The Muench Bunch

Today is Allie’s birthday. She turned 22 years old. She is living with her Grandparents in southern Missouri and has a good job at the hospital. She is a phlebotomist and draws patients blood. She also bought an SUV. She seems very happy and is doing great. We are so happy for her.

 It went and got bitter cold on us again. Overnight we had some new snowfall a couple inches of light fluffy snow. It was negative 2 when I woke up and not much above that when Luke went off to school. It got into the teens is all. 

The kids stayed with Mawgee and Peepaw and had lots of fun. They took them sledding at the old hospital hill. They went on the east side afraid the bigger hill might be too much for Luke. Turns out Luke was quite the little dare devil. First thing, he grabbed his sled, took off running and dove onto it racing down the hill head first. He loved it and went down over and over as fast as he could. In our free time, Mark and I went out to a very neat new restaurant in Stanhope. The Stone Inn is on a family farm that took the machine shed and turned it into a one of a kind incredible restaurant. There are various rooms all done up with a different atmosphere. The place is very well done and classy. The food is top notch too, serving prime rib, shrimp, and nicer dishes. We really enjoyed it and visited with the owner too. She has big plans for a party hall and a farmer's market. I was very impressed. The downside, it is literally in the middle of nowhere on some gravel road that is so

 The forecast has been preparing us for a big blizzard all week. The schools cancelled classes, but when you homeschool you keep on schooling. Luke gets in on homeschool with some worksheets and reading and of course some ipad learning games. It did just like they predicted. First it rained, then it snowed, then the wind picked up with heavy gusts. It did all those things, but what kept the blizzard conditions at bay was the temperature. It stayed just above freezing so the snow was heavy and wet, therefore no wind blowing, just sticking in a thick snow. Some areas got it worse than others, like Williams and I-35 was closed halfway across the state. We just hunkered down and stayed home. Another women's bible study I have missed. I have not been to one this semester.

 Mark had a Salford meeting at the shop. He spent the past week preparing everything down to the last detail. His shop looked so clean it sparkled. It looked amazing and his three Salford implements were so shiny red even the tires shined. He takes a lot of pride in his farm and equipment. His semis get a bath everytime they go out. My Tahoe is lucky to get cleaned once a month. The weather was kind of sketchy with the morning starting out in a winter weather watch of snow, wind, and ice. Fortunately by late morning the sun was shinning and Mark had a good turnout. Lunch was at noon with the meeting at 1:30. The kids and I did school in the morning , then headed to the shop at 11. In the late afternoon, the local Seven Oaks Ski hill was having a homeschool day for families to ski at a huge discounted price. We have talked about going skiing there for the past 5 years and every winter say we will. Mark didn’t think he would be able to ski with his thigh troubles so I thought I would ta

Valentines day turned out to be very cold in the teens. Jayden stayed home with her brothers so Mark and I could go on a date. We all had a Valentine's Day dinner with goblets of punch together. Then Mark and I went to a movie. There was a lot of talk about a romantic Valentine's Day movie called, " Winter’s Tale." I saw the movie trailer and thought it looked pretty good. Looks are very deceiving and this movie showed a very different story than what was depicted on the big screen. The word that comes to mind is just plain weird. It was so out there with a white flying horse, and demons. The whole thing was not worth going out on this freezing night for a date. 

 "Just My Opinion on Jeans."  When I was in high school and college, jeans went just above the belly button at your waist. Somewhere around 10 years ago, the waistline began to drop on women’s blue jeans. First it was below the belly button, then the rise got lower and lower until it is almost needing to shave the area. The bathing suits have followed.  Whoever designed the low wait jeans was not thinking at the time how truly unattractive this look is for a woman, and now the trend is here to stay. The low waist makes any pudge or in particular baby fat on a woman's belly  hang over the sides like rolls, a very unattractive sight. It also drops the pockets and makes a woman's butt look twice as large. Then to make matters the worst (and this is where it gets me), when a women bends over slightly, her bottom crack shows. If she stoops to the ground, holy moly she is mooning the rest of the world. All too many times I have seen the unpleasant butt crack of a woman. Mo

We are finally going to get a much needed warm up! We are overdue. No more negative temperatures, time for shorts. My parents aren't so lucky. They have been traveling throughout Florida for the past couple weeks. The weather has been all over the place with very few beach days. Now they are going to have to spend an extra day in Savannah, due to the expected winter storm in the South. It looks like Georgia is about to be hit again.

