April 6th

Plushies in a pyramid

Plushies made by...

Rose.  With some help from her older sisters.

Cute purple and pink cats made by Sarah

We have a new cat. Of course we do.  Because we live in the country.

Rose wanted to make a feast for lunch today, the highlight of which was cupcakes.

She also filled bowls with various snacky things.  It was a good lunch for the kids.

 

April 1st

 26 years ago, Kevin asked me to marry him!

Yes, on April Fool's Day. I did not think it was a joke.  Even then, I knew when he was joking and when he was not. Also, he wouldn't make that kind of joke.

So yes, 26 years!  He was 26 when we married so half of his life has been either engaged or married to me!

(Our engagement was short -- 3 months!)

I am an older woman by a year, so in a year I will have spent half my life married or engaged.

We released a new book yesterday, the Fire at Longbourn. It is doing well so far. That makes me happy!

I am writing another one, of course because that is what I do.  I am struggling a bit with the plot.  It is not flowing yet. But I'll get there.

Mostly this week has been great but I have to confess that I am feeling quite sad right now. A friend from work lost her 3 year old granddaughter a week ago.

I don't know details but it was a horrible accident where the child got tangled up in a hanging macramé chair or something and strangled.

Every parent I know has lost track of a small child at one time or another.  99.9% of the time, there is no harm done.  But my friend's daughter and husband are living the nightmare that comes when that 0.1% happens.

I remember well that Rose, who was a runner, once took off when I was distracted while we are visiting Young's Dairy, a local ice cream place which is a large expansive site with goats and other animals to pet and feed.

By the time I caught up with her, she had almost gotten to the parking lot.

Angela fell into a tub of water once and I was right there, but I had left the bathroom a minute earlier to run and get some towels. I didn't realize she could climb the step that goes to our tub. I plucked her out immediately and no harm was done but what if she had fallen in when I was out of the room for thirty seconds?

So yes, we all lose track of our kids and usually nothing bad happens.

But it did a week ago and my heart breaks for the little girl's family.

So yeah, I am grieving for them. But am thankful for good things in our lives.  

Nearly the End of March

 So as is, I guess, usual, March has been up and down a lot.

Mostly down, really.

We have had a cooler March than average and when the temperatures have heated up, they have generally been accompanied by wind and rain. Today it is supposed to be in the mid 50's with lots of rain and winds up to nearly 30 mph.

Miriam is groaning a bit at that. She works at Burger King but just one day a week, usually Saturdays. She is busy with college so one day a week works best.  Every Saturday this month (I think) the weather has been rotten when she works.  Today will be no exception; the BK windows are facing toward the west, where the winds come from. So winds will be whistling through the drive through windows, and maybe some rain as well!

In other news, I worked on organizing, decluttering, and cleaning a lot this week.

An explanation is in order.  The wicker basket is where I throw papers of dubious provenance. That is to say, I put random paper items which I think I might want sometime, but am not certain of.

It fills and fills and fills, and then every three or four months, I go through and basically throw it all out.

Of course, you have to wonder, why don't I just throw the papers out immediately? Well, because I am not CERTAIN. MAYBE I will want to look at the papers later.  I generally don't, but this works for me because I can just make decisions once every three or four months and in the meantime, all those random papers are confined to one place.

Angela has cute hair.

Rose is funny and big.

This bookshelf is a lot clearer than it was but I don't have a before picture.  I moved a bunch of books downstairs and donated some others.

This ... this is my life.  

Kevin and I have produced a bunch of really creative children. They like to draw and make things out of paper and mess around with boxes and it is great!

However. Every horizontal surface set aside for art ends up looking like this. Rose, in particular, doesn't care if she is working in a four inch by four inch space. She has no concept of "tidying up" the art table. She makes stuff, shoves aside the refuge, and keeps working.

 Now she cleans other things and so do all the kids. I could not keep the house in decent shape otherwise!  

But yes, the art tables always get really messy in a short time, and then I need to sweep in and work on cleaning things up.

Which is Ok. It is just a little weird to me because I am pretty tidy and always have been.

I am also not artsy craftsy at all so maybe that is part of it?  

I distinctly remember hanging out with a friend when I was like nine years old. She was really good at drawing faces.  I tried and failed to do something remotely decent and gave up.  So I wonder -- if I had persevered, would I have been a reasonably good artist?  All the girls have persevered in that area and are now good artists.

Or was my giving up a sign that I just don't really care about creating art?  I have been a bookworm since I was able to read well, which was like age 7 or so. I had my nose in a book a lot.  I still adore reading books. And I write them too, of course.

Anyway.  That was our week.  Cleaning a lot, along with the other normal stuff.

Sarah Made These!

Seriously. She asked for a pattern. She asked for the appropriate material. And she did this with a little help from Angela, probably. Not me. I can't sew to save my life!  I am so proud of my sewing girls!

Two more cat plushies!  And a photobombing Dad!

Speaking of Sarah, she has been battling an ear infection. The drops were $330 without insurance. Wow.  Thankful for good insurance.  It was still $36 but that is manageable.

