The Kissack Chronicles

Pictures by mistake:)

2011-11-01T19:21:00.003-05:00

These pictures were meant to be posted on our other blog but I didn't check my settings in my hurry and now I don't feel like going through the headache of moving them so here they are.

They're from our most recent camping trip to Cloudland Canyon with family friends.

2011-11-01T15:24:00.002-05:00

This was Karys' drive-thru restaurant. We ordered food and payed her with leaves. She fed us mulch.

There goes Silas.

Karys and Evelyn on the playground. And that's Noah relaxing on the jungle gym.

Silas and Huddy building something.

Playing cards.

They met another home school family and the kids all got along great. Lynn, if you're reading this, contact me and I'll send you some more pictures of your kids.

A really cool old car (which pulled an equally cool tiny camper).

Hiking

2011-11-01T15:17:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we hiked the rim of the canyon.

This is a four mile hike with some unbelievable views.

It was really, really bright at high noon so the pictures are washed out. I need a circular polarizer for this lens. It would have helped. The colors were fab. I wish they showed up better in the pictures.

They were all sitting in a tree.

I hate posting pictures of myself on camping trips but at least it shows that I was there, right?

Karys wanted to be carried for the entire 4 miles. Most of the time, Daddy was the cart and if I was near, she was crying "Help me! Help! Mommy!" See that pitiful little face? Every time we would say "wow, you're heavy. My arms are sure tired" she would say "it'll be alright. You're not tired". :):):).

2011-11-01T15:05:00.001-05:00

While the boys played disc golf, the girls stayed back at camp. We did dishes and the little girls painted rocks.

and set them up to dry in the sun.

Then we made caramel apples.

Keep going. There are more pictures on the next page.

2011-11-01T14:50:00.001-05:00

After we packed up camp, we took one last hike down into the canyon.

Here is the waterfall.

The kids enjoyed playing on the rocks....

and the sides of the canyon....

and the trees.

2011-11-01T14:40:00.000-05:00

I have no idea.

These two found a tiny cave, just their size.

Sometimes she will just stop and pose for a picture for no reason. Otherwise, I have to chase her down to get one:).

After the canyon hike, we pulled out the pic-nic and ate at a pavilion next to this park. Check out the color in the leaves!

The big kids had fun trying to knock each other off the see-saw.

The middle kids found a spider eating a fly. Fascinating.

And I found this great log. The wood grain was twisted all the way up. I need to see if I have a better picture of it somewhere. It was so neat looking.

It was a great trip! :)

October 2011

2011-10-31T23:35:00.001-05:00

The Stupendous Six.

Don't bother trying to take a "normal" picture of them. :)

2010-11-12T23:43:00.000-06:00

Family pictures

2010-11-07T20:10:00.001-06:00

We haven't had a professional family picture taken in 8 years unless you count the one where we are all dressed up western style (I'm a barmaid - or worse) over a caption that reads "wanted for murder, train robbery and other unlawful acts against the US government" so it was time. My friend Natalie took these and lots more. She's fab, no?

2010-10-14T22:25:00.000-05:00

Gramma brought us these awesome matching T-shirts from Canada and we wore them for our Canadian Thanksgiving celebration. As you can see, everyone is growing, especially Noah who is now only one inch shorter than I am - or at least he was last week.

Our latest group shot, taken on a recent camping trip

2010-09-15T21:08:00.000-05:00

10 months old today!

2010-04-19T13:23:00.000-05:00

Landon took the boys to a movie so I took the opportunity to dress the girls all matchy-matchy and take a few pics for Karys's 10 month day. The light was so nice that even my not-so-great camera took some good pictures. Enjoy!

2010-04-19T13:18:00.000-05:00

I love her fuzzy hair. It is so fluffy and soft.

2010-04-19T13:14:00.000-05:00

2010-04-19T13:10:00.000-05:00

2010-04-10T11:56:00.000-05:00

We're still alive and well!

Karys is into everything.

Lyra just had a growth spurt and is trying to read.

Solomon lost his two front teeth.

Silas has more neighborhood friends than anybody I know.

Micah is most curious about science these days.

Noah is playing football for our cover school. He loves it.

Landon is on the lookout for a 15 passenger van for our family so I will be driving the equivalent of a small bus around town.

At least we won't be crowded.

Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!

2010-01-21T08:29:00.002-06:00

Nate, Catrina, Austin and Dania are on their way home! You can see them on KDKA news here !

Keep the pressure on! More kids need help

2010-01-19T12:29:00.002-06:00

Nate and Catrina are on their way to Pittsburgh to get Dania, who landed there with 52 other children from BRESMA earlier this morning. I just spoke to them and they asked that I post the following from For His Glory outreach.

We need you all to act again on behalf of all our children. Currently, we have two families from Argentina and one from Canada adopting. Our governments are not cooperating and working together to get all our kids out, they are dragging their feet. We are going to start losing babies due to dehydration if we do not evacuate these children quickly to the U.S. and then process them here. We do not have time for a one by one assessment of the state of their adoption process and issuance of visas prior to evacuation.

Please, begin contacting your governors and continue to pressure your senators and congressmen to get a plan in place, quickly, to evacuate the children to the U.S. The Argentinean and Canadian Governments could then work with the U.S. to bring their children home from the U.S. Time is of the essence. This is not going to look good for the U.S. , the State Department, the other world governments or the United Nations if our children, who survived the earthquake, begin to perish because the governments and agencies would not work together to quickly evacuate all the children in the orphanages.

This needs to be a united effort. PLEASE CALL YOUR GOVERNORS, SENATORS AND CONGRESSMEN AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE.

We have confirmed reports that Governor Ed Rendell form Pennsylvania went to Haiti and has brought back 54 children to Pennsylvania from an orphanage. If this can happen for them, it needs to happen for all the orphans that are suffering in orphanages with little supplies, starting to experience diarrhea and sicknesses due to the conditions.

PLEASE ACT NOW ON BEHALF OF OUR BABIES AND CHILDREN.

Thank you,Kim Harmon,President

Continue to pray for Dania and the kids at BRESMA

2010-01-18T21:52:00.003-06:00

My niece Dania's orphanage in Port-au-Prince is experiencing problems with security. The people in the area are desperate for aid and may consider taking it from the orphans. They are camped out in front of the orphanage waiting for the humanitarian aid trucks to show up.

Please pray that they are able to get those children out of Haiti and to their families in whatever country they are headed too. Not all of them can come to the US because they have been adopted by families from other countries.

Something else we can do to help the orphans

2010-01-17T08:23:00.002-06:00

I copied this from April's blog (Salt for the Spirit -in my sidebar). They know a family who are also adopting from BRESMA, the same orphanage where Dania is living. Please pray for this family as well.

I am reposting an email I received from a friend today. This is something YOU can do that would make a difference for Haiti. Please consider reposting this on your blog or facebook (you can create a note with the info and direct your facebook friends to it in your status update). We really CAN make a difference! Thanks! ~April
---------------------
A quick recap: My wife Cathy was in Haiti when the earthquake hit. Traveling with a mission group from the Carmelite Community of the Word from the Altoona-Johnstown Catholic Diocese, they were in a small village about 50 miles north of Port-au-Prince. No one the group was hurt and they are now in the Dominican Republic awaiting a flight this afternoon to Miami. In addition, our daughter and her husband are in the process of adopting two children (Wendy & Josiana--brother and sister) from Haiti. The two children are in an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Fortunately, no one in the orphanage was hurt in the earthquake, but now they are threatened with a severe lack of drinking water and food.

Beyond for sending money to one of the relief agencies, there is little we can do as individuals to help. EXCEPT...

Like Wendy and Josiana, there are hundreds of Haitian orphans who are awaiting final approval for adoptions to families in the U.S. The building in Haiti where the adoptions are processed was destroyed in the earthquake. It may be years before the processing can resume.

However, the U.S. can grant temporary visas to all orphans whose adoptions were pending before the earthquake. With the grant of visas the oprhans could then come to the U.S. to live with their adoptive families, but be classified as "foster care" children until the final paperwork is completed. In granting the visas, the evacuation of the hundreds of orphans stuck in this limbo will free space in Haitian orphanages for the thousands of new orphans that have been created by this emergency. Please note that under U.S. rules, any family that applies to adopt a foreign child must first be certified as a foster care family, so there is a safe-guard system in place to insure that these oprhans who would come here under this plan will be safe.

PLEASE, PLEASE. Contact your U.S. Senators asking that they put pressure on the United States Citizenship and Immigrantion Service (USCIS) to grant "temporary visas" to all Haitian orphans now in orphanges awaiting the completion of their adoption process.

This is a real way to help and it will cost nothing. You can send Emails by going to the website for the United States Senate (http://www.senate.gov/) and finding the links to your two senators' websites.

If you have contacts or friends in any agency of the U.S. government who could push this idea with USCIS, please reach out to them to help, too.

Thank all of you for your concerns, good thoughts and most of all prayers for my family these past few days. ~Ed

Urgent from Haiti!

2010-01-15T08:17:00.002-06:00

Copied from Catrina's blog. My niece Dania is in th BRESMA orphanage right now.

I need everyone that is online to post this to their blogs and facebook. I will post the GPS coordinates as soon as I get them. Please continue to check here for that. The name of the Orphanage is Bresma, located in the Delmas area. We are contacting our local media as they may have the best chance of contacting someone with boots on the ground in Haiti. We request that you do the same in your local area. Time is of the essence, the window is slowly closing on these children. Please read the post from the caretakers below:

This is my agents website http://kashaiti.blogspot.com/

This is the website for the americans taking care of our kids. http://thatschurch.com/2010/01/14/calling-adoptive-parents-of-bresma-orphans/

Racing against time.
Friends, Jamie and Ali still await help.
They have 150 children to feed.
They have no food.
They have no water.
They need diapers.
The children are aged infant to 13-years-old.
They are living outside in their yard.
Gears are moving in high places to get them out of there, but in the meantime, we need help from relief agencies, humanitarian agencies, the media, or the military to get Jamie and Ali what they need to survive the next few days.
We are racing against time. There’s no easy way to say it. These children, particularly the babies, will not survive long without food and water.
Tweet, retweet, email to anyone who has anyone on the ground in Haiti to get to these humans.
Water, food, supplies, evacuation, permanent homes.
In that order.
We have specific directions to and GPS coordinates for the orphanage and virginia[at]thatschurch[dot]com is my email.
Onward.
UPDATE: An email from Jamie and Ali, sent to their sister in law:
first, thanks.
- we cannot call anyone or respond to any texts, and we will not have any because phone cards are not for sale.
- we know every situation in haiti is very serious, trust me we know.we just know this is what we have to do if these kids have any futures so that is why we even thought of the idea, and that is why we are pushing it. we are living minute to minute, and know you are all working for us. every government office is destroyed. kids who are left behind are here forever. and ever and ever.
- family, know that jamie and i are safe as far as health and stuff like that. we were in our car during the earthquake and didn’t get a scratch, physically. we are deciding not to take the us embassies offer to fly out every evening at 6 pm because if we leave the kids…. they will literally be left in our driveway with a handful of nannies who will not stick around.
- as for if everyone is ’safe’ please understand the answer is NO!!!!there is no safety here for anyone. supplies will be helpful the next few days but where to go from there? the supplies will be stolen, our house will be looted, its is simply inevitable and we are just praying for time, its going to happen. it already started downtown today, and we are ten minutes from there.
- we are probably not going to have internet again.
i know you cant do more than youre doing… but weeks or months is not an option for the kids. its just not.
we truly love you and appreciate you allali and jamie

Time flies

2010-01-07T21:48:00.003-06:00

Goodness, it's already January. An apology to those of you who still check in on us.

Life continues to rock along at the speed of light around here.

Karys is 6 and a half months old now. She sits, babbles, rolls and sucks on her toes when they are available. It's cold right now so most of the time they are in booties. We all adore her.

Lyra is going through another jump in her speech development. I notice these every few months. This latest one has to do with actually pronouncing longer words properly. She is getting girlier by the day. Yesterday she wore a skirt of her own initiative. She'll be 5 in a few days. Wow. Time flies.

Solomon lost a top tooth. He continues to crack us up with his one liners. I can't believe he is going to be 7 soon! Time really does fly.

In reading news,

Silas is reading "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" (in the kids illustrated classic version) for fun right now. He is supposed to be reading "Huckleberry Finn" but he said it's not as exciting as King Arthur so he only reads Huck Finn when he has too.

Micah is devouring "The Prince and the Pauper" by Mark Twain. He told me "it's funny how once you start reading a book, you just want to keep reading." I can relate.

And this evening before bed, even Noah (our reluctant reader-for-fun) slipped up and accidently told me "I'm excited about something but I can't put my finger on it. Oh yeah," he said. "It's the book I'm reading. I'm going to read some more before I go to bed tonight". "WHAT WAS THAT!?" said I. And then I fainted dead away.

I remember teaching them all the alphabet! Time just FLIES!

Besides schooly news, we are all healthy but cold here. Landon just finished up a reallllllly long training session for his next promotion during which I was a single mother for far too long. Not fun.

Other than that, we had a nice Christmas and I can't believe it is already 2010. Goodness. Time flies. But I already said that, didn't I.:)

2009-11-09T15:19:00.002-06:00

November Update

2009-11-09T15:00:00.004-06:00

I guess I missed October somehow...:?

Here's the long and short of it.

I think I almost died of mastitis maybe. I'm pretty sure I actually had blood poisoning at one point. It was horrid.

We spent 11 or 12 days in Georgia while I recuperated. I lost count.

The kids are wild and crazy. Landon told me to make them do push-ups for any infringement on house rules from whining to shirking responsibility. Noah said "We're all going to be in really good shape".

We are enjoying a lovely fall. The kids and I ditched the books at 11:00 and took a two hour walk. I let them drag me around and show me their favorite haunts and then we stopped by the park to swing before going to the neighborhood nature preserve which is really just a paved trail through the trees. There are no bear or bald eagles being preserved there. Maybe the occasional squirrel.

Speaking of squirrel, Noah recently shot and ate his first squirrel. Roasted it right over a fire in my parent's front pasture along with cousin Austin, who also shot and ate his first squirrel. I politely declined the offer of a taste.

Solomon's reading is coming along better. I love his laugh. It's infectious.

Silas is over halfway done with 3rd grade math. He's always a fun kid to have around for so many reasons.

Micah is so.....Micah. He found a pair of nerd glasses without lenses while we were out walking today and he loves them. I think they were a discarded part of some one's Halloween costume.

Lyra doesn't like school anymore. I think it's because she doesn't have to do it if she doesn't want to so she likes to rub that in the boy's faces.

Karys is adorable beyond words. She STILL wont sleep through the night though and the sleep deprivation is catching up with me. I am going to have to work on that one of these days.

Landon and I are getting old. We noticed it the other day when we were standing in front of the mirror getting ready for church.

Well, have a lovely fall!:)

September update

2009-09-24T21:41:00.004-05:00

Well, this month, life has calmed down to a nice crazy routine.

We get up, eat breakfast, do chores, do school, eat lunch, clean the house, play, eat supper, play and go to bed. During all this, I nurse the baby, do the laundry, change the baby, make the meals, put the baby down for naps, do daily house cleaning, smile at and talk to the baby, supervise school, rock the baby, tell the kids to hold the noise level to a dull roar, carry the baby around.....

I find myself praying "Lord, don't let me forget anything important." I feel like I am going from sun up to sun down.

