Matt and I got to escape from the reality of parenthood for five days in October with a trip to Charleston, South Carolina! It was absolutely wonderful to be together and spend some carefree days exploring the city and enjoying each other's company! Our time away was very refreshing after a very long year and exhausting past few months. Thank you so much to our parents for tag-teaming the childcare while we were gone!
The trip came about from two plane ticket vouchers from a trip that got canceled this spring. We had planned to take Keenan along at that point since he was so little, but when plans changed we decided to wait until he was weaned so we could escape all responsibility! Charleston was chosen as a destination because it was the cheapest place to fly, not because I even had a clue what we would find there. But we were not disappointed; Charleston is a beautiful historical city along the coast with so much history, culture, and natural beauty to explore!
The flights down and back went well. We arrived in Charleston around noon and acquired our private rental car for the week. Matt obviously did the car shopping and was thrilled to drive an all-electric smart car!
We checked into our cozy Airbnb cottage and then enjoyed a meal at a local seafood restaurant! I was thrilled to take in the landscape of the southeast! I don't think I considered ahead of time how close we were to Florida and that I'd be seeing so much water and palm trees!
Then we visited Folly Beach as the sun set. It was all so beautiful and it was here that we saw dolphins for the first time!
We made our own breakfasts at our little house. It reminded me of our yummy honeymoon breakfasts.
U.S.S. Yorktown was on Matt's bucket list for Charleston. We spent Wednesday exploring this aircraft carrier from WWII. It was amazing to me to see how the entire ship had to contain the living necessities for sustaining several thousand workers for weeks at a time - along with the aircrafts and everything else needed for the actual mission of the ship. It was huge.
The washroom
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| One of the kitchens - these are all the ingredients to make a batch 10,000 chocolate chip cookies for the crew! |
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| Captain Matt |
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| The deck with all the planes. |
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We were running close to closing time by the time we arrived at the Vietnam portion of the museum but it would have been interesting to explore it more!
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| Matt also wanted to hit up some barbecue on the trip, so we visited two highly recommended BBQ places in the area Wednesday and Thursday nights! Super good! This was Lewis Barbecue. |
Thursday was our downtown day. We started our day walking through the historical Charleston market, then made our way down the street for some French cuisine for lunch.
We then toured the Old Exchange and Provost Dungeon and got a glimpse of some of Charleston's colonial history. The exchange building was a major port for trade and government affairs, with the underground used as a cellar to store shipments that came in from the sea. Later the British converted it into a "dungeon" for prisoners during the Revolutionary War.
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| We got to sign the Declaration of Independence. |
Then we took a walk down to the battery along the coast. We walked past Rainbow Row, which was rather anti-climatic.
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| Then we tried out an escape room. We were joined by two others and were able to make it out in good time! |
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| Our second barbecue stop was Rodney Scott's. The BBQ was awesome, and we were blown away by their smoked wings. Totally recommend! |
Friday morning we went kayaking! It was beautiful and we got to see a couple more dolphins!
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| Pizza for lunch! Yeah, don't mind the pregnant mama who ate a whole pizza after kayaking all morning. |
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| We spontaneously decided to visit the Charleston Aquarium in the afternoon. Here I am petting stingrays. It was fascinating to see all the sea creatures. It would have been a fun place to bring our kids! |
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| We found Keenan's name at the deli where we ate supper that night! |
We were blessed with safe travels home on Saturday!
We arrived to the Schulz home for our children mid-afternoon and stayed for a bit to visit Grandpa Schulz, who had been staying in their home that week on hospice care. Though he certainly wasn't completely his old self, he still seemed pretty alert and was engaging in conversation. At that point we thought he would be around a couple weeks yet. But we are so thankful we had the opportunity to spend that time with him, because the next day we came to say our last goodbyes as he had gone downhill quickly.
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"When at last these ties are riven,
When we're called to go on high,
Oh, how sweet to meet in heaven,
Friends forever, you and I."
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Grandpa passed away peacefully on Monday evening surrounded by his children. We are thankful he can finally be free of all the burdens of life, and join Grandma to live with Jesus forever. It is so hard to see their generation pass on, as they have so much wisdom and character to offer us from their life experiences. Grandpa loved all his family so much and we always enjoyed his visits. When we got married, I never felt like an "outlaw" with him as he always treated me like his very own granddaughter! I am thankful to have been blessed to have a Grandpa around in my married years!
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| All thirty grandchildren made it to the funeral! Standing in front of a corn field ready for harvest....fitting for their Grandpa who was busy farming up until the month he died! |
We enjoyed our Saturday evening together with the family at Aunt Janette's after the funeral.
