Another week at staying home.

You would think that we would be so used to this by now but yesterday was a tough day!  For me that is.  I've been trying to stay positive through my attitude, my actions, my words so that this whole pandemic doesn't put fear into the children.  But yesterday, my thoughts kept going to the negative.  Honestly, I am so ready to get out and about without thinking of wearing masks or chances of catching a nasty virus germ.  I'm over the fact that we need to do church in our homes because of social distancing.  I am so ready to gather with people and I even texted a friend yesterday that I'm ready to see strangers.  :))))  It's true though!  I'm ready to move on!

My heart was heavy yesterday.  I'm still sad for those who are directly impacted by the virus.  I wish this fallen world would not have pandemics but does it help to let myself get down hearted?  Does it help to let anxiety build up inside of me and make my neck muscles get all tightened up?  I hate when the devil brings thoughts in the "what if's"!!!  NO!!!!  Fear does not have to rise within me!  I rise above it!  We are incredibly blessed to have a beautiful home that lets tons of sunlight in even on these rainy days!  I read this morning in a email that it's time for Christians to set our eyes looking upward.  When all we do is look down at our phones or towards the news day in and day out, it's easy to get down hearted.  To change our view and look up at the vast skies and notice the sun or stars really helps take the focus off of the now and realize that God is creator and is still looking out for us!  I could not agree more!  To move my heavy feelings and thoughts into praise and joy is my goal!!!!

I know feeling down is normal.  And maybe it's even OK now and then.  But it's not OK to stay there!  Mike and I prayed through my feelings last night and I just love it when we get real together!  We all have downer days!  We all need a pick me up now and then!  I'm ready to move forward but not without learning from it!  I love the quote I heard from our minister last week.  It goes like this, "Don't waist the pain.  Don't just seek to get to the other side!  What does God want to do inside of me though this COVID-19?"  We can look at it as anxiety or opportunity!  I love mountain top experiences but we don't usually live in them all year long.  Normally, we go through valleys and I think that it's in those moments that we learn the most through a Christian walk.  We also talked about this in our ZOOM meeting with small group on Wednesday night.  Christians should not be caught surprised when things don't always go our way.  Adversity is part of the pruning process that God wants for a growing Christian.  God wants to strip away my worries and fears!  He wants to bring peace and HE DOES!!!!  I used to pray through tough life lessons to just get me through and move on.  I was taught to not just push things "under the rug" but I wasn't always looking for a lesson to learn either.  Through this whole coronavirus, the bad and the good come to the surface!

We are really treasuring the family memories that we are making!!!  We eat supper together (this is how I grew up doing and we've always tried to make this a priority in our own family)!  We help each other with the dishes.  Last night, we played game after game of ping pong.  Ashlyn is even learning the game.  I played using my left hand while she played her best.  The score was actually close.  :)  Matthew loves to play this and it's fun to laugh and try to beat his score!  Mike was doing some home projects and hung a nice shelf for his 'must read' books!  He was also getting ready for the flooring guys that showed up today to finish up the back basement room!  Ashlyn was begging to do a work out so we looked up a 7 minute work out plan on the TV and it had us all huffing and puffing.  Hadassah and I were laughing!  Then we moved to a family/kid friendly work out.  It was cute to see Ashlyn write down all her favorite moves!  :)  Then Hadassah popped some popcorn and her and Austin snuggled together to watch a movie.  Meanwhile, Mike and I sat down by the dining room table and worked on our really difficult puzzle together!  It was a great time to chat.  As we tucked the tired children into bed, we prayed together and thanked God for his love.  For each other!!!

We've been having cooler weather the past week but when the sun shines, the kids are outside!  Austin has his eyes are the cherry blossoms out front!  They are beautiful and just ready to burst to their fullest!!!!  Ashlyn and Austin picked some petals from the trees and threw them on the trampoline.  Then they jumped in the petals.

This is how small group zoom meetings look these days!

