Strange Christmas Eve 2011

Today we stayed home, nothing fancy.  Football on TV, cooked  a home grown turkey, and made a few cookies. Joel's playin pool by himself, Matt's watching a war movie, Ben's flippin cars and D&S are making a fort in Matt's room (they are sleeping over tonight lol).  Me I'm surfing and bloggin. Daniel, Samuel and I made gingerbreads houses. I went to take a picture bout half hour later and gosh by golly there wasn't ANY candy left on them.  Now I understand why they are running wild upstairs! lol Hope everyone's having a blessed Christmas Eve.

Dec 23 Snowfall

What do you get with a 1" snowfall and four bored boys----FUN!!!! There was so mauch laughter and fun with this little snowfall that we got.  They slid down the hill on everything, tried to use a shovel as a ramp and even rolled down the hill in 50 gal buckets.  The dogs had a blast racing around chasing snow and each other.  Our puppy Winchester has a cute little beard and it had little frozen icicles in it.

Thanks God for a little snow for a white Christmas, very beautiful!

Back to Reality

Finally getting back to our routine.  This is the first time this school year that I feel like were on track, started a mini schedule Monday, it's Thursday and it's going well even the kids are liking it. A little bit of structure is a good thing.  Joel's off tomorrow and we will keep our schedule going but wil include making cookies and decorating for Christmas ...yipee!!

Goodby Dad I love you

Dear Dad,

I have thought of you often over the years. This past weekend I went to a Women of Faith Conference. As I listened to the stories of faith I thought of you, but when one of the ladies sang “How great thou art”, I remembered that it was a favorite song of your because your mom played it in so beautifully on the piano. I don’t know if I ever heard her play it but I can imagine it was beautiful and it brings tears to my eyes when I think of watching you enjoy the song and I can see and feel the love you have for your mom and can only imagine the great memories you have of her.

I wish I could show you and tell you everything that I feel for you and how thankful I am to have you as my dad – I would choose no other.

So here are some of the things I love that you passed on to me:

Thank you for teaching me to laugh, to play jokes, to have fun and to smile.

Thank you for allowing me to have horses and learn how to ride – they helped me a lot in my younger years.

Thanks for teaching how to give of myself.

Thank you for being selfless.

Thanks for loving mom through the really tough times.

Thanks for loving me through running away, getting married, lies and deceit, and marriage woes with Ken.

Thanks for accepting me with all my faults and warts and loving me no matter what.

Thanks for accepting Joel and giving me away at our wedding.  Whoda thought we’d be where we are today in our marriage, faith, family and life – it’s so awesome!! God has blessed me so many times in my life with miracles and blessings.

Thanks for teaching me to fish!

Thanks for teaching the bible study for two years, what a journey.

Thanks for giving your life to Christ, heaven will be so awesome and someday we will see each other again and we will be free of these earthly burdens and we will hold hands with our Lord and maybe catch a fish or two.  I shall never forget our fishing trip to Fish lake and our being WAY over the limit with pan fish……I think I left you in the back yard cleaning most of them (sorry).

Remember when I caught a fish and watched you clean it for the first time, I was so sick to my stomach I couldn’t eat  it ugh…

So many memories in life, I seem to have so many of them lately. I think you will be going home soon, when you do I sure hope there is an answer as to why you have been so sick, I hope I can come to some small understanding of it. It saddens my heart so much to think of the missed times of fishing with the boys. They have your love for fishing and it makes me so happy – wish I could do more of it and I will try to go more.  I see my boys (who would have thought I would have four boys, three being adopted, hunh) growing so fast lately and I know all too soon they will be off doing their own life.  I hope that they learn from Joel and me as much as I have learned from you and mom.

Another blessed day with my dad.

My sister went last night to my dad's bedside and I packed up the boys, at the prompting of my good friend Stephanie, and drove down this morning. Dad is progressing through the well documented phases of dying. As we watch my dad slowly fade from this earths existence I have so many questions; why did he have to be so sick so long, why didn't he have a name to give his illness, why can't he be better, why does dying take so long, who am I supposed to call on for advice when he's not here, and why can't my boys go fishing with grandpa once more.   To see my dad each week, I see that it is only a human shell we live in, our spirit- who we are- is inside, the flesh fades but the soul is intact and hopeful and will move on from this life to a greater existence with our Father. My dad is so hopeful, so calm, peaceful, he's waiting....he says the "time is near" and a tear rolls from his eye. My sister and I talk of our favorite vactions, birthdays and Christmas, he listens. We talk about our kids and what they are doing, he listens. Quietly he whispers, "It's wonderful to hear you talking".  The boys come one at a time, my dad puts both hands on Sam's face (it's a moment we will all remember) tells him how special he is, that he loves him and that he has great hair. Ben is next........he holds his head close to him and whispers something to him, Ben cries. Daniel was a unsure but he held his hand and talked about a fishing trip they did together and how grandma Irm wasn't happy that the two of them climbed over dangerous rocks (anything to get a good fishing spot).  He tells Matthew he's growing so much and asks him to come back and see him soon, "see you later" he says. It was so hard to leave him and yet I know he's in God's hands and will be seeing Him soon.

