Loafkeeper Farm

For Christmas, Grandma D. gave Anya a kid-sized table and chair set. As a bonus, Anya also got a really great box. As you can see, it's the perfect size and shape for napping. (Note: This picture was taken a few weeks ago right after Anya had taken a nose dive on the one rug at daycare and gotten a huge owie on her nose. She looked like Rudolph but is better now.)



In other news, we got a lot of snow.

This afternoon, Andy, Anya and I went down to dig out the car. Anya played in the back with one of us while the other shoveled. Andy did most of the work, but I managed to be the one shoveling whenever the neighbors drove by. One guy honked as if to say, "Dude, why are you playing in the car with the kid while yer wife is shoveling??" Eventually we got a path cleared to the road, and we all climbed in for an adventure.

We drove the mile up the street to the convenience store, Andy bought a 2L of coke, and we went home.

After we got back to the house, Andy started to boil some water to make lunch. Then we ran out of propane.

Soon, Andy gets to strap the propane tank to his back and carry it to the car and go get a full one and lug it back home. He also gets to haul a bale or two of hay down to the sheep. He's such a lucky guy! While he's out having all that fun, I have to stay in the house while Anya takes a nap. Bummer. Maybe I'll knit some snow shoes.

When I visited my parents at Christmas, my mom and I decided to work together to make a blanket for my brother. Our assignment was to knit (Carol) or crochet (Mom) a bunch of squares that Mom will then stitch together. The materials?



Bags and bags and balls and balls of cotton yarn that Mom made from unraveling a whole heck of a lot of sweaters bought for cheapo at the Goodwill while she was staying with me when we first moved to VA.

Having just finished up another knitted/crocheted quilt, I know how hard it is to get the squares all the right size. Mom said we should just shoot for squares that were 8" wide. So, my first one is really long and, um, not 8" wide. Oh well. Then I made the green one. It, I am proud to say, is 8" square. The creamsicle square I just finished is 8" long and about 7" wide. So, I turned it sideways. Of course, my Mom tells me she is making her squares all 8"x8". Show off. She's also finished at least 6 squares to my 3. (SHOW OFF!)



I've started my fourth square in purple and burnt orange. It's looking to be maybe 8.5" wide. I suppose if I was doing the same pattern on each one it wouldn't be so hard to keep things the right size, but I'm trying to do each one differently.

Anya is addicted to lotion. I had to hide my bottle on top of the shelf in the bathroom, and her bottle of baby lotion is in a kitchen cabinet. It was on top of the microwave, but she pushed one of her little chairs over and started sweeping her hand back and forth over the microwave pushing everything off in hopes she'd get the bottle. This morning I gave her a couple of dots of lotion and she wanted more, as usual, and I said maybe later, and she started the bawling and the crying and the whining and the repeating of, "I NEED MORE BABY LOTION!" This is probably her first five word sentence and the first time I can remember her using "I" correctly.

On Wednesdays I usually stay home with Anya and work when she's napping and after she goes to bed at night. Today (in between lotion episodes) we sat at her little table and made stars out of playdoh. MommyStar, DaddyStar, AnyaStar, GrammaStar, BubbaStar, Yay-yeeStar (sitter), Kay-keeStar, Ney-neyStar (kids at sitter). Then the stars started hugging. "Mommy and Daddy Star HUG!" Then the playdoh was dirty and had to be held in the mist of our new humidifier to take a bath.



We normally go to story time at the library on Wednesdays, too, but guess what? We are snowed in again! Friday night we got a ton of snow. Saturday and Sunday we shoveled a path from the house to the car. So, we aren't really snowed in, but the truck is so no story time. It's definitely an easier hike with a path but still not fun. We got more snow yesterday, and Friday's forecast is another doozy.

2010 Goal Update: Mom and I have started working on Craig's blanket; Andy finished putting down the floor in the basement but still has trim and painting; and I think hiking up and down our driveway so many times takes care of the "monthly family hike" for January. Go team!

Today is, as Anya would say, a day for a happy cake. For the first time since we received all that snow the weekend BEFORE CHRISTMAS, we were able to drive the car all the way from the street to the house!

This will, of course, but a damper on the Loafkeeper Diet Plan. But it also means we can get the microwave we bought the other day from the Home Depot clearance section out of the car and into the house.

Like most folks, I ate way too much over the holidays and gained a couple of pounds. It's okay, though, because I am following the (soon to be patented) Loafkeeper Post-Holiday Diet Plan. It's not quite as simple as my famous Snickers diet, but it still seems to be working.

Loafkeeper Post-Holiday Diet Plan
Step 1: Buy a house with a very long, winding, hilly driveway.
Step 2: Wait for tons of snow followed by several weeks of below freezing temperatures.
Step 3: Do not clear the snow from your driveway.

That's it! If you try it, let me know how it works for you!

Using skills honed when writing performance plans for folks in my group at work, I decided to put together some measurable, finite goals for all us here for 2010. Some people were more cooperative than others, so I may have had to make some stuff up on my own.

