the gift that keeps on giving

Meet the newest member of our household: Mystery Virus! He's a cranky little guy, hiding away for a few days and then suddenly jumping out at an unsuspecting resident. I've been "under the weather" for going on three weeks now. Some days I feel fine, others I'm in bed, no symptoms most of the time and then suddenly body aches and this powerful need to go to bed.right.now.

Fun, eh? All this to say that not much has happened in our little homeschool recently. We did have a funtastic homeschool group gathering yesterday. After not meeting for over a month, everyone was so excited to be together again. A new space all to ourselves felt freeing, a fun circle with a little dance, Eric Carle's Hermit Crab story retold in beeswax and fairy wool, a treasure hunt, oh my, it was just great. What really spoke to me was first telling the children the story and then handing them a piece of beeswax to create with, as if to say "you too are part of creating this space, this group. Have at it." And they did. A little coral forest with fish, snails, sanddollars, crabs etc. grew up around the table. Lovely.

Well, since we were feeling off last week, our letter stories took a back seat and we settled into some handwork. Sophine has been begging me to teach her needle felting for two years now. So we did these:

Mine is the green one on the left, more the traditional gnome with beard. She made a blue girl gnome, who is still waiting to be named.

While I'm adding pictures, how about a view of our winter nature table?

It covers two shelves and includes a wooden shepherd with his flocks, various people made from pinecones, acorns and other seeds dressed in felt, plus my Mother Earth in Winter on the far right. She was my first felting project, and I like how she is so round. Here are a couple of closeups:

In this last picture I love how Heidi arranged it so the rabbit appears to be chasing the fawn. Why, she won't tell, but I bet there's a good story behind it....