Terry makes a lot of mochas around here with his espresso machine. Most days Evie asks him to make her a hot chocolate with it. But recently she's wanted one every single day and has had to learn to make them herself in the microwave. She enjoys making them so much that she has been saying she wants to own her own hot chocolate shop when she grows up. I love that she didn't say she wanted to work at one, but that she wants to own her own shop.
In addition, I think this desire originates from the doll tea party set she received for Christmas. She likes to pretend to make drinks for her dolls. It doesn't hurt that the littles want her hot chocolate every day. She just loves it. And so do they.
At the end of the school year it's always gratifying to look back through all we've accomplished. I wanted that same feeling throughout the year so I decided to keep track of what we do every day (more or less).
I also wanted a more accurate record of everything that we do. This is what I came up with. I wish I could do it digitally, but haven't found a system I like. At the end of the year I plan to make a list of all the books we've read which will help me choose books in the future.
It's been continually beautiful outside since the end of February so we've been able to be pretty active outside. The day after I fell on my face we all went for a bike ride.
Terry ran and we followed him along the bike path on our bikes. I pulled the two littles and got a decent workout. When we were about to turn around we ran into Terry's old boss from CT, Ron.
It was so fun! Terry ran five miles and then I took a turn (three miles) while the kids played at Sioux Park.
The following day I went mountain biking with Denise, Jazmin, and David. After only a mile or two my bike snatched up a rotten branch and it broke my derailer hanger. I couldn't ride anymore! David tried to hang the chain up with a zip tie, a rubber glove, and finally a strap (which Jazmin is searching for in her bag).
His rubber glove attempt.
David carried my bike out and I rode Jazmin's new bike while she rode his. He still nearly beat me out of there. I'm so slow. The funny thing was that after I left, when they went to finish their ride, Denise's bike broke next! They went to David's house to fix it and then rode a very quick ride up Skyline Drive in time to view the sunset. Bummer that I missed that!
So... I fell on my face while running two weeks ago. Yeah.
I have prominent cheekbones, but not that big. I'll leave it right there and assume you can see where I hit my face.
Owie! It's been nearly two weeks and there's still a little nodule on my cheekbone that hurts when I touch it. Lucky I didn't break my face.
And though I cried after my fall (due to the humiliation), now it makes me smile and laugh because I keep thinking of Kuzco from The Emperor's New Groove. "My face! My beautiful, beautiful face!...Llama face!" HAHAHAHAHA! Yeah, that was me. ;)
Earlier that day we had been to the park and since the weather was absolutely gorgeous for the end of February, I decided to imitate Terry and go for a run (we are racing in a half marathon in June). I had just started out and was cruising along fast, going downhill at the very end of our street when my right toe caught a piece of broken sidewalk and I flew. I literally flew. I was going so fast that I couldn't catch myself with my left foot and my hands took the brunt of my weight. Because of the speed my arms couldn't absorb all of energy involved in my flight. Therefore, my left cheekbone also hit the sidewalk. Ow! When I got up the first thing I saw was that my over-the-ear headphones had been knocked off my ears. Then I turned over and saw I had gravel all over my legs from this broken sidewalk area.
Road rash on my legs. It's a nice purple color now.
Next I noticed my hands really hurt. Road rash to my left hand. That's nearly healed two weeks later.
My other hand was the most painful though. I had sheared off the edge my thumbnail completely. This thing still smarts.
The worst part of it wasn't the physical pain, but the emotional pain. My accident happened in front of a street full of after school traffic. We live down the street from a large high school and both lanes of traffic were full of students. They all saw me! I'm sure it would have been rather hilarious in a Funniest Home Videos kind of way. But at the time I was mortified and angry. I was so embarrassed. I don't ever hardly cry over pain but I sure did after this.
I patched myself back up, calmed down, and went out again to complete my run. I went for four miles! Take that sidewalk and onlookers!
A week and a half ago we were at the new downtown park, loving the 60 degree February weather. Every winter I forget how Rapid City has a large number of unseasonably warm days. I'm very thankful for these reprieves from the cold though of course I can't wait for summer.
