Woo! Have we had an incredible Fall. It's been rich and full and sunny. October has been full of reflection, laughter and getting to see our kids grow in new and exciting ways. Eowyn is singing, and acting and getting creative (Officially figuring out story telling!) and Elias is pulling himself up, scooting around furniture and stealing Eowyn's snacks. Sibling fighting has begun. He'll scream when she takes things, she doesn't like him tearing down her lego towers. It's all a wild ride.
Yet, there's a sweetness to their relationship. When we're waiting on the tram she'll lean over often and give him Eskimo kisses. I'll find them snuggling while watching good ol' Peppa, and every story that has a sister and brother always includes an exclamation by my girl, "It's ME! It's You, Elias!" No doubt, she and he are quite the pair.
We've gotten to take a few drives out in the country these past few weeks, which is always good for this girls heart. Also we're finding new food joints and good pinterest recipes as of late. These sort of discoveries are the nice kind of 'new' that we crave. After having so much change the past few seasons, to reach a season where we have routine and rest is really sweet. When our weekends aren't filled with things we HAVE to get done, adventuring comes easy.
We have some exciting things coming up as well. This weekend we get to celebrate Ben's BIG THIRTIETH BIRTHDAY! We're stoked. Being the big deal that it is, we've turned the celebrations into a week long affair. We've got his birthday bash, then on the day of his birth we're hoping on a plane for Denmark! Legoland + a roadtrip through Denmark + a sweet end in Copenhagen= A pretty great celebration indeed. In a few weeks, I'm sure we'll be posting pictures.
Our lives are slowing down enough for us to have a little bit of margin time to enjoy our hobbies more as well. I had a nice shipment of felt and yarn this week, and have LOVED bringing out my needles again (it's been over a year!) We're watching favorite t.v. shows, taking time for a bit of adventure...
It's a really sweet spot.
There's still overtime for Ben, as there always seems to be, but we're figuring out how to make those looong days go by a bit quicker. We're catching lunch with him during the week (we found a chinese buffet that has some soup that Eowyn will eat, literally, three bowls of.) and we have sweet friends that we get to visit with. We walk to go grocery shopping, (and buy kinder chocolate eggs for the little miss,) go on mini adventures to the post office, parks etc. and we're making it through.
It's getting darker again. Which has its positives and negatives. Positive: the kidlets sometimes sleep in on weekends because the sun isn't beaming in the window. Negatives: we live most of our mornings in the dark and then when the sun is highest, it's nap time. Womp. But, what will be, will be.
We've started doing "school time" in the mornings during Elias' nap. This basically looks like some craft/ activity to do together. I found some neat usbourne activity books online that Eowyn has LOVED. It's nice living in a country that pushes play over any type of curriculum style schooling, so I really have no intention of making her the smartest bee in the hive, but I'm learning that the way I like to 'play' has a bit of structure to it. So, the one-one-one mornings seem to hit a sweet spot for the both of us.
Overall, life is starting to look familiar. Sprinkled with adventure. Filled with a lot of laughter. Eowyn has just encountered the joy of bathroom jokes...so you know it's a riot around here (while we try to stifle laughs and teach her appropriate times and places for such things.) We're working on developing her humour a bit. Not too much, but a bit.
The Spragues are doing what they always aim to do: finding reason to celebrate.
“And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me.”