july...

...is almost over!  Unbelievable!  I've been busy trying to work on a bunch of projects in the house - painting type stuff and little decorating things.  In addition to all the normal stuff...  I'm almost 26 weeks preggo now, and mostly have been feeling great but I'm starting to notice that my energy is petering out a little sooner and I pay for it when I try to do too much.  Still hoping to get lots done before I'm completely huge and practically immobile!  Paint the living room, move playroom to basement, paint nursery, and just get some other things in order that were upended with the house project.  And, oh yeah, I suppose I should make sure Caleb and Logan have what they need for school, and get a few things for baby before he/she comes.  :)  Mostly it's good that I've been busy, helps pass the time while Mike is working so much!  There are just some things that I need is help for, though, and there's the rub.

Last Wednesday the boys and I had a play date with our friends who have been in Italy for the last two years and are now back in MI.  It was great to have time together!  They have a boy 1 year older than Caleb and Logan, and they all hit it off like no time has passed.  They also have a sweet newborn boy whom the boys enjoyed checking out.  :)

Friday night we were able to go as a family to a balloon festival at the local fairgrounds.  It was a beautiful night for it, and it was so neat to see all the hot air balloons!  It was pretty busy and crowded, and the boys REALLY wanted to go on the inflatables they had there for kids, so we let them choose just one (since the lines were so long) and then we got out of there for ice cream.  Perfect night for a trip to the ice cream shop.

Saturday I was able to catch up with some college friends at a splash pad with the kids.  Worked out well since Mike wanted to get a lot of work done leveling dirt around the house, and that would have been hard to do with us at home.  I had such a great time catching up with friends, love it that it felt like no time has passed.  And, the kids (there were a lot of them between all of us!) all played great together!

Yesterday Logan had the special treat of going for his Kindergarten shopping day with Grandma VB (she does that for each grandchild entering Kindergarten).  She picked him up mid-morning (he was so excited to ride in her car), and I believe they went to the mall (got some new clothes, walked around, rode the carousel), had lunch (at DJ's), went to Meijer for school supplies, got donuts, and then went to the park.  The boys rarely get to do anything on their own like that, so that was pretty neat.  I was a little nervous about what backpack he would choose, and a couple days before we were in Meijer and happened to walk past the backpacks, so I pointed out what I thought looked nice/was appropriate/etc.  So, when shopping with Grandma yesterday he chose the John Deere backpack and I was a little surprised that he would choose that one - I guess he said something about how he knew I would like that one.  I tried to talk about it with him later to make sure he really likes the backpack himself and that he didn't get it just because he knew I liked it...I can't get a good read on where he's at on that one.  I'm not sure whether to feel special that he chose something he knows I like, or worried that he's trying too hard to please his mother...

Caleb just returned a little while ago from his shopping day.  He was so excited!  He had things pretty well planned out after hearing about Logan's day.  :)  (And, of course, little brother Levi has his plans, too.)  They followed mostly the same route: to the mall for some shopping and the carousel, lunch and playtime at McDonald's, Meijer for school supplies, and out for ice cream.  Caleb chose a Darth Vader backpack, which he is very happy about.  (The boys are very exited about Star Wars, even though they haven't even seen the movies yet...)  Now that they got a bunch of what they need with Grandma, I suppose I should figure out what else we need to get!  Feeling a little out of my element here with two kids starting school for the very first time - I'm clueless!

food

Building off of my last post, we are actually making some baby steps in the food department.  Huh?  I can hardly believe I can actually say that!!  All of the boys are trying some things (we're talking basics here) that previously they refused, AND LIKING THEM.  Nothing exotic, but it is very encouraging!  No headway in the vegetable department, but I'm not going to push it, I have hope for the future.  :)  This comes at a nice time since all our meals during the week are just me and the boys, and it's very tiring to constantly be dealing with the complaining, etc. on my own without a break.  Examples of our successes lately: Bacon (I know.  Seriously, right?); sandwiches made with leftover roast; a quiche with bacon, burger and cheese; ravioli; and eggs.

