Basement Fun!

Brandon and the kids spend a lot of time playing and working in the basement.  There are endless adventures to be had and projects to tackle down there.  Here is a mix of basement fun from mid-November.

T: I like helping Daddy wash his road bike.  I think he is parking it for the winter.

T: I made a school for my babies and pets.

M: I always wondered how a kettle bell works.

T: This is the best way to put together a puzzle.

T: I like to get nice and close to the action.

T: I am helping hold down the wood.

So cute! Great photography, M!

More teaching!

M: I like to do projects too.

The omelet in the sump pump

 In mid November we received a huge beef order.  We went in with two other families and purchased a 1/2 cow.  It must have been a very large cow as we were blessed with LOTS of meat.  To make room for the meat, I dumped the ice in the bottom of freezer boxes into the sump pump nearby.  As I leaned over the sump pump I spotted something down there.  I immediately asked T if she put anything in the sump pump and she admitted she had.  With the cover on I couldn't tell what was down there, so I decided to wait for Brandon to come home and lift the cover off.  It turns out that the only thing she put down there was an omelet.  You can still very clearly see the omelet shape though it was in there for several days.  She loves to make omelets but doesn't always love to eat them. She explained that she didn't want it and the sump pump just seemed like a good place to get rid of it.  We had a good life school lesson about how we can't put things into the sump pump.  Hopefully this lesson has been learned.

Yep, that is an omelet in our sump pump!

The glorious every day life

 In the midst of the chaos, there are so many special moments.  Here is a recap of many special November moments. 

We have amazing neighbors who have three great dogs.  The kids were able to help walk the dogs on a warm November day.

T: These dogs are great!

T: I might be a dog walker some day.

T: One of my life goals is to feed a squirrel out of my hand!  (Legit goal!)

Brandon's parents brought up some boxes of old memory items for Brandon to look through.  There were some framed pictures included.  T was quick to say we should hang all pictures in our family room.  It was hilarious!

T: I think this one would look great here!

T: I made an omelet man!  (She actually made the omelet too!)

T was so excited to dig in the drain at her OT clinic.  She was really hoping to find a frog.  She didn't have any success. 

 

T: The frogs have to be here somewhere!

 

T: I made this for Science.  The legs are sticking out on the other side.

 

 

T: Do you love my picture?  (Notice M's "life isn't fair face" in the background)

M: Thanks for taking a picture of my drawing too.

 

 

I curled T's hair to help with  her jealousy of our photoshoot with M.

Sunshine:  Don't worry Brandon, she isn't going to get up tonight.

This kids decided to do some fun poses on the railing.  This is T's favorite thing, but M decided to join in.

M:  I am filling the whole space from the railing to the ceiling.

T: Look mom, no hands!

M: I can go no handed too!

M and T:  After balancing we needed to blow raspberries on Dad's back!

 

The kids were playing Uno and the loser had to lay on the patio for 10 seconds.  In the end, they both wanted to do the challenge so they could say they did it!

M and T: We are so brave.

The paw and the hand... so sweet.

I don't know anything about braiding.  This is my first ever french braid attempt. 

Sunshine and Buttercup: Looks like the humans are coming back to join our relaxing evening.

I watched some bees or wasps or something fly in and out of the basketball hoop base all summer.  The wind was so strong one day that the hoop fell over.  I asked Brandon to see if there was any sign of a home and he found one and destroyed it.  T found all sorts of worms and things.  She is an adventure girl. 

T: You wouldn't believe what was living under our basketball hoop.

Brandon and the kids played a fun game over Zoom with our neighbors.  I was doing church stuff so I had to miss out, but hopefully we can play again.  Zoom sure is a blessing!

I took a pic of the local COVID chart on November 23rd. As you can see, we were starting to decline from our highest peak.  This is the cases right in our community.  They are now (In real time) back in the "very high" range.

Critical COVID status.

Ten Years changes so much!

On November 11th 2010 we met M for the very first time.  We took MANY pictures together during those first moments, but the picture below has become the lasting memory photo. As the 10 year anniversary of this date was approaching we decided to recreate the picture.  It didn't go exactly as planned since our photographer was a slightly jealous and dramatic 8 year old.  She was over the photo shoot after the first couple of photos.  We did the best we could within these constraints.  M has changed the most!

11-11-10

Ten years later  11-11-20

 

School Pics 2020

Our kids have each been in their respective school building one time since March 13th 2020.  They each were able to get their photo taken this fall.  Because they STILL have fevers we had to write letters to the school nurse and orchestrate the photo time.  Even though the infectious disease Dr. says they are not contagious, they school requested that M go in a side door right near the photo location.  Someone from the office staff met us at the door and he was back in the van less than 2 minutes later. 

My handsome 5th grader! 

T's elementary school wanted us to wait until picture retake day to see if her fever would go away.  We jumped through the school nurse hoops and the "we are not enrolled can we still get her pictures taken hoop" and we got the picture taken!  T always adds a dramatic element to things.  She decided that she would hold her breath while her mask was off and the photo was being taken.  She reported this to me when she returned to the van. I was dreading seeing the picture.  Thankfully, it must have been taken pretty close to the time she started holding her breath because her cheeks are not all puffed up. I want to note that I wanted her to wear her hair down or curled, but she wanted her hair in a pony tail and then last minute she wanted to pull some out on each side.  She is her own woman, so I just went with it.

