Random Conversations

The other day we were in Target when, not surprisingly, Ruby had to go potty. We were in the stall and had the following conversation:
Ruby:Mama, is you wear panties?
Me: Yes Ruby I am wearing panties.
Ruby: Is your panties clean?
Me: Yes, I always wear clean panties.
Ruby: Ohhhhh, That is a good idea, sometimes I take my panties off
Ian is always thinking.
Ian: Mama, what is errant?
Me: It is when some one deviates from the path that is expected. When they do not do what they are supposed to.
Ian: Why do you have to air out your dress then?

This morning at breakfast Ian asked me how come giraffes have longer esophagus' than we do.

On My Heart

I am amazed at how quickly time flies. I can't believe this little one is standing and pulling herself up already. She gets lots of practice because Erik likes to make sure she is doing everything she possibly can. It seems to me that the more children you have the shorter time they are babies. The baby wants to keep up with the older children.

I am so blessed with beautiful healthy children and a husband who honors Christ yet I seem to struggle with anger. I know it is a result of my sinful, selfish nature. I was studying the other night and here are a few verses that I am meditating on:

Proverbs 15:1 Harsh words stir up anger, but a gentle answer turns away wrath.

James 1:19 This you know, my beloved brethren. But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger.

Colossians 3:8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.

I feel like with our injuries, sickness, and my need to get organized before school starts tempers are short, hearts are raw and emotions are close to the surface. I am praying for peace in our home, and gentle spirits.

Anatomy of My Day

12:00 am Get up in the middle of the night to take your child potty and have them fall asleep on the bathroom floor.
2:00 am Get up to change a poopy diaper and nurse the baby.
6:15 am Get up and turn off your alarm and say I will just lay here a few more minutes
8:00 am Wake up to sounds of the baby and realize a few more minutes turned into a few more hours. Look in the crib and realize the baby is not there, go to the living room where your 9 year old is reading and the baby is playing on the floor in a pile of Legos. Pray and give thanks that the baby did not put any in her mouth.
The other times are a bit foggy but go something like this:
Make sure 2 of your children have puke buckets and give them the appropriate dosage of Tylenol, and Ibuprofen. Be very happy that you purchased enough 'see thru pop' (7-up) to settle every one's upset tummies.
Call Syndi and see if Aaron and Erik can come over and play while I put the other children down for a nap and some quiet time. This was the first time that I allowed Erik to ride his bike over to Ben's house with out me walking behind. He likes to 'swivel' his bike and has been told repeatedly not to do that. About 3 minutes after they left Aaron came riding back to the house yelling, "Erik crashed his bike!" I went running down the street with Libby on my hip, and Ruby still in the high chair. Erik is not one to cry or acknowledge pain but it was pretty obvious that he was hurt. After I carried him home and washed him up I asked Syndi to come take a look at him because it looked pretty bad. His pupils were unequally dilated, and he could hardly stay awake or open his eyes. She had me call the Doctor and they told me to go to the ER.


My selfish nature was very disappointed that I was not going to get an hour to myself reading my book on the back deck. However, I was very grateful that Syndi offered to stay with the children while I took Erik in.
We did not have to wait long at the ER (not a good sign since every single parking stall was taken up). I called Sean and told him to post our fair tickets on Craigslist since I did not see how we were going to make it. As we were waiting for the doctor to come in I got a phone call from someone who wanted to purchase my tickets (praise God, we were not out the money).
Erik was diagnosed with a mild concussion and lots of abrasions. The thing about the ER is that they always make me feel like a bad parent.
Was he wearing a helmet? Yes
Were you there watching him? No
Where were you? In the house putting the baby down for a nap
What was he doing? Riding bikes with his brother
Is he current on his immunizations? No
Has he had his tetanus shot? I don't know
Questions for Erik:
How many brothers and sister do you have? I don't know a lot, but we have more girls than boys,so I hope my mom can adopt 2 boys so the boys will win.
What grade are you in? I don't know
Where do you go to school? I am home schooled, and I don't have to do any work I just get to play all the time.
What were you doing? I was riding my bike to my friends house, with out my mom.

The elderly gentleman in the room with us was very friendly and let Erik watch as they glued his ear back together and he pointed out when the helicopter was taking off so Erik could watch. They they were discussing what Erik likes to do and Erik told him he likes to swim and we got to hear all about the man's grandson who is a Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer. Erik also told him he likes to read about Marine Snipers and this man's son in law is a Marine Sniper (not sure how to respond to that one ~ cool?). I never cease to be amazed at God's provision of putting us in that room with a man with Erik's interests.
We were able to come home after only 2 hours, I picked up the children took the fair tickets to the people and made it back home where Stacy H. (from church) had delivered a delicious dinner for us.
I am not sure how Syndi does it but the house was clean, a 300 piece puzzle was completed and all the children were clean and happy. Thanks for being there!!!!!!!!

