Posting from Virginia

This post should have been written from Washington, as we all had tickets to go out for Gabriel's chief pinning. With Covid restrictions, we were told that we couldn't attend without a two week quarantine in a WA hotel, separate from Gabriel. There was about zero chance I was able to do that with the kids, or leave the kids for that long; so JD changed his plane ticket to leave two weeks earlier, and we would still return together several days after the ceremony. You may have guessed, but we had a Covid exposure only days before our departure, so were unable to leave at all. Our one Covid positive family member had zero symptoms and spent the time painting her house. The rest of us all tested negative, quarantined, and tested negative again, so resumed life in VA. The airlines graciously gave me a refund and I will need to rethink my visiting schedule, as I can't really take all the kids on my own without renting a van, etc. So, I will likely break them into two groups. It's hard to visit Gabriel now, as they require him to stay home for two weeks every time one of us arrives from out of state. 

The happy ending is Gabriel is now a pinned Chief - made it in less that eight years, which is about as fast as anyone ever! They gave him a red carpet. 

Thankful JD could be there, but stupid, stupid Covid is always messing with our lives! I'm way over it!

JD is heading home soon and we got the snowstorm that the kids have been hoping for. Since it is supposed to turn to freezing rain tonight, the kids and I are going to try to make it to a friends' huge sledding hill this afternoon. Moriah and Chris snowed in here with us and we have a large breakfast planned for online church time. 

I'm back to school for the spring semester; it is so pleasant, and so much easier, since I'm past the dreadful statistic classes. It's all psychology from here, which I enjoy. I need to have a summer internship lined up, but that is proving a bit challenging with Covid also! Of course, all the homeschoolers are back to work and our dining room looks like this more than it doesn't - 

Elijah is playing travel basketball with a homeschool team. Ignore the purple dragon that surfaced on Moriah's head in the only picture I took, but Moriah and Chris have joined me at several games. We are really loving it! 

I'll end with a few fun animal pictures - 

Happy Snow Day! 

White House

We were scheduled to visit the White House yesterday; thankfully they reopened after the chaos of DC the last several days. The streets were calm although nothing was open, even the food trucks were removed. 

The Jacqueline Kennedy rose garden - 

Today is a rather tough day for our family, but that will be the next post. 

New Years Eve

We have made it the end of 2020 and the "basketball court" was paved. There had been a previous delay due to the paving family getting Covid. Ironically, yesterday while they paved, we all came and went for our own testing since James tested positive after visiting for Christmas. Thankfully we were 100% negative, which leads us to believe that it's true that it's difficult to transmit without symptoms, because James did not have any until he left here. We were pretty thankful. 

Oliver came during his mom's testing to watch the BIG TRUCKS and get in some basketball practice of his own. 

It is a small segment of our driveway, however, it's probably an average driveway for many neighborhoods and gives the kids some room for paved fun!

Moriah made us a nacho bar for New Years Eve in celebration of our negative tests and the conclusion of 2020. I also got a subscription to Pure Flix, which has given us some good family movies that we have been enjoying, so we watched one of those awaiting the new year. 

Happy New Year!

Canvas Choices

These are the pictures that I ordered canvases of, other than the large family picture, and they arrived yesterday. I love Oliver's smile in this one as he was walking towards the photographer while we all attempted to arrange dogs! 

Me and all seven of my daughters - 

Elijah and Oliver - 

30 Years!

To get the full value of joy you must have someone to DIVIDE it with - 

 30 years has brought the best of times as well as the hardest. We have raised, and are still raising, 11 children, many which took an abundance of difficulty to bring across the ocean. We also did several foster children before them. We have built a house and a hobby farm and have an abundance of animals on our acres. 

I remember taking to heart a quote that I heard young that more people regret the things they didn't do, than the things they did; we have lived with that to heart. 

Now we get the enjoyment of the grandparent stage; it really is more fun than parenting and I only hope that my west coast kids move east in the next few years! 

Hoping for another 30 years!

A good marriage isn't something you find, it's something you make, and you have to keep on making it.

Christmas 2020

We had a fabulous Christmas this year! While we were not all together, we had all the Virginia members under one roof. My sister was able to make a trip to Memphis to visit my parents and yet make it back for a second round of Christmas dinner. We enjoyed a Christmas left-over brunch this morning before my sister's guest left town. 

We attended Christmas Eve service together and came back for the usual Christmas Eve sibling secret Santa gift exchange. 

After the younger crowd went to bed, we brought out the presents and stuffed the stockings. The house was quiet and calm and only a few creatures were stirring; Winnie was dreaming of Christmas turkey the next day since his momma is a vegetarian. 

No one young is allowed up until 7:00 a.m. and the adults have to get up at 7:00. We put in the cinnamon rolls in the oven, made coffee and tea and began present opening. 

Montana crammed herself in between the couch and coffee table and napped on our feet. 

I got new chairs for Christmas - although people sat right down on the plastic. 

Joseph, Alyssa and Oliver came over after doing their own Christmas at their house. 

We got Alei and Alyssa bikes; everyone is going to be riding this spring! 

Oliver was excellent help with anyone who needed some opening assistance. 

We were very happy that James made it home for Christmas; it had been a bit since we had seen him!

I'm pretty happy with the shirts I got the grandboys - 

At the end of the long, fun day, I drug the dog beds out and tucked everyone in. We have so much to be thankful for!