Putting out fires!

Do you live your life putting out fires?  No, I am not a firefighter by trade, but my profession sure deals with a lot of 'fires'!  While some you can find humor in after the fact, I am constantly telling myself to count it all joy.

First thing this morning some unnamed adorable child put a full cup of chocolate milk in the refrigerator.  Top shelf...without a lid...must I say more?!?  I spent time showing her how to mop up milk from the floor, splattered milk from the inside of the fridge, and washing and drying the produce drawers that had received a standing flood of milk.  **Don't cry over spilled milk (or yell etc)

Secondly, the girls noticed we had received a blessing in the form of new head of cattle.  Our field was now host to brown, white, and speckled longhorns.  When I called our first neighbor he laughed and said I could keep the bounty, must be the other neighbors.  Sure enough after tracking the other neighbor down he came to claim his wayward children.  I was off to show him how to use our corral, the hot wire fence, and to insure none of our calves went home with him.

Next it was to clean up the blood bath in the second fridge...all families have two fridges right?  All large families do at least.  I had been to Sams and purchased huge packs of fresh meet to cook and bag. While waiting for the cook, the bag leaked...again on the shelves, drawers, and food below.

I also frequently have to listen to feelings.  Someone is always broken hearted, mad, or excited in a family this size.  As SJ often tells me "You broke my heart", usually in response to no you can't do such and such.  Someone is happy they placed in the state fair.  Someone else is sad wishing their ribbon was higher up. Another person needs a long talk to spew out all those festering feelings of not being loved enough. There are LOTS of feelings in a family!!

Here are some of our fair entries:

Miss M's Gluten Free at its finest.  Chocolate Chip Brownie Bars...so addicting!

 Little Miss A drew an Apple tree at her house...

Miss K did great with her Horse Head.

Miss Leelee got 1st prize for her self portrait

Now that the smoke is settled from yesterdays fires it is time to go fan the flames of the next ones...

Have a great Tuesday!

The truth be told (under anonymity of course)

I have always wanted a blog where I could tell it like it is... could let it all hang out...  could recap the good, the bad, and the really ugly.  Well friends today is the day!  I will tell you what, just not who makes my life the crazy, lovely, chaotic, beautiful, hectic, wonderful life it is.

First a little about myself....

• Here's where I can claim perfection. We have arrived!   We are done decorating our lovely farm house to resemble this years Southern Homes and Gardens Farm House edition.  Our farm is a self sufficient, 80 acre farm with a beautiful garden, productive fruit and nut orchards, free range chickens and grass fed cows.  You will even see our gentle dairy goats frolicking in the lush green fields.
• I now have my chore charts posted and the children each do their part to keep house well maintained.
• I have a daily, monthly, even seasonal meal plan. My stocked up pantry is fully inventoried, including knowing what is in my freezers.  I coupon for every shopping trip, bringing home loads of free foods and toiletries that I add to my stockpile. I never know when I might need to use this bounty.
• I have a house full of beautiful, smart, obedient and respectful children.  They all rise early each day, work hard all the time, and call me blessed.  We have homeschooled for 19 years which might lead you to believe they are slow learners, however they are not...we just have a house full with 8 of them!
• I am able to rise early each morning, get my Bible study time in and my exercise time done.  This keeps both my mind and body fit and ready for the day.

NOT Hardly!!!!  In reality, these are good things to aspire to in and of themselves but they do not lead to perfection.  Somewhere along the road of life we moms were led astray.  We were led down a path that leads straight to a river of disappointment when we can not keep up all these self imposed standards.  I have to remind myself they are self imposed.  I really WANT all the things above, but I am not any less of a good mommy if I don't have them.

So for now, here's how it goes....

