It's better than nothing

I have major guilt about not keeping up with the blog more often. I need to get pictures on here, but in the meantime I'll update on what we're up to.

* School started Aug. 3. John is in kindergarten, Mary's in 4th grade, and Ellen's in 5th grade. John is pretty excited to not be taking naps anymore. I knew I'd need some leverage for him to not balk at doing school work, so I told him that kindergartners don't nap, they just rest. He loves it. They all have a rest time after lunch. The girls read and John listens to books on CD. He is working his way through all the Ramona books our library has on CD.

* Garrett took a part-time job at the QuikTrip distribution center near our house. He works there five nights a week and is helping my dad right now about 3 days a week. Substitute teaching positions seem to be picking up and he's in the process of certification to be a lay coach with Dacula High School's wrestling team. Whew! I know he feels like he's chasing his tail, we all miss him, but we know this situation is temporary. We know there is a bigger plan and we're just hanging on to see where it takes us.

* The girls started ballet lessons last week. It's an intermediate class, which is challenging for them right now, but they have a great instructor and they enjoy the class.

* The garden is gone. Mowing it down was a sad day for Garrett. Nothing to pick, dig, or water and it's too warm to cut or split fire wood right now. What will he do? Oh yeah - work three plus jobs. That'll keep him busy, I suppose.

* We've been on a few field trips: Zoo Atlanta, Gwinnett Braves game, and Camp York.

* We're reading a non-fiction series by Ralph Moody. I've suggested this series to everyone I see - being overall obnoxious about it, I guess. It's our family-time reading. We laugh, I cry, and we can't help but pick up on the language of the characters. "I and you'll show 'em what logs makes wide shingles!" Awesome.

*I'll get pictures up soon. Maybe.

Day ten and we still have food . . .

So far, so good on the two-week grocery supply. I haven't needed any food items and let me tell you, it feels great to drive past Kroger and know I don't have to stop and get anything!

I didn't plan for TP, dishwasher detergent, and a few other cleaning items, so I went to Target so that there'd be no temptation to grab any grocery items and bought only what we needed. So awesome!

We've had a few things out of the garden and Wayne and Jeanette have given us a few things from their garden, so we've had a few unexpected additions to the menu.

I love this new plan!

Learning a little about grocery planning

We're on day two of my two- week experiment. After reading "America's Cheapest Family", by the Economides family of Arizona (no kidding - that's their name) I was inspired to try menu planning and grocery shopping for two weeks. They do a month at a time and I usually do a week, but this was to be a challenge, since the goal is to not go to the grocery store for the duration of the two weeks.

I planned every meal and snacks for two weeks and today I realized I didn't buy enough cottage cheese for the four days of cottage cheese and fruit for snack. I loaded up on yogurt, though, so we may have to improvise.

John complained today because we had ham-noodle-peas salad (with a very not-healthy cream sauce . . . mmmmm) He prefers PB&J everyday over peas! He ated 6 bites of peas, (since he's 5-and-a-half, he rounded up) holding his nose for the last bite - good grief.

The store didn't have whole wheat flour yesterday, so Garrett insists on buying that today - must be craving zucchini bread :) If it weren't for feeling like a cheater, I'd have him pick up some cottage cheese . . . .

The Arch

Here's a picture of John beside the base of the Arch. Incredible how huge it is.

I took this cool shot of the Arch from the base of the north leg. Cool perspective, I think.

And here we are, about to get in to Lucky #7 Car to the top of the arch. Do I look like I'm about to burst? I DID NOT want to get in that tiny barrel. Thank you, Lord, for getting us up and back down safely.

Road Trip 2009

We're back from our 10-day, 10-state tour - safe and sound, thanks be to God! Here's one of my favorite photos from the week. It was a first for all of us - visiting and going to the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. In the picture, you can see the tiny windows we looked out to get a great view of St. Louis and the Mississippi River from 630 feet up. Eeeek! I was READY to get back in the little "barrel" to get back on solid ground. I must mention that the temp this day was 101 degrees - ugh.

Garden Time!

Garrett likes to say he's putting the slaves to work on the Schaefer Plantation, but the kids love to help weed, plant, till, rig up deer and rabbit deterrents, etc. I am REALLY thankful that they enjoy the garden, because I DO NOT! So far, the invaders have done minimal damage to our garden, although I would love to skin the rabbit that ate the beautiful romaine lettuce and the tops off the beets. Ugh. Wascally Wabbits!

