the best of 2014

And here we are, the last day of the year. For four years now I have sifted through a years worth of pictures to find "The Best Of..." It's an awesome (and time consuming!) way to process the last 365 days. This year my pictures correlate heavily to the months of the year...showing the seasons of farm-life, mom-life and community-life as they change throughout the 12 months. I sort of love this. Since I love the thought of a life lived fully aware of the world around me, I'll mark this as a step in the right direction. 

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you The Best of 2014:

That last one is a tease for Friday's blog post. Can't wait to tell about these ice bowls I made with my nieces. They. are. awesome.

best of lists from: 2013 / 2012 / 2011

brightening the night

Ivar and Elsie are thrilled by Christmas lights. They announce each house we see and narrate what they are seeing. One night Ivar yelled, "mom! look at that very tall tree with lights at the tippy top!" I pulled over and we took in this tall tree.

I started to think about the person who stood on a ladder, or used a fancy pole to hang the lights we were admiring. I felt grateful for them and I sort of recognized what a cool tradition this is, where home owners take part of their weekend and, especially in Minnesota, freeze their fingers off in an effort to brighten the winter with their Christmas lights.

I looked at this tall evergreen and saw Ivar's eyes in my rear view mirror. And I almost pulled into the drive way to go and thank whoever hung the lights.

But then I had a different idea. I have friends who take an annual Light Drive with their kids in their jammies, hot chocolate in their sippies and head out into the night to zig zag through their neighborhood. I decided  we could do something similar, and make a dozen thank you notes and take along, taping a note of gratitude to the door of our favorite light displays.

I ordered my stationary at Tiny Prints and was so excited when the cards arrived. I wrote a note on each card and had the kids help me decorate the envelopes. And then on Saturday night we took the kids on a Christmas Light drive.

I explained what we were doing to Ivar, telling him that we were giving out "awards to houses that had pretty lights on them." He was all in. He yelled every time he saw lights, told us to "stop the car" and "give them an award!" The best part was that, in his mind, the quantity of lights had nothing to do with who deserved an award. If a house had a single strand of lights, he wanted to stop the car.

Rory and I, on the other hand, were a little more particular.

I walked the notes up to the houses and taped them to the door. Except for the houses where I had been spotted already, and then felt obligated to explain why I was there. That led to some awkward moments and story material for another day. I would advise just to tape the thank you to the door.

All in all, it was awesome. It felt like a fun way to share gratitude, to give a little credit and kudos to the person who took the time to hang their lights, and best of all, Ivar understood what we were doing and the joy that comes from a grateful heart. This will be a new tradition for us. And I really hope it catches on.

baked french toast

My friend Beth had a Christmas brunch and served a feast of good food, including this Baked French Toast. Everyone wanted the recipe and she commented how easy this one is to make. My ears always perk up extra high when someone says that.

She sent out the recipe and I decided this would be our Christmas morning breakfast. And after a successful first run, it will forever (with a side of sausage) be our Christmas morning breakfast. Here's the thing: I loved it when I was making it (so easy!) I loved it when I threw it in the oven just before we started opening presents (I felt so organized!) And I loved it when we had a hot breakfast waiting for us after gifts (This mom has got it together!). Most of all, I loved that my whole family loved it. (And when you see the ingredients, you'll realize there's nothing not to love...)

So here it is:
1 loaf of Pepperidge Farm Swirl Bread,cut into cubes
6 beaten eggs
3 cups half and half (you heard me!)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Grease a 9x13 and place cubes into bottom evenly. Mix eggs, half and half and vanilla. Pour over all. Cover and refrigerate at least two hours or overnight. Uncover and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Should be golden brown and set in center.

We ate ours with butter and syrup. It's basically a combination of french toast and bread pudding. Perfect for a Christmas Morning. (Or New Years morning, or a birthday morning, or a Saturday morning, or tomorrow morning...)

winter play

 

We were going to head to Ikea today and at the last minute decided to stay home for another lay low day. At some point we realized there was a considerable amount of snow outside...not just a dusting. Enough to play in and certainly enough to get the tractor back out! I pulled the kids in the sled and then we found all the toys I had stored in the pole barn for the winter. Ivar was thrilled to find his dump truck again, "Oh thank you mom for restoring this for me! I have missed it all my life!"

