Rhodes Report 2012

Where did February go?  Seriously.  Here's our end-of-year update, which I didn't get out until mid-January.  I was waiting a few weeks longer to post it on here, until my sister overseas received it.... I'm not sure she has gotten it yet, but it should be close.  
Plus, I needed to post SOMETHING.....  More updates coming.....  Eventually......  It's been just a little crazy.

Rhodes Report 2012

Greetings in the New Year!

This has been a busy year!  Where has the time gone?  We have been blessed, and we continue to marvel at God’s provision for us.  “All glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Glory to him ….. forever and ever! Amen.”  (Ephesians 3:20-21)  God has blessed us.  Even when we don’t think to ask, He surprises us.  We are so grateful.

Our biggest news of the year, obviously, would be the addition of our beautiful girl to our family.  Zadie Marie was born in April, and is now almost 9 months old.  She is a big girl!  She continues to top the charts for growth.  She is now crawling, pulling up, and “cruising” along the furniture, crawling up the stairs (!!!), and trying out unsupported standing. She has two teeth, and beautiful big blue eyes, and lots of dark hair.  She’s a very happy, very laid back baby.  We can already, even at her young age, tell the difference in the way she interacts compared to how the boys were at the same age, and we are looking forward to seeing the change a girl will bring to the dynamics of our family.

Jacob turned 3 in October, and continues to be a happy, silly guy.  He has the normal short attention of a 3-year-old boy, but surprises us with what he is picking up from being around as his brother learns.  He knows all of his colors and shapes, days of the week, and can count to 20.  He’s in the Cubbies class at Awana this year.  He loves to sing, and it brings us such joy to hear him singing praise songs to God as he plays.  He’s starting on violin, learning how to hold it and posture.  He’s a snuggler, and loves to cuddle up with Daddy or Mommy or other favorite people.  He’s very attentive to little sister as well.  But as much as he loves to snuggle, he also loves to wrestle with his brother.  They have almost daily matches rolling all over the living room and giggling.  He’s just a very happy boy, and we love him so much.

Nathan turned 5 in September.  We started home-school Kindergarten with him on Labor Day.  (Appropriate, eh?) He is moving along rapidly with Math, and will be moving on to 1^st grade math this spring.  He picked up letters and sounds very quickly, but is slower on learning blends and simple words (although it seems that it’s just now starting to “click”).  He’s in the Sparks program at Awana, and really enjoys it.  In February, he prayed to ask Jesus to forgive his sins and live in his heart, and then was baptized in July.  We can tell that the Holy Spirit is working inside of him.  He’s made a lot of progress on his violin in the last year.  He has memorized 6 variations of “Twinkle Little Star” and 4 other songs, plus two scales.  He did his first special at church December 30.  He had a little accident the day after Christmas, tripping going up the stairs.  He knocked out one tooth, and had to have the other pulled.  It makes him look very tough and grown up!  He is more serious (and strong-willed – imagine that!) than our other two, but still loves to laugh and be silly and have fun.

The boys’ curiosity about the size and geography and cultures of the world has been aided by the fact my sister Carlsie is on assignment with the Peace Corps in Zambia, Africa.  They really perk up when they hear, “In Africa, where Aunt Sissy lives….”  She has been there since August of 2011; her job there is “rural aquaculture” – teaching people how to build and maintain fish ponds for food and income.  She is on the downhill side of her time there, and will be home next autumn.  My dad and brother got to go visit her for two weeks over Christmas.  They really enjoyed the time there, and I am still blown away by the fact my dad actually flew halfway around the world in an airplane! :)     

My Grandma Marie (my mom’s mom) passed away in April, the week before Zadie was born.  Her health had been declining, and we are glad she is not suffering any more.  I think even in her passing, God used it to be a special time of reuniting for her children and family.

We didn’t take any vacations this year, between baby, finances, and time.  Paul did arrange a surprise day trip for my birthday, to the Wichita Zoo with his family.  It was a beautiful day, in the midst of the oppressing summer, and we really enjoyed the time.

We thought 2011’s summer was bad, but last summer blew it away.  No rain; it was depressing to watch the ponds dry up and the crops wither in the fields during 3 solid months of near or over 100 degrees.  The yard is greener now, in January, than it was all summer.  It was crunchy and brown by the 4^th of July.  Despite this, though, we somehow managed to have our best garden ever.  I think it was because it didn’t rain, we didn’t have any floods, wind, or hail to destroy our crop.  It was so hot even the weeds weren’t growing much.  We could water exactly how much was needed, exactly when it was needed.  Our tomatoes were a failure, but everything else did very well, especially our green beans and cantaloupe.

After a month and a half of cramming 3 kids (in their required car seats) in the back seat of our Buick, we bought a minivan.  (We’d been waiting for a certain kind.)  Although I don’t like being classified as a “minivan mommy,” I do like the fact we can fit 8 in the van (which we’ve already done a couple times), and the fact it gets about twice the gas mileage of an SUV (which is what we originally though we wanted).  It’s a basic 2008 Toyota Sienna, and so far we’ve been very happy with it.

Paul continues to supervise at the glass plant.  It has been a very slow year for the company.  We’re hoping that when the economy finally bounces back, things will pick up.  Paul got the opportunity to go to a men’s retreat called “Encounter” in September and again in November.  It has been wonderful to see his spiritual life renewed and energized, and see how God is using him.  We are experiencing the blessings of letting him lead according to God’s design for a family.  He and my Dad are organizing a group from our church to go to another one later in January.  We got Paul a new grill/smoker for Father’s Day.  Several weeks, the temperature didn’t dip below 100 for days on end, and I told Paul I would not be turning on the oven to heat up the house.  Besides the usual burgers and briskets, we perfected the grilled pizza, meatloaf, bread, French fries, and veggies. The grill definitely paid for itself over the summer.  Paul enjoys the culinary adventures, and I enjoy the break from the kitchen. :)

I “just” stay home with the kids.  Besides home school, I teach Nathan’s violin when Paul is working, and I also have been doing piano lessons with my niece Lena.   I still lead our church’s praise team, and teach Bible lessons weekly at Awana.  I organized two worship nights in the second half of the year, where our band joined with some other musicians and singers for a “concert” of worship music for the community.  Both were great nights, with an excellent turnout, and we are planning another for February 10^th.  The whole family was involved in our church’s 10^th annual Bethlehem reenactment, the first weekend of December.  We had record attendance this year, with over 2000 attending during the three nights.  I turned 30 this year, and I am definitely feeling my age.  (haha)  I got glasses for driving and screen time, and got an umbilical hernia fixed (caused by 3 pregnancies).  The hernia repair lasted a week before it tore out at another place.  The doctor said I would need a more extensive surgery to repair, so that will be coming at some point in the future.  (It’s not an emergency at this point, just ugly and occasionally uncomfortable.) 

I’m sure there are other details about the year that I’m missing, but these were the major things.  We love our life. Of course there are always things that we imagine we’d like to change, but in the end:  we have a roof over our head, food in the cupboard, and a family that loves each other.  What more do we need?

We hope that 2013 is your best year ever.

From our house to yours,

Paul & Rachel

Nathan, Jacob, and Zadie

Maranatha!

Paul was gone from Thursday to Saturday last week at a Men's retreat.  (Same one he's been to previously.)  He was kind of heading up a group of 14 guys that left from our church.  It was a powerful weekend, with guys opening up and deciding to change their lives and homes.  So he was not only physically exhausted, from little sleep, but also emotionally spent.
As we were eating supper at a makeshift table in the living room (the house is a disaster area; the dining table completely buried), out of no where, Jacob started talking about asking Jesus to live in his heart.  That grabbed our attention.  We have talked to Jacob a lot about receiving Christ, as it comes up, and he knows all the facts:  he has sinned, Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, we have to ask Jesus to forgive us and accept His payment in order to go to Heaven.  He knew the facts, but he didn't want to do it.  We'd ask him the questions, and he knew all the answers - "Do you want to ask Jesus to forgive your sins?"
"No."
This had us kind of worried or upset.  People tend to say, "Oh he's just 3."  But what if he died?  He knew what he needed to do, but was rejecting it.  He's old enough to sin, know he's sinning, know he need to do something about it.... And not doing it.  Nathan was also concerned.  He sometimes would lay in bed and ask, "But Jacob hasn't asked Jesus into his heart.  Why hasn't Jake?  Can Jacob go to Heaven?"
So out of the blue Saturday night, he started talking about it.  Paul started asking the same questions.  Jacob gave clear answers.  So we got to the big question:  "Do you want to ask Jesus to forgive your sins and come into your heart?"
"Yes."
Paul and I prayed with him there, in the middle of the messy living room, in the middle of our meal.  I won't say Paul was sobbing, but he was definitely emotional.  I think the boys were like, Okay, Dad.....?
Paul has said recently he's not ready for Jesus to come back yet.  He has children who have not accepted Him.  You don't know how wrenching it is to think that the child you love so much here on earth may not be with you for eternity.  We are so incredibly happy to add Jacob to our eternal family.  

Vitamin D Day

So... It's January 28.
And it's 75 degrees outside.
Absolutely beautiful!  I told Paul I was going to make the boys play outside all day, even if I had to chain them to a tree to keep them out there.  We're skipping school, skipping naps, and soaking up all that sunshine vitamin.  The boys have dirty faces, dirty feet, and just a hint of a sunburn.  Zadie's knees and socks are filthy.  She had her first taste of dirt.
Perfect.

A What? Award?

I was given the Liebster Award (???) by a reader over at love life with kids.  Apparently, she follows my blog and thought I worthy of receiving this award.  Why anyone who's not related to me would want to read my nonsense is beyond me, but I am grateful and humbled.

Apparently there are some rules.....

- Bloggers award other bloggers whom they consider as “up and coming” and have less than 200 followers, or are a newer blog.
- If you receive a Liebster, you must tell 11 things about yourself, answer 11 questions asked by the nominating blogger, and nominate 11 new bloggers.
- You then ask 11 questions to the bloggers you nominated.  Oh, and don’t forget to inform the bloggers you chose.

11 little known facts about me:

1. qqaqaqaqaqaqaaaaqaqq   I have a 9-month-old daughter who is obsessed with stretching up and beating on keyboards - the computer's and the piano's.
2. I consider our house our forever home.  We're not planning on leaving.
3.  I fall asleep almost any time Paul and I watch tv.  Yet, when Paul's working nights and I watch tv, I will regularly stay up til 1 AM and still not fall asleep.
4.  I've been leading worship at our church for 12 years now.  I started just before I turned 18, on a once-a-month basis, and took over as the main worship leader in 2006.  (It is a volunteer position in our church.)
5.  I hate jeans with stretch material in them.  But do you know how hard it is to find women's jeans that don't have spandex?
6.  I only had one boyfriend before Paul, and he had no other girlfriends before me.  Perhaps this is part of the reason we have such a great marriage?
7.   I have a mental block against learning a foreign language.  I tried Spanish, German, Greek, and Latin in high school....  Sign Language is the only one that stuck - because you can think in English!
8.  I've known Paul for a quarter century. 
9. 000102
3
+60000000000000000000000000000000000036+
3.0
0.0.0.0 
(Again with the daughter and the keyboards......) 
I am kind of a water snob.  I grew up on well water, and cannot handle chlorinated water.  We have a reverse osmosis filter in the kitchen, and I only will buy certain brands of bottled water.
10. On a related note, I'm also kind of a meat snob.  I grew up on a farm, and the beef was from our own cows.  Whenever I've had to buy meat, I've been disappointed.
11.  I only buy whole milk.  
  

11 questions from lovelifewithkids:

1. What was the best thing that happened in your life in 2012?  The birth of our daughter, the beautiful Zadie Marie.

2. Favourite food?  Steak.  Without a doubt.

3. What is your favourite hobby?  Playing piano.  But, like most hobbies, I don't get to do it for pleasure that often.  (When I play, it's to learn or practice a song for church.)

4. What is one place you’d love to travel to someday?  Europe, with husband.  With a stop at the island of Rhodes, of course. :)

5. Would you rather write things by hand or type them out?  By hand.  But due to time constraints, and children that destroy things, some things have been relegated to computer.  (Like journaling - hence this blog.)

6. What is one skill you have completely mastered?  My husband.  (Yes, I just went there.)

7. One skill you’d love to learn?  To really play guitar.  I know 5 or 6 chords, so can do simple songs and simple rhythms, but not enough to play in front of anyone.

8. Summer or winter?  Bleh.  Neither.  (But if I have to choose, it would be Summer.... My birthday is the first day of summer.)

9. One thing you really want to accomplish in 2013?  Sorting the boxes of photos that have been piled on the card table in the corner of our bedroom for a year now.

10. What was your favourite toy as a child?  Barbies, as much as I hate to admit it.

11. What is your most-cherished item in your home? Why?  My great-grandmother's violin.  Not only is it probably the most expensive thing I own, it also has wonderful family history, and truly is irreplaceable.  (Another is my wedding ring, because it is a gift from my husband and it symbolizes my love and commitment to him..... but since it's on my body, I'm not sure if this counts.)


I don't follow many blogs.  The blogs I consistently follow are over there on the right, and all of them are people I know in real life, several of them relatives.  Occasionally, I'll "check in" on people who have commented or subscribed to my blog, but in general, I don't stalk strangers. :)  I don't keep up well enough with the people I know in real life, so I don't think I should be better educated about someone I never met, than I am with someone I see every week at church.  Nothing personal, I just don't have a great desire to get lots of people to read my blog, so I'm not putting myself out there trying to promote it.  I do this mainly for my own entertainment.

So.  If you read this, consider yourself nominated.  And leave a comment, so I know to come visit your blog.  Or if you don't have a blog (or don't want to post this on yours), but still want to answer the below questions, answer them in the comments - I would love to read your answers!

Questions for my "nominees":  (Going deeper than the usual getting-to-know-you questions.)
1.  Where/how did you grow up, and where/how do you live now in comparison?
2.  In light of recent headlines, what is your stance on gun control? 
3.  When you hear "home-schooled," what is the first impression that pops into your head?
4.  If you walked by a homeless person asking for help, what would you do?
5.  What is your favorite family (immediate or extended) tradition?
6.  What do you think about the term "obey" as part of the wife's wedding vows?
7.  If someone is doing/saying something that goes against what you believe is right, do you speak out about it?
8.  Do you think entertainment (music, tv, video games, computer) affects morality and worldview?
9.  If you could have any job, without thought to practicality, what would it be?
10.  Do you think "going green" is just a fad, or do people really care about the environment?
11.  And along those lines, what do you think of the whole "global warming" phenomenon?  

Bonus Question:  Where will you spend eternity?  How do you know this?  (How many will actually answer this one?)

Those are my questions.  I want to read your answers!  Leave them in the comments.   I'll answer all of them myself in a future post.  

  

"B"

Breakfast in bed.
Brought by boys.
Breakfast was bacon.
Bliss.

The end.

Spring Cleaning

I'm not one who does spring cleaning every spring.  I do it whenever the mood strikes.
Which, lets face it, is never.
But it's kind of gotten to the point that I can't ignore it.  I don't know if it's because of the very dry, dusty year (two years) we've had or what, but the dust situation in this house has gotten epic.  I've got dust bunnies, which are usually only under the beds, hanging off the walls.  I've successfully ignored it for the last several months, but I can't any longer.
It's time to do something about it.
But the thing I hate about deep cleaning, is that whenever you decide to finally deep clean one area, it makes the adjoining areas look even crappier.  I didn't set out to deep clean the entire front room.  It started with just organizing my bookshelf.  Which led to a book purge.  And I figured since I'm handling all the books anyways, I might as well dust them all and dust the shelves really good.  (And since the aforementioned dust epidemic is so bad, it's beyond dust rag, beyond Swiffer even.... I'm dusting with the vacuum.)
But then deep cleaning the shelves and the wall behind it made me realize how I needed to do that.... to the whole room.
So I just finished vacuuming the entire ceiling (wood).  I had been ignoring it, but once you do a section, you have to do the whole thing.  I didn't realize how many tiny cobwebs had been up there holding dust.  Gross.  (But it looks so nice now!) I also washed down a wall, which makes me realize how badly I need to do that around the whole room.  (Although it will probably wait until tomorrow.)
But cleaning is like crack, I tell you!  You get one room done, and it's gleaming and organized, and you want that for your whole house!!!
I guess I know what I'll be doing for the next month.......

Christmas

Okay, so I think we've FINALLY recovered from Christmas.

It was different this year.  Not only was my little sister in Africa, so were my dad and brother!  Dad and JC left December 13 and spent two weeks with Carlsie in Zambia.  They returned December 30, bringing a lovely little intestinal virus with them, which we all got after spending New Years Eve and New Years Day together.  Gag.  (Literally.)
So our Christmas was pretty low-key.  We went out to the farm for Christmas Eve, which is our tradition.  We didn't do any gifts, but just hung out, made Mom watch The Emperor's New Groove, and called Africa.  All of us talked to all of them.  (It was 5 AM Christmas Day there, and they were getting up to go on a safari!)
Christmas morning we did gifts with our small family.  We spent more on the kids that we originally planned, but they still only got 3 gifts each for the boys, and one gift for Zadie.  Both of them needed new tires for their bikes (completely bald, white fibers showing).  We had NO IDEA how expensive tires were!  We could replace the whole bike for just $10 more than buying two new tires. Nathan's we decided to get the next size up bike, so it was more than a $10 difference, but we were going to have to get him a bigger bike by this summer anyways.  So besides the bikes, we got them each a "bucket" of figures - Nathan of Army figures, and Jacob got dinosaurs.  I had bought them new Eichenberger Farms shirts when my sister did an order, and decided to just wrap theirs like gifts, even though they weren't really.  We got Zadie a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament.... I didn't realize how much she'd have fun with wrapping paper, or I may have wrapped up some more things just so she could rip off the paper.  (The boys were 3 and 2 months old for their first Christmases, so were clueless and indifferent with gifts.)

We went out to Paul's parents' house for lunch and spent the day there.  My mom came for lunch since she would be alone otherwise.  It was bitterly cold and windy, so after lunch and gifts, my sister-in-law Elizabeth and I went to help my Mom with chores and opening gates, while the kiddos (and adults?) napped.  (Having someone open gates, so you don't have to stop and get off the tractor to open and close every gate cuts choring time in half.)  Paul spent a chunk of time while we were there finishing up my Christmas gift.  I had told him I wanted him to build me a new book case for our toy "corner" behind our bedroom door.  We had a ladder shelf (built by his dad) similar to the one at right, and had accumulated too many toys and books to fit on it (not to mention the boys used it for just that.... a ladder).  He designed and built not only shelves, but also a toy chest below it, so that we don't have to stack their big toys under our end table any more.  I love it!  It's beautiful, and makes the corner look so much neater.  He really did an excellent job on it.  

We had it piled high within a half hour of getting it home. :)

Paul took the two days after Christmas off, so we had him home all week.  I wish I could say we spent the week relaxing, but we were on the go all the time.  I can't even tell you what we did, but I just remember thinking it wasn't really a vacation, since we weren't home to enjoy it.  We had somewhere to go every single day.

Nathan played his first special for church on December 30.  We started working on "Joy to the World" in October, and felt he had it down enough to play in front of the church.  Of course, he made some age-appropriate mistakes, but I am still very proud of him.  (And definitely jealous of his innocent confidence.)

Paul went back to work the night of New Years Eve.  I took the kids over to our good friends' (basically 2 more siblings) house, Jared and Christina, who only live about 5 miles from us.  JC put his pictures on the big TV, and he narrated them for us, which we enjoyed (and I'm sure he enjoyed knocking out 7 [?] families at once to not have to answer individually, "How was your trip?  What did you do?")

I went with the kids to my extended family Christmas at my grandparents' house on New Years Day.  I enjoyed visiting with my aunts, uncles, and cousins.

The day after, in the middle of his normal breakfast battle (No, I don't like this, it's icky - sob, sob....), Jacob threw up.  We just figured he had gagged on the pancakes he was throwing a fit about.  But after about 3 more times of puking that morning, it was obvious he had a bug.  Nathan came down with it that afternoon.  I woke up the next morning with an upset stomach and other unpleasant symptoms, but thankfully never threw up.  It was a violent, but apparently a very fast moving but.  It put you through the ringer for about 12 hours, but then it was gone.  We thought Paul had miraculously avoided it (he usually gets sick just from hearing about someone who's got a stomach bug).  He went to work as usual Friday morning, feeling fine, but then called me about 5.  I was like, "Why are you in your truck?"  (I could hear the wind noise in the background.)  He says, "Yeah, I puked at work."  Lovely.  He was over it by the next morning, but felt weak enough he didn't think he should go in.

So that's our Christmas in a nutshell.  I'm sure I have other things to update about, and I'll remember them...... eventually.........