Winter Playground

Our yard is so full of snow, it's wonderful.  The drifts are so high around the chicken coop that the kids have to strap on skis to go get the eggs.  They don't seem to mind one bit.  Knut shoveled out enough so the door to the coop can slide open.  David has really been enjoying the addition of ski hills to our yard as they provide him a more challenging practice.  However, both boys tell me that these hills are great for sledding as well.

The way that they explain it to me, they're not so much racing hills, but crashing hills.  If the hills were higher, they'd be good racing hills.  What David and Elias do is pull their sleds to the top of a hill, and then use their brakes to steer into one another.  The goal is to crash into the other person before they get to the bottom.  I just smile and nod.

It makes sense that this blizzard stranded my friend in I in Salt Lake City while we were on the way home from Denver, as the airport at home shut down.  Part of me was sad to have missed this one.  I absolutely love being by the fireplace with my kiddos, and just watching the wind carry snow all around our house from the view of inside our cozy house.  We sip hot chocolate and read book after book and sometimes roast hot dogs over the fire in the fireplace.  As they say, blizzards are great fun if you have nowhere to go.

I'm still living on the high of the mountaintop of the conference, though.  So I suppose it's okay I missed just this one little blizzard.

There's a series of forts being dug in the back of these drifts right now.  You can't see them from this viewpoint, and the kids made me promise not to take pictures of them until they are done.  So there may be more to come.

Yarn Along

Well, I didn't get as much knitting done on the plane as I thought I would.  Then everything I did get done (about 2 inches) got frogged.  I have flown on 2 different trips since learning how to knit 7 years ago.  The knitting done on both trips got entirely ripped out.  That is not a good pattern.

Also, right before I left I finished the fingerless mittens for my sister-in-law.  They're a bit belated for her birthday, but she said she didn't mind.  I hope she doesn't.  They're really more for her photo shoots in the Fall and Spring, anyway, and I doubt she's doing any outdoor photo shoots in the -40 degree wind chills we've been getting anyway.

We were prevented last week of driving the gloves over to her because of the weather, so I'm having Silje model them here.  They're a tad big on her.  The pattern is Alicia Plummer's Raw Honey pattern which I adored the moment she released it awhile back.  Sometimes I love a break from designing myself, and love a quick knit like this that lets my brain relax and let someone else do the math.  Plus, you can't go wrong with one of Alicia's designs.

As for reading, on this knitting-and-reading Yarn Along post, I'm all over the place.  The Mom Heart Conference I went to had a book table.  It was quite dangerous, actually.  Plus, they had their most recommended books in children's literature there.  So I figured I'd bring a book home for each kid.  Well, some kids got two or three.  Oops.  Let me just say that I was showing great restraint, and it could have been much more.

Here are the ones I've been reading a bunch to the kids.  There technically is more, but these are my favorite of the bunch:

The Raft by Jim LaMarche.  This is the story of a little boy who is dropped off at his Grandma's house for the summer.  She has no t.v. and there are no kids his age there.  She lives by a river, though, and he builds a relationship with the outdoors and the animals that live there through the discovery of a raft.  The illustrations and the story of him and his grandma especially are so touching.

A Home for Virginia by Patricia St. John. I especially loved this one because it expressed beautifully 2 things that resonated with me: a picture of a strong man caring gently for a child, and a picture of how one child can change a community in ways no one can foresee.  A little baby girl is orphaned in a dirty mining town with a bunch of gruff men.  Instead of sending her down to the orphanage, of one the older miners decides to raise her himself.  First he just starts meeting the little baby's needs, but as the baby grows, and her needs increase, he starts changing the whole town.  First he sees that she needs a clean, safe place inside to play, so he cleans and fixes up his cabin that is usually dirty and run down.

Then as she starts toddling around, he thinks she needs a little yard to play in, so he plants a garden for her.  As he changes his little property into a place for a little girl, all the other miners start noticing the beautiful spot, and want their property to look at least as nice.  Pretty soon the run down mining town has beauty everywhere you look.  All because of a little baby.

Dangerous Journey which is an illustrated version of Pilgrim's Progress.  The language is a bit elevated, so more suited to my older 2 kids.  The illustration in it is magnificent, though.  It captures the imagination so dramatically that I'm enjoying going through it myself as well.

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along again this Wednesday.

Home

Well, my friend Sonja and I made it back from the Mom Heart Conference in Colorado to hear Sally Clarkson, Sarah Mae, and several others speak.  Sally and Sarah Mae co-authored "Desperate" which is a book that a small group of moms have been studying at my house every 2 weeks this last year.

It didn't take Sonja and I long to make the decision that going to this conference again in the future would be a high priority.  As we discussed all that we heard on the long way home, we realized much that was talked about wasn't just for moms, but for anyone walking the Christian life.  Ideas like our identity in Christ was what really hit home for me.  It's so easy to fall into rules, methods, and legalistic ways of raising children.  What this talked about was looking at how God made us individually as moms, and pairing that with Biblical principles to find out how our family should work.  There was a lot of inspiration, and a lot of grace preached.  It's not about looking like another family, or meeting the expectation of others, but finding out how our families tick and walking in the Word.

