It’s been four years since SJ got the priceless gift of her very own American Girl Doll.

You can read the whole story here, but basically I wanted to get her a doll that could have hearing aids but knew there was no way I could afford an American Girl Doll. So, I posted this ISO on Facebook Market Place and received an overwhelming response.

I was just praying I could find a USED American Girl doll that I could afford and God provided above and beyond that! I received an American Girl Doll still in the box from a stranger which I was able to gift to SJ on her birthday.

It was the best birthday gift ever! The first year was really sweet and my mom brought SJ and Isabella to the American Girl doll hospital at the Mall of American in Minneapolis and she got hearing aids.

It could have ended there and it would have been worth it, but the fact is four years later she still loves her doll. It’s been such a treasure to watch her grow and change and still cherish Isabella. She’s 11 now and just got some new accessories for her birthday.

I know this imaginative play won’t last forever so I am documenting it while I can! Here are some of my favorite snap shots of SJ and Isabella throughout the years.

Look at how little SJ was when she was 7! Someone get me the tissues!

Here are a few other special memories with Isabella.

Isabella doesn’t go with her everywhere, but she’s been fortunate enough to travel quite a bit in her four years.

She’s been known to wear Elle and SJ’s old baby clothes.

Oh and you’ve gotta love the bows. 

They’ve had their fair share of matching outfits.

The dress in this Christmas photo was actually SJ’s when she was a baby.

Isabella was there when the world shut down and the kids suddenly had to do distance learning (SJ’s on a zoom call in this photo).

Spotted this scooter at a yard sale this past summer.

When you homeschool sometimes you have to do your school work at the car dealership while your mom is getting the oil changed.

SJ has made so many cool things for her doll and I wish I photographed more of them but here is a stage made out of a pizza box and the mic stand is adjustable!

I wish you could peek inside and see all of the details of this little bedroom that SJ made.

This year Elle got a My Life doll and so that’s been a lot of fun for these sisters.

Up in the tree house

Reading time!

Time for bed.

It’s been a fun four years.

Several years ago I did a blog post called “Composting Without a Bin“.

I still get questions from readers about that process. It’s been 5 years (at two different locations) that we’ve been composting.

This was 2016

and this is me and my little composting helper now.

We still don’t have a bin, but we got a little more sophisticated recently by using some wooden pallets to mark off where the compost goes.

The pile principal is still the same though.

For now I use a pitcher or a bowl for our compostable scraps, but I am hoping to upgrade that VERY SOON! The lesson though, is that it doesn’t have to be complicated. You can truly compost without any special tools at all.

With official first day of spring behind us I thought now would be a good time to write up a little Q&A answering some of those questions I have received along with a few other things I’ve learned since starting this endeavor.

Does it stink? 

No, it smells like dirt. It’s not the same as fruit that is decomposing. It is “dirty” though, literally.  We are fortunate to have a large yard so we can have our pile a decent amount away from our house, but when our kids have friends over we have to let them know it’s not a play area.

Does it attract animals? 

I have had people ask me if we get rodents or animals that dig through our pile as if it were trash. That has NEVER been an issue for us. We don’t seem to have a lot of raccoons and we don’t have bears in the area, but we do see plenty of deer, chipmunks, moles, fox, mice and dogs. For some people, animals are something that could certainly inhibit your chances of doing a compost pile that is exposed. As long as the scraps are buried in plenty of leaves and you are certain you haven’t added any meat, dairy, or other noncompostable items to your pile you could be like us and have no issues at all.

How long do you leave your pile before using it? 

We use our pile in the spring when we garden and then we stop adding to it in the winter. So it has about 7 months to collect and then from November to March, we let the pile decompose. Sometimes I feel bad about throwing away scraps and we end up starting another pile. The hard part is we don’t have a ton of grass clippings, if any, in the winter. So it’s hard to keep the materials balanced. I guess this isn’t a clear cut answer. Some people use thermometers and special equipment for their compost. We just eyeball it. Our goal is to do the traditional three bin approach. One for starting the compost, one for letting it sit and heat up, and the last one to turn and use.

Can I compost weeds? 

Okay, this was a question I asked! I was worried that the weeds would try to take root in the compost pile and then propagate. Weeds are so stubborn! A quick google search taught me that I can and should compost the weeds I pull. The sooner the better so that the weeds don’t flower and seed. Weeds can grow in compost, but again if you are tossing, watering, and balancing your pile it shouldn’t be a problem.

