Are you listening?

Oh, I am listening. I am listening too much. Is that possible? Did you know that people listen to you? Everyone, even though they might not admit it, is listening and watching someone throughout the day. They are and you are! Analyze yourself. I dare you. When you go out today or tomorrow see who you watch. When you talk to someone, see which part of the conversation you are pondering. Sometimes we ponder and pick up unhealthy things. Sometimes we have attitudes that we want to deal with, that we need to deal with. Then we see someone else with that same attitude and say, "Well they do it!". I do this same thing and then get mad at my kids when they do something that their sibling does.

This same process can happen for the good. Although it may disturb your way of thinking, you might ponder something that you know would be good for you. For instance, when you see or hear something about your health. You may process everything you eat and what's in those things. You may for a while, or a day, or a week, and if you are really good a month, go and change some of your eating habits. This is good for you. You may keep up with it.

Last week someone had shared something they were reading. It applied to her currant situation and she was sharing how it corrected the way she was thinking. She read how an understanding wife is from God. She wasn't trying to be mean to her husband. She is not a person who comes off with a bad attitude or a nagging personality. She simply wanted her husband to be around more. She had read that sentence and it changed her attitude. She thought about being understanding when he couldn't be there and wanted to. She understood that he after 9 years still can't put things away and clean up after himself. It wasn't something that would make her love him less. She chose to love him more by being understanding.

Well, she shared this with me. Now I have told all of you that I adore my husband. He isn't perfect, but he is the perfect match for me. He had a horrible week last week. He had worked late almost everyday. I was getting pretty weary by Thursday. He had told me that he was going to have all of Friday off since he had worked all week, day and night. No problem. I can make it until then.

Friday came. He wasn't home. He got calls from 3 different avenues, and each needed him. I smiled and said, "It's fine. No problem." I was definitely having a problem, but he didn't need me to tell him that. I am sure he already knew. The day flew by and I didn't see my husband until about 9:30pm. I was exhausted. I had grocery shopped with all 4 kids and my mood was being tested. I was walking on the edge of a cliff, and if I wasn't careful, I would have loved to have jumped.

Then this wonderful email popped into my head. An email saying how one little sentence had straightened my friends thinking out. She didn't write it to me to rub it in. She didn't even know what my week was like or how I was alone for 99% of it. She was simply sharing something cool that had happened to her heart that day. Well isn't God's timing funny? I got that email, and was reminded of it throughout my day. I called my friend.

"Woman!" I said. "What the heck is the matter with you? Why in the world would you share something like that? I wanted to drown in my self pity and be mad and maybe make those around me crawl up to me and bow down or something. Now, I feel like blessing them instead and letting the whole week slide like it doesn't matter. Why? Why? Why did you have to send that to me this week?"

She laughed at me, just like all my good friends do. They laugh at me. They do it because they realize that I need to vent and puke up all that is with in me. They know that I choose to laugh at myself instead of get mad at myself. So they laugh at me! Thank you dear friend for sharing your life change. It has inspired me. It inspired me to think on a better level and to just laugh some more.

So here's my challenge. Find something good to look at, to ponder. Learn to adopt it. Maybe it is something little. It doesn't matter. Little things can add up to something big! Oh, and for goodness sakes, laugh at yourself! It is more fun than yelling. I promise. Would I stear you wrong?

Drama, Drama, Drama!

I don't live a dramatic life. At least, not with in the definition that the media and Hollywood give. I am a happily married woman. I am married to the only man that I will every be married to. He is my other half and I don't wish to be with another man ever. We have a great marriage and relationship. It has come with a lot of work, and even though it probably would rate in the hardest thing I have ever worked on list, it is worth every moment of it. I am surrounded by drama though. It all started with my first born daughter and now with this little bundle. Can't you just see the look on her face? I will tell you exactly what these eyes are saying.

"Look MOM! I am almost 3! I can totally handle this. I don't need you to be any closer than you are! I can do it MYSELF!" Actually some of this was not only said with her eyes, but with her mouth too.

Now, not even 5 minutes into our adventure walk up a creek last week, I had turned around to make sure that our dog hadn't taken off running. With in that 15 seconds, our baby took a couple more steps and lost her footing and went head first into the creek. Of course at the age of 2 1/2 she doesn't know how to swim, so she was head down and breathing in water. Now I would like to point out that she wasn't in any danger. Yes, she snorted up some water, and yes, have we had left her for a few minutes she would have been in trouble, but she is totally fine. No scars, no bruises, just the same wild 2 year old that we always had. I wrote this to show her mood swing after the incident. After the initial confident girl I have pictured above, we got these pictures below.



Her independent creek walking days were over! She would barely let her toes touch the water after that. And instead of the happy go lucky pictures I was hoping for, I got this wonderful look! The eyes are now telling me, "Would you put that stupid camera away and come hold me, NOW!" She was holding a grudge at everyone and everything after that. She was mad at me for taking pictures, mad at daddy for picking her up instead of mommy, and mad at the dumb water for tipping her over. Poor girl. Life is so dramatic!

I can be serious too!

