The lighter side of things
I was thinking that after my last post that I do love the idea of recording things so that I can look back and recall an accurate account of things, but my last several seem so to be about the darker side of this adventure I'm on. I've not written about the really great things, and there have certainly been many lately, so I've got to at least summarize if nothing else.
We had one of those unusual weekends this past weekend...where we had NOTHING going on. No where to go, no where to be, no one to call, visit, do something for. Nothing that absolutely HAD to happen, although our task list still remains long, it seemed like a great weekend to ignore it. We began our time with eating leftover pizza from Mattie's party on Friday night...we didn't even sit down together at the table, we just all helped ourselves when we felt like it, coming in and out from playing. When it was dark, we sat down and ordered a movie on pay-per-view...there aren't typically a lot of family options, and we had seen most of the ones there were, so we opted for one called The Seeker. We popped some popcorn, climbed under the blankets with the windows open and started watching. Half way through, we decided it probably wasn't the best choice as it was a little scary for the little ones, but they handled it by leaving the room to play elsewhere for bits and pieces, or hiding under the blanket. Thankfully there were no ill-effects on sleep.
Saturday morning, we had coffee, read the paper, ate breakfast together and spontaneously decided that we would go to Lincoln for the LPD bike auction. We ended up finding nothing for us, returned home, ate lunch, took naps, and again, spontaneously decided we should go to church that evening, so we did, again came home, grilled some dogs on the grill, had a picnic, put a fire in the fire pit and played outside the entire night. Joe started getting tired around 8:30, so we put him to bed, and then pulled out the marshmallows and made smores by the fire. We sat around the fire until about 10:00 at which point Ben, Mattie, Tim and I came in and the boys decided they were going to sleep under the stars...that only lasted about 15 minutes before they got in trouble for being too noisy and had to come in and move their campout to the living room floor.
Sunday began much like Saturday did...paper, coffee, breakfast, and then we decided we should go for a bike ride before anyone had the opportunity to get into trouble by fighting with each other. Tim strapped Joe on his back and he and I walked while each of the other kids rode their bikes. (Jakob rode mine) We went from the trail up to the school and continued to play for a while before deciding we were hungry, so we made our way back to the trail. The kids (5 of them) were going to go one way and Tim and I the other. Well, actually, Joe and I went back home and Tim secretly followed the kids to the city park. I came back in with the pickup to get them all because we needed a few groceries for lunch anyway.
Lunch...movie and popcorn...playing outside...swimming...and finally dinner and ready for the next school day. A pretty great weekend if I do say so myself. We don't do that much that often, as usually there is a to-do list, an event, a visitor, work, church activity...something. It is always nice when there is nothing...it usually results in a lot of something else. We successfully won a bike on ebay for Jakob Sunday night, so next weekend (hopefully) we'll actually ALL be able to go for a bike ride together.
We (tim and I) also sat down at the end of the night on Sunday and revisited our budget...ok, not all things were blissful the entire weekend. :) More on that in another blog, as we did have lots of good conversation, realizations, and of course tears...there's always tears...I am pregnant! Again though, the end result...realizing that God has us in His hands. He is in control, and with Him we can do it...whatever "it" may ultimately be.
We had one of those unusual weekends this past weekend...where we had NOTHING going on. No where to go, no where to be, no one to call, visit, do something for. Nothing that absolutely HAD to happen, although our task list still remains long, it seemed like a great weekend to ignore it. We began our time with eating leftover pizza from Mattie's party on Friday night...we didn't even sit down together at the table, we just all helped ourselves when we felt like it, coming in and out from playing. When it was dark, we sat down and ordered a movie on pay-per-view...there aren't typically a lot of family options, and we had seen most of the ones there were, so we opted for one called The Seeker. We popped some popcorn, climbed under the blankets with the windows open and started watching. Half way through, we decided it probably wasn't the best choice as it was a little scary for the little ones, but they handled it by leaving the room to play elsewhere for bits and pieces, or hiding under the blanket. Thankfully there were no ill-effects on sleep.
Saturday morning, we had coffee, read the paper, ate breakfast together and spontaneously decided that we would go to Lincoln for the LPD bike auction. We ended up finding nothing for us, returned home, ate lunch, took naps, and again, spontaneously decided we should go to church that evening, so we did, again came home, grilled some dogs on the grill, had a picnic, put a fire in the fire pit and played outside the entire night. Joe started getting tired around 8:30, so we put him to bed, and then pulled out the marshmallows and made smores by the fire. We sat around the fire until about 10:00 at which point Ben, Mattie, Tim and I came in and the boys decided they were going to sleep under the stars...that only lasted about 15 minutes before they got in trouble for being too noisy and had to come in and move their campout to the living room floor.
Sunday began much like Saturday did...paper, coffee, breakfast, and then we decided we should go for a bike ride before anyone had the opportunity to get into trouble by fighting with each other. Tim strapped Joe on his back and he and I walked while each of the other kids rode their bikes. (Jakob rode mine) We went from the trail up to the school and continued to play for a while before deciding we were hungry, so we made our way back to the trail. The kids (5 of them) were going to go one way and Tim and I the other. Well, actually, Joe and I went back home and Tim secretly followed the kids to the city park. I came back in with the pickup to get them all because we needed a few groceries for lunch anyway.
Lunch...movie and popcorn...playing outside...swimming...and finally dinner and ready for the next school day. A pretty great weekend if I do say so myself. We don't do that much that often, as usually there is a to-do list, an event, a visitor, work, church activity...something. It is always nice when there is nothing...it usually results in a lot of something else. We successfully won a bike on ebay for Jakob Sunday night, so next weekend (hopefully) we'll actually ALL be able to go for a bike ride together.
We (tim and I) also sat down at the end of the night on Sunday and revisited our budget...ok, not all things were blissful the entire weekend. :) More on that in another blog, as we did have lots of good conversation, realizations, and of course tears...there's always tears...I am pregnant! Again though, the end result...realizing that God has us in His hands. He is in control, and with Him we can do it...whatever "it" may ultimately be.
