Our double yoker

We have one or two hens that lay double yokers occasionally.  The kids really love it!  They think it is the bees knees to have chickens at all, and when they lay (every day) it is like a treasure just for them! Not just the little ones enjoy it.  Needless to say, we eat a LOT of eggs around here.  Well, and we should!  They are organic (not certifiable, but still), healthy, from our own free ranging hens that we feed all natural feed. AND those gals are loved on!  A lot!  They truly are pets.  As for the chickens, I think they like the kids as much as chickens can like anybody. As for the chickens liking us, they do, as long as we have scratch in our hands!

Christmas Time

Christmas is such a wonderful time of year.  Yes, we blow things out of proportion, forget the reason for the season, over buy, over do, over eat and whatever else over you can think of.  We rush, we leave things out, and step on others toes without really meaning to.  It can sure bring out the worst in us.  Losses are felt more deeply.  I think it is the contrast.  But it can also bring out the best in us as well.  My oldest just finished a puppet performance for a low income housing project downtown.  There were not many children there.  But the residents that they performed for were thrilled to see them.  These kids have been practicing for this performance since September.  No one else may ever know that.  They got a chance through "play" to explain the reason for the season, and the reason for some of our traditions as well.  What an eye opener for these kids. We got a special family presentation on Tuesday night- the rest of our kids loved it! Especially little princess E, she had all the adults laughing at her laughing at the puppets!

Here are some pics of our house lit up and some of our Christmas trees.  The tradition of the Christmas tree goes back as far as Martin Luther, and even earlier.

Advent tree.  This is a neat tree because what we do is wrap 25 books with a Christmas theme, and each child takes a turn and unwraps a book every night starting December 1st.  Dad (or mom or a big sis) reads the book to the family aloud.  Some books are board books geared towards babies/toddlers, and some are a lot more intensive, like say Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  This is my favorite tree, and is decorated with a fishing/hunting theme. 

This is the main tree (below).  I have decorated with angels since we were first married.  I almost hate to use them now, since I know a lot more about angels than I did, but it is a tradition I suppose.  It is also decorated with fruit, and we talk about Martin Luther and his tree, the reason for the lights, the meaning of the fruit coming from the middle ages and the plays they would have in winter about the creation account and Genesis.

This is just another tree by the fireplace.  I just like the look of all the greenery throughout the house!

The upstairs bathroom tree.  Yes, in the bathroom!

I think my grandma thinks it is fun that we have so many trees.  I sure enjoy them!  The kids enjoy them.  These are our special traditions that are meaningful to us.
Merry Christmas!

Rainbow over Tulsa

Pickin punkins

The kids were enthralled with these tiny table pumpkins.  

They would have taken a bushel home if we had let them!

Pillow sack dress

I finished her dress!

Clutter Conquered!

We have been making a bit of progress over the clutter in and around the house this weekend: the garage, the school room, the backyard and the front room have all been tackled!  YEA! Now if I can just get the laundry room shelves and the upstairs closet done, I will feel really accomplished!

Creamhorns for breakfast

We had cream horns for breakfast this morning as a small tribute to mom; she loved these things.  I never understood it, and have never liked them.  The kids had never had one before, and the reaction was mixed as to whether they liked them or not, but for them it was neat to experience something that was one of her favorites. 
Then for lunch we had quiche with eggs from our chickens- that is always a hit.  Well, we had to have something real to eat after the cream horns- they are like eating sugary fluff!

The Wayward has returned!

After two weeks to the day of being "missing", we finally have our dog back!  I registered her description with the city's animal shelter, and they would email me pics of dogs that sort of matched.  The very first one had a pick of a dog that I just knew was her!  It was, but they wanted over $400 to get her back, so we waited the day or so and just adopted her back for $75 instead.  She was running loose for a week, and then spent a week in the city shelter.  NOT a nice place. So she now has kennel cough, but is otherwise no worse for the wear.  Someone must have picked her up in our neighborhood and tried to take her home, because she was picked up by animal control over 12 miles away from our house, and across the river!  The kids are thrilled, needless to say.  It could have had a much worse outcome for all involved.  We prayed that God would return her, and He did! 

