Seventeen years ago I became a mom.

So proud of this guy and how God is growing him. Happy birthday, buddy!

Derek has discovered that he occasionally has two shadows instead of one.

He doesn’t mind one bit. In fact, he sees it as a prime opportunity to impart some very important life skills to the younger end of his generation.

Life skills such as: how to balance a bowl on top of a dog’s head.

And how to keep your head up when wearing a football helmet.

Yes, I’d say he’s enjoying this very much.

We enjoyed a wonderful Easter Sunday with family. Before leaving for church, these guys posed for a quick picture.

We returned home to a delicious meal, full of dishes that everyone brought. Thanks to Dave and Judi, I tasted my first lamb cake! We accidentally found out that the head is edible. Who knew?

The kids enjoyed some cousin time.

And check out the cute chicks.

Here’s the process: Roll them

Dip them

Decorate them

And eat them!

Jim’s birthday was this week. We love him deeply.

What do you do in lieu of birthday pancakes for someone who has cut out sugar from his diet?

A birthday omelet…made fresh by Peter.

The candles–which were arranged in two groups of four–were blown out with help from Ruthie.

Later that night, while we watched the NCAA basketball championship game, Peter again came through with a birthday cake (this time the birthday boy splurged and had some sugar).

Blessed are all who fear the Lord,
who walk in obedience to him.
You will eat the fruit of your labor;
blessings and prosperity will be yours. (Psalm 128)

I found this great idea online to illustrate the fact that Jesus was laid in the tomb, and after three days was brought back to life, leaving the tomb empty.

We rolled the marshmallow, which represented Jesus, in butter and cinnamon and sugar, which represented the linen cloths and spices in which He was wrapped.

Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. (John 19:40)

We then took the coated marshmallow and sealed it in a crescent roll, leaving no opening. This represented the sealing of Jesus’ body in the tomb.

So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. (Matthew 27:66)

Then we put the sealed “tombs” in the oven for several minutes. And waited with anticipation. While we could watch the outside of the “tomb”, we could not see what hidden mystery was happening inside.

When the baking was complete, we took the pan out of the oven, and behold, the crescent rolls were hollow! The marshmallow was gone.

They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. (Luke 24:2)

We are reading through The Jesus Storybook Bible with Ruthie for the second time now. She loves listening to the well-written stories, and I love the way every story (from Genesis onward) points to the Rescuer, Jesus.

Well, every time we get to the story of Jesus being tempted in the wilderness, and it says that Jesus obeyed God, Ruthie stops me in my tracks. “Wait, but isn’t Jesus God? So you’re saying that there’s more than one God?” she asks. And then I proceed to explain to her one of the great mysteries of God: that He is one God in three Persons.

All I get in response is a puzzled look with a scrunched up nose.

So I have a great idea! We had just hard-boiled a bunch of eggs for Easter; why don’t I show her how eggs are somewhat of a picture of God: one egg with three parts. Peter was especially eager to show her this analogy.

He cut into the egg, with the shell still on.

And we explained the mysterious concept to this five year-old.

I was very proud of ourselves for giving what seemed to me a crystal-clear analogy of God the Father, God the Son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit. So I asked Ruthie, “Does that help you understand who God is?”

She quietly said, “Not really.” And so we press on.

Top Five ways you know it’s spring at the Johanik household:

5.  When you pet the dog, you get more than you bargained for.  Our vacuum cleaner is a workhorse.

4.  Time to stain the deck. The kids put several layers of old socks on their feet and walked around the deck to mop up excess oil.  As long as we don’t have to put coats and hats on, any chore is fun!

3.  First family bike ride of the year. We rode to downtown Wheaton and back, a 20 mile round trip.

We rewarded ourselves upon arriving in Wheaton with some DQ.

Jake offered to pull the trailer (a.k.a. chariot) on the way home. Ruthie was not exactly thrilled with this idea out of fear that Jake would go too fast. She agreed to the deal when Peter told her he would follow right behind.

One of the boys called it “Ruthie’s Motorcade”.

2. Time to clear away the dormant leaves and stalks so the new stuff can grow. Then it gets thrown into the fire pit.

2a.  Back up the shot a little bit and see that everyone has their own idea of appropriate attire in which to welcome spring.

And the Number One sign spring has arrived at the Johanik household…….

1. Break out the s’mores!

The two-s’more limit was more difficult for some to accept than others.

When I told Ruth she could roast one more marshmallow and then needed to be done, she was surprised. “But I’ve only had TEN!” And then proceeded to do a dance around the fire pit. I’m not sure what to say about that.

Hooray for spring!

They say it’s a dog’s life.

I’m not sure if Molly would agree with that today. Her brothers thought it would be amusing to put a wreath around her as she lay out in the sun.

I took the dog for a long walk the other morning.  When I returned, this is what I came home to:

A candlelit french toast breakfast, prepared by the third-born child. He is loves to feed the family.

Ever since the new neighbors moved in, some people in our family have been scheming how to persuade them to relocate.

After loading mousetraps with peanut butter, we were confident that they would reconsider their choice of nesting spots.

Jake was surprisingly unafraid to approach their dwelling in order to strategically place the tools of deterrence.

