Weekly Wind Down {Mike Disappears at Work, Lake Ozarks Trip, Sweet Corn Harvest} July 30-August 5

Sunday (7.30.23) Mike got called into work right after the opening worship song at church and we didn't really see him again until Tuesday/Wednesday.  What a way to end July.  We just...did our best.  I did my best to smile at my children, to be supportive to Mike, and to not feel disappointed or frustrated.

My strawberry bandit...Evie and Ameliya are the only strawberry lovers in the house besides Mom. ˄

⌄ Walking to Mike's office to tell him goodnight Sunday evening.

Mike did come in to shower and sleep a couple of times but whatever went down on campus was bad and we just had to do our thing while he did his.

Monday morning the new dentist called and asked if we could take two fill in appointments in a couple of hours.  I agreed to bring Evalynn and Zayden.

I came home and scurried to get the children lunch, then left the big kids in charge while I ran to the church to meet a lady who was bringing us some Awana materials.  While I was there I cleaned up and sorted through the Cubbie materials as I'm taking the leader position of that group this year.  

Back home and being pampered....Evie was very into doing hair last week and this week it was make up.  

My lips never were so moisturized!

Supper, and then Natalee had a Bible study group meeting at the local coffee shop.  I ran to get her and left Xavier in charge of the crew for a few minutes - and was early enough that I was able to sit and just be still for a few minutes while she finished up.  It was a lovely evening.

Walking back to campus to say goodnight to Mike.

Tuesday morning I got up early and headed to the garden right after my Bible study time.

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Pumpkins....but also "downy mildew" on the leaves.  If the pumpkins don't make it they'll be our "greatest" loss of this experiment besides the carrots, so overall it will still have been a good effort by our team.

This patch of flowers gives us great joy, as have the sunflowers that we put in the garden plot.  Also great for attracting pollinators, as the bees are always buzzing the flowers.

The air was cool and a check a couple of days prior had me thinking the corn was about ready to be picked.  Indeed it was.  I started in by picking peppers and cucumbers and a few ears of corn, and then decided that the kids were so excited about planting that I shouldn't harvest without them.  I got Xavier up and Ameliya was already awake, so they came with me to start picking.  As I came back to set up for cutting the corn off, Zayden was awake and wanted in on the fun, so he headed over to the garden, too.

A bountiful harvest!  Four dozen ears grown from seeds planted by our children's own hands.  Our rows were too crowded, our lines were crooked, and we had no idea what we were doing, and yet God was generous to us.

Evalynn woke up and so did Natalee.  Natalee was gracious and helped Ev get dressed and got her some breakfast.  My other helpers also went in and ate after we did the shucking while I started cutting the corn off.  

Photos courtesy of whichever children aren't in the picture (ha).

Many hands make light work and the children sure did help me get it done quickly.  Mia and Natalee labeled bags and helped me get them filled.  Xavier and Zayden washed corn and dried it off.  

Evie did whatever a big kid was doing that struck her fancy.

We were done and cleaned up while the morning was still crisp, before the flies caught wind of our plan!

Hauling the cobs and shucks to composting.  While they were over there they took the pulled out stalks to composting, too (because we had to pull the stalk to get to the next one to pick the corn because our rows were so close together).  

Ready for the freezer!

While I was cutting up peppers and onions for the freezer, Ameliya led the charge of making a fresh batch of granola.  We were pretty well out!

It was a VERY productive morning!

Our friends invited us to play at the pond in the afternoon and that was a well earned reward for the kids after everyone worked so hard all morning.  Visiting with a friend was a reward for me, too.

We brought August in well!!  Work hard, play hard!!

Evie wanted to "swim far far to the other side."  She and I had words about what would happen if she swam past the lily pad barrier.

Big brother giving a paddle boat ride.

Ameliya kayaking.  Natalee and Ellie took the kayaks out, too but they got to the other side so quickly I didn't get a picture.

These little gals are such fun buddies.  They asked me to video their dock jumping...

...and then said, "now in slow mo!"  And it is cool, they're right!

After a couple hours of splashing around, back home we came to take showers and make supper.  And surprise!  Dad came home for supper.

The fruit of his labor....many mornings dragging hose to water his corn patch and he says it paid off!

Wednesday the kids and I spent some time at the shoe store.  Both boys needed shoes and we looked for Natalee.  The last pair we bought her isn't working as well with her brace as previous brands have, so she'll need to switch soon.  We were successful for both Xavier (size 14 mens) and Zayden (size 4 boys) and I was reminded to be thankful for growing children.

The wall calendar accurately displayed how well we were holding on by Wednesday.  Mike was weary of work, we were weary of being without him.

Most of Wednesday was spent packing and preparing to be out of town Thursday-Saturday at Lake of the Ozarks with Mike's family.  I made list after list and then we just tackled them as best we could.  

Spaghetti for supper....outside....which always feels like a win.

Diva - packed her purse to be out of town.  She had 16 tubes of lip balm and band aids.

Also necessary prep work....

I was up early Thursday finishing the "things."  Evalynn, who had had enough of her Dad being gone, decided to solve the problem by velcroing herself to him in the night.

We got packed up and on the road mid morning without major incident.  We have also recently discovered that Sweet Tart ropes are dye free and they were such a fun treat for us on the drive.  Everyone likes them except Natalee.

We made it to the Lake of the Ozarks (Camdenton, actually) and the drive was easy.  We had sandwiches and fries on the road and then convinced the children to nap after and most of them did.  We had to stop at Wal-Mart quick to grab some treats to celebrate Grammy Sara's birthday and something for me to swim in since I forgot my swimsuit (thank goodness for athletic clothes at WM!).  We arrived at the condo with Kea, Isa, and AJ quickly behind us and Grammy and Papa right behind them.  The kids all "hid" in the loft and waited so so patiently for Grammy to come up so they could surprise her with the birthday song.

After we helped carry in and unpack I could see that I had five children who had sat much of the day and needed to burn off energy and I'm sure our nieces felt much the same.  Mike and I offered to take all the children to the pool.

We played for a long time.

Then we laid them all out to drip off before we went back.

(Natalee had already gone back.)

Back to the condo for Grammy's birthday supper of chicken alfredo and then, you know me, any excuse to light a candle and sing!

The little natives were hard pressed to fall asleep even though they should have been plenty tired. Everyone together in a loft sleeping arrangement made for a party atmosphere.  Eventually aunt Kea took one for the team and went and laid with Isa and her presence stilled everyone.

We got up and right to play after breakfast on Friday!  

First the playground called our names!

Mike and Papa played a game of horse shoes and I pushed lots of swings.

Mike and I were plenty sweaty after playground duty, but sweaty or not, we'd promised the kids some mini golf.  We decided morning would be better than blazing afternoon and so we got aunt Kea and off we jetted.  Grammy and Papa opted out of the sticky adventure.

I took the younger crew ahead a hole and Mike, Kea, Natalee, and Xavier enjoyed a less chaotic game of mini golf.

Evalynn decided when we arrived that she did not want to play and she didn't change her mood much the entire game.  She did cooperate but not joyfully.

Xavier's hole in one!

Natalee's hole in one!

And Mike's hole in one!  Thanks for the pictures, Kea!

After our 18 holes, in which I was not declared winner, we did some bumper cars.  One dolly was not tall enough to ride, even with an adult, and so she was disappointed for the second time of the day.  The others, however, had a great time!  

The guy running the cars was so generous, both with our time allotment and that he let Mia and AJ stop halfway through and switch so both got to drive.

Neither Zayden nor Isa were tall enough to drive so both remained passengers.

There was a lot of laughter and I eventually had to walk away because I kept trying to "coach" the driving and there's no coaching to it.  Ha.  I would have "bumped" with them but there were only 3 working cars - so lucky that all our crew fit into them at one time!

My sideline spectator was getting sleepy...

We drove back and had lunch and celebrated Evie's upcoming birthday.  Aunt Kea had brought a gift and we already had the candles, so why not?

Then, Mike and Kea took everyone to the pool while I tried to get Evalynn to lay down for a nap.  She never did sleep but at least she rested awhile and Papa got a nap in while it was quiet.

I finally gave up and let Ev go to the pool and then I went out for awhile on my own while everyone swam.  Pizza was for supper and then we took the kids for a walk and to the playground before bedtime.

Saturday morning Kea, Mike and I took the kids to hike the castle ruins trail at Ha Ha Tonka State Park.

We sure did miss our brother-in-law, Miguel this trip.  He's a good balance for all our flavors of crazy and helps us keep things in perspective, but he ended up needing to be with his family and so we wished him well on his travels to California.

The sky was mostly overcast and there was a breeze, which made for a perfect morning hike.

We stopped by with our crew to say hello to some of Mike's extended family at the park shelter and then took our children to Bridal Caves to do a cave tour.  None of them have been in a cave except Natalee (when she was 1 and I was pregnant with Xavier).

It was a very pretty cave.

All our our children did really well on the cave hike and several faced a fear they didn't know they had until I announced we were doing a cave tour - a fear of being in a cave!

Feeding the fish after the cave...

Then it was time for the Beeler bus to head back north.  We put in our audio book, announced "unlimited snacks" from the snack bucket and drove until someone needed to potty!

With plenty of time in the van, Evalynn moisturized her lips, painted Honey's fingers (with an empty bubble container/wand), and put many band-aids on her legs to cover the scrapes from falling on our morning hike.

We were back home in time to unload the van, let the kids stretch out good in the yard, have a sandwich, and get showers before bed.

We are very appreciative to Grammy and Papa for the condo stay and for getting the opportunity to spend a couple of days with them and Kea and our sweet Kansas nieces and to see some extended family.