Catching Up

The week in review:  nutshell version

~VBS was awesome.  Again.  And it's already over.
~My step mom had a heart procedure done that we weren't expecting. (She's doing great.)
~2 girlys and I headed to TX after VBS to visit family.
~While we were there Honey's grandmother passed away.
~We cut the trip short.
~I got a speeding ticket on the way home.
~We cancelled our Colorado company that was due this week.
~Honey and 3 boys went to FL for a graveside service tomorrow.
~Lane was left with a lot at home.
~Mally lost a tooth and both of us were out of town.
~Both of us missed the VBS program the littles were in.

Fast forward. 

After being scattered in 3 different states, most of us are home!  

My head is still spinning from VBS and the weekend.  And like always I'm mulling over all that I said and did and wishing I had done this and that differently.  Does anybody else do this?  

While I was in TX, Meg and I visited a tiny church up the road from my parent's.  Including us there were 16 people.  I hadn't planned on going to church but it was a good idea.   I do love being with God's people!
The first thing the pastor did was start explaining how what he's talking about today was NOT what he planned but God had given him something different and he needed to go with it. 

Then he preached on Romans 7 and WOW was the Word alive!  God indeed has power over circumstances and sin and He had given this guy a message just for me.  In this tiny town.  In this tiny church.  Our VBS motto was Awesome God Amazing Power.....oh yeah.

Anyhoo......Our four biggest eaters are outa town.  It's a quiet house.  And we're just hanging out and doing some fun stuff to pass the time until they all come home. 

Like.....
~I gotta clean this messy house.
~Pick blueberries
~Library time
~Ride the train
~Sewing class
~Shop for sewing class b/c I forgot to do that at Mom's.
~Re-organize boys' room
~Take dinner to Lane's sick friend.
~Make some new muffins.
~Take one to Ms. Ruby b/c I miss her and I know she wants to see Littleman.
~Father's Day shop for my guy.
~Read lots of new library books and try not to lose any of them.
~Order a new devo that Carri had that I liked.
~Blog more.

Now we're all caught up!  Will you please pray for our family in FL?  Sweet GG was energetic, healthy, and happy for her good long life.  And she sure loved and enjoyed her family.  They are going to miss her very much. 

It's Finished!!

We closed on our house this morning!

No more moving.
No more packing.
No more repairs.
No more house showings.
No more going crazy cleaning before house showings. 
No more contracts.
No more offers.
No more inspections. 

Oh happy day!  Now it's time to just snuggle into this cozy rent house for a few months.  Ahhhh......

So many things happened during the move that I don't feel like we were able to give proper attention to.

5 kids celebrated birthdays
5 kids were baptized.
All kids were sick.

We did the best we could but I still wish we could've done more.  My sweet kids are understanding though.
And I think all are glad that

IT'S FINISHED!

Moving Part 2

I've only had one moving meltdown so far. 

Almost 2. 

Honey asked me if I were sad to leave.  No.  But I am sad to pack up the doll house and kitchen set into storage b/c by the time they come out, Mally and LittleMan might have outgrown them.  At that point, he saw the impending danger of a torrential flood of tears and suggested we make them a play area in the garage.  Meltdown averted.

We are close to being finished!  Honey has the day off and is making trips back and forth with the trailer. 

My father-in-law is here fixing some valve thing that the washer hooked up to that leaked all over the place. 

And we're having a garage sale on Friday and Saturday.  Do you need a swimming pool?  How bout a bunch of canning jars?  A shelf painted green?

There Goes The Neighborhood

And so it begins...

I got to meet a neighbor today.  He came over not to introduce himself, but to see what the emergency was and how he could help.

Me:  What?
Him:  I heard yelling and screaming in the back yard!  Is everyone ok?

Apparently he lives behind us and heard the boys playing on the swing from inside his house.

Well yes.  That would be us. 

I started explaining that all was well and we have a lot of sons.  It was happy boy noise.  There's a new swing set.  And I'm sorry.

I'm not sure he believed me.  He asked about the previous (quiet) neighbor.  I think he was lamenting his misfortune to learn that he had moved and rented the house to us. 

My eldest son figured it out. 
"His house must not be well insulated." 

Yeah.  That must be it.

Our older kids thought the whole thing was hilarious.  The little boys couldn't imagine what he was talking about.  They didn't think anything was unusual in the back yard....

except the super fun swing set!

Moving Part 1 ....Because there's probably going to be lots of parts.

Read:  Mess.

We have mess scattered at this house, at the other house, at the storage unit.  The front yard is full of junk and I'm figuring my neighbors are considering calling Hoarders. 

We still have a full two weeks to be completely out of here so I think we're doing well time wise.  We are pretty much moved in at the rent house and now cleaning up and trying to figure out where to put everything else. 

This morning I walked my new neighborhood.  It's ok.  There are no good hills though and since it's a younger neighborhood with young families there were a lot of people going to work this morning.   Its a good street with plenty of space and nice to walk so I can't complain. 

Someone asked me if I'm sad to leave my house.  NOT at all.  It's just a house.  A nice house.  But still just a house.  I will miss some of my elderly neighbors though so I'll be coming back to check on them. 

Remember how when we first moved in here everyone was so crabby to us?  I laugh at that now.  They are sweet folks.   Most of them.  I'm thinking our next door neighbors will throw a party when we're outa here.  It looks like they may have been instrumental in our selling our house since they know our buyer.  Hilarious. 

So today we're cleaning.  And packing.  And moving more junk.
I'm hoping to take some pictures soon.

A Beautiful Day For The Park

And the creek.

The Fall

Our little ZBoy is quite the rough and tumble boy.  But when it comes to getting hurt, he's way over the top. 

Super drama. 
Big show. 

Lane and Buzz, Mally, ZBoy, and I walked the neighborhood yesterday.  LittleMan busted on the street and was fine until he saw the first hint of red.  Then...

SCREAM!!

Howl! Bawl! WAAAAAAA!!!!!!!  
My KNEE!!!

I didn't stop.  And neither did Lane.  We kept walking and laughing at what a actor he is. 

But Mally paniced.  She stopped.  And when she saw the scratch-that-could-hardly-be-called-a-scrape, she was crying too.  And called "Momma, he's hurt!!" 

"No Honey, he's ok.  Come on."
"Let's go Z.  Get up.  You're just fine." 

Nothing changed.  His mouth was a big black cave with a lot of noise coming out. 
"I need a band-aid!!" 
"I need to go to bed!"
"I'm never going on a walk again!"

Finally he decided we weren't stopping and that he should catch up.  He walked hunched over holding his knee and screaming all the way to the end of the street. 

When we reached the top of the hill, he got the big momma speech.  Maybe you can tell I'm not one of those moms that babies my kids over every scratch.  I'm more the shake-it-off type.  You'd think he'd know that by now. 

Lane and I were both trying to keep a straight face but the show was pretty hilarious. 
Lane said, "Do I need to carry you and rush you to the hospital?"

Z answers "NO!" angrily, then looks at me and says, "But will youuuuu???" 
Then he pulls "I'm the littlest of the whole family!" 

I almost said yes.

This Girl Loves Her Kindle

Girl Day

We are having a baby shower at church today!  2pm with pot luck finger foods. 

Yesterday was busy and I didn't get a chance to run to the store so I had to come up with something that we could do with what we already had on hand. 

I found a loaf of white bread in the freezer left over from when my in-laws were here.  Perfect!

An extra cake mix in the pantry from the dessert fest of last week's church lunch.  Jack pot!

Isn't my sous chef beautiful?  Notice the rollers.  Gotta look fabulous for baby showers ya know.

We made turkey sandwiches, cut off the crusts, and cut into triangles. 

Oh the exclamations over white bread!  If only we could have it all the time.  (rolling my eyes)

crust = lunch

Super simple cookies.  1 box of cake mix, 1/2 C oil, 1/4 C water, and 2 eggs.  Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

I'm sure there will be some sort of cake.  But oh well.  It's what we had. 

It's a girl day over here.  Since we had the shower, Honey took the boys to Devils Den to hike, play, eat, and whack each other with sticks all day. 

So we are packing, collecting garage sale fodder, cooking, and baby showering. 

Love my girls!

Done And Done!

We sold our house!!  Happy day. 

Now what?

Pease Pray For My Grandmother

Isn't she beautiful?  And every time I see her she looks better than the time before.  Amazing. 

This sweet lady has a type of lung cancer that is caused by asbestos poisoning.   We will know more on the prognosis Wednesday. 

The kids and I made a trip to TX and got to spend a couple of days with her.  I can't believe this is the only picture I took!  What is wrong with me!?

My grandmother is such a special part of my life and I hate the thought of her being so sick. 

Will you please pray for her with me??

Some Of The Fun Of Yesterday

Valentines Day!! 

Love it. 

Homemade valentines.  Paper plates.  Lots of love!
Every year I buy each kid a new coffee cup for hot chocolate.  It's fun collecting them throughout the year. 

Tacos for dinner with the same Valentine dessert that we've made for years.

