the ooo yay yay

When the weather turned lovely last Friday, we put Elsie on a blanket like we always used to do with Ivar. He lived on that blanket and would never venture off of it. Ever. But Elsie is a mover. Within thirteen seconds she was off the blanket and bringing little sticks and rocks to her mouth.

So out came the pack and play. As Elsie seems to always do, she made that pack and play look so fun that her brother insists he be in it too. He calls it the ooo yay yay and it cracks me up. He can say pack and play, but this is sort of his fun name for the fun that is about to be had in the ooo yay yay.

The nice thing about the pack and play is that it has wheels, so we can keep moving Elsie around from project to project. And as the sun moves, we move her with the shade.

We've been playing hard outside these past glorious days. I went to town on the lilacs. Rory bought two apple trees to plant at our entry, which led to me thinking I should rip out the hosta bed, which then led me to think I should take out the rock by the shed so I can transplant a few hosta by the shed. Which then led me to think I should take the plastic out from under the rock by the house because it looks a bit tacky when it's visible. My folks were out and went gang busters on the grove/ditch. My dad had scratches on his arms so bad that I cannot post the picture on this blog. But believe me, they left with battle wounds.

Ivar has the flu. We had a horrendous night last night, up for hours on end holding my little dry heaving boy who kept crying, "hold Ivar, Mama." Oh, sweet boy. Today I felt like I was getting it so the whole family enjoyed a diet of bananas, special toast, apple sauce and took it easy.

And now I'm off to bed. But just a quick reminder, tomorrow is May Day! One of my very favorite days of the year. There are rumors of a "wintery mix" coming our way. But no sleet or snow is going to snuff my May Day joy. You got that?!!! I will be leaving little baskets of popcorn and candy at my neighbors, even if I do have to wear my winter boots to get there!

Tomorrow is Grasshopper Day!

Okay, so I am making up my own holiday. But I am so excited to recognize this day. We are going to celebrate with peppermint bon bon icecream and thin mints.

Here's the deal. I have been captivated, mesmerized, engrossed in the family history book my Aunt Jan put together. There are pictures and stories and fun facts that keep my jaw dropped most of the time.

But by far, my favorite story in the book is about The Grasshoppers.

You have to read this:
"The grasshopper plague (Rocky Mountain Locusts) which fell upon the Minnesota frontier in 1873 and 1874 threatened complete destruction to the early settlement (my great grandpa Carl's settlement that he farmed with his dad in Dunnell, Minnesota...then Lake Fremont Township) In 1877 and 1878 the hoppers spread over the entire western part of the state. They took everything in the gardens, destroyed most of the corn, oats and wheat. They were especially fond of timothy and the scattered plots of tobacco. They would come down like a snowstorm until the ground was nearly covered. In 24 hours everything was stripped. They even got into the houses unless doors and windows were kept closed. They usually stayed two or three weeks. They bored holes in the ground and deposited eggs in a square foot of ground. Many means of fighting the pests were tried, including paying bounty for catching and destroying the hoppers but all human means seemed in vain.

"Many settlers lost faith in the future of the country and left. In the spring of 1877, after seeing the fields stripped again the people turned to God for help. Governor Pillsbury was petitioned to appoint a day of fasting and prayer for deliverance from the pests, which he did on April 27th 1877. The church people gathered in their respective churches and joined in prayer.

"Their prayers were heard. In the early summer when the wings of the grasshoppers had grown and they were strong enough to fly, they all at once rose into the sky, darkening the sun by their numbers, and left for parts unknown. Sailors on the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean are said to have found millions of the insects floating on the waters. They had flown away without depositing any eggs and so the Minnesota frontier was saved."

What a story! Can you imagine the surface of those waters? Just covered in dead grasshoppers. And that they all left like that, all at once, before laying their eggs. Incredible.

So tomorrow I am going to eat something minty and chocolatey and think about the wonder of an entire state praying and fasting and the miracle that followed when their prayers were heard.

(And, yes, I see the irony of eating chocolate cookies on a day recognized for fasting. But wouldn't Grasshopper Day be much more likely to catch on if we include mint chocolate brownies or mint bon bon icecream cake?!!)

Elsie with the giggles

Elsie got in the swing tonight for the first time in her life. As you can tell, she adores our neighbor friend Hannah, and she loves to swing.

elsie swinging from Becca Groves on Vimeo.

