Retreat Down Memory Lane

This weekend we headed up to White Sulphur Springs for our Bible study retreat.  Because there was a wedding up at the big new hotel, we got to stay at Harrison House.  This is where all my memories of summers spent at WSS took place, as well as memories from when we had a lot less kids, so it is a pretty special place!  I really love the comforts of the new hotel . . . but there is a lot to love about the old hotel!  They had just finished renovating all the bathrooms in Harrison House, so that was super nice.  We had such a grand time this weekend, and it was really lovely to have the place all to ourselves.  We didn't have to worry about kids disturbing people working, or anything like that.  It was great!

The weather was really quite dismal the whole weekend.  Thankfully Friday was nice, though.  As soon as we got unpacked Friday afternoon I told everyone I really wanted to get a picture of all the kids on the wagon.  Well, the wagon has seen better days, and the right rear wheel is actually not attached right now.  Instead the wagon is being held up by a block of wood, so we decided it would be better to not have *all* the kids on the wagon.  Since it rained off and on and was incredibly dreary the rest of the weekend, I was SO glad I insisted on getting pictures Friday afternoon!

One part of the deal we had for using the old hotel was that we provided our own meals, except for Saturday dinner, which they brought down for us from the big hotel.  The teenagers were amazing cooks for us.  They got up at 6:00 both mornings to make us breakfast--scrambled eggs and bacon Saturday morning, and pancakes and sausage Sunday morning.  Saturday for lunch we were supposed to have a picnic of grilled hamburgers and hot dogs up by the picnic pond, but even though it was not raining at that moment, the place was definitely drenched.  Instead, the teenage boys grilled everything and brought it back down so we could eat in the warmth and dryness of the dining room.  Amanda L was the "captain of the mess", and she ably organized everyone, and kept things in the kitchen running like clockwork!  We all brought a bunch of food--much more than we actually needed, lol.  If any sort of natural disaster had occurred, we would have been set for several more days at least!

It turned out that Saturday was not a bad day, even though it was so dreary and overcast, because it didn't actually rain all that much.  This meant we could walk around to different places, even though it was pretty chilly.  In the morning we had a session where we shared about relationships--with God, with our spouses, with others in the Body, with nonbelievers.  It was really thought-provoking, and a good time of sharing and prayer.

Bob and I took a nice walk after lunch (although our shoes got wet!), and the kids did a lot of bowling.  They all went rock-climbing in the afternoon too, even Micah and Drew!  And of course there was lots of just visiting on the porch.  John H. and I had been discussing why everyone really likes rocking on the porch of the old hotel, even though the new hotel has a perfectly lovely porch, with a beautiful panoramic view of the mountains.  I think it's because at the old hotel, you are down in the trees, which are restful in and of themselves, and you can hear the birds and the water from the creek across the street.  It really is so peaceful.

Saturday night after our catered dinner of baked ziti, we headed over to Fort Cochran for some fun.  The kids did some impromptu charades, we sang some songs, and then we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.  The fireplace was so deep, we could fit a bunch of kids actually *in* the fireplace!  We were glad to be warm and dry though!

After the s'mores, there was an unplanned "feats of strength" portion of the program.  Caleb was the first one who was able to pull himself up onto the loft, using just his arms, followed by Nathan.  Others tried, but it was really slippery and tricky.  Eventually people started helping the younger ones up, much to their delight, and then Geoff A. made it up, representing for all the parents.  It was quite the spectacle!  We pulled out the ladder to help get all the littles down, lol.

Verity spent her weekend wandering around, being picked up by anyone she came across.  This made her quite happy, for the most part, except when she was crabby because she had just had her shots on Thursday.  What a life she has, surrounded by especially young men who cater to her every whim!  Elena gifted her with a purple Care Bear that she won at Dennys, where the McC's ate dinner on Friday night.  Verity really took to it, carrying it around everywhere and sleeping with it.

Because it was so wet and rainy the whole weekend, Verity's hair really had some curl to it, including this adorable little curl behind her right ear.

Sunday we had a time of worship, and then a devotional by Geoff A.  He and his family are preparing to retire and take their final move.  In a very moving time, he washed the feet of all the men there, and talked about how they had influenced him and his family.  At our church, Pastor Mike has been going through John, and his sermon on Jesus washing the disciples' feet was just a few weeks ago, so that was fresh in my mind, and made it all the more meaningful.  We will really miss their family!

After pizza for lunch, we all packed up and loaded up in the pouring rain--but not before I got a line picture of the kids in front of the door of the Harrison House.  I love to compare these pictures over the years and see how the kids are growing.  Verity was on her absolute last legs here, and she was very glad to get into the van and go to sleep!  Luke drove the whole way home, in which we had to stop 2 times in a 2 1/2 hour drive for various people to go potty.  And Drew (who was one of the pottiers at the first stop) STILL had an accident in his car seat!  Too much lemonade this weekend or something . . .  The stops and the rain made the trip home seem much longer than usual.  No one wanted to come home because we have testing for the next 3 days, so that is definitely not something to look forward to!

I totally paid no attention to my paleo diet this weekend.  I ate pancakes, pizza, brownies, chips . . . all things I haven't eaten in 6 weeks!  I enjoyed it too!  I'm sure I gained back 5 pounds, lol.  I guess it's back on the wagon tomorrow.  I'm very thankful for a relaxing weekend with good friends who are like family!  What a blessing!

Finishing Up

I love this time of the year, when activities are winding down, and our calendar theoretically gets emptier.

All our co-ops are done now.  TNT finished the end of April, and we had our annual ice cream party at Rivendell this past Tuesday.  All the usual topping choices, plus several different ice cream choices made for happy, full, sticky kids, all of whom were also thrilled to be done with weekly assignments, although sad to not be seeing their friends on a weekly basis anymore!

The AP biology exam was actually Monday, so I was technically done last Tuesday.  Woo-hoo!  It was a wonderful feeling to wake up on Tuesday morning and know that all I had to do was memory work!  The boys felt confidant and prepared while taking it, so that's good.  I guess we'll see when the scores come out in July.  Such a long wait!

Although I'll continue to work with the younger kids through the summer, I am quite happy this school year is coming to a close.  It's been a more frustrating one than usual, due to Caleb and Jonathan's lack of diligence and well, caring, about school this year.  It turns out grades are not much of a motivator for them, and I really haven't figured out what IS motivating.  I'm hoping it's more of a puberty thing that will be outgrown (before it's too late?!), but I will say I now understand much better all those teen stereotypes you see around, like in the comic strip Zits or wherever, since we've been living it for this past year.

Nathan finished up his first year!  As soon as the ice cream party was over, I drove down to spend the night at the house of some friends who moved a little over a year ago.  Megan taught literature at Rivendell for a few years, and we have really missed their family!  They now have a little farm with goats, chickens, and even ducks.  (Did you know ducks eat ticks?  Having ducks keeps their yard tick-free for their kids!)  It was so great to catch up with them and hear all their tales of farm living.  Wednesday morning I drove the rest of the way through mist and pouring rain to Tech, but once I got there, the sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day for hauling stuff down 2 flights of stairs.  We got it all in the minivan, and drove back home, where everyone was anxiously waiting to see Nathan.  I was so glad we made it home in time for us to say goodbye to Luke, who was leaving one hour later with his mock trial team to fly to the national championships.  Crazy!

Nathan had a fantastic year.  He has really grown and matured.  He did so well academically, making the Commandant's list both semesters.  He also did really well in his physical training, as well as in his ROTC detachment, and he made good friends.  We're very happy that this is where the Lord led him--and we're also very happy to have him home with us for a few weeks!  He'll be working on staff at WSS this summer as the assistant boys staff supervisor.  Should be a fun summer for him!  In the meantime, he's been teaching Micah how to play checkers and chess--which has led to a resurgence of interest in those games among the other members of the household!

