Happy Graduation, Nathan!

 Today we celebrated Nathan's graduation from high school.  Our first graduate!  Nathan wasn't at all interested in the whole gap/gown ceremony deal.  All he really wanted to do was eat ice cream and play games with his friends, like we did at a graduation party we went to last weekend.  We compromised by having a VERY short ceremony where Bob opened in prayer, I said a few brief things about how rewarding it has been to homeschool Nathan all the way through high school, not just because of his academic and athletic accomplishments, but because of his character and relationship with the Lord, and my dad closed in prayer.  Then we took a few pictures with Nathan's diploma, which was freshly minted off the internet.

 Then we opened up the ice cream bar!  Christine had ordered for me 2 3-gallon tubs of ice cream from her frozen food co-op.  It was an amazing bargain--$18 for 6 gallons of ice cream!  So we got a chocolate tub and a vanilla tub, those huge round cardboard ones like you see in an ice cream parlor.  We also had a gallon of mint chocolate chip because . . . well, you really can never have enough ice cream.  We ended up with about half a gallon of vanilla, a gallon of chocolate, and half a gallon of mint chocolate chip left, so we did pretty well, I think!  We ended up with about 75 people, not including out large, ice-cream-loving family.

You can see some of the graduation decorations hanging there and also on the table.  I bought a pack of them from the party store.  I'm putting them away so we can drag them out again in 2 years for Luke.  We should get our money's worth out of that pack of decorations!

 We had tons of toppings too.  To start with, you could choose a brownie square or a banana half to pt in your bowl before the ice cream.  Then we had 6 different flavors of toppings, oreo crumbs, M&Ms, gummi bears, sprinkles, crushed pretzels, sliced strawberries (the kind that are frozen in syrup--yumm!), chopped peanuts, walnuts, and pecans, and whipped cream.  Nathan had said when we were planning this thing that he wanted to be sure to have pretzels, so I bought some from the commissary and put them in a  bowl.  But no--Nathan wanted them crushed into pieces so he could put them on his ice cream.  I had never heard of that, so I tried it, and wow, was that good!  Salty and crunchy in there with the ice cream!  I'm a fan!  Who knew?!

 One thing I did was make this tri-fold board with pictures of Nathan from birth to now.  It was so fun to make!  The older boys were all up Thursday night while I was assembling it, and it was so fun to reminisce about things we did.  I printed off some VT images, and I wrote up some Bible verses on power point.  I figured Jer. 29:11 is always an appropriate graduation verse, and  Nathan has always really liked Josh. 1:9.  I Cor. 16:13-14 are verses I had never really noticed before we studied I Corinthians last year at Bible study.  It was what I ended my little speech with, as our graduation charge to Nathan:  "Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be [a man] of courage; be strong.  Do everything in love."

I also made a little scrapbook on snapfish with a lot of the same pictures.  At the end, I left some blank pages for people to write words of wisdom or whatever.  In fact, I hounded people to make sure they didn't leave without signing!  I figured that would be a nice keepsake for later for Nathan.

 We had a really good turnout, and after a week of cold, wet, miserable weather, the Lord was gracious to give us a beautiful day!  The kids spent a lot of time outside.

 The adults spent a lot of time inside! We were visiting, and the chairs were more comfortable, LOL.  Plus, food was easily accessible . . .

 Eventually the older kids came in to play games.  They had a rousing game of Apples to Apples before going outside to play Knock-out.  Then they went off to the field down the walking path to play Speedball, a game I have no clue how to play.  Much fun was had by all, I'm told.

 The younger crowd took advantage of the trampoline, as well as used just about every bike in our well-supplied garage (I think we have at least 10 in there), and also various scooters, skates, tricycles, etc.  We have plenty to go around!

My parents got in Thursday night, to be here for the celebration.  Friday was a really busy day too, so we are looking forward to hopefully some downtime these next few days.  My mom's 70th birthday is Monday, but thanks to Ed and Elizabeth, we managed to surprise her and have a little dinner party before Bible study Friday night at the L's house.  Ed grilled up delicious pork chops, and Elizabeth made pasta, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans, and cinnamon apples.  Since Jonathan's birthday was Tuesday, when she walked in, and we all said "Happy Birthday!", she thought we were talking to him, so she was a bit confused at first!  So funny--she was definitely surprised!  We're so glad they could come for this weekend, and we wish all the rest of our family on both sides could have been here too!

So one graduated . . . 9 more to go.  Only eighteen more years of homeschooling!

End of an Era

Today's trash day was certainly bittersweet, as we threw away our exersaucer, bumbo, and baby bathtub.  You may think we should have donated all of them, but you would be wrong.  They have all served very faithfully, and they are past the point anyone else would ever want them!

The exersaucer was given to us by our friends Ruth and Chip after they adopted their daughter (who is Anna's age) from China.  So Grace was the first of our babies to enjoy this exersaucer, which was MUCH jazzier than our old one, which we kept down in the basement.  The little toys were much more interesting, and they played music!  But now, having had 6 babies bounce around in it (5 of ours, plus Lily), it has seen better days.  The toys don't stay in (and some don't work anymore), the seat part is falling apart . . . it is ready for a nice retirement.

The bumbo was given to us by my brother and sister-in-law, Dan and Melinda, also when Grace was born.  Somehow her birth brought about a significant upgrading of our old baby equipment!  That has been one of the most useful things we had for babies, and I was so thankful they gave it to us, because I'm sure I wouldn't have bothered to buy one myself!  (The thing about having more and more kids is that with each one, you know the probability of them being the last one is getting higher and higher, and who wants to buy new stuff after 5 . . .6 . . . 7 . . .8 . . .9 . . .kids . . . so the later kids are stuck with older and rattier stuff--except when you have kind and generous friends and family, LOL.)

The bathtub should receive some sort of meritorious service award indeed.  We bought this tub back when we had Nathan, so it has held all 10 kids.  Several kids back the drain plug started leaking.  I attempted to fix that with duct tape, which didn't work, so Bob ended up glopping a ton of Shoo Goo around the plug.  That stopped the leak, although we could no longer drain it out the bottom.  But it went on to bathe the rest of the kids, so that was a small price to pay.  The yellow padding started to come off, so I super-glued that and never had any more problems with it.  I have always loved that you could fold this tub up for storage.  That is probably why we were able to keep it so long!  I would have been hard-pressed to move and store one that didn't fold up all these years!

So it was a bit hard to see these things go, after all these years, but I can certainly say we got as much use as possible out of them all!  And I am very happy to not have to store that exersaucer in the basement storage room anymore!

Exciting Times!

The past few days have had a lot going on, some good and some bad.

Verity ran a fever over the weekend.  I wasn't worried, but when she woke up again with a fever over 100 Monday, I decided to take her in, just to make sure it wasn't anything, because Monday was the only day I really could do that this week.  As so often happens, as soon as I made the appointment, her fever went away and never came back, and she perked right up, LOL.  So the trip to the doctor was pretty much a waste of time, as she was obviously healthy as can be once we got there!  She is up to 15 pounds, 1 ounce, which is smack-dab at the 5th percentile, as I just plotted out.  But she's eating so well!  She loves table food, and she's still taking a bottle, although she stops when she's done--I can't force her to eat more.  Actually, today she decided she didn't really want to nurse, but before that she's also been nursing fine.  I really hope she's not self-weaning right now, but that's what it has seemed like today.  Gah . . . weight issues.  SO frustrating!  Anyhow, Verity's new skill is climbing up an entire set of stairs, so now we really have to watch her!  It's just like those malnourished babies to be climbing staircases at 8 months . . .

As we were driving back from Bethesda, Bob called with the unsettling news that our main refrigerator in the kitchen smelled like burning wires, so he had unplugged it while he cleaned behind it, just in case dirty coils were causing it to overheat.  Before I actually got home, however, a man from VT arrived at our house to personally present a scholarship to Nathan--he was in the area, presenting scholarships to students in area high schools, so he wanted to come to our house to present Nathan's to him.  Wasn't that nice?!  So after he left, and after Bob got home from attempting to drop everyone off for swim practice (it thundered right as they got there so they turned right back around), we plugged it back in again.  And again the smell of burning wires floated throughout the kitchen, so we unplugged it pretty quickly (picture my sinking heart as I contemplated moving all the stuff in there to various other fridges and freezers . . .)  Of course we are so thankful we HAVE other fridges and another freezer--but the timing is terrible!  We're having an ice cream social graduation party for Nathan on Saturday, so our freezer has over 7 gallons of ice cream in it, and our fridge has a bunch of stuff like 6 cans of whipped cream!  But the good news is that Luke googled the problem and found the answer, which enabled Bob to find the fried part.  What happened is that the filter to our ice maker (which is inside the fridge for some reason) got a little bit lose, so water leaked down the tube and down a hole in the bottom of the fridge . . . right into the compressor.  So a part fried.  I'm thankful it didn't cause an electrical fire while we were sleeping!  Bob ordered the new part, so hopefully it will get here soon . . . and work once installed.  (Praying, praying . . .)

Today Nathan and I drove to Bethesda bright and early so he could get his wisdom teeth out!  The procedure went well and didn't take too long.  I didn't get to see him until after he had already come out of the anesthesia, so no funny stories or video, unfortunately!  He was quite aware and lucid, although a bit mumbly with all the gauze.  He sounded a bit like Micah and Drew!  We are hoping he recovers quickly because, like I said before, we're having his graduation party on Saturday!  And even sooner, he has to go to an awards banquet on Thursday!  He just got notified tonight that he received a $2000 scholarship from a local service organization, so that was very exciting!

Today was also a special day because it was Jonathan's 12th birthday!  We anticipated it might not be the best day for celebrating, not only because of Nathan's teeth, but also because of Civil Air Patrol, so we started the celebration on Saturday.  Above you can see a strawberry tart that Jonathan made with strawberries from our own little strawberry patch on the side of the house!  We really do not have green thumbs, so to be able to make something yummy from stuff we actually grew ourselves is always an amazingly special occasion.  It was yummy too!  Jonathan, Caleb, and Anna all really enjoy cooking, and it's fun to get to sample their creations.

Saturday night we had Jonathan's birthday dinner, so Nathan could celebrate too.  Jonathan had ribs, pierogies, glazed carrots, and fruit salad.  Delicious!

Jonathan did open his presents tonight.  He got a model rocket from Aunt Ann and Uncle Wally, a snap circuits kit, a book of optical illusions that is really interesting, and a kit of science experiments I picked up at Sams a while back that looked right up his alley.  Oh, and a new watch to replace the one that broke a few months back.  Also the assortment of candy I've been giving each child since Luke's birthday.  Jonathan' selection included Whoppers, Swedish Fish, M&Ms, and peanut butter cups.  Yum!

Now we're looking forward to my parents coming out here on Thursday so they can be here to celebrate Nathan's graduation.  This will be the first long car trip for my mom since she got her knee replaced in April, so we're praying she tolerates the trip well, and can handle all the stairs in our house! The excitement never stops around here!

Camping

This weekend we went camping again, where our friends reserved the entire loop of a campground.  It was so fun to be there with all the other homeschooling families!  This year Nathan and Luke had to be at the running club they are volunteering with at a local elementary school Friday afternoon, so they drove up separately.  Having 2 vans made it *so* much nicer.  Since we no longer have even 1 extra seat in the big van if we all go somewhere, there is really no way on earth we could have fit everything in.  Now we'll never be able to go back to just one vehicle, LOL.  Well--maybe in a few years.

We tried a slightly different tent configuration, with the 2 tents perpendicular to each other.  It was fine, but really, when you have 2 huge tents, there's no way to configure them where they don't take up a ton of room!

We had thought that this would be Nathan's last camping trip, but with him going to VT, then he possibly will be able to come next year too.  Nathan and Luke really liked driving up later--to a campsite that was already set up!

When we drove up, Bob saw a big dead log by the entrance to our loop.  He went back to it with a few of the boys (but not Nathan and Luke, since they weren't there yet), and Caleb and Daniel McC carried it back to our site.   We had brought a reciprocating saw, which we could plug in since our site has electricity, so Nathan cut the log into chunks and then split each chunk, using his wood-splitting skills he learned at WSS. We had plenty of firewood!

I spent a lot of time at the camp stove, since we eat the same prodigious amount of food camping that we do at home.  Maybe more, since the fresh air makes everyone hungry!  We are still borrowing the L's faithful campstove--just like camping in Colorado 18 years ago.  Ahh, the memories . . .

I wasn't anti-social, I guess, but I mainly just stayed at our campsite and let people come over to me to visit, which was really nice.  Caleb, Nathan, and Luke stuck around our site mostly, so it was really nice to just hang out with them.  I also finished the book I was reading, Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  It is rare that a book lives up to its hype, but I really enjoyed this book.  Her writing was so descriptive.  It was also all in the present tense, which normally I don't care for, but in this case, it made it seem more dream-like or something.  A very basic plot is that a girl and a boy are locked into a magic competition of sorts, and the circus is where this competition plays out.  What was very unexpected for me was how much I identified with the main character, Celia, at the end.  She was just so very weary of holding everything together, which is how I have felt this whole year.  Not that I really am holding everything together, thankfully, but just keeping track of everyone's stuff, schedule, etc.  Anyhow, it was a great book for a relaxing weekend.

Verity did pretty well.  The first night was really cold (although not as cold as the first year we camped!), but she slept okay.  Every so often she would cry out, particularly if someone else had made noise (*cough* Micah, who needed to go potty twice during the night . . . ), but she always went back to sleep, so I didn't have to nurse her.  Three years ago, Drew was up all the time because it was so cold, and he bit me so very hard that it took weeks for me to recover.   That was my hugest fear, and I'm so thankful that didn't happen again.

This weekend was the last hurrah for the yellow bumbo, though.  I put a ton of duct tape on it so it would last, and it did (barely), but now we must say goodbye.  It has served well.  Thanks, Melinda!

