Remember Sunshine

I hope you all have had a beautiful fall season! It was so tough waking up to freezing weather Friday morning after such lovely weather all week. Christmas is right around the corner! Thus, it's about time I finish up the blog post that has been growing since August. In this stage of life, it is hard to finish much of anything that requires any solid block of time!

So without further ado, let's snuggle by the fire as we head back to those warm days of August.

August: Defined by a visit from Julie and the girls the first week, a new baby nephew, the start of school the next week, peach harvest, and Keenan's second birthday. It was so good to get back into the structure of our school routine and it really helped add some meaning to our days. Levi is now in first grade and Micah is starting kindergarten! 

A snapping turtle showed up in our yard one day. He didn't last long!

The harvest from our peach tree - all got eaten fresh! 

Random photo op with the Massner grandchildren.

Little Jesse joined Andrew and Hannah's family!

The Town and Country Days parade resulted in LOTS of candy coming home with us! Most of it is still in the freezer three months later. 

This was our first time seeing the Redwood Brothers perform live! Keenan and Russell were their {merciless} fan club!

Joanna's first day of Sunday School (Preschool with Aunt Harmony)!

Keenan's birthday breakfast, along with his unpictured "Moosie" (smoothie).

He loves singing Happy Birthday, so we may have done it a few times.

I pulled the Cricut back out!

5 months old, growing up so fast and always smiling! 

September: A badly sprained foot for our tree climber, showing up to my 10-year class reunion with five kids in tow, a cabin work day, and a very busy last weekend of annual fall traditions piled on top of each other.

Thankfully the sprain healed up quickly and he went right back to tree climbing!

Labor Day ended up being a cabin work day at the Gary Schulz residence. Matt took most of the kids and gave me the whole day to myself at home. The respite was much appreciated and well utilized.

We joined my family and Aunt Diane in Galesburg to celebrate Aunt Angie's birthday! Would you believe it, she didn't share one bite of that ice cream with us! ;)

A homeschool co-op is starting up in Mepo this year and we were glad it worked out to attend their first few events!

A fun field trip to Hilltop Dairy!

One of Matt's latest projects has been making a smokeless fire pit for the back patio! 

I accidentally captured this photo that made Keenan and Micah look exactly alike! No wonder I am always calling them by the wrong name.

Clara and Aunt Camille at Lanz Nauvoo!

Six months - the age where she turned into a more normal baby and started crying and stopped sleeping. That red hair is starting to show...in more ways than one!

Three growing children - 4 years, 2 years, and 6 months! It is so interesting to see how God molded their little personalities so differently, and how each one takes their special place in the family. 

October: A big cider day at Bill and Vienna's with their families, Joanna started preschool with Aunt Timna on Tuesday mornings, married off a good childhood friend of mine (congrats Hannah & Dane!), harvest, and our ninth anniversary celebration!

Bill & Vienna invited both of their families over for a cider day!

Cider Day at the Massner Place

Little girl was pleased as punch when her first day of school arrived!

Shop Till You Drop Day with my two big boys!

Pumpkin Day with the homeschoolers!

Matt took the day off to celebrate our 9th anniversary and we went to the Heritage Museum in Burlington. The Hartters met us there and it was lots of fun!

We had a fancy candlelit frozen pizza dinner for our anniversary supper. Ethan happened to be there too. My goal was not to cook all day and we made it happen!

Pumpkin carving was part of our anniversary celebration as well!

The three older kids all got to ride in the fields one Saturday and had a blast! Thanks to the neighbor who let them ride! 

The week after our anniversary, my parents took the kids for a couple days while Matt and I enjoyed a relaxing "staycation" in honor of our anniversary. We chose to spend the first day painting our refrigerator. I know, a very typical date night idea.

7 months have gone by already since this little girl joined the world! She is so social with a beautiful smile like her big sister, has lots of energy, and has already started crawling and trying to cruise! A few months ago I didn't think she had the strength and energy to keep up with the family tradition of walking by 8-9 months, but it's looking possible now. Yikes!

Saca-Joanna was one of our trick-or-treaters!

Classic harvest photo! Great entertainment.

