Happy Birthday....

Happy Birthday to Isaac! Isaac turned 12 yesterday! He had been counting down the days for some time. He is nearly a teenager! Today, Isaac spent the day with his dad and a friend and his son at his Lego league competition. They had to leave at 6:30 a.m. so it was nice to see them off and go back to bed. Jana and I did the leg work getting them to all the meetings so the dads got to have some of the fun seeing the finished work. You can go on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7RfGYArgks to watch their skit they performed for the judges today.

Isaac looks so good compared to his last birthday. He had a really good day. I took him to the library which was his only real request. We went to Scheels where he played one shooting game and rode the Ferris Wheel with Emily and Caleb. I splurged and bought 2 roasts for supper with carrots, celery and cabbage cooked several hours, mmm! We made an apple dessert that he enjoyed made very much, like apple crisp with no sugar. The topping was honey, peanut butter, butter, baking soda, egg and vanilla mixed well and poured on top of the apples and baked. You can eat simply and have it still taste good.

Funny coincidence...

We were in the library again this week and a woman asked us if we home schooled. It seems us home schoolers can spot each other so easily and I wasn't even wearing a jean skirt. I guess it's the 7 kids (Jordan was in symphony) that were so very quietly going about their business. One other thing about home schoolers is the comments we get on how polite our children are and well-behaved. I just smile and think, "Have you got that wrong!" They haven't followed me all over Wal-Mart with six kids before. I am worn out by the end of it. I realize how little control I have over them in that situation. Or bedtime, or getting up time, etc. Anyway, we talked some and she home schools her one child, Frank. When we were getting ready to leave I went to say good-bye and she wanted to exchange information like email and phone (this is typical home school fashion also). She would like to get together sometime. At that moment I really looked at her and said, "Have you been to our house before?" We met a family with a little boy named Frank 3 or 4 years ago at the Jamestown Buffalo and the mom and boy ended up coming over for the day to see the animals and play. Can you believe it was the very same person? What a small world! We had gotten together the one time and didn't keep in touch since.

Praise God for no blood again today for Isaac! Praise that I'm feeling more myself. The hormone thing had me up and down emotionally for about 2 1/2 weeks, my poor family. I really changed my diet and exercise every day. I have a follow-up appointment tomorrow morning, which also happens to be Isaac's birthday. He is coming along with Caleb so we can go to the library afterwards. I hope to find some other fun thing to do for him on his 12th birthday as a celebration of how well he is doing.

Forgotten blessing...

I forgot to say what a blessing Friday and Saturday were when my husband ended up home most of the day Friday and all day Saturday. He also ended up home all day today due to a blizzard out there. I forgot about it on Saturday when I wrote probably because I don't think I saw him much all day. He worked out in the garage most of the time. Another blessing, he cleaned out a good deal of the garage! For some reason we can never get that place clean. It piles up with all manner of things that I can't figure from where they came. It still looks like a huge pit but one you can walk through. He also fixed several drawers in the kitchen that were dragging and had missing hardware. You have to be careful when you pull out a drawer, they slide so easily! A curtain rod that came apart is now together and we played a marvelously fun game tonight as a family.

OK, I have to tell you this game. It would be a great party game. Emily got it from a birthday party. Everyone playing has a piece of paper. You have one die and one pen. You pick a goal number, we picked 100 the first time. Pass the die around with each person shaking it once. If a five is rolled that person picks up the pen and starts writing numbers to 100 on their paper. Keep shaking the die around the table trying hard to get a five so you can take the pen from that person before they get to 100. If another person gets a five they take the pen and start writing and so it goes until someone does get to 100. Lots of laughs and fun and dad won!

Itsy Bitsy Spider...

Lena does the Itsy bitsy spider and actually says the word spider!!! It is incredibly cute! She does this cute dance while she sings the whole song in her baby talk. I wish I could You Tube it for everyone to watch.

