If anyone still reads this blog : )

Here are the pictures of the girls at the Feast of the Hunter's Moon last weekend. My mom spent the better part of last week putting Mary's dress together and it turned out splendidly! Just beautiful. Emily got a bonnet as well, after seeing how much she enjoyed her sister's. Unfortunately the weekend didn't pan out quite like we'd hoped--the rain made the Feast a mud hole and to make a long story short I ended up taking the girls on the shuttle bus to get there and upon arrival didn't have a way to transport our 'wants to run away' toddler, so I ended up carrying her most of the day. I started feeling sick and didn't even get to play my fife with the corps like I was planning to, and it was a good thing I decided I just wasn't up for it. I ended up sick in bed Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday with the worst strep throat I've ever had. Elijah was also down sick with a sinus infection for 2 days. His school closed today for the next two days because they have so many out with the flu.

Hold onto Hope

Next Saturday, October 10th, I am taking Mary and Emily with me to do a 2 mile Walk for Life around Lafayette. This walk raises money for Matrix Lifeline Pregnancy Center in the Lafayette area. Matrix provides assistance to pregnant women and families with young children and offers guidance to women looking for alternatives to abortion. If you are interested in sponsoring our walk, please add a comment or email me at michelle@elmills.com. They will send you a letter to collect the money. Here is more information if anyone is interested.

A few pictures and our fun weekend

Our new back-to-school mantra goes like this: "No...No...No." We are learning that for us, less is more right now. So far our weekends have been a great balance of housework and relaxation. It helps that Brian is finally to the point that he desires a clean and orderly house too, and that our kids are old enough to actually have real cleaning jobs so I have lots of help.

On Friday Brian and I went out on a date--one where we actually hired a sitter that isn't related to us. And paid her money. We went to the Seeger football game. Romantic, huh? It was a lot of fun! What we love more than lots of things is talking in the car, so it actually was just perfect for us. When we got home we rented Sunshine Cleaning and I would highly recommend it. I watch about 5 movies per year anymore because they mostly are garbage in my opinion. This one was thoughtful; with well-developed characters and only a little bit of ridiculous sex scences (even though it is rated R).

On Saturday evening we celebrated Brian and his mom's birthdays at his parents' house. He got a laptop for his birthday!! Wowzers. An ipod and a laptop within 2 months. We are almost not technologically in the dark ages anymore.

We spent lots of time doing nothing this weekend. Which is new for us, but we sure like it. Today we found a u-pick apple orchard between here and Indy and picked about 30 lbs. of apples. We used our new Jack LaLanne power juicer and made apple juice (which is actually more like cider) out of some of them when we got home. We also juiced a veggie mixture to use as a base for the chili that I simmered all afternoon. It had carrots, swiss chard, onion, tomatoes, and celery in it. I'm sure it's healthy, but boy was it ever ugly.

In closing, if anyone has any ideas about how to keep a girl from taking her diaper off and peeing in her crib every day, please inform. Or maybe just get me some more laundry detergent.

Overheard in my van

Aunt Laura, you'll love this one.

As we were driving through downtown Lafayette the other day, we passed by Trinity UMC. Elijah exclaims, "1869 !! Mom, that church was built in 1869. That's the same year Henri Matisse was born."

I can hardly believe it, but in one hour it will mark 7 years that Elijah has been out of me and living in this world. We decided to have his party next Saturday in light of the first week of school, but we did our fair share of celebrating today anyway. We had an impromptu breakfast at IHOP complete with singing and clapping wait staff (and an ice cream sundae for breakfast--this is after his hot chocolate with whipped cream and pancakes, eggs, and bacon!). This evening we took him shopping for his first big boy present-a bow and arrow. It's still a little surreal to me. Five was getting big. Six was kind of big, but still just kindergarten. Seven seems different. Like, no longer a little kid (well, who are we kidding? Elijah hasn't been "little" since 2003.) He is a school aged child. Happy Birthday man cub!

cutting back

In the interest of my sanity I am cutting out some things that I think are important, but just not attainable for me right now. No more cloth diapers during the week, no more teaching flute lessons, no more fall garden; and we are making a serious effort to not plan up all of our weekends. I am trying enjoy my job and not to start the countdown to next summer when I can "be me" again.

We got rid of our entertainment center and tv on Sunday. Took them to the curb and they were gone within the hour. We found an ad on craigslist for a free piano that we are picking up this week. Man, does it ever feel great to not have a tv again!

We have a houseguest this week: it's our dog buddy, Judah! Carter is so happy having a friend here that we are considering getting a second dog. It is breathing new life into that tired old dog. Believe me, it won't be anytime soon. But it is at least something we are considering.

My tomatoes are ripe! We've had the little delicious bite sized ones for about a month, but we've been waiting and checking each day for the larger heirlooms to be ready. There have been a few, usually just one at a time. We used one for BLT's and a couple I froze because they were ready as we were getting ready to leave for vacation, but I think we're about to hit the motherload. I've got my canning jars prepped and I am ready to get my canning on. I hope there are more ready this weekend.

In other news I am going to have a large class this year. Tonight was meet the teacher open house. I think I will end up with around 23-24 students, which is several higher than last year. We'll see how that goes. Should be interesting. We have a new kindergarten teacher in our building and get this--she grew up in a town in Michigan where a lot of my family lives. Sara M.--if you are reading this, she remembers you and your sister from Brighton HS! Her name is Karen. (This is where you start humming 'it's a small world after all') Crazy.

We have reclaimed our back porch after it's use as command central all summer. It is nice to not have it full of power tools, random nails, and other garbage. I don't even care that there is no table and chairs. I am just happy that the siding is done and for the first time since we moved in, there is no painted plywood looking trashy back there.

I can definitely tell that I sat in a chair for most of the day today. All I want to do is get on the treadmill and run. So, I think I will. Brian is out tonight for a much needed "out of the house" adventure. The kids are in bed and I have the whole night before me. Well, it is 8:45, so at least the next two hours before me.

girls versus boys

This is how you know girls are different than boys:

Upon finding a Buzz Lightyear laserblaster, Emily proceeds to pick it up and use it to dry her hair. Not even shooting sounds.

Where did the weekend go? I was just patting myself on the back for my more frequent posting, when to my surprise, almost a week has passed! I am back to work testing incoming kindergartners and getting my room ready for the next school year. Elijah and Mary are all signed up for their respective schools and I've got all my people lined up to help drive everywhere said children need to go each day. Brian and I are mourning summer. Each year gets better. I do think it went by fast, but when I look back, we sure did a lot.

Elijah and Mary did art camp, we walked as a family a lot, we went to Tropicanoe Cove three times, camped at Prophetstown State Park, camped in Bloomington for the weekend, went to the Taste of Tippecanoe, spent the 4th of July with my family at Lake Michigan, enjoyed a week with Brian's aunt, uncle, and cousin in town, went to the Indianapolis Children's Museum, Art Museum, and had an overnight date adventure where we ate dinner at the long lost Italian Restaurant in Michigan where it all began for us 12 years ago (when we were in HIGH SCHOOL YOUTH GROUP!!), attended the Indiana Fiddlers' Gathering, Wolf Park twice, spent a week in a house on the beach with our wonderful family, spent two weeks in the car driving across the country and finally just spent two days with my aunt and cousins visiting. Oh yeah, and a couple of little house projects we like to call new windows and siding. There really wasn't a lot of lounging in our yard, playing in the pool, like years past but I would still say that our summer was a success.

I think it's therapeutic for me to do this each August when I start to get whiny about going back to work. It's good to remind myself that we had a good bit of fun and now this season is over. Time to get back to work. This year will bring new adventures as Mary goes to preschool and makes new friends. Emily will grow up quickly now that she gets to go to the big girl day care with her sister and will start Bible Study Fellowship in January with Mary and cousin Jonathan. Lots of things to look forward to. It's just not sleep.

our bounty

Since we've been home I have been spending a lot of time weeding our overgrown mess called a garden. We've been harvesting and eating lots of things as well which is really satisfying. Brian's grandma loaned us her pressure cooker so I started canning beans for the first time--SO EXCITING!!

what i should be doing. er...?

Well folks the time has arrived once again. The time of year when I play tug of war with all the demands on my time. I can clean closets and get rid of clutter (whatever happened to our firm resolve about not allowing our kids to have tons of worthless toys?) or I can go to work and get my classroom ready for the next school year that starts in less than 2 weeks. I always hold out to the last possible moment I have to go in during the summer so I can enjoy the last weeks of summer. But today school called and basically said, "where are you?" I am not officially expected to be there until August 14th, but I was unofficially expected today. Instead my to-do list included canning green beans, LAUNDRY, and purging useless crap that we don't play with because we can't find it because we have too much stuff for our house. I love seeing uncluttered homes. Maybe I am in denial about the amount of stuff that goes with having three kids. It probably will just make me crazy trying to contain the stuff, but by golly I am going to give it the old college try. I see homes that are decorated and I think, what kind of decor do we have? Well, guitars, for certain. Rock and stick collections, several pairs of shoes, dirty dishes, lots of unopened mail...

