Happenings

First of all, I'm sorry I haven't been updating more. Whew. Life has been crazy here. As if it ever isn't, but... we'll leave that for another day.

On August 18 Jere and I went on a little trip with another couple to attend a meeting. Jere is on the SALT Haiti board and they were having their biannual meetings that he needed to be at. We learned a lot and caught something of the bigger vision for the program. However, my sleeping during that week was pretty limited. From Monday morning when I got up to Friday at 4 am when we got home, I'd slept a whopping 13 hours! So... that made it a bit hard to catch up with things at home. I think I'm finally recovering now. Maybe.

We came home to week old puppies, and lots of catch up work with emails! A week later, Whisper had her third litter, of 8. So, we are inundated with puppies right now! Unfortunately one of Tundra's 5 had heat stroke one hot day and died. We promptly got a window air conditioning unit for the doggie barn, when we don't even have one for our house! Never thought I'd see the day...

The only female from Tundra's litter, and the last one available.

A pup from Whisper's litter, 2 weeks younger than the others.

 

Eliott during art class.

A gorgeous double rainbow early one morning!

 

Something else we did recently was going camping. We didn't get to go all summer last year, and decided that it was high time we made time. As always, it feels like too much work to pack, and even more to unpack and deal with smoky, sandy clothes and bedding. But we had a wonderful time, and felt it was well worth it. Thankfully we picked the only nice weekend sandwiched between two rainy weekends! It was a little chilly at night, but that's what makes a fire feel good, right?

Our campsite all set up.

Eliott. Somehow, Mom, this photo reminds me of Josh! 

Jaron

Leanna

Breakfast!

Eliott learned to ride his bike without training wheels!

Leanna washing up the dishes.

"No, Daddy! I'LL wash!"

Jaron chopping at some firewood.

Busy days

Little Miss helping out

We've been staying busy these days! But have found time to have some fun too. Last Sunday was a milestone for us--we finished a 6 year project, and completed all 101 miles of state bike trail! Here are a few photos from that:

At the end of the trail!

Tundra's first litter was born yesterday! 4 boys and a girl--now we DO have our hands full!

First day of school!

On Monday we had our first day of school! It was an incredibly hectic day, but the children were SO excited about getting to do school again! I was actually seriously thinking about setting it back a day since we didn't get the bookshelves and desk installed until fairly late Saturday night, leaving me very little time to get anything organized. I have had the books organized for the better part of a week, but all of our supplies, odds and ends of art projects, etc. were still tucked away in the little, old, falling apart dresser we used to store our things last year. Everything had to be moved out of it, and onto bare shelves, before we could get it out of the middle of the floor. So it would have been nice to have Monday yet to finish up getting ready for the "perfect" first day of school. BUT the children wouldn't hear anything of it! So I got up late (more on that later!) and tried to find other things to occupy little hands while I finished trying to figure out how everything that had been in drawers was supposed to look neat on shelves. Thankfully I had on hand a handful of clear plastic "shoe boxes" I had gotten for something else and hadn't gotten around to using yet, and the art supplies fit nicely in them. Whew. There are a few things I still wish I could hide in a drawer or behind doors, but hey, at least I have shelves, and a MUCH nicer setup than we had last year!

We still have some bugs to work out of the schedule. Schooling two formally this year, and with an over-eager preschooler determined to participate in everyone else's schoolwork too, makes scheduling a challenge when there's only one Mama who also has to think about laundry and meals... I love to teach, though! And am anxious to figure it out!

The schoolroom all fixed up bright and fresh. The shelves and the desk Jere built over the last week!

Leanna starting her preschool books.

Eliott is beginning Kindergarten for 5-year-olds!

And Jaron is doing Second Grade Phonics/Language, and Third Grade math. Smart boy!

Here they all are at their workstations.

Eliott's Bible story coloring page from today. Gotta love that deer! 

 

Now, I said I would explain about getting a late start Monday morning. Leanna has had a cold over the last number of days. I've been fighting it too, and being fairly successful on myself using essential oils. But with everything else going on I wasn't being as observant as I could have been, and Leanna's cold kind of got away from me. And then Saturday night came along. I was feeling extra tired from trying to get school things ready, plus a few of the Saturday chores done around the house. Jere bathed the children and put them to bed while I was working at getting things set up. Once we finally got to bed, Eliott and Leanna spelled each other waking us up crying and/or coughing. About every hour. No one was getting much sleep! Then I decided enough was enough, and since Leanna's coughing was getting really nasty sounding, I doused her up with a couple different oils. She hardly coughed again the rest of the night! We got up late and got to church late, and though the boys both had runny noses for the first time, she didn't need her nose wiped and she didn't cough, and acted perfectly fine. So, Sunday evening we wanted to get to bed early. But then we had a campfire and roasted hot dogs for supper, and it just got late on us. And then we put oil on all the children before bed, and they slept great! Only... the dogs didn't. So I didn't sleep too well, and with still fighting my cold I knew I needed the extra rest. Maybe one of these days I'll have the privilege of sleeping through the night again...

Here are a few pictures from Sunday evening...

Belated update

Summer, as you may have guessed, has been a busy season of life for us! With three little folks growing up SO fast, it's hard to keep up with just them, never mind house and jobs and normal life. Which has also been taking our time and energy.

