The First Jam & Slam

Jam (stuff I am loving)

Avacados. 

Having a second family car.  Although along with this comes the realization that we must be middle aged. May it pass inspection in the spring. 

Ladies Bible study. So good to hang out with the ladies from church.

Keeping a Clean Fridge. This is not a blog post that I could write but I can aspire!

Funny stuff on Dorcas Smucker's blog. The kind of crazy that I love.

Birthdays are fun.

Slam (sad things)

Sales people that follow you around the shoe store asking more than twice if you are doing ok. I have been since wondering how to let sales people know that, "I am shopping by myself and it's amazing, do not bug me today!"

Huge disappointments in others lives, Stuff that has the potential to make them bitter and I'm standing back watching and holding my breath wondering, are they going to make it? Will they let this make them a more beautiful person? Please God, yes. 

Bench hoggers. Let the back benches at church for the families with little kids, I plead with you. 

The Haircut

At the barber school the other day Nate asked for a fade. 

Now usually haircuts at this barber school take very long. Like an hour. Well this time we were walking back out in 20 minutes. The very new barber that Nate got, he took off like a bandit. Before we knew it the teacher guy came running over saying things like, "You went too high" and "There is nothing left to fade." So I'm sitting there smiling and I can't stop. Nate taking it like a man. 

Winter Living

To replace couch cushions yourself...

Open the cushion and measure the thickness of the old cushions. We failed this step and shorted ourselves an inch. It works for now but I'm dreaming of that extra inch. Ha.

Take a 50% off coupon to Joanne Fabrics and purchase foam in correct thickness.

This piece cost me about $50.

Cut them out using an electric knife (cuts like butter). Hold that knife as straight as possible when going around turns. You don't want to cut too much away on the backside. 

Insert in zippered cushions sleeves. Yay! This was a 40 minute project from tracing to back on the couch done. 

I sat on the yellow couch all afternoon with a friend and it sat nice so I think it will be replacing the very sat out orange couch. I hate to send it to the basement but 3 sofas in one room seems a little overkill. It was fun for hosting but I am missing my single soft chairs in there for daily living. 

Whole Wheat Honey Bread

I made this bread last week and while it seemed awesome, I could not taste anything at the time. Terrible cold that lasted for 12 long days. Today as I was slicing the bread  for supper I said to Nate, "This bread!" and he laughed at me for obviously I had just gotten my sense of taste back today.

This Pond

 Aunt Mary's pond is looking fine. 

A few weeks into our married life Nate and I came over here skating. Never told anyone. It was dark outside. We were happily skating around the pond holding hands even, when I remembered that the pond does not always freeze evenly. Just like that we went through. I was swimming for all I was worth, thinking "that was a short married life" assuming we were about to die. Nate informed me that we could stand. It was about waist deep. We managed to climb out and drove home thankful that it was only a mile away. 

The pond seems to freeze more evenly these days but I make Nate go over it very rigorously before the children may skate on it.

Martin Christmas

I asked Nate to crush the candy canes. He took care of it. 

The following pictures are from Sam's family gathering. 

 Nate and his cousins. Only 3 missing. 

 2nd cousins

 Sam, Mary Ellen, Mervin, Marlin... all with dimples. 2 brothers gone on before.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Season

After a bronchitis for a week and and being grouchy for another week, Olive seems extra sweet. 

I was very fortunate to get to sit beside Stuart at the live nativity last night. 

The wonder of five year olds is tough to beat. 

"Are the angels real?"

They are real people dressed like angels.

 "Can they fly?"

Not tonight.

 "Do the soldiers kill people?" 

These soldiers don't.

This is going to sound strange but buying only one kind of wrapping paper this year has simplified my life. Do not laugh! It really has. 

Ellie's teacher gave the class these neat hats. Squeezing the one (what are they called?) ear flapper makes the cat's tail go up in the air. Hilarious. 

Feeling proud of Tristan and Dorcas. We miss having them around very much. 

 Ellie's first piano recital. Bless her heart, middle C was stuck. 

 When Ellie' got back to her friends they all high fived each other.

Off to the school program. 

Blush

Tuesday night we had a supper that I was not so proud of. Jokingly I said, "Children, you are not allowed to tell anyone what you had for supper tonight." I said it more for Nate's benefit than anyone else. Well I get a text from Sheri (Ellie's teacher) after school the next day asking " So what did you have for supper last night?" I asked Ellie if she told her teacher what she had for supper. As luck would have it, part of Ellie's schoolwork yesterday was, "Write down what you had for supper last night." So Ellie tells her teacher, "I'm not allowed to say what I had for supper last night" Imagine me piecing this story together, my next qustion was, "What did Sheri say?" Ellie makes a wrinkled nose kind of face, head shaking no kind of gesture, like it's the craziest thing the teacher ever heard of. She told her to just write it down. Oh man, I laughed so bad.

We had wings, pizza, and.... corn dogs. Yeah, snazzy.

 Last night Nate ran down to our elderly neighbors to make sure it is all right if we carol to them. Their daughter was there cooking and Nate took the opportunity to break the news that we are having another baby. I was really hoping they would not find out till spring. But I could see how it was easy for him to tell the daughter as she is a very cheerful person.  Anyhow... that evening after the "we wish you a merry christmas song" we are standing in their living room when Nate tells them that Blackie the cat is going to have kittens and she might have them in their sun porch since they let her in there all the time. This really backfired because the old lady said, "Now Olivia.... she is just a baby, she's only one!" and I started shaking my head at Nate from across the room, like please shut this conversation down. It was too late, everyone caught it. The elderly neighbors were horrified as I knew they would be.  Church friends thought it was hilarious. 

And I realize now that I never announced it here. We are expecting a baby and we are excited! 

We went to a concert while we were out celebrating our anniversary. We bought the tickets the morning of and all that was left was front and center. Really there was no one more front and center than we were. It was kind of embarrassing, it was not like we were huge fans and I think we were sitting with family from the cast. We overheard someone behind us say, "When I buy tickets I don't mess around" and that became our motto for the weekend. 

So we hand't really told people we were going because we ourselves didn't know we were. I get this text from a friend who had been at the earlier show and because of that was looking at the pictures on the facebook page, "SERIOUSLY?!?? Front and center?? and I didn't even know you were going! and then we were had.

 After buying these red berries I was the annoying customer that called the store and asked, "What kind of berries are they? are they poisonous?" The lady asked me if my dog ate some. No, but I have a one year old. 

 Did you know led lights that are labeled "cool" and not "warm" are very bad? 

Ew. 

Happy to have some Christmas decorations up. If only I felt like baking the Christmas cookies I planned to make. I asked each family member what their favorite kind is and made my list. I even bought all the supplies. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I'm craving applesauce instead of cookies. No complaints here.

 Olive and her friend Finn