This is my 3rd born, Spiderman. Aren't his cheeks delicious? He has had these things since he was a baby. I can't even begin to count how many times I have gnawed on, or kissed, or blown raspberries on those babies. As I previously said on his brother's post, he is my little analyzer. We call him little professor sometimes, because he studies everything. He was our surprise. After having our perfect little girl and our boisterous boy, we thought we were done having kids. (Ok, dear husband was more done that I was. And, when asked, he will tell you stories of how I made this one happen. We both know that he (Spiderman) was God' plan now.) Anyways, he came with some bumps in the road.

After nursing this little one for 8 months, we discovered that he had food allergies. He was allergic to dairy, eggs, and peanuts. Along with all of this, he suffered from chronic ear infections starting at age 9 months, and had to have tubes put into his ears. He also has asthma. This little guy has been through a lot. He isn't dying from some terminal disease, but everything is tailored around his menu.

I would just like to take a brief moment to point out that all of this is not coming from a hypochondriac of a mother that tries to shelter her child from everything, and overly babies her son. I am not a germaphobic person. I don't disinfect my kitchen counters and table before and after every meal. I don't believe in every syndrome that the world has made up. I think we can make excuses for everything. We found out about the food allergy thing when he started to get hives from head to toe, projectile vomited multiple times, his toungue swelled, his eyes swelled, and he couldn't stop sneezing. All of this from one piece of cereal taken from my husband milk filled bowl. Something was seriously wrong with this kiddo.

We have taken it all in strides though. I relearned how to cook for the family. I have found recipes that everyone likes and we eat them over and over again. We have found a couple fast food places that have things he can eat. All is well. Sort of.

Last week our other son was on his way to the doctor for a misfortunate happening with a bush (read the last post). On this same morning, Spiderman woke up with a blood curdling scream at 6:30 in the morning. I am not a morning person, so when my child began screaming at 6:30am I became panicked as if he had done it in the middle of the night. He was hysterical. I couldn't calm him down. All he could say was my head, my head hurts. I could tell by the cry that this was some serious pain he was having. My husband ran in and helped me get him from the top bunk and take him to our bed, because mommies bed has healing powers. Usually.

He layed their in pain all day. I had given him everything in my arsenal. He had Tylenol and Motrin together every 5 hours. Nothing would dull the pain. He had no movement of his neck. He wouldn't sit up. He wouldn't turn to look at me. He was in trouble. We were already going the doctor that afternoon for his brother and sister, so we just picked him up and brought him along. My dear husband came home early to help me with him. He picked Spiderman up and brought him to the car. The poor little guy screamed from the pain the whole time. He cried the whole time at the doctor. Anytime I would shift in my seat or try to turn him around to get him more comfortable, he would cry.

The doctor saw all of them. First, he looked at Spiderman. He instantly became very worried. This came on so suddenly and he was in so much pain that he knew something could be very wrong. After looking him over he decided to wait a few minutes and decide what to do. He went over and diagnosed the other 2 kids with poison ivy and wrote out the prescriptions for that. Then he went back to Spiderman. After trying to get him to nod his head or look around again, he decided the best idea was to go to the children's hospital ER. He was very concerned that Spiderman had spinal meningitis or an abscess in his neck.

Our friends happen to call dear husband while I was in with the kids. He had decided to stay out in the car and sit with our littlest one who happened to be napping in her car seat. I had been calling him and keeping him posted on what the doctor's thoughts were. When our friends called we had just found out that we needed to go the ER. They were happy to meet us at home to take care of the other 3 kids, and off we went.

You know things aren't good when your doctor calls ahead to the hospital and they are expecting you. Then they whisk you right back to the room and have your baby lying on a table and having a cat scan done within 15 minutes of arriving there. I tell you what, you want horrible thoughts of "what if this" or "what if they find that?" going through your mind, then watch your son get a cat scan. It will increase your prayer life. I promise.

They then had him go to get some X-rays. This was the part that made me chuckle. There were two guys in there early, early 20's that were the tech's. They came in all cheary and asked Spiderman to pose for the x-rays. He was doing great. Then they needed a picture of a bone that could only be seen if your head is completely back. You have to be looking straight up at the ceiling for at least 10 seconds, without moving in order to get this picture. The whole problem is that my son couldn't move his head without extreme pain.

Now let me tell you a little about Spiderman. He is STUBBORN! Even when in the best of moods, which he wasn't even close to, it is hard to get him to do things that he doesn't want to do. This very young x-ray tech was clearly a bachelor, clearly one who didn't have kids, and was out of his league when it came to my son. He tried and tried to get him to cooperate. It wasn't going to happen. My husband and I smirked at each other, because we knew it was going to take a miracle to get this to happen.

Finally, it had occurred to me that they didn't offer him a sticker or toy. I knew from past x-rays that our family has had, that they are stocked back there. I kindly said, "Maybe they would have a Spiderman sticker for you if you move your head for them." The light turned on for the tech and he offered a treasure box with toys. This worked. He got him to move his head.

After that the ER doctor came in checked him out. He wasn't too impressed with Spiderman's symptoms either. He left to find out what the tests said, because the next step in the plan of action was a spinal tap. This is a very painful procedure that us done to get a sample of spinal fluid and test it for spinal meningitis. I was more scared of this test than the actual problem.