I had to laugh when one of the speakers, Sarah Mae, said in one of her talks something along the lines of, "I don't knit, but if I were a knitter, I would think the most fun part would be designing.  It would be picking out the yarn, feeling how soft each one was, choosing a color, deciding which stitches to use, and how it would fit.  That whole fun process...was how God made you.  He knit you together with that kind of joy and excitement."  So, it sort of felt like every session was just for me.  Also, I think Sarah Mae has the heart of a knitter and doesn't even know it.

One of my other favorite speakers was Sarah Clarkson, Sally Clarkson's daughter.  She spoke about children's literature, and the way that stories shape our children's minds.  It was so amazing, I could listen to her talk 5+ times and not get sick of it.  She has a website for those who are interested: http://www.thoroughlyalive.com.  She's working on a new website just focused on children's literature that isn't up quite yet.  It will be www.storyformed.com.

It was a long way home.  We were supposed to get back Sunday night, but a blizzard at home shut down the airport.  Our journey home is a long, very boring story.  The airline didn't think that we could get home until Tuesday night, which stressed me out.  We were able to make it to an airport 3 hours away from home, stayed the night with my companion's in-laws, and then we got woken up to a phone call Monday morning of a friend who said she heard we were stranded and her sister was making the drive from the twin cities home, and we might be able to ride along.

I was so grateful to have my arms around my family again.  I was aching for each one of them.

So today I'm trying to get my kids back on schedule at home.  Snowdrifts near the chicken coop go up to my head.  That's how crazy the blizzard was that hit on our way home.  Our yard is just full of snow.  The driveway is plowed, though, so it's onto the library, chess club, and choir practice today for my kids.  The kids are really clingy, which I expected.

The conference was so good.  I felt like parts of my heart were exposed and worked on that I haven't thought about in years.  As a mom, it's easy to just keep going, push forward, stuff it, harden, and just make the days work.  We try, fail, try, fail, try, fail again.  It gets weary.  God did a lot of softening in me, and reminding me to embrace who I am and how he made me.  Not only that, but I had the most amazing time with my friend Sonja as we talked non-stop about everything under the sun.  We also met some other amazing moms that I know we will keep in contact with.  There is an upside to this digital/internet age.  :)

Now it's a matter of applying all that I learned.  I knew it would be a clingy mess when I got home.  The trip home was full of stress, long waits at airports, long stand-by lines, running between gates, and sitting next to a grumpy businessman on the plane.  The world didn't wait a moment to attack our peace.  Arriving home doesn't allow much debriefing as we just hit the ground at full speed.  So far it's good.  The peace that was instilled in me remains, and what I got there was deeper than just 4 full night's sleep in a row.  (Although 4 full nights of sleep was pretty heavenly.)

Be patient with me as I'm catching up on everything here at home, trying to unpack, trying to stay centered, trying to snuggle away the kids' clinginess, and process all that I learned.

Also, I have to brag a moment and thank Knut for sending me on this getaway, and watching all 5 kids the days and nights that I was gone.  I feel like a new woman, physically and emotionally.  What a gift.

Family Size Awareness

Not that long ago, I took all the kids out to lunch when we had to be in town pretty much all day for various appointments, activities and errands.  When you live in the country, you bunch your town business together as much as you can like that.  It's a whole 15 minute drive, so I don't know why we do that, but we do.

It was just some simple fast food place, which the kids always view as a special treat because we so rarely go.  In order to keep everyone's mind off of whatever prize is in the kids meal that we never buy, everyone needs a job to keep busy.  David, fill the water glass.  Silje, can you grab some napkins and ketchup?  Elias, can you move the high chair over to our table?  Solveig, can you play peek-a-boo with Ingrid?

Things actually go very, very fast.  The key is to know exactly what the order is before entering and have a plan for how various situations will play out.  Also, a long lecture to the kids while still in the van about what sort of behavior you expect from them inside the restaurant is always helpful.

The meal went pretty well.  Once the food was nearly gone, everyone was getting antsy to move and I was beginning to see the subtle signs of the kids starting to fall apart in about 10 minutes.  I don't know how moms can tell, but the signs are there.  So we got out of there.

Once back on the road, Silje asked me: "Mom, sometimes I feel like people look at our family when we go places.  Like, maybe they're wondering why we aren't in school."

I told her, perhaps.  Perhaps they're looking at us because they think you should be in school.  I told her the story of when I took 4 kids to the mall by myself to get some shoes (before I was even pregnant with Ingrid).  I felt like all eyes were on me as I didn't even have a stroller, but just had Solveig in my Ergo carrier, and held Elias' hand firmly as Silje and David walked close by.  I learned somewhere around the 3rd or 4th baby that sometimes the stroller is the problem, so I very rarely use mine anymore.