Karys is still not sleeping through the night consistently, but that's okay because I just put her in the bed with me to nurse and then I go back to sleep. She sleeps with me until I wake up enough to put her back in her cradle. She is absolutely adorable - smiley, fat and totally cuddly. Her favorite things to do (besides nursing) are look at one hand while she sucks on the other one. She also LOVES getting a bath and gets so excited when she knows she is getting ready to get in the tub with Lyra.

Lyra is still the worlds best big sis. She is doing well with her school, learning letter sounds and practicing counting things and writing down how many. We just spent a weekend in NW Ga with the Warchols (buddies from our time in Ukraine- they adopted Olena from the same groupa Lyra was in) and Lyra and Olena had lots of fun playing together.

Solomon is the worlds cutest six year old, I am sure (mom's UNbiased opinion:):)). He is now a Tiger Cub and he loves it. His academics for the year include reading/phonics, 1st grade math, spelling, geography, Bible and memory work and handwriting. He doesn't really like school and heaves a big sigh when he has to sit down. He would rather wiggle. I give him lots of "recess".

Silas continues to make us laugh with his fantastic stories and imaginations. He is also doing Cub Scouts this year and he loves it as much as Solomon does. He is breezing through 3rd grade and will be done with his math book in 15 weeks if he continues on the present course. I already bought the 4th grade book for him so I'm ready:)

Micah is turning into the most generous, kind, thoughtful young man right before my eyes. He is always there to lend me a hand when I need it. He is taking to fractions like a duck to water but he still doesn't like creative writing. I am structuring it more this year and he wants a free hand (which he'll get in a few months). The other day, he put his finger over Karys's top lip- mustache style- and said "Hey! Karys looks like Hitler". I said "That's not a very nice thing to say about a sweet baby!" and he said "well she's not a Darwinist so she won't act like him". I thought that was pretty profound for a 10 year old. He is also doing Scouts this year and is a second year Webelo.

Noah is practically grown:(. He is just a few inches shorter than I am now and his foot is longer than mine. He is pretty much entirely self-educating now. I just ask if he needs help (the answer is usually "no") and check his work. He paces himself to finish school on time every day, doesn't argue nearly as much as he used to and helps out extra without complaining most of the time. He started Boy Scouts when the younger boys started Cubs. Their Den/Troop is sponsored by a Presbyterian church in our city and we love it. They all meet on the same night at the same time so it gives them each something to do with a group of kids their age and Landon takes them most of the time. Can you see me grinning like the Cheshire cat???

Landon is preparing for a huge work training session over the next few months. He is also doing home maintenance and repairs- like painting the front door, etc. Right now, he is sitting at the dining room table doing a sudoku puzzle. The house is so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. All the children are sleeping and I'm off to bed soon.

And that's it for the September update:).

The monthly update

2009-08-26T13:07:00.002-05:00

We are all still alive. School is crazy with a newborn and we have had some pretty rough days. When Landon called home before he left work yesterday (he does that to see if we need him to bring anything home with him) and I told him that I was doing "Great!", he asked me if the kids were all still alive. I think I must take issue with that....:):):).

Anyhoo. I may or may not get around to posting pictures. Keeping up one blog is hard enough these days.

2009-07-23T20:48:00.001-05:00

More invitations are out. If you still didn't get one, e-mail me again or leave a comment. I am trying to do this while dealing with Screechy Dwarf (aka Karys).

Invitations are out- check your inbox

2009-07-23T09:02:00.002-05:00

I sent out invitations to our private blog. If you asked for one and didn't get one, please re-send your e-mail addy. I may have accidently skipped you. If you are a family member or close friend of the family and you didn't get an invitation, please send me your e-mail addy since I have several addresses for several people in my contacts and may have sent an invitation to the wrong address.

All that to say this. If you didn't get an invitation to our private blog, and you want one, e-mail me.:)

Changes with the blog

2009-07-17T14:53:00.001-05:00

I keep trying to get in here and do this right, but there is no time so I am just going to do it anyway.

I am not going to be blogging here anymore. However, I don't like it when people just quit blogging without letting me know (grin) and we are also a reference for Kostya (our adoption facilitator) so I am leaving this blog up and I will be posting a general update once a month - with pictures, if I can find time to put them up.

For the relatives and friends of the family, I will be sending you an invitation to our private blog where I will start journaling our days again. I've been trying to figure out a way to make this all work (not going in to detail for lack of time) and this seems to be the best of both worlds.

For those of you who I have built online friendships with - meaning that I have talked to you on the phone or corresponded with you via e-mail- I will be happy to send you an invitation as well if you let me know you want one. However, if you are as busy as I am, a once-a-month update will be plenty and then you won't feel obligated to read about what we ate for breakfast!:)

I will still be reading your blogs on occasion, but my extra time is now GONE so I can't guarantee that I will always leave a comment when I stop by.

Just so you know, we are doing great so this has nothing to do with any crisis. I have simply been looking for a good stopping place for this blog for some time and I feel like this is as good as any.

We'll still be here - just not as often:).

Pictures

2009-07-09T16:20:00.006-05:00

The biggest and the littlest:).

Micah rocks the baby to sleep.

Since the morning is "electronic free"- meaning that no electronics can be used for entertainment purposes - the kids have found other ways to spend their time. It really helps for us to have strict time allotments for games and television. The kids tend to find other things to do happily instead of just sitting around waiting for me to tell them that they can use some of their game time. It makes my game hating anal self happy to see them do what I consider to be normal childhood activities instead of playing "Worms 4" (whatever that is- their father handles the gaming around here because I am so out-of-the-know).

Silas entertains Karys, or visa versa.

Ain't me cute?

Micah has been the only big kid healthy enough to hold Karys for the last 5 days so they have spent a lot of time together since she doesn't like to be put down for more than about 5 minutes unless she is sleeping.

What does it feel like to be a mommy?

2009-07-09T15:38:00.008-05:00

The other day, my right hand helper and shadow (Lyra) and I were working in the kitchen when she looked up at me and asked, "what does it feel like to be a mommy?". I scooped her up for a smooch and told her that it felt wonderful to have little children that I love so much and she smiled, hugged and kissed me in return, and went back to helping me do kitchen chores.

She LOVES having a baby in the house and is so interested in everything I do right now - from changing the baby to unloading the dishwasher. She tells me "I want to help you clean the whole house" ( I hope THAT attitude lasts a while!)

She is a natural with Karys. Last night, when I carried Karys upstairs with me to tuck Lyra in, she noticed that Karys was wearing pink and white striped pajamas, just like her baby doll had on so she got her doll out to show me. Later, Landon came downstairs grinning and told me "Lyra is sleeping with her doll on her chest, just like you do with the baby". I promptly went up and took this picture:). Cute, no?

Finding a groove

2009-07-07T14:48:00.006-05:00

We're trying to get into a routine around here. No one does well with too much unstructured freedom. It makes for grumpy, bored kids and a very frustrated mother. We need to do a few productive things even if it IS hard to schedule any of it.

Since there is no school this summer, I have started reading large chunks of "The Lord of the Rings" to the kids in a single sitting. They have to sit still and listen (hard for the littles, but I think it's good for them). And besides, Tolkien is a FABulous writer and I think it will be GREAT for their writing skills and vocabulary to hear the books read aloud. Noah and Micah have already been through them once, but it has been several years so they are getting to hear them again. It takes about an hour to read a chapter aloud so that is what we are doing right after lunch when it it too hot to go outside.

Since we are not all getting up and eating breakfast together right now, we have lost our window for family devotions. Landon and I talked about doing it at dinner because we all sit down together then, but starting a new habit is difficult when things are rather chaotic otherwise. We'll keep plugging away at that because it is so important. I would like to see the kids start memorizing the book of James this summer so that's on the agenda too.

In an effort to keep the house clean while I spend 6 hours a day nursing, changing and holding the baby, not to mention regular maintenance chores, I posted a "How you can help" list on the fridge for the kids to refer to. Several times during the day, I tell them to check the list and find two things that they can do to help out. This has worked really well.

I am doing laundry too often so I ordered a few more diapers and covers today. I was doing small loads often instead of large loads less often so I am hoping to get that under control to save on water and electricity.

For personal reading, I started Elisabeth Elliot's Discipline:the glad surrender again. Man is that a good book. I intend to read it every year around my birthday, just for a refresher. Landon just bought Common Sense by Glen Beck and I ordered The Christian Homeschool by Gregg Harris (father of Josh, Alex and Brett , whom I greatly admire) so I have some good books in the cue. I have plenty of time to read a chapter or two every day since I have to sit down to nurse the punkin' (who is so cute and snuggly - pics coming soon).

boring update for those who are wondering

2009-07-05T08:38:00.003-05:00

Living in Alabama around any fireworks-worthy holiday is always fun. There are no legal restrictions on most pyrotechnics so we get quite a show around here. The kids were all out in the driveway last night with Landon, shooting off a few crackers of their own and then hopping over to the neighbor's driveway to watch the activity there.

We are still sick around here. The fever has now graduated to vomiting, headache, a nasty cough and diarreah. I currently have three sick children, who I am trying to keep down. If I medicate them, they feel good and want to get up and play. If I don't medicate them, they feel miserable. I have given each of the sickies a colored wash cloth to cough in to in an effort to keep from spewing germs all over the house but I doubt it will do any good. We have all been exposed and it just remains to be seen who will get sick. So far, I think Micah has already had it, Noah, Silas and Solomon are currently sick and Landon and I have had a touch of it, but seem to have recovered. I hope that I am passing immunities to Karys. Lyra is still unscathed at this point:).

A few pictures

2009-07-02T09:33:00.005-05:00

This is how we are spending our days lately. They are slow and lazy, but everyone is adjusting very well. Solomon is our resident sickie right now so he is in sick bay in this pic.

Whew

2009-07-01T13:15:00.004-05:00

So last night was rough (I got all of 2 hours of sleep) and Karys and I slept in until 9:00 this morning. Landon went to work at 4:30, so the kids were fending for themselves this morning.

Solomon now has the horrible fever bug but, bad mom that I am, I didn't even think to check on him this morning when I woke up at 7:00 to feed the babe (he was playing upstairs with Silas). When I got up at 9:00, he had fever chills and was lying on the sofa under a blanket trying to get warm. Fortunately for him, Lyra took over as "Mommy" and had him all set up with things to make him feel better. She had moved a little table over next to the sofa where he was lying and supplied him with a cool washcloth, neatly folded, a bowl of green grapes and a cup of orange soda with a straw in it. He even spilled something and she cleaned it up for him! What a good little sister!:)

I have no idea what this fever virus is. It doesn't seem to manifest in any way other than a high fever. Solomon was running 103.2 this morning and Silas got up to 102.5 when he had it. 102 makes Silas delirious. I found him walking around upstairs at midnight a few nights ago, looking for the bathroom and laughing while talking to "two guys who were looking for the bathroom too". That was sort of freaky. It took me over an hour to bring his fever down to under 100 but fortunately, the baby slept through the entire thing.

She is still nursing around the clock, every 2-3 hours so I am a bit tired, what with sickies and nursing, but we are hanging in there. I really do want to post some pictures, but that is now so involved and time consuming since my easy picture posting program never acknowledges that I am on-line anymore.

In an effort to keep chores from getting away from me in my scatterbrained, sleep deprived state, I am keeping a running list on the kitchen counter. It lists things that need to be done and I add to it every time I notice something. Most of the jobs are little 5 minute deals, so I can tackle them a little here and a little there - things like "bleach kitchen sink" or "clean front door windows". If I get two extra things done each day, I'm happy right now. "Go to library" has been on the list for days and it's not getting done. I honestly needed to write "get a shower" and "eat breakfast" on my to-do list today- it's been one of those... I ate breakfast at 10 minutes 'till 12:00 this morning. In fact, I had better get a shower now, because I hear the sweet little one stirring and I have to get a few more things done before rest time is over.

Still here!:)

2009-06-27T14:31:00.002-05:00

We're still here and doing fairly well, all things considered.

My kids , who rarely get sick but when they do pick the WORST times to do it (remember the camping trip), are coming down with bugs this week. We had to take Micah in last Wednesday for an ear infection which probably started with swimmers ear. He couldn't hear much of anything and we were having to raise our voices all the time when we were talking to him. I am happy to report that he told me "thing sound a lot louder" yesterday, so I guess the antibiotic is doing it's job.

Yesterday, I noticed that Silas was looking a little puny and thought he might be coming down with something but he said he felt fine so I just let it go. Today, he fell asleep on the couch at lunch time so when I finished nursing the baby, I went over to check on him and he was burning up with a fever of 102.6. I woke him up when I changed his pillow and he started talking in complete jibberish, which sort of freaked me out for a second until I figured out that he was probably in the middle of a dream which, combined with the high fever, was manifesting in a rather bizarre fashion. I asked him what his name was and he knew so I just gave him a drink, an ibuprofen and a cool cloth for his forehead.

So now I just have to keep the older kids away from the littlest kid in hopes that she won't catch anything. This is one of the many times I'm glad that I breastfeed.

Speaking of the baby, she is doing GREAT! I have never had such an easy newborn. She nurses perfectly, is on a nice little schedule, sleeps beautifully, and of course, is a cute as she can be. I know it's too early for her to truly smile, but it really looks like she does it on purpose. She looks straight at my eyes, wide awake, and smiles. It's adorable.

She is still sleeping on me for part of the night, but I try to get at least one stretch of crib sleeping out of her every night. She sleeps in her crib during the day and does great and I could probably move her to her crib all night, but she is a tummy sleeper like every single one of her brothers were so I feel better keeping her on my chest for most of the night until she is a week or two older although she is really good about turning her head already.

While I'm on the subject of cribs and sleeping, here is a little article on wrapping your baby's crib mattress with polyethylene sheeting for anyone who has ever worried about crib death. You can either buy a babe-safe mattress cover or just make your own by buying sheeting in a hardware store and wrapping your baby's mattress using these instructions. I am going to go ahead and wrap all my kids mattresses, just for health purposes and see if it cuts down on allergies for Silas. Polyethylene is a vapor barrier so it should keep all the nasty things that come out of mattresses away from them.

As for the sibs, they are loving having a baby in the house. They are so helpful with her and Solomon and Lyra sit around and argue about who gets to rock her car seat back and forth and who she likes better. However, I have had to get on to them LOTS lately for squabbling about everything, so maybe arguing about the baby is just overflow. I cracked down on all this today so I hope to have things back in hand in a few days. It amazes me how lack of diligence in training for as short a period as I've been out of commission affects children - especially mouthy, cute, precocious children such as my #4 and #5.

Ah well. Life is a joy and a blessing so I won't complain. I'll just continue to teach and train, teach and train and hope that one day, I won't be needed in that capacity any longer:):):).

On the cloth diapering front, I started using cloth diapers during the day about 3 or 4 days ago and I must say that I love it. I wish I had known how easy it was when my others were babies. I could have saved us about seven or eight thousand dollars in diapers. sigh. I'll start using them at night as soon as I run out of disposables but for right now, disposables are easier to deal with in the dark (I could change one of those things with my eyes shut) so I am saving the disposables for quick changes between night feedings.

Gotta run. Silas is now feeling TOO good and needs to be settled back down on the couch with something to keep him occupied.

For fun

2009-06-23T11:29:00.003-05:00

If you like music, check this choir out. They sing "Africa", by Toto, entirely without instruments. They even simulate a storm at the beginning and end, only using their hands and feet. It is really cool:). My kids loved it!

L&D story

2009-06-20T21:25:00.004-05:00

I have a few minutes so I will do a quick post about the L&D.

We went in for the induction about 6 am on Friday morning and they started my antibiotics about 7:00. I was at almost 5 cm and 80% effaced at the time so my doctor decided not to take a chance that they wouldn't get 4 hrs of antibiotics in me and she told me that she would be back to break my water later. They started me on pit and that got minor contractions going, but they were nothing to write home about.

I think it was 10:30 or 10:45 when the doctor actually came back to check me. There was no significant progress so Dr. D went ahead and broke my water and ordered my epidural - thank goodness (smart woman). My contractions kicked in right away and by the time the anesthesiologist came in about 30 min later, I was in pain. The epidural didn't work as well as some I've had, but at least it took the pain out of my right side and the middle of my abdomen. The rest of me still felt the contractions, which did their job very quickly. At my next cervical check a half an hour later, I was almost completely effaced. After another hour of contractions, I was at 10 cm and ready to have the baby -only my doc was in surgery so the nurse asked me if I could wait to push. This turned out to be a good thing because Karys worked herself so far down during the next hour of waiting that all I had to do to push her out was the equivalent of one easy abdominal crunch, during which I paused halfway through for about 5 or 10 seconds to keep from tearing. Honestly, I strained myself more getting off the couch over my big belly last week.

So it was my easiest delivery ever. Granted, Karys is tiny so that helped. She weighed 6lbs 9 oz and is 19 inches long. She nursed like a little champ immediately after birth and did everything perfectly. No problems with that other than the fact that she wants to hang out there for hours on end and her latch is VERY strong, so it hurts like the dickens when I try to detach her:):):). I have decided that the perfect nic-name for her is "Piglet" because she's tiny, pink and a piggy little eater.

She wants to sleep on her tummy while lying on my chest, so I haven't gotten a whole lot of rest. I am going to have to figure out what to do about that sometime soon although I must say that am enjoying the sweet little baby smell and warm little body lying on me.

We are extremely thankful to God for such a precious little addition to our family and for the easy time we had getting her here. The siblings are all enthralled with her. I have some really cute pictures that might actually make it to the blog over the next week or so if I can find the time to put them up.

Well, that's all I can think of right now. We are all just taking it easy around here. My parents and sister will be leaving tomorrow so I'm sure the pace will pick up soon. If you feel like praying for us, I could use a good night's sleep before Landon returns to work on Thursday!:)

Karys is here!

2009-06-20T17:43:00.001-05:00

I put up a few pictures. I'll post a little about the birth soon!:)

Pictures of our newest little one :)

2009-06-20T17:21:00.014-05:00

Gramma noticed that our pic of Micah and Karys was missing. I had originally included it in the folder I transferred, but somehow it got lost in the shuffle, so here it is again:). He is thrilled with his new baby sister:).

Me, trying to make it through a contraction -with an epidural. You can imagine the drama when I DON'T have an epidural. In my own defense, I had a hot spot and the epidural didn't go all the way up so I could totally feel contractions at the top and bottom of my stomach.

Right after Karys arrived.

A proud Daddy with his sixth little one.

Noah and Karys.

Nanny with Karys.

Karys sleeping.

Solomon and Karys. He gives reports like "Karys is still sleeping". "She just made a noise". "Karys moved her hand".

Silas and Karys. He is a natural with babies.

Lyra and Karys. She and Solmon (and the rest of us, too) are beside themselves with happiness. Karys cried when I took her from Lyra and put her in one of her brothers arms. Lyra said "Maybe she likes me better".

Still waiting

2009-06-17T21:19:00.003-05:00

Today was a fun day of pampering and no cooking. Us girls went and had our nails done, compliments of Nanny and Aunt Tammy. We also had spa pedicures done, which was lovely considering that I can't comfortably reach my feet to do anything to them. While us grown-up ladies took a few minutes to choose our color, Lyra chose neon green polish right off the bat. There was no standing and perusing the many, many bottles of color on the wall for her. She went straight for the green and had white polka-dots put on. She LOVED getting her first manicure and pedicure.

This afternoon, we took a trip to the pool to try and combat some of this mid-90's heat. Baby is due on the projected hottest day of the year so far. And to make matters worse, it's been raining at night so the humidity level makes the heat atrocious.

After the pool, we came inside and spent some lazy time reading, snacking and chatting. When Landon got home, it was out to dinner for the evening and back home for bed.

My sister Tammy has to work tomorrow so she is headed back to Louisiana at 3:00 in the morning:(. Then things will calm down to a nice "normal" pace since no other company is coming in until late Saturday afternoon when my dad and sister Sandi will be coming back in from GA. We'll use the down time tomorrow to rest and have a more average day. It should be really good for the littlest already-born Kissack, who has been a bit emotional the last two evenings right around bed time. I think she is overly tired and a little worried about me being gone overnight. I spent some time talking to her about the whole thing tonight and she seemed to be a little more at ease by the time she went to sleep so I hope it sticks. I'll probably do some role playing with her tomorrow while I let her help me get Baby's things ready.

The boys are having no such worries. They are full of life and hilarity right now. I had to kick them out of the house this morning because of the rising decibel level. They get so loud sometimes!

Obviously, we are still waiting on baby. I've been cramping a little bit this evening and having some nice, hard contractions, but nothing painful or regular. My guess is that we make it to Friday.

I'll be sure to post something as soon as we are heading out the door to the hospital, whether it be Friday morning or sooner:).

Crazy fun

2009-06-15T20:59:00.003-05:00

We are having party week here at the Kissack domicile. We all really enjoy having company so it has been lots of fun having a house full of family.

My parents and youngest sister Sandi came in on Saturday. We have been having lots of fun playing games, working puzzles and hanging out. Lyra and Nanny just finished a 1000 peice jig saw puzzle this evening. We got my dad hooked on Sudoku and now he is an addict. Fun Aunt Sandi threw water balloons at the kids, took them to the pool, took them for walks, etc. Daddy and Sandi left this morning because they have to work but my mom stayed to help me out this week. She does all those little things that are just a pain to do when you are pregnant, like clean out from behind the dryer or wipe out the lazy susan in the corner cabinet, or organize the cabinet under the sink. She also cleaned my kitchen floors on her hands and knees.

Let me just throw out a little suggestion to those of us who plan on having grandchildren one day. It is SUCH a wonderful thing to have someone come and help you get your house clean when your belly is too big to allow much bending and it certainly won't allow you to fit in tight spaces. Grandmothers who show up with the cleaning caddy are always a welcome blessing:). My granny did the same thing for my mom and I plan on doing the same thing for my daughters and daughter-in-laws one day, Lord willing. It's sort of a pay it forward type of thing.

Tomorrow, my other sister Tammy is coming in for a day or two. The company she works for (she is an animal trainer) is doing a movie in Louisiana right now so she has a few days off and is coming to see us. Then she leaves for work again and Sandi and my dad are coming back for the weekend.

Landon got Friday through Wednesday off work, so he is hoping that I wait until Friday to have this baby. I am not showing any signs of imminent labor so we make make it. I did have 7 contractions between 5 and 6 o'clock this morning, but they weren't the real thing, just irregular Braxton Hicks so I went back to sleep.

Well, four more days (or less) until we have our new little one in our arms:). I can't wait to see her - and I can't wait to stretch out and sleep on my stomach.

Baby update

2009-06-10T13:44:00.003-05:00

I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately. Honestly, we are pretty much doing the lazy-summer thing here so there's not much to say. We go to the pool every day. I try to stay out of the sun but everyone else has a great tan already. We come in around noon, have lunch, clean up, take a rest hour (about 4 or 5 days a week) and then it's more play until bedtime -with breaks for meals.

I had a check-up this morning and I am now 4 cm dilated. YAY! The doc thinks I'll go sooner, but if I don't, we're inducing on the 19th simply for convenience sake. It will give us time to get our ducks in a row as far as child care and family coming into town for the birth. If we go into labor sooner, we'll just go with our back-up plan and the nice neighbors will keep the kids until the family is able to get here.

Well, that's about it. I don't have another check-up scheduled before the induction date so the next baby update will probably be something to the tune of "baby is on the way":).

Cute things

2009-06-06T16:36:00.000-05:00

For the sake of remembrance, and of course the grandparents, I am posting several cute things that Lyra says all the time right now:

Instead of "everybody", she says "every guys". For example, she'll say " Time for supper, every guys!" or "come on every guys, lets go to park". She still doesn't use "the" in sentences.

She also says "OH MY WORD!" all the time, only it comes out "OH MY WUWD!" which is very funny because "oh my word" is something she says when she is shocked or appalled.

She calls a sandwich a "slam-ich". That one will stick as one of those catchy things your kids say when they are little and then the word suddenly changes forever in your household. Everyone in the family now calls sandwiches "slamiches".

I also made some pretty cute burp cloths out of plain ole' cloth diapers. This is quite a lot of fun and doesn't even require a sewing machine. It would be a lot faster on a sewing machine, but I have been making them while sitting poolside, watching the kids swim. I used scraps of fabric and ribbon that I had left over from other projects so these have cost me virtually nothing other than a cute little purple lace and ribbon that I picked up for 1.97 from a clearance bucket in the craft department at Wal-Mart.

2009-06-06T16:29:00.004-05:00

The pink one was made by a friend for Lyra (as a lovey or a toy for her dolls) when she was little. I included it in this picture as another inspirational idea. The red one has a flannel strip down the center. I have seen this done with regular cotton fabric, but I thought flannel would be softer and more absorbent.

Baby update - 3 weeks to go

2009-06-02T14:18:00.002-05:00

The checkup this morning still has us lookin' good:). My blood pressure remains super low, I'm measuring right where I should be and I actually lost a pound since last week! Yipee! I am celebrating by baking peanut butter cookies while the kids take their rest hour - so next week I will probably be up two pounds.

I am still 2 cm, which is sort of a bummer. I like seeing progress but I have to remember that I wasn't dilated at all when I went into labor with Silas (the 36 hour labor that came 1 week early) so I am at least happy to be where I am.

In the nesting department, besides getting the layette ready, I have been washing and repairing bedding around here. It seems that at least one of the children's quilts or comforters usually need to be mended somewhere before they can be washed so that had to done, and I need to do some little repairs on my comforter because it has some spots that are pulling loose due to this strange, non-kid friendly fabric in certain squares. My comforter is very pretty, with 12 inch squares of different fabric sewn together to make the top, but I will never buy another one like it until I have no children climbing up and down onto my bed every day. It doesn't handle the pulling-by-the-little-hands well.

I am trying to tackle one or two projects a day between trips to the pool and naps. I am NOT sleeping well at night right now (too many trips to the potty) so naps are a must have.

Projects that are currently on my ever growing to-do list:

window washing
floor scrubbing
cleaning under living room furniture
and the entire basement. I think the kids will get that job.

Anyway, I am trying to tackle a project or two every day. Today, I need to wash windows so I had better get too it before the hour is up and a trip to the pool ensues:).

Another swimmer in the house

2009-06-01T14:20:00.004-05:00

Lyra just taught herself to SWIM.

That kid kills me.

We went to the pool this morning where she immediately jumped in with her water wings on. After about 5 minutes of splashing around in those, she got out, took them off and told me "I gonna swim like boys do". Then she got back in and spent the next hour teaching herself to swim. I was not wearing a bathing suit so I couldn't even get in to help her. I just sat on the side of the pool and gave her instructions..."cup your hand like this", "kick your feet out of the water", "push the water down with your hands", etc. By the end of the hour, she was swimming about 5 or 6 feet at a time without putting her feet down. She inhaled some water and said "maybe I drown" a few times but she never gave up until she was actually swimming.

Then she ran around the pool collecting her brothers to get them to come and watch her. Noah laughed (she is very cute and splashy), Micah and Silas were incredulous "MOM! Lyra can SWIM now!" and Solomon said "huh" and jumped in to show her how it was REALLY done. So she watched him and then started trying to swim the crawl, arm over arm, with her face in the water.

I didn't have the camera along because I had no idea that this momentous occasion would be taking place. I'll try to remember to take it with me this afternoon if we go back for another swim. Pics forthcoming.

Another momentous occasion. For the first time ever, I just quickly typed up a medium length post with NO MISSPELLED WORDS (according to spellcheck)! Wonders never cease.

This and that

2009-05-29T19:48:00.002-05:00

Things are buzzing along around here and summer break is in full swing.

FUN! The pool is open and we go just about every day. The kids have great tans already and they are eating like pigs and sleeping like logs, trying to keep up the energy they need for all this extra activity. Massive amounts of children have descended upon our house and yard. It seems like every year, the boys pick up a few more friends. It has been a free-for-all which I plan to end on Monday with a bit of a summer schedule. We are going to continue with afternoon rest hour, during which time the kids come inside ALONE and read or practice instruments. I gave them the summer off math since they all finished their books for this year and four of them are well into next year's book.

SHOCKING. I took the kids to see "Night at the Museum" today, thinking that a matinee would be cheap - like it should be. It cost me FORTY-TWO DOLLARS!!!! I almost keeled over at the box office! We won't be doing that again. Since when does a matinee cost $7 for a 4 year old???? Thank goodness it was a really cute movie. We all loved it.

SATISFYING (in a thrifty sort of way). The diapers I ordered came via UPS two days ago so I am prepping them (by washing them in really hot water over and over to make them absorbent) while I wait on the covers to arrive. Lyra's reusable pull-up came yesterday. I bought her one since she still needs a diaper at night sometimes but I hate spending the money on disposables. It works great and she can pull it up and down without having to refasten anything. When Lyra is done with it, I'll save it for Karys.

EXCITING! Baby laundry is done and the crib us up and ready for the arrival of our newest bundle of joy. I don't think I've actually started nesting yet, but I do seem to have developed a special interest in cleaning odd things like lampshades and baseboards.

I'm sure there is more that I could say if I thought about it for a second, but Landon just came in from a tennis game so I need to feed him and get the kids a snack and read to them before bed.

'night:).

The good news, the bad news and the other news

2009-05-26T14:45:00.005-05:00

I had a baby check-up this afternoon and while everything else looks great, the BAD news is that my group B test came back positive. Darn, darn, darn. This is the first time I have ever had a positive group B strep test. My doc said it is entirely inconsequential except for the fact that she would LIKE to have me on antibiotics for 4 hours before the baby is born. She said it probably won't matter anyway since she thinks I will deliver quickly and the baby won't have time to pick up a germ, but just in case, she wants to at least make an attempt to get me hooked up 4 hours prior to delivery. Solomon was born less than 2 hours after I arrived at the hospital so it remains to be seen if we will actually get our 4 hours of antibiotics in or not.

The GOOD news is that I am 2 cm dilated, 50% effaced and the baby is low (at least she was when Dr. D checked me - she moves a lot). With 4 weeks left to go until my due date, I am hoping that this means Baby might arrive a little early! At any rate, that's 2 cm I won't have to do during labor:). YAY!

The OTHER news is that, after hours and hours of research which had my eyes bugging out of my head, I ordered some more diapers last weekend. For those of you who are cloth diapering savvy, I purchased Indian cotton prefolds, a NB Prowraps cover, a small Prowraps cover, a small Thirsties cover, and some NB Dappis for back up as well as two snappis. I will either order another NB Prowraps cover or another small Prowraps cover depending on which one looks like it will work best for the tiny baby stage. My babies have weighed anywhere from 6.5 to 7.10 at birth so I may need the little bitty covers. I bought 10 preemie prefolds and 10 infant prefolds from cotton babies. I am an every-day-laundry lady so I think they will last us just fine. If not, I will order more:).

Okay, that's it for today except for one kind of funny thing that Lyra said this morning.

We were talking about the baby and she said "only two girls in this family - and HUNdreds of boys". Then she asked me if we were going to adopt another girl sometime and I said "I hope so". I just thought her dramatic exaggeration was funny. She came up with "hundreds of boys" on her own. She is getting to be quite an expressive little talker.

For coffee drinkers

2009-05-23T13:10:00.004-05:00

My sister Sandi, who was visiting a couple of days ago, put me on to this and I am so, so, so happy!

Instead of putting sugar in my morning coffee, I am substituting raw wildflower honey. I had quit drinking coffee in the morning because it made me so tired after the initial pep-up but this little idea has completely nullified the post-coffee crash. Besides, it tastes so fantastic that even my picky coffee drinker husband and my kids like it. I just steam some whole milk and add that to the cup after I stir in the honey.

I just thought I would share the wealth in case anyone was looking for a way to have one cup of coffee in the morning without feeling like you need another one to help you recover from the effects of the first cup.

Thanks, Sandi! SMOOOOOK!

For posterity's sake

2009-05-21T21:27:00.004-05:00

A week or so ago, I started a post just sort of laying out all the crazy happenings of late - a sort of when-it-rains-it-pours type of post - but I decided that it sounded whiny so I just deleted it because 1) I don't feel whiny and 2) I honestly have nothing to complain about when it comes down to it.

However, I figured I should go ahead and post some of the craziness since it's part of life right now.

In the last month or two, on top of our normal expenditures, we have had to replace two tires on the truck, one on the camper (it had to be special ordered for next day delivery), do some rather costly repairs on the van, pay the vehicle insurance, pay the OB, pay extra on top of our normal fees for repairs to the neighborhood pool, buy home school curriculum, fix the upstairs AC unit (it quit on us) and next month, we have to pay the hospital for Baby's delivery. Some of these expenses were expected, some were not. Considering that we are a normal single income family, this could have been devastating to our debt free (except for the house) status. It's odd how the extra expenditures all sort of piled up on each other. Landon said "I am so thankful that God provided us with an emergency account". Not to say that God just created an emergency account for us supernaturally out of thin air, but that He enabled us to be able to put some money away for situations like this. We ARE thankful!:) And I am thankful for a husband who plans ahead for the unexpected. He is amazing.

Besides the large expenditures that all came at the same time, we have the recent stomach bug (which is still working it's way around), poison ivy on a 4 year old, the end of school (which means that our house has once again become the gathering place for a BUNCH of children) and a change in the gaming, TV and computer usage policy at our house (which means that the kids are adjusting to less entertainment), as well as the normal everyday bumps and bruises, sibling altercations, and running of the household. All of this right at the end of my pregnancy when I am at the waddle/sit down and rest/waddle/take a nap/waddle up stairs/get winded/waddle to the ladies room every thirty minutes... part of my pregnancy. Oddly enough I have not felt frustrated or overwhelmed. I am pretty much entirely joyful and at peace, even more so than normal. To prove it, my blood pressure is still 110/66:):):). I guess this just illustrates that verse that says "His power is made perfect in weakness". So I am thankful that God also provides us with emergency accounts of energy and patience for when we really need it. He is amazing. I am also thankful for a renewed desire to pray for those who really ARE in rough situations. I can't even think about our measly "trials" without being reminded of the persecuted church in other countries or even those in this country who are dealing with true difficulties.

Anyhoo, this is for posterity's sake not a cry for sympathy. We are all more than blessed over here. I have NOTHING to complain about at all. This is just a crazy phase of life:).

Baby Update - 5 weeks to go

2009-05-18T21:20:00.002-05:00

I guess I will be posting a quick baby update more often as I am now on weekly visits to the OB.

At my appointment this morning, I measured 35.5 weeks -a little larger than my actual 34 weeks and 5 days should have me measuring. I'm one cm dilated. Baby's heartbeat is nice and strong and she is still in the right position. Our Dr. doesn't think she'll turn over again.

All good news:).

The not-so-relaxing camping trip

2009-05-16T22:09:00.007-05:00

Well, I don't know what to say about our most recent camping trip to Joe Wheeler state park in Northern Alabama except that it started out with a bang and kept us on our toes the entire time. It won't go down as our most relaxing camping trip ever, that's for sure.

We got a late start and were pulling into Publix to buy ice for the coolers when we blew a tire on the camper. Thank GOD we were where we were when it happened. We were able to pull over immediately and Landon and Noah pulled out the spare while I took the kids right next door to Subway for lunch. Then Micah took over for Noah as Landon's lovely assistant while Noah ate lunch.

We got back on the road and reached the campground without further incidence. Set up was quick. We said "we're experts now". But pride cometh before the fall so of course we did an entirely novice camper thing and left the chairs around the fire pit when we went to bed. It poured that night and the chairs weren't dry until the following evening. We also had a visit from several racoons, who knocked things over, climbed all over the back of our truck (the food was locked in under the bed cover) and had Landon out of the camper several times running them off.

The next day, we put the wet chairs under cover and went to look around the park. Spent some time on the playground in the drizzle while Landon tried to spin the kids off of one of those fun merry-go-rounds. Everyone was wet and dirty, but it sure was funny to watch. The kids went fishing and saw a beaver.

Later, the sun came out for an hour or so and we went to the pool.

Wednesday night, it didn't rain, but Noah and Solomon started throwing up within a half hour of each other. They managed to throw up on every single cover on both bed and on the mattress of one. I hauled everything outside, moved all of the non-sick children into our bed and cleaned up the mattress. At 6:30, Micah and Silas had already taken off to go fishing, Landon was making a fire and I was making breakfast. By 7:30, I was on my way to the laundromat in town to wash bedding. I had to find a place with a large capacity washer so the campground laundry wouldn't work. I got the laundry done by 11:00 and headed back to camp where I found Noah still sleeping and Solomon running around in full form.

It rained some more so we played Dutch Blitz. That is such a fun game! Only four people can play at a time, but our little kids like to watch and yell out "BLUE 3, DAD!" or "RED 9 MOM" when they see a play we are missing. Even Lyra does it.

Thursday night, Solomon had a relapse but I was ready for it this time so he didn't throw up on any of the covers, just a towel. We also made another novice camper mistake and left our garbage bag out. I had moved it from its normal spot to cut down on the sudden plague of flies that hit us after the rain so we overlooked it during the nightly camp clean-up and forgot to put it in the back of the truck before bed. During one of my midnight runs to the potty, I noticed that the 'coons (I thought) had gotten into the bag and strewn garbage everywhere. I told Landon when I got back to the camper and he got up, grabbed his flashlight and a walking stick and went out to confront the 'coons over their dastardly deed. The "'coons" ended up being one very little skunk with a HUGE fluffy tail that made him look twice his size. When Landon banged the stick on the ground to chase the little guy away, the little guy charged the big 215 lb man, who RAN back to the camper. We were laughing our heads off in the middle of the night, watching this little skunk meander around our campsite and arguing over which one of us should step outside to get the camera. Just as I was about to wake the kids so they could see him, he split so all they got was the story the next morning.

Friday, Landon took the older three to the Space Center in Huntsville. We had all planned to go but then decided that I would stay back at camp with the two littles since pregnant women can't ride anything fun anyway and Solomon was still puny and needed to rest. The boys loved the Museum and the littles and I had a lot of fun playing cards and hanging out. We had a couple of downpours but I was able to go to the potty between cloudbursts so we were fine.

I lost two pounds while we were gone. I told Landon it must have been all that running back and forth to the bath house for 8-month-pregnant-lady potty breaks.

After Landon and the boys got back that afternoon, we made the decision to cut and run before the storms scheduled to hit on Saturday had us packing up in the rain. I took the kids to the pool for one last swim (cut short by lightning and thunder) while Landon and Noah started packing up the camp. We came back to help pack up but Noah was feeling really bad by this time so he spent a lot of time in the bath house. I sent Silas to check on him once and when he came out of the bath house, he yelled across the campground, "MOM! NOAH'S FINE! HE'S JUST FLUSHING OUT HIS INTESTINES!". So much for privacy.

Anyway, we made home by 9:30 or so without further incidence and unloaded the back of the truck (it was raining again) the pillows and the toothbrushes. Everything else we did today. Roly Poly's were falling out of the dirty laundry this morning and crawling all over the laundry room floor. I had to call Solomon in to catch them all and take them outside.

Now I'm off to bed. Today was a full day so I still haven't returned e-mails or many calls. Maybe tomorrow:).

2009-05-16T21:28:00.019-05:00

A picture of our camper tire. It didn't leak or fizzle, it literally blew. Fortunately, we were in Publix parking lot, going 5mph at the time (getting ice for the coolers). Even at that speed, it jerked the truck around. We were SO thankful that we weren't doing 70mph on the interstate when it happened.

Lyra waits for Dad and the older boys to finish changing the tire.

Micah and Dad putting on the spare.

Our first morning at the campground, the three oldest boys got up really early and went fishing down at the lake.

We put the kids on dish duty. Micah did the pre-rinse, Noah washed, Lyra and Solomon rinsed and Silas dried.

Here they are showing me how they feel about washing dishes.

We camped at a resort park. This was the lodge pool. As you can see, one of the advantages of being a home school family is that you can go places during the week while everyone else is in school. We often have places pretty much to ourselves.

This was a little water park next to the pool.

It was rather chilly so the kids spent some of their time stretched out on the warm stones of the pool deck. Solomon and Lyra (with a little boy they met) are the ones lying down. I don't know what Micah and Silas were doing...

The pool was set right on the lake with the park's marina. Landon enjoyed looking at the boats and dreaming of the day when he gets his:):):). (He wants a Norhavn so we need to win the lottery)

On Thursday morning, Micah and Silas took off for the lake

while Noah and Solomon were in sick bay. I put them both on one side of the camper and opened up all the flaps in and effort to let the germs out.

On Friday, Noah seemed to be better (he wasn't really) so Landon took the three older boys to the Space Center in Huntsville while Solomon (still sick), Lyra and I stayed back at camp and took it easy. We played UNO, took a short walk down to the campground store to look around and took really long, much needed naps. In this picture, Noah is crashing, I mean LANDING, the space shuttle in a flight simulator.

Silas (blue), Noah (black) and Micah (red) on the climbing wall at the Mars Mission attraction.

After the guys got back from the Space Center, we decided to pack up and head home before the next wave of rain hit us. It was a VERY sloppy pack-up job which we paid for today, but now everything is back in order. This pic is one I took of the goof-balls in the back seat. They were pretty sleepy, but still full of fun.

Whew!

2009-05-15T22:34:00.003-05:00

Hi All, if you are waiting on a response to an e-mail or phone call from us, please indulge us and wait a little while longer:). We just returned from a camping trip that COULD be termed, ummmmm, slightly disastrous if we chose to call it that - but we'll stick with adventurous:?

Sick, puking kiddos and lots of rain, camp raiding wildlife (including a skunk that chased Landon)not to mention a camper tire blowout, etc. We did manage, however, to have some fun and I'll post some pics soon but I have to get everyone healthy first and we have to clean up the camper, do LOTS and LOTS of wet, dirty (some pukey) laundry, go through the food, etc. We just packed everything up very sloppily and high-tailed it home tonight in order to miss the storm that we would have been packing up in tomorrow.

Psalm 119:33-40

2009-05-11T21:50:00.007-05:00

Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees;
then I will keep them to the end.

Give me understanding,
and I will keep you law and obey it with all my heart.

Direct me in the path of your commands,
for there I find delight.

Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain.

Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
renew my life according to your word.

Fulfill you promise to your servant,
so that you may be feared.

Take away the disgrace I dread,
for your laws are good.

How I long for your precepts!
Renew my life in your righteousness.

Chuckle, chuckle

2009-05-11T21:32:00.007-05:00

Apparently, this was posted in a gun shop in Texas. If you laughed, or even chuckled, you have to fess up. I am. If you don't get it, don't worry about it.

Baby Blessings

2009-05-07T22:43:00.002-05:00

The blessings continue to roll in as we finish up the preparations for Karys. Yes, her name is Karys Eirene (pronounced Air-een). Karys means "grace" and Eirene means "peace", so her name means "Grace and Peace", which, of course, reminds me of Paul's greeting to the church in most of his epistles. A quick note on how she got this name just for posterity's sake and then I will jump back on those blessings that are rolling in.

When we first found out that we were going to be having a big surprise (ie, a newborn baby, because we THOUGHT our next three children were going to come via the other avenue and would be a bit older) Lyra told me "Mommy, you have a baby girl in your tummy. Her name is Karys". Then my mom, who was having her devotions one day, came across a note in a commentary or something. It used the Greek word "Eirene" (not sure how it was spelled) and she mentioned it to me as a possible name for the baby if it turned out to be a girl. We loved it and are using it as her middle name.

Okay, back to the blessings.

Lyra and I went through Karys's clothes this evening. Us girls have been collecting a little here and a little there from that wonderful thrift store we frequent. Yes, I am dressing my baby almost entirely from the thrift store. I wasn't always this way.....When Noah was born, I never wanted him wearing anything second hand. Everything was brand new and his stroller matched my lipstick (that last part was a joke, but only barely). With this baby, I have maybe 3 or 4 new things and they all came off the bargain rack at Wal-Mart or Target. The rest of it came directly from the thrift store. I have learned that the first time a baby wears something, it becomes second hand so why bother paying $12 for something you can get for $2.

Anyway, for her first 3 months, we have collected 3 hats, 8 pairs of socks, 6 bibs, 10 sleepers, 11 cutesie outfits for going places, 6 onesies and 5 pairs of little cotton pants to go over the onesies.
We have also collected 2 extra crib sheets, a bumper pad, a crib skirt and a fleece blanket, which we won't need until the fall. Most of it came from the thrift store. All of this cost me around $30 and it's all in PERFECT condition. No stains, no rips, no buttons falling off. I do need to add ties to the bumper pad, but at .75, who's complaining.

In addition to the layette, we needed everything but a stroller and a crib. I still had Lyra's stroller and the crib that all 5 of my other children have slept in as babies. I found a battery operated swing (thrift store) for $20, an infant car seat with base (consignment) for $23, my neighbor gave me her children's old high chair and the dresser she was moving out of her son's room to make room for new furniture, my mom (Nanny) is bringing us a cradle that will work perfectly for sleeping baby in our bedroom for the first few months, and I found a more economical way to cloth diaper the baby. To make things even MORE of a blessing in the diaper department, Landon's mom (Gramma) sent a big ole check in the mail to help out with whatever we needed to buy so that will take care of most of the of diaper covers and diapers:). YAY! I will use the 4 BG AIO's that I already have for when Daddy needs to diaper the baby.

My baby needs list is almost all crossed off except for a sling, a special mattress cover to keep the plastic fumes from the crib mattress away from the baby, and a nursing cover!:) I have seen this great nursing cover called a Hooter Hider. I MUST have one, despite the hilarious name, because I have never had a four month old that doesn't find it thrilling to yank the blanket off my shoulder in public, right as he decides to unlatch and turn around for a look at the scenery. Nursing moms, check this thing out. I know 4 moms who use them in church all the time and they are great.

So once I take care of my last few items and order my diapers, we'll be ready to do laundry and pack the little dresser drawers with baby things. What fun:).