Here's a video from about a year ago when we got the swing and Ivar had the same reaction. (He is 10 months older than Elsie in his swinging video.)

the lovely ladies, four weeks old

Zumbrota continues to impress with her feathered feet. 

I often get the strong sense that Butterscotch Cookies wants to eat me.

Eggs is going through an awkward adolescence.

I have no idea, but I'm thinking Almonzo is a boy. Which makes me sad, because we were going to call her Almonza if she was a girl. And that would have been awesome.

Legos is still Ivar's favorite. 

In this picture I think Hamburgerpoopedonthecarpet looks a lot like 

those rubber chickens clowns throw at people.

The ladies got a huge box thanks to our neighbor who bought an electric jack hammer. 

Rory made them two levels to perch and at one point we found all six ladies side by side on the taller perch. It was adorable. But I couldn't get to the camera before Ivar got to the chicken box. 

Zumbrota found a third perch tonight: the top of the box. I think we're going to have to use some chicken wire to keep the girls in the box until the coop is completed. We may use the same on Ivar's crib, who had a victorious escape tonight and found his dad in the garage while Elsie and I were out with friends.

Rory asked, "Did you fall out?" "yeah." "Did it hurt?" "yeah."

this and that: tiny stories to share

+Ivar loves it when we're driving and we see "a truck with a little hat on it!" We've got a Napa Auto Parts nearby and so we see those trucks with little hats a lot. Above is Ivar's attempt at putting a little hat on his own truck.

+When we put Ivar to sleep we sing him two songs. The song choices are varied: Country Roads, Jesus Loves the Little Children, Jesus Loves Me, Love Him in the Morning, Leaving on a Jet Plane. Come to think of it, it's a pretty equal mix of Jesus and John Denver. Anyway, the current favorites are Love, Love, Love...that's what it's all about and a Rory-original called Ivarwiess (a remake of the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic, Edelweiss) Rory sings: Ivarwiess, Ivarwiess, every morning you greet me. Small and white, clear and bright, you look happy to meet me...

+Here's a picture of the Brussels sprouts I enjoy a few times a week. I wrote a loosey goosey version of the recipe here. Usually I use deli ham and string cheese, but bacon makes everything better. It's a pretty picture isn't it?

+If you ever want to get Rory all riled up, talk to him about the current state of... ice cream. Something is happening in that industry so that it is nearly all reduced fat or whipped. Rory wants full fat, creamy, ice cream. But ice cream makers everywhere seem to be lessening the cream in their recipes and Rory is not fooled.

+At farm class the other night they brought in baby goats that were four days old.  The presenter passed around her own home made goat cheese and then I got to hold one. Suddenly goats have been added to the list of: one day at the Grovestead.

+In the meantime, we will just have to enjoy our neighbor's adorable puppy. Bandit is a new favorite friend around here and has even made it into the bedtime prayers line up. I'm sure Bandit appreciates the prayers.

+For my very first time ever, today I used the drive thru pharmacy at Walgreens. As I sat in my car I thought, wow, this is so handy and wondered why I've never utilized this service before. I think I'm like a decade behind.

I love this picture of Elsie with her Mimi and Papa on Easter Sunday. Mimi and Papa took care of our kids this weekend and it was awesome. I feel like I got some motherhood mojo back. And Ivar cannot stop talking about his time at Mimi and Papa's and how he got to play with Papa's trucks.

Donald Miller has been posting all sorts of good stuff lately. I enjoy his writing so much. I just started Storyline and I can't wait to work through this workbook.

At the beginning of this month we got in a few visits with the Groves cousins It was wonderful and it made me so sad that we no longer get to see them every single Sunday morning at church. Moving away from that consistent family together time was a real loss for me and for my kids. 

Our little fluffy chicks are getting bigger and bigger. At some point in the near future I believe we will have to start calling them chickens. Just look at Hambugerpoopedonthecarpet!

We have had three or four Sugar Snows. When we decided to tap our trees this winter we thought it would be a fun thing to try. But since this season is one for the record books, we have turned into a full-on maple syrup operation. At the moment we have over 80 more gallons of sap waiting to be evaporated. And every bag hanging on every tree is overflowing. Rory is out by the fire right at this moment. And will be for a few days...

