Ewsa-sa-sa Mawie! Come push me!

Says Oliver, as he sits upon his tractor.

From one extreme to the other. Fighting to conspiring on mischef, then back again. That's our days around here. Kinda like our weather. One day, it makes you smile, you think spring is in sight; then you wake up to snow falling and more subzeros in the forecast. I guess both keep life interesting. Or its just that way to drive a person bonkers. Not sure which.


A sight from the other day:

Me? I was lazy. I uttered these words:
"Hey Oliver, You should change Elsa's diaper."
So he did. And she cooperated.
Almost. He got it off, then she ran away...

3 Years Ago Today

You changed my world.

Happy birthday to the sweetest little boy in my life!

May your days continue to be filled with wonder;
May your life be filled with love;
May your trials be few,
may you always have faith to see you through.

Love you, little man

42 Degrees!

An oldie from last spring-Doesn't this look nice??

The snow, it is a-meltin', the puddles, they are a-growin', the boy, he was a-splashin'...the pants and boots, they are a drippin'. Spring is in the air!

Running errands is a trip with two mobile, eager puddle jumpers in tow. The library was one stop, I've been in need of a few new books...hopefully the one book we brought home that doesn't have pictures will be enthralling. I simply grabbed it off the 'new arrivals' shelf as I chased my not-on-good-library-behavior kiddos out the door. Humpf. I was looking forward to a nice stack to enjoy at my leisure. Shucks, anyways.

And, boy, that down-spout at the grocery store? That was enthralling.

We finally moseyed on home, and both are snoozing peacefully. On, to other motherly tasks. The laundry pile, it is a-growin'.

Enjoy this wonderful springful day!

11:01 and we're still going strong...

Unusual. But, so far, not bad.

• Ever been told, in the most calm of voices, with a finger raised in the air, "just be patient, just hold on" by a almost-three-year-old? I have. Many times in the last day. I still try not to laugh.
• That almost-three-year-old was well loved at birthday party number one last night. One more tomorrow.
• When asked what kind cake he wanted, he said 'pink.' His great-grandma delivered. Pink, it was.
  
• Andrea babysat for me this evening. I guess my kids don't really like pigs.
• Did I ever tell you the cat's name is Thelma?*credit to Joan* And that she's earned her keep once so far, by catching a mouse?
• My 16 month old can jump. Both feet, all the way off the floor. She also likes to jump off the couch.
• Off to investigate the banging in the bedroom. Maybe bedtime will come...before tomorrow.

Sweet dreams!

Well, I finally got around to catching a moment when my new counter was relatively clean, so I can share a couple quick pictures with you!

This is the kinda rough, but very functional counter we added. The fridge used to stand where Oliver is in here, making those upper cupboards basically unusable. This arrangement makes the walking space wider and gives the freezer, recycling and potato bins a place to be, out of the way. I'm standing in the rest of the kitchen, by the sink and stove to take this picture. The whole kitchen area is probably about 8x3ft, and the dining area is just large enough for the table, chairs and benches. (I would show you pictures, but it might be *ahem, cough* a little messier, heh.)Putting the fridge in the corner takes it out of the way.

The change was relatively simple, and well worth the effort!

Well, well...

I just found out that my settings were such that any 'anonymous' of you out there couldn't post comments. It should be fixed, so post away, post away!! :) That better, Ann??

Can you guess my news????

These two are gettin' married, these two are gettin' married!!

I'm purely excited for them, and now I don't have to correct Oliver when he calls Russ 'Unc.'

Beware:

A bottomless pit and a monkeyclimber reside at this house.

The elder no more than climbed down from the lunch table (which, I might add, he ate quite well) walked into the living room, turned around, came back, and asked for a snack. I held out for two hours. And since then he's had a fig newton bar, numerous carrots, a little bit of green apple pop, multiple saltine crackers, some tea....

This morning, I pulled out the next size of clothes for that one. Must be growing or something.

The other spent the whole morning checking the top surface of everything she could. The main goal was simply to go up. Luckily, I was able to revive my contacts after she got done dumping them on the floor...

She's 16 months old, and I can only imagine how peaceful it would be if she hadn't started walking half her life ago already. She hasn't stopped since. Scolding her barely phases her, she just smiles and trundles along her merry way, hauling along whatever might come in handy for climbing upwards....totes, chairs, stools, you name it.

