Another Week and We Have a Graduate!

by Steph // Friday, June 17, 2022 // Comments off

Let’s start with the BEST from last week!

Chad Ryan finished his work for his senior year of school and is now A GRADUATE!!

It was SO exciting for us all – and more emotional for me than I ever thought it would be!

We are SO, so happy for Chad!!

And can’t wait to see what the Lord has for him in this next season of life!!

Here is a literal snap shot of last week…

How I love memories through photos!!!

My health hasn’t been the best as of late, and I literally spent all day Thursday on the couch or in a chair on the deck.

At least my deck view looked like this!

I had a routine eye appointment on Friday afternoon.

SO much I could say about medical places right now, you know what I mean??

Thankful that my eye prescription is the same, and all else was well with my eyes!

I took this photo on my way home that day as I drove through Coon Valley.

What a great way to capture a moment in time!

Someone FINALLY got a haircut last week.

Some certain kiddos thought she was very cold because of it, ha, ha!

Saturday we had quite a lot of rain.

As a matter of fact, I have yet needed to water our garden since the day we planted it!!

I guess it has been pretty rainy so far this June.

These two got the crazy idea to go and sit on the driveway during the downpour.

No words.

They do crack me up all the time though!!

I am happily enjoying one cup of coffee each day again after a very, very long break.

Not sure it’s completely best for me, but I am enjoying it for now!

I saw this cute mug for $2 and brought it home, but it is so big I have a hard time holding on to it, ha, ha!

Here are my signature sky photos to end this post about another week.

Thank you, Lord, for the sky.

As I type this my health is a little better than it has been the last two months.

Autoimmune disease is tricky, and it waxes and wanes so easily sometimes.

I am very grateful for my hubby who continues to poor into my health and for all of the things that the Lord has burdened us to try!!

God has blessed our efforts over the years more than words could ever convey – and it is humbling!!

Ok – enough teary eyed stuff!!!

Hope you all had a great week last week and that you are crazy enough to sit in the rain too!!!!

Happy Friday, friends!!

The First Week of June

by Steph // Wednesday, June 15, 2022 // Comments off

Wow, the titles of my posts have been so catchy lately, ha, ha!

We started the first week of June with Memorial Day.

Our librarian had asked us to walk in the Coon Valley Memorial Day parade with the library car, and we said SURE!

So Blake, myself, and our trio headed out early on Memorial Day morning to do just that!

Once we were back home, I made some simple picnic foods and then Kay’s joined us for dinner and some fun time playing outside!

It was a beautiful day that day!

Tuesday morning we felt like we needed to recoup from our fun weekend!

We all pretty much felt like Ruby Jane here –

But I got everyone up and moving anyway and we worked on our rhythm on Tuesday and Wednesday both.

We always, always, always do better when we keep our rhythm flowing!

Some kiddos more than others, but even me!

This next photo is just to remind me there is so much I never want to forget!

I printed off a United States map and quiz.

Guess who LOVED that?!

And got every single one right with only one misspelled word!

We have started visiting a different library for awhile because of road construction.

It was fun to browse a new place!

We have been having SO MUCH FUN in the kitchen these days!

Tate just wants to bake all the day long, and Eliza usually joins in on the fun!

Lane is our constant helper, but is usually off building something for his STEM class!

I wish I would have taken even more food pictures this week – but here is what I captured.

That week on Thursday evening our friends dropped off their two dogs for us to watch for four days.

WE FELL IN LOVE!!

Izzy and Freddie are SO adorable and just acted like they have always lived with us for their whole lives.

We were so sad to give them back!!

It is always nice to have a change in dynamics and have some big kiddos home!

We had some beautiful days that first week of June and spent a lot of time outside, even though it was too cold to swim.

Yes, they are trying to see how high they can get each other on the tree swing in this next photo.

And yes, we just had a tree swing break recently.

And yes, I am just sitting there watching and saying nothing.

Just making sure you are getting the full effect of this photo, ha, ha!

We finished off that great first week of June by hosting our grandson River’s 5th birthday party!!

Kay asked if we could host because they were without a kitchen!

They were doing a full kitchen remodel because unfortunately they had found some black mold.

We were THRILLED to host!!

It was a super fun party!!

We LOVE David’s family so very much and enjoy being with them!!

River shares a birthday with his Grandma Deb – which made it more fun!

River is the most joyful, enthusiastic, high energy five year old I know and I LOVE HIM TO PIECES!!

I think a good ending to this post is my signature – some sky photos.

How I love the sky!

I never tire of looking at it and just relishing in its beauty, do you?

What a wonderful week it was!!

Summer seems to barely be here and flying by all at the same time!

Our days are packed and yet some are slower – but it is all SO wonderful!

I just want to hold on so very tightly right now…life is so fragile!

I hope that it is easy to see the goodness of God in your daily life as well!!

Happy June, friends!!

The Last Week of May

by Steph // Monday, June 13, 2022 // Comments off

Well, hey there!!

I’m just a smidge behind on my weekly posts….so I am going to try to catch up on them!

This post is about the last week of May.

We had mostly normal things happening, which means I do not have a lot of photos!

But I did take some and I am glad I have them.

Addie and I had been needing some time together, so we went to town together one morning for some shopping and coffee.

It was raining buckets and buckets that day, but we had the BEST time just wandering stores and talking each other’s ears off!

Lane had a birthday gift certificate he wanted to spend, and Tate and Eliza had some saved money they wanted to spend, so we headed to our local Walmart on another rainy day that week to let them shop.

