Sickmas 2012

(Believe it or not, there is an 8 year old in that chair.)

 

Quite unfortunately our household has been hit with the flu. Right now the four girls are laid out like rugs. I've been trying to keep the baby away from the sick people and that has been a challenge because he does not like to be away from momma!

 

Last night I was facing some serious disappointment regarding the timing of our sickness. Six days before Christmas? Very, very inconvenient. And we rarely get sick. I was tempted to become depressed and negative due to the circumstances--and I did have a few moments of that. I mean, with all of the horror of Newtown as well as what has seemed to be bad news over and over for so many we know, we could really use some Christmas cheer, right?

 

When the advancement of the plague became apparent late last night, I made a dash to the store to re-stock our supplies. Our dishwasher was also experiencing a sick day so I wanted to get disposable plates/cups. And some cough syrup for goodness sake. Ok, and some chocolate to soothe my nerves.

 

On the 7 minute ride to the store I heard a song I had never heard before. The lyrics that snapped me out of my funk were this:

 

Even if the healing doesn't come

And life falls apart

And dreams are still undone

You are God You are good

Forever faithful One

Even if the healing

Even if the healing doesn't come

 

I was reminded of God's sovereignty. That He knew we would be sick right now, before and possibly on Christmas. And He does work all things together for the good of those who love Him.

 He is good and this is good.

 

My dreams of a fun, festive, memory-making Christmas are looking pretty unlikely. Our Advent activities have been suspended indefinitely, our little gingerbread sleighs are untouched and still wrapped in plastic, we will miss Jason's office Christmas party, we will not be seeing my family for a big old bonfire, we probably won't be able to do the Christmas light tour, it's unlikely we will be able to attend our wonderful church's Christmas service, and I'm giving it a 50/50 chance that we'll have Jason's family over on Christmas Day.  

 

But perhaps having all these wonderful traditions stripped away will bring us to spend even more time reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas, which is our Lord and Savior's birth +2000 years ago.

 

So, even if the healing doesn't come before December 25, even if we are eating jello and chicken soup instead of a delightful Christmas brunch, we will strive for joyous hearts. Because if we only have Jesus and what He has done for us, that ought to be more than sufficient, shouldn't it?

Santa

Goodness, it has taken me all week to do this blog post. I started it a few days ago and then got up from my computer and forgot about it until today.

 

For the past few years we have had Santa send the girls a personalized video. There are pictures of the girls and a report on whether they are on the naughty or nice list as well as a few other details.

 

Of course the girls love it, even though the older three know the truth about Santa. They still like to believe in him :)

 

These are some pictures I took as we watched the Santa video messages to each girl. I thought they came out pretty cute!

 

Reese was like "Where did he get that picture of me?"

 

 

Little P's mind was blown. How does this strange man know so much about me?

She hid her face for about half of the message. She can be a little shy.

She was pretty frowny and suspicous.

Then she warmed up to Santa.

Thankfully by the time the video was over she had concluded that Santa is an ok dude.

 

Big sister tried to play it cool.

Still a bit of a Santa believer though :)

Big P was pretty goofy about it. She knows the truth about Santa but wasn't prepared...

How does he know?

And since he knows...did I make the "nice" list?

 

Hooray! She made it!

 

Relief and delight :)

 

 

Helping Hands

We very much encourage our kids to help out as much as possible. If Jason and I are doing chores, they usually are too. It has definitely paid off in many ways. It would be easier to list the things they don't help with than the other way around. Of course there are the times where I am tempted to just do everything myself b/c I don't like shells in my eggs or the floor isn't exactly uncrunchy. But they do have to learn and they might as well learn that stuff here. I do expect some grateful children in-laws

The other day was one of those times where I never wanted to ask anyone to do anything ever again.

We got home from running errands and I asked the girls to unload the groceries from the car while I put Penny down for her nap. Jacob was asleep in his carseat and I just left the van door open and told the girls to get me if he woke up. It wasn't hot and I was planning on letting him nap with the van door open and checking on him every few minutes while I got the groceries put away, etc.

