I'm Still Alive! And other news.

There's no use catching up, but let me bring you up to date.  

We moved! 

Yes... again.

This was move number 18 in eight and a half years.  Whew!

But guess what?

It's going to be a while before we do it again, because...

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!

So in an interesting series of events, which included my husband getting a last-minute offer for a TA-ship to help him proceed on to a PhD program we had applied to last Fall, and then seeing that rent would be as much as a modest mortgage payment if not more, we decided to take the plunge.  With the PhD we knew we'd have to stay put for at least 4 years, so with a little help from friends and family we found an agent and a loan officer, poured over the MLS website, and found a few houses worth looking at. We made one quick trip across the state to look at houses, and made an offer on one the very same day. It had only been on the market three days, and they actually accepted our offer!  So here we are, 5 weeks later, in a new house (that's actually ours), in a new town and about to start at new schools all around this week! How's that for exciting? (Notice how I just skipped over the whole moving part?  Yeah, I've got enough PTSD from all the moves, that I'm not even going there, you can send pitying thoughts from afar though.)

 

Now I know you all want to see some pictures of my house so here you go. 

We'll start with the best feature:  The Backyard.

Yes, the playset was a huge selling feature, but really the most important, for me at least, is the trees and the shade! Love the deck too.

I suppose we should also give a glimpse of the front of the house.  It's pretty nondescript, and sorely needs some flowers out front, but overall not bad.  There's a row of pine trees you can't see right in front of the house, which shade it nicely in the evenings and give a little privacy.  In fact, when I look out my front window it's like looking right out into a forest instead of into the neighbor's houses across the street.  

This is the front room.  I wasn't super sold on the wood burning stove and the bricks and such, but it's growing on me.  I like the wood even, and hope to get some little indoor trees or something rather than bookshelves so as not to cover it up. 

Another view of the front room. We need to get pictures up on all these bare walls.

This is the split entryway as seen from the kitchen, which I'm not a huge fan of, but whatever.  I'm looking for a nice chandelier to hang there and get rid of the fan.  Coat closet and hallway to the right with a nice big pantry and a linen closet on the way to the boys' rooms. 

Downstairs is a nice big family room with another wood burning stove (don't worry, we have a furnace too, the stoves are just backup).  This is from the bottom of the stairs.  There's a storage closet to the right, and the door on the left is a nice big unfinished laundry room. I say big because I can not only walk into it and turn around, unlike most of our other places, but maybe even put up some shelves and such to help organize. 

Another view of the family room, with our mismatched furniture and the kids turned couch potatoes, but how else was I supposed to get the house picture-worthy?

Back in the corner is this little area, where there is a door to the garage, and a perfect place to put...

The organ I inherited from my Grandpa. We've just recently figured out how to use some of the features, and it's pretty fun.  I've never got down the whole pedal thing and all the stops and such. It'll be good for me to learn. The kids have spent plenty of time playing on it as well. Who knows?  Maybe it'll be just the thing to get them interested in learning. 

Here's the baby's room, with said baby.  Can you believe he's 7 months?!  He's just starting to crawl and he cut two teeth the weekend we moved in.  I'm looking for some fun stuff to brighten this room up. And we'll need a real crib in the near future. When he's weaned we'll probably put him upstairs with the boys and make this into an office for my husband to work on his dissertation late at night (yeah, I know how this works).

Not pictured is the Master Bedroom across the hall, mostly because I didn't have time to put away all the clean laundry on the bed.  Plus, the window didn't have blinds, so there's just a blanket over a shower curtain rod.  I'll update this when I get a picture maybe.

Here's our downstairs bathroom just because I'm sure you wanted to see it too. It's actually recently updated, with just a shower though, and a cabinet behind the door.

Okay, back upstairs to the kitchen.  This is looking in from the entryway next to the fireplace in the living room.  The baby adds a human element to the pictures.  Literally. 

Now usually the kitchen is a huge deal for me, since I spend most of my time there, and this one is in serious need of some updates (I should have zoomed in on the ancient built-in oven with it's buttons instead of knobs, and the interior too small to hold a jelly-roll pan.  Looking on the bright side though, at least it heats up really fast), but it definitely has potential.  I like that the windows face east to catch the morning light, and I am a fan of bars. I also like my sink/faucet and the bright lighting.  It's workable.

The upstairs bathroom.  Also in need of some updates, but the kids don't care. 

The three year old has his own room, which means he doesn't keep the other kids up at night. 

The 7 and 5 year olds' room.  And yes, their beds are always made like that. ;)

The paper near the ceiling will probably go, but not until I decide what I really want to do with this house.  

It's really ours!  I can hardly wrap my head around it.  I feel like I've always been a guest in all the places we've stayed and rented.  I've never been free to paint or update or change anything.  Granted, we've got more responsibility, and have to fix our own things, but it's ours!  