I've finally finished my whole30!  My last day was Thursday, although I kept on it Friday as well, until I ate some of a casserole for dinner.  It had rice and sour cream in it, and crackers on top of it, so that was grains and dairy introduced back all at once!  I didn't have too much though, and it didn't bother me at all, not that I was expecting it to.  I was *very* proud of myself for keeping on my diet while going down to get Nathan.  I again brought chicken strips and raw vegetables with a guacamole packet to eat for lunch, and nuts, grapes, and 2 oranges to snack on.  Today I had some M&Ms at a graduation party this afternoon, and Bob and I are planning on going on a dinner date to Cheesecake Factory, so that won't be compliant!  I lost a total of 12 pounds, so that's good, and at least 2 inches--but it's not enough to really make a difference.  People who haven't seen me for awhile still say, "Oh!  I didn't realize you were expecting again!" when they see me.  And why wouldn't they?!  I. look. pregnant!  The tummy inches haven't just melted away, so I'm afraid that means I'm pretty stuck with my pooch.  Now I guess I'll see if I can maintain my loss, and even possibly lose a bit more, by not eating after 7:00 PM, and following the paleo diet for at least breakfast and lunch.  Everything I've read says that those first 5 pounds of water weight I lost the first week will come right back as soon as I start eating carbs again.  That will be discouraging, but hopefully expecting it will take some of the sting away, lol.  

So now the last thing I have to get through is standardized testing, which I'm in charge of.  I'll be SO glad when that week is over!

Mother's Day Whole30 Update

Happy Mother's Day to all my mommy friends!  I had yet another day of not celebrating by eating anything special, lol.  Anna, Grace, and Faith made me breakfast in bed--my usual 2 fried eggs, sauteed red peppers, and a bowl of strawberries, blackberries, and grapes (well, that wasn't usual--I never go to the trouble of cutting up fruit in the morning!).  We did have a lovely day at church and just hanging out at home.  I didn't cook--we had enough leftovers, even of things I could eat, so that was a nice break.  The kids picked me a lovely bouquet of yellow flowers while we were watching Luke's rugby game on Saturday!  Don't be fooled--this is just one very small part of all the flowers I received from Faith, Micah, and Drew!  It definitely kept them occupied!

So now I'm on day 26--only 4 more days!  I've lost about 10 pounds, so that gets me back to where I was in August.  I'm not confidant that those pounds won't pile right back on as soon as I left a bite of carbs touch my lips though, and I really am getting tired of not being able to eat anything to celebrate.  I have lost some inches, but not where you might think.  I've had to start wearing my fitbit on a tighter setting!  You can all admire my thinner wrists, lol.  Unfortunately I have not noticed a huge tummy difference, although I didn't find a measuring tape until just a few days ago, so I don't really know for sure if I have lost any waist inches or not.  I still look pregnant though!

Also, surprisingly my cravings were much less the first 2 weeks I was on the diet.  The past 2 weeks, however, I have really had a bigger struggle in resisting them.  It was like they were crying out to me!  I think the difference is hormonal, and it was really shocking to see how much of my eating (and most likely, weight gain) the past few months must have been driven by monthly hormonal changes.  

Honestly, it's been a big shock to me to *have* monthly hormonal changes.  In May of 1995 I had surgery to remove my right first rib after all my blood clots, and a few weeks after that surgery, we PCS'd to Colorado.  That combination of stressors shut down my body, and I didn't have a cycle on my own for over a year.  Eventually I did, and I finally got pregnant with Nathan in October 1996, which was a huge answer to prayer.  That started almost 19 more years of gestating and nursing, such that I really didn't have too many cycles in a row ever.  So this past year has been the start of a new normal for me.  And it turns out it is one where I really, really want carbs when I'm premenstrual.  With all the stress of Latin and biology this year, my will power certainly hasn't been high, and really I don't think I thought at all about struggling to resist.  Now that I've done it for a month, I'm certainly a lot more aware of the struggle.  It was so funny to me how easy it was to resist the first half of the month, and how much harder it was the last half.  Really eye-opening!

I never got any "surge of energy" or anything like I've seen other people mention.  In fact, I really don't feel any different at all.  I don't seem to have any real issues for digesting food, even dairy, so taking all those things away hasn't seemed to make a difference, other than losing 10 pounds.  Going forward, I am planning on keeping my fried egg/vegetable breakfast, instead of bran flakes, milk, and a hard boiled egg, which has been my breakfast every morning for years.  I think I will try to stick with salads for lunch, or at least a paleo lunch.  Then I'll eat more normal dinners.  I've also been not eating anything after dinner, to make sure I have at least 12 hours, if not 14, between dinner and breakfast.  Everything I've been reading has pointed to at least that limited amount of fasting to be beneficial, if not a longer break, so I'll stick with that plan too.  Maybe that will be enough to at least keep off these 10 pounds, and then hopefully I can do another month of Whole30 this summer, and see if more weight comes off.  I don't see me being able to keep up with it during the school year, at least not the first semester.  It's always so busy and stressful.

I've also started using this Bowflex down in our basement 3 times a week.  Nathan encouraged me to do more with weights, so I started a few weeks ago.  It's actually a lot more fun than I expected.  I used to really enjoy the rowing machine when Bob and I would meet at the gym in the mornings before we got married, and so I like "rowing" on this thing.  Then I do about 20 minutes of various arm things.  I must say I haven't noticed any great improvement in arm toning either, but hopefully it's burning more calories.  Bob and I are still walking pretty much every night, and I do pilates 2-3 times a week as well.  But I've been doing that for awhile, and it never made any different before, lol.  

So we'll see what happens in 5 more days . . .  I can say I am really looking forward to a bowl of ice cream!

Happy Birthdays, Bob and Grace!

Grace turned 9 yesterday, and Bob celebrated his birthday today!

We started the celebration on Friday by bringing dessert to Bible study.  Grace picked a huge pan of cookie dough brownies, and we also made a fruit pizza (I guess that was for Bob, lol).  Let me tell you--it was really hard to stay on this crazy diet with all these treats around, and all the celebrating going on!  Grrr . . .I should have started in July, when we don't have any birthdays for awhile!  But I resisted temptation.

Grace had a special lunch of corn dogs Sunday after church, and then she opened presents in the afternoon.  She was thrilled to get a medieval American Girl dress for her doll and some darling earrings from Grandma and Grandpa, as well as a "decorate your own" jewelry box, a camping set for the dolls (from Walmart though--much less money!), and a bunch of the chewiest candy I could find to celebrate her getting her braces off!  She ate the turtles right away and thought they were delicious!

The girls painted and decorated the jewelry box this morning  We got no school done, unless you count "art", because after the box was painted, everyone just wanted to keep on painting on paper.  Micah and Drew were less than helpful with the actual box, but they had tons of fun painting interesting scenes on paper.  I'm just glad they're both past the "smear all the paints around until they're one big blackish blob and the paper tears" phase.  Anna was very proud of the "ROYGBIV" rainbow she painted, although technically she reversed the colors, putting red on the bottom, and violet on top.  I didn't tell her, though!  She forgot my carefully-planned lesson from co-op this year, lol.  I'll have to revisit that concept later . . .

Bob took off work today, which was another big reason school never happened.  We didn't really do anything super-special, since he also was unlucky enough to have his birthday on a Monday, like Anna, which of course is the day before Rivendell.  But he got to sleep in and spend time with us, so that was nice.  He and I did got on a quick date through a torrential downpour to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, where we bought a new "Red Copper" skillet.  Bob's brother-in-law is really happy with his, so we're hoping for similar results here.  Oh, and we got Bob a Fitbit of his own!  I figured I liked my own so much, and now he can keep track of all his steps too!  Now his big hike into and out of the Pentagon each day can count, right?!

Whole30 Update #3

It seems like the only thing I talk about anymore is this crazy diet, but it is definitely what I think about a lot!  I'm 2 1/2 weeks into it now.  I think I am most proud of staying on it this past Sunday.  Bob and I left at 7:30 AM to drive up to his parents' house.  We met his sister and mom at the rehab center where Bob's dad has been for a few days, and we ended up eating lunch there--well, not me.  I had packed leftover grilled chicken cut up into slices, as well as raw mixed vegetables, one of those little tubs of Wholly Guacamole from Costco, and some grapes and oranges in a cooler, plus some almonds and cashews for snacking.  I waited until Bob and I got back in our car to drive over to his parents' house, and then I ate my lunch.  I left enough chicken, veggies, and fruit for me to have for dinner as we were driving back home as well, so it worked out really great.  Whew!

This week I've done more fish recipes.  I even made salmon cakes for the first time, using almond flour, and they were really good!  I got a paleo cookbook called "Well Fed" out of the library yesterday, which lots of people on the Well Trained Mind boards highly recommended, and I've been given tons of good recipes from friends on facebook, so I feel like I've been able to find lots of yummy things to try.  Tonight I made for myself a chicken fajita salad (without the sugar in the dressing), which I loved.  

I had my first "carb dream" a few nights ago.  I dreamed I was halfway through a bowl of apple cinnamon cheerios (a cereal I rarely, if ever, eat in the first place) before realizing that I had messed up my diet.  Then, since I had already messed up, I went ahead and ate brownies.  It was so real!  I was all down and discouraged when I woke up, but thankfully it didn't take me too long to realize it had all been a dream.  Anna had in fact made brownies the night before, so that part was true, LOL.  I never did get a taste of them, alas.

I was all happy because I lost 5 pounds the first week, but the second week, I only lost a little over a pound.  And my perpetually pregnant looking belly is still right where it has been since I delivered Verity, unfortunately.  I am glad I've weighed myself, even though you're not supposed to, because getting some positive feedback has been helpful for continuing.  It is still discouraging to know that I'm not even down to where I was last August before Verity stopped nursing, though.  I try not to think about that, LOL.

Today was almost a perfect storm.  I didn't get very much sleep last night, a combination of staying up to late to work on a lab (which I didn't even do all the calculations right on anyway, so I probably should have gone head to bed), and being interrupted by various people through the night, like Grace, whose retainer fell out of her mouth while she was sleeping, which was very alarming to her (she found it right next to her head once the sun came up and she woke up again).  I'm also hormonal, which undoubtedly played a part, and it was a gray, gloomy day.  Whatever the cause, all day long, all the carbs around were SCREAMING at me!  I've never before really craved anything, but I just wanted carbs today.  I ended up eating way more nuts than usual, and more fruit, but I never gave in to anything else.  Whew!  In fact, I should head to bed now to prevent a repeat of today!

One Week Down . . A Whole 30 Update

Well, I have successfully made it through 7 days.  Yay, me!  It's actually gone fine.  In some ways this is easier than the gestational diabetes diet, which I've had to do 3 times for 12 weeks at a time--AND being in my last trimester of pregnancy!  This is only 30 days, I'm not pregnant, and I don't have to keep track of when it's time to eat, exercise, and prick myself.  Also, I don't have to feel like a total failure if my numbers are high, which was always so discouraging with gestational diabetes, even though I didn't usually have high numbers.  So it's been good.  I am down a few pounds, but really, they don't seem to be from anywhere that it makes any sort of difference, lol.  I have not had any sort of great energy, like I hear people talk about (maybe that will be later?  I can hope!), but I also have not had any real severe cravings for sugar.  In fact, the thing I miss the most is my breakfast cereal.  It just doesn't seem like I've started my day without my bran flakes and milk!

Here are some random thoughts I've had this past week:

• I'm really glad I stocked up on weird things before starting.  In fact, the only added sugar I've had so far was in the spoonful of sunflower seed butter I ate on my apple the first day because I had forgotten to get plain almond butter.  Wait, that's not totally true--while I did buy the nitrate-free, etc., etc. expensive bacon, I did not bother hunting down bacon with no sugar added.  No way am I stopping at Whole Foods!  If a fancy food isn't at Costco or Wegman's, then I'm not bothering with it, and I don't even feel guilty, lol.  Okay, that wasn't really the point of this point . . . Let me try again.
• I'm really glad I bought avocado oil at Costco.  I like it a lot better than coconut oil.  It doesn't have any real smell or taste, unlike coconut oil.  I've been frying eggs and red peppers in it most mornings for breakfast, and it's been great!  Also, I bought "Primal" mayo from Amazon (no bad soybean oil or anything else), which was a real splurge, but it's been really handy to have, because I have no desire to make my own.  I'm just lazy or something, I guess.  I have enjoyed making an egg salad with mashed avocado and bacon that I found on the internet, but it really needed a little mayo (and mustard and vinegar) to make it taste more like deviled eggs, which I love.  Oh, and "coconut aminos", which is a soy sauce substitute made from the sap of coconut trees, makes it so I can have Asian-flavored foods, which I love, with the added bonus that now I can't wait to have my sister-in-law Melinda here again (she's deathly allergic to soy), because now I can add to my cooking repertoire with her!  Also, the individual Wholly Guacamole packs you can get at Costco are perfect for dipping raw vegetables.  I did end up getting no-sugar-added almond butter a few days after I started.  It's really something.  I've been eating it on apples or bananas.  I can't wait to go back to sun butter, lol.  I think those are the odd things I've found most useful to have, so far.
• I also cooked a lot of things the first day or 2.  I cooked up a bunch of chicken strips (in avocado oil!) so I'd have them to put on salads or just to eat whenever I wanted something and couldn't think of anything.  I also made up some egg "muffin" things with chopped broccoli, eggs, some cooked special approved whole 30 sausage from Costco ("Aidell" chicken and apple sausages) and coconut milk.  Those have been nice when I didn't have time to cook myself some eggs, but just needed to grab something for breakfast. I put a bunch of chicken breasts in freezer bags in various different marinades I found on the internet.  Then I can grab a bag and cook a few breasts for Bob and me that at least have some flavor.
• Spaghetti squash is a tolerable substitute for spaghetti noodles, but I don't think I will ever choose to eat them instead of noodles without being on a diet like this!  Fortunately my homemade sauce, which I love, doesn't have any added sugar or anything bad, so I could add a lot of it over the squash, lol.  I will say that having squash made it very unlikely that I would overeat that meal!  
• I think I've been able to manage my expectations for results.  Several of my friends commented on how to really lose the weight and keep it off, they needed to count calories and work out often, or stay on the diet faithfully for pretty much long-term, or other things.  Some friends said it didn't work at all for them, which was discouraging, but sounded like what I've read.  I guess if this doesn't work to lose some tummy inches, then I will just resign myself to looking perpetually pregnant, because I really don't want to think about food any more than I am now!  I definitely appreciate hearing everyone's different experiences!

3 Days Down . . .

So I started Whole 30 on Wednesday.  I had to get through Micah's birthday on Saturday and be able to go to Costco on Monday to stuff our fridge with all the things, both normal (lots of fruit and vegetables) and not (almond flour, avocado oil).  The idea of Whole 30 is to eat lots of whole, unprocessed food--meat, vegetables, fruit, and healthy fats--for 30 days, with no dairy, grains, legumes, or sugar.

