Easter Sunday 2014

On Easter Sunday we got dressed in our matching wedding clothes (because why not use them again while they still fit us all!) and we headed off to church to worship our Risen King!

After service we came back to our house for a quick family basket hunt and present opening. This picture also shows how we've cut down the huge raccoon infested, ivy covered, almost dead cherry tree and all the growth on the slope which makes the backyard seem much bigger. We also moved the bee hive away from the trash cans and they have their own little bee garden now.

After the kids found the basket, we changed clothes and headed over to Aunty Tonya's for a delicious dinner prepared by head chef Uncle Chris. Since we weren't able to have our glow in the dark, night egg hunt this year because of rain, we had a lot of eggs to hide. Grandma and Grandpa brought some for an egg hunt too. So we had two egg hunts one inside the house and the kids had to go upstairs and find one egg and come all the way back down and put it in their bag before they were able to find another one.

Then we took the kids on a walk down to the park for the second egg hunt. We played on the playground while Dada hid the eggs.

On the walk back we had fun posing with murals:

Holy Week 2014

I have big plans for making the season surrounding Easter a bigger deal for our family. Christ's resurrection is a huge deal and I want all of kids to know it's importance and His amazing sacrifice and power.  I want HIs love to take over all of the superficial bunnies, eggs, and baskets that cover up the true meaning of our faith's most important day. 

We've done well in the past, making Holy Week special and each day focusing on what Christ actually did leading up to His death on the cross and Resurrection Sunday. But this year, I failed. I was not feeling up to it. We even cancelled our big Passover Feast. Everyday I would spend lying on the couch and having to take at least a three hour nap. 

Just potty training our Pelly Pie took most of my energy. (Why I decided to potty train her during Holy Week, I have no clue.) She did amazing! She didn't really get it the first couple of days even though she desperately wanted to go pee pee on the potty she couldn't figure it out. But after a couple of days she finally went on the potty chair and after that she was good. Lot's of ice tea and lemonade gave her lots of chances to try throughout the day. Kivi and Eben did wonderful helping me take her potty too. 

So, we did the first couple of days, we built temples on Monday, made up questions we would ask Jesus on Tuesday, washed each other's feet on Thursday and did our Holy Week devotions every day.

The kid's really wanted to have Passover, so I said we could have a mini family celebration if they did most of the work. I already had the grape juice and Peter got some matzah on the way home from work. Kivi made the matzah ball soup, Eben made latkahs and set the table and I made dinner as usual. Peter was a great sport and led the Sedar meal from his Dada chair since the kids made up the table on the floor. He read through the Hagada and did great involving the kids in the questions and readings together, pausing for the times when they all get up the wash their hands over and over and the multiple times we drink the juice. 

The kids' favorite part is hiding the Afikomen and this year Berg found it and was rewarded by Dada with two caramels. We used what we had on hand and pulled it off. The kids were grateful and had a fun time. I'm glad they look forward to Passover now as part of our family traditions.

Uganda Comes to Stay With Us!

April 7-10th three girls and their chaperone came to stay with us at the end of their 7 month America tour with the Watoto Children's Choir. We roasted marshmallows on their first night with us and they had s'mores for the first time.  They watched Snow White and we took them to Chuck E. Cheese's on their second night with us and on their last night they really wanted to see Frozen. We had fun learning their cool dance moves and hearing more about the Watoto Children's Villages in Uganda. It took a while for them to warm up and actually talk to us. Their chaperone did most of the talking until we found out English is their common language since they all originate from different villages. They loved Pella and Berg and Pella cried,  "I no want girls to go!" every morning we had to take them back to church for the day. 

More Chicks!

On March 13th Kivi and Eben presented Dada with a petition it read:

OUR PETITION

               Dear Dada, 

Me and Eben would really like baby chicks. If you let us get them we will clean up after them. We will spend our money on them and take care of them when they are grown up as well. That means we will go out and feed them when they are out of food, collect eggs and take out the water and fill it up. When they are chicks, we will also feed and water them, clean up their poop, and when we first get them if we do, we will make up the fire place and garage for them. We have put away the older chickens to help the family and to prove to you we are responsible for chicks. If we get them it will mean more eggs to make up for Puff and Mooney's not laying and the loss of Eben, Jasper's and my chickens, from raccoon attacks. We will continue locking and letting out of the chickens. We hope you agree to our petition and let us have chicks. We have also proven ourselfs with fish and frogs.

             Love, 

                 Kivi and Eben

Needless to say Dada said yes to their adorable request. How could he say no? Dada agreed to three new chicks.

When we actually were able to go to get the chicks on March 26th, Dell's would only sell them in groups of six! So everyone got a new baby chick. We got three Leghorns and three Ameraucanas. Opal's is Winky. Pella's is Chunky Chicky. Kivi's is Butterscotch (Butter). Eben's is Hugo. Jasper's is Sleepy. Berg's is Bunky.

