Today I looked up definition of gift. I didn't do a thorough study of the definition but one word that stood out was "unearned". I'm not saying I'm more knowledgeable than the dictionary but for me when I think of the gifts I was/we were given this past week it goes farther than unearned. These gifts were undeserved. For me, the knowing of how undeserved these gifts are is what makes them so precious. At the risk of letting you know how spoiled I am let me tell you what happened yesterday. I woke up to an email in my inbox from my sis-in-law, Rachel. She wanted to know if she could bring supper. Now, it seems to be one thing to get suppers when you have a crazy busy day but it is another thing entirely to have supper brought when there's not too much else to do all day. In other words, I was fully capable of making supper. Well, I'll get to the point. Rach brought supper. Actually, Rach brought SUPPER. It was fantastic. Salad, garlic bread, carrots, pasta, jello and dessert. In the picture Leah and Sam are checking out all the components and Cam is just saying, "nummy, nummy" as in let's eat right now! Thanks so much, Rach.
Other sis-in-law came to visit me in the morning and what did she bring along but a bucket of cookies. Shortbread, my favorite, and speculaas cookies. All delicious, all undeserved! Thanks, Leanne. Chelsie had fun loving the babies. Here's a special picture of a little girls' moment.

Last night, Steve and I had the privilege of going to a special school night with Leah. We had a lot of fun seeing her classroom through her eyes as she led us from display to display searching for the projects with her name on them. Leah's favorite part was the little pancakes. She gobbled a lot of them down! Her classroom had a dutch theme and it was neat to hear the little ones try to sing their dutch songs. (Leah wasn't very loud!) Did you catch that it was Steve, Leah and I? Mom M held the fort down here and it was special to just go away with Leah.

A little pancake with icing sugar just for Papa.


Today was a very normal Saturday for the O's. I went away to do some errands in the morning and then Steve went outside with Leah and Sam to work on some house things in the afternoon. Leah and Sam loved that time of puttering around with Steve. Actually it was one of those play/work sessions as L & S convinced Steve to pull them around the yard a few times on our makeshift garbage can lid sled.

Time to try and tuck some babies in for the night and give Steve the computer back.

For all of you who lavish these gifts on us, be it food, your time, etc. know you are loved. Wish you all a blessed Sunday.

This past week has flown by with all the coughing and exhaustion this cold brought with it. I feel many of you nodding your heads in total understanding as I know we are not the only ones to have been set low by this nasty virus. Thankfully, I can report we are for the most part feeling much better and only have the occasional coughing fit anymore. Now to make sure we do not take our health for granted! It is so easy to forget how bad sick feels and go back to feeling "normal", forgetting many or maybe even most do not have the privilege of our normal status.

One way I measure my personal health is the fact that I took a bunch more pictures again in the last few days. Today's weather was just calling for pictures, of course. This is a the broken umbrella (that has not yet been tossed) at the beginning and toward the middle of the snowfall.

The kids had a lot of fun. Sam was so excited to go outside he was willing to play by himself out there. He is not quick to do so and I enjoyed his adventursome spirit. Cam was still in bed, Cara was sleeping and Cody was quiet in the swing so I went out and joined Sam for some fun. I made the serious mistake of surprising him with snow in the face. I can't believe it. I never have that good of aim when I throw snow at Steve but with Sam when it was what I absolutely did not want to do, I gave him a whole face full. Thankfully he forgave me quite quickly and we had a few minutes of fun out there. After Leah came home all three went outside for a bit. Cameron was very happy to stand in one spot and eat snow but he refused to move his feet. (He didn't last long) Sam and Leah were happy to play for a while when Cam and I went inside but I didn't get too many pictures of them and their fun games.