I came downstairs from getting Penny settled and asked Reese to let the dog out of his crate and put him out to potty. At this moment Paige suddenly remembered that she had left one more item out by the van. She leaves the front door wide open and Auggie, the dog, runs straight out the door.

Reese and Paige take off after him and I grab his leash and follow. We find him allllll the way at the end of the block where he has enthusiastically introduced himself to our neighbor. Our neighbor, Cory, is holding Auggie for me but is having a bit of a time as Auggie has no collar on (we don't leave his collar on him in his crate--strangulation risk...).

Auggie has been cooped up for hours and is positively radiating 10 month old, 65 pound golden retriever energy. I try to put his leash on, noose like, but it just isn't working so I have to walk him home by his scruff. After about three houses of walking like this my hand is aching from holding on him and my back feels like it will never recover. Auggie is just thrilled to see us. He doesn't care that I'm holding him by a fistful of neck skin, he is just glad that to be in physical contact with me.

We've almost made it to the house when I lose my shoe. Which causes me to lose the dog. Auggie bounds towards the house and I'm hoping he will just run to the door. Nope. He leaps into the van and sprawls out on his spot. Reese and Paige beat me to him and start to loudly wrestle him out of the car.
He is not going anywhere. He wants to go for a car ride. I have to absolutely drag him out of the car and he becomes a 65 pound dead weight (this is his passive aggressive move--it's not effective but he always hopes). I huff and puff and get him into the door and he romps off happily, panting and drooling with glee. I'm panting but I'm not very happy.

I know full well that I have left the biggest baby-waker in our family out in the van with sleeping Jacob. Sure enough, I dash back to the van and find her tickling his feet and him screaming bloody murder. I rescue him, resist the urge to cry, and we head into the house.

As I try to calm Jacob, down a glass of water, and look for the kid who was supposed to start putting hte groceries away but has drifted off to who knows where, it occurs to me that this was a whole lot of effort just to have these girls help bring in the groceries. I could have had this done in about ten minutes myself. And the baby would probably still be sleeping. And I sure wouldn't be drenched in sweat and struggling through a cramped hand from dragging the dog home.

 But then it occurs to me that this is the trade off for training kids: broken dishes, smudgy mirrors, sloppily folded towels, the toilet brush that vanished into thin air, broken dishwasher rack from someone yanking on it too hard, finish scrubbed off of kitchen table, shrunken sweaters, and floors that just don't quite sparkle.

And again this thought comes to mind: I hope my future children in-laws appreciate me :)

Great Read

 

If you want a very exciting, easy to read book for study of early American history, this is a good one. I had no idea that John Smith had led such an adventurous life. The man was a mercenary, slave, author, hero, prisoner, murderer. And it's possible that the Jamestown colony would have completely failed without him. Anyway, it's an exciting read. It was one of our read-a-louds and the girls begged for "one more chapter" every time we finished one.

Colonial Fun Times

 Here are a few of our "colonial times" activities:



 Marbles

Super fun. The girls had such a good time. They all did well--I wasn't too bad myself!

 

 

 

Quill and ink.

They copied calligraphy and concluded that writing back in the old days was pretty tedious. Admittedly I was a bit uptight with the open bottle of ink in the same room as a certain 6 year old. She did mange to spill the ink but there were about 5 layers of newspaper on the table so no big deal.

 

Corn husk dolls and poppets

The girls adored this project. I did as well. I even learned to sew a stitch (thank you E-HOW!). They carried their babies around for a few weeks. Now the babies have a place on each girl's bed. The corn husk dolls weren't quite as adored--they aren't squishy enough to love on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Little Botanists

 



We are well into our study of plants this year (using Apologia's Young Explorers series--botany). I must say that we have learned some amazing things. For instance, you know how when you fail to mow the grass and the lawn starts to resemble a wheat field? Well, those are little wheat thingies are actually flowers. Who knew?

 

I won't spoil the rest of the book but let me just say that it's a fantastic study on plants. Initially I was sorta like "Eh." but it's proving to be just fascinating. There are so many outdoor activities that go along with this lesson and I know I will never look at all the greenery in my yard the same.