We love having a compost pile. It’s eco friendly and a great educational tool. The kids even add worms when they find them. Our latest development is adding what some farmers call “black gold”. Can you guess what that is?

It’s CHICKEN POOP.

We’ve got 9 little chickens now. While chicken droppings alone aren’t great fertilizer because they are super high in nitrogen, if you cool it down with some carbon compost it’s natural miracle grow. I am really looking forward to the garden bounty this year. Especially with all the COVID-19 stuff having a little suburban green life has been good for us.

My take on composting is that it takes a little extra work, but it’s totally worth it.

I’m sure I’m not the only one whose social media accounts are flooded with flashbacks from when we were all thrust into our first official pandemic a year ago.

I know that I personally was so blessed that the pandemic didn’t affect us anywhere near as badly as it did thousands of other people. However, that doesn’t mean I didn’t struggle or feel scared and miserable at times! It was all so overwhelming. March- May was a very difficult time for me and as I encounter so many “seasonal” reminders of last year it makes me flinch a little.

It’s surreal to remember what that moment in time was like. I really thought the pandemic was only going to last a couple of months and here we are a full YEAR later.

Here is an excerpt of what I wrote on March 20th about my first week of social distancing.

“last week life was normal for us. I had a conversation with my parents in a Chick-fil-A on Monday (March 9th) talking about the Coronavirus and how in my little town in Ohio it wasn’t affecting us. My exact words were “we’ve been doing business as usual”. Then on Thursday (March 12) everything came to a screeching halt. As in- slam the breaks, no seatbelt, we are all ejected into an alternate universe. I was actually looking at my phone scrolling through hairstyles for my daughter to choose for the father daughter dance the next night. She was so excited. Then I got the text that it was canceled. I couldn’t believe it. It was 24 hours away, what had changed? Then I got the next update that school would be closed for 4 weeks. Tears welled up in my eyes and I even started to get angry…”

“Friday (March 13) was the last day of school for the kids. One thing after another was being canceled. First church, then restaurants, gymnastics, the roller rink where my daughter’s birthday party was scheduled to happen, dentist appointments and pretty much everything else. It really was like a real life apocalyptic sci-fi movie. I went to the grocery store to find rows and rows of empty shelves. I bought things I never would have like cans of peaches, and high priced paper towels because that was all that was left.

I had to pinch myself to see if this was really happening. I have daily to-do lists on an app and every morning I go through and delete the previous week’s list to add new ones. Here are some of the things that I did last week:

Go to the library

Dentist appointment

Meeting at church

SJ’s Gymnastics class

Pick Z up from Lego League

Make invitations for SJ’s Birthday

So every day (up until now) I looked at a snapshot of the week before, when those things were all very normal. Every day I was reminded that last week I was living my life not knowing my whole world was about to be turned upside down. I was devastated.”

Remembering all of that is difficult, and even though a lot of restrictions are still in place and people are still being affected by the Coronavirus I am seeing subtle changes. For example that birthday party that was cancelled actually happened a week ago!

The skating rink honored our deposit and I invited a whole new group of girls and we gathered together to celebrate.

I shared the photos on Facebook acknowledging that it felt very redemptive. I am hoping to see more and more redeeming moments like that. Last year we were all at home for Easter but this year we will be celebrating in person! My family is going to come over for our traditional egg hunt and lunch. Easter is all about redemption. Obviously Christ’s act of redemption is way bigger than something like getting to go to a concert that you previously missed because of Covid. However, sometimes when you see significance in the little details it sheds more light on the big things. I keep digger deeper into what it means for something to be redeemed.

We had so many things stolen from us last year, from relationships, to loved ones, to jobs and celebrations and the list goes on. My prayer is that this would be the year of redemption in all kinds of ways!

I feel like this FedEx commercial does a beautiful job of expressing these thoughts through their commercial. I’m not talking about the part about FedEx or the vaccine, but I do love how they are highlighting and reminding us of all the things that we’ve gone backwards on and how it’s time to start moving forward.

The verdict is in. After a year of homeschooling we have decided to return to the public school option. I wrote recently about how difficult this decision has been and one that we take very seriously. I also shared just some of the beautiful aspects of homeschool which I will inevitably miss. With as complex as it is, here is a breakdown of some of the reasons why homeschooling isn’t the best choice for our family.

