what's up weekly.

SO.  I have now been 35 for a full week, and I can tell you that, surprisingly, it feels good.  I think I'll keep "35" around for a while.  Maybe even more than a year, and I'll just refrain from ever turning 36.  Okay?  Okay.  Sounds good to me.

My birthday was so, so fun.  It was a low-key, but still really special, day - and that's my favorite kind.  I slept in a bit (Fridays are a 'late start' morning for us), and then for lunch we did a popcorn party while we watched Tudor Monastery Farm.  (My birthday, my TV choice.)  

While we were downstairs watching, Todd slipped out to grab me flowers and a coffee.

For dinner, Todd surprised me with a really fancy, really huge, really uppity aged steak from the fanciest restaurant in town, and some really good red wine, and crème brulee cheesecake for dessert.  YES PLEASE.  I'm headed into Year Thirty-Five very happy, and in much larger pants.

The kids and Todd all shared things they love and appreciate about me (such as, "I'm glad you spank us, Mom, so we don't turn out horrible," and "I like how you know how to make our home a place I like to be.  You make it pretty and just... home." I also got lots of compliments on my cooking, which just testifies to the Lord's patience with, and miraculous work in the life of a poor, sorry sinner/cook like myself).

After dinner, I got to open presents from my dearly beloveds, and it was a highlight.  I got original books with hand-drawn illustrations, homemade cards, a very imposing hand-whittled knife/harpoon, and plenty of candy.  (Heavier and heavier I become by the paragraph...)  Todd gave me the green light to order a new rug I've been wanting for the living room, which then sent me into a tailspin of "Am I CERTAIN this is THE rug??!" and then a days-long hunt through the archives of Rugs USA, just to be on the safe side.)  It was obvious I am well-known and well-loved.  

I have been given the gift of lots of people who know me, and see me, and love me for who I am.  "He makes the barren woman abide in the house as a joyful mother of children."  Barrenness, emptiness, loneliness, lostness - all these things have been taken from the old me, and in their place I find  joy, peace, fullness, abundance.  What a fantastic birthday gift from the Lord who knows me and loves me.  I am genuinely content with my life and my people.  How many folks get to say that?

Anyway, not to get too sappy on you.  That happens in old age; you're just going to have to bear with me.

The next morning, our friend Ellie from Cedar Falls came for a visit!  She has been serving overseas for the last few years, and just came home a few months ago.  It was so wonderful getting to see her, and the kids were SO thrilled - she babysat them every week for a long time, and they were so excited to show her all around the house and yard, and catch her up on what they've been up to.

Here, I'm seeing photos of her absolutely adorable new house, and her stellar decorating taste.

And, in my best Nacho Libre voice: "And THAT... is a crazy lady."  Good gravy, I look like the Joker.

Finneas was VERY excited to see Ellie.  Everyone else was just pretty excited.

Not the most flattering angle for Atticus or Juni, and Callista is picking her nose, but this is what you get.

Saturday evening, we had friends over for dinner who have four kids of their own, and the vibe at the dinner table (KIDS ONLY - grownups banished to the living room to eat tacos off plates in their laps) was so very Third Grade Summer Camp that I could almost feel the mosquitos buzzing around my head.  It was so, so fun.  The kids played dress up all night, and there was an endless stream of knights and princesses and police officers and construction workers through the living room.

On Sunday, we went to church and sat with our dear friend Meghan, who is only in town briefly while her husband Josiah is in a training school with the Marines.

It was wonderful it was such a great weekend, because once we hit the week, things got a little rockier.  Monday, Finneas had the stomach flu.  Tuesday, Lolo and Rocco got it.  Wednesday, I had it and was LAID OUT.  Todd took the afternoon off of work so he could drive up to the Amish for me.  Then, because life is just a turd sometimes, what does he get for his efforts?  The stomach flu.  So that was yesterday.  Curious to see who will fall today.  Praying we're all healthy by Easter.

And let me just answer the questions you may have at this point: Yes, I do realize we seem to be sick all the time in the late winter/spring.  No, I don't know why.  No, I don't need help getting to the bottom of things.  This is just the season of life we're in now, and I've learned to accept it for what it is.  

