"These Are a Few of My Favorite Things . . ."

Micah's favorite things, that is: his thumb, a big brother, and his fuzzy blue blanket.

We gave him the blanket for Christmas. When it got cold back in November, I searched around but couldn't find any appropriate "boy" thick blankets, which was a source of great annoyance, since I know my Aunt Rocky made a big fleecy one with teddy bears and a red edge for one of the boys. It must be in some clever place, because I know I have seen and used it in this house . . . Anyhow, all I could find for Micah's crib was this really soft fuzzy pink blanket that someone in our co-op passed down to the girls. So of course I used that without a second thought. Hey, it's dark!

But then I realized Micah REALLY was liking the blanket. He was definitely searching for it in the crib, and he would sleep with his face on it. Very cute, but I really didn't want a fuzzy pink blanket to be his "lovey", LOL. So I found this nice soft blue blanket at Babies R Us, and he has taken right to it.

Now I have 2 "blanket babies"--Faith has her "Bear Blanket", which is another one my Aunt Rocky made, and she absolutely adores that. She always sleeps with it, and when she's upset, that's what she wants for comfort. No one else was really into blankets! A thumb-sucking baby with a blanket is soooo cute and snuggly . . .

Candy Question

I was perusing the kids' Clubhouse magazine over lunch today. This year Clubhouse is celebrating its 25th birthday, so it had a little comparison chart for what was popular back in 1987, and what is popular in the same category now. So for example, cassettes were popular back in 87, and iPods and cell phones are popular now. Gas was apparently $ .89 a gallon, versus $3.50 now, although I wasn't driving back in '87, so I don't really remember, LOL.

But here was the weird thing--Clubhouse claims that Atomic Firealls and Bit-O-Honey were the most popular candies from 1987, while Snickers and Reece's Cups are popular now. Seriously?! Fireballs and Bit-O-Honey?! I would never have eaten a Fireball, and I would only have eaten a Bit-O-Honey if there was absolutely no other sweet options available, and I was a freshman in high school in 1987. I think of both of those as sort of the "get a big bag for cheap to pass out at Halloween because you're too stingy to buy the good stuff" candies. I didn't know anyone who would have preferred eating them to a Snickers or a Reece's Cup, both of which were certainly popular back in 1987!

Seriously--who would pick anything over Snickers or Reeces? Okay, M&Ms too. How come those didn't make the list?! Allergies is the only thing I can think of!

Clubhouse also had a little paragraph about how kids who grew up reading the magazine are now working there. So maybe they just polled those young whippersnappers and asked them what candies they thought were popular back in the olden days of 1987. In which case I should be glad that horehound candy and peppermint sticks didn't make the list!

Random Happenings

I've started several posts in my head lately, but I have never gotten around to actually typing them. And for those of you who aren't my facebook friends and assume you are missing vastly exciting things that I am only posting on there--wel, I haven't updated my status either, LOL. Sometimes it just seems like too much effort all around! So here are a few random and undeveloped thoughts of late.

1. Our big project last weekend was my desk. When my family moved to Ohio from Okinawa, my parents bought me a big antique oak teacher's desk at a sale that, if I recall correctly, was at the Springfield Mall, of all places. The desk has a huge oak top with 3 drawers on the left side, one same-sized drawer on the right, a big double-sized drawer also on the right that you can put files and folders in sideways, and a skinny drawer for pencils. When I was on college, Tram, the Vietnamese man who lived with my parents, made Amy and me both hutches to go on the back of our college desks. We use one of the hutches on the back of this big desk now. So, this desk that is over 100 years old has had a good long life--but let's just say it was not made for a military life! The only way to move the desk is to unscrew the top from it, and each time we have moved, it has become less and less stable and secure. The last straw was when we thought we were moving to Guam in Dec. 09, and we got new carpet put in our downstairs. When we put the desk back together ater that, the drawers one by one starting falling into each other and not sliding in and out. So we solved that by just stacking the drawers in various locations on the floor of the study! We knew that eventually we needed to tackle the desk and give it one more shot, and that was last weekend. We took it apart, and Bob used this nylon clamp thing to wrap around each section of the desk. He glued and nailed, and eventually the desk shaped up! I started putting the drawers back in--until I realized they didn't fit! They had also succumbed to old age and started sagging, so Bob had to get back out the clamp and wrap them up as well. So finally all elements are nice and tight again, and we are just waiting for another weekend to put it all back together! Maybe then I'll get around to taking a picture.

2. I never got the vomiting bug that the kids got, but Wednesday I did not feel well at all. I didn't throw up, but my stomach roiled around all day. So we did a minimal amount of school, and I laid around on the couch the rest of the day, reading Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein. It was an interesting book, but I wasn't too alarmed at any of her findings. My girls love princesses and dressing up, but I am not worried that they will "give up everything for a man", a la Ariel, or that they will emulate the latest "older" Disney girl, like Miley Cyrus or whoever. That's where, to be honest, it's really nice to homeschool and not watch much TV, where these things are blasted at kids. I'm definitely a "moderation" mom, so I'm not going to allow anyone to become obsessed about anything. She did have some interesting, if questionable, points. She said that babydolls were invented essentially in the early 1900s as a way to "revive the flagging maternal instinct of white girls, to remind them of their patriotic duty to conceive . . ." Really? What about all those colonial corncob dolls? Girls have always loved babies! Aso, she is definitely not one for traditional values or feminine roles, which is not too surprising considering she is definitely a liberal (always clear to point out how she hopes her daughter explores all of her sexual options, etc.).

3. Micah has been so much happier this past week! Even though he has a little cold right now, he's been sleeping well and playing so nicely, even by himself. Of course, if we don't hear little noises anywhere, that is our clue to jump up and check the stairs--he loves climbing them! Since I realized that he just hasn't gained weight since he started crawling, I have been making a concerted effort to give him tons of extra stuff. So he has been happily munching on whatever table food I can give him, plus English muffins with honey and butter, toast and jam, regular muffins, fruit, whatever. I do think that he is sensitive to milk. It's been tricky to tell because he is also sensitive to hot and cold things, and he'll get a little rash from things like little pieces of ice or rice cereal that is a little too hot. But like I gave him some cornbread (made with milk) last night that was not wam at all, and he got a hive on his cheek--there have been a few things like that lately that have made me think he is reacting to the milk. So that rules out things like yogurt and cheese. After the freedom of this past year of being able to cook whatever without worrying about subbing milk, I am not looking forward to going back! I'm definitely not even going to try peanut butter or any nuts. I need to get a jar of sun butter next time I'm out. I don't really want to start him on soy butter, like Caleb likes.