Tapestry Webinars

I just finished watching the webinar titled "Tips for teaching a houseful".  Wow!  These webinars have been a tremendous blessing to me this summer.  I have felt really empty with the loss of my mother, and like I just needed a way to be a good mom again- I have been drained.  These have definitely helped, especially coming from such a strong biblical point of view.  I highly recommend them.  Let me see if I can manage the link in here somewhere!

Tapestry of Grace  

Once you get there, click on the main tab labeled "Tapestry of Grace" and on the page that comes up you will see a box on the far right labeled "watch free webinars".  These are well worth the time invested to make you a better teacher and mom.  Enjoy!

It Lives!

I don't know how or why, but my template is restored!  Yea!

Here is a pic of the fam in San Antonio two summers ago at Sea World.  Okay, so dressing alike is corny, but it really helps to be able to spot all of your kids!

Here is one more of us all at the "Dine With Shamu" backstage event.  It was really neat, but what you can't see is that if Shamu wanted us for lunch, all he would have to do is jump a very little way to get us!  After some of the tragedies involving killer whales in captivity I am nervous in hind sight!

The end of our table butted up to the railing, and on the other side of the railing was this:

He might have been ten feet from us.  While we were eating the trainers were explaining about the care and upkeep of one of these massive beasts, and if I remember correctly they eat enough fish to equal a small cow each day.  My next thought was (yuck) and the trainers swim in that water! What goes in...

blogging blues

I am not sure what is going on here.
I am getting an error message all over the page that reads something like bandwidth exceeded.  I am having to start over on a template here-- we shall see what happens.  I may have to switch to another blog host.  I am liking blogger less and less. 

Better than TV

The black one is the boss (in the pic with A).  The one in front with L is the one that lays the easter eggs.

Making breakfast

These three made muffins from scratch the other morning for everyone.  Chocolate Chip oatmeal kinda healthy muffins! 

Beating the heat

This is my first attempt to post video- hopefully I will get better at it!  Turn up the volume a bit to hear Lance laughing at W.  Pretty cute!

Our summer in pictures

She is a farm girl at heart!

Summer fun

We always hate it when the public school kids go back to school the second week of August---our neighborhood pool closes and WE still have lots of summer left!  They will still be open on weekends, but no longer can we take our supper by poolside, and swim til almost bedtime!  Sigh
As you can see, our pool isn't very busy in the evenings. That suits us just fine!  Oh well, they couldn't stay open even if they wanted too- there isn't anyone to work as lifeguard since all our life guards go back to highschool or college.

 

My supers

Thanks Samuel for capturing my supers!

Why I dont tweet

I live my life in "tweets".  For real. Day in, day out.  For example, yesterday, after a quick stop for milk, I treated myself & kiddos to Sonic.  We went home to eat (remember the milk?) Before I had eaten my lunch I had done all of the following: changed a diaper, wiped a hiney ( a different one), unloaded the car, put up the groceries, put on a bandaid, fed a baby and cleared off a table. This was in between bites.  Don't get me wrong- I love my children and wholeheartedly accept the unique challenges that a big family presents.  However, being forced to be ADD is one thing- choosing it is quite another!  
One thing that I have been doing to keep my self busy is preparing for next school year.  We are using a curriculum that we have used before for history, we are just going to use all of it this year.  It incorporates history, geography, lit, writing, vocabulary, world view, fine arts and philosophy to name a few!  I have really appreciated the webinars offered on topics like lesson planning, teaching a houseful, teaching writing and teaching highschool.  The webinars are about an hour long each so this feels like a treat when in reality I am prepping for school!  No ADD here!  I have also enjoyed tracking down all of the books we need- an excuse to spend hours at the used bookstore :)  I included a button to it: Tapestry of Grace.  It is my plan to post links to my other favorite homeschool resources soon.
Ok, so I could be painting or weeding my flower beds, but with Lance's busy schedule, these are harder to do by myself. 
Oh well, those things won't matter in eternity, and the attention that the kids education gets will!
For those of you who don't mind the added ADDness of Twitter- Happy Tweeting!

Walking like a pro

W is walking around like a pro!  He is very proud of himself also! and he loves being the center of attention as the girls and A urge him on.  I will try to post a video soon!

