"A life well lived . . . a place well loved"

I've found myself in one of those "walk around in circles, fail to accomplish much" places lately. In reality, I've probably accomplished enough . . . but it has been done while being firmly planted in that old proverbial fog. One of the results is that our little blog has been neglected of late.

We made an unexpected trip out of town just before Thanksgiving because Kevin's sweet 96 year old grandma died. All things considered, it was a good trip. Kevin spoke at the funeral and did a great job. The little church that Helen had attended for half a century (!) was packed with people (which honestly surprised us ~ knowing that she had outlived so many of her friends, we had been expecting primarily relatives at the service). We were able to visit with some cherished family members and celebrate the life of one who faced great loss and hardship throughout her life, yet never allowed her heart to become bitter in response. She will be greatly missed, but her example outlives her and continues to be a cherished blessing to us.

At the very northern end of Wyoming is a little town called Greybull, which was Grandma's home for the past 50+ years and has been a place dear to us as well. There is an area on the outskirts of town that has been a personal family playground of sorts for us and the kids -- the locals call it "Devil's Kitchen" (it feels a bit to me like the Great Sand Dunes, the Grand Canyon and Mesa Verde all morphed into one fun, smaller scale, land of adventure). We have some pretty fond memories of hiking and exploring there over the past few decades. We often have the place virtually to ourselves ~ and this time was no exception. Kevin and the kids went off to explore and after hiking a bit, I found a spot to sit and enjoy the quiet. I was struck by the stillness . . . like the stars that seem to overtake the sky when you step out of the glow of the city lights ~ I found myself engulfed in that peaceful, indescribable, God-whispering, priceless, stillness. There aren't enough places in our (personal) world where we get to experience that on such a grand scale. Perhaps we need to stray from the over-crowded hiking trails and seek them out a bit more (since it isn't looking like a move to northern Wyoming is in our immediate future!)

My blissful soak in the stillness was soon overtaken by a great adrenaline rush as I watched Kevin and the kids making their way along the ledge of an impressive rock outcropping (which snuggled itself up to a 60+ foot drop ~ straight down!). They eventually scooted themselves down the "less straight down" side of it ~ with Kevin "parking" a few kids in several different spots along the way and going back up to bring another one or two down, either on his lap or on his back. Fortunately they are pretty good at looking out for one another and they did exactly what they were told (this time!) -- I even got some great pictures as I enjoyed my solid footing at the bottom of the climb.

We returned home in time to enjoy Thanksgiving at my sister's house (complete with a lively game of "almost tackle" football) and to celebrate our anniversary the following day. My sweet, romantic husband pooled all of his creative energies into one fabulous anniversary gift . . . a full size air hockey table! (which he found, much by accident, at 75% off it's original price -- and who can pass that up?!) Now, before you think him an unromantic lug who was forced to spend the night on the couch after such a presentation ~ you need to know that I positively loved it! I adore air hockey and now I have daily opportunities to dethrone him from his so called "World Champion" status. The kids have never thought an anniversary so fun! (though I fear they may be disappointed next year!)

Crazy Hair Day!

Monday was "Crazy Hair Day" at our enrichment program. Levi and Samuel decided they liked their hair just fine the way it was . . . but the other 3 had fun being a bit goofy for the day!

Fun with one . . .

Somehow Levi's half birthday slipped by unnoticed (it was in September and we were apparently focused on the stitches he had acquired a few days earlier). We finally figured it out and managed to arrange for childcare (for the other kids). This past weekend we were able to enjoy several hours alone with our big 8 1/2 year old! He has had a growing fascination with archery, so we took him to a sporting goods store with an indoor range where he was able to try out shooting with some good quality bows. He was actually pretty good! He also made sure that we took careful notes about the bow that he liked best so that it might have a chance of joining him at home someday! We also went to lunch (for some reason he was REALLY in the mood for Taco Bell) . . . and to a place that was filled with trampolines -- they even went part of the way up the walls! We jumped until we were sick of jumping and then headed back home. Levi immediately went and grabbed his bank and dumped out all of the money he'd been saving up. Crumpled dollar bills graced the floor as he chatted excitedly about how soon he might have enough saved up to purchase a bow and arrows of his own. The very next day he found one on Craigslist for 80% less than the new one! He now owns his very own bow. He doesn't have any arrows yet, but I'm guessing that it won't take him very long to acquire some of those too!

Skating . . . and more stitches

We went ice skating with some friends on Friday. The littlest ones had never been on skates before (at least not that I can remember) . . . they had fun trying to figure it out with the help of the older kids ~ and those nifty little things that you push along in front of you. As it was, they didn't have a long time to practice. About 45 minutes into things, Emily fell and split her chin open on the ice =( We ended up cutting our time short and taking another trip to the emergency room (our doctor's office was booked for the day). The other kids weren't allowed back in the ER . . . which they didn't really mind at all ~ since the hospital had just put a brand new train table in their waiting area! Emily needed six stitches and did a great job throughout the process. She enjoyed the adjustable bed and the big remote for the hospital television -- and even discovered The Food Channel (Network?) while she was waiting for the anesthetic to work! She's currently contemplating whether to continue a future in ice skating ~ at this moment she's thinking she may pursue other interests instead. I personally think she'll be back on the ice again (this child has ice skates for her American Girl doll!)

