A New Adventure

I have about 10-11 months to get ready for this new adventure. Our oldest daughter Gabrielle will be heading off to college then. She's picked a great school and we are very excited for her. After many years of homeschooling and worrying if the kids were learning enough to get into college, I can now breathe a sigh of relief. Thank God He fills in the blanks when needed. So this new time in our lives is on the verge of taking off. As parents, we will need to learn to let go a little and give our kids a chance to spread their wings and grow into the young adults that God wants them to be. I am confident that Gabrielle's choice in Bethany Lutheran College will do just that for her. She is excited about the classes they offer including many along the lines of Bible study and theology. But it will be hard for us to send her off to learn along the way. Didn't someone say the hardest thing about being a parent is learning to let go?

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to all of you out there. We had a wonderful evening (last night) opening gifts. I got some great pictures and the kids got some really nice gifts. They did a really good job with finding things for mom this year and my hubby went a little overboard. One of the things he bought me was some body wash from bath n body two different scents. The first is Twilight Woods from my older two girls because they love the Twilight movies. Then he took the 3 from the PS I love collection and wrapped them in a box all by themselves from him - that was kinda sweet. Then he went to a local prim shop and picked out a new shelf for me all on his own. The owner Kathy is going to paint it red for me and then I can go pick it up when it's ready. I'll try to remember to post a pic when I get it hung up.

This morning was kinda poor attendance at church but the weather has been rather frightful out here. Snow, sleet, rain then more snow then more sleet. You get the picture. We had planned to go see a movie today - the new Alvin and the Chipmunks but decided to put it off until the roads were better. I think our new truck would've done fine but then again ice can be so unpredictable.

David has a funeral to do tomorrow at one of the vacancy congregations so we may have to wait until Sunday for the movie.

Some of the family's favorite gifts:
Gabrielle - new clothes, books and music
Arianna - books, a new camera, some clothes we need to exchange for the right size
Natania - some american girl stuff, clothes and fashionable boots
Annaliese - also some american girl stuff, clothes and fashionable boots
Micah - a new sled, xmas boxers (he sleeps in these. He does not consider them underwear and gets very upset when they are referred to as that) and some legos
Dad - movies, books and a fun thing from Micah to Dad was xmas boxers also - ones that say "naughty or nice", stripes and I forget the other print. We had a fun laugh at that one.

Well those were some of our favorites among all the gifts. I don't usually buy so many things for the kids but each year they need new PJ's. And then they have some fun things they usually want so it's hard to buy just clothes or essential things. I try to make a good mix of things. And when you have a mom who just absolutely loves to Christmas shop - crowds and all. Well sometimes you get caught up in the fun of finding that right gift for your child. I say every year I'm going to cut back but . . . well one can always hope to accomplish that some day.

I hope you enjoyed your day with family and friends. So Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Lil' Christmas Eve

Today our family celebrates "Lil' Christmas Eve". We adopted the tradition from our pastor back home in New England. His family has Norweigan background and my husband's side has Sweedish. So the day before Christmas, we start baking and doing those fun little things around the house as we get ready to celebrate the birth of Christ. We listen to carols while cooking and maybe a little bit of cleaning gets done. We finish up the wrapping and put the final touches on our decorations. We baked 3 different cookies today. We usually do much more but the time this year seemed to just get away from me and my little guy started to seem like he was getting a sick stomach. I'm praying not, since it will be no fun to have a sick child on Christmas, especially at his age. He's been waiting and waiting with very little patience, but then I don't blame him for that everyone loves presents.

We Should be Doing School

We should be doing school but my little guy just loves the snow. It's a good thing we don't live in the south (LOL) at least from his perspective. He then begs his sisters to come out too. Who could resist the begging of this face?


Here's a cute pic of all three of them together



Between the two storms I think we now have 10inches so I think we have the "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" covered.

Decking the Halls

I finally had a few moments to take some pictures of this years decorations. I'm not completely done. I'm still hoping to work on the kitchen a little bit more but that room is always full of school books or dirty dishes.

