Cold days

It has been so cold recently. We've been doing a lot of reading and visiting friends and games inside. The boys are playing memory in the picture. Thankfully, the library is not busy when it is cold and we are keeping the library basket well stocked. 

We did venture out to SAMs club to restock the ESL snacks. It is wonderful to have little helpers. They are getting quite good at unloading and putting away the  groceries. 

The boys seem to take joy in helping out and being given tasks to accomplish. Martin has started picking up his toys and vacuuming the living room several times a week. He takes after his Dad and not his Mom. The older two collect the trash, put away the silverware and lower cupboard dishes, and help sort clothes. They love to bake and cook with me. Measuring stuff and counting items is such an easy way to encorporate math into every day living. Even the baby likes to carry in grocery bags (the light ones, like chips and bread that sometimes get smashed, but it is worth it) and help pull clothes out of the dryer. 

They are a fun bunch. I am so thankful for them. And as long as they show interest in helping out I am going to foster that. 

But as an aside, if you have any resources for working with a child who stares right through you when you talk, I am looking for a good book or two with ideas to help him listen and also to encourage him to be inquisitive. Middle children are a bit of a mystery to me. So all parenting book ideas welcomed or tips. :) 

2018 Book 2

Here is another book that I started in 2017 and finished in 2018.  I used this for my devotions in November and December. It has 52 short essays about each of the Lord's Days in the Heidelberg Catechism. 

I am not a huge Kevin DeYoung fan. *Gasp.* What kind of young-reformed-person am I?  I have read two other books by DeYoung and I haven't been that impressed.  He seems like more of a blog writer to me. BUT, I did like this one. 

The sections on the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer are great. This book will be a wonderful resource to use with my children when they are older.  I look forward to reading it with them. 

Pages: 247

Deconstructed quilt

I borrowed this quilting book from the library and the intro page has a picture of this quilt. Great! Right? 

Then I flip through the entire book and can't find it. It isn't included in the book. What?!? 

I google her name and find her blog and see that the quilt is in her shop for $10. I like it, but not that much. Plus, it seems pretty easy to deconstruct. So, doodled it  up on the back of this receipt. Do you like my algebra to figure out the block and boarder size? Heh. 

Maybe I will try to make it soon... There are a few other designs in her book that seem a bit easier and faster. I am itching to quilt again. 

A long quilt

Our garage door was letting in so much cold air.  

Why you ask? 

Just because there is A CAT DOOR cut in the bottom of it.

And because there is a gap all the way around it (see picture below).

And because there is a two inch gap at the top. 

So, our solution, when we first moved in, was to tape some cardboard over the cat door.
That isn't really going to stop any of the cold air.

We don't really have the money to buy an new door right now, but this thing was making the fireplace room and kitchen so cold.

Enter the long and skinny quilt!
These sheets have been sitting around my sewing room since 2009, when I found them on Christmas clearance. They have been waiting to be a back to a flannel quilt or two.

I chopped up the bottom sheets (the one with the elastic) and pieced them together to be about the door size.  It took me about a week to piece the flannel together, quilt it, and sew the binding on. It isn't perfectly square, but it is warm.

Jared made me the quilt hanger from two pieces of spare wood.

Books. Books. Books.

Thanks to NPR, Al Mohler, The Economist, and the new material rack at the library. I also put ten books on hold from their suggestions. 

Books I'm most excited about:

Radium Girls

Gulp 

We'll see if any of them make the list of books read this year...

2018 Book 1

This is the first book that I finished for the year. To be fair, I started this the last week of December. But I finished it this year!

It is cool that the front cover looks like a blueprint.  

Sinclair Ferguson is way smarter than I will ever be. And thus, I need to read this book about three times to fully understand it. I like his writing. I like the ideas. There are a lot of good thoughts in this book. The front was slow going (maybe I was just getting used to his style of writing). I ended up enjoying the middle section.

  

I really appreciated Chapter 4 on baptism. It gave me a better understanding of baptism then I have ever had. It made me appreciate it in a new way. 

I loved the appendix on the fourth commandment. 

I look forward to rereading this one, more slowly, in about 3-5 years. 

Pages: 277

Pictures on the Stairs

Jared asked what project I wanted him to work on this weekend. 

