Free Little Library and more

So life's about to get crazy again so I better get a few reflections/photos/videos up here before our numbers expand once again! Alida left last Wednesday morning for her week in wild, wonderful WV with Grandma and Grandpa Myers. To say she was excited would be nothing short of a major understatement! She had packed over a week ahead of time and had even put her trip on our family meeting agenda to talk about what she should take along and what things we would be doing in her absence. We've talked with her (or tried) each day, but we get a sentence or two about what game she has most recently beaten Grandma or Grandpa in and then she usually says "bye" and is off to have some more fun! We are looking forward to welcoming her home later this evening. It was even a long enough time away that we were able to send her a letter and we just got hers to us today. Pictured here is Terah helping me takes ours down to the mailbox - one of her favorite outings these days is a walk down the lane!

We didn't promise Alida we'd have no fun while she was gone, but we did offer to try to play the games she doesn't enjoy as much and work on projects that she didn't need to be part of. So we've gotten to enjoy Upwords, Boggle, Take One and Blokus with Kali this week. I will even be willing to admit that I lost to Jason AND Kali in Upwords last evening (and worse than losing is needing to admit that I was not a very good sport about it and was happy Alida was not here to see that her mother is not much better than her at losing certain games). I'm recovered now and am ready for another shot at it - though not sure Jason and Kali will want to play with me again so soon!

During the days that I was at home and with Terah, Kali and Jason had the goal of finishing Kali's birthday present (it was about time before we are closer to her next birthday than her last one). We had given her a coupon to build a Free Little Library with Jason to put at the end of our lane. Kali has photographed the process in extensive detail but here's just a few to give you a sense of the process and the final product, installed today! We are waiting for our official plaque that we ordered to arrive and for Alida to help Kali fully stock it, but there's a sampling of books now just in case someone stops by. We also hope to plant daffodils under it to spiffy it up even more - not that it's not already pretty cute! It's been really fun to see Kali and Jason getting lots of time just the two of them to work on a project together.

It worked out really well that they were at the caulking/painting stage of the project when the weekend came around. They were able to fit this in in the evenings, since the daytime was occupied with helping with the hog butchering up the hill. We were so generously assisted by neighbors when we butchered in the fall and were happy for a chance to help out in exchange. I should clarify: Jason helped with butchering, I made food! It was a large group gathered on both days and they worked up 7 hogs. Jason enjoyed himself thoroughly. The first day I didn't linger long with Terah and Kali (in part because I feel shy at these kinds of events when I don't know many people and partly because a good number of folks had brought their dogs and with multiple dogs milling around I wanted to make sure Terah didn't experience more "dog trauma" before she gets over some already unfortunate experiences). So we had a short visit and then decided to come back for more the next day. Sunday was so nice to linger for a few hours and join the crew for lunch before heading home at Terah's nap time. I joined the inside folks of mostly kids and our neighbors S&M. As our neighbor S's mobility decreases due to advancing prostate cancer, I welcome and savor any and all time that we get to enjoy together. They feel like family to us and so the times feel both sweet and sad!

On Saturday afternoon, Emily, Terah and I enjoyed a walk with a very unexpected ending. Due to Emily's bravery (remember my aforementioned feelings of shyness), we stopped in to meet some neighbors we have wanted to meet for months (actually it's been close to 2 years since they moved to Ktown we found out). We were so graciously welcomed into their home, served a Kurdish feast which we enjoyed with them, and visited for close to two hours before heading home. We look forward to reciprocating soon and are grateful for new friendships and to be able to extend a warm welcome, especially to neighbors who are no doubt hearing messages of exclusion, unkindness and discrimination. It was amazing to me how well Terah did in this new environment, completely won over when they offered her a banana. Maybe she also sensed how special and unique the time was. 

As this week without Alida comes to an end, I feel glad for it! I feel grateful for her special time away building memories with grandparents. I feel grateful for more concentrated time with Kali. And I'm eager and ready to have Alida back in the mix. I was once again amazed by how the complexity seemed to drop by way more than 1/5 just by removing one member from the household. There is some sort of tipping point between 4 and 5 that seems to exponentially change things. While we remained quite occupied this week (because that's just what we do), it felt calmer in some regards. That is good, since once again Terah is in a stretch of sleeping horrendously! Maybe she needs Alida to help wear her out during the day. Let's hope!

Ok, I can see the color changing on the mountain outside as the sun starts to set. Terah and Kali are hanging out some laundry to give it a head start on drying tomorrow. I better take over so that Kali can get a little carrot digging in before dark. I'll end here with a few videos for your entertainment!

Kali's pet chicken Buttercup is spending her days with the ducks. I think she is starting to think she is a duck. This video was taken right after I caught her trying to strain her neck to get grass out of the water pan like the ducks were doing. Silly chicken!

Terah is still giving me near heart attacks several times daily. You turn your back and she is trying to get on some piece of furniture. She is insatiable! It's funny sometimes and frustrating at others. She would spend as much time on top of the dining room table as we'd let her. It has made working in the kitchen nicely in that she pretty reliably enjoys joining me there sitting on the counter while I cook.


And, finally, while it was a little calmer this week, Terah did her best to make up for Alida's noise missing. This is not a calm or quiet child! She is so funny right now loving to scare us by coming up and saying "boo" which sounds more like "ba" when she does it. And when we act very scared, this tickles her to no end. She does love her life (when we aren't keeping her from climbing) and I'm glad!