Crazy Dreams!

Well, here it goes...I'm going to document my crazy dreams (a few fulfilled).  As Matt has found out many a time before, I've got a lot of crazy ideas.  I also like to act spur-of-the-moment on them.  And I like to start projects with lots of oomph, then loose steam and not finish them.  It's an exciting and great way to be for me!  It holds my interest just long enough, but when I get bored I stop.  But, my better half, and I really do mean better, 'gets' to then finish my projects, of which he had little interest in the first place.  Opps.  Though this is ingrained in me and I liken it to personality traits, I MUST work on this.  Seriously.  (I totally admire my husband, Aunt Chris, and friends Amber and Theresa for being totally opposite of me on this subject...I aspire to finish projects in the future.)  Matt tells me why my ideas are crazy and will never work.  Maybe this is to discourage me from starting them so that he doesn't finish them.  Maybe they really are crazy!  Either way, I thought I'd share them with you, blogging world...

• Bilingual Kiddos - Yes, this started out as a crazy dream!  Matt was totally wondering how this would ever work, and me too, actually.  One of the few that has stuck and is working out - re: we actually have raised a daughter who can and does speak German just as well as she can speak English!  And I'm sure Henry is on his way too...
• Chickens - Wouldn't it be awesome to collect fresh eggs everyday?  Grandma and Grandpa Dodge think this is crazy and have tried to talk me out of it.  They insist that I'd have to have hundreds to make it work.  Not. True.  Amber's mom has a dozen or so and they're great!  (And I'd also like to slaughter some too to eat, but I'm not sure you can have both kinds together.  Research needed.)
• Garden - My enabling husband (love him to death!) prepared the plot for me at our old place.  He shoveled and sifted rock and turned the earth for hours, only to have me let the patch become overrun with weeds.  Fruits of our labor?  Not much.  HOWEVER, this year at the new place I started very small, prepared by hand with a spade and shovel, and planted myself (mostly...Dad helped with the asparagus.  Even though he doesn't like his own projects, he's awesome at helping others with theirs!), and have a cute little garden that is producing.  Tomatoes and peppers and basil and parsley and flat leaf parsley and sage and mint and rosemary and oregano, oh my!  Next year, it's going to be bigger...a LOT bigger!  I can't wait!
• Root cellar - I was baffled that my potatoes and onions kept spoiling (gross!) in my cupboard when 'in the olden days' people were able to keep them all winter.  Did a little research and who knew, root cellars are awesome!  But, they have to be humid, dark, and have ventilation.  This old farmhouse basement could be good for something after all?!?!  All I need to figure out is ventilation, but with two pipes in the wall, it sounds very doable.  I know it won't be THAT easy, but hopefully it won't be too hard either.  This will fit perfectly with my bigger garden next year.  Potatoes and carrots and rutabaga and kohlrabi and parsnips and turnips and onions, yum yum!!
• Pigs/Cows - Not now!  However, when the kids are older it would be such fun (and lots of work) to have a few of each.  A little hobby farm.  Fresh milk, who cares if it's pasteurized if we know right where it's coming from...a little cream glob at the top - yum!  And a butchered cow and pig in the freezer.  Again, not sure if you can have dairy cows and cattle for meat together.  Research needed.  And I think it might be possible once Matt doesn't have to work full time at P anymore.  Although, I'd have to give up travel altogether.  We'll see on this one.  If Mark is reading this right now he's thinking "I knew my daughter-in-law was crazy, but not this crazy!

Well it turns out a lot of these are farm related, but what the heck, let's embrace that fact that we are farmers!  I know I might be glamorizing farm life and as I've heard from Grandpa Dodge time and time again, it's a lot of hard work.  But there's got to be something so rewarding about working hard and the fruits of your labor.  All I know is that I'm not getting any help in the garden from him...according to him, he's been gardening all his life (farming) and has no interest in it now whatsoever!  (However, he does bring me compost every couple weeks and even went to the landfill and added some fresh composted dirt to my pile without me knowing it.  Speaking of compost, I've got to fix that somehow.  I have a wire fence around it, but have learned that it's a skunk magnet!)

