Lately

The older two gals got the chance to go horseback riding.

Trail riding

Working in the covered arena

Learning one handed bowline

Nate shopping for ingredients for a cookout, first time he had been in a store for months.  He’s NOT a fan of mask wearing.

Sahara Dust

Rainbow

Slack line

Making a pie for friends who were shut in with Covid, for porch drop.

Peeling

Dicing

And canning peaches

Not pictured...meeting our friend at a Sonic, to sit at separate tables and chat over slushes, ice cream, and Sonic ice.

Some more Ancient Egypt study.

Watching Hamilton with the older two...Katie took charge of the remote and skipped over ‘the scene,’ if you are familiar.

Visitors!

Sometimes being home with the littles can be pretty isolating.  We moved here with three littles, so I didn't get out much right off.  Nate was a little baby, but very adventurous, making the park a real challenge.  In the past I always found a MOPS group to get involved in, but here I had Kate starting home school, so that was out too.  We're slowly finding relationships with people around us, but this summer has been a real treat for us.

 

We've had friends from west Tenneessee visit for an overnight with their three girls.

We had friends from Justin's home town visit for dinner while they were vacationing with her family in town.

 We had friends from Kansas (who had also left, but headed off to Indiana) stay with us for a few days with their boys.

Then a friend that was visiting her parents here in town stopped by for a playdate with her girls, when she was here from Maryland--I didn't get a picture of that group.

The kids have loved having extra people around, and I always enjoy it too.  I have teased my introverted husband that we should open a bed and breakfast when the kids are grown.  He's not quite on board yet with talking to strangers over breakfast each morning!  But we are thankful for all the visits and to get to see so many people without loading up our entire crew.

Mom's Night Out

I don't get out much without the little people, so it has to be something good to get me out in the evenings.

A group of mom's from our playgroup got together last night though.  I skipped the dinner, but joined them for the movie Mom's Night Out.  I've heard that the critics panned it.  Oh well, I often disagree with the critics, so maybe that's why I liked it.

It was funny and so many of the facets of the lead character's life were so relatable...mama, blogger, home schooler.  It was a lot of fun.  It was also one that I can show my kids some day--there was no husband bashing and no disrespect of the children.  In the end everyone rises to the challenges put before them.  It was a joy to watch.  Oh, and if you go, stay through the credits--there were some snippets at the end.

 



*I wasn't compensated to review the movie and purchased my own ticket.  I just wanted to pass it on to others who might enjoy a good laugh!

Visiting

Justin picked some really great friends when he was in high school.  One of the fellows and his wife are especially dear to us.  They are homeschooling their little brood too.  The have three little girls about the same age as our munchkins.  Actually for a very brief while in late August and early September they are stair steps, so this year they will be 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, and 3...then all of our guys have birthdays and catch up.

five of the six munchkins

The mom and I talk and message back and forth.  Our oldest girls have even been pen pals the past couple of months.  Now that we are in Tennessee and not out in the plains, we try to see each other a few times a year.

We had the joy of visiting with them this past weekend.  The kids played in their pool, got out the dress up clothes, and pulled toys out of the far reaches of the play room.  We chatted about parenting, schooling, churches, and played a game of Risk.

We are grateful for the friends we have been given!

Joy in the Journey

I remember the days of packing up for a quick trip with one suitcase.  Those days are gone, at least for now, but we still do a little traveling, though it be with extra clothes for little people, pack an plays, and potty seats.  June is Justin's month 'off,' though they have him scheduled to work quite a bit for new student orientation this month, so we drove up to visit his parents.

Since we pass through Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati on our way there, we try to make the most of our travel. We spend the lion's share of our trip with them, of course, but as we are passing through, we'll often stop by for some Skyline chili.

This particular trip, we got Skyline at the restaurant just down the road from where we used to live.  We saw a waitress that used to serve us there.  Then we stopped by the University of Cincinnati for about an hour for Justin to drop off some crystals for his current research project (the crystallographer there is a able to provide her services to outside universities) and to let him chat with his former adviser.  We also got to show off our littles.

On the way home, we made a trip to see a dear friend.  It added some travel time to make it to her house, but it is so nice to see old friends, even if for just a few hours.  And the littles loved her dogs.

Then we stopped at a little place called The Dari Bar, since we used to go there when we lived near by.  

The kids did not object to greasy food followed by ice cream!

On our drive home, we came upon an accident.  We were less than 10 cars back from an overturned semi.  The driver was taken by ambulance, not life flight, which we took as a good sign.  And, while no one wants to be stopped on the interstate for well over an hour 5 hours from home, we had the most lovely weather for it.  We opened up the doors to let the breeze through.  The fussing was no more than should be expected by three little people, and perhaps less than one would expect.  We had stopped to let the littles use the restroom at the gas station one exit back while Justin filled up our gas tank.  We had plenty of food and water in the van.   Justin was able to chat with a few of the other people stopped.  And considering the state of the truck, one lane was cleared quickly.  To top it off, since everyone became friends as we waited to move, everyone was so courteous in merging, so it we moved very quickly when the lane was opened.

We made it home at 6 PM, much later than our 6 AM start time could have given us had we driven straight through, but there is joy to be had in the journey too--old friends, old memories made new, and kind strangers.

Technically, That's Illegal

Here is the video clip of my friend Ann!

Want to 'Meet' my Friend?

