Starting some "catch-up" blogging

HOORAY!!! We are BLESSED with the birth of a new niece/ cousin/ granddaughter/ daughter/ sister for our family!!! :) Today we were privileged to welcome Hayven Reese into our family, courtesy of Clint and Sydni. :) She arrived safe and sound, with minimal discomfort and drama. :) I am positively giddy about it ... not to mention that my excitement is doubled because of the expectation of another similar-but-different-but-equal blessing (lol) next month!! OHHHHHHHHHH, it's a wonderful set of weeks for us. :)

Here are some pictures from last fall.

One night we were at a restaurant; Jeremy took a couple pictures of Natasha, practicing getting used to the new phone.





When it started to get cold, it turned out that Jeremy's phone camera better-captured the ice on the bushes & trees than did our old 'real' camera!





How's this for a SHEET of ice??! -blech-





I don't know when these pictures were taken, but they are typical Sunday morning dress; maybe Jeremy took pictures on a Lord's Day morning. I do not take pictures at that time on that day of the week. Ever. I'm far too busy cramming my morning routine into too-few minutes.... (sigh) ... That 'NON-morning-person' thing.... But anyway, back to these pictures...?? Don't N & J look positively ANGELIC??? WOW!





The living room was decorated for Christmas ... and a touch in the bathroom, kitchen, and downstairs. We reserved the dining room for decorations for N's birthday. :) We haven't decorated like this for her birthday since her first birthday. It was fun to celebrate the first decade of her life.





This was N's birthday breakfast: Cranberry Pancakes, made by Jeremy. [Jeremy making pancakes on a Saturday morning close to birthday time is a tradition treasured by our children. :) ]



Then, birthday dinner.













Here is a little portion of my existence that matters FAR less than most other aspects: my WIDE-WIDE feet. It's official, they are double-wide, according to these shoes. [Thankfully, in all other shoes I have tried on so far the 'wide' width has been wide enough!] I promised to take the following pictures to show that the "wides" were, indeed, too narrow; see how my feet bulge? Oh, my.... THANKFULLY I was ssssssssso happy when I realized that the same great shoe I was wanting came in a WW width!! (blink) ... good grief! LOL I am enjoying them tremendously. :) :) They're purple suede with smooth, shiny, tooled leather trim. Mm!





The following two pictures Jeremy shot out the deck patio door, of the PILES of snow we got that week after Christmas. -whoo!- A couple weeks later we brushed the snow off the grill so Jeremy could grill up some burgers when we had company over. :) There is something very wonderful about grilling outside in the winter.






As far as news goes, basically ... we have been very, very sick the last month! Elaine had a migraine for eight or ten days, over the last week and a half. Before that we all suffered a cold/flu bug (or two?!), some of us for as many as ten days, on-and-off. GR UNpleasant. Crazily, it was Natasha who, toward the end of my sickness, said, "Mom, have you been taking garlic?" It hit me like a ton of bricks. NOPE! I hadn't been!! dumb! So then we started garlicking (new verb - lol), and promptly got well!

The remodeling/expansion project at the church building has Jeremy's office out of order, so he's been having to work from home. It is a real challenge for him to be disciplined enough to get his work done, when there's no place we can close him away so he can concentrate completely un-distracted. It should be only another week or two, maybe, until he can return to his office. I believe very little is changing about his office besides the irrigation system that will continue into that corner of the building.

Another adjustment made because of the building project is that for our congregation's "monthly potluck" a number of folks, including our family, hosted "mini potlucks" in our homes. :) Last Sunday we had the Longfellows, the Langes, and the Daleses for lunch! OH! And, Travis was in town last weekend, too! We ended up having 12 for lunch. Elaine made Gumbo! [That's exciting to me not because I like Gumbo, because I don't. lol It's because she did the cooking for that meal!! Awesome! :) ]

We bought and watched Fireproof again, and will now loan it to many. What a great movie. It provided a multitude of lessons for our kiddos ... and ourselves!

The children and I greatly enjoyed watching on TV the Westminster Dog Show earlier this week. It is very eye-opening in a similar way that watching the Olympics is to us ... taking us 'inside' a lifestyle completely different from our own.

A month or two ago Natasha read a book about a boy in Hawaii many decades ago. She has been sharing with us some of the things she learned about island living. Last week she came up with the question, "What did women in Hawaii wear for a shirt?" "What do you mean?" I asked. She said, "Well, I know that men and boys didn't wear a shirt at all. They only wore a lion cloth." I said, "Natasha. A 'lion cloth'??" "Yes, a lion cloth." I said, "A LOIN cloth!" She became greatly confused, and shook her head: "A lion cloth, Mom." (sigh)

Justus was listening in on a conversation Jeremy and I were having about something from when I was a child. He asked, "Mom, if you were just a kid then, what was I, a cell?" [Our basic philosophy about, or approach to "sex ed" is to answer our children's questions as they arise, and look for opportunities in natural conversation to teach about more 'intimate matters' one step at a time.... [We have one friend who (this was years ago, before sex ed in schools) didn't tell her son anything about it until he finally asked when he was 15; she told him. He didn't believe her at all, and became angry and indignant, and ran out of the house!! Which *part* he didn't believe, I know not. Justus does know a smidge about where babies come from because we're trying to find a moderated sex-ed program ... somewhere between the un-sex-educated 15-year-old and the over-sex-educated elementary public school student.... (sigh) ] "Was I a cell?" (eye roll) THAT one took me a few seconds to process!!!!!