Outside time

Just some cute pictures of our outside time the other day.  Not a lot of time to write words.  So pictures will have to do.

 Merida loves Isabella's new pony, Olaf.  I'm not sure if he is fond of her though!

 Our new chickens, 4 of the 40.

 Country water park :-)

 The boys did this themselves.

 Merida LOVES the swing.  Swing, swing.  She is now fond of doing the "One for the money, two for the show...."

 One of our cat's new kittens.  This one was not happy to be picked up.

 So cute.

 Aubrey's turn.

 Merida's first braids.  This is the first girl, at this young of an age, that will let me do her hair.  It only took 5!  So if you are only on girl number 1 or 2, don't give up :-)

 More kitten and boy cuteness.

 "No, Merida, *smell* the flower, don't eat it!"

 Merida loves helping to feed and water the animals.

Woah! From this angle she looks like she is 3 years old!  Not so fast there little one.

Life is going along

Well, for starters, we are all still alive.  A good thing.

So you know my post where I rant about the verse, 'my people perish for a lack of knowledge'?  Well, a week or so before that I saw an email about a Bible study some women were doing from a past church we had gone to.  It sounded like something I should do.  I asked Moira if she would like to join me.  She said yes, though she asked if we could skip the first one as it was on her birthday.  However the study is only 4 weeks long, so I told her no.

The study is on 'how to study the Bible', and the very first passage that you study in the book?  It contains the verse, 'my people perish for a lack of knowledge'!!!!!  I think God was trying to get my attention!  Moira was bummed that we were going on her birthday, but she told me later that she was very glad we went.  The scriptures really seemed to relate to what our family was going through at the moment (this is coming from Moira).  She was amazed to see the relation between what the scripture says will happen when there is a lack of knowledge (and this knowledge is of God's ways/laws) and the state of our family that relates right to what the scripture says will happen.  Amazing!

I thought I would share that and a few phone pictures of some past events.  They are not the best, but I thought it would be more pleasant to share something positive :-)

 One wee picture of Jed's birthday getting set up. All of the 'real' pictures are on my camera, which I can't download since we don't have a working card reader at the moment.  Jed had a Minecraft themed birthday party, and these were the potions (colored lemonade).

 July 4th started with some red, white and blue pancakes for breakfast.  Jonah freaked out at the sight of them and refused to eat them, saying they would taste horrid.  I had to explain, and re-explain that it was the same as the green colored cake that he ate for Jed's birthday.  The taste was the same, just the colors different.  He finally at them.

 Moira's 16th birthday.  She will be having a birthday party soon, but this was part of her birthday dinner...a day late.  The boys made the cakes, can you tell?  I LOVE the leaning candles!

 Did anyone else 'celebrate' cow appreciation day at Chick-fil-a?  We did!!  If you dressed like a cow you got a free meal.  I thought it was just a simple meal like a chicken sandwich, but it was *any* meal that they had!  Wow!  Here is our youngest calf.

Some of the bigger cows!  Moira had some friends meet her there, so she sat at the 'cool' table :-)  Her friends are great actually!  They were all dressed up.  It was a HUGE, HUGE surprise to see Isabella show up!!  That was the first public place that she has been to in 9 months!!  She had stopped taking her remedies about 10 days prior (due to the stress of losing her job and horse), and the aggravations finally wore off.  Healing was taking place, we just couldn't see much of it due to the aggravations.  Anyways, this is a result of the remedies bringing healing.  She still has a LONG way to go, but that was soooooo encouraging to see!!

The younger cows.  They all had a ton of fun, and really loved the indoor playground as well.  It had been a very long time since we've eaten out.  So this was a real treat.

 Merida was trying to figure out how to use a straw.  She would put the straw in her mouth and tip the cup upside down...hence her wet face and shirt.  She eventually figured it out!  You should have seen her keeping up with her brothers on the indoor playground!!

Jonah getting in the van after our meal.  He looks so much older in this picture!  This is not his usual look, but handsome non-the-less.

That is it for now.  Hopefully one day I will have 'real' birthday pictures, Runner's Camp pics and whatever else is on my camera card!

