A Walk Through The Rest of December

Hheeellloooooo!!!!

Sweet little ole blog of mine!!

It has been SO LONG since I have been in this space here.

Sorry about that!!

Sometimes there is a place for hobbies in your life and sometimes there is not.

I am thankful for the full life we live here!!

Hoping to get caught up with my memory keeping in this space this week – we will see how it goes!

Even with all of the illness in December there were still many other normal things.

Photos of the normal day-to-day things in life are some of my all time favorite ones!

Are you all tired of food and grocery shopping photos yet?

Ha, ha, hang on tight – here are some more!!

These food photos motivate me!

To make those things again!


When we were at our sickest, wow did I struggle to eat.

I had to eat to take the antibiotic three times a day, but the struggle was still real!

I made some grain-free waffles because they sounded good.

They ended up being one of the only things I ate most days.

Except when I had a few days of craving cauliflower – what in the world!

Crazy illness!!


When we were well enough, we did fit in school and piano.

We would find places to do school where we weren’t disturbing the ones who were sick!


I am always thankful for our home, Twin Oaks, and its beauty here.

We have a lot of windows and a lot of beautiful things to look at outside!

Even though I do not think we left the house for weeks (except to see the doctor and get meds), it was nice to have a bright home full of sunshine on the sunny days and to watch the snow fall on the snowy days.


As always, the kiddos found ways to keep themselves busy!

They are the BIGGEST TROUPERS I KNOW!!

And we are all each other’s best friends who love spending time together!!


We watched waaayyyy too many Hallmark movies in December.

That must be what Hallmark movies are for – when you are sick – am I right?

It was a distraction and SO funny when the kids would call the plot of the whole movie in the first five minutes, ha, ha!

Of course we also watched all of our favorite cooking and baking shows!


I spent one whole afternoon, literally days before Christmas, wrapping all the presents!

It was a BIG job that I loved very much!

Do you love my very sneaky hiding place for those wrapped gifts??

Small house problems!


The week after Christmas we headed to town one afternoon JUST TO GET OUT.

It was a fun outing with my crew!


Addie helped me with some organizational projects in December too.

It seems to be a constant need!

Going through room by room here HAS to be a yearly thing.

We did the whole kitchen in one afternoon and it was a good thing!!

And then we went through a box of old photos and found those photos of Blake.

I had to send Kayla a picture of them because Clyde looks SO much like Blake at that age!!


Blake bought me a new phone in December and I almost did not survive the change.

Do you not like change either?!

Thank you for understanding then!

I went from a google pixel to an Iphone and it was not easy to learn how to use that thing, ha, ha!


At the end of December I was MORE than happy to finally put our nebulizer machine away.

That thing had run so much in the month of December with how sick we were.


Seeing these photos of December makes me miss having our Christmas tree and the beautiful lights!


Well, that was fun, wasn’t it??

Keeping our memories has always been fun for me!

December, you were a doozy!

Still grateful to remember you though!

We will always look back at December of 2022 with grateful hearts.

God was so faithful and kind to us!

Next up – 2023!!!!

Christmas Celebrations!!

I pretty much had tears in my eyes the entire weekend of Christmas, which is making me have tears in my eyes as I type this!

We were all FINALLY well enough to be together at Christmas, and together we were.

It was FABULOUS!

Christmas Eve all of us (except Grant) went to church for our candle light service.

Grant took this photo for us before we headed to church.


The singing that night, you all.

It was SO beautiful!!

Our church loves to sing and it is such a gift!


After church we headed to David and Kay’s for a Christmas Eve celebration of finger foods.

The food was wonderful!

We made a lot so we could eat it many more times that weekend!


After we arrived home late Christmas Eve night and everyone FINALLY stayed downstairs, ha, ha, I filled the Christmas tree with the gifts for Christmas morning!

This brought me so much joy!


I went to wrap one last gift that had arrived that day, and realized it was stuck in my quick hiding place.

It took quite a while to get it out of that drawer!


Christmas morning before church we had the kiddos open their gifts from Blake and I.


Eliza also got a gift from her sweet pen pal!!

Anyone have some extra plane tickets to Oregon you don’t need??

We want to meet Anna and her family so badly!!


Soon it was time to go to church again!

Addie and I did make some cinnamon rolls before we headed to church.

Grant stayed home again as he was still coughing so much.


After church we enjoyed brunch!

