Just A Game

The matching game has been our latest form of entertainment. You remember, where you lay picture cards face down and flip two at a time trying to match them. Jeff was on the floor, with Lydia on his back, playing with Ben and Joey. I was in ear shot and heard Jeff say: "Okay guys, I'm sick of loosing to you both, so from now on, you two play with your eyes shut!" The deep belly laughs from those two boys echoed for a long time!


Pro 17:22
A merry heart does good, [like] medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.

Annual Sam's Club Trek

You've heard us talk about it, if you've been here you've seen the stock pile, well, yesterday it happened again, our annual Sam's Club trip.

Dad had this idea about 6 years ago, that we go the day after Christmas and purchase all, yes ALL, of our non-perishables for the entire year. We quickly loved how it all worked because our grocery shopping was much quicker, usually just around the outside edge of the store. And we almost never run out of anything! Well, we had such an abundance from the year before that our supply lasted until a couple of weeks ago, so with a bit of planning and rearranging our Sam's trip was declared!

Daniel timed it again and we're pleased to proclaim that we have shaved 50 min. off of our previous time! This trip took a total of 2 hours and 25 minutes. Here's how it works:
Everyone who can drive a flat bed cart gets one and Mom pushes the little ones in a smaller cart. This year Matthew has graduated to a flat bed! We start with the big, heavy items and figure out how much we will use in the upcoming year. This also sharpens our math skills! The first carts filled quickly with paper towels, we figured we go through a roll every couple days or so. In hopes of potty training Lydia this summer, we got just a few diapers, but still view wipes as a valuable asset. Paper plates and cups, laundry soap, foil, plastic wrap, and our first check out was ready. Dad and the older boys take the full carts, check out and load the trailer. Mom and the rest continue loading carts. Then Dad brings back empty carts to replace Mom's full ones. We got quite a bit of food items, cereal, oatmeal, granola bars, etc. and since we added another freezer we have extra room for chicken, veggies, and bread.

Dad had to check out 4 times, and Sherrie, the delightful service lady, gave Mom a hug and thanked her for coming through her line!

Afterwards we went to dinner. It's really a merry time! We talked about what a blessing it was that we found lime green and pink cups for Megan's graduation party (her school colors!). We wondered how our packing job will hold on the ride home and if we can get it all unpacked before the basketball game. As we finished dinner at Cracker Barrel, Dad went and got a turtle sunday ice cream cake from Culvers as an incentive to finish unloading.

When we have gone to Sam's in the winter we haven't been able to drive around to the basement door, so this was a real treat not to have to transfer everything down a flight of stairs to storage. We've had flour bags break, maple syrup bottles pop open among those great adventures, that tended to set us back a bit! This time we were almost completely unloaded and a strong skunk smell started to overtake us! We closed the doors and got all the refriderater and freezer stuff put away. By this time it was 9:30pm, and everyone was pretty much out of gas. We ate our ice cream and got ready for bed.

Today was pretty much spent putting it all away and recovering.

Deuteronomy 28:8 - The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.


Yesterday we had our once a year Sam's trip! We forgot the camera but took some pictures back at or house. For those who have not heard of this yet, we go to Sam's once a year and buy all our non- perishables for the year! Its alot of fun we also get ALOT of stares!!!!! We had alot of fun! And then after 2 hours of shopping everyone was hungry so we went out to dinner and then brought home an ice-cream cake! It was really good!
~Emily

A FULL trailer!


Last year we brought everything in through the garage and down the stairs - backing the trailer up to the basement door was much easier.

Ben and Lydia weaving their way through the piles of stuff!

Joey helping unload!

Lydia being cute!

Emily stacking shelves.

The thing on the left side of the picture is the freezer, the shelves hold cleaning supplies, paper plates and cups, and a few cooking pans.

Stacks of paper towels. This cubbyhole thing is under the basement stairway - it's like a closet without a door, it's convenient to store a lot of the bulkier stuff.

