Friday, December 9, 2011

Review Extravaganza



I am linking up with Grumpy Grateful Mom for Review Extravaganza. What you do is chose a few favorite posts or photos from older posts through 2011. This Friday is January thru March. Next Friday is April thru June...you get the picture.



In January, Joshua arrived! A few days later Kate won the science fair even though we chose a lame, but fun project so she would not win.
A few days after that, our dryer broke down, and a few days after that our dish washer broke down. Happy January to us.

In February, Ruth and Kate made these awesome Valentine's for school because they were sick of giving mushy Valentine's to everyone.


And In March, 
 I became the parent of a teenager,
Joshua started smiling for us, and Anya discovered her artistic talents.


Thursday, December 8, 2011

Crazy Hair Day

The kids want to have some home schools spirit days. The one day they all loved and all wanted to include was crazy hair day. So we did it on Wednesday. We started the day by giving everyone crazy hair!

First Candy Cane

I think this boy is just adorable!

Colors

My children have color issues. They have to HAVE the color they want all the time, but they aren't necessarily consistent.

A long time ago, Ruth liked green. She had to have her dishes and crayons and such be green. Then she decided yellow was a better color. Everything needed to be yellow. Until, her friend told her that yellow was an ugly color. Of course, she could not have anything yellow at that point.

A few months later, Kate turned two and loved blue. Kate had to have everything blue. Blue, clothing, blue dishes, blue crayons, and markers-- nothing but blue. After a couple of days of Kate having to have everything blue. Ruth declared that it was not fair because she liked blue too. Now Ruth had to have EVERYTHING blue. Every morning there was a war over the blue sippy cup. Eventually, I just bought all blue dishes, extra blue paint, crayons, markers, etc., and mainly all blue clothes for both girls-- not that easy. This settled things except Kate switched back and forth on which was the best shade of blue.

About a year later, Ruth decided blue was not the only color. She liked all of the colors. When people asked Ruth what her favorite color was, Ruth would respond, "rainbow". Nice. Now I had to have rainbow things around to avoid the "wrong color breakdown".

As Johnny got older, he decided all colors were good to like. Ruth did not like this. "All of the colors" belonged to her. Eventually, Johnny settled for black, brown, and green, but he always had to have blue dishes. At least he would wear multiple colors of clothing without much trouble.

When Adam came of age. He chose yellow. Everyone was okay with this because it did not infringe on anyone else's color choices. Later, Rachel chose pink. We were good as long as some one didn't set the wrong color of dishes at the wrong person's seat at the table.

Over a year ago, we began having color problems again. First Anya chose pink as a favorite color. Rachel was miffed. Pink was HER color. However, Anya didn't care about what Rachel thought. She liked pink. Anya had to have all pink clothes, all pink dishes, all pink crayons, and any available pink food. Rachel rebelled. She no longer liked pink. Rachel had to have everything blue. If you gave Rachel anything pink, she would have a "wrong color breakdown". Kate was unhappy again because Rachel was taking HER color. Kate was 11!

At the same time, Adam started kindergarten with a whole slew of yellow shirts. After about 3 weeks of kindergarten, Adam decided yellow was not his favorite color anymore. Adam had a to have blue. So now, I had 4 kids that would cry if they did not get blue dishes. I had to buy more dishes (I had to anyway, but still.)

Now, one year later, Anya does not like pink anymore. If you give Anya anything pink she will have a "wrong color breakdown". So what do you think? Rachel suddenly likes pink again. If you do not get Rachel the pink plate you are in trouble. Anya now has to have yellow or green. Most of our yellow and green dishes had become cat dishes because no one else would eat from them.

We have had one more change too. Since Adam has been home schooling, guess what? He likes yellow again. Only this time, he does not call it yellow. He calls it "gold".

Indeed, my kids have color issues. As a child, when I would do something that bugged my mom, she would say, "I can't wait until your kids do this to you." I haven't felt that much, but, I won't mind my grandchildren getting revenge for me on this issue.

Monday, December 5, 2011

You Know You Needed To Gocery Shop When...

  1. It is Christmas time and your 3, 5, and 7 year old children are sitting together looking at the grocery add and alerting you to all of the food that is on sale.
  2. You finally go grocery shopping for a few things, and like it is Christmas your children cheer: Yeah, bread that squishes! Yeah, oranges! Yeah we have chicken and bananas!

I Am Starting to Wonder...

if I know what causes it. The night, I woke up with the burnt apple crisp, I couldn't get back to sleep. I kept thinking, "my period should have started 2 or 3 days ago." For me, that is a BIG deal.  I remembered that I had a pregnancy test (expired?) from one and a half years ago when I bought a duel package to test for Joshua's pregnancy. So at 4 am, when I couldn't sleep, and was shocked that I had to "go" for a second time that night, I closed myself into the bathroom, and took that test. At first, I breathed a sigh if relief-- one pink stripe. I set the test down and cleaned up. As I was leaving the bathroom, I glanced at it again, and there were two very bright pink stripes.

What????? I thought we were suppose to wait this time. We were using condemns. I start to wonder, "Other people have asked me, but do I know what causes this?"

I wasn't going back to sleep. I went downstairs to pray, to think, and to read. Then I crept back into to bed, asked my sleeping husband if he was awake (Duh?) and then told him my little story. Now, my sleeping husband was awake.

Three days before this, I had some spotting. (I thought my period would be bugging me the next day.) The day after, I had a lot of cramping. Maybe, this will be a miscarriage? I have had spotting and cramping with a miscarriage and with a full pregnancy. I don't feel particularly sick. But I have had sick pregnancies and non sick pregnancies. I never felt sick with my two miscarriages. It's too early to tell.

How am I feeling? Well, I know without a doubt this is the will of the Lord. And THAT is comforting. If I have a baby about 18 to 19 months after Joshua, I know that is the will of the Lord. If I have a miscarriage, I know that the Lord wanted me to go through that at this time.

I also feel humbled that the Lord would entrust another little soul to me at this time. I feel anxious about how we can even possibly pay for this baby. I feel tired just thinking about 9 months of another pregnancy. I feel sad that I will not be able to go to girls camp with Ruth and Kate. I feel sorry that I finally lost my 20 pounds that I wanted too, and was hoping to tackle the last 10. I feel like well, I am 36 and my biological clock is ticking. This may be my last opportunity. I feel like I can do what the Lord requires.

I know, as with every pregnancy, I need to trust in the Lord and His plan for our family. So I will. The entire day after the burnt apple crisp night, the words from Come, Come Ye Saints kept coming to mind.
Why should we mourn,
Or think our lot is hard?
Tis not so.
All is right.
Why should we think
To earn a great reward?
If we now,
Shun the fight.
Gird up your loins,
Fresh courage take,
Our God will never us forsake.
And soon we'll have,
This tale to tell. 
All is well,
All is well.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

A New Kind of Potpouri

I made 3 pans of apple crisp last night. Before, I went to bed, I said, "I wonder if the oven is on? It is strange that the house still smells like cooking apples?" I rolled over and went to sleep. I awoke at 3:45, and smelt cooking apples still, although the smell was less pleasant. This time, I got out of bed, and found out that I forgot to turn off the oven and take the last pan of apple crisp out of the oven. YUM!