November 2015~by Beth

November tends to be about celebrating Thanksgiving.  We had a lot to look forward to this month. Early in the month we traveled over to Miami, twice.  First was for Johanna's Surgery Reunion banquet.  We had 4 tickets to use, so Hannie chose Abigail to come with us.  We had dinner and a short program in the Tree Top Ballroom.  Then we had tickets for Jungle Island right next door.  It was so much fun and a great celebration of what the Brain Institute at Miami Children's Hospital has accomplished in 30 years of doing surgery on children.  It was also almost one year since Johanna had her brain surgery.

Outside the ballroom looking at the cruise ships on the water in Miami

gifts from Miami Children's Hospital

Our beloved Dr. Hyslop with Johanna

Five days later Johanna and I traveled to Miami again for her one year check up.  She did great and is starting her final weaning off of medication.  It will take 6 months in all.  Jonathan and the rest of the family headed to Ft Pierce for the volleyball state championship.  Johanna and I drove up the coast after her appointment in Miami, missing only chapel and one game.

 On Thanksgiving morning 4 of the children ran in the annual 5k Turkey Trot.  Here they are with some friends.

Johanna and Abigail's first 5k

Christiana on the last leg of the race.

Johanna and Abigail nearing the finish.

 After we got home and cleaned up, it was time to take our family photos.  Just looking at this photo reminds us of how much we have for which to be thankful to God.

The day after Thanksgiving we took the whole crew swimming.  David was house sitting again so we were able to use our friends' pool.  The highlight, besides having fun with all the little people, was the water gun fight between Nathan and his dad.  I have some funny videos of those.

Jon and Stephen

Christiana and Lydia

Abigail

Nathan nails Stephen

Stephen and Lydia by the fish pool

Audrey learned to swim,  Christiana and Sophia

Audrey bear

Nathan in his element

November ends with the first Sunday in Advent.  Here is Stephen lighting the first Advent candle.

October 2015~by Beth

October was busy too.  I worked again early voting for a week.  We also had a fun day with Joel and Kelsey at their community pool.  Here are a few pictures.

Meanwhile, in Texas, Katie was taking some great family photos of Nathan's family for a project for a mug I was making him for Christmas.  His little girls are so adorable.  Here are a few selected pictures of that.

Next are some photos of some of the girls in their volleyball games.  Some of the teams have outdoor courts, making it easier to get pictures with the right lighting.

Our four volleyball players: Christiana, Charity, Emma and Johanna

Towards the end of the month I took the kiddos to a military museum that we have in town.  We were studying WWII this month, so we concentrated on that part of the museum.  Next we went to a Pumpkin Patch where they also got to play a bunch of fun little games and earn a candy prize. 

On the 25th of the month we celebrated Abigail's 10th birthday.  David got the cake from his bakery and it was super good.  He went a little big on the size, so we were giving away cake after that, but it wasn't hard since it was so delicious.

After 2 years of braces, Christana and Emma finally got them off.  Here is a before and after photo

At the very end of the month the kids went to a golf outing.  There is a pool at the club house.  Here is Stephen practicing floating, which I had taught him this past Summer.

September 2015~by Beth

September always seems to get us going strong in the school year and with our sports season getting going.  I began the month by working early voting again.  Simultaneously Christiana, Charity and Emmaline went to a Journey to the Heart retreat.  They were so blessed to go to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the temps were much cooler than where we live, and the leaves were beginning to change for a 10 day retreat.  They made lots of great friends and memories, but more importantly they drew much  closer to their Lord and Savior Jesus.  They flew out on a Saturday, getting up early to finish all their packing.  Here they are with all their things in the living room.

 Meanwhile, Johanna participated in the Jamboree for volleyball (and football for the guys).  This was her first year playing volleyball.  When the 3 girls returned they also practiced with and played on the team.

 Dave celebrated his 19th birthday.  Since he graduated from high school in May he started a job in the morning washing dishes at a bakery.  Along with reffing for at least 3 leagues, (recreational, competitive, and now high school) he keeps busy.  He has a goal of saving enough to attend the International ALERT Academy next Fall.

 While the girls were still away I tried a recipe that I found on Pinterest.  This was the spaghetti squash baking.  After slicing it and scooping out all the seeds and pulp, I baked them for 30 minutes.  When they were done and cooled a bit, I peeled and shredded them and added to it bacon and wilted spinach along with a type of dressing and feta cheese.  It was yummy.

 Had to get a refrigerator during this time too.  The one in the garage died.  We put the new one in the house and the old one from the house into the garage.

Look what I did

When we were in Texas we made a visit to IKEA where we found a clearance wall light with out a shade.  I could not find one at the stores that had a ring instead of clamping onto the bulb, and began to wonder if we had wasted our money on the lamp.  I finally found one the right size with the right ring on top to fit.  However, it was in a beige and I wanted a white pleated look.  So here is the process of remaking it.