• I live on an 80 acre non working farm, with a refurbished farmhouse.  I am a mediocre decorator and it is time to repaint the walls after being here 8 years already.  We have cracks in the walls and a few broken tiles on the floor...it is a farm house after all!
• We do have a garden that consists of 8 tomato plants and six pepper plants.  The flower beds grow weeds just as well as they do flowers.  We sold the goats, the chickens got eaten by coyotes, and the cows belong to our son.  We have planted the fruit orchard 3 times, but only 2 trees continue to grow.  We do have 80 pecan trees, but by the time you invest in a brush hog and labor to clean the area up, the income is not worth harvesting the trees.  The drought doesn't help either!
• My daily, monthly, and seasonal food plan is to eat.  I don't know what it will be or who's going to make it, but we will eat.  I have a rough idea of what foods I have in the pantry.  We live far enough out from town that I always buy 2 to make sure we have extra on the shelf.  I love couponing but it causes me STRESS. I am not nice to be around when I am trying to prepare my shopping trip.
• My children are wonderful.  I love each one dearly.  The are beautiful...they look like Daddy. Smart (but some times smart mouthed!), obedient unless they are disobeying, and respectful at least in public.  The older ones do rise early and work hard.  The younger, not so much.  In fact, I often let them sleep in just for peace and quiet!  They have yet to call me blessed loud enough that I can hear, but maybe that is what they are mumbling under their breath??  
• We really have homeschooled 19 years and so far have 18 to go...  all I can say is wow!  I will be almost 60 when I am done!!
• I do try to read my Bible, often while nursing the baby.  As far as exercise goes, I hate it!  I don't want to do it, don't enjoy it, and my body reflects that truth.  

Now that I have shared these truths from my life, you can rest easy...you're not alone!  Surely I can't be the only mamma who struggles...daily!!??!!

At the risk of taking this scripture out of context, I will leave you with the words of Jesus in John 8:32 

"And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  

Today...the Lord's Day...a Day of Rest

Can you imagine what all moms across the country did this morning trying to get their little flocks off to church?  They dressed, fed, and loaded them up.  They hushed their child's tears or soothed their grumpy attitudes away.  This was going to be a good day.  A good follow up to a great celebration.  A day to rejoice.  A day to worship the Lord.

However, first that age old question was given.  'Are we going to church today?'  Momma herself had to decide...'do I take them to church or do I keep them home?'  What is a momma to do?  They need to go to church...I need to go to church...but as I get ready, I am reminded of my resolve to NEVER take them out of the house again.  Teenagers who cop an attitude, tweens who are grouchy, toddler who is behind the couch coating everything in sticky, white sunscreen(!) and a baby who is crying loudly to nurse.

Does momma lose it and end up speaking LOUDLY ?  Does she end up in tears?  I confess that yes, I did both.  However, I did not stay in that place of despair.  I reminded myself of what my good friend said the night before.  "I may have been in Church with my little ones, but I didn't always have a Godly heart."   That sums it up.  I want to be there AND have a Godly heart!  I want to know God.  How can I lead these children to him if all they ever see is me and my failures?  The answer is once again GRACE.  I needed to have grace on tired children, grumpy hubby, and my hormonal self.  If God can give me grace for all I have done, why can't I do the same for others?

I love my children.

I love my hubby.

I love my life.  

I am grateful for where God has allowed me to walk in life. 

 I am grateful for salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This crazy time we call life...

January brought about a 20 year old birthday for Josh.  February we don't celebrate any birthdays.  March we were expecting a precious blessing and received one!  Our newest son, who I am gonna tag as Little Man was born.  His delivery took place at 37.5 weeks...just two weeks early!  That is good for our family as my body seems to give up around the 36 week mark.  Labor was just that LABOR.  Long, painful, but went OK.  The doctors don't think I move fast enough for them often, so they 'offer' to help me along.  I prefer to try and keep things natural and only fantasize about painkillers!
After about 15 hours of noticeable labor, Little Man made his appearance.  I was so happy to have another son.  It has been 17 long years since our baby BOY was born. For the first hour I was allowed to hold and cuddle this precious fellow.  After that he started going into distress!  He started grunting, then retracting...both scary signs in a newborn.  The nursery gave him 2.5 hours after birth to turn around or they would take him back to work on him.  At 9 PM, he left my arms and started his long journey to recovery.  I went to shower and rest, but only moments after laying down the nursery nurse came to say Mediflight was on their way to pick him up for transport to Children's NICU.  This was the second of many things he did to follow in Princess SJ's footsteps.

• He was delivered in the same hospital, same nurse, same room
• He had the same distress symptoms
• Rode the Medflight to Children's
• Was placed in the same room and isolette as Princess SJ (that hospital has about 70 of them!)
• Had many of the same nurses

What he did differently than Princess SJ was:

• He stayed 19 to her 10 days
• Tested (falsely) positive for a strep blood infection and had to have a spinal tap
• Took Mega doses of antibotics
• Nursed better than Princess SJ
• Was smaller than she was 6-12, to her 7 1/2 pounds

After 19 long days away from our family, we were so blessed to bring this little guy home!  It had felt like we would never be all together as a family again.  

