This is what we're doing...

It got deeper than this. I had actually brushed snow off this side of the car so I could get inside and get my CD's. :)

I was snowed in Thursday. Later that night the landlord plowed us out, but I wasn't going anywhere at that time of day. Friday I tried to get out, but the snow had drifted enough during the night that I got stuck. Adam happened to be at a nearby gas station, so he came over and helped me get unstuck and back into my parking spot. One more day at home. Later last evening the landlord plowed again, and, YEAH, I got out finally this morning so I could get mail and do laundry! It was well below zero last night, and slightly above now. I'm typing from Micah's place...

Good times!

Just a quick note for now! Hope everyone had a great Christmas!
Shalom.

Christmas joy among the munchkins!

We had a nice Christmas breakfast compliments of Adam. He's a willing and good cook. :)

After breakfast we opened gifts.
Bedheads and Christmas pajamas abounded. The big hit of the morning was a play kitchen. Dad Adam spent 7 HOURS putting it together. It took him all night! And this is a guy who's mechanically gifted. I told him that's a "classic Christmas memory". ;)

Della preps fruit.

Sully sautes veggies...

Ole "Blood and Guts" Hazel was excited to do a little operating.

Audrey got a puzzle for age 10+. She's 7. Grandma shouldn't have been so confident about her abilities, but it will wait for later.

She was a good sport about it.

Lots of Legos and Magnetiles were received. They were actually for the kids, but Adam couldn't resist.

Mama Micah and Thatcher watched the frenzy from afar.

Here are a few of the little decorations I put up for Christmas. I'm sort of a minimalist...

There's a tiny, blurry little nativity in there somewhere.

 I couldn't resist this cute little Christmas tablecloth at Walmart. :)

The next two days I'll be babysitting the four youngest for a few hours a day while Micah goes to chiropractor and midwife appointments. Then, maybe we'll be done with those for a while! There will be heavy use of Netflix and iPads. Sorry, this granny can't take the chaos for too long, lol. And that's why they love me! :)

Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll let you know when the moving begins. Not quite yet! :)
Shalom!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

MERRRRY CHRISTMAS! (From Thatcher and the whole gang, lol.)

Tough lookin' fella! ;)

And Nathan got to go home from the hospital last night! For good! Yay!

Love you all! Stay safe and enjoy every minute of the holidays. Thank you, Jesus, for coming down to abide with us.
Shalom!

It happened!

This is Micah in labor...

 This is what a home birthing tub looks like.

 This is Millie, the doula, and Molly, the midwife. Cool ladies who know what they're doing.

 The original plan was to take the kids to "Other Grandma Lisa's" house before the birth, but plans don't always work out. Fortunately, three of the kids slept (the baby was born at 4:55 a.m.) until the baby was born, and then their daddy woke them to come and see their new baby BROTHER. Sully, of course, woke much earlier, and I had to try to keep him entertained in the living room. He did manage to visit mom a couple of times before the baby was born, but I distracted him with cartoons when the real labor set in. Micah is blessed with short labors. She went into labor at about 1:30 a.m. (didn't expect it to happen THIS night) and gave birth at 4:55 a.m. She only had about 5 minutes of really hard labor at the end.

 

The new brother is named Thatcher Charles, the middle name in honor of his great-granddaddy. He was 7 lb. 12 oz. and 21.5 inches long. He has quite a bit of dark hair. We look forward to the many adventures of Sully and Thatch!
I went home later, after dropping the girls off at school (Boy, did they have fun telling everyone!) and couldn't go back to sleep. So, instead, I put up my Dollar Tree Christmas tree. I'll take pics later. Now I'm back at Micah's to use the internet. The four older kiddos are now at "Other Grandma Lisa's" (and Grandpa Ken's). So, Micah and Adam will have a fairly peaceful evening.

In other, less important, news:

Here's my latest knitting project. I just saw this yarn and thought it would make a cute scarf.
I'm such a beginner! I think I always will be. ;)

 I found two cute tablecloths at Walmart. One was 50 cents; the other a dollar! I know they're Fall/Thanksgiving-ish, but they're still colorful and cute.

 This is a cute candle which was one of the gifts given to our church's widows at our annual Christmas lunch. I wasn't able to go because I was sick, but they saved me a bag full of goodies. Such nice ladies! The candle has holly leaves and cranberries in it, and then is filled with water and the candle is set on top. Cute idea!

 Well, that's all for now. Just wanted to make the big announcement! Everyone have a blessed Christmas if I don't post before then!
Shalom!

Dead deer in the middle of the road...

Yeah. Yesterday morning, while it was still fairly dark, I was driving to Micah's to pick up the girls for school. In the left lane I saw a deer someone had just recently hit. They just left it in the middle of the lane! It was dark enough that it wasn't visible until you got right on top of it. I figured it might not be good if someone hit it at 55 mph, so I got out and dragged it off the road. Only the second time I've done that in my life, lol.