So there are a few random thoughts to get you caught up on our busy life! You can fill in the rest of the time with school, laundry, cooking, and running people around to various basketball practices and Civil Air Patrol. That's my life!

Still Alive

Hey, it's me! We didn't all succumb to the dreaded plague! In fact, I never even got sick! Nathan and Jonathan did, though--last Wednesday night. They felt better by Friday. Funny Jonathan story though: I was soooo tired last Wednesday night, due to my being up all the previous night dealing with various vomiting children. So when Jonathan came in around 2:00 in the morning to tell me he had thrown up, I didn't even open my eyes.

Me: "Did you throw up in the trash can?"

Jonathan: "I think so."

So I stumbled into his room, tied up his trash can bag, took it downstairs to the big trash can, and stumbled back to bed, all with my eyes barely open. I did register that his trash can didn't really smell, which should have been a big red flag, but like I said--I was tired! Jonathan came into bed with me and threw up several more times, but each time he hit the trashcan like champ, and by the end, I just had a ton of bags lining the trash can, and I would just reach over, tie up the thrown-up-in bag, smoosh it down, and leave the trash can ready for another shot.

Anna came into my room about 4:00 to ask if she could use the potty in my bathroom, because there was throw-up in (on? I wasn't really listening, LOL) her potty. I told her (with my eyes still shut) to flush her potty, but that she could certainly use mine.

But when Jonathan came back into my room (at some point he left? I wasn't awake for that!) to tell me he needed to use my potty because there was throw-up all over their potty, I finally woke up enough to realize that indeed Jonathan had NOT thrown up at all in the trash can. I mentioned that to Jonathan, who said, "Oh yeah! I was peeing, and then all of a sudden I had to throw up, and it went all over the back of the potty!" LOL! Glad it all came back to him!

So I found myself scrubbing the toilet at 5:00 in the morning. I will say that I think my attitude was a little better than if I had been doing it at 2:00, but still . . .

When I got up to get Micah at 7:30, and Nathan told me he had also thrown up a few times during the night, but had not needed me, he became my new favorite child, LOL.

Bob was TDY this week as well. When I drove back home from picking up Nathan from Civil Air Patrol on Tuesday night, I was praying I would not come home to find anyone lying on the couch, sick, like I found last week! Thankfully everyone was well, so the only thing I just had to deal with was getting all the boys to and from their various basketball practices by myself. And I'll take that over dealing with vomit any day!

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

No one has thrown up since early this morning, so I am cautiously hopeful that this bug is behind us. No one really ate much of anything all day either, with the exception of Nathan and Jonathan. It turns out that cleaning up all that puke took my appetite right away too, LOL. But I was getting a bit hungry by dinnertime, and I decided to make some chicken noodle soup. This is an easy recipe that is really tasty--and hopefully it will stay down for everyone!

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

1 T olive oil
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
2-3 cloves garlic
as much chicken broth as needed--I used . . . hmmmm . . . 1 big can (48 oz) and 2 little cans (14.5 oz), and I probably could have used one more small can
1 pound cooked chicken (I always have bags of this--okay, more like 2 pound bags--in my freezer)
1 1/2 c egg noodles (I just eyeballed about half of a 16 oz. package)
1 c sliced carrots (I dumped in a whole bag a frozen sliced carrots--did I mention how tired I was?!)
1/2 t. dried basil
1/2 t. dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over medium heat, saute onion and celery in olive oil until tender, about 5 minutes (add the garlic in for the last 2-3 minutes). Pour in chicken broth, and stir in chicken, carrots, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Add noodles and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

As I Was Saying . . .

So just back on Monday I posted about how whenever Micah would happen to sleep through the night, other people would have problems, so I would still not get a full night's sleep.

Well . . . last night I got the girls and Micah into bed by 8:30, and then I left to pick Nathan up from Civil Air Patrol (Bob is TDY this week). When we got home, Luke was lying on the couch. A little while later he leaned over the side of the couch and threw up into the trash can. Huh. A little while later he threw up again. I stayed up until 11:30 to see if he needed anything, but when he went upstairs to lay on the hallway floor (his choice, LOL), I went to bed too. But first I checked on Micah as well as the girls, like I always do. Micah was fine, but as soon as I walked into the girls' room, I knew someone had thrown up, because the smell hit me like a wall. A little investigation determined it was Grace, who had apparently thrown up next to her pillow, sat up, thrown up again down by her feet, and then, completely inexplicably, lay back down again and went back to sleep. She was, to put it mildly, a big stinky mess.

As I gingerly tried to extricate her from the mess and scrape some of the more solid stuff into the trash, Faith, who was sleeping on the trundle bed I was standing on, got up on all fours and threw up on her bed. Ack! Now I had a war on 2 fronts to deal with! I got both girls stripped, as well as the beds, and I put Grace in my shower, since she had vomit in her hair. I left her there while I tried to get Faith changed and settled in again. I put new sheets on her bed, and then ran back to check on Grace, who was crying in the shower and making no effort to wash any part of herself. That is the problem with showers that are taken at midnight! So I got her washed and then decided she would sleep in my bed, since she has a track record of having a sensitive stomach and vomiting often once she gets started. But then I heard Faith crying, so I ran in just in time to see her vomit on her bed again. Ack! One more sheet (bottom only this time), and a towel over the pillow. During this time, Luke had thrown up a few more times, but he can be relied on to always hit the trash can, and he can wipe his mouth up by himself.

So i got the girls settled and went back to bed. About 15 minutes later, a little after 1:00, Caleb threw up, although he managed to hit the trash can as well. Yay!

I went back to bed for a few minutes, until I heard Grace make a funny noise. I leaned over, pulled her upright, grabbing the trashcan in the process, and forced her head into it, right as she threw up. Lightning reflexes, LOL! I was very glad she didn't mess up my sheets! I had to do that at least 3 more times during the (very long) night, so having Grace sleep with me was definitely the best option.

