Winter in Spring

Remember this post? It was time to revisit it yesterday. I was in Walmart for less than an hour and had at least 1.5 inches on my car. I got home and we spent the next few hours doing chores in the house, enjoying leisure time reading together. We also watched a video on art projects and took time to try our hand at oil pastels. Daddy's was the best, but we all gave it a good try.

Here are some scenes from the snow storm. We got at least 6 inches over the course of 8 hours. Was I glad I picked up those clearanced boots for Catherine!I gave Caleb a sled ride, but he was tipping off to the side most of it and didn't enjoy it took much. I tried to help him walk around in the snow. Before too long, I looked down and saw his boot was mostly off his foot. I took him in because it was such a wet snow and he was getting soaked. He cried. Silly me to think that warm and dry was better than wet and cold!

Today, since the roads are icy, we are watching church online. Before it starts, Buddy went out to help the snow man project that was stopped for a birthday get together last night. Samuel wanted to make the world's biggest snowman. However, the 2nd ball was too heavy for Buddy to get up on the top, so today they are working on the finished project.

Silly pics

Do I need to say anything about this?

Tonight Catherine and I had some time together while the guys were at cub scouts. After finishing watching Kit Kittridge, we decided to have matching hair. What do you think?

Shamefully, I have delayed posting pics for too long. After Samuel's soccer game last weekend, we dropped like flies, except Buddy, praise the Lord! So, this week has been a process of recovering strength and pics took too much effort. However, I'm back to post and share the 1st game tale. The pics are from the video camera, so not too great. I haven't found a replacement for ours, but believe we'll have one before travel time!

It was chilly, but we bundled up and out we went. Samuel was so excited about the whole thing, pleased to have his ball, but we didn't get the message to go to the Y to get his uniform shirt. The other team was white and he had a light grey sweat shirt, which caused some confusion during the game. He did get to kick the ball and was aggressive at times, but was confused about what to do when he was defending the goal. I'm sure after practice this past week, more next week, and time with friends playing soccer, he'll be ready for next weekend's game.

We spent the week doing a bit of school each day to get it done- travel time in mind. Mom came over Wednesday to see first hand what a day of school was like. No one was up to par yet, but we tried to give her a good show! The kids actually did well.

Caleb really likes hats a lot. Anything can become a hat. Wish I had a pic of the diaper hat, the little afghan hat, and others. He also found Catherine's sunglasses and had great fun with them.

Another thing he really likes is to be sit right in the corner of the love seat or couch and look at a book. This one is his favorite- animal pictures we do signs to.

Samuel and Catherine never tire of Veggie Tales, Hermie and Friends, Gospel Bill and Super Kid's movies, no matter how many times they've seen them. Yes, they do seem a little too old for Veggies Tales, but if you could hear Samuel's giggle while he's watching, you'd want to bottle it up and take it home, it's so sweet. I appreciate their innocence and easily entertained attitudes.

random pics

Catherine and Daddy all set for the King and I night a few weeks ago.

Could you just pinch those cheeks?

March in OK

Samuel had to write a Haiku today and as I looked out our window, I was inspired.

March

Sunny day one day

Freezing weather wintry mix

Shorts, coats, sunglasses, hats

This was the view from our back door. All the slanty white things are snow flakes falling on my budding tree. I'm taking pictures with my video camera, so look closely.

Drumroll, please!

This morning after changing a very dirty diaper, I asked Caleb if he wanted to go sit on the potty. Away he trotted and waited while I put on the potty seat. I sat him down and he jabbered for a bit and all of a sudden, he went peepee! He stopped as soon as I cheered, but this time when I got him down, I zipped him into his roon to get a clean diaper on. Last time he used the potty, he went into the hall and finished. Progress!