P.S.  This is in no particular order.  I wrote them as I thought of them, and I don't even want to begin to explain my random trains of thought to you.  I'm at times scatter-brained.  (Turns out I may have gotten this from my Dad, who told me just last week that he's like this too.  Never knew that before.  I think he also maybe doesn't finish projects - at work he did like a champ, of course, but at home his natural tendency is to just let them go on forever...)

P.P.S.  A girl has got to have her dreams!  Mine have been changing a bit.  Had you asked me five years ago, none of these would have been on the list.  I guess I have to accept and embrace the fact that I'm no longer going to be a city girl, but now a full-fledged country girl!

Disclaimer: I will NOT ever say ain't and will continue to use correct grammar and conjugate my verbs according to subject correctly.  (Though I love all those people in my life who, when really relaxed, embrace this part of their upbringing like my husband, in-laws, and uncles!  Love you guys!)  :) :)

HESITATING TO PUSH 'PUBLISH.'  DO I REALLY LET EVERYONE IN ON ALL MY CHARACTER FLAWS AND CRAZINESS?  HERE GOES NOTHING...

Where Does the Time Go?

After a big celebration on Saturday, Claire's "party-day," we just took it easy on Sunday.  The kiddos and I took big fat naps and Matt got a little 'playtime' in with his hobbies, which he doesn't get too often these days.  I can't believe that tomorrow Claire will be three years old.  I'm a bit sad about it - two years old still seems like my baby, but three...that's a whole other story.  That's closer to kindergarten than birth.  That's crazy.  I suppose I will get used to it, and it's a good reminder to enjoy the time we have together at home and make the most of each day.  It's my prayer that I am thriving as a mama to these two blessings and that I don't take time with them for granted.  I'm sure every parent has thought this at one point, but 'where does the time go?'  (that's on a daily basis, for example 'what did we actually get accomplished today and has it really been eight hours since Matt left for work?' but it's also a milestones type of question like 'when did my baby start crawling and cruising?' or 'how is it that my little baby girl is three years old?').

Here's what we've been up to the past couple of days...

Happyhappyhappy boy!  LOVE HIM!
(Love our new screen door - it's the little thing like the breeze
through the house that make me happy.)

Hard at Play!
We always have so much fun mixing food coloring to figure out different colors.
Seriously, I have as much fun with it as Claire.  Here we made cloud dough
with a little baby oil and flour.

A bit too lovey!
I feel like half the time I'm praising Claire for being loving and gentle and generous, while the other half of the time I'm reminding her to be gentle and not squeeze so hard, and sometimes even putting her in a time out for pushing.  Okay, actually it's the latter reminders more than the praise.  That seven to one praise to correction ratio just isn't working for us! ;)  LOL.

One of Henry's typical faces...I love it!  We'll call it "Elvis!"
Hey Dada, this oatmeal cereal isn't too bad?!

Happy 8 Months, Henry!!!

We've been having a great last couple of weeks with 4th of July activities and just fun things around the house and town with the kids during the day!  :)  (Okay, so I wrote that on Henry's 8 month birthday, July 12th...here's to finishing it about a week later!)

We love our little man, Maeuschen, so much!!  That's my nickname for him and Claire uses it too.  It means "little mouse" in German, which I understand is not at all cute in English.  In fact, when I translate it, it just seems weird, but it's like saying "sweetie" for us.  :)  Here are some updates...

Annabelle and Claire had so much fun jumping in this pool in Okoboji!  Jump, jump!

Here he is - my Maueschen!  Hanging out in the stroller on a road trip with Mami, Claire, and Grandma!   It was HOT this day and he was watching Claire run through a sprinkler.

Candy!  At the 4th of July parade with Markus, Dani, Maximillin and Katharina.  :)

Henry is chilling on the boat with Daddy, Spencer, and Jeff in Okoboji!  :)

 

