Not bad for a first attempt.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Christmas Fortress
Aidan and Brett's mom made this from scratch. Aidan created a 3D model of it first, they baked gingerbread and then construction began.
Not bad for a first attempt.
Not bad for a first attempt.
Friday, December 21, 2012
School's Out!
Brett is currently finishing up his very last final of the semester, and the kids have finished most of my "must do before I set you free for your Christmas break" list. I'm mostly ready on a physical level for Christmas, and trying to be ready on a spiritual level as well.
A couple of nights ago we went to a light display that the city nextdoor holds. It was a great night. Not too cold, not too windy. My absolute favorite part of the evening however was watching the 3-year-old. She was taking in every moment of our evening out. Of course there was a bit of joking about how she was just amazed to be "in town" now that we are country-folk, but the enjoyment on her face was simply priceless. She lit up (pun intended) at the manger scene. I've tried to take her attitude and marvel at the beauty of it instead of be an adult and gripe that it was the only religious scene in the whole display. How far are we going to go here? Christmas!!! It's CHRISTmas. Holidays, HOLYdays. I mean, people, there are so many things to get offended about, but removing Christmas from Christmas? I just don't understand.
Okay, I seriously did not mean to turn this post into a rant. My intention was to explain the irony in my sweet daughter's love for the manger light display. You see, not a week before we were talking about Christmas with the kids and what they were looking forward to. Most of them (good parenting award) were excited about the secret gifts that they've been working on for parents/siblings. The resident 3-year-old redhead however exclaimed, "I'm excited for all of the gifts people are going to give me". Lovely. The true meaning of Christmas, fail.
I hope to have some pictures up soon. My camera was on loan some good-looking percussion professor and I just got it back. In the meantime I'm holding my kids extra close, extra long, and that's all I'm going to say about that. You get it.
A couple of nights ago we went to a light display that the city nextdoor holds. It was a great night. Not too cold, not too windy. My absolute favorite part of the evening however was watching the 3-year-old. She was taking in every moment of our evening out. Of course there was a bit of joking about how she was just amazed to be "in town" now that we are country-folk, but the enjoyment on her face was simply priceless. She lit up (pun intended) at the manger scene. I've tried to take her attitude and marvel at the beauty of it instead of be an adult and gripe that it was the only religious scene in the whole display. How far are we going to go here? Christmas!!! It's CHRISTmas. Holidays, HOLYdays. I mean, people, there are so many things to get offended about, but removing Christmas from Christmas? I just don't understand.
Okay, I seriously did not mean to turn this post into a rant. My intention was to explain the irony in my sweet daughter's love for the manger light display. You see, not a week before we were talking about Christmas with the kids and what they were looking forward to. Most of them (good parenting award) were excited about the secret gifts that they've been working on for parents/siblings. The resident 3-year-old redhead however exclaimed, "I'm excited for all of the gifts people are going to give me". Lovely. The true meaning of Christmas, fail.
I hope to have some pictures up soon. My camera was on loan some good-looking percussion professor and I just got it back. In the meantime I'm holding my kids extra close, extra long, and that's all I'm going to say about that. You get it.
Friday, November 23, 2012
2nd annual!
Last year the first big snow coincided with deer rifle-hunting season and so began the tradition of night sledding at our house. We are not on a lot of land ourselves but we have about 80 acres behind us that hunters frequent. So, no playing outside for the kids and when anyone is outside he/she is covered in blaze orange.
Ironically enough we just had our first real snowfall last night and so tonight the 2nd annual night-sledding night was held!
Felicity was forced to stay inside mainly because I was not completely ready to be outside and Brett is having a "brewfest" night with our beloved Fr.Andy!
Ironically enough we just had our first real snowfall last night and so tonight the 2nd annual night-sledding night was held!
Felicity was forced to stay inside mainly because I was not completely ready to be outside and Brett is having a "brewfest" night with our beloved Fr.Andy!
Buck hunting or...
Duck hunting?
Our neighbor's ducks woke up this morning, took one look at the 3 inches of snow covering their pond, tried to fly south, made a circle over our house and most of them found themselves at the bottom of our hill.
One, however, thought he's pay us a little visit. Classic!
Our neighbor's ducks woke up this morning, took one look at the 3 inches of snow covering their pond, tried to fly south, made a circle over our house and most of them found themselves at the bottom of our hill.
