I will have to post pictures after I get them off of a different computer. So, since I didn't finish the story a year ago about what happened, I will do that now with a brief summary and add pictures later.
So, a little over one week after Rachel's birthday, May 10, 2010, a tornado came through the OKC area and decided that it really wanted to throw our house around, so it did. Dave was at school preparing to take a final exam for a class and I took the kids (10 minutes before the tornado hit) to a friend's house with a shelter. So, everyone was safe, but we had no way to communicate with one another. Dave and I couldn't get a hold of each other for about an hour after the tornado came through. Even though we lost many of our posessions, we were very grateful that the family was all safe.
We moved into a rental house and went over to the distruction often to find more things we might be able to save. During one of these visits, Jonathan and Dave were talking with the neighbors and their black lab mix attacked Jonathan and broke his arm. So, we had two boys wtih broken arms. Dave took Jonathan to the ER and got a splint put on it. The doctor tried to assure Jonathan that his arm (before the x-ray) wouldn't be broken from a dog bite. Jonathan looked at the doctor and said, "yes, it is." Sure enough, it was broken. I called to schedule an appointment with the orthopedic sergeon. Jonathan and Matthew went in at the same time... one to get his cast removed, the other to get his put on. What a fun day that was.
After that, I took the kids to CO to get away from the mess for a while. We had a good time visiting my parents and my sisters. My sister, Kim, decided to drive out from UT to come and see me and my kids when she heard I was going to be there. It was great to spend time with my sisters and parents while I was going through such a hard time... oh yea, and I was in the first trimester of pregnancy too! Dave stayed behind and took care of things with the house and went to work every day. He's such a wonderful man!
I got home from visiting CO and two weeks later, turned around and drove back out there with the kids for a family reunion. Dave couldn't go this time because he had to take the MCAT during the reunion. We went camping in Aspen, CO and had a great time, but missed Dave a lot.
Then, the kids started school. I decided that I couldn't homeschool again after the tornado and being pregnant too. So, the kids went to the institution to get educated. During the night of November 14-15, I started having contractions. I was quite concerned since I was not due for another 5 1/2 weeks. In the morning, I went to the clinic. They kept me there over night and kept an eye on things. I called the kids in the morning, and right when I hung up the phone, I started shaking violently and couldn't stop. I was suddenly freezing cold. The ultrasonogropher was there and immediately called for the doctor. My temperature was taken and it was 102. It jumped from normal to 102 almost instantly. They were doing an ultra sound to check for kidney stones or something. They couldn't see anything, so the doctor started pushing on my belly and asking if it hurt. It didn't matter where she pushed, it always hurt down where my appendix used to be. That's right, appendicitis! So, I was transfered to OU Medical Center since they have a NICU. The doctors there decided it would be best to take Sarah out via Cessarian Section and then take out my appendix. I was not happy about this, but complied because I knew it was probaby the best choice. Sarah stayed in the NICU for 8 days. She came home a healthy beautiful girl.
Sarah was born on November 16, 2010 at 7:00 pm. She weighed 5 pounds 3 ounces and was 19 inches long. I was really suprised by this weight since I haven't had any large babies. If Sarah had been full term, she would have been 8-9 pounds!!! I know the Lord was preparing her for her early arrival.
In April, on Rachel's birthday, we moved into the house that we currently live in... right next door to the house that was hit by the tornado. No, the house we are in now was not blown away, it only had some minor roof damage that was repaired, and yes, it is the house that was once home to the black lab that broke Jonathan's arm. This was Rachel's 8th birthday, and she was baptized on her birthday. My parents and Dave's mom were able to be here for it, and the move. It was a very exciting time. I was very proud of my girl for choosing to be baptized.
Matthew and Hannah were rough housing one evening. Matthew was launching Hannah with his legs and she came down wrong and broke her arm. So, we had 4 broken arms in just under 2 years.
That summer, we went to Winter Park, CO for a de Gaston family reunion. We had a great time seing the whole family and playing in Winter Park. I think the favorite for everyone was the alpine slide. It was a great ride! We drove the trail ridge road and played in snow during the middle of summer. We saw lots of elk too. A moose and a bear walked past our cabin.
