The Rest of February

I have covered a lot of the events of February in the last few posts, but there is more!

Our everyday kind of more.

It’s the BEST stuff!!

There is not one day that is the same in this season of life, but there are days that are similar.

I was just looking back at my blog one evening this past week – I got sucked into 2018 somehow!

I will say that seeing the memories brought tears to my eyes – they are SO sweet!

But I also would like to mention, before I add all of these next photos, that seeing what I was making in the kitchen back then was a HUGE motivator and idea generator!

So – let’s take a look at what came out of the kitchen in February!


Oh my goodness, how many photos was THAT???

You can easily tell that what I post on Instagram stories the most is what we are cooking and baking that day, ha, ha.

At the encouragement of a sweet friend and neighbor, we tapped some maples trees in February during an incredible warm spell.

It was SUPER fun for us all, but especially the children!

They checked those buckets daily!!

We ended up getting 10 gallons of sap off of two trees!!

Blake diligently boiled it down and we ended up with two small jars full of the most delicious maple syrup I have ever tasted.


Blake and Lane received these awesome sweatshirts as a gift from Chad.

They have Lane’s robotics logo on them!

I love that they have this robotics thing to do together!

Especially now that we do not have the farm to fill our boys’ time.


I bought a new devotional for this year after floundering around the month of January and not feeling like my quiet time was fruitful.

I am SO glad to have this!

It is really wonderful and always starts my day with a good word and points to a section of scripture to read.


We were thankful when the director of the library contacted us to fill in for two Saturdays in February.

I really enjoy being the volunteer for Lane to be able to work a Saturday morning!

Speaking of Lane and the library – he taught an afterschool robotics class every Friday in the month of February that went EXTREMELY well!

It might have given him a new summer job!

Time will tell!!


I had a short lived illness in February that two cute pups capitalized on greatly, just saying!

Very thankful for how quick that was and how much we illness we have fought off easily this winter.

The Lord has blessed our efforts!


Blake brought these to me when I was sick.

Aren’t they pretty?

I love that man.


Someday we are going to finish this home we live in.

Like by painting the insides of the front and back door, the trim in all of the windows, and all of the touches we planned on but have never done!

My hubby hung this shelf for me.

It turned into a huge project thanks to that tile behind it.

This is why I don’t like to ask to finish things!!

But I do LOVE that little shelf there, don’t you??


The weather has been super weird this year.

One day we had a soccer tournament on the deck in short sleeves, the next day it was snowing.

I will say that playing soccer with my three youngest is a really great way to feel very old!!!

We had a blast though!!


Check out the temperature on my dashboard in this first photo.

Check out the temperature THE NEXT DAY in the second photo.

Weird weather, I tell ya!!


Those days made us all feel about like Ruby feels here.

To be a dog.

Looks like a good life, doesn’t it?


I have been working on the hugest decluttering, cleaning, and purging project EVER.

Two weddings will do that to a gal!

We have a lot of people who live here, I know.

We live a lot of life in this home, I know.

We have a lot of food issues and cook every meal here, I know.

But we accumulate A LOT of UNNEEDED stuff!

It was EMBARRASSING the piles I made as I got rid of it all.

I want to keep going with this project, but I have been too busy as of late.

Hopefully soon!

One of my projects one afternoon was to clean the spice jars.

Tate and Eliza helped me.

I don’t think I have EVER washed my spice jars.

So very sorry to admit that if you have eaten in our home!!!!!

It was a very good thing to do.

We also used my new label maker to give them a fresh look.

Sigh.

That cabinet is such a peace giver now instead of a peace stealer!

The nutmeg jar is your humbly given “before photo.”

I had to soak most of the lids to get them to come clean!


Here’s the funny thing.

We just keep adding things back into our home!!

What is wrong with us, ha, ha!

My hubby bought me this ice cream maker.

We had gotten Kayla one last year and I LOVE how easy it is!

