Love Writes On Stairs

I've wanted to do it for a long time. Ever since I realized my stairs had the right number of risers, in fact. Last night, armed with a visiting mother and sister and a few sharpies, it was accomplished.

Many, many laughs and wonderful memories (and reminding the children that this was only something the adults were allowed to do) went into the writing of 1 Corinthians 13 on my stairs.

And I am THRILLED with the result.

Uniformity and perfection was discussed, but quickly dismissed as artistic flare and originality won us over.

Now I'm not quite so anxious to get real flooring as it would mean covering our delightfulness.

Karl was pleasantly surprised when he came home for the evening as we had started on a whim and completed it in less than two hours.

Now, to learn to live that which we have written.

Who says we don't have lots of room for company?

Stacked this way we can fit another 15 on the stairs alone!

Come and stay family and friends,we'll find a way to squeeze you in.

Advent

As a family, we made 25 little stockings to mark the days from December 1-25. I stocked them with slips of paper containing verses about Christ coming to earth. Every night I plan to put a small treat for the girls in each stocking.On day 1 this seems to be a loved tradition already with Heidi asking me every couple of hours if it was the next day yet so we could look in the next stocking and learn what the paper says. My hope is to spread the wonder of celebrating God becoming man out over the entirety of December rather than save it all for a single day that is over much too quickly. I want Christmas to be about Christ for my children and want to build traditions which bring Him and what He has done for us to the forefront of our minds every day. I also want it to be fun and exciting for my children (and me) and so far this seems to include each of those elements. Hoorah!

I Love This Age

The best reward for picking up toys is... mopping the floor!

Family Fun

We are all loving that Daddy gets to be home in the evenings this year. 'Though I suspect myself to be happiest of all.

The Most Romantic Valentine Gift I've Ever Received

February 14, 2009, my husband decides to take his girls for a much needed shopping trip and date in the city. Now, Karl isn't too great with piddly little details like dates and such, so I'm not sure if this was purposefully for Valentine's Day, or merely a day on which it happened to work for him. In any case, it was much appreciated, especially by Heidi and myself. Hannah was still at the age where getting her food and sleep were about all that was needed to assure her contentment.
I've previously considered posting about the amazing gift he got me that day, but have hesitated, knowing that not all would share my sentiments as to the romantic nature of this gift. What exactly is romance anyway? In my book it's loving someone enough to get to know them, to pay attention to their needs and desires, and where possible meet those needs, even if it means sacrificing something for yourself.
Karl claims this wasn't really meant to be a Valentine gift, he just happened to decide to pick it up when we were in the city that day. I say give credit where credit is due and he made my day. No, year, as I'm still thrilled about it a year later. Yes, a year later I say he probably better not get me anything this year as it would be nearly impossible to top last year. Even had he gotten me a $10,000 diamond necklace I wouldn't have felt more happy and loved. More shocked maybe, but not more happy or loved. Big jewelery isn't really my thing.
What did he get me you ask? Maybe I'd better give you a little background: When we built our house money was even more scarce than it is today. We saved on everything possible. Karl just happened to have an old toilet in the barn. That's what we installed in our bathroom. It worked... for awhile. Then it didn't flush so well. Soon, it rarely flushed at all. I tried hard to not complain. I mean, I did have running water, I wasn't being forced to use an outhouse in -40 weather. Things could be much worse. I didn't however particularly care to be scrubbing a toilet at three in the morning because that was the only time it would flush and I happened to be up to nurse Hannah. Nor did I enjoy explaining to guests that it really wasn't them, the toilet simply didn't flush. Occasionally, therefore, I did put in a polite request that Karl try to fix the toilet.
Little did I know how he would grant my request. It was beyond what I even could have imagined when we walked into the building supply store a year ago and he told me to help him pick out a toilet. Not only did he buy me a toilet, he installed it right away, despite my protests that it was late and we had endured a long day in the city.

Yes, the most romantic gift I have ever received for Valentine's Day was a toilet from my man. He saw my need and he met it.

How about YOU, what's the most romantic gift you've ever received?

O Christmas Tree!

Delight. Giggles. Shouts of admiration. Oohs and ahhs. Contented babble and coos. Wonder.

All this and more I would have missed had I gone the easy route, had I listened to the part of me that said, "It's just too much work if we're not even going to be here".
I'm so glad I caved. Glad that nostalgia (and Heidi's persistence) won and we put the tree up in spite of the fact that we'll be in California for Christmas. Glad that I get this front row seat to watching Hannah's reactions to the first Christmas tree she's truly noticing. Glad that I get to continue to make memories with Heidi, be amazed by what she remembers from last year and realize that tradition is already taking root. I'm so glad I get to be a part of them.

Cleaning Bug

I have been planning on cleaning and organizing Heidi's room for awhile, but apparently I needed a bit of a jump start. I discovered we had a mouse infestation and her room seemed hardest hit. This week has seen me thoroughly cleaning while dealing with the third week of the second round of nasty flu bug this fall. I've decided that 4-5 loads of laundry and the same number of dish drainers full of toys every day for a week really feels like enough.
During all this cleaning, I decided it was time to let Heidi discover her "secret passage way/play area". What a thrilling discovery that was! Thank you Papa Root!

