Hi from the Weavers

  Our crazy, loud, opinionated family. I adore them all. So, so proud of my row of handsome young men and beautiful daughter. Ignore Christopher's pained, angry look as he has one purpose in life and that purpose was safely tucked away, giving him an attitude. And i personally believe Marlin gets handsomer every year. LOVE the gray streaking his hair, giving him an air of distinction. Ah yes, i am blessed among women. 

  I also love the green door behind us. 

  We are only days from, (Lord willing....always Lord willing) seeing family and friends again. The paper chain is slowly disappearing and we are cleaning out corners and excitedly talking about who we're going to see and what we're going to eat. Why does it always come back to food with us? We love Jesus.........and good food. We may need help. Preferably with a side of good coffee and dessert. Marlin will take bacon with his. Or sushi.

  We have begun the firsts of "this is the last time we will be doing this..." and sometimes that hurts. I keep telling the children to soak up life here and not focus to much on the future, because never again will they be this age and live in Kenya. They of course take this advice to heart.......NOT. Someday they will know why i say this. Meanwhile i will continue to say it even while i keep the butterflies in my stomach at a low roar. I am also excited. 

  We will have a 6 hour flight from Nairobi to Qatar and then a 15 hour flight to Philadelphia. Fifteen hours, people. That's enough to start many gray streaks in my hair. Since i don't sleep on airline flights, can you imagine the state of my emotions when we land? Calm and collected, only because i will be in zombie mode. So i'm praying for a miracle. A miracle of sleep for all those handsome boys, for myself, and especially handsome baby, along with a gracious stewardess who will allow me to lay said baby on cozy floor bed. Will you pray with me? In the scope of things, it's a small thing to pray for, perhaps even selfish. So pray as you feel led. 

  And now, duty and dirty bathrooms call. So until next time..........

  

  

Valentines Banquet......2011

I know, I know, I shouldn't brag about my kids like this but I can't help it. He's too STINKIN' CUTE!!!!!!

Chocolate anyone?

Our church had a valentine's banquet last week but due to the shortage of babysitter's, we chose to stay home. It's ok, i got to hang out with my best friend and the people I love most in the world. Not many people can say that. Marlin and i decided to celebrate anyway, but as a family....after all, they are the result of our love, so it only made sense to have a special evening anyway. Emily and I quickly decorated the house after the boys went to milk, since they knew nothing about it and we wanted to surprise them. The looks on their faces were worth it. Eric might be 11, but he's not too old to jump up and down when he's excited. On the other hand, neither is his mom. :)Marlin made one of his many specialties, shrimp scampi over pasta. I felt pregnant by the time i was finished eating........and looked it to. To much shrimp scampi has a way of doing that too a person. It was a real treat, a rare treat since we've moved, so it's all the more special. Actually, i like not having this kind of food very often. We all get a bit charismatic when Big Daddy Weav whips out his cooking utensils and starts making a mess in the kitchen. Bring it on, my fine, handsome chef!!

 And the cake.....yup I made it. But don't be fooled, the cake didn't taste half as good as it looked. Can we all say nasty? A total and complete flop..a failure.....a disgrace to humanity.....a shame to it's maker.....I was trying to make a "healthy" lemon pound cake, since i thought i would revolt at the thought of one more chocolate peanut butter cake. Some things aren't made to be healthy, and lemon pound cake is one of them. Even ice cream and blackberry sauce couldn't salvage it.....

This is what happens when your belly is full and your hearts are removable. They become "bunny ears." He takes after his father's side of the family what can I say........;)

My last valentine's goal wasn't accomplished. I REALLY wanted a picture of me and Marlin in all our married loveliness, so Marlin even showered and dressed for the occasion.......only to fall asleep on the recliner after supper. Not to be daunted, i gave the camera to Emily, put my arm around my knight in shining armor, (gently) commanded him to wake up and smile, and beamed at the camera. Here's a piece of advice to any newlyweds out there. DO NOT WAKE UP SLEEPING MEN FOR PICTURE TAKING OF ANY KIND! ESPECIALLY MR. COMMANDERS!!!!!! He sat up, and said, "this is no way to take any kind of pictures!" and stomped off to bed. So much for a romantic picture that shows the world how much we love each other........you'll just have to believe it without the picture. ;)

Mud, Cats, and Elderly Childbirth

I know, you thought i've forgotten about my blog.....and you. I haven't, it's just that there are SO MANY things I should be doing instead of sitting at the computer. I don't have anything exciting to brighten your day. But I do have mud....lots and lots of mud. You have never seen mud until you've waded through Snyder county mud.....on a farm....with cows.....and manure.....and many small males.......with many small boots.....and no stones. There's no stones in the forecast and so i brace myself for a muddy future. I used to get frustrated with my very practical mother when i was a very unpractical teenager. Practical was boring!!! Now i thank Jesus for a mother who had the foresight to have a big laundry with many closets to hide the soggy, muddy clothing and boots. I also thank Jesus for children to clean those nasty closets. I have other things to do. Like blog.