David and Kay’s were spending the day with us and it made me SO HAPPY!!!

Our seven kiddos plus David do a gift exchange, and Blake and I buy gifts for all of Kay’s crew.

We had our gift exchange after we ate!


We were so thankful that Grant could venture up the stairs to join us on Christmas Day!

Christmas is always a very special time for our family, but an even more special time for my heart.

I am always in awe of the story of Jesus coming to us as a baby!

But at Christmas, as we celebrate that fact, the story seems more real than ever, doesn’t it?

A baby.

Sent to us.

To die.

FOR us.

God loves us SO much, friends!

I hope that every single person who reads this knows Him.

And knows how much He loves you!

I also hope that each one of you had a wonderful Christmas!!

A Belated Birthday Party

In all the illness (see the previous post!) SO many things had to be cancelled.

SO many things!

We always have wonderfully full calendars – but the fact that it was during the holidays made our calendars even more wonderfully full.

It was hard to cancel almost everything for the whole month of December, but we knew we needed to keep that illness to ourselves.

We finally were able to celebrate all of the birthdays on December 23rd!

Yes, we were about to spend the whole weekend celebrating Christmas, but we had birthday presents still sitting in our closet and we needed to sing to all our birthday people and have cake!

Chad’s birthday meal (that we had planned and purchased the grocery for) had been cancelled the week before, so we decided to have that meal and make individual cakes so that everyone could have a candle!

It was FANTASTIC!!!!

We had everyone open their gifts in the order of their birthdays.

Clyde Strength was up first!

He turned seven on November 5th!


Next was Briar Promise!

She turned four on November 21st!!


Next was our Ellie Joy!!

She turned seven on December 6th!!


Then it was Chad’s turn!!!

His birthday is on December 18th!!

We had dinner before all of those gifts, and then it was time for the cakes!!

Tate and I had made Chocolate Molten Cakes and they got rave reviews!


We hung out the rest of the evening and just enjoyed BEING TOGETHER!!!

(We had Grant in quarantine downstairs as he was still very sick)


Just to have the WHOLE story of this memory written down, let me confess what happened at 11 p.m. that evening after everyone was gone, the dishes were done, the floors were swept, and Blake and I were sitting in bed.

I sat straight up, let out a HUGE gasp, and said, “Blake, we forgot to celebrate David!!!”

Yep.

We missed a birthday.

And it was David’s 30th birthday, good grief!!

I felt SO BAD.

Of course my humble son-in-law NEVER SAID ANYTHING like “Hey, lady, where is my cake and candle and gift???”

When we talked about it the next day we laughed, of course!!

I did redeem myself just a little bit, maybe, by watching all the grand babies this past Saturday so that Kayla could take David out for a day long date!!

Key word there was MAYBE, ha, ha.

We really enjoy our birthday traditions of a chosen meal, chosen dessert, and gifts!

It is WAY more fun to celebrate someone else’s birthday than to have your own!!

Happy birthday to Clyde, Briar, DAVID, Ellie and Chad!!!

WE LOVE YOU EACH SO SO MUCH!!!

God Is Good In It All

You may wonder why I would make a post about illness as you read this, but in my mind, times of illness are memories too!

Besides that, I truly enjoy looking back on memories like these ones and seeing God’s faithfulness written ALL over them!

You may remember that at the end of November Eliza and I were slightly sick.

Addie was next and her fever burned high and long and scared her Mama to pieces.

And then it was Chad’s turn.

Chad arrived here at Twin Oaks to get a haircut from his Mama, all while burning up with a fever of all things.

He learned his “how to be sick” skills from his Dad, just saying!!

Those two don’t sit still easily!

Needless to say, once I got him to admit that he needed to lay down, he was here for three nights with us.

I did not want him to be alone down at his place with that high of a fever!

Sadie was obviously very happy about Chad’s illness, as she not only had a lot of time with her main guy, but she also got to keep Chad’s spot warm when he wasn’t laying in it.


Chad left on Tuesday (Dec 6th), and I was sick burning with the high fever by Wednesday afternoon.

Blake had to stay home with us on Thursday because of how sick Addie and I both were.

Here is my view on Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.

At least it was a pretty view!!


Kayla’s were also sick.

It all started for them in November while they were traveling.

Sunday morning I woke up to a text from Kay saying that they needed to get help.

Addie was well and back on her feet so she headed over to the farm to take care of all the kiddos while David took Kayla and Aspen to the Urgent Care.

