Welcome to the Scharrer family's real life story! Most of our story is written for, and about, our four kids and the spice they add to our lives. It's our story of happiness, craziness, and sometimes ridiculousness. We've journaled through childbirth, the terrible two's, private school (and our public school experience), an autism diagnosis, medical school, residency, and long-term mission work in Africa.

Now we're following a new adventure, which involves a 45 foot motorcoach, homeschool, and as many ski slopes as we can go down in one year.

For posts from while we were living in Zimbabwe and updates about our future plans in Zimbabwe, please see our mission blog...

www.ourzimbabwejourney.blogspot.com.





01 June 2014

May in Pictures

In May we said goodbye to school and hello to summer!  One of our favorite times of year!  We welcomed the warm weather with slip'n'sliding, camp fires, and grilling!  Mother's Day was unforgettable (I have been so blessed!!!) and my parents took the kids for a week so that I could get some things done around the house and spend some time with Erik!

Sweaty Skogen after his soccer game

Our big boy and our little boy  :)

Skogen decided that he wanted to start running with me!  He's a great running buddy.  He really pushes me!  When we first started out, he wanted to sprint the whole way.  I tried telling him that we needed to slow down and pace ourselves and he said, "I don't like going slow because the faster  I go, the faster I get to where I'm going."  I couldn't argue with that.

Maida's track and field day

Maida's first school play, "Stone Soup"

Our preacher sent us a thank you card and drew a picture of our family skiing on the back.  I treasure this!

First fire of the year!
 


slip'n'slide fun

End of the year teacher gifts, "Teachers like you PAINT bright futures!"
Last day of school!
Goodbye to Mrs Dikeman, one of the very best teachers in the entire world!!! 
Skogen's graduation from preschool

Maida insisted that we keep every paper from 1st grade so that she could review them over the summer and see what she learned.
The Hubs grilling for the first time this summer!

Klaasen told me he was "powered up" into a dinosaur.


Skogen and Klaasen went up and helped lead singing at church on Sunday evening



It didn't take Torsten very long to learn to pee off the deck with two older brothers around!  (Note:  they are typically not allowed to pee off the deck, however, he caught big brothers breaking the rule and had to try it himself.)
Transportation Fair with Klaasen and Torsten

Mystery Dinner with a group from church

Sweet snuggles with Daddy

Me and my Skogie-bear

Poor Erik.  Residency hours are not fun.  Sometimes he can't even make it into bed!  He sleeps so hard, though, that he usually can sleep through anything.

Torsten in Skogen's underwear, Maida's high heel, and Klaasen's rainboot

Thumbs up for grapefruit for breakfast!

Using illustrations to sort out behaviors and consequences


Mother's Day present from Maida

A tea towel she made for me in school!
With her sweet hand print in the corner - what a treasure!

Skogen wrote a "Mom and Me," book for me.

He knows me pretty well!  :) 

Klaasen painted me a piggy bank cupcake!  He even wrapped it and was so excited to give it to me!

Counting money


a storm rolling in

Invites I made out of fingernail files and cotton pads for a girls' night slumber party for church!  I put a recipe for a homemade facial scrub inside each invite.

First, us girls went and got pedicures and then we all came over to my house for a slumber party!
(My parents took my kids for the week!!!)
Erik and I caught a date while the kids were out of town!

My good friend Whitney came over and helped me build a trampoline to surprise the kids with when they returned from Grandma and Bumpa's house!

The kids were so excited about their surprise!!!

We write to taste life twice, once in the moment and in retrospection.”
~Anais Nin