What a day!

Wow! What a day!

I know I promised to blog today, but life did not go as planned. For one thing, my husband didn’t go into work today. “knowing” That you can’t take Sunday off, puts alot of strain on a person. He stayed home so he could rest, then “No rest” is what he got.

I won’t go into details but lets just say, the boys dresser is emptied and standing on end, leaning against their bunk bed, while their 55 gal. tank is empty and laying ON the bed. Yeah, it was an interesting day.

I would say more, however, it is 11:52 and I have already fallen asleep two times, and I haven’t even made it to bed yet.

Have a nice night,

~H
Ps. Mrs. H, we will be praying for the interview. LOVE.

What a Show!

Today was an awesome day!

We got a lot done and had fun doing it.

Smooth sailing!

The final piece was…

I took all four kids, by my self to a theater production at 7:30pm. WOW, I was surprised by how good they all were. Especially for how late it was! The show was GREAT!!!!!! I was sooooooooooooooooo glad we went.

I almost didn’t make it.

You know my memory. I look up and it’s 6:45pm, blink… the light goes on. I am supposed to be somewhere. Praise the Lord they were all fed. I wouldn’t have been able to make it if they hadn’t been. I threw them in the car and we made it JUST IN TIME. We found our seats as the house lights came down.

The show was good enough to hold all of their attention. We had a little whining at the end (like the last two min) about needing to use the restroom, but other then that. They did good!

We had some fun when we went to the bathroom. I met up with a friend after the show was over, and she watched Anna. I took the three boys down the stairs (four feet) to the bathroom. When I went into the bathroom I only had two boys… Hmmmm…

Turns out G decided he was old enough to use the men’s… He snuck behind the consetion (sp?) stand to the men’s,… Then got himself locked in the stall and couldn’t get out!!!! I figured that was where he was eventually headed, so I sent A and my friend’s husband in after him, but gave me a good scare!

Teach me to go by myself… Oh, but I am soooooo glad we didn’t miss it.

I am afraid, the rest of the day pales in comparison.

~H




Yesterday: My new tree and one of the kids who dug the whole. ;-)

Pickles!

.

.

My burnt offering to the Lord!

or dinner, whichever one you prefer.

.

Anna and her new baby...

That cry's!

Me and the baby's!

Wow, this is the first time in a long time that I have had ‘time’ to blog. Of course, I don’t really feel like blogging, I feel like going to bed!

I am really tired today. I decided to get smart and hire one of the kids to dig a hole for me… That would have been great, if the child had been able to dig it alone. Unfortunately our ground is MUCH too hard. I ended up helping and now I feel half dead. I have a therapist coming in the morning, but I didn’t even do dishes before bed.

I love you guys too much to leave ya’all hanging.

Anyhow, I have a new tree. I took G and went on a date ALONE today. That never happens. We went and picked out a tulip tree, one of the big ones. Then we came home and planted it. I hope it lives!

Andrew FINALLY lost his tooth. G is handling it quite well. I have been impressed.

We have been struggling with ‘one’ of the children and lying. UUUUGGGG!!!!!!! I feel like our message is finally getting through, but this one is a hard one to nip in the bud. If you aren’t standing right there and KNOW it was a lie… It makes it a mental hoola hoop to decide wither or not to discipline.

Anyhow to day was a VERY long day for that one child, But by bed we seemed to be at LEAST remorseful over having a consequence, which is better then we have been getting in a while.

For those of you who have been praying about a ‘unspoken’ prayer request. Today was supposed to be the day I found something out, but no such luck. Keep praying.

For those of you praying for S’s work, keep praying. They are sticking to making him skip the Sabbath. No other job’s jumping out at us at the moment. God knows.

I have ordered a whole bunch of new books. Mommy and daddy educational, not kids but still excitedly waiting.

G is missing a patch of hair currently and NOBODY seems to remember who did it… Hmmm… We thought about shaving them all for it, but we LOVE Anna’s curls too much. =-) No really. It was obviously done a while ago, and I am sure SOMEBODY knows SOMETHING, but with MY memory it feels hypocritical to discipline for lack of memory. They could be lying (which would fit right now), but I can’t be sure. Anyhow, current idea is everyone losses privileges of sissors, but doesn’t really make all that much since, because they used off limit seizers anyway. However, I still think this is our top pick.

Our family is still growing by leaps and bounds. Kisses the bird, is adapting well. Starting to sing! Our unofficial cat ‘pickles’ is back (Truly amazing I know!), We have two new fish. Female Batas. I don’t have any pictures but here is a picture of our Balas. Opps, that was a plecostomus. Here is the Balas.

