Down under and out

We live in quite possibly the best house ever. One of my favorite parts of it is the basement. It's rather "unfinished" in the popular sense of the term, but oh how nice it is for our use. A few reasons why:

First: Ramont hung some laundry drying lines from the ceiling, so that we never have to use the dryer in winter. This is rather remarkable, given the piles of diapers I wash every other day.

Second: it's a sweet playground for the kids each morning while I either fold or hang up laundry, listen to Morning Edition, and daydream about all the things I won't accomplish during the rest of the day.

Third, it's an exercise room for Ramont. And the kids. Sometimes I come across questions from moms to the tune of "should my children exercise?" Life is one big exercise for Jonathan and Anna, especially down here where there are three rooms connected by a circular tricycle track.

Fourth: There's a manly shower and toilet down there, meaning the upstairs bathroom could theoretically be ready for guests at a moment's notice.

Fifth:There's a gas stove for canning, a food dehydrator, a giant cast-iron tub with fire space underneath it, a produce pantry, work counters, etc etc.

And sixth: Water draining from the washer is pure entertainment to both kids.

Moving back upstairs and outside:

Ramont blew snow on our yard for the first time last week. If water draining from the washer used to be exciting, this was a whole new level of wonder to behold.

Seriously, who needs TV?

Anna fell on a sharp corner of the stove drawer (trying to join Jonathan inside of it) and ended up with a mouth full of blood. Luckily no broken teeth - just some puffy upper lip.

This winter has been quite beautiful here in Minnesota: cold, crisp, and white. It takes some doing to go outside to play, but on rare occasions we do. Here we went to get the mail on a new Christmas sled one beautiful afternoon.

It's sooo nice to be home again.