What is 9 + 1?
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Thursday, May 16, 2013
My horrifying bug saga
Ok, so I suppose the use of "horrifying" may be a bit overboard, BUT non the less....I'm using it :-) A few things before I start my story. One, I'm afraid of bugs. I've gotten better over the years, but they still totally creep me out. Second, we live in the South. Bugs in the South are bigger, and yuckier, and meaner, and...well you get the idea. We have these horrid bugs, called....(trying to drum up the drama here)....roaches. Yes, I realize those things live pretty much every where, but they are gross, gross, gross.
So we had a situation one day when we were outside and saw a slew of ants climbing up the outside foundation of the house, in the direction of our living quarters. Suspicious of fire ants, Jeremiah decided to spray them. He figured he should just spray the whole foundation, all around the house. This poses a problem if you are not using an odorless spray....the bugs want to get away from the toxin, but can't get out, so they come IN. This is bad, very bad. We haven't seen a roach in months and months, and then we have 3 in 3 days. Too many. When my "too many" stands at Zero, anything above that is bad :-)
One night I was hanging out, chatting with Isabella when I spot that familiar shape of the dreaded roach beastie across the way in the kitchen. It is crawling above the cupboards. I have Isabella go wake Jeremiah (we were up late, chatting) to kill the horrid critter. If it was in an easier space to access I would have vacuumed it up. But alas it was not so. Jeremiah comes out, but by then the critter moved behind some stuff we have hanging out on top of the cupboards. Jeremiah couldn't find it. So to make sure we would 'get' him, he sprayed some odorless lethal toxic spray on each side of the wall where the disgusting beastie would have to crawl. I waited for some time to see if he would come out of hiding. I waited, and waited. But it was late, and I was tired. I went to brush my teeth, came back, looked around...nothing. I went to bed. However, I realized I forgot to take my allergy pill. I was almost going to ask Jeremiah get up to get me one. That creepy crawly was still out there, somewhere. But he had already gotten up to try to kill it, and I'm the one who forgot to take my pill, not him. So I crawled out of bed. I slowly walk up to the kitchen, looking up down and all around. I was more afraid of it being on the ceiling or on the floor at this point. No sign of him. I go to unlock the medicine cabinet, and as I was doing so gave a quick glance down since I am standing in an area where a creepy crawly could come out and I wouldn't have too many places to go to. But then, THEN, ***SOMETHING***hit my arm. MY ARM. The horrid, creepy crawly, all too big, roach dude had been on the medicine cabinet door, and fell on MY arm. It TOUCHED me. Not only that, but the creepy dude was in a state of neuro death, so he could move but wasn't too with it. So in it's stupor, instead of scooting away from me and taking to the safety of the lower cupboard, it starts running TOWARDS ME! I almost fell over backwards trying to get away. Yeah, go ahead, laugh. After a few feet of coming "after" me, it gets a clue and turns around and runs the other way.
Of course I was screaming, and jumping up and down by now. I managed to wake up half the household. No joke. Isabella and Jeremiah said they knew what had happened when they heard me screaming :-) Not the specifics, but they knew it was the bug. Hmmm, imagine that!
So there you have it. My creepy crawly story. Now, to see if I can find that spider the kids were talking about spotting in my closet this afternoon. I don't exactly treasure the idea of cozying up to a spider come bed time. No thank you, I'll pass. Though I think it is funny that I would take a spider over a roach any day! And to think, when I was growing up, I used to look under my bed, in my closet, behind my drawers, etc. for spiders before going to bed. Every. Single. Night. I was terrified of spiders when I was young. Oh, to wish that spiders were all I had to worry about!
So we had a situation one day when we were outside and saw a slew of ants climbing up the outside foundation of the house, in the direction of our living quarters. Suspicious of fire ants, Jeremiah decided to spray them. He figured he should just spray the whole foundation, all around the house. This poses a problem if you are not using an odorless spray....the bugs want to get away from the toxin, but can't get out, so they come IN. This is bad, very bad. We haven't seen a roach in months and months, and then we have 3 in 3 days. Too many. When my "too many" stands at Zero, anything above that is bad :-)
One night I was hanging out, chatting with Isabella when I spot that familiar shape of the dreaded roach beastie across the way in the kitchen. It is crawling above the cupboards. I have Isabella go wake Jeremiah (we were up late, chatting) to kill the horrid critter. If it was in an easier space to access I would have vacuumed it up. But alas it was not so. Jeremiah comes out, but by then the critter moved behind some stuff we have hanging out on top of the cupboards. Jeremiah couldn't find it. So to make sure we would 'get' him, he sprayed some odorless lethal toxic spray on each side of the wall where the disgusting beastie would have to crawl. I waited for some time to see if he would come out of hiding. I waited, and waited. But it was late, and I was tired. I went to brush my teeth, came back, looked around...nothing. I went to bed. However, I realized I forgot to take my allergy pill. I was almost going to ask Jeremiah get up to get me one. That creepy crawly was still out there, somewhere. But he had already gotten up to try to kill it, and I'm the one who forgot to take my pill, not him. So I crawled out of bed. I slowly walk up to the kitchen, looking up down and all around. I was more afraid of it being on the ceiling or on the floor at this point. No sign of him. I go to unlock the medicine cabinet, and as I was doing so gave a quick glance down since I am standing in an area where a creepy crawly could come out and I wouldn't have too many places to go to. But then, THEN, ***SOMETHING***hit my arm. MY ARM. The horrid, creepy crawly, all too big, roach dude had been on the medicine cabinet door, and fell on MY arm. It TOUCHED me. Not only that, but the creepy dude was in a state of neuro death, so he could move but wasn't too with it. So in it's stupor, instead of scooting away from me and taking to the safety of the lower cupboard, it starts running TOWARDS ME! I almost fell over backwards trying to get away. Yeah, go ahead, laugh. After a few feet of coming "after" me, it gets a clue and turns around and runs the other way.
Of course I was screaming, and jumping up and down by now. I managed to wake up half the household. No joke. Isabella and Jeremiah said they knew what had happened when they heard me screaming :-) Not the specifics, but they knew it was the bug. Hmmm, imagine that!
So there you have it. My creepy crawly story. Now, to see if I can find that spider the kids were talking about spotting in my closet this afternoon. I don't exactly treasure the idea of cozying up to a spider come bed time. No thank you, I'll pass. Though I think it is funny that I would take a spider over a roach any day! And to think, when I was growing up, I used to look under my bed, in my closet, behind my drawers, etc. for spiders before going to bed. Every. Single. Night. I was terrified of spiders when I was young. Oh, to wish that spiders were all I had to worry about!
