It hard to get in the mood to blog when you don't have a camera and yoru keyboard doesn't work. It's quite sad, really. That laptop has cost us plenty in the last three months so I refuse to take it in again and spend money, so it is back to using the dinosaur PC in our freezing cold bedroom, thankful nonetheless. We had oodles of snow on Thanksgiving Day...for 24 hours, which most of you know as you live here. The kids, my husband included, took out my old three-wheeler from days of old and hooked it up to sleds and inner tubes. They spent hours sledding in the cow field, though Jessica said taking a frozen cow pie in the back while riding the innertubes was not fun. What blessing for these children, they have no idea how good they have it!

I have been on and off the couch since last Sunday with a nasty head cold, which makes the days fly by! We are all moved in downstairs and loving the space!! I am not a mother who restricts running in the house, within limits. There are just days when the children need to run off energy(that is, children under 7) after being cooped up and so I let them, but in the old house it got quite loud and I just had to put on a smile. I was sipping my tea the other afternoon watching as my young ones ran laps around the living room and not around my feet! It has just been a sweet week of praising the Lord for this sweet blessing, We could have lived without it, and happily, but boy it is appreciated. I remember moving into this house thinking we HAVE to build on in the next couple years...ha! 8 years later here we are, thankful we waited on the Lord as He provided it debt free, instead of pushing it through and carrying a load of debt. That would have been a mistake and there were a couple times I whined about not having more space, putting an unneeded burden on my husband that I regret. For crying out loud, even packed in our seemingly little 1400 sq ft home and 9 people, it was a mansion compared to what other families across the world live in.

Mr. Turkey was mighty tasty last night and tonight we are enjoying turkey soup with homemade egg noodles(Thanks Renee) They were so much fun to make and every child could participate. With that said...off to the dinner table. Hope to own a camera soon. ;)

"Hello, Poison Control"

Am I the only mother who uses Poison Control every 18 months or so? I wish I could go back and see the log on our family(you know they have one!) and see what all the reasons were. Daniel(5) bit a glow stick in half one night in the car and accidentally drank some of the *juice* which burned his throat, we called from a pay phone. Jessica(4) ate a gladiola tuber she dug up in my garden...yes, the whole thing. Micah(3) drank Windex. I know I have called at least 5 times since having children. It's free, quick, medical advice, what can I say? If I call the family doctor, they inevitable tell me to come in, thus $80 later am sent home with a "no threat". Poison Control will tell you the straight truth, immediately, for free. That brings me to my story.

My Grace. My dearest Grace. She is a very obedient little girl, but still has a sneaky side that rears it's head every so often. My heart is still pounding. Elijah was given Tylenol today because he is cutting two very nasty eye teeth and has been perfectly miserable. Grace saw me take the bottle out, dose Elijah and she asked for some. I told her "no" and explained why. She seemed intrigued by the red liquid, but satisfied with my explanation. The Tylenol went back in the cupboard and on went the day.

About a half hour after putting the little ones to bed, Jessica found the child-proof bottle of Children's Tylenol...OPEN and mostly gone in the upstairs bathroom. We woke Gracie up and after coaxing the tired thing, she admitting she drank it. "Did you give any to Elijah?" "No, Mommy, I didn't, I drinked it." She drank at leeeast an 1/4 of the 4 oz bottle. Go ahead Google "child Tylenol overdose" It is SCARY!! After glancing at a couple pages I grabbed my syrup of ipecac and went for the phone.

I found the number for Poison Control, picked up the phone and....no dial tone. I messed with the plug and...no dial tone. I ran to the upstairs phone...no dial tone. I ran out the the addition and keeping myself in control told Paul that I needed to call PC because Gracie drank the Tylenol from the child proof bottle. He quickly came out to the main phone box on the house and sure enough, our lines were dead! What are the chances of that!!! Our cell phones rarely reach a tower from our property, but I ran to an open space and did get ahold of PC on one bar. A sweet young man quickly took down her weight, age and amount she drank and said she was safe. Ahhhhh, thank you Lord....Her count, he figured, was around 62 and we would have had an "emergency" on our hands if she hit 150, so we were well within a safe range. Phew.

