Just in case you’d like to stop by… there will be an open house at our Monroe house this coming Saturday, March 15, from 1:30 - 3:00 pm. So if you have been keeping up with our adventures over the past few years as we have worked and remodeled, you can come see for yourself what all the fuss has been about.

1009 West Monroe Street,  Bloomington

See you there!

These days we think about money a lot. We’re trying hard to get out of debt, so many of our life choices and conversations center around money. But sometimes it’s good to think about something else now and then, and it’s nice to enjoy the things that don’t cost money.

Not only am I grateful that Lilly has turned into a very content, smiley baby, but I’m also grateful for digital technology that allows me to capture my photos without paying for film processing.

It reminds me of the MasterCard commercials that give prices for things and then conclude with the things in life that are “priceless”. Of course, they end their commercials by saying, “Some things in life are priceless… For everything else, there’s MasterCard.” That’s the exact opposite of what we’re hoping to achieve. Maybe we can change our personal slogan to this: “The most important things in life are priceless… and for everything else there’s the savings account.”

We have a big piece of “white board” stuff that we are planning to put behind the bird cage, but meanwhile it is laying sideways along the wall. We have discovered that it makes a wonderful creative surface for drawing and writing. Miguel wanted to write a note to his cousin Lydia who is in Taiwan right now. So I copied his words onto the white board, and then he sat and copied his letter into his little notebook. Having a wall-sized white board is so much fun, I don’t know why everyone doesn’t have them!

Yesterday morning Amelia wanted to see if Lilly would fit into her little pink basket she got for Christmas. With a little help from me to help pad the basket, Lilly was riding in high style. Unfortunately, she wasn’t nearly as impressed as the rest of us were.

You can click on each picture for a larger, easier to read, version

The last few days I’ve enjoyed hopping from blog to blog, reading all sorts of interesting things, and no doubt neglecting my family in the meantime.  However, I read an article yesterday that I thought was worth sharing with you.

The author compares a busy mother at home with one who sets themselves apart for holy worship and meditation.  Check it out! 

One thing I’m just not good at is shopping for clothes.   So you can imagine my delight when a box arrived yesterday filled with beautiful clothes for Baby Lilly.   What a treat to look through the assortment of things and realize that Lilly has everything she’ll ever need to wear for the next size up.

My cousin out West has sent a box of clothes to me, two different times, both filled with beautiful items, just perfect for our little Baby Doll.   As her own baby finishes using these charming clothes, Shai packs up an assortment and sends them along.  The first box arrived before Lilly was born, so we had fun imagining what our baby would look like in her new duds.

As I was looking through Lilly’s new wardrobe additions, I realized that I’m the luckiest gal on the block!  I have my own personal shopper who makes all the tough decisions for me.  All I have to do is make room in Lilly’s dresser for her new things.

Since it’s Saturday night, it’s that time of the week when all good folks take a bath in anticipation of Sunday.  In the olden days children also polished their shoes, but these days they just wear their Crocs to church.

Anyway, Lilly knows that most likely some sweet friend will want to hold her at church tomorrow, so she insisted that I help her take a bath so she would smell sweet and lovely.

Unfortunately, the paparazzi was nearby and had the nerve to snap her photo even during this personal moment.  You can see that Lilly was none to happy to have people invading her privacy.  Fortunately, the requisite washcloth was in place, so at least there was a modicum of modesty.

Life keeps tumbling along, with barely time to figure out which direction to go next.  However, there are moments, captured digitally, that make time seem to stand still.

While I was busy one evening, Michael took these photos of our Little Lilly.  I think he did a fine job.  Enjoy!

Every now and then our church has a bake sale to raise money for one thing or another. It’s always a fun event, with a table full of yummy treats and tempting goodies. The children will beg us to buy something, but usually I’ll tell them that we’re not going to buy anything. If I do splurge and buy something, it’s always a very special treat.

Last time we had a bake sale at church, I collected some donations from some local businesses to put in the sale. I didn’t understand why the children were so excited about the sale until I realized that they thought that we would keep any money that people gave for the sale. I quickly explained to them that the money went to the good cause for which the money was raised and that we didn’t keep any of it.

When Isaac heard the announcement about the upcoming bake sale, he asked me if he could make something for the sale. I thought that would be fine, but I made sure he knew that he wouldn’t get to keep any money. He understood that, so I gave the ok for the project.

When Amelia heard that Isaac was going to get to make cookies, she asked if she could also bake something for the sale.  This project was getting bigger all the time.

So this afternoon I told the children it was time to make our goodies for the sale. Isaac did most of the work on his No-Bake Cookies himself, and I helped Amelia mix up the cake mix for the giant muffins she was going to make. Miguel and Judah stayed right in the middle of all the action, getting in the way and being a nuisance. So when Amelia was sprinkling the white chips on her cake batter, I offered to let the little boys sprinkle some white chips on some smaller cupcakes. They thought that was just dandy and they took their own sweet time, dropping on chip at a time onto the chocolate batter.

Once everything was baked, Miguel asked excitedly, “Can we buy some of these?” I laughed out loud! Now I knew what the racket was the children had going. Now that we had trays of cookies and tins of muffins, they wanted me to buy these very items for us to keep for ourselves.

Maybe the next time we have a bake sale, I’ll just drop some money in the box and tell the folks, “This is for the goodies we made at home and didn’t bring today.” But for the bake sale tomorrow, Isaac and Amelia will take their goodies and no doubt be very proud to see them displayed with the other items. And of course, we did save some of the extras to enjoy here at home.

After spending a day and a half at home sick, Michael decided yesterday that he would rather go back to work where he could have a bit more peace and quiet while he’s recovering.  So he packed up his tissues and lozenges and headed to work.  I’m quite sure that he gets more rest and quiet time sitting in his cubicle at work than he ever does at home with children bouncing around, crawling into bed with him, and in general being pesky.  I’m glad he has a safe place to go.

Laura has been after me for a while to let her decorate a cake. It all started when she saw a cake-decorating contest on t.v. I put her off as long as I could, but finally the day came that I could find no more reasons to say no. She was going to a Superbowl party on Sunday night and had an idea for a cake that would feature the two teams playing. So on Saturday she baked her cake and Sunday she decorated it. She had a wonderful time working on her project, and I had to admit that it wasn’t nearly as painful as I’d anticipated. In fact, she did everything by herself, all the way from mixing to baking to making the frosting. All in all, it was a positive experience for me, and I’m glad I finally gave in.

On Sunday afternoon the kids wanted to go play in the snow, and though I could not imagine going out in the snow (I have forgotten how to be a child, I think.), I did tiptoe out to check on them after a while.
Then I had to hurry back in to get my camera to capture the moment. While I was out there, I realized Miguel did not have any mittens on, so after taking the photo, I told him I’d go find him some mittens. Well! That’s when my job got tough. I pawed through the mitten basket, pulling out one mitten after another, not really looking for a matching pair, just wanting to find both a right and a left mitten in approximately the same size. Finally I had a handful of mittens, only to realize that every one of them was a right-hand mitten! Where were all the lefties??? Finally I was successful and not only found a right and a left, but they matched! But what to do with all the righties that I found? I don’t know. For now they’re lined up in my bathroom just for me to look at and laugh at them. Eventually I’ll drop them back in the mitten basket and set myself up for future frustration. Do any of you have organizing tips for large families with more mittens and boots than fit into normal coat closets? I could use a better system!