• Two top teeth and two bottom teeth.  His toothy grins are so cute!  He has only clamped down a few times while nursing, so I'll consider that a win.
• Drool - machine!  I wonder if he's getting more teeth.  It's a lot easier to just have him play in his diaper and wipe the drool off skin than to deal with wet onesies and bibs.  Can you tell this is our second? ;)  God was really thinking when he made skin waterproof!
• ONTHEGO!  Henry never stops moving!  We have to watch him super closely or before you know it he will be in the bathroom playing in the toilet water (yes, this did happen at Romber's...where's Henry?...moment of panic as I searched around the entire kitchen and hallway and living and dining rooms when he had JUST been in the hallway...laughs from Amber...found him!  playing in the toilet...you're very welcome Amber for grabbing your face with my wet hands when you picked me up!).  Seriously though, this kid is on the go.  Usually I try to put him down standing up next to something because he's slightly slower cruising along furniture than crawling.  Oh, and his crawling went from army crawling to up-on-the-knees crawling about a month ago.  At first during the transition it was this cute little scoot...scoot on one leg, knee forward with the other, scoot on one, knee forward with the other.  Adorable!
• Sleeping!  Much to my heart's dismay, we have been letting Henry cry to learn to put and keep himself asleep.  Before this, his routine was to nurse to sleep, stay in his crib a couple hours, wake up wondering where in the world his mama was when she was just here a second ago, then be comforted back to sleep nursing with mama in their bed, and snuggle with mama all night after that.  Believe me, it was the life!  (Go ahead and chastise me now, I know you're not SUPPOSE to sleep with your child. However, I'd like to record for future reference how it really was.  Also, go ahead and tell me everything else I'm not doing by the book.  ;)  Then I'll tell you that we do what works and thankyouverymuch but I don't want your opinion!  Hehe.)  Back to the point...Henry has been crying more the past two weeks than he has in his whole life and it breaks our hearts.  But, it was time.  We were doing what worked, but I was starting to sleep more deeply and didn't think it was safe for him to be with me anymore.  I think my body was telling me that I'm getting exhausted and needed that deep sleep after months without.  So we took the sleeping plunge!  Longer story now only long, he cried for almost two hours the first couple nights, but the last couple of days has been showing lots of improvement and we're finding again what works for us - nursing to sleep, waking up only a bit when transferred to crib, then staying in the crib and falling back to sleep alone upon little wakings.
• Claire speaks German and English to Henry, depending on what she's thinking at the time, I guess.  I just wanted to record that because the 'sibling language' is always interesting to me.  :)
• Henry is still just as happy as ever!  He kicks his legs a lot when he's excited - it's adorable!  About a month ago, I told him we were going outside to see the "Katzen" and he got really excited and starting kicking and wiggling in my arms!  I really think he is starting to understand a few words, in this case, cats!  He also has said "mamamama" when he wants me but is not consistent at all, so that may just be in my and Aunt Lori and Matt's heads (they heard it too!).

Swaledale Big Days...err, Day

Swaledale had a town festival this weekend - it consisted of a short parade and maid-rites in the park while enjoying the performance of dancers from a local kids' studio.  Claire really liked watching the little girls dance and even wanted to join them on 'stage!'  Ten and twenty years ago it was a big deal that spanned the weekend, or so I'm told.  Maybe young new families to the area can revive it - I'm thinking a 5K and bringing back the softball tournament.  We'll have to find those young families though...I don't know of any around here but us!

Daddy drove the John Deere G in the parade and threw lots of candy to the kiddos!  Claire, Henry and Mami enjoyed watching and getting lots of candy since all the people we were sitting by were 70 and older and they like to share the sweets that come their way!  ;)

The parade was entertaining!  I love how C and H are watching so intently!
(Local newspaper took this picture!)

Downward Dog

Henry has the cutest little downward dog yoga move.  He has been army crawling for weeks now, and the last week has been spending more and more time up on his hands and knees.  As he pushes himself up with his legs, trying to stand up, he looks like he's doing yoga.  It's the cutest little move (and I almost got a picture today)! Who knows, maybe he's doing it on purpose...I've been doing my sun salutations yoga every morning for about a month now!  Nothing like imitating mama! ;)

And in other news...Henry pulled himself up to standing once this week.  I set him in his crib sitting down while I made the bed, and he pulled himself up on the crib railing.  Although he's only almost gotten himself to sitting from laying down once, we think it's time to lower the mattress!

And one more thing...his upper tooth finally broke through a little today!  It's been causing him lots of pain, so we're happy it's through.  I forgot to blog about this when his bottom two teeth came in...for a couple weeks afterward he ran his tongue through his teeth and lips exploring those new sharp shapes in his mouth.  It was adorable the way he stuck his tongue out!  Then once he got used to them being there, he stopped.  I'm wondering if he'll do it again now that he has an upper tooth.  :)

What's the Difference?

