2012 Epic Blogging Failure!

We end 2012 without having updated the blog since the Spring.  Epic failure.  I got so tired of waiting for the silly photos to upload that I just lost patience with the whole thing.  But here's 2012 in recap (since the Spring).

1. Dad celebrated a big birthday 7-0!  Great family gathering to celebrate.

2. Nicola graduated from nursing school (after 5 years).

3.  Gareth made it safely home from 3rd deployment.  Huzzah!

4.  Patsy came from Suriname to visit us in July.

5.  Late July I found out I was pregnant :0)

6. Dog had his left eye removed in late July, same day as the Welsh invasion began.

7. Family holiday, with Welsh contingency, in NC mountains--great time had by all.

8. August: started school including our new co-op for Tapestry curriculum; very pleased with the changes we've made to homeschooling this year.

9. Labor Day at Holden Beach with Kirbys.  Wonderful weekend getaway!

10. Philip began playing flag-football at Colonial Baptist.

11. Lydia got her ears pierced for 11th birthday.

12. Took Taid and Nain to the State Fair.

13.  Found out our new baby is a...BOY!  Oh boy.

14. Aunty Chris came mid-December, through Christmas.  Wonderful to celebrate the Savior's birth with family.

15.  We have been so blessed throughout 2012.  We have profited from solid, biblical ministry; been given opportunities to serve Christ's kingdom; been granted health and strength and the anticipation of a new life in the Spring--we have indeed been blessed and we trust 2013 (and every coming year) to the Lord's mercy and protection.

Kindergarten

Philip is approaching the end of his kindergarten year. Okay, let's be honest, it might be his "first" kindergarten year. He might do it again as a 5-turning 6 year old as well. We were working today and he says, "Yes, and look at me. This is what it will be like when I wear a hearing aid."Here he is actually doing some work. Notice the tongue.
I look to the other side of the table and see this little fellow, same tongue ;0)

Beauty from Ashes & Square Foot Gardening

I just discovered these beautiful snow-drop type flowers in my neighbor's woods. She told me that she had pulled out a whole bed in order to change the area to grass and now the bulbs are blooming in her pile in the woods. Kind of like beauty from ashes. And...it's gardening time again! I have planted some things in our garden and love watching them grow. So far we have: onions, cauliflower, hyacinths, parsley, lettuce (buttercrunch and romaine), spinach, arugula, rosemary and potatoes in. We'll see how things do and how long it takes for the deer to tromp through and decimate!!

Co-Op

For many, many years I have co-opped art and music with my good friend, Anne. Now we have 9 children between the two of us, and we still get together regularly for me to teach piano and her to teach art. I thought, that after 6 years, it was time to get an updated photo of our gang at work.They began this project by painting a "wash" as the background, and then coming back to add a foreground as the background dried.

Everyone gets in on the action!

Valentine's Day and such

We had Groovers 2.0 in February. Last year we had 3 Groover children spend a few days with us, and this year we had just 2 Groovers for 5 days. So, Philip & Simeon got a roommate and the girls did also. It was great! We had so much fun together. On their first night here, all the girls and I attended a baby shower for my dear friend, Christin. Less than 2 weeks later she rapidly delivered their beautiful baby girl.

The next day we had Blizzards for a treat because...they're yummy (and we had coupons).

While the Groovers were with us, Valentine's Day rolled around and I remembered that I told my sister that her 3 children could spend the night so that she could attend class and my brother-in-law could work. So, that made...hmmm...9 children. At that point, Kevin told me that he felt like the Duggar family because every time he came home, there were more and more children in the house. But that was fun too. We had a nice Valentine's dinner together and everyone slept soundly!

We had fun heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast.

The Groover's parents surprised them with a pre-planned Valentine's token. Let it be known that Patience very conservatively saved her entire bar of chocolate for some future date!

Philip and William--our 2 resident redheaded boys!

The "girls' table" for our Valentine's dinner. They are enjoying chocolate-covered strawberries along with brownies and ice cream. My amazing mother came and made the strawberries in the afternoon (with the boys as her helpers!)

The boys' (and mom's) table in the dining room.

Funny Things

I don't often find myself laughing out loud these days, but I should as there are plenty of funny things said and done around here. You'll notice my deep laugh lines--that's when I had to switch to smirking.

I mean, really, my life is full of wonderful and humorous moments, interspersed with difficult ones!

For example, I showed my girls the inside of a bunch of celery. They were amazed and immediately wanted to photograph it! I smiled at that. They were so entranced at it's flower-like qualities.

