Year in Review-December 2017 Part 3

I spent a lot of December planning the last Advent supper at church. I made supper for 75 people and served it on December 22. Several church families had family home for the holidays and it was a fun evening. We collected peanut butter and jelly for the Seminary food bank and here is some of what was collected. After supper that evening we decorated the church for Christmas and had Christmas cookies and goodies while we decorated. I served the wassail tea that our church in ID served at the Ladies tea every year and everyone loved it. I think it will be a new tradition to serve that while decorating at our church now. I love that our church waits until the end of Advent to decorate the church and it is all ready for Christmas Eve.

One day my parents babysat the boys so they could decorate Christmas cookies with my mom. Our boys had been sick with colds so the date got changed several times until everyone was healthy to do it. Ram and I ran errands while they were at my mom's. It was so nice to be able to go without them. When we got back to my mom's our Lambs monkeys were in my mom's tree in her front yard. I know it is just a few more years until we can leave them alone, but I love days like this when I get a little break, because a homeschooling mom doesn't get many breaks like this.

We ordered our own hats for our local March for Life. It was a major pain to order them,  we could not get the website to work. We finally called the Synod and they were so helpful to place our order for us. Shipping was outrageous because they expect churches to make a big order, not just order 5 hats. After all that we were really excited when they came in the mail and we had to take several selfies. I don't know if we will ever make it to the Washington D.C. March for Life, but we will proudly wear these at our local March for Life.

I really liked how this one turned out. 

Lamb 3 needs to work on his selfies a little bit.

I told you Lamb 2 loves selfies!

On December 23, the day after I served the dinner at church, Ram went to get our tree out of storage. While he did that I quickly swept and did a little cleaning to get ready for the tree. The whole family helped and we decorated the tree quickly. We chose a slightly different spot than last year and I love our tree in this house with high ceilings. I am so glad I purchased it at a church auction last year.

All of the Lambs were acolytes for the first time together on Christmas Eve. 💗💗💗
I think I am done buying Christmas outfits sweaters or dress shirts for them because they will be acolytes for the next several years.

My parents ended up coming to church with us on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day even though that was not planned, because my mom did not want to drive in the snow. It ended up being really nice to worship together. Ram assisted with the service so I was glad to have my parents to sit with me. Lamb 2 just can't help himself with selfies when he is given a camera!

Christmas Eve

I bought a skirt for $2.64 including tax at Christopher and Banks after all my coupons. I couldn't believe it really worked. Unfortunately they had very few skirts for sale in the whole store. I found a basic grey skirt in my size that I love. Another unexpected blessing for me while Ram is in school!

I don't have any photos to post here, but a few days after Christmas we went over to a friend's house to decorate gingerbread cookies. The mom was so organized and a fun time was had by all. Lamb 1 took pictures, mostly of the babies at the party, instead of decorating cookies. Lamb 2 and 3 decorated a cookie, ate the toppings, and then decorated it again. They did this with about 3 cookies each.

After the gingerbread party we went to eat lunch at Chik-Fil-A. The Lambs got a gift card as present from a church member. I thought that was a great present for preteens. Lamb 1 and 3 were happy to order whatever they wanted and still had $ left on their $10 gift card. Lamb 2 ordered everything he wanted and needed us to pay a couple more dollars. That's the way it usually goes-Lamb 1 saves his money, Lamb 2 spends whatever money he has, and Lamb 3 spends some of his money. They were glad to order what they wanted instead of being limited like we usually do when the whole family goes-(water or lemonade, no dessert).

Chik-Fil-A was really crowded-what was I thinking to go to lunch during Christmas vacation? So the Lambs wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, but I made them pose for a picture outside. 

Grandma spoils our boys so much that we don't buy them very much for Christmas, just small stocking treats for the 12 days of Christmas. I thought this Lego chemist was pretty cool so I ordered it. The company made a mistake in advertising this set, so after it arrived I got an e-mail that they would refund my money. So they ended up getting this set for free.

And that completes our 2017 Review. Happy New Year!

End of January Family Update

On Monday I helped our church school library organize their new books some more. When Ram was done with class he came to pick up the boys to take them home. Except they were having so much fun with the other kids of volunteers that only Lamb 1 went home with him. I love "working" in the library and helping this school get started.

On Tuesday the Lambs had piano and art. I did a little grocery shopping before a mammogram. I already got the results and everything looks good. Our whole family attended the first Christian Wisdom class at our church. This weekly Bible study runs through Lent and we will study the book of Mark, The Small Catechism, and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Our pastor titled it Luther, Lewis, and Mark. I think it will be good for everyone in our family.

On Wednesday Lamb 2 and 3 had a play date in the afternoon with some friends from church. Lamb 1 did a little shopping with me while they were there. Goodbye Christopher Robin movie was in at the library for me. I watched it and I'll blog about it soon.

On Thursday our family went to a library book sale. Ram and I didn't find much, but the Lambs did. Thursday night the furnace went out. Thankfully it was a little warmer here. We called our landlord first thing on Friday morning and the repair man came right away. I didn't take a shower until later on Friday, but other than that it wasn't too bad because it got fixed so quickly.

On Friday Lamb 2 had his second vision therapy exam. It is looking like this doctor and a second round of vision therapy will be very helpful for him. We set up a parent consultation to find out more details. We are also considering having Lamb 3 do the testing here. After he was done at the doctor we took peanut butter and jelly donated by our church members to the Seminary food bank. I was glad I had a strong Lamb to help me carry that. In the evening my parents babysat while Ram and I went to an adult only dinner at church. It was potluck this year (so much food!) and a very fun evening.

On Saturday we had to get up for confirmation class after being out too late. Our family went to the March for Life in Fort Wayne. It was rainy but not too cold. The speakers before the March were good. The March with friends from church was fun. Then we went to my parents church for cookies and hot cocoa. I think this was the first year they did that and it was a great idea to go fellowship out of the rain. We stopped at the last branch library book sale in January. Ewe and the Lambs found something, but Ram didn't. It probably would have been better to go in the morning, but we couldn't. After all that we came home and both Ram and Ewe took a nap!

Today was church and Sunday School. Then we ran a couple of errands as a family so I could come home and put my comfy clothes on and not go anywhere the rest of the day.

The calendar looks pretty light this week. It will be nice to stay home and continue to focus on homeschool and home keeping.

Year in Review-December 2017 Part 1

We took a lot of pictures in December, so I'll post a few at a time.

Photo Credit: Meghan Schultz
The Lambs favorite art class so far was the day they used clay to make boats.

Photo Credit: Meghan Schultz
I ordered a print to remember our babies. Row one is our 3 Lambs birthstones. Row two is the birthstones of our miscarried babies. I got it here. Her work is beautiful and I am so glad to have this to remember all our children. I would like to order more prints from her, but was so pleased to get this one for our family. I framed it and it is one of the few pieces of artwork on display in our rental home instead of still packed after moving.

Our city had a tour of churches night. The first 3 photos are the church where my parents got married. They did extensive remodeling recently to restore it closer to the original. It is beautiful!

This is the church where Ram and Ewe got married 16 years ago. We have so many fond memories of this church.

This is the church that we attend now. It was still Advent so we did not decorate for Christmas yet. We went to a few more churches that night, but I didn't take any more pictures.

The Lambs went to a Science Central class and dissected frogs.

Trying to identify if it is a male or female frog.

I used coupons to get 5 nice greeting cards for $1.56 total including tax.

I bought a necklace/keychain for my sister for Christmas from here. I bought myself one a few years ago. My sister's was larger than mine and it was not her favorite gift. I don't know this etsy shop owner, but I love her items made out of postage stamps and she has wonderful fast service.

This was her favorite gift. I bought it here. I bought her the set of 3 prints from the Anthems of Zion. I also used some of my birthday money to get a set for myself. It was so interesting because they are hand lettered, both sets were different. When these arrived I wrapped and finished shipping all our gifts to far away family. It was so good to have that done early this year and not worry about it near Christmas.

Field Trip to the Farm

We took one of the #ColorCogburn pictures out to the farm today so he could see his farm friends and go on a hayride.

http://books.cph.org/anthems-of-zion

#WearTheRooster 

I pre-ordered my copy of #TheHarvestRaise today from cph.org. I received a small bonus for pre-ordering. Did you order your copy today?

This was the best photo today of my EWE hat and Ram's RAM shirt.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

The Harvest Raise is available for preorder from cph.org tomorrow! I'm ordering a copy. Are you going to order yours? There is some kind of bonus if you pre-order that I don't want to miss!

