When we were in Prophetstown a few weeks ago, Andrew took the camera and followed the kids around: (ok I took this one…)
Family
Jessica’s Birthday Adventure
A few weeks ago we planned to go camping with a group of eight other families. When Friday rolled around only two families were still able to join us, and we had a marvelous time. Emily, Nathan, and I spent all day getting ready, with Andrew joining us around three for the final preparations. As we…
To Remember
Last week was full of unusual events during the day mixed with very little sleep at night. Turns out that is the recipe for a week of joy that moves at warp speed. In the quiet moments I’ve been trying to jot down our happenings. To remember: Emily has started brushing my hair at night…
Emily’s Three!
The last six months or so Emily has ended many requests with, “…two because I’m two.” I’m was curious how the transition to being three would go. Just fine. “…three because I’m three” began in earnest on Saturday along with exclamations of “I’m three just like everyone else!” Everyone else being the four other friends…
A Day of Applesauce
For weeks we’ve been planning in our little neighborhood community to spend Thursday, October 6 making applesauce. At 7:30 in the morning we got a text that the family that was planning on hosting the event was sick. Fortunately I had followed a prompting to deep clean our kitchen the day before and by 8:15am…
Gymnastics
One afternoon in a moment of exhaustion, I laid out some scrap pieces of wood to make a balance beam for Emily. “Let’s do gymnastics!” I exclaimed with enthusiasm. Emily insisted that we also needed bars to hang on to do gymnastics. She has grown up seeing Aunt Christine in the gym and has a…
True Love Looks Like Sharing Cereal
Emily and Nathan have figured out quite the morning routine. While I make oatmeal and smoothies, Emily grabs a bowl and two kinds of “daddy’s cereal” to create a “cereal mix”. Nathan knows precisely Emily’s food procedure and quickly scrambles to the table and pulls himself up on the chair. He waits patiently for a…
Eleven Months
Dear Nathan, Your personality is starting to shine through and you have serious opinions about how your time is spent. You are a thoughtful doer, personally exploring every inch of the world that you can reach. Nathan you have an explorers heart and you let it lead you without any permission from us. You taught…
Newspaper Printing Press
At the end of August I set up a tour of the Journal and Courier, the local newspaper in Lafayette. We invited all our friends and had a really fun experience seeing the ginormous printing press at work. We learned that they not only print our towns newspaper, but newspapers and ads for many of…
From Minimalism to Lifegiving and A Fall Dinner Celebration
Growing up I always had this conviction that I didn’t want a lot of stuff. We moved a lot and I viewed my things as a burden to pack and unpack, yet each item was filled with sentiment. After my freshman year in college I decided it was time to lighten my load, so I…