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Teacher Work Day
The day before Mother's Day, and I am finally getting around to a much needed "teacher work day". I envy those who take the unschooling approach and feel that their children will learn what they need to, when they need to. Although I am laid back, it's only in the area of organization! Ha, ha. There has been much reflection of late. Our children are first generation homeschoolers (in our families). This means that we are winging it as we go :-) Ok, not really. With all the available resources, conventions, online groups, local homeschool groups, no one really needs to wing it. But, it is still uncharted territory, as far as how I grew up.
We've taken a longer than anticipated spring break. We started falling behind on doing everything we really need to be doing on a regular basis (as far as the Charlotte Mason method goes). So, it was time for me to sit down and evaluate where we are, and who needs to be doing what, and how are we going to make this all happen. I was able to get a lot done, but more time will still be needed to really make this all come together as smoothly as possible.
I had some time to contemplate where we've been and where all the kiddos need to be. This year found Saoirse needing to take the extra (3.5) year with Ambleside. I was trying to have two children in the same year. One child behind a year, the other advanced a year. This has worked fine for Isabella and Moira so far, but has failed to work for Flannery and Saoirse. The 3.5 year in AO is kind of thrown together, the premise is you are waiting for your child to mature enough to handle year 4's advanced reading list. I've had time to re-evaluate Higher Up and Further In's (HUFI) schedules. There are a few books we've read on AO that do not show up on HUFI that I wouldn't want the kids to miss out on. It has been a time consuming process of figuring out where the 'missing' books would fit in on the HUFI schedules. The one thing I really like about HUFI is that they start with ancient history and work up, BUT they also do American history at the same time, working chronologically. Jeremiah wasn't a fan of carrying two lines of history throughout their schooling. But I realized that AO takes the same approach, but it isn't as noticeable until year 3 or 4. However AO does not cover ancient history (not that I have seen, yet). So what does this mean?
I will keep Isabella, Moira and Flannery on the AO schedules. I will also be separating Isabella and Moira by years as well. With graduation closing in on Isabella in the next 2.5 years she will need to skip year 8 and move into year 9. I have not seen how this will work for her, as I am only going on recommendations at this time. I may keep her in year 8 if there are things in there that I don't want her to miss out on. I was going to switch Flannery over to HUFI, but I think there would be too much history that would get lost if I did so. So she will continue on in her current level with AO. I've decided to start Saoirse in year 3, term 1 with HUFI. She will be a bit behind, but will eventually catch up in the coming years. This still leaves Flannery and Saoirse with a gap, missing out on ancient history. My solution is for them to get those readings in by reading it to their brothers. Jedidiah should have, age wise, started in year 1 this past September. There was just no way that he was ready for that kind of structure. I may start him on year 1 when the girls move on to their 3rd term for the year. This way he won't have to wait till next September and therefore will only be half a year behind. For his ancient history readings I will have Flannery read it to him, killing two birds with one stone. When it comes time for Jonah to start year 1 I will have Saoirse do his ancient history readings. This way both girls will get what they missed out on.
It certainly isn't perfect. I have to stop myself form wishing, wishing, wishing, that I had started CM at the get go. But I am where I am and I can't turn back the hands of time. It helps that one of our goals is to convey to our children that learning is a life long endeavor. There shouldn't be a time when their education is "done". If we manage to convey that, then I think we should be fine :-)
Right now, as I write this, my bed is a mess of scattered papers, binders, books and such. I have made a book list for what Saoirse will need to get started with year 3. Now I need to figure out what notebooks are needed. The girls really, REALLY need to be doing the small everyday things in CM. The wonderful thing with CM is that the lessons are short. You really do build little by little. But if you are not doing the "little" things....it shows! Not at first, since these skills build on each other, but give it a couple of years and oh, my! That is where I find myself. When we first started CM over two years ago it seemed so overwhelming. So I just stuck with the "basics". I left out what I thought were all the 'extras'. Come to find out that those little extras are pretty darn important. It is time to just put one foot in front of the other. Just pick up where we are and GO.
Now to try to convince my family how important diligence and consistency are going to be, now more than ever. I don't think any of us in our family has even a lick of a consistency bone in our body :-) Or diligence, for that matter. Between our mess of a 'school' and our mess of a house (lack of structure, good habits, etc.), well....things are pretty chaotic. I get one area cleaned up and the rest of the place is a disaster. I have a plan for that as well. I won't write out what it is yet, but will share when we actually put it into place. All I can say is that it is going to take MAJOR discipline on my part to see through with the plan. I don't see how I can continue on with the chaos that I live in now, so I don't have much of a choice, should I wish to stay out of the insane asylum ;-)
It is getting late and I need to get kiddos off to bed.
We've taken a longer than anticipated spring break. We started falling behind on doing everything we really need to be doing on a regular basis (as far as the Charlotte Mason method goes). So, it was time for me to sit down and evaluate where we are, and who needs to be doing what, and how are we going to make this all happen. I was able to get a lot done, but more time will still be needed to really make this all come together as smoothly as possible.
I had some time to contemplate where we've been and where all the kiddos need to be. This year found Saoirse needing to take the extra (3.5) year with Ambleside. I was trying to have two children in the same year. One child behind a year, the other advanced a year. This has worked fine for Isabella and Moira so far, but has failed to work for Flannery and Saoirse. The 3.5 year in AO is kind of thrown together, the premise is you are waiting for your child to mature enough to handle year 4's advanced reading list. I've had time to re-evaluate Higher Up and Further In's (HUFI) schedules. There are a few books we've read on AO that do not show up on HUFI that I wouldn't want the kids to miss out on. It has been a time consuming process of figuring out where the 'missing' books would fit in on the HUFI schedules. The one thing I really like about HUFI is that they start with ancient history and work up, BUT they also do American history at the same time, working chronologically. Jeremiah wasn't a fan of carrying two lines of history throughout their schooling. But I realized that AO takes the same approach, but it isn't as noticeable until year 3 or 4. However AO does not cover ancient history (not that I have seen, yet). So what does this mean?
I will keep Isabella, Moira and Flannery on the AO schedules. I will also be separating Isabella and Moira by years as well. With graduation closing in on Isabella in the next 2.5 years she will need to skip year 8 and move into year 9. I have not seen how this will work for her, as I am only going on recommendations at this time. I may keep her in year 8 if there are things in there that I don't want her to miss out on. I was going to switch Flannery over to HUFI, but I think there would be too much history that would get lost if I did so. So she will continue on in her current level with AO. I've decided to start Saoirse in year 3, term 1 with HUFI. She will be a bit behind, but will eventually catch up in the coming years. This still leaves Flannery and Saoirse with a gap, missing out on ancient history. My solution is for them to get those readings in by reading it to their brothers. Jedidiah should have, age wise, started in year 1 this past September. There was just no way that he was ready for that kind of structure. I may start him on year 1 when the girls move on to their 3rd term for the year. This way he won't have to wait till next September and therefore will only be half a year behind. For his ancient history readings I will have Flannery read it to him, killing two birds with one stone. When it comes time for Jonah to start year 1 I will have Saoirse do his ancient history readings. This way both girls will get what they missed out on.
