Decluttering Frenzy

 So I am in the middle of my annual decluttering frenzy.  I know people do this in different ways. Some people toil away faithfully through the year getting rid of excess stuff.  I just get an urge, and have the time, and dive in.

So our secret room was a huge mess.  Secret room is a funny name, I know.  It is really a tornado shelter which we've made into a store room, but it is kind of in a funny place so we call it the secret room though it is no secret.

We also call the little room between the master bedroom and the master bath the "sewing room" even though I don't sew there.  What can I say? We are weird sometimes.

Anyway...

That is how it looked.  Yes, that is BAD.

I started pulling things out and organizing and tossing and this is how it looks today.

I hope it is obvious that it is much, much better.  

I am actually really good at tossing things, to the point that sometimes my kids are horrified.  But I am also busy, and every time I start organizing, things get messier outside the secret room. So I need to have time and sufficient determination.

I am not sure about our ice cream maker. I pretty much want to get rid of it because it takes up space and we haven't used it in years.  But I will talk to Kevin and see what he feels about it.

One nice thing about the frenzy is uncovering some old pictures and stamp albums. It has been fun going through them.

July

 Whew, time flies when we are having fun!

It also flies when we are working hard!

When we can combine working with fun, that's the best of all!

I finished another book a few days ago (my part of it) and that is a cause for celebration.  Kevin now has to buckle down and do a whole bunch of stuff to get it launched.  We plan to publish end of July.

Last week, Kevin and I went away for a day to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.  That is obviously a tremendous milestone and we are thankful for all those years of marriage together!  We went to a botanical garden and then to a giant weird grocery store called Jungle Jim's.  All in all it was a very pleasant day and my foot held out well.  More about that in a bit.

Regarding Jungle Jim's, it is really huge, and they have weird walls thrown up now (I haven't been there in a while) and I decided I was NOT going to bring the kids there on a field trip.  Someone would get lost.  We nearly got lost. It was very strange geographically. It was also fun, we bought a few things, including some yummy scallops.

Back to my foot. I am certain it is plantar fasciitis because it behaves like it.  I have been wearing shoes most of the time I am awake and with the special soles in them, my foot has improved significantly. It still aches when I walk a lot which is annoying but hey, better than it was.  Last night, I decided to buy a really expensive pair of shoes that are supposed to help with this malady.  They will come in the mail soon.  I am notoriously cheap and spending $160 on a pair of shoes isn't my usual jam, but I will pay that if these shoes can take care of my foot hurting. I don't have time for this nonsense!

This week has been a whirlwind.  Our church is having a giant rummage sale and we helped out with that a couple of days.  They have a lot of furniture they are selling so our children helped haul furniture around.  I carried lighter things until my foot started aching and then I sat.  

We also have had a bunch of orthodontist appointments lately, and eye appointments, and so on and so forth.  So so thankful for a reliable car, and good health insurance, and the freedom for me to stay home so I can leave the house with our kids to take them to doctor appointments.

Joseph passed his temps test so now has his temporary driver's license, which is cool.

I met via Facetime with my assessor which is required for homeschooling; she looked over the kids' work through the year and signed documents that they are making good progress.

So yes, lots going on.  Tomorrow, for now anyway, there is nothing on the calendar and I am glad about that. 

One last thing -- many of my children are enthusiastic Minecraft players.  There is this guy who went by the name Technoblade who was in his early 20's and a really charming guy. He did youtube videos of Minecraft game play with him talking in the background.  He was very humble and mellow and funny.

A few days ago, he died of cancer.  Several of the children were very upset.  Now they obviously never met this guy, but they cared about him and so his death hit them hard.  And I think that is completely reasonable.  He was very young and it is a tragedy, so they cried and mourned.

I think it is really important for people to learn to mourn well.  It is painful to cry and grieve, but we are meant to feel sorrow when someone we care about dies.  Our kids have cried hard over pets too. Also very valid.  It is sad when someone we care about dies.

June 23rd

 

Naomi, our eldest, saw my post about feet and said I should include pics of cat feet. So here is Jet with attached feet!

Opal also has very nice feet!

