A January Update of Sorts

Summer got something called a buddha board for Christmas. You paint on it with water and then it slowly fades away. It's relaxing. But not permanent. 

There are so many things my mind has written throughout this month of January. Unfortunately, writings in my mind (that never make it to my fingers) seem to behave just like paintings on the buddha board. I have no recollection of all the things I mentally wrote as I busied about my days this month. 

But, for all the fading of conversations and thoughts that I wanted to remember, plenty has been going on--enough that Christmas seems an eternity ago already, and I have had many nights just thinking longingly of bed: Late nights of Mike and I measuring closet rods and mirror sizes and checking on things at Home Depot; late nights of moving two-kitchens' worth of appliances (fridges, dishwashers, ovens, microwaves) out of the barn (by dolly), through the cold, onto a trailer and then from the trailer into the house (one fridge wouldn't fit through the door and is still sitting in the garage); nights (again--late, dark, and cold) of moving and arranging huge freezers and filling them with so much beef that my arms and back ached by the end. 

And there have been days as well: Days of working on all the chaos of our garage; days of going through closets and bedrooms; and days of catching and taking stray cats to the vet to be spayed/neutered. (Five stray cats have become seemingly dependent on us. I guess that is the risk you run in having outdoor cats yourself--other cats sniff out their food. Three of those strays have been around since kitten stage and we've felt too guilty to just disappear in the move and leave them waiting at the back door for food that never comes. Summer tamed one of them--so much so that he's pretty well domestic and comes inside as often as Shasta and Biscuit. We've even named him. [Fritz. Or "Fritzers" as I generally call him.] The other two are quite feral, but we still managed to trap them and take them in to be fixed [so that our mercy in bringing them on the move won't mean a thousand more kittens for us]. They are now at the barn over at the farm. Well, except Fritz. He's here asleep on our couch--a ball of orange and white fluff that should be outside!)

Every morning lately reminds me of when I had newborns and felt, every single time my alarm went off, that I could not possibly get out of bed (exacerbated by the fact that the heater isn't working well at the rental so it's not only much too early but also much too cold!).

And here, in photo form, is some small bit of what else has happened this month:

Hansers turned NINE.

I simply cannot put into words how much I like this kid. He is pure likableness. (Though that doesn't stop several of his siblings from tormenting him.)

He designed his own rather terrifying cake.

Here he is reading a book to, and doing a science experiment for, his 3rd-grade class (as his teacher lets them do on their birthdays). He demonstrated a siphon and told about his great-grandpa using this method to get gas out of a tractor (and sometimes getting a mouthful of gas in the process). 

And here he is passed out cold in a small patch of weed and snow while helping Mike on the farm one Saturday:

(Perhaps he would be less tired [as would I] if he didn't, very often, come into my room about three or four times a night to tell me he can't sleep.)

And the house is getting close. We have to be out of the rental before the end of February (perhaps I've already written this) but I am praying and praying the house will be ready earlier in February so we will have a few weeks to move things over, clean up the rental, etc.

Railings finally went in. (Though the top rail still needs stained--one of the jumble of small things needing done still.)

This section right here was what I was most happy to see. I didn't really think any of my kids would accidentally plummet off the main part of the loft during our visits to check on the house. But I often worried they would run too carelessly around this corner from the loft to the hall and fall down the stair well.

We branded the bookshelf with our official double-H-bar brand. (And it is very official. I even have a card I'm supposed to keep in my wallet!)

If anyone should be far more tired than I am, it is my poor Mike who somehow must do all of these house things (and all other life things) while working and commuting 12 or so hours a day.  

He is, in all truth, the most capable man ever. And it's quite the irony that I find him most attractive when he is working on a project ... and he is the least aware of me he ever is when he is working on a project. (Which reminds me of one of my earliest blog posts about him. This one here.)

I love all of those little watchers--keeping a safe distance from the flame--in the background.

The two H's are for Hansen-Harris. The last names of Mike's Logan-farming maternal and paternal grandparents. And the bar is a nod to an old family brand.

Now we just need to stain the butcher block.

Summer got to go to the temple for the first time! 

The elementary kids gathered for morning scriptures. I do scriptures twice in the mornings. Once with the middle-school/high-school kids and once with the younger crew. (This smiling lot is deceiving. Often they are half asleep, wandering about, or fighting over who gets to sit by me.)

Penny putting Hans to bed for me one night--and looking like she might fall asleep herself.

Mette is part of a group of ... well, there's no other way to put it: extra smart kids at school. :) They meet once a week and do extra projects and research. Here she is presenting on volcanoes. 

Goldie and Penny came along 

Some dear things Starling has made recently:

And crafts from Aunt Sarah. (Aunt Sarah occasionally drops by some little craft for the kids. [I cannot tell you how many bracelets my kids have made from Aunt Sarah's supplies. Billions.] The latest was these flat discs that you could color and then get wet to make a little sponge. Also some origami paper.)

Mette recreated The Scrub Daddy in small form. (The big Scrub Daddy does not belong to me. It is Anders' own special dish-washing scrubber. For months he begged me to buy one. I told him I was perfectly satisfied with the blue sponges I'd always used for dishes. But I eventually relented and gave him one for his birthday. He does not like any of the rest of us doing dishes with it.)

And, while there is so so much more to tell from this month (Daisy lining all the drawers at the house for me; Penny, Jesse and Anders building wire shelves with Mike for the food storage and laundry rooms; speaking [me, Mike and Summer] at our last Sunday in Young Ward; moving Rosie and Holly to the farm; dealing with flooding at the new house; etc.), we will let the pictures do the bulk of the January storytelling.