This is the full pantry!

Becoming Normal Conversation:

'I'm beginning to love that burning smell.'

'We're all just accustomed to smoke. That choking cough doesn't bother us a bit!'

'Not again . . . '

'I didn't leave them in there!'

'They'd be good if they weren't burnt.'

'It must be the oven.'

Dad: "I think it smells good. Well . . . they are a little done, aren't they."

Happy Sunday!

We love Sundays! One of our favorite days of the week, but not really a day of rest. One of my friends called me on a Saturday afternoon, about 4pm, and asked me what I was doing, "Getting ready for church! We're going to be late!" Well, there is some truth to that as we usually try to get shoes and clothes ready the night before, however, we still have our trials and today was no different!
Joey's birthday was yesterday and Megan and Robbie had to go do farming chores for a friend so our Saturday was already out of the norm.
Shoes seem to be our biggest downfall. Even if we line them all up the night before, a little one will carry one off or it's fun for them to wear a bigger shoe and leave it somewhere, and we just don't have the man power to stand guard of the shoes.
We will sometimes have something other than our normal fruit breakfast, like cinnamon raisin toast or oatmeal. Everyone helps to get ready until we're all ready, and we can accomplish the routine in about an hour or less.
This morning as we were walking out the door Ben pulled on the cover that I have on top of the washer and dryer and tipped over the liquid laundry soap. I was in the next room and as he hollered for help I couldn't figure out what he was saying, then as he took a breath I heard the gulp, gulp, gulp, of lots of laundry soap pouring out onto the floor, filling Daniel's church shoes. Ben offered to help clean it up and said, "I don't know HOW dat happened!" but I insisted I could handle it, no big deal, we were already running late for church. A roll of paper towels later the floor was nice and shiney, and we were ready to try this launch again.
We all pile in the Bomber (our big blue van) and take a quick head count, usually someone has to run back in because they forgot their bible or something else they were suppose to bring. Daniel then collects guesses of how long it will take us to get there, to the exact minute. (Jeff usually manipulates this to make sure he wins, but it's still fun!) We have 3 songs that we always sing on the way to church, and sometimes we'll sing other hymns or special music.
I know I should make it a habbit to stand at the door of the house for a final inspection, but usually the kids make it to the van before I do and they are all in the back and buckled, so my final inspection is usually as they are walking into church. It's a humbling experience really. We've had kids with their younger brother's pants on that look more like knickers, wrong shoes, muddy boots, sandals in winter, white socks with black dress pants, church shoes untied, shirts untucked, hair pretties falling out, and who knows what else. I'm sure it's highly entertaining to our church family, but they are very gracious about it.
We made it to church 2 minutes before it started.
After being fed the Word, and enjoying the fellowship, everyone is ready to be fed some food! We try to prepare Sunday dinner on Sat, but it just wasn't going to be done in time, so we had left overs for lunch and our big Sunday dinner for dinner, or supper, or whatever you call the evening meal. Usually it's the other way around, but variety is good!
After enjoying the afternoon outside playing and looking at the trees and garden everyone was very hungry. Ham, potatoes, corn, rolls, and topped it off with a root beer float! And can you believe it before Ben went to bed he asked if he could have a banana because he was hungry!

Lydia in her church dress!

The Beginning of Birthday's

With all 10 of us, we have 9 months of the year covered with birthdays. Joey starts the brigade by turning 6 today! He is so excited! No, he is extremely excited! He has been counting down the days for 2 weeks, and we are all ready for the celebration! He gets to pick his meals and he's ordered cinnamon rolls, green eggs and ham for lunch, and meatballs for dinner. We always have fresh fruit for breakfast, so we only cook 2 meals a day. That helps a LOT when you're cooking for a crowd! Oh, and then there is the rainbow chip birthday cake that needs to somewhat resemble a racecar by the time we're done with it. We have had a full week with NO sugar! No dessert, treats, soda or snacks! Not even a granola bar! So everyone is looking forward to indulging a bit to celebrate Joey's day!
Then Benjamin will be 4 in April, Matthew is 8 in May, Megan will be 18 in June, Mom is 42 in July, Robbie has August and he will be 16. Breathe. Emily and Lydia happily share September, Emily will be 11 on the 10th, and Lydia will be 2 on the 21st. Daniel takes October and will be 13. Dad finishes out the year with a New Year's Eve birthday! We haven't kept track of the dates for the rabbit or the frogs, we get enough cake as it is!

