A month has passed...

A whole month has gone by and we are doing just dandy.  I've been really bad about taking pictures lately, so this post will be nearly photo-less. 

Our biggest news for the month of February is that Dan and I are trying our hand at being hosts on a popular "vacation rental" website.  We're trying this with the fixer upper we just finished.  In the month of February, we searched diligently for good deals on new and used furniture to furnish the house with.  We listed our furnished home last week and have several bookings already.  Dan really wanted to try giving it a shot before we try to do a rental.  I finally agreed to try it for a year and see how it does.  Here are a few photos of the completed house.  And yes, we still have snow on the ground!

 

 

 

 

On the family side, Gwendolyn is saying SO many words!  Dan and I tried to write down all of the ones she has been saying, but we lost track after about 200.  Lucinda loves to crawl and just recently started pulling herself up on furniture.  It won't be long before she'll be walking.
 

We celebrated Fastnacht Day once again by making apple fritters and fastnachts.  Gwendolyn enjoyed helping make donuts. 

February was a very snowy and cold month for us.  It seemed every day was in the single digits, teens or twenties.  Since it became March however, it has been in the 40's and 50's during the days and only gets to freezing temperatures at night.  Spring is on its way!  We can feel it in the air! Our inches and inches of snow has begun to melt.  Word on the street is that its supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow!  We'll be spending most of the day outdoors for sure!

 

 I have been cleaning out my cupboards, closets and such, gathering things to sell at this years town-wide yard sale.  I recently saw a post on craigslist a woman was giving away all of her daughters old books.  I went to her home and came back with three huge totes full...but I had no room to even store them!  So I'm cleaning out for real.  I think I'll get rid of some furniture too.

I hope all of you are staying healthy and are enjoying this beautiful weather as I am! 
Hopefully next time I'll have more photos to post.  They're so much more fun.  :)

Fixer Upper Number 3

Remember I posted last summer and mentioned that our house sold?  Well, that post was slightly premature since we ended up waiting five months for the sale to go through.  That waiting period was so hard and we wanted several times to just quit the sale and do a rental instead.  But the sale did finally close the week before Christmas.  We are so thankful! What a wonderful Christmas present for us!
In the meantime, guess what we did? 

Dan started getting antsy about not having a project to do, so he looked for a house online, and found one which we walk thru and I didn't like or think was a good idea.  The next day he called a realtor on another house and he and the realtor walked through that house once.  He came home, told me he thought we should buy it, I agreed without looking at it, and three days later, we owned it! 

 

It had some foundational issues, so Dan did some extensive work digging the foundation clear and basically rebuilding much of it. 

It all happened so fast that I didn't get many pictures taken.  Two days after we made the purchase, Dan had the whole thing re-roofed. 

So there's my exciting bit of news!  Fixer upper Number 3! Who knows what will happen next!?

Life in January 2020

Greetings, readers!

 

We are now 31 days into this new year, 2020.  Time slipped by so fast that it is already February!
I'm delighted to say that we had a very nice new year with family down in Pennsylvania.  It's a tradition to have a gift exchange each year.  This year's theme was "Something Edible", which I very much enjoyed, since food is one of my favorite things. 
Each child age 1 and up gets a stocking which we all contribute to filling up.  Gwendolyn got one for the first time.

 

 

 She loved the "candle canes" and bouncy ball and book especially! 
After those things, she spent time playing with her cousins. 

We headed home the day after New Years so that we could be home for church that evening. 
Unfortunately, Gwen came down with the flu, bronchitis, and RSV, which she then passed to Lucie.  After two weeks with it, not knowing what it was, I finally took Lucie to a clinic to be diagnosed.  They said that because it was viral, they couldn't give us an antibiotic.  So it finally went away on its own. 

Last week, Dan went with three men from our church down to Virginia.  The girls and I kept ourselves busy and out of trouble by planning something fun to do each day.  Dan very much enjoyed his time.  On Friday we went to the Nursing home and sang and talked with the residents.  Then we drove to New Hampshire to spend a little time with some friends.  Dan came home Saturday evening late.

I mentioned in a post awhile back that we had been having some troubles with Dan's truck.  The troubles were caused by a mechanic we'd taken it to, so they said that they would fix the problem at no cost to us.  Because it was at no cost though, they didn't make it a priority to finish.  They had it in their shop for over two months.  In that time frame, Dan needed a plow truck and to have a truck to haul his trailer with work tools for a job.  So when we flew down to Georgia in November on a very quick trip, we bought a truck from Dan's brother.  It's a Ford, and bigger than the Dodge.  Anyway, the mechanic finally finished the truck here in January and we just sold it this week. 

It's been a good January!  I'm looking forward to what February has in store!  Stay tuned for my exciting update in the next post! 

More Christmas and December Tidings

What a month!  I absolutely love December and all the excitement Christmas brings.  It has snowed about seven times- four of which required plowing.  Gwendolyn and I snuck outside one morning while Lucie napped to build a snowman.  He was a trump supporter.   

 

 

 

The other week in between sickness, we took the girls sledding in the backyard.  Dan made these sleds out of some construction stuff he had.  Honestly, they worked better than store-bought sleds!

 

Last week, our children at the church had a Christmas program for the first time.  It was exiting to see visitors and regular attendees alike getting as excited as the kids were.  Gwendolyn was an angel. 

 

 

That evening, we threw a Christmas party for the people at church.  It was a lovely time of fellowship and food. 

 

We played some fun games! 

 

I was so thankful for everyone who came. 

 

When we decorated our house for Christmas, Gwendolyn and Lucie loved playing with the ornaments and train under the tree.

 

 

 

Gwendolyn has gotten into loving having her photo taken.  She will sit down beside the tree and say "Lucie, Lucie" and wait for me to bring Lucie over for a picture.

 

Here is a video of Dan with the girls, watching the train go around the tree.

 

 

 

Another Christmas tradition is to hang all of the Christmas cards we get on the white door in the hallway.  The girls enjoyed playing with tape while I hung them up.

 

 

On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed such a beautiful service at the church. 

We took a few photos before going over.

 

 

 

 

Then after coming home, we let Gwendolyn open one present. 

 

She was so excited about the new books she got! 

 

 

Christmas morning we woke up, ate waffles, and then read the Christmas story from Luke 2. 

 

Gwendolyn's aunt sent her a picnic basket with little plates and plastic food for Christmas.  She loves it and insists on us having a picnic at least twice a day. 

 

Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and that if you don't hear from me before, you have a happy New Year!   

 

 

Christmas with the Shedd's

Merry Christmas!  I meant to post this about a week and a half ago.  However, our family came down with the dreaded sickness that's been going around this area.  I mentioned in my last post how Gwen had gotten pink eye, had croup, and so on....

well, Lucie got the cough, got a touch of pink eye, and then everything seemed to clear up and be back to normal for about three days.  Then Dan came down with what appeared to be a bad cold (I think it was actually the flu), fevers, aches, and chills.  He stayed in bed for about three days.  Gwen got the sickness too, had high fevers for 2 1/2 days and worried me sick...and then somehow  Dan got pink eye.  So he had to stay home from church the 15th with Gwendolyn while Lucie and I went to church.  I was shocked that I didn't get sick.  Usually I'm the first one to get sick.

 

Anyway, I think the dearth has passed over our home now though.  Gwen's back to normal, Dan is up and working again.  We had a lovely Christmas Day and AMAZING Christmas eve.  I hope you all did as well. 

I promised to post our Christmas photos.  Sorry they are late.

 

In these pictures, Gwen and Lucie were both crying because they'd be awaken from naps to take these.  Lucie didn't think much of her headband either...

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did something different and put pictures on our Christmas cards this year.  Our December was busy with church events, gatherings, and some extra stuff we've added to our holiday schedule as well. 

We attended the annual tree lighting in Granville.  The theme this year was "Grinch-mas" which was different.  It was a freezing cold night and this was right between sicknesses.  Gwendolyn ate free cookies and drank dunkin donuts hot chocolate while we tried to stay warm.  I was able to snap this photo of Dan and Gwendolyn with the Grinch, AKA, the mayor of Granville.  I love that we have a mayor who really gets into Christmas.  He worked and prepared for months, decorating the whole town this year.  It looked spectacular. 

 

Another thing we added to our plate was ringing the Salvation Army bell in pricechopper.  Our local branch leader needed helpers and I thought it would be a nice way to give back to the community.  Often, people come to our church asking for us to help them pay their electric bill or get groceries.  While we can't do that with everyone who asks, we refer them to the Salvation army, because the funds raised at Christmas time go toward heating fuel vouchers and pricechopper grocery cards and such for folks who have those needs. 

 

I think we'll make it a regular December family tradition.  The people at Pricechopper were so nice to us too.  They gave us free hot chocolate.

 

 

 

I'll try to post again tomorrow with the rest of our December photos and news.  2020 is just around the corner and I find that so hard to believe!  I hope you all enjoy these last few days of 2019!

 

 

November News

Greetings, friends and readers!

 

     It's been a fun and semi-eventful last month.  Fall "ended" abruptly with the first appearance of snow on November 8th.  Since then, we've had weather in the teens and twenty's and snow covering the ground.  I had a nice birthday in November.  Dan got me a cake and ice cream and also took me out to eat. 

     Our church celebrated Thanksgiving with a special meal the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  That was nice. 

    

     Dan's truck has been out of commission since October 14th.  He had some work done on it the week prior and then it broke down.  The shop that worked on it still has it.  

     The pumpkins that were decorating the front of the church froze and then thawed out, so they were needing to be used.  I cooked them and blended and canned four of them (used all of my canning jars too!) and we've been enjoying pumpkin bread and pies. 

 

We made a whirlwind trip to Georgia for a few days in November.  Our flights were very late at night.  Lucie and I had fun taking pictures of Dan and Gwen, who were sleeping.

 

 

In the airport at 11PM, our children were wide awake and ready to go!

 

 

 

It was nice to see family and spend a little time with them.

 

 

For Thanksgiving, we were able to drive down to Pennsylvania to my family's.  I enjoyed seeing everyone and being able to attend church at the church I grew up going to.  While we were down there, we made a quick stop at B+B's, the Amish store.  We have recently gotten into eating oatmeal for breakfast each morning, so we bought lots of oatmeal and coffee. 

 

 

 

 

 

Gwendolyn is now 18 months old and is doing pretty good.  When we were down in PA, she contracted croup, as well as pink eye.  She is still recovering from the croup/cold/cough she has.  We had to take her to get eye drops for the pink eye. 

 

Lucinda ended up getting the pink eye as well, and the croup.  Hers seems much worse because she's smaller.  Our nights have been very rough lately.  I'm just praying that soon everything will be back to normal. 

 

I make different kinds of Christmas cookies each day.  I take care of the children, teach piano lessons, and plan church events.  Dan works a lot, and tries to get a deer before the season ends next Tuesday.  So far, we've only gotten one, and it was small.

 

Well, I hope to post again in the next few days here.  We had Christmas family photos taken, so I'll share them next time!

Hope you all are loving your December so far!