spartacular

Ellie was very excited to see the photo of Mommy & Sparty. I ran into him at the Study Abroad fair yesterday.

In other news, we're putting new fixtures in the bathroom this week. We replaced the wall sconces, the faucet, and the ceiling light/fan unit which hasn't worked since we moved in. We've been working on the bathroom little by little for the past 6 1/2 years and it's come a long way from the peach and green bordered, lace curtained room it was when we moved in. We're still stuck with some oak and brass, but it's coming along nicely. It was Justin's idea to crackle the walls a few years ago and I still think it looks pretty cool. Of course, 10 years from now we'll be talking about how dated it is!

mad hatter

I finally managed to get at least one fitting, warm hat made for each member of our family. Here's Ellie wearing all of them at once, as she loves to do. There's a certain satisfaction in seeing all of us with a nice warm handmade hat - I suspect it's the (very elusive) Proverbs 31 woman coming out... "When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet..." as well as the part about wool and flax. Although I haven't seen any flax-based yarn yet, and these hats are acrylic... shhh.

A deep breath...

... at least for one or two days. It seems like we have seasons of busy-ness at chez miller, one of which is thankfully ending. I just got back from Denver and the ALA Midwinter conference (lots of librarians, for the acronymically-challenged). Photos here. Justin and I treated each other to iPhones for Christmas and have been glued to them ever since. I've just discovered the photography apps. Click here for some of my nutty experimental photos.

Ellie is growing so fast. She's making sentences like a pro and knows almost all of her letters. Her latest favorite word is flamingo, pronounced "fa-ma-lingo." I never knew that the iPhone would be so mesmerizing to children. I've downloaded a whole screen full of apps for her, including animal noises, alphabet flashcards, and poppable bubble wrap. She's also quite the fan of YouTube, where we can watch such things as the Laughing Baby, kids jumping on a blow-up castle, the Veggie Tales theme song, ballet dancing, and the Spartan Marching Band tuba section. She loves tubas, I'm not sure why. I'll wait until she's older to explain that the ones she likes are really sousaphones. That's just not information that I think other kids would respond well to her sharing. :-) It is very strange for me to think that for all of her life, phones will have been able to play videos, make chicken and dog noises, and let you draw on the screen. She won't even know what a curly cord is for, never mind a rotary dial.

Justin is well also. He's very excited about the possibility of starting a new outreach of Immanuel, either in in East Lansing or at LCC. There are some very interesting opportunities before us in those areas, so we'll see how the Lord leads. We're also in perpetual house hunting mode. We've had a few very interesting possibilities come up, only to have other buyers snatch them up before we could make an offer. He does have an eye for these things - almost too good of one. :-)