Sterling worked in South Dakota with my Dad on pallets, tearing them apart and making things. He came home with quite a bit of wood, and has gotten more pallets here. He set up extension cords to power his own little portion of the barn, was given a couple sanders from Grandpa, borrowed a jigsaw […]

Stellan had a supervisory role in the building of Dad’s chicken coop.  I bought myself a new sticker for my van. I rather love it. And I had to drive all over town and stopped at three stores before I finally found a South Dakota sticker. South Dakotans don’t care to spread the news. They […]

South Dakota has been a blast for the kids this year. Croquet tournaments… Windy days… Providing a different use for the hammocks… And swimming in the local lake… We have three days left. Monday morning we head back to Missouri.  

We’ve been in South Dakota for a week now. Croquet, jumping on the trampoline, bicycles, dominoes, and Rummikub are the things that fill our days. We built pallet wood trays… as in, I sanded and picked wood and cut it and Dad did the rest. I tried. Goal: to get good with power tools. One […]

He’s dedicated to his babysitting-for-Elliot doll watching duties. Or he’s learned to nap when the baby naps. Or he’s beginning to understand how I feel with this parenting gig. Take your pick. Actually, he might be on to something I haven’t learned yet. Lay on the baby and you can get a quick nap while […]

If the half gallon jar of sourdough starter gets capped too soon, this is the end result. Now you know. (But the pancakes were delicious.)

We’re getting ready to go to South Dakota. Blaine will stay home for work… and jury duty!… while the kids and I head north for two weeks. We leave Monday. Of course, I got a chest cold, then Liberty woke up and got sick in the night and now Stellan is threatening pink eye. Feels […]

Miss Liberty Skye turned fifteen this week. We spent a good chunk of her birthday in the DMV making history as she took her written test to get her driving permit. She passed on the first try and walked away thrilled with the new privilege. I let her drive my big 12 passenger van the […]

Blaine celebrated his birthday this last week. Or rather, we celebrated Blaine. I’m not sure he was thrilled at being yet another year older. But Eden busied herself all day making apple pies, and Ruby managed to crowd just enough candles onto one pie. The new ones happened to be mostly pink and purple but […]