Christmas Greetings 2009

Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make thee a bed, soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
(Martin Luther, From Heaven Above, stanza 13)

Merry Christmas! We continue to give thanks this year for work, good health, family, friends and children who are growing, playing and learning.

Aaron is 3 and loves trains, tractors, laughter and games of chase. It seems there is always plenty of laughter and chasing around here to entertain him.

Ella is a little mother to Aaron and queen of questions. God has blessed her with a cheerful, inquisitive personality. She's learning to read and enjoys writing and drawing. Did I mention she loves to ask questions?

Isaiah is our sensitive people pleaser. He became a reader this year and still loves legos and making new friends. He stays busy with basketball and baseball.

Jonah continues his journey as a budding scientist. His current passion is electronics. He built a small radio this week out of stuff we had around the house and actually got it to work...We're thinking of renaming him MacGyver. He loves playdates with his best friend and wrestling with - or should I say defending himself from - the cat, Butterscotch. I have to get that on video sometime.

Ron had positive feedback today from 3 of the 5 readers of the proposal for his dissertation. After six months of rewrites, this is very good news to us. He's very close to defending it and writing up the final paper. It's been a long road and we are all cheering him on to the finish line.

Lisa learned to stain, varnish and paint this year as we added to and improved on the house. We were blessed with very few mosquitos this summer, so it was a great year to work outside. The hours did get long though, so it's been nice to trade brush and paint for sweaters and schoolbooks. We had our first, much anticipated, snow a few weeks ago and all the kids have been sledding and skiing in our winter wonderland. I've tried skiing a few times as well and love the excercise, though I'm not so fond of the falling down!

We are especially thankful this Christmas season for playing in the snow, trips to the library, cookies, occasional moments of quiet, family, friends and the birth of a loving Savior.

May His Joy be yours this Christmas,
Ron, Lisa, Jonah, Isaiah, Ella and Aaron

Happy 3rd Birthday Aaron!

We celebrated Aaron's 3rd birthday while in Minnesota, a special celebration with grandparents and godmother Beth. Aaron is celebrating being three by letting us know what he's thinking (yeah verbal development!) and copying everything he sees his siblings do.

In the Dining room

Here's the first meal in the dining room after moving the table in. We're loving our new floors (lots of sock sliding going on here) and figuring out how to make our new room home. Decorating ideas are welcome!

Kitchen

It's been a busy week. We came home from MN on Friday. In the nine days since then, we've installed 16 new windows, stained and varnished them and painted the kitching ceiling and walls. Here's Aaron "helping" me make pancakes last week.

gun vs guy

My boys spent some birthday money on a Vulcan EBF-25 nerf gun. They called this set up "Gun verses Guy". Doesn't look like he has much of a chance does it. :)

Happy 9th Birthday, Isaiah. We love you!

Jackolantern

Three teeth fell out at our house this week. Jonah lost two molars and Ella lost another baby tooth. We've told her that her timing is perfect. We don't need to carve jackolanterns this year, she can just flash her pretty grin!

Coming along

It's coming along. We homeschool until 2 PM these days, then I paint/stain/varnish until 7 or 8. The kids wake Aaron at 3:30 and head downstairs for a snack and video. Ron comes home at 5. Lots of Subway/pizza/chicken pot pies for supper these days. We dug the holes for the footings last weekend with a rented auger and hope to move the deck after we get the permit. The wood is acclimating. We leave for MN in 10 days so we are gone while it is installed, sanded, finished. The kids are excited to celebrate Halloween at Grandma and Grandpa's. Ron will be here, but with no kitchen. He's looking for a microwave to borrow. Can you make Ramen noodles in the microwave?

I blinked...

It happened again. I blinked and they grew up just a little bit more. Aaron is potty trained, Ella can ride her bike. Isaiah is reading 700 page chapter books and Jonah is attending youth group and acolyting. A month ago, none of this was happening. But, I blinked and everything changed. Sigh. This Mommy is feeling just a little sad this morning--in a contented kind of way.

Potty training

Aaron is potty trained. I have always been a big fan of early potty training. Less power struggle, Fewer diapers to buy- or wash, It takes a week and pays off for a year. This time around, I didn't have a week to give and it was easier for all of us to let Aaron remain in diapers. (He'll be 3 in November) We talked about it alot though and praised him for efforts. On Sunday, he used the potty all day (while in pull ups). On Monday, he did the same thing and even got his first "poo poo" in the potty. By Tuesday he was fully in underpants (except for night time). Here's his expression at Monday's poo poo success. Priceless.

corn

We've been blessed lately. Corn, grapes and tomatoes all came our way from folks who had more than they could use and didn't want it to go to waste. So, on Saturday we froze corn, on Thursday we canned grape jelly and on Saturday we canned salsa. Here's a photo of the kids shucking 12 dozen ears of corn. We did have a garden this year, but it wasn't very successful. In all, we've harvested three zucchini, three tomatoes and some tiny onions. We did discover a lively patch of poison ivy though. Poor Ella is still on the mend from that. :(

changes

We also painted the big shed, so it wouldn't feel left out.

changes

Here's the same shed last week.


