Our 2015 Christmas Newsletter

Seasons Greetings!!!

     I'm sorry to post our Christmas newsletter here instead of mailing it out to everyone. The last 6 weeks have been crazy busy with events and sicknesses. I ran out of time to do everything I wanted to do before Christmas and it was either post it here or not do one at all. So I figured that here was better than the alternative. But if you read to the end, I promise to make up for it!

     It has been another busy year for us. This year has been full of new things. The boys have explored new sports and are reaching new levels with their musical abilities, we've learned how to get to more new places locally and are needing to use the GPS less often, the kids have learned many new skills, Nikki was licensed to teach a new fitness class, Hannah is a new reader, and John managed his very own field for the first time (while still working for his grandfather). We've grown new types of vegetables and tried out many new recipes with them. We have made new traditions to replace old ones that can no longer be continued. We are learning to grow new roots and to flourish where we have been planted.

    It's also been a year full of treasured visits. We have been so blessed to host many loved ones in our new home. We have been able to spend time with many members of John's family, my (Nikki) parents, three sets of very close friends that we have known since Luke was a baby (or before), John's cousin and his family, and even the evangelist who performed our wedding ceremony. Visits with beloved friends and family are so special and we treasure each one.

    My children are growing up too quickly! Luke is 10.5 now and in the 5th grade. He is studying guitar under his daddy's guidance and is doing really well. He has played and sang in a local nursing home and just this morning he led our church in singing Silent Night while he played his guitar. Talk about a proud mama moment! He is also a part of our homeschool group's children's choir. He was a Classical Conversations memory master again this past spring. Nathanael was also a memory master this past school year. He is now 9 and in the 4th grade. He is still taking piano lessons and is also doing very well. He is also a part of the homeschool choir.  Luke and Nathanael have learned some basic cooking skills as well as how to make a few easy meals and they have been a big blessing to me in the kitchen.  Micah will turn 8 next month and is now in the 2nd grade. He has had some struggles with schoolwork, but the Lord is always faithful to show me how to help him and now he is doing much better. Micah is also taking piano and is a part of the choir. He is transitioning from being a little boy to a big boy and is learning how to have his own ideas (instead of just following his brothers) and how to do things his own way. My guys are totally addicted to Lego Technics. These special Legos have gears, remotes & receivers, moving parts, and power functions. They have amazed me with some of the creations they come up with. I think we have some little engineers on our hands. Nathanael especially is really good at building vehicles that really drive (without using instructions). He really enjoys making them realistic and including moving pistons. The boys started expressing an interest in sports this year . Luke and Nathanael have been on swim teams before, but other than that the boys really haven't cared much about sports thus far. Nathanael and Micah decided to play baseball this spring and both boys really enjoyed it and are looking forward to playing again next spring. All three boys have fallen in love with basketball this fall. I have been managing five practices and two to four games a week between the three of them in addition to our music lessons, my Zumba classes, and our other activities. It's been crazy, but I don't mind since they are having such a good time and it's only for a season. Hannah will be 6 in February and started kindergarten this year. My baby really isn't a baby at all anymore. She's doing really well in school and is picking things up very quickly. She's mastered counting to 100 and is working on learning her addition facts. She is reading one and two vowel words and starting to learn those special English sounds that don't follow normal patterns. She is not old enough yet to be in the homeschool choir, but enjoys practicing with them, since I help out with rehearsals. She is hoping to start music lessons next year and is requesting to learn to play the violin. She isn't involved in any sports yet, although I have debated putting her in gymnastics several times. She is learning to be a kitchen and housework helper and is pretty good at sweeping and vacuuming when she decides she wants to do it.