Though Dave tried hard, he did not get accepted to medical school that year. He continued to work at his job and started his application process earlier for the next year.
Jonathan started middle school. He played trombone in the band and had 1 or 2 chair all year long. I volunteered in the library at the Intermediate School during the first semester. After that, Sarah was too curious to stay quiet in the stroller.
Dave was accepted to OU College of Medicine class of 2016! He was a very happy man when that big red envelope came in the mail!
On July 9th, 2012, Joshua joined our family. I went to OU this time because I wanted a VBAC. Everything went beautifully with the delivery. However, two hours later, I had the nurse practitioner from the NICU up in the room to take care of him. He was grunting with every breath, (I had her up to check on him earlier too, but she said he was okay, but I kept my eye on him anyway) and his hands and feet turned blue/purple (after the nurse came in the first time.) He had PPHN or pretty much, his lungs filled with fluid and he couldn't breathe. He was in very serious condition for a few days, and then, because of many answered prayers, he made a turn around and started getting better quite rapidly. He was in the NICU for only 9 days! We thought he would end up being in there for 14 days at least, so we were very pleased that he was only in there for 9 days.
We took a great vacation this summer and I will write more about that when I have pictures to post.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Settling Down
So, my last post had an accurate title. It's been way too long and way too busy and crazy. The home schooling went really well with the kids and we had a great year. It got a little crazy at the end when I realized that I had been failing to teach Hannah the things that she needed to know. Here are a few of the fun things we did during the school year.
We had a lot of fun visiting the Orr Family Farm.
We had lots of bon fires, much to the kids' delight (Dave's too).
And, we were able to take a tour of the State Capitol building.
Well, toward the end of the school year things started changing for us. It started with Matthew tripping over the dog and breaking his arm....
Rachel had a birthday! She had a party at the local roller skating rink. It was lost of fun.
Then things really changed.........
We had a lot of fun visiting the Orr Family Farm. 
We had lots of bon fires, much to the kids' delight (Dave's too).
And, we were able to take a tour of the State Capitol building. 
The school year was great and the kids learned a TON! It was a lot of work for me but it paid off. The curriculum I was doing was part of a public homeschool option and I had to make sure to do certain things. So, I stayed really busy with all of that.
Well, toward the end of the school year things started changing for us. It started with Matthew tripping over the dog and breaking his arm....
We took a fun field trip to the zoo.
Rachel had a birthday! She had a party at the local roller skating rink. It was lost of fun.
Then things really changed.........
And hopefully I will be able to post more later when the kids aren't quite as needy......
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Busy Times
So, it's been really busy these last couple of months. I started a homeschool program in the beginning of August. It keeps us really busy with doing all the work and going on field trips and such. We are using a program called Oklahoma Virtual Academy. It is a virtual public school. Pretty much we have to track attendance, chart progress and have conferences with their teacher regularly. I am officially called the "learning coach" even though I do all the teaching. We use the K12 curriculum for the program. We are able to work more at the child's pace, but we are not supposed to get too far behind in the schedule.
The kids have to "master" 90% of the required lessons to be able to pass to the next grade level. Most of the lessons have an assessment that the kids take at the end of them. If they get an 80% or better, they have "mastered" that assessment. If they do not get the 80% or better, they have to review the lesson or do some of the optional activities to help them understand it better, then they can retake the assessment.
This program is a writing intense program. Since the kids haven't done writing like this previouisly in school, it is a struggle. Matthew is struggling with writing complete sentences and he is supposed to be able to write paragraphs, so we are working on that. Jonathan was shocked at the beginning that he had to write a few paragraphs for one assignment on one day. There were tears with some of the writing at the beginning, but now Jonathan can write several paragraphs with little problem. I guess that since they never learned how to write paragraphs in school it was hard for him to come up with ideas of what to write about. Jonathan now has written two 5 paragraph essays. Matthew has written a 3 paragraph essay and is getting ready to start his research paper. On top of these writing assignments, they have to write complete sentences for most of their other assignments as well. Of course, this is how most of us learned, but aparently my boys haven't had to do this before. So, it is taking some time to teach them how to take a question and answer it with a complete sentence. Matthew is so stubborn that he refuses to copy part of the question in his answer. It's tough, but hopefully we'll get through it.
