Hangin' in there

The week started out okay. It was snowing! That makes Sam-Sam very happy, which, in turn, makes the rest of us happy.

Claire and I altered the homeschool routine enough to fit in some more "fun" learning activities. We did about half the amount of regular school work and threw in some fun projects like making this multiplication clock thing. I even bought a tool that burns wood to make it!

We made the clock and told the story of Mrs Minutes and Mr Hours. Claire loved it! It's funny how much they love anything with a story, no matter how trivial the story seems.

And we hauled out her needle felting stuff from Christmas to start working on....

...a needle felted robin red-breast! We're trying to do a little bird study in preparation for a field trip to the Willowbrook Wildlife Center with our friends, the Handies.

I was kinda afraid of the project since I'm not particularly crafty, but it's super easy if you use a cookie cutter! Except, we did free-hand the nest.

We tried to e-mail the lady whose etsy shop this comes from because we want some blue to make little eggs for the nest.

We also started doing "math suns" except our version is just practicing the addition facts of the 3s family, (and, apparently, making sure our fives go forwards after this!).

Sammy was getting better from his previous weekend's sicknesses, so we were just cooking along having a fine time. I had cookie dough in the fridge again at all times, so I was happy.

The kids also hauled out mouse trap which kept them happy when they weren't playing out in the snow.

When suddenly Claire bit the dust. She had started coughing, but then it got pretty bad. Fevers of almost 104 every night for several days and a constant dry cough.

The Big Guy bit the dust too. He's not quite as bad, but has a major congestion issue as well.

So we've done a lot of laying around.

And we've been on steady drips of vitamins and cold medicines and tylenol for fevers. Of course I'm fine. Moms don't get sick.

I made some chicken soup. Raw whole chickens are sure grose looking.

But Claire still would not turn a corner. She had a fever for 3 straight days of almost 104 if she wasn't medicated. So, after doing a few more homeopathic type remedies to no avail, the doctors were finally ready to call it: poor sister bear has pneumonia.

So now we'll be hanging out on the couches a while longer while she hopefully turns a corner thanks to our super pneumonia-killing antibiotic. But at least we have the Olympics to watch!

And, for those of you (my sister) who would like a belly update (week 24): here she is. Please don't notice the toothpaste splatters on my mirror...that's not the point of this picture afterall.

Seriously, don't look at them. Look instead at how my maternity pants are about to bust off of me. I couldn't get anything in those front pockets if I had to! I'm pretty sure that it's going to be yoga-pants only from here on out. Maternity jeans are starting to cut me in half.

And I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get any less fat due to the fact that I've added another junk-food indulgence to my list. These morello cherries, which are good enough (kinda tart) to eat out of the jar, but which are pure delight eaten on top of vanilla ice cream. In fact, if you made a pie crust, crumbled it up, and put it on top of the ice cream and poured this on top, you might be the happiest lady in town. Which might be my Valentines Day treat to myself. Happy Valentines Day weekend everyone! I'll just be here being NOT slim.