This was about 4:30 this afternoon and it's still snowing so I'm not sure how much we have now. A few firsts in our house these days. Cara and Cody now sleep feet to feet as opposed to side by side. I think they were starting to get too squished as they were starting to wake up quite a bit in the night. Now with this cold they have woken up more anyway. In some ways I can hardly wait to see how they sleep when they are able to move freely around the crib and decide for themselves how they want to sleep. If they snuggle you can be sure you'll see some pictures posted here! I heard of a pair of twins who were 16 months old and sleeping on top of eachother quite happily as they shared the crib. We'll see. They have also gone a few nights without being swaddled but I haven't totally cut that out yet! Most nights they are still wrapped up snug as bugs in little recieving blanket rugs :) They are really starting to move around and especially Cody can manuever himself in a circle if he is left to play alone on the floor under some hanging toys. He loves to play and is reaching more and more for toys lying in his range. I have to say he is my easiest, most content baby yet. He has also found his thumb now and he will play, swing, suck his thumb, watch everyone around him or quietly fall asleep without too much need for interaction. I find I have to be careful I don't let him melt into the background too much as it is easy to let him be and focus a bit more on everyone else. He does love his share of the attention and coos and grins and giggles so sweetly when he gets his cuddles and games. Cara is still spitting tremendously and sometimes seems to have a lot of tummy pain. But don't you fear, scoop her up and give her a listening ear and she will talk that ear off! She has the biggest, ear splitting grin that you can't help but return and she is surely the more talkative of the two.

A few thoughts about the last couple of days. This morning Auntie Yvonne came to visit. VERY wonderful. I don't get out much and having someone come sit and chat just with me is a treasure in my book. Of course, Yvonne's visits are good for my heart anyway. I love you, Yvonne.

Monday had its own special vistor. Shelly came to work with me for a while and we got a few things done, like reorganizing the living room again and making the staple chocolate chip cookies to name a few. I love having Shelly here but I think Sam loves it most. He is still delighted that he got to help Shelly make cookies. (even if he didn't convince her to let him break the eggs :0 )

Tuesday was a fantastic day starting with a knock on the door. We opened the door to find a surprise cookie deliverer! Auntie Mary Z came by with a whole plate full of those delicious ginger cookies. A surprise like that can make the entire day brighter. Thank you, Auntie Mary! Then a little while later Mom O came by. I for some reason was so exhausted and hadn't got too much work done yet and the prospects of getting more work done was pretty dismal. I was longing for my nap at 10:00! Well, I went to bed at 1:00 (Auntie Krista had picked up Leah and Sam so it was wonderfully quiet) and when I woke up at 2:30 the one half of my house was spic and span. That was an extra special and undeserved treat. (nasty chores like the bathtub which I hadn't got to when I started the bathroom in the morning) Thank you, Mom!

I think that's about as caught up as you're going to get! Thank you for reading through it. I hope you are all having a wonderful week.

Of Remote Controls and Toilet Seats

So this last half a week has seen this Overduin clan sick, sick, sick! Sam started on Friday, Mama Saturday, Papa, Leah, Cammers Monday and the two little snuffalopogusses Tuesday. This isn't just a 24 hour flu, Sam and I are just starting to mend. This is the major fever and chills, headaches, everything aches, sleep all day long, cough until your tummy hurts, blow nose (or wipe it on your sleeve!) kind of cold.

My sister Carolyn, who lives in Wisconsin, lives near the Kohler Design Center. You may recognize the name Kohler as a major distributor of all thing bath related ie. baths, showers, toilets, fixtures, etc. When I was by Carolyn last year she took me to walk through it. It's one of those must see it, can't believe it unless you see it kind of extravagant in large letters places. Well, the thing that made the biggest impression on me was the display that included the bed with the remote control on it and the ensuite near by. The toilet seat itself comes equipped with a wash your bum, dry your bum before you get up option (can you imagine!!!?) but the remote control is for warming up the seat before you leave your bed. Over the top...until you have a raging fever and a cold toilet seat.

Well, just a couple of things to share. My friend Trichelle and her little guy Breyden stopped by for a visit/work session :) on Friday morning. This was a special visit as Trichelle, Dave and Breyden have been living in China since last August. Leanne and Chelsie also stopped by and it was fun to watch the little ones "play cars and trucks" together. After we had visited for a while,

we got busy and Trichelle not only folded my laundry but helped me get started on reorganizing my scrapping space. Due the sickness it it still a disaster area!

Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were mostly spent on the couch by at least 2 sometimes all 7 O members. I didn't even have energy to take pictures of it but Leah took this picture this morning. There were times when both couches were packed with sleeping or dazed people!

