Spring butterflies

In my efforts to try to keep up with my journaling, and have it be in order for the most part, I'm going back to March. We spent some time in the butterfly house. K was a little hesitant about having it sit on her finger, but she managed a smile long enough for a picture. I actually don't like to have them on me - they might be pretty to look at, but they are still bugs! We all had a great time, I got out of there without one butterfly landing on me, and I got a lot of really cute pictures of my kids.

Soccer and more!

Okay, okay... I've finally returned. Sorry about the LONG PAUSE in my updates to my blog. I have been very busy. To start with I was just called as the primary president. Well, it happened back in March - the week of my birthday. What a birthday present, right!? And as icing on the cake my husband was called the very same week to be on the high council. Funny how it all works out sometimes. Maybe funny isn't the right word! Anyway, we are doing well and we really are enjoying all of our new responsibilities. It is allowing us (forcing us, at times) to be stretched and molded in ways we couldn't have imagined.

Along with new church opportunities, we have been involved with soccer during the spring season. I volunteered to coach E's team. She's 6. This team has been very interesting to coach. 10 minutes into practice every week and they want to know when they can play at the park. Gosh, that makes me sound like a great coach, huh! This age is perfect for me, though, since I never really played soccer until I was an adult. The rules, etc. are still fuzzy to me, and the 6-year-olds seem to be at my skill level. (Well, maybe I am slightly better then they are!) We "play" together at practice and they don't realize that they are learning things at the same time. Aren't they cute? We have had 4 games so far - 3 wins, and 1 tie. We aren't supposed to keep score, or pay attention to winning and losing, but try telling a child not to keep score! Yeah, right!

Well, a lot has been happening over the past few months and I am determined to catch up on my "journaling". So this was my first attempt to get back to some of the things I used to have time for. As I continue to find the balance in my life, more and more things I love to do will start fitting back in... I hope!

Syrup, syrup, and more syrup!

We spent a fair amount of time collecting sap from our maple trees during February and March. We got so much sap that we starting sharing it with anyone that would take it. A friend of mine wrote on her blog (after taking some of our sap from us) that 12 hours=2 cups... She was referring to the number of hours it takes to boil maple tree sap in order to get a little pure maple syrup. My husband is obsessed with this process. So I ask you... if 12 hours gets you 2 cups...

How long do you suppose this took!!! I don't think I need to say anything else about this. The picture says enough. I will say this though - we got a lot more sap after this batch, but at least he finally took it outside to boil it over an open fire. That saved me a lot of cleaning up in the house.

Here's my computer savvy daughter working on her favorite website - http://www.starfall.com/. She loves being able to get on the computer and navigate through all the activities without help... and I think she might even be learning something at the same time.

The "sixth" challenge

1. Go to the photo folder in your computer
2. Go to the 6th folder of photos.
3. Go to the sixth picture.
4. Put the picture on your blog and description of it.
5. Invite six friends to join the challenge.

This is from fall 2007. E was on a preschool fieldtrip to the apple farm. She got to throw an apple into the apple press to be turned into juice. Look at that curly hair!! The clothes she's wearing have been passed down to K and they are already too small for her - and K hasn't started preschool yet. What does this mean? They grow so fast!

6 friends I want to hear from... I can't pick and I don't know who wants their name on my blog. So if you want to do it, feel free! I can't wait to see the pics.

Part 2...

This represents what my brother-in-law did ALL day Wednesday. They tapped maple trees the night before and he boiled down sap while S was at work. This was the "golden goodness" left after a full day of boiling.

Thursday we visited the Center for the Arts with the little ones while the big ones were at school. Of course the giant mammoth bones were first on our list of things to see...

...then the snakes and lizards. This one was named "Joanna" by K. She also called it the "daddy lizard". I guess Joanna can be a boy name in her world. It looks like a character in one of the cartoon movies she likes lately, "The Rescuers Down Under". In fact there were a few that resembled creatures from that movie. K got a big kick out of it.

Here they are pretending to be snakes and lizards slithering across the floor.

Friday was spent hunting with a friend of S's. They managed to shoot a rabbit, a squirrel, and a dove. Fortunately they ate them for lunch and we didn't have to do anything with them at home. They were thoughtful enough to bring the rabbit's feet, and the squirrel's tail home for us! The kids liked it, at least.

Saturday was full of relaxing and eating. The boys went and played basketball then came home to a "man" breakfast. French toast (with the homemade syrup, of course), bacon, sausage, eggs, orange juice, and whole milk. Afterwards we sat around to let the food digest to be ready for homemade pizza that evening. This is the before picture. Could she look any more innocent and sweet?

