Where have I been, you ask?

It's been a crazy busy week! For the first half of the week, I took 8 teenagers AND a toddler on a 3 hour drive to north Dallas. Insane, yes, I know! But it was for a good cause. We were going to a prolife training seminar with Justice For All. If you've never heard of them, I HIGHLY recommend their seminars. It was utterly amazing! The first day is spent watching videos and doing extensive role playing. The next two days are spent on a college campus striking up conversations about abortion with total strangers. I told you it was amazing!  No, really, it was.  If you've always known that abortion is wrong and you believe life is a precious gift from God, but wouldn't know how to have a logical, respectful, CALM conversation with someone who disagrees, then JFA is just the group for you. The group of teens I took blew me away! There was not one ounce of timidity in the group. They boldly shared their faith in the presence of loud, obnoxious, in-your-face protesters.  Truly, it was awesome. I just can't explain how awesome it was!

Well, after four days carting teenagers all over town at very early hours in the morning, I was exhausted by the time we got home. I didn't do anything remotely requiring thinking for the next few days.

Last night some good friends of ours had a barn dance! It was so much fun! I've often wished someone we knew would do something like this. It was almost midnight by the time we got home. It sure was easier to dance the night away 20 years ago!

Last, but not least, Anna is doing something called Nanowrimo. She's living on the computer every waking moment. Since we've been so busy AWAY from the house, I've had to give up my own time on the 'puter for her. She's still behind on her word count though.

Whew! Are you tired yet? I'm still exhausted. Could have been the dancing last night ;o)

TTFN!

Note to self

Don't leave a child's tooth in a cup inside the cupboard because you're too lazy to go find the tooth fairy pillow at 10:30pm. It's liable to be mistaken for an old crusty piece of yogurt or something and washed down the sink. Bad Mom!!

TTFN!

These are a few of my favorite things!

Morning sun shining on the homestead.

Caramel apples! Yum!

Chubby cheeked little boys with bobbing blonde curls and big blue eyes!

Pumpkins! Have you ever made a truly homemade pumpkin pie? I have! Nothing compares.

Walking through crunchy fall leaves with a talkative young girl!

These are a few of my favorite things!

TTFN!

Happy Birthday Micah!

For Christmas 2009, we had a very special little elf at our house. He was the sweetest baby. Hardly ever cried and was adored by all.

His sweet smile engaged everyone who looked his way. The older he got, the more his adoring fans fawned over him.

He's the smartest of babies. Always figuring things out for himself.

His chubby cheeks, big blonde curls and deep blue eyes are irresistible.

We had a birthday party at his cousins' house. The kiddos all dressed up for the party. Micah didn't have a choice in his costume. His personal dressers chose the Mickey Mouse costume.

Look how tall he's gotten! I can't believe Micah is already two! Where has the time gone?

Happy Birthday my little sweetie!

A few things I love about my sweet Micah:

1. You're so cute walking around holding your shirt tag.

2. You have the best manners, always saying "tea too" (thank you), whenever appropriate.

3. It's crazy adorable how you say "pee boo" (peek a boo) whenever you find something you've been looking for.

4. Your ability to do 100 piece puzzles at not quite two years old AMAZES me!

5. You are a sucker for a tractor ride!

TTFN!

WWYD?

There comes a time in a mom's life when she has to let her kid do something not too bright and let the cards fall where they may. My oldest son, Joshua, and his dad love their spicy food. I often jokingly say I'm going to start making the exact same thing for meals everyday because they always put Tobasco sauce on everything anyway. All their food tastes the same!

Joshua came across a pepper called the Ghost Pepper. He's watched some rib cracking videos on You Tube about fools who ate this pepper. He wanted to try it. I hesitated in letting him. The people in the videos were in PAIN! Should a mom allow her flesh and blood child to do something like that? On purpose?

Well, I did and I laughed just as hysterically at him as I did at the videos. You want to know how smart he is? He's going to do it again with some friends tomorrow. Where did he get these brains from anyhow?

TTFN

PIZZA! Finally!

Since we've moved out to the country, I rarely find it worth the gas to drive for take out pizza except in dire circumstances. The kids all still want pizza for Friday night dinner as often as possible though!  I tweaked a bread machine recipe for the dough and we all love the result!

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup bread flour

1 tablespoon yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

This makes enough dough for two 16 inch (give or take) pizzas. So, of course, I have to make two batches of dough. Roll the dough into a pizza shape.