The boys perfected using tortillas in the pie iron.  They were folding them like professionals!  This one has left-over taco meat and cheese from the potluck we had Saturday night.

Drew was a little stinker (a cute one, though).  He wandered more than any other child we have ever had, so he was always turning up in other campsites on the other side of the loop from us.  Micah mainly hung out with the bigger girls, of which there was a little pack running around together the whole time.  I guess next year Drew will go with them more?  He was sure a filthy dirty little boy by the end though.  He and Micah did play with all our little digging and construction toys a lot.  He wore that sweatshirt all the time, even on Sunday when it got quite warm.  He loved it!

When we left on Friday, no one had been sick since Wednesday (Grace), and we were all relived to have this behind us.  I was able to finish testing Anna and Grace Wednesday afternoon (Anna) and Thursday (Grace), so we were able to mail off the big package before we left on Friday (yay!).  But Friday night after we had all just gone to bed, Caleb threw up almost at the bathroom.  He never threw up again, but he didn't eat much Saturday.  Now tons of other families that were camping are sick, even ones we had nothing to do with.  But hey, feel free to blame us for any sickness you now have, or ever will, whether or not you were even anywhere near us.  It makes it so much better when you can blame someone, and we'll be the sacrificial scapegoats for single-handedly bringing the plague to everyone in Northern VA.  Other than that, it was a great weekend, and we are very sorry for anyone who is sick.  Hopefully it will pass quickly.

Limping to the Finish

Wow, May is almost over?  We're pretty much "done" for the school year, but there's no sense of "Whee!  Time to relax!" that there was when the kids were all younger.  I still have some grading to finish, and there's always prep for next year hanging over my head.  Jonathan and the girls have some math to finish over the summer, but that shouldn't be too bad.

We had our last Rivendell meeting on May 12, with our usual big ice cream party to celebrate.  I know I was so glad to be done!  With Verity's birth at the beginning of the school year, plus all her weight issues, Nathan's college stuff, Bob's job situation, and more, this has just been a stressful, tiring year.  It's too bad, though, because the anatomy class I taught was my favorite high school class to teach!  I liked the book we used (Valerie Scanlon's Essentials of Anatomy and Physiology), and the labs were fun too.  By the end, the boys were really seeing how the whole body works together, the various systems supporting each other.  Such a useful class!  It's back to AP biology next year, and I'm dreading it a bit, actually.  I need to rework a lot of things, including the labs, and I know it will take a ton more time and brain power each week to prepare.  One of these days, it will all be easy!  (Well, I can hope, LOL.)

Micah has ramped his temper tantrums back up these past few weeks as well, adding some extra stress to finishing.   One memorable one occurred on the morning that our friend from church was taking family pictures of us!  Mich was cold (and had to pee, as it turned out), and he had a huge screaming fit, frustrating me to no end.  He eventually settled down and she got some great pictures, but it really threw me off, so I totally forgot that I had wanted to get a picture of the kids lined up, for example.  As Luke pointed out, however, this *is* how life with Micah is.  I guess we'll never forget that, for sure.  And he had been doing so much better!

Nathan and Luke took 3 AP exams this year, with 2 of them being on the same day, last Thursday.  They got home from that marathon day at the local high school and rushed straight off to rugby practice.  They both woke up in the wee hours of the morning, vomiting and having lots of intestinal distress.  Maybe they picked a bug up from the school?  Who knows?

The unfortunate thing is that we were planning on driving to White Sulphur Springs that day for a retreat with our OCF Bible study.  We waited around until things seemed to be under control, so we left around 2:00.  We stopped at McDonalds when we were about 30 minutes away--and Drew threw up all over the floor as he took his first bite of cheeseburger.  Ack!  My lightning-fast reflexes miraculously prevented his clothes from getting too messed up, but still . . . no one was very hungry after that, LOL.  We got there, the kids ran around a bit, and I decided to give him and Micah a quick bath.  While I was starting the water, Micah threw up, but we did manage to get most of that in the trash can.  So that wasn't looking good.  We got through the next day, and it was really fun and refreshing.  But both Micah and Drew threw up again during the night on Saturday, which was weird.  I felt queasy, dealing with them, and at 6:00 AM I was down.  I just stayed in bed until I could finally eat a saltine cracker around noon.  I showered, and we somehow managed to get packed up and drive home, although we left Drew's beloved blue and white checked blanket there.

But we couldn't rest and recover because the next 3 days were standardized testing for our big co-op, and I'm in charge of that.  Plus, we had the minimum of qualified testers, so it wasn't like I just could not show up.  I was able to make it, without eating too much.  Caleb felt queasy the whole 3 days, but he never did throw up or anything. Faith got sick Tuesday morning.  Anna made it until Tuesday afternoon, and she threw up as soon as we got home.  Bob was feeling bad at that point too.  Grace started Tuesday night, and it definitely took her longer to bounce back.  Everyone else felt better after 8-12 hours, but she didn't really start feeling better until after lunch today.  That leaves Jonathan and Verity . . . we are praying this virus has run its course!

We've got things coming up:  Nathan's graduation party, a trip to TX, lots of trip back and forth to WSS for Camp Caleb and boys support staff, a trip to Ohio for grandma/grandpa camp, getting Nathan off to college.  During the school year I always think, "Oh, I'll do _______ in the summer!"  But in reality, it never seems to happen that I clean out the storage room, organize things, go through closets, etc., so each year, we fall farther and farther behind in household organization.  Well, at the very least, I'm not pregnant this summer.  Maybe that will help.  We'll see . . .

Big Birthday Weekend!

Grace turned 8 on Friday, and we celebrated at Bible study!  She requested Air Force dessert and Andes Mint cookies, both of which were very well received.

Then on Saturday, after an afternoon of rugby, special visitors came--Bob's sister Rose and her 2 daughters Maddie and Amanda!  It was so fun for them to visit!  The main reason they came was to celebrate Bob's birthday on Saturday, which was a "milestone" one, for sure.

We ate Grace's (and Bob's!) birthday dinner of sausage roll, cabbage salad, roasted broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots, and fruit.  They brought yummy chocolate cupcakes, which we devoured outside by a fire in the firepit.  We were thankful the weather was so nice all weekend!

Grace also opened her presents Saturday night.  She got a book, some "Frozen" socks, some modeling clay, some candy (including some chocolates from Rose and the girls!), a card game, and a kit to make and decorate a garden stone.

Verity was happy to see more people to love on her!

Sunday was another beautiful day!  Rose took the girls and Micah on an early morning walk around the neighborhood (where they saw a DEAD SQUIRREL!!  There was much excitement!).  I made pancakes while they were gone, and after eating people played Grace's new Apples to Apples Pictures game. This game is great for younger kids.  "It" reads a word, and then the other players pick one of their cards that has a picture they think best demonstrates the word on the original card.  "It" picks which card she thinks fits best, and the person who put that card in wins the round.  We like the original Apples to Apples, but often younger kids don't understand the words on the cards to pick one, so with just pictures, anyone can play!