We ate dinner watched a movie and went to bed.

Oh yeah, and Sean has not been home before 8:30pm every night this week due to work schedules.

Pray Ferventaly For Your Children

Parenting babies and toddlers is physically exhausting, but as the children grow it becomes much more emotionally exhausting.
God has been working on me a lot and I realize that I have not power except the power that comes through Our Lord and Savior. God desires to intercede on our behalf and we must go to Him.
I have always been a wife and mother who prays, lately I have become a woman who earnestly seeks God and pleads with Him on behalf of my children.

I pray that my children's faith will be their own and that they will come to know Him early. I pray for wisdom to lead my children, for grace to be an example of His love. I pray that I will win their hearts.

I pray that they will have many good examples of God's provision in our lives.

We began a new study on putting on Godly Attitudes.

Colossians 3:12-14

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness,humility,meekness,and patience, bearing with one another,and if one have a complaint against another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these , put on love which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

We began with hands that show compassion, and look who showed up at my door with a latte and hands ready to work. We painted the boys room and took everything out, then organized as we put it back together. What an example of hands that show compassion. Thank you Tami for being God's Word in action for my children.

Here, Ian (mine, not Tami's) and Tami were sorting the tedious toys that boys have. Ian could discern a Knex, from a Bionicle, down to a General Grevious Lego arm. That is why I can never clean their room because I do not know what anything is.

Please keep praying for our children, that their hearts will be turned toward Christ.

Mt. St. Helens

After much anticipation, reading and planning we left a day early for our trip to Mt. St. Helens. We stopped and bought a queen bee and went to my father in law's house because he was experiencing some bee problems. It turned out that he did not need a queen (his was still there) so we brought the queen with us on our trip. She was in her nice little queen cage and Sean dutifully fed her every day and kept her safe and warm in her paper bag under the driver seat. We began our journey as planned and went to the Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center. It had lots of information and a movie and ranger talk in addition to wonderful displays. It was a great choice to go see. Tim really wanted to see the Sasquatch so we stopped there for a breather and some tall tales.

Erik as always had great questions and listens to much more than he looks like. We were so happy to have Geaba all to ourselves. She was so much fun and a wonderful help.
We decided not to go to the Johnston Observatory because the 20% chance of rain turned to be 80% wrong and you could not see beyond the railing.

We camped at one of my favorite places ever, Bar UK Ranch. I have been camping there since high school and it was so fun to share with family and friends. We could have just gone camping and the children would have had as good of a time, if not better. They loved swimming even though the weather was not warm. We were very thankful that it was not raining and the blackberries were ripe and easy picking. We enjoyed some delicious blackberry pancakes courtesy of Sean. Well also all the children and Geaba and Syndi. Erik was our best picker and ate as much as he brought for the pancakes. Ruby had a perpetual black mouth due to the amount of berries she consumed. Syndi and I bought the stuff to make blackberry cobbler but ran out of time.

This was a common sight in our van during the 3 day trip (think 3 hour tour ~ from Gilligan's Island) Everyone fell asleep at some point because we were doing much more driving than anticipated. I think the altitude had a negative impact on Ian. He was achy and feverish and ended up dry heaving in the tent. I warned Syndi that we tend to not be very good campers. I have been diligently checking Craigslist for campers (it seems like a much better way to go)

The drive to Windy Ridge did me in and I did not even get out of the van except to view the restrooms. I begged for us to take the long route home (4 hours longer) so that I did not have to travel on that road ever again. Needless to say we were disappointed in the lack of success we had with our planning but as Syndi kept reminding me, "We are making memories." Maybe I will laugh later.

This is kinda how I felt after we got back. 3 days of driving and 3 days of laundry when we got home. We ended up canceling the rest of our trip due to sickness. Another day, another memory.

See you soon

We are off to a wonderful week of camping, learning, family, friends, driving, eating, hiking, swimming, sleeping (I hope), and discovering more of God's creation.

I am thankful for this opportunity to explore and be together. It is now midnight and I still have 2 loads of laundry to do and I have not packed for the little ones yet. Every time I get the chance someone is sleeping in that room, and if they are not sleeping I don't have the chance.

We are leaving tomorrow and buying a queen bee for my father in law and bringing it to him on our way to Mt. St. Helens. Life is never dull. and I would not want it to be (should I say bee?)