April in Savannah

We went to Savannah to visit the Shepherds and the cousins (both generations) had a grand time. Melanie and I love that we are able to see our children play together and get to know each other, despite the miles. The Shepherds are always gracious hosts and we're sure to have a lot of fun whenever we get together. This time, we checked out the aquarium on Skidaway Island. Here are a few pictures from around Skidaway.

Take me out to the ballgame . . .

John and Garrett got to enjoy one of the Atlanta Braves' exhibition games at the beginning of April. Above is them with "Knucksie", Phil Niekro.

Here they are enjoying the game from great seats. Thanks to our great neighbor, Wayne. What a great smile, John! Think he's having fun?

Gone Fishin'

Here's the big ol' catfish Mary caught at The Grove's pond. Mary caught this one first cast, so we were pretty excited about the prospects of an exciting fishing day. Mary's was the only catfish caught and by far the biggest fish, but everyone had fun reeling them in.

Three Girl Scouts

Ellen, Mary, and Garrett attended a TeenPact class at the Capitol building last month. As part of their tour, they found the bust of Juliette Gordon Lowe, founder of the Girl Scouts.

Snow!

Here's a shot of the kids with the snowman we built. This is Monday after the snow on Sunday. It was a lot more fun to play when it was sunny. The boogie boards worked great on the hills. Fun.

Proverbs 20:11

Yesterday, I found two $5 bills and a fifty-cent piece at the top of the stairs. After his nap, I asked John if he knew anything about the money I found. He said, "Well, I knew that Dad doesn't have a job and I wanted to give my money to you to help pay for food and stuff. 'Cause I don't really need that money."

Road Trip, Part 2, continued

We had the shooting demonstration to ourselves. Larry asked John to help get the rifle ready.

Us with Larry . . . what a guy!

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to the candy store . . . where we saw a pigeon - in the candy store. Pigeons like pralines, too, I suppose.

The Waving Girl(s)

Road Trip, Part 2

So, here's what the Schaefers do while Garrett's unemployed: take lots of road trips. Here are a few shots from our trip to Savannah to visit the Shepherds.

Fort Pulaski was great! We'd driven past for years - we finally stopped to get in a little history lesson. A vew from the top of the fort, with the Savannah River in the background. Below is one of the many canons remaining. Very cool.

And a gigantic fig tree growing inside the fort.

Road Trip!

Here are a few pictures from our road trip to Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield National Park (try saying that three times fast) All three kids used the trip as a research opportunity for presentations at Classical Conversations. We're studying U.S. history and we learned a lot about the Civil War battles near Atlanta. We enjoyed a picnic . . . a very cold picnic - too bad we didn't bring the tent so we could camp in the record-low temps, too.

Hey! There's a canon . . . let's shoot our finger pistols while mom takes a picture!

After the long, fun walk to the top of Kennesaw Mountain - the view!

A whole hand-full

John's FIVE! He requested a cookie cake . . . .thank you, John! Yum.

In the picture, he's wearing his new-favorite shirt. He thinks it's perfect for playing hide-and-seek at night.

I can't believe it's already been five years. John was born on a beautiful Georgia day. The girls were treated to a visit to 3 (or 4?) parks and eating lunch at the pizza parlor that day - thank you, Garriotts!

December 29, 2008 was a beautiful day, too. John spent his birthday fishing with Dad. Didn't catch anything, but you know what they say . . . "A bad day fishing beats a good day at work."

Happy Birthday, our sweet John. You bring such joy to our family.

'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Here's the official Christmas Eve 2008 photo, on our way to Mass. John did NOT want to be in the picture. He's not fond of anything with a collar, so he was convinced he looked "ridiculous". I think Ellen had a pretty good hold on him, and my double-flash camera tricked him into smiling just in time for the actual picture-taking. Merry Christmas from us to you . . . we pray that your 2009 is full of blessings.

So Long, Farewell . . .

Just before Christmas, we had to say "See ya later," to our sweet, beautiful, fun, loving, generous friend, Renee Johnson. We met Renee at church. She was a student at the University, a temporary transplant from Texas and we quickly made her part of our family. Ellen, Mary and John consider Renee an older sibling and we have been so blessed to have her around for about half of 2008. As a sweet nun once said, "Friends of Jesus never say 'Goodbye.'" So on December 18, we enjoyed one of Renee's favorite dishes - taco ring - (did I even feed you dessert, Renee?) sent her on her way, packed to the ceiling with all her belongings and sadly said, "See you later." And we will. Texas isn't that far away. Neither is the phone. We love you, Renee.