     John has had a busy year. He began renting a 140 acre field from his grandfather and officially became a farmer, and not just farm help. He does still also work for his grandfather. He grew soybeans this year and will grow corn next year (they rotate between the two crops). It was a very wet spring and that caused issues for him (and many other farmers in this area). They were not able to plant when they wanted to and then after they finally were able to plant, we got a lot more rain. John's fields were flooded several times and he lost some of his crop because of it. When you plant late or have to re-plant, the big concern is whether or not your crops will be ready to harvest before the first frost. But God is gracious and John was still able to get a decent crop. He has not sold it yet, as the bean prices are lower than he'd like, so pray the prices will rise before he has to sell. I mentioned in the last newsletter that he has taken up deer hunting. We were able to save a lot of money with the meat he got last year, and we discovered that the venison here is tasty. So he has a goal of three deer this hunting season. 

     As I mentioned earlier, I got a new fitness license this year and I am now licensed to teach Zumba Gold, in addition to regular Zumba and Zumba kids. This is a special kind of Zumba class that is geared towards seniors and beginners. It's low impact and not as fast paced as regular Zumba. It's been well received at my gym and I will start teaching a regular class when the new year starts. This will make a total of three classes per week that I'll be teaching at the Y. Next on my list will be Aqua Zumba, which is Zumba in the pool! It's being requested at my Y and I am the only Zumba instructor there. With the addition of Hannah to our school day, homeschooling became more challenging for me. I really struggled at first to learn to how to balance my time in order to make sure everyone got what they needed from me. Thankfully, we are in a good routine now and things are going much smoother. We know that this is what God wants for our children, and He has been faithful to help me time after time when I don't think I can do it or don't know how to address a problem. I could not do this without Him. I started facilitating a women's group for the first time. There are three other ladies from my church in my group. We are doing a year long program called The 7th Year (www.the7thyear.com) and it's been going well. I have been experiencing some very unpleasant and painful gastrointestinal issues since last November. I wound up having to do an elimination diet and it seems to be just what I needed. It's really hard to stick to, but I am having really good results. It appears I can no longer tolerate gluten and can only handle limited amounts of dairy. My kids had to remove dairy and gluten from their diets years ago, but I had been able to eat those things until recently. I miss soft bread, but eating gluten is not worth experiencing the pain I was having.

     Our family was able to take a vacation to Branson, MO in early September. We were able to take the kids to the Sight and Sound Theatre there to see Jonah. I had asked to go see it as a family for my birthday/anniversary/Mother's Day present. (Those three special days are all within a month's time for me.) It was their first musical and they absolutely loved it and are begging to go back next year to see Moses. We did miss our traditional trip to the beaches in North Carolina with our friends, but we did have a great time in Branson and would go back again. There is a lot to do there and not all of it costs money. We were also able to take a camping trip in NE over the 4th of July weekend. During the summer months, John was able to incorporate the boys into some of his farming. Due to all the rain this year, there were lots of weeds to deal with. John and the boys went out on several occasions to weed in the bean field. He paid them for their work, so they were quite excited for a chance to be with dad and earn money at the same time. They also helped with many of the garden chores this year and enjoyed taking turns riding in the combine with dad during harvest time. They are getting to the point now where they are actually helpful (in many different areas) instead of just needing to be trained all the time. This is a new stage for us and although I miss their baby days, this is a fun stage too. Currently, we are seeking the Lord concerning providing foster care for young children. It's something we are wanting to pursue as a way to serve others as a family and love on little ones. But we want to be in God's will concerning the timing and details. So you can pray for wisdom and direction for us in that. 

     That about sums it up for us for the year. If this is your first visit to my blog, you can go back through old posts to hear about some other happenings in our lives and also to see photos from our year. I haven't posted photos from our vacation yet, but I will be doing that soon. You can subscribe to my blog on the right side of this page by entering your email address. You can choose to have updates sent directly to your inbox so that you don't have to remember to check the blog. 

     John has been having harmony practices with the boys and we've been trying to teach them how to sing well and how to blend. We still have a lot of work to do in that area, but I wanted to share with you the results of some of that practicing. We want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas --Wilcox style! This is something I could not have shared with you in a regular newsletter. :)

Musical Performances

The kids have been involved in a local homeschool choir this year. They are enjoying it and learning more about how to sing properly. I have been assisting the leader with practices. Here is some footage from their performance at a nursing home earlier this month. Luke has a duet in this song with one of the other kids.If you look closer to the right side of the choir, you will see Hannah in a green dress. She is not technically part of the choir, but the director let her join them at the nursing home.

