Eckenrode Family

Square Dance Skirt

When I saw this fabric and then felt it I couldn't put it down. It is Anna Maria Horner's Square Dance and it is so soft and light and I knew I needed to make it into something that I could wear. Since the fabric is so light I doubled the fabric, sewed it up and added some elastic and in about a half an hour I had a new skirt.
Even though this will be the perfect warm weather skirt I couldn't wait for the weather to warm up so today I'm wearing it paired with tights, a sweater and my furry winter boots. It really is doing wonders of brightening up this gloomy winter day.

A Few More Reasons I Love My Kids

1. The other day I was pleading with Ben to clean up his playdough mess. “Ben, you need to come over here and help me clean up this playdough.” Ben: “Ok! But after I do that I’m running away forever!” See, I love him because he may be running away, but BEFORE he does that he will clean up his mess. What’s not to love about that?

2. Occasionally I’ll be puttering around the house in my socks and I’ll feel a nudging on my feet. I’ll look down and there is Ben with my slippers trying to slip them on my feet. They are all nice and warm from him wearing them around. I feel like Cinderella having the glass slipper slipped onto my foot. He treats me like a princess sometimes. The woman he marries someday will be a very lucky girl.

3. My kids have these fake coonskin hats that they shove down the back of their pants to use as tails when they pretend to be cats and dogs.

Lately

I've been seeing a lot of this
hhockey - he LOVES it and it is so much fun to watch him enjoy something so much;
snow;
and the cutting, hauling and burning of firewood.

I've also gotten back into the grove of reading, knitting & sewing. I just finished Judith Ryan Hendricks, The Baker's Apprentice and really enjoyed it. The baking of bread parts has gotten me itching to get back into baking bread too. There are some interesting recipes in there that I'd like to copy down before I return it to the library. I'm thinking about making my own sourdough starter but I'll have to do some research to find out how to do that... Also, I'm knitting my first sweater and I'm about 3/4 of the way done. I'm also working on sewing a baby shower gift that has gotten me back behind the sewing machine. I'm thinking about making a skirt for myself next. We've had a lot of indoor time lately with the temperatures in the single digits. When I walked outside this morning it felt warm. It was 30 degrees...

My Plan B

Looking at a picture on the wall from his dad and my wedding Ben asked me several questions about marriage.

"What did you do?"

I said, "We made promises to each other."

Later in the day after moving Scooby the bunny up to their room I was invited to a party in their room. Ben was scheduled to sing the wedding march but Miles insisted that no one was getting married. Ben jumped on the bed while singing "Here comes the bride. Da da dada. Over and over. He jumped off the bed and held his imaginary microphone to my lips after asking me what promise I was going to make.

"I promise to love Benjamin Jacob Eckenrode and Miles Scott Eckenrode."

"How long?" he asked.

"Forever and ever." I said

"And who else?"

"Um, daddy. I promise to love Timothy Eckenrode forever."

To that he said, "Ok, and if you change your mind you can live with me and Miles and the bunny in our room."

Great, I thought. I looked around at the three of them and decided it was a pretty great backup plan.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

"Work smarter, not harder" is something Tim heard from his grandpa while he was growing up. I think he's taken this to heart because he always amazes me at the way he is able to access a job and get it done in the most efficient way.

This afternoon, while hauling and stacking wood, Ben came up with a most ingenious solution to make a job we were doing easier and more fun. When he and his dad backed the tractor and wagon up to the front porch where we were stacking wood Ben jumped off the tractor and over to his slide which he began to drag to the porch. He propped the end of it up on the porch and said, "It's my machine."  We were able to take the wood out of the trailer, and slide it down the slide into the waiting hands of Tim who stacked it on the porch.
 
I think Grandpa Kincaid would be proud of our 4 year old Ben.