The wood is good

Our wood stove has been out of commission for over a week because one of the bricks in the top cracked in half. We weren't certain it was safe to burn without the brick, so we've been using the propane heater. It's centrally located in the hallway and instead of keeping things evenly heated, it comes on and completely roasts you, followed by the whole house getting cold. Plus it's expensive.

So Dan talked to a guy in town who knows about wood stoves and he told him that it's no big deal to burn without the brick because a lot of the old stoves didn't even have bricks in them. It's not as efficient, but it's not dangerous. This guy can get us a new brick for pretty cheap and in the meantime we can go ahead and use the stove. We burned a fire last night and it was SO much better than the propane! It actually kept the house warmer than the propane and it was nice not to be chilly when I got up in the night to nurse Mack. Plus now I can stop worrying about money going out the window every time the propane comes on. Free wood is good! (No snide comments about the cost of the chainsaw injury, thank you very much!)

I was skeptical about the wood stove in the beginning, but I'm a total convert now! When we build a house in a few years (hopefully) we'll definitely be putting in a stove.

I mean, how cool is it that you can make s'mores right in your living room?

My Mom came to visit at the end of January and I thought the girls would get a kick out of making s'mores. I'd been thinking about doing it for awhile and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The funny thing is that Lily didn't really want to eat any, she just wanted to roast marshmallows and assemble s'mores for the adults. She said they were too tricky to eat.

Amateur.

Amelia wasn't too impressed with the roasted marshmallows (what's that nasty brown stuff?) but she sure had fun loading the marshmallows on the stick.

The girls had lots of fun with their Grammie. She read tons of stories, with Relly (Cinderella) at the top of the list, being read several times through.

Mack getting the Grammie jiggle treatment.

Mom slept with Amelia in the bottom bunk and the girls enjoyed long snuggles and watching the movie machine with Grammie in the morning. Then we'd finally drag our cans out of bed and make homemade buttermilk pancakes and bacon for breakfast every morning. Mmm...

Good times!