St. Valentine's Eve

This morning is so quiet. Yarrow has gone off to work with Seth, she likes helping him build..she loves mixing the mud and wiping stone and sweeping up. She especially loves dry-wall. I love the beautiful, bonding time she gets to spend with her daddy; and I love the skills she's picking up, and the sense of competency she's gaining. She comes home so very proud of the sanding she's done, or the painting, or the dry-wall patch.

Tonight though, she'll be spending the night at her grandparents..she's been looking forward to a night away, and we're pretty excited about it as well. Especially as she's insisted on bringing Luba. I'm not sure if Yarrow's grandmother will let Luba spend the night, she didn't like the idea when I mentioned it, but an eager little face, asking "Yes please can Baba spend the night with me too, please!" is hard to resist. 

Seth and I are planning to get out for the night. It's supposed to be -11, again, and we've got a couple big storms coming along next week (actually, tomorrow night). So it'd be nice to over-indulge a bit in a hotel room, hot showers, and electricity..and, you know, parental downtime. These storms have been draining for Yarrow as well. She wants desperately to be out and about in them, she loves the snow, but the wind and the cold, cold temperatures keep her venturings out to a minimum.

We're excited about the end of winter! A part from melting snow, warm weather, planting, and general happiness - a tiny plot of land on our road might end up being for sale. If it is, Yarrow's Bushia and Dzia-dzia might scoop it up. I can just imagine Yarrow wandering over for the day, dragging her beloved Luba along, and delighting in the excessive attention. And we, of course, would love their for-certain support in the 'battle of the road'. But everything is uncertain right now, so we're keeping our hopes all hushed up..kind of, in an 'over-sharing-online' sort of way. I can just imagine Yarrow's face though, hearing that Bushia and Dzia-dzia will be right next door. And can come up and stay in the winters as well as summers..without the whole 'can they make it up the hill while visiting' worry. This year we had a last minute (and probably ideally timed) January visit with them. It was horribly cold, but also pretty much the only week between freezing rain, snow storms, and general winter misery. Because the last thing I want to do is say, "Guess what Yarrow, Bushia and Dzia-dzia are here, but you'll just have to settle for calling them because we can't get out, again." That wouldn't go over well at all. 

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Anyway, keep us in your prayers! The midwives come today for our home-visit. We're so excited to be planning a birth in the coziness of our own home. To have no where to go and nothing to do for the first few days after welcoming our baby.