So yeah....

The ants are gone. Thank goodness!

Edited to Add: In all my searching I never figured out where they came from. There were several dead ones under the bed, but after I started cleaning up, I didn't see any more alive. And there was no apparent "line of marching ants" from anywhere. Our best guess was that they came in on the dogs (I had seen a lot of the ants under the tree where the dogs like to sit), since the pups sleep on the floor in our room at night.

I did super cleaning in the room that day: washed all the bedding, lifted up the bedframe and vacuumed under the bed and did the little vacuum around all the floorboards. It was so weird, but we are grateful to have our bed to ourselves again. Oh wait, except for that pesky little toddler we share it with for a few hours each night :P He is such a bed hog!

If you hang in here with me, you get some randomness from time to time

Joe and I went to bed together last night, to do some reading and get to sleep early. As we were sitting there, an ant with wings was crawling across Joe's shoulder. I brushed it off and didn't think much of it. I had been seeing them around lately- a few around the house, but a lot outside.

Couple minutes later, we saw another. Then another. In the span of about 20 minutes, we must have seen 8 or 10, including one that bit Joe. Deeply perplexing. Window wasn't open. There are no visible cracks to the outside of the house. So why our bedroom? Very weird.

Decide to go to sleep, after killing a few more. As I am trying to fall asleep, one crawls up my neck (heebie-jeebies, seriously) and when I turn over, one crawled in my ear. I can't handle things that are crawling into my crevices, so I decide to sleep on the couch. Not bothered by a single one out there.

I came in at 5:30 to nurse Liam and when I wake up again one is crawling across my forehead. Joe got bit again last night. WHAT IS UP WITH THE FLYING, BITING ANTS!?

So after my shower, I stripped the bed, looking for any evidence of a place they were coming from. I am going to wash the blankets today. I turn over the mattress, lift up the box springs and look inside, nothing. I have nothing. There were a few dead ones under the bed, but no trail of live ones coming from someplace. Extremely vexing. I am going to do a good vacuuming and washing the bedding and pray that they go away. Darned ants.

So now that I have gotten that disturbing, yucky story out of the way, I'll tell you about the happy in our lives. I love homeschooling :) We started homeschooling out of necessity, but three weeks into it, I am surprised by how much I enjoy it. It gives a nice rhythm to our day, and I love seeing Issy learn new things, I love watching them play together and build community in a way I hadn't noticed before. They are each other's best playmates and friends and I am able to see the domestic church in action. It does this Mama's heart good.

I realize that there are struggles to be had and things won't always be peaches and roses, but for now I am basking in our "homeschooling honeymoon" :)

Busy Busy September

It has been crazy over here. Good crazy. At the end of August, my sister, her kids and my Dad visited. We began homeschooling the week after they left then Joe's brother, came to visit and now we are in a down week again before Joe's Mom visits. Hooray for visitors!

So here are some pictures from Michelle and Dad's visit:

First day of Homeschool!

I have a ton of updates I need to make, but I thought I would start here. Just a few pictures from our first day of school. We have some kinks to work out (mainly how to keep Liam occupied without distracting Issy) but it went fairly well. It is going to be an exciting year!

Terrific Two!

Despite my best efforts to stop him from growing and to keep him my baby forever, little Liam turned 2 yesterday. It has been a wonderful, challenging year. He has grown and changed so much! When he turned one, he wasn't even walking, now he is a running, climbing, talking, adventurous little boy. Every day is an exciting journey with Liam!

From this (at two days old, laying in the sun for his jaundice)

To this (on our last hike)

Cleaning up after I made his cake yesterday.

Playing outside with the neighbor kids yesterday afternoon. He really likes wearing Issy's bike helmet.

The Cake

Book and CD from Grammie and Grandpa (we read one of the books before bed and he actually sat still and loved it!)

Eating some of the delicious Chocolate Truffle Cake that Mommy made.

Playing with his stacking buckets and choo choo train from Mommy and Daddy.

All is quiet on the home front

The last couple of weeks have been relatively uneventful, but I thought I would update anyways :)

We are currently getting the house ready to welcome my sister Michelle, her two little ones and my Dad next weekend. We are very excited! Lots of cleaning- I thought I should clean the windows since almost all of them have grimy little handprints and it would be nice if our guests could see out the windows toward the mountain views. It has started to feel a little more fall-ish here, which puts me in a cleaning, fresh beginnings mood.

Unforunuately, our cleaning has been hampered by the fact that Liam is going on Day 4 of having a fever. He is pretty pathetic, mostly because he has been begging (seriously, begging) to go outside since Thursday. I broke down yesterday, but have steeled myself against his pleas since then until his fever breaks. No other visible symptoms, except the outside of his ears are red. I suspect an ear infection, because this is how they usually manifest themselves. I can't complain too much, though, since this is only the second ear infection he has had since the beginnning of the ear. We are just waiting it out, his body seems to be healing itself just fine with lots of nursing, water and quasi-rest.