My beautiful 3rd Grader!

 

Election 2020

 2020!  What a year!  Brandon and I did in person early voting to avoid long lines on election day.  We were home less than 10 minutes after we left our house.  It felt great to have the task complete, but then all we had to do was wait.  In case my kids are reading this years from now, I want to clarify that everyone did a lot of waiting.  The official election day was Tuesday the 3rd.  On Saturday the 7th we finally learned of the results that Joe Biden would become President in January!  I happened to be on CNN on my phone at 10:26am and noticed that CNN projected the winner just one minute before.  I figured that was worthy of a screen shot! 

CNN official!

I wanted to tell the family right away, but M was busy blowing leaves in the back yard (see previous post), so I went back in the house and turned on ABC news.  I really appreciate ABC news and they are my go to station. 

George and Heidi (ND rep I remember from 20 years ago.  She and I were younger then)

 M was VERY into this election and we spent a lot of time talking and praying about different issues.  This year has been hard for him.  He has processed so many things in this year.  Hard things.  He knows a bully when he sees one, and he understands racism in a more personal way than I do.  I heard him come in from leaf blowing and I called him to "come and see something in the family room."  I had my camera ready to capture his response. This is has actual immediate response.  I do believe this is the most joyful picture I have of him in 2020!  He read the caption and the hope became contagious!

M: I could not believe it!

T has not really cared too much about politics.  We did have a good conversation with her about future VP Harris.  We told her that her mom was born in Southern Asia and we talked about how T was born in Southeastern Asia!  Pretty special for her!  She loves that Kamala looks like her.  In reality, she doesn't exactly look like T, but T identifies as "brown" and feels connected to her.  

T: I was sort of watching and sort of listening to Hamilton.

You might be able to guess my current political leaning from this post.  I am hopeful and excited about the future, though I acknowledge there will be hard days ahead in our divided country.  My political leaning is probably more loaded than you would imagine.  I have voted for Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Write-In candidates.  I am the the true definition of an Independent.  I am not a one issue voter, and character is very important to me.

I know there might be some who feel that Christians should vote for a particular party.  I want to suggest some great videos that I watched this fall that have helped me greatly in feeling confident in my vote.  Phil Vischer (The man behind Veggie Tales and What's in the Bible) created several excellent, factual, Christ centered videos this year which I found eye opening.  I am including a link in case you want to check them out.

https://www.youtube.com/user/philvischerofficial/videos

Back to the 7th... The evening on the 7th we watched our Saturday night family movie and then were able to watch both Biden and Harris' acceptance speeches.  I was teary eyed the whole time. There was a level of kindness and professionalism and true joy that I have missed more than I realized. M was (and is) so excited.  We are all praying for our country in these very challenging times. 

Leaf Lovin!

 We have a lovely huge maple tree in our front yard.  Each fall it produces a HUGE pile of leaves!  This year Brandon grabbed the church's leaf blower which was M's favorite way to rake!  I am very thankful for the kids help this year!  I want to say a quick comment about our fall photos.  Brandon is the main photographer.  This fall I worked a lot while Brandon was home with the kids.  This means that they are doing things with him and I am at church working. Yes, this did give me a free pass from raking this fall!

M: I actually don't mind raking this year!

T: I am building big muscles raking this way.

M: Just relaxing after the work is complete

Fall Beauty!

There she goes!

 

 

There he goes!

The following day it was time for the back yard! We don't have any trees in our backyard, (besides our baby newly planted tree) but somehow our yard likes to collect all the leaves of the neighborhood.

M: There were A LOT of leaves back there.

Lots of leaves and reflecting on this being a dug up construction zone last fall! 

Action Shot!

November begins!

November started with a time change.  "Fall Back" is great for adults who enjoy sleeping in, but for kids it is just a day to wake up early and feel tired all day. This year I was especially weary as I had eaten way too many pumpkin seeds and and was up throwing up in the night.  The kids came down early to find me watching a movie and they cuddled in.  It was a long morning, but a very cozy one.

Brandon came home from church to find this.  I think we were all truly sleeping like this.

Ticket To Ride family game!  I love it even when I don't win!

Sometimes we need to pause and celebrate small victories.  This November we began working hard to de-clutter around here. *This is still a work in progress.  One of Brandon's tasks was to look through his magazines.  The stack in his hands was headed for the recycling!

A proud wife moment!

The time change meant that it was lighter again in the mornings for walks!  I saw many incredible sunrises. 

One block from our house... I never get sick of this view!

Another day, another LEGO creation!

T: Some days I just want to be a dancer!

When it is 70 in November, you totally take a screen shot!

 

One of the blessings of homeschooling has been the slower start to our days.  T has learned how to make great omelets and loves to make mine each morning.  She truly has some skills!

T: There are many steps to an omelet.  I am adding the pepper.

Buttercup is curious.  Sunshine is wiped out!

 

 

I needed to get a closeup of this prince. 

 

The kids were very resistant to playing outside this fall.  I had to take a picture of a rare outdoor playtime.

T: We should jump from up here.

M: She makes this look too easy!

M: Nothing odd going on here.  Just a normal morning.

T: This is my latest house.

Covid cases in our area were in the critical level, but M wanted to have his best bud L over.  We decided on a masked outdoor hangout. 

I can tell that M is growing!

The crazy "jump over me" game!  Ahhh!

While M and L played T was scaling the tree in the front.