Saturday, November 18, 2017

The last 3 months...


Strap on your seatbelts.
We are about to fly through 3 months.
There will be pictures and short blurbs. 
Likely out of order at times. 

2nd and 4th grade. First day of school.
This is probably the most handsome day of school.
Otherwise they don't do their hair unless I make them or do it for them.

This is his 2nd year of preschool. Next year it'll be kindergarten!

Tate was studying monarch caterpillars/butterflies for awhile. He really wanted to find one - mostly because the teacher offered some sort of point incentive for a prize (or something). So, we headed out one Friday night to a park. And him and I went looking for milkweed. Less than 5 minutes into our search and we found a good sized monarch caterpillar chilling on some milkweed. We looked another 40 minutes and didn't find another. And we also looked for the next several weeks and never found another.
Can I just say that I do not recollect really ever watching the process of a monarch butterfly before?
ITS AMAZING! 
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!
I really intended to do a blog post about it.....but here it is amongst a variety of other things. 
And yes, this creature is getting more press time than my 3 darling boys.
We got him on a Friday night and he was a raveonous eater all weekend! Did you know that they poop a lot also?!?! It was Labor Day weekend, so we had an extra day. By the time Tuesday morning hit to take him into school, he had attached himself to the top of our container, but was just hanging there. I didn't want to disturb him, so we didn't take him in that day. At Tuesday at dinnertime, I noticed the caterpillar was moving and jiving. Within a matter of a minute, he had shed his striped exterior and was just a hanging there in a green chrysalis. We took him in the next day for the classroom to keep an eye on him. They stay in their chrysalis for about 10-14 days.
Well, it comes time for this guy to start thinking about coming out and a weekend hits.
I offer to bring him home that way in case he emerged on Friday night and then he didn't have to sit in this small container for the rest of the weekend as a butterfly. Look at that chrysalis! It had gold flecks around the top! And the green was amazing. It was already starting to get a little transparent at this point.
And this was how we left it on Saturday morning before we headed out of town for a wedding.
He emerged at some point during the day. A little bummed that we missed it. 
The teacher really wanted us to try to bring him back if he hatched (Chickens hatch.....I'm not really sure what butterflies do) so the kids could release him.
But I felt kinda bad just keeping him trapped up. At this point, he had been a butterfly for well over 24 hours.
And he was beautiful and perfect. Oh my goodness. So crazy to think about what happened in that chrysalis in 2 weeks. And how he was all folded up in it and emerged with these decorative and gorgeous wings!
So, we let him go on a pleasant Sunday evening. He immediately flew away and up into a high part of a tree.

Point of all of this: Wow. Wow. Wow. God is awesome. I cannot watch this process of life without being pointed toward an intelligent and inspiring creator.

Kenny came for a short visit one weekend. Heath was pretty happy about that. And so were the rest of us.

I battled a pretty pesky elbow injury since the beginning of August. It has turned a corner this past month, but it still feels a little compromised and weak when I do certain things. I hurt it while putting a solid stain on our back porch. A little too much vigor for a little too long. From what I self-diagnosed, it was probably some sort of tendinitis injury, but it was pretty bad for awhile. Hurt to brush my teeth. To do my hair. To write. Forget about actually playing tennis, volleyball, or doing any weight bearing exercises on it. My online sources said it could be a bother for up to 6 months. 

This is a friend's wall hanging. She actually kinda acquired when she came to visit us about 10 years ago. I just heard the story recently though. Anyways. Moving here has allowed me to reconnect with her. And its been a real blessing. She included me in an effort of gathering various women in her life together for a monthly gathering. We talk about things that matter. We eat. We get to know each other. In this season of life of being newer to a community and of also our vocational setting in a church, I am always intitiating relationships and connections with people.....it was nice to have it inititated with me and be included. Recreating my own version of this wall-hanging is on my to-do list.

I was also a part of a women's Bible study that did Priscilla Shirer's "Armor of God" study. Some of the work throughout the week was intense and required a lot of time, but it was such a challenging and encouraging study to go through. And even better when you are working through it alongside others. She is a new "go to" for when I want to listen to an online message while working out.

I got my hands on a bunch of free apples! And then a friend and I spent a good portion of a Saturday processing her apples and mine. I believe we canned 68 quarts that day. A long day, but much better with a friend.

We had 4 weddings to attend back-to-back-to-back-to-back. All 4 very different. And that's the fun of weddings. They reflect the bride and groom. A nice time of being forced to shower and get dressed up on an otherwise lazy appearance day of the week.




Landon played soccer again this past fall. He did well. He still declares this to be his favorite sport.
Tate really wanted to try football. I wasn't ready for him to do full-on tackle yet. I found a flag football league that he was barely still able to do based on age. He did really well. I mean, a lot of football at this age looks more like corralling squirrels, but Tate was one of the quicker boys on his team and scored a number of touchdowns. He thinks he wants to do the real deal football next year.....


We were Lego Ninjago for Halloween (costumes courtesy of Aunt Jaime and Uncle Ben.)

Student ministry is in full swing. This was a recent Sunday morning.
Carries with it a large range of emotions and descriptions. Exciting. Challenging. Purposeful. Discouraging. Frustrating. Invigorating. Joyous.



Other areas of mention that don't have a picture to include with them:
We celebrated a 14th wedding anniversary at the end of August.

Adam got a new-to-us truck. Chevy Avalanche. Burnt orange. I still haven't driven it. But he's happy to have a truck again. And I'm happy that he's happy. And that we could pay for it in full.

We marked the 4th anniversary since Adam's spinal cord injury.

I got to lead Bingo for the month of October at a local retirement home. I may have discovered a potential vocational calling.

Adam shot a deer up in Michigan during a hunting outing with friends.

We find ourselves helping with a college ministry at our church.

I'm a table leader for the MOPS/MomsNext ministry at our church.

I've been watching a baby on Mondays. Its been fun to carry a little girl around the house.

We continue to look at houses in the area. In the past 9 months, we've thrown offers at 4-5 houses and looked at lots more. We aren't desperate and are not willing to duke it out with competing offers though. The location and convenience of our current house (the church owns it) is pretty great and has really grown on me. I just miss the days of having more space and being more able to easily host, gather, and accomodate others. Patience. Contentment. I'm still working on those.

Landon and Tate have started piano lessons. They are doing pretty well with it. The teacher is really patient and good with handling boys that are squirrely at lessons after school.


And I'm sure I'm missing something that was noteworthy. But alas, this must come to a close. Really. I'm really going to try to do better at keeping up with this documenting of our lives. For the sake of my children (since I'm not good at printing pictures or scrapbooking or keeping photo albums or journaling.....)