November: Hard to believe it's half past, but the weather is clearly winterizing and the world is clearly ready for the holidays to be here. So far, the biggest happening in November was Matt being gone most of last week for a work conference.  God brought a lot of things together to make the week quite pleasant...people helping with children, meals provided, beautiful weather, no obligations, good health, and it happened to fall on our week off school. So the week actually went really well. But it was good to have Matt home because we can only keep our head buried in the sand for so long before it's time to get groceries, go to appointments, attend church, fix the broken sheep fence, and wrote blog posts. None of which get accomplished by one mama with five littles. Plus we missed him too, of course! 

Libby celebrated her birthday by taking the kids to the park and to the Creamery for ice cream! 

On Wednesday I made an impulsive decision to hop in the van and go on an adventure. The weather was too beautiful to stay inside and I was running out of ideas for keeping five kids occupied at home all day. We ended up at Wildcat Den State Park up past Muscatine. It was our first time being there and a really neat place! 

Stopping for a snack.

Clara is already trying to be a helper in the kitchen!

The end. The part of the show when I tell you how it's really going. Hehe. If you want to know the rest of the story, I guess you'll have to write back to me personally. Bwahaha....

Well, I like to think we've been on the uphill since things got rough over the summer. I still have rough days, but then there are weeks where I'm feeling well and like myself. I know everyone can relate in your own way to the ongoing challenge to keep life in that delicate balance. Perhaps that "balance" is just a little more "delicate" in some stages of life than others. I am daily learning and growing in God's grace. As difficult as struggles might be to bear right now, I know they are part of a divine refining process that will result in more fruit for His kingdom. Jesus makes everything worth it. 

Now we've gone full circle, as 'tis the season to celebrate our Savior's coming. He is the one who brought joy to a lost world...and continues to do so today!

Summer Special

Summer has just rolled on through...howdy-do from the Schulz clan!

We kicked off the month of June with a last minute surprise birthday party for Matt! We managed to have him come downstairs dressed in his deer costume where all his guests surprised him with a nerf gun attack. A well executed event. 

That weekend Matt took the boys to the Big Hollow Youth Jamboree to enjoy some outdoor activities.

One of Geronimo's last feedings. It was fun having a pet squirrel, but alas it has ventured out into the real world. He has come back a time or two since then to say hi.

One morning the catalpa tree was too pretty to resist a little girls' photo shoot!

The boys also had VBS that week with no photographic evidence to share. They had a wonderful time! Other unpictured June events included a weekend of baptisms in Burlington, a wedding in Mediapolis, the Sunday School Picnic, and Father's Day. 

Joanna loves all her babies! 

We've enjoyed having help from teenagers a couple times a week this summer! Camille and Shelby have been covering a day, and one of the Steiner girls have come on Wednesdays to help out. It has been so helpful to have an occasional mental break from mothering so I can keep going.

This summer I got organized and the kids had jobs to keep them busy in the mornings. It was also a saver in keeping me afloat. Joanna's job this day was "cleaning the Massner Bathroom!"

The Father-son campout is always a highlight of the summer! Keenan got to go this year! 

The next night, the Young Group babysat all the kids at the Fellowship Center so we could enjoy a date night! Clara was happy to come along!

One afternoon Joanna got to go on a picnic and spend the day with Holly!

Mom hosted a Schmidgall family gathering the last weekend of June. Uncle Bruce and Aunt Penny were the only aunt and uncle to make it. 

I got to host three of my girl cousins overnight! It was so fun to catch up!

For my birthday, we planned to take the train to Galesburg and visit the children's museum across from the train station. Unfortunately, the train was four hours behind schedule so we drove instead. It was a fun time!

When we got back home after our big day trip, a surprise star birthday party awaited at the Gary Schulz home! Being so close to the fourth of July, there was no shortage of stars! 

And then there's a picture of a stick of butter. It is not just a stick of butter, but a stick of homemade raw milk butter. Raw milk is the new excitement in this kitchen. Our seemingly lactose intolerant child seems to be tolerating the raw milk quite well, so it is serving its purpose.

This girl is the happiest, most content baby you'll ever find. We love her so much and she is such a wonderful help to Mommy! At this stage, she was sleeping 8-10 hours at night before we hit the usual three month sleep regression.