One, however, thought he's pay us a little visit. Classic!
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Here We Are
Apparently I have something against writing a blog post without a picture to go with it which is why I haven't written in a very long time. My "computer" (you can hardly call this machine a computer) has been sitting, uncharged, and I haven't loaded any new pictures on it lately.
1. For the first time in my "memory" I can see without any glasses or contacts. I got my first pair of glasses in second grade with a fairly hefty prescription and I truly have never been able to function without some sort of correction. Until now. Last week I had LASIK done on my eyes as a belated 25th birthday present from my very generous parents (very belated since I will be 32 in a week). When it was first offered I was either pregnant or breastfeeding a small infant and the timing didn't work out. We've had a little window and I jumped on it, and now I can see. What an amazing technology. I'm self-admittedly hard on modern medicine, but this procedure is one I can get behind. Wow!
2. This probably doesn't surprise you, but I was disappointed in the results of the big election we just had. Bummer. Too much to say, and haven't really found the best way to explain. I admit that regardless of what "side" anyone is on, we all want what this country promises us. We just don't all agree about how to ensure that happens. The goal with discussing politics is to do so with love. Just love. Sometimes loving means saying things to get someone to think more deeply about a situation, but sometimes it means to just shut-up (which is a swear word in our family and I have to laugh as I felt a little edgy typing it just then).
P.S. I'm grateful that I can disagree with some of my family members on these issues and still love them to pieces.
3. We have a wolf living in our woods. Aidan happened upon him while playing, they looked each other in the eyes, Aidan backed out, and now we have a trail cam set up in our-campsite-before-we-knew-we-had-a-wolf-living-there. I can relate a little to Laura Ingalls when she could hear the wolves howling outside of her house in the Big Woods (uhmm....yeah, that's pretty much here). He howled the other night and it truly sends shivers up and down the spine. Creepy.
4. My kids rock. There, I said it. No particular reason, they are just fun to be around.
5. Brett built a deck this fall and just in time for the snow to fly.
6. Veronica is not a little kid. Whenever I have the two youngest with me and say something about the two "little ones" she loudly corrects, "I'm not a little one. *I'm* a big sister".
7. Felicity is growing up. She is a constant reminder of the great blessings of this life.
8. We took last week off of school, and I wish I could say that I used the whole time to plan for the next handful of weeks. Nope, I didn't.
9. I wish I lived closer to our families.
10. Have I mentioned on here that in a couple of years we are taking the crew to Scotland for 3 weeks while Brett teaches in an exchange program? I'm just starting to believe it, and getting really excited about it. I'm afraid as the time gets closer you all will be sick of hearing about it.
1. For the first time in my "memory" I can see without any glasses or contacts. I got my first pair of glasses in second grade with a fairly hefty prescription and I truly have never been able to function without some sort of correction. Until now. Last week I had LASIK done on my eyes as a belated 25th birthday present from my very generous parents (very belated since I will be 32 in a week). When it was first offered I was either pregnant or breastfeeding a small infant and the timing didn't work out. We've had a little window and I jumped on it, and now I can see. What an amazing technology. I'm self-admittedly hard on modern medicine, but this procedure is one I can get behind. Wow!
2. This probably doesn't surprise you, but I was disappointed in the results of the big election we just had. Bummer. Too much to say, and haven't really found the best way to explain. I admit that regardless of what "side" anyone is on, we all want what this country promises us. We just don't all agree about how to ensure that happens. The goal with discussing politics is to do so with love. Just love. Sometimes loving means saying things to get someone to think more deeply about a situation, but sometimes it means to just shut-up (which is a swear word in our family and I have to laugh as I felt a little edgy typing it just then).
P.S. I'm grateful that I can disagree with some of my family members on these issues and still love them to pieces.
3. We have a wolf living in our woods. Aidan happened upon him while playing, they looked each other in the eyes, Aidan backed out, and now we have a trail cam set up in our-campsite-before-we-knew-we-had-a-wolf-living-there. I can relate a little to Laura Ingalls when she could hear the wolves howling outside of her house in the Big Woods (uhmm....yeah, that's pretty much here). He howled the other night and it truly sends shivers up and down the spine. Creepy.