Friends or family?  What's the difference?  We are so fortunate to have such close friends who we claim as family and to have great relationships with our actual families!

I thought I'd do a picture overhaul from the last month or so...most recent first.  Enjoy!  :)

Onkel Alex, Claire, and Omi at Onkel Willi's - Claire even got to

feed the fish oatmeal!

Family Time with Mandi and Traudi at Onkel Willi's - Claire is learning

about schnapps like a true German.  Here she is having "Kinderschnapps," which in

this case is cranberry juice.  Mom and I are enjoying the real thing...Raspberry

Schnapps with raspberries from Onkel Willi's garden.

Dessert in a glass!  :)

As promised...a picture of Henry's stunt move!  (Usually both feet are up on

his heels like his left heel in this picture.)  You try it!  It's harder than it looks! ;)

And Onkel Alex doesn't think he could babysit?

Henry loved the quality time he got with Alex and Jaclyn after Claire

went to bed.  Alex even sang a little Elvis for him and

tailored the words - what a composer!

I promise we were happier than this WHILE picking the strawberries.  Notice
Claire's mouth - she didn't do a whole lot of picking!  Grandpa D. loves spending time with Henry as he's so content just to be held.

I love the way these lovely kiddos are starting to interact more and more!

Claire really likes helping - I am seeing less jealousy and more big sister

'taking care of my brother' times.  Henry has tried oatmeal cereal, whole wheat

cereal, avocado, banana, sweet potatoes, and blueberries.  When I look at the

list, it looks a little fruit-heavy!  Let's get some vegetables into this boy's diet!

Claire being the big sister!  (Henry hoping she doesn't hold him much tighter!)

I pray that Claire and Henry grow up with a close relationship and actually

want to be friends when they're older!  I love that Alex and I are close in age,

support each other, and can talk a bout lots of important topics when we want to!

Our little men - Henry and Drew!  Eight days apart...are they

friends or cousins?  They will never know because we are not

giving them the choice of hanging out!  ;)

Stud muffin - Henry's driving the boat!

Twins?  I don't know, but they sure are Zooper Cute!

(I'm a dork!)  Luckily these two love each other so much!

Grandma, Claire, and Aunt Lori enjoying the Band Fest Parade...

Katie and Gabi were there too!

Napping in our room because Sage was in Claire's bed.  Aren't they perfect when

they're asleep?  :)  Make sure you find Henry in this picture.

Aunt Rita always has some sort of children's rhyme that I've never

heard before.  :)  Claire also had fun playing "Catch Johnny!" 

We love being able to host now that we're in town!  And there's my

handsome husband.  :)

I promise, Claire does smile when she's with Grandma and Grandpa D.

Here, we took them out for a picnic lunch for Grandma's birthday!  It's such

a blessing having four healthy generations to spend time as a family!

Happy Father's Day!

Three of the best dads around are pretty special to Claire, Henry, Matt and me.  Here are a few pictures of Matt, Dad/Opa, and Mark/Grandpa...

Claire and Henry really enjoy Grandpa's visits since moving to the farm.  Most days he's here working on something - even when there is nothing to do, he finds something!  That's why all his equipment is in such good shape.  He never stops and we admire his work ethic and appreciate his goofiness.  We are always up for a quick visit from Grandpa - 5 minutes and then it's "well, I'd better get back to work!"

We all love Daddy so much!  We are so fortunate and blessed to have such an involved father and husband.  Henry likes it when Daddy lays on the floor with him and plays.  Claire likes working on things with Daddy.  The other weekend she spent hours outside in the shed with him putting together the swing set!  When he was installing new parts on the shower at the old house, she went and got her little tool box and went to work with him!  :)

This picture makes me smile!  Opa has lots of talents and a wealth of knowledge.  Whenever we have a question about nature and the outdoors, animals, plants, or anything to do with building, we always know Opa will know the answer!  Now that Opa is retired, we like to visit him during the day.  He will always take a break from what he's doing to spend time with us.  Little did he know that he's good at holding sleeping babies, too.  Henry likes to cuddle with him and recently, Claire has enjoyed fishing with him on the pond.  Dad is always there to help when we need him, even if that means putting our projects before his at home!