3yr old opening a child proof bottle of Tylenol + dead phone lines = My first gray hairs? 

Poison Control usually calls back in the morning(isn't this sad, I know these things!) to make sure everything went well. That is one public service I am very thankful to have! Thank you Lord for your tender mercies given to our inquisitive little children and the Daddies and Mommies who love them so dearly! 

A Fall Calf

I know nothing about cows, I assumed they cycled like other animals and gave birth in the Spring. Well, I guess I was wrong. Jess jumped on Angel this afternoon and went for a quiet ride when all of a sudden she can rip-snort’n back to the fence. She jumped off the horse and ran in the house, “Mamma! There’s a calf in the field!” Our neighbor Mr. C, recently bought a gob of meat cows, several of them were pregnant but he wasn’t sure which ones or when they were due.

 

We expected calves to come in the Spring, but this one looks to be at least 24 hrs old. Will he be o.k. this winter? Any of you cow folk know?

He’s awfully cute and if I trusted the cow I’d go snuggle the cute thing, but I’m afraid she might not like that.

 

Awwww, isn’t he cute?

I was on the couch until 11am, it just about killed me as I felt so unproductive, but alas, I guess I have a reason. As soon as my feet hit the floor this morning my stomach was churning and my head pounding. For some reason with this pregnancy I have had all day headaches. At first I thought it was lack of caffeine as I abhor coffee after about 6.5weeks, but withdrawals only last 1 week maximum, say the experts. Thankful and joyful to feel sick and this too shall pass…

Addition Update

It’s looking like a home. Last week Paul painted(sprayed) the ceilings and walls and installed light fixtures. Wallah, it’s a home. We still have a lot of work ahead – moldings, trim, carpet, baseboards and last but not least breaking through to the existing house. BUT, we hope to occupancy in two weeks. 

 

 

Our existing woodstove hearth has to be totally dismantled and rebuilt. Remember our only source of heat is our wood stove? Somehow Paul has to take all the brickwork out and rebuild our river rock hearth while the stove is cookin. Hmmmm, I never can understand how he will accomplish these things, but he always does it. Jacking up our whole house, leveling and reinforcing the beams, lifting our second floor and placing a beam across our living room, fixing broken phone lines and electrical…the man is amazing. All that in one package and he’s the best Daddy, too! 

Each room is 24x25. Upstairs we’ll have two 24x12 bedrooms. The above pictures is the girls’ room, notice their bedding on the floor, they just can’t wait, lol.

 

And this picture is back downstairs looking West. There is my last minute sliding glass door that was found that night on Craigslist and it matched all our other windows! What a blessing.

I have to insert a praise of my sons. Micah(5) is not satisfied to stay in the house when the men are out working. He may be a little guy, but he is very strong and diligent. With those two qualities he is amazingly helpful! He moved a lot of dirt, cleaned up messes and ran many errands for Daddy.

Jacob(12) has been right in there with Daddy building and says he is ready to build his house, he understands  the process and has a confidence he can do it. He spent most Saturday welding a cattle feeder for a neighbor. It’s a funny thing to walk out and see this *man* suited up and welding in the driveway, then realize it’s your 12yr old son. He did a fantastic job and Daddy says he’s got *the touch*. By the time he’s 14, he’ll be welding like Big Boys.

Then comes Daniel. He is fascinated by electricity and such. Both Daddy and Daniel plopped down on the plywood floors, matching tool belts and Daddy demonstrated how to wire in the electrical sockets, both the wall sockets and the smoke alarms. Daniel was honored and patiently sat that day wiring in EVERY socket and alarm both upstairs and down(7 alarms & 16 sockets). We expected him to tire of it and go play, but he did them all. It was fun to see him run around with a light bulb and tested each socket afterward. And yes, Daddy snuck in there to make sure everyone was done right when he wasn’t looking, it’s our electrical after all!