our priceless gift

6-7 years ago
my (then) doctor
recommended a hysterectomy.
Apparently that was the only cure for my symptoms.
I had a very large uterine fibroid that was causing tremendous pain,
almost constant bleeding and secondary infertility.
We tried shrinking it with medicine
but that didn’t work.
Btw - if your Doctor ever suggests taking Lupron
Run!
Seriously!
That stuff is of the devil!!!

I said
thankyouverymuch
but I think I’ll live with the pain…..
~
Today
my precious baby girl
- the 3rd child we’ve been blessed with

since I ‘should’ have had that hysterectomy -
turned 1

Lily is such fun!
She is absolutely brilliant -
even carrying on conversations
(so long as we ask the right questions)
She loves pretty things -
‘specially her sissy.
She adores her big brothers and loves it
when they come in the bedroom after she wakes up in the morning;
I call out, “LiyPie’s awake (at which point she’ll smile and look at the door)
and she’s lookin’ at the door!”
She watches the door and listens
and as soon as she hears them coming
she gets so excited!
She likes books
Cars and guns and legos are some of her favorite toys
She loves to help
She mimics everything
She’s a night owl
She’s our treasure!
~
I love you, Lily!!

I am so happy to be your momma!

Thank-you, Father, for this priceless gift!

HE IS RISEN

He is risen indeed!

glamour girls

Lily was sitting on Lana's bed

watching her 'sissia' put on make-up.

Tyler popped his head in the door,

"Are you girls putting on make-up?"

to which

Lana says, "Yeah."

and Lily said,

"Yes, Dad."

so pretty

takin' a break

We have been crazy busy around here

and I don't expect it to get any better

for,

oh -

say,

2 months and 3 days....

but we took a break Tuesday evening

to watch Enchanted.

We rarely go to the movie theater

but we're often 1st in line

when a movie we've been waiting to see

comes out on video.

Lana'd been waiting for this one

since she saw the preview for it

when she with Luke and some other friends

to see Ratatouille (at the 'real' movie theater)

in July

Frankly,

I've seen better movies.

much

better movies.

but

I enjoyed the company

very much!

growing green

I was so tickled this afternoon;

I was just moving my seed-starting trays

so I could check and make sure everything was moist enough.

Imagine my surprise when I saw green sprouting up -

Tyler and I planted these Tuesday!

(the seed packet said 9 - 14 days)

~

Now,

I'm always excited with green in the Spring

but this was especially nice

because these little beauties

are for the wedding.

I hope, I hope...

you know you're a homeschoolin' family...

...when

a package arrives in the mail

and everyone fights over the contents

for hours

and your 15 yr old son is happy he's the first one up

the next day

'cause he gets first dibs on it.....

and

this

is what was in the package.
~
We've wanted this book for years!
When I first started looking for it,
it was out of print
and copies were selling for over a hundred bucks!
I've had it on my wish list at half.com
ever since.
I occasionally get an e-mail
telling me they've got one for sale,
but the price is usually still to steep for my blood.
but last week
someone had one
for only $18
(plus the over-priced shipping, of course)
~
thank-you, Lord, for your provision!!

good helpers

Scooping the laundry soap into containers
is definitely one of the favorite jobs around here.
I'm not sure what we'll do when Lily is big enough to help.
I guess I'll just have to make a triple batch.

Thanks for being such big helper-men!!

finally

Ever since I began cautiously reintroducing dairy

I have been wanting to go to Mazzios.

We've been trying to go for six weeks

We finally got to go last night.

See

you have to go for the buffet

which is only at lunch on weekdays and on Tuesday evenings.

Lunch wasn't practical

so it had to be a Tuesday.

We've either had someone sick

or something going on every single week

since I decided I was going to try a whole serving of dairy

(and then some)

Lana suggested just making pizza at home

("why spend the money to go out

if Lily's going to end up screaming for hours afterwards?")

Tyler offered to take us to Pizza Parlor on a Friday

but what I wanted

was

Mazzios.

the whole shabang

the salad with fried onions and cottage cheese and eggs

supreme pizza - piping hot

a slice of chicken club - hot enough to burn my mouth

and last but not least

cinnamon sticks.

If she was going to end up crying in pain

by golly

it was going to be worth it!

She didn't sleep the greatest

and there were a few moments during the night

when I wondered if had been too much too soon;

I think it was more her teeth than her belly, though.

~

As glad as I was to finally get to go to Mazzios

-and it was pretty good

although, I'd built it up to be so much more -

I'm glad I could make this sacrifice for Lily

~

It's absolutely nothing

compared to what's been sacrificed for me

~

We love

because He first loved us

1 John 4:19

new shoes

The other day
I was putting Lily's shoes on her dresser
(never mind why they weren't already there...)
and I said
aloud - but to myself -
This girl has outgrown all of her shoes
I have got to make some more!

Tyler said,
"that's what all the moms say when their kids outgrow their shoes"

"whhaatt?"

Lily was quite pleased with her shoes!

momma's quite pleased to have accomplished something

hmmm

The boys were having a rough morning

so they took turns riding in the ERGO.

While Jeremiah was 'helping' me fix lunch

he was just rambling on and on.

"Isn't this nice?

don't you love it when I rub your back?....

When I'm 18, you can still carry me on your back."

I replied,

"Um, I don't think so!