About an hour later the doctor came back in, and something started to happen. Spiderman started to snap out of it. He started to talk to us. He started to move around and wiggle on the little hospital bed. He moved his head. The doctor noticed too. He left us for another period of time and then came back to check to see if he was still getting better. He was. The doc left it up to us if we wanted to do the spinal tap or not. He thought that he was getting better and didn't think it was 100% necessary. We agreed.

We still don't know what caused the pain. He still has it to some degree. All the tests came back negative. We are keeping him in prayer. He is and always has been in God's hands. As one wise doctor said to us last year, "I put them back together, and God heals them."

Something to think about. During our time at the ER, my father-in-law was at his church softball league starting a game. He knew everything going on and had asked all the guys to pray. About 20 guys got together to pray for our little guy. It was at that same time when Spiderman started to feel better. I don't know what God did that day. I don't know if something really serious was happening or not. I do know that at one point of my day, I was in tears for my son. We were crying together, him for his pain, and me for him. I choose to believe that God had intervened for my son.

The Naked Truth!

This is my first born son. On this blog of mine, we call him Batman. It is a real honor to him that this name has been given. He was the one who first suggested that it should be used. I had to accept his suggestion. Who could refuse those blue eyes? His father first wooed me in with them, now he has inherited the same ones. I'm toast! Previous to having this jewel of mine, I had his big sister. Man alive! I should have realized how easy it was with her! We sat and played dress up, make up, and baby dolls. She would sit and look at books over and over again. She napped well and slept in until 10am sometimes. We were great together!

Well life changed when this little guy came barrelling into existence. I say barrelling because I find it no coincidence that this ones labor was only an hour and a half long. I could have had this child in the car if we lived any farther away. He was born at the same rate he takes life now. This kid sees something and then does it. No thinking it through, no processing the information. He hits life at 150% at all times. I see him as a race horse ready for the race. He is excited, bucking and jumping at the starting line, and then bam! the race is started and he finds more energy than you would ever expect to find in such a little package. His brother is the total opposite. He is more like a golfer. He looks, analyzes, stares, thinks over the direction he should take, and then does it. Not Batman, he sees what he wants and goes for it.

Well last week was one of those times he shouldn't have gone for it! He is a boy, as you have been told, and well boys in our family have picked up this motto. It has been passed down from generation to generation and now has been picked up by my boy. The motto is, "The world is my urinal!" I am serious. My father-in-law says it, my husband proclaims it, and now my boy practices it too. (I am really sorry. Yes, I really must apologize again. I'm sorry that this is not sounding good, but you wouldn't get the whole story if I didn't tell you the naked truth about how this personality and this motto have issues when put together in one body.)

So my bucking bronco of a son has issues with coming inside and using the bathroom while he is out playing. He has no patience for such a thing. It is a huge waste of time when there is a perfectly good bush that needs to be watered. Luckily we don't have neighbors in the back of us, so I don't get too upset when it happens. Well, he decided to save time and relieve himself the other day; however, it was in front of poison ivy! I won't give you details. You can use your imagination. (A friend of mine said that the bush was getting back at him!)

The poor guy was miserable. We had to go to the doctor and get some medicine. This should have been easy. I thought they would give us some super duper anti-itch cream that would miraculously make him better. Nope! They gave him a 10 day round of steroids. Steroids, as a side effect, make you hyper. So, what already had the energy of a race horse, now has the energy of a race horse on steroids. Isn't there a law against that?

Where have I been?

Well I have stories to tell my friends! I will update you on our week from.....well it wasn't fun. But, it ended well! I will keep you posted!!!! Blah HA HA....keep you posted...you know because I post my blog? Sorry, did I mention that I have been sleep deprived for the past 8 years?

My Grocery Bill!!!!

Well in order to keep you all from fainting, I won't tell you the exact number of what I spend just about every 10 days. It is going up and up and keeps doing it. Inflation has a big blame of course, but the growth of my kids is also a big hit.

As earlier posted, I like to copy things that my sister-in-law does. She has found a way to get the grocery bill down by about 40 dollars a trip. I am always willing to follow a money saving tip so I dove into a new world last month! I am a CVSer!
"A what?" you say.
I'm a CVSer.....aka I now shop at CVS. It is a drug store like Walgreens.


I thought these places were glorified convenience stores that gave you prescriptions quickly without having the 20 minute hastle of finding a parking spot, getting into the huge store, waiting in a huge line, and then waiting an hour and spending $100 dollars on who-knows-what at Super-Walmart. But! I was wrong. CVS, my now 4th stop on grocery day, is my new haven. Just look at what I bought:

These are all normal everyday things. I have to buy some of these things weekly. I at all times have these things in my house and sometimes I have back-ups of these items. What is not normal is what I just spent on these items. I will list these out for you and then tally up what you think I spent today.

Charmin double roll toilet paper rolls 12count x 4 packages

ALL laundry detergent 32loads x 2 bottles

2 toothbrushes

1 can of OFF bug spray

2 cans of Lysol disinfectant wipes (can't have enough of these with the dirt bags!)

Size 6 Pampers mega pack (that's 40 diapers, which doesn't sound like a lot, but this is the biggest sized diaper. The package sizes get smaller when the size gets bigger.)

