Cold weather, toddler art, and a tangent

Today the cold front arrived with a will. Our poor little chick-lets were super cold this morning as they ran around with their  mother. They don't have enough adult feathers yet to stay warm in such cold conditions. As the children were leaving for school, Daniel brought in a chick with a worried expression and begged me to help it. It appeared to be dying. I thought at least I can make it die in comfort, so I cradled it in my hands in front of a heater while it twitched and spasmed in my hands, it's cold feet tickling the palms of my  hands. After several minutes, the twitching slowed down but the chick wasn't dead yet. So I prepped a little box for it in front of the heater and went about my morning chores, checking on the chick occasionally. After a few hours of being fed and watered near the heater, it appeared to rally and behaved normally. So we fed it again and set it free outside to rejoin it's mother.

With the cold weather here, I thought the children would enjoy hot cocoa each day to warm the body. So Joseph was my eager helper to make homemade hot cocoa mix, thanks to the great recipe from Alton Brown. It only took 5 minutes to create the mix. Joseph was so happy to help, and was even happier to taste test a cup of steaming coca afterwards. It's really good!

Today Joseph drew his first dinosaur. He asked me to draw a quick one for him to copy, then he quietly worked on his version for several minutes in deep concentration. Not too shabby for a three year-old! He has the spinal plates, one dangling foot, two big black eyes (floating in the belly...somehow the head was not drawn separately from the body), part of the belly stripe (in the lower left corner), and a decent tail. He was so proud of this creation!

To be efficient with our energy consumption, we love to do a lot of bottling in the winter. It's the best time of year for it, since the summer is so shockingly  hot and bottling (or cooking) anything in the summer months is just a really bad idea. So Joseph and I cooked up a huge pot of beans and bottled 7 quarts of black beans and 14 pints of white beans today. We love to use beans in our family recipes, and I love the convenience of having bottled beans on hand. It works so well with my bagged dinner method, and I like to have spare bottles of beans on the shelves for impromptu use.

Today Joseph cuddled with me while I read books to him. His head was in my lap and I played with his hair with one hand while holding the book up in the other hand. I love the way his eyes get droopy and unfocused as he drifts off to sleep. It was such a treat for me to hold his sleeping little body and listen to his slow breathing. I kissed his soft hot cheeks, flushed with sleep, and held him for two hours while he napped.We were all snuggled deep in our favorite blanket- a plush zebra blanket I've had since high school.

That reminds me! My high school bedroom was so eccentric, decorated with animal print on everything and a large collection of exotic crafts from around the world. My walls were thickly covered in wooden African masks, various Chinese fans, and assorted folk instruments from Romania, Peru, and China. Every flat surface was filled with Mexican pottery, exotic animal sculptures carved in stone or wood, and handmade dolls from Russia, Australia, and Uruguay.

These were mementos from all the years of participating in the Idaho International Folk Dance Festival, when a dozen folk dance teams from around the world would live in our little town for 2 weeks of daily performances, parties, parades, street fairs, picnics, and tours. We often hosted dancers in our home and built unique friendships that spanned the language barriers (they usually did not speak any English). In my teen years I was blessed with the service opportunity to be a Team Manager of the Mexican dance team. We formed such close friendships as we spent all day, every day together.

What fond memories I have of these festivals! Truly, it was a wonderful experience of overcoming differences to share humanity's common love of music and dancing. What a cultural celebration it was! I dearly miss this and each summer find my self longing to be back in Idaho with my children to share with them the magic of the festival.

Oh heavens, what a long tangent this was! Yikees!