all out war

I never intended for it to be a battle.
She’d nursed for fifteen minutes
the milk was long gone
she was pretty much asleep
so I figured I’d unhook her and pat her back.
She was
not happy, Parr!
It took a few minutes for it to sink in
that momma was not going to hook her back up.
But then she settled down.
But she wouldn’t stay laying down
so she got a swat.
She very clearly understands what I mean
when I say, “lay down”
~
Things went from bad to worse.
An hour later
she was writhing angrily in my arms.
Where did I get this stubborn, stubborn child??
~
I won.
I held her till she gave in and let sleep overtake her.
She must have been so exhausted;
she’d put up quite a fight!
I held her until her bottom lip went in
and she quit snuffling
and she sighed.
And then I held her more
and cried.
Why does it have to be so hard?

I thought of the Father
How hard it must be for Him.
He gives a simple command
He is disobeyed.
He makes certain we understood the directive.
We do.
And we obey
but only briefly.
And on and on it goes.
And He is sad.
And He wonders,
When will my foolish child understand?
I only want the best for you.
I never intended for this to be war.

pocket diaper insert for pennies

I am really excited to share my first Frugal Friday tip.
I’ve had my suspicions that this would work
but I wasn’t positive.
~
I’ve been dealing with some stink with my diapers
for quite some time.
First
I thought that after I got my new washer
I wasn’t using enough soap
but after stripping my dypes
and boiling my inserts
and increasing my soap
I was still having odor issues.
The only time they weren’t smelly when soiled
was if they’d been dried on the line.
I suspect it has something to do with the sanitizing power of the sun
(there’s a spiritual lesson here…)
I prefer to dry them on the line.
I think diapers flapping in the breeze

are one of life’s sweet pleasures.
But
the weather
doesn’t always cooperate with my washing schedule.
Seems more often than not
lately
diapers have gone in the dryer.
Anyone who’s used them
knows that microfiber inserts take a long time to dry!

So
I bought a package of 25 16x16 micro fiber towels at Sams for $10.88
I had the presence of mind to prewash some
(I planned to return them if they didn’t work for inserts)
although
I didn’t expect them to turn the rest of my diapers
green
Lovely.
I think I’ll wash the rest of them by themselves!

~
All that to say
that
one towel
folded in thirds

makes an
easy to wash
quick to dry
non-bulky, but plenty absorbent
pocket diaper insert
that cost only pennies gotta love it!

weed?!

If Jeremiah happens to tell you

"we have weed at our house"

don't turn us in.

~

'Wii'

makes absolutely no sense to him

so he thinks we must all be saying it wrong

and the correct pronunciation

is 'weed'.

So

there you have it.

We have weed at our house

and we all have a lot of fun when we use it

one hundred things

I’ve read its customary to write
‘100 things about myself’
in honor of one’s one hundredth post.
Um
first of all
that would be really boring
secondly
this blog is for my family
so I figured I’d post about us
And
I doubt I’ll come close to a hundred things
I just don’t have that much time!
So
Off the top of my head:
We enjoy being together
We are a tad competitive
We like good food
meaning food that tastes good
and
is good for you
We also like food that’s not so good for you
like brownies.
We love Jesus
and strive to honor God with our whole lives.
We are into doing things ourselves
consequently
we’re pretty hard workers.
Surprisingly
we all fit just fine in this dinky house
(our stuff, on the other hand….)
We like having lots of pictures
but
we often forget to bring the camera when we go somewhere.
We are hard on furniture
but
I suspect that’s partially cause we don’t have much
If we had more furniture - we’d use each piece less
and it would last longer.
We love blueberries
well, all of us except for T.

We like to all wear red when we go to an amusement park

that way we can find each other easily.
We home school
but
I don’t know that that defines us -
we do much weirder things than that
like
Cloth diaper
Grind our own flour
(and enjoy our homemade burger buns so much,

we can hardly stand to eat store-bought)
Use herbal remedies - most of them home-made
Believe that ‘debt-free is the way to be’
Co-sleep
Garden organically
Drink fresh raw milk
and drive about 2 hours (one way) to purchase it.
We (all those over 5, at least) agree that
Lupron is of the Devil.
We love ice
but
rarely ever have it.
We save all coins
some for our anniversary fund
and
some
for a go-cart.
Needless to say
we’re adding a bit of paper money to these funds as we can, too.
We love going to friends’ houses
and
having friends over
but we don’t do either nearly as often as we’d like.
We like candles, fireworks, books, and babies
but not necessarily in that order.
We enjoy playing games together
some of our favorites are;
Nertz, Tribond, Taboo, Pit, Six Dice & Rolling,

and the Dictionary Game
Some of us like Othello
others like it, but are lousy at it!
Did I mention
we like food?
We like to walk on the train tracks.
We’ve been involved in Outreach Ministry for about 7 years
and dearly love our Team!
Movie-quoting is an acceptable form of communication in this family.
We like ‘living in the country’
but
we haven’t been very successful
as far as ‘self-sufficiency’ goes.
(I hate that term, as if God weren’t part of the equation)
We believe that marriage is one man and one woman
for life
and
that children are a blessing from the Lord.
~
Speaking of
I’ve got a little blessing crawling around here
thinking she needs a snack.
You know how we love our food….

little shoes and lotsa links

I've had a couple people ask about my shoes

well

not my shoes

the shoes I make

~

I was introduced to making-your-own baby shoes

by my blogger friend Lindsey

after following a Frugal Friday link on Crystal's blog.

Needless to say

I was immediately hooked!

Being too cheap to actually buy a pattern

I use the free pattern I found here.

Here's another pattern, too, slightly different shape.

This site has lots of helpful information

and tells how to resize your pattern

(which isn't an exact science, by the way!)

~

I actually haven't made as many shoes as I would have thought

partly

I'm sure

because I've been up to my eyebrows in wedding plans

for quite some time.

But also

because

I'm (sniff) just not very good at it.

Most of the gals I found make really cute shoes in an hour

takes me at least 2 hours per pair

and

I

always mess up

(now - diapers - I can make a diaper in an hour!!)

but I do love

to have my little sweeties

in soft, cute shoes

that cost pennies to make!

~

hmm

maybe I'll just go whip up a pair right now....

wedding slide-show

The quality isn't real great (video, not subject matter :-) but I'm too technologically impaired to know how to fix it...sorry

1 Timothy 1:12

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength,
that he considered me faithful, appointing me to his service.
~
I happened upon this verse the other day.
Some days
I don’t feel very faithful.
Actually
most days
I feel like I fail
more often than not.
And many days
I try to do things in my own strength
rather than relying on the strength that He has already given me.
~
He has appointed me to his service
again
~
I pray that I will continue to be faithful
and raise these precious children he has so graciously given us

~
All eight of them
~
Thank-you, Lord!!