Quips and quotes

 Lyssa asked at lunch today....."Mama, does 'cowcium' come from cows?" =)

 Well, she was on the right track anyway. I told her it came from milk and milk came from cows, but it's pronounced CALcium.

 Meanwhile Isaac asked Levi to scratch his back... (let me detour to say, Aaron started this trend awhile back with constantly asking everyone to scratch his back and then he returns the favor; he especially loves it at night. Anyway, Isaac picked up on it)... so Levi, after a second of rubbing with his hand, grabs a fork.

 Yeah, you can guess the rest...Isaac was sitting there with a grimace on his face and we were laughing so hard we could barely tell Levi to stop. 

  If I could get down even half the stuff that the kids come up with it would be hysterical. It's always something.

  Oh, another one of their latest pranks is they figured out that butter knives make a really cool sound when you use them in a pretend sword fight. I had to nix that one fast....I could never find a knife when I wanted to butter anything but I mysteriously found them in the laundry, under the couch, in the girl's room, and in the boys belt loops... basically anywhere they weren't supposed to be. Not to mention, (for me anyway) it didn't seem safe, I think mostly just because the word knife is part of the name. Ed thought it was funny, and wasn't overly alarmed.  Guess it must be a guy thing. "Let them be boys."

 And the girls?

 Well, they are busy being girls...attitudes and all. I think I have had to deal with attitudes more than any other one thing lately. They can be best friends one second and best enemies the next. And of course the tone of voice, the body language...you would think they were grown or something. I shouldn't be dealing with this yet! They are too little! Right?

 I used to think that once you were grown you knew everything....I laugh to remember that now. I think once you're grown you realize how much you don't know. Raising children being the most thing that you don't know how to do. =)

 Every day is an adventure, and if I can just remember to see it as one and to laugh more.... Hmmm, maybe I would make some progress.

Late night posts

These late night posts seem to be the only kind I can do these days..if at all. I'm sure you have noticed. =)

  I just got done browsing a new blog that Ed put me on to...it was pretty neat. It's a husband/ wife photography team w/ 4 adorable kiddos. They run a home business, they also homeschool, homebirth, and are libertarian party. Plus, from what I can gather they are Christians.  Anyway, I've added them to my sites I like to visit. It never ceases to amaze me how many other people there are out there "like us". Know what I mean? Sometimes you get to thinking you are the only one....but it's not true. I just thank the Lord for His grace... and that He is so much bigger than we are. 

 In other news....the past couple weeks have been pretty crazy. We've spent time doing some work on Mom and Dad's house (did I already mention that?) and this week I made a birthday cake for Angie (John's fiance'). Her birthday was Thursday and we wanted to have a surprise party. I offered to do the cake as I enjoy doing it for birthdays. I'm nowhere near professional, don't get me wrong, but I like it and I figure it's good practice. I actually made fondant this time and worked with that, which is a first for me. It was really fun. Ed helped me with it alot too. he has such good ideas, and, of course, he usually is good about knowing structurally how something will work out, or ,what to do if....

 I'll post some pics of it for you who are interested.

  I also wanted to say that I'm working on a video of the house as I know several of you have asked to see pics of how I have decorated things, and....

   one other project, I'm going to be trying to put together a slide show of us over this past year. 

 So that will be coming soon. Hopefully!

Romance 101(G rated)

With Valentine's Day almost here you can find lots of books on romance right now. When I was at Books a Million getting us a coffee the other night I picked up this book called "1001 ways to be Romantic" by Gregory Gordec . I started reading it this morning and it is such a fun read. I do want to make a disclaimer right off...he is not a Christian writer and I don't agree with everything in his book...that being said, he has some really fun and cute ideas.

 We actually put one of his ideas into practice last Thurs. afternoon. Here's the deal, you each take $10 and go on a "Mall Wide Trinket Hunt" for the other person, then you meet up again and swap. I added a picnic lunch in the back of the truck and we had one of the most fun (and inexpensive) dates ever. 

"Good guys 'n bad guys"

As we were sitting at the dinner table today, everyone is competing to see who can talk the most and eat the least (or so it seems at times, anyway=). We cover a wide range of topics from cartoons to Bible stories, everyone is loving the bacon chicken and can't wait for the "apple saucer" (as Levi calls it), and this whole time Isaac keeps rubbing his cold feet on me. I keep shifting away and he keeps shifting towards me again and finally I tell him to "quit putting your cold feet on me"...then he asks " Is cold the bad guys and warm (or "woym" as he says it)the good guys?". It took a minute with all the noise to realize what he was saying, but when I did, I assured him that warm was definitely the good guys. Smile. He is just too funny sometimes.

  I scrubbed my floors today...literally. Isaac (yes, he's 4) spilled almost an entire gallon of milk all over the floor the other day and I haven't been able to get the smell out. We mopped right away but I think it got trapped somewhere that we missed and I haven't had time to move furniture very much. So today I moved everything and scrubbed with Murphy's Oