Year in Review-April 2017

 April 2017

I didn't realize we did so much and took so many pictures in April until I was ready to make this post!

Lamb 3 was so proud of the cake he made for his 9th birthday.

He received a Lego house that could change seasons. He was very excited to put the basketball hoop outside the house. He spent a lot of time trying to figure out which pieces would be used to make different seasons such as pieces that made a fireplace for winter made a grill for a summer barbecue before he opened the box.

We celebrated at my parents' house. He wanted green candles for his cake.

My last Lamb in his last year to wear the number shirts. I have such fond memories of  the Lambs wearing these.

Here the birthday Legos are put together until he decides to change it to the next season!

His life size skeleton puzzle was much smaller than him and too easy for him to put together.

Lamb 3 spent some of his birthday money on a Spiderman glove with silly string.  He had fun for a couple of days.

Photo Credit: Steve Blakey
Lamb 1 was an acolyte for the first time for the beautiful Easter Vigil service.

The ladies wore Easter bonnets and Easter was a joyous day at our church.

My mom hosted us for dinner on Easter. I was so full from Easter breakfast at church, that I wished we would have celebrated at my parents the next day. After the owl relish tray, she attempted a Easter bunny relish tray.

Lamb 2 and 3 dyed eggs, but Lamb 1 thought he was too old to dye eggs.

Lamb 2 continued and enjoyed his gymnastics session.

I worked the Vera Bradley outlet sale in 2003. I tried to work the sale this year, but it was much more complicated to be hired than when I worked. It ended up we had a lot going on that week and I was glad I didn't work the sale and miss activities at church and with our family. I did go on the "free" day along with a few other customers! I didn't spend that much money, but got some nice gifts. I may try to go every few years, but definitely won't fight the crowds to shop every year even though this is in Fort Wayne. This photo is when I was in the middle of the line to pay!

My sister made her godsons a Jeopardy game with answers from the small catechism in honor of Lamb 1's upcoming confirmation. We played some of the game with my dad, but it was taking too long and we never finished that game. Maybe next time my sister visits?

The last Saturday in April was a very full day. First Lamb 1 had confirmation questioning. He did very well.

Then my mom's church hosted an apron party for ladies. I attended as my mom's guest. They had these cute homemade decorations with the schedule of the day's events. My mom was one of the hostesses and her table had old mixing bowls with cookie cutters etc. as centerpieces.

I had taken many of my aprons from my collection to my mom to display at the party. Everyone brought one apron to tell about to the party. It was so much fun to hear about other aprons. After the party I discovered another box of my aprons as we get settled after moving. Oh well, at least I found some before the party!

My mom's apron is made out of a feed sack, mine is from Beatrix Potter's childhood home.

With the apron that my grandma gave me when I was about 10 years old. It was used as at a wedding reception for the ladies that served cake.

My mom with the apron that she made in home economics class in high school. She eventually became a home economics teacher. She wore this apron for many years early in her marriage and it is worn out. I am so glad she kept it even during her downsizing a few years ago.
I made a photo book of the apron party as a gift for my mom. She has had fun showing it to friends.

After the apron party, we went to an out of town basketball game for Lamb 1. 

Lamb 2 and 3 had to go along to Lamb 1's basketball games. Here they are standing on some famous basketball player's footprints. I don't know who it is, but some pro player from Indiana. It got to be too many games so usually Lamb 2 and 3 went to my mom's during games when Ram had class.

The Lutheran high school started a middle school team to try to build the boys skills before high school. Lamb 1 was on the 7th grade team. They learned a lot, had a lot of fun, but lost early in the tournament. I liked that all the Lutheran schools were involved in one team for boys that were really interested in basketball.

Photo Credit: Steve Blakey
Our Synodical president, Rev. Matthew Harrison was supposed to preach at our church in April in honor of our 125th anniversary. He was unable to come due to a family emergency. Our district president, Rev. Jamison Hardy, preached that day. The seminarian that assisted that day, Winston Grieser, was in 4th grade at the school that I taught at when I began teaching. Bishop Hardy was a student at CUW when I was in college. When our church photographer posted this picture with Winston on the left; Rev. Hardy preaching; and my family in the front row; I just had to laugh at how the small LCMS world collides years later. That was a very fun day with lots of friends. We are very blessed that we are able to be back in Fort Wayne and attend our church.

I entered Katie Schuermann's pie contest in April.

My sister and I are 7 years apart and ever since she was born we have been competing with each other. She was on the launch team for Katie's new book, The Harvest Raise, so she received a e-copy around the time that I was competing to try to win a t-shirt. She bragged a lot, but wasn't allowed to talk about the book with me until it was released. 

Camcorded Memories

We had a friend tape our wedding and we borrowed a camcorder for Ram's ordination. After Lamb 1 was born we purchased our own camcorder. I had no desire to tape the birth of our Lambs, but I did want their baptisms and Christmas Eve programs recorded.

Recently I have been going through our tapes to decide what to put on DVD. It has been a little bittersweet-even just watching the baptisms of our Lambs showed how many of our church members are no longer visible at the communion rail with us. Many of the people that attended our wedding including all of our grandparents that attended and Ram's younger brother and other family and friends are in heaven too. We taped a little house tour when we first moved here before we had very much furniture, before any Lambs, and a lot less books. That was fun to watch 7 years later!

Even with a very ill child with MSPI, we taped Lamb 1 several times as a baby. Nothing fancy, just him eating in the high chair, playing with his toys, learning to crawl, and learning to walk. We NEVER taped Lamb 2 or 3 doing anything like this. Lamb 1 is only 6 and I had forgotten what he acted like as a baby. It was fun to watch that little bit that we taped. I regret not taping the other Lambs.

I wrote on my calendar that in June we are going to do a little videotaping of all 3 Lambs-sort of an end of the first homeschool year "recital". I plan to have them recite the poems they learned this year, sing a few songs, and perhaps tape a few every day activities like them playing with Lincoln Logs. Hopefully we can do this once or twice a year. I know that in 5 years or so it will be fun to go back and watch these routine activities. I think perhaps this is more important to me because we do homeschool and they don't have school programs.

A funny thing happened on the way to...

I was baking cut out heart cookies last night and I was reminded of this story. I'm not sure if any of my high school friends read my blog. This story would be even more funny to them.

My senior year of high school the National Honor Society members decided to do a service project and throw a Valentine's party at the Boys and Girls Club. Somehow my best friend and I got talked into bringing several hundred heart cut out cookies and then we brought frosting and sprinkles and let the kids each decorate a few to eat or take home. We also organized games and I can't remember what else, but my friend Stephanie and I were in charge of the cookie project. I was right on time for leaving to drive across Fort Wayne from the north end where I lived to the south end of town where the party was. I was going to pick up my friend with her cookies and we would drive across town. After opening the garage door I started to back out of the garage. I was about half way out of the garage when the cable (or whatever it is called) broke on the garage door and the door fell onto the car! I stopped where I was and got out just stunned that the door fell on my car the exact moment the car was half way out of the garage. My mom was on the phone and she heard the noise and she said to whomever she was talking to, "Ewe just backed out of the garage and she forgot to open the garage door first!" It took me a few minutes to explain to her what happened and tell her that I really DID open the garage door before I backed out. I was panicking because we had to be at this party across town and we had the cookies which were half of the activities for this party. Stephanie lived just two doors down so I ran down and told her what happened. She talked her parents into letting her borrow the car. (I'm sure it wasn't easy because she came from a family of 5 kids.) We went to the party and were just a little late. It was interesting explaining why we were late! My dad got home from work and had to figure out how to get the garage door off of the car. They have a 2 car-1 door garage and it is not a light garage door. By the time I got home the door was off the car and they got it repaired professionally quickly. I missed all that excitement while I was at the party. It was another story to explain to our insurance man. The car wasn't damaged but the garage door was totaled if I remember correctly.