Snippets

Three video snippets below can give you a small taste of some of the activities in our household of late. When more time is available for typing, I hope to fill in some more details on what else we have been up to.

First snippet: homeschooling. And Alida is currently spinning herself dizzy in her circle seat as I try to quickly type this before she wants out!



Second snippet: block box. Location is clearly important. Some recent rearranging moved the clunky toy box over by the dining room table and the block box over to the living room. Now that it is within clear site of everyone it has been a main attraction in our home. Both Kali and Alida are enjoying blocks. This is what Alida most likes to do with them.



Third snippet: dirt. And while she really likes unloading the block box, there are things that take even higher priority. She is still our little vaccum cleaner - finding any and all pieces of dirt that she can on the floor and consuming them (giving me that knowing glance as if to let me know that she knows I don't approve but the temptation is just too much for her).



Enjoy!

Balance?

I guess one could say that if you have time to photograph your to do list then it really can't be too bad... So here it is! Though one thing (pruning) can be crossed off after Jason's work day today. It seems of late I've been thinking once again about balance and how to not only find it for brief moments in time but how to find ways to sustain it in our lives. Right now it seems that balance is hard to maintain consistently and that I'm easily knocked off balance. And it seems that our to do list grows much faster than it shrinks right now. Jason and I both feel a tad bit nervous that most nights we crawl into bed rather exhausted AND the growing season has not even started yet (other than a few seedlings Jason is tending).

That being said, there is much in life to celebrate and we are incorporating a lot of good routines and rhythms in our household. Family nights have been great - the three we have had since making the decision to have them regularly - with the most recent including making soft pretzels together.

And Alida and Kali continue to delight and amaze us, with the littlest gal growing up way too fast! She has most recently learned to climb stairs and has quite the sense of humor and her shrieks make my ears ring. She also seems to be starting to consider life as a night owl like her big sister - something her mother is not too excited about as that will assure that she is outnumbered in this family as one who enjoys an early bedtime! Though tonight Alida sacked out early (hence the ability to write this post and share a new cute video with whoever happens upon this). Here is how Alida gets cleaned up after eating her dinner:



One final note - we gave Kali a coupon for Christmas for a sleeping bag. It was in part due to our desire to rid ourselves of a hand-me-down Dora the Explorer sleeping bag that supposedly was inflatable but the device was clunky and not so easy to use, took a long time, and by morning there was no air left inside. So it had seen better days and Kali was ready to part with it if she had an alternative. She has not been so excited in a long time as she was when the box arrived this week with her purple sleeping bag. She has slept in it the last two nights!

Update from wild, wonderful, West Virginia

The Myers-Benner gals are all in West Virginia for the weekend (Jason is at home alone with the project list!). I'm glad for two super travelers that accompanied me today (on my first road trip with Kali and Alida alone). It was cute to hear Alida asking about Da Da on our drive over the mountains - she says, "Da Da Da Da" and then makes a little sound with the intonation of a question, indicating she wants you to say something about his whereabouts. I'm always happy to oblige.

West Virginia is as wonderful as it normally is, complete with Grandma and Grandpa Myers to pamper all three of us. Alida is enjoying getting to know the Mountain House and I'm enjoying some rare moments - reading, playing more games than usual, and I haven't done any dishes in the 10 or so hours since we arrived (thanks again, Mom!). And I am typing with two hands with Alida sacked out upstairs - she played hard today, all 24 pounds of her!

Yes, she had her 10 month check up this week and remains consistent in her height, weight and head circumference - all at or above the 95th percentile. She is now about 4 times the heaviest weight Nora was ever able to get to her in time with us, which is getting less hard to believe as she does feel like a big girl (especially when hiking up a steep mountain with her asleep in the front pack).

I thought about Nora a lot today. Jason told me last evening that the three little yellow crocuses we have enjoyed each spring are blooming. I went out this morning and caught them before the sun had shone on them, so there was frost all around them. I'm not sure Nora would have been ready to come outside with us on February 2nd, but it continues to be a reminder of her presence with us each spring when the trio blooms. Then on the way to West Virginia I had a tape on to help Alida fall asleep and it was the lullaby music that we played nonstop in Nora's hospital room the week she died. It filled me with good and sad memories, and I felt closer to her and to those memories than I have in a while. It takes slowing down sometimes to access them as I feel so fully consumed most days with life in its present form. I'm grateful for the opportunity today provided for a bit of slowing down.

I think we can attribute a bit of Alida's hardiness and a few of her gained ounces from the mountains of kale she has consumed over the last number of weeks. It is not an understatement to say that she loves the stuff!



The only other news to report that feels worthy of staying up a few more moments to comment on is that we have kept up our plan to have regular family meetings and family nights and we are enjoying both. Our second family night was after Alida's doctor appointment this week - we enjoyed dinner and bingo at The Little Grill. Jason and I were very relieved when our family won the first two games - so we could leave! Our littlest can be quite loud these days - she shrieks, growls, roars and in general makes her presence known...

And the most recent "emergency" family meeting (a deadline on a decision precipitated an unplanned meeting) came up with this decision: we have decided on the animal we will have join our family in 2012. There is an order of ten Rouen ducks placed and they will join our little homestead in April. All are excited, especially the 8 year old!

Kicking off family nights...

Family meetings really are a great idea! So much good has come out of them and some fun ideas. At our most recent one (we have had all of 2-3 since Alida joined us but the most recent one was particularly "productive" on the generation of creative ideas) we unanimously agreed to start having more regular meetings and family nights.

Tonight was our first ever "official family night" and we decided together that we would go for a walk after dark (Kali's idea), would build a fire in our fire ring (my idea), and would roast marshmallows (Kali's idea) - and Jason and Alida were approving of our ideas, or at least they went along quite willingly.

Leading up to this evening, the Myers-Benner girls had a very fun day at home together and my body is feeling that weary good feeling. Here's a few of the things that filled our day while Jason did some machete work clearing around peach trees in the morning and worked for our neighbor this afternoon. We made homemade grape nuts - haven't done this in years and got inspired when looking in Mom's cookbook for another use for buttermilk. We made graham crackers so those of us that like s'mores could enjoy one (or several) by the fire - I attest to their yummy-ness! We made a double batch of french bread - to share with neighbors, for lunch and for friends coming over later this week. We made blueberry cornmeal loaf (also for sharing and a hosting event and because I got inspired when I saw some organic lemon zest in my freezer that really needed to be put to good use sooner rather than later). We made a peach kuchen and a peach/sour cherry kuchen - again for friends coming over. We made a batch of green pasta for a lasagna and for spaghetti for dinner tonight.

It's been fun to watch Kali's resurgence of interest in cooking/baking with me - sometimes she'll have a cookbook on the counter open to a recipe when I get home from work.

In between the cracks of time in the day I squeezed in a few walks (two of which included naps for Alida), some outdoor play time with Kali, laundry, lots of dishes created by the fun had above, and managed to get all our floors swept so that I don't have to watch Alida with an eagle eye when she is crawling around (for a day or two at least).

A very fun day! It ended with Alida nursing to sleep by the fire while Kali chattered and roasted (or charred in some instances) marshmallows. It was the first time we ever made a fire "just for us" and not for an event in which others were joining us. We'll be doing it again...

Carrots

This entry may seem to include two very different entries, and in most ways it does.

The first item of news is that Kali lost another pet today. Henny Hen died in front of Jason as he was doing the morning chores at her pen. She had not been perky for some time now and in chicken years had lived a good life, but it is still a little sad. We'll remember her presence in the garden fondly and her jumping up and down in her pen when we brought her grubs, rotten tomatoes, etc... Kali shed a few tears but did not show nearly the grief she did when burying her first pet, Curious Hiddley. I still feel a little sad whenever I peel carrots or put carrot tops in the compost, wishing I could take them out to him and hear him ring his little bell coming out to see who was coming and with what kind of treat.

That's the best segue way I can make to the video below. I was eating a carrot at dinner and Alida let out her very excited sound she makes in eager expectation of me sharing something with her. I gave it to her for a few seconds and then was worried about those 8 little sharp teeth getting off a big chunk. So we got the grater out and shredded some on her tray. She LOVED them!!! Jason thinks maybe we should get in the habit of shredding carrots all over our floor to distract her from the dirt that she is insistent upon finding AND consuming. She now knows that the mats at the doors are great places to find treats. And she is getting fast at the crawling thing. We are loving it.

Dinner tonight

Last evening we had our first family meeting in a LONG time (since September I believe it was). Kali had chosen one of the agenda items which was to discuss her making dinner "all by herself" sometime. We were game and there was nothing on this evening so we didn't waste any time setting the date. I wasn't sure whether to come home from work hungry or full. What a funny dinner it was!

Kali was very cute jabbering as she made plans and worked to keep us out of the kitchen during the 1/2 hour or so of her preparations. We were permitted to sit down after being guided into the dining room with our eyes closed and started with her "fruit juice" concoction that she made in the blender with a few blueberries, peaches, sugar (A LOT) and water. She had made toast with peanut butter (put on before toasted) that had sat in the toaster while she made her juice. We each got a small half roll and some sweet juice. She was into her meal and having a grand time chatting about it. Jason's plate was empty almost immediately and we were trying not to chuckle. She had put applesauce on the table which Alida and I were enjoying while we waited for our next course - cheese toasts which were waiting in the toaster for her to make the final piece of the meal - blueberry smoothies. That was the highlight (of the food we enjoyed) and she was proud of her success. She even helped clear the table and clean up some spilled smoothie.

She suggested she do it more often - like once a month or 12 times a year! She is also requesting cooking classes. I've agreed to both!

The highlight of our time together at the table was no doubt Alida's antics. Enjoy:

At last a woodshed!

Building a woodshed has been on our project to do list for longer than we would like to admit - okay, so years. We've used a makeshift system that has worked, but with a goal for something more long lasting and user-friendly. It has gotten put on the back burner for some time but finally made its way to the top of the priority list. Jason has been thinking about and designing it for some time - such that when we needed to cover the old stairwell during construction, he built the roof for the woodshed to be that cover. But since that time it has been sitting on stacks of wood waiting for its final resting spot - which it found last weekend! Thanks to some friends for loaning their muscles for a half hour or so, the roof was placed on top of the posts and Jason took it from there. Just yesterday he finished the siding for the little lofts and I imagine when the weather warms there may be a sleepover happening out there if he can convince Kali to join him. He was pretty happy with the final results!!