Well, life has been busy here while we wait. I guess you could say we are gearing up. We were blessed with Diester working lots of overtime the first 1/2 of the year. We have been doing a ton of things around here, and also getting our house ready to add two little boys. The extra money has certainly been a blessing.
The girls and I just finished school at the end of June, which opened up our time for many other things. That has been nice!
Diester went this a.m. with a friend, and picked up the meat from an Angus cow. We got a 3/16 portion! What a blessing that will be to have!
We have just finished repainting/decorating the living room~~which took FORRRRR EVER! I am going to post some pix. (Okay, only 5 pix per blog I guess, so the next blog will have the finished look.) I am really happy with it, but is was a ton of work. Glad to be done upstairs anyway!
We also replaced that lattice on the back of our deck; and Diester rebuilt a bench we had that was falling apart, and it is as strong as can be. I stained a swing that we have on our patio downstairs. We have been having our downstairs family room turned into a smaller family room, and a small bedroom for Hannah. (A HUGE Thank you! ! ! to John Parker~aka our remodeler!) So, now we are starting to paint on that. She designed it, and has a HUGE closet~~bigger than any of us have in the rest of the house. It will hold everything basically as there is no room for dressers, etc. in this small bedroom. So, we got a great set of closet organizer shelving that Diester and I are in the middle of piecing together. It will be really nice once we get it in there. And, it will fit perfectly I think. God really worked that out, because we did not check the closet organizers out until after she had planned her bedroom, and the size of the closet, and it was already built. WOW! Seriously! I think Diester was surprised at how nicely it will fit too! So, she has painted her closet lavender. Next, come the baseboards. Then we will get the shelving in, and start on painting that actual bedroom portion down there. She is getting excited!
What else is going on? Oh, we have about 60 tomato plants in 3 different gardens. We have sunflowers, lima beans, basil, green beans (which we need to go and pick), brussel sprouts, broccoli (if that lives) Um, what else??? I am trying to keep my flowers from dying. Oh, and we have started planting herbs. I just bought a little spearmint plant today. We can put that in our tea! ! We also have comfrey (which makes a good salve and is a healing herb), and we have lavender and yarrow! Mallory also has a little flower garden, but hasn't been too happy with it. Only the zinnias are really thriving.
We have a friend (she is actually Mallory's friend and is 13 yo) who is in the hospital right now recovering from a resection surgery of her intestines. Part of her intestine started to die from Crohn's Disease. A couple of months ago, she had surgery and ended up with an ileastomy, so that they could hope to do a resectioning surgery after that. After waiting for about 2 months, they just took out about a 12 inch section of her intestine that was not functioning, and she is recovering from that. It sounds really simple to type it up, but really it has been quite intensive major surgery. She is at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and they have been great. She has been a real trooper, and I don't think in the many times that we have visited, I have ever heard her complain or whine about anything. She has counted on the Lord for her sustanance, and He has provided. What a good example! Anyway, a couple of reasons that I note this. We have spent a considerable amount of time there since Mallory and her are such good friends. And, that squirt, she told us before she went into the hospital this time that the best part of her stay the last time was when the girls visited. WOW! That was sooo nice! So, we have to go over now! ! ! (tongue in cheek-we love her and are excited to visit her) We do try to take things to do to pass the time. Mallory took her guitar yesterday, and we sang worship songs. What a precious time it was. She was actually pretty well knocked out with pain meds, but she enjoyed it all the same. Her mom and dad were singing along with us. It was quite special!
Um, what else? Hannah enjoyed her trip to Florida to stay with a friend and her family down there. They went to the beach, St. Augustine's, and boated; but the thing she and the rest of the family seem to enjoy the most is: ta da:
reading. They spent hours reading. Hannah told us that one time every last kid was reading in the car when they were headed someplace. They spent 2 hours in Barnes and Noble, and she read 3 books while in Florida. Now that is her type of vacation! She loves to read! Now I have nothing against reading. It makes my heart happy that she likes it sooooo much, but I had to let her know when she got back that we do more than reading around our house. hehe Vacation was over! Quite the party pooper I am, huh?
Besides that, Mallory has been really 'Johnny on the spot' making dinners when I am in the middle of working on the living room. Hannah is also learning to make dinners for the family. Her specialty is more of the sweet items that I will allow in the house. :-) It is neat to be able to count on them to prepare entire meals.
We have also been blessed with some wonderful neighbors in our back yard. They are great people whom we have grown to love quickly. You could say we have a ton in common, such as homeschooling, being Christians, natural healing, and eating healthy, etc. I will admit that I believe the Lord has brought them here. We even just got a gate for free(off of Freecycle~~love that when it works) that the guys went and picked up so that we could put it between our yards to make it easier to get from our yard to theirs, and visa versa. Hannah loves kids, and they have 2 little ones that Hannah is really enjoying! Great babysitting opportunities for the girls! What a blessing!
I don't want to forget what a blessing the girl's 'adopted Grandpa' has been to them, and our family. He has one of our gardens in his back yard, and helps us along with that. We enjoy having him for dinner, spending time with him, and just visiting. Since the girls have no grandpa anymore, they have just loved him being in their lives, as well as Diester and I. We enjoyed lunch out with him at Red Lobster (one of my favorites) just last Sunday! That has also been a blessing!
So our summer has included many of these things along with keeping up on just the normal household stuff. As you can see our lives are full. We are not sitting on our thumbs while we wait for our boys. We pray for them every night, and think about them often. I hope you are keeping them in your prayers too! Thank you!
I know this is a long post. It has been a while since I have written anything, so I figured now is a good catch up time.
