You Don't See That Every Day

Summer is almost over. We've had lots of family time this summer, as I might have mentioned in previous posts. August slipped past us quickly. We started the month with another family picnic, this time on my Dad's side of the family. He is one of two of his family left. We ate, we visited, we played games. This year the games were not the traditional races or feats of strength (3-legged race is brutal). We did some "Minute to Win It" like games instead. Besides the wind blowing the red plastic cups off the tables, it was a fun time. And there were water balloons to throw at my brother in the end. Somehow he got a hold of a few and soaked our dad with them. I'll be surprised to see if he's still in the Will. Little K has her ballet camp again this year. She wasn't so sure she wanted to go back on the second day because her muscles hurt. But she made it through the week and really enjoyed it! We get to see the results when she puts on Shows at ...

My kids often played school with their siblings, friends, and/or cousins when they were younger. I did it when I was a kid too. But I never wanted to be a Teacher. (Yes, there is irony in me homeschooling my children.) As I've gotten older and experienced the world. I've come to appreciate teachers much, much more. I spend maybe an hour or two twice a month teaching kids in Sunday school. I can't imagine doing that day after day during the school year. I've also had a large number of coaches in my life. 4 years of high school track and then cross country,  4 years of basketball and two more in college, along with the dozens of coaches my kids have gone through .... brings me to really appreciate the patience and knowledge passed on from these coaches to me and to my children. But this past week I have had a new experience in the teaching realm. I got to coach Long Jump for our track and field group at the church Skills Camp. It was ... wonderful. I thoroughly enjoy...

15 days into the new year. I'll share with you some of what has been happening around here. It was a rough week last week. And it is going to be tough for a little longer, emotionally. I had planned on writing here at least weekly, but then we had some kick-in-the-stomach moments that derailed my plans. We got some news that sent my thoughts to tumbling, like towels and sheets in the dryer -- you know how they get twisted and turned around and fall all over? That's what the thoughts in my head were doing, and I couldn't make sense of them. All I could do was pray for the people affected even deeper by the latest events. So forgive me if this post doesn't flow well, or if it rambles. A week into the New Year we heard that the son of a family in our church, had died. He was 19. In our viewpoint that was not the time to go to heaven. And my mama-heart hurts for his mama, who now has to face each day without her firstborn. I drive by their house and tears come to my e...

This weekend was a winning weekend! On Saturday two of our girls, Dots and Squiggles, participated in the Awana Games. This is where teams from around the area get together at a local gym - a college in our case - and compete against each other in some fun games. There's the balloon volley, the 'marathon' - which is running in circles basically for 6 laps, the 3 legged-race, and some throwing-bean-bags competition. One of the fun ones is the Sparkies crawl - this is where the Sparkies, who are in grades K through 2, get down and crawl across the floor - not too hard, right? Except that there are 4 teams coming from 4 different directions, intersecting in the 'middle'. It's pretty much controlled chaos, and so fun to watch. Well, after all was said and done our church's teams won the games! Both girls' teams came in first, so that was pretty exciting. They each got to take home a medal, which is now hanging somewhere in their bedrooms. On Sunday the Mr...

I ran away from home last weekend. My family helped me pack. Now before you think about staging intervention - it was actually a good thing. Every 10 years or so, I go away to a women's retreat. Yeah, 10 years! It took me that long to recover from the last women's retreat I went on. Back in 2004, I managed to make it to 2 different retreats ... and at/during both of them, something tragic happened. One involved the death of a neighbor's child, the other involved my miscarriage. So, maybe way down deep inside I had subconscious reservations about going again. Or maybe life just got busy with babies and school kids and health issues. And beyond that, my fears kept me home. Some of you know about my chronic hives story. They are better; but lately I have been having gut reactions to some foods, not just hives reactions. So when I first heard about the retreat, which was going to be held at the coast, I was excited! because I love going to the beach. Even the cold, Oregon b...

In my corner of the world, life goes on despite the illness in the house: --the basketball team from my high school is playing against our son's high school basketball team this weekend. I really wanted to go watch, but due to health-money-travel-time-commitments, we won't be going this year. It's not like our son is playing .. if he was we would definitely be there! Maybe next year. --My husband started a new job! For years we were praying for a change, and we thought we had a chance at a job last summer, only to lose it at the last minute. Looking back, we see what a good thing that was, because this job the Mr. has now is exactly what he needs and what he wanted. It's pretty exciting when he comes home at night in a good mood, looking forward to actually going to work the next day. --Our girl Dot was in Awana Bible Quiz this past weekend. She didn't place this year, but she actually stood up and answered a question - which itself I find hard, because you ...

