Back to the "grind"

Chad really did go back to the grind today, obviously meaning work. Lu and I hardly have a grind to contend with, however. This was our first day on our own in over two weeks, and while we missed Chad, we had a pretty nice day. She is on the fifth day of not throwing any of her feeds up, and she is enjoying some food by mouth here and there. We had an especially enthusiastic and peaceful snack of Lebanon bologna and cream cheese this afternoon. So, she's doing great!

We finally did a little project that I pinned on Pinterest some time ago where we made birdseed cakes to hang out for the birds.  (http://naturalkidsteam.com/wordpress/2011/02/darling-little-birdseed-cakes-tutorial/) I have been especially wanting to do this because we have a nice round chair that we can sit in in front of the picture window in the living room and bird watch.  Due to the rockiness of out current yard situation, we weren't able to get any of our shepherd's hooks into the ground before it froze, so I improvised and created a bird treat jungle gym. 

Here's Lu while we were making the cakes. Her job was to smash it down smooth once it was all in the molds. We had to do hand over hand of course, but she did a great job and was all smiles the whole time. Take note that while we were having such a fun time making bird treats, she was also eating! It pretty much rocks. 

And here is the finished treat stand:

We also talked mostly about cardinals throughout the day as they are the most obvious winter feeder birds, I think. We looked them up in some nature guides, and then used a pretty Christmas card that had a pair of cardinals on the front as a reference for coloring a picture of cardinals in a backyard bird coloring book that Lu has. 

And here is just a picture of her enjoying being home and playing with her toys:

It was just a nice and quiet day after all of the stress and hullabaloo of the past few weeks.