Yesterday, Simeon called to me from the stairs: Mom, may I have an apple? Sure. Can you bring it to me? Sure, but why are you all the way over there on the stairs? Because I'm waiting for an apple to come...so I can eat it.

Here's the gang (and our leftover winter decorations even though it's been "spring" here for the last several weeks). We were outside the other day in the late afternoon and Philip (in front of all the neighbor-parents) called, 'Hey Mom! You need to come inside and cook us some dinner!' What can you do--say, 'Oh yes, I'm raising a male chauvinist?'

Here's another humorous moment. Simeon is wearing homemade fox-ears (made by Philip--two pieces of paper (although one ear fell over in the photo) taped to a pipe-cleaner headband) and sporting a furry tail I made for the boys for Christmas. I mean, he was pretty serious about going around on all fours, scratching and snarling. I think that's pretty funny.

I should've made a New Year's Resolution to laugh more at my children's antics. Maybe I'll start now!

Update...no photos

Sorry, no photos, hence a boring update ;0) I just haven't been taking out the camera as frequently, but really should since we received a very nice new one for Christmas. I think I'm scared I'll break it or something!

We finished school last Friday for our 3 (or 4) week break. It will be 3 or 4 weeks depending on a few upcoming details. What have we been doing? Well, the kids have made a number of kites out of yarn and bags from Walmart. It was pretty cute to watch as Abigail and Philip ran around the yard trying to get them launched. And, they've been fort-building: an old stand-by activity. Lydia and I went for her weekly piano lesson today, so we'll be still practicing that while on break. Abigail started lessons as well a couple of weeks ago. I'm the teacher for both girls. Friday we have our art co-op class. My mom made Philip a stuffed, fabric, boxing glove today. He was very proud to give all the neighbor boys (who asked) a punch to the tummy. The weather was unseasonably warm today so Lydia and I dumped in a bunch of new dirt and some peat into our square foot garden. It looks nice and black and ready for stuff to grow in it. I'm reading about growing sweet potatoes. As my friend, Christin, told me: Yes, I'm sure everybody just KNEW how to do this stuff "back then" and nowadays we have to look it up. True, true! So, I'm thinking about that. But that's about it for now! Nothing extraordinary, marvelous, or novel--just rejoicing in the daily blessings of good health, strength and life together!

New Year's Eve Wedding

I mentioned in a past post that I was helping a dear friend with her wedding reception. It turned out to be a wonderful time, and a lot of prep and planning. But it was a real joy to have people from church, with innumerable gifts, help out. Phase One of the operation involved deboning 10 hams. We cut off all the meat so that it would be ready to be heated and served on sweet rolls with honey mustard dressing in a make-your-own sandwich type of serving. So, here are a couple of photos of friends from church getting off the meat!

Joe didn't tell us beforehand, but he had an expert technique which streamlined the process!

Phase Two-A was the collection and receipt of about 140 dozen of the cookies (the remainder arrived on the day of the wedding). I don't have any photos of this, but we received the cookies at my friend Christin's house. She graciously allowed both her kitchen and dining room to be overrun by cookies and platters and doilies and rubber gloves and crumbs and saran wrap. The platters were lovely, each being accented by freshly washed magnolia leaves. There were so many delicious treats. Phase Two-B was the transportation of the platters to the church where they were set out on tables and all the kitchen work was begun in preparation for the next day.

Phase Three: wedding day. The work began about 3.5 hours before the wedding. My army of helpers was eager to: fill dip/sauce bowls, get veggies on platters, slice 525 buns, mix about 6 gallons of punch mix, set up coffee pots, fill water pitchers. And then...I noticed that the wedding cake was sitting in the middle of the room with the sun streaming through a window directly onto the top layer, causing it to sweat. I commandeered a helpful young man, and he broke down a large cardboard box and stood in front of the cake, with the box casting the shadow until the earth revolved just enough to be out of the sun's light! Jesse Saved the Cake!

The reception was very enjoyable--the plates never ran out of food. In fact, we had enough leftovers to feed the whole church the next day, and for people to take home bags of food for their families. A true blessing!

To Christmas and beyond!

We enjoyed a lovely day in Greenville with Papa & Ms. Faye just prior to Christmas. The children were very excited to have some early presents. Abigail thought it appropriate to dress nicely...Lydia, thought perhaps comfortable was better. The boys were super-excited to get Nerf swords, which they promptly put to good use!
Hail the conquering hero!!
Because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, we decided to celebrate our gift-giving on Christmas Eve.
Lydia was happy to have her "fake-UGGs" and Philip was happy for her. Simeon is still satisfied with gifts from the Dollar Tree.