First I took off all the glued on pieces

Next I pulled off the inside lining, which was glued, leaving three spots where it was attached to the inside ring. Then I pulled off the outside fabric, which was also glued.

I picked up a piece of white material from JoAnns for 67 cents, cut it to size and ironed in pleats.

I also pinned the pleats.  This is a view of the bottom side of the piece. Next I basted across the top and bottom of the pleats with my sewing machine about a 1/4 inch from the edge.

Using my trusty glue gun, I glued the bottom pleats to the frame of the shade.  That was after I pinned the whole thing to the frame to check on fit.  If I had it to do again I would have glued the top first and then spread the pleats out on the larger bottom.  As it was I pulled the pleats a bit tighter on top and then glued.

At the end I glued the edge under about 1/4 inch and glued it down over the beginning edge.  I had begun on one of the metal bars that joins the top and bottom of the frame, so that gave some stability.  Then I glued the inside lining to the bottom ring of the frame, pulling it around the outside of the shade about 1/4 inch.  Next I pulled the lining tight and glued it down to the top bar, pulling it over the pleated material on the outside. Finally I glued white bias tape to cover the rough edges.

Here it is completed.  The only other thing I did to it was to find another ring that was the right circumference for the lamp and wire it to the inside of that top ring.

Now I have great lighting for my sewing area.  Cost of the lamp at IKEA was just over $10.  The shade cost $2 at a thrift store, and the materials to recover it were about $2 bringing the grand total for this light to $14.  I only saved $1 over the cost of a complete IKEA lamp, but when we bought it we did not know finding a replacement shade would prove to be so difficult.  I did have fun making it though.

August 2015~by Beth

August marked the end of summer and the start of the new school year.  Jonathan did a major car repair on the Rodeo and got it back working just in time for David to use it.  He is house sitting for some friends, he began reffing again as the soccer season kicked off, and he got a dish washing job at a local restaurant.  The best part of that is the place he works is not open at night, so he only works mornings till 2pm.  On August 17th our home school started up the new year.  Here are my 6 students, down from 7 from last year since David graduated.  Christiana is a senior so next year we will be down to 5 students.

Jonathan began back at his school on August 12th.  His school begins 3 days earlier than the county since they are a Title 1 school.  Makes the summer a bit shorter but then he also gets paid for those days.  With school starting so also starts football season.  Jonathan has already covered two games for the local newspapers.  It makes a long Friday by the time he gets his story in and gets home.  Last week, due to weather, the game was delayed for quite a bit and he never left for home until 12:45am. He had decided to cover a game in Naples, which also added an hour commute to his time.  We get a lot of lightning around here.  This is a photo of one strike lighting up the sky.  It is actually night here, but the lightning is so bright it looks like day.

Jonathan is still working on cars too.  Our van is getting a thermostat replaced, and then we need to figure out the cooling system issue on the Suburban.  To top that off it looks like one of our refrigerators died last night.  We need to find a new one today before all my food thaws in the freezer.  I pray we can find a reasonably priced one since we have not had a paycheck all summer.

July 2014~by Beth

The word for July would have to be summer projects.  When we got back from our vacation up north in June we began on our long list of things to do.  Two of the biggest included painting the garage walls and ceiling, and the exterior of our house. Sherwin Williams sells mistint paint for $2 a gallon.  That is how the garage walls became blue.  We had actually never painted the walls of the garage in the almost 17 years we have lived here.  Some of the big things we moved away from the walls had not been moved since we moved in.  Yuk!  I did some major cleaning there.

Right in the midst of this came Independence Day.  This year 4 of the children rode bikes in the parade.  They are, left to right, Johanna, Stephen, Emma, and Abigail.
When we finally finished the painting we took the children for a reward to the Yacht Club pool.

The other thing we did this summer is help our neighbor Betty.  The children have always called her Aunt Betty.  Her husband, Uncle Ned, died in May.  She put her house on the market, had a garage sale and ended up selling the house very quickly, along with lots of furniture and Uncle Ned's truck.  We helped a lot during this process.  She paid the older 3 girls to come in and clean, helping them earn money for going to a retreat in September.  Being the generous soul that she is, Betty gave us a lot of things she no longer wished to keep.  As a commission for Jonathan helping in the sale of Ned's truck she gave us her hutch.  I always wanted one, for decades, and now the Lord gave me one. I love it.

While we were in the midst of helping Aunt Betty, she gave us permission to use her pool.  She was no longer staying there so we were not bothering her with noise.  Jon taught the children to dive at the deep end.  Here is a video of their progress the day they learned to dive.

The children again played golf at the  Coral Oaks Golf Course.  The end of year party was the same day that VBS began, so only Dave, Christiana and Johanna participated.

Our local craft store also did summer projects.  Our children made tie dye shirts and cupcakes.  Here are the cupcakes.

There were free movies, and our basketball end of year party, and several car repair jobs that seemed to fill up our days.  We were also given a 2001 Chevy Suburban.  God is good.