Catch up!

It's been a while, I apologize for that. I have been busy, as usual :) but when I come to post I don't know what to write about, my days have been the same lately. I wish I had some news as to when we we're moving, but I don't. Soon, I hope. Fred and the kids have been playing a lot of football. Around here each season brings a different sport. Fred has the whole neighborhood out there today. I am inside right now doing laundry, cleaning out my e mail accounts and cooking dinner, also blogging ;) We ran errands earlier and got groceries, so it has been a productive day. Today is my day off, so I have a lot to get done today. We are in the middle of inventory at work, so thank God I am not there. Katie is potty trained now, don't know if I mentioned that yet. When she was 17 months old she started going potty on the potty, but then lost interest and started going in her diaper again. She has been totally uninterested since until the last couple weeks and she is doing sooooo good. I love it! No more diapers soon.

Kids have been doing great in school. All A's so far. Miah really wants to read, so hopefully soon he'll make a breakthrough with that. He just turned five about 1 month ago. All the kids in our church are now in public school since the church closed it's Academy. I really don't like it since the girls Abigails age are telling her she should ask to go to public school. We had not even had talk of public school from her in several years. She used to want to go, but once we joined the homeschool group and she had lots of social stuff going she had no interest. We talked about it, she assured me she doesn't want to go. We wouldn't let her anyway, but I'm glad to know she's happy with the way things are.

End of summer...

Is it really? already? Where has the time gone? I thought by this point I would be moved back home. Soon, I hope. We haven't done as much this summer as previous summers. What we have done is spend a lot of time in our yard, at home. Lots of baseball, water fights, afternoons on the slip and slide, climbing trees, riding bikes, reading, and going to the library. Lots of family time.

I am amazed, the kids here are going back to school August 13. Isn't that crazy? We never start back to school until after Labor Day. It seems so strange to see the kids go off to school when it's still so warm out. I am so thankful to homeschool. We had gotten a little behind on our schoolwork this past school year so we worked through most of the summer. Not a lot, but a little each day to get it done.Miah learned to ride his bike with no training wheels last week. He just got on Bubs bike and took right off. We got Abigail a new bike a few weeks ago, and the boys passed bikes down. Freddy took his Dad's, Bub took Freddys and Miah took Bubs. Worked out really well. They are all really nice bikes. Abigail had gotten her old one for her 5th birthday and just finally got a new one at 11. It was worn out and too small :) Anyway the have been riding like crazy.

Now and Then --Miah

Now:












Then:


















Sweet and loving. He loves to swing and pretend to be spiderman. He will be 5 this summer, and will start school in the fall.

Now and Then --Katie

Now:
















Then:
























The spoiled baby of the family. Just over 2 years old. Every day makes me laugh and smile.

Where we have been.

This is where we have been lately. We have had so much nice weather, so we go to the park as often as we can! These pictures are not quite a month old, and now the trees and grass are all green.

Kansas

When we left South Dakota we moved to Kansas. The prairie is beautiful. Kansas is beautiful. I wish I saw more of the prairie and less traffic, buildings, people, and houses. I was not meant to live in a highly populated area. Now the people in my "small" town would probably disagree with me saying highly populated, but to a woman that spent almost her entire adult life in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, this is too much. I long to walk outside and see no one. To have my children play outside without 20 kids in my backyard......I sometimes just want peace and quiet and privacy. Is that too much to ask? Apparently so.
The one thing I LOVE about Kansas is the thunderstorms. Lots of them and they are magnificent here. I can't imagine what those poor people in he covered wagons thought when they came to settle this land. Now, we love thunderstorms in this family. A few of my children are a bit concerned that we'll be in a tornado when it storms, but they aren't in a panic or anything, yet. There have been a few stormy nights that everyone has slept on mom and dads floor. :)
The weirdest thing is that we don't have a basement, I mean how can you live in tornado alley and not have a basement??!!

Here, there, everywhere

I was born and raised in Michigan. Beautiful hills, water, and trees. Especially in the Upper Peninsula. We lived there for 12 years.
Then we moved to South Dakota for 15 months. It was so very different than what we were used to. The best thing about South Dakota is the sun shines all the time there. So nice. Michigan gets a lot of cloud cover. With the exception of the Western part of the state (Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands) Which by the way are phenomenal, the state is pretty flat, not a lot of trees.....Such wide open spaces. You can see forever. My favorite thing about Aberdeen (this is where we lived) besides our church family there ;) was this park. Wylie Park. It's awesome.
My kids talk about it all the time. It was only a few miles from our house. With the exception of the rides, it was free. It has a picnic area, a dozen or so large play structures throughout the several hundred acre park. A campground, Storybook land, The Land of Oz, mini golf, bumper boats, a small lake. We went out at least once a week.