Change Isn't Always a Bad Thing

When you have kids, a lot of things change. You would think I'd be used to it by now. But, every once in a while, I'm hit with something else that just won't be the way I'd prefer for it to be for a very, very long time.

It occurred to me once again this week, as we began preparing for Christmas . . .

Little pecan tarts, along with other fancy fare, have given way to frosted sugar cookies. We spend much more time now listening to kids' Christmas CDs, watching Frosty the Snowman and singing "Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg" than we did in the pre-kid era. But the single facet of Christmas that's taken the biggest hit is the decorations - specifically the tree.

My ideal tree is decorated with white lights, beautiful bows, and yards and yards of homemade cranberry & popcorn garland. Their ideal tree is decked out with multi-colored lights, mis-matched ornaments, and tinsel, and topped with a star that alternately shines blue and green. And the worst part is, it doesn't AT ALL match the deep jewel-tone colors of our tree skirt!!

Then there is the matter of the fat felt stuffed tree with felt velcro-attaching ornaments that sits in their rooms. And the fiber-optic tree in the basement. And the stuffed white teddy bears with Santa hats that I try unsuccessfully to shove back into the box every year.

So - I can view all of this as the garish replacing the elegant, OR . . . . I can view it as fun replacing pristine . . . for now.

The day will come when our tree will once again shine in its perfection of white lights and color-coordinated bows and cranberry garland. But for now I'm going to wholeheartedly enjoy the shining delight on four little faces as they bask in the glow of colored lights and blinking star. And I'm going to remind myself - and them - that after all, the tree that gives us reason to celebrate Christmas was made of two rough beams of wood, and soaked with the blood of God's own Son, so that we can enjoy eternal perfection with HIM - forever.

I guess with that in mind, I can put up with a few colored lights!

In Progress

Starting in September, our yard has been going through a bit of a makeover . . .

Phase 1
Old driveway



No driveway



New driveway



Phase 2
It was a sad day. Our 2 backyard trees, which have provided shade for us these past 7 years, had to be put to sleep. One was dead already, and the other would have been completely dead a year or 2 from now. I miss them so much, but it needed to be done. (and it's been a lot less raking this fall!) Plus, my dad was able to haul the wood away to use this winter.


No more trees *sob*. When we had the old driveway broken up, we only repaved it to the garage, so we could seed over the part that cut through our back yard.



Phase 3
Killing the grass with industrial strength weed killer. It took about 2 weeks to die a slow, painful, depressing death.


Phase 4
Tilling & Re-seeding
Danny & his dad spent the better part of an afternoon tearing up the back yard and spreading seed.



Waiting . . .


And then, this week . . . .


Hallelujah! Now all that's left to do is maybe some over-seeding and a fence when spring comes. Thanks be to God, we've had great weather this fall for our grass to come in. Can't wait to use our much larger, fenced-in backyard next spring & summer!

Catching Up

Life never stops, whether I post about it or not! So . . . now that we're just a few weeks away from Thanksgiving, here are a few random pics from October.

We celebrated Mr. Moo's birthday with a family gathering and Elmo cake. I've definitely gotten my money's worth on my Elmo Wilton cake pan, since I think I've used it for every one of our kiddos for their second birthday. They all seem to go bonkers over Elmo around the time they turn 2, which is fine by me, since this cake is super easy to make.



Our annual day at Brumbaugh's Fruit Farm for Fall Fun Fest. We went with friends who also have four kiddos about the same ages as ours and then had pizza at our place afterward. I gave the kiddos "hot chocolate", which turned out to be cappuccino - wrong cannister! Oops. I don't think any of them slept that night.


Each year, trying to fit our growing number of kiddos on the turkey gets more interesting . . .


OK, this Belle is a little scary!


It was a rather windy day.


Several weekends ago, we had the chance to go with some wonderful, new friends to La Comedia dinner theater to see a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. Afterward, I got a picture with Elvis/Pharaoh. He and the guy who played Joseph did an excellent job.


