handsful

So, what’s new with Marley?

She’s been asking for quite a while.  Last week, I took her to a jeweler downtown and she was brave enough to sit in that chair and let the manager pierce her ear cartilage.  This is my child that HATES needles.  I mean, she’s just shy of jumping off the table at the doctor’s office when they come at her with a shot.  But, for this she was cool as a cucumber…even though people told her it would HURT.  Weird thing is, she barely flinched.  And, though it did throb and sting for a little while that night, it hasn’t bothered her much at all since.  She can’t sleep on that side yet, but she’s okay with that.  She’s more than thrilled that she did it.

Speaking of Marley, she’s been cooking a lot lately.  She found a wonderful Asian stir-fry recipe that she’s made twice for us.  It’s delish.  This time, she found a hoisin sauce recipe and used some shrimp and raman for a nice lunch for herself.

I’ve talked about our Shop meetings here…we’ve had 2 in the last 2 weeks.  Lots of snacks, plastic cups, and teens everywhere.  Last week, before the teaching time, we invited anyone in Testify who was auditioning for a role in the drama to come early for practice.

We did the same thing last night, just increased it to 2 full hours, so all the different kids/roles could practice.  It was really helpful, and gave them a chance to stand up and really act the part, like they’d do during the last audition.  Auditions were held today, and Payton (going for Marshall) and Abbey (going for Kris) feel like they did well.  Now, we wait and see.

Rather than teaching time, it was Movie night after practice…Remember the Titans.  Love that movie.  We had about 30 kids total hanging out with us.  And, as we normally do, the night ended with a bonfire.

So, those were the highlights of last week.

Oh, and Ethan now has his back handspring as of last week…and Lainey moved up to Advanced tumbling with her back handspring, and have I mentioned that Marley has hers as well?  Dylan is working hard to be next!

Next week, Randy travels for three nights, Lainey gets her spacers to prepare for braces the following week (eeek), and the trips biology class begins.

It’s never dull around here.

Marley: “Mom, when are you gonna blog again?”

Me:  “Well, I’ve really not taken any pictures lately.”

Marley:  “So, take some pictures.”

(grabbing camera)

Me:  “Okay”

Here’s Payton, trying desperately to avoid having his picture taken.

Ethan, also attempting to shield his face from the camera.

See the pic above?  No, me neither.  Marley deleted the one of herself, because she said she was “leaning all weird” in it.

Is anyone else seeing WHY the blog has been slow and lacking in pictures lately??  (by the way, Abbey was sick that day, so I didn’t attempt to get her picture!)

Let’s try the younger folk.

That’s more like it.  Put a camera near Lainey and she hits an instant pose/smile.  Nice, Lainey Lou.

Oh dear.  He’s in that phase where a camera means “ham it up”.  Goofy kid.

Let’s give Marley another try.

This is Jack, laying on the “poor, hungry puppy” face, hoping he’ll get a bite of pizza.  He knows Marley is a sucker for his sad face.

“MOM!  Take pictures of me!”

Lainey, doing her back walkover.  She’s been working very hard lately…tonight she was promoted to the  advanced tumbling class! Lainey had asked what skills she needed to master in order to move up, and she’s done NOTHING but worked on those this week.  It paid off.

And that, Marley is a blog post.  With pictures, no less.

Voila.

Gasp.

No pictures in this one.  Just wanted to jump on the blog and say hello.

Hello!  (waving)

And add a few of my thoughts…

First, I’m sorry you’re having to look at the SAME picture on the banner portion of the blog.  It’s been that same picture for over three years.  Dylan doesn’t even have his first leg, for pity sake, and he’s on his third!  But, WordPress doesn’t make it so easy to switch stuff like pics and fonts, which is a pain.  Our friend, Alan has been working to make this easier, and Randy promises me he’ll sit down with me to try and get a new pic up there.  I have hope…

If you read the last post, you got woozy watching Randy teetering on the top of our ladder.  You’ll be happy to know that he now has a 25′ extension ladder.  Problem solved.  As well as freshly replaced outside floodlights.

Guess what we have?  A bit of an infestation of fruit flies.  Eeek.  We thought we just had gnats at first, and wondered why so many were in our kitchen.  We now have several homemade traps filled with apple cider vinegar, topped with paper funnels.  Flies get in, can’t get out.  Hoping this takes care of it.  Any other ideas?

Randy took care of one of those pesky “list” things this weekend.  We’ve had a spot in our backyard that was constantly wet, no matter what the weather.  We were concerned that maybe a pipe leading to the garden sprinklers had busted or something.  Turns out, the previous owner was just a dimwit.  Attempting to divert drainage from the house to the backyard, he used pvc pipe, buried it only a few inches down, and then just left it open at the end.  The water was dumping from it and just saturating the ground, with nowhere for the excess water to go.  Randy, with some of the kids help, got it all fixed up so it drains downhill and into a gravel area (with a special drain thingy on the end).  Voila.  One honey-do DONE.

