I've been MIA Lately......................Sorry :(

 It has been so long since I've updated. It's been such a whirlwind around here lately that I am sure I've forgotten a lot of the details of the past few weeks. Here are a few pictures that were taken that show a bit of what we've been up to:


We've been trying to do our schoolwork down at the main library on Mondays and Wednesday. Using the big rooms that they have there has been nice. One of the room has a lot of windows. It has a beautiful view, but this can be distracting because the kids just want to look out the windows at what is going on outside; be it people, or the weather, or just to look at the old building across the street.  Tuesdays and Thursday we come home for schoolwork. It is a longer day for the girls to be at the college, and I do science and history with Myles and Elsa on these days. It is better for being at home especially with science experiments. And on the topic of Science, I am loving the curriculum that I got for Myles and Elsa!! Love it when that happens:) The kids are usually able to finish up all their school work by Thursday. On Friday, when we wait an hour for the girls down at Officer's Row, we read together and then do spelling tests. That leaves lots of play time for the rest of the day. So far this is proving to be working out well. We shall see about next quarter. The girls will actually be at school less days if all goes as planned with their registration in a few weeks.

Building blocks with Meg:

 I'm not sure who took this picture, but I sure love this guy. I think he just went through a growth spurt because I am feeling my shortness now around him.

We had a good windstorm a few weeks ago. It didn't feel as bad as the weathermen were predicting, but it was pretty gusty. Myles and Elsa enjoyed making their version of kites to fly in the wind.

 Aeva was in a sewing mood and made a cute bunny out of fleece. She has also been working on her Halloween costume with the help of a friend of mine. I'll have more pictures on that subject next time.

 I decided to try my hand at pumpkin butter. I made five small jars. One for us, one for a friend, and three for my visiting teaching sisters. At first no one in our house wanted to try it. I did talk Myles and Elsa into it and then Rhaevyn. Meg will try anything, so she actually was the first to try it.. They all liked it. Chris is not a pumpkin fan unless it is pie, and I still can't get Aeva to try it. I think it turned out rather well.

 Myles spent a day with our dear friend Sister Lee. I dropped him off at 11 in the morning and didn't pick him back up until after 10pm. He had a blast!! He made this with her that day. His name is Chester.

 Myles and Elsa worked on making this wagon like Bing Bong's in Inside Out. They had fun giving Meg a ride in it!

This is one of our science experiments on invisible ink.  This was a message I wrote to Myles. He wrote the atomic symbol for his favorite element on his, which is not shown. My experiment went a 

bit awry at the end.

Here are a few of Meg's favorite sayings lately: 

Now I think I am back up to date, at least of what I can remember.............and we're moving on to November. How is that possible???

Quilts, more quilts, and a Girls' Weekend.

This week we only went to the library one day for schoolwork. The library worker on the 4th floor gave us our own room on Monday. She said to use it anytime we are there as long as it is not reserved. It was so nice to have it for an hour and half (you can have it up to 2 hours). I'll definitely be doing that in the future. It was much easier and nicer than a small cubicle. Tuesday through Thursday the kids and I actually came home and got 95% of the schoolwork done before we had to go pick up the girls, science experiments included. I think coming back home in between dropping and picking up the girls was needed this past week, and we got a lot accomplished. Friday the girls had the day off from school, and Chris took the day off from work.
Because the girls had the day off from school we planned a quick girls trip up to Seattle to stay overnight with Ben and Stacey and go to the Kyoto Art and Antique Warehouse (open only twice a year) and Uwajimaya, a huge Japanese Market. The market has a Japanese bookstore in it as well, and the girls were on cloud nine. All the anime books are in Japanese, not English. Ben, the girls, and I got some souvenirs from the market, and Aeva got an early Birthday present:

The two Japanese ladies that ran the antiques warehouse were so nice, very helpful, and friendly. One of them came over to dress Aeva in a kimono. There were no obi belts that would fit Aeva, so she just used what you see in the picture to give us the jest of the look. The lady spoke in English and Japanese while she dressed Aeva, and Aeva was excited that she could understand a lot of what was being said in Japanese. There were so many kimonos to look at, from the cotton to the very intricate and fancy ones. This one was $20, but some were as much as $600. We talked Rhaevyn and Ben in to trying on one too. Ben bought a calligraphy brush. The items for purchase were amazing; some dating to the Edo period. When we purchased our items and went to leave Aeva thanked the lady in Japanese and bowed to her. The lady got the biggest smile on her face and spoke back to Aeva in Japanese. It was so neat!
 

 

 

 

 

 

We had to help Ben because he was crossing the right over the left, which is what they do when dressing a corpse.  The kimono that Rhaevyn tried on was the softest peach color and so beautiful...........$15. Alas, she is a Korean girl and would rather have a Hanbok than a kimono.

 

 

 

 

What we picked up at the market:
Poky, sweet red bean bun, custard buns, strawberry mochi and......


 Japanese chopsticks and soda (per Elsa's request)....
 
 Asian soup sporks and ramen noodle snacks for Myles......

 

 Moomin paraphernalia for Rhaevyn, Aeva, and their Japanese Professor.
 
 
 These socks were one of the things Ben brought back for Stacey:

 

Aeva got a picture with Waffles:
 
 I got to try out Ben and Stacey's virtual reality game. It was so much fun!

While the girls and I were on our short trip, the kids and Chris had lots of fun building a fort/tent in the front room to sit in and watch movies, eat pizza, popcorn, and ice cream. The kids slept in it Friday night. Saturday, flag football was eventful.................dog poop and a yellow jacket sting.

 

 

 
 My four quilts are done and now waiting for me to pick them up and sew the binding on. Here are the last two:

 Rheavyn and Aeva's seminary teacher just made three quilts for Project Mother of an Angel Baby. It was so sweet of her, and I took those in on Monday. I'm trying to replenish the supply at the other local hospital.

 

Just some random cute and funny pictures from the week:

Meg was not happy when I drove off with the girls Friday and headed for Seattle.

Elsa and Meg were playing orthodontist. This is the play version of braces.

Meg snuggled up with Aeva and while taking a nap.

Myles built a little bench:

I've been thinking about two quotes lately.
It seems that when I think I have a plan or have figured out how things are supposed to be going those plans change or circumstances change. I also have a tendency to wonder if I've made the right decisions in life and think "what if". When I do that I am reminded to really take a look at my life and see that the Lords hand has been in my life and events occurred or happened just as they should. God knows me better than I know myself sometimes.