And to end this post on a cheerier note, I would like to introduce you to Finneas' new best friend, who appeared to be nearly albino.  They're two peas in a pod.  

Also, Callista basically stole the limelight this week with her cuteness.

First, she loves to crash anyone's Bible time she can.  She is the most adorable Bible pal.

Second, most mornings she asks Todd if she can get out her Choo Box (jewelry box) and look through it.  We have gotten each of the girls nice jewelry boxes, and are slowly working on building them each a collection of nice, classic pieces that they can wear when they're older - and Todd writes notes to the girls and tucks them into many of the small boxes.  She sits by him while he works and just looks at her jewelry and notes.

And there you have it! Life with the Van Voorsts this week.  Tune in next week!

what's up weekly.

I'm going to cut to the chase here, and announce that it is my birthday today.  I'm thirty-five.  I'm pretty sure I am no longer in the "Pocahontas" demographic and have graduated to the "Grandmother Willow" end of things.  Oh well.  As long as we both shall live, Kate Middleton will always be older than me, and I can take comfort in that.  ("I AM MORE YOUTHFUL THAN A BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS."  These are the things you resort to saying to yourself when objective youth has fled you.)

Because it's my birthday, you get a highlight reel from the last two weeks.  Ain't nobody got time for detailed accounts of their mundane schedule when their own mortality is staring them in the face.  So here we go.

1.  WE GOT A NEW KRAKEN!  Long story short, it's another old church van, and Todd went to St. Louis last week to pick it up.  We named him Son of Kraken, and he is wonderful.  While no other van can take the place of Kraken Original in our hearts, this van comes pretty close... mostly because it's basically the exact same van, minus the running boards and the key fob, and the big old dent in the side from when we accidentally killed that dog that one time.  Good times.

Second verse, same as the first!

Son of Kraken's maiden voyage under our captainship.

I do still feel nervous driving.  Moments of fear and panic still hit me, particularly when we're near larger vehicles or guardrails.  I know the answer is to just keep driving like normal until it feels natural again, but I am hoping that happens sooner rather than later because it's scary in the meantime.

2.  We have Sisters in our house.  This is the first time we've had two same-gender kids in a row, and now that Juni is becoming a full-fledged Not Infant, she and Callista are thick as thieves.

3.  Daylight Savings kicked my butt this year.  It's like my body knew it was its thirty-fifth Daylight Savings and was like, "we can't party like we used to."  I felt jetlagged for almost a whole week afterwards.  Good gravy, aging and springtime are hard on a person.

4.  I was a family handyman!  A Jack of All Trades!  A plumbing-whatsit!  I replaced a faucet all by my little ol' self - minus the time I had to get Todd to tighten some screws for me because my lady hands couldn't hack the screwdriver.  

My old faucet had been dripping for two or three years, but I had been putting off dealing with it because I am just not into home repairs.  I'd rather things just didn't break in the first place, so ignoring the problem doesn't give other things the incentive to break.  I firmly believe that it's all done for attention.  

But it became obvious that the faucet was in need of a little of the attention it so clearly craved.  It started really acting out, and pouring water all over my counters and floors and inside my cabinets.  So I watched a few YouTube videos and ordered a new faucet.  And the project itself was super easy, with very few major hiccups... until.  I had some issues.  Oh, I got it installed just fine, and working just fine.  And then all of a sudden a few hours later, it completely lost pressure.  So I went back to YouTube, and I disassembled and reassembled the entire faucet and all the plumbing lines three times, to no avail.  I cleaned out the cartridge.  I scrubbed the aerator.  I, in fact, even learned what the cartridge and the aerator are and that they even exist.  I flushed the water lines.  Still nothing.  So now I get to take it back, exchange it, and try again.  And THIS is why I hate house projects.  They just keep going.  But in the meantime, I guess I'm basically a master plumber by now, so at least I have something to show for it.

5.  Juni got her first ponytail this week, and it's the greatest thing since sliced bread.

You can barely see her pony up there, but look at her beautiful eyes!!! HOW DID I MAKE THIS PERSON FROM SCRATCH?!