Things went from Bad to Worse

Ah, that is when one must take notice...if for no other reason than it is hard NOT to notice that life was hard enough, and is now miserable.  Ugh.  But, in the midst of it all we do indeed see God at work.  As for my sinful self that would mean seeing God working in between my moments of name calling (to God).  Yes, pathetically sinful. The day after my last post went something like this:
  7:30 AM: Isabella leaves for work (at the horse barn), but returns a couple of minutes later...with a kitten in her hands.  The kitten looks fine, Bella says she only has a moment, but two things....One, something having to do with money.  Two, this kitten (she holds it up) was up under the car, and as she was driving up our dirt road she saw it fly out from under the car and land on the side of the road.  It couldn't walk with it's back legs.  Flannery and I took turns giving the kitten some remedies for shock and pain.  About 3 hours later the kitten was trying to move around.  By later that evening she was walking around!  Phew. But, boy was that stressful.  Someone was supposed to be coming by that afternoon to take her and another kitten home.  They ended up getting kittens from someone else, so we still have said kittens.

8:30 AM:  Jeremiah tries to play with Merdia and she gets hurt (minimally so).  Her reaction has me wondering if she is getting sick?  Hmmm.

10:30 AM:  Merida gets up on a chair in the dining room and falls backwards, flat on her back/head.  Sigh.

Lots more taking care of kitten and other small things I can not remember right now.

4:00 PM:  Jeremiah and I are walking out the door, literally, when the phone rings and one of the girls calls out that it's "L".  Hmmm, that's odd, she rarely calls, and only when I call her first.  "L" is Bella's horse trainer.  At soon as she starts talking I can tell something is wrong.  She goes on to say that there were things at the barn that went wrong that day and because of that Isabella is fired.  WHOA!!!  Now, there is a TON, TON, TON, TTTTTTTTOOOOOOOONNNNNNN, more that went on in this situation over the next 3 days.  It all boils down to this:  Mistakes had been made, in Bella's contract if that were to happen she loses her horse.  HER HORSE!  The one that saved her life.  And NO I am NOT exaggerating when I say it saved her life.  We do not go out, obviously, and spend all evening with Bella talking and praying.  I am leaving this in God's hands, for Him to bring the truth front and center.  The thing that got me upset was that this wasn't the first time there were mistakes made by Bella.  In the past "L" covered for her.  That isn't the upsetting part.  The upsetting part is that "L" has made plenty of mistakes on her part, that Bella has had to cover for.

6:30 PM:  Jeremiah takes off for a counseling meeting, but comes back two minutes later.  I sigh....this can't be good.  He calls me out of Bella's room, and in private tells me that he found a dead kitten on the side of our road.  Apparently the first kitty that was hurt that morning wasn't alone :-(  She made it, but her brother did not.  And to be fair, he was definitely dead right at the get go....there would have been no saving him should we have found him immediately after the accident.

That was the first day after my last post.  Since then we have had a goat stop eating.  Meds have not helped.  She is eating greens, which is good, but I have a bad feeling about this situation.  I am not sure I can handle a dead goat right now :-(  Our central AC stopped working.  So we are down to just one room that is cool (this little AC unit sometimes can not keep up with all the bodies in there, so we are doing good if the room is at least cool).  This means that little kitchen work is being done.  The heat along with the high humidity is brutal.  We weren't able to attend any fire works this year...ya know, due to the terrorist threats...sigh.  We did get to go to a friends July 4th party where we had a lot of fun, but not without trouble as well.  Though the actual reason for the stopped up toilet was not Jonah's fault, the fact that he flushed it and it over spilled was.  Talk about a mess!  Thankfully our friends take those kinds of things in stride! The baby finally, FINALLY kicked the bladder infection.  But only in time to get the horrid cough that everyone else had.  She is sick, sick, sick.  Poor thing keeps coming up to me and pointing to her eyes, and saying, "Eyes, ouchie."  She is extremely wrestles at night.  Medicine helps some.  But that does not stop her from feeling yuck throughout the day.

On a good note the kids are enjoying Runners Camp.  Though it was made apparent that Jed still needs a 'shadow' (a person devoted to keeping an eye on him).  He 'lost' his team multiple times the first two days!!  Flannery is a volunteer at one of the game stations and yesterday they had more helpers than needed.  She was asked to help elsewhere, and it happened to be on Jed's team!!!  Phew!  He did much better!!!  No getting lost.  Jed is still having auditory processing issues!  That means he needs time to process one command. So if the coach says, "Ok team, after this event we are going to take a bathroom break and head over to the snack station..."  Well, you lost Jed on the "after this event" part.  The other day Jed was standing two feet from the table.  He asked me where I put his bowl of oatmeal (sometimes it is up on the counter, other times it's on the table).  I told him I put it on the table. the table was on his right hand side.  Jed turns to the left, and is about to take a step in that direction when I call out, "Jed, stop....(wait)...your food is on the TABLE....(wait).....(he turns to the table)....the bowl is in my spot on the table...(he looks and sees his food)".  Besides those issues he was still having fun.