Monday night Mom M brought an amazing supper that only I (Leanne) enjoyed but thankfully the delicious ham she delivered tempted some to eat yesterday. Also the jello slid down nicely and disappeared quickly. Then yesterday Joyce with her helpers James and Joanne delivered "supper". This supper filled a laundry basket! There was 2 kinds of cake, cupcakes, cookies, delicious jello (always good to start with dessert :) ) buns, salad and yes a casserole too! Well, we didn't try to heat up supper but the buns and jello tempted the appetites of the little ones and at least those little tummies had something in them! Thankfully, Mom O gave us her day yesterday as she spent it here with us being the extra hands and energy that Steve and I couldn't give or muster.

As you can see in the corner of the picture it's a beautifully, sunny day here and it's pretty cheering! Steve and I both just finished reading a book about a family who lost a young girl to leukemia and I can't help but feel how blessed we are. We may be sick, it may have been nasty, but at this time, we are still heading toward health again. God is gracious.

I sat at the computer tonight wondering if I really had anything to share and so I finally went to my camera to see if I had taken any pictures today. I'm so glad when I find pictures of events I've already forgotten about! Leah came asking for my camera this morning. She and Sam were pretending something upstairs and she wanted to pretend to take some pictures of it. Well, some may think I'm lenient or relaxed and some may say I'm too lenient and relaxed but I do have boundaries and letting my camera go upstairs with a 5 year old is one place I draw a line! So, instead I told her the play camera was tucked away in the dress up box. Really, that was all Leah wanted and she raced upstairs to go find it. The only bump in the plan was that now she had forgotten what she was going to take pictures of and wanted to take "family pictures"instead downstairs. "Gramma, you go sit by Mama.... Uncle (Sam), you go sit inbetween them" and so on. Well, now I WANTED her to take my camera and actually catch this on the memory card! So here's her final result.

And then there's my sweet Sam. He's been wearing some way too big socks for a while and I finally remembered to pick some up at Walmart the other night (yes, I got to go to Walmart and Steve even offered to keep the babies!) So, Sam is at the breakfast table asking for socks and I told him I had special socks for him. "Are these new socks, Mama?" "Yes, Sam" "You are the best Mama, I love you SO much" It almost makes you willing to buy new socks every week to hear that!

I had quite a wonderful day, actually, as I had a friend come visit with her kids. (Steve said in the most incredulous voice last night, "you're going to have 8 kids 5 and under?!") But I haven't visited with Laura for a while so that was great. A side story that I still forgot to share with Laura - when the twins were born Laura made us this fantastic supper. Sam took one bite of the chicken dish and said something like, "Mama, this is WAY better than your chicken, it slides right down! You should make chicken like this." Thanks, Sam, you make me like such a good cook.

After Laura left I made lunch, Cody was sleeping, put Cam to bed, got Cara back to sleep and curled up on the couch myself. I was sleeping for a while when I heard Sam say, "Mama, someone is at the door!" I answered the door and went straight back to the couch. Sam asked if he could join me (he never does this) and curled up by me and we had 1/2 hour more of a sleep.

After our sleep we got up got supper started and did some clean up upstairs (didn't even take 20 mins, Laura) and then answered the door again. There stood a very energetic World Vision guy looking for people to sponser kids. What this guy didn't know was that he had hit the porch of some krayzee :) lady who doesn't get out much. I invited him in to listen to his speel and we ended up talking about all this related stuff. He must of had his hopes up pretty high based on the level of my willingness to chat but he was kind when I said I wasn't going to take on a child today. In the meanwhile, Leah was brought back from playing at Vanessa's house and Ingrid was caught in the middle of the conversation. (sorry Ingrid) Ingrid brought these two plates with her, what a sweetie! Delicious.

One more story that I thought you might enjoy. We are reading through the stories of Joseph right now and the other night Steve asked Leah if she knew what a slave was. They got it sorted out that a slave was someone who had to do whatever the taskmaster said. Leah responded with, "so we're (meaning them as kids) sorta like slaves." Just makes you want to live in the Overduin house, doesn't it?

Well, time to get going here. Here is the promised picture of the shop or at least one half of it. To give you some idea of what it was like there used to be stuff all the way to the door. I kid you not, the door could only swing open and then there was a small path to to the freezer. (all to the right of the photo) Much improved!