And here is footage from Nathanael and Micah's last piano recital.

Micah playing Away In A Manger


Micah and Nathanael playing Ode to Joy


Nathanael playing Snowflake Rag and Winter Wonderland



Here is Luke leading our church in singing Silent Night last Sunday as part of the children's Christmas play.




Love my musical babies!

Lots of visitors!!

We have been blessed to have many special visitors this year!! We started out with the same friends that visited us back in September that we have known since Luke was 6 months old. They were able to be here to celebrate Micah's birthday with us.

The kids all watch a movie on Micah's bday.

Then we got a visit from two of John's aunts. There were here to visit John's grandma (their mother), but since we are only ten minutes from them now, they were able to come to the house and spend some time with us too.

 Aunt Ruth came to see us during Mother's Day weekend.

Going to a Japanese steak house is our Mother's Day tradition.

Next up, was a visit from one of my good friends from home. She told me on my birthday that she was going to come and see me. She was able to spend a few days in June with us and got to see some of our new life. We had a good visit. She got to see the farm, go to Zumba with me, watch some of the boys' baseball games, and hear the boys play music. She helped me paint an accent wall in my bedroom and we had several good conversations.

My friend Cherlyn and I

We got a visit from John's cousin and his family in late July. The kids had a great time playing together as you can see in the photo! One benefit of being in the midwest is that we can spend more time with some parts of the family that we have not previously been able to visit with often. So we look forward to seeing John's cousin and his family more often now.

My kids and John's cousins' kids playing dress up

Then we had a visit from John's mother. We were busy working and playing and I neglected to take any photos, but we had a good time nonetheless. I think playing Monopoly and going bowling were highlights for the kids.

After that, we had a one night visit from our friend who performed our wedding ceremony. He is an evangelist (www.christinaction.com) and was on his way back to VA from a time of ministry at Sturgis. He had his youngest daughter with him and we enjoyed getting to see them both. The kids loved playing with his daughter. She is one of 11, so she is great with kids.

Denny and Tabitha with the kids out front of our house

Next came a visit from my parents. This was their first trip out here, so they were finally able to get a glimpse into our new life. We had fun visiting some local museums and tourist spots. My kids also enjoyed the gluten free cupcakes their grandparents bought them. My dad also helped Luke and Nathanael work on their chess skills. Dad took all the photos, so I don't have any with him in them!

The kids and I with my mother during a visit to the Black history museum in Omaha

It was quiet for awhile after that visit, but we just had one more special visit over Thanksgiving from close friends from VA. They are the friends we used go to the beach with every summer and we have also  known them since Luke was a baby. We had a great week with them and the kids played hard from sun-up to sun-down. There were many late night chats that led to some very tired mommies and daddies, but it was totally worth the bags under our eyes. My kids had just received Pilgrim costumes from my parents and my friends' kids had Indian costumes, so the kids wound up doing a reenactment of the story of Thanksgiving, which we made into a little movie. It's a nice little keepsake from the visit.

Crazy Pilgrims and Indians

So who wants to sign up to come see me next year? ;)

Farming update

Spring is a crazy, busy time when you farm. We had thought that harvest time would be the hardest time of the year, but we are finding that spring is harder on our family than harvest is. I didn't realize just how much went into getting crops planted and started well. After completing his first year of farming with Grandpa, John was given the option to rent a field from his granpda and try his hand at farming on his own. He was excited for the opportunity. They rotate between soy and corn and this was the year for that particular field to grow soybeans. He was still working with his grandpa with the rest of the land. But for this field, he gets to make all the decisions. So whereas before he was more of a farm hand, he is now an official farmer and is farming 140 acres of beans.

