Wedding Part !

Katie and her bridesmaids

It was hot the week that Katie and George were married.  Humidity was extremely high.  My daughters and I were concerned that we would be sweaty and uncomfortable. The church's air conditioning was such a blessing!  The air conditioning at the reception place kept us comfortable also.

The following are pictures of us setting up for the reception.

Cassie helping to move table, while we try to make decisions about set up before Katie arrived.

George pondering some of the decisions that were made.

The groomsmen arrived to help!  Where were they when we were hauling the tables?

Placing the finishing touches on the head table.

Setting up the reception hall was a bit chaotic.  Katie was picking up some items and arrived to the hall late.  So decisions needed to be made about where to set things up.  George was there, but he doesn't make decisions quickly and we had little time before the rehearsal.  We set up all the tables and once Katie arrived, we were able to get the decorations put up.

Pastor Sidwell giving instructions.

Practicing handing off the bouquet and straightening the train.

Cassie lining up with the Best Man

Pastor discussing the proper amount of time to wait.

Giving a few more pointers.  Amy listening carefully.

Danielle and one of the groomsmen.

Steve with Emily.

Nate Mattison playing the processional.

Second run through.

My favorite photo of the rehearsal.  Kate and George look so happy.

Madelyn was scheduled to work during the rehearsal, so Paige got to take her place.

End of the Summer

In a few days, we will take our younger son up to Michigan State University for his freshman year of college.  Due to the distance,he won't be coming home as often as our daughters and older son. 

Katie was married a little over a week ago.  She and George returned from their honeymoon yesterday and dropped by to tell us about their trip.  It was lovely to see the so soon.  This week, she is planning on getting her former bedroom packed up.  We are forcing her to remove all her belongings from the house.  Not because we want every memory of her removed, but because other children want her bedroom and we are trying to have no storage in the basement. 

Well, almost no storage.  There will be one shelving unit for Christmas and camping items.  The house is so large that it would be easy for us to become hoarders without the house getting full of clutter.  We will only be here for another 3-5 years and we don't want to have ton of junk to sort through.

Madelyn is going to the public high school this upcoming school year.  She won't be graduating from the high school, because they won't accept homeschool classes without testing for every subject.  I'll issue her a diploma in the spring.  Our homeschool will be down to two students.  It should be an easier year because the younger two girls are only 20 months apart,  I'm planning on spending the first week or two taking the girls to various parks and getting our work done in the picnic pavilions, then having a picnic lunch and spending the afternoon hiking and playing on the various playgrounds. 

Mike is changing positions at work.  He will still be in sales, but will be a bedding specialist.  Due to changes within the company's pay structure, he should make more money with the change.  I hope it's a good move for him.  He dislikes many of the games that other sales associates play to steal commissions from other sale people.

My etsy shops are doing well.  I'm getting a steady income from them and enjoy the flexibility they provide. I'm planning ahead to create a couple of non-etsy shops after the holidays to increase my exposure on the internet and open other income avenues.  Mike has been really supportive throughout all this and is excited to see my hard work pay off.

Depression has been creeping back again.  It seems to be an on-going struggle for me.  Part of it may be hormones, but the "winter blahs" are now returning as early as August.  I'm working on eating highly nutritious foods and getting exercise each day.  I know that anti-depressants are available, but I really want them to be a last resort. 

I'll be adding a ton of photos and updates over the next few weeks and even have a few craft and cooking posts planned. 

Turning a church Into a House

A few weeks ago, the woman who converted our house from a church dropped by and asked to see what the inside of the house.  She wanted to take photos of the interior to show her family and friends in California, where she had moved.  We had an interesting visit and I learned many things about the house.  The house was planned to be able to be three separate living spaces: a large family house, a studio apartment over the garage and an apartment in the basement.  At the end of our visit, the woman and I exchanged email address and she promised to send me some photos of the house when it was a church.