2 tubes of Colgate Toothpaste

Huggies refill wipes 232 count

Carmel Nips (these weren't on sale, but hubby is addicted and I can only find them here)

I buddy soap bar

Well originally my total was $79.12. I was gasping for air. This didn't include my other 3 stops I had to make in order for us to eat this week! My husband would have made me sleep outside. But here is why I shop here! My total out of pocket expense was: (drum roll please............)

$44. 67!!!!!!!!!!

I had $9 dollars in coupons and then these wonderful things called Extra Care Bucks (ECB's) came in and saved the day. If you want to learn more about this, then here is a website that helps explain it all. www.iheartcvs.com

To give you a small idea of how this happened I will tell you this. I got the $6.99 toothbrushes for free. I got paid $0.50 (yes paid!) to buy the Colgate toothpastes. I paid only $4.49 for $9 worth of laundry detergent. I also paid $3.50 each for the packages of 12 double rolls of Charmin toilet paper. (I never buy Charmin. We are now getting the royal treatment in the bathroom!) And, I just got diapers for about half price, and they are Pampers, which I quit buying years ago due to prices! Now I have to find a place to store all this!

Thank you CVS for paying me to shop there. And, thank you for putting up with my 4 children running around in your small store, while doing it!

I'm a thumb sucking wimp! Part Deux

Well I am still a thumb sucking wimp. I am getting better. I still can't sleep while a storm is present, but I can stop from hyperventilating. On Father's Day, we had this storm come through our town. Now let's point out the happenings just 15 minutes before this freakish thing took over. We had blue skies all around! It was a beautiful 83 degrees. It was the perfect grilling day. We spent our savings on buying steaks for Father's Day. I made strawberry pies for dessert. The day was going perfect. THEN!!!!!!!
This thing reared its ugly face. It came so suddenly it almost wasn't real. Our neighbors had a barbecue with 20 people. They all stood in the front yard with us like we were watching an alien space ship landing. Remember that scene in the movie "Independence Day" where the whole world stood on there front lawns watching the space ship silently move over their heads. This was no different. This storm was cackling at me saying, "tornadoes, tornadoes, tornadoes!" Let's point out here that my kids are happily riding their bikes and drawing on the sidewalk with chalk, and we still had our steaks on the grill. And! after paying out our bank account for them, NO tornado was going to rob us of enjoying them!
Can't you just see the funnel cloud trying to form?

So for all who don't believe me when I say that this is a scary place to live, just look at these pictures. You go from blue skies to the storm that I am going to call "The Nothing".
Name that movie! I promise I did not touch up any of these pictures. Disney Pixar did not come over and color nasty looking clouds over our neighborhood. These are the real deal! We did eat our steaks and watch the storm, from the comfort of my inside dining room!

(If you missed Part 1 of this story click here: http://ordinarilyrandomme.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html)

When we go out to eat

When we have family time, their are so many options of things to do. Sometimes the kids just like to wrestle daddy and get reminded that he is the almighty hulk of the house (and hunk too ;)), and sometimes they like to show off their princess and knight gear and put on a show for us. If there are no tornadoes, we go to the local pond and fish or just walk around it and throw a million acorns into it. One of our favorite things to do is get out of the house.

We are the "get up and go" type of people. If we have a whole day to just "be" with each other, we usually go somewhere. A lot of times we end up at the mall. We usually go there hungry, so the first thing we do is eat. Now I am not a short order cook. I cook, they eat. Eating at the mall though, is quite the process for us. It actually begins before we even get there. We have to stop at the fast food place across the street from the mall. Spiderman has food allergies and that is the only safe place for him to eat. We get his meal and usually baby princess's meal, because chicken nuggets is one of the cleanest meals for her to eat.

We then head right for a table after making it through the grand central parking lot with all four kids, and hopefully not spilling any of the pop that they are helping us hold. Next, we go for Princess and Batman's food, which is always cheese pizza. Since Spiderman is allergic to dairy products, we rarely go out for pizza. When pizza is an option, the older 2 always order it. After all the kids are happily eating, dearest hubby then goes to the sub sandwich place to order ours. I always make him go, because 1) they don't speak very much English, and 2) he has double the ingredients on his sandwich and I always forget what he wants, not to mention trying to translate it all!

After about 10 minutes, we are all together eating our sandwiches. We are usually getting smiles and looks from strangers. It is not everyday that you see a family with 4 kids eating out. I think it is normal. It's not like we have 6 or 7 kids. By the time husband and I are half way done eating our sandwiches the kids are running circles around our table asking to go play at the play center. We tell them, " in a second" and scarf down the rest of our food and load up on our caffeinated drinks. They then go and play for an hour and come out with sweat filled bodies.

It is fun. Dear husband and I get to talk to each other the whole time and the kids get to see and play with other kids. Since we home school, this is kind of their playground. It is one of our favorite family outings.

I can move mountains!

I can! And I did! I have a family with 6 people. As you saw in the previous post, they are dirt bags! Major dirt bags. Dirty, filthy, and stinky dirt bags. Unfortunately for me, this means laundry. Lots and lots and lots of laundry.

Before the era of front loader washing machines, I would do about 20 to 25 loads a week. Now this is also the time of spitting up babies, and diaper explosions times multiple children, and a toddler who went through an out fit or 2 or 3 a day. This was a messy season of life for me. I don't know how I lived through it without my dear friends, my front loader washing machine and dryer.