Mom's Passing

Mom died last Friday.  She will be missed.
Two things that she taught me stand out in my mind: 1)If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. 2)If you are doing something wrong, you are bound to get hurt.
She loved kids, and Susy Q's.
She leaves behind both of her parents, two daughters, eight grandchildren, several nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews.
She always tried to remember the good, and forget the bad.
Thanks Mom, for the life lessons you taught me.

Mom update

Mom is not doing well.  She took a turn this weekend.  She has not hardly eaten anything since friday, and is too winded to talk on the phone.  She is weak from infection and trying to heal from the broken bones.  They thought last week that she might lose her leg, but now I think it is a moot point. She is not able to remember a visit from Grandma, and when I told her goodbye on the phone she said "Love you, sweet dreams".  At least she still remembers that she loves me.

More and more teeth for W

W is cutting six teeth at a time!  We always knew if he ever got to going he would be hard to stop!
He also has his very first ear infection at 8 months old!! :(
I will be posting some pics of mothers day soon....if I can ever find the time! 
We are having missionaries from Poland to dinner Friday night- our church supports several and I think we kinda got suckered.....It should be really neat though, and the kids are really looking forward to it.  Their accents are hard to understand, but they seem like really nice people trying to raise support. 
More later!

W's new teeth

W has finally been able to work his first tooth through, and the second is close behind!  He has been a pretty unhappy baby for the last few weeks. :(  And yet he is cruising around the furniture like crazy, and trying to let go and stand there UNassisted thank you very much! 

We are so proud of the big girls- the awards ceremony for AWANA was wednesday- and they all did awsome this year!
L finished three books this year! Her Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade books all in ONE year!
M finished hers with plenty of time left to go.  She is on track.
K did her 7th grade book plus half of her 5th grade book. 
A didn't finish his book, but he only went about six times this year.  When he did go he would always say three or four verses instead of just one.  He was always asleep for the first half of the year, he couldn't stay awake on the drive to church!  The rest of the time he would rather stay with Lance and I.  This is not unusual for him; he goes with Lance to sunday school more than he goes to his class- he does just fine for that hour, he just sits and colors or looks at a book.
E is still too little to go, even next year she will miss out.
Our church gave out 13 Citation Awards this year.  That represents ten years of books and four years of service for each award.  Only three percent of clubbers get this award.   Colleges give out scholarships for this!  Thirteen from one church is outstanding!
We are very proud of them!
Karate testing is tomorrow-- everyone is excited about that.
Seems like our year is wrapping up- then it is on to summer school and activities (got to make up for holding Will for four solid months).  Next thing you know it will be fall again.
Gotta go- I need to do lesson plans!

Spring's work

The garden is in, the yard is mowed, the chicken coop is built (mostly), and yet there is still a ton of work to do.  The front beds need attention, the paths need to be built, the back beds need lots of work.............it just never ends! 
There is school planning for summer term and fall, not to mention housework and organizing that needs, well, help. 
And the scrapbooks!  E was crying the other day because she wanted to look at her  baby book and she doens't have one.  :(
I need 36 hours each day just to think about getting it all done.

On another note, mom is getting settled (if you want to call it that); hospice has been out and gotten her a hospital bed and her medications, meals on wheels is coming, and Chuck is taking a walkie-talkie out to the garden with him when he goes. 
He finally allowed us to go and visit her last week.  It has been nearly a year since we were allowed in "his" house. 

Here are some pics that were taken this last month.  Some are of my birthday, some are my attempts at photography.  Keep in mind I did say attempts.

These were some of my attempts to capture W at 7 mos old; now it is time to have his 8 mo pics made!
He is pulling up on everything now, and his greatest desire is to stand unhindered by a helper.  He would climb everything if he could!  He is trying to cruise around the furniture, but hasn't quite mastered the art as of yet.  Diaper changes are an acrobatic event- maybe it will be in the olympics!

Update on Mom

Well, it has been a while now since I was able to sit down and blog a bit.  I have to admit it is quite therapeutic.  My mom is not doing well; she fell this past Tuesday and broke her hip and ankle.  They did a partial hip replacement and put pins in her ankle. She is still in the hospital; she might go home in a few days.  They did another couple of scans (MRI and CAT I think) and they show that her tumors are growing.  The Dr that spoke with her mentioned radiation and chemo again, and he specifically mentioned the cyber knife.  They mentioned that at the very first of her diagnosis, and the radiation Dr had said she was a good candidate- I am not clear on why they didn't do it back then.  When I asked that Dr why they weren't using it she was very evasive.  Most likely it was due to the fact that she had no insurance, and has recieved all of her care up to this point for nothing. The old adage "beggers can't be choosers" stings a bit here.  And don't think that this at all makes me lean towards ObamaCare; on the contrary- we will all be beggers under his plans.

We have been keeping very busy building our chicken coop; Lance has it nearly finished.  We just need to build a door and put up the welded wire and it will be finished.  Painting it will be a blast for the kids!  We also got the garden in these last two weeks- it has been very busy around here!  Plus AWANA is coming to an end--- L finished three books this year (this was her first year in Sparks, and her last- I can't believe she will be in T&T next year!) M is done with her book and K finished hers back in January to be eligeble for the Kansas City trip.  Next year K will attend regionals in Branson, and M & L will go to Stillwater for their competition.  We are already gearing up for next year, with homeschool convention season looming in the next few weeks; planning for next year is exciting and overwhelming, but a nice change of pace anyway.

All the kids are doing well, and W is out of the woods so to speak on his weight gain (or previous lack thereof).  E can still often be heard refusing to be "unbuckied" (unbuckled) by anyone but papa, and frequently walks around saying "papa coming see me" and "papa swing me". 

The kids enjoyed Easter with Mema & Papa Pink, even if they forgot their candy.  A is still talking about riding "his" tractor, and when we go back what he is going to do with "his" tractor.

I will post pictures of the coop and chicks soon, and the garden when it starts coming in good.

Kansas City was a blast

K really did well competing in KC this last weekend-- we had a lot of fun! We are also exhausted!  It was a fast and furious trip up and back, but it was very enjoyable. We stayed at a nice hotel in Overland Park, and the school where the volleyball tournament was held was not very far (in Olathe).  We were also close to the church where Bible Quiz and Trek Games were held.  It was an awesome site to behold to see all of those 7th & 8th graders reciting verses (the easy part of quiz).  Not to mention the high schoolers!  We also got to listen to one of the missionaries that was detained in Haiti for 20 some-odd days.  (that was a little long)
What really struck Lance and I about KC was how NEW everything was!  There seemed to hardly be any building that was over five years old!  I am guessing that Overland Park and Olathe are growing areas.

K and I are looking into taking a sewing class together.  It is something I have always wanted to know how to do, and she would love to know how also! Some of the competitors from our church really take Bible Quiz seriously and wanted to match each other, so they would sew (or have their mom) skirts or dresses to match.  Even the boy teams would color coordinate!  And not just our church kids matched;  there were churches from all over (this was regionals) whose kids teams matched! SO we thought a sewing class might be just the ticket for us! And very fun.  OK, with daylight savings in effect and 606 miles traveled in two days, we are all pooped!

New pic of W and A

My friend Rebecca took these- there are more but this is a sneak peek! 

Check out her website at http://www.olivetreeportraits.com/

 

W has for all intents and purposes "caught up" with A- he is weighing in just under what A was at six months, but not by much!

Chicken Bliss in Full Swing

Well, Chicken Bliss is officially in full swing!  We travelled down to Wewoka (lots farther than we thought) to pick up our chicks last week.  As it happened, an earthquake was going on in Prague; I was driving and kept telling Lance that I was having trouble keeping the van on the road- I just chalked it up to I-40 :)
Then we decided to eat in Shawnee since we were SO close.  And it was a LOT closer to dinner than we had planned.  Like almost 8pm.  That is sort of close to dinner time, just the wrong side of close.  We were going to eat at the Hamburger King, but it was closing, so we had to go somewhere else.  From the screaming that ensued you would think we were torturing some of the kids: Chicken Bliss quickly turned into Chicken Hell in a Handbasket.  But we made it home all in one piece and with full bellies.   Since then it has been quite a chore keeping everyone on task, especially since E killed one chick.  Now everyone is on guard duty. 

They are now getting big enough that we are worried they are going to be able to jump out of the brooder-- Lance is building a lid tonight!

8 days til chickens!