They also played a rousing game of Wits and Wagers before we ate corn dogs for lunch.  Grace had requested those for lunch on her birthday, and I bought a box at Sams months ago--and then we both totally forgot about it.  So that was a fun lunch!  Then everyone went outside again.  The trampoline got a lot of use, as the girls were very anxious to show their cool older cousins every single trick they could think of, LOL.

We were all sad when it was time for them to drive back to PA, and we're hoping to be able to visit their house on the lake up in PA this summer.

Sunday afternoon Grace put together her stepping stone.  It's a butterfly, can you tell?  It's really pretty!  I was happy to find these kits.  I wanted to get another present for Grace, so I just stopped by Michaels on Friday on my way to another store.  These were on a display right in the front, 40% off!  I grabbed it, hopped in line, and was done.  My kind of shopping!

So we had a fun weekend of celebrating, with special company!  Now it's back to our regular routine--but only for 2 more weeks!  Woo-hoo!  Summer vacation is almost here!

Year of the Bunny

Hard to believe it's been a whole year since we brought Bruno home on Easter from our friends Zachary and Karynn!  He has been such a fun pet.  He's super soft, he is so cute, and best of all, he is so quiet!

We used to have his pen in the study, but when Verity was born, we needed to put the little playpen in there so she could nap downstairs as a newborn with the study doors shut.  So we moved Bruno into the schoolroom, where he reigns as the Rivendell mascot.  ("Go, Fighting Bunnies!"  Ha!)  When someone is in there working, we let him run around the entire schoolroom, although we have to make sure all the computer charging cords are up, or else he will nibble on them.  We now have quite a few books that have little nibbles taken out of the edges as well!  Bruno also loves to chew up paper left on the floor, so "my bunny ate my homework" could be an excuse, except that you shouldn't have left your paper on the floor in the first place . . .  The entryway is hard wood, and for awhile, Bruno was very scared of the hard wood, so he always stayed in the schoolroom.  But eventually he got over his fears and started venturing out into the entryway, so we now put our whiteboard across the entrance to the schoolroom.  It fits perfectly!  Bruno loves running laps around the room and kicking up his heels.  He's so cute!

We bought him a little cat tunnel/scratching thing with little balls hanging down to bat around.  Sometimes he's more into it than other times, LOL.  What can I say--he's a spoiled little bunny!  We had to put the cardboard on top of the cage in back because he figured out he could jump on top of the cage and then out back in June last year.  We were going to make something more permanent, but you know, once the cardboard worked, pretty much everything else was a higher priority, so we never got around to it.   The clear plastic in the front of his cage is part of a mat that goes under an office chair.  When he was in the study, Bruno used to push out his cage with his nose so that he could lay on the plastic chair mat.  It must feel nice and cool!  So when we moved him into the schoolroom, we cut off part of another mat and put it in his cage for his napping enjoyment.  He usually flops down there after he's been running around for awhile.

Sometimes the kids will let him run around the playroom (on the other side of the entryway from the schoolroom), which has the added benefit of having doors AND no cords.  We also take him outside when the weather is nice, and he loves to hop around the yard and dig in the mulch.  He's been hiding under the minivan in the driveway the past few times we took him out, though.  I think he feels vulnerable in the yard without our big oak tree having really any leaves yet!  We see a hawk circling around up high, and I'm guessing Bruno sees him too.

Bruno would make a tasty meal for a hawk!  He's been living the good life here, and he's become a bit chubby, shall we say, in the past year.  "Less carrots and more exercise" was our New Year's resolution for him.  You would think it would be impossible to gain much weight at all on a diet consisting primarily of kale and timothy hay, but apparently that is not true, at least for bunny metabolism.  Bruno loves his kale, but he is not such a huge fan of spinach.  Romaine is okay, and he loves eating pieces of banana for a treat.  Surely he is not gaining too much weight from eating toilet paper tubes!  He loves to nibble on them, and fortunately for him, we have a constant supply of them, LOL.

I'm so glad we went ahead and got Bruno!  He is such a sweetheart, and the perfect pet for us right now!

Verity Update

Today was another weight check, this time with a completely different doctor.  I was prepared today, however.  For one thing, I brought Grace and Faith with me, as evidence of skinny, healthy children.  Also I printed off 0-36 month growth charts and filled them in for Luke, Anna, Grace, and Faith.  They all showed that between 3 and 6 months, my kids drop down to a (much) lower growth percentile line.  Grace's was the worst--she went from the 60th percentile at 2 months down to below the 5th percentile at 7 months, and she continued on that line until at least 20 months.

You may wonder how I have weight data for all these kids for their first years.  I had the good fortune to start keeping a "baby's first year" calendar with Nathan.  These are blank calendars where you fill in the date blocks for each month, and you can write on the days or put stickers on or whatever.  These calendars come with some "first year" stickers like first bath, first tooth, starts crawling, etc.  There are so much easier than a traditional baby book--just jot down the weight when you come back from a doctor appointment, or write down some special thing in a square.  Easy peasy!  You used to be able to buy these in stores, but for the last several (4 maybe?) I've just had to order them from Amazon.  I don't know why they aren't more popular!  I now have a little keepsake for each baby that they can look back at if they are curious when they got their first tooth or started walking or whatever.  Or I can look back at when I need to chart their weight gain, LOL.

So anyhow, I was totally prepared for the doctor.  Verity is up to 14 pounds, 3 ounces, which is the 9th percentile, up from the 7th percentile.  The doctor thought that was great and told me to keep doing what I was doing.  I told her that I had been forcing food on Verity, and now she has even started spitting up some, and I was actually quite uncomfortable making her eat when she obviously wasn't hungry.  The doctor said I should just let her eat until she's done, but not worry about getting anything extra in her, which is good because that is what I have been doing.  Good grief!  Then the doctor said it was obvious that our family growth pattern was big babies who thin down between 3 and 6 months.  Well, yes, obviously--or maybe it's a metabolic disease?!    Actually, it's just like I've been saying--my babies are very active at an early age, and they have high metabolisms.  Once they start moving around, they lose weight for a little while until everything evens out.  It's really not such a bad thing to have a high metabolism!

So this doctor was totally unconcerned, and I could tell she was actually a little puzzled as to why we were in there, since Verity was such an obviously healthy baby, LOL.  We don't go back until 9 months.  Hopefully I can get the same doctor then (*making a note of her name on the calendar*) . . .

Verity has been really getting strong!  Last night she got herself up to sitting, which made her so proud of herself!  She's also now able to roll from back to front at will.  She has done it before, but it was more of a lucky accident, where everything just happened to come together at the right now.  This afternoon she was playing with this crib toy that used to be my cousin's back in the day--a certifiable antique, LOL!  We have it attached to the posts in our upper hallway railing.

After playing with everything for a little while, she pulled herself to standing!  Big girl!

