Life with 9ndHouse!

Thank you Veterans!!

2010-11-11T09:53:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to take a moment today and thank all the Veterans who have given their time and sweat and blood and more...THANK YOU!!! Last night at church the service of thanks for our soldiers and veterans brought me to tears several times. God bless our military and God bless America!

Thank you Papa Lowell!

Thank you David! (FIL)

Thank you Gramps and Terry (BIL)

....and thank you, Brother Morgan, Brother Simmons, Andrew, Tom, Dustin, PJ, Brother Shinkle, Brother Cooper, Brother Davis, Miss Jolene, Brother C. Davis, and............

Back from Crazy. Maybe.

2010-11-04T15:46:00.000-05:00

Hello!!! Thanks so much to several people who have kept in touch while we have been without computer access. The occasional notes and comments were great. I missed being online and blogging and hope that I can get back into without neglecting my family too much! LOL!

It would take a really really big post to tell about all the blessing that have happened since my last post. We did relocate to the Wichita area for almost 2 years, but the Lord has brought us back home to our farm in Missouri and we are soooo glad to be home!
We had a lot of fun in Kansas, the Lord greatly blessed us there. We found a wonderful church family and really enjoyed getting to know several families there. We are going to miss them a bunch! Hopefully they will come and see us sometime, I know we are planning on visiting there again.
So, I'm basically going to just pick up where we left off! Posting some pictures here and there of our time in Kansas. We stayed at the lake near Wichita, in our 40' fifth wheel trailer. Michael worked for Cargill and I was camphost of our campground. We took care of the horse campground and had a lot of fun. The trail and arena was very close making it so easy to ride almost daily. With the water so close the swimming was great too! We couldn't have asked for a better place to stay, the Lord truly took care of us. The lake was beautiful, even in the winter with several inches of snow!! Sledding will never be the same!, sliding down the side of a lake dam in a pick-up bed liner is the way to go!!!
We have been back home a couple of weeks now and I'm just now coming up for air. We sort of hit the ground running!! So many things are the same, so many things have changed. Like going through a time warp! We have been very busy working on the house, septic, wood stove, getting Michael's business in order and not to mention the hours of unpacking the HUGE amount of boxes that have been in storage!! Some of the boxes are being opened and I'm just looking in and thinking, "Did I really pack this junk!?" haha! And, of course there are several boxes of clothes that will no longer fit the kids, or me! ha!, so the laundry pile is getting shorter the more I pile into the "give away" bags.
All in all, very soon I hope to have the whole house in order. That way I'll be ready for all the company I hope to have from our wonderful Kansas friends...hint hint!! and the wonderful friends and family here in MO! Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll be done in time to go see our wonderful family in OK for Thanksgiving and come home to a wonderful clean house!! Don't you just love that word, wonderful! WONDERFUL!!
Well, enough playing around. Better get back outside and quit hiding from my wonderful husband who is digging wonderful holes all over the yard trying to find and fix our wonderful septic! Have a Wonderful day!! :-D

We're go'n crazy, wanna come?

2009-05-28T12:50:00.000-05:00

Well, the latest adventure of our family is just about to begin. May 31st is our last day here on Emma Creek, our time here is up. We have been staying in a temporary rent house the last couple months provided by Cargill while searching the surrounding area high and low for a home to call our own. But, alas, it wasn't to be found. At least not yet! The Lord knows right where it is, and we are trusting that in His time He will let us know the when and where of things. So, pray for us, you know how crazy one can get when they are "waiting".

So, while we are waiting we have decided to jump off the deep end! Right into the lake. We have been able to purchase an older 5th wheel camping trailer and an enclosed trailer and we are packing up and heading to the lake! The kids are so excited they can hardly sleep, and would go to bed wearing their swim clothes and floaties if I would let them! I'm on a roller coaster of excitement one minute and down the next. There is just something about being homeless that leaves funny feeling in your stomach! LOL! Michael keeps trying to cheer me up during those down times by saying "We COULD go find a rent house in town, but then we would have to get rid of the horses, Rowdy and probably a few kids to fit!, at least this way, we may spend the same amount of money but the trailers are ours to keep in the end!" :-) Ok, I'll buy that, but something still sounds fishy!! LOL! I can just see the comic strip now...

9ndhouse!! Momma is running around bare foot and burnt to a crisp, trying to catch Baby J before he falls in the lake, smear lotion on the girls, wave the boys back to shore, grill dinner, keep Rowdy from chasing the Ranger, answer Wild Man's 100 questions, remind Miss Priss AGAIN to get her thumb out of her mouth all while tripping over the giant blowup whale to get Michael a glass of tea!

What do you think? Can you picture it? Well, it may not be like that exactly but at LEAST, I won't be pregnant!! LOL! Actually things look like they are going to work out great. The new horse camp ground near the trails has horse pens at the sites and an arena to ride in. The highway is nearby and will get Michael straight to work in about the same time, and the best part! We will be only 10 min. from church instead of 45 min!! Yea!!

So, the main part of this post, was to say that in a couple days once again, I will be without Internet for awhile. Hopefully, I won't be gone for long, can't stand to not be blogging! We hope to find a wireless service that won't cost us an arm each month, but we'll see how it goes!! :-D

Well, I better get back to packing. I'm having a little trouble with the labeling of the boxes this time. Half our stuff is back in a semi trailer in Mo, marked "long term". The boxes we had here at the rent house were marked "short term" and are now being boxed back up and put into another storage trailer. What should I mark them now, "Need it, don't have room, Long term-Short term"? :-)

She's growing older, I'm growing OUT!

2009-05-18T13:23:00.000-05:00

I love to go to garage sales! I have passed this love down to my kids too! Sometimes though we scare the daylights out of people when they see me and 7 kids climb out of a van and begin to roam through their yard! :-) Of course they are much relieved to see them behave themselves while they "shop", most of the time heading back to the van before I do. They are getting to that point where they don't want to spend their money too fast because something really neat could be waiting for them at the next stop!

A couple weeks ago, we were back at the Missouri farm and a friend asked me to go with her to a city-wide garage sale since we were in town. I was excited to get a chance to go, thinking I had missed all the city-wide sales and made plans with Michael to leave him with the kiddos while I ran off! My friend has a daughter a few years older than Sis who is almost 11, and I thought maybe Sis would like to come along and shop with the big girls! We had a great time and I was rather shocked to realize that...Sis didn't need my help! She had somehow grown up enough to do her own shopping and buying with out me! She bought some books, a few clothes and some trinkets for the little kids. Somewhere along the way she had bought a wallet and an adorable teenager-ish purse with the cutest puppy and kitten on it. I mean, one minute my friend and I are looking through some clothes and the next, we look up to see our girls, our young ladies actually, walking over to the next yard sale swinging their purses and laughing at something spoken between them. She's growing up! She's a big girl!

We had a blast that day and came home with lots of new treasures. It really opened my eyes to how much Sis has grown in the last several months. She is my little helper, a little mother and housekeeper. Today, I find her putting a stop to the fusses of the little kids, reminding someone to pick up their mess, start the day's laundry and planning the lunch. And now that I'm watching I realize that Kat who is 8 has picked out a bright flashy outfit (that reminds me of myself way back when!), cleaned up the kitchen and has the dishwasher running. Of course she was in a hurry to get out the door and have few minutes with the horses before Math consumes all her time! Naenae, just turned 7 not long ago and she too has ran out the door, but not before she changed Baby J and swept the floor!

Sis and I had our first real shopping trip last week! We were getting ready for another trip to Missouri. This time for their piano recital. Sis and I had gone through her clothes and just couldn't find anything that seemed right for the recital. We came across a skirt that brought to my mind a blouse I had seen in the girl's clearance section of Cato a couple day's before. In a sudden mad dash, her and I were out the door and headed to the store a few minutes away. The blouse was still there and she too thought it would look great with her skirt. While there of course, we had to go over the rest of the clearance rack and came up with another summer skirt and top that was adorable. As we left the store, the Dollar Tree next door caught my eye and I remembered seeing the cutest head bands there. We had to go see of course and we found a pretty green one that matched her skirt. We picked out some lip gloss too, since we were there! :-) I began thinking and asked Sis about her shoes, with the move and all the trips lately I really hadn't a chance to check to see if the girls had summer shoes that still fit. With this in mind and Wal-Mart next door, off we went on a shoe hunt. I could tell that Sis was hoping to find an older style than the normal little girl shoes. After finding a pair of white flats in within my now exploded budget, we rounded a corner and....Sis's face lit up at the sight of a whole rack of ladies dress shoes. Plain shoes with just a slight heel...a pump really. Sis knows a bargain when she sees one and any pair of shoes for $2.50! was a good deal! She got lucky and found one pair small enough for her foot. A dark dusty navy color that would go great with her new blouse and grey skirt. :-) Then, as we were leaving her new "big girl" shoes made her think of panty hose and so she asked for some. Panty hose!! Was she old enough for that too! I couldn't even think how old I was before I wore my first pair of real hose! She pointed at all the marks and scrapes on her legs from tree climbing and horse riding as reason for needing them. I knew deep down that most ladies don't wear hose because they climbed too many trees but somehow this just didn't matter. :-) It must have been her lucky day, right on the end of a sock isle was a section of clearance foot wear, and near the top, just waiting for Sis, was a pink box holding four pairs of nude hose, size A!

SO, finally after shoes, hose AND a few hair clips later! we made it through the check out and were on our way. I smiled on the way home and told her how much fun I had on our first shopping trip. Next time though, we would have to plan ahead since I was still wondering how I was going to explain this one to Dad! LOL!

The kiddos all did a wonderful job at the piano recital, all dressed up in their nice clothes. Hair all in place and faces clean! It was great. Sis had picked some wild daisies and wanted her hair put up with them. I couldn't believe my eyes at how much older and pretty she looked! Won't be long before Michael will be bringing his shot gun everywhere we go! Sis also was awarded student of the year! I'm looking forward to future shopping trips with the girls as they grow up into lovely ladies. For now though, I better get up off my duff, 'cause while they are all growing up , I can feel my backside growing too! So, we are off to mow the yard! :-)

Skunk gunk!!! and ROWDY!!!!

2009-05-06T23:48:00.000-05:00

Have you ever plopped down exhuasted after a hectic morning and thought "That did NOT just happen to me!!!"? Well, let me tell you about what "did not" happen to us! :-)

One morning this week I got up at 4 am to sit with my husband at the table and "talk" before he went to work. WHO gets up that early anyway!!! It was still DARK outside!! LOL!

As he was leaving and I was thinking of my bed, he noticed that the horses were not in their pen. The pen that should have ALL the gates shut tight so as to NOT lose any horses in the middle of nowhere Kansas! So I caught a quick nap while waiting for the sun to rise and then woke up the two oldest kiddos and out we went into the....FOG!!!! Let me tell you it isn't any easier to find a black horse in the fog than it is in the dark! Well, we got busy and gathered up some ropes and a feed bucket and started out into the back field hoping that the strange moving thing on the hill behind the wheat field was a miniature horse. At least the kids did anyway, I was sitting on the front porch cheering them on with my head back against the door and my eyes closed! I'm so lazy! :-P I didn't get the chance to sit there long though, for in just a few minutes I was overwhelmed with the nastiest smell on earth and it was getting closer and closer by the second. Next thing I knew, from around the corner of the house came the craziest!, sneezing, snorting sounds and out of the fog came.....ROWDY!!!! UUHHGGGGG!!!! He had been... you guessed it!! Playing with a not so friendly skunk!! He was dripping wet, from skunk spray or dew off the wheat, I didn't know but somehow he thought my lap was the place to go! I jumped up and ran down the side walk while yelling all sorts of commands; "SIT!", "GO LAY DOWN!" "STAY!" !! He figured out that I didn't want him and he sat down looking at me through squinted eyes with the silliest smile on his face. I think he thought it was funny!! Even the kids who were well on the other side of the field had heard me and I could tell even from that distance they had stopped to watch me dance across the yard. Thankfully, they had found two of the three missing horses and it didn't take them long to get back to the yard to find out what all the excitement was about. Of course they didn't really have to ask since they could smell the dog from a mile away!

I sent the kids in a different direction to look for the still missing stallion while I ran to the computer and Googled some skunk gunk removal ideas. After a quick crash course in de-skunking I realized a trip to town was necessary, I don't keep a couple quarts of peroxide handy around the house normally but it just might be a new "norm". I couldn't just use tomatoes and vinegar! Ooh no! The know it all vet online said "You must change the molecules to deodorize the skunk oil!" Of course! What was I thinking! Thankfully, a chemist had a simple recipe for a concoction of some sort that would do such a thing but it came with a nice warning. Two, actually. One warning was that if I didn't wash the dog as soon as possible the likely hood grew that he would smell that way the rest of his life!! The other was, that the potion had once turned a black lab into a yellow one! As Rowdy gazed at me through the window of the closed door, his p'arfume seeping in through the cracks I decided I'd better hurry! I could live with a blond Rottweiler! but, NOT with that smell!

I began thinking about where that horse could be, the kids had come back empty handed. I remembered the neighbor's dog down the road had been barking this morning and since they had horses too, I made a quick decision to see if my roaming stallion had decided to pay the neighbors a visit. We jumped in the van with our horse catching paraphernalia and ran down the road while leaving Rowdy to roll in the wet grass. Sure enough, there was our Tonka Toy!, getting his rear bit by the full size neighbor stallion who did NOT want to share his girl friend. Not that it was likely anyway, since the two horses were several feet taller than my 3' black stud muffin! :-) We finally convinced him that he was not wanted there, which wasn't easy!, he's soo hard headed! Finally the horses were back where they belonged and we were on our way to town to get the ingredients for our science experiment to de-skunk the dog. Once back home our chemistry class began... mixing peroxide, baking soda and liquid degreaser we came up with a foaming wonder to torture the dog with. It was quite a sight too! Me and the kids standing in the back yard pouring foaming goo on a stinky dog sitting in an old claw footed tub. AND!, it was starting to sprinkle!! As in like, the sky got dark and the thunder clouds were rolling in! We finally declared him clean enough and ran in the house to fight over the shower.

By noon, I finally sat down with a glass of tea and watched the rain come down in bucketfuls, having washed the dog, burnt our clothes, taken 3 showers and fed the kids the last of the groceries.....Oh!...groceries!.... I needed to to the grocery store!!!!!

