The Stuff That Rattles Around In My Head

Here’s proof that I’ve lost it, I mean relaxed!! Many of you know that I’ve been really picky about what my kids eat. Yes, I’ve been relaxing over the years. But this year’s Norseman Days was sort of a culmination as it were. (Maybe I’m being over-dramatic??) The boys had some money to spend and the first thing they bought? Whoopie pies. I really didn’t mind, but I knew they also had their hearts set on cotton candy. (They’ve never had the stuff before.) So, they had both in the space of an hour or so. Then we had burgers and fries for supper. Boy, have I arrived or what! :-) Oh, and I let Josiah have a sucker too.

Anyway, we had fun at Norseman Days. It really only takes me about 30 minutes to be done if it’s hot – which it was – but the boys had fun. We were going to go back on Sunday afternoon but we were too tired, hot, and lazy. Keith worked a night shift at the ambulance on Sat. so he couldn’t watch the fireworks with us. We discovered last year that we can see them pretty well from the patio. So I put the boys to bed a bit early, putzed around and then made hot chocolate. I woke them up when the fun started – with great difficulty. Caleb ended up being too scared to stay out and watch them. He laid on my bed and watched through the window. I think if Keith had been there to hold him he would’ve watched – but I can only hold one kid at a time! Amazingly, they were very good fireworks for our little village!

Did I mention that I’m in charge of VBS this year? It’s been quite an, um, adventure! I’ve been blessed by all the people that are willing to help. So, tonight was our first night. It went really well, except that there were only 18 kids there. That was really disappointing. Now I’m asking all of you to PRAY for more kids. We’ve advertised a lot so the word is out there, everyone just needs motivation and to remember about it. Please join us in praying!

I’m reading “Hind’s Feet On High Places” right now. What a good book! I can’t believe I haven’t read it before!! I feel like the author must know me and my heart. In case you haven’t read it, it’s an allegory about Much-Afraid and her journey from the Valley of Humiliation to the High Places and the Kingdom of Love. Part of the reason I can relate so well is because fear is one of the major strongholds that God has been freeing me from. I really recommend the book!!

The other day I got really fed up (no pun intended!) with the way I eat. I’ve known for a long time that chronic over-eating is a big problem for me. But it’s always something I’ll deal with “next time” – which never comes! And it’s pretty much a given that if you chronically over-eat, you will be chronically over-weight. Sigh. That’s me! So, the other day I decided to see how many days I can go without over-eating. I’m not sure what to think about tonight. I wasn’t really hungry at snack time at VBS but I munched anyway. I didn’t feel over-full afterwards and now I feel hungry… Anyway, if I don’t count that, I think I can say it’s been three days now, with just a few questionable times in there. Maybe I should say no over-eating and no eating when I don’t feel hungry. I don’t know if you want to hear about any of this, but I need to say it. Let’s just pretend this is Over-Eaters Anonymous. “Hello, my name is Jenni and I’m an Over-Eater.” But, by the grace of God – and ONLY by His grace, that is going to change!

Okay, that’s enough for now! It’s time to head for bed. It’s another hot night. And Josiah is working on his eyeteeth and was awake a bunch last night. I hope he sleeps better tonight!! Night-night!

Pretty Flowers

Sick Flowers!

The purple petunias started blooming in a lavender color. I thought that was odd. Soon after, the plants started to wilt and eventually they died, and took along with them a butterfly weed and a sunflower. The rest of the purple petunias seemed fine, but now some of them are turning lavendar... Any ideas?

Little Morsels of News

*Recent discoveries:
1) My boys can break things faster than Keith can fix them (i.e. cupboard door and toilet seat).
2) If a roll of toilet paper gets wet and then dries, it reminds me a lot of the t.p. I encountered in Russia!

*We’re over the flu virus. Yay.

*Caleb and Logan were able to enjoy three of the four days of VBS at the Lutheran Church.

*Most of my flowers are blooming quite nicely and I’m really enjoying them. Sadly, the weeds in my garden are doing just as well. I find I’m much more motivated to weed the flowerbeds than the garden. :-) My big flowerbed beside the patio is really pretty – mostly. There’s now a patch about 2’ x 2’ that just died. For no apparent reason. Three different kinds of flowers died. Maybe I’ll post pictures and let you diagnose it.

*Yesterday I was looking through the Sonlight catalogue and I felt my first twinges of anticipation for the coming school year. If you know Sonlight at all, we’re going to go “backwards” and put Caleb and Logan both in Core C (Caleb did Core 1 last year). Caleb will have his own readers and language arts. There was just no way Logan would be ready for Core 2 and I really want to get them going on the same core. I’ll just have to supplement more reading, etc. for Caleb. I don’t know what Math to do for Logan. Abeka, Horizons, Math-it??? Does anyone know, is Math-it a complete program, or is it just a supplement??

*A question I’m contemplating: When will my “pride” in not wearing maternity tops yet give way to my humiliation of looking more fat than pregnant?? I’m guessing I have a week to go – max.

*My hubby had his 35th birthday this week. We had cake and ice cream at the beach with our cell group. He grilled his own steak for supper. I did manage to make the rest of the meal.

*This week I finally balanced the checkbook and the budget for the first time in months. Sigh. It feels so good to have it caught up again. And sorta frustrating to see how much it costs to live.

*Caleb has been in book-worm mode lately and I sometimes have to tell him to put the book away and go play!

*At the supper table last night: Me, explaining the food to Logan, “They’re dumplins’, just like you’re my little dumplin.” Logan: No I’m not, I’m a monkey!

*Josiah is getting into repeating lots of words. He’s becoming quite a little talker, one word at a time.

*This weekend is Nsmn Days (street festival with an airplane theme, for those of you not from here). We started the fun by taking in the “free” hot dogs and pop tonight. (Free with the purchase of an expensive week-end pass.) Of course, I made the kids eat something healthy before we went. :-) Keith is working nights at the ambulance tomorrow night so he probably can’t watch the fireworks with us. But, we discovered last year that we can see them quite well from our patio. So, I’ll just take the boys out there to watch them. Wanna come? I can make popcorn.

Why?

...do my little guys have trouble sharing toys, but no problem sharing viruses? Oddly, we have the flu going around our house in the midle of the summer. Logan had it on Friday, Josiah got it yesterday, and today Caleb is laying on the couch sleeping (a SURE sign that something isn't right!!) Thankfully, it doesn't seem to last long and there's no puking involved. Mostly just a fever and tiredness. Oops, Logan just said his throat still hurts. :-( So, now we're all headed for bed. Should be a quiet afternoon...

Family Camp-out

I hardly took any pictures at camp-out. I think I was burned out. Anyway, I'll get some of Helen's for my scrapbook. She and Erica took a couple hundred, I think. :-) So, do you think these little guys are too old for bottles? :-) The picture of the sunset over Blue Lake is for Rhonda. Sigh.

The Beautiful North Shore

Strawberries and Sandals from Heaven

On our way out of Duluth, we saw a van selling fresh strawberries. Keith was in a real "take it easy" mode so he whipped around and went back. We bought a gallon of the best strawberries we've ever had. (Keep in mind that we don't get very good berries here in the store.) The five of us polished off the whole gallon in two days. :-)

Less than an hour later, Keith stopped at a "tourist trap" place. I was being grumpy and didn't want to be there. It was some kind of logging camp museum. We didn't go through the museum, just looked around the store. The boys begged for cheap toys and I just looked around and wished I wasn't there. Then I found these sandals that were exactly what I've been wishing for for a very long time. It took me a bit to adjust to the idea of buying shoes right then and there. I take a purchase like that very seriously! :-) Anyway, I got them and I love them! They are comfortable, cute and can be both casual and dressy. I'm sure glad we stopped at that dumb tourist trap!