This past year has been a hard one for me, weight-wise.  Usually after I have a baby, it takes awhile to lose the last 10 pounds, but eventually most of them go away.  Over the course of 17 years (until I got pregnant with Verity), I had gained a little more than 20 cummulative pounds.  I wasn't happy with that, especially since it was all in my tummy, but whatever.  After I had Verity, those last 10 pounds from her pregnancy never went away though.  I thought I'd lose weight after she stopped nursing in August, but ha!  Not only did I not lose weight, I gained 10 more pounds over the course of the past 8 months!

I did try several different things.  I started taking a probiotic in October.  That made me feel a lot less hungry, and I never got sick over the winter . . . but I never lost a pound.  After New Year's, I tried a few different things, like having a shorter window of eating during the day (gained 2 pounds), and eating like I was on my gestational diabetes diet (also gained 2 pounds).  Gaining weight while being unhappy and trying to lose was about the most discouraging thing I could think of, and definitely not a motivator to keep doing what I was doing!  It really seemed like my body was holding desperately onto my stores of fat.  I could practically hear my body talking,  "Any day now you'll be pregnant, and how will you possibly grow a baby if you are WITHERING AWAY?!?"  Somehow it did not get the message that we are done, LOL.

So I decided to try Whole 30.  I even got the book and read it (It Starts With Food).  Their whole section on the hormonal interplay really resonated with me.  We had just covered the endocrine section a few weeks ago in AP biology, so it was all very fresh, and everything they said made sense.  This entire past year I've felt like my body was sending out different signals than I wanted it to, and I really feel like I need a restart for my metabolism, hypothalamus, everything.

I told the kids my big plan, and they were aghast.  Luke pointed out that it was the worst possible timing for him to change his diet, since he is 2 weeks from the start of AP exams, and 3 weeks away from mock trial nationals, plus he is in the middle of rugby season.  Fortunately, I had not planned on having the kids participate.  I mean, it's always good to eat more fruit and vegetables, but no way am I cooking for everyone with these random weird things, like mayo made of avocado oil, or this soy sauce substitute made from coconut tree sap called "coconut aminos".  We would go broke!  They don't need to cut out all carbs, and I'm not going to spend time looking at every label to avoid soybean oil or whatever.  Anna planned out a 30 day menu for everyone else that she will help with, and I printed out a ton of recipes for Bob and me.  My plan (and how it's worked out these first 3 evenings) is for them to have a normal main dish, Bob and I have something like chicken or whatever, and I have a normal vegetable, like steamed broccoli or some roasted vegetable, as well as a new preparation of some different vegetable.  I've been having a salad for lunch, and I've done different things with eggs and vegetables each morning for breakfast.  I do miss my bran flakes and hard boiled egg!

I'll keep updating with how I'm doing.  The book is all about not checking the scale, just focusing on how good you feel, how much better you're sleeping, how your face has cleared up, etc.  I'll be honest though--I don't have any other real issues with skin, inflammation, or sleeping.  I want to lose weight, and if it takes 6 months or whatever to see change, I will be totally demoralized, and there is no way I'll be able to give up milk, grains, and beans for that long with no positive reinforcement!

Happy Birthday, Micah!

Another post, another birthday.  That's how we roll from February to June!  This time it's Micah's 5th birthday.

He was very happy to decorate his own cupcakes, along with the girls.  He had very decided color choices.  They all had a very fun and frosting-filled afternoon!  For his birthday dinner, Micah requested tuna pockets, peas, and diced pears-- a nice, non-gourmet meal, which totally works for me.

Five-year-olds are so much fun!

After dinner, cupcakes, and ice cream, Micah opened his presents.  He got a Lego Star Wars t-shirt, a Darth Vader bath scrubby, some Minion stickers, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Seek and Find book, some candy (including a Spider Man Pez dispenser that was very well-received), and in that big box on the right, knight's armor from Grandma and Grandpa!  That was definitely the most favorite gift, especially since they included a set for Drew!

Every since we went to Medieval Times, Micah and Drew have been more into knights.  Unfortunately, all the knight dress-up stuff we had left over from the first 4 boys has seen better days.  Luke masterfully employed silver duct tape to keep the original 2 helmets wearable, but clearly they were not going to last much longer.  Now we have a fresh infusion of armor and swords, just what 2 knights-in-training need!  (And yes, I marked each item with the correct initial in sharpie, so we can keep track of who breaks or loses something--I'm not a newbie to this game, LOL!)  Any bets as to how long before the swords have to be confiscated and spend some time in the "penalty box"?  Ha!

Micah and Drew have actually gotten much better at playing with each other these past few months.  They can play Duplos, Legos, cars, whatever, for a pretty good long time together before it all breaks down. I'm glad to see them become so close, just like Nathan and Luke, and Caleb and Jonathan.  

I was reading back over Micah's birth story today, and I'm so glad I don't have to deliver him again!  He started out big, and he still is quite a bit bigger than anyone else ever was at each stage.  He's been our only child who actually wears bigger sized clothes than his actual age!  The thing I am really thankful for this year is that I can say that Micah is really a sweet boy.  The tantrums that he used to have with such alarming regularity (pretty much anytime he didn't get his way, needed to pee, or really just thought something that wasn't going his way *might* happen . . .) have really disappeared.  Even when he gets upset, he calms down again fairly quickly.  None of us miss the days of the 3 hour crying jags, complete with banging on the door or wall!  He has done so well in the elementary co-op.  One lady even stopped me a few weeks ago to tell me how much she had enjoyed teaching Micah!  He had helped clean up, he had listened well, he was just a joy.  Who knew anyone would ever say such things about Micah?!  He's no longer always the obstinate, uncooperative, stubborn mule he used to be!   I'm really glad we stayed the course, as it were, because now we are finally reaping the reward of a happy, more settled child.  I always say Micah is the child who really humbled me.  Before him, I might have thought I had pretty much "figured things out", as far as parenting goes.  Ha!  Not so fast!  What a challenge!  So we are really thankful the Lord put Micah in our family, and we're so thankful that Micah has settled down so that each day is not such a trying struggle, like it used to be.  

Happy Birth-Week, Anna!

Anna turned 10 years old on Monday, March 28!  Unfortunately, it was a Monday, which is the most stressful and not fun day of our week.  She did pick her birthday dinner, which was an easy one--Asian glazed meatballs over rice, stir-fried green beans, and a fruit salad with mangoes, grapes, and lots of different kinds of berries.  After dinner, she opened her presents and we ate ice cream.  She was very happy to receive a microplane zester (which she had asked for!), an earring box with little dividers, and a double-dutch jump rope.  One movie Bob bought (right before the big blizzard in January) was "Jump In", about a jump rope team, of all things.  Watching this movie several times has ushered in an era of intense interest in jumping rope here at our house.  Unfortunately, we only had a few short ones, but not any longer!  Now we are the proud owners of 2 long ones, so the girls can do "double dutch".

Since we were all pretty busy and stressed on Monday, we continued celebrating on Tuesday.  Anna and I got up early to go to Shoppers before TNT.  Shoppers has the most amazing "colossal doughnuts"--once you taste them, you will never be satisfied with a tiny little Dunkin Donuts donut!  She had written down her flavor choices so she could take them into her co-op class for a treat.  We got 2 dozen, since there are 14 in her class, and we got to eat the rest of the doughnuts, which made everyone happy at home.

At Rivendell, the McCs gave Anna this awesome scarf, which she has had a ton of fun with!  This is her Russian spy or perhaps Jackie Kennedy look.  Joel also gave her a bag of coconut, since he knew I wouldn't buy her any!

