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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