Well, By the time we went to town the rain had slowed to a light drizzle and as we went through town we saw a big sign..."Salvation Army- everything!- 25%-50% Off!" So, we stopped and had some fun! :-) The kids had some money they had earned so not only did they have science/chemistry class, they got math in too. Each kid figuring half of half off the prices of the great bargains they were finding and trying to decide which to spend their hard earned money on! We took our treasures, groceries and bought a "Hot-N-Ready" pizza for the ride home. It turned out to be a great day all in all.

BTW, in case your wondering the goo actually worked and all but the faintest hint of skunk was removed, a second washing later that evening took care of that. He smelled good enough I allowed him back in the house agian. AND.... he is still black and tan, just as a Rowdy dog should be! LOL!

So, that's the story that "did not" happen to us.... but it did! :-)

Photos: Kiddos with Jetterbug, one of our mini-horses. Rowdy, smiling for the camera! and Wild Man and Rowdy laying in Mema and Papa's yard last Christmas.

Listen up please!! Ya hear me!!??

2009-05-04T23:51:00.000-05:00

I love my husband more than I can type! I really do!!! .....Can you hear the "but..." coming?

But!...I wish he would listen to me when I say something!!!! AND, quit telling me how whatever I said isn't really the way I want it or whatever!!! Anyone with me on this!!

Since we have been making so many trips back and forth from the farm to Kansas we have had lots of interesting conversations. Many of them have been about our new life here in tornado town. I'll talk about the house we might build one day and how I would like the roof to go this way or that way and come down into a cute little porch, only to get a 15 minute detailed explanation how I wouldn't want the porch that way because of the....I can't remember why...I tuned that part out, sorry. Now, many of you know my WONDERFUL husband, and how many of you can remember a DETAILED anything from him!! LOL!! Truth is he doesn't say a whole lot, not that he is shy or anything. Just figures people will figure things out on their own and if they want his opinion they'll ask. Well, I didn't ask him about the cute porch, pout, I was just dreaming of a real home all of our own again.

Ever had that " I never get what I want" moment? Mine usually comes at the WRONG time, Like after he stopped at a garage sale (after pulling the trailer all the way around the block so he could park!) and then getting me a soda on the way home! So REALLY I have NOTHING to complain about. :-) He really is wonderful!

I guess the real kicker is what happened the other day. While on the way to town, I was doing my usual dreaming about this and that and he was doing his usual correcting. We decided to grab a quick breakfast at a local cafe and as we pulled into the parking lot and walked to the door I very sweetly told him he didn't have to correct EVERYTHING I said! He smiled that cute slow smile, kissed me on the forehead and said "Yeah, I do." !!! AND!, would you believe just a few minutes later.... after glancing at the menu, I told the waitress I wanted the Mexican omelet, all the ingredients except with green peppers instead of hot peppers. She then... tossed Michael a "let me help her" look... squatted down so as to be on "my" level...and said with a sloow so you can understand me voice, "Weell, Huneee, we'll just get you the garden omelet then! Since it has the same ingredients and green peppers instead!" :-) SIGH! I looked into her very close, blue eyes and said......." Soooooo, ham is the same as sausage then? 'Cause I chose the mexican for the sausage and vegetables over the garden with ham and vegetables." ( I WAS nice!!!) She quickly stood up, wrote down the order and tossed a "Got it!" over her shoulder as she disappeared through swinging doors!

I looked at Michael and said, "SEE! I never get what I want without someone trying to tell me I want something else!!" LOL!!

The omelet was delicious by the way! and now that I have that "funny probably only to me" story off my chest I'm headed to bed!! Someone is going to want HIS omelet early!!! :-D

Never Fear! We're Still here!!!..or is that there!!???

2009-04-29T15:59:00.000-05:00

Hey All!!! We've have had a very busy time the last few months. I've mentioned before that Cargill, the company that my husband works for has shut down the local plant and relocated us to South Central Kansas. So far everything has been going great and the Lord has truly blessed us and watched out for us. Michael is loving his new job and is enjoying the training period he has while working side by side with the people he has some to supervise. He has teased several times about "learning to do their jobs so he can tell them how to do their jobs!" :-) He says he has a lot to learn and is really enjoying the challenge. Pray the Lord gives him the wisdom he needs to be a good leader!

So far we have found a large farm house to rent as temporary housing and will be here until the end of May. We are looking for a house closer to the church we have found and are excited to see where the Lord plants us this time. Moving over and over hasn't the greatest appeal but soon this will all be long over and we'll look back and laugh. Especially since I once told a cousin of mine who had had the "privilege" of moving several times that I envied her being able to redecorate and paint a new home, it sounded like sooo much fun to have a fresh canvas to work with. Thinking of course at the time we would never move and I would live and die at the old farm house! Well, never is a long time and here we are!! After we find a house to rent while we wait till our farm sells back in Missouri, then find a piece of land to buy and build a new home later, I'll have had the "privilege" to move at least 3 times in about a year!! I just love God's sense of humor!

Well, our Internet is rather sporadic and I am looking forward to the future when I will be back blogging full time! I have a ton of facebook and bloggy pals to catch up on!! :0)

Photos of the kiddos at the zoo, it was a very fun and exciting day!

"Is that elbow straight?"

2009-03-13T01:39:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks have been a whirl wind experience! We have come home from our survey trip of the very large, very intimidating city of Wichita and into a fast paced race to pack the mountain of belongings of our family. The whole nine of us own the biggest pile of junk I have ever seen!! The closets just keep spewing forth with stuff that I had thought long gone! Somehow things that I have thrown away 3 and even 4 times are resurfacing amongst our "treasures"!! LOL!

Now, I am a pack rat. I will admit it. "I'm a pack rat." Now, I feel better. BUT, I can't have all my kids becoming pack rats too!! I can remember my mom talking about all the little pieces of paper she used to find in my room and all the "valuable" collections I had stuffed into drawers and shoved under my bed. Well, rest assured Mom, I'm getting my pay backs! Trying to talk a child out of porcelain doll that is missing half a face, a hand and most of her legs is a lot more difficult than you'd imagine. :-) We have all attached memories, thoughts and stories to our junk making it very hard at times to part with it. Over the last week or so though we have sorted, tossed and pitched more things than I thought we could have possibly owned. The rest was boxed, labeled and placed in an organized fashion into our semi trailer that will make unpacking at our new home a breeze. YEAH RIGHT! LOL! Well, all the boxes and most of the furniture has made it into the trailer, we'll see about the last part! Ha!

One thing I can say is, so far our kids are having a blast! Wonderful friends have taken time out of their busy schedules and come by to help us finish building our home. We have been working on remodeling and adding on to our home for the last few years and now the time has come to get it DONE!! Just in time to sell! LOL! The kiddos thought that "school" was packed away last week into boxes but little do they know I have been recording their education everyday, and what fun education it has been. They have all been following Dad and the workers around asking great questions (driving them crazy :-} ) learning all about plumbing, electrical, carpentry and many other wonderful things. They are hammering , sawing, drilling and fetching their hearts out!! And that's just on the inside! Outside we have been dozing stumps, property lines and my flower beds !! Taking apart fencing, tearing down old sheds and building the biggest burn pile we've ever had!! Tons of neat things are being learned from professional people willing to let my kids tag along and drive them nuts with all their questions. The electrician, Wild Man calls "Truck" (we are working on that ch sound) keeps coming back for more torture and I am extremely grateful. I just love electricity, don't you? It just lights up my life! The plumbers!! Wonderful people aren't they!!?? and when you bring electricity and water to the same appliance, such as a washing machine or a dish washer!, it is a VERY exciting moment!!!

And what good is a second floor without a marvelous set of stairs leading to it!!

So!, now with this wonderful education the kiddos are getting they should be able to help out in any area of home construction. Even answering simple questions like the one Michael asked me yesterday, "Is that elbow straight?". While I sat there looking and thinking the answer came from a nearby professional, " NOOO, PVC elbows are bent at 90*!!" :-)

I think I'll go make some sweet tea!!!! Cookie anybody?

Photo of Kendal asleep at the table, work is exhausting!! :-)

Are you a King, a Queen or just a Full?

2009-02-28T01:21:00.000-06:00

Several years ago I somehow learned the neat trick, that putting two twin size mattresses together would make a king size bed. Being in the Missouri "show me" state I naturally had to check this out and put some together, measure and see for myself that this indeed worked and it did. A person always thinks the grass is greener on the other side and I have for years looked with green slimy envy on anyone who was lucky enough to have a wonderfully huge king size bed, not to mention the gigantic room needed for such a wonderful bed!!! Several years ago we measured our master bedroom and came to the conclusion that a queen bed with a small wardrobe cabinet on each side would be all our room would hold. Although some nights with my head buried under a mountain of pillows for a sound barrier while fighting for blankets I would think "WHY didn't we get queen size WARDROBE cabinet with a TWIN size bed on each side!!" LOL!

Well, several weeks ago I thought I had it made. I decided that our bedroom wasn't ever going to be dry walled and finished as long as we were still in there. So I took it upon myself to help encourage my wonderful husband to finish our room by moving all our stuff upstairs to one of the kids' small rooms. The only problem was there was no way to get our bed up the stairs, SOOOOO I grabbed a few extra twin beds we had around and shoved them together and topped them off with a king size sheet. Tada!!! A king size bed!!! In a small room! Who needs wardrobe cabinets anyway!! :-)

Weeeellll, there was one thing about this neat trick that I had failed to remember. The twin mattresses needed for this were the standard flat ones, and a thick king size padded bed cover was a major part of making the bed comfortable. So, you know where this is leading! We have the rounded edged puffy topped mattresses that formed a grand canyon when pushed together and did NOT make one comfortable large bed for "us" but made a "his and her" bed instead. He slept on his side and I slept on mine, the only plus to this situation was that we each had our own blankets! Ha! Somehow though, those where the coldest nights!!

Well, once again we have flip flopped rooms and are now sleeping on our "wonderful" queen size mattresses, topped with my favorite soft green sheets. So now when I feel a chill I just roll over and snuggle up to Michael. I mean, I might as well since we are going to be fighting over the blankets anyway!! :-)

I want to say thank you to so many of you for thinking and praying for us during this time of waiting to see what would happen with Michael's job. Well, the news is...he has accepted the job offer to move with the Cargill Corp. and we are now launching into a full blown mission of dragging our junk to Kansas! He is very happy with the new position and is looking forward to the new job, we are all excited for such a new adventure. A touch of sadness lurks around us as we know we are leaving a huge group of great family, friends and neighbors. We have a ton of things to do before everything is final such as finishing the house, getting it sold, packing, moving, finding a new home large enough for our crew and getting settled is just few! :-) We have lived here since the day we were married and I'm up to my nose in junk!! I can't believe we have SO much stuff!! LOL! Well, tomorrow is another big packing day so I'm headed to bed! :-) Goodnight ya'll!!!

Photo of Baby J, sleeping on our bed when he was just a couple days old. ;-)

Did Daddy take it?

2009-02-04T10:04:00.000-06:00

Miss Priss is 3!!! Happy Birthday! Her last two birthdays have been pretty simple, a cute homemade cake after dinner and a small gift or two to round out the evening...AND of course the pictures taken for the photo album. We can't have all pictures of the older kiddos ya know! :-)

We invited a few friends and neighbors, Grandma and Grandpa and some cousins and had a good time. Even though this was her first "big" party, she seemed to know just what was supposed to happen! When we all went to town last week we got ready for the party by stopping at the local Dollar Tree, she had a blast picking out a few purple plates and some balloons. She just had a fascination with the little punch cups and kept them tucked under her arm, I HAD to let her have them too! We found a cute set of Winnie the Pooh character toys for the cake and some other Winnie the Pooh themed toys... jump rope, silly putty, coloring books and crayons...all for a $1 each! :-) We had to be creative when it came to keeping these things out of her sight but she was so focused on the plates and balloons she didn't really notice what all her sister's and brother's were carrying around! LOL! She was the one who spotted the Winnie the Pooh Christmas wrapping paper for 50 cents, so we added that to our cart. For the main gift we started at the Dollar General store in hopes of finding a baby doll on sale, she had been asking for one for days, but we lucked out. So we met Daddy over at the Wal-mart store and tried again, here we hit the jack pot! As soon as we hit the clearance isle, she spotted the baby doll of her dreams! A cute little baby that screams it's head off if it loses it's pacifier!! Isn't that neat!! (at least it doesn't wet it's pants!!) Well, this time it wasn't so easy to get the large box off the shelf and hidden without her knowledge but we finally thought we had her fooled and off we went to browse the sale racks. Soon we were at the check out where Daddy grabbed the doll box and headed through the cashier first, all the big kiddos were behind him to block Miss Priss's view, but I couldn't believe it! She realized we were ready to check out and she leaned way over and looked on the bottom of the cart!, "Where's my baby!" She said! How did she know!?! These kids are getting smart! I rambled for a moment or two about how we couldn't get a baby today but maybe for her birthday but all the while she was looking in the cart, around the cart, at each kid and finally the check out isle. Thankfully the lady had already hidden it behind the counter, so as soon as Michael had paid he grabbed it and made a dash for the truck. The kiddos and I followed and paid for a few things we had picked up for a baby gift for our neighbor, but still she was asking and looking for that baby doll! The lady cashier commented on her persistence! "She gets it from her Dad :-) ". Finally we were headed out the door and again we were telling Miss Priss that we didn't have a baby doll but maybe she would get one for her birthday. How did she get sooo smart!?! The older kids were so much easier to trick at that age! "Where's Daddy?" she asked. "Waiting in the truck, so we can go home.", I answered.

...."Did Daddy take it?" (that's her) "MOOOaaaaann" (that's me)....." Is this lying?" (that's big sis)...."SIGH" (that's me again) :-)

Photos of the next evening at her party, as you can tell we made it home with the Baby and had a great time. Nothing says Birthday better than Frito chili pie, chocolate cake, balloons and a house full of friends and family!!!