Fun at Michael and Connies

Connie and me. Logan helping feed the baby goat. Caleb and Caitlyn being monkeys. They played and played together.

Family Reunion

From the top: Grandma and Uncle Del. Grandma turned 90 in March and still flew to the reunion! All of the aunts and uncles with Grandma. Logan and his new cousin/friend, Brendan. They were two peas in a pod! Sheldon, Alicia, Brent and me doing our best Gaither rendition. Or whatever. The infamous Mafia game.

A Week (Or Two) In Review

Okay people, brace yourselves. Here comes the report from our trip! It really was a good time. I was so excited about the S. reunion. I hadn’t seen Grandma since 2001 and also some cousins that were there I hadn’t seen for many years. There are 25 grandkids in the family and 18 of us were there. At least 3 of those who didn’t come had good excuses such as living 10,000 miles away, or being a farmer with cows to milk or hay to make… There were a whole pile of little second cousins from age 8 on down – and the majority were boys it seemed. Someone commented that had Matthews been there it would have evened things out quite a bit!! We missed you guys!

We had a really great weekend together. There was lots of sitting around and talking, looking at pictures, playing games, keeping track of all the kiddos, swimming, volleyball, softball… On Sunday night we had a “talent show”. I was surprised by all the musical talent in the family. I guess it had escaped my notice before that a lot of us enjoy music and singing. It was neat to see some of the teenagers and little kids sing and play instruments. Afterwards, some of us (mostly older ones!) sat around and sang old hymns for a while.

On Sunday night a game of Mafia got started and it got pretty rowdy and crazy. I was dumb and stayed up until 2:00 a.m., just so we could all lie to each other. If you don’t know how to play, I can’t explain it here, but it’s a game of bluffing, lying, intrigue etc. And it’s really fun. It’s funny to see who’s really good at lying, uh, I mean bluffing and who’s not.

After the reunion, we drove over to Michael and Connie’s near Grand Rapids. We stayed there for the night and the kids had great fun. Logan got to help feed a baby goat. It was so good to connect with them again and get to know their kids a bit more.

From there we headed over to the North Shore. At Duluth, the weather went from hot to chilly in about 20 minutes. As we were getting close to our campground, it was raining. I wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of setting up camp and cooking in the rain!! But, it stopped for the most part while we set up camp and we put up a tarp right away too. We were at Gooseberry Falls State Park for two nights and we had a great relaxing day there. We walked and walked and saw Lake Superior and a bunch of waterfalls. You could walk right up to and around them if you wanted to which was neat.

The second night there we made our best ever campfire meal, I think. I took Iris’ idea of making pizza pockets with bannock dough, and took the filling ideas from a frozen pizza we had on Father’s Day. So, it was bannock pizza pockets filled with: pizza sauce, cheese, diced chicken breast, and sautéed onions, mushrooms, and spinach. It was so good (but a lot of work)! One night last week I made a pizza with those toppings and everyone loved it.

The next day we headed up the North Shore. We stopped just a few places to look at cool stuff and then just motored for Canada. We were going to camp at Kakabeka Falls, but the closer we got, the more I didn’t feel like camping for just one night. So, we went to the Falls and cooked our supper at a picnic table, looked at the Falls (pretty amazing) and then got a motel for the night. It was your basic low-budget room, but the bed was so comfortable and I slept great. And, there was a laundrymat (that’s how they spelled it!) close by so I did some laundry in the morning, which was great!

Next stop, Blue Lake. My whole family was there except Matthews, Sam, and Tyler. :-( We missed you!!! The weather was pretty nice until Sunday when it rained, but once again, the Mother Of All Tarps came to the rescue. Sheldon said it was luck that they put it up right on the edge of the fire pit so we could sit under the tarp, but still be beside the fire.

On Sat. night some of us went to "town" and went mini-golfing. I have to mention that I beat my hubby by one point – mostly because he was being careless at the end. I also should acknowledge that Mervin beat me by one point (but he was in the other group.) On Sunday Rachel and I had to go into town for groceries (this was during the “rainy season”) and she needed poutine so we had a nice little respite at the restaurant. I splurged and got gravy with my fries. Unfortunately, I think I'm wearing that gravy (and a bunch of other vacation food) on my heinie now!

