Playing Catch-Up

Ahh, apples
Command Central
First foray into canning
So proud of my 4 qts of applesauce. Yes, I know there are only four. Baby steps, right?
Goodbye beautiful fall weather


First of all, we found our camera! Normally when things go missing I don't panic because they tend to show up. However, the camera was gone for a couple weeks. Granted we didn't do an exhaustive search for it. Yesterday Nate pulled out a coat he hasn't worn in awhile and voila- there was the camera! I'm glad we found it, but I was getting a little excited about the idea of buying a new camera. :)

Nate is now studying for a big engineering exam on the 28th. He had 7 days off in a row so he took the camper to a local campground. He came home for meals, carpool, etc but spent as much time as he could out there studying. This was a win-win because he got a quiet place to study and he got his camping fix. And I didn't have to camp in the cold!

Before Nate went camping we had 2 weeks of beautiful, warm weather. It was so awesome. And it was a great way to end our fall soccer season! We really did have a good group of boys. They listened pretty well and didn't play mean on the field. We'll start up again in the spring and I am glad for a little break!

The kids are all healthy right now. And somehow I avoided the last cold that went thru our house. Oh, here is a little story about how God works all things for good. :) Caleb had a field trip this morning. Nate was going to meet the class at the nature center not at school. Halfway thru the morning it hit me that Caleb didn't have a booster seat at school so they wouldn't let him ride in someone else's car! Now Nate had just woken up and I pretty much asked him to leave for school in 10 minutes so Caleb would have a booster seat. Being the great Dad that he is, he headed to school. (Remember, we live 25 minutes away from school.) When he arrived the teacher was so glad to see him because they didn't have enough drivers for the field trip. So, see my memory lapse was really a good thing! Can I just say sometimes I feel like my brain is going to explode with the amount of details I keep track of? :)

Which leads to our new "command center." We don't really call it that, I just don't know what to call it. I quickly became tired of the younger two kids always asking me, "what are we doing today? can we watch a video? what are we doing next? can we watch a video? where are we going?" So I made up the schedule. I realize they can't read, but we go over it in the morning and it's easy for me to say, "when do we watch a video? that's right, after supper." And don't ask me again! I don't really say that, I just think it. We also started the chore chart. The kids have had chores for awhile, but we felt like we needed a way for them to earn money. The idea of giving an allowance for no reason just doesn't make alot of sense to us. So the kids have required chores because we're a family and we all have jobs to do. Then they have allowance chores. We're also going to set up 3 jars for each of them. A giving/tithing jar, a savings jar and a spending jar. We'll see how this new endeavor works!

Today I canned for the first time! I have never canned because I thought I needed a canner, but apparently you don't! A cookbook I have (Family Feasts for $75 a Week) inspired me to use the equipment I have. I make applesauce and freeze it every year and I have to say that is much faster than canning applesauce. However, this was my first attempt and I imagine it would go faster the more I did it. I have fond memories of my Mom canning peaches. Maybe next summer I'll do more canning, anyone want to buy me a canner? :)

I'm looking forward to the upcoming weekend. Tomorrow I am going away for a Mommy mental health day. Nate worked alot the past month and now he is studying alot. He was sweet enough to realize that it has taken a toll on me. Let's just say I feel like I am angry Mommy too much these days. I'm going to spend the night in a hotel, hopefully sleep in, do some reading, maybe exercise and do a little shopping. Then on Saturday night we have our Calvin 10 year reunion. Tim and Jenny are coming to watch the kids (and spend the night) so we a) don't have to pay a sitter b) we don't have to rush home and c) the kids get to hang out with their uncle and aunt- a win for everyone! It will be fun to connect with people we've lost touch with and also hang out with our good friends.

So, I think we're all caught up now!

Tackle video

Fun new game...




I love the part when Isaac is yelling, "Julia, Julia!" And Julia is saying, "tickle your armpits!"