Twists and Turns

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."  Prov. 16:9

The school year is winding down, but I haven't said much lately about Nathan's plans for next year.  Going back to the end of 2014, Nathan finished up a zillion applications and interviews.  He was notified in December that he received a 4 year type-1 Air Force ROTC scholarship.  This pays for all his tuition for 4 years at any school, plus a book and fee allowance of a little less than $1000 a year, and a monthly untaxed stipend during the school year that for freshman is about $300 a month.  Only 5% of scholarships are type 1.  How exciting!  He also was pleased to find out he received a nomination from our representative.  You should apply for all the nominations you are eligible for, so although he had Presidential nominations to all 3 academies because of Bob's service, he also had applied to all 3 of our congressmen.  The unofficial word here in VA is that the congressmen talk, and they do not duplicate nominations because there are so many qualified applicants, especially in our district in northern VA.  So we were astounded when Nathan received word that he had also been awarded a nomination from one of our senators!  He even called to make sure it wasn't a mistake.  It wasn't--it just apparently is extremely rare!  So that was very exciting too.

On Feb. 5, Nathan was surprised to receive a "big fat envelope" containing an appointment to West Point!  This was a huge surprise as well, since he had only a Presidential nomination for there, and he certainly wasn't expecting an appointment there, especially not one sent out in the "first wave" of only 500 appointments offered.  He had not really seriously considered going there, although we have several Army friends who we respect so very much, so he and Bob made an appointee visit up there in March.  He spent the night there and had a wonderful time.  He and Bob both were very impressed by the caliber of cadets they ran into.  The only drawback he could see was that when you graduate, you're in the Army, and Nathan really would like to fly.  February was really an "Army" month, because he also received word that he was awarded a 4 year Army ROTC scholarship!

March also brought word that Nathan had been accepted into Virginia Tech's College of Engineering.  He really enjoyed his visit there in the fall, so that was very exciting to hear.  Our friends who had been involved in Cru ministry with the Corps, however, said in their monthly ministry letter that they were being called in a new direction--out to Colorado Springs to work with Academy cadets!  So we were thinking that the Lord was definitely moving for Nathan to go out to Colorado next year.  But we received word in April that he had not been offered an appointment this year.  Since it seemed like everything was lining up for that, it kind of felt like the rug was pulled out from under us, but we can definitely say that the Lord slammed that door shut.  So the decision really was between West Point and VT.  In the end, Nathan decided he wanted to stay with the Air Force, so he will be using the AFROTC scholarship.  If he decided to reapply to the academy for next year, he could do that as well.  We'll see how the Lord leads.  In the meantime, other friends are also going to VT, so he is looking forward to a fun year next year.  And he will be closer to home, for sure, so that is a nice advantage.  We are really proud of him, and are so thankful for how the Lord has blessed his hard work!  We are trusting that the Lord has good reasons for shutting the door he did, even though it was hard to hear.

Happy Birthday, Micah!

Micah turned 4 today!  Hard to believe it has already been 4 years since I pushed out that huge 10 pound, 8 ounce boy!  And he's stayed big too.  He didn't have any of Verity's weight gain issues!  I think he's going to catch up to Faith soon, and after that it won't be long til he passes up our waif Grace as well.

We started the day with pancakes and eggs that we ate in honor of Micah, since he picked today to sleep really, really late.  Eventually he did get up!

Bob's sister Rose visited last night, and she swept in like Santa, bearing all sorts of wonderful gifts for everyone!  So not much school got done today, especially for the younger crowd, but they had an absolute ball playing with Model Magic, making scrapbook pages and bracelets, and (for the girls), playing with make-up.  Arts and crafts day!

Micah picked quite the birthday meal:  fish sticks and pierogies, with broccoli thrown in by me because well, vegetables.  Thursdays are busy, with Faith's co-op, rugby practice for the older 2 boys, and gymnastics for all 3 girls, so hey, I wasn't complaining about an easy meal!

After dinner, Micah opened his presents.  He got a Transformer and a game from Grandma and Grandpa, a penguin "Pillow Pet" , a foam sword and shield, a Lego Star Wars t-shirt (*cough* that I found on the top shelf of our closet recently--I had meant to give it to Jonathan many years ago but evidently forgot all about . . .) AND a box of Skittles and a small bag of Gummi Bears.  I think you can see what he was the most excited about . . .

He did have a really fun time playing his new game with Grace and Drew later on, so I guess the Skittles weren't the *only* thing he was excited about!

Don't tell Micah because he didn't notice, but I didn't actually bake him a cake today.  We actually celebrated both his and Anna's birthday last Friday, April 3, at Bible study.  Anna wanted angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream again, and Micah picked funfetti cupcakes with orange, green, and blue frosting.  The girls and Micah did all the decorating, and the results actually reminded me of the cake in the classic children's book Spot Bakes a Cake.  You'll have to check it out!  We did have ice cream tonight to celebrate, as well as leftover chocolate banana "muffins" for anyone who wanted one.  (They are technically called muffins by the recipe, but really are cupcakes!)

A year ago, I felt like we had made strides with Micah--he wasn't having nearly as many huge temper tantrums as he had been, he decided he wanted to be potty-trained, and we had even made a huge trip to Hawaii, with very unpredictable travel arrangements!  But there were still issues.  Every Sunday, dropping him off to nursery was a huge melt-down, and a ginormous cause of stress to me.  He still did have temper tantrums over little things.  But I could definitely see progress.

I see even more progress looking back over this year.  His tantrums are much rarer, and often they are exacerbated by him needing to go potty, so that is one of the things I always do when he starts getting wound up--try to get him to pee.  But sometimes he still will take some minor thing in the day and choose to melt down over it for no good reason at all, usually at a highly inconvenient time for me, LOL, like right at the start of Latin class, for example.  I usually just hold him tight and even sing to him for awhile.  Eventually he stops struggling and screaming angrily, although it can take forever.  Then he settles down and goes back to being his normal sweet self, because really he IS quite sweet most of the time now (I have not been able to say that before!).  He and Drew get along well for the most part.  I can tell they are going to be very close, like Nathan and Luke, or Caleb and Jonathan.  God has been very gracious in giving our kids to us in "sets", except for Verity!  Micah absolutely adores Verity, and he's very sweet with her.  Next year Micah gets to start gong to our elementary co-op, so I am really praying he will do well with that, and not go into his "recalcitrant mule" mode, where he is totally and completely uncooperative.  He's doing better with his children's church class, but there are still some days he doesn't want to go there and pitches a loud fit.  We have saints working in children's ministry for sure!

So I'm looking forward to seeing what this next year holds with Micah!  Hopefully he will continue to make progress in controlling his impulses and his anger--and I pray he will come to know the Lord at an early age so he will have the help of the Holy Spirit in him!

Happy 6 Month Old

"You talking about me?"

Yes!  This happy little pumpkin was 6 months old back on March 24!  She's been busy doing all sorts of things like crawling, which has enabled her to get pretty much whatever she sees, albeit slowly and jerkily.  She's also started solid food.  She thinks rice cereal and bananas are okay, but she really loves gnawing on frozen bagel pieces.  Gotta get those teeth in!  She's definitely working on teeth, but none have appeared so far, making her one of our later teethers.

