Our Chin Friends

We got together with our Chin friends today. (Just to clarify - even though they're from Burma, they say they are from Chin.) They were kind enough to bring Lillian a dress. His mother, who is still back in their country, made it. It is beautiful. The embroidery on it obviously took some time and it's amazing how well it fits her. I don't know that a dress could have been measured to fit her better.

Lillian was playing with her doll and the dad (or papa in Chin) put the doll on her back in the same way that they carry babies. Lillian was quite proud and wore it on her back for quite some time.

Friends like this make the whole world smaller.

Good way to start the day

It's good to be thankful

"I thank the Lord for my big muscles"
- Elijah, 3 1/2, while posing to show his big muscles

Making a Rocket

A few months back we had to get new carseats because of a minor accident we were in. (Thank you MPI for replacing our completely not damaged carseats at no cost to us.) We threw the boxes in our sunroom to deal with later. It has since gotten warmer and we have been spending time in our sunroom.

These boxes have now become rockets.




This is Elijah and Lillian painting the rocket. We did this several days in a row. Pure joy for both of them.

The lesson learned of course is that kids are happy to play in a box. No need to purchase expensive toys. But we still do. Because kids are happy with those too. :)

Good Bye Cleaning Lady

Good bye Cleaning Lady.

It is with a bit of sadness that I bid you farewell. Believe me, I have enjoyed coming home to the smell of Mr. Clean permeating my house. I have enjoyed the clean floors and the washed dishes drying on the counter.

The thing is, you're not me. And, I'm a little bit cheap.

I love the thought of a clean house without any effort on my part. The thing is, I pay you a good amount of money to do that. I grew up with good thrifty Mennonite values and I always want to get my money's worth. If you're coming to clean my house on Tuesday I stop cleaning up after my self in order to get the full value of the service that you are providing me.

I don't like living that way. I like taking the two minutes to pick something up and put it away. I like the feeling of being relatively organized - that you could enter my house at any moment and it would look lived in but not hoarding-ish.

We'll see how this works. In theory, I think it's great to have someone come clean your house every two weeks. In real life, it ended up being not so great.

So, Cleaning Lady, I will miss your cleaning ways but I will enjoy the "extra" money in my bank account.

Weekend at Auntie Anne's Cottage

All last week Elijah was excited about the weekend we were about to have at Auntie Anne's Cottage. He was counting down sleeps (as much as he can count) and kept talking about sleeping on bunk beds. And we had a wonderful weekend.

The kids played outside a ton. They went sledding and swinging and quadding and ice fishing. They built a fort and dug holes in the snow. At the end of the day they were TIRED. Always the best for a good night of sleep.

Always gotta get a McDonald's shot in.


They both loved the quad.


Poor Lillian. Hand me down snowsuit from her big brother. He was a little bit bigger than her at that age. (Did you realize that icicles are full of bacteria and shouldn't be eaten? That's what my expert husband tells me.)


Eating icecream with Elijah's cousin.

Why I love my house

Two of dearest BFFs made major house decisions this past weekend. One sold a house. One bought a house. And I, well I still live in my house. My house which I still love. And here are some of my reasons:

1. The Space - We essentially tripled our living space and we are all happier for it. (Elijah needs to release some energy? Let him run around the couch. Lillian is sure to join him.)

2. The Yard - I will admit that the flower gardens were a bit overwhelming last summer. I'm pretty sure that having removed half of them I will enjoy my yard even more this summer. I am also thrilled with the plot of land that we tilled up in the fall so I can once again have a garden. I missed having a garden this summer. I love being able to go outside and get fresh ingredients for supper.

3. The Garage - When it's -45 with the windchill? I get to park inside. I don't think that needs more of an explaination.

4. Two bathrooms - There are now four of us that use the toilet. Nice to have a second one. This has become particularly important since the fourth member of the toilet using group in our house is 17 months and really just enjoys the experience of sitting on the "Special Seat". It's not so much about actually utilizing the services that the toilet provides.

5. Location - Close to work. Close to the mall. Close to the grocery store. Close to several play structures. Close to schools.

6. The Layout - Back when we lived in the old house we had two children sleeping right outside our bedroom door. Lillian was born and was sleeping in a basinet. It was convenient to have her close by when she woke up at night. Elijah had his bedroom upstairs and he started to come down the stairs at night. The stairs were pretty steep without a railing so it was just a headline waiting to happen. Now they're happily living in their own rooms just down the hall.

7. The Windows - There are lots of them and they are relatively new. There is something wonderful about natural light. It just makes me happy.

8. Our Sunroom - The funny thing about this is that we didn't even look at it when we looked at the house the three times that we came here before we made an offer. Didn't even occur to us that we would care. We spent a lot of time in there this summer. It actually became the place where we ate most of our meals and spent a lot of time playing. We even put a couch in there so it became a cozy little place to read a book.

9. The Untapped Potential - There is room to work with this house. There are so many projects yet to be started. Having said that, we can live in it happily just the way it is. That's nice.

10. No Crazy Mortgage - We can live here comfortably. No crazy mortgage payments that make us house poor. Sure our property taxes are four times as much but it's a small price to pay for this much joy.

Yup. I really love this house.