Anyone want to volunteer to clean my basement? For those of you who are considering a house cat, basements aren't really the best place to keep a cat. Outside is better........more litter box choices.

So now i have mud and a less than desirable basement.  But i do have many desirable children who have informed me that it is high time to add to the numbers. Preferably in triplet size this time, but they'll take twins if that's all i can manage. Eric has also taken the opportunity to encourage me to continue bearing children for at least 20 more years. Somehow the thought of labor and childbirth at the ripe age of 55 makes me feel less like celebrating and more like curling in a fetal position. I'm all for labor and childbirth (or the results of labor and childbirth) and i hope to experience a bit of that yet, but at 55 i will be very content to help Eric's wife figure out how to give birth. I do believe at that point of my life, I will be happy to celebrate my love for my man without the labor and childbirth part.

So there's my life at the moment. Mud and children. What more could a woman ask for.

Woodcutting.........and more.

It was woodcutting day at the farm. Lots of people, lots of wood and lots of food. It was great..........at first we weren't sure it was even going to happen, with the freezing rain and misery outside but in true Weaver fashion, the woodcutting happened anyway. And when the Weaver's get together, there's bound to be excitement. We had a truck and trailer stuck in the back pasture, a large tractor roaring in to help, and a small minivan that was needed for the large tractor in the pasture before the tractor could rescue the truck......still not sure how all that happened, especially the minivan part. I looked out the kitchen window in time to see the aforementioned minivan backing 2/3rd's of the way up the pasture before gaining much speed to make it up over the hill. The ladies encouraged the situation with many donuts, much coffee and large mugs of milk. From inside.........

Jonathan and Caleb spent all morning in the drizzling rain, "helping" and eating donuts like men.

My brother-in-law Matt and son Ringo splitting wood. I'm telling you, this gang knows how to work!!

Yep, that's the line up for supper and that's only about half the people. We had over 30 people in this house, which meant over 60 shoes in the laundry, and many piles of soggy coats, hats, mittens and gloves. It was great!!

Marlin's sister Dorcas, cutting donuts instead of wood. She is pregnant with number 7...beautiful, isn't she? And yes, that's Jacob eating raw donut dough. Being a relaxed mama is a good thing.

Emily and her cousin Vicki, who helped to fry the donuts and was my right hand lady the whole weekend in the kitchen.

I have so many other blog posts rolling around my mind......serious ones, the kind that have been burning on my heart, but the kind that can only be written when the moment is right. Some of those kind never get written............For us personally, God is taking us through another time of testing, stretching our faith and at the same time, drawing us closer together as a family. Our children are learning that nothing is too small to pray for, even another sick calf who is most certainly going to die.......they see their strong daddy fighting for it's life and they see mama eating yet another piece of cheesecake. (didn't expect that one did you.....actually, they have seen me eating very little cheesecake as i have mostly been eating it in hiding.) It's life, and it's what makes or breaks us and through it all, i look at my husband and i'm like, "come to mama!" He has never been more handsome to me or more manly........but since you really did not come to my blog to hear all that, i will now say, "adios" and good night.

A Good Day......

Today was a good day. I needed a good day, and God knew that.....so He gave me one. Isn't He awesome?

I have been feeling discouraged lately in regards to the history and geography, or lack of it, in our home school. I had some really good plans all laid out, and between the cows, adjustment to farm living, the flu and my lack of planning, it simply hasn't happened. So i started praying about it and one evening a light bulb went off in this dull brain of mine. I was so excited i almost couldn't fall asleep that night but somehow i managed.........you see, i am one of those fortunate women who truly enjoy teaching her children. That fact has surprised even me, and much of the time i feel like i don't have a clue what i'm doing, but sitting beside my children and explaining what an adjective is just does something for me. Go figure.....But the thing that really gets me going is history, geography, world culture and big discussions on how it all applies to us. I love getting all passionate and waving my hands in the air while i create word pictures in the children's mind. I inherited this trait from my father and you know what? I'm ok with that....and because it's school, the kids have to listen. Hah! So i was feeling rather depressed that we had done no formal studying (whatever that is) on any of those subjects this year, in spite of the fact that i know our children are getting a rich education in so many other areas.  And then i realized that the answer was right in front of my nose, FOR FREE! Isn't that just like God?