Dad

+ Quit complaining
+ Help Mom paint the bedroom by Mom's birthday
+ Get the floors done
+ Finish painting the kitchen
+ Fix the microwave handle
+ Build a pond and waterfall in the yard

Mom

+ Sew Carol a knitting needle case before the end of January
+ Get three estimates for bathroom remodel
+ Make winter pajamas for Anya before September
+ Make two jumpers for Anya
+ Work on Craig's afghan with Carol
+ Finish Carol's bathmat

Craig

+ Do well in school
+ Learn to juggle flaming torches
+ Teach Chewy to run an agility course
+ Bench press 300 pounds
+ Write memoirs
+ Join a woodwind ensemble

Carol

+ Finish Anya's year 1 scrapbook
+ Finish Anya's year 2 scrapbook
+ Enter something in the county fair
+ Work on Craig's afghan with Mom
+ As a family, go on a hike or camp once a month
+ Complete a 5k walking race

Andy

+ Finish the plant room
+ Finish laying the floor, putting in the trim, and painting the "hallway" area of the basement
+ Refinish the floors in the sun room and Anya's room
+ Take a beginner's blacksmith class
+ Finish prepping the wood for the kitchen / living room floors
+ Get the generator fixed up

Kenny

+ Make a five course meal from scratch
+ Paint a picture for Carol
+ Learn to play the guitar
+ Go on a date with the captain of the cheer leading squad
+ Get an A in English
+ Ride across the country on a bicycle

Anya

+ Ditch the diapers
+ Learn colors
+ Learn shapes
+ Learn to ride tricycle
+ Paint a picture for Mommy
+ Learn to play the bongos, eukelele, and recorder

We're very lucky because two of my friends have children a few years older than Anya, and they are always giving us things their kids have outgrown. I can't even begin to list all the wonderful things we've been given, but among the recent gifts was a bag of books. The books have been sitting in our car about a week until today when we tobogganed them down our still very snowy driveway. Right around the point where we reached the shoveled out part of the driveway near the sheep, Anya hopped off Andy's shoulders and investigated the items in the little purple sled we borrowed from daycare. She found a book that interested her so much that she didn't even care that Andy and I had already walked the rest of the way up and gone into the house. He and I peeked out the windows and watched her staring at her book. She'd walk a few steps and then look at the book some more. Walk a few steps. Read. Walk. Read. It looked like she was talking to herself, and then I realized it was a music-making book and she was singing. I'm not sure what made me more happy, that she is such a big girl she can walk up the driveway alone or that she was so excited about her book that she was oblivious to her surroundings.

In other news, we took Anya to a Santa story time at the library two weeks ago. She thought Santa was okay, but the candy canes...those were fantabulous.



While all the other kids sat quietly and listened to Mrs. Clause read stories, Anya got up and ran around and looked at everything in the room. And when we all sang Jingle Bells, Anya got down and boogied.



Boy oh boy does that girl love to dance. Too bad she's got Andy and I as her dance instructors.

We received some snow yesterday. On the drive home I got stuck once on a hill, and while slowwwwwwly creeping up to the top, a pickup came zooming up, trying to keep enough momentum to avoid our predicament. I think their mirror missed ours by about 3 inches. But we made it home! We wisely left the car near the hay shack, although I had to push it up the little hill to get it there. Not that I expect us to move it again before at least Monday or Tuesday...

This week we finally got to pick up poor departed Lil Loaf's new brother, a VW Jetta Sportwagen TDI:





When we first decided to get the car, we couldn't find any bare bones ones (Anya really liked the giant sunroof, but unfortunately for her she doesn't have any money). So we ordered a blue one with the extra back airbags. Time went by. After a few weeks I called the dealer, and it was still backordered, and after it went into production it would be another 6 weeks. Since I was getting quite sick of driving the truck, we asked him to see if he could find a base one in any color but black.

A dark gray one was found, coming in within a week. We went down to First Team Auto, and signed all the paperwork. Gave them a check. Dealt with a really annoying woman who tried to sell us undercoating junk (whom we complained about later, and the president told us we weren't the first to complain that week). Also got a little frustrated with the hard selling of an extended warranty. The next week rolled around, when it should be in...and we get a call from our salesman telling us that it had been sold out from under us. Surprise!

We were a little annoyed. After all, we had given them money and signed all the paperwork with the VIN on it. We wrote an angry email. The president of First Team called me back, it turns out the dealership in Richmond did not log something properly, so a salesman saw the car and didn't know it was sold. But to make things better, they loaned us another TDI wagon until another one showed up on the 15th of December. They even delivered it to our house in the boonies.

This past Saturday they called and it got here early, so Tuesday we drove out and swapped it for the new one. Hooray!

Now we just need to think of a new license plate. Cabol doesn't like DAS LOAF.

I bought a new 27" iMac yesterday. Cabol said it is my early Christmas present from her. Not the actual computer, but the fact that she didn't kick me out of the house for buying it.

Anya gave me a present of her own. She was taking a bath this afternoon, and I had to step out into the kitchen for a minute to check on the beer on the stove. Soon, I hear, 'Daddy! Daddy!' I come back in to find her...holding her present up for me. This reminds me of the reason we do not usually take baths before potty time.