Kleins

Kleins

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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Life in the teens

Well, we are slowly making the adjustment to thirteen children. You know what they say, "The first twelve are easy..."

Actually, of course, it is an adjustment when a new blessing arrives, no matter what the number (the first one was our biggest adjustment!). I think Mommy is the one who has the most adjusting to do, getting around more slowly, lots of snuggle breaks are mandatory to keep the little guy fed, diapered, etc. We are enjoying baby Joshie, and he is doing wonderfully. We will slap up a bunch of photos soon, Lord willing. There is still a line of siblings waiting to hold him, including every single brother.

We are all adjusting, however, to getting our house back together after basically moving back in right before his arrival. Little by little, inch by inch. Mommy is squeezing as much performance out of her brain cells as possible -- thinking through where to put stuff. The kitchen cabinets are about 70 percent usable, which is a blessing. We have gotten all the kitchen/school/misc storage out of the girls' room finally, plus we gave them an additional cabinet for their own storage, and and extended closet rod.

We have shuffled our early morning schedule a bit more, so we are squeezing in a bit more work after schoolish pursuits in the morning. If school is considered preparation for adulthood, then the whole day would be schoolish. Organizing, classifying, gardening, building, breaking & repairing and trying to work together.

Our most recent cause for thanksgiving is a new job for Dave!!! Wow, we are so thankful to the LORD for this. The job is based in St. Louis, but the employer is allowing him to work from home until our house here is sold, so no relocation is imminent. Dave had has many years of experience working from home, prior to our move back to Wisconsin, and he was able to keep his clients and family happy. We are trusting with God's help this will be the case with this new job. So, soon we will let up on the early morning schedule, as he will not be doing the two hour daily commute...thank you Lord.

As I type, all but Joshua and I are outside enjoying lunch and a game of Occupation.

Giddy has fallen into a rut of calling himself "Noseman" for each game of Occupation, so he is usually the first one out. But he isn't sad; he watches the rest of the action as if he were at Wimbledon.

He will be 4 next month. For his birthday, we found an awesome tool. We don't really buy toys for any of the children anymore. All the little guys are gearing up for "Leaf Journey" season, when the ground is covered in leaves. They stretch out a tarp and make a big pile in the center, and then everyone grabs a corner and hauls it off to the compost pile. But the fun doesn't stop there, no, because they have to figure out how to get the leaves to the top of the hill. And I haven't even touched on jumping in the leaves. Anyway, they now make these big plastic scoops, which look like big frying pan lids (with handles). I guess more like cymbals, with teeth on one side. First of all, they look fun. More importantly, Giddy with a rake is not a good safety risk.

However, the leaves are already changing color and falling. We may have to make it an early birthday present, as October 23 is still pretty far away.

More later.