Our Christmas Card

Click to see it larger

Good comic

Click on this to see it bigger. My man printed it and posted it on our fridge.

Trip to the ER

With 6 daughters running around, it is seldom boring around here.

But even with 6 daughters, we have only had 2 trips to the ER. One of them was tonight.

DJ cut her foot pretty badly on a peice of sheet metal. She had to get stitches. It is on the side of her foot about half way between her arch and her big toe.

If it had just been a tidy slice, even a large one, we could deal with it but because it was more of big gouge than a slice, we need to get it stitched.

She cried beforehand and was scared to go to the "doctor" but David and I calmed her down and told her stories about when we had stiches when we were kids. She got a neat little braclet with her name on it and she got to ride in a wheel chair out to the car.

The nurse was very nice and counted with Dj when the dr was giving her a shot to numb it. She got a little chuckled when the nurse skipped 35, purely by accident.

The nurse told Dj that she must be the adventurous one since she was also the that got bit by the snake. Then Dj told her what the paramedic that responded to the snake bite call told her to tell peaople. "the snake was this long (gesturing as wide as possible with her hands) It had a mouth this big (gesturing as tall as possible with her hands) and when it bit me, it died cause I am so tough!"

I made a comment just the other day that we needed to restock our fistaid kit. I didn't expect that to mean we would take a trip to walmart at 10:30 at night after leaving the ER.

I kept commenting how neat of a scrapbook page this experience would be. I wanted to take pictures of her riding in the wheelchair but again the whole "broken camera" thing rears it's ugly head.

Oh and I almost forgot the most important aspect of any trip to the hospital: The rubber glove blown up into a baloon. You know the staff has to just hate that but my girl liked it and that is all that mattered at the time.

Bison Burgers

Bison Burgers are very yummy. Tastes a lot like beef only not near as much fat. Bison not only has less fat than beef but it even has less fat than skinless chicken. wow and yum.

breaking news

Duh

Ground Bison

Why? It was on sale and reduced for quick sale. That only made it about twice as much as ground beef. And I was curious. I will let you know how it turns out.

People are just nuts!

The camera I was hoping to win for really cheap on ebay went for $51.57. You know, the used one with broken battery door. That is nuts! You can buy a brand new on ebay right now with a buy it now of $65. I wanted it for the $8 that it started at.

Whatever >>>>>>> Still looking for a good camera deal.

Yea!

I finally got to post pictures on my previous entry, thanks to Ashlie. :-)

3 kids 3 and under

I was talking with someone at church last night who just found out she is pregnant. She has a 2 year old and an 8mth old already. She was feeling rather overwhelmed at the thought of even trying to go to the grocery store with 3 kids 3 and under. I told her some of things that I have learned that helped in that area.

1)Teaching first time obedience is essential for maintaining sanity and saving time. Knowing that your child will mind you when you tell them something brings so much peace.

2)It is good to have bye-bye toys. These are toys that you can whip out when you are desperate for them to stay quiet just a little longer at the dr.'s office or the dmv or any one of the horrid places mothers have to go. These toy do not get played to death at home and therefore have some semblance of "newness". Give one toy at a time. Do not make the mistake of thinking the more toys they have, the longer they will be entertained. Just the opposite. That would just mean they get bored with all of them at once. Let them play with and proceed to get bored with one toy at a time. It lasts longer.

3)Have special snacks for being out and about. Things they don't get at home. This will also keep them entertained for a little while and it will make them enjoy going places which will make them start off in a better mood when they do go somewhere.

4)The dreaded wal-mart. When I had 3 kids age 3 and under, I would get two buggies. I would put kids in one buggy and push it. I would get another buggy for merchandise and pull it. No, this was not the easiest way to travel through walmart but it sure made bathroom breaks(of which, there were many, ie: diaper breaks, potty training breaks, nursing new baby breaks) so much easier. I would just wheel the "kid-buggy" into the bathroom and right into the large handicap stall. It was like having a play pen right in there with me. I could get one child out at a time to deal with the needs.

5)Even on days when you keep the right attitude and things go smoothly, three kids age 3 and under still requires you to deal with a lot of things during a day. Do not set unreasonable goals. Don't set yourself up for failure. Instead, make provisions. This season of your life is very short, even if it doesn't seem like it right now. Remember that playing peekaboo, hide & seek, and building blocks are just as important as doing dishes and laundry.

One of the best things I ever did for my kids starting at this age was when all of the bed time things were done and the kids were in bed, I asked them "what was good about today" and we all reflected on the good things of everyday. That caused them to remember the good things longer and discuss why things were good. Even at three, two and one you would be amazed at the insight of a child.

This list is by no means exhaustive. I may post more lists later.

skatter thoughts.....

We accidentally spent the morning at the park with Deana and Landon. That was fun. We are going to do it again, only next time it will be on purpose.

Alizabeth made prettier pancakes her first time than I have ever made. Pancakes hate me. Bacon too. Can't cook either one. I guess that is ok since neither is very good for you. But still it is a blow to my pride that my 11 year old can make better pancakes than me and I am a good cook.