We are getting rid of our enormous and outdated entertainment center because our tv has a demon and randomly goes on and off, like every five minutes. It's impossible to watch anything. So we really don't. We use our computer and watch hulu after the kids go to bed (our new favorite is Kitchen Nightmares), but the exciting news about getting rid of the very large piece of press board is that we are trying to make room for a piano. Not that we have one, but would like to acquire one. Maybe for my birthday? We'd be happy with a cheap/free one that needed to be tuned if anyone knows of something like that.

Elijah and Mary hike up the needles in Custer State Park
panning for gold


Emily doing her best imitation of the Ingalls girls at the homestead of Pa and Ma in DeSmet, Suth Dakota.



So, our trip to South Dakota was amazing. We are back and ready to get into action. We have plenty of unfinished things to do around here before our life kicks back into high gear. Brian is doing the back side of the house siding, we are all still unpacking and organizing stuff from being gone for almost 3 weeks, and of course there is all the laundry and house cleaning to do. Some of the highlights of our trip were definitely Mount Rushmore, seeing all the wildlife so up close and personal, all the natural splendor, and visiting the homestead site of Charles and Caroline Ingalls. We are already planning our trip for next summer.

I feel like I am spending a lot of my summer catching up from the last thing or getting ready for the next. Here are some birthday pics of my (gulp) five year old Mary. She had a princess tea party with a few friends a couple weeks ago. It was the first friend party she's had and the first really planned party I've ever done. The girls wore fancy dresses and we made tea cups and crowns. We ate homemade princess cake. It was a lot of fun.

This Old House

It isn't finished yet, but it's looking so much better. Many thanks to Brian and his dad as well as Everette and Dallas. I am really happy with the color. We're in discussion about the door color (red or strip the color and go natural) as well as the shake shingles to go on the front porch.

Happy 4th of July!

We're (Elijah, Emily and I) are off to the boat this morning--Mary has been up there since Thursday. Brian is staying behind to finish siding the house. Have a safe and happy 4th everyone! I'll be glad when our computer isn't broken anymore and we can upload NEW pictures.

A walk down fiddlers lane 2006-2008

Things I am thankful for

1. New mini blinds on three windows in my house where there were previously none. I used to not want them, but I've been feeling like our house is exposed at night and wanted some cover. Plus I like the way the evening light is filtering through them into the living room right now.

2. Mid-week trips to the beach and museum with only your husband. Also eating here.

3. Sugar snap peas are in full harvest right now. Yum! I like picking things straight from the vine and eating it.

4. On that note--I have SEVERAL green tomatoes. We planted large plants early in the season so we'll be eating fresh tomatoes soon I hope.

5. This weekend is Fiddlers!!! One of our favorite weekends of the whole year.

House updates

All three of the new windows are now finished and the attic has light! It is still blazing hot up there since there isn't any insulation, but at least we have the capability to put a fan in a window and blow air in or out. Today Brian is getting the existing house windows ready for the siding. Last night we sat on the porch talking about the rest of the summer and he realized how many weeks we're going to be traveling next month so it lit a little fire under him to get moving this week.

Well, apparently our computer is going to crash soon, so I guess I'll post again today. I just tried to upload some pictures and there are some kind of fatal errors happening. What I was going to post was a picture of my house on the last day it will look the way it looks for posterity. Tomorrow starts phase one of our summer construction project. We ordered the new siding today. Wahoo! Tomorrow Brian will start cutting holes in the side of our house to add some windows to our second story attic. These windows were purchase in, um... 2005(?) I want to say. They've been sitting in our garage ever since. This is step one to having a functional attic space. I know it will at least give more light up there. Next week we (why do we women always say "we"?)--Brian and Bob (his dad) and anyone else who is interested in helping will start putting up the new siding. We went against the supposed theory that blue houses don't sell. We both really liked the dark blue with white trim. We're going to add white shake shingles to the front of the porch which I am really excited about. Hopefully I will add some pictures of the process.

What we've been up to this week

Elijah and Brian in 2007.
same picture in 2009.


I keep thinking that surely summer is going to calm down...one of these days. This week the kids have been going to Art Camp at the Lafayette Museum of Art. Elijah's teacher from school is teaching the class and they are having so much fun! They made sculptures out of clay that got fired in the kiln, tie-dyed shirts, worked with paint, oil pastels, and markers, and tomorrow they will splatter paint.

Last weekend we went to Bloomington for a weekend music festival at All Saints Orthodox Church. We stayed in our camper and it was perfect! We had a nice little place to hideout when we needed a/c, a nap, or a quiet place to hang out. I know it isn't exactly "roughing it" but I think I'm over that. it's okay for us to have a bed to sleep in if we're seriously going to hit the road.

