a quick turn around

Matt and the girls rolled back in about 5pm today - fresh off the road/air from their NC trip.  

They brought daffodils that the girls picked with Granddaddy - and we placed on our dinner table within minutes of them walking in the door.

They might be the only North Carolina daffodils in the entire state.  And since the ground is still frozen solid there won't be many more fresh picked flowers for a good long while here :)

Matt had a great trip - even got to drive past one of our old homes - we lived in this apartment right after we got married.  Oh the memories.

And he reported that the girls are great travelers.  Just great.  I believe it.

Here on the home front we had a nice time.  No flower picking, but I did almost freeze my fingertips off loading goods into the van after our Target trip today.

[Friday photo in the waiting room at John Paul's speech school. Luke always scribbles three lines on a piece of paper and then walks around trying to hang it up on the walls and asking for tape.]

We had some super hero worthy moments.

And some less-super hero worthy moments.

And today we celebrated with lunch at the mall food court.  By the fire place.  So nice.

It's a short-lived reunion, the seven of us together again.  Tomorrow morning Matt and I leave on a long-planned trip to the North Shore.  Kiddos staying back with Grandma and Grandpa.  The trip is officially a celebration of our 10th anniversary, which we celebrated 10 months ago :)

The original plan didn't call for this quick of a turn around, but Matt's NC trip was rescheduled late and that's just how it's working out.  I'm excited to be headed off with my man and glad that the kiddos will be in such a fun spot.  Isaac and John Paul packed right after breakfast - ready to go exactly 24 hours early!  must be excited, huh?

is it ever too cold to fish?

Apparently the answer to this question is NO.

It is NEVER too cold to fish.

Exhibit A:

That's a lake, you know.  Under the trucks.

Seriously.

I wasn't there, so it's hard for me to provide a lot of commentary on these photos.  But I will say that Isaac was pretty pumped to be included in this group of men.

These boy cousins of his are just spectacularly good to Isaac (and my other little boys).... so thankful!

Maybe I can come back in a few days and add more notes and details.  Isaac is already asleep for the night and Matt is out of town so my sources are currently un-available.  But a trip like this (epic in Isaac's memory) is one for the blog, so I'm glad the pics are here.

We're in a 4-day stretch with the boys and I here at home. Matt had a meeting in NC and took the girls with him so they could get a little extra grandparent love from my parents.  It was a delayed (and tricky) trip but they made it just fine - all winter long it seems that the story is some variation of 'it's a bad day to travel' and today was no exception for Matt and the girls.

Here we are just solidly Brrrrrr Cold (down thirty-ish degrees from earlier in the week) but not a flake in the sky, the weather issues were all in Minneapolis and areas south of there.

warm enough for a snowman

The last two days we had such nice warm temps!  [yes, it's all relative!  but when you've been barely topping zero for weeks on end these days when the thermometer hits 30 and even 35 seem balmy!]

Monday Matt took the older three for a trial run at skating.  First time on skates is never easy, but they had a good time!  

They each made some progress but I don't think we have any Olympic skaters in the family, at least not yet :)  

Then again today, just crazy warm and even some melting.  Matt and Isaac left early morning to ice fish with Grandpa, Uncle Andy and cousins Connor and Carson.  This afternoon after homework Julianna practically ran outdoors to get started on a snowman.  Her excitement was contagious and the whole crew was bundled and outside in minutes.  

It sure helped that we didn't need much bundling!  The girls wanted to go out in just long sleeves and snow pants but we compromised and they wore a lightweight jacket.  

Warmer temps mean more moisture and nice sticky snowman-building snow.  With plenty of recess-inspiration the girls led the way on this one.  And Luke and John Paul LOVED it!  

We got into a groove where Julianna started the snowball and then passed it along to me when it got too heavy and difficult to wield.  

We ended up with two nice sized snowmen (our goal was to make them bigger than the boys, and we succeeded!)

[Maybe the backyard bunny can enjoy these treats when/if they fall over?]

Can you 'see' John Paul's excitement?  We all had so much fun!  

The new front-walk-view.  We use the side door more often, but the front door is ready for visitors with two greeter-snow-men on either side of the walk!  In the picture you can see straight through the house to our back windows (still covered with Valentine's cards).  The living room is on the left, the right side window is the master bedroom.  

The weather forecast says the temperatures will be dropping again later this week so I'm especially thankful we got so much outdoor time these past two days.  And I now understand how 30 degrees can feel "so warm"!  

close by cousins

Once again, for a brief season, we live close to cousins.