Top with your favorite toppings. We like cheese, pepperoni (nitrate free of course), mushrooms, spinach and feta cheese. Some of us are pickier than others.

There! Doesn't that look good!

TTFN!

Link up!

Deep questions with Elijah

Don't you just love the age when kids start asking deep questions?  You know they're really starting to think about things.

We were in the car earlier and Elijah calls from the back, "Mom?" I could tell it was going to be a serious question. "How do they make Monster Trucks?"  See, I told you it was serious!

TTFN!

What is he doing?

Micah has started something strange. I'm not sure where he came up with the idea or why he's doing it. See that cute little chubby hand up by his chin? He's holding his shirt tag! He checks all his shirts now for the tag and walks around holding it all day. He's become one handed and so far, hasn't found it frustrating enough to stop holding the tag. 

Isn't he funny! (You don't see the dirty floor, right? Yeah, me neither!)

TTFN!

Another one bites the dust

I really thought we were through with this stuff. It's been a week for goodness sake! See, same chair, different kid and that age thing still holds. Keeping my fingers crossed that maybe NOW we're finished. 

TTFN!

Reason #163 why we like homeschooling

Going to the zoo on beautiful fall days!  See alllll the people there? Oh wait. That's us! When we go in the fall there is never a crowd to fight. We get front row viewing for all the animals. Each time we go, we set a goal of seeing or doing something new, something we've never seen or done before. Today's trip was a bonanza!

Anna was playing with a sea lion in the aquarium. She would trace her finger on the window and the sea lion would follow her every move. Even spinning in circles! I bet we stood there doing that for 20 minutes.

One of the big highlights for the smaller people was feeding the giraffes. This is a new thing at our zoo. We took our place second in line to get the special "nutritional supplement" to feed the giraffes. Many signs warned of the dangers of feeding the tall critters "people food." Don't want to upset their delicate nutritional needs.

Imagine my surprise when the zoo lady shows up with a huge rubbermaid bucket of .....lettuce. Yep, the most expensive lettuce I've ever bought. At that price, those giraffes better be getting organic lettuce!

The monarch butterflies were migrating and they were everywhere! It always cracks me up because we'll see the most ordinary critters (think squirrel) and the kids will just stop and watch it like they've never seen one before.

We LOVE the zoo. It's almost our second home in the fall. The days are so beautiful. The animals are out being playful and noisy. We get to see it all front and center and my kids get to run ahead of me without the worry of mom yelling at them to GET BACK HERE! Maybe tomorrow I'll post some pictures of our new baby elephant. We saw her last week. So cute!

TTFN

Words to Live By

When I was a young girl, I used to like to clip the advice columns out, especially if they had poems. All little girls like poetry, right? Well, a few of the clippings survived till I reached adulthood and I really do think they're great words to live by as a mother.  The clippings say the authors are unknown on these.

COME IN

Come in, but don't expect to find

All dishes done, all floors ashine.

Observe the crumpled rug, the toys galore

The smudgy fingerprinted door.

The little ones we shelter here

Don't thrive on spotless atmosphere.

They're more inclined to disarray

And carefree, even messy play.

Their needs are great, their patience small

All day I'm at their beck and call.

It's Mommy come, Mommy see

Wiggly worms, red scraped knee.

Painted pictures, blocks piled high

My floors unshined, the days go by.

One day soon they'll flee this nest

And I at last will have a rest.

And which really matters more,

A happy child, or a polished floor?

EXCUSE THIS HOUSE

Some houses try to hide the fact that children shelter there.

Ours boasts of it quite openly, the signs are everywhere

Smears are on the windows, smudges on the doors.

I should apologize, I guess, for the toys strewn on the floor.

But I sat down with the children, and we played and laughed and read,

And if the floors don't shine, their eyes will shine instead.

For when at times I'm forced to choose the one job or the other

I want to be a housewife, but first I'll be a Mother.

Hug your kids. They grow up too fast!

TTFN

How to slow down boys

Did you know there's a direct relationship between the age of the child and the odds of them throwing up in the middle of the night? It's true. The younger the child, the more likely they are to pick the middle of the night to start a stomach bug. I told you how kids were sick while dad was out of town. Why does that always seem to happen as well? Our little Micah kept falling asleep in the chair.  I didn't move him to his bed because, well, I didn't want to change the sheets numerous times. This chair's seen more than it's fair share of collateral damage so it seemed like a good place to just let him sleep.

