3/4 done

In one week, I'll be 30 weeks along, and 3/4 of the way through my pregnancy! Only 2+ months to go!!!

Snow!!!

Two + feet of snow at the cabin means snow for Christmas, which was what we were hoping for!!! Yaaaay!

the Nap Shack

I've never seen the water this high before. There were several boathouses on the road in that were partially submerged. Same with several docks. That has to do some damage.

This area where the trees are is usually nowhere near the water. We keeps buckets down here with life jackets, etc, in them during summer. Last weekend when we were up, everything started to float away and Dennis had to go out in the canoe and haul everything back. I think he got everything, including the logs to our firepit, which you can see is now underwater.

Taylor doing some crafty thing to occupy herself.

We've been spending Friday nights at the cabin lately - it's been fun getting it stocked for living. We've bought most everything second hand, which has made it super cheap, and fun for me, as I like treasure hunting at thrift stores.

The outside still needs quite a bit of work, but we've done the structural stuff before the pretty stuff, so it will be next summer before we paint or update the outside.

This picture was taken in the kitchen. To the right are the windows and the lake. This door in the living room is the closest door to the outdoor bathroom.

Our dining "room".

Kimberly reading as she monitors nacho-making in the kitchen. The room beyond will be the kids' bunkroom. Someday we hope to have a real kitchen, but for now we make do quite nicely with our "new" used stove and our single countertop/cabinet.

You can see some of the structural work that's been done in this picture. The beams that support the cabin have all been replaced and the cabin levelled, although that has made some places in the inside look a little off-kilter. Luckily, this was done before the sheetrock, so we just sheetrocked over the quirkiness and you can't notice it unless you are sitting on the couch gazing at the walls for long periods of time. It gives it character. The guys also dug a trench and laid a pipe last weekend to channel some of the water that gives our cabin the ability to be called "a river runs through it". There is a little stream somewhere up the hill that makes a mud hole of our driveway come winter, spring, fall and anytime it rains in summer. It did help the drainage issue - laying gravel in the driveway is our next step. We also plan to build a deck around the cabin sides and back so we don't have to walk on water. It would make our shady area much more livable. We can also watch after the kids playing in the treehouse and woods behind our cabin better from a deck. Things to look forward to!

Firestarters

"Helping" dad start a fire on Friday night.

First Allowance

Explaining the facts of life: no worky means no money. She did get a few dollars, but much less than she could have earned. This week she is doing better.

Happy Girl

Look how big she is. This picture astounds me. She looks almost as tall as me. It brings me to the reality that in not-so-many years, she will probably be as tall or taller than me.

Thanks for voting in my "baby boy name poll".

Please keep voting and feel free to leave a name you like if you aren't going to use it for your family. I'm having a hard time with a boy name. I like Cooper the best, but haven't been able to get over all the things he could be called - "pooper Cooper", "poopy coopy", etc. Dennis said he thinks they'll just call him "Super Cooper". Yeaaaahh . . that sounds likely.

Bedtime

We've been having a super difficult time getting the kids to go to bed lately. We put them in bed at 8 p.m., and they are still awake at 9:30, 10 o'clock. Last night I got so fed up with it I came up with an artful parenting plan. (my old plan consisted of me yelling up in increasingly irritated tones "Kids, go to bed!!!!!")

Last night, after two hours of listening to them yuk it up in their bedroom when they were supposed to be asleep, I got up, went to the laundry room, grabbed a two-foot high pile of their laundry, and took it upstairs. I switched on the light, and said "I can tell you guys really aren't sleepy. There is so much to do around here, you might as well spend your time usefully, so put away this laundry. And clean the room when you are done. Then you can try going to sleep again. If you still aren't sleepy after the laundry and cleaning the room, I'll find you something else to do. I think we'll do this every night until you get tired, because it's obvious I am putting you to bed too early."

This evening at dinner as I reminded them that they had 30 more minutes until their old bedtime aka their new cleaning time, they looked at each other in trepidation. After several minutes of silence, Kimi finally asked, "Will you give us another try to go to sleep instead of working?" I replied, "Well, I'm not sure. You would have to be really quiet. I wouldn't want to hear any talking whatsoever, and no moving around that tells me you are playing quietly. If you think you can lie still and be absolutely quiet, I would be willing to let you try it." She assured me she thought she could do it. And so my lead instigator became my number one collaborator. She spent the last 20 minutes before bed reminding her sisters that they had to lay completely still and not talk!

The end result is that I spent two very quiet hours before my bedtime enjoying the peace. Amazing what a little artful thinking can do. It's so easy to continue to do the same things and continue to get results you don't like. And so easy to change your behaviour and get an amazing result. Yaaaayyy for me! One of my better parenting moments. :)