Merry Christmas!

Here's to wish every one of you a very

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

 

We trust you are each having a joyful time as we reflect on one of the greatest miracles of the ages, God in human form. A tiny baby, born in a stable. God. Incomprehensible.

 

The snow on the ground just serves to make things feel extra special over this time. We got another inch or so last night. It was so fun to watch it come floating down, all puffy and white and festive. Jere strung up some Christmas lights at the last minute while I was fixing supper, so that was added to it all.

 

Our piano with the impromptu lights added.

We had our supper in the living room. The children sure enjoyed it!

 

Jere helped me make lefse, since I hadn't been up to doing it at Thanksgiving. I still didn't do much with it, but he did a good job!

The new additions to the household. The yellow bird is Jaron's, and the blue one is Eliott's. A friend of ours raises them, and so we went to his aviary yesterday and let the boys pick out their own. They really enjoyed that part!

Leanna opening her gifts. Her favorite was a dolly stroller, and she's been pushing it around ever since!

Eliott opening his favorite gift.

And Jaron with his. Actually, I think the bird is his favorite, but this was his favorite toy. :-)

 

I'm sure I'll have more to share after today! Anita is coming over for a bit just to hang out later. We have the rest of the lefse to roll out. And I plan to catch up with some rest after several busy days in a row. Last night I fell asleep on the couch while Jere was out doing the chores! That doesn't happen normally. I was just so tired after all the activities of the day, and the lights were so soothing, and the house was so quiet... 



Just a couple pictures...

 I just had to share some shots of family life recently... A couple days ago I made a "picnic" for the children in the living room. It really didn't take THAT much more energy than normal, and they sure enjoyed it! The next day Eliott took it upon himself to vacuum the living room rug for me, and all I had to do was show him how to put a polarized plug into an outlet. :-) Nice.

Here's one of Leanna helping set the table. She had SO much fun! (Normally, that's the boys' job.)

 

 

And for those of you who haven't gone onto my other blog recently, here is the memory card I made for our precious little baby. It still brings on the tears for me....

 

The trailer is gone, and other stories...

Yesterday was a WEE bit warmer, so Jere decided to tackle replacing the back door. The door was ruined when someone broke into the house before it was moved, and then the frame got twisted during the move, so we could see a lot of daylight around it. Not real nice when it's below zero and the wind is blowing... Anyway, now it's nice and tight, and we can actually use it! Hurrah!

And... (drum roll)... this morning this is what we saw:

Yes, the mobile home is really truly gone. It was a bittersweet moment to watch it roll over the field and out of sight. We've made a lot of memories in that house. But, it was time to say goodbye, too!

And then I found out I wasn't giving my daughter enough credit for being a big helper. Guess I usually rely on the boys, since they're already "trained" to do so much. But they were out learning to be men with their daddy, so li'l sis and Mama were left to do the laundry...

Oh, yes, and Teddy was "helping" too. ;-)

 

I was really amazed at how well she did, faithfully stuffing almost a whole load of dirty laundry in, shaking most pieces out carefully first. I was there scrubbing chocolate ice cream out of one of her shirts, so she thought she was doing it all by herself. And my, was she proud of it! She knew she'd done something special and held her head high while her eyes sparkled in delight. I'd forgotten how such simple little things can build a small child's self-esteem. Guess I'll have to let her do it more often now!

Trailer house is sold!

I am SO excited, last night the buyers came with the money for the trailer house!!! I'm not sure yet when they plan to take it, but I'm guessing with it being winter they'll be wanting it out fast lest it get snowed in... It's such a relief!

