The boys took their final goose-pimply, purple-lipped swim last week before deconstructing the pool. Aside from our dining room table, the pool has been one of our best purchases; it was used constantly throughout the summer.

Here is a clip of Molly playing water tag with Jake. She hunts him down like prey, while he tries to stay away from her razor sharp claws as she paddles after him.

Molly is enjoying football season along with the rest of us. She comes out to practice three times a week and games on Saturdays. She’s good for licking excess sweat off of hardworking players’ faces.

We seem to have adopted a rambunctious little creature into our family. I think we will keep him and name him Jeremy.

Truth be told, this is how the oldest and youngest siblings bond. The oldest uses his creative resourcefulness in order to be entertained, and the youngest…entertains.

As soon as Jim earned his IFR pilot rating, Derek’s wish was to fly in the clouds for his 9th birthday flight. Derek’s wish was granted. You might say the ante has been significantly raised after this birthday flight…not only did they fly in the clouds, but in lieu of flying to Janesville for breakfast, Jim flew Derek, Jake, and Peter to Minnesota to watch the Air Force vs. University of Minnesota football game.

Here is a glimpse of the flight: (for you keen observers, you’ll notice that the pilot is shooting the video. The plane was on auto-pilot. And the propellor only looks freaky on video, not in real life)

They may have been the only Air Force fans in the stadium, but they wore their blue proudly.

It was a historic game because up until now, U of Minn never had their own stadium. They built one this year, and the game against Air Force was the first game played there.

The following weekend Derek (and Peter) enjoyed having family come out to the football game. We then gathered at our place for lunch and birthday cake.

I thank God for this second-born son of ours. He is a unique gift. I love how God is shaping his heart and mind and look forward to the next nine years of his life!

Let me begin by stating that I have never enjoyed football season as much as I have this year.

Throughout the past 13+ years of marriage, my dear husband has done a wonderful job of getting me excited for college football every fall. But there is nothing like watching your own offspring in pads and helmets lining up and hitting their opponents.

Peter’s first game was bright and early. The little bobblehead guy showed some signs of nervousness, but was clearly excited to play.

They began the game with the National Anthem (Peter is the shrimpy second from the right).

Lining up…

…for a big hit.

The little guy is holding his own as one of only seven 5 year-olds in the entire league! He can thank his brothers for teaching him grit.

Then Derek’s team was up. Where Peter’s coaches emphasize the goal as “having fun out there”, Derek’s coaches drive home the importance of knowing each play and winning the game. As an observer, guess which game provoked more stress inside?

#78. Jim’s high school number. As Jim handed the jersey to Derek before leaving on Saturday morning, he said he was experiencing deja vu. Just to add to the ol’ deja vu, Derek is playing the exact position Jim did–left guard on the offensive line.

I’ve been told that in this shot, he is reminding his o-line teammate that they are going to cross block.

I love this shot.

In this picture, it appears that the 3rd grader living in our house grew into a high-schooler overnight.

Alright folks, now what’s football without…cheerleaders?

The bows in the hair. The cute outfits. Don’t they just scream look at us? To their credit though, these girls are bright. While the boys are grunting things like “on two” and “hit”, the girls are chanting rhymes, spelling big words, and jumping at the same time.

A big thanks to our friends the Jachimiecs for coming to cheer the boys on. Derek and Peter were inspired to play hard knowing they had fans, and Jake and Jeremy appreciated having friends to play with during that time.

Remember those pictures at the back of Highlights magazines? The zoomed-in photos where you had to guess what the object was? Up close it looked like bubble wrap, but it’s really a snake, for instance.

Well here’s a toughie. Guess the object:

We could insert this as the first picture in Baby J’s baby book. A chronicle of him/her playing kicking, doing summersaults, and sleeping at the park.

Meanwhile Baby’s brothers brought their golf clubs and played a round of golf.

Ever the engineer, the oldest opted to make the mini-golf course for the others rather than swing a golf club.

One of the many reasons I love homeschooling:

Because we don’t take days off for teacher institute, Casmir Pulaski Day, etc., the boys do a half day of schoolwork on Fridays. The rest of the time is spent cleaning the house. It’s a beautiful sight to see four boys armed with rags, brooms, and vacuum cleaners.