6.  Atticus finally completed the building of his pickup truck.  He still wants to paint it, but here it is in all its resplendence.

Penelope added the cupholder, if you didn't guess that.

And here are a few bonus bullet points of other creative endeavors around here over the last couple of weeks:

• Penelope has started picking out Todd's clothes for church each week.  She loves it, and he seems to be pretty enthusiastic about it as well.  She does a fantastic job.
  
  

• Atticus made me a fork.  I can use it to eat salad or skewer demons.
  
  

• Rocco made a gun.  I almost hesitate to mention it, as it is not registered and I run the risk of its forcible confiscation this way, but I couldn't resist.
  
  

• I went junking and LOOK WHAT I FOUND!
  
  

And those were our very full two weeks!  Now I'm off to celebrate being middle aged. 

At least I finally have a valid excuse for why I'm so tired all the time.

what's up weekly.

Why, 'ello, 'ello.  

We have very little to report this week, other than that the weather is fantastic and my kids have their first sunburns of the season.  And to think we were Vortexed just two weeks ago.

This weekend was super unusual.  On Friday, friends of ours came for dinner before their move back to Iowa/Illinois on Saturday.  They had decided a week and a half prior that they would move home to the family farm, and within that time frame, they packed up their house, sold it, and made living arrangements.  I am just so amazed that it moved so quickly!  So we had once last pizza party to send them off.

Saturday was FINNEAS' NINTH BIRTHDAY.  I maintain that nine-year-old boys are some of the best humans on the planet.  I can already tell this is going to be a good year. 

The day ended up being pretty different than we originally thought - a friend from Cedar Falls was in town, so I had an early morning coffee date with her.  (Actually, "early" is all relative: we met at 7:15, and I realize some of you have been up for hours at that point.  But anything before 8 a.m. is early in my book.)  Then I headed out to the antique mall while Todd did his regular Saturday morning Dad Time with the kids - his famous breakfast burritos, coffee, and Johnny Cash for ambiance.  I got home around lunchtime, and the kids were engrossed in outdoor play all afternoon.  In the evening, we did a taco party and gift-opening to celebrate Finneas' birthday.

Juni had a blast playing Keep Up with the gift bags.

Sunday was another weird day.  We are still driving the borrowed Yukon, which can only fit seven of us.  We honestly don't have to drive anywhere as a large group most of the time, so through the week that is no big deal.  But we've been needing to borrow a second car on Sundays, and the one we were hoping to borrow this week fell through.  So we worshiped at home... which seems like it's becoming the story of our lives.  Ah, well.  God is sovereign over this season.

After church, we had friends stop by who were coming through town and had visited Anthem that morning.  Then, plans with another friend who was going to stop by while she was in town fell through, and a planned elder meeting in the afternoon got cancelled.  The weekend was full of changing plans, which is really strange for people who typically have very uneventful weekends.

Monday was a long day - Todd had an early morning elder meeting, then an evening members' meeting at church (again, the kids and I stayed home because the meeting was kind of short notice and we hadn't arranged for a second vehicle).

Tuesday, I drove out of town on my own for the first time since the accident.  I headed up to my friend Megan's house, which isn't too far away, but I ended up missing my exit on the highway, then trying to take a back way around.  I got kind of twisted and turned around, and my GPS had me going weird places, and then I looked at the gas gauge and saw I was on Empty.  (Not remembering that the gauge in the Yukon is faulty, and always says E.)  I was so stressed out, my body was tremoring.  Apparently I haven't fully gotten over the stress of driving after the accident.

Wednesday, I drove up to the Amish, and while it was uneventful, the drive there wasn't necessarily less stressful.  It was windy, and there are lots of country roads with no shoulder, which is now apparently a big source of anxiety for me.  One oncoming pickup with a trailer tried passing another pickup with a trailer, and hung out in my lane for entirely too long before moving back over.  It was all fine in the end, but I had a hard time getting to sleep last night, as every time I would start to doze, I'd have some flash-dream of like a dog running out in the middle of traffic and causing me to lose control of the car, or something similar.