Meanwhile, it's turned cold here. Much to our relief, I might add. With all the dirt work Jere just did to extend the driveway up to the house, and then snow/rain/above freezing temps, well, it got rather sticky as soon as you stepped out the door. Yuck. Now that it's frozen again, the mud issue has disappeared. For now. We did have some gravel delivered so hopefully that will get spread on the new section of driveway before it thaws again, and hopefully it will make things a little easier. I'm NOT looking forward to all the mud and mess spring will bring! But such is the stage of life right now, and one day we'll be in a different stage and this one will only be a memory. And for right now, I'm just glad it's cold! And with it being cold, we're finding out all the spots where the insulation isn't thick enough. Jere spent the morning putting insulation in the exposed basement walls, so that should help. Hopefully he'll be able to find time today to replace the back door too, as the frame of the old one got bent out of shape when the house got moved and it has pretty good sized cracks around parts of it. We have a blanket covering the opening to the stairs going up, as there's no insulation in the master bedroom due to remodeling--and, why heat the whole upstairs when we're not using it anyway? I'm VERY much looking forward to starting work up there again, even if I can't help much. But there's still a few things to be done before we can do that...

Last week I gained a noticeable amount of strength, but after a busy weekend and several late nights in a row, I've been pretty worn out this week. Time to just rest again! :-P Oh well. This coming weekend will be a big one for us too--we're leaving Sunday afternoon for a couple days' "honeymoon" as an anniversary celebration. We are really looking forward to that! And wondering how the children will do with us gone for a couple of nights--none of them have been without us for that long! I'm sure they'll be well taken care of, though. Thanks, Micah and Amy!

Something I've just started as I take time out from my normal schedule, which is usually an incredibly crazy one this time of the year, is taking some online classes for website management/design. I think I've done fairly well with our business site for not having ANY experience in making web sites, but the more I do the more I realize just how limited my knowledge is and how much better I could do if I knew a little more. So that's keeping me very occupied when I'm not teaching school or settling squabbles. It's definitely challenging for me! But hopefully will pay off in the end...

Pictures, finally!

Here, at long last, are a few pictures! I know some are curious to see what things look like now that we're moved in, so I decided to get a few pictures of the living room, since that's about the only place I haven't updated with "done" pictures. Except what isn't done yet... And I didn't figure I'd post pictures of the basement where our beds are set up. You don't want to see that mess. Trust me. So, here is the living room as it stands (we do plan on moving the furniture around once we can get a couple of muscly men to move the piano again, so the one sofa doesn't have to be in front of a window...).

And, for Dad, here's how the table fits in the kitchen!

And while I had the camera out, I also grabbed some shots of the results of some Black Friday sales... We didn't join the madness out and about, but bought a few things online and in town on Saturday.

Jere bought a new set of tools to replace his OLD worn out ones. Leanna enjoyed the flashlight!

The boys had a blast with the drills--and the packaging!

And, they love the mats we picked up to soften the hard floor in the playroom. Suddenly, the toys aren't migrating quite as much to the rug in the living room--and that makes me happy too!

We're doing very well. I'm gaining strength noticeably now, though I'm still trying to take it easy so I don't go backwards anymore. It's so good to DO something, and then still not feel like I'm too weak to move when I'm done! I'm still VERY grateful for the help I'm getting a couple times a week with laundry and general cleaning, but it's a very good feeling to be able to take care of my children on a day to day basis without needing someone else to do it... Even when it means doing the basement stairs a couple times a day! Praise the Lord! Jere's back to work full time again this week, and his folks leave next week for Mexico, so I'm very thankful that I'm getting stronger right now.

The appraiser came yesterday to look at the trailer house so the buyers can get their loan. She complimented us up and down for the remodel job, and said she's never seen a trailer so well fixed up. I'm so proud of Jere and all the talent he has!

And Jere still has a lot to do on this house. Last night after our company left around 11, he was caulking some spots where the breeze was coming through the wall. He has a number more spots to do, especially in the living room, and half of the exposed basement wall to insulate yet. The colder it gets the harder it is to heat the house with freezing air blowing in! But the kitchen and school room where we spend most of our time stays the warmest as they're pretty well finished--as long as I remember I need to restock the wood furnace when Jere's not here to do it! :-) I am really looking forward to the day when we can start working at our bedrooms upstairs... But one thing at a time, and I'm just grateful we are living in ONE house right now, and I can happily put up with a few inconveniences as long as we're together.