Celebrating a new camers! Playing bubbles in winter. I used Christmas money to buy myself a new camera, so I had fun playing with that one day as the kids were enjoying some outdoor time.
Celebrating my Mom's birthday. What an absolute zoo! Ages: 8, 6, 3, 3, 1.5, & almost 1. All I could think was there is no way I could feed this many kids every night!
Celebrating Valentine's Day
Celebrating Grandpa David's birthday
Celebrating the purchase of a new fish and praying it is still alive when we get home
Celebrating a half birthday :) Will is 3 1/2 years old
Celebrating the Daddy/Daughter dance
And finally, celebrating the youngest child turning 1! What a crazy year.
It was hard to believe it had been nearly 6 months since I had updated the blog! It seems the first quarter of this year few by in a blink.
I have to admit the winter was busier than I prefer. Brice & I were both involved in a committee to choose a new administrator at the local nursing home. Meetings, meetings, meetings. I do enjoy voluteering; I need to do something where I'm not allowing myself to worry about income, effeciency, patient & employeer satisfaction, etc. But this volunteer experience became more than I had thought I was signing up for! Sometimes its overwhelming to think of the effect your words and decisions can make in such situations.
The winter was busy with some not so fun things. Some losses that hit pretty hard and made us grateful for every person under our roof at night, being reminded that things change in a heartbeat. Many days, and still today, I kept wishing we could help carry the burden of loss for the family remaining for some time to give them relief. We just have to keep remembering that someday God makes it all right.
In February I made the trip to California to visit my sister Mindy for a few days. The time always goes fast, though I have found its hard for me to enjoy a trip without the kids. This was the first time I had gone without taking any of them! I decided to save the money I'd spend taking myself and plan for a family trip a few years down the road.
I am on the Little League Board for Breda this year and we had meetings for that also. That is a volunteer experience that is suiting me well! I have a new appreciation for coaches. Teams have quite a bit that go into organizing them, plus you have to deal with the rules set by the organization! There are 5 of us on the board and its a fun group. It will be a fun summer and I am excited to get to coach Gabbie's team. Hard to believe Will is going to be old enough for T-ball this summer!
I have been swamped at work since I gained my lymphedema certification. I had planned to start working on my Masters in Healthcare Administration this summer, but now I am unsure if I will have time. Its a good problem to have. I have until June to decide if I will take a class this summer. Signs currently point to no, but this fall might be more appropriate to begin.
The lymphedema patients I have met have led me into another activity that I think will suit me well. I have had to become comfortable with working with patients with cancer, some who may never get better and my treatments become more of a comfort measure. Its a whole new ball game. Therapists are supposed to get people to feel better, improve their situation, aide on the road to recovery from surgery or injury, help someone regain independence. I've had to learn so much about my approach, changing my tone, answering tough questions. I've learned I do not mind it as much as I thought I would. This has let me to be interested in the program that my employer provides, called No One Dies Alone. I will be doing the training for this during 2015. In short, I will be like a hospice volunteer. I will write about this in more detail in another post sometime. Its hard to explain the peace this has brought to me in the little I have done with it so far. I have felt that often at the end of the day I worry about the things I don't have done, the workout I didn't do, the Pinterest type activity I didn't accomplish with the kids. Making the decision to be involved with this has already helped me live in the present, feel content with what has been done, and happy with the present for what it is. The program is through the pastoral care department at work. I hope I continue to feel so positive about it; I'm praying that it will uplift my days at work by incorporating the training from the hospital Chaplain and that I will continue to feel at peace being able to help others in this way.
Okay, I have been dominating this post with talk of myself. Lets move on. Brice has accomplished so much the past 6 months. He cleaned up the front of the barn, replaced the windows and doors, and installed the cooler for his "man cave/meat processing area". He's past the time frame he had predicted. But, as with any other project it will get done eventually :) We don't put the emphasis on it that we would if it wasn't for a 'hobby'. The past few weeks he's been busy pouring cement and working on the next 2 hog buildings. The boys and I helped set up the cement forms one day while we were home. Lots of work! Brice has some back pain and I can see why.
Gabbie has matured so much this year. She's reading books to us, its so neat to see. She forgets very little :) Of course we've heard a few times "this is the worst day ever" and "you are the meanest parents ever"; hooray for the drama of a girl. But we hear positive things too. She loves puzzles and has nearly completed her first 1000 piece puzzle (with occasional adult help). Next month is her dance recital! It will be a fun year to watch since she's in gymnastics now too.
Will is naughty :) And someday if he reads this and remembers ANYTHING about being 3 1/2 years old, he will totally agree with me. Of course he'd stay outside most of the time if able! He is still obsessed with Thomas the Train. Its almost embarrasing. I took the kids fishing today and Will was trying to talk to a couple young boys next to us and all I could gather from the conversation was the words "Thomas, Friends, Trailor". But, every kid has something they latch onto. He enjoys helping unload the dishwasher, which is awesome. He also enjoys fighting with his siblings, ugh!
Henrik has gone from cute, innocent baby to a brute force. He's 23 pounds and shows very little interest in walking. But he has a good uppercut and sometimes when I look in the living room I could swear he has Will pinned down! Henrik has a bit of a temper. But he still seems happy, and is only getting up once per night so I won't complain. We thought he had chicken pox last week, but we were wrong. Darn it. I would have smiled as I wrote that in his baby book "defiant to everyone and everything, including vaccines". But, it appears the chicken pox vaccine worked and he was having a skin reaction to something else. I still very much love my "Baby Henni" even if he is already showing some good tantrums.
Okay; I'm sure there's more I should add. But, my brain isn't bringing up any memories at the moment that can be written in short time. I need to get better about updating this or writing things down, as the kids say and do some really entertaining things sometimes that I'd love to share! Hopefully more soon.
