Take a picture. It lasts longer.

We had another house showing the other night and I couldn't pass up the chance to take a picture of how incredibly clean my kitchen looked. It's a rare sight, so I needed to soak it in...

Seriously, who wouldn't want to buy such a nice looking place, right ?? :)

Then, taking pictures of my kitchen turned into taking pictures of the kids.

If you thought Silas' blankie was bad before, you should see it now...

Every time I wash it, it comes out looking more and more like a giant knot of strings. But, obviously I have to keep washing the thing. It's the first item to get thrown up on and slobbered over. It's the most convenient facial tissue for the ever-running nose and it probably picks up more dirt off my floor than my mop... I have to tie it up in a pillow case when I put it in the dryer now, to avoid it getting tangled up in my dryer balls. Good thing for Silas, this blankie's texture has made for a super-duper fast drying time!

Not sure what to say about this picture. I'll let it speak for itself.

Erik bought me a new jacket on the weekend.

I've been eyeing this one for awhile (at Sport Chek) but really didn't expect to buy it. After going back a few times, trying it on, and still liking it, Erik told me I could get it :)

Now that I've worn it a few days, I've decided that I love it.

I love that it's long (and covers my longer shirts so they don't stick out all awkward at the bottom), that it has a hood (think rainy, windy BC winters), and that it's warm (warm enough for BC anyway!).

I'm really hoping we'll have some good news to share in the next week or so about selling our house. We have FOUR different couples/families coming this week to see it and possibly another repeat visitor. We're praying that an offer will come soon!

Blankie

Silas is a blankie baby.

Somewhere between 6 and 12 months old he adopted this soft blue Winnie-The-Pooh blanket that was one of Micah's baby blankets back in the day. I probably put it in his crib with him a few times and slowly it became a favourite.

And it was soft and cuddly when he first started using it. A chenille blanket, I think. When I see it in this picture (back in June) it actually still resembles it's original texture (though I was already thinking it was getting a bit threadbare at this point...)

But after a few hundred miles of snuggling in the van and a few throw-ups, food spills and many, many washings later, it was looking less and less like a soft chenille baby blanket and more like a collection of loosely woven strings.

The blanket tag is probably the most favourite part of blankie.

And when Silas is tired, he can be most commonly found holding the tiniest edge of blankie up to his nose - inhaling it like a sleep-inducing drug...

(The other blanket beside him in the last picture was the one I was hoping he would adopt as his favourite - the super-cute, not-falling-apart one.)

These days, blankie is becoming a permanent fixture - with Silas never leaving it too far out of reach. It's a little obsessive. And I do plan on implementing some blankie boundaries soon... But, did I mention that I've been a single mom for 3 weeks?

Yeah, blankie boundaries are not high on my priority list right now.

I'm just not sure what to do about the actual blanket. It's literally falling apart a little more each day. Strings get caught on toys as he drags it around the house. And Silas likes to help it along by poking his fingers and toes through holes in the fabric.

I would love to make it smaller - maybe cut it in half a couple of times and create a new edge, but I'm not sure it will survive blanket surgery. One person suggested putting a backing on one side, but I don't think that Silas would go for that.

And I thought Keziah's "deedee" was well worn.

This Winnie-The-Pooh blankie has sure seen better days...

Summer Plans

Life continues to move at a startling pace. Is it really June already?

Maybe it just hasn't felt like June because it's been raining here for about a month. I'm ready for some summer!

And speaking of summer, it has come to my attention that I neglected to mention the fact that we are spending the entire summer in Manitoba with my family. I was SO sure that I had mentioned it in this post, but apparently I didn't! So, yes - for those of you who don't know - we're leaving next week to spend the rest of June and all of July & August on my parents' farm. Erik is going to be doing some renovations on my parents' cabin as well as some other random jobs (we've been assured that there will not be any lack of work for him!). And the kids and I will enjoy the wide open space of a HUGE yard and a wide open schedule to connect with family and friends.

After last year's trip, we knew we wanted to make another road-trip through the prairies this summer. At Christmas, my parents started talking about us coming for an extended time so Erik could do some work there. And eventually it has evolved into us spending our entire summer there. We thought originally that we might sell our house before the summer so we could avoid mortgage payments on a house that we're not using! But selling just isn't feasible right now (a couple of mortgage payments are way cheaper than those realtor fees!) so we found ourselves wishing we would've planned ahead to find some renters.

But, apparently God can work with last-minute time frames :)

We made a connection last week with a fantastic missionary family who needs a place to rent until sometime in August when they leave on their next term. Um, could it have worked out any more perfectly??

So, now we're trying to tie up all sorts of loose ends here. Plus, we have to make our house "live-able" for another family, which means packing some things away and creating a bit of space in closets and cabinets for their things. It feels good, though, to know that our house won't be sitting empty.

Anyway, besides that, I have pictures to post! It's been much too long...

The days that the sun has happened to peek through those persistent clouds, we have maximized it! Keziah was enjoying her lunch outdoors the other day:

Silas is a professional crawler and I don't believe he aspires to do anything else at this point (i.e. standing up on 2 feet and walking). I've never had a crawler in the summer before and I'm being introduced to the dirty hands and calloused knees that come with this combination.

I'm not sure what elicited this look from Micah, but it is definitely consistent with his personality :)

Fun times with Daddy!

I dressed the boys in matching shirts for the first time a couple of weeks ago :)

We hung a swing in the garage last week for Silas to enjoy (for lack of a better place to hang it!). Swings are his absolute favourite thing these days and he will squeal and screech even if we just drive past the park! It's been great to have a place to stick him when the kids are riding their bikes outside or Erik is working. As you can see, it's also handy for getting baby boys to sleep when nothing else seems to be working...

This is Silas's special blankie. It was a baby gift for Micah several years ago and I brought it out of storage for Silas. It has quickly become his favourite. I bought him a different one in hopes that we could make a transition (since the current one is already thread-bare and see-through!), but I'm afraid the old, thin blanket still holds the key to his heart :)