Sonja (age three)cut her own hair. That has never happened. Out of 6 kids, I have never had one cut her own hair. I used to take pride in that. There goes another blow to my pride. Oh well, pride is not my friend anyway. I wish I could take a picture of her hair but the whole broken camera thing has permeated every area of my life.

She said she "wanted to make it pwitty". She did a really good job. I am reluctant to even tell people she cut it because she did such a good job, someone is bound to tell her it looks good and I don't want her thinking it was a good idea to cut her own hair. She cut the sides, not the bangs. They just blend right in. None of it has the chopped look or even so much as the fresh cut bluntness. I am telling you she did a really good job. It was still wrong but if you're going to be wrong, you might as well do it right.

Camera thoughts....

I am watching a camera on ebay. It is just like the one I had but it has a broken battery door. That I can live with or replace using my old camera. It has a starting bid of $8 with shipping being $6. That, I could definitely live with! I would be willing to bid up to $30 on a used broken camera that I could replace mine with. I would be willing to do that because my camera has proven itself to take great pictures. Even though it is only a 3.1 megapixel it is better than some 4 and 5 megapixel cameras I have used.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, it has almost no shutter lag.

I can't stand shutter lag. I would give up megapixels to have no shutter lag, it is that important.

Want to know what I really want? This! Just In case someone reading this has an extra $1000 laying around and wanted to know what to get me for Christmas. Just kidding.... Christmas is too far away. I want it now :-)

9/11

Mourning the loss of my camera

Just when I was getting good at photography..... my camera bit the dust! :(. Very sad. David dropped it a month or so ago and it has been progressively experiencing "issues" ever since. Now it is officially dead.

I don't know what I am going to do! I have to have a camera. In addition to my own kids, I have been taking pictures for several other people. People who wouldn't otherwise be able to get good pictures due to the enormous cost.

This makes me very sad. I love the being able to bless other people with something that I can do.

Digital cameras are expensive and there is no way we can throw money toward something like that when there are so many other things we need to put our money toward.

I don't know what I am going to do.

A couple more pictures

I have been bitten....

....by the photography bug. It takes me 3 or 4 different program to edit pictures. I need 1 good program that will do everything I need. All of these were taken with a 3.1 mega-pixel Kodak easy share which I am really impressed with. Just imagine how impressed I would be with a 6 mega-pixel.

The facts of life and other lessons...

...my Father taught me.

I just finished reading this book by Lisa Welchel. Incase you don't know who that is, she is the actress that played Blair on the facts of life, which I loved when I was kid.

She is a very witty author and I enjoyed her book tremendously. She has another book called Creative Correction. I have read parts of that one. It is good too.

She has a list of books she has written dedicated to mothering, children, or homeschooling.

How David and I met the first time:

I went to our school's homecoming football game in October. I had spent the day at a friends house who decided to "fix me up a little" so I was wearing borrowed clothes and had a new hair-do and make up. As God would have it, the shirt I had borrowed was sleeveless and a coldfront blew in while we were at the game.

Picture me shivering and freezing, trying to press against the side of the concession stand to block some of the north wind and still maintain my "cool" cause I had a new hair-do.

That's when David came up to me and told me that a group of guys were getting a football game together behind the bleachers and he really wanted to play but he had a brand new jacket on and his mother would kill him if it got torn up while playing football. He asked me if I would be kind enough to hold his jacket for him so he could go play football.

Of course, years later, he told me that he never really wanted to play football that night, he just wanted to offer me his jacket.

What a sweetie, huh?

Bad News About Lentil Babies

They don't make good acrobats.

The outlook is rather grim.

First Kiss

It was exactly 19 years ago today that David and I kissed for the first time. We were dating for 3 months by that time. We were odd compared to others around us. Our relationship has always been different than anyone I know. He was my very best friend long before we became a couple. We were both "outsiders". We didn't fit in the normal crowd, so by natural selection (devine intervention) we had a tendacey to hang out together.

We talked. That is what we did. At church we talked. At get togethers we talked. At hayrides we talked. For six months, every opprotunity we had, we talked. That was a big deal for me. I didn't talk to anyone. I was private. I never let anyone in.....until David. That was sheerly by accident. Thank God for accidents... or really devine appointments.

The kiss. It was inevetable. Partly because I initiated it and he wasn't going to turn me down. We were in the cave at sixflags over Texas. I was sitting in front of him leaned back against his chest. He had his cheek against mine. We road that ride 7 times that day. The cave smelled like mildew. For years afterwards, everytime I smelled mildew, my heart would skip a beat with excitement.

Most importantly he is still my best friend. I just enjoy being with him so much.

I forgot until this evening that this was our kiss anniversary. He was working out of town today and not supposed to come back for a few days. He surprised me and came home tonight. He is such a hopeless romantic. or just hopeless ;-)


First Kiss revisited:
I have been pondering the subject of this blog entry since I posted it. I wanted to elaborated on the nature of our relationship.

