today she's 37

She's always known how to rock an outfit. Skinny enough to tie a bandanna around her waist. She's jazzy on the flute and has 20/40 vision. She's my sister, and today she's 37.

She's not afraid to tuck her pants into her socks and is always ready to pose for the camera. She's got thick hair to create large feathered bangs, glasses on her cheeks and teeth that are just about fully grown. Today those teeth are fully grown, because today she's 37.

She's not afraid to color block, trendy way ahead of her time. She matches her necklace to her shorts, her socks with her short sleeve sweatshirt and lets her side pony blow casually with the wind. She's my sister. And today she's 37.

I've always wanted to be just like her. Always wanted to tie my shoes on a tall fence in a birch forest. Always looked up to her, loved her with all my heart and felt blessed beyond measure that she's my big sister. Today's her birthday. She's 37.

Leave her a facebook message or drop her an email. Or leave her a little love in the comments today. I'll make sure she sees this post.  

Heh.

ivar turns two

 

My little baby boy turned two. And he is nothing but wonderful.

 

I remember thinking after his first birthday party that I wouldn't do such a huge blow out party for his second birthday. I remember at the end of that party realizing how little time I had spent with Ivar as I decorated the house, prepared the meal, organized the games... this year I was hoping to do something a little more simple.

 

So instead we had four mini parties. Because four parties sounds like way less than one party, right? Hmmm. Not really sure what I was thinking. We had cupcakes four days in a row, lit candles four days in a row, cleaned the house four days in a row. Next year: one big blow out party.

 

First, our new neighbors came on Thursday, his actual birthday. Ivar loves them so much and they love Ivar. They knew him well and got him a dump truck that dumps duplos. And a digger and a garbage truck. Ivar was thrilled.

 

The next day we had over our old (former!) neighbors, George and Katherine. Oh how we miss these guys. They loved seeing our place, and loved seeing our kids. Ivar warmed up to them right away, Elsie got some good snuggles and Katherine brought match box cars and beanie babies for Ivar.

 

Then on Saturday, we had the Harrington party. Party is probably too strong of a word. I was exhausted and my mom and sister got the meal on the table and Mara and Sonna decorated the cupcakes. Annika, Jedd and Rory all took naps at various points during the afternoon, and that maybe describes the laid back tone of the day the best. But Mara and Sonna found their own fun making a jungle gym out of the scaffolding and a teeter totter out of scrap wood.

 

And then on Sunday we had the Groves over for what turned out to be the most party-like of the parties. We fit everyone around one table in our kitchen and had taco pie, chocolate cupcakes with little john deer hats my mom had found the day before, cows, tractors and presents. It was pretty awesome.

Ivar was celebrated. He was singing the happy birthday song to himself when I put him down for his nap yesterday. Pretty sure he thinks a birthday lasts days and days.

happy halloween!

 

 

 

Our first animals at No Cow Farm: a baby chicken and a little cow.

Huge thanks to my cousin Sarah who had the chicken costume.

notes in a cookbook

So here's a super fun idea from my mom. Record when you made a certain recipe right in your cookbook. I was at my mom's on Friday and decided to make cookies with Mara, Sonna and Svea. I opened this well loved Shepherd of the Valley cookbook and found this page with our favorite oatmeal cookie recipe. And it made me laugh out loud.

First of all, I did the math and Annika and I first made these cookies over TWENTY years ago. What on earth. October 1991. I was in forth grade. Then again in 1992 and a couple times in September of 1993, once with my great life long friend, Jenny Snyder.

The best part is my own handwriting adding a bit more detail to the directions. I remember the first time I tried these on my own and I followed Genevieve's directions as they were written. Which left me quite confused as to when the eggs and butter should have been added. The dough was terrible and they didn't turn out. We were out of butter so I couldn't start over and I was so frustrated. Look at that arrow and sad face next to Genevieve's name! (She has now passed away, but man I love church cookbooks. I love that you know these people!)

Mara added our names with 2012 so that in another twenty plus years, we can come back and see what we made.

And then the girls took turns holding Baby Elsie.

My sister Annika just told me that Mara has been telling people, "My aunt was making these cookies all the way back in 1922." 

motherhood

I've had a rough few weeks here. Just tired, not confident I will ever feel rested ever again in my life, and easily frustrated with a side of weepy. I know in my head it is just a season, but the day to day tuckers me out.

I was sitting next to a mom last week during Toddler Rhyme 'n Time at our library. She has twin boys a bit younger than Ivar. I asked how she pulls it all off and she said, "at some point my husband looked at me and said that no one was going to come and bail us out. We had to figure out ourselves how we were going to pull this off."

Sort of shook me out of it. And I decided to become proactive.

So today I made a list of things that might help me find my motherhood mojo again. Here they are in list form, mostly for my own sake, but maybe for yours too:

1. I will sit down for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sit. In a kitchen chair. Maybe for five minutes even.  My breakfasts and lunches especially are eaten as snacks, never putting things on a plate, always grabbing more for Ivar, never actually feeding myself. I will dish up our plates and we will sit and eat together.

2. I will stop multitasking. For real. It's inefficient and I never have anything to show for large chunks of my day because I started to sort Ivar's clothes and put his summer shorts away, started to clean the bathroom, began to unload the dishwasher but nothing got done and now the piles I made of Ivar's clothes are all mixed up again, the bathroom looks the same and there are even more dirty dishes on our counter. I will decide on one task. And do it.

3. When Ivar is pining for my attention, I will give it to him. Undivided. I will stop whatever I'm working on and lay on my belly on the carpet and play with whatever he is playing with. I'll play hard. I did this today and he stopped dead in his tracks and watched me, amazed that I could be so fun. And it turned our whole day around.

4. I will drink lots of water throughout the day and take my multivitamin.

5. I will buy another cd player for the upstairs so that we can have music playing upstairs and downstairs. Because music helps me. A lot.

6. I will save my email for night time. Trouble is, I never have any energy then. But I really don't want my kids to remember me as that fun lady who always had her face stuck to a screen. That goes for watching Kathie Lee and Hoda too. Tivo.

7. I will be nicer to myself. More grace for me. And if I have to spend a day regrouping and not performing as an A+ Mama, that is okay too.

And now, it is 9:08 and I am going up to bed. Because an early bedtime tonight is the true key to a happier tomorrow.