And finally, Ivar is really into deciding who is who in each of his books. He'll point to the people and tell me "there's Ivar, and there's baby elsie, and there's mama and there's daddo!" This line up made me laugh out loud. That's Baby Elsie with the black and blue pony tail. Ivar is Elmo, I'm the teacher and Daddo is that purple monster muppet in front. I double checked to be sure he didn't mean the blue faced preppy guy next to the purple monster, but no, Ivar was sure, that purple one with the healthy sized eye brows is Daddo.

o christmas tree

Tonight I was standing in the laundry room looking out the window waiting for they dryer to buzz. I watched the snow come down and was amazed at how quickly it was accumulating. Honestly, the snow is so ridiculous at this point that it's sort of laughable.

Sort of.

But then I saw our christmas tree. We had hoisted it into the grove in January. And since trees are heavy, it didn't get very far. I saw that tree and decided she wasn't done shining yet. I thought it would be funny to set her up in the front yard for all the neighbors to see, a christmas tree lit up on April 22.  So I told Ivar we should go out and decorate our christmas tree again.

Ivar loved the idea. He happily put on his boots and joined me in this adventure. And he said, "remember we get our christmas tree with Mark and Kathy and Baby Isaac!" Ivar doesn't seem to forget anything. We found the tree stand in the garage, grabbed the light box off the shelf and walked around the house to find the outdoor socket.

The tree is half brown and half green. And it is lovely. I hope my neighbors enjoy it too.

We are ready for spring here. Don't get me wrong. But this did seem like an appropriate way to make lemonade out of these lemons.

Once Ivar went to bed, I went out again and got some pictures when the sun was going down.

  

And now I just took this picture out the window. The snow had me down earlier this afternoon, but this christmas tree has brightened my evening. 

Elsie is 9 months old

Oh Elsie. I love you so much. You are a happy girl. Your personality is showing itself more and more. You started talking a lot more and you like to scream and screech. It is obvious you are proud that you can be loud. You talk in your crib for a long time before we come to get you, practicing your sounds. You now can crawl and sort of inch worm your body around the house. You are fast, and gates had to go up immediately once you learned you could move.

You smile a lot and often scrunch your nose and eyes when you're really happy. That's my favorite, because then we get to see all of your teeth. (all 4.5 of them.)

You say, "Mama" clear as a bell and I love it. You can pretty much get me to meet any of your needs with that magical word. It stops me in my tracks.

You do fine in the nursery at church, and fine when others hold you. But if you sniff out that I am about to leave you, you can get quite nervous. As in a big lower lip and crocodile tears ready to pour out. That's okay. I know we're good pals and it's hard to be apart.

You are a tremendous eater and love taking a bottle. I like giving you your bottle because we just stare at each other and smile. You put your fingers in my mouth and scratch my cheeks. When you're ready for sleep you are happy to be set in your crib. Your bear from Ruby and pink blanket from Mimi are your favorite things to snuggle with in your crib. 

When you're out of your crib you adore your baby doll and the monkey Katherine gave you. Both make you shriek with delight. 

Elsie, you are sunshine to me.
I am so pleased I get to be your mama.
And overwhelmingly grateful that you are my girl.
Love,
Mama ma mama

switching rooms

We switched rooms with Ivar this week.  I was so excited to move into the bigger room. So happy at the thought of having a closet in my room, a reading chair, creating a little haven where I might find some quiet. 

Well, it was a nice thought. But it didn't work...at all. Ivar's new room is the only access to Elsie's room. So when Elsie woke up each morning, she woke her brother too. Who happens to be very crabby if he doesn't wake up on his own. And naps were terrible too. Ivar goes down before Elsie for the afternoon nap. So I had trouble sneaking Elsie into her crib without waking Ivar. 

After five nights of miserable sleep, Rory announced that we would be switching rooms again. It was the right thing to do. Our kids are good sleepers, and this just wasn't worth it. So we took our queen bed apart again, moved the mattresses back through the doorways, lifted the crib through both doors, switched the dressers, brought all the toys back to the big room and switched all the wall art again. 

I have a feeling we won't be switching rooms for a long, long time.

*And yes, that is Ivar's crib. The boy hasn't tried getting out yet, and based on stories from other parents of kids not staying in their beds, we decided to keep Ivar in his crib until he's 17. 

