Some fall milligans

leafy fun. the children couldn't wait to go leaf jumping, so they raked all these leaves over to our yard from the neighbors! we gave our sweet librarian lady the giggles as she was walking on her way home (because of all their delightful enthusiasm and especially because they were not even our leaves.)



a classic look of owen our climbing boy.



these next pictures are from an apple picking trip with Grandpa and Grandma Strub. it is a beautiful orchard that overlooks sheep grazing on the hills completed by a pond and weeping willow tree! one of our favorite fall places and a spot that's become a tradition to visit since we moved to the madison area.


we did manage to take a couple of pictures from our insulation adventure.


here's Able helping daddy with our big project. notice the sandpaper pad, extension cord, dirty face, one bare foot, and sock in the background. his shoe was found in the dirt spot directly behind him. a happy helper!



here's a windy day fall adventure with Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sara at a park near their home in Iowa.

leannora got a turn at fishing. she caught a great one on her first try! she LOVES fishing!!



and we added some pictures to our nachusa frolic.

A man, his boy, and a piece of land (with evidence of nuclear reactors in the background.)

nikao views.







We're spotted!


Ahh. Nachusa.

He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

today could have been a really frustrating day.
but once again God has shown us His wonderful ways of working.

our amiable able baby fussed his way through breakfast. so by the time we were all done eating, he hadn't yet had a bite. i guess i picked a rough day to train him not to scream for food. we had a midwife appointment and were on a bit of a time crunch for our schedule. daddy saved the day and took over feeding the boy so we could have a happier day. yeah dad!

able arden milligan is now a 1 year old jabbering almost walking boy!
as we were cleaning up from breakfast, a friendly gentleman entered our back porch to see if he could help us with a water leak he had heard that we had??? interesting. i really love it that mark is able to work from home. it turns out that this man, Bob, repaired the problem free of charge!

leannora, nikao, and able joined me for my midwife appointment. we arrived just on time - i rushed there (a good 30 minute trying not to speed too much drive) to find that she was running a bit behind. it was nice not feeling late. since my last midwife visit (1 month ago) i have been trying (with difficulty) to set up an appointment with a back up doctor. oh, that's a funny story that i've gotta quickly share . . . in one of the first few phone calls i made, the nurse i spoke to told me i would need to visit the health department and take a pregnancy test! i tried to explain that i was preparing for a home birth and my midwife recommended this doctor as a backup and that i was already 23 weeks along. of course i called my midwife to straighten out the problem. she said they were confused and that i should talk to Beth. after a few more phone calls i decided to procrastinate. beth returned my call a couple of weeks later saying she had been on leave for a funeral. but then we were super busy for the following week right up until today. after updating her on a bit more of the story, my midwife suggested we just call the office and get it set up today. the phone call ended up being so simple, it was laughable.

my midwife is a fun conversationalist. somehow in the turns of our conversations, i realized that my wallet was left at home. this really hit me once i got in the car to head to the aldi grocery store in janesville. you can't shop there with a checkbook, so i'd have to go to woodmans to pick up my few items. but i can't shop at woodmans quickly - EVER. (that's why i really wanted to just run in aldi.) today was a 2 hour trip - uhh! i had to check prices on some items i don't usually shop for since we were there and they have that stuff and a big selection to choose from, we were hungry, it was lunchtime, i bought a bunch of junk for $168, had to squeeze it in the car with 3 kiddos and a big cooler (no trunk space available in mark's work car), got the 3 items i needed to hopefully finish off the weeks meals, and had to return inside the store because our last minute thank the children for being such good helpers and tide us over till we get home snack purchase of cereal bars were moldy. but something else happened there that just flabbergasted me. the lady standing behind us in the checkout line asked if she could buy each of my children a candy bar. she let both leannora and nikao pick out whatever they'd like! the children were so excited. it was just as special of a treat for me to be the recipient of such spontaneous kindness. so we were able to thank God for the kind candy bar lady. she cheered up our crazy woodmans trip.

the milligan children enjoying the ride in our new "bleen" dodge 15 passenger van!
nevertheless, i drove home sighing over my horrible organizing abilities and feeling guilty and incapable. my husband was finishing up our huge house project* on his own with some major plumbing catastopheS awaiting him, other unfinished projects all needing priority, as well as ignored income earning work crying out for attention. it was already 1:30 ish. we hadn't eaten lunch yet. i had to unload and put away all this grocery stuff. my children would probably be fussy, hungry, and ready for a nap . . . . .(i didn't yet know about the praise God plumbing fix)

*we blew 63 bags of insulation into the walls of our house last week. a major operation for do it yourselfers with 5 kids, a pregnant wife, and a big victorian house. it went like this: buy 50 bags of cellulose insulation on sale at menards, wait for good weather, drill lots of holes into the siding, wear out a couple of drills, rent insulation blower from menards, work like crazy before it rains, pray for help, feed the help, tell the help they can't use the downstairs toilet because we just found a leak in the basement a few minutes ago, rent a second machine and buy 10 more bags of insulation, thank God for the help he sent, make a quick run to menards for 25 more bags of insulation, clean up the extra insulation blown around the yard, return the 2 blowers and 22 unused bags of insulation and color match and buy the ugly "ish" outdoor paint, patch holes, prime holes, paint the ugly "ish" color on so the holes match the rest of the ugly "ish" color on the house. whew! with all sorts of normal daily interuptions and unusual things popping up we managed to get the job done. we're thanking God for His help. today was the final day of our big house project. tomorrow it's supposed to rain.

grandpa and grandma strub square dancing with the strub grandchildren (even daniel and kayleigh were here for the fun! - but baby milligan didn't join in this time.)
so i got home. i unloaded groceries carefully as able was soundly sleeping in the backseat. i unloaded on mark for a minute. somehow i kept it unusually short and without any tears. i made a quick lunch for the 3 of us that needed to eat. i was encouraged by mark's water guy story and the progress made on the major house project. i was able to put most of the grocery stuff away before some friends arrived to help finish up painting the house. i got to play a bit in painting our back porch white instead of ish. i served leftover chili for supper. i really enjoyed ignoring the days dirty dishes covering the kitchen. i loved our crashing evening and family worship time before sending the children off to bed. i decided to blog this long winded run on post to catch anybody interested up on the adventures of the milligan family. and the funny part is . . . this is just one day (with a bit of kim's necessary background explinations).

after reflecting on the days happenings, i had this strong feeling that God was restraining me today, in a good way i mean. i don't remember losing my patience over anything. and God seemed to interrupt circumstances at just the right time to remind me to thank Him. this morning i was able to have some quiet time before the rest of the family got up. i've been reading a book by paul tripp called war of words. this morning i read a bit about God's sovereignty and saw my failure to trust Him in situations that i can't control. i have been struggling and praying over these things for a while, longing for God to change my heart and free me from my selfishness. anyway, God gave me a variety of opportunities to trust Him and in His wonderful way allowed me to reckognize that He is working in all things. Here are some of the verses i read this morning. look some of em up if you want cause i don't want to type them all out. James 4:1-10, Matthew 22:37-40, 1John 4:7-21, Proverbs 3:6 Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; He's the one who will keep you on track. Ephesians 1:17-22 He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything . . . No name and no power are exempt from His rule . . . Romans 11:33-36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.

He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. i can't remember the reference for that one, but it's what sums up the day. well, here i go blabbing about our day and God's goodness. i guess i'd better get off and join mark for our we're tired of working lets watch a movie date. sorry, no pictures of this week's adventures - we were too busy to take care of the cameras. but i will post some other recent photos while i'm at this tonight. hopefully i'll get back to this soon cause we have a bunch of pretty fall photos to share too.

the milligan family posing by kim's tree at nachusa grasslands a couple of weeks ago.

Grapes.

