Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I posted once again.  This has been such a busy year for us. 

We moved out to our "new" homestead at the end of July.  It was a bittersweet move.  One where we knew we could accomplish a lot of our goals....but one that neither of us were sure we were ready for.  I was scared to leave the simplicity we found in town and rightfully so.  We had been working on the house since May.....and made a lot of major progress...but it still seems that there's lots we could be doing!  Our job is never done! 

Part of our plan is to open a car lot here on our property.  We bought a place right on the highway where we'd have lots of traffic to view our things.  When we moved, we moved it all into the building that was to later become the car lot office....and then gradually have moved stuff into the house as we're ready for it.  Well....we're now down to crunch time.  The State inspector will be coming to make sure our building is an acceptible place of business.....and we need to have it look more presentable!  WOW...we sure had stuff stuffed in there!  We spent a lot of last week dragging things around...moving it into our basement onto tables and pallets, hoping to keep it dry.  One day of doing that is enough to bring this pregnant mama down.  I sure do wear out easily these days!  I didn't lift anything too heavy, but just being on my feet all day can really take it's toll.  We have a few cars set out on our newly gravelled lot and have gotten a lot of interest in the first few days that they've been out there.  Nothing has sold yet, but we're feeling really optimistic. 

Another thing that is new to us, is that we are heating our house with wood.  We are really enjoying this!  We have a wood furnace that sits outside.  It warms water up to 180 degrees and then pumps it into a radiator in the basement which blows it through the central heat ductwork.  It is all controlled by a normal thermostate just like central heat.  We also have a propane furnace that will use the same vents, but we sure enjoy getting to hear for next to nothing.  My husband has been following the electrical line tree trimmers around picking up whatever they leave.  They said he was welcome to take what he wanted.  He managed to get 3 truck loads of it today!  That should last quite a while! 

We've had our share of adventures living out here, too.  First on the list......  MICE!  EWWWW.  We knew that mice would likely be a problem, but now that it's getting colder, we're beginning to see that problem.  We're stuffing any potential mouse holes with steel wool....and setting traps.  We had 3 kittens and a mama cat when we moved out here but they've all disappeared, so we just recently got 2 more kittens to go along with our one house cat that we brought when we moved.  Hopefully they will all help to control the population......and in the mean time, we'll be able to continue to fix any potential place the mice could find their way in.  So far, they seem to be fewer and fewer.  We hope that it continues that way! 

Another recent adventure.....I was in the kitchen cooking....and saw out the back window a bunch of smoke in the middle of a patch of grass.  I couldn't imagine why the grass would be smoking, so I asked my husband if there's a reason why because you just never know what he's been up to outside....lol.  As I was telling him, it got thicker and flames started bursting up.  I noticed that his truck wasn't too far away from the fire, so I began to worry a bit.  My husband and son ran out to investigate and sure enough, it was a grass fire that was beginning to spread somewhat quickly thanks to the windy day.  My son had just dumped the ashes from the wood stove and I didn't realize that was their dumping place.  I guess there were still some hot embers that caught it on fire.  Had I not been in the kitchen at that time, things could've really gotten out of control quickly.  The ended up grabbing the waterhose and putting out with that. 

We've had a dump truck knock down electric lines, a tractor pull up propane lines by mistake and a tractor run over the water meter causing a large leak.  We're just full of adventure.  No wonder I miss the simplicity of the other house!  LOL  I don't think that things will continue like this....as they seem to be calming down already.  I just really need to get the inside of the house in order so that I can decorate for Christmas and then soon after, bring a baby home without quite as much to do.  You should hear all the plans that we still have!  Every day, my husband wakes up with a mental list of his priorities and it's always very long!  Luckily a lot of our to do list isn't things that have to be done on a regular basis...a lot of them are one time type things....and as we finish a lot of those, we'll be able to get into more of a routine.  Welcome to "farm" living! 