Blast technology

I really wanted to share a great video clip of Elijah performing in his school musical, We Haz Jazz. It was a musical about the evolution of jazz music in the United States. He played Tommy Dorsey. You can spot him in the front row with a blue sport jacket, red bow-tie, and big glasses. He was a natural! He was doing jazz hands all over the place. Unfortunately our video camera is not digital. Our camera takes digital video, but the only clip that I have (that you get the pleasure of watching) is VERY wobbly thanks to a certain 4 year old that is pulling on my arm whilst I am trying to tape. Don't say I didn't warn you. You may need dramamine.

Booked

It feels a little more real tonight. We have a destination and a reservation that is paid for. The end of this summer will find us in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Cleaning off my memory card

Mary's new big girl bike. We're waiting on the real training wheels to arrive, so in the meantime we've got temporary smaller ones to help her stay up.

Riding bikes to the Battlefield on Memorial day. We visited the nature center and walked down to the creek.
Elijah was very proud that he took this picture.
Mary took this one.
Playing cards with Grandma Betty in the camper.

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

Woo-hoo! Now the big dilemma is...start having fun or clean the house from all the clutter and junk that has accumulated. I asked Brian this morning about having a LARGE yard sale and getting rid of some of our furniture. Does anyone else just ever get the urge to purge your life and start the next phase with less?

And the fun is just beginning

My friend, Kerrie, and I took the kids to Prophetstown State Park today. We walked around the farm and then went to one of the playground areas for lunch. Aunt Laura and Grandma Susan were with us too. We tried to camp there this weekend, but it was booked so we're backyard camping in the new camper. Last night only Elijah stayed with Grandma and Laura, but we're going to try it with everyone tomorrow night I think. We took our bikes with us to the park too and had a nice ride along the trail. Elijah is quite the little bike rider. He, Laura, and Susan actually rode back to the house in Battle Ground from the state park. I am so impressed with him. It's actually been a little difficult to keep up with him now that he's on two wheels.
Emily had the most fun seeing the animals. She petted the pigs, sheep, horses, cows, and chickens. She only got pecked two times before deciding that was enough.
Mary went in with the calves. One of them licked Emily on the face!
Eli and Mary G. getting cozy in their new bed.
This is it!!

Emily, at 18 months, is all about moving. She says lots of words: bye bye, hi, mama, dada, Jijah, Mar Mar, Bob-o, Papa, Lucy, sit, more, no, cup, juice, outside, shoes, walk, night-night (which is actually what she calls her paci) and she can give the dog commands like "down". She is a busy, busy girl. She is making me laugh these days when she gets really close to doing something she's not supposed to--like climbing the rails up the swingset. She'll put her foot up and look at me and say, "bye-bye" with a little gleam in her eye. I'll say, "No bye-bye. Feet down." and she'll say, "hi" and take another step up. Little stinker.

Score one point (well, maybe ten points) for staying in Lafayette. Today after I picked Elijah up from school, he and I ran in to McCords for cherry cokes and a giant cookie to share. We then decided to walk down to the pedestrian bridge again and watch the trains go by. It was delightful and sunny and warm. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with my sweet son. Mr. Bojangles, this older man who plays the mandolin and sings folk covers downtown for the farmers market was out playing as well. It was one of those moments when you think to yourself, "self--remember this moment."

This weekend has been HUGE for us. First of all, Elijah learned to ride a 2 wheeler. He was extremely afraid to attempt it and we'd had numerous conversations about how he thought it would take him months and he'd need to wear pads, etc, etc...Boy was he ever surprised at how easy it was for him. He's been out riding all weekend--and he and Brian rode bikes to church today (another plus for staying in town for now!). In other big news...

We got a camper last night!!!!! Well, it's not technically ours, but for our family to use. We ended up getting a much nicer one than I originally thought we'd end up with, so I am SO EXCITED! It is a 2006 Jayco popup. It has a king bed, a queen bed, and 2 table fold down beds. Seating for 4 at the table, the table can be moved outdoors and attach to the side, it has a refrigerator, stove, heat and a/c, and an outside shower hose. So last night Brian and I were immediately plotting our summer travels. We CAN'T WAIT!!! We're off to see the country.

Goofy girl!!

It is so interesting to me that on a normal school day I drag Mary out of bed at 7:05 so that we can walk out the door at 7:20. I literally thought she was going to daycare in her pajamas on Friday. But come Saturday, she is in our room at 6:03 ready to start the day...