The Fourth of July

The Steffens came for the annual Massner-Steffen Fourth of July gathering. At the same time, Matt's family hosted the entire Knobloch family in Burlington for the weekend. We got to partake in a little of both reunions. 

The first order of business when the Steffens arrived was to get our float ready for the Northfield Parade. 

Then, we trotted over to the Schulz home to spend the afternoon with the Knobloch family. Almost everyone was able to make it. Here are all the three and four year olds. 

A fun fishing game for the children!

Matt and the kids went to Sperry fireworks that night. 

Sunday afternoon at the Massners!

Clara was feeling pretty festive on the Fourth!

We expanded our Northfield Parade float this year with a trailer. Several of the Steffens, Massner bros, and our kids rode with us on the float as the Northfield Community Band and played "This Land is Your Land" through the one-minute-long parade!

Colt and Keenan thought the back of the Gator was a great place to ride after the parade!

The kids spent much of the hot Monday afternoon playing in water.

That evening was fireworks in Morning Sun. I can never resist a photo of all five kids asleep in the back of the van. 

The Next Part of July

The next week was haircuts for the boys. Joanna decided she was also going to be a hair stylist. Thankfully she never grabbed the scissors for Clara's hair.

Matt surprised me with a Cricut Joy for my birthday so I decided to try it out with some shirts to wear on vacation! It is a fun little machine! 

We enjoyed a homeschool end of year cookout a couple weeks ago!

Kids sitting in the driveway in their pajamas with a bag of Bugles can only mean one thing: crop-dusting season. 

Summer Vacation

Joanna turned four the same day we headed to Des Moines for a little family trip. We stayed at a little house for a few nights and spent our days out and about, then finished with Sunday at church in Garden Grove. 

Right before we left, Levi lost his first tooth!

Thursday was the zoo day!

That evening, we went to a splash pad park after supper.

We cooked all our meals in our little kitchen!

Friday morning we visited the State Capital Building. 

The kids thought the capital building had the coolest library ever!

After that, we went to a park where there was a free circus show going on. After the show, the kids rode the carousel, we ate a picnic lunch, and spent the afternoon enjoying the splash pad and playground at the park. 

Saturday, it was 100 degrees outside so we opted to spend the day indoors at the Science Center. The kids had a lot of fun and if it weren't for a tired mom and toddler we could have opened and closed the place! 

We finished off our time in Des Moines with ice cream. It was the only time we brought our kids in public to eat on this trip!

After the Trip...

Matt finished fixing up Andrew and Hannah's old car that has been sitting in their shed for a few years, and Connor is the new owner! He did a pretty impressive job on the thing!

We finally got around to celebrating Joanna's birthday a week late!

Levi and Matt made this chair for her between supper and the party. 

The birthday excitement hadn't quite rubbed off the next day, when Joanna came out of her room with all her birthday goodies (including her new pajamas)!

The kids had swimming lessons last week and I finally got around to bringing them to the pool one afternoon! Keenan found a nest of angry wasps and managed to get away with at least eight stings! He handled it well once he got a pretzel to munch on, and the nest was promptly removed from the scene. It was otherwise a fun afternoon. :)

This girl just gets more loveable all the time! Where have four months gone?!

Saturday Matt and I had a little date attending Tucker and Molly's wedding! They are our newest neighbors!

Now August is Upon Us...

The three older kids have all been figuring out how to ride bikes this summer!

Levi is trying to learn how to write in fancy cursive letters. For a kid who cried through most writing sessions last year, this is pretty impressive!

Joanna's birthday gift from my mom was a shopping trip to Iowa City. Her uncles' gift was money to spend while shopping. The first thing she said when she got home was, "I spent ALL of my money!" The next thing she had to show me was the receipt she got to keep!

Her purchases were accessories for her doll (Sami) and candy! 

Then there is this sweet loveable boy, making hearts for his mama! 

Motherhood has been busy and a little rough the past couple months. I am thankful for the promises written on our chalkboard right now: 

"It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: Great is thy faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23

It is so true, every word of it. It is only by the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed. At night when I go to bed, I have to remember that his mercies will be new in the morning. And they always are. He provides the grace, strength, and help for each day even when it looks impossible. God's faithfulness is truly Great. How I've proved him o'er an o'er...Oh, for grace to trust Him more!