Cousins

Here is a fun three-some, Christian, Abbie and Dante, swinging at Grandpa and Mutti's


Cousin Joel--compliments of Abigail


Uncle Fritz had a dance for his 40th. Here he is playing banjo, Aunt Christ is playing guitar, Uncle Colin is over Uncle Fritz'a right shoulder playing violin, and "Matt Ball" is playing bass. (Everytime Thomas hears Matt's name he cracks up. He thinks it must be a joke that someone has the name of ball...)

1,2,3,4

Here is a picture of our 1,2,3,4 crew. Elizabeth (1), Thomas (2--two nights before he turned 3!), Bonnie (3), Abigail (4). They are all best friends and delightful to watch play together.

Puppies!!!

The proud momma with her 7 puppies.




Ryan and Thomas enjoying he puppies--and I think Ryan is teaching Thomas the Rubix cube???


My mom nurtured and cared for this little last-born. He ended up not making it. :(


David with a puppy

Puppies, puppies, puppies!!!

Grandma Violet update

Grandma Violet is amazing. She is able to walk now, color in her cheeks, and animated conversation. There is a marked decline in her vision and hearing, so while she has been a lot sicker she is not communicating as well with me as she was. Also, though she can walk now she is not walking as much as she should because her vision is so poor. Joe was able to have a delightful conversation with her--and she is so aware of the children and communicates so well with Elizabeth. It's very sweet.

Grandma Violet

My great-grandma is 96 years-old.  She is made of the stuff that settled the wild west in days gone by.  She has dabbled in every imaginable craft, held numerous jobs, a difficult first marriage followed by a good second and third (my grandpa was adopted by her second husband, Barney).  She has buried all three of her children, two tragically.  She is incredibly stable, always optimistic, has an incredible memory, and is deeply interested in every aspect of our lives.  She lives alone in Campo, a small town, down a dirt road, alone.

Three weeks ago she fell.

My grandma calls her every evening.  Grandma Violet fell at 10:00.  No one knew until the next afternoon at around 3:00.  Well, grandma Violet says that she didn't fall but that she was changing and didn't have the strength to keep standing, so she sat down.  On the floor.  She couldn't get back up.  That must be what happened because Grandma and Aunt Laura rushed her to the hospital and there were no broken bones, she was only dehydrated.  The doctor's wanted her to stay a few days to watch her.  She insisted on leaving.  She "needed to get home". 

She had to go to Grandma's until she could walk well enough to live on her own.A few days later a terrible cough set in.  Doctor's confirmed that it was a strain of "hospital induced pneumonia". I sat with her and she chaffed about not getting to go home.  Small complaints about "Barb, (my Grandma), doesn't know all that needs to happen at her house.  The propane will run out.  Who will water the plants? etc. etc..."  She had so much color and zest.  Only she couldn't really walk because of the fall.  So many thoughts about the children.  "How is Thomas?  He is so serious.  He will be a judge someday."  "Jonathan looks like he has so much mischief in him..."

Now Grandma Violet is on hospice, in a hospital bed, on oxygen.  She is still as sharp as a tack and as interested as ever in our family.  Only now she can't move one leg at all.  I sat with her last night for and hour and a half and she told me stories about her growing up, things about my grandpa as a boy. She wanted to know about Joe and the children.  She played peek-a-boo with Elizabeth and laughed about Tommy playing with Grandma.  So interested and loving. 

Every so often when we'd be talking she would try to get comfortable.  She said the bed had a hole beneath where she was sitting.  It is a movable mattress so the legs can lift and the back can recline or sit up.  She is only sitting up because she can't breath while she is laying down.  She only spoke once about going home.  She said "My propane will run out and the Wet-backs will steal my water..."  They will too.  Once my Aunt took Grandma Violet home and two illegals ran out of the water shed and water was pouring out of the tank.  I told her Rosie would take care of it.  She said that she didn't think Rosie could see very well. My dear Grandma Violet, she won't take care of the place like you always did.  You, who always loved a beautiful garden, roses, geraniums, bulbs.  You have fought the gophers, the rattlers, and the woodpeckers.  Your garden always glowed and bloomed because of your care. 

I wish I could change positions for her.  I wish I could cough that deep cough she doesn't have the strength for.  Praise God for a woman of strength, perseverence and love.  A woman who can remember her ba-zillion grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren's birthdays--and their spouses!  A woman who is in need of our deepest care and love at this time.

Priorities and routines

When I was growing up I watched my dad and mom have times that they would evaluate their priorities. How was their time really being spent? What "good things" were swallowing up the "best things"? Joe and I have followed their example and every few months find ourselves asking what we are doing with our time, are we making eternal investments or just getting the next thing done? With our children it seems that we tend to run from one situation to the next and if we don't have a goal in sight we don't get anything done in spite of being extremely busy. It is so freeing to wake up and know what the purpose for the day is and that there are certain "big rocks" that we want to make sure get done and there are some "medium sized rocks" that would add extra zest to the day if we are able to get to them.

With our family's "big rocks" we have specific routines that allow us to fit important things in. For example, we want to have morning Bible reading, we want the children (and us!) to learn hymns, we want to memorize Bible passages as well as historic documents, we want to work on Greek and Latin vocabulary. How do we make sure these miscellaneous tasks get done? Our breakfast routine. We sit down to breakfast and hear about every one's adventurous dreams from the night before, what kind of animal they are that day, whatever our topic of conversation may be...

Then when I am through eating we start our memorization. Thomas is always first and he works on one new verse a week and the two previous weeks verses. I have every one's verses printed out on a board at the table. Tom can memorize very easily so we go over his new verse about three times and then I give the reference for his old verses and away he goes. Abbie and Jonathan are both in AWANA so their verses are from their AWANA books. Abbie always has one new verse and three previous verses. Jonathan works on three verses and a poem or historic document. I love having everyone at the table because then they are all exposed to each other's memorizing.

Next we do Bible reading and what the children call the "Lady bug book" which is an etiquette book. We read and talk about the various things, I try not to rush their thoughts. We then go through a stack of flash cards with various Greek and Latin roots. Lastly we sing a hymn, which I print out a copy for each person at the table and even Elizabeth will look at her bright yellow paper and "sing"! :)

It is little routines like this that let us get different activities done in the day. The children enjoy the predictability and I enjoy knowing that valuable moments have already happened before the breakfast dishes are even washed!