So Caleb threw up again, as did Faith, and around 3:30 Anna started whining and complaining that her stomach hurt. I knew it was only a matter of time, and sure enough she threw up for the first time around 4:00. She threw up once more, and Grace threw up for the last time around 5:30. So then I got 2 whole hours of sleep before Micah woke up at 7:30 . . . Micah, who had slept the entire night, from 8:30 until 7:30. Sigh. It is indeed some kind of cosmic conspiracy.

So we canceled Latin for today, and everyone is just sitting around. Well, actually Micah, Jonathan, and Nathan seem perky! I am so hoping they don't throw up all this night. I think I'm going to start a video for the girls and then go take a nap!

9 Months Old!

What are you looking at?! Yes, Micah is 9 months old today. He is crawling all over the place now, and he is a champ at going up stairs. I really need to work with him on turning himself around so he can go down stairs as well, although so far he hasn't shown any real interest in going down. He loves pushing this little rolling walker thing around (I meant to take a picture but keep forgetting). He will stand by himself, but not for very long, so he's got a little way to go before walking.

Micah has hit a weight plateau at right around 20 pounds. I never did make a 9 month well-baby appointment for him, so there won't be any sort of official numbers coming out! He's not gaining much, since he's been really active and crawling, which is just like all my other kids. That boy does love to eat, though! He is eating a lot of table foods now, which is nice since I never did get around to making any homemade baby food for him, not even sweet potatoes or squash! Poor 8th baby . . . Good thing he has all those teeth! I haven't started him on meat yet, but pretty much everything we eat he will chomp away on.

Micah is a happy baby who loves all the attention lavished on him by his older siblings. However--he is by far and away my worst sleeper. Not for naps--he takes great naps. But at night. There is always something! He was the latest of my kids to sleep through the nap, at around 10 weeks. Then after a (very) few good weeks, he started teething in July. That lasted until November, when he finally got the last of his 8 teeth pushed through. But then he started this terrible habit of pooping between 3:00 and 4:00 every morning. Seriously?!?! And of course it woke him up, and changing him was disruptive, so of course he wanted to nurse, and so the whole thing takes a long time, and is very disruptive for me! How do you change someone's bowel movement schedule?! He seems to be one who just goes often during each day (and night)! And even when he would go the whole night and not poop, then there would be an unexpected pee accident or someone would have a bad dream or something. It seems like a conspiracy! I really think that interrupted sleep is some of my problem these past few months, as far as me not being motivated or energized at all to clean or start big projects (or even little ones!). As we start up our co-ops again tomorrow, I am really praying that Micah will be able to get onto a good sleep (and intestinal, LOL) routine so that I can feel better able to handle life!

What's New in 2012?

A haircut for me! That is actually a big deal, since my last haircut was in February 2011, back when we were visiting in Ohio for our winter break. Usually my plan is to find a cheap place where I can walk in and be done in a short time after the person just trims my hair a bit, since I have no ideas about what to do with my hair!

There's a lady in our church who has a real gift for working with hair. I can't even say how many times I've gone up to someone in the past year whose hair looked really great, and the answer has been, "Oh, Suzy cut my hair!" We have a bunch of ladies in our church with naturally-curly hair like mine, and she always does a great job with their hair. One of the families in our co-op lives across the street from her, and one of their daughters got an amazing haircut from her this past summer. But I was very intimidated to make an appointment with her--she is always so polished-looking, while I am frumpy and frizzy-headed, so I was worried she would take on look at my scraggly hair and be like, "I have no idea what to do with this mop!" And then where would I be?!

But at our women's fall retreat this year, Suzy was in my small group, and she wasn't at all too polished to talk to, LOL, so I decided to call and make an appointment. Although I move at glacial speed, so I didn't get around to calling until after Thanksgiving. And by that time she wasn't taking any new clients until after the New Year. The lady at the desk sounded like she thought I would be disappointed, but in reality, it was perfect timing! After Thanksgiving I was looking at visiting Bob's family, finishing co-ops, going to Great Wolf Lodge, finishing Christmas stuff like chocolates and present-shopping, visiting my family--I definitely didn't really need to add in a new haircut to all that! So I made the appointment for Tuesday, Jan. 3--after all the stress of the holidays was over, but before co-ops start again!

It was so nice to go to someone who really knows what they are doing! She spent a ton of time with me beofre even cutting my hair, going through all of my hair-care routine (well, that didn't take too much time for me to talk about my part, LOL), and giving me a ton of hints for how to better care for my hair. I told her my main requirement was that whatever she did had to not take much time to do, since I definitely don't have any extra time at this stage of my life. and then she went to town! Another lady walked by and said, "Oooh, look at all that hair on the ground!" So now my hair is short, and it's really easy to work with. I have to remind myself not to run my fingers through the curls all the time (that separates the curl strands and contributes to frizziness!), LOL. Bob has always preferred me with short hair, so he was thrilled. The kids were . . . surprised by the change, LOL. Nathan is going to be one of those men who only wants his wife to have long hair . . . but everyone seems to have adjusted! Micah was funny. He stared and stared at me for awhile when I first got home, but you could practically see him think, "Hey, the milk's still there, so who really cares", LOL.

And I've already made another appointment for May, right after testing is over. I'm going on the "2 or 3 haircuts a year" plan now!

Cousins!

So my brother Dan and his family also drove to Ohio for Christmas. They have 2 girls--Emily, who is almost 5, and Elia, who turned 2 back in September. These ages dovetail in quite nicely with our girls, who are 5 1/2, 4 1/2, and almost 3! The girls always have SUCH a grand time whent hey are all together!

Anna, Grace, Faith, and Emily all slept in one room. The first night we were there, the girls got pretty much no sleep at all! I kept hearing giggling, so I went down to check on them around 11:00. The lights were on, and they were all chattering and reading books! I told them to get in bed and go to sleep, but when Bob got up around 2:30 to go to the bathroom, he heard giggling and told them to settle down. When Micah got up to nurse around 6:00--more giggling! I again told them to settle down and go back to sleep, but they were all upstairs a little after 7:00! We were expecting them to all be very crabby, but surprisingly they were not.

