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Spring is here, and after an unseasonably cold last few months, we are ready for some sun! The baby chicks we got last fall are now fully grown and laying beautiful eggs – all shades of blue, green, white, and dark brown with speckles. We are getting about eight eggs a day! Which means we have plenty to give away. We stock up when we know we’re seeing family or friends, and sometimes I even take a few dozen to school and give them to my students. Aaron has been working hard to build them a fenced in area behind the coop. Like everything he does, this will be well-built and ready for anything! He’s putting together a 7-foot tall fence made of welded wire with an aviary netting over the top, which should keep out the bear and coyotes! As well as putting in a gated door for us to be able to get in/out. He also seeded the ground with grass in that area and put down some strawberry, marigold, mint, and nasturtium seeds along the perimeter – chickens apparently love those, and they help them make richer eggs.

It’s also fun to see the trees and flowers at the farm come to life. About a year ago, we planted some daffodils along the driveway, and now they’ve poked their sunny heads up again. I’ve gathered several vases of them and love having their bright yellow color around the house and by our bed. We’ve been talking about this for a while now, and finally bought a king-sized bed. We are so happy with it – it gives us a little more room to turn over at night without breathing on each other or kneeing the other person in the back! I also picked some branches from a newly flowering apricot tree on the property and put them on our dining room table – the table is a mess, but the branches are pretty.

Things keep moving along slowly at the farm. The septic team had to come out and dig some additional test holes, and we are now waiting on the septic permit to be approved by the county. Once that’s done, we will dig the well and then start building. Aaron and I have continued to try to make time for trips to many home stores in the area to pick out siding (we are looking at HardiPlank’s “shiplap” and “v-groove” siding), flooring (thinking about ADM “sea smoke engineered wood flooring”), paint, tiles, etc. I’ll share more when we’ve made our final decisions!

The last few months have been special for us, with lots of fun events and some visitors. We have wonderful friends who threw us three different showers – one in Portland, one for me at work, and one here in Tacoma. My mom and Jenn came and stayed with us for about a week before the Portland shower, and we had a wonderful time celebrating Jenn’s birthday, doing some baby shopping, going to see a movie, and relaxing together. It was so special to have friends come from all over – Seattle, Bend, Salem, Lebanon, and even California, to be with us! Baby girl is so very lucky to be born into such a circle of love.

Both Aaron and I have been busy at work, with me trying to teach up until baby arrives. The timing of all this has been interesting, as I’m going up for tenure this year and all of my materials are due in September! So I’ve been working hard to get as much of that done as possible before I go on maternity leave. I had last week off for spring break, and drove down to the coast to see my mom and dad for a few days. We had such a good time, doing all of our favorite things – getting salads and sweet potato french fries at Georgie’s, watching Project Runway (a sewing/design competition) together, getting maple brown sugar breves at a little coffee shop in Yachats, and walking through the downtown waterfront area of Florence.

It’s so hard to believe it will only be a few weeks (if that) before baby arrives – we can hardly wait to meet her. We packed the hospital bag with everything we can think of, including a book that Aaron wants to read to her. We haven’t decided on a name yet, and will wait until she’s born to see what fits best. A few weeks ago, I had kind of a scary night where I had some really severe cramping and vomiting. We went to the hospital at about 1:30 AM and they admitted us and ran some tests but weren’t able to figure out what was causing the problem. I felt better the next day and we went home, but I’ve been a little anxious since then, hoping that the rest of the pregnancy will go normally and that we can welcome baby without too many complications.

We’re looking forward to sharing some good news soon when she arrives!

Every January, I have a chunk of time off during PLU’s “J-term” schedule where I’m not teaching any classes. For years, my parents have been talking about wanting to go to Iceland, so we planned a trip together with Jenn and Casey! We had a really wonderful time during our 10 days there.

Some of the things we learned:

• Travel in January isn’t bad (it could’ve been – but it wasn’t this time). My Southern-California friend Juliana laughed when I told her this, but the weather was “good” at mid-30’s to 40 F without snow or rain most of the time we were there! Traveling at this time had other perks, like no/few lines at touristy spots, plenty of places to stay, and cheap flights!
• There are many, many hot springs in Iceland. We visited the famous Blue Lagoon and had a great time there; we also visited another more rural natural spa further north and had an equally great time for a lot less money!