Just a little warning ahead of time, this will probably end up being a pretty random entry. The unifying theme here is the kids, and the month of November. The girls have been taking piano lessons since October, and it has been so fun to hear them play now. The first week ... well the little key -plunking got old really fast, but their enthusiasm never waned. Just like the leaves from our trees. The girls would go out one day and rake the leaves from both the front and back yards; the next day it would look like they hadn't even been there. They haven't been discouraged yet. Maybe it's the novelty of jumping in the leaf-piles, or the fun of climbing in the bin to pack the leaves in a little, whatever it takes, they keep going back out happily, to rake the leaves. Big Miss M. got to go to a little party at a neighbor's house. They made these cute, yummy, little turkeys - they really did look better in person when they were fresh. This was taken a day or so later...

This summer marks the 14th year we've been going to our church. We love it; it feels like family.   We've been singing this song the past few weeks in church. And I love it. It makes me happy - just the sound sets my feet to tapping. One of my girls turned to me after we sang the third verse, and with a grin, said "I love that line!" - I think she meant the 'crushing' part .... Oh boy. Lately the sermons our pastor has been preaching seem to come to fruition the following day/week. Remember our adventure back when hiking season started for us? Learning humility and leaning on someone else, not just our own efforts, these were two of the life lessons we learned that day. Interestingly enough, that was the point in the sermon we had heard the day before. This weekend in church Pastor talked about change and the benefits of change. God loves change. People don't seem to like it so much. I know I don't! And wouldn't you know ... today at my husban...

In my corner of the world last week ... we had a doozy of a week. So this is going to appear kind of random (that's for you Amy!) : ) The kids had VBS every morning - which was pretty nice as Little K and I got a lot done and spent some great time one on one. She loves to do puzzles now, so we spent a lot time doing that, besides cleaning shopping baking and organizing. My aunt had a huge garage sale last week, so we got a few things out to that, and of course, we found a few items there that we brought home too! We also dealt with a lot of grief last week. A friend of ours died in a tragic accident. My husband and I had some good conversations about sorrow and prayer from all of this. But it still hurts. I bought a waffle maker again. Finally. I went to Costco this time, because if this one breaks at least they will take it back and replace it! This week we are prepping for camping. That involves a lot of lists for me. And some shopping. Which I actually don't like anymo...

In my corner of the world this week.... I made pillows. I had two leftover fleece, king sized pillow cases. Instead of spending mucho bucks for pillows, I bought some forms at the fabric store, made a casing with leftover fabric I have had for years, and now the kids have some big pillows to use for reading or watching TV. Feeling crafty and frugal. The girls held a lemonade stand fundraiser for two days this week. They are raising funds to help our friends get to Uganda on a missionary trip. They spent the past couple of days or weeks (?) making little crafty things - jewelry, cards, knitting items; then they set up a lemonade and cookie stand, along with their crafts, to sell to anyone who came by. They even put signs up around the neighborhood to advertise. I love their ingenuity and the fact that they didn't just ask me for money. They thought of this all on their own. I ran for the first time in over a week. Mornings have been just too busy! What!? This is summer, crazy ...

In my corner of the world this past week I did ... our taxes. Just the preliminary figuring. I wrote down the numbers, researched the numbers, added the numbers. It was kind of, sort of, fun. Almost like solving a puzzle. I ran ... and ran! I made it up to 5 miles today! My first mile was alone, kind of a warm up. Then I snagged our dog and ran with her 2 miles. She is such a good pace-setter. And getting better at not chasing the squirrels. Or else they are hiding when we go by. The last 2 miles I exchanged the canine pacer for a minion-pacer.  My daughter and her bicycle helped me finish up. Oh, it feels good to go this distance one again! I baked ... heart sugar cookies last week. Most of them went to my son's basketball team for snacks, but the girls and G got some too. We didn't do a big Valentines Day celebration, because, really every day is a Love-ly day with my family. (But we did watch the Charlie Brown special!) I watched ... plenty of basketball. I love the game...

