Weekend.

I wore a pair of pants last week.
Went to brunch on Friday morn.
Watched a basketball game, (it was a good one!)
Saturday brought spring cleaning fever, and I scrubbed the kitchen floor.
Washed some laundry-including that pair of pants...and today they don't fit!
Then chased the neighbor dog away...
Put 25 potatoes baking.
Had a crash internet course in chicken butchering...
Set the kids to getting a sauna bag together.
Butchered and cleaned two chickens who met their untimely demise....
Gathered the potatoes, sauna bag and family,
Went to my ma and pa's
And celebrated my Gramma R.'s 87th birthday! She's as spry as ever.
The company was great, food was good and the sauna hot.
Sunday brought chasing away that neighbor dog again...but no butchering.
Church,
Scrambling home to put away a little of the torn-up house that didn't get put back together due to chicken butchering...
And K&D W. and boys over to play and grill hot dogs,
Sunday evening, a chicken in the oven-
Gave my finger a nasty burn.
But it was yummy!


The whirlwind pace of spring is upon us... it's a shock after the relative slow of winter.
And now I've gotta find that one box of clothes...

Progress...

Change is in the air around here. We're hoping/planning on getting a start on a house this spring and summer, so yesterday, Eric took the bull by the horns and started clearing some trees and brush. Maybe I should say he took the stump by the chain...

Clearing space

Watching in suspense
(note another improvement in Elsa's hair (and Oliver's, but it's under the hat.) They both got cuts the other night, and are looking quite spiffy.)

Pulling stumps...

And he had to call in the big guns. Oliver told Eric "I think you'd better go get the Moline" when the Allis Chalmers was struggling. Wouldn't this have been a great picture of a boy and his tractor watching his dad with his tractor? If only the dog wouldn't have gotten in my way.

And then, the really big guns.

Progress. It's a good thing.

Satisfied

Yesterday we failed to find the MIA library books. Thank goodness there was Bible class to distract the monkeys. Because today, while I was still in bed I heard "Can we go to the library?"

My "after lunch" held them off for a while.

Then lunch came. And I said after nap/quiet time. Then, seeing there was no getting out of this one, I got busy looking for the books. Flashlight and helper in tow, we searched the house, under, around and behind.

Know where they turned up? In the laundry basket between loads of laundry. Maybe that's a sign I should get that laundry folded.

Elsa woke up from her nap, and still blinking the grogginess out of her eyes, asked "Can we go to the library?" She could hardly believe it when I actually said yes.

Boy, were they clicking their heels as we headed out the door. They were excited to go pick out new books. And you know what? I like that. It makes me not even mind- so much- the two day search.

Songs for today

Through the window photo grab

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day...

Oh where, oh where did the library books go? Oh where, oh where can they beeee?

Although this temperate weather is welcome and I can almost watch the snow melt, I could really handle seeing the sunshine. I hardly dare to say it, but what if spring is here for good? Have I mentioned the mud? Another sign of spring. It's half a foot deep in places. Spring. Yum. However, this is MN I know the other shoe will fall and we'll get a March-or April-storm.



To break the monotony of being in the house, I thought we'd head to the library and grocery store. No dice. A stack of books have gone MIA. And, since I cleaned in order to have some friends over for brunch yesterday, I haven't really a clue where they could be.



Speaking of, that brunch was great fun; after our trip to Duluth the other weekend, the group of us from around here decided we should make an effort to get together more often. I was babysitting, so over they came. I made a delicious Apple German Pancake, the others brought their contributions, we ate, the kids played and we visited. Good for the soul. The above picture is Oliver cooking up concoctions with some friends.

Sunny and 40?

Thanks everyone for the well wishes on the last post. I'm looking for the new arrival sometime around early September. (I just made my first Dr. appt, so it's mostly just a guess.) In answer to inquiries, lately I've been feeling pretty good...but the stretch from pretty much Thanksgiving through New Years my stomach was in my throat. It made it hard to enjoy all the yummy holiday food and I'm very happy to have that stretch behind me. We're all pretty excited...and relieved to have made it to this point!

Now, how about this weather? Absolutely gorgeous, upper thirties the last few days. I was watching Thelma the cat this morning basking in the warm sunshine, soaking up the rays with her tummy solar cells, and thought, boy, can I relate to how wonderful that feels. Mmmm.

Think I'll head outside for a walk-