1. I love our public schools. I always have. It’s the reason we moved here in the first place. We would have stayed in public schools last year if it weren’t for the pandemic. I know we are still in it, but the vaccines are out and things are definitely looking to be much improved from the past year.
2. My kids learn better from a teacher- bottom line.
3. They aren’t as social as they used to be. Hold up, because I know socialization is a biggie that people throw around in opposition to homeschooling and I am NOT saying that homeschoolers aren’t socialized. My two middle children have bonded and I love it, but they also have become so bonded that at times they were becoming exclusive and not opening up to other children at church because they had each other. We worked through this, but still they aren’t in any clubs, sports, or extracurriculars right now. So getting them back in school with friends (since it’s no longer prison level restrictions thank God) will be good for them.
4. In public school they will have specialists to assess their needs. Each one of my kids have had various IEPs, IFSPs, and WEPs. I know ALL children are individuals and that’s the beauty of homeschooling, but I don’t have it in me to fight for these resources. I know that my children have special needs and I really value the extra set of eyes and expertise.
5. Free tutoring. On the same note, if they do have struggles and need personalized help there are intervention specialists available to work with them. I feel a huge burden lifted knowing caring professionals are tracking their progress and will tell me if they see any red flags in learning and then HELP ME know how to help my child. This is a big deal for me because with one child in particular I am drowning with concern. I want to make sure they get all the help they need.
6. Teachers can answer questions that I can’t. I am great at googling things, but I am feeling less passionate about the teacher role. I pray that my children will get teachers that are still passionate about theirs (Our district has a fantastic track record in this area).
7. Public school is free. We have made some budget changes that leave us temporarily going from paycheck to paycheck. So I have almost no money to put towards curriculum, workbooks, arts and crafts, and other projects. Other than field trips, I know the schools are back to offering all of their cool learning tools so that makes me happy.
8. My husband works from home and our house isn’t that big. This makes for a major struggle trying to keep the volume down on most of the day.
9. Math is a HUGE challenge for me. It always has been. I don’t like helping with 4th grade math and I definitely don’t want to help with 5th. Right now my daughter is dividing, comparing, or converting fractions and decimals. Yesterday and today my husband had to swoop in a lot, which is hard because he has work.
10. We feel God has given us a peace about sending them to school. That’s the biggest reason.

Last year we were prayfully led to homeschool and I don’t regret it. I KNOW that was the right choice for us and I was open to the idea that I may love it so much that homeschool would be my new calling. While I already mentioned all of the beautiful benefits of homeschooling I don’t feel it’s my calling, at least not right now. Last year we stepped out in faith to homeschool. This year we stepping out in faith again, but in a different way.

I haven’t blogged or really been social online in several weeks. My biggest reason for this has been my computer crashing! I haven’t had any computer issues since I got my iMac 5 years ago. Everything from my meal plans to my side hustles are on my computer, and when it’s not functioning properly it’s fair to say that NEITHER AM I! It appears to be fixed now so I’m hopefully back in business.

I won’t go into all of the details of what made February such a whirl wind of a month, but I did want to document one of the most memorable parts.

We got snow.

BUCKETS OF SNOW!!!

I know Ohio is not alone in these crazy winter storms. My poor friends in Texas got hit so hard that most of them were living the frontier life with no electricity or sometimes water! I remember what that is like from when we had that terrible power outage last April. No fun.

I personally love the snow. The last couple of winters here have been fairly mild so I am grateful for this surprise snow dump.

We made the most of it. The day after we got the first 8 inches J took off of work and we spent our afternoon sledding.

We even brought hot chocolate to-go in those mugs that keep beverages warm. While we were at one of the best sledding parks ever we bumped into some friends.

These two have been buds since they were 2 years old so that was a fun impromptu reunion.

The next week when we got more snow we made our traditional snow cream. I looked up the recipe on MessyMom.com.

It was really sweet because SJ was the one leading this activity and there were pictures of her on the recipe post from 6 years ago.

Times have changed, but snow cream is still the perfect winter treat!

I can’t even remember the number of snows cancellations and two hour delays this month. It doesn’t affect us too much since we are mostly at home, but it’s always fun to have snow days, even for homeschoolers.