The kiddos have had a blast with the fallen leaves. Mr. Moo loves to "help" rake them up, and then scatter them all over the yard again. My little helper.


This past Wednesday was '80s night at AWANA. Oh, the memories . . .


Now I'm going to enjoy the beautiful fall day. I love this season!

Grandparents Day

Today was a good day, but also a little sobering.

We took off early this morning to visit my Grandma Miller and my Grandpa & Grandma Emch, who all live in northeast Ohio. The drive takes a little over 3 hours, and what a pretty drive it was! The autumn leaves that lined the highway for at least half of our trip stood out even more brightly than usual against the rainy gray of the sky.

We met Grandma Miller for lunch at 11:30 (she's in an assisted care facility in Wooster), and stayed for about 2 hours. We've found that is the maximum amount of time 4 young children can last in a nursing home! All through lunch I worried that the others in the dining room would be annoyed with the amount of noise the kiddos were making. They were very well-behaved, but definitely NOT quiet. It was so sweet, though, how many of them came over to say hi to us and tell us how delightful it was to have children around. We couldn't get Malachi to turn around and face the table, and then realized that he was busy flirting with several older ladies across the room!

Grandma showed us her new "apartment" and got out her surprisingly large collection of stuffed cows for the kiddos to play with. Even though she has a lot of trouble walking, she took us down several long hallways to see the brightly-colored birds kept in one of the common areas.

We then headed over to Rittman, to the nursing home where my Grandpa Emch is staying. He had surgery to remove cancer in his bladder several months ago, and hasn't been doing great. There's no telling what each day will bring for him, health-wise. We spent another couple of hours with him, my Grandma and my mom, who is helping her pack up for a move to Columbus next month.

At first Karis and Malachi wouldn't go near him. I think the tubes and hospital bed scared them a little. But by the end of the afternoon, Karis warmed up to the point that she actually played a game with him that involved touching his nose and getting her hand "snarfed." And Moo took every opportunity to tell Grandma & Grandpa that he's now 2, and he had an Elmo cake for his birthday, which Mommy made, and Daddy didn't make it because he had to work. Too funny. And Grandpa may have lost some of his health and memory, but he certainly hasn't lost his sense of humor.

I keep mulling over the day, and I can't help thinking that we need to do this kind of thing more often, and not just with our own grandparents. It was amazing to me just how much just seeing a bunch of crazy, snotty kids can brighten the day for so many people. I think it was good for them, too - to learn about encouraging others by saying hi and stopping to chat a little. They did great today. I was so proud of them.

It's difficult to see my grandparents getting older and more weak and frail. It's difficult knowing that this may be the last day we get to spend with them. Of course, this is true for anyone - we don't know how many days are ordained for us to live - but when someone is very old or very sick, this reality is so much more evident. I'm thankful to have my grandparents, and I'm thankful for all of the older saints that God has placed in our lives. It made for a long day, spending over 6 hours in the van and getting home late tonight, but today was precious, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I Hear You

Last Monday, I received a prosthetic ear bone. It amazes me what modern technology, and a good surgeon, are capable of. But mostly I see it as a gift from God.

With each pregnancy over the last 7 years, I've lost hearing. After Rachel was born I'd lost about 75% in my right ear and 25% in the left. After some testing, the ENT specialist informed me that due to hormonal changes, one of the three bones in my middle ear had malfunctioned, but could be replaced (via laser surgery) with a small prosthetic bone. So, six years ago, I got my right ear back.

Since then, I've slowly lost the hearing in my left ear, until it was basically useless. So, last Monday I had surgery once again. I was disappointed to have to go under anesthesia this time (apparently I was being "uncooperative" - but as I can't recall any of it, I can't defend myself on that count!), but this week has been somewhat surreal. Life suddenly got LOUDER.