This is Good

Now this is what I'm talking about!

Middle of the Night Routines

The flu is finally over, and it didn't hit everyone so we are ever so thankful for what we were spared from! Jeff and I had to laugh because when a child is sick in the night, and they are ALWAYS sick in the night, we have our routine down pat! I took Lydia and bathed and changed her, he took the sheets to the wash and remade the bed and we met back in bed in 10 minutes flat! Just like a well oiled machine! Sorry no pictures for this post!

The Inevitable

It seems like no matter what we do, every time we make cookies, there is at least one pan that turns out like this:



These were supposed to be oatmeal. They stank so bad I put them outside and opened the windows to try and get the smell out! The rest of the batch turned out quite well. :) Just normal life around here, but thought it might make ya'll laugh!

Megan

Brothers and Buddies!

Matthew and Joey seem to be inseperable most of the time! This past week they both lost a tooth! For Joey it was his first tooth ever! I was the one who noticed it was gone and we couldn't find it laying around anywhere, then as we were looking he said, "Well, there was something pretty hard in my egg!" We told him that there usually isn't hard things in eggs, that it was probably his tooth. We've never had a kid swallow a tooth before, and we usually save all their teeth in a little tooth box that we get from our dentist, we were actually thankful that Joey wasn't our first child, cause you know we'd be digging! So it was exciting just the same and it didn't bother us a bit that we didn't have the evidence!

This was Matthew's first tooth to be gone from the top and we've tried to have him work hard to get the other one out, because there is just nothing cuter than that huge gap, but it's not ready.

Ben keeps asking me to check his teeth because he's certain they are loose too and he doesn't want to miss out on anything!

Hello from Lansing!

Hello from Lansing! We just got out of a meeting, and we had a minute to update this. "Hello, everybody!" :D

Love, Dad, Robbie, Daniel, and Emily. :D

Pictures

Here's a few pictures, most of them are semi-recent!

Daniel has started taking guitar lessons and can already play quite a bit!

Emily and Lydia playing with carrots. ;-)


Lydia helping Mom cook.

What Really Matters

My mother says she doesn’t care
About the color of my hair
Or if my eyes are blue or brown
Or if my nose turns up or down.
She says she doesn’t care for things like that.
It really doesn’t matter.

My mother says she doesn’t care
If I’m dark or if I’m fair
Or if I’m thin or if I’m fat.
She says she doesn’t care for things like that.
It really doesn’t matter.

But if I cheat or tell a lie
Or do mean things to make folks cry,
Or if I’m rude or impolite
And do not try to do what’s right,
Then that really does matter.

It isn’t looks that makes one great.
It’s character that seals your fate.
It’s what you are within your heart, you see,
That makes or mars your destiny.
And that really does matter.

Hello everybody!
We are CLOSE to being finally on the mend. Lydia had the flu bug, and Matthew, Joey and Ben had ear infections. And Moms foot is really sore, she dropped a can on it and people (us people!) have been stepping on it. Here (below) are pictures of our Valentine tulips that daddy gave us girls!
And a picture of a bow-tie Daniel made out of a dollar bill---you really CAN do it! It is hair pined to Matthew’s collar!
Hmmm, what else are we doing, oh yes, Daniel is taking guitar lessons, and Robbie is taking trombone lessons and mom is teaching me flute, Megan and I are playing violin! And we're still all taking piano!
Well I guess that’s all for now,
To-da-le-do! Emily
P.S. We (Megan, Emily and Lydia)had more than one tulip!



just a cute one!