It's been a rough first year. The Midwest had unusually high amounts of rainfall this spring. Many fields were not able to handle all the water and just couldn't drain well before the next round of heavy rain came through. There are many farmers who were never able to plant their fields this year and it is sad to see that land just sitting fallow. Unfortunately, John's field was one that had trouble with draining. Every time we get a heavy rain, he has two lakes and a river on his land. He did buy crop insurance this year and that mandates that your crops must be planted by June 15th. (Mid-June is really late to start your planting.) Many farmers had to plant late this year because they had to wait for the water to go down first. John didn't plant until June 13th. He had to plant in less than ideal conditions because he had to meet that planting deadline. He had a lot of plants that never popped up or got drowned, so he wound up replanting parts of his field. Things were going well for awhile after that and then it poured and poured again. The standing water killed several acres of his beans and there was not time to replant them again. (It's not his lack of experience causing any of this. This has happened to many around here.) But he does have beans that are alive and growing well. It does look like he will be making a claim on that crop insurance this year. That will not provide as much income as actually selling beans would have. We are praying that we at least break even but are unsure how everything is going to turn out financially. The price of soybeans is really low right now. Please keep this situation in your prayers.

Due to all the craziness caused by the weather, spring was really stressful. John was working 14 hour days, six days a week, for about six weeks straight and it was really hard on our family. That is why I said spring is worse than fall. We were very happy for the opportunity to take a family camping trip over the 4th of July weekend. We really needed the family time. (More about that trip later.) But one bright spot to John farming his own field is that he can incorporate the kids a little. The weeds have been killer this year, since they love all this extra rain and they had extra time to grow before planting started. John had already sprayed his weeds a couple times and was not crazy about the idea of doing that a third time. So John had the idea to hire the boys to come and pull weeds in his field. They jumped at the chance to earn some money and spent several hours weeding by hand this summer. It was good bonding time with dad. They are getting bigger, so they were actually helpful and made good progress. They all bought new Legos and Hot Wheels with their earnings. :)

Once things were growing well, life got to slow down for summer. For us, this means that instead of working until 9:30pm, John comes home by 6 (and sometimes just after 5) and he also gets Saturdays off again. We were all thankful to have more time with him again and were looking forward to our trip to Branson.

We are about to gear up for fall. John and the other guy who works for grandpa just took a week off from work. It is now time to start preparing things for harvesting. The crops are not all quite ready to be harvested yet, but there is plenty of prep work to be done before we get to that point. John is back to working Saturdays again now. I'll let you know how everything turns out with John's field.

Getting ready to plant his beans

I can pull weeds too, mama. Can I have some money??

April

I had started telling you about our spring and then abruptly stopped. Here are the April highlights.

- Luke and Nathanael were both memory masters again in our Classical Conversations program. The end of year ceremony was very nice and we were happy that John's grandparents were able to attend and see what CC is all about. They treated the kids to dessert afterwards. We did not really fit in with our CC group here and never really made good friends. It felt like most people in that group had lots of friends already and they didn't really need any new ones. So there was not a lot of effort made to include the new family. Our group was also 40 minutes away in a suburb of Omaha (there is no group in western Iowa). As a tutor, I had to be there early to set up. I am still not at all a morning person, so getting up so early to drive in was really hard on the kids and I. Add to that my lonliness and the fact that I had seven 9 year old energetic boys and I was completely drained by the end of the year. After some prayer, we decided not to return to CC the following year. We are just going to stay home and do traditional homeschooling, but we will still incorporate the CC materials, as I have all that stuff and I still think it's an excellent program. We all have peace about this decision.


-We decided to forgo the traditional Easter celebration this year. It is hard to not be able to do what we used to do on special days, so we are making new traditions and new memories here. This year, we decided to celebrate a simple version of a Messianic Passover, complete with a Seder meal. I did a lot of research and found some scripts on how to do it and what to say. I made a Seder meal and we celebrated at home. It was totally awesome and brought so much more meaning to our Easter celebration. We all enjoyed it very much and have decided to make this an annual tradition. We may try to join a Messianic Jewish congregation one year for Passover, but it was good to have this first experience at home so we could explain everything to the children. On Easter Sunday, we went to church, watched Fiddler on the Roof, and then had dinner at a local park with John's aunt & uncle and grandparents.