I turned around and was surprised to see these little plants sprouting up. It seems spring is coming early!
I am not so crafty. I pretty much detest all things crafty. Therefore, if anyone wants to paint or cut or glue, it mostly has to be self-initiated. Evie appears to have figured this out. A couple weeks ago I came upstairs while doing school with Noah and discovered Evie had got out the paints, newspapers, papers, paintbrushes, and rinse water all on her own initiative. And not only for herself, but for both the littles too! Granted, there may have been some messy shirts, but I was okay with that. She's a good girl. Hey, can anyone tell what Samuel's favorite color is (times four!)? He he he.
I was just visiting with a friend today about how the parents of today seem to give themselves a much harder time than in previous generations. Maybe that's not true, but it seems like there's pressure (even if I put it on myself) to be all Pinteresty. I have no desire to be Pinteresty. And that's okay! You go for it Evie.
Yesterday she made a blinged out dragon from a craft book a friend gave her. Not bad! I didn't have to do a thing besides clean up her glue mess. That's what I'm talking about.
Halfway through February Terry and and army of helpers filled our entire church sanctuary with a box maze. As you can see, it was huge and took a lot of work to complete. We were all at the church all day Sunday and Monday. But after that, it was essentially finished.
Since Terry had so many helpers, he was able to be home in the evenings during construction (as opposed to the last two mazes when he worked all day and night) and we were able to hang out together as a family. I celebrated this fact with our favorite meal of spiral sandwiches and cheese soup. Mmmmm.
That evening (Tuesday) after dinner, Ezra was on my lap before bedtime looking through the Lord of the Rings library book Noah had checked out the day before. When he got to the Galadriel photo he said, "That's mommy!" I was feeling pretty good about his comparison until we got to the Gimli photo and he again said, "Mommy!" Good feeling gone.
One morning Ezra was all cute, reading to himself.
"Me too mommy!"
Noah read the blog to his siblings one night. That's one of the good things about keeping the blog going - the kids really enjoy reading about themselves. It's their own narrative!
Ezra took his first ride on the Strider bike. My kids are all getting so big!
One morning Terry read the littles so many books he put himself to sleep. Noah's just snuggling.
Wednesday evening Noah started feeling like he had a cold. By Thursday he felt pretty terrible. He was laid out on a couch in the church lobby while everyone else went through the box maze. By the following morning, he had a temperature of 103.9. I was at work and had Terry bring him in to be checked out. He had Influenza A! We got him some Tamiflu and he was feeling much better the following day. I could tell because he was back to being all squirrelly and annoying me.
For some reason Evie felt so sorry for her brother and on her own initiative she made him a card. When I finally got around to reading it later that night it cracked me up. It says, "Share a smile, not the flu." Ha!
Overall, we had a really good week during the box maze!
In the fall of 2012 was the first box maze that Terry constructed for an outreach at church. It was such a hit that he did it again the fall of 2013. However, it was such a huge amount of work that he took a break after that.
One problem was that the maze had taken place just before the already incredibly busy time of the Fall Retreat. The other reason, to be honest, was that I was just not a fan of the box maze. Terry had to work a ton of overtime hours and it was difficult for me to homeschool and parent all on my own (plus Ezra was a baby and I'm sure that made it worse). It is actually easier for him to be out of town and unaccessible than for him to be at work all hours of the day and night. I couldn't take the strain. So he took a year off, reevaluated, and decided to try it during the empty month of February over a three day weekend when he'd hopefully have more help from students out of school. He kept reassuring me that he'd worked out everything so it would be a lot less work than the previous two mazes, but I was somewhat skeptical. I had my token freak-out weeks before but didn't have any problem during the week of the actual construction. He did a fantastic job of planning and more help than ever before. Thank the Lord!!!
So after church on Sunday February 14 they got started. Here are the students bringing in the boxes from the two sheds. All 220 (!) that Terry collected from Karls, Sears, Lowes, and Fishers.
After a lunch of Little Caesars pizza, Terry gave everyone a tutorial on how to connect and secure boxes together.
