Day 190--Crazy Month!

It's been a completely crazy month! I think it's been three weeks since I posted a blog. We've all been ridiculously tired; I think we've had some sort of virus. We haven't felt sick exactly; but besides being tired, our throats have been hurting at least two weeks. Sarah and I both started to wonder if we have Mono. I've had it before, about 13 years ago; and I don't ever need it again!

Also, my sister's husband has been in the hospital for three weeks. And the hospital he's been in is an hour away, so I've gone with her a few times to see him. He got moved to a nursing home just 10 minutes away today so he can gain enough strength for a surgery he has to have. It's been rough on everyone.

Several days ago, Sarah knocked over a dish of really small lego pieces and some of them went down the heat vent, so she and Sam took the cover off to go rescue them. While they were looking, they found a lego piece that Sam has wanted but is always out of stock when he tried to buy it. There used to be boys living in this house and apparently they played with legos in the same place Sam does!

Then they decided to look in all the vents to see if there were any more or anything else good, and they found this coin. Sarah looked it up online and it looks like it's Korean. We know a couple people from Korea at church, so I think we'll need to ask them if they know for sure.

    

Yesterday we had a very nice Thanksgiving with my parents. My dad LOVES to cook, and he's been making Thanksgiving dinner ever since they got married (they had their 60th anniversary in September). He always makes way more food than anyone can possibly eat, and we all have tons of leftovers to take home. We love it, but it is a ton of work for him. So this year, after years of trying to get him to scale it down, he finally made less food! And he got chickens instead of a turkey, which I think was much easier. He even consented to having canned green beans. That's a big deal, because he's like a gourmet cook, only homestyle. And I got my mom to use paper plates! They've been tired too, so we were all thankful for less work this time. So fun!

Today we went back over to help them rake leaves (Sarah got to use the leaf blower) and move a huge free-standing closet into the house. I guess I should call it an armoire, but it's more like me to call it a closet. Dad made it for Mom. He loves to make things with wood. He's made furniture for several of us. Cabinets and bookshelves. He made all my bookshelves, and I love them so much! He also put an addition onto their house when they bought it. He's very handy!

So this thing was so gigantic that they had a bunch of trouble getting it through the house. They had almost made it to where it was going, when it wouldn't fit through the doorway by an inch or so. They actually had to remove the framing to get it through. But it's in place now, and it's never going anywhere. We all decided it stays with the house!

Just under three weeks until Wilson and Kamille come for Christmas! We cannot wait. I don't know how I'll make it. I've been wanting to think of some cute name for myself instead of Grandma, so the grandmas can be distinguished more easily, and we finally settled on Grammy. Eliza started saying people's names this week, and it's absolutely adorable when she says Grandma, but it's going to be even cuter to me when she says Grammy! Rachel thinks it sounds like a grumpy old lady. I told her that's Granny, but maybe I should spell it Grammie. Does it look more fun that way?

See you next time!

Day 189

This is what homeschool looks like! Endless Algebra, science books stacked up, essential oil guide, Uno, Scripture study journal. There could be anything on our table--or everything.

We helped Sarah come up with a character for NaNoWriMo by asking her all kinds of questions. We started by asking her if her character was a boy or girl. Girl, of course. Then we asked about what she looked like; hair, eye color, height. Then her personality, her job and her age. She came up with someone very much like Kamille, which I thought was cute. When I told Kamille about it, she wasn't sure she was spunky; but I think she is. It means courageous and determined. She may not think she's courageous because she's shy with people, but that isn't all there is to it.

Jeff's dad called and said they're going to move into an apartment after Christmas. They've lived in their house for something like 43 years. It's going to be sad.

Then Jeff's brother called and said he knows someone that's going through training where Jeff works and the instructors he's had have been just terrible. Like not nice and very inconsistent. So Jeff called the guy and talked to him for a long time about some procedural questions and hopefully helped him be a little less stressed about the whole thing. I was gone while Jeff was talking to him, but Sarah said he sounded like he was speaking a foreign language the whole time. She said, "Dad, you sounded really smart!" Haha! It's like when our friends from Mexico first moved here and their little children could speak Spanish (of course). Those little 4 year olds seemed like geniuses to us! Jeff knows this whole other language!

I guess we're all geniuses in some way.

Rachel and I went to our "starting your business" meeting tonight. We talked about how to decide if our business ideas are actually what we should do. There are some questions you ask yourself and then decide if your idea is the best way to go about it. Also, you do a lot of praying for understanding and guidance. The idea isn't just to make money with your business, but also to serve some higher purpose. Something that can help people or fill a real need. We're supposed to interview several business owners and customers this week too. Sounds like fun, but a little scary.

See you next time!