I hope you have a wonderful week and remember to rejoice in the small things.

Aquarium

Aquarium Membership.......................................Christmas Gift
1 Tank of Gas.........................................................................$70
Parking in Seattle..................................................................$10
Fresh Cherries from Pike Place Market............................$6
Dinner at Sticky Fingers......................................................$40
Finding Treasures at Goodwill............................................$44
A wonderful day of fun & memories with family..............Priceless
Yesterday we used our annual family pass to the Seattle Aquarium. We had a wonderful time! I am always amazed that the children love the touch tank so much especially since we get to touch so many of the same marine life at 'our' beach. The octopus and harbor seals were among the favorites of all the children.

Ian loved the exhibit that was empty but had some waves that came in cycles. Who knew you could go to the aquarium and enjoy the empty exhibit the most? The boys also liked the puffin exhibit because you could see the puffins poop underwater. The puffins reminded me of a bad 80's hairdo.

After thoroughly exploring the aquarium we headed up to the Pike Place Market. I love the market and all the unique vendors and musicians. I actually felt confident with Sean and all the children that they would stay with us and have great manners. It was really difficult for me to watch Taylor part with $10 for a sand filled snake. At the last minute she changed her mind but is still talking about buying one next time she finds one.

I bought us a treat of Rainier Cherries $6 worth that we consumed on the spot!

Sean took quite a few pictures of the children and I by the pink pigs leading the way to the market, it is always interesting to see how the photos will turn out. In every single picture Erik looks exactly the same, Ruby and Ian are trying to get Libby to smile and Libby is looking at them. Alas, the pursuit of a family photo continues.
After leaving Seattle we headed north to one of my favorite restaurants called Sticky Fingers Bar B Que. We had some delicious sandwiches and baked beans, macaroni, garlic potatoes, and corned bread. Aaron ate a full meal all to himself and still wanted more, I can relate. Even Erik loved it!

Then we headed across the street to Goodwill and shopped until they closed. We got home at 10:30pm. Taylor pointed out that all the children (except her, of course) were asleep with their heads to the same side.

It couldn't have been a better day! Thanks mom for the membership! We will definitely use it again.

Creative?

It is difficult to tell what Erik is thinking or what he will come up with next. Sean successfully removed our neighbor's wasp nest that was conveniently located a few yards from our picnic table. Needless to say we had many wasp visitors at our table for dinner.

Erik very carefully removed the outer covering from nest and investigated the inner workings of the nest.

It is very important to him for me to take pictures of everything. I only chose a few of the many photos that I took in his deconstruction of the wasp abode.

It was Erik's turn to unload the dishwasher. A job he thinks is worse than weed eating a field of rocks and thistle (I know I've done it). He was convinced that he could not possibly unload the dishwasher while the dishes were still warm so he went and got our one and only fan and set it up to cool the dishes.

Unfortunately for Erik Ruby discovered said fan and had a lot of fun playing with it. It literally took Erik 4 hours to get the dishwasher unloaded. I have to say this time I was proud of myself for keeping calm and not yelling. There were consequences and we will see if it proves to make the dishes get unloaded faster next time.

Help Our Exersaucer is Posessed

Last night I was peacefully sleeping when I awoke with a start! I heard a lion roar and then a strange voice say, "lion" Next, came the continual happy music, over and over, and over, and over and over and over again. Then, a barking dog and a voice say, "dog"

You get the idea. When I realized the battery was going dead I put the darn thing on the front porch and closed the door.

I could still hear: Lion, Lion, Lion, Dog, Dog, Dog, Cat.... So I got up and closed the bedroom windows. Alas, some sleep!

Libby who never wakes up at night awoke at 3:00am so fed her and put her back to bed. Then the music!!!! It would not stop. Finally I got out of bed and put the thing in the van, closed all the windows and locked the door. A few precious hours of sleep.

Night Diving

Aaron has been dying to get some 'snorkelers' ever since Ben brought some to the beach. On Saturday, Sean let the children (Aaron and Taylor) go up to the attic and get our old scuba equipment. Of course they really wanted to go try it out and since it has been so warm we decided to go for a night dive.

There was a wedding reception at the resort so we got a treat of great music at the beach a sunset to the west and the moon to the east, Amazing.

This has to be a new favorite photo of mine. It is hard to get a picture of Sean smiling because he says he doesn't like fake smiles. Who can resist a wonderful evening alone on the beach, well alone with 6 children ~ That are all yours.

