'what's up' weekly.

Ahhhh, Friday.  My favorite day.

This has been a good week.  No traveling, no huge outside commitments, just school and rest and beautiful weather.  

We logged our third full week of school, and I think I'm getting a daily routine in place that is sustainable and, while very full and busy, not inescapably stressful.  I'm finding I need to eat at much more regular intervals than I was, and eating before I get hungry, to stay ahead of the blood sugar crashes that lead me to feel grouchy and stressed out and exhausted.  By the end of the week, I had figured out good times through the day to eat something quick before jumping into the next thing, and I was much happier with how the pace of our days felt.  I think that seems to be the key I was missing to feeling good about our workload.

I also have scheduled Wednesdays off for special projects, appointments, errands, or just rest, and I think that will also end up being really helpful this year.  This week, I used our midweek day off to get some yardwork done (or, more honestly, delegate some yardwork to my strapping sons).

Do you remember how, in the spring, we laid thousands of pounds of new dirt and a bunch of new grass seed, and then how it rained torrentially for three weeks straight and it all washed down our hill?  Yeah, it was pretty rough.  All summer our yard has been dusty and dirty and grassless (what little of our seed that did sprout didn't end up making it through the hot, dry summer we had this year).  So I just left it alone, planning to fill in some of the collapsed places with more topsoil, and reseed in the Fall.

Well, it is now Fall, and time to get a move on.  But I am getting very pregnant, and not really up to the task of hauling a bunch of 40lb bags of dirt from the trunk of the van all the way to the back yard.  So I enlisted Atticus' help to haul the bags, then fill in The Trench for me.  He was a huge help, and seemed to enjoy it.  ("I like working this way, Mom, where I get to use my body and actually DO something."  Gosh, I wish for my kids' sake that we could move to a little homestead.)  I am going to mow, then lay down seed and straw and cross my fingers it doesn't all wash away before getting established.

I also laid a little dirt and seed in the front yard as well, where I am still having a hard time getting grass to grow in the places where we removed a tree and a weird planter thing a couple years ago.  Here's to hoping the third or fourth time is a charm.

While I was obsessing over the yard, the kids were busy bees this week.  Penelope is desperate for a pet dog, but understands we won't be getting one any time soon, so she made herself one out of cardboard and named it Mutt.  ("It's a good thing I have a good imagination, or I'd be pretty disappointed that I don't have a real dog.")

Atticus is working hard on developing his talent as a graphic novelist, and I have to admit that he's really good.  Like, really good.  Like, I'm-not-just-saying-it-because-I'm-his-mom good.

Finneas is more of a cartoonist at heart, which makes complete sense given his personality, and he is also incredibly talented.  I am amazed by these kids.  (Apparently, the making of an artist involves very little beyond letting them be bored a lot and giving them free access to paper and pencils.) 

Rocco figured out how to carry Juni around, and they both had a blast.

The girls played outside and added crayons and seatbelts to Atticus' truck, as any self-respecting girl would do in the same situation.

Penelope started cleaning out her flower beds.  She pulled all the dead zinnias, but left the cannas until we're ready to dig up the bulbs.  The dahlias never sprouted - I'm not sure if we planted at the wrong time or what, but we'll dig out those bulbs as well and perhaps try again next year.

And in pregnancy news, a couple items of note:

1.  Clearly things are taking a turn for the "over it."  I didn't put on real clothes or make up, or do my hair for last week's photo.  It was taken like four or five days late.  My actual outfit didn't even match.  Things are starting to fall apart.

2.  I actually pulled myself together long enough to take a better photo this week.  28 weeks!  Third trimester, baby!  I had a couple of interviews/meetings with new midwives this week, and I'm feeling like I'm needing to figure out what our birth plans are.  It has been such a busy stretch that I haven't really thought about it much, but now I'm feeling like I'm starting to run out of time.  I have so much I need to think through, and I've really not done much planning or prep at ALL!  Whew.  Time to get serious: this baby is coming.

3.  I have a Mini Me.  She donned glasses, a ponytail, a purse and a phone, and I think she makes a pretty convincing stunt double.

what's up weekly: 'yet more travel' edition.

Whew.  Okay, friends.  I am back now, and for the foreseeable future.  This past stretch of life has just been full, full, full.  I wasn't able to blog last week because we were actually in Tennessee... or was it Iowa?  My days are all mixed up.  We've done a lot recently.