It wasn’t very long before I was getting texts from Kayla saying that they were not only admitting Aspen due to bronchitis and pneumonia, but they were transferring her to a bigger hospital as well.

Oh. My. Heart.

Addie packed up the rest of the kiddos and headed back to Twin Oaks so we could all hunker down here together.


I was a little better at this point, but not well at all.

Sunday night Addie started burning fevers again and was back in bed full time.

Monday morning Blake brought me some coffee as he was heading out to work, and I seriously had a small moment of panic – how was I going to do all of this when I could not even take a deep breath because of the congestion in my lungs?

Well, guess what???

IT COULD NOT HAVE WENT BETTER IF I HAD PLANNED IT.

Every need was met, every belly was filled, the children were AMAZING, and I was able to be on my feet enough to do the most important things.

Aspen and Kayla were also both improving with the care they were receiving and I cannot tell you how thankful we were!

God is so cool.


Tuesday I called our doctor and said I needed some help myself, and I had a telephone appointment with her on Wednesday morning.

My lungs were full.

My eye was infected.

Blake picked up my antibiotics and I started to improve instantly!

The grand kiddos went home Wednesday afternoon after Aspen got released from the hospital Wednesday morning.

I think Addie got help from our doctor on Thursday? Friday?

She started to improve instantly too!

By Friday, though, our youngest three were getting sick.

Lane burned the hottest.

Eliza did not get the fever again, but got the eye infection.


Saturday I was well enough to head to town to get some much needed grocery and Kayla did the same.

We met up at one point and helped each other while sipping some much needed coffee.

It did my heart so good to see her!


Each Sunday we would watch church over live stream from home.

It is such a blessing to have that option!

That Sunday everyone was well enough to climb in the van and we drove through the Christmas lights!!


I had started using eye drops that we already had on the three youngest kiddos that day – so Monday we were calling the doctor again for more help.

Lane, Tate and Eliza all had the eye infection, and I knew we needed more eye drops.

One kiddo had an ear infection and a very tight cough as well.

Our sweet doctor literally just lined them up and took care of them all at once, bless her heart!!!

Every time I showed up at the pharmacy, our pharmacist was like “what in the world?!!”

Yes, we felt that way too – what in the world.

So many antibiotics, so many breathing treatments.

Sigh.

Grant was the last man standing, so he was the last man to fall.

Poor guy!

I made Chad bring him to me so I could take care of him!

Those fevers were no joke.

Grant was sick going into Christmas weekend.

By this time our trio was fine.

Addie and I, however, relapsed as soon as our meds were done.

Sigh again.


During all of this time we had friends checking on us, brining us meals, and one friend brought snacks one afternoon that are now my favorite!


At some point I also started ordering Christmas gifts because I had not done any Christmas shopping yet!


Grant was able to be with us on Christmas day, even though he did not go to church.

Addie and I took a whole second round of meds, and we are mostly well now.

David and Kayla’s crew are well, and Aspen has made a full recovery, praise God!!

Besides my one moment of panic that Monday morning when the grand kids were here, I had such an immense peace throughout this all.

Ok, wait, I did have one other terrible moment when I got the text from Kayla that Aspen was being transferred to a bigger hospital – it was pretty much a pacing up and down the hallway sobbing kind of thing.

My heart was hurting!!

You all, I seriously could hardly pray during all of this….but that is what is SO amazing about the body of Christ.

We had SO MANY friends standing in the gap for us, praying fervently for us, and supporting us with constant messages and food.

Illness in our area has been super bad these last two months.

We were not the only ones sick and we know many people who are still very sick!

This was a bacterial virus for us, and it hung on.

There is SO much to be thankful for though!

For our doctor who is only 12 minutes away.

That the boys live close by and were able to be here with us.

That, even though it is never our first choice, we were able to get the medication we needed to help us get well.

That Blake only missed work that one day to care for us.

And most importantly for the care the Aspen (and Kayla) received.

Their care was incredible.

Praise the Lord for it ALL!!

I am still praising Him and thanking Him for every single part of those weeks!

He is kind, and good, and gives us what is BEST for us and for His glory.

I hope, if you made it to the end of this long trip down memory lane, that you and yours have been well.

I hope that you stay well!

But if not, I hope you can still praise God for whatever He brings and that you can see His hand in it all.

To God be the Glory!!