It's nice that Rachel is already learning to write complete sentences in the beginning of 1st grade, instead of waiting until 3rd like Matthew. She has to write dictated sentences almost daily, remembering the capital letters and punctuation. She's doing really well with it. She is reading better every day, and catches on quickly to all her phonics and language lessons.
The kids all take after their Dad in that they are all going through their math assignments quicker than scheduled. I don't have to worry about "how am I going to teach this" because they all seem to understand math and how it works. We mostly need to work on the memorizing of the basic 1-12 facts, addition and subtraction for Matthew and Rachel, multiplication and division for Matthew and Jonathan. And, it won't hurt Jonathan to make sure he knows the addition and subtraction. I found some good flash cards on the internet the other day and can't wait until they arrive. The program wanted the kids to make their own flashcards with index cards, but when we did that for some multiplication for Matthew, Jonathan couldn't read them. Hahaha. I'll wait until the good legible ones get here.
I have started doing some preschool work with Hannah and Lizzie. I am teaching Hannah all the letter sounds. Lizzie just likes coloring the worksheets and saying the sounds, so she must be learning it too, at least to a small degree.
I am keeping really busy in primary right now. It is time for the Sacrament Meeting Presentation, so I am really busy getting things squared away for that. I am also busy doing ASL interpretation during Sacrament Meeting since we have some deaf investigators now. I have a hard time finding time to expand my ASL vocabulary, but every Sunday I feel it necessary to do so. I wish there were more people here that I could practice with and that could help out a bit too. I feel bad running off to primary and leaving them without any ASL interpreters. The ward tries hard to make up for it by having a neat set up for someone to type onto a laptop and it displays on a screen for them to read. The only problem with this is that it makes it hard for them to ask questions. I know they have several questions and they probably don't get to ask them.
Dave got another calling a couple of weeks ago. He is now the stake young men's secretary. So, he is really excited to be working with the young men again. He is still the Cubmaster and wants to keep working with the cub scouts as long as he can. Matthew is really excited to finally be an official cub scout. Ever since we got him his book he has been coming up to Dave and I saying, "can I do this right now with you?" Jonathan has been working hard and has just about completed his requirements for his bear badge, so he will be getting that award at the next pack meeting.
The kids have to "master" 90% of the required lessons to be able to pass to the next grade level. Most of the lessons have an assessment that the kids take at the end of them. If they get an 80% or better, they have "mastered" that assessment. If they do not get the 80% or better, they have to review the lesson or do some of the optional activities to help them understand it better, then they can retake the assessment.
This program is a writing intense program. Since the kids haven't done writing like this previouisly in school, it is a struggle. Matthew is struggling with writing complete sentences and he is supposed to be able to write paragraphs, so we are working on that. Jonathan was shocked at the beginning that he had to write a few paragraphs for one assignment on one day. There were tears with some of the writing at the beginning, but now Jonathan can write several paragraphs with little problem. I guess that since they never learned how to write paragraphs in school it was hard for him to come up with ideas of what to write about. Jonathan now has written two 5 paragraph essays. Matthew has written a 3 paragraph essay and is getting ready to start his research paper. On top of these writing assignments, they have to write complete sentences for most of their other assignments as well. Of course, this is how most of us learned, but aparently my boys haven't had to do this before. So, it is taking some time to teach them how to take a question and answer it with a complete sentence. Matthew is so stubborn that he refuses to copy part of the question in his answer. It's tough, but hopefully we'll get through it.
It's nice that Rachel is already learning to write complete sentences in the beginning of 1st grade, instead of waiting until 3rd like Matthew. She has to write dictated sentences almost daily, remembering the capital letters and punctuation. She's doing really well with it. She is reading better every day, and catches on quickly to all her phonics and language lessons.
The kids all take after their Dad in that they are all going through their math assignments quicker than scheduled. I don't have to worry about "how am I going to teach this" because they all seem to understand math and how it works. We mostly need to work on the memorizing of the basic 1-12 facts, addition and subtraction for Matthew and Rachel, multiplication and division for Matthew and Jonathan. And, it won't hurt Jonathan to make sure he knows the addition and subtraction. I found some good flash cards on the internet the other day and can't wait until they arrive. The program wanted the kids to make their own flashcards with index cards, but when we did that for some multiplication for Matthew, Jonathan couldn't read them. Hahaha. I'll wait until the good legible ones get here.
