Life got messed up...

So, we had a great time in Goshen. It was a little frustrating setting our stuff up in the rain, but we pulled together and with some help form our re-enacting buddies we got it all set up and we all slept in the main tent that first night. It was chilly and rainyish on Friday, so the school kids came a little later. There were no battles, because not enough indians showed up across the way for us to fight against. That was fine, the guys showed the students the guns and how they shot, explained pirate life and I even showed them how to keep a fire going with my cool blow tube. I got my picture in the Elkhart newspaper even...so cool! We even got to do a tiny bit of shopping and met a new guy that sold the coolest pewter buttons. We invited him to come visit our camp and he enjoyed biscuits and gravy with us Saturday morning. By the end of the weekend we had bought $30 worth of buttons, but they were so cool. Saturday was still chilly and had bits of rain, but we got some visitors which was really nice. Sunday was just a positively beautiful day!! The sun was out and it was warming up. This was great because it made packing up so much easier. I will try and post some pictures from the weekend soon.

Then Monday happened! Like so many Mondays after a re-enactment, we were all tired, so I let the kiddos sleep in until 7am instead of getting them up at 6:30am and just planned to take them to school. Sari left in her car to head off to school while I got the kiddos ready to take. Dwayne had some extra work that needed to be done, so he was staying home as well. Then came the phone call, the call you really never want to get, a police officer telling you that your child has just been in an accident and you need to come and be with her. We all loaded up into the van, not knowing what to expect, it was not pretty, the whole front of the car was totalled and my darling daughter was covered in blood, but she was walking. She had done some serious damage to her mouth, she knew it was her fault, she was upset and sorry, but from what we could tell no one was seriously hurt, no one left the scene with the ambulance. After chatting with the EMT, we decided to take Sari to the dentist to have her mouth looked at. Getting home we decided her nose needed to be looked at as well, we went off to to a walk-in clinic and discovered that yes, she did have a broken nose and a nice gash in her chin that needed stitched up and then went off to the dentist. One look at her and he sent us off to the emergency room because he said the jaw was definitely broken and there was nothing he could do. One cat scan later proved that her jaw was broken in 3 areas which sent us off to Indy to another doctor because there was no one at Ball hospital that could help us. We got lost trying to find the hospital we were suppose to be at, we finally got there and you could tell they were waiting very excitedly for Sari, they were IUPUI students and they were ready to tackle this broken jaw. The 2 students we got, quickly put Sari to ease, the female doctor was foreign, we are thinking German, was Sari's absolute favorite, but the male doctor was very nice trying to explain things to me. I laugh, because each time we go in, they still call me mom instead of by my name. They tried to close her jaw that day in the office, but it could not be done without causing too much pain, so we went back on Wednesday for her to be put under and have it closed. She has now had her jaw wired shut for just over 2 weeks and has 4 more weeks to go. We go back to the office each week to have her looked at, where she gets to see her favorite doctor. The liquid diet she is on is hard, but she is keeping up good spirits through it all and I am very proud of her. Dwayne has joined her on her diet, which is very good of him, but very hard on him. I am struggling with even wanting to cook, so I am looking into more soup like recipes. I am sure my family will be tired of soup, but oh well, we are all trying to show the best support that we can.

So, this has kind of set us back some. We have some serious bills to be paying off, but such is the way of life. We are just glad that Sari is healthy and alive. Life is finally settling back down into a regular routine for us. It has been nice to see God's hand in all this, a very good reminder to us, since sometimes you can forget that God has His hand in your life at all times.

Caffeine is Great!

I just love a good peppermint latte with extra whip cream from Starbucks. I have them from other places and they are good, but still not Starbucks worthy. Just had to share that.

Yesterday started out early...really early. Dwayne got up at 4:30am to work, I got up not too long after him to get the day started. After everyone left, I had my pile of stuff to do. I spent the better part of the morning working on bills and budget stuff....yay...so fun! Then I had to go grocery shopping. This should be fun, to go shopping without anyone with me. There use to be a time where I could not wait to do this by myself, but now that I do so much by myself, it is just not fun. Plus, no matter how fast you are, it always takes hours to get things done in Muncie...yuck! My treat to myself when I was done was a Grande Peppermint Latte with extra whip cream and cream cheese danish to go from Starbucks. This was my 3rd cup of coffee for the day. When I got home and put away the groceries, I did not feel like doing any of the stuff on my list, I just wanted to play on the computer. But then all of a sudden the caffeine kicked in and I was off. I got my chilli made, bagged and froze, got the sausage all cooked and froze. I packed up all the clothes into the trailer, even packed up the table. I drove the kids crazy and made Dwayne laugh at me, I think they all hid from me for awhile, until dinner was ready and then they had to be back around me. But I felt good with what was done.

