1) A conversation at our house the other day:

Me:  “There’s nothing in the world better than the sound of the furnace running on a winter day!”

Logan (in an eye-rolling tone): “How about the Glory of God?”  And then triumphantly, “Bingo!!”

I stand corrected!  🙂

 

2) Due to over-commitment and lack of planning, we found ourselves with no milk and only two eggs in the fridge this morning.  What to make for breakfast?  I decided to cook oatmeal.  Then Logan and I came up with something to go with it.  It was easy and yummy so I thought I’d share.  I made my normal biscuit dough which is super fast and easy.  I use oil instead of shortening or butter so there’s no cutting in.  Meanwhile Logan cut up and peeled two apples (one would’ve been enough).  I chopped it fairly small and mixed in some cinnamon sugar.  Then I took a ball of dough, pressed it flat, put some apples in the middle, and gathered up the edges to enclose the apples.  Then we dipped the top of the biscuit/apple ball in melted butter and then cinnamon sugar.  We baked at 375 for I don’t know how long.  🙂  They were delicious!!!

3) (I lied.)  Happy Friday

So, what have we been doing??  Good question.  Go get yourself a cup of coffee and I’ll tell ya!  (And if you get tired of reading this before you reach the end, I’ll understand!)

We live about 30 minutes from downtown Kamloops.  It’s a pretty nice drive to get to the city.  It’s far enough, though, that we plan our trips more or less carefully and don’t go in all that often.  At first, we were disappointed that we couldn’t live in town, but now we’re glad.  I think this way we have a quieter life with less running around.  And we’re close enough that we can still go into town 2 or 3 times a week.  And other people don’t seem to mind the drive to come see us, so that’s good!

The first weekend we were here, I went to Vancouver with two other ladies to a conference.  It was really good.  I got to hear William Matthews lead worship.  I discovered, though, that I’m really not a rock concert kind of girl.  Haha.  It’s strange because I love the songs on CD when I’m in charge of the volume.  But when it’s so loud my ears almost hurt, I find it hard to worship. 🙂  Anyway, I’m not critical, just honest.  I think it’s actually kind of funny because one of my friends said she felt the presence of God so strongly that she could hardly stand up during worship the first night.  So I guess the volume didn’t mean it was bad…

Our friends here have been great at coming to visit.  The second Saturday night here we hosted a bbq and about 10 people came.  There was lots of good food!!  Then we sat around the living room and worshiped and then prayed for each other.  The kind of prayer where they put you in the “hot seat” and pray and prophecy over you.  Sooooo encouraging.  We’re getting lots of that while we’re here!

Two friends, Eric and Lee, are retired and work part-time at a “Scrappers for Poverty” business.  They collect scrap metel and give the money to worthy causes.  So Keith has gone “scrapping” with them a few days.  It’s great for him to get out of the house and do something physical.  And it’s great for him to work with guys that will pray for him on the job!

One day last week Eric commented to Keith that they’d be close to our area the next day and “it would sure be nice if you’d invite us for lunch!”  So, we did.  🙂  A few days later they did it again.  Then Keith and Hannah rode along with them to Vernon to look at a truck they were thinking of buying.

The other day Lee picked Keith up to go deer hunting with him.  They went just about 15 km. down the road and Lee had shot a buck 40 minutes after they left our house. 🙂

Our Sunday routine the first two weeks was something like this:  church at 10:00, have a picnic lunch at a park, head to the pool for few hours of swimming (there’s a great pool here with a water-slide, hot tubs, kiddie pool, etc.), grab a few groceries if necessary or ice cream at DQ, and then head home.  Sundays rock – so far anyway.  I’m not sure what we’ll do if/when it gets too cold for picnics.  Oh shucks, we might have to go out to eat.  🙂

When we’re around home, the kids have managed to find enough to do most of the time.  For the first few weeks they did a lot in and around the lake.  There’s a plastic, two-person kayak here, so they could paddle around.  Keith and Caleb have done some snorkeling and watched some fish and minnows – and got nearly hypothermic!  The air is warm, but the lake is not!