Something is wrong with this picture . . .

Feel free to call me archaic or out of touch with modern society (both are probably true! . . .), but it saddens me that my daughter received a post card in the mail today from a church in our neighborhood inviting her to their new ministry for middle school students. They took pains to advertise that they have "3 ps3s, 4 xbox 360s, 2 wiis, 6 mac computers, the official dance dance revolution and a full service coffee bar" . . . frankly, that makes me gack! Granted we don't have personal experience with most (okay . .. any) of those things at our house ~ so they aren't a big value to us. But, don't most of the kids in suburbia have one or more of those in their home 24/7 . . . do they really need them for those two little hours on Sunday morning? Please? I understand the whole "seeker sensitive", "make your church attractive to the un-churched" mind set, but what happened to Romans 12:2 (the "do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world" concept. . . ) Is there something wrong with showing the culture that there is something else (different) out there? . . . Gack, gack, gack! Okay, I feel a tiny bit better now . . . so I'll try to go back to bed! =)

Trick or Treat!

Admittedly, we aren't huge fans of Halloween, but the kids were pretty excited to be in town for it this year (we were at a conference out of state at this time last year). They enjoyed dressing up and going around our neighborhood gathering up as much sugar as their little plastic pumpkins could hold! (If my calculations are right, we should have dessert taken care of for the next 6 months or so!) Emily was thrilled to receive so many compliments when she donned my old Domino's delivery driver jacket and used an empty pizza box (with a hole discreetly carved on the top) to collect her loot! Anna had to sing to half of the neighbors that we visited (and they politely listened and proceeded to tell her that she was cute!) We even got a bit goofy and made "mummy crescent dogs" for dinner. We all decided they looked more like something out of Veggie Tales than any mummy we'd ever conceived of ~ oh well, that's probably better! The oldest three enjoyed being involved in their first piano recital yesterday (Emily and Anna dressed up for the occasion--the boys did too, but they didn't insist that I take their picture!). The weather has been warm and our snow is almost completely melted. That hasn't kept the boys from piling (three deep) onto a plastic toboggan and sledding down the snow and then the grass (!) on the shaded side of our yard. Much fun!

Makeshift Snowboarding ~ Sort of!

More Snow Fun

The kids have spent the better part of the day sledding in our back yard (and in the park across the street) with some friends of theirs. The trampoline that came with our house is semi buried in the ground and our sleds are stored underneath it -- so part of the fun for them was digging the sleds out from under the "trampoline snow fort". I was busy playing a game with their friends' mom--so I failed to take even a single photo of the sledding! =( "Bad, bad mommy"!!(I'm hoping they'll go out again tomorrow and I'll take some then). Pretty fun stuff!, it's even more fun now that three of the five kids can put their own snow gear on ~ there are few things more exhausting to me than the mere thought of putting gloves and boots and snow pants and hats and . . . on toddlers!

Silly Samuel

So, Samuel found a picture a few days ago . . . the picture of the oldest four kids with balls stuffed under their shirts, sitting next to me when I was very pregnant with Anna -- it was a very silly, highly pregnant looking sort of picture, all the way around. Samuel was explaining to Anna how the "ball" in mom's shirt was her! "See that big lump in mom's belly . . . that's you Anna! . . . but you got out ~ that means you fell out of mom's shirt!"

Birthdays and Blizzards!

They didn't occur together and I don't know that our big, fat, snowstorm should really be called a "blizzard"--but it sure has been fun! Last Saturday (the 24th) was Daniel's 7th birthday. Daniel had two friends spend the night (they even got to be here for the "birthday morning donuts"!~ which Daniel thought was pretty exciting!). Several more friends came over for a "Webkinz/Football" party. We played most of the games in the back yard and it was downright hot outside! . . . By Tuesday night it had started snowing and continued to snow for over 48 hours -- dumping over 30" of the white fluffy stuff outside of our house. It finally stopped in the middle of the night last night. So, this morning Kevin and Levi are outside shoveling (we didn't have to go anywhere during the storm, so they've just waited for it to finally stop falling).

Feverish~ly writing!

One of the benefits of being home this past weekend (instead of off on our field trip adventure . . .) is that we've had the fun of being part of Kevin's latest book. He is in the process of writing a super fun children's book. He's been reading it to our family a few chapters at a time, as he finishes them. The kids have been able to give him feedback and usually beg for the next chapter! It doesn't have a title yet, but I can't wait until it's finished and in print =)