Our garden decided to not do anything this year. With the house in a different spot, it seemed most convenient to move the garden as well. We didn't have time to properly prepare the ground, due partly to a very wet year, and then the grass grew. It's been growing much more thickly in the garden then it's even pretending to do in the yard, and with it being wet I wasn't able to really do much about it, till it was too late. Our corn is only knee high, and tasseling. The tomatoes never grew after I set them out. But the carrots and peas are doing well, and I'm still hopeful we'll end up with a few zucchini and maybe some cucumbers. The garlic is looking fantastic, and that reminds me it's about time to dig it up! The flower gardens are looking quite nice, though, so I'm enjoying the food for the soul...

 

Work on the house has been almost to a standstill, with so much going on outside. We finally have all the landscaping done, and are preparing to tear into residing part of the house, hoping to get that project done before it thinks about getting cold. Meanwhile, I spent a few hours yesterday cleaning lumber out of Leanna's bedroom (lumber waiting for us to work on our upstairs bathroom, which will be awhile yet I'm afraid) and getting it girlified. Thanks to Grace for sewing up the curtains for her! It feels so much more finished, even though we still have flooring to put down, and Leanna's tickled pink. Or is it purple?

Leanna's bedroom 

The new railing and gutter on our front porch.

 

The Princess enjoying the porch

 

 Another project we've had is chickens. Jere finally broke down and let me get some laying hens, and we are also raising another batch of broilers. The broilers will be put in the freezer sometime next week, and the pullets are running around making our yard feel really homey. There's just something about the pert little layers foraging around for bugs and other tasty tidbits that makes a place feel so comfortable. Guess that's what I get for growing up around chickens! (Dad, can I blame that one on you?!) And our other animals are still around, mostly. Bossy had another bull calf a few weeks ago, and Buster, our two year old steer, is about to go in the freezer. Button, the heifer from last year, is getting big enough that she should be able to have a calf next spring. Our faithful Mama Cat had raised a litter of two kittens before being hit on the road last week. But we had just picked up 3 more kittens (one for each child) the week before, so our cat population actually went up. Both of our lady dogs look like they're going to be having puppies in late August, so that will up the work load for a few months. I'm super excited to see Tundra's pups--they should be nice ones!

 

A pullet and young cockerel taking advantage of the lovely day.

 And last but not least, look for a post next week as we begin our school year!

Lots of activities

Oh goodness, where do I even begin? It's been way too long since I updated on our lives!

 

Back in May we took a trip to northern Minnesota to see one of Jere's cousins get married. That was a lot of fun! Somehow we both love the north country, and the smells and feel of spring in the north does not have any comparison. We made it a pretty short trip, but squeezed in a lot of visiting with extended family we haven't seen for awhile. Sorry, I don't have any pictures--somehow the camera just stayed packed away this time. Part of the reason being I had my hands pretty full. We had just been working at potty training Leanna for a week, and she was doing well enough that I allowed her to not wear diapers. Gulp. My baby is growing up!

 

With the cooler, wet spring we had this year, the garden didn't get in till later than I would have liked. We cut down the size of it, and I was able to get it ALL planted this year! Here are a few shots of Jere letting the boys help him with the tilling:



 

 

While the boys were hard at work tilling, the Princess was playing on the swings. She's infatuated with swings, and would happily swing all day if someone had the patience to push her that long!

Another thing we got done was the roof over the deck. Yeah!

(Acutally, this picture is already outdated--there is now railings across the front, and flower baskets, and retaining wall below.)

The end-of-the-school-year party! Eliott finished Pre-school, and Jaron finished First Grade. Well, actually, he finished his second grade math, history, and health as well! Go Jaron!

And then one evening we got out the waterslide, a gift from Grandma Hendrickson while we were in Colorado, and the children had a blast getting wet. Thanks, Mom!

Tundra was begging to join them!

What a pretty girl!

(And she, Lord willing, should be having a litter of puppies in a month and a half!)

Then, the BIG news! What fishermen I have! Jere took the boys fishing in a private pond one evening, and the boys each caught a huge rainbow trout! They were pretty stoked. Only, they discovered they liked eating other kinds of fish better than trout... I think their Mommy had better learn to cook fish if this is going to be how they roll!

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

I know, this post is LONG overdue. But, our big boy turned 7 on the 14th! Can't hardly believe I'm a mother to a 7 year old, but it looks like it's fact. :-) Wow. At his request we had some family for supper, and I made an ice cream cake for the first time. It wasn't the prettiest cake I've ever made, but it was yummy!

Here's the birthday boy and his cake!

 

One of the gifts...

 

That looks like fun!

 

Great-Grandma B. blessed us with her presence--here she's taking a peek at the newest little cousin.

 

Eliott enjoyed the box the grader came in!

 

The next morning we had a Lego party and put together one of the Lego toys Jaron had gotten.

 

 

We've been keeping EVER so busy these couple of weeks. Jaron finishes all his school but math this week, and is scheduled to finish that up next week. We're all excited to see the school year coming to a close for another year--though my excitement is mostly because we should be getting next year's books in the mail this week, and once school is over I'll hopefully be able to find time to plan out next year's lessons! Hooray! We had our last science class gathering Sunday evening, and I'm hoping to do something similar again next year, so I have that on my mind a lot too.

 

We've been spending a bit of time working in the yard, trying hard to get the landscaping done so we can plant grass. The garden is finally plowed, now it just needs to dry up enough to till so I can get my plants in the ground. The garlic is already about a foot high, and I'm really glad we made the effort last fall to plant it. The tulips we put in the flower garden didn't survive the winter, but the ones we temporarily planted in the regular garden did. I hope that doesn't become a habit, as I'd like to have the tulips by the house!