Friday, November 16, 2018

Party time!

  We have had many years when friends were few.  There were times when friends were made, and we then had to move.  But along the way a friend here, and a friend there were gained...and kept.  Over the years we've had a few parties.  And in the recent past couple of years the party planning, decorating, and food prep has been in the hands of the girls.

  It's been a while since we've had a party that wasn't a birthday party :-)  So this Halloween was the talk of the house.  Even though it was the *girls'* party, the boys were pretty eager to help out!  The boys spent a couple of days getting the outside ready. Cleaning up, chopping some wood for the bonfire, and power washing the porch.  The girls were busy with decorations, and food....and of course costumes.

  The boys decided to go for some store costumes, as did Flannery.  Everyone else put some outfits together with what they had.  We did a little photo shoot, though Jeremiah, I and the littles took off to our church's Fall Fest so I was not able to get photos of all their guests as they hadn't all arrived.

  It is a blessing to see a house full of wonderful teens.   Teens that you can leave at home and know that all will be well while you are away.  We came home to everyone either playing board games or hanging out in the kitchen snacking.  Unfortunately the bonfire did not happen.  The wood would not catch fire.  That did not deter them.  They just changed plans.  Instead they hung out on the trampoline telling scary stories.

  The littles had a blast at church.  Lots of food and fun.  A hay ride and games were a huge hit with the kiddos.  The evening ended with trunk-or-treat.  With only about 10 cars I was surprised to see my kids come away with more candy then they have ever received going door to door!  Since we have started detoxing I didn't want the kids to be eating sugar on a weekly basis, so they got a good handful...or two...and then they traded it all in for a new toy each.

  What really warmed my mama heart was when we got home and the bigger kids didn't ignore the little kids :-)  I know it can be a bummer to have your little siblings running around when you are trying to have a big kid party....so I was relieved when they were included, at least up to a point.  We tried to make sure that the littles didn't come in and take over!  Ha, ha!


Saoirse was going to be Black Riding Hood, as we didn't have a red cape.




But that quickly changed to a vampire sort of character.




Flannery was going to be this cowboy cactus-bee-butterfly-cat kind of character, but she decided to just go with the cowboy cactus.








Merida was supposed to be Minnie Mouse, but her costume went missing that day.  It ended up being in the closet...the one behind the photo 'booth' that the girls set up for the party!  We found her costume the next day.  So she went with what she was last year...a cat.




Kristi was a butterfly back from the dead.  The one that you either killed by accident, or not....to get revenge.  They have some imagination!




A close up of Saoirse's makeup artistry :-)




Heidi was a sorceress.  We thought adding the cat in as a prop was the finishing touch.








Aubrey was Picachu.  As soon as he saw this costume he insisted he HAD to have it. 








Even Loki got in on the dressing up :-)  Not sure how much he enjoyed it, but he did look festive!




I couldn't get the other boys to break from the group to get individual shots.  Here are all the littles.  Jed as Bonnie, and Jonah as Foxy from Five Nights at Freddy's.








Everyone decided to jump in to do a dab, or three.




Katie and Merida.  Katie was a fair maiden. 








Moira and Adam were trying to find a great couples costume idea, but they couldn't find one.  So Moira decided to be a deer, and Adam was a lumberjack. Adam's mom had made him this yarn beard and I wish I had gotten a picture of it, it was really cool!















Isabella dressed up as a student from Hogwarts and Liam was Harry Potter....a *very* cute Harry Potter if I do say so myself!

    

Friday, November 02, 2018

Running Barefoot Through Fields of Blue

Once upon a time, in a beautiful land where the skies were a brilliant blue, the grass an emerald green, and where the children ran barefoot without care....ehhhh, scratch that.  I'm definitely in a land where the skies are a beautiful blue (Carolina blue for that matter :-) ), but grass is nowhere to be found.  The children, well they do run barefoot without care.  There is some sort of physics law that has to do with all things reverting to chaos.  Yup, that's where we are at.  We do have green, but it's all weeds.  Like 6 foot tall weeds.  And, no, I'm not joking.

