January

Made burp cloths for a friend at church who adopted a little baby girl. 

Took my girls to the nature center, there was a story, met a snake, and did a little craft.

Snow! 

I was pulling them around when my neighbor came by and made a sled train, that seemed much more fun than just being pulled by mom!

Jeanie lays her clothes out before school and it creeps me out. Like she's been raptured and I was left behind! 😱

Would you look at that, white boys CAN jump!

A much needed date night.

Had to switch the girls' beds around again. Lucy fell out of bed twice in the last week, so now she gets the toddler/child bed (the one with rails, but it is wider and longer) and Jeanie goes back to her toddler bed. Thankfully she didn't mind. 

My new car got delivered. The one in the back!

Sadly, I don't really like it, but maybe I'll get used to it. 

This little fox was "reading" to a bear at the library. So cute. 

 

Last minute before back-to-school fun

 Checked out a new nature center. They have 100 acres and more than 2 miles of trails. We will be back in the fall for some fall colors, and this time with bug spray!

Turkey feather

August won a free ticket to the ball game after a reading initiative in the spring, so he and daddy and grandpa had a fun afternoon. (most fun: eating hotdogs and getting a new stuffed animal)

Meanwhile the girls and I had lunch at Culvers and home to watch Frozen.

This happened a few days ago, elbow dislocation. Thankfully it had already fixed itself before the doctor even came in. 

I backed into a brick wall with Doug's jeep. I was thankful it wasn't another car!

The kids and I checked out another nature center where I grew up, I hadn't been there since elementary school. It was really nice. 

They had this gorgeous door into the kidscape area

We picked all these veggies from my mom's garden while she was on vacation. And the kids demolished the entire thing in one evening.

Doug and I had a date night, we saw the Twisters movie (so good!) we had the whole theatre to ourselves.

And this was actually our only day at the beach this year (!) The kids had a blast in the sand.

This was the 3rd groundhog caught this summer. Altho not before utterly decimating my zinnias, climbing beans, a lot of bush bean plants, and possibly the melon leaves too. 

And one more playground this morning

We've had a good summer overall. Lots of togetherness. Lots of squabbles. Getting excited for back-to-school, altho not the getting up early/rushed mornings. And still nervous about home-schooling 2 now, while balancing a soon-to-be-3'nager mini-tornado ball of energy. But we shall see how it goes!

Christmas festivities

Our friend's annual Elf party, a lot of last minute sickness cancellations this year, here are the elves that were there, growing up!

Went to a Nativity play and outdoor activities with my parents.

Took my kids to a ornament craft making event at the library. 

Holding my baby niece Rose at my parent's Christmas choir concert.

August at school (it was pizza and pajamas day)

It was my turn to work Christmas this year, so I worked my weekend Saturday, Sunday, and then Christmas. I missed my family, but we had potlucks everyday with my co-workers, and saw Doug's family on Friday and my family on Tuesday, so it was kind of interesting to spread it out like that. 

Christmas songs on the piano

August had 2+ weeks off school, and we took a break from Jeanie's homeschool program too, and have been having lots of free play at home, library books, sorting old and new toys (my job!), and playdates and it's been a nice break. 

long time no see

 

This is what seemed appropriate after googling "keeping my head above water". 

That's me, right down to the extra flubb. It's been a busy summer, but a lot of goodness. I did an 8 week summer nature curriculum with the kids to get us ready for homeschooling this fall. It was fun. 

Beaver dam cookies

window suncatchers

Ocean slime

Making blueberry pie. 

Painting constellations. 

It was really a wonderful program by this homeschooling mom I follow on Instagram.

We went on an out East road trip to VT and NH that was really a nice time.

stop at Niagara on the way home

We visited for 2 weeks when my brother and his family were in town

I turned 42 and we had a gender reveal party for my sister

Had a baby shower for my sister

These 3 are growing up

made lots of goodies with the kiddos

These 2 had a 3 day nature class at the nature center nearby

A Labor Day mini trip to Bois Blanc Island

This precious girl turned 2

And then last week, August started his Homeschool hybrid program, Jeanie started back to speech therapy, and my Bible study program started up again, all on the same day. 

And I just feel that I haven't had a moment to myself that isn't folding laundry, washing dishes, cleaning up someone's mess. Not to mention my garden and side yard are out of control, but I either 1) have no time, or 2) the mosquitos are OUT OF CONTROL all of a sudden. Oh and my car has been in the shop 3x in the last 3 weeks for the same exact thing. And I've been doing PT for my diastasis recti I've had for 2 years now since Lucy's birth so I have to add in an additional 20 minutes of exercises each day for that. My precious new niece was born, but is going on her 3rd week in the NICU. Our hospital merged with another one and they don't realize it takes people to take care of people, and have been firing people which makes everyone's jobs harder. I've gained 8lbs since I finished up breastfeeding in the spring. And I am just OVER IT all. 

Ok, breathe, breathe. 

I know in a month or so we will be in a groove and it will be ok. A lot of the stuff we are doing is fun stuff, like this weekend we are going to the apple orchard and zoo, and today we did a family swim at the kids' swim lessons. Its fun stuff. It just is always very busy. 

There've been many times where I've thought about blogging about something or other. But it just doesn't seem to happen. 

Part of it is this STUPID blogspot website. It always takes several times to log me in, and when I upload pics it usually puts them in chronological reverse for some reason so then when I try to drag it to the right spot it inexplicably deletes it. I really hate it. 

So anyway, that's what's going on. I'll pop in when I can, this blog was supposed to be enjoyable for me, and not just something to check off a list.