I put the fear of God in them the next night, telling them that if there was any trouble, Emily would have to sleep on a mattress in her parents' room. I told them they needed stay in their beds, close their mouths and eyes, and go to sleep! I was very firm, LOL. So firm that Emily was scared to get up at all, even though she needed to go to the bathroom! Anna didn't feel that same fear, so she got up, and Emily was amazed at her bold disregard for the clear law that had been laid down. I was actually directing my comments to Faith, who is one of the main troublemakers, so the next night I had to be careful to clarify!

Emily is just a lot like me, in terms of taking things literally. When I was 4 or 5, I was in this day camp for a week through our church, back when we were stationed in Los Angelos. One little field trip we had was on some pirate boat out in some bay. The pirates were being all fierce (and completely over-the-top, as I can clearly see now when looking back on it), and they threatened to throw any kid overboard who did anything wrong. I. was. PETRIFIED. I sat in one spot and didn't move the entire trip. I kept wondering when they were going to come around and get all of our names and addresses, because without those, how would they let our parents know that we had been thrown overboard?! LOL!

Aunt Melinda was a very patient reader of stories for everyone! Grace has obviously been in her stocking stash of chocolate, LOL.

Even though Emily's birthday isn't until tomorrow, we celebrated in Ohio early. We went bowling at the base. They have this little dragon thing that the younger kids can roll the ball down, so you don't have to wait an approximate year for the ball to get down to the pins. Also, they have the nice bumper things in the gutters, and you can lift them up and down, depending on who's bowling, which makes it nice for Jonathan and Caleb. The boys were really helpful with the girls, helping them carry their balls over to the dragon, making sure it was centered and all.

Elia had the absolute most fun. As soon as she gave the ball a push, she would start jumping up and down, clapping and cheering, as she watched her ball roll down the lane! A very enthusiastic bowler indeed!

She was not an enthusiastic eater of green beans however, LOL. We had those at our Christmas day leftover dinner, and while she would have eaten as much of the cranberry sauce as possible, she wanted nothing to do with the beans, so Dan had to lay down the law--eat this green bean, which was cut into 3 pieces, or no more cranberry sauce. And with that, the battle was on! She refused the green bean the rest of that day, and on until Monday evening. Bob and I went out for pizza with Dan and Melinda, and while we were gone, Luke somehow convinced Elia to eat the bean--all 3 pieces! Yay!

So now we are all missing Emily and Elia, and wishing they lived closer!

Christmas Downtime

It was so nice to have some downtime during this break! We all got a lot of games for Christmas, so much time was spent playing them! The boys got Settlers of Catan, plus the expansion pack so a total of 6 people could play. That is proving to be a very popular game! They also got a card game called Quidler, plus a game called "Sort It Out", where you're given a weird collection of things which you have to organize in some given order. Here's an example: Sort these things by length, from longest to shortest: average female sea lion, anaconda, giant salamander, a yardstick, and a bootlace worm. You have to get each item in the right position, so you can basically have them all but one in the correct order, but you put that one wrong one in the first place, so it pushed all the rest off a place, and then you get credit for none of them being right. The good thing about this game is you pretty much have as much a chance of getting things right by randomly guessing than if you have some idea of what is right. So Jonathan never won, but he hung out in the middle of the pack, when he had no idea about pretty much all the cards!

The girls got some fun games too, which were played by all. A big favorite was a charades game Dan and Melinda gave to Emily. All the younger kids thought that was great fun. The Princess Memory game was also a favorite.

One thing I really love to do is work jigsaw puzzles. One day when I was in Barnes and Noble I saw this 1000 piece puzzle, which I just loved. I hope you can see the picture clearly, but it's a grandma and grandpa sitting in their huge library--but then as you look down the hallways, you see that the books stretch out in every direction! My dream house! So we gave that to Mom and Dad as a Christmas present, and then we brought up the old card table and actually started it Tuesday. It was a fun puzzle to work because there were lots of separate areas you could do. Luke finished it up Friday morning!

I was also able to spend some time just reading, which was so relaxing. I read the second book in the new 39 Clues series, which was a quick read. I also read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, about the woman whose cancer cells became the hela line. Absolutely fascinating!! I am going to have the boys read that book next summer before we start biology at Rivendell. Christine has recommended the book after her book club read it, and I was so glad I read it! I also finally got started on the 3rd Harry Potter book. I read the first 2 in August, but then Rivendell started, and I have pretty much had no time for pleasure reading. I need to finish that up tomorrow so I can take it back to the library! We also listened to about half to The Lightning Thief on CD on our long trip home. We have the book, so right now Jonathan is finishing it up, then Caleb is in line, and then me.

Wow--puzzles, reading--what a lovely break! We don't start back at Rivendell until Jan. 10, so I technically have some more break time. But now I really need to do more prep work for science and Latin, plus I still have goals for cleaning and decluttering, so I think my break is more or less over. Wah. It was good while it lasted, and it was so nice being at my mom's house, where I wasn't constantly reminded off all the stuff in the house I need to clean and organize!

Christmas Weekend

We had our big Christmas meal on Christmas Eve, in the afternoon, and then we went on to the candlelight service at the base chapel. I think I am going to make this our new tradition, because it was so nice on Christmas to just be able to heat up leftovers, and not have to worry about cooking stuff while trying to watch people open presents!

Look at all those beautiful girls in their Christmas dresses! We went to church Christmas morning at the chapel, then we came home and ate a quick meal of leftovers before opening our presents.

We all got some really neat presents (and the best part is that they all fit in the van for the drive back!). Lots of games, legos, and other fun things.

Nathan has been talking about how he would like a hatchet, so my dad gave him his old Boy Scout hatchet!

Then we had our birthday party for Jesus. After we ate our cake, we looked through catalogs to decide what our birthday gift to Jesus was going to be. After much discussion, we settled on a goat and 2 chickens, plus a share in a deepwater well. I think we ended up going with the World Vision catalog. Looking through those catalogs makes us wish we could give a thousand times more--so many needs!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

We spent Christmas in Ohio with my parents, and my brother and his family, who drove up from Texas. They arrived Wednesday, but we got to Ohio late Friday, since we couldn't leave until noon because Bob had to go in to work for a few hours. Then Bob rode back to VA Tuesday with the son of a friend of my parents. He is a USAFA grad who is now out of the service. He lives in downtown DC, but he was kind enough to drop Bob right off at our house!

The kids and I stayed until yesterday. We got a late start on the drive because Anna woke up feeling sick. She heaved a few times before we left, but since she hadn't eaaten anything since dinner Friday, there was nothing in her tummy. She moaned and groaned pretty much the whole ride home, and we had to make a really long stop at lunch because of her tummy troubles, so the trip just took forever, it seemed. We drove straight to the L's house, since we were planning on going to their annual New Year's Eve party. We were only an hour late! Bob met us there and took Anna and Micah home, while the rest of us stayed and ate dinner. The boys played games, including their new Settlers of Catan game, which they brought in. Grace and Faith and I left before everyone counted down (at 9:00) because I was just so fried. Bob went back for awhile and brought the boys home eventually.

I am glad to be home, but dealing with all the stuff Bob unloaded from the van is almost too much to think about! I'm not feeling 100% myself, actually. Micah never really slept well at all at my parents' house, and I have 2 big canker sores in my mouth from the lack of sleep, as well as just some general snuffles. So I'm sitting here, foggy-brained, trying to muster up some motivation to do something useful. Maybe I'll upload pictures from our camera and write some more posts. That might be all the motivation I can muster, LOL.

Rivendell Goes to Great Wolf Lodge

We just got back yesterday from 3 days at Great Wolf Lodge! We all really needed the break, and we had such a good time! Our homeschooling group got the same great deal we got last year, so we were able to stay in the 2 bedroom Grizzly suite again. Woo-hoo!

Micah really enjoyed the water! As it turns out, however, he doesn't like his bare knees to touch anything like water or even carpet, so he spent a good deal of the time doing this gorilla walk. I guess he hasn't been in any shorts since he learned to crawl! He really liked the wave pool, and he would sit in the shallow part and splash, or crawl around like in the picture, when it was still. But as soon as he heard the wolf "howling", signaling when the waves were starting, he would crawl over and sit in my lap!

Grace had a really good time as well--much more fun than last year. She also LOVED the wave pool, and she, Faith, and Anna would all bob around in these rings forever, during the still times as well as when the waves were going. She was so much braver! She went on one of the big water slides (River Canyon Run) with Bob and the other girls several times! Yes, Faith went on that slide too, as well as the ones from the center fort thing! She was absolutely unafraid. What a pill!

I love how the skillful photographer was able to make it appear like Caleb was peeing with wild abandon--LOL. I didn't get too many pictures of the boys, since they were running around and I hardly ever even saw them. Fun was had by all, though.

We all (3 Rivendell families plus one other homeschooling family in our bigger group) went out to Golden Corral Wednesday night. Micah was a total pig (well, everyone else was too!). Carrots, green beans, rolls, tons of fruit--he kept stuffing it in. The kids were quite excited by the chocolate fountain Golden Corral now offers, even though the strawberries weren't really in season. After we got back, the boys all watched "National Treasure" in the room of the other family.

Thursday we went to Cici's for dinner, and then the boys came to our room and played cards for awhile. We brought Skip-Bo, Monopoly Deal, and Uno. While the boys were playing cards, the girls, Micah, and I went down to the lobby for their little "show", and to hear "storytime with Rowdy the Reindeer". Rowdy was one of those costumed actors with the gigantic heads--the kind that used to terrify Anna at Chik-Fil-A and cause her to scream hysterically. We have come a long way, however, since now Anna, as well as Grace and Faith, all lined up to shake Rowdy's hand when the story was done. They all drew the line at giving him a hug though.

We left Friday right after lunch. This was a little earlier than we had planned, but the girls and Micah were just done. Since we were on the road so early, we decided to stop at Ikea for the first time. Wow--so much stuff! Bob and I had a great time looking at everything. There was some complaining, although not from any of the younger 7 kids . . .

We got back home, unloaded, and immediately got ready to go to Bible study for our annual Christmas story play,. The nicest part was that we had a baked potato bar, so I brought shredded cheese and sour cream, but I didn't have to cook! Woo-hoo! Elizabeth cooked 15 pounds of potatoes, and we had exactly 2 potatoes left over. The kids said they didn't want them because "there weren't any toppings left". And they were right! Chili, taco meat, ham. broccoli, bacon bits--all gone. There was just a bit of cheese left. Locusts, they are!

Then after the grand performance (parts for all kids who wanted one--and there were 25 kids!), we had an absolutely delicious ice cream sundae bar. I brought M&Ms for that, but there were also brownies, oreo crumbs, pineapple, and lots of sauces including Amy's homemade chocolate marshmallow one. Mmmmm.

Our Christmas break is off to a good start!! (And I just want to point out for the benefit of other homeschooled readers who might be envious of our Christmas break, that this is a break for ME, LOL. The boys will still be doing some school next week, especially math and English . . . so don't be too envious!)

Fall Stresses

So that was just a big vent chock full o' complaining there in the last post. What has me so stressed that book exchanges and etiquette teas are pushing me over the edge?!

Well, homeschooling is more difficult, for starters. Rivendell is amazingly awesome. I could not even attempt to do high school without these other ladies. Nathan would just have to take a bunch of online classes or something. So I know how much easier my load is because I have Rivendell, but at the same time, physical science has been a ton more difficult to prepare for than last year's life science. The BJU book is definitely at least 9th grade course--integrated physics and chemistry. I feel like sometimes the text is written in a way that is more confusing than enlightening, like they go out of their way to make concepts more difficult. I've spent a lot of time with a jr. high physical science book (Prentice Hall Science Explorer) that I got used off Half.com for a dollar. It has been SO helpful. I'll probably use it for the whole course next time (when I don't have a high schooler in the class!), except I don't think it's possible to get a teacher's manual or any tests for it, so I'll have to make my own.