The past couple of years have been trying.  That would be putting it lightly.  But amidst the storms there have been breathtaking breaks in the clouds where the sun seems brighter than it normally would.  That certainly helped to get us through those dark days.  The kids have been asking to go through the blog, to look at the pictures, to read the stories.  There are a lot of missing stories for the past two years. For good reason.  It was not the time to tell them.

We have battled a slew of illnesses.  I am sure you have all seen that theme here on my blog....illness this, illness that. Diet this, supplement that.  Health has most certainly alluded us.  Black mold was found in our house, which we got rid of, and for the first time in years we had a winter that only had one case of the sniffles.  Amazing to say the least.  Unfortunately there are some signs of weakened immune systems here as we head in the winter of 2018/2019 that I am very much hoping have nothing to do with any possible mold hiding out.  Only time will tell.

Then there was the year of separation in our marriage.  It was very much needed.  Still a long ways to go in the marriage department, so a work in progress.

Then there was the horrible car accident, that took a good 6 months of our life.  However the ramifications have lasted much longer than that.  I was finally ready to get back to life this summer (a year after the accident), when we were hit with whooping cough!  And I had a lovely stint as an alternate juror on a murder trial.  We were blessed with a reduced membership to an aquatic center, due to Moira being an employee.  The first summer in NC, in a VERY long while, that we had access to a pool.  We went multiple times a week.  Thankfully whooping cough isn't as horrid as it is made out to be IF....please NOTE the **IF**.... you are taking very high levels of vitamin C.  And then we had the wonderful blessing of making it to NY for my youngest brother's wedding. We had not been to NY in 14 years!  The last time we were there, Saoirse was only 9 months old!

And then we had another amazing blessing, that was of course first met with rough seas.  Our first grandbaby was born this past February!  Isabella had a rough pregnancy.  As in morning sickness all 9 months.  A few scares along the way thrown in for good measure. But at the end of it all was a precious baby boy.  His name is Liam Jeremiah.  He is now 8 months old, and the star of the show around here.  The months that followed his birth were very difficult.  There was a stay in the NICU, then horrible, horrible nursing problems. Those issues were solved three months in with a tongue and lip tie revision.  Isabella exclusively pumped for three months!  Now they have a strong nursing relationship!  There were a few bouts of thrush, and some horrid dental issues.  Isabella was plagued by horrible, horrible heartburn, that literally rotted her back teeth :-(  On top of it she had to get her wisdom teeth out.  It's been a rough ride for those two.

Having older children has made things easier and harder all rolled into one. Flannery was blessed with her first job at Krispe Kreme.  Having to drive her back and forth, Moira back and forth, and Saoirse to any events was taking a bit of a toll.  Thankfully with another vehicle added to the mix that has made things a bit easier.

So we land here.  Still in some chaos.  Behind on many levels and in many ways.  Time running out to find a way to get to the root of Jedidiah's issues.  And like I mentioned early, signs of weakened immune systems.  It was back to the drawing board.  Plans were drawn up, and we've just begun implementing the plan.  I'll have to share another day.  The plan was not made till after I had a bit of a meltdown.  Because, let's be honest, chaos is messy.  In our case, very messy.  Figuratively and literally.  And so as a plan was being created I decided that I would attempt to get out at least once a week to try to make art out of the chaos. For me that would mean photographs.  My kids do a good enough job making art messes in the house, I didn't want to add to that :-)


Hula hoops that have seen better days.  Though we spent a lot of time poolside, not a lot of time was spent in the yard.  It's time to pick these guys up and get moving!



See, weeds *can* be pretty!  Actually there are a lot of weeds that are powerhouses of nutrition and healing.  Just one of the many, many....many weeds in our yard.  Our neighbor's goats have been getting out and hanging in our yard.  Who needs a mower, when you have goats.  We need to get some goats of our own...we miss ours greatly!



Chains.  These in particular are chains to lock up the front gate.  But figuratively I would say we were being bound by a lot of chains mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  With God's help all of them will be broken!



Another beautiful parting of the clouds was Moira's re-dedication baptism, and Jedidiah and Aubrey's baptism this summer.  Jedidiah wrote this on the foundation of our house.  Fitting.  Jesus needs to be our foundation!  When he's not....the house does indeed fall.  Thankfully He is still in the business of miracles. Houses can be rebuilt, and rebuilt on a proper foundation.
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