We are really enjoying this awesome weather. Yesterday, we made a tray of snacks, sat in the floor in front of our sunny, open window and played games, kid's choice, with the breeze tickling our skin. Go Fish, Sight Word Bingo, Opposites, Spelling Bee, and I Spy Eagle Eye. This was after a few hours of outside play. The boys have been begging for me to authorize a trampoline water fight for a few days now, ever since they saw my Facebook profile pic of them and Shai having one, and remembered..."Oh yeah...that was crazy fun!".

Monday, our day was dedicated to prep and attendance of our Rock Hill Home School group's Valentine Party. The boys made Hershey's Kiss Chocolate Covered Cherry Mice all on their own, and had a blast doing it, and had even more of a blast eating mice parts as they worked on the Mouse Assembly Line. I was asked to help coordinate the crafts. This is the type thing I thrived on doing for many years of my life. Something happened a few years ago, right before I left my ex, and now, something as simple as decorating Valentine bags and making tissue paper flowers caused me weeks of anxiety, and a full blown panic attack the night before. It all turned out just fine though. Josiah won the first cupcake on the cupcake walk, and he was so thrilled! A home school friend left with us, and we spent the remainder of the evening playing in the park. 

My worms got a sexy, new condo this week. It was my Valentine's gift from my husband that I picked out and ordered myself. They seem to really love it! I also got a hanging bird bath. I really love our backyard birds. The Great Backyard Bird Count is this weekend! We have really been studying up on our bird identification, because ummm, if we report, it does no good if we report the wrong birds.

We are learning all about compost and vermicompost (we actively do both). We have several books we read over, but Sam still tried to offer his orange peels for the compost bin. I told him no citrus, he asks why??? Well, our book just gave a list of no-no's, but didn't include the Whys?....We start researching, and it appears that there is some debate about it. Citrus takes longer to decompose, but many claim it does fine in their compost. In vermicompost, it looks like it is avoided just because it's not the worms fave snack. We are going to start saving our citrus is something separate until we do more research and figure it out.

I am crazy excited about gardening this year. I am crazy anxious about starting my plants from seedlings. This is something I have never had much success with. I have been researching like a mad woman. I am going to try several methods at the same. I have a small greenhouse, outdoors. I have a plant lamp for indoors. I have seedling heat mats coming that I ordered. I already have my heirloom seeds. We will see. I have a secret weapon...Nettles. We will see. I am also a little anxious about preserving. I am pretty good at canning, but I have found in the past that flat top stoves don't work well. I will cross that bridge when I get there.

This week, we have had Chihuahua Anarchy. Tito has discovered a way to get out of our fence, and we have not solved the mystery yet.