Summer Are You Here To Stay?

by // // Comments off

Oh my this last week was GLORIOUS!!!

It was HOT, sunny, blue and WONDERFUL!!

We have waited a long, long time for anything that even resembled spring – but the Lord blessed us with summer instead!

Monday morning was the first day of our “summer schedule.”

Our rhythm for this summer will be school like activities from 9-10:30 on Monday through Wednesday, learning new chores, and keeping up with our piano practice and lessons.

The kiddos started out last Monday with new chores to learn.

I change up the chores every summer to help with motivation and so that they all can learn many things that need done in our home.

The best part about doing this, for me anyway, was watching them teach each other their chores!

It was so sweet to watch them interact that way!

I am choosing all kinds of things for our morning school time on Monday through Wednesday, but I am also leaving enough time to read aloud to Tate and Eliza and to work on their piano practice with them.

Lane has been working on his own – with things that we chose with him for him to do.

It has been fun!

As a matter of fact, Eliza asked me last night before going to bed, “Are we going to do that fun school again this week?”

She is so cute.

Because I have a lot more free time with our summer rhythm as well, I have been enjoying trying new recipes and planning the garden.

We have had fun in the kitchen this week!

We have taken a shift in our food choices – from soup and comfort foods – to smoothies, fresh fruits and veggies, and salads.

My menu planning this week looked like this – my favorite kind of book to read is a cookbook!!

I’m sure you know I have had good helpers in the kitchen again this week too!!

We were blessed to have Chad home most of the day Wednesday!

He brings a lot of fun for his siblings when he is here!

Thursday morning Lane started mowing our land for the first time this year.

He came in SO sweaty and covered in grass!

When he took a break we headed to Deep Rooted, which is my favorite garden greenhouse in our area!

We have a plan for the garden and had ordered all of the seeds we need on line.

Then on Thursday we got all of the plants we need at Deep Rooted.

After we finished up at the green house we went to Kay’s and stole two cute boys!

They had a blast spending the afternoon with us, and they all got in the pool for the first time.

The pool wasn’t all the way clean, the ladder was locked shut and we didn’t remember the code to open it, and there were no floaties blown up yet…but they did not care!

I threw them over the side, literally, and they were in there forever!!

It was SO hot on Thursday – in the 90’s!!

Blake brought home all of the new dirt we needed for the garden on Thursday evening.

He also brought the wood to build a grid on the garden because we are trying a square foot garden this year and are following the directions for it from a book I have!

Chad helped put the grid on the garden bed on Sunday.

The other garden bed is going to be full of cut flowers this year.

I will have to take photos of the finished grid and the garden after it is planted!

Friday mornings I head out around 5:45 a.m. to go to town (which is 45 minutes away) to get grocery and run errands.

It is a great time of day to shop because no one else is in the store!!

This Friday after I returned home I was blessed to have three grand babies in my care for the rest of the day!

Blake and I took a much, much needed pause on Friday night and had a date!

We ran a few errands and then sat at the river watching the sunset so we could talk about many things that needed talked about!

It is harder than ever to connect these days – and that is why date night is a MUST!

I would go anywhere with my guy anyway, but the sunset by the river and then dinner just the two of us once we were home was a pretty great night.

Saturday started early as it was the day to stain and seal all of the hardwood floors at Grant’s new house.

Blake and Grant were going to do the job.

They watched a You Tube video first, and then headed down to get after it.

The floors are AMAZING and these photos just don’t do them justice.

Now we can’t be in his house for seven days, but then it will be time to help Grant paint!

On Saturday everyone else was at work, including Lane who had went to work with Chad.

Tate, Eliza and I got after our work here so we could GET OUTSIDE!!

It was another GORGEOUS day!!

Blake and Grant came and went as they waited in between coats on the floors, so Blake opened the pool for us!

Soon Lane was back and joined us too!

I might have one million photos of the sun and blue sky from this past week!

Saturday the sky was so breathtaking!!!

Can you believe those trees???

Look at this photo from last week, and then the one from this week!

Isn’t that crazy?

It was a wonderful week indeed.

How great it was to have nice weather, finally!!

I could not stop thanking the Lord for allowing it for us!!

He is so gracious and kind!

I hope you all had wonderful weather where you are too – it does so much for our spirit, doesn’t it?

Happy Monday, everyone!!

Have a great week ahead!!

Mother’s Day

by // // Comments off

Every year for Mother’s Day (and for my birthday) when the kiddos ask me what I want I say the same thing – “Having everyone together…and cheesecake would be nice!”

That’s exactly what Mother’s Day was all about on Sunday.

Everyone was together, and Addie Mae made our traditional cheesecake!

We have not had a day all together since Easter and I was ready for some serious time with my grand babies!!

And David and Kayla too!

It was the sweetest day.

We grabbed some photos before we headed to church, and then I made sure to get a photo with Kayla later in the day.

Lunch was DELICIOUS!

