On Thursday, November 19, we had another baking day for the church cookie walk. Olivia and Gretchen went to visit some friends and Kaitlyn, Jacque, and I spent the day with the ladies from church making dozens and dozens of cookies. I had tried to get a head start on the spritz cookies I was making by whipping up a double batch a few days before, but I did math poorly and accidentally omitted just under half the butter. I did not realize my mistake until I was creating my shopping list, but trustworthy taste testers later told me that the difference was noticeable. Jacque and I were in charge of Spritz, Austrian chocolate balls, and coconut macaroons. We finished mixing everything and baking all the spritz and half the chocolate balls before it was time to leave. We picked up the older girls, went home to eat dinner, and then finished baking the macaroons and started dipping everything in chocolate.
Friday was supposed to be dedicated to finishing the last of the cookies and packing for the trip to Florida, but I got sick. I spent all day in bed with a fever of 100 while Jacque and Bryan got things together. Jacque finished some of the cookies, Bryan offloaded the rest on Elesha, and I struggled to make lists of things to not forget. By bedtime, my fever had gone down enough for me to help finish packing and we decided we were as ready as we were going to get.
Saturday we were up at five and out the door with everyone by six. One benefit of my previous day's sickness was that I was incredibly well rested, so I took the wheel while Bryan and Jacque catnapped a bit more. The trip down to Florida was a mini vacation in and of itself: we made a two day trip of it and stopped for leisurely meals along the way. The girls liked going to all the restaurants, especially when we managed to find one with a play place. By the end of the trip, though, Kaitlyn had come to loath the part where she got strapped back into her seat.
The week in Florida was wonderfully warm and free from obligations. We went on walks, took pictures, played at the park, sat around and talked, and generally relaxed. Bryan took Olivia and Gretchen to brave the swimming pool on the warmest day, but they only made it about five minutes before deciding that it was too cold. The Bossards got adjoining rooms at a nearby hotel with us, so we stuck all the kids on one side and put the adults on the other side. This arrangement worked remarkably well and allowed the adults to stay awake longer. :) Every morning we partook of the complimentary breakfast (usually later than the Bossards did) before heading over to the house to see everyone. Olivia and Gretchen were especially impressed with the range of breakfast choices. Almost all of the extended family was able to make it for at least a little bit (and we have a picture to prove it!), so we got to visit with relatives that we see about once a decade. Too bad we're so spread out. All in all an enjoyable week, though by bedtime Friday we were ready to pile in the car and head home to Ohio.
The trip home was a little more crowded because we brought Rianne and Titus with us. Before leaving Lima, we had switched the middle seat of our van with the backseat of Presbyera's van so as to have enough space for everyone. We packed the carseats into the newly extended middle and made the adults crawl in through the trunk. This meant that on the way down the backseat adult got to stretch out. On the way back, however, the three backseat adults just had to sleep piled up on each other. :) We managed, though, and it was wonderful to have five drivers. We left just after 7 at night and pulled into our driveway 18 1/2 hours later. For future trip planning, total drive time did include a stop for breakfast. Through some fancy finagling, Rianne and Titus (who flew to Florida) had left their car in Indianapolis with the parents of a couple that goes to church with us here in Lima. When Jon and Elesha went to visit his parents over Thanksgiving, they brought the car back with them. We had not planned things down to the last detail, so we had no idea what time the car would be returning to us. Rianne cobbled together a church outfit from various sources (Jacque's dress and my boots, maybe?), and Titus decided that as a South Dakotan he could go out in our mild winter dressed in khaki shorts. We dropped them off early at church, went to our service, and picked them up late, but at least they got quality time together. :-P I think they spent the extra time designing honeycomb bunk beds. The car returned around 6 and they headed out to Fort Wayne, leaving just our family and Jacque to... pack for Sidney!
