Little Lasagna

I just made a lasagna.  Not two lasagnas, not a double size lasagna.  Just one little bitty regular old lasagna.  (But it made just as big a MESS as when I make a "normal" batch for my normal size family of seven big eaters who now live all over the WORLD.)  What is normal anymore? There are only four of us home now--it's the first day with only four.  One regular lasagna will be enough.  Stupid little lasagna.

The Day

I feel like I should introduce myself.  It's been so long since I've blogged that I think that is appropriate. My name is Suzanne, and I'm the mom looking sort of gal in the white sweater.  My husband Tim (in the aqua sweater which he has now thrown away because it isn't "his style") and I have five beloved children.  I am pretty sure this is the last family picture we have taken together.  It was at my third child Katie's high school graduation last spring, and I think it's a decent picture despite a solid case of nobody knowing which camera to look at.  How do the Star Couples on the Red Carpet do it?  Do they plan out which direction they are going to look?  Do they talk it out beforehand?  Is it just a symbiotic thing that happens with practice?  We could use some tips.

The point of putting this picture up here is to point out that THE DAY has come.  The day has come that I have long long dreaded.  We had the three oldest children in under three years, and it seemed that people began remarking almost as soon as the third one arrived:  "Just wait until they are all three adolescents!" or "What are you going to do when they all need braces?" or "How are you going to pay for all three in college at once?"

  But what nestled in my heart even back then, like an uncomfortable burr that imbeds itself on your sleeve long after the hike is over was, "How am I going to let the three of them go?  They'll leave as quickly as they came.  I will have to say goodbye to all three in only three short years!"

And that has happened.  Today.  From Five to Two.  It's not funny and there's no humor to be found, and that in and of itself says a lot.  I can't even find joy in my reduced laundry pile.   I have nothing to say, except I'm grateful to God for the chance to be their mom.

"Do Ya Wanna Have A Snowday?" Parents have a Snowday…WITHOUT THE KIDS!

Last night, the Twin Cities had a lovely snowstorm.

It came complete with high winds, ice, sleet, and big puffy snowflakes that fell

like miniature pom poms and were then chased by horizontal swirling blasts of blinding frozenness.

It was lovely.

But lovely wasn't the word on my mind

when I was churning my way home from

my littlest daughter's play in snow furrowed, slippery streets.

(The suburban did the work.

I just gripped the wheel and kept saying "Oh no!  Oh no!")

Nor was "lovely" the word I thought of 

when I drove into my eerily quiet and darkened neighborhood.

The garage door didn't respond when I pushed the button.

I entered the house to find my oldest daughter

studying her math….

by candelabra!

I love that word….candelabra.

Funny that you spell it with the e before the l….but that's what spellcheck says.

Here she is.  It was very dramatic.  I called her Abe Lincoln.  I don't know exactly why.

I'm pretty sure Abe didn't study math by battery "candles" from Costco.

Anyhow….

Lily was not going to be left behind. 

Even though it was 10pm and she was dog tired from performing,

she still had to get in on the action.

Timmy, meanwhile, was in the back yard throwing himself 

off the swingset headfirst into snowbanks

in a swirling blizzard..

I don't have any pictures of that.

I am trying to forget that.

Despite many a hope and dream,

our school did NOT get canceled this morning.

We watched our emails and phones with dismay as…

absolutely

 nothing

 happened.

So here is Lily, resolutely climbing the snowbank…

off to the textile factory

barefoot…

backwards….

with only a warm potato in her pocket for her lunch….

(I read that somewhere as a child….)

Naaah…

the big yellow bus was even a minute or two early.

Minnesota!

As I waved goodbye to the last of the three children,

I turned to my husband,

who was plunking away on his laptop,

and sang in my best Kristen Bell "Frozen" imitation:

"Do you wanna build a snowman?

It doesn't have to be a snowman..."

He said no.

But the idea took hold!

We could have a PARENT'S SNOWDAY!

It was a beautiful idea whose time had come!

First off?

SNOWMOBILING!

We've owned a snowmobile for at least five years, and

the truth be told, I've never sat my backside on it.

Ever.

Not once!

But today was the day!

I can only show you the tame pictures!

Because I sure wasn't able to take

 any as we raced across the lake behind our house,

or rammed ourselves through snow laden branches,

or carried the dog between us

because she couldn't run in the deep snow,

and I was sure she would die.

No, no pictures...I preferred to hang on…

and duck.

I'm all about living, you see…

as in living to see another day kind of living.

That kind.

My husband.

Isn't he handsome?

I was feeling very brave and sassy too…after we got back into the driveway and I peeled my hands off the handles and all….

There I am!

World class…something.

But…on with our day...

NEXT…we drank pomegranate juice

(it's our new health kick)

in the HOT TUB.

And we amused ourselves…

(this was the BEST PART…)

BY TAKING SELFIES OF OURSELVES IN THE HOT TUB AND TEXTING THEM TO ALL OUR KIDS….

AT SCHOOL!

Bahahahhahhha!