A few of our happenings

The problem with not posting more often is that I forget those one liners or full stories that the kids provide me with! The problem with posting more often is that it means I usually get to bed much later than I should. But, with such nice comments posted I couldn't put it off for another day and since I have a Tupperware shower to attend to tonight I thought I would sneak a few lines in right now. (Supper is soup and it's ripening :) on the stove)

This is a portion of the results of last Thursday's activities with Leah. She had 50 day on Friday and I thought I could use that as an excuse to do something extra special with her so I cut out some strips of BLUE paper and she stamped the fronts with flowers for the girls and donkeys for the boys :) Then she started to stamp "happy 50 day" in the inside but it was a bit of a disaster so I encouraged her to write her name first. There's nothing quite like anything "artsy or crafty" with a child to bring out my impatience and nerves but realizing that would totally defeat the original purpose, I tried some of my best negotiating and conniving to finish this project without getting frustrated. Thankfully, I was successful and Steve and I finished the project off after she was in bed. Take note, 50 times is a lot of times for a little girl to write her name.


I also got some wonderful video of Cam coming flying down the stairs on his stomach, head first. It amazes me what that little guy all dares to do when he copies his brother and sister! Although I would love to share the video with you last time I found out how long it takes to upload so I don't think I'll do it very often.

Friday, Krista came in the morning just to help out for a bit and then Leanne came to keep me company as I had already told her I didn't intend to do anything that day! She wisely suggested going for a walk and we had a fantastic time in the sunshine, trying out the "big caboose". Cam really enjoys going down the slide but doesn't always remember to sit down before the slide! Sam had a hoot getting soaking wet in all the puddles he could find, good thing we were already on our way home. Chelsie had on the cutest pair of pink boots but I'll let Leanne share those pictures. Chelsie sure did enjoy the swing. One thing I noticed about doing nothing is that I really must not do it often. Both Sam and Cam didn't want to play, they only wanted to sit by me and hang all over me on the couch.


Saturday Leah and I started off doing errands together. Errands are a funny thing. They always sound enticing as it is time that only you get to spend with Mom but when you get down to the nitty, gritty of it, errands can be hard to endure! When we got home we found Steve and Sammy bringing things that are stored in Cam's room upstairs into our basement. That was the start of the cleaning up urge! Steve finished his Saturday with a beautifully organized shed. I'll have to post some pictures of it because it's worth seeing... actually, since most of you didn't see the before picture (which I neglected to take) after pictures probably won't mean a whole lot.



Well, I still could write about Sunday and Monday and today but I have run out of posting time. I'll have to catch you up on more details another time.



In the meanwhile I'll include these pictures of the twins. They are really starting to enjoy cooing to eachother and playing with eachother's hands.




Sorry, you'll have to crink you neck a little for the one picture. I forgot to turn it before I uploaded it and now I can't figure out how to remove it or turn it. I'm welcome to any teaching any of you is able to provide!

Not my Work!

I hope to add the last few days' events tonight yet but in the meanwhile, didn't my sis-in-law (Leanne) do a great job on the beautifying part of the blog? Someday I'll get photoshop and figure it out but in the meanwhile, I'm sure glad Leanne is so good at it and is so willing!

Just wondering, does anyone out there check for updates as often as I check for comments? :) I'm getting better - I only checked this morning.

Here's two quotes that made me grin.

From Tuesday when Leah and Sam were playing "mom and dad", Leah was attempting to convince Sam which baby would be best for him (the one she didn't want, of course). "but look, Sam, this one has hair more down on her brains than that one." I mean, seriously look at these pictures, can't you tell that the one on the right is more boyish, even besides his blue shirt? They are reversed in the "hair picture" but look closely and you will see the one on the left has less hair covering his brains than the sweetie on the right. She has a head full of hair now doesn't she!? Okay, so it's hard to see but there ARE more lines on the "girl baby".

Or, how about this one? When is the last time you toughed it out? Bore the pain as we are known to say? Well, Leah was standing on a bottom up stool and the bottom of that stool has a grid of thin plastic pieces and she let me know it wasn't a problem for her because, "look Mama, I'm bearing the hurtness". Sam, not to be outdone had to do some hurt bearing too.