This is the first photo.  The entry goes into what is now one of our bathrooms.  The window that faces the road is now the entry into our laundry room, which was added on.  Mike and I have enjoyed many conversations as we tried to figure out how the church was set up.  The photos that the woman sent have answered many of our questions.

  We had thought that the church was what is now our family room.  We were wrong.  I think that the entire main floor was the sanctuary of the church.  We installed our fireplace where the altar once stood.

 Our house is the blue and brown one in this photo.  The original structure is the brown, while the addition is the blue.

The woman said that she had to locate some of the other photos that she has packed away.  She's going to try to send me more later.  I am so happy that she remembered to email me the photos.  It's fascinating to see the changes that she made to our home. 

New Glasses

Our family purchases vision insurance primarily because so many of us wear glasses and my eyes are so bad that I need to get them checked each year to check for retinal detachment because I'm extremely near-sighted.  The last time we all went to the eye doctor, he was extremely condescending to us.  We decided to look for another doctor in our net work, but hadn't found one.  The year was slipping away, so in December I called and made an appointment with the doctor we don't like just to get my benefits for 2014 before they expired.

Once I arrived at the doctor's office, a pleasant surprised awaited.  The previous doctor had retired and sold his practice to a new doctor.  She was thorough and pleasant.  After the exam, I spoke with the office manager and explained that I wanted to order either contacts or glasses with my 2014 benefits and would then return in January to purchase the other with my 2015 benefits.  She made an appointment for January and said that we would order the contacts then, because the doctor wanted to make sure that they were working properly for me.

When I returned in January, I was told that they had filed the claim from my previous visit without placing the order for contacts and I couldn't use my 2014 benefits any longer.  I ordered the contacts with my 2015 benefits, but left without purchasing glasses.  Due to my poor vision and need for bifocals, the lenses for my glasses would have cost me a little over $400 plus frames.

Mike wanted me to replace my glasses because it was difficult for me to read with my old glasses and I get headaches when I wear them for extended periods.  He boss at work regularly ordered glasses from an online company called Zinni Optical.  The site offers tons of frame choices.  The customer uploads a photo of themselves and then enters their measurements and prescription.  The site eliminates frames that aren't suitable for the prescription or measurements.  The customer clicks on various frames and the site loads the frame onto the uploaded photograph.  Mike was thrilled and had a great time picking out two different frames for me.  I ordered both pairs with my strong bifocal prescription, anti-glare coating, and ultra-light lenses for $160!!

It took about two weeks for the glasses to arrive.  The plastic frames fit perfectly.  A small adjustment was necessary for the wire frames, but it was an easy adjustment for me to do.  It's been over three months since they arrived and I will purchase glasses from them in the future.  The frames are slightly less heavy-duty than frames from the eye doctor, but they were also less that 15% of the cost.  My frames were $12 and $10. 

Amy and Katie ordered glasses from Zinni and recently received their orders.  They are pleased with their purchases as well.  I highly recommend them.

More Projects at Home

Mike took 6 days of vacation this week.  We did a few fun things, like the Butterfly Garden, but it was a week of work.  We had a huge load of stone delivered and got that spread out to expand over parking area.  Parking has become a problem.  We have a two car garage which currently holds supplies for many projects we are in the middle of completing, so everyone parks in the driveway.  There are currently 6 car owners that need spots, plus assorted friends and visiting family members that need occasional spaces.  We spread the stone to create a total of 9 parking spaces.  It's a relief to have adequate parking in our drive,  Parking in the road is frowned upon in our area, except for special events.

We hauled some of the crushed concrete down the hill and spread it out to create a large seating area outside the lower screened porch.  Mike and I purchased and moved stepping stones that were laid to create seating areas for lawn furniture.  The stepping stones make the lawn chairs more stable.  We made one area around the small fire pit and a larger area for the picnic table.  Joe and I are planning on making some padded wooden benches to put up against the retaining walls that form a square corner on one side of the area.

