One day in March, I woke up to decent weather, four pairs of clean clothes, no plans on the calendar, and overdue 6 month, 4 and 5 year children's photos looming in the unfinished business compartment of my brain. I gathered up what energy I could find and got four children wriggled into those four pairs of clean clothes, pulled out my camera, opened the door, and let the monkeys out of their cage. I chased them monkeys all over the yard, snapping pictures when they stopped for breath. And at a couple points I managed to get them all to sit and stand within a few feet of each other for a group photo. Within five minutes, they had run out of smiles and the grass was sending stain-threats to those clean clothes, so I corralled them monkeys back inside just as Matt was finishing up his meeting and coming out to help.
Oh, how I love photography. Oh, how I dread my own children's picture day. Oh, how I just ruined for you the appearance of cheer and serenity in these finished products. But we did manage to capture their genuine personalities at this stage, which was of course the end goal.
This is the moment where I would love to take the time to say a few words about each of these sweet children so we can all remember their little personalities. But my brain has difficulty focusing when my current writing environment involves children wreaking havoc on the household as my husband uses his superhero powers to coax them all into the living room to read some books. Alas, I spy a stray little girl claiming to be hungry climbing to the highest height of the kitchen to get some chocolate chips. And a boy trying his best to un-tune the guitar while another tries his fists on the ivories. But at least the baby is interested in the book Daddy is reading.
Oh, wait, the baby is hungry now. Excuse me for a half hour while I feed and put him to bed for the night.
Ah, I'm back. Baby is headed into sleepy land, the other three children are listening to The Bunny Book (one of my favorites), and I took the opportunity to sneak some of those chocolate chips from the highest height of the kitchen while nobody was looking. Now, where were we?
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| Levi. 5 years old. Loves learning new things. He's been going to Aunt Timna's preschool with the other church preschoolers every Tuesday morning for two hours. His least favorite subject in preschool is "scissors." His dad has trained him well in taking care of his mama; he sweetly ensures that I get a dose of chocolate whenever I start running out of steam. Levi does not like surprises. As the oldest child, he thrives on telling others what to do. He is left-brained, a quick learner and sharp-minded. |
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| This is Micah. FOUR years old! Something about a dimple makes a smile so contagious. Sensitive, gentle, submissive, and bashful. He plays well with other children, and his soft heart is complimented by a rough-and-tumble all-boy activity level. Micah has been excited about learning to read! (Unfortunately, complete potty training seems to come after learning to read in this family. Priorities. At least he'll be able to read books to himself on the couch while all his peers go to preschool this fall!) Ahh. But this boy is so easy going and he is a lovely component of this family. |
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| This girl. Joanna Lyn. Gotta love this ornery ball of smiles and spunk. She is a mix of everything pink and girly, giggles, and whack-your-brother's-head-off-when-he-won't-acknowledge-you-as-his-authority. Joanna doesn't know very many strangers and is not afraid to speak her mind. She loves anything to do with food. And at the end of the day, those sweet hugs and smiles can win over any heart. |
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| And Keenan, AKA "Keen-Bean". 7 months (in this photo...but closer to 8 now). He turned over a new leaf this week and has only been waking up once during the night the past few nights. He always does that right before I'm going to report on him, so I don't expect it to last long. He popped through three little teeth in the past month, is still nursing several times a day, takes two good naps, and is enjoying table food! Keenan LOVES the outdoors and rarely fusses when he gets to be outside. He started crawling this month and now pulls himself up on everything, falls over and bonks his head a zillion times a day. He currently has two fat lips from such an adventure with a stepstool. This kid is HIGH energy and only stops moving to sleep! He is lots of fun to play and interact with...he recently learned how to clap his hands and is pretty proud of himself! :) |
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| Keenan's 7-month sticker photo...I think I've already exceeded my word count for this boy. We love him. |
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| Sigh. No kidding. |
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| When the kids help out Matt on his projects...they may just end up on the roof. Eek! |
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| The kids helped me make some healthy breakfast cookies one day. Things always seem healthy until you eat them all in one day. I was excited to find a good new recipe. |
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| One Sunday afternoon when I was particularly exhausted, Matt took the children to Luckinbill Woods with Seth and Brenda's family to do some hiking while I took the most delightful uninterrupted nap. They had a delightful time exploring the woods. |
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| Shadrach found some antler sheds! |
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| I am down to only two piano students now, Anna and Elsa. Nora and Lafe came along one afternoon to play! |
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| The kids have a book called "Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink." We called this picture "Joanna-licious and the Pink Drink." |
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| I told you this boy loves being outside. Putting his walker out on the deck worked great to keep him happy for awhile! |
And then, Easter weekend, our new washer and dryer arrived!! We had ordered them around Christmas time and it took three months for them to get here. By the time they arrived, our old washer and dryer were working fine again. But these were certainly an upgrade...technologically, at least!
They were also an upgrade size-wise, which was not planned. Somehow we measured wrong when we checked the space to see if they would fit, and they were a half inch too wide for the gap in the wall. But no worries, I'm married to the best fix-it guy around. He took out the drywall on both sides, put in some thinner material, and squeezed them things in. The next project is to put a counter on top. Since we don't have a laundry room, I thought it might be nice to have a "laundry counter" now that we have a front load washer.