Every kid wants to "help" push the stroller, which of course is never helpful, and then there's the fights over who gets to push and for how long, and if it's not someone's turn, but they decide to just touch the stroller to bug their sibling....  Plus, you bring things that you don't really need, but you have the space so why not?  I find that having a baby in a carrier, and a small diaper bag with about 2 diapers, a thin receiving blanket and a few wipes are all I like to carry places.  Everything else is kept in the car.  Plus, I don't have 2 hands to put on the stroller.  My hands need to be grabbing children and keeping them close.

I digress.

So anyway, I remember everyone staring at me, and finally when I got to the shoe place, the staring got worse, and finally, I asked a customer next to me, "Do you know why everyone is staring at us?"

"It's because you usually don't see kids as well behaved as yours in public."

I will never forget that kind young lady.  After having countless times where a baby has screamed his lungs out, or a toddler has thrown a tantrum and then turns limp in public, or have an argumentative school age child try to reason with you why they "need" something they don't need at all, all under the watchful public eye, it was so nice to just get a compliment like that.  I was feeling so self conscious, and really it wasn't what I thought at all.

So I told that story to Silje as we were driving the other day.  I also made the comment, "And you know, we are kind of a large family."

Now, this... they couldn't believe.

"We're a large family?" David piped in.
"Yep.  5 is a lot for a family this day in age."
"What do most families have?" He asked.
"Um...about 2."
"TWO!!!" a chorus of voices behind me in the van gasped.

"But we know families with 10 kids!" David said.
"No, we know families with even 12 kids!" Silje said.
"Yes, but that's not the norm.  Most families in the USA have about 2." I said.
"But we know lots of families with 4 kids, even." said David.  He then listed them all.
"Yes, but we live in a small town where families tend to like to live.  In big cities, families tend to be much smaller.  It's more normal in our town to have 3 or 4 kids.  There's not as many with 5."

"I don't even know if I know a family with ONLY 2 kids." David exclaimed.
"Hmmm... [I reminded him of 1 family in our circle that he knew.] Plus, your friend L, he was an only child for lots of years."
"Yes, but then he got 2 little twin sisters last year. " He then proceeded to list the names of all the families with 4 kids, or 5 kids, or 6 kids.
"I heard that homeschool families tend to be bigger." Silje said.
"No, what about the Y family, or the H family?" David said.  "They go to public school and they have 4 kids.  The other one has 6."

"Still, we are considered a large family in our country.  Most people don't just walk into a fast food place, by themselves with 5 little kids." I said.
"We're not little." David said.
"Well, not all of you." I said.

"Well, we don't know why people watch us.  Maybe it's because you guys are doing a good job, or because Ingrid is smiling so big, or someone has boogers hanging off their nose, or that we're a big family, or maybe they do wonder why you're not in school.  We just don't know."

"Huh.  2 kids." David continued, as he looked out the window deep in thought.  "2 kids!  I guess I never thought of us as a large family.  I just figured we're sort of a medium size one."

Chores

We started a new chore system this week.  I'm not one to be terribly creative in the chores/games/charts/stickers sort of way.  My amazingly talented sister does a new chore system every year it seems, and I'm slowly but surely learning from other moms as well that shaking up the system is good for everyone.  It gives variety to the dull, and it's fun.  I'm not that "fun mom" but I'm totally at peace with that.  I'm the practical, "You'll do it because I told you to do it" mom.  I'm learning, though, that a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Yep, we saw "Saving Mr. Banks" at our recent date night.  Great movie.

So this chore system was told to me by my friend Melissa, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that a mother with 10 kids has seen all, done all, tried all, etc.  The majority of the best advice I've received as a mother has come from Melissa, so I thought I'd try.  So this is the chore system she uses most, and she learned it from the Smockity Frocks blog.

So what you do is you get some paint cards, and you write a chore on each color.  A child is assigned a color for a week, and for that week he/she does the chores on their color's card.  The next week the kids rotate colors.  The chores on these cards should be daily chores.  (In our family's case, I decided on chores that needed to be done after breakfast, and after lunch.  That way we have a big clean up before school starts, and after most of the school is done.)  The add on that my friend Melissa did was put a note to get a "card from Mom" which is a stack of index cards she has with chores that need to get done, but not necessarily daily.

So, what I did was carry over the "personal" chores from my last chore system, and make sure each child knew that getting dressed and cleaning their room was still pretty standard.  That is written on the index card below each child's name.  Silje also has the "feed animals" chore because, really, the animals are hers most of all.  She's the one who wants to feed them.  She's the one who spends time with them.  She's the one who wants 20 more.  When David gets pigs, he'll have "feed pigs" on his personal chores.  In other words, I don't want to put "feed animals" on the color cards, and have that chore rotate through to just any child.

I figured out what to write on the cards by making a long list of the daily chores, and handpicking ones that could pretty much be done by Silje (9) or David (8) by themselves, or the Elias/Mommy team.  Elias is 5 years old, and has been extremely resistant to starting up chores this past year.  So I'm going to be his chore buddy, and we'll spend some months doing chores together.  That way I can be sure that he's getting trained in, and I'm not asking him to do things that seem too big.