No, no more kids at the moment. I think four is plenty for now, especially with some of our challenges. I am including myself as well as the kids into that statement.

Well, I need sleep.

I hope all is well with everyone.

Good Night.

~H

Ps. I do have t

ime so I am going to add those volcano pictures I was telling you about. Hopefully the volcano will work better next time.

Good Day

I got a lot done today. Although, by now it was yesterday. =-)

I balanced quicken and paid bills and budgeted.

I took Anna to her speech therapy.

I grocery shopped for six.

I had my oil changed.

And I blew a circuit breaker, with my foot. I stepped on a cord and ku-pow. I actually felt VERY grateful it was not ME who went Ku-pow.

But my poor husband had to go out to the freezing cold garage in the middle of the night so our fish wouldn’t die. It was that or have me try every circuit breaker tell I found the right one.

Oh, I found some VERY cool things today. I found a website to read great works of literature, for free. http://www.online-literature.com/

Plus I found history out of the encyclopedia Britannica 11th addition on-line for free. http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Main_Page

Plus I found a book I want to order. Its a reference book for training in righteousness. http://eclectichomeschool.org/reviews/individual_review2.asp?revid=423

Yeap, a great day.

Keep praying. Tomorrow will probably be a big day for me.
~H

Up Date:

Up date:

Kids are still sick.

Spent the night at grandma's with the whole family, then lost power!

Came home to power.

Named the bird "kisses."

Headed for a relaxing bath.

God Bless!

~H

Helpful Children

Today’s blog is dedicated to my helpful children…

1) My fish were fed - The entire jar of fish food, causing me to empty a 55 gal fish tank.
2) My bathroom trash was emptied – into the kitchen trashcan, minus the liner (which I haven’t even dealt with yet).
3) My toilets were cleaned – With a toilet bowl plunger. Causing water to be splashed everywhere AND dribbled between bathrooms.

I am SOOOOO glad we train them to be SOOOOOO helpful.
~H

prelinger video archive

OH, What a FIND!!!!

http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger

Look for things that sound educational. For example, I watched 'Good Eating Habits'. I downloaded 'The wise use of credit'

Great homeschool tool and there were hundreds!!!!

Oh, so late. Must find my bed!

Night All. ~H

Prayer Request

Hello,

I am writing asking for prayer. Spencer just got the official word that his work is going to deny him Sundays and/or Wednesdays off. This means no church,… this means no job. He has tried to appeal it but so far he is hitting a brick wall.

We are asking for prayers that they will either change their minds or let him have one of those two days off or that God will provide another job.

God's wisdom is higher then ours, we wait in expectation to see what He will do.
Yours, Heather

Our house has gone to the BIRDS!!!

Or should I say bird. Is he not pretty? I think so. I am VERY exited. I LOVE BIRDS!!!

We lost power this morning. With three sick kids, five fish and a bird, that was a very daunting experience. Mostly cause we didn’t know when we would get it back. THANK YOU LORD. It was only a couple of hours.

Have I mentioned I got a bird?

My wonderful hubby came home last night with a big box and a little box. And something happened to be moving in the little box.

Anyhow, I GOT A BIRD!

I am sooooo excited.

I GOT A BIRD!

Can you tell I like birds? Isn’t he pretty? She? I don’t know. It has a blue beak, I am sure that means something but I am not sure yet what. Research, one of my other favorite things.

Hope all is well with you.

I GOT A BIRD!
~H

PS.

Ps.


Oh, I forgot to tell you guys, about are ALMOST adopted cat.

He lived outside our door for almost 48 hours. I finally took pity on him and gave him some water. Then, not having any cat food readily available, I broke down and gave him cream. It was a long hair not my first pick, but appeared to be good with the kids.I was beginning to think ‘we may have to adopt a cat’ because he wouldn’t go away...

I let all four kids outside at one time...

I would send you a picture BUT…

I HAVEN’T SEEN HIM SINCE!

Selah

Selah

Rest vs. Peace

Have you ever wandered why Paul never said “Grace and Rest be with you”? I think I have figured it out. There is a BIG difference between ‘Peace’ and ‘Rest’. Rest is often inactivity, where as Peace is contentment. Hmmm… As I am writing this, I am wondering if ‘peace’ is a choice. He is our peace. Hmmm… Well there is a lot of food for thought. Sorry didn’t mean to turn into a philosopher on all of you, Anyhow…

Back to the story!

This house is getting plenty of rest, but is in need of peace. It has been a ruff couple of days. All of the kids are sick. I am trying hard to treat them without antibiotics, however, I don’t know if that is going to be possible this time.

Jonathan has been down right lethargic today, which is not like him at all. In fact these last two days his energy level has been a little too high. So today was super unusual. I have put them all on grapefruit seed extract as a last resort before taking them to the doctor. It seems to be pulling Anna right out of it. She has had it the longest. Jonathan on the other hand has only had it today so I am not surprised it’s not helping. It’s probably still viral for him.

Well, the boys seem to be ‘trying’ to be helpful. But you know, sometimes that can make it all that harder.

“I’ll get him cereal”,…”Opps, sorry mom, I dropped the milk”

…

Blood curtailing screams… What is going on? “She was touching the V.C.R.”…” But, mom, we didn’t want you to have to stop what you were doing”

…

Quiet baby cooing… followed by… VERY NOISY TOY!!! “Look mom we are entertaining the baby so you can keep resting”

So-on & So-forth. Thank you wonderful dears for all your help!

I can’t say we are getting a lot of school done today, in fact I think I am going to officially consider today a ‘sick’ day. We don’t have a lot of those around here. Normally when we are sick we just do our schoolwork in our P.J.’s.

Not today. I wonder if I am getting sick. I don’t really feel sick, but I do feel ummmm… what’s the best word?… Zoned and yet at unease. Hmmph.

Well, lets see what is new since I last blogged? Umm.

We finally got our tax returns, which meant new tires, which means I have my van back. We are no longer a one-car family. Oh, so nice. Not that I am going anywhere, but it means I can without having to call for back up or put someone else out of a car.

Hubby has put the rope ladder back up in the living room, which is giving a little relief to our rainy days, which is just in time. It started raining today. It’s supposed to rain for almost a week. Ugg!

Our volcano was a disaster! I would show you a picture, but I used grandpa’s camera that day. Good news is we know what went wrong and after it dries out we may be able to make it work the next time.

Andrew has a new loose tooth. We are all waiting expectantly for it to come out. George is getting jealous. This is Andrews third and George hasn’t has a single one yet. Speaking of which, George has a dentist appointment soon. Don’t let me forget guys!

My memory is getting no better. Just when I wish it were at its best so I could keep track of all these fun moments.

Sitting on the floor playing with Jonathan. I took a toy horse and said “lu-dump-de-dump” as I started to race it around us. Jonathan replied “NO, mom. That’s not what you do with a horse!” So I asked him “Well then, what are you suppose to do with a horse?” He answered by squatting down until he came in contact with the six inc. toy. I just about died laughing.

Well they are all whining and it is about time to work on dinner.

Willing to except all prayers for Hubby and I.
And for the sick kids.

Hope all is well with you guys. ~H

Ps. I tried to make granola out of a cookbook. Tasted just about like saw dust. Smelled great though. To bad it I was not making po purri (sp?). (You know, the smelly stuff.)

A good day.

I had two funnies today and as normal, I can only remember one of them. Today I had one of those little moments. All of my kid’s lives, they have felt free to wipe their ‘yucky’ noses on my clothes. Well, Anna has been having one of those ‘yucky’ noses for a couple of days (if you couldn’t tell by the pictures). Anyhow, as I was saying, today they were all sitting in a row and I looked over and Anna HAPPILY wipes her nose on the closest sibling, which of course happens to be my clothes conscientious George. Oh, how I laughed. Poor George! “Eeewwwuuu! MOM!!! Help!” I had so much trouble keeping my face straight. I can’t tell you how many times that has happen to me and I am sad to admit, part of me felt like ‘ahhh, revenge!’ I did, however, get George cleaned up and Anna’s nose temporarily cleaned. I have a funny feeling it wont be the last time though.

Tonight I have some quiet time. I am working on my web page and ‘attempting’ to get it registered with some search engines. I don’t know if it will work or not. I also added some home school tips and ideas to my web page. For one day I actually got a fair amount done and its not midnight yet, so I am doing good.

I did have a food disaster tonight. I decided to fix sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. (Because from what I can tell, the sweet potatoes are actually easier on keeping blood sugars steady. If you know what I mean, which you probably don’t. Don’t mind me I am just babbling.) Anyhow, I could NOT pass ‘it’ by the kids. I had one particular kid that LOVES potatoes, so having it switched was devastating. Lucky me we had all had popcorn right before dinner, so it was not the disaster it could have been.

I am finding that plain yogurt comes in real handy when trying to simplify. I can’t believe how many things I can use plain yogurt for. I have come up with a ‘ranch dressing’ using plain yogurt.

Plain Yogurt

Mrs. Dash

Celery Salt

Sea Salt

I can’t say its perfect, but the kids don’t even notice the difference. I personally like it on everything but raw broccoli. Other then that it hasn’t been too bad.