Aubrey, who turned 4 at the beginning of the year, is not happy with the fact that he can not attend Runner's Camp.  Not only can he not go this year, but he won't be able to go next year either!  The camp is for 6-12 year olds.  Poor little guy.

It is times like this that make me afraid to wake up the next day!!  I worry about what other major issue will come up.  The Bible says don't worry about tomorrow because today has enough troubles of it's own.  Sad, but true.  But day after day of  troubles gets exhausting.  I worry about Jeremiah taking Flannery and Saoirse to Breyer Fest in Kentucky.  Will they stay safe?  Will they get lost?  It comes to a point that I want everyone to sit in a chair and not move....for the next week.  Ha, ha!  Do you think that would help?

Ok, on to getting some work done, if I can muster it.

When Life is Hard

Before I begin I want to give a little disclaimer.  As a Christian I *know* who is in charge of everything.  I know what the Bible says (obviously not perfectly, but I have a working knowledge).  What I am going to write is how I FEEL right now.  Things are hard and dare I say raw right now.  What I am going to write will be a mixer of whining, fear, despair and other not so 'christian' things to write.  I write this in hopes that one day there may be a happy ending.  Until then, this is how it looks....and don't say I didn't warn you... it's not pretty.  Please KNOW that I am very, very well aware that there are people out in the world who are *truly* suffering.  By comparison what I am going through is a walk in the park.  But, that being said, that doesn't mean what I am going through isn't painful, or chaotic for me.  I do realize that I am blessed. 


I think we can all agree that on the bigger picture front things do not look good.  I am thinking of giving up on reading anything on the internet as it seems we are being assaulted from all sides.  People being persecuted (and I mean REAL persecution, running for their lives), damaging earthquakes and weather, and other horrors.  On the home front we are facing a degradation in our society.  Our Constitutional rights are being taken from us.  Parental rights are being taken away from us.  Our food supply chain is in the hands of the greedy.  Our medical options are being attacked (anyone see the article on 3 alternative doctors dead in FL? Two murdered, the other dead of unknown causes at this time.)  The powers that be are pitting us against each other.  They try to deny the public of actual truth and facts.  What we have read about other 'evil' countries of the past in history class, we are walking in right now.  I am truly afraid of the day that the government *will* take homeschooling away.  I am truly afraid that we *will* be in civil war.  This time it won't be the North versus the South.  It will be the Government versus the citizens.  But I think they will skew things enough that we will be fighting amongst ourselves until we get a clue as to who the real enemy is.

I am grateful for those who are wise, and hopeful.  Hopeful that love and the love of Christ will prevail.  This does not have to be the end of America.  I'm just not sure how many others out there have that same perspective.

As if all of that was not enough.  There is I guess what you could call a civil war in our own home.  I obviously can not go into details, but suffice it to say that it is bad.  Very bad.  I think after 20 years I have just numbed myself.  I have found myself slipping again and again into depression.  These times of depression seem to be coming closer and closer together.  I am tired.  Very, very tired.  And not the kind of tired that I need a nap (though I wouldn't turn one down!).  That tiredness of not wanting to go on.  Deep down to the bones.

I liken it to a house that has a very faulty foundation.  And after a while you are going to get doors that do not shut properly, or windows falling out of their tracks.  There will be holes in the walls, and cracks in the ceiling.  Given enough storms the house is going to start to lean.  And eventually it will fall.  Right now I think our house is falling.  It's not that we didn't know the foundation was faulty.  Heck we 'bought' the house knowing the foundation was faulty.  And all these years we keep fixing those doors and windows, plastering the walls, etc.  But the damage is deep.  As we've 'added' on, more is at stake.  There have been small attempts through the years to fix the foundation.  But each time was short lived and small in it's scope of effect.              

And if that wasn't enough I am wrestling with my faith.  Not as to whether I believe or not.  But kind of 'what's the point'?  I mean if we die and things are supposed to be glorious and perfect afterwards, then why the heck am I even still playing this game?  Again, I realize I am not suffering like others.  It is hard though to think that somehow we in America will be spared from the horrors that others face in the world.  But one can hope.