Dishes are a HUGE chore in our house.  We don't have a dishwasher.  I know.  I know.  If we ever renovate our kitchen I assure you the new one will have a dishwasher, but until then, every dish in this house is washed by hand.  So having a "kitchen" chore card would be too big for any one kid.  That card has 1 sink-load of dishes, wipe down the table, and wipe down the counters.  That's it.  Sweeping the floor and picking up is on a different child's color card.

Already I see that the chores I wrote on the cards don't seem quite equal, so I may have some adjusting to do.  Either that, or whoever has a light loaded card will have a light week, and that's not so awful either.

I picked chores that I never seem to get to, and are easy to delegate out.  Things like fold laundry and bring upstairs.  (The clothes are to be divided and set on the bed of the person who wears those clothes.  I go around and put the little kids' clothes in their dressers, and the big kids put their own clothes away.)

Then there's in index card stack of "extra chores."  I graded the number of extra index cards based off of age, and put a little notice of that up as well.  I felt this was important not to put names of who got how many extra chore cards, but what ages got extra chore cards.  It worked too.  It wasn't "Silje gets more work than David" it was "The 9-10 year olds get more work than the 7-8 year olds."  The boys immediately understood that they would be expected to do more work as time goes on.

My index cards have things like "vacuum living room and den" or "bring slop out to compost" or "wipe down sink area in both bathrooms."  Since Elias doesn't have to do any of these extra chores, I saved some of the chores that would be easy for the older kids to tackle on their own.

So...day 1.  I was determined not to yell that morning, so help me.

I don't know about you, but nothing, nothing as a mom, gets me yelling like trying to get my kids to do work.  My kids will be hard workers.  I'm determined.  I'm not about to raise a bunch of entitled, lazy children who think only of themselves and what the world owes them.  Does it sound like I have issues?  Yes.  Yes, I do.

Moving on, I was determined not to yell.  I had gone to all this effort to bring color cards into our chores routine.  The kids were excited about a new system, and I wanted to ride that enthusiasm for as long as it would last.  That's why I was doing it.  I wanted a day without fighting them.  Heck, if I could get a week, that would be fabulous.  If they need games to do chores, we'd do games.  Let's just get some work done.

First, I adjusted my expectation as to what I was going to be doing during all of this chore time.  I was going to not leave Elias' side.  That was my plan.  Silje and David are old enough to come to me for questions, or handle it themselves.  Elias was in major need of training.  I wasn't going to go on the computer, answer phone calls, feed a baby, get a snack, etc.  I was going to stick to Elias like glue, until I annoyed him so much because he could do the chore in his sleep that he tells me to go away.  I would cheer him on, give happy instructions, and just not leave.

That expectation was very helpful.

I then did what I had always done, and what my mom had always done, and blasted some fun kid music when chore time started.  People of all ages work better to music.  It changes the mood in the whole house.  Music to groove to is key.

Silje and David were excited about the new chore system until they read their cards and realized that I had written chores on them.  I don't know why they were surprised that they had chores to do with the new chore system, but that's how they appeared.  "What?! I have to do the dishes for a whole week?!?!"  "Folding laundry!  Ugh.  For everyone!"  The complaining lasted for about 1-2 minutes, which is about as much as they dared.  Then the work started.

With Ingrid at my hip, we started on Elias' list.  He was already dressed and he said his room was clean.    Still, I told him we should do one more check.  As we went up to the boys' room, I spent a lot of time showing Elias what things I look for when looking for a clean room.  Is the bed made?  What does it look like under the bed?  Are the clothes put away nicely?  What about any trash on the floor.  Can we make the desk top look nicer?  Maybe those Legos should be put downstairs.

It somehow morphed into us becoming detectives who were looking for messes.  I know.  Who am I and what have I done with Gretchen?  I turned into a fun-mom.

Picking up Legos in the living room, organizing the mess on the school table, sweeping the kitchen floor...we did it all together.

I would like to acknowledge, that this chore list isn't especially long.  I could get this list done in 10-15 minutes on my own, and I'd expect my kids to get it done in 30-40 minutes.  We spent 2 loooooong hours on this chore list.  I restarted that kids' music CD 4 times.  That's how long it took all 3 of my kids.  Silje was actually the last done.

I had several breakthroughs, though.  The 2 hours was long, first, because Elias is not a quick fellow.  He hates being rushed.  Do you have a child like that?  If you rush them in anyway, they shut down.  This child does not like to be rushed, does not like to attempt things he think he may fail, frequently gives half-hearted effort, unless he's in it to prove you wrong, and in that case he'll put forth everything he has.  I'll admit that the whole 2 hours my nerves were literally on end, and I was trying every relaxation technique on myself I knew.

I was determined not to yell.

The mother in me just wants him to learn by any means necessary and I'm terrified to break his spirit, and the adult in me just wants to do it myself because it would just be faster.  The realist in me doesn't want to just coax him into doing what he needs to do, because let's face it: the real world isn't going to cater to him.  The real world isn't going to make life easy and hand easy, perfectly suited work to them on silver platters and encourage every step and praise every good deed.

