Erik is one year old!

Erik had a lovely birthday party last Saturday! We spent the day at Wylie Park in Aberdeen (Sofia's idea) and made ice cream and toured Storybook Land. Here are pictures, for the family's pleasure!

Erik and the Rice Krispie creation that Gram sent from Iowa.



Making ice cream.


I think nearly every gift that Erik received had wheels! Well, he got a few books, too. And he knew just what to do with them -- push them across the floor and go "Brrr..."

And of course he got a tractor!


He's happy to walk holding onto someone's hands! And he's now taken a total of about five steps (on three different occasions), but he's yet to really take off. Any day now, though!

JULY 19 UPDATE: Painting! and more!

I'll admit this right up front: I'm getting impatient.

I don't so much mind during the times when either Dave or I is working out there, but during the times when Dave is at work and I don't have child care, I can just hear the unproductive seconds ticking by. The feeling is worse now that some of the rooms are starting to look habitable, I think. I'd really like to speed things up now that we're nearing completion! (Or we can at least see it from here. Maybe "nearing" is too optimistic.)

But we've had some dramatic progress in the last few weeks! The addition is painted, and the electrical finish work is all done in that room.

I tried to decide what color would be best for a laundry room, which is also the first room the family will enter most days, and went with green (or "Bahia Grass," as the paint chip says). It seems calming. (This picture was taken before Dave finished the outlet behind the chair, but you get the idea.)

So all that's left for that room is the trim and the floor. What I'd like for trim in that room is some barn wood—it would tie the room together, since the one wall we are leaving as is, with the old wall of the granary showing. We'll see if we can find something that works.

Sofia and Erik's room is also painted, off-white and yellow ("Queen Anne's Lace" and "Yukon Gold"). Mari (my sister, that is) came over on Thursday, having handed off three of her girls to the other grandma so she'd have time to help me paint. When we were finished, we held up the curtains that Mary (my mother-in-law) had made, with the mushrooms and gnomes on them. The effect is just darling! But I didn't get a photo then, so I don't have one to post. You can see the colors in the photo below, though.

This is what Dave accomplished on Saturday! We had enough of this old wood (given to us by a friend of the family, Eve) to cover one small wall. We were a little worried that we'd run short, but Dave selected pieces very carefully and had just enough. It looks very nice, I think! I'll have to think a little about how to finish it, though—how it would best harmonize with the rest of the wood in the house.

Sofia really wanted to help when Dave was making that wall, so she pounded a few nails.

The window that goes in that hole in the wall is also painted and ready to go! Well, ready to go once we figure out what hardware to put on it, as we want it to be able to be opened. The yellow side will face into Sofia and Erik's room; the side that faces the living room is off-white.

... Today, Dave did the sanding in the bathroom, then I touched it up with the drywall sponge (with Sofi's help—not sure that she exactly understood what we were trying to do, but she had a good time helping). Dave got another coat of mudding done in our bedroom in the afternoon, and then we switched places after supper and I got the bathroom primed. Priming always shows the imperfections in our mudding/sanding work, so I might go out and touch up a few places in the morning before I paint tomorrow.

So things are shaping up!

... We are in the height of berry season! The currant bushes are loaded. We've been able to put a number of containers into the freezer, and we've eaten some fresh as well.

Sofia is an eager berry picker, and lasts quite a while at it, but her pickings are generally pretty meager. Eating while she picks, perhaps!


No "perhaps" about it for this one! He downs every berry he can get his hands on.

JULY 6 UPDATE: Gotta love acceleration

We had a very productive holiday weekend! Don and Mary were here Friday through Sunday, so we got a fair amount of done while Nama and Grandpa took turns entertaining the children. Don and Dave also framed in the pantry door so that area could be drywalled, and Don sanded the granary window that will go in the wall between the living room and Sofi and Erik's room. (Painting that is next on my to-do list.) And then Doug, Mari and their whole crew came on Sunday, and while we girls (and Erik) had fun in the wading pool, Doug and Dave put in a hard afternoon's work in the new house.

We are getting really close to being able to paint! In some rooms, anyway. I mudded in the bathroom, and did touch-up work in the addition and Sofi and Erik's room. Doug finished what I had left in the bathroom, worked in the dining room, did some work in our bedroom, did some of the mudding in the kitchen, and then got to work sanding in the addition.

After seeing how fast he worked, I thought to myself, why didn't we get Doug to help us sooner?! Dave and I are dedicated, but (we both admit it) slow on this work. Doug had done this taping and texturing work for a couple months last year between jobs, and he's definitely got a knack for it. But then I remembered why we didn't ask them sooner -- they were finishing their own basement project, which needed to be done before baby Brie arrived in May. They've been a little busy.

