Still Here

I'm still alive. I've just been doing a whole lot more reading than writing these past few months.

And my computer keep acting up. For the past year or two.

So I got a new one (yay!).

It took 2 weeks to the day for my 2 year old to track down my new computer and remove two keys from the keyboard. But thankfully, I replaced them.

Unfortunately, in my panic to right the situation, I didn't take the time to make sure I put the keys back as they were originally.

They were backwards for a full day before I decided there was no way I could train the keyboard in my brain to switch the 'z' and 'c'.

So I pried them off, put them back, and all is well.

And put a child-proof door knob on my bedroom door to temporarily deter my little techie son.

So, hopefully I will be updating this more often. As long as I can keep my computer out of my kids' hands, at least.

The computer killer, outside where he belongs. 

Final Weeks of Spring

Spring is coming to a close so we are gradually spending a little more time indoors. We picked our school lessons up again this week. It has worked well to take off during the nicest time of the year.

We planted a lot of new things this spring. Our blackberry bush is doing well, there will be enough berries for everyone to have about two or three. Should have planted five more bushes!

There is a passion vine growing where our church meets. It draws these cute little spikey caterpillars. This year we planted one and today we noticed our first guest. Can't wait to see what kind of butterfly he turns out to be.

Potatoes and onions are about to be pulled up. Peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes are doing well (surrounding weeds are flourishing as well!). It is amazing the difference a cooler spring makes.

Ladybugs keeping the aphids on the fennel under control.

And of course the chickens are always in bloom around here.

Our Little Echo

 

 

We have an echo in our house,

An echo three years old,

With dimpled cheeks and wistful eyes,

And hair of sunny gold.

 

This little echo, soft and sweet,

Repeats what others say,

And trots about on tireless feet,

Up stairs and down, all day.

 

It makes us very careful not

To use a naughty word,

Lest in the echo's lisping tones,

It should again be heard.

 

Which would be such a dreadful thing,

As any one can see,

Who has an echo in his house,

A little over three.

 

                              ---Margaret E. Sangster

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.