Things getting back to normal

Thank you all for your prayers! We truly appreciate them. Jedidiah is doing much, much better today. He has a head to toe rash from a reaction to the antibiotics (of course!), so we made a med switch, but he has been running and playing and eating like normal :-) That makes for one very happy momma! We have continued this week doing school. We have a read aloud time that I do Bible readings and also another book. On top of the book we are currently reading the girls asked me to read the Moody book. I am not sure if I ever wrote about the Moody series book by Sarah Maxwell. The books are really wonderful. When we first started reading them (there are 4 in the series) we had just gotten rid of our TV, so this was about three years ago. The girls really were not at all interested in hearing the story. But after the first half of the book they got more into it. But they were never asking me to read it. Then we got the second book, and they got more and more excited. Finally they were begging for me to read on and not stop. Now their reluctance to listen had nothing to do with the book, but more to do with my kids. These books are about a Christian, homeschooling family. It is a simple story, nothing flashy or fantastical. However it is great to have a story to read that you do not have to explain to your children that "this is not something you should do, or something we do not believe, or....". So they asked me today if we could re-read them. Hey, I'm all for it! One chapter a day. However I caught Isabella reading on into the next chapter after school :-)

I think I told you all that I was making some kombusha tea. You can find some great, easy instructions here. And if you don't have anyone you know with a SCOBY, you can go to a health food store and get yourself a bottle of some "live" kombusha tea. It will have a little bitty cute baby SCOBY floating around in there. Just make up the brew from the link I gave and poor the whole bottle in. You will need to let it sit for two weeks instead of one. By the end of two weeks you will have a wonderful SCOBY in there like the pictures in the link. Now if you, like me, forgot how long you had yours "growing" for, and it is too strong, just take out the SCOBY and add it to a fresh brew of tea. Then let it sit for only one week, maybe only 5 or 6 days depending on personal preference. I tried mine today and it was GOOD! Just like sparkling apple cider, just not as sweet. The girls were reluctant to try it, but after they did they literally ran to get their own cups! I was sorry to have to disappoint them and inform them that they could only have a few sips. If you are new to the drink you are only supposed to take a tablespoon or so of it the first day and work your way up to a cup of it a day. For kids, they should only get a half cup. I have heard this tea is great for all sorts of stuff and really wanted to get my kids on it, but was afraid I might have to plead and cajole them into drinking it. But not so, I will have to make sure they are not sneaking it! Ha, ha.

I also wanted to share a site with you all. I have this tape series called A Godly Home, from Charity ministries. I had pulled it out the other day because I wanted to go through it again. However Jed got ill so it has been on the back burner this past weekend. This morning I saw it and decided that I needed to set a time to listen to it each day (it has about 15 tapes to it). Imagine my surprise to see that Shannon posted about these tapes today on her blog. They now have the sermons available online to listen to anytime you want. I am starting with the Hidden Woman sermon, a must listen to! Then I will start from the beginning. Check them out when you have a chance.

It's been raining most of the day. The kids played out in the rain this morning. Right now we are having a break from the rain and they are out again. They got their schooling done and cleaned up. I was lamenting the fact that their bathroom was such a mess. I kept saying I had to start up their chore cards (Chore Packs from the Maxwells), and how I needed to teach them all their chores all over again. Now you may think this is totally insane (I know I did!) but I have been putting it off because it just seemed so overwhelming to teach them the whole routine. Ok, people, my brain really must be mush. Why did I think I had to teach them ALL of it? I realized that I could just start with one area, like their disgusting bathroom, and teach them that, going over it each day until it is second nature to them. I have always tried to go over their WHOLE chore routine with them, and we never get them all done. After a week of never getting anything else done around the house I had given up. Sometimes it scares me how clueless I can be :-P Oh well, better late than never! So we will have "Bathroom cleaning 101" class starting tomorrow!

I must be off. The baby will be waking soon. I will have to get the girls cleaned up as they are all wet and muddy. Then we need to go off to get our goat's milk. I have to do so before Jed's next feeding as I ran out of milk. I am going to have to buy regular milk for the rest of us and save the goat's milk just for Jed (freezing the rest for later during the winter when the goats aren't milked). I should have done so the past two weeks, but again, it's that mushy brain syndrome! You all have a great day!