peace in our time

This 25 second video (yes, I now know how to upload videos to the blog!) encapsulates much of our home life right now. 

First, the girls are playing with something that has the potential (and often the will) to result in a big mess.  Then we have some sharing conflict with Clara taking the role of drama queen and Janny as the calm instigator (the roles can be switched, but this is most often the case).  Janny, in her calm rational mode, decides that the pleasure of holding the cup is dwarfed by Clara's wailing and gives it back.  A moment of peace is enjoyed by all.

Then there's me in the background-- not being a creep by the way -- working on the house.  I was adding some temporary caulk to our vertically opening wood windows.  I feel like this has helped cut air leaks a little bit, but we've had generally warmer temperatures since I did it.

We got our energy report for January this week.  We ranked 11 out of 100 of our neighbors in terms of limiting our use.  We use about 2/3 as much energy as the average house in this group.  During the fall months, our ranking dropped to around 25-30, which suggests that we use more hot water than low energy consuming neighbors.  I would like to see hot water usage drop, but the other members of the household aren't keen on taking very short showers and wearing outer layers of clothing (pants, sweaters, etc) multiple times.  For my part, I use cold water to rinse dishes heading for the dishwasher.

For the past few weeks, Jill has been watching another girl from a family in our church.  Their language at home is French, but perhaps an additional dialect is also spoken (how crazy is it that a 2 year old can be fluent in at least 2 languages!).  After I came home from work one evening, I was rather startled to hear Clara using that girl's accent for "l" and "r" sounds.  Words like water have a fun new twist at the end.

And speaking of water, Janny has started using Clara's old word "mado" for water.  I guess she says it for fun, since she can say the word "water." 

I'll conclude with a mid-season basketball report.  We are 2-2 with one loss a blowout to a much superior team and the other when our star player was out. For my part, my fitness level is fine and all joints are in great shape.  But I generally feel like I haven't played in about 10 years.  I'm looking to improve positioning for rebounds and moving my feet better on defense during the rest of the season.