We have more kitties.  I'm sure this is no surprise to most of you because we still didn't get the cat fixed but maybe after this litter we will???  I love a cat around but all the kittens!  They make a mess and it's just too many cats.  Let us know if you want a new pet!  This is the tame momma cat that Ashlyn named Sprinkles.  She has four kittens in the garage.  We have another momma cat that is wild and she also had three kittens in the barn ... all happening last week!  ://///

I did it.  I wore the mask Jody made for me.  Hadassah has been going with me grocery shopping each week ever school is now happening at home.  We like this outing together.  I've stuck to Centerville mostly but I just had a itch to go to Strasburg Market to buy their yummy chicken croquettes once again.  I put on this mask and it just felt so weird.  I know it's a matter of getting used to it.  Hadassah on the other hand refuses to wear one so far.  She just walked around the entire store with her mouth and nose in her sweatshirt.

The kids had camping in their minds yesterday.  I was not feeling it!!!  They begged to set up the tent and I thought they meant in the basement.  I told them that when Matthew comes home from the shop, maybe he can help them.  I don't know how to set up tents and was not interested!  Matthew came home and the next thing I knew, the kids had the tent laying in the back yard.  I had to say no to this because there is rain in the forecast and it's still cold outside.  I was imagining that all the work it takes to set up the tent would only bring minutes of play time.  They even had a huge pile of things they wanted to put in their tent.

I told them to set it up in the basement but that just wasn't what Ashlyn had in mind.  I never know what's next on their minds.

These are new to us!  Lena gave Hadassah two macaroons the other day to taste and she loved them!  We ordered some for our family and they are already all eaten.  Good job Krissy!  They were delicious!

Here's an encouraging note for today!!!!  Even though we have off, downer days, God is still there!  He is my help on the bad and good days!  This is Friday afternoon and the weekend is about to begin!!!!  Look up my friends!  Shift those negative thoughts into joy!!!  Read the bible!  Jam on worship music!  Pray for God's peace and healing to come over our whole nation!!!!!

Happy weekend friends!!!!

Spring mini photoshoot.

Mini photoshoots are so fun with the kids!!!!  If there's one think I have learned over the years with photography, it's this ... the more relaxed and more fun you have during the photo taking, the better the photo's!!!!  Years ago when we hired a photographer to take pictures of our small family, it went terrible!!!  I had these pictures in my mind of how I wanted them to look.  Perfect, of course!  I kept telling Hadassah to sit still.  Look this way and not that way.  Even though we had a professional photographer and I think she has darling photos in her studio, I thought I was to be in charge.  We were all stressed to the max by the time the session was over and we ended up at a small restaurant, slurping spaghetti noodles, while talking through this horrible experience.  I say horrible now because it really was bad but we learned from it!  Thank the Lord!!!!  Mike said that he is not willing to take family photos if they are going to end up in tears and stress!  I totally agreed but still wanted that "good photo"!!!!  Looking back now, we laugh.  I did learn from this whole experience and thankfully we've never had a bad photo session like this one on repeat!  The truth is, I still don't love those family session photos.  It's a bad memory and so it reflects my emotions on the photos.  Moral of the story:  make it fun!  Your family will treasure the photo's years later so much more!

Kauffman's Orchard is just around the corner from our house and we love to go there to take a few photos now and then!  One sunny evening, I told Ashlyn and Austin to go get changed into whatever nice clothes they want to wear and then go take some photo's.  Here's what they picked and I think it's so cute!

Of course, we grabbed Coca for the photo session too!

These two are the cutest ever!!!!!!!!

Look at how good they did with their outfits!!!!!  Why in the world do I even stress over holiday portraits?  I am putting Ashlyn in charge of all our outfits from now on!  :)))

Austin is so darling right now and is really loving all his siblings attention!  He loves that they are all home and not in school.  Ashlyn and Austin really play well together!  I love that about these two!  He is almost five years old and I can hardly believe that fact!  He plans to start kindergarten in the fall.  I'm not sure how that will all go?  He does know how to write his name and knows some shapes and all colors.  He can count to thirteen and then skips some numbers from there to twenty.  Recognizing letters is not so great yet.  I think kindergarten will be a huge learning year for him and I'm excited to see how well he does!  He also still loves his mom SO MUCH and that's adorable!  I hope going to school and being away from me a few hours a day will be a good experience!

