our big girl

I know.

It's hard to believe

but it really is true!

LilyPie can count

to six!!

~

what a big

observant

girl!

Happy 16th

I woke up
and knew instantly
‘today is the day’!
~
It was Sunday
sixteen years ago, to be exact.
We decided to skip church
and went for a walk around Asbell Elemantary instead.
I called my midwife around noon
and told her she was officially ‘on call’.
~
We had a leisurely afternoon
with a few neighbor friends popping in and out.
Contractions continued to increase
in frequency
duration
and intensity.
A Bill Cosby tape was in the VCR.
for awhile
he was a humorous distraction.
then
he was not!
~
My mom started heading our way around 5 or 5:30;
I called Janessa back
and told her I was ready for her to come on over, too.
She arrived a few minutes before 6:00
and we headed to the bedroom for ‘the check’.
As usual, I wasn’t dilated past a 1.
Usual or not, it was still a bit discouraging.
She announced she was going to church.
You know
since I wasn’t doing much of anything.
I informed her
she was most definitely not going to church;
she was my midwife & I was ready for her to be with me.
She assured me that Kimberly,
her very sweet apprentice with a young baby of her own,
was on her way.
And she would be back in an hour.
My midwife then walked out the door
saying, “Nothing is going to happen in an hour!”
~
I kept moving from the tub to the toilet
then back to the tub again.
It’s so nice to labor in hot water!
(I would love to have a water birth, but alas, that will never happen.)
My water broke not long after my midwife left.
Then things really got intense!
I told Tyler there was no way I could do this for 8 more hours
(where I came up with 8 hours, I have no idea…)
I was going to have to go to the hospital.
I was already feeling like I had to push
But for goodness sake, I was only a 1,
so my mind and body must playing tricks on me….
My mom thought I needed to just get a grip
(fortunately, she told me that later, not right then :-)
so she took TJ & Lana to play outside.
Kimberly decided she would help me refocus
by checking me again…
She figured she’d be able to tell me I was at 3cm
or maybe even five!
I waddled to the bed
with Tyler’s help.
She took one look and said,
“We’re crowning!”
I’m not sure who was more shocked,
Kimberly
or
Me!
Here I thought I was just a wimp
and
I was in transition, and a fast one, at that!

~
Tony Michael
was born moments later
a few minutes past 7:00
as Janessa was walking back in the door.
Nothing’s gonna happen in an hour, huh?!

~
Tony has been an absolute delight!
He introduced us to the joys of co-sleeping
before we knew there was a name for it.
He’s a snappy dresser.

He is our resident comedian.
He loves the Lord
and
he loves all kinds of music.
He’s adventurous.

He’s a fantastic big brother
(a pretty good ‘little’ brother, too!)
and an excellent driver
with just the right mix of confidence and caution.

He loves animals.
He will make an excellent husband and father someday.
~
Tony
We love you and are so blessed to have you in our family!


Happy Birthday!

introducing......

beautiful Baby L

~
I am not always big on technology

but I do love ultrasounds!

I usually prefer the bare bones sonogram

to the more modern 4D's they can do these days

but today

I like this picture of our Little Bit the best.

Don't we have us a doll baby?!
~

I am just amazed that at 10 ounces

and about as many inches

a baby is a perfect (albeit tiny) person.

God is so incredible!!

~

Only 19 weeks till we get to meet this precious sweetie

face to face

kids in the kitchen

Once upon a time
I used to sneak into the kitchen to cook dinner.
Doesn’t work anymore.
Hasn’t in years, actually.
Which is fine
‘cause I’ve learned a thing or two.

~
They see me grabbing the bucket of grain
and
pretty soon
there’s a chair by the mixer
with an eager helper standing on it.
(the chair, not the mixer)
~

so
it was really no surprise
when I sat down with some veggies
(yes, Honey, I sat down to do food prep ~ can you believe it?!)
that I soon had offers of help.
My first thought was
Ummm
I’m cutting vegetables, there’s nothing you can do.
Thanks anyways.
But then I figured
Really
What’s the worst that could happen?
The very worst that could happen
if I let them help cut
was
a finger tip could get cut off
and
surely they couldn’t cut hard enough to cut off the whole tip…..
So I went ahead and let them help.

Josiah cut up an entire 8 oz pkg. of mushrooms!

Brandon,
who is becoming quite proficient with a knife,
cut up the broccoli and cucumber

Jeremiah diced most of a bell pepper

...and the pizza was delicious!
Great cutting, guys!
thanks for all your help.

~

I should probably confess....
I was a bit of a 'mother hen'
Jeremiah suggested I video him cutting the pepper,
but I decided against it
since the entire audio portion would be
me
saying,
"Watch your fingers.
Keep your fingers away from the knife.."

like B1G1

Most of what I do to save money

is so second-nature to me

that I forget it might be 'news' to someone else.

Dish soap

for example.

I'm not even sure that my kids

(or Tyler, for that matter)

know I do this.

Every time I open a new bottle of dishsoap

I pour half of it into the bottle of soap

I just emptied,

after filling it 1/2 full of filtered water, that is.

Then

I gently fill the now-half-empty

new bottle of soap with water.

And I've got 2 brand spankin' new bottles of dishsoap

for the price of one!

~

I also tear my dryer sheets in half before using them;

I throw half in the dryer

and stick the other half back in the box for the next load.

I figured all thrifty folks did this

but

once I mentioned it in passing to my mother-in-law

(who was pretty tight herself)

and she said,

"Well, Tracy, I've never heard of such a thing!

You are cheap!"

~

If I ever find a recipe for dryer sheets that

control static

(as opposed to just softening fabric)

I'll try it.

and I imagine

I'll stretch that

just as far as I can too.

the next cat whisperer

or

maybe not

books n boys make me smile

Up until a week ago

we hadn't been to the library in ages!

Honestly

the thought of taking these 2 boys

to the library was

less

than appealing.

We decided to give it a whirl.

It's been fun to introduce them

to some of our old favorites.

Charlotte Mason may consider them twaddle.

I don't know.... and I don't really care.

I hadn't told the boys to read;

they just went in

and each picked a book from the library basket

and got comfortable.

A Putter and Tabby for Josiah
and Jeremiah picked his new favorite book

(if you have never read Seven Silly Eaters

you've got to check it out at the library

the illustrations are great!!)

~

Several minutes later

I found them in a chair

together;

Jeremiah 'reading' to his little bro.

that
makes me smile a lot.

cheapest flea control

I'm always trying to figure out ways to

painlessly

stretch our money

further.

Painless is key here.

I mean

we can only eat so many beans....

A few months ago

I hit on a pretty sweet idea.

sweet as in cool - why didn't I think of this years ago

not

sweet as in aww.....

~

I'd already found the cheapest place to buy Frontline

but still - roughly 10 bucks a month per dog?!

So

I added up the weight of the dogs

and bought the appropriate dose for their combined weight.

When it's time to use the Frontline,

we simply pull out the proper dosage for Lola

and put the rest on Donor.

Such an easy way to stretch our money!

~

for more ideas on how to stretch your money further

check out Frugal Friday over at Crystal's

wwjd?

I hate to send a kid to bed hungry.
Now
I know
my children have never been truly hungry,
starving hungry,
but still
I don’t like for them to go to bed with even the littlest pang.
I
don’t like to go to bed hungry.
When I do
inevitably
I wake up in the middle of the night
still
hungry
~
On the other hand
it’s rather frustrating to hear
“I’m hungry”
after I’ve just said,
“It’s bedtime.”
~
Just like I can’t judge their hearts and their motives,
I can’t judge their bellies.
Sometimes
I’m hungry - even after I’ve
‘just eaten’
~
Do I just get snookered?
Would Jesus send them to bed hungry?
Should I just be a drill sergeant?
It is
after all
bedtime.
I mean
would it really hurt them to go to bed hungry once in awhile?
Am I encouraging disobedience
or am I exemplifying patience & kindness?
Will they forever disrespect me because I’m stupid
and play their game night after night?
~

I truly don't know

Mercy triumphs over judgement!
(James 2:13)
~
Sleep well, my boys
Momma loves you so much!

our littlest helper

this video is kinda long
probably no one but family will care to watch it...

We sure are thankful for our little girl!!
(and all our other helpers, too!)

~

speaking of our little girl....
she sure loves her Bubs!
This morning
all three little ones ended up in our room.
They all happen to be in varying degrees of sickness, too.

LilyPie had an especially rough night
(as did her momma...)
so I wasn't quite prepared for her
to be her usual happy self when she woke up.
But, she was.
She woke up, crawled over me and saw the boys.
Her face lit up.
"morning, 'Miah"
"morning, Josiah"
she didn't get a response,
so she got louder,
"good morning, Josiah!"
Oh
I wish you could her all the inflection in her sweet little voice.
I hope I can still hear that voice in my head in 50 years!

refashioning

Central

provided t-shirts for everyone to wear to Racing Day.

Needless to say

they didn't have any sized 24 months

so
inspired by this

I remade Lily's t-shirt into a fun little dress.

~

I

have never seen

anyone

who looks

as hideous in a t-shirt

as I do

so

I refashioned mine

using one of my regular shirts as a guide.

Can't do anything about that bright orange, though....

(lovingly chosen instead of the other

equally bright and unattractive-for-wearing colors

in honor of my boys who love orange)

The Pie
does not want to wait until Sunday
to wear her dress!

back to school

not bad for a
first-day-back

LilyPie reading her note from Papa

Jeremiah's note to Momma ~ much better than an apple!!

ugh....MATH

sorting

Why buy expensive manipulatives
when you can use dog food??

nature walk ~ right outside the front door

how (not) to handle a boat in the water
(they were falling over as I snapped the picture)

last but not least

Physics!

ahhh, naptime

racin' day

Next Sunday is our annual meeting at church.

For the past few years, the staff has gone all out

to make annual meetings

not boring.

This year's theme is 'race day', complete with

pinewood derby racing.

Around here

we take our pinewood derby cars pretty seriously

I think it may have been muttered,
"If the L....'s are making a car,
there's no point in racing."

wwhhhaatt?!

Today
was workshop day

It was a real challenge for me to just
let them do it...

but I did.
And I'm so proud of them!
They all did a super job!!

we eat dinner in the bathtub

I feel sortof like I belong in Harris's family

you know,

from the book We Eat Dinner in the Bathtub.

~

We've been moving stuff all around for a couple months,

trying to get everything to fit

and

getting things in the most useful spot,

which is sometimes unusual.

(Of course, I think many times

homes are set up to look good, not be efficient.

I've always put my 'sweet spices' in the same cabinet as my mixing

bowls; that's where they're used. Apparently, even that is weird.)

Anyways

we now have a refrigerator in the dining room.

I'll be the first to admit

that is a bit weird.

But

when we got our new freezer (yay!)

and it was so huge that it overpowerd the spot we had for it,

the boys and I decided

hey- let's swap the fridge and freezer.

lot's of times, things go straight from fridge to table....

The idea was so crazy - it just might work!

I think it's going to ~ we'll see

~

Speaking of eating dinner in the bathtub,

we did that once.

For real.

~

We take a special trip with our kids as they are

beginning to experience the changes that come with growing up.

Dad takes the boys, Mom takes the girls

(I get another trip ~ woohoo)

Lana and I decided that for our trip

we would

go shopping!

Lana loves to shop!!

I don't so much. But back then, I didn't hate it like I do now.
~

We didn't pack a thing!
We were going to buy

everything

we needed to wear during our weekend.

We did take underwear

(since those have to be washed before wearing)

and make-up in our purses

'cause we justified

that lots of girls carry make-up in their purses all the time...

~

Our first stop was NBC;

the NBC in Tulsa is about twice the size of ours!

And

they were having a sale.

We spent hours there.

I'll spare you the drama of the heat rash I got

from standing outside at the $1 rack for over an hour

dripping in sweat.....

Long story short

by the time we made it back to our very nice hotel room

we were pretty well exhausted

our feet were killing us

and we were starving!

There was a Pizza Hut right next to the hotel

so we figured we'd just have it delivered.

It was going to be over an hour!

how??

They were right next door!

We'd rented a suite with a jacuzzi tub

so

we decided we'd soak our poor tired feet while we waited.

and waited

and waited.....

