Procrastination

Why is procrastination so incredibly easy? Take tonight for instance. I sit down to start working and think, "Hmm, I better check our family email account first." Done. "Oh yeah, and maybe I can think of something witty to write as my Facebook status." I couldn't think of anything so I just read all the other postings. Then I thought, "Did that check for our new carpet ever clear?" "Ok, I am ready to settle into work now. Wait! I haven't read any blogs in awhile." Thankfully I took this detour because there were some really, really funny postings to catch up on. And I even commented on one, which I rarely do. And that's when I noticed it. It was there on my comment. You have probably noticed it, too. It was the profile picture for our family blog ... which is almost a year old! Yikes. P. looked like a fake little doll. And I looked, well, I will spare you that rabbit trail. So, still procrastinating, I thought I should get into my account and update that picture to something way more recent. And then I realized, "This is pathetic. I have only made two posts this month. Well, tonight is probably my last chance for the next couple of weeks because we are going to Family Camp this weekend and a wedding in Ohio next weekend." So here I am. Posting about how I haven't posted. Very intelligent, Kim.

Ok, enough procrastinating for one night! I would like to get a couple of hours of work in before my husband gets home from work. Oh, and that profile picture update? Yeah, that will have to wait for another night.

Thirty-something

I am officially 30-something ... for the next 9 years! Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, cards, and gifts. Unexpectedly, I ended up getting a few more "birthday" surprises this week. (Note: none were actually for my birthday, it just ended up all happening then.) Tyler ordered me a new cell phone so that I could jump onto his plan. I haven't had the time to even set it up so he graciously set the voice mail and ring tones for me. That was probably a mistake! I will have to call my own phone to see how scary the message is. We also finally ordered new carpet for the house. They measured the rooms yesterday and we are well on our way to being odor-free. Hopefully. We also purchased window blinds for the entire house. Now we can walk around naked. (Kidding! Kidding!) It has been nice to get more things done inside the house to make it more our own and not such an eyesore. Now, if we could only decide on paint colors ...

Looking forward to week two

This past week was amazingly busy! The highlight was the start of our homeschool semester with E. We are using a curriculum called Five in a Row and I was surprised at how advanced some of the topics were. But nothing E. can't handle, so we dove right in on Monday. He did great this first week and was so excited to start learning new things. We bought school supplies on Sunday night and first thing on Monday morning he was begging to start school. He just kept toting his supplies around and even hid some of them in his room! While we were outside learning about pollution, he was excited to tell our neighbor that he was in the middle of class. So cute. ("Pollution" was one of his vocabulary words for language arts. Watch out grandma and grandpa, he might confront you about your "pollution" the next time he sees you smoking!)

This past week we also had our first homeschool co-op, our first night at Awana, and I had my first Bible study of the semester. Driving back north to the city for it all proved to be tiresome, but definitely worth it. I am teaching two of the preschool classes at our co-op so if you have any fun ideas for active play and tactile play with a bunch of little munchkins, I am all ears. I was so focused on E. starting school that I totally overlooked the milestone that S. was also starting preschool!

Another change in schedule
Due to the insanity of our home, our family, and inside my own head (perhaps just an increase in insanity there!), I resigned from my full-time position with Answers in Genesis and scaled back to just 10 hours a week. This past week was my first week back to work after taking a couple off and it was surprising—I didn't even have time to work a full 10 hours. Now knowing how time consuming homeschooling is going to be and how many different commitments we are going to be juggling each week, I am glad that we made the decision for this switch. It was a sudden change, but I don't think another week could have been pulled off. We needed to get off the tightrope before we lost the balancing act! Sadly, I didn't even have time to unpack one more box or clean up one more room so we are no closer to getting "settled." But Tyler is also changing his schedule starting October 1 so that he will no longer be working on the weekends. We are really going to need to make the most of those Saturdays before winter comes and it is gets too late to paint, lay new carpet, reface the fireplace, etc.