My dear husband bought them for me when our 3 year old top loading washing machine went on strike for the second time in 6 months. It was scary. It was making such loud sounds that I thought it was going to come after me for making it work so hard those 3 years. I would look at her with compassion as if saying, "I know dear! It will only be a few more years and then things won't be so crazy around here. It'll get better, I promise." We would have counseling sessions, she and I. We were both feeling a little overwhelmed. It was nice to have the companionship since we were both learning to live with a husband and 4 children to take of and clean up after. But then she quit on me! She gave up on our adventure together! Maybe if dear husband and I were 2 retired folk without children, she would have lasted longer. Oh, well I am not bitter.
I upgraded!

With 4 dirt bag children, I walked into my appliance store and without guilt pointed to my dream machine and said, "I need you! Will you come live with me?". (Ok, so I begged a little!) My husband being the good man that he is, recognized my desperation and bought them for me! He didn't grumble at the price or size. He even looked around the store and found a more expensive one that could have worked, but I was in love. I knew I had found my match made in heaven!

Now comes the true miracle. Last week I ran out of fabric softener. We are totally addicted to the stuff. Now, I know that I grew up without it. I know that clothing is perfectly clean without it, BUT we are like TOTALLY addicted to it. (sorry for the "like totally" I am blonde you know!) If we don't smell Downy, it's not clean. I could probably get away with not using laundry detergent if the load smelled like downy! I won' t try it though. Remember, dirt bags. Sorry back to the story. I went 5 days without doing laundry. 5 days!!!! Some of you are probably saying things like, "So?" "What's the big deal?". I'll tell you the big deal. 5 days of not doing laundry, is something in biblical terms like... creation of mountains. I wanted to cry at the mountains (notice the "s", not just one mountain, but mountains) of dirty material I had to wash. We had no towels, we were scarce in the under clothing department, and nothing was matching because it's mate was dirty.

Some of you might ask why I didn't just go to the store and buy the stuff. Well good question! I am a hermit. No, really I can be. The sound of loading all 4 kids up and going to Walmart just for 2 things is not thrilling to me. It takes a miracle, or us being out of something like toilet paper, for me to go to Walmart, unless on grocery day.

So yesterday it was finally grocery day! Yeah! We reloaded on our laundry products, and I had coupons too! I started doing laundry yesterday evening and I am going to finish in about an hour! I love my front loader machines. What should have been 12 loads of dirty, stinky laundry became 6. See, I moved mountains!

Just for your info: I now do 8 to 10 loads of laundry a week instead of the breathtaking 20 to 25. Thank you again dear hubby for my machines, and thank you God for giving him the money to pay for them! Amen!

My favorite laundry quote for all who have a family to clean up after: A load a day, keeps chaos away! It's from my favorite cleaning site: http://www.flylady.net/ She is amazing. She also says to sit in front of your dryer to fold your laundry. You are more likely to put it away then! She's a genius I tell you!

Dirt Bags!

Yeah! I said it. I'll say it again...dirt bags! That's what they are! What you don't believe me? Just take a look......

This is what my dear little noodle tried to bring into my house. Let's note here that 4 days ago I washed my kitchen floor. Apparently, they thought that it needed to be dirtied up a bit!

This is Spiderman's back side after playing outside in the backyard. Another note: he also changed once during this muddy day. He tried to hop over the river of mud in our ditch, but he ended up landing in it instead. This was life altering for my cleanest kid. This is the child who screams bloody murder when he drops a pea sized drop of yogurt on the table. Let's just say that he needed his inhaler after the mud bath experience he just had!

Oh, Princess! This girl belongs in Phoenix, Arizona! She tries to where sandals in January. Then she tries to go bare footed in the summer. I will never have white carpet. It is banned from this household. Even brown is seeming to be too light of a color!

To my shock and awe, Batman didn't have a speck of dirt on him. But, but, but! He was dripping with perspiration and had a big glob of syrup in his hair from his picnic dinner. Let's just say that they all had long baths and showers. We didn't want their Sunday school teachers to see the true side of them!

So dirt bag is a fitting definition, isn't it? They are dirty. They just aren't falling under the usual definition of dirt bag.

It's never enough!

I love my kids. Now that they are older, we have been going out and doing things. Right now we have a zoo pass. They love going to the zoo, and with a pass we get to see as much or as little as we want in our visits. Some days when it is raining (like every other day right now) we just do the inside things. When it is nice outside and the crowds are down, we go all around and see almost every exhibit.

On Thursday, we did the all around thing. It miraculously wasn't raining, but it was HOT. It got above 90 degrees. Let me tell you, when it is 90 and sunny and you are walking on black top the entire day, you get very tired. We did almost all of the zoo, though. I was quite surprised how much area we covered. After walking for 5 hours straight in the sweltering heat, we were finally on our way home in my cool air conditioned truck. 3 out of 4 kiddos were sound asleep when Princess chimed in, "Mom!"

"Yes, honey"

"When we get home, can we go for a walk?" She innocently asked.

"No" I was sure that I was hearing things by then. She shouldn't even be awake back there.

"Why not?" In her "it's not fair" tone of voice.

