The Wood Shed

This summer we decided to bite the bullet so to speak and build a woodshed.  We live in the frozen north, and consequently, we could spend a fortune on heating our house in the winter, like, to the tune of $4,000, and no, I'm not joking or stretching the truth.  Instead, we burn wood.  We have a nice system worked out, but we wanted to have a nicer way of splitting, stacking, storing, and drying our wood.  Husband came up with this MONSTER (see below)!  It can hold, at full capacity, 12 cords of split wood.  It is three stalls wide, so, we can store and dry lots of wood.  Additionally, it has a nice little fort area in the top for the boys who are allowed to climb up, #1 and #2.

All the boys (well three of them!) helped up build it, gotta start young!  We are nearly done with splitting all the wood we had for this summer.  Between the 5 cord delivery in May, and the 3 cords we cleared for the shed and around the property, we had a lot to get done.  We are this close!

Laughter

Evidently brothers are hilarious.  Well, I guess I already knew that, these boys laugh at and with each other a lot.  It's been fun to see all of them develop their own individual relationships with the youngest brother.  #1 especially has a special bond with him.

All of the boys adore each other, and I really couldn't ask for any thing more.

He Rides!

I'm not sure why I take such pleasure out of my kids riding bikes without training wheels, but I do!

Ahma bought a balance bike for him last summer and he LOVED it and did really well with it. He was able to get up to a high speed and then balance for a long distance.  We thought he'd be all about taking the training wheels off of the big boy bike right away, but alas he didn't want us to.  All summer we would gently prod and see if he'd like to try, but, he is our timid one, so he kept saying no.

Husband had to fix the chain yesterday and I "wink winked" that the training wheels would need to come off first.  #2 hesitated and said no, that he would fall, but we left them off and said that dad needed to get back to cutting wood.  Husband helped him once, and he crashed, it was a good crash, and he was mad.  But, once we stopped paying attention and encouraging him, he took it back up on his own, and SUCCESS!  Not going to lie, he's not as graceful as some, he takes after my sister Becky, but, he got the job done and today is doing great!

Kindergartener!

 

It's official, my oldest boy is all grown up, ready to fly to coup, find a girl, get settled down....okay, well, that may be a bit dramatic, but, we have a KINDERGARTENER!!!!  Last month we sent our oldest out into the wide, scary, exciting world with other kiddos to learn all he'll ever need to know about life.  I wasn't sad, I was excited for him.  Okay, a little sad, but for a completely different reason then I expected.

 

I am sad, not because he is growing up (he is), or because time is flying by too fast (it is), but because I don't get to watch him learn, watch him play, watch him make friends.  I have been home now for three and a half years, watching him everyday, all day.  I miss watching him.  I miss watching him learn, watching him play, watching him interacting with other kids.  I miss him at home.  I haven't gotten used to doing things without him, grocery shopping, play dates, lunch. 

 

So, maybe I am sad, sad that he is growing up and that time is flying by.