Kids say...

 

It was 45 F yesterday, so we had to take advantage of it and play outside!

making volcanoes!

One of my favorite corners of my home:  Plain Ol' Grammy, tiny vases from POG, a bird from Kathy, a vase from Amanda, and lego wheels...framing my favorite view: boys outside.

Seamus:

My dice are running down the hallway, and so am I!

Can I have more smarsh-mallows?

I don't want to go to bed, I just want to sleep in my bed.

(after being scolded) You're so pretty, Mommy....just SO pretty.

In six days, when the baby comes, he's going to be so key-ute.


Luke: 

I called Dad so loud that he could hear me as clear as morning!

(crying) You ALWAYS make me learn things!

I found out I liked those carrots in my chewing process.

There was an excess of apples.  So I ate them.

Mom!!  My brother is doing stuff he shouldn't be doing....like eating stuff!

a little more snow

It won't stick around for long, but we decided to be excited about it, and go roll around in the wet wet snow and throw snowballs at one another.  In a few months we'll be praying for green grass again, but for now the snow is a novel thing, and we're going to just have fun and acknowledge that snow can be magical - to see the world transformed by white!

First Snow; ten weeks to go!

With the snow here this morning, and hard frosts finishing off the last of my garden produce, it is time to take down the trampoline.  Of course the snow melted during the day, and didn't stick to anything that holds heat, but still we recognize it as the beginning of the end.  I have to admit, in some ways seeing snow this morning sent a thrill through me.  I've been telling myself, "The baby's not coming until Winter", and here is the first sign of Winter - literally on my doorstep!

So, perhaps the change in weather is what prompted my "nesting", or perhaps it was just the fact that things are moving along so fast in the basement (we got carpet this last week!).  But this weekend we have moved a lot of furniture, including moving the crib and rocking chair into our bedroom!  That was really exciting, so of course I had to empty out a drawer for baby's little onesies, buy teeny tiny diapers and pack my hospital bag.  Derek set up the boy's bunk beds which is just thrilling them no end (especially the idea that they may be able to jump from the top bunk onto a bean bag chair...mommy's nervous about this one), and we are getting homeschool books and activities sorted and organized - which means the top of the piano and the dining room table are at last clearing off!  

Hurray for nesting!  Hurray for snow!  Hurray for only 10 weeks to go!

Rainy Days

The backyard is soggy, but all the boxes are planted!  The only thing left to plant is some herbs, potatoes and onions!

We've painted butterflies on paper because we've been watching caterpillars make their cocoons in our kitchen over the last few weeks!

Seamus painted with his hands...

Then everyone painted everything!

With homemade bath paints (I just mixed flour and water until I got a good paint-like consistency and added non-toxic tempera paint).

Bathtubs are easy to clean after too!

This was a very popular activity.  I put up some paper so I could enjoy the boy's paintings for a while.

And the ever-popular rainy-day activity:  build a fort and watch a movie inside it.

A progression that makes me smile

March 5, 2013

April 9, 2013

April 21, 2013

Today: April 25, 2013

March comes in like a lion

Freezing Rain

 I know this was several weeks ago, and I am far behind with posting the blog, but these photos were worth dragging up and looking at again.  We had a spectacular freezing rain earlier this month.  It was inconvenient, and made driving dangerous (and of course we had to take Seamus to the Emergency Room for a bleeding ear infection on a slippery Sunday morning), but the freezing rain left the most charming icicles, icy branches, layered flax, and made each tiny blade of glass a frosty, shimmery glove.  You almost felt sorry to walk on the cruchy grass (do the blades break or just the ice?), only it was so satisfying to hear it scrunch beneath your boot!

You can see the ice on the back door, looking like a textured glass, nestled comfortably atop the poppy head like a snug hat, and shimmering in the sunset light on each stubbly corn stalk.

Winter in Manitoba has its perks.  Pesky, yet pleasing, perks.

 

 

 

Down Home Summer

Summer looks a lot like this, this year. 
Bike riding,
garden/jungle adventures,
zinnias (my new favorite - yes they have usurped the sweet pea in the "just for looks category" although nothing can surpass sweet peas for "scent"),
grass and sand in everybody's pants!

It's a beautiful summer on roadrunner bay.

Dear Derek,

 The other day you were tired and hot and sore, ready to come in and call it a day, when I came out to see how the boy's birthday present was coming along.  You had gotten far, but I still asked, "Are you going to put the slide up today?"  You sighed and answered, "My battery needs to charge a little."  I didn't know if you meant yourself, or your tool.  But I answered, "You know Luke would be thrilled if the slide was up when he wakes up from his nap."  You just nodded as you hauled your tools back into the garage.  As soon as your battery was charged (literally?  figuratively?  both?), you went back out and finished the slide.  The building isn't done.  The swings aren't up.  But you pushed yourself, finished the slide that very day, and made two little boys extremely happy.  Can you tell?  You are anything but selfish.

I don't always know how to love you best.  You don't need much, and you ask for less.  Sometimes I joke that you "put up with us" - this crazy family of yours.  But you don't.  You do much better than that.  You love us.  You listen to us cry. You are tender when someone is hurt.  You keep a close eye on finances, and take our family's needs seriously.  You come home after a long day at work to a screaming baby (yes, he's in a screaming phase!), a tired wife, a messy house, and a three-year old delightedly jumping up and down shouting, "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!", and you smile as you pick up the baby and give hugs all around.  I don't know if you know that those hugs are sometimes the only thing keeping me from literally chucking the burnt casserole out the window (or the screaming baby). You are gentle, and you teach me to be gentle too.

You are not a saint.  But you are my husband, and these boy's Dad.  And you do better than you think, at both those jobs. I said I don't always know how to love you best.  And I don't.  I wish you liked chocolate bars.  Or movies.  Or something I could wrap in tissue paper and hide under your pillow.  Instead I make dinners with ingredients you've never heard of, and make you a sacrificial guinea pig for my experimental meals.  Instead you sit endlessly in front of my camera while I shoot test shots to check my light.  Instead I drag home porch swings and french doors and old windows for do-it-yourself projects that turn into honey-will-you-do-it-for-me projects.  Instead I call you up at work, in tears about how the washing machine isn't working and Luke just pooped in his pants - again. Oh dear.  Maybe you are a saint.

Most days I feel really lucky to have you as my husband, father to our sons.  And the days when I don't feel lucky, it's just because I haven't sat down for a moment to think about it - I've taken you a bit for granted perhaps.  But even that is a reminder of how consistent you are, reliable.  If you're always there, never stopping loving us, you're just part of us, and that's the way we like it - the way it should be.  We hope you see that when we take you for granted, you have done your job perfectly.  But we try real hard not to take you for granted. And I wanted to tell you so.  Somehow. I want to love you the best way I know how.  I wrote you a letter.

I love you.

laura

   

Looking out my back door

Friday evening in the middle of compost turning.

This morning, under a layer of snow...unpredictable Manitoba weather!