I’ve Caved

Jan8

I’ve caved to peer pressure.

No, I’m not wearing shoes – that would be crazy!

… or socks…

Yes, I’m still wearing my ratty hooded sweatshirt.

No! I’m not giving up Diet Coke either! What are you nuts!?

No, none of those insane things.

It’s just that my blog now has a Facebook page.

Alright, alright…

Once the laughter of those of you who know me well dies down I’d super appreciate it if you went checked it out and, you know, proved to me this Facebook stuff is all it’s cracked up to be.

You can click here: Behind the Willows

Or find your way there through that little widgety thing on the sidebar to your right.

And as reward for all your troubles I’ve posted at least three never before seen photos there.

Yup, three whole photos. That’s me, Facebook master…

Merry Christmas!

Dec25

Christmas Clowns

Dec7

The best part? Clara and Ivy

Ivy insists she is crossing her eyes- “crossing them up.”

Princess Jane

Dec2

Jane is in a no holds barred, girly, princess, ballerina phase.

She refuses to wear anything but dresses and skirts.

She begs for makeup and nail polish.

She spends her days twirling and dancing in frilly dresses.

And she helps grind meat.

Like a true princess she never got anything on her dress but she could use lessons in decorum. I hardly think yelling, “Are we havin’ TACOS!?!” is befitting of royalty.

Family Time

Nov30

Here in Wisconsin we’ve survived another ten days of a family gatherings and deer hunting, culminating in our big Thanksgiving meal.

It can run you through the wringer, a week of that.

While spending time with family is always pleasant, it can sometimes be a bit bemusing…

A night of human foosball can leave you feeling like this in the morning…

There are always some great times…

But there is this thing about spending time with family. Sometimes, no matter how much you love them, they can be a bit like… well… a bit like having someone take a drill to your head.

Hope your holiday was great and that your “drill moments” came with as big of smiles as ours did!

Don’t Open the Door!

Nov24

Don’t open the door!

Those smiling faces are merely the technique that snowball fiends use to gain entry into nice, dry, warm houses!

Once the flurry of snowballs and giggles are released the fiends will run back off into the snowy day, leaving you mopping up the floor until their next attack.

But the worst part is that they unleash such a blast of snowy day cheer with each volley that their giggles become contagious and the serious-stop-throwing-snow-in-the-house voice can’t seem to make an appearance because you are too busy throwing the mopped up snow back at them.

On second thought, open the door.

Every house needs a little snowy day cheer!

The End of Innocence

Nov1

Jane was enjoying a lovely fall day when I intruded on her solitude to break the news.

“Jane”, I said, “you’ll be three soon, it’s time you know how the world works.” Jane

“I just need to warn you, the Daylight Savings time change is tomorrow.”

“What does that mean?” she asked, brows drawn up in confusion.

“Well, it’s one of two days a year when when we arbitrarily change the time by an hour. This means that everyone will wake up earlier than they should, become hungry at inconvenient times, overtired by bedtime and miss most pre-planned appointments. In addition many people seem to suffer a certain extent of emotion damage from the change so expect everyone around you to ask “Old time or new time” while we all spend at least three days in a fog of “Wait, what time is it?” induced crabby confusion. Oh – and chances of your Dad and his friend showing up at the same time to go goose hunting tomorrow morning are at best fifty fifty. All so we can act as though there is more light in the day which , I’m sure that at the wise age of two and half, you can already see the absurdity in that plan.”

“What? No! That’s completely ridiculous!” she cried!

Yes it is Jane, Yes it is.

My Apologies

Oct30

It was bright, sunny and unseasonably warm when I discovered that we needed to replace our wood stove.

The weather was already cooler the next day as we swapped it for the old one we had in reserve.

At this time of year, on a bright sunny day, we can heat the house using the greenhouse. But, when we held pieces of stove pipe up above our heads and tried in vain to fit them together like giant, dirty legos, the sun went away.

Today, as I stare at our defunct stove and we wait for the parts and pieces that we need, it’s cloudy and cold.

Old Murphy and his law have struck again. Our main heat source goes and just like that, snow in the forecast tonight and our first real freeze tomorrow night.

My apologies, I didn’t mean to ruin the nice weather!