Yes the kids did get schooling in today too. From what I hear tomorrow is going to be a cool school day. I believe we have a volcano in our future. I need to make sure we have a camera on hand just in case this is a onetime deal!

Well, I hope you all had as pleasant a day as I did.

~ H

Ps. Devotion time is going well. Sort of. I am getting a devotion time, which I haven’t had in a long time. But one of my readers is just staring at the Bible without reading it… Do I push the issue or just be happy with the silence? What do you think?

Very Blue Berry.

Hmmm. Blue berries, maybe not such a good idea. At least not with a toddler and a very pail yellow pair of pants.

Anyhow, here is a picture of our black bean disaster.

Here is our master pianist…

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

Yesterday was a very productive day. I had to hog tie my hands to keep from blogging though cause I knew it wouldn’t be as productive. We got schoolwork done, the kids got to play outside with neighborhood kids and I cleaned my house as my valentines gift to my hubby. Which is what he always wanted but NEVER gets.

The kids, however were jealous this morning when I gave their dad a gift but didn’t have one for them,… Hmmm I will have to keep that in mind next year. Thank you Lord, just at that moment, my parents came in the house with the mail and in the mail their Granny gave them Valentines chocolate and coins.

Speaking of mail. I got something in the mail myself yesterday. I wonder if you can guess what it was. Thank you Momma Bug I love my necklace. Speaking of which, have YOU got anything in the mail recently? Not from me?… For the little love bugs? We mailed them to the new residence.

Well, I am going to leave you with my blueberry breakfast. Conclusion: Frozen blueberries cool off oatmeal VERY fast. Great for kids, not so desirous for adults. Might want to warm the blueberries first. Second, they taste great with maple syrup, but maple syrup does NOT taste good in ‘tea’.
Happy Valentines Day to everyone. ~H







Ps. How do you like my shower curtain?

DOG PILE!

I plan on re-doing the baseball page on my website, check it out later today.

Frozen Blueberries

Nice to hear from you Mrs. C. I enjoy writing. Although I must admit I haven’t done much changing of my website since I started blogging. Oh well.

Today was an easy day. Which is nice to say. Not only did I get time for a devo and time to myself, I also got to go shopping without taking four children. It was amazing. It did, however, give me more time to look at labels. A fairly freighting concept. I think we are slightly changing our goal from avoiding sugars to avoiding chemicals. I can’t even tell you how surprised I was by how many things had MSG in them. WOW… Even the ranch dressing.

I have found out that the frozen fruits (that don’t have additives) appear to be more valuable then all of these unripe fruit we are setting on shelves to ripen. I do plan on trying that ‘blueberries in oatmeal’ thing in the morning, Momma Bug. I have frozen blueberries. I KNOW not quite as good as fresh hand picked out of your own back yard, but that is as good as its going to get. I will let you know how it goes.
Hope all is well with you guys. ~H

Hmmmm...

Hmmmm...

Oatmeal and other grains huh?

Well around here breakfast is our most diversified meal.

We like yogurt with granola. If you want to know how to make your own yogurt let me know. If you know how to make your own granola, let me know.

Then we have bacon and eggs or eggs and toast.

Then we have peanut butter toast (which we are learning is VERY bad for you, looks like we are going to try almond butter and see if we can pallet it. Peanuts may cause cancer it looks like)

Then we have Oatmeal with all kind of stuff in it. I have tried regular old marshmallows, honey, brown sugar, nuts, fried apples (one my favorites), Etc. Obviously not all at once. My favorite so far has been pecans and brown sugar and raisins.

However, I have learn I cannot do honey due to allergies. Oh, maybe a little honey here or there, but if I get very much of it. I look like a raccoon!

One thing I haven’t had in years, but loved was Rice, raisins and milk. You use rice just like it was cheerios. We used to have it every morning if Fiji. I loved it!

It’s worth a shot.

Anyhow, I have been working on some research with different natural sweeteners (if you can call white sugar natural).

I found some info on Wikapedia… I have done my best to copy it to this format, but if you want the true info better check with wikapedia it’s self.


Granulated sugar info (100g) 3.5 oz.
Carbohydrates 99.98g
Sugars 99.91g
Fiber 0g
Fat 0g
Protein 0g
Water 0.03g
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.019mg (1%)
Calcium 1mg
Iron 0.01mg
Potassium 2mg


Brown Sugar info 100g (3.5oz)
Carbohydrates 97.33g
Sugar 96.21g
Fiber 0g
Fat 0g
Water 1.77g
Thiamin (Vit. B1) 0.008mg 1%
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.007mg 0%
Niacin (Vit. B3) 0.082mg 1%
Vitamin B6 0026mg 2%
Folate (Vit. B9) 1? 0%
Calcium 85mg 9%
Iron 1.91mg 15%
Magnesium 29mg 8%
Phosphorus 22mg 3%
Potassium 346mg 7%
Sodium 39mg 3%
Zinc 0.18mg 2%

Honey Info 100g (3.5oz)
Carbohydrates 82.4
Sugars 82.12g
Dietary Fiber 0.02g
(Think this ‘fiber’ might be the pollen? The thing that caused me to turn into a raccoon of all raccoons?)
Fat 0g
Protein 0.3g (dead bee’s?)
Water 17.10g
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.38mg 3%
Niacin (Vit. B3) .121mg 1%
Pantothenic acid (B5) .068mg 1%
Vitamin B6 .024mg 2%
Folate (vit. B9) 2? 1%

Vitamin C 0.5mg 1%
Calcium 6mg 1%
Iron .42 3%
Magnesium 2mg 1%
Phosphorus 4mg 1%
Potassium 52mg 1%
Sodium 4mg 0%
Zinc .22mg 2%


Maple Syrup info 100g (3.5 0z)
Carbohydrates 67.09g
Sugars 59.53g
Fiber 0g
Fat 0.20g
Protein 0g
Thiamin (Vit. B1) 0.006mg 0%
Riboflavin (Vit.B2) 0.01mg 1%
Niacin (Vit.B3) 0.03mg 0%
Pantothenic acid (B5) 0.036mg 1%
Vitamin B6 0.002mg 0%
Folate (Vit.B9) 0? 0%
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 67mg 7%
Iron 1.20mg 10%
Magnesium 14mg 4%
Phosphorus 2mg 0%
Potassium 204mg 4%
Zinc 4.16mg 42%

Now a little off subject, but hopefully not too far. Grains, buglar… Ever heard of it? I tossed it in a soup the other day. It added a grain and the kids never even knew it was there. I liked it.

New subject completely. My day! What a day. I got to lay in the sunshine today. Nice and warm. It was 70 degree’s out and I only had Anna and she was asleep. I did something unheard of, well, not unheard of for me… but unheard of for recently. I put on my swim suite and lay out in the sun for almost an hour. Just resting. WOW! That was nice.

Now I need to go. The kids are headed home and I have neglected my duties to be out in the sun. So, I will chat a bit later!

~H

Thank You Lord!

Thank You Lord! We finally got our "January" bonus!

A day of rest

Today is my day of rest. Anna has the chicken pox so we couldn’t go to church. Bummer, but it is nice to not HAVE to get out of my P.J. or have the house ready for a Physical therapist or try to get ‘something’ accomplished today. The boys are ridding bikes and listening to Adventures in Odyssey this morning. I don’t know what the afternoon has in store, but I am VERY grateful for the sunshine. We have had sun for almost 10 days (or at least its felt like it) and it is sooooooo nice that the boys can go out and run off part of their energy. The time that we went over 5 days of pouring down rain and horrible winds was almost the death of me.

I broke my diet yesterday. I went out to the movies with my mom last night. Excluding names because they weren’t movies I would recommend to anyone. Anyhow, but I did break down and have a blue slurppy. I came out of the show with a blue tongue! Defiantly not on the ‘no sugar, no dies’ diet. Oh, well. That is part of the fun of withdrawling from them slowly; a break in diet is not really a set back. This morning I am back to my ‘tea’.

Well not much new, so I will sign off for now. Hope all is well & Fun. ~H

I Am So Thankful!

I am so thankful its not Friday!

I couldn't have handled this if it was Friday. Thank the Lord He knows what we can handle!

I still don't have hubby yet. But soooooon!

I woke up this morning and changed my daughter only to find out, SHE HAS THE CHICKEN POX! I wish you, momma bug, could be here. We could share!

Anyhow, this really would not be that big of a deal, but we are not sure that I am immune. I have had chicken pox about four times, never getting a big enough case to get immunity to it. (Fewer than ten spots each time)

So, prayers would be appreciated!

So far she has been a little whiny but she hasn't found the spots yet. She is not acting itchy or trying to scratch. Keep our fingers crossed and hope that doesn't change.

The older kids are doing word problems and watching 'educational' videos today. We didn't have our devo time this morning cause I hadn't had breakfast when the time came... So, we will probably do that after lunch.

Speaking of which, they are all chiming 'I'm hungry' I guess I will go.

Nice day to all. ~H