Rutabaga Dreams

“It seems to me that a critical ingredient which allows a home to be truly nurturing is the mother’s free choice to take on the role of homemaker. If she takes on that role in freedom, without any coercion from husband, partner, friends—or children—but out of her own self-knowledge of what she can and will do allied with the deep belief that this is the right course of action, then carrying a household can be a satisfying and deeply meaningful task. If the homemaker can infuse her home with her own warmth of soul, making it a refuge—a sanctuary, even—then both she and those who live in that home will flourish. Further, others who come into her home, be they relatives, friends, or neighbors, will be able to feel and experience it as a welcoming and nurturing place to be. If the homemaker or mother is the central figure upon which the strength of the home rests, then she needs to have taken up that role gladly, acknowledging it as a call of destiny.”

—Donna Simmons of Christopherus Homeschool Resources (via Melissa Wiley at The Lilting House

I don’t know what else to say then, yes, that’s it exactly. I want to be like that, and I want my home to be like that - I don’t think I’m there yet, but I sure hope I can be someday!

And speaking of Melissa Wiley, I thought this post was really, really funny.

Matt has posted some pictures of the property and some of our early floor plan thoughts on his blog. I thought I would offer a few comments of my own on the plans.

We haven’t placed any windows yet on the plan, but we’re planning on including lots of them. I know it is just a box, but boxes are cheaper and easier to build so we’re sticking with that general shape and planning on making it as nice of a box as we can. With some dormer windows and a porch on the front I think it will look less box-ish, and we’ll do something to the back as well (at some point, that is!). The mudroom is really less of a mudroom and more of a walk-in closet for the entry (or a cloakroom, as Matt called it this morning, although I like my name better). It really isn’t there so much to contain mud as it is to contain all the stuff that gets dumped in the entry when we enter the house. We’ll have a long bench with shoe storage underneath, pegs at different heights for jackets, cubbies for keys and other pocket detritus, and a shelf for purses and bags. We’re talking about having a dutch door to this area, and a pocket door between the cloakroom and the laundry room.

Let’s see, what other comments did I want to make. The big rectangle near the kitchen is actually the table, but we’re (err… I’m) not entirely sure that’s where I want it to reside. The size of the house has changed a bit and Matt drew some new plans this morning taking into account the lost space from the SIPs so the kitchen island is now a little funky… but we picked up a pantry next to the bathroom, so that’s a big plus. The fireplace (which will probably actually be some sort of propane stove for heat) will be probably on the south wall under the landing/loft area, so that area will turn into a nice cozy hearth room. I want to have a laundry shoot from the kid’s upstairs bathroom to the laundry room, since they are lined up so nicely. My step-grandparents had that at their old house and I just thought that was the coolest thing as a kid. And now as a Mom, I think it would be really nice to at least not have to carry all the dirty clothes downstairs. I fully expect that this will also be used for toys, cats, shoes, etc at times as well… just hopefully not for small children.

This is all very exciting, and definitely daunting! (ahem, excuse me while I fish a little boy out from under my desk. What is it with babies and cords??) Anyways… we’re still trying to figure out living arrangements while we’re building - I think at this point we’re leaning towards living in a trailer again, hopefully from next April or May until August or September. We hope to move into a signed-off but largely unfinished house next fall. It sounds like we can get an occupancy permit so long as the stairs and balcony areas are safe and the kitchen and bathrooms are done enough to be usable and safe. We’ll do a lot of finish work over the winter (and following summer and following winter and… I’m not sure we’ll ever be done, but I hope we’ll at least reach good stopping points occasionally!)

Hmm… the baby is back under the desk. For someone who doesn’t crawl or walk, he sure does get around!

Our little girl can be such a drama queen… this evening we were watching a movie together and when I paused the movie so that I could try and get Gregory to bed (again) I joked that it was time for Emma to go to bed too. She promptly curled up into a ball and gave a keening wail. Matt and I started laughing, and she looked up and said through her tears, “Oh, was that just a teasement?” Poor kid - she has such mean parents sometimes.

When it was finally time for her to go to bed, we got a repeat performance of the ball and wail, although this was even more over the top since she was just that much more tired. We tried to soothe her a bit by reminding her that we would finish the movie on another night, however she responded, “I know, but I just can’t bear it!” She repeated the “I just can’t bear it” refrain multiple times throughout the whole getting ready for bed endeavor e.g. “Emma, please go upstairs and get your pj’s on” “But I just can’t bear it!”

I think she has her pj’s on now - time for me to cuddle with this poor, tired, little teddy bear.

Over the summer Emma worked on an alphabet project. I printed out all the letter pages from this website and then Emma colored and cut it out the letters and then we taped them to the wall. We did anywhere from one to four letters a week, and each time she did a letter, she’d learn the letter sound and the letter name. Then we would review all the other letter names and sounds for the letters that were already up. Not only did it help her learn her letters, it also helped her improve her coloring ability and her dexerity with scissors. We both enjoyed the project, and it is neat to see it there on the wall.