For the past several days it has come and gone - sometimes I can't hear a thing, while other times it feels like everyone is yelling through a megaphone right into my ear. This is "normal", the surgeon says, and could last for several months.

I see this as a gift for a number of reasons. But there's one unexpected gift I hadn't even thought about: the gift of music. I didn't even realize how "fuzzy" sounding everything was on Sunday mornings, just sort of dull and the tones always sounded a little off. But this morning . . . WOW. Amazing. I was able to worship like I haven't for a long time, overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of hearing a room full of people lifting their voices to the Savior; the crystal clear instrumentation; the ebbing and flowing and intermingling of harmonies. It all felt like it was right there inside my head! It sort of reminded me of when I got glasses for the first time, and was blown away to see every leaf on every tree in vivid detail.

I think that tomorrow morning, and many mornings to follow, when the kiddos all wake up yelling and carrying on, I will be tempted not to refer to this as the gift that it is (or when Danny starts to snore and I can no longer roll over onto my "good" ear). But I am so grateful for a God who not only gives me what I need, but lavishes on my so many things that are just . . . gravy. Thank You, Lord, for the gift of this morning.

A Time To Work, and a Time to go on Vacation

Last week we headed into uncharted territory . . . our first ever family vacation!

Our destination was New Bern, NC, a beautiful, historic city located at the convergence point of 2 different rivers. We were about one hour from the Crystal Coast, 3 hours north of Myrtle Beach and 3 hrs. south of the Outer Banks. On the map, the star marks the location of New Bern, and the narrow strip of land off the coast, marked "Emerald Isle" is where we took several day trips - to the beach, aquarium, and Fort Macon.

To be honest, we had no idea what to expect, and were a bit fearful about how the kiddos would do on the 12-hour drive. At the last minute, we decided to leave on Thursday night around 11, instead of Friday morning as we'd planned. Genius! The kiddos slept OK - not great - but did just fine and were awake for only about 5 hours of the trip. Since they hadn't gotten a ton of sleep, we all crashed on Friday night around 8:00! (Danny had only slept for about an hour, and I'd gotten about 3-4 hours.) It was totally worth it.

Since the weather was somewhat rainy over the weekend, we stayed around our condo, used the pool & workout room, and visited a nearby fossil museum. Despite the nauseatingly evolutionary flavor of the museum, we all enjoyed the displays of huge shark teeth and other fossils discovered along the North Carolina coast. The kiddos particularly enjoyed the dig outside the museum, where we spent several hours and unearthed aver 100 small shark teeth.

I'd packed each of the kiddos their own "activity box", with books, coloring/ drawing supplies, and various other activities. This kept them so occupied, they didn't even end up watching most of the movies we'd brought. Their boxes served us especially well during all the day trips we took.

The hands-on paleontological dig outside the Aurora Fossil Museum


Our first 7 shark teeth! (which the wind blew back into the dig, never to be seen by us again)


We spent one day at Emerald Isle, which felt almost like our own private beach!




We walked to the end of this fishing pier, and saw a shark circling at the end of it. One fisherman told us it was an 8-to 10-footer.

The North Carolina aquarium was absolutely one of the most kid-friendly places we've ever gone. The kiddos got to witness a "live dive" - a diver spoke to them and answered questions from inside the shark / sea turtle tank. They also held a baby sea turtle, fed rainbow trout, "petted" stingrays, and saw hundreds of sea creatures, all from North Carolina's rivers & coast.


Fort Macon - a strategic stronghold taken by the north in the Civil war. The whole thing is underground and from a distance just looks like a mound of grass. It's surrounded on 3 sides by the Atlantic Ocean.



How Mr. Moo seemed to spend a great deal of our trip. Nearly every day he managed to fall into the water. One day he slipped in a giant puddle. Another day he fell into the pond behind our condo and thoroughly soaked himself. He spent a lot of time shirtless.


The "home away from home." Thank goodness for the kitchen! We ate all but 3 or 4 of our meals in, or packed them in the cooler. If not for the kitchen, this trip wouldn't have been possible.


