Two weeks ago we started talking about General Conference for family home evening. We brainstormed questions that we had as a family. On Monday we finalized our three questions and taped them to the wall by the table. Every day the kids talked about the questions and how we were going to look for the…
Family
It Was the Load
I knew this year was going to be challenging. Back in October I bought the Powersheets after reading Make it Happen to help me create a solid vision for this year. I figured it would help keep me on track in the midst of all the change. I always forget just how hard post-partum depression…
10 Months Old
Dear Laura, You are learning so many new things right now. Every day it is fun to be surprised by what you can do! Currently you crawl anywhere and everywhere – fast. We are all surprised to turn around and have you right there with us. One of your favorite hang-out spots is the bottom of…
Utah Trip 2018
(Thank you thank you to all of you who shared pictures with us – I can only take credit for a few of them here :) We went to Utah on Tuesday July 10. We found a direct flight from Indy to Utah early in the morning. We left the house at 5:15am EST and…
The Most Wonderful Musical Gift and Our Fiddle Concert
When Phoebe called three and a half years ago and said they were coming to Purdue for grad school, the first thing that popped into my head was that we can fiddle again. She and I had been in an Irish Folk Dance class for a summer term in 2012 so we had something to…
9 Months
Dear Laura, At nine months old you are bursting with new skills and abilities all the time. In the last few weeks you’ve figured out how to get onto your hands and knees. You quickly added rocking back and forth, crawling backwards, and now the tentative crawl/dive forwards. It won’t be long before you are…
Lessons Learned from the Madsen Bike
Around the beginning of the year I discovered this thing called a cargo bike. I was very intrigued with concept of having a bike that I could carry all my children on and groceries. For the next seven months I researched and researched and researched some more. I discovered there are two main types: The…
My secret to a clean kitchen: start with the kitchen table
I have been baffled with my inability to keep my kitchen clean over the last few years. I grew up with our family cleaning up after each meal. I have plenty of memories of job wheels rotating through who swept the floor, wiped the table, and put dishes in the dishwasher. I know how to…
Moments
With Laura on the move, she discovers all sorts of things on her own. It was fun to look over and see her engaged with this toy. While I was making my sandals, Emily and Nathan were playing doctor. They constructed band-aids with construction paper and lots of tape. Emily used the fabric that we…
First Week Home
Transitioning from our week in Utah has been a little rough. We’ve all agreed that one week was too short to be ready to go home. It takes us two weeks to feel that pull to return to normalcy. We’ve also had the hardest getting everyone back on EST. Being two hours behind the rest…