Our Fairy Tale Life

Alien Invasion

2011-04-19T10:56:00.004-05:00

I found these pictures on my camera. I can't believe that aliens would leave behind proof of their experimentation. It kills me to think of my children being analyzed, probed, and implanted with who knows what.

What kind of unthinkable tests were run on this unassuming child? Why couldn't those aliens just have fun making a crop circle or two? What can be the reason? Experimental mind control? Aliens have a sick sense of humor. Sick, I tell you!

Then to move onto my precious daughter. She seems so confused. My heart breaks when I see this. It's like her eyes are asking, "Mom, why aren't you here to protect me, what are they doing to me? Why, Mom, why?" Were aliens re-sequencing her DNA? Whatever they did, the experiment went horribly wrong. I do hope her memories of this tragic event stay repressed in her sweet mind forever.

Worst of all, they touched my baby! I guess I can't blame them for wanting to interact with such a brilliant human life form, but why the dis-figuration? No wonder he talks about aliens like they are real. To think of the trauma this poor child has lived through in his four short years of life is more than I can bear.

Until today I haven't believed in extraterrestrial beings. With this photographic proof I guess I have no choice. I believe. Now, Great Alien Master of the Universe, go back to making your crop circles and leave my kids alone!

The Queen Comes Out of Hiding

2011-04-18T09:28:00.009-05:00

Yes, that's me. I'm back. I really do miss blogging, but it took a lot of time away from other things in my life. Mainly housekeeping, child rearing, exercise, spending face to face time with important people in my life, etc. I guess I need to find a happy medium. I am not the best time manager. We'll see how it all goes.

You may wonder what's been going on around here. I'll try to sum it up for you.

The King of my castle is busy, busy, busy. Always on the road, it seems. When he's home, he's on the phone with work...I guess I shouldn't complain. He has a large family to provide for, and it takes a lot of provision to keep us going. He doesn't get a lot of free time, but his new hobby is trying to create the perfect pie. You'd think I would like it, but I don't. You should see the scale when I step on it. He's sabotaging me.

I can't remember what I called this kid. Squire? He's 14. He is busy with school and activities. Track is happening now, and only 35 days left of school. He has big plans to take Driver's Ed this summer. (Lord, help me!) That way he'll be ready to drive when he turns 15 in September. He would like us to move to South Dakota so he could be driving now.

I'm pretty sure I called this one Scribe. He's 13 and up to the same stuff as his closest brother. It's frightening to me, but his voice is changing. I hear men in my house all the time now. He's a comedian and makes me roll my eyes and shake my head many times a day.

Jester. Not so much anymore. The laughter he brought to our home is no longer here. He decided to disown the family. This is one of the last times I saw him, which was on his 19th birthday in October. It's sad. It's hard. I'm trying to deal with the rejection, but not doing so well. Some days I cry. Other days I am just plain angry. Angry with him. Angry with my husband, because I so badly want to blame someone. Angry with me, because I didn't see it coming. I feel betrayed. I miss him.

Prince Charming. What can I say about him? He makes me smile every day. I look at him in awe and wonder. As a mother I can brag about his brilliance. He's four and is starting to read. Seriously. I haven't even taught him how. The other day he said to me, "Freak is like free. Free is F-R-E-E. I can spell freak. F-R-E-E-C." I was very impressed. Of course, I didn't correct him. He'll be home another year so he should have the correct spelling down before he starts Kindergarten in 2012.

My Jouster. Not so much a fighter with me anymore. (Whew!) Though we do compete from time to time. Here we are doing a push up contest (he beat me because he's only 20 and the sun was in my eyes, but I gave him a run for his money). He is making great strides at turning his life around. He still lives at home and is my right hand man when The King is away. He's working at Hardee's while he waits to start construction work the end of May. He's looking forward to making some real money so he can get a place of his own. I'm not so sure I want him to go, It is really nice having another adult around all the time. He has a girlfriend who has a one year old son. I adore that little guy. I love it when they come to visit so I can get my baby fix.

Maiden and Duchess. Two years apart and toothless together. Isn't that fun? I love my girls. One looks just like me, one acts just like me. So, I guess I have two Mini-Me's. I don't know if that's good or bad. I guess it depends on who you ask. They are doing well in school, and sadly for The King, love to spend time at the mall (which I have no problem with).

Well, that's it for today. I'll have to let you know in the next few days what I've been doing for myself. I am heading down a new path...

My Four Year Old "ROCK STAR"

2010-09-14T09:37:00.002-05:00

My baby turned 4 on Sunday. Prince Charming is my little buddy, making me laugh, keeping my heart full of love, reminding me every day of all the reasons I love being a mom. Here is a photo of him at our local county fair on kids day. One of the stations for the children was a temporary tattoo application table. He was convinced this tattoo (that has a purse on it) with the words "Girls Rule", really said "Rock Star". I'm not sure who told him it said "Rock Star" but I am pretty sure it was a girl! That's what you get when you have two older sisters. You believe everything girls have to say.

Let me tell you about this boy. He came along after four older brothers and two sisters. A surprise. A big surprise. His oldest brother was born when I was 22. He came along when I was 38. A more mature and much more laid back mom than I was with my first, at an age when I thought I was too old to go through it all again. This son, my seventh child, has blessed me beyond my wildest dreams. He loves me. Really, he does. He is the last one at the door, if ever I have to leave on my own, to give me a kiss (or two or three) and to smell my neck (he loves my perfume), and the first to welcome me home with outstretched arms and more kisses.

He still sleeps in my room. I could move him in with older siblings, but I would miss hearing him breathe during his slumber, the giggles he has during funny dreams, and the little voice in the dark of the night that sometimes says, "Mama, I had a scary dream. Can I sleep with you?"

Maybe it's me who finds comfort in seeing him across my room in his crib (yes, I said crib). Is it because he's my baby that I haven't been able to put him in a bed yet? Will he be scarred for life because his mama was in no hurry to move him to a big boy bed? I tell myself no. I believe he will be so well adjusted and content with life that he will never have to 'find himself'.

If ever I have to be away from home during the night, he insists that my perfume be sprayed on his pillow. I know these days are fleeting. I know there will come a day when he no longer feels the need to kiss me goodbye, or find comfort in the scent that reminds him of me. I have four older boys. I know what happens with time.

He loves to play with the girls, and they love to play with him. They are instrumental in deciding what to play. Dolls. House. Kitchen. School. They decide if he is the dad, the chef, the student, or the baby. He just goes with the flow (usually with a car or two in his hand). He is willing to follow their lead.

He excitedly goes with his sisters to 'girl' stores, finding the an item or two that could fill a boy's needs. Most recently when visiting the American Girl Doll store, he found a boy doll that looked just like him. It's on the top of his Christmas list. He wants an "American Boy Doll" and has renamed the store "The American Boy Doll Store". He would also like a stroller to push his baby in, but he could not find one that wasn't pink. He told an employee at the store, "You need to get a boy stroller here." Really, American Girl creators, you should be a little more sensitive to the needs of little boys who have older sisters that love your products.

Not only has he blessed our family, but he is blessed. He always has someone around to comfort him. It is not unusual to see him in the arms of a sibling giving him sympathy if he's been disciplined, receiving medical care for a boo-boo that mama didn't think warranted a bandage, or just a little extra love because he's in the right place at the right time.

I am thankful for this little surprise that came along four years ago. He keeps me young. He keeps me active. He keeps me grounded. He keeps my eyes open to the things in life that adults don't always see.

Happy Birthday Prince Charming. I love you!

Back...By Popular Demand

2010-04-17T10:29:00.003-05:00

Okay, not really popular demand. One friend from high school, one current best friend, and one family member giving me a hard time about not updating the blog may not really be popular demand. But, it's my blog and I can say anything I want, right?

It's been two months since I last posted. My best friend knows when she doesn't hear from Michelle that she's been having 'issues' in life. The same holds true for my blogging. When I have 'issues' I don't feel like talking (or typing...or sharing). A lot of changes have been going on in this household.

First of all, I am no longer a homeschooling mom. But I am still a mom, with the best interests of my children at heart. I don't know when it hit me, but I just could not do it all anymore. I was checking out as a mom and honestly don't think I was doing a very good job at "Mommy". It was a tough decision for me, and one that truly disappointed The King, but it was necessary for my sanity. I was tired of feeling guilty for not loving what I did, and feeling like a hypocrite every time I'd attend a homeschool planning meeting, or when I'd enthusiastically encourage another homeschool parent going through a rough time. I was afraid to tell my peers, but they have all been supportive and will continue to be whether I keep the kids in school or decide to bring them home again. (They are true friends!)

For now, the children all seem to be adjusting well. Prince Charming has probably had the hardest time because he just doesn't know what to do with himself anymore. I try to keep him busy during the day when his siblings are gone, but he still seems lonely. However, I must admit I have loved the one on one time with him!

That is change number one. I'll update another day about other changes. (Hey, I need content for future posts...don't want to use it all up on one.)

Art

2010-02-16T09:38:00.000-06:00

I am totally in love with this art program. The kids really enjoy watching the videos then implementing the concepts. This lesson focused on line.

This is Maiden's practice sheet showing different types of line. The video suggested using a black marker for this lesson. I had Sharpie markers...I wouldn't suggest using them.

Prince Charming can never be left out. Driving his cars while the others are drawing.

Duchess and Maiden's assignment was to draw a caterpillar and then fill in the various circles with different types of line drawings.

The idea of drawing a bug caught Prince Charming's attention. He quickly abandoned his cars and picked up a marker. Did you know he was a lefty?

My other lefty. Duchess takes her schooling very seriously.

Prince Charming's finished drawing. I think he did pretty good for a three year old. Don't you love the look on his face? It fits his personality perfectly.

"Hey little buddy...give Mama that camera. No, don't push that button..."

The older boys' assignment was to have an outline of some type of animal and fill it in with various types of line. Here is Scribe's creation.

This is why I don't suggest using Sharpie's. They bled through the paper onto my dining room table...

in four different areas. It's been over a month and the marks are fading but are still quite visible. It's a good thing I didn't let The King buy that $4,500.00 dining room table set he was drooling over a few years ago. I think he's thankful too.

What do you think? The program is a little spendy, but the kids love art now. I love it too. Very little prep time, very little teaching time, plus they are learning. Now that's my kind of homeschooling.

Itchy, Itchy Chicken Pox

2010-02-05T08:28:00.004-06:00

Prince Charming caught the pox. I had a few sleepless nights with the poor guy. The King was out of town so I had the privilege of dealing with it all on my own. He was a little crabby and hard to deal with during the worst of it, but now that he's almost clear of any pox, things are back to normal.

He loved being covered with Calamine lotion. Some of his siblings wanted to count his spots, but he said, "No, they are my poxth...you can't count them!"

He thought every spot needed a bandage, but I talked him into only one. The worst pock he had was on the inside of his lower left eyelid. It didn't bother him as much as it bothered me.

He was a pretty popular little boy. I had a number of people call to come visit so they could expose their kids. He loved the attention...and sharing lollipops with his friends.

He took a lot of oatmeal baths. I put oatmeal in an old sock and he would squeeze the milky liquid out into the tub and rub it on the worst of his itchy spots.

The oldest boys had the pox a number of years ago and the middle four were vaccinated. If I could do it over again, I would have skipped the vaccination. Maiden still ended up with 27 pox and Duchess got a few too. They also had fevers, headaches and sore throats along with Prince Charming. I've been told they will need Varicella boosters in the future and there is a possibly they can catch a mild case of pox every time they are exposed. UGH. I wish I would have done my homework on that one!

Fortunately for Prince Charming he's now fully immune, and pretty proud of the fact he had the "chicken poxth blithsterds".

A Lesson in Life

2010-02-01T06:59:00.008-06:00

I can think of one lesson in life that I learned quickly, and never attempted to try again. Maiden recently learned it too. Can you guess? It has something to do with winter, a tongue, and a metal pole.

Mr. Cardinal

2010-01-12T19:37:00.003-06:00

We have a new red friend who has been frequenting our Birdie Cafe. Can you see him perched in the tree?

This is the view out my front window. I can sit on my sofa and watch 'my' birds filling their bellies at the feeders. Mr. Cardinal is a handsome addition to the dreary winter background of our yard. Mrs. Cardinal, not as colorful, but just as exciting to see, joins him from time to time. Usually, she just stays home and tends to her nest keeping duties. She's busy decorating the nursery in hopes of hatching some little ones this spring.

Mr. Cardinal gets tired of watching his wife fluttering around nesting, so he comes to the Cafe to roost with his buddies. He and his friends are very respectful when they are at our Birdie Cafe. They never use fowl language around my children, and they always clean up after themselves, feather dusting the area before they go.

I hope Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal (and all their friends) continue to descend upon our Birdie Cafe. They are a bright spot in my day and make me thankful that I don't migrate south for the winter.

Freezer Friendly Friday

2010-01-08T10:33:00.002-06:00

Do you have recipes that are freezer friendly? When I did once a month cooking with a group of friends, my goal was to find new and exciting recipes that I could assemble ahead of time, throw in the freezer, and bake later.

Now that I don't meet with that group anymore, I try to do it on my own (a little at a time). I've had failures and flops, but I have also had some pretty tasty creations. I appreciate having meals in the freezer. It cuts down on those times of being 'forced' to eat out when we've had a hectic day.

Here's a recipe that is a hit with my entire family.

Turkey Meatloaf

3# ground turkey
1 16 oz. bag of seasoned cubed stuffing (I like Pepperidge Farms Heb Seasoned)
3 cups chicken broth (might need to increase)
5 stalks of celery, chopped
2 small onions, chopped
2 sticks of butter (I think you could cut back on the butter but you'd definitely need to increase the chicken broth)

Saute the onion and celery in butter (okay, it's really more like "boil in butter", but saute sounds better) until tender, then mix with stuffing and add chicken broth to moisten the stuffing. Mix turkey in with the mixture. Transfer mixture to a greased 9 x 13 pan. (Or loaf pans) Cover and freeze.

On serving day, thaw mixture and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

The last time I prepared this, I had to add more chicken broth because the mixture seemed too dry. As long as it holds together and looks like the bread cubes are pretty moist then it should turn out okay. Sorry I can't give you better advice. I should have taken pictures to show you.

Anyway, my kids love this as well as my church group. We have a pot luck every Sunday and this was a hit. It's yummy with mashed potatoes too. The flavor is reminiscent of a Thanksgiving dinner without all the prep time or clean up.

How about you? Do you have any freezer friendly recipes you'd be willing to share with me?

I think I'm a mermom

2010-01-07T09:42:00.002-06:00

My Maiden is a dreamer. She threw money in a wishing well a few months ago and made a wish. She's waiting for it to come true. The wish? That she could be a princess and we could live in a castle. The poor girl gets her fantasizer gene from me. Don't get me wrong, I am not opposed make believe and pretend play, unless of course, a person gets so caught up in their fantasies they base their entire blog around a fairy tale.

Lately this little girl has been curious about mermaids and has asked me the following questions. "Mom, if I turn into a mermaid will I have a green tail? Mom, what do mermaids eat? Mom, if I am a mermaid would I call you mermom? Mom, don't you wish we were mermaids?"

Being a mom who loves to add fuel to an ~~overactive imagination~~ creative mind, I decided to look into mermaids for her. First of all, I was surprised to find out that they are real. Did you know that? There plenty of websites out there that say so, and I believe everything I read on the internet. One woman has even personally interviewed mermaids. Here are some facts I am going to share with Maiden:

1. They love salads made with seaweed and other plants from the sea.

2. They love sushi because it is wrapped in Nori (dried seaweed).

3. They are prone to salty foods.

4. They like sweets too, especially things that have mer-ingue.

5. They give birth to their babies. They don't lay eggs like other fish.

6. They need their beauty sleep.

7. They love the beach.

8. They love to sing.

9. They love to swim.

10. They are a mixed breed.

After compiling my research, I am pretty sure I'm a mermaid. I'm even a mixed breed: Norwegian and Swedish. I am a Norwedish Mermaid. Finally. I know who I really am. I can't wait to tell Maiden. Then she can call me mermom and live in a whole new fantasy world for a while.

Mermaid photo credit

My December

2010-01-06T15:37:00.000-06:00

Hello my friends! Did you wonder what happened to me? I am sure your daily thoughts were consumed with "I wonder what Michelle has been up to since her last blog post on December 4, 2009." Am I right?

It's time we get caught up, don't you think? Let me fill you in:

The King turned 46 years old. Can you believe I am married to such an old guy? That is a homemade banana cream pie he is proudly displaying. (I admit it's not totally homemade. The crust was purchased. But the pudding--from scratch!)

The Royal Family spent many a night partaking in a game or two or three or six of Farkle. We are addicted.

We did our fair share of shopping. Duchess and Maiden are my personal shopping assistants. I don't know how I ever shopped before girls. They have quite the opinions when it comes to purchasing gifts!

Plus, we did a little baking...this isn't really baking, but it was something Duchess could do. These pretzel rods were originally intended to be given to the neighbors as part of a Christmas treat package...but they didn't make it that long.

I guess this is the appropriate time to say, "It's the thought that counts." Next year we'll make more, or deliver them before they are devoured.

We did a little decorating...

And found that a star makes a cute hair accessory.

I wrapped a lot of gifts.

The King read Bartholomew's Passage to the Royal Offspring.

Ever dream of doing this as a child? I always wanted to. This was the favorite spot to lay when being read to in the evenings.

Finally. Gift opening time arrived. It was great fun to watch Prince Charming with his gifts. Every one he opened he said, "Thank you." Such good manners that boy has. Our ever grateful Duchess said, "This was my best Christmas ever." (She says that every year after Christmas.)

Can you believe that Santa came to our house one day? During daylight hours. In a gray t-shirt and jeans. He had the three youngest children sit on his lap and had a little chat with them. They were all happy to hear they were on the nice list. Poor Santa, I don't think he was feeling the greatest that day. His ~~taped on cotton balls~~ mustache and beard kept falling off.

I had all my children under the same roof one night before Christmas and was able to snap a photo for our Christmas card. If you remember, Jester moved out in September. He has not had much to do with our family since. It's not been easy for me as a mom. I thought I still had another year with him since he's still only a senior in High School. Maiden has shed a lot of tears over her big brother. She was really close to him and his leaving affected her the hardest.

This is Jester and his girlfriend. I am very hopeful that we are on the road to restoring our relationship with them. As of now, things are looking better. They were here on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve. I am thankful that he has made an effort to be somewhat involved with his siblings again.

On New Year's Eve we had a large group of people over. After doing a head count, I determined there were 52 people in ~~this old house~~ my castle. It was a fun night. Lots of little ones running around, lots of food, lots of good conversation.

Which reminds me, I saw the blue moon that night. Did you? If not, don't worry. You can see it again in 19 years. I actually left my guests to walk out past the tree cover to check it out. It didn't look very blue to me. It looked like any other old full moon but now I can say I saw it.

I rang in the New Year doing one of my most favorite things ever, holding a baby. I honestly believe the most satisfying times in my life have been when I was able to rock a crying babe to sleep. There is no better feeling in the world. Isn't she sweet? I could have rocked her all night, but her mama thought it was best to take her home. Oh well, I got my baby fix.

Onto the next big question. What's my New Year's resolution? I usually don't make any because I feel guilty when I don't follow through. But this year I made some private ones in my mind and haven't spoken them aloud to anyone. You heard it here first folks. I want to blog more often, make sure we get school done every day, catch up in my journal (and stay caught up) and exercise more often. So far the blogging thing is working for me.

Until next time,

Happy Homecoming Day!

2009-12-04T07:33:00.007-06:00

Six years ago today a beautifully sweet and scared little girl joined our family. She has brought such unspeakable joy into our lives. Many people tell us, "She is one lucky little girl." I always respond, "No we are the lucky ones!

I will never forget that first touch. It's hard to explain the emotions one encounters after waiting two years for a child. How can you put into words what is felt when you can finally touch something more than a photo? I wish I could explain how I felt when I was finally able to touch her hair, inhale her scent, put my lips on hers, and feel her heart beat next to mine the first time I held her in my arms. It's an experience that no words can fully describe.

I remember thinking over and over that day, 'She's real. She's really real.' A day that took forever to come was finally a reality. If a heart could explode due to overwhelming love and joy, mine should have burst that day.

Life is not without challenges. It's not always been easy. She has had her fair share of struggles and insecurities, but we continue to love her and guide her through.

She has a loving heart and a willing spirit. She is my constant companion. She brings a smile to my face each and every day.

I continue to marvel at this creation of God. I often pray for her birth mother. I pray she has peace in her heart about this beautiful child that grew in her womb. I wish I could tell her how much her daughter has blessed our family. I wish I could thank her for the gift of this child's life. I wish I could tell her how much I love this little girl.

I can't thank her birth mother, but I can thank God, which I continually do. He orchestrated our adoption journey absolutely perfectly. I am thankful!

Happy Homecoming Day Duchess. You are very loved!!

My Skaters

2009-12-02T18:11:00.003-06:00

Saturday is my favorite day of the week now. (Even though it involves me being cold for an hour.) It's skating day for the girls. I love watching my girls out on the ice, improving their skills week after week.

They are oh, so cute! Duchess is a bit of a hot dog on the ice. If she falls, she gets right back up and continues on. She's always practicing moves that are beyond her skill level. Her goal is to pass the level she's in and move on. I have a hard time dragging her off the ice. Nothing will come between her and her practice time.

Maiden is a little more careful. She cries when she falls too hard and has to come to me on the sidelines for a few kisses and to dry her tears.Then she goes back out to continue on. She is more than ready to be done at the end of her lesson because her teeth are chattering uncontrollably. But she doesn't want to quit. She can't wait for the day she can do some spins.

Sitting in an ice cold arena is not my style. I really hate to be cold. But watching my girls and the excitement they have when they are out on the ice is worth it. (Thank goodness for long underwear!)

Planting Bulbs

2009-11-12T07:58:00.001-06:00

I finally got around to planting bulbs. I hope it's not too late. I figured if I could still dig in the ground I was okay. We put in some tulips, daffodils and crocuses. My girls love flowers and I thought this would be a fun project for them.

Duchess told Maiden, "We are going to plant them, then it will snow. After the snow melts we can see our flowers come up. Isn't that exciting?"

I put the crocus bulbs in random places in the yard. I can't wait to see if they come up or not. this is my first bulb experience, so I'll let you know in the spring.

Blessings my friends,

Little Turkey Times Two

2009-11-11T07:58:00.001-06:00

Look at this Little Turkey:

So proud that he was able to make his cold cut slice of turkey stick to the window.

I love my Little Turkey.

Blessings,

Family Fun

2009-11-10T09:42:00.008-06:00

Some of the perks of homeschooling include following The King around to his conferences. Last month he had one at the Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. He was able to join us in the water park for the first two hours of the three day trip and then spent the rest of his time working. I called it school. The Kalahari is an African themed resort, so we learned a little about Africa and it's Geography, animals of Africa which counted as Science, Health (why we shower before and after and don't pick up used bandages) and the rest of the time I penned in as Phy Ed (great exercise). Yes, as a homeschool parent I have the freedom to decide things like that!

I didn't think it would be a problem for me to have five kids in the water park alone, but I was sorely mistaken. First of all, the three little ones were too small to go on most of the water slides without me (or one of the older boys) and on most slides there was a two or three person limit. The math doesn't add up for me plus three. Secondly, Prince Charming didn't really like climbing the 90+ stairs to the tops of the slides, so I had to carry him. (Good exercise for mom.)

Keeping track of the three littles ones was a tad bit hard in a 125,000 square foot water park. I lost maiden four times. Once I had to call a code Adam. (Don't worry, I found her every time...she said she was never lost, but I was certainly panicked.)

A few times I ~~forced~~ talked the middle boys into taking the girls around the park so I could play with Prince Charming. His favorite place to be was anywhere water would shoot up out of the floor. He also liked floating down the lazy river with me. (I liked it too.)

This is where the boys took the girls when they were in charge. Yes, I freaked out when I saw my five year old on this. Then I got over it and pulled out the camera to document the fearlessness of my sweet little girl. I could not believe my little Maiden got on this ride.

And Duchess, well I had no doubt she would try it. She thought it was 'the best ride ever'!

Apparently Scribe is now an expert boogie boarder. I lost the pictures of Squire on this ride, so I'll share this one:

This was one of the times he was in charge of his little sister. I was thankful the middle boys were with me to help out with the girls. I don't think they were as thrilled as I.

Oh, and did I mention we had not one, not two, but three, TV's in our suite. Our kids were in TV heaven! Here they are enjoying cartoons by the fire in the living room area. Don't you love how all their necks are cranked up?

We upgraded to a Combination Suite so I would have a kitchen. This was taken our last morning there...yes, I was EXHAUSTED! (I don't like to post morning jammie photos of me--it's a pride thing--but I wanted you to see the kitchen.) I made breakfast burritos so the children would have full bellies for our last day of water park fun. I know, ideally we should have eaten out the entire trip, but it is really not fun for me to take five kids to a restaurant alone. This was so much more convenient. I had prepped most of the meals so I only had to pop them in the oven and serve in the room. Way easier than trying to keep the little ones contained at a restaurant.

Oh, and if you've followed my blog, you know my kids love arcades so they can redeem their coupons for cheap plastic junk. Maiden got purple (her favorite color) vampire teeth. (Don't tell her, but they have since disappeared from our home.) Scribe got these great sunglasses. I think they only cost him about $15.00, but who's counting? Can you really put a price tag on fun?

Have a blessed day my friends!

Pet Peeves

2009-10-22T13:00:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: Sorry for the lame topic, but it's a new blog post! Hopefully once I get back into the swing of blogging I can get back on track with some really good stuff. Until then...my apologies.

Just call me the Queen of Pet Peeves. I was laying in bed the other morning and was thinking, "Boy I really have a lot of pet peeves. I wonder if my blog readers would like to know what my top five are?" So, if you want to know, read on. If not, check back at a later date for something a bit more (or less) interesting.

1. Sticky spots on my floors. My main floor is mostly wood and my pet peeve is to step in something sticky. I grumble a lot when I see the spots, but grumble even more when they go unnoticed until my socks get stuck in them. If you've ever stepped in honey with your socks, you can understand.

2. Toilet seats that are left up. Isn't this a pet peeve of every woman? Yes, the good ol' up or down debate. Because I am a woman, I prefer it left down. Sadly, I have experienced (on more than one occasion) the uncomfortable nature of not looking before sitting in the middle of the night. Without going into too much detail, I'll share my dialogue. First I say, "Ouch." Secondly, "Burr, that water is cold." And finally, "GRRRR!!!" (Okay, truthfully, I probably say something worse than "GRRRR"--only because it can be a very rude awakening.)

3. People who stop my DVR recordings. I know. A very minor detail. But picture this: My husband is travelling (for days at a time) and the house is noisy, really noisy, for about 15.5 hours. I cook, clean, homeschool, break up fights, drive kids, fix ouchies, give kisses, etc. etc, and so on, all by my lonesome. I look forward to to getting the kids to bed, and enjoying a quiet house. I get extremely excited just thinking about watching the newest episode of my favorite TV show and am utterly disappointed when I see my 1 hour show was stopped at 38 minutes.

4. When someone puts a milk carton in the fridge with about a tablespoon of milk left in it. Please, just use it up, dispose of the carton properly, and replace it with a new jug from the basement refrigerator. That's not too much to ask, is it?

5. When there are dirty dishes on the counter above an empty dishwasher. Why not check? What are you afraid of? Finding a dishwasher full of clean dishes and then feeling guilty because you don't really want to put them away?

6. Oops, I was going to stop at five. But now that I've held your attention this long, I'll share one more. Finding dirty socks in the cushions of the sofa. It doesn't stop with just finding them. The more irritating part comes later when I have to listen to the Royal Offspring complain because they have no clean socks in their drawers.

There you have it. Not just five, but six of my top pet peeves. Do any of them surprise you? Do we share any pet peeves? I'd love to hear yours!

A New Blog Post

2009-10-20T09:31:00.007-05:00

Okay, it's been 15 days since my last post. I have been informed by friends and family they are not impressed with my inability to keep up with my blog. No excuses. I just got out of the groove. I didn't think it was that important to people, but now that I've been informed it is, I promise to try harder.

My camera is acting up so I don't have any updated photos to share. I am a strange blogger. I have a phobia about posting without photos, so here is one for you:

This is when we were infected with H1N1 (we were some of those 'unconfirmed' cases because I don't believe in running to the doctor for every fever, cough, and body ache). All but two members of our family came down with the bug, and we all survived. I have never slept for so many consecutive hours in my life, and we were all pretty miserable.

I know. Random photo. Random info. But I am being pressured for an update, and this is all I can think of right now. A new blog post, hooray! Like I said, I promise to try harder in the future.

Have a blessed day!

XC Girls

2009-10-05T12:20:00.005-05:00

My middle boys have been running Cross Country (XC) this fall. Even though we homeschool, they are able to participate in school sports. It has been a great activity for both of them.

On Saturday they had a meet in Willmar. There was a special category at the end of the day for elementary aged kids. I thought it would be fun for the girls to run.

The morning of the race, the girls were very concerned about what they should wear. They wanted to look good, but still be comfortable. They didn't want to be too cold, yet they knew they'd get hot while running. They finally decided on these matching outfits--because all the teams wear matching clothes. Oh, and we had to fix their hair 'just so'.

Here they are before the race. I hope you can see Maiden's lips in this photo. When she heard the announcement that it was time for the Mighty Mites Race, she pulled her lipstick out of her purse and quickly applied it. Priorities, you know. A girl must always be prepared!

All the elementary aged kids ran together. The Willmar XC team ran along side the children in the 800 meter race. Here they are at the starting line.

Maiden toward the end of the race.

Duchess heading toward the finish line.

Everyone who finished the race received a participation ribbon. Duchess was a little disappointed that they were both given the same ribbon, since she finished far ahead of her sister. It really wasn't fair. She would have like to have been given a special award for her outstanding running skills.

On the way home Maiden complained of her legs hurting, but quickly forgot the pain when she realized her lipstick had worn off. Duchess was disappointed she got mud on her new running shoes and was trying to figure out how to get the stains out of them. I just sat back enjoying their conversation. After four boys, it is such a delight to be able to experience little girls. They are definitely different than boys!

My Children

2009-09-16T09:15:00.002-05:00

Here is the most recent photo I have of all of my children. It was taken on Jouster's 19th birthday in July. I can't believe I have a 19 year old son. It makes it harder for people to believe I am only 29 years old when they see him by my side. There may come a day I will have to admit my real age.

Let me update you on what is going on with each of them.

Jouster: He is now 19 and swore he'd never step foot into a college. However, he is now a college student. He has worked out his schedule so he can be a full time student and still work his job at the hog farm 3 days per week. He still struggles from time to time with demons from his past but is really doing well. I am proud of the wonderful young man he has become.

Jester: We struggled with him over the summer. He left home two weeks ago and we haven't heard from him. He has stayed in contact with Jouster so we know he is safe. We will keep our distance and allow him the space he feels he needs from us. He is a senior in high school this year and will turn 18 in a few weeks. I am sad that our relationship has come to this point, but all I can do now is pray for him. The little kids miss him. Maiden said last night, "I hope he comes home so he can sit in his spot again." (Meaning at the dinner table.) It broke my heart.

Squire: Is in 7th grade this year and is taking his homeschool studies very seriously. He started playing piano again which makes me extremely happy! He is in cross country and is begging to join the Civil Air Patrol.

Scribe: Not so serious about school. He's in 6th grade and hides from me a lot. We are working on him staying on task with getting his work done. He's also in piano again...much to his chagrin and is running cross country. He's a pretty good little runner.

Duchess: She has taken over the role of first born. She likes to "mother" the younger two around and keep them in line. She is a second grader this year and is still working on learning to read. She is now in charge of egg collecting and loves her new chore!

Maiden: My little Kindergartner. Her goal for this school year, "To finish Kindergarten." She only thinks she's doing school if she's working in workbooks. Me reading aloud to her is not considered school to her. She gets frustrated when I won't let her work ahead in her books. I need some of her enthusiasm to wear off on Scribe!

Prince Charming: My little boy is three--and--IS POTTY TRAINED!!!! He is my little snuggler and is never far from my side. The most common words out of his mouth are, "I want my mama," or "I need you mama." I love it. Hopefully his need for me follows him all the way through his teen years.

School is in Session!!

2009-09-14T07:32:00.004-05:00

Hello, my friends. Summer break is officially over and school has begun here at Rivertree Academy. We completed our first week of school last week and it was blissful. I decided to go with Winter Promise Adventures of the Sea & Sky for the two older boys. It is a themed learning program with a Charlotte Mason approach. They are excited that their history is based on sailing, flight and space travel; and their science focuses on oceans, weather and outer space. For me it it nice to have them show some enthusiasm for learning.

I have been reading a lot about Charlotte Mason's teaching philosophy and am intrigued with the gentle art of learning. One idea I really liked was nature study. I was hoping I could incorporate it into our schooling. Nature cooperated the first day of school. Duchess rescued a cicada from a death grip of a cat out in our yard. She brought the injured creature into the house and we were all able to take a closer look.

We did some research about cicadas and the most interesting fact we found was that they live for 13-17 years. Isn't that amazing? I gave each of the children a clipboard with a piece of drawing paper attached and asked them to draw the bug. We then glued the drawings into their Nature Notebooks ($0.50 composition books from Target).

I asked the girls what they learned about cicadas (implemented narration--another Charlotte Mason approach) and I wrote what they said into their Nature Notebooks:

Maiden's is on the left. She said, "Cicadas lay eggs and sings not that good. They make a hole in a stick and lay eggs in it."

Duchess' is on the right and she had a little more to say, "A cicada sings if it's a male. A female doesn't sing. The mama makes holes in a branch to lay eggs to make babies. It doesn't fly but turns into a flying one after it molts. It lives underground before it can fly."

It was a fun day for us. I am thrilled to be giving our children a Charlotte Mason-style education. I'm sure I'll be telling you more about it in upcoming posts.

I am delighted to be back in the blogosphere. I have missed my blog friends and can't wait to see what's been happening in your lives.

Blessings,

I'm Coming Back...

2009-08-05T19:16:00.004-05:00

Really, I am. I promise. Just give me a few weeks to enjoy the last days of a very short summer.

Here is what is on my agenda in the coming weeks:

Swimming at the local pool as much as possible so we get our money's worth out of our season pass.

Camping with our nephew and his family.

Las Vegas with my hubby :-)

County Fair

Camping at Prairie Village with my Mother and Father in-love.

State Fair

Our second annual Labor Day camping weekend with King's Twin and family.

Not to mention:

I am still working on SEO stuff.

I have a garden that needs tending and produce that will need attention.

I NEED to get my house a little more organized before we start a new school year.

I MUST establish a daily household schedule so our upcoming school year goes smoothly.

I have a child going to college who needs my 'motherly input' even though he doesn't believe me.

As much as I hate to, I'm trying to exercise every day!

And:

I really wanted to build a deck on the back of the house.

I wanted to landscape my yard and make it prettier.

I had great plans to paint my living room.

I hoped to get new counter tops and a new window in my kitchen.

Plus, if there happened to be extra time:

I had five 'just for fun' books I wanted to read.

I wanted to get all my photos in photo albums.

I would have like to have finished one of my five hundred trillion quilting projects.

See? I've got a lot going on. I can't wait to get back to the blogosphere, check in on all my blogging buddies, and tell you all about our summer. I'll see you after Labor Day. Don't forget about me, okay?

Blessings,

Mind Bender

2009-07-17T08:37:00.001-05:00

What do these items have in common?

Our BEST sleeping bag.

Jouster's ONLY pair of flip flops.

Duchess' FAVORITE pair of mud boots.

Prince Charming's NEW pair of flip flops.

The King's MOST COMFORTABLE pair of knock around shoes.

Our HIGH QUALITY garden hoses.

Maiden's BRAND NEW golf bag.

And no, the answer is not the adjectives in the sentences.

The one thing that all of the above have in common is:

Our beloved Pooch. Doesn't he look innocent? He puts on a dumb act when I ask him how things got chewed up...like he can't understand Human. He won't answer, he just perks up his ears, cocks his head to the side, and gives me the sad puppy dog look. It's as if he's saying, "I'm sorry. I have a problem. It's an addiction I can't control. I need help." It works. Instead of being reprimanded, he gets a pat on the head with encouraging words, "That's okay Pooch. We still love you. Just try harder next time." He agrees with a paw shake.

Then I yell at everyone in the family, "Don't leave your stuff outside. Don't kick your shoes off under the trampoline. When you hang anything on the line, keep it out of Pooch's reach. Don't pull the garden hose near Pooch's house. It's your own fault if Pooch chews up something that's important to you." The blame gets shifted from the dog to the kids. Pooch likes it that way. Needless to say, he has me wrapped around his little dew claw.

And just in case that innocent face makes you question whether or not I am telling you the truth, I have proof:

I'm Back!

2009-07-14T11:16:00.004-05:00

Hello my blogging friends. Oh, how I have missed you. I didn't intentionally want to take such a long break from the blogosphere, but somehow it 'just' happened.

This morning I checked in on all my friends. Wow! I have missed a lot. My friend Katie just adopted a new baby and recently found out she's expecting. Far Side of Fifty is in the hospital. Allison and Meredith are taking a break. Julie is not on her way to Ethiopia yet. Kimmie's little one is as beautiful as ever...and I feel so bad that I didn't make any skirts for her daughter to take on her mission trip. Chris, Sheri, and Jodi I can keep up on through facebook, but it's still fun to go to their blogs. Weaver Mom--are you still out there :-)? Did I miss anyone?

I'm still trying to learn the SEO business. I got a little overwhelmed with the idea of work, homeschooling, family, etc. and nearly threw in the towel. But I am over that and diving in head first this week. I am ready to optimize my first website. Tomorrow is the big day of making my initial changes to the site I've been working on. I am a little nervous and apprehensive. What if I am not good enough? I have a perfectionist attitude and would rather do nothing at all (in all areas of my life) than to try and fail. Anyone else like that? I suppose I need counseling, but paying someone $125/hour really messes with the 'perfect' balance I like to see in our bank account. I know. I have a problem. Enough of my emotional issues. Let's talk about fun stuff.

I want to show you what I made for my niece before we went to Colorado. I had made some HUGE bibs for Prince Charming out of hand towels and decided my sister needed some for her little one.

Here is Prince Charming modeling one of his. These bibs are great. They lay over the lap and keep the pants clean.

Since I had to make them for a little girl, I decided to embellish them and make them a little more feminine.

The "M" stands for me. Just kidding. Her name starts with an M too. I used the blanket stitch on my machine to applique the fabric onto the towels.

I love this lavender color with the green. But my all time favorite is this one:

My friend Rapunzel has an embroidery machine and we got together to make this personalized one. Scribe's (age 11) comment when he saw it was, "Don't you think that could be vanity, mom?" I suppose it is a little vane, but she's my niece, and my goddaughter, and I like to think she looks like me.

What do you think? I'm pretty sure she loves her vanity bib as much as I do!

The Girls and Boys Are Makin' Noise

2009-06-18T08:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in programming. We have been on vacation and staying away from the computer.

On this episode of The Girls and Boys are Makin' Noise, Michelle and The King take their younger five children to Colorado and go out to dinner with their cousins at Casa Bonita in Denver.

"I don't know why my wife likes this place so much. She seems to think it is a great place to make memories with the kids. I think it's an utter waste of money. The food is not that great. I wish we would have found a good sushi restaurant instead." (The King)

"Yes, I agree. The food could be better, but it's not always about eating excellent food. But you do have to admit that the sopapillas are pretty good!" (Michelle)

"Sometimes what's more important than the quality of a meal is the company you keep, and the memories that are made. Besides, people don't come here for the food anyway. They come for the atmosphere."

"Who cares if your brother in law calls the restaurant Caca Barfnita, and your stomache aches for about six hours after eating the food? That shouldn't be reason enough to scare you away from patronizing once every ten years or so. Everyone who visits Colorado should experience Casa Bonita at least once."

"Because it's not every day you get to see cliff divers and cowboy shootouts in the middle of a restaurant."

"And then spend your hard earned money on tokens at the arcade." (Even The King enjoyed a little game of bowling.)

"Look at that score...21,000 points. Wow!"

"The kids had fun collecting tickets in hopes of being able to cash them in for some pretty big prizes."

"Maiden loved putting her tickets into the ticket counting machine."

"Look at those faces. Can you believe those smiles were bought with $30.00 worth of game tokens? In return they walked away with about $2.00 worth of cheap plastic toys (not each...two bucks total between the six of them). What a night to remember."

Credits:

Photography by Michelle

Directed by Michelle

Funded by The King

Special thanks goes to: The makers of Tums and Rolaids...for helping us all get through the night.

The Good Mother

2009-06-12T07:11:00.000-05:00

I am a good mother. I love my children. I take good care of them. I photograph them so they will have fond memories of their childhood.

I follow them around and snap pictures of them when they play, and when they pretend to fall off their bikes.

I capture their faces when they are trying to fake they are in unbearable pain from such a devastating bicycle accident.

And then I get lucky...

It's not every day I have my camera in hand when an 'unfaked' biking accident takes place just seconds after a pretend one.

One just horrible enough to draw blood. But not too horrible to scar her for life. She will have no visual reminders on her knee of that fateful day.

If it weren't for her good mother, the memory of knee vs. gravel would quickly fade. Isn't she lucky? Ah, what fond memories of childhood my sweet girl will have, thanks to her good mother.

New Wheels

2009-06-10T07:45:00.000-05:00

Jouster bought his first car. It is a 1993 Toyota Camry. He took our advice and lowered his standards to buy something with cash, rather than taking out a loan and making payments. We have adopted the idea of paying cash for all our vehicles. We choose to not go into debt.

Since we made the decision to buy our vehicles with cash, we've found that it's a whole lot easier to buy on credit than to pay for it up front. I don't know why. But when you've worked so hard to save, it suddenly becomes harder to let that money go.

Jouster realized that as he was looking. He had originally wanted something a little more sporty but as he researched used vehicles, he found that Camry's can accumulate many, many miles. He had more money, and could have bought something a little newer, but chose to hold on to some of his savings.

I'm proud of my son. He's becoming a very wise young man!

The Girls and Boys are Makin' Noise

2009-06-08T00:19:00.010-05:00

Thank you for tuning in to the premier episode of "The Girls and Boys are Makin' Noise". The name comes from (drum roll please) PRINCE CHARMING. I had a lot of cute ideas for the name of our show, but it was just the other day that I heard those words come out of Prince Charming's mouth. I couldn't get them out of my mind. If you are going to have a reality show, then it better be real. Let me tell you, the noise around here is real!

Onto the show...

On this episode of "The Girls and Boys are Makin' Noise" we follow Michelle as she makes her weekly visit to the park with her children. Every Thursday Michelle loads up the kids and takes them on a 20 minute drive to meet up with other homeschooled children.

During the school year, the group meets from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Now that it is summer, the time to meet is from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m, so most families bring a picnic lunch.

"The moms sit and chat while the kids play. It's my (Michelle's) favorite day of the week. I use the excuse that I am to helping my children learn to socialize. But since this is reality, I must confess. I really go because I like to talk to my friends."

"Speaking of socialization, one of the most frequently asked questions concerning our choice to homeschool is, 'How will they ever learn to socialize if you shelter them from the world?' Never fear. My kids are the farthest thing from unsocialized. They can carry on intelligent conversations, play with kids younger than them, and have best friends who are years older. They make friends more easily than I ever did."

"I love that in homeschooling there is no age segregation . Just last week at the park, there were 15 year old's all the way down to 3 year old's playing kick the can together. It was a beautiful sight. If you want to read more about homeschoolers and socialization, here is a great article."

"Don't you wish you learned to socialize like this? I know I do."

Credits:

Photographers...Michelle and Lisa

Consulting Director...Theresa (because she said it's not reality if I make Lisa retake a photo of me that made me look really fat...but it's my show and I reserve the right to crop, retake, and touch up any pictures I want.)

Special thanks goes to: Prince Charming for coming up with the name; all the homeschooled families who had no idea they'd be on this episode; the city park and it's wonderful playground equipment; and The King, who works hard so Michelle can spend every Thursday with her friends.

Friend of the Year Award

2009-06-02T16:51:00.008-05:00

This is a picture of my friend, Rapunzel and I. She's on the left. That's her dog Bear in the front. Her husband snapped this photo of us last fall on her 40th birthday. (Now you understand why Bear is in the photo, don't you?)

I would like to nominate Rapunzel for 'The Friend of the Year Award'. We became friends about 13 years ago. We attended the same church and for a few years had nothing to do with each other. I thought I'd have nothing in common with her. She was a career woman. I was certain she was way too busy for the likes of a stay at home mom such as me. I just steered clear of her. In the meantime, she had her own ideas about me as well. She thought I was a goody two shoes...because I dressed so cute and had my boys' hair fixed just so. She also thought we were 'the perfect' family. Therefore, she stayed clear of me too. (Women are such strange creatures.)

Then a mutual friend brought us together. The rest is history. I no longer think she's too much of a career woman to make time for me, and now she most definitely knows I am far from perfect. We have so little, yet so much in common. Is that possible? I think of her as a sister. In reality she is, she's my sister in Christ.

This year for my birthday she made me this gorgeous quilt. Isn't it beautiful? You have to hear the story behind the fabric. She went on a quilt shop hop last summer without me because I wasn't able to get away. She said she missed me and couldn't quit thinking of me the entire time she was browsing through quilt shops. When she saw this hydrangea print fabric (on the borders and in the center of blocks), she had to buy it for me. Then she made this quilt just for me. I have never been so surprised in all my life. She brought tears to my eyes.

But she didn't stop there. Not only did she make me a quilt, but she made me this really cool prayer journal:

And last but not least, she couldn't just buy a card with a cheezy, mushy friend saying. She had to make me a personalized one.

Aren't I lucky? She is such a dear friend. Thank you, Rapunzel for putting up with me for all these years! I am so glad you are a part of my life.

Thank you Lord, for the day you blinded our first impressions of each other and made a way for us to come together. You always know what I need, and you do nothing less than perfect. You gave me the perfect friend...she is truly a gift from heaven. Thank you for blessing me, Lord. You are so good!

A New Reality TV Show

2009-06-01T21:44:00.006-05:00

The past few weeks as I've been shopping, I have noticed Jon and Kate Gosselin's photos plastered on nearly every tabloid at the check out counters. Jon and Kate are the reality TV stars in the show Jon and Kate Plus 8. They have a set of twins and a set of sextuplets, thus the number 8.

In doing research for my new job, I found a way to "see" the most popular key word phrases being searched for in Google. This past week, various versions of Jon and Kate came up, and one day the most searched phrase regarding the couple was, 'Jon Gosselin Divorce'.

Last Monday, the season 5 premiere of Jon and Kate Plus 8 on TLC, had 9.8 million viewers. Compare that to 4.6 million viewers who watched the season 4 finale of their show in March. I wonder, are their marital problems really real, or has it just been a huge publicity stunt?

Not that I really care. I have seen the show a few times but I don't care to watch Kate. She seems like such a nag which irritates me. But that's not the point of this blog post.

I have decided it's time to cancel Jon and Kate's show, and find a new family to follow. No, not the octo-mom with the gazillion kids. I was thinking my family would be a good replacement. At last count I had seven kids...only one less than the Gosselin's. I'm pretty sure we'd make an interesting family to follow. I would only do it for the benefits though. I am not interested in the fame. I want all the freebies. Ever notice all the places Jon and Kate took their kids? In the final credits those places were thanked. That's what I want. Free admission to zoos, museums, art galleries, amusement parks, etc. My kids would have a blast, and my husband would be thrilled to not have to pay a dime for such fun.

What do you think? I'll need a name for my new show. Let's see....Life With Michelle, Isn't it Swell? Or The King and Michelle, What's that Smell? Maybe Seven Kids Forces Parents to Put on the Skids. Obviously I am not very good at coming up with a name. Can you help? Post your ideas in the comment section. If I choose the name you come up with, I'll thank you in the final credits of the premiere episode. Maybe I'll even have you make a guest appearance sometime in the first season.

Our show will air right here, on this blog, on Monday's. Next week will be our first episode. I refuse to allow a camera crew into our home so you'll have to be satisfied with pictures only---maybe some short video clips. It should be fun. Aren't you excited? I am. Look out TLC, here we come!

Tragedy

2009-05-31T19:18:00.001-05:00

Minnesota roadways saw 11 fatalities over Memorial weekend. Every holiday we hear about how many people die in traffic accidents. We hear the statistics on the news and silently rejoice when the numbers are low. We groan inside when the numbers are high. We feel bad for those families whose lives were forever changed due to tragedy, and then go on with life. We don't give it a second thought.

But what if? What if someone you know happens to be one of those statistics? Ten of the people who lost their lives over Memorial weekend 2009, we did not know. One we did.

On May 23, my husband's cousin lost her life on a Minnesota highway. We went to her visitation yesterday. Her husband is still hospitalized and her funeral will be held once he is able to leave the hospital. It's horrible. Shocking. Unfair. Heartbreaking. The only consolation is that she knew Jesus.

Hug your loved ones. Don't leave things unsaid. If you aren't right with your Maker, make things right. Stop in and see those who are important in your life, no matter how busy you may be. You never know. Life can change in a blink of an eye, and you may not have another chance.

No Blogging...

2009-05-27T19:49:00.000-05:00

My husband bought me a new laptop for my birthday and it just came last week. So, if you wonder why I've not been blogging, I've been taking the time to get to know my new 'baby'.

I still have some things to get loaded, mainly my camera software. Hopefully I'll be up and fully functioning in no time. See you soon!

Baseball Game

2009-05-15T09:25:00.011-05:00

Yesterday we had an unexpected fun day. I was given tickets to a Minnesota Twins game. We received the tickets at 10:00 a.m. and left our house at 10:40 a.m. What a last minute change of plans! I called my Sister in Love and asked if she and her children could come and meet us at gate G of the Dome at 12:10 p.m. Who can turn down a 'free' fun day?

We narrowly made it downtown in Great White, our 15 passenger van. I really don't care to drive her in downtown traffic. She's pretty big and people in tiny cars like to drive in her blind spots, which makes me nervous. Then there are the parking ramps that do not cooperate very well with her height. Oh, and don't even ask me to attempt parallel parking! I finally came upon a ramp that could accommodate Great White. It was a little hairy driving down the curvy ramp, but we made it in, unscathed. A $15.00 parking fee got us right across the street from the dome and our gate.

We met up with the cousins and found our seats. They were occupied by a group of Twins fans, so we climbed higher to some empty spaces. I suppose we could have kicked the seat thieves out of our spots, but I was too tired, winded, and sweaty from carrying Prince Charming up all the stairs. I was ready to sit anywhere!

This gives you a better picture of how high up in the stands we were. Hey, who were we to complain? We had free tickets.

Scribe was the baseball expert. Informing me that a double and a double play were not the same things.

Squire had to tell me that there were nine innings in a game. No, I am not much of a baseball fan. I like the organ music, watching the big screen as the camera zooms in on fans, and people watching (boy, can some people really eat). I was wishing I had brought my knitting or book to pass the time.

This picture almost didn't happen. The boys wanted to find the "Golden Seat". We kept getting stopped by Metrodome staff asking us to leave the building. I had to keep convincing them that my kids 'had' to see the Kirby Puckett chair. We hiked (half ran--with me carrying Prince Charming, my purse, a diaper bag, and a backpack of toys) around the dome to find the famous chair. We lost Maiden a few times because she couldn't run fast enough and had to back track to find her.

After what seemed forever, we found the golden seat which sits between between seats 26 and 28, but is numbered 34 in honor of Kirby Puckett. He hit the game winning home run in game #6 of the 1991 World Series, moving the Twins on to game #7. The Twins won the World Series that year, but it is Kirby Puckett's home run in game number six that everyone remembers. The gold seat commemerates where that home run landed.

I was a little exhausted by the time we exited the building, but excited about our 'free' day. I only spent about $25.00 for gas, $15.00 for parking, $8.00 for water, and $180.00 at Trader Joe's (since we were in the area). Hopefully free days don't come along too often, they get a little spendy.

Flower Shop

2009-05-13T07:27:00.003-05:00

Announcing the grand opening of "Maiden's Flower Shop"!

Putting up the grand opening sign.

It was a very nice display of fresh cut ~~weeds~~ flowers.

If you look closely under the flower shop owner's nose, you can see she carefully selected each flower. Every dandelion was tested and is guaranteed to be 'scent'uous.

This vase of fresh cut dandelions was free. My mom always told me some of the best things in life are free.

A closer look at the inventory. Flower sales weren't what she thought they'd be so she added some chives and bananas. Bananas were on sale: 2/$8.00. (Inflation has hit Fairy Tale Land very hard.) Maiden practiced her savvy sales skills on Jouster hoping he would buy the bananas. He said, "No thanks, I think I'll just go to the kitchen and take one out of the fruit bowl for free." She may need to take some lessons on how to close a deal.

Needless to say, the grand opening of "Maiden's Flower Shop" netted $0.00 in sales. (But not all was lost, I gained a dandelion free yard!)

What We've Been Doing...

2009-05-12T07:34:00.006-05:00

I feel like I have been ignoring my blog. It's not intentional, it seems as though we have been extra busy lately. Here's a little run down on what's been happening the past few days.

I haven't told you, but I am training for a new job. A friend of ours approached me about doing some Search Engine Optimization work for/with him. This is a whole new area of learning for me and I have done countless hours of reading and research on the subject. He meets with me every Thursday and gives me new information and tasks to complete.

This is me, looking perplexed at my computer. As mind boggling as it has been, this is an exciting adventure for me. The best part is that I may be able to attend some conferences in the future. I am hoping to know enough by December because there will be one in Chicago, which isn't too terribly far from home. Why does this excite me so? Well, adult conversation, no cooking, no cleaning, quiet hotel room, no whining/fighting children for a few days. All the things The King enjoys weekly, I may be able to experience a few times a year. The job can be done from home when I find the time, so it's really perfect for our family schedule.

We have been hosting "Homeschool Presentation Day" at our house this year. We would meet once a month and Friday was the last time we met for this school year. Here is a photo from the first meeting last fall. The kids (all ages) have the option to present anything they'd like for the entire group. It's a great way for them to get used to speaking in front of a group.

We helped some friends move on Saturday. We also inherited some of their cats (not the one in the photo) since they have no permanent address at the time. There has been a lot of growling and arched backs around here with their three and our three getting to know each other. Hopefully they will find a farm place soon so their cats can go back to normalcy. I don't think they like being a part of our family.

Here I am with Jouster on Mother's Day. See the corsage? He bought it for me. He pulled it out of the fridge on Saturday night and showed it to me early, thinking I might want to coordinate my outfit to match the flowers. I just about cried.

Mother's Day and my birthday were back to back this year. How lucky am I to have two days in a row of special treatment? Yesterday I celebrated my 41st birthday. The King and the younger five children took me to The Cities for a shopping day. I had fun. The girls had fun. The middle boys had fun. The King and Prince Charming, not so much fun. They are two peas in a pod and don't enjoy shopping at all. I think The King has been secretly training the little guy to dislike shopping as much or more than he does. Prince Charming kept saying (through tears), "Wet's go home now. Wet's GO!" Oh well, I was able to squeak about six hours (driving time included) out of both of them.

Then we came home and had a little birthday celebration. My favorite birthday cake is Angel Food. Plain. No frosting. Nothing on top. That's what I prefer--every year--and have since I was a little girl. If it's not purchased or made from scratch, it must be made with a two part mix. That's the kind I like best. My family doesn't have the same love for plain Angel Food as I do. Being the loving wife and mother that I am, I do allow them to ruin theirs with strawberries and whipped cream!

That's what has been happening around here. What have you been up to?

Egg-ceptional

2009-05-07T08:53:00.000-05:00

Our chickens are laying eggs like crazy! We have an over abundance of beautifully colored eggs. I am trying to use as many as I can in recipes, but could use some help. Do any of you have recipes that call for a lot of eggs? We could use some more variety in the egg department. I have about 12 dozen in the refrigerator at any given time--so I really need to use them up!

Here is what I do with them now:

Egg bake (I have many different types of egg bake recipes)
Egg salad sandwiches (not a big favorite of the kids)
Hard boiled eggs (the kids love these for snacks)
Scrambled egg burritos
Deviled eggs
Omelets
Plain old fried eggs

Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Golden Birthday for the Girl Who Made My Bitter Waters Sweet

2009-05-05T09:29:00.007-05:00

A little over five years ago, my mother died. I was pregnant with our sixth child. Talk about poor timing. What was God thinking? How could He take my mom then? Couldn't He have waited to take her home AFTER my baby was born? How could I deal with death when I should be excited and anticipating the birth of a child? It did not make any sense to me.

The months leading to my little girl's birth had been a roller coaster. I was making frequent trips back to South Dakota to visit my dying mother. The baby was transverse and my doctor was concerned my water would break on one of my six hour road trips. With a transverse baby, the concern is that if your water breaks, there is nothing blocking the birth canal and the umbilical cord can exit the birth canal, depriving the baby of blood and oxygen--causing brain damage. Our doctor was familiar with the route and knew that hospitals were few and far between. He wasn't thrilled I needed to travel, but didn't tell me not to. He understood my need to be with my mom. He advised me to get out of the car and walk around every hour, and continually stressed the importance that I would need to get to a hospital ASAP for a C-section if my water broke. But God protected us from that concern. The pregnancy continued on and I made it through the funeral and the weeks following.

Then in God's perfect timing, exactly three weeks after mom died, our daughter entered the world. It was the most bittersweet time in my life. I had never known bittersweet until the moment I held that baby in my arms and looked her in the eyes. She was the spitting image of my mother. Everything about her reminded me of my mom. Her squinty eyes, her cute little nose, even her feet, ankles and toes were exact replicas of my mother's. I couldn't decide if I should cry tears of joy or weep tears of sorrow.

My husband stood at my side with his arm around my shoulders. My doctor stood on the other side, holding my hand. All three of us were admiring this creation of God. It was as though the world had stopped for a moment. The birthing room was silent. No one was moving about. I whispered, "I wish I could call my mom and tell her." My doctor replied, "I am sure she knows." He patted my hand and then said, "Congratulations mom, she's beautiful." Bittersweet. That's the only word I can use to describe that moment in time.

We named our daughter Mara Grace. Mara means bitter. In the book of Ruth, after Naomi's husband and sons had died, Naomi, along with her daughter-in-law Ruth, left Moab to return to Bethlehem. Upon her arrival, Naomi told her people to call her Mara...because her life had been made very bitter.

Mara is also mentioned in the book of Exodus, but spelled differently, and this is the real reason for going with that name. Don't ask me why we chose to spell her name Mara instead of Marah, those months after mom's death are still just a blur in my mind. I think we took a vote of all our family members and hospital visitors and 'Mara' won out.

The Israelites had left the captivity of Egypt and had traveled in the desert for three days without finding water. Then in Exodus 15:23-25: When they came to Marah, they could not drink its water because it was bitter. (That is why the place is called Marah.) So the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What are we to drink?" Then Moses cried out to the Lord and the Lord showed him a piece of wood. He threw it into the water, and the water became sweet.

You see, I was bitter. I was angry that God had taken my mother from me. Then just three short weeks later, he blessed me beyond measure. With a child who, every day of her life thus far, has reminded me of my mom. Not a day goes by that I don't look at her and see my mom. For that I am so very thankful. God knows what He's doing. He is SO good and gives us what we need. Don't ever doubt that.

Happy Golden Birthday Maiden. Mara Grace. It is by God's grace through your birth, beloved child, that my bitter waters were made sweet. Thank you, Lord. She is a true blessing from you!

Something Stinks

2009-05-04T10:31:00.002-05:00

Me: "Oh, do you have a bloody nose?"

Maiden: "No."

Me: "Then why do you have napkins stuck in your nose?"

Maiden: "Cuz Prince Charming stinks."

And another day...helping a napping Daddy avoid the stench of yet another dirty diaper.

Do you think maybe it's time for Prince Charming to be potty trained? Yeah, that's what I thought.

My Red (I mean White) Carpet Walk...Royal Family Style

2009-05-01T08:09:00.005-05:00

One morning after telling Maiden I was planning to take a bath, I went to the bathroom and found this:

Maiden was standing outside the bathroom with a grin on her face. I asked why she had spread paper towels on the floor. She answered, "Those aren't paper towels. It's a carpet for you to walk on, like princesses do."

Since it was morning, and I was in my pajamas, I decided not to scare you with the photos of me walking on the ~~red~~ white carpet leading to my royal bath. I'll share the girls instead. Maiden made sure I wore sunglasses for my royal walk. I'm sure it was to protect my eyes from the camera flashes of the paparazzi.

Duchess is a natural when it comes to walking the ~~red~~ white carpet. Look at her strike a pose. The best part of my carpet walk is that it served a dual purpose. Once the paparazzi was gone and my royal bath was complete, I was able to use the carpet to clean the bathroom. In royal style, of course.

Learning to Read

2009-04-29T23:01:00.005-05:00

Duchess really wants to read. We've been using Alpha Phonics, but she doesn't seem to be catching on. I don't think she is ready to start reading yet and I would like to put it away for a while. She is not willing to wait. She wants to read NOW! So, I grin and bear (and repeat over and over) our reading lessons.

Today I asked The King if he could read with her. They were working on the 'ad' word family. She read aloud: ad, had, dad, Tad, and then got the deer in the headlights look when she came to the word sad. The King decided to give her a little hint, "If I'm not happy, I'm...." Duchess beamed and loudly exclaimed, "Angry!"

The excitement of reading lessons doesn't stop there. One day she and I were working on the letter P. I said to Duchess, "The word purse starts with the letter p. Can you hear puh when I say purse? Other words that begin with p are pin and pad." Duchess said, "Oh, I get it." Then I asked her, "How about the word pig, what letter does that start with?" She gave me the deer in the headlights look. "I continued. Pig. What sound do you hear?" She replied, "Oink, Oink."

What would I do without this girl? She brings smiles to my face every day.

Prom

2009-04-27T12:06:00.002-05:00

Prom was on Saturday. Here is Jester with his date. He is the only one of our seven children who attends school outside our home. He transferred to the local public school in November, and seems to be doing very well. He is taking advantage of all the extras of public school life.

After saying good-bye to Jester and his date, I asked Jouster, who has never been to a prom (and most likely will never go to one) if he felt bad he didn't get to experience this teenage 'rite of passage'. He said, "Are you kidding me? I'd rather save my money."

He was right about the money thing. I didn't realize how much money people spent on prom until I saw first hand. The prom attendees gather at the local Library to have a photo shoot early in the day. I couldn't believe the elaborate dresses, bouquets of flowers, accessories, tanned skin, artificial nails, and professionally done hair. It made me a little sick to think of the cost some people put into the prom. Does anyone remember that about 950 employees at a local plant here in town, lost their jobs just a few months ago? Apparently prom is recession proof. Watching a stretch limo pull up to haul a load of students to The Cities for a meal before the big dance made me realize how ridiculous and showy this event really is.

I couldn't help but think how much money was spent on prom in our town alone--The amount spent nation wide must be unfathomable. Jester said he and his date went the cheap route...no flowers, she found an inexpensive dress online, he wore his own dress shoes instead of renting a pair with his tux, they chose to eat at a local restaurant instead of driving to The Cities, she didn't pay for an updo, no professional photos, no hotel room afterward (yes, hotel is now part of that rite of passage) and neither of them paid the extra fee to participate in the grand march. They still spent close to $400. I wonder if those couples who spent two to three times more on prom had more fun than Jester and his gal? I read on Wealth Junkie$ that if kids took the $1000 they'd spend on prom, invested it, and earned just 8% until they retired, they would have $37,000.

I went to prom. Yes, I had fun and I am certain my parents would have had a hard time convincing me to skip it and invest the money instead. But now I think it would be fun if I had taken expenses from both my proms, and my date's expenses, and invested it. I'd call up my 'could have been' prom dates when I turn 65, meet for coffee and talk about how much fun we could have had as teenagers. I'd pull out a wad of cash and split that $37,000 (maybe not evenly since I was the smart one to forego prom and invest the money wisely). Then we'd take the real loves of our lives on fun vacation getaways, or put the cash toward our snowbird campers. I can guarantee you, none of us would then regret missing prom. Now, if only I can convince the rest of my kids...

Because I Have Boys...

2009-04-24T06:36:00.000-05:00

If injuries, blood, scabs or infection make you queasy...you may not want to read on.

Boys like to document monumental moments in their lives...like when they leave half their knee on an asphalt driveway while visiting friends in town. As a mom of five boys, I've learned that certain things boys find cool can actually be quite disgusting.

Like huge scabs. That smile was nowhere to be seen on the day of the injury...but now, the battle scar is something to be proud of. Watching the changing colors of liquid oozing out of the scab has become a new form of entertainment for Scribe and his brother. Hearing the excitement in their voices when they pour hydrogen peroxide on the wound and watch it foam out of control baffles me. Boys. Gotta love 'em. (But I don't think I'll ever understand them.)

Spring Has Sprung!

2009-04-23T07:00:00.000-05:00

I was out for a walk the other day enjoying nature.

I am so excited to see things growing.

Like my choke cherry tree.

and my lilac bushes.

My chives are ready to eat!

It won't be long before we're enjoying rhubarb.

After a long, dreary, colorless winter, spring with all it's new life and color is always a welcome gift from God.

Look What We've Found...

2009-04-22T13:30:00.004-05:00

This is the area of my garage where I store my canning jars and canning supplies.

And some other special things. Duchess would love for you to see what we have stored in this box.

And so would Maiden...

Are you ready?

Baby kittens. One of our farm cats got creative and found an empty box to use as a birthing room. The boys had a fabric lined box set up for her, but she must have thought an empty box on a shelf was a better place for her youngsters.

This is The King's table saw. The sawdust reservoir has a dual purpose.

Here's a closer look. Not only do we collect sawdust in here,

but baby kittens too. This mama didn't want to use the ready made birthing box either.

Life on the farm. We love it!

Prince Charming's Hair

2009-04-21T10:54:00.006-05:00

Prince Charming had his first haircut when he was two years old. He did not like it. Not one bit. It was a very traumatic experience for him, he kicked, screamed, and cried the whole time. The King had to hold him down and the haircut was not one of the best. We decided the next haircut would wait until he was a little older.

At 31 months of age we decided it was a good time to try again. He had quite a mop of hair on his head.

When we went to South Dakota for Easter, we took him to The King's favorite barber.

Prince Charming was not impressed:

This is him watching the barber and contemplating whether or not he wanted to participate in such a horrifying activity.

He got as far away from the barber chair as he possible could. Doesn't he look traumatized at the thought of a haircut?

He watched Squire get his hair cut.

And then he watched Scribe.

Next up was Grandpa.

And Daddy. But Prince Charming did not participate. We tried three times to get him into the barber chair. Too much kicking and screaming. The barber suggested we give him half a beer and try again later. We decided the haircut could wait. Those golden locks weren't so bad. Maybe when he's a little older...

Five days later, after a day of playing outside in the hot sun, I told Prince Charming his head wouldn't get so sweaty if he had a haircut. He was afraid it would hurt. I told him he'd like it better than getting his fingernails clipped. He thought about it for a while and decided he was willing to to give it a try. Unfortunately, it was 8:00 at night and not many barbers were readily available.

I didn't want to wait for him to change his mind, so I pulled out the scissors and started cutting.

This time there was no crying, kicking or screaming. Just a little boy who sat still, smiling through the second haircut of his life.

Here he is. My little boy, who really looks like a boy now...no more baby look for Prince Charming. (I think I might cry.)

New Addition

2009-04-20T08:40:00.004-05:00

The King of my castle excitedly came in the house on Saturday, "Hey honey, want to come outside and see what I got for you?" Oh, was I ever excited. Great White is causing us a lot of problems and I thought maybe he had gotten me a new vehicle. As thrilled as he was, I expected to see a Cadillac Escalade sitting in the driveway with a HUGE bow on top with and a big tag that read, For The Queen of my castle. Nothing is too good for you. I couldn't get out the door fast enough.

Instead, this is what I saw on the lawn:

He was grinning from ear to ear and said, "It's a new addition to our tractor family. Don't you like it?" He had made an attachment for the lawn tractor. He went on to show me the places he had welded, and how he made it into a three point hitch. "This will work so good in the garden." I tried not to show my disappointment. But when you are expecting this:

It's a little hard to swallow this:

Thank you honey. I love my new digger cultivator thingy. I'm sure it will bring me many years of happy gardening. (Now, can we talk about replacing Great White?)

Easter and a New Recipe

2009-04-14T09:43:00.005-05:00

Here are my Middles and Littles on Easter Sunday. Aren't they cute? My Big Guys are getting older and are beginning to spread their wings. They have plans of their own, which don't always include our family. Posing for cheesy family photos is not usually part of their plans. After looking at this picture I realized I will be seeing more and more of these with 'just five kids'. It looks like way too small of a group, doesn't it?

Anyway, enough of my pondering life.

I have a recipe I'd like to share with you. It's called Crazy Crust Pizza. I first had this when I was a little girl and we were visiting friends. I remember my mom commenting on how quickly the meal came together. I was reintroduced to this when friend of mine recently made it for us. I have a new found love for this EASY recipe. If our whole family is around, one pan is not enough. But if it's just The King and I with The Middles and Littles, we have plenty.

Crazy Crust Pizza

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt (if you are using salty meat such as seasoned sausage, cut back on this)

1 tsp oregano

½ tsp black pepper

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

Combine and mix well. Pour batter into a greased 10 x 15 baking sheet (with sides). Spread evenly. Sprinkle your choice of toppings over batter:

I've been using ½ pound bulk Italian sausage (cooked and drained), one small onion, chopped; ¼ to ½ cup sliced black olives; and 4-5 medium sized mushrooms, sliced. You could use pepperoni, Canadian bacon or ground beef. Additional veggies would be good too. Just don't overload the batter with toppings. This is a soft thin crust and I've found that less is better.

Bake at 400° for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven, spread one cup of pizza sauce evenly over top and sprinkle with 2 cups of mozzarella cheese. Return to oven for about 5 more minutes, or cheese is melted and bubbly. Cut and serve.

Quick, easy and delicious. Enjoy!

Work Out!

2009-04-10T09:26:00.003-05:00

Sharing a photo from Duchess' homecoming. I love this one of her and her Daddy. There is a special bond between these two, she is his little sidekick. She loves to be with him one on one. If he goes to town to run errands, she is buckled in the vehicle before he has a chance to find his wallet. If he's working outside on projects, she's by his side handing him tools. If he's out for a walk checking out our property, she's walking right along side of him. She loves her daddy.

She's also brutally honest. Last night The King was relaxing after our evening meal when Duchess came up to him and rubbed his belly with her hands. She lovingly said, "Dad, I think you should work out after every lunch."

Happy Birthday!

2009-04-05T20:37:00.006-05:00

We celebrated Duchess' 7th birthday today.

The only items on her birthday list were Tootsie Rolls and an American Girl Doll.

She really wanted Sonali, "Because she is Indian just like me."

She was very surprised to see that she actually got what she wanted.

She 'just knew' we couldn't afford Sonali.

Tonight she said to me, "Am I in a dream? I can't believe I got Sonali for my birthday. I must be in a dream."

I feel the same way about you, my dear. I can't believe you are part of our family. Am I in a dream?

Happy Birthday Duchess. We love you!

End of a Season

2009-04-04T07:26:00.002-05:00

Another season of my life has come to an end. After 2 ½ years of nursing, Prince Charming is finally done. Many people told me he was too old to still be nursing, especially when he would stop to have a little conversation with me, or finish on one side to say, "Other one." He vocalized when he wanted to nurse by asking, "Ninny mama?"

I didn't care what others thought. I could have nursed him forever. It is something I have really enjoyed doing with all my children. I loved the time that I was able to 'just sit' with my little ones and give them my undivided attention.

Now that my baby days are over, it's hard to think that I will never experience this again. Even though I am sad, I am thankful that I was able to do this with all my children, both birth and adopted. I am even more thankful that God has made it possible for me to be home with my children to do so. I feel so very blessed!

Mom's Sick Day by Guest Blogger Duchess

2009-04-03T09:30:00.001-05:00

Last week Mama had a horrible cold. All she did for one whole day was lay on the sofa and sleep. Maiden and I took really good care of her. We brought her water when she asked, and more tissues when she needed to blow her nose (which was a lot). When she was sleeping very soundly, we took a lot of pictures of her.

That piece of striped fabric on her forehead is a sample of what she'd like to use for living room curtains. Maiden wet it down and used it as a cold compress for Mama's feverish forehead.

Here she is from another angle. Every time she turned her head or rolled over we would take another shot. Mom said I couldn't put them all on the blog because it would be too boring. The other poses she wouldn't let me post are the zoomed in shots of the redness around her nose and the up the nose shots. I think she's a little prideful for not wanting those posted on the internet. Mama thinks our viewing audience will appreciate her pride just this once.

Mom was having a hard time breathing through her nose so her mouth was hanging open. We didn't like how the pictures turned out with her open mouth, so we put the fabric over it. Then Maiden decided to brush Mama's hair. I didn't think it was a good idea, but Maiden never listens to me. She dug the brush into Mom's scalp which made her wake up. Maiden always ruins our fun. That's when Mama saw we were using her camera, and made us put it away. That was the end of our fun for the day and why I don't have more pictures to show you. I hope you liked my post.

Have a good day!

Duchess

Making Maple Syrup

2009-04-01T07:42:00.001-05:00

After doing some research, and going on a maple syrup field trip, we decided to try tapping our own maple trees. We have no real 'maple syruping' supplies so we purchased items we thought 'might' work at Menards and constructed our own.

This hole was drilled a little larger than the taps we made, so a lot of sap leaked out of the tree overnight. The King found an alternate tap that fit the hole better so we won't lose as much sap. This tree has been producing about two gallons of sap in a 24 hour period.

This is our old maple tree and because it is so large, we were able to tap it three times. However, because it is old, it is not producing as much sap. I think we have gotten about two gallons out of it in an entire week.

Being a homeschool mom, I had to make our syruping into a school lesson. First, we had to figure out the diameter of trees. A tree needs to be at least 10" in diameter to support one tap. Diameter can be found by the circumference of the tree (at about 4½ feet from the ground) divided by pi (3.14).

Next, I had them figure out how much syrup we would get from our 2½ gallons of sap. The ratio is 40:1, so it was very easy for them to figure out the final amount.

The sap looks a lot like water coming out of the tree. Here it is just beginning to boil.

Boiling after two hours. Beginning to reduce and turn color.

It is a very steamy process. I have a vented range hood and this is how it looked most of the time running on high. I had to keep wiping it down to keep the condensation from dripping into the syrup. One positive point: My range hood hasn't been this clean since I purchased it. We definitely need to make maple syrup once a year just for the benefit of a good cleaning.

This is after four hours of boiling. Getting darker.

When it had reduced down to about 3-4 cups, I put transferred it over to a sauce pan. This was the point I could not leave it. When we went on the field trip, the guide told us how quickly it could boil over at the end. I didn't use a thermometer or a hydrometer to see when it was truly done. I figured if Native Americans could make maple syrup without those items I could too. Once the syrup started foaming uncontrollably, I turned it off. The rules say that once the syrup is 7° over boiling, it is done. My rules say when it gets really foamy, it's done.

Here is our final product. We ended up with 2 cups of syrup, making our ratio 20:1. All the kids thought it was the greatest thing to make 'homemade' syrup from our own trees. Even the oldest two, who prefer maple flavored corn syrup, thought it tasted mighty good. When we finished, one of the younger ones said, "That really tastes like maple syrup!" Hmm...I wonder why?

The Newest Member of the Family

2009-03-31T08:15:00.004-05:00

I'd like to introduce you to Pooch, or Sir Pooch as he will be known in Fairy Tale Land. Pooch joined our family about a week ago. He had been living with Grandpa and Grandma but had a problem. He liked to run with the wrong crowd. Peer pressure was more than he could bear, and Grandpa was afraid there was too much influence coming from the wrong side of the tracks.

Since Grandpa and Grandma were concerned about his future, and because we have a lot of space on the farm, along with experience with wayward teens and dogs, they asked if we would take their beloved Pooch. Of course we agreed. All of our kids (except Maiden) love Pooch. Maiden has decided she is allergic to dogs, especially big ones.

He is a really good dog and very smart. I think he will be a much better dog than our last one. We were concerned for the chickens and sheep, but Sir Pooch pays no attention to the chickens. He chased the sheep once, but The King told him no and Pooch immediately obeyed. He has not tried to leave our yard to find friends, nor has he tried to chase a car. We are quickly falling in love with the sweet canine. For now, we continue to keep him chained when we are not around. Soon we hope to have our perimeter fence completed so Sir Pooch can freely guard our land. Welcome to the family Poochie!

Past Post Clarification

2009-03-30T15:50:00.003-05:00

I fixed a blog post that didn't make sense to "Anonymous". Actually, after reading it again, it didn't make sense to me either. I was trying to share two things in one post and didn't get my ideas out clearly. Anyway...I fixed it. Hope it makes more sense. Click here to be directed to the post.

Blessings

Getting Ready for the Garden

2009-03-30T13:39:00.001-05:00

I have finally gotten all the seeds started for our garden. This has taken a few weeks. First we ran out of potting soil, then decided we should plant some hybrid tomatoes along with the heirlooms. After many trips back and forth to town, this task is complete.

We have many varieties of tomatoes this year. A mixture of heirloom and hybrid. We have never planted heirloom, but really liked some a friend of ours gave us last summer.

I saved seed from some of my favorite heirlooms from that friend. I hope we will get results from them this year. If the fruit of the seed I saved works to be of good quality, I plan to save heirloom seed this fall as well. I have never saved seed before and am wondering if cross pollination will be an issue. Only time will tell.

The King got me started by mixing my potting soil with water and then into the trays. That's the part of the job I do not like, so I am thankful for his help. Along with the tomatoes, I also planted a variety of basil, peppers, and eggplant. I saved half the eggplant seed to see if it can be directly sowed into the garden. I've never done eggplant before, so this is a new experience for me.

(Yes, that would be me working in my pajamas. I do my best work in jammies.) Another new thing for me this year is perennials. I planted delphinium, bee balm, hollyhock, red poppy, purple coneflower, white coneflower, lavender, shasta daisy and lemongrass.

Side note: I want to infuse lemongrass in vodka to see if I can get a lemongrass antiseptic type cleaner. It's just an idea I got when I was in California. I have found a lot of ways to use vodka in my cleaning (and no, I'm not drinking it while cleaning). Last spring I could not clean my sister's wood floor without leaving streaks. I used vodka which evaporated quickly and the floors looked great! Recently I was able to get some washable marker out of dry clean only fabric with vodka...no stains left behind. It sounds weird, I know, but it's my new miracle cleaning product. Anyway, I'm excited to make my lemongrass cleaner.

Here is our setup for the seedlings. This sits in The King's office. The florescent lights each have one warm bulb and one cool bulb in them and the timer is set so the lights are on for 16 hours per day. This seems to be working. The kids take turns spritzing the dirt and young plants to keep them moist. The larger plants need more than a daily spritz to keep going.

Now to get them all growing, hardened off, and eventually transferred to the garden. I'm getting excited for warmer days!

Maple Syrup Field Trip

2009-03-20T13:39:00.007-05:00

Today our homeschool group went to a local county park and learned how to make maple syrup.

First we had to hike out into the woods to find the maple trees. Our guide told us that boxelder trees could also be tapped for sap to be made into syrup.

First he showed the kids how to drill a hole into the tree. He said you could drill 1 ½ to 3 inches deep. He showed us holes from last year and explained that he needed to stay about 6" away from those old holes.

The sap immediately started running out of the tree. We were able to taste the sap to see if it was sweet. It was tasteless and looked a lot like water. But, after touching it, it did feel sticky on our fingers.

Next he hammered the tap into the tree.

Here is the bucket that catches the sap. Just minutes after tapping the tree, there was about ½ cup of sap in the bucket. 40 gallons of sap will produce one gallon of syrup.

Here are two taps running into a bucket. He told us if we wanted to tap our own trees we need to make sure we use food grade tubing and buckets.

Next we headed to the syrup shack where they cook the sap. Duchess is in the dark purple coat on the right.

I had to run ahead of the girls to get a front shot. I thought they looked so cute holding hands.

Squire is checking out the Gator. This is what they use to haul the sap to the syrup shack.

In the shack, they cook it over a wood fire for the first part, then they move it into the next area to be cooked over gas.

This is the gas cooking area. The reason they cook it over gas for the last part of cooking is so that when the syrup is done, they can turn off the heat immediately, stopping the cooking process. When cooking over fire, they have no way to stop the fire, and could potentially burn it if it continues to cook.

Here is our whole group of kids. We had to do a little coersing and threatening to get them to all pose together. They preferred gender segregated photos.

Here I am with Squire, Scribe and Duchess. I left Maiden and Prince Charming home. (Not alone.)

Of course, we thought the best part was the free samples of maple syrup they handed out at the end! We are maple syrup consumers in our house. It costs about $16.00 a quart, so when I serve it I am always saying, "Don't be wasteful, this stuff is expensive."

Scribe couldn't believe that they would just 'give' everyone a 3.4 ounce bottle of syrup. He said, "Boy, they spent a LOT of money on their free samples." and made sure everyone in the group knew it. On the ride home the boys talked excitedly about being able to taste it the next time we made pancakes. Duchess didn't bother waiting. Hers is nearly gone. She drank it right out of the bottle.

Guest Blogger--Prince Charming

2009-03-18T10:26:00.004-05:00

Hi, my name is Prince Charming and I am 2 ½ years old. My mom is letting me be a guest blogger today because I have become a very good photographer. She wants me to show you some of my photos.

First we will start with a self portrait. I love to take pictures of myself. Usually I just get my feet, hands, or belly button, but this time I was able to get most of my face. I like that you can see some food in my teeth.

I love my cars. I thought you might like to see how I set them up. "Lighten Akeen" is the car in the middle. I like the movie 'Cars'.

In this photo, I moved the cars from the table to the floor and put "Lighten Akeen" at the end of the line up.

In this one, I put the van in the middle and "Lighten Akeen" on the opposite side.

Now they are back on the table, in the same order, but this is a back view.

I changed the order of them once again. I am good at car portraits, don't you think? My talent doesn't stop there.

I also like to take pictures of my mom. Here she is on the treadmill. I sit by her when she walks and runs. I laugh a lot at her because she lets out loud "UH's and OH's" when she is working out. Sometimes she says, "No pain, no gain." I have no idea what she's talking about.

Here is a picture of her feet and legs. I like to put my cars on the treadmill when she is running. They move really fast. Sometimes mom stumbles on them (which I think is funny). This causes the safety magnet pulls away, and then the whole treadmill stops running. After this happens about three times, she yells and tells me to go away...making me cry. I just don't understand why she's so sensitive. One time she fell off the treadmill after she tripped over a big truck I put on the belt. I thought that was really funny. She didn't laugh at all.

Occasionally I take random photos. Here is a nearly empty bag of tortilla chips.

But my true passion is in photographing cars. The little blue car is "Thally". She was in the movie 'Cars' too.

Well, that's all I have for today. I'm sure I'll get a few hundred more photos to share with you really soon.

"Thanks for letting me be your guest blogger today, Mama! I love you berry berry much."

Ready for Spring

2009-03-16T10:04:00.005-05:00

Spring is not officially here, but the warmer temperature is making us feel like it is. Yesterday after church we pulled out the mud boots and took a walk. I wish I had a way to play for you the concert of song birds who entertained us on our trek...and a way for you to smell the freshness of spring in the air.

See the bottom of Duchess' boots? It's just a little glimpse of the color that will overtake the lawn and trees. I am so ready to see God's beautiful colors of spring.

I bought new mud boots this year. Girl ones. Why, you ask? This is just a theory, but I am thinking these may save wear and tear on my socks. I have two tween age boys whose feet are the same size as mine. In the past we have had the same style of boots and they don't always care if they are wearing their own boots or mine. They wear them barefoot...with dirty feet...which makes my white socks really dirty the next time I put them on. I am pretty sure neither one of the boys will want to been seen in Mama's polka dot boots. I'm hoping this experiment works.

Me with Squire, Scribe and Duchess out by the garlic patch and some apple trees. We are excited to see these things begin to bloom and grow. We had a good friend who planted the garlic last fall and will share his bounty with us in exchange for the use of our land. What a great deal.

Here is a better view of the size of the garlic patch. Those two good lookin' guys are The King and Scribe. I can almost smell the garlic now...fresh pesto...garlic bread...Alfredo sauce...Yum! I can hardly wait.

I Love Farm Stores

2009-03-13T08:30:00.003-05:00

Our local Runnings store moved to a larger location this week. It was the place to be in town. Many people were checking out the newer and improved version of their favorite farm store. I needed to purchase tomato seeds to start indoors, and couldn't resist seeing Runnings Farm and Fleet for myself.

There is something about shopping at a farm store. First of all, it reminds me of where I grew up. Everyone I knew was a farmer. I feel nostalgic the minute I enter Runnings. Everyone there is friendly. People don't put on airs or pretend to be someone they are not at a farm store. Everyone can find something in common with other customers. Interesting people are all around and best of all, strangers strike up conversations with you no matter which section of the store you are in.

I have been in the bolt section looking perplexed when a man came to my rescue, "Do you know what you are looking for? Let me help you out." I have been contemplating chicken feed when a grandfatherly figure approached and gave me a lesson. I have been seen looking at Carhartt clothing when someone I have never met informed me about the quality of Carhartt.

The first interesting couple I saw yesterday was in the snack aisle. They looked to be in their eighties, and the husband sat at a nearby picnic table waiting for his wife to make her selections. "These cookies are a good price, aren't they?" I agreed with her. Then she noticed my shopping basket and decided she needed one too. Off she went in search of a basket...leaving her husband to watch me do my shopping. Minutes later she came back pushing a cart. She told her husband, "I couldn't find a basket." Her husband pointed to me and said, "She found one." The woman looked at me, raised an eyebrow, then said to him, "Well, I couldn't find one. Push this. Let's go." He immediately followed.

As I headed toward the garden seeds, I couldn't help but wonder how The King and I would be at that age. I'd probably be bossing him around a farm store too. And he'd probably point out to me some younger woman who had no problem finding the shopping baskets when I couldn't.

I didn't have long to ponder my old age because a man, who was a few years older than me, noticed I was purchasing tomato seeds. He told me, "I never have good luck with growing my own. Do yours survive when you plant them outdoors?" I told him we didn't have problems. "Oh, I wonder what I am doing wrong." After a long discussion, I was finally able to diagnose his problem. He had never hardened the plants off before planting them outside. Ah, a light bulb went off and he thanked me over and over. I was a little surprised I could help him out with my meager amount of gardening knowledge, but happy to know that one more garden in the area may survive due to a little problem solving conversation at the seed display in Runnings.

Then while walking through the store, another man carrying a big bag of dog food, noticed my shopping basket of seeds. "It looks like someone is planning for spring." This turned into a conversation of how cold this week has been, how nice it is going to be, and how we will all be thinking about gardens next week at this time.

Leaving the store I thought about how many times I shop for groceries or clothing and never have conversations with other customers. It's just not the same. People don't look in my cart at what I am purchasing. They don't care. Or they don't dare. "Oh, I see you buy 100% cotton panties...do you launder them in a special way? Mine always seem to lose their shape." Or, "I see you are buying macaroni noodles, tomatoes and hamburger...looks like someone must be having goulash for supper."

No, I don't think those conversations will be had at the other places I shop. They are treasured conversations one can only find at a farm store. If you are ever feeling lonely, or just need some adult interaction, I suggest checking out your local farm store. Maybe I'll see you there!

No Naked Drawings

2009-03-07T09:00:00.006-06:00

This is Maiden's reaction when I told her to look in the mirror one morning after she woke up.

The photo has nothing to do with the following kid quote...I just liked the photo and wanted you to be able to see Maiden's face when you read it.

Maiden (after having drawn a stick person): "Mom, how do you put clothes on people you already drawed?"

Update

2009-03-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

We're both okay!

Thanks for your prayers. Both my sister and I were given good news. She's just a little lumpy, and the lump my doctor felt was not really a lump at all. My official diagnosis: Dense Breast Tissue. In other words, my boobs are dumb.

I am glad I went to a breast clinic. The surgeon I consulted with really put my fears about breast cancer to rest. Everyone on staff was extremely helpful, and so thorough. I never felt rushed which was very impressive. I can't praise them enough. And to make it all even better, they served me tea in a china cup with a saucer. Lovely. It almost made me forget what I was there for. They will get many referrals from me!

Praising God,

Prayer Request

2009-03-04T07:00:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I went to my doctor. I have been having some pain in my breast. I thought it was because Prince Charming is nursing only once per day. The doctor felt a lump. For those of you who don't know, breast cancer took my mother's life. Today would have been her 61st birthday.

The first person I called was my sister. After we cried together, she told me she's been having some breast pain too. She called her physician and was seen yesterday as well. Strangely, she also has a lump of concern and will be seen by a specialist on Friday.

Today I go to a breast clinic for a breast ultrasound. Other than that, I don't know what else will happen. The doctor yesterday told me he thought it felt like a cyst. I pray he's right...or better yet, that whatever he felt was nothing. I am more than a little anxious about this right now, worried both for me and my sister. I covet your prayers for both of us.

Blessings,

New Fence

2009-03-03T08:08:00.000-06:00

The King has been working on a new project around our little farm. He is putting up a new perimeter fence. Our power company was replacing poles last fall, and The King talked with the power crew, expressing interest in the poles. The power crew gladly dropped them off in our driveway rather than hauling them somewhere more remote.

I was none to happy to have a driveway full of poles. I was very skeptical about his idea. In fact, I complained a time or two about the irritating pile of logs blocking my path when trying to back out of my parking space. He had visions of more animals grazing on our property. I had visions of a great bonfire.

And now I must eat my complaining words, because he was right again...he followed through with his plan and now has fine corner anchors for his new fence. Oh, I should clarify that last statement. He now has fine corner anchors that were absolutely free.

Just Keep it Coming

2009-02-27T10:13:00.006-06:00

My last post was a tutorial on how to get your kids to say you are the best mom ever...

I have another way. I just learned this the other night.

Squire and Scribe sent me to town with $10.00. "Can you go buy us some Wii points? If you can't find them, make sure you ask someone where they are. 1000 Wii points cost $10.00, okay?" Not knowing my way around an electronics department, I had to ask. The helpful employee took me right to the cards and said they were now on clearance: 2000 Wii points were $15.00.

I called home to see if the boys wanted to spend an extra $5.00. They were more than happy to, but were disappointed they hadn't sent me with enough money. They asked if I would pay the difference for them and they would repay me when I got home. I told them that wasn't a problem, as long as they remembered to pay me back.

Scribe responded, "Oh, Thank you mom. You are the best mom ever. When you get home, I'm going to give you a big hug and big kiss." I rushed home to cash in on my big hug and big kiss before he forgot...or changed his mind.

Twice in one week I've been told I'm the best mom, ever. I think that makes me definite mother of the year material, don't you?

How to...

2009-02-23T07:57:00.004-06:00

get your kids to say , "Mom, you are the best mom ever.":

1. One day when you are out shopping, stop and look at all the fun colors of nail polish.

2. Choose the one that you, as a mom, would never choose...or wear.

3. Buy it.

4. Bring it home and surprise your little girls.

5. After you finish polishing the girls' nails, one will probably ask to polish yours.

6. Smile and say, "I'd love to have you do my nails." (Even if it is blue and you really don't want to have it done.)

7. Ooh and Ahh over how good a nail polisher your little girl has become.

8. Tell her you think she will probably be able to start polishing her own nails by the time she turns eight.

9. She will then start talking very grown up and asking about all the other things she will be allowed to do as she gets older. Tell her.

10. Thank her for doing such a good job. Give her a kiss, but not a hug, because you might wreck your newly polished blue nails, and send her off to bed.

This is when she will pause and say, "Thank you for buying that cool polish. Mom, you are the best mom, ever."

They are Learning Things I Don't Teach Them

2009-02-19T11:18:00.004-06:00

The other day Duchess asked me, "Mom, can you touch your uvula?"

I asked, "Do you even know what you are talking about?"

She replied, "Yeah. (opening her mouth very wide) I can almost touch mine with my tongue. Can you?"

Tip of the Day

2009-02-18T07:40:00.002-06:00

When you do not have a sleeping mask readily available, try using Valentine stickers. They will do in a pinch.

Sorry for the poor quality mobile photo. The King took this on the way home from visiting Grandpa and Grandma this past weekend. He took the four middle kids for a special weekend away. Maiden is actually sleeping under those stickers and did so for about an hour. When she got home she told me, "Mom, I put stickers on my eyes and then I fell asleep. It hurt really bad when I took them off."

Pondering

2009-02-17T17:14:00.007-06:00

Why is it...

that I can expect a major spill at dinner time the day the dining room floor has been mopped?

that my favorite pair of pants (that are very flattering, by the way) get ruined in the wash?

that my non dry able clothing items get placed in the dryer...on high heat?

that when I have all the gumption in the world to get a lot of work done, I end up with a migraine?

that after years of turning the light on in the middle of the night to make sure the toilet seat is down (and it usually is), the one time I don't check...it's up?

that the day I wash my child's bedding, that same night he or she has an accident?

that I don't notice the dishwasher crud in the bottom of my cup before I pour myself a cup of coffee rather than when I'm taking my last sip?

that when I nearly break my neck to get to the phone, waiting for an 'important' call...it's a salesperson?

that major catastrophes (kitchen fires, broken pipes, vehicle problems, naughty teens, runaway sheep and leaking furnaces) happen when my husband is on a business trip and I am home alone with all seven children?

that I can trust my best friend to notice and tell me when I have food between my teeth, but not my husband?

that my little boy who used to adore me, is now a teen and looks at me like I am his enemy?

that hind sight is 20/20?

that I didn't realize how much I needed my mom, until she was gone?

Homeschool Valentine's Party

2009-02-16T09:55:00.002-06:00

Friday we had our homeschool Valentine's party. My boys thought it would be fun if we could have a contest for the best Valentine's boxes. We decided to have two categories: Funniest and Most Creative. We gave two prizes for each category. One for those who needed help from parents and one for those who did not have help.

We made some ballots so all the kids at the party could vote for their favorites.

Here is Maiden standing beside her flower pot Valentine's box. She was distributing all her valentines to the 33 different bags/boxes. When it came time vote, she didn't vote for any of her sibling's boxes. She wanted her friends to win.

Duchess (in the black shirt and red skirt) lobbied for her box as the kids were casting their votes. She was very persuasive. "You like that one? It's not very creative...how about this one?" (Pointing to her box.)

Here we are after coming home. It's a good thing we hosted the contest, so we could bring home three out of the four prizes. Squire made a sheep box and won "funniest-no help from parents". Maiden's flower pot won "funniest--with help from parents". Duchess' purple castle won "most creative-with help from parents". Poor Scribe won nothing for his Mario tube. That's okay. I was feeling guilty enough the way it was.

I'm Back!

2009-02-10T21:35:00.003-06:00

I made it home safe and sound. I had a wonderful trip to California. I loved it. Loved the ocean. Loved San Francisco. Loved Half Moon Bay. Loved Niles. Loved the time with my sweet friend. Loved getting reacquainted with their kids. Loved their dog. Loved the food. Loved the food. Loved the food. Did I mention the food was really good? It was so good, I am now afraid to step on the scale!

I'll have to tell you more about my trip later. I need to get caught up with my children, my hubby, my house, my blogging friends, and my sleep.

Blessings,

Cartouche

2009-02-07T07:37:00.001-06:00

We are studying ancient Egypt. The other day we made cartouches. A cartouche is an oblong enclosure with a horizontal line at one end, indicating that the hieroglyphic text enclosed is a royal name. Since we live in Fairy Tale Land, it only seemed fitting to make cartouches with our royal names in them.

This was fun for everyone. We learned that in 1798, Napoleon found the Rosetta Stone during some construction work. It had three different types of writing on it, Hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Greek.

It took many years of studying the hieroglyphics along with the two other languages to try to decipher the hieroglyphic code.

Scholars finally realized they had found the name of a Pharaoh in a cartouche. This was the break through they needed to break the code.

We then made book marks for everyone in the family with their names on them. If I would have known they would have had so much fun with this project, I would have purchased some shrink plastic or clay to make their names into bracelets. But we've got to move on. We can't stay in Egypt forever. There is much more of this ancient world to discover...and five minds waiting to soak up every little detail. (Maybe I'll make some for them as an end of the semester gift. I'll let you know if I do.)

Like Money in the Bank

2009-02-05T07:19:00.001-06:00

The other day I took eight pounds of ground beef and made:

2 pans of Heavenly Beef Casserole
2 pans of Meatloaf
1 batch of Sloppy Joe's
1 batch of CB Casserole

Then I put them all in the freezer. I love having meals ready and waiting for me, especially when my husband is traveling. When The King saw what I had done, he said, "Having meals in the freezer is like money in the bank for you, isn't it?" He's absolutely right. I'm feeling like the richest woman in the world right now. My wealth will be a blessing to him this week while I'm out of town, so I am sure I'll be needing to make some new deposits as soon as I get home.

Anyone have a great freezer recipe you'd like to share? I love trying new things.

I'm Flying Away

2009-02-04T07:22:00.001-06:00

Today I am leaving for California. I am excited for a little mommy only time away. It's bittersweet too. I don't know if I am going to be able to handle six days away from the ones I love more than life itself:

The King and Jester working on Jester's physics project.

Duchess and Maiden the day Maiden got her ears pierced.

Squire reading the paper and enjoying a snack.

Jouster and Prince Charming worn out after an evening of guitar hero.

Prince Charming and Scribe in a self portrait.

Our blog will still have activity while I'm gone. I have scheduled posts to be published almost every day. I will be checking in from CA, so don't be afraid to leave a comment.

I'm a Little Fruity

2009-02-03T12:00:00.000-06:00

I was so glad when our fruit order came in last week. I feel healthier just knowing all that vitamin C is here, waiting to be consumed.

Last month we ordered two full cases, one of oranges and one of grapefruit. We ran out of grapefruit way too early in the month, so this time we added an additional ½ box. This is $64.00 worth of fruit--about 2½ bushel. This time of year we also eat about 25# of bananas, one or two pineapple, a couple of kiwis, and 5-10# of apples per month. We only have grapes if they are really cheap.

Way back in the old days, when I only had four children, I used to think fruit snacks were a healthy snack for my kids because they said "fruit" on them. Fruit juice, canned peaches (in delicious syrup), and bananas were the main sources of fruit in our diet. I had done daycare and according to the National Lunch Standards, canned fruit (in syrup) counted as a fruit serving. If the government says it's good for us, then it has to be, right?

Seven years ago, when we started our adoption process, a pediatrician told me that once we got our child home, she would go through a huge growth spurt. The doctor explained that in foreign countries, people are not exposed to hormones in foods like we are here in the U.S. She said I'd be amazed at how fast our little girl would grow once we started feeding her our American diet. For some reason, this did not sit well with me. I dove in and did endless reading and research on food and health related topics. One thing that really troubled me was that girls were starting puberty at younger ages. Especially foreign adoptees. Some experts attributed this to our poor diet.

I decided we would make some changes. It made sense to me that if we would eat foods as close to the way God gave them to us, the better off we'd be. I started to replace our processed and canned fruits with fresh. That wasn't easy. We had grown accustomed to ultra sweet syrup laden fruits. The kids loved to drink the 'juice' from the can when the fruit was gone. Eating fresh wasn't desirable. I threw out lots of over ripe and rotting fruit that no one touched. Over time, our taste buds adjusted and we were able to enjoy fresh fruit the way God had intended.

Then I started adding fresh, leafy greens into our diet. We usually have a salad with our meals about 3 (or more) times per week. People are amazed when the see my two year old shoveling lettuce greens into his mouth...and then asking for more 'num nums'. If we don't have a fresh salad, we have some sort of cooked vegetable on the side with our meals.