He prayed...and he got it! :-)

2009-02-03T15:06:00.000-06:00

....Just don't blame me!!! :-)

"MOM! It's SNOW'N", Wild Man yelled from the front door as Bubba walked in with wood for the stove. He jumped up and stood for what seemed an hour at the door watching the wonderful white fluff float down. Soon the flakes began to get smaller and were coming down faster and faster making the land seem foggy in the fading sunset. Daddy's truck lights turning down the drive broke the moment and as the other kiddo's crowded the window trying to catch a glimpse of Dad and waving with all their might, Wild Man made his way over to me in the dining room with the biggest grin and day dreamy eyes of blue still sparkling with excitement. "MOoooom!, I prayed to God for this snow!", He giggled softly in awe of the moment, "It's go'n to be a BIG one!". I smiled and glanced out the window, unsure if I should explain that we haven't had a "big" snow in awhile and that the weather man had only predicted ice and sleet. My heart ached for any disappointment he might feel if this wasn't his "snow man" snow after all, "We might not get very much snow, maybe only ice. That would be ok, wouldn't it?", I answered him hesitantly. Confidence lit up in his eyes, a smile even bigger than before graced his face and he jumped up and down, "Nope, it's go'n be a big one!", he sang joyfully then with a sudden flash he was off to tell Dad the good news! I stepped over to the window and watched the snow fall as if through the eyes of a 4 yr old boy, "Thank you, thank you Father! For the faith of a child and for all the smiles you bring to our family!", I softly whispered to the Maker of the Snow.

Photo of one of the little snow...people the kiddos made. :-)

I do want to say that my heart and prayers go out to the many people who lost loved ones, were injured or lost power during last weeks ice and snow storm.

Update! It's still cold outside, BUT....

2009-01-20T19:08:00.000-06:00

I just had to run out and snap these pictures!!! Michael was unloading, uh...I don't know what it was but it was REALLY heavy!!! He knew the tractor wouldn't pick it up very easily, Ya think?!!! A few seconds later he was down and moving the box out of the way. He knows I know he is in complete control of everything! :-) Although, He said "Don't post those on your blog....Katie!!" as I ran back into the warm house! He knew I would, he won't be mad. I don't think!~! Hehehehehehe! So, What's your husbands "up" too? ;-}

How much wood can a woodchuck chuck.....

2009-01-20T16:08:00.000-06:00

It's been really cold the last few days. When it is cold we go through a ton of wood to keep the house warm!! Some days I really wish I could just turn the thermostat up and be done with it, but then I talk to a few friends and they start complaining about the electric bill or the gas bill and I'm very thankful for the wood heat!! At least it warms ya twice! Once when ya cut and haul it in and then when ya burn it! LOL! Thankfully though, knock on wood :-D, we haven't had an ice storm this winter. Not a bad one that knocked out power anyway. The kiddos kinda wish something would happen so we could all snuggle in for a few days, but Daddy has four wheel drive. It would take an Alaskan blizzard to keep him home because of snow, and if someone called and needed him he would find a way!! I do wish the kids could have at least one good snowman snow this year, maybe it could snow on all the yards but not the roads? Just a thought!! But, since the weather man is saying that we are going from 3o* something to 50* something in the next day or so, I guess we'll have to wait on that snow!! :-)

Guess we'll just have to make our own fun till the snow comes!! We love taking mini vacations and recently we ran to town and rented a room at the local hotel with an indoor swimming pool!! We had a great evening, the kiddos absolutely LOVE to swim!!! The room had a small microwave and fridge, so we brought lots of small potatoes and toppings for a baked potato dinner. Although Michael did run across the parking lot and grabbed some snacks for me and him from Arby's, SHHH! Don't tell the kids!

Happy winter! Stay warm! or Cool!!

Photos: Dad and the kids cleaned up a fallen tree in last year's ice storm, right out our front door! The kiddos helping hold the trailer down while we cut wood. Some swimming pictures from our mini vacation, "Sink or swim, Dad!".

What a helper!!

2009-01-19T00:30:00.000-06:00

When ya got a job to do, just roll up your sleeves and get'r done!!! Nanae was doing just that!

After an evening of noodle making with Dad last week, the wonderful homemade noodles dried on the table over night. The next morning we saved some for supper and froze the rest. Then came the cleaning part. I guess Nae decided a little elbow grease was in order and got on top of the job, literally! She was very proud to show me her clean table! What a great job she did too! I have some very good helpers and am very proud of them all!!

Even the little helpers that like to sleep in!! I don't know where he got that habit! :-}

My Pantry?

2009-01-12T12:26:00.000-06:00

I was browsing around some of my favorite blogs and found Jen over a Sprite'sKeeper http://www.spriteskeeper.com/ (I REALLY need to learn to link!) having a sort of pantry war! I'm rather crazy about keeping my pantry organized, but it doesn't always happen thanks to the many hands who raid it continually! My pantry is a little low right now I really need to go shopping but.....maybe a soon as my allergies release the pressure on my head!! I really have to brag on my wonderful husband for my wonderful pantry, he improved my flimsy metal shelves into these sturdy wooden shelves with tons more space. My I'm begging for a matching set on the opposite wall for the canners and empty jars. With 7 kiddo who are always hungry we need a big space for all the grub, this room was originally a porch that was enclosed before we bought the house. Now that we have added on to the house this room sits off the kitchen and make the perfect pantry. A matching fridge and freezer set sits by the door and is really handy. All the coffee tubs are just storage containers, they come to me free from my grandparents and make wonderful storage tubs.

I usually shop about twice a month and buy in bulk if it's on sale. The Aldi's store in town in one of may favorite bargain grocery stores. I recently found a canned veggie sale at a near by grocery store though and we became the joke of the moment to all the shelf stockers who watched as we unloaded the shelves into our carts and headed for the check out isle. The joke is really on them though when they turn around and have to restock those holes I left behind! LOL! We shop at Sam's some too, but I always have my calculator handy, it isn't always cheaper to buy it by the gallon. Although I love that a big box of toilet paper will last over 3 months!! The Dollar General store has redone their stores here and now have some great grocery isles too.

Well, I'm just playing around and better get back to work! Ha! Anyone else want to show their pantry? How often do you shop? Do you shop in bulk?

Christmas Pictures!!!

2009-01-08T13:47:00.000-06:00

Did I mention I found my camera!!!???!!!! Yea! Just in time for Christmas!

So, has everyone caught their breath from Christmas yet? My neighbor mentioned the other night they still have one Christmas party left to go!

Anyone want to brag on their husbands?

Michael surprised me big time this year and did way more than he should have! He got a "new to me" cook stove to go in my "new to me" kitchen! :-) Some of my favorite perfume and a pair of sparkly ear rings!! The kids also gave me a wonderful bath soap set and a pretty glass chess game.

We had a great Christmas, not because of our gifts though, but because we enjoyed getting together with all our family and friends during this time of remembering the birth of our Saviour and why He came.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Green eyed monster!

2009-01-08T13:12:00.000-06:00

Hi all! We are home today because the green eyed monster has come to visit!

On Thursdays we are usually sailing around town for piano lessons, library and of course a quick browse through the Salvation Army!! But today poor Wild Man can hardly see through his swollen eyes with all the green snot oozing out. LOL! Baby J isn't feeling up to his usual smiley self either, his green snot is mainly in his nose though! Ha! The rest of the kiddos are in different stages of allergy attacks from the wonderful weather that can't make up it's mind to be 50* or 20*. Instead it is jumping all over the thermometer driving our heads crazy!! The only person feeling fine here is Dad, but his turn to battle allergies is coming 'round this spring and summer!

So, I have given everyone their doses of Garlic oil (antibiotic) and Sambucol (elderberry syrup for and expectorant) and a few extra Vit. C's and things are turning from green to clear! We should be back up and running in no time!!

In the mean time I am taking this day to finish reorganizing the school room. My wonderful husband Michael, who reminds me often that he is a welder by trade, NOT a carpenter!, has finally placed my new book shelves on the wall. I am SO excited!! It's amazing what 3 boards and some shelf brackets can do to uplift your spirits!! LOL! I have a ton of books. Books of all kinds! I can now place them all (or at least most of them) on my new shelves and throw away all the boxes!!! Books are keys and I have collected them for years, mainly from garage sales and thrift stores and the kids and I can now browse our "library" for adventures. I also found that I have 5 copies of Black Beauty, 4 of Tom Sawyer, 2 of Charlotte's Web, 5 of Box Car Children Vol. 1, 6 To Train up a Child books, and.... :-) Oh, well! I'm sure we will put them all to use! The funny thing was once the new shelves were up Michael thought that the other shelves in the room that are holding all the school books assorted by grade were going somewhere else!! I laughed and told him that there was no room for school books on the new shelves, he had to go look to believe me! But they are full!!! and getting fuller by the day! Poor Hubby, he melted while I was talking about more shelves on the other wall! hehehehehehe!

Photo of Wild Man giving Baby J a ride on the Christmas horse!

A Big Nickel

2009-01-02T14:09:00.000-06:00

I've heard of these things being called by several different names...Thrifty Nickel, Lucky Dime, Penny Pincher and so on. The classifieds newspaper that I most enjoy around here is the Big Nickel, you know the kind of paper with tons of want and for sale ads listed so you can drive yourself crazy thinking about what you could sell or buy! I just know everyone loves to do this sort of bargain hunting right!! :-) Each week after church on Wednesday we stop at the gas station to pick up a copy, well, sometimes two copies so we don't have to fight! :-) Most of the time we don't even know what we are looking for but surely there is some treasure we don't need listed there to make us dream or drool for the next week or so!

Once the week's paper has been replaced with the latest edition it goes into the "pile" to be used for something else later. I thought all the kids knew all about this paper, what it was and what it was called. I guess I now know that mainly the excitement is shared with the older kids who are better readers and have bigger wants than the Dollar Tree provides! LOL!

Last night was one of those evenings where everyone is in their own world doing their own thing and it is really easy to ignore...I mean... not listen to... I mean... not hear, someone calling for you. We have some mini dachshunds and one of my mama dogs had a litter of 7 puppies a couple weeks ago. Since I'm so soft hearted and couldn't let them sit outside in the cold, I brought them in and made up a box in the corner. Mama dog has done a great job so far keeping them all spit shined but I still change the newspaper lining everyday anyway. SO, this would be the time I'm standing by the dog box cleaning up puppy yuck and call for one of the kids to bring me an old Big Nickel. After a few moments I call out again. Several children walk back and forth on some mission or another but still after a few moments I have not been brought the needed papers. Of course I then do what any good Mom would do... I stand up and holler!!! I called very loudly ;-) and said " I want a Big Nickel and I want it right Now!!" Dust was flying and kids were scattering and within seconds I had more old newspapers and Big Nickels I could use. I thanked the kiddos and went back to work. All was well!

A little while later, Michael comes in and has that "cat that ate the canary" look. I told him to spill it and he told me I must have made Naenae nervous when I had hollered. She too had ran for what I had asked for but was unsure of exactly what it was, so to be sure she stopped to ask Dad. She had a bright shiny new nickel in her hand and showed it to Michael and wanted to know for sure was this what Mom wanted, she didn't think my request made any sense. He laughed of course and told her no, that wasn't what I wanted. She made a face and shook her head. Put her hand on her hip and said, "Well!, How big does she want it!?!"

LOL!! Guess I'm clear as mud at times!!

Hope ya'll had a great Christmas and Happy New Year's Eve!!!

Days 6 & 7: Our Crazy Life!!!!

2008-12-15T14:08:00.001-06:00

I thought since I was a day behind, and our weekend was pretty simple I would just throw them together. Ever had one of those weekends that all you can really say you did was eat and sleep! I hate to admit it but I slept in Saturday morning, waaaaaayyy in! Michael took the boys outside to do what ever it is that men and boys do, while the girls and I tried to straighten the house out and get everything ready to go to town. The kids were all excited, their church choir parties are this afternoon and they were ready for fun! I was ready for some fun too, since the 5 older kids are occupied with their parties for about 2 hrs I had talked Michael into taking me to Arby's for a small snack and party for two. Well, that would actually be four if you count Baby J and Miss Priss, but when you only have two out of seven it really doesn't feel like you have any at all!! LOL! We dropped the kids off at the church and as my usual luck goes, we were delayed a little thanks to the wind! The wind storm was blowing some of the roof tin on the front of the church up, so Michael called a friend and they soon had it secured back down. I asked Michael if our medical ins. covered an ambulance ride, he said a part of it, was I planning on having a wreck.?. I told him of course not but I wanted to know what to do if he blew off the roof! It might be cheaper just to duct tape him to a board, wrap a towel around his neck and haul him to the hospital myself! He's always touched by my concern for his safety, so he gave me a good kiss before he went up on the roof! ;-) Soon we were at Arby's chowing down on curly fries, potato cakes and sandwiches. Our snack turned into a meal, basically we pigged out!!

The adult choir had a practice after the children's party and that took up a little over an hour of time, we have more people in the choir this year and it sounds really neat with every one's voices ringing through the sanctuary! Our choir special will be tomorrow night and we are ready as we can be.

We made a few stops on the way home and called Michael's sister too see if her and her family wanted to meet us at home for some games and nachos. They weren't able to come tonight, so the kids thought this would give us a good time to watch the family movie I had picked up from the library. I baked up some hamburger and scalloped potato casserole and threw a salad together for dinner instead of nachos and we sat down to watch the second Ice Age movie. At first I thought it was making fun of the flood of the Bible, but it wasn't and it turned out to be a pretty good show. Not one I would let the kids watch anytime they wanted over and over, but it made a nice family night movie. Some friend recently told us about something they called a TV Guardian. Ever heard of it? I guess it hooks up to your vcr/dvd player(s) and takes out or replaces the not so nice words that movie makers seem intent on throwing into the movies. We are thinking about finding one, we love to sit down to a good movie and a TV Guardian might broaden our choices! :-)

We had the kids set out their clothes for church in the morning and sent everyone to bed. Even Michael and I headed to bed early!!

Sunday morning was bright and WARM!! This crazy Missouri weather is driving my allergies nuts! Our K-5 Sunday School class went well, we are going through the Christmas story. It is soo fun to see the kids get all excited about the story and look over the nativity. Of course we don't know when Christ was actually born but it doesn't hurt to stop and remember to say a thank you to Him for all He's done it our lives. Today was a "potato Sunday" as we have started calling them. A mission in town sometimes gets a semi load of potatoes and they distribute them through their center and often they will bring a pallet over to the church. We then send every family home with a ten # bag of potatoes as they leave. Can't leave without one, of course!!! Everyone had such fun teasing about the potatoes, it was mentioned that they couldn't be unloaded till after church so we couldn't use them to throw during the service! :-) Although the man that lead the evening service did give everyone a hard time for not taking them ALL home that morning instead of leaving some "ammo" in the entry way!!