Otherwise, things have been slow on the home building front. It will get done eventually, but the electricians keep having to come back to finish up various jobs before the electrical inspection can happen, and there are loads of other piddly things to finish. Adam's working hard after his regular work, but it takes so long with one guy, though his dad helps when he can. Patience!

We've all been taking turns having colds and Micah's family has been going through a pink eye epidemic. Thankfully, some of us have avoided it.

Micah's still hanging in there, baby-wise. She's at the midwife's as I type getting her regular check and a chiropractic treatment. Those have helped a lot. She's getting around pretty well these days.

I've been revisiting Wind in the Willows and reading a book called Fervent, about prayer, which our ladies' Bible study group is using.

I'm babysitting, so I won't stay long. I hope everyone is having a nice, cozy Christmas!
Shalom, all!

December doings...

I'm enjoying reading everyone's Christmas and seasonal thoughts!

Today promised to be very busy, but some executive decisions were made to skip some "usual" things, such as AWANA. Micah is ready to give birth any time, and Adam and I had our work cut out for us to convince her to opt out of being in charge of the nursery for AWANA tonight. She can barely walk, much less chase a bunch of babies around! They also have her scheduled for the 19th! Good luck with that, folks!

Micah had her first "at home" visit with the midwife and doula. This was partly to figure out the logistics of a water birth here at home. Micah had hoped to have the baby in the new house, but, of course, construction timelines don't always cooperate. SO, it will be here in the mobile home, most likely. She seems to be okay with that at this point. She and Adam headed to Bemidji right after that appointment so she can get another chiropractic treatment. They took the kids with them, so I've got the afternoon and evening off, unless they can't get back in time to pick Audrey up at school, in which case I'll do that. Lots of schedule juggling going on!

With everyone talking about The Wind in the Willows I decided to get a Kindle copy (FREE!) to read until I can unearth my paper copy after I move. I've also watched The Man Who Invented Christmas a couple of times and I decided I would like to read the original version of A Christmas Carol. I found that for Kindle, also. (99 cents!) So, I look forward to two more good books. I'm not sure I've ever read A Christmas Carol! I always watch the really old, black and white version of the movie, made back in the '30's or '40's, so I'll see just how close it is to the original. :)

As for the house construction, the electricians are coming tomorrow and finishing up some work before the inspection can be done (all that will take about 5 days) and the kids can move in. They've also got the cabinets and flooring which Adam will be working on for the next few days. A move and a birth; two big events happening at the same time! At least they aren't moving very far! :)

I'll run home now. I'm still at Micah's taking advantage of the silence to post this. (They left about an hour and a half ago.) My car has been running and warming up for far too long, lol.

God bless us, every one!
Shalom!

Life stays exciting...

Remember that furniture I bought? It's still sitting at the thrift store. MY FAULT for buying it without warning the kids ahead of time. I called and they (the thrift store folks) said not to worry if I need extra time. Anyway, the reason it hasn't been picked up (I was relying on my son-in-law and maybe his dad to do this.) is because most days have been like today:

Micah took Adele and Sully to ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) and as she was standing there with the other parents SOMEONE left the door into the hallway open. Sully (who is always alert to the presence of open doors) dashed out the door, down the school hallway, slapped the big, round, metal button to open the exterior door and dashed out into the little circle drive in front of the building. Micah, eight months pregnant, who can hardly walk because the baby is so low, is trying to run after him and having to drag her left leg because her hips are in so much pain. Sully trips and lands face down in slushy, mucky snow. Otherwise, he might have made it to the main street! So, Sully was okay, but muddy and Micah was in extreme pain. They went back into ECFE and afterwards Micah dropped the two littles off at their "other Grandma Lisa's" house so she could try to get an appointment with a chiropractor. Adam came home to drive her up to Bemidji since she can still barely walk. I came over to clean house a bit and in an hour I'll run over and pick up the two older girls. Hopefully, the chiropractor treatment will help, but I told Micah she needs to skip all unnecessary outings until after the baby is born and she gets mobile enough to keep up with Sully. (I can't believe nobody was quick witted enough to help her chase him!)

Poor Adam was sick yesterday, and he's trying to get a hundred things done every day so they can get moved into their new home before the baby comes. And THEN I come up with more stuff for him to do after work. Hopefully it will fit in tomorrow, though he has some manpower showing up to help put a big beam up in the vaulted ceiling. I don't think he'll be in a hurry to build another house any time soon, lol.

Yup, life is exciting.

In the quiet moments I'm still reading A Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee, Letters to the Church by Francis Chan and I just started The Dark Tower and Other Stories by C.S. Lewis.