Now, today is my baking day. I have already got bread mixing in the bread machine on the dough cycle. Bread machines are wonderful. I never cook the bread in them, just use them for their dough cycle, then I shape the dough how I want, let it rise one last time and bake it in my oven. I even used one bread machine until it died. I have to do up dishes, make cupcakes, pancakes, more bread and pack up food. We leave tonight for Goshen. I know it is suppose to be chilly and rainy, but I can't help it, I am still excited. Don't you feel sorry for my hubby, he has to put up with my giddiness when I am like this...poor guy!

I will try to get pictures posted from the weekend early next week.

Busy day ahead.

My day was really busy yesterday. I got 2 more things marked off my list, plus the normal day to day chores. I watched my 2 little buddies, one who refused to take an afternoon nap, poor guy. Plus, I went to watch Dora at her Spell Bowl meet. I took some hand sewing with me to make the time go faster. As soon as her meet was done, I rushed her home, dropped her off and headed off to a band booster meeting that I was at until after 8pm, then finally got to come home to a little bit of dinner that my kiddos left me. Whew....busy day, but today is not much different.

We will be leaving tomorrow for our 3rd re-enactment of the season. This is the first time we have ever tried doing 4 re-enactments in less than 2 months. It is tiring. Today I will be cooking and freezing some of our food for the weekend, grocery shopping, taking apart our table to be packed, and packing up clothing for the weekend. Tomorrow I will spend the day baking fresh bread and cupcakes for the weekend. I am looking forward to the weekend, but since this is the first time we have done this event, I am a little nervous how it will go. Plus, the weather looks bleak for us this weekend, rain on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but it is suppose to be dry on Sunday. Well as dry as it can be after 3 days of rain. It should be interesting setting up in rain, and packing up after 3 days of rain...yuck.

3 things done...

I was able to get 3 things marked off my list yesterday. My bedroom looks so much better now. Even my hubby was deeply impressed. So impressed that he thinks I should be able to get lots of cleaning done each day...silly, silly man. I have little buddies hanging out with me today, but I am sure I will be able to do something else to mark off my list...

Getting to that point...

It always amazes me how long I can go before things really start to bug me, but I think I have finally hit that point. My poor hubby has to put up with a lot, because he would seriously be a clean freak if it were not for me. I can let things go way too long before I decide it is time for a good cleaning. It has been kind of hard to get use to being home while the kiddos are at school and to try to figure out exactly what I should be doing during the day. I am noticing messes piling up and today I will begin to unravel the messes and get rid of some things. It is going to take a lot of will power to stay on task, but if I make a list of projects that need to be cleaned and just take it one mess at a time, it will feel good to have it done.

On another note, we have another re-enactment coming up this weekend. We will be driving up to Goshen, IN for our first time at the Gathering at Five Medals. I am sure the weather will be colder, but I have heard it might warm up some, so we will just have to see. I have looked at my past pictures and I really plan to get some pictures of all of us in our clothes. I would really like to get another family picture. I really want a new picture of me so that I can use it on my facebook profile. Dwayne has been working on some new projects that I am very excited about. He made a new bench to use inside the tent, but being the practical man that he is, he made it so that it is a box as well, and it will hold a lot of my dry foods. We needed a bench to sit on to get dressed in the morning. It is really hard to sit on rope bed. I would like to get a linen chemise made this week, but I really should have done that last week. This goes back to the not getting done what I should be doing during the day while everyone is gone. Dwayne also made me a tiny, but sturdy little stool that I will be able to use when I am working on the fire. He has been busy.

Well, I better get started on my day and really hope to have some good clothing pictures to upload next week!

Another weekend of fun...

We had a great weekend at Mississinewa 1812. We tend to stay very busy at this weekend event. Dwayne and Sari participated in the River Pirate battles, with our friends Dave and Matt. Sari does a great job carrying the black powder for the cannon.

Our weekend had a rainy start with a thunderstorm on Thursday night. We stayed warm and dry in our tent with our wool blankets. It was muddy on Friday morning and the wood was damp, which made some difficulties get our morning fire started and breakfast very late. Thank goodness Dwayne was able to get us some straw to cover up the mud in our camp area. I don't mind dirt, but I am not fond of mud.

The days were cool, which was so nice, because we finally got to use some of our wool clothing. We had a bit rain each night. We had planned to use our new stove, I even sewed an insert into our tent for the stove pipe this summer, but really we did fine without it. I am sure it will be needed at the next event which is coming up on Oct. 23rd.

We enjoyed a great deal of shopping over the weekend. We got some new items that will make a nice addition to our camp, a new iron grill to cook on, some new shoes, new wool gloves and a pair of iron tongs that I really wanted.

We were sorry that Brighton missed the weekend, but he was off at Washington DC with his class. He had a good time, but was disappointed when he heard we had the cool weather. Now we just look forward the the next event. Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

Dora and Cody play on the river.






















Sari and Sari go off to the dance with our friend Dennis, I was way too tired to go, so it was nice to have a friend take the girls.






















How beautiful Sari and Sara look for the dance Saturday night.






















Our Captain Bob, the big attraction to our camp.





















Miss Longnecker with Dora and Tobi. She is Tobi's first grade teacher and Dora's Spell Bowl coach.
















