It's been a full two weeks.
Grace and Eden spent the night at our house. I was at Messiah practice when they came and when I got home my girls were so excited they would hardly go to bed. We did manage to get the school girls out the door on time in the morning!
And then the next day they played sleepover until I couldn't take the mess and put everything away again.
We've been playing outside when it's nice out and not too cold.
And we take advantage of crafts at the library! They are so much more creative AND they do all the work and cleanup!
The cat found a new home. Sad day at our house. The neighbors are much more animal lovers than we are- they were worried about it being outside this winter and found a friend to adopt it.
I don't have a long enough block of un-distracted time right now to make cider donuts, so Apple Cider Donut cake will have to do. It's almost better because it keeps longer than homemade donuts.
Cecily got to go to another birthday party on Saturday. She was so excited, and they got to wear fairy wings and do fun crafts.... and so of course she wants to know when she can have her friends for a birthday party. Um... how 'bout never? Because I'm not that into parties? And I think friend parties are completely unnecessary when you will barely remember them? Not to mention it would be a lot of time and extra work for your mother, who is inherently lazy. Poor kid.
They made a leaf pile to jump in.
And throw.
Bob removed two more limbs from the ash tree with his bow saw.
Last Sunday we were invited to Goodfield for invite-a-guest. However, Cadence was running a fever for a few days and she was still hot Sunday morning. Bob volunteered to stay home with her and I took the older two over for church. Sara and Herman invited us- we each have three girls and they are all pretty close in age. My girls have never been to Goodfield before and I wasn't sure if they would even go to Sunday school, but they did! Marched right in and sat down. It was really good to be there- I saw all kinds of people that I haven't seen in ages. After church the girls and I went to their house briefly. The girls got to play a little bit and then we had a potty accident. Bleah. *sigh* They will probably never want to have us over again. We didn't do the supper/singing because Cadence was still sick and I didn't want to leave Bob with a fussy sick girl all day. So instead we came home and I had to come up with supper. Pretty sure we would have eaten better at the invite.
I'd rather put my mashed potatoes in my hair than in my mouth.
Who needs playgrounds when you have large tree limbs to climb on?
Ugh. It feels like it took a month to paint the bathroom. I bought cheap paint (first mistake) and didn't realize the moisture streaks were stains and didn't prime (second mistake). I put three coats of paint on (over several days in my two hour nap window) and could still see streaks. So we went back and bought expensive primer and expensive paint. The girls were very confused after I painted the primer coat: "Why are you painting the green bathroom white??"
The little one wanted to dust like the big girls. Hehe.
So after primer and two more coats of "Dried Basil" I finally got to take the tape off and put the room back together. The plus side of all these coats of paint is that I am now really, really fast at tearing this room apart and removing towel bars, outlet covers, and light fixtures, and putting it all back together again before Cadence wakes up. It's more grey-green in real life, not so yellow. It's a shade darker than the family room/office right next to it.
Monday I had to miss Messiah practice because we had a marriage enrichment night at church for us young-ish couples. It was an enjoyable evening and the girls had a great time with Bob's mom.
Friday was eventful. I had the girls up bright and early and in the van for Co-op. And it didn't start. Ahhh. Thankfully it was Bob's Friday off so he watched the little girls and Anne let me use their vehicle to drive Matthew and Alex to Co-op. We weren't even late! But talk about a stressful way to start the day. Bob pushed the van out of the garage and managed to jump start it while we were gone. When I got home I took it to the mechanic and walked home.... thankfully it just needed a new battery so I walked up a few hours later to pick it up.
Rustin and Sharon came over after work with chainsaws to start working on our trees. We cut down the last three big sections. Mostly in the dark. Probably not the safest.
Bob and I were on rope duty and I was completely unhelpful and dropped the rope- which had a brick tied to one end that snapped back and hit his arm. Oooops. I get the award for being the worst wife.
So then it was really dark and we had one more mostly dead section to cut. I got put on ladder duty for that one. Rustin was barely back on the ladder and the limb started falling funny so he yelled at me to run... I hesitated a minute because I was supposed to be holding the ladder steady for him and he was still all the way at the top. But I abandoned my post and ran (I had to hop over several downed limbs to get to safety) and thankfully the limb didn't hit the ladder, or Bob and Sharon. Good times.
At that point it was too dark to see and we were hungry and I had no idea what I was going to make for supper, so I pulled a Lydiann and invited them to stay. And then a bottle fell out of my cupboard into the blender full of alfredo sauce ingredients. It was an alfredo fountain. There was milk dripping down the inside of the cabinet doors. It was awful.
It turned out ok, I managed to salvage it and we did eat eventually. Although, I was a little bit short on pasta. I have no idea how to figure out how many noodles to make.
It rained/snowed the next day so the yard still looks like this. We've still got the main trunk and a smaller, hollow Redbud to take down.
I spent Saturday morning at Messiah dress rehearsal. It's so fun to sing with an orchestra! And with a really good choir! Sometimes I think they must wonder what an average singer like me is doing there.
Saturday evening the girls went to the farm to play while Bob and I went to potluck.
And finally today, Sunday, was a wonderful day. So, Jakey called earlier this week to tell us he was engaged. (Hallelujah! It's about time!) At dress rehearsal we other siblings, who couldn't go to Burlington because of the performance, were discussing ways to hear the announcement since we didn't think it was going be announced in Washington, and the service times are later in Iowa. We conspired, and one of us pulled a few strings, and it was announced in Washington. Hehe. So Cadence and I hung out in the back stairway at church and live streamed the end of Washington's service on my phone. And they said her name wrong and I laughed.
Bob and the girls went to his parents' house to hang out for the afternoon and I went to sing. The girls asked if I was going to sound good. Um... I hope so? It was so fun. I was a little nervous and I was just hoping I wouldn't sing in the wrong spot or mess up really obviously, and I didn't so that was good. The soloists were great. I really liked the tenor, and of course I totally fangirl over Michelle's (the soprano) voice. And it's always a joy to sing under Phil's direction. Anyway, I loved it and I'm kind of sad it's over.
Now I am so tired...
Blessings.
