Some missing links -

How those weeks in between Thanksgiving and Christmas get swallowed up is beyond me. The week before Thanksgiving I was busily preparing to surprise my mom by showing up on her doorstep with three kids so I remember  where that week went...

We were given an amazing gift that allowed us to go to NH while my dear husband worked over that holiday. While the 15 hours  to NH and the 18 hours from NH did take a toll on me, I would do it again in a heartbeat. This new life we have taken on will involve many such days of long drives that are made much shorter by the mere fact that at the other end of that loooooong highway (oh, Interstate 90.... My feelings are very mixed towards you!) and so the time has come to embrace the holidays of driving and also of keeping many miles between us and those we hold closest to us.

As a surprise to me, mom and dad had seen Jake, Abby and Lucy and they came over for a visit while we were there. "Noni" is what I have decided to be in lieu of Grannie, Grandma, or MeeMaw (right?!) because I remain firmly convinced that anyone under the age of 35 should not have to answer to name implying such vast years. Or wisdom!

AprilJayne turns 3

It hardly seems possible that our baby is three years old! While it is cliche to say "It seems like just yesterday..." the events leading up to and surrounding Rilla's birth were so unusual for us and so full of grace, turmoil, and learning I am sure I will never forget that season of life.

Lately Rilla has been telling me that once she turns three she would be taking the next life changing step of going to college. Why not? Her big brother, big sister and Daddy are all in college- seems logical to me!

At the ripe old age of three, our daughter loves to sing the ABC's, looking for the letter "R" whenever we are out for a drive, sings her babies to bed at night, has left board books behind for real picture books, knows where household, cleaning and craft items belong in our home better than any of the males we live with, still naps for two hours a day and hasn't worn a pull-up to bed in two weeks so I consider her completely potty trained.  She adores her baby dolls, bosses her brothers around and whines at the drop of a hat. Her laugh is infectious and she is a source of joy to everyone. We are so very thankful for her.

It was a full day and she nodded off to sleep a little while ago, kindly giving me some time to clean up after the whirlwind that accompanies any group of preschoolers hopped up on pink birthday cake.

Just like 1999

Walking into the building this morning at 8:30 after my second round trip to the boys' school (Gabe forgot his trumpet - again-) who should I see driving through the parking lot but my old friend and roommate, Bethany (Stroud) Potter! What?! 

She works at NTM headquarters in Sanford FL and although we did see one another a couple years ago while I was visiting Jackson, it's been a long time!

We grabbed a quick chat in the student center with Tamara and a couple other gals.

So this one is for all of you who remember Bethany, Tamara and I from the 90's... Before kids, stretch marks and gray hair!

Prepping for the birthday girl

It's almost eleven and I am about to leave to get John; him having to work late gave me ample time to get the ball rolling for Rilla's birthday tomorrow- baking the pink cake, and the chocolate cupcakes for those who may not be so inclined, putting up balloons and a streamer- I have decided balloons really give the most bang for your buck when decorating for a toddler! Having spent all of $2 on decorations I still think she will love it--

No kidding

One of the teachers here, Rex G ( who incidentally was here long before my first time here as a student) is not only a support raising missionary in order to be here, he happens to pastor a church about 40 minutes away. I have never been there, actually did not know he is pastor; last week he put notices in each of the "marrieds" mailboxes letting us know his church had some groceries they had collected for all the married students here at the BI. This is the 15 th year they have done it. We don't know a soul at that church, except for Rex and his wife, but just walked into a room FULL of groceries for each of the 12 or so families. Having never been in a place in our lives where grocery concerns even hit the radar, this is a new and very amazing experience for me. I have learned in the short time that I am here that without having times where I honestly did not know what I would be able to put together for a meal ( not to be dramatic here -! We never missed any meals or anything but there comes a time when the food in the pantry doesn't add up to a dinner or school lunch, because it just doesn't form a meal; there's food for sure but somehow it doesn't create something when it's all put together-) I would never be able to see how God chooses to provide for us when we are not even looking, or even asking, for it. 

Just wanted to document this; we all need things to look back on when those days come, which they are sure to. 

Euro Market

The hunt for tvorog began last month when I found out Natasha had a birthday coming up, as well as a hankering for some good old fashioned Russian food. After many googles I thought maybe I'd found just what we needed to make an authentic Russian dessert for my friend, so today we loaded up the kids and Tina, Natasha and I headed to Ann Arbor and the inauspicious "Euro Mart."

Mmmmm...

Thumbs up for Saturday morning pancakes! (Or in Rilla's case, four fingers up!) Blueberry, chocolate chunk and for the less daring, plain.

At any given moment...

If one were to look in on my boys, this is most likely what they would find:

Gabe hard at work on another story- probably the fifth or sixth one that day- and now on his very own typewriter.