I have started doing some preschool work with Hannah and Lizzie. I am teaching Hannah all the letter sounds. Lizzie just likes coloring the worksheets and saying the sounds, so she must be learning it too, at least to a small degree.
I am keeping really busy in primary right now. It is time for the Sacrament Meeting Presentation, so I am really busy getting things squared away for that. I am also busy doing ASL interpretation during Sacrament Meeting since we have some deaf investigators now. I have a hard time finding time to expand my ASL vocabulary, but every Sunday I feel it necessary to do so. I wish there were more people here that I could practice with and that could help out a bit too. I feel bad running off to primary and leaving them without any ASL interpreters. The ward tries hard to make up for it by having a neat set up for someone to type onto a laptop and it displays on a screen for them to read. The only problem with this is that it makes it hard for them to ask questions. I know they have several questions and they probably don't get to ask them.
Dave got another calling a couple of weeks ago. He is now the stake young men's secretary. So, he is really excited to be working with the young men again. He is still the Cubmaster and wants to keep working with the cub scouts as long as he can. Matthew is really excited to finally be an official cub scout. Ever since we got him his book he has been coming up to Dave and I saying, "can I do this right now with you?" Jonathan has been working hard and has just about completed his requirements for his bear badge, so he will be getting that award at the next pack meeting.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Our Aniversary
We had our tenth wedding anniversary at the end of April and celebrated by going to a Dude Ranch just outside of Tulsa. We went up on a Friday evening and hiked a bit on the property. We stayed in a cute little cabin and then Saturday we did horseback riding, canoeing, gun shooting, tomahawk throwing, steer roping -with a little steel deer and archery. It was a lot of fun to get out together and do such fun things. It was a great weekend.
New Callings -in church and in life
A couple of weeks ago Dave and I decided that we would go ahead and homeschool our children next year. We found a program that we will use that is actually a public virtual school. It uses the k12 curriculum program, which is supposedly a really good curriculum. There will be a teacher that is assigned to us to be in charge of the curriculum and making sure the curriculum works for the kids. My job will be to teach what they assign the kids. By the time the child is in 5th grade, I think they do most of it themselves. So, I anticipate Jonathan being able to do a lot himself this year, even though he is in 4th grade. Jonathan and Matthew will be taking a few classes together to help me out with a few things. They will both be taking the same history, science and Spanish classes. So, I will be able to teach them these together and they will be able to help one another more with those too.
I am really excited about this and hope that I can get the house into order and ready in time for school to start. I am a bit nervous about it, but I think this is the right thing to do, so I know I will be able to do it.
Well, there's also another calling that I have gotten too. So, the homeschooling is my new calling in life, and Primary President is the new calling at church. These both happened around the same time. I am a bit nervous about doing all of it, but I know that the Lord will help me out with both of these things so I don't go nuts! So, as of now, I have not been released from any of my other callings... hopefully that will happen soon. I am still ward organist and I am also helping Dave out in Cub Scouts. I am also doing a volunteer calling (nobody has officially called me to this position) as ward choir pianist. I know that I will get released from the Cub Scouts soon, but the others might take a while longer. I have two wonderful counselors. I am very excited to have this calling and to be working with such wonderful people in the primary. I know it will be a lot of work and I hope that, yet again, I can get organized enough that it is not too big a strain on me.
So, anyone want to come and help me get my house organized? smile.
We had our pressure tank leak last week and soak our living room carpet. I took the shop vac to it and sucked up a lot of water. Then I had a fan blowing on it and the air conditioning turned on to help dehumidify the air. We had to replace the pressure tank and the fixtures attaching it to the water line. It has been leak free for a few days now and I think it will hold. We now need to figure out what to do with the carpet. I think I am really sick now because of it. My asthma has been driving me nuts for the last several days. I had to sleep in the family room last night so I could breathe.