Though it does not take long before some of them figure out the uncanny resemblance between a vacuum hose and a gun.

p.s. Jackie–although Nick doesn’t read this blog, please let him know that this post is dedicated to him :)

I have not been taking a whole lot of pictures of our school day. Come on, somebody needs to teach these boys their math. But I have a breather right now and wanted to share a few glimpses of school.

Now that we have completed nearly two weeks of school, I have to say that we are having a lot of fun. Yes, school and fun were just used in the same sentence. And one of our students is officially a middle-schooler…an unpredictable age, potentially wrought with an “I hate school” kind of attitude. But that is one of the beauties of homeschooling–figure out what makes a kid tick, and let him run with it.

So if you know Jake, you know what makes him tick: science. Science has been his love ever since he could say the word “space”. Now he says words like deoxyribonucleic acid (thank you, dictionary.com). Somewhere between then and now, he lost me.

This year, he is working through a science book which requires him to conduct a couple experiments per week, and it has become a highlight for everyone. Once he has his materials collected in the kitchen, he yells, “experiment time”, and the rest of the boys gather from near and far to observe and lend a hand when they can. Here is a photo log of a recent experiment.

I’m sure Jake would love to explain in more detail, but he basically poured layers of different liquids into a cup and dropped objects into the liquids to see where they would settle.

Bubbie narrated the entire process.

Finally, the write-up to summarize.

Meanwhile, poor Molly was forced to observe from afar. This experiment did not lend itself to canine help.

It was clear to the vet upon our first visit back in March with Molly that the dog we adopted was a good fit for our family. He was referring to her energetic personality.

We now see that she is a good fit for our family in another way–her size. The Johanik boys are a bit on the burly side. For example, the velcro on Derek’s football cleats doesn’t even come close to fitting around his beefy ankles (or as Jim would say, what ankles?). In the same way, Molly is on the stocky side for a lab. Not fat, just big-boned.

For kicks, the kids and I decided to put together a costume for the dog so she could join them trick-or-treating. Our first stop was Joann Fabrics to look at available dog costume patterns. What we discovered was that nearly all the patterns were made for small dogs (as in toy or teacup, as these kinds of rodents dogs are referred to). But lo and behold, we finally found one pattern made for “large dogs”. The model on the front was even a yellow lab.

After putting together the basic shape of the costume, I thought I’d better try it on Molly before continuing so as not to waste unnecessary time if it didn’t fit right.

Well, good thing for the tryout. The hot pink satin fabric was stretched to its limit on her back, and there was no way the shirt would come up on her shoulders.  I needed at least another yard of fabric to make it fit.

But all was not lost. I was able to turn the shirt into a little skirt and then sew some elastic in for the waist. Now the challenge will be keeping the dog from chewing it to shreds…

6th grade, 3rd grade, and kindergarten. Whew.

As for the little guy and the dog, well, they enjoyed some extra free time today (note the stockpile of airplanes in JP’s arms).

If I were a writer, and if I were to write a book…I would write a book about weeds. Yes, I know, it’s a strange topic, and people wouldn’t exactly be lining up at bookstores to buy it, but let me explain.

Every time I pull weeds in our yard, I am reminded of something that pertains to life. And sometimes as I’m pulling with a double grip on a prickly, gnarly, deeply rooted stem, a verse from the Bible pops into my head. If Jesus used farming and weeds as parables of life lessons, then I think this is something worth considering. If I’ve ever asked why God created weeds, He seems to answer by means of an analogy. If you think about it, weeds are symbolic of sin.

They’re bad, they’re ugly, and they are destructive. Just like sin in my life.

As I was weeding in the yard last week, I observed some interesting characteristics about these unwanted, uncultivated plants. Take this beauty, for instance.

Not only did it sprout up fast, it shot way up and right out in the open. Like it’s taunting the plants around it, boasting of the ground that it is consuming. Do you know sin like that? It doesn’t care who sees it, it boldly makes itself known to everyone around. There’s no attempt on a person’s part to hide it, in fact, sometimes the sin even defines the person.

Then, in contrast, look at this one:

This perhaps could be even more destructive than the ugly, proud loner weed against the house. This one is going right for the jugular: sinking its roots down where a healthy, fruit-bearing plant is already growing. The weed vies for sunlight and nutrients from the ground, threatening to destroy the tomato plant. I’ve observed some weeds that grow near a young cultivated plant, and it’s hard to distinguish which is which.