We had an ice cream maker – but you needed ice and salt to run it.

Guess what I did with that one when this new one arrived??

GAVE IT AWAY.

Thank you very much.


I also gave away most of our decor that I was so tired of dusting.

I told my resident plant lady that I wanted to put plants throughout our home instead.

She was happy to make my dream come true!

Now she just needs to come back after she is married to take care of them so I don’t kill them!!


Here is Eliza.

She loves animals.

She gave up begging for a horse, but now is begging for a bunny.

I love her SO much!

Yes, she is super tall for her age!


I do not have many photos of school from February, but I promise you all we are finishing STRONG!

It is a huge desire of my heart to give our three youngest a full and rounded education, even in my old age where all of my seasons of life have collided!

This choice has me saying “no” to many other good things, but that is ok because this is important stuff!


My grands.

Life is best when with them!!!

They are seriously pure joy and enthusiasm!!


My water bottle broke in church one Sunday and filled my Bible that I was holding with water.

That was fun!

I got a new one, and based on its price, even on sale and with some rewards points, it better last – just saying!


Kayla, Addie and I planned (and now have had!) a bridal shower for Kamryn!

It was DELIGHTFUL!

This day I was working on invites!


We had and have some more orthodontist appointments coming up.

Lane is about half-way through treatment and Tate and Eliza have another evaluation here soon.

We have been seeing this orthodontist since Kayla was in braces!!

We probably own half of that waiting room by now, ha, ha!


We were SUPER DUPER excited the day that Scottie finally got his apartment!!

There was a little glitch and he was in a temporary one for a month.

This is where Scottie and Addie will live after they are married in July.

It is the SWEETEST place, especially now that Addie is putting her touch on it to get it ready!!

AND it is only SEVEN MINUTES away!!

Oh how I love this “two weddings” season thing!!


Of course I have photos of the sky.

Even in this busy, busy, I always notice the beautiful sky!

Do you all notice it too??


The sky is beautiful today too!

So thankful for the sunshine even though it is freezing cold.

Time to eat lunch and get on to our piano theory class – and then we are headed out for the afternoon!

It’s been fun spending some time with you all.

I hope you are having a GREAT day with SUNNY skies too!!

Until next time….

A Few More Celebrations!!

February brought two more celebrations to Twin Oaks – but we managed to combine them and celebrate them the same day!

Our celebrations always take place on Sundays after church because everyone is headed here for lunch anyway.

It’s PERFECT!!

Tate and Eliza really wanted to celebrate Chinese New Year this year and we also have a wonderful son to celebrate!

It was Grant’s day on February 28th – the anniversary of his arrival into our arms!!

Of course this celebration meant an Asian menu!

We gave Eliza the job of planning and decorating for this special day.

She did SUCH a GREAT job!!

Addie made dessert, as she does for every Sunday family lunch, but made what Eliza requested – panda cupcakes!


I was in charge of the rest of the menu and made our favorite Asian meal – jap chae.

David and Kayla marinated and dropped off all of the meat to be grilled – what a blessing that was!!!

I usually make some kind of bread to make sure the bellies are not only full but also satisfied.


Of course you already know we had the BEST time!!

Having everyone together eating and visiting is just the BEST way to spend Sundays!!

Yes, Chad is a literal GIANT!

He is so much taller than the rest of us here!


Grant Evan, happy Grant’s Day to you!!

I cannot believe Dad and I have the privilege of being your forever – we are not worthy!

We cannot WAIT for your and Kamryn’s wedding day!!

WE LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH!!!

Happy Belated Chinese New Year, everyone!

Xīn nián kuài lè!

Bulk Shopping

At the beginning of this year (with Kayla’s encouragement) I decided to start bulk grocery shopping instead of doing my bi-weekly early Friday morning run to the grocery store in town – which I talked about in a post in January as well – here.

Grocery shopping for the crew I feed here is a BIG job!

