And...2 Weeks Later...

So...I thought I would do better with blogging.
In reality...not so much.

With Jim traveling more and more, much of my energy is used to keep this joint running as smoothly as possible.
Some days are smoother than others, let's just say.
We are getting along.

It's almost March and the craziness of Spring.
And the end of the school year.
I have to register Nate for kindergarten in the next couple weeks.  I have to apply for an out-of-district transfer to get him at the same school the other kids are at first, so it may be a little longer before I really have to face that only Benjamin will be home with me next year.  Nate said to me this week, "You know, Mom, you're going to be so bored an lonely when I go to school!"
Maybe so.
It will be good for Nate to get to school.  He's starting to read and he's getting really excited about it.  I had forgot how much fun it is to watch the kids learn.
It will be good for me to be here, too. ;)
Had you told me years ago that I would live in a rural cow town, at home full  time with four kids, making my own cleaners, baking bread, sewing clothes and being busier that I could have imagined keeping a home, I would have laughed you out the door.
Change is always interesting, isn't it?

The Littles help me with our once a week baking day.  Most of the time we end up making a couple loaves of bread, but we have made some pizza crusts to freeze that have worked out well.
We'll do more of those this week.
I had never realized what hard work kneading dough is.
Makes me feel surprisingly bada$$ in a Laura Ingalls kind of way.
I pulled out the rolling pin for the dough and Ben was so confused.  He had only known me to use it for rolling out my hamstrings or calf muscles.  He didn't know what it was really supposed to be used for.
Runner kid problems.
The baking process doesn't take long, but we are trying to find ways to tame the mess and the recovery period.

Jim and I did hit 1000 miles on our treadmill this past week.
I'm not sure how I feel about running the distance from here to Montreal without going anywhere, but we're both in better shape now than when we started.  So it can't be a total waste.

Last week we had three extra kids for a day, including a three year old and a set of five year old twins.
Other than an incident involving projectile vomit, the day was great.
Seriously.
It's easier with five kids that it is with two sometimes.  :)
And who could resist these faces?

The boys decided they wanted to make Daddy a present for when he got home.
They took an old pair of pajamas, cut them up and made a pillow.
I controlled the foot pedal, but the boys did all the sewing and stuffing.
They also did the wrapping, which was by far the most involved part.

I'm thoroughly enjoying watching "Mercy Street" on PBS.  Much of the consulting was done here in Frederick and it's correlating in an interesting way in the book I'm reading on mercy for Small Group.
The kids are volunteering, steadily trying to work up to 35 hours for the school year before May.   The Youngers and I have groups and play time and we're looking very much toward to Spring.

I can't lie.
It's absolutely nutty here in spurts.
It's hard to keep my head on.  Especially when getting kids out the door by 7:15.
But we're keepin' on and learning.
Slowly.


Other than that, the days are full.
Some days I have no idea where the day went when it's 7pm and I get the chance to sit down for my morning coffee.