Ah what a gorgeous birthday you have given your sweet boy! That play mat came out beautifully - it really did! Maybe not as you intended but perfect nonetheless :-)

Yay for winter weather and cosy times reading winter books. We have many of those books. Intrigued by the idea of lemon ice though! 🙂 Pleased for you that you got some snow fun. We have frost here today in the U.K.- it has been so mild - but snow seems to elude us. We keep hoping. Beautiful photos as ever.

What a lovely idea. Just as well you still have a lovely baby who will appreciate it :-)

Ah what lovely photos! Looks like you are all settling in well and making the most of all that a big piece of land has to offer. We only had two hens last winter and they really didn't enjoy the snow. They huddled together and barely ate and looked very sorry for themselves:-( I am guessing a bigger group keeps them warmer, when they huddle together and your barn looks so spacious yet cosy too. Love their names!! :-) Such beautiful eggs in all those different colours! Enjoy!

Wow! What a trip!! Well done with all the van driving. At least the roads are generally very wide in the US and not so much traffic (hopefully). Sounds like you made a wise move, being closer to family and where land is more affordable. My children loved their road trip in the US and still rave about it. The scenery and wildlife were the highlight. Looks like you did some good stop offs and tried to make the trip fun too. There is only so long you can sit in a car for with all those big distances.... Lovely that you stopped off in Mountan Home and saw your friends too. Must be nice to have arrived and to be getting excited about new plans. Good luck with it all!

That looks perfect already! I made my daughters two bears by the same designer for Christmas and was concerned about how they would look as hers are so beautiful. I knit my first attempts too loosely, so I decided to do them again from scratch two weeks before Christmas! But they are a quick knit and it all came together surpisingly easily. I am knitting another bear for a friend's baby, now that I have the tension sorted :-) You knit so beautifully and tightly, so I know it will be just perfect! Her designs are just gorgeous aren't they? They are the perfect size for carrying around. Your baby will love it. I do hope you all feel better soon. We have a sick one here too. :-(

Beautiful work Nicole as always. I made a couple of those horses a few years ago, the same year you made K one - thanks for inspiring! - for my daughters, but the legs are much less firm - i was carding the stuffing wool as I was going and I was tiring by the end of it all!!! And it was Christmas too...Those legs look great! ;-) And with little hooves too - lovely! Beautiful work also by your daughters - those lions are gorgeous!

The reindeer is adorable! Good luck with it all!!! I am feeling the same!!! .....

Thanks for writing that Nicole. You are right to go with your intuition in regards to your son. He is only little....if he is interested in reading, you would know. It is crazy how early children are expected to learn to read in England - 4 years and learning letters at 3 years! Most other countries consider that insane - they are so young and should use their time and energy for their physical development and to incarnate fully, through play and certainly not waste their energies with brain work! Of course some children do manage but as there are way too many targets in the state system, if you are a late reader, there can be a stigma early on :-( My daughters luckily go to a Waldorf school and are 11 and 8 years old. The eight year old is just learning simple words in Grade 2 (she wasn't emotionally ready to start school a year earlier) and my 11 year old is only now starting to read a little by herself. I wrote a post about my feelings about the subject if you are interested? https://amothershares.wordpress.com/2017/06/14/th...
It is so easy to get caught up in expectations and thinking that our children will be behind. My eleven year old wasn't at all bothered about not reading early. She was still learning but in a different way and loves books and being read to, but is not an avid reader. It really depends on the individual child. Often I have found that a love of reading follows on after playing imaginatively slows down, as it is another way to escape into a fantasy world. Both my daughters are still very much engaged in fantasy play, so perhaps don't need to escape that way yet? Who is to know. I also agree that reading opens up a world that some children - especially those under 9 years - are not ready for or don't need to know about. That was in my post too. I think my older daughter, who is highly sensitive and can be very anxious, was actually was protecting herself from the information out there by not reading. She recently took a leap in her reading and saw a poster at the local pool saying to beware of burglars in the area and it really scared her. My youngest remained oblivious. As other folks have commented, I know a chap who only learned to read fluently at 12 years old and from then on always had his head in a book and went on to study to pHD level. We need to take a deep breath and trust - unless there is something obviously amiss. It sounds like you are doing an amazing job already and your children are going from strength to strength. Amazing that your daughters are such voracious readers. I hope one day my girls will also spend time absorbed in books. Until that day, they are busy with crafts, making up games and other creative pursuits. You will know when your son is ready. 7, 8, 9, 10...it's never too late.

Beautiful idea - thanks for sharing! We always make a beeswax mobile for the table at the end of October - looking forward to the warming smell of warm beeswax :-)