Seder Plate (I'm going to order a real plate for next year.)

Table set with my late grandmother's china

John breaks the middle matzah

About to eat our meal

Looking for the hidden matzah!

I found one!

Look what I turned in my matzah for!

-John and I celebrated our 11th anniversary and I celebrated my 21st birthday. *cough cough cough* For my birthday/anniversary/Mother's Day gift I asked John if we could take the family down to Branson to the Sight and Sound Theatre there to see Jonah. (https://www.sight-sound.com/) John and I have been to the Lancaster location twice before and enjoyed the musicals we saw. I wanted the children to experience it. I knew that would have to wait until after spring time. Farmers do not take time off in April (or May or June....) So that trip was planned for sometime in August. (We just returned and I'll tell you about that in another post.) I ordered Georgetown Cupcakes for my birthday so I could have a little piece of home. (These are the cupcakes featured in the TLC show DC Cupcakes. They are the best cupcakes we have ever tasted and nothing here even compares.)

mmmmmm..... cupcakes!!

-Luke hit double digits! He was so excited, and mama was so sad! I can't believe I have a 10 year old! Where has the time gone??!? I'll have another one hit double digits next year. Yikes! This birthday was a little bittersweet as his "bigness" was showing when he requested to not have a party or go to a special place or have a birthday cake. (We used to do theme parks instead of parties, but the closest one is now 2.5hrs away.) Instead, he asked if we would be ok with spending a little more money on his gift. The boys are really into Lego Technic sets right now and those sets are not cheap, and he knows it. Then he asked if he could have a Dutch Apple Pie with vanilla ice cream on top. Those who know me well will know that I love making my kids really cool looking birthday cakes. So it was kind of sad to not make him one this year. Gluten free pies that taste great are very difficult to make, so I do not make pies very often. Pie is special around here. I told him that we could do that and also have caramel on top. He loved that idea. He did get his first Technic set and some motors to run it with and was a very happy boy. He's getting really tall. I think I only have a year or two max left before he passes me in height.

Birthday present delight- Lego stuff!

Easter 2015

So how do you like Iowa??

I'm so behind on blogging again. Sorry! I am going to attempt to remedy that with the next several posts.

April was a difficult month for me and that is why the blogging stopped. As the one year anniversary of our move approached, I really began to struggle with homesickness. It is not something that I was aware of at first. In fact, I didn't even realize why I was was feeling so down. People are always asking if I like it here and if it feels like home. I always respond that I haven't been here long enough to truly answer that question and I brush it aside. To be truthful, I say that because I really just don't want to think about it. But as the one year anniversary approached, I did begin to think about that question. Things aren't like I had hoped they would be by this point. I really don't fit in here and I feel like I stand out in pretty much every area of my life here. Church life isn't what I thought it would be like. Our CC group wasn't what I thought it would be like. Farm life isn't what I thought it would be like. But God is using it all to refine me. He is faithful to meet me at my need as I reach out to him. He even told me one day that he understood homesickness. Jesus had to leave the home he loved to come to this sin filled world and he didn't fit in and no one he met understood him. He knows what I am going through. Only for me, I didn't leave a perfect home and have to suddenly deal with being around sin, so it must have been even harder for him. No, it doesn't feel like home yet. But I lived in Virginia for a really long time and I had only been here 11 months at that time. It takes time to put down new roots. It's not a bad thing that it doesn't feel like home. This world is not my home anyhow, right? As I am allowing the Lord to refine me, I am finding a supernatural sense of peace. I say supernatural because I know it's not from me. Despite the challenges and unmet expectations, I am content here. I am not praying to leave and I am finding ways to be happy here. We are making memories and living abundant lives as best we can. So life is hard and it is different here. I miss VA and the ocean and the mountains and racial diversity and my family and my friends terribly, but it's also good and I'm fine with my life here. Does that make sense? Apart from the Lord, it really doesn't. But since God is here with me, it all doesn't have to make sense in order for me to experience joy and to have peace in the midst of pain. I know we are supposed to be here, so I will embrace being here with my whole heart and I will live the abundant life that Christ died to give me, no matter where that takes place. God has work for me to do here and work that He wants to do in me through being here. I look forward to seeing how that all plays out. And since I have this blog, you get to come with me on that journey. :)

