A Little About Me:
Name: Andy
Age: 5
Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Food: Peanuts
Favorite Activity: Scootering
Favorite Book: Joke Books
Andy loves all things about farming - especially the big machinery
Highlights from 2011
Greatest Lesson Learned: Exercising
Hardest thing of the Year: Writing
Favorite Memory: Playing in the snow with cousin Brynne
What I loved most about 2011: Watching Robin Hood
Excited to do everything his sisters do.
Looking Forward to 2012
Want to Learn: To build a spaceship
Want to get better at: Riding Scooter
Biggest Goal: Learn how to Read
Happy New Year! Okay, I know it's January 2 - but hey at least I'm not a whole month behind. I thought it would be fun to share something from my kids their favorites from 2011 and their hopes for 2012.
Kara - a shepherd and the Inn Keeper
Today I'll start with my eldest child - Kara Beth
A Little About me:
Name: Kara
Age: 7
Favorite Color: Rainbow
Favorite Food: Candy
Favorite Activity: Playing with my new Penguin (Thank you Aunt Sharon!)
Favorite Book: The Boxcar Children
An unused blackberry turned Mp3/Kindle/Camera/Video camera
Highlights from 2011
Greatest Lesson Learned: Math
Hardest thing of the year: Obeying (I'm so glad she was honest here)
Favorite Memory: Vacation
What I loved most about 2011: Getting a scooter
Contemplation - Kara loves losing herself in the beauty of God's Creation
Looking forward to 2012
Want to Learn: How to do cartwheels
Want to get better at: Handstands
Biggest Goal: To read all of the book Little Women
When we first moved to Kansas five years ago, all I knew about the state of Kansas was what I learned from watching The Wizard of OZ: obviously I knew nothing.
Well, since moving here I have done so many new things, and grown used to doing things differently.
1. I learned how to garden. My mom had a garden when I was growing up, and to my shame, one of my mom's most embarrassing stories about me comes from when she told me to go weed the garden and came home to find me sitting on a bench by the garden "raking" the weeds.
2. I have learned how to can and store up food for the winter. When we lived in Wisconsin, I played around with canning -- making blueberry freezer jam and freezing corn (thanks to generous people who donated blueberries and corn to Northland every year). Now I've learned how to can tomatoes, salsa, jellies, green beans, applesauce, and so many other things. I'm hoping to learn how to can venison this fall if we get a deer, and maybe eventually to dehydrate fruits and jerky.
3. I've learned how to make bread from scratch, okay I do admit I knew how to do this before we moved to Kansas, but not to the extent I do now. I tinkered with making rolls, and used my bread machine to make bread on occasion, but now we don't buy bread unless we are traveling (and I don't use my bread machine except to make cinnamon rolls).
4. I've learned that I can make my own flour -- I had no idea this was even possible until we moved to rural Kansas. JA bought an ice cream pail of wheat from the Co-op to use as a sermon illustration, and that wheat must have sat in my fridge for several months (at the time I didn't know it didn't need to be refrigerated). I finally asked someone, and I borrowed a friends wheat grinder, stored my flour in the freezer and used in recipies. Last fall, JA let me buy my own wheat grinder, and since January have been freshly grinding wheat to use in my bread. In fact, we haven't bought any flour since January.
Mrs. Kimbrough's cookies made with freshly ground wheat :)
5. JA has learned how to clean our own wheat (I know this isn't me, but I did all the research!!!). We have been buying our wheat directly from the Co-Op. You can't beat $7 for 50 pounds of flour. JA has been sweet enough to clean the wheat for me (pouring from bucket to bucket in front of a fan), and has already cleaned almost three bushels of wheat this year (we've only used up one bushel so far).
6. We have begun making our own laundry detergent. This has been fun, and the kids love helping to grate the soap. (I'm hoping to learn how to make my own dish washing detergent soon).
I have learned so much on the practical side of living, but one of the most important lessons I have learned since we have moved here is the importance of being a good steward of what God has placed in my care. Whether it is the money my husband earns, the health of my children, the education of my children, the beautiful home we have, or even my own time, I must take careful account of how I care for things.
