Mid November

Sometimes the days go really slow, sometimes I can barely get the days work done before it's over, and I blink and it's been over two weeks since I blogged. Time is so weird. Anyway.  

I've never been that much of a shopper and my introverted self loooves online shopping.  However: good arguments can be made for buying things in person- for example, I ordered this book for Shelly's kids. The sweet little doll tucks into a pocket on each page and she took a bath and then I turned the page...

 I laughed. A lot. I have a dark sense of humor.  And English is obviously not their first language. (The blue oval is a towel that you can wrap around her.)
The big girls weren't out of school for at least another hour, but she was determined to wait on the porch with Grace's birthday present.

 Since potluck was scheduled so close to Halloween, Jon and Nichole suggested costumes.  Bob was not super excited about it, but he did get into dressing Miriel up as Link (from Zelda).  I had run across my costume idea a few weeks earlier and had been semi-disappointed to have nowhere to use it. Well.  You can't read my sign in the picture, it says "SSHHH!"

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I was "All Quite on the Western Front."  (A most depressing book, and a hilarious costume idea... ok, I realize, it's only funny to me.) 
 The other costumes were pretty great- Bob Ross and Happy Little Tree, Santa and Christmas Tree, Mechanic and Tool Salesman, Electrician and Lightbulb, Goose and Maverick, a Lumberjack.  Good times.
My Mom is letting my girls use her old tin plates in their playhouse.  I meant to put a clear sealer on them and never got around to it so they were starting to get a bit rusty in spots.  It's too cold for sealer right now so all I've gotten done is rust removal. Before:

 After.  So cute!

 Her sisters think she needs hair accessories.  It is pretty adorable.

 We've gotten a few decent leaf piles in between the snow and rain and cold.

 Hi everybody!  I've got two teeth!

 I cleaned out church purses and flipped through Cecily's notebook.  Odd child.  haha.  I don't think she's going to struggle with Math or geometry... :P  Everybody struggles with drawing the treble clef.

Bob was home so I took Miriel to get her 6 month pictures taken alone on Friday afternoon.  She did pretty good, although she wasn't very smiley. It's so weird to be out with only one child.   

The second graders sang at a presentation at the HS on Tuesday evening.  I took Cecily and Miriel, Bob stayed back with the middles.  I'm still not entirely sure what the presentation was for... but we did get to listen to Madrigals, which I love. 

So happy to be outside, even though it was a little chilly.

 When your sister is moving out of state and has enough things on her mind, you find Aurelia's perfect Christmas dress in the wrong color online and offer to dye it for her.  Then she amazons it and the supplies right to your door.

 And you spend an afternoon turning your washing machine slightly pink... #worth it.

Emmy can be so sweet sometimes.  She thought the technology teacher's classroom tree NEEDED a star.  So she picked one out and her teacher sent me this picture.  :)  

 They spent one whole afternoon packing and moving to Indiana.  On the train.  And it was also sometimes a vacation cabin.  Haha.  (Laura Ingalls just took the train out west, and Gideon and Aurelia are moving to Indiana, and apparently they want to go on vacation.)

 I had half a pig and a quarter cow waiting at the locker so we headed over after school.  We stopped at the farm briefly and managed to get toys out in every room before picking up our 300+ pounds of raw flesh.  Ha.  The freezer is full, which we love.

We stopped in Goodfield on our way home... Emmy tried valiantly to hold Aurelia, Cadence was wild, they were all loud and wound up, and Miriel just took it all in...

Blessings.

Forget fall, let's start winter!

We all got to go to the HarvestCall family night two weeks ago.  The girls had fun filling shoe boxes.  Cadence was... enthusiastic... and completely exhausting.  She had no concept of staying in line and taking one of everything; she was darting in and out grabbing whatever suited her fancy at the moment.  For a while she was Susan's buddy, but she wasn't any calmer for her either.  I keep telling myself that spunk, ambition, and tenacity will all be good qualities someday...  

Saturday was rainy.  Very rainy.  Bob and I and our little sidekick got to go to Kevin and Anna's wedding in the afternoon and evening.  We dropped the older girls off at the farm and drove cross country to the church.  I haven't been that direction in ages- we drove past where Grandma Marjorie grew up, past my second cousins houses, through Carlock, to pretty much the middle of nowhere.  Ha.  Miriel wasn't so sure about this wedding business.  She ended up being noisy, so I spent most of it in the hallway.       