I can paint everything. I can build some things. I can organize. But I cannot figure out how to hang pictures and make them look half as nice as he does. (And he picks better colors and patterns than I do too). We are a good team. 

So he put them up. 

And they looks amazing. 

And I love them. 

And I am happy that my frames are not stacked in a corner of a room gathering more dust and that I get to see my family and friends on my trips up the stairs. 

The light at the top of the stairs is awful. But the wall to the right and the ceiling are that awful bleh-tan. So that is also why they look so gross. 

Note the blue walls and white trim!!!  I finished the trim a few weeks ago. Slowly I am eradicating the bleh-tan from my house. The downstairs is almost completely cleansed. 

And I've finished three books. They are sitting in my draft folder until I get to a real computer and keyboard. 

Did you work on any projects this weekend in the snow storm? Did you have snow? 

It snowed. It is too cold to play in it.

Look at all that snow!!

They lasted a few minutes out there. 

He lasted longer. 

But it is really too deep and powdery to sled in. They tried sledding down our hill, but only Martin made it to the bottom. Maybe if it melts a bit. But the next three days are in the teens and single digits.  So, I don't see that happening. 

It was so windy that the snow drifted. We estimate between 8"-10" of snow. 

Something Good?

A new blog series! 

Since I keep forgetting to update my list of books that I read, I've decided to just post them as I finish them. Maybe I will make a few comments about each one. Maybe just a picture. 

And I'll comment about books that I start and don't finish and ones that I only read parts of (often I have to do that for a Bible study or Sunday school class). If I read over half the book, I'll be counting it towards my reading total.  But over the last year I've realized that life is too short to read bad books (note that this doesn't mean hard books - hard books are ones that I just read really slowly). 

I'll try to post page numbers too. I'd like to see how many actual pages I read each year. 

This is the start of year four of reading straight through the Bible (I started in November and hope to be done by June again). I'm super excited to say that I'm looking forward to rereading my favorite passages (hello, old friends) and gaining new insight into not-as-favorite sections. I'm reading a commentary on Matthew (by David Platt) and I spent much of the fall reading the minor prophets on repeat. And I have to say, I'm kind of loving the minor prophets right now. I've always skimmed over them before, but I'm looking forward to seeing them again. There is so much in there of God's mercy and love for his people. 

And I want to read more commentaries. So, if you have any suggestions, please send them my way (comments very welcome!!). I am sort of leaning towards the Hebrews commentary by Al Mohler since it topped Desiring God's books of the year for 2017. But I'd love to do a minor prophets or several. So anything. Comment away!! 

Happy snow day. 

Winter frost and greater beauty

Does anyone else remember their windows looking like this as a child? I remember looking at it while I lay in my bed and thinking about how beautiful it was. 

I hadn't really seen frost on Windows again until we moved into this old house with old windows. And once again I pause to look at it and think it is beautiful. What an amazing world God created.   

Something that hits me as an adult is how fleeting these displays of beauty are.  Maybe that comes with life experience. As a child I don't remember ever thinking, "this will be gone soon and will never happen again." The older I get the more and more I have thoughts like these. I see a sunset or sunrise and I pause a little bit longer because I realize there will never be another one that looks quite the same. I stop to drink in just a little more beauty. These things produce longings in me for beauty that lasts and is permanent.  I guess it is longing for heaven. Tastes of something greater. Pointers to the most beauty. Small reminders to not focus on this world because it is passing away. To look beyond the here and now to my eternity that is secure in that glorious city. 

Praise God for beauty and may it point me continually to the greatest beauty. 

Pyrex Love!

Guys, for years I have been hitting up

Target after Christmas clearance hoping to find Pyrex. I always see other people find it. I've gotten my hopes up a couple times, but it has always rung up full price. 

Well, guess what?!? I hit the jackpot today!! I bought seven of these dishes!  They were only $1.50 a piece. What? They are a favorite in my house and the perfect size for leftovers. We use them all the time. All the time. I adore them. 

Yay, for the target Christmas clearance!! 

Hooded towels

I made two hooded towels for Christmas for my nieces. As an aside, it is especially hard to find fun colors for girl towels in stores. Where are all the purples and pinks? And who is buying salmon/peach still? There are plenty of greys, blues, and odd shades of greens. 

I tried to give my USPS man a break, but I was thwarted by a limited selection in stores and ended up buying these online with free shipping! But I tried. I tried to buy them in stores! 

