A few more WV highlights

We've been home for over a week but for various reasons I only downloaded pictures today for the first time since WV.  A big part of it is that I'm getting to know a new camera, since ours decided to stop working entirely soon after arriving in WV.  Thanks to my dad, who had an extra lying around, we can still share pictures of a certain fast growing sweet little gal!  But I don't know that I'll ever be someone that gets excited about a new piece of equipment...  It seems we are in a phase of things breaking around here and we have a growing pile on the counter of things that don't work and we don't know how to fix - a blender, immersion blender, coffee/spice grinder, breast pump and now camera.  Jason and I really like things with the fewest moving parts possible!!

Anyway, I've just downloaded over 100 pictures from the camera and thought it was worth putting up a few more WV highlights before moving on to a post about our Christmas festivities to date.  While it was so very wonderful to return home and be reunited with Jason, many of our hopes for the week were also realized (lots of fun game playing, walks outside, reading, and getting a pretty significant break from the daily chores that occupy much of my time).  Thankfully I also enjoy a lot of those tasks so it hasn't been too hard to get back to incorporating them into my life.  Mom returned from WV with us and so the transition back to home was smoother due to her never ending helpfulness! She also gifted me with lots of help sorting through cupboards, getting rid of and organizing spaces that had been bugging me for months (if not years!).

But I'm getting ahead of myself!  Here's Terah enjoying one of her many "chat sessions" with Grandma (and Alida) in WV.  I normally got there with the camera after the best of the coos and squeals and laughs had passed:



Here's a few other moments worth sharing:

This is one of those moments that makes my heart melt!  I love watching our daughters enjoy being in each other's presence. I'm so glad that that is their experience of life together the majority of the time.  We have our moments (and even days) where it is not so harmonious but those times pale in comparison to these!

So Terah is a pro going potty in the sink.  I haven't put a big messy diaper in the diaper pail since before West Virginia!  We discovered there that she really likes going potty where she can see herself (and us) in the mirror.  So we have moved operations here at home to where she has a good view in the mirror. Since we arrived home she has also discovered her toes. Cute!

It seemed fitting that one of the first books to be read to her multiple times would have a chicken theme!  She particularly liked the daddy rooster.

The only homestead project I took with me was a big bucket of peanuts to shell.  We made peanut honey brittle and a sopa de mani (peanut soup) with some of them.  They represent days of labor from the planting to consuming, so we will savor them!  We got the bucket shelled that week and then in Mom and I's organizing fun we discovered another big container unshelled. So we have more than we thought!

I have no idea what the price per pound for these peanuts would be if we calculated it based on a fair wage for all the hours spent getting them to this point. I do know that they would be so very far out of our price range!  We will be growing a very small patch just for fun this year and to keep our seed fresh...

Terah enjoyed lots of conversations with the bears at the Mountain House!

Well the Christmas post and year end reflections will have to wait until Terah's next nap at least.  She is doing tummy time on my lap but that doesn't normally last too long.  I also need to put some more wood on the fire. It felt like a relief to need a fire this morning finally!  It's been too warm and as much as I love flowers it has been unsettling to watch them bud and bloom in December...