...Or until he actually attempts to get out.

so much maple syrup

Well this has been quite the year to try our hand at making maple syrup. The conditions have been perfect, the sap is plentiful and we'd consider our first year a success. Rory has collected over 90 gallons (!!!) of sap and we can hardly keep up with the evaporating. We found food-grade 5 gallon buckets to keep the sap until we can get it boiled down. On Saturday night I came home around 10:30 after meeting my sister for dinner. I turned into our lane and found Rory next to his fire, waiting for the sap to boil down. It was quite the site.

We're mostly excited because this much syrup is going to mean lots of gifts for family and Rory is hoping to bottle enough to sell. We have learned a lot about Minnesota Grown at our farm class and are really excited about the thought of recouping some of our costs this first year.

body image and baby bangs

We came home from the library with this book in the stack. Ivar loves it and constantly asks if we can go there. He likes the idea of going swimming.

I love the book because each page is like body therapy for me.  Each mom pictured seems to say to me, "it's okay. we've got little kids. life is hairy. you're doing your best. we're all okay. besides, you are most beautiful when you are taking good care of your kiddos"

The words are few in this book, but very accurate. And the facials on the mom are awesome. She looks tuckered after this adventure.

Having babies take a toll on the body. And being chronically tired often results in lots of high sugar "quick energy" grabs. And having kids can lead a mom to many thoughts about her identity and all that it means to be "Mama" but also all that it means to still be "Becca." And as if all of that were not enough, she's given a mohawk of whispy hairs, right in the front of her forehead, called Baby Bangs.

I never got baby bangs with Ivar. But I'm making up for that now. I saw a friend post a picture of her baby bangs on instagram and it made me laugh out loud. Thought I'd post my magnificent front poof in an attempt to laugh at the mess I have to deal with each morning.

feathers and chicken feet

The girls are growing. They change every single day. Mostly they're loosing their fluff and growing feathers. But I cannot believe how quickly this happens. Feathers literally grow overnight.

We got our chickens from a woman named Theri who sells fresh eggs as well as baby chicks. I feel so fortunate that we found her. I wrote to her about how the chickens seems sort of restless in their box and she emailed right away explaining that they would go through a stage of being kind of spazzy. That they're teenagers now and will be a bit flighty no matter how we've spoiled them. And that they get restless too because they do a lot of itching when their feathers come in. It was helpful to know. We've exchanged many more emails and I'm learning so much.

If you're considering ever getting chickens, I highly recommend Theri. Her email is: prairiechickpoultry@gmail.com 

Here's Butterscotch Cookies. Look at how she's growing! 

And now, for a chicken confession:
I have this funny thing with the chicken feet. I can handle the flapping, the pecking and the pooping. But I guess I sort of have a fear of chicken feet. Talons, if you will. I can't look at them when I'm holding the chick. I can obviously have them touching me. They're soft and sort of tickle but if I look at them while holding the chickens, I freak out a bit. As in, Ivar comes running asking, "Mama, are you okay?" And Rory asked if there was a crow in with the chickens because apparently that's the kind of sound I make when I look at the chicken feet on my hand.  They're sort of wormy to me. Reptile like. And I have a real fear of reptiles and... worms.

Anyway, it's silly. In my head I can recognize how ridiculous this is.  But in the moment I pit out a bit and have to look at something other than those little feet resting on my hand.

So now you know. I am phobic of talons. And the reality I am trying to wrap my head around is this: they are only going to get bigger.

the chicken coop

Rory is a doer. I've said that many times before, but it always amazes me to watch him in action. We knew we were going to build our own coop, but then Rory decided he would draw up his own plans. This is the final sketch and it will be awesome. At the moment he is out in the garage, finished with the base and legs and now beginning to build the walls. I'll have much to report on Monday.

Speaking of chickens, I entered Legos into a chicken competition. No fighting in this one, just good looks. If you would, stop by the Backyard Farmer to vote for Legos (it's a great blog...I just started reading). In all honesty, the chicken Legos is up against is really cute too (her name is Ugly Stepsister. So funny.) so it will be a tough win. But with your help, little Legos might stand a chance. Go and vote now.

On Monday I'll be back with pictures of our chickens at three weeks old. I am taking pictures of them once a week...I can't get over how quickly they change.

And speaking of change, Elsie is also growing before my very eyes. She is army crawling with great speed and now says, "Mama." It's my favorite sound in the world. She screams with delight at the chicks and if close enough, tries to grab them. It's pretty adorable all the way around: chicks cheeping and babies squealing.