A lot has happened around here in a week! The kids had the academy fair last Thursday at school. I helped with hot lunch for the school on Friday. We had a special singing group from Canada at our church. We had a church dinner in Sunday. We took a few days as a family earlier this week. We had a birthday party for Chandler and Wyatt. And we only have a few days left of spring break! (Updated: now break week is over!)
I have to say that I am very thankful that the academic fair is behind us! It was no small feat to help four children with research, reports, backboards, and projects! Roger was a huge help in the project area and helping the boys finish out their ideas. As a family we learned the most about Nate Saint as we read through his biographies during the evenings. Chandler did his project on drones, which is not something I’m very interested in, but I did help him use the internet for pictures and articles! Wyatt did his on the company that Roger works for, so this was the second year in a row that Penobscot Island Air was represented at the academic fair! Travis made a bear den for his project and he is still learning the concept that more is not necessarily better! However, after using an entire can of spray foam on his bear den, Travis declared it was “perfect”. It was fun to see him so excited about something that had to do with School! On Thursday evening, the school had an open house where parents and friends could come and see the projects. The boys were excited to see Rogers boss, his wife, and another friend from work come to the open house event. It was a long day but a good day. I am also thankful that it is over for another year!
Fridays are a long, busy day for me. And no matter how prepared I try to be, it’s still a long day. Thankfully, my friend, Claire, made most of the casseroles for hot lunch. That helped free up a lot of my time on Thursday so that I could enjoy the academic fair. We had a singing group from Canada also at school on Friday, so that meant an extra nine people at hot lunch. However, we’ve always had enough food and everyone is full. My friend, Claire, also brought me flowers today! That was such a special surprise. It totally made my day and warmed my heart. I don’t serve in the school or church for recognition or praise, but the flowers were such a sweet gift and made a long day not seem so long! After lunch we had a parents group meeting to discuss some upcoming events at the school. The grandparents luncheon is right around the corner, so we had much to talk about for that. I always enjoy making lists and seeing the boxes get checked off as things are completed, but sometimes the list seems way longer than the amount of time available to complete the list! However, we have a small group of moms that a small in number but mighty in spirit! I’m excited to see how God is going to bring everything together!
Roger had off on Saturday and after five days of flying, he was tired! Roger’s job is not an 8-5 job, and it’s very physically and mentally intense sometimes. He enjoys what he does, but with the days getting longer, it’s harder to have supper together. Generally, it’s just mom and kids unless the weather is bad. I’m not complaining, we’re just adjusting! Roger leaves for work about 5:00am., and generally gets home around 6:30pm. So after five days, he was ready for a break, and we were ready to have more time with him! We spent Saturday working on cleaning up the yard, taking trash to the dump, and preparing for Sunday school on Sunday. Roger and I will be working with the Childrens Sunday school classes at church every Sunday. We are starting an opening program with the kids where we will sing songs, take an offering, learn a Bible verse, and have a missions moment. I think it will add a lot to our children’s ministries, and I’m excited about Roger and I working together in a ministry again.
Sunday night, after the Childrens’s program, we had a singing concert with the group from Canada. I could tell that Roger felt right at home, and he recognized many of the traditional Canadian songs that they sang. It was very good, but I’m glad that we were entering into a break from school. The singing started about 6:00pm., and it wasn’t over until after 8:00pm. By that time, we had kids sleeping on the pews! The older people in our church looked like they could’ve kept going for another couple of hours, but all the parents with kids looked like they were about ready for bed! It was a picture of the different seasons of life!
On Monday morning our kids were up early in spite of a late night bedtime! About six months ago, I had purchased some gift cards to a trampoline park in Portland. I had gotten a really good deal on them, and we decided to take the kids over spring break week. We figured that the trampoline park might be a bit busy during the school break week, so we decided to get there right away at nine am. We pulled into the parking lot just as the employees unlocked the door. It was perfect as there were only about fifteen kids in the whole place for the first hour! The kids had a two hour pass, and they jumped the whole time. It was good exercise for the whole family, and we had a good time together. After that adventure, we went to Sam’s Club for lunch. Roger took the boys to Cabelas for a bit while Emma and I wandered around at Target. Since Wyatt’s birthday is later this week, we decided to surprise the kids with an overnight at a hotel on the way home. I had already booked the hotel, packed everyone’s clothes and swim wear, and it was a nice time. For under $100.00 we were able to make some great memories with our family, and I’m soaking up these times together. The days are flying by, parenting is getting harder, and I treasure these times together. I’m glad that Roger had off several days in a row so that we could do this together. The weather has been rather overcast and rainy this week, so a trampoline adventure and fun at the hotel was time well spent this week.
Roger went back to work in Wednesday, but we certainly did enjoy our few days together as a family. On Wednesday my sister, Hannah, came down for a visit. It’s been a while since we’ve visited together, so it was good to catch up on her life. The boys were disappointed that she didn’t bring the dogs, but they spent the time putting up the trampoline. I was excited to see them work together and they managed to get it up by themselves! It didn’t bother them that it rained in the afternoon, and they spent several hours outside on the trampoline.