You all have a great week! I'll check in later. Shalom!

Another quicky!

Sorry for all the quick posts. I'm at the library in a semi-private room. I was thinking I'd post something longer, but two guys just walked in and sat next to me, so I won't stay long. Can't wait to move and be able to blog at my leisure at home!

I just visited my local thrift store this morning and purchased a couch, dining table, side table and three lamps. All needed for my new home! After pricing new stuff I decided to go with "retro"! I'm sort of an eclectic gal anyway. All I need now is a bed for the master bedroom and I'll be fixed. Adam will have to stash some of this in his barn for now.

Adam and Micah are close to getting the house done. Menards has been giving them a few fits, like when they thought their kitchen cabinets were "in stock" but then found out they had been back ordered, so that's an extra wait. Predictable, I guess, when you're building. Anyway, things are happening!

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We drove to Bemidji (about 40 miles) and went to Perkins. Everyone else had breakfast for lunch, but I had the Thanksgiving meal and took my pumpkin pie home to eat when I wasn't so stuffed! This was Thanksgiving plus my birthday celebration. We ran into several people we knew and had a good visit with them as well.

Well, I'll close for now and add a photo, since it's the only one I have in my pictures that I haven't shown, lol!

Love you folks! Thanks for dropping by!
Shalom!

How to cook a turkey...by Hazel

Every good northern Minnesotan knows that turkeys inhabit the road ditches. She knows where to hunt! ;)

 Bubba napping next to his new brother or sister...

 My silly son, Jordan (front) with some pals who helped him move a short while ago. Brooke had to work, so she missed out on the fun.

Just a few photos screaming to be posted, lol.
Shalom!

Woo hoo! Here I am!

Not much exciting going on. Furnace guys keep visiting. They can't seem to figure out what's happening. They are interesting characters and nice people. A couple of them belong on Duck Dynasty...or maybe in a Greek Orthodox monastery? Really. Awesome beards! But, seriously, I'll be okay if they don't get it fixed. Looks like it should only be a couple of weeks or so before I can move. Meanwhile, I'm keeping it comfortable with the space heater and the furnace is trying. If they're going to do something drastic to the furnace, I'd rather they wait until I'm gone.

I've been doing a lot of reading. I bought a couple of Max Lucado books to give as gifts, but I've gotta read them first, right?

Flies, anyone? It recently occurred to me that these would be fun to paint! I've saved a bunch of examples to use later. Aren't they pretty? Good decor for our area.

Well, things are escalating with the grandkids, noise-wise, so I'll close for now. I'll be coming back over to babysit Sully in the morning and I'll try to do some visiting. :)

UPDATE: MK, I received your book yesterday! Thanks! Really cute! :)

God bless y'all!
Shalom!

Still here!

I noticed it's been a while since I've posted. I've mostly been doing my computing from Micah's and often with grandkids running around. It makes it difficult to concentrate enough to compose a post. But that's okay. I don't  really have a lot of new news anyway!

My furnace hasn't been working well, so I've had guys in a couple of times. They're coming again next week to crawl underneath to see if some critter may have made a nest in the duct work which would decrease the airflow and make the system heat up, causing it to shut off prematurely. (Before reaching the set temp.) So, between the furnace (which works, but off and on) and a space heater I'm able to keep the temp up to 68* when it's in the low teens outside. Hopefully, this will be fixed this next week.

Meanwhile, I'm going to buy some totes and get some boxes and begin clearing out cabinets and packing stuff for moving. The actual move is still several weeks away, but this activity will keep me from thinking too much about the furnace situation. If it looks like they can't fix the furnace for some reason I'm going to request that they set me up in one of their motel rooms until it's time for me to move. (My landlords own the RV Park and a small motel.) In that case, I'll move my packed stuff into Micah's barn (which is heated) until I can actually move into the trailer. Just another growth and learning experience! All will be well!

I just purchased myself two books as a birthday present to myself. Yay! I'll be 62 on the 13th. ;)

Della has developed a mysterious limp in the last few days. Micah took her to the walk-in clinic and they dismissed it as something to do with a growth plate above her knee. Micah then took her elsewhere for a second opinion. The second doctor couldn't believe they just sent her  home the first time! She has a temporary cast (removable) to wear for a week to keep weight off of it. I'm sure it's probably something like a hyper-extended knee. (They took x-rays of her leg and hip, but couldn't see anything like a fracture.) These kids spend all of their time diving off of couches and windowsills, acting like superheroes, so this sort of thing is inevitable. She did enjoy her one-on-one time with Mom! :)

Subway with Mom after the doctor visit!

A recent selfie of Micah. Due at Christmas!

AWANA picture! :)

And now, I'm off to Walmart! (This epistle has been brought to you from the library...)

God bless all, and have a great weekend!
Shalom!