Miriam and Angela are getting baptized in July, which is awesome.  They met with our senior pastor on Monday to go through the theology associated with baptism.  Then afterwards, our pastor handed over the remaining "Tim Horton's" gift cards he had.  To explain further, all men 18 and over got a Tim Horton's gift card after the Father's Day service.  They got extra and he decided to give them to us, the largest family in the church. SO SO SWEET.  Literally.  Tim Horton's is a doughnut shop.

To the great joy of the children, we got doughnuts on...I think it was Tuesday?  Monday?

This is from last month.  Daniel had a birthday. He is 10. Did I already say that?  Maybe?  Also, where are all his pictures?  I can't find them. I know there were more than this, of him in front of his cake.

I am too busy to find them now. Will search later.

Rose had a birthday last week!  Our baby is 8!!

She got a remote control car from my parents.  She loves it!  Daniel loves it too :-).

In other news, my bad foot is pretty good today.  I got some inserts to put in my shoes and I think they are helping a lot.

I am also icing it and trying to rest it.  Not easy given that there is a lot going on, but I am doing my best.

Also, I am closing in on the end of another Pride and Prejudice novel, which is fun!

Feet

 Feet are important if you want to walk, which we do.

Angela has had a funny toe for at least a month, maybe more like two months. It was her big toe on her left foot and it was swollen and red around the nail.

Pediatrician gave her antibiotics, which didn't fix the issue.

So off we went to the podiatrist and he looked at it and said yes, infection and the toenail needs removed.  So he did, right on the spot!  (I was expecting to make another appointment, but it was lickety split right then!)

So Angela has had to soak her foot and do bandages and stuff.  It honestly still doesn't look great so yesterday I sent pictures of it to the podiatrist and haven't heard back yet.

And then there is me.  My left foot has been bothering me for a few weeks. I have self diagnosed plantar fascitis.  I have been icing it and just got new insoles for my shoes which are supposed to help.

I could, of course, go see the podiatrist but I don't want to.  I have enough appointments for the kids without actually going for MYSELF!!

Seriously, if I am not better in a week or so, I will go.  I am not getting worse. Indeed, I think I am a bit better after a few days of icing and resting and now I have these cool soles for my shoes so we will see.

Lots more is going on but right now, I wanted to talk about FEET!

June

 

We went to a park today and saw this...heron? Egret?  I don't know!

Mallard duck

More ducks

Kids had fun on the play equipment though most of the time it was really busy because there were a lot of children present.

Sarah and Daniel have been playing with Legos a lot.

Can you spot all five cats in this picture?  The white blob is a new stray.

We had severe weather warnings a few days ago but nothing much happened to us; we had rain, but not even thunder and lightning.  Fifteen miles away or so, maybe twenty, a tornado hit a Meijer distribution center.  No injuries, apparently, which is awesome.

Beautiful sky!

I took the younger kids to Pearl's Fen earlier this week.  We have had a lot of rain so I wanted to go on a walkway to avoid the bog.

I cleaned the pantry out.

So much stuff fits in there!

A few pictures

 

Kevin and the kids finally opened the pool!

We delayed sufficiently that some of the tadpoles turned into frogs. We took these to a shaded, wet spot in the back three acres and released them.

Opal is, as usual, very cute.

Daniel turned 10 in the last few weeks!

June

 I am finally 99% recovered from being sick. Whew!

The big boys started a job this last week; they are working three days a week at a local college. Mostly, so far, they have been moving furniture around in dorm rooms.  I think that they will paint the walls, or someone will paint the walls, and they will replace the carpet, or someone else will replace the carpet...

Isaac and Joseph are excellent friends so them working together is really nice.  So far they like the job quite well.

They could work five days a week BUT they both have a college class this summer and I don't want to overextend them.  Isaac is taking Calculus 3 and Joseph is taking some introductory computer class.

I am making good progress on my latest Pride and Prejudice novel, which is good. I spent a few weeks writing some short stories so that distracted me from the novel.  However, now I'm back in the groove, more or less.

We opened the pool this last week. It is still too cold for me but the younger children are cavorting with great enjoyment.

And now I am going to take a nap because I am tired.  I plan to post some pictures soon.