Home Despot Elly

We’re approaching thanksgiving, and, shamlessly following the example of Facebook friends, I thought I’d list a few things that I’m thankful for. The main things to be thankful for (Jesus, husband, children, church, friends) are rather obvious, so I will focus only on those things that you might not guess right off the bat, or have [...]

Time flies when you’re having fun… or at least when you’re busy.  If people ask me what we’ve been up to, my mind stalls and I go, “uhhhh…. not much..” And yet, somehow, we’re always occupied. I used to think that a year was a long time, but I’ve been married for 9 years now, and [...]

At IKEA the other day I bought: (drumroll please) – an apple slicer! Yes, indeed, a brand new apple slicer, in bright (apple) green. It’s a beauty and it has improved my life all out of proportion to it’s size, weight, and price (3.99). With it I can whip out an apple, quickly rinse it, and [...]

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Ezra had two birthday parties this year: a family party and a kid party. Aunt Abigail made the amazing cake featured in the above picture. Unfortunately, the camera was “lost” in the bottom of the diaper bag (I looked there, [...]

Thanks to home schooling I now have a partial song listing all of the U.S. Presidents, and a Greek alphabet song rattling around in my head driving me crazy! At least now I should be able to navigate towns organized around the names of [...]

The top 10 things I enjoy about summer time ( in no particular order):

Seeing all the little girls in their cute summer dresses.
Picking berries with my kids.
Being able to let the boys play outside virtually ALL DAY.
Fresh berries on vanilla ice-cream.
Family Camp.
Visiting Tri-Cities when it’s super hot and enjoying all of the air-conditioned houses with my [...]

Michael is not an outdoorsman. He takes no pleasure in mowing the lawn on a pleasant summer morning, doesn’t hike, doesn’t swim, doesn’t hunt, doesn’t climb, doesn’t garden. The closest he gets is playing tennis outside – but that’s probably because it’s cheaper than paying play tennis inside. So it was a measure of his boundless [...]

I’ve always thought of oatmeal as barely edible. The sort of thing you eat when you can’t afford anything better. But I have recently started eating it much more often. Why? For Health? For Frugality? No. Because I’ve discovered that you can substitute milk for the water in the recipe, and voila – a wonderful hot [...]

We just got back from a weekend in Tri-Cities where we are able to attend (and in my case, be in) my youngest brother’s wedding. He married a girl named Valerie, which will cause no end of confusion, as my mother-in-law’s name is also Valerie. Now my children have both a Grandma Valerie, and an Aunt [...]

5 weeks ago, I was REALLY pregnant and wondering if I was ever going to have this baby. I was wondering if he would come before my scheduled inducement that Saturday. I was wondering if I would have time for an epidural during labor, unlike last time. I was wondering how long my labor would take, and if it would go smoothly. And I was wondering what my baby would be like, and who he would resemble.

Now I know the answers to all of those questions! Continue reading Baby #4

We’re home from Family Camp! Not to complain, but boy are we glad to be here! That is, Michael and I are delighted and Monica seems happy to be reunited with her toys and sleeping in her own bed. The boys wanted to stay at Family Camp forever.

I’ll probably post more about Camp later, but suffice it [...]

I stayed up last night turning a t-shirt into a sundress for Monica. What was I thinking? Well, I’ve been wanting to do this project for several months, ever since a friend of mine turned an unused mens sweater into an adorable baby cardigan. I found directions at Happy Together, a blog I’d never seen before, [...]

I called Kaiser Permanente today to see if I could get a charge reversed from about 2 months ago (I’ve put it off for a long time). To my delight, after minimal number pressing, I got to Membership Services where I talked immediately to a real person, who was a native English speaker, very pleasant, apparently [...]

Phinehas Kirk Lortz

Born May 29, 2010. 7 pounds 10 ounces, 20 [...]

For my non-Facebook friends, I thought I should note that so far everything is exactly the same: No progress, no baby, no labor, and a decreasing pool of patience on my part. I have an induction scheduled for Saturday am (as in, 12:00 am), so unless he surprises me by FINALLY deciding to come out, [...]

An atmosphere of expectation can do strange things to your mind. I am in a constant state of expectation right now, all centered around that exciting, mind-blowing, awful occurrence so blandly called “labor and delivery.” It’s so strong, that every time I hear the phone ring, I think, “Is this it?”  And then I remember, “no, [...]

Judah – 6 and Loving It.  He’s still just as enthusiastic as ever, albeit in a slightly self-conscious six-year-old way. His very favorite activity is running around like a maniac with a horde of other little kids – as he was able to do at a wedding we attended last Saturday. His khaki pants came home completely trashed, [...]

A friend is getting married. Her caterer cancelled due to illness a week before the wedding. My sister-in-law stepped in to do the catering, and another friend volunteered a day to help her prep the food today. She called me, and the upshot is that I had 7 children at my house (not including unborn son) from [...]