A little time in the boat, but it was a little hard to get out of it.

















Dinner time! Please excuse non-period dinner, tacos can be a very easy camping dinner.
















We really enjoy pulling our tables out to do our meal together.






















Sari was the powder wench again this weekend for the cannon crew.

















A good picture of our cooking area. Dwayne warms himself, while our water heats up.

Koh-koh-mah 2009

We had our first event of our re-enacting season. I have been keeping busy sewing since the kiddos have started school. I still have lots that I want to work on, but I am trying to go at a slower pace so that I don't get burned out and not want to sew at all after the events are done. I have been diving into more research about fabric and clothing styles lately, reading blogs about other peoples projects and it only makes me want to sew more. I am lucky to have kiddos who love to do this with us, because I love making them clothes that they enjoy wearing for the whole weekend. I am quickly finding that I will have to make me some more clothes, because I did not have anything to change much this weekend and I really want some new stuff. Sari loves the regency clothing, which we could not wear at Koh-Koh-Mah, due to it being French & Indiana War, which is pre-regency time.

I have uploaded a few pictures from our September 18th thru 20th Koh-Koh-Mah event, there are tons more, maybe I will upload more later. I also have our Mississinewa 1812 pictures to upload soon, but I haven't even started on those yet.

Dora in her period correct cloak, with her non-period correct T-shirt...lol.

Dwayne headed down earlier on Thursday than I did, he took the 3 younger kiddos, while I waited on Sari to finish trying out for the school play and finish up my own last minute projects. There is something about trying to get everything ready for that first event, it takes me forever and I run around trying to remember what all we might possibly need. Sari and I got there just as everything was unloaded and the kiddos were all hungry. Dwayne headed back home to do some work that came up last minute, he came back Friday afternoon. Anyways, the group of us went out for some pizza, then I brought back the new guy, Dennis, with me and my kiddos, while everyone else went shopping. I still had to make beds up and get things set up to be ready for the Friday school day. That was not much fun trying to do in candle light. On the ride back to camp, I apologized to Dennis about the randomness of my kiddos, they jump from one subject to the next without even a pause, he made the comment that the randomness was nothing, but he was amazed that they never stopped talking. I listened for a moment and I guess I am so use to it that I didn't realize that between the 4 of them there is never a quiet moment, when one stops talking another one starts and sometimes they don't even wait for the other ones to stop talking. Just goes to prove how good I am at multi-tasking, because I can keep track of all their discussions. I really have no idea where those kiddos get their talkativeness. Anyways, back to camp, we all changed for bed, putting away our modern clothes for until we packed up on Sunday.

Tobi sits around the fire, we all smell so much of smoke by the end of the weekend, there is just no way around it, but we love the smell of camp. I cooked breakfast everyday, which was a lot of fun for me. I love cooking over a campfire. My mom got me a cast iron tea kettle which holds lots of water for doing the dishes, that is a huge help.

Our new friend, Dennis, stands in front of his tent. We made so much fun of him because he kept bringing out stuff to set out to sell and we could not figure where it all came from in that small tent. Dora, Brighton and even Tobi helped man his selling blanket. He paid them a small amount for their time, but they just enjoyed having something to do.

Dora takes a few moments to rest on the beautiful Saturday. The only bad thing about this weekend was the dusty dirt that was just everywhere. The weather was quite nice.

Sari spends some time playing with Tobi and Cody. Cody is the son of our friends, Dave and Tammy. They have been re-enacting a lot longer than us and they have been very helpful as we try to figure out the right stuff we need. Cody loves playing with my kiddos, and Sari does such a good job entertaining the younger ones.

Here is a picture of our kitchen table, obviously I have not done the dishes yet, I must have been avoiding the work ahead of me. I bring snacky foods that can be set out to snack on all day long, cupcakes, grapes, and bread.

Dwayne and Brighton are getting ready for the day. Check out my new red kitchen cabinet back there. My hubby did an awesome job making that for me this past winter. It stores so much of my stuff and has tons of room to work as well.

Dennis had a lot of fun letting Brighton try out some of his clothes. Brighton really enjoyed this since usually only the girls get to dress up in cool clothes and because he is growing so fast I don't make him anything fancy. Dennis was just about Brighton's size and had tons of clothes with him.

Brighton looks very flamboyant here...

This is an inside look at our tent. The little girls bunk beds.

This is how close they sleep to our rope bed.

These 3 stacked boxes are our dresser, they come apart to be carried separately, but hold a great deal of our clothes. Dwayne worked hard on these as well this past winter. After this weekend he had to make Sari her own trunk for her great many clothes.

Here is an inside look to our rope bed. It is more comfortable than it looks, although we are going to have to make some modifications soon. Still need to get things worked out with it to make it a little more comfortable for Dwayne.

It was really a great weekend. We really love doing this. I love making the clothes. We have our 3rd event coming up in the next few weeks and I plan to take pictures of the kiddos in their outfits to show off all the new things I have made.