too much shopping

Garage sale season has arrived, and I took the boys to a neighborhood garage sale this morning.  We went to several, and they did really well, but by the end they were getting tired and bored.  When we about done and back in the van, we saw a few more garage sales.  Nathan said, "Mom, it just looks like baby clothes."  Very clever way to let me know he wanted to be done!

potty training and play lands

I thought I would update quick with some good news: Joshua is potty-trained!  We started over 2 weeks ago and he has been doing great from the start. Our bathroom looked like a library for a while, but he loved all the extra attention and books (along with skittles as a reward).

I would also like to share a funny story about Joshua that happened this morning.  I was reviewing some previous Bible lessons about Abraham and Isaac before we moved to Jacob and Esau.  When I mentioned that Abraham was called out of his home to a new land, Joshua piped up, "To the play land!"  Maybe a play land is like the promised land to a child. :)

One other fun tidbit is that I spent a weekend with 4 high school classmates about 2 weeks ago. We all met in Omaha and did some shopping, both at regular stores and a kids consignment sale.  Fun times!

We also just set up a 15' trampoline and the kids all love it!  We decided to get a new one as our old one was starting to fall apart.

D and E are done with school on Friday!  David is now "around the world", which means he has passed all his timed drills in math.  He started with addition, then moved to subtraction, multiplication, and division.  They have 26 drills (one for each letter of the alphabet) per math function, and have to get 40 questions right in one minute in order to pass to the next letter.  He just completed division letter Z!

 I am looking forward to having them home, although I'm sure there will be some adjustment.  I also tried a new hair do for E - this is not her, but I did this hawser braid like this and it turned out cute.

Road trip

A few weeks ago, we took a trip to OK.  We had a grad student along (who rode with us in our van), since he gave a presentation at the water conference.  It was a work trip, but the kids and I tagged along. We enjoyed great hospitality and visiting with our friends there.  Friends from church hosted us, and we had their entire upstairs, which consisted of 4 bedrooms and two bedrooms.  It worked out wonderfully, especially once our kids started to get sick.  The ones who weren't throwing up could sleep peacefully, and we took advantage of the bathrooms to give baths and rinse out clothes and sheets.  It was a very busy trip - we had an activity or social gathering almost every morning and afternoon, plus eating with a different family for every noon and evening meal.  With almost everyone we talked to, we just picked up where we last left off.  It was a blessing!  Derek gave a keynote address on Friday night and was encouraged by the level of engagement of the audience.  Saturday, our van got a flat tire, and our hosts graciously helped us get it to a repair shop and loaned us their van until ours was fixed.  (Derek was several hours away at a field site.)  Again, in God's providence, we were provided for through the help of others.

I am thankful to say that the trip back was uneventful.  The kids were not feeling back to 100%, but no one threw up in the van.  When we got home, we had a few more surprises: our garage door did not work, a breaker was tripped, and our internet didn't work.  We think lightning caused a power surge while we were away.  We had to get a new garage door opener mechanism, but our desktop still doesn't communicate with the internet.  After a large time investment with both our internet provider and a dell customer service representative, we haven't been able to figure out a solution.

During this time of unpacking and various phone calls, I did not have much extra attention to give to the boys.  Here are some of the things I found them doing while: putting icecubes in the toaster and listening to it sizzle, pouring water in our jelly jar, markering their faces, and flushing various items down the toilet.  The last one needed special attention, so after pulling out several toothbrushes, a night light and other things, we had a call maintainece.  They were able to retreive toothpaste and a stapler. 

Thus, reality.

Since then, we've been getting back into our regular routine and things are pretty much back to normal :)

Everyday happenings

It's been about a month since J sliced his chin open falling up some stairs. I thought he might need stitches, but we ended up just treating him at home.  It's still redder than what I thought, but it's not looking too bad.

 David got a new 24" bike for his 9th birthday and has been loving it!  A 21 speed.

The boys helped decorate their daddy's  birthday cake. 

Preschool craft involving mixing primary colors to make secondary colors, inspired by the book Mouse Paint.

The back of E's hair that I did for her choir concert.  She has a small, cute bun on the top of her head. 

Blankets left over from previous "boat rides" turned into a tent/fort.  They had a "watch bear" guarding the entrance. 

Today, Monday, involved going to a play center with a friend.  I'm so glad she was there because our van died in the parking lot!  Derek rode his bike to work (in 12 degree wind chill) and had important meetings all day.  Thankfully, my friend stuck around with me for over an hour waiting for the tow truck, then took me home.  But I couldn't get in.  I had left the garage door opener in the van and the front and back exterior door were latched shut with a hook and eye:

  

So I couldn't even get to the interior where my key would work.  So, she drove me to the repair shop so I could open the garage door opener and enter through the garage.  It was a lot of in-and-out, moving around of carseats, not to mention almost 2 hours past lunch time... but God provided and I am thankful! 

We ordered a set of books  and I let the kids open the box, not realizing it was full of packing peanuts.  The younger boys especially delighted in throwing them all over, cutting them up, etc.  Here, J is helping clean up the mess. 

Boat rides

The boys have really been into "boat rides."  They use about every blanket we have in the house and line them up across various rooms, or around the table, or down the stairs.  The longer the boat, the better. They take trips to the zoo, to grandma's house, and lots of other places.  

This is "down a waterfall."  

Spring Concert

The older kids had their spring concert March 21, and they did a great job!  The theme was "Praising God, our Creator."  Elizabeth's favorite song was "Mountain Maker" which is a Hawaiian song, and they were able to sing the chorus in Hawaiian. (It also was an echo song, which added to the reason of it being her favorite.)

Besides singing, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders recited a long passage of the creation account. Some of it they all said in unison, and for some it they had groups of 3-4 students.  David's group was the last, and he did an outstanding job (he was the only one out of the group that I could hear).

David's music teacher also contacted us and asked if we would consider letting him audition for our city's boy's choir.  She said, "He has a vibrant singing voice, and is always the first to learn the music, memorize the words, etc."  We decided not to pursue it, but it was a nice compliment!


Elizabeth is on the top, second from the right.









David saying his Scripture memory from Genesis.


David: Second row, third from the left

Spring