Here are some drawings of the types of chickens we will have in eight (countdown already in full swing) days:

The all black ones are called black Australorps, the golden ones are buff Orpingtons, the black and white one is a barred Plymouth Rock, the reds are Rhode Island Reds, and the multicolored ones are called Ameraucanas.  They are super cool because they lay multi-colored eggs in shades of pink, blue and yellow. 
The kids are on super chicken overload.  I took them to Atwoods the other morning on a "chicken field trip".  I thought they might explode with their chicken delight!  The names that are being bantied about are the funniest thing: fat louie, Asoka, Anikan, and even Sateen.  Yes, we have a bunch of clone wars fans.  And a princess.

W had his first cereal today and did very well; hopefully the rice will help keep his milk down!  He is on the verge of crawling away-- he is army crawling everywhere in just the last few days, and he is on all fours some of the time now!  And if he can't get where he wants to go that way, he just rolls!  Nothing and no one are safe any longer! (can you hear the Star Wars theme song in the background?  I can- I have three or four kiddos humming it at any given time!)

Why I would vote Ron Paul for President

Three words: TAXES TAXES TAXES! How we can have six children and a mortgage and still owe taxes blows my mind!  Google Ron Paul- he is for small government and pro business.  http://www.ronpaul.com/

Spring is in the air!

Our front garden, last summer- taken by Maddie

The first watermelon of the summer

Our fledgling tomatoes

 

Looking for butterflies & caterpillars

The first watermelon grown by us ever!

Even though these pictures are from last spring and summer, they have me excited about the possibilities of the coming season!  Our little garden was so blessed last year, even though we only had four small raised beds. We ate yellow squash nearly all summer, and had tomatoes into December!!!

Winter IS coming to an end (weather it will admit it or not), and it is already time to plan and plant (yes plant) next years garden! We are so ready to get out and get to work on it!  We already have seeds sprouting to transplant as soon as we can get out there!  We are expanding our garden this year because last years garden was such a success.  We are going to include a few more things, and look forward to again having jalepeno jelly and pickles!  I am hoping to get a pressure canner and expand my repertoire!

It was very satisfying to make our own jams and pickles, even if the pickles weren't crunchy. 

Spring really is in the air; God blessed Lance with a new job this last week- we had been praying that the industry would pick up soon, and God answered that prayer in the nick of time!  Since his employer cut his pay by 60% in January we have been praying for one of three things: restoration of wages, more side work, or a new job altogether.  God opened one door and allowed another to close.  That is good, because we would not have survived another month on only 1/3 of his paycheck!  Taking into account that the first check of January was only half of a reduced check (they took a week of furlough between Christmas and New Years) and you begin to see how we were quickly taking on quite a bit of water financially!  I had decided to go and apply for food stamps!  Being reduced by 60% ate up what little savings there was;  it will be three weeks between his last check and the first one from the new employer, so hopefully we can keep the gas on between now and then!  Because for some reason winter has been hanging on with a vengence this year- we have had more snow than I can ever remember. 

This is where longing for last summers bounty comes in! 

But this year will be even better, and we are adding chickens to the mix! 

I really can not wait for fresh eggs and spinach to make homemade quiche.

Having no money has forced me to bake and make things from scratch ( I have used more flour in these last eight weeks than I used all last year!) and the kids have loved jumping in there and getting their hands flourey and messey!  The thing with a large family and meals- if they like it there are really not any leftovers! But it does my mothers heart good to see them go back for seconds and thirds and enjoy what they are eating.

If the way to a man's heart really is through his stomach, then I have secured myself another 16 years of marriage!

Still refusing to facebook

Although I am still totally refusing to get on facebook on the principal that it is a time-stealing throwback to the anonymous notebook of seventh grade, Lance and I did decide that it might be nice if you guys had a digital way to keep up with the goings on of the Tribe.  Since I am terrible at responding email (no time) and not so good at keeping up over the phone (no time) and not even very good at getting pictures posted on photo sharing sites (no time) or even sending birthday cards (you guessed it) I thought that an occasional blog post might do the trick.  Plus -added bonus- you can all critique me on my grammar and spelling, since I teach those at home to the kids. 
I am attempting to add some pictures and figure out how to keep the entire world from looking into our living room.
So bear with me, I really don't have much time for this tonight!