Thursday morning brought us a visit from another friend, also named Hannah. Hannah has three little ones in three years, and I see so much of myself in her. I think she’s doing a great job, but parenting is hard work. It’s so nice to have someone to relate to that understands where I’ve been and where I’m trying to be. We talked about families, church ministries, children, and parenting. The morning passed super quickly, and it was a morning well spent.
On Thursday evening we had a small birthday party for Chandler and Wyatt. Chandler’s birthday was in January, but we didn’t have time to have friends over before I left for Haiti. And Wyatt will be nine on Friday! We didn’t have very many friends that could make it to our birthday gathering between traveling and people being sick. However, we still had twelve kids between three families! The weather turned rainy again in the evening, but the kids had a good time playing hide n seek in the house. I do wonder why I bother to clean the house BEFORE a get together?! It was a fun evening, and I’m thankful for friends to share in our birthday celebrations.
Friday saw Roger back to work for another day, and the kids and I at home. Friday was also Wyatt’s official birthday, and he is now nine years old! I remember so much emotion crowding around the arrival of this third son...as Garett was only 2 1/2 at the time. I wondered what God had in store with gifting us with another son. Yet Wyatt has brought a special delight to our family. He is sweet and kind (except maybe not always to his brothers!). He is a hard worker at school, and he applies himself diligently to try to excel. He also likes to make people happy, which is good. We are just working on applying ourselves to do our best, but not making mountains out of the molehills when we make mistakes. Wyatt enjoyed playing with his birthday gifts, and then we had piano lessons in the afternoon. After piano lessons we were able to meet up with Roger and we had dinner together at the place that Wyatt choose-Taco Bell. I am so blessed to get to be the mama to this sweet boy, and although I often fail, he still loves me.
Saturday was our trash day. Roger was working, so that meant it was a job for mom and the boys. I don’t like hauling trash to the dump, but I certainly don’t like having it pile up at home! Several people from Rogers work have given the kids their cans. They know that the boys are working on saving money for a special family adventure, so they gave Roger several bags of cans for the boys. They boys loaded all the cans into the truck on Saturday morning as we made that our first stop of the day. Through the generous gift of others and the cans we’ve collected from our walks, we recycled over 1,000 cans/bottles! The total was about $53.00! The boys were very excited and we put the money into coins. We are working on filling a five gallon water jug with silver coins only! It is taking us a long time, but we will be able to put the money towards a family trip that will be debt free and soemthing everyone has worked towards. It was a busy day with taking the can in to be recycled, doing trash, and grocery shopping. The boys definitely don’t enjoy grocery shopping, but it’s something that must be done around here! We survived.
Sunday was a day of worship with other believers at the house of the Lord. I was thankful for the opportunity to play the piano for prelude, and Roger and I taught children’s Church together. Chandler and Travis wanted to go on a walk to collect more cans in the afternoon, so I did that with them for a while. Travis isn’t that interested in collecting cans, but he likes the idea of making a few dollars. Unfounded, he doesn’t realize that it takes a lot of cans to get a dollar. He kept asking Chandler how much money he had every time he put a can in the trash bag. Chandler got tired of him asking and told him to “just keep working and stop asking!” We did find a package that belonged to one of our neighbors in the ditch. The package was about a mile away from the address on the package. My guess would be that perhaps the package fell out of a mail box and then it was swept down the road with the snow plow. It was fairly undamaged, so we were able to return it to its rightful owner. (I will admit to being curious as to what was in the package.) On Sunday night we had our Childrens program. I certainly haven’t minded working with the preschoolers this school year, but I am excited that we only have about four weeks left! With all the other responsibilities I have on my plate, I’m eager to wrap up this one. I mean, I’ve enjoyed it and all, but VBS is right around the corner!
The boys started their standardized testing at school today. They will have testing all week in the mornings, but the afternoons will be something different and fun. All the boys seemed to be excited about having a different week at school, except Garett. He doesn’t enjoy testing, and it’s hard for him. We’ve been praying that these tests will give us a better idea of where he is at and what he is understanding. Since I usually teach music on Monday mornings, my day was a bit different with most of the classes in the afternoon. Roger had today off so he was able to pick up Emma from preschool, and he stayed to play kick ball with the boys on lunch break. They always enjoy the days when Roger is able to come to play on break with them. I taught music classes, and then I picked up the kids from school. It was a bit of a long day for me, and I’m glad that music is taught for another week. Travis had a rough afternoon. He told me that the testing was too hard, and that he doesn’t want to go back to school-ever! I reminded him that it’s okay that the tests are hard, and that he just needs to do his best. He was a bit of an emotional basket case, so I’m praying that a good nights rest will refresh his body and encourage his heart. It’s hard on this mama heart that this is so hard for him, but I can pray and encourage him through this. It’s an opportunity to point him to the fact that God is bigger than Travis’s problems. I do love that boy though, so extra prayers are appreciated.
I think that wraps up another week! Thanks for reading about our lives and staying in touch with us. We love you!
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