Taylor and Aaron spent so much time getting used to the snorkel and goggles. It was amusing to listen to them talk to each other with the snorkels in their mouths. At one point Aaron found something interesting to look at down by his feet and when he came back up he was spitting and sputtering. I guess it was a quick lesson that the snorkel must stay above water.

This was my scuba skin not so long ago, I wish it still fit me.

There's my man.

And my little girl. She asked me,"Mama when I am grown up are you going to call me your big Ruby girl?"
I said, "Nope, you will always be my sweet little Ruby girl."

She replied, "You will always be my big mama."

Thanks.

Aaron loved using the under water flashlight. Once he figured out he had to put the booties, and mask on before the gloves he was ready to go.

Libby and Mama watching everyone have some fun.

I think this picture needs to be framed. It so speaks to me of Erik at 7.

Sun, Sand, and Smiles

I decided to call Renee last night for a last minute invite to our beach. She was available and I was excited to spend the day with her and her children. We were very surprised when we arrived the tide was WAY out. Usually when we are there the dock is almost level with the ramp, it was fun to watch the tide creep in through out the day. Jess called and asked what I was doing and I told her that I was meeting Renee at the beach and she said, "Sweet we will be there between the boys' naps!" Then Tami called and asked,"are you at the beach? Great! we will be right out." Then, Syndi called (she and Ben were supposed to be in Canada) and asked what we were doing and said that they were already on there way to the beach! She even brought us iced coffee from Jess' coffee hut.
I love being with my friends and my children and my friends children. So this was top on my list of great days!

I brought Ruby's little swimming pool (empty) and let Libby play in it to keep her somewhat sandless. She even took a couple of great naps in the pool when I put it under the dock. Renee thought it very wrong to say, "Be Quiet when you go under the dock because Libby is sleeping in the pool."

All of the children played wonderfully. Ian and Mordecai were together a lot. I can just picture these two running down the beach in 10 years we better watch out!

I was surprised that every time I turned around Ruby and Avi were playing wonderfully together. Ruby took very good care of her 'real' baby and had to take time out from playing to feed the baby. I guess when you are at the beach you bottle feed as opposed to breast feeding at home.

Tami had to leave early to go home so she graciously stopped by my house and put my dinner in the oven so we could stay a bit longer! I have great friends!!!!

I was reminded once again how fortunate we are to have a great husband and Papa that works hard so that we can enjoy days like this. Thanks Sean.

Tonight when we were praying Ian said, "I am so glad that God is creative and gives us so much pretty stuff to look at." The wisdom of a 5 year old is profound.

Blueberries

I love traditions. One tradition that our children rely on is that every time we pick berries (straw,rasp,and blue) we go to the dairy after. It is a great reward for a job well done!

two of my best pickers recently started getting a small cone instead of the baby size. We can all have a treat for $6.

The centers of the picnic tables even have built in ice cream cone holders. I was amazed at the number of times that my children had to go to the bathroom during our 3 hour tour. We took Sean with us and met up with Syndi & Ben, and Stacy & Wesley & Micah (more great friends from church). I always get a few buckets for myself and Taylor and one bucket for all the other children to 'fill'. Sean did not understand my method and figured that every bucket needed to be filled! Several times I asked him if we were done yet, and he said we would not be done until all the buckets were full (why did I get so many?).

We ended up with 102 pounds! We were very fortunate that they offered a discount if you picked over 100 pounds. Still, it is difficult to pay $87 for blueberries. We made several batches of jam, some pureed baby food (which stains a certain baby's bum). We enjoyed some delicious Blueberry Hill Muffins and Blueberry Pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup.

I love photos with something in focus in front and out of focus in back. I am working on taking better photos and love how the bubblegum ice cream matches Taylor's shirt and eyes. After she made an ice cream guy all the other children made ice cream family members.

I usually enjoy a espresso shake but was so hot today that I tried root beer instead. It was wonderful, I am thinking that we have to go get more blueberries just so I can have another root beer shake. I started getting the shake because usually I have to help a child with something or feed a baby and you can't just set down a cone like you can a shake plus, if I know that I get that treat once in a while it is easier to resist ice cream in between visits.

You can see my nursing cover that my wonderful berry picking friend Alison gave me and seriously has been WONDERFUL!! I have wanted one since they first came out and never splurged on it, but now I would recommend as a necessity.

When we got home from the dairy and were processing our berries Erik found two tree frogs. That boy can sniff a frog from a mile away. He promptly filled Ruby's little swimming pool and put the frogs in, it was very funny to watch him keep catching the frogs and putting them back in the pool. He said, "It is much harder to keep track of two frogs that won't listen than just one frog you can watch all the time."

I know exactly what you mean buddy.