Some of the highlights (I’ll try to organize these in line with the photos):

• Beautiful paper village displays in Reykjavik airport.
• Hofoi House: built in 1909 and one of the most beautiful and historic buildings in Iceland. It was originally a French embassy, and also the site of the meeting between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that marked the end of the Cold War.
• Grotta Island Lighthouse.
• Listvinafelag Hallgrimskirkju: uniquely architectural church.
• Christmas decor: Christmas is a huge deal in Iceland! There are decorations up for months beforehand and weeks afterwards! Beautiful paper lanterns, string lights, Advent candles, etc. up in every window, and Christmas trees strung up on the sides of buildings. They also have fireworks celebrating the 12th night of Christmas.
• Seljalandsfoss waterfall.
• Little details you see popping up again and again – horseshoes above doors for good luck, and black ravens, also for good luck.
• Rutshellir: one of 200 little man-made caves used to store produce (this one was for hay) throughout Iceland.
• Skogafoss waterfall (Iceland is the land of waterfalls!).
• Mom’s tacos. Food is VERY expensive in Iceland. It’s common place for people to pay $40/person at an average restaurant, not including appetizers/desserts/etc. We bought all of our food at the public market there called “Bonus” and made our own!
• The little coastal town of Vik with the often-photographed red-roofed church.
• Skaftafell glacier – this was so stunning. We got there just as the sun was rising and it was breathtaking.
• Fjallsarlon glacier – the largest glacier in Europe. Can you see Casey in this picture?
• Skalholt Cathedral – a pretty Lutheran church in Selfoss.
• Kerid – a volcanic crater along the Golden Circle. We wouldn’t recommend seeing this one in winter – it was $30 to get in, and wasn’t too exciting frozen over.
• Geysers in Geysir – we learned this is where that word originated!
• I love Icelandic fashion! Lots of cool, muted colors in wools, linens, etc. So cozy.
• Gulfoss waterfall – also part of the Golden Circle.
• We had fun sampling and purchasing some goodies at OmNom chocolate factory. We tried different raw cocoa beans from different areas – Aaron’s favorite treat was a chocolate/licorice malt ball which we learned is one of the most popular flavors in Iceland.
• Beautiful storefronts.
• Translations – Icelandic is definitely the first language there!
• Perlan glacier museum – this had all kinds of fun, interactive displays and information sessions.
• I didn’t get any pictures of this, but the Icelandic horses were pretty much the cutest. Very furry, and with such a funny prance as they walk.

We weren’t able to see the Northern Lights, which was the only big disappointment of our trip. We stayed up several nights and were checking the hourly predictor-map – it has a cool numbering system that tells you how likely you are to see the lights from different places in the country, but with no luck!

Lots of friends have been asking how things are going on the farmhouse! The answer is:

SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW… !

We continue to encounter all kinds of hiccups along the way. But the good news is we finally got the Tacoma house listed for sale, and it SOLD! We are so glad. We weren’t sure how things would go, trying to sell in rainy January without a realtor. But it turns out that the lack of inventory worked in our favor and we had a busy open house with several offers to follow. We close at the end of this month and will then be able to use the proceeds towards making more progress on the farm.

This is a picture from summer of our little house – we will miss this tiny 1906 cutie!

Aaron is sick with a cold this weekend, so we’ve had a lazy time with lots of naps and hot drinks. I drove up to Seattle this afternoon for a friend’s holiday party and stopped at Nordstrom Rack on the way – I found several great deals, including a pair of pants for $4.99 down from $65 and a white tunic for $4.99 down from $108! It’s so fun to find things on sale.

We are spending Christmas with Aaron’s family in White Salmon, and I’ve been wanting to visit the Spanaway Lake Lights before we go, so I bundled Aaron up and we drove over this evening after dark. There was about 2 miles of beautiful light fixtures – my favorites were the lanterns hanging from the trees and the little clouds with rain coming down on the tulips.

My favorite Christmas song is an old Austrian carol: Still, Still, Still. The lyrics go:

Still, still, still,
One can hear the falling snow.
For all is hushed,
The world is sleeping,
Holy Star it’s vigil keeping.
Still, still, still,
One can hear the falling snow.

Sleep, sleep, sleep,
‘Tis the eve of our Saviour’s birth.
The night is peaceful all around you,
Close your eyes,
Let sleep surround you.
Sleep, sleep, sleep,
‘Tis the eve of our Saviour’s birth.

Dream, dream, dream,
Of the joyous day to come.
While guardian angels without number,
Watch you as you sweetly slumber.
Dream, dream, dream,
Of the joyous day to come.

Isn’t that beautiful? One of the things I love about being at the farm is how quiet and still it is. Last time we were there, there was snow on the ground, and I took this little video of the leaves blowing from one of the big trees on the property:

Leaves

This is one of my favorite versions of the carol, sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir: