monday monday...

Mirielle, this post is for you! Aaron and Margaret wanted to bake today. So badly that Aaron went shopping with me to get some heavy cream and sugar. Then they made this cake. The picture shows what it is SUPPOSED to look like. Here they are savoring all the icing that dripped off the plate onto the counter. Margaret was hilarious, she paused and said, "I got a crumb from the counter..." The kids tease me because whenever they make something, I say it is the best ever. I am not exactly a tough judge of baked goods. This cake, though, was delectable. Mirielle, maybe I will freeze a piece for you. If I were to make this cake, next time I would forego the rich chocolate icing on top and replace it with a vanilla buttercream, light and fluffy to balance out all those chocolate layers. The cake-part is light and airy and almost like a sweet waffle. mmmm.

Jonathan took some picture today. This is our counter from the bench where Jon eats.

Benjamin came stopped home from work for lunch. Jon took this one, too. Isn't our counter wonderful?

Today was quite a day. (I thought that Charlotte Claire and Camille were playing with the bigger girls. So I wasn't watching them. Then I checked, and they weren't with them. Jon found them: in my shower. They decided to take a shower. They spilled and poured soap and body wash and shampoo, and they were clean and soapy. My bathroom was soaked. And I had that awful feeling that something bad could have happened. I cannot assume they are being watched, (we know what happens when we assume, eh?)(ass-you-me) (sorry) anyway, I was shook up. I usually know where Ms. Camille is at all times...and because the older kids were here, and they had been playing with them alot, I slacked off. I am glad they were okay, but...anyway, I was not thrilled at the mess, either. I told them that it was a very bad thing to do.....) Well, I was determined to make pumpkin muffins today. I couldn't decide whether to do that, or go shopping for the candy for next weekend's church conference. I decided to stay home. When I began to gather the ingredients, I discovered we were almost out of sugar. So Aaron and I took Sonja, and off we went. Joseph was here, and Margaret was going to put Camille in for her nap. Charlotte Claire took one too. First we went to the dollar store, then BJ's, which is a warehouse store. They had some good coupons. For example, a big box of HoneyNut Cheerios ($2.29 a pound), for $6.99 a box, and get a free 4 pack of Toaster Strudel,( $5.99. ) And a ten dollar off coupon for some Kraft cheese which meant 8 pounds of cheddar cheese for $18. And $170 worth of candy for next weekend.

Home again home again jiggety-jig. I was SO ready to put the groceries away, have a bit of lunch, and relax a bit with a cup of coffee. But Mali called from Mel's house and needed to be picked up. Mel lives about 13 miles away. Not too bad, but when I got to Mel's house, her mom said the girls had gone to Rachel's, another mile away. I went over there and got her, then stopped back at Mel's for her stuff, and back home. Camille was up from her nap, and it was busy time. Time to start dinner and take care of lots of things. But this is my life, and I like it fine.

Sherah asked about our house. I wrote about this a bit ago, but since I am computer-ly illiterate, I do not know how to reference past posts or anything. So this is what our house is like. Let me start by saying that I am thankful for our house. We lived in a mobile home with 5 kids, and could not afford a house. Then my father gave us a small bit of money to help with a down payment, and we started looking around. The ones in our price range needed work. Or were too small. So my brother Bob, who had built his house, and my brother Tom's house, offered to build us one. This was a huge huge love offering from my brothers. They literally gave up almost a year of their lives to give us this house. I am ever and ever thankful for them and for their wives who stayed home with lots of kids so they could build it. The house is a raised ranch style, with the back of the house all open, as opposed to the front of the house, which is partly in the ground. The windows in the downstairs front are rather small, and the rooms are rather basement-y. The upstairs has the living room/kitchen area, the laundry room, then three bedrooms and the bathroom. (and a bathroom for Paul and I). The downstairs has five bedrooms, a bathroom, and a utility room (furnace room). When we built it, we had 5 kids, were expecting number six when we moved in. We didn't expect to use all the rooms downstairs as bedrooms, but that is what they are. Two of them have no closets. One of them is also a storage room because we have no garage (except for one of those tent-like structures for the mower and lawn chairs). So this one room has the Christmas decorations and tents and coolers and tools and paints and all that fun stuff. It is in one end of Joseph's room. Oh, the big freezer is in there, too. Joseph and Samuel share that room now. It is large, but only half is really bedroom. The other big bedroom downstairs is shared by Mirielle, Margaret, and Kathryn. Then Abigail and Mali share a room that also has a sauna in it. We put that in long ago when it was used like a playroom, we called it "the sauna room"....so it is not roomy. Then across the hall is Benjamin's room. He needs his own room. No offense to Ben, but no one wants to room with him. Nothing personal. Then Aaron has his own room, since Sam moved in with Joseph. When Emily comes back, she will probably move back in with Joseph. Aaron's room has a cool loft system to sleep in that Paul built though, so they have room under for his drums and all his stuff. Upstairs, Paul and I have one of the rooms shared with Camille, Charlotte Claire has another that also stores all the toys (and baby items that I can probably start weeding out), and the third room is shared by Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, and Jonathan. It is tight. But Charlotte Claire's room doesn't have room for one more bed. I am thinking that someday I might replace her crib with bunkbeds for her and Camille. I don't want to send the little ones downstairs. It seems safer to keep them up where I am. When Ben moves out though, maybe Kathryn and Evelyn can move in there. So we have lots of rooms. But the downstairs is - well, it is a downstairs. I wish we had built it different so half the house wasn't basement-like, but this is how it is, and I have to remember to be thankful. I have a clear memory of when we first moved in, 17 years ago, and I was sweeping the floor and just humming with thankfulness that we actually had a house. Our own house. It was a struggle to build, because my brothers and Paul worked full time and only worked on the house on Saturdays, and every night after work. We only saw each other on Sundays, unless I packed up the five small kids, oldest one seven, and visited him at the building site. I remember doing everything myself that year, and how it was a bit difficult when he was around, like on Sundays, and did things differently. Anyway...

We have a house. It isn't a mansion, it is a big plain square box of a house. But it is ours, and it fits us, and it is our home. I am thankful for it.