Trying to finish strong

Jason has 12 school days left and we have 28 days left to finish any/all house projects, pack & move! Woo-hoo and ay-yi-yi!

It feels like we spent the first 2+ months of the year getting the house in shape to show to prospective renters, then showing it, reviewing applications and picking tenants. Of course how life is, the first person backed out two weeks after signing a lease and making a deposit. So we got to start all over again. Not my favorite, but we're hopeful that our current folks will be great tenants.

Since then, we have tried to balance house projects with a tiny bit of family time, but we realized last weekend (as we were hanging rain gutters) that due to some travel commitments, we only had two more full weekends in our house. That really got our adrenaline going because there still seems to be SO much to do on the house.

When I saw this last week, I realized maybe I needed to adjust my priorities a bit ...
























When my kids are falling asleep at the table, there might be a problem :)

I was thankful for a small miracle today ... a friend (who had no idea how frantically we've been working on our house) asked if she could take Luke for a couple hours this afternoon to have a playdate with her daughter. What a lovely thing and couldn't have come at a better time. Feeling very thankful!

Feeling fallible & our first beach/lake day of the year!

It's interesting to me how a day can be completely planned out in my head and then all of those plans can immediately come to an end in the briefest of moments and remind me SO SO thoroughly how I really have no control over my life. How all my plans are only that and how I should not cling too tightly or confidently to any one of them ...

This morning after Jason left for school we had a brief but very strong windstorm during which a tree came down just down the street from our house. The kids didn't have shoes on, but I hauled each of them onto a hip and took them out to see the destruction ... then came in and bent down to pick up a laundry basket and realized I was NOT going to be able to unbend. Ugh. So ... change of plans for the day (and probably the weekend) and a reminder that God is in control and HE had different plans for me.

As I type, I realize that rarely credit God with changes in plan that turn out to be great ... only the ones where I don't get to do what I thought I wanted. Why is that?

My friend Kaitlyn & I did have an awesome spontaneous beach day on Wednesday and I will totally credit God for what a fabulous day it turned out to be. She & I have been loosely planning on doing a few area day trips and when we saw that the weather was going to be OVER 60 degrees for the first time in a long, long time, decided to head up to Coeur d'Alene to the lake for the day. It was fabulous and I am so thankful to God for the lovely outdoor day with a good friend.

I learned when we were at the beach during our California trip that it is absolutely the best place to be with the kids ... they are really entertained and it makes for the most relaxing environment to be in as a parent. Hurray for that :)

No trip to Coeur d'Alene is complete without a stop at Dockside Restaurant for a Gooey :)

Turning 4

Luke turned FOUR years old on Sunday!

At this point, it is hard to believe that he was ever a tiny baby. He is incredibly active and energetic and LOVES to talk, and LOUDLY. We are used to the way he talks (& working with him on having an 'inside voice'), but a lot of people have mentioned that he seems to talk with an accent. Not sure where he picked that up, but it's fun. Luke is curious about everything and has a great grasp for understanding how things work and has an endless supply of questions about every topic imaginable. He exercises his independence frequently and often not in productive ways which sometimes scare us. He love, love, loves his Dad and has an incredible extra energy boost whenever Jason is around. One of his favorite foods is toast - I think he asks for it nearly everyday. Jason & I pray constantly for patience and for wisdom on how to be good parents for him -- how to encourage him to grow up to be a man of character who seeks God's heart. We are so thankful that God has given us the opportunity to have Luke as our son.

We were glad that his birthday was on the weekend so that we could spend some quality time together as a family --  we even got to have a good "boy" outing with him -- a Lumberjack Games event through the university.

Luke was very clear about the menu for his birthday -- toast for breakfast, waffles with blueberries for brunch, Bernie's Farm mac-n-cheese for lunch and hot dogs for dinner. Along with a a chocolate cake with sprinkles with Wallace & Gromit on it. All pretty easy except for the cake, especially for the artistically/crafty challenged. :)

We were fortunate to have grandparents, cousins and an auntie join us in celebrating his big day.