Then I realized, God didn't ask this ambiguous "real world" to raise my children.  
God asked me.  

So the mother in me won out over the adult and the realist.  I was to see their struggles, and figure out how they tick, and see what works, and figure out what tools their unique personalities need for the real world.

So, with my middle child who works so slowly, and stops every 10 seconds to mope, I just joked with him.  I kept it lighthearted, and made our work funny.  It was easier said than done, but when I saw him come out of his shell, I kept it up.

We went all over as detectives doing our jobs.  There was no scolding.  I showed him what to do, and had him work alongside me as slow as he needed to.  He got faster.  He was enjoying himself.

He stopped every 10 minutes...not to mope...but to give me a long hug.  I can't remember the last time he smiled so much.  Oh, he loved this time.  I was feeding his soul.

As for David?  Well, he had a crazy big pile of laundry to fold.  It was about 4 days worth, and I told him he didn't need to do it all.  He was in such generous spirits, though, that he just kept going.  So he did them all.  I told him that I hadn't done any over the weekend, so Monday would be the hardest day, but the rest of the week should be much easier.  He said he didn't mind.  It's possible he just didn't want to do math next.  I don't know.  I'll take it.

And Silje?  Well, she had the dishes card.  She didn't have that many, and she's by far my best dishwasher.  Why did she finish last?

Because when I was with Elias and Ingrid in the other room, I expected Solveig to just play like she always does.  She saw everyone else working, though, and didn't want to be left out.  So Solveig asked if she could help, and Silje patiently said yes.  Even though it meant that Silje had to move at 1/4 speed, she let her little sister help.  She looked for things she could bring her, or things that she could carry.  For awhile Solveig was standing next to her on a chair, helping her wash, but Silje was worried about Solveig falling, (Solveig sort of has a history of chairs and falling) so she talked and giggled with her as she made Solveig feel like she was the best help ever.

It melted me.

She wasn't annoyed with Solveig, and never scolded her to go away.  She just invited her in without me asking her, or even suggesting it

...even though it cost her greatly in time.

As I reflect on this, I wonder: is this what it means to train a child to serve?  I used to think that training my child to serve involved training them to work hard.  I'm not throwing that idea out, but maybe to truly teach a child to serve, you must first show them how to see people, in their truest need.  What does this person need, and how can I meet that need?  Is that not the essence of service?  Is that not more valuable to just working fast and hard with no purpose but staying out of trouble?

As we spent half of our school day working out our new chore lists, which should have been done hours earlier, and it took so much biting my tongue, and digging deep to choose comment on the things going right rather than commenting on the 50 ways it could have been done better.

I can't help but think that I'm learning the most.

I can't help think that it was the best chore morning ever.

I can't help but think that we (the kids and I) are finally getting it.

And I have really high hopes that it couldn't possibly take 2 hour every day, and as refining as it was, I don't know if I can handle that much refining everyday.  We'll get better.  We're each learning to serve.  Each in our own way.

I'm Blessed

Our little girl is walking all over the place.  I need her to slow down!  She jibbers in her own language very seriously to all of us when she's awake.  She has so much to say.

Solveig hiding behind some of her puppets.

More bread baking.  This batch didn't turn out as great, but still tastes good!  I think there's still some more trial and error in my future.

We've had some sunny days to throw open the front door, and let Ingrid and the kitties play together with the glass door between them.  Lena was getting jealous, so she licked Ingrid all over, to make sure she knew that there wasn't any glass between them, and Ingrid was welcome to feel her fur whenever she wanted.

I got to go to church yesterday!  Woo Hoo!  Oh, it fed my soul.

Also, Knut and I got a date last night.  It was dinner and movie.  Simple, yet really what the doctor ordered.

Sometimes, the little everyday things are the things you've been craving for ages.  Sleep.  Warm food.  A good cup of tea.  Knuckle dimples on a baby.  A good book.  A morning at church.  A date with hubs.  These are a few of my favorite things.

I'm blessed.

Yarn Along

I'm all over the place in knitting.  I'm trying to reach some point in at least one of my projects so that I have some excellent conversation/travel knitting for my upcoming trip.  I ended up ripping back the blue cardigan (above) and started anew.  The row count for the button band was too high, and it started to ripple next to the seed stitch.  I knew this was a potential problem, but I was hoping I could somehow make it work.  I decided I couldn't, and picked a new stitch, similar to the seed stitch, that had a longer row count to match the button band I wanted.

The puckering/rippling is gone with this new stitch pattern.  I'm much more pleased with how this is turning out.  I only had to rip back 2 skeins, so I guess it's not that bad.  I still have some notes in my head to write out so when I'm hanging out with friends on this trip, I won't have to search my brain for what step comes next.  It will all be written out.

As for reading, I'm soaking up Sally Clarkson's essays right now in "Seasons of a Mother's Heart."  I think universally, there are things that all mothers struggle with.  However, moms who work outside the home also have their set of struggles.  Moms who stay at home may have some different struggles as well, and homeschooling moms may have an even different set of struggles.  It's not a competition to see who struggles the most, which is best, or who is right or wrong.  It just is what it is.  We each have our load to carry.

