January 2017 ~ week 2

This week has been one of wintry weather and lots of downtime because Abigail and I got colds -- just sick enough that we didn't feel like getting off of the couch.  We did not start back to school on Monday as planned...instead, we were bums most of the week!

Nice things about being sick: staying home, extra rest, snuggling under a warm blanket, extra cat time, Grandma-socks...and a good nurse.  David takes great care of us during the day so that Bruce can work.  He is not quite so cooperative about pictures...

 

One afternoon we made homemade snow-cream for the first time.  It tasted like French Vanilla ice cream, but with the icy-snowy texture of snow. Fun!

More resting...more couch-time and more cat-time...Mindy is not a big snuggler, but she knows when someone is ill and appoints herself their nurse.  It's very sweet.

In the midst of David's tending to us, he managed to spend his Christmas money on Amazon and was delighted when his new Star Wars Lego set arrived!  It is always so much fun to watch him go to work on a new building project.  Here he is with his U-Wing Fighter.

By Friday, we were starting to feel like normal human beings again!  We cleaned and organized and played board games in between projects.

And for a week that started out with ice and snow and frigid temperatures, this is how we ended it...70 degrees and outside without even a coat! Ah, Georgia, how we love thee... :)

Thankfully, Abigail was feeling much better in time for our church's youth group event on Saturday -- her first time to participate in the annual "Cabbage Bowl," where our teens compete against our senior citizens in Wii Bowling.  It is a really fun event and a great chance for the strengthening of relationships between these two very different age groups.  The seniors won the overall tournament as their combined score was higher than the teens' combined score (this is typical...they have won the overall competition four out of the five years).  Abigail and her friend/bowling partner, however, won the individual team competition, defeating the usual bowling champions!  Here they are with their "trophy" after church today.

Not only that, Abigail was the individual high-scorer, so she brought home that traveling trophy and a Chick-Fil-A gift card!  Nobody suspected she was going to be such fierce competition, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed her victory. :)  The teen guys have already started vying for her to choose them as her bowling partner next year! Way to go, Abigail!

January 2014

Well, here I am again, having skipped a blogging chunk but picking it up now rather than dragging around the weight of too many missed weeks!

Our January started out in a very unusual way...all four of us were sick with the flu, which was our shared "Christmas gift" from our family Christmas in Florida at my parents' -- most of us got it over the course of the week spent together.  It really threw us for a loop, and we spent two whole weeks lying around moaning.  The cats thought it was great to have so many laps available for so long -- they were the only ones who were happy about it!

Eventually we got well enough to get dressed and get started back to school again.  We hit our 100th day of school just before Christmas break, so we are trucking along nicely towards a completed year (180 days)!

David earned some extra credit while we were studying mechanical energy; he (voluntarily!) created a contraption demonstrating a fixed pulley.

We saw a hot air balloon over our house -- a rare occurrence and lots of fun.

Abigail baked gingerbread from scratch mostly by herself -- it was delicious!

We enjoyed a visit to my dad- and mom-in-law's in NC...and guess how many pictures I remembered to take -- NONE!  Grrr.... :(  We enjoyed a peaceful couple of days together (and my two slaw-dogs from Hot Dog World brought much happiness, too!). :)

I sewed a messenger bag as a gift for Abigail's friend's birthday.  I was very pleased with the finished product. (I used this free pattern if you're interested; I made several tweaks, of course, but the basic info is great.)

The kittens are still as adorable as ever.  Felix loves to share grooming love, but the girls don't always appreciate it.  This time it was mutually acceptable and very sweet!

And this week came the crowning event of our month -- SNOW!  Three inches of it, plenty for sledding -- and cold enough temperatures to keep it for a few days!  We have thoroughly enjoyed it.

Day 1...The flakes started to fall and school went downhill fast. :) I gave up and called a snow day, and the kids headed right outside!  We all held our breath and waited to see whether we would get enough for accumulation.

 We didn't have to wait long to know that this was going to be a 'real' snowfall!

 

 Day 2...It stayed, and now had a thick layer of ice underneath it.  More sledding, more fun...what a blast!  We sledded down our neighbor's hill and right across the ice- and snow-covered road toward our yard.

Day 3...it's still here!  We're supposed to inch above freezing temps and start losing it today, but the kids are milking every last ounce of enjoyment out of it that they possibly can.  I have enjoyed it very much, but I must admit that I am rather ready to be done competing with snow for the kids' attention in school, spending significant time during the day bundling and unbundling the kids and drying a zillion layers of clothing so they're ready to use again, and having sore muscles from sledding with the kids!  Yes, I am truly southern now.  I love to get snow for a few days and then I love to give it back again in exchange for our warm sun and easy-to-navigate winter weather! :)

Stay warm!!!

