Finally the cake

So we were well enough, temporarily, to indulge in some birthday cake. I wanted to make a checkerboard cake for Jonah's birthday. We didn't get pictures of the inside of the cake, which is where the checkered pattern is. Oh well, it came out, but not very well. I needed to make three layers and so decided on making the batter from scratch. I was not very impressed with the cake. It was dense and so the layers were very short. It tasted really yummy, but it was missing that light, fluffy texture that I was looking for. Oh well, we live and learn :-) Jonah dived into the cake with his little fist and shoved it in his mouth.....a proper response I would say!

We are trying to get back on our feet from this tummy bug. We are now on a three day modified juice fast. It won't be all juice, some yogurt, kombusha, kefir (notice the theme of fermented liquids?) and some homemade chicken broth with brown rice. I am hoping to get our bodies back on track. A lot of things have gone undone over hear and we have our work cut out for us. I am stalling.....can you tell? Actually I have done quite a bit today, but it is in the area of food prep than cleaning. So off to clean and school :-) Have a great day!

Birthday bash (that wasn't) round 3, DING!

Well it was Jonah's big first birthday today. The poor guy got a bit short changed on the celebration part of it due to us still being sick. So we put off the cake till later in the week. We did give him his birthday present as we had hoped it would help keep him (and Jed) occupied while we tried to rest on the couches. It was a pitiful site I tell ya. But it seems we have turned a bit of a corner and I am hoping that we will all have a good nights sleep. We have been trying to get more in the habit of not going to the store on the Sabbath. However, with us being so sick someone had to go get some gatorade and popcicles. So I ran out and bought a bunch of, well, junk :-) There is just no way that I will be able to cook the next couple of days, and seeing as how my oldest two daughters are ill as well that leave no one to cook (Jeremiah is sick too!). So I bought some flavored rice, noodles, waffles, bread, crackers, juice and popcicles. That should hold us over for the next couple of days. We got some recommendations on some natural remedies to try and we started on those as well.

I just have to tell you all about an amazing blessing that we received recently. There are a lot of projects that need doing here on the homestead. Jeremiah and Joe (my b-i-l) were making up a list. One of the big items was to get the back yard cleared. Jeremiah had already cut down a bunch of trees, but the stumps were left and we had a bunch of really small thin trees/shrubs around. Well the other day as Jeremiah was driving home he came upon a date book with papers swirling all over the road. He got out and picked it up, trying to catch as much as he could. When he got home he had to go through it to see who it belonged to. He said that it looked like it belonged to someone who did tree removals. So he gave a call and the man was overjoyed that he had found his planner and told Jeremiah that as a thank you he would give us free service. Jeremiah told him that just days before he was talking about the need to clear our backyard. He basically said, count it done! He came the very next day and cleared our back yard!! We still have a lot of small brush (that could be mowed down), but oh my goodness, what an amazing blessing! I'll have to find a "before" picture to show the comparison sometime.

On to a couple of pictures :-)


Jedidiah, just looking cute. He got this new digger shirt and carried it around for a while before he would let me put it on him. He is starting to try and get dressed himself and he puts one arm in at the neck hole and then out of the arm hole and comes up to me wondering why it isn't working :-)

We managed to get Jonah's birthday sign made last night. The girls were picture happy! I never got around to hanging it up and just had the girls hold it up for the picture.

The cousins. From left to right we have Georgia (4 next month), Isabella (12 next month), Emma (6), Flannery (7), Saoirse (5), Moira (10) holding Jonah (1!), Remmington (7) and Jedidiah (3). Jonah was obviously not in photo op mode. Poor guy.

Here is Moira with her birthday sign, I had not posted it in her birthday post. I try to get creative with their signs, but this year I've been lacking in creativity. Hey, they at least got a sign :-)

a quick stop in

Tomorrow we have another birthday to celebrate, Jonah's first! I am really, really hoping that we are all well by then. We have caught a tummy bug that a couple of us have, including yours truly. We had a wonderful, wonderful visit with my sister and her family. Unfortunately some of them got sick as well! I hope they are all better by now :-) Anyways it was so great to see them all as it has been too long since we last saw each other. That last time was when Jed had his g-tube put in and they came down to help out. It was a whirlwind and stressful two days and then they were off, not a wonderful way to spend a visit, so I was happy to have had this one where we all had time to enjoy each others company. My sister was able to see the holistic care person that Jed is seeing. I am SO excited for her!!! She finally, FINALLY has answers to her health concerns that she has lived with for so very long. I have written some about our appointment and if you would like to visit my sister blog (link on the side bar) you can read about hers. She told my sister a story that makes my hair stand on end. A lady with cancer had been going the regular chemo/radiation route, but not getting much success. She decided to try an alternative care person and she was healed of her cancer. She went back to her oncologist for testing (I am assuming to get confirmation of it's remission/healing) and her oncologist was amazed that she was better and wanted to know what she did. She told him as she was very excited about the results and thought that the oncologist's inquiry was for that same reason. But not so, the oncologist went on to SUE the alternative care person for LOST WAGES!!! Tell me there's not something totally wrong with that picture! Anyways, that has made us a bit more apprehensive about sharing details as we wouldn't want to see anything happen to the person we are seeing.