These essays are directed specifically at the struggles that Christian homeschooling moms deal with often.  It is meant to encourage and inspire, and I'd say it's hitting the mark with me pretty directly.  I'm reading it in part for the encouragement (which is amazing on it's own), and in part to pump me up with excitement that in a little over a  week I'll be listening to Sally speak, and having tea with her.  It seems so unreal and far off, that I've been trying to read a bit every day to remind me.

Linking up again with Ginny at Small Things.

Animals and Cold

The Christmas decorations are slowly getting put away in their tubs for the year.  After this stretch of insanely cold weather, we've had a bit of reprieve, and resuming my walks has felt like coming up for air.  The animals are venturing out again, as well.

What to do with Missy was quite the discussion for awhile.  Lena, of course, was inside during the deep cold.  We moved all the cats together down to the barn during that time as well.  Missy?  Well, her electric fence collar battery doesn't work in the deep cold, and I felt very strongly that she should be down in the barn with the cats, since she does not enjoy the indoors.  She likes to take naps on the road, so if the electric collar wouldn't work, we'd have to keep her safe somehow.

What happened, though is she got so stressed out being cooped up in the barn that she started vomiting.    She couldn't stand the idea that she couldn't get out to see what was going on.  Is it silly that I can physically see her relax when she can see the horizon?  So then, after a few phone calls with other Great Pyrenees owners, we were convinced that the hard cold doesn't bother this breed, as long as she has access to shelter, she can be outside.  We don't need to force her into a building.  Even then, some owners said that given the option of being inside, or outside in -50 degrees, their dog chose to be outside.

This type of guardian dog is bred to be outdoors with the animals they are guarding.  They're not little lap dogs.  She is a hard core working dog/mini polar bear, and it's taking me awhile to get used to that.  I think it's amazing, but it's just so different from my city-animal mentality.

So we tied her up with a long cord near the doghouse, so she could get at least some shelter from the cold, and she couldn't get to the road.  She was not a fan of being tied up as she's used to roaming with her electric fence that doesn't work below -10.  Still, she only retreated to the doghouse for shelter at night, and even then, not always.  She loved sitting on a little drift on the side of the driveway where she could see everything, even though the crazy-cold wind was blowing right at her.  She makes this city girl shake her head in amazement.  Her desire to be alert to all that is going on with our property, scanning the horizon consistently for any possible threat is her passion.

She has a stubbornness to be where she wants to be, and doesn't like her decisions to be questioned.  I'm learning to trust her instincts... as long as those instincts don't lead to napping on the road.

Even though the yard has a deep layer of snow, we're deciding which laying chicks to order for delivery in another month or so, and Silje and I are browsing the seed catalogs already.  Our 9 chickens in their coop have been handling this winter pretty well, and just so barely started producing enough eggs that I no longer have to supplement with eggs from the store.  It's hard to catch them before they freeze, but the weather was so nice today, that none of the eggs were cracked when I went to gather them.

Pineapples are in season right now at the grocery store, and I'm dehydrating a bunch.  The juicy scraps have been going to the coop for our poor, bored chickens who aren't allowed outside to scratch in the snow.  I think we should put an ash pan in there tomorrow so they can take turns taking a dust bath.  Keeping them occupied to not pick on each other gets tough this time of year.  We only have 9 in there right now, though, which is less than half our capacity.  They've been doing pretty well with all the extra wiggle room.  I wish we had another 5 or so, so I wouldn't have to ration our eggs so strictly.

This snow won't last forever.  A few more months, at least, but not forever.

I'm Blessed

The weather got a bit warmer, allowing all of us to get out of the house and go cross country skiing.  The 3 older kids are on skis, and the 2 little girls go in the pulk (a sled for babies with a harness for Daddy to pull).  I brought my camera along, but I didn't dare take it on the trail with me.  I'm still working to restrengthen my core muscles, and I was sure if I took my camera out, I would fall on it.  I wish I had it when the 2 little girls were snuggling under a wool blanket in the little sled that Knut pulled.

Since Silje and David go out there with Knut often enough, they just took off on the trails, and Elias was my little buddy.  He's still getting his ski legs, and I've found that he shuts down when he feels any pressure at all.  So I just ski as slow as possible next to him and complain about how terrible it is to be beaten by a 5 year old as I slip and slide backwards, and he giggles in the track next to me, working those legs as fast as he can.  It's the only way to get him moving faster than .2 miles an hour.

It is fun to make him giggle.

This year I got him all the way around the easiest trail, compared to last year when we had to take a short cut and just get back to the ski house as soon as possible.

He can't handle the downhills well.  He gets nervous and just sits down.  He gets that from me, not Knut.  I think I did that the first 3 years Knut took me skiing.  Once we got him one time around the track, we left the big kids at the ski house with a bucket of Legos, and I got to go as fast as I wanted around the easiest track while Knut kept pulling the little girls behind him.

It felt so good to move.  I'm not as sore as I expected.  I really need to get back in shape.

Then the warmer weather cooled off, and by Sunday morning, the roads were a slick sheet of ice.  Church was cancelled, and I missed my 3rd week in a row because I missed the last 2 weeks due to sick kids.  I think that's a record for me.  It may sound silly, but for me, church is the highlight of my week.  I'm really missing the fellowship and preaching and worship.

The mixed blessing in all of this, is it has driven me back to my morning devotionals.  I've picked up my daily personal Bible reading again and my prayer cards.  I stopped doing them awhile back for various excuses, but decided that when Ingrid was up at night, I shouldn't get up before everyone in the morning to have that quiet time.  I figured there's no requirement to do so, and I'd start again when she started sleeping through the night.

But then I didn't.  The car accident happened, and then for a few months I was in pain, and emotionally quite numb or overwhelmed.  There was a lot of crying out to God throughout the day during that time.  I remember telling Knut during that time that I was experiencing God unlike any other time in my life.  It was so unemotional, and so extremely practical.  I didn't feel His presence close, in fact I felt very little but I saw Him work as though He was working right here in my house.  It was quite surreal.

Meals showed up at my doorstep when they were needed.  People came to weed my garden when I had the thought "what am I going to do?"  On my way to doctor visits, when I wasn't sure who would be watching my kids during my treatments, a friend would call up and say, "I have this morning off, and felt like God was telling me to call you and offer some help.  What do you need?"

Yes, God has been very practical these last few months.  Though my regular devotions did not carry on, the relationship did not cease or fade.  It's amazing how grace works.

I was getting desperate for that time with God after this 3rd missed Sunday, so this has been good to be back into the routine of daily time in the Word.  I went through my prayer cards where they were left last, and I hate to admit, one of them was labeled "New Baby" where my notes were written out for a safe delivery, and that Knut and I could agree on a name soon.

I hate to admit that is how long it's been.  It looks terrible written out.  How has it been that long?  Ingrid is a year old now.  Have I really let those few weeks off turn into a few months that turned into a year?  I know I still read the Bible to the kids, and prepare for my Sunday School lessons, and read books about the Bible.  I have called out for help many times, but I haven't been in the Word.  Do you know what I mean?  I missed having the source in my hands.

It has really made me think, and begin to consider many aspects of my relationship with God, and my priorities in general.  It's amazing how unapologetically this quiet meditation has begun to refine me.  God is sure patient.

I'm blessed.

That Should Do It

We're keeping busy.  Today is bread making day, so the kids are excited about that.  They've been loving grinding wheat for me, and ask to do it nearly every day.  I'm learning to soak and sprout our wheat first, and I'm using the recipe that uses some ground flax seed for some extra omega-3s in our diet.  I'm using this recipe, and starting to tweak it a bit.  Soaking and sprouting the wheat berries has made a much softer, lighter loaf.

On the other end of the spectrum, we're doing a science experiment today.  In order to learn the parts of a cell, we're making some lemon jello (to be the cell) and putting in it all sorts of candy: jelly beans, m&ms, sprinkles, fruit roll ups, smarties...each representing a part of the cell.

So I don't know if that negates all of the healthy foods I'm trying to get into our bodies, but if anything it will be memorable, and that's good for the learning department.  Balance in all things, right?  The kids should have fun with that.  Well, all but Elias.  He gets to haul corn with his Daddy in the semi-truck today.  It's his most favorite thing.

Silje and I got to go out together last night.  I cannot believe how much she has blossomed lately.  Her joy has just been bubbling over, and her desire to serve and learn have been growing right along with her legs and arms which have been aching constantly in growing pains lately.  We went to Perkins together where she talked me out of getting a burger and into some waffles, and we just laughed until our sides hurt, and then ran some errands together.

The little girls still have runny noses, and their noses and cheeks are just chapped like crazy.  They wake up every morning with terribly crusted faces.  I've been rubbing coconut oil on them to help soothe the constant wiping, and picked up some Burt's Bees hand salve last night to see if that might help too.  They're both starting to look better, and it doesn't seem to bother them.  It bothers me more than it bothers them, I think.

I cannot believe I'll be going to Colorado to the Mom Heart Conference in just 2 weeks.  I'm already aching in anticipation of leaving my kiddos.  I always have a really tough time leaving them, but this should be a really fun event, and Knut really thinks I need it.

I mentioned to Silje that my trip was now only 2 weeks away, and she requested that this time I should leave more meals for them than I did last time.  A few years ago, I left Knut with the kids with meals all ready to heat up.  I came back to a perfectly clean house, and clean kids.  Knut was a bit smug saying "I don't know why you think this is so hard.  This was easy!"  So the next time I left him with the kids, I left only groceries in the fridge, and not ready-to-heat-up meals, so he could get a better picture.  (Hey, at least I didn't make him do grocery shopping with all the kids!)

Silje is requesting that I don't do that again.

Knut is actually a fabulous cook, but cooking, and cooking with kids underfoot are two completely different things.  Apparently the stress level of the house went up quite a bit, and peanut butter and jelly was served often.

