Try, Try Again

Oh blog,

you and me,
have shared so much,together

The birth of children
Of life well lived
We have heralded, together

But with the dawn of a new Wolfe Cub
furiously approaching
I find our friendship
ebbing and flowing

But I promise never to completely give up
To never completely give in

And If I only touch base periodically
know that I think of you fondly

O.k. there's my lame poem. I'm sick right now and that's all the more that my brain can wax poetically while simultaneously being filled with gunk.

But it accurately tells how I feel at this chapter in my life.

I'm busy! Not so busy that I can't turn around. Yet, every day I seem to end the day with remarking "Wow, today has been a big day!" and realizing that I had said that about the day before, and the day before, and the day before.

Anyway, what have we been doing that has been making for such big days?

Well school takes up most of our time. With Sofie in 3rd grade this year, her work load has definitely increased. Added on to that is John in 1st grade. You can't slip and slide aimlessly through 1st grade the way that you can Kindergarten. So we start school at 9am sharp, take an hour break at noon for lunch and recess, and then back to the books till 3pm. It's a good schedule for us and we are enjoying it. The younger children are in the mix too. Learning to be each other's friend, taking naps, eating snacks. But like I tell my kids most days, "School is work. There's no getting around that." We strive to make the most of our time and having lots of fun along the way.

(Sofie and her map of the Middle East in Bible times. She loved putting that relief together!)

How are we having lots of fun?

Well school has a lot of fun projects in it this year. So many that we've started "brag walls." Any school project that they are particularly proud of, they can put it on the wall. They are getting quite the collections already!Also to have fun, we've been making sure to take a day off here and there and go enjoy the zoo
or a baseball game (at the new Twins stadium), to name a few things.
Then to make sure that I'm not shirking on my duties there are also all the chores. You know, laundry to "process", dishes to clean, and meals to be eaten.

(Caleb's usual position while waiting for his breakfast)

We are truly having a wonderful time this fall. And so if the blog suffers a little for it (or a lot), then I guess I have my priorities straight :) Somewhat :)

Summer Fun

It's 3:00 in the afternoon. I've just sent my kids (yup, all 4 of them) back into their rooms for another stab at quiet time. We had tried this at 1:00. But I guess I wasn't clear enough on the reminding them of the rules of quiet time and the older ones kept the younger ones awake. I, then, thinking I had a minute to myself, quickly fell asleep only to be woken with screams of water being thrown and making the hallways slippery...

Some days are like that.

I am thankful that I got in a nice nap before the choas really was ramped up. This pregnancy I haven't been sleeping well and am finding it really hard to turn my brain off at night. In addition we are all doing VBS this week and it's in the evening. Which just makes me even more tired.

I've been so tired that my eyelids have started randomly twitching.

But the tiredness and busyness is all worth it. It means we go do things like summer camping. Our latest foray was a little special/ unusual. As you know we usually go camping with my family. But this time we went with some family friends and took my 7 year old niece with us who was visiting from Atlanta.
We had planned this camping trip in April to coincide with a 10 mile race that I wanted to run with my friend. She relentlessly trained and ran the 10 mile race FAST. I was very impressed. My training somewhat has um... faltered while I bake this last child.I have become what I hate.

A plump bump on a log.

But road races aside we had a very nice camping weekend. (If you ignore the torrential rain and thunder storm that descended upon us Friday Night. My children slept like rocks through the entire thing. My niece on the other hand, ended up in bed with Mike and I for most of the night. Poor thing.)

We did all manner of camping traditions, grilled burgers, roasted s'mores, swam at the lake, played ball, rode bikes, and sat around the campfire. My niece said it was one of the best times she's ever had and asked to come next time we go camping.

We've planted the seed, for the joy of camping, in yet another generation.

Bike Trip

Well, to continue with my theme of enjoying my children's childhood even though I'm not feeling good. I decided that today would be a perfect day to ride into our local small town on the bike path.We had a very nice time. I packed lots of water and a snack (dry cereal, we get a little low on groceries by Saturday afternoon.)
I was impressed how both Sofie & John continue to be more adept at riding their bikes. Just all around stronger and more able to handle some uncomfortableness. I am trying to work with John on the fine art of "coasting." He just keeps pedaling his bike no matter what. It's either pedaling, or stopping. There's no in between. So he did get a little tired at the end. I would too having done all that monotonous leg work.

The small town was not as much fun as I had hoped. But we did have ice-cream and stopped in the tiny pet store to see all manner of fish, gecko, guinea pig, and hamster. They even had a cat.

Glory be.

Sofie had decide to bring BOTH American Girl Dolls in a Dora backpack. They got VERY heavy for her and everyone kept stopping her to ask about her dolls. WAY too much attention for my quiet girl. So she was hot and tired from carrying around the heavy back back. Plus it was just plain ole' BAKING hot so we stopped off under a shaded tree, cooled off, and then hopped back on our bikes.

Outing with children accomplished. Now I'm gonna get re-acquainted with the couch.

Song for a Fifth Child

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.


by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

This verse seemed so applicable to me today. This has been a long 3 months of pregnancy so far. The house needs constant attention, this perpetual stomach flu is making me very narcissistic.

So today after breakfast I looked at my 4 precious children who are already getting so old. And decided to do something about it.