It's snowing. Again. *sigh* If you're looking for me, I might be busy. Clinging to my last bits of sanity. For dear life.

Wednesday's Very Random Bullets

• The roads this morning-they were icy nasty.
• And yesterday? They were slushy nasty. Eric got stuck just down the road.
• Two tag-alongs makes for interesting ditch rescue.
• The older enjoyed it, cuz a tractor was involved.
• The younger just tolerated.
• They both were dripping, actually dripping, when they came in.
• That's odd for February in Minnesota.
• Whatdaya think of that mom of octuplets in CA?
• She thinks she can take care of them all by herself.
• Huh. I like sleep to much to think that.
• There's a V-day party in this neck of the woods Friday.
• The hubby has to work. Imagine that.
• Might hit it up myself. How fitting for the holiday.
• There's a Jodi Picoult book on the arm of my chair-
• Hopefully its as good as some others of hers
• Now, to spend the morning reading! (one thing I do like about my job. heh.)
  

Hope your morning is as peaceful as mine looks to be-

A few warm fuzzies to end the day

This sweet little boy I know just informed me "you not a mean mom, you a nice mom." "Oh, really?" I asked. "Yeah. Give me five!" he responded, "and a hug and a kiss!"

This started with a discussion of which tape he wanted to listen to: Cinderella or Robin Hood. That led to the telling of his version of Cinderella: "and den, and den, an den she fell down down the steps, and she had a mean mom..."

Even before that, we were waddling like ducks and singing "a boy song," and "a grandpa song" and "a cow song" (kinda taxed my song-making skills, but they didn't mind if they made sense.)

Now isn't that just the best way to end a day?

Sunday rolls around

And I end up at work. The morning was just getting started, I had just begun to crack the eggs for Pannakukku and the phone rang. A nurse was sick, and a house needed covering-could I do it? I moaned. I groaned. I said, "am I the only one left??" I guess so, because here I am.

So much for church and a round of wallyball later today. Humpf.

On the other hand, the house was descending into a state of chaos the longer I stayed around. Oliver didn't make it to the potty in time, Elsa was happy only if I held her. Eric made the mistake of mentioning that I was leaving for work half an hour before I did, so the rest of the time Oliver was about one foot away, worried that he wouldn't get his hug before I left.

But, the Pannakukku sure was yummy.

Saturday was what I would call a productive day. We got the afore mentioned kitchen 'remodel' done, and I think it's going to be as great as I hoped. It did turn out different than I pictured, but that's usually the case in this place. We didn't end up using the plywood covered with vinyl I had envisioned, Eric's dad had an old solid wood door we used for the countertop. Much more sturdy. (Anyone need a 3x9 piece of linoleum?) I also got the freezers defrosted and a lot of decluttering done in the process. There's still some figuring to do, all that comes with the territory of a new system. So far, this change is good.

No pictures yet, just haven't gotten there. Funny aside: Elsa slept through the 3 hour project, and when she woke up she walked into the kitchen, peered around, then went over to the fridge started patting it and chuckling. 'Hmm,' she was thinking, 'knew something was different!'

I even got a chance to go visit a few out of town friends. All in all, Saturday was good.

Two slippers, swimtrunks and a hat.

What do those items have in common? They all mysteriously migrated out of the thrift store donation bag, and managed to stay here. Interesting.

It's been an absolutely beautiful day here today. Somewhere around thirty degrees, sunny and warm! The kids and I had a great snowshoe trek into the woods, they took good naps, then we made that trip to drop off those thrift store clothes and ran by the flooring store to pick up a remnant piece of vinyl for my future counter top. Fancy, I know. But in this house, for $10 and functional, you can't go wrong! And, the vinyl is even kinda cute. Plan stands to be put into motion this weekend.

Snowshoeing was a good workout and fun today, as the snow is hard packed now and it doesn't take a whole lot of effort to pull them. And, I rigged up this ingenious harness for pulling: put on the baby front/back pack the back way and loop the sled rope through it. Voila, a nicely padded, well strapped-on, comfortable harness that pulls equally on all sides! Sometimes, I surprise myself with these grand ideas.

Hope you were able to get out and enjoy the day today!

Attempting to update..

Hmm, I was trying to try out a few new backgrounds on here, but evidently I missed something-Sorry if you couldn't read my words of wisdom for a while!Hopefully all is better for now:)

Ideas!