Of course they all chose Legos!

Blake is in charge of Lane’s online STEM class and they spent some time working together on it in the evening that week.

Lane is learning SO much through that class!!

The last week of May was long enough ago that I cannot remember the weather exactly – but I do know that we still today have yet to open our pool for the summer.

We had that one hot week in mid May and ever since then it has been cool!

The Friday before Memorial Day was GORGEOUS though.

We spent the day working inside and outside!

Chad was home all day which was a huge help to me!

Tate and Eliza and I ran and got some garden plants that day to replace the ones that had been ruined by the hail storm.

Friday evening Blake and I and the kids replanted them and also planted all of our strawberries that had arrived in the mail.

It was a fun evening at home instead of a date night!

Do you see the baby radishes in this photo??

One of our tree swings broke that night – and yes someone was on it when it happened.

It was terrible and Addie was hurting for days afterward.

Tate made some sun tea for us.

SO yummy!

We finally went through all of the shells we brought home from Florida and got them in some display jars.

They look SO pretty!!

I suppose a post on this little ole blog wouldn’t be a post without food photos, am I right?

I do love to take photos of our food!!

I have found this NEW LOVE for baking lately and my people are such willing and patient taste testers!

Things are starting to turn out, he, he!

Check out this honey cake!

I am sure you know how great my helpers are too!

Except for this one, just saying.

The weather has been a mix for sure – lots of cool rainy days and then some cool sunny days.

The sunsets never disappoint though!

SO grateful for that kiss from God before bed each night!

May was GOOD.

June has been good so far too.

Stay tuned to hear what we have been up to!

I’m sure you can already guess most of it – we are so predictable that way!

I’ve missed you all and hope you are doing well!!

We Found Spring!

by Steph // Monday, May 23, 2022 // Comments off

This past week has been a lot more like May in Wisconsin with 50 to 60 degree days and cold nights.

The furnace has been back on, and we have had frost which has made us cover our garden.

Even though we have not been able to swim (except for on Monday), it still has been a very good week!

Monday was a beautiful day which meant that our read aloud time was outside on the deck.

I have been reading aloud some very good books to Tate and Eliza!

We do an illustration and narration after read aloud each day, which is an activity that allows so much learning as they retell what I read to them with a drawing and words.

I love their illustrations!!

Lane finished his History course and has a beautiful time line he made to show for it.

We also kept up with piano practice and lessons this past week.

Tate and Eliza are back in the same level again, which means they are sharing that piano bench during lesson time!

On Monday we planted our garden.

It was VERY anticipated by us all and we had a lot of fun!

We planned to plant our plants and our seeds during the day that day, but it was so very windy that the seeds were literally blowing out of our hands!

Once Blake was home and dinner was finished, we realized the wind had died down.

We headed back outside that evening to put the seeds in the ground.

Wednesday was a very cold and cloudy day.

We headed down to the library after lunch and before piano lessons.

We haven’t been visiting our library much these days because there is a huge construction project between here and there.

I cannot complain about road construction!

It puts our meat and potatoes on our table!

We decided yesterday we are going to head the opposite direction for awhile and visit a different library to avoid the long line of waiting in the road construction.

We LOVE books though!

I read a very, very good book last week called Chasing Shadows.

It is about WWII.

It was challenging, inspiring, unimaginable and has left a long lasting impression on me.

The courage and faith of the people who lived through that war is amazing!

Thursday I snuck to church for the afternoon to be with a handful of sweet friends.

There was an instant pot class that was being held!

We learned all kinds of very great ways to use the instant pot, including this little do-it-yourself part that can be placed over the release valve to direct the steam wherever you want it to go.

Thursday, late in the evening, brought a pretty bad storm to our area.

It was FIERCE!

Lots of hail, lightening, thunder and it poured and poured rain.

Yes, our little garden was affected.

We lost some of our little plants, but I hope to replace and replant them today!

Friday was my normal get up and run out the door to do all the errands and grocery.

I have a great team in our trio once I arrive home though!

They are a force to be reckoned with!!

We get all that grocery put away fast.

I leave long before my husband does on Friday mornings.

I came home to find notes from him all over our bathroom.

It made my day!!

I love him so much!!!

These were my Friday afternoon rest buddies, because we were having company Friday night.

I had already put in a nine hour day by 1 p.m., crazy as that sounds!

Of course you know that we ate this week!

I’m sure you know that we had fun in the kitchen too!

Long after I was asleep one evening, Blake got our Kombucha ready for its next brew.

We haven’t had any Kombucha for a long time!

I’m so thankful that he enjoys doing that for us!!

I had some this morning and it is yummy!!

Saturday was big kitchen day, but I’m here to tell you YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.

These kiddos of ours are efficient, fast, diligent and joyful in this kitchen!!

Thankful for all of the time we have together in our kitchen, for how much they are learning, and also for how much they love to do it all by themselves!

Being part of a team brings confidence to children!!

All that to say, big kitchen day was over at 9:45 a.m. and Tate and Eliza headed out with Blake and Grant to go to Grant’s house to work.

Lane stayed behind to mow our land, and I worked on some odds and ends in a quiet house!

Saturday night was our monthly Hymn Sing and it was FABULOUS!!

We had such a nice time even though pretty much everyone there was exhausted.

Seems this crazy pace of life isn’t just happening to us!

We did have cooler and cloudy days this past week, but our the world is coming alive like it does every spring, and there were some beautiful sunsets too!