Worth reading

2009-05-07T16:14:00.002-05:00

Terry has an excellent post up on loving yourself. And I do mean EXCELLENT!

Pictures

2009-05-04T21:37:00.000-05:00

Silas at his birthday party. He wanted a lemon cake with lemon glaze so that's what he got. Instead of a big friends party, we do a family dinner where the birthday kid chooses the menu. Then we take the birthday kid shopping for a present OR we give them all the money we would have spent on a big party and a present. It's their choice. Silas spent ALL of his money on a unicycle and a huge Lego Star Wars Tank.

Blowing out the candles. I can't believe he's EIGHT!

Why Silas decided to make that face, I have no idea. He has never been exposed to KISS. As for the extra children (in case you noticed, I sometimes don't) it just so happened that Silas's across-the-street friend was in the yard when we called them in for cake so we invited him in too. And Noah and Micah had a friend over so those are the extra children in the picture.

2009-05-04T21:28:00.000-05:00

We got a Huggies sample in the mail today so big Sis used it to practice diapering a baby.

I showed her how to pick the baby up after putting the diaper on. "Hold her head like this" and she did a perfect Mommy imitation. I know I'm probably a little biased, but I think she is just the cutest child. She is so sparkly.

Putting in the garden. This was taken several weeks ago. We now have lots of sprouts.

On the morning of his birthday (before we left for church), Silas told me that he needed a real piggy bank. After church, our pastors wife came up and asked me and another mom if we wanted to do any ceramics because she had just gotten a whole pile from a lady who wanted to get rid of hers. I asked if she had any piggy banks and, lo and behold, she had about 6. She gave me one, which I promptly gave to Silas. He and Lyra painted it that afternoon and then we sprayed it with clear coat. It turned out really cute and Silas got his piggy bank.

Good News!:)

2009-05-04T12:41:00.003-05:00

Baby appears to be in the proper head down position as of this morning! YAY! Everything looks good. At 33 weeks, my blood pressure is "perfect", I've gained 24 lbs, baby is measuring exactly where she should be, no swelling, a few minor contractions yesterday (nothing to worry about) and we're scheduled for our next exam in two weeks.

So, so far, so good. I am quite thankful for the baby flippage. I hope she sticks her landing and doesn't do anymore tumbling before delivery.

Home again

2009-05-02T20:53:00.006-05:00

Well, I'm back and the kids survived a weekend with Dad. They ate corn dogs and pop tarts for dinner instead of the lasagna I left in the freezer, Lyra never had her hair brushed and they all stayed up until 11:00 last night, but hey, they had fun!:)

I have been going to the GHEA conference for 7 or 8 years now and this particular conference was by far the most helpful in terms of how-to advice for a particular area of our school, namely writing. WOW! Those of you who recommended Andrew Pudewa were absolutely right. I was riveted to every word he said and most of the time I was laughing as well. It was almost like he has been spying on us. Everything he said about boys (and even little girls), I could personally relate to which made it all even funnier. I bought his teacher course and can't wait to go through it. I skimped on other non-necessary items so that I could buy it but I think it will pay off. Just the few exercises he did with us during the seminars made so much sense that I was convinced in about 30 minutes. I majored in English in college and his methods are quite different than what I am familiar with, but I have a distinct feeling that they are far superior. We'll have to wait and see...

Besides the writing part of school, he also discussed teaching boys in general. I found this lecture even more fascinating than the how-to lectures because it explained so much about so many things I have been baffled by, like why Solomon gets wigglier and wigglier the worse he does at reading. Apparently, boys and girls handle stress completely differently in their physiological make-up. He explained all this, and since I could testify of the truth of it from 11 years of raising boys, I sat there with my jaw on my chest, nodding my head and having an epiphany every few minutes. And then there were the differences in vision, hearing, psychology, physiology and, of all things, optimal room temperature for learning. I know it sounds weird, but when you observe it in your own life and then hear someone explain it all, it's like a light bulb going on. It's nice to know that all that energy is actually normal and that it doesn't necessarily need to be reigned in to have a good school experience, just managed properly:).

I also attended a lecture on making the Bible the foundation of your children's education and a lecture on Charlotte Mason's methods . Both were excellent. I usually walk out of at least one lecture at a home school conference, not for rudeness sake, but just because I realize early on that it is not going to help me out any - and there is curriculum shopping that HAS to fit into the schedule (this takes TIIIMEEE). Every lecture has to be worth the time it takes me out of the vendor hall. I have to say that I all 5 lectures I attended this year were worth it.

As for curriculum choices, I decided to go ahead and start Lyra on the Math-U-See Primer. I have never started a child this early but she is very interested in keeping up with the big kids so I figured I'd give it a shot, and she was SOOO excited to get a book just like her brothers. She gasped and said "I LOVE red!" (the color of the primer).

For spelling, we are going to use the Charlotte Mason approach of prepared dictation and Andrew Pudewa's approach for self editing. I also bought the needed Math-U-See supplies for the year, some more "Your Story Hour" CD's, the book "Do Hard Things, A Teenage Rebellion Against Low Expectations" by Alex and Brett Harris, an entire package of blank laminated maps for geography, some large wall maps which I would like my wonderful man to frame for me (smiles her sweetest) because we do school in the dining room and I don't want to just tack them up on the wall so informally, a guitar course (for the older boys), two CD's containing 160 minutes of Mozart, Beethoven, Hayden and Schubert and other stuff I am probably forgetting. I still need to order a few things, but we're pretty much set for next year.

I still haven't quite made up my mind exactly what I am going to do about the problem of arguing, teasing and tattling between small children but I will post about it when I do since some of you are having the same little problem. Right now, I am just using the ole tried and true. A swat and/or the corner, consistently, for all involved. It seems to be working so that may be all I NEED to do. If I add anything else to the mix, I'll post about it. And if those of you who are dealing with the same thing find any brilliant solutions, feel free to tell me about them. I am all ears.

My Canadian

2009-04-30T20:50:00.006-05:00

For all of you who have been wondering, Landon finally got his US citizenship yesterday! YAY!!! What should have been a rather simple process (if anything USCIS can be simple) turned into a bit of a run-around because of questions about what was required of him on the student visa he entered the country with nearly 20 years ago. We had a few moments of worry as to whether or not we were going to have to reapply, which would have included re-paying the rather large application fee. As it turns out, he did everything right and just had to have papers from Selective Services to prove it. That took a while, and he had to apply for an extension while we waited on them, but he finally took the citizenship oath yesterday. He still retains his Canadian citizenship as well, in case you are wondering.

Speaking of being married to a Canadian, we're watching the Stanley Cup playoffs over here. Even though hockey isn't even close to being my thing, I won't complain because living in the South doesn't give a poor Canadian boy many opportunities to pretend that it's "hockey night in Canada". He has two teams left in the mix, Vancouver (he's from Vancouver Island) and Carolina (one of his old school friends is the captain) so he's still interested. Every once in a while I sit and watch with him, although I haven't a clue what is going on.

Landon's sense of humor is one of the many fun things about being married to him. And he uses Canada as an excuse for any blunder or joke if he can get away with it. If he ever misspells and anyone corrects him, he always says, very seriously "that's the way we spell it in Canada". No one ever knows whether to take him seriously or not but apparently he tried to pull this one yesterday on one of his management team who told him that he needed to use spell check on his e-mails to the employees. He told her "that's how we spell it in Canada". She looked at him sideways for a second and then told him he was "full of crap". LOL!:):):)

And one more funny that has nothing to do with being a Canadian and everything to do with being a dad: I was giving Landon the "mom's gonna be gone" run down during dinner. You know "there is a lasagna in the freezer for dinner tomorrow night. Heat it up according to the instructions on the package. The thrift store truck will be here tomorrow to pick up the yard sale leftovers." That kind of thing. When I got to "make sure you brush Lyra's hair at least once while I'm gone" he looked at me like I had just asked him to get her ready for the prom by himself or something. He said, "I'll just put a hat on her". So I'll probably come home to a very tangly, albeit happy, little girl. The other day while having to stand still while I brushed and pony-tailed her hair, she heaved a big sigh and said "I wish I was a boy".

Well, I'm off the the Georgia HS conference tomorrow. If you're there and you see a brown haired pregnant woman waddling around holding her belly and grimacing with that end of pregnancy look on her face, it might be me so say "hi".

Odd's n ends

2009-04-29T14:52:00.003-05:00

~ We made about $200 getting rid of our clutter. The thrift store truck will be in our neighborhood on Friday so they are picking up the leftovers. I am so glad to have it OUT of my house.

~ I am now doing a major declutter of the rest of the house. Everything that I don't want is going out to the curb with the yard sale leftovers. There are actually empty shelves in my linen closets. It feels FABulous:).

~ I keep visiting the thrift store with my "baby needs" list. Today I scored two perfect cotton crib sheets, one in lavender and one in white, for 1.48 each. Now I have three (the other one is pink) and that's all I need. One more item off the list.

~ Our garden is sprouting!!!:) We've got beans, okra, radishes, squash and cucumber already showing their little green leaves. Oh! And we can't forget Silas's pumpkin. It sprouted weeks ago because he planted it right after we bought the seeds. We are waiting on the herbs, carrots and several varieties of peppers to show up. The tomatoes are going in buckets to save room and I am buying them as plants this year instead of starting from seed.

~ I leave for the home school conference in two days. I am quite excited and making lists of things I don't want to come home without.

~ This weekend, I am also going to spend some time planning a strategy to stop arguing, fighting, teasing and tattling between certain small persons, who will remain unnamed. I will only say that ear piercing screaming and boyish laughter usually accompanies these episodes. Another thing that accompanies these episodes is a rise in Mom's blood pressure. Something has to give (and it won't be me, I can guarantee you).

~ I can't tell what position Baby is in anymore. It feels like she is changing positions just about daily. I hope she ends up in the right one.

~ The winter clothes are going into totes as I write this. I am folding them and putting them away straight from the dryer. Summer is definitely here. The kids are dying for the pool to open.

Okay, gotta run. The kid's rest time is over and so is my free moment.

A post about the six youngun's

2009-04-24T19:10:00.005-05:00

Every couple of weeks or so, I like to do an update post on the kiddos for all the relatives so here's the one for this month:).

Noah continues to be a joy and a delight. I don't know if "Eleven" hasn't hit yet or if he is just a really good eleven year old, but he's really a lot of fun to be around. I thoroughly enjoy him. He is on the last chapter of his 6th grade math book and should have that finished by Tuesday. He will then start pre-algebra. Math is easy for this child. We are still working on developing a love for reading. Landon and I think it strange that two people who love to read so much could have a child who doesn't. We seem to have found a solution to the problem though. The problem was mom's book choices and the solution is letting Noah go to the library to pick out his own books. Normally, we drop him off at piano lessons and run to the library to check out our books. I had been checking out "Hardy Boys" and things like that for him to read. When he picked out his own book two weeks ago, it was a historical novel called "The Battle of Midway" written as a story by a man who actually fought in it. Lesson learned: let kids pick out their own books (within reason, of course).

Micah is the worlds best big brother -when he wants to be, which is 90% of the time. Last night, I was outside in the dark doing the finishing preparations for our yard sale and Noah, Micah and Lyra were outside helping me. After they were done, I was concentrating on pricing, Noah went inside and Micah and Lyra disappeared. I stepped outside of the garage to see what they were up to and saw them lying on their backs in a yard across the street, looking at the stars. Lyra had her head on Micah's shoulder and he had an arm wrapped around her shoulder. I couldn't hear what he was saying, but he was pointing at the sky and gesturing so I'm guessing the he was pointing out constellations and planets to his little sister. I just stood there and watched them for a few minutes, grinning. That kind of thing is good for a mother's soul. As for school, he is finishing up 4th grade math and should be done by the middle of May. He is starting fractions and loving it. I hope he still enjoys it next year when he has to learn to add, subtract, multiply and divide them.

Silas, as always, is our hilarious, creative child. He keeps us entertained with his imagination and some of his grumpy creative writing this year (although it is NOT up to grade level because he hates it and therefore does the least amount of it possible) has had me in stitches with tears running down my face. I was digging through his notebook, reading selections to Landon one night and we were both cracking up at some of the things he had written. He is also our loves-to-read child. On a whim, I checked a few "Magic Treehouse" books out for him and he is blazing through those things. He picked up a book out of the yard sale stash today and just sat down and read it to me without my even asking. Normally, getting my boys to read is like asking them to clean the toilet. They'll do it, but they won't like it. Silas is not like that. He actually reads for fun. Wonders never cease.

Solomon is still himself -which is fun, funny and full-of-it, to the nth degree. For those of you who know him personally, you will not be surprised that he still does not like to wear unnecessary clothing. Another mom stopped by our yard sale today and asked if we were from "up north". She said that she and her husband, driving by our house frequently, had surmised that we had come from a colder climate because every time they saw Solomon outside, even in the dead of winter, he wasn't wearing shoes. And most of the time, he didn't have a shirt on either. I sighed and said "yes, I know. He does OWN shoes and shirts, he would just rather not wear them." He has been that way since he was old enough to strip his clothes and diaper off, and believe me, he did - and in the dead of winter.....I have stories...... As for school, we are still working on reading. I am having him spell everything on a magnadoodle as he learns to read it. He is a kinesthetic learner so he learns best by using his body. Spelling for him is easier than reading. I am trying to combine the two so that reading makes more sense for him. Math, on the other hand, is a breeze for this child. He starts first grade math in a week and a half (after I pick his book up at the HS conference) and I would be willing to bet that he finishes it very quickly.

Lyra is in love with baby. She can't wait to kiss her little sister so she takes it out on my belly. She is constantly kissing it. She is also surprising me with random girliness lately. Up till now, she has pretty much been all tom-boy but recently she has been clomping around in sparkly dress-up shoes, telling me that she wants braids instead of the usual back ponytail she gets every day and looking at pretty dresses in the store. This is not to imply AT ALL that she has quit riding her bike like a maniac, toting toy guns or climbing trees. She still does all that too, she just throws a pair of purple sparkly shoes into the mix. She is also talking better and better every day. We are working on proper word usage right now. She confuses "her" and "she" and "him" and "he"...things like that. She also skips right over words like "the" when it is used in the middle of a sentence. She'll just hit the major words and leave out the ones that aren't imperative to understanding so we're working on that too. And she still has trouble with "r"'s, but I think that's normal for a child her age. As for school, she is REALLY interested in writing. She writes letters to her detsky-dom/camping buddies Olena Warchol and Angelina White and then she puts them in the mailbox. Usually, the letters consist of a picture that she colors and puts in an envelope and then she wants to write OLENA or ANGELINA on the envelope before she "mails" it. I have to write their names on a magnadoodle for her and then she copies the letters off onto the envelope. She writes in all caps for the most part, but I'm just glad that she's interested. Girls are certainly different than boys! Maybe she'll take up creative writing without a fight:).

Baby seems to be doing great! I had a check-up on Monday and we're measuring on the small side of normal, which IS normal for me. She still appears to be in a breech position but the doc said that I am a great candidate for a version because I have had so many children and I'm skinny (snort). I don't FEEL skinny, but it certainly was a nice thing to tell a woman who is 7 months pregnant. Apparently, my uterus is nice and loose and it's easy to feel the baby through my stomach. If she hasn't turned by 35-36 weeks, we'll talk about doing a version. Have any of you ever had that done?

