We haven’t done much this past year. We didn’t milk, we didn’t have much of a garden, we never sent out Christmas cards (we barely even decorated), and school has been woeful these last few weeks especially. If we’re going to remember 2019 as a family I think we’re likely to remember it as the year that fell through the cracks.

A lot of it has to do with the construction in the house, which just sent everything completely topsy-turvy. The last few months were particularly wearying. To start, when they came to work everyone was outside. But then the exciting part happened–they were ready to break through the walls! And then…we had workers in literally every room of the house except our bedroom. Trying to do school with power tools and air compressors going off right next to you? Well, it’s been interesting.

The other part that made this year such a challenge was because of THIS:

and this:

and this:

I mean, it’s not like we haven’t had toddlers before. We’ve had cranky toddlers, clingy toddlers, climbing toddlers, destructive toddlers, messy toddlers…. but this is the first time we’ve had a Peter toddler. It’s unlike anything that we’ve ever dealt with him. He can move heavy furniture, scale supposedly toddler proof gating, and climb anything that happens to have a foothold greater than 1/2″. The snapshots above are not isolated incidents, this is what happens every. single. hour. This morning, he dumped a pint of half-and-half into the peanut butter jar. Then when I turned around to put the filter in the sink, proceeded to pour the newly strained pint into my mug (which holds far less than a pint even when it’s not half filled with coffee). On a recent day, within the span of about 30 minutes he managed to lock one of the contractors in the basement, get a hold of and dump out an entire bag of cereal, and feed the dog a whole bowlful of chili. Fortunately the dog is okay, although I sometimes wonder if I will be.

Anyway, that’s been the sum of our last few months. That said, it’s been for good, though! We actually have a new living room AND we now have a dining room (our old living room became one). The work is drawing to a close, the goats are pregnant, the new dog is learning his commands, Peter won’t be a human wrecking ball forever (hopefully)… soon enough things will be normal again.