Sunday afternoon was more of the eat and sleep routine I mentioned earlier! We made it up and back to church in time for the choir practice and the evening service. We enjoyed singing in the program and it all went very well, the music was very pretty. It must have worked up another appetite with me and Michael because we invited the "Friend" family out to Wendy's to help us spend some more of those free Frosty coupons! They had some coupons too, and we all pigged out again on ice cream with, of course, ;-) a burger thrown in to round out the meal! I do owe a new craving to Mrs. Friend, see I had eaten my burger and fries before I started in on my ice cream (I'll pick up on that diet tomorrow!), but was interested when "she" requested her husband get her some more fries for her Frosty! I thought no way that can be good!! BUT, Mr. Friend is a sweet guy who ordered a large for her to share with me and I hate to admit that I ate my fair share of her fries...you guessed it! By dipping them into my chocolate Frosty!! The combination of warm salty french fry dipped into the cold sweet ice cream was absolutely delicious!! So, I will always pay attention when she makes food combination suggestions in the future!! I do not know what I'm going to do though when this gets to be a habit and I gain 40 #'s!!!!! Well, as we sat and pampered our sweet tooth's, the weather outside was stirring up some more action. We watched as the rain came in again bringing ice and sleet with it. We tried to ignore the slippery white accumulating outside but soon we had to face the fact that we must brave the cold. What happened to today's 50* weather !!!!! I guess Monday's ice storm couldn't wait till we were tucked into bed :-). The trip home was slow but we made it just in time to stoke up the fire and hit the hay!! Completing the eat and sleep cycle once again!!!

That brings me to the end of the week in our crazy life!! Hope you weren't too bored out of your minds, we are just regular people doing regular things. I really hope I find my camera soon!, I haven't taken our family Christmas picture yet!!! Hope ya'll have Merry Christmas, a good Monday and an even better week!!!! Thanks for reading !!! :-)

Photos of the kiddo taken on Thanksgiving and a few pictures of last December's ice storm. The picture doesn't really catch all the beautiful glistening of the sun shining on the ice!

Day 5: Our Crazy Life!!!

2008-12-14T22:59:00.000-06:00

Well, I knew this would happen I'm a day late!! The last two days have just flown by so fast! Friday morning found me very happily listening to Michael telling me about how he was going into work but would be home in few hours to be with us around the house. Wow, were we excited! Daddy staying home doesn't happen often, he's a work-a-holic of sorts. Even on snow days he's waving his good bye through the back window of his Four Wheel Drive.

Since we didn't have much time before Dad would be back we launched into getting as much school work done as we could. If Dad is home it's always a holiday, so we worked quickly and got math done in less time than normal, practiced piano in between reading and writing. A quick spelling bee for the older kids and some practice naming colors for the little kids. Wild Man had a great time learning to write the number 3 and proceeded to make sure every one's paper had a bright orange 3 at the top. Much to Sis's distress I might add, but Kaykay was able to hide away her journal just in the nick of time. I guess he thought since everyone seemed so impressed they needed one of there own! :-)

Soon, Dad was walking in the door where he was dog piled and the wrestling began. I was surprised he brought me a soda (Coke with just a little ice :-) ) and quickly rescued it!! I began to let Michael know about all the wonderful sales that were going on this weekend and how we could probably finish all our Christmas shopping in just one trip. I would even help him pick something out for me!! BUT, as I figured he would he had a plan of action for all of us. The wood trailer was getting mighty empty, in fact the rest of the wood fit into the stove. He built it to hold practically a whole rick! Well, not quite, but it's big and it would be hungry soon. His plan was for all of us to get our chore clothes on and fill the trailer high with firewood to last us through the cold spell that is coming on Monday. So the Weather Man said anyway. We all bundled up and headed out, the kids made a little fun of me. I don't like to get cold so I had several layers on underneath my coat, hat and gloves while they were more comfortable in a heavy jacket. It didn't take long out in the timber where the wind wasn't blowing to work up a little sweat and soon I was peeling. It happens every time I think, I over dress and end up throwing most of it on the tractor. I really wish I had pictures of us all out there, but my camera is missing. I seem to have lost it somewhere between now and yesterday :-). It didn't seem to take long, with Michael cutting down the trees and slicing them up into stove size bites, me piling brush and helping the kids stack the wood onto the trailer we made a good pile in a couple hours. Of course the kids are always up to something. They are building a log cabin and had to take a little time to drag usable pieces for the walls and "build" a little here and there. Bubba likes to find a tall cedar tree and climb to the top. You know he must be up a tree when he is there one minute and had totally disappeared the next. Usually you'll find him pretty quick if you scan the tree tops for large red objects. The girls are starting to get brave and soon they'll all be up a tree! ;-) Once we were all loaded with firewood we climbed on the tractor and trailer headed back for the house. Rowdy decided since we had worked so hard he was going for a swim as we headed around the pond, that silly dog! The harder I try to keep him clean and smelling sweet (or as sweet as a dog can smell) the harder he tries to stay disgustingly dirty!

Well, tonight is the night of our adult Christmas party at our church, and it was time to get ready. I had my heart set on making some baked crab rangoon. I had gotten a recipe for it earlier this week. It looked soo easy, but I have never used crab for anything before so I wasn't sure how expensive it would be to make up several batches to serve at the party. Knowing though, that this is one of Michael's favorite things at the restaurants I sweet talked him into running me to the small town nearby and getting what I needed to make them. Of course being a man, a hungry man at that, he thought we ought to make at least 80 of these things!! I talked him down to 60, which wasn't too hard since the package won ton wrappers came in that amount. :-) We found what we needed and headed home with some cookies for the kids. Soon the house was smelling wonderfully good with the crab rangoon, which I wrapped up for travel. Michael loaded the 3 youngest kids, the food and gifts for the party while I ran through all the rules again for the older kids. I still can't believe they aren't babies anymore!! I gave them a long list of fun things to do and then we were ready. The church dining hall was all decorated and smelled wonderful as the food was set out. Food is my favorite hobby you know, at least eating is! :-) A group of teenagers relieved me of the little kids and they were off to play. The crag rangoon was soon almost gone, so I'm taking this as a sign that it was a good recipe to pass on. Fresh from the oven would probably have been the best option, but Michael was satisfied so I'll take that as a good sign.

Baked Crab Rangoon

1 can (6oz) white crab meat, drained and flaked

4 oz cr. cheese, softened

1/4 C thinly sliced gr. onions

1/4 C mayo

12 won ton wrappers

Mix the four ingredients in bowl with spoon. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray and gently place won ton wrappers into the wells. Place a spoonful of mix in each wrapper. Bake @ 350* or 18-20 minutes or until edges are golden brown and filling is heated through. Garnish with extra chopped green onions (opt) and serve warm.

You will also find this recipe on Kraftfoods.com with a short video included. Of course they will tell you exactly which brands to buy too! :-)

After everyone was stuffed till they couldn't see their toes, the Dirty Santa game began. Now, let me tell you that we are all a nice bunch of people and I have never seen anyone upset, maybe they are good at hiding it but either way everyone seems to have a really good time and tonight was no exception. I usually don't do this but this year I brought a gift that I really wanted to keep! It was a metal tricycle decoration that had been welded together with a planter basket for a seat. It's not quite 2 foot long and a little over a foot tall. I put together some flowers for the basket and it was painted up to look rustic, all together I thought it was just incredibly cute. Well, if you don't know, this Dirty Santa game can be a little tricky. See, everyone has a number on a ticket. The other half of your ticket has been thrown into a large bowl. All the ladies gifts were placed on one table and the men's gifts on another. When the first number is drawn that person chooses a gift from the table and unwraps it showing it to everyone. The next number is drawn and that person has a choice to choose a gift from the table OR stealing the gift already opened. Then the game continues in that manner with loads of laughs as gifts are opened and stolen, great antics are used with bribes and jokes, everyone trying to give or steal away gifts. Well, my tricycle was opened before my number was called and I had a hard time staying loyal to that trike as I watched all kinds of cute and neat things being opened. Including a quesadia maker I would have loved to taken home for the kids to try! But when my turn finally came around I was mean and stole the tricycle hoping I would get to keep it. As my luck would have it though it was soon stolen from me. Now, everyone needs a friend as sweet as this, my wonderful good friend ??? (can't tell ya who!!) had also brought a gift she wanted to keep. A gift certificate to Bath and Body Works, she had been the one to open it and was so far able to keep it. She quickly motioned for me to steal it from her and then she would steal back my trike. Hmmmm, is that cheating? :-) Well, it was worth the risk so we put the plan to action. It all fell through shortly though when the gift card was stolen from me. I felt soooo panicky, WHAT WAS I GOING TO DO!! I looked to see if "She" had another idea, she just laughed and shook her head, so I wandered to the gift table to try again. I couldn't believe it when the gift I opened was a soap set from Bath and Body Works!! The game ended soon and "She" was happy to trade with me knowing she could keep the set or exchange it. I never could quite explain it to the kids why I came home with the same gift, they couldn't understand why I had taken something I didn't want to give away!! I would have been happy with anything all the gifts were nice but I proudly displayed my new tricycle on the piano and made threats to all who thought about touching it!! LOL! It would take more time than you or I have to explain all the stealing and trading that went on on the man's side!! Michael did come home with a nice set of pliers and wrenches in exchange for the Galileo thermometer that he took. That was stolen several times times till it was pronounced "dead" on the third steal and that thief got to take it home! ;-) Hope ya'll had a fun Friday night too!

Photo of me and WildMan taken when we knew where the camera was!! haha!

Day 4: Our Crazy Life!!

2008-12-12T10:36:00.000-06:00

Well, Bubba made oatmeal for breakfast! How's that for getting up on time! ;-) He is usually my earliest riser, I don't know how in the world he does it since he is usually the last to go to sleep. I can hear him singing from his room or he will scare me as I walk to the bathroom, calling out "luv ya Mom!" waaayy after he should have been asleep. Funny, I remember doing this same thing to my Mom when I was kid. Guess he might be related to me, but me and mornings don't get along, so he must have gotten that from Dad!! Baby J liked the oatmeal, he proceeded to smear it all over his face in the process of eating, sometimes I wonder just how much the guy gets in his stomach! He stays fat so he must be getting something! ;-)

Today is Piano Day, forget Thursday, getting to piano on time with enough practice to play the music well, is usually the main focus of the day. So today we start our schedule with our chores and breakfast a little late but still make it to "school" on time. Today I added some worksheets for Kaykay and Nanae during math, they enjoyed that since they had some coloring included in the work. Some quick speed drills with our flashcards for Bubba and Sis to go along with their work and we were ready for our first hour of reading. Today is the day we also "get" to go to the library. So usually the kids are on that last book and want to finish it before we go so they can check out all new ones, being the softy that I am, we had some free reading time first today. I was a little (ok, a lot) upset though, when it came time to collect the library books for the book bag and several kids have misplaced a book or two this time. OOOOooo! I turn a few different shades of mad and decide to call Dad! We decide a two book limit is in order until they can be a little more careful. So we move through the morning reading, writing, practicing the piano, and finally make it to lunch.

Most of the time lunch for us is left overs or some kind of soup, sometimes sandwiches. I found some small bread loaves on sale at the store the other day and I though I would toast the kids a treat and make open turkey sandwiches. I thought it would be nice to mix together a "special" sauce I like, (thanks Michelle!) and mix together some mayo, dijon mustard and honey. Very good, or so I thought. I spread the sauce on the bun halves and top with turkey and cheese and serve them warm from the oven. During clean up afterwards I hear Bubba say that he was eating his 3rd partial sandwich. WHAT!! Who didn't like it!?! I guess some of the little kids didn't appreciate me messing with their mayo!! I have to admit spending time on the computer writing yesterday's post was why I wasn't present to watch and prevent the total disregard of "eat your own lunch" rule. I let starvation be the natural punishment (as if that could happen on fruit and chips) and make a mental note for future references! ;-)

Wildman spent some time with his linking chains practicing his sequencing, hand eye coordination and counting, while I initialed practice time sheets and put the piano books in order. He was a little distracted today but very happily chanted " 12, 14, 16.....11, 22!! Cute son, cute.

Suddenly the clock strikes and the mad dash for today begins, we now have 30 min to get out the door. Town clothes on, check. Piano bag, library bag, diaper bag all packed, check. Hair brushed, check. Shoes on, check. COATS!!! We are on our way!! We take a little detour on the way to piano lessons each week, just a little stop at Sonic for a gulp of soda! As a reward for being my kids I get them a Rt. 44 Cherry Vanilla Root Beer, with EZ ice of course! Who needs more ice when you can have more soda! A Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper for the piano teacher, a Ocean Water for her babysitter and a Coke for me! This is the best reason to come to town today! Michael is cutting off my soda intake thinking it might help me loose the extra baby fat I keep complaining about, he is a fixer you see. I try to tell him that my Coke is helping my mental health but I lack the research to prove it. Although I do have quite a file built up in hands on experiment documentation ;-).

The poor piano teacher, we bomb her house each week for lessons, she is such a sweet lady!! The four older kids all decide who's turn it is to go first and off he or she goes to the piano room. Wild Man, Miss Priss and Baby J all head over to the end of the living room with all the toys to play with the piano teacher's son J-kid, while the older ones and I grab our readers and start our lessons on the other side of the room on the comfy couch. We are there a little over a hour and a half so this gives me a great chance to go over spelling and reading lessons in our McGuffey Readers. So in between chatting with the young lady who comes to help babysit J-kid and his twin baby brothers, I am rotating kids through piano and reading lessons. Usually listening to 3 kids spell different words at the same time is enough to make me wish I had a Rt. 44 too instead of a medium!