As an aside, just to show how Matt and I look at our environment in different ways… last week Matt exclaimed, “Emma, good job!” as he came down the stairs. Emma and I both looked at him with puzzled expressions, as we weren’t sure what he was referring to. Seeing our faces, he said something about Emma having finished the alphabet. I laughed and explained that we had finished it over a week and a half ago! This is why I do have a few minor reservations about building a house with my husband… his ability to overlook the mundane can be quite remarkable at times!

You know how I mentioned that Emma’s really increased her level of creativity recently? We recently checked out a book called Zara’s Hats and after reading that a couple times Emma decided she had to make her own hat. I helped a bit with the overall shaping, but she chose all the materials, did the decorating, and did a lot of the taping and gluing.

Something else I forgot to mention about Gregory - he’s decided he really likes food now. We’ve been feeding him a few things ever since he was about six months, but he was never all that enthusiastic about it. About two weeks ago he finally got the hang of the whole chewing and swallowing thing, and now he wants to eat whenever he sees us eating. Here he is, enjoying some sweet potato. I love those messy baby pictures!

Wow, it has been awhile since I’ve written anything, hasn’t it. Hmm… well, sorry about that! We’re doing well here - busy dreaming about house plans, figuring our our plan of attack for getting on the land, and trying to keep the munchkins happy, clean, and fed. We’ve also be going through the house and garage, throwing away things, getting rid of stuff, and selling some things. I’ve sold a few things on Craig’s List, a bunch of books on Amazon Marketplace, and given away a few more things via FreeCycle. We also had a free e-waste day in town last weekend, so we got rid of a few things that we’ve had sitting around for ages. Next to my computer I have another whole stack of books to go through and list (if they’re worth anything, which so many books aren’t!). It will be so nice to not have to move all this stuff!

Things with the property are going well - we’ve been approved for the loan, and we’ve seen all the disclosures and reports except for one. We don’t expect any problems from the one remaining report - it is just being held back because a lot line adjustment hasn’t gotten final sign-off from the county. We’ll get the report once that’s done, which should be very soon. We’re going back up this weekend to take some pictures, spend some more time on the property, and to sign a whole whack of papers.

Emma and Gregory are keeping me really busy, perhaps even more so than before. Emma’s requiring a bit more focus and direction these days. Last week was a difficult one - I kept wanting to peer inside her head to see if her brain had somehow vacated the premises. She’s really taken quite a leap in her ability to imagine, think critically, and her physical coordination. Which is all well and good (and really neat to see) but it also means that she now wants to climb and jump off nearly everything in the house, and that she wants to do all sorts of complicated art and craft projects. She’s coming up with some amazing questions about what we’re reading and experiencing in the world, but she is really, really easily distracted from whatever task is set before her because she is constantly falling into some flight of fancy or another. All of which are really interesting and wonderful developmentally, but practically speaking can be rather frustrating at times! As Matt said last week, “I sometimes wonder if letting her listen to Anne of Green Gables was a bad influence on our daughter”.

Gregory has decided that he wants to be mobile - NOW!! He’s figured out how to scoot himself around on his bottom, and he’s beginning to army crawl (although it is more of a worm wiggle at the moment) as well. I can no longer put him down in a spot and expect him to be there a minute later. He doesn’t go far, but of course he heads straight for the electrical cords, Emma’s small toys, pieces of paper, etc. Baby toys have almost no interest anymore this this little boy! He’s trying to pull up on things too, and while he’s got a ways to go before he can do that, he’s really quite determined. He’s also having a harder time napping and such, because he keeps almost falling asleep then struggling up on his hands and knees and fussing. He has to be really, really, tired for him to pass out now, which generally means he only takes one nap a day. Sometimes he will pass out for a second nap in the late afternoon, which then means he doesn’t go to sleep until much later in the evening than usual.

So, yes, things are busy in this household! To top it off, I’m starting RCIA tonight (yes, all you Protestants out there can start praying that I’ll come to my senses :-P) which will be every Thursday from 7:30-9:30 until Pentecost. I rather wish there was some way to make this work with my family life better, but short of waiting until my youngest child is two or three years old (and really, I have no idea how long that’ll take!) I don’t think there’s any way around it. I’m glad that there’s such a strong educational program for joining the Catholic Church, and I think that the parish I’ll be doing this through is going to do a good job… but still, this is not going to be easy. (Although really, what easy things are really that important and/or worth doing?) If I didn’t feel that this is absolutely where God is leading me… I’m just very thankful that my husband is being as supportive as he is and that he’s willing to make it work.