Friday, December 23, 2011

It's the Little Things

It's the little things that get me all excited about progress in building our log house.  It's also the little things that make me suspect I'm losing my mind. 

But I digress. 

What I really want to know is:     is it wrong that when I hear familiar phrases this Advent and Christmas Season like the passage from Isaiah 9 that reads,

"The people walking in darkness have seen a great light"


I think of this?




I'm starting to put everything in the context of our log house build!!  

I would show you the actual lighted lights in the ceiling, but it's such a tall ceiling that it doesn't look like much yet.  Some day I will grace you with that lovely vision. 

This particular light switch is one that has dangled, unattached and un-usable by accident-prone folks like myself, for quite some time.  So, while the ceiling lights on our bedroom were technically wired up....  they weren't functionally so.  Until now!   Ta-da!   I do get excited by the little things. 

What?  You say you want more light-related images?  Sure.  I can oblige:


This poor little fella needs a handsome blue box too! 


 BabyM in action turning on (and off... and on... and off... and...) the main ceiling light over the living room and hallway as well as the ones in the upstairs ceiling.   

*Side note:  now that she's FIVE do you think I need a new name for BabyM?   AmazingM?  WildM?   The Girl?   LittleG is now The Boy; do I need continuity here? *

When we went up to the log house to stoke the fire at the beginning of the week, I discovered that several light switches were all attached and in their safe little blue homes and pounced with squeals of delight on them.  The Hubs is so terrible about downplaying the small steps toward occupancy that he makes every day! If it was up to him, I would have two blog posts:    here's a cleared lot and here's a completed log home.    Argh!    Details, man!     *sigh*    I'm minutae-girl and he's big-picture-boy.   It's a mixed marriage. 

But I digress.   Again.

So, despite the crazy unseasonable weather we're having here in the North Country (this morning's dusting of snow is only the third or fourth we've had so far!), I think this Christmas may be a very happy one for us.   After all, we have more lights. 

May you have a logarriffic Christmas, New Year, and generic secular holiday! 

Saturday, December 17, 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like....



....  a North Country winter. 

Especially considering that it has only snowed a couple of times this winter and that sorry excuse for snow has immediately melted away.   Definitely NOT like a North Country winter! 

But today was cold!  Snowy!   And so we headed up to the log house this morning to stoke the fire before the poor cold house froze up.  {As always, by "we" I mean Bob.  I am not good with fire.  Or splinters --  I mean wood.}  






And then we headed home for grilled cheese made with local Mcadam cheese and my father's homemade bread, and a marathon house- and tree-decorating afternoon.   Ta-da!  Now we're festive outside AND in!  

Of course, ask me how festive the snow makes me feel in March. 

And then cover your ears.


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

December

Sorry for the long gaps between posts, folks.   It's one of those tricky times when the house progress isn't particularly visually interesting or scintinllating to relate via blog...   so, while I can't offer pix of Bob firing up the wood boiler or shopping for single-piece shower units (riveting though those things are), I can demonstrate the ways in which The Husband has warped influenced our children. 

We visited some area museums the weekend before last as we were out and about doing Adventy-Christmas Prep things.   First we hit the Franklin County Historical & Museum Society's House of History annual Christmas Tea where The Boy cleaned out their bake sale.  Then we headed out to the Almanzo and Laura Ingalls Wilder Association's Wilder Homestead for their "Christmas With Almanzo event."  

BabyM and Grandma 



After The Boy and BabyM hit the cookies and cider again, they listened to all of 5 seconds of the chapter of Farmer Boy being read aloud in the farmhouse before heading back outside ... 


...to the small grove of maple trees.   Hello!  Farmer Boy!   circa 1840s farmhouse?    anyone?  

Nope.  Hey, look:  trees!   Snow Geese flying overhead!   A dusting of snow on the ground!    

*sigh*   This history-loving momma's plans were roundly ignored.    They didn't even care about the crafts.   Still, I shouldn't complain --  at least they didn't try to re-enact the throwing of the stove-black brush in Almanzo's parlor. 

D'oh!  Now I've given them ideas!