So, starting back at the Friday when I left off last: we had just successfully made it through our first week back to school, and things actually went pretty well.  We had Saturday off, and then Sunday we made a daytrip up to my hometown for a big local festival they hold every year.  There are antique tractors, craft vendors, steam engine trains and trolleys to ride, 4H animals, concerts, a saloon town, a log village, a steam carousel, antique vendors, heritage artisans, FOOD FOOD AND MORE FOOD, and more.  It's huge.  It smells like gravel oil and gas engines and cap gun smoke and wood fires and rabbit pelts and grilled elk and kettle corn.  Tens of thousands of people flock to it every year.  It's kind of a big deal, and it's kind of my exact cup of tea.  We hadn't been since 2015, so it seemed like time.

We did more than just ride the trolley all the livelong day, but I'll have to include those photos in a subsequent post - for today, you get to see a lot of "Van Voorsts on the Trolley."

It was a quick trip - we drove the three hours up in the morning, grabbed lunch before we got to the fair grounds, spent a few hours in the afternoon, then ate dinner on the drive home.  It was the perfect amount of time to enjoy it without getting burnt out by it.  But I will say, after coming home from our LONG road trip just a few weeks before, the car ride part of it was less enjoyable than I usually find it.  (Though, driving through Southeast Iowa farm country is never totally lost on me - I just can't get over how beautiful it is.)

The next day was Labor Day, and I was beginning to pack and prepare for yet another road trip later in the week, so we declared popcorn and a movie for lunch (Labor Day Miracle!) so I could get caught up on folding laundry.

Continuing our somewhat-regular tradition of watching the Labor Daybor video.

Also, Finneas is NINE AND A HALF.  I repeat, FINNEAS IS NINE AND A HALF.

And Rocco has the cutest little flipflop tan lines in the entire world.  I LOVE seeing tan feet.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent procrastinating, eventually planning the itinerary and packing lists, cleaning out the fridge, and then actually packing up our things - we were headed to Franklin, TN for the Fight Laugh Feast conference there.  Luckily, this drive wasn't nearly as arduous as our trip to South Dakota/Idaho - on paper, the trip should only take about 7 hours (which in "real-life, traveling-with-kids time" translates to about 9 hours, which is still not the worst).  It was a beautiful drive - I love Tennessee - even though all the fields and trees are looking pretty overcooked this time of year.  (All of you people who are insisting it's Fall are clearly either located much farther North than we are, or you're delusional.  Stuff is still lookin' and feelin' mighty late-summery in these parts.)

This was our main stop for the day, and it was perfect - the weather was beautiful, there was a breeze blowing off the lake, and the vending machines were well stocked.  

We got to our AirBnB around 5:00, quickly changed, and headed over to registration and the kick-off evening.  The next two days were spent attending talks by Voddie Baucham, Doug Wilson, the Sheologians, and others; meeting other likeminded families; and playing on the bouncy slide.  In the afternoons, I hung at the AirBnB and took naps with the younger girls, and Todd and the bigger kids attended more talks.

Also, one of the sponsors was a gun safety school, so they had pretend guns the kids could try out.  I think this may have been the ultimate highlight of the whole weekend for the boys.

Look at this kid, aiming with both eyes open. #pro

She will never need to use a gun.  She will disarm all evil with her cuteness - and what won't bow to her cuteness will be strong armed into submission by her will.  The gun is a just a prop to make her look harmless.

Also, the new baby is never forgotten or left alone.  She is well loved and always included in all the festivities.

We headed home on Sunday, but took a three-hour detour to Memphis so I could pick up a few things at Ikea that the Missouri stores don't carry.  It is not lost on my how much Todd sacrifices to be married to me and my whims.  On the one hand, he gets to listen to me complain about how much time my pregnant self has spent in the car and away from home lately, and on the other hand, he patiently and kindly agrees to take a three-hour detour to pick up bookshelves.  Todd Van Voorst, I see you.

Praise the Lord, we finally made it home Sunday night, and we are now HOME for the foreseeable future.  I am entering the third trimester of this pregnancy, which means I need time to nest and rest and prep and plan, and it also means that I have a lower bar of tolerance for sitting in the car without complaining about it.  So we will all benefit from our time at home.

