All right, then! Here we go!

It is on my TO-DO list to blog at least once this week, so I better get myself in gear…

This will be your standard random catch-up post…MI will come later after I have edited and sorted pictures.

Before we moved, we disassembled the playground structure. We still aren’t sure if we’ll be reassembling it at our new house, but it doesn’t look promising. It’s 13 years old and has moved twice and has been played on hard. The slide might be salvageable, so if we decide not to put up a playground structure again, we will probably donate it to some friends. Then we’ll have to see if the children can convince us to get a trampoline. They’re working on us.

Pinterest Success! This may seem lame, but I really hate all those bottles and whatnot falling down in the shower and most of those baskets that hang from the shower head only hold small bottles. I shop at Costco. I don’t have small bottles. I saw this idea on Pinterest…to use a tension rod on the back wall of the shower and hang little baskets from shower curtain rings. Viola! It works great! No bottles falling on my feet or head.

I let the girls have LOTS of playdates over spring break. Kept them busy so I could unpack. And look how much fun they had!!

Did you know it is not easy to hang a map on a sloped ceiling? Just sayin’

But I love the new homework spot…since this photo was taken we have added baskets on a rod to hold pencils and junk. Unfortunately, the kids don’t seem to do their homework on this table too much. They like to be downstairs by me. Go figure.

Well, that picture pretty much speaks for itself! My brother and SIL had a new baby GIRL on April 6! So thankful to add Kinley to the family!! Becca decided to advertise to the new neighborhood about her new baby cousin.

Isn’t she the sweetest?

Elise’s first grade diorama. I have a new philosophy about homework that I did NOT have when Sarah was 6. What is that, you ask? Homework is for the children. NOT for the parents. Okay, so I baked the cookie you see on the stack of books, and I got the paint out of the cupboard, but that is all. And she did a remarkable job all on her own, I think!

My parents went to CA to see the new baby and I taught for them and tried to care for the tadpoles while they were gone. The tadpole died. And it hailed! Like crazy! We had to stay inside and wait to head home because it was hailing SO HARD!

Sarah had a birthday. Her little sisters had a little too much fun making her cards…

My baby lost a couple teeth! Then the tooth fairy fell asleep and didn’t take her tooth and leave her money. So she wrote the tooth fairy a note and left it on my pillow. It said: “To: Tooth Fairy. From: Julie’s Doter (daughter) Elise. Remember to get my tooth too night.”

Then when the tooth fairy (that would be me) went to get the tooth, there was a little squished up note stuck next to the tooth. It said, “May I af egstra money pleas?”

Baby, when you make your momma laugh like that, of course you may have extra money!

Last week was the super fun Pops Concert for the high school choirs. Each “section” of a choir has a theme and they have to dress up. Sarah’s “mixed chorus – alto” section chose “Alice in Wonderland”. Sarah is the “Drink Me” bottle and her cute friend is the cookie. I’m not super familiar with Alice in Wonderland, but aren’t they adorable?

MI coming soon!

We’re alive

I haven’t blogged in a while. I’m sorry. We are alive. At the present time, things in life are a tad overwhelming, and so there’s not much time to blog nor is there much interesting and fun to blog about. I DID however recently return from a visit to MI (with Bethany!) and I do have pictures to edit and post and all those experiences to blog about, but I am not exactly sure when that’s going to happen yet. Stay tuned, dear readers….

Easter Sunday

We had the most beautiful Easter Sunday! It’s not often we get a sunny AND warm Easter, especially when Easter is early! But the weekend was beautiful and it was a wonderful 70 degrees. We even had dessert outside on my parents’ deck. The egg hunt was outside (instead of in the basement or done with boots & coats), and we soaked up that Vitamin D with joy! It’s amazing how a song like “See, what a morning” becomes even more moving on a sunny resurrection day. Our church service was beautiful and victorious, just like an Easter service should be. After a long time of difficulties in our church, it is again a church that is growing and healing and becoming more like a family again and it felt good to celebrate that rebirth on the day of Christ’s victory over death!

The best buds hanging out together before church…probably playing on some electronic device, from the looks of things.

I love pictures by the front door of a home…and even though our home isn’t all “spruced up” just yet, I wanted their Easter picture on the front steps. Look at those sweet blessings of mine!

Our new house!

Well, we’ve been in our new house two weeks now and it’s starting to feel like home. There are still piles and boxes and gagillions of things to sort and find a “home” for, but it’s functioning and I can at least find next week’s memory verses for the girls…at least, I think I can. I have only a few pictures so far, but I figured I could share what I have at the very least! And these are just iPhone pictures, so the quality is not great. I promise “good pictures” in a month or so…April is my busiest month always!

kitchen

great room – open to kitchen and dining

dining room

upstairs bonus room

great private backyard!

We are loving being in town and the new neighborhood and the new space. We are so thankful that God made a way when it looked like there wouldn’t be a way.

And because I needed this new house to feel like home, I treated myself to some tulips shortly after moving in. One stem broke while I was putting them in a vase and so it was showcased on the kitchen windowsill for a few days and brought me much joy to see each day.

Track has begun!

Sarah’s track season began way back in February with turnouts in the cold, rain, & wind. Meets began in mid March. Sarah’s done pretty well – all the distance runners (especially freshman & sophomores) are trying out all the distance events to see who does best at which events. There have been four meets so far. At the first meet, Sarah ran the 800m and the 4x200m relay – she placed 2nd in the 800m with a time of 2:42 (a few seconds off her PR) and their relay also placed second, but there were only two teams participating.

At the second & third meets, Sarah ran the 1600m (one mile) and ran 6:04 and 6:08 respectively…not her best times. She felt pretty good about the first race, since it was her first 1600m of the year, but she had wanted to improve on that time the next time she ran the 1600m. Maybe next time.

At this most recent meet, she ran the 3200m with a time of 13:24, which she was decently happy with. She came in first, but there was very little competition that day because the big school that was scheduled to be at the meet had canceled school that day due to a bomb threat (which thankfully turned out to be nothing more than a prankster who wrote on the bathroom wall that there was a bomb in the school…why do kids do things like that?)

She wants to eventually hit 13:00 in the 3200m and break her PR of 5:55 in the 1600m, and it’s good for her to have a goal. And it’s always good for this mama to watch her run. I just love it.

PLUS – I found my Lava Seat that I got for Christmas and had packed away for moving…so now my buns will stay nice & warm at those cold meets!