late night check in

+Well, if you checked my cupboards right now you'd say, "looks pretty tidy." But if you looked at my counter tops, floors and general upkeep of my house you might be skeptical that any cleaning is actually being done in this house. As my mom always said growing up, "a room always gets messier before it gets clean." And it's true. Even with three carloads of donations to goodwill I still have a lot of stuff and it tends to be all over my house at the moment. Baby steps.

+Our house has the sweet aroma of maple syrup this week. I'm becoming quite fond of this time of year for the smells. The evaporator fills our whole farm with the smell of bonfire, and the final syrup, brought inside to reduce, is awesome aromatherapy. Sap season is officially done. We collected a haul during the last snowfall and the next day Rory came in and said, "Sap is buddy. That's a wrap." It's pretty marvelous. When the tree needs the sap for it own leaves and development, the sap turns bitter and is no longer tasty. I love God's created order. There is a time we get to benefit from the sap flow, and then that time ends and the sap is just for the tree.

+I ordered my first Stitch Fix. It came and I liked everything in my box. They now do maternity fixes and after a frustrating shopping trip with Rory looking for maternity clothes, and decided to give it a shot. I am keeping two items and returning three mostly because they just didn't fit right. I have this ever growing body, and clothes are just awkward right now. But I'm going to continue with this shopping service. The online style assessment was intensive and if you don't like anything, you ship it all back (within THREE days! Annika caught this for me, after SEVEN days...but I think I'm in the clear) and they just charge the $22 styling fee. You pick the price ranges, you pick your style, they pick your clothes, you pick the ones you keep. I love it. And if you give it a try, use my referral code and I'll get $25 towards my next fix and then I'll blow you kisses through my computer. Referral code: 4879592

+I had a whole post ready to go up on potty training, but at the last minute decided not to post it for a few reasons. First, every kid is different and I know a lot of parents who are working hard and gaining little ground in this area. It's discouraging and I didn't know if a post of a success story would actually be that encouraging. Second, I have a friend who said her first two trained with no problem and then her third came and gave her a run for her money. I'm sort of waiting for that to happen. Third, the 3-day-method is out there and easy to find information on. We went cold turkey...no overnight diapers or training diapers. And it took just a week to figure that out. We are grateful. And finally, this was one of the first times when I thought, "I bet this personal story of my daughter doesn't need to be on the internet." I usually insert myself into the stories I tell...and when I did this I thought, "thank God my potty training struggles and triumphs isn't searchable!" Ha! What a hilarious and terrible thought! (Even if it was successful...I don't even know. I've never asked about my own training...) So that's my two cents. I'm happy to share tips and tricks (I have a few) through email or one-on-one.

+The chicks that we hatched from eggs are no longer chicks. They are chickens. But they are still living in our downstairs bathroom because it is too cold to put them outside and it is too early to introduce them to the bigger chickens. When Rory started incubating those eggs he reassured me, "Oh, this is just a trial run. I don't think I'll be successful until I have a bit more trial and error." But he was successful and now we have two large birds in our bathroom to keep guests company while they use our facilities.

+Rory taught a class on Saturday morning on "How to start your own business." I am a part of an online forum for area home school parents. We haven't fully decided if we are going to go this route, so I've been attending their meetings and keeping tabs on their forum and learning so much along the way. Anyway, in this forum (a few months ago) a mom said her 14-year-old son was antsy and looking for something to do during these long winter days. I read her post to Rory and he said, "he needs to start a business." Rory is so matter-of-fact like that. So I told him he should offer a workshop to this group and the response was awesome. He had all ages show up and did a really nice job explaining all the types of businesses and how to think through its viability and the bones of writing out a business plan.

+I sold a lot of stuff this week on our local facebook online garage sale. It meant I was logged into facebook all week long (usually I just pick one night a weekend to log in) and man, I cannot believe how much of my life is sucked away by that site. I just can't be on it indefinitely because it is such a distraction for me! The once a week, just one night thing is the best solution for me. Rory still has my password...I can't log in myself. And after a full week back on, I was happy to log out tonight.

+Along those lines. I sold a kitchen chopper for $15 and told the woman who purchased it that I would meet her at the cupcake shop in town to make the swap. So I brought the kids, swapped the chopper for cash and proceeded to use five of those dollars to buy two cupcakes for the kids. Then we walked down to the bagel shop and I got a bagel with cream cheese for three dollars. And there was something so educational about trading a tangible item for cash and then trading that cash for food that will exit our systems in the next day. Felt very wasteful. Rory was glad I learned this lesson, but then I had to defend myself that I also was supporting two businesses that I adore on our main street and I would be very sad if our cupcake shop every closed!

+I need Lent. I love Lent. I love the somber, holy feeling of these forty days, going to services on Wednesday nights and feeling fully prepared mentally for holy week and finally the overwhelming gift that is Resurrection Sunday. Our church has an Ash Wednesday service, but for this season, I need to find a church that has Wednesday night Lenten services too. It's funny, because I remember in my childhood thinking those services were kind of slow and quiet and sleepy. The music was somber and the sermons deeply reflective of why Jesus came in the first place and why he had to die. Now I crave those sleepy services. They were dark, cozy, quiet and candle lit. Anyway, I'm writing this mostly as a reminder to myself to find a traditional Lutheran church next Lent and then go. The fact that tomorrow is Palm Sunday is crazy to me. I don't feel like I've properly prepared my heart for the start of holy week.

+It's 11:43 on Saturday night and I just felt like writing. If you're still reading, you are very kind. It seems I had much on my mind tonight. Fun to have a space for a brain dump.

Joyfully,
Becca