My model wasn't very corporative.

Pictures

When Dad lets you play with his old toys. 

Christmas!!

Dominos

Look at these giant dominos we found for the boys!! 

One of my favorite hymns. 

And my Favorite Christmas present! 

My sister made this for me. AND she made me three pieces of polish pottery. So amazing. So cool!! 

A few Christmas thoughts

This is how we spent most of yesterday, holding little sick boys and reading books. At one point, I put James down for a nap and then the rest of us fell asleep on the couch. 

Today we finally hung up our growing pile of Christmas cards. Yay! It feels like Christmas. 

I wish I had had time to get our cards together or that I had found my box of cards and at least sent those out. They are still missing. Maybe when I search my house for hidden Christmas presents I will stumble soon them. They have to be somewhere. 

I started a quilt today. I'm making it to cover our garage door that doesn't seal and has a cat door cut in it. Grrrr. 

Sappy post

These two! 

Before I had kids I really wanted a girl to be my oldest so that I would have a little helper for my younger kids. Plus, I am the oldest and I am a girl and I think oldest girls are pretty special. 

But let me tell you about Martin!! He is just the sweetest and dearest oldest child I could have asked for. He loves his brothers and he loves to help with anything (building a rocking chair, vacuuming, collecting trash, unloading dishwasher, helping his brothers put on shoes or coats, raking the yard). He does it joyfully. Sometimes he put me to shame with how patient he is with his brothers.  He talks a mile a minute and thinks deeply about life. 

I guess this is just a sappy post to say, I love you buddy!! And I wouldn't trade you for a thousand oldest girls. 

Ad then there is Warbie... He is my snuggly one. He loves to do whatever Martin is doing, which means he is usually offering to help me too. It is a joy to have two brothers that love each other so much! I have so much fun being their mom. I love the little years. 

Those are their work uniforms (safety glasses, hard hats, ear protection, and gloves). 

And then there is this jolly soul... I don't think a happier baby ever existed. 

They are all in the midst of a cold and general yuckiness. I am pausing to be grateful for the well days and the good times in the midst of illness. And I am thanking God for letting me be their mom and praying he makes himself real to them at an early age. That he grabs hold of their lives and changes them to love his word and his work. That he give them a passion to glorify him with their time, talent, and treasure. 💜

Happy Wednesday before Christmas. 

Wisconsin

Last week, for Christmas, my parents watched the kids and gifted us a few nights away at a marriage retreat in the cutest of little towns. 

Right on Lake Michigan. 

It was freezing. Well, below freezing. Like 20°F each day. And we had about 100 pages of reading to do each day, in addition to lectures. So, we didn't do much exploring. 

The last night it dusted with snow. 

We stopped to look at the lighthouse before we drove to the airport. Too cold to get out of the car. 

Snowy as we left. We flew in clouds the entire trip. 

And we came home to more snow. 

Crazy. 

Now Jared has some sort of stomach bug (or food poisoning) and two of the boys have had colds since Monday. I've been doing a lot of holding sick kids, reading books, and wiping noses. 

I did manage to make three draft stopper door things for the bedroom doors we don't use upstairs. It was a good distraction for the boys to help stuff them with beans and fabric scraps. And my hallway seems much warmer now... Maybe it is just my imagination. 

Maybe things will be more normal next week. I haven't even started Christmas shopping for siblings yet. Is it too late to order things? I'm in denial that Christmas is in 10 days. How can that be? 

Kitchen Hack

That feeling when you are making mozzarella and realize that your kitchen thermometer broke (over a year ago) and the candy thermometer doesn't measure anything below 140°. Mozzarella needs to be heated to 95° and 105°. What to do?!? What to do? 

Wait, those are around a normal human temperature... People thermometer to the rescue!! The batteries on my other thermometers have died. So, my Kinsa, attached to my phone had to do.  

I think it should have been more concerned with my high temperature. 

Advent Tree Update

I only have four more to make. I've been sewing one or two each night while Jared reads to me. It has been a fun little project. 

Best of all it is a great way to talk to the kids each night about the actual reason we celebrate Christmas. There is a Bible verse and suggestion verse from a Christmas carol each night. 

I'll post the book title when I post a picture of all of the ornaments on the tree.