Saturday

At opposite ends of this old house, the wood and coal stoves dutifully crank out warmth, leaving the middle dining room as the artic area, though usually the temperature holds steady around 65 in there.  I sit by the wood stove in the living room, a stack if Christmas books beside me.  Lately, as Benjamin cuddles and nurses and the other six run from corners of the house asking this or that, or pulling a pillow to curl up beside me with their own book, I've been thoroughly enjoying Up Tunket Road.

Sean is out on the tractor, plowing the driveway as we receive a second beautiful weekend of snow with more feet of accumulation.  Sean has filled the back of the new (to us) big van with fifty pound bags of coal that steady it in the snow, which works wonderfully. 

Earlier he ventured out with chainsaw, fiddled around cutting a section of cherry just so, then down to the workshop in the basement, little kids in tow wanting to be by him and play in the wood curls that fell from the lathe as he worked. 

Benjamin slept and I sewed, taing a break to chop carrots and celery, adding them to a pot with browned beef, beans and canned from the garden tomatoes.  Pasta Fagioli in the making.

This afternoon Benjamin had his first immersion bath in the enamel tub by the wood stove.  I could just see his little mind taking a trip back up memory lane to a few weeks ago being in warm water.  He loved the bath, pursed his little lips and looked all around, so calmly, and then, as I wrapped him in warm blankets, made his first little baby cooing as if to say, "thank you, that was lovely, mama". :)

Off I must go now, to ready the troops for church and squeeze in a minute for another bowl of warm vanilla bean tapioca.  Above is the bowl Sean made from the stump and I love it so.