Monday of this week, we slowly got back into school - we did half days on Monday and Tuesday, and Todd and the kids went to an orthotropics appointment in Kansas City Tuesday afternoon.  We have plugged away at full days the rest of this week, and feel we have earned our Friday today.  After getting a full week of school under our belts when tired and recovering and establishing new routines... well, I feel like gold stars need to be awarded to all the Van Voorsts.  WE DID IT, JOE!

And in other random news, I have decided to pay the kids to forage nuts from our yard.  We have three huge hickory trees, which drop more infuriating and constant crap all over our yard than I care to detail right now, so this year I decided we were going to try to keep at least some of the detritus picked up AND learn the valuable skill of harvesting free yard food.  So the kids spent an afternoon picking up nuts, and then another afternoon removing the husks.  Then I did the 'float test' and discovered about 98% of the nuts were no good, and after all of that I had paid five kids $3 each to harvest what amounted to about thirty edible nuts.  That's some expensive free yard food.

In pregnancy news, I'm now 27 weeks.  I don't have a photo yet from this week - maybe I'll get to that today - but enjoy this makeupless photo from last week.  Things are really starting to fall apart around here.

In CUTEST SIBLINGS IN THE WORLD news, here is Juni 'helping' Atticus with his puzzle.  I have tried to piece a puzzle with a toddler 'helping' me before, and it is not easy, nor is it easy to keep your cool.  Atticus stayed as cool as a cucumber.  They are both just the best.

And here are a few more adorable sibling shots to play you into the weekend:

$2 window clings for the win(dow)!

Happy weekend, everyone!

what's up weekly.

Happy Friday, friends, and I truly mean that from the bottom of my heart.  From the bottom of my exhausted toes.  IT. IS. FRIDAY.  Glory, hallelujah, we made it!

Why the drama?  We started school this week and I think you know what I mean by that.  School-things actually went surprisingly smoothly, all things considered, it's just the pace I'm going to have to get used to again.  I sure got spoiled this summer, getting to do things like clean and go outside and eat when I felt hungry.  I'm in the readjustment phase now, and while I think the structure is going to be good for us, I am still reeling a bit.

But let's back up.  I told you last week that I was expecting the arrival of my dishwasher that morning, which was especially welcome as I have been without a dishwasher since early June, and have therefore been handwashing everything, which has been complicated by the fact that my kitchen faucet has been crapping out.  So the installers show up, haul away my old dishwasher, install my new dishwasher... and then tell me it appears to be defective.  It is leaking everywhere, and appears to have been previously owned.  Hmmm.  So they advised me to call Lowes directly, which I did, and customer service was really helpful and kind - they were going to file a new order and send it to the appliance department for me, and someone would be calling with new installation details.

Since it was Friday, I didn't think too much of the fact that I didn't hear from them through the weekend.  But when I still hadn't heard from them Monday morning, I called again.  There was no record of a new order being filed, and what's more, the guy in the Appliance department told me there was no way my dishwasher had been previously installed elsewhere, and that leaking everywhere is actually normal for new installs.  Um, no.  I'm not buying it.  When he got annoyed at me for not buying it, he 'put me through to his manager,' which actually meant he put me through to a line that kept ringing and ringing and ringing until it disconnected the call.

So I gave it a couple more days, and was fully prepared to march my pregnant, grouchy, shenanigan-intolerant self directly into the appliance department to stank eye someone in person.  HOWEVER, the Lord saved the poor soul that would have encountered me by motivating them to call me first.  The order had been placed, the install had been scheduled, and someone would be out this week.  And some poor Lowes associate somewhere felt the universe breathe a sigh of relief on his behalf.  He has no idea how close he came to decimation.

SO.  The new dishwasher is scheduled to arrive this morning.  We shall see what happens.

I think I also need to mention here that partway through this week, still dishwasherless, my faucet gave out altogether and I have been hiding dirty dishes in the bathtub while I've worked to figure out what is wrong with it. 

Thawing vacuum-sealed salmon filets in my tub.  This is how the upper crust live.

Storing, but not washing, dishes in the tub because I don't exactly know how to deal with food mess in a drain with no garbage disposal, other than digging it out by hand, and I'm just not there yet.  I know people live the 'my bathtub is my kitchen sink' life during renovations and things like that, but the truth is large families don't usually find themselves in that predicament - partly because ain't nobody got funds for renos when you're raising one bajillion kids.  But also because, even if you did have funds for that, the amount of bathtub dishes would get so out of control so quickly that you'd have to commit arson before the kitchen was even finished yet just to control the mess.

