A few quick thoughts. In no particular order.
Saunas are great. We built one a couple years ago and besides the therapy (for Greg) of building and tending the fire, they are just so relaxing. Ours is rather rustic with no running water and an old wood stove, but it's so good for the mood and the body too.
I just love listening to my husband singing. Or talking. Or preaching. Anything where I hear his voice. Back when we were long distance dating by phone, I remember thinking "I could listen to this guy for the rest of my life." And yes, I still never tire of it. He's out in our sun room right now singing to some 90s Hal Ketchum and it's music to my ears to hear him sing. He's working on a leather project with some evening tea and life is good.
The kids are in bed after their usual shenanigans, which brings me to the next point...
Isaac and his (very awful but humorous) bedtime routine. He comes out of his room every night for some reason or another, which is usually a good thing because if he's in there then he's pestering the big kids. Tonight after 6 seconds of the music turning off (which was when they were supposed to stop talking) he comes out and says, "I can't sleep" then "Luke keeps saying "shoisicnsighsi" to me."(shhh) Then finally Greg gave him a pretend spanking to which he actually started to cry (tears and all) and then realized it wasn't real and started laughing, "Dad gave me a fake spanking!" Then finally he falls asleep on the couch and I carry him to bed once again. I love that little guy. It's so hard to be tough on him when he's so cute. Here he is a different night after falling asleep IN his pillowcase.
Sometimes problems, if left long enough, take care of them self. Like the check engine light that finally goes off because you never checked what the problem was. Or the aquarium that was given to you for an aquaponics project that never developed at least 2 years ago. And then one day it's freezing cold and your kids throw a bunch of huge rocks into it and smash it up and then it takes care of the problem. That's the life these days.
And then there's our little 5 year old, who most days is the ditziest member of the family. She doesn't pay attention most of the time, so her information is rather skewed and not very accurate. But, lately I've been noticing a change. She's getting it! ('It' being how the world really works, not how she imagines it does). Last night at supper the kids were talking about how to get wood from the trees on one side of our ravine over to the house. She suggested a big, huge conveyer belt would make hauling it the easiest. But then added, "Since we don't know how to make one, it would be a good idea to go to the airport and have someone there teach us how." So she does know stuff! Yay!
Sleeping baby in polka dot cupcake fuzzies. Who can resist? You may recall my post from when Isaac was about this age, how fuzzy pajamas are just the best uniform for a baby. Cozy warm, no socks falling off, easy to change a diaper and oh, so cuddly! I just love them! All those cute outfits can go bye, bye. I do like fleece pants, a long sleeved onesie and a fleece vest for the best winter clothes outfit, but these pjs simply make life so much simpler. And I'm all about that!
There's some things in a parent's life that are just a bad combination. I laugh about them, because we go through the same thing with every child at about the same time. Like a baby in the bathroom. Nothing good can come of a 1-2 year old in a bathroom unattended. Unrolling toilet paper, digging in the toilet, filling the sink to overflowing...you know what I mean. Or a toddler on the computer chair. Nothing good can come of that either. It's usually just dumping something on the keyboard, but it could be hitting all kinds of buttons causing mixups to files and whatnot. Sometimes (usually) falling off the chair because they are standing up and leaning way over. Another one of those bad combinations is kids and dark colored juice. How come they alway spill (as seen in this picture)? It's beet/carrot/apple today, but it could easily be grape or cranberry. Whenever it's dark, it will be spilled! Although milk does get spilled pretty regularly too, I must admit. Even Greg spilled it recently just after he had taken the jug away from one of the kids to avoid another spill. We all had a good laugh about that and it sure keeps us humble!
I just have to include this picture too. Just one of my favorites of Isaac. He's just so cute these days, with his love of warm cereal. He also loves pantakes and cockadoodledoo (pannukakku). There's always arguing over who gets to sit by Celeste at each meals, so you can see in this picture that Luke made name cards to stop the squabbling. What's with that anyhow? Squabble over every stinking, little thing. Color of cup, plate, silverware, sitting spot, amount of food put on dish, etc. We seem to have a lesson about it at every meal too, but that doesn't help. I'm trying to slowly eliminate all things that are different and replace them with identical items, but that still doesn't work. The clear glass coffee cups I bought recently have a smaller handle than the old ones, and now they're fighting over who has to have the small handled cups and who gets the large handled cups (even though the cups are identical). Ugh!
This next picture is of our $150 pen. It finally died after 10 years of use and kicking around our house. So how did we pay that much for a measly pen, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Back when we were expecting Luke, my cousin had suggested hiring a doula for his birth. I called many different ones and was only able to get in touch with 1 out of all the ones I contacted. (We had prayed about this and wanted a Christian one, who this lady claimed to be). So, we tried to make connections with her to meet her. She and I talked on the phone and emailed, but had a hard time setting up a day to meet and go over everything. Luke's birth was fast approaching, so when we met up with her the first time, we just paid her the down payment ($150) to avoid having to try to connect again (this should have been a red flag, but since we didn't have any other options, we continued down this path). She was having marriage troubles too, and had to bring her 3 rowdy kids over when she came to meet us because her husband flaked out on picking them up that day. Well, sure enough, she became even more difficult to reach. Her phone got disconnected so she promised me she was getting a pager. In the meantime, she'd borrow her dad's cell phone. When I actually called the number, I got her dad, who knew nothing of this plan. Remember, 10 years ago, email at the library was a common form of email usage/checking. That's how she and I were contacting each other. She never did get that pager and Luke's due date was 1 week away by now. So, I told her that it was too stressful to have her in our birth plan (because of inability to get ahold of her), and that we were 'firing' her. She refused to give our money back (it was non-refundable as per the paperwork, but she also did not hold up her end of the contract) so we consoled ourselves with, "Well, we hope she bought some groceries for her kids and at least we got a pen out of it all!" Sigh. Some things just weren't meant to be. We went on to have a different doula with Elise's birth and it was a wonderful experience.
Well, enough for tonight.