Well, that's about it. I'm having fun getting rid of my garage clutter and making some money to pay for those diapers to boot:).

Been thinkin'

2009-04-22T14:17:00.010-05:00

I never get around to posting random thoughts on days when I could have a nice title including rhymes or alliteration. Terry does "Monday Musings", which I like, and I thought about doing "Thoughts for Thursday" if it were Thursday, but it's Wednesday and all I can think of is the ole' standby "Wordless Wednesday". However, I've not been wordless since I less than a year old, according to my mother, and posting thoughts requires words, so that won't work for me.

Every time I think about putting up a post like this, I talk myself out of it because of the flak I'm sure I'll catch. I just don't have time for flak folks, so please keep your thoughts to yourself if you can't think of something constructive to say - and constructive criticism is fine, just as long as it is constructive. I won't be defending anything I say here.

So, without further ado, here are a few things that have been on my mind lately.

There are always two sides to every story. I know I've been boring you to tears with all my talk about history lately, but the more I study it in relation to just about everything, I realize that the historian plays a huge part in how history is interpreted. It seems to me that there must not be very many unbiased and well read/educated historians out there as most accounts don't seem to be balanced. So much gets glossed over. Those who do a LOT of reading from the period being studied, and who are not trying to prove any point one way or the other, seem to have the most straightforward renderings of what actually happened in the past.

I have seen history used to support one side or another in a debate over biblical issues as well as constitutional and governmental issues. Let me just throw this out there and leave it, in relation to the former. The Bible can stand on it's own. You don't need to know about every civilization and culture represented in it's pages to be able to interpret it. It crosses time and culture. Now, that is not to say that understanding a little history might not throw new light on a subject, but if "historical knowledge" changes the interpretation of a biblical passage drastically, it is my opinion that we need to be very wary. 'Nough said.

As for history in relation to government and the Constitution, I have found that it is good to read on all sides of the story before forming my opinions. All this reading gives you a big ole' dose of reality and a little sympathy for those who acted unconstitutionally. They honestly just thought that they were doing what needed to be done and that the Constitution needed take a back seat for a little while. The problem with this approach to both the Bible and the Constitution is that personal opinions take preference over the written law, if you will. Absolutes become relative. That seems dangerous to me, especially in reference to the Bible which really DOES contain absolutes, whether you like it or not. "There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death" (Proverbs). It is dangerous in reference to the Constitution as well because the law of the land has become subject to the whims of those in authority. The 10th Amendment comes to mind... but our leaders somehow have the idea that this particular amendment is back-burner material in light of the current crisis. Frustrating, yes, but in all honesty you can see it all throughout American History.

There is a verse in 1 Peter 3 that mentions the OT character, Sarah, wife of Abraham. You can read her story in Genesis 11-23. This passage in Peter talks about wives being submissive to their husbands (submission implies willingly putting yourself under the authority of another person), having inner beauty and a gentle and quiet spirit. It also says that Sarah "obeyed Abraham and called him her master. you are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear" (vs. 6). Yes, I know... that is NOT EVEN CLOSE to being palatable for the 21st century, but it's in the Bible so in my mind, it deserves a good pondering. I have very few problems with submission to my husband because he is such a good and loving man, but lately this passage keeps popping into my head anyway. I imagine that this is because every time I DO struggle with submission to my husband, it is out of some sort of fear. Not anything major, but it is fear none-the-less.

It might just be fear of how the kids will turn out if we let them do a certain thing or keep them from doing a certain thing, or how we won't be able to make ends meet if we invest money in this or that. It might be fear of failure on my part (not being able to meet expectations) or fear of embarrassment for looking weirder than we already do to the general populace. But it IS fear and it does NOT encourage happy submission to my husband. This is not to say that he doesn't hear my opinion on things because he does, but ultimately, the final decision is up to him and I need to be at peace with that. Just so you know, the vast majority of the time, I am:).

I've also been pondering the resilience of children and the need for good consistent discipline and training in their lives and I am so thankful that we, as parents, can't ruin them by having an off week. Child training, teaching and discipline is at the back of my mind most of the time, but lately, I've been a slacker in the consistency department so I am planning to revisit "Raising Godly Tomatoes", which you can read on-line here. I love this book. It helped to save a couple of my sons from being unbearably stubborn and argumentative, and my daughter from being a raging crazy kid -PI kids come home with all kinds of negative learned behaviors that must be trained back out of them over time. It has been a great tool for helping me to solidify my own parenting style.

Well, that's all I have time for today. The kids rest time is over and I have things to do and places to go, so until next time, that's it for "Wordy Wednesday" (I just came up with that awesome alliterative title on the spot).

If you have a thought on my thoughts, feel free to leave it in the comments:).

Cloudland Canyon Camping Trip

2009-04-20T17:26:00.003-05:00

We had a wonderful time camping. The weather was beautiful for the four days we stayed. We actually packed up and came home late Saturday night because it was supposed to start raining at 6:00 am on Sunday (packing up in the rain stinks).

We set up and relaxed on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Landon took the kids to play disc golf and then on a hike into the canyon while I cleaned up camp and took a nap and a shower. I had intended to read, but my bed is so comfy that I only got through a few pages of my book (I'm reading "The PIG to the Constitution" right now) before I konked out.

On Friday, we all hiked down into the canyon and spent the rest of the time hanging out at the campsite. The kids played, rode bikes and unicycles and Landon and I rested and relaxed.

On Saturday, we went into Chattanooga to do some touristy stuff. We rode the Incline Railway and then we walked down the street to Point Park, a Civil War site. After visiting Point Park, we drove to Chickamauga Military Park (another Civil War site) for the rest of the afternoon. It was especially neat to see these places, since we have been studying the Civil War in school.

Then we came home and packed up to head home before the rain hit.

A very nice, long weekend.

A LOT of camping pictures

2009-04-20T17:08:00.009-05:00

Daddy and Lyra are hammock buddies. The game is for Landon to dump Lyra out of the hammock. Why this is fun, I have no idea...but they both love it.

After everyone is exhausted from all the fun, there is some snuggle time.

Solomon on the playground.

Another homeschool family with more kids than we have, camped right across from us on Wednesday and Thursday. Their kids were the same ages as ours so the kids had a ball together.

Silas

Happy 10th birthday Micah! For his cake, he picked a giant, chocolate covered Rice-Krispie treat.

Lighting the candles.

2009-04-20T16:39:00.017-05:00

Micah and Silas used their birthday money to buy unicycles. Here, they get a prop-up from Dad.

Solomon muches a peice of Micah's birthday Rice Krispie treat while watching the show.

Silas is hilarious on this thing. He sings and laughs the whole time. He can't ride more than a few feet yet, but he'll get it.

Micah can ride all over the place. He picked it up pretty quickly.

Mess.

Landon took the kids for a hike on Thursday while I took a lovely, peaceful nap.

They hiked down into Cloudland Canyon, to the river.

The scenery down in there is breathtaking. We all hiked down on Friday but I forgot the camera so these pics were from Thursday.

Micah.

The fab five.

Silas.

Lyra, in her hot tub. This is the traditional camping bath for the littles. Solomon has outgrown the tub so he takes a shower with the big boys, but Lyra still fits in this little bucket. She was full of questions about how baby was going to get a bath while camping. I told her "We'll stick her in with you".

Plum tuckered out after a long day of play.

This is a really cool tree that the kids love. We picked this campsite for the tree both last year and this year.

2009-04-20T16:19:00.012-05:00

The next few pictures are of Landon playing with the kids at the campground park on Friday evening. This little contraption was sort of like a see-saw. Landon could absolutely launch Solomon on this thing by stomping on the other end. Solomon loves this sort of thing and really rode the pop to the fullest extent. The other kids would absorb the bounce so they didn't get nearly the height, but this kid is our resident dare-devil.

Silas the monkey.

Lyra looks like a little woodland fairy coming in for a landing here. This is her best stunt. She is fearless and will do this again and again as long as she can talk her Daddy into throwing her up into the air. (Don't freak out Gramma, he's never dropped her yet:):):))

Silas also likes the be tossed, but he weighs a little bit more so he doesn't go quite as high. In this picture, he is pretending to be a leaping tiger. Notice the tiger-ish facial expression.

Lyra hitches a ride from the park back to the campsite.

While Landon played at the park with the littles, Micah and Noah practiced riding unicycles.

Every time we go to Chattanooga, we stop by the Lookout Mountain Flight Park. This is where the hang gliders jump off the mountain. And no, there is no rail. The thought of hang gliding off that rock is petrifying to me.

Taking in the veiw.

2009-04-20T15:58:00.012-05:00

The Incline Railway. It's the steepest railway in the world with an incline of 72+%.

We got good seats, right at the back of the car, so we could see right up the track. Noah and Micah piled in with Landon

and the three younger kiddos piled in the seat with me.

These next few shots were taken on a canon at Point Park, site of "The Battle Above the Clouds" on Lookout Mountain.

Of course, Solomon fell off. I got a picture right as he hit the ground. (He bounced right back up).

Noah with "The Stars and Bars", one of the Confederate flags.

Solomon wanted his picture taken with a flag too.

This is the memorial tower at Chicamauga Military Park, site of the Battle of Chickamauga which was one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. You can see the kids running towards the tower if you look closely. They couldn't wait to climb it. I waddled along behind with the camera.

Landon takes in the view from the top of the tower.

It's a good thing none of my kids are afraid of heights because we were way up in the air here.

2009-04-20T15:39:00.010-05:00

On top of the memorial tower at Chickamauga Military Park.

Monkeys

Down the winding staircase.

Pretending to light the canon. They found a little stick the served nicely for a fuse.

Silas lights the canon.

These fields were strewn with memorials put up by different states in honor of the men who fought and died here. That's Landon out there reading markers.

We stopped by a field hospital where the kids found a few amputated limbs.

The Fuller gun collection. It is worth millions and millions of dollars. This museum was on park grounds and contained 335 or so ancient firearms. The oldest dated at the end of the 1500's and the newest was made in 1908. Very cool.

These last two pics are out of order because I am posting pics the hard way again and didn't realize that they would post backwards. Lyra and Daddy are hammock buddies.

Noah gets a lesson from Dad on splitting fire wood with an axe.

We're home

2009-04-20T08:23:00.002-05:00

We're back from our camping trip. I have LOTS of pictures and an account of our long, lovely weekend. I also have a routine doc's appt. this a.m., routine school, routine laundry, routine cleaning and other routine.... which means that I have no time to put anything up right now. More later:).

A few pics

2009-04-12T17:17:00.004-05:00

Those of you who know how difficult it is to get a picture where everyone is looking somewhat pleasantly in the direction of the camera will REALLY appreciate that this is the third and last shot of the day. I didn't do anything fancy with matching outfits this year. In fact, I just told them not to wear anything with holes in it. I think Solomon has a tiny hole in the knee of his jeans, but who's looking.

I took this last night. She looked so sweet there, sleeping with her little blue stuffed hippo:). I am having an awful time uploading pictures right now. I finally figured out how to bypass my camera's random choices of what to transfer to the computer and now my picture posting program thinks I am never on line so it won't let me post the normal, quick and easy way. I am going through the backdoor, which is a pain.

Loving life

2009-04-09T20:31:00.003-05:00

It is BEAUTIFUL here right now! The weather is perfect, the trees are green, flowers are blooming and the sky is blue. If we could just get rid of that pollen, things would be perfect. Several of the kids have little stuffy noses but at least it doesn't seem to slow them down any.

Landon was off work today so we took the day off of regular school as well. Instead, he put the kids to work hauling logs up from the bottom of the back yard. We had a few trees that were leaning precariously towards the trampoline so Landon took them down and cut them up for camping firewood. He payed the children 10 cents for every log they hauled up and stacked. Noah made $6, Micah made $5.40, Silas and Solomon (who didn't really keep up with how many logs they hauled) both made $2.50 and Lyra made $1. Then, to make things even better, he took them all down to the corner store and bought them a soft drink of their choice. You have to understand that soft drinks are a rare thing around here so this was a real treat. And to get the day off of academics and get paid to work with dad?....it just couldn't get any better:):):).

While the dad and kids took care of the downed trees in the back yard, I cleaned house. For the last few days, I've been feeling like the house was getting away from me - if ya know what I mean. I walked into my closet this morning and things were looking a little too disorganized for my comfort level so I took about 5 minutes and straightened up while I was getting dressed. Then the thought hit me that I could do the same thing everywhere else so I grabbed a cleaning caddy and packed up with a roll of paper towels, a spray bottle of glass cleaner, a magic eraser, a dust cloth, and an egg timer. Then I cleaned and straightened each room for 5 minutes or so. After that, I ran the vacuum cleaner around and now things look much better. Ahh:).

Landon also put the finishing touches on my square foot garden this afternoon. He put in the grids, which means that I can plant any time I am ready. We are going camping next week so I am not sure if I want to plant before or after we get back. I need to find out how much watering I will have to do. It may be best to wait until we get back.

The next month and a half are going to be quite busy for us. We have two camping trips planned and I am going to the Georgia home school conference in early May. This is one of my very favorite weekends of the year. You couldn't put me in a place I love more than a room full of books and school supplies. AND Andrew Pudewa is going to be speaking at the conference this year! I remember that several of you recommended him when I requested any help with getting my boys to write something besides "blah blah blah blah bla-blah blah bla-blah." to the tune of the Darth Vadar theme song. (That was Silas, in case you are wondering).

Then, of course, baby is due in less than 11 weeks and I still have plenty to do to get ready for her arrival. I need to order those pricey poop-catchers and get a porta-crib and car seat. I also want to get myself one of those cool slings for wearing baby. I have used a snugly before, but I think I'm in the mood to try a sling this time around. Then tonight at dinner, Landon reminded me that we still need to procure a baby back-pack for hiking. I may hit some consignment shops to see if I can find some of this stuff for less than full price.

I hope you are all enjoying some spring weather by now! I know you Canadians are ready for it!

2009-04-05T19:20:00.002-05:00

If you want to see a few good pictures of the exact same things we saw up close and personal, you can look here . The ground scenery changed, of course, but these were the same aeronautical acrobatics we saw. If you ever get a chance to see the Blue Angels, take it.

At the air show

2009-04-05T19:14:00.000-05:00

I'm sure I could have gotten some better shots of these guys if 1. Landon hadn't decided that we needed to be heading towards the gate while we were watching, 2. I had a better camera (have I mentioned that I can't stand my camera?) 3. I wasn't trying to coral children and take pictures at the same time. I finally just gave up on taking pictures and enjoyed the show. At least you can see what a beautiful day it was for an airshow.

The kids (minus Noah who was with his friend) prepare to board a cargo plane.

Micah chats with the pilot of a gross hawk (?) about the cockpit. They let the kids climb right up there, one at a time, and take a peek. Silas, who makes friends everywhere he goes, launched right into a chatty, all-be-it rather one sided, conversation about different military aircraft with this nice man.

Solomon with his first little tooth gap.

The Blue Angels

2009-04-04T20:36:00.003-05:00

So much for planting the garden today.

At about 9:30 am, while we were all having a leisurely Saturday morning, the neighbor boy came over to ask Noah to go with him to see the Blue Angels in Tuscaloosa. I said "the Blue Angels are in Tuscaloosa?". He said "yes" so we all got dressed, threw some snacks into a bag, stopped by Publix to pick up bottled water and went to the air show.

