From his point of view

Tjabe has been talking about death a lot lately, probably because we have had two deaths within our extended family over the past few weeks. The first was Mary, the mother of our brother-in-law, a very dear woman whom the Lord called home at the end of August. The second was Kirby, my parent's dog, who had to be put down a couple of weeks ago. Tjabe has talked more about Kirby's death, since he had never met Mary and doesn't really grasp what happened there, but has met Kirby several times. My parents are now beginning a new chapter of their life as they invite Darwin, their new puppy, into their home in a few weeks. Since hearing about Darwin, Tjabe will randomly talk about animals or people dying and their "owner" getting a new one. Today in the car we had this conversation:

T: Mom, when I get bigger, as big as Winston, and Grandma dies, then Grandpa can go and get a new Grandma!

Me: I hope Grandma doesn't die when you're as big as Winston [Winston is seven]! Plus, I think it's a little bit different with people.

T: And then when people die they'll go to Minnesota.

Me: They'll go where?

T: No, they'll go to Iowa, and then heaven. But first Iowa.

This happens to other people too, right?

I lent Sam my phone for the afternoon and evening. When I got it back tonight, I checked voicemail and listened to the six messages I had. The last message went something like this:

"Hi, it's me. [The voice in my head is thinking: Oh, it's Megan] I think I probably will come [She must be talking about visiting this Thanksgiving or Christmas - yea!], but I'll probably be a little late [Does she mean the end of the holiday?], like around 6-ish [Wait, what is she talking about? Is she coming here tonight from Washington?]. I'm just getting things finished up here. [At this point I'm assuming that she thinks she is leaving a message for someone else] I'll talk to you later. Love you, bye." I stewed over this for a minute, thoroughly confused, before it finally dawned on me that this was a message I had left for Sam earlier about our plans for the evening (which I didn't make it to ).

The kids today

Also today

Tjabe helped me with housework by taking down Maggie's diapers that were drying on my makeshift clothesline outside our back door, while I got dinner ready. He's a good sport.

My Instant (Bedroom) Facelift

Today Beth came down and helped me (or rather, did all the work to) make new pillow coverings for my bed pillows. I had been wanting something different, so a few weeks ago Mom K. and I went shopping for some fabric for new pillow shams (and found the leaf print below). Then Beth and I went shopping later for complementary fabric for the remaining pillows, and voila! Below are before and after shots. I love them, and look forward to making my bed every morning just to see how beautiful they are! Yes, I am a homemaking nerd.

Before: Nothing matched anything

After: We found some colors that complemented the green walls, white comforter and chocolate throw