Winter play is a whole lot of work with little kids. While getting our snow pants on Elsie stepped in melted snow so that I had to run upstairs with my snowpants on to get her a new sock. And while I was gone Ivar decided he was way too hot and had taken everything off again. It was only with the bribe of hot chocolate that my kids went outside. It's so much work to get them bundled, but once outside I remember how worth it it is. We played hard and came back in with rosy cheeks and running noses and ready for that hot chocolate with "twelve marshmallows! and christmas sprinkles!"

a fun idea

Just before it was time to go to church for Christmas Eve I whispered to Ivar, "Now Ivar, lets you and me go upstairs and very quickly and quietly get our church clothes on and come down and surprise daddy with our nice looking outfits."

Ivar whispered back, "Why did you say that like it was a fun idea?"

 

a very merry christmas 2014

I'm just going to level with you. I have written this blog post all day long with nothing in particular to say. So far I've written about how awesome this Christmas was and how fun it is to have a two and four year old. I wrote about how nice it was to have kids who are way more self sufficient than they were last year ie: they could sit at the kids table by themselves! Then I wrote about how I kept waking up on Christmas Eve because I was so, so excited for the kids to wake up on Christmas morning. Then I wrote about how grateful I am for friends who give me hand-me-downs for my kids to wear on Christmas Eve. 

But I deleted all of those posts because the truth is, I'm totally scattered today and like everyone else, wiped out. As a result, we took a sincere day off, played with lots of toys, tried to gain control of the toy explosion in every room, got the kids outside with the promise of hot chocolate when we came back inside. Mostly we read books and watched movies. It's been a lovely day.

And I took the time to look through all of the christmas posts I have written. All the way back to 2008! That's pretty awesome. We had the flu a few of those years, and it made me grateful that we stayed healthy this season. If you, too, are laying low, some of these are fun reads.

Christmas 2013: Little Elsie

Christmas 2012: Ivar and Elsie sing a song

Christmas 2011: Pregnant with Elsie and down with the flu

Christmas 2010: They year I gave the tutu's

Christmas 2009: Iced in at our apartment in Nebraska

Christmas 2008: Picture-a-day Holiday

indoor snowmen

Well, there is no snow to build a snowman outside, so we're building them inside! Ivar built these snowmen at ecfe and told me about the snowman pictured above, "This is daddy giving me a piggy back ride!" I found it very clever. Daddy even looks a little weary of giving such a big four year old a piggy back ride.

And then he built this one and said, "this is you and daddy. you're holding hands because you are married and that means love." It made me think about the time Rory and I went to the St. Paul winter carnival to walk through the ice castle. It was one of our first dates, and the very first time he reached for my hand. Oh man I remember everything about that moment. Mitten to mitten we walked through the castle and it was magic.

I think Ivar is right when he said holding hands means you are in love. Because we never let go...even when we got to the car he opened my door and 14 seconds later was reaching for my hand again as he started up the car. Everything was so new and exciting. Makes me want to go find my man and grab his hand...

making the magic

Oh man, these two. They are keeping me on my toes lately. They are the best of friends. Ivar begs me not to put Elsie down for a nap. He wants to be with her every moment. But then she gets in his business and he's yelling and she's screaming and I'm walking to the freezer to self-sooth with another Christmas cookie...

Yesterday I went to Target with Ivar and having him along was like shopping with a ball and chain around my ankle. A cheerful ball and chain. But a really pokey ball and chain. We had to stop at every display. He had to tell me that he "never told Santa I wanted this! But I do!" And I kept a positive self talk reel in my head about the actual joy in the season, the brilliance that is Target marketing and the fact that we are lucky to be able to afford any of this anyway.

And today he helped me wrap presents and it took hours. Because he needed me to cut every scrap of wrapping paper into microscopic pieces so that his train under the tree had scrap to haul to the scrap yard to weld a christmas tree for Gordon the train. I didn't fight it. I had seen the episode too. And it was clever. But I could have had those gifts wrapped in 30 minutes flat if I could have just thrown my actual scraps into the trash can.

It's a lot of work this whole Christmas thing. I am a bit weary already and we've only just begun! I wrote about being the magic maker a few years ago when pregnant with Elsie and I think it's a good read, and a good pep talk for pulling off all that still has to be pulled off.

So press on Magic Maker. And be sure to keep yourself fueled up on Christmas cookies.

gift giving this christmastime

My friend Beth hosts a Favorite Things brunch each December where each friend invited brings a favorite thing around $15. We then swap gifts, and the morning basically turns into an awesome infomercial for favorite nail polishes, fair trade items, shampoos, teas and coffee mugs and this year, a hair brush that everyone wanted to go home with. The picture above is the gift I brought, the prettiest wrapping job of my life. Inside was a little Kelly Rae Roberts print called Shine that I adore.

It is a super fun morning filled with quality conversation, great food and we each go home with something special. It's one of my favorite parts of December.

But gift giving is a funny thing. I like the favorite things party because you come with something that you love. It makes for easy shopping! Some people are really hard to buy gifts for. My friend Amanda, who runs the Soul Sisterhood, recently told me that she thinks everyone should take the Love Languages quiz to discover their love language and then the gift giver should try to give gifts to fit the receivers love language. A person's love language (how they receive and feel the most loved) might be through actual physical gifts. But another person might have the love language of Quality Time more than a physical gift. So you could take them out to lunch or spend an afternoon together. (That's my love language.) Rory's love language is Acts of Service and Quality Time. The perfect gift for him would be to offer to help him with his garden this spring. The other two love languages are Physical Touch (gift card for a massage!) and Words of Affirmation. I have nephew who I think has this one, because he loves reading the long notes I write in his birthday cards and has told his mom how he anticipates a card from me! I know those words of encouragement and acknowledging who he becoming mean the world to him.

I've been thinking about this concept with each gift I'm giving this year. Trying to think through the receiver's love language. And it is a joy! You know what I'm giving Rory? (He doesn't read my blog posts if they get too wordy, so I'm not too worried...but if you are reading, Merry Christmas!) I'm ending our membership to the Y! Ha! I haven't been very good about going the past 6 weeks (mostly because the flu and strep are rampant and I can't muster up the courage to drop my kids off anywhere they don't have to go...) and he's quietly been bringing it up. So before he can say one more thing, I'm going to cancel. He's going to love it! (And I may very well join again in February...) But for now he'll see it as the gift of $70 a month back in our savings and a wife who values a dollar saved.

The other gift I'm giving Rory has already begun. He has said for years that he wants to watch all three Lord of the Rings in a row with me. And now all three Hobbits have been added to the list too. We started this marathon last night and will break the whole thing up into 90 minute chunks. And even though Orcs don't really scream christmastime to me, I know this is a Christmas we will never forget. Best of all, he's so pleased that I'm watching with him. 

We are celebrating with the Harrington side of the family this weekend and I'm so excited to give a few of my gifts. I can't blog about them yet, but I will! But I am most excited to start The Christmas Box tradition that we've done in the Groves family since I married in. We're beginning this one with the Harrington's, and I'm so excited to do it with both families. Because my love language is Quality Time and The Christmas Box is the definition of Quality Time. 

lois walfrid johnson

This summer while at Mount Carmel Family Bible Camp in Alexandria, my mom introduced me to a woman named Lois. Lois was thrilled to meet another female beekeeper. She had kept bees for many years of her life but had never once met another woman beekeeper. Lois wanted to talk shop, wanted to know how my hives were doing, and all about our hobby farm. We became fast friends.

At some point it came up that she writes books and I was excited about that, since I hope to do the same one day. We also discovered that we both graduated from Gustavus and so we had that whole world in common too. But most obvious was our shared love for the Lord. Sharing a conversation with her was like slowly recognizing a kindred spirit with every word spoken. Lots of "I know! Oh I agree! It's so true!"

That night after evening worship, Lois handed me one of  her books to read. And she had one for Rory too. So that night, with our kids babbling in the room next to us, Rory and I sat up in bed reading our first Lois Walfrid Johnson books. They are written for adolescents, but there we were, in our 30's turning our pages as fast as we could. We were sucked in.

Lois writes about young kids who are learning to deal with real life issues. She does this with a Christian worldview, tying in truths from the Bible and showing how the young protagonist comes to believe God's word is true. It is stunningly done. So endearing. And so good.

I've been reading The Adventures in the Northwoods series this week. It's a story about a 12-year-old and her mother, moving from Minneapolis to Rice Lake in 1906 when the mother marries a Swedish farmer who had recently lost his own wife. The first book talks about what it means to be a forever family, what it means to have a new Papa, what it means to be loved without condition. I'm now in book 4 and I cannot put these books down. They're just so good.

And by good I mean they are well written, but they are also so moral. And truthful. So solid. After I read Lois' first book I told her that more than anything I felt grateful that she is putting out so much GOOD into the world. We know a lot of other messages vying for our kids attention, but this is the stuff you want your kids to read and to get excited about.

What has been most fun is "introducing" her to many of my friends with kids in elementary and middle school and how many of them already know and love her. She's new to me, but not to most mom's. Her tagline is, "a trusted friend of families" and she is! Families trying to teach moral, upright and honest children will LOVE Lois Walfrid Johnson.

Her books would be great for read aloud at bedtime for all ages. And all kids read at different levels, so I think they'd fit any age. Probably geared most toward 3rd-8th graders...but even that seems too narrow a reading audience. Because I'm 33 and love these books.

You can learn more about Lois at her website: www.loiswalfridjohnson.com

***

The Freedom Seekers series is a six book series, and each book is about 250 pages. It takes place around 1857 "when rivers were the highways of the time. Libby, and her father, and their friends faced life-and-death questions that are still crucial today:
-Who can I trust?
-What do I care about?
-What does it mean to be a never-give-up family?
-How can I live my belief in the freedoms sought in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States?
-What practical skills do I need to develop?
-How can I make choices based on biblical principles?
This series centers around The Underground Railroad.

The Viking Quest series is a five book series, and each book is about 200-250 pages. This series travels from Ireland to Norway, Iceland and Greenland, then sails with Leif Erikson to the New World. In this series the main characters help establish the first North American settlement by Europeans- five hundred years before Columbus!

The Adventures in the Northwoods is a ten book series, and each book is just over 100 pages. The story takes place in Northern Wisconsin where the main character learns to deal with peer pressure, family relationships, works toward a dream and learns the value of giving a person a second chance.
This is the series I am currently reading and I can't put them down at night. :)

Hallmark Town

Last Thursday night our community bundled up and met up on our main street for a wintertime block party of sorts. We went last year and it was bitter cold and I remember thinking I wouldn't do it again with kids. But this year the weather was a balmy 30 degrees so we gave it another shot. And let me tell you, it was magic.

When we were looking for a parking spot we drove past the Moravian church where there was a living nativity singing carols, all lit up by spot lights. Mary and Joseph smiled and sang, happily caroling with the people gathered. We got out of the car and looked down the four blocks of sidewalks lined with luminaries and spotted Santa in the bank where he gave us cookies and hot chocolate. Then we found an outdoor petting zoo with a calf, goats, ducks, sheep and a friendly farm dog.

Horse-drawn sleigh rides were cruising up and down the street lit up with christmas lights. We walked into the Armory where local vendors were selling swedish treats, children's books, honey, maple syrup, and all sorts of handmade goods and crafts.

Then we went into the candy store and toy shop where two old men were playing carols on the banjo and violin. They started playing Away in a Manger and Ivar sang the lyrics with them. The musicians were so happy to have a brave little soloists and Ivar sang every word looking right in their eyes. And I was one very proud mama.

We got to see Olaf the snowman and Rudolf and Frosty walking in the street. There was a barrel fire to warm up by in the park and every shop had great sales and window displays and cookies. We went into the fish store and ate peanut butter cookies and picked out our favorite fish in each tank.

On the way back to the car Rory went ahead with Ivar. And Elsie and I trailed behind while she looked inside of every. single. luminary. Looking at the candle inside, watching it flicker and glow.

