Brief Central Texas Winter

Besides the horrendous cedar allergies, central Texas is a great place to live during the winter. We usually enjoy a daytime temperature of around 60 degrees give or take 5 degrees. But God must enjoy reminding us of how good we have it down here because most winters we get at least one blast of artic air that tends to last for a day or two. Everyone joyfully busts out the scarves, gloves, and fire logs and we shiver for the day and then the temperatures rebound to where they should be and life goes on.

This year we got an extra dose of winter. We stayed below freezing for 72 hours--extremely unusal for this area. Schools had delayed openings, we had rolling blackouts, pipes froze, plants died, and we had wind chill advisories. As a reward for our 4 days of winter suffering (equivilant to 4 months of winter suffering for all other areas of the country), The Lord sent us some snow to enjoy. First He sent us a bit of freezing rain though so that shut the city down and then came the snow so schools and businesses were closed and most people got a genuine snow day. And sure enough, the day following the snow saw temperatures in the upper 60's. God bless Texas!



We aren't putting the winter gear away quite yet. We have the chance for an ice storm tomorrow morning. Highs in the 20's and then we'll probably be done with our winter weather for the season! Garden time is right around the corner!

More pics from our shoot with Shannon

I am having the worst time deciding which pictures to order! There are so many good ones from our shoot with Shannon Prothro. I need to hurry up and decide because it won't be too long before we are ready to do spring pictures!

For sure I will be getting the one of the Jason and the three big girls--one of my favorite pictures of all time!

Christmas break is the time to...

re-organize to the point of forgetting the new "homes" for things. I think I am a perpetual "nester".

pray about and reflect on the previous school semester and tweak our routine.

clean exotic, rarely visited places like the top of the fridge.

have the pre-semester mini panic attack b/c I know how disciplined I'll have to be every single day in order for life to run smoothly around here.

put pictures in picture frames! Third child still hasn't made it in a picture frame past her one year birthday.



clear out the garden now that I'm pretty sure all the wasps and snakes have gone to sleep for the winter. I don't know this guy, but this is the kind of nest I always imagine is lurking just yonder of the compost bin.

fuss over The Chicken Project. Nesting boxes are the next project.

color many pictures with the girls with their fancy Melissa and Doug colored pencils and coloring books.



stay up and watch the lunar eclipse with the oldest child. We were so tired...but it was pretty neat!

teach Paige to write her name. Again.



do seemingly endless fun Christmas projects and crafts (cookies, gingerbread men, gingerbread houses, chocolate covered pretzels, making ornaments, and more cookies).



(and this is the most important of all) be purposeful about celebrating the birth of Jesus, the greatest gift ever given. Christmas is a great time for reflection and soul searching. I always get very emotional when I think of the humble surroundings of the birth of our Savior. The movie "The Nativity Story" brings me to tears every time I see it. How merciful of our Lord that Mary and Joseph did not know what that precious little baby would endure as a man. What a beautiful story that God has written!

December Highlights

Right now our family is recovering from what will be referred to as "The Christmas Flu". It was a nasty stomach virus that ended up taking the entire clan down. God was merciful though--the night that three kids came down the virus within three hours of each other and spent the night repeatedly throwing up was not the night that Jason was out of town this week. Also, Jason and I did not get sick until after the kids were doing better and as soon as I was somewhat back on my feet, Jason fell ill. And...if there was a week to be down with the barf bug, this was the best week for us. My mom had left last week, Jason's sister had moved out a few days before, and Christmas is next week! So, things could have been a lot worse! Praise the Lord (in all things!!)!



As I said, my mom was here for a visit. We had such a nice time. She didn't feel well but she was quite a trooper. Our house isn't the quietest place but Mom didn't seem to mind. The girls were sweet and helped "take care" of her. And it was nice for our schedule to slow waaaaay down. The only bump in the road was that our water heater went out so we had to make trips to accommodating friends' houses to shower.

My mom got some troubling news from her oncologist the other day. She has been experiencing some terrible pain and her doctor is concerned that the cancer may have spread or that the lining of her lung has filled with cancerous fluid. She has a scan on Dec 29th to see what the story is. One of the things that The Lord has taught me through my mom's cancer battle has been not to be consumed with worry and despair over what might happen. My mom wasn't supposed to live six months even with treatment and here we are 14 months later. When she came out here in May, I was convinced that I would never see her again. So much that I was consumed with sadness when she left. And yet, God gave her enough time and strength to make it to our house six months later. So, I'm not going to get depressed over what this lastest issue could mean. He has helped me replace sadness and worry with joy and thanksgiving.