I love you Austin!  Right now, you love any play time acting out characters.  The past few months I have been your playmate sidekick and have made many little costumes for your imagination!  I love how you let your imagination run wild and think I can make whatever comes to your mind.  :)))  You love your siblings and cousins!!!!  Sweets is something on your daily menu but your next favorite food is broccoli and carrots with ranch dip.  You never liked potatoes and even meat is the last thing you eat off of your plate.  I love how you talk with your eye brows!!!!  Your laugh is adorable and I love you Little Man!

Ashlyn is a "spitfire" and "Sweets" in one cute package!!!!  She's got sass!  I love to have her home everyday and really helps entertain Austin!  She is Austin's best friend!  I've said often about Ashlyn that "she is my worst mess maker but my best cleaner upper."  Does that make sense?  I'm sure she just like how I was when I was younger!  (Sorry Mom!!!!)  You can tell where Ashlyn is if you look for her path!  Shoes at the door, coat on the floor, papers on the table, crafts in her room and toys on the living room floor.  She has a blast with all her things and when it's time to clean it up, she is amazing!!!!  Ashlyn just turned nine and really had to adjust her expectations when it came to a birthday party.  She loves to plan and make lists.  She's been dreaming of having friends over for a long time but because of the virus, it squashed all those plans.  She was disappointed but we tried to still make it a special day for her!  She can make her own popcorn.  She knows how to scramble eggs in a pan and cook them.  She is giving daily four wheeler rides these days but still needs reminded to slow down!  Teaching her at school has it's challenges but over all is going well!!!!  She needs my assistance with Math but reading, handwriting and most other subjects she is working solo.  I love how she adores her dad!

Ashlyn I love you to the moon and back a million times over!!!!  I hope you use your energy for the Lord's glory every day of your life!!!!  Your bunny is really cute!  Thank you for making life fun!

We finished the session with a pink tree pose but I think we are over it now!!!???!!!! :))))

Ashlyn and Austin remind Mike and I so much of how our two oldest used to be!  Big pals and best of play mates!  Hadassah and Matthew were like this!  It's like two sets of kids in our family and I love it!!!!

Spring time is so lovely and I am usually so ready to head to the greenhouses and plant the garden.  Ashlyn is my shadow with all things gardening!  She loves it too!!!!  She gets all excited to plant seeds and go greenhouse shopping!  I do wish the coronavirus would now be over and we could move happily with life because more than ever, I miss the old normal!!!!

Today I am missing friends!  I ever miss strangers!  To go and get out in public without thinking of the virus sounds like a dream away.  I hope those days return soon and the shutdown will be lifted!  The kids are doing well!  I am really getting the itch to get in public more and shop for flowers and think of normal life!  The family time is been precious though!!!!!  We spent each and every evening together here at home!  Matthew is all into ping pong and even though he beats me 98% of the time, I like to be his competition!  :)))

Happy Spring to you all!!!!!  God loves you and he's got the whole world in his hands!!!!

Week 6 of "stay at home".

You would think that I would have extra time on my hands because of this "stay at home" orders but I've been so busy.  There are the same home chores that I do every day.  I now help Ashlyn with school work every morning.  We are making new foods and having kitchen lessons.  Hadassah is doing a good job at baking and creating foods she never made before.  We hunkered down A LOT the weeks before Easter.  We are still at home so much but we are really getting ready to have things move forward now.  School has already canceled the rest of the year and we will need to finish up all school work at home.  I'm sad about that.  I used to look at my calendar every morning to see what was on our schedule.  Now my calendar stays closed in my drawer because there's nothing planned for the near future other than the normal home activities.  I have come to enjoy these days and all the many nights at home!  Last night I mentioned that normally we would quickly do dishes and head out the door for ball practice or baseball games.  Our children grew up spending lots of spring and summer nights at the ballpark.  We loved it!  Mike has not played baseball full time for a few years now but Matthew now plays.  So far, he's got his head into the golf game and no baseball practice has begun.  I do feel like our "stay at home" routine is getting better and better.  We know now how school works best.  We have to do it in the morning hours or it's a real struggle.  The kids get to sleep in and my mornings are lazy ... not complaining about that!!!!!!  It's still lunch time before I know what happened but that too is OK.  Days are flying right by.

Sister Jody and her girls made these donuts the other week and delivered them to my family!  What a fun idea!!!  Thanks Jody!