Once the lessons are over, the toys picked and the couches fluffed, we then jump in our big red van and head for the library. There is a little cloud over the visit today since they can't all check out the normal pile of books, but I try to encourage them to do better next time and being the softy I am grabbed a family movie along with the usual educational ones I usually get. As everyone goes to their sections and picks out books, Baby J (who is content to sit in his stroller most days) and I direct traffic from our favorite table in the main isle. Today, Michael calls and lets me know he is heading over to a friend's house to pick up the bouncy horse for Wild Man's Christmas. I suddenly feel the need to be with "Adult Friends" and quickly come up with a plan for him to invite these friends to our house for dinner. He says he'll ask when he gets there and let me know. Of course I can't help but get excited anyway and I whisked the kids out (thankfully they had all their books) and drove over to the grocery store. Fast delicious menus and quick cleaning strategies are running through my head as I grab frozen tortellini (which I have been craving for days and this is my best excuse to make the purchase!!), french bread and salad toppings to round out the rest of the ingredients I have at home. I'm almost to the van when Michael called back and then hands his phone over to Mrs. Friend. It turns out she needed an excuse to order Papa Murphy's Pizza (BIG YUM!!) and offered to share it with us if we all head to her house instead. I wouldn't want to hurt her feelings of course, so we headed that way and helped them with their pizza! :-) We all won! My kids love playing with the Friend's kids and everyone was happy! Thanks so much for the fellowship, Mr. and Mrs. Friend!!

And as it usually happens, I started talking about picking up toys and clearing out about 8:00 but when we finally tore ourselves out the door with a promise to have them over soon, it was much later than that. Tired but very happy, a quickie stop at the gas station and we were on our way home to bed. :-) God is good!

Day 3: Our Crazy Life!

2008-12-11T12:05:00.001-06:00

Wed-nez-day, so how was yours? Today we had several little runny noses and clogged heads as we headed into our day. Poor kids, some of them have my winter allergies, some have Michael's summer allergies and a couple have both!!

We try to move a little faster on Wednesday's because we like to go to the home school PE class at the YMCA before church. So off we went on our day's schedule. We breezed through Math, a hour of reading then our writing assignments. We worked in extra time on piano practice, since tomorrow is piano lessons and the Christmas recital at a local nursing home will soon be here! After grabbing a quick lunch we spent the early afternoon with our required reading and piano practice. The kids love to come and tell me everything about the books they are reading and sometimes it's an absolute circus trying to keep up with all the stories when they make it a competition to see who can tell me their story the quickest (and usually the loudest!). I really try to follow along but end up putting Nancy Drew on the island with the Swiss Family Robinson who are laughing at Dick and Jane while they pull Spot in a Wagon all the way to up the mountain to visit Heidi! Oh well, as long as they know what's going on and can pass the tests with flying colors, then all is good! :-)

We are going to be starting in the next few days our lessons on sign language. I used the "baby" signs with all the kids when they were toddlers and they have all retained quite a few signs which is very handy. Especially if I have my hands full with someone or something I can get Sis's attention from across the room and sign for her to take Miss Priss to the potty and have that done without even slowing down with what I'm doing. So, we all have decided that learning more signs to help us signal and communicate with each other will be a great project. They are already having a great time trying to get Dad and his awkward manly hands to bend and move into shapes and signs. This will be a fun project and I've enjoyed pulling some books together. My nieces and nephew have learned quite a bit of sign language from a class they are taking and how neat it will be to be able to "talk" with them. It is a great encouragement tool!

We have a world map on the wall that has been labeled with the continents, oceans, major rivers, mountain ranges, deserts and the Panama Canal. We have began memorizing these, starting with the continents. The oldest four have mastered these and are moving on to the oceans now. They enjoy making, tracing and coloring in their maps, this was one of my favorite things in school as well.

I did take the time today to drag out some of the things I've picked up to decorate our Christmas tree with. The years we have put up a tree I have had the same silver ribbons, balls and such since we were married, so this year I got a big kick out of pilfering through the Dollar Tree store with Michael and finding something different. Different for us anyway. Red and gold seemed to be our new theme as we loaded up on chrysanthemums, ribbon and garland. Keeping Baby J in mind we opted for plastic balls, snow flakes and icicles. Today the kids and I tossed this all together and danced and giggled around the tree filling it with all it's new sparklies. I promised to find their baby ornaments to add to it soon. I think one of my next project stations will be filled with craft items and ideas for the kids to make some new sparklies of their own creation to hang on the tree, and I thank Evenspor over at desertspor.blogspot.com for some great ideas!

As you can imagine it takes a chunk of time to get ready to go anywhere, so all too soon we are on the last stretch in our mad dash out the door. Everyone is dressed for PE, finally, and if I can get everyone in matching (clean!) clothes, hair brushed and SOCKS with their shoes I'm doing real good! Coats are a major bonus! Why in the world do we have to remind them it's cold in the winter and they need a coat!!! We pack our bags with church clothes, hair bows and clean underwear, grab the diaper bag and head out the door. Since we live about 25-ish miles outside of town, it doesn't help to remember the thing you forgot half way there!!

PE class is for Kindergarten and up, the kids love going to this class. They start out by running laps around the gym, then spend time with stretching, sit ups, push ups and other torture. ;-) The rest of the class is usually spent in fun active games such as dodge ball. The group really gets along really well with boys and girls of a wide range of ages. They work together and have learned valuable skills in team work. I can really tell a major improvement their coordination as well, which I have read is linked to reading skills. I'm a believer as I have seen reading speed and comprehension improve greatly over the last several months. Either way they are having a blast! Usually Wild Man, Miss Priss and Baby J like romp around in the kiddie drop off area for awhile while I get a small work out myself. Dad is able to meet us there most days and we play a couple games of racquetball, a very funny sight to see for sure! Soon we move on to the showers and get dressed for church, and if I'm lucky everyone will have the right clothes, shoes, and a brush!!

If we time it just right we make it to church just in time for the kids to run in the door and get to the children's choirs early enough to get an early bird prize!! As one of the teacher's put it, the kids don't come just for the candy but it sure helps!! They are all working on memorizing their parts for the choir presentations that are coming up for Christmas. The Choir Christmas Party is coming up this Saturday and no one wants to miss that for sure! Each kid brings me reminder notes of the party and gives me a serious explanation of what time to be there and what goodies to bring. If they want to be on time they should be sweet talking their "laid back, no sense of time" Daddy!! :-) "Luv ya, Babe!"

Seems time flies by after church as everyone likes to visit a minute and catch up every one's happenings, but on the drive home it is usually quiet as everyone is running out of steam. This is a good time to put in an interesting history "book on tape" and take advantage of the peace!! We are still listening to the one about Pearl Harbor.

Once we are home I usually announce the race to bed has begun and set the timer. Flannel flinging, toothpaste slinging and kisses are flying as kiddos beat the clock to bed. The bell dings and the lights are out! Finally, Me and Daddy time. This is when I started a wonderful story about a funny email sent to me only to look around and find Michael laying on the floor fast asleep right under the vent blowing hot air into the room. So I did what all good wives do, sent him to bed and ran to boot up the computer!!! ;-) We'll see if I get up on time tomorrow!!

Day 2: Our Crazy Life!

2008-12-10T16:52:00.000-06:00

HIYA!

Our Tuesday usually start on time, our daily schedule is getting up about 6:30. We get our rooms cleaned up, beds made and everyone dressed. While I make breakfast and Dad is getting ready for work, the kids are getting their chores done. Each one has a chart of a few things they are to do or get started before breakfast. Once breakfast is over we are ready to clean up the kitchen, kiss Dad goodbye and start school.

Wild Man has been running around the house singing "1 2 3 Buckle my shoe...", he doesn't quite have it right yet but he sure is working on it. He learned it from a worksheet working on memorizing his numbers, he likes to hang EVERYTHING he does on the fridge! I'm going to have to get tough and teach him the replacement theory before the fridge falls through the new floor from the weight of all the papers!!

We have a few separate grades going on here, Bubba just turned 12 he is in the 6th grade, his main interests right now are books on soldiers and weaponry used in past wars. He has been practicing his aim lately in hopes of getting his deer on the last youth hunt weekend coming up. Sis is 10 1/2 and she is also in the 6th grade, she spends the majority of her time reading. You might just find her anywhere, on the dryer, on the stairs, sitting in the kitchen floor and other places reading wherever she got side tracked. She loves to spend time sewing and learning to cook also. Her favorite thing to make so far is cookies and brownies. Kaykay has a had a recent birthday too and she is 8 and in the 3rd grade, she likes to read too which fuels her imagination. Your more likely to find her dressed up somewhere in the barn or play house creating some drama or another. Nanae is in fwirst grade as she would say and is 6 1/2, her favorite place is Daddy's lap, but when he's not available she is found reading or playing in her "kitchen" and dressing her baby dolls. Wildman, well, he's just that my little wild man. I keep him interested in lots of hands on activities like counting bears, tan gram sets, and building materials. He loves to look at books and be read too as long as he has time! :-) I am planning on starting him in the Abeka K4 books in January, he is 4 1/2. Miss Priss is only 2 and will be 3 end of January, she keeps herself busy with coloring pages and sorting games. She loves to "read" also and is always asking to watch the Letter Factory "One mo time?". ;-)

The older kids usually start with Math, this takes about an hour. Since I have one Saxon 65 book (I really need to order another one!!) Bubba starts his lesson first, while Sis starts her writing assignment. KayKay is working on the addition flashcards up to table 12. She about has them all memorized and will be starting the multiplication ones soon. Today we just practiced saying them as fast as she could, we took some time and played a game, the person who says the answer first when I flash them gets the card and the person with the most cards wins. They love doing this, the older kids like "letting" the younger kids win some cards but the younger kids really try hard. They know one day they will say them just as fast and they already are giving them some competition! Nanae is working on her addition cards too, she is doing very well. I have added some subtraction in now and she is picking them up faster each day.

The second hour of school is filled up with hand writing. Sis starts her math lesson and switches with Bubba. These two have a calendar on the wall with a story suggestion or topic sentence to finish for each day of the week. Today they finished a story that started out "Oliver Eagle looked down from his nest..." . They can get very creative! Kaykay has a book of handwriting she does a few pages in each day, she is getting the hang of cursive but isn't too excited about it yet. She does love however the pages she has been writing for her journal. She has just started it, writing about her name and what she looks like. Today she is decorating her journal with markers, she loves to draw. Looks like she just might be a princess in her picture this time! Nanae has just started a new writing table from Rod and Staff, she is really really liking it. It reviews some of the basics of making straight lines before taking her into the copying letters and she is having a blast. Today she traced the lines on a house in the first box, then each box after is missing more and more lines until the final box she draws the house without any help. She was very proud of her house and she did a great job. Wild Man and I went over his numbers poster today, he can count very well and does a great job when he is paying attention!! :-) We read a book together and then spent some time tracing the numbers one and two. We then explored the frog station together where he fashioned what he said was a frog from the play dough. He spent a little time trying to find some frogs outside before I finally convinced him they were all down at the pond sleeping!

We also had some eye appointments today so after lunch and clean up we headed to town. Our reading was done on the run today. They each had their readers with them and spent the time in the waiting room with their reading lessons. We are going through the McGuffey Readers, Bubba is in the Second Reader, Sis who is a much faster reader and excellent speller has just finished the 3rd Reader and is now reading Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. Kaykay is almost finished with the First Reader and Nanae is a few lessons into the Primer and just is almost through with her Dick and Jane collection. These are their required reading materials I have assigned, they spend about 3 hours a day reading these books then about an hour reading a book of their choice. They have quite a collection of Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Box Car Children, Mandie, Laura Ingalls, many of the classics and not to mention the couple hundred other books I have scattered around. Lately they have been seen reading through Swiss Family Robinson, Heidi, Hardy Boys, Pony Pals and some easy readers I have from Rod and Staff.

Once the eye appointments were over we sweet talked Dad into taking us to Wendy's to use some of our free Frosty coupons. I batted my eyes and got a chicken sandwich out of the deal and a few burgers to make it a little healthier of a supper. I try anyway!

A quick stop on the way home to drop off a baby gift and some food to a new young mother and then we were on our way home. Boy has the temperature dropped here!! The rain has turned to ice and we were happy to arrive home to our comfy house and throw some wood in the stove. Dad and the older kids ran (drove actually!) down to Grandma and Grandpa's to dip some milk out of the milk tank in the barn. No one could wait till morning to have a bowl of cereal so they all dove into Honey Nut Cheerios, something don't get very often! :-)

Soon the kids were off to bed while Dad and shared a little time on the computer. I could stay up all night especially to catch up on the news on Momformation at BabyCenter (one of these days I'm going to have to learn how to create a link!!) , but Hubby isn't the night owl I am!

Hope your not too bored!! "TTFN" as Tigger would say!! :-)

Photo: All the kiddos in the van on the way to town, guess it was nap time too! Hopefully I'll have more photos tomorrow when I put in the new camera battery!!

Day 1: Our Crazy Life!

2008-12-09T12:40:00.000-06:00

Hi ya'll, I bet you have been as busy as we have through the beginning of the holidays!! We had a great Thanksgiving in Oklahoma visiting my family. I can't believe it's over and Christmas is sooo close!!! It seems like yesterday it was July something and then someone pushed a button and fall was over and winter on it's way!! My kids are pretty excited though, they are hoping (sorry !) to have a real good snowman making snow this year! Haven't had one in the last few years, they thought the ice storms from the last couple winters was neat to look at and explore but it was hard on the people with out power for sure. So they are praying for more snow and less ice! Oh boy!

Well, I'm starting our day one by telling about our Monday (11-8-08). I figure the only way to get the time is to post about it the next day!! Our Mondays are kinda slow, slow to rise and slow to get moving. We just have so much going on weekends that we usually crash come Monday morning. But this morning we got rolling in time for breakfast! :-) then started the laundry which is usually an all day thing. We do two loads most everyday but Monday is catch up from the weekend and a day to get everything in order for the week. Big Sis, is in charge of the laundry room and she does a great job keeping everything sorted and moving along. She is a big help in putting away the clean clothes. Our community closet works out great, town and church clothes are hung up and play clothes and underclothes are stored in basket drawers on shelves under the hanging clothes. Now if only I can get a little time to weed out some of the clothes they aren't wearing and make a little extra room!! The rest of the kids are doing the main cleaning with me, we go through the house room by room with our dusters, brooms and mops and try to get everything "deep" cleaned, we take turns going in to help Big Sis and actually have lots of fun and giggles as we move through the house. My poor broom handles are all dented and bent from all the sword fights and such!