Then there is this scripture that has me in a tizzy.  The one that says, "my people parish for the lack of knowledge",  My physical body is suffering because of an earlier lack of knowledge.  What I thought was an act of glorifying God (leaving our fertility up to Him) seems to be more of a curse.  Suffering the effects of my lack of knowledge of how to properly sit, stand, give birth, etc.  And now I have the 'privilege' of dealing with some very uncomfortable ailments.  And I think to myself....as wrong as it is....'thanks God'.  I spend a lot of time trying to do the best in caring for my family.  And we are 'blessed' with sickness, sickness, sickness.  I know that when I have been walking closely with God that things 'feel' better, but actually more bad things happen.  It takes a lot of time for that kind of relationship, and it is one riddled with constant, constant battle.  The fellowship was sweet, but at this time in my life I am wondering if I have anything in me to rise to that kind of battle.  I'm done with battling. And of course life is supposed to be one big battle, which brings me back to why, why bother? Get it all over now!  Please note I am not suicidal, these are just my raw and angry thoughts that I dare say I am sinful enough to yell to God. As if I could hide them from Him anyways.

I try to focus on other areas of my life, but it only brings me more depression.  I was reading a post on the wonderful calling of homemaking.  The beauty of it.  How to make a house a home, etc.  And I sigh, and click off the page.  Our house, besides the fact that it is falling (not physically, but spiritually), is physically one big yuck ball.  I can not get on top of getting things organized.  After nine years living here the main living areas are painted, along with one bathroom.  That all happened to be a gift from one of our small groups at a church we were once attending.  As it stands now that paint job needs touching up, and forget the fact that the other rooms still remain unpainted.  I am not one for big time decorations.  I am practical, but even the thrown together furniture from all sources at the cheapest we could get...well I'm not sure I am that practical.  I think back to what I wanted our home to be like (in the physical sense), and it is disappointing that it isn't anything close.  It is supposed to be my job to take care of the home, but that has been robbed.  Robbed by what I believe has been misguided teaching.  God gave me the desire to create.  He gave me the desire for simple beauty.  I actually went to school for Fine Arts.  I wonder why God gave those desires and gifts when I can't actually use them.  It seems silly.  Again, what's the point?

Homeschooling is a joke right now.  We need to catch up on some things.  I have fallen into the trap of just getting by for the past year and a half.  I admit I have given up on trying to keep my children's minds well fed.  They all pine to be entertained, and to be lazy in mind (and dare I say body on many days).  It is always, always a constant, constant battle of keeping the computer usage at bay, the movie time at bay, etc.  I am trying to formulate a plan to have an 'old fashion' summer.  Like actually spending lots of time outside.  Playing physical games.  Being creative.  Reading.  Using our minds.  I know...novel right?  Sad.  Not sure how it will all pan out.  I'm not exactly high on energy right now.  But my children's minds are growing very weak and lazy.  I already know that they will go through withdrawal.  And I am being serious about that.

Life is a mess.  I'm a mess. My family is a mess.  Although God is supposed to be in the business of cleaning....that has yet to happen.  Definitely the fault is on our side....but that doesn't change the mess.  So something HAS to change.  Many things HAVE to change.  And change they will.  Not sure if it will be in the right direction or not, but change has to occur.  Staying in my current state of affairs is just no longer an option.

So, as I wrote in the beginning....I can only pray that there will be a happy ending. I would ask that if you are so led, that you would pray for one too.

New Life

I'm a wee bit late with spring happenings, but no better time than the present.  We were late in ordering our chicks, and we purposely bred Moira's goat late so as not to have a newborn kid coming in February.  So the usual spring happenings, just so happened closer to summer.  Can you believe that tomorrow is the first day of summer?!?!  I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around it!

This past week was busy with Moira and Flannery volunteering at Runner's Camp during the morning, then volunteering for VBS in the evening.  The younger ones, all but Merida, partook of VBS. They had a lot of fun, and fit a ton of stuff into one week!  We went to the 'grand finale' tonight, to see the kids perform their songs that they have been working on all week.  Aubrey's age was up first.  He and a few others just kind of sat there...doing nothing.  The kids were taught hand movements along with the music, and the poor guy just sat there!  Ha, ha.  Jonah was next in line (as far as our kiddos go) and he did a great job.  He was very outgoing about the hand movements, and looked like he was having a lot of fun.  Last up was Jed. I was so proud of him.  He was singing the songs to me while running errands today, so I know that he knew the words.  I saw him singing on stage, and really putting effort into the hand movements.  There was a leader up front doing the hand movements to help the kids out, and you could see when Jed knew the movement by heart, and when he didn't.  It takes a bit for him to process what he sees/hears, and put it into action. But he did a great job, and he really had a great time!