Softball!

Is this adorable or what?!

Being so close in age has its perks! We're on the same team!

Nathanael and Micah have decided they want to play softball this season. We tried t-ball once before with Nathanael when he was 5. That didn't go so well, so we have steered away from baseball since then. But they really wanted to play and they are a little older now, so we decided to give it another shot.

Micah swings for the ball

We were excited to find out that one of our friends from church is a softball coach. We requested him and were put on his team. Both boys are enjoying the sport and are glad they joined the team. We have had a couple practices and two games and there are nine games left. At this age, their games are not that serious. Scores are not kept, and kids don’t always get sent off the field when they really should be out. They only play three innings and every child on the team gets to bat before the other team has their turn at bat. I'm glad for this, as the boys aren't that great yet, but they are still getting a chance to play the game and grow in their skills. The run may not count for points, but you wouldn't know that from the looks on their faces when they come running into home.

Nathanael runs home

Most of the other boys on the team have played before, but mine are still learning how the game works.The coach told me that he thinks Nathanael has some natural talent and that he may be pretty good in a few years if he sticks with it. We'll see what happens!

Spring Recital

Nathanael and Micah participated in a spring piano recital today. Here is the video footage. They are really progressing well. (Videos may not play properly in your email program. If they don't, go to the actual blog to see the videos.)

This first one is Micah's piano solo, entitled "Firefly."

This second one is Micah and Nathanael playing a duet together. It's their first duet and they were so excited to be able to play together now. Micah just started last May, so he was absolutely tickled that he's good enough to play with his brother now. It's called "We Love A Parade."

 

This is Nathanael's duet with his teacher, Ms. Ruth. It's called "Diabelli March" and I think it's my favorite of his songs so far. His fingers got a little tripped up in the middle, but thankfully he was able to recover.

 Here is Nathanael's part of Diabelli March by itself, for those who are not able to discern the lower section.

 

 

 

They are progressing nicely and we are very proud of both of them! 

 

Ouchies

Well, I guess we made it one whole year before John had his first farm injury requiring a doctor's care. His hand got smashed between a heavy piece of  metal farm equipment and a cement wall today. He had a gash requiring stitches on his right index finger and that same finger is also broken. He's right handed so it's also his guitar strumming hand. (I guess Luke won't be having any lessons for awhile.) The urgent care doc wants John to follow up with an ortho doc on Monday. The middle finger is also injured and swollen, but I don't think he notices that one as much when the other finger is throbbing. Please pray for him. He's in pain, but hates meds so he won't take anything for the pain.

We are quite the couple right now. I sustained an injury to my left rotator cuff about two weeks ago that I am still healing from. I am left handed, so both John and I injured our dominant sides. Thankfully it's not torn, but my tendons are inflamed. My entourage and I have been going to physical therapy three times a week and just chilling around the house so I can take pain meds. I just returned to Zumba instructing on Wednesday, but I am doing it one armed. That was a little painful and also a bit tricky, but thankfully I am feeling much better than I was at first. I wasn't able to even stir food without pain last week. It's a good thing John mowed the yard the other day, because between his injury and mine it may be awhile before that happens again! (I can't handle the zero turn handle bars on the mower right now.) It's also a bummer that neither one of us is in great shape to help the boys practice their baseball catching, as baseball just started up and Micah and Nathanael are both playing this season. I am thankful that John just finished the last of the garden expansion work last night, so at least that won't fall behind.