Apples

She preferred picking the small, non-ripe apples
A great-looking apple
Caleb dashing down the field

I can't believe it is October now! We are well into fall weather here. At the soccer game yesterday the younger ones were wearing their snow gear- brr! However, this week is supposed to be in the 70's, I'll take that weather any day! Coaching Caleb's team is going well. Our last practice wasn't great. The boys did not want to listen and spent the hour throwing grass, wrestling and messing around. As one friend pointed out, they must be used to us now and feel comfortable being themselves. We wish they didn't feel that comfortable! The games are fun for them and us. We have two high-scorers on our team so we're trying to balance letting them show their stuff and stopping them from scoring too much. :) Caleb has some solid soccer skills. He's scored some goals this season and he likes being a defender. I'm still afraid Isaac will not want to play soccer after sitting thru so many of Caleb's practices/games!

Last week Isaac went on his first field trip. Julia and I went along to the apple orchard. Getting to pick apples has been high on Isaac's wish list for a while. Now that he is cleared to eat apples, this is a big deal. He learned about how to pick apples- you have to twist and pull, don't yank! He enjoyed seeing the different varieties and of course filling our bag with apples. We drank apple cider and saw some geese, ducks, chickens, alpacas, and cats. Overall a great first field trip! Isaac is enjoying preschool, I think. :) He doesn't share many details with us. Thankfully every week his teacher sends home a detailed description of what the class did. When I ask him about certain activities he'll nonchalantly say, "oh yea, we did that." Little stinker.

I took a funny video of Julia and Isaac today. Julia would tackle Isaac, "pin" him down and tickle him. Isaac was laughing hysterically. She has found his weak spot.

Nate has been working ALOT these past weeks. Various things have broken at the plant. Today they got everything working again- yay! However, he is now exhausted and sick. Poor guy.

What a Birthday

Have to get pictures of the sibling love moments
No words necessary
Opening gifts a day late

Yesterday was Nate's birthday and it did not turn out like he expected. We knew he had to work, but something broke at work so he had to work 15 hours. We had plans to go out to dinner with some friends, but we had to cancel. The kids were disappointed we didn't open gifts and sing to Nate on his birthday! We made up for it today though. I made white chocolate raspberry cheesecake for his birthday and the kids don't like it. Oh well! Nate will have to work more than expected this week, but hopefully it won't be too bad. I love Nate so much. He is a wonderful Christian, husband, father, provider, friend, Mr. Fix-It and he's only 32!

Seven Years Old

Excited to get a new scooter
The panda cake
How are there so many candles on that cake?
For dinner he requested pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage- he knows how to eat!

Happy Birthday Caleb! For the past week I have been calling him a 7 year old and he would emphatically say, "No, I am still 6." Now he is more than happy to be 7 and told me it might take awhile for me to get used to that number. :)

He brought a birthday treat to school today. I made 5 blue cupcakes topped with a toy bug and 5 pink cupcakes topped with a toy ring. (Nate helped me realize I don't need to make an extravagant birthday cake and an extravagant school birthday treat for the kids!) Caleb requested breakfast for dinner which always makes me happy too. I was a little surprised when he picked the panda cake. I thought he would go for something like a pirate ship or dinosaur cake. However, he enjoyed seeing pandas at the Atlanta zoo and he likes Kung Fu Panda (even though he hasn't seen the movie!). I must note that I cringe whenever the kids pick a cake that requires alot of red or black frosting- those colors are so hard to make! Caleb received a new scooter, flashlight and work gloves from us. He also received some toy army men and a Veggie Tales devotional book. I record their gifts here so I have gift ideas when our other children turn 7!

Tonight I considered making a comment to Caleb like, "Seven years ago I labored for 18 hours and was so excited to finally meet you." But, I was afraid that would bring lots of questions! Exactly when should kids start learning about how babies enter the world??

