And There Goes March!

by Steph // Monday, March 28, 2022 // Comments off

Good sunny morning from us here at Twin Oaks!!

How thankful I am that the sun is shining – it has been missing around these parts lately!

It’s a very cold 16 degrees…so the sun matters, just saying.

We jumped back into full-time school work last Monday after our busy week the week before, and enjoyed a week of school!

Piano lessons started again too after our piano teacher’s spring break.

It was a GREAT week!!

Chad had some economics lectures to listen to this past week –

Art class was super fun on Thursday!

In the midst of all that fun school happening, we filled our free time with lots of other things.

Last Monday was 69 degrees, remember?

I washed and put away all the snow clothes and we were outside endlessly that day!!

There is always laundry – snow clothes or not – and we have folding parties to keep up with it all.

Tuesday brought pouring rain and cold.

I had to run to town for an appointment and lots of errands – it was not fun in all that rain!

Here is another reason I like to be a country girl – look at the traffic!

Tuesday’s weather carried through the rest of the week and even part of Saturday – it has been so, so cold and either raining or snowing.

We found lots to keep us busy here at home!

Of course there was lots of yummy food!

The cold weather gave us the urge to bake too.

Here’s the kid’s lunch one day –

And here is my lunch!

I made meatloaf for dinner one evening – the guys LOVE meatloaf!

Baking things fills bellies and makes your home smell fantastic all at the same time!

We had Asian chicken which is SO yummy!

The basting sauce is apricot jam, lime juice, fresh garlic and fresh ginger.

So much flavor!

Another favorite here is baked yam bar.

So filling!

We also played lots of games and even watched some shows one long afternoon.

Friday took me back to town super early to get our weekly grocery.

It was COLD.

I shop for the bulk of our grocery at a place called Woodman’s, which is an employee owned store with the best prices.

Then I stop at one more store for the things I cannot get there – the most important things that is – like this chocolate I love, ha, ha!!

I have an amazing crew once I get home with a van full of grocery.

We have a system and have all of it put away fast!!

Friday was so snowy and blustery – the house just shook with the wind!

Eliza and I played games in the afternoon while Tate begged me for things to do in the kitchen.

Please never grow up, sweet boy!

He told me, “Mom, it’s great being ten because you get to do things all by yourself with no help.”

Isn’t that so sweet?!

You go for it, Tater Tot!!

Saturday the guys went on an adventure – to a gun range in Rochester, Minnesota and to shop at Scheels.

It was our birthday present to Grant all the way back in August!

They had the BEST time and I’m so glad they got to do that together!!

They were just missing David, who had other plans.

Tate and Eliza and I pulled off a big kitchen day on Saturday morning and then we had the afternoon free.

Tate was reading a book to Eliza, who was downstairs, over the walkie talkies with their ear buds in.

I love the creative things they find to do!!

Saturday was super SWEET watching just the two of them have the day together!

Sometimes three is a crowd, if you know what I mean!

We also went for a walk when the sun came out Saturday afternoon, but only lasted about five minutes because good grief it was cold and so very windy!!

Yesterday was filled with church and our favorites…how CUTE is this??

I think Ellie Joy lined those up that way – she is our little organized one!!

Having Sundays with David, Kayla and the grands is the BEST!!!

Did I mention it was sunny today?

And it was sunny yesterday?

It’s SO pretty!!!

Last but not least, here is a favorite photo from the week of Tate wearing my sweater.

He made me feel like I must be a giant as he wore that around the house!

Can you imagine if he put on Chad’s sweatshirt??

Chad really is a giant!

It was a fantastic week.

Here’s hoping for another one – but it really is all about perspective anyway!

I promise there is good in everything!!!

We are counting down the days until our fantastic get-away – NINE SLEEPS!!!

The kids are SO excited and SO ARE BLAKE AND I!!!

Hope your week was great, friends, and that the sun is shining where you are today!!

Is It Still Winter or Spring?

by Steph // Monday, March 21, 2022 // Comments off

What a fast week it has been!

We had so many fun and different things going on this past week.

Monday started as usual with chores, school, and keeping our home.

The only difference was the time change – can I just say that no Mom anywhere was involved in the whole “let’s change the time twice a year” decision?

Everyday we review Bible verses that we have memorized, and learn new Bible verses each week.

What a valuable thing for us!

God’s Word hidden in our hearts!

This is what parenting young ones in your 50’s looks like – leftover birthday cake for morning snack, ha, ha!

Eliza’s birthday gifts were a welcome new blessing this past week.

They have LOVED these writing tablets – they are just for drawing on.

You hit the trash button on it to clear it so you can draw again!

