Freedom Swim fundraiser

Jack, Abigail & Iris are again swimming laps in the Freedom Swim on March 14 to raise money to help end slavery. You can see pictures (and the number of laps they worked had to swim!) from their participation in last year's event here. Please consider helping them reach their goal. The link to their individual fundraising page, which goes toward their team, "Manta Rays of Light's" total, is here— https://ijm.donordrive.com/participant/1612.

(All money from the Freedom Swim goes to the International Justice Mission)

ACA video

This video was aired across the Madison diocese the past couple of weekends during Masses- recognize anyone? We happened to be moving the weekend it was playing at our home parish, so we conveniently got to attend elsewhere, and Iris pointed out that I was in disguise with no glasses and my hair up- exactly my intention- hah! Mike and I really weren't sure what was going on at this point in our "Chair Couple" status, if we look nervous/clueless :-D It's a neat opportunity we've been called into though, and we are grateful for being able to serve our diocese in this way.

Moving into our rental

Cleaning the long-hidden milk splatters from the underside of the table Move-in chaos She found a place to draw <3 Schoolroom/living room A great big fenced-in city lot! Master The boys got a new (to us) triple bunk for their room. At night, Joel's been joining his brothers on the bottom bunk, but this is his dark, quiet "nap room" (the boys' big closet). Girls' room Huge master closet Exciting to be heading off to the park, which is a 0.1 mile walk away! There was still a lot of snow, but they played for a long time- it was almost 50 degrees! This will be awesome to have close-by in the spring/summer! This guy deserves a nap! The first dinner on our set-up table (Saturday night was ordered pizza and wherever you could find a place :)) Entryway A coat closet- what a novel idea! Sunday Game Night On Monday, we checked out our new library- only a half mile away! It was awesome. Breaking in our new kitchen with some baking on Fat Tuesday. Not a bad place to be spending our next almost six months!

Thanks to the many hands that helped clean, watch kids, and move our stuff from one house to the other! It was a very smooth move-in process, and we couldn't have done it without you!

We moved!

(but just temporarily)

We will be displaced to a rental for 4-6 months while our house undergoes some major renovations. The entire one-story portion of our house will be demolished, as it was a poorly-done addition- part of which used to be a slightly slanted garage, and there are a lot of issues with that part of the house in general (frozen pipes every winter, uneven/no heat, uneven floors, falling ceiling, bowing drywall, broken garage door, raccoon destruction...). In its place will be built a master suite, kitchen pantry, mudroom/laundry room, and sunroom, all over a new basement- plus a larger garage. This project has been in our dreams for years now, and it is finally coming to fruition- right in the middle of our family being grown by one! It looks so nice in the summer... Demolition started yesterday!

We rented a U-Haul and moved into our 6-month rental house with the help of some friends and family on Saturday and are continuing to move things over here piecemeal (a lot of our things are being stored in our chapel during construction). Everyone likes our temporary home and its very convenient location. Pictures coming soon!

Wilderness with friends ~ 2020

Sweet Joshua and Jacob Taking the shuttle to the waterpark! Ella and Eva <3 The girls (some of these better pics with cool filters are from our friend Paul's camera) Frannie's here! The Waterdome Hungry, tried kids after a day at the waterparks We picked the perfect time to enjoy Wisconsin's warm indoor waterparks! All twelve kids! 8-P The last day, it was just our family, and the little ones wanted to go to the dry play area while the big four wanted to get wet, so Mike and I split up- I took the littles. They had so much fun trying out the arcade games, and we didn't have to spend a cent X-D Then all three of us burned off some energy in this cool climbing area. What a fun trip to the Dells! We invited our friends, the Heitzkeys, to join us at the condo we rented for three nights, as Will and Ashley and cousins weren't able to join us this year. The Heitzkeys are in our homeschool group (Carol and I co-tutor the Upper Grammar kids), they live five miles from us on a similar plot of land to ours, and our kids are comparable in age to each other. It's a fun group, including almost one-year-old twin boys. Our mutual babysitter, Frannie, even joined us from Tuesday to Wednesday night. It was nice to have some extra help with kids, whom she's great with- and the adults love her, too.

In addition to the fun Wilderness had to offer, our friends made some wonderful meals to share, we played lots of games, the girls had fun doing each other's hair, we all enjoyed each other's company, and we even got to say a couple of family rosaries together. We're blessed to know this family and blessed to have been able to share these wonderful memories together!

(Oh, and we didn't realize when we booked this trip that we would be renting a U-Haul and MOVING OUT OF OUR HOUSE the very next day! Wheeeeee!)