We usually take time for our schooling in the afternoons on Mondays. Today I set up two "learning stations". We have gotten some great ideas for learning stations from the Lapaz family over at lapazfarm.homeschooljournal.net . One station I set up with a poster, some books, plastic models and a small tub of play dough for the kids to explore about frogs. They are getting a real kick out of the frog guts in the models!! If I had more guts, I would order some dissecting frogs for them to really get a hands on experience!! Maybe one day!, when Dad's home!! Our other station was about the human body, the frog models brought on questions about our "guts" so I grabbed up a few things to learn about and think over. Nothing like a good hands on project to bring on the most interesting of questions!! :-)

We are also listening to a book on tape about Pearl Harbor called Dec. 7 1941, it is very interesting. We are hoping one day to be able to take all the kiddos to Hawaii to see the Memorials.

Since it is the Christmas Season we are all preparing our gifts and running around giggling with secrets. We decided that Baby J needs some wooden farm animals to play with and began making our stencils and drawing them onto a board. The look rather preschoolish but I think they will get the job done. We took the boards over to our friends the Bogg's family where they watched as the saw began cutting out the sheep, pigs, chickens and tractors. Soon we will add cows, horses, goats, and colts. Maybe a turtle and a raccoon for fun! Hopefully Dad will help us with our small loafing shed and then the painting will begin!!!

Tonight we also have plans to go with the Bogg's to a live Nativity play in the nearby "big city"! It was really good, the kids had a blast pointing out all the happening of the play and eating candy. We were lucky tonight we were having a south wind that warmed up the weather a little and let the kids sit outside the van and enjoy. They laughed at the donkey who didn't seem to want to go anywhere very fast but preferred to sit instead. The soldiers looked very strong sitting on their tall horses, a few soldiers were walking around with some of the largest dogs I've ever seen. Great Dane maybe!? One little Angel running around with red boots had to be carried back up the hill after they sang to the shepherds, it was very cute. Afterwards we loaded up and drove over to the Bass Pro Shop, they are remodeling some of the building bringing in new decorations and wildlife. We all enjoyed watching the turtles in the turtle pond and taking pictures by the indoor waterfall. Their Christmas decorations are very pretty and I was able to get a few snapshots of my girls and one of the Bogg's youngest boys before the camera batteries died.

On the way home a quick stop at the Krispie Kreme for a sugar high got the van of kids and adults rolling for the trip home. Once we made it back to the house we were a bubbly crew but ready for lights out, only slightly late for bedtime! :-)

:-) Happy Anniversary

2008-11-19T11:08:00.000-06:00

We have been soooo busy lately trying to get the kitchen back to a usable state and trying to keep the house a decent trashy. The laundry has sort of been forgotten and piled up high enough to fall out the back door!! That might be a little exaggeration, but you know how it is when your behind on things it might as well be the worst situation because it seems you'll never get it done!! :-) But we have the cabinets in place and clean out, I had a great time putting things away. Just looking in the room it feels like the same amount of space but I am getting more junk in those things than I ever did in the old ones!! We have only a little more work on finishing the walls, flooring and some trim. My cook stove is hooked up again, YEA! I am going through the house one room at a time cleaning and throwing away while waiting on my kitchen. Soon the sawing and hammering will be done hopefully and I will be able to tackle the final layer of dust. I'm about ready for "shop" class to end! :-)

A friend asked me about posting some pictures and telling about what our family does during the week, It's funny you usually don't see your own life as all that interesting to others but I guess with my seven kids people wonder what in the world I do with them all! So for anyone interested I'm going to be posting soon, a day to day picture show and comments of a week in the life of 9ndhouse. Hope no one dies of boredom! :-)

As for the anniversary title, yesterday was our 13th wedding anniversary! We took time out and went out for a date. We even left the kids at home! :-) We went out to dinner with a couple whom we are good friends with, it was also their 42nd anniversary. I stuffed myself silly with BBQ ribs, chicken strips, onion rings and the softest honey glazed croissant rolls I've ever had. I have ever mentioned how much I love food! :-) It likes me too, and tries to stick around awhile. After dinner we went to see the movie Fireproof. It was sooooo goooood!! I have been listening to friends and reading blogs of all the people who have seen it and it was a wonderful movie, every bit as good as they said. I did bring my hanky thinking I wouldn't need it but I laughed till I cried so many times, then bawled a few times just because I'm a girl! All in all we had a great night out, it's always fun to have some Mommy and Daddy time!

Photo of the kids recently taken on a field trip to the Harry S. Truman Birthplace in Lamar, MO. :-)

It's a mess around here!

2008-11-05T11:53:00.000-06:00

The noise level was almost ear busting, dust so thick you choked and forget about seeing anything till it settled! A new gaping hole is now staring at me from the kitchen floor! Where moments before the stove had once stood with dinner simmering and THEN.......Just Kidding!!

Actually the hole is where the sink and cabinets once stood, or at least stood the best they could on a floor sooo rotten it was like walking on a swinging bridge! OK, not quite that bad. But bad enough this poor short gal was bending over more and more each day just to reach the sink! :-)

So, that's what we've been up to lately, or rather down to. Reconstructing the kitchen!! Yea!!

It started when I got this really great idea to put a want ad for used kitchen cabinets on Craig's List. Michael, my husband was working on the down stairs bathroom putting up walls, doors and all that good stuff, he wasn't really looking for another project and since he was skeptical that I would find anything anyway said he would check out any REASONABLE priced "finds" that I could come up with. I was about to give up hope, "new to me" cabinets and a solid kitchen floor was fading fast when I finally got an answer, someone in a town nearby had some used oak cabinets sitting in their garage waiting for me! For a REASONABLE price of course!! A few days later I'm moving the living room furniture around to make room for this wonderful find while Michael watched me with that "you owe me" look! ;-} Of course he wanted to wait and......I don't know why he wanted to wait. But anyway, I started tearing up, tearing out and causing all kinds of destruction to my kitchen. It was really stress relieving, very nice. It wasn't so nice when I bent his hammer though, word of advise...."DON'T TEAR UP YOUR HUSBAND'S HAMMER!!" It makes for a not so nice look on his face when he finds it, not to mention that you'll "owe" him again!

I was all prepared to tackle this project and be the push behind the man (well I couldn't do it all alone! ) and help make this kitchen a reality when.......Aren't friends wonderful!.......GREAT! really!......a truck pulled up and out came a great friend who started helping Michael finish the destruction I had started. While his wife and I kept the dining room chairs down and all the kids out of the way, the men went to work behind the sheet I had hung up to keep the dust contained. In they went with all manner of tools and contraptions, banging and loud noises came forth from the "operating room" while we waited. Soon another wonderful family happened by and soon he and his boys were got caught up in the excitement, his wife too took a chair and we talked and waited. In went more tools and lumber and out came loads of debri and dust. It began to get late and I was beginning to wonder about the guys, I slid glasses of tea and brownies under the curtain to keep up their strength, the soup and cornbread had gotten cold on the table.

Finally, the noise stopped and quietness buzzed in our ears. The proud dirty men emerged from behind the curtain, they were tired and hungry. We peeked into the kitchen to find a wonderful new floor where the gaping hole had been just a few hours earlier. They had torn out half the floor replaced the rotten joices and flooring and it was now ready to take on and hold up the "new to me" cabinets! I was sooo impressed with the amount of work done in one evening!!

A few days later the truck pulled up again, and as Michael and our friend began to work he mentioned that his wife was waiting for me and the kids at their house. I quickly pointed out the food, brownies and tea grabbed the kids and ran. I could only imagine how much work they could accomplish without the distractions!!

They installed half the cabinets that night and while the work isn't completed yet, I'm one HAPPY Momma! The old early 1940's homemade cabinets are being replaced with more modern custom built one's from the 70's with a few new plug ins thrown in for fun! What MORE can I ask for!!!

Michael is groaning, he knows I'll think of something!! :-D

Photo: My wonderful husband, laughing at me about something. I forget now what, but I'm sure it wasn't funny!! :-)

Pizza pockets?

2008-10-23T08:25:00.000-05:00

Poor Baby J! As you can tell he's having a rough time. He has the chicken pox!!! He wasn't in the best of moods last night when I kept him home from church and had this photo shoot instead. I think he was rolling his eyes trying to tell me how embarrassed he was, after all this is black mail pictures for later. About 20 yrs from now later, 'bout the time he brings home his hopefully soon to be wife. Of course one of his sister's is going to bring out some lovely photos of cutie pie here. :-) All with the added injustice of having to wear his sister's PINK pull-up 'cause we were out of BLUE diapers, somehow he knew it wasn't his. He kept pulling at it all evening until Dad came to the rescue with some new diapers!

Your probably wondering why the title was pizza pockets? Well, today is Homeschool PE day at the YMCA. SOO, I loaded all the kiddos and headed for town. Usually after PE we enjoy other activities at the Y then head to the locker room and get ready for church. BUT, today since Baby J couldn't go spreading his lovely catch I dropped the 4 older kids off and headed over to Dad's work. He was trading vehicles with me, keeping the van and staying in town with the older 6 and going to church while I drove back home with Baby J. Well, once we arrived to Dad's work, Wild Man decided he HAD to go to the bathroom. After he finished his business we were ready to leave when he launched into a detailed story about how Baby J was sick, red all over and had Pizza pockets. He had the man in the hall laughing but rather confused so I clarified, "Wild man, Baby J doesn't have pizza pockets, he has chicken pox!" The man in the hall had another good laugh, Wild Man laughed too although I'm not sure he got the joke. :-)

Photo: Baby J and his "pizza pockets" ! (I can't really tell it's pink can you? hehe)

Tag I'm it!

2008-10-15T12:02:00.000-05:00

I guess I've been tagged. This was a fun thing to do and I was really curious as to which picture it would be. Well, here you have it!! It was one of many try and try again family pictures we took for our Christmas cards last December. My friend May, poor May, she tried and tried to get all the kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time. My husband was getting the manly version of the giggles, while Baby J screamed his head off, Lil' Sis wouldn't keep her thumb out of her mouth, Wild man was intent on watching other children in the room play and who knows what Miss Priss is doing! I'm really surprised you can't see the steam coming out of my ears!! Doesn't my fake it smile look nice!!? Really, though it wasn't too bad, it only took 30 min and 12

pictures!!

Here is the final "take it or leave we're going home" photo, still didn't get Wild Man to look at the camera but Hey!! 6 out of 7's not bad!!! and by the way thanks again, May!!!

SO, now I have to tag four other people to post the fourth picture from their forth picture file!!

1.Spors in the Desert

2. Kathy's Tea Time

3. Just Another Soldier's Wife

4. Snooky Great

Have Fun!!!

Where to now, Lord?

2008-10-14T13:25:00.000-05:00

My husband learned recently that the company who owns the plant he supervises is closing. They can't run the plant at a loss any more, who could!! When your only making 7 cents per pound on product that takes $'s to process, it makes sense to get out while you can.

The company has been great to all the people, giving them a 2 month notice, paid time off, severance packages and will cash in any vacation time left. I pray that all the people get other jobs easily and that things go well for them, with Christmas coming up it is a scary time to loose a job.

My husband has been offered a possible job in another state, so far we don't know any of the details or if it will be available for sure. He has been asked to stay until the plant is completely closed then oversee the removal of all the equipment, so we have some time to look over the options. I was thinking how nice it would be if God would just write us a quick note, telling us where to go and what He wants us to do. :-) I do know though, that He does have a plan for us and whatever that plan is He will reveal it to us in His time. Faith, Trust and Obey. I don't have to worry or go nuts, just wait. The Sunday school song " Read your Bible pray everyday, pray everyday, pray everyday. Read your Bible pray everyday and you'll "Know, know, know" " keeps going through my head. :-) I changed grow to know, if ya didn't catch it.

So if anyone can spare a few minutes to say a prayer for us we would greatly appreciate it, who knows we might soon be you new neighbors!!! Thanks!! :-D

Photo- My wonderful husband and I, taken recently on a field trip with the kids.

Happily Ever After

2008-10-09T12:15:00.000-05:00

The Silver Gray Mare

by: my fabulous 10 yr old daughter

Once upon a time there was a herd of wild horses and in that herd was a silver gray mare. She was a beauty! Well, one day the Stallion noticed that one of his mares was missing. It was the silver gray mare. So he stopped his herd and made them stay there. Then he galloped back to where they had rested for the night. Then he smelled for the mare, suddenly he saw the mare coming in the distance. There was something with her. The Stallion realized it was a colt. The colt was black like the Stallion but had silver gray coloring around it's ankles. They lived happily ever after.

My daughter handed this to me awhile ago after she had written it. I was sitting here trying to think of something interesting that happened this week to write about. Lots of things are happening around here all the time, but I'm not always sure it would make a good post.

As I read this story I began to picture myself walking up the hill behind the Stallion....

I could smell the walnut trees heavy with nuts, fresh dirt, and the sweat of the horse. The surrounding hills were painted with all the colors of fall, bright and shiny with morning dew. The leaves rustled softly, the sound rising and falling with the wind that loosened them from their branches and sent them floating down to gather on the timber floor. I stepped quietly behind the trees and watched as the Stallion raced across the valley and through the winding creek his hooves splashing up a rainbow of color that sparkled and danced in the air. He stopped short on the other side and shivered with emotion, lifted up his head and snorted in the air. He stomped and tossed his long wild mane. He stilled and looked across the land and seemed to in a moment become a proud statue. I looked in the direction he faced and there was the prize he was searching for. The Silver Gray Mare gracefully traced the timber line and neighed a soft greeting, beside her was a shiny jet black colt frolicking in the sun shine. The reunion was sweet, the colt full of mischief kicked up and ran circles in the warm sun shine, playing and snickering to his proud parents. They turned and made their way quickly through the valley, their manes and tails glistening in the breeze and they all together disappeared in the shadow of the hills and... lived happily ever after.

So, if you'll excuse me I think I'll go take today's school lessons outside to the timber that's calling my name and see what we find. Have a great day!! :-)

Photo- One of our miniature colts, the kids all love horses.

Is it a laundry mat?