I’m in purge mode.  If it’s not nailed down and we’ve not used, worn, or played-with it in a while, it’s GONE.  Another criteria for my purge-fest…do I love it?  I hate clutter, having too much stuff around stresses me out.  Proof of this?  When I AM stressed, the first thing I do is straighten up, organize something, or re-arrange something.  Hey, it helps!  I’ve been taking gobs of stuff to charity drop-offs, kids consignment stores, and this weekend I’m taking a bunch of my “done with” clothing, bags, and jewelry to a women’s consignment event.  Yay for paring down and simplifying!

I’ve been cooking a lot lately.  Two of our favorites lately were Sweet Baby Rays crockpot bbq and cheesy potato soup.  Both were YUM and I’ve been told to make them again.  And, a lot.  No problem, they’re both really good and very economical.

I’m hoping to blog more often, I know I’ve been very lax about keeping up with it.  I think I’m just taking less pictures, which I have no good excuse for.  Gotta work on getting the pics off my camera, onto the computer, and then on the blog.  I’ll do better.

Well, It’s Sunday night, and I think I’ll go sit and watch TV with the family for a bit.  Before Monday shows up and the real-life of school, activities, and errands commences.

Night :)

Since we’ve had kids, we’ve lived in 6 different houses.

That seems like a lot to me, given our oldest is only 17.  Anyway…

In that time, Randy has designed and built swing sets for the kids.  I’m thankful that I have a very handy husband, who can figure out / build / fix just about anything.  What a blessing!

When we moved here, there was already a small swing set in the back yard.  Great!

Not so big, but it worked.  And, they used it a lot.

Which is why not too long ago, it broke.  I don’t mean got wobbly…it had been that way for a while.  The wood supports broke and it was dead.

So, swing set #4 was set into motion.  First, take down dead swing set.

Blank slate!

To build the new one, Randy salvaged parts and wood from our old set that were still usable, and also parts from a friend’s old set that Randy helped take down.  Add in new parts and wood, and we have what we’ve coined “Franken-set”.

First tower is up.

And, on and on it goes.

He’s nearly finished with it.  Since this picture, he’s added a fireman’s pole.  He’ll complete the top of the left tower, and then move on to the right.

Let the playing begin…soon!

While Randy and I were dating, we made plans for our future, like all young couples do.  We were going to have 2 (maybe 3) kids.  I would work for a while, and then stay home to take care of those kids.  Eventually, we would buy an old farmhouse (to fix up) that sat on 10 acres.

Stop laughing.

We hit it outta’ the box on the kid thing.  I worked up until Abbey was 16 months old, and then called it quits.  My job for the last 12 years has been home school mama.  This house was move-in-ready and although it’s not really a farmhouse, I couldn’t be happier.  The acreage thing worked out, too.  We currently have 11, and are looking at our options to buy the other 8.  A good bit of that extra land is wooded, so last Saturday we decided to check it out.

Marley, Payton, and Ethan were away for the weekend at friend’s houses, so it was just the 6 of us….including Abbey’s friend, D’Qota.

D’Qota was kind enough to give Dylan a lift…the terrain was hard to maneuver for the little guy.

It was chilly…by the way, WHERE is Spring?  But, quite beautiful.

D’Qota proved himself to be quite the spider monkey.  He shimmied up a tree faster than I could contemplate doing it.  Jumped down from said tree, at least 10 feet.  The guy has no fear.

We came up to a big crevice with a big tree across it.  We were a little astounded to discover it was a dumping ground from (most likely) the previous owner.  We decided to investigate a little.

A set of twin mattresses, large chest freezer FULL of yucky water (thankfully, Randy and D’Qota were able to dump it over), electric fan, liner of an old pool, flower pots, 2 (yes, 2) clock radios, various bottles and glass, an old steering wheel, and a full set of electric curlers.  In other areas, we found the back axle of a truck, a rusted metal plow attachment for a tractor, and at least 20 hub caps.

Not even sure what to say.  I mean, seriously!?  Why in the WORLD would anyone just dump this stuff in the woods?  Why is that easier than taking it to a…oh, I don’t know…a DUMP?  Now, we’re trying to figure out if clearing all of this is our responsibility or if we should ask the current owner of the land to clear it before we buy.  Talking to our realtor on that one.

Abbey and D’Qota did go back and gather the hub caps.  Randy is going to use them to decorate a wall of the Shop, after the kids get them all cleaned up.