Today, was the day for the ultrasound.  I'm 20 weeks, 5 days pregnant and we were hoping to find out the sex of this baby.  The verdict is in and we're having our 4th GIRL in a row!  Can you believe it?  I really thought we'd break the mold and end up having a boy...but nope, it wasn't meant to be for us.  God wants us to have another girl.  I wonder what he's got planned for us and all these girls? 

The ultrasound was neat, although the pictures didn't seem as clear to me as other ultrasounds in the past have been.  She was all scrunched up with her feet and knees up by her face.  We could see her spine and all her extremeties as well as her kidneys.  At the end, the tech asked if we wanted to see her in 3-D, which of course we did.  She had hoped to get us a face shot, but since her face was buried in her knees, that didn't happen.  It was still cute to see her little foot and legs all scrunched up together in 3-D. 

Now....to find a name.  It gets harder with every girl that we have!  None seem quite right for our precious babies.  We are open to suggestions!

As I was starting my first week of school, I realized that I really didn't like how it was going.  It all seemed wrong...well maybe not all, but it didn't feel like we were learning to enjoy learning, it felt more like we were learning because we had to.  So....after much thinking, praying and talking it out with my sister and my friend Amy, I decided to give Old Fashioned Education a try.  I was skeptical at first.  I didn't know if I wanted to have to print that much.  I knew I wanted a literature based education, but didn't want to have to think about a schedule and I didn't want to have to spend very much money on it (like I would on Sonlight, which is still very appealing if it weren't for the money).  I also didn't want to have to make regular trips to the library.  See, I'm bad about returning books to the library.  I tend to always run up a late charge on a book we misplaced or one I thought I had returned but didn't, etc.  After talking for a while with Amy, she helped me realize, that I could try it for 2 weeks and if I didn't like it, then we're still learning something and it wasn't a pointless 2 weeks.  Ahhhh...light bulb moment for me.  See...I tend to like to talk things to death but never put them into action.    We are now on Week 3 and things are going well.  My oldest son asked me the other day if I liked this new curriculum we're doing.  I said, "I do, do you?"  He said, "I love it!".  Whew...that made me feel better.  I was feeling like it was going well, but it's always a relief to hear them say they like it, too. 

We are currently combining the 3 children that are school age with 2 different grade levels.  I've got a 1st grader, 3rd grader and 6th grader.  After looking over the 6th grade material and the time period it covered, I decided to start with first and 5th.  It's all harder than we'd been doing anyway, so it shouldn't matter if it's a grade down for my oldest.  He still does the same math, reading and language arts as before.  

Right now, we're reading through an exciting book called "Princess Pocahontas".   They always want me to read more, but one chapter is usually enough for the day!  Another book that is a favorite is called "Fatty Coon".  It's all about the adventures of a young raccoon and the trouble he finds himself in.  It's so nice for me to have so many books available that are good, older type books, AND morally appropriate.  I finally feel like there is a point once again to their education. 

While at a family birthday party this weekend, my husband told his his cousin that the reason we continue having children is because they all grow up too fast, so we have another one, to keep one little!  His cousin replied, "ha...not us, we want to HAVE a life". 

Although, I don't think she was intending to be rude.....I bet she didn't realize how bad it sounded!  What?  You don't have a life when you're raising your children?  The only way you can have a "life" is to let those kids grow up and get them out of the house?  Why bother having kids then anyway if your main goal is to get rid of them?  It's kind of the same thing when mothers are sending their kids off to school.  They get all giddy, can't wait to get rid of their kids for the day.  I feel sorry for them.  Think about how much they're missing out on and they don't even realize it.  I do understand, every mother needs a break at times.  I look forward to my occasional break, too, I'm just very thankful that my break doesn't last so long.  It's just for a couple hours every now and then and it rejuvenates me to be more of the mother that I should be. 

I thank God for allowing me to homeschool and to have many children.  I'd hate to think about what I'll be missing out on in the future if I didn't have all these kids.  Think about all the grandchildren I could have!  Now that's getting a life to me. 

Savannah (3 year old) says: 

Why is a somersault called a somersault?  Because it has lots of summers? 