Whew! What a day! 10:30 and I'm finally done with dishes and cooking. It was possibly going to be ice storms and blizzard conditions and always the worry of power outages so last night as I lay in bed I thought I'll make up as much food stuff as I can before it happens. Well, it was real icy this morning but we never did lose power thankfully. It snowed a bit and quit. I got 44 blueberry muffins, 44 zucchini-oatmeal muffins, 1 loaf blueberry muffin bread, 4 loaves bread, 38 pancakes, a big pot of stir fry rice with all kinds of veggies for the church dinner tomorrow if we can get out the driveway, 2 chickens all cooked up and deboned, and a gallon and 1/2 of chicken broth made up for soups this week. I made up rice and taco fixings for lunch and made a batch of yogurt, juiced for myself once plus made up some food for Isaac tomorrow too. I haven't done that kind of food preparation for a very long time. I'm so glad for the quick meals. Our mornings start way too late because of breakfast taking so long to make and as I won't buy ready made food it has to be done the long way. My hands can't take anymore dish washing! Does anyone else hate washing muffin pans as much as I do? Of course again, I don't buy the paper insert things to make clean up a little easier. Well, blessed Sunday to all and have a good Monday.

Hi...

Please pray for Isaac's ankle. He twisted it last night in AWANA and it's paining him. Our chiropractor is gone too so I can't take him in for an adjustment, maybe good since I have had it with driving places. It's been two weeks now since I lost all that blood and although I'm doing all my normal activities it's not without some exhaustion. Thankfully my dad drove Jordan to her "30" minute practice the other night. I was too beat to do it. We have lego's again tonight! I'm taking some kids to the library so it will be nice because I have not been to the big library in town since they remodeled it. We were reminiscing all the hours we used to spend there just last night. I had all the good books in the children's section memorized for location. I am going to the adults section to look up....cookbooks for Isaac's diet which I am going to follow too. Again I feel my life is consumed with research.

I know many of you pray continually for Isaac. Some specifics are:
Praise the Lord we aren't seeing blood.
Pray for the bm's to firm up, still pretty loose.
Pray for wisdom in finding what may be the reason they are still loose.
Praise he is filling out nicely with weight gain.
Pray for his ankle to heal.

Lemon juice anyone?

I've been drinking lemon juice for 2 days and it's so hard! Whenever I have done one of these cleanses I am so cold. Not having any substantial calories just freezes you to the bone. I'm trying to clear up some digestive pains I've been having. I am praying for wisdom and of course, God's healing. I just want for my whole family to be healthy forever! I know that we will achieve that when we get to heaven but in the meantime I wish our human bodies could have a little glimpse of that heavenly health. It seems to take so much work to do. We started buying Kefir for Lena to drink. She loves it and it seems to help aid her digestion. Our goats only give enough milk right now to make yogurt for Isaac so the rest of the kids haven't been having yogurt regularly. Hopefully, they are pregnant and due in April and we will once again have more milk than we know what to do with.

We are busy with lego robotics twice a week now. Thankfully, we carpool and drive only once but it will be all over Jan. 30th! Isaac has enjoyed it so much. Jordan has a lot of symphony events this week and in February so that challenges our already busy schedule. It would be so much more helpful if we had a car or van that got better gas mileage and she had her license. I sure miss having the two vans, one big for when we all go together which wasn't all that often and then the small one for the kind of trips we've been taking. Once Jordan gets her license we will look into that.

Kevin is extremely busy at work with a church that's being built. It doesn't help that it is 2 1/2 hours away. One night he planned to just sleep in the church since he's be going back the next day. A guy on the project said no-way, come stay at my house. This guy's son is 38 and has Ulcerative Colitis since he was 19 and when he eats the diet Isaac is on he does well. As soon as he eats off of it he has a flare and is actually in a bad flare right now. It was an encouragement of sorts. It is disconcerting that so many people are suffering these kinds of problems.

This really got long and seems too boring to write but I'll leave it for those who like the little things in our lives. Have a great rest of the week. Jordan has a concert Friday night and her symphony is playing with the adult symphony, thus the extra practice tonight is with the adult symphony. She really enjoys it and hopes to do it again next year, Lord-willing.