I am still working on becoming a good steward of my time, I find it so easy to waste a few minutes here and there, I will be working on this over the next few months, and hopefully becoming a better steward of my time will allow me to find more time for blogging about how God is working in my life and the lives of my children.
I always loved when my college roommates would receive one of Mrs. Kimbrough's giant cookies (They were always very kind to share). I thought this Valentine's day I would share that treat with my kids.
Each kid received their own giant heart shaped cookie
Of course Daddy received the biggest cookie
Ezekiel was asleep when I gave the kids their cookies, so I had to get a picture of him eating it instead
JA and I made lunch for the kids together - Quesadillas
I love bragging on my husband, and he makes it so easy for me to do. I absolutely have the most wonderful husband in the WORLD! In the first couple weeks of Gabriel's life it seemed like he wanted two things -- To Eat and be Held. The main problem came when mommy was holding him. If I was holding him, it wasn't enough to be held, I had to feed him. That meant for the first week, I didn't get much sleep. One morning, J.A. woke up when I was exhaustively feeding and trying to get Gabe to fall back to sleep; He reached over, took Gabe, and carried him downstairs to the living room so I could sleep.
When I woke up, I found J.A. and Gabe both sleeping soundly on the couch; and I felt so much better.
Kara loves to help "Babysit" her baby brother. He absolutely loves her. If he's crying, she'll pick him up and start singing to him. He just looks at her admiringly and smiles.
Kara has been a great help to me so I can get some things done without having to hold Gabriel the entire time.
I think in a few years she'll be a great babysitter.
Okay, I'm just going to say this once -- IT'S COLD OUTSIDE! Now that I've said that I can continue on with my post. Last month was quite a busy month for our family. Between adjusting to life with a newborn, church ministries, having family come and visit, and trying to accomplish a month's worth of school so we don't have to have school way into the summer -- made for a great combination. I don't know if it's the addition of the newborn or my determination not to fall behind on school again, but this has been one of the most profitable months in our household (as far as getting things done, not financially).
Ezekiel enjoyed his skating ride
School went amazingly well, we started school on January 5 and so far have completed four weeks of school. Kara is doing great in all of her subjects and in her piano and violin practicing, and Lydia has almost completed her reading lessons, and Andy is beginning his reading lessons.
By the end of the night Lydia was skating really well, and refusing all assistance
However, the main point of this post is more about the fun we've been able to enjoy as a family and not about the work we've accomplished.
Andy was doing pretty well skating by the end of the night.
This past month we introduced the kids to joy of rollerskating inside with real skates (not the toys skates you slip on over your shoes that never seem to work very well). They had a blast and are already looking forward to going back this month for a friend's birthday party. Enjoy the pictures.
Kara spent most of the night clinging to Sarah or me to help her skate.
Since J.A. doesn't skate, and I knew there was no way I could teach three kids at the same time to skate, we took a friend's boy with us to teach Andy how to skate. My plan was to teach Kara and Lydia, but when we arrived at the rink, one of the teenage girls came over and offered to teach help me teach the girls, so we took turns with Kara and Lydia. I absolutely love our homeschool group, and the servant's heart that so many of our teenagers have learned. Now to start teach my kids the joy of serving :)
Gabe slept almost the entire time we were there -- waking up just in time to eat before we began the drive home.
Wow, I can't believe it has been a month since I woke up to celebrate our ninth anniversary. God has been so good and gracious to us. His plans never cease to amaze me.