"Because I am really tired and I am having trouble staying awake to safely drive you home." I was only being honest! What I wanted to say is, "Hello!!!! We just took a 5 hour walk through an animal filled furnace of a zoo!" But I decided to not get nippy.

"Well, I'm bored and I'm going to be bored when I get home!"

Ah, the life of a child growing up in the 21st century. These poor children. How deprived they are!

She finally called!

Just to clear things up. My mom finally called me for my birthday. It was a day late because she was in the middle of Utah, and her cell phone didn't work there. I forgive you mom! I just miss you and waited to hear your voice all day! I love you! And I totally understand.

Mom! You forgot my birthday!

Ok, so she calls me her favorite daughter. She comes to visit me all the time. She usually calls every other day or so. But, she forgot to call me on my birthday. No call, no card.

You gave birth to me 28 years ago. Did you forget about me? It's ok, I forgive you, because I hardly ever send out cards to anyone. But, I do call on birthdays! Are you lost in some canyon hiking somewhere? Are you stuck on a cliff and need to be rescued? Did your helicopter crash? Mom, where are you?

Someones junk drawer junk is my new treasure!

I have a new treasure! It is something that I used to look at as a waste of money. I would look at people who owned them and thought, "What is the matter with them? Do they know how much money those things are? How many groceries could I buy with what they spent on one of those?" Yes, I was judging, but it was for the betterment of man kind. (Is betterment a word? It is now!)

You are all probably wondering what the heck I am talking about. Me too! No, not really. I am talking about my way cool MP3 player. I swore to all that were living in this world that I would never, ever, ever, ever buy one. Me and my Sony disc man were all I needed when it came to portable music. Besides I haven't used the disc man in like, years. I have a really cool sound system in my truck that the kids and I can jam to. And let me tell you, the sound is kickin'! Everybody knows when we pull up!

Ok, back to my way cool hand me down. I had lightly mentioned to my mom one day, that I wanted an I Pod or an MP3 player for my birthday. (I will never really know the difference!) She looked at me strangely and asked, "Didn't I already give you mine?"

"No" I replied. I do get forgetful, but I would remember this one.

When she flew home from our homestead she looked in her junk drawer and found it. I was so excited. She mailed it to me that next day. 3 weeks later I finally got the guts to try to download a few songs. You have to understand. I am computer disabled. For me to try this was shocking. After 2 hours of messing around with my computer (it was the computer's fault not mine, REALLY!) I down loaded my first 16 songs.

It has transformed my house cleaning and my workout. I went from 15 to 20 minutes of a grueling session on my elliptical machine to 30. I was be bopping and singing. If my kids could have video taped me, I would have died, and then come back to life and killed them. No, not really. But, I am sure that I was a sight to be seen!

So congratulations to me! I am one step closer to the technological side of the world. Or not! I still couldn't figure out how to separate the songs and make files and stuff. There is still hope or bribery of my computer nerd, birthday sharing pal who has to come over and show us how to log on sometimes!

I don't like to brag, but......

It's my birthday! It's my birthday! It's my birthday! Yes, I am a proud 28. I saw a model on TV that said that she was 28. I felt better about my self after I saw that, not that I compare myself to being a model. I will post later. My kids want to bake a cake for me and I think I need to chaperon that one! Later, gators!

Just what went on while I wasn't home?

Well I did have a great time while I was gone. I am up-to-date in '08 for my family scrap book. 20 spreads later I came home. I did call while I was gone, because I needed to. One of the times that I did call I got an exasperated husband asking, "Where have you been? Did you turn your phone off?".

"No, I didn't turn off my cell phone. It doesn't have good reception in the room that we are in, and doesn't always work in here." I said.

"Yeah, well I called and left you a message that we had an emergency!" He exclaimed!

"What!" My heart sank at the thought. Spiderman has food allergies and I thought something happened to him. Or, maybe Batman jumped off of something again and broke his other arm. Or, maybe one of my princess's were bleeding!

"It's fine now" he said. "Baby girl had an extreme diaper issue up to her hair."

"Oh!" was what I said. What I was thinking was "and the emergency is......?", but I was trying to remember that my dear husband doesn't do dirty diapers unless I am out of the picture. Even if I am at the store for a few minutes, he might be tempted to wait until I get home. He will bathe them, but changing them is a different territory.

"So what did you do?" I asked.

"Well, it happened in the car. The car seat got it, her clothes got it, and her hair got it. What should I do?"

"Just take the car seat out and I will deal with it when I get home. Princess can give up her booster seat. She is big enough to go without one, and everyone else can switch accordingly. What did you do with the clothes?"

"I bagged them up and threw them in the garage for when you get home."

You have to know that my dear husband never has to do laundry. I do all of it since I am home, so he hasn't a clue how to turn on my front loader washing machines. He did, however, clean the car seat with some carpet cleaner!

"And what about Baby girl?" I curiously asked.

"Well, (chuckle, never a good sign) I cleaned her up with the baby wipes."

"And her hair?"

"I cleaned that up with the baby wipes too."

"You didn't just give her a bath?" This was a question and a statement.

"Well no." He said. "I cleaned her up as best as I could with the baby wipes and then I sprayed her with Freebreeze."

