November

And here I am finally catching up to November. 

We started out our November finishing our covid time on at Pine house. 

A beautiful day called for coloring with chalk. 

A resident made this scrunchie for Aurelia. 

It made her look like a 90s teen.

After our busy time on (see October's update) it was nice to have some beautiful weather

Once off, we finally settled down enough for me to finish Gideon and Aurelia's Halloween costumes. And, they were finally willing to wear them. 

Frog and Toad :)

I'm always thankful for unseasonably warm weather.  We were able to get out and play a lot. :)

One Sunday, I had a craving for apple cider donuts... soooo... I made some. 

They were so good :)

Bodi came to play one day. 

brave knights

And then we got visitors! 

Some of the Brakers came to visit. 

waiting for them to arrive

Aunt Emily reading books

Exploring the barn with Avery

reading more books

And then, of course, we took them to the 'dead zoo'

The 'dead zoo' as it is locally known, is an Amish bulk food store.  Very randomly a doctor donated his entire big game hunting collection to the store. So, it's an odd mix but entertaining. 

bears!

The kids "look! theirs a dead bear" "look a dead elephant!" "a dead tiger!"

Avery "look there are dead people!" (pointing to carved busts of African people)

ha.

Then we spent more time playing back at Maple house. :)

Once they left, we cleaned up and went on duty at Oak house for a few days. 

playing in the oak basement

We had a fairly easy few days on. Thankfully. It was non-eventful. 

One of our duties is to go grocery shopping. This is what a weekly shopping trip to meijer looks like:

little stinker snuck my coffee

helping :)

these two...

Again, we were thankful for nice sunny days. We went out for a walk around the pond one day. We had a nice chat with a lady from the nursing home. :)

haha

Sadly we were unable to attend Kirk's wedding. But, we were able to live stream it to the Maple house TV and watch it from there. It was kind of fun.  :)

Congrats Kirk and Lexi!

We took the kids to the "castle park" to play one afternoon.

Its such a fun place

Snow!

We got a decent amount of snow near the end of November. The kids were so excited. 

:)

We built a snow man...

I like baking.  So, we made cinnamon rolls to take out to my parents for Thanksgiving and to just have on hand. 

they are such good helpers. 

The problem with baking is that while I enjoy it, the kids want to help. And so something that can be a stress reliever for me, suddenly becomes a cause of stress.

so messy

But then there is this!!!!

Once we managed to get all of our duties done around campus, pack up all of our things, and all of our food, we headed back to Illinois for Thanksgiving. :)

cousins!

relaxing :)

good food

Most every holiday, families post cute pictures of their kids dressed nice and smiling. So, I joined the bandwagon and attempted...

this is what we got. Reality. haha

dress up

:)

Playing on the farm

feeding the cows

farm kids at heart :)

Once back home I caved a day early and we decorated for Christmas. :)

the kids have the coolest manger scene. 

Some pretty pictures of the outdoors:

Aurelia and Gideon helped me cut some branches 

oh boy

I surprised the kids by decorating their playhouse 

I didn't know what I was doing but the branches became decor.

And so, we made it through November. Our calendar was full of doing odd jobs at Gateway, a visit from the Brakers,  time on duty, and Thanksgiving.  It was a pretty good month, relatively uneventful, but full of good things. :)

In Christ

~Michelle

October

October began with more adventures of the escapee steer.  He continued to entertain us. 

Nothing like looking out your window to see this.

He wanted to see in.

Early in the month, I helped babysit a resident's baby, supervised a resident in quarantine, went to a consignment sale, took a resident to the dentist, ran a few grocery shopping trips, and other general randomness around campus. 

We had moments of quietness to just play and have fun.  

wild child

:) 

making some yummy pumpkin muffins

Then, one day we attempted to take Gideon and Aurelia's pictures.  It took quite a while, but we did get some pretty good ones. 

such a pretty little girl :)

my handsome boy

goofs

ornery 

this is what most of the pictures look like

these two :)

just reading books. :)

Then, we got called to go in to Pine again for a few days. 

playing the hilarious game of Charty Party (censored edition)

back with their residents :)

Gideon and Aurelia had their yearly checkups. It was quiet the chaotic situation.  

Gideon became shy and didn't want to show the doctor anything he knew how to do. Aurelia however, wanted to. She was jumping and counting, and singing. So then, Gideon joined it.  They were also mopping the floor with their bellies... 

This is how you use a skateboard

helping me in the food room

playing in the rain :)

Gideon celebrated his fourth birthday!  He got to have his birthday at Pine house this year. 

He wanted a tractor cake. :)

opening presents

One afternoon, I took the girl and Gideon and Aurelia to the park. 

They all had fun

:)

I spent an afternoon making a birthday cake for a resident.  She requested a turtle cake. After teasing that I would make a cake that looked like a turtle, we agreed on this:

Chocolate cake, caramel, pecans, chocolate ganache drizzle,  and caramel frosting...

Back off duty and at Maple house, we got to break out some of Gideon's birthday presents. 

The train track, duplos, and marble run can all connect now.

what a mess...haha

stickers and cocoa :)

look at that face. 

she put a tutu on her head...

We pulled out my ice cream maker one night...:)

Then, we took a long weekend to Illinois. 

First we visited the Brakers.

game playing

Tanners Apple Orchard

Then we made it to the farm. 

Grandpa is well loved

and so is grandma :)

poor grandpa

We of course had to see the cows again

it was cold

computer games with the Kochs

and Legos :)

Emmy read them a book

We made a stop at Grandpa and Grandma's

:)

And, then we went back home. 

more Legos :)

We weren't back long before we got called to go on at Pine again. Covid hit again, and we were needed to fill in. 

It was a pretty rough time on. Seven residents (who don't generally have the best emotional health) stuck in the house, together, for an unknown amount of time (as each one got sick, the quarantine potentially extended) was basically a real life Lord of the Flies situation.  They were bored, on edge, sick, and down right cranky. 

I spent the majority of the days we were on dealing with crisis after crisis. An attempted Halloween party became nothing when no time remained to plan and  the kid's costumes didn't get done until the next week. 

When things got really crazy, we called in for back up. Thankfully due to Seth and Hannah's symptoms being very mild, no positive tests on their end, and a resident having a positive test (now we knew the residents had been exposed anyway) they came in to help us over the weekend.  Still, with the four of us, one night required Jeff and a couple of the counselors to come in/call in to get the residents calm and safe. 

I prayed a lot that night. And sent out a few texts for prayers.  It was a hard experience but it was good experience. 

The hardest part for me was not having time for our kids and knowing they were suffering. Thankfully, all of the combined factors make our situation very rare. Hopefully, we will not have to deal with the same thing again. 

We had a few calm days on and then got to go back to Maple and rest. 

And that brings us to the end of October. 

In Christ

~Michelle