lately we've been...

I've always loved Elise Blaha Cripe's posts called Currently. They're a quick and easy way to get a little glimpse into life at that very moment. Here's my version.

Lately we've been...

walking outside again to get from our kitchen to our bedrooms as we wait for the tile to set.

crawling into bed by 9 pm. It's my new self-imposed bedtime and I must be in bed. I can read as late as I want, but I must be in bed.

cheering for Elsie as she walks across the room pushing her grocery cart. She's so, so proud. And we are too!

loving a sweet little 2nd grader as she spends a few nights with us.

finishing Rory's office in the woods: installing a little wood burning stove, finishing the siding.

drinking a morning cup of coffee. This is still pretty new for me. And one of the new joys of my life.

swatting lots of flies when Ivar is out of the room. "No, don't hit him! He is nice! He is a nice fly!"

watching the workers. Ivar is in love with our contractors, Mike and Tom. The rest of us are too. Their work is quality, they are hard workers and easy company to have in our home. I am so grateful for them.

marveling at how our kids sleep through the nail guns, circular saws and hammering.

picking up Beth Moore's Jesus the One and Only for the umpteenth time. If you're looking for a personal devotional workbook, I recommend this one with my whole heart. It takes about fifteen minutes and day and always leaves me feeling filled up and grateful I took the time.

comforting Ivar in the night after bad dreams.

planning our trips through Menards so as to avoid the Halloween displays. They are terrifying. When did Halloween become so terrifying? I miss the animated ghosts and happy pumpkins and this new level of scary is really awful.

laughing through season one of Arrested Development. Thank you library for having this dvd set in the mix.

reading How to Cook without a Book. Wish this book had been our home economics text book.

eating fanny farmer chocolate bars I purchased from Mara and Sonna. What a delicious way to support my nieces and their school.

listening to Rory comfort Ivar, "oh Ivar, that is such a scary feeling. you hit your solar plexus. that means you got the wind knocked out of you, and you couldn't breathe. your solar plexus is right here, see?"

eight years

Rory and I are celebrating eight years of happily ever after today. To honor the day, Rory is working in the house and helping with the kids, so that I can paint the sunny room. I think you'd agree it's hard to get more romantic than that. (Unless you wrote a love note to your man with a ceramic kleenex box cover from the hotel before the sun came up while on your honeymoon on Waikiki. That would be pretty romantic too...)

We stayed up late last night talking in bed, walking through the last eight years, talking about the years to come. We had the curtain open and the room was filled with moonlight. Those moments in marriage are so precious. To feel fully heard, fully understood, fully one. To not want to go to sleep, to keep that sweet connection.

It felt like seconds after we fell asleep the roosters started up and Ivar fell out of his bed and just like that it was morning. Time to start a pot of coffee, time to function as if we're fully rested.

But I wouldn't trade the late night and long conversation for anything.

Happy 8th Anniversary, Rory.

I'm glad I picked you. I'm glad you picked me.

Happy 3rd Birthday Svea!

Annika and her family came last night to celebrate Svea's birthday and to drop their girls off for the weekend! Clearly the whole family was so excited to be here that no one had time to close the doors on the van after they got out. We had chili on a borderline chilly night. And chocolate cupcakes with purple frosting that Svea had made with her mama.

Svea got a sleeping bag to match her sisters' and a baby doll. She was super excited about both.

We've been very busy already today: went for a walk with three strollers, built a fort, played with play dough, colored, made pancakes and sausage with helpers, watched Clifford and played in the rock box. And now it's quiet time. Which isn't actually that quiet and seems to involve a lot of tape, string, muffin liners and crayons.

home renovation: a sunny room

Well, it has been a very exciting two weeks here at the grovestead. We are basically living in an HGTV episode, though the only cameras are my own. We are putting in a front door on our house, and a big window to overlook our yard. If this were an actual HG episode it would be called: Let there be Light.

And oh, it is so good.

Our front room at one time was the kitchen in this 1890's farm house. It also used to be in the back of the house. It's a bit confusing, and I've mentioned it before, but the front door to our farm house is on the back side of our house. What was once the front yard is now the back yard after the land around us was developed and two new lots popped up on the land that used to have the lane that drove to our front door. (This was years ago...either the 70's or the 90's...can't remember at the moment).

Anyway, we needed a front door that didn't lead guests through our garage and we needed more natural light in this house. We toyed with adding a sun room onto our house, and then decided this room that we didn't know what to do with could become the sun room if given a big enough window. 

So here are a whole lot of pictures of the progress for anyone who cares. I LOVE a good home renovation (and have spent much of my life watching Sarah Richardson, Candice Olson and that Scott guy on Property Ladder) so to be living out a home renovation is really exciting to me. Which is good, because we have spent much of the last two weeks (and will this next week too) walking outside and around our house anytime we want to get from the kitchen to the bedrooms. So far it feels like an adventure, although today is the first day we've had rain...which tends to make the run with children around the house a bit more adventurous. 

Alright! Here are the pics! This will be overkill if you don't care. Just fair warning...

petting zoo

We went to visit our neighbor's goats again today and I was thinking about how I will sometimes lament how far we live from the zoo.  But then we have experiences like this and I realize the trade off is quite fair. 

I actually just jumped on here to record two quick Ivar quotes from the day.

Today during nap I was singing The B, I, B, L, E to Ivar. I sang, "I stand alone on the word of God..." And he interrupted, "That will be so owie to stand on Jesus."

And then later this afternoon I walked past his door where he was playing alone and heard him say, "Okay. I'll tell you a little choice. You can sit there or there." And then his voice raised and he said, "No, I said there or there!"

The boy has picked up on my choice centered parenting. And my raised voice when he doesn't pick one of my choices!