A Full Week with a Fun Ending

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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!!

We had a great end to our week too as we celebrated Eliza Claire turning TEN years old!!!

She is such a beautiful, talented, sweet, smiley, intelligent, giggly girl…and it was a JOY to celebrate her!!!

I’m so privileged to be her Mama!!

My next post will be all about her birthday celebration we had yesterday – because I took somewhere close to a million photos, ha, ha!

What a great week!!

We had some beautiful days!!

This week we are supposed to warm up into the 40’s and 50’s….what??!!

I can’t wait.

Looking forward to spring like weather and all that spring will bring, Lord willing.

Hope you all had a great week too!

And are enjoying spring wherever you are!!

It’s March!

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Can you not believe that it’s March either?

I feel like February was a blur…but slow at the same time as we dealt with illness.

All eight of us are healthy now!!

Lord willing, we will be done with fevers and respiratory illness for awhile!

Our week last week started off quick, as we had our monthly women’s get-together on Monday night.

I am on the committee that helps put on our monthly get-togethers – it is fun to be a part of!

This month we had a panel of five guys come and share with all us ladies and girls.

My guy was one of those five guys!

Those guys drew a CROWD!!

They did a fantastic job too!!

We had a full house that night and a delicious Mexican meal to start everything off.

Wednesday morning brought not one, but three orthodontic evaluations.

We know that Lane, Tate, and Eliza all will need orthodontic work, but we needed to see who needed what and most importantly when.

We have a plan now!

And a good one!

I’m thankful for our orthodontist!!

All of the big kids and myself have had care by him.

Thursday started before daylight as Blake took Addie Mae to the airport to head out on an eight day trip to Pennsylvania.

She is having a wonderful time with her friend there!

That first morning she sent me her sunrise photo from the window of the plane – she knows how much I love the sky!!

Friday was Blake and my 33rd anniversary!

We had a nice evening at home with our youngest three, and even got out our VCR TV player to show them our wedding video.

Tate kept saying “Your voice is the same, Mom!”

Then we started watching old home videos after that – what a hoot!!

It was so fun to see the youngest watch videos of the oldest when they were their age!

Blake also brought home these beautiful flowers and some chocolate and ice cream that night.

He’s a KEEPER!!!

The rest of our week was normal things like eating, school, food prep, eating, playing games, eating, read aloud, and eating.

Yes, it feels like we are always eating, ha, ha!

You know me – always looking for a project!

So I continued through my winter cleaning and cleaned out all the drawers.

I filled the kitchen garbage by the time I was done!

It’s amazing what you find thrown in drawers.

I did find this, though – a notebook I kept as we walked through our adoptions.

I wrote down every detail.

What a treasure to show God’s faithfulness!!

We went through some crazy hard and unbelievable stuff!!

As soon as we had Eliza and Tate in our arms it was ALL SO WORTH IT and all forgotten!

Another project I am starting is making refrigerator sour dough.

I think Tate and I will love to try this!

Hopefully it will work!

I had to order a dough whisk and two vented containers to get us started, and they arrived over the weekend.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Tate is still doing his therapy stretching to help with stiffness and pain.

I showed him a new stretch this week, and he got Lane to do it with him.

Lane could not keep his legs straight – so I think we better have him start stretching daily with us too!

Speaking of Lane – he came to me one morning right after he woke up and said, “Mom, do you ever wake up in the morning and feel like you are a lot taller?”

I said, “Can’t say that I have – but do you ever wake up in the morning and feel like you have shrunk?”

I do, ha, ha.

Yep – we are raising another giant here!

Lane may end up taller than Chad – time will tell!

Last, but not least, let me give a SHOUT OUT for Sundays!

I love Sundays!!

After church it’s our family day and we hardly ever miss having it be that way.

I hope it always continues to be so!!

Sunday family day started way back when we lived in Illinois over 20 years ago and my Mom and Dad would have whoever could be there over for dinner on Sunday evening.

We would grill steaks or hamburgers, take walks, eat ice cream, and just hang out – such GREAT memories!!

You all should try Sunday family day!!

It’s the best!!

Now it’s time for another week!

It was in the 50’s on Saturday, but we are expecting snow again this week – welcome to Wisconsin!

It takes spring a while to really want to stick around here.

I’m hoping for a good, soft, beautiful, deep, fluffy snow storm that we can play in.

If there is going to be snow, let’s make it worth it!!

I hope you are having more spring weather where ever you all are!

Send it our way if you are!

Have a great week friends!!

I Spoke A Little Too Soon

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Not long after I posted on my last post early last Monday morning, I woke the kiddos to get started on our day.

Eliza came upstairs and laid on the couch like she always does, but it did not take me long to realize she was burning hot with a fever.

Sweet baby girl!

So much for getting back to normal, huh?!

Eliza literally slept all day on Monday.

Thankfully she was back to 100 percent when she woke on Tuesday morning, Praise the Lord!

Then came Friday morning.

While I was getting ready for the day, I went out into the main room to write something on the grocery list without turning the big lights on.

Suddenly I realized someone was staring at me!

It was Tate, who was on the couch, and guess what?

Yes, burning hot with a fever.

He was down all day Friday and Saturday, but is all better now, Praise the Lord!!

I am SO, so thankful for Young Living products that help support us when we are well or when we are sick!

I believe the Lord blesses the way we eat, the essential oils we use, and the supplements we take.

I’m thankful!!

This week did have some normal in between all the fevers and all.