 

We picked up a little Venus Flytrap today at the store. Of course we spent waaaay too much time this afternoon trying to feed the plant tiny insects we collected from the yard. So far, no luck on getting the flytrap to close but I'm thinking the little plant might need some time to get used to us.

 

The M&Q Spirit

We did all end up getting sick. Even Jason joined us and then he went one step further and developed pink eye. Yesterday was the first day in over a week that there was no fever in this place and I am thankful for a healthy household again. I'm hoping the demon red eyeball germs do not spread or else we'll be looking at being on lockdown again.

This week we escaped to the carwash--thrilling really, after being in the house for days--and since it was evening and Jason was with us I ran into the bookstore. I came home with a few jewels and one is "Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit" by Teri Maxwell. I am a fan of the Mawell's "Managers of Their Homes" and have wanted to get my hands on a copy of "Meek/Quiet Spirit" for awhile now.

I thought I was pretty successful at having a gentle spirit with my kids. Not perfect but a far cry from the impatient, snappy, often overwhelmed, prone to yelling mom I was even 6 years ago. However, after reading this example that Terri provided from her days as a mom to 3 school aged children and 3 children who were aged baby to preschooler, I was convicted not about my actions or words but my spirit:

"I walked into the bathroom, in the middle of a busy school morning, to discover the toilet paper had been unrolled all over the floor. Do you know what I did? I sat down on the floor and cried! In frustration, I raised my heart to the Lord, "Lord, there are just too many of them and too few of me!" Of course, unrolled toilet paper was not the only thing that had happened in our home that morning, but it was the straw that broke the camel's back...

I wish this had been my reaction instead: 'Lord, those little guys are at it again. Thank you for giving them to me to love, teach, and train. Please, Lord, give me the energy I need to deal sweetly with them. Also, grant me the courage and wisdom to discipline them. I love them so much, Lord!' It would have characterized a meek and quiet spirit despite discouraging circumstances."

That right there really convicted me. Now, I am not one to sit down and cry but I have definitely seen some little (or big...) mess on a day that has not been going smoothly. Frequently in this situation, I am slammed with feelings of "I can not do this anymore." I usually don't say anything nasty to anyone but my happy feelings tend to shrivel up and die at this point.

I don't want to live that way. I don't want to be satisfied with simply not screaming at people when I feel like it or gritting my teeth so hard that I've develop a tension headache b/c my kid is going thru a "testing phase". Sure, I'm human and I'm not going to be pleased when I find a 50 pound bag of dog food dumped on the floor (true story) or discover my toddler no longer has curls thanks to her scissor-wielding 5 yr old sister (another true story). But I don't want to be sitting there conjuring up an ulcer.

What I want is this:

 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7

What I want is true joy and peace. I'm going to steal this definition of "joy" from our "Who Is God?" textbook b/c it is so simple and yet profound:

Joy: A delight that comes not from our circumstances, but from living in fellowship with God as His child.

I am grateful that true joy does not come from our circumstances.

I highly recommend this book. Of course, no book is going to "fix" a problem. Only God can do that. But I do believe that this book is a good one to encourage those of us who are desiring a "meek and quiet" spirit and who are looking to the Lord to complete the good work He started in us. I know already He has used it to bring up areas of my life that I need to further submit to Him.

Baby Fever

 

It's hard to say who suffers more when Baby is sick: Baby or Momma. I think I could have fifty babies and I'd still be a somewhat fretful mess when I notice Baby is running a fever.

This morning our baby woke up with a fever. I said to my husband, "The Baby. Is. Running. A. Fever." Jason, being equally excitable about these things, says "Oh noooooooo. Oh pooooooooor Baby." All plans for the day were immediately canceled.

Yes, yes, I know fevers are nothing to be afraid of (right?). I know they help to flush out the bad germs (yes! Fevers are good!).

But there's something that tugs (yanks) on my heart when I see shiny, feverish eyes that are looking at me seeming to beg "Help me, Momma!"