We bought a few toys, there are books from the library, movies to watch, radio drama and Oddesey to listen to.  For a day or two, fort-building was the activity of choice.  Caleb recently bought a Lego set, so that’s taken up some time.  We’ve also had time to play some games.  Caleb and Logan like the Life game that’s here.  The other day Caleb and I played a game of Scrabble – his first time.  I won, but not by much.  Of course, school takes up a lot of time.  Keith is helping out a lot with that and I’m trying not to get too spoiled!

On Wednesday evenings there’s a meeting we go to called ICM (Inter Church Ministry).  The focus is on worship, prayer, teaching, and the presence of the Lord.  We’ve been going in early so I can buy a truck-load of groceries.  While I go to the grocery store, Keith and the kids play at the park or go to the library.  Then, I grab a roasted chicken and some baguettes at the store and we have another picnic before we head to ICM.  It’s been working pretty well.  Last night it was a little chilly at the park while we were eating.  We might not be able to do this for much longer.

It’s been different for me to buy most of the groceries I need for a whole week at a time!  Sometimes I can barely manouver my cart at Superstore by the time it’s all loaded up.  But, it’s great to feel like I’m sort of getting the hang of it.  It’s amazing to me how much cheaper food is here.

One amazing perk of being here is the fresh fruit.  If you live in Canada, you see those B.C. stickers on so much of the fruit we buy.  Well, here we are, almost in the Okanagan Valley.  We’ve eaten loads of nectarines and plums and pears and they’re cheaper than apples at home!  And someone has given us a bunch of plums from a friend’s tree!  The kids ate them like candy!

One day about two weeks ago I went into the city by myself.  I met our friend, Katherine, at Starbucks.  J  Then I had a few hours to shop by myself.  I did more than just get groceries this time.  It was great to go to different stores to get those various, random things I needed.  And so lovely to do it by myself.  If you’re a mom, you know what I mean!   I’m hoping to do that again before we leave!

When I went to Bulk Barn, I saw a Carter’s/Oshkosh store in the same parking lot.  So I went there and got some pants for J – in husky size!  That kid has gotten chubby and I can hardly find pants for him at thrift stores anymore!  Thankfully the huskies fit him.  So, I’ll be shopping for more of those, I guess.

We had a really neat blessing last week.  Eric emailed that his friend, Sharon, a professional artist from Vancouver Island, was coming to visit them and he wondered if he could bring her and his wife out for a visit.  And he wondered if we’d want her to give our kids an art lesson.  Um, of course!!

Sharon is a really incredible lady and artist – she suffered a terrible brain injury 25 years ago and had to re-learn everything – talking, reading, etc.  And she started doing art after all that!  She now works in 30 different mediums.

She did a watercolour lesson with the kids and they really seemed to enjoy it.  Makes me think I should look around for an art teacher for them.  I’m not an artist at all and find it hard to teach it.  But my kids love it and are good at it.

One other cool surprise: There’s a wildlife park here and we were planning to go the other week.  When I was looking up details on the internet, I saw that they were having a day-camp for kids ages 4-12.  So, last Monday, the boys all went there for the day.  They seemed to enjoy it – they even got to help feed the grizzly bears.

My birthday is coming up – on Thanksgiving Day to be exact.  I was feeling a little bummed about having to cook Thanksgiving dinner on my birthday and not knowing if Keith would do anything fun for me.  (Yeah, I can be a bit of a baby when it comes to my birthday.)  So.  Yesterday at lunch time, there was a knock on the door and Katherine was here to take me out for lunch!  We met another friend, Aleida, and had a lovely time.  Then Katherine dropped me off for a pedicure – my gift from Keith.  Oh, so fun.  My nails are so pretty!  Maybe I’ll post a picture later.  So now I can make dinner on Monday and feel happy that I’ve already had a nice birthday surprise.  Haha.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving y’all!

Glacier National Park. It was beautiful, but it’s funny that none of us seemed that awed by it. I think our “awe tanks” are still full from our last trip. Traveling held no glamour at all. 🙂

This was fun, though.

This is what the van looked like for the last 45 minutes. We stopped in Vernon to buy groceries for the first few days. When you’re starting basically from scratch (I didn’t know what basics would be in our kitchen) that’s still quite a bit!

The kitchen. It works – mostly. 🙂 I found some watercolour paints and brushes at a thrift store, so J and H were having a good time with those.