Yesterday, standing in my kitchen, I had this wonderfully good idea. It involves more counter space, and that alone makes me all a-quiver with happiness. The total counter space I have right now is somewhere around 5 feet, and only about a foot and a half actually gets used for cooking and baking. The rest has cupboards directly above it, making it impossible to even use a hand mixer in a bowl over there.

So, I ran the plan by the husband unit, who would end up doing lots of it, and he thought it just might work. And, we'd pretty much have the materials for it. Handy thing, to have a sawmill out in your yard. Oh, it's nothing to drastic, only a little rearranging and a little building, since I don't feel like putting to much into a house I detest. But...boy would it make a difference.

I'm keeping the fingers crossed that even as soon as this weekend, I might get to make some changes!


Oh, and total Oliver/playdough time topped out at about 7 hours. He only took a break to go cut wood outside with his dad. Incredible. Who knew he had the attention span?

Welcome to Tuesday

We just rediscovered play-dough. (Thanks, Mom!) That is a good thing. He's going on about an hour...this creates much peace amongst the rest of us.

I just put the younger down for a nap...with a bottle in one hand (trying to wean that) and an empty milk jug in the other. I decided taking it away wasn't worth the fit she'd throw.

So now, we're finally settling in for the day. The morning was a little...well, I'll call it rough.

Now, to do the laundry, round up some lunch and get everything ready to take to the accountant tomorrow. (read: sort through receipts and invoices and enter 'em in the book...Should be fun!) Nothing like last minute, right?

And to stay warm, cuz baby, it's cold (again!) outside.

4:30 and he's still going strong with the play-dough. Ate lunch on the job, and took a short break to go outside with dad. I am lovin' this stuff!

Do you ever feel as if you could scream your wishes from the rooftops, dance a jig and do cartwheels, but no matter what, you just won't be heard???

There are some people in my life that tend to make me feel just that way. And you know what? After a while, it gets darn hard to overlook things again...and again...and again. It makes me want to BURST at the seams. But, burst I have done before, and that, my friends, is counterproductive.

So tonight, I kept it civil. Then came on here to let off a little steam.

Thanks:)

So, I just finished drying some tears and tucking my boy back in. He listens to a Robin Hood book on tape nightly while falling asleep, and tonight was no different. But when I heard the tape click off, he started crying. And not the 'delay sleep as long as possible' type, but true sadness, tears and all. Confused, I asked what was wrong. He told me "Robin Hood all done."

Now, we have this rule, very stringent, ONE book on tape per night. A while back, it was out of control, he'd ask for one over and over. So, I was ready to put my foot down. Glad I didn't. I told him he'd been really good this evening, so he could listen to it again. And what-da-ya-know, the volume was turned off...he didn't hear a thing the first time. Huh.

So, this big long story leads me to ask: just how long do you think he'd have lain there waiting if it hadn't clicked off??? I mean, the sense of time just isn't there! Being told 'just a minute' must be so abstract to little kids. I tend to forget that minutes can really seem like hours and hours like minutes. Guess this is another one of those times that I'd love to know just what he's thinking.

Those stickers came in the mail the other day. Hours of free entertainment.

He's a smartie

Coming home from church, driving down our still bumpy road, Oliver informed me "it be really bumpy, need to pick it up." "Huh??" I asked, and very know-it-all-like, he informed me: "need to pick up the rocks, so it not be bumpy." Heh. Sounds like work to me.

***

In other news, we acquired a kitty today. My mother-in-law found it outside her work a few days ago, half starved, with frost bitten toes. (I'm also wondering if those really pink ears might have been a little too, as well as a spot on her nose. Poor thing.) She's been at Eric's grandma's, and today we brought her home. So far she hasn't done much other than eat, hide/sleep and purr. I really debated weather I wanted an indoor cat, but I was over-ruled; the kids love animals, and Eric thought it'd be alright. I decided she'd be alright since she's already housebroke, and seems to be very friendly and kid loving. Hopefully once she's healed up, she'll be indoor/outdoor...(emphasis on the outdoor.) Oh, and that mouse Eric saw in our room this morning was the clincher.

Now she just needs a name. Oliver's suggestions include "Two"(?) and "Cat." Anyone got a good one? She's all white with the gray on her forehead and the tip of her tail. One eye is half blue half green and the other is green.

We enjoyed a beautiful day yesterday, but the winds of change are upon us, and me thinks the cold is coming back-boo.

Have a relaxing Sunday!