A few narrated pics to share..

Tonight my family has gone to a nearby Prophecy Conference and I, who had to stay put due to already-scheduled piano lessons, am now waiting for their return while listening to the blustery wind as it shakes the house. Really.

The house is straightened, I have showered, the littlest young man (who did not go due to a low grade fever. Still.) is asleep, I have eaten a piece of chocolate cake (low fat, honest!) and before I go to my room to dive into my newest and wonderful-est read, The Charlotte Mason Companion by Karen Andreola (more on that book later), I uploaded (downloaded?) some new photos to my computer.

She didn’t escape it. She can still be seen with something, anything (even if she has to use her fingers) stuck up her nose to prevent dripping. She hates having a runny nose. She can frequently be heard calling for Tish. That’s her word for tissue. She has said it so much that she has shortened it. This was on a particularly feverish day. She wedged her sleeping bag on the hard floor in between the piano and the table. Directly in the flow of traffic. I think it was some sort of boycott or strike.

My son is a typical boy. He likes to play with my hair rollers.

My sons’ room was looking particulary snazzy so I snapped this picture. Not that the snazzy had to do with intensive floor scrubbing and Sunday washing of every stitch of bed clothes and Lysol-ing every nook and cranny due to a bad virus bug.

Sorry about the blinds. I snatched them up from my neighbor’s trash. She fooled me. They were in a new box. I guess she took these down and put these in the new box when she hung the new blinds in her house.

Confused?

Be careful to notice the $12 Target toybox in the back. $99 reg. Sweet.

The kitchen, looking all tidy.

Wait. I see some cool looking canisters.....

The tallest one: $19.99, the middle one: $16.99, the smallest one, $14.99. Target. My price? 70% off. Off of the middle one, $16.99. The lady sold them to me for the price of one. This was from my favorite store, Dirt Cheap. I love these canisters. There is nothing wrong with them either. No knicks or cracks.

I love the numbers! :) The best thing about them is I needed some canisters and I was pretty patient to wait and I got a great deal!

My pansies have been so loyal to me this winter. This is where they’ve been all winter, right here in this basket. Even in the 15 degree weather that we’ve had at least twice (the reason I can remember is that 15 degree weather breaks my washing machine water pipes. Every time. And it’s happened twice).

But they are loving the warm weather! I’ve had to transplant some of the pansies you see here to another pot.

We felt like Daddy Mama might need some chocolate, especially this week, so the kids and I made a low-fat chocolate cake. Ella says it is a winner.

Evan has similar feelings.

Perfect, chocolaty handprints

Looks good to me!

…Cause for all we know, sister is probably in there in the bathroom painting the sink, the lizard……

And even the…..Tish?

Somebody’s gotta clean up this mess!

This little guy, my morning buddy, helped Mama wash dishes for an hour or more one morning this week. He didn’t quit me until the last dish was washed. And believe me, there were plenty. Same little guy woke up from naptime with 102.5 fever a few hours later. :/

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Well the family’s tucked in bed and it’s time for Mama to crawl between the sheets. Glad for God’s goodness and his favor towards us. Unmerited, undeserved favor.

Did you know that many are his thoughts unto ME?? Wow.

What a Blessed Weekend!

Good morning, readers friends! I trust that you had a wonderful weekend filled with God’s blessings upon your family. No doubt, you did, because:

Every good and perfect gift is from above. and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17

Thursday night was my first ever Piano Recital and it turned out great! The weather was awful and I thought that would surely hinder our crowd, but we had a turnout of about 35 people, I’d presume! My students did splendidly:

my older students…one is missing due to being out of town…

My youngest student, with lil sis admiringly looking on…

one with my only male student :)…and the refreshments

A close-up of the cake….yummy…made by my Aunt :)

Then Saturday night, lo and behold, we were invited to a Sweet 16 fancy-smancy birthday party! I could even bring a date! See who I brought…

He’s been my date for 14 years now! :) Oh, and he was in mid-song during this picture. He is so known for his singing ability and to be able to find an appropriate song for every situation/occasion. :)

Oh, but here is the Birthday Girl (yes, she is pictured in one of the above photos):

Our best friends who sat at the table with us:

My childhood friend married my husband’s childhood friend….:)

Sunday morning found us in front of the opened freezer door, trying to get some relief for my crouping daughter. Ella and I stayed home with her from church. Erin spent lots of time resting (i.e. watching Dora..ha) and I straightened up the house a bit. Before the ‘men’ came home, she and I made a pizza for lunch.

working on the crust….

Puttin’ on the toppings…

More toppings (the peppers are fresh from the garden)…..Bellpeppers, olives, peps, banana peppers, portabella shrooms….

Ready to go in…..