They were GREAT sports about playing 'pin the tail on Shaun the Sheep.'

Luke received lots of presents (and yes! that's a vaccuum! one of our presents to him :) - he loves to clean!)

Cake time -- the Wallace & Gromit cake. Ay yi yi.

Four years ago & now. So so grateful to have Jason as a partner in this and in everything.

Counting down

Jason has 32 class days left of school -- woo-hoo!
The paper chain to help us countdown is officially UP!

Although we're feeling pretty ready for this season to be over, we continue to try to focus on the many blessings that have been given and just how fortunate we are ... especially with our health, our sweet Moscow community and our cozy home.

And Mabel's latest ... trying to stand on her head :)

Mabel @ 18 months & our first backyard blooms

About 10 days ago, Mabel passed her 18 month mark. I would imagine posts like these would normally include how much a child is growing & doing, etc. Not our Mabel. She is TINY and although developing at what's considered a normal pace, she is so far behind where Luke was at this age, she still feels very much like a "baby" to us. We don't mind. She continues to charm us.

To celebrate turning 18 months, she walked all the way to Main Street from our house (over a half mile!!) :)

And! The snow has melted once again (hopefully for good this time) to reveal our first flowers of the season -- hurrah! I'd never seen these sweet little flowers until last year when the popped up, carpeting the back corner of our yard in white and purple. After a little researching, we found out they are called Anemones. So thankful for their cheery blooms!

Spring - on hold :(

A couple weeks ago we had a warming up into the 40's and lots of rainy days which essentially melted all but the biggest piles of snow around town and left our nearby mountains looking like this.

We started looking for bulbs pushing up in the brown mud that now constitutes our yard and felt certain Spring was on it's way. Then, this happened ... several times in a row.

Grrr. Of course, I know it's not time yet here for Spring, but I SO SO want it to be!!

At least the snow brightens everything up and covers up the dreary, brown mud; and, when the sun shines ... ah, it is so lovely.

Clearly it was too cold for me to go OUT and take this photo -- do you like the reflection of our living room light on the glass?

Becoming {more} American

When we lived in Shanghai, we regularly had brunch at Element Fresh, a restaurant with lovely ex-pat friendly food. We always had a chuckle at the name of one of the breakfasts on their menu called "The Big American." It was essentially two full meals on one enormous plate. A small, yet accurate picture of how we are perceived by other cultures.

This winter we were blessed to be given a second car. It is in truly fantastic shape (and has all-wheel drive!) but due to age and miles wasn't going to be worth too much re-sale. How splendid - as it's worth a lot to us! Our Jeep has over 220,000 miles on it and is running well, but we always wonder how much longer it will do so.

Ironically, we really struggled with whether or not to accept this incredible gift. First, because we don't really need it at the moment since Jason walks or rides his bike to school/work and Moscow is a very walkable city for me when the weather isn't awful. Second, even with a gift like this there are always expenses and we really aren't in a situation to be adding to our expenses. Lastly, we realized we rather liked the struggle of having to figure life out with only one car. We felt a bit counter-cultural and we liked having the reminder that in so many places of the world people don't even have one car.

In the end, we knew we would be foolish to pass up such a generous gift and we accepted with hearts full of gratitude. We are now the "Big Americans" with TWO cars to our name. It still seems a bit funny to have cars that combined could seat 10 people when there are only 4 of us.

Two weeks ago I got my lesson ... while Jason was away in Oregon for several days at a conference, the Jeep was very sluggish in starting ... I felt so blessed to just be able to transfer kids & car seats to our second vehicle and drive away without having to cancel my appointment and/or be obsessed with wondering if the Jeep would start when our appointment was over.

Feeling SUPER thankful for this little vehicle (that looks very at-home in the new snow we got last night!) --