Jonathan, Matthew and Rachel are doing a reading program this summer to get free books from Barnes and Noble. For every 8 books they read, they get a free book (limit of 2 free books). They are pretty good books too. We will probably sign up with the library and do a reading program there too.
Our garden is growing well and we are getting lots of strawberries, rhubarb and green onions right now. We're also using fresh dill and cilantro in things too. I am really excited about our garden this year and hope that I can preserve a lot of things for the winter. Our blackberries will be ripening in another few weeks. I don't think our fruit trees will produce much this year since they are still small. That's one investment that takes a while to pay off. I've tried raised bed gardens this year, and so far they are doing wonderfully.
I am really excited about this and hope that I can get the house into order and ready in time for school to start. I am a bit nervous about it, but I think this is the right thing to do, so I know I will be able to do it.
Well, there's also another calling that I have gotten too. So, the homeschooling is my new calling in life, and Primary President is the new calling at church. These both happened around the same time. I am a bit nervous about doing all of it, but I know that the Lord will help me out with both of these things so I don't go nuts! So, as of now, I have not been released from any of my other callings... hopefully that will happen soon. I am still ward organist and I am also helping Dave out in Cub Scouts. I am also doing a volunteer calling (nobody has officially called me to this position) as ward choir pianist. I know that I will get released from the Cub Scouts soon, but the others might take a while longer. I have two wonderful counselors. I am very excited to have this calling and to be working with such wonderful people in the primary. I know it will be a lot of work and I hope that, yet again, I can get organized enough that it is not too big a strain on me.
So, anyone want to come and help me get my house organized? smile.
We had our pressure tank leak last week and soak our living room carpet. I took the shop vac to it and sucked up a lot of water. Then I had a fan blowing on it and the air conditioning turned on to help dehumidify the air. We had to replace the pressure tank and the fixtures attaching it to the water line. It has been leak free for a few days now and I think it will hold. We now need to figure out what to do with the carpet. I think I am really sick now because of it. My asthma has been driving me nuts for the last several days. I had to sleep in the family room last night so I could breathe.
Jonathan, Matthew and Rachel are doing a reading program this summer to get free books from Barnes and Noble. For every 8 books they read, they get a free book (limit of 2 free books). They are pretty good books too. We will probably sign up with the library and do a reading program there too.
Our garden is growing well and we are getting lots of strawberries, rhubarb and green onions right now. We're also using fresh dill and cilantro in things too. I am really excited about our garden this year and hope that I can preserve a lot of things for the winter. Our blackberries will be ripening in another few weeks. I don't think our fruit trees will produce much this year since they are still small. That's one investment that takes a while to pay off. I've tried raised bed gardens this year, and so far they are doing wonderfully.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Crazy Happenings
Some of you may have heard about the fires in Oklahoma on Thursday, April 9th. Well, there was a really big one right in our neck of the woods. When we were driving around this morning we saw some of the damage. There were houses that were completely gone. By "completely gone" I mean that they had no furniture, no roof, and no walls. Most of these houses were brick homes and all that's left of them is a pile of ash! We didn't even go to the hardest hit areas. We were just going to the park and home again. There were several close calls. We saw one house that had a completely black yard, front and back, and the house wasn't touched. Then, a few houses down the road was a house without a roof. All the ones in between were fine.
So, this happened in our ward boundaries. There were actually two different wild fires in our ward boundaries. 35-40 houses were destroyed in these fires, and nobody in our ward lost their homes. Even though some of their neighbors did.
I guess our family is getting a lot of experience dealing with natural disasters. We have lived through hurricanes. We've been close to tornadoes. We've been in ice storms. And now, we've dealt with fires. All of this has been in the last 4-5 years too. It is a good feeling to know that I am more prepared than I have ever been before for these sorts of things. There are still a few more things we need to get, but for the most part, I think we are set. Of course, we can always get more and be prepared to help more people as well. So, I don't think that we will ever stop preparing for things like this. I am really glad that we have listened to the Prophet and done the things that we have done to be prepared. It gives us a sense of peace when we follow the Lord, not that I was feeling peaceful while the fires were burning... who could?
I urge any of you who read this to get prepared. Be prepared for anything that could happen. Know what you would do in situations that might happen. Do what you can now to prepare for tomorrow, since we never know what tomorrow will bring.
