Pigs Don't Say Oink and a Temple Trip With Sisters

Penny homeworking with Starling:

A sleepy friend.

A super moon lingering in the west one morning. The picture does not capture how enormous it looked. (And it really was that shockingly yellow.)

I bought a new coat. I have one sort of like it already, but this one was so soft and so ... 2/3rds off of its original price. (And Daisy sometimes likes to borrow my other one. So now, she can borrow it ... forever! :))

Beast and Pig. When Stella and Moses were here, I was trying to teach Moses what a pig says. "A pig says 'oink oink'," I said. Starling looked at me, bewildered. "A pig doesn't say oink!" she said. It's true. It's true. "When I was a child I spake as a child." But Starling has had far too much real-world experience in her young life to believe in such naively sweet pig sounds. It's a bit sad really. Perhaps I can post a video of Pig in all her grunting and squealing glory sometime. 

Holly. The cold and early dark have meant we've been spending much less time with her, and I fear, perhaps because of that?, she's getting a bit headstrong. I preferred her docile and agreeable version.

Our glorious fogs! This was walking from the rental to the bus stop.

And this was just after, when I'd driven to the farm. I was standing right on the front porch of the new house. And this was my view to the right. It's just so great. Foggy cows in the mist? From the front porch??? Does that seem like the best thing in the world to everyone? I don't know how it couldn't! (Though I also don't know why it does. Haha.)

I met up with my mom and sisters for a pre-Christmas temple session and lunch in Brigham City a few weeks ago. (Oh! And here we see the other coat that made justifying the new coat ... tricky.)

At one point the 18-year-old cook from the back came out and told us he'd noticed us right when we walked in. He kept asking things, almost confused it seemed, about like ... why we all had such glowing skin. In truth we had wrinkles and (at least in my case) acne to spare amongst us. But he seemed simply to be trying to understand just what it was that made us stand out so much to him. I think, if I may be so bold, it was the light about us. After all, here we were, a group of women endowed with power from God, feeling nothing but love for each other, and having come straight out of a holy temple where we did God's work for other women who love each other. I think that's what he was seeing.

But we didn't leave him totally in the dark about it. My mom told him to make sure to turn to God for all the answers throughout his life and promised that God would surprise him with information and direction he hadn't suspected. 

AND! If all of that wasn't enough, Megan gifted me with this painting she'd done for the new house! (You all know it's the pea viner property by this point I presume.)

Speaking of the pea viner property. Here Jesse is helping Mike with ... trenches and pipe and troughs and what not. The boys have mostly learned to accept that every Saturday for ... the rest of their lives :) will entail farm work.

Fattening them up. :) 

And lastly: our first (and so far, only) snowfall of the season. (Notice the snowman in the middle of the road if you will.)

December House Update

Initially, when building started, I told the kids we might move in before Halloween. 

And then ... at least by Thanksgiving. 

When that began looking unlikely, I started saying January.

And that's still what I've been saying. 

Only, as December hurtles its way along, I'm beginning to wonder if it's time to start telling them February?

Big things are getting done. That is true. (See the pictures below.) But there are some big things we are still waiting on. (Like, why won't anyone ever come paint the exterior trim? It isn't supposed to happen in very cold temps, and this whole week has been about the warmest we've ever known for December. But no sign of the painters--despite harassing our builder about it. And what about the section of our roof that is all wavy and needs replaced. Anyone? Anyone? [Silence.]) And mostly there are still a lot of little things. (For example: the sheet rocker accidentally covered up some of the outlets. Which meant holes were recently cut in several spots in the walls. Which means the sheet rocker will need to come again. Which means the painter will need to come again. ...) All these little things and little mistakes are extending things as much, if not more, than the big things.

But. Progress is still always exciting.

And ...

Lights are up! We still need several fans placed (and several broken lights replaced [eyebrow raise], but it's fun to go in the house at night and turn on all the lights! Just like real people do in real houses! :)

Nothing new to see here. Just cute girls by the big window. ("The big window". That's what it will always be called, won't it? I like things like that. Like how in this rental, we have "the fuzzy carpet room". "The big window", incidentally, is thee main, luxury splurge of this whole house. It's my favorite thing about it. [Second favorite thing? The reading nook/room. Third? The porches. Fourth? ... I'll decide when we live there.])

One fan is up! (Our bedroom.)