:-)!!!



There was a blue and red stripe on a petal!



Emily's tulip!



Lydia's tulip!



Megan's tulip



Mommy's tulips

Love!

Valentines day is a big deal around here . . . for the girls. The boys have their special time during hunting season, so don't feel sorry for them. But this holiday is all about showing love to the ladies, Jeff always does such a good job with that! He has always gotton a flower vase of beautiful flowers for each of us girls, and spoils us rotton! He is such a good example that he is setting the bar high for a future son-in-law, and making a future daughter-in-law very happy!
I have never questioned Jeff's love and loyalty to me, so even though it's a special day, it's just like any other.

Megan adding pictures - the dress Lydia has on used to be mine. :-)

It takes a Blonde

It's been a few weeks since the event . . . it's taken a while to gain sufficient emotional distance from my trying experiences, but I believe I have sufficiently recovered that I can now tell you about it.

You see it was like this. I got up at the unearthly hour of 7 in the morning and went out in the unearthly temperature of 3 degrees to carry water to ornery goats. I should mention that Robbie was actually the one carrying the water. So to reward ourselves we decide to get breakfast. McDonalds being my brother's place of choice, we pull in and I park. "What're you doing?" Robbie asked. "Um, I thought we were going to eat here." "No, go through the drive through," he tells me. "Then we can listen to Glenn Beck while we eat."

So being the nice sister that I am, I go through the drive through. I have a secret dislike of drive-throughs, but I don't want Robbie to know that, see. I later found out the feeling is mutual - drive throughs don't like me, either.

So I order the sandwiches and push the gas pedal to pull around to the window. Nothing. "What's going on?" I turn to Robbie. "Dunno," he replied. "Give it some gas."

I gave it some gas. Motion did not result. I had to face it - I was stuck. Stuck in a McDonalds drive through. With no fresh snowfall for 4 days. Me. Stuck. In. A. Drive. Through.

Robbie got out and tried to rock the Suburban. "Gun it!" he yells. I gun it. He comes around - "You're not supposed to keep gunning it, you're burning tires." How am I supposed to know? He says gun it, I gun it. And gun it again.

"Hello and welcome to McDonalds. May I take your order please?" The cheerful voice comes out of the speaker. "Umm, it's still me. I'm, uh, stuck." "Oh," came the reply. I'm sure she was mystified but she made no further comment.

"Here, let me try it." Robbie slid into the drivers seat. And wouldn't you know . . . he reversed and pulled forward and we were suddenly unstuck.

I got back behind the wheel and pulled around to the window. "How do you get something this big stuck?" the cashier asks incredulously. I don't know, I really don't. Like I said, it takes a blonde.

I came home whining piteously, "Mom, I don't try to be blonde." My Mother replies "It just happens naturally, right?"

So yes, this is Megan. Your friendly, neighberhood blonde.



And the voices of my friends continue to haunt me. . . .
"No way! You got stuck at Mickey D's?"

From the mouth of Ben

Being 3 he has quite a lot to say;

Coming in from sledding and taking off his boots, "My boots LOVE my socks!"

Sitting next to Joey when Joey asked to be told a story, "Now tell a story to me!" 'I just did.' "No you didn't, you just told a story to Joey!"

"I have to come snuggle you in your bed in the morning, because I'm so precious!"

"I just made you a white tail horse!" Maybe we talk too much about white tailed deer around here? ;-)

It's fun to be us!

When a family doesn't watch TV or play video games, you have to be a bit creative. So tonight I think Jeff reached all the way back to 1977. Jeff did it first. You stand in a door way with your palms to your side. Then you lift the backs of your hands until they hit the doorway and push for about 30 seconds. Then step out of the door way and your arms sort of lift up all by themselves. Really! The kids thought we were just joking at first, and laughed so hard as they tried it. The little ones couldn't quite fit, but did a good job imitating and getting laughs just the same. Then they wanted to try it with their feet and see if that would work - oh my!
The rest of the evening was spent jumping over the couch pillows, that was quickly brought to a halt when Lydia joined the pile of couch pillows!
Jeff calmed them all down with a Bible study and a chapter out of the book he is reading to us "Winter with the Moody's". Now all is a bit quiet at the Kunkel house, it really is fun to be us! God is good!

Emily's First Deer

January 23-(Friday) I, Emily got my first deer! –a button buck! I got it in Ohio with a cross bow, in a tree stand, with my dad of course! We had three deer come behind us, scented us, and ran back in the woods. Now EVERY time we’ve been hunting, deer ALWAYS came behind us, but never in front. So after the three went back into the woods, another buck, from the same woods came behind us, came out and walked toward the corn piles that dad set out,(dad said I would have to shoot a deer SOON because we might have to sell the vehicles to get more money for corn!) then another buck followed. They were both button bucks. This deer saw us or scented us, were not sure, and ran away, another one kept on eating.
It was about 3 minutes before dark, and I could see the pin on the snow but not on the deer, so I put the pin on the snow, then slid the pin on the deer, and shot it. It ran 30 to 45 yards and dropped. We got down from the tree stand and walked to the spot where I hit it.
So we tracked it and I saw a brown spot up ahead and said:
“Do think that’s it Dad”? And Dad said: "I think it is Emily! Go get you’re first deer!” We had hot dogs, breakfast sausage, and Canadian bacon made from the meat and it's all been delicious! Goodnight! Emily

Ham!

(Pictured are Ben, Matthew and Joey on the right)
Joey is in Kindergarden and last week while we were working on reading we had an exciting moment. He looked at his book, sticking his tongue out and making adorable faces trying to figure out what I was teaching him. Then he smiled and said, "Ham!". He looked at me and gave a look I will always treasure and said, "Ham!" a bit louder this time. He jumped around in his chair and said, "Ham! Ham! Ham!" It was in that moment he understood, it made sense, and his life of reading began. We sat and read 2 1/2 of his reading books. Lunch was necessarily postponed a bit, nobody really complained except Lydia, and we broke out a cup of Cheerios for her and Ben to tide them over.
As everyone came together in the dining room, feeling the hunger pains, they all passed along their congratulations and enthusiasm to Joey for his reading!
With every child, when they have met this milestone, we take them to get a reading lamp to put by their bed and a new Bible. They now have joined the "I can stay up 30 extra minutes at night and read!" club.
I would fail miserably if I tried to put into words the joy of being able to teach my child how to read. Something that he will carry his whole life long. Something that will teach him how to do anything, be anything!
Most importantly, it will allow Him to meet God. To understand his purpose of which God had created him for. Hopefully by reading God's Word Joey will realize that he, along with the rest of us, is a sinner in need of a Savior.
Ofcourse if not carefully protected, reading can also have the pull and start an appetite of ungodly, even evil and wicked things. Children like what you feed them. This is true with real food, as well as music, books, everything.
So please pray that the Lord would continue to provide us with wisdom and discernment so our Joey, and those to follow, will have reading material that will provide them with godly wisdom that will have eternal value, blessings and peace.

The Tailless Opossum

Dad has his office in the basement and he heard some scratching in the window well. He came upstairs and asked for special hunting assistance from Benjamin, Joey, Matthew and Daniel, and soon excitement was on the rise. They thought is was just a mouse or two, but it was an opossum! Dad picked it up with a stick and gave Lydia and Mom a close look from the inside window, she loved that! It was growling at their face from 1 yard, and showing it's teeth. Then he took it to a tree, but it didn't have a tail so it couldn't stayup. Then the kids chased it all around and it ended back to the window well. They got it out again, and it went under the porch, so they needed a big pole to push it out. It ran to a bush and then eventually they chased it into the field. You would have thought there was prize money with the end result, everyone was thrilled with the chase.