You Don't See That Every Day

Oh, how I love Sundays. (The ice cream kind, and the day kind.) Sundays mean church and friends; the kids make lunch, and I get to nap as long as I want. Sundays bring family walks (sometimes) and some TV zone-out time. Sundays are family days. This past Sunday was not quite what I had in mind though. We had some relaxation, we had some family time. I got a tiny nap and there was mindless television. But most of this happened in the ER. My husband woke up at 2 am with intense stomach pain. After trying various methods of relief (I'll spare you any details) he was still in pain. I watched him writhing around on the floor, trying to find a comfortable position to fall asleep. Finally, just before 7 he said I think we need to go to the doctor. (I'm so thankful our son is old enough to be responsible for his siblings for a while until my sister could come over to supervise.) I have never seen my husband in so much pain. It reminded me of my baby-contractions; such intense, focuse...

We seem to pack it all in on the weekends, making for a very full Saturday. This round included farming, canning, a trip to the town dump, and a county fair The beginning dawned brighter - and earlier - than I was ready for. I headed out to the farm with the kids before they even had breakfast. It was an in-the-car meal for them that morning. Two of the kids helped my parents with the picking of the garbanzo beans, while I headed to the apple trees with my younger two. I climbed into the trees to pick what I could while the girls played in the bed of the truck. It was like being a kid again, picking those apples up in the tree. They make great applesauce too. I only picked two boxes, but it has been plenty for now.   So while I was away G was busy busy working on the upstairs and the stairway. We have a heat pump installation this week and he wanted to get as much sanding done as he could. Along with painting on the outside on other hard labor, a trip to the dump was n...

The sun comes out in Oregon occasionally. And we all drink it with relish. Until it beats down upon us and we natives begin to complain about the heat. But today was beautiful and I was able to convince my husband to take a walk as a family. We headed to a park and loaded up the little one. She loves the pack - and it's a great workout for me! The kids enjoyed it too. I am so thankful my kids like to be outside with us and do things together as a family; throw a few rocks, gather a few sticks, look around at the gorgeous world God made .... What I love about this picture - they are enjoying each other! I watched as they walked and talked, actually getting along nicely :   And this ... this is what you get when you give a girl a camera. She takes silly pictures of her sister.     Yeah I'd be looking at her strangely too. Actually this statues' eyes looked a little creepy to me. Most statues don't have much 'life' in their fac...

Basketball season is over for our household. Although March madness brackets will be on the table soon! And we got to sleep in on Saturday. That was the only downtime for the weekend. Even without basketball consuming our lives, we were on the move with meetings, church, teaching, kid's commitments and the everyday moments of life. Here are some of the highlights throughout the day. Little K. loves oranges! Her tastes continue to surprise me. These oranges came from my brother's backyard (as I was told) and they are SO good! Thank you guys! Big brother is now ... shaving. Yikes. I thought boys were suppose to be OLD when they started shaving. How is it my 13 year old has had to shave at least 3 times now? I finally got it documented on camera. Dad helps out: All clean: This is what my oldest girl spent her time with on Saturday. She helped G in the upstairs all day long. Just one more thing girls need to know how to do before they leave home,...

Just because there isn't much progress on the remodeling project doesn't mean I shouldn't be posting here; just because all the pictures these days are of the little cutie doesn't mean I shouldn't be writing about the other children in the household. I've been remiss about that - sorry. In our corner of the world this week: I've been able to spend a lot more time smooching on my littlest one. I read the book "Choosing to SEE" by Mary Beth Chapman, in one night. I. Could. Not. Put. It. Down. And since then I have been hugging my kids a little more and trying to listen to them a little better. I highly recommend it for everyone. G-man has been busy with The Project. Lately that involves cutting concrete and chiseling it out of where we don't want it. We are hoping to get some walls up this week. (We, once again, being a loosely-used term.) The vehicle I drive, a pickup, is beginning to give us problems. Stressful for me. I hate it when thing...

We had a lovely weekend. Well ... except for the rain that came on Sunday, my husband not feeling well, the child who came down with some sickness on Sunday afternoon and the post-holiday crankiness today, we had a good weekend. Since the weather report was for sun and warm weather on Saturday (and rain-rain-rain on Sunday), we held our own family Easter egg hunt that afternoon. We considered taking the girls to one of the public egg hunts, but figured they would be overrun with people also enjoying the sunshine. Sun is a rare occurrence here in Oregon in the spring. G and I hid the eggs for the girls in our backyard. Our son helped. He decided this year, since he is 12, that he is too old to hunt for Easter eggs. Too bad he didn't know I filled them with coins this time instead of candy (way too many cavities happening around here!) We went ahead and hid one special egg just for him to find anyway. Of course after that, the kids wanted to hide the eggs for us to find.  It's...

I have been away. That seems to be a common theme for this time in my life. Football dominated the weekend. There was a wedding. The next day was pumpkin carving day. My brother holds an annual carving party, dozens of friends and family coming to carve pumpkins. In the recent years a pumpkin rolling has been added to the list of events. We all stand at the top of the woods and take turns rolling. This year we even had a King crowned - the one whose pumpkin went the farthest won the crown. It just happened to be my 26-year-old nephew.