This year I did a little bit of outdoor decorating with the sled and the box of greenery under the window. I've wanted one of those sleds for a while now and found one at a reasonable price at the antique store down the street.




Onto the livingroom/dining room area.














After getting the tree up and decorated we lost some lights. I hate when that happens. A few years back we had the same problem just on a different tree and in a different house. We were living in Indiana then.




We have another tree in the dining room. It's a collection of victorian ornaments that we've bought over the years. We've come a long way since the first few years of marriage when we didn't have alot in the way of decorations.


Let's not forget among the fun of decorations and gift giving the real meaning of Christmas.


Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Luke 2: 7, 11, 14

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you: he is Christ the Lord.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

Join us at the 2009 Holiday Home Tours over at the Nesting Place

It's Official

Well it's official the flu has arrived at our house. Not just one or two of us but all of us have the flu to one degree or another. Annaliese even had the vomiting part to go with it. So we did end up canceling the two birthday parties schedule here this weekend. Micah was so sick that he really didn't care anymore. Arianna only had one friend who could make it that day but who wants to share the flu with anyone. It has sent our school week down the toilet and probably part of next week too. It seems to take a number of days before you get any of your strength back. My sickest child even wants to know if we will still put our Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving weekend and if I am making gravy. Hopefully we will all be doing better in time for Thanksgiving dinner.

Another Broken Arm

Again, I find myself writing about broken bones and again from use of the trampoline at the neighbors house. My 9 year old Annaliese landed funny as she came down she tried to brace her fall with her hands. She ended up breaking her forearm just past the wrist by about an inch. We couldn't see the other bone but the doctor suspected that with this type of break it usually affects the other bone as well but it might just be a crack. She gets a full cast on Thursday or Friday and will need it for about a month to 5 weeks. She was pale as a ghost when it happened so that was one clue to me that it was broken, not to mention the constant pain, inability to move it and "don't touch it" over and over again. So if you are reading this send up a little prayer for speedy healing. We started school today and tomorrow starts our homeschool groups co-op. Annaliese is refusing to stay home and rest her arm because she doesn't want to miss out on the fun. So I'm bring along lots of motrin and a pillow so she can at least rest her arm part of the time. She broke her right arm last year. I can't believe all the broken bones lately.

The Happenings of Late

Well I haven't kept up with this blog as much as I had hoped I would. We did have a very nice Memorial Day. We drove about an hour and half to Osseo, WI and spent the afternoon with homeschool friends who own a dairy farm. We had a great time. They have 9 children and we have 5 so it was quite the crowd. The kids hit it off really well. Micah was able to feed the baby cows, of course, I forgot the camera. One of their daughter's, Emily, plays the harp which is an instrument that Annaliese is interested in playing. So they gave us some good pointers. The funny thing is Annaliese a few weeks before Memorial Day had asked me about learning the harp. I told her (just assuming it would be difficult) but I told her that it would probably be very hard to find a harp teacher. And what happens we meet up with our friends, not having any idea that their daughter played, and they have two harps in their living room. She also told me that there are about 5 harp teachers in the Eau Claire area. I think God has a really funny sense of humor about timing sometimes. Hopefully things will work out to get her started with lessons this fall sometime. All in all it was a really fun day. Oh and on the ride home, Micah announced he wants to be a farmer when he gets older so he can have cows.

Then today May 30th, the girls and I all went to a bridal shower. That was really fun too. They are homeschool friends from a different group - one that is a little more local which is good - only half an hour away. We played your typical bridal shower games but one I hadn't done before too. I have 4 girls and another friend at our table has 4 girls also plus 5 boys but we were joking about keeping these ideas in the back of our minds for our own girls as they get older and will one day find themselves engaged to their beloved. It's hard to think that far ahead but I know how quickly that time will come, in the blink of an eye. They served a really nice tomatoe, onion and feta cheese salad - way too fattening with the oily dressing but oh so good to eat. I definately want the recipe for that.

Spring Fun

I took my younger two with me the other day to Natania's soccer practice and after awhile I we walked over to the school playground there. Enjoy the pics, I got some really good shots!

Easter Fun

Here are some shots from Easter Day. This year was unusually warm somewhere around 60. Last year we still had snow on the ground. That's no way to celebrate Easter if you ask me.

Conversations with a 6 year old Boy

It's been funny around here lately. I'm often wondering what Micah picks up during our school day. I have him tag along with his two sisters, Annaliese and Natania, for science and history but lately we've been focusing on alot of history specifically the civil war.

The other night Micah was looking at some books before bed and our conversation went like this:

Micah: "who was the guy with the big hair"

Mom: "during history you mean"

Micah: "yes"

Mom: "that was Fredrick Douglas"

Micah: "he taught himself to read"


Who would've thought he would remember that detail that we only read about once. He's probably forgotten it by now but it was nice to hear. Then I took him grocery shopping with me and we had another funny conversation about seasons. After he got the seasons down the rest went like this:

Micah: "Spring, summer, fall, winter after winter is Christmas"

Mom: "yes but Thanksgiving is in there too"

Micah:"But Christmas means snow"

Mom:"yes, sometimes"

Micah:" I don't want snow this year"

Mom:" I don't either but you can't control the weather"

Micah: "what about the weatherman"

Mom:"he doesn't control the weather either. He just tells us about it. The weather has to do with the air currents and temperatures"

Micah: "Oh God controls those"

Mom:"yes, that's right"

Micah: "He needs to fix that then"

I thought that was so funny. He's going to tell God no snow this year. I bet he doesn't get very far.

Therapy ???

Your probably wonder who this refers to. At this point Micah gets to claim all the glory. Awhile back I wrote about his knee problems, well they have continued and now affects both knees. I took him again to the doctor today because he could hardly walk with out dragging one of his legs along. Pretty weird to see your 6 year old acting like a feeble, elderly person. The doctor thought since it seems to be getting worse to start him on some physical therapy. He will go 2-3x per week for as little as an hour to as much as 1.5hrs each time, for about a month. The hope is to gain strength in the muscle that holds your knee caps in place. Soccer is a good sport for that too. He is signed up for the first time to play this season, so that was good timing. I've already explained to the other 3 kids who are playing that Micah's schedule will have to take priority because the running helps strengthen those muscles as well. After the month of therapy I will have to continue the exercises with him at home. If it should continue to give him trouble the only other option is surgery but they really like to wait until late teen years for anything drastic like that. Let's hope this works Micah is a long way away from late teen years.

House Hunting

Well it has been a long 3 years here in "smallville". And sometimes just as freaky as that show, at least to a city girl like myself. One of the ways we think might help is for us to own our own home again. With prices so low and Obama's tax credit for purchasing a home, it seems like a good year to try that. We spoke to the church elders and to my surprise they did not object. I think down the road we will have some objection by some. We plan to have David commute to the church so that we can get into a larger community. We don't qualify for a very high morgage but we did qualify. So we are primarly looking for a "fixer-upper". We've seen one house already and are going back tomorrow for a 2nd look. An offer has been made on that place but we plan to make a counter offer. It is a large, brick two story home with about 3200 square feet which is what this large family needs. Not just because we have so many kids but we homeschool, I have avid readers so we will have a library room, plus we have some craft hobbies. And everyone who is crafty knows how much space your supplies take up. We don't know if our offer will be higher or lower than the previous offer so we don't know if will be accepted or not. If not we will keep looking for a large home which would have to be another fixer. We are still waiting to hear about a new call in the area which is actually within commuting of distance of where we are house hunting. But if that doesn't come through at least things for me and the kids will improve just by getting to a larger community. Wish us luck on our endeavor.

Back Home Again

We had a wonderful time in Fort Wayne visiting friends while DH attended the conference at the seminary. The kids and I hung out at the pool with our friends and the adults enjoyed the hot tub. I'm missing the hot tub already. We came back to Wisconsin which had below zero temps. I've gone back to hibernation mode. I honestly can't wait for the spring to get here.