It certainly isn't perfect. I have to stop myself form wishing, wishing, wishing, that I had started CM at the get go. But I am where I am and I can't turn back the hands of time. It helps that one of our goals is to convey to our children that learning is a life long endeavor. There shouldn't be a time when their education is "done". If we manage to convey that, then I think we should be fine :-)
Right now, as I write this, my bed is a mess of scattered papers, binders, books and such. I have made a book list for what Saoirse will need to get started with year 3. Now I need to figure out what notebooks are needed. The girls really, REALLY need to be doing the small everyday things in CM. The wonderful thing with CM is that the lessons are short. You really do build little by little. But if you are not doing the "little" things....it shows! Not at first, since these skills build on each other, but give it a couple of years and oh, my! That is where I find myself. When we first started CM over two years ago it seemed so overwhelming. So I just stuck with the "basics". I left out what I thought were all the 'extras'. Come to find out that those little extras are pretty darn important. It is time to just put one foot in front of the other. Just pick up where we are and GO.
Now to try to convince my family how important diligence and consistency are going to be, now more than ever. I don't think any of us in our family has even a lick of a consistency bone in our body :-) Or diligence, for that matter. Between our mess of a 'school' and our mess of a house (lack of structure, good habits, etc.), well....things are pretty chaotic. I get one area cleaned up and the rest of the place is a disaster. I have a plan for that as well. I won't write out what it is yet, but will share when we actually put it into place. All I can say is that it is going to take MAJOR discipline on my part to see through with the plan. I don't see how I can continue on with the chaos that I live in now, so I don't have much of a choice, should I wish to stay out of the insane asylum ;-)
It is getting late and I need to get kiddos off to bed.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Jedidiah's Endo appointment
Today we had a follow up endocrinology appointment for Jedidiah. When the doctor asked me how things were going I told her that I was rather disappointed in Jed's progress. Ready to hear the 'great' stats? In six months Jedidiah has gained 2.4 pounds, and grew a whopping 1 inch. ONE inch. That would be *bad*. We had a great afternoon visiting a park and eating a yummy snack, so I was in a really good mood at that moment, but had I not been? I am sure I would have started to cry. I then asked, thank the LORD I asked, one of my silly/nagging questions. I told her that the home nurse seemed to have a wee bit of trouble figuring out what Jed's dosage should be. The instructions for how much medicine is given is in milligrams, but the units on the syringe are in milliliters. Or something like that! As it was his doctor had him on a smaller dosage due to his past history of increased cranial pressure. Well, come to find out that on top of the already reduced amount, I was told to give was even HALF of that smaller dosage!! No wonder the poor boy hasn't grown any faster than pre-meds!!! What the meds have done is stop his sugar crashes. I do believe that all the medicine he was getting was going to his pancreas! Or wherever it is needed to help control his sugar.
So the plan is to start him on the original smaller dosage and keep him there for two weeks, and then increase it to where she had told me to in today's appointment. As it was it has taken us literally years to figure out Jed's lack of growth and weight gain, and to top it off, once we do figure it out I feel like we've wasted another 6 months. Six months! Thankfully she replied to my email question about my fears (of being totally behind) and explained that as long as we have 5 years to work with that he will be ok. And seeing as how he is almost 7, but should still be growing until 17, we have ten years to work with. Phew!
That was how our later afternoon went. But, before that, we had spent time at a park I used to take the older girls to. There is a rose garden in the city and we went there to check it out. I think there may have been a total of 12 roses in bloom. Ok, there was more, but seriously, we clearly did not come at the right time. But that is ok, fun was still had. In the rose garden is an outdoor theater, with built in stone benches on the side of a hill. Very neat. The kids had a blast, except for the two kiddos who took their shoes off and found out the hard way that the grassy areas between the benches harbored some horrid stinging plant. I've seen plenty of pictures of nettles, but this did NOT look anything at all like it. This was a totally, totally different plant. The good news is that the plantain that was growing everywhere took care of the stinging. And the cool part? Isabella was the one to spot the plantain and suggest we use it! I totally wasn't even thinking about that! That took care of the stinging in a minute or two.
Next to the park is a new playground. Well, I'm not sure how new as the last time I was at the rose garden was some 10 years ago! All I can say is that it wasn't there when I was last there. It was small, but the kids had a lot of fun. My main goal was to get in some 'nature study' and get the wiggles out before our appointment. I only took a few pictures while we were there, but here they are:
The rose garden has some lovely stone trails and stone work all around. It is such a serene place....well when WE are not there it is. Ahem. I can only hope that the few people that were there were not there to relax in the quietness of the beautiful surroundings. My children are not perfect but I usually get compliments from others at how well they behave (clearly those same people have never visited my house!). But today? Oh, my! They were like little monkeys on a sugar high! All over the place. A few reprimands and threats of having to sit in the van while the rest of us enjoyed ourselves did help to settle them. Phew.
The stone benches in the theater. The kids ran up and down and all around this area.
The stage area. You can see Jonah in full running mode off to the side there. The stage is slanted at an angle, with the back being higher up.
Ok, so there were more than 12 roses, but these were the small ones, and all the larger roses were not in bloom, save twelve.
There was this gorgeous tree, as seen above, that had these 5 or 6 large trunks coming out of one base. Here Saoirse is standing in the middle of them.
Jonah was insisting on me taking his picture and every time I would go to snap it he would get all serious looking. Apparently that was the look he was going for! I kept saying I'm trying to take your picture, look at me and smile. He would say, I know, take my picture (all while smiling). Then I would hold up my camera and he would get all serious looking. He did this multiple times throughout our visit. Pretty funny.
The bug net and bug guides go everywhere with Jed. Every. Where. (Yes, I know that is supposed to be one word, I'm going for the dramatic effect, so work with me :-)) Jed insisted I take pictures of him catching bugs. I only got this one since every time he would "pose" for his bug finding picture one of his brothers thought he had actually caught a bug and got in the way. Oh well, I have a feeling there will be plenty of other opportunities.
Moira in the majestic tree.
I had called all the kiddos over in an attempt (silly mommy) to get a group shot. I have yet this year to take a decent group shot of all the kiddos together. These guys were waiting for the slow pokes to get there ;-) I think the other two were taking pictures of their own, you know, of the 12 roses that were in bloom. Anyways, in order for these guys not to run off I had to start taking pictures. Aubrey was in some funky mood. Not bad, but really odd. He was clearly, clearly enjoying himself and the new surroundings, but anytime I had to make him stand still I got the above serious/deep thought look. This morning I noticed his nose was all stuffy, and he feels ever, ever so slightly warm. So maybe when he had to stand and he wasn't in the 'middle' of exploring or climbing he was just feeling yucky? Poor little guy.