It was weird to just have one little one with me for almost 4 hours each evening all week.  Just the baby and me!  Merida and I would play for a bit, then go out to feed the animals.  I would give her a bath, and then it would be bed time.  It was QUIET in my house.  QUIET.  Odd, very, very odd.

Not much else got accomplished, well, except trying to keep our one cat from eating our chicks.  Sigh.  He got one, thankfully I happened to go out at that moment to check on them.  Since it is so hot here we need to check on all the animals often, but the chicks more so, to make sure they have water at all times, and that no one is over heating.  I walk out and hear a chick chirping in the front yard.  The chicks would find ways to get out of the barn, but they wouldn't go more than 2 or 3 feet from the barn.  I thought, "How strange....I wonder what a chick is doing out so far from the barn."  Um, yeah...I look down from the stairs to see said chick in the mouth of our cat!  I saved her, we had to keep her in the house for two days, but she is doing well and back with her flock.  We patched up all the holes we could see, but they were still managing to get out.  Then we found that even though they are only a couple of weeks old (3 weeks maybe), some were able to manage flying over the divider between the goat area of the barn, where we are keeping them, and the old nesting area.  So we had to put up some fencing to keep them in.  So far so good.  I haven't seen any chicks out since we've put the fencing up.

Here are some pictures of the new-ish things around the homestead:

 Kittens. Five of them.  One we are keeping.  You know, you can never have too many cats!  Cough, cough.  We really need to get our female cats fixed.  We had three, one disappeared (fox maybe?), leaving two to 'fix'.  The other one almost died on us, and I thought that with her bout of paralysis that maybe she was going to be sterile?  Um, no such luck. She is due to have kittens soon.

 Oh my goodness...cuteness!  They have full tummies, and are hanging out on the cool rocks.  We have flirted with 100+ for a few days down here, so all the animals have been trying to find the cools spots.

Three of our 30+ chicks.  I don't remember how many we got.  They didn't have some of the ones we wanted, but shipped out the ones they did have, leaving us with a credit.  We used that up, and then some, since they had a minimal shipping number.  On top of that they always throw one or two more in each order, due to the unfortunate possibility that one or two don't make it during shipping.  This year, all of them survived.  But I didn't keep track of how many we didn't get in our first batch, but the extra one or two they added in for good measure, plus the number of chicks in the second batch.  It is a bit over 30 if I am not mistaken.  One of these days we'll count them.  They move too quickly to try to count them right now.

Not the best picture, but these are the two bucklings that Moira's goat, Mocha, had.  Mocha has been VERY people shy.  So much so that Moira was going to sell her, and the bucklings and use that money to buy another goat.  We know how hard it can be to milk our 'socialized' goats, and she didn't want milking to be an epic battle each and every day.  Two times a day.  For the next 6 months or so.  Not fun. However, motherhood has treated Mocha well, and she has actually been coming up to us!  She wants to be pet, and loved on. At first Moira thought she was sick! I mean this is a goat that would bolt if she even thought you might be heading her way.  So for now it looks like we will keep her and see how the milking season goes.

 Lots of refilling of water buckets going on around here.  LOTS.  For some reason this picture does not convey the 102* temps and the humidity.  That water bucket almost seemed to be steaming it was so hot out.  Each day the girls or I go out to top off or dump and refill the animals water buckets/bottles.  Cat bowl, dog bowl, two 5 gallon goat buckets, two chick waterers, and 5 rabbit water bottles.  The baby really enjoys helping.  I LOVE how she tries to say the names of the animals. Doggy, cheep-cheep, bun-bun (for bunnies, so, so cute!), kitty, go (for goats).

 Our peach tree actually has peaches on it this year.  Last year it got some baby ones on it, and they all dropped off when they were all but an inch wide.  This year there were a few that dropped, and there were many that we plucked off.  But as you can see, we have quite a few 'brewing'.  I am very excited to see how things pan out!

 This one is getting a bit of it's peach color to it.  A beautiful sight.

 It appears that our plum tree is following in the peach tree's footsteps. This year is the first that it has any fruit on it, but all of it has dropped.  Above you can see how tiny they are.  I am hoping that next year we will see an actual harvest.

