floors

my quiet-loving, clean husband does not always love city dwelling in an old house, but here we are for now. and we like this 112 year old house better when we are working on it, bringing back some of its original beauty. a few weeks ago, he spontaneously said "i want to start refinishing the upstairs floors. tomorrow." and so it began. we just did the kids room this time since we don't know what we are doing really, but will probably do the rest of the upstairs eventually as the carpet is beginning to age.  again, this is no home-decor blog, but i like to keep my fam in the loop and i'm super proud of adam's hard work!

we started pulling things out before we took the 'before' pictures

we found heavily painted and varnished floors underneath

sanded for two days straight

the original heart-pine had a pretty natural color, but we decided to stain it to match some of the other floors (thanks nicole for the advice!)

and we repainted gray.  marit has my knock-knees:)

one of these days this will be a boys room, but for now marit and graham love sharing

adam wants to build bunkbeds next.  the man loves projects...

trot to adopt

this weekend our whole family participated in a little 5k/mile run to raise funds for several families in the city who are in the adoption process. it was so much fun to be a part of such a rallying event and it was a beautiful day. props to my man who ran the mile with ALL THREE kiddos so i could do the 5k. don't deserve him, but i'm thankful. here he is earlier this week: can you see him in the dust of the floors we are refinishing?

must've been early on because they only ran about 1/8th of a mile...

superman y'all

i just love how miles' pup is barely hanging on

thanks babe for letting me do this; running in the woods is one of life's joys.  to my minimalist friends, i think i'm heel-striking in this picture...

creek day

80 degree weather in january and daddy not working called for a little creek-rambling today. the water was chilly, but you've got to love southern winters. while many of our friends and family play in snow, we go wading.

hung with the big kids today

graham gets intense about catching things

found something!

raccoon tracks.  this kid loves anything nature, even identifying feces...

sweetness

brrrrr!

light dancing

love their sweet relationship

first haircut!

adam and i have been so sentimental about getting miles' hair cut...first it was because he had been bald for so long, then because his curls were so luxurious and bouncy and cute....at least when it was humid. then i told myself i wanted my India family to see him with hair since it had been 1.5yrs since they saw him and he was totally bald. the mullet had to go as it started to creep into his eyes and become a frizzy mess on dry days, not to mention the mistaken-for-a-girl situations. so we did it yesterday.

 before:

marit took this very serious picture

i managed to not cry, but marit burst into tears on the way home saying she missed his curls.  graham just says "i can't stop looking at him because he is so handsome!"  indeed, he truly looks like a big boy now.

a little Christmas footage

we went away for nearly a week to meet up with my family, gathering from india, maine, maryland, and georgia. time together is treasured these days as we all live so far apart. we met at my grandma's little mountain house (she no longer lives there because of its remote nature and the sometimes icy weather), which boasts of beautiful views, quietness, lots of memories for me and my siblings, and NO internet or cable tv. well, there was one corner of the house where the 2 people with smartphones could sometimes get a signal, but mostly we just talked to each other....ahhhh...so wonderful!

i have more photos, but i accidentally traded cameras with my brother, so these are from my dad.  maybe more later.

it was a week filled with laughter, messes, late conversations after the kids were in bed, sibling trip to see Les Mis, lots of eating, a little running and hiking, catching up.  poor abe had the flu and miles learned how to climb of his pack-n-play.  it was a wonderful week of slowing and enjoying each other.  we are so thankful.

lovely gowns from india and crowns from kelly

so many nooks and crannies...the loft!

good for storytime with bma

the kids got pretty crazy at times (6 aged 5 and under), but their play was creative...reindeer pulling queen marit

plaid shirts from india, minus adam

we did a lot of hiking/exploring outside despite the cold

still sort of the newly weds of the fam

super daddy

my favorite of my favorites

cousins playing campout

mainers thought the carolina weather was no big deal!

family meeting...probably planning meals or something

kitchen view

bma's art class

hiking down to the stream where we used to sip water with a little tin cup.  we would spend hours rambling in these woods when we visited as children

those of us with the little people managed to see a beautiful sunrise every morning.  such beauty feeds our souls.

we took turns cooking and ate well!

creature hats knitted in tibet

i'm so thankful for these people who love well and spur on to faithfulness