 

Yesterday was a DAY!

 So ...

Ten years ago I had 8 children under the age of 14.  Daniel was a baby and Sarah was a very, very busy 2 year old.

Ten years ago, and fifteen years ago, and even twenty years ago, I woke up early and hit the floor running. I was busy most of the day. There were always a million things to do and kids needing me for a myriad of reasons.

The last few years have been way easier in terms of sheer physical requirements. All the children can get their own water and they are largely independent in terms of putting clothes on and off and they even do a lot of the work around here.

Which is good, because I couldn't do it all myself.  Impossible!

Of course, older kids have needs too!  I spend a lot more time talking about life and also the teaching is more strenuous. By that, I mean, that when I need to teach something, it is usually harder stuff.  Most of the kids are fairly independent.

Anyway.

Yesterday reminded me of a decade ago.  I got up and spent some time with the Lord, and then it was one thing after another.  Sarah needed help with math, and Daniel needed help with writing. I am finishing up one of my own books and I was working on final edits. At 11 or so I got hungry and made myself my usual salad. I reached into the refrigerator and grabbed the salad dressing, and it was wedged in with a container of barbecue sauce.  Barbecue sauce fell out and hit just wrong, sending barbecue sauce everywhere.

Well, I guess the floor had to be washed?

A lot?

Kevin had to move the refrigerator so I could get in there and get the last bits.  Ugh!

The kids have game time on the computers after lunch every day, and I worked away on final edits for my book. Then I worked with Angela to get her sorted out for College Credit Plus. She took a placement test on Wednesday and did well enough to be accepted for normal English classes.

(No surprise there.  She is a smart cookie.)

Naturally nothing was easy.  We needed an acceptance letter to submit to the College Credit Plus site. It took us a long time to find it because the Clark State website, which is actually very good, was either not quite helpful enough or I was too frustrated to make good decisions.

Eventually, we got the acceptance letter, and I uploaded it and hit submit so... the CCP app is done for the year. Hooray!

By evening, I was a mass of stress.  It was weird really. Just SO stressed. Too much hopping from one thing to another all day, struggling and battling stuff...

Life is usually easier these days, and I am grateful.

Life

 

Our younger girls love making plushies

They made a little shop.

Sarah bought this lion which is part of Webkinz, which is an online game. So she has a physical lion, and a corresponding lion in the game.  Which is cool!

I moved the younger girls bunk bed. It used to be against the far wall. Basically I switched the table and bunk bed around. The girls were not excited. They don't like change.  I do like moving furniture around but ... the girls get by their views honestly. Kevin is of the view that basically there is one logical way to have furniture, and he doesn't want it moved from that logical place.  Hey, he's an engineer!

So am I, but...

Anyway, we usually don't move the furniture around because ... if I am being honest, usually there is one logical place for a piece of furniture. I like the bunk bed where it is now, though; it means the far window isn't blocked!  So I think this is better.

Eggy. Another plushie.  Tell me that's not cute!  I dare you!

Cocoa s...t...r...e...t...c..h..e..d out on the deck!

March!

 

The weather has been a bit wild and whacky lately. Today is nice though; currently 53 and partly sunny. The cats are really enjoying the warmer weather. You can see that both Cocoa and Moonbeam are quite pleased with life.

Two days ago we were absolutely deluged.  It rained and rained and rained and rained. And then it rained some more. We got more than 2 inches of rain!  It was also very windy and the wind was gusting. Obviously our porch got wet!

A few days ago, before the rain, I took the three youngest kids to a local park. It has a boardwalk.  It is beautiful in spring and summer. Now it was frankly a bit on the dull side because not much is growing, but we got some exercise so that was awesome.

A tree!  With buds! Spring is coming though we have some cold nights coming up.  That is March in Southern Ohio for ya!  My parents and one brother live in southwestern Michigan and they got pummeled with snow while we got rain so I guess I shouldn't complain!

I know this looks weird. It is low carb fudge.  It is a mix of cocoa, peanut butter, stevia, monk fruit, and margarine.  I love it.  I love it so much. So tasty!

What else? Well, the last couple of weeks have been light on appointments outside of the house which has been nice.  I didn't have to go in for jury duty, which  made me happy. This week, I am taking Angela to a local college so she can take a placement test.  I am signing her up for College Credit Plus this year and there are hoops she has to jump through as a first timer.  Miriam and Joseph did the placement test thing in previous years so they are easier. 

After Angela, we get a three year break before Sarah will be ready for CCP.

I am closing in on finishing another book. This one was written in conjunction with a friend who is a brilliant author.  Together we managed to write it very quickly! Well, it isn't done yet, but it is super close.

We also released an audio book of one of shorter books, A Fortuitous Fall, this week.  I don't listen to audio books at all; I am super visual and easily distractible so listening to things doesn't really work for my brain. But I know some people love audio books which is great, but not me.  But I am glad we have options for the auditory fans out there.

Last, but not least, we spied a new cat out by the barn a few days ago. We haven't seen him again so I don't know if he belongs to a neighbor and just stopped by, or what.  He is large, fluffy, and orange and white.