Hibernation...

As has become apparent in the three years of this blog's existence, the Erber family seems to go into a sort of hibernation during December and January - especially January. Our blog seems to fall fairly silent during those weeks, and to some degree I suppose our family does, too. It has been said that the modern fragmentation of the family was started when central heating in a home became standard. Well, our home has central heating - the heat all comes from one central point and does not mix into the rest of the house very well when the temperatures stay regularly below zero! So, we found ourselves very frequently resorting to our living room and the cozy wood stove it contains. Mealtime? Fill your plate in the kitchen and then move to the living room. Evenings? Grab your book/game/project and move into the living room. Free time? Congregate in the living room. So January found us spending lots of time together staying warm.

Today, however, we come out of hibernation. See all that snow in the picture above? It's all melted now, turning our yard (and gravel driveway) into what looks like some sort of mud preservation area. There is sunshine that lures us out onto the porch to consume our midday meal while absorbing a few long absent sun rays. And then there is also the scented breeze that reminds us that we live just north of a dairy farm...

Granted, there is snow in the forecast again for tomorrow, and it is still early February, and a glance at Nathan & Jeanine's wedding photos reminds us that even into April things are cold enough around here to not be green yet, so we do still have a bit of winter ahead of us. But for today, we are enjoying an early dose of spring fever!

Not that we've actually been idle... Liberty Day is just around the corner! The mailing is out, registrations are coming in, and - with a history of several hundred attendees from a more than a dozen different states - the event does require a little bit of work!


We also enjoy the opportunity to have friends over during the "less busy" months. Last Saturday we had the Carlson clan over, but the only picture we have is this one of Jonathan and Joseph serving the cakes that Mr. Carlson had made. Mmmmm...

Plus, we do live very close to a bunch of our extended family, so family duties and pleasures do require a bit of our time, too! After church on Sunday the whole clan descended on our house for visiting and LD discussions and visiting. Somehow we found a limited supply of food in our fridge - but we did have a bunch of leftover mashed potatoes which, with the help of many hands, were quickly turned into Gnocchi with Pesto Sauce. Thanks to Winston for persevering in the kitchen despite his oft-mentioned Gnocchi-making-induced-exhaustion. :-)


And, could we possibly sign off a blog post without a picture of the little Bella we all love so much? She is very healthy, and very interactive. She loves to smile and "talk" with people, and even sort of chuckles at times!