There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of making and eating your own homemade pizza! It was really good, even if I did forget to put the salt and oil in the crust. :)

Before the kids napped, I read to them a little out of our current Read-Aloud,

During their nap, I worked on a project that I will unveil in a separate post tomorrow. I also started to work on organizing the kids’ rooms. I feel like that is a project that I need to revisit every month for it to stay organized! Anyway, I sorted blocks, littlest pet shops, animals, small trucks, baby toys, baby dolls, magnetic toys, etc…into separate bins. I even broke a sweat and I’m not so sure I rested enough for a Lord’s Day. :/

While the men went back to church for Evening Worship, Erin settled back in front of Dora (I never let her watch that much Dora, or anything for that matter, but, I digress…we did swing for awhile). Once I noticed she seemed very lethargic and her cheeks were flushed. I decided I’d better check her temp. It was 101.8. I thought I would wait a little before I gave her medication so the fever could do its work. I made some cookies, Chocolate Chip Mint Cookies (for you, Amy, j/k) and then worked some more on my organizing. Erin’s fever seemed to get worse, so I told her to get in the bathtub and then I would take her temp after her bath. It was 103. I gave her Tylenol and within minutes her fever was completely gone and she was playing. I told my husband that someone was praying for our little girl. I have never seen temperature go down that fast!

Here she is…doing a quiet activity before bed …making a clock…(she loves to sleep in her slip)

Here is Evan playing with the newly organized small trucks:

I’ve got to take more pictures of Emory…he is practicing the guitar and taking lessons from his Dad now. I will have to get a picture of him playing. He really does look like a natural.

Well, today has begun. The children are awake and it’s time to begin our day! May you be blessed. :)

PS. Check out our Garden Tour in the post below!

Thank you for your comments. They are so encouraging to me. Honestly.

This & That

I guess I have been in a sort of blogging funk for a couple of weeks, but I think it mainly boils down to my not getting up early enough to blog and not taking the time to blog during the day.

My best times to blog are in the early morning when all is quiet. If I blog any other time in the day, it’s stolen time. Time from my housework duties or time from being teacher/mom.

Ella has been in a thing where she is in bed with us every morning during the time I would get up, nursing away. I know this phase will pass soon enough, probably sooner than I will want it to, really.

More and more I find that I am becoming content with the current size of my family. I honestly believe this is the right way for us in determining our family size. I haven’t felt this way with any of my babies (and not that Ella is a terrible baby or anything—she’s absolutely wonderful), but normally I would be already thinking about the next baby. Nowadays, it seems my thoughts are more focused on getting my family raised. Getting them raised right. Helping them grow up in the ways of the Lord. Enjoying them. My current children.

Well, I haven’t put my baby clothes in a yard sale or anything and I haven’t said we won’t have number 5, but I’m more content than ever with my family. And I’m more than happy to let the Lord lead me in that area just as good as any other area of my life. :)

Well, I said this would be This & That, so topics will be very random, I’m sure.

Our Garden is coming along hugely, I mean, nicely, and I have taken some pictures to show you in a Garden Tour post for the future. We have several rows of peas, corn, one really long row of potatoes (we already have our first pickins’), string beans, okra, tomatoes, and even banana peppers. I really love gardening and while tasks like hoeing are very time consuming, I love harvesting and even shelling peas and putting them up. This year I am going to put up more canned items..Fig preserves, Muscadine Jelly, Pear Jelly/Relish, etc…

My Piano Recital is tomorrow night and I’m really looking forward to my first Piano Recital. My students have been practicing hard and I can’t wait for them to shine. Each student is playing two pieces and I have five participating (one can’t come…), so it shouldn’t last but maybe 30 minutes. I am having a small reception for them afterwards. We are taking the summer months off from piano lessons/guitar and I’m really looking forward to having free Thursday evenings/nights. I know I’ll be ready for the extra money to start back up in September. ;)

We are still doing school. We didn’t start until mid-late Sept because of Ella’s arrival, so we are late finishing up. Last week, I had Em double up on Math and this week we are supposed to be doubling up on Language, but so far because of the things mentioned in one of the below paragraphs, we haven’t done any Language this week.

Speaking of school, I know I have mentioned before, but we love reading here at our home. We love to read aloud to the children and enjoy the books as much as the kids do. A few years ago, I discovered this website of book recommendations: http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html. I ordered the first 2 or 3 books on the 4-6 reading level and read them to the kids. This was pre-Emory-reading. The other day, I discovered that book list in my Home Management Binder and I got excited about reading some of the books on the list. I ordered, The Big Wave by Pearl S. Buck, Bright April by Marguerite de Angeli, and Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Brink. We have finished The Big Wave and I’ve started on Caddie Woodlawn with Erin (she begs for more chapters—think “Little House” series). Truly one of the great parts of Homeschooling for me is reading great literature together. What are you currently reading aloud in your home?

