Life as I live it.

Hello readers!
     I don't know about you all, but this time of year is absolutely flying by for me.  As hard as it is to believe, Spring will be here soon.  They say that in upstate New York, March is the worst month for blizzards and storms though, so I'm still prepared for the winter weather for a few more weeks.

     This post is going to be picture-less, for which I apologize.  Besides taking a lot of photos of Gwendolyn, I haven't been active with my camera lately.  Besides the fact that not much different has happened. 

     Life for me consists of taking care of Gwendolyn, keeping house, teaching 5 piano/violin students, attending community choir practices, attending and serving in the church, and visiting people as much as I can.  When the weather is too cold though, Gwen and I stay hunkered down in the house. 

     Dan has been working really hard at the house we bought.  His goal is to have it finished by June. 
I guess the biggest set-backs have been unexpected problems he found.  The kitchen floor, for instance...  We knew we'd be taking up the peel-and-stick tiles that were there because they needed replacing.  When Dan did that, he discovered that the whole floor was rotten, the plywood and sub-flooring, as well as some beams.  After replacing all of that and rebuilding the floor to be level, the man who we paid to put in our new furnace and ductwork didn't follow through and finish the job, so Dan did all of that.  While he was replacing heating ducts in the basement, he saw how old and rusty the sewer lines were, so he tore them out and just finished replacing them with all new plumbing throughout the whole house. 

     Now, the house is re-plumbed, has new ductwork and furnace, new floors in the mudroom and kitchen, and has two new showers, toilets, and sinks in the bathrooms.  Like I said, Dan's been busy.  As much as I would love to go there and help him, it's so hard to do with Gwendolyn.  She is crawling and walking and everything she finds goes in her mouth.  The only thing we can do is put her in a playpen while we work...and she hates the playpen.  It ends up being miserable hearing her scream, so it doesn't make sense to take her until she's through this stage. 

     I enjoy taking Gwendolyn on walks in the stroller when the temperatures get above freezing.  The other day, we went with Chula and our neighbor.  Unfortunately, a pit bull came running out and attacked Chula, our white German Shepherd.  Despite my efforts to get the dog's owners to come get their dog, they stood on their porch and just yelled.  To say the least, it was traumatizing.  I'm just so glad that my neighbor was with me, because she managed to get the stroller pushed away from the dogs.  Our dog, despite her size and breed, is NOT a fighter.  She yipped and cried, trying to get out of the pit bull's bite, but she wouldn't fight back. 

Thankfully, we managed to get away with a very frightened, shaking Chula, and a shaking and angry me.  I admit, I was so angry I could hardly think straight.  It doesn't seem fair that people leave their dogs unchained, unattended, and untrained to attack me, our dog, and could have very seriously harmed my baby...yet they get away with it. 
This is the third time something like this has happened in this area.  People just aren't thoughtful.  I can't dwell on it too much or I get upset.  You can be sure that from now on, I will travel armed with some method of defense.  😀😀😀😀

For Valentine's Day, I had a talk with Dan and reminded him that I didn't want for him to spend money on overpriced flowers or chocolate.  I've been telling him this for years, but this year he finally listened.  :)  I'm one of those people who doesn't want anything for Valentine's Day...I'd so much rather get a random bouquet of flowers sometime during the year, or a bag of chocolate spontaneously.  Is there anyone else like me in the world?  haha   😀😀😀😀

Gwendolyn is growing fast.  She loves to talk, and walk.  I got her a little walker, and she walks all over now.  She has two teeth and I think will soon have more.  Baby #2 is growing as well.  Sometimes it seems hard to believe that I'm still not at 30 weeks yet...
I've already purchased all of the birth supplies I'll need for a homebirth.  This time around, I've been ahead of the game.  I've organized the baby room to fit two, and organized all of the clothes for newborn up to Gwen's age. 

Right now, we are immersed in planning for our first Missions Conference.  It's going to be so exciting. 
Hope you all are well.  I'll be sure to take pictures of life, so that my next post will have a few photos. 
Until next time!

Snowy Weather in NY

 

Well, I was wondering for a bit there when we would get more snow!  It snowed about four times in the month of November, but then December was pretty snow-free.  A few weeks ago though, we got enough snow to make up for all the snow-less weeks.  We got about four inches, which was like nothing...and there was a weather prediction for the weekend for us to get 6-10 inches.  Then it changed to 12-16 inches.  The last update we saw before falling asleep Saturday evening, it said 20-24 inches.  When we woke up, there were 10 inches, so we had to cancel church. 

 

 

 

Dan went out to start his truck to plow out our house, the church, and the neighbors who he usually takes care of...and his truck wouldn't start.  After charging it and trying to jump it using my car for about four hours, we finally got out the snowblower and cleared the driveway. 

 

 

We ended up getting 24 inches, so it was fun!  Gwendolyn wasn't too amused with it, so she and I stayed inside mostly. 

 

And made blueberry turnovers, blueberry pie, and shoofly pie!

 

And Gwen played a few songs on the piano as well. 

 

Other than the snow (which has now turned to ice), our lives are pretty uneventful! 

Hope you all are well.