Greetings from Willmar, MN!! Lots of news this year!!! I’ll get started . . .First and foremost, we are having another baby! We are due in late February. Our youngest, Hanna is now 6, so we've been enjoying freedom for a couple years, more or less. This will be quite a change.
Second, we are building a house. We have owned some land for a couple of years. We broke ground this fall and expect to be in our house by spring. We are very excited, but Marc is acting as general contractor, so he is very stressed. He's doing a great job for it being his first time. . . . and hopefully his last!!! We've had many bumps in the road so far, but only a few more months and it will be over.
One last bit of news is that we decided this year to homeschool our 2 kids, Joshua (8) and Hanna (6). We are seeing great results. Joshua, who has always loved to read, is reading much more and doing very well. Hanna, who started kindergarten this year, is already reading Dr. Seuss. She is exceeding our expectations far and wide. I could go on and on about their academics, but I will tell about the other happenings in their lives.
Joshua, who is just 8 this month and in the 2nd grade, is loving home schooling. He’s a little more unstructured, like his mom, and we’ve been forced to be very flexible in our school schedule this year with everything going on, so this has been great for him. He spent his summer collecting bugs in any and every container he finds in the recycle bin. He caught frogs with his friends, but we’re still learning how to take care of them. He still plans on being an entomologist (bug scientist) when he grows up. He’s been involved in karate and basketball, but gave up soccer this year. He didn’t want to do ANYTHING this summer, but I made him do a couple things to keep him social, so he did swimming lessons and baseball. He doesn’t have that strong of an interest in playing sports anymore, except karate. He’s a little more on the intellectual side.
In the past month or so, Joshua’s taken a huge interest in baking and cooking. He’s been making Cream of Wheat every morning for breakfast. He actually made some pretty OK brownies from his own trial and error. His great-grandma Joan Van Buren is a multiple Pillsbury bake-off winner (so many times they wouldn’t let her compete anymore), so it must be in the genes. She is spending time with him to teach him the basics so he can be more educated in his baking “experiments“. We might have a chef on our hands.
Hanna turned 6 in August. She and her best friend, Kresson, have birthdays close together, so they had a princess birthday party together. It was hard for Hanna at first not to be able to go to school with Kresson. They were inseparable. She likes home schooling now. She and Joshua are very close.
Hanna is looking VERY forward to being a big sister. She has a natural love for babies. She has also always been the baby, so she’s looking forward to babying something for a change (besides a doll). She’s going to be a great big sister! (Here is a photo of her with my nephew, Ryan.)
This is Hanna’s 3rd year in dance. She is becoming more and more of a performer the older she gets. She got her feet wet this summer by helping make costumes for the local theatre when they were doing a children’s production of James and the Giant Peach. She’s been fascinated with acting and performing for a couple of years. She has a few hurdles to overcome before she’ll begin her acting career, though. Hanna has been informally diagnosed with Selective Mutism. Basically, that means that she chooses not to talk to anyone in any social situation, in her case due to social anxiety. Recently, Marc and I thought it best for her to start seeing a child therapist. It’s only a matter of time before her shell will crack and she will start acting like the crazy Hanna we know and love. I think she’s looking forward to that as well.
Marc is still working in sales at Lange Ag Systems. This year, he had a crazy harvest with the lack of rain during the summer, and on top of that we had a crazy time with the beginning of our house building. Marc is going to be sufficiently burnt out after this house stuff is done. Hopefully, we’ll have a little down time before his busy season at work begins. If you would remember him in your prayers, it would be appreciated. He still loves to fish and hunt, but doesn’t do either much anymore due to other commitments. Soon, Joshua will be old enough to go with him, and I’m sure he’ll spend more at it then. His hunting dog, Sadie, had to be put down in 2006. Last fall, we got a new yellow lab, Gator. This year, he’s developed into quite a hunting dog. Joshua helps feed and train him. I think he sort of considers him HIS dog.
I have been feeling well (everyone asks a pregnant woman how she’s feeling). I am now in my 3rd trimester and am not at all ready for a baby. I’m enjoying home schooling with the kids. I’m still singing as much as I can handle, which thru the spring might not be much. I recorded the Christmas Program music with our church choir, but I decided not to participate in the Program itself due to the time commitment. I will miss it! I am involved with our youth group for the 2nd year now. I co-lead a 8th & 9th grade girls’ small group 2x a month. I still garden, knit, scrapbook and such.
Marc & I went to Hawaii for a week in January for our 10th anniversary. Our 11th is this month (December). We took the kids for a long weekend to the cities and a waterpark/hotel before Thanksgiving. That will be our winter vacation this year.
We have had a full year and are looking forward to an exciting 2008! If you are ever in the area and would like to visit the new house, it will have a guest bedroom -- please come and warm the sheets! God has blessed us this year, but His greatest blessing was giving us His Son. We are so grateful for that gift and remember it especially during the Christmas season. We are wishing you His blessings this year as well. Merry Christmas!
The Van Buren Family
marcandlaura@hotmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment