The Visiting Continues

Week three is coming to a close here in the midwest. Last week my brother, his family, and I all went to Chicago and spent the week with my parents. My mom absolutely spoiled us with special treats and yummy foods. She especially spoiled Evie and me with special foods that we normally wouldn't have made for ourselves. :) Mom, Evie, the boys, and I enjoyed the Brookfield Zoo early in the week. What a ginormous zoo! Whew!

Scott posing by one of the Big Cats... although I can't seem to find the big cat in this picture!

Petting animal skulls. Sethie found these to be quite fascinating!

Ah! There's the cat!

Hungry for lunch!

Besides a visit to IKEA and Trader Joes, the rest of the week we pretty much chilled at home. The Wesner fam is a homebody family, and that is for sure! We enjoyed a couple picnics, some bike rides, and just in general hanging out. I also had time to work on some school stuff. I was able to research field trips, figure out memory work for this next year, select science and history projects, map out my lesson planner for the next year with important dates and deadlines (and you KNOW that it is color-coded ;-), and I was even able to outline my history lessons for the year. I also was able to start the big project for this next school year: researching ancient Egypt and using what I find to write up little narratives or stories to tell during history class instead of just handing out the facts. I'm hoping that this makes history class a little more interesting for both teacher and pupil this year. :)

We stopped at the beach on our way home Saturday, and then enjoyed a wonderful Lord's day at Grace Fellowship with dear brothers and sisters in the Lord. I have certainly missed fellowshipping with these dear believers this past year!

This week has been full of seeing more friends and family. It has been a good week of seeing people, and I'm so thankful for all those that I was able to see. I'm so thankful that so many were able to make time for me in their busy lives this week. :)  It was tough on my nephews though. Wednesday morning I was getting ready to go and see some more friends and little Sethie said,
"Where are you going Aunt Nettie?"
"Well, I'm going to go see some of my friends this morning. I'll be back for supper though!"
Then Sethie gave this pathetic little sigh, "Aunt Nettie, why do you always have to go see more friends?"
"Well buddy, I haven't seen these friends for a long time and I would like to spend a little time with them."
"But Aunt Nettie, I miss you too!"
"Hmmmm, what do you think I should do?"
"I think you should stay home and play legos with me!"
"Well bud, I have to go out today, but tomorrow I can spend almost all day here with you, and then Friday I will be here all day with you. Then guess what? Next week I'll be at the sleeping house (translation: the little house we rented for vacation next week) ALL week with you!" 
At this, his eyes lit up and he just squeezed me so tight I thought I was going to pop. :) I love these boys and cannot wait to be with both them and my other nephew and nieces next week! I remember being little and being so excited when aunts and uncles would come and visit but feeling sad when they had places to go and people to see and soon their time with us was up. I want to make sure that these darling kiddos know that they are dear to me and that I miss them very much!


This week I also tried my first attempt at making my own almond milk and almond flour!

A cup and a half of almonds made two of these jars of almond milk. We all sampled the first jar, then I drank a glass of it with a cookie. Mmmm! I also toasted the almond paste that was leftover after I strained the milk and made almond flour! It looks a bit clumpy in this picture, but I ran it through the blender later and it came out perfectly... just as almond flour should look! All that almond milk and almond flour for about $3.50. I'm a fan!

This morning Sethie showed me his outfit and informed me that he was a hunter! When I asked him what he was hunting he said "Deers". He went on to give me a very detailed explanation: "First I go out really quiet and find the deers, then I take my pocket knife and kill them. (he seems to have forgotten that he was holding a gun;-) Then, I will hang them upside down."

Well, the kid seems to have the basics down anyways. ;-)

I went into the boys' room this afternoon and they were playing with their legos... any guesses what is going on here??

Lego football! This is kind of like my nephews' fantasy football I guess... or  maybe playstation football... or whatever! I think it's great! You'll even notice they have stands full of people watching the game. Scott has the team on the left with the plain white helmets. Seth's team has different colored helmets. When I pointed out that some of Seth's had white helmets like Scott's they said, "Yes, but Seth's guys have designs and colors on their helmets. Scott's don't." So you see, they thought of everything! They had even designated certain players as the quarterbacks. Apparently Seth's team is a really good team, so Scott was granted an extra player. Partway through the game one of Seth's players went to sit in the stands with the fans because "he was feeling ill. But it's okay because my team (Seth's) is a really good team and can still win." I love the imagination of a child!

And finally, this morning we were enjoying a quiet morning when I remembered that I have PhotoBooth on my new macbook! So I called the boys over and we had some good laughs over the funny pictures we were taking. Evie had to come over too because, well... laughter is contagious. Seth couldn't stop laughing and Scott begged to stop because he was laughing so much that his stomach was beginning to hurt! Fun times! So I leave you with these high quality, super serious (not), and totally not embarrassing pictures. (Please don't avoid me the rest of your life after seeing these! Being an aunt does something to you ;-)

Enjoy some sunshine and a good laugh today! :)

On the Road

I've just spent a good week with my parents and "little" bro (6' 3'' tall! Crazy kid. Who told him he could get this tall????)  We've  done some shopping, looked at phones, gone to Bible studies, planned the road trip to Washington, played some Mario Cart Wii, and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and satisfying rain. It has been time well-spent. 

Everything is so green after the nourishing sunshine and satisfying rain!

Tomorrow I head back to Indiana for two days. 

I need to pack up the little odds and ends that are left... you know those little things that don't fit logically into any box as you pack? Maybe a box's worth of stuff that I'll probably want when I start unpacking at the other end of the country but won't remember where I packed it because it isn't a very categorical object. I'm just glad I'm not a knick-knacky person. I wouldn't even begin to know how to pack all those little things! To each his own!

Then I'll need to slap some identifying labels on the boxes. Since my things are traveling via semi and I may very well be absent at either the pick up or the drop off point, we thought it would be a good idea to make it easy to see which boxes were mine.

Didn't my dad do a nice job? He loves making labels :)

Since the majority of my stuff is school stuff, dad even made little "school" labels to put on the boxes that need to be taken to the school. When the labels are all on the boxes I'll be moving all of the boxes to one point in the house so the rest of the house is completely empty and ready to be cleaned. 

Then comes Sunday. My last time to worship with my brothers and sisters at Grace Fellowship Church before Washington. All the remaining Sundays and Wednesdays I'll be out of town. And that afternoon I'll be visiting with a couple different families and starting the goodbyes.

Someone please remind me not to wear mascara on Sunday. 

Thank you in advance.

And then come Monday! Off to Ohio I go! I've packed up the clothes for traveling and Calvin's (ahem. That is my car's name. haha!) trunk has been transformed into a dresser and closet of sorts. Thank you Calvin, for being so flexible! 

The shoeboxes are working quite well as my substitute for dresser drawers! :)
Shirts in suitcase and shorts/pants in backpack.

So begins the next five and a half weeks of traveling! 

I covet your prayers for safety as I travel:

-for contentment with where God has me and what God has me doing. I know that I will probably tire of living out of a suitcase very quickly.

-that I would use the time during these next few weeks wisely 

-that I would seek to glorify God in all I do and seek to see His glory in all the new things I see and experience.