Life lately, mid-winter 2023

The last several weeks have been a lot of regular life things, overall. Little happinesses sprinkled into everyday life. The boys are always doing new things, and that feels like a privilege to witness.

Coop loves using words like especially, actually, and eventually, and just generally makes us laugh with the things he comes up with. Lots of talk about oil changes and having his own sandblaster one day "When he's bigger." I just introduced him to watercolor paints, and he now loves to paint. He loves to play with Legos and his train sets, and his tiles. He tells us jokes and loves to snuggle, enjoys a good puzzle, and plays us Anberlin and Reliant K, our church band's CD, and and a Christmas CD on repeat on his CD player. And he loves a photo album I made for him with pictures of his family and little friends.

Finn is ten months! As everyone always says, time flies. He is standing up all the time, pulling up on things, but also just standing up in the middle of the floor, usually while happy yelling to get our attention. He loves food, including beef liver, eggs, chicken, turkey, ground beef, apples, blueberries, strawberries, and raw cheese. He loves to play peek-a-boo, and loves when we crawl after him and chase him. He adores Cooper and will always dance if someone plays music. One of his favorite things is to sit in the middle of the floor while Cooper puts on a CD and dances in circles around Finn. He loves to sleep on me, but he is spending some time in his crib in the evenings lately (he does well, and I'm enjoying free-er hands for a bit after the boys are asleep). I love his easy giggle and the way his hair is so messy after a nap or a bath. He is such a joy.

Some other little life happenings:

We went on a little day trip to South Bend. Nicholas needed to do a store pickup for a computer part, and we decided to stop at Trader Joe's and a local coffee shop. The boys did great in the car both ways, and I was able to knit on the drive, and it was an all around sweet day.

One thing Cooper asks for a lot these days (apart from wanting to go to the beach everyday) is to say, "I want to do something I've [n]ever done before." On one such day, I suggested something we have done several times, but hadn't done in awhile – a walk on a local trail we love. We haven't had much snow at all this year, but on this particular day, huge, fluffy flakes fell, and we had to stop and examine them. We brought the wagon along for our classic, "cozy hike."

The snowflakes stuck long enough for me to see each of their intricacies. How beautiful they were!

On a particularly mild day, I brought out our favorite outside quilt to the backyard and sat down with my knitting while Cooper wandered around the yard, digging in the mud with sticks, and Finn excitedly crawled all over, socks falling off, both of them playing in the garden dirt eventually and having the best time.

My godmother, Julie gave me a cookie press, which is something I've always wanted to own, but I haven't tried one in years (decades)? After some trial and error, we got the hang of it and used my recipe for almond drizzle cookies (no drizzle, and subbed in vanilla for the almond) and it worked wonderfully! They were so fun to make with Cooper while Finn napped and we naturally enjoyed eating them too. Cooper chose the shapes – a little bit of everything. ;)

Nicholas has a birthday coming up, so we are looking forward to that, and my mom's birthday was this month too.

I've been wrapping up some projects that I'll share in my next creativity check. I started a new women's bible study at our church that I'm very excited about (on 1, 2, and 3 John). And other than that, I'm spending my time being mama and wife, embracing hat season, holding babies, making meals, washing and folding lots of laundry, keeping our home, and looking for joy in the everyday.