Tuesday night was really special--Bob took Anna out to Benehana, a Japanese steakhouse where they cook the food right in front of you.  Anna has been dying to go there ever since Grace went last year with Bob before a father/daughter dance.  She had steak (her favorite!), and she reported it was delicious.  She also really liked the Japanese strawberry soda she had, so afterward she and Bob went to Wegmans to buy some so we could all try some.  It really brought back memories of Okinawa for me because it really had a distinctively Japanese strawberry flavor.  It was good!

Friday night we brought dessert to Bible study to finish up our week of celebrating--and to start celebrating Micah's birthday, which comes next!  Anna had been looking through old Quick Cooking recipes, and she decided she wanted to make a cappucino mousse trifle.  I must say, that was never a recipe that I had ever noticed or been attracted to, but hey, I'm glad Anna is branching out and trying new things!  The recipe uses frozen pound cake, but we decided to make our own.  We used this recipe, although we baked it in 2 8 inch loaf pans.  We also didn't have any lemon extract, but it was still delicious even with just vanilla extract.  I think we will have to make the pound cakes again and have strawberries and whipped cream or something on top!

Right before serving the trifle after Bible study, Anna added squirts of whipped cream and sprinkled grated chocolate on top (grated with the microplane, which is AMAZING!  So sharp!).  It all looked so pretty, and it tasted so good too!  The reviews said it didn't have a strong coffee flavor, and they were right.  Part of that was probably due to us using an entire 16 ounce tub of whipped cream in the mousse filling, instead of just half, since the reviews also said there wasn't enough filling to go on all 3 layers.

I'm glad Anna's birthday week ended on such a high note!  She is such a special girl, and we're so glad she's in our family.  Cooking is obviously one of her big loves, and we all benefit from this hobby!  She is also a big help with cleaning.  Yesterday I came downstairs in the morning to find her removing everything in the pantry in our kitchen so she could wipe down the shelves and organize it all.  Especially this past year, I've started to see how it seems like a lot of the big families have older girls, and how helpful that must be.  I mean, I love having my 4 older boys, and they were a lot of help--but things like organizing the pantry were really just never on their radar screens, lol.  And today Bob took Anna, Faith, Micah, and Drew to Luke's rugby game, and Grace and I stayed home to clean.  We cleaned pretty much the entire main floor *and* baked a double batch of banana bread!  So I am really enjoying having older girls now too.  SO helpful!  

Anna is very excited about being 10 because now she can get her military ID card!  Of course, there is no easy, close place to do that here, so who knows when it will actually happen.  I have fond memories of getting my ID card when I turned 10 and we were stationed on Okinawa.  Big milestone!

Supreme Camp-Out

Luke got home today from a 2 night camping trip to the Supreme Court building!  A friend of his, who was on last year's mock trial team, let him know about this opportunity.  There are only limited seats in the Supreme Court building to listen to the cases being argued.  No recording of any kind is allowed, so if you want to know how the arguments went, then you have to physically be there.  But there are many people who really don't want to stand in line themselves to wait, so they hire people to stand in line for them--for as many days as is needed.  Luke and 10 other people got the call Monday morning for a case that was being argued today (Wednesday).  It is the religious freedom case of the Little Sisters of the Poor and the Obamacare abortion mandate, so this was a very popular one to want tickets to.  Luke's group was holding spaces for big donors of the ADF, the group that is arguing the case for the Little Sisters.  

Luke and Leo rode the metro down together and arrived mid-afternoon.  They set up camp in line with their group on the side of the Supreme Court building, in between it and the Library of Congress.  Luke didn't go on our field trip to the LoC back in November, but he ended up spending a lot of time right beside it anyway!

The first night was really cold, so it was not easy to sleep.  Luke ended up putting his sweats on under his jeans, and he brought a hat and gloves, which helped.  They were able to go to Union Station to get food and use the restroom in shifts.  They could also use the restrooms in the Supreme Court building when it was open, but Luke never did that.  Leo's mom was so kind to bring them breakfast Tuesday morning!

The boys said they got a lot of questions from people who were wondering what they were doing.  Many people thought they were homeless.  In fact, the group ahead of them were homeless people who had been recruited to stay in line for someone else.  One little boy asked his mom something, and she responded with a big discourse on how they were doing a "silent protest", which is what people did when they disagreed with something.  We were laughing because it must have been a *very* silent protest, with no signs or anything to remotely suggest they were protesting anything!  Funny that she wouldn't just ask them, but instead made huge (wrong and unsupported) assumptions.

The second night was better because it wasn't so cold.  Before night, the whole line got moved to the front of the building, so they had a different view.  This morning, the guys came whose places were being held, and our group packed up and left.  Each person was paid $400 in cash.  I hope the homeless people got as good a reward, if not better.  Luke and Leo rode the metro home together, and I picked them up at the station.  After we dropped Leo off and went home ourselves, Luke took a shower and washed his clothes!  I think his own bed will feel very good tonight!

Irish Dinner

As I finished up leftovers from Thursday's St. Patrick's Day meal for lunch today, I thought I should document what I made so that when I search around a year from now, I'll have it written down somewhere!

Usually I am on top of celebrating Pi Day, which is of course on March 14, but this year, since it fell on a Monday, I didn't get any pies made, and neither did anyone else in the fmaily.  The day before Rivendell is not a good day for anything extra or special!  So I really wanted to make something for St. Patrick's Day, which was Thursday.  Last year we celebrated Pi Day but not St Patrick's Day, so maybe that will be our plan from here on out--one or the other!  It seems more reasonable to celebrate Pi Day since we are all pretty math-minded, and we are Polish/Slovak/German, with not really even a hint of Irish.  But hey, cooking new things is fun!

I went searching around for a new Irish recipe to try, and I found Irish Coddle.  Even better, I read in the comments that I could make it in the crockpot, and that is what I did.  I needed something in the crockpot because I had to pick up the kids from Jonathan's math class, as well as have biology lab, so I didn't have a lot of extra time in the afternoon. It was super easy and delicious!  I fried up the thick bacon, and then I cooked the sliced onions in the bacon grease for a few minutes.  After removing the onions, I cooked the sausage breakfast links for a few minutes too, just to give them a little brownness.  Then I layered the potatoes, carrots, onion, salt, pepper, bacon, and sausage links, and poured 2 cups of chicken broth (not beef, like the original recipe said, but chicken, like the crockpot comment said) over it all.  I cooked it all day, and I didn't bother making the white sauce with cream and stout.  It was an easy crockpot meal, which I am always searching for, so this might actually make the rotation more frequently than once a year.  I was going to make Irish soda bread to go with it, but I completely forgot (because I got wrapped up making the dessert).  I did make a cabbage salad, which went really well with it.

For dessert, Anna and I made an Irish apple cake with custard sauce, and it was also very good!  It was hard to tell when it was done in the middle , though.  Luke suggested cooking it in a 9x13 pan next time (instead of a 9 in. springform), and I think I will try that.  The custard sauce was delicious.  It was gobbled up quickly!  Someone in the comments had a caramel sauce with it instead, and I imagine that would also be very yummy.  Next time!

A Rescue Operation

We had a crazy week last week.  Nathan was home for spring break, but since we weren't on break ourselves, we didn't get to spend tons of relaxing time with him.  We did get to go ice skating with him on Wednesday, which was super fun for the little kids.