Our boys are crazy about participating in contests. We did not make them participate in the latest #TheHarvestRaise contest. Ewe printed the coloring sheets out and the boys colored them without any prompting on our part. We had to print some more because Lamb 3 colored 3 roosters! Ewe winning the second #WearTheRooster contest influenced our boys to want to participate in this contest. Plus Aunt Hannah will be proud of them. 

http://books.cph.org/anthems-of-zion

Don't you think these are the best BOYS to #ColorCogburn? Our Lambs are hoping to win so they can say they won a contest. (If there aren't 3 shirts available for them then if they win they will give their winning shirt to their Grandma.)

Confirmation Day Sermon

If we would have remained in MN, there would have been one other boy in Lamb 1's confirmation class. When we moved to ID, one of the first members I met was very excited that Lamb 1 would be in her daughter's confirmation class. Lamb 1 and that girl  did do their first year of confirmation class together in ID. If we would have remained in ID, they would have been confirmed together on Palm Sunday of this year.

When we moved here we hurried to get Lamb 1 enrolled in first communion class and eventually confirmation class at what became our new church. In fact he attended his first class while we were unloading the moving truck. He worked hard to memorize the catechism with meanings this year. He passed the pastor's questioning session easily after all that memorization. At that examination session, it was obvious that Lamb 1 had not just memorized the catechism, but he was able to answer questions that applied that memorized knowledge. He was confident in his knowledge and not nervous about this questioning.

Lamb 1's confirmation class here had several children in it, but only one other boy was ready to be confirmed. The other children including Lamb 2 and Lamb 3 will return next year and continue working on memorization and learning from our pastors on Saturday mornings. It is our goal that Lamb 2 and 3 attend class and memorize the catechism with meanings and are both confirmed next spring. Our church does not have a set age for confirmation, it is when the child has completed their memory work and pastor and the parents agree that they are ready for confirmation. If Lamb 2 or Lamb 3 are not ready next spring, they will continue confirmation classes at church until they are ready.

Our family has been through a lot in the last few years. When he was a child, Lamb 1 expected to be confirmed in MN, then he completed one year of confirmation class in ID, and then he moved to IN and did all that they required for confirmation class in one year. A few months ago he was stuck on the meanings of the Lord's Prayer and worried that he wouldn't complete the memory work in time. We continued to work on it daily and he learned everything required in time. This move has been a difficult transition for our Lambs. It is slowly getting better for the Lambs, but it's a struggle to not be homesick for their way of life in ID.

The pastor's sermon was really meaningful for me. You can listen to or read the sermon HERE. At first I started to squirm in my seat a little as he talked about the comparison between what Christians suffer and childbirth. He was preaching from the text. I admit that I am very sensitive to this because of my secondary infertility. Amazingly, Pastor did get to the point and even remembered barren women! It was a great reminder for me, especially as Lamb 1's mom, of what confirmation is all about. All that memory work was for Lamb 1's benefit as he fights battles throughout his life against Satan.

Photo credit: Steve Blakey, our church photographer

I have never heard a confirmation sermon like this one before. I won't try to sum up his sermon here, because I want you to listen to or read it!

I will post more about Lamb 1's confirmation soon.

He is Risen! Alleluia!

 Easter 2017

Not my best moment of 2017!

A few weeks ago, right before we all got sick, I had a difficult time with one of Lamb 2's math lessons. I was upset with myself for not being able to handle 4th grade math. I thought I had bought his math book used and figured I could handle doing grade school  math and did not need to spend extra to buy a teacher's edition with answer key. I planned to set aside some time to look at it again without Lamb 2 and then sit down with Lamb 2 and redo the lesson. I wondered what my problem was since I didn't remember having trouble with this lesson when Lamb 1 did this book a few years ago. Then we got sick and after we were well I never found time to work on that lesson. My hope was that since it was before we got sick, maybe my brain just wasn't functioning well that day.

Lamb 2 is almost finished with this math book, so I went to get out his next math book today. What a surprise that right by his next math book was the answer key for his current math book! No wonder why I didn't have a problem with this lesson with Lamb 1, if I did, I checked my work in the answer key! When Lamb 2 did this book I forgot that we owned the answer key and I worked all the problems out in my head as he did each lesson. Instead of being upset with myself, I'll give myself a pat on the back that I did 118 4th grade math lessons by myself.