Well, life has been busy here while we wait. I guess you could say we are gearing up. We were blessed with Diester working lots of overtime the first 1/2 of the year. We have been doing a ton of things around here, and also getting our house ready to add two little boys. The extra money has certainly been a blessing.
The girls and I just finished school at the end of June, which opened up our time for many other things. That has been nice!
Diester went this a.m. with a friend, and picked up the meat from an Angus cow. We got a 3/16 portion! What a blessing that will be to have!
We have just finished repainting/decorating the living room~~which took FORRRRR EVER! I am going to post some pix. (Okay, only 5 pix per blog I guess, so the next blog will have the finished look.) I am really happy with it, but is was a ton of work. Glad to be done upstairs anyway!
We also replaced that lattice on the back of our deck; and Diester rebuilt a bench we had that was falling apart, and it is as strong as can be. I stained a swing that we have on our patio downstairs. We have been having our downstairs family room turned into a smaller family room, and a small bedroom for Hannah. (A HUGE Thank you! ! ! to John Parker~aka our remodeler!) So, now we are starting to paint on that. She designed it, and has a HUGE closet~~bigger than any of us have in the rest of the house. It will hold everything basically as there is no room for dressers, etc. in this small bedroom. So, we got a great set of closet organizer shelving that Diester and I are in the middle of piecing together. It will be really nice once we get it in there. And, it will fit perfectly I think. God really worked that out, because we did not check the closet organizers out until after she had planned her bedroom, and the size of the closet, and it was already built. WOW! Seriously! I think Diester was surprised at how nicely it will fit too! So, she has painted her closet lavender. Next, come the baseboards. Then we will get the shelving in, and start on painting that actual bedroom portion down there. She is getting excited!
What else is going on? Oh, we have about 60 tomato plants in 3 different gardens. We have sunflowers, lima beans, basil, green beans (which we need to go and pick), brussel sprouts, broccoli (if that lives) Um, what else??? I am trying to keep my flowers from dying. Oh, and we have started planting herbs. I just bought a little spearmint plant today. We can put that in our tea! ! We also have comfrey (which makes a good salve and is a healing herb), and we have lavender and yarrow! Mallory also has a little flower garden, but hasn't been too happy with it. Only the zinnias are really thriving.
We have a friend (she is actually Mallory's friend and is 13 yo) who is in the hospital right now recovering from a resection surgery of her intestines. Part of her intestine started to die from Crohn's Disease. A couple of months ago, she had surgery and ended up with an ileastomy, so that they could hope to do a resectioning surgery after that. After waiting for about 2 months, they just took out about a 12 inch section of her intestine that was not functioning, and she is recovering from that. It sounds really simple to type it up, but really it has been quite intensive major surgery. She is at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and they have been great. She has been a real trooper, and I don't think in the many times that we have visited, I have ever heard her complain or whine about anything. She has counted on the Lord for her sustanance, and He has provided. What a good example! Anyway, a couple of reasons that I note this. We have spent a considerable amount of time there since Mallory and her are such good friends. And, that squirt, she told us before she went into the hospital this time that the best part of her stay the last time was when the girls visited. WOW! That was sooo nice! So, we have to go over now! ! ! (tongue in cheek-we love her and are excited to visit her) We do try to take things to do to pass the time. Mallory took her guitar yesterday, and we sang worship songs. What a precious time it was. She was actually pretty well knocked out with pain meds, but she enjoyed it all the same. Her mom and dad were singing along with us. It was quite special!
Um, what else? Hannah enjoyed her trip to Florida to stay with a friend and her family down there. They went to the beach, St. Augustine's, and boated; but the thing she and the rest of the family seem to enjoy the most is: ta da: reading. They spent hours reading. Hannah told us that one time every last kid was reading in the car when they were headed someplace. They spent 2 hours in Barnes and Noble, and she read 3 books while in Florida. Now that is her type of vacation! She loves to read! Now I have nothing against reading. It makes my heart happy that she likes it sooooo much, but I had to let her know when she got back that we do more than reading around our house. hehe Vacation was over! Quite the party pooper I am, huh?
Besides that, Mallory has been really 'Johnny on the spot' making dinners when I am in the middle of working on the living room. Hannah is also learning to make dinners for the family. Her specialty is more of the sweet items that I will allow in the house. :-) It is neat to be able to count on them to prepare entire meals.
We have also been blessed with some wonderful neighbors in our back yard. They are great people whom we have grown to love quickly. You could say we have a ton in common, such as homeschooling, being Christians, natural healing, and eating healthy, etc. I will admit that I believe the Lord has brought them here. We even just got a gate for free(off of Freecycle~~love that when it works) that the guys went and picked up so that we could put it between our yards to make it easier to get from our yard to theirs, and visa versa. Hannah loves kids, and they have 2 little ones that Hannah is really enjoying! Great babysitting opportunities for the girls! What a blessing!
I don't want to forget what a blessing the girl's 'adopted Grandpa' has been to them, and our family. He has one of our gardens in his back yard, and helps us along with that. We enjoy having him for dinner, spending time with him, and just visiting. Since the girls have no grandpa anymore, they have just loved him being in their lives, as well as Diester and I. We enjoyed lunch out with him at Red Lobster (one of my favorites) just last Sunday! That has also been a blessing!
So our summer has included many of these things along with keeping up on just the normal household stuff. As you can see our lives are full. We are not sitting on our thumbs while we wait for our boys. We pray for them every night, and think about them often. I hope you are keeping them in your prayers too! Thank you!
I know this is a long post. It has been a while since I have written anything, so I figured now is a good catch up time.
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