little library offering

Do you see it? You might not, if you weren't expecting it, as I was not, but peeking out of the shadows...there it is - got it? Still don't know what the heck it is? Ah, that's because you're not living in Southeastern Ohio where the state fruit is just starting to ripen...PAWPAW!! Yes, someone left us a pawpaw in the library today.  Grin.

february

I had Big Plans for February writing...but I was several days in before I realized it was actually February, so there goes that momentum.  So, instead of inspired writing, I'm gonna play catch up for a minute...We had a few things going on this week that conspired to make it feel really busy.  I had some extra work, we had a few days with extra people in our house, and Ani was fighting a cold for much of the week, which only kept her glued to Dragon Rider and the legos for a day or two...

story? check. legos? check. toilet paper? check.

Eliza has kicked her cold and was back at sewing class on Tuesday and came home mad about making headbands...

...and this weekend we had a visit from dear Naudia, who taught us the magic of making origami heart bookmarks. We went a little overboard, so I think they'll probably make their way into the library, but aren't they so cute?

Dan is a bit skeptical about my over-zealous decorating, but I thought I'd jazz things up a bit for those folks who are regular checkers.  We now have a large bag full of books that lives inside, ready to switch out for the ones currently out for loan, but we have not had many takers so far...Come on, people! There are some good ones in there!  Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets, Trumpet of the Swan, Go, Dog, Go!  I have had two people stop me at the grocery store because they saw the library on Facebook (!) and a woman I'd never met before paused when she was signing me in to work, to say, "Do you live on the West Side?" and went on to tell me that she recognized my name from a photo of the library...Word's getting out there, so maybe it's just a matter of time.

The girls made challah on Saturday, making the house smell amazing and glutenous...The temperature was in the low 60's and we spied crocuses already in the garden.  Imbolc, the stirring of the seeds, spring is near... 

Little Library check-in

(If I manage to write this blog post it will be a minor miracle.  Dan is listening to Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach while simultaneously playing a clip from The Brady Bunch.  He is giggling, and I think my head might explode...)

I watched someone approach our house today, through the kitchen window, and I panicked for a moment, wondering, "Are they going to knock on the door? Are they going to talk to me about God? It is Sunday afterall..." but they were just checking the little library! I saw my first stranger taking a book this week, too.  I'm not exactly spying, but I was sitting at the desk and heard the creak of the door, and peeked outside to see a young woman I don't know taking a book and continuing down the street...Hee hee!! So happy. (It was a book I thought about borrowing myself - The Devil in the White City - but I hesitated too long and there it went. I have been thinking I need to shore up some good trash to make it through February, so maybe that's why Twilight has suddenly appeared...Coincidence or manifestation? You decide.)

winter

Charlie and I observing the snow urchins

The snow of the week is starting to fade, and Ani keeps saying things like "The sun is still up and it's 6:00, you know what that means - it's the end of Winter!"  I don't know how to break it to her...

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We've had a couple of deposits in the little library, and I'm still suspecting that they're from supportive friends...which is lovely and encouraging while we wait for the idea to catch on. And they're not all books! Ani and I spent an hour poring over this sweet box of stones...how this girl loves to sort and ponder.

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The week has been slow, which is what we needed.  I'll tell you straight - I was dreading the start of homeschool coop.  I am not ready for the chaos of trying to organize with a large (very large) group of people, and not prepared to teach my classes, lovely as my students will be.  I know once it's going, it's all about me and a handful of students, for I'll be teaching or helping every hour, but it's the daunting thought of it right now that had me leaping for joy and feeling very powerful when we woke up and my snow dances and dreams had proven fruitful.  School was closed! I know my chances of a repeat performance are slim, so I'm psyching myself into it even as I write. I can do it, I can do it. I can do it, but it feels very much like an introspective time of year, and I would love to indulge that. Friday morning everyone in the house stayed in bed until 10, reading their books.  That's what I'm talkin' about.

Homeschooling this week has looked like unschooling, by which I mean some days of great flow and conversation.  Days when you try to track how you got from Trumpet of the Swan to watching an interview with Malala (our choir is learning a haunting song about Malala) to looking into what makes skin so many different colors, and what theories are out there about why we are so many colors? Melanin, pigment, human evolution and adaptation...all while drawing woodpeckers and talking about their amazing tongues and then back outside to play in the snow.  I love those days. We've all read a lot, Eliza is moving her room around, and she and I even got to some yoga, which is often the unrealized plan.  Ani is drawing birds and writing comics about cherry tomatoes, and Eliza is experimenting with some folded books from Map Art Lab and cutting up sweaters to make the cutest skirts and learning how to drive around Seattle from playing on Google Earth.  Yeah, that kind of week.