Quick, Quick, It's Midnight!

It's midnight and I have to get to bed, but FINALLY my internet is working well enough to paste some pictures here. Will and Annie at the Cobbler's- getting slippers custom made.
Last weekend we camped with friends on Flag Hill.

Monsoon is now done - the ferns are turning brown.
Check out the daliya flowers that cover the mountainside. The picture below is taken from eyebrow path looking straight up.

So many beautiful daliyas!

Gotta go, it's 12:01!

News of the day:

Here's the most exciting news of the day:

I'M AN AUNT AGAIN!!!!!!!

and finally,

I HAVE A NEPHEW!!!!!!

YAY YAY YAY YAY

And Happy Birthday to my Mamma today too!

:)

Rock-picking

We live on the side of some mountains in the Himalayas. Because of haze/clouds/rainy weather/laziness, we haven't seen the snowy peaks for several months, but on Sunday, when we got to the top of our trail, we were rewarded with this view:

It was a beautiful day for a walk after church, so we took the long way around to chardukan and 'let' both kids walk. (Annie LOVES walking and throws a fit every time we put her in the backpack.)

She was happy to walk.
.......................................
Later in the week, I needed something for us to do for awhile, so we took a walk to pick wild strawberries. However, we had tasted them previously and they don't taste like anything at all. They're tiny, bright red, and beautiful, but... sorely disappointing in the mouth.

(Heading out to fill up our buckets!)

One bucket filled! But not with strawberries after all...

... with rocks.

Busy busy rock-picking.

The glamour of picking rocks wore off after awhile and I convinced Will he should hang out in our neighbor's swing while I tried to take some nice pictures of him. My favorite is above, but I think the one below here 'brings out the Burchell' (I think he's got his Pappa's chin and this picture reminds me of some of his uncles).

He's such a happy kid!

running and more

I thought I'd just write something quick here. Some noteworthy items:
-We got good rain last week- praise God, because this land needs the water.

-Woodstock had it's annual cross-country race on Friday, and I ran with the 11/12 grade girls and came in 7th. I haven't run even once in a full year (since last year's race). I wondered what event the girls thought they had signed up for as some of them started out the 3 Km race walking, and I passed about 20-30 more who would jog, then walk... (yes I said THREE KM- and it was FLAT).
Someday I would like to run. a proper race... a scenic jog around somewhere... a marathon... just run. It was fun to do and I always feel like I'd enjoy it even more if I were more in shape. Maybe I'll start running again this year- but it will require an earlier bedtime!

-Annie is VERY accident-prone... in the potty-training sense of the word! she likes to tell me she doesn't need to go and then a few minutes later she looks down at the puddle on the ground and says urgently " Mamma! blabla!" But sooner or later she'll sort it all out, I'm sure - and at the moment, I'm happy to have fewere diapers to change every day!

-Will is almost 4 years old. I can hardly believe how big he's gotten. He's been really enjoying playing with duplo toys by himself- lining up cars and people and telling stories. The people, cars and animals all talk to eachother and time seems to fade away in his world. Last night we had sewing night at our house and I gave Will a cardboard sewing with a shoelace to work on. He hasn't tried 'sewing' in months, so I thought he'd need lots of help- but I went to do something and came back and he had nearly completed it and had done it very well - all by himself. He likes to walk by himself on the trails now, and he gets his own quiet reading time before he takes his afternoon nap. (That's one of our schemes to get naptime and bedtime more under control in our house!) He's growing up and it's so neat to watch.

Random 'news'

I walked into the living room to see it like this... such a funny pair they are!
There he is, standing next to his tower of cushions and wearing his beloved necktie. He rummages through his big toybox to find it every time he wants to play drums or when his Pappa is putting one on. Lots of times he just wanders around the house with it on. He's a character!

This picture was supposed to go with my last post, but our home internet connection has been really TERRIBLE so it was left behind. But before I get whining about our internet... I AM thankful that we even have internet, and I'd better stop there and head to bed! :)

P.S. other random 'news': -on the potty-training front, today Annie only wore her underwear around the house all day long and didn't have any accidents! WAHOO!! -on the Mamma front-I've had a lovely couple of days- even managed to write a song yesterday and made chicken pot pie yet again... and I might be addicted to york pepperment patties (which is bad because I only have one bag left until next summer... yikes! but they're oh so yummy!!!) -on the Pappa front, grading grading grading-and I think he's just amazing!

Ok, I'm off to bed!

sunsets, a cook-out and annie's hair

We've seen some really terrific sunsets lately.

Last week we had a fun campfire cook-out in our back yard which included 'hobo dinners' and marshmallows! :)

Here's my girl and her cool hair-do:

Nate took this awesome picture of the light stretching out to the valley below the clouds.

For My Mamma: Story/Craft time and Bullar!

One thing that reminds me very much of my mom is when I attempt to tell my kids Bible stories or do crafts with them. I'm not nearly as good at it as she was, but I remember so vividly how she so often did these kinds of things with us when we were small.

This time, I had the kids make Necklaces with a Needle and Noodles (which got very confusing: "put the noodle through the needle, i mean the needle through the noodle..." and I decided we should learn the letter N along with this craft... Will enjoyed it thoroughly.

Another thing that reminds me of my mom is when I bake. Especially when I bake bullar (Swedish cardemom bread). I made this last week for my family and they are just so yummy, I had to take some pictures before they disappeared.

Here's what my counter-top looks like when the baking is done:

My counter-top oven:

MMMMmmmm! Fika anyone?

I sure am glad that my Mamma taught me how to bake- it's come in so handy the past few years! :) She taught me a lot more than that too... so much about being a wife and a mom. Thanks Mamma! I miss you!