what's up weekly. (In which I get ALL CAUGHT UP.)

Okay, guys - another 'two weeks of news' post, but it will get us totally up-to-date, so buckle up.  Here we go!

Much of what we've been up to is of the bullet-point variety.  The kids have continued to live their lives in the great outdoors like gangbusters.

Misnomer.  Juni is a fast kid.

We finally got an "indoor fridge."  The fridge that had been in the house didn't convey in the sale, so we ordered one when we got here, but delivery was scheduled a ways out.  We had two garage fridges, so our food was able to keep cold just fine, but it did get old having to go to the garage anytime we wanted something.  Bringing in all the individual milk cups and the water jug and the milk jug and the cooking ingredients for each meal was a real thrill ride.  First world problems, I know, but we were glad when the new fridge was delivered.  

Atticus continued to be a fantastic big brother to his sisters.

Callista aged like a fine wine.  She grew a mustache AND lost a tooth AND discovered her calling as a janitor.

She's going to need to do a better job of cleaning out her bucket when she's done.  There seems to be something growing in it.

We went to pick up our raw milk.  The farm we buy from is at the back of this hill, which is actually really huge in real life.  Kansas is weirdly quite hilly - who'da thunk?

It's that time at the end of the summer when everything is looking very overcooked and stringy, but the colors haven't fully decided to change yet.  It reminds me of overbaked bread.

Atticus has started mowing lawns to make some extra money, and it has stirred up the entrepreneurial spirit in the other kids.  Rocco has decided he wants to "design bugs" for a living, so look what I got for the low, low price of a single dollar!

Worth every single cent.  (My favorite is the SPATR.)

Last weekend was super full and fun.  On Friday night, we met some friends out at their campsite and hung out for a few hours.  The kids explored the nearby lake, Callista had a blast on a balance bike, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, and the kids went stargazing to see Jupiter's moons.

The next morning we got up early and headed to Iowa to celebrate my niece's birthday.

I gave Ophelia some ice cream...

We drove home in the afternoon in time to make it to a block party going on in our neighborhood.  I can't describe to you how much I love our neighborhood.  Our neighbor is even teaching Penelope chess.

And then on Monday, we jumped into our biggest news of late: school.  Our first day of school was Monday, so as of today our first week is in the books.  It has not been as difficult as I had anticipated.  I am enjoying our schedule and am surprised that it hasn't worn me out more.  I am juggling three grade levels for the first time ever (if you don't count math - this year I have five different levels of math), and I was worried the read-aloud portion would exhaust me.  But honestly the hardest part to navigate is finding time to eat, and remembering to do so before I get mean and snappy.  That hasn't gone well and I've been kind of a bear with the kids.  So I need to do better next week.

But I am honestly loving the readings and the time with the kids.

And then to top off our week, we had friends over for dinner last night.  They have five kids, so we needed to add some dining space.  You know that old saying that goes something like, "Build a longer table, not a higher fence"?  Well, not only do I not know how to build a table of any length, but I also know that a longer table would just end up shooting through our dining room windows and out into the yard.  So instead of a longer table, I had to compromise with simply another, parallel table.  I hope that counts, or the "random cultural proverb" police will be knocking at my door.

And with that, I am fully caught up on blogging!  I will send you into the weekend with a cry for help from the spelling police.

what's up weekly. (two weeks of news, none of it strictly current.)

Okay, folks.  I'm still trying to play catchup from the weeks when I didn't have time or internet service to post, but I still had a lot of stuff to report.  So today, I'm going to cover the two weeks between September 2 and September 16.

If you remember, we had moved into our new house on August 31, and Laurelai's birthday had been on the 29th.  So my parents came down and we christened the house with a birthday party the first Saturday we were here. 

Laurelai LOVES good cheese, so Juni got her cheese for her birthday.

The following night, we had our first family movie night (A Knight's Tale! Obviously.) and our new house further developed the distinct Van Voorst atmosphere.

The following Monday, my sister and her family came to visit, and they helped us unpack and fix a few things that broke on the moving truck.  They also helped us a hang our new TV, which looks less rinkydink on our basement wall than the old one did.