I am on our back computer so I don't have access to the pictures that I took of our visit (I only got a few). I will be back, maybe tomorrow or Monday. Hopefully I'll have b-day pictures as well. I just remembered that I need to make a birthday sign for baby boy! I better get to work. I am hoping we will be able to make church tomorrow, but it's looking sketchy. Although I am feeling better at the moment as it seems that food is starting to make me feel better for short bouts of time, but then I feel sick all over again. Let me just say that I do NOT take kindly to stomach bugs! It's been 48 hours, which is 48 hours too long :-)

Birthday bash, round 2

UGH! I am really hating blogger at the moment as I still can not move my text or pictures around. This has been going on for a couple of weeks. Grrrrrr. I prefer to write my post above the pictures and then put my pictures in order. However you'll have to have the pics first (out of order) and then read.


Moira posing with her beloved sisters and birthday gift (back pack, colored pencils, markers, crayons, paints, brushes and pallets.

Moira again, looking so very 10!

Cutting into the yummy cake.

The cake close up. It really was pretty! Here it was a bit melted. But that didn't alter the taste.

We only got a couple of pictures of Jonah at the lake. Too busy watching children to take any other pictures. But what a cutie, walking around!

So Moira turned double digits! The Big Ten! We celebrated the day before her actual birthday as it was going to be too busy on her actual birth day. We had to grocery shop in the morning, not the funnest birthday activity :-) Then we got home, and Moira started making her cake. I started on her birthday dinner, sweet and sour meatballs, and the beloved cranberry sauce. Moira had a great idea for her cake. Unfortunately something happened to it and it was lopsided. She made a white cake. In between the two layers she spread marshmallow fluff. Then we topped the cake with vanilla ice cream. Then she frosted the whole thing and decorated it. When I was growing up ice cream cakes were made entirely of ice cream. But down here ice cream cakes are half cake and half ice cream. Odd I tell ya.

I had told Moira she could pick a park to go to and she asked if we could go to the lake to go swimming. So we ate an early dinner and headed to the lake. It was 6 pm when we got there. It was perfect as it wasn't too hot. We stayed for an hour, as that is all my nerves can handle, trying to keep track of 6 children in a large body of water. Isabella lost an earring while there, and Flannery went underwater for the first time! So some good, some bad. Jonah LOVED the water. He was getting to be a little dare devil, so Jeremiah took him up to the towels and let him play in the sand. Then Jed became daring, so I figured it was time to take off to home for some cake. After the yummy cake Moira opened her gift. She had asked for this boxed art set, but after reading some reviews of the product we figured we needed to take another route. So we bought a bunch of art supplies and put them into a nice back pack. She loved it!

tummy buggy

We had been doing so great......health wise that is.....until last night. Jedidiah was acting a bit funky yesterday, nothing that I could put my finger on. He's been eating really great (for Jed) lately and so I did think it was odd that he didn't want any noodles at dinner last night. He sat there, rather quiet, not really involved with our dinner talk. And then it happened....he threw up. It's been quite a while since he's done that. We are sort of out of practice with getting towels and what not. Not that I mind being out of practice, truly this is not something you want to have a lot of practice with :-) I was hoping that maybe he was reacting to the new supplements that we have him on. We were supposed to go swimming at a friends house today and all the girls were eagerly looking forward to it. I didn't hook Jed up last night as I wasn't sure what the cause of the tummy problem was. He woke up and the VERY first thing he did, with in seconds of seeing me was to ask for water. I got him a cup of water and proceeded to watch the poor fellow try to drink it. I say try because the poor boy was shaking so bad that he could hardly get the cup to his mouth :-( He found that if he held his upper arms tight to his body he had better control over the cup (he wouldn't let me hold it for him). I got him hooked up right away so that I could get some calories into him. But he was only 1/3 into the feeding when he threw up again. Ugh! I called my friend to say that we would not be coming. We talked about how it could be the supplements, and she said I should just wait to see what would happen over the next couple of hours. But I knew this was not a reaction to supplements when I saw that he fell asleep on the couch, and he had only been up 2 hours! As I type this at 9 pm Jed is asleep and has been for about an hour and a half! Needless to say the girls were very disappointed. But we do have plans on going over to swim on Monday. Before we swim we will learn how to milk my friend's goats. We will be taking care of them when they go away. And on top of that we will have my sister and her family come visit us this coming week! Yeah! We are REALLY looking forward to their visit. This coming week will be bookended by two birthdays, each on Sunday. So LOTS of things to look forward to this week. I think I am getting the hang of making kefir. I made a chocolate one today that the girls actually enjoyed drinking. I think one of the problems is that I have too many kefir grains! I was recently told that you only need about a tablespoon for the amount I am making, I think I have a half cup. So if anyone out there wants some, let me know and I can send them to you. Just leave me a comment and I'll see what I can do to get them to you. Yes, people send them through the mail :-)

Well off to make a grocery list. I am hoping to get a jump start on our day tomorrow by hitting the store early. Then pick up a library book that I am really looking forward to reading. It's supposed to help with teaching your children sign language. On a side note, the girls and I have been learning to sign one of the songs we sing at church. We learned on a few weeks ago, and now we are learning a new one. I think I will try to video us signing it! Trust me it is apparent that we are not experts ;-) But we have fun with it, and it helps us to learn more signs. Ok, after the library we will do a bit of cleaning, then hopefully have the evening to have fun at the park (as long as Jed is feeling OK). Off to see about making a video.