I could blame misplacing the answer key on moving, but unfortunately he began this book last spring and I didn't use the answer key then either. Hopefully I can remember that I own this answer key when Lamb 3 does this math book! Since I own several levels of math books, in the future I am always going to check if we own the answer key before one of the Lambs begins a new math book!

Quick Family Update

1. I think we are finally all healthy. We missed a week of homeschool while the Lambs and I were sick with a cold/cough/fever. It was a rough week where nothing got done. This week is very busy making up doctor checkups etc. It was so ridiculous that I was too sick to go to the doctor for a thyroid checkup and appointments like that. We are finally scheduled to make some of that up. I am so thankful that we never had stomach flu at our house, just the colds.
2. Our church had a wedding on Feb. 5 during the regular Sunday morning service. I do plan to blog more about the wedding soon. The wedding reminded me of our wedding with the same version of the Te Deum that we used. Ram was happy to have a copy of the music in front of him because he did not have a copy during our wedding and he did not have it memorized like I did!
3. Our church has a fish fry fundraiser for medical expenses for one of our members coming up on Friday. We are happy to be going to help on the fundraiser day. I am so impressed with all the behind the scenes work people from our congregation are doing to get ready for this fundraiser. We are praying for a very successful fundraiser to help this family.
4. The ladies at my mom's church are having an apron party this spring. I have dug out some of my books and aprons to help my mom with her planning. It has been fun to get all that out and look at it again.
5. I volunteered to present at a teacher's conference this fall. I don't know if I will be asked to speak or if they will have enough speakers, but I am hoping for a chance to do a little back in the teaching world again.
6. Ram is working hard on his schooling. Reading, writing papers, and doing interviews are all going well.
7. The Lambs are continuing with homeschooling and piano lessons and confirmation class at church. We just keep plugging along and when we finish one book we go on to the next.
8. Because I was sick I have not gotten everything together for our tax lady yet. Hopefully I can finish that by early next week.
9. The dishwasher is fixed. There was some food stuck in it and when that was removed it worked fine. It motivates me to scrape/rinse the dishes a little more. If I owned this house I would invest in a better dishwasher, but I don't so it means scraping and rinsing better.
10. We are studying what activities and day camps this area offers for this summer. So far Lamb 1 and 2 want to do several camps and Lamb 3 hasn't found any that he is interested in. I think it will be a very busy couple of months being chauffeur for what each Lamb is interested in. I am going to look into what the Science Museum offers because I think that is more what Lamb 3 would like to do instead of sports like his brothers. I am happy to let them do different activities in the summer for a week or two instead of committing to an entire fall or entire spring of chauffeuring. Plus I like that they can try out a wide variety of activities and see what interests they would like to pursue more.

My first

Today was the first time in almost 13 years that I went to church on Sunday morning by myself. When Ram was a pastor in the parish, it was up to me to stay home with sick Lambs. Today Ram stayed home with the sick Lambs. All 3 Lambs have fevers and coughs. I've already told their piano teacher they won't be at lessons this week. This may be a long week, especially if sickness is traded around and back again to different family members. After church I went shopping for more Tylenol for the Lambs, a new humidifier filter, and lots of juice.

January update

Here is a glimpse into our life right now. Hopefully I can blog about these in more detail soon.

