Vacation....is it rest for mom???

Today was a busy day: drove Sam to school, dropped van off for new tires, took Grandma to hair appointment, picked up boys, went for breakfast with Grandma after hair was done (the waitress today was in good spirits - we pray often for her to have joy), came home exercised, ate dinner with Joel and packed packed and re-packed the boys suitcases.  We are going to Matthew's football game in the morning and off to the Dells for a few days of rest.  Daniel and Samuel each had three swimsuits, three underwear and socks and water shoes - what more should you need at a water park, ha ah ha.  As the evening winded down Dan and Sam took their baths with watermelon shampoo (bubbles everywhere!) and then blew dry their hair and bodies - fuzzy hairdos - I love my boys, they make me laugh.  We hope to see my dad/grandpa Bob and grandam Irm while at the Dells

School

Success for the first day of school.  Sam went joyfully to pre-k today and he rode the bus home.  Daniel is reading superbly, while trying to avoid math.  Matthew and Ben are very motivated this year, we incorporated what we hope to be a motivating system of rewards for work being complete and timely done.  So far very good. 
We anxiously waited at the end of the driveway for Samuel to get off the bus, at which time we shouted with joy.  The bus driver must think we are nuts.  We plan to make cakes and have a tea party this weekend with dad. 

Quieter moments

I find myself home with just Daniel and Samuel tonight.  Ben went to grandma's for the night and Matthew went with friends to a football game.  We have made tea and about four tons of popcorns and  a neat fort for watching a movie. I was given permission to check my emails and update our blog.  We are looking forward to spending three days with Joel - prayerfully we'll have a great family weekend.  We saw an exceptional sight today, two adult bald eagles teaching their baby to fly.  I now know why to day had to be so windy, so the baby eagle could fly!  How cool.

August 24, 2010 Good Day

As I sit at Matthew’s practice I am able to think about what a great day today was. I am not sure what changed but I’ve had one of those feel good get things done days. It started with teaching the boys how to make scrambled and over easy eggs. Things that are second nature to me are so very new to the boys like, left front burner, which spatula to use, how to crack an egg without a big mess. They had a good time and so did I. I cut out the material for Sam and Dan’s bedroom and even had enough material left over to make night shorts for each of them – how surprised they were! Matthew helped me get some more painting done in the kitchen – only half a wall left. Sam and I dehydrated some fruit sauce I made last week. Cooked one of the 9 pound chickens today, it took up the whole soup pot!! The breast were like a small turkey and it tasted so good and gosh there’s enough for at least two more meals.

August 22, 2010 Church Picnic

We went to church and then to the church family picnic, this was Joel’s first year. Fun was had by all, Daniel and Samuel were in the water most of the day. Sam is hooked on fishing but not horse riding- he went for a short pony ride and didn’t like it. I went for a horse ride and loved it but my backside will feel that tomorrow), Joel was able to relax and visit, Matthew learned to ride a four wheeler and Ben did a shoulder roll off a motorcycle that he wasn’t supposed to ride(not the best ending to a great day but we’ll manage).

August 20, 2010

Boys were up early today, that’s 8 ish for us. Took grandma to her hair appointment, came home got dressed and loaded the boys and off to pick up grandma. She was feeling much better today so off to breakfast – Perkins that is, ‘city slicker’ kids meals for the boys (no eggs today due to the salmonella recall), Grandma and I had the fish dinner-it was very good today. Daniel said he was bummed because daddy ate all the cookies they brought home (he wanted to take a picture of the empty bag).

August 19, 2010

Went for produce this morning, it’s nice to share a morning with good friends and be able to talk about the goings on in our lives. I was able to make 10 pints of jelly/fruit sauce out of the plums, nectarines, and pears today – we’ll use it later to make fruit roll ups. My mom leaves for Norway tomorrow for two ½ weeks, I will miss her greatly and who will I talk with everyday???

July 25, 2010 Baptism Day!

Today is a beautiful day, Matthew and Daniel were baptized in the Rush River. They met with Pastor Matt earlier in the week to prepare for today. It was overwhelming as a parent to see my young children accepting Christ as their savior! And we were greatly blessed to see dad and stepmom! He was very sick yesterday and wasn’t able to make it to the baptism but he came later to the house and it was wonderful. He and Irm were able to see the devastation done by the tornado here and I think that was hard for them as parents to see it all.


My dad loves life and comes up with the greatest gifts. With teary eyes he gave each of the boys a bar of ivory soap (still in the individual package) and said “Ivory soap is 99.99% pure but now you are 100% pure being washed in the blood of Jesus”. So the boys opened their soap and he had carved their names in the bar of soap AND he embroidered a pillow case for Samuel with his name on it (each of the other boys already have one).

July 14, 2010 Babysitting and a Tornado

Joel wanted to go to dinner and asked Matthew to babysit Daniel and Samuel, Benjamin was at Grandma Marie’s, so they could watch a movie and we’d be gone and back no problems. Well the weather had other plans for our family this day. As Joel and I were eating the sirens went off so we QUICKLY finished up and watched the weather that was on the television at the restaurant and Matthew called very frantic that the weather was getting bad and we needed to get home NOW. As we drove through the pouring rain I listened to my 12 year old son scream “mom get home now! We having a tornado”, as he recounted what was happening it seemed so surreal. My children were at home in a tornado and we were speeding home. Matthew told me, they couldn’t see out the window, then there was a huge noise-windows from the porch were sucked out, then he said “trees are falling all over I think the house was hit”, “mom it’s so loud, get home”. As we sped down our road and over the last hill Joel hit the brakes the last ¼ mile to the house was covered with downed trees. I jumped out of the truck and took off running through over and under trees and Joel took off to drive around the block. About half way home I could see the boys standing at the end of the driveway with the local Sheriff. I slowed to a walk, sweating heart pounding as I walked to the end of the driveway and said outloud ‘My boys have just lived through a tornado”, with Daniel’s arms wrapped around me I sobbed deeply. Then it was a recount from Matthew going over all the trees (over 200 ripped in half, knocked over with the roots exposed, or twisted). God graced us this day, trees destroyed ALL around the house and only minor issues with the roof, oh and the chickens and calf were untouched – they too with trees torn in half all around the coop and pen. What has amazed me is that there was a bale of hay sitting next to the chicken coop – not a blade of hay moved and yet only three feet away two heavy dog kennels had been removed from the property – perhaps we’ll find them in the woods next to ours.

July 2, 2010 The First Entry

July 2, 2010


Today we went to Willow River State Park. What an unknown treasure, the boys were able to walk all around the waterfalls, get wet and search for rocks and other treasures. It was a very steep hill coming down and seemed even steeper getting back up to the truck. We searched around the park finding a park and picked out the campsites we would like to camp in. The toilets weren’t very modern but functional. The swimming area was very nice, as was the fishing from shore. We had been there some time and heard what sounded like a waterfall, well sure enough after some investigating we found yet another waterfall. Very beautiful and yet very hidden treasure. We hope to camp there this summer.