We’ve had a bit of sickness in our home lately, but God has given us strength to make it through it. I had two bouts of Mastitis, then I have had 2 sinus infections within a month. Monday evening, Evan woke up with a really high fever, complained with a sore throat, and vomited before bed. Ella woke up in the night with a high fever. I very rarely take my kids to the doctor (I have my reasons for avoiding the dr.) but I knew Evan had Strep Throat from his symptoms. I wasn’t sure about Ella, but if she had it, I knew things wouldn’t be good with her being so little. She checked out okay, but is still running fever this morning. I guess she is just fighting off getting strep? Anyway, I know things could be worse, but I am ready to be well.

Overall, life is happening. I am busy trying to keep my home tidy, washing/hanging out clothes, cooking, & caring for little ones. All with trying to give my honey some attention, but not really the amount he deserves. :/

I’ve been enjoying reading your blogs. My current favorite blog from my blog list is Katy’s from Country Blossom. She has such a sweet spirit and I love to read about her days. She has some good archives too. Check her out.

May your day be filled with God’s love and your daily life be led by His Spirit. :) :)

Good things…

Since I’m sure you don’t want to hear about my mastitis relapse or my awful migraine I had last night, I thought I would post about some good things. I can complain any ole day, right?

Well, first things first. My ultimate good thing is in fact, not a thing, it is a he and it’s him:

My baby daddy :)

Last week was our poorer than an Ethiopian cat week (aka the end of the month) because we are at the end of our budget. I decided it would be in our best interest for me to not run out and buy diapers, so I pulled out my 7 year old cloth diapers. I did cloth dipes in the day and sposies at night. I liked it so well that I bought the small pkg of diapers when we did go shopping and I’ve done cloth dipes this week as well! Here is Ms. Almost 8 mth old in her cloth dipe:

And a Tush view:

Must be nice to have a Patriotic Heiny, right? I mean, Luvs don’t have nothing on a 4th of July Heiny!

My wonderful MIL ate with us on Sunday which is rare (shame on us!) because we love going to her house so much. This, of course, has nothing to do with her being a wonderful cook. Absolutely nothing. And nothing to do with the fact that my kids will throw a fit with the best of ‘em when a Sunday trip to Gran-Gran’s is interrupted.

I’m sure my MIL noticed I mentioned to my MIL that I did not currently (post-kids) own a set of matching dishes, complete with saucers, cups, etc. I was planning to keep an eye out at yard sales for a cheap reasonably-priced set. Monday evening, she brings over this set for me to have:

and

Eat your Heart (er, plate) Out!

And, Amy, don’t be too jealous and all because I was really desperate for dishes. Seriously. And you know you’ll get all the first-rate antique plates. And crystal. And stuff. Okay, feeling better? :)

I have been a terrible mother. I have failed to tell you about the latest member of our family. As if. Meet Dixie:

Okay, she deserves another picture:

She is a Border Collie and very smart. And very much an outside dog now. Sorry, Dix, I just got too comfortable with just having one baby in diapers.

I don’t have any pictures, but May 1st officially meant Time to Go Swimming for our family. The kids AND dad went swimming and 10 minutes later, dad was drying off, teeth chattering, and well, the kids were still hard at it. Nothing phases kids. Not even sub-zero water temps.

Time for Mom to hand over the computer for Wednesday is Movie Day at our house. I’m about to bake some Mint Chocolate Chip Brownies and that’s a good great thing.

*Special thanks to Martha Stewart for her That’s a Good Thing quotes. Not that she’ll be reading this blog. In this decade. Or in my lifetime. Okay. Ever.

I’ve gone to bed with a heating pad..

Doesn’t that sound romantic? :) Yesterday started out wonderful because my Super Dh was off for some Holiday (Confederate Memorial?) and we loooove to have Daddy home with us.The day was spent doing some outside chores..cutting grass, weed eating, working on scraping boards for our bathroom remodeling project, with the kids playing outside all day long.

In the evening, I begin to notice that my breast began to get extremely sore (sorry, male readers!) and I started getting really chilled. By nightfall, I knew the diagnosis for the all-to-familiar-feeling: mastitis. I began to take the proper steps for optimal comfort: a grand-sitter, an hour long bath, a heating pad, an enthusiastic baby, and lots of rest. Oh, and an ibuprofen.

So, here I lay (lie?) with the heating pad still going and the chills still happenin’. I’m waiting on my mom to bring me a few natural remedies from the health food store, which include high doses of Vitamin C and Echinacea Root Tincture. And let’s not forget whole cloves of garlic for me to ingest. I’m all about swallowing raw garlic on a regular basis, you know.

So now you know the scoop regarding my love affair with my heating pad. It’s a Burnin’ love.