august

Oops.  It appears that August is almost complete and I haven't written a post since the end of July.  We've been busy!  For the past few weeks my project focus has been on the living room.  It's pretty much done and I couldn't be happier!  (Both with how it turned out, and just the fact that it's "done".)  Spent A LOT of time painting the trim.  While my sister was in town she helped with some of it, which was awesome, but it's still such a huge job and I am sooooo sick of it.  Thankfully, once I finish the trim in the playroom/to be nursery, I'll be done with it for now and I already have two coats of primer on in there, so there's only a small amount of torture yet to endure.  Anyways, I went for a complete color change in the living room (from red walls to blue) and it's great.  I've gotten alot of stuff hung back up on the walls (waiting for some updated family pictures after baby comes!), and Mike and I hung some shelves that really add to the room.  I'd still like to find a "new" recliner and eventually an area rug.  Next up is the playroom and once that is done, NO MORE PAINTING for me for a while!

We've had lots of activities to keep us going the last few weeks.  On the one hand it's good - helps me pass the time with the boys with all the hours Mike has been working; but on the other hand it's hard - managing the three boys most of the time by myself is certainly a challenge, and, of course, it's good to have some down time at home.  But, in some ways that creates more stress because right now, still not having a yard, playing outside means getting dirty, and not just a little dirty, so that means dealing with clean up.  And, like any normal family (I hope), we go through stretches where the boys play so nicely together, then there are PLENTY of times where it's just constant bickering, pestering, whining, etc.  All. The. Time.

Anyways, at the end of July I took the boys to a picnic at the park put on my Mike's dentist.  They had fun playing a few games, getting face paint (not Levi, he never wants it for some reason), eating hot dogs and ice cream, having pop, playing at the park, and dressing up for the photo booth.  The next day was a big birthday party for my Grandma Tiemeyer's 90th, and the start of a week of family activities as my sister was in town with her family.  (Always fun, but always exhausting!)  The birthday party was great - held at my parent's, and we got to see aunts, uncles, and cousins of mine that we don't see very often.  My parent's had a bounce house there for the weekend, so the kids got plenty of jumping in.

On Monday of the next week I brought Caleb and Logan to the vacation Bible school at Jamestown Baptist.  They were able to go to four of the days and they loved it!  My best friend was the Kindergarten teacher, and the boys knew a few of the other kids, plus they don't have any trouble making new friends.  :)  They did awesome crafts at that vbs, and it was fun each day to hear the boys' report.  That first morning, and I think Wednesday Michelle and I worked on painting, and Levi played nicely on his own.  :)  Tuesday some of us went to a customer appreciation thing at the Farmer's Co-op.   Bounce house, corn shelling, food, ice cream, and door prizes.  Wednesday evening we had a Ladies Night.  My mom, Emily, Michelle, Lea Anne, and I first headed out to the Downtown Market in GR.  Walked around there for a bit, then decided to head Zeeland way for dinner.  Ate at Elbo Room and it was fabulous.  Thursday evening the fam met up at Fuzzy Peach for Katie's birthday.  I think on Friday I pretty much crashed from exhaustion.  This old pregnant lady can only take so much!

Saturday it was time to switch gears and spend some time with Mike's family.  We had a big 60th birthday party for Mike's mom up at Harold and Kara's cottage.  The weather wasn't the greatest, but it certainly could have been worse, and we still had a great time spending time with family that we don't get to see enough.  So thankful that Mike has a great stepfamily and that we enjoy being together.  It was a treat to meet the newest nephew, Henry, born to Steve and Erin in early June - it felt pretty good to hold a baby again, I'm looking forward to doing that more often.  :)

The next week was another fun one with not quite as much craziness, but still busy.  On Monday I had a friend over for coffee who's expecting twin boys around the same time I am due.  There are some complications, so we're just hoping those boys stay in there cooking for awhile!!  Tuesday was finally my first trip to IKEA!  Harold graciously took the boys for the day, and Amy and I headed out to Detroit.  It was a lot of fun, and exciting to finally go to the store I've heard so much about.  I started painting the walls of the living room later in the week, and maybe overdid it just a little, but it was so nice to get it done!  Friday evening the boys and I brought a meal to a family that recently had a baby girl, and after seeing her they decided again that they'd be okay with a little sister.  :)  Saturday Mike spent the day hauling topsoil, I worked on the second coat of paint in the living room, and later we paid the price for neglecting our children...