So we went to the Arboretum.

They ran and played, crawled through old logs
and balanced on fallen trees, We had so much fun just playing a good ole' game of hide n' seek in the tall grass.They all ended up with huge smiles on their faces. And for today, at least, we all enjoyed their childhoods, together.

The Post In Which I Have No Pictures

I worked so hard to remember EVERYTHING for our camping trip this weekend. I even saw the camera on my last minute dash out the door! So when my Dad was baffling over why His camera couldn't take really rich colored pictures. I immediately grabbed my camera to show him how superior my camera was! Until I realized that a battery that is still in it's charger, back HOME, makes an expensive camera basically a pile of plastic, lenses, and wires...

Oh well.

So we went camping this weekend. It almost didn't happen. I had procrastinated so long in making camping reservations that it ceased to be procrastination and was pure didn't-get-it-done. My brother and parents took over and found (shock of all shock) that the state campgrounds were all full. But they did find a quaint little campground over in picturesque Northeastern Iowa that suited us all just fine.

Did I mention that it's 4 hours away for us?

4 hours usually isn't such a big deal for us. Yes, it's on the long side, but definitely do-able. Mike and I did decide that since we were traveling that far we were going to leave a night early and make a 3-day weekend out of it.

Did I mention that it was 4 hours away?

It was a little hectic leaving 24 hrs early. A days worth of chores had to get squished into just a couple hours. So when we left, in our expensive yet non air-conditioned car, it was much later than we had expected. And we ended up in rush hour traffic. Not that we stayed long in the traffic. 1 hour screamed by and before we were even out of suburbia we had to stop for supper.

McDonalds dollar menu style...

McDonald's dollar menu make me nauseated. We'll really anything from McDonald's make me nauseated. And right now, being pregnant... We'll I'm sure you get the idea.

After our meal we got back into rush hour traffic and spent the next 5 hours on the road. With no air-conditioning, a screaming 19 mo. old, darkness quickly approaching, and only a vague idea of where we were actually going.

After stopping for gas a second time, we did finally reach the campground. (I felt like the Isrealites after wandering in the desert for 40 years.) at exactly 10:10pm. Of course it was pitch black and way past even my own bedtime. That's a GREAT time to set up camp in those conditions.

It's those times in my life where I'm thankful I'm not the man.

My husband unhitched our travel trailer, leveled it, put the stabilizer jacks down, hooked up sewer, water, and electricity, assembled our beds (they are canvas bunks on the side of our travel trailer) laid out the mats, opened the awnings and set up the Pack 'n Play. All this while my Dad held a flashlight for him so he could see.

And I sat in my parents camper, chatting with my Mom.

I do have a part in setting up the camper too. I make the beds. :) Eventually we did get everyone and ourselves to bed about an hour later. For a bad start it was a great camping trip. We hiked, fished, played catch, checkers, and even had a birthday party for the 6 people there who had recently had a birthday.

You should've heard that rendition of "Happy Birthday."

But were back home now. The trip home wasn't nearly as eventful and we made it in the 4 hrs. it was supposed to take.

It would've been great to show you all this in picture form. But again. A camera is nothing with out it's battery. I'll remember it next time. (But what else will I forget?!?!)

The Latest

I truly am just an incubator.

No matter the emotional rollercoaster I'm on. No matter how sure I am that I don't want this, or that I desperately do. No matter how many times I change my mind in a day. This new babe is safely ensconced in me and my Savior seems to have been steadfast in His decision that our family is not yet complete. Thank you Jesus.

Even after having so many children I was still reduced to tears at the sight of my little precious this morning during an ultrasound. There truly is a baby in there and is growing just perfectly. The heartbeat is strong and seems to have a pension for thumb sucking already. A sure boy trait in our family. :)

So here's is Wolfe Cub #5. Can't wait to see who you are sweet one.

Waiting on the 4th of July

For the 4th of July we are usually camping, or boating on a far off Lake (thank you Uncle Tom!) But this year we found ourselves firmly on our own little piece of terra firma. We haven't ever taken the kids to a fireworks display so we decided that this would be the year. We briefly entertained the idea of riding our bikes into Excelsior, but the lack of head lamps on a pitch black trail helped us to move on. So in the afternoon, 4 hours before the fireworks, we took off for our favorite local small town.

All in all the kids did great. We brought some balls and "worms and snakes" to keep us entertained during our wait. Daddy was great and even bought us some cheese curds and popcorn. The place was so amazingly crowded by the time that we got there that we had to camp out by the bathrooms, but thankfully they did not stink (TRUST ME, I would know if they did) and it actually was quite convenient when the inevitable calls started for a potty break.

The kids had varying degrees of love for the fireworks. Sofie thought they were so pretty, John was pretty calm but thoroughly loved the show. Lilia hid her head in my lap most of the time, saying it was "too loud!" And Caleb just kept saying, "Wow! WOW!" over and over again.

The night culminated with a 1/2 mile trek back to our car at 11pm. I was so thankful that all the kids were such troopers and did the walk without complaint (well, not too much). In fact, Lilia, I think just went to her happy place and didn't make a peep for the whole walk! (That or just comatose from lack of sleep :) )

Anyway, we had a very good time and will be repeating in future years (You know, when were not camping or boating on a far away lake. )