2008-09-30T13:08:00.000-05:00

NOPE!, Just me and my family getting ready for the big seasonal clothes switch!! Welcome to 9ndhouse!! With 7 kids in the house we have a ton of clothes. Each kid's section by itself doesn't seem to be very many but multiply it over and over and it's a mess!! Right now it looks like a clothing store has bombed us, but the kids are soooo excited!!!

They were with me at the end of last winter when I went to the second hand store and bought several bags of "cool" clothes in the $3 bag sale. We put them away in their out of season boxes and switched them for the summer clothes. Now that the air is turning cooler the switch is upon us again. To them it's like Christmas, getting a ton of new clothes. Now, I love clothes and I love to shop. I must have given this joy to all my children because even the boys like to get new clothes and to shop.

So, for the next several days, in between school, meals, cleaning, canning and everything else that goes on around here, we will be sorting, matching, hanging, folding and putting away a mega load of laundry. It's a good thing they all enjoy doing this, their "help" helps a lot!!

There is a system to my madness, the community closet isn't the prettiest thing in the world but we built it in the laundry room. The idea was to wash, dry and put away the clothes all in the same room to make it easier and faster. The girls and the boys take turns getting dressed and for the most part all the laundry stays in one place. I usually match outfits and number them (shirt #1 goes with shorts #1) with the girl's initials and some things are by color, each girl has different colors of pajamas. This makes things simple enough even the younger children can put away clothes with no problem. AND!, no one is ever fussing over who is wearing whose clothes!! The boys of course have and assortment of jeans, pants and shirts and would never call them "outfits"!! We hang the "church" and "town" clothes and put "play" clothes and everything else in labeled baskets that act as drawers on the lower shelves. Town clothes are not as dressy as church clothes but not as plain as play clothes, by giving everything a label I can say..."We are leaving in 15 min. get clean town clothes on and get in the van!". Most of the time they will ask now, "where are we going, do we need clean play clothes or town clothes?"

NOW, the tricky part is staying motivated to keep the washers and dryers going so that all this mess stays clean!!!! Hopefully soon I can report a clean living room and laundry room again!!

photo: the kids were sorting their clothes into piles, after baby J had pulled down several piles they threw him in a box of his own!! btw- the floor is concrete and my paint didn't stick very well, we are still remodeling and maybe we can afford the tile later this fall!!

Farm Life: How hard will you work for a hamburger?

2008-09-25T04:05:00.000-05:00

"NOOOooooo", they hollered as they watched with wide eyes, "Hamburger is getting away!!". So proudly just moments before, my husband and older children had patted themselves on the back for a job well done. It was in record time they had brought up the cow and placed her in the panel pen to wait until the butcher arrived. She must have sensed this day was "special" somehow and decided since she couldn't go over, under she must go and under she went. The "hamburger" got away!

Next she wandered down by the pond, so rather begrudgingly my husband and the kids followed and soon the chase was on. With lunch in the house waiting to be fixed and laundry waiting to be folded, I just had to stay and watch. Something told me this was going to be entertaining and I wasn't disappointed. Dad (my husband) was giving directions as he walked around the left side of the pond, the kids were to walk around the right side and bring her close to him. He had a rope in his hands and the idea was to rope her around the neck and lead her back to the pen. As the kids drove her closer she spotted Dad and turned around, all the shouts to "stand still" and "don't let her through" was wasted as the brave kids tucked tails and ran. She was a gentle cow who liked her head rubbed when the breakfast grain was fed and liked to leave snotty kisses on the back of the girls' head as they walked by. Not exactly tame but not exactly wild either. She jogged a little way through the trees, around the pond and turned to look triumphantly at Dad...but he was gone. Suddenly he jumped an old fence and raced toward her swinging the rope, he had snuck his way back around the pond and the chase was on once more. Rowdy decided now was the time join in on the action, he quickly fell in line behind the cow and gave chase. For several minutes I watched and laughed as the cow followed by Rowdy, followed by Dad, followed by 4 kids ran one after the other. They were all splishing around the edge of the pond, splashing through the mud and jumped over a maze of ancient fences, fallen trees and forgotten stumps. Laughter, whoops and hollers mingled with snaps of branches, crunching leaves and water splattering filled the air around the edge of the timber and echoed back. Over and over again Dad and the kids got close enough to throw the rope, just barely missing the darting cow.

I knew the plan was to wear her down a little but I was beginning to wonder who was being wore down! Soon Dad stopped with heaving sides and just looked at me. "You could help!" he said huffing and puffing while holding his sides. "I'm not as athletic as you!" I replied from my side of the fence. I got the look, you know the one. Feeling brave I suggested he walk the cow down the fence row to the larger holding pen and try to rope her in there and got another look. From where I was standing I supervised the kids and got them to move the cow along the fence while Dad was sprawled out on a tank to catch his breath. Soon she was in the larger pen and with the help of Dad we got all the panels shut. I figured now was a good time to head back to the house and get that lunch ready, hunger had surely been worked up today!

Soon the troops all came straggling in, "Get "er in the pen?" I asked, "Yep" was the answer. Over a lunch of spaghetti and homemade bread (two starches I know!) we all laughed and retold the funny events leading to the final capture of our "hamburger". "I roped her, Mom!" my oldest boy proudly told me as he loaded his plate. "First try!" he said, I chuckled and raised my eyebrow at Dad. He smiled and nodded his head, "Yep, first try. He roped her as she ran by." My young cowboy sat up a little straighter, forked a big piece of meat out of his spaghetti and said "Yep!, I sure like hamburger!!" I had to laugh as a I told him, "That's deer meat, bud!" :-)

Photo- That's my cowboy!

Our School!!

2008-09-16T23:34:00.000-05:00

We started school this year, the day after Labor Day. So far everything is going great and we are having fun. At least that's what the kids say!! They have already in just a few weeks read several books on their reading lists, written some great stories, flew through the addition flashcards and been on several wonderful field trips!

This is nap time for the pre-schoolers :-)

Us 'N friends at local conservation & audubon center

The kids found a GPS cache during the hike while hunting mushrooms and making leaf rubs.

Playing by the trail in Shoal Creek, watching the fog roll in.

Museum, it took over an hour to read and do all the activities, including observing the snakes, fish aquarium, and spiders. We had a special interest in the snakes, we were trying to identify a certain visitor to our front door last week.

The Harry S. Truman birthplace is a great field trip, the kids loved exploring this home without modern conveniences still sitting quietly in the middle of a modern town.

The kids are excited to be starting their own field guide soon, putting together their snap shots of flowers, trees and things they have found with notes written about each one. It will probably be an on-going project that may last several years. Possibly several volumes!!

"Yesterday"

2008-09-16T17:15:00.001-05:00

She thanked the security guard in the speaker and sat back to watch the gate slowly slide away. Her heart began to tremble as she pulled the van through, her eyes sought to see through the trees to catch a glimpse of what she has seen in her mind for twenty years. Twenty years! How can it be. That she now would be bringing her children here, her own daughter the same age as she once was, in the days when she skated here. The children were excitedly shouting from the back as they spotted their Mema and Papa by the club house, but she did not hear them. She couldn't see today, only yesterdays from long ago. Sunny days when the breeze blew her long blond hair behind her as she and her cousin skated around and around, her Granddad and Grandmother proudly watching from the porch of their RV, nestled in the corner of the trailer park just above the river bluff. That trailer could be seen from the gate "yesterday", but now the saplings have grown into beautiful trees blocking her view. In a fog she greeted her mom and the man who was the only dad she ever knew, then slowly started walking down the path to "yesterday". She marveled how everything could be the same yet different. Then... could it be? the same trailer? Now with a covered porch and a well worn path to the river? Don't stand here and stare her mind told her, but it was hard to pull her eyes away. Then the river called and drew her nearer to the bluff and down to the rock beach where she had played "yesterday". Funny, the bluff was taller "yesterday". The current swept around her legs as she waded out to the middle, small fish and crawdads greeted a welcome and flittered away. She began to skip stones and smiled "Look Granddad 4 skips!". "Mom!" she heard from the path and quickly she was brought back to today. She smiled and raced the children back to the club house to help create their "yesterday" -Thank you Lord for the time we have together, thank you for the memories. Thank you most of all for giving me New Life, that I may go to You and to my loved ones who can no longer come to me.

Kick'n up dirt!!

2008-09-08T19:52:00.000-05:00

Who wants to ride a broom when they have a 5.5 horse power motor to jet them around the room!! I'm referring to my new vacuum cleaner!! I am soooo excited, and the kids are too. I worked hard (had a garage sale), saved my money (from Sat. to Sun.) and bought it all by myself (Michael had to carry it out for me after he paid the balance :-) )!! Life is good. Now is about the time where you begin to wonder what in the world is the matter with me.

Well, I'm sure if you think back to a time when you replaced that "thing"! You know the one, that thing that you had to use because it was all you had. The one you or your husband had to duct tape, glue and wire back together so many times materials alone holding it together added up to $100! Maybe it was your fridge, or the washing machine? Stove?, VACUUM!! Now your getting the picture. Old Red the upright was still making a lot of noise and pretense but wasn't inhaling anything if ya know what I mean, so I was down to the Rainbow (R2D2's cousin). The one my mother in law gave me, it is a great vacuum but has seen better days. The holding pan for the water (yes, water) had been replaced with the bottom of an old green bucket. The latches are held together with duct tape, cuts and bruises all down the cord wrapped in black bandages while tools fell off the worn out tool belt as you pulled it across the floor leaving scratches where the fourth wheel was supposed to be. It still inhales with great force but since the floor attachment ran away from home a couple years ago, trying to sweep up a house the size of mine with a cracked 1-1/2 inch tube just wasn't cutting it! Not to mention that the hose was 2' too short to reach the ceiling or fans so me AND Rainbow had to climb the step ladder. Not good.

So, now that you remember that "thing" you also remember the excitement and fireworks that went on the day you got to replace it! Ok, maybe not fireworks but close to it, right? Well, I had decided I needed to get a new vacuum. Something with power! Something BIG!! Something...like... Granddad!! Granddad is my new, blue 3' tall shop vac, industrial model! He glides through the house on his mega wheels, dragging an extra long and thick cord, proudly displaying a convenient tool caddy and swinging a grand 2-1/2" nose, I mean hose, long enough to evict any spider lurking over my head. The 12 inch floor attachment threatens to pull up tile if ya don't move along quickly, and he doesn't *require* any water but will drink up if need be. I think we're going to get along great!!

Now having shared my happy moment with you, I'm going to go take advantage of the excitement the kids are showing for Granddad. Tap into some of that energy and get some cleaning done. Can you say, Home Ec class? :-)

Photo: My four oldest kids with Granddad!

Do you feel a draft?

2008-09-03T01:07:00.001-05:00

I've been spending way too much time on the computer lately! :-) Finding new blogs about other people and topics that interest me has been a new passion. Researching, reading, exploring, AND... writing. Here on this blog as well as my comments on other blogs. Suddenly I feel exposed!!

It is a totally new feeling I am experiencing. For the last almost 13 years that I have been married my life has had what I thought was a wide circle of people influence. But did you know that with the click of a few buttons I can discuss say....anything!, with someone in another state! Another country even!! Shocking isn't it! I knew you'd be surprised.

Blog rush, is what I call it. It always seems to come in a rush but for me the emotion attached to it isn't always the same. For instance, after commenting on a blog of someone telling a tragic story I feel the overwhelming urge to cry, to reach to that person and let them know I really do care, I really did pray. Sometimes that heavy burden for them can last way longer that just that moment. Of course when I read a funny tale of a mom who has scrambled through out the day to stay on top of things just to end up under the laundry, I can't help but giggle and smile my smiliest while firing off what I hope is a quirky statement that with luck will reflect my face. And who wouldn't see a little fire during the times of mommy bashing during hot debates, spiteful creatures we are when the world doesn't see it our way. Rrruuush!

Ups and downs, that seems to be life. Mountains and valleys. Hills and hollows. I would assume it to be human nature to second guess yourself to a certain degree, while a bold certainty is screaming from the back somewhere "You Go Girl!, Ya Know It!!" Then there it is again...with the push of a return key. My words... locked in stone thrown out into the great abyss of Internet to be read by anyone who chances by. Did I come across too strong? Did that sound stupid? Feel my laughter? See my smile? Will they understand? Can they see my heart?...I feel a draft :-)

I'm just rattling, what do you think? Ya feel it too?

Picture: Baby J in his big sister's doll bed, definitely feeling a draft!!

The Robinson Curriculum

2008-08-25T14:53:00.000-05:00

I was asked to tell a little about the Robinson Curriculum (RC) since I had linked to it on my sidebar. I found out about this program through friend who discovered the website online. I had been looking for a curriculum that would help me better teach our children, taking in the fact that there were several grade levels, reading levels, and learning styles. RC is basically a collection of Cd's put together by Dr. Robinson, on the Cd's are printable books. The printable books start at a kindergarten level and continue through a 12th grade+ level. By reading these books the children are learning everything they need, inluding their history and science. A quick summary schedule suggested by Dr. Robinson would be: Start the day with Math (he suggests the Saxon Math, which I highly recomend), then go to the writing, then required reading, finishing the *day* with some free reading time. The time for each is set by the parent and decided based on the age of the child. The Saxon Math the only thing not on the Cd's but ordering them through RC will get you a discount.

Dr. Robinson created this program with the help of his 6 children after his wife died. He needed a way to ensure a quality education for his children and be capable of working from home. My summary of what RC is about is incredibly lame compared with the wealth of information and detailed explanations that you will find on his website. He answers tons of questians and gives reasons, explanations, examples and stories all about the how and why. Far better than I can. I studied his site for days.

I can tell you what RC is going to do for me. All my children seem to have different learning styles according the their different personalities, likes and dislikes, and temperament. Some love workbooks and would rather read about and work the pages, while others would rather do something more hands on and write about it. All my children do love to read and be read to. So, instead of trying to wear myself out teaching different styles from several different books, and so forth we have come up with RC. I love the idea that the children are learning to locate info and work through things themselves no longer dependant upon me or a teacher to spoon feed them.

For my older children this year our schedule will be as follows:

Saxon math lesson- about 1 hr

Writing assignment- about 1 hr

Required Reading (from book list) - about 2 1/2 hrs (this includes time to memorize the

vocabulary words from the book)

Free Reading- about 1 hr

The time will increase as they get older and desire more time to write and read. For the younger children that are reading on their own, they will follow the same schedule but with lesser time for each area, again the time will increase with their age and ability.