Our week ~ July 1

I feel rather like this was our first week of summer vacation!  Our traveling is over for the time being, so I spent most of the week doing the things that I usually do the first week of summer vacation -- cleaning up and cleaning OUT!  Corners that have collected clutter, piles of stuff that have magically appeared and grown...all of the places neglected during the frantically-busy school year have gotten cleaned out and scrubbed off!  The kids don't understand my glee over these projects; they usually hide upstairs and play so that they don't get roped into helping :), but Mindy is my ever-faithful and very enthusiastic assistant.

Sunday afternoon, we got a surprise visit from our pastor and pastor's wife from our church in New York (the pastor who officiated at our wedding ceremony).  We had a wonderful afternoon of fellowship and catching up on each other's lives.

On Monday, Abigail got her new leg brace (aka AFO -- ankle/foot orthotic).  She got to choose the design (lavender with butterflies), so she was very excited to get the finished product!  This brace is more 'invasive' than the last one in the sense that it covers much more of her foot in an attempt to help correct the deformities developing due to her CP.  She is doing a great job wearing it faithfully, though (the pretty design and snazzy new sneakers help with that), and we haven't had any issues with rubbing or bruising, and it has already started to make a difference in the appearance of her foot.

While we were waiting at the orthotics office, we snapped a picture of her beautiful pumpkin smile!  She lost her two front teeth a couple of weeks ago.

Then we got silly and succumbed to the giggles!

We managed to sneak in a 'just us girls' visit to the fabric store while we were out. :)

Our blueberry bushes are producing...happiness is fresh blueberries from the backyard to put on my cereal in the morning!

Our weather has been rainy, rainy, and even rainier, but we didn't let that dampen our celebration of Independence Day.  We just brought the bikes inside to the living room, turned up a John Philip Sousa album, and decorated away to our heart's content.

The Lord cleared the skies just long enough for us to have our own little bike parade...

...complete with puddle-splashing, a fun side benefit of all of this rain! :)...

...and enjoy some sparklers (and grill our Hofmann hot dogs for supper, too!).

We ended the week by getting a load of mulch.  With a lot of elbow grease from my two guys and the usual faithful service by our beloved old van, 100 bags of mulch are ready to beautify our yard.  Now if only the rain will stop long enough for us to work outside...! :)

Our week ~ June...well...more like whole the month of June!

The month of June was a whirlwind...a wonderful one, but hard to keep up with!

We managed to sneak in a day with Karen and her kids.  We enjoyed watching a professional juggler at our local library.

Karen was concerned that the baby might not sit still happily, but she was just as enthralled as the big kids were!

 David's favorite part of the act...standing on a ball and juggling machetes.  (The juggler did make the kids promise not to try it!)

We also went to a park for a picnic lunch and playtime.  The boys never held still, and Adel was pretty sure she could keep up!

My little mama soothing the baby for her nap. :)

Be still my heart...Hofmann hot dogs and coneys have come to our local grocery store!  It is wonderful to eat these hometown-favorite hot dogs again!

Look who's finally heavy enough to activate the safety switch on the mower!  It is now David's job to mow all of the flat areas of our yard.

We went on a camping trip with the Kichers and had a wonderful time.  We have declared it to be a new annual tradition.

Bruce has been teaching David how to play chess; they like to play while I finish getting supper ready.

We also had several appointments to go to during June...this is at the office of Abigail's orthopaedic doctor.  They have a lovely, giant aquarium with turtles and fish.  We're always a little disappointed when we get called back for our appointment. :)

Here is Abigail and her beloved physical therapist, Carol.  To the best of our recollection, Carol has been 'our' PT for 6 or 7 years now.  PT isn't an obligation for Abigail...it's happy time to spend with her friend!  We are so thankful for Carol and all she has invested in Abigail.

In between appointments, trips, and rain storms, we have squeezed in a few visits to the pool.  If you look closely, you can see that this visit was about to be cut short by the start of another rainstorm!

We next traveled to Florida to have an incredible visit with my parents, brothers and sisters-in-laws, and -- for the first time -- we had all five cousins together!

I did a terrible job taking pictures...one of my sisters-in-law was snapping them maniacally with her fancy camera, so I got lazy and let her take them all! :-/

Here is one of my brothers and the five cousins in "the tree" at Fort Matanzas.

Bruce took these from his happy place under the shady cabana.  The water was gorgeous, and even Abigail got brave and tried body-boarding!

I will have to revisit this trip once I get my copy of Krystle's pictures...my few just don't do it justice!

It was so wonderful to have all of us together, even for a few precious days...

then we headed home to get ready for our next trip.

This summer has NOT been boring!