*Ram will begin classes for his degree next week. Our family really needed the down time for the last few months to get ready for this next chapter of our lives. We are all excited that he will now begin classes.
*Ram preached at our new church once in December and did pulpit supply (substitute preach) at a church a little south of us on New Year's Day. It was strange to be the pastor's family again for these. I am so glad he had a chance to use his talent for these before he begins classes.
*Our health insurance ended at the end of the year and we are trying Samaritan Ministries this year. I will blog about this as we get more experienced with our new "insurance".
*I was determined to return to more homeschool subjects and accomplish more in homeschooling than we did last fall after moving. I did some serious planning over Christmas vacation with the goal of getting Lamb 1 ready for high school whether we put him in high school or continue to homeschool. I plan to blog more about what we are doing in homeschool this semester.
*We are getting settled into activities at our new church and continuing to meet people there. We are going to have all the Lambs sit in on confirmation class this spring with the goal of confirmation for Lamb 1 and first communion for Lamb 2 and Lamb 3 in May.
*The Lambs are continuing piano lessons. I love that their piano teacher assigns Lamb 1 LSB hymns to practice. They also enjoy going to a weekly program at the library. They want to do more activities, especially sports, and we are still working on what will be a good fit for the Lambs and will work with our schedule (working around church activities and Ram's classes).
*The Seminary Symposia is next week. We are looking forward to seeing many friends, some of whom we have not seen for several years. Ram begins classes for his program next week so he is unable to attend Symposia, but we will still see friends. Our rental house does not have room for visitors so I look forward to getting our own place when Ram graduates so we can host for times like this.
*Recently I spent some time reading some of my old blog posts. I am determined to blog more often in 2017. It is interesting to go back 6 months or a year and reminisce both the good and bad times. So much that happened in 2016 was not recorded due to our move. I also hope to go back and blog about some more of 2016.
*We are still getting settled in our rental home. This is a slow progress, but it is progress. We are waiting for a few more repairs to be done by our landlord.
*We took the Christmas tree down the day after Epiphany, but there are still Christmas decorations to organize and pack away.
*We have had some car repairs recently. I am thankful for a husband that takes care of scheduling all that so that all I have to do is drop him off or pick him up if it is going to take more than a day.
*I am getting used to grocery shopping here. Today I was pleased that a raincheck and a digital coupon worked together. I am learning how to use my smartphone at the grocery. Our pantry is gradually getting stocked when items we use frequently are on sale. This makes life so much easier.

5 year update of 2011 post

December 29, 2001
1 Ram + 1 Ewe 

+ Ram changing from student to pastor
and back to student
+Ram 2 Calls to 4 different churches
+1 major surgery
+First laptop

+Ewe changing from classroom teacher
to Mama to homeschool teacher
+Ewe thyroid removed
+Ewe's first cell phone
+Ewe's first smartphone
+First iPad

 

+ 3 Boy Lambs (2004, 2006, 2008)
+ Surviving MSPI with Lamb 1 as a baby
+ Completing a year of vision therapy with Lamb 2
+1 Minor surgery for Lamb 2
+ Lamb 2 and 3 graduating from speech therapy
+ 3 Lambs getting involved in many different kinds of activities

+Several vacations to IN, ID, CA, SC, AL, MO, etc.

+ Making many new friends from many different parts 

of the country and a few that live overseas

+1 Brother-in-law
+ 5 year anniversary for Eric and Hannah

- 11 miscarried Lambs,
- 1 brother (Tim), 
- 3 Grandmas, -2 Grandpas, 
-7 Great Aunts and Great Uncles, 
and -several family friends going to join the saints in the Church Triumphant

+ 1 Saturn - 2 Saturns
+ 1 Blazer - 2 Blazers
+ 1 Toyota Camry
+ 2 Minivans -2 Minivans
+ 1 Toyota Sienna

+Living in 5 houses in 3 different parts of the country
+ Bought 1 house
- Sold 2 houses
+renting for our first time
+ plus being crazy enough to rent a second time
+3 major moves to live in 3 different states
+Moving from living in the same city as Ewe's parents to live in the same state as Ram's parents and then coming back to live in the same city as Ewe's parents again
+living in a big city
+living in a town of 113,
+living in a growing city of a suburb of the state capital
+back to living in a big city again

= 15 years of holy matrimony for Ram and Ewe!

We thank Christ for being the center of our marriage and being with us through all these changes. We know He will continue to be with us in future years and future changes.

*Baker family, you continue to be in our thoughts and prayers. This is a bittersweet day on the calendar. May we all continue to look forward to the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.

Great Day!

Yesterday we received this in the mail:

Today we went to the Seminary bookstore and bought this:

Then we went to the library and had a treat from Dunkin Donuts to celebrate that we have library cards. We bought a few books at their used bookstore section for $2 total. The Lambs picked books to check out. We found out about Minecraft time at the library and Ram took the Lambs back later in the day to participate in that. The Lambs loved Minecraft at the library! My dad stopped by to see the piano and visit while they were at Minecraft.
When we got home this was in the mail today:

The months of packing, cleaning, unpacking, and the bureaucracy when we arrived were all worth it to now have an IN Driver's license and an Allen County Public library card in our wallets and be in the same town as my parents for my dad to stop by for a visit!

October family update

The piano is in our house and the boys begin lessons tomorrow morning. It is going to take some adjusting for all of us to switch to morning piano lessons. We still have not found their piano books from last spring. We found their old piano books, but not their most recent ones. I wanted them to show their new piano teacher where they were at in the spring. Perhaps it is better that we just begin where she thinks they should be since we had no piano in our house for a couple of months.