Now he just needs to get all better in time for his birthday on Tuesday! I told Joe that since he took a long time to come out from start to finish that his birthday should be a three-day celebration, starting today. Little did I know, two years ago today at this time, that it would be another 39 hours until I got to hold my Liam. It was totally worth it :D

I am starting our homeschooling year after Labor Day and Issy and Isaac are very excited! I ordered most of their books last week and will be finishing up this week. As reluctant as I was last year to take this on, I am feeling good about it now. I feel much less overwhelmed than I did last fall, and I have had a pep talk from a good friend of mine who is a veteran homeschooling Mom (thanks, Kathleen!) Onward into our education adventure!

Speaking of education, after much thought and prayer and some more thought and prayer, I have decided to go ahead and start my midwifery education this upcoming Spring. If you don't keep up with my other blog, I have decided on Ancient Art Midwifery Institute. It is supposed to be a very challenging, intensive course. It is a 39 month program, self-study, although many people file extensions. I want to get the bulk of it done befort I seek an apprenticeship, so I can have the book knowledge under my belt. And so that we can further settle into life here, get to know the area better and the kids can grow up a little more. It will be good to have something to work on though!

Sorry no pictures this time :) Joe has been keeping up his blog though, so if you want pictures, the link is on the right of this page.

Our Sunday

It has been a while since we got the chance to go hiking as a family, but we ventured out in a different part of the forest than we usually hike in and it was an adventure!

While everyone was still clean and dry.

Very beautiful little spot. Shortly after this, things got interesting.

As Joe was taking the picture of this very interesting tree, the dogs ran ahead of us, as they usually do. I saw Kolbe run off the path and flop down in some dirt and start rolling around. As we walked by his spot, we discovered that it wasn't dirt he was rolling around in. Apparently, one of the cows that they have in the forest ate something that disagreed with her and she got, um.... loose stools. And Kolbe rolled thoroughly in her loose stool :P

Well, then we came to a little creek crossed our path. Isaac insisted that he wanted to walk across the logs by himself and it was maybe 8 inches deep at it's deepest, so we thought we'd let him go ahead. Well, you might imagine what happened next. He slipped off the log, and fell in. As he was trying to get his grip to get up, he dunked his head in the water. Mind you, Joe was holding his hand the whole time. He was sopping wet. And the path had really loose dirt, so then his shoes got all muddy.

Before we went home, we found larger creek to get the poo off of Kolbe (Joe got that unsavory job) and then we returned home. We all got showers and baths before Church!

Nope, i haven't given up blogging

.... I am teaching Vacation Bible School at our church this week and i am totally exhausted :P

I'll try to get back to blogging sometime this weekend/early next week!

My new hat!

I found the pattern on Ravelry and i had to knit it! Such a beautiful hat! It is mine, but it fits Issy nicely too, so she has requested one for this winter (only with some pink in it)

Issy eyes and some hiking

Issy and i took a little hike together a week ago. She did really well. I told her to tell me when to turn back. After we had been walking a while i asked her if she was ready and she told me no, because she wasn't tired yet. I told her she should tell me when she was half-tired, since we would have to walk all the way back. She said, "Well, i was half-tired in the car, but i feel awake now!"

The first two pics are ones i took of her and the other two are pictures she took of some flowers during one of our water breaks. It was great to just spend some girl time together, chatting and hanging out.

A family hike a couple of weeks ago. Joe had us going off path, through a stand of Aspen trees, and up the hill to a rock. It was quite an adventure!

Cause i know you have been holding your breath

I know you all have been eagerly awaiting a knitting update, so here it is. These top two are my unfinished objects that i am posting for accountability or i might never finish them. The top one is a sweater for an old co-worker of Joe's that he still chats with that had a baby in May. I have been done with it for a month, i just need to finish seaming the arms and armpits. And the bottom one is a Curly Purly soaker for Liam, which obviously just needs another leg cuff. My goal is to have them done in a week.

These two soakers i made for a friend of mine who is starting to cloth diaper. The top one was way too big, so i think i will sell it. The bottom one looks just right.

This is a Booga Bag, made with three skeins of Noro Kureyon yarn. It is knit and then felted. The bottom two are in progress and the top one is all felted and finished. I love it! The colors are beautiful.

Fourth of July

Sorry that this a little belated, i just now got a chance to put the pictures on the computer. We had a good day, lots of fun together as a family!

Liam was checking out what events were happening on the Fourth. He decided we should go to the parade.

All loaded in the car!

So sleepy, he couldn't stay awake for the 10 minute drive to the parade.

It was one of the most exciting things Liam has ever seen!

Caught some candy. Her and Isaac were very polite and shared well with the other kiddos around us.And for dinner, hot dogs over the fire and s'mores for a treat. Liam went to bed and Issy and Isaac got to stay up and watch some fireworks (there were a bunch going off at various places in the Valley). It was a good day!