One of the main things we were doing was getting Luke ready for the state mock trial championship.  His team left last Thursday, and they didn't start back home until Sunday evening (exciting news:  they won!).  Bob and I went off to bed, figuring they would be back here around 12:45.  They drove our big van.  Their coach drove it down to Williamsburg and back into the area, but her car was at another teammate's house, so Luke, Isaac, and another boy had to drive back here.  Although Luke has had lots of experience driving the big van, he can't drive more than one unrelated person, since he hasn't had his license for more than a year, and he isn't 18 (VA rule, not ours).  So they 3 boys were toodling on back this way around 12:30 to drop off the other boy first.  It was raining, and Isaac was driving when Luke said to slow down because there was debris in the road.  It turned out to be car parts, and they were from a terrible accident.  Someone driving east had crossed the median and hit another car head-on.  The driver of the east-bound car had been ejected and was lying on the road, seriously injured.  The other driver was lying by his car, in shock.  Although 911 had been called, no one was on the scene yet, as the accident had really just happened.  The boys stopped, and the big van was able to block traffic, since the one guy was lying in the road.  Isaac is an Eagle Scout, so he hopped out and was helpful.  I have this travel pillow in the van that I use in the small of my back when driving (because the seats are SO uncomfortable, especially on long trips), and at some point that pillow was used for something.

Anyhow, eventually ambulances and police showed up, and the boys were able to go their way, albeit shaken up.  Luke finally got home around 1:35.  He had tried to call a few times, but we were sound asleep, blissfully unaware he was an hour later than I had projected.  He came in and woke us up to tell us about the accident.  I think the whole thing was pretty surreal!  One of the first things he said was, "You're going to have to buy another pillow for the van!"  Well, of course that was fine!  It was nothing special, and I was glad it could be used!

But on Tuesday as the younger kids and I set off for their morning co-op, I was driving on the same road, and I was trying to figure out exactly where the accident had happened.  I saw a bunch of debris on both sides of the road, and I was sure that was where it was.  Traffic was stopped at a light, and I was pretty far back from the light, but as I stopped, I saw a forlorn white something in the median.  It was my pillow!  It was just lying there, looking pathetic, in the grass!  Now that bothered me.

I drive that stretch of road almost daily, so I kept driving past my poor pillow, all neglected in the elements.  I really wanted to pick it up so I didn't have to watch it decompose over years as I drove by.  The problem was, I couldn't figure out exactly how to go about getting it.  It was in the center median, with 3 lanes of traffic on each side.  The median actually was a ditch at that point, and there wasn't enough room to pull off to the left there without going into the ditch.  There wasn't really anyplace to pull off to the right either, and it wasn't that close to the turn lane or anything, and besides, I wasn't crazy about darting across 3 lanes of traffic and back!  I puzzled about it pretty much every day this past week, trying to figure out how to scoop the poor thing up.  It really bothered me!  (Spiritual application:  like the good shepherd who leaves his 99 sheep and goes after the one lost one to bring it home.  Thank you, Dayton Christian, for instilling in me the need to find spaps everywhere, lol.)

Finally I came up with a plan.  The ditch leveled out some as you get closer to the stop light, so I could pull off behind the turn lane, and it was pretty flat.  So after I picked up Jonathan from his math class Thursday, I told him I was going to attempt to rescue the pillow.  I even had to make a u-turn to get there, but I was able to pull off, hike back, snatch up my pillow, and return to the minivan, studiously avoiding the curious eyes of everyone stopped at the light who must be wondering why I would ever pick up anything at all from the side of the road.  I threw the pillow right into the washer as soon as we got home, but it really wasn't too bad.  No blood or anything gross, just a bit of dirt that had been kicked up onto it.  After washing, it looks good as new!  I was so relieved to not have it lying there by the side of the road.  It wasn't that it was irreplaceable; it was just that it was mine, and I hated seeing it out there abandoned!  I wonder why no one cleaned it up?  Something like that would take forever to break down.  It would have been an eyesore for years!

So now you know what consumed my thoughts this past week, LOL.

Exciting Weekend

The most exciting thing is that Nathan came home Friday night for spring break!  The dad of another cadet drove them home, and he very kindly dropped Nathan off at the L's house, where we were at Bible study, since it seemed wrong to let him come home to an empty house.  When the kids came upstairs for dessert, Faith came tearing up the stairs, heading straight for the dessert table--until she saw Nathan, and then she ran shouting, "NATHAN!!!" into his arms to give him a big hug.  It's nice to be missed!  It was also so sweet this morning to see Drew sitting in his lap all during church until Drew went off to children's church.  We're all enjoying having him back, even if it is just for a week!

Luke wasn't at Bible study because he was at rugby practice.  He got to see Nathan for a few hours, but then he had to leave at 4:45 Saturday morning to go south of Richmond for some CAP training for encampment. He got back this afternoon at 3:30, changed and headed over to the McC's house for mock trial practice, came home again briefly before heading to the gym to play in the league all-star basketball game.  Busy day for him!  He leaves Thursday for a mock trial tournament, so he's not going to see all that much of Nathan.  Bummer!

Caleb had an exciting weekend.  Yesterday his basketball team had a playoff game that went into triple overtime.  With 13 seconds left in the 3rd overtime, Caleb sank a 3 point shot!  In the remaining 13 seconds, a teammate was fouled and made one foul shot, so his team ended up winning by 4 points.  Yay!  Then this afternoon they played the second playoff game, which they also won!  So they'll be heading to the championship game in their division next weekend.  He had such a good coach this year, and I think she has really encouraged him to be more aggressive, be more comfortable on the court, and just be a better player overall.  I don't think he would have even tried a 3 pointer in previous seasons!  The team all went out for pizza after the big win yesterday, and they had a great time.  It's so nice when a team really gels!

Tomorrow it's back to the life and school . . . well, not for Nathan.  He is enjoying the fact that when you are in college, breaks really are breaks!

Bookshelves

I was reading through the January issue of the Costco Connection (because that's how far behind I am, apparently) when I came upon this helpful article called "How to Style a Bookcase".  Here are some of their suggestions:

• For a cohesive look, choose a color tone for the accessories and stick with it.
• Leave at least a third of the shelves empty, if not half.
• Think of each shelf as a complete arrangement.  Your eye should move form shelf to shelf smoothly; if one item dominates the other items, remove it.
• Create dimension within each compartment by stacking small books like a pyramid, topped with a smaller artifact.
• Group similar objects together in threes or fives.
• Put larger baskets or attractive bins on bottom shelves for kids' toys and games.
• For a vintage look, remove the paper jackets from all the books.
• For a casual feel, mix up colors and add family photoes in nice frames.
• Lean framed art against the back and layer accessories in front of it for dimension.
• Don't be afraid to remove shelves, especially if you have a lot of them.  Less may be more in this case.

Well, all I can say is--I think we've nailed it!  We may have to remove the baby powder, though, as it seems to dominate the other items on that shelf.

Silly me for thinking that bookcases were actually for storing as many books as humanly possible.  Maybe one year we'll be able to have "cohesive" bookshelves, with up to half the space empty, and the other half filled with accessories, photos, bins, and oh!  a book or two.   Not any time soon, by the looks of it.

Baking Weekend

Last weekend we had to do a ton of baking for various events.  We tried some new recipes and had some successes, as well as some failures.