Astoundingly, she has not packed on a ton of pounds.  (I'm shocked.  SHOCKED, I tell you!)  Verity had her 6 month well-baby appointment this morning.  She's up to 13 pounds, 7 ounces, but that's only the 7th percentile.  She had climbed all the way up to the 13th percentile the last time we were in for a weight check a month ago, but that was with much emphasis on feeding tons extra.  So after we stopped having to go back every week, I started getting more casual about force-feeding Verity, and just letting her be done when she was done.  We were still supplementing with about 3 oz. of formula after each nursing session.  Honestly, she is happy, sleeping well, actively moving around, and so on, so I once again was not remotely concerned.  I mean, I kept weighing her, and she was gaining weight, so everything is good, right?

Wrong.  Apparently Verity missed the memo, but she was supposed to be gaining 15-20 g a day from 3-6 months.  Unfortunately, over the past month she only averaged 8 g a day.  That is an acceptable weight gain per day for babies over 6 months, but not under.  I don't know who comes up with these random statistics, but the doctor today was concerned about that.  She kept saying how we needed to "make sure she can gain weight".  Well, duh, obviously she can, as long as I am really forcing the food on her.  But when I stop doing that, it seems that she trends back down to the lower percentiles, where I suspect her body is designed to be.  The doctor actually told me she could not rule out a metabolic disorder, and I just stared at her and then laughed.  REALLY?!?  She also said something about Verity "not meeting her milestones" and I immediately countered, "You mean mileSTONE", because obviously every other thing about Verity's development is on track or ahead.  Even her head circumference and growth are right on track!  I kept saying that she was following the exact pattern of several of my other kids, but the doctor wasn't buying it.  "I can't stand in a court of law and say, 'Well, I was concerned, but she said all her other kids were skinny'".

She threw out some potential solutions, including giving Verity the bottle first.  I immediately shot that one down, going into great detail about how difficult it was to get Verity to start nursing again once I had given her the bottle back in her first week of life, and I certainly was not going to have my milk supply drop off for this.  I told her about Luke, and about how I did stop nursing him at 6 months, since the doctors told me that starting him on formula and solid food would make him start gaining more weight (it didn't help).  I know a whole lot more now, and I am not weaning so my child can meet some arbitrary weight standard!  I'm really quite a pretty calm and laid-back, non-confrontational person, but I was highly irritated at this point.

We finally agreed that I will give Verity 5 oz. of formula after each nursing session, and I'll try to fit in an extra bottle somewhere during the day, although I'm still not sure how that will work.  And I'll bring her back in 2 weeks for yet another weight check.  She'll probably have gained, since I'll be forcing food down her, but as soon as I relax a little, she'll drop back down again.  Grrrrr.  You know, breast-fed babies are supposed to be less inclined toward obesity because they stop feeding when full, instead of just mindlessly draining however much is in a bottle.  Well, what is poor Verity learning but that you keep eating until your stomach is full to bursting, even when you have no interest in eating?!  How on earth is THAT a good thing??  Se'll definitely be ignoring any "full" sensations!  Good grief.

This really is going to be the last weight check.  I am toying with the idea of bringing in the younger 7 kids (max that will fit in the minivan, LOL), so the doctor next time can see all our skinny but healthy kids.  (I did not choose to make the next appointment with this same doctor I saw today, LOL.)  It just seem pointless to me to keep bringing in an obviously healthy baby for weight checks, and it certainly is a huge waste of my time.  So this is it!  I have had it!

Bonus picture of Micah and Drew, who wanted their picture taken too.  

Out With the Old, In With the New

Two Mondays ago, we were finishing up dinner.  Bob asked me if I could go on a walk, and I told him it had to be a quick one, since I still had things to do to prepare for Rivendell the next day.  I ran upstairs to grab a sweatshirt and brush my teeth.  As I was brushing my teeth, I thought I heard a strange voice downstairs, and sure enough, when I got downstairs, Bob was leading through our kitchen a lady, who I recognized as someone who lived in the neighborhood, although not on our street.  "And THIS is how much food we have to make EVERY night!" as he gestured towards the huge (13x20 in.) casserole dish that was actually still on the table.  Ummm . . . what is going on? was what I was thinking.  I assumed we were in some sort of trouble, although I couldn't figure out what for, since it's been a cold winter, the kids haven't been outside too terribly much, we haven't done anything to the outside of the house . . .

The lady seemed really nice, asking how many kids we had again--was it 7?  We chatted for a few minutes about her husband's recent bout with blood clots, as well as her son's badly broken arm that kept him out of lacrosse last season.  Her son did just recently have appendicitis, though (insert appropriately somber hmmming).  Bob and I waved her out the door, with Bob calling after her that we would see her at her house in a few minutes.

As soon as she left, Bob told me that we weren't in any kind of trouble--she had actually come over to offer us their old refrigerator, since they were remodeling their kitchen.  Ahhhh . . . that would actually be a good thing!

We have an extra refrigerator out in our garage, along with our freezer.  Both these appliances came from my grandparents, when they moved into a retirement home back when we lived in Colorado Springs.  Although this fridge has served quite faithfully, there is no getting around the fact that it is at least 25 years old.  My grandparents bought it from Montgomery Ward, but when they brought it home, my grandma didn't like it at all, which makes sense because the freezer is tiny, and the fridge part isn't much bigger.  So not too much later they bought another fridge (one with the freezer on the bottom, which we also got when they moved into the retirement home--we traded them our kitchen one for their house they were selling), and this one went into their garage.

Now the freezer part does not keep things reliably frozen, so I pretty much only keep things like chocolate chips and nuts in there--nothing I would really care about thawing, like meat or ice cream.  When we were stationed at the Air Force Academy, we used the fridge that came with the base house and kept our other "better" fridge in the garage, so Bob took this fridge to the squadron for 2 years.  The cadets were not super gentle with it, so it developed a bit of a mold problem around the seals that I never could get to go completely away.  And by now it is a complete mess inside, but it still technically worked, so we had no thoughts of replacing it.  We definitely need a second fridge, with all the food we go through in a week!  I try to keep at least 6 gallons of milk and 9 dozen eggs in there, as well as a 5 pound bag of cheese and plenty of fruits and vegetables, among other things.

So Bob and I headed over to this lady's house.  Geographically speaking, it was the farthest house in our little neighborhood from ours.  I was quite curious to see inside it because last summer, while I had gestational diabetes with Verity and was marching around the neighborhood daily, this family had started a renovation that included adding onto their basement so they could add onto their kitchen.  This is my dream, since the kitchen/laundry room is the only part of our house that I really don't like.  I had even dreamed of making a permanent shed (attached to the house) under our deck, and putting a room on top of it that would be where we could put our table, so our kitchen would be bigger!  Indeed, we went inside, and WOW!  The kitchen was AMAZING!!  They had an island as big as our table (which is 9 feet right now, and 4 feet wide!).  I was quite envious!  But then as we talked, she said she would have loved to have a big family, but they got married late, had several miscarriages, and then were so happy to have their one son.  I'm so thankful for our kids.  I definitely wouldn't trade them for a beautiful kitchen, and here is this lady, envying me.  Perspective . . .  Oh, this is funny though--the lady said she had asked all her neighbors if they needed a second fridge, but they all had one.  So then she was thinking who could possibly use this, since it was in such good condition . . . and they thought of that family with all the kids!  Ha!