Brilliant.

They have played with them endlessly.

Tuesday brought Blake’s sister and her daughter here for most of the day!

It was wonderful and we had such a nice visit.

I’m so thankful they make stops here on their way to other places!!

Wednesday and Thursday brought a last minute overnight visit from one of my dearest friends from our days we lived in Illinois!

Oh how I enjoyed having Melody here!

We did not stop talking the entire time she was here, and we also snuck in a visit to Kay’s place!!

Super early Friday morning I hit the ground running and headed to town to get grocery and run errands.

Good thing I did, because a snow storm started on my way home!

The snow came down hard and fast and we ended up with over 3 inches before it was all done.

Blake and I still managed a date night Friday night, as we had some birthday shopping to do!

It was a sweet time since my date picked me up by 5:30 and we got to ride back to town together.

We finished our time with a treat – which I paid for since it is loaded with sugar – and sugar and my body do not get along.

Not gonna say it was worth it, but I enjoyed having some bites of ice cream!

Of course our week was filled with FOOD.

Buying the food, storing the food, and making the food!

Food is a weird word, isn’t it??

I could not resist these watermelon at grocery on Friday, even though a snow storm was headed our way.

They were delicious and a hope for summer!!

Tate and I made our first loaf of Artisan bread – see my last two posts if you do not know what I am talking about!

I am thankful I did not buy the cookbook for this – I had just borrowed it from the library.

The bread was good, my crew said, but it is VERY dense.

That was our first and last loaf of bread from that cookbook.

Kayla is making sourdough right now, and I think I am going to try that next!

Some of the clothes I had ordered for my growing kiddos started arriving.

Everything fit – woohoo!!!

Friday we realized something was up with our water heater.

Because Blake installed a booster on it a few months ago, we were still getting a smidge of hot water – but the water heater was broken.

Thankful for my handy guys!

They diagnosed the problem Saturday morning, headed to town and found the parts they needed, and were able to have hot water running again buy late afternoon on Saturday.

While the water heater was getting fixed I had to boil some water to wash dishes from a big kitchen day on Saturday – this is just one of three piles that got washed that day!

Saturday evening was our monthly Hymn Sing at our friends place and it was a JOY as always!!

We get home wwaaaayyyy too late, and our faces hurt from smiling so much!!

Well, we had snow on Friday that melted on Saturday and then it was 60 degrees yesterday.

Today it is 69 degrees!!

Crazy weather keeping us on our toes!

These days are beautiful.

So beautiful!

Yesterday Addie and I sat on the deck in the sun (I was grading school work) and then we went for a brisk walk!

Sunday we had church and snack night with our favorites.

During church I glanced down one of the rows we fill (David, Kayla and Aspen were in front of us), and was just AWE STRUCK at all the Lord has allowed for us!

Just look.

We have something very, very exciting coming up – so Tate and Eliza made countdown calendars to mark off the days!!

Can you see what it is???

I’m not sure winter is completely over for sure, but I am washing and putting away all of the snow clothes and snow boots, so there’s that!

We sure would welcome more days like yesterday and today!!

Either way we are enjoying our days fully and looking forward to what’s ahead – Lord willing!

So should I say happy winter or happy spring to you all today?

How about this – This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!!

Glad in it, indeed.

Happy Monday, friends!!

Happy TENTH Birthday, Eliza Claire!!

by Steph // Friday, March 18, 2022 // Comments off

Can you believe it, our Eliza is TEN years old!

Of course we had a birthday party this past Sunday to celebrate that fact!

She was SUPER excited and planned the meal – fish tacos with all the fixings, and chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and berries.

PERFECT menu!!

I made the cakes late on Saturday night – and this is what you get when it is not Addie Mae doing the cake baking, ha, ha!

Lane, Tate and even Eliza decorated for the party on Sunday morning before church.

It was cute!

And so fun to watch them work together!!

I set the coffee maker before we left for church too, and we were excited to try this coffee Addie Mae brought home from Hershey, Pennsylvania.

After church our favorites followed us home and we shared that delicious meal for lunch!

After lunch it was time for Eliza to open her gifts!

Several weeks before her birthday I had asked her what she would enjoy receiving.

She said, “Oh, that’s easy! A new puppy.”

I told her that wasn’t going to happen and to think of something else.

To which she said, “No problem! A new horse then.”

Oh boy.

She is so cute though!!

Well, we found some gifts for our animal loving girl anyway, and she loved everything!

Addie Mae frosted and fixed up the cakes when we got home from church.

Saved me, she did.

Eliza loved her little personal cake!

I had made Magnolia’s Chocolate Cola Cake – and it is delicious!!