I'm trying to convince myself this blog updating is a well deserved break from touch up painting but I realize it is quite foolish to not get more done before Leah, Sam and Cam come home again. They were gone all morning and I was going to get a lot done but Cara really did her utmost to prevent my productivity with a dirty diaper that stretched half way up her back. I can deal with that, she's a baby and these things happen, it's the red paint I got on her new leggings when I picked her up that makes me want to say gggrrrrrhh! (I'm doing touch ups because we hope to put our cute little house up for sale and find something with just a wee bit more room)

Okay, one more thing before I get back to work. Here's a video of some twin time from Cara and Cody Tuesday night. It's not really easy to get the feel for how they were laying because I'm the one videoing and I'm a little close but Cara is on her back on the couch and Cody is on his tummy over my knees . This puts their faces 6 inches from each other. Sometimes they grin as soon as I position them like this, other times they seem to ignore each other. I can't say they have really layed there purposefully cooing in a communicating way but they do sure enjoy their cooing with the other paying attention, even if there isn't an immediate response back :) (the most vocal one is the girl baby, of course. :) )

Crazy Day with some Neat Parts thrown In

So, it gets a little harry around here when 5 out of the 7 household inhabitants are miserable with a cold, especially when one of the miserable ones is Mama. Next fact, one of the non-miserable ones is Papa but he's at work. The other relatively healthy sweetie is Leah who was at KG for the day and then a birthday party all afternoon. What do you have left in the equation? If you do your math right, you've got 5 people left at home, all of whom want to be picked up, carried around and given lots of love. Thankfully, Mom M. came in the morning and worked really hard doing wash, dishes, floors, dusting, clean up etc. I can't think of too many things Mom didn't get done today, actually. So, morning wasn't that bad. Mom also took Sammy home with her at lunch time. To keep the math straight, we're down to 4 in the snivelling, sneezing category. It wouldn't have been so bad if I would not have tried to do a major organization from change table to dresser for the babies but there happened to be a lot of mess all over the living room floor with not quite adequate energy to make the mess dissolve! Oh, I'm not really complaining. I didn't get the nap I really wanted and kind of thought I "deserved" but I did get the mess figured out when I finally got three little ones sleeping at the same time. And then, to erase any feelings of sympathy I may have conjured, I was treated to my Monday special. Two of our special blessings are Opa and Oma who care for us so dearly. What a treat to get a knock on the door, "meals on wheels is here" Opa's known to say.

And the supper he delivers to our door! It's not just one meals worth but at least two and food fit for the king and queen themselves! There's potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, meatballs, jello, buns and delicious pie. Plus, Oma's already
phoned once to see if we have applesauce at home! So, yes, that is one very special blessing to make this crazy Monday much better again.

Then Leah came home safely very excited about her fun time and Mama is very glad to see and hear that she survived without the "Too much Birthday" syndrome. Camers wants to snuggle his little brother and sister but when his sister is immediately crying he settles for hugging Cody. The funny thing about Cam is that he's already noticed that Mama loves to take pictures of these moments and so now, as soon as he's settled in with a baby, he points to the shelf where the camera sits and asks for me to take his picture. And he makes such cute ones too. Sometimes this Mama heart gets that overflowing-with-love-feeling! Pictures like this one, Sam's cheerful arrival home with Opa, Cara's sweet, huge grin when she's actually feeling so awful, Leah's coming out of bed a few times because of something else she just remembered about her afternoon that just can't wait until tomorrow to be shared. All these details and I just can't help but feel a little overwhelmed by my undeserved blessings.

And then, just to make my Monday right over the top fantastic, I got to spend the evening with my little sister. I rarely spend time with Shelly. She not only stayed while Steve went away to keep me entertained with stories about her recent ski trip, but she let me dream about pretty dresses with her as we looked at prom dresses online (plus she helped me do dishes).

Well, Shelly, it's actually only just 10:30 but that's plenty late for me. Time to quit. I read through all this and reevaluated my day and have decided it wasn't so crazy at all. I'm going to forget about the parts when I didn't have enough arms and remember all the great parts instead. I'll say it again. I am, we are so blessed!