Life

I've had several people ask me why the heck I haven't updated my blog in over a month. In a nutshell, our weekly schedule has become quite busy. The girls have music class on Tuesdays, and Liesl and I have been taking Suzuki violin lessons on Wednesdays. I took an interpreting assignment from 6:00 -10:30 p.m. on Tuesdays, and I recently finished a 4-week Wilton cake decorating class at Michael's. I was also rehearsing and preparing for my shadow interpreting role in "Roland the Minstrel Pig" with Wild Swan Theater, which opened this morning. There have been lots other activities as well: Mom's club events, birthday parties, Oktoberfest at our church, and the like.

So between packing and bundling up the kids and driving to all these activities, and also practicing my violin 30-40 minutes a day (usually with the girls at my feet), plus those annoying requirements like cleaning, paying bills, and doing laundry--my Internet time has decreased significantly! However, the activities are both educational and fun, and the extra money that my work brings in is very welcome with the higher costs of food, gas, and our new extracurricular schedule.

There have also been difficulties, illnesses, and problems--as I'm sure all families encounter. Tom is working feverishly on his 1995 Impala SS so that we can get it running, out of the garage, and possibly up for sale...but the best part of that would be I could finally park my van in the garage, making it easier and safer to load and unload the kids and all of their gear. We've also lost electricity several times, long enough for it to be a concern and an inconvenience; had leaks in the kitchen sink and the roof, meaning we had to stop everything to do repairs; and have been concerned about the economy and the future of Tom's employment at General Motors. We weather the storms, but there have been some rough times in our home as well.

Even though the traditional harvest season is September, our gardens are still hemorrhaging fresh produce for us. Tom harvests raspberries about every other day, and then weighs them...we have been getting about 2 pounds of raspberries (yes, I said pounds) at every harvest. Liesl's new nickname is "raspberry monster," seeing that she eats about 1 full cup of raspberries with her lunch or dinner every day. We usually eat 3-4 bell peppers per day, and we give a lot of them away to family as well. The tomato plants are not as tall as they have been in previous years, but they still continue to produce tons of fruit. We are ready to make salsa for canning...if we could just get someone to watch our kids as we weigh, dice, cook, and can. Any takers?

Liesl and Ava have both had many milestones. Liesl had her first haircut, in which I watched rather than focused on taking totally perfect pictures, so the photo record is quite limited. She is also riding her bike, a two-wheeler with training wheels, all by herself. She is dressing herself more, though it usually takes 10 times as long as it would if I did it myself. (Still, that's why I decided to stay home.) Darling little Ava has 4 teeth, is walking (tentatively, having never really had a "cruising" stage), and signs furiously when we are not quick enough to give her more cheese at mealtimes. She is saying some words, we think, but we are not quite sure.

Between my show, my work, the girls' activities, harvesting/canning, and several birthday parties during October (hint: guess who will be 1 year old at the end of the month...I'm going to cry), I probably won't update the blog as much as I used to. Things will settle down a bit in November (I hope.)

Thank you for thinking of us and stopping by. Pictures soon!