Chicken news: over the Thanksgiving week Jason and I came up with our great chicken coop idea. We looked at the cost and time of building a coop and were a little surprised at how complicated and expensive it was going to be. Not to mention that neither of us is really all that handy. I joked about just fencing in the bottom of the kids' play scape--wow, what a ghetto idea, right?! My husband recognized a life preserver when he saw one. So, a few days later we had a chicken coop at a minimal cost and managed to avoid any trips to the emergency room!



Lastly, Penny turned 18 months old at the end of November. My biggest wish for Christmas is that time would slow down because I love this season of life.

The Chicken Project

The Chicken Project is moving along with few complications. Who would have guessed that raising baby chicks could be so much fun? Certainly not me. The girls have been begging for chickens for a few years now and all I could see was more work for me and crushed chick corpses strewn about (we have a lot of predators around here: toddlers, cats, etc). Miraculously, everyone is still alive though the cats have made a few attempts on the little nuggets.



The chickies are getting big. They are five weeks old and are starting to look like real live poultry. Recently they spent their first night without the heat lamp on (and I was out there twice in the middle of the night to make sure they weren't too cold--they are dainty little girls you know.)



These little birds make great playmates--they don't have a problem with being driving around the yard as long as they are together. Apparently "safety in numbers" is a strong belief of chickens.



Hopefully The Project continues to go well. The chicks will be ready to go to their permanent home in a few more months. We are probably going to keep two of them--if we can build a coop (Jason and I aren't the handiest of people...we may just chuck the whole keeping-a-few-chickens idea if we can't put a decent coop together. We would have been the worst pioneers.) The thought of fresh eggs is so appealing. Plus, I think it would be neat for the girls to have childhood memories of pet chickens. Since we've said no to ferrets, hamsters, mice, parakeets, countless kittens, snakes, more lizards, monkeys. Pretty much anything you can buy at the pet store or on the black market.

Fall Fun

October might just be the most beautiful month of the year in central Texas. The hot semi-humid weather is whisked away by cold fronts and replaced with sapphire blue skies and crisp dry air.

With the change of weather comes one of my most unfavorite tasks: breaking out the cool weather clothes. Bins upon bins of clothing rise up in stacks through out our living room. Sometimes the family toddler succeeds in prying off a lid and merrily distributes the clothing here and there and everywhere. I have to admit that it is pretty funny to see her tearing out of the living room with an arm full of clothing!

The girls are looking forward to diving into some candy this weekend. Or I guess I could call them "Ariel", "Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer", "Snow White", and "The Butterfly Baby". Jason and I are looking forward to robbing their stash after they are in bed. They are pretty cute little kids and people just can't help but fill up their buckets with tasty treats to rot little teeth (and their parents' teeth).

School update: we began our study of Classical Greece this past week! Life in ancient Athens has been a focal point and the girls are appalled that Greek women were not allowed to do a lot of the things that men were permitted to do. Oh boy is it fun to see the reactions of my girls when it dawns on them that life has not always been the way it is now. Today I told them that we didn't have cel phones when I was kid. They were floored. FLOORED. Then my 6 year asked if taxis were pulled by horses when I was kid. Parenthood is endlessly entertaining :)

4 week update

Jason is watching a creepy apocalyptic movie ("The Road") so I am holed up in another room with classical music blasting through my ear phones. Blog time...:)

We just completed our fourth week of school. We've settled back into the routine nicely. The biggest challenge has been trying to mother the littler two girls. They like to be right where the schooling is going on and while I love them nearby sometimes it's a wee bit distracting. Often times it goes like this:

Me: Ok, Reese, let's read your book."
Reese: "Gus and the---"
Me: Paige, don't draw on the table.
Reese: "bug hut. Gus is a-"
Penny: BAA MAAAAAAAA EEEEEE
Reese: "bug. He lives--"
Me: Penny NO! (pulling Penny off the back of the couch)
Penny (lying on the floor protesting being saved from herself): AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
Paige: Momma I poooooooped. Can you help me wipe?
Me: Reese, just go on reading. I can hear you in the bathroom.
Reese: "Gus is a bug. He lives in a"--MOOOMMM!! Penny took my book!!

And so it goes. And by the way, if you are wondering where the oldest child is in this little story, there is an even chance she is either working independently (what she is supposed to be doing) or has settled into writing one of her many stories of the adventures of The My Little Ponies (what is not supposed to be doing until she is finished her independent work).

Wow, does that sound like I am complaining? I'm really not! Or I'm not trying to. It's not always rainbows and butterflies around here but it's good. These girls won't be 8,6,4,and 1 forever. I'll take having to walk around the pile of books (every single book off the bookcase) and listening to my kids fight over gets to the baby deer this time (why can there be only one baby deer?)over peace and quiet. I am so grateful that The Lord has placed me here with these specific children :)

Well, the creepy movie is still on and it's after midnight. I guess I'll do some lesson planning--I'm sort of trapped by the two foot cord on my headphones.