 

I lose all reasoning capabilities. Yes, Baby, I will carry you until my arms feel like they are going to drop off from fatigue. Yes, Baby, I will nurse you constantly so that by the time you are well I have bulked up my milk supply enough to feed a litter of children. Yes, Baby, you can sleep with your snotty face inches away from mine. When you cough into my face it reassures me you are alive.

But please Baby, remember all of this in a few days when your parents are stumbling around half dead from the virus you gave them.

Dogs of our Lives

It's been over two years since we had to send our beloved lab, Summer, to doggie heaven.  It darn near broke my heart to lose that dog. She was about four years old when I got her from the shelter and we had her for ten years. She was my first big dog.

My life was (and still is) very full and I think I hardened my heart to really loving another dog again. Every once in awhile Jason would bring up getting another big dog and I'd quickly remind him of all the inconveniences a dog would bring to our househould. And I would remind him that we do in deed have a dog. Allie, our aging dachshund, has always been a very interesting creature. She's sort of like a "cat-dog" and by that I mean she's deficient in the loyalty quality that makes a dog a really good dog. She's also aloof and independant. Actually quite perfect for our family. We can say we have a dog and frequently the only sign we have one is the food disappearing from the dog bowl and the tiny dog poos littering the corner of the yard.

So fast forward a little over a week ago and I was at a friend's baby shower. Two friends were sharing the joys and trials of raising puppies. Mostly what stuck with me where the miseries of puppyhood and I was relieved I didn't have the task of teaching manners to yet another creature. Phew. Allie wouldn't be living forever (most likely...you never know...she's a strange dog) and after her exit from the world we probably wouldn't even get another canine. Why risk it?

A few days after the baby shower one of the friends who was discussing puppyhood gave me call and presented me with an offer I would have immediately refused had it been even two months ago. They needed to find a home for their 8 month old golden retriever puppy, Oggie. My common sense screamed "Hells no!" but my affection for my friend caused me to say, "Let me talk to Jason about it and I'll get back to you." I figured that together Jason and I could talk each other out of even thinking of adding this dog to the family.

We failed to argue the "con" side of just trying out the dog and two days later my friend brought Oggie over to our house. "Don't get attached!" my hard heart screamed. Well, either my heart wasn't made of stone as much as I had thought or Oggie is just really wonderful b/c it didn't take 24 hours for that orange boy to work his way into my heart.

Oggie is everything you want in a dog. If it's possible for a dog to be self deprecating, he is. His mood flows with mood of the family. If the kids are running around and hyper he is all game and ready to play; when it's time to for us to work on our school work or if Jason and I want to crash in front of the t.v. Oggie will collapse on the floor nearby and take a snooze. He wants to be inside and involved in whatever is going on but he's content to just sit there and be with you. He is not annoying and demanding of affection. He does not jump. He does not whine. He does not bark unless he has a real reason to. He does not steal food. He does not dart out of the door. Honestly, he is just about the perfect dog. And when he messes up (a chewed item here and there, too much enthusiastic licking of the baby, covert couch napping), you just can not be mad at him.

I've decided Oggie is just that wonderful. My heart was indeed quite hard towards getting another dog. Sometimes part of me thinks "Don't get attached...you've got 12-14 years max with him and then what? Another heart break." But one look into those chocolate brown eyes followed by him stealing a quick lick of my face and I know there isn't a chance of a hard heart returning.

While the cat's away (or deceased)...

Lizards and birds come out to play!

 

 

Legal(istic) Eagle

The last couple of years have been times of great spiritual growth and awareness for our family. That statement might sound haughty at first but let me lay it out and say that while I wish I could take credit, I can not. It is The Lord who removes blinders and reveals the truth.

J and I have have many way too late at night discussions on all things spiritual and our mutual desire to make sure we aren't falling into the ditch of legalism on one side of the narrow road or into the ditch of permissiveness on the opposite side. I know we have so much work to do in this area. Right now we are in a season where we are tempted to be pulled more by the "legalistic" ditch. Suddenly, a lot of things look terrifying and evil at first glance (at least they do to me--I'm more of a "Chicken Little" type of person in general).