While in Fort Wayne my daughter, Natania, turned 11 so we celebrated by going to build-a-bear and to Applebees for lunch plus dessert to be our "cake and ice cream".



It's hard coming back here to the middle of no where. Our kids miss their friends. We are hoping for a call to Eau Claire area. We should know something soon. Keep us in your prayers for that.

Crazy Days

It's been crazy around here lately. We've been trying to get back in the routine of school after the holidays. A lot of my time in the evenings now goes to working through Algebra 1 to help my oldest daughter who is struggling with that subject right now. She is improving which is great though.

Dh also has a last minute funeral to do tomorrow. At least they won't be standing in the frigid cold by the grave side. The internment will be in the spring. But it makes it a little more hectic around here.

We are busy packing for a week trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana. DH is going to a symposia at the seminary there while the rest of us with enjoy the pool and visit friends. It will be a nice break from small town life. The only wrench in it now is my son Micah complaining of a stomach ache. It's hard to tell which kind with him. A few months ago, we had an appendicitis scare with him. We were told that you can have chronic appendicitis for several months before something really needs to be done about it. Let's hope it's not that. I'm wondering if he was just hungry.

Biggest Snow of the Season

Finally today we have some serious snow coming down. We've had a few small storms with like 3-5 inches but for the midwest, I don't really call that a big storm. I was born and raised in New England so big snow storms is something I am use to. I'm always surprised when the news channels forecast what they define as a big storm. And then they tell you 3-5 inches. Then my DH and I get a big laugh out of that. But today they are predicting 8-14 inches with our town being on the heavier side of the snow. My kids are thrilled!! One of my daughters, Arianna, was so disappointed to hear about the ice storm that we missed in New England this year. Family and friends were without power for days. She's never experienced that but I think in reality she would grow tired of no power and candle light. You kind of get use to those modern conviences.

I ventured out to Walmart today about a 30min drive. I wanted to get ready for New Year's Eve a little early. We have friends coming over tomorrow night and they will be spending the night. The roads were pretty good except for the on/off ramps and rotaries which they call round-abouts out here.

It's good to know I haven't lost my touch with winter driving. DH would tell you otherwise but my driving record is better than his. So I think I'm safe.

Let's Play Tag

Well, not the kind of tag your thinking. But I showed the kids the other day how to make Christmas tags. We used white paper and stamps/ink/markers from close to my heart. They started to really get the hang of it, not that it is really complicated. Annaliese did pretty well considering she couldn't use her right arm and she isn't a lefty. Just some Christmas fun at our house to share with all of you.

Solo Deo Gloria

On December 4th the kids participated in their first concert with the Solo Deo Gloria homeschool choir. We had a fantastic time. The concert was really fabulous. I can't wait for the dvd to arrive. They performed a mix of Christmas carols, spirituals, and hymns. One song was even done in Latin. The choir is broken down into three groups. Sanctus for high school, Jubileo Deo for 4th-8th grades, and Te Deum for 1st - 3rd grades. I am very proud of the kids for getting up so early in the morning and making the long drive to Eau Claire each Thursday. It has been a really great experience for all of them. I am thankful to have even made it to the performance. We had some sickness running through our house plus many people around us in choir rehearsal and in church have been suffering from the stomach bug. Thanks to those who prayed us through it. We are looking forward to choir starting back up on 2/12. Here a few pictures for you all to enjoy.





Annaliese wanted her hair curled so we were busy in the church bathroom among all the other girls trying to get ready. You can't tell in this picture but Annaliese has a festive red cast on her arm. She was so worried that she wouldn't be able to be in the concert if her shirt didn't fit over it. Even if it hadn't we would've taken an older shirt and cut the arm off. She was so looking forward to this evening.




Gabrielle has been enjoying her time at choir. Making many new friends which we are both very happy about. I think it is important for her to have some kids to hang out with that are her age or a bit older. She has been enjoying learning about music and improving her singing.