It was the perfect day for an airshow and we all enjoyed it thoroughly, that is until we had to hike back to our car after the show was over. We parked about 4 or 5 miles away from the airport and rode a shuttle in, but the shuttle system wasn't very well organized so about 50,000 people ended up walking back to their cars after the show. Fortunately, about 2 hours into our walk (carrying chairs and the bag with water and snacks) a man in a pick-up offered us a ride. There were about 15 people in the bed of his truck, but we all made friends on the way back to the cars. None of that was an exaggeration either. There were an estimated 100,000 people at the show.

It was worth it though. The Blue Angels were amazing and we saw so many other aircraft as well! My boys were pointing out the Mustangs and the Warthogs right and left. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a warthog that flew. Ya learn something new every day.

Pics as soon as my picture posting program will acknowledge that I am indeed online.

Quick update

2009-04-03T20:48:00.003-05:00

~Solomon lost his first tooth today! He is very excited since he has been waiting for this day for about 3 years now. About 20 minutes after Solomon lost his first tooth, Silas had his eighth tooth come out while he was eating lunch. So they both get a visit from the tooth fairy tonight. Solomon gets double pay because it's his first tooth (that's a $2 tooth). Pics coming soon.

~Lyra was taking all this happy tooth-loosing in without a word until she said "I WEALLY mad at my teeth!". I asked why and she informed me that it was because they weren't falling out. I told her that she would probably loose a tooth when she was about 6 years old which led to a discussion about how long it would be until she is six.

~I'm pretty sure baby is head up right now. She has been in this position for as long as I've been able to tell where she is and she usually faces the same direction and kicks me in the same places. I hope she turns over soon because she is getting long now and turning gets more painful the later baby waits. I can already feel the uncomfortable stretching when she goes horizontal so I am hoping for a tumble sometime soon. 11.5 weeks to go!

~The kids are rocking through their school right now. They know what is expected of them and they just do it. That's not to say that we don't have our mom-yells-"QUIIIEEEEETT!!!!" moments. There is a lot of noise and activity in this house (understatement of the year). The littlest two make most of it and the older ones contribute to the cacophony whenever the mood strikes them but we do just fine, all in all. Our home school is not anything like a traditional classroom. This was weird for a former public school teacher, but now I am used to it. One of the reasons why I chose to home school was because I have boys. This morning at the breakfast table, I was reading and discussing Galatians 5 with the kids when I noticed that I was pontificating to Solomon's permanently grubby feet. The rest of him was under the table where his feet should have been. Enough said.

~I finished "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War" by H.W. Crocker. I must say that I absolutely loved it. My favorite section of the book was the one that included mini-biographies of 13 of the generals from both the Union and the Confederacy. It really helped me to understand the motives behind all the fighting when I read about the beliefs and convictions of those who led the armies. There were good men on both sides and it was a tragic, probably unnecessary, war. Landon asked me what I had gotten out of the book and I said "an actual understanding of why there was a war in the first place and why those men kept fighting." A lot of it had to do with loyalty to one's home state, some fought for pride, some of it had to do with money (the Confederate states did away with tariffs on shipping which made their ports more desirable and the northern ports less so), and most of it, on the Southern side anyway, had to do with the blatant disregard of the Constitution. On the Northern side, it was the desire to keep the Union together at any cost because not keeping the Union together would be even more costly. Lincoln was even officially reprimanded by the Supreme Court for exceeding his Constitutionally allowed limits and he basically told them to leave him alone because he had "a war to fight". So much for the balance of powers. One thing that was amazing to me that none of the generals Crocker bio'ed were fighting the war because of the slavery issue, either for or against. In fact, Union general Ulysses S. Grant and his wife owned 5 slaves , four of whom were not freed until the 13th amendment passed (well after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued). Meanwhile, confederate general Robert E. Lee and his wife were working to gradually emancipate their slaves before the war ever started, preparing them and teaching them skills they would need to function in society as free men and women. That kind of threw my preconceived notions for a loop. I could probably write an entire series of posts on the period between 1770 and 1870 right now and not bore myself... but I might bore you:). I'm in a history learning marathon right now and enjoying it - for once.

~We have not planted our garden yet. It is supposed to freeze next week, so I am going to wait on everything but the really cold hardy plants. Those will go in tomorrow, Lord willing.

Well, that's it for my quick update- whichwasn'tsoquick.

Teaching children to discern (and learning it ourselves)

2009-03-28T15:22:00.009-05:00

We just received our latest issue of Answers magazine. I am only 15 pages into it but I thought this short article in "Education Spotlight" deserved a quick post.

The article is called "Learn to Discern" and it starts out talking about how educated we in this generation are. Then it says, "But what good is education without the discernment to use it? Discernment is the ability to look beyond what we see on the surface, to distinguish what is true."... Truth is NOT relative, folks.

"The first step is to develop the habit of testing everything. As Paul says, "test all things; hold fast what is good" (I Thessalonians 5:21) The word test describes an assayer at a mine. That's the person who melts down ore to see if it contains any gold. He wants to see if it's any good.

To become a good assayer, every young Christian must learn the Scriptures. That's the flame we use to test everything. There's no shortcut to discerment- it requires diligent study, week after week, year after year.

This is where we can give our kids a huge head start.

But knowing Scripture is just the beginning. The next step is to develop the ability to choose what is right and shun what is wrong. As Peter says, "Turn away from evil, and do good" (1 Peter 3:11). Making right choices is a lifelong challenge, but we need to help our children to start early, with little steps, when the consequences are minor."

I really appreciated this article. I think this sort of defines what discipleship in parenting is - diligently training our children in the Scriptures (and why they are so important) and then teaching them to apply the Scriptures to every situation, thought and idea. Their relationship with God is their own but we can encourage them in that by living out our own relationship with God in front of our kids, by talking with them about God's plan and purpose in everything, and by constantly putting the Truth of Scripture before them. Frankly, I fall down on the job every once in a while. I guess that's why I enjoy a good reminder every now and then.

What works for us in regards to home school

2009-03-26T13:57:00.003-05:00

Every year, it seems that I find another thing that REALLY works well for our family when it comes to homeschooling. Every addition to my "works really well" list makes home school more productive and easier to do.

Up to this point, I have found:

~Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers . I LOVE those things for read aloud to mom. They are especially good if your children are curious about insects and animals. They also consistently point to God as Creator.

~Math-U-See. I really like this program because it comes with a teaching DVD, where Mr. Math, Steve Demme, actually does a short lesson at the beginning of each section. I have learned so much from watching these and from working through the kid's math books with them. Very user friendly.

~A daily check list. This really helps when you are schooling many children of many ages. I depend on this list to help us keep track of who has done what and who is not finished with school. This works much better for us than scheduling subjects by time slots. The kids have more freedom to finish their work without having to wait on anyone else.

~A daily rest hour. I send the kids to their rooms for an hour and use that hour to get a few things done. During this time, Noah practices piano and then reads for a half an hour. Micah, Silas and Solomon read for 30 minutes and then have 30 minutes to play quietly. Lyra looks at books on her bed for as long as she wants too and then plays in her room. Some days, she rearranges her little furniture (doll bed and kitchen) and some days (like yesterday) she builds a Ninja Warrior obstacle course out of pillows and toys and runs it. This is true.

~Family devotions at breakfast. I always had trouble getting this into the schedule until I started doing it at breakfast. The kids and I (and Landon when he is home in the a.m.) sit down for breakfast together. Then we read a chapter from the Bible, discuss it, and go through our memory verses. This has worked GREAT for us this year. So far, we have read 14 books of the New Testament and memorized 23 passages of Scripture consisting of anything from one verse up to an entire Psalm (twice). We have used this system. It works great, even with littles.

~YWAM Heroes Series. Biographies seem to be one of the BEST ways to study history because they make history come alive for the kids. These are affordable, well written and understandable even for young ones. And they do a good job of leaving out the things that aren't appropriate for little ears while still addressing the issues, if ya know-what-I-mean.

Does anyone have anything to add? I am always looking for good suggestions. I know the same things don't work well for every family, but I have gotten a LOT of good ideas from other moms and you never know if something you suggest might be helpful to someone else, so fire away.

Reality check

2009-03-25T14:52:00.005-05:00

This morning, Lyra decided that she wanted to sing a song to the baby.

She put her mouth right on my stomach and sang, very sweetly, "I am Iron Man. Wockets and Flames shoot out my hands".

sigh.

Just so you know, we do not listen to Black Sabbath around here nor does anyone in this house know the words to the rest of that song. She picked up those lovely lyrics during the Iron Man phase, where everyone and their next door neighbor was going around singing that one line from the end of the movie.

It is rather catchy....

In other news, I started a new cleaning schedule where I gave myself certain weekly chores to do on certain days. Things like, wash sheets, mop floors, dust, etc. I figured it would help me not worry so much if I saw peanut butter smudges on the french doors because I knew that would be taken of on Wednesday.

Today's chores were: clean bathrooms and mirrors, clean other glass (china cabinet doors), clean windows.

I don't know what I was thinking. Actually, I do. My original thought was that I would already have the Glass Plus out for cleaning the mirrors so why not clean windows at the same time. It's not gonna work.

Maybe if my bathrooms weren't patronized by grubby boys and my windows weren't assaulted by the likes of peanut butter on dirty little hands, I could pull it off in a day, but the reality is that messes like that are going to have to be paired with things like "take out the trash" and "wipe down Berkey and toaster."

Bits and pieces

2009-03-23T15:08:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been almost a week since I last posted so I figure an update is in order.

I guess you have all noticed my new spring look, thanks to Kari:) (link to the left). I even love the song she put up for me. I had never heard it before but it brought tears to my eyes. I guess I am feeling a little mushy what with a new little one on the way and all that. I'll probably take it down in a week or two though because I can't read and listen to music with words at the same time and I figure there are other ADD folks out there with the same problem.

We have been on spring break for a week now. Today is our last day but it has been really nice to have the time off. I couldn't live like this forever, but a change in schedule is revitalizing every once in a while. The kids have been spending lots of time outdoors doing various and sundry outdoorsy things and I love that too.

Landon started putting my Square Foot garden together. Our back yard is a fairly steep hill so he is digging the boxes into the hill a little bit and then leveling them with cinder blocks. It may look a little rednecky to start with but I don't care because you can't see it from the street and that hill is good for nothing else so we might as well utilize it for a garden. Besides, homegrown, sun ripened veggies are a major treat because they taste so much better AND my kids love gardening. There is nothing more fun to them than going outside to pick dinner. I rather enjoy it myself.

We are planning a camping trip for next month and then one more in May before baby's arrival since we will have to take a few months off after she gets here. I am so excited that camping season is rolling back in. I hope this baby is a good camper. So far, all of our kids love it so she won't have much of a choice if she wants to hang with the family.

In mom's study news, I continue to be amazed at my own lack of comprehension of anything involving history during my school years. I am reading another work on the Civil War right now and although I recognize terms like "the Missouri Compromise" and the "Kansas- Nebraska Act", I could not have told you what they did until just recently. I am utterly AMAZED at how much the Civil War affected American Government, and it's ramification are being seen in our current economic crisis. The war, in effect, was about the (un-)Constitutional powers of the federal government. Slavery (which I always assumed was the main reason for the war) was merely a useful catalyst and tool for the politicians and Lincoln wasn't the saint he's cracked up to be, darn-it-all. This is the third work I have read on the Civil War lately and the facts are all starting to gel. Either I didn't pay attention in school or some important things were left out. Probably both.

Otherwise, I'm feeling great, baby seems to be doing great, the kids are all healthy other than something that looks like poison oak on Solomon's face, Landon is suffering from allergies but otherwise enjoying this nice weather and playing some tennis when he has time.

Okay. Dinner prep calls and I've got a load of laundry to throw in so I'm off to do home-keeper duty:).

A day of fun

2009-03-17T19:46:00.003-05:00

We went to the Birmingham zoo today. The weather was fantastic and we were in and out before 1:00, which was nice because the line coming in when we were going out was horrific. It's spring break and it was getting so crowded that people were hiking in from the main road because the parking lot had already overflowed out the front gates and way down the street.

After the zoo, everyone was famished so we ate lunch at a steak house where everyone proclaimed their food "the best I've ever eaten". It's amazing what hunger will do to your palette, although I must say that my grilled salmon and veggie kabob were amazing.

After lunch, we headed to a local park where we stayed until after 4:00. Then it was home to make dinner and now bath time. I am wiped out and can't wait to get in bed and read.

A trip to the zoo

2009-03-17T19:43:00.000-05:00

We joined some friends with kids Silas and Solomon's age at the Birmingham zoo today.

Even though the day started off cool, the temps shot up into the 70's within a few hours. Spring has certainly come to middle Alabama. This tree was so gorgeous in bloom that I had to take a picture.

Solomon checks out the new Kangaroo exibit. Yes, he is wearing cowboy boots with shorts.

These geese reminded my kids of all the stories I have told them about "Bonnie and Clyde", the geese we used to have when I was young. They were MEAN as all get-out and used to chase us and try to eat us. These zoo geese seemed much nicer, but Solmon still got nipped for sticking his fingers in there with them.

2009-03-17T19:36:00.000-05:00

Each of the kids got to pick one special (meaning that we had to pay extra for it) thing to do at the zoo. Noah and Solomon's friend Alex rode the camel.

Lyra does her monkey imitation while waiting for Noah to get his camel ride.

Inspired by the monkeys in the cage before them, like they NEED any inspiration to climb on things, the kids climbed all over the railing.

I think Silas is supposed to be a crow? in this picture. At least that's what he told me....

2009-03-17T19:30:00.000-05:00

The petting zoo.

These guys opted for the train ride over the camel ride because it was longer in duration.

Solomon checks out the tiger. I have better shots of the tiger (who was pacing in front of the plexiglass) but I like the reflection in this one since you can see Solomon's expression from both sides.

2009-03-17T19:23:00.000-05:00

After lunch, we went to the park.

Micah is famous for his spinning tire ride.

He gets the tire going....

and then he takes off too.

Funny kids

2009-03-15T16:56:00.003-05:00

To preface this story, you need to know that when Lyra starts pouting, we often tell her "If you'll stick that bottom lip out just a little further, we can park the truck on it." My dad used to use this same line on me when I was young.

Anyway, while I was getting ready for church this morning, Solomon came into my bathroom to tell me that he was ready to go. However, he had no shirt on. I said "you can't go to church without a shirt, go get one out of your closet". He said that he couldn't reach his "ONLY" good shirt and told me that he looked just fine without a shirt and that he didn't want to wear one to church today. Of course, I told him that he had to wear one anyway so the classic pouty face appeared immediately.

Lyra, who was standing there observing all of this, piped in "You gonna park the truck on his lip???"

Goody goody gum drops

2009-03-14T20:09:00.006-05:00

Does it make anyone else happy to order books online? It is so easy and I just love waiting for that cardboard box to come in the mail (tee hee:)).

I just ordered four new books from Amazon, two for school, one for fun and one for practicality.

Several years ago, we purchased "The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History" and found it to be a wonderful resource for balancing out some of those PC half-truths (and omissions) when it comes to American history so I just ordered two more "PIG"'s on the Civil War and the Constitution. I have to teach this stuff now and since I was such a dismal failure at picking up anything of worth on history during my own school days, I am doing more reading on American history than I ever thought myself capable of without going into a boredom induced coma. The bizarre thing is that I actually find it interesting now. It's amazing what 20 odd years will do for a student....

I also bought "Square Foot Gardening" because the library needs their copy back.