The "legalism" fairy (close relative of the "pride" fairy, if you will), wants the t.v. shipped off to some heathen's house. But...that would leave the door open for the "pride" fairy to come and do her dirty work ("We have no t.v.! We are one more degree holier than we were when we had the t.v. and two more degrees holier than people who have a t.v.! Praise the Lord, it's good to be us!").

Maybe this isn't the most bestest example, but Matthew 15:1-10 says it. Getting rid of the t.v. isn't going to make our hearts any cleaner. God changing our hearts and us desiring to please Him is going to guide us in what entertainment we allow in our home. Not saying that families who choose not to have a t.v. are being prideful and/or legalistic, just saying that at this current time those would be the reasons our family would take an ax to the beautiful flat screen sitting innocently against the wall. We would still have the same ugliness but would be minus a television.

(Would it be prideful to mention right now that we don't have cable and only have the boob tube on for an hour in the morning while Momma gets herself caffeinated and awake? Lest anyone believes that we are permissive about the t.v., I'm going to leave this little paragraph in. I really hate the t.v. because I think our time is better spent doing just about anything else on earth than staring at the television. But yeah, we have a t.v. and we do watch it...sometimes. Even me, the hypocritical tv hater)

I love the people that God has placed in our lives. All of them. But I am extra-extra-extra thankful for the families we have met who seek to glorify the Lord with their lives and to conform to God's standard. They don't all look the same--they all come with with their own unique family style. We all have our little differences (family-integrated church/traditional church, vaccinate/non-vaccinate, hospital birth/homebirth, tv/no tv, "small" families/"large" families, vegetarians/carnivores, etc). But the thing I admire about these godly families is that we know these little differences do not validate or invalidate us. Legalism would definitely put a wedge between us if each felt justified by their standards.

And not to get off subject, but I am so challenged by families who are different from us. Not to copy them so to speak but I love that many times God has stirred our hearts to change by the fellowship with other families. We each have our own styles, true, but godliness in action is a beautiful thing to see and a worthy thing to imitate. If we get defensive and seek to justify ourselves when we see godliness in the lives of others, there isn't a whole lot of opportunity to grow. God forbid that we allow Satan to steal the seeds that were just planted.

Anyhow, in the pursuit of the "narrow road," Jason and I have tried very hard to keep our eyes on Jesus. What this means for us is that we seek His will for our family, we try to be challenged by the wonderful godly families in our lives, and we don't cling to feelings of insecurity because they are lies designed to get us to look away from Jesus who is at the end of the narrow road. The truth is that we are not justified by homeschooling, family devotions, super smart kids, any of our abilities and/or talents, or even our marriage. All of those are things should be used to glorify God alone because we are justified by Christ alone.

Love this page on legalism. Completely worth the time to check out. So convicting...and yet, so reassuring!

http://www.reformationtheology.com/2006/06/what_is_legalism.php

Seasons

I really enjoy the change of seasons. While I have a favorite season (spring), I have learned to appreciate all the special things that are unique to each season.  Easter and Passover, gardening, longer days, and the gradual awakening of the plants and animals are what I look forward to most in spring. Summer brings pool days, 4th of July fireworks, cicadas singing, and garden harvest. We look forward to fabulously cooler days, the approach of Thanksgiving, and occasionally some fall colors when autumn mercifully comes around. Winter always holds the hope of a possible snow event, big pots of soup, December and the joy that Christmas brings, and the beginning of a new year.

 Each season has its own joys.

Each season also has its share of less than pleasant aspects of life.

Spring (I'm reaching here...there isn't much not to like about spring) means it's time to get back to yard maintenance and boy, it's hard to focus on getting much work done when those gorgeous days are calling you outside. Summer (I'll limit my complaints) means it's time to melt for 5 months straight, cabin fever, and mosquitoes. With fall (again, reaching!), it's time to clean out the garden and it's the beginning of "sick season." Winter will bring the continuation of "sick season", a little bit of cabin fever during our two weeks of cold weather, and sometimes we have an endless string of cloudy days which always make me want to stay in bed.