So, this happened in our ward boundaries. There were actually two different wild fires in our ward boundaries. 35-40 houses were destroyed in these fires, and nobody in our ward lost their homes. Even though some of their neighbors did.
I guess our family is getting a lot of experience dealing with natural disasters. We have lived through hurricanes. We've been close to tornadoes. We've been in ice storms. And now, we've dealt with fires. All of this has been in the last 4-5 years too. It is a good feeling to know that I am more prepared than I have ever been before for these sorts of things. There are still a few more things we need to get, but for the most part, I think we are set. Of course, we can always get more and be prepared to help more people as well. So, I don't think that we will ever stop preparing for things like this. I am really glad that we have listened to the Prophet and done the things that we have done to be prepared. It gives us a sense of peace when we follow the Lord, not that I was feeling peaceful while the fires were burning... who could?
I urge any of you who read this to get prepared. Be prepared for anything that could happen. Know what you would do in situations that might happen. Do what you can now to prepare for tomorrow, since we never know what tomorrow will bring.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Spring is here
Well, it's been a while since I have posted. I have been really busy. My allergies have been really bad these last few weeks. The Bradford Pear trees, peach trees and redbud trees have bloomed. The first two are nearly done blooming. Our apple tree has started to bloom as well. I finally got the cool season veggies planted last night and today. I'm really excited about my gardening this year. I have made 4 garden boxes that measure 4 feet wide by 16 feet long. Into one of them I have transplanted strawberries. I have so many more strawberry plants that I am trying to get rid of. I've been telling people to come and get some, so come on over and get some. We have hundreds! One of the garden boxes has the cool season veggies planted in it. The others will be for the other crops, and then we still have 1/2 of our garden available for old fashoned planting. I will probably use that area for corn, potatoes and winter squash.
I've been trying to get Lizzie to use the toilet lately. It hasn't worked really well. She has only gone to the bathroom on the toilet a couple of times. On days that I try the underwear, she goes through 5 or so pairs by late afternoon when I finally get tired of it and put her back in a diaper. Well, today I had her in a diaper and she kept taking it off after she wet in it. Well, then she took it off after she pooped in it! Not only that, but she wasn't done pooping either. She walked across the house and pooped more on the floor in the family room, then stepped in it. Oh what a mess! I put her on the toilet and made her sit there while I cleaned up. I think she actually peed in the toilet that time! Sometimes it is hard to tell because a couple of my kids are good at forgetting to flush, so the water could have been a bit yellow before I put her there. So, I put a pair of underwear on her again (more absorbent ones) and hopefully she will learn a thing or two.
I went to a different Wal Mart the other day that still has fabric at it. There are two other Wal Marts that are closer to me, but I wanted to see the fabric. So, I found some and it is beautiful. I got enough to make a quilt (I hope) for my bed finally. I then came home and found a pretty pattern that I had to fgure out how big to make all the pieces. If my math on that is right, I should have enough of most of the fabrics for the quilt top and then some for borders. I will need to get more for borders, and more of one of the fabrics for the top, but they still had some of it left yesterday, so if I go soon I should be able to get what I need. I guess it also depends on if I will be making it for a queen or king bed. Right now we have a queen, but we keep talking about getting new bedroom furniture. I am not sure if it will be queen size or king size when we get it.
I am also thinking of decorating the master bathroom. Right now we have a mix and match (but not so much of the "match" part) of what we had when we moved in. I saw some cute bathroom decor things that I might decide to get. I still have the girls' bedroom to finish decorating too. I guess it is time to get cracking.
We are going to hatch a few more baby chicks again this year. We will probaly get rid of our roosters and keep some of the little ones that we hatch. We will not keep too many because we do not want to have many more chickens. Even now, we can't keep up with the egg output from the 10 hens that we have. We get about 6-8 eggs every day. It's wonderful. I've given so many of them away too and we still have 1 1/2 to 3 dozen eggs in our fridge at any given time. When we get close to the 3 dozen mark, I usually find someone to give half of them to. Jonathan and Matthew like cooking their own eggs for breakfast. I made the girls some fried egg sandwiches the other day for lunch. They thought those were pretty good. If anyone has any good ideas on different ways to eat eggs, I'm all ears!
