June, the Fourth, and Graduation

Another month gone...not much has changed besides the thermometers boiling over!

A week after my brothers got home from their big senior expedition, they decided to come out and give our kids a taste of what camping was like. It was such a sweet thing for them to do! They even had the kids make a "vlog" about it, which you can watch here.

It sounded like they could have spent all afternoon playing in the tent!

Meanwhile, I spent those couple of hours putting up strawberries from Aldi! The boys helped me finish.

Matt has the landscaping all ready to pour a concrete patio and sidewalk around the house! We also need to finish the caps and landscape rock on the walls.

One Sunday, we tagged along with my family to go to a graduation open house in Illinois, and then to do a window visit with my Grandma Knobloch at Skylines! Classic 2020 experiences. :) We talked on the phone to her and sang a few songs as well. It was good to see her. It is a hard time for nursing home residents right now, being stuck inside with no visitors!

The west side of the church parking is now complete and hopefully the north side will be done soon! Matt has been involved with this project for several years so it is great to finally see some results!

The night of the father-son campout was our night to visit Grandma Lanz so Joanna and I spent the evening there. Emmett and Joanna were glad to have each other as playmates! He is Erika's boy from Oregon, spending a couple weeks in Iowa with his Grandma.

They are definitely the same age...highly amused by the same things, like pointing out the lights in every room they enter and pretending to go "night-night" under big blankets! 

Five packages of Oreos and several hours later...the boys finally settled into their tent around 12:05am.

They got home around ten Saturday morning and then began "Part Two" of the camp out. The boys slept till about four.

Meanwhile, Joanna happily cleaned up the leftovers they brought home. 

We got to spend Saturday and Sunday evenings of Father's Day weekend with our families!

For the last three weeks of June, Matt was traveling for work the first couple days of the week. The first week his Mom hosted "Grandma Camp" on Tuesday with all the grandchildren that gave me a reprieve, and the second week, Shelby came for several hours on Tuesday to entertain the children for me while I got some much needed cleaning done. I even cleaned the windows, so this was BIG.

Everybody decided it would be hilarious to wear the wrong pajamas one night while Matt was gone...

Friday the 27th was the second day of Grandma Camp...a smaller crowd this time but definitely a major highlight for the kids! It was Matt's Friday off and two days before my birthday, so the two of us went out to eat at Good and did a little shopping afterwards!

The remains of the ball pit..."Covid killed the pit."

When we got back to pick up the kids, there was a cactus plant driving around on a trike!

The week after Father's Day, Matt and the kids had very mild cold symptoms, and given the current circumstances we tried to be prudent citizens which meant staying home from church on Sunday, and asking everyone we were planning to be around if they still wanted to be around us. The things that ended up clearing off our schedule were piano lessons and Matt's dentist appointment. Over the weekend, my brother and Matt's brother both tested negative for Covid which made us feel a little better since our families are the only people we had really spent much time around.

Saturday we went to Holly's graduation open house. It was nice to see some of our relatives from afar and catch up with Kendra and Aria!

Joanna and Aria... now that we are back to seeing other children again, Joanna is infatuated with babies or anybody younger than her! She is going to be such a good big sister in a few more weeks! :)

We celebrated my birthday with my family! Having four kids, been married for almost seven years, and having a 32 year old husband makes me feel very young to only be 26. 

Matt and the boys made a "moss pusher" one afternoon in an attempt to clean moss off the pond.

This is the difference in forgetting half the flour in a cookie recipe (I guess I got a little distracted by my little helper). Glad I discovered my mistake before baking off the rest of the cookies!

We had a very nice Independence Day weekend! We are thankful for a special day to appreciate all the ways God has blessed us to live in America...and a reminder to pray for our country. 

Social distancing at Morning Sun fireworks was definitely manageable this year. :) Most people watched from their vehicles or yards in town and only about five or ten groups actually sat in the park. It was kind of nice without any loud music or big crowds this year.  

Micah was being so sweet and covering Joanna's ears for her. 

ALL the Steffens and Massners were in the same place at the same time for the first time in YEARS! We have been getting together at least once a year since 2004...so we've kind of grown up together and seen a lot of changes. It may be the last time we are all together for awhile as Myca plans to move to Magdalena, Mexico in the next couple months. They came Saturday after lunch and left Sunday afternoon. We got to keep Quinn, Sandi, and little Colt overnight! :)

Just the "kids"

Levi fell asleep on the way to Sperry Fireworks and looked pretty macho. The Sperry event was much higher populated, though I think quite a few people still watched from their vehicles.

Last Sunday, Burlington church added Sunday School classes and an afternoon service back into our Sunday routine, with a half hour break between services where we can bring our own lunch and spread out to eat. I is just enough time for our family to go outside, get everybody fed, and come back inside for church to start again. It is nice to add a little more "normalcy" back into our Sundays.

Last week I had my 35 week check-up. We are on the final countdown with only a month left to go! This pregnancy (the last eight months in general) has been a doozy. As much as I don't like to wish away time, I am very anxious to get this baby out of my belly!

One day the boys went out to the garage and decided they wanted to make a table. I think Matt helped them a little. Then Matt went back to work and they said they needed chairs. And that they needed to be made out of wood. I don't know how to run tools, but I managed to use a hand saw, hammer, and nails to cobble together four chairs to go with their table. The boys are definitely going to pass me up in their woodworking skills very soon!

Friday was another Grandma Camp...the kids get SO excited when they hear the big day has arrived! I milked every last minute of the day this time...going to several garage sales in Burlington to make up for missing garage sales during the quarantine (Joanna might start wearing girl clothes again!), running several errands, and.....A HIGHLIGHT OF THE YEAR: getting books at the library which is now open (as long as I go by myself)!! It is so refreshing and stimulating to have new books for the children to read again!

Another source of excitement was receiving our foster and adoption license a couple weeks ago! With everything going on with Covid, the licensing process got delayed a few months and we were beginning to wonder if we would ever hear back. With a baby due soon, we don't plan to add any more children to our home until we feel settled again...and then we will probably just do respite care until we feel led to accept longer-term placements. We are thankful for the opportunity we hope we will have to serve families in our community and share God's love with others. 

Saturday was the Mediapolis High School graduation, also a unique experience due to the pandemic! It was held outdoors on the football field (usually in the gym). Only the seniors and speakers were on the field, and everyone else was seated in the bleachers or standing along the fence. While the ceremony was held at ten in the morning, it was HOT and a good opportunity for heat stroke for anyone who wasn't careful. But we were thankful the class got a fairly traditional graduation experience, given the circumstances. The main thing missing from the ceremony was the choir which was replaced by recorded songs. (Link to view 2020 MHS Graduation Ceremony)

The class filing onto the field

Presentation of diplomas. There were markers for them to stand six feet apart while in line, and they had to use hand sanitizer before and after going across stage to shake hands. 

Our favorite 2020 MHS grad...Travis!

We are thankful for the nice young man he has become for our children to look up to! Standing somewhere around 6'7", I don't think Travis even knows anyone who doesn't have to look up to him. :) 

Nolan and Travis's open house was Saturday evening at the Schmidgall's (brand) new shed!

The rain held off during the open house, but the evening ended with a beautiful double rainbow! Thankful for God's promise to always be faithful no matter what the future brings!