Mike also decided to take out a couple of trees in the backyard.  One maple was rotting from the middle of the tree.  I was a little nervous that it would land on the house, but Mike researched the job and pulled it off.

Joe came home from school early that day.  He helped haul branches with some assistance from Madz, Paige and Alison.  They got all of the small stuff burnt up and then decided to take down the mulberry tree.  We never got any fruit off of the tree and it would drop berries into the pool that Mike also bought this week.

The mulberry tree took out part of an old privacy fence that we had considered using in another area of the yard, but it wasn't too big of a loss.  I am so thankful that both trees are down and there were no major mishaps or injuries.

We finally found a piano tuner and had him come to the house to tune our piano yesterday.  Unfortunately, he had bad news to deliver.  The piano has problems that would make it very expensive to tune and the piano is not worth the necessary money.  I'm disappointed.  We're checking the newspaper and online for another piano to purchase.  I'm not going to consider anything that hasn't been tuned in the last two years.  We don't need to move and dispose of another bad piano.

After the disappointment with the piano, Mike suggested that we go to some of the Amish meat shops that we have heard good recommendations.  We went to Bullseye in Vandalia where we purchased some ground round, dried fruits, rye flour and other yummy things.  Our next stop was Shelton's Farm Market in Niles.  We got a good deal on Rib-eye steaks, some ground beef, vegetables, mushrooms, dried fruits, and a lot of apples. 

Mike was sure that there was a meat market in Buchanan about which he had heard great things, so we googled "Buchanan meat market" and discovered Lowery's Meat Market.  Wow!  It was packed!  There were at least 6 people working behind the counter helping customers stockpile meat.  The prices were amazing.  We bought cheddar brats, jalapeno-cheddar brats, Italian sausage, Polish brats, pork loins, chicken, and breakfast sausage.  On average, the prices were about 1/2 of what I pay at Walmart or Meijers on sale.  I hope it's good meat, because it would be worth driving there to stock up once a month.

Today, Mike took Madz to a cheer competition in Lansing, while I take the girls to 3 hours of dance classes.  It's been great having him home. Major projects were completed, we had some fun, and he helped with running around during his vacation.  Next week when he goes back to work, he can rest a little.

Meijer Butterfly Garden

Mike took several days of vacation this week and was able to go to the Butterfly Garden and Sculpture Park with us today.  The weatherman had given a forecast for temperatures in the 60s.  But fell far short of his estimate.  It was 39 degrees.  Madelyn decided that the temperature was mind over matter and wore shorts. She was a little cold, but we all had fun anyway.

Part of my goofy family while we wait for the rest of the group to arrive.

Love the plants.

Paige the butterfly.

Allie the butterfly.

Some of the butterflies.

Looking around fro butterflies,

We see this face sometimes during our school day

Madz catching up with the Meijers.

Huge sculpture of nap time.  I could use one of these.

I love this. 

Allie calls this Two-Face.

Maple Syrup Time

It's been several years since we made maple syrup.  So long that Paige and Allie don't remember ever making it.  In our effort to eat more natural and whole foods, we decided to make it this year.  We have about 8 trees that could be tapped, but my schedule is so crazy that we decided to just tap two this year.  I'd hate to have the sap go to waste because I don't have time to cook it down.

Last weekend, Mike and I tapped the trees and began collecting sap.

Drill hole about 2-2.5" deep at an angle.  Use a sharp drill bit to protect the tree and get better sap production.

The sap began running immediately.

We purchased our spile at a local farm store.  Some people make their own from piping.

Hammer into the drilled hole.

The sap should begin flowing down the center of the spile.

We added clear hose, so the children could watch the sap flow and so we could set the buckets on the ground.

We purchased buckets with lids from the Home Depot.  Mike drilled a hole in the top for the hose, then we washed and sanitized the buckets,

The sap collecting is underway.  It flows best when the daytime temperatures are in the 40s and the night time temperatures are in the 20s.