two great reads...

It's Friday night, and we just finished family movie night with the kids. Tonight was Rory's pick: a documentary called Chicken People. It was hilarious. Sort of a Best in Show documentary all about chickens. We fast forwarded some parts but all in all, a pretty funny super quirky, entertaining movie. 

Rory is putting the kids to bed now and I just wanted to pass along two excellent articles that were shared with me this week. 

1) Life Saving Tips for the Mother of a Large Family

This article felt so affirming, and strangely original. The part that impacted me the most was her second tip: Self Congratulation is key to mental health. I loved that paragraph. The article is not just for moms of large families. It definitely is for all mothers. And full of wisdom, I thought.

2) Marriage Takes Hard Work

My friend Dorothy sent this article to me today and I LOVED IT. I wish I had written it. Tonight at dinner I told Rory about the whole article and I got a little choked up. It's all true: there is work and there is reward. I love the whole piece. 

So take a moment to click through or print these two out. I'm going to print both out and put them somewhere so I can return to them often. I hope you enjoy!

And now it's the weekend! Rory has a movie chosen for the two of us to watch next and then our plan is to rest this weekend. We have been packing a lot in lately, and it is time to rest before this labor train takes off! Have a great night. :)

staged to sell

I've been in a stage of nesting and purging for months now. And it means my house is looking quite tidy these days. And then I went an convinced Rory to let me have house cleaners come for 90 minutes to hit my kitchen and bathrooms. Which is my other great motivator: someone coming to clean? I will have the place nearly empty so you can clean as thoroughly as possible. And I will do the messy tasks before they come...like clean out the toaster oven, change the tin foil on the stove tops, clean out the coat closet and dirty shoes. Anything that has the potential to mess up their hard work. This is my fifth time having cleaners out here in five years. An annual clean is a total gift. And I am so, so grateful.

All this to say, my house looks ready to be put on the market. But I promise we're not going anywhere. I spent a few days cleaning the nursery after Hattie made the switch to the big kids room. By the way, that transition is going remarkably well. Ivar sings worship songs to her at bedtime and it is the sweetest thing I can think of. We are strangely thankful that our kids have to share a room. I think really good things will come of it.

Plus, it's fun to have the nursery rid of toys and toddler clutter and back to being for babies (except for the thomas reading chair and board books, that Hattie still frequents daily.)

The bags on the bed are ready to be packed when it feels like labor is beginning. It's hard to pack kids weeks in advance...we need those clothes! But there is a system and a list and a plan all in place, worked out with the grandma's and I think I'm as organized as I possibly can be. Even if we have to take off suddenly...

And here's our bitty room, all tidy and cute. The sign below is right next to my head when I wake up int he morning. When I went to Seattle this winter I left notes around the house for my kids to find. One of them said, "my happiest job is getting to be your mom." And when I came home Ivar had hung this note next to my bed. It's a personal favorite forever.

Of course there is more house to show, but I never got a picture of the kids room...I will work on that because I do want to document the crib set up. And, as always with full disclosure, I feel like I can post these lovely pictures because the truth is, my house looks way more like the pictures below than the pictures above. But it is fun to have lovely shots of your house when it's clean. (Remember these pics of our Minneapolis house? I still love looking at them.) So I'll post these pictures above and look at them for motivation in the future!

having big kids...

Elsie has taken to baby dolls in the last few weeks. She carries one around and shows me how she will hold the new baby so that I can chase Hattie around. I have voiced a few times around here that Hattie is going to need some serious attention once the baby arrives. The adjustment ahead is certain to rock her world more than anyone else. 

And so that is comforting, knowing that Elsie is ready to hold the newborn. ;) But more comforting is that Ivar and Hattie are good, good friends. He is so patient with her. And even though I hear a whole lot of, "no! Hattie! no!" around here, I also see a whole lot of this stuff: wagon rides and play. Today I said I was going to put Hattie down for her nap and he protested, "I'm not done playing with her yet!" So she got to stay up a little later than usual.

And do you know what is more impressive than a six-year-old successfully setting up Mouse Trap? A six-year-old with the help of a one-year-old setting up Mouse Trap. I'm actually looking forward to adding another kid to this mix. I love them each so much. 

the highest compliment

I read Ivar my blog post about Hattie's dirty diaper of fun and he laughed so hard he could hardly catch his breath. It was such a joy. When I read that she said, "no, no, poopie, no, no" he about fell out of his chair. When I was all done he asked me who had written that and I said I had. And he wondered how I knew how to say those words in that way so that the story was so funny.

We had a really awesome conversation about the joy of words, and how fun it is to get to use them in different ways to make people laugh. He said he wanted to memorize my whole blog post so he could tell the story that funny. And that led to a conversation about humor. I told him he didn't need to memorize how I wrote it, but if there was a funny group of words, or a funny line or two, he could use those when he told the story on his own. I told him about how I listened to Grandpa Paul tell lots of funny stories when I was growing up, and noticed how he would change his voice at some parts, or slow down his words and how it takes a little practice to figure out how to set up a joke.

I also remember sitting in Ms. Groves 10th grade English and History class everyday and listening to her opening stories telling about something funny that had happened the night before. And I took notes. That's no lie. I remember writing down phrases and then retelling her stories until I figured out how to use her funny lines in my own material. Ivar said he is going to listen to Uncle Kyle and cousin Jack to learn how to be funny.

Anyways, to have this conversation with my 6-and-a-half-year-old made me so excited for all that is to come as he learns how to play with words. He is writing a story right now called Squeeker and Croak. I'm writing down exactly what he tells me to and this story is awesome. He's got a great imagination in there and I absolutely love that I get a front row seat watching his stories and writing and joke telling develop. He's definitely on the right track.

the dirty-diaper-of-fun

We've all heard the tale of the one year old who discovers their dirty-diaper-of-fun during nap time. This war story is a harrowing one, and often ends with groans of disbelief and wonder at the magnitude of the mess. I've had friends survive this storm, still alive to tell the tale. In the back of our heads we all know this is possible, but highly unlikely with our own child. After all, we have had two kids never do this. So why would one of our offspring suddenly do something so heinous.

So we put our wee one down for her nap in a t-shirt and diaper. It seems fine. It's hot enough and she is warm blooded, always hot and sweaty, so this is probably the most comfortable for her.

And that nap turns out to be particularly long. And particularly quiet. It's such a gift. This time in the afternoon devoted to quiet tasks to accomplish before the arrival of baby #4.

The nap is so long that you might go and check on the 20-month-old. And the moment you open the door you are hit with a smell so fowl you know all that is ahead. You pull the curtain and even upon seeing the war zone, you actually feel very little emotion. The smears of painting and artistry are from head to toe, on every blanket, bar and crib rail. There is a look of innocence as your dear daughter tells you she is not the enemy. She knows this is wrong and continues on repeat, "no, no, poopie. no, no." She is with you. On your side. How this happened is truly a mystery.

The mess was huge, but I didn't even call for back up. Somehow my heart rate didn't even go up. I knew what had to be done. And even though I can't hardly reach her mattress down so low without smooshing my belly into the crib rail, and even though bending over for three rounds of new water in the bathtub is not my idea of a great position these days, I did it. Because I am a mother. And now I have material to add when the stories begin about the day the one year old discovered their dirty-diaper-of-fun.