Exterior Improvements

This series of photos is too great not to share. Abraham was holding Caleb for me, and he said something that made him laugh. He usually smiles a sweet, but mildly insipid, smile for the camera. This was a great capture.

As he came out of the belly laugh, he was still cheerful.

Then he kissed Caleb.

And waved a shockingly filthy hand. I love it.

The last few weeks, Phil has gone grocery shopping after a Thursday morning meeting in town. I so appreciate being able to come home after church directly, rather than take an hour or so of my Sunday to pick up needed groceries. That was Phil's morning: pick up a faucet for the vanity and some other small supplies, go grocery shopping, get more alfalfa cubes for the cows and a new halter because we are expecting another calf in the next few days.

The alfalfa cubes are such a hit with the two milking cows that they now stand by the milking station, waiting for their turn. Today, since Phil had all those errands, they stood there for quite some time. Bribery: we're pleased with how it's working.

It was a good day to get tasks done. We received a load of gravel so that we shouldn't have any more muddy sections of driveway. How amazing to be able to drive all the way down now!

And then there was simply a lot of creative earth moving: grading on the south, cutting a swath near the door and then putting down leftover peastone in order to help it stay level; a layer of dry-stacked retaining wall.

Daffodils are out in full force now. Phil had hoped to mow, but ran out of time.

After it was too dark outside to work, Phil cut out a bit of the back of the vanity drawers so that they'll close all the way. And he installed half of the faucet (the supply lines he'd purchased turned out to be the wrong size. He had one in the barn that was the right side, so we have hot running water there).

A few weeks ago I went to a spring fling. One of my friends, a nurse, mentioned that her baby, only a few weeks older than Caleb, was eating nut butters. That surprised me, as I thought peanuts and tree nuts were a late-introduction food because of the allergen possibility. She said, though, that peanut allergies are unheard of in Israel, and when some commission examined why that might be, they found that the teething biscuits were baked with peanut oil, and so early introduction is now supposed to be preferable.

So Caleb has had some peanut butter. He has had a bit of cooked and mashed carrot. A mashed kidney bean. And, today, he got to try banana. As always he made a funny face at first.

It looked like he was adjusting well.

Isaiah was proud to capture the next moment (not shown): projectile vomit. I'm not sure if that was because of an actual allergy. I suspect the issue was that he choked.

I gave him another tiny piece, I think.

That one he spit out immediately. I might have a negative association with a taste that made me vomit, too.

Overall, though, good day!