And the best part, the part that makes it an actual Hallmark Town, is that I knew so many people. It was a magical night, but it really was the felt community made the night merry and bright.

christmas spirit

I was watching a cooking show with the kids when a commercial came on of all of the food network hosts wrapping christmas lights around themselves. Ivar saw it and told me, "Well that's a good idea! We can dress up like Christmas trees!" I thought he'd forget about it, but he was faithful in telling me throughout the next day-and-a-half, "and remember, we have to dress me like a christmas tree."

So I got the leftover green felt I had from making my advent sucker tree, and made Ivar into a christmas tree. He was so pleased.

Ivar has enough Christmas Spirit for everyone. He is so excited about every part. When we were unpacking our christmas decorations, he pulled out a carebear ornament and told me excitedly, "Oh mom! I know this from the last time!!!" His memories are being formed, and he's (maybe for the first time) experiencing the joy of tradition and remembering.

Another night we were walking down the main street in our town after dark and he stopped dead in his tracks. "Mom!" he said, "this store has a Christmas tree!" And sure enough, the t-shirt screen printing shop in our town had a three-foot tree in their front window. We walked a little further and he shouted, "They do too!" And it was true. The eye doctor next door had a tree in their window as well. In fact, every store front was decorated and Ivar was delighted by it all. His awe and wonder was palpable and contagious.

And it has been all season. What a joy to be four!

field trip

Last week we loaded the kids up and drove a mile down the road to our friend's farm. We know Becky and Brian from church and have always wanted to see their place. Every time we talk it is obvious we have a similar vision for our hobby farms. They are about fifteen years ahead of us in what they've tried and figured out and it was so fun to see all they are doing.

We saw their hens, horses and pigs. They had recently raised turkeys but they were processed just before thanksgiving. I was most interested in the pigs. I want to get a few next spring. Ivar was terrified and hated that they kept snorting at his boots and that they grabbed my mitten. Overall he was not a huge fan of the large animals, but Elsie could not get enough. The joy on her face when she was petting the horse made me wonder if she'll be a horse girl. I never was, but I had many friends who were nuts for horses. So far she does have a thing for My Little Ponies... Time will tell.

a winter walk

Today around 4:00 I was talking to my sister on the phone and telling her how stir crazy my kids were. The three of us were going nuts, cooped up all day, fighting, screaming, wrestling, annoying...all of it. I told her I didn't really want to take them anywhere because it felt risky. Meltdowns were many and it was just easier to stay inside.

But Annika told me I had to get them outside. And because Ivar is a hard sell to get outside when then weather is 74 degrees and sunny, I knew I had my work cut out for me.

So I told them both, "Kids! We are going to go on a winter walk! It is a very special walk because we each bring a flashlight and shine the light on our path!"

It totally worked. They had their boots on in record speed. Ivar even went and found a sock since he had taken one sock off earlier this morning. We were out the door, down our lane and even three cats joined in the adventure.

I kept trying to get Ivar to turn around, hoping it would be a short walk (it was windy!) but he wouldn't hear of it. He wanted to make it to the end of the road, which is a decent hike for these kids. When we got to the end we turned around to head home and when we got back in the house all moods had simmered, attitudes had adjusted and the kids played like best friends this evening.

I'm here to say Winter Walks are magic. And will be taken much more frequently now that I know.

Hi-ooo-gah!

Have you heard of this before? The word is actually spelled Hygge, but pronounces Hi-ooo-gah, and is a Danish mindset that the cold should not just be survived, but rather savored.  My friend Katie shared the article and I love the concept. To really sink into winter, not try to wish it away. To use this time to intentionally slow down, cuddle up, to stay put, to reflect and to be still.

I've read the article three times now, and I love it. "Hygge may be the best example of one people’s power of positive thinking, promoting as it does a mindset that life should be savored, not survived, and that comfort, beauty, and internal and external warmth are the keys to a rich existence on the frozen tundra."

Hygge is a reflective time, apparently lasting the whole winter. It is about candles in windows, quilts piled high, hot drinks, crackling fires and sharing kind community with each other. They even try to avoid divisive issues during the dark season.

