Erik is 2 (finally!)

Technically, Erik has been 2 since July 28. But since we didn't really celebrate it -- we had planned the party for what eventually became the day of Dad's prayer service -- he's been kind of hanging in limbo for nearly a month now. We had decided to wait until Don and Mary came back to have the party, which is why it went so long. But it all worked out in the end! I think it was a very nice party, even if not everything worked out as planned.

When we had Erik pose with his cake, for example -- Erik made one effort to blow out his candles, but he was too far away, so we moved the cake closer. that was the wrong thing to do. Erik was scared of the flames; he had to hauled out of his chair and calm down and eat his cake until after everyone else already had theirs!

You'll notice the hat: He wore that thing nearly all day. Don gave it to him, and Erik immediately became attached to it!

I was fairly proud of getting his name to show up in jelly beans! (This photo was taken before the gummy frogs were added.)


The birthday Rice Krispie cake made it from Gram in Iowa in fine form! The gel frosting ran just a bit, but we could still make out "Erik 2 -- Happy Birthday" on it.

We had intended to have home-cranked ice cream, but the project failed -- we suspect that using canning and pickling salt is not an adequate substitute for rock salt. Oh, well -- we figured out that we could make a passable substitute by putting the mix in the freezer and stirring occasionally!

Lunch included applesauce from our own apple tree -- and a frog mysteriously appeared in it before the meal. Various suspects were accused of putting it there, but the culprit did not confess.

One of Erik's presents was a T-ball stand, and balls to go with it. We already had a bat. It was a hit! He played with that for a long time.


He even occasionally let Amara have a swing! (We'll work on sharing happily later.)


The playhouse was, of course, a hit with the kids again.


It's another version of a little house on the prairie! You can really see that in these photos, I think.

I like the grain bin at center stage in this one.

The girls have decided the playhouse should be called the "Fun House." Because, as Sofi explained to me, it's a house, and it's also fun. That works! We had planned to paint in the playhouse today -- I'd gotten samples of some fun colors so the kids could paint on the inside walls -- but it was so hot we decided not to start that project.

All of these photos, by the way, are by Mary! Thanks, Nama!

Playhouse picture album

Well, we got bored after building this house and decided we needed to build another one.

This is the playhouse in its current state! Actually, Dave got the trim around the windows done today, but I didn't have the camera out -- but this is pretty close to its current state.

The playhouse, which was intended to be finished for Erik's birthday but didn't quite make it (though we haven't actually celebrated Erik's birthday yet -- we're waiting for Nama and Grandpa to come back for the party), sits on a platform five feet off the ground. The platform is 6 x 8; the playhouse takes up 5 x 6 of that, and the rest is taken up by a covered porch. There's a ramp to go in on the north side of the porch (grownups find this a little tricky; the kids scramble up and down likes it's nothing) and a slide going down the east side.

I think it's a hit! The cousins have been over many times as this was being built -- they've had all sorts of scenarios going on over there. Playing house, of course, but once there was a slave camp, once there was a ship -- and they do a lot of cooking with dirt, water and weeds. We've had to do a bath every night since the playhouse was up, but I guess that's OK!

Here it is in process:

Don and Mary were here for the initial stages -- plotting out where it would go.

Actually, figuring out where it would go was a really time-consuming part of the process. We thought about putting it over by where the swingset is, south of the old farmhouse -- but then I couldn't send the kids out to play and still watch them from the window. Right in front of our big windows was too much in the way of cars; to the east of the house is the driveway to the tractor shed; to the north there is not a clear view except from bedroom windows, and the mosquitoes are worse back there closer to the slough; and to the west of the house is taken up by berry bushes. I mentioned that the best spot for it was really east of the sauna -- right where that hideous eyesore of a junk pile was. I wasn't sure Dave would take me seriously, since I had mentioned wanting that junk pile moved before and he might have thought this was just a ploy for that -- but then he thought for a moment and agreed with me! So now the junk pile is half gone (there's still some clearing to do to the south) and there's a playhouse in its place.

It was really hard to keep the kids from climbing the ladder while the house was in progress! That was a motivating factor to get it done quickly.

This photo was taken from our dining room windows -- see what a good view I have of the playhouse from there?