For weeks we had been looking forward to this weekend. Our church was having a special speaker, we had a dessert night that G and I were going to; and there was a city-wide service day planned for Saturday. And then the chips began to fall. First the oldest girl got sick, and was up at night coughing and hacking. The littles got it next. So last weekend it had run its course through all of the girls. We had high hopes for the upcoming weekend (which is now). We even signed up to help serve in a retirement home in town. But alas, the bug wasn't done. G and I came down with the cough and sniffles. By Thursday evening I had no voice left. I couldn't even cheer at my son's last football game. And by Friday morning we knew we should not be around the older folks on Saturday. We managed to make it to the Friday night dessert and not shake hands or cough on anyone. We heard Luis Palau speak on the amazing things God is doing in Portland. We went home energized to see ...

 We're working through the computer issues we have had. I think I am back to being able to blog with photos again. Here is the birthday cake from last weekend. It's hard for me to believe my little girl is 7. Here is littlest sister peaking out from behind *some* of the gifts.   It's amazing how gullible a 13 year old can be sometimes. And how much my husband likes to try and trick him (and the girls) whenever he can. We were attempting to fix a cable that connects our Xbox with the TV. G had the boy semi-convinced that holding the foil on his head would help the "signal". He realized when I got the camera out that this wasn't quite the case.     We woke up one morning to a hot air balloon nearly over our house. It was close enough we could see the forms of the people in it. I'm sure they could hear us too. Little K was pretty thrilled with the whole thing. Later in the day she had a (homemade!) granola bar. I made them a little differently th...

What a weekend! I spent Saturday canning peaches and plums. After I did a 3 mile PR. And attending a niece's birthday party. It was a long full day. Sunday was our church picnic. For the past few years we have had one big church service at a local park, and then potluck picnic right afterwards. This year the weather was perfect! A little cloudy in the morning with bright sunny, but not too hot skies, in the afternoon. Our neighbors joined us this time - and we spent the day just hanging with them and talking. I love living in a neighborhood where we like our those we live next to. When G and I were once discussing who would be fun to go out with, as a couple. And our neighbors were the first that came to mind.  So Monday dawned bright and early. I had to take the boy down to his school and get a class changed in his schedule. We waited in line for over an hour. Now I know kids in high school or bigger schools probably have much longer lines and waits .. but this being our ...

It was time to unload all the photos from my cameras today. And I even found time to do a little blogging. What a week! My husband was able to work from home part of the week, so the computer was not readily accessible to me. It was sure nice to have him around though! I made these cream puffs and they did not last long at all. We devoured them! I went through the boxes and boxes of baby clothes that I have had stored in our 'playroom'. It's all part of my de-clutter and minimalism effort. Plus, I'm pretty dang sure we don't need the baby clothes anymore! The girls' book reports this past week were 'dioramas' that portrayed a scene in the book or an important idea from it. All three wanted to make one - so we've got the kindergartner's book, Bailey goes Camping The 3rd grader did "Princess Alice and the Glass Slipper": And the 5th grader did a Boxcar Children book: In the middle of the week we took part of the day off...

It's been quiet here this week. Not too much out of the ordinary happening. Here are some seriously random ramblings spewing from my brain: Today is my son's last track meet. And I can't make it to see him run. It was hard to accept that, but I've moved on. I'm looking forward to hearing how he did. And kind of hoping he'll call in between time to tell me. I've got a lot of thoughts running through my head concerning money. Specifically lack of it, or how to stretch it. How do we raise our 5 children on the single income we have? How do we get out of debt? I'm thinking Thoughts (with a capital T). I might even unscramble them enough to write about it. Feel free to offer suggestions. I made some awesome zucchini bread the other day.  I bought 25 pounds of oats awhile back because we were using them so fast. So I am looking at everything I bake with the idea of adding oats to it. And Zucchini-Oat bread is delicious! I'll have to rummage that 2-re...

How I spent my Saturday. Sitting. Watching. Waiting. I saw two of my girls off at 7:30 this morning, with G. They headed to a swim meet. I got the other girls ready, and we went to Miss M's last basketball game of the season. And she did SO amazingly well! She had her eyes on the ball. She went after it like it was chocolate. She dribbled it down the court and scored a basket! I was so very proud of her and how far she has come since the first game back in January. I sat and watched her game, while hanging out with this sweet face: After a quick lunch, I headed back out to town. This time to sit with my oldest girl in the state playoffs of Awana Bible quizzing. They had 20 multiple choice questions, of which she only missed one: And then on the speed drills she wasn't able to answer in time. There were others there who hit their buzzer much more quickly. Sometimes (often) before the question was even finished being asked., someone would buzz in and answer it! ...