We thank God for the blessing of Caleb. He is a smart, athletic, compassionate and kind-hearted boy. It is a joy to watch him master new skills. I feel like we're embarking on a new life stage- the grade school years. We've changed his bedtime to 8 pm instead of 7:30 pm when the other kids go to bed. I kept insisting he needed to be in bed early because he gets up at 6:30 am, but he would just lie in bed awake until 8:30 every night. So now he gets to read with us on the couch before bed without any sibling interruptions- kind of nice. We also finally bunked the boys' beds. (Actually I wasn't so nervous about Caleb on the top bunk, I was nervous about Isaac crawling on the top bunk and falling out!) I'm sure we'll be making other changes as we realize Caleb is no longer a "little boy" but a regular "boy" now- nothing little about him! We pray for many more birthday celebrations with Caleb!

School

First Day of Preschool! I laugh at this picture b/c he'll stand like this and say, "look, I'm a pickle!"
Julia wanted to be in a school picture too
First day of 1st Grade! Still trying to work on natural smiles...
Cardale, Caleb, and Isaac riding bikes at the campground
The frog cupcakes Isaac is bringing to school for his birthday treat. They're supposed to be frog eyes peaking out of the water if you can't tell!
We actually did get a picture of Julia by herself!
The Jongsma family


This is our second week of school and things are going well. Caleb wasn't nervous at all about starting first grade. We felt a little bad that we made him ride carpool the first morning and didn't take him ourselves, but it didn't bother him. He has 10 kids in his class, 5 boys and 5 girls. I don't mind smaller class sizes. Unfortunately the little trouble-maker from last year is still in his class. I figure this is a good learning experience for Caleb b/c there will always be people trying to influence him in negative ways. Hopefully he can learn young to make the wise choice! Caleb was a little bummed to hear he would have homework every night, but it takes him about 5 minutes to complete it. He heard that 1st graders get to do science experiments and he is excited about that.

Isaac started preschool this year! He is going to a local preschool four afternoons a week. He wasn't sure if he was excited about school or not. The first couple of days he clung to my hand when I dropped him off and had that 'don't leave me!' look. However, he is now singing songs he has learned and talking about classroom jobs. Tomorrow he gets to bring his birthday treat which is very exciting for him.

Julia REALLY wants to go to school. She loves Isaac's classroom. On the first day she was ready to stay when Isaac wanted to head out the door with me. Julia often says, "I go to school when I'm big?" When Isaac is in school Julia takes a nap and my house is quiet for a couple hours- awesome!! We are potty-training Julia. It is much harder with the 3rd child. It is more difficult to stay home all the time and focus on potty-training. There are just more places we have to go. With the older two boys I did not use pull-ups. I was all about going cold turkey from diapers to underwear. Now, we use pull-ups for when we're going somewhere. Potty-training is still my least favorite parenting task. :)

Last weekend we went camping with Cardale's family. It was slightly rainy, but we all had a good time. The boys played hard the whole weekend. Cardale shows Nate and I more affection now and it just warms my heart. For the past 2 years we've tried to not "push" ourselves on him and let him interact with us according to his comfort level. Now he'll come up to me and snuggle on my lap and say, "I love you." Puts a big ol' smile on my face. Cardale has a little brother, Abe, who is 5 months old and such a cutie. Cardale is a great big brother. The boys are constantly asking when we will camp with Cardale again!

Tim's Wedding

What a good-looking family!

The kids were SO done with pictures by this point.

Adorable 4 year old

Handsome (almost) 7 year old. (We couldn't get Julia to pose for a picture by herself!)

We clean up well

I love this man!

A glimpse of what is was like trying to take the wedding pictures

Julia enjoyed the cupcake

My awesome sister and Mom.

I got to party in the limo while Nate drove the kids in the van

Dancing the night away

Isaac "danced" by pointing his fingers repeatedly. He was so exhausted.

My siblings- Tim, Jenny and Steph