As many of you know, I was expecting my fifth child. His due date was December 29, 2010. However, With my first four children all being exactly 10 days early (OK, Ezekiel missed the 10 day early mark by about six hours), I naturally assumed that my fifth baby would also come early. I mean, why ruin a perfectly good pattern :) Even my physician thought that he would come early -- he said I just had to remain pregnant until Dec. 1 to have a healthy baby. Well, Thanksgiving came and we wrapped up the fall semester of school. My plan was for us to take off the entire month of December, getting ready for Gabe's birth and adjusting to life with a newborn. Well, once again, God's plan and my plan's were not the same. Hunting season came, and I joked with my doctor about making sure I didn't go into labor on his day off so we wouldn't have to drag him away from the deer, and he responded with as long as baby was born before sunrise or after sunset :)
Well, hunting season passed with no contractions. Then it drew closer and closer to Christmas. My expected date of December 15 passed (hey, all they others were about 10 days early). Then it was Christmas day. All day I had minor insignificant contractions. It must have been the power of suggestion and the idea of having a Christmas baby. No labor. By now I was feeling like I was almost two weeks overdue, even though it was my due date. Well, my next appointment began the process of making sure baby was okay since I was overdue. So, my next target date -- January 1, I mean why not have the first baby born in the new year. Wouldn't it be great to be able to celebrate your birthday every year at midnight when you ring in the new year? I think it would make for some great parties as a teenager. Well, once again my plan was not God's plan.
December 28 came, and I was sick and tired of putting off everything that I had been delaying because I was waiting for the birth of my baby. So I opened up my awesome new pasta maker, and made three pounds of pasta, I cleaned the house, got caught up on laundry (OK, some of this was still part of my daily maintenance of keeping house), and did several other things which I can't recall. Several friends joked about my going into labor that night because of how much work I had done (Carrie, Dee, and some others). I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to what they were saying; however, before I went to bed I did feel some minor cramping (nothing new since I'd been having contractions and cramps since before Christmas and they hadn't been doing anything). But, I did take the time that night to write up my anniversary post -- Just in Case :)
Well, at four thirty on my anniversary, I woke up with more serious cramping, but wasn't ready to share my anniversary with a birthday. By five o'clock I was having three contractions within a five minute period. So, I leaned over to J.A. and woke him up asking him what he thought of having a baby as an anniversary present. Since I didn't want to take kids with me to the hospital, I called my sitter (she lived 20 minutes away). Then I asked J.A. to call the hospital while I took a shower. After my shower, contractions had slowed way down. Dee arrived shortly after I got out, but I was no longer ready to go in to the hospital. We sat around talking. About 6:00, the hospital called, "You didn't have your baby at home did you?" OK, I didn't know my calling in to the hospital would elicit such a response :) I explained that my contractions slowed down, and the nurse let me know that they were ready for me whenever I came in.
Probably about fifteen minutes after the phone call we decided to head in, not because of my contractions, but because we wanted to leave before Ezekiel woke up -- I just didn't want to have to deal with a fit as we were leaving. We drove the five minutes to the hospital, and found out that my doctor had been in since my first phone call. Can you tell they were expecting me to have a very fast delivery (Ezekiel was three and a half hour labor total)?
Here is Daddy finally enjoying holding our precious new son.
Mommy and Gabe snuggling.
Our hospital has a wonderful tradition of serving the new parents a steak dinner. They typically serve the steak dinner on the second night of the hospital stay, but when the nurses found out it was our anniversary, they called the kitchen and ordered the steak dinner for us to enjoy that evening. Dinner was a bit rushed since J.A. had to get to church to preach. But, it was certainly a much nicer anniversary meal than what we would have had at home.
Now, for those of you wanting to know the baby's stats, here they are:
With gas prices on the rise, we've been busy trying to see how much fun we can have around the house. Recently the kids have been talking a lot about wanting to go camping. So, last week, Kara, Lydia, and Andy all brought their blankets and pillows down to the living room and spread them out. Then they each had a blast laying on the floor and pretended that they were camping.
Here is Kara resting on her pallet.
Lydia and Andy enjoy going along with every plan their sister cooks up.
Enjoying a dessert of Bomb Pops -- complete with coffee filter to collect drippings.
Kara also enjoyed her Bomb Pop
I had to cut Andy's hair the other day, so the girls decided they needed haircuts also. Here is Lydia's short hair.
Kara's hair received the most dramatic cut, but I am really liking how it no longer looks so stringy.
