So here I am on a cold, snowy afternoon characterized by the unusual reality that I don’t have much pressing for my time right now. I’m between writing jobs. Two of the crazies are at school, the other two are napping. I’m almost caught up on laundry. I should do some house-keeping. But instead, I’m going to recap a few things from the last few…well, from the recent past!
The holidays were busy, but good. I accidentally overbooked myself on writing projects (feast or famine, feast or famine), so that did complicate things. But overall, we had a good time. Lots of family. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves. Eric had his first real break in months and made the most of his 10 days off with work on the new house, hanging with us, and generally relaxing. It was nice. And now we’re working to get back into the swing of things and of normal life again. And that is good, too.
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So…I don’t do rodents. Do.not.do.rodents. Gross! I’m pretty sure my kids will be more than hard-pressed to talk me into even the fluffiest of rodent pets. Just…shudder! Anyway, not surprisingly, we have lots of mice (not pet ones) in the doublewide (in, under, above, throughout…), but more surprisingly, I have not had much trouble with them getting on my counter. Until this winter. Suddenly, there were traces of mice on my counter. Mouse poop…YUCK! Also, he hauled an entire still-wrapped Hershey’s kiss from inside a cup of candy on the far side of the stove back across the stove to the sink area, stripped its wrapper and ate (or disappeared with) the entire piece of candy. Leaving nothing but the wrapper. What kind of mouse does that?!? (By the way the upside of the whole thing is that I’ve actually been cleaning up my kitchen all.the.way before I go to bed at night. I mean, I can’t always control the amount of food crumbs scattered about on the carpets, but if I leave those and clean my counters, maybe the mice will stay on the floor, right?)
Anyway, since I don’t do rodents, Eric is responsible for all mouse traps: baiting, setting, finding, removing with dead things in tow. Seriously, I’ve been known to leave a dead mouse in the trap in the corner for a whole day until Eric is home to take it out. I don’t do rodents. So anyway, Eric remembered, after a few days, to set the trap one night before we went to bed. That night, I woke up to the oddest sound. I could NOT figure out what the kids were doing. Out into the living room at 1 a.m. to realize the sound was coming from the kitchen, not the bedrooms. Realizing what it likely was…I went back to bed. I heard that mousetrap being smacked around more than once that night, and when Eric got up he found a “big guy” of a mouse (Eric’s words), head in the trap, clear on the other side of the kitchen from where the trap had been set. Apparently, it hadn’t snapped his neck when it released, and he flailed around my kitchen floor all night until he ended up by the back door too strangled to move any more or whatever. Eric took him outside to freeze the rest of the way to his demise. And I haven’t had any more signs of mice on my counters since then.
Me: 1, Mouse: dead. Yay!
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In happier news, my sweet little Timmy guy turned 2 just after Christmas. He is just the happiest, fun little guy, and we love him to pieces. I should do a whole post about him, but for the sake of “who-knows-when-I’ll-blog-again” reality, I’ll just give you a quick update here.
- Timmy hates peanut butter. He will not eat it. Refuses anything with PB on it. Crazy!
- In the last three weeks, he has suddenly grown a ton. Not necessarily taller as much as he just suddenly looks and acts like a bigger kid instead of a baby. Thankfully, the amount of snuggling has actually gone up with this recent spurt, but he’s quickly becoming a preschooler, instead of my baby-toddler!
- Also in the last three weeks, Tim’s verbal skills have taken off like a rocket. Suddenly, what had been, until now, mostly grunts and pointing has turned into actual words and syllables and phrases. He says the numbers 1-9 (I didn’t know this). He can do some colors (I didn’t know this). He actually names some people, some toys, and some of his food (I didn’t know he could do that either). I think that, by my birthday, he’ll be predominantly verbal. How fun!!
- Also, I have to give most of the credit for his new verbal skills to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I really need to start working with him more. 🙂
- And because, he’s just adorable…here’s my sweet little guy:
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Yesterday, we had a snow day. At one point, Erin tattled that Megan was coloring lipstick on herself with marker (and on her teeth and such). I announced that no one should be drawing on themselves with markers – or others, for that matter. No markers on skin. A few minutes later, I walked out of a bedroom and realized the bathroom door was ajar. I pushed on it to see Alex, on the stool, shirtless, a purple marker in one hand. His other hand was already purple and he was on his way up the arm. He looked up at me, eyes wide. I said, “What are you doing? I just said not to… – wait, are you turning yourself into a purple minion?” Yes. Yes, he was.
Needless to say, I burst out laughing. If I’d been a few minutes later, he’d have been half-purple before I caught him. He wouldn’t tell me what he’d been planning either. He was truly bummed I wouldn’t let him color himself purple. Thankfully, he doesn’t have access to body paint!
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I’m knitting a hat. First one ever. I might actually finish it before the end of winter! This would be a first for me (finishing a knitting project within the season I started it, I mean)!
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On a less happy note, my grandfather passed away on Tuesday, January 6. He would have been 92 this Saturday. It was a good week, emotional of course, but good. His life was well lived. He loved Jesus. He was getting tired. And he passed easily and painlessly at home. Eric and I drove to Buffalo (5.5 hours each way) in a day to make the calling hours, but getting the chance to say goodbye was worth it (and 10 hours alone in a quiet car with Eric was nice, too!). Of course, we will all miss him. Very, very much. But we are rejoicing that he is finally home.
Actually, though, of all the things that filled 2014 for us, grief had one of the largest places. My uncle and grandfather passed away. Eric lost his grandfather and two great-uncles. The local church we attend lost a couple more older saints. The town’s community was rocked by a hunting death on a Monday. The nearby Amish community lost a bishop most tragically in a farming accident the following day. It has been a hard, hard year. And honestly, I’ll be okay if 2015 is much less sad.
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Looking ahead, our house is coming along. We have a full roof (it took almost 2 weeks after the shingles were complete to have the ridge vent installed, and it rained regularly during that time). We have a furnace. The stone work is finished. The electrical is roughed-in. The insulation is being installed this week, with the dry wall to follow soon. The siding guy was out measuring yesterday. So we are definitely making progress. Of course, the sheer number of details that have to be decided once the walls are done – yikes! But hey, we’ll get it all done, one piece at a time. And then you are all invited to come see it!
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And I think that’s about all that was floating around in my head for right now. I’m sure there’s more. I’m sure I need to start blogging every day or two again. Maybe that will be a good goal to set for 2015 for myself. We shall see, though. We shall see.
Happy Wednesday!
