Friday, March 17, 2017

Time to wake up the blog

The other day I popped on my blog, looking for a site that I had hoped I had linked to in one of my posts.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't link to it, but my boys were behind me and were very excited to see old pictures (I was looking at posts from about 4 years ago).  They asked if they could get on my blog to look at all the pictures. They loved remembering what they saw.  They asked me if I could keep taking pictures so that we could look back on these days in the years to come.  It was then I that I realized that my 'record keeping' needed to continue, for their sake.

We were outside today, and I grabbed my camera.  I wanted to use my 50mm lens which I hadn't used in over a year or year and a half.  It does not seem to be working as most of my picture came out blurry.  It kept having a hard time focusing.  I'll have to get it checked out I suppose.  But it is a start.

I have finally (nothing like taking 8 months to do so) gotten the boys off the computers!  Granted they get a small turn at the very end of the day, but this is HUGE.  We are going in the right direction.  A lot more changes will be coming. Some welcome, and some not so much.  Some will be temporary, some I am hoping will stick around.  If I wrote everything out in this one post, it would be too long.  I will just share things as they happen.

Since it's been so long since I've written, I thought I would catch everyone up on a bit of background, and how the kiddos are.

When I mention change, here and in the past....when I mentioned that things were difficult, that I was depressed...it was a real battle.  Jeremiah and I had been separated for a year.  He is back in the house now, but our marriage has a very long road ahead to any sort of recovery/healing/etc.  The past two years have been exceedingly hard.  I have come up out of the deep dark depression I was in, though I still have bad days.  My focus now is to live life, not just survive it.  There is a book I am reading that I think is going to really help us overcome the turmoil we have been living.  The book is called, "A More Excellent Way".  Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the author!

As for the kiddos....Isabella will be turning 20 this summer!  She is currently living out of the house.  I think moving out did her a lot of good.  The mold was definitely adding to the health battles that she has been facing the past few years.  She is trying to get back into horses.  She found a great barn to exchange work for riding/lessons.

Moira will be turning 18 this summer, so our second adult child!  She leads a very social life :-)  She is into photography, drama, singing for church, and has a new job.  She is busy!  She is also facing some health issues, and we go to see our endocrinologist this coming Monday. There seems to be something wrong with her body processing her sugar during different times of the month.  It is scary, and we are hoping to find answers soon.

Flannery is 15, and will be starting to work at the same barn as Isabella in exchange for lessons.  Flannery will also being getting her drivers permit soon!  Three drivers!  Yikes.  She and Saoirse are into Anime and cosplay.  She still loves her Breyers as well, but I have noticed she has not been into barn making, or videoing Breyer horse stories.

Saoirse will be our 4th teen next month!  The big 13!  She has been in drama this year and really loves it. She is thinking about joining the homeschool cheer squad.  Moira was on it this year, and she has tagged along to see if she wants to join.  Moira will be stepping away from cheer after this season, so I hope that doesn't influence Saoirse's decision.

Jedidiah is 10.  He is really into planets and space this year.  He is still in speech therapy, but doing well.  There are a few things we really need to work on with him, mostly due to his sensory issues.  Otherwise he is growing well.  A bit too well in the wrong direction, but he is growing up as well :-)  I have made it a point that the boys get outside everyday, and that has really helped!  Jed is finally reading!  The reading has really helped with his speech as it seems to help him to see the sounds he is supposed to make (as opposed to remembering what sounds he should be making).

Jonah is 8.  For some reason he is really into doing the laundry now a days!  Ha, ha!  Jonah, like the other boys is into Minecraft and watching youtube videos.  He is finally making progress in reading.  It has been a long slow process!  I don't think it has anything to do with any issue....he just wasn't ready to read!  We finally got our library card up to date (we use the libraries that are out of our county so we have to pay an out of residence fee, and then there were those pesky late book fees....) and we have made it a priority to get to the library.  I think he is getting the idea that he could read these books himself...if he could read!  He has been trying to sound out the words in the library books, so I am hoping that will be the push/incentive that he needs.

Aubrey is 6.  He is still all boy!  Always moving.  He loves to rough house, and jump on the trampoline.  He likes to do the things his brothers do too!  He made it his own job to move all the old wood off into the woods.  It has been in the area that we play in, so he moved it out.  He used his wagon to haul off loads of wood to dump in our woods.  Hey, it kept him busy!

Merida is 3.  For those who know me, it may be odd to hear me say....I'm kinda happy that we don't have a baby in the house.  Shock!  A lot of that has to do with the almost 20 years of not having help with the kiddos.  No babysitters, no helpers....just me.  I have watched a little boy recently, who is 9 months old, and I have to say it is very nice once he goes home to realize that I get a whole lot more done without a baby around.  I LOVE babies!  It still saddens me to think that we are all done having babies, but it is also nice that Merida can dress herself, she can walk, etc.  She still needs close watching, but not like a crawling baby!  She loves to play with her doll house, or with playdoh, or to paint, or to run around with her brothers.  She is a cutie and says the funniest things.

So that's it!  I only have a couple of pictures to share today, but I am hoping to make it a habit to pick up my camera a whole lot more often.


Laundry time.  Jonah really likes to hang the laundry outside.  He says it brings back memories :-)



Waiting to see if Daddy catches the chicken....that's under the house!  We put up new blockades, but one of them got knocked out (we have vents around the bottom of the house, and our original vents got knocked out, and Jeremiah made some new ones recently), and we didn't realize there was a chicken under there!  The boys were hanging out by the back of the house when they heard noises under there!  It was a chicken, and yes, Jeremiah caught it.  It was quite hungry! I think it had been under there for 2 days!



Blurry.  We made our way to the creek today.  We didn't stay for long.  Jonah asked me to untangle the disk swing that hangs over the creek.  I did so, he got on, and the next thing I hear is CRACK SPLASH!  Poor kid, the branch that the swing was attached to broke.  Lucky for him, it wasn't a very long fall.



Merida's wild hair!  She has hair like Isabella's, but not as thick.  She has a bit of waves.  I go back and forth on whether I should cut it off or not.  I did take quite a few inches off not too long ago as it is a struggle to keep it tame.  She hates getting it brushed.  But it is so beautiful that I don't want to chop it off!



We always seem to have some sort of specimens in mason jars around here.  It may be bugs, or rocks, or weeds, or seeds, or....who knows!  Two rocks that Jed found at the creek and insisted on bringing home with him.



Rainbow plastic shot glasses.  Really exciting, I know.  I am hoping to have a success story on here of healing cavities naturally....my cavities!  Never had a cavity in my life, until a few months ago.  I have two, in the same tooth.  So not fun.  Done enough reading to know that cavities CAN heal, they do not need to be filled by a dentist. So far so good.  I had pain that was radiating along my whole ride side upper jaw, even had a week of difficulty opening my mouth.  With a change of diet, and taking a cod liver/ butte oil blend I am pain free!  I've been sick for the past few weeks and if my sinuses are swollen up I can feel a bit of pain in the tooth, but it only lasts like an hour or two.  I used these little cups to fill with some healthy lemonade, then plop the cod liver oil in and gulp it all down in one swish.

Looking forward to recording our days once again.

2 comments:

Jeremiah said...

The author of "A More Excellent Way: Be In Health" is Henry W. Wright...

https://www.amazon.com/More-Excellent-Way-Be-Health/dp/1603741011

Sarah Faith said...

Glad to see you back! I can't believe how old your kiddos have gotten when I wasn't paying attention!

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