Another reason the box maze went so much smoother and faster this year was because Terry and Zeb worked out a plan beforehand. The last two times they just winged it as they went along. Terry put a couple of the adult leaders, like David, in charge.
Even I wasn't supposed to know the secret of the box maze exit. Steven was cooperating with my desire to take a photo but David put his hand in the way.
So with some leaders in charge everyone got to work.
I put Ezra to bed in a pack and play in the nursery and Samuel said he wanted to rest. I think he was just playing though since he didn't sleep. Cute though.
Denise and Jazmin were zip tying buds.
Noah and the other little kids had a lot of fun in and out of the construction zone.
Coming along...
By 5pm that evening we had come so far.
Talk about progress for only one afternoon! We even got to go home and have dinner together!
The following day, Monday, was President's Day and Terry had helpers for the entire day. That had never been the case before and it was a game changer because they completed just about everything! The students and Terry worked on completing the actual box maze portion and several adults constructed the secret exit, pictured here surrounded by a huge black tarp-like drape to ensure privacy. Last time it was primarily only Terry and David working on the exit. This year it was Danny, Jason, David, Steven, and Zeb! They were amazing!
You can see here a bridge of sorts, which is one of the things the guys worked on, but it was not the secret exit. The exit was to the left of the bridge under the black tarp. The exit was a flap in the ceiling!!! Ridiculous! NO ONE would have found it without hints because the older students have to go through without light of any kind - even their cell phones are taken away.
Here is an improved map of the maze. The ceiling exit slid underneath the bridge landing. I don't have a photo of it, but there is video of it at the end of this post.
Wednesday finally came and Terry was more ready than he'd ever been. Here he is giving the many leader helpers directions.
Jaz and Denise prepare to go in.
The Awana kids received their glowsticks and set out to find their way through. There's Evie!
Aly.
Evie again.
A leader, John, peeking around a corner.
Natasha, one of our students leaders wrote a lot of misleading directions and silly things in the maze, not that anyone would see them. ;)
My job was to be a photographer. The kids were getting annoyed that I kept flashing my camera at them. Natasha was also a photographer and snapped this picture of Noah finding me.
Jazmin's whole family was represented in the maze. Here's Jenna.
Natasha caught the moment and Denise and I were reunited (we crawled around together in the beginning).
Natasha and I were lost in some far corner of the maze and found and stuck with each other. We took pictures of each other in our own corners.
Here's my shot of her. We found our way out in the end, Natasha clutching my foot the whole way.
Kiley got a flash surprise. Ha!
Lindsey was another photographer and I just think she looks so pretty here.
Denise again. We had a lot of fun in there.
Here come the minion hoards!
Shekinah and Evie.
I'm on the bridge landing and Halle is coming up one side. Notice the glowstick behind her taped to the ceiling? That was so no one would hurt themselves on the bridge.
Noah again. He had started feeling ill that afternoon and by Friday woke with a temperature of 103.9. He had Influenza A!
Jazmin's youngest sister, Jada.
I love this photo. Hannah and her friends laughing about the camera flash.
I love this one of Sarah too.
Jazmin's final sibling, Jake, seemed to be asking for help.
Jonah walked bent over like that as often as he could. Can't blame him. My knees were quite sore on the second night (the maze was open Wednesday through Friday).
Here is the video Terry made for church. David contributed a time lapse video from his Go-Pro camera of the construction and tear down. It's amazing.
So thankful was I for all the help Terry had, especially from the guys who constructed the secret exit since it was the most work, that I made them all cookies.
I'm so thankful for all the help! Incredibly grateful!
I originally started this blog at the dawn of social media, in 2008, after we moved away from home and the second of four children were born. I wanted to share and keep track of our lives. I wanted a record and I loved it. I lost hope, ten years later, of ever recovering from a mountain of puppy pictures and I gave up writing. But now, in 2026, we have moved to Taiwan to be missionaries and I have resurrected my blog. I have always been an archivist and now endeavor to keep another record...and perhaps share my Eva-thoughts, here too.