In any case, the addition just needs a bit more sanding, then some vacuuming, I imagine, and we'd be ready to paint! Oh, how exciting.

Dave says yes, he was slow, but he was also learning how to do this while he was 15 feet in the air. True enough.

The little ladies (minus baby Brie, and plus Erik) had fun in the pool while the menfolk were working. I didn't realize how much fun that little puddle of water could be! Or that they could all fit in it with so little fighting.

There was a little splashing.

They treated us to a rendition of "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" (inspired by a sighting of a not-so-itsy-bitsy spider) from their pool stage (they are at the "out came the sun" part). Even Amara worked on playing along!

The girls went out berry picking after supper and found a treasure trove of them! Ah, those strawberries are so fragrant -- it's like filling the kitchen with perfume. The sweet scent of summer!

JULY? Already?

I'm really getting a case of summer guilt.

What is summer guilt, you ask? It's what I call that nagging, slightly panicky feeling that the glorious days of summer are slipping away, and I'm not appreciating them enough or making good enough use of them. There went another sunset, I noticed, and all I could give it was a quick glance out the kitchen window. The kitchen rugs need washing, a summer job, and it's already July, and when are we going to do it? And the weeds in the garden! I need several days just for that! (Panicky breathing here.)

OK, I'm calmer now.

This was one big difference I noticed when we were living in North Carolina -- I didn't see anyone having summer guilt there. (Or guilt of any kind, really. Perhaps this is a Midwestern, Scandinavian thing.) The whole pace of life seemed slower, and I think it had to do with the seasons. The summer was long, and a person was eased into summer with glorious days in the spring, and into winter with beautifully crisp days in the fall. There was plenty of time to tend to the garden (though the soil was poor, so there wasn't as much of a harvest), and take a walk in the woods or sit on the porch swing. Here, summer is short, and much of the year's recreation and work has to be crammed into just a few weeks. It's not a choice between work and play, like the tale of the ant and the grasshopper -- in these northern climates, we have to fiddle while we work, and work while we fiddle!

So all this was leading up to my excuse for not blogging a whole lot recently: We've been working and playing hard here lately!

... Finn Fest was last weekend, and I'd say in general it went quite well. I was busy before and during the festivities, as were most of the committee members. My biggest impression, as I watched how everything went, was that there needs to be more of us next year! The whole event would come off better if we in the community could have focused more on fewer tasks.

I haven't had a full report yet, but I'd say we had double the attendance of last year. I think in general attendees had a good time, from the comments that came back to me, anyway.

... "Miss" Finn 2009, a.k.a. our kind, helpful and knowledgeable neighbor Dale Groop, takes a bow as he receives his plate of Finn bread. Eight brave men participated in the event. I didn't see much of it, as Erik decided he wanted to explore the lunchroom more than watch the show.

Mari and I did sing the Finnish national anthem before Friday evening's program started. You wouldn't think that was such a big deal, but it took a fair amount of coordinating to get two moms free for two minutes!

... I wasn't sure if it was quite fair, since I had explained the rules of the boot toss, but the other ladies said it was OK if I took a turn, too. So there I am, with the boot in the air. Does my shot putting experience show? Well, I had a few good tosses, but I stepped over the line, so they didn't count. I should have practiced up before I started!

... All of the wife-carriers chose upside-down positions this year. The team on the left won (but not the wife's weight in beer, as would be traditional in the contest in Finland -- they got a coupon for a six-pack).

... The program on Sunday went well, in spite of some lack of organization on our part in putting it together. Hearing old-time music and old stories was appreciated by the crowd. And people seemed to really enjoy the kiisseli (Finnish berry fruit dessert) that I brought. And I had plenty left over for our family and Mari's!


... So we have had a chance to get outside a bit in the past few days. Erik's really taken to standing without holding on to anything (though in this picture he does have one hand on the stroller -- I couldn't catch him with his hands free). He's not feeling adventurous enough to take steps yet, though!


Erik's still not too sure if he likes the swing, but Sofi making faces at him helped for a while.

... Oh, and the house! Well, I've had child care help from two junior high girls for a month now, and since Finn Fest is over, I've finally gotten out to the house to do some more mudding and taping. It's coming along ... but boy, is this a tedious job. And I'm not very fast at it, which makes it even worse. Progress is progress, I guess, even if it is at a snail's pace.

... I just love this view! It really looks like it's our little house on the prairie from here.

Dave has been busy lately putting metal corners on all the drywall edges around windows. We decided to do drywall around the windows now, since that's faster and easier, and maybe later we can add wood trim if we like.

... We bought paint yesterday! That was exciting. Even if it was a little early. I still need to finish one more coat of mud in the addition, and then sand it, but then I think we can paint that room!

I'm also going to work on my interior windows this weekend. They need scraping, sanding and painting.

... We've got a new goal in mind: All the drywall work and painting DONE in July. Walt will be back in August, and we want to have all the grunt work out of the way so he can work his craftsmanship on things like our built-in drawers and shelves. I think we can do it, though there's a lot to be done ... two July days are already gone!

Uh-oh ... I think that summer guilt is creeping back again.

Storm photos

I'm a little late posting, since the storm was last week already, but I thought you all might be interested in the freaky clouds that passed over our house:

Here's the front rolling in.

These wispy clouds were roiling constantly as they came over the trees. (That's the one drawback to having a good windbreak -- it's tough to see the storm coming until it's right on you.)

See that spot in the middle? That was rotating. Some people a mile away saw a funnel form and drop down from the cloud briefly, but it didn't touch down.

The contrast in color in the clouds was quite dramatic.

I went back in after a few minutes, as did Dave -- then he ran out to the barn for something. He said the really bad-looking clouds had already passed, but they still look a little rough in this photo, which I took out the kitchen window.

... And after all that, it wasn't much of a storm. We got 0.4 inches of rain, a little bit of strong winds. Just an ordinary thunderstorm!

JUNE 14 UPDATE: Ah, summer

I just love barefoot weather! I used to spend as much of the summer as possible without shoes -- so much so that I could cross the gravel driveway without breaking my stride by July or August. I'm not quite that good anymore, but I still revel in being able to kick off my shoes whenever I feel like it.

... Walt left last Tuesday, after significantly speeding up our progress. There were just a few odds and ends of drywalling left to do then, and Dave's been working steadily since then, so that the "ends" are pretty much finished, with just a few "odds" to go. That does include the drywalling around the windows, though, which will take a bit of time. All in all, we all feel a little bit more optimistic around here now that we've had Walt back to lend a hand and give advice. Thanks, Walt!

... Here the workmen are, standing in the newly drywalled kitchen.

... We did notice one little goof as we looked over the newly drywalled linen closet area -- the light that was supposed to be in the little square walkway area between the bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom doors and the linen closet is instead directly over the linen closet. Since the closet is going to have shelves in it, the light isn't going to do much good where it is, except for giving all sorts of light to the top shelf! (The junction box for the fixture is in the center of the picture -- the light to the right is just a work light.) But Walt figured out a way to get this to work anyway -- we'll just have surface wiring out to where the light is supposed to be. I'm sure no one will notice.

... The kids and I got out to enjoy the weather this afternoon. Just beautiful -- not too hot, and just breezy enough to keep the bugs away. Erik enjoyed sitting in the grass ...

... and doing a little tasting. I was telling him, "Hey, Erik, look at the camera!" and he looked up and popped the grass he was holding right in his mouth. The kid will put anything in his mouth! We really do have to watch that. He's a totally different sort of child than Sofi in that respect. She rarely did that.

What a nice smile! (And see, all concerned relatives out there, I did get him into the shade after the above pictures were taken. Though I'm sure some of you are still concerned because he didn't have a hat. In life, some risks must be taken.)

Sofia had her own projects while we were out and about, including stunt jumping. (We tried many times till I got a good photo!)

Then we went to the new house, where she helped Daddy a bit.

She went out after supper and helped a bit more -- she handed him what he needed, and working together they got a light fixture installed. Sofia came running to the house, telling me I had to go see what they'd done! It was pretty impressive to flip the switch and get a pleasant glow in the bathroom. Let there be light!

JUNE 5 UPDATE: Walt's back! Now we're cookin'

Once again I've lagged in updating -- so much so that these pictures are going to look awfully impressive! At least the progress in them is -- the pictures themselves are not so great, since much of the progress itself was hidden by extra sheets of drywall. But without further ado, here's some of what Walt and Dave have accomplished this week, since Walt decided to spend a working vacation in South Dakota:

The little wall between the kitchen and dining room is drywalled in. (It's purpose is to keep you from seeing the mess on the stove when you sit down to eat.)

The little wall from another angle.

Kitchen's nearly done!

They finished up this later Thursday afternoon.

They also finished drywalling the back bedroom, and Walt has also done quite a bit of mudding.

Gary Peterson was here and started mudding the high part of the dining room, the part that requires scaffolding. And our water heater is now installed, and we've checked to make sure the plumbing works before it was covered with drywall.

Things are really starting to hum out there! I really love it when Walt visits -- I start to believe we might be able to move in eventually. And the best news: He'll be back in August to help with finish carpentry! Maybe he can even help us move in! Who knows! Optimism rules when the house is progressing like it is.

A couple photos just to up the cuteness factor:

Erik insists on feeding himself, which sometimes leads to food in his hair. Removing said food sometimes results in a bouffant.

Sofia wanted her picture taken, too. And that smile was well done!