Our accommodations included a fold-out bed, a loft and a king-size bed.


Mr. Moo got the large closet. It may seem like child abuse, but seriously - all 4 of them fought over who got to sleep there! He loved it so much that every day, at least several times, he had to take Danny or me back there to show us his "special room." He was so proud of it.


Fun with perspective. "Bern" is the Swiss word for "bear" (the city was settled by the Swiss & Germans 299 years ago), so there are lots of cool bear carvings throughout the historic district of New Bern. This particular bear was about 12 feet tall.


The "Cow Cafe" - a highlight for the kiddos. Everything was cow themed, including the large play room at the back of the cafe, where we all had homemade ice cream.


We visited the Fireman's Museum one morning and learned that in 1922, 2 huge fires wiped out about 1/3 of new Bern and left hundreds homeless. Our tour guide was VERY excited about the city's history, and we were the only customers that morning, so we got an earful!!


View from the highway, which spanned several miles of river.


The historic Tryon Palace, which reminded us of Colonial Williamsburg on a smaller scale. Everyone was in period dress - the time period prior to the Revoluntionary War.


Just one of many perimeter gardens


I found out an interesting fact: I make applesauce the same way they made it over 200 years ago! Who knew? I guess I need to find some new applesauce technology.


The way Mr. Moo spent most of our day at the palace - in meltdown mode. I thought it was brilliant, though, that they have 2 separate tour guides: one for normal people, and one for families with small children! We got our own personalized, accelerated tour through the palace, and the other guests were actually able to enjoy their tour.


Taken at a park where we ate dinner one evening


Just one of many "historic landmark" houses throughout New Bern. We spent a whole afternoon just walking the city streets.


So, thanks to the good friends who made this trip possible, we enjoyed one of the best weeks we've ever had as a family. But, as nice as it was to spend a week away, we were glad to come back home again (although I think Moo missed his closet). And we can now tell you more than you ever wanted to know about New Bern, North Carolina!

All About Moo

Next Saturday, our Mr. Moo will celebrate his 2nd birthday. This thought fills me with a strange mixture of emotions. I'm a little sad that my baby is getting so big, in spite of my best efforts to keep this from happening. At the same time, it's been an absolute joy to watch him grow! He's not the same bald, high-maintenance little guy he was a year ago. (Now he has hair!)

I thought I'd jot down a few unique qualities of Mr. Moo . . .


~ To ask for something, he says "Pleeeeeeaaaaase", while rubbing his chest with BOTH hands.

~ He is capable of beating up any and all of his siblings!

~ I've lost count of the number of goose eggs / head injuries he's acquired in the past few months.

~ His mouth is always open.

~ One of his favorite games involves punching me in the arm. I then "punch" him back in the chest, arm or stomach, which makes him laugh hysterically.

~ Speaking of laughs, he's got the happiest, dorkiest, most contagious belly laugh I've ever heard.

~ He does everything 100%, which is what's earned him his other nickname of "Full Throttle."

~ I never knew it was possible for a child to be this messy or just plain disgusting, until Moo came along. He's actually drooled in my mouth while giving me a kiss, and pretty much makes me gag on a daily basis.

~ If you call him anything else, he'll say, "No, I'm Moo." (He does answer to the name "Malachi" as well)

~ He's a clown. There's nothing more motivating to him than getting a laugh. Good luck trying to stop him when that happens!

~ He thinks he can do everything his siblings do - never mind that they're all older. He became enraged at the beginning of the summer, when reality set in and it became obvious he wasn't going to be able to ride a bike without training wheels. He also likes to stand on a stool in front of the potty without his diaper. Nothing ever comes out, but he's proud as punch just the same.

~ Possibly the most endearing quality about Moo: He's a Mama's boy. He gives great bear hugs, and loves to nestle into me.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Moo - I love you!

Spring 2008


Fall 2008




First haircut - August 2009


September 2009