Then we went out to eat at a Chinese Buffet….

cause nothing fills in the cracks like a good 

Chinese buffet when you've been a wild snow adventurer

 for the last…hour and a half.

IT WAS A GREAT DAY.

I love SNOW DAYS now.

Love them!

Adoption is Love, Welcome to the Family Elsa

Adoption is such a beautiful, sweet example of love at its finest.  

Think about it.  

You find someone you don't really know but who needs a place in this world, and  you say 

"You are ours."

"You are part of us and always will be."

"We claim you for good, and we will care for you, cherish you, teach you,

 provide for you, make our hearts one with your heart, give ourselves up for you and bless you."

And why not?

Doesn't God Himself, when we accept His love and forgiveness through Christ,

 ADOPT us as sons?

(He does.)

If you don't believe me read Romans 8:15 and Ephesians 1:5.

Heady stuff!

Adoption is an amazing thing, and we are so grateful

 to have gotten to see it close up in its earthly form twice.

In December, over the Christmas Holiday, 

the Lindquist family gathered once more at the Minneapolis airport baggage claim (right by the Starbucks)

 to welcome another new family member by adoption--

2 year old Elsa from China--through my

 husband's older brother Todd and  his wife Kirstin.

She joins Annika (four), Jake (14), Gus (17) and Mari (19).

As you scroll through the pictures, I hope you can sense the excitement and anticipation we felt.

Elsa, if you ever read this,

 I hope you will see and know how much we loved you already.

(By the way, if you happen to see somebody looking crabby, well, they weren't one of us!

They were the poor souls who had to navigate around all of us.)

Nana and Papa waiting, camera in hand!

Zach and Nana...and me in the background wondering how my baby ever got so big!

Andrew (standing next to family friend):  "Hey...we made it here in time...let the party begin..."

Looking towards the escalators:

"I'm here now..........."

Patience is not a naturally occurring trait in our family.

Papa:"So!  Do  you think Elsa will waterski this summer?"

Zach:  "She's two years old Papa!............Yeah..probably!"

Ava on the left and Lily on the right...waiting....

Ava and another newly adopted friend Ellie who is four years old...still waiting....

And suddenly...through the glass....THERE THEY WERE!

(At this point I might mention that Todd and Kirstin took the whole "fam" with them to China for the adoption!)

Here's where it all gets surreal!

"Helloooooooo!"

"Heyyyyyyyyy!"

Those are Andrew's hands on the right...I think a big hug is coming my niece Mari's (Wheaton shirt) way!

Better scoot Lily!

And this is my favorite picture right here.

Yep...There's the "big welcome hug in the background, 

and in the foreground, there is Kirstin and her mother 

sharing the first moment of this new reality.

  I like how they are looking at each other and saying a thousand things without a word!

Introductions.

And now Kirstin is saying "How much snow is out there?"

Just kidding...we've had no snow this year.

Me with the proud father!

And Andrew's still giving out hugs.

It was a hugging sort of day!

Katie and new big sister Annika

 most likely rejoicing in the favorable shift

 of feminine balance of power in the family.

Let the "Age of Shopping with Manicures" begin!

Just a few of the "Welcome Elsa Gang"

We love you Elsa!

We are so grateful that God chose you to be a Lindquist!

If you want to read  more about Elsa's journey

 to our family, Todd and Kirstin have a blog at:

www.walkinginthetruth.blogspot.com

80's Mock Out

I graduated high school in 1988.

For my children, it was 80's day at the high school today....

you know...the day they make fun of 

everything we were and did...

but mostly...

they mock the hair.

The hair was big.

I am still not ashamed of big hair.

I even helped her style it this morning...how did I do?

(Nobody who was under age 10 in the 80's can answer that question...you are in the mocking category and thereby disqualified.)

Photos and Fire

Since the holidays, I've been going through pictures.

Which means I've been trying to process and print out a decade's worth of pictures.

It's not easy being me.

So by the time I process all the pictures,

I have no patience left to blog

or time....

But nevertheless, interesting things have been happening in our house

on a regular basis...

a fact which, I am reminded of as I go through all these photos.

I've learned a lot of things.

Like:

I really need a second pair of cotton yoga pants because I wear

the one pair I have in every picture.

And, iphoto's retouch tool works incredibly on blemishes

and crows feet

 and even under eye shadows....

But if you try to erase the "turkey" lines on  your neck,

you wind up looking like a bobble head.

You've been warned.

And I take a hugely disproportionate number of pictures of my fifth child Lily 

compared to ...anybody who's ever had their picture taken on the face of the planet.

I am hoping that this will offset the fact that I have had her picture taken 

in a studio...

twice...

yep...

Once when she was 18 months and then when she was six.

I'm TERRIBLE!

It's just the HEADACHE of it all...getting the outfit ready, getting the child

CLEAN, fixing the squirrelly hair, getting the appointment...

I could go on.

Pretty much the only time I take pictures of the other kids is when they are doing silly things like 

climbing on branches that are much too small for them to be climbing on.