This is our pitiful almond tree.  We have some trees that are growing like mad, and others...not so much!

 Our big growers.  In the front left is our plum tree, behind that is our peach, and over to the right is our cherry tree.  We have one apple tree that is growing well, but the others are still really small.

 Our hoops have not seen much action this past week.  With all of the camps, and the heat, they have been sitting here on our fence post....beckoning to us.  We only have one room with AC in it.  I have thought about bringing in a hoop to hoop in the AC, but too many bodies are occupying that room :-)

The boys had a crazy hair day at VBS this week.  I used some green and blue food coloring on their bangs.  It was only supposed to be the tips of their bangs, but it kind of spread.  Thankfully it all washed out by day 2.  They thought it was neat though while it lasted.

Time for bed!  I am hoping for a good nights sleep.  The baby has been getting her molars in.  Teething = No Sleep.  No Sleep = No Fun. And when she seems to be having a break in the pain...we had a massive storm come through waking me up, then Aubrey who came in a few hours later needing itch relief from some bug bites, and then a girl....and so forth and so on!  Goodnight!

Running errands and such

I always hate when I get behind on posting what has been happening around here!  So much can happen is such a short time.  And then there are the times when it seems that absolutely nothing happens for long stretches of time.  Sigh. So it is either too boring to post, or things are too busy to post.

I have a prom post that needs to be written.  But for now I am waiting for a certain daughter to attempt to get the pictures from her prom date's mom.  And, the pictures that I have, I need to ask the parents of the kiddos involved if they are ok with me posting them online.  Soooo, that may take some time.  Until then I shall give you this post of us running some errands.

 Obviously, this was not an errand, but it was something I did before we ran our errands.  The day before was shopping day. I decided that I needed to get serious about 'putting up' some things.  It never seems like there is enough money to do so, but I figured that I would start with something, anything, no matter how small.  So I had grabbed some extra bags of frozen veggies, and as soon as I got home from grocery shopping I cut open the bags and dumped the contents right onto the dehydrator trays.  This Saturday morning, most of the items I was dehydrating were done (the carrots and spinach were not).  I took these out to cool off and be ready to bag up when we returned from our errands.

 Our little gaggle of children, walking into the store.  I was trying to get a picture of Saorise carrying Merida.  The clothing combos and the cowgirl boots were just too awesome.  But, alas, I did not get the shot!  Bummer.

 Merida's shoe had the habit of falling off multiple times this day.  Saoirse was the lucky child who happened to be at hand when that happened.  As such, the cowgirl boot theme really came into play when she had to wrangle said shoeless child to try to put the said shoe back on.

 Success!  At least for the moment.

 Jonah watching the rodeo from the side lines.  Speaking of rodeo, my girls went to one last week.  Unfortunately they had a poor run in with the owner of the rodeo.  Isabella pulled into the staff parking because she realized that she had an item which belonged to her friend and wanted to give it back.  She got out to hand over the item, during which the owner stormed over the the truck the girls were in and started yelling at them for parking on his grass. They were perplexed as all the other cars were parked on the grass!  Oh, well.  We decided that we would be nice and send him some grass seed. We know how hard it is to grow grass.  After 8 years living here we finally have given up on trying to grow grass.  And wouldn't you know?  We have grass (hay really) growing everywhere this year!  Go figure.

 Merida enjoying a snack.  We have all been having a lot of health issues of late.  Merida herself was very, very ill last week with a bladder infection.  The poor thing was sooooo sick.  Anyways, this is our last hurrah before we go off wheat for a while to see if we can't bring our bodies back into health.



 The girls are in possession of my phone waaaaayyyy more than I am.  I use it for when I am on the road.  The girls try to take it every chance they get!  Here Flannery is using it.

 Some carnations that Walmart was handing out to mothers.  How did they know I was a mom?  Huh.  :-)

 The library was next.  I was trying to get a picture of Jonah putting the books in the book drop.  He was too fast for me!  All of the pictures of him are a blur.

 Merida had a blast with these little chairs.  Just the right size.

 More wrangling.

 She was giving Saoirse a run for her money.

 Aubrey checking out the selection of board books.

 After the library we stopped at the park.  Jedidiah is in the habit of annoying his sister.  We are working on him realizing when enough is enough.  He likes to repeat himself, with words or noises, and thinks it's really funny.  No one else does though.  Certainly not the baby.  He was not hurting her, just kept touching her head, which she did not like.