Tony is only 15 and if I carried him, his feet would touch the floor!"

Jeremiah thinks for a second.

"Well, what would be the problem with that?!"

our LilyPie

our babies aren't little angels - as a general rule
They require almost constant attention
(and almost as constant holding
which is why we are such ERGO fans)
but Lily is beginning to play on her own a bit.
Last night, she was finishing her cookie
-and as a result of miscommunication-
she was left in her high chair
for like - twenty minutes!
I think she was waiting for seconds!

our budding musician

Lily really enjoys watching our reading videos
and right up close is her favorite spot!

As of Sunday, she still wasn't really crawling
she was sorta doing a scoot-crawl combination.
well, she is officially a crawler now!

way to go LilyPie!

doctoring dad

Jeremiah and Josiah taking care of daddy's Skicktow it's clear that Daddy enjoys being the patient :-)

better late than never

The weekend in pictures

LilyPie just waking up from a comfy nap

Josiah & Lola watching the 'long black' train.
in the summer, we can't see the trains from the house
but in the fall & winter - we can :-)

Jeremiah and Josiah helped Papa in the garden.
Jeremiah even planted an 'apple tree'
which will give us lots of watermelon this summer.
perhaps we need some science lessons, eh?

The big kids were all gone for dinner
it was just the 5 of us.
I can see how small families can eat for $50 a month
(and fix a meal in 30 minutes)
we had 2 chicken breast, 3 potatoes & 4 ears of corn
and still had some scraps for the chickens

Lana & Lily playing with 'hats'

love my girls!!!
Gramma & Grandpa Bill & Gramma Joyce (and T :-)

spent Sunday afternoon with us

4 generations doing 'here's a ball for baby'
Lily's favorite parts are
clapping
peek-a-boo
and rock-a-baby-bye

Josiah holding Felecity
we are so happy to have these sweet kids!!

last, but not least
Jeremiah enjoying a book before bedtime

(yes, Tony was here - I just didn't end up with any pictures of him
except with Felecity, which I already posted)

new life on the farm

Yesterday

I found myself singing Stand in the Rain.

kinda loud

for me, anyways - I rarely belt 'em out.

~

Valentine's Day, last year

we were driving to church for our teen outreach;

I sang the song then, too

only that time

I sang with tears in my eyes

and a huge lump in my throat;

Billy, Tony's little Boer buck

had just died.

I was really wondering if we'd made a mistake

moving here;

had we misunderstood God's will for us?

we'd been so sure at the time,

but

everything was so hard!

Much harder than we'd anticipated.

And

pretty much

nothing

was successful.

Our garden had been a flop

neighbor's dogs kept killing our chickens

the house was continuing to fall apart

(how was this even possible??!)

and then,

that song came on the radio

and I knew

we had not misunderstood.

everything was crashing down

but we needed to stand firm.

~

I was fixing a quick dinner

when Tony ran in the house.

He was shaking.

"there's a baby goat out there!"

he barely got the words out

before I took off running,

shouting

"Praise the Lord"

on my way out the door.

We had just about given up hope.

Queenie died not long ago;

we were expecting kids just any time -

then, she got real weak.

Tony researched possible causes,

was tending to her all throughout the day

and she seemed to be doing much better

he ran out to check on her first thing next morning

expecting babies

and found her lifeless body instead.

we weren't positive if Speckles was even pregnant.

She was :-)

There is new life on our farm!

Hopefully, the first of many new lives

(yes, we had those 2 baby chicks but the dogs killed them, too...)

we are standing firm

there's been lots more rain than we would have liked

but

we haven't drowned

~

Thank you, Lord

for new life!

the lesson in the pot

I absolutely love cloth diapering my babies.
I didn’t expect to.
My reasons for switching to cloth were purely financial.
How on earth could we afford THREE in diapers??
~
After using cloth for only a short time
I was hooked
and
the boys were hooked
Once,
when we were a few days into the ‘trying out cloth’ stage
I put a paper diaper on Jeremiah
before I even got it taped (velcroed?) up
he asked, “What are you putting on my bottom?”
Needless to say
he quickly cast his vote in favor of our homemade FuzzyBunz.
We’ve used cloth for just over a year now
and have never had a bit of trouble.
Until recently.
They started stinking!
We aren’t talking ordinary diaper stink here
We’re talking 90’s Toni perm smell!
I did everything I knew to do to fix the problem
But it persisted
I finally got in touch with Dani
And she figured out my problem.
Not enough detergent.
When we got the new washer
I never made adjustments for the larger capacity
Duh!

So today
I gathered all the diapers
And I washed those suckers with tons of soap
then I boiled the inserts to remove any bacteria buildup
And I learned something.
~
I thought I’d be able to just set the timer while they boiled
and work nearby.
But I couldn’t
I had to stand there and babysit
and push those diapers back down in the water
and keep the burner at just the right temperature
to keep it boiling, without boiling over.
And I thought -
God doesn’t just point out a sin in my life
And leave me there to work through it on my own
He stays with me
Dunking me back in the fire, if need be
Guiding me
Helping me
Giving me just what I need at the moment.
And that got me to thinking -
So many times
with my children,
I want to point them in the right direction
and then go about my business
and expect them to automatically live up to my desires.
But what I need to do
is point them in the right direction
and then stay with them
‘til we achieve the desired results
together
~
I’m sorry, guys