After a brief pit stop to exchange seats back, we were on our way to Sidney because Bryan needed to be in Springfield all week. Keshia and Rudy were visiting for the week, too, so we spent time playing with them. Rudy was surprised by the amount of noise coming from her cousins. Olivia and Gretchen were surprised that Rudy was not comforted by shrieks and loud noises. By the end of the week they were all used to each other. :) On Tuesday, Keshia watched the older girls while Kaitlyn and I took Jacque down to sign the contract for the part she got in Dayton. Contract signing accomplished, we stopped at the store for supplies, tied a rag around my now missing windshield wiper (somehow they got tangled up during normal use and one snapped off), and headed to the bus station where Jacque left us to head back to Chicago.
Oh, something I forgot to mention: I have up to two weeks to finish and ship a set of snapkins. When we left for Florida, I had zero orders, so I figured any orders that I got I could work on during the week in Sidney. As we drove down on Saturday and Sunday, I received 4 orders, the second of which was for SIX rolls. By the time we left Florida, I had twelve rolls of snapkins to make. The good news is that I already had most of the material cut out. I did, however, spend much of the week in Sidney sewing.
On Wednesday night, Bryan's parents put the kids to bed so that we could go Christmas shopping at the Dayton mall. We got most of it done, despite the fact that we didn't realize that there was a second floor until we were leaving at closing time. Keshia and Rudy left Friday morning and the baking powder dusting (see last week's pictures) happened later that day. At some point I made no-bake cookies for the cookie walk. After dinner on Friday, we packed up to go home again. We stopped by Elesha's to pick up the cookies she'd rolled for me so that I could bake and frost them. The girls were transferred to beds, I baked and sewed, and Bryan cut out wrapping paper for all the presents we'd bought. I believe he even wrapped some, although he saved the hard ones for me. :)
Saturday was the cookie walk, so I gathered my cookies and abandoned my family to go "turn cookies into money." That is apparently how Olivia interpreted Bryan's explanation that I was making cookies to sell to raise money for the church. On the way to church I managed to spill most of the yogurt I'd brought for breakfast all over the van. The granola survived, and I salvaged enough yogurt to make a bowl, but there was a mess to clean up when I arrived. :( The cookie walk went very well. We didn't even have to make too many more after it was over (although about 18 pounds were needed to finish filling preorders).
That brings us to last Sunday, which began a normal week. The girls and I tried to remember our daily routine (I think we've almost got it). I had orchestra, but the Christmas pops concert only has two rehearsals, so it didn't mess with our newly recovered way of life much. We now have a week before holiday visitors (and visiting) start.
A brief update on the girls before I let you go:
Kaitlyn has progressed a lot these last few weeks. She can now get from sitting to crawling and back again, pick up small bits of food (but not put them in her mouth with any accuracy), say dada, baba, and mama (without any meaning), imitate sounds made by her sisters (especially the shrieks and growls), cross herself in the arm pumping fashion of many young children, and, as I discovered at naptime on Friday, stand up in her crib. Gracefully getting down from a standing position eludes her.
Gretchen continues to insist on doing everything herself. She's also becoming inclined to ask forgiveness rather than permission, which is a bit of a problem. Frequently we hear, "Sorry mommy and daddy" from random places in the house.
Olivia is the epitome of bossy older sister. There are times when playing between Olivia and Gretchen is really just Olivia playing four different parts while Gretchen holds two of the dolls and follows directions. As they both seem to enjoy this method of play, we haven't done anything to stop it.
My etsy shop is closed for Christmas, so I'm taking a day or two off before I finish the last few Christmas presents. :) The orchestra holiday concert was yesterday, so that's done for a couple of weeks, too.
The weather here has been fantastic for early December. It was in the upper fifties several days this week, and Bryan kept telling us to go outside and enjoy the weather. :)
Pictures:
Olivia, Gretchen, Gideon, and Ephraim happily read (and sit on) all the books they pulled off the shelves:
Bound copies of my blog! This allowed me to cross number 16 off my 30 Before 30 list:
Kaitlyn learned that the train would make noise if she pressed the button:
Showing off her
How did you get the bound copies of your blog? Is that something Google offers or did you have to put them all together? I had once thought about doing that for ours.
ReplyDeleteThere's a site called Blog2Print that does it. I believe they support WordPress. Hold out for a coupon; Black Friday this year was 30% off.
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