The table.

Once dinner is ready we open a napkin over everyone's plates then all the kids come in and slip their valentines under the napkins.  What do you think about the paper sack covering the big valentine? 
Yep, we do it up fancy around here. 

I love all the sweet valentines.  And all so unique!  This year Josh drew comics for everyone for their valentine.  I think LittleMan made me about 12 valentines and Mally especially enjoyed her own stickers this year.

Meg bought Mally and LB a little mailbox with a flag months ago that she had been saving.   This was BIG for Mally and she was sure to let me know where she was going to keep it in case I needed to give her mail.  I also got a lesson on the proper use of the flag. 

The rest of the night was full of bionicles.  Our kids have been sick and the bionicles have gotten a lot of play time.  Not to mention the brand new one that CT and Lane bought for the boys to share. 

There are so many now that I can't keep them straight.  Plus there are new upgrades everytime you turn around.  Lego's smart.  My favorite is one that didn't have an official Lego Bionicle name so the boys named him Kevin. 

Then some playing around with the camera...

Happy Valentines Day!

Snow Day!

It's been such a warm winter we were resigned to the fact that it probably wouldn't happen this year.  But someone said it was coming and we hoped they were right.

So we snuggled in a blanket and watched The Grinch to add to the winter mood. 

And sure enough it came!

SNOW!! 

Beautiful wonderful no-school-today SNOW! 
Thank you Jesus. 

I was so excited.  I was up long before the kiddos.  Except for the one who stole into our room in the wee hours b/c he wasn't feeling well. 

So I got busy in the kitchen and started simmering all those yummy snow day type of foods.  Minus any sugar b/c my kids have been sick. 

Finally they started waking up and SURPRISE!!!  Happy day.  Love those happy faces when they first see the snow out the window.   LittleMan came stumbling out all sleepy and asked, "Did it snow Momma?" 

Cream of wheat with berries and hot cranberry tea.
Buddled up snow babies...

And ever so much of this...

Taking the neighbor's snow.

I know my Colorado peeps will scoff at this.  But hey, we gotta take what we can get when it comes to snow! 

Then back inside for chicken soup and cranberry tea.

Thankful to Him who gives all good things....

On A Monday

I woke up this morning with NO plan for this week.  none.  No menu, no thoughts of school, not even sure if I had anywhere to be today.  How did this happen?   It's like I was surprised it was Monday. 

And I kinda am.  Because I'm pretty sure I'll wake up and it'll be Friday already. 

Life is speeding by and I'm holding on for dear life!   Anybody else feeling this way or do I just sound like an old lady? 

Yesterday was a day full of emotions.  Our last Sunday at our church and first Sunday in our new building since the fire of last summer.  OH my.  It was even prettier than I imagined.   I savored every minute of watching my guy and our girls on the stage and listening to Chris and Mark's excellent message.   Our sweet friends said goodbye and were very encouraging. 

And nowwwwww.....onto the new adventure!  Honey has been hired as Immanuel's youth pastor.  Meaning we have a new church family, new ministry, new opportunities, and more time to get to know those precious Awana babes I like to talk so much about.   And last night was our first night. 

We have no idea what we are doing.  We are full of ideas but moving carefully.  Scared and confused.  Praying and planning.  Talking and dreaming.  Humbled and excited!

Eager to get to know our new friends and thankful for the way God is moving in our lives. 

My Favorite Guy In The Whole World

The Special Book

A sweet friend of mine made me a pretty notebook with a book mark to match.

It's so much prettier than what I usually use for my journal or planner.  I wanted to think of something neat I could do with it that would not be disposable. 

I modified this idea from Pinterest and we call it The Special Book. 

I started by writing a love note on the first page to one of my kids and putting the notebook on their pillow. 

The rule is that they have to write a note to someone else and put it on their pillow.  And on it goes.  Over and over until it's full.

After several weeks I got the notebook back!! 

Happy Birthday Meg!!

Yesterday we got to celebrate 20 years of Meg!

20 years of parenthood.

20 years of living outside ourselves. 

20 years of joy unspeakable. 

The morning started off with bread and gravy and a knock on the door.

G'ma and G'pa!!  Happy excitement!  And they brought a horseshoe crab from the ocean.  The boys went wild over that. 

Shopping at Savers.  Lunch at Cheddars.  Hanging out with the family.  Meatball sandwiches for supper and peanut butter cake with chocolate swirl ice cream. 

In His wisdom, God really blessed us by giving Meg to us first.  She is the perfect big sister.  The perfect first born that makes you think you're really a great parent.....until you realize that you just have a really great kid in spite of having you as a parent.  