I'm looking forward to getting another big van soon - I think I'll feel more secure driving something bigger again.  The Yukon XL feels so little and vulnerable and invisible to other drivers.  We have a lead on something in St. Louis (another church van!), but they're waiting for a new copy of the title to arrive before they can sell it, so we're still keeping our eyes peeled for other options in the meantime.

And lastly, we thought Buffalo Wild Wings had gone out of business, but we were thrilled to find out that they had just been closed for some remodeling or something, so we ordered Finneas' requested birthday dinner (wings! and more wings!) last night.  Finneas birthday is the gift that keeps on giving.

And, as a final note, the kids have been playing Britain's Got Talent.  The girls sing.

The boys make knives out of sticks.

You know.  That kind of stuff.  Simon Cowell, eat your heart out.

Anyway.  That was our week, and we were grateful for it! 

what's up weekly.

Other than the beautiful weather this week, there is very little new news to share, so I'll keep it short and sweet.

First, in the absence of the Kraken, we've been driving a friend's Yukon around, and have dubbed him Cornelius. (When we start him up, the kids yell, "LAND HOOOOOOI!")  We're hopeful about a lead on a new van - Todd will be headed to St. Louis over the weekend to check it out  - but in the meantime,  Cornelius has been a near-perfect fit for us.  (I say near-perfect fit, because we don't actually all fit.  But other than that, it's perfect.)  I really like driving it, and I will kind of miss it when it's turned back over to its rightful owners.

Second, Spring has sprung.  The crocuses are blooming, the bees are out in full force, and the kids and I are already battling mosquito bites.  This time of year makes me so happy.  I come alive a little bit, alongside everything else in the northern hemisphere that is coming alive. 

We missed some school this week because I just couldn't justify making the kids stay inside when it was sixty degrees and sunny out.  We're still moving ahead at an accelerated pace, but perhaps not as accelerated as I was hoping.  But the trade-off seems worth it.

Third, Lolo turned seven-and-a-half this week, which means that this little pint-sized pipsqueak is well on her way to turning eight.  Also, she still wears size 4T.  We should start calling her Lolly Pocket.

Fourth, Finneas' birthday is tomorrow, so he got to pick the meals yesterday.  We started the day off with a bang, and the kids stuffed themselves sick with cereal.  Literally.  Everyone was complaining of tummyaches, which is what happens when you eat six bowls of chewable sugar and no protein.  But they seemed to enjoy themselves anyway.  Then for lunch, I served hot dogs and Spaghetti-O's, which are referred to as Oreos by the peanut gallery and things get really confusing sometimes as a result.  (I would like to document that Callista ate four hot dogs on buns.   Atticus ate six.  She will likely start outeating him soon.)  For dinner, Finneas wanted Buffalo Wild Wings, but it seems our local Bdubs has gone out of business sometime in the last two weeks.  Super sad.  (Where'm I spost to git Buffalo Dry Rub now, huh?  WHERE'M I SPOST TO GIT BUFFALO DRY RUB NOW?!)  So he chose Papa John's instead.

Look at this big girl, sitting up at the table and using a spoon to eat cereal just like a teenager.

For anyone doing the math at home, the only cooking I did for the kids all day was to heat up some Spaghetti-O's in a pan, and to microwave some hot dogs.  I'm trying not to think about the fact that all of the meals he chose for his special day are ones that aren't actually prepared by human hands... he's eight (well, almost nine), so that's to be expected, right?  I consoled myself by cooking all my own meals all day - bacon and eggs for breakfast, salmon and veggies for lunch, steak and veggies for dinner, stovetop popcorn for dessert.  It was a good meal day.  I love good meal days.

And last items of note:

A.  Rocco ran through the house the other day, yelling, "Out of my way!  I need to go digestize myself!"

B.  Lissy has been obsessed with doing all the things the big kids do - writing alphabet letters all over discarded math sheets, and "highlighting" in her Bible are notable examples.

and C.  Finneas, on his way out the door to play outside, poked his head back in to say, "Mom, if any monsters show up while I'm gone, just call out, 'Finneas!', and I'll come in and kill them for you."  It's good to live in a house with so many protective men in it.

And that was our week!