Flying a drone with Uncle Austin.

See?  Much better.

We started to unpack the Book Room (soon to be called the Conservatory, once I get things put away in there so I can bring in a piano and set up a sewing table).  The kids are loving having access to their books again.

In addition to spending time reading, they've been spending SO MUCH TIME outside.  Our outdoor space is fantastic - they can play on the deck while I'm making breakfast, or they can stay on the grass inside the fence if just the little kids are out.  If the big kids are out, they can head to the big field behind our yard and climb trees, play football, or just run.  (They have been sleeping like rocks since we got here.)  We have also made quick friends with the neighbors across the street, so they often go over their to ride bikes/scooters/power wheels/hover boards/what have you, and they've also gotten to play on the swing set.  The neighborhood is full of kids, and our across-the-way neighbor even keeps his freezer stocked with popsicles that he offers the kids, so it's basically Kid Heaven.

Our dress up clothes have become permanent indoor-outdoor attire.

Now we have TWO Scooter Boos in the house.

Biker Gang.

The neighbor bought the kids squirt guns.  We live in the most friendly neighborhood on the planet.

At night, all the lanterns along our street (every house has one) all light up at the same time, and the street is illuminated in such a cozy way.  Our street forms a closed loop with the next street over, and there is no through-traffic, so it is so neighborly and quiet.  There is a block party going on tomorrow night, and everyone knows everyone else.  We feel so at home already.

All the time outdoors has also meant lots of specialty creatures making their way inside, and lots of time on the Google (or the Off-Brand Google, for privacy and principle reasons) trying to identify our finds.

We've also celebrated a few milestones already since we've been here.  Finneas celebrated a half birthday.

Ophelia turned nine months.  This is always such a weird monthly milestone - it's hard to wrap my head around the fact that she was in my belly as long as she has now been on the outside.  So weird.  She celebrated by sprouting another bottom tooth.  (That takes the count to three on the bottom, two on the top.)  She still swims her way everywhere, though she does spend a lot of time getting her knees under her and rocking like she's going to attempt crawling at some point.  I halfway hope she doesn't; she is so cute mermaiding her way through the house.  She eats every tiny bit of anything she finds on the floor, which is a lot of tiny bits in a household like ours.  Her head is so fuzzy and warm, and her little self is so squishy, I just can't even stand it.  She is our Scooter Boo, our Pheedee Belle, and we love her to bits.  We all fight over who gets to hold her.  I am so glad that as her mom, I hold the trump card, or I'd never get a turn.

I can't find my curtain rod brackets, so a quilt is nailed to the wall.  Classy stuff, Paige Van Voorst.

We started celebrating our Sabbath a little differently since our move.  We start on Saturday nights with a big, pretty meal.  I have to say, I don't hate it. 

The kids have really pitched in and helped in so many ways.  Here you see my middle set making taco fixings for me, and Atticus building a bookshelf.  Can I just say I love having bigger kids?

They prepped all this food on Tuesday afternoon, because I need something I can easily get on the table right away when we get home from our milk pick up after work on Tuesday nights.  Get this: our milk comes from Jerseys and is about 25% cream.  Insane.  I really really miss our Amish runs like crazy, but the milk down here is gooood.

That quart jar holds just the cream I skimmed off this one gallon pitcher of milk!  So far I have made ice cream and butter and white sauce and coffee creamer... just to try to keep up with the cream!

Whew, and I have one more bit of news to chronicle.  We had our windows professionally washed by a friend from church and I am officially addicted to having clean windows.  It makes such a huge difference.  He did a great job, even with the peanut gallery breathing down his neck the whole time.  If you're in the area, I fully recommend Kansas City Local Window Cleaning.  That's not paid or incentivized in any way; I'm just super happy with the results!  Thank you, Kevin!

Aaaaaaaand that's all I've got in me to write, and I'm guessing it's all you've got in you to read.  I will keep working my way forward and maybe I'll catch up to the present soon!  In the meantime, I'm going to go live my life the way these photos make me feel:

It's a good, good life you guys.