July 19, 2014

When Matt and I got engaged, he insisted on moving back to Michigan.  At the time, I was like, Seriously.  We didn't do it right away.  I wanted to shoot for something in between California and Michigan - so that's why we started out in Denver.  It didn't take long for circumstances to actually lead us to the Midwest sooner rather than later - with a three-month detour in Tucson, of course - but man, on days like today, I'm so glad we live in the Midwest.  Everyone complains about winter and dreams of mountains and oceans and year-round nice temperate weather, but man, we really do have it made in more ways than I can describe.

Such as.....a good old-fashioned tractor show.  The Riverbend Steam and Gas Association has its Antique Tractor Show in Allendale every third weekend in July.  It was a green and  yellow, bedecked-in-your-overalls, engine-chugging, farm-equipment-displayed, bluegrass-by-the-creek blast.  We are definitely going to hit this place every year!  The tractors were shiny, the farmers were proud, and the live music in a thick grove of trees made for an atmosphere that made us want to stay all afternoon.

Several farmers had their old tools, toys, and equipment on display and encouraged the kids to sit on their tractors.

                                    

                                   

                                  

                                  

Levi likes to point out classic cars.

                                 

Several rows of antique tractors

                                

The little bluegrass-ish band playing by the hot dog/burger/pizza/homemade pie tent.  They sang everything from Beach Boys to full gospel.

                                 

The boys loved their pizza and ice cream :)  We sat at a table with some elderly gentlemen who told us we had a nice-looking pair of boys.

                                

                                 

The band had a little suitcase filled with little noise makers: tambourines, shakers, etc.  You could just grab what you wanted and play along with them.  The boys and I had a good time with that.

                                 

Luke kept going up to pick out something to play.

                                

He had fun dancing and playing his little shaker and listening to the music.

                                

On the way home Levi was emphatic that he wasn't tired.  We just kept replying, "Okay, good to know, buddy.  That's cool."

Guess who's snoring now??? ;)

July 15, 2014

Tab (neighbor across the street) and I scratched each other's back today: she took my boys while I had a dentist appointment...and then we swapped and I had her two younger kids while she worked until early afternoon.  Everyone should have a neighbor like Tab.  A good old-fashioned do-you-have-a-cup-of-sugar neighbor.

It was so fun to have Eli and Anya here!! Anya is always asking if there's something she can do for me.  Something she can clean, organize, help with...if you know Tab, well.....tree, behold thine apple. ;)  I've had a few random things that I've been wanting to do that aren't terribly time-consuming but always get tabled - so she did them for me. She hot-glued magnets onto fuzzy poms, and googly eyes onto little foam shapes I had cut out.  Little things for me to tuck away for school this fall.  Then she helped me make dinner. I didn't have a recipe, just a list of ingredients from a cooking genius friend who made the most amazing pork and beans ever when we stayed with them last month.  So we kind of guessed here, dumped in a few things there, and hoped for the best. And oh, it turned out almost as good as Koets' version.

                                       

This was an excellent study in the behavior of boys vs. girls.  Behold:

                                      

Eli and Levi took their tools and measuring tapes, "built" an imaginary jail, and arrested Luke for the egregious act of eating pretzels and dried cranberries on the love seat.  Luke thought it was hysterical to be in jail.  You can't really tell, but he's smooshing his face against the door.

It wasn't a super nice morning, but Anya really wanted us to pack a  picnic and go to the park.  And I thought, why not?  She helped me cut fruit and pack a lunch (seriously, this girl is NINE - she could give a few lessons on having a servant's heart!) and helped me shepherd the boys to the park.  We had it all to ourselves and we had a lot of fun.

                                   

                                    

                                    

                                    

                                   

After we got home I put Luke to bed and the older kids went down to the school room to play school.  No joke, I'm cleaning upstairs and it was totally quiet downstairs save for some contented talking and counting I could hear thru the laundry chute.  I head down and they are playing school and Anya is teaching them a counting game!  Girl, you're HIRED. :)  Thanks for a fun morning.

