melt.  By today, it was all gone.

Looking for a yummy yet healthy lunch, I decided to see how well boiled flax seed oil worked in a bread recipe.  I used a simple muffin recipe, replacing the eggs and oil with boiled flax seed.  I spooned the bread over pie cherries and baked it all for 30 or so minutes.  It turned out wonderful! 

The kids are begging me to make it again, already.

I had hoped to leave these on the vine for another month or so, but the sudden snow, and the cold temperatures that followed forced an emergency picking time.  Only one of them is of eating size, but the boys gathered everything!  Don’t you just love their enthusiasm?  I sure do.

As the first set of diapers turned out satisfactory, I dug through my stash to locate as much suitable fabric as possible.  I happened to have a large number of receiving blankets, too yucky looking to give away, but too good to toss.  Cut in half, with a piece of cotton batting, they make wonderfully soft, absorbent diapers.  

My little guy is thrilled with the pictures and the fact that I made something for him… now if he would just use the potty!

This morning we woke to the sound of rain on the roof.  So much for my plans of digging the garden!  As I fixed breakfast I wondered if the sun would come out and dry things up or if I would have to make new plans…

That is when Benjamin came in from his chores yelling, “Come look, everyone!  It is snowing!”

The boys all rushed the window, eager for a view of the first flakes… And I thought it was bad when the first snow fell at the end of October last year.

A few months ago I noticed that all of the diapers were wearing thin.  Some even had holes in them.  “No worries,” I thought, “Gideon will be trained before these were out.”

Ha!  I was sooooo wrong! 

Down to a half dozen diapers without too many holes, I broke down and made some new ones.  In the past I have made fitted ones, but they take about an hour each, and I didn’t find that they held up any better than the flat-fold ones I had purchased.  These went together in 20 minutes, and would be much faster with a surger. 

These are made from some 100% cotton birds eye cloth I purchased a while ago.  It was 36″ wide, and I used a polyester/cotton batting down the center for extra absorbency and quick drying time.

The boys were working with their father this afternoon, helping to clean out the garage and get it arranged for winter.  After several hours, Manny decided it was time for  a break.  He came in and made some lemonade, but when he went to offer the boys some, found they were already occupied…

The fabric I ordered a couple of weeks ago has finally arrived!  The kids and I are all very excited, though there has been a lot of mind changing in the past few hours since the fabrics arrival: 

“I like this best.”

“Mom, I changed my mind!  I want this one.”

“Can you make mine out of this?”

“Oh, who is this for?  Can it be mine?”

Yep, they’re children.

They may not look like much, built of scrap wood from jobs sites, but they are my latest creation!  These four will hold cucumbers, winter squash, horseradish and garlic.  I am so exited to finally have some gardening boxes.  I do not have enough compost to fortify the entire garden, so these will hold what I do have for the plants that need them most.

I am working on a bit deeper on to hold tomatoes, I would like it to be fairly large.  If I can come up with enough lumber, I want to build a greenhouse.   We will see…