The day of our first kiss, I have to tell you that I felt safer with David than I have ever felt in my life anywhere, at anytime. God knew exactly what I needed when he gave me the man of my dreams. He knew how damaged I was. He knew how I had been hurt. He knew how private I was and how had built walls around me to protect myself. And He knew how I needed to be approached to feel ok with a realationship.

When I kissed David that day, I let him into my heart. I tore down a little of the wall that I was using to protect me. I thank God everyday for the gift He gave me in David and I thank God everyday that He protected me in my ignorance knowing I didn't have the since to protect myself from kissing someone I didn't know I was going to marry. I am so thankful that the only person I ever kissed was the man I eventually married and will spend the rest of my life with.

Lentil Babies

They are very simular to bean babies and rice babies that I played with as a child.

Sonja's lentil baby is asleep. I think she likes to sleep on the pantry shelf. Sonja thinks she likes to sleep in the floor.

Spinach

My kids love spinach? I don't know why. When they were little, I made them eat it even when they said they didn't like it and now they love it. They can't get enough of it.

I made them eat spinach, they learned to love it.
I made them eat beets, they threw up. *shrug*

So now we eat spinach and we don't eat beets.

Am I the only mom in the world who would be able to use "with-holding" spinach as a punishment?

I thought of something...

... To post and yet still homeschool related, in a way.

Yesterday, in Literature, Gennifer (my oldest-14) was studying Haiku poems. So I pulled out my old upward bound book. This was a book published for the upward bound (collage prep)program. It contains stories, poems, essays, and the like soley written by the teen participants of the program. While flipping through the book looking for haiku, Gennifer began to cry. She told me that one of the poems in the book said exactly what she was feeling. As she read, it was really hitting home to her.

And then, as she got to the bottom of the poem, she saw that it was written by her own mother. It is so good when God uses little things to gently bring about change.

In case you are interested, here is the poem (no it isn't a haiku, what was she doing reading it then?)

It Scares me to think of us growing up
Of how we are growing apart
I know the memories are always here
But leaving friendships is the hardest part.

The future is opening up-
Showing us so many new place.
It's hard to stay in the past
When you see all these new faces

One of these days
I'll look back to see
All my old friends
And the way it used to be

Many acquaintances all so new
Always with different smiles
But you, my friend, are so special
We've been together many o'miles.

When the future encloses me
And I start to give in
You will be my
longest remembered friend.

Incidently, I remember fondly "the friend" to which I referred when I wrote this poem. I still think of that friend often usually very fondly but sometimes, when he is stealing my covers at night, the thoughts are not what you would call fond.

I am completely uninteresting...

...Even to myself. Here I was thinking I needed my own blog so I didn't take over the homeschooling blog with other stuff. Apparently, I have no other stuff. Is this all I am?

You Know You're A Homeschool Mom When...

(borrowed from one of those internet sites. I thought it was cute)

You get to change more than diapers, you get to change their minds.

When a child busts a lip, and after seeing she's okay, you round up some scotch tape to capture some blood and look at it under the microscope!

You find dead animals and actually consider saving them to dissect later.

Your children never ever leave the "why?" stage.

When your teenager decides to take one community college course, and comes home and asks you why the teacher wrote "At" on his paper. (A+)

You ask for, and get, a copier instead of a diamond tennis bracelet for your wedding anniversary.

Your kids think reading history is best accomplished while lying on the floor with their head resting on the side of their patient dog.

Your husband can walk in at the end of a long day and tell how the science experiment went just by looking at the house.

You never have to drive your child's forgotten lunch to school.

Your child will never suffer the embarrassment of group showers after PE.

The only debate about the school lunch program is whose turn it is to cook.

You never have to face the dilemna of whether to take your child's side or the teacher's side in a dispute at school.

If your child get's drugs at school, it's probably Tylenol.

Your neighbors think you are insane.

Your kids learn new vocabulary from their extensive collection of "Calvin & Hobbes" books.

Your formal dining room now has a computer, copy machine, and many book shelves and there are educational posters and maps all over the walls.

You have meal worms growing in a container....on purpose.

If you get caught talking to yourself, you can claim you're having a PTA meeting.

Talking out loud to yourself is a parent/teacher conference.

You take off for a teacher in-service day because the principal needs clean underwear.

You can't make it through a movie without pointing out the historical inaccuracies.

You step on math manipulatives on your pre-dawn stumble to the bathroom.

The teacher gets to kiss the principal in the faculty lounge and no one gossips.

Your honor student can actually read the bumper sticker that you have put on your car.

If your child claims that the dog ate his homework, you can ask the dog.

Some day your children will consider you to be a miracle-working expert and will turn to you for advice.

Your kids refer to the neighbor kids as "government school inmates."

You can't make it through the grocery produce department without asking your preschooler the name and color of every vegetable.

You can't put your produce in your cart without asking your older student to estimate it's weight and verify accuracy.

You live in a one-house schoolroom.