We were finally successful to get driver's licenses for both Ram and Ewe. We also got license plates for both cars. We registered to vote. We spent so much time on all of that the past few weeks. I am so glad that is all finished.

Ewe went for her annual eye exam and the dr. decided to treat it as a medical visit and prescribe eye drops and have her come back for the eye exam another visit so insurance pays all of it. We have scheduled several doctor visits for Lamb 1, Ram, and Ewe while we have met our deductible this year.

Ram, Lamb 1, and Lamb 3 are doing some therapy at the chiropractor during the month of October. It wasn't necessary for Lamb 2 or Ewe. We had to buy some weights for them to use for exercises at home, but insurance is paying for the rest. It is taking time to go there three times a week, but we are glad we are doing this when it is "free" to us.

We have been to all 5 of the churches we were considering to join. We have it limited to 3 now. This is such a good problem to have, so many good churches and pastors, but such a hard decision. I am hoping to have our final decision and start regularly attending by Reformation Day. I really enjoyed seeing old friends at all the churches we visited. This morning we saw my mom's cousin, the parents of some of my former students, the uncle of my flower girl in my wedding, a blogger friend, and some of my parents friends. Visiting and seeing old friends was fun, but all of us need to settle into the routine of one church and get involved in activities at one church. The great part is there are always church dinners and recitals and other activities at all the area churches, so even if we don't join one of the other churches, we can still see friends at these other activities.

My mom had a procedure on her heart on Monday and she did well. She is taking it easy and anxious to get back to her regular activities including having the Lambs over to play card games. This was the first time I could go to the hospital to be with my dad during surgery and text my sister often of how everything was going. I am so glad we moved here for times like this.

Yesterday we went to an apple orchard and got pumpkins, apples, squash, and apple cider. Supper was pork chops with apples and vegetables. Dessert was apple dumplings with vanilla ice cream. I love eating what is in season in autumn!

July Update/Looking forward to August

July flew by and it is time to update you on several things happening to our family.

1. We are getting our house ready to put on the market. This is an excellent time to sell a house in Idaho, but unfortunately it seems that most of our subdivision got the same idea to sell now. I promise that I will eventually share more of how we decided to sell our house, but for now please keep our house sale in your prayers. We need our house to sell fast and for a profit once it gets on the market.
2. I am scheduled for thyroid surgery on Tuesday. July was spent getting the ok from the endocrinologist and hematologist that I could have surgery. There were several doctor appointments to get a green light. Please pray for the surgery and recovery.
3. During surgery recovery I will not be allowed to lift more than a gallon of milk for two weeks. We went to Ram's parents for a long weekend over the July 4th holiday. When we returned both Ram and I have spent every day since then getting our house ready to sell. There have been deliveries to give stuff away and take trash to our city. There has been coordinating handymen, landscapers, house cleaners, window washers, painters, and friends to help us for our move.  There has been coordinating selling appliances and other items to friends and neighbors. We are getting very close to our goal to have most of the work done before my surgery. Most of our belongings are now in storage. The chest freezer and one refrigerator are empty. We continue to try to use up food from our one refrigerator and pantry.
4. One of the Lambs spent several hours the last couple of months having a lot of medical tests. Then Ram spent way too long on the phone trying to get the results of those tests. It turned out that this Lamb does have a medical condition that 5% of the population has but most of that 5% doesn't even know they have it unless it is discovered during a MRI or other medical test. We praise God that it is a mild condition and the results simply meant that he has the knowledge that he has this condition and there are no follow-up appointments necessary.
5. Due to this Lamb and Ewe having so many doctor appointments we are going to meet our health insurance deductible. This means that the rest of the calendar year will be "free" medical care for our family. We praise God for health insurance especially during years like this.
6. After working so hard in June and July, I am looking forward to relaxing during surgery recovery time. During this time I have some books I want to read and plan to turn over the rest of getting the house ready to Ram and then to our realtor.
7. The Lambs have been troopers during this transition time. They try to play with the neighbor boys when schedules for both families allow before they are no longer our neighbors. They have put up with most of their toys being put in storage and helped move their beds to another bedroom so that we can clean and paint their bedroom. They have helped with a big variety of tasks. This transition time has not been without tears and mild behavior problems, but that has meant that Ram and Ewe take a break during this crazy time to spend time with the Lambs. They did complete the summer reading program at the library, go to the pool with their friends at least once a week, and we went to a baseball game. We have some activities planned for August to do one more time in the area that we live in. They continue to check carpeting and vents at this house for Legos.