We'd appreciate your prayers!!

Welcome to the family!

Please rejoice with us in welcoming Hannah to the family of God! She decided to give her life to Christ tonight. 

March

As promised, I am continuing to play catch up. Here is an update on March. But first, I just noticed this little story in the news:

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/17/us/gorilla-charges-zoo-window/index.html

Just have to say that this is our local zoo and the one I posted about going to back in January. We have a family membership there. A gorilla charged at Luke like that once while we were there. It didn't break the  glass when it slammed into it, but it definitely shocked Luke!

March...ah March. It's such a crazy month for CC families. In March, we are in Memory Master mode at full speed! What is a Memory Master? It is a child in our Classical Conversations (CC) homeschool program who has memorized all 24 weeks worth of memory work. For those not familiar with our program, it is based largely on memorization at the stage we are in. Each week for 24 weeks, the kids will memorize a new piece of information in seven different subjects- latin, timeline, math, grammar, history, science, and geography. A memory master has mastered all 24 weeks worth of facts and has recited them back to four different adults. Here is what we learned this year:


 160 events and people in a chronological timeline

·         24 history sentences to “put some flesh” on our timeline (including the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution,  the Bill of Rights, and U.S. historical events from Columbus to 9/11)

·         44 U.S. Presidents

·         120 locations and geographic  features in North America including:

o   States & Capitals

o   U.S. Rivers, Mountains and Deserts

o   U.S. Bays, Canals, and Great Lakes

o   Historical Trails

o   Territories, Terrains, and other prominent features

·         24 science facts, including (but not limited to):

o   Anatomy:  Parts of 8 major systems of the human body

o   Chemistry: The first 12 elements of the periodic table (along with their atomic number and mass) 

·     `` Latin rules and vocabulary.  Emphasis:  The text of John 1:1-7 in Latin with its English translation

·         English Grammar facts (including the principal parts of 12 irregular verbs, sentence parts, clauses, and sentence structures and patterns)

·         Multiplication tables up to 15x15, common squares and cubes, basic geometry formulas and unit conversions, and the algebraic laws of addition and multiplication

This year, both Nathanael and Luke decided to be memory masters. Luke has done it every year since we started the program four years ago and Nathanael did it two years ago. The testing process usually happens in March, which makes it a month where we drill, drill, drill, and drill again....times two! But I am happy to say that they both did it and I have two memory masters again this year! (Insert big sigh of relief here!) We are so glad to be done with the drilling! We are not returning to CC next year, so it was nice to go out on a high note.

Did we do anything else in March? Honestly, I felt like all we did was drill! I'm a tutor for our CC group and the last several weeks (we end the first week of April) are just a really busy time and we primarily focus on memory work and finishing strong (because we are always exhausted by this point of the school year). We did squeeze in a few other things, however. I took the kids to Lowes' one Saturday for a Build and Grow event. They got to build a wooden model of El Toro Loco (a Monster Jam truck).

Nathanael and Luke participated in a music event sponsored by a national music teachers group. They both did very well and Nathanael received the top rating you can get for his performances. Unfortunately, I missed this event because I was at an all day Zumba training that I couldn't have done at another time. I was already licensed to teach Basic Zumba and Zumba Kids. I was given a second class at the YMCA that began in January, so I'm now teaching there twice a week. But there are a lot of older people here and I've also had some of them and also some health challenged beginners come to class and my class is too intense for both of those groups. So I really wanted to get licensed to teach Zumba Gold, which is geared towards beginners, seniors, and those needing a less intense workout. So now I am licensed to teach that and I'm hoping we can add Zumba Gold to the class schedule at the gym this fall. It sounds like I should be getting two kids classes over the summer that will be geared towards the kids attending summer day camp at the Y.

We also celebrated Grandma's (John's grandma) birthday at the end of the month (actually on the same day as my training and the music festival...very busy day). It was the first time the kids and I have ever been with her for her birthday. It is nice to have these opportunities to build these memories with family that we hadn't seen very often previously.