Also it's been hard to figure out how to best use the class time. We really need more than one hour and a half class period to cover a chapter and do labs! Fortunately the book has 21 chapters, and we have 33 weeks, so I can take 2 weeks on a good deal of the chapters. What has ended up working the best is for me to take one class period to go over the entire chapter, and then use the second class period to do labs. I'm thinking about next year already, which will be biology for the high schoolers, and life science for the jr. highers. For biology, maybe the boys will watch the DIVE dvds at home, and then use the class time just for labs. We are going to prepare for the bio SAT II test, so I am thinking that maybe we'll have another afternoon (not Tuesdays) where we just go over the dvd stuff, plus anything extra I think will be important for test prep. I don't know. No matter what, I am definitely looking forward to getting back into biology stuff again! Physics was never my favorite!

Prepping for the Latin class has been another thing that has taken more time than I expected. The first part of Henle pretty much reviews all the stuff Latina Christina I and II teach, just covering it a LOT more quickly, and with tons of translation. But still--it wasn't difficult because all my years of teaching Latin to younger kids has finally cemented in my brain all the declension endings and basic verb conjugations (first and second conjugation, present, future, and imperfect tenses). BUT September rolled around, and now we're not reviewing anymore! Finally we learned the past tense (or the "perfect indicative active" as it is technically called), which has different endings on a whole different principal part, and now we're working on the passive voice. Gah. I am NOT remembering these things very well, so it takes me a long time to work through all the exercises! I am just trying to think ahead and think positively about how easy this will all be when it's time to teach Caleb and Jonathan! The boys will take the National Latin I Exam the second week of March, and that is as far as I will go in Latin. I really do enjoy Latin, but right now--it's just one more thing I really don't have time for. One day I'll be retired from homeschooling (that day is a minimum of 18 years away, LOL), and then think of how much time I will have! I'll become a Latin expert! I'll write my Christmas letters and blog in Latin! Well, maybe not, LOL. But it won't be a stresser like it is now!

All this prep work, plus the regular grind of homeschooling at home, has really taken a toll on the house. Here's a warning--don't just drop in to visit us, LOL. Or if you do, walk around with your eyes half closed. I have big plans for this break. Big organizing plans. One example--we took down Faith's crib back in oh, September some time. We propped it in the hallway until I could organize the basement storage room to fit it in. It is still propped up in the hallway. Drives me crazy! Another area of disorganization is Micah's clothes. He is now out of 12 month clothes mainly, so I brought up the 18 month tub of clothes. Now both tubs are in the hallway with clothes piled haphazardly in and around them. I think it is high time that boy has clothes in his actual closet and dresser! These are not the only areas, of course. And we need to clean too, not just pick up and straighten. I am actually so overwhelmed with how dirty the house has gotten these past few months that I can hardly even think of where to start and what to do. Hopefully I'll be able to make some inroads into the chaos in the next week. I'll keep you posted on my progress, or lack thereof. Unfortunately, the 3 big messmakers will be around . . .

Christmas Break!!!

We're on Christmas Break! We're on Christmas Break! I am practically dancing, LOL. This fall has been a rough one. I knew back in August that once we started, I'd just have to hang on, and that is indeed how it's been. Now I am so ready for a break!

The last week was hard to get through. The elementary co-op had a few things going on, and I was just NOT in the mood to deal with them! For instance, we had our Christmas party last Friday. It's always a skating party, which the kids really enjoy, and this time it was really nice because the organizer had the brilliant idea to have a little area with some simple crafts for the younger kids who weren't going to skate. Grace and Faith had a great time there! The thing that was so (unreasonably) stressful about the party is that a few years ago, a lady had the bright idea that we should do a book exchange there. So each year all the kids bring a wrapped gift of a book they are done with, and they get to pick out a new book. Sounds great! Except we're never "done" with books, LOL, and I have 4 people in different grades! This year, finding books for everyone was very stressful for me. No more book exchange! Once again you can tell gifts aren't my love language.

Then on Tuesday the co-op had an "etiquette tea" as a special 5th week activity to wrap up the etiquette unit. They did this several years ago as well, and it was definitely a highlight for Nathan. The organizers bought these cute little plastic Christmas-themed teacups from Oriental Trading Co., the leaders of the unit were the "servers", complete with towels over their arms, and it was just fun. I think we each had to contribute a plate of cookies, and the kids got to pick either tea or hot chocolate. Nathan came home talking all about tea and asking me to buy some for him the next time we went to the commissary!

This time, the organizers sent out a big list of what foods the moms in each grade were supposed to contribute--cheese and crackers, fruit, tea sandwiches, cookies. I about died, since I have 4 different grades represented, but thankfully I reread the email and realized I only had to bring something for class which was the smallest. That meant Grace's class, and they were assigned cheese and crackers, so that wasn't bad at all. But they didn't buy any sort of cups--we had to send a tea cup along for each child. They said in the email that if we didn't have cups and saucers and didn't want to buy any at the thrift store, then mugs would be alright. Well good, because I'm not sending in 4 breakable cups and saucers, even if we did have any, and I'm certainly not making a run to the thrift store! Yes, I was getting annoyed by petty things, I'll admit, LOL. Fortunately Amy has sent each of my kids a lovely plastic dishwasher safe mug with their names on them, so those were called into service. Whew! Thanks again, Amy!!

I was assigned to help out with this activity, so I had to be there early to supervise the "craft" for Grace's class, which turned out to be coloring. Then someone did a chalk talk, which was really neat. I love seeing those pictures come alive, with all the different lights! After Christine was done teaching history, she drove over and took over for me, so I could rush to Rivendell and teach physical science. Fortunately we were only doing a lab, but still, I felt very rushed and unorganized, since I had not had any time to set anything up. Oh well. We finished it, and we made it through the day--and now we are on break!!!!! I can always tell when I need a break because minor things become very stressful and highly annoying to me! I'm really quite thankful for the elementary co-op. It is very well-run, the kids enjoy it and get a lot out of it, and I really don't have to do all that much for it! But there are definitely times--like last week--when I was not in the mood to deal with it at all!

A Painful Gift

Yesterday we all attended the memorial service for our friend Jennifer. It was an amazing service, absolutely filled with the hope of the gospel. Three friends of Jennifer's gave beautiful tributes to her, and then her husband Joe spoke. I couldn't believe he was able to get through the whole thing--I was praying for strength for him!--but he did. What a powerful testimony he gave. He was able to give thanks not only for Jennifer's life, but also for her death. In all the tributes, it was very evident that Jennifer lived her life for Christ, and she sought to know Him more and more deeply. That is also her desire for each of us. He shared a poem written by Martha Snell Nicholson called "The Thorn".

I stood a mendicant of God before His royal throne
And begged him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out His hand, but as I would depart
I cried, “But Lord this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange, a hurtful gift, which Thou hast given me.”
He said, “My child, I give good gifts and gave My best to thee.”
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed I learned at last to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.

Wow--what a perspective on this terrible tragedy, which Joe himself said was the hardest thing he ever has had to face. But truly for a Christian, death is not the end. There is hope, and for right now, peace and even joy. Joe said that he has already come to know God in a deeper way through this, and it was evident that he was trusting God's plan for his children as well. What faith! I am praying that Jennifer's faith will have a tremendous impact on many through her death. I was so glad we brought all our kids so that they could see how Christians deal with tremendous pain. Hopefully Joe's testimony will bear fruit in their lives as well.

But this family is in a long marathon, not a sprint. Please keep praying for them, as they work out the realities of life without Mom.

No More Time

Well, I've been busy, lately, as usual. There's really never enough time to get everything done, and I constantly feel behind and not as productive as I should be. On the other hand, though, I still feel like I have unlimited time--many more Christmases, afternoons with family, special memories, etc., and so I don't really use my time very effectively or intentionally. But none of us may have all that extra time.

Friends of ours from our church left in January for a 2 year assigment in a remote country that was a part of the former Soviet Union. Joe is in the Army, but he was serving with the US embassy there. Joe and Jennifer had 7 kids, and the whole family went along for the assignment. Their kids are all almost exactly 1 year older than the matching kid in our line-up, except for their last 2, who were the same ages as our #6 and #7. Jennifer had her 8th baby at home on Saturday, Nov. 26, with Joe and their oldest daughter helping. The baby boy was just fine, but Jennifer ended up having complications. She died on Wednesday, leaving 8 kids including a 4 day old newborn.

This has really hit close to home. I just can't stop thinking about Joe and the kids. The oldest 2 are daughters, and they are such competent and loving sisters. A lot of hard decisions have to be made right now. Please pray for this family, that God will clearly lead them and comfort them. As Christine said, Jennifer is completely enjoying Jesus right now, and she fully understands His plan. But for those who are left--what crushing sorrow.

For me, my heart is just so heavy. I am so not excited about Christmas or any celebrations. But now more than ever I realize we have no guarantee of time left with our kids, so I really need to make lots of memories, and spend time deliberately. I want to catch up on the kids' scrapbooks. Who cares about housework and schoolwork? But that doesn't work either. So I continue on prepping for the physical science lesson on Tuesday and wrapping presents for Bob's family, with tears constantly threatening.

Catching Up

I've had a bit of a chance to take a breath here this Thanksgiving break, and it has been so wonderful. I am REALLY looking forward to the Christmas break, where we'll have 3 weeks off from our co-ops. Anyhow, I realized I haven't been blogging very much, so I thought I'd go back and catch up on a few things I missed.

1. Nathan got his expander put in a week ago. Now we can once again experience the lovely sucking noise that we used to hear from Luke, as Nathan tries to clear food out from on top of it! Ah, how we've missed that noise . . . LOL. We are faithfully turning the key each night. Nathan's mouth doesn't have the obvious things wrong that Luke's did, where teeth were popping through really high up because there was no room, so we're not going to have the dramatic results. But his bite will be aligned! Now Jonathan on the other hand--he is another one with the really narrow jaw, and teeth popping out in weird places. I foresee an orthodontic visit for him sometime in this upcoming year. Whee!

2. We are getting ready for the basketball season to start. Caleb and Jonathan are going to be on the same Upward team, practicing on Thursday nights, and Bob is going to be the assistent coach. Fun! Nathan and Luke are playing in the house league where they played football this fall. Luke's team is all set, but for Nathan's group, they had more boys than they had anticipated, and they didn't have enough coaches. Sooo . . . after the commissioner kept calling and asking parents for help, Bob, who has never played or coached basketball at all, is going to coach Nathan's team. Should be interesting! And once again we are running out of nights of the week, with Civil Air Patrol, Bible study, church small group, etc. I keep telling myself, this is just a season of our lives! At least for basketball, once the games start everyone will only have practice one night a week, as opposed to 3 for football.

3. Micah has become much more confidant in his crawling. Now he crawls around the house looking for me. He's really not that much of an explorer though, unlike Faith. He is also pulling up on whatever he can, giving him many more opportunities to knock stuff off higher surfaces and generally wreak havoc. He has a terrible diaper rash right now, so he is not a happy camper. Bring on the Desitin! I'm hoping it's not as a result of the cranberry sauce I've been letting him have. He just seems to have sensitive skin like his brother Caleb. Will he also have the food allergies? We shall see!

4. We just spent a fun evening with the L's son Zachary, and his fiance Karybeth, talking about marriage. Ed and ELizabeth are doing some premarital counseling with them, so they had prepared a list of questions for us to talk about. It was fun and rewarding for Bob and me to think back over our 18 years of marriage as we answered questions like, "What did we not find out in our pre-marital counseling that would have been good to know ahead of time?" or "How would you describe your first year of marriage?" It was good to see how we've grown as a couple, and how the Lord has used hard times and conflicts to bring us closer together.

Now the break is just about done, and it's back to reality. I've been working on Latin and science, getting ready for Tuesday and Wednesday. I had some time over the break to go through some papers (we bought a new shredder!), and I am quite happy to say that the main level of the house looks cleaner than it has in a while. Yay! That is a good way to start off, although I anticipate falling behind quickly, LOL. Just 3 more weeks until Christmas break . . . I can do this . . .

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know I have so much to be thankful for. We only have 3 more Thanksgivings with everyone all still living at home, most likely, so I've been reflecting lately on how thankful I am for these busy years, and for how much fun we have at home with everyone here.

This picture was taken as Bob was still carving the turkey, so it looks like we had an uneventful meal of delicious food. In reality, we had a more exciting afternoon. It actually started last night when we went to a Thanksgiving dinner at our church. The meal was part of a weekly outreach that our church has to Hispanic students at a local high school, a taste of a traditional American Thanksgiving meal. Church members brought various dishes. We brought dressing, cranberry salad, and apple pie squares for 25. It was fun! Nathan reported that he could understand a lot of the Spanish.

