october at the grovestead

+The brothers who planted our barley and alfalfa came to harvest and found the barley was still too green. But the day they came our neighbor was combining his soybeans which meant we had two john deere tractors in our field. And poor Ivar slept through it all.

+This past Sunday as I took the kids to the car I was greeted by the seventeen turkeys that frequent our yard, two cats, three chickens and some barn swallows that were swooping in our garage. I had Elsie on the hip and Ivar by the hand and I had to navigate through a zoo to get my kids to the jeep parked on the gravel. I think I have a legit farmyard.

+Rory and I booked a little getaway, just the two of us. But before we left to check into our lovely hotel I told him, "hey, I really should take care of those black walnuts before they mold on me." And he replied, "Great, I was wanting to put a roof on the wood shed." While I took the outer layer off the walnuts it dawned on me, we are my grandma and grandpa with a list of chores to be done before we can leave with peace of mind...

+We went wading through the tall weeds where the big barn used to be. This spring we had planted pumpkins, squash, cantaloupe and watermelon there but then never took care of this garden patch. While gone on vacation, the weeds grew tall and intimidating and we just let it go. So the fact that we got anything out of this little garden patch is amazing. Each orange pumpkin, green pumpkin, tiny cantaloupe(!!) and squash felt full of grace to me. I don't deserve you... 

+I did use a lot of those weeds to make a pretty swag to hang on our house. And that felt like a sweet victory over the weeds that bothered me for so long. You are now quite lovely.

+My mom helped me dig up all of our gladiolas and calla lily bulbs, cut the flowers off and knock the dirt and then told me I needed to wash them, make sure they were perfectly dry, and hang them in a mesh bag in a cool dark place for the winter. I told her, "mom, I don't think I'm in a season that can handle bulbs." Instead we planted hundreds of tulips in our raised beds (which don't have to be dug up! Ever!)

+I got Ivar his Minion hat at a local handmade art fair. He's never seen the movie, but knows minions from his happy meal toys. The hat makes me very happy.

the kittens return

Our water went out again today. It did last Thursday too. So we called Tony, our well guy who leaves the top four buttons of his uniform shirt unbuttoned. Tony is great and told us what he told us a week ago. A mouse had fried itself in the circuit box in our well house, just like last week. But this time he added that it seemed we had a serious mouse problem in the well house, not near the water, just eating our wires in the circuit box.

So we called for backup. 

Farm Cats. Velma and Verna. The kittens we have been waiting to grow into cats.  

Since we last had Velma and Verna to our house, we have learned that Verna is in fact a boy. We now call him Vernon. Or as Ivar called him today, "no, it's Burnin' like a fire!" Which is handy because Vernon is orange like a Burnin' fire. (and now you'll never forget...) 

Velma and Vernon (or Burnin'...depending on who you talk to) came back this afternoon and they are sweet as ever. They are tame, affectionate, playful and I just love cats so much. It made me miss Toonces, and grateful I have cats in my life again.

They spent the afternoon working out a new pecking order with the chickens. I'm not sure how it all played out, but I do know Elsie is for sure on top and then it's hard to say if it's cats or chickens on the bottom. I might order it: Elsie, Vernon, Legos, Velma, Butterscotch Cookies, and then Zumbrota.

And then they got to work, manning their post at the well house, ready to catch mice.

pumpkins and a corn box

We stopped at a produce stand today to see the pumpkins and look at what we found behind the pumpkin display: a corn box! It was better than a trip to the park. It kept our interest for an awesome amount of time. Elsie worked hard to scoop the corn into a bucket, but eventually gave up and just chewed on her shovel. Ivar was diligent to keep corn out of his rain boots, but the corn kept sneaking in. So he would empty them again. And again and again and again.

I took some time to nap on my back in the corn box. It is a lovely day here in Minnesota and you might be interested to know, similar to those fancy swedish memory foam mattresses, corn molds perfectly to your body.

It also helps stabilize little legs for better shoveling. 

We left the corn box and drove the apple orchard down the road where we ate warm donuts, honey crisp apples and wisconsin string cheese for lunch. Which sealed the deal that this was in fact one of the best days ever. 

Elsie is a Joy

Elsie learning to walk from Becca Groves on Vimeo.

Elsie is non-stop sweetness. She is so determined. So proud. So willing to try. So happy to fall down and pick herself back up again. I see a million life lessons in how she lives her days and it makes me want to be more joyful. More proud of what I do. More strong willed in what I believe in.

She only says a few words, but the ones she does say are hilarious to me.
Cheese and Chicken- she says "chs" for cheese and will kick her legs in her high chair happily until you split her string cheese in two. She says, "chi-in" for chicken and is usually the first thing she says as she lunges from my arms to the window to see if they're out for the morning.
Thank You- perhaps the most polite and gracious one year old on the planet, Elsie says her own form of thank you with a sweet "tay tu" She says these words after I give her anything on her high chair tray. Or when I give her a water bottle or a toy. She is so gracious!
Poop- a few days ago she crawled up on the ottoman with a diaper and said to me in a very high pitched, staccato voice, "poop" while tapping her hips. I was blown away. And sure enough, she had a dirty diaper.

Other than those, her most used words are Mama, Dada, and her personal favorite: Baba, which is her bottle. And now every time we open her animals book, she flips to the page with the sheep and says proudly, "Baba." As if to say, those sheep like Baba's too.

Our awesome neighbor girls come over often after school to help coach her walking. She is a happy learner, and they are so eager to be here for her first steps. Elsie will let them know she's done by laying her head on the carpet for a rest. This girl is so sweet.


elsie's coaches from Becca Groves on Vimeo.

Loving the Little Years

It's hard to find public role models in the stay-at-home world because if someone has written a book or has a platform like a money-earning blog, it means they're not solely a stay-at-home mom. They're doing something external to their mothering that would satisfy that nagging voice always inside a stay-at-home's head, "should I be doing something more?"

This little voice is the greatest challenge I have found as a stay-at-home mom. It's always asking, should I be working? am I supposed to be contributing to the world in a more meaningful way? I'll wonder these thoughts over and over and finally come to the end of myself and ask, can I stop worrying about all of these wonders and just be content where I am at for this split-second-season when they're tiny and at home?

Those wonders linger over everything. And because everyone walks through their season of motherhood differently, it's hard not to compare with how other mom's are walking this road. And wonder.

I checked out a whole stack of books from the library on mothering and stay-at-home mothering this summer. I read a lot. Some of it helpful, some of it not.  But this book, pictured above, is by far my favorite mothering book. The subtitle is Motherhood in the Trenches and it feels that way from start to finish. There is something candid and endearing in how the author writes (it's not masterful writing, but it's so honest) that you really believe she is in the trenches with you.

When I checked out this book from our library it had greasy and sticky residue all over it. I had to give it a special warm washcloth bath before I started reading it. Some mom before me had returned this book after her little one had smeared oily crud all over it.

That, is motherhood in the trenches.

Loving the Little Years is a short read, full of little stories and helpful attitude shifts that helped me refocus my days. It will be the book that I give to new mom's and especially the one I recommend when they're starting to feel the toll of being a mother.