                                   

Yesterday I bought Levi a notebook and a pack of colored pencils just to have whenever he feels like scribbling.  Interestingly, he started "writing" (scribbling) notes to God and Jesus.  And he started asking me about death.  A few times lately he's popped out a question about when we die or how we die.  Yesterday he asked when do we die.  I'm sure there are books with age-appropriate, sweet little answers in them, but thankfully, Levi does really well with matter-of-fact answers.  I told him people usually die when they get old and their bodies wear out like a car breaks down when it's really old.  Some people die when they're younger and they get really, really sick.  And other people die because they get very badly hurt, like in an accident. He said, "Like in that car accident we saw by the gas station."  I said well yeah, sometimes, but most people who are in a car accident actually don't die...Mama and Papa have both been in car accidents and we're fine.  Whatever the case may be, the Bible tells us that God already knows the number of days we have before we're even born, and we don't need to be afraid of how or when it'll happen.  With that, the conversation was over, and Levi flipped his notebook to the next page, made a very colorful picture and said it was for God and all the people who are with Him, and he wanted to give his notes to the mail man to give to God. I squirreled them away and told him I would make sure God got them.  This morning he asked, 'Did God get my notes?'  I told him yes - and He loves them and they're hanging on His fridge in Heaven.  Because somehow, I'm certain they are.

                                       

On a far less serious note: fudgesicles.  Levi was introduced to the awesomeness of popsicles at Aunt Mary's, so we have this new tradish each day of enjoying a popsicle together in the front yard before Luke wakes up from his nap.  This week I bought fudgsicles.  Partly because, well, FUDGEsicles, and I am discovering the hilarity of how messy a fudgsicle in the hands of a little kid can really be.  Good thing I nailed that awesome stain-remover recipe.

What you don't see is where it all dripped on his pants and legs.  On our walk after dinner I kept calling him "Fudgesicle" and he finally got fed up and yelled from his bike, "I. Am not. A FUDGESICLE!!!"  It was enormously hilarious.

                                       

A dichotomy: Luke, happily eating...a fudgesicle.

                                               

And now, quite possibly the best picture I've ever taken - 

(This happens every time, by the way)

Luke, when the top of the fudgesicle falls off and plops on the driveway:

                                             

Yes, I am THAT mom. I roll with laughter while my kid screams.  Sometimes, there is little else you can do.

July 11, 2014

So here are the "after" pics of Matt's garden project:

                                       

                                      

                                     

My poor little homemade pea trellis.  I clearly didn't string the twine tightly enough because the pea vines are pulling it every which way. Oh well, it was fun and kind of earthy-looking.

We've been doing a lot of projects around the house.  Well.  We've hired a lot of people to do our projects around the house.  We are not DIY people.  We saw the vast slew of For Sale signs growing out of everyone's lawn and thought briefly, "But wait - if THEY can get ($$$$) for THEIR house...WE could get (oh, a ton) for OUR house........." but when we looked online to see what was available in the price range we would be looking at - a modest but not super-duper cheap price range either - we were like, 'ew.'  Okay, so our house is not huge at all, and is not in the swanky neighborhood, and isn't even sort of fancy.  In fact, I admit I get a little self-conscious when I post pics of our house and yard, because I know many of you live in very nice, very big houses that have custom thingies and pretty kitchens and fantastic master bedrooms.  But that's not the kind of house we picked nor the kind of house we chose to afford, and I am reminded daily that this is our daily bread, our home, by Levi:  Mama, don't you just love our cozy, warm little house? And my answer to that is a grateful yes.  So we decided just as quickly to stay in our house, finish those little "some day..." projects and thoroughly enjoy it.  First up: replace that wicked tile floor in the kitchen.  I hated that tile.  It was never sealed by the owner who installed it and the grout collected dirt that settled in like doggone cement, so it looked perpetually dirty.  So we had a faux wood something-or-other material installed that kind of matches the original hardwood through the rest of the house.

The cabinets leave much to be desired, but hey, there are people in many countries who would love to HAVE cabinets and anything in them, so big whoop.  Got a new table too.  Takes up less space, but is bigger somehow.

What excites me immensely is the new carpet upstairs.  Even I can't think of words to describe what our upstairs used to look like.  We had new blinds and custom black-out curtains installed to replace the ultra-glam wool Hope Cross Country blanket that used to grace the window and block out the light.  The carpet was horrifying.  Someday soon (heh) I will repaint the upstairs.  Luke got the boot and is in Levi's room (that's a whole 'nother blog post) so we have our space again.  The outer part will someday just be a little sitting area/prayer closet type of thing.  Right now his pack n play is there for naps and early mornings when the boys wake up too early and he needs a little more sleep.

Not fancy, but warm and cozy, just the way we like it. :)

                                    

                                   

                                 

                                 

Got a new pool for the boys. They love it. :)

                                     

Luke really is having fun.  He just scowls sometimes.