I stand back and look at the beautiful young woman she is and her momma is so proud!

Happy Birthday Meggy! 

We love you! 

The Dirty Banana

Kitchen work yesterday and it was Josh and Jes's day.  The first thing they did was take off their shirts (surprise) and slap each other with them a few times.  Because that's fun if you're a boy with a brother your size. 

But then Mally comes to me all tearful holding her 1/2 banana.  She said she can't eat it anymore b/c she walked through the kitchen and the boys whacked it with their filthy shirt and now it's all dirty. 

I tried to tell her that their shirts were clean and the banana looks just fine.  Look, see? 
No, she did not see.  In her eyes the banana was dirty and ruined.   More tears.  

Fine.  I told the boys they had to eat the banana now.  And since boys are always wanting food I figured the problem was fixed. 

Nope.

They thought it was her fault for getting in the way of the shirt slapping fun.  And besides, the banana looked fine. 

I gave them the momma look that says, "Come on boys.  She's your baby sister." 

Josh said it was Jes's shirt that actually touched the banana so he ought to eat it.  Jes said he was full from so much breakfast. 

I told all three of them that we were not going to waste a perfectly good banana over something so silly and somebody was going to eat it.  At this point I'm figuring it'd probably be me. 

Josh had a solution.  Since it was Jes's shirt, Jes should eat the top part.....the part that was defiled.   And he would finish the rest.  That seemed reasonable to all. 

Banana gone.  Baby girl happy.

Kitchen work shirt slapping resumes.

Goodbye Peas

Little Man woke up puny and fussy and seemed like he needed a couple more hours of sleep.   He certainly needed some Momma love.  

I told him that maybe he wasn't feeling so well b/c he hadn't eaten much lately....thanks to the peas. 
Big tears welled up in those brown eyes at the mention of the peas.  At that point I was ready to throw in the towel. 

But out of nowhere his 9yo brother jumped to his side.
"Momma, I'll eat the peas!" 
"Can I eat the peas for him?"
"I WANT the peas!"
Can I please??"

The tears that I was fighting back were freely flowing now!  And there was hope in Little Man's eyes....and the beginning of a smile. 

Oh thank you Jes!  Thank you for stepping in as the picture of Christ in your brother's behalf!  Your momma is so blessed. 

Jes ate the peas.  All 14 of them.  Cold.  With the same enjoyment as if it were chocolate.  Big smile and a
"Thank you Momma!" 

I'm so in love with this kid!

Water!

We came home from a GREAT Christmas weekend trip to TX and discovered that night that our goldfish pond was full.  Weird.  Did it rain? 

The next day it was fuller.  And the walkway was wet.  And some of the yard. 

So my 15yo, Ethan, and Honey worked until dark trying to fix it.  They turned the water off.  Dug a big hole.  Made a big mess.  While the little boys were just hoping for an opportunity to get in the middle of it. 

Our neighbor made an emergency run to the store for needed parts. 

It didn't work.  No water. 
The plumber had already been called but he didn't make it. 
It's dark.  It's cold.  Time to throw in the towel. 

Honey and CT went to the R family's house to shower since they had to be at worship practice that night.  The kids brushed their teeth with water bottles.  And the dinner dishes were piled high!! 

Why didn't I do laundry as soon as we got home?  With the vacation laundry and the extra towels I estimated about 11 loads waiting. 

This morning I expected the plumber bright and early since he didn't show yesterday.  I called at 8:02 just to make sure.  He'd be here in 3 hours. 

No big deal.  We could make it 3 hours. 

Meanwhile the boys hauled in water from the pool to flush the potty and we tried not to make too many dishes. 

As time went by the dishes started to stink.  Meg loaded up 2 laundry baskets full to take to Ethan's to wash...as well as a load of laundry to throw in his washer. 

Another neighbor came by to offer up her washing machine and George offered to bring us water. 

Our friends are the best!!  Mally and I took laundry in the wagon to my neighbor down the street plus some empty pitchers to fill from her sink.  That made a huge difference.  Just having a bowl of water to wash your hands is sure a luxury!

11:01.  No plumber.  Time is up. 

We call the Roto Rooter guy and he makes it in no time.  He fixes it in less than an hour, and we're back in business!!  

Flushing, washing, showering, soaking, mopping....oh the goodness!!

Our older girls felt the inconvenience more than the others.  Our younger set thought it was great fun. 
And of course they didn't get through the day without a reminder that ppl all over the world do not have clean running water of any kind. 

Thank you God for water!