It's making the decision to slow down. To be still. It's a shift, because I think I've been led to believe that business is a virtue. That to be busy means you're important and making life count. In college we used to rattle off all of the papers and tests and group projects we had to do, a sort of competitive one-up game that led me to believe being busy was important. But I'm realizing now that being busy is not not a virtue. And it certainly does not make you important.

Our stove is helping us find our Hygge this winter, and it is awesome. We all seem to congregate in that room now. The practice of building a new fire, turning over a log, or adding new logs has become a daily practice in paying attention, keeping watch, tending and as a result, staying warm. We have gone many days in a row without turning our furnace on and this little stove has quickly become the heart of the home.

I believe in this hygge thing. My whole perspective has shifted from merely getting through this cold (and it's been terribly cold!) season to now enjoying what it means to hunker down, slow down and quiet down.  So go make some tea, light a candle, get yourself under a quilt, pull out a Little House book and sink into the season of Hygge.

wintertime

+Today is the first of December and I have already made three different kinds of cookies. I even went to a workout class at the ymca, and came home and mixed up my all-time favorite sugar and spice cookies. Might have to slow down on the baking a bit...

+I recently was telling my friend Rachel about The Christmas City Express in Duluth and felt compelled to tell the world about it once again. If you have a train enthusiast in your family, it really is worth the drive.

+It was 37 degrees on Saturday and our whole family acted like it was springtime. Rory got his chainsaw out, Ivar started making snow castles from his sand toys and Elsie asked to play with her little sand box on a chair in the driveway. I sat in a camping chair and marveled at how 37 feels balmy.

+We had our first suppertime candle lit Advent lesson. The kids weren't really into it. I ended up reading a kids book about baby Jesus and we sang Joy to the World. Mostly I bribed them with a cookie if they sat still for the story. We'll keep working on this all month long. Might have to keep baking those cookies after all.

+We went sledding the day after Thanksgiving at my mom's house. It was so awesome. Ivar laughed so hard and Elsie was fearless.



+And finally, on Sunday night on our way for hamburgers and grocery shopping we got a flat tire. We're not sure if we ran over something or what, but we had to call a tow truck and it was quite exciting for the kids. But we realized a few things while waiting in our warm car on the side of the road so close to home: we didn't have winter gear in the car. We didn't have extra hats or mittens or boots. We haven't even thrown in an extra blanket in the back. We usually will create a winter survival kit, but for some reason this winter felt so early that we haven't pulled it together. We were grateful to be close to home, able to wait in our warm car for the tow truck and to have a nice neighbor to come and pick us up. But we took it as sort of a nice reminder. I found this list and now will spend this week getting our cars winter-ready. Hope this is a helpful reminder for you too!

so thankful

We started out our Thanksgiving day watching the Macy's Day Parade which was sadly full of interviews with NBC actors and not very many balloons. Which made for boring television for Ivar and Elsie. However, we did catch this OceanSpray commercial where the turkey slips off the tray and splashes into the bog and it struck Ivar as hilarious. We were taping the parade so we could rewind and watch it again and again. And again. And again again. Every time the turkey splashed into the water Ivar laughed harder and longer. Ah, that boy loves slap stick.

Then we drove to my mom and dad's house for the feast. Sonna read an essay she wrote all about what she is thankful for and it was lovely. We all ate until we were stuffed full. 

After lunch we played three rounds of all family hide and go seek. Which might be my favorite new pastime. Surprisingly, there just aren't a lot of places for grown adults to hide in a house. And between the running around trying to find a spot to hide and then staying still for the minutes it takes to be found, this is one hilarious game. One round I was hiding behind the christmas tree with Elsie (a definite liability) and watched my mom cover herself with a purple sleeping bag while sitting upright on the couch. Oh it was so funny.

You've got to play hide-and-go-seek at your next family gathering. You've just got to.

We slept overnight and I got to watch Little Women with my sister and mom and nieces and daughter and it was awesome. We woke up early this morning and had swedish pancakes, went sledding, played board games and even got our christmas trees. It was a great Thanksgiving and left me feeling very, very grateful.