Bathroom #2

I was trying for a different color than white when I chose this paint. I found some pictures for the wall that had this turquoise color in it but it turned out to be blinding and Kevin and I didn't really like it. The kids did like it so I didn't bother changing it plus who feels like repainting when you've done the job already. As you can see the counter was very large and lots of storage but we didn't really need it and the toilet and tub area was crowded when you gave a kid a bath. It is much more spacious and so pretty when we redid it. We call it the guest bathroom and I don't let kids brush their teeth in here. It has a nice deep tub and Lena loves taking a bath and we enjoy giving her one in a clean, new tub. It only needs trim to be completely finished. Well, a towel bar would be nice but we are worried the kids will hang on it because it would be in an open space so that will have to be considered. The towel bar, hand towel ring and toilet paper ring were a good match from the old bathroom so always glad to salvage something.

The bathroom project...

The bathroom in our bedroom before the remodel! It is hard to see the things that were wrong with it. The tile around the tub is rotting on the bottom and falling apart. The tub faucet is actually broken off with crud falling into the tub. The linoleum is coming up around the perimeter and is over 30 years old. The wallpaper was in all the bathrooms at one time and is original with the house. It has come off in some parts that you can't see. The sinks faucet is also rotting and coated with years of scum buildup. It's hard to see that. I don't think the bathroom looks so bad in this picture :)




But, notice the after! The walls are a shade of green. The new vanity is so pretty. The shower is so clean and Kevin just commented last night how he likes to shower in here. It is a bit of a haven. The toilet is also a taller on and oh, so nice for our knees.

Hanging in there again...

It's been nearly a week since I was in the ER. Life goes on as it must do. We are busy doing math. Rebekah is learning half past on the clock and Caleb is doing percents and not liking it. Jordan is doing mortgages and has a headache :) We have our busy day today so we'll see how well I fare at the end. I'm mostly extremely tired throughout the day. My hemoglobin is a bit low and surprisingly, I can sleep at night! I don't usually sleep much but I can't seem to get enough. The kids remain very helpful. I am getting over the thoughts that consume you when you are overtired and have your hormones going crazy. I was always so happy that we had Lena because I didn't want my last baby to be a miscarriage so now here we are again in that place but again I'm so thankful for Lena and her smiles and that she still nurses. It gives me a baby to hold and nurture. Thank you for your prayers and concern.

Isaac continues to do very well! We did see some blood yesterday but it may be from the chili he had. He doesn't seem to be able to tolerate tomato products. Otherwise he has been blood free for more than 10 days! Praise the Lord! I also love touching his shoulders. They are filling out again and his color is changing and looking less yellow and pale! He is in great spirits as he has been for some time. He is talkative, argumentative with siblings, has a huge appetite, loves his food (praise as he is still on restrictions), and is doing well in school.

The Most Photographed Child in our house...

LENA is smiling because the camera is pointing at her! I love this face of hers!

On a much happier note...

Happy 17th Birthday Jordan!

Yesterday was also my dear Jordan's 17th Birthday. She was a lifesaver here at home along with Emily taking care of everyone and the house was perfectly in order when I came home from the hospital. It's chore day today and there isn't a whole lot to do other than vacuum and dust because the house is so in order. Wednesday night I was not feeling good at all and had to lie down most of the day and evening and the kids brought the camera to me (thanks for digital media) and showed me the house. The kitchen was cleaner than when we just had company Sunday and everything was picked up. What a blessing!

My musical child got a Mandolin for her birthday and picks it up, tunes it and plays a song. She's so amazing to me! I have NO musical ability. It has 4 double strings and tunes like a violin. I guess the notes are the same as a violin too. That was Jordan's reasoning as to why she can pick it up and just play it. Our house will be blessed with the sounds of a mandolin anyway, part selfishness why we got it for her, you know. We like to live our wishes and dreams through her :) Check out Jordan at her blog www.Christismyvictory.blogspot.com

Life of a Middle-aged Drama Queen...