Then the attack. I think she thought he was talking too much so she took matters into her own hands.

Sisters! What a great week.

Californians come to see the snow!

LONG POST WARNING:
My sister and her family came out to visit us for a whole week at the end of February. They have 3 kids - 2 girls (3 and 5 years old) and a boy (almost 2). They had a chance to go to Hawaii or to see us. We are definitely feeling loved! They wanted to come out during the winter to see the snow and then we almost didn't have any. On the day they arrived we had a winter storm. I had actually been praying for snow so we could do all the "snow" things we had planned. So to all of you that wanted spring to come in February... sorry. We had a blast and we almost got to do everything we planned. The only things we missed doing were building a snowman (it was the wrong kind of snow), and playing snow football (not enough snow). We also discovered during the week that our husbands are A LOT alike. All the kids got along great, too. And of course it was great fun for me to spend time with my "baby" sister. We are more alike than I realized.

They brought their wii (however you spell it) from California and you can guess what my kids did everyday after school! I don't think we'll be getting one any time soon. They forgot about homework, chores,... showering!

They arrived on a Saturday evening late enought that there wasn't time to go out in the snow, so we made an exception and let them go out and play after church on Sunday. They couldn't wait to see what it was like. This is their littlest - he was never quite sure what to think of all of this!

They had fun making snow angels and sledding on the little hill in our backyard. E managed to run into a tree on one of their runs.

Monday we took the kids out of school for the day to go skiing at Caberfae. I was surprised at how easy it was to excuse my kids from school. Some of us had a lot of fun skiing. K loved going down the bunny hill as long as I was right behind her. She flipped out whenever I tried to let go. E was only slightly less scared.

My sister's two girls were very brave for their ages. They were eager to try everything, but not for very long - thank goodness. Our backs were aching after an hour or so of "helping" them ski. My sister and I realized very quickly that it was easier to get from place to place with all the little ones when we didn't have our skiis on also. I had only been skiing one other time when I was a teenager, and this was her first time. It was very funny trying to get around on skiis while also trying to help the little ones get around! I'm sure we looked like a comedy show. I don't have any pictures of my boys - they took off for the big hills right away and we didn't see them all day, except when they were hungry, of course. S, my brother-in-law (it was his first time, too), and I actually went up on some of the big hills. It was a lot of fun. More fun than I expected. I definitely want to try that again - only next time we'll leave the little ones at home!

On Tuesday we debated whether or not to go sledding the day after such a long day of skiing. But if there's one thing we've learned about sledding in Michigan - when the snow is right you better go, because tomorrow it might not be right. It's a good thing we went because it was all turned to slush by Wednesday. My sister wasn't crazy about skiing, but she loved sledding.

J with his uncle, who enjoyed sledding as well - but not the hike to the top of the hill. All the skiing made for some sore muscles. Plus we had done "slim's gym" that day, too. My brother-in-law started referring to this vacation as "fat camp". We were "making" him exercise and eat healthy. Guess what he did the day after he got back home??? Bought a treadmill!

Part 2 will be coming later! Yes, there's more...

Being prepared

We have worked hard as a family to be prepared for emergencies. Food, water, fire drills, etc, etc. This morning we woke up with no power. We had no idea how long it had been off or when it would come back on. So we got ready for the day by candlelight. After about and hour we decided to pull out the generator. It's all the way in the basement and it's heavy. It took two of us to carry it upstairs, then outside. We started it to make sure it was working. Then we had to dig around to find the cord in the garage. Of course it was buried under a bunch of stuff. Then we carried the generator over the mounds of snow, and mud, to the back corner of the garage where we would plug it in. The next step... go in the house to shut down the main breaker switch. Wouldn't you know it, as I came around the corner to go inside, I see a light on in the kitchen! Lucky, right? One would think so. When we first moved into this house we had power outages all the time, and sometimes they would last for more than a day or two. We decided we needed a generator, for such emergencies. We got one and wired it to the main breaker box in the house so that all we had to do was plug it in and flip a few switches. We haven't used it yet! Is it so wrong to want a power outage that lasts a while so we can test out our generator? Maybe it's better to try hard to be prepared and then hope it never has to be tested. Spending the morning in the dark made me wonder, though, what it would've been like back before electricity - getting up with the sun and going to sleep when it got dark. Sometimes I wish things could be that simple, but then I realize that I wouldn't want to have to do things like pluck chickens, milk cows, live on a farm, or do without all the conveniences we have now. So now I have to look at the generator sitting in the living room all day. Maybe I'll set a plant on it!