The living room. And Caleb doing some school work.  See the lake out the window?   The enormous coffee table came from Dubai. It’s nice, except the glass top is missing.  So, the top is full of square “holes”. Sort of odd for setting cups on. I got a wooden tray to put on it for cups, etc.

Putting a puzzle together in Caleb and Hannah’s room.

Fresh corn on the cob and smokies by the lake. Aaahhhhhh.

Playing by the lake.

This is the view from the deck. In the middle of the picture you can see a semi going by. 🙂

On Monday the boys were at a day camp at a wildlife park. Keith was working with some guys. So Hannah and I had a tea party on the deck.

There are two big weeping willows by the lake. I love those trees! This is the view from my chair on the deck at our tea party.

On Friday we went for a drive.  We were going to meet some guys and help with a project, but there was a mis-communication, and it didn’t happen.  We already had a lunch packed so we moseyed around and did a few things.  We met this friendly guy…

Then we had a picnic at the end of “our” lake, down the road from our house.

We saw the bottom of a tree!

There was so much cool stuff on this little beach.

Josiah thought this old rusty thing was cool.

But look what it didi to his, um, butt. 😦

I found a bunch of really cool spots for “school pictures” for the kids.  I took a bunch of practice shots, and didn’t really worry about expressions, as you can see…  🙂

Caleb

Logan

 

Josiah

Hannah

After our picnic we went down the road and went rock hunting.

We found some quartz and agate. Keith met a guy down the road who is a “rock hound”. We took our rocks to him and he told us what they were and showed us some of his. Pretty fun stuff!

Josiah and his rock.

Hello friends – if you’re still there.  Blogging must have dropped to the bottom of my priority list for the last three months.  And, sadly for you, I will now try to catch up on every second that I’ve missed.  Haha, just kidding.  I did write an enormously long post, and then decided I should break it down into several posts, so your eyeballs don’t fall out.  Some of this I want to record for myself, and some to keep you two (teehee) up to date on our lives at least a little.

For those who don’t know, we’re now in Kamloops, B.C. for about 7 weeks.  Keith’s sabbatical goes until the end of October so we’re here until then.

Over the last few years, we’ve connected with some people out here and we felt like they were a part of our “spiritual pilgrimage” at this point.  They have the life of Christ that we long for and are so open to mentoring and loving us.

So, we loaded up our little van – and I mean loaded – and headed out on Sept. 6.  We stayed with my cousin in ND, made a stop for SSNs for the kids in Minot, drove the endles wasteland of western ND and eastern MT, drove through Glacier National Park, and visited Keith’s long-time friend, Mark F, in Northwestern MT.  Whew!  The trip took 5 days.  It’s a stinkin’ long way out here – and we made it longer by going through the States.  Now we’re very happy to not be traveling any more!

We arrived on a cool, drizzly day – the only one since we’re here!  As we drove up to “our house”, my heart sank.  I knew we would be at an RV park and that the house was right by the lake.  What we didn’t put together was that the house is about 15 feet from the highway – a busy highway with lots of big trucks barreling by.  The rest of the RV park and campground is across the road.  So, we have a nice, but sort of narrow, back yard on the lake, and the constant sound of traffic and not nearly as much space for the kids to run as I thought we’d have.  Behind the RV park, is a “small mountain” and there are trails up there to hike, so that’s good.  Tonight Keith and the older two went on a nice long hike.

The house we’re in is kind of quirky – hopefully I’ll post some pictures soon.  It used to be a restaurant, apparently.  Then it was remodeled to be a house, but I’m guessing that was in the 70’s.  The current owner said it was all 70’s décor and they’ve be re-doing it.  Most of it is re-modeled in some way, but the main bathroom is still pretty ugly.  Some of our carpenter friends and family would be appalled at the way it’s being re-done.  Anyway, it’s big – 5 bedrooms – and the beds are comfy and the bedding is nice.

I re-learned something about myself.  It’s pretty important to me to have some beauty in my surroundings.  (Yes, I know we’re only here for 7 weeks so it shouldn’t matter, but it still did.)  There are almost no decorations in this place.  It felt really big and empty.  So, when we went to Value Village to get some things we needed and I grabbed a few candle holders and a tin thing to make a dried weed arrangement in.  That feels better!  I also discovered that it feels more “like home” when there are toys and junk laying around.  🙂 We brought a few toys/activities and bought a few more at thrift stores.  Keith has been taking the kids to the library too, so there are lots of books and a few toys around.  That makes it feel homey!

And now a word about the weather.  I’m so sorry to my friends and family back home, but I just have to mention this.  We’ve had absolutely gorgeous weather here the whole time so far.  Two partly cloudy days and otherwise, wonderful sunshine and high temps from about 20 – 26.  Am I in heaven??

Okay, that’s all for now.  I can almost promise that there will be more tomorrow.  🙂

– Hamburger Helper is actually quite tasty.

– Two pairs of pjs/person is barely enough.

– Don’t fight the cold-blooded child.  When he’s cold, he’ll wear a sweat-shirt.

– Parenting strong-willed children is very draining.  Their strong will doesn’t go on vacation just because you do.

– Putting one family together in small spaces with no outside interaction isn’t necessarily easy, but has some very fun moments.

– Lunchmeat and cheese sandwiches get very tiresome, very fast.

– Home cooking entices me to over-eat way more than camping/traveling food.

– A light blue sweatshirt for a 4-year-old is a dumb idea on a camping trip.

– I like camping with my family!

– I still don’t like camping in the rain.

– Eating a lot of Oreo ice cream just before bed can make kids very, very hyper.

– Many hotels won’t let our family stay in one room.

– You can “cheap out” on a hotel, but it’s not really that fun.

– My kids are perfectly entertained watching “Storage Wars”.

– “Sea-bands” (bracelets for motion sickness) actually work!  Hallelujah!

– It’s MUCH more relaxing to take our kids to the ocean than the Grand Canyon!

– I really, really enjoy experiencing other landscapes and climates.

– Oregon is beautiful.

– The Redwoods look really amazing in the rain – makes you feel like you’re in Sherwood Forest.

– Seals and Sea Lions are very interesting to watch in the wild.

– The desert is very interesting and beautiful, but water and lush vegetation is even better.

– Rhododendron bushes are amazing!

– Fine sand from the ocean sticks like crazy and hurts tender skin.

– If you take a whole family to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, two will be very engaged and excited about all the airplanes, one will be mildly interested, two will be uninterested in all of it except the “video games” and kid’s activities, and one will be mostly interested in the history of flight and space travel, but have very little time to see it.  Oh, and there will be much intense parenting involved and one chld will decide he wants to fly and F-15.

– God is still revealing more of Himself to me and likes to shock me once in awhile.

– This family cannot do traditional “school work” while we travel.  We put the school books away after the first few days of travel and have focused on journaling/notebooking about the trip.  And some read-aloud.

– If you have an ipod, an FM broad-caster for the car, and a microphone app for the ipod, Mom can read comfortably from the front seat and everyone can hear through the speakers!

– Traveling costs a lot of money.  (Duh!)

– Too many “Visitor Centers” makes my three youngest kids and me a little crazy.

– Mount St Helens is an amazing story, but even if you drive an hour out of the way to see it, the mountain will not necessarily cooperate and be free of clouds.  No, it may very well be hidden under a thick cloud cover and you’ll only be able to see the valley and the base of the mountain.  Nevertheless, it’s still worth it to see it all!

– The Pacific Northwest can be as cold as the Southwest was hot!

– May and June are great times to see all kinds of flowering bushes and wild-flowers – everywhere, it seems.

– My kids thrive in a house with Legos and a barn with a swing.  Throw in some new friends, and they really have a blast!

– God is with us everywhere, even 2200 miles from home.

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Here I sit at the world’s most amazing laundromat.  So I have a chance to post just a little.  This place has free wi-fi, a TV room for my kids and lots of enormous washers and dryers.  And a cute little lady who walks around cleaning things up.  It’s very nice and doesn’t fit my stereo-typical idea of a laundromat!