We had grilled Mahi Mahi, roasted red potatoes, roasted broccoli with bacon and ranch seasoning, and a few different salads.

But then there was dessert!!

Addie made some cupcakes for the kiddos too!

The rest of the day we were just TOGETHER – the BEST way to be!!

It rained off and on all day, but in the evening the sun shone just enough to give us this beautiful rainbow!

My heart was so full after a day with my favorites!!

I received sweet gifts and cards too – most of the cards were homemade, which are the best kind!

Did I ever tell you I was voted “most like Mom” my senior year of high school?

I’m not sure that was a compliment back then, ha, ha, but being a Mom has always been the desire of my heart!!

Blake and I struggled to have children – and there was a lot of loss and infertility that filled the first two thirds of our marriage.

It was on Blake and my second date that we talked about our dreams for family, and we both said we hoped to have seven children.

Isn’t that neat?!!

The Lord answered our prayers and filled our arms with children!!

The Lord has been so gracious!!

We are not worthy of these precious gifts He has given us!!

If you are waiting for your arms to be filled with children, my heart is with you.

I hope that all you mothers out there had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

And I hope that your Mother’s Day had cheesecake in it too!!

A Wonderful Warm Week!

by // // Comments off

I know you won’t believe this, but it is 81 degrees right now!!

Spring has come and gone here, and it lasted approximately two days, ha, ha!

We are so excited about this warmer weather!

The week did not start off warm though – Monday and Tuesday were still very winter like!

Tuesday evening the sun came out and Wednesday was the MOST BEAUTIFUL day we’ve had yet!

I took this photo to remember how we turned off the furnace and turned on the air conditioner at the same time.

Crazy Wisconsin!!

I also took a lot of photos of that sunshine this week!!!

It has been missing for much too long!

Because we got home from Indianapolis late Sunday evening, my trio and I spent Monday morning heading after some grocery.

They are great helpers and we had it done super fast!

While the weather was still so yucky, we made our own sunshine.

In the form of lemon cupcakes with a lemon glaze.

Tate and I had a blast making those cupcakes!

I decided to take a week off of our normal rhythm of life and work on some extras that needed done here at Twin Oaks.

We still kept up with piano practice and lessons, and the kiddos helped me out A LOT.

We scrubbed floors, cleaned the storage room, set up our new TV cabinet, cleaned the deck, cleaned up branches on our land, and got out our patio furniture and picnic tables among a million other things!

Blake also had his work cut out for him this week as our dryer is still causing problems and our pool needs opened up for the season!

The pool was very yucky looking, but is getting bluer by the day.

I knew it was spring when I swept the floors and found lots of shedded dog hair!

The kiddos (and dogs!) LOVED the weather as much as I did and we have been outside a lot!!

There were lots of bellies to fill, as always.

I had some great helpers in the kitchen this week, especially over the weekend as we got ready for our Mother’s Day celebration!

I had some special deliveries this week!

The start of our garden plants came home with Addie Mae one evening and Blake brought me home flowers and chocolate on an evening when I had had a rough health day.

I love special deliveries!!

Friday night was DATE NIGHT!!

And we had only a few errands to run!!

Blake picked up a treat at the grocery store and we went and watched the sunset.

That gave me a great opportunity to tell Blake the billions of things I needed to tell him, ha, ha!

The sunset was beautiful!

I have some photos from this past week of things I just never want to forget.

The normal things of daily life are some of my favorite memories!!

How our pups are always by my side, and how Tate always finds a way, and how cooking and working on Bible memory go together here, and especially how Tate and Eliza are always together.

They are so much better together and I hope and pray they will always be best of friends!!

My guys were about two weeks overdue for haircuts.

They were shaggy!

Life has just been so busy for everyone it is hard to find a time when they are home long enough.

They are not shaggy anymore!

Just look at all that hair from just four guys!

As I type I can hear Tate and Eliza working on some Bible memory together and they are just cracking me up!!!

Praise you, Lord, for this sweet life of mine!

I hope you all had a great week and WARM WEATHER like us!!

Did you catch that?

Warm weather like us!!

It was worth saying twice!!!

Our week ended with our Mother’s Day celebration yesterday and it was WONDERFUL!!

Stay tuned – that’s up next!!!

Another Week and a Wonderful Road Trip!

by // // Comments off

I just had a look back at last week as I edited all of my photos – and wow, was it full!

Do you all ever look back at things and say “Did we really do all that?”

We say that often around here!

How thankful I am for the Lord’s strength, grace and mercy!!

Even when sometimes I feel like Ruby here!

Monday morning started out with our school rhythm, even as I prepared for our Women to Women meeting at church that night.

It was our last Women to Women gathering for this school year!

And we finished with a bang!!

It was SO, so, so good – as we heard from our pastor and his wife about how to share the gospel with others!

We continued on with our school rhythm on Tuesday, but little did I know at the time, that ended up being our last day of the ‘school year’ for us!

We will be doing some school like things all summer long, as usual, but remembering that experiences in life are the BEST school days!