Someone was getting sleepy!

The girls met up with a couple of friends at the park.  These friends live right across the street from the park, so they ran over to see if they were home.  We had brought our hoops and the girls had a lot of fun teaching their friends some hooping tricks.  See, I didn't get permission to put their friends' pictures online so I have to put little circles over their faces.  Can you imagine me doing that with prom pictures?  No, me neither....so we wait. :-)

 Saoirse exhausted.  Probably from all that wrangling :-)

 Aubrey, up high.  I told him NOT to jump.  I took the picture, had to turn quickly around to see if Merida was still where she was supposed to be and heard that 'thud' noise of a child jumping.  Sigh.  Thankfully he did not get hurt like he did last time he jumped from a high spot.

 Merida looking cute.  There was a girl there of about 10 years old who followed Merida everywhere she went.  She took her down the slide, pushed her on the swing, carried her around the park.  Her mom came up to me and said, "She's a babysitter in training."  I told her that her daughter was going to make an awesome babysitter some day.

I did not get the bagging of the dehydrated foods done when I got back like I had wanted to, but I got them done today.  The brown in two of the bags are paper bags.  The paper bags help the carrots and corn from poking their pointy edges through the plastic bag.  It's not a whole lot (for our family size that is), but it's a start....10 pounds of veggies dried and 'put up'.

So those were our errands.  I was exhausted when we got home.  Merida slept for 10 minutes in the van, which she thought was totally sufficient for a nap. Mommy thought otherwise.  Oh, well.  Sleep can wait, right?  It's totally over rated.  At least that is what I keep telling myself.  Speaking of which I need to get some boys off to bed, and catch some zzz's of my own.  Or at least try to.

Bitterness....the solution

I have little time.  I have other posts waiting to be written (birthday, prom, etc.).  I have a ton of spring cleaning that needs doing.  But. BUT.  I happened to read someone's comment on someone else's blog.  It seemed that I should take a peek at this person's blog.  On her side bar (of her old blog I think.  I'm new to it, and there were two different looking blogs, but by the same person.) there were some links to posts she had written and other resources.  My eyes fell upon an article on bitterness.

Sigh.  I know I 'suffer' from it.  I've read and heard sermons on it before.  Each time I do not seem to get any closer to being free of it.  I know it damages my family.  I know it damages my relationship with God.  And yet, I can not seem to get rid of it.  There have definitely been times where it wasn't as pervasive.  I almost didn't click on the link.  Almost.  But, just like in my quest for health, thinking there might be that "one" thing out there that will help us, I did click.  I did.  And I am grateful that I did.

I don't think that I've heard of bitterness explained in this way before.  Though maybe I have and the truth just didn't sink in.  Either way, I finally 'see' it.  I finally see why I have times where the bitterness wasn't choking me.  I finally know what I have to do.  Don't get me wrong, I always knew I had to confess it, but this article just really, really explained it all in a way that helped me to see where I was going wrong.  I loved the idea of the cup of sweet water.  I assure you that I am NOT filled with sweet water.  Definitely, definitely not filled with sweet water.

So I want to pass this article along, hoping that it too can free someone else of their bitterness.  (To be clear, I just read the article minutes ago, so I will be working on this issue, I am not 'free' yet, but on my way!)

How to be Free of Bitterness

How neat!!!

Just had to share this little tid bit.  It was a wee small spark of cuteness that made me smile...which is saying something!  I will spare everyone the details, but things have been rather difficult here lately.  AND, it has nothing to do with my clean up and get back on board efforts.  Imagine that.

Anyways, Moira had mentioned a week or more ago about a movie having "a Saoirse" in it.  I vaguely remember her telling me that, so when Isabella mentioned it today (while looking for a movie to watch), I asked to see the trailer.  It is an animated movie, with the main character that has the name, Saoirse!  So, if you all want to hear how her name is said, you can watch the trailer below.  She's the 'glowing' baby :-)

I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth

Well, it feels like I have, but apparently I'm still here :-)  Things have been just a wee bit crazy lately.  I've been trying to get my house back in order, back to what we had right before Merida was born.  But we've had one 'wrench' or another thrown in that is making the process take way too long for my sanity's sake!