Continuing from  my last post…  We made it to Sandra’s house Thursday night.  Keith was still sort of sick.  During the weekend, Josiah and I got sick and Logan and Hannah got the sniffles.  Ugh.  I spent Mother’s Day plastered to the recliner.  The weather wasn’t great while we were there (some rain and snow) so we didn’t go on the hike we had planned.  We did have time to relax, shop a little (Thrift Stores, etc), Keith, Neal, and Caleb went to an auction…  One night we had a “fry” with some of their friends.  Neal has a trailer that has a deep fryer, griddle and other stuff on it.  The point of the meal is to fry anything and everything, and eat a little salad on the side.  Everyone sort of wanders around and grabs stuff as it comes out of the fryer.  Plates are optional (unless you’re eating salad, I guess.)  On the menu was chicken nuggets, breaded mushrooms, breaded shrimp, jalapenos stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon, french fries, sweet potato fries, bannock cheese sticks, onion rings, pork loin…  It was very yummy!

On Monday, we went to the Royal Gorge.  Everyone went except Neal who had to work, and Meriah who was sick. 😦  It was a beautiful day and there was plenty to do there and we even got sun-burned.  To top off the day, Keith, Shania and I went on the Skycoaster.  It’s a giant “swing” that they strap you in, pull you way back up high, then you free-fall for abit and then swing way out over the canyon.  Freaky and very awesome!!  Maybe some day I can post a video if I can figure out how to do it.  I would do it again for sure, but it also made me very sure that I never want to sky-dive!  That free-fall stuff is just terrifying.

I think I need to go fold a mountain of laundry now.  We’re getting a hotel tonight so I might be able to post a few pictures…

 

I want to blog, but the words don’t come easily for some reason.  Maybe because I’ve been doing this so seldom??  So I’ll try to at least start catching you up on our lives.

In my last post I said that Keith is taking a sabbatical and we’re taking a 2-month trip.  Yup.  Still true.  The last month and a half of our lives have been dominated by these facts.  I’ve alternated between excited, overwhelmed, terrified.  At one point I panicked and Keith and I sat down and made lists and calendars that covered a good portion of the hall closet door.  🙂  I instantly felt better since so much of it was on paper for me to see.  I’m weird that way.

Needless to say, the last weeks have been a whirlwind.  Besides getting ready to go on a major trip we fit in a scrap-booking weekend (I have my priorities straight, yes I do!) a parenting seminar, piano recitals, a home-school bbq, and I can’t remember what else.  I think we over-did it a bit.  For sure.

We’ve had some major answers to prayer in our preparations.  Two of the biggest were someone to stay in our house while we’re gone (a lovely young family, and she even wants to plant my flowers for me!), and a vehicle big enough for our trip (we’re renting a 15-passenger van from some dear friends.)  (Thank you sooooo much.)

So, here’s an overview of our plan:  We’re traveling for about 8 weeks.  We have no firm return date, but our church camp-out is the second weekend of July so we’ll be back for that.  We’ll be camping a little over half of the time and staying with people or in cabins the other half.  Keith built a bed in the back of our enormous rented/borrowed van.  When we’re camping, the plan is for us “old people” to sleep on the bed, the two youngest will sleep on the bench seats, and the two oldest will sleep in a tent.  Hopefully our plan works.  🙂

The big departure day came this Tuesday.  I was up until about 1:00 on Monday night finishing the last bits and we got up at 5:30.  Ugh.  We were on the road by about 7:00.  Hannah had a dentist appointment in Winnipeg at 1:30.  She got two fillings and one got capped.  She did really well – didn’t even flinch once.  When I asked her if it hurt she said no.  That dentist must be a magician.  She was pretty proud of her “golden teef”.  I finally convinced her it was a silver tooth.  Then Caleb had an appointment with a periodontist because of a receding gum.  He said it needs to be repaired but not to worry about it until after our trip.  My thoughts exactly.  I didn’t want Caleb to have a sore mouth for the first week of our trip!  (It will be a small skin graft.)  Then after a little shopping, a little eating, a little stressing over a sticking brake, we were out of the city and heading for our friends, Menno and Tammy’s, place.

Keith and Menno fixed the brake while the kids played outside and Tammy and I drank coffee and ate dessert. 🙂  We haven’t been moms this long without learning a few things!  We did let the rest of them eat dessert later. 🙂  The kids had a blast playing together and it was so good for them to be able to run around and get some fresh air and exercise.  Our sleep was good but not long enough.