We had fresh eggs throughout the snowstorm too! We were worried about the chickens with the temps being close to zero. Most chicken breeds are actually really winter hardy though and they all did great. They didn’t love necessarily love the snow. Our white hen, Mary, flat out refused to walk around outside. But most of the birds eventually ventured out a bit.

Getting eggs that weren’t frozen was a chore, but we managed to brave the tundra a few times a day to collect our breakfast.

The snow has pretty much all melted now leaving a slushy mud pit in our backyard. The chickens are thrilled to be able to forage again.

They have spent the past several days pecking away at the soft ground in search of bugs and other tasty treats. I loved the time that we had in the snow, but I am also getting excited for spring. It will be here before you know it!

One month down for homeschooling in 2021. I have to admit, I have felt so defeated lately. We had a nice break at Christmas and I knew that it would take some time to get back into our routine, but every time I thought we found our rhythm again there would be some kind of emergency. When it comes to what we will do next school year we have a lot to evaluate, contemplate, and most importantly meditate (okay, pray is what we need to do, but I was on a rhyming roll).

That being said, my chalk board still says Happy New Year, however there was  time when the message on our family chalkboard changed every week. It usually involved something we were learning about that week. So while I have not been able to keep this up, I did have a lot of fun designs and memories to look back on.

This was the original chalkboard message from the beginning of August 2020

The next week was a Bible verse that we memorized and learned the sign language to.

Another Bible verse. We learned the fruit of the spirit verse and ASL signs about 4 years ago, but this was a good refresher for sure.

Everyday we learn about a new country (in alphabetical order) and then we say a prayer for that country. Sometimes we go to the prayercast.com website where you can click on any country and they have a video prayer specific for that nation. It’s an incredible ministry that I stumbled on while looking up individual countries prayer needs.

We also had a little tradition of doing the birthday boy or girl message on the chalkboard. SJ’s is coming up so I definitely need to follow through with the final birthday message! 

September 11th was a difficult but important day that we learned about. 

Then we learned all about the constitution on September 17th, CONSTITUTION DAY! 

Then we had another important Bible verse.

Ezra’s 8th birthday. WaHoo!

Then we got Covid, so SJ wrote the chalk message for me.

After we were fully recovered and out of quarantine we had the coolest unit study the week of Columbus Day.

This one didn’t turn out as planned but we traced our hands and wrote our favorite things about fall in each one.

Election week!

For our 20th anniversary I wrote Matthew 19:6 and Elle drew a photo to go with it.

Elle’s fifth birthday. Fun times!

We watched Little Women and read up on the history of Louisa May Alcott.

Thanksgiving was a great lesson and Holiday.

Skip ahead to Christmas. SJ’s artwork this time.

Last but not least Happy New Year!!!

I feel like I am back at square one in making the decision to homeschool or send my kids back to public school. This time last year I wrote a blog post called “Planning 7 Months in Advance” because it was the beginning of 2020 (the part where we thought it would be a regular year) and schools and extracurricular programs were already enrolling. This year is the same. Kindergarten enrollment, 8th grade schedule selections, and applying for scholarships for special needs therapy while homeschooling are all filling my inbox with deadlines. So while I’ve been telling myself I had 6 months to decide what we would do for the 21/22 school year that is absolutely false. We have to figure it out ASAP. Granted we can always change our minds, so nothing is written in stone, but either way we eventually need figure it out.

Sigh.

Fostering a love for knowledge and a strong educational foundation has always been a top priority for me as a mom. When I look back over the past 10 years so much of it was spent determining what the best fit would be for each of our precious little sponges. They are each so unique and talented as individuals. I’ve ALWAYS said, like a broken record, we evaluate their educational needs and what fits best on a case by case, day by day basis.

J and I have definitely talked about what the year will bring and how we feel. We’ve prayed that God would lead. I made an actual list of pros and cons for either path and I have informally interviewed all kinds of different people including moms, intervention specialists, and teachers. The good news is last year we had no idea what in person learning during a pandemic would be like. This year we have a year we know so much more. Last year during one of the district meetings a school board director compared their strategy for the 2020/2021 school year to building an aircraft while simultaneously flying it. It’s a great analogy. I was building my own airplane while flying it at home. It’s why unprecedented was the word of the year in 2020.

