We made an offer on a house!

Yup - we made the move. Well, not physically made the move yet, but if they accept our offer, we will be moving in a month-and-a-half! The seller has until tomorrow afternoon to let us know if they accept the offer or not. I think they will, because we had already made an unofficial offer for a bit lower, and they counter-offered (unofficially) for the price we now made the formal offer for. Tho' it's not what we expected we would do - buy a house in Finland - it will be pretty exciting for us to have our own place here! We have not even entertained the idea of selling our house in Mn at this time - we'd still love to be able to move back there some day. Let's see what happens - perhaps after we live in this house (assuming we do buy it) for the two years (necessary for tax-purposes), we will decide to sell if we could make some money off of it, and move back. Let's see. Or we may feel at that point that the kids are too settled in, and we won't want to uproot them at that point. Let's see!!

So - the girls and I will be in Mn in less than 3 weeks!! Yahoo!! And tho' I know the time will go way too fast - I will likely have the move, into our own house (after renting for 2 1/2 years) to look forward to, when we come back. I do feel like the ultimate decisions are made with God leading us in the direction He sees best for us. Sometimes we don't really understand 'why', but hopefully we can be content with whatever is meant for us!

Yes - in 2 1/2 weeks we leave to Mn! I can't waaaiiit! T'will be just so great to connect with everyone there, even if it's for a short time. And to be able to be at Miss Bri's and Mr. Mat's wedding - will be very special!

I was going to put a picture on here, too, but am on the wrong computer ... maybe next time!

Lil' Mr. C ... again!

The other day, the kids were talking about the fact that we 'should have' two more kids in our family (they feel so sorry for us that we only have seven kids!) Someone told C that those babies died when they were very small, still in Mom's tummy. So after a little bit he told me that he knows who put that baby in my tummy (talking about the last one, which was miscarried.) I asked him who did, and he said, 'Jesus!' (He often confuses God and Jesus, but big deal!) And then he said, 'But what I can't figure out is how He got in your tummy to put it in there.' I stifled a chuckle, and just said that I don't really know how, either. Then he said, 'Because He really lives in your heart. So how did He get in your tummy?' Then continued on a bit about how Jesus is 'invisible', He's a baby again, because it was just Christmas, and He was born on Christmas, you know! I just love the innocence!

We Wish You A .....

Basic facts ...

Mr. C is 4 1/2. He was in the bathroom today, and told me that a 'pee-nus' is called 'pee-nus' because that's where pee comes from. 'Get it? 'Pee', because if the 'pee' wasn't there, it would just be a 'nus'. Nus. Nus. Nus. Then it would just be a part of our body. And the pee would have to come from the same place as the poop.'

Oh. Okay. So that's why it's called a 'pee-nus'. I've wondered sometimes. :-)

On other things - Christmas has started to show up in our house. Some Christmas lights up in the window. We baked our first gingerbread cookies today (N made the dough, all by himself!) Kiddos decorated the gingerbread house today. Kids drew names, and most of them have bought and wrapped their gifts. And - they are able to keep a secret whose name they have, and what they bought. It's SOOO fun to do the shopping with them!

And - we're giving serious contemplation to buying a house here. Doesn't mean we're talking about selling our house in Mn, but it's just so hard to rent for a long time, with a family. So ... let's see what happens. We've got our eye on two places, and things could happen quite quickly, or it may take some time. And I guess whatever is meant for us will be shown when the time comes to make a move on purchasing. Or if it's not meant to buy here - then we'd likely make a great attempt to move back to Mn next summer. But - it seems so many guys who work in the trades field are heading to North Dakota to work, and we're not at all interested in moving back to our home there, to then have A have to live most of the time many hours away from the rest of us. Maybe we're better off here yet for awhile. *Sigh* Decisions.

The RAT!!

Prologue: We live in a very old building, so tho' I (THANKFULLY) have not seen any live m.i.c.e. in this house, I have paid the kids 50 cents per mouse to empty mouse traps - and I have paid out about 20 euros for this lovely job. (Interestingly enough, only our oldest child - a big boy, doesn't have it in him to even look at a dead mouse in a trap - and with the youngest, who is 4, have not emptied traps.) I have also fed about 8 boxes of mouse/rat poison over the year and 4 months we've lived here. Ok, these critters lived here long before we moved in, but I do not wish to share living quarters with rodents. So - I put out 'No Vacancy' signs where mice may come in - and if they come in anyway, I just kill them off!

Early this morning (about 4:30ish) I woke up to a clattering and squealing coming from the kitchen. Like, some pretty loud squeals, and rattling and clattering. I knew there was a mouse caught in one of the traps set in the space behind the stove and under sink and cupboards. So I thought, this darn thing probably got caught by the tail, and will now get away. But it continued to clatter around. And continued to clatter around. After about 20 minutes of it clattering, I figured it must be a RAT because a mouse would have died of fright after a few minutes.