Do you see the challenge for parents in this picture? There could be the sin of selfishness growing in my child’s heart, and maybe I unknowingly help it grow by making my child the center of my world…it’s easy to do when kids are small and so doggone cute. Give them whatever they want, make them the center of attention at all times. But before I know it, my child becomes prideful, demanding and inconsiderate of others. That’s not so cute. That’s sin (a weed) consuming my child’s heart. Over time, it shows itself to be the ugly thing that it is.

And the longer a weed is allowed to grow, the more difficult it is to uproot. The roots go deeper, the weed becomes stronger. When it comes to uprooting sin in my life (or in my kids’ lives), there is only so much I can do. I can alter my behavior by discontinuing bad habits (consider the tv shows I watch, the magazines I read, the amount of time I spend on the computer, etc.); but there is only One who can totally free me from the destruction of sin.

Thankfully, when Jesus died, He took on all sin of all kinds. The only way for sin to be uprooted in my life is by trusting in Him; only Jesus Christ can cleanse my heart. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7)

In contrast, if a person does not admit one’s sin before God and does not confess Jesus as the only means to eternal life, that person is considered an enemy of God. The weeds in the following verses represent people who do not believe and follow Jesus Christ. “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:40-42)

Let the lesson brought out from weed-plants motivate you to examine where you stand before God. “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:7)

There are so many more great symbols that weeds offer; stay tuned for more.

For the past five years, Derek has aspired to fly one of these:

This is no small aspiration. To become an Air Force Thunderbird (or Navy Blue Angel) pilot requires an immense amount of time, training, and guts.

Derek’s other big interest is football, which he finally gets to participate in this season, along with Peter.

Well, guess what I learned this morning. Derek’s football coach is a former Navy fighter pilot. The guy used to fly F/A-18s. Probably off of aircraft carriers. When I told Derek, his eyes lit up. Kind of neat when two loves come together like that.

(The following pictures are unrelated, but I need to share them because of the high cuteness factor. The NYFL opened the league to 5 year-olds for the first time this year, so we decided to let Peter play. After picking up his helmet and pads, he wore them for 48 hours straight. He is so excited to share this with his big brother, and as you can see, is taking the sport quite seriously.)

Not too far behind him is Jeremy…wishing he was a couple years older.

The army fatigues make it, no?

Friends of ours from Iowa, the Martins, came to stay with us a couple weeks ago.

The kids gathered around the breakfast table for my Mom’s delish french breakfast puffs–all 48 lasted all of 15 minutes.

Though we don’t get to see them often, we enjoy their friendship.

They were troupers and bunked in the basement, which brought the number of people sleeping under one roof to 13…14 if you count the one person in utero. Jim and I love when our house is used to its fullest potential. We love it because we know that it isn’t our house in the first place. It belongs to God.

I have no need of a bull from your stall
or of goats from your pens,

for every animal of the forest is Mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.

I know every bird in the mountains,
and the creatures of the field are Mine.

If I were hungry I would not tell you,
for the world is Mine, and all that is in it. (Psalm 50:9-12)

If you really stop to think about it, it’s a relief to know that everything belongs to a God who holds all things together by His powerful hand. So those cattle on a thousand hills (or houses in a thousand subdivisions; or cars in a thousand parking lots; or kids in a thousand schools…) are ultimately His responsibility.

One of my favorite quotes on this subject was spoken by John Wesley, a man who lived in the 1700s. Wesley was traveling home one day, and one distraught man rode his horse up to him, shouting, “Mr. Wesley, something terrible happened! Your house burned to the ground!” Wesley weighed the news, then calmly replied, “No. The Lord’s house burned to the ground. That means one less responsibility for me.”

It’s all His.

With five males in the household who practically live and breathe airplanes*, what better destination to travel to than the OshKosh airshow?

*typical daily activities: building paper airplanes, building lego airplanes, reading airplane spotter guides, watching WWII airplane battle reenactments, playing with airplane models, making airplane sounds with every movement (by age 2, Jeremy knew the difference between a propeller sound and a jet sound), and the list goes on…

Future fighter pilot Peter:

Waiting for the air show to begin…

To be chanted to the tune of “This is the House that Jack Built”.

This is the foot that got a big bruise.

This is the rock that fell on the foot that got a big bruise.

This is the rail that suspended the rock that fell on the foot that got a big bruise.

This is the dog that bumped into the rail that suspended the rock that fell on the foot that got a big bruise.