We have made progress, just not quickly enough.  We are in serious need of some order.  I have a bit of a plan in my head for how to get there, and I am hoping that in the next couple of weeks we meet our goal.  We have wiped everything off the calendar, save a couple of events that have been planned months ago (the Chivalry Ball for Flannery, a birthday party for Saoirse, and the prom for Isabella and Moira...all taking place in the next 14 days!).  My plan, of sorts, is as follows:

1. Quickly get the house 'tidy'.
2. Establish a very simple schedule of eating times and chores.
3. Work on deep cleaning/organizing.
4. Hammer out the next semester of school.  I need to sit down and figure out where everyone is in their lessons to take stock of what needs to be done next.

The above steps were what got us up and running before I had Merida.  It was a great feeling to get the important things done each day, with plenty of free time as well.  I am praying that we have no other interruptions to this process.  For example, it would be really wonderful if a late teething baby could have a much easier time of popping teeth out!  Poor thing.  She was miserable tonight. She is 15 months old and has 3 teeth.  She has a fourth tooth, that just broke through last week, and I am guessing it's neighbor wants to join the party.  This makes for a very fussy, needy baby.  A clingy baby = less work accomplished for mommy.

We've had a slew of new baby animals here.  Lots of baby bunnies!  And one of our cats had kittens yesterday!  And it appears that Moira's goat may indeed be pregnant.  Her tummy is *finally* getting suspiciously larger.  She should be due at the end of this month.  Moira is hoping she doesn't go into labor on prom night.  This will be her first kidding, and I always get nervous with a new mama.  You never know how well she will handle the experience and how good of a mother she will be.  Some mamas will shun their babies, making bottle feeding necessary. That is not fun.

Just a little catch up.  I don't have the energy to upload any pictures right now.  Not that I have a lot of them.  I haven't brought out my camera much in the past few weeks.  Hoping I can change that as well, as it is something I really enjoy doing.

A new hobby for all!

"All" of us that is.  Well, not for Jeremiah and Merida, but the rest of us have taken up a new hobby.  Months ago we came across some videos of 'hooping'.  When I first heard of 'hooping' I didn't know what the person was referring to.  Was it basketball?  When I found out it was hula hooping I thought perhaps she was mistaken.  I mean, what adult hula hoops?  Ha, ha.  Well,  come to find out hula hooping has been taken to a new level.

For Moira's birthday she chose to buy some special supplies to make her own hoop. There was a lot left over, so the rest of us girls got to make a hoop as well.  We spent an evening helping each other tape up our hoops.  It was a lot of fun. It wasn't as easy as we thought it would be, trying to get the tape to go around the hoop evenly.  Since our hoops have been done, we have taken to practicing.  Some of us, ahem...me, need lots of practice :-)

One thing we did not expect was for the boys to want to join in.  Little boys, big hoops, not possible, right?  Wrong!  Jonah took to hooping like a fish does to water.  Unreal.  Jedidiah on the other hand....well, he had some practice ahead of him if he was going to get that  hoop to stay up.

Although there may be people who think that boys shouldn't be hula hooping, I will say that it has given my boys a physical outlet while stuck indoors, *and* I have been very impressed that it has given Jedidiah something to work on.  He's not our most coordinated child to say the least.  Hooping is giving him something to work on those skills in a fun way.  Though admittedly he can get exasperated quickly.  But when he finally gets a move down he is so excited and wants *everyone* to see him in action!

Of course there are squabbles.  I mean, 7 people hooping inside of a house.  Two people can be in the family room, at least 2 boys, and only 1 can be in the living room at any one time.  Little boys are not as patient, so there have been hoops in the face and such.  Thankfully we are looking at some nice weather rolling in around here for the next few days.  Then they can hoop outside.

I leave you with some pictures of Jed hooping, and hopefully if I can muster it an embedded video. This particular video gets us really inspired to work hard.  You can find many more on youtube!

 Swinging the hoop around his arm.  For most kids, this is easy-peasy.  For Jed it is definitely work.

 Above and below are pictures of a move that Jed is attempting to learn.  He has most of it mastered, and is very pleased with himself to the level he has attained.

 It took Jed a few days to master gooping around the waist.  He learned on a much bigger hoop. The other day we got these smaller hoops and it took him a few hours to figure it out, but he got it!

 A proud boy!

The taping on my hoop.  Our hoops are made of black PVC piping.  I wound the silver reflective tape one way and the 'gripper' tape in the opposite direction.  The gripper tape is supposed to help keep the hoop 'up'.  Though, in my case that doesn't seem to be the case :-)  Ha, ha!

Our inspirational video we turn to:

Enjoy!