First, Wednesday night we tried a lemon cookie recipe--"lemon crinkle cookies".  I had seen some reference to them on facebook, and Anna LOVES anything lemon, so we thought we'd give them a go.  The weird thing about the recipe was that it only listed powdered sugar, but I just thought huh, that's different, and I never really gave it much more thought . . . until the dough just didn't really come together, and it certainly didn't taste sweet enough.  We looked back over the recipe to make sure we hadn't missed anything, but we hadn't.  That's when it really jumped out at me that since we were supposed to roll the balls of dough in powdered sugar (which was specified in the recipe), then there must be other sugar earlier that somehow didn't make it into the ingredient list that was supposed to be creamed with the butter.  I googled other "lemon crinkle cookies" recipes, and indeed they all list 1 cup of granulated sugar, as well as the 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, which was clearly just for rolling the dough balls in.  I did look up the conversion factor, and you're supposed to add 2 cups of powdered sugar for every 1 cup of granulated sugar, so I had dough with 1/4 the right amount of sugar.  No wonder the dough had such issues!  We baked up one batch.  They tasted vaguely scone-y, and certainly not worthy of being brought to Bible study on Friday night, which was when we had signed up to bring dessert!  I told Anna we could bake them and put a lemon glaze on them, but you know, that just hasn't been at the top of my priority list, so the poor neglected bowl of too-sticky not-sweet dough is still sitting in the outside fridge, likely on its way to the trash can.  Ah well.  You'll note I did NOT link to the recipe, lol.  I still can't believe I managed to find the one wrong recipe out there, and then I didn't even pay enough attention to figure out it was in fact wrong!  So for Bible study we ended up making my old stand-by of cookie dough brownies, which are really yummy, and a banana snack cake, thereby using up the 4 brown bananas on the counter.

Saturday was Luke's birthday, and he asked for chicken packets, which Anna actually suggested, and which we haven't had in a long while because they are somewhat time-intensive.  Luke asked for just a regular cake plus ice cream for his birthday dessert.  He's been reffing several basketball games each Saturday (and pulling in $35/game as a highest-rated referee, so well-worth the time!), so I made the cake and decorated it while he wasn't home.  I made a poorly constructed cake in the shape of a car that was definitely not fit for public viewing, lol.  My original cake that I was shaping didn't rise as high as I thought it would, so I didn't really have enough material to work with.  I almost just threw it all away, but then I thought that would be a real waste, so I made it work.  I don't know if you've ever read the comic strip "Baby Blues", but this car had sort of the same lines, at least in the front, as Darryl and Wanda's minivan.  But hey, it tasted great, and there was none left by the next day, so none was wasted.  You'll note I did NOT post a picture of the cake.  Ha!

After feeling like I had been bathing in sugar for the past few days, what I wanted to do Saturday night did NOT involve baking.  But I had signed up to bring a main dish and a dessert for our church's fellowship dinner Sunday after church.  Back when we first started attending, in late 2006 (that long ago?!?), we used to have fellowship meals every first Sunday of the month, after Communion.  I loved it!  They were really wonderful times to just visit and get to know other people in the church.  But eventually we moved into places where we couldn't use a kitchen, so the meals just sort of went away.  I'm so happy that they have started up again, although only quarterly.  We're a much bigger church now, so the logistics are much trickier!  The Lord blessed us with AMAZING weather last Sunday, especially for the end of February, so many people could eat outside.  Of course the downside was that it was really muddy out there where all the kids were playing, and so they got super dirty.  Verity in particular looked like we sent her off to work in the coal mines, as she shamelessly stole food from plates that people left within her reach.  I had to give Micah, Drew, and Verity baths as soon as we got home, which made me glad I had never bothered to give them baths Saturday night, when I usually do.  No wasted effort!

Okay, that was a big rabbit trail.  Where was I going with all that?  Oh yes, food for the potluck.  So the theme was "southern cooking".  I decided that meant for me a nice, comforting, can-make-a-lot-at-once chicken casserole, so I tried a new recipe which was very creatively called "chicken noodle casserole".  It was actually pretty good, so I DID link to that, lol.  I made it up Saturday night and then cooked it Sunday morning.  I also made my dessert Saturday night.  I decided to try "salted caramel chocolate chip cookies".  I took the advice of one of the reviewers and just baked them in a pan, since I was pretty tired and really sick of baking sweet things.  They were yummy though!  I'll definitely make them again.  So all that cooking and baking at least ended on a high note!

Next week will be another cooking/baking-intensive week, because Nathan is coming home for spring break tomorrow, Lord willing!  We all can't wait to see him!!

Medieval Times!

Rivendell went to Medieval Times for the matinee showing today.  We did this as well the last time we were doing year 2 of Tapestry of Grace, and it was exactly 4 years ago to the day, as my Timehop reminded me.  That time we went to an evening show.  Bob took the 4 boys plus Anna and Grace, and I stayed home with Faith and Micah, so I had never been before.  We had such a fun time!  Kudos again to Emily R., our outstanding field trip coordinater!

   Anna and Faith wore their medieval dresses, which were Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa G.  Grace thought she would be "too scratchy" to wear hers for such a long time, but Anna and Faith looked so cute!

 When they announced our group, they also wished "Lord Luke" a happy birthday, which was entirely Christine's idea!  We took up a whole section, but the 6 younger kids and I sat in the bottom row, right next to the arena, along with Craig, Christine, and Elena.  We had such a great view!  Verity was a "lap baby".  At first she was absolutely terrified and hardly moved a muscle, with all the noise, fog, lights, horses, etc.  But then she relaxed and pointed eagerly at the king, the princess, and all the horses.  She was especially thrilled with the falcon flying around.  That made me miss the falcon shows at the USAFA home football games.  A falcon can really put on a display in an open stadium!  But this was a good second best, lol.

 Anna was excited to be given a flower by "our" knight, the blue knight.  She was wearing the right colors!  But then he picked Faith to give his favor, this blue sash thing, before the jousting.  When he put his joust in front of her with the sash on the tip, she leaned as far away as she could and definitely was not excited about taking it.  Christine was sitting next to her, and she was encouraging her to take it when Faith said, "But I don't want to marry him!"   After we got that cleared up, Faith did take the favor and wore it the rest of the day, lol.  I wish I had gotten a picture of that!

I was worried that maybe there wouldn't be enough food, since Verity didn't have a plate of her own.  I needn't have worried!  Between my plate, as well as Micah's and Drew's plates, we had plenty of food for the 4 of us!  Micah and Drew were absolutely transfixed by the whole show. They are the perfect age for choreographed stage combat!  I can foresee there being a ton of sword-fighting (non-choreographed) here at the house, with many hurt feelings and bumps and bruises for the next little while.  Micah wanted to wear his crown to bed.   As soon as the food was done, Verity was pretty much done as well, so the last part of the show I spent wrestling her (non-choreographed).  I felt very validated that I stayed home with Faith and Micah 4 years ago, lol.

 We actually had a huge group--41 of us--so this is just a small subset!  I was too busy trying to keep track of Micah, Drew, and Verity that I didn't end up taking very many pictures.

This was Verity as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot.  That was a lot of stimulation for a little pumpkin!  We all had a great time, though.  Just think--in 4 more years, when this rolls around again, Verity will be 5!  No more wrestling a lap baby!  I can't wait!

Dryer Woes

We bought our Maytag washer and dryer when we moved out to Colorado the summer of 1995.  They are not fancy at all--only dials, no electric controls--but they have been real workhorses.  They hold a ton of laundry, and they have never before needed a repair.  I went through a period of time maybe 7 or 8 years ago when I was so envious of those spiffy new front-loading washers and dryers.  I was even sort of hoping our old ones would break so we could get shiny new ones!  But then I started hearing some reports about those new appliances that made me change my mind--mold around the door seal, they don't get clothes very clean because they don't use enough water, lots of repairs, etc.  So I changed my mind and started praying my faithful appliances would never break!

Over the past few months, however, our dryer started making some funny noises.  It had sounded for awhile like there were rocks in it, tumbling around, but then it started sounding a lot more serious.  Last Thursday I put a light load in there of a few clothes and a car seat cover, since Drew could NOT make it home from picking up the girls at basketball practice, as it turned out, and it really sounded bad.  I stopped it, took everything out, and Bob took the poor thing apart.

