So not too long ago we had a crazy day, making new friends, exploring our new terrain, it was fabulous. A little crazy at times, but fabulous. A new friend from our ward invited us to go berry picking, but when we arrived at the farm they informed us that the berries were all picked. A little disappointed, but determined to be undaunted, we picked a new destination, the local zoo! We had the most WONDERFUL time with our new friends, Steve and Becky. They are so kind and considerate to want to do something they know my kids would enjoy too, when they haven’t children of their own yet! I am so grateful for them. Immediately afterward we had a play date at another friend’s home. My kids really needed a day like that as much as I did. I am still amazed that all things worked out so perfectly. The boys all had a nice nap between events, and behaved themselves wonderfully well. 

Read the rest of this entry »

Since we’ve got a fair amount of wood scraps from our current flooring project, Neils has been asking to build a birdhouse out of them. Conan, being the AWESOME Daddy he is, made it a priority, and here are the fantastic results:

            So, we’ve been "moved in" for about 2 months now. The things we need on an everyday basis, are pretty much out and in use, but there are still loads of boxes which, frankly, I’m afraid to open. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to tell somebody, "yes, I have that, I just don’t know where it is…" I am notoriously BAD at moving in general. Packing, unpacking, either direction I’m lost. And this time around I’ve decided that unless I’ve got a place to put something that works and that I like, the blessed thing can just stay in its little box until I do. SO, that said, please share with me any and all wisdom you have pertaining to the subject of unpacking/getting organized. Ready, GO!

Read the rest of this entry »

Moths like our new house. I’m not really sure why, maybe it was because I was having a crummy day and they really wanted to just cheer me up, but a couple of days ago there was one beautiful gypsy moth on our window in the evening, and it stayed there all day and by evening at least five other huge moths came to visit us. They fluttered all around our porch, landing here and there, on me, on the door, on the flowers… just beautiful.

Neils likes the idea of a pet more than he really likes having a pet, it seems to me. Though we’ve had Niketa a month (maybe?) now, he still will not so much as pick her up. Though to be honest and fair he does like to chase her and will sometimes pet her and play with her toys with her, he’s just not a pet-touching kind of kid. But he’s decided that his latest discovery is our new family pet.

  Read the rest of this entry »

So, when presented with naked floors on our newly purchased sanctuary (aka home) we were in love with the idea of adding the ever-popular option of hard wood. Though we LOVE trees and the wood they produce, and would love to be surrounded by the beautifully grained patterns of cherry or hickory wood, the fact that it took those trees 25 years and more to get that beautiful just so we could chop them down and gut them just took the joy right out of it for me. Especially considering that we could get a similar look from a lovely invasive grass called bamboo. It takes just 5 years to produce a suitable cutable plant… and it’s perennial. No need to clear more land to plant more trees to chop down then move on to the next parcel… you get the idea. To be honest, it was Conan’s inspiration that got me considering bamboo at all. I LOVE the look of hardwood, but seeing how beautiful bamboo can be http://www.duro-design.com/ I was won over by the green benefits afterall.

With nearly 600 square feet to lay, we’ve got our work cut out for us.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, I realize that school ended a month ago, but I just have had so much backlog I didn’t realize I hadn’t posted this yet!! Neils never ceases to amaze me. When we moved to Michigan, we learned that kids can start Kindergarten the year they turn 5, as long as they turned 5 before December (the Indiana cutoff keeps being pushed back and now is at about June, I believe). Neils, having an October birthday was lucky enough to be a Kindergarten age kid here, even though in Indiana he was just in preschool. So I had a choice: do I hold him back just because the school year had just started? Or do I put him in Kindergarten halfway through the year and risk overwhelming him with a lot of new stuff mid-year? I started Kindergarten at age 5, I knew Neils was SO ready for Kindergarten academically, and I couldn’t pay for preschool for my child who desperately needed some regular social outlet. It turned out that his best (well, only) friend here would be in that same Kindergarten class, so when I asked what he wanted to do, of course he was all for it! SO, we took the plunge.

Read the rest of this entry »

We have in our yard a number of beautiful trees, and remembered that we had been toting around a nice sturdy rope from swingsets of bygone days, and decided to do something about that. 

Read the rest of this entry »