I have the greatest...

...family! The story behind the line is: the winters around here can be tough. We got stuck on our township road Saturday, Sunday and Kevin did on his way to work today. My dad even came and cleared 4 miles of township road yesterday so Kevin could go to work today and Kevin still got stuck. Well, Jordan missed symphony last night and has another practice tonight, this is her big week with a world-famous violinist Midori and if you don't attend practices you don't play at concerts and there are four concerts this week. My brother is now here clearing the driveway and township road again and my dad says he'll take her to her practice! What a huge blessing this is for us! As you can see they have the "big" machinery to do the job. It also makes really large snow hills for the kids to have fun on. Unfortunately for the kids they forget to put their sleds away before each snow clearing so there are a couple sleds under the pile of snow.

Love notes...

I Love You Steph 7-24-96

This one is on the inside lid of a cooler Kevin had before we got married, we still have it.

I LOVE YOU BUN! 5-24-05

This one is on my metal cabinet with the things I used when I taught preschool once upon a time. I used to go into it several times a day. Bun is a nickname Kev has for me that comes from Love bunny from our dating years. The yellow one next to it says "Hi Beautiful"

Mr. Blazek Loves Mrs. Blazek!

This is written on the plastic wrap to our soaked oatmeal that we had for breakfast today. The kids had a real kick out of that! :)

I have a dozen or more notes that I saved over the years. I try to date them (if Kevin didn't already) and keep them, sort of as my "happy" thoughts. I like to run into them once in awhile so I try to keep them in the original place. The crumb tray of our old toaster used to say "I love you Steph", but, I didn't see it for a long time because I didn't open the crumb tray much. One of the kids found it a long time after. We celebrated our proposal anniversary date with Chinese food from the place where Kevin proposed. They moved to a new location but my wonderful sister-in-law picked it up for me and we ate just the two of us.

February 4th, 1989

I looked back to last year's post on this day and I did write on the significance of today. I wrote the date today and it hit me that this is again the day Kevin proposed to me 21 years ago. I don't think a thing of it until I write the date. The kids want us to go out to eat Chinese since that's where he proposed so long ago. I'm pretty sure he's working a bit late and we have to drive Jordan every day this next week for symphony practice and three concerts so I'm not interested in driving somewhere tonight. So, I came up with a perfect solution; my sister-in-law works in town and she's going to pick up some Chinese food to go for us and if I have this right it is the same restaurant but different location as where Kevin proposed. I texted Kevin and said "the answer to the question is yes." "Do you know the question?" He had already thought of it! :) He thinks like me, celebrate all the anniversaries or at least recognize them.

A happier day it is too. Isaac was weighed yesterday and he is more than 20 pounds heavier than last year around this time. He still shows no blood! Praise the Lord! A really great thing to shout about is Caleb's maturing as a reader. He finished a whole section in AWANA in one night, there are 7 sections in one whole section and he worked real hard to say 8 long verses and finish all the other writing assignments for it. He really did the work on his own a little each day. I have had such a fight with him in this area. He is also reading a Hardy Boys chapter book on his own and finds it very interesting. He has struggled as a reader and I love seeing him come out of that and enjoy reading like most the rest of us.

Lunch...

Our Azure order came yesterday! Apples (40 lbs), pears (22 lbs), onions (50 lbs), carrots (50 lbs), avocados (70 count), and peanut butter (15 lbs)! For our family this is a time saver. My grocery cart is simple during the week; lettuce, bananas, spinach, hamburger, and a few other things. When Azure comes we feast for about a month on some tasty fruits and veggies, cheeses and more.

Today, lunch is partly Azure; half of an apple (looks like more than half, doesn't it?), peanut butter with only salt added bought in a 15 pound pail (no hydrogenated stuff or sugar and tastes just as good, according to my kids), avocados (only 2 kids don't like them and I got 70 of them for almost 1/2 the price of the grocery store and anytime I said Isaac was eating avocados to a doctor they "oohed" a little so you know they are good because they didn't get excited about much), home made bread made partly with home ground wheat with egg salad made with a bit of mayo mixed with home made yogurt and a bit of chopped onion for those who liked. I may have wrote the trick about yogurt that I learned from Karma before. It makes the mayo go a bit further and the kids can't taste the difference. I can't taste the difference and that's a big deal.

One meal down and many more to go :) I have supper figured out though: Chicken and rice soup made with home made chicken stock, left-over rice, left-over chicken, some of the carrots we just got with soaked grain bread where I soaked the wheat 24 hours in yogurt. I hope it turns out. I'm about to go work on it.

Check out Azure for a delivery site near you. The apples and pears last us all month. The pears were $19 for 22 pounds. The Brae burn apples were $18.80 for 20 pounds and Fuji apples were $19.60 for 20 pounds. As you can see it is much cheaper than the grocery stores prices when they are on sale.

Happy Birthday....

Happy Birthday to Isaac! Isaac turned 12 yesterday! He had been counting down the days for some time. He is nearly a teenager! Today, Isaac spent the day with his dad and a friend and his son at his Lego league competition. They had to leave at 6:30 a.m. so it was nice to see them off and go back to bed. Jana and I did the leg work getting them to all the meetings so the dads got to have some of the fun seeing the finished work. You can go on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7RfGYArgks to watch their skit they performed for the judges today.

Isaac looks so good compared to his last birthday. He had a really good day. I took him to the library which was his only real request. We went to Scheels where he played one shooting game and rode the Ferris Wheel with Emily and Caleb. I splurged and bought 2 roasts for supper with carrots, celery and cabbage cooked several hours, mmm! We made an apple dessert that he enjoyed made very much, like apple crisp with no sugar. The topping was honey, peanut butter, butter, baking soda, egg and vanilla mixed well and poured on top of the apples and baked. You can eat simply and have it still taste good.

Funny coincidence...

We were in the library again this week and a woman asked us if we home schooled. It seems us home schoolers can spot each other so easily and I wasn't even wearing a jean skirt. I guess it's the 7 kids (Jordan was in symphony) that were so very quietly going about their business. One other thing about home schoolers is the comments we get on how polite our children are and well-behaved. I just smile and think, "Have you got that wrong!" They haven't followed me all over Wal-Mart with six kids before. I am worn out by the end of it. I realize how little control I have over them in that situation. Or bedtime, or getting up time, etc. Anyway, we talked some and she home schools her one child, Frank. When we were getting ready to leave I went to say good-bye and she wanted to exchange information like email and phone (this is typical home school fashion also). She would like to get together sometime. At that moment I really looked at her and said, "Have you been to our house before?" We met a family with a little boy named Frank 3 or 4 years ago at the Jamestown Buffalo and the mom and boy ended up coming over for the day to see the animals and play. Can you believe it was the very same person? What a small world! We had gotten together the one time and didn't keep in touch since.

Praise God for no blood again today for Isaac! Praise that I'm feeling more myself. The hormone thing had me up and down emotionally for about 2 1/2 weeks, my poor family. I really changed my diet and exercise every day. I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow morning, which also happens to be Isaac's birthday. He is coming along with Caleb so we can go to the library afterwards. I hope to find some other fun thing to do for him on his 12th birthday as a celebration of how well he is doing.