A tooth for a tooth
E. lost his first tooth this past week and P. got her first one! I also noticed that S. is getting her 2-year molars in right now as well (that would explain her gnawing on everything). P. also hit another milestone in the past couple of weeks—she now claps every time you say "yay"! While she is being super cute, S. is being super mischievous. Her feats these past couple of weeks? Drawing with crayons on E.'s bed and walls, drawing with crayons on the family room floor, pooping on the family room floor, pooping in the middle of the hallway at church, putting her toothbrush into the potty, and—my absolute least favorite–dumping a half gallon of iced tea down our carpeted stairs. (I am so glad we haven't gotten new carpet laid yet! And I keep asking myself why we would get new carpet ... but then I smell it and say, "Oh yeah, that's right. A decade of dog.")

And we are off again!
We are off to small group this evening for some time with friends and a helpful refocus on what is important. There was a church picnic today which was really relaxing and fun, but we ran home this afternoon to have a guy from church install our 220 outlet for us. (As I type I can hear them through the vent and Tyler just let out a huge "Woooooo!" after a hacksaw was turned off. Men and power tools—a hilarious relationship!) It is a huge blessing because, as we recently found out, electricians get paid a nice hourly rate. He wants to do it for free and so we just have to pay the cost of material. Wow—the body of Christ is continually such a testimony to us! We have had so many people serve us in huge ways like this that we are throwing a "thank you" party for all of them and their families. Now, if we can just find time to pull that together because October is already looking to be a very full month! But more on that another time ...

Vacation 2009

When Tyler and I got married, we both decided that taking an annual family vacation was almost considered a requirement for us. Not only to get away and relax, but also to reconnect as a family and to spend intentional time making memories together.

Well, we did it! Despite all of the changes that occurred during August in our lives, we planned a last minute vacation for our family before the summer ended. In the past we have been to places like Hot Springs, Wisconsin Dells, and Gatlinburg. This year we headed up north to Mackinaw City, MI. It was a blast and really relaxing. Besides knowing which hotel we were staying at, we didn't plan a thing. (Harrowing for me, but it was good practice to begin adding a little spontaneity to my life!)

We are now back home and preparing for impact with the addition of numerous things to our schedules starting next week. Meanwhile, the attempt to get settled into our new home continued to get a little closer today with the half-bath getting half cleaned and the visit of an electrician who wanted my right arm in exchange for a 220 outlet for our dryer. (I am desperate to do laundry, but not that desperate!) We are also all over the map on deciding when/if to get new carpet. Painting is looking farther and farther down the road as we try to address more immediate concerns (which we wanted to do before installing new carpet), and our children and dog are giving us new reasons almost daily to delay getting new carpet (pee, crayons, poop, markers, vomit ... moving into a new house didn't suspend these things like I had hoped it would). So what is stopping us from just waiting on the carpet? Just get a whiff! That and the three types of mismatching carpeting used throughout!

Photo highlights
We had so much fun on vacation and took so many good pictures that I had a hard time narrowing them down. So I posted a bunch of them for your enjoyment! (I figure that after not blogging for so long, posting a long blog with tons of photos is semi-required!)

This is what it looked like when we asked E. to put his arm around S.
This is what it looked like when we settled for him holding her hand!


Our hotelThe shopping village in Mackinaw City
Exhausted, S. fell asleep eating her ice cream cone.


E. had fun burying S. in the sand!


S. had fun returning the favor.

P.'s latest funny face—tucking her upper lip in her lower one.



The ferry ride to Mackinac Island was one of my favorite times of the week. It was sure a chilly ride, but beautiful.
Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island

S. loved the horses on the island. For the first hour we were there, she pointed at every set of horses and said, "Mom! Mom! Horse! Horse!"





Our final days back in the city.







z
Disregarding the marinara sauce all over their faces, don't they look so much older?!?