You know, I’m sure, that I will have to keep reading aloud to Tate and Eliza because we love it so much!

I just picture summer read aloud outside on the deck or on the patio swing!!

Tuesday evening Grant had asked Blake and I if we could meet at Menards to help him make some purchases for his new home.

Guess how we answered?!

You all are so smart!

I might have had the most fun helping Grant choose cabinet pulls for his kitchen, ceiling lights and fans for his bedrooms, dining room, and living room, and even a new toilet seat because that is just what you do when you actually get to own your own toilet!!

Addie asked if my trio and I would give her some of our time on Wednesday morning to help her clean and organize the church kitchen.

Guess how I answered?!

You guys are good at this game!!

Of course we loved helping her and are so glad she is in charge of the church kitchen and all that she does there to serve our church family!!

Wednesday afternoon we headed to the library to get some books for a road trip we were headed on the next day.

We also stopped where Addie works to pick out some flowers to take on that road trip as gifts!

I might not have wanted to leave that beautiful greenhouse, just saying.

The weather here has been less than lovely, but standing in that greenhouse was LOVELY!!

Of course there was food prep all week long as well.

I plan menus week by week.

When I could not come up with some great meal ideas I asked Lane, Tate, and Eliza to give me a meal to write on the menu plan.

There are perks to being the only ones home with me all day!

It was a brilliant idea that I might use over and over again.

Lane picked chili soup, Eliza picked Thai peanut soup, and Tate picked Chinese lemon chicken over rice.

They are good at choosing meals, don’t you think?

Thursday we started packing for our trip, as we were leaving as soon as Blake got home from work on Thursday evening.

Lane also had a dentist appointment to have two extractions done.

It ended up being a lot more than we thought it would, but he was a TROUPER and did so well!

(This is the start of orthodontic work for him. The extractions were due to some ectopic permanent teeth he has.)

I prepped meals for our trip for myself on Thursday afternoon after we got home and got Lane settled.

I also had to fill all of the bellies before we hopped in the van to leave, and baked yam bar did the trick!

I love making baked yams in the instant pot!

Lane, however, had a smoothie for dinner and his mama made him some extra to have later!

Blake ran in the door and we were on the road by 7 p.m.

It was just Tate and Eliza with us this time and we were headed to Illinois and Indianapolis to see our parents!!

We arrived in Peoria at midnight and headed to our hotel to get to bed.

Tate and Eliza slept quite a bit in the van!

When the flash went off as I took this first photo, Eliza peeked at me!

We were up bright and early the next morning excited to go and see Grandpa Ross and Grandma Lilli!

We spent the day at their home and enjoyed a wonderful lunch and time with them.

It is always much too fast.

Tate and Eliza had each made watercolor pictures to take to each of their grandparents.

SO, so sweet and all on their own accord!

I just LOVE Eliza’s painting.

It made me smile SO much!!

Please make note of the exactness of our heights and hair colors (and of the size of her mama’s hips, ha, ha)!

We met up with Grandma Barb in the early evening on Friday at our all time favorite coffee shop in Morton – Four30 Scones!

It was yummy and a wonderful visit!

Pretty soon we were off to head to Indy so we could lay our heads down for a few hours before the next morning arrived!

There is a time change that is not to our advantage when we arrive in Indianapolis.

We were still up and at ’em early on Saturday morning and so very excited to head to my Mom and brother’s place!

I always love how Tate finds a way…so I had to include this first photo of him getting ready at the hotel!

Not only did we enjoy being with my Mom and brother, but we enjoyed planting the flowers on my Mom’s deck that we had brought.

We also enjoyed seeing and loving on my brother’s dog, Milo!

It was warm in Indy – YAY!!

It ended up being a great day for a walk and to spend endless time on the deck!!

Sunday morning came way too fast.

We got ready and loaded up the van, but not until Tate made his bed.

He can’t not make the beds at the hotels, and that is a memory I want to keep!!

We had breakfast at my Mom’s Sunday morning.

It was chilly, but there might have been a crazy lady who was determined to stay outside before getting in the van for the long eight plus hour drive back home!

We said so long to Indy, my mom, my brother, and even Milo around 10:30 that morning.

There were tears.

Maybe even sobs from the co-pilot sitting next to her husband in that van as he drove it away.

I leave a bigger piece of my heart in each of these places every time we go – and it was VERY hard to drive away this time.

Our trip home was super duper windy, but uneventful.

So thankful the Lord answered YES to our prayers for safety and protection as we traveled!

Once home on Sunday we jumped in to get ready for another full week, just like that!

It’s warming up here, starting today, and we might even see SPRING this week!!

Can you believe it??

Is it spring where you are?

I talked to one of my besties down south yesterday and it is already summer there!

I made sure to be happy for them instead of jealous!!

I hope you all had a great week and spent some time counting your blessings and thanking the Lord for them!!

Until next time!!

« Older posts
Newer posts »