The next day was a long one.  Keith was getting sick and his back has been seized up.  Spending hours and hours in a van with four kids can be fun but it is also exhausting!  We’re trying to keep some sort of schedule/routine while traveling, but that almost takes more effort than just letting them listen to 42 hours of Adventures in Oddesey.  By that night we were shot and when we went to get a hotel, we got a suite for not much money (by Canadian standards anyway).  Oh boy.  It even had a sofa bed so we could all have a bed.  And it was nice and roomy, not cramped like a normal room.  I was so thankful when we walked in and saw how big it was.  I was thanking God for the room and He smiled at me and said something like, “I’m still with you!”

That was balm for my soul since so many things had been going wrong:  Keith’s back was in bad shape, our nearly new GPS suddenly didn’t work, the brake gave us problems, I forgot a receipt so I could return something to Wal-Mart (of course, we had brought the rather large item with us), and then Keith got sick with a fever.  Yes, even when so many things seem to be bad, God is still with us and still working in us, for us, and through us!

To be continued…

* I’m starting to wonder if we ever have a “normal” week.

* We bought and butchered a whole cow/steer/bovine (what do you call those things??) this week.  We split it with another family.  More exciting details on that in another post.

* My new camera arrived.  I got a different one than the one I lost and I think I might just like it better.  This one is a Sony Cyber-shot.  The last one was  a Panasonic Lumix.  I got a refurbished one this time since, well, you know…

* Just when the camera arrives and I think I have all my technologies taken care of, my computer quits!! 😦  Not the whole thing, but the screen goes blank about a minute after I open it.  Right now I’m using Keith’s and his left shift key doesn’t work well.  Sigh.  The frustrations of modern life!

* The boys all just left for a sleep-over with friends.  Anyone want a little girl for 12 hours?? 🙂

*  The home-school conference last weekend was good.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many babies and pregnant ladies in one place. 🙂

* The dentist in Winnipeg said that Hannah has 4 cavities, not 7. 🙂  Interesting.  And good!  So we’re going to try to have him do them in his office instead of putting her to sleep.

* Hannah is going through a phase of being more cheerful, obedient, cooperative, etc.  It’s. So. Wonderful.  Maybe this time it’s not a phase, but a permanent situation!!

* We finished swimming lessons this week.  Yay!  And all of them passed their levels.  Caleb finished level 10 which is the last one. I’m proud of all of them!  Caleb will probably go on next year and start the bronze levels.  There are three of those and then he could do his life-guard training if he wants to.  We told him he may as well, since he’s good at it and it would be a very useful skill!

*  It’s sort of weird to just throw this in here in a random post, but here goes…  Keith is taking a 6-month sabbatical from pastoring, starting in May.  He’s pretty burned out and often discouraged.  We’re looking for refreshment and renewal in our lives right now.  The plan right now is that we’ll leave here May 8 and be gone for almost 2 months.  We’re taking a trip out west:  Colorado, Grand Canyon, California, B.C., Canadian Rockies, etc.  We’re going several places specifically for mentoring and input.  Right now it looks really exciting but the preparation feels a little scary (we’re leaving in a little over 5 weeks).

* Have I mentioned that we’re doing Canadian History right now and focusing on Native history.  It’s been so interesting and…  Well, it’s hard to describe.  I feel like it’s changing how I feel about my country and my heritage.  I guess I’ve been feeling a lot of grief for all of the wrongs, injustices, oppression that have been done.  Some of the books have made me cry.  I’m so glad for the ability to learn about these things with my children!

* Right now Keith is playing a game on the ipod and Hannah is cheering him on.  Her commentary is pretty funny.  I might have to get my new camera and take some video!

 

* We’re having an early spring thaw.  I LOVE it!  I suppose we could get more snow yet,  but for now, we’re enjoying spring. The kids have been outside lots and the entryway is usually strewn with wet/muddy stuff.

* Remember that new camera I bought just before Christmas?  Well.  I lost it.  Lost. It.  I’m still sort of in shock.  I just “don’t do” stuff like that.  So now, along with shelling out the cash for another one, I have to go through the decision process all over again.  I wasn’t sure yet that I loved my new one.  I haven’t printed any pictures from it, so it’s hard to be sure about the quality.  Sigh.