Now Elijah has started just throwing up and going back to sleep. He tries to hit the bowl and does a pretty fair job of it, but I sure wish he'd come let someone know about it. It goes unnoticed till I'm walking down the hall and wondering what that smell is! Here he is asleep. In the same chair. And no, that's not going to hurt his neck. He sleeps like that all the time. He was in the womb like that. I keep thinking it'll catch up to him someday and then he's going to need a really good chiropractor!

So that's my secret for slowing down little boys. It has it's drawbacks of course, but I try to look for the good in things otherwise I'd go crazy.

TTFN

Ok, so I cheated!

I know I told you I was going to tell how we do homemade pizza. I lied. Dad's been out of town and kids have been sick. We ordered out. 'Nuff said.

TTFN

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

We got some new chicks today and let me tell you there is nothing cuter than brand new baby chicks! Their little cheeping is so sweet to hear and we even have one that plays dead for us.

These are some pictures of our older girls (and boys). They're finally earning their keep around here and producing eggs. They love to roam about the place looking for bugs, mostly ticks I hope! While we were on vacation they got a little wander lust and found the neighbor's yard which is quite a feat. The only access they have to the neighbor's yard is 200 feet of barbed wire in some pretty dense woods. I guess they missed their chicken charmer!

These are the roosters (in case you couldn't tell!) Their names are Popcorn and Buttercup boy. If you want to have roosters, Bantam roosters are nice to have. They stay small and I think they realize this fact. They don't torment the people around here like bigger roosters are prone to do.

See these pretty eggs? Ok, ok, I know what you're going to say. One is pretty small, huh?  Well, being the chicken amateurs that we are we didn't know what a Bantam chicken was. Do you? They're pretty small chickens. So pretty small chickens lay.....you guessed it... pretty small eggs.  But now Jeffrey has become a bit of a pet so I guess we'll keep her around even though it'll take six of her eggs to make a decent omelet. And in case you're wondering, yes, we named a female chicken Jeffrey. Don't ask.

TTFN

Poison Ivy

Yikes! Seems we've moved to poison ivy heaven. I guess that's what you get when you buy a place that's been neglected for so long. No wonder the poison ivy loves it here. I thought maybe we could peacefully coexist, but it seems the plants have other ideas. Their plan is to assimilate us all!  Resistance is futile!

I discovered yesterday that Rachel has poison ivy. Again.  A friend had told me about an expensive scrub I could buy at Wal-Mart that was supposed to be great for poison ivy. I stopped while running errands and picked some Zanfel up.  When I get home, the first thing Anna says is, "What's all over Aaron's face?"  How could I have not noticed that!!  He was covered in it. All over his face, his arms, and his legs. I wondered why he'd been scratching so much. Bad Mom!!  So I scrubbed him down in the tub and the itching felt much better.  I had to do another scrub right before bed to help with the itching again. I can't believe it! He woke up this morning with no rash whatsoever!  WOW!

Now I'm going to share a little secret with you. While doing some research online about the Zanfel, I found out it's the same thing as Mean Green Hand Scrub. You know, the stuff mechanics use to get the grease off their hands?  That is SO much cheaper.  It appears I'm going to buy it by the bucket full. If you'd like a good stock tip, maybe you should buy some Mean Green stock.

Rachel still has a little rash showing, but it's not blistering up real badly like it did the last time. You can still see the spots on her hands from where she had it last time. I'm so glad to have found this stuff. Now I'll have to worry about other things when they go play in the woods.

TTFN

Hay vs. Straw

Do you know the difference between the two?  If your learning curve is as steep as mine, this post will be very informative. We had to clean the dog house thoroughly for the second time in a week. We want to put some bedding down for the puppies for the winter. I called my friend to find out where she gets her hay and she gave me a great little tip that I'm going to pass along.  Hay is for eating, straw is for pooping on. Now I'll never get the two mixed up again!  If you'd do me a favor though, and not share this little tip with my little boys, I'd appreciate it. They're liable to take it to heart.  Thanks so much!

TTFN

Ah, the joys of country living

This post is kinda gross. Don't say I didn't warn you! This morning my son, Joshua, came to me and said "Mom, you need to come look at this chicken."  Gosh, I hate it when they say things like that. It never means something good! Sure enough, that chicken has a problem. Now this is Rocky we're talking about here. So far, she's been our best layer. We have to keep this chicken healthy!  Ends up she has an "impacted crop".  A what you say?  She's not digesting her food properly because the silly thing isn't drinking enough water. Doesn't she know it's hot outside??

We asked Dr. Google what to do about her and he said to gently turn her upside down and massage the crop. This would help some of the undigested food come back up.  Well, since it's Joshua's job to take care of the chickens, he gets the responsibility of doing the good and the bad. (Thank goodness for kids!!)  So he does what Dr. Google says and let me tell you, chickens throw up about as gracefully as toddlers! Which is to say, they don't.  He had to change his clothes after it was all over. The good news is.....he'll probably have to do it again later this afternoon.  Pray for him.

TTFN

Fun Food Friday #2

I know I said I was going to tell you about some of the fun food we like to eat here, but, if you've read my previous post, you'll see I'm too exhausted. My kids are going to be lucky to get ANY food today.  Check back next week and I'll tell you about our pizza making!

TTFN

How to travel long distances with many small children

If you're a bigger than average family, the thought of travelling long distances can seem overwhelming.  We just returned from a week long trip visiting family 1000 miles away.  I thought I would share some of our travelling philosophies in hopes they'll help someone else.

1. Try not to plan too far in advance. Spur of the moment, last minute trips leave less time for stressing about things.  48 hours notice should be sufficient.

2. Make sure you spend the day before leaving in town all day doing errands, getting the oil changed and tires rotated, etc.  Then you won't have to worry about how messy your house is right before you leave.

3. If you're lucky, your husband will call on your way back home from being in town all day and say he'd like to leave that night, moving your deadline up by 12 hours.  Again, this leaves less time for stressing about things.

4. Make sure to take plenty of towels that way when the baby gets car sick, you'll be able to use the gas station restroom to wet down the towels and clean up the car seat.  Make sure to leave one dry so the baby will have a dry seat to sit on. Always be prepared!

5. Be sure you have the baby's favorite Veggie Tales CD. It's all he's going to want to listen to.

6. Remember your older kids have an important meeting the evening you're going to get back. That way you can allow just enough time to push all the stuff and the rest of the people out of the car when you get back. You don't want to leave all that stuff in the car!

7. Oh, one more thing. Plan it so there's just enough dog food to last until the day of your return.  You really do want to HAVE to go into town because you're out of dog food.

Now I realize these tips probably won't help many people, but there may be someone out there who gets some good perspective from them!  Let me know what tips you have!

TTFN

Meet the fam

I thought I'd do a post introducing the family. The oldest and first born son is Joshua. He's helping to improve his parents' prayer life. Yep. He's driving. Next is Annabelle, but don't call her that. She prefers Anna. Next is Rachel and she's pretty much a girly girl. After her is Abigayle, but we had to shorten her name to Abi. She has the longest name in the family and is pretty much the smallest in stature. (Don't ask her middle name!)  Then we have the demolition brothers Elijah and Aaron. It's pretty much their mission in life to make a mess of everything. Things just seem to jump off the walls and shelves when they walk into a room. Seriously.  Last, but certainly not least, we have Micah. He's pretty much following in his brothers' footsteps. It's a good thing we've got all this space for them to burn off their boy energy.  Oh, and then there's the fellow that makes my staying home and writing this blog possible, Bret, my Knight in Shining Armour.

Those are the two legged beings anyway. Do you really want to know about the furry ones? Ok. There's Her Highness CC (short for Chocolate Chip). She's a dachshund who thinks we are all here to do her bidding.  Then there's Mittens. She's a rescue cat and if you've ever seen the movie Bolt, well, that's our cat. We never see her. She stays in hiding because of the demolition crew, but, hey at least we can say we have a cat, right? Next there are the puppies.  Cagney and Lacey. You know where those names come from, don't you?  How old are you anyway?? They're collie puppies. Very smart dogs. We make them work, guarding (read: chasing) the chickens. Somebody needs to work with them more!  Last (cause we don't need anymore) there are the chickens.  I told them not to name the chickens. I was afraid of what would happen when we lost some. I was right.  Please don't ask me the names of the chickens.  I'm doing good to remember my own name most days.

That's the fam. Nice to meet ya!

TTFN