Ashlyn loves her twin cousins and they have FaceTime often the past few weeks.  I think it's adorable!

Hadassah made homemade tortillas!  They were tasty!

We had such a lovely March!  The weather was nice and sunny!  These two are having a blast and like to dress alike if they can.

I'm not sure what these spring flowers are called but we have them growing along the side of our road.  Mike and I have went on a Sunday afternoon walk every Sunday since COVID-19 all began (except the cabin weekend)!  Every time we stop on the way back to the house to pick some of these flowers.  So pretty!

 The farmer has a small spot on his farm that have dead animal bones.  The kids took the four-wheeler and brought some bones back home and wanted to sharpen them and make swords.  The fun only lasted for awhile before they took the bones back where they were found.  The next day Austin asked his cow tooth was!?!  What???  Since when do we have cow teeth in our pockets.  It was found in the dryer!  :////

Look at the size of these bones!

I like rainbows and it was another promise from God that he's got the whole world in his hands!!!!  We sing that song to our little children and I believe it!

Ashlyn is still doing ZOOM meetings with her class every Tuesday.  I made a batch of homemade waffles and we topped them with whipped cream and fruit while she chatted to her classmates!

 I am so ready to get to greenhouses!  I sat down and made my 2020 garden plans!  I took the opportunity to make a greenhouse stop when I needed to get out of the house and think something else.  We had just got the news that school is closed now for the rest of the year and I needed to take a drive and process that thought.  I decided to drive to Ken's Garden and grab a few seeds and plants!

We love Fennel but never planted these plants before.  I'm giving it a try!!!!

I planted the garden a few weeks ago with Ashlyn and Austin's help and look at it now!

The seeds we planted are popping through the ground!  We've got Radishes, Black Simpson Cut Lettuce, Kale, Spinach, and Butter crunch Lettuce in this bed.

This is my herb box.  So far I planted Cilantro, Parsley and Sage in here.  I have other herbs that come up each year on their own.  These plants are Chives, Oregeno, Rosemary and Thyme.  I have Basil seeds to plant yet in here when frost is no longer a threat.

It's nice to see the farmer raking hay right beside us again.

The kids were begging to go on a picnic, so we did!  :)  It's simple things like this that are making an intentional move with!  It was nice to pack a simple lunch and enjoy the orchard trees all around us!

 So much time is spent on the four wheeler these days!

They love it outside together!

I jumped on board with this easy coffee recipe!  Dalgona Coffee is where you whip 1 TB. instant coffee, hot water and sugar together!  Keep whipping until it turns into this beautiful foam!  Pour milk and ice into a cup and add the foam!  We like it sweetened with caramel too!  It's delicious and so easy to make!

Ashlyn is a great teacher!  She's trying to teach Austin how to ride a bike without training wheels!

He actually learned pretty fast but I'm sure he will need some practice again once summer and bike riding become a daily activity!

Since six weeks ago, the kids and I have stayed home as much as possible!  I'm trying to stay far and wide from any coronavirus germs!  The other day I did decide to go get some take out drinks and drop them off for birthday treats.  I grabbed a small piece of coffee cake for Mommy D and dropped that off to!  She was working on her puzzle!  I love puzzles too and she said I should come back to her house that evening and help her work on it.  I did!!!!  Mike stayed home with the kids and Mommy D and I sat together and worked on this tough puzzle!

It was so much fun!!!!!

The next day she called and said that we should all come down to her house this time and she would order pizza for us and then we could finish the puzzle!  We said yes again and it was a blast!!!!  I feel bad for these elderly!  They are told to not leave their homes.  They need company and people and friends too!  I try to call Mommy D often to check up on her and talk but there's nothing like a nice visit!

This was a fun night and I'll never forget this night together!  I didn't leave her house until 10:26 PM!

I am so sad to see the world be plagued by this virus and so many people are dying from it!  I also know we can't live in fear and I'm reminded so much over this time that God is still working through all of this!  Stay positive friends!  I hope this pandemic will be over soon and stores will reopen and things will get back to 'normal'.  Until then, call your elderly!  Maybe even give them a visit!  Love on your children that are now home 24/7!  Bless those who are still fighting for health and remember to pray for the doctors, nurses, and ambulance folks!

Blessings to you!!!!