The rest of us hid behind the closed window in case the neighbors protested in their oh-so unique and distinct way.

The next day, it was observed that the peanut butter was missing from the un-triggered traps.  We were outsmarted by the new neighbors.  Back to the drawing board.

My wonderful husband, always up for a challenge, decided to throw his hat into the ring of a recipe contest.

Though the contest is called Meat Madness, he created (literally, thought up the recipe in his head) a delicious cookie recipe that uses the grill. It was a long shot, but surprisingly the Traeger people chose his recipe to compete among the other 63 recipes!

As of right now, he is losing by hundreds of votes to a rib recipe entered by a guy who owns a restaurant…but you can still cast your vote!

Click here and scroll down to Jim’s picture.

Within minutes of reading the news story to the kids about the St. Patricks Day Solar Storm, Jake was outside with the telescope trained on the sun.

And class moved outside as the rest of the kids lined up to see the large dark sun spot.

Even the dog wanted in on the action.

Everyone wanted to stay up late to hopefully catch a glimpse of the northern lights, which the news article predicted would be visible as far south as Oklahoma. Peter exclaimed that this could be a once in a lifetime opportunity. They were told to go to sleep and Jake would wake them up if he was able to spot them. Sadly, the auroras were nowhere to be seen in Aurora, IL.

Ruthie has been going through the book that taught two of her older brothers how to read. Though she is far from finished with it, I thought I’d see how she would do reading a real book.

The library had a book about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs that seemed to be at Ruthie’s reading level, so I brought it home. The precious girl labored through the entire book, and when she got to the end, I had to suppress the laughter when she read, “Snow White and the Seven Dorks.”

Yep. It’s the remaking of a classic.

It’s that time of year. When one mascot is matched against another, vying for all the NCAA basketball glory.

Some picks require more thought than others.

But one little girl in this family is confident in her bracket. May the best mascot win.

After a long, cold winter, the temperature finally reached above 50 degrees.

The kids wasted no time and literally sprinted out to the trampoline to burn off the pent-up energy which they had stored up over the winter.

The Science Olympiad season has come to an end for the Learning Vine homeschool team. In true David vs. Goliath fashion, this team of 5-10 (depending on people’s availability) fearlessly competed against some of the largest schools in the Chicago area. Most recently, they competed in the Regionals invitational and came in 8th out of 14 teams, just two slots short of making it to the State competition.

I’m especially proud of these two guys, who persevered through failure early on with their Air Trajectory apparatus, and finished the season in first place, beating schools like IMSA and University of Chicago Lab School!

Most of the events are written tests behind closed doors. Even if spectators were allowed in, it wouldn’t exactly be exciting to watch (did you see how he filled in that scantron bubble? Amazing). However, the evens which required building are spectator-friendly. Here is a glimpse into the Wright Stuff event.

Well done, Learning Vine!

Peter and Jeremy gave up the hockey sticks in exchange for some ice drama with Hannah. They planned their program off the ice.

Then they figure skated around the rink.

While all this was going on in the background, Derek worked with Sam on how to pass and shoot the hockey puck. There was to be no figure skating for these guys.

Peter and Jeremy also got in a couple hockey games with their friends. Each team consisted of one older brother and one younger brother.

Jeremy and Anthony had let out a fun chant whenever they scored.

Resting between periods.

As of yesterday, the ice is no longer dependable enough to skate on, so the kids declared the trampoline officially open and have moved their energy there.

Happy birthday, Peter!

This guy had one last hoorah on the ice this morning. Some in our family circle would have been a bit nervous at the sight of this kid walking around on the crackly, soon to melt ice, but it didn’t phase him in the least.

This represents his personality so well–cool cucumber with a tolerance for risk.

Last Ice Hoorah from James on Vimeo.

I love the life that Peter adds to this family! Happy birthday, buddy!

For the inspiration behind the title of this post, watch this clip. We now have one that goes to eleven!

This kid puts the pow in power nap. He can literally sleep anywhere, anytime. The siblings are jumping around, the dog is barking, the phone is ringing, and there’s Jake, catching flies on the couch.

And I am all for it!

This kid is out the door before 5:30 every morning for sports practice, has a full extra-curricular plate of Bible study, youth group, and Science Olympiad, in addition to his academic schedule. So if he wants to crash on the couch for an hour, go right ahead. This is an interesting article on the benefits of napping. Plus, there are many famous men throughout history who are known for their napping skills.

I often think back to his toddler days, and how much he loved sleeping back then. He could barely even walk yet, and he would hold onto the rail of his crib, whining to go in. I’m convinced that Jake’s large amount of sleep has contributed to his tall stature!

As you can imagine, the males in this household have thoroughly enjoyed learning about World War II. They are not only interested in the nuts and bolts of the war–like the weapons and the locations–but also the strategy and tactics, the backstories and biographies. The other morning, here’s what caught my eye as I meandered down to the basement.

They had taken the models they’ve made over the years to reenact various aspects of the war.

It didn’t take long to recognize the German blitzkrieg method of warfare.

And then there was the the Pacific theater.

And the dogfights.

It’s history coming to life…with model airplanes and army guys!