So I think I'll be doing some extra meal prep in the next few weeks too.  I think I'll get some meatballs in the freezer, some chili, and a few more soups.  That should do it.

Yarn Along

I finally dove into my beloved stash of Quince and Co. Lark in "Bird's Egg" blue.  It's the most perfect blue-grey that you can imagine.  I started another sweater in this yarn, but didn't like how it was turning out when I was about 6-8 inches into it.  That's the normal stage of me highly questioning my designs.

So this is design option #2, or rather, idea #287 that made the cut for the 2nd cast on.  What it is about one's favorite yarn that puts so much pressure on a project?  It can't just be anything...it has to be something fabulous.  It's a lot of pressure.  There's some yarn that I know exactly what it should be knit into.  Other yarn is so fabulous, so gorgeous, that it could be literally anything.  So I sketch up a sweater, and then start saying, "Or I could do this...or I could do this...could I do both?  No.  Or I could go a whole 'nother route and do this..."  It is only one sweater, and it doesn't need to be fifty sweaters in one.  So that means I have to tell myself "no" a lot.  I try to follow the "K.I.S.S." rule:
Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Keeping it simple is hard.  It's hard, because it can be literally anything.  Cables look good in this yarn.  Textured stitches look good, color work looks good, plain soft draping looks good.  How does one choose?

Buy more yarn.  That's how it's done.  It takes the pressure off.

I asked Knut last night what he thought about how this design was turning out.  Was it too textured?  Was it too simple?  Was it too busy?  He said, "You know you won't know for another 4 inches or so.  It's too soon to tell.  So don't worry about it, and just keep knitting."  Yes, he does know me.

Linking up with Ginny's Yarn Along.  Oh, right.  I need to talk about what I'm reading too.  I'm about half way through Caddie Woodlawn.  Still loving it.

A Good Day

I ordered some math workbooks for Elias.  Logically he would start them this coming Fall, but he's been wanting to be a part of our school day so much I ordered them early.  I ordered Saxon math (grade "K") when David was kindergarten age, and it was the biggest waste of money I have ever spent on a curriculum.  Since then we have just skipped that level.  I don't need to buy a book that tells me to tell my kids to play with math manipulatives.  I can just set them out and they play.  Done.  So Elias is starting with grade 1, with the plan of doing it slowly.  He kept asking for more today, so we're doing okay.

It's always amazing to me how different my kids learn.  In hindsight, many of the challenges that we faced with David's learning difficulty were often chalked up to the fact that he's a boy...or strong willed.  In all reality, he had some very legitimate, non-gender based learning difficulties that we have been working (successfully!) to overcome.  Now that our next boy is coming up the ranks, I'm surprised how easily things are coming to him compared to his older brother.  He loves to sit, not stand like his David.  He can sit at a desk and color for hours.  It's looking like they are both left handed.  I wondered for a long time if David was right or left handed because he used both.  In the end, he's left handed.  Elias, though, has always preferred his left hand.  What are the odds of that?

We don't "do" preschool or kindergarten at our house.  Schoolwork becomes mandatory in our house around the age of 7, but by that age, the kids are pretty used to doing school.

We do cooking and "shadowing", and family activities.  We play with puzzles and read lots of books.  There's a lot of matchbox cars crashing around here at the preschool/kindergarten age.  Elias technically isn't kindergarten age until this Fall.  It doesn't matter, though.  I try to work on his reading at least once a day, for as long as his attention holds.  When he's done, I'm done.  Some days we work for 30 minutes, and other days we do no formal teaching at all.  We did math today for as long as his attention held, which was about 2 days worth in the curriculum calendar.

That system seems to have worked with the older kids.  Somedays we have really bad days around here, but yesterday was a very, very good day.  Not only did we get Elias' math workbooks in the mail, but we got Silje's next level of science.  She spends so much time with her nose buried in science books that we just let her feed that urge.

She is not ahead in every subject, but this 4th grader just started our (gulp!) 6th grade science program this week.  She's learning about cells and all the systems of human anatomy.  She squealed with delight when I set it in front of her with a new journal.  She's been looking up every 20 minutes or so and telling me excitedly about the organs and what they do.  She spent a good 6 hours in that book yesterday, and started some shopping lists for me, for experiments she wants to do.  6 hours, people.  I just need to brag on that.  It is awesome, but not unusual.  She spends most of her "after school" time with science books.  I love that.

And David?  That boy who has to work twice as hard to go half as far when it comes to school...this last week we have reached a new phase in his reading.  He can now read independently.  Up until now, he's needed me right there next to him at full attention, helping him sound out every word, or help him find his place when he lost his spot.  The exercises we've been doing to help him with tracking, and the practice, practice, practice that we've been doing are all helping.

Now I can say, "Read a chapter of this book, and then come get me and we'll talk about it."  Then he goes and reads the book...by himself.  He had so much fun yesterday, that I sent him off to read a chapter of the first Third-Grade Detectives book, and he came back to me with 5 chapters read.  Because it was so good he couldn't put it down.

This mama may have cried.

That was a day I want to write about.  It was a day I want to remember.