After a wonderful weekend in Branson with good teaching and time with the S's, we're home working to get back in the swing! We met the S's way back in our Young Married's class at church when we were first married. But they'd moved and we'd gone on with our lives. It was probably last summer that we saw them at church in Branson and found out they'd moved to that area, God had blessed them with a wonderful house and they invited us to stay with them sometime. We finally took them up on it last time we went and had such a great time! Their 3 youngest are very close to our kids' age and they all had a fun time together. So, when we talked about coming this time, for a longer stay, our kids were thrilled! They adopted domestically a few years back and it was nice to talk to their daughter and get her perspective. She was older when they adopted her and had been through foster care. I'm thankful for that time of sharing and can see how God worked during their waiting time.
While we were there, we were reminded of the greatness of God's love for us. Because of that love, we're going to make it! We also read Isaiah 60:4- Look and see, for everyone is coming home! Your sons are coming from distant lands; your little daughters will be carried home. Woo Hoo!!! Time to get excited again and expect to see God's hand on this process.
I don't know where our camera is, which is sad. Not only have I not posted pictures in a while, I haven't taken any! Sad, sad. Perhaps it's time to go find a new one, which we needed anyway.

We had a great time yesterday at the Urban's funny farm. 9 chicks and 1 calf were very exciting! Buddy has worked late a few days this week, so was able to stay home this morning to help us get ready to take off for the weekend in Branson. The Copeland's will be there and we'r excited to hear from the Lord.
Have fun!

It's official

I'm now a soccer mom! Samuel is 9 and has never played a sport, although he was in Tae Kwon Do for 4 very long years. I missed out on 2 leagues, but was able to get into the Y league. I called today and the first meeting was tonight. Looks fairly simple- practice Tuesday 6:30-7:30, games every Saturday am at 9. It's for the next 9 weeks, so if it's not a great fit, it won't be torture. If it is, we've gotten a good taste and will be ready for the fall leagues. My biggest hangup is being a taxi service and not having time for relaxing. Homeschooling definitely changes that, so I'm sure it'll be fun for all of us.
The best part- the other 2 can run around and be noisy during practice! No keeping them contained and quiet, which is why we stopped TKD. Samuel's thrilled to be one of the Hornets. I'll keep you posted on his budding sports career!

Sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. Sometimes you need to stop the distractions and pay attention to what really matters.
Yesterday, after working on taxes for another 2.5 hours Friday evening and Sat. am, Buddy and I got to go the accountants. Only to find out they did not have us down for that day. Not sure what could have been the problem, we waited for a bit and then got started with someone else. Fortunately, the person we wanted to see finished his appt. early and the next appt. got lost. We fit right in that spot! I know I wrote it somewhere, but not sure where, but the written down info and my perfectly capable memory were not in tune! God is merciful and it worked. We were able to get some back and have several places it would work nicely!
Last night Buddy and I had a couch date and watched Fireproof. We'd been waiting on Netflix for a while and finally got it! After Caleb being up about 2 hours during the night, the stress of taxes, I was going to go to bed part way throught and get a good night's sleep. Our clock chimes hourly, so I knew when I planned to go to bed. The only time I heard it was right before the end, an hour past when I'd planned to leave. Oh my, does that movie make you think! Of course, we're devoted to each other and would never think of leaving or of cheating on each other. In the meantime, how are you loving each other? Good food for thought that will make us think for a while. I'd like to find that 40 day love dare and do it myself, just because, without wondering if he's going to do it for me.
We went to bed and I was so thankful to get a good night's sleep, but was concerned that we had slept too late and had missed church. See, I knew Daylight Saving's Time started early in March and I didn't want to mess up like we did in the fall. Buddy and Samuel went last night, so I felt ok about having some family time. We had such a nice morning together, got a few much needed house projects done, Caleb had a good nap, I got all the clocks to the right time, and was thinking about running an errand. I called one of my friends who has a spec house on the market and they do open houses every weekend. I wanted to run by wand wondered if she was leaving right at 4 pm. Yes, but it's only 2:50. Did she forget to change her clock? I finally looked on the calendar and found out it's NEXT weekend! Wow! so for the next week, we're just going to deal with all the clocks except Buddy's alarm clock an hour ahead. Wonder how we'll do.
By the way, we'll watch online tonight's service.