By the time the pizza finally arrived

we were so sore & tired

(we'd never marathon shopped before!

or again, for that matter)

that we just got all the way in that big ole' tub

and

we ate dinner in the bathtub.

happy anniversary to us

Twenty-one years
~
Lana & Luke graciously offered to come stay with the kids.
We
of course
took them up on the offer!
Tony & Brandon do great with the little ones
but
to be completely honest
they can be a huge handful sometimes.
lots of times…..
Most of the time…..
Plus
I wouldn’t have been at all comfortable leaving them overnight
without an adult and transportation in the event of an emergency.
~
The last time we got away for our anniversary
was two years ago.
I was newly pregnant with Lily
And Josiah went with us, since he wasn’t weaned yet.
I can’t seem to remember any further back than that right now.
All I know is
it was really nice to go away
alone
with my husband!
~
If you are ever in Tulsa
and don’t mind spending a bit on dinner
You have got to go to Las Cabos
Yumm!!!!
Just consider yourself warned: it might be a bit loud
~

Thanks L & L and T & B for holding down the fort!
Love you all.
And
I love you, Tyler!
Thanks for marrying me

big Pie week

No,
I havent' been baking up a storm

~

This has been a big week for LilyPie!!

She is now completely weaned and she’s figured out
that there ain't much point to waking up during the night
anymore!

and.....

She's a walker!

Lily's walking

Lily's walking

~

we love you so much, LilyPie!

Thank-you, Lord, for our baby girl!!

recipe party

I'm not usually late to a party
sorry!

Now

this is not going to be

the most fabulous food you ever tasted.

But

it's pretty good

and good for you

and it's

real fast!

~

Speedy Skillet Super

~

Throw your skillet on the stove

and turn burner on medium - medium/high.

Open 1 - 28 oz can petite diced tomatoes

& dump in pan.

Open, drain, and add a can of corn.

Give it a stir.

Add a can of drained black beans.

(I think chickpeas would be even better)

Generously add garlic salt & pepper.

Stir.

Throw a few cups of leftover whole wheat pasta

in the strainer you drained the beans in

and run 'em under hot water for a bit.

Add pasta to the skillet and stir.

Grab your bowls & spoons

and serve it up.

It's that fast!

A sour cream smiley face
makes it taste even better!

Head on over to Lana's blog to join the party!

today...

...I am mourning

with those who mourn

and

praying for comfort...

learning to walk

Josiah has spent the last 15 minutes

helping Lily walk,

excitedly calling out every few seconds,

"Lily's walking, Lily's walking!"

She's pretty happy to have such a great coach

and cheerleader.

~

I'm pretty happy to have kids that love each other so much!

take, eat

We celebrate communion every week
at our church.
Yesterday
Tim Bailey was sharing a sort of combined
‘communion mediation’
and
a ‘here’s what we do at Central’ for guests.

~
I was feeling really sad for Lana
because taking communion has always been very special to her,
and her new church doesn’t 'do' communion very often.

~
He went on to say how precious the weekly practice has become
as he’s grown in his love for the Lord and his awe of Christ.
He finished by saying
“….so when the bread comes, take a piece……
When the drink comes, take a cup and drink and
proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
~
The trays were passed as usual
from baptized believer to baptized believer.
Josiah didn’t get any bread
(as is the usual custom)
but when the juice was coming, he got out of his seat
and stood kinda between Tony and I,
facing us.
Neither of us thought a thing
and I would remind him to get back in his seat
as soon as the tray was safely out of the way.
When the tray got to Tony
Josiah grabbed out a cup.
It was empty

so he put it back and grabbed another, empty too.
Tony and I kinda looked at each other.
What had possessed this child?
I certainly didn’t want to cause a scene during the Lord’s Supper,
So I let him grab another cup.
And he drank.
And I realized
he was simply doing what he’d been told.
And he,
my sweet, precious, scrappy,
sitting-still-and-listening-in-church three-year old boy
was proclaiming the Lord’s death
until He returns.
~
It doesn’t get much better

unexpected blessings

We have baby chicks!!!

We found them on Monday.

Our little hand-me-down black hen

(which we haven't seen in ages

so we figured killer-dog got her)

is a momma!

And she's a good one;

she has attacked

both

Donor & Lola

when they got too close for her liking.

Sadly,

she's already lost one chick

despite her vigilance.

I think the cat got it.