And now we have only covered the first two weeks of October. Thankfully, the next couple weeks we were able to spend some days recovering at home.
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| The boys got to watch the field next to us be harvested! |
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| The lovely bunch that keeps this house alive during the day! |
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| Joanna is trying to figure out how to do her own hair! |
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| Happy 8th Anniversary to us! We kind of had a 5-day "date" in South Carolina, and I was still wiped out from the last two weeks. So Matt picked up barbecue (that guy and his BBQ!) on his way home from work and we hastily decorated the table for his arrival and a special restaurant dinner at home! Easier with kids that way, I might say. |
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| Matt even brought me home a beautiful plant! The traditional 8th anniversary gift is supposed to be pottery, so he hit two birds with one stone bringing home "flowers" in a clay pot! :) |
Ahh, what can I say. Eight years means we are getting close to ten! It is amazing how much can happen in eight years. My husband is the best, so perfect for me, and I am so thankful God brought us together! In our current life stage of full-out survival, there is no way I would make it with anything less than an amazing and ever-patient husband.
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| Daddy, Mommy, and baby heading out with their diaper bag packed with all the essentials. Daddy is holding a wet wipe. The wooden block as a wipe struck my funny bone. Looks painful. |
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| We harvested the rest of our apples and pears and made cider! |
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| We also decided to try making apple dumplings after reading this book from the library! They were very yummy! |
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| My enthusiastic baking crew! (We don't do much baking these days because Mommy gets overwhelmed having four cooks in the kitchen, so anything we get to prepare is a major occasion.) |
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| Then one night at 10pm we decided it was time to start painting. |
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| We got the hallway and desk area finished the next morning! It is so nice to have a fresh coat to cover up all the wear and tear. I haven't painted anything besides three bedrooms and a bathroom since we bought the house. Thankfully the previous owners had pretty neutral/timeless tastes! Now for the rest of the kitchen that I still am waiting for a spare day to paint. Ha. I never get spare days. We might be sitting here with two tones for awhile, but I really hope we can get it done before the baby arrives! |
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| We had a slight mishap with Matt's guitar. He glued it back together of course, and it is now back in use. |
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| The kids enjoyed their goodie bags from Grandpa and Grandma for trick-or-treat! |
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| Matt made some solid progress on our laundry counter! The last part will involve figuring out how to mend the corner. If you recall, the machines were about an inch too wide for the space and he had to knock out drywall to fit them in. |
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| We have enjoyed our three sheep! They have been pretty low maintenance (until winter arrived and they started needing fed and watered), but one of them happened to get out one day so we had fun getting it back in with the help of our sheepdog. |
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| Now that Matt is back in the office, we got to go visit him in Muscatine! We have missed doing these dates the past couple years. We went to Blain's to do some Christmas shopping after our picnic. |
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| A couple more Massner birthdays. |
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| Can you even claim you had a childhood if you never had a princess band-aid moustache? |
Well, that's October for you! Then came the crazy spiral month of November as the holidays began to approach.
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| We had a fun celebration day for our 50th day of school! |
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| Apparently One Morning in Maine was fresh on Micah's mind when I told him to make a wish and break a wishbone with Levi. And he was over-the-moon, happy-as-punch when Daddy showed up with a chocolate ice cream cone. |
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| I told the kids at the beginning of the year that after we hit 50 days of school, we would go on a field trip. So my Dad graciously gave us a tour of the ambulance and fire station! Joanna got to be the patient! |
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| Keenan was pretty thrilled to lay on the bed, too! |
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| Matt and I got to see baby at my 20 week ultrasound! Such a sweet thing! We also learned the gender and revealed it at Christmas! |
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| Best Buds! |
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After touring the ambulance on the 50th day of school, we decided to spend our 51st day of school getting a "tour" of Burlington's brand new Urgent Care building! Levi was trying to use my exercise equipment when a hook came and whacked him in the head leaving a very deep cut. A little glue and tape after a three-hour wait and he was good to go. Every boy needs a nice scar on his forehead.
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| We are SO thrilled to be gaining another sister-in-law! Jacob was engaged to Harmony Sauder from Morris in November and they plan to be married in January! We had a very nice engagement meal the next weekend at Mom and Dad's! |
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| Then the week of Thanksgiving hit. I felt like a fruit hoarder on my Aldi run the day before Thanksgiving. But we went through it all in two days! |
I was very overwhelmed leading up to the week of Thanksgiving. I feel like keeping our household running is enough of a challenge, but adding in four full days of running here and there with food and kids was more than I could handle. Add in Matt traveling for work the first three days of the week prior to Thanksgiving, and I was on the verge of a mental breakdown on Wednesday night. Exactly one year ago that week I was in the hospital with postpartum psychosis. I think the holidays are hard on my mental health. Thankfully this time I only had pregnancy hormones to deal with, wasn't having my sleep interrupted by a nursing baby every couple hours, and had a few other helpful things in my mental health toolbox that I didn't have a year ago. We were doing much better in a few days.
As our long weekend took the shift into full swing, Daisy went missing for about 24 hours. We figured she had run off (which she hasn't ever done overnight), but when we got home from church on Thursday noon, we saw her over by the swing set.
Thursday our outings were church services, a noon meal and afternoon with the Massners, and an evening meal with the Lanz family. On Friday, we gathered with Matt's family for the Gary Schulz Christmas. All but the Connecticut crew were able to make it and we had a nice time!
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| Grandma got sweatshirts for all the younger grandchildren! |
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Grandma's disbursement of gifts to the older kiddos.
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On Saturday, we spent the day with my family due to some special visitors from up north - Uncle Bruce and Aunt Penny's whole family! It was a treat to have them in Iowa for the weekend and to be with some of our Schmidgall cousins! In the evening, we attended the holiday parade in Burlington and went to supper at Pizza Ranch. Despite being to many Pizza Ranches in our day, this was our first time actually going to our local chain in Burlington!
The first week of December (and the couple weeks prior) was occupied with getting Christmas caroling scheduled and organized for Burlington church. It is a very overwhelming task to accomplish with four little kids. But we were thankful for the opportunity to sing for the elderly again!
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| My creative outlet for the week was making bowties for the boys to wear to Jacob and Harmony's wedding. It was a fun and simple craft, probably the first thing I have made with fabric since having kids! And I still managed to get by without taking out my sewing machine. Hehe. I have a phobia of learning how to use it. But I will likely make my own bowties again for future weddings because they were super simple and now they will match the wedding! |
For school in December, I decided it was time for a change in pace, so we had Christmas school. It ended up being something fun and different and helped me be more flexible in December with everything else going on. I got a bunch of Christmas books from the library for ideas, inspiration, and reading material. I also printed a bunch of free Christmas worksheets and coloring pages from the Internet. We got inspired by a Christmas around the world book and spent each week learning about Christmas in a different country and recreating some of their traditions. We had lots of fun and learned a few things too!
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| Our British dinner the first week involved turkey, brussels sprouts, mince pies, wassail, holly place cards, and English Christmas crackers (they are the gifts with things inside, not an edible crunchy cracker like we know it)! |
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| Week two was Mexico! |
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| Our Mexican meal consisted of pozole, Mexican Christmas Eve salad, Mexican nut cookies, and chips and salsa for an American flare. |
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| Week Three was Germany. By this point, December was getting busy and I was running out of steam to prepare a German meal. Plus it seems like Germany's traditional meal is pretty similar to America. We made a gingerbread house and sampled some authentic German goodies from Aldi. |
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| I can't remember what these were all called, but if you want authentic German Christmas goodies, Aldi originated in Germany and is the place to go! (Week four of Christmas school was the U.S.A. which pretty much consisted of celebrating Christmas. Quite convenient.) |
The kids also worked hard on learning Christmas memory verses during "Christmas School!" There is something so precious about hearing God's word from the mouths of babes!
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| We have enjoyed attending a few monthly gatherings of a local group of homeschool moms this fall. The kids have a nice time playing while the moms enjoy a topical speaker and discussion upstairs. It is a blessing to have a support group of homeschoolers since it isn't a super common undertaking in our area! |
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| The kids helped Matt get a shelter started for the sheep for the winter. |
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| Levi got an ant farm for a gift at Schulz Christmas. This is the day they arrived. It has been an interesting show to watch the past couple months! |
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| Then, there is Micah who apparently needs to take up yoga. I finally started taking pictures of some of the poses we find him in throughout the day. |
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| Joanna and Levi tried copying him one day. |
Then, the Hay brothers called us up and said they planned to come pour concrete the third week of December, thanks to the lovely weather we were having! We were so excited because we had been waiting for this day for a long time!