It's also tons bigger than anything we've ever lived in, and it finally feels like all our stuff has a place and that it was always meant to go there, like this house was custom built for us.  

It's not my dream home by any means, but it's perfect for our needs right now and much better than we could have ever hoped at this point.  It will be so nice to not have to move for a few years!  

So there you have it!  Sorry I've been remiss in blogging, but hopefully I'll get back into it when the kids are at school or my husband is taking evening classes and I'm so bored and lonely... I mean, 

free to do whatever I want after the kids are down.  

Okay, I suppose I have a minute .... but just one.

With four kids 6 and under, I don't feel like I have time to do "unnecessary" things  like blog.  Somehow I manage to look at other people's blogs though, so I suppose I do have some time ...but just snatches here and there, and it all feels like stolen time. Anyway, I might as well do something productive with this "stolen" time.

Uh oh ...They're on to me.

Here's a picture. Gotta go!

Baby #4 at 3 months (that was a month ago).  From my phone since I don't have time to download anything newer.

He's Here!

Wish I had time for more details, but I'm kinda living in limbo-land if you know what I mean.

He's a sweet baby, even if he won't go more than two hours between feedings.
I miss sleeping.
We love him though,

Welcome little man.

Waiting waiting...

So if you haven't noticed, my blog has been rather sparse for quite a while.  I have many excuses I suppose, but I won't bore you with them now; after all, what's the use?
As for trying to catch up, I doubt that's going to get this post posted, because of course there's too much to cover...(we've been over this before) but the real reason is that I haven't been very good at picture taking lately, or even of doing anything noteworthy at all.  We've been pretty boring around here.
To be honest, if I were to catalog what we've been up to for the last two months, I'd have to say it was about 25% sleeping, 15% eating unhealthy foods, 10% being sick and visiting doctors (seriously, one broken arm, three cases of strep, one case hand foot and mouth, one tonsillectomy, and one case of rotovirus, plus all the follow up visits as well as my many OB appointments, I think I averaged 2-3 visits to the Dr. per week over the last two months), let's see where were we? ... oh yes, 5% holiday stuff, and 45% TV and Video/Computer games.  You don't need pictures of that.  Just imagine all of us as zombies, and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's been like.  Just imagine me as a really big pregnant zombie.  If I get around to downloading them, I may post a picture or two that I let my husband take one rare day when I was actually dressed and not in my bathrobe, but no promises.

As far as this baby goes, we're counting down the days.  Actually, I was hoping to be induced a few days ago on the 6th, just a week before the due date, but this baby won't be pushed around.  The other times I was induced, it was for medical reasons --hypertension, and a kidney stone, but this time was going to be purely for convenience --my husband has until next week off and I'd like him to be around to help.  So far, the powers that be don't think that's a good enough reason so my body has remained un-induceable with a floating baby and a not-even-close-to-effaced cervix, but maybe that's a little TMI.
Either way, this baby is coming on his own terms, not mine. It's probably foreshadowing his stubborn personality, but I'll try not to cast aspersions this early in our relationship.

In reality, I'm just a big complainer.  I  really do believe that things will all turn out for the best. In fact, I've already had one confirmation this week that my plans were not what God had in mind for me (a post for another day), so I'll just trust Him to keep ignoring my petty wants and impatient pleas and let Him do His thing. It always turns out better that way.

M.I.A.

Yeah, so I've been missing in action for a while, I know.  I hope it won't become a habit.  I've been intimidated by the thought of trying to recap, so instead of worrying about that, here's just a few recent pictures to let you know we're alive, and because I wouldn't want them to be even more out of date than they already are.

Halloween. I wasn't about to get all creative this year.

Of course I went all out for the pie making contest that was part of the Trunk-or-Treat/Fall Festival at the church.
Sheesh, I'm so competitive.
I won a chef's toque.

My little baby burritos. 

Bed head.

Yeah, they all needed hair cuts.

Just one of many shenanigans.

As if the lotion wasn't enough, yes, that's a permanent marker in the middle of it all.

Practicing to be clowns?

Ugh. Breathing treatments for Bronchiolitis. He was so good about it though.

This is a daily occurrence.
This particular masterpiece was done in the medium of yogurt followed by grilled cheese and tomato soup.
(Actually it's warmed up V8, or soup juice as my kids say. And yes, it extended onto the carpet).

This is the lovely Amaryllis I acquired from my Grandmother's house last January.
Don't ask me why it's blooming now. I also have no idea how it survived what I did to it this Summer. 