Although we are leaning towards in person learning for the upcoming school year there are several reasons why I would love for the kids to stay at home. Here is a peek at my list of reasons we might do it all again.

1. No masks or shields! (that’s probably the biggest, especially with a deaf child)
2. Bible and faith included in our daily lessons

3. More time for piano and chickens!!

4. I really get to observe my kids’ learning styles 5. More quality family time 6. We have a laid back schedule rather than running from one thing to the next all the time 7. Sleep in (we actually keep a pretty consistent schedule that includes waking up somewhat early, but on occasion we don’t and it’s nice to have that option) 8. More outside time 9. Less driving!10. I get to learn new things everyday too

I know some people might think after a year of homeschooling I would be ready to throw in the towel and not look back. While there are challenges to homeschooling that I would never want to sugar coat, I really would miss so much of it. I’ll give my list of reasons we wouldn’t do it again another time. One thing I know for sure though. We made the right choice for this school year and I will cherish the time we had.

We’ve had a teen in our house for about 5 months now. It’s so surreal, which is maybe why it has taken me this long to write about it!

When I started Messy Mom he was less than a year old. In August of 2008 I wrote this little blog post called “Then this happened”. I’ll repost it here-

I griped a lot in last night’s blog  because I did have a rough week and I don’t think there is anything wrong with keepin’ it real when things aren’t so bright and cheery. However, in the midst of it all there was this…

What is that? You may ask. That is something my 11 month old son made. He stacked that piece on top of the train and was building for the first time. I was so proud that I had to get my camera because I wanted to remember this moment forever. He did it several times and with blocks too!

It is such a joy to see him learning how things go together. I am honored to be a mom. Even in the midst of chaotic times I never ever want to overlook those little moments that make it all worthwhile.

And that’s it. I wrote a whole blog post about how he stacked blocks and I freaked out as if he had built the Taj Mahal. I shared how proud I was on the internet for the world to see, and get ready for a major brag here, because 13 years later I am just as proud.

This kid  young man is on a robotics team for the third year in a row. He publishes the weekly podcast and notes on our church’s app.

He volunteers running the light board in the sound booth at church. He competed in a chemistry competition at the state capital just before the shut down last year

and this year he is doing accredited high school algebra in 7th grade.

He’s in youth group now and is a polite, kind, and responsible young man.

It’s wild to think of how many blocks he has stacked to get from that moment 13 years ago until now. I’m speaking metaphorically of course, but each of those little moments, those connections that our kids make as they develop into adulthood is significant. Side note for mothers of little ones, I messed up A LOT between then and now and God’s grace has not and never will run out. Z’s not perfect either, even with as much as I brag about him. Anyway, back to the point, I’m glad that I took time to recognize that moment with the blocks which prompted me to document another milestone because fast forward to now “and then this happened!”

Z is officially taller than me. He has been boasting so much about being the second tallest in the family that when he got a prize for an academic achievement from school one day Ezie asked “did you get that for being the second tallest in the family?”. He really thought that.

I can’t keep up with how fast he is growing or how much he is eating! When the weather changed and he went from shorts to pants last year all he had was size 14/16 and they were high-waters on him.

We finally replaced all of his pants with size 18, so no more Steve Urkel look! Except for the other day I griped at him because his ankles were showing again. I said “Z! I thought you got rid of all the size 16 pants. Why are you wearing those!?” He got defensive and said, “Mom, you just bought me these. If these are too small then it’s hopeless”. I hate to admit that I actually argued with him for a few minutes about the pants only to realize that he was right! I had bought those pants in November. Facepalm. So I accused him of wearing his pants too high! Yes, I did. I thought surely there must be a mistake. “If you lower your pants they will be long enough,” I told him. Then his level-headed dad got in on it and called me out on my denial. He was wearing his size 18 pants exactly where they should land on his waist and the real reason his pants were not long enough is that he is growing at a rapid pace because… he is a teenager now! I guess I have to accept it.

I have joked though that I am going to hold onto my top knot messy bun and high heels to try to be taller for as long as possible.

There are so many other major milestones coming up to look forward to (reality check, that was the rental he and his dad took on their big Chicago road trip last year).

Then I begin to think of what kind of things he will be accomplishing in another 13 years. Come to think of it, he will be the age I was when I wrote that blog post I referenced. Okay, I’m definitely not ready to think of that. Nope. I’m just going to enjoy this stage.