This is the girl who cried out in pain to the dog that bumped into the rail that suspended the rock that fell on the foot that got a big bruise.

This is the boy who took care of the girl who cried out in pain to the dog that bumped into the rail that suspended the rock that fell on the foot that got a big bruise.

The end.

*postscript: after a trip to the orthopedic doctor, the unofficial (no x-ray) diagnosis was that the foot is not broken. I am thankful to God for His protection.

Do you ever see experiences in life as analogies to deeper things? It’s easy to miss good life lessons if we look at events or circumstances merely at face value.

Last weekend, Jim and I flew to Holland, MI and back in the Cessna. The flight back was a bit dicey due to gusty winds and showers–nothing to be worried about, Mom, just a little turbulent. We flew through three or four showery systems, and I observed the same thing every time.

Although the flight was smooth as silk before entering the rain, I could see the dark clouds and precipitation ahead, and felt my heart rate accelerate. Sometimes when life is going well…the streams of abundance flow…God gives us a glimpse of the upcoming storm. Sometimes through a “feeling” as His Spirit testifies with our spirit (Romans 8:16) and sometimes in more tangible and visible ways.

Just before entering the rain, we experienced the most turbulence because the weather changed from good to not-so-good. Don’t you find that being in the midst of change can be the most difficult? I was comfortable before this change, for crying out loud. We were flying smoothly, everything was in my favor. Why change things?

This is what God brought to my attention on that hour-plus flight: once we were in the rain, the turbulence calmed down. It was strangely calmer being in the storm than it was entering the storm. It reminds me of Jesus’ promise in John 16: “I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” That’s incredible…He is promising that I’ll have trouble in my life, and at the same time promising real peace. So even in the midst of a storm, it can be calm because of the peace Jesus gives.

Once we passed through the rain system, the sky was clear and smooth. (That is, until the next patch of dark clouds! ) But what a great picture of life, and an analogy of the verse in Romans that says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”

Getting back from a little snooze, so to speak, in the blogging arena.

I have much to write about…serious and not so serious…but these things will remain as thoughts in my head until I have more time to sit, type, and of course add pictures.

Just want to share our day with you in the next few pictures. First off, as of yesterday, Molly is officially sterile. She is recovering nicely from her surgery, thanks to a gorgeous collar and some sedatives.

She’s getting lots of love…

And secondly. A picture which–I think–accurately captures life with four boys. I went in to the bathroom and found some kind of foreign substance on the toilet seat (no photo here…we like to keep it clean on this website) and also saw this:

That’s it. We’re going to have to live here for the rest of our lives. Or until the house collapses on top of us.

When you have more than one sibling, it’s hard not to show favoritism every now and then. Jeremy’s cracker distribution before lunch today betrayed his partiality.

He claimed that the crackers ran out by the time he got to Peter’s seat.

You would be correct to deduce that Peter and Jeremy have been bickering lately.

Derek completed a rugged four days of football camp last week. When I say rugged, I’m not kidding. The boy came home every day with the worst bloodshot eyes I’ve ever seen. But accompanying the bloodshot eyes was a smile that went from ear to ear. He absolutely loved it. And just like his daddy, he remembered each play down to the most minute detail…and we heard about every one of them.

The camp was for kids ages 6 to 14. This is quite an age span, particularly when you fall in the younger half of the group. Every day began with warmups…check out the size of the kid behind Derek!

In order to make it easier to find Derek on the field, he wore a black jersey with black pants…nothing crazy, but uncommon enough to stand out (yes, I know, there is no “I” in “team”, but a mother needs to be able to track her boy at all times).

Look at him use those legs…

Time for a water break. The coaches were diligent in stopping practice throughout the day so the kids would keep well-hydrated.

The final day was devoted to scrimmaging. Now, every day Derek came home, he would announce that it had been his favorite day of camp; each day just kept getting better. But Thursday’s scrimmage took the cake; he was practically on cloud nine after a full day of real football plays.

Showing off his stance here.

There he is in the background blocking his guy. (Meanwhile, the kid in the foreground is trying frantically to recover the ball.)

Getting play directions from the coach.

Soon after Derek received the ball…

he was brought down hard by his opponent. He said his leg hurt for the rest of the day.

I’ll leave off with a video of Derek making a block on the offensive line (which, as a matter of trivia, was Jim’s position in college).