~

AND

to our delight

Brandon just found

MILK
in our freezer!
A whole gallon of raw milk!
We are beside ourselves with excitement.
We haven't been able to go to the dairy
since Granny died,
as most weekends have been taken up with estate business
and if they haven't
well
Tyler's pretty happy to just be home!
We'd rationed what little milk we had left
and stretched it out as long as we could
but still
we haven't had any real milk in over a month.
I can hardly wait for it to thaw.
oh, it's gonna be sooo good.....

new words

Lily Pie has a couple of new words.
She always says them together
with great expression
and often looks at her hands while saying them.
The emphasis is always on the first word;
the second
is a one-syllable word
drawn out in true southern fashion
to be more like two syllables.
~
We can't wait to figure out what she's saying
'cause
it sounds exactly like
b*tt
head!

miracle rub

I’ve been seriously interested in herbal remedies
ever since Josiah was about 4 months old.
I’d read an article with a recipe for a sleep tincture
and decided I’d give it a whirl.
What did I have to lose ~ we were already not sleeping.
So I followed the recipe.
Exactly.
Well, not exactly exactly
but close.
I followed the procedure exactly.
To my delight
the tincture worked!
It didn’t help Josiah as much as I’d hoped
but it worked wonders with Jeremiah!
And I’ve been hooked on natural remedies ever since
(prior to that, we were pretty much no-remedy,
so while the kids aren’t always thrilled with my potions,
they are glad to have some relief from their ailments.)

~
I bought my first two herb books
The ABC Herbal and The How To Herb Book.
First time I read ‘em
they confused the fire out of me,
especially the How to Herb one.
But the more familiar I became with all these ‘new’ words and ideas
the more sense I could make of it all.
Using some of the info I gathered from The ABC herbal
and a No Greater Joy article about I-can’t-remember-what
I created my own Miracle Rub
when I had a cold with a sore throat
(I couldn’t use my kiddos as guinea pigs…)
And the stuff worked!
We have since come up with lots of uses for Miracle Rub
(thus the name.
Tyler questioned the use of ‘miracle’
but I assured him, all the ingredients were from God,
so it was a worthy name.
And
the stuff does work miracles!)
~
We use Miracle Rub for the following:

Sore throats ~ even Strep
Simply rub a bit all over your neck

and lymph nodes anytime you feel pain

~
Earaches & infections
Put a bit of warm oil on q-tip & rub gently in ear
Rub some around the ear, too
Repeat a few times a day till pain is gone
* the oil must be warmed, cold oil could cause additional pain*

~

Congestion
Rub on back & chest (and neck & nose…..)
* use caution if you do this right after a warm bath
while pores are all open ~ it may feel a bit ‘hotter’*
~

Prevention
Rub on soles of feet any time you’ve been exposed to illness,
think you have been exposed, are feeling sick in any way
or just want to smell like Christmas.
When I remember,
I put in on everyone’s feet morning and night
all during cold & flu season

~

Warts
Needs lots of repeated treatments
~

You could use it for tooth pain
But a dot of straight clove oil would probably be better,
Although I do rub some around the jaw and ears
when someone is teething, for additional comfort
~
and now
the recipe
~

Miracle Rub
Crush a couple cloves of garlic and put in a tiny bowl
Cover with a olive oil
no more than a TBS or you’ll end up with a ton of this stuff
(which is okay, you can just store in the fridge and use later….)
Heat in microwave
(or set bowl in a shallow pan of water on stove)
for just a minute or so.
We’re getting the oil really warm, but not cooking the garlic.
Cover warm oil and garlic and leave it on the counter
anywhere from 5 minutes to a couple hours.
Strain out garlic, keeping the oil.
To the garlic oil extract you just made
add clove essential oil
until it ‘smells like Christmas’.
(you can also add lemon, orange & cinnamon essential oils;
they all add their own helpful properties,

but just clove oil works great,)
Next
note how much oil you have
and add 4 to 5 times that in olive oil
(if you have a TBS of garlic/clove oil combined,
add about ¼ cup olive oil)
This step is so important because some essential oils are very strong
and would ‘burn’ the skin

if you didn’t add more olive oil as a ‘carrier oil’
If a little one cries right after application on tender skin,
you probably need to add a bit more olive oil to the mix.

~
Its best to store this in a dark bottle, but any jar will do.
I like to keep an ounce or so out

and the rest in the fridge till we need it.
~
Keep in mind,
I’m not a herbalist or an apothecaries
just a momma who found something that
Works For Me!

small world

Tyler and I have been wanting to take

Dave Ramsey's

Financial Peace University classes

for quite some time.