Last week was a dr appt for baby where thankfully everything checked out good - had my glucose screening (no gestational diabetes), and got a tetanus shot (ouch).  Tuesday afternoon my friend Jen from college came over for a couple hours to visit.  Wednesday morning Marsha came over for coffee and to check out the living room.  The boys asked a couple times why I had so many ladies coming over - ha ha!  They asked when they'd be able to have friends over, and I assured them as soon as we have a yard we can start having their friends here again!  By Friday I had about had it.  But, the Lord gave me strength, and we're making it.  :)  Saturday Mike spent the day leveling the topsoil he had hauled in the week before.

And there you have it.  Most of August.  Only two weeks left until Caleb and Logan start school for the very first time!!  I really, really hope I can enjoy these last two weeks - I've been too stressed about all my projects (time to take a chill pill), and let's face it, being a mom is just no fun when your kids don't listen or are fighting or whatever.  But, we're on the brink of a new era and I don't want to just wish these last two weeks away, I want to soak up my little boys before they're all grown up.

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!

life...

...is crazy!  We've been out of our house for EIGHT whole weeks now!  Four with my parents, and four at an area campground.  I have no complaints, both of our living situations have gone very well, but I am starting to feel ready to be home.  Probably the biggest things for me are cooking and doing laundry - will be nice to have a better space to do those things in.  :)  Maybe in 1-2 weeks we'll be back in our house!!

The project really has gone very well and kept moving along at a good clip.  And, of course, once we move back in there will still be a lot of work that needs to be done.  Obviously, before things started we knew this was going to be a big deal, but until you're really in it it's hard to prepare for how stressful it really is going to be.  We're ready for it to be "done" and have said we don't need to do another big project for a LONG time.  (I'm not even sure what project we could come up with that would be bigger than this anyhow!)

Both Caleb and Logan have turned into fish in the swimming pool here at the campground!  This has been such a good thing for them.  Caleb will now swim across the deep end, jump into the deep end (he's tried a dive a couple times, but ends up doing a belly flop...), and dive for things in the shallow area.  Logan loves swimming under water, doing cannon balls, diving for things in the shallow, and doing dives into the deep end (he has pretty good form!).  Levi will stand on the bottom step, "jump" in from the edge as long as I'm holding his hands and don't let him go under water, and let me pull him around the pool - he's not quite as comfortable in the water as his brothers yet.

Last week Caleb and Logan were able to go to our church's Vacation Bible School.  Overall they really enjoyed it, it was just hard for them to get up on time for five days in a row (well, six, if you count Sunday before it started!).  Levi and I sure enjoyed our time together.  :)

Levi has been wearing underwear for over a week now!  Only a couple accidents at the beginning, he did good for several days, and then had one accident this weekend.  Yay!!

We FINALLY sold our rental house last week.  It's been a long process and for awhile we wondered if it would ever really happen, but it's really done and what a relief.

conversations

We have quite a number of interesting conversations around here.  If only I had a recording of all of them!  Last Sunday at Taco Bell (of course!) we were discussing our various Sunday School classes and I was telling the boys that Mike and I had been studying Paul.  I made a comment something about the really cool thing of his story was that he was such a bad guy but turned into a really good guy.  Either Caleb or Logan asked how, and I said that God can change anyone's heart.  Wouldn't you know it, the next question one of them asked was, "Why didn't He do that for Satan??"

A few days ago Logan said something about not wanting kids when he grows up.  Levi's response (said in his funny voice), "But you could have one like me!"