Owen and Nikao and I got to pick a bunch of grapes from our vine a couple of days ago.

i forgot to get out the camera again

i should be running to the grocery store to pick up some spaghetti noodles for supper, or doing some laundry, or reading the piles of books i've started, or preparing for homeschool lessons, or dusting and vacuuming up doghair, or . . . what about doghair???

nope, we did not get a dog, we just had a really fun visit with erin madson and her really big german shepherd puppy prince. actually, the dog did not make a big hairy mess, i was just being silly. but i am bummed that i forgot to get out the camera. prince is such a fun dog. he's full of personality with his cutest cocked head, floppy ear, and funny phobias. able just loved prince. not exactly the licking his face all over part, but able kept chasing prince around anyway. it was really cute to watch. prince likes to "hurd" the children as erin called it. he will walk right next to them and gently guide them to where he wants them to go. the children seemed to understand that he was just curious, but gentle. i was glad that they were okay and liked him because sometimes they are apprehensive about being around dogs. pete and erin have done a great job working with him and training him and it was really fun having him here.

erin is visiting her family for the month of august as they are transitioning between moves. always cross country it seems - they'll be moving back to california in september from the d.c. area. while we are only 2 hours from dixon, erin asked if she could come up for an overnighter to hang out with us. it was great getting to catch up in person. they are in the process of hunting for a camper trailer. the plan is to take the scenic route to california and camp along the way. they are always up for a good adventure. and they don't have housing lined up yet for when they arrive in california. hmm? sounds familiar. seems we have a lot of adventurous friends in similar situations - wadsworths, milligans, bartelts, to name a few.

anyways, it was a fun visit. oh and erin introduced me to facebook. becky was able to convince us to start blogging, but i'm not ready for the facebook thing yet. i just finally figured out how to do this all by myself without mark's help, so i'm a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of something new. besides, we don't have a lot of bored time available to us, so i'd be way too tempted to use so much time learning and then catching up. any of you facebookers out there are free to point friends to our blog to catch up on all things milligan.

oh good, it's raining now so i can't go to the grocery store for spaghetti noodles. guess we'll be adventurous with supper and make something creative from the pantry and fridge. let's see . . . zucchini tuna noodle bean casserole? just kidding - it's an inside joke between the momma and the milligan kiddos.

A Little Help Please.

I just finished repairing this beautiful silver trumpet made in PRC, wherever that place is. Well, for some reason, it isn't playing very well. If anyone can help me, I have just about given up. Maybe it's just me.? I should probably just bill the customer, and return it. I'm sure he won't have the same trouble with it that I'm having. So before I return it, I'd welcome any suggestions on what might be wrong with it. When I play, it sounds a little ... I guess I would have to say, "airy". But I haven't been playing much lately, so....

Thanks for your help,
Mark

a celebration of Leannora

(i have a few things to fix and add on this, but i need mark's help. so since it's actually leannora's birthday today, here's the preview.)

a look at our little lady Leannora's 3rd year:

happy birthday to you, Leannora is 3 now instead of 2!

We celebrated Leannora's 3rd birthday at the Fenwick family campout at Kim's Uncle Joe's farmette.

She helped frost the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles.

The summer that Leannora was born we missed the campout because she was only a few days old. It was fun having such a memorable celebration.

summer fun and a snack in our garden

The children all love Little Bear. In a Little Bear movie that we have he and his friends take a trip to the moon and and go moon jumping. Little Bear wears a box on his head. So Leannora is pretending to be Little Bear here. The boys assure her that he is not a girl, but she has made up her mind to join in the fun with the boys.

Leannora LOVES her brothers. This bedtime pajama picture was taken when Leannora had decided that Owen was her special buddy. The two would play together in everything. It was a wonderful little window of a special bond between brother and sister. Of course, all the children are good buddies and love to imagine and pretend in all sorts of adventures together.

We made cowboy cutouts for all the children at the end of the summer. It was kind of a kickoff for our first official year of homeschooling. Each child had an outline of their body on newsprint roll paper and we printed out enlarged pictures of their faces. Then we drew cowboy outfits unique to each of the children. Leannora was the cutest cowgirl in the place. Instead of a gun, lasso, or lariat, Hogan thought his sister should have a basket of flowers. Here's cowgirl Leannora times 2.






A sweet elderly woman from church requested some pictures of Leannora specifically in piggy tails. This was one of the photos we sent her along with some Leannora doodles. She kept them on her refrigerator. She went home to be with the Lord this winter. We were so blessed to be a bit of encouragement to her as she suddenly battled and lost a fight against cancer.