And I purchased another Patrick McManus book for our next camping trip. We read him around the campfire. It was on a major sale ($5) so I snagged it while the snaggin' was cheap.

I can't wait for that box to get here!

Don't believe everything you read

2009-03-13T14:49:00.006-05:00

Lately, even while trying to maintain my new non-inflammatory blog post resolution, I have considered putting up a post under a title such as this. Why? Because there is SO MUCH JUNK flying around on Christian blogs; Cutting, belittling, degrading, and outright slandering Christian groups out there that the blog host has come not to agree with for some reason or another. I got an eyeball full recently. It is everywhere! And it's downright embarrassing to the Christian faith. We should truly be ashamed of ourselves!

The kids and I are in 1 John right now and this morning, I read this verse: " Who is the liar? It is the man that denies that Jesus is the Christ." (2:22). I thought it quite applicable. The liar is not necessarily the one who tells you that women should always wear dresses (or whatever). That person just has an opinion formed from his/her interpretation of certain Bible passages. This can be easily be taken care of in your own mind and heart by spending some time in your Bible. If a person does not deny that Jesus is the Christ, at least give them the benefit of the doubt before labeling them a cult leader.

The problem I see is that people differ in how they interpret certain parts of the Bible and how they apply them to their daily lives. This seems to be a bone of contention for those who put too much emphasis on their personal life-style in relation to extra biblical additions (although most of them are good and lovely and not sinful), and a stumbling block for others who aren't grounded enough in Scripture to know the difference between Biblical mandate (such as don't commit adultery) and lifestyle choices made from one's own interpretation of the Bible (such as being "quiverful"). These differences sometimes cause folks to either attack each other right off the bat - first case scenario-, or to become laden down with legalism, spring free, become bitter and then attack groups they used to support- second case scenario. The latter group seems to be the most dangerous because, when free of the legalism that bound them, they blame the person they deem responsible for dragging them into said legalistic lifestyle and then they fly around the Internet collecting "facts" against said leader from other sometimes very bitter, unreliable sources and posting them on their blogs.

Problem? Many of these "facts" are unfounded but are taken as reliable because the blogger didn't do enough digging. I KNOW for a fact that this happens.

If you read ANYTHING on the Internet that offends you even slightly or causes your opinion of certain public Christian figures to go down the tubes, please, before forming any new opinions, do your own digging with a HEART OF LOVE, not a heart of bitterness or offense. We are to act in love towards one another, not in suspicion.

Here is a good article on the subject. I encourage any blogger who spends any amount of time reading blogs that may discuss controversial or inflammatory subject matter to read this and take it to heart. Even if the place you read the "warning" against certain Christian groups or leaders is on a lovely Christian sister's blog, I encourage you to check your facts. She may not have checked hers, but simply copied them from another blog she innocently trusted. I KNOW for a fact that this happens. Good intentions do not necessarily keep one from accidentally posting bogus information.

'nough said (I hope). I was deliberately ambiguous and non-linky so if you don't have any idea what I am talking about, consider yourself blessed:).

My advice, for what it's worth.

Love the brethren.

Don't become a follower of any man. Follow Christ. Study your Bible.

Assume the best until you have PERSONAL clear proof otherwise.

Agree to disagree on non-essentials.

Be forgiving. Excuse others shortcomings.

Admit your own faults.

2009-03-12T11:15:00.001-05:00

Lyra's idea of a great outfit for cheese-stick eating. A sleeveless dress combined with clip-on tie over jeans.

A belly shot. 15 weeks to go.

Goggle girl packin' heat.

Silas pre-haircut. We were just getting ready to buzz the boys after months of hair cut neglect when we took this pic.

2009-03-12T11:08:00.000-05:00

I went in to check on the kids at their school one day and found that they had chosen a new position for doing their work.

Trusty steed Noah carried the little pink knight into battle. Her sword is a magic marker. The kids made about a dozen or so helmets out of card stock over the course of two days. Solomon colored his to give it some visual interest.

Bun-Bun in a bucket.

Our snow day.

Unnecessary grossness

2009-03-11T17:09:00.004-05:00

I'm a bit squeamish when it comes to unnecessary grossness. I can handle all forms of NECESSARY grossness, but I don't enjoy being exposed to it when there is no need. So I don't watch "Survivor Man" with the boys. I don't like watching people eat raw snake or cooked skunk or whatever it is he does.

My kids know this so they are quite protective of me. Sometimes Solomon will even come upstairs and make sure that I know NOT to come downstairs right now because Survivor Man is eating something gross. Then he asks me if I want to know what it is, to which I reply "no way" but he usually tells me anyway.

The other day, Lyra was sitting on the sofa looking at a library book. I walked by and she said "Mom! Don't look at this! Too violent for you!" so of course, I looked to see what was so violent that my 4 year old would feel the need to protect me. It was a picture of someone milking a camel.

Just a little while ago, I was de-boning cooked chicken for tonight's dinner and Noah came into the kitchen and said "Ew, MOM! I don't know how you EAT! It looks so good when you put it on the table, but that is just disGUSting!". I said, "Then be glad you didn't live back in the old days, Noah. They had to do everything from the slaughter to the table and that was a lot worse than de-boning cooked chicken."

I guess that was enough to convince him that de-boning chicken wasn't so bad because he immediately launched into a tutorial on how to gut a deer with a shovel. sigh.

Advocating for Denis

2009-03-10T21:05:00.004-05:00

This DARLING little two year old boy named Denis needs a home. He is in an easy region in Ukraine. Michelle has details on her blog. If you are interested, please contact her or me.

Spring has sprung

2009-03-09T21:43:00.004-05:00

I had my third appointment with the OB this morning. She only makes me come in every 6-8 weeks or so right now- which I do SO appreciate! Everything looks great. Solomon and Lyra were with me and they got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which they loved.

Spring seems to have already given way to summer in the last few days. It is almost 10:00pm. I have all the windows open right now and the kids are still asking to turn on the air conditioning!

We took a picnic to the park for lunch and did a little bit of afternoon school there since it was so nice. Then it was back home for room time (they all read or play in their rooms for an hour) and then back outside for the rest of the day for air-soft wars with the neighbors. I make everyone who is outside during all this chaos wear eye protection in case of a stray BB. Even Lyra got in on the war. She found a huge - taller than her- bolt-action toy gun and donned some neon green swim goggles that she and Silas found in the pool bag. I said "that works" and let her go outside with the boys. Landon came home from work, took one look at his green be-goggled daughter lugging that humongous gun around and said "what happened to dolls and tea sets?".

We are loving this gorgeous weather and have dined al fresco for the last three nights in a row.

Delightful. I wish I could wave some of this weather northward for those of you who are still in winter!

Baby #6 update

2009-03-07T17:13:00.004-06:00

I have a few minutes of quiet before I have to put the finishing touches on dinner for tonight. We are grilling out and eating on the deck tonight as it is unbelievably beautiful weather here right now.

I am 24.5 weeks along now and feeling fantastic. My belly has never gotten so much love in all it's life. It gets hugged, kissed, patted and talked to several times a day. The kids ask if baby is kicking every time I sit down. So far, Silas and Lyra have gotten to feel her kick. Silas thought it was hilarious. Lyra's eyes just popped open really wide. She is really excited about being a big sister. She kisses and pats my tummy all the time, puts her mouth right on it and says "you're my best buddy. I your big sister" to the baby.

The last time I weighed in (three days ago???) I had gained a total of 14 lbs. I am fully out of all my normal clothes and into maternity wear now. Nothing else fits anymore. Fortunately, I have found some cute maternity clothes at the thrift store because maternity clothes are outrageously expensive. At least in my opinion.

I have all the clothes I need for baby's first few months already and I found a great swing for $20 as well. My neighbor is giving me her old high chair so that just leaves a car seat and a bassinet for me to purchase. I think I found exactly what I want in the bassinet department today, but it will require that I buy it new (which means I have to pay the "new" price - ick) but I think this will meet our needs as a family best. It is a porta-crib with a detachable bassinet. The reason I like this is because we can pack it up and take it camping with us for the next 2 summers. This is a necessity. I don't co-sleep well at ALL and neither does the dad in this family. I need to get a better look at that bassinet though, to make sure that it is sturdy enough to withstand 3 or 4 months of use in our room. I will be moving baby to her regular crib in the girls room after she is sleeping through the night, which should be around 8-12 weeks if she follows suit. I HOPE she follows suit.

Other than that, I just need to order those pricey diapers - ACK! Choke choke- and we'll be ready:)

15 weeks to go and counting!

I'll try to get a belly shot (if I remember) and put it up tonight.

A request

2009-03-06T13:58:00.006-06:00

I am not a good blogger.

I don't follow bloggy rules about linking to posts I am referring to if the author is in my sidebar, and I don't even use spellcheck on my own posts half the time. I don't leave comments on other people's blogs very often because of time constraints. Sometimes I even skim through posts in my hurry and then repeat the poor blogger in my comments. sigh. Despite the fact that I do enjoy keeping up with friends and some of you have such wonderful and inspiring things to say, sometimes blogging is tedious and I want to quit.

In fact, the desire to take this blog into the private arena has been growing in me for a while now. It started out as an adoption/family and friends blog, as a way to keep everyone up-to-date on what was going on in our pursuit of child #5 and honestly, I like it best that way. I quickly, and understandably picked up readers from the adoption community (we adoptive parents love to keep up with each others stories) and made some GREAT on-line friends, some of which I have met, or at least talked on the phone with, in real life. I love that.

I also picked up readers from the mommy community that I have come to love.

I also, maybe stupidly, delved into some controversial subjects that brought in some readers who don't enjoy my blog, but feel obligated to read it for some reason. I talked about politics and made my personal veiws too much known. Bad idea. I won't do that again (grin). I also talked about training toddlers to be happy and obedient. I did this because I saw some frustrated mommies out there who needed a little boost of encouragement not to worry about being so PC in their toddler parenting tactics. I appreciate from the bottom of my heart, the e-mails telling me that that little boost helped you better your relationship with your littles. That makes it worth it all.

BUT, I stepped on some toes in the process and have since been called a "know it all", had my salvation questioned and been referred to as an animal trainer and the like. Honestly, I live with my happy, healthy children, know that I don't know it all, and that I do know my own heart towards God so this doesn't bother me. Apparently, though, it does bother some other people who have a great desire to retaliate in my honor. Very sweet, but entirely unnecessary, I assure you:).

Three reasons I am NOT going private:

1. Many of my relatives and friends do not have a google account and have no desire to sign up for one.

2. I don't want to leave anyone out in my invitations - I don't have everyone that I would want to invite in my e-mail address book.

3. I am a linked to reference for our adoption facilitator. Reason enough to stay public on it's own.

That said, I want to make it very clear that I will be talking about our life and our children on this blog and that there will be a lot of cute stories (and what may come across as bragging) for the sake of the aunts, uncles and grandparents. If this makes you feel inadequate, please e-mail me and I will set you free from all thoughts that we are a perfect family. Or you can just read this post I wrote on real life around here and my perception of it.

If you just don't like the things I talk about and you can not leave a pleasant comment, please refrain from commenting at all. I don't have time to moderate comments but I also don't want snide, hit-and-run remarks on my family oriented blog. It bothers some folks. If you don't like it over here, please just stop reading. If you really feel the need to tell me your mind, please e-mail me privately.

I turned off the ability to comment anonymously in order to help those of you who feel better leaving those kind of remarks in the dark not to do so. I know this will inconvenience some of you who comment anonymously and then sign your name at the bottom of your comment. I apologize for that.

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding.

Two stories on Lyra that I don't want to forget, (and you may enjoy them as well)

2009-03-03T18:59:00.010-06:00

Catrina has this picture of my little niece up on her blog (she' the short one on the left). It is a new one and the kids found it first.

Noah said "Hey Mom! A new picture of Dania" so we all came over to look. Lyra excitedly said "Is that my new friend?!?" and I said "yes, she's your cousin. I'm sure you will have a lot of fun playing together. She is about your size even though she is older than you".

She said "My cousin????" and I said "yes, she's uncle Nate and Aunt Catrina's little girl. They are adopting her". Her face fell, "Not OURS???". I said "no, she's not your sister, she's your cousin, just like Austin, Evan and Luke. She's their sister." The bottom lip popped out, the eyebrows lowered, the head hung dejectedly and she looked decidedly put out. I guess she thought that Dania was going to be her sister, poor thing. But it was cute. At least I know she is looking forward to Dania's homecoming as much as the rest of us are!:)

Please pray for SOON! It has been over three years that my brother and sister-in-law, who also happens to be my best friend, have been waiting for this darling baby girl. She is almost 7 now. Lord, bring that baby home! (Isn't she a DOLL!!!)

This afternoon, Lyra was across the street in the neighbor's yard playing with the rest of the kids and Solomon came in to inform me that "Lyra is licking the tree in Charlie's front yard". I stuck my head out the door and said, loudly enough for her to hear me just fine "Lyra, stop licking that tree!".

I don't know if it was the fact that there was a street in between me and her or if she was just feeling her oats, but that child put hands on hips and yelled at me, "I LICK DAT TWEE WHENEVEW I WANT TO!".

Yes, I almost burst out laughing but I managed to keep my face stern when I said "come here" and marched her home for a little biscuit burning.

She TOTALLY knows better than to sass mom and knew what was coming so she immediately began wailing, all the way across the street and up the front porch steps and into the bedroom for her consequence. I told Landon about it this evening when he got home from work while she was upstairs putting on her p.j's and he about spit his drink out laughing. It will probably be one of those stories that we tell her children one day but for right now, I can't tell it around her lest she figure out that we find her sass hilariously cute and we shoot ourselves in the parental foot.

I don't know what she was thinking, but I imagine it had something to do with mom being way over there in the other yard. "Let's see what I can get away with":):):).

I honestly have to fight to keep a straight face. I adore her.

The Kissack Chronicles

Pictures by mistake:)

October 2011

Family pictures

Our latest group shot, taken on a recent camping trip

10 months old today!

Happy, happy, joy, joy!!!

Keep the pressure on! More kids need help

Continue to pray for Dania and the kids at BRESMA

Something else we can do to help the orphans

Urgent from Haiti!

Time flies

November Update

September update

The monthly update

Invitations are out- check your inbox

Changes with the blog

Pictures

What does it feel like to be a mommy?

Finding a groove

boring update for those who are wondering

A few pictures

Whew

Still here!:)

For fun

L&D story

Karys is here!

Pictures of our newest little one :)

Still waiting

Crazy fun

Baby update

Cute things

Baby update - 3 weeks to go

Another swimmer in the house

This and that

The good news, the bad news and the other news

For coffee drinkers

For posterity's sake

Baby Update - 5 weeks to go

The not-so-relaxing camping trip

Whew!

Psalm 119:33-40

*Chuckle, chuckle*

Baby Blessings

Worth reading

Pictures

Good News!:)

Home again

My Canadian

Odd's n ends

A post about the six youngun's

Been thinkin'

Cloudland Canyon Camping Trip

A LOT of camping pictures

We're home

A few pics

Loving life

At the air show

The Blue Angels

Quick update

Teaching children to discern (and learning it ourselves)

What works for us in regards to home school

Reality check

Bits and pieces

A day of fun

A trip to the zoo

Funny kids

Goody goody gum drops

Don't believe everything you read

Unnecessary grossness

Advocating for Denis

Spring has sprung

Baby #6 update

A request

Two stories on Lyra that I don't want to forget, (and you may enjoy them as well)

Chuckle, chuckle