Plate we made for John's Grandma's birthday gift

There! I'm almost caught up...next up is our party month!! While you wait for that post, enjoy some random photos and video from March.

Lego volcano he made after we studied Mt. St. Helens

This year we started seedlings indoors for the first time. Here is our growing set up in the basement. We wound up using all four shelves in the end and it worked out pretty well.

John starts expanding the garden. We only had the two boxes last year.

The guys started a worm composting bin. The plan is to use the worm castings (aka worm poop) to help fertilize our garden. There are 200 red worms living in my garage now. They eat table scraps.

And finally, some footage of my baby teaching my baby to play guitar. Makes my heart so happy!!!

I'm really behind.....(winter update)

Life has been busy and I have gotten very behind on the blog, so I am going to do several update posts. Sorry to those of you who were trying to keep up with us who have been waiting for a new post since February.....

~Winter~
I made posts about our two winter birthdays, our Christmas and our New Years. As far of the rest of the winter goes, I can sum it up in one word...COLD!!!!! We just experienced the coldest winter of our lives. It was also the longest winter of our lives. The wind is almost constantly blowing and when it's already below zero it just cuts you right to the bone. It was not unusual to have temps in the negative 20s when the wind was blowing. And it was cold for 5 months straight, whereas I'd classify a northern VA winter as 2.5 months. I'm so thankful for our indoor bounce house, our big playroom, and the indoor pool at the Y. I don't know what I would have done without those sources to burn the ridiculous amounts of little boy energy in my house.

In December, John decided to take up hunting. There are lots of deer on his grandpa's property, and Grandpa was gracious to allow John to hunt on it. This was nice because he was not having to compete with other hunters on public land (which also means it was safer). John and a buddy went out several times together. His friend shot his first buck in December and split half the meat with us. Shotgun season is only two weeks, so John thought his chances were up for the year. But our brother in law let John borrow his muzzle loader, which enabled John to hunt for a few more weeks, as that season runs into January. Thankfully, John was able to get a doe in January. That same brother in law is an avid hunter and processes his own meat. He and my sister in law (John's older sister) add ground pork and seasoning mixtures to some of their meat as they grind it and make a variety of sausages. They taught us how to do that so out of our meat we got steaks, roasts, plain ground meat, Italian sausage, and Andouille sausage (John's from Cajun country). The Italian stuff is awesome and we really enjoyed it in spaghetti. I wasn't sure what I was going to think of game meat, but this venison was pretty tasty and did not have a gamey taste at all. I believe that is partly due to the deer here being largely corn fed versus grass fed. But the other part has to do with the way the meat is processed. When John got his doe, another friend of ours came and helped him cut it up and he taught John his steps for eliminating the gamey taste. I was able to use that meat in any of my recipes that called for beef without any taste issues. We were able to not buy red meat for three months and that was really nice on the budget. Now that we know we like the meat and how long one deer lasts us, we are hoping can get a couple next winter.

We didn't get as much snow as I had expected over the winter, but we did get a big snow in early February. The kids had a blast sledding down our hill, building forts, and making snow tunnels. It took 5 of us 3 hours to shovel the driveway. The winds here caused the snow to blow all around and make large drifts in the yard. It looked like white sand dunes all over the yard. So in some places you could still dee the grass and in other places, it was up to my waist. We will definitely get a snowblower for next year.

Their sledding train- there were so many happy giggles while they did this!

I spent February and March dealing with some health issues, but thankfully those appear to have passed now. For Valentine's Day, John and I went on a search for the best cupcakes in Omaha. We tried several different places. We were not impressed by any of them. We have been spoiled by Georgetown Cupcakes (of TLC's DC Cupcakes) and have found that they are truly the best cupcake bakery in the country. Everywhere we go, we try cupcakes and nothing compares. We also went to dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse in Lincoln. I had never been to one before. It was pretty tasty. I don't think I've ever had so much protein in one meal before!

Next update.....March!