I really enjoy living out here in the country. We are far enough away from the city, but not far enough that it is a pain to go to the store. That Wal Mart that I went to the other day was only 20 miles away. There are two that are closer than that, so it isn't bad. I don't know if I would ever be able to move back to a city. I like having the chickens. I love the sound of the roosters. I'd like to get more animals, but we can't do that in our neighborhood. Some of the people don't like the chickens that much, though I think most of the people do.
Well, that's the news from these parts. I hope you all take time to enjoy the wonderful things that spring brings and remember where we get it all from. This is such a wonderful time of year to remember all that our Savior did for us. We really do owe Him our lives. It would do us all well to remember that. If we are living our lives as Christ would have us do, we would all be much happier. There would not be so much anger or hatred. Let's strive to make our lives as close to Christ-like as possible.
I've been trying to get Lizzie to use the toilet lately. It hasn't worked really well. She has only gone to the bathroom on the toilet a couple of times. On days that I try the underwear, she goes through 5 or so pairs by late afternoon when I finally get tired of it and put her back in a diaper. Well, today I had her in a diaper and she kept taking it off after she wet in it. Well, then she took it off after she pooped in it! Not only that, but she wasn't done pooping either. She walked across the house and pooped more on the floor in the family room, then stepped in it. Oh what a mess! I put her on the toilet and made her sit there while I cleaned up. I think she actually peed in the toilet that time! Sometimes it is hard to tell because a couple of my kids are good at forgetting to flush, so the water could have been a bit yellow before I put her there. So, I put a pair of underwear on her again (more absorbent ones) and hopefully she will learn a thing or two.
I went to a different Wal Mart the other day that still has fabric at it. There are two other Wal Marts that are closer to me, but I wanted to see the fabric. So, I found some and it is beautiful. I got enough to make a quilt (I hope) for my bed finally. I then came home and found a pretty pattern that I had to fgure out how big to make all the pieces. If my math on that is right, I should have enough of most of the fabrics for the quilt top and then some for borders. I will need to get more for borders, and more of one of the fabrics for the top, but they still had some of it left yesterday, so if I go soon I should be able to get what I need. I guess it also depends on if I will be making it for a queen or king bed. Right now we have a queen, but we keep talking about getting new bedroom furniture. I am not sure if it will be queen size or king size when we get it.
I am also thinking of decorating the master bathroom. Right now we have a mix and match (but not so much of the "match" part) of what we had when we moved in. I saw some cute bathroom decor things that I might decide to get. I still have the girls' bedroom to finish decorating too. I guess it is time to get cracking.
We are going to hatch a few more baby chicks again this year. We will probaly get rid of our roosters and keep some of the little ones that we hatch. We will not keep too many because we do not want to have many more chickens. Even now, we can't keep up with the egg output from the 10 hens that we have. We get about 6-8 eggs every day. It's wonderful. I've given so many of them away too and we still have 1 1/2 to 3 dozen eggs in our fridge at any given time. When we get close to the 3 dozen mark, I usually find someone to give half of them to. Jonathan and Matthew like cooking their own eggs for breakfast. I made the girls some fried egg sandwiches the other day for lunch. They thought those were pretty good. If anyone has any good ideas on different ways to eat eggs, I'm all ears!
I really enjoy living out here in the country. We are far enough away from the city, but not far enough that it is a pain to go to the store. That Wal Mart that I went to the other day was only 20 miles away. There are two that are closer than that, so it isn't bad. I don't know if I would ever be able to move back to a city. I like having the chickens. I love the sound of the roosters. I'd like to get more animals, but we can't do that in our neighborhood. Some of the people don't like the chickens that much, though I think most of the people do.
Well, that's the news from these parts. I hope you all take time to enjoy the wonderful things that spring brings and remember where we get it all from. This is such a wonderful time of year to remember all that our Savior did for us. We really do owe Him our lives. It would do us all well to remember that. If we are living our lives as Christ would have us do, we would all be much happier. There would not be so much anger or hatred. Let's strive to make our lives as close to Christ-like as possible.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