We surprized Grandma Sara with this dress one time when they came to visit. Sara's mother made this dress for Sara when she was a little girl. She remembers wearing it over many years as it was a favorite and could easily take out the hem a bit to add length for a growing little girl. She was so tickled to see Leannora in this adorable dress.

This is Daisy, Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sara's dog as a new puppy. We've started calling her crazy Daisy because she's so full of energy. I guess we must have momentarily worn her out with all the energy of little Milligans.

A BIG lego tower constructed by Nikao and Leannora.

Great Grandpa and Grandma Milligan came for a visit just a few days before Able was born. They brought all sorts of treats and treasures for our family. Here Grandma and Leannora are having a special time reading some new books.

Aunt Nina and cousin Bobby came for a quick delivery. . .

of chicken george for supper. I guess it's a well known thing among the nurses in Dixon that chicken from the Candlelight Inn and BBY help induce labor. We really enjoyed their quick visit.

Unfortunately the chicken didn't work it's wonders in our birth situation. But a baby boy was born evenso. When we announced to the children that our baby had been born, Leannora asked, "Is she a her?" She was not thrilled that "he was a him" and answered, "Awww, I wanted a baby sister." In a short time her disappointment disappeared and she said, "I love Able Arden!"

a bunch of movie watching milligans

The glory of raking leaves on a beautiful autumn day is jumping in your work pile! As soon as the first few leaves begin to fall from the trees, the children beg to rake. Our three small trees in the front yard are our only leaf producers, so the poor children have to wait till we've got a good bunch on the ground before we play. Then we push them off the curb and watch the city trucks load 'em up and move 'em out. We do save some for our compost pile and a fun jumping spot in the back yard too. The neighbors even kindly (for real, in kindness - I'm not being sarcastic here) share their leaves with us for bigger piles!

Oh GIVE THANKS to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever! We have had the honor of hosting the Hartzell family Thanksgiving meal in our home for the past 2 years. Great Grandpa Hartzell was touched by the day together as a family.

Cousin Adam! Buddy Becky! They were living near one another in Chicago for a while. So Becky rode along with the Mardauss family and then Adam and Becky took the train back to crazy Chicago after our Saturday Thanksgiving celebration. It was fun having Becky as a part of our family for the day.

O Christmas tree! We got to add some of our homemade decorations to Grandpa and Grandma Strub's tree one Sunday after our church meeting.

I think you might call these winter indians.

Winter wonderland of 2008. We broke Wisconsin's record of snowfall this winter. Oh was it fun! Snowmen, sledding, we even made a snow cave and trails to walk around in our backyard.

This is Leannora's first haircut. She was so excited to share in haircutting night for the first time. She wanted 5 inches cut off and held up her 5 little piggies with such exuberance. Daddy said only a couple - we're just trimming those lovely locks little lady.

We had enough of our cold blue family room and warmed up the wood burning stove room with red! Leannora helped us keep the work rolling along.

A jammie morning! Everyone gets so excited about these simple things. (Able really was happy, he just blinked at every flash of the camera. For a few months we couldn't take a picture of him without that funny look on his face.)

Since we have 5 children, the puppy priority is pretty low on the totem pole. So the children take turns playing "baby puppy." This is Bruiser, sometimes called Bean, Teddy, and also know as Snowflake. He is our best puppy. He will sit, stay, and has the cutest personality. Leannora is a very good puppy trainer.

Craft time! Oh, how Leannora loves learning time! She does not let me forget that she wants to learn along with her big brothers. Hogan snapped these 2 shots with his camera. He has the best way of capturing our family candidly from a child's perspective!



"my dancing dress!" A friend of my mom's used to teach dance classes. She was getting ready for a rummage sale and gave Leannora this BLUE dress!

The children all had their jammies on one evening. Papa hadn't seen Leannora's dancing dress yet so we put her dress over her pjs and let the children jam and jump and dance around.


happy birthday to our 4 year old little lady leannora
august 25, 2008