For pre-reading children, Dr. Robinson suggests that you choose a good phonics program and begin teaching them their reading skills. (He is more detailed on his site.) I am using the Abeka K-4 and K-5 programs, I enjoy all the games and hands-on flashcards, charts and games that help to strengthen the learning making it fun. I make this take as little or as long as I need it too, fitting the curriculum to the needs and time table of my child. Some are slower than others and require more time, but all will be reading at the end of these programs. I also use the on-line program Click-N-Kids (100 lessons) to make reading fun and exciting.

For early math, Dr. Robinson suggests teaching them their numbers. Then using flashcards to teach the adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division tables. Once they can do this they are ready for the Saxon 54 book. Again He is more detailed on his website and flashcards are included on the Cd set.

The best advice I could give about homeschooling, is make learning a way of life. Not a list of things to memorize and copy. Education for us is giving the children the tools they need to learn and find out about anything they will ever desire. The three R's: Reading, (R)Writing, and R'ithmitic, once a child has mastered these tools the *world* is in their hands.

Please, like I stated above, go over the website for a complete understanding of the RC curriculum, how it works, the whys of his methods, etc.... Make it work for you. I don't use, do or agree with absolutely everything in his site but I have made it work for us.

BTW- I have also used and enjoyed the ACE- School of Tomorrow paces, Rod and Staff Publishers, ABEKA, and Bob Jones. Using these in a way that best fit the style of my child.

If there are any questions, you want me to answer specifically just ask, and I will do my best. Goood Luck!!!! Katie

Picture: Our children love to read, and our Daughter wanted a picture of her and her new books last Christmas.

Fieldtrips R fun!

2008-08-20T02:05:00.000-05:00

I sat in my lawn chair last Thursday happily munching my turkey sandwich and watched my children roam in the warm sunshine. I had spent most of the morning pouring over boxes full of used curriculum and school books, laughing with other moms as we filled our vehicles with our prized finds. For me the free curriculum exchange is the best part of Edufair. Free, is one of my favorite words!! Every year we attend a home school fair packed full of adventure, local businesses set up their tables with information about themselves and a fun activity for the kids relating to their business. A science show put on by Mad Science blows them away with experiments about air pressure. The Nature Center demonstrated the different types of owls and interpreted their owl language. The creek running through the park was full of adventure waiting to be discovered, captured and explored. Stories told by a Native American captured imaginations while artistic ability ran wild at the craft table. The kids labored over thank you notes written in exchange for prize tickets, excitement was everywhere. All too soon the fun was over and we packed into the van among the books and headed for home. Soon eruptions of joy filled the air, "MOM!, you found the book I've been looking for!"; "Hey, an old Hardy Boys book!"; "Meto-mor-fus!"; "All about ocean tides"; "Is this 3rd grade math for me?!"; "Flashcards!! okay, what is 4+5? No peaking!" That pile of books should keep them busy for at least....two weeks? :-) They all love to read and be read to, that is one thing they got from me. Something they all got from their Dad is sidetracking! That is what happened on the way home. Does anyone else have a place that they are always planning on stopping at one day? The Wilson Creek Battle Site sign taunts us on the way home from the nearby city every time we make the trip. For the last couple of years we have planned to stop and today was the day! The Wilson Creek Battle Museum was open just long enough to wet our interest in the creative exhibits of Civil War history and artifact displays. Outside a silent cannon called us over for a quick picture, and as the gates closed behind us we planned our next visit, a picnic! with our cousins before we explore the battle field of not so long ago.

Call me "Biker Mom"!!

2008-08-07T21:24:00.000-05:00

I get a lot of things in my hair, as you can imagine with 7 kids in the house, most of which are not wanted. This time though it was the wind in my hair! An awesome feeling and I loved it! Last year Michael bought an older Honda 500 motorcycle to go back and forth to work. He usually spent $75 in gas a week driving his truck and the bike only costs $12! So with a kiss and a prayer I send him off most mornings, especially in good weather. Now, I liked all my body parts right where they were and in working order (most of the time) and had no desire, especially since I was expecting baby Jack, to rearrange myself by falling off a motorcycle! See, I'm a little vertically challenged at 5'3" and Michael and the kids just didn't seem to understand that fear of trying to come to a stop and falling over 'cause ya couldn't reach the ground. I did attempt to catch a ride behind Michael it seemed we (I) was a little over the weight limit. We wobbled down the long gravel driveway, the back fender rubbing the tire blowing smoke while I held on tight and yelled "Slow Down!!"! We turned around at the mailbox. :-) This summer though I haven't been able to stand the peer pressure of the family, "Come on Mom!, Jack is almost a year old and your not that big!" Thanks. So, finally I put on the incredibly ugly helmet I had picked up at the second hand store for the kids and climbed on the monstercycle behind my wonderful husband for my first ride around the block. :-) "Around the block?!" you say? Well around here in the middle of nowhere a block can be about 5 miles. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, the sun was bright and felt warm on my arms as we rode. With the wind in my hair, the bugs in my teeth and the smell of turkey litter and fresh mown hay in my nose, I enjoyed our ride while commenting on the scenery and waving at the neighbors. It was GREAT!! That was start of our mini Sunday afternoon dates. Just the two of us! We have recently rode into town (about 30 miles) and enjoyed a Coke while returning some overdue movies, and the other day we went to the vet (18 miles) to pick up some flea stuff for Rowdy then enjoyed a Coke before the ride home. Yeah!, I love Coke! I love this way of enjoying time with Michael, it brings a rush of excitement I have a hard time describing. Maybe it's all the flirting going on, it's definitely a hands on sport! :-) I'm becoming addicted and now spend time searching the bargain places for a good deal on a cool "Momma" helmet, drooling over newer bigger bikes and contemplating that black leather that hasn't ever so far been my style. But who knows, things change!

So, ever been on a bike ride? and how'd ya like it?

Picture: Meet Rowdy, our lovable rottweiler.

Heat Wave!!

2008-08-03T03:42:00.000-05:00

"I'm melting! I'm melting!" words from one of my favorite childhood movies about summed it up for us today. How about you? I was just roaming through cyber space when the thunder crashed through my speakers. I jump every time! The weather channel has a up date for us..... It's HOT!! I guess I shouldn't be complaining because as I checked through the US I see there are hotter spots than ours! But after a day of mowing the yard, picking the veggies from the garden, working on the truck hitch and sweating up a storm, we.......went to the creek! Oh!, how the kids love the creek. You can imagine what a sight we are, driving down the gravel road with a load of kids in the back and one large rottweiler with his tongue a mile long, all enjoying the wind and dust in their teeth. As soon as the truck stops, SWOOSH! goes the dog, Rowdy followed by the older 5 kiddos ready to feel the cool water wash away the sweat and grime. Wait, did I write cool? I meant COLD! How could I not have the camera ready!! As the 6 bodies came up gasping, the shock on their faces was just hilarious! It seems the summer heat causes a mild form of amnesia. They had all quickly in their excitement forgotten the creek started underground, underground translates: COLD! Dad and I followed at a slower pace and soon we were all wet and having a great time catching crawdads and tadpoles. Baby Jack sitting in his place on a smooth part of the low water crossing (some would call it a bridge?) with about 2 inches of water moving across his toes, he especially enjoyed letting his pacifier go and watch it float away. Quickly one of his sisters or brothers would make a show of rescuing it and hand it back to be repeated. Laughter rang out and echoed through the trees as cattle munched nearby watching and dragonflies swooped quietly around our heads. It was splish and splash until all was worn out and hungry. We pulled our now "blue" selves out of the water, released the captured creatures escaping from their cups and crawled back into the truck. What fun! Only one thing could make it even better! PIZZA! So on down the dusty road we went, to the pizza get'n place for a pizza party on the tail gate, slurp'n soda and wav'n to the farmers. Life slowed down for us today, and it was goood!

Been to the creek lately? How do you keep cool this summer?

*picture of the kiddos at another creek last summer

The Farmer's Wife

2008-07-25T21:47:00.000-05:00

I thought how hard can it be! To be a farmer's wife that is. All I have to do is ride along on the tractor and look cute!, maybe open a few gates and feed the cute baby calves! Well, I wasn't so cute awhile back, actually I was down right mad! My husband had sent me to the local John Deere dealer to pick up some paper work he didn't have time to fetch himself but needed that day. So I got to be the go-fetch girl. I loaded the kiddos into the farm truck and away we went in the summer heat with the windows rolled down to let in some "air conditioning". My husband knew how I hated to go to these places (where only men seem to get service because wives don't know much) and quickly assured me that the man would be waiting for me. All I had to do was mention his name and they would have everything ready for me. RIIght! So I got to JD and bravely marched my herd into that piece of "man's world". I went to the office of our salesman and....IT WAS DARK AND EMPTY!! So much for waiting for me! After a rather embarrassing explanation at the parts desk where no one knew me or my husband's "magic" name I was sent to the front of the store to the manager's office (who happened to be the son of the owner). I could see and hear from the foyer that he and and an old farmer were talking about making hay and the rain storm approaching that evening. The manager made eye contact with me several times while I waited, and after about 10 minutes the kids were starting to get restless. I mean who wouldn't with all those wonderful green and yellow play things sitting around! Finally I said "sir?" and kinda waved my hand a little, I mean somebody was supposed to be waiting for me right!? Well, he looked up and gave me a half smile and went back to chat'n. Now, my blood is starting to heat up a little and the baby's car seat is about to cut off my arm. Suddenly their conversation turned to lawn mowers and up they came, sailing out of the glass office and out the door. I watched as they now Oohed over a green and yellow model sitting outside the door with a big SALE sign on the seat. That did it! I was hot, tired and very cranky! I marched the kiddos out to the truck and loaded everyone up. I happened to be parked a little way from the men talking and sensed that I had gotten their attention. That was all I needed to fire up that big dually truck and rather loudly roar on down the road. It felt good to burn off a little steam but by the time I got home I felt a little foolish. The memory of watching the two rather stunned men grow smaller in the rear view mirror was becoming kinda funny. What wasn't funny was having to explain to my husband where his papers were, but to my surprise he just chuckled and headed for the phone. To bad for me though that wasn't the end of the story, my husband came in later and informed me that since we were needing to run into town anyway we would just drive out of the way a little and pick up those papers. The manager really was waiting for us now!, and that meant I had to go back! How embarrassing! Well, the manager was a little embarrassed too when we got there, it seems he somehow thought I was some one's wife, (I WAS!) he just didn't pay attention to the fact I was the some one's wife he was supposed to be waiting for. He got the message about the time I loaded up all the kids and roared away. He apologized and gave the kids little toy trinkets. I apologized too and we ended up laughing about it. Hopefully, I thought, he won't remember this next time we're in here. Unfortunately he did. My husband walked in one day to get some parts and chatted awhile, as they said goodbye, the manager looked at my husband and said smiling "I'll never forget that day I met your wife!" Great! Juuuuust great! :-) Mother of 7

We are making BIG tracks!

2008-07-22T01:39:00.000-05:00

Several years ago, my husband came home with a 10 foot tire. Yes, you read that right! I thought what in the world are we going to do with that!!! Then the wheels started turning, hehe, and soon we had the biggest sand box tire I had ever seen. My husband took his chain saw and cut out the side wall a little bigger and dumped in a couple loads of sand. Our first four children loved it and played for several years until they finally had the sand distributed all over everywhere, but no where near the sandbox. The tire was moved out of the yard for awhile but not forgotten. Early this summer our little wild man who was turning 4 in June, informed his Dad that he need a sandbox for his birthday, of course he also included a long list of items he "needed" to play with in the sandbox. We had a great time together pulling the tire back into the yard and filling it with a new load of sand topped of with shovels, trucks, buckets, and all things "needed" for great fun in the sun. Once again little heads can barely be seen above the sides of the great tire as the hours go by and great cities are built in the sand. The older kids are just as excited as the younger as they teach every sand building trick they know. One particularly hot day, the kiddos turned the sprinkler on over the tire and made their own beach. So as I sweep up sand off the floor, I think of all the fun and memories they are making in the sand and recall a time that seems so long ago when I myself sat in a pile of sand dreaming and creating in my own little world.....sigh

It's Summer!!

2008-07-14T13:00:00.000-05:00

I love to feel that warm sunshine in the summer, especially if the breeze is blowing softly. The rustle of the large oaks and the smell of fresh cut hay fills us with that great excitement that surely something great is happening today!
Today it did get a little warm, so to help the hot part of the day go by we drove to a local second hand store to browse and enjoy the coolness of the half price sales. We really didn't need anything of course, but ended up finding some great bargains anyway. I just loved a pair of shoes my friend had on the other day, but I refuse to pay the $50 to get my own, so I was beyond happy to find a pair in a different color today for $2! My youngest daughter is right at that stage where she dribbles all food and drink somehow missing the bibs and has effectively stained most of her "town" clothes. Town clothes= clothes that are not as dirty as play clothes and not as starchy as church clothes. I found some really cute skort and shirt sets for $2. One is a sailor-ish outfit, adorable! I have always had a weakness for navy and white outfits. A couple of years ago I had ordered a "sailor" dress for me that happened to match a dress my older daughter had. So, the week before Easter I ran to town for material and ribbons and made the other two daughters matching dresses. With the "boys" dressed in navy and us "girls" dolled up in our matching dresses, we had a great Easter morning snapshot in the front yard! I'll have to find that picture, I really ought to have it enlarged and placed on the wall with our other family pictures. Trying to keep track and organize my pictures is a different story altogether! Seems the time to sit and bombard the living room with pictures just doesn't happen! Oh well!
Well, now that we are home from roaming, I really ought to start canning some of the green beans and cleaning the fresh corn. That's another favorite thing of summer! Fresh vegetables, Mmmmmmm! The kids and I have been sitting around snapping beans and shucking corn telling each other stories and riddles. Soon my husband will be home and maybe he can find room in the freezers for 14 dozen ears of corn! I'm trying to put up as much food this summer as I can and hopefully save a little in groceries in the long run! So tell me, are you gardening this year? What is your favorite canning or freezer recipes? And... what in the world can I do with all these cucumbers! I'm going to have pickles coming out our ears!! Thanks!! and have a good day!