Our family life is like the seasons as well. Right now we are in midst of someone's babyhood (also someone else's toddlerhood, and the childhoods of three more blessings). I very much try to remember that as I go through my days. Each baby puts his/her own personal twist on our lives. We have survived the "newborn" and "little baby" seasons of Jacob's life and now have entered the blissful calm-before-the-toddler-storm time of "big baby" season. Baby boy naps twice a day, sleeps pretty well, is happy (as long as we stay home...), and remains in the general vicinity when he is put on the ground (unless a sister spirits him away). This is a season that is like spring--I can't really find many things to not like about it.

Of course, not every "baby season" is the same and not every baby is guaranteed a "peaceful spring" and a "hot summer" (after all, we have had freezing weather in April in Central Texas). And if that's the case, well then it's God's will and we just have to roll with it. That child and his/her temperment are perfect for our family. His plans are always greater than ours even though we may have a difficult season.

I do think that the key to surviving these baby seasons is to look at them as they truly are: seasons. Except that unlike the seasons of the year, once these baby seasons are gone they never return.

I try to remember this when I have to plan an outing with details nearly as complex as the invasion of Normandy. Have everyone get ready, feed baby, jet out the door and get back before nap time.

Or like last night when I kept him up all afternoon so I could put him to bed early so I could run downtown and attend a good friend's birthday dinner only to breathlessly plop down 45 mins late at our dinner table and within a short time receive a text message that Jacob had woken up. I had half an hour until I had to race thirty minutes back home for the little guy's next feeding. I wasn't upset, I know God is in control and I was called back to my family. This time of baby intensely needing momma will pass before I know it.

I comfort myself with the "this too shall pass" mentality when my little boy won't go to anyone except for Jason or myself. Peaceful date nights are out of the question right now--I could leave him but why not wait a short season until he (ok, WE) are ready? I firmly believe that God provides the "breaks" that we need as moms. During this season they may only be an hour at the end of the day after all the children have gone to sleep and I am plopped down on the couch next to my equally tired husband. If that is all the wakeful "rest" that God gives me for the day, I (try to) thankfully and happily receive it because I know if I actually required more, He would have provided it.

Babies are only "babies" for a short year. While ours isn't a "baby centered" household where the family bows to the whims of a tiny tyrant, I do believe that "baby seasons", particularly the first six months where everyone is adjusting to adding one more family member and mom is recovering from pregnancy and birth, are meant to be a time where we slow down a bit and "be still" before God. We stay home a little more, I sit and nurse a hungry little person while reading to the older kids, and rest in the knowledge that God has put us in this season to grow us.

Ressurection Eggs

We decided to dye the eggs from our chickens instead of the white ones from the store. Four of our chickens lay brown eggs and one bird lays a cool green egg. I wasn't sure how they would turn out when dyed but as you can see, they came out quite brilliantly. 

Fresh from her nap, Penny was not enthusiastic about letting her eggs sit.

Daddy and pretty eggs made it all better :)

A Medieval Feast

To celebrate the completion of studying Medieval Times, we just had to have a feast. We spent the entire day prepping for dinner and what a long (but enjoyable) day it was in the kitchen. By the way, this feast took place the first week of February. Yeah, I'm a little behind on updating the blog.

The girls and I came up with the menu and we decided which girl would help with each dish. The pretzels were probably the most fun because everyone got to help with those. This was our first experience with making pretzels and they actually turned out quite good (ahhh white flour!).



Reese and her pocket pies. I made the first one and she did the other three.

Hailey helped with the apple pie. I failed to snap a picture of it before dessert time but it was quite lovely.

They did not have plates in medieval times--they used a chunk of thick bread as a plate and piled their food on that. This was as close to the real deal as I could manage. We did use the bread/plate for the chicken, asparagus, and beef stew but after that the bread/plate was nice and soggy and we couldn't bear to top it off with dessert. The bread was great though--Paige helped with that.

We had milk or water to drink

I told the girls they could wear a dress of their choice if they desired. Paige took that decision quite seriously and wore about three dresses during the day.

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All in all, it was a nice meal. The girls showed off some magic tricks they had learned and the projects they had done.

And the king ended up being quite pleased with the meal and the entertainment :)