Our 4th Weekend

Well you will have to see what I wrote below as I can NOT get the pictures to move, nor can I copy and paste my post above the pictures. Something is going on with blogger and it is driving me insane! As I explain below, here are some pictures of me brewing some kombusha....


What you don't see in the picture is the 12 cups of water boiling on the stove. While your water is boiling you can gather your other supplies, shown here. We have a gallon glass jar with 1 cup of sugar in it, 4 black tea bags, and a bottle of RAW or LIVE kombusha tea.

When your water comes to a boil, pour it into the glass jar and stir till the sugar dissolves. Add the tea bags and let brew until the water comes to room temperature. Then when it cooled you open your bottle of kombusha and pour the whole thing in.

And there in the upper part, the white film, is the baby SCOBY. I liked my first baby SCOBY that I had as it was really cute, this one is just a film, not very cute. Oh well as long as it makes my tea transform into kombusha I'll keep it :-)

The girls wanted hair wraps for the 4th. However, only Moira had the patience to get one. Here it is in red, white and blue.

Moira preferred to wear her wrap across her head like a hair band. It was really cute.

Here are our kittens, cute little things....anyone want one?

We spent our 4th of July with a wonderful family from church. The kids played some games, and they got some fun little goody bags. The hit of the night were glow sticks! After dinner of homemade pizza, salad and juice we went out for fireworks. Everyone, except Jed, enjoyed the fireworks. The baby was really tired, but thought the fire works were pretty funny. The girls ran around the field we were in getting to twirl their glow sticks and hold sparklers. Jedidiah on the other hand refused to look at the fire works! He didn't cover his ears with the noise, but he would NOT look in their direction. Poor guy. We went home to gobble up some yummy dessert, which was just some pound cake with berries and whipped topping. Then it was off to bed for a bunch of tired kiddos.

While our company was here I was showing Mrs. H my kombusha. Wouldn't ya know my kombusha mushroom was sprouting mold! How embarrassing. Due to some health issues we will be adding a bunch of fermented foods to our diet on a regular basis, kombusha being one of them. I've been brewing kombusha for a year, but not on a regular basis. I also acquired some kefir grains and we will be having some today.....hoping that the shorter brewing time will make it a lot less sour. So come along with me on a very exciting kombusha tutorial...

First Birthday of the Month

HAPPY 3RD BIRTHDAY JEDIDIAH!!

It was a busy day here for the birthday boy. We had a few appointments in the morning. Then we had to run to get his birthday dinner as I seemingly forgot to add those items to our grocery list! It was a dinner of hot dogs, tater tots and the beloved cranberry sauce. I am sure most of you will know where the idea for the cranberry sauce came from....the girls! we had a wonderful young lady take care of the children today while we were out and about. She put together the cookie cake ingredients. So all I had to do was pop it in the oven. And let me follow in my sister's footsteps, and give you all a tip of what NOT to do in the kitchen.....When making a large cookie make sure there is room on your cookie tray for expansion. It was not a pretty site, unless you are the sort of person who enjoys seeing flames on the bottom of your oven. After we extinguished the fire we sat down to eat. By then the cookie had cooled off. We set about decorating it....with lots of help :-) Then Jedidiah got to open his presents. The night before we gave him one gift (hoping it would distract him at his appointment the following day). It was a Halo figure. For his actual birth day we gave him two puzzles that make noises when you put the pieces in. One is of animals, the other is for vehicles. We got to listen to it over and over and over and over and over and over.....did I say over? And each time Jedidiah wanted us to say something about it.....like name the object or say the sound. Over and over and over...wait I said that already didn't I? I think you got the idea. The funny thing is that the puzzle works when the little receptor is covered and it has to be exposed to light first, but Jedidiah wouldn't lift the puzzle piece up far enough to make it work. So I told him to hold the piece up to his head. I was amazed that he did it as he has a hard time with positional words. So now you will see him lift each piece to his head, making sure to gently touch it, and then lower it to the puzzle. I am sure that if you didn't know the story behind it you would think it a very odd way to work a puzzle :-) While were were gone at our appointments the girls drew up Jedidiah's birthday sign. It is very colorful! They couldn't find the blue streamers, so Jed just had some white ones.





The beloved birthday sign.

Jed was entranced with the ABC's candles. Saoirse is waiting for Jed to open his gift from her.

I can't get my pictures in order so here is Jed clapping after he blew out his candles.

Jed all excited about his candles. He wasn't interested in the cookie cake, but the candles, candles, candles! Too funny!

The wonderful cookie cake. All decorated by girly girls. They helped pick the sprinkles, thus a little less on the boy side of things :-) Jed didn't seem to notice!