It feels good..

...to own a camera again. I have two litters of puppies that have needed their pictures taken and sent all over Washington to sweet, but impatient, customers. One litter of ShihTzus and one litter of ShihPoos, my first with the new stud, Stetson. Stetson gave me exactly what I hoped after shopping pedigrees for months. Solid brown/apricot puppies. O.k., so I got a black one in there, but looks like she is already sold! I can now start saving up for my June birth and the 2011 school year's curriculum...and taxes. ;)
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 Aren't they precious? Born Nov 26.

Here is our new living room, complete with furniture and a napping Daddy(It is Sunday after all) We are all moved in downstairs! Upstairs  the girls are moved in and the dividing wall is being built, the boys will be in soon. The house has been very cold upstairs as our woodstove isn't handling the added floor space too well.

Here are the children all reading books together...eh-hem...alright, playing Wii. The one thing I said we'd NEVER own...thanks Grandpa. O.k., I admit, Paul and I get in serious Mario Cart races, but I am awfully good at placing those bananas so I end up winning!

Another blessed day at Silver Beach. Our sweet Pastor is on roll, again. Ever since we started the book of James, the teachings have captured the attention of  even the younger ones and the Lord has used them to sanctify us all throughout the week. Traveling to Bellingham gets tiring and costly, but we could never give up the unique body of Christ there and the solid teaching that cuts deeply at times, but just what we need to hear!!    

Enjoy your Lord's Day

Be Prepared

...for blog posts. Tomorrow I get a camera...yeah!

It was surprising to log into my blog and see that pregnancy ticker...the baby is 3" already?! When did that happen? I almost forgot I was pregnant, hokey pete. If it wasn't for the little bit of queasiness. ;) Skirts still fit as usual, nothing seems to be different. My first appointment is next Tuesday and I can't WAIT to hear that little beating heart, Lord willing! I have eight different pregnant friends I am praying for right now, what a blessing that is to have so many!! There became so many I had to write their names down on a sticky note and post them beside my bed, lol. 

I get emotional when I am pregnant and it does bother me as the tears come on over little things. It can be embarrassing as I think other people may think I am looking for attention when it is sooo the opposite! I was driving the van the other day and I simply looked in the rear-view mirror at my children who were joyfully singing Christmas songs, it sounded like a choir back there! I burst into tears and had to keep looking out my drivers side window as the thoughts of "These are the years I will always reminisce and never get back" Amidst the typical family struggles of dealing with laziness, complaining, arguing, there are many moments, like that one, that just make me so, so thankful for what the Lord has undeservedly given us.

Last week, our family attended Jon and Kelsie's wedding. Another beautiful courtship laid out for our children to watch, with the first kiss at the alter(and for you skeptics, I can assure you, it was a first kiss! :). In the slide show after the wedding was Kelsie wearing a couple of the jackets their family has passed onto my daughter that she now wears. As I was talking to the mother of the bride she pointed that out to me and said "My daughter was your daughters age just 6 short years ago."  It just goes to quickly, there is sooo much to teach and experience and do with her! Yikes, 6 short years. May the Lord help me use the time wisely for His glory.

We went to Jessica and Jacobs piano recital this afternoon and it was another one of those times I had to battle my emotions to remain kept-together. Jessica has gone from Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to O Holy Night that sounded absolutely amAaazing. She has surpassed my piano skills just this year and I have to say I am a little jealous ;)  Jacob played Carol of the Bells, from memory, and his music is expressive and heart-felt, he often modifies his music. Daniel will have his violin recital next weekend, that will be a hoot, he and his fiddle are best of friends. I just started teaching Emma piano this week, and boy is she excited! It will be interesting to see how she does(as long as I keep up with teaching!) as she was my girl who could play songs by ear at the age of 4 and already sings harmony by ear with Jessica.

In closing ;), our Mamma's were right. This time goes so quickly. Time is too precious to spend pitying our sleepless nights, busying ourselves outside the home, fretting about all the daily duties that need attention, or falling for the worlds lie that our children need to participate in X or Y to be complete. May we keep our eyes on the only things that matter, that we love the Lord our God, love our husbands, love and teach our children, be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind and subject to our own husbands so that the word of God will not be dishonored...time is too short.

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!

D-Day for Turkey

I took all these great pictures of Turk and wouldntyaknowit, they magically disappeared in my camera. So here is the account. Turk was fetched from his pen and waddled over to said butcher block. We waited for the small crowd of onlookers to arrive, stuffed Turk in a burlap sack, duct taped him well to prevent his wings from breaking, hung him up and Paul did his dirty work. It is always a great family time butchering the turkey, Danny did a marvelous job of raising the creature and it brought much entertainment to the farm. I even had a picture of me kissing his globby fluorescent blue head, complete with snood draped down in front of him.


Turkeys are interesting critters, not the smartest and yes, we will attest to the rumor that turkeys are SO dumb they WILL die in a rainstorm. Turkeys become curious at the raindrops from above and will look up at the rain eventually drowning themselves. This happened to us one year, with a 20 lb turkey. I was livid with the dumb beast, but alas, he was gone and as much as my Dutch side wanted to scoop up the well dead $40 carcass and butcher him up, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

It was a four person job to pluck. Emily and I plucked him whilst Mr. Williams held the bird steady and Paul poured boiling water over the stinky, sticky feathers. My niece(Emily) may be a city slicker, but she knows how to pluck a turkey! Jess rode horse, Jacob hosed down, Daniel skinned the gizzard, Emma ran around to and fro, Micah roller bladed on the gravel driveway, Gracie watched from a distance and Elijah napped most of the time. After everyone left I was commiserating on how small he looked. He just didn't look as robust as we like and Mr. Williams and I guessed him to be 16 lbs at best.

After getting the dressed turk in the kitchen sink, I plucked the pin feathers with a pliers and singed his hairs, made him all pertty-like. I got the scale out and Paul weighed him...28lbs?! Really? Yes, he was a whopping 28lbs and I even had trouble stuffing him in the freezer. We are anxiously awaiting Thanksgiving Day! Bring on the turkey!

Pictures!

My computer decided to remember it has a G drive so I can put some pictures up…finally. These pics go with my post from earlier this week.

Brrrr it’s getting cold.

The rain suddenly turns to snow in one block worth of driving. Everyone cheers!

 

 

Daddy is an easy target.

We did find some better hills.

 

Making a snowman at the ski lodge.

 

The snowman. We left him, made one loop around Heather Meadows and some young men had come and already smashed him to smithereens with their truck. Thanks guys.

Cold happy children

 

Daddy and seven children giving the thumbs up while doing donuts in the van. My husband still can not resist doing this in the snow. It’s a guy thing, I guess. ;)

 

A red-capped Russula! A HUGE one! We arrive at Nooksack Falls.

 

Yeah, yeah, there’s the Falls, now on to the MUSHROOMS!

 

Another picture perfect, fairy tale book fly agaric, gorgeous!

 

My sweet children, bless their hearts, ran around picking every neat mushroom they found. We quickly laid rules to leave them IN the ground, for crying out loud, so we can enjoy them next year(and to appease the other tree-huggers that were looking at the children in horror as they picked the mushrooms)  The russula above was at least 9 inches across!

 

My camera used to take beautiful up close pictures…<sigh>

 

A plate full of edibles and mushrooms to identify when we get home.

See the cute little bright orange one? And the perfectly translucent jelly-like one? And the coral mushroom that is edible? Oh Joy, what a day!