Like starting each day with time in God’s Word…

Time in school…

where we read a cute story for read aloud time instead of starting our new chapter book.

Time in piano lessons…

And time making good food!

At the beginning of the week Blake and I were carefully watching the weather and all of the children for any more illness.

We had planned to have an overnight get-away Wednesday and Thursday.

The big kiddos had given this to us as a Christmas gift!

Late Tuesday afternoon we decided to go ahead and go, at Addie’s encouragement as she was the one who was taking over here at home.

I’m SO glad we still were able to go!!

We drove away early Wednesday morning and were not five minutes away when I announced, “I’M HAVING THE BEST TIME!!!”

My hubby laughed and told me I had a serious case of cabin fever he was hoping to cure in the next 48 hours, ha, ha.

We headed to Rochester, Minnesota, and enjoyed lunch out and an afternoon of shopping.

I talked Blake’s ear off the whole way there and all through lunch!

I had warned him that he would have approximately 42 things I needed his opinion on and his decision about!

We had the BEST time!

We love to walk through Co-ops and Natural Grocery stores in different cities, crazy as that sounds!

We found several to check out and it was super fun.

Of course treats were in order.

We went to our hotel suite around dinner time.

Late in the evening we made a yummy meal – all the ingredients brought from home.

We also sat with my notebook open to make lists, plan school for this fall, draw plans for things we hope to do on the land this year, and write down our budget for this year.

A very fruitful time!

It was SO nice to just be the two of us, even as much as we love this loud and crazy life we have with our kiddos!!

As always it was nice to be back home – and just in time for Tate to not feel well.

Friday had us hanging out together, and I might have been dreaming about spring while planning our garden.

The weather this weekend was SO beautiful!!

Blue, sunny, and in the 30’s and 40’s which made it feel like a taste of spring!!

Besides working in the kitchen (see all that food above!), I did some spring cleaning and even had several windows open!

We had a special celebration this weekend as well.

It was 24 years ago today that we drove a few hours to the Chicago Int’l Airport and got to hold our oldest son, Grant Evan, for the very first time.

One of the best days of our lives!!

Today is Grant’s Day!!

We had a fun celebration last night with a meal that Grant chose – Chap Chae, Egg Rolls (store bought!), fruit salad, and chocolate waffles with homemade vanilla ice cream.

Before we started our celebration, we took a huge pan of Chap Chae over to Kay’s crew – illness with us and with them was keeping us apart.

Everyone enjoyed the meal very much!

Kayla messaged me and said “I haven’t eaten much yet, but this tastes SO good!!”

That made my heart very happy since I am the lady who likes to feed all the people!!

Grant was so kind to pose for his Mama for this photo!!

WE LOVE YOU G-man!!

SO THANKFUL WE ARE YOUR FOREVER!!!!

Do I dare say that we are getting back to normal today?

So far, it seems to be that it will be so!!

It was a good, full week, though, with SO many blessings!!

I hope you all had a great week too!!

And I hope you are getting glimpses of spring where you are!!

Getting Back to Normal

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Besides our Valentine party this week, we had lots of very normal things going on.

Very thankful for normal!!

Of course school has been happening, and our daily school rhythm is working well and filling our days with purpose.

This is how Eliza showed up for school the day after our Valentine party.

She kept those glasses on all day!!

Some of our favorite school activities, after we finish the “have to’s,” are read aloud, piano practice/lessons, and art class!

We started the book Guns for General Washington as our new read aloud this week, but are going to set it aside and start another new one.

This is a great story about an important event in history, but it is just not keeping our interest!

We read another short book this week too, called Aaron and the Green Mountain Boys.

After every read aloud time we make an illustration and narration – and yes, I make one too!

I love learning right along with these kiddos!!

Please notice the difference between my illustration and Eliza’s!

She was still working on hers when I snapped that photo – but that horse she drew is amazing!

We have been learning a lot about water color techniques and the color wheel in art class.

Tate and Eliza especially love water coloring and I will find them doing it almost every afternoon on their own time.

They find LOTS of things to keep them busy!

I am thankful for how they have learned to have initiative, how to be creative, and how to use their time wisely!

I found this next to my bed one night – I think I might hire her to make some cards for me!

Saturday evening was our monthly hymn sing get together.

It was a LOVELY drive to our friend’s place – such a beautiful evening.

Our hymn sing was wonderful too!

We could barely pull ourselves away and got home much too late considering we had church the next morning!

Do you all remember what I shared in my Christmas post about the word “enough?”

You can see that again here if you like – at the end of that post.

I recently ordered a mug with the word “enough” on it when I saw a post about these mugs and the fact that they raise money to provide one week of safe, clean water for someone in need in Africa.

You can check out their website and products here.

I always enjoy a beautiful mug!

But I certainly enjoy one with so much meaning even more.

The Lord has been showing me over these last few months that He is always with me.

ALWAYS!

I have dozens of stories I could share about how the Lord is showing me this, but let me share just one.

In church one Sunday a while back one of our elders shared the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abenego – and how the Lord did not put out the fire that they were standing in.

He could have!

But He didn’t.

Instead, God went into the fire WITH THEM.

God was WITH them there, in the fire.

I love this thought so much.

Think on this for a minute before you click off of this post and onto your next thing.

And then PRAISE the Lord that He is with us!

Thank you, Jesus, for being with us!!

He is ENOUGH.

Jesus is enough!!

Relish in that today, friends!!

May we never ever forget!!

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