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.

Whirlwind of Catching Up.

Blog-delinquent. Guilty as charged. Yes, had a lot of stuff happen around here and nobody to be my personal blogger to chronicle my life in photos and pithy sayings. So, I'll try to catch up.

Let's see, we left off at Lydia's birthday. Oh yes, okay, so the NEXT day was Philip's birthday (we're already going at lightning speed to get us up to the present!). Philip turned 5. He learned to ride a two-wheeler the day of his birthday. That was pretty cool. He's a fun little guy. When you ask him what he'd like for breakfast he often says, "Oh, I don't know. You decide." I like kids like that--they help balance out the more...particular ones. He and I have been enjoying some extended time doing his kindergarten work this fall. My mom usually teaches him twice a week, but given her heavy travel and guest schedule, I've been doing it. He's making good progress.

He's somewhat obsessed with dressing like Kevin. Simeon is obsessed with wearing his pajamas as day-clothes.
My mom's travel schedule took her to Hawaii in October, and took me to Fayetteville. I'm pretty sure I didn't get the good end of that bargain in regards to the scenery. I helped keep my dad company (because if you show up anywhere with 4 children, it's automatic company!). We did a few fun things like visit Yates Mill Pond (our favorite grist mill), and played in costumes.
Then we trooped off to the State Fair for my dad to get his farm-fix. He grew up on a farm.
And, in another farm-related activity, we took a hayride. Very fun!

Then we moved on to November and we had a break from school. That was nice as we got to visit with friends and take things a little easier. We had several car woes during that month, so that got expensive. And I began Operation Cookie baking. I volunteered to coordinate the cookie baking and gathering for my dear young friend's wedding on New Year's Eve.

Let's see we needed a few dozen, hmm, oh yes, 180 dozen cookies. I think we will end up with 172 dozen. But I think that will be sufficient. And then it sort of morphed into me helping coordinate the rest of the reception as well. So, that has been a real source of satisfaction for my bent on organization and project development. I am eager to see how things go on Saturday, 31st, and am praying for the Lord to bless the many hands that are making light work!

We shared Thanksgiving with my family down in Fayetteville. My parents have a young friend from their church who is basically like family. Or at least he considers my parents to be his own. And we just treat him like family: no playing favorites. He was there for Thanksgiving as well.

Also in November, I had the really fun experience of having an unplanned, but quickly planned visit with a dear, high-school friend who was in our area for a brief visit. We had a wonderful time of catching up. It was great!

December brought my sister-in-law Emily, and her boys Calvin and Owen and her sister Bethany, for a visit from Hawaii. Gareth is deployed again to Afghanistan, so it helps shorten the time for her to come to the mainland to visit. We enjoyed their company for about 10 days or so. And during their visit, Aunty Chris blew in with the west wind for her visit.

Here's a picture of Gareth during a training exercise. He's the guy in the back. I'm awful proud of him.

Calvin turned 4 in September.

December 20th was Aunty Chris' 70th birthday (although you would seriously doubt that she was a day over 58--really hoping I got those genes, but I'm thinking that 4 children has some subversive effect). Anyway, she was born during WWII and never had very elaborate birthday celebrations. So, she asked for a 7th birthday party. Boy, what a day.

We took her to the (free) student performance of the Nutcracker in Raleigh. We dashed out of there and went to my nieces' and nephew's school Christmas concert and then we popped over to Nicola's house for the 7th birthday party. The pictures tell the story.

And here we are, on the cusp of Christmas and a New Year. Life is so full, so rich. But as the children and I have been talking about in devotions, it is so broken by sin. We are walking alongside friends' whose father is dying of cancer; we have prayed after reading the blog of a little 7-year old girl named Lydia who died in November of brain cancer; we mourn with acquaintances in our town who, on Monday, buried their 17-month old Trisomy-18 baby. And we pray daily for God to enliven our hearts and make us flee our besetting sins. The brokenness of the world is crushing. Praise God for Christ who has undone the curse, and through whom, all things are being made new! Merry Christmas.