summer in February

Zion and Nathan playing shirtless in the yard

warm work

It's not every year that the kids can have a snowball fight shirtless and with bare feet, but we witnessed it last week. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday—each day warmer than the last, melting a foot of snow down to almost nothing (rain Saturday night after a slightly cooler day finished it off). There was lots to enjoy: Leah got to run in shorts, Harvey took a long bike ride with a friend, the kids had the aforementioned snowball fight. We took a hike Friday and Harvey and Zion were in shorts and sandals (though we walked through enough snow that they maybe would have made a different footwear choice if they could do it again). But there's also the nagging sense that it shouldn't really be so warm in February, and that climate change is dooming us all. Kind of spoils the fun.

So, even though I probably have to abandon my plan of direct sowing arugula seeds in the garden this month (I was going to use row covers if it got cold again!), I was glad to see more seasonable weather make a return yesterday. Especially when we got home from church and I could put my hat on again—I forgot that you need to wear more clothes in the winter.

We marked the end of the crazy warm weather with a fire Saturday evening. The boys invited the neighbor kids over and we toasted marshmallows, then they played with fire for a while as the temperature dropped and a light rain started to fall. It was fun. We'll do it again... like, towards the end of April?

long-exposure shot of Harvey waving a spark around

fire drawing

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