Back in the cold bleakness of January, Nate and I were trying to decide what to do about our carpet. We have always seriously disliked it. It's seafoam green, and therefore it clashes with all our other decor, and manages to show every drop of anything that ever happens to land on it. Also it matches our kitchen tile, which has white grout that has never been white as long as we've known it. It's just yucky. So we went back and forth about whether to have it professionally cleaned or buy a carpet cleaner and do it ourselves. But we'd for sure have to get the grout cleaned too because it's just so nasty . . . All the conversations led to expensive and/or labor intensive ideas and the real story was that no matter what we decided to do, it would look dirty again within a week.  So one day we decided that it was time to just price out how much it would cost to have it all replaced. Definitely a pie-in-the sky dream, but heck, it was January and we had nothing going on,...

Yesterday we spent just about all day getting our garden ready to go. We'd already transplanted raspberries and filled a box with cold-hardy plants, but Mother's Day weekend is always the time to plant the summer vegetables. It seems like every year we have big plans to add on quite a bit to our little garden plot, but then right around the time we're ready to do it, some dreadful and expensive catastrophe occurs. This year, that came in the form of a last-second trip to Georgia for me, a new dryer, a new dishwasher, and two new tires on the van because the old ones were down to the cords. So we added one box this time around, and were grateful to be able to do that! It was a lovely day, and a delight to be together getting work done. The girls came with Nate and I to Lowes to get wood.   We borrowed a neighbor's truck and piled in with the boys and Emmie to get a scoop of garden soil. Nate did some weed eating and got the box assembled, and we wor...

January was a very, very slow month for our family. No company, no big adventures, just a lot of time putting our heads down and tending to the business of life. Turns out that's enough to keep us busy all by itself. It was a much needed pause. Here are a few pictures of our chillaxation. Happy New Year! These guys made it till midnight. We got to go on a lunch date with Asa while the kids were at school. Nate and Bryn went on a date to explore the bird refuge in the freezing cold. I'm told they even walked on some ice! Nate built some new shelves in our linen closet. They are so wonderful! Asa and I go to storytime each Wednesday at the library. We love Miss Sue, the librarian, and all the fun activities we get to do with her. Such fun news to share with our kids! Bryn scaled the rock wall at the church park. Explorers extraordinaire. We have 9:00 church now, which we are still adjusting to. We've started watching P...

While my side of the family was here for Thanksgiving, we decorated the Christmas tree together! Us adults spent an entire afternoon pulling the old burned out lights off the tree and then stringing up new ones. What a pain! But it was sure pretty once we finished. December 1st Addison became a double-digit baby! He invited a few buddies over and had cake and ice cream and did an escape room that turned out to be a lot of fun. It's crazy that he's ten! The cake was themed after one of his current favorite book series, Warriors . Puzzling over a problem and trying to beat the clock! Success! They made it just in time! Addison also earned his bear award and his religious knot in scouts. Nate and Asa went on a date to the Roy library, which is so, so cool. They even got a treat at the cafe there. We had some snow days. Threw a singing party. Look at this adorable nativity...