It's been a challenging...well...few months, but now specifically the last couple weeks.  Celery harvest is in full swing and it's just been crazy for Mike.  We knew it would be (more than normal), but that doesn't really help...  So, yeah, harvest is always a very busy time, but this year it's more intense for Mike because of the new packing shed and the fact that he is managing two packing lines and not "just" one.  That means a lot more moving parts (there's always a belt slipping, drain getting clogged, gutter jamming up, motor burning out, etc.), and about 50 employees to keep track of (there's always people needing to leave early for appointments, people that don't show up, people driving the dump truck into the barn, leaving lights on on a tractor so there's a dead battery, etc., etc., etc.,).  Mike's current schedule is about 5am-7pm, but that's likely to change a bit (to more like 4am) when they start shipping to V8.  And, evening's are spent either going to a meeting (had a couple church things this week) or working on the house.  That's a long day!  Especially when it's every day (M-F) for a few months straight.  We're both trying not to get discouraged that this is only the beginning of the season and we have to survive this until mid-October.  Of course, a huge factor in this is the fact that harvest is coming right on the heels of the major part of our house project.  Again, something we knew would be an issue, but there was nothing we could do about it.  We're both feeling worn out more like we normally would be in September, a couple months into harvest.  All that said, we are certainly thankful that we were able to do the house project and that it went as smoothly as it did, and we are thankful that Mike has a good job and he certainly has job security (there is lot of celery out in the field, and there's no one else that wants his job!).  Trusting the Lord to get us through the next few months, and then this winter I think we're going to just hibernate in the house and snuggle our new baby.  :)

Update on the house: porches are currently being worked on.  As with any project on an old house and all the things you run into, seems like it's a lot of monkey business.  I need to make up my mind on sidewalks and get that squared away.  We're getting quotes on new asphalt for the driveway.  Those are the main things right now.

Been able to do a few fun things with the boys lately that are helping to pass our long days.  :)  On Monday I took them back to the campground to visit friends and go swimming.  Tuesday we went on an adventure to the viewing park at the airport in GR, Wednesday was not such a good day (Logan puked all over the back of the van because he was hyper, tried to take a drink of water at the wrong moment, got into a coughing fit, and then vomited repeatedly), yesterday we went to a splash pad with friends.

I feel like I had things to write individually about the boys, but hunger is overtaking me and I'm drawing a blank.  :)

wha??

Not sure what alternate universe I entered, but just now after supper I got a completely unprompted, "That was a very good supper, Mom!" from Logan, and for a few minutes now they've been doing a decent job sitting and reading books (not unprompted, but I didn't get the usual amount of complaining when I told them to do it).  Caleb finished his books, so it's started to unravel a bit, but those few minutes were glorious.  :)

home

We're HOME, and boy does it feel good.  We moved home on Saturday, and now, finally, yesterday (Wednesday), I could say that the main floor is clean.  Phew!  Of course, there are plenty of things in the house to deal with as a result of this project: a couple leaky pipes, doors stuck shut, doors that won't shut, lots of cracks in the walls; not to mention the bigger things that still need to be completed!  The basement itself is almost a usable space (for storage or for the kids to play), but the outside still needs A LOT of work.  Need to get dirt piles leveled and everything brought to grade, porches built, sidewalk installed, driveway re-done, etc., etc.  Celery harvest is going now, so you know Mike has plenty of time to work on this stuff.  ;)

Yesterday was our 11th anniversary.  With all that's going on we neglected to get a babysitter and do anything real special - so, dinner at home with the fam and then out for ice cream and a drive it was!  A pleasant evening, but Mike and I should still go out on a date sometime.  :)

The boys all seem to enjoy being home.  All the dirt outside has been a little bit of a problem (when it rained the other day), but on dry days it's not too bad.  For some reason I have a high tolerance for dirt, but not for mud.  They seem to still have fun riding their bikes in the driveway (which I thought they might get bored with after being able to ride around the whole campground), and haven't mentioned missing the pool.  The day we moved home we set up Levi's new big boy bed and he's been doing great!  I really think sleeping in the motor home on vacation for so long, then being at my parent's/the campground for a couple months made this transition easy.  So far no issues with him getting out of bed.  We've gone back to afternoon naps for him, and he goes right down for nap and at bedtime no problem.  Now to work on the thumb sucking!