Sheldon’s, Rachel, Dad and Dru and us stayed until Monday. I was wondering why we were staying when it was raining and I was tired, but then we stayed up late by the fire and reminisced and sang goofy songs. (I’m sorry, Matthew, that we had to sing the MooMoo song without you. It made me miss you! But I was pretty impressed that Rachel and I remembered it all.)

So, it was a good trip, but I was Exhausted by the end – well, long before the end. We decided on the way home that camping vacations will be at a minimum for a few years until our kids are a bit older. It was a relief to think I might not have to do that for maybe three years (except for weekends with family and church).

Last week, the party just continued for us. Keith’s Mom’s brothers and sister and spouses all came up for a visit. That was memorable. We had fun going out on the lake, having brunch on the patio with the ladies, etc. They were staying in a “cabin” at a camp down the road from us, which had a hot tub. So I went over one night and sat in the hot tub with two of Keith’s aunts (Esther and Lorna for those of you who would know them). We had a hoot. For awhile it rained on us which was really funny. I, being rather sheltered, had never been in such a luxury hot tub before. It felt so good!

And, to top off a busy and fun week, Iris and I got to go out for breakfast on Sat. morning before she headed back home. That was refreshing!!

Now, it’s back to “normal” life – whatever that is! I feel like summer is just now beginning for me. Before our trip there was the busyness of finishing school, spring yard and garden work, and getting ready for the trip. Now I feel like we can slow down a little and enjoy summer. We’re going to try to get to the beach at least once this week. I still have some catching up to do in the garden and on the computer, but I’m trying not to stress about it and just plug away at it a little at a time. Oh, and tomorrow I have my first prenatal appointment. Yay, I get to hear the heartbeat! Oh, and (how many of those do I get?), since we’re home, I can tell that I’m starting to feel better! I can get really hungry sometimes without feeling queasy. The nausea is not totally gone, but mostly. Whew! I’m still tired, but not as totally exhausted as I was. Man, is it ever a relief! Okay, congratulations to any of you who are still reading! I’ll try to post pictures of our trip in the next day or two.

Gratefulness

We’re back!!! Is it ever good to be home. Traveling and first trimester trials don’t go together very well. But it was a good trip and we made a lot of good memories. But… I’m not writing about our trip just yet. I just want to share a story of God’s faithfulness and goodness to us yesterday!

Yesterday afternoon, Josiah was running down the hall, tripped, and fell down the stairs. I heard him crying and then Logan hollering, “Come, Josiah fell down the steps!” By the time I got there, Keith had already got to him. He was lying on his tummy with his head turned kinda funny. Keith picked him up carefully and Josiah did move his head and was crying hard. I can’t remember very well – it all happened so fast – but I think he was doing that really hard cry where you don’t breathe for awhile. We both sat down on the coffee table and Keith was holding him. All of a sudden, he stopped crying and his eyes went totally blank, not responding at all. Keith kept calling his name and he didn’t respond. It seemed like forever but was probably only 10 or 15 seconds – who knows. I finally pulled myself out of my stunned panic long enough to squeak out, “Jesus touch him!” or something like that. Immediately, his eyes focused and he started crying. I was never so relieved in my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He cried for a little bit and sat on my lap awhile, and then got down to play! Then I lost it! :-/ It took awhile for it all to soak in and we finally realized that he came out of it as soon as I called on Jesus. After a bit I asked Keith, “What do we do now?” and I sensed God say to me, “Give me the glory.”

So, that’s what I’m doing! We don’t know if it was a small seizure, or something else much worse, but I’m so thankful to my Jesus for intervening in Josiah’s little body! I don’t know how many times today I’ve looked at him or held him close and thanked God that he’s fine and unhurt!! What a mighty and good God we serve!