We figured we'd better get a move on it

'cause if we don't get it in before Baby arrives

it'll be another year...

~

I got on Dave's website a few days ago

and printed off some class options.

Turns out

there's a class starting in about a month

just a mile and a half from the house!

Being a small town girl

I wasn't real comfortable just registering online;

I wanted to talk to the coordinators.

You know,

make sure we'd be welcome and all

instead of showing up

"Ta-da! We're here!"

~

There was no contact information

so I looked up the name of the class coordinator

in the phone book.

Small town and all....

There was only one person with that last name

so I took my chances.

~

Yes

I had the right people

but I needed to call back later and talk to the mom.

I ask her name.

You know,

so I don't sound like a complete idiot when I call back....

"Mavis"

I think, "Unusual name. I used to work with a Mavis.

Wonder if its her?

Nah, she'd be, like, near 60 now...."

~

I called after I got the kids in bed.

We talk a few minutes

then she says, "What did you say your name was?"

I tell her.

She says, "I know that name. I can see it on e-mail..."

~

Anyways

we figured out

that we've never actually met

but our paths have crossed

through different homeschool things

through the years.

Small world, huh?

~

and

it turns out

If I'd have just registered online

The class would have cost us $30 more!

just guess

who,

for only the 2nd time

since March 30, 2007,

got to sit

through

the

entire

church service

~
yep

that would be

me!

Lily had to get a few swats,

but she did so good!

listening and leader sheep

We keep the little ones in church with us.
Unlike our smarter friends,
it had never occurred to us to
practice
sitting quietly for church.
It was never an issue with the other kids;
after forcing them to go to their classes
against their will,
they were thrilled to stay with us.
Not so with this new batch of kiddos, though!
Needless to say
we have had more than our share
our unpleasant Sunday mornings.

Years of yucky Sundays!
Sometimes, we would ask each other
why
on earth
we were putting ourselves through this.
But still
we felt it was the right thing.
One day
I was talking with a young mom
whose children always sat so nicely in church
(I hated to sit in front of them,
for fear my children would corrupt hers)
She told me they worked on it during the week.
I thought she was brilliant!
And so we practice
(but not as much as we should)
and we have a list of things we do

and don’t do
at church

and talk about it weekly.
Things improved, but still weren’t great.
Last Sunday, though,
Jeremiah and Josiah were perfect!
And Lily wasn’t too bad, either.
The sermon was called
‘leadersheep’
and our pastor talked about sheep & shepherding
and focused on a particular breed of sheep that were leaders.

Today we drove to Ozark to buy some more chickens.
From the twenty we bought March 29th
we have two.
On the way there
Jeremiah sees some animals out the window
and says
“I saw some leader sheep!
and they were big”
(they were cows, but that’s not the point)
~
Tyler and I just looked at each other and smiled.
~
And that is why we keep our children in church with us

stood up

"Pearl's not here"

he says when I walk up.

"What do you mean not here?"

"She told somebody that I was coming

and to take care of me

then she got on the Lunch Bunch Bus."

~

just yesterday

Tyler dropped in to visit one of our 'little old ladies'

to make sure she'd be around today

so we could come have lunch with her

at her retirement home

(I know - not my idea of a date, either

and it was Fish Day, to boot!)

She told him to be sure to bring someone.

Silly us;

we thought she wanted to visit with one/some of the kids

but apparently

she wanted to be sure

that Tyler would have company for lunch.

Cause she was hopping on the Lunch Bunch Bus.

~

Stood up by a little old lady!

who'd a thunk?!

good-bye Gus

I've been going through the house
and getting rid of anything
and everything
I possibly can.
We decided
that Gus
just wasn't earning his keep.
So he went
and now I have a whole 2 ft of counter space
wohoo!

Sandy’s hubby was talking about how he’d been
impatient and unkind (my paraphrase) after a rough day.
I can totally relate.
I also try to excuse it.
But the truth is
I’m ugly
well
because
I’m ugly.
My heart is ugly.
~
I heard something earlier
that has stuck with me all day.
“Every time you open your mouth
it’s not an aberration;
it’s a
revelation
of
your heart”
~
Create in a me a clean heart, O GOD
and renew a right spirit within me
Psalm 51:10