March 25, 2008 - Yeah, it's spring! We've finally had some warm days...the snow has been melting...and I've even seen a few robins. They're forecasting snow for Thursday again, but I guess we can put up with that if we have to. It sure has been a cold, snowy winter! My parents are spending the month of March down in Florida - it sounded really tempting to go down and spend some quality time with them. :-) Well, let's see - it's only been a little over a month since I last updated, so I don't have too much news to report (see why I usually wait so long?). At the beginning of March I turned 42 and I think I suddenly had a midlife crisis. As I think about that, I realize I've probably been in a midlife crisis for many, many years...but that's another story for another day (you can read about some of those crisis points in my articles elsewhere in The Nest). Anyway, what I should say is I suddenly felt the urge to return to my childhood. I started thinking about all those kid's shows I used to watch and I wanted to watch them again. I did a search on yahoo for "Land of the Lost theme song" and was delighted (yes, delighted :-) to find a video of that cute, corny intro to one of my favorite shows as an 8 year old. I drove my kids crazy singing, "...in the land of the lost (echo: lost, lost, lost...), etc." I looked around online and found the whole series (three years) and in a moment of temporary insanity, I bought it. I had buyer's remorse soon after I ordered it. I realized how goofy the special effects looked on the video I had seen online and my kids were already teasing me about the theme song and the crude sets and props on the show. I was afraid I'd sit down to watch it with them and they would hate it... Fast forward to now...I've watched the first season and my kids have watched even more! They love it!  They think Dopey the baby brontosaurus is so cute, and the sleestacks are interesting (but not scary like I thought when I was 8 - kids nowadays are so desensitized!). So, my little splurge on an old TV series is a hit after all - and I'm enjoying them so much. I can just hear the dialogue as they're saying things and I remember back to when I was a kid. It has been fun. Next on my list is "Sigmund and the Sea Monsters" but for now I'll just watch the intro video on YouTube once in a while. Gary is doing well. He's staying healthy in spite of the many flus and colds going around in our area lately. Really, all of us have stayed quite healthy this winter. Dylan and Allison have had coughs but nothing major. The last couple of weeks have been very busy for Gary - two weeks ago was the classis meeting (a meeting for all of the pastors in Minnesota classis for the Reformed Church in America) on Thursday, a special service to pray for Crops and Industry on Wednesday night (Gary preached), two normal services on Sunday...last week we had a special service on Maundy Thursday and then two services on Easter Sunday. In spite of the busyness, we realize that Easter is such a special time of year for us as Christians - we tried to keep focused on Christ's death and resurrection - for us! - even as we had a little extra work. I've been trying to keep up with all of my various tasks - I still get a little (or a lot) overwhelmed some days, but most of the time it's not too bad. I can't imagine how hard it would be if I worked outside the home like some women do. I have it pretty easy compared to them (in many areas, anyway). There are so many things I would like to do, but I don't make time for them in my days. I guess they're things that can wait until the kids are older if they aren't important enough to make time for them now. Hmmm, I sense that I'm starting to ramble now, so I think I'll move on to telling a little bit about each of the kids before I close for this month. Erin (15) - She's doing an excellent job with her driving. She chauffers us all over the place and she's gaining more experience and skills as she drives. This summer she'll take her "behind the wheel" training with an area school and then this fall she'll get her regular license - she's excited. She'll be spending lots of time at Lost Timber Bible Camp in June and July. Besides a week of camp for high schoolers she'll also be going to a staff training week and plans to be a counselor or staff person for two weeks of camp for younger kids. She'll have a blast! She's doing well with her schoolwork - still plugging along in Algebra even though she doesn't care for it too much. She reads a lot and likes to work on the computer. She's taking Spanish but she's a little behind since her teacher gets a bit distracted and doesn't sit down with her often enough for lessons. (I speak Spanish and I wish I had been teaching it to all four kids since they were babies instead of waiting until now!) Allison (13) - Allie is in Horse Quiz Bowl this year - her junior team placed second at Regionals and will be going to State on April 19. She and the other kids have put lots of hard work into learning lots of info about horses and horsemanship and they get a chance to show what they've learned as they're quizzed. They have to buzz in against another team - it gets pretty tense for the team and for the spectators, too. (The other Murray County junior team came in first place at Regionals - fun!) Allison has been spending some time getting one of her stories onto the computer lately - hoping to try getting it published somewhere in the future. We'll see how it goes! She does an excellent job at writing and drawing, too. Blake (10) - Blake is getting taller all the time - hard to keep him in pants that are long enough. He's great at math and likes reading, too. He likes playing games on the computer and playing with Dylan (most of the time, anyway :-) He's a great kid! Dylan (7) - Tomorrow (March 26) is his birthday. He wanted to know what time he was born so he could open his presents tomorrow after he's "officially" eight years old. So, I had to dig through the safe and find his birth certificate. He was born at 9:51 a.m. I remember our doctor in Orange City had to play the organ in church the Sunday morning Dylan was born - she made it! It's hard to believe eight years have gone by already...  Dylan is our cute, funny little boy. He can still be pretty naughty at times, but he's gradually learning to control himself and act right in most situations. He can't wait for his birthday. He asked for some computer games - hopefully he won't be too disappointed to find the Lego set we got for him a while back. It looks pretty cool so I think he'll love it. Well, I think that's about it for tonight. It's getting late and I have to get up and practice handbells in the morning. Our small group of six has fun practicing and then going out for breakfast at the local cafe. I pray that this month's update finds everyone reading this happy and healthy. If it doesn't, then I hope you'll write and let me know how I can pray for you so that you can hang in there until you feel better. God's blessings to you! ~Robyn