I gave them a snack and allowed them to eat it there. What happy girls! How much I could suddenly get done without interference! Some may call this bribery, I prefer to think of it as creative problem solving.

When all but the furniture had been removed from the room, I let them help me mop the floor. That was not such creative problem solving on my part.

Heidi was actually a great help, and scrubbed with diligence.

Hannah, on the other hand, enjoyed dipping her cloth in the water, did not enjoy wringing it out, and really only swiped at the floor as a means to going back to the bucket to dip the rag in again. Needless to say we had many puddles and some wet girls by the time we were done.

If you'd like to come see Heidi's room, now is the time to do so, I don't think it's ever been this clean!

Do I Live In The Country?

Waiting for Karl to bring the horses 'round for a wagon ride, I glance out the window.
"Look girls", I call, "what do you see?"
The answer:

1 Bear
2 Deer
3 Wild Tom Turkeys

Karl says we're just teaching them to count wild-style!

Canning Day

Outside
Snow Flies.
Inside
Pots simmer.
Autumn's colors
Red, gold,
Bottled up,
Saved for months
When all is White
Outside.

The fruits of today's labor: tomato sauce and applesauce

Homemaking Helpers

Hannah's been helping Momma with the chores around the house lately. Well, really she's just pulling herself up on everything and started both cruising around furniture and stair climbing on the same day this week (the stair climbing I found out about after hearing thump, thump, "waaaaa" from the other room - poor baby). That it's encouraging me to keep things a bit tidier around here is an added bonus!

Heidi's the got-it-together homemaker, soothing her baby while waiting for cookies to bake, and doing it all while sporting her latest apron and matching new sunglasses. Oh, for even a bit of her poise!

Stone Cottage - The Begining

The dream which was born on dark, long, cold winter evenings has begun its venture into reality. I'm not sure how long it will take to see the fruition of this dream. Knowing the amount of time I have to devote to projects, it will probably be years. Yet, I have begun. For one cannot finish what one has not started. I debated whether I should post about such a long-term project and finally decided that it would be a good way to document my progress as well as provide a bit of accountability and encouragement from my faithful friends. Eichenwald Estate* is soon to have its first stone cottage! T'will be a wee tiny cottage, in keeping with the skills and experience of its builder (in other words, I have but a wee tiny bit of either). It's intended purpose is to be a play house for our wee lassies and possibly have enough space for a bed for overnight guests.
Last night we began by going to the local stone store (aka. Our field) and picking rocks. This is going to be a LOOOOOOONG project! On the bright side, I have plenty of available materials, if I was more ambitious I could build a castle. Heidi was a great helper, but I think I'll get a little farther with the size rocks Karl was gathering.

Hannah sat in her wagon throne and applauded our endeavors.

Heidi found one of Daddy's previous stone piles - easy pickings

We got a nice load then took it home to pile by the building site.

While throwing rocks out of the truck, I commented that some of them were breaking a bit. Heidi responded, "Oh, that's so sad, now they're damaged!". Sometimes her vocabulary astounds even me.

*Eichenwald (say Ike-en-vald) is German for Oak Forest, and is the name we have given our farm and home.

Life on an Island

For a couple of hours yesterday I lived in an island home. Thankfully, it remained an island. The ice was working its way out, and got stuck a bit on the way, causing a fair amount of flooding. First, it was lodged above our house, causing flooding for our little town. Then, it broke loose and piled up below our home, causing flooding for us. In fact, the river rose about 2 feet in 15 minutes by our house at that point. We brought in sandbags, just in case it continued to rise, but thankfully, the ice broke, and the water left as quickly as it had come.
Hannah added to all this excitement by finding our just-started seeds and helping herself to a good handful of them- plus potting soil. Then, in the evening, she started her first official crawling! What a big girl she's becoming! Here, she's showing off her newly aquired first teeth (with a bit dirt mixed in).
"Mmmm...dirt!"

Our driveway and flooded greenhouse

A bit of the ice jam that was causing the whole problem (think I could can that and sell it? Canadian Ice Jam - kind of has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?)

Water covering our front yard and lower culvert crossing

water quickly approaching our home

isn't our driveway looking lovely?!

Karl walking on our driveway. For those of you who have never been here, this is on the opposite side of our house from the river.

driveway again

Heidi helping hold the plastic for sand bags. She was quite impressed by this whole adventure and wanted to keep sand bagging all day. She did want us to keep the door shut on the house so the water wouldn't come in.

Our little dike went up quickly with a big crew here to help

The water was just beyong our bags when, whoosh, the ice went out and the water with it. Thankyou Lord!

Walking On Water

The temperature has actually been above freezing the past couple of days, so we have been doing our best to take advantage of the warmth. We went for walks both yesterday and today - today's walk was on the river - thankfully it's still frozen solid! What a joyous way to celebrate God's beautiful creation! Heidi's ready to go!

Heidi did a good job of helping Hannah sit up for the ride

On the river

The river is big draw for snowmobilers in the area, you con see their tracks in this picture taken in front of our house.

Heidi got out to walk and Hannah got tuckered and took a short nap.

Walking back along a trail in the woods

Want to come join us for a walk?