The Rowe Tribe

The Rowe Tribe
2012

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

If you missed this at Christmas, here's our update from last year, 2012.  Of course, if you did receive this "snail mail" with our card and it seems a little different, it's because I always remember a few details that somehow get left out, so I've added a few of those in as well as fixed the erroneous numbers (the amount of laundry was off, way off).  Enjoy!

Merry Christmas to you and your family from ours!  The Lord has blessed us and great is our joy!  We hope your heart is close to Him and you are peacefully resting in His spirit this wonderful Christmas season!

Our blessings we hold so dear have brought us more joy than imaginable.  Our baby, whom we all just adore, is a major delight for us all.  We just can’t get enough of her sweetness and cuteness and her, as we call it “100 hairs” which she finally grew last month.  Katharine Ellis, who mainly goes by “baby” loves all of us too.  She learned to walk on New Year’s Day and hasn’t slowed down yet.  She doesn’t talk much but there’s not much opportunity.  She does say a few Spanish words! While still making us laugh with his wit, Jackson is a young first grader, who loves action and movement which pretty much means school isn’t his favorite thing. For he and Harris and Drew, it’s all about cowboys, guns, swords, soldiers, wrestling, trucks, trains, climbing trees and anything slightly dangerous, like walking on the deck railing.  You really haven’t lived until an 8 year old boy uses your mixer beaters like a machine gun (with mashed potatoes) while another comes around the corner bandana covering the face with his cap gun, shouting, “Stick ‘em up!”  Or when you go outside to check on the fort they are building and wonder why one of the boys is very still on the ground for a long time.  Bending down to ask revealed that I had intruded upon a fallen soldier.  “Mommy, I got shot by the ‘Federates’.  This is Bloody Lane” (Ever been to Antietam?  They have!)  Harris and Drew have gotten into chess and like 500 piece puzzles so occasionally it is quieter, but never quiet.  They bring us laughter and just as often try me.  God is perfecting my character through times when football is being played in the front yard and Scott at age 14 and 140 pounds executes a great drive but the other team’s face lands in a brick wall!  Speaking of football that sums up Scott; he eats, breathes, and lives it.  Well along with “his baby” as he calls her.  I have a mental picture I will never forget, a sweaty fully-suited up football player carrying “his baby” on his shoulders after a high school game.  Sarah Kelly and Elizabeth can be be just as wild as the boys when playing with them but they like their calmer time too, to knit, sew, do crafts, and play with dolls.  Sarah Kelly is my right hand and sometimes my left!  She is quite the cook and seamstress.  Elizabeth is really enjoying gymnastics something no one else gets to do but her and loves to play with the baby.  JB and I haven’t changed much, we work hard and play hard and love it all.  We are so incredibly blessed. 

So here is a synopsis of our year, a very general one at that.  While you read the following, keep in mind the stats I took time this year to average:  By the week:  15-18 laundry loads, 3 bread loaves, 4 gallons of milk, 26 gallons of gas, 12 dirty bathrooms (each of our 3 bathrooms are very dirty every 2 days), 20 dishwasher runs; 2 grocery trips; 16 hours of read aloud time;  2 overflowing refrigerators and 2 freezers; 25 diapers; 9 shirts to iron; 10 hours of vacuuming; countless hours of school and work to do for school; 21 times of saying “cierra la puerta!” (shut the door); never enough sleep but always someone to cuddle with.
                                                                                        
2012
We could have said this year was calmer than last which brought our new baby, a new vehicle, a new place to live for the summer, but when we talked about the year in recap?  It’s been just as much of a wild ride as 2011, so I’ll give it a whirl!
January didn’t bring a cold winter, but brought chicken pox.  Each child besides Sarah Kelly had it, from baby to teenager.  For the littles, a sense of pride ensued as to who the “winner” was; whoever had the most spots.  February ushered in birthday season.  The baby had her first birthday, a Sophie the giraffe party in pink and brown and Scott turned 14 the next day.  We redid our kitchen countertops, changed the knobs out, put in a new stove and dishwasher and cleaned the cabinets (novel idea) and viola!  It seemed like a new kitchen.  This was all completed just before Leap Day. The little ones still talk about being in 5 newspapers and the TV news following them around that day.  Their big party we hold once every four years for our rare spontaneous triplet leapsters involved lots of friends and family playing games, eating bbq and of course, homemade ice cream and cake.  March brought the end of the bathroom renovation we started just before the baby was born.  We finally got our shower tiled and the bathroom completed after a year of off and on work just in time to rent our house for a long weekend during a homeschool conference. Scott had won the local Geography Bee, qualified for the state bee and participated against 100 other students to come in 5th place in the state.  April found JB teaching a bridge refresher inspection class (which he does quite often) in San Francisco so the baby and I went along; spent a few days in one of my favorite cities, then took the train out to Clayton where we had lived last summer spending the rest of the time with “Grandma Patty” at her home.  It did something good for my soul to see the beautiful peaceful gardens again at the house and put my hands in the dirt.  Drew played baseball for the first time during the spring and really enjoyed it; I liked that we found a local team and we didn’t have to drive so far.  And of course, we were raising four ducks!

May brought strawberries, 22 gallons of them but many hands to pick, pack away, and eat.  It also brought the end to activities such as Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, literature group, and piano and a fun trip to Great Wolf Lodge for the family. June was Boy Scout Camp and National Youth Leadership training for Scott and continuing schoolwork as well as Jackson's Kindergarten Graduation we did here at home.

Early July took us to Canada (another class for Jeff to teach), a trip on the way up to the west where we watched 4th of July fireworks over Niagara Falls, and a trip on the way back through the Northeast.  We really enjoyed our time on the dock at the house we rented in Nova Scotia.  When we arrived home the end of July summer and vacation were over.  The following 6 weeks are almost hard for me to believe or remember everything that happened and if someone had told me what it would have entailed, I’d have stayed on the dock in Canada. 
Upon our return, we had 2 stray dogs in our yard, one of which was expecting, unbeknownst to us and whom we ended up fostering along with her 8 puppies for the humane society until early Nov.  We spent lots of time praying, discussing, and visiting our local high school to determine if JV football was right for Scott, an option after a new law passed in late June to allow homeschoolers to play sports.  After 3 weeks of phone calls, visits, letters, work, grades, etc…, we made the decision to let him play.  While all this was going on, we investigated opportunities (which took a lot of research) for Scott to take a lab science class and eventually settled on a homeschool co-op  which we attend every Mon.  All the school-age ones get to participate (geography, p.e., nutrition, zoology), the baby stays in the nursery with me and I also teach a one hour writing class to SK’s age group.  While making all these decisions, I tried very hard to wrap up the paperwork and materials from the last year, completely cleaned up and reorganized our school room, and tried to plan for the new year.  But there were always other things going on, like plumbing problems, the kitchen sink falling in, the dishwasher falling out, the dryer handle falling off (we currently use a screwdriver to open it) and JB being gone 2 different weeks for work.  We finally (after almost 3 years of plywood) floored our bedroom, which meant taking everything out of it.  In this homeschooled family there are 2 huge bookcases overfilling with books, my desk, and computer in there as well as the baby’s crib, changing table, and regular furniture so this was no small feat and it all had to go back in order.  I took the opportunity to rearrange my room somewhat, or at least the work area part of it.  We painted the deck, started painting the house (not finished yet), and planted more flowers and bushes outside which we added a dump truck load of mulch around.  The dishwasher repairman(for a new one!) was here enough to be on my cell phone list, the high school knew me by face and name I had to go in so much to get the football paperwork worked out, and somewhere in there Jackson had a birthday.  Keepers at Home classes started for the Sarah Kelly and Elizabeth.  It’s fun for us to go together once a month for a time of devotions and an activity/craft/project.  Near the end of August JB and I got to stay in downtown Charleston for a marketing conference we go to every year.  We had a nice 3 days away (but we worked at marketing) and even managed to run into our house down there for a few hours to move some furniture in and around, hang some pictures and bring some back.  We had not been there since June and had no idea, with what was looking like a crazy fall schedule when we’d be back, so we worked in the house for about 50 minutes, shrugged our shoulders and raced back up to Greenville for Boy Scouts.  Three sets of company came in August and culminated with Grandpa Russ and Grandma Helen from Kansas.  They made my year when they brought me her Ironrite she had received as a wedding gift 55 years ago.  I have really enjoyed ironing from a chair and pressing all my tablecloths, napkins, and sheets with ease.  It’s really the simple things that bless me! 

As September dawned we slept a little more and eased into a routine with just the normal stuff: school, co-op, football, church, Scouts, gymnastics (Elizabeth), and piano lessons.  JB went to Alaska for 3 weeks to inspect bridges and we took care of those 8 puppies born just before he left.  We picked tons of apples and the late crop of tomatoes ensuring that the stove and dehydrator would not be idle for several weeks.  I don’t think my stove/oven is ever off!  October found our family in Chattanooga (JB again teaching) for my birthday and we toured some Civil War sites.  Football was over at the end of the month which came way too fast for all of us.  Some or all of us went to every game and we looked back with gratitude that we had made the right decision.  The parents we met, the boys on the team, the coaches, the games, the principals’ daughter (our new babysitter) that Scott got to play wide-receiver as a freshman, that he never got hurt, all of it was a blessing and a positive experience.  Most every day he says, “I wish we still had football practice”.  Every afternoon he goes to strength/agility/weight training at the hs for off-season sports.  This Jan. he is hoping to play soccer.  It’s  a whole new world but we’re enjoying the ride.

In November with football over, Scott’s time was more flexible and he went with JB to Kauai, Hawaii for a week while the firm did inspections.  He enjoyed helping Dad work, meet the clients, having fun snorkeling and going to Pearl Harbor.  The week before he had finished the workday part of his Eagle Scout project for Boy Scouts.  They came home and the next day we left for Kansas.  We got to go back to our church there for a Thanksgiving service and onto Omaha, NE for JB to do a presentation for the DOT.  The children and I amazed ourselves at the zoo and we did some Lewis and Clark wanderings and museums as well.  We had a wonderful time that Thanksgiving week visiting with friends and our “Kansas Family”.  Now it’s December and on the 6th Scott had his final board of review for Eagle.  The Eagle has landed!  A celebration is coming.  We’ve had fun winding down school somewhat to decorate, visit, have others into our home, celebrate SK’s 12th birthday and participate in all the fun the season brings.  We are going to spend some of our time relaxing (and working a little) at the Charleston House which we have used this past year for those needing vacation and short-term rentals.  Each night as we light our advent candles, sing, and read, we bring focus back on the reason for all the hustle and bustle, the tiniest reason of all, the baby Jesus, born to die so that we might be born to live.  May God bless you in the coming year and may you listen to that still small voice when it calls out to you so that you too, may have life, and have it more abundantly.

Love from the Rowe Tribe,
Jeff, Kelly, BSA (Scott), Sarah Kelly, Harris, Elizabeth, Andrew
Jackson, Peter, Jonathan (our blessings in heaven) and Katharine Ellis


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