What you don't see here is that he is about to light that toilet paper on fire.

Cause somebody told him that was a good way

to get rid of the t.p. in the tree.

Important note...this works but is not recommended if you care about your trees...

and is not advisable under any circumstances for BIRCH trees.

BAD.

So if you don't hear from me here for awhile, 

I've drowned in my pictures and need to be dragged out, or I've gone up in a wall of flames from kids trying to burn toilet paper out of my trees.

Either way...not good!

Stolen Briefcase Found

Wow!  God has been gracious to us.  Your prayers (see previous post) were answered quickly!  Tim just received a call from the owner of a gas station about a mile away.  His briefcase, MINUS the computer sadly, was found dumped there!  We are so thankful that all our personal papers are (supposedly) still there.  THANK for the prayers.  It's barely nine in the morning, and I'm ready for a nap (with the doors locked! with my purse under my pillow! with my dog....oh never mind.)


Merry Christmas.

Fierce Defender Fails

Here is our fierce and ferocious watchdog.

She will bite  your hand right off! (if you're holding bacon....)

She slept soundly last night while someone broke into our garage, into my husband's car and stole his work briefcase.

They left my purse in the suburban undisturbed.

Clearly a professional hit job.

Please pray that the briefcase with his computer and a lot of personal papers would be returned.

(For those who need more details,

I went out to the garage this morning at 6:45 to 

take out recycling and noticed that the garage

door was open and that my husband's

back car door was ajar.

I knew we were in trouble.

Tim was the last one home last night and always closes the garage door, so we have no explanation.)

We are thankful that nothing else is missing.

As for Molly...she is well rested and without concern this morning

except for being in trouble for eating the garbage while

we were having a heart attack about the briefcase.

Ya Get What Ya Pay For

Hello all.

Confession:  I wrote down all the funny quotes from our trip to Wheaton, and now I can't find the paper.

I had promised you I'd share them.

But I can't find them.

There's an above average chance that the paper is in the big monster pile of paper accumulating on my kitchen desk.

Problem is, I don't deal with that big monster pile of paper except at the end of the month when I have to pay the bills....or else get the electricity turned off....or the satellite tv!

And it's November 19, or something like that, which means the big monster pile is ...well... getting towards the point where you don't want to dig into it or you'll have an avalanche and get depressed at all the bills and things you need to take care of....

ALL that was to say...you'll have to hang on a bit for those quotes from our trip.

In other news, Tim and I went to a fancy "gala" (that's redundant because anything called "gala" has to be fancy...sorry).

He was in a tuxedo.

I was in a floor length velvet.

We asked a kid to take our picture in all of our finery and this is what we got:

Don't you just LOVE my dress?

There were hired photographers which we walked past....why pay when you can get a picture at home free?!

Always check the camera folks, always check the camera.

Oh well.

Maybe next year.

Probably wouldn't have liked something about the way the dress looked anyway....

(Eeyore moment)

Sweet Summer Times

I don't know about you, but with the onset of the Fall calendar and weather here in Minnesota, I always grow nostalgic for the easy relaxed days of summer warmth and flexible schedules.

The following pictures were taken at the cabin during a lovely weekend in late July.  July is the best month. There's still plenty of summer left, so you don't have the looming stress of "the last swim" or "bringing in the dock." 

We spent it with friends who live far away, so that makes it even sweeter to remember.

Here is Tim receiving fishing gear advice from Timmy's friend.

This kid knew his stuff.

He said he had acquired his fishing knowledge from his mother.

That cracked me up.

My kids have received NO fishing instruction from their mother.

Ever

Here's our lovely friend Amanda,

with her crazy funny husband Mike...and our dog.

You may remember Molly.

Timmy built this ramp just for her because he was tired of hauling her up on the dock by the scruff.

And he didn't mind using himself either.

They now sleep in the same bed.

I've lost the battle.

But I don't mind.

Ok Ok...we all used the ramp.

Well not all of us.

Take me back.

Take me back to summer relaxation.

Notice the crutches and the (relatively) short hair.

How things change.


No online college application headaches here.
No online classes.
No online!

Breathe in.  

Breathe out.

Relax.

This isn't the best shot as far as facial expressions go.

But I like it because it's a moment in time, a true snapshot.

And it has balance.

And you can see how much my daughter looks like my husband.

Except that she fishes with her legs crossed.

Go Katie!

Go Lily.

Go Zach and Nuni!

Fishing off the jet ski?

Well...that fish is another story for another day....

Mike and Amanda headed back to the Twin Cities at midnight!

But before they went, we cooked peach cobbler over the campfire.

You put two cans of peaches and a yellow cake mix (and butter) in a dutch oven.

Cook in the coals for 45.

Pull the lid off with a garden tool and....

PRESTO!

THIS was my best one ever, if I do say so myself.

Nothing says summertime like peach cobbler cooked over a campfire...

bubbly sweet caramelized goodness.

I want some!

How about some FALL apple cobbler???

Anyone?