So what's my plan? Well, we try to sit around the living room every evening and mama Weav reads from a  "living" book (which means a book rich in real life and since our goal is to have children that are not "american dream" minded we tend to lean towards missionary stories) and right now we're going through, "Lady on a Donkey." No, the book isn't about me..... It's about a woman named Lillian Trasher who moves to Egypt in the early 1900's and ends up starting an orphanage. It's an amazing story, rich with meaning and yet brutally honest about the realistic problems and trials she walked through. So we are now doing a study on Egypt, complete with a lapbook, Egyptian food (fig cakes anyone?) and dress up, Egyptian style. I had a friend send me this link to an amazing website where i'm getting my stuff from. http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ancient_egypt.php 

I was a little nervous Eric would think he's getting to old for this kind of stuff but he loved it. I told the kids that we were skipping normal school today such as math and instead we worked on our new project.  They colored and cut, wrote and pasted. We studied the map, finding Egypt and the route that Lillian Trasher took from New York city into the Alexandria port. We discussed the religion of the country, mainly Muslim, and talked about the Nile river, the longest in the world. I was in my glory and my kitchen looked it after we were finished. It was awesome and i just couldn't get done praising God for showing me how to use what i have to teach history, geography and world religion. And yes, i took pictures. For you, my blog readers........


After school and cleaning, Big Daddy Weav got the skid loader out and made a dream sledding hill down the back pasture. Let me tell you, when he decides to create a sledding hill, he goes all out. If you bring food, we might let you sled down the hill too. ;)


It was a good day and tonight, my heart is full.

Sorry for the long distance shot, but i was standing barefoot on the back deck...getting any closer wasn't an option.

Lap-books part way finished......we'll add pictures, vocabulary pockets and more.

Now THAT is a cowboy worth taking pictures of!! Handsome!!

One of the local natives we're reaching out to.......he's worth my effort, wouldn't you say?

Of Bears and Boys.....mostly Bears

Zachary, trying out his phonics skills.....

Eric is enjoying reading....if you only knew what a miracle that is!!!

I have the winter blues......anyone else with me on this? Or else i need a good old fashioned repenting session, complete with public weeping and gnashing of teeth. I think the whole past year is all of a sudden catching up with me and i feel like joining the local bears in their peaceful, QUIET dens........ALONE!!!! I'd fit right attitude wise. Don't mess with mama bear.........

Ok, so i don't really want to join the bears, and i know the winter blues will pass, and i hope that someday my children will actually feel like i'm teaching them anything in school..........and my problem isn't the lack of a quiet house, since I've actually had a quiet house several times today and i still feel like I'm related to the local bear community. I think, gulp, that it's actually me.......my heart needs a tune up. My attitudes need a readjustment and sometimes i just wish i could get a good spanking. It would be so much easier than getting on my knees and asking God to show me the truth about myself. 

Anyone want to start a bear club?

Jacob

Our little pumpkin......how we love him!! Don't you just want to bury your nose in those fat little cheeks? Poor little guy, he'll be playing happily, only to get swooped up by some Jacob hungry arms, and kissed over and over. I tell him almost daily that it simply must be illegal to be that cute but we'll forgive him.....

I just wish he wasn't growing up so fast.

His favorite sister.......his only sister.......his beloved sister. If mommy or daddy isn't available he'll trot over to Emily, holding up his little pudgy hands, just knowing that she'll drop everything she's doing to give him some lovin's. And of course he's rarely disappointed.

Daddy's Little Girl

The Men of the family

I thought it would be fun to post a picture of them on the twins one year birthday and one exactly a year earlier. I did manage to find one half decent b-day picture of them waiting for the cake and candles. They had no idea what was happening and were totally bewildered by the candles. We gave them each a piece of cake and Jonathan took one bite and decided the only real way to eat cake is to pick up the whole piece and devour it as fast as possible. Caleb, however, wasn't as easily impressed and ended up giving half his piece to his brother who finished it off without a problem.

I can hardly believe it's been a year! So precious and yet so exhausting!!! Those first couple weeks were a blur of sleeplessness and yet i felt the presence of God in such a real way. He truly cares about the smallest of details.

The only way to keep the toy room clean and still let them play with toys.

Ahhh, here are my fine hunter men, all ready for the big kill.

Thanks to Brent & MariEllen Rosenberry for your patience and endurance in taking our fall 2008 family photos. We cherish your friendship!