I'm still here!

I decided to pop in here with a short announcement that I'm still alive after two friends wrote to me checking after very few blog posts recently.

We had a wonderful vacation to southern CA the last week of April. Maybe someday I'll get to posting about our trip. I need to get started on a Shutterfly book before my code from Legoland expires.

Since we have been back May has been full of regular activities with a lot of extra activities thrown in at the end of the school year. Lamb 1 has a few more math lessons to complete his book and then we are going to take summer vacation. I still plan to work with all of them this summer, but we just won't have official school time in the morning, it will more be likely work during the hottest time of the day when their friends are unable to play and read a little longer at bedtime. The Lambs are getting ready for their last track meets, singing with the Sunday School at church with Lamb 1 accompanying them on piano, and their end of the year piano recital. I still have to sign them up for swim lessons and that is the only activity I plan to put them in this summer after our last few summers have been crazy.

The boys and I had our annual checkups. She had a few concerns about Lamb 1 so she is running some labs before we see if we need to see a specialist. Her concern was actually his thyroid and with a family history (Ewe's) she is taking his symptoms seriously. I saw the endocrinologist and we decided that it is time to get my thyroid removed. I am waiting for a consult with the surgeon to have a date for that.

Lamb 3 recently said that we should get rid of half of our belongings. I don't know if I will make it to his goal, but I am in full decluttering mode right now. The recycling can fills up quickly and the shredder is getting a big workout. I plan to get more cleaned out before delivering to the places that I will donate the rest.

Due to all the end of the year activities and the projects that I'm trying to complete, I will be blogging much less than normal this summer. I will try to occasionally pop in during this summer with our family updates. While I'm gone, check out Driving on Sunday blog on my blog list. It is written by one of my former students. He was in kindergarten my first year of teaching and it is so fun to see him with two of his own children now.  I would encourage you to send him a video of driving on Sunday in whatever area of the country that you live in. It is so fun to see where other Lutherans live and their videos.  It reminded me to take some time to rest together as a family to see God's beautiful creation.

No thank you

We finally got the Lamb with a rash in to the dermatologist. The prescription cream cost $2.94 which will be reimbursed to us from our Health Savings Account. The over the counter drug recommended cost $46 for a month supply after a $4 off coupon. Because it is not a prescription it will not be reimbursed to us from our Health Savings Account. I also had to buy recommended soap and lotion over the counter for a total of $21 after coupons. Thank goodness I went online to get some coupons for these.

Whose bright idea was it to make some prescriptions over the counter? I really hope all these creams and lotions solve the itchiness and rash for our Lamb!

My collection

My friend had an accident with her collection of Willow Tree figurines. I commented about them and she wondered which ones I have. So this post is to answer her question.

The Lambs (with Ram's help) started my collection when we lived in MN. It took a couple of years worth of birthdays and Mother's Day to get my collection. Then it took a couple more birthdays to replace the ones that got broken. In MN we had them on top of our china cupboard in our living room. This was too fragile of a location with 3 young Lambs. They look like they are wood, but they are actually quite breakable. They are like dominoes when one gets knocked you will probably have 2 or more broken ones in the end!

When we moved into our house in ID, I knew exactly where to put this collection. I put it in the master bathroom by the bathtub. Even when the Lambs use my bathroom, this location is protected from them. We haven't had any break since we moved here.

On the faucet end of the bathtub. Left to right these represent:
Ram before he got married (he still loves reading!); 
Ram and Ewe married;
Ram with a newborn; and Ram with an older son.

When we first moved in a friend wondered which picture I would hang in these "cubbies" in the master bathroom. I never did figure out which pictures to hang there, but I did put my figurines on the shelves. I like the "blank" space above them.

On the other end of the bathtub. Left to right these represent:
Ewe with an older Lamb (Lamb 1); Ewe with a toddler (Lamb 2); Ewe with a baby (Lamb 3); and pregnant Ewe (to represent our miscarried Lambs). When these were purchased for me, the Lambs were those ages. 

I don't make time to take a bath nearly enough, but when I do I always smile looking at my collection. I don't desire to add to my collection, but I like the meaning behind these that I have.