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| Now to figure out what all those buttons mean... |
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| Meanwhile...the kids and I dyed eggs while Matt had the laundry area torn apart. For the sake of transparency, this photo was taken after mopping up two spilled cups worth of dye from the table, chairs, and floor and getting everyone a new change of clothes. |
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| While Matt stayed home working on our emergency laundry wall renovation project, me and the kiddos made our way up to my mom and dad's for an Easter afternoon (since that's what worked for everyone to get together). The four oldest grandchildren enjoyed an egg hunt, lots of candy, and an afternoon outside! |
Then, we retrieved my husband and headed to Uncle Ron and Aunt Timna's for Lanz Easter. There were around 140 people there...I think everyone made an effort to be there since we missed Nauvoo and Christmas last year! It was good to be with everyone! Other Easter plans involved a Myron Schulz gathering and Sunday evening with my family.
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| Lanz Easter |
It is fun to bring back some activities that we haven't been able to do for awhile because of covid...one of those is Baby Joy, when we normally bring the children to the nursing home to play and interact with the residents. A couple weeks ago, the weather was beautiful and we were able to do a modified version of Baby Joy in the courtyard behind the Mediapolis nursing home. The children played outside while the residents watched from their windows. The kids thought it was fun to peek in all the windows at the residents. Afterward we had a picnic at the park!
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| Then I served lunch at church. I love serving lunch at a smaller church; it is just enough to be fun without being overwhelming! |
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| One morning Joanna came into my room and asked me to fill up her water. Then she took a drink and fell back asleep. Right there. |
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| Had another nice day for a picnic on the deck! |
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We used a rainy day to learn a little genealogy! I struggle with coming up with things to do during the day to keep the kids busy so they aren't getting into trouble. This spontaneous activity took up a nice chunk of a morning for us!
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| So, a few gallons of the apple cider from last fall was still in our fridge downstairs going bad. I was going to dump it all but Matt wanted to salvage it. It had become carbonated and (I think) alchoholic in the six months spent in the fridge. Supposedly with some additional intentional fermentation, it will eventually turn into apple cider vinegar. So we now have an experimental apple cider vinegar house going on. |
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| I did this for a few days but then put it in glass jars with paper towels on top. At this point it has lost the carbonation but still tastes like wine. Supposedly we will be able to tell when it tastes like vinegar, and it could take days to months... |
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| I got out of cooking supper one Sunday evening when Great Grandpa Schulz took us out to eat! Joanna ordered rainbow pancakes accompanied by juice and a cookie. Visit your local Perkins for more healthy kids meal options! |
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| Levi had Kindergarten Round-Up last Monday and Tuesday! He had fun on Tuesday! (As you may recall, he doesn't like surprises, and Monday was full of uncertain events. By Tuesday he knew what to expect!) |
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On Monday when I was getting ready to bring Levi up to the school, the van battery was completely dead. Thanks to Aunt Joni, we got him to school in time. The next day, the kids thought their bikes' batteries were dead so they hooked them all up to the jumper cables.
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| BIG NEWS! Since the first week of April, Matt has moved out of his home office in the basement!! HALLELUIAH!!! No, Stanley didn't invite everyone back to work at the office in Muscatine. Phil invited Matt and Jake to work at his place. So now Stanley has an unofficial Oakville office - where face masks aren't required and bean bag chairs are a thing. Meanwhile at home, Levi and Micah are now sleeping in the basement bedroom (where Matt's office has been for the past year) and Keenan moved out of our closet and across the hall with Joanna. And I am ruling my own roost now. No more running downstairs for help whenever I get distraught. I'm being a strong woman. Now when I get overwhelmed I just flop on the couch and let the kids turn the house upside down. Life is good. Overall, it is nice to be back in a more normal routine, where Daddy is a fresh new face at suppertime and there is nowhere else to go when you don't like Mom's rules. Bahaha. |
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| Sweet girl. |
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| Busy boy. |
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| It's grilling season again! Levi enjoyed a lesson in basting chicken last week. |
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| Last weekend, we travelled to Princeville for Cherelle and Abram's wedding on Sunday. Saturday we spent the afternoon and night with Tim and Wendy. Matt spent the day entertaining the boys with all her fix-it projects! We enjoyed our time with them, and the wedding was beautiful! |
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After the wedding reception, my family went to Peoria to see Grandma Knobloch. I haven't been able to see her in person since Christmas 2019 due to covid, other than a window visit last May! We were able to bring her to a park to visit and sing with her. It was such a blessing to be together with her with my whole family. In the past year, she has gone downhill, especially her memory. She was very emotional and so happy to be with us, to watch the children play, and to sing along with us.
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| It was beautiful to see her look up to the parting in the clouds and express how Heaven must be right up there. She is certainly longing for Home and I am thankful she is close to gaining her eternal reward! |
As for my mental health, things have been going well for the past month. My mood hasn't had the ups and downs every few days that I was experiencing before. I don't know if time, medicine, or spring's arrival were the primary healing factors, but I am thankful that God has been gracious and answering prayers. I can't say life is absent of its struggles. Like utter and complete exhaustion at the end of every day, for one. But thankfully the depression has been letting up for now. I appreciate the prayers, and am thankful for the experiences and opportunities to encourage and be encouraged through everything that has happened!
May God bless your week!