I think it was a year ago that I switched from shopping every Friday morning to shopping every other Friday morning – which had been a nice change as well.

I would drive about 45 minutes around 6 a.m. every other Friday morning to town to a store called Woodman’s and push two carts through the store to be able to get all that we needed.

Shopping only every two weeks sure made the week I did shop an even BIGGER job!

I do not miss that, just saying.

We just finished our third month of this new bulk shopping adventure and I AM HOOKED.

WHAT A HUGE BLESSING!!

Our plan is to drive to Costco once a month and also order from Azure once a month.

The closest Costco to us is a two hour drive.

Azure drops our order at a drop point five minutes from our home.

Today we decided to add a third idea to this whole bulk shopping thing and have our paper products delivered to our home from Costco instead of trying to push them through the store and fit them in the van the day that we shop there.

I think we are perfecting this!!

In February we took a crew with us for our Costco run!

It was fun for my kiddos to get out for the day and it was great to have them to help us too!


That day I still felt like I was figuring out everything that I needed to get at Costco, and also how much to get.

Even so, we managed to fill three carts full between Kayla and I!

Yes, it still is a BIG job – but only for about six hours ONE day a month!!

Please take note of my cart and how I made sure I had plenty of the most important things, ha, ha.


It was about ten days after our run to Costco in February that our Azure order got dropped off at the drop point.

From Azure I have been stocking up on 25 pound bags of flours, dry beans, beautiful produce, healthy cleaning products, and anything else we would need that I cannot get in a clean, healthy and bulk version at Costco.


I will be picking up my third Azure order next week!

Kayla and I did our third Costco run yesterday!

It was just her and I yesterday because besides our monthly grocery, we had a bridal shower to shop for that we are hosting this weekend for Kamryn.

We had three very full carts!!!


I really feel like we are finally fully stocked now and I know what to get from which place and how much to get!

This has changed the way we eat just a bit, yes!

I am bringing home far less convenience foods and many more “ingredients” instead.

MUCH healthier, and MUCH MUCH more cost effective!

I am enjoying figuring out how to use our bulk grocery foods to make our meals and snacks.

I am not even meal planning anymore because I have so many ingredients to choose from all the time!!

Another time saver!!

Kayla and I had such a great time yesterday and we are both so thankful to have each other to do this with!

It is saving us both time and money.

I hope that we will be able to continue to do things this way, Lord willing.

As always, time will tell!

Until then, shopping has become enjoyable, believe it or not!

Thank you Kay for helping your mama learn a new way!!

Valentine’s Day!

Every year we have Valentine’s Day celebrations!

The first one we had this year was at church – our annual Valentine Banquet.

This is our most attended event each year!!

Those who are in charge of this banquet do a wonderful job!!

Not only were Blake and I able to attend, but so did some of our favorite people!!


Our next Valentine celebration was the one that Addie Mae plans each year for her younger siblings, nieces, and nephews.

They look forward to this SO very much!

We did have to postpone it a week because of illness, but it was so worth the wait!


Everything was super cute and very delicious!!

I made chicken noodle soup for lunch and Addie made all of the yummy treats, of course!


We all exchanged Valentine’s.

My favorite part is to see their excitement in this!!

I wrote my little loves notes to everyone like I do every year.


The rest of the day the kiddos just played and played while Addie, Kayla and I sat and chatted the day away!!

Kayla had some cuddlers taking their naps too!


We are starting to see that our celebrations are piling up on top of each other these days as our family gets bigger!!

Kayla and I had a brief conversation about what birthdays and such might look like going forward – but time will tell how we implement a new plan.

For now, I happily participate in (and make food for) all the celebrating!!!

What a sweet, sweet season it is!!

Valentine’s Day seems like years ago now, but I am very behind in this little scrapbook of mine!

It is fun to take a look back to all the life we have lived these last two months – so let’s hope I can keep these posts coming and catch back up!!

Until then – have a great day friends!!