Shoe boxes

What an awesome day. Five beautiful friends, 28 incredible kids and 70 shoeboxes packed!!  Thanks Stephanie for opeing up your home to all of us and sharing in this experience. My boys had a great time with their friends and I enjoyed my time with mine.  The doughnuts were yummy Jess - thanks.

Watching the Vikings game with all my boys!!! Junk food night.

Sunday in the Wind

Great sunday service today! We helped friends move a couple loads of wood.  We were in the wind and sun for a couple of hours, it makes for hungry tired boys!  They ate three pizzas, showered and went to bed by 9 - great day!!!! It's fun hanging with friends, enjoying God's great outdoors and going to bed really tired.  Praise the Lord, I look forward to tomorrows adventures.

Time out for Juicing

So Joel decides to juice some pears, strawberies, and grapes - the juice is good!.  He took the dejuiced stuff and added yogurt and is trying to pass it off as good - uck!

Preparing for Winter

Today we start our adventure preparing for yet another Wisconsin winter. So many things to do, but as usual we Newman's procrastinate until the bitter end. LOL. Finally got around to putting up plastice over the broken windows on the porch (Sam broke one hitting it with a fly swatter, the wind blew one or two out and a few by a baseball).  For some reason the boys don't understand that when playing baseball you shouldn't throw the ball towards the house but away from it- thus few broken windows.  Hopefully this winter we will not have a broken sliding glass door like last year. When one kids tried to break the ice off the window with an ice chipper it shattered, but lets not digress.  As we sit here mom and dad, preparing to do our next project on the list, the smell of homeade chicken noodle soup fills the house, and the sound of my boys playing upstairs with Johnny Cash on the vinly playing in the background brings me a joyful feeling.  On to our next project winterize the camper.  As I prepare to do this I think of our summer sitting around the campfire eating smores and hot dogs, camping, hearing my boys laugh, bike rides, and fishing.  I reckon we ought to get on to it, so we can be done in time for Ben to go to football and Matthew and Daniel off to swimming.

December 2010

December 31, 2010

The last day of the year….. So much has happened this year, it started with bringing Samuel home, next came a tornado tearing the yard up and it’s ending with a peaceful night shared with friends.  Sometimes life is a struggle, sometimes it can be so taxing and it can be very peaceful.

Memory for the day: Spending the evening with good friends.

December 25, 2010

Ahh there’s never enough sleep on Christmas morning.  The boys woke to new scooters, slippers, wood- craft projects and candy (yes mom bought candy and fruit for the stockings.  We had a nice day just being together eating munchies and enjoying the new toys.

Memory for the day: Watching the boys ride scooters all over the house.

December 24, 2010

The excitement of the evening, celebrating Christ’s birth with a candlelight service and then home to play games and wait in anticipation of Christmas morning.

Memory for the day: Being with my family and singing Silent Night by candlelight.

December 22, 2010

Craft Day! I’m reading two very neat books (The Creative Family and Handmade Homemade), they great ideas for making crafts that you use every day. Today we painted little peg people.  My thoughts were to create a nativity scene but that quickly changed once the boys started painting.  We ended up with football players, storm troopers, people with overalls, a formally dressed lady, some way overly painted people and a hobo.  It was way fun and neat to see the ideas that they created.  We also cut material for Christmas crowns, pencil holders for gifts for the boy’s friends and for a rag rug that we will be trying to make.  Tomorrow we will sew the crowns and pencil rolls – breath deep I’m teaching boys how to use a sewing machine…… 

Memory for the day: Seeing our peg people come to fruition through the boy’s eyes.

December 20, 2010

More SNOW……sigh…  Mom will keep the boys another night as the roads are pretty slippery.  Benjamin and Samuel are keeping busy and much to themselves.  We went to the library, Sam checked out a Dora the explorer video and he is watching it and I her him laughing out loud – too sweet.

Memory for the day: hearing Sam laugh at Dora video.

December 19, 2010

Went to my mom’s for dinner, Pizza Hut!  It was nice that my sister and her kids could make it.  Back at moms the boys opened their Christmas presents from grandma, big wheel for Sam, artist set for Daniel, Camera for Matthew and 2010 almanac and a football rule book for Benjamin – they all loved what they got – way to go grandma Mary!!  Matthew and Daniel will spend the night.

