Random Tidbits…Mainly about the Kitten

I may be having too much fun taking pictures right now.  But, we went for another walk last night and I took the camera along.  We need some new pictures to hang up, so I'm trying for a few good ones.

I'm not sure what is up with E's hand on the hip…age 7 is too young for such attitude, isn't it?!  The girl is growing entirely too quickly.

Tonight we went for a walk through the beans out back to the woods.  It is quite the hike back there but the kids had a great time exploring.

Our kitten, affectionately named, "Blue Kitty" or "Rocket", followed us on our adventure.  She wasn't about to be left behind the exploring.  She is a much loved addition to the family…one that I didn't particularly want but that adopted us anyway and doesn't show any sign of leaving.  She showed up out of the cornfield back in mid-August and now lives on the porch, which drives our house cat crazy, but she's learning to live with it too.

C loves 'Blue Kitty' the most and tries to catch her and carry her everywhere.  It only took her a couple of days to figure out that she needed to run like the wind whenever she saw him approaching, but he still manages to catch her frequently and haul her around.  She tends to spend most of the day hanging out in the shed.  The other barn cat hangs out there too and they seem to co-exist quite well.

Caleb and kitty…once again kitty didn't run fast enough to escape C's grasp.  The cute thing last night was that they walked together almost the whole walk.  They keep pace well.  C followed her through the forest to make sure that she didn't get lost. I think the kitten really likes C, as long as he's not holding her!

Last time we took a walk down to the creek and kitty was having a great time bounding along until she fell into the creek.  She got out just fine but when we turned around and came back she was too traumatize from her splash to follow.  She was gone for 24+ hours and when she managed to come back, she was still soaking wet and hungry.  She didn't let us out of her sight on our walk last night.

Dad has some big chunks of cement that are great play structures at the house.  The kids spend hours climbing and playing on them.  I see them and see stitches in foreheads…the kids see them and see great hours of entertainment.   Hopefully, the kids' vision is correct and mine is not.

Overall, it was a most enjoyable evening following deer trails through the woods.  It is nice to have time to enjoy our new home.

Fall Photo Shoot…or at least the first one

G'pa mowed some paths down the pasture last week.  We've had fun exploring them and following 'deer trails' down to the creek.  We have grand adventures!

Washing the Tractor

E came in very excited after lunch.  "Mom, G'pa said we can wash the tractor if it is all right with you.  Can we?"  How can one say no to that request?!  In my head I jumped to the number of tasks that I could do if everyone was busy 'washing' the tractor.  So, of course, I said, "Well, you still have a book report to do today and science.  So, if you wash the tractor, you have to do everything else later this afternoon."  And she was off like a shot…with some mumbled affirmative answer blown to the wind and slamming door.

So, after I had supper started, lunch dishes washed, laundry switched and bread started, I went out to see how the job was going.  I found three very happy, very busy, and very wet children with a dry G'pa  keeping an eye on the proceedings from a safe distance. After an hour + of entertainment, I told everyone it was time to come inside and have some 'rest time' and to finish school.  No one complained.  Everyone was all smiles and did exactly what was asked.  A wonderful activity for a wonderful day…and G'pa washed the rest of the tractor when all his helpers were inside.

It counts as vocational training, right?!  I love the flexibility of homeschooling and being able to enjoy beautiful fall days!!!

Today's Antics…

G'pa is at the house every day except Sundays working on the farm machinery.  On most days, he has at least one, if not two, little helpers.  Notice the wheelbarrow in front of the combine.  It was helping G'pa hold his tools.  G'pa gets lots of assistance whether he wants it or not.  I'm glad he's retired so that he has time for all his 'help'.  I'm not sure what my kiddos are going to do this winter when G'pa isn't around every day.  I'm sure that there will be much sadness.  But, that is a future problem…today, G'pa was here.  Today, G'pa moved the combine and put the header on it.  Now, we missed that excitement (silly errands) and the boys were very disappointed about that, but they caught a little ride after lunch.  However, that was not the 'big' fun of the day.  G'pa got out some new play equipment…now, it may not look like play equipment to an adult, but the kids spent hours playing on it this afternoon and evening.

 It started out as a balance beam.  My little acrobats spent a lot of time balancing on the beam…hanging on…working on walking the beam without hanging on.  Good fun.

After awhile, walking on the bottom beam wasn't enough excitement and it was time to move on to bigger and better tricks…it was time for the high beam.  X lucked out that he is the person with the most balance that has the smallest feet.  His feet could fit on the railing next to the metal beam…E's feet were too big…and C just doesn't have the balance yet.


When balancing wasn't enough of a thrill, the dismounting started.  E didn't have enough balance to do it eloquently…however, that didn't stop her.  X got some great height and distance though.  C had to get in on the fun too, although, I helped with his dismount because his abilities aren't quite up to par with his siblings despite the fact he thinks that they are.

All the playing made everyone thirst.  The outside pump quenched it fairly well.

A Taste of Campfires…

Tonight we introduced our kids to the wonders of a 'Hobo pie' for dinner.  It wasn't a great night for a campfire or anything, but I told the kids on Tuesday that we'd have them tonight to celebrate Dad coming home from another trip to Haiti.  So, despite the weather, we had a campfire and hobo pies.  It was fairly windy and a bit rainy, but we had fun anyway.

We burned E's to a crisp…problems of being the first.  Mom forgot how long it took to cook them.  But, the rest were better.  Her second one was 'perfect' and made up for the crispiness of the first one.  We filled them up with tomato sauce, olives, pepperoni and ham.  Yum.  After the 'healthy' ones were eaten, we got out the pie filling and had cherry pies.  They disappeared even faster than the sandwiches.   However, the night would not have been complete without the pinnacle of the evening…S'mores.  They waited all night for those…and we had to eat them inside because the sky started seriously spitting at us (and thundering) once they were made.  I'm not sure Jut's was even cooked completely as we rushed his.  But, it was a fun evening.  Even the kitten, Rocket, came out and feasted with us devouring the discarded crusts.

I love this whole living in the country business.  Kids running in lush grass…sticky hands and faces…sometimes life is just perfect.  (and yet another summer memory passes without pictorial evidence…sigh)

First Day of School

With the rest of the state, we started school on Tuesday.  The delightful anticipation made the day a bit crazy but we kicked off another great school year.  E is in 2nd grade and X is 'officially' in preschool.

E was very cute and brought 'an apple for my teacher'.  It was made out of paper and said, 'First day of skool'.  She's so sweet when she wants to be.  She said her jumper was the 'perfect first day of school' outfit because it had apples on it…on the buttons and at the border on the bottom.  She's just too cute sometimes.

X was excited to 'officially' start school.  Although, he really won't do too much different than he did last year except that I'll be teaching him to read this year.  He excelled at his first two lessons.  We'll see how long he's excited to do lessons each day.

 C wouldn't be left out of all the fun and excitement.  So, he made himself a 'name' poster with the other two.  And although it appears that he ate a marker, really it was a leftovers from his 'snack' of a funfetti pancake that he had to eat while he was making his poster.


Finally, they wanted to do a 'fun' shot with all the pics.  Don't they look fun?!

The Summer that Doesn't Exist in Pictures…

Wow!  What a crazy summer it has been.

We moved out of our Alma house at the end of June and shoved everything we owned into our garage and Dad's tractor shed.  Nothing was ready at the house to be able to move things into it.  Thankfully, the flooring got laid in the next 2 weeks and we could slowly start moving things into the house.  I thought for certain when we got home from camp after the 3rd week of July, we'd be moving into our house but instead we ended up camped out at Mom and Dad's for another 4 days.  On Thursday, July 24th, we were permitted occupancy.  There was much rejoicing.  However, it still wasn't completed.  Our last 'professional' left on Sunday, August 10th after finishing refurbishing the original floors in the back half of the first floor.  Whew.  What a long process!!  Then it took another couple weeks of working outside in the front of the house to make the bank happy enough to allow us to receive our final 'draw'.  So, here it is September 3rd and the house still isn't 'together'.  There are still boxes.  Our garage is still a disaster, but we are making progress.

So, that is in a nutshell…why our summer doesn't exist in pictures.  Taking pictures of a house that you want complete but isn't is frustrating.  We spend most of our summer here trying to get it ready/finished.  I don't think it will make the kids' top 10 summers of their life, but we did manage to have some fun despite the chaos.

Here are the high points:

E got to experience her first church camp.  She spent 2 nights away at Rock Lake by herself.  The tooth fairy even visited her.  She had a great time and can't wait to do a whole week next summer.

We took a trip up to TC and visited my sister and brother-in-law over the fourth.  We got to watch the Blue Angels zoom over their house.  I think it impressed us more than the kids…but hey, Aunt Stacey has Disney Junior and that was heaven to at least 2 of my kiddos.

We spent another week at Rock Lake for the high school week.  It was a cold, cold week.  The kids froze taking swimming lessons every day, but they made great progress with their swimming ability.  Plus, several of our faculty had kids also…so they weren't the only kids at camp and that was a lot of fun for them.

Aunt Jenna got married in August and so we traveled down to Indianapolis for several days.  We had a great time.  The kids enjoyed swimming every day and seeing cousins that they don't see very often from both sides of our families.  We also got to visit the Children's Museum there.  The kids loved it.  Trying to keep track of everyone made me a little crazy but we survived and didn't lose anyone.

Throw in a crazy week of VBS, a Breakfast on the Farm event, and that brings us to Labor Day.  Insane how quickly the summer passes.  We said 'good-bye' to one of our dear friends that is starting her very first youth ministry in Petoskey and have had a couple of gatherings at the house.  It is fun to share our wonderful blessing with others.  When people see it, it may not be an "HG TV reveal" but it is still fun to share.

We 'finished' our summer with a relaxing trip to Holland to hang out with our good friends for a couple of days.  Eight kids in one house may not sound relaxing to you, but for us, it is always a welcome respite to our hectic life.

So, that is a snapshot of our summer that doesn't exist in pictures.  The summer of 2014 may not have pictorial evidence but that doesn't mean it will be forgotten anytime soon.