So they had put the fridge on a dolly.  We called Nathan and Luke to come over, and then the 4 of us wheeled this huge fridge through our neighborhood to our house.  It was quite the parade!  The boys wondered what was more suspicious--2 teenage boys in hoodies walking through a neighborhood at night, or 2 teens with their parents wheeling a fridge down the street, LOL.

I am a little embarrassed to say that it took us until today to be able to actually replace the old fridge with the new fridge.  Let's just say our garage has suffered great disorganization and tendency toward chaos during this cold winter.  We had to work 2 full afternoons to get things organized enough to have room to switch them around!

So here's the new fridge:

You are probably thinking, "Ummm . . . is that really PURPLE?!?"  Yes.  Yes, it is.  A bold choice, to be sure!  In the dark, it just looked black, so we too were a little startled the next day when we opened up the garage and saw it in natural light for the first time.  Bob says the doors actually have covers on them that we could take off, and it would be black underneath.  Maybe sometime we will, should we ever want to, say, move it into our kitchen.  It's nicer than our kitchen one!  Bigger, too!  It's only 6 years old, which I believe is newer than our main one as well.  (ETA:  I just checked my blog, and it appears that we bought our current kitchen fridge on March 1, 2006--right before Anna was born!)  Anyway, it is absolutely wonderful inside--so clean and SO big!  And such an unexpected blessing all around!

Happy Birthday, Anna!

Anna turned 9 yesterday.  She celebrated Friday and today, but not yesterday, though.  Friday Elizabeth L. and Anna's birthday buddy Amanda took her to see Cinderella and eat lunch at Chick-Fil-A.  They did this last year too, and I do not exaggerate when I say this is a highlight of Anna's year!  She considers herself *extremely* fortunate to have been born on March 28 eight years after Amanda!

Yesterday, Anna's actual birthday, was a crazy day.  Nathan and Luke had rugby practice, Caleb and Jonathan had 2 rugby games down south, and Anna was invited to the birthday party of another girl in her co-op class at the same time as Caleb and Jonathan's games!  Bob was in PA with his sister Ann celebrating their dad's 90th birthday, so Anna had to ride with a friend to and from the party.  She had a wonderful time, and hey--a party I didn't have to plan!

So this afternoon we celebrated Anna!  We had her birthday dinner after church.  Once again, she asked for steak.  I went to Sam's Wednesday morning to buy everything.  I never go in the mornings, since we're always doing school then, but this week we're on spring break.  Being early meant I was able to snag steak that was marked down because it needed to be sold that day and used by Sunday.  Perfect!!  Anna also requested thin-sliced cheesy potatoes, cabbage salad, and fruit salad with lots of berries.  I forgot raspberries, but she had strawberries, blueberries, and her favorite blackberries, along with kiwi, her non-berry favorite.  We had brussell sprouts too, since I had a package we needed to use up.  Yummy!

Funny note:  in the picture above, facebook wanted to tag her as me!  Ha!

Anna wanted a strawberry cake, and she wanted to decorate it.  The girls got in some more cake decorating practice with Aunt Ann, who came down Thursday night and decorated a cake for her and Bob's dad that night. Anna had lots of plans, so we just made a 9x13 cake so she would have plenty of room to work.  She had a ball, and it turned out really well!  Caleb helped with the squiggly lines and the sea shells on the side of the cake.  The fresh strawberries on top were also her idea, and they were really yummy!  I'm telling you--it is a wonderful thing that I don't have to make elaborate cakes anymore for kids' birthdays!  I am all over this new trend of decorating your own!

Before we actually ate the cake, we did presents.  Anna has gotten really good at doing hair, so we got her some more hair things--lots of various headbands because they keep getting broken around here, and also this cool little thing that helps make buns.  I'll have to take a picture because it's neat.  We also got her a new jump rope, which everyone has been using, as well as a neat book of Frozen crafts and hair-related ideas that I had just happened to see at Michael's several weeks ago. Oh, that small package on top is candy--a bag of gummi bears and a box of Lifesaver chewy candies.  For Luke's birthday I got him a random bunch of chocolate and chewy candies, which was well-received, and everyone was very envious.  So I thought that might be a nice tradition, since it's really hard to know what to get for birthdays when you have so many kids, and you really do NOT want a ton of new junk coming into the house all the time.  Plus, we don't do anything candy-related for Halloween or Easter, so they don't get a ton of candy during the year.  So, edible gifts--a win/win all around!

The cake tasted as good as it looked!  Someone gave Verity a bit of frosting, and although she didn't know quite what to think of it at first, she soon decided it was a lot tastier than that rice cereal stuff!  In fact, some got smeared on the arm of her bumbo, and she spent the rest of the time trying to slurp her bumbo as best she could.

And this is what is left of the 9x13 cake.  I guess everyone can have a really small piece tomorrow?
ETA:  There's actually even less left now that I left it out on the table for a little while unattended . . . it might not see tomorrow at all!

So wow, 9 years old!  Anna is becoming a beautiful young woman with a lovely smile!  Like I said before, she loves doing hair, and fortunately there are several willing helpers to be practiced upon right here.  She also loves gymnastics and swimming.  She's a good reader, but she would rather be flipping or being a contortionist than actually sitting down and reading a lot.  She's good at math too, but again, that definitely doesn't light her fire.  She has really developed into a good helper, taking pride in keeping whichever room is her assigned room for the day clean and picked up.  And it goes without saying that she loves babies and is a wonderful big sister especially for Drew and Verity!  I think she will be in great demand as a babysitter in a few more years--she certainly has oodles of experience!  We look forward to seeing what this year holds for Anna!

Rugby Success

Today Caleb and Jonathan got to rugby practice, AND they were on time!  This is actually a huge deal, because we have failed pretty miserably so far this season at this very low bar.

In January we thought maybe Nathan's rugby team from last year wasn't going to happen this year, since we had gotten no emails and the website hadn't been updated.  So we started looking around, and we found another rugby team not too far from us.  The problem was that they had practices on Tuesday nights, which meant Nathan and Luke would miss CAP, so that wasn't ideal.  But then it turned out Nathan's old rugby team WAS going to have a season, so it all became a moot point.  The coach from the other team kept in contact with Nathan, however, and he asked if Caleb and Jonathan would want to play, since this club has teams for younger kids.  Well, sure!  Why not?!  It wouldn't be as bad as basketball season, where we had 6 kids on 6 different teams!  This would only be 4 kids on 2 teams!  Piece of cake!  And Nathan can drive him and Luke to their practice!

