The Weekly Review IX

Sunday~
I fried and seasoned up some hamburger real quick to make enchiladas before we left for church. Patrick preached about how Jesus is Enough. After a good lunch we went out to the Pappas' to cut wood. We mostly carried it up a steep hill to the truck. Travis and Harrison did cut a little also and Travis did a lot of splitting. It was a very hot and humid day so we were all drenched with sweat and exhausted by the time we had a full load. Once we got it all unloaded we went swimming. There were life guards there today which made for a harder time to have a good time. No floaties, stay on this side, only dive off this side and so on. Still we patiently waited for them to go home and then they played happily for about two hours. Travis, Ben, Margaret and Harrison played out by the floating dock almost the whole time a game of hide and seek, or something. Beatrice, Gregory and Deborah played with the kickboard and all for a very long time and I, I read. By the time they all finally got out of the water they were starved and didn't think what I was planning for supper would fill them up so we went to Little Ceasars and got four pizzas and some buffalo wings. With a few leftovers thrown in and some garlic sauce they were all satisfied. We did send home one pizza with Deborah and Nahum since it was time to go home before we got started eating.

Monday~
Travis was home in the morning so we hauled away random metal junk, compost, and brought a load of wood home. All the nieghborhood  kids hung out here this afternoon. Kristina and Margaret made awesome sugar cookies. Kristina had to go home before they started baking them and Margaret felt like quitting then too but I wasn't in the baking mood so I told her sorry it is your project to finish and she did marvelously.

Tuesday~
This morning when he got up Ben gave Gregory a gold star post-it note and said he was a deputy and Harrison was the sherriff. Then we all were deputised with gold stars and it made me think of the story You are Special. So I read it to everyone before we ate breakfast. It is a special story telling us that what is important is what Jesus thinks of us and not what everyone else thinks about us. We took Ben to a bus stop to begin his journey back home. Then the kids and I went to a library that isn't our normal one to watch the Minnesota Percussion Trio perform their program Clicks, Clacks and Clunks. They used things we could find in our homes. Five gallon buckets and they even showed us where to get the different tones on them. They used tin cans, wood, spoons. our hands and paper. One guy used newspaper, one a paper bag and the other note paper and they did a song with just that. We go to church with Eric one of the members, which is how I found out about it. After instrument lessons and going to our library to get a book Margaret needed, I worked on mowing our yard and the field. I used the riding lawnmower for the field. It is rather fun to use it. The only problem is when it ran out of gas I couldn't start it. It refused to go for me. I tried a lot of times, I would go do something and then come back to it but it wouldn't go. So disappointing.

Wednesday~
We were going to go see Song in the morning but she called first thing and said she had some Dr. appointments that she had forgotten about so we didn't get to do that. She is very stressed right now about breastfeeding, disciplining and Wei's job so we have been talking on the phone quite a bit but I thought it might be good if we just got together for awhile. Hopefully we can make it work. She hesitates to let us come over because she is already tired and doesn't feel like her house is up to par for having company and so on. She feels like she is too tired to drive to our place since it is a good ways away. Since we didn't go anywhere in the morning we played a nice long game of Bohnanza or Beans. It was very fun. We also got all of our laundry folded for a little while. I din't drink any caffinated coffee today. Travis woke up just before lunch and ran out to see what was wrong with the lawnmower and quickly finished the mowing. There was nothing wrong with the mower, I expected that to be the case. Then we all went to horseshoes and grocery shopping. Travis got his allergy shot too while we were out and about. After church Harrison went home with the Verhoeven's and Jessica came home with us. After we were all nicely tucked into our beds Jessica decided she really missed her mom and needed to go home, so Travis ran her home.

Thursday~
I thought about coffee a lot today! I have decided to try to give it up entirely for awhile and see if I feel better. I rarely wake up refreshed anymore and my muscles ache a lot of the time and I can't figure out another reason for it all so I am going to try this. I have thought about it for a long while but after talking to different people they always said in moderation coffee is actually good for you. It may be but I need to try something. Margaret, Gregory and I planted several clumps of lilies in the rain gardens across the street. Natasha wanted them taken out of in front of her house because she ordered way to much river rocks to go around her house for landscaping and needed a place to put it. The rocks look nice there and I was the only one to weed in that area so it is nice to know I won't be doing that again for awhile. So anyways there were some spots that needed filled so we stuck them here and there. Travis spent the morning mowing the church yard. I made a stir fry for lunch and then we went to the Erriccsson's pool. It is a really nice perk at their association. The pool is a salt water one. So very fashionable these days. I do think I like them better. Beatrice went home with Jessica then when we got done there and we were down to three people in the van! We three went to the Red Cross to see if I could give blood, but no I was 2 points to low. 12.3 rather than 12.5 or above. I feel so silly each time I can't, I think I will quit for a few years. I don't know how to get off of their calling list though. They call all the time saying they need my blood, silly vampires. About five I started gathering up my wandering children and we are now five again. Travis will probably be home tomorrow evening, he thinks.

Friday~
Gregory and Beatrice played Doctor for awhile and I found a bunch of  pictures such as these on my camera. We worked at cleaning our house and making beds. We have company coming again! Luke, Keren and Matt tonight and then Bob and Sarah will join us on Saturday. We are hoping to get Mathew and Emily to come over for supper as well. Naturally we went to the library, two more of Margaret's books were in. We also went shopping. The bed I have for Luke is quite hard, Gregory's, and I thought he would sleep better if I got a mattress topper pad. We also got birthday gifts because Beatrice and Gregory have three birthday parties to attend next week. Travis beat us home and once we got home he wanted to go see the new baby of the Davidson's, Cody Joel. Kade and Levi were there too and they were very happy to see Travis. Cody is a sweet little thing, of course. I forgot my camera. After supper we watched Sherlock Holmes. It was a pretty funny movie and helped us stay awake until our company arrived.

Saturday~
Bob and Sarah got here in time for a late breakfast and then we headed over to the Science Museum for a day of learning. Mathew, Emily and Becky met us there. Some of the group went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls and some of us skipped paying for that and just browsed the rest of the displays. It has been a few years since we had been there and they had a new display of building things, how domes are built, a table full of equal sized blocks that Beatrice really enjoyed, extra long magnetics, a truss building set and so on.

After we watched the Omni Theater show of Arabia we had a light lunch (our family), of boiled eggs and so on and some of the others bought food at the museum cafe. Once we were properly tired we headed home. We made supper and then played a game of spades with 7 people. It was fun. Actually Travis, Bob and Luke song good old quartet songs while we cleaned up supper. It was pretty music.

Have a wonderful week,
~Anna