living on the land

Rory and I are taking a class together through University of Minnesota Extension. The class is called Living on the Land and is helping us with the practicalities of the dreams we have for our property. There are 28 of us in this class and everyone has or hopes to one day have a small hobby farm. On our first night the class discussed all the topics this series will cover: woodland management, planting an orchard, raising chickens, helpful equipment to purchase, permits for selling at a farmers market, fencing for different animals...

Rory and I spent a good chunk of time writing out the things we want to tackle this spring and summer, drawing up a master plan for our land and all the while getting so excited for every day that is ahead of us. We've got some work to do, but at the moment it looks so, so fun.

painting and parents

We had an awesome weekend here that included a sleepover with Grandma Margaret and Grandpa Paul. Rory and I went to a marriage seminar at our church on Friday night and Saturday morning so my folks came to watch the kids.

On Thursday night I had the brilliant idea to paint the bathroom while they were here. So before they came I got the paint, prepped the room, taped part of it and asked them to bring their painting clothes. My mom, dad and I painted the first coat on Friday before Rory and I left for the marriage seminar and then mom and dad painted the second coat on Saturday while we were gone laughing our way to a better marriage. How awesome are my parents?!!

The seminar was great and now I have a lovely robins egg blue bathroom. Thank you mom and dad!!!

John Denver

Country Roads from Becca Groves on Vimeo.

We're enjoying a snow day here. And as always, John Denver. 

Solo by Ivar, special guest Elsie joins in at the end...

being good to myself

I am so grateful for the emails, texts, phone calls and comments I got from Thursday's post. I suppose I knew on some level that by going there I was inviting a whole lot of room for response, but I think that was the point. Depression is isolating, and I've been alive long enough to know that a whole lot of people deal with this. Some long term, some short term, some in the winter, some after a tragedy, some after a baby, some while in transition, some while trying to put their life back in order. And sometimes things are just out of balance on the inside and it doesn't have much to do with what is happening on the outside. For lots of us it is some combination of a few of the above.

I really do think this is related to weaning. I found more information here, here and here. The timing lines up perfectly, and I did wean Elsie very quickly mostly because she finally took to the bottle and I was eager for some good sleep (Ivar slept great after taking formula). But I never even considered my own body's reaction as I stopped nursing.

I've been getting outside and that has been great. It's still cold here in Minnesota, but the sun has been shining and that feels awesome. The picture above was taken Sunday. Ivar insisted that his duplos come along in his stylish 31 bag. :)

now for a bit of levity: johnny pineapple

I've got more to say about yesterday's post. But for now, this seemed fitting for a Friday:

I worked at a nursing home for a few years as an activities coordinator. While going through some pictures I found this shot, and remembered an email I sent out telling the whole story. I found the email! 

January 15, 2007

Today Johnny Pineapple came to the nursing home to entertain our residents during our winter luau. He called us staff ladies up front for a little hula dancing and we worked the crowd. When Mr. Pineapple was packing up his things he asked if I had a moment to talk. I didn't- I had to go call bingo. He stuck around and an hour later tracked me down and made a job offer as his side kick, a Waikiki Wildcat hula girl. For real.

He does local gigs for area boy scout troops, nursing home events, father-daughter church banquets and is in need of a hula girl. He said, "my current hula girl is going through a really messy divorce, and I could just tell you can work a crowd...they loved you out there. Now you're the first person I've asked, and before you say no I've got to tell you, it's good money. $200 for 45 minutes of dancing. We would do an every other song thing...I'd sing for a song, then you'd come out and dance for a song and while one of us is on stage, the other is changing their costume just to keep our presentation appealing to the eye. We each have like 5 outfits"

You can check him out at johnnypineapple.com  Part of me is tempted by the amazing writing material I could glean from this sort of work. The other part of me is tempted by the money. The other part of me is laughing my head off picturing myself shaking my hips in front of a bunch of cub scouts.