4. My kids rock. There, I said it. No particular reason, they are just fun to be around.
5. Brett built a deck this fall and just in time for the snow to fly.
6. Veronica is not a little kid. Whenever I have the two youngest with me and say something about the two "little ones" she loudly corrects, "I'm not a little one. *I'm* a big sister".
7. Felicity is growing up. She is a constant reminder of the great blessings of this life.
8. We took last week off of school, and I wish I could say that I used the whole time to plan for the next handful of weeks. Nope, I didn't.
9. I wish I lived closer to our families.
10. Have I mentioned on here that in a couple of years we are taking the crew to Scotland for 3 weeks while Brett teaches in an exchange program? I'm just starting to believe it, and getting really excited about it. I'm afraid as the time gets closer you all will be sick of hearing about it.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
It's About Time
No, really. It's all about time.
It dawned on me a couple of weeks ago as I was pouring over some of my favorite blogs that there was a consistent theme. How we spend our time as mothers. Post after post it seems someone was always writing about how to balance the time on the computer (specifically) and the rest of our motherly duties, especially those of us who homeschool. The conclusion I came to? Don't. Don't try to balance it. Eliminate it.
Truly. No, not the kids, the computer time.
If the computer and all the pinterest, facebook, blogging temptations knock you off track of the main purpose of your vocation, get rid of them.
I never signed up for Pinterest because I'm simply not crafty, and when I am, there are plenty of resources available (google anyone?) so I didn't feel the need to add that to my "computer time". Facebook? I've been off for awhile, other than to post a link for my brother-in-law, and I don't miss it. My blog reading has been knocked down as well. I added my favorites to my little reader thingy and that's it. I've limited my blog time to when kids are asleep, and if you know anything about our youngest you no know the reason I've been absent on my own blog.
I contemplated getting rid of this blog all together as well. Someday, I might. I do enjoy writing, and as much as I can say I write for myself, I also really hope that someone, somewhere is finding what I write either helpful or enjoyable or both. I do hope also that if my blog is burdensome in anyway that my little group of followers would not hesitate to give me the boot. I never want to be a source of frustration or discouragement.
And so, there ya go. And here's a little teaser of how our fall pictures went. My life, I love it.
It dawned on me a couple of weeks ago as I was pouring over some of my favorite blogs that there was a consistent theme. How we spend our time as mothers. Post after post it seems someone was always writing about how to balance the time on the computer (specifically) and the rest of our motherly duties, especially those of us who homeschool. The conclusion I came to? Don't. Don't try to balance it. Eliminate it.
Truly. No, not the kids, the computer time.
If the computer and all the pinterest, facebook, blogging temptations knock you off track of the main purpose of your vocation, get rid of them.
I never signed up for Pinterest because I'm simply not crafty, and when I am, there are plenty of resources available (google anyone?) so I didn't feel the need to add that to my "computer time". Facebook? I've been off for awhile, other than to post a link for my brother-in-law, and I don't miss it. My blog reading has been knocked down as well. I added my favorites to my little reader thingy and that's it. I've limited my blog time to when kids are asleep, and if you know anything about our youngest you no know the reason I've been absent on my own blog.
I contemplated getting rid of this blog all together as well. Someday, I might. I do enjoy writing, and as much as I can say I write for myself, I also really hope that someone, somewhere is finding what I write either helpful or enjoyable or both. I do hope also that if my blog is burdensome in anyway that my little group of followers would not hesitate to give me the boot. I never want to be a source of frustration or discouragement.
And so, there ya go. And here's a little teaser of how our fall pictures went. My life, I love it.
Friday, September 21, 2012
God's Gift
Save the Date!!!!
www.godsgiftcelebration.com
If you are local, or close to local, or are not super local, but wouldn't mind a little bit of a drive for a very big event, please consider coming!
I'll let you go and explore the website, but please come back and comment if you are planning on coming.
If you can't attend, but have a means of spreading the word then by all means SPREAD THE WORD!!!!
Hope to see you next weekend!
(P.S. Childcare is available during the keynote on Friday night)
www.godsgiftcelebration.com
If you are local, or close to local, or are not super local, but wouldn't mind a little bit of a drive for a very big event, please consider coming!
I'll let you go and explore the website, but please come back and comment if you are planning on coming.
If you can't attend, but have a means of spreading the word then by all means SPREAD THE WORD!!!!
Hope to see you next weekend!
(P.S. Childcare is available during the keynote on Friday night)
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