Crazy Morning...Welcome to life on the Farm!

 A new place...a new blog :D.

Hyrum is sitting behind me, working on his seminary class.

Piper is upstairs doing hers.  

It's Hava's day to do the animals and Maia, as usual, is hand in hand with anyone doing the animals. Never mind that it is pre-Polar Wind time with an uncharacteristic amount of snow on the ground for the area.  The dog has to poop.  The cats need food.  The ducks need unfrozen water.  Fortunately we replaced our impromptu duck water trough yesterday since it broke under the stress of being daily emptied of frozen water.  

Yesterday, Hava took Lily and Liesl on a date!  I love it when they use their allowance for service :D.  First off, the older girls walked down the driveway to get to the van, which is just not equipped to make it up our slippery slope of snow in this weather and thus left parked at the barn.  On the way down they picked up little one, who had been out sledding and playing in the snow with Maia and Kujo, our energetic pup.

Baby in tow, they took the van to town, stopping at the store for some quick groceries, picking up the aforementioned tub for the duck water and then took a little tour of our local reservoir.

Penelope and Piper "hanging out" together.

Piper's Greek "pancakes"...she was disappointed in how flat they were until she learned that most countries "pancakes" are like "crepes" or "palacsintak."

Liesl's photograph of Hava:

Lily's selfie while doing a photo shoot with Hava:

I'm making breakfast and look up out the window to see Liesl astride her "dorsey." ("Dorsey"=Piper folded over from the waist down with Liesl astride her back.)  Shortly after, I jet down the hall to fill up a jug with hot water from the bathroom, saving the expense of drawing hot water all the way across the house, filling the pipes which so quickly cool afterward. (Can't wait for our new boiler to come!)

Hyrum is doing calisthenics behind me, jumping rope without a jump rope and using our beams as pull-up bars, careful to use the ends so they don't bow anymore and compromise the integrity of the beam.

Maia and Hava are still outside enjoying animals. Hava asked if she needed to come in to set the table yet, but I assured her that she was good for a while.  The pancakes are progressing a little slowly.  I hope to get to our game time early today so that we can enjoy some time with our two on the Wendy's crew before they go, but we'll see!  

Eli is in the shower after waking up to his bed-wetting alarm for the fourth time last night. Fortunately, he loves his long, warm showers every morning. After reading "Toilet Training without Tantrums" we bit the bullet and threw out all the diapers and pull-ups for him and Liesl and haven't looked back. Her transition to being potty-trained went remarkably well and I'd recommend the method to anyone...if you don't mind a child running around half-naked for a couple weeks.  Eli is taking a bit longer, being such a deep sleeper.  However, laundry every morning is less of a chore when embraced and anticipated and with the help of the alarm, he is wetting less and less even after two nights!  

I must confess I was hesitant to start using a bedwetting alarm.  The parent is supposed to help the child get fully awake when it goes off for the first two weeks.  That meant deliberately introducing another thing to wake up to at night to go with little Nell's nightly needs.  However, Eli is so ready to be able to sleep safely with others and so I want to encourage that.  He is such a dear boy.