Monday, November 30, 2015

November Happened

I will say this about November - it was WAY busier than I really wanted it to be.  There were just more bits to coordinate for some of the ministries in which I am involved.  But it's pretty much over.  And although December's calendar is equally filled, all of it is more relational and less administrative.  WHEW!  :-)

Similar to the last post, I'm going to use pictures to catch up on our lives.  Here we go!

November 1st was the 6th birthday of a dear friend.  The celebration was at the Molalla Train Park.  I was SO happy to see that the boys still love this place.  A few pics to prove it.

 Dorks on a train.  Love it.

 The whole gang of birthday party attendees.  Luke is standing next to the birthday boy.  Paul is leaning on the birthday boy's big brother.  We love these folks.

 Someone said, "Let's do a silly picture."  I snapped this before some of the folks got close to getting silly.  My guys?  Instant silly.  I'm so proud.

And now for something completely different...Paul does math!
 We use Math U See.  Mr. Steve Demme, a veteran math teacher with a fabulous sense of humor, explains concepts clearly and concisely on the video.  I always sit and watch with the boys, pausing it to ask questions and check comprehension.  It's the only video we use for school, and I love it.  End commercial.

Then Luke decided that he didn't want these dollar store whistles, but he did want the string.  Telling him he could use a hammer to bust them up was a magical moment for me as a mom.  We are definitely entering new territory with this guy.  He's so capable and cautious.  I would probably let him make a fire in the fireplace...if we ever did that sort of thing.  For now, he'll have to be content with real tools whenever he has a project.

 I told him he needed eye protection.  He found these swim goggles in the basement.  Genius.

We got to go visit my dad in November.  This is a VERY long story.  I'll make it short.  He and I got re-connected after not seeing each other for eight years when my step-mom, Marilyn, had a heart attack in early September.  I went up there for two days in a row to sit with him in the ICU.  Stuff like that helps everyone remember what's important.  And I'm so thankful to Jesus Christ for using hard stuff to do beautiful things.  Marilyn is recovering nicely.  And this happened:

 Pretty sure this is my dad's first selfie ever.  And right before I took it, he said hello to the camera because it looked like video to him.  Adorable.

 Papa Leon took us fishing in the rain.  It was like re-living every weekend I spent with him as a kid.  Except this time, one of Erik's arms was around me keeping me warm while his other arm held an oversized umbrella to cover us both.  I don't have a picture of that, but it was a very good thing.
Sidenote:  My boys LOVED fishing in the rain with my dad.  They didn't complain once.  They ran around and threw stuff in the water.  They played with his dog.  It was a highlight for them.  I think having grandsons is going to fit my dad REALLY well.  :-)


More random pics
 Luke drinks coffee!  Black.  The caffeine seems to help him focus.

Backpack Buddies Shopping with the boys
 We did our final pack of the year and it required a LOT of business.  The boys were great at Winco, helping me get all this stuff paid for and loaded into the car.

Paul likes to play this card game - Monopoly Deal. He beats me most of the time.
 And he's adorable.

Final story of this post.  When I was 15 years old, my piano teacher moved to Michigan.  I never found a new teacher and shortly after that, I was sucked up by my first worship band at church.  I have played piano consistently for the past 25 years, but I haven't studied piano since 1990.  Until now.  I started taking piano lessons in September using my birthday money from my generous and loving in-laws.  And I love it.  I love getting new music.  I love being reminded of theory and being forced to practice scales, arpeggios, and inversions (most of the time - D# excluded).

But, we have been the proud and grateful owners of an electric piano since Luke was about three months old.  It was a gift from my dad and Marilyn.  And it's awesome.  But it isn't the instrument we are actually taking lessons to learn.  A piano has hammers and strings.  You play it differently than you do an electric instrument.  After about two weeks of lessons, I knew we needed a real piano.

Enter Uncle Bob and Aunt Cindy.  We spend Christmas evening at their house and a beautiful upright piano has sat in their living room.  Knowing that no one in their house is playing this instrument, I sent an email wondering if they would ever consider parting with it.  Forward of me?  Maybe.  But I believe that generosity brings blessing to both the receiver AND the giver.  So I asked.  And they said YES!  WOHOO!

So, this past Saturday, this bit of loveliness arrived in our home!

We are still working on the family history of it, but we know that it was manufactured in 1957.  Erik knows that it was the instrument that was in his home until they moved his third grade year and replaced it with a grand piano.  It needs to be tuned and there are some keys that stick together.  But already I enjoy playing it more than its electric cousin.  And the boys do, too.

We were supposed to go tree hunting this weekend, but I'm not the only one who is sick.  Erik has really struggled with a head cold since the day before Thanksgiving.  So, none of the grown-ups really felt like going to the tree farm.  The boys were a little bummed, but we will make it happen as soon as we are well and have the time.  But we needed to decorate something!

So we decorated the piano a bit.

 Paul loves these houses and they look excellent in this location.  :-)

And what did we do with the electric piano?  We moved it to the playroom of course!  (We had friends who came for a Backpack Buddies pack night on Tuesday - they helped Erik move it.)

Why have two?  Well, three of us need to practice every day.  So, having two means it doesn't need to take as long!  And it's just super fun.  Right?


October in Pictures

Yep.  All of October and November came and went without a single blog post.  Sorry, folks.  It happens.  But today I am sick.  Like "sent home early from my leadership meeting this morning" sick.  I've been ordered to rest.  I have slept some.  I will sleep some more later.  Right now I will sit lay on my couch and blog.  Here's October, folks.

There is no story behind this picture, but I love how cozy Paul looks.  The weather was downright balmy in our area for most of October, but mornings began to cool off, allowing Paul to snuggle with this blanket.

This is simply a very accurate representation of what these boys spend a lot of their time doing.  We are still able to finish school before noon on most days.  After that...they do this.  And play in the basement.  :-)

The next picture needs a little bit of introduction.  Our church, Roots Community, continues to serve a local elementary school by doing Backpack Buddies.  We deliver bags of food before each weekend for six students, enabling them to eat on Saturdays and Sundays.  In order to have bags of food, we buy LOTS of food each month.  The money came from Roots' Advent Conspiracy giving last year.  It's pretty awesome.   I had some help at Winco for the Backpack Buddies shopping trip in October.

Adorable behind the trunk full of food.

So, then I took all that food home.  And some other AMAZING helpers did this...

The beginning

Finished!

Luke and Paul carried every single food item down the stairs in rather heavy bags that I loaded from the trunk in the garage.  And they did it with happy, joyful hearts.  Know why?  We have been abundantly clear with them about Backpack Buddies.  When we feed hungry people, we are feeding Jesus Christ.  This is ALL for Him.  And that gives us all joy.

Then came the super fun part - PACK NIGHT!  


This picture doesn't do it justice because there were a total of about sixteen people here that night.  Our Gospel Community (think awesomest version of a small group ever) came over and we packed the bags and prayed over the kids who would receive them.  It was so good.  I was so encouraged.  There were times during the last year when we had one other family at pack night.  It works, but it is so much cooler with a houseful of folks.  I love the Body of Christ.  And I'll take any opportunity for time together to serve, connect, laugh and point each other to Jesus.  It's just good.

Okay.  What else happened in October?  Apple cider pressing party!

 My friend Holly and I cut up a LOT of apples together.  It was sweet.

Then the kids took turns cranking this business to mush them up.  (Okay, the dads did most of the cranking.)



 Proof that it was hard to turn the crank...the littler people in the picture above didn't actually turn it.  But Luke was DETERMINED.

Pour the mush into this thingie.  Turn it.  And voila!  Cider!
Okay.  I posed this shot.  ;-)

The day after the apple cider, we helped Dave and Lynne host two German students.  We took them to a pumpkin patch near our house.  There was a hayride, but I failed to get any decent pictures.  Here's a shot of the girls with two goats and my children.  It'll do.


The boys have been really into making crazy faces for pictures lately.  So, I felt like this was a triumph.

The following Monday, I received a phone call from a Roots buddy in desperate need of childcare so she could go see the chiropractor.  My answer:  YES!  And look at this cuteness:

 Yes, he totally needed to go to the bathroom when I took this picture.  We took care of that.

And here's little brother:
You would have said yes, too.

Most weekends Erik does Science Saturday (or Sunday) with the boys.  Here's the skinny, people.  I've said it before.  I am awesome at analyzing literature, diagramming sentences, finding historical patterns and themes, and lots of other school bits.  The science experiments kill me.  When it doesn't go like the book says it should, I can't figure out why!  I can't tweak one little thing and make it work.  That's why God gave me Erik!!

They are studying all about electricity this year.  And it is so much fun to see these three "discover" together.  Our curriculum is amazing.  If you ever want to run super cool experiments with simple household objects, look into T.O.P.S.  It's fabulous.


They've built a circuit with a switch using a battery, aluminum foil and clothes pin.  So cool!

And then we did more pumpkin-related things...

 Paul used a fun craft kit from Grandma to create this spider pumpkin.

 Paul also cleaned the goop out of his pumpkin with just a little help from Erik.

 I wish we could convince him to do theatre stuff.  Seriously.  Facial expressions this large belong on stage.

Meanwhile...
 Luke organized the tools, removing the ones that were clearly no longer efficient.  Yep.  These dudes are two very different people.

 Luke didn't want to carve his pumpkin.  He wanted Erik to do it with precision.  So Erik did!

 It's a Minecraft character called a creeper.  Don't google it.

Paul's pumpkin didn't actually get carved that day.  He dithered for a few days about what he was going to do.  And then I failed to get a picture of the final product.  He basically free-handed the same face, giving it an upturned, smiling mouth instead of the frown.  

And now for the costumes!  (Sorry that it's nearly December and you are looking at costumes.)

 Paul was a Jawa from Star Wars. You can google it if you don't know.  Think short, funny sounding aliens who sell robots.

 LOVE the smile!


Luke was Link from the Legend of Zelda video game.  It's a multi-generational favorite around here, folks.  And our ten year old makes a perfect Link.

 The Brothers Bangsund

Okay, I'm going to publish this bad boy and start work on a November post.  :-)