We actually got the idea of having the kids write a petition for something they really wanted from a family with 9 kids who went to our old church. When I found out their kids had to write their father a petition to help me lead preschoolers in song time I thought, "What strict parents!" However, when I thought more about it I realized that asking their father in such a formal way was not only good writing practice for one, it also helped them organize their thoughts, think through why they really wanted what they were petitioning for and come up with good reasons why. It is also what God calls us to do. We are to go to Him first. We are suppose to take all of our "petitions" to Him. Sometimes He says yes and sometimes it's no. Right now our kids have to trust their earthly father for decisions in life. Later on they're going to have to trust God alone. Both fathers have their best interest in mind for their children. I pray all our kids will know the love God has for them and the great plan He has for their lives and the importance of petitioning their Father just like they petition their Dada and know his love for them now.

Spring Pageant 2014 - Camp Heart and Soul

The kids at our church used to put on a Christmas pageant, but the season got so busy and crowded that it was moved to a Spring pageant. Miss Niki worked with the actors and I did the choreography. We actually only had a handful of practices after church on Sundays and I didn't think we were ready to perform at all, but the kids did amazing! They were great! It was a very fun pageant with some fun songs and a message about how we all need to work together as the body of Christ. Eben, Jasper and Opal were dancers and Kivi was an actor, who played the part of a dancer.

Eben and Reagan doing their dance to "Whatever You Do". 

 Kivi singing a trio and Opal dancing in "Lost Little Lamb".

Jasper dancing in the finale.

Rental Problems and Praises

One of Peter's goals when we first got married was to buy a rental house every year. We actually did it for a while and then kids started coming and we stopped buying rentals. One of our cute little rental houses, which we call the McKinley house, had been vacant for a while and Peter was able to go see what needed fixing before we could rent it out again in the beginning of March. He arrived to see the windows knocked out and boarded back up again and realized some squatters must've been living in it. 

But as he looked in the windows he noticed something much worse. The water pipe in the attic had burst from freezing leaving water gushing from what was left of the ceiling. Most of the ceiling had fallen onto the floor and there was standing water and mold everywhere! He called the insurance company, who told him he'd have to get someone to assess the damage. 

After many, many frustrating phone calls and emails, our insurance company decided that they wouldn't cover any of the damage.  They "would have covered it if..." and even tried to coax Peter into what "might have happened". Peter is a very truthful guy. He didn't lie. They stood firm. Peter was not happy. What in the world had we been paying insurance for all these years? 

We prayed about what to do and realized the only thing we could do was let go. We'd have to give up our cute little house. We told the insurance company, "You win. We can't afford to fix up this house on our own so we'll be giving it back to the bank." Immediately the insurance company decided, "Oh wait, there might be something we can do." They ended up paying for a whole new remodel of the house! Praise God! It was a great illustration for us how God wants us to give everything to Him and be willing to let go. He'll take care of us. Even if we had to give it up completely, I know He'd take care of us. We had a total peace in letting it go, but now we'll be getting an even better house in return for being honest and trusting Him.

All the walls are gone. It will actually end up being a 3 bedroom instead of a 2 and have an open great room feel between the kitchen and living room now!

Task Badge Sanity!

Being a mama to six is wonderful! I love it!

 I love my children. They are so much fun and they help out around the house a ton!

 The whole first part of our day is devoted to helping the family (with some school snuck in, but they don't realize that!). After we had breakfast and devotions I would give the kids jobs and expect them to accomplish said job in a reasonable time frame, then give them their next assignment. The problem was, I am not so great at remembering things (like what I had just asked each of them to do), and my kids are regular kids. They would get distracted, lose focus, forget altogether what I had asked them to do or just plain disobey and play. Not all the time, but on a regular basis, which was not encouraging.

Right now, Berg and Pella have one task - to sort two loads of laundry and take the clothes down to the right rooms. It also helps them work together and Berg gets to "take care" of Pella which is something we've always taught the older kids to do for their younger siblings.

I realized I needed a better system to help all of us figure out what they were suppose to be doing so that I didn't have to keep giving consequences (sometimes to the wrong kid - oops!) for not doing what I thought I asked them to do. I had heard speakers years ago on this type of organization, but I didn't buy their materials so I didn't really know how theirs worked, but I guessed it went a lot like what I made up.

 I bought some name tag holders and printed up all the little tasks and more that I would normally give them during the morning. All the kids already have their own color, so I used ribbon to make them into necklaces.

Now I know exactly what each child is supposed to be working on! They can also look down and see what their supposed to do and know that a consequence will follow if they blatantly decide to disobey what their task badge says, knowing it's Mama who gave them these jobs and that they are really disobeying me if they aren't doing what they are supposed to do.

When the kids are done with a task, they take it out and put it in the task basket  Then they start right away on the next task  Sometimes they have to skip one, and go to the next if another child is on the computer they need, they need to do something with me or doing a job where they need to be doing one. (Washing dishes and washing the kitchen floor are hard ones to do together.) When they are all done with their badges, they get to pick a snack out of the snack bin. So they are usually pretty determined to finish before lunch.

 It's building character! I can already see them becoming more responsible, diligent, and taking initiative in their work! We've been doing this system since the end of February and I still love it! The kids love it. It's working so well! Praise God, because that old plan was not cutting it!