                                 

                                   

                                  

                                 

                                  

He loves to snuggle. How did we luck out with two snuggly boys??

                                 

We went to Sanctuary Woods yesterday.  There are 170 stairs. I carried Luke up nearly all of them.

                                                      

Levi walked up all of them with no complaint and ran nearly the whole trail.

                                                     

So proud to....have been carried up all the steps.  Wait.  What?

                                       

                                       

Friday Farm Day.  We are one of the only families that go out to the farm weekly to pick up our own milk.  Most other herd share owners co-op, and one person does the pickup.  I am usually in the unfortunate position of driving in *just after* one or more of these people, and end up waiting fooooreeeevvveerrrrrr for them to fill their fifty glass jars, while I just want to fill my four and be on with it.  

See?  I'm flanked by two fifty-jar fillers.  Argh.  Thankfully the boys love to play, hold the kittens, and look at the tractors.  And that barn on the left always has the local Christian radio station playing loudly, so it's a peaceful and festive atmosphere most of the time.

                                       

Gentlemen!  Look at the camera!  Say cheese! Guys!  Hey!  Never mind. *click*

                                      

I wish I could better capture how pretty this field was with purple wildflowers and bales of fresh hay.

                                     

July 6, 2014

Dude.  What happened to the last four months.

I'm going to pick up like I've been writing here all along, and sprinkle in the last four months' worth of pictures into each post.  I have zero time to even write this one, but I'm so giddy with excitement that Matt fixed my computer's ability to receive pics from my camera, that I can't not post!!

So happy Independence Day!!  I celebrated by...working!  Ergo, so did Matt.  He just didn't get paid.  But it was still a very fun weekend.  I only worked eight hours on the holiday ("only" - but really, eight hours IS like a half day when you're used to 12+)...AND I was put on call this morning AND was very far down the list of people to call in, so we enjoyed a serendipitous morning together. :)  Slept in, ate breakfast at Denny's, and some yard work. Some very fun yard work.

With my dad's help, Matt built two more raised beds for me this summer.  I bought seedlings from the Farmer's Market because I'm a cheater and won't grow things from seed.  I didn't get quite as exuberant as last year - I put in fewer plants, more bee-attracting flowers, and spaced it all farther apart.  Partly so it wouldn't get quite so Amazonian, and partly just to leave more space for playing and digging. :)

There are kid-sized garden tools scattered through each garden so they'll have a chance to dig.  This year we put in bell peppers, sugar snap peas, zucchini, butternut squash, beans, cukes, two types of tomatoes, and watermelon.

                                      

Lukie J. loves to use that red wagon as a water table!! He kept getting very upset with Molly for using it as her water bowl.

                                   

                                  

So the yard project today: renting a rototiller from Ace and tearing up the grass in the "cross" between the beds and laying down mulch in it.  This is what it looked like before:

 

Let me interrupt to snap a random pic of me and Luke while I made lunch. :)

Levi is THRILLED to do projects. He LOVES to work on his "farm."  I love when he crawls right on up into the garden beds to look at plants and pick snap peas and eat them straight off the vine.  We don't have these gardens to produce huge yields and feed the whole family; they're for fun, teaching, and life lessons.

Anyway, he felt very manly doing all this yard work with Papa. :) 

Luke loves it too.  Yes, by nap time they were covered with dirt from head to toe (and went to bed covered with dirt from head to toe).  Yes, they were barefoot.  And no, they had not taken a bath since Tuesday.  That's right, five days ago. (Matt did bathe them after naps.  Sweet!  Now they're set till Friday! haha) 

                                     

Luke is not nearly as into veggies as Levi has always been.  He took one bite of his snap pea and handed it to me. LOL

The project was completed about the same time I left for work (I was off for eight hours, but did have to work the remaining four - a "princess shift"), so I don't have pictures of the finished product yet, but I love it! Matt rocked it.  Not only is he quite handsome, but he's talented too. ;)

So all in all, it was a good weekend.  Aside from a foaming-at-the-mouth dog (in spite of a decent dose of downers), a horrified toddler, and our neighborhood sounding like a war zone.  I told Matt that next year we will spend the Fourth in a cabin in the woods far from anyone else in a state where fireworks are illegal.  Guess what?  I was serious.  Booked it today.  A beautiful cabin on five acres next to a stream in the Smoky Mountains.  And it was a steal (I don't think many people vacation in Tennessee in the middle of the hot, humid summer).  That, my friends, is what the natives call making lemonade. ;)