Productivity

Wayne has had a rough couple of weeks with his back. There have been trips to the ER for stronger pain meds and tomorrow we will probably be back at the doctors due to another complication. In between the medical trips Wayne maintains his sanity by puttering on projects around the house that aren't too taxing and show a lasting result. Here is a picture of one of his latest projects...
These chairs were given to us years ago by our neighbor to 'break up and throw in the wood pile'. Wayne and I both hate to throw something away that may need just a little TLC to be useful again. He started stripping one of the chairs and found it was made of bird's eye maple. So they never made it to the woodpile and today Marc helped put in a new cane seat on one.A project I've been working on for what seems like forever has been spinning hair from 4 golden retrievers. A woman wants to make a scarf or something from the yarn of her dogs. I finally finished up the order this week.Jonathan is never at a loss for producing new experiences for the family. The other night we were going to grill steaks so I had them marinating on the counter. I was waiting for the water to boil for the rice when Wayne asked me to come look at something. Jonathan joined us a few minutes later and grabbed my hand, "Mom! Come see the snow in the kitchen!" I quickly followed him to find "snow on a mountain" (aka raw rice on the steaks). "Oh, Jon, what am I going to do with you?" He was so proud of himself and his creation.
Yesterday a friend from church came and did the 'family shearing'. She gave Wayne, Marc, Kate, Jonathan, Ian, and our friend Bob haircuts. Marc has 'hat hair' here, but it's not as shaggy as it was. Katelyn wanted to look like "Kit" from the American Girl series. We're not allowed to say she looks 'cute' since she "doesn't do 'cute'." but I do like her hair cut.Here's a picture of Ian, which doesn't really show his haircut, but he hasn't been on the blog for awhile. As I write this he's telling me how sad he is because 'he's such a poor loser'. He, Katelyn, and Jonathan were playing a game upstairs and Ian wasn't happy with how things were going. Someone (who shall remain nameless) told him that he was a poor loser so he came to me in tears. "Mom, I'm just so sad because I'm so poor. I want to be a good winner, but I'm just a poor loser." So on that note I will close and go see if I can comfort and encourage my little boy to be a good winner and loser.

Red Sky in Morning...

This morning Wayne caught a picture of the sunrise.
The weather report is predicting LOTS of rain and high temps overnight which could result in flooding. That word causes a bit of anxiety for the folks in this area since our experience in 2006. When we were evacuated during that flood I was reading Psalms 29:10 (it was the 29th day of the month and I was working my way through Psalms). What a comfort and reminder when I read, "The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever. The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace." So we'll watch the river and be 'on alert' to move to higher ground, but remember that He is king over the flood and He'll give us the strength and peace to deal with whatever comes. I am thankful that the snow has been slowly melting over the past couple of weeks so there isn't as much snow to add to the river volume.

And the normal activities go on...Last year someone gave our kids an old skateboard and Jonathan claimed it. He hadn't seen it for awhile, but the other night it came out of hiding. Jonathan loves to go back and forth the length of the side porch. It was warm enough for him to get some skateboarding in while dressed in his pajamas.

Cold Days of January

The thermometer is in the single numbers, but the activity level is still in the double (or is it triple) digits.

Wayne, Marc, and our friend Bob are off to a hockey game tonight. Bob got tickets through his employer for a 'guy's night out' for Marc and another young man with autism. The other guy got sick so they had an extra ticket...Wayne being the great dad that he is (he is NOT a hockey fan) went at Marc's request.

This afternoon Wayne and I had to take Jonathan to the ER to have his forehead 'glued' back together. Thank the Lord for medical progress!!! They were able to glue the cut shut instead of going through the ordeal of stitches. Hopefully, Jonathan has learned that bookcases are not to be climbed on.

So now it's a quiet evening at home for me and the rest of the gang. I thought I'd add some pics to the blog...

Since we don't have a good sledding hill, Jonathan found his own in the backyard...

I had a book sale for the past couple of days to try to get rid of some excess 'weight'. Unfortunately, only 2 people from our homeschool group helped me lose a few pounds (approx. 67 our of 655!). I did lose more, by donating the majority of the left over books to the local library's book sale collection. Now if I could only lose some other weight as easily.
Nathanial returns to college tomorrow. Jonathan will be lost without him. He adores his big brother and really misses him when he's away. It's been great to have both of the oldest boys home for the last 3 weeks.