Living near family is not our normal :(  But when it happens, it's a treasure.

These cousins are the first my kids had, the oldest.  Connor and Carson, our first nephews (arriving just months after our wedding) and Kaelynn, just a few months younger than Julianna.

Now my five cannot get enough of their whole family!

Such delight to get to spend most of the day with them, and make plans for more time together.

with helpers like these..

... how do I ever get anything done?!?!

There are days when I have to take a deep breath.  And remind myself: The point is not cookie bars.  The point is parenting.  Motherhood.  Loving, leading, serving.  Jesus.

But man oh man, there are times when I wish the whole point was cookie bars.  And I had a kitchen all to myself to bake them in.  Wouldn't I be so great at that?

It sure would be a whole lot easier than this whole motherhood gig.

Note: That's my winter hat Luke is wearing while licking the spatula and yes, it is now in the dirty laundry pile because cookie batter shows up really well on white hats.  I see at least four misplaced shoes on the floor, Isaac's shirt is on backwards and John Paul is desperate for a hair cut.  This is my life.  and i love it.

eyelash frost

After our lazy-day Saturday with kids in pjs and no plans on the calendar Sunday rushed in fast and furious.  I'm extra grateful Saturday was so low-key!

Our Sunday plans were fun, just full.  We ate lunch at the girls' school.  No surprise that everybody loves art class :)

By the time we rolled back into our driveway for good I was ready to veg out in front of the Olympics.  I've watched quite a few games from Asia and I must say that I love watching here in the U.S.  It's just nicer programming.  And easier.  Matt and I have been watching almost every night.  I love the stories behind the athletes and I love learning about different sports and I .... well, I like it all!

I guess there's nothing quite like the winter olympics to inspire outdoor play time on a day when the temps barely reached zero.  Because late this afternoon Matt took the boys on a walk to the park.  Or rather, Matt walked and the boys rode on sleds.

This is definitely the optimal mode of travel for them :) With this young crowd and these low temperatures, even half a block can seem like a hike!  The sleds reduce travel time to/from the park by about 80%.  

There is just enough hill at the park for little sled-riders to enjoy.  Plus the almost-always present hockey action to watch.

{John Paul eating snow.  Ridiculous.}

My favorite picture is definitely this one of Luke, blond wisps peeking out from under his hat and frost on his eyelashes.

I'm thankful for another Monday.  And frost on little boy eyelashes.

getting ready for the 14th

Yesterday morning we drove out to see Matt's Grandma Ruth.  At 88 years old she is our only living grandparent and the children's only great-grandparent.

Grandma Ruth lives in a home for older people and the boys did a decent job entertaining themselves in a place filled with tempting yet "no touch" items... with one notable exception.  John Paul pulled the fire alarm.

It was awesome.  In a "I can't believe my child just pulled the fire alarm" kind of way.  All the staff were sooooo gracious.  And calm.  And quick to say "No problem.  Don't worry about it.  It's okay."  They were seriously wonderful.  I was glad to see no one rushing towards the doors or hallways full of wheelchairs heading for the snowy zero-degree outdoors.  I mean, it could have been a disaster!

And if you are ever in a nursing home with a super curious child be forewarned that the fire alarms are at child height (for all those wheelchair riders, I presume) and that there is no little plastic piece preventing a child from pulling that tempting little red handle.

Anyways, we soon moved on to less disruptive activities like piano-playing and flipping through magazines trying to find pictures of interest.  Thank goodness Grandma was along for the visit to help entertain the little troops!  Matt enjoyed showing Grandma Ruth lots of pictures and we had such a nice time.

Later that evening Grandma started a Valentine's Making Extravaganza (while Matt, Luther and I headed to the hockey game).  This is the kids first year in a place where 'exchanging valentines' is commonplace.  Last weekend the girls spent a long time picking and choosing the perfect box of Valentine's for their classmates.  I wasn't totally sure they got the concept, but they seemed eager to find just the right thing.

In the end, it looks like they'll be making Valentines for most of their friends (though Lydia is eager to gift those pencils she's holding and Julianna will be giving out candy along with her hand made cards).

They are loving this activity!  They worked hard last night and have all their creations hanging on our south window.

They were back at it again this morning.  And off and on all day.  Notice all three are still in their pajamas - Lydia never even wore real clothes today.  She did go outside but just put snow pants over her pjs.  Tonight she showered and changed into a new pair of pjs.  That's my kind of day!