My thoughts:  LOL...what do you say to that?  I made her come in and ask daddy the same question, but he didn't know what to say either.  That child is always thinking!  What is a lot of summers in her mind, anyway?  Hmmm

I guess I didn't "announce" that we were going on vacation, but we did.  We drove from Kansas, all the way to northern Michigan...but not quite so north that we were in the upper peninsula.  Our main mission in the trip was to pick up our new pop up camper that we had bought on E-bay.  It was a cheap, cheap deal and we were so thrilled with it when we got it.  We weren't sure if it would be too good to be true or not...but it wasn't.  We enjoyed a very good week full of camping comfortably in the pop up.  I actually slept well on the foam matresses, lol. 

We left on Friday, August 29th and drove up to St. Louis first so we could take the kids up into the arch.  Reagan was sure she was going to HATE it.  It's scary looking up from the bottom thinking you'll be way up there at the top, but once you're there, it's not so bad.  Reagan ended up saying that was one of the favorite things she did on vacation.  The tram ride to the top was a little scary at first but the way back down didn't seem to be a big deal at all. 

Ryan at the base of the arch

In the tram...on the way up. 

Up in the Arch

Friday night, we made it up to Joliet, IL near Chicago.  We stayed in a "cheap" motel to get some much needed sleep for this pregnant mama and then headed back out the next morning.  We wanted to meet the man selling us the pop up at the state park around 3:00 that day.  We stayed at Interlochen State Park which is just south of Traverse City.  Ryan has a friend living in Traverse City and we enjoyed visiting with them and sharing some meals and fellowship.  Another day while we were there, we drove out to one of the peninsulas and toured the lighthouse there and later in the day we caught a 2 hour canoe trip down the Platte River, which dumps directly into Lake Michigan.  We also enjoyed a swim on the beach at Duck Lake (where Interlochen STate Park is) and later in the week a swim on Lake Michigan, battling the waves.  My kids had a ball in the neverending wave pool.  They've never swam in the ocean, so this was an experience for them!  We found ourselves walking out near the boats and shores of Lake Michigan on several occasions, it was too pretty to go unnoticed!

First night in our new pop up

Baylee at the beach

Building that Sand Castle

The Lighthouse

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About to head out of Michigan

On the way back, we decided to go little by little rather than all in one shot, so we drove through Chicago, thinking we'd stay there....but have you ever driven a trailer through Chicago?  LOL  It wasn't a pleasant experience.  We did take in some sites by car, but didn't get out but to eat at Wendy's once.  The nearest camping we could find was an hour in the wrong direction.  We decided to continue further south and ended up calling my friend from high school who lives 2 hours south and visited her instead.  That was well worth the stop.  We were able to rest and camp in their yard for the night...and visit of course...which was great!  After that, we headed further south thinking we'd stay in St. Louis and experience more of that town...but it was rainy and we really wanted to walk downtown and explore.  We did visit the old Union Station which was very cool...but after that we headed further south to Springfield, MO where Ryan's brother lives.  We enjoyed our last day of vacation only 2.5 hours from home.  We went yard saling and to the zoo.  It was a beautiful day for both and we enjoyed getting to spend some time with family.  The kids were especially excited to see their cousins! 

 Union Station in St. Louis

Springfield Zoo

All in all, we had a great time.  We're thinking though, we'd rather stay closer to home next year.  We were sick of Branson, but it sounds more appealing once again.  We do plan to camp more, hopefully canoe more and possibly even start boating.  Ryan had bought a boat to sell....but we may now keep it to continue the family memories.  He's really got his mind thinking on a jet ski, too.....we shall see.  We keep telling ourselves that we can't keep all these toys if we ever want to make any money! 

So now...it's back to the grindstone.  Let's see, there's unpacking, cleaning, laundry, school, errands...blah, blah..blah.  I'm also heading to Tulsa on Tuesday for Reagan's neurology appointment.  Just when I thought I was sick of travelling!