I only bought that stupid faucet in March, but I've already had to return it once in the meantime because it wasn't working.  So while I did try replacing the cartridge this week to see if that would stop the leaking, when it didn't, I gave up patience and drove the whole thing out to Menards and exchanged it for an entirely different brand and model.  This one seems to be much more promising - it's already sturdier-feeling, and the water pressure is incredible.  So here's to hoping this is a longer-term solution to my faucet woes than the last one.

Perfect, shiny and new!  I swapped out a faucet while 24 weeks pregnant - I'm so proud.  No, it wasn't easy.  Fitting inside the cabinets, laying on my back, and breathing with a curious/"helpful" toddler laying on my stomach to watch me work the whole time were all challenging.  Now I know at least one reason why you almost never meet pregnant plumbing professionals.

But life wasn't all plumbing problems and dirty dishes.  Laurelai turned eight!!!  This tiny peanut is still in 5T clothing, so I often forget she's not a kindergartener anymore, but she's not.  She is getting so big, and she is just the life of the party.

And speaking of parties, she got one on Saturday!  We had a houseful, and it was so fun!

A tiny camper kit!  She could almost fit inside there and become one of those full-time RV-ers.  Almost.

She is funny, smart, sensitive and has such a servant heart.  She loves being goofy and girly.  She is pure muscle and loves to give full-body hugs.  She never fails to be the first to welcome you home when you walk in the door, wish you a heartfelt goodbye when you leave ("Bye, Mom! Love you! Biggest air-hug ever!"), and say goodnight.  

On Monday, we did all her birthday meals - yogurt with honey, berries and granola for breakfast (I had to make a run to the grocery store before everyone got up because I needed a few things, namely granola, and then I left the store without buying granola and had to go back again); homemade pizza for lunch; and wings from a local place for dinner.

She had a blast, and we had so much fun celebrating her!

In addition to her birthday meals on Monday, I was canning some salsa (my first canning attempt in ten years!), and we kicked off the first day of school.  Monday was kind of a doozy - I was pretty glad she chose restaurant food for dinner after such a full day!

I had the most adorable kitchen help, though!

I started small with my foray back to canning - I turned twelve pounds of tomatoes into 8 pints of salsa.  Nothing major.  But I find that, for me, things have to start small to give me any hope of wanting to continue to do them in the future.  My first/last canning project before this was canning 40 lbs of nectarines.  That was too many nectarines.  So I waited ten years before trying to can again.  This time around, I liked that I was able to do all my chopping in the blender, and get everything canned and cleaned up before lunch.  That feels do-able for Future Me.

Helping make the homemade pizza dough for lunch, and cleaning counters while she's at it.

School went well on Monday, and has continued to go pretty well the rest of the week.  We did a staggered start this year - the big kids started Monday, the middle two started Tuesday, and Rocco jumped in for the first time on Thursday.  It is going to be a busy year, I think, so I'm starting to troubleshoot areas where I'm already seeing sticky spots.  One kid needs a lot more supervision than I gave them last year, so I'll need to budget time for that, and I need to figure out a productive, nondistracting way to occupy the younger kids during school time.  I also need to figure out when I'm going to eat meals.  But the kids are settling in well, doing their work well, and things seem to be going pretty smoothly, considering this was the first week back and transitions can tend to be hard.

This isn't really school-related, but it's how Atticus has been unwinding in his free time.  He got a difficult 500-piece puzzle as a gift recently - his first 'big' puzzle' - and he's been working hard at it when he gets a bit of a breather.  He works it on a large cutting board so I can move it to safety in between puzzling sessions.

Juni, for one, has not loved the transition and the busier pace.  One morning she was having a really hard time, and Penelope decided she wanted to comfort her, so she strapped on the Ergo and carried her around for the morning.  Both girls loved it.

Doing the dishes and wearing a baby - she's such a Mama Hen.

And speaking of Mama Hens, let me just 'wattle' in here with a pregnancy update.  25 weeks.  

I had an appointment this week, and while it went well for what it was, I think I'm leaning ever closer to making different birth choices than I have in the past.  With all of the Covid craziness, I just don't love the idea of a hospital birth.  But we'll see.  In good news, the scale says my behemoth growth has slowed down some, so that's good. 

And that was our crazy, crazy week.  I have earned my Friday and I'm going to go revel in it!