It actually came together in about a month's time.

Here they are, playing happily!

Though we still have painting to do -- Sofi REALLY wanted to paint today, but there was just a little too much of a chance of rain. And it's a good thing we didn't paint! We only had about 10 minutes of rain, but it was a downpour. Our paint would have washed half off.

The playhouse will be -- guess what colors? Red and white, of course! Like any good little Finnish house. I also bought a variety of little sample jars -- the five kids (Briella's a little too young) can work on painting the inside however they like.

Here is a smorgasbord of other photos of life in the last few weeks:

The garden is going gangbusters -- even if we lost the war with the weeds when we left on vacation, and then had a time of mourning when all sorts of things seemed less important. Mari actually picked all those green beans in the middle of the day during some nearly intolerable heat and humidity.

Mari and the girls came out for three days when Doug was on a trip -- one day happened to be Amara's birthday (Aug. 8) so we had an impromptu party for her. The actual party is this weekend.

The two littlest cousins seemed to enjoy this story by Mummu!

Sometimes they play together quite well. Other times they fight over toys -- but that's part of the whole learning process, I guess.


We also had the girls do some modeling -- Mom had made some hats that have been languishing for months without being posted to her Etsy store, and Betty also had some brooches that needed modeling. The girls seemed happy to oblige! Even Erik wore a hat for the occasion.

This summer is living up to the hot summers of my childhood memories. The wading pool has been out quite often. This was a splashing contest with the cousins.

Having Dave climb up on rooftops has been a theme around here lately. He helped install a new antenna on Mom's roof -- her TV service was discontinued, so she went back to plain-old TV. Sometimes it works well and she gets four channels; sometimes she only gets one, or none at all. We haven't figured out the pattern yet.

Summer is rushing by! Sofia starts preschool Sept. 9 -- that's just three weeks away!

So much to say ...

I've been gone for a while. Most of you who know me also know why: Dad passed away on July 19. Even as his health had been failing for months, the end still came more suddenly than we were ready for. I brought him books to read on Wednesday; he started reading one as soon as I left that evening. I returned them to the library the following Tuesday, all but one of them unread.

If you'd like to read his obituary, you can find it here. I was pleased with how well it turned out (and, as an editor, that everything was spelled correctly).

I'm not going to dwell on it too much here, but I will give a few things that I've learned in the last few weeks:

• "A heavy heart" is not just a metaphor -- somehow it did actually feel like there was an extra weight on my chest for a few days.
  
• No matter how old you are, or how old a parent is, you still feel like an orphan when a parent dies.
• It does no good to dwell on regrets at a time like this -- we were all doing the best we could, and Dad knew that -- but I do know that if I had read this article in the New Yorker two months ago, I would have made different decisions in the last week of Dad's life. (I urge everyone who sees a time coming when they will have to make end-of-life decisions in the future -- which is, of course, all of us -- to read this article.)
• The memories that make you laugh are the ones that keep you going -- like those of our trip to the Black Hills during Sturgis week, when there were no hotel rooms to be had and Dad ended up sleeping on a picnic table.
  
• You learn how many friends you truly have at a time like this -- and for us, thankfully, the number was more than we realized.

I was really moved by the words to a song that Dad played often on his harmonica -- I'd heard them sung before, perhaps, but hadn't paid attention to them until we translated them for the funeral service program. Here they are; may they bring you as much peace as they did to me.


Kiitos, Sulle, Jumalani
Thank You, My God

Thank you, my God, for the grace in all things
that I have known throughout my life.
Thank you for the bright spring days
as well as the gloomy days of autumn.

Thank you that many, many of my prayers have been answered.
Thank you also that other requests were not answered.
Thank you that in my distress I have received help through you.
Thank you that my sins are forgiven by your Son.

Thank you for every moment of my lifetime.
Thank you for sunshine as well as darkness.
Thank you for the struggles, even for the crosses to bear for my Lord.
Thank you that you remember me always and help me in my pain.

Thank you for the flowers that were blooming along my paths.
Thank you also for the thistles that cut me.
Thank you, that your will is to give me eternal life.
In all things, O Lord, I will give you praise forever.