Arianna is not one for getting dressed up. She honors me by wearing something nice on Christmas and Easter. Now she has to suffer through 2 more times each year - the winter and spring concerts. She looked so nice that evening. She has gained a lot of confidence in her voice since starting choir. Prior to this she was very shy about her singing and would hardly open her mouth. Now she is not as intimidated.




Natania is the one who loves to sing in the family. She seems to have some God given abilities musically. She is teaching herself some songs on the piano until we can afford "real" lessons and eventually she wants to play the flute. She has song before doing small solo parts during church.



Micah was a real trooper. It was a very long day for him without much rest. We left our house at about 7:30am so by concert time (7pm) he was starting to get a bit grumpy. As you can see from this photo he was in no mood for mommy to be having one of those photo-op moments. He did very well during the performance, then joined daddy in the audience and fell asleep on his shoulders.

When There’s No Tomorrow-Assign. 107

Assignment: We only have today. Should God take you today, have you accomplished everything that you wanted to, needed to. Have you said all the things that needed to be said? Let’s have no regrets, let’s make sure we get to those things, so that when we’re standing before the Lord, the only thing we need to do is to worship him.. and not regret not getting to that thing on our to do list. Stop - go take care of that thing…. then, come tell us what you choose to share. Don’t embarrass yourself or any of your loved ones.

Okay, there are alot of different ways to go with this assignment but I chose to gear it towards our experience with homeschooling.

I think as far as school, I would choose to not worry about the "book work" and focus more not so much on fun because not everything in life is fun but to focus more on my children as individuals. I would worry less about the things we are trying to learn like algebra and biology; I would put my focus on their character. Am I building up my child or causing them to stumble.

Nothing is easy with parenting. It is even harder when the parent also chooses to be a homeschooling parent. It leaves alot of room for sin. When you venture down this path you quickly learn about all your short comings as a mom, teacher, parent, christian.

I would choose my words wiser, I would show them how to learn in a more loving manner, I would make sure they knew how much they are loved. I would tell them I'm sorry when I've failed to be the best mom that I could be.

Now let's switch gears - when we are standing before God there will be no regrets. We will see fully the how and why of our lives. We will be in perfect peace, there fore we can't have regrets. What I do hope for myself and for my family is that when we stand in the presence of God whenever that time might be that we will here the words "well done, thy good and faithful servant."

I will leave you with this verse from Jeremiah:

Jer 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Keeping Up With Natania

Ever have one of those days where you suspect something might be wrong but you figure your just being paranoid. Well if your a mom, then your mother's intuition has just kicked in. I find that everytime this happens it is because something needs to be checked out on one of my kids.

Micah today was checked for knee problems. He is almost 6, so I figured what could really be wrong but lets have it checked out anyway. I always thought his knees were shaped funny and often looked swollen. Well about a week ago he was complaining and limping around for about three days. I asked him if he had fallen. He said no. He was in quite alot of pain one of those nights. I assumed it was like a "charlie horse" when you get those pains in your muscles. I massaged his leg, moved it up and down to release the pain, after several minutes it was fine. So I thought good, we fixed that. Until about a day later when it started up again.

I asked my husband what he thought but he said boys knees are just shaped different than girls. I said I don't think that's right. It has become the joke in our house because everytime this happens he thinks nothing of it and it proves in fact to be something. So any of you mom's reading this don't second guess your intuition. And if your DH is anything like mine, just skip the conversation and go right to the doctor.

Well upon checking him out tonight our family doctor (who is so good) told me that he has Patellar Subluxation (when your knee cap moves out of joint and off to the side) and Genu Valgum (known as knocked knees). He also told me that I did what we should do when it happens but to keep an eye on him. He thinks he will out grow it but on rare occasions it requires surgery.

I had thought for a while that something was wrong with his knees but continually put it out of my mind, but my mother's intuition was still always nagging on me. Natania my ten year old, who happens to want to be a doctor when she grows up, had also noticed something wrong with his knees. She is also the one in the family that has most of the medical issues, but Micah is doing his best to keep up with her. So between his surgery two weeks ago, a broken leg, surgery as a baby and now this. I think they are neck and neck in this race.