Pictures from our last day in the hospital...after all the cords and tubes are off except oxygen.  This is the step down 'we are going home' nursery!

We also missed a special big sister Miss K's 11th birthday while in the hospital.  We now have 2 March birthdays...

May came up too fast.  Time to celebrate Miss M's 9th birthday!  We got her a Ukulele.  She adores it and is ear picking everything she can on it.  Too fun!!  Lots of fun, lots of scary, lots of life this year has held so far.  Up next is Joe's graduation party.

Who owns the snow?

 

So I have the greatest conversations with the kids... 

Sweet daughter- "Mom, look at all this snow". 

Me " Do you know what snow us made of?" 

Girl "Yes, ice/water, but it is so much. Who owns all that water? It must be expensive!" 

Me with the best answer I could come up with - "GOD". 

They are so much fun!

Pulling teeth...

 So glad yesterday is behind us. 

Took M (8yr) to the dentist to pull two very NOT loose teeth for orthodontist reasons. She has had it done before and it was no big deal....no tears, just a little sore. Not yesterday! It took 1 hour and 45 minutes, a LOT of shots, happy gas, tears, and more. Finally, playing Jamie Grace music on my iPhone calmed us down slightly. She is very sore! The roots to the teeth are HUGE! The fairy better pay good for these. 

Miss M and Mrs "Wrussell" our sweet adopted grandma/neighbor.

On a happier note, blessed to get to spend time with all three of my guys this am for an (Early!) breakfast. I love when I have time with the big guys. What mature young men they are...I am one proud momma! I love you Joseph and Joshua.

 

2012 in Review

It has been one year since my last post.  All year I have contemplated how much of my kids personal identifying information that I wanted available on the internet for anyone to see.  I just could not come to a peace about everyone knowing their names, birthdays, etc.  I also couldn't find the time to address the older blog posts where I freely gave out that info.  Well this Christmas break gave me time and opportunity for a new plan of action for this blog.  If you know our family, you will know who the 'characters' involved are.  If you forget, a picture and their internet name are listed to the right of the blog.  Thanks for bearing with me as I searched for a peace about how to share our family safely.

This year we has brought...

March:  Miss Creativity turned 9 along with her good buddy HL

April:  Little Man, Blessings second son was born and spent 1 month in the NICU.  Praise God he appears the picture of health now.  Sweet blessing!

May:  Miss Musical turned 7 and requested a pirate party...  Pinterest to the rescue.  I had a great time making the hat and decorations.  What a cute Jolly Roger she is!

June:  Princess celebrated her 1st birthday in Pinterest style.  We had a small but decorative party.  Her cake and pics were done by two great girls in the E. Family.

July:  My anniversary gift grandbaby Leelee turned 4.  We had fun at her birthday bash, princess style.

August:  Jojo hit the big 16!  He has a permit...just waiting on mom and dad for the license.  Practice, practice.  He also attended Quest this year and started votech for Electrical.  Busy year for Jojo.

September:  Little Fairy celebrated her 5th birthday princess style too.  She had everyone dress up and do 'princess' type games.

November:  My Blessing is 22 now.  She still lives about 2 1/2 hours from us so we don't get to visit often.

December:  We count our blessings with all our family!  We hope you had a Merry Christmas from our family to yours.  Remember Christ IS the Reason...

Cool J Man's 18th Birthday

It's official...we have raised 2 to adulthood, only 5 to go(!) When I think of homeschooling I remember we've done it for 18 years with only 18 more to go. Children are such a blessing. They keep us young chasing them and become our friends as they get older.

J man  is now 18! What a birthday week...he drug the celebrating out for five days. On Friday night we had his party, complete with a volleyball cookie, volleyball cupcakes (thanks for the help D!!), and LOTS of chocolate doughnuts. While I was out running errands I got a call "Mom, Dad and I decided we need you to buy 1000 chocolate doughnut for the party tonight!", my reply "hmmm...a thousand you say? I'll see what I can do". I stopped at Sams and showed up with two cases of chocolate and one of powdered equaling 216 total. That plus the 48 cupcakes, gallon of ice cream and huge cookie were plenty of junk food.