There was a lot of food left over, and our pastor's family was going out of town, so we were all encouraged to take some of the left-overs. There was a little bit of my dressing left over, but not enough for us all to eat today, so I decided to take some of this other dressing. I didn't eat any of this dressing, but it looked pretty similar to mine, and I didn't think another thing about it, which turned out to be a colossal mistake.

I had a not-too-stressed morning cooking, since I had already made the cranberry salad (I saved enough for us out of what I made for the potluck), the mashed potatoes, and the dressing. We had brined the turkey Wednesday night, and we decided to try cooking it with the convection oven. It was WONDERFUL! We cooked it with the breast down, and it was so moist and juicy--delicious! And even though it was a 25 pound bird, it only took 3 hours to cook. I also made sweet potato casserole, rolls, and garlic green beans. It all came together, and we were ready to eat around 2:00.

As I was dishing out plates, and we were all getting ready to pray, Caleb started holding his throat and saying he didn't feel well, like he had eaten something he was allergic to. I asked him what he had eaten, and he said nothing, so I started thinking about what else could be irritating his throat. I gave him a Benedryl when it became obvious he was getting more uncomfortable, but I still couldn't figure out what had happened. After a few more minutes of complaining, I went upstairs to get his Albuterol and Flovent for his puffer. As I was getting it, I heard Nathan ask Caleb if he had eaten any dressing. It turned out he had nibbled on some. It also turned out to have chopped walnuts in it, which was what Nathan had discovered when he looked at it carefully. Argh!! Walnuts are Caleb's biggest allergen on his prick tests! His throat was feeling more swollen, so I got out the Epi-pen, but Caleb got all agitated and didn't want me to give it. I felt like his panicking was making everything worse, so I told him to just calm down, and I wouldn't inject him. Bob took him off to the ER, which is only a few miles away, where they gave him a shot of epinepherine, LOL.

So Thanksgiving dinner ended up being a bit of a let-down for us all. Jonathan and the girls really didn't eat much at all, I think because it's hard to see someone else have an allergic reaction like that. I finally did eat after Bob and Caleb left, but my plate was pretty cold, and it was hard to enjoy it, since I was feeling so incredibly guilty for not thoroughly checking the dressing. And poor Bob and Caleb--they didn't get to eat until they got back, hours later!

We did have the McCs come over for dessert, and they were still here when Bob and Caleb came back. The kids all watched "Cars 2" while the adults visited, so that was a nice quiet activity for Caleb, poor guy. I was very glad to have them over, because I think otherwise I really would have obsessed about being careless.

And obviously I have gotten complacent. Ironically, at the dinner and at most potlucks, Caleb only eats my stuff, or things he is sure are safe. But since I was the one bringing home the other dressing, and serving both dressings in the same bowl, he didn't think about being careful here in his own house! We actually have quite a few people with nut allergies in our church, so it really didn't occur to me that there would be chopped walnuts hiding in anything. I guess I figured that nuts would either be really obvious, like in the pecan pies, or that there would be a sign, like at other church potlucks where people have brought dishes with nuts. To be honest, I just really didn't think about allergens at all, which was a huge mistake. Since Caleb outgrew his milk allergy last year, I've gotten careless because nuts are in general so much easier to avoid, and have so much more publicity than milk allergies. But clearly I still need to be really conscious, so today I am really, really thankful for ER doctors.

Here Comes Captain Washington . . .

Today was a "5th week activity" for the elementary co-op we're involved in. This time the theme was "Colonial Times", which the kids have been studying the past 4 weeks. The challenge was to dress the kids up, so we spent yesterday working at this. Caleb and Jonathan were adament that they wanted ("needed" even) wigs. I still have several boxes of unused pantyhose from my years at Cedarville (back when we wore skirts to class unless the wind chill was less than 0 degrees!), so I cut the legs off 2 pairs. I'm not sure how those boxes escaped the axe and moved with us across the country, but they came in handy, LOL. After tying off the leg holes, we put the pantyhose over a balloon in a bowl for our wig stand. Then we glued some fiber-fill stuffing, like you would use to stuff a pillow, all over. I had that bag of fiberfill under the crib in Anna and Grace's room for forever as well. I'm really not at all sure why I ever bought it, and when we took down the crib a few months ago, I almost tossed it, but instead I stuck it in the closet. Again, it came in handy!

I don't really recommend fiberfill as a wig-making material, LOL. It was very . . . fluffy. And hard to stick on. Oh well--it lasted for one day! I put one longer part on the back for a ponytail part, which we tied with some blue ribbon (that I actually appropriated from a leotard thing, because I couldn't find any other ribbon). Alas, I never took a picture of the back view.

A few years ago, when the L's were cleaning out their storage room, Ed gave us his old mess dresses from his Academy years. We were able to use the jackets to complete our colonial attire. We had quite the unique look!

We also spent some time making mobcaps for Anna and Grace. I found a website for making a paper cap, so instead I used some fabric from previous 5th weeks. No sewing involved, though! I should have done something about aprons though--that was what the girls were lacking! Here they all are with Joel McC. Most of the kids dressed up, and they all looked so cute! We were the only ones to attempt wigs though, LOL.

The kids did some presentations about the different colonies at first, then they took turns going to 4 different rooms. One room was about toys, and the kids made 4 toys, like a top, clay marbles, little dolls, and a game where you try to get a pencil into a cup. Another room was all about games, and the kids played with a big wooden hoop, which you had to roll with a stick, and marbles, bowling with a hard bouncy ball, a game like horseshoes, except with rope circles, and "flying hoops". There was also a household room, where the kids decorated bags with cookie cutters and made cards and hornbooks. Last was a kitchen room, where the kids got to taste some colonial foods. They made lemonade and ground corn, and they also sampled hasty pudding (not a favorite), corn bread, ginger snaps, pumpkin pie (Anna's favorite), popcorn, and beef jerky, which happened to be made by none other than Nuclear Nate! Nathan was commissioned to make the jerky, which he worked on this weekend. Yum! So the kids had a really fun day today!