The first thing he did, once he got the front and top off, was to take off the three paddle triangular paddle things inside the dryer.  In one of them we found the source of the "rock" noise:  $1.58.  The interesting thing was seeing how coins look after being in a rock tumbler for years on end!  The pennies all shrank terribly, and you can see the zinc underside very clearly.  It looks like a rim around the pennies.  Also, poor Abe Lincoln is pretty much worn clean off on the ones who have been in there the longest!  I put a brand new 2015 penny from our change tub on the far right so you could see the size difference.  The dimes and quarters aren't quite as intriguing, but all the ridges are completely worn off the edges, and you can see the copper under the nickel outer coating.

After all that excitement, Bob found the actual source of the problem:  this wheel that holds up the dryer.  The bolt holding it in had gotten loose, so the wheel shimmied around.  Compared to the wheel on the other side, this one looked terrible!  Parts on the front had come clean off, and the black rim had really worn down.

Bob found the model number of our dryer and was able to figure out what part we needed on an appliance repair website, so he ordered it.  The part finally came in Monday, and he was able to install it last night.  I am thrilled to say that not only is the dryer working again, it is practically silent!  Our dryer has been reborn!  Now maybe it will last 21 more years!  Still--one repair in 21 years is a pretty good record, I think.  And yay for handy husbands!!  Bob is such a blessing!

I am so happy to have it working again.  I did 2 loads of laundry Friday, and I brought a huge laundry basket of wet clothes over to the L's house so we could use their dryer during Bible study!  It will be nice to show up over there this Friday with just ourselves, lol.

Ponderings

As I mentioned briefly at the end of my last post, we had hoped to catch a space-a flight out west to visit my dad's side of the family last Saturday.  At the last minute, the flight got moved up, and so we weren't able to get there in time to catch it.  And since then, there hasn't been another flight to Travis, so that little plan is a no-go for right now, anyway.  We may try in a few months, if we can avoid the whole spring break rush of space-a travelers.

But the whole scenario was just befuddling.  I had been looking at flights for several weeks, but only out of Dover AFB, since that's where we caught the flight 2 years ago to Travis, and since its posts show up on my newsfeed almost daily.  There were really very few flights out in January, and then none in February.  I tried to look at McGuire's facebook page, since I remembered doing so 2 years ago, but I couldn't find it by searching.  I figured they probably took down the page, possibly for security reasons, and I didn't think much more about it. But then, last Thursday, a post from "Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst AMC Passenger Terminal" showed up out of the clear blue sky in my newsfeed, with this flight to Travis on Saturday, roll call at 1155!  Wow!  We were all so excited!  I kept checking the schedule, but to get to the page, I had to go to my "likes", and scroll down to where it's listed, since it still wasn't showing up when I searched for it (although I just tried again, and this time it popped up, which is weird).  We got all packed up and went to bed at midnight Friday night, after having called the terminal just to make sure nothing had changed.  To get to McGuire by 10:45ish for an 11:55 showtime, we needed to leave about 6:45, so I got up and checked facebook one last time at 5:45--only to see that the showtime had been moved to 7:00.  Since McGuire is about 3 1/2 hours away, there was nothing we could do except be disappointed.  In fact, even if I had woken up and checked right around 3:00, when they posted the change, there was still no way we could have gotten there in time to get checked in and park the van a mile away in long-term parking, so clearly it wasn't meant to be.

But why did the Lord allow us to get our hopes up?  I mean, why bring the flight to our attention?  I had already pretty much given up, since there had been no flights out of Dover.  It actually brought me back to last year, when Nathan didn't get the USAFA appointment.  Why get us thinking that was the way the Lord was moving, since he had gotten 2 congressional nominations, plus the early West Point appointment.  Obviously Nathan is doing fine where he is, and knows he is where he is supposed to be, but still . . . it makes me ponder.

I don't, of course, have any answers--sorry!  But Mike did preach a very applicable sermon Sunday on John 11:1-44, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  Why did Jesus wait, allowing Lazarus to die?  Obviously Jesus valued more than Mary, Martha, and Lazarus's temporary comfort.  He is committed to giving us what we need most, which is a vision of God's glory in the ministry of Christ, as he acts through our circumstances, so we can come to greater faith through our circumstances.  Not getting into a particular college or missing a flight can't really be called suffering, by any stretch of the word, but when we do suffer, the cross is ultimately why we have hope.  God sent his son to die for us while we were still sinners.  Jesus didn't come just to weep impotently and offer us a temporary physical extension of our lives.  He came to save us for eternity.

I still don't know why we weren't in Oregon this past weekend.  But I do know that the God who did not withhold his only son will not withhold any good thing from us, and I can rest in that, even when I don't understand.  And we're all still praying for an airplane to work out maybe in April!

Birthday Weekend!

We kicked off our birthday season last weekend by celebrating my birthday and Faith's.  In the next 5 months, 9 of us in our family have our birthdays, not to mention various other aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.  Lots of desserts and celebrating!

We brought dessert to Bible study last Friday.  I once again picked chocolate covered strawberries.  We dipped 4 pounds of them, and I had lots of eager (messy) helpers (tasters).

Faith really wanted a cake.  I thought she was going to pick cupcakes again, but she decided she wanted an actual cake.  We tossed around a few ideas for the cake, but then she pulled "snowman" out of the air--must have been memories of the blizzard!  I was happy because what could be easier than a snowman?!  We whipped it out in short order!

There was a small crowd at Bible study, so we all got to eat out fill of the strawberries.  Even though the strawberries were not to sweetest, juiciest, summer ones, they were still yummy, AND we got to take some back home with us, as well as a little bit of cake!

We celebrated Faith's birthday on Monday.  She was very excited to open her presents!  From Grandma and Grandpa she got a beautiful medieval outfit for her American Girl doll, on loan from her cousins.  She also got an outfit for her, a kit to make a garden stepping-stone, like we got Grace for her birthday last year, and some candy.

That big uncreatively-wrapped present that was just in 2 brown paper bags was this ice cream stand for her American Girl doll.  As one who constantly struggles with finding presents for everyone, I am loving the gift-giving opportunities that the AG dolls present!  This was from Walmart, so you know it was not ridiculously-priced, and now, hey, they have even more way to play with their dolls!  The dolls have taken over our downstairs guest bedroom, and the girls have made furniture for them out of boxes.  Each doll has her own separate living area, so it's more like an apartment building or something down there.  And now Faith's doll has an ice cream stand!  It's good to encourage entrepreneurship in dolls as well as kids, lol.  So fun!  The girls are having such a marvelous time playing with the dolls.  

So the first family birthdays have come and gone, and now we are back to our regular busy routine.  We had hoped to take a special trip today, out to Oregon to visit my side of the family, including my Aunt Rocky, who has faithfully made a beautiful quilt for each child, plus their well-loved blankets.  We were all set to drive up to McGuire AFB in NJ to try for a space-a flight out to Travis AFB, CA.  I got up at 5:45 so we could leave around 6:45, but when I checked the facebook page, the flight had been moved up to 0700 (from an 1155 showtime).  Since you have to be there an hour before showtime to check in, park in long term parking, etc., there was no possible way to make it.  I'm just glad we realized it before we drove 3 1/2 hours for nothing.  Still--very frustrating and disappointing.  All that frantic packing yesterday for nothing, and it would have been perfect, with the 3 day weekend!  As Christine keeps reminding me, "God doesn't withhold any good thing."  Sigh.  So now it's back to writing the biology exam and making up another Latin extra practice sheet.  Ah, February--it's a good thing we have 3 family birthdays this month, or else this would be a bummer, gray, winter month!