Here's the before picture of one of our sheds- which Ron reshingled with the help of a friend last summer.

Starting to look like a house

We have siding and it's actually starting to look like a house out there. We're slowly working on the dirt piles filling in around the sides.

First day of school

Ella starts first grade this year. She's reading "I Can Read It" books and Dr. Seuss. Doing handwriting and spelling with Sonlight and listening in to everything I read to her brothers.


Isaiah starts third grade. He is reading short chapter books and getting into World History with Story of The World. He's doing Language Arts with Sonlight as well.


Jonah (gasp) starts sixth grade. He's finishing up American history and will start World history this winter. At the moment he is inhaling books on Astronomy thanks to a recent field trip to an observatory.
All are doing Singapore Math, the boys have just started Latin, all are doing piano (though some are less excited about it than others.)
I didn't think I was quite ready to start, but honestly boredom leads to trouble in this house and it was TIME.

Sorry, no house pictures. But, the siding is on and the electric is half roughed in...we have ten outlets in the dining room. Dad will be proud. :)

Before and After

Wow, An exciting day here. We came back from breakfast (at Boulangerie du Monde- we were very excited to find a French pastry shop nearby) to see the unveiling of our dining room. What a great annivesary present. :)

Potty training

Aaron is the first kid I've potty trained using American methods. The others were trained around age two the African way... take off the diaper and spend a week at home following them constantly. We had no carpeting, no upholstered furniture and no where to go. It was perfect. That doesn't work so well here. It's not just the carpeting and couches, it's the interruptions too. We never have a whole week at home, especially in the summer. Aaron has been showing interest though, telling me when he needs to be changed. So we got the potty chair out and are talking about where the potty goes... He's got the idea, but is still looking for a way around it. Today, he tried putting the potty in the chair- after it was in the diaper. Sorry, Aaron, it just doesn't work that way!

Breaking through

Tomorrow is our 14th anniversary, we'll be seeing a different view when we look through our kitchen starting tomorrow morning. We're headed out to breakfast, the hole should be cut by the time we get back. Here's the before picture. Also in the works for tomorrow is finishing the shed painting we started this weekend. I included a photo of the kids at work.

More construction

In the last few weeks we had the breaking down concrete in front of our garage replaced, had the hole cut into the basement part of the addition, and had the basement bathroom and upstairs closet and half wall framed. (These photos are for you, Dad. :)

Playing with friends

They also had fun playing school with our homeschooling friends in Minnesota, and drawing self portraits with the neighbor.

And more summer fun

Playing at the beach (Lake Michigan), and a timeline reenactment (they got to thresh and grind wheat). It's been quite a summer.

roof and shingles

Here's the view from the outside. Ron put his sweat equity into the construction by shingling with his friend and coworker, Jason. They did a great job.

On with construction

The next step was the roof. Harder to get a picture of this from our picture window. I did the best I could :)

More summer fun

We had our first family (well almost, Aaron stayed home with a babysitter) trip to Six Flags this year. Ron's gone individually with the older boys in the past. We really did have a blast.

My Toast!

We laughed so hard at these two. Aaron and cousin Anna are just three months apart. Both are 2 1/2 years old. It's worth watching.

Vacation

In the middle of all this, we took a vacation to Door County. We LOVED Door County. It had the peace and quiet of the Coast with the quaintness of New England and the kindness that the Midwest is known for. The cherries were awesome too.

Wood floors

Here's Ron helping Ryan, our Sawyer, planking the Maple tree that we had taken down two weeks ago. Ryan is taking it to the kiln where it will be dried and then made into wood flooring.

Back to building

Here's the next step... the basement walls were built the week before last. Followed by the trusses floor and walls.



Dad and I got to help raise the East wall. That was cool.

Visitors

We are feeling very loved. We spent the last few weeks with friends and family staying with us in our home in Wisconsin. 17 guests. 5 different states, 12 nights.
Our first guests were Isaiah's Godparents from Michigan, of whom I did not seem to snap any worthy photos. Our second guests were Jonah's God parents from New York.



Our third guests were Ella's Godmother and Aunt with her three kiddos, and my parents. They stayed with our children while we spent a weekend in Door County.

Our fourth guests were our dear friends from our Togo years. They left just today and I have not uploaded their photo yet. We are feeling so loved. So wonderful to see these dear people in our lives, so sad to see them go.

Cats

These are our cats. The calico in the box is Butterscotch, and the other one on top of the box is Molly. Molly is the klutz of the family, and this is a rare event in which they are this close to each other with out batting at each other with their paws.
Jonah

Masonry

Today's project is laying groundwork for the foundation. Did I mention that EVERYONE enjoys watching this?

excavation!

Excavation started yesterday. We're all having a good time watching the process from the kitchen window.

July 4th

Here's a picture from July 4th. The kids rode bikes in the Trinity Freistadt parade this year. They'd been looking forward to it all year, so it was a treat. Even A got to participate. They'd like to bring a chicken in the parade next year... hmm we'll see how that goes.

Photo