Where's that ball??

All our friends bless us with a quick group shot (or 5!)

We are cracking up as My beloved runs, dives, and slides right into our picture...


Our dear friend A found her knight in shining armor at the party (ha!)...


J man  went on to Sunday being sang to at church. Monday receiving birthday texts starting at 4:45 AM(!)and cards/gifts from grandma and Leelee. Finally on Tuesday he received all his chosen birthday foods. We had eggs, bacon and hash browns at 5 AM and Chicken Enchiladas at dinner.

What a blessing and joy to know our child has arrived at adulthood, loves the Lord, and chooses to follow HIM.

"I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth." 3 John 1:4

My new addiction...in a positive way!

I have always loved to CRAFT. I come by it naturally...from the time I was little my grandma D and I were making something together. Her specialty was EVERYTHING! She refashioned clothes out of necessity, before it was popular. She sewed, did ceramics, plaster paris, quilling, floral arranging, oil painting, and about anything she could make with a glue gun. Some of my favorite stories was listening to her going to the dump, salvaging furniture...junk...to bring home and recover.
As I took out my Christmas tree this year, tears flooded my eyes. There were the bread dough Raggedy Ann ornaments, the hand painted, ceramic Santa Clauses, the tree skirt, and so much more that Grandma made. It reminded me of a place she filled in my life. My buddy, my craft partner. She is missed! I haven't crafted as much in the years she's been gone. However I recently met a new craft buddy...

Pinterest

...while this buddy can't meet me at my house, she does have some awesome ideas to share! I am loving the inspiration to just make and do again. Life is fun when you're dreaming what your next project will be. I may be dreaming big, however I have been doing too! Here's some things I've made and done from Pinterest:

Fun snowmen handprint ornaments with the whole family...

http://momscraftyspace.blogspot.com/2010/12/five-little-snowmen.html

A comfy, new baby carrier for free...

http://monkeysewmonkeydo.blogspot.com/2010/03/make-your-own-moby-wrap-tutorial.html

Finished both my big girls fleece blankets, loved this edge, tried it, but didn't end up using it...

http://nebraskaviews.blogspot.com/2011/09/easy-no-sew-fleece-blanket-edging.html

I am still using the idea...still thinking...still dreaming...still looking forward to my next project.

Let me know if you'd like for me to invite you to follow any of my Pinterest boards. I'd love to hear what you are making.

Traditions

Our holiday traditions are putting up the tree together, setting out our handmade nativity set, and in more recent years has been reading the Jotham's Journey series. We started with Jotham, read Bartholomew the second year, and now are starting Tabitha. These books weave a fictual character through Israel at the time of Christ's birth.

One tradition of Christmas pasts was to make 'reindeer' aprons with the children. Kim, Josh, and Joe each let me trace their hands and feet, then paint them brown to form the reindeer head. They would wear these aprons as we made sugar cookies and when we set up the tree.

The little girls were so excited to find these aprons in the Christmas box. They wondered who they belonged to. I said a special 6 year old, 4 year old, and 2 year old made them...They just can't imagine that their 'big' siblings were ever that size! Now they would like to make some for themselves...

((Remember these??))

Another tradition we've had for the last 5 years was 'Dirty Santa'...I mean real Dirty, trash pile Santa Exchange. We would gather our trash up, wrap it, and gift our dear friends the Elliott Family with it. Thankfully they didn't mind and were wrapping their trash up for us. We each brought our unmarked, wrapped gifts(a rusty old boat, wild pregnant cats, broken computer monitors, and even a few indescribably weird things). Next, we would draw numbers, choose gifts, then steal the 'best' ones for ourselves. All this in the name of Christmas(!)

This year we have decided the game needed new rules AND a new name, thus the Nutcracker Exchange was born. A much more dignified name, don't you think?? We will be exchanging food items, junk food, homemade food, yucky food, and delicious food! It should be a lot of FUN! The best part for us moms?? When Christmas is over, there won't be stuff to store. We'll enjoy eating all the presents, unless it's yucky, I guess.

The girls and I enjoyed another new 'tradition' this year. Our Keepers of the Faith group made pillowcases for the residents of the Sterling House. Each young girl ages 5-15 made one to share. We went and sang 4 songs, starting with "Jesus Loves Me" and ending with "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Each girl went around visiting with the residents and giving them their gifts. Our girls were even asked to sing again...Miss K, Miss M, Miss A, and I gave an impromptu concert with "Higher Ground". The residents just cried and hugged the girls, saying this was the best program they had ever had.

Our family has a few more fun upcoming Christmas events, then after settling down for a long winters nap, we'll start looking toward 2012...

May your Christmas Season be Jolly and may you remember the true meaning of Christmas. A babe in a manger who died for you, a lowly sinner. We are blessed!

Resourcefulness- just an introspection...

This is not one of those post on what is going on with our family or what we've done lately. This is one of those 'just because' I got inspired kind of posts.

Resourcefulness has a nice definition from Character First: Finding practical uses for that which others would overlook or discard. My definition: Being too cheap to waste anything.

Just this week I was making no-bake cookies and used all the oatmeal up. The empty bag was a thick waxy paper...which with the use of some scissors quickly became a huge sheet of wax paper. I LOVE saving a dime or dollar using what I already have. I seriously should have been born in the depression era with my saving tendency. I so enjoy it when groceries are a few cents a piece, hence my great excitement for couponing.

I also love the feeling of remaking something to be useful. Just this week my dear friend Steph and I remade skirts to outfit her kiddos by following Tamy's instruction. On that note, Tamy is one smart lady ((thank you friend for all you teach me!)) She is a very resourceful person using up what she has on hand all the time. She's shown me how to make gifts using scrap fabric, so we are using up our fabric to make pillowcases to take to the 'old-erly people', as my Miss M calls them, for Christmas. (Each year our Keepers group blesses the nursing home residents with pillowcases). My obsession with being resourceful includes using fabric passed on from others ((thanks once again Cheryl!)) for this worthy project.

I'm trying now to think what I can do for Christmas while being thrifty...last year I gave my girls a basket of groceries (even though my dear friends laughed at me saving trash!) I saved various boxes and containers, taped them shut, and we've played grocery store all year with this free gift.

I've spent sometime this week patching clothes up for another friend too. Trying to help her be resourceful. It's been awhile since I had hand patched denim jeans. My little guys used to wear their pants patched, but not now...

I save all my printer paper and print my coupons and junk on the back of the used sheets. Surely this saves on our paper bill.

The opposite definition of resourcefulness is wastefulness...which I never want to be guilty of. It is important to be a good steward of all God has provided our family. However being a good steward also means passing some things on. I can NOT horde every item that comes through my door any longer. I am letting things go...even things I might use again. I'm ok that I shared my newborn baby girl clothes with a young single mom or my maternity clothes with a friend. When I need them the Lord will provide more of what I need, that I am confident of.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite little poems:

Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
or do without!

Another October....

October was a busy month with no time to blog...not that November is much better I'm just up early today with a few spare moments to catch up.

We had three big things happen in Oct and a lot more little ones that escape me.

~~Family Camp 2011!!~~

We went on a week long camping trip with the Elliott and Chatham families to Big Sandy. We were very blessed to have Abbie and Charity join us. With all the trip craziness, we're just glad they are still our friends afterwards! We ate TONS of powdered doughnuts, learned to like iced coffee, had a great time at volleyball and rapelling, rock climbing and relaxing...you can figure out who did what!?!

We had sickness and sunburns, saw a few bike wrecks, lost more things than I care to remember, then found a few in the strangest places. Over all we were very blessed to have a week of FAMILY AND FRIENDS~~

~~ Fall Break~~ We took the opportunity of Josh being out of school to have his wisdom teeth removed...ouch! He's recovering nicely now. I forgot to take any pictures of his chipmunk cheeks, however a nice mom wouldn't post those anyway.

~~Birthday Fun~~Then the last week of October I celebrated my 37th birthday. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time does go by. Somewhere between being a 'young' mom and today I must have blinked...and now I have grown children! Although I never planned to be young forever, I didn't plan on it going this fast either.

I am so incredibly blessed by each of my children and a husband who is wonderful! I praise God daily for them...

Joe's 15 now...time to celebrate late!!

I think this post was much longer, but somehow it disappeared into cyberland.  All in all Joe had a blessed 15 birthday!


Eat, play volleyball, and fellowship where high on the list for Joe's birthday party. Here's all the girl attendees...what did you do with all the guys??? They had a great time with great friends! Thanks to all who came.