I'm listening to Glady outside, just near the office window, trying to build a fort. It is a relatively warm day for January, and she wanted me to take a walk with her, which we did on Tuesday, but the little girls are supposed to be napping and I can't leave them. I know she's trying to build a fort because she wanted me to give her a blanket to put over the clotheslines and I turned her down. She also took a cookie out with her in case she got hungry, her journal to write down anything interesting she found, a box to put cool stuff in, and her little binoculars to watch birds with. I feel a little like I'm looking back through time at my younger self.

I saw the cardinal earlier today - so beautiful. It is only the second time I've seen one here at the farm. Phil caught Mrs. Cardinal at the feeders right after we first put them out, and now that i have different seed in them they came back. I was using what was left of the parakeet food, and ony the sparrows and chickadees liked that.

I need to go put my bread in the oven, and Phil will be home soon. I'll let the little girls get up and maybe they can get outside for a while, too. Sometimes I feel like our world shrinks down to these few rooms in the winter.