That should be my new title of my blog. I certainly seem to have my fair share of drama. I was really looking forward to 2010 being less event filled. Yesterday seemed to be trying to top last year's top 10. I ended up in the emergency room yesterday after the bleeding from a miscarriage wouldn't stop. When I started bleeding I thought, "Oh, good, because now it will progress since I had been miscarrying since Monday." Then, it kept on coming. Kevin was home yet cleaning out the driveway because about 6 a.m. he was going to go to work and said I probably wouldn't be able to get out the driveway today. He didn't have time and had an important job to get to. I said, "but how will I get to the doctor today (I was going to say hospital but changed it to doctor)?" I knew something wasn't right this time and kept imagining bleeding was involved. I've never had a clear thought quite like this before. I didn't tell that to Kevin though. I think he just knew he had to clear the drive.

I continued bleeding so profusely all the way to the hospital that at one point I thought, "I'm not going to make it!" I looked at Kevin but what do you say when you think the words are your last. I just said, "Help me Jesus." We did call an ambulance on the way because I knew I needed my vitals taken soon. We met it a few miles from the hospital and at that point everything was stable. At the hospital they must not have realized how much I was bleeding because they were going so SLOW! I wanted to shout at them to hurry it up because I don't have much time. When the nurses took my pants (soaked to the very bottom) they realized it was a bit more serious than they were treating it and in moments I had a lot of people in the room. I nearly passed out when my blood pressure went to 60 over 30 and my heart rate went sky high. Fluids got me over that and then I got a work over for about an hour. I had a lot of IV's with different things and then within moments I was down to one nurse in the room. I kept hearing we were going to the operating room so I said, "things are stable now and I'm not going?" They got the bleeding to slow considerable so they were going to watch it and see if it continued like that and thankfully it did and I'm here writing at my computer. I stayed the night since we are 40 miles out. The doctor said if we lived in town I could go home. I was glad to stay since I knew it would be hard to rest completely still here. I did lay down a bit today but not nearly as much as I should. Thankfully, again, the children took over everything and everything is quite well here.

I am thankful to the Lord for being with me and for deciding it wasn't my time to go. I am thankful to be home again with the kids and to get back to some kind of "normal" :) If there is such a thing. I do pray that I was some sort of witness for the Lord there although I didn't witness directly to anyone. I hate dead air as you can tell by my writing every detail so I talked the whole time they were working on me because I just don't know what to do with silence. The doctor holding my uterus to stop the bleeding said it's because of all the pregnancies that your uterus isn't contracting. I laughed and said, "Oh, that's what they all say, you've had too many children and your uterus isn't working properly." He just said it's true. Well, I don't question that it isn't true to some extent but tell me why the first nurse of the night only has two children and had a miscarriage like this one if it's all about how many children you have? I believe it just happened this way and it was for some purpose I may not know until I reach heaven.

Happy New Year with a couple birthdays...

Rebekah turns 8 years old.

Emily and Rebekah get the unique distinction of sharing a birthday but being born 5 years apart. The other unique distinction is that they were both born on New Year's Day. During both their labors we really wanted them to be born the day before as that was when I was induced. I did not think it was great at the time as I was hoping for speedier deliveries not two-day long ordeals! :) It turned out great though and is a special day for all around here and I don't remember much of the two days anyway.

Emily gets her ears pierced for her 13th Birthday!

We went with the girls of our family and some friends to eat at a Chinese buffet. The girls had fun trying some new things and Laney almost tried sushi. Rebekah had 3 bowls of ice-cream!

A week's gone by...

My two 7-year olds!

Gideon on his 7th birthday. Quite toothless too. Just pulled another one last night!

I'm sure my followers are waiting on pins and needles to see what we've been up to! :) I sometimes feel I am so boring on here but it does chronicle our journey in life and I like to read about others lives so here we go.

My Gideon John turned 7 years old on Dec. 30th and was 7 years old with his sister Rebekah while she waited for her 8th birthday on the 1st of Jan. We had a good night eating pizza, chips and having dirt cup ice cream treats with a few other family members.

I have some catch-up to do with the girls' birthday on the 1st. We had fun. I hope I have time tomorrow to post a picture or two of what we did that day! Have a good day friends!