A New Septic System

Spring has arrived so beautifully over the past several days. Daffodils, tulips, and grape hyacinth have been blooming so sweetly in front of the house. Tuesday it snowed. Hard. All day long. It was very wet snow, but after a day of non-stop snow, it was accumulating on the flowers and surfaces outside by the time I got home from school around 3:45! So strange on April 20th!

Monday, we had work started on our new septic system. They worked for a little bit today, but the snow put a damper on things today. This is how they left the yard today...

That's the new tank, ready to go in the ground.

On Wednesday, the weather returned to "normal" spring-like weather, and they dug up more of the yard... 

...including a trench for the leech field.

On Thursday, they dug 2 more trenches for the leech field. 

That takes up our entire side yard.

The backyard is pretty much all dug up too.

The tank went into the ground today, so now we have some mini-mountains of dirt.

Annah saw these photos and said, "There goes all of Dad's beautiful green grass--

and hard-earned money!"

Yeah, it's not a pretty project, and it will take a lot of time and effort to get a yard back once this is finished. And it will cost more money than I've made working full time for the entire school year.

Next week, we will have some major plumbing done to get all of this connected and functional.

The good news is that most of the flowers lived through the snow--and the dandelions did too!

I love it when there are violets in the yard before it gets mowed!

NHS Induction

Sylvia has been a member of National Honor Society for a year now, but this evening she and her NHS classmates were inducted officially and also inducted the junior class members in a lovely ceremony at school, in person, in the gym, with a small audience of family looking on--from 6 feet apart, of course. 

Sylvia's friend Coby gave her introduction and said the nicest things about her.

Senior NHS Members

The whole group of juniors and seniors

Sylvia and her best friend since kindergarten--Isabella

Sylvia, Coby, Isabella

It was so wonderful to be able to celebrate all of these kids and their academic and service achievements. 

They are a great group of students.

 

Letterman jacket

We ordered Caeden a letterman jacket and it arrived today! Not that many students wear them these days, and I love that he wanted one and is so excited to wear it! I think it looks awesome!

 

Happy Easter!

 I am so thankful Jesus came to live as a person whose service and teaching we now can follow. I am so thankful he accepted to horrific cup of crucifixion and death to pay for my salvation so that I can have the hope of Heaven. And I praise him for conquering death and proving He is Lord! Hallelujah!

Our Easter celebration was a little different for us, but still wonderful. Probably the most different part was that I didn’t take a hundred pictures and we didn’t even get one family one! Haha.

On Saturday, we had a lovely brunch, including baked goods from the new Azteca Pan bakery in Colfax, which is owned by one of Sylvia’s classmates and his brother. Jeremy stopped in and picked up a beautiful selection, and everything is so delicious! 

We enjoyed relaxing around the house together, and in the afternoon Carter came over to visit Sylvia. We all had pot roast and enjoyed the evening together as well.

As we were getting ready for bed, Annah shared how exhausted she is with school. Her first couple years of college have not been a good experience, what with Greenville dropping her major and all the yuck that came from that, then all the stress Covid and the political unrest that has added upon transferring to a new school in the middle of it. She has one more month before coming home for the summer. We all have been feeling so sad and emotionally and mentally exhausted these past months. And we are each struggling in our own ways, and it feels so hard to help each other when we are each so down. We need Jesus so much.

Over the past few weeks, we have been attending a different church. There are a lot of reasons, but it has proven to be the best choice for us right now. (Annah hs been attending church with Ryan when they’re home.) We attended at 8am today, and it was a fantastic service and time of worship.

Much of the sermon was around Luke 8 and how Jesus healed in response to faith. The part the spoke to me the most was when the pastor made a parallel of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years--how exhausted she was, how she had used up all her resources, how excluded and secluded she was made to be--to how we have all been feeling over the past year. Yes. And then, the woman was brave in her faith to fight through a crowd she wasn't supposed to be in to reach out in faith and touch Jesus, believing and knowing He could instantly heal her. Her despair was not the end of her story and it doesn't have to be the end of ours!

Senior Night

It is currently "football season" here in central Illinois this spring. Our team gets only 4 games, and tonight was the only home game. Therefore, it was also the only senior night Sylvia will get to celebrate. (Usually there is a senior night for every activity so that all seniors get to be recognized for what they have participated in, but due to no crowds being allowed at indoor events, and no fine arts performances being allowed at all...well...) Anyway, it was a beautiful evening and it was good for all our hearts tonight!

It was sunny and warm today, and when we arrived at school the senior banners were hung all around the fence at the track. It was a bit surreal to see Sylvia's and her senior bandmates' names. 

So proud of our girl

Sylvia and Isabella have been best friends since kindergarten, and they've loved playing their horns together since 5th grade! 

The girls asked for our families to walk out together during the band senior announcements, and we were all honored to do so.

Annah and Ryan came home just in time for senior night, and recorded and took pictures for us. 

We love these seniors and are so glad they got a little recognition in this year of lost performance opportunities.

After the senior night announcements, the band made their way to the end zone for the National Anthem. Sylvia got to conduct them. It was so cool to see her signal to Caeden to start the drumroll!

The band even got to "take the field"--well, sort of, and Sylvia was announced as drum major! They formed the tunnel for the football team to run through and played the fight song as the seniors were announced and the team ran through onto the field.

Sylvia conducting The Victors

(By this time, the sun was nearly down and it was beginning to feel like a Fall Friday night lights game--quite chilly! So, Sylvia borrowed my mittens.)

I love seeing Caeden play drums!!!

Mr. B, the JH/HS principal joining in support for the band!  

I made rounds through the band to take photos for the yearbook while they were not playing, and asked them to pretend to play. They were all starting to get pretty cold and it was only the first quarter!

By halftime, they were frozen, but they played a great set of pep tunes in the end zone. It was so fun to hear them play!!!

The game was so exciting too!  We won 36-0!  And it was just so great to be together with our community enjoying football and music and seeing each other smile and laugh!