 7 of the 9 girls made it to the first girls homeschool book club Jayden and I have started. We had the house all cleaned and snack food ready. The girls read the book “War Horse”. The group is girls Jayden knows through riding horses and friends ages 13 to 16. There are two that are outgoing talkers, the rest very quiet. It was very hard to get a conversation going, nobody wanted to talk. Thankfully we had the 2 ½ hour “War Horse”  movie to entertain them.  Later in the week 3 of the book club girls and family meet Jake, Jayden, and I at an ISU theatre production of the Civil War. It was a musical short story. I am not sure how much the girls enjoyed it, but Jake thought it was ok. 

Another very cold day, it seems to be the normal this winter. The  high was around 8. The kids had their 4-H winter party at the roller skating rink. Jaynie and Rylie were dropped off at our house for an hour before I took them to skate. I wish they could come more often. The boys love having them here. I took Luke to skate with the 4-Hers also. Everyone had a great time. I got a photo of Jake and the 4th grade boys. Luke had fun too and made his way around by himself hanging on to the rail. . It was -11 driving home.

Last night when Luke went to bed his eyes looked really red. I was certain he had gotten pink eye as it is highly contagious. Praise the Lord, Luke’s red eyes last night must have just been tired eyes. He was able to go to his girlfriends birthday party. He would have been just heartbroken if he did not get to go. Not only had he missed Cash's recent birthday party, but this was his best buddy/girlfriend Alex G.

 Cold and long, those are the two words to describe this winter. It has been unbearably bitterly cold all winter. January stayed below freezing and most of the time in the teens or lower. This whole week has been in the low teens some days not even  into the double digits. Most mornings when Luke goes off to school, it is well into the negatives. It is so cold you just want to stay indoors and never leave your house. What does the cold bring on?... sickness. I am guessing because everyone is inside so much, germs are being spread easier. Sunday, Luke was hot with fever and sick. Turns out he had a respiratory virus and double ear infection. Two days later Jake woke up with a bright red eye and had pink eye. His eye was so red, it became red and swollen around his eye. Two trips to the doctor in one week. We have had so much sickness this winter. Its too cold for the well guys to do anything to our water, so we haven’t had our horses here for almost 2 months. The arena heaters have con

It seems I have been visiting the pediatrician with the kids an awful lot these days. Jake came down with pink eye. Normally I can call the doctor and they give me eye drops. Jake's eye progressively got worse to the point he had a big red circle under his eye. That seemed to me like he needed to see his doctor. Off to Ames again...

 Luke spent the night with Karen and Orrie and stayed home with them during church. He has had a cold and today turned into really sick with a high fever. I took Jayden to her 4-H interviews in Fort Dodge after church. Mark and Jake went to Cash’s 4th birthday roller skating party after church. Luke was sad to miss it. When my kids get sick, they always miss something fun. At bedtime, Luke had a lot of ear pain. It took quite a bit of crying until he could sleep. The next day I made a trip to the doctor and he got some good antibiotics for his double ear infection. He felt fine, but we kept him home from school for 2 days, more homeschool time for Luke.

At 6Am I could hear little footsteps from Alivia. By 7:30 I woke up to find Jake and Alivia watching cartoons waiting for everyone else to get up. The kids played more downstairs and I sent them all outside into the freshly fallen snow. Everything was covered in a light fluffy inch of snow.  In the evening, we  had a get together with our team from the Jamaica trip. Luke stayed with Karen and Orrie and Jake went with us. Joy and Aaron hosted the dinner and fixed jerk chicken, rice and beans. It was so much fun to reconnect with everyone. My book and DVD from the trip were well liked. We spent time talking about our experience and sharing moments. We also prayed for the kids, team, and future trips. Mike from our team is considering joining the Nest board. The kids all had fun reconnecting. The best choice we made was taking Jayden. What a great experience for her. It worked out that she got to be with some fun girls and most important, I think she has a heart for adoption and miss