"You WHAT!" I couldn't believe it. Not for a second. He says things like this to raz me from time to time. I thought this was one of those times.

"Yes I did!"

"Why! Why didn't you just give her a bath? You have to take her to church tomorrow. Give her a bath."

He had no answer to this. I decided to laugh. I laughed until I cried. Then I went in to our scrapbook room and told my friends until they laughed and cried. He ended up not giving her a bath. She survived.

He did, in the end, do a great job this weekend. He made a schedule of fun filled events for the kids, including fishing, eating out, movies with popcorn, and going to the mall and park. He consoled them during another round of tornado filled storms. He was able to get them to bed and church, on time. The house was fairly picked up. The dishes must have been done at least a couple times. I only had 10 minutes worth left in the sink when I got home.

Good Job honey! I am proud of all that you did. Thank you for giving me my scrapbooking time. I was happy to know that the kids were in good hands! I love you!
Love, Mother Duck

Home Sweet Home!

I am back! Did you know that I was gone? My dear friends decided that after staying at home with my kids for the past 8 years that it was time for me to have a break. Their eyes just about popped out of their heads when I told them that I had never been away from all my kids in 8 years unless I was at the hospital having another one.

Two months ago they had invited me to a scrapbooking weekend away. I had declined at first, because of 2 very valid reasons (well really one was valid and one seemed valid at the time). One reason was that it was a little too pricey for frugal me to spend, especially during this season of life that we are in.

The other reason was that I didn't like the idea of leaving my husband alone with all 4 kids by himself for the whole weekend. Don't get me wrong, he is a highly capable father. He just works a lot, being self employed, and well let's just say this politely. I take care of the home. I am the mother duck. I say, they do. I like this authority. I like making sure everyone is fed, clothed, bathed (this story coming next), and loved. I am not sorry to say that "IT IS MY JOB!!!! AND I LIKE IT". All this to say that my dear friends saw that I needed some persuasion. They got together and paid for me to go with them. That was the easy part. The tough part was convincing my dear husband that I was going to be gone for almost 3 days. He, in the end, knew that I needed to go. So I went!

Some of you might be saying things like, you poor thing, or you really need a break. I did REALLY enjoy myself, and I will be going again next year. I just wanted to give some clarity here. I find that a lot of stay-at-home moms are unhappy with their roles. I am not going to judge anyone on their decision to stay at home or not. It isn't my business. I can just tell you how I look at my own family and hope that someone might gain from what I have already been through.

When I had my first born, I used to think if I could make it 5 years with her, I would be ok. In five years, she would be in school and life could begin again. I could then go back and pick up my life long long dream of medical school. Then child number 2 came. So that isn't so bad. It only added 2 more years at home alone with the kids. I could make it right? Then #3 came and eventually #4. If I had put all my kids in public school, I would be at home with kids for 10 years at least, not including summer breaks. This seemed daunting to me.

I had all these babies and then forgot to find a way to enjoy them outside of cuddling and loving them. My attitude sucked (Sorry mom, for 18 years I waited to say this word, and I no longer feel guilty about it!). I saw a glimpse of my day, and it was sad and scary at the same time. I saw that from 8am to 8pm I was trying to find things for them to do to stay busy. I wanted them to be out of the way, so I could get MY things done. I felt like a broom, sweeping them in their directions if they ever came around, when "I" had so much work to do or "I" had someone to talk to on the phone. I found that my priority was "me" and not "them". I knew that change had to come. I chose this job. I chose to be married to my loving man, and have his children. I chose to stay home and raise them to the best of my ability. I chose to have 4 of them. I could choose to raise them like the gifts they are, or I could choose to barely make it through my day with them. I then decided it was time to "walk on water" with my job and stop trying to "doggy paddle" through this God given role. These kiddos can be raised to change the world, and I have the power to give them wings or smother them with my bad attitude.

But how? I still have to find answers to this all the time. One thing that is so easy is reading to them. This is one of those things that seems too easy. It seems like the short line at the store that your afraid won't be short at all. We make a big deal out of this time. They spread a blanket out on the floor and place pillows all over it. Sometimes I pick a book and sometimes they do. I made sure with birthdays and holidays that we received books that we enjoy. I can't tell you how many times I have read Dr Seuss books in this house. They never get old, even when you're about to turn 28.

One of my best suggestions for this is the book, "Honey for a Child's Heart" by Gladys Hunt. It is a great list of books that are classics and every child would love to hear. I bring it to the library every time we go. Gladys also has this great quote that helped curve my attitude some more, "Give them milk and honey!" Milk symbolizes the physical needs: feeding, bathing, sleeping. Honey symbolizes the sweetness of life, that special quality that makes life sing with enjoyment for all it holds.

There are many options for enjoying your family more. The more you plan to do things that more you will reap the benefits. Go the park, have a picnic, read to them. If you think there isn't enough time to get it all done and play, ask your kids to help. They are much more willing to help you, when there is something to look forward to.

Don't get me wrong here. I am far, far from perfecting this. I still get really busy doing things. This house is always dirty in my eyes. Bathrooms need cleaning, laundry never ends, dusting, mopping, and picking up clutter is always happening. All of this takes up days and days of my life. I am learning that I can still make time for my kids, because they are my priority. I just have to get really creative to do it all.

