hello again

I know it has been awhile.  Life has been busy and by the time I have free time in the evenings recently, after schooling most of the day, or cleaning or cooking, I am ready to crash and have no energy for blogging.  

We are taking an official Spring break next week, when all the area schools have off.  We are not really going anywhere exciting (or warm!) but over to South Lyon to visit my parents for Easter weekend.  But just not having to worry about school will be nice.  

I have started babysitting Jason's cousin's son before and after school on Tues., Thurs., and Fri.. His name is Logan and he goes to Kindergarten 2 1/2 days a week.  I take him and pick him up from school.  It is nice for the kids to play together.  And I get a small weekly fee, which is always nice.

Today I took Anya and her friend, Lydia, to Calvin College for a concert featuring Bach songs, just for 3rd and 4th graders.  It was a free program and they had kids up there playing piano pieces by Bach, and a guy playing the organ, which I just love.  There was nice variety, and the kids enjoyed it.  Lydia's mom, Jennifer, stayed at my house with my other kids and her 2 others, and then we had Subway for lunch.  Always nice when I don't have to cook!

Maiah and Anya just got back from an open swim at the middle school, with Lydia's family.  It is nice that my big girls are old enough to go do fun things with friends sometimes.  Especially b/c we don't often get to do much, since spending money for 7 people to do anything is often too expensive.

That is all for now.   

Skype

Have you heard of Skype?  I don't quite get it, but it is something like a chat application, but you can also "call" people.  My daughter has a friend in Latvia (a boy, no less) who wanted her to get it, so they could chat.  Maybe they don't have iChat over there, who knows.  So Jason looked into it and we downloaded it a few weeks ago...nice thing, it is free.  Today was the first time Maiah and Harry skyped...another funny verb that comes from technology.  They were on for over an hour...I realized that since it was almost 3pm here when they finished, it was almost 10pm there, since they are 7 hours ahead.  I guess he had to go to bed.  Weird to think that my 11 year old daugher is interested in boys...though she is really just interested in Harry.  We met his family at our church in Louisville.  They came for a year from Summer '06 to Summer '07 so Harry's dad, Martin, who is a hand surgeon could learn stuff or something.  Louisville is apparently a good place to get hand surgery, should the need arise.  So they are reformed Christians, which is nice (they don't necessarily have to be reformed, though that is nice, but the Christian part is key.)  Harry is 12, will be 13 in June, so the age is OK, too.  He is a cutie, too.  He looks like the kid in the American Girl "Kit" movie, the boy hobo.  You can send pics over it, or files, too.  So they were sending pictures back and forth.  It is so nice that they can continue their friendship in this way, which works better than actual letter writing, I am sure.  They have written letters before, but they are few and far between.  So if you have Skype, I think our name is Rop or Rop Family.  

Facebook

Don't you just love Facebook?  It has been so fun connecting with friends, even some from elementary school, which was like, 8 houses ago for me!  I joined this summer, I forget why, or who prompted me.  I don't do much with the "extras" like games and sending people different things (ornaments or snowballs or stickers etc).  Don't really have the time for that.  But I love to find people and read how they are doing.  I recently added photos, which I finally figured out how to do.  I am getting so computer savvy!  I got Jason to join, though he does almost nothing with it. He thinks I have an insane amount of friends (just over 200) and can't believe that "friend" has become a verb, as in, "Hey, two people friended me today!"  Too funny.      

Merry Christmas (a little late, I know :))

The Holidays were a busy time, hence my lack of posts.  Hope y'all had a safe and fun and meaningful time celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Every year, we read the children's book, "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" by Barbara Robinson, about this awful family of 6 kids, the Herdmans, who have never heard the REAL Christmas story and take over all the lead roles in the Sunday School pageant.  I get choked up at the end each time (for I am the designated reader), but this year for the first time I outright cried, so Maiah finished reading it for us.  It has a great message and really makes you think about Jesus' birth from a new perspective....one of the Herdman kids wants to know why they wrapped the baby in "wadded up clothes" and the ones playing the Wise Men want to know what will happen if they DON'T go back home a different way to avoid Herod, and "Mary" screams at the shepherds not to touch her baby.  Not your typical pageant, but funny and heartwarming and meaningful all at the same time. As you start this new year, don't forget to think about the greatest gift that is Jesus.