And the one I found hanging on my bedroom door when we got in late from the game last night.

Might be my favorite so far this year :)  Mostly because it includes a bag of conversation hearts :)

friends in town

One of the big blessings from the past month - friendships for my kids.  

It's always awkward to walk away from the world you know well and into a world you don't know much at all.  It's awkward for adults!  And the last time we were in the States we realized it's awkward for our children too - this weird balance of living in two separate worlds.  

So one of our dreams for this season is that our children would land well in America.  Into friendships and familiar places and a confidence that comes with knowing and understanding the world around them.  

School is doing this for the girls!  One of the biggest gifts of the school is the relationships!  Friends and play dates and birthday parties and buddies to run alongside in the church hallways.  We're delighted to see that they are embracing their "learner" role - figuring out the ins and outs of school and culture and relationships - and also confidently sharing some of their Asia life.  

[One of Lydia's buddies likes to use Lydia's chinese name :)  At first I didn't know quite what she was saying, but as I listened to her chattering in the back seat of our van I finally realized, "oh, she's calling Lydia ke qing ya!  how funny is that!"]

But I wondered and worried about Isaac.  

He loves to talk, he loves to be with people, he loves his big sisters.  I knew the days with the girls away would feel long to him.  He and John Paul are good buddies and play so well together but I knew he would enjoy some good solid friendships outside our home too.  

I'm so thankful that God is providing abundantly for Isaac!  He loves AWANA. I mean, he LOVES it.  He's such a little participator, likes to be part of a group, thinks his Cubbies leaders are awesome.  It's perfect for him.  And he's in a class full of boys that run as fast as he does.  Sweet. 

Sunday mornings are another big win.  It's a different set of boys than his AWANA classmates (he's right on the fence age-wise and is one of the youngest in his Sunday class).  But it's a super fun set of kids.  

To top it all off, he's got a new addition to his favorite places to go list.  Some of our family friends have three sons (a 5 year old and 4 year old twins) that are perfect playmates for Isaac.  We've started a little habit of heading out to their house once a week for fun and fellowship.  Bonus that the momma is a good friend for me and I learn lots watching her home school some of their older children while our little boys run and play.  

Not to mention it's just fun life-on-life fellowship.  I'm bummed that my bigger girls don't join us (they are at school) but also realizing the gifts of that - instead of schooling my girls I am watching (and helping, a bit) this mom school her kids.  She has YEARS more experience than me so it's a kind of school for myself as well!  {Actually paging through a curriculum and watching it being used is so helpful for a homeschooling newbie like me!}

I missed pictures of Isaac in all his playmate glory but I did take a few pictures of the drive to their house.  

The boys and I love looking for farm houses and tractors and, well, anything!  It's all interesting to them!  I like to imagine what it would have been like for the pioneers, all that endless white in every direction.  Makes me want to go back and re-read a few Little House on the Prairie books.  (And I have read a few other pioneer stories this month!)

Next time I'll get pictures of Isaac and his God-provided buddies.  And maybe me and the other boys too :)

It's Friday which means it's about time to head to family-swimming-pool-fun.  We're deep into this weekly routine of a pool trip on Friday afternoons and tonight we were offered tickets to the men's hockey game!

the roads near our house

Driving in snow in the midwest is not the same as driving in the snow in the south.

I think we all know that :)

When it snows in my hometown my parents cannot get a car out of their garage.  That's because their house sits at the bottom of a steep-ish hill.  Most people cannot walk uphill on snow-covered ice-slicked concrete, much less pop the car into reverse and gun the engine to see if they can somehow slide up the driveway and make it to the street safely.

I grew up in an area called North Hills and the word "hill" appears in my parent's street address, the name of the two closest streets, and the name of their neighborhood.  In other words, I am not the first person to note that it's a hilly area :)

It makes perfect sense to me that no one should be encouraged to drive when it snows.  Which is just fine, since it doesn't snow much and there's nothing wrong with a snow day every year or so :)

Now, there are some definite perks to life in a very very flat town, especially when there is snow on the ground for months of the year.

This is the street near our house.  It's one of the major east-west roads in town.  Yes, you read that right, this is a major road.  It even has stoplights :)

[I took these pics at rush hour. Or rather I took these pics a little after after 5, in some places that's called rush hour.]

It's flat (of course).  And the pavement is even mostly dry - hardly a speck of snow.

The pile on the side is getting larger, and gray-er.

Turn north on the road closest to our house and the route gets a tad snowier (still flat).

One more block and you've arrived at our street.  It's not a dry street, but it's packed down snowy and not too slippery.  

Parts of our driveway are dry - mostly because the wind tends to come whipping through here.  The house you see behind our garage is a fraternity house.... we live right by campus.  Our east side neighbors are retirees, our west side neighbors are college students (I assume) and have a mattress propped against the side of their house.  It's an eclectic neighborhood :)

And the view from the garage looking at the back of the house.  See the rabbit tracks?  Snow this deep is hard walking - so he's the only one making prints in this snow :)

So what's it like to drive here?  Well, I've mentioned flat.  And the streets are in good shape.  And no one is in a hurry.  I grew up in a large metro area and 96.4% of the drivers are in a hurry, rushing around and darting into traffic and generally behaving like they must do everything possible to cut 3 minutes off their commute.

I have yet to meet one driver here who is in a hurry.  Or at least if they are in a hurry they do a good job hiding it while they are driving.  There's nothing wrong with driving slower than the speed limit, especially in winter when it pays to be extra cautious.

I can poke a little fun at 'rush hour' and roads that are busy enough to merit stop lights.  But really, I like living here and enjoy that driving is not a competitive sport, most every place I'd need to go is a 5-10 minute drive, and my passengers love watching the snow removal work (I think we see someone doing something with the snow - snow plow, snow blower, scraper, dump truck full of snow - every time we leave the house).

So different from where I grew up.  Lots to love and appreciate about both places.

the snow fort (Julianna) and the snow bullet (Lydia)

Work continues on Julianna's snow fort.  This girl is not deterred by chilly temps.  The work must go on so out she goes!

She's working in the big pile by our driveway.  It's extra large because it gets the street snow from the plow and also the driveway snow from the snow blower.

I can watch her work from our front windows - she's actually in there, but the entry tunnel turns and she is tucked out of sight in this photo.

Julianna LOVES to play outside.  And she loves to work on this fort.  So grateful for this fun spot for her - and her siblings.

On to Lydia.... we went sledding again last Saturday.  You could definitely tell we were in the "been there, done that" category this time around.

(there are five of us on this sled - Julianna, Luke, me, John Paul and Matt!)

Julianna headed for the hill as soon as she was out of the car.

And Lydia.  All she wanted to do was fly down the biggest hill, fast, and by herself.  I started calling her the snow bullet :)  She'd lay flat on her back, push herself off the top and rocket down the hill.  It was so fun to watch!  And apparently fun to sled.  She did it over and over and over again.

[just to clarify: the 'no sledding this side' is for the back side of the hill, behind the fence!]

Luke and John Paul had a lot more fun this time around too.  Even though the temps were quite a bit chillier and the wind had a little bit more bite to it.  We only lasted about an hour, but so so fun.  And good exercise too - trudging up that hill with Luke in your arms is good for the legs and lungs!  Thankfully John Paul does the walk himself, I'm not sure I could get him to the top!

sioux hockey

I grew up in a two-sport land.

Basketball.  Football.  the end.

Sure, lots of people played other sports, but when we watched games, or went to games, or talked about games.... well, we talked about football and basketball.  Especially collegiate football and basketball.

Life in the upper midwest is broadening my horizons :)

Welcome to the land where Hockey Is A Very Big Deal.

Friday night we went to the UND women's hockey game.  There were almost 6000 people there (a new attendance record).  Y'all, only 40,000 LIVE in the entire town!  And 5835 people were at the game.  The women's game.

Told you this was a big deal.

Unfortunately our crew was no lucky charm for the UND women who lost to the #1 ranked Minnesota gophers.

Hockey is a fast game but at least with the women the puck moves a bit slower and it's easier to follow.  [I've only been to a men's game once and I spent half the time trying to figure out where the puck was and the other half confused by the line switches - I mean seriously, is there another sport that subs players while the game is still being played?!?!  It's crazy fast.]

The kids seemed to engage with most of what was happening and tried to follow the action.

And just enjoyed the show in general.  It's a lot of fun, very kid friendly, and interesting to watch.  Just admiring the skating alone ... impressive for my little crew.  We keep meaning to take them skating but the weather these past weeks just a wee bit chilly, hopefully soon...

Grandma graciously passed off her ticket and stayed home with the little two - making this a big kids only event.  And meaning I could actually sit and watch the game :)

[And of course I'm posting about hockey on the biggest football day of the year.]