Ok I am done with my ranting now. This turned into something that I didn't expect and if I don't push "publish post" now I won't do it!

Little Critters Home School

Here at our home school, academic excellence is top priority. We believe in raising the bar for kids to reach. This student, for example, is doing 2nd grade work already. She is new to our school, but has determination to do whatever is before her. Her elementary school teacher mom is very proud!
Let's show her true colors! The truth is that "Little Critter" as I call her, is doing Princess's school work. I don't know what the going rate for having an 18 month old do your homework is, but I am sure it was food of some sort. Notice the perfect finger position on her pencil. Any teacher would be proud.

*Just for your information: I didn't spontaneously have another child, even though its happened before. This one I look after a few times a week. She is cute enough to be one of mine, but come on people! How many kids do I need to have? I adore my 4, and I need no more! (I chant that anytime I get the twinge to have another one!) And besides, I have my perfect dog to baby!

The following images may disturb you!

Oh my dear children! I may never have writer's block because of them. This is what I found this morning in my husband's closet. As the CSI, crime scene investigator, in my house I had to decide what was going on here. These poor innocent Care Bears have been tied by their ankles and probably dragged by them too. And talk about positive attitudes, they still have smiles on their faces.

Maybe they were hung by their ankles?

Caught in the act. Yes they were being hung and drug. My baby said that she was putting them in the dungeon. Where do they get these ideas?

My Perfect Dog

We have adopted! Actually we adopted her 4 months ago, but I thought I would introduce her to you now. This is Lucy, our black lab!

Blue Eyes and I decided that we needed to put a stop to the human production in our house. It was getting a little out of control here! Every nine months a new one was on its way. They seemed to be spontaneously appearing in my womb. We had 4 new humans in 5 years. We still look around, look at each other, and ask, "Where did these things come from?". At the discovery of the last human, my mom asked, "Did you figure out how it keeps happening yet?". I assured her that we found the source and that it will be promptly taken care of!

Now my problem is that they have grown too fast! Did you know that it was possible for a 7 year old girl to grow 2 inches in 3 months? We didn't until yesterday when we remeasured our kids on the wall in the laundry room. To our astonishment all of them grew an inch, all except Princess, who grew 2".

They are getting too big too fast, and I am hitting the beginning stages of empty nesting. I searched high and low for a dog on pet finder, because everyone told me a dog is a great way to get rid of empty nesting symptoms. It took 6 months of searching to find the perfect one. We found her though. Lucy is my amazingly perfect child, I mean dog. To my shock and amazment, my husband who is not always a dog lover, thinks the same about her as I do!

She never has accidents, even when we are out of the city for 16 hours and our wonderful youth pastor "forgets" to let her outside for us. (It all worked out though. I left his daugher's dirty diaper on an extra hour or two while watching her one day. I feel better now!)

She never is aggressive with my kids, even when my Baby Destroyer is lying on top of her. She plays in the yard with the kids with out a leash and never runs away. She is completely submissive. If I yell, she is mortified and will suck up to me for the next hour ( I feel better when that happens too! At least she cares.).

She is always cleaning! When the kids spill, she is right there beside me cleaning the mess up with me! She doesn't shed too much. Although, I do vacuum almost everyday since my kids shed. They shed crumbs instead of hair. That counts, right?

She allows me to baby her! Like this morning when a storm rolled in, again. She came right into my room and needed to snuggle. She doesn't kick, she sleeps in as long as I want, and she doesn't cry if I kick her out of my bed.

She never complains about what I serve her for dinner. I make the same thing for her everyday, and she eats it with out whining!

I love her and so does my family. When people ask how many people are in our family, my kids instantly say 7. They never forget to include her.

I need to elaborate......

I had said that Princess and I prayed during the storm and it went away. We did, but I didn't tell you the whole story. The wicked (yes, wicked) storm was going on full fledged outside. It had no signs of stopping and we were getting reports of not only tornadoes, but another storm coming that was building strength.

The only thing that would come to my mind was the story of when Jesus was sleeping on a boat and disciples woke him because they were scared of the storm. He looked up and told the storm to calm, and it did. I know that God tells us that we can do all that Jesus did. I believe it and I teach my kids to believe it. This became an example to my daughter of how we can do just as He did. We prayed. We prayed that God would calm this storm and keep us safe just as he did on the boat with the disciples.

As soon as we finished, it happened. The weather channel had updated the screen and it showed our little town. Instead of having the pink, red, orange, or yellow storm colors covering our town, it changed to green. Pink means you are basically at ground zero possibly close to death, red is a little less than death and every color gets a little less. Green happens to be a sign of little more than rain. It was forecasted all night that we could have had the worst of the storm. All afternoon the storm was to be moving northeast right over us. For some reason after we prayed, the storm moved straight east and stayed south of us, no longer moving north.

I know some might say, we got lucky, or it just seemed to happen. Believe what you will, I believe and so does my Princess that God intervened for us. It seems small and minuscule, but he takes care of all aspects of our lives, even nasty thunderstorms!

Thank you God! I still miss New York, but I will stay if you want me to! Oh and if you keep all tornadoes away from me and my little ones I will be very happy. Oh and keep my storm watcher hubby safe too. Amen!