And this noise kept me awake. After it had clattered for about 1/2 hour, I chose a time when A was turning over in his sleep to ask him, 'Do you hear that?' Then told him it's been clattering for so long, it must be a rat. He got up after a while, and said yeah, a mouse would not likely still be alive - probably a rat. But since it couldn't get out from the space where it was (unless it got out of the trap- then would likely go back where it came from- that probably being a space where the water pipes come up from the floor ... in that space. A place where I always keep some poison for them to feed on, should they come uninvited ... I'm quite accommodating ... a real nice hostess!) ... anyway, it wouldn't get out of that space, and had tried for so long by this time to get out of the trap, it was likely not getting out. And will eventually die there. So A went back to sleep. But - tho' I realized all these things (this thing is trapped until it dies) - I was envisioning the RAT!!, and how long it's tail quite likely is. And how it's relatives will likely be following it into OUR kitchen in the days soon to follow.

And it rattled around down there, on and off, until 6:45 when the alarm went off. Then it went quiet. Of course. And didn't hear it all the while as A got ready and left to work, and then I got 6 kiddos up and off to school. Then it was just Mr. C. and I at home, and some time after the house got quiet, the rattling started again. Good grief!! I'm so obsessed by the thought of a rodent in the house, it takes over my thought processes, and I wasn't getting much done around the house. Because there was a RAT rattling under the cupboards in MY kitchen. 

Finally it had been quiet for a bit, so I banged on the stove for a bit, then carefully moved it out a bit to see what I could see. Tho' I knew I would not want to see that RAT!!, I knew I will not get over this until I see it is DEAD!! And ... there was a common, ordinary mouse. The trap was on it's HEAD!! And it was still BREATHING! Yikes!! Anyway- this super-mouse was rattling around for about 8 hours before it finally went quiet for good. And the trap was on it's head. I can't figure out how in the world it lived. Ok, so it lived the snap of the trap, but to live for so many hours after that - seems crazy!!

What it did ... it totally messed up my day. My Friday. I did not have any extra kids in the house today. I should have been doing a Friday cleaning. Yet I accomplished very little.

How's it possible a critter so LITTLE can mess up the day of a person, so BIG?? And please - I do not want to hear anything about cruelty to critters! I would say if anything at all, I was much more traumatized than this mouse!

This-n-that

Mr. C (4 y.o.) asked me today what the reflectors on his jacket are for. So I explained how if he's outside when it's dark out, if a car comes the driver can see him because the headlights will shine on the reflectors. He thought about that for a bit and then said, 'So angels can find me in the dark, too.' :-)


We do have more than just cute sayings happening in this house. Really! There are 5 kids who go to school, and one who goes to kindergarten (I've learned that in Finland kindergarten does not fit in the same category as 'school'!) I've noticed each of the school kids' Finnish language skills grow in a leap and a bound since school has started (the kindergartner's too!) There are some pieces of the school system here that bug me- but there were things in American schools that bugged me, too. That's life. Overall, I have to say their education has at least progressed. I won't promise that we won't be homeschooling again. We will just take those things as they come. Some stress levels are quite high at times - but let's see if it levels off as the school year goes.


Some of the fun things the school kids get to learn (besides better Finn) are knitting, crocheting, playing guitar (and recorder), some wood-working ... all things they've attempted at home, too, but there will probably get more concrete instruction on these things!


Mr. A (head-of-household) has purchased himself a new work van. Due directly to the fact that this country is lame in some ways. His previous work van did not pass the yearly inspection - had a long list of stupid fixes. It ran well. Gave him no problems at all. But it didn't pay to start fixing all the stupid little things they decided need fixing (nothing important like brakes ... those were replaced a short time ago.) So it made more sense to park the 'old' van and get a new one. Grrr. I mean, it's nice to have a new van, but ... grrrr that that's how he had to go about getting one.


He also bought me a new van! (We both had red ones. Now both have white ones!) Bought an old police van - then took out the insides (walls, floor, seats, etc.) from the old van ... and we have a great 'new' van! I'm just tickled!


...... A few days have gone by since I started this post. Today the kids start fall break from school. Yay! I think every one of them is really needing a break. 


This morning C told me that 'God is invisible. He lives in our hearts. Our hearts are heaven ...'!! Just love how a little mind works!


Close neighbors (and also friends) have adopted two girls from Africa a little over a month ago. From day one, our girls and the neighbor girls have been enjoying having friends so close to play with. The neighbor girls are pretty close to our girls' ages. So fun! They come quite often to our house for some hours while their parents are working- so we've gotten to know them quite well already, and just enjoy them so much!


L's kindergarten teacher is so great - she had kids bring a big woolen sock (everyone in Finland has those!!), a stick (old broomstick), and some pillow stuffing - and they made the neatest horses! They got to bring them home from school today for 'vacation'. Now I'd like to make another one for Mr. C.


I'd better continue my Friday cleaning - in the midst of the hubbub now that most of the kids are already home from school ...


By the way- I wonder why some of my writing here comes on highlighted and some not ... ?? It all looks the same to me as I type it. 

We're Made of Dust

L (almost 6 y.o.) says to C (4), 'Do you think it's true or false that God made people out of dust?' C: 'True! Se'eosly (seriously). He did!' L then says, 'That's why our chairs and stuff are so dusty - we're made from dust and we sit on the chairs!' Hahaha!! And se'eosly, a cloud of dust rises from our upholstered furniture if someone hits it with ... say a broom handle, or some such item. I feel so much better about that dust now- there's a reason for it being there! I have an excuse for dust in the house- we have quite a number of us (dusty people) living here! :-)