I tried to cut out a lot of processed foods and started cooking from scratch. Years ago, when we only had two children, we had a visit from a friend from Norway. His main comment about our food was that our bread lacked substance. He said, "Americans make such good sandwiches. They'd be much better on good bread." I had no idea what he was talking about. I loved my sub sandwiches on soft white bread. It wasn't until after I started baking whole wheat bread and purchasing whole grain breads that I understood what he had been talking about.

We also made changes in our meat to decrease some of the hormones in our diet. We started to raise our own chickens and lamb. We purchased organic, grass fed beef from a local farmer. I can't afford organic milk, but I do buy hormone free. I haven't been able to switch our cheeses and butter. It's just not cost effective. However, I do feel better about the changes we have made. I do what I can do within the budget I've been given.

Don't get me wrong. We are not total health food fanatics. I still buy hot dogs, processed meats, boxed macaroni and cheese, chips, candy, and occasionally, pop. I still buy white buns, and French bread. It's just that these things are no longer the main staple in our lives.

Driving through McDonald's and Burger King for meals used to be a frequent event for our family. It was convenient. Once we started eating healthier, and increasing the variety of foods in our diet, those places no longer tasted as good as they had before. Now, driving through fast food restaurants for a quick meal is a very rare occurrence, and barely tolerable.

What have I accomplished through all of this? For one, we've seen a considerable decrease in doctor visits. I can't even remember the last time we had to give one of the younger children an antibiotic. In fact, some of our kids aren't even in our pharmacy's data base! It's too bad eating healthier doesn't prevent stitches and broken bones.

Secondly, I have kids who eat almost anything. There are very few things they don't like. One thing they can't stomach is white bread. Our grocery store was giving away free loaves with a $25.00 purchase. Always trying to be a good steward, I made sandwiches with it for lunch. All seven children complained about how the bread turned pasty and stuck to the roofs of their mouths. It made me smile. We've definitely come a long way.

Baby Shower

2009-01-31T21:29:00.000-06:00

The other night the girls and I went to a baby shower for a baby who was born about a month ago. Neither of them had been to a shower and excitedly talked about it throughout the day, often asking me what people do at showers.

I told them we would play some games, and someone might read something for the mom and baby. Then we would watch the mom open gifts, and finally, have a snack. If they were lucky, they might even get to hold the baby.

However, Maiden expected something more logical. About half way through the games, she whispered to me, "When do we get to watch the baby take a shower?

Image Credit

Chicken Challenge Correction

2009-01-30T09:49:00.004-06:00

Remember my Chicken Challenge post? I was wanting a cyber pat on the back from my blogging audience because my bestest friend in the whole wide world, Rapunzel (the one with all the hair), didn't seem impressed with my results.

I stand corrected. Here is an email message that was buried in my inbox. It is from Rapunzel:

I was very impressed !!! I was just impressed earlier than you thought I'd

be. I couldn't get over the size of the chicken before you got to the rest

about boiling the bones after you had already cooked the chicken because

the marrow makes really good broth. And then making chicken enchilada

casserole without rolling up the tortillas - a layer of tortillas, a layer

of "slop" - as you called it, a layer of cheese... And you used green

pepper because Jouster had purchased 4 green peppers instead of green

onions before Christmas. Your family loved it (and I'm sure mine will too

on Saturday night when I make enchiladas the easy way!!!). You also make

your cream soup from a home made mix, remember, we calculated how much it costs and it's a good deal, you were going to send me the recipe..... Nexttime if you don't think I'm impressed, ask me. I must have been impressed to remember all of those details, don't you think?

You are my bestest friend too and when I get to talk to you sometimes we go

too fast from subject to subject so I don't get to tell you how great you

really are!!!!

I'd have put this all into a comment on your blog, so everyone can see how

truly impressive you are to me, but either I can't comment from here, or

you have changed your settings. Feel free to paste my rebuttal into your

blog if you so choose.

Have a wonderfully blessed day!

Rapunzel

I should have known better. In the 14 years we've been friends she has always been impressed (or pretended to be, anyway) with everything I excitedly share with her. This particular day I couldn't shut my mouth long enough to hear her giving me an 'atta girl' through the telephone line. Isn't she a great friend? Everyone needs a Rapunzel in their lives. Some day I will tell you the story of how our friendship almost never came to be.

In reading her message, you'll see I don't buy cream soup in a can anymore. It takes a little more forethought in preparing meals, but now that I've done it for a while, I don't even notice. In case you are interested, here is the recipe (It originated from my my Sister-in-Love, The Queen of Spring Lake.):

Cream Soup Mix

2 c. powdered milk

3/4 c. cornstarch

1/4 c. chicken bouillon

2 T. dried onion flakes

1 t. dried thyme

1 t. dried basil

Combine all ingredients. Mix well and store in an air tight container.

Yields: 4c. of mix (12 cans of soup)

To replace one can of condensed cream soup:

Combine 1/3 c. dry mix with 1 1/4 cup water in saucepan. Heat and stir until thickened.

It is slightly 'soupier' than the canned stuff when it's hot...so you may have to adjust recipes that call for milk.

I think I will add cheese to it when recipes call for cheese soup. I chopped up a couple of mushrooms one day when I needed a can of cream of mushroom soup to top an egg bake--it turned out good. I think you could replace the chicken bouillon with beef bouillon and it would look more like cream of mushroom soup. This is a little yellower than mushroom soup would be. Not noticeable in recipes though! And oh, so much more cost effective! (Mine is MSG free since I use Frontier Chicken Broth Powder--if using Frontier, you'll need to adjust the recipe. Regular bouillon requires 1 tsp per cup of water and Frontier requires 4 tsp.)

1/3 cup of dry mix is 95 calories

1 can of soup is 330 calories

Make Up

2009-01-29T01:09:00.004-06:00

Maiden and Duchess this past summer after fixing each other's hair.

The girls and I were getting ready to leave the house when Duchess noticed that Maiden had an alarming amount of eyeshadow applied to her eyes.

Duchess: (In a very disciplinary and accusing tone.) "Are you wearing mom's make up?"

Maiden: (Quietly and meekly.) "I wanted to look pretty."

Duchess: (This time much gentler and more understanding.) "You don't need make up. You are already pretty. Only mom needs make up."

Mom: (Confused and thinking to herself.) "Why do I suddenly feel like crying?"

Prayer Request

2009-01-27T09:02:00.004-06:00

Friends of ours could really use your prayers. Their two year old son recently had surgery to remove a brain tumor. They have been told it is malignant. Today he will have tests to see if it has spread to his spinal fluid.

Will you join me in praying for "Prince Charlee"?

Thanks. I pray you have a blessed day!

Blog Reader Requests

2009-01-25T21:58:00.007-06:00

First of all, I am going to share a recipe with you. (Debra this is for you!) Every time I serve this, I get requests for the recipe.

French Dip

serves 8

3# beef chuck roast (we have use lamb roasts and had great results)

¾ cup soy sauce

3 cups water

1 ½ tsp. dried rosemary

1 ½ tsp. dried thyme

1 ½ tsp. garlic powder

1 bay leaf

5 whole peppercorns

Place contents in slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 5-6 hours or until beef is tender. Remove bay leaf and discard. Strain broth to remove remaining spices. (I tie the spices all up into a piece of cheesecloth or a spice bag, so I don't have to strain it.) Shred beef. Skim fat, if needed. Use broth for dipping and add some to the shredded beef to keep it moist. Serve on hard rolls.

Debra, I will make this for you if you will come...just give me about 6 hours advance notice :-)

Secondly...My cousin Chris has been wanting to see photos of our finished basement. Here they are:

From my kitchen you will see this opening. This leads you to the basement stairs. I repainted my kitchen a green color called cavern moss.

If you look to the right, this is where The King made me a little kitchen office. It is here I do my menu planning and make my grocery lists. I love my little nook. It used to be a pantry but we framed a larger pantry into the kitchen when we were framing the basement. This paint color is called pizza pie . I get hungry every time I look at it.

When you turn to the left, you go down four stairs and then turn right onto a landing. There is a door at this landing that goes to the outside. We plan to build a deck or screened in porch out this door one day. Do you like my curtain rod? I have fabric to sew a curtain...I just haven't gotten to it yet. I'm telling myself that fabric, like fine wine, is better with age.

Then we head down the stairs to the basement. These stairs used to be very steep but The King's brothers helped him plan and cut out some of the original landing to make the stairs perfect! I painted this stairwell a brown color called patches. I was hoping it would cover up dirty little fingerprints. It does that job well. What is does not cover up is permanent marker. Trust me, I know.

Now we are at the bottom of the stairs. Here is the main living area. It is a tan color called spiced vinegar.

Standing in the main living area. Behind the sofa are the doors leading to the laundry room, the bathroom and the utility room.

Another view of the main area. My treadmill is behind the sofa. I removed the clothing for this photo shoot, but my treadmill doubles as a clothesline since it is so close to the laundry room. Okay, I lied. My treadmill does not double as a clothesline. It is a clothesline.

Still standing in the main living area, but looking down to the end. This is where we keep the toys. The love seat gets pulled into the main living area on family movie night so (mostly) everyone has a place to sit.

Here is the bathroom. I love the fixtures. Actually, I love everything about the bathroom. I still need to find the perfect towel bars for this room. One of these days I'll make that a priority.

The walls are a little darker shade than the main area. This color is jute. I chose red as my accent color. I have more fabric ready to be made into a shower curtain. I'm letting it age as well. There is a linen closet to the left and the shower is on the right. We put in floor heat throughout the entire basement so this tile floor is cozy warm.

Next is the laundry room. This is a shade lighter than the main area and it is called sand fossil. Don't you wish you could name paint colors? I do. That's what I want to do when I grow up.

Just keeping it real for you. Those other photos were all staged to make it look like I have a perfectly clean house. I don't. This is the real me. Actually this is laundry on a good day. Some days you can't even see the floor!

Hope you enjoyed the tour. And Chris, it looks so much better in real life...come and check it out.

Chicken Challenge

2009-01-21T20:57:00.004-06:00

Last week I gave myself a challenge:

To take one of our home grown, organically fed 6# chickens and make as many meals out of it as I possibly could.

Over the phone, I proudly told my friend Rapunzel what I had done, and how many meals I had made. Her first reaction (thinking she would praise me...because she's my bestest friend in the whole wide world) was, "Six pounds? That's the size of a turkey!"

So, since she was not impressed (only because she buys 2# chickens from the grocer), maybe my vast blogger viewing audience will be in awe and give me a cyber pat on the back. This is what I made:

Chicken pot pie--enough for TWO meals, or two 9x13 size pans.

Chicken Quesadillas--one meal.

Chicken noodle soup--one full evening meal with enough left over for lunch the next day (served with sandwiches).

Sour Cream Enchiladas--one evening meal plus lunch for Jouster the next day.

Six pounds of uncooked chicken gave me a total of eight cups of cooked meat, which resulted in a total of FIVE meals for our family of nine--SIX if you count the left over soup for lunch. The bonus of my challenge is that I have one of those chicken pot pie meals waiting in the freezer. Gotta love that. I was feeling like a Proverbs 31 woman.

Anyone else up for a challenge? Leave me a comment and tell me how frugal you can be with a chicken...any size...using any recipes. I'd love to hear what you can do.

Blessings,

Back Yard Ice Rink

2009-01-21T11:33:00.005-06:00

Today it is a sunny 18° and Great White is not stuck in the snow. Quite a change from last week when it was -34° and Great White couldn't move. Not being able to go anywhere for four days wasn't so bad. It brought out the innovative side of Squire.

One morning when he was out doing chores, he decided he needed to make a skating rink for Duchess since we weren't able to go to town and use the ice arena. How would she ever keep up on her skating skills if she didn't have adequate practice time?

He was a big ice cube when he came in the house.

He was grinning from ear to ear when he told Duchess what he had done for her. She was so excited and couldn't wait to try out her very own ice skating rink.

He even helped her lace up her skates. As he sent her out the door he told her, "Be careful, it might be a little lumpy...the water kept freezing before I could smooth it out."

But she didn't seem to mind...the lumpy ice or the -34° wind chill. She skated until she couldn't feel her nose or cheeks.

Then she came in to warm up just long enough to go out and skate some more. To say she was thrilled with his gift to her would be an understatement. She couldn't thank him enough. Way to go Squire! You are the big brother of every little girl's dreams.

Benefits of a Home Office

2009-01-20T10:37:00.003-06:00

Yesterday I saw this beautiful sight. The King was on the phone doing business with Duchess and Prince Charming in his arms. (Psst...honey, could you turn around?)

I'd say this is multitasking at it's best.

Or is it mixing business with pleasure?

Great White is Free!

2009-01-16T07:34:00.001-06:00

The Great White Royal Chariot has been stuck in this position since Monday. Jouster, Jester and I tried everything we could think of to set her free. Remember, The King has been in California all week. He was not much help over the phone.

Maybe I'm too proud, but I refused to ask anyone for help. Except Wednesday night when I finally asked God, "Lord, I'm not going to call anyone for help. Could you just send someone?"

Sure enough, he did! Yesterday I heard some noise in my driveway and looked out to see my neighbor plowing our snow. He came in the house to tell me he'd seen Great White sitting in that same spot all week, and figured something was wrong, so he thought he'd come and give me a hand.

When he found out The King was in California, he raised one eyebrow and said, "If I were you, I wouldn't even talk to him if he calls home." (Everyone around here is a little jealous of The King missing out on our cold spell.) He even offered to pick up any supplies I might need in town, because that's where he was headed next. Now that's a good neighbor.

He pushed all the snow away from behind Great White and then Jouster and Jester pushed her from behind with the mini van. All she needed was a little kick in the pants to break free.

The men who saved the day, Jester on the left and Jouster on the right. The timing couldn't have been better. The King flies home today, and I'm on my way to bring him home.

Slurping Soup

2009-01-15T07:45:00.003-06:00

In Japan and Hong Kong slurping soup is sign of approval and appreciation of the cooking. I think the same holds true here in Fairy Tale Land.

I Never Sleep Alone

2009-01-14T07:49:00.001-06:00

First I need to share with you our temperature today. It is -7ºbut with the wind, feels like -25º. Always the optimist (can you hear the sarcasm?) I am thankful for our heat wave. In International Falls, MN the temperature this morning was -35º but with the wind it feels like -52º. What have I got to complain about? A stuck van? No way. No more complaining here. (Except I am still jealous that my husband is in California.)

Now for the important stuff:

The other night I went to bed alone, but I woke the next morning with guests:

Maiden, Ariel the Little Mermaid, Gracie the Pink Poodle and Caitlin the Snuggly Doll joined me sometime during the night. Maiden had her little hand holding mine. No wonder I had such sweet dreams.