The reception was in Bloomington, which was another drive through pouring rain- I don't think it let up all day.  We were at a table with Caleb and Bethany, which was fun.  And Jason and Rebekah, who I've seen 3 times in the last month and probably not at all in the preceding year... haha.  Miriel was pretty good so I was mostly able to enjoy the evening.  Conference centers generally aren't set up well for nursing babies, so that's always interesting.  The food was especially good since I didn't have to make it. :P  It was starting to get late and we needed to pick up the girls so they could get to bed (and so mom and dad could recover... hehe) but they still hadn't served the cake yet.  *sigh*  So we left before the cake.  It was very sad and I hoped that it wasn't very good cake. (I heard that it was. double *sigh* Cake is the best thing ever and I missed it.) It was a nice wedding.  But there are definitely things I prefer about AC weddings... like not taking up almost all of a perfect rainy Saturday- the things I could have accomplished!  Also, congregational singing.  It's so quiet and awkward with no singing... 
Slowly making a little bit of progress on my mini lab.  

They have been BEGGING to carve pumpkins for weeks now.   First step- draw your face.

Then clean them out! Some were more helpful than others... I still do all of the actual carving.  

Very pleased with the results.

I was in the mood for cinnamon rolls and tried to save myself some time by rolling it all out at once.  The cinnamon roll anaconda probably took me more time to cut up, and was a terrible, yet delicious, mess. Lesson learned.

They've also been so excited for Halloween.  And Then. It snowed.  I'm not sure how the grade school teachers survived such a momentous day.  

Emmy wanted to be festive and cut her sandwich into a pumpkin. :)

I held the middles off until after school- then I wrestled four kids into snow clothes.  

When it was time to come inside before trick or treating, I wrestled four kids out of wet snow clothes.  And made cocoa because that's what we do and I'm not allowed to stray from any sugary tradition without much protest.
Then I got four kids into costumes. (are you feeling tired yet?)

A kitty cat.

A twinkling star.

Little Ladybug

Last minute yellow Crayon.

I wrested four kids into socks, shoes, coats, and mittens, and carseats.  We loaded into the van and then out of the van at Grandma Beutel's.  Then we loaded up and went to the library and unloaded again.  Are we done yet, Mom? 

Miss Sarah read a story and they got a treat and a craft to take home.  And it was warm!

We loaded back into the van and out again at home.  So. Tired. So many buckles.  Ladybug wings off and on each time.   

There were only 3 houses on our whole street with porch lights on, so we didn't stay out long.  It was cold!  One of the neighbors gave us half of their candy bowl, so we came home with plenty of candy.  Then we ate chili for supper and listened for the doorbell...  I had bought full size candy bars this year because we don't usually get very many customers and if we're going to have leftovers, they might as well be good leftovers.  Yeah.  Grace and Eden came, a carload of Beutel cousins and kids, and ONE other person the entire rest of the evening.  I slept well that night... :P  

On Saturday, Miriel and I got to spend the morning with the W-ton girls at Katie's baby shower.  It was at Heather's house, which is a bit of a haul and a drive I haven't taken in ages.  It was worth it though.  We haven't changed a bit in the last 12 years since your wedding, right Katie?  So good to see these girls again!  Heather conveniently had to take the picture... ha.  It was a fun morning of good food, swapping birth stories... our conversations have definitely changed since high school.  :P  

We all went up to Restmor on Sunday after church.  Grandpa Beutel put Miriel to sleep and the other girls had a great time exploring 'Grandmas Koch's' room (Cadence-ism. It sounds so funny, like there are multiples of her).   

Miriel had her six month checkup- it was way too early in the morning.  I had to get all four of them up at the same time, which was very poor planning.  I'm starting to think Cadence may have a future in healthcare.  She begged for my measuring tape after the nurse left the room and made a mark by Miriels toes and very seriously measured and wrote down things on the paper, just like the nurse.  The squish was happy as a clam until she got her shots. At the moment she is tall and average weight.  Logan is still winning.  hehe.

May you all have a John Deere loving, tractor jammie wearing, girl someday.  The originals are getting too small and I can't resist "Can you buy those on your 'puter?"  

She scooted herself down to where she can kick better and was just chilling, talking to herself, and smiling.  

I'm not super excited for the cold or the dark, but at the rate time is flying it will be Christmas soon; and I love Christmas.  
Blessings.