This was the best picture out of the handful I took. Jonah wanted to be dramatic and serious, and Jed couldn't stand still to save his life. The girls kept trying to get someone next to them to look at the camera, all the while not looking themselves. I do believe I understand why professional photo shoots cost so much!
Lots of rose bushes....not in bloom. Still very beautiful.
Now we are at the playground. There were two diggers there, and three boys. Um, you do the math :-)
I finally convinced Jonah to smile. I should do a collage of all the dramatic/serious pictures I got!
Aubrey had a blast in the sand pit. There was a dump truck left behind, and once he figured out he was too small to work the diggers he spent most of his time playing with it.
The slide was perfect. Fast, but not too fast. No one went flying off the end. And all the boys could climb up on their own.
I wanted to get portraits of each child individually. I had the cooperation of only a few :-) Isabella was up for it. She just recently got this hat and has been wearing it ever since. She took it off for a little bit in the van to get cooled off. But then...then we 'hit' some speed bumps. She was driving, we are all telling her to go slow, and she's there saying, "Where's my hat when I need it?! Yee-haw!" Disclaimer: No one was driving dangerously, and no one got their brains rattled. End disclaimer.
We were discussing that Isabella was born in the wrong time period, or at least in the wrong part of the country. I think one of her favorite quotes from a movie is of a little boy who wears a cowboy hat all the time and is being asked by a little girl why he always wears a cowboy hat. The boy's response: 'Cause it fits my head. But you MUST imagine that being said with a southern twang. Otherwise it just doesn't have the same effect.
We must not neglect to get pictures of children on the swing. Not that Flannery would let me forget :-)
Saoirse's turn.
There was a climbing rock there. Surprise, surprise, Flannery was the first one up there!
Some kiddos taking a break in the shade of the climbing rock. This was the challenging side of the rock. Isabella scaled this side and made it to the top.
So the plan is to start him on the original smaller dosage and keep him there for two weeks, and then increase it to where she had told me to in today's appointment. As it was it has taken us literally years to figure out Jed's lack of growth and weight gain, and to top it off, once we do figure it out I feel like we've wasted another 6 months. Six months! Thankfully she replied to my email question about my fears (of being totally behind) and explained that as long as we have 5 years to work with that he will be ok. And seeing as how he is almost 7, but should still be growing until 17, we have ten years to work with. Phew!
That was how our later afternoon went. But, before that, we had spent time at a park I used to take the older girls to. There is a rose garden in the city and we went there to check it out. I think there may have been a total of 12 roses in bloom. Ok, there was more, but seriously, we clearly did not come at the right time. But that is ok, fun was still had. In the rose garden is an outdoor theater, with built in stone benches on the side of a hill. Very neat. The kids had a blast, except for the two kiddos who took their shoes off and found out the hard way that the grassy areas between the benches harbored some horrid stinging plant. I've seen plenty of pictures of nettles, but this did NOT look anything at all like it. This was a totally, totally different plant. The good news is that the plantain that was growing everywhere took care of the stinging. And the cool part? Isabella was the one to spot the plantain and suggest we use it! I totally wasn't even thinking about that! That took care of the stinging in a minute or two.
Next to the park is a new playground. Well, I'm not sure how new as the last time I was at the rose garden was some 10 years ago! All I can say is that it wasn't there when I was last there. It was small, but the kids had a lot of fun. My main goal was to get in some 'nature study' and get the wiggles out before our appointment. I only took a few pictures while we were there, but here they are:
We were discussing that Isabella was born in the wrong time period, or at least in the wrong part of the country. I think one of her favorite quotes from a movie is of a little boy who wears a cowboy hat all the time and is being asked by a little girl why he always wears a cowboy hat. The boy's response: 'Cause it fits my head. But you MUST imagine that being said with a southern twang. Otherwise it just doesn't have the same effect.
You have to love the safer sew-saw alternatives. I must say that although I miss the more thrilling stomach butterflies, I do NOT miss the slammed jaws from someone dismounting before you are ready. But, anyways, these girls had a blast, pretending they were on bucking broncos.
After some climbing time it was time to take off to our appointment. Everyone is excited to go back to the garden and playground in the future. I was thinking it may be really fun for our homeschool co-op to practice a play and preform it on the outside stage. Afterwards we can have our nature study and a picnic. Must get some plans going!
I have a lot of other pictures from our two week break that I will upload as either just a photo post, or in a slideshow. I also must share my hair raising bug experience. Shiver. Stay tuned.
Thursday, May 09, 2013
My sister's interview with the NRA
Today I am sharing the below video. This is the interview that the NRA did with my sister. MY sister! To say that I am proud of the wondeful job she and her family did in explaining their journey to bearing arms, is an understatement. PLEASE, I am sharing this with many people, AND this is MY sister...so whether you believe in gun rights or not, be kind in the comments.
And for those that are viewing this from the Simple Lives Thursday blog hop, and may be wondering what this has to do with that topic...let me say two words...Raw Milk. Ha, ha. My daughter who was looking over my shoulder said, "What?!?" What does raw milk have to do with gun control? Simple. Their status, with most states of being illegal or dangerous, interfers with what most of us believe, that it is our right, per the constittion, that we have access to these helpful items. Day by day our freedom to protect our families and our freedom to feed our families the way we see fit are being taken from us.
Please take 5 minutes to watch this video, and thank you for watching!
Sharing with:
And for those that are viewing this from the Simple Lives Thursday blog hop, and may be wondering what this has to do with that topic...let me say two words...Raw Milk. Ha, ha. My daughter who was looking over my shoulder said, "What?!?" What does raw milk have to do with gun control? Simple. Their status, with most states of being illegal or dangerous, interfers with what most of us believe, that it is our right, per the constittion, that we have access to these helpful items. Day by day our freedom to protect our families and our freedom to feed our families the way we see fit are being taken from us.
Please take 5 minutes to watch this video, and thank you for watching!
Sharing with:
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Replacing the Grocery Store Challenge
This is a must share!!! I came across this blog that is having a challenge with the above title. I have just read the introductory post for the challenge and I am already beyond excited. Please go here to see what this challenge is about:
Our Simple Farm
This is an answer to prayer. Over the last few weeks I have been a bit dismayed at my lack of diligence in the area of self sufficiency and prepping. It seems like there are just too many things vying for my attention, and I lose sight of which ones should be a priority. It's easy to let gardening, and food preservation get pushed to the bottom of my list. After all, right now, at this moment, if I really need something I can just run out to the store.
One of our goals for our family is to become self sufficient. Which is why the site of those baby chicks was so exciting (the surprise ones we had the other day). Again, it's easy to run out to TSC, when they have their chick days and pick up a bunch. Should that not be possible, then we would eventually run out of eggs. Chickens are good egg producers only in their first two years, after that their production drastically decreases.
I had just sat down this afternoon and wrote out a few things that I needed to do this week. I also started my grocery list. That got me thinking...when was the last time I canned any meat? All of my lovely jars of home preserved meat has been used up. I have dehydrated a few things over the last couple of months, but not nearly what I *COULD* be doing. So I wrote out a little goal for myself in this area. I would like to can one package of each meat type we buy on pay day. I also want to dehydrate something each week. Even if it's only one bag of veggies. Like a lot of things in life, it's the little baby steps that we take that add up over time.
So imagine my delight to come across this blog with this challenge! It sounds like there will be a lot of planning/work to be done, but sitting here *wishing* or *dreaming* about having food layed aside won't make it happen! Not to mention that after we had our planting day a couple of weeks ago, not much else has been done. That really needs to change. I'm not sure how it will change, but it needs to. The biggest obstacle is....boys. Three young boys running around, that need supervision. Somehow we will need a way to keep them safe :-)
I suppose more prayer will be needed to figure out a way to make this work. Let me know if you visit the blog, and if you're joining in the challenge as well.
Our Simple Farm
This is an answer to prayer. Over the last few weeks I have been a bit dismayed at my lack of diligence in the area of self sufficiency and prepping. It seems like there are just too many things vying for my attention, and I lose sight of which ones should be a priority. It's easy to let gardening, and food preservation get pushed to the bottom of my list. After all, right now, at this moment, if I really need something I can just run out to the store.
One of our goals for our family is to become self sufficient. Which is why the site of those baby chicks was so exciting (the surprise ones we had the other day). Again, it's easy to run out to TSC, when they have their chick days and pick up a bunch. Should that not be possible, then we would eventually run out of eggs. Chickens are good egg producers only in their first two years, after that their production drastically decreases.
I had just sat down this afternoon and wrote out a few things that I needed to do this week. I also started my grocery list. That got me thinking...when was the last time I canned any meat? All of my lovely jars of home preserved meat has been used up. I have dehydrated a few things over the last couple of months, but not nearly what I *COULD* be doing. So I wrote out a little goal for myself in this area. I would like to can one package of each meat type we buy on pay day. I also want to dehydrate something each week. Even if it's only one bag of veggies. Like a lot of things in life, it's the little baby steps that we take that add up over time.
So imagine my delight to come across this blog with this challenge! It sounds like there will be a lot of planning/work to be done, but sitting here *wishing* or *dreaming* about having food layed aside won't make it happen! Not to mention that after we had our planting day a couple of weeks ago, not much else has been done. That really needs to change. I'm not sure how it will change, but it needs to. The biggest obstacle is....boys. Three young boys running around, that need supervision. Somehow we will need a way to keep them safe :-)
I suppose more prayer will be needed to figure out a way to make this work. Let me know if you visit the blog, and if you're joining in the challenge as well.
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Knee Rehab
Yes, I know I said I would get pictures up, but alas, they need to wait. I love having my laptop to hop on, that way all the kids don't pool around the computer :-) The only draw back to the laptop is that our pictures are not on it. Hmm. Oh well. I still need to work out a good time to get on the main computer so that it doesn't interfere with what everyone else needs to do.
In the meantime I thought I would quickly write a post about my knee rehab. Knee rehab? Um, yes. You see, after I broke my knee, 18 months ago, I never finished my physical therapy. There are multiple reasons why, that I will not get into. So, I've spent the past year with aches and pains in my left knee. Going up stairs was the worst. For the longest time I would just go up the stairs right leg first! I tried to add in a few stairs at a time. I tried walking as well. I even got out my step bench to try to help. Granted I didn't use the step bench as much as I should have, but it seemed that I was destined to have a 'bad knee'.
This past January I decided to start up with T-Tapp. I've had the DVD's (or at least some of them) for a while, and have done it on and off over the past few years. It was hard work, especially on my knee the first time around. But after a few days I realized that, after carrying up a van full of groceries, d my knee was not in pain, or fatigued!!! Then we all got sick, really sick, and that put the DVD's on the back burner. To say that the past few months has been hard would be an understatement. Most of the difficulty being in managing what seemed to be depression. Not sure if it was the real thing, but after a few weeks turned into a few months of feeling horrid...I'm guessing that was it. Anyways, the girls and I have started the T-Tapping back up last week. I am so pleased that these past few months I have not had any knee pain, even though I had stopped with the T-Tapp. My results stuck with me. I don't have any aches on rainy days either, like I had for the past year.
I'm pretty impressed to say the least. Moira has her own success story as well. After horse lessons she would have severe calf muscle cramping for the rest of the evening if she made any type of pointing movement with her foot. We started T-Tapping last week and she was very, very excited that after her horse lesson a few days ago, there was NO cramping!
We are hoping to continue with our 14 day boot camp (we just finished day 6), and then add in other aerobic exercises and walking. Our goal is to work our way up to being able to jog 3 miles. We'll get there, I'm sure of it. One step at a time.
In the meantime I thought I would quickly write a post about my knee rehab. Knee rehab? Um, yes. You see, after I broke my knee, 18 months ago, I never finished my physical therapy. There are multiple reasons why, that I will not get into. So, I've spent the past year with aches and pains in my left knee. Going up stairs was the worst. For the longest time I would just go up the stairs right leg first! I tried to add in a few stairs at a time. I tried walking as well. I even got out my step bench to try to help. Granted I didn't use the step bench as much as I should have, but it seemed that I was destined to have a 'bad knee'.
This past January I decided to start up with T-Tapp. I've had the DVD's (or at least some of them) for a while, and have done it on and off over the past few years. It was hard work, especially on my knee the first time around. But after a few days I realized that, after carrying up a van full of groceries, d my knee was not in pain, or fatigued!!! Then we all got sick, really sick, and that put the DVD's on the back burner. To say that the past few months has been hard would be an understatement. Most of the difficulty being in managing what seemed to be depression. Not sure if it was the real thing, but after a few weeks turned into a few months of feeling horrid...I'm guessing that was it. Anyways, the girls and I have started the T-Tapping back up last week. I am so pleased that these past few months I have not had any knee pain, even though I had stopped with the T-Tapp. My results stuck with me. I don't have any aches on rainy days either, like I had for the past year.
I'm pretty impressed to say the least. Moira has her own success story as well. After horse lessons she would have severe calf muscle cramping for the rest of the evening if she made any type of pointing movement with her foot. We started T-Tapping last week and she was very, very excited that after her horse lesson a few days ago, there was NO cramping!
We are hoping to continue with our 14 day boot camp (we just finished day 6), and then add in other aerobic exercises and walking. Our goal is to work our way up to being able to jog 3 miles. We'll get there, I'm sure of it. One step at a time.
Monday, May 06, 2013
Back to normal life...
Ha, ha, ha!!! Some joke, eh? The break was great! I am sure I will do one again in the near future. I set high goals (with the idea we would aim high, and if we missed, at least we would have gotten a lot accomplished). Not all of my goals were met. Surprise :-) I really need to get back into schooling, which will be hard since I still have a lot of work to do in that area. But, for now, we must press forward, making do with what we did get done. I am going to try to keep up a reduced computer time and put that time into the things that were left undone.
I made sure to add some fun things in our 'schedule' these past two weeks. We had a birthday and a mock camping weekend. We still need to do some major improvements of work habits. Oy. Not sure how to address that issue right now. I suppose a lot of prayer and thought will need to take place to work that out.
I suppose I will make a list of all that still needs doing and spread the work out over a week, instead of a day or two. Sometimes it just seems like there is a never ending list of all that needs doing.
We had a cute little surprise yesterday. Saoirse was going out to collect the eggs when she heard this cheeping from under the house. She peeked her head into the open air vent (some of our grated ventilation spots do not have their grates anymore), and lo and behold one of our chickens had been laying eggs under the house and she hatched out 6 chicks!!! Unfortunately one of them died this morning. This chicken is a first time mom :-) She's doing a great job, but sometimes I've seen one or two chicks go running off in the opposite direction. These little guys are REALLY little...only a few days old, all yellow down. The one that died got stepped on by a larger animal (a goat I suppose). Poor little thing.
I will try to get some pictures up to show you all some of what went on during our 2 week break.
PS: I am working on my blog design, so I apologize beforehand if things don't work, or if things look wonky. I am having a hard time getting my side bars to not interfere with my posts. Not to mention that I can not customize all of my text colors. I am not digging the blue :-)
I made sure to add some fun things in our 'schedule' these past two weeks. We had a birthday and a mock camping weekend. We still need to do some major improvements of work habits. Oy. Not sure how to address that issue right now. I suppose a lot of prayer and thought will need to take place to work that out.
I suppose I will make a list of all that still needs doing and spread the work out over a week, instead of a day or two. Sometimes it just seems like there is a never ending list of all that needs doing.
We had a cute little surprise yesterday. Saoirse was going out to collect the eggs when she heard this cheeping from under the house. She peeked her head into the open air vent (some of our grated ventilation spots do not have their grates anymore), and lo and behold one of our chickens had been laying eggs under the house and she hatched out 6 chicks!!! Unfortunately one of them died this morning. This chicken is a first time mom :-) She's doing a great job, but sometimes I've seen one or two chicks go running off in the opposite direction. These little guys are REALLY little...only a few days old, all yellow down. The one that died got stepped on by a larger animal (a goat I suppose). Poor little thing.
I will try to get some pictures up to show you all some of what went on during our 2 week break.
PS: I am working on my blog design, so I apologize beforehand if things don't work, or if things look wonky. I am having a hard time getting my side bars to not interfere with my posts. Not to mention that I can not customize all of my text colors. I am not digging the blue :-)
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Taking two weeks off line
Just stopping in here to say that starting this weekend I will be off line. The computers may be up and running come May 4th. Things have been really out of control over here. With all that we've been doing on the homestead, trying to do *all* our schooling, regular chores, appointments, horse lessons/work, choir, church, fellowship.....well, let's just say we are in serious need of a family tune up!!!
So if you don't see me around, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I'm just knee deep in some serious training, loving, serving, working, playing, etc....with my family :-)
God bless!
So if you don't see me around, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, I'm just knee deep in some serious training, loving, serving, working, playing, etc....with my family :-)
God bless!
Tuesday, April 09, 2013
Hair cut
Isabella asked me to cut her hair the other night. I was very tired, but I agreed earlier that day to do so. I get a bit nervous cutting the kids hair as they get older. When they are 5? Who cares if you mess up! They won't even know if you did. But at 15? Oh my. That is a different story. Not that I have messed up, but still. Isabella prefers her hair short. I don't mind, it's her hair :-) The only issue is that her hair has some curl to it, and you can never quite tell how it is going to respond. We were outside today so I thought I would get a few pictures of her. The first one is a 'before' picture.
Changing up the goats
The other day was some kind of "eyes open" day. I sat on the couch, across from the window that Moira had just passed the goat milk through. We use our family room window as a way to pass things that either need to go in or out of the house. Otherwise you need to unlock the dog gate, and open the back door, and open a baby gate before you can do what you needed doing. And since I have no intention of pulling a wagon or cooler through all that to do the goat milking, we use our family room window. Unconventional, yes.
So as I sat there and a big thought came to me. Not sure why now, but it did. Moira and I have been sharing the milking duty. Jeremiah and I also feed the goats each evening. With our females in milk, they need a lot of feed. And here was where my thoughts lay:
We have two goats that are great producers. They give us each more than a quart of milk, per milking. Currently we are only milking once a day, since the babies are too young to sell just yet. They each get fed 4 to 5 cups of food twice a day. This is to be expected. However we also have another full sized goat who's milk can not be drunk, but still needs this same amount of food. And then the reality of the dwarf goats and their feed to milk ratio. The awesome thing about dwarf goat milk is that it is higher in fat. The bad thing about their milk is that they are getting (need) about 3 cups of food twice a day, but they only produce 2 cups of milk each! So they are eating a bit more than half of what our full sized goats are eating, but only giving us 1/3 the amount of milk. This is not a good return on our investment. Not to mention they are our escape artists. We are constantly trying to fortify the fencing to keep them in. So far they are winning. With our new fruit trees, that cost a large chunk of money, being planted out front, it may be only a matter of time before they find them. And, yes, they will strip the bark off of them, killing the trees.
So I realized some hard decisions were going to have to be made. Surprisingly the girls were totally on board with it all! I was expecting a small revolt at least :-) This is the plan as it stands for now:
We will be selling/re-homing the dwarf females, the dwarf male, and our yucky tasting milker...Pippi. Pippi is the sweetest goat! But her milk is totally undrinkable! And feed costs money, quite a bit of money! We don't have the land available to let them 'free range'. We plan on keeping two of the current female babies, and purchasing an alpine male from a friend of ours. Buying a new male is significantly cheaper than buying a female. But we need two males for two reasons. One, they will keep each other company, as goats are herd animals and can get stressed when alone. You can not house males and females together for multiple reasons. So our male needed a companion. If we just got a new male and sold both of our current ones, he would still need someone in there with him. So it made sense to keep our proven breeder, who's given us mostly girls, and have his companion breed with the two female babies we are keeping. This keeps our upfront costs down.
We really only need to have one more female, for a total of three. However, our great producers, Lilly and Honey are now 5 years old. Goats really only produce for about 10 years. This gives us only 5 years left, possibly. So we are keeping two, just in case, giving us four females total. This will give us a possibility of up to 3 gallons a milk a day, at least for a couple of years. I am assuming we will see Lilly and Honey's production decline in a couple of years. This extra milk will be made into cheese, or frozen. Though currently I am making all of our milk into yogurt of kefir and it is gone lickety split! We are getting a full gallon a day of milk and it is gone in the blink of an eye.
This will give us a total of 6 goats, as opposed to the 7 we have now (I'm not counting the babies). That may not seem like a big difference, but it will end up being more cost effective in the long run. I mean maybe we only keep one baby now, and take another baby next year, or the year after that. But this will give us more milk for our money. It will be sad to see these goats go, but every time I've been buying the feed, or seeing a new bale of hay (they go through two huge round bales a month!) rolled in, as I mix up their feed, and scoop it out into their dishes, AND see how much milk we are getting in return....well, all I can say is, money doesn't seem to grow on trees over here :-)
So as I sat there and a big thought came to me. Not sure why now, but it did. Moira and I have been sharing the milking duty. Jeremiah and I also feed the goats each evening. With our females in milk, they need a lot of feed. And here was where my thoughts lay:
We have two goats that are great producers. They give us each more than a quart of milk, per milking. Currently we are only milking once a day, since the babies are too young to sell just yet. They each get fed 4 to 5 cups of food twice a day. This is to be expected. However we also have another full sized goat who's milk can not be drunk, but still needs this same amount of food. And then the reality of the dwarf goats and their feed to milk ratio. The awesome thing about dwarf goat milk is that it is higher in fat. The bad thing about their milk is that they are getting (need) about 3 cups of food twice a day, but they only produce 2 cups of milk each! So they are eating a bit more than half of what our full sized goats are eating, but only giving us 1/3 the amount of milk. This is not a good return on our investment. Not to mention they are our escape artists. We are constantly trying to fortify the fencing to keep them in. So far they are winning. With our new fruit trees, that cost a large chunk of money, being planted out front, it may be only a matter of time before they find them. And, yes, they will strip the bark off of them, killing the trees.
So I realized some hard decisions were going to have to be made. Surprisingly the girls were totally on board with it all! I was expecting a small revolt at least :-) This is the plan as it stands for now:
We will be selling/re-homing the dwarf females, the dwarf male, and our yucky tasting milker...Pippi. Pippi is the sweetest goat! But her milk is totally undrinkable! And feed costs money, quite a bit of money! We don't have the land available to let them 'free range'. We plan on keeping two of the current female babies, and purchasing an alpine male from a friend of ours. Buying a new male is significantly cheaper than buying a female. But we need two males for two reasons. One, they will keep each other company, as goats are herd animals and can get stressed when alone. You can not house males and females together for multiple reasons. So our male needed a companion. If we just got a new male and sold both of our current ones, he would still need someone in there with him. So it made sense to keep our proven breeder, who's given us mostly girls, and have his companion breed with the two female babies we are keeping. This keeps our upfront costs down.
We really only need to have one more female, for a total of three. However, our great producers, Lilly and Honey are now 5 years old. Goats really only produce for about 10 years. This gives us only 5 years left, possibly. So we are keeping two, just in case, giving us four females total. This will give us a possibility of up to 3 gallons a milk a day, at least for a couple of years. I am assuming we will see Lilly and Honey's production decline in a couple of years. This extra milk will be made into cheese, or frozen. Though currently I am making all of our milk into yogurt of kefir and it is gone lickety split! We are getting a full gallon a day of milk and it is gone in the blink of an eye.
This will give us a total of 6 goats, as opposed to the 7 we have now (I'm not counting the babies). That may not seem like a big difference, but it will end up being more cost effective in the long run. I mean maybe we only keep one baby now, and take another baby next year, or the year after that. But this will give us more milk for our money. It will be sad to see these goats go, but every time I've been buying the feed, or seeing a new bale of hay (they go through two huge round bales a month!) rolled in, as I mix up their feed, and scoop it out into their dishes, AND see how much milk we are getting in return....well, all I can say is, money doesn't seem to grow on trees over here :-)
Sunday, April 07, 2013
Gardening, fencing, and potty training
We had a very busy weekend! Last weekend I knew that I wanted to tackle the boys' potty training this weekend. I started on Thursday by giving them multiple vitamin C tablets. That may seem like an odd way to start potty training, but I had my reasons! We had two boys with "issues". Jedidiah has been number 1 trained for some time now, but number 2 freaked the poor boy out. Jonah insisted he was terrified of the potty and would scream bloody murder if we tried to get him to wear underwear or sit on the toilet. Sigh. So all week we talked about how their diaper days were coming to an end on the weekend.
Well things went pretty much like I thought they would. Jonah was fine about the underwear...for about 20 minutes! Then he went bonkers when he realized that he couldn't have a diaper on. He screamed, and cried, and screamed and cried. I had to put the diapers up high, out of his reach. Oy. BUT that being said, he only had two accidents for the whole day. On top of that he stayed dry both nights! Which is weird because during the day he was running to the toilet every 5 to 10 minutes, but could hold it all night. Jed on the other hand could hold it for hours during the day, but can't make it through the night. Either way, both boys are going potty all day long! Yay!! They got a ton of stickers and fun tatoos for their efforts. Even Aubrey has taken interest in trying to go on the potty again. He had the unfortunate incident of coming down with a bladder infection the day after he decided he wanted to be a big boy and wear undies, and the pain freaked him out and he has been scared of the potty since. But he wasn't about to miss out on all the sticker fun! He still has a long ways to go, but I'm just glad that he is taking interest in it again.
This past week Saoirse took to making a list of all the foods she wants to try to dehydrate. Her first attempt was an apple and some bananas. She set right to work, and is checking off her foods as she accomplishes dehydrating them. Too cute.
Saoirse, cutting up the bananas. A really good choice to begin with as it is easy to cut.
I was able to get the flexible sheets for my Nesco, this has opened up another avenue to dehydrating. It has been very, very handy to have saved the Nesco. I was going to get rid of it, pass it on to someone else. But with these sheets it is now being used...a lot!
Saoirse's little set up. She is sitting on a booster chair, set on the ground. She is using a plastic lid to cut the banana on, which is set on the boy's plastic tool bench :-) She put the dehydrator try behind her. Her only problem, which was a very serious one....her siblings kept sneaking in and eating the food!! She was not happy about that. Dehydrated fruit doesn't stand a chance lasting more than a couple of hours in our house!
We accomplished a lot over the weekend outside. Jeremiah put up the fencing for the boy goats. It's not ready for them to move into quite yet, but it should be by next weekend. I can't wait! Our milk tastes great the first day, but by day two there is an off taste. This has never happened with our goat's milk before. We are suspecting that it is due to the females and males being housed together in close proximity. They are separated by a fence, but that is all. The boy goats will eventually be moved to the other side of our house, giving enough distance to not interfere with the taste of the milk. For now, since we can't have raw milk anyways, I'm heating up the milk to 180* before turning it into yogurt. I would prefer to make raw milk yogurt, but I don't want that taste in our yogurt!
Above you can see my very special veggie markers. Um, yeah. This is called, wait till the last minute to plant your seeds and write out the veggie names with marker and run the paper through the laminator. I had tried to paint rocks, but that wasn't working. Currently the rocks are holding down the above marker in place at the beginning of each row.
Flannery wanted to paint the veggie names on wood. This was a great idea, and you can see she did a cute job. The only problem? We only had one piece of wood!
Flannery and Saoirse joined me to do half the planting in the warm afternoon sun. Later on we finished the job with Moira and Aubrey joining us. The girls decided that each seed spot needed to be marked with a stick. So now we have all these small sticks sticking up out of the ground!
Saoirse moving the mulch out of the way. You can see some her sticks behind her hands.
Now I have to say I was plenty impressed with how dedicated Saoirse was to getting these seeds planted. She isn't exactly known over here for following through and finishing the work she is supposed to be doing. But she planted many rows of veggies all on her own.
I suppose we won't be winning the "Most Organized Gardener" award anytime soon :-)
Above you can see my 'shovel'. Yup, that green stick! Somehow small trowels go missing whenever you need one.
Speaking of sticks...some may remember that I had a stick, from the mulch above, stab me in the foot about 9 months ago. The doctors who saw my foot insisted that nothing was left inside. Um, yeah, tell that to my foot! About 2 months ago I noticed that the area, which has remained raised since the accident, was now pink/red. Then it started to itch, and get a bit painful every once in the while. Not two weeks or so ago it began to blister! There is something in there...trying to get out!!! I think I will head to the doctors as it still seems to be lodged, but clearly my body is trying to get rid of it. Isn't the human body amazing?!
My rock/laminated paper veggie markers layed out in the order that I planned to put them.
We all got a bit of sun today, with pink cheeks and for some, pink shoulders. It was finally warm! Not the warm because the sun is shining, but still cool/cold air, but really and truly warm. Ahhhh, it felt so good to be out there soaking up the sun and digging in the dirt!
See? Springtime bliss :-)
These are our naughty chickens. The two younger girls and the two older boys had just spread this straw out over the herb garden. There was one small area on the right where the straw bale sat, and so there was a bit of straw on the ground. But these naughty girls were digging through it, looking for goodies, and you can see all the straw outside of the rock border!
Flannery suggested I take this picture...a *hands full* of dirt....a play on my blog name.
Our new mantra...."Grow, garden, grow!" Ha, ha! It will be interesting to see if I find any of the girls talking to the plants or our baby trees. They thought Jeremiah was silly for telling them that talking to plants help them to grow. But he insisted it was true. We'll see if they believe him :-)
Well things went pretty much like I thought they would. Jonah was fine about the underwear...for about 20 minutes! Then he went bonkers when he realized that he couldn't have a diaper on. He screamed, and cried, and screamed and cried. I had to put the diapers up high, out of his reach. Oy. BUT that being said, he only had two accidents for the whole day. On top of that he stayed dry both nights! Which is weird because during the day he was running to the toilet every 5 to 10 minutes, but could hold it all night. Jed on the other hand could hold it for hours during the day, but can't make it through the night. Either way, both boys are going potty all day long! Yay!! They got a ton of stickers and fun tatoos for their efforts. Even Aubrey has taken interest in trying to go on the potty again. He had the unfortunate incident of coming down with a bladder infection the day after he decided he wanted to be a big boy and wear undies, and the pain freaked him out and he has been scared of the potty since. But he wasn't about to miss out on all the sticker fun! He still has a long ways to go, but I'm just glad that he is taking interest in it again.
This past week Saoirse took to making a list of all the foods she wants to try to dehydrate. Her first attempt was an apple and some bananas. She set right to work, and is checking off her foods as she accomplishes dehydrating them. Too cute.
Above you can see my very special veggie markers. Um, yeah. This is called, wait till the last minute to plant your seeds and write out the veggie names with marker and run the paper through the laminator. I had tried to paint rocks, but that wasn't working. Currently the rocks are holding down the above marker in place at the beginning of each row.
Speaking of sticks...some may remember that I had a stick, from the mulch above, stab me in the foot about 9 months ago. The doctors who saw my foot insisted that nothing was left inside. Um, yeah, tell that to my foot! About 2 months ago I noticed that the area, which has remained raised since the accident, was now pink/red. Then it started to itch, and get a bit painful every once in the while. Not two weeks or so ago it began to blister! There is something in there...trying to get out!!! I think I will head to the doctors as it still seems to be lodged, but clearly my body is trying to get rid of it. Isn't the human body amazing?!
Wednesday, April 03, 2013
A decent outdoor day
Can someone tell me where spring is? I'm afraid we will skip right over spring and jump right into summer. I don't like when that happens. It is more difficult to adjust to the high temps. For now, there are no high temps...brrrr (for spring mind you).
Two little boys hanging out. I was thinking how long it took for us to get Jonah to wear long sleeves and long pants as we headed into fall/winter. We've only had one day that short sleeves were wearable, and Jonah freaked out. So I suppose it will be the opposite, he'll be wearing long sleeves and pants when it is 95* out, until he gets used to the idea of short sleeves/pants. Silly boy.
Please excuse Aubrey's bloody head, he had just banged his head, opening his wound up. So much for getting him stitches!
Although Jonah won't wear summer clothing he will wear his new sandals, provided he is also wearing socks. Baby steps, baby steps. Aubrey on the other hand is obsessed with these winter boots. He's not too keen on his new sandals, which match Jonah's.
Checking on the baby trees. Jonah has the nurturing spirit in him. He is very intrigued by the trees and wants to take care of them.
Getting a closer look. We Jeremiah was able to finish off the fencing in the front yard. This should keep the goats out, and stop them from eating the garden. But I worry a bit for these baby trees as some are literally only a large stick size, making them vulnerable to little boys :-)
Here Jeremiah is 'fixing' a snapped branch.
We took advantage of the nice weather to get some painting in. I had painted some arrows on some rocks for their treasure hunt and all the kiddos wanted in on the painting action.
Aubrey painted the longest. Jed and Jonah painted for a bit, but went off running after each other. Aubrey painted the afternoon away.
So cute.
It was neat to see how focused he was, and how he really was trying to carefully paint the top of the rock. He wasn't just slopping on paint. Though he had difficulty in keeping the colors from mixing.
Thoughtful artist.
.At At some point Saoirse joined us and she brought along a few more things to the 'table'.
Thankfully the messes stayed outside! I must remember this for future painting time.
Saoirse at work on something. I wasn't sure what she was doing at first. But she came up with a cute idea:
Please excuse Aubrey's bloody head, he had just banged his head, opening his wound up. So much for getting him stitches!
.At At some point Saoirse joined us and she brought along a few more things to the 'table'.
Stamps!
See all that mucky mess! How wonderful that it is *outside*. Yes, I am repeating myself, but that is only because the following day the boys found the paints and decided to have a painting day inside....along with the mess that follows. Oy.
Here is a wee sign of spring. Maybe, as these are on one of our apple trees, and these started coming out when they were inside...our warm house.
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