We spent the rest of the day and evening together and IT WAS THE BEST!!

Here they are all drawing on their writing tablets – such a cute photo of life here!!

You know I get sappy around birthdays, right?

Well, I do.

Especially our two youngest – there is just so much emotion attached to their birthdays.

Our first birthday with Eliza was when she turned three because she came home when she was two years and four months old.

What a JOY to celebrate our sweet girl!!

Eliza has come SO far and it is so wonderful to be able to watch her learn and grow.

Well, both of my babies are now ten – so if you will excuse me I need to go and have a good cry!!

Happy, happy birthday, Eliza Claire!!!

WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

A Full Week with a Fun Ending

by Steph // Monday, March 14, 2022 // Comments off

Did you all have a good week?

Our week was full of days of school work with a lot of other things thrown in as well!

School has been a joy, as always.

Our rhythm is working and enjoyable!

My favorite things are reading aloud to the children and doing art projects with them!

I have been joining Tate for his daily piano practice time, and he is progressing nicely again and is much less frustrated.

I’m so thankful they are still enjoying piano so much!

Of course there was a lot of food that went through our kitchen again this week!

I have started to replace some things in that kitchen of ours – we use it HARD.

I have lots of things that have just wore out!

We got all new kitchen towels this year – I think I bought 25!

Blake also bought me a bigger soup pot.

I recently picked up two new 9×13 glass pans.

Next up is serving bowls with lids – what happened to all of those?

I think they chip or break and eventually you realize you don’t have any left!

Good thing I love to stock, organize and run that busy kitchen of ours!

It was a fun week in the food department.

Tate and I also got started on that Artisan bread I told you about in my last post.

I’m hoping to pull my first dough off of it today and bake a loaf of bread!

Speaking of Tate, he is doing well – as stable as ever – and filling our home with so much life and joy!

And I simply LOVE the ways that he sits!!

Wednesday of this past week I took my trio and I to town for the morning.

We have some kiddos that are growing like weeds!

I had a lot of clothes to sell, and more to buy in new bigger sizes.

We also needed to stop at Sam’s Club and stock up on all our paper and dry goods.

We made $110 selling out grown clothes and got almost everything the children needed!

I came home and ordered a few more things on line and now they are set.

The bad thing about second hand clothes is that they stink like very strong smelly laundry soap.

It’s SO strong and overwhelms our senses.

I wash all of the kiddos new-to-them clothes about three times before we feel like they are not so smelly.

We had actually only bought a hand full of things from the second hand store.

This time when I washed them I added some tea tree to the our laundry soap, and I feel like it really helped get the smell out!

When we arrived home Wednesday at lunch time, Eliza had a package from her pen pal.

Eliza’s birthday was this week – more on that in a minute!

We LOVE Eliza’s pen pal and her family – they are the sweetest!!!

Eliza and I have a HUGE dream of going to Oregon to meet them someday!

Thursday morning I called to get Eliza a haircut appointment at her request.

Our gal had an opening at 4 p.m. that day so we took it!

One hour and six inches later, Eliza had a beautiful new haircut!

This first photo is before –

Isn’t that SO cute!!!

Friday had me back in town bright and early to get our weekly grocery.

It was FREEZING.

Like below zero with a fierce wind freezing.

But look at that sky!!

Addie Mae had a fantastic week away on her trip out east!!!

WE MISSED HER SO MUCH!

Even Ruby missed her, and managed to keep some of us up during the night as she just would not settle in with Addie gone.

Cute puppy, ahem.

This was a much needed nap for both Ruby and Eliza one day.

Thankfully we had technology to keep us in touch with Addie – we got lots of video calls – when she was touring D.C. especially!

We were supposed to pick up Addie from our local airport on Friday night before things went wrong.

Her plane out of Harrisburg was delayed, which meant she was going to miss her connection in Chicago.

When the guy was trying to help her, he “accidentally” took her off her first flight – and of course her seat was instantly given to someone on stand by.

Addie walked up to board the plane and was told she no longer had a seat and that the plane was full!!

Crazy.

Well….there was a huge snow storm coming that way, and they knew if they did not get Addie out of there she wouldn’t get out of there the next day either, so we made a joint decision to send her to North Carolina.

The last plane out of that airport that evening, so why not?

She got to a hotel at 1 a.m. and slept for a few hours before heading back to the airport to wait on another flight our direction.

We ended up having to pick Addie up in Madison on Saturday – about a 2 1/2 hour drive from home.

We decided to make it a family trip so we could at least be all together!

I’m glad we did!

It was fun!

And we are SO, so glad to have Addie back home!!