Except for some reason, we have not been able to get this second rugby team on my mental calendar.  It didn't help that there were a ton of practices cancelled in January and February because of bad weather.  Even at the first practice Caleb and Jonathan went to, I sent them off to the wrong place because somehow I misread the email--a bad omen, for sure.  Since then, it's been one thing after another, but mainly, I just forget all about their practice until I happen to look down at my watch and realize--hey, Caleb and Jonathan have practice tonight, and it is starting *right now*.  One time I misread another email and totally had the wrong starting time in my head.  I did check the email as I was stopped at a red light on the way home from dropping the girls off at gymnastics, and whoops!  That's when I realized practice actually started half an hour earlier (*right then*), and I wasn't even back home, much less on the way to rugby!  So we skipped that one, since we had been 25 minutes late the practice before because I failed to allot anywhere near enough time to get to this different practice location in D.C. rush hour traffic.  Gah . . . so embarrassing!  I was really developing a complex!

But tonight we had success.  Jonathan made a big sign to hang on the wall under the calendar to remind us of rugby.  All throughout the day he and Caleb reminded me that practice was tonight *at 5:30*, not 6:00.  And so we left at an appropriate time and made it there early!  Wow!  It's only taken us 2 months!  Clearly I am at maximum mental capacity right now, with no extra margin.  Good thing spring break is this next week!

Refreshment

Hey, it's Tuesday night, but guess what I'm NOT doing?  Latin, that's what!  Caleb and Jonathan took the National Latin Exam last Friday, so we are DONE for the year for Latin!  Yay!!  No more Wednesday classes, which means I can actually relax on Tuesday nights, which means maybe I can get a little bit caught up on this blog.  I've just been so tired and overwhelmed since the new year started, but the Lord has provided refreshment for me exactly when it was really needed.

One refreshing thing was a lovely snowstorm that we had Thursday March, March 5.  It snowed so beautifully all day, and no one had to go anywhere.  It was really nice because we had just gotten some bad news about Bob's job, and it was nice distraction.  Everything looked so peaceful, like Narnia or something.  The snow was so perfect, we actually got out our cross-country skis!

Even more impressively, we got out skis for the kids too!  Several years ago our friends Mark and Lori had passed down 2 sets of kids cross-country skis, but the snow just hadn't worked to try them out.  But this year it all worked, and they were so fun!  All 3 girls were able to fit into the bigger size of boots, and Micah could wear the smaller pair.  The girls took turns, and they all had a lovely time.  Faith as it turns out is a really powerful skier!  She caught on right away and just powered through the snow!  Micah wasn't exactly sure how to use his poles and fell down a couple of times, but overall he did pretty well too.  Anna and Grace did well, although I wasn't out at the same time as they were.  Oh, Jonathan and Caleb can both wear my boots, so they got to take a spin on my skis.  I love cross-country skiing!  Th girls think we need to move to a place where we can do it more than once every 3 or 4 years, LOL.

The next refreshing thing the Lord provided was a visit by my sister-in-law Melinda and her 2 girls.  We picked them up on Monday, March 9, and the weather was so lovely that day.  Bob was able to drive us around downtown, so the girls got a tour of DC and the monuments without having to walk all over creation.  Bob did masterfully find a parking place for the big van over by the Jefferson Memorial, so we did walk around there some.

Melinda and the girls visited the elementary co-op on Tuesday with my girls, since the co-op was having one of their special 5th week activities.  This time the "Reptile Man" came, bringing tons of scaly creatures with him.  I remember when he came 7 years ago.  I was just as glad to stay home and teach life science and anatomy.  I'm still not a fan of reptiles, LOL.  Wednesday we visited Udvar-Hazy.  We watched the airplanes land at Dulles for awhile, and then walked around the museum.  Thursday Melinda braved the Metro and took Emily, Anna, and Grace downtown to visit the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of American History.  Grace has been *dying* to go on the Metro, so that was a dream come true for her (and then she realized how boring it actually is, LOL).  The girls were particularly impressed by the jewel display at the Natural History Museum!  Elia stayed here and went to Faith's art and science co-op with her.  Friday we all went swimming at the local rec center, where Faith had her swimming lesson.

This is so obvious, I don't even need to say it, but the girls had a FABULOUS time together!  I think it is just so special that all 5 girls are so close in age to each other, and that they get along so well!  I had a wonderful time with Melinda as well, just talking about all sorts of things and hanging out.  It was lovely!  Plus, she was amazingly helpful, always unloading or reloading the dishwasher, starting a load of laundry, sweeping under the table--whatever needed to be done.  It was wonderful!  Bob thought we should convince her to stay longer, but I didn't think my brother would go for that, LOL.  Having her here, and Amy a few weeks earlier, definitely lifted my spirits during this long winter.

(Is this not the CUTEST picture of Elia and Verity?!)  Both Emily and Elia really enjoyed playing with Verity and holding her (and she of course enjoyed even MORE attention than she normally gets!).  They were both so good with her!  Emily is going to be a fantastic babysitter.  She was always looking out for the little ones, like holding Drew's hand when we were walking, and making sure Verity had a burp cloth or a toy.  By the end of the week, both girls were carrying her around like old pros!

Our last meal together was Saturday night.  It was "Pi Day", so we celebrated with 2 meat pies for dinner, as well as a delicious chocolate pie (made from Pioneer Woman's recipe, except I used semisweet chocolate chips for the chocolate, and an oreo crust) and a brownie dessert pizza with fruit on it.  Yum!

But all good things must end.  We left at 4:00 AM to drive them back to the airport Sunday morning.  The house was very sad when I got back!  Anna kept sighing and saying she wished it was still "yesterday".  There was much talk about moving to Texas.  Everyone is looking forward to this summer and another Grandma/Grandpa camp!

And now the warmer weather and the knowledge that our spring break is just 2 weeks away is giving me something else to look forward to!  We can make it through this year . . .

A Week Later . . .

This morning I was once again over at our morning elementary co-op, in charge of character/game/lunch time.  In a random bit of deja vu, the big van did not start again, but at least this time it had the courtesy to fail right in front of our house, as opposed to at the church, so we were able to switch everything including Verity's car seat base and stroller over to the minivan and only be 15 minutes late.

I was aiding the 3rd and 4th graders this time, instead of the 5th and 6th graders.  There was a child in each class celebrating a birthday, so we got cupcakes first for the 4th graders, then a big frosted cookie with the 3rd graders.  Lots of sugar!  In the 3rd grade class, I told a few girls we did NOT have to play dodge ball for game time, since apparently they play that game *every* time (said with appropriate 3rd grade drama and sighing).  I held firm to that, even though the boys insisted that EVERYone loved dodge ball, and that it is the best game *ever*.  We instead played a few variations of tag.

As co-op was finishing up, one of the 3rd grade girls presented me with the picture above:  "Best Teacher Ever".  I am assuming that this designation was awarded because of my resolve concerning dodge ball.  The ironic thing though?  The artist is the younger sister of the girl who drew me the sad cow picture last week! When I got home, we were laughing at their imagined conversation tonight:

3rd grader:  I had the best teacher ever!  We didn't have to play dodge ball!  She was so great!

5th grader:  Her?!?  She plucks eyes out of innocent cows, leaving them to wander blindly around fields!  She's the WORST teacher ever!

What a difference a week makes!