I have a dear friend from KS, where neither of us live anymore, who wrote a book about trying to follow all the laws she can find. The book is "Technically, That's Illegal."

If you have cable and you'd like to know more, she has an interview that will be airing on Fox Business (The John Stossel Show) at 9pm Eastern tonight (Thursday, March 8, 2012), with re-airings over the weekend.

Congrats Ann!!

Holiday Weekend

(fruit pizza)

I spent yesterday running errands so I didn't tell you about our 4th!


We had a wonderful time with friends coming in on the 2nd. We went to the zoo with our seven daughters (all but the youngest gal pictured here)


and Nate (here he is with the young gal--in her mama's arms). If he has trouble getting a date in a few years, it won't be for lack of options, so long as he likes older women and traveling a few hours! We're leaning toward arranging a marriage for him with the youngest little miss--she's 5 months older and already turned 2. Maybe we'll talk it over with her parents.

Sunday, was a day of rest, with church and all.


Then we spent the Fourth eating berries with real whipped cream


(Nate approved),


The kids playing in the fun pool we got for them,


Making home made ice cream,

Oh and Justin put in a new ceiling fan, set in the sump pump, and hung some shelves in the girls rooms this weekend too!

Seven Princesses and One Prince

From the stories I hear, my husband made some dubious choices girls to date before me, but I have to say that his taste in friends was excellent. Many, many years later we are still friends with his high school buddies, and their wives, and their daughters. Lots and lots of daughters. Three families were able to gather here this week--there were 7 little girls (all aged five an under) and one baby boy!

We went to a great discovery museum in the morning and enjoyed all the activities and our packed lunches.

Later in the afternoon we caravanned back to our house for play time and dinner.

We were so glad to have a chance to visit with friends! We look forward to seeing everyone more often--it's been a couple of years for some of us.

Here are the dads with the first round of babies in the spring of 2006.


Here are the munchkins now--I think they are multiplying.

You Create: Rainbow Cake

See this cake?

It's a cute little cake. I put the names of all the children who were going to be here yesterday's names on it. But this cake, it has a secret...

It was so fun to cut it open.

So if you want to make a fun rainbow cake, here's how:

1. Mix up 2 boxes of white cake mix (one at a time so they don't sit too long before baking).

2. Divide cake mix into bowls (1 cup per bowl--Duncan Hines standard cake mix makes about 5 cups).

3. Tint each bowl a different rainbow color. I used standard food coloring for red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. For indigo I used standard blue mixed with Wilton's Violet icing color. And just the violet for the, well, violet. I've found mixing red and blue food coloring turns the icing pretty gray.

4. Bake each cake in a round pan. I decreased the baking time to 17 minutes, but honestly I think 15 would have been sufficient. I have 3 pans in the same size, so it did require 3 sets of baking.

5. I made some cupcakes out of the extra batter--my kids and husband weren't too put out to help dispose of these for me.

6. Cool each layer for a bit. Than stack, icing between layers. If you're using store bought icing, it will take 2 containers by the time you ice the whole thing--it's slightly taller than the standard two layer cake.

7. Next, ice the whole cake (I iced it in standard (Duncan Hines) icing) to hide your surprise! Decorate if desired--I made my own icing for that.

You'll need: 2 cake mixes (or your own recipe for white cake), 2 containers of icing, standard set of food coloring, violet icing color, and a little extra time, since you'll have to rotate your cake pans through the oven.

I read about the idea on another blog last year, so I'm not that creative. I made it a little differently, in specific I didn't take the time to freeze (I didn't go back to look at that post until I linked it--I guess my memory isn't that good from a year ago) and I added a layer. There would have been much gnashing of teeth from the professor if I had failed to separate indigo and violet and used only one purple color. It was cute plus Kate thought it was exciting to be in on the surprise. It was fun to bake the cake, but even more fun to share it with some wonderful friends!

Well, we're getting there. Hopefully we'll get there before I loose my mind! Just kidding...sort of. The girls think that the airbed they are "sleeping" on is a great trampoline, Kate didn't know that you throw away paper plates, and I did six or seven loads of laundry yesterday (washing up all our curtains and blankets before packing them. I also found a new purpose for the infant tub we've not been using--it caught the water as I defrosted our freezer.

It's been a week of grace though. We had one gal from church keep the girls so we could go sign the paperwork without their help. I was so grateful for that anyway, but when we found out we were going to owe $2000 more than previously estimated I was even more glad not to have them with us, so I had some time to deal with that. Some dear friends stepped in and offered to pay the difference in the costs for us. Then last night another woman from church came by and kept the three munchkins while we went to use some movie passes we'd had since the fall and hadn't had a chance to use. We are very grateful for the kindness of friends here, but they sure are making it hard to leave.

Sunshine!

As I was driving yesterday, I hear a panicked little voice from the back of the van, "I don't have me coat!" That's right Miss Gabby because--you don't need a coat! Well, at least we didn't yesterday afternoon.

We met a friend and her son at the park. For the first time in many moons we were able to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine. In fact, this was the first time that Nate had ever been outside other than to run in or out of a building, ever!

Katie-Kay


Gabby Girl


The little helpers pushing Baby J's stroller


Me with all the munchkins:
Baby J, Kate, Gabby, & Nate, all snug in the Moby wrap


Me and my little brood
(Thanks to Ann for some of the pictures and a great time!)

I even opened up the windows to let some fresh air in.