Memory for the day: Seeing Donna.

December 6, 2010

Today was a long day.  The boys were up easy today and started on school right after breakfast.  Ben had a counseling session at 11 and it went well.  Each time we go we learn a new way to help us work through our issues.  Last week we implemented quiet time for 45-60 minutes as Joel goes off to work.  This time of day has been quite a struggle for us, with many episodes with Ben. So at 4:00 we discuss what each boy will be doing for the next hour and at 4:15 off they go, so far reading, computer time and puzzles have been a favorite.  Each child is assigned a day to spend the time with me, Matthew learned how to do a yarn project, Daniel did reading, Ben played games and made cookies and Sam wanted to play the memory game.  This has been good for all, each boy gets some one on one time with me and everyone has some quiet time to themselves.  I thank God for taking us to this point and for getting help for Ben and for our family.

Memory for the day: Listening to Daniel read.

December 4, 2010

I finally got my sewing machine out and started working on curtains for the boys rooms.  Almost done, just need curtain rods and a hem.  They will look nice when done.  I cut out material for sleep pants for each of the boys – got a great deal on material the day after Thanksgiving.

Memory for the day: Sewing curtains with the aroma of fresh baked cookies listening to Samuel wander around proudly singing his newly learned alphabet song.

December 2, 2010

Cleaning day:  I’ve been working many hours on getting the basement cleaned, uncluttered and arranged. Joel worked on rearranging the gym we’ve made to make it more workable.  The boys cleaned their rooms, even used the vacuum! The house looks really nice. We spent the evening with Christmas music, cookies and decorated the tree.

Memory for the day: watching the boys work together to put up the tree lights and the diligent manner in putting the decorations on.

December 1, 2010

I love the days when Joel is off.  We made waffles, got milk, and headed out shopping with the boys.  We took the boys out for Chinese food, bought a Christmas tree and wandered around Fleet Farm for an hour just looking at everything. I’ve been having extreme pain in my back since having pneumonia, I just can’t seem to get rid of the pain and I ended up at urgent care late in the evening. My blood pressure was way off the charts, my blood work showed everything to be ok, no infections, so they gave me a shot of tordol for the pain  and some muscle relaxers – don’t know what’s going on.

Memory for the day: walking with Joel and watching the boys be boys.

November 2010

November 29, 2010

Had to take Ben to the counselor this morning and I felt guilty for not being at home doing school work. My thoughts and attitude were different afterwards, we really need to do this not only for Ben but for our whole family. 

November 27, 2010

Memory for the day: Watching Oklahoma Sooners beat Texas Longhorns in college football with Matthew.

November 26, 2010

Ok I know this is crazy but I was up at 3:45am and shopping by 5a.m. in Red Wing. So crazy, then I met up with Jess at 6:30 and we headed off to see what other deals we could find.  It was crazy and fun, we laughed a lot and enjoyed a nice meal together.  We made it home about 7:30, I don’t know if I’ll ever do that again but it made for some fun memories.

Memory for the day: Eating at Red Lobster and laughing so hard when Jess told the cashier to “just stick it anywhere you like” (referring to putting a purchase in the shopping cart)

November 25, 2010 Thanksgiving Day

We spent the day with friends ( a tradition  we’ve done for 4 years now).  My mom wasn’t too happy that we weren’t getting together.  She and my sister were invited but they weren’t too comfortable with the number of kids there- 4+6+2+3=15 not so many. There actually could have been 8 more but two families didn’t make it this year.  Good food, great fellowship couldn’t ask for much more. My friend cooked one of the turkeys we raised this summer – what a difference in taste, we are so going to raise more turkeys not only were they easy and fun to raise they are darn good eatin!

Memory for the day: Watching the boys and men play football in 10 degree weather and eating a homegrown turkey.

October 29, 2010

Well today was like no other of late, I woke up early got ready before the boys woke, we had a quick breakfast because we were having an early lunch with Grandma Marie.  I haven’t felt this really good in many months.  No pneumonia coughing, my back was feeling better than it has, the sun was shining through recently cleaned windows, I read the bible, the kids were getting along, and I felt good, sigh.  I made phones calls to friends that I hadn’t had the energy to do.  Our first insurance installment came so we can move forward with having our roof and siding done!! That’s exciting, our house is going to look so good…..but I’m not picking the colors Joel will do that in the morning.  We had a great lunch date with grandma, although I found out she drove to get her hair done this morning-stubborn lady, at 89 she’s still driving but really shouldn’t be. I spent time with Joel and the boys reading James ch5 before he went off to work, patience in suffering, stand firm because the Lord’s coming is near, if you are in trouble pray and sing songs of praise – pieces the boys remembered this evening of their reading.