Random post about Books and Families

I picked up a book at the DI.  It was a book I hadn't read since I was in first or second grade, but I remembered liking it so much I bought it so my kids could read it.
I don't know how many of you are familiar with The Boxcar Children, but it was a chapter book originally written back in 1924 for young readers.  There are actually over a hundred books under the Boxcar Children name, only 19 of which were written by the original author.  I never got into those subsequent books though, I didn't really care for them, all I cared for was the original.
So upon bringing the book home, I opened it up to be reminded of what it was like, and suddenly I was whisked back in time. I didn't realize how much this book affected and shaped my childhood play.  I ended up reading it from cover to cover over the last two days, not just because the story was so engrossing, but because the feelings and memories associated with it were so strong.

In a nutshell, it is about 4 orphaned siblings who run away and set up house in an abandoned rail car.  Their ages range from 14-6, the oldest and youngest being boys. 

I loved the idea of surviving simply upon one's resourcefulness and wits on the periphery of civilization yet beyond the conventions of modern society. And I'm afraid that being an orphan, or at least a runaway, was highly romanticized in my youth (nothing personal Mom). :)

Thinking back on some of my favorite books as a young person, I realize that this was a popular theme even as I grew older:

My Side of the Mountain, --NY runaway who lives in the forest

Island of the Blue Dolphins, --Orphan who lives on deserted island

The Cay, --shipwreck survivors who live on an island

Call it Courage, --storm tossed boy who is lost and left to survive on a island

Julie of the Wolves, -- Eskimo runaway who lives on the tundra

Wolves of Willoughby Chase --runaway orphans (although they don't do it all on their own, they have help.  I just liked the secret passageways in their house).

Hatchet --plane crash survivor

Just to name a few.*


I recall all sorts of games my younger sister and I played which involved us being somehow lost or orphaned and having to survive on our own.  Most often our yard became an island, with the wheat fields around us easily imagined as the vast expanse of ocean which we occasionally checked for ships. If my mother or any other member of the family showed up on our island, they were explained away as the native cannibals that inhabited the island --generally to be avoided-- and my cat, the ferocious man-eating tiger (which we eventually tamed and befriended because we were sick of running away screaming each time she came near).  On the other hand, if we were runaway orphans, my mother was either the evil headmistress, or the kind cook who smuggled us food unbeknownst to the evil Master of the house ...depending on the mood of the day.

My sister and I even went so far as to start writing our own book based on our pretend games. We were in 2nd and 3rd grade I believe, and the the basic premise of the story was that of two girls --the sole survivors of a plane crash, who washed up on a tropical island and had to survive on their own for an indeterminate time. The story is really laughable.

Ah yes, those were the good old days.

Anyway, back to this book which sparked so much reverie, The Boxcar Children.
I believe it was one of the first chapter books I ever read.  It is written simply and is easy for young readers to understand.  It glosses over any distressful things such as any details of how their parents died, and simply leaves out mundane details that kids might not think to ask but made me curious as I read, such as where do they go to the bathroom?  (Okay, so maybe kids these days would think of that, along with my immature self, but back in 1924 it wasn't something anybody talked about.) Barring the fact that the story is super simplified and everything works out so conveniently (it is a children's book after all), I was actually really impressed with the undercurrent of cheerfulness, selfless concern, maturity, and the skill and industry that the children exhibit.
They build a fireplace, and a makeshift refrigerator of sorts behind a waterfall, glean useful items from a nearby dump, even manufacturing their own tools and such out of bits and pieces of stuff they find there. The girls cook, sew, do laundry by hand, gather blueberries, and care for their younger brother as well as an injured stray dog. The oldest boy, exhibiting responsibility and independence, earns money by offering to do odd jobs at the home of an elderly Dr. as well as procuring leftovers from thinning the vegetable garden, some bent nails to be straightened and reused and an extra hammer he finds while organizing the garage which the old man is happy to give him. With his money he purchases milk and bread and ingredients for the girls to cook with. With the nails he builds a cart to haul rocks and together they build a dam across the stream to make a pool to bathe in.
The girls are motherly and skilled, the oldest boy is hard working and resourceful.  How many things in our popular culture today actually promote such ideals?  I'm coming up blank. I know this is only fiction, and in real life those kids would most likely have come to very unfortunate circumstances, but why stop promoting those kinds of attitudes?

Another book that I loved growing up was not on the list because the kids weren't necessarily on their own, and also because it's not really fiction, although it is written for kids, is that of the Laura Ingall's Wilder series.  Now there's a lesson in self-sufficiency and hard work.  Even within those stories, not everyone was cut out to make it on their own, but the whole series celebrates the freedom and independence and joy --yes joy of a job well done and living upon the fruits of one's labor and knowing how to provide and survive on the basic necessities of life.  In fact, the only antagonist, if you can call her that, I can think of is Nellie Oleson --the little girl in town who has everything and never has to work a day for any of it and who is so spoiled and mean that she really isn't very happy.
I'm afraid that the world today is filled with Nellie Olesons.