* It’s spring break here.  We’re not taking the whole week off, but we’ve had a couple of short days and we took the whole day off on Thursday.  The nice thing is, there are no music or swimming lesson or Scouts this week, and that makes a huge difference in our schedule.  It feels much more relaxed around here and I’m getting to some projects that have been sitting there “forever”.

* Keith, Caleb and Logan went to Promise Keepers last weekend.  They enjoyed it a lot.  The boys got called up on stage with some of their friends when they were praying a blessing over the young men.  Pretty cool.  Keith also took them through the autograph line to meet Robin Mark and asked him to pray a blessing over them and their musical talent.  Wow!  I wish I could’ve been there for that!

* I discovered recently that Josiah says “ith” instead of “if”.  He doesn’t have a speech problem.  That’s what he thought the word was.  What does it mean that my boy is six and I just found this out??

* Logan went through a “long hair” phase this winter.  It was REALLY long.  We decided to let him do what he wanted – don’t you think if he has freedom like that now, he won’t want to dye it blue when he’s a teenager?  He finally decided to get a haircut.  Sadly, I have no before and after pics because of item #2 above.

* Our boys are very fond of computer and ipod games even though they are very restricted in how much and what kind of games they can play.  Sigh.  They went through a short season of whining about how all their friends have ipods and when can they get one….   Double sigh.

* The painting is done.  Of course, I can’t show you pictures of that either.  Now I just have to get some things back up on the walls, and put up a valance.

* Oh yeah, that valance.  It’s the long one from the picture window.  It’s the kind that’s stapled to a board and then fastened to the wall.  So, when the painting was going on, Keith just took the whole thing outside on the porch.  I dusted it off but we just left it outside until the painting was done.  When Keith put it back up, I could smell cat pee.  😦  Grrrr….  Stupid neighborhood cats.  So now the valance is down in the shop waiting for me to take care of it.  Hopefully it won’t be too hard to get the smell out!

* Next weekend Keith and I are going to a home-school conference.  Hannah is going along because she has a dentist appointment in the city (more on that in a moment).  She’ll be at a friend’s house while we go to the conference.  This is all very exciting, except I haven’t lined up sitters for the boys yet.  Numerous people are gone, I’m waiting to hear back from one person, and mostly, I just hate to ask people sometimes to take care of my kids.

* Hannah’s teeth…  Yes, well, she had her first dentist appointment recently and she has 7 cavities!  Jiminy Crickets!!  So she’s seeing a specialist to see if they want to just put her to sleep and do them all at once.

* And at about the same time, the dentist said that they want Caleb to see a specialist because he has a receding gum by one tooth.  It’s been like that for years and they always comment on it, but this time I guess they think it’s time to act.  So, he’s going to see a peridontist (?) in May and they might do a minor surgery right then to repair it.  Yikes!

* I feel sometimes like I can hardly keep up with my kids physical needs, let alone emotional and spiritual!  Lord, help!

* I think that I’m feeling more at peace with home-schooling now than I ever have.  (Well, maybe except the first year or two with Caleb when he was my only student and a rather easy one at that!)  I doubt that it’s because we’re doing so awesomely spiffy at it.  More likely it’s because I’m getting used to the reality of not being able to do it all and that nagging feeling that I won’t really know until my kids are grown up, if I’ve done a good job or not.

* Oh, and I made a swell new chart to show our schedule and maybe that’s helping too.  I’d show you a picture of it but, you know…

* I have two friends who are about to deliver babies any day or minute now, and I’d like them to hurry up.  (And they’d like that even more than I would, I bet!)  Oh, and another friend due in May, and another in June, I think and another in August.  And my sister is having a baby in August too!  I wonder how old I’ll be before my friends aren’t having babies anymore?

* Speaking of old, Keith and some good friends of ours are  all turning 40 this year.  We’re planning a little get-away trip together in August to celebrate.  🙂  (Anyone want to babysit?) 🙂

* Keith is working a night shift.  Usually when he does, I stay up too late.  Tonight is no exception.

* And on that note, good-night!