Prepping for flooring. (And the bar counter placed. I'm so excited about how long the bar is! When it first got put in, I marveled that someone could be making sugar cookies at one end and there would still be room for someone to be crafting at the other end! Impossible! Amazing!)

Flooring has begun! We sent this picture to the away kids, and Abe remarked that all of the kids running and rolling about on the new floor reminded him of the reaction he, Daisy, Goldie and Penny had to the backyard sod we laid at our WA house 18 years ago! It was much the same! It makes me feel that I have lived a hundred lifetimes of kids experiencing things! 

We assumed we would have to bring in all the dirt for the front yard ourselves at some point. (And, because of a high water table and needing to build the house up a bit, a lot of dirt was going to be needed even to level the yard up to the sidewalk. But the guy who did our driveway ended up knowing of someone who was not only getting rid of tons of dirt, but who was even willing to dump truck all the loads to us for free. So, we have dirt put in for a someday yard! Here Jesse is examining the soil. :))

Anyway. It's getting there. Mike and Jesse came home with a million doorknobs from Home Depot the other night. And our bathroom shower is installed. (It is too big! I will never ever find the energy to clean it. I know this because of how rarely I find the energy to clean a normal-sized shower.) Plumbing still needs to happen. And, at some point, I hope ... someone (?) is going to peel all the weird film and stickers off of every window and clean the construction dust off of every single surface. (Is someone going to do that? Someone who isn't ... me??? Time will tell I suppose.)

Into the Holidays

While the house emptied out a bit with Provo kids back to college and our Logan kids back to school, things did not come to a quiet standstill after Thanksgiving. (Here we are 15 days from Christmas, and I still am nowhere near having Christmas presents wrapped--nor even all purchased, and all because time has been hurtling on with happenings--as the holiday weeks do at this stage of life--and I am boggled as to how we are in December at all yet--much less nearing its half way mark!)

The very Monday after our full Thanksgiving week we all met in Provo for the Peter Breinholt Christmas concert. I have never enjoyed any concerts more than the two of his we've gone to. Of course, that might not be true if his music wasn't attached to so many memories for us, but seeing as it is! ...

Just prior to all of Thanksgiving shenanigans we had Anders' and Mette's piano recital:

And during the week after Thanksgiving, we plunged into more Christmassy things not only with Peter Breinholt, but with Goldie's Utah State Choir Christmas concert:

By sheer luck she happened to file in almost directly behind where we were seated. 

I'm sure she loved Mette distracting her with photo taking. :)

Hansie got a bit tired. Bless him.

We also had Summer's orchestra Christmas concert:

Multiple elementaries combined for this concert--hence the huge group of performers.

And finally, somehow a week into December, we managed to go get a tree. We bought a blue spruce with roots intact in hopes of planting it at the farm. Fingers crossed that having it in the house this long won't take it from its dormant winter state into one that won't be able to withstand the cold once we put it back outside!

I have spent much of these last Christmases sort of waiting for the craziness to calm down enough to be able take it all in and fully appreciate the traditions and joys of the season. But as my home shifts and changes, I am beginning to see that by the time it slows down to any degree ... much of the tradition and magic I love ... will be past altogether for me! I suppose it's a bit of a sad thought, but it also makes me realize that there is no magical future day, in this mortal life anyway, where the demands on my time and energy will be small and I will still be experiencing the fullness of children, and picking out trees, and recitals, and reading Christmas books, and cutting out sugar cookies, and opening the advent box to see what fun activity is in store. This is it. It always has been. The magical things that are happening all mingled in with the groceries needing purchased, and homework needing helped with, and dishes needing done, and laundry needing folded, and presents needing figured out, tantrums and squabbling needing borne, and stresses over house things gone wrong, and moves and all the accompanying packing looming, etc. There's no way to tease the things apart or experience them consecutively (all the hard years followed by all the magical years). It's all just here happening together. What a mad and wonderful time it is.

(All the kids were with Mike at Lowe's or Home Depot one evening. See above picture. I'm not sure exactly where Mike was--as I think he would have put a prompt stop to this--but, at one point, Anders texted me a video of some goofy singing/dancing Christmas toy. In front of the one he filmed for me I could see Hans and Starling giggling as they turned on and set out on the store floor about 20 more of the figures. Haha. Goofy children.)

Anywho! On with the season!