I mean, what happened? When did work become our enemy? When did comfort and ease become so important?  When did complaining cease to be considered ill-manners? In fact, what happened to manners at all? I mean, I know it wasn't all rosy, and that things weren't always ideal --I suppose I can be grateful that the "children should be seen and not heard" was left behind, although there are times when I wish I could apply it in my home... but honestly, sometimes I'd like to go back to the good old days, when hard work was the rule not the exception, people -even kids were empowered and taught how to survive and to rely on their own knowledge and industry rather than to wait for hand-outs from parents or the government.

I wouldn't give up modern medicine though, or transportation  ...or laundry machines...or flushing toilets...

Okay, so I'm not quite as idealistic as I sound, but at the very least, I can strive to foster these principles in my own home as much as possible.



Speaking of nurturing good principles through books, the annual Celebration of the Family Proclamation is going on right now through the 28th (you may have noticed the button in the side bar of my blog, see how I participated last year by clicking here).  Today's post was inspired by another great post about books for children that exemplify happy family relationships with a wonderful list of books that I think everyone should read.  (Probably more uplifting than my measly list of orphan and survivor stories, although you may notice my comment includes another book about an orphan). Anyway, check out all their other posts by clicking on the sidebar button and scrolling back through posts of the past week (there's been some really great ones), and following links to the other two blogs that are hosting this celebration. (When it's over I'll try to have a link to the main index page that lists all the posts and articles of past years --they're really all so great.)

Anyway, those are my random thoughts for the day.  Kinda random for being MIA for a few weeks I know, but hey it's better than nothing right?



(*Disclaimer: depending on your views, some of the books I listed are more appropriate for older children because the serious nature of surviving on one's own could be distressing to young children, and some parts could be a bit graphic.  Reviewing this list and googling certain titles, I am actually surprised at how many of them had been pulled from the shelves of libraries at one time or another, and equally surprised at what age I remember reading them.  Kids are so sheltered these days when it comes to human suffering, yet so exposed when it comes to sinful behavior.)

The Real Reason(s) I Haven't Been Blogging.

Goodbye Wyoming

So you know how I promised an overload of blog posts?  Yeah... that didn't happen, and now our Summer in Jackson is over. Seriously, where did the time go?!

I've got a TON of pictures from the Summer and to be honest, it's a little overwhelming when I think of catching up now, so I'm just going to give excuses instead.

Biggest excuse:  I'm pregnant!

That's a sufficient excuse don't you think?  I went through my whole first trimester and then some during the summer. If I had any down time I was sleeping or eating and trying not to be sick.

Of course, I was still able to read a few books... so next excuse: The hard drive on my husband's laptop was too full to download many pictures, or else he had it with him at work so I had no way to blog... yeah.

Okay, my excuses are getting lamer.

Last but not least, the lamest one of all:  I just wasn't feeling it.

Do you ever feel that way? Maybe I'll start feeling like blogging more now that we're back in Idaho (oh yeah, did I mention this was move number 17 for us?), although I still have the problem that the laptop is still unavailable most of the day (that's why there's no pictures of the ultrasound --that and they were terrible pictures that made the baby look like an alien.  Did I mention it's another BOY? Oh, and I'm due mid-January).

Anyway, you didn't really want to hear about how sick and boring I was all Summer, and how I have placenta previa so I'm not allowed to lift more than 10 lbs (including the two-year-old who apparently doesn't agree with the Dr.'s advice), and then my husband hurt his back two weeks ago and could barely bend over, and how horrible those two things made the move this time around, and how when we did move in we had no electricity and had to rely on the goodness of nearby family members and friends help us and take us in for a few days...  But then again, maybe you DID want to hear about how blessed we were to have friends and family members nearby to help us, and how we got to learn a little humility, and when we asked for help help came, and how despite some complications the baby is fine and healthy, and the boys still think they had a stellar Summer despite my lack of energy and oversight (actually that's probably why they had a great time, they got away with murder this Summer because I was too busy lying on the couch to make sure they stayed out of trouble), and how, miraculously, we were still able to get out and do a few really fun things as a family.

Perhaps I will get around to posting a few top pictures from this Summer after all, and maybe even a few lists of their shenanigans, but no promises --I know myself too well.

Well, I guess that's it. I just thought I'd let you all know that I'm still alive.

Welcome to Wyoming

[Warning: Very out-of-date post I meant to publish back in May but never did. Sorry if it throws you off.]

This is how we were greeted as we made our way over the mountains to our new home in the middle of May.  Mind you, just 5 days prior I was being tortured by 97 degree weather. Luckily once we were down in the valley it wasn't so bad. Just drizzling as we unpacked the moving truck.  Sounds like fun eh?

Hello Wyoming

It eventually warmed up a little.  Let the Summer adventures begin!


Playing at parks:

Riding bikes:

Acrobatics in the back yard:

Throwing rocks in the river:

Scientific explorations:

Viewing wildlife:

Summer here we come!