Ketchup and eggs

Random video of a super fun game (?) the boys made up all by themselves. Just cause it's awesome.

We've kept pretty busy the last couple months.

For Christmas I gave Nathan "a year of dates," which meant I have a date planned and paid for every month this year. In January we went to see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Cincinnati Museum Center. It was very cool... they had an immersive dramatic monologue, tons of artifacts from Bible times, and, of course, some of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was pretty awesome to see.

In February, we spent a night in a cabin at a retreat and ministry center called King's Domain. We got to spend time relaxing in the cabin, and enjoyed dinner out and a movie.

In March, our date was to the Cincinnati Museum of Art. It was awesome to see a ton of awesome art (and some not so awesome art, of course). Our favorite piece was a Van Gogh painting I'd never seen before called "Undergrowth With Two Figures." Sort of creepy, and with all the vividness and intensity Van Gogh always brings. Love his work.

April's date will be a viewing a play at Miami University in Oxford, OH.

In February we made it down to Nashville to visit Allie, Rachel, and Jake. We had a great time, as always! One of the highlights was feeding the ducks and other water birds.

In March, we attended a surprise birthday party for our friend Jennifer! It was a 1920's theme, so we had fun dressing up, enjoying the amaaazing food, playing Apples to Apples, and having a Nerf war... in heals. It was so much fun!

We got to take Desy sledding for the first time since we got a couple good snows this year!  He didn't have much of a reaction... but he liked eating and throwing the snow! The rest of us had a good time, anyway!

We met Jake and Rachel in Louisville for a very patriotic, very COLD photo shoot! But the pictures turned out cute, and the company was good, so it was a great day :)

Of course, Easter was in March this year! We went to church, had ham for lunch (of course!), and the boys had an egg hunt in the back yard. Nana and Papa even left a box of goodies to open!

Last weekend I went to the Great Midwest Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati with 5 friends! We had an awesome suite at the Hyatt right across the street from the convention center (which was awesome. SO convenient.). All of the sessions I attended were super encouraging and helpful- I'm looking forward to teaching my boys. We also got to listen to Gianna Jessen speak (whose life inspired the movie "October Baby" ...yes, she actually survived an abortion), and laughed til we cried watching Tim Hawkins. It was a really great weekend! (the second picture is of the HUGE exhibition hall with all the vender stalls. Crazy overwhelming!)

This week I got to realize an (almost) lifelong dream of mine... I got my own chickens! OK, laugh if you want. I understand. ;) I'm just so excited that I get to do something that I've wanted to do since I was a kid! I got my chickies at Tractor Supply on Tuesday, April 9. They're all red, but are different/mixed breeds. So I probably have some Rhode Island Reds, Red Sussex, Red Commets, etc. I didn't really care as long as they weren't white... I just don't like white chickens. Haha.  So far they seem happy and healthy. We're working on building a coop, but Nathan has been sick ALL WEEK with some nasty virus so we haven't gotten very far. I'm hoping he's finally on the upswing!

So! That's life right now. Hope you enjoyed the ketchup... eggs coming soon!