On Friday, August 22nd in the early hours of the morning, my grandmother went to be with our Lord.  She was 84 years old.  She had been in detiorating health due to Parkinson's.  In the past several years, her health had been slowly going downhill, but finally, about the week before she died, things went down really fast.  I know she's in a better place, but t's so hard to say goodbye to such a wonderful woman!  We're all going to miss her greatly.  I've been thinking about the fun times we had with grandma and grandpa as kids and thought this was a good time to preserve some of those memories. 

When we were kids, we'd go and spend 2 weeks of our summer with grandma and grandpa.  I remember they had all kinds of things planned for us, but we also just loved to play in their big back yard full of fruit trees, blueberry bushes and another giant tree that made a great play house because the branches went all the way to the ground.  Today, at the funeral, their former pastor made mention of how Grandma would say "Now Charles" (in a certain tone of voice that you'd just have to hear) when she didn't agree with something he was saying or doing.  But....for us....we mostly remember "Now Charles, those are for the kids".  She would always go out and buy us kids special treats....one that I remember so well is large, plump, juicy green grapes.  I was always so excited to get my styrofoam cup full of them.  It was like candy.  Grandpa would always want some of what she had gotten and take a nibble here and a nibble there, thus getting the scolding that he was eating to much of what was "for the kids".  I always felt a little sorry for grandpa, not getting all the yummy things that we got.  LOL.  d

Another of our favorite memories was getting to go to Worlds of Fun each time we came.  When we were smaller, grandma would even ride on the roller coasters with us!  Now....looking back, I think...what a woman!  :)  I don't even like roller coasters that much any more as an adult.  Seems like the older I get, the harder they are to ride, but yet, she still rode.  She used to go sledding with us, too.  She'd get on the back of that sled and laugh the whole way down the hill.  I remember one time, the sled wrecked and her glasses hit her face and made her face bleed.  I was so worried that I'd really hurt grandma, but she came away just fine. 

Another thing we'd do while visiting is we'd go to Pizza Inn, a pizza buffet (something us small towners didn't have yet) and we'd have a pizza eating contest.  I usually hung close to grandma.  Me, being the youngest, knew that I'd never have a chance at winning that contest.  My oldest sister usually won, she was 5.5 years older than me! 

Now as an adult, a fun memory, even while she wasn't well, was she always loved to see the children.  Her face lighting up when our kids would run in to greet her.  She may have been sitting there with a frown on her face, but as soon as the kids would come in and hug her, she'd light up and talk so kindly to them.  When she was still strong enough, she'd hold and hold the babies until her arms couldn't hold them any more. 

Lastly, one of my favorite memories, is knowing how close to God she was.  I remember her Bible always sitting next to her chair.  When we'd sneak in to say good night (while we stayed with her), she'd be sitting there reading it, faithfully.  She was always quick to praise the Lord for blessings in our life and always talked about how much she loved Him.  My sister reminded me of a time when she would say "I can't wait to be with Jesus".  I now remember hearing that from her several times over my lifetime.  At the time, we were thinking "what's the rush?" but now, it means so much to know that she was so excited to be there with Him. 

So now what?  My grandfather and she were married for almost 68 years.  Can you imagine living life without your partner of 68 years?  I know he would love to be with her, to get rid of that hole in his heart that he is likely to have for a long time...but we are so very thankful to get that extra time with him.  He means the world to us and I can't imagine our life without him either.  Yes, he's getting older, but I hope to be able to spend lots of time with him in the coming years.  He's an amazing man!  He was grandma's care giver for the past several years....and did so with so much love.  The last time I saw my grandma alive, he was standing at her bedside, stroking her hair, trying to keep her as comfortable as possible.  If you happen to be reading this grandpa, know that we love you! 

One of the many perks of moving to our new house was that we were able to buy a new washing machine and dryer.  It wasn't a planned purchase.  We were shopping at Lowes, getting some many needed things for the remodel when we saw some clearanced washers and dryers.  My husband overheard someone saying that they would take $50 less than the marked price, so he hung around a little longer to see what was happening with these machines.  After the interested purchaser walked away, no longer interested, my husband decided, it was our time to have a new washer and dryer.  After all, with the old washing machine, we could only wash on Medium load.  If we washed on Large, lots of water would come pooring out from who knows where.  The dryer door had to be held closed with something in front of the door.  The latch would no longer work.  It was a less than ideal situation, but it got the job done anyway! 

