Lunchtime chatter

This morning, K was delighted to find a large Thomas for O's birthday present. 

She was very reluctant to wait till Tuesday to give it to him, but eventually I talked her into it. Maybe I shouldn't have; I don't know. 

She certainly let him know what he was getting. Here it is, beside her plate at lunchtime. She has our old Duplo Thomas beside him. 

"...and that's why this one is so big;" she's saying. "...cause it had to go to the engine hospital and have a baby. He had him in his boiler."

 

E is saying, "I wish I wasn't in this family so I could get married to one of us."

 

O: "I wish I was in another family, too."

E: "No, you have to stay in this one; we would not want to marry you. Just KE and Dad."

KE, meanwhile,  is just happy to have a spatula. He is not worrying about marriage.

Dehydrating Pickles

Eating bread at Oma's. KE knows that if he is loud enough at mealtimes, we'll give him food. My favourite for him is pickle. He "dehydrates" them, to quote his father. 

Snow Day

Another snow day. That solitary car on the road is Kevin's, heading to work.

After he got there, they did close, so he came back home to us. 

Library day

 

The library had a display of wrapped books for Valentine's Day. "Blind date with a book," they said. The children just saw them as presents, and were very excited about taking one home. 

 

We have a category for books that I call the "looking at pictures only but not reading" books. This is because about 95% of the books in the children's section are twaddle, amd I let them choose one or two by themselves. I think that eventually, through repeated exposure to living books, they will be able to recognize a good book when they see it, but for now, this is our defence against the insidious Strawberry Shortcake. 

The parking lot was slushy. E: "I wish the slush was chocolate milk." 

Roses and Sparkle

E has been pretending to be a Spark leader all afternoon (Sparks are the youngest level of Girl Guides). "Hello;" she says, "I am Sparkle, and O is Kitkat." 

 

This being Valentine's Day, and Kevin being awesome, he brought home roses for his girls. O was upset because he wasn't getting a rose, so Kevin gave him a loaf of french bread. "All yours." He said. O wasn't completely won over, but accepted the inevitable. He even shared it with us as we ate our spaghetti supper.

 

When I tucked E in tonight, and asked her what she was thankful for, she said, so happily,  "My rose." Her cup runneth over.

Soup

The blizzard blew itself out by morning, so today the neighbourhood is shovelling itself out.  I gave the children tea and cookies outside. The cookies were a hit. 

 

Inside, Kent practiced his shrieking and crawling while I made soup.  I have been making life easier for myself by cooking up a huge pot of soup or stew every Tuesday

Blizzard

Today is a snow day. Kevin's work is closed for the day. 

 The girls and I went out for a bit this morning. We took in some firewood, K decapitated her snowman from last week, and I shovelled a foot of snow off the back deck. It won't be long before there will be another foot, at this rate of snowfall. 

Not that I'll be able to see it; the kitchen window is whited out:

 

Kevin is prowling around, a bit out of sorts because he was geared up to work today, but I am happy. I flopped down in front of the fire when I came inside. "I know it's a lot of snow," I said, "but winter has its compensations."

 

Down to Earth

 

Lots of lineups, french bread fast food, customs 3 times, a late flight which meant being bumped to a later flight, and many hours in the air, and we're home. 

I didn't know how I'd feel about coming back to earth, but as we came in for our landing, I was glad to be home. 

Home to Christmas lights on the houses, clean sheets and my own pillow. Home to snow, and brighter skies than they have in Holland this time of year. 

Home to a house that feels surprisingly light and airy after a month of high, dark ceilings with loads of character.  

I walk into the kitchen and it feels unfamiliar. I back up, come in again. This is what it was before?  It's the oddest feeling. Probably happened because I spend so much of my time in this room, ordinarily. 

Kevin isn't exactly excited to go back to work; so I am calling this vacation a success. He is so good at his job that he usually is ready to go early; energized by the challenges of each day. Which is awesome, but it's nice to be good at resting, too. 

I am so thankful to God to have had this opportunity. And, as I settle back into homeschooling and my old routines for housekeeping and mothering, I'm also thankful that my ordinary is actually quite nice.