Our little Julie turned two yesterday! How grateful we are for her! We love her big bright smile and her happy squeals. She likes to play a game of running to us with her arms stretched out on either side of her like she is flying, and then giving us a great big hug! She will do this over and over again, and it is hard for her to get tired of it!
Before Julie was born, we didn't know if she was a boy or a girl. I wondered sometimes if this baby would feel unique, because we already had both a boy and a girl. When she was born, I realized that I didn't need to be concerned at all! Julie has her own very special place in our family, and when she is missing, we definitely feel it. If I were to try to sum up Julie in one word, it would be "Enthusiasm". She is such a blessing, and we thank God for entrusting her to us!
Happy birthday, Julianna Faith! We love you!
These days are flying by--I can hardly believe it is August already!
We have had some really good weeks of homeschooling with Michael, Bethany, and Julie (though it is mainly with Michael and Bethany!). We really like doing year-round school. They finished the first workbook in their preschool series, and are about halfway through the second one. Their favorite part of school is learning about different types of animals--their names and some of their noises and habits. Sometimes this teacher has to look up some of the names to make sure I'm pronouncing them correctly (like "Galago" for instance). I am learning, too! :) The children love their schoolwork, and will sometimes ask me if they could please do school. They like to set up their little table and chairs in the living room to get ready for it! It is so fun to see how much they enjoy it!
I passed another milestone in my "barber exploits". :) When we had been married for about two months, I started cutting Tom's hair by myself (thanks to some very helpful teaching from Tom's mom and my mom, and a little experience from cutting my little brothers' hair in the past.). I have always done it with the hair clipper (with or without the guide combs), and then using the scissors here and there for trimming, etc. When Michael was old enough for haircuts, I started doing his hair with the guidecombs on the clipper, and it worked very well. The problem is, Michael really doesn't like the hair clipper. Maybe it is because of the loud buzzing sound it makes. I was hoping he would just get used to it, but he seems to dislike it more now than when I started! Last haircut he had, Tom and I decided that we would probably have to try a scissor-only haircut. I hadn't done it before because I didn't think I could do a scissor-only haircut on my wiggly four-year-old. I was dreading the next haircut! To my surprise, the other day Michael came up to me and ASKED me to give him a haircut, because he didn't like how the hair above his ears was getting long. He has never done that before. Even the mention of "haircut" would bother him. I took him into the bathroom, and trimmed around his ears. And then, since I was making a mess with all the hair anyway, I decided I might as well finish the job! That was probably a mistake, because I was the only adult at home at the time (though several of the little ones were still taking their naps when I started), and Michael had nothing substantial to entertain him with. I tried to finish the job with a very wiggly little boy, and a head that kept turning around this way and that! During the haircut he told me that he thought it looked nice, and that he "likes haircuts" (!!!). That was so cute coming from him! I finally finished the haircut. It was definitely not the best job I've ever done (I hope no one looks too close!), but it is shorter than when I started at least! :) Now that I've done it with no help from clippers, I feel like an official "barber"--at least until the next time I make a mistake! :)
Recently Michael and Bethany have been expressing more and more interest in things of the Lord, which is such a delight to see! Three-year-old Bethany loves to talk about "making Jesus happy" by being kind, etc., and Michael really likes to pray. He will lead the other children in prayer sometimes while they are together. It is just so precious to come into a room, and find two or three of them sitting with their hands folded and their eyes closed (well, sometimes their eyes are closed!) talking to Jesus. Words can't express how much this touches me! It is such a blessing and an inspiration!
"For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Matthew 18:20
My sister Rebecca is here helping us this week, which enables me to do things I don't normally have time to do—like update this website. Around March we started having my sisters over to help much less often. My energy had started to pick back up, and I felt like I could manage alone for the majority of the time. It had been working ok, especially since Ruthie started to sleep through the night somewhat recently! However, with Tom dealing with some health issues, we started to feel more tired and overwhelmed than ever, and my sisters sweetly offered to come and stay with us more often. It helps so much to have another set of hands around the house! Another huge bonus is the fellowship. My sisters are such close friends to me (and to Tom, too!), and we love to talk for hours on end. Rebecca brought her school to our house this week (my family does year-round school), and is doing that in between cooking dinner, comforting little ones with “owies”, washing dishes, and changing diapers. To put it mildly, I think my sisters are the sweetest, most loving sisters in the whole world—and I can never say that enough! :)
Tom has been feeling much better in the last couple of weeks (probably partly due to the fact that my sisters' visits have enabled both of us to get more rest!). We are so grateful for some good test results, too!
With the warmer weather, we have been pulling out our small kid-sized pool. This year, it seems even smaller than ever, with bigger and more active children! We are thinking we will need to get a bigger one eventually (though we hate to part with the one we have—it is so easy to set up and take down, and to store!). When my sisters were here, they “went swimming” with the kids, much to Michael, Bethy, and Julie's great delight! :) I could hardly believe that they all managed to fit in there—sort of! :) And then they persuaded me to get wet, too. Who could resist on a hot, lazy afternoon? We then created a waterslide by putting the bottom of the slide in the pool, and putting the hose at the top of the slide. The children loved it! And some of us older, mature individuals (*smile*) tried it, too—and splashed about half of the water out of the pool when we landed. I have to admit, it was pretty fun. Talk about feeling like you're eight years old again!! :) It seems to make it more fun for the kids when adults participate. Though I couldn't really say that that was the ONLY reason we did it. ;)
On the 3rd of July, we headed up to Grandpa and Grammy's cabin in the mountains to celebrate Grandpa's birthday. I think the kids hardly recognized it at first without the snow (it had snow the last time we were there). They enjoyed the swingset and the bikes with training wheels that Grandpa and Grammy had brought up. Michael and Bethany had new helmets, and Michael liked using the knee-pads that had trains on them. The children also got to try out hitting a pinata for the first time, that Grandpa and Grammy had thoughtfully filled with treats and gifts other than candy.
Our little Ruthie is growing up so fast! She crawls everywhere now, and has to put just about everything in her mouth! She has two little teeth that came up at the same time, and can stand by herself for 10-20 seconds (When she feels like it! When we hold her up, she usually starts jumping!). She first waved bye-bye about a month ago, which was so cute. It is hard to believe that our little baby is getting so big!
My sister Rachel graduated from high school in June. How could she possibly be that grown-up? Since there were only five girls graduating, they had a photo slideshow play during a part of the ceremony of different pictures of the graduates as they were growing up, and also recently. This caused no little excitement for our children, who kept exclaiming in very loud “whispers” when they recognized someone on the screen—including themselves. :) It was hard to keep them quiet—they were just so thrilled!
There are some new pictures of our recent activities in the photo gallery.
Last night (on Grandpa Johnson's birthday) Tom's brother and his wife welcomed a new addition to their family--Eliana Ruth! She weighed 10 1/2 lbs., and was 21 inches long. We are so excited for them!! :)
<< Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Next >>