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| The project also provided great entertainment for the kids for three days! |
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| Back patio... |
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| New sidewalks... |
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| And small concrete pad in front of the garage! |
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| Matt had several distractions from his day job that week. Grandpa Schulz's farm auction was the 14th on another beautiful December day! |
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| I made it in time to see everything get loaded up and carried away. |
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| Daddy and Levi bonding over their early morning cereals. |
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| I told Matt something was wrong with the vacuum because it hardly had any suction. Maybe it had something to do with a whole handful of crayons being packed into the hose. Life would be so boring without kids. |
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| Keenan has discovered a love for books the past couple months! Between books and music, he is well entertained. Throw in his pacifier and blankie and you will be set. |
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| We enjoyed a child-free date night for our Young Couples Christmas! It was a special treat to have such a lovely dinner together! |
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| After being very disappointed that they didn't get to see Santa at the festival of lights in Mt. Pleasant, I agreed to take them to the Mediapolis library where he was the next weekend. We don't necessarily do Santa at our house, but they thought it was pretty cool anyway. |
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| They even got donuts and chocolate milk afterwards and got to play at the library. It was a fun little morning outing! |
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| The Ed Lanz Christmas was our first major family gathering in December. The engaged couples got picked on for this gift wrapping game. |
The next few days consisted of Massner Christmas caroling, Christmas prep and survival, and a little instrumental performance with my brothers for some of the Massner Great Aunts, Uncles, and cousins on Wednesday evening at Jeff and Monti's shed.
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| It's always fun to play and sing with my family! |
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| I actually put some forethought into stockings this year, besides actually getting stockings. So of course kids were up bright and early the morning of our little family Christmas! |
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| I love Joanna's penmanship. |
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| I don't really get into the gifting mode with our family, in part because I am too practical, in part because I already get too stressed out with the holidays and it would be just one more thing to think about, and in part because they get enough gifts everywhere else they go. But this year we did have fun drawing names between the six of us and shopping for each other! |
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| This was the perfect gift for Keenan...a book with buttons that play music! It is nice calming music, too, so it works good to keep it in his bed for when he is settling down for sleep. |
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| Our Christmas dinner! |
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| The kids wanted to make a birthday cake for Jesus this year. It paired well with the homemade ice cream we always make for Christmas! |
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| Christmas Day we were blessed to celebrate with the Massner family! |
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| The first "gift" opened was our gender reveal! |
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| It's another girl! We are so excited for Joanna to have the sister she was praying for! |
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| Matt and my brothers worked together to make an instrument stand for my mom for Christmas. Hopefully it will provide a little organization for the music store her living room has become the past couple years. There are still probably about five plus more instruments that don't fit on this stand, but hopefully it will free up some space when Johnny moves out and takes his four guitars and banjo with him. (On a side note, he has recently moved home from Cedar Rapids, got a new job lined up in Burlington, and signed a purchase agreement on a nice little house in town.) |
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| All the grand-kiddos with matching jammies! |
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| These two cousins are turning into good buds! |
Once Christmas was done, we spent the next week kicking up our feet and chilling out to welcome in the new year.
With two extra kids on board for foster respite care, that is. It was a very crazy way to kick up our feet after Christmas. The challenge was satisfying, but I am thankful my normal life only consists of four children under six rather than six under six. It is funny how having only four littles around afterward seemed like a quiet stroll in the park! They left Friday around noon and we did end up welcoming in 2022 with our feet kicked up...in our beds...asleep and completely wiped out, ready to bid farewell to 2021!
I think I will leave off after the close of 2021 and save the new year for a new blog post! To be honest, I am thankful to leave the year behind and embrace a fresh new year. I know 2020 was an easy chapter for most of us to close, but 2021 was a really long year for me too. I kept plugging through the months thinking there would be a light at the end of the tunnel - and there were many bright spots along the way - but it seemed I never could quite get a chance to completely pull myself together before the next thing would hit. I guess I am having to learn to love life again, despite feeling overwhelmed most of the time. I am also needing to learn the balance of lowering my expectations as much as I can without letting go of the things that are important. Like, how much of a mess can I allow my house to be without losing my mind from the lack of order? Or, what level of discipline and character training for my children is "enough" - so they will turn into good, Christ-loving citizens - but not so much that I lose my sanity in the effort to do it all right. And accepting that those kinds of expectations will look different for everyone, depending on our season of life, our support system, and whatever else life hands us.
I am probably cutting off a beautiful ramble, but I wouldn't know because I am exhausted, my brain is done for the day, and I must be going to bed now. I wish I had the time and energy to write all day because it is what I love to do, but God has blessed me with a more important work in this season of life! :) Blessings to you all in 2022!
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