Bird's Room -- week two

Avabird's room is now shaping up. You can see how it went from a big den to a bedroom. Brant, ever the handy man, framed up and wired everything last week. Fishing wires is so tricky and time consuming. The kids were having a hard time understanding all the work Dad was putting in and yet no real change was being made. Change was occuring, but wiring doesn't really "show". As soon as the drywall went up, the whole thing started to come together for them.


A cool aspect of Ava's new room, is that it created a hall space that wasn't there previously. This new space will be home to some built in shelves. Shelves are always most welcome in my mind. All of the books, board games, and scrapbooks will be so at home in this space. I am more excited about my shelves than Ava is about her room.

Claire has been home with strep for two days this week. Today doesn't really count as a sick day. It was the day where her antibiotics had made her feel great, but that she was still contagious. The one day of great weather, had to be spent inside. It really would be "bad mommy" to send your sick kid out while the others were at school. But once school was out we headed out to enjoy this one glimmering 55 degree day before winter smacks us back inside for a few more weeks (darn that groundhog!).

A "Normal" Week

This past weeks seems so crazy for the wee Hamby house. Someone at our church preschool got the flu, so I worked four mornings until noon. There was a few babysitting swaps to "re-pay". Paige and Claire had some friends over for dinner and play. Basketball practice and games for P & C. Grocery shopping, because, oh my goodness, we were down to a crust of bread and two cheese singles. Plus the regular work for Brant and church and church meetings. Brant got Ava's room wired and one sheet of drywall hung. Just plain craziness crammed into seven days. I know this is a mere normal week for the rest of the world, but we are so unaccustomed to the rush. Is this what the rest of my life is to look like? A swirl of taxi-ing kids and eating in shifts. Lordy, I hope not.

Ava's Construction Site

Well, it's still cold (so cold) and snowy out. The holidays are over. Brant skipped another semester of college. The Bears' football season has ended. Nothing is holding us back from a few projects that kept being put off. Ava and Ike a sharing a room right now, which is fun when you're five, but. . . We are turning what used to be a den into Ava's room, right next door to Ike.

Brant got the walls framed up on Saturday with Ike and Ava helping. Paige, Claire, and I had an all day Brownie Webkinz event. By the end of the day, I think I would have much rather been in construction world. Supposedly, all went well, Isaak was in heaven "helping" build and hold and marking anything that would hold still with his carpenter's pencil. Ava mostly danced about singing; I guess her role was more moral support.

According to Ava the room will be about 100 different colors all striped on the wall. According to mom, the painter, we need to narrow it down to one. Leaning toward pink, which is just what every five-year-old girl would pick. Now the shade of pink that Ava wants, and I want differ. See her shirt in this picture --- hmmm, I just don't know if that will work on a whole room. Maybe I can talk her into dots or stripes. We'll have to wait and see what we can compromise on.

Five-Year-Old Potraits

I was trying to grab some simple portrait style pictures of Ike and Ava now that they've turned five. I tried not to make a big deal out of it. I didn't even mess with clothes or hair, thinking I was just concentrating on their face. Tried to sneak attack the whole thing so that they'd cooperate. Somewhere they forgot how to smile when a camera comes out. Five minutes of me explaining a "good" smile and asking them to sit still, ended in this. Wrestlemania right in the front room. Oiy -- really, I have very few good pictures of these two. They are just so squirrely. Would it be bad, if their five-year portraits were taken while they slept?

Snow Bows

For those of you who were curious, this is a snow bow, a.k.a. snow dog. They are very beautiful. Almost make waking up to -10 seem o.k. This is the right side; there is also a matching arc on the left. They don't completely arc up and around the sun, just float from the ground up a bit. They are also more circular than a rainbow. If you are very lucky and very observant, sometimes (very early in the morning), there will be a series of two or three rings like this. That is very rare. They only occur when it's super cold and moist out.

The Hamby's fresh excitement at this phenomenon has revived a spark in the locals. Something they just looked at as part of winter, has now become awesome. Just one of the lovely things here in Iowa!

Snuggled Up Inside

Negative 11 today with a foot of blowy snow. The kids even had a "late start" day for school. This is some Iowa craziness. When it's so cold and drifty out, they start school two hours late to allow the plows to clear the roads. This also allows the rural emergency buses (a Suburban with a yellow sticker on the side that reads "bus") to go pick up the farm kids. Late start days are hard on my family, it's like a taste of a snow day, but only a taste. It soon ends with a flurry of getting on snow gear to head out to the bus stop.


All this cold, just has me wanting to snuggle up inside. I've been cleaning out "junk" lately. It feels good to get so much unused stuff out. For me it nears liberating; for Brant it nears panic. Poor man.

Hamby Girls Storm the Court

Well, maybe. . . P & C did decide to take a stab at winter basketball through the recreation department. It was just too funny. Half the kids were really trying: blocking, dribbling, rebounding. Then there was the other half that Paige and Claire were in. Most of the time they forgot to dribble the ball while running. They never blocked a shot. Even passed the ball more than trying to shoot it themselves. BUT they always had a smile on their face and are excited about next Saturday's game.

We are all relaxing in our snuggly polar fleece today. No school. It's quite a blizzard, actually. Brant might be holed up at work for a few days. Good thing he carries a sleeping bag.