Zach in front of his pet turtle working with clay, wire cutters and  wire to create some type of reptile he will most likely use to make a claymation / stop- motion movie.

Treat night

Our local church did a neighborhood outreach tonight called "treat night" and it was planned to run from 6-8; when we left at 7:40 over six hundred people had come through the doors! As always they did a marvelous job appealing to the kids with games, cotton candy machines, balloon animals, face painting, popcorn, and lots of love directed at each person there.

My ragtag group of kids included (much to NOBODY'S surprise) Indiana Jones, Bigfoot, and Dorothy... 

Once my little sugar monsters were safely tucked in I made sure to "check the candy" ie: get some of the good stuff while the gettin' was good! I guess my diet took the day off-?

I blame it on the newest baby in our lives - my friends headed to the hospital around 12:30 this morning so I was up getting their 2 yr old settled on our futon for the rest of the night- happily a beautiful baby girl was born one hour later! (Also, happily, at the hospital and not in my living room! That was cutting it close!)

Now I just need to get John at work and then while he is doing homework (right?! It's already 10:30!) I will sneak I to bed-

Bountiful gifts

One of the most difficult parts of our recent move was how much we had to almost stand by and watch our kids deal with all  the changes our choices brought about; over and over I have seen God reach down and provide opportunities or gifts to the kids that were uppermost on their minds and hearts, things we are not in a position to provide right now. Full scholarships to nature camp, a 10 gallon turtle tank, a turtle (!), a trumpet for band, help with a BIG field trip, pumpkins for carving and today, a wonderful old-fashioned typewriter for our budding author. There are so many more things I could add to this list but these are the things I could call to mind in ten seconds or less. Tonight we ate dinner with yummy potatoes from a nice lady at church and had bread I made with my new $10 bread maker from the goodwill; apple butter bread because we have a humongous load of apple butter we were given and I have no idea what to do with! Good thing the bread is delicious...

What I love about all of this is that none of it's truly important, meaning critical to our lives. But it's all intensely personal, which is what makes me love Jesus more each day as I see Him teaching us to change, to trust Him on this journey.

We did it!

Brenda and I totally "ran" the 5k this morning at 8 a.m. I say "ran" because we had a time of about 33 or 34 minutes - not knowing exactly is fine with me!!

But... WE DID IT.

Awana

It was dress up night at awana, which at our house usually involves finding as many pillowcases, belts and robes as we can, winding them around the boys to resemble some type of shepherd/prophet/vagabond. I got a couple pictures of Tamara's girls too- the most hilarious one being 6 yr old Addie who dressed up as 90 year old pregnant Sarah from Genesis.

Apples!!

Twin Day two times!

It's twin day here at NTBI and my friend Brenda and I decided to go for it. Much to our delight, our husbands inadvertently did the same thing!! (No egos there...)

The sly eyebrow...

The boys both brought their  school pictures home last week- Gabe's came the day before Zach's and he looks handsome, albeit rather forced (as he always does when "smiling" for the camera).

When I took Zach's photo packet out of his bag I laughed for at least ten minutes:

"Zachy," I called down the hall "what's the deal with your school picture?"

"Oh,that," he replied. "It's the sly eyebrow. I practiced it like a thousand times in the mirror."

Ah, the birthday girl

My 34th birthday has come and gone; many lovely gifts and sentiments came my way over the last few days. Katy just showed up with some birthday gifts wrapped in old homework! (We students know how to economize.)

Rilla and I spent my birthday running errand and baking for a baby shower I hosted on Tuesday; she was a good little girl, even at the DMV!

A little bit of this and that

Well, partly due to a malfunction with my blogger app and partly due to what this product of the 1980's would refer to as a good old fashioned "major malfunction" of myself as we adjust, readjust and then go back and adjust some more,I have long been absent from my blog. And I do apologize.

John is onto a new work schedule, Zach and Gabe are doing well at school and Rilla is potty trained... So now I can breathe again. 

We went to a very fun apple orchard today about an hour away; fellow married student Melissa set up a very fun fall "extravaganza!" for the marrieds and since I have never and will never pass up a chance to visit an apple orchard the kids and I (and my very brave new friend Tina) went for it. Afterwards we were all (!) invited to her parents house for dinner, where Zach caught three wooly bear caterpillars and Gabe was allowed to use an old fashioned typewriter, which was a dream come true for my literary son. (We have actually been looking for a typewriter because he loves antiques as well, and no luck yet so this was a big night for him.) Rilla had her hair in French braids for the very first time, and they actually lasted for part of the day. 

In other news, I have a new friend from Germany who was actually born in Kyrgyzstan; last week she and another new friend Natasha, who is from Russia, came over and we made pelmeni. It was so much fun.