It took us a couple weeks to get the new washer and dryer installed, but once we did, were we ever in for a surprise.  Our new washer is a front loader.  It's got some neat little perks such as timed release of each and fabric softener and lots of different ways you can wash.  It also is a major water saver!  However, it was the dryer that got us excited!  The dryer actually gets done about as fast as the washer!  No more waiting for the dryer to get done before you can switch it out!!  It has a humidity sensor inside that lets it know when our clothes are dry and shuts off when that happens......sometimes as early as 20 minutes!  The first time Ryan loaded clothes in, just to "try it out"...I couldn't believe it when they were already done! 

To top it all off, our new washer and dryer are now in the kitchen.  At first, I thought that would be a crummy place to have it.  Always out in the open where everyone can see it, BUT...it works out perfectly for me.  At our old house, it was in the garage.  Out of sight, out of mind.  When it's hot  outside, nobody wants to go out to switch out the laundry.  When it's cold out, if you go barefoot, your feet turn numb!  Now...I walk by it every day and if I see a pile of dirty laundry growing, in it goes.  I don't get hot or cold....my temp stays the same...what a relief...LOL.  I don't think I've been able to stay on top of laundry this easily in years!  In thinking that maybe it's the newness of it all, I decided to ask my friend if her laundry stayed more caught up when it was in the kitchen (hers is now in her basement) and she confirmed that it did and she struggles with it more now that she doesn't see it quite as often!  So....hopefully, this "phase" won't be wearing off and I'll continue to enjoy switching out laundry and staying caught up! 

The time finally came when we realized that it was time to move in to the new homestead.  We had a working shower and toilet, working dishwasher, stove, washer and dryer.  What more could we ask for?  Sure, we could've put it off longer and longer and got "more organized" but would that have really happened while not living here?  Maybe slowly and under pressure, but now, we can do it in our leisure time, between naps and meals.  Really, our house is looking pretty good.  Especially if you compare it to what it looked like before.  There's still plenty that will keep us busy in the coming months, but it's nice to be able to do things without feeling like we can't do anything else! 

The fist night we slept here, I was astonished several times by the loud traffic.  We're right on the highway and aren't quite used to the highway noise yet.  Once the whole house was quiet, all of a sudden, that traffic was LOUD!  I was half asleep and all of a sudden a semi truck passed by...and it startled me awake.  In the morning, when the work traffic was high, it was loud again, waking us up.  It's always hard to get used to sleeping in new places.  The next night, I put a fan on low on for some white noise and then I didn't hear anything else.  That'll work for now....we'll see how that goes in the winter months!  ;)  I'm sure we'll get used to it with time.  It'll sound like the trains at our other house. 

When we think of everything we still have to do, we still get a little bit overwhelmed.  There IS a lot, but praise God, we're a lot closer now..and have a decent place to live.  Things will get easier and easier.  Now...if only I could figure out where the rest of this stuff goes!

Here's a list of some of the projects in the coming days & months.  We finally got the lagoon fence done this week!  YAY!!

• Install new light fixtures & fans
• Put back wall trim
• transition strip between dining room and kitchen floors
• Install new doors to bedrooms and bathrooms, plus front door
• fix cement in garage and on front porch
• clean out and organize garage for tools and other man stuff. 
• dry out the basement (a big one....could take a while) and eventually finish part of it.
• gut and finish 2nd bathroom.
• touch up paint in all rooms
• wallpaper border in kitchen, bathroom and Baylee's room.
• eventually like to replace other outer doors...but that's towards the bottom of the list.
• next year, we plan to put in atrium doors and build a deck....I wonder if we'll really do it next year?!

The list actually looks smaller than it feels overwhelming.  I guess there's some pretty big things on there....but that's a good majority of what we want to do.  I guess we should do it little by little and then all of a sudden we'll be done!  It'll be interesting to see how I do as I get further in this pregnancy.  I'm 13.5 weeks and still needing naps often!