D’Qota was the only who actually got down into the bottom and found all this stuff.  He obviously likes danger and adventure.

The littles were content to climb around the fallen trees.

I’ve always wanted land…spread out, country, no-one-else-close-by LAND.

This just might be it.

I’ve not done a post in a little while.

Life, ya know?

I was looking through my phone’s pics and realized they painted a pretty accurate picture of our recent days…

The other night, we had one extra teen hanging out with us (nothing new there…), and I was trying to think of something to make for dinner that would fill everyone up.  I found a hashbrown breakfast casserole on one of my Pinter*st boards.

I had no hashbrowns.  But, I DID have tater tots.  It worked well, and I added homemade waffles and turkey bacon to round out the veggie-less dinner.  And, full we definitely were!

Dylan’s 3rd prosthesis is in the works, he’ll have his first fitting in April.  We had the task of finding a new pattern for the new socket.  He’s had camo/lizards and cars for his last two.  We found this at the fabric store and it was an immediate “Yes!!”

I’ve become somewhat addicted to homemade popcorn.  Not the icky, greasy, orange stuff that you make in the microwave (that my kids devour), but the old-school popcorn on the stove.  2 tablespoons Canola oil, sprinkle popcorn to almost cover the bottom, heat on medium high.  As soon as the first kernel pops, put on the lid and shake around till the popping stops.  Add a little popcorn salt, and you’ve got a pot full of popcorn that (if I’m around) doesn’t last long.  You should try it.  Really.

Ethan kinda amazes me.  If anyone has ever had a natural affinity for music, it’s him.  He’s never had a direct drum lesson….only been in the same room while Payton had a few lessons (and quickly realized he was more suited to drawing).  Everything else, he’s taught himself.  And, if I may say so, he’s good.  Good enough to have made the worship band for the Jr. High kids at our church.  We can’t help but stand in the back and enjoy…

We love Jimmy Jo*hn’s.  And, their signs are great.  If I could, I’d hang this one in my house, it’s so good.  I especially liked the one that said “I believe you’re responsible for your actions, regardless of how you feel”.  Can I get an amen?

Science experiment we’re doing with our co-op.  The epsom salt saturated water is SUPPOSED to be soaking up the string, going across, dripping down onto the board, and showing us stalagtites and stalagmites.  But, it’s not working…the string isn’t absorbing the solution!  I’ve gotta troubleshoot and find out what we’re doing wrong…

On a whim, I bought a tub of perler beads and forms.  The big kids, especially Abbey, LOVED making these things.  For the first few days, the kids (L, D, A, and M) went nuts, making several a day.  Here’s a 4 leaf clover Abbey made.  I wondered if it would be too hard for Lainey and Dylan, but they even made some of their own creations.  I should have more pictures of these…

Teenagers get a hold of your phone

and, take random pictures

of the thing I do the most.

Drive them places.  Like Drivers Ed.  Which Marley, Payton, and Ethan are currently in.  Everyday, M-F, from 3-5:30.  For 2 1/2 weeks. Their last day is next Wednesday, and then they’ll be called to start the driving portion.

On the way home from picking them up, it’s become routine for me to stop after I pull into the drive, switch seats, and let them practice driving up the drive, around the shop, and back up.  The’y’re doing well, and EJ even pulled the van into the garage.  I’ll be passing them on to their Dad when it’s time for them to drive ON the road.  That part makes me nervous.

I think I’ll snap their picture driving next time.

On Friday, the weather was clear.  Sunny, maybe mid 50’s.  No sign of winter weather at all.  That night, we had our bi-weekly Shop meeting and the kids were saying it was supposed to snow on Saturday.  Yeah, right.

That morning, it was cloudy, cold…and we saw a few light flurries.  Then, around 3pm it snowed.  And, kept on snowing.

We’d been out running errands, so as soon as we got home, the kids got snow-ready and headed down to the hill behind the shop.  Abbey missed out on all this, because she was on her way to Winter Jam in Greensboro.

I followed a little later, with camera in hand.

Marley didn’t let her boot stop her from playing in the snow.  Not sure what her orthopedist would say.  We won’t tell him.

This was Dylan’s first time playing in snow!  He’d seen it a couple of years ago, but he was still in his cast (from when he broke his leg less than a month after we returned from China with him) and couldn’t get IN it.  He loved it.

Watch out Dylan.

Jack loved it, too.

Best shot of the day, I think.

Payton stares deep into the camera, as he walks back up the hill.

belly sledding!

Best way to end a snow day?  Snow cream, of course.

Less than 24hrs later, the snow is just about all gone.  But, we’re thankful that we had at least one gorgeous snow day this year.