Our Stay-cation

Since my parents are here, Knut took the week off as it seemed like a slow time on the farm as well.

He’s been scraping and painting the summer kitchen (our little ‘shed’ by the driveway that actually used to be a summer kitchen for the original owners.  Now it’s houses the bikes and kids’ outside toys and garden stuff.)

Before that he fixed the chimney to the corn stove that needed some work.  Papa’s been helping.  He even got a ride on the lawn mower…for a few hours.

I showed my mom how to make yogurt last night.  She seems excited to try it when she gets home.  She likes to pack plain yogurt with frozen berries and Splenda to work every day and eats it at lunch.  Everyday.  (My mom is more of a health nut than me sometimes!)  She said with her busy schedule, it might be something homemade that she can do.

The men are planning on fishing tomorrow.

The kids are loving all the time they get to spend with Grammy and Papa.

The boys ride circles around the men as they work.  Knut took the 2 older ones on a long bike ride the other night.  It’s been a fun stay-cation.

Poor Solveig keeps getting her sleep interrupted and did not sleep well last night (thus, I did not sleep well last night) as a result of an “off” schedule I think.  I feel bad that she’s kind of forced to “roll with the punches.”  The life of the 4th child, I guess.  I think all the snuggles she’s getting from Grammy might be making up for it!

She crawled for the first time about 2 days ago.  Grammy and Silje were watching her, and Silje ran to get me.  By the time I got there, she was still crawling.  She’s not fast at it yet, and you can tell that she works so hard at it.  Actually, when you take into account that she’s working on a brand new skill, she has 2 teeth coming in, she’s been terribly constipated, and her schedule has been upset, she’s been a very, very happy baby.

Papa has been getting up early every morning and taking Lena on 3 mile long walks along the countryside.  It’s been good for Lena.  It’s been good for Papa.  Needless to say, she follows him everywhere.

Silje finally got into The Secret Garden and is reading every moment of her free time…as usual.  She keeps trying to get Grammy to give her clues as to how this mystery will turn out.  I never really thought of it as a mystery book, but Silje seems to think it’s a great mystery.

It’s been a great week so far, with still more fun (and more work) in store.