We don’t have much schooling to write about, but we do have lots of gardening and play-fun to show you!
Here is Kyler’s 10th birthday present. He loves to garden and now he has his own! He got to drive the tractor all by himself to pull the old logs fromt he woods to make the planter and he filled the planter with the soil and I surprised him with the plants and he designed it all up. He did a great job and can tell you what each of the plants are. Some he transplanted from other parts of the property. I’m so proud of him The swEEET overalls are also another birthday present. And, yeah, we live in the woods, you can tell from the photos. We’re definitely not metro-trendy up here, but we’re still cool!
So much time has passed, though it feels like time has been standing still. In such a wierd way. My family is . . . healing? Strong? Dependent on God’s Peace & Mercy? Sad but with Happy days? Hmmm, all of those rolled into one. But, oh how I miss Gavin SOOOOO much and ACHE full heartedly for my brother and Hayat. If I don’t talk to them daily, the pain is so much that I have a hard time seeing the beauty and blessing of the day. Yesterday Hayat told me, “Cari, everyday is a blessing. You have to thank God for it and give God your pain and your sadness and He will give you happiness and peace instead.” Shouldn’t I be giving HER these encouraging words? Nope. She’s the one. she’s making all of us feel better. Her strenght and faith are UNBELIEVABLE. I told Josh I think she might be a prophetess of some sort!
Here at the Shumaker Homestead, all is well. We are building a greenhouse. Woot-woot! Pretty exciting. Isaac is pouring the foundation and soon we will ’skin’ it with some lexand. We will be growing TONS of food and it will help us grow more year-round! Maybe even ALWAYS having greens, broccoli and tomatoes. Wouldn’t that be great!
I have pics to post, I just have to head upstairs to figure the whole camera fiasco out!
Where to even begin. My family has just been through the most agonizing 5 days imaginable. On Thursday morning my nephew, my twin brother Josh’s son, died. He was 12 and so beautiful. They were on their way to my sisters house in Idaho when their car rolled. Everyone else in the car made it out with little more than a scratch, but Gavin didn’t. I just don’t understand. I cannot tell you the excrutiating pain I felt in my chest when I first heard the news, it gave a whole new understanding to broken heartedness. My poor brother. Gavin was his best friend. Gavin was a beautiful boy with a spark in his soul and a smile in his eyes. I’ll always remember him skinny and fast and moving. Whenever he came in to my house, he always said something nice about it, gave me a quick hug around my waist and ran off to play. I feel like our family has been ruined, that the hole left where he was could just get bigger if we let it. I know that Gavin would never want that to happen, he was such a family guy. He had so much potential to become a great man someday. he was a great boy. I hardly saw him at all since school started. Chuck E Cheese on Jan 31 was the last time and I didn’t even get to have a good conversation with him, he was so busy running around and playing! I wish so much that Josh and Hayat would have brought Gavin with them when they came over last weekend. We wished it then but now it makes my heart ache that we didn’t see him that day.
God has been blessing the whole family, but especially Josh and Hayat with a Holy Peace that can only come from above. They are like shining lights in all this sadness. It’s interesting to see people come over broken and overtaken with sadness, talk with Hayat or Josh for a while and leave feeling hopeful and refreshed. I think it’s so sweet how much they want to see all of Gavins friends and find out about their special memories with Gavin. Will we ever miss our little guy.
These boys are all the boys Kyler needs!
With my sis and Macy, this was like 4 years ago. I’l try to find a more recent picture.
Was sooo Fun! We had arranged for the kids to stay the night at Carly’s house for Friday night so we could have a night alone at home, but then Isaac got an inspection scheduled for Saturday about 1 hour away from here, towards the Pacific, so we decided to just make a trip out of it! The Shumaker’s so sweetly watched the kids for an extra night and off we went. Isaac met up with his kiteboarding buddies and I went and checked into the hotel. Our room had a big, huge jacuzzi tub, a fireplace, a bottle of wine and I had my Eclipse book from the Twighlight series and about 4 hours of nothing. Just me, in a bath, with some wine and the best book ever! It was fabulous! Isaac was so happy to come back from his kiteboarding trip to candles and incense and bubbles! So fun! We went out to a nice dinner at an Irish pub and listened to good music.
I guess Maya had a hard time, two nights away from mama IS a bit much for her, but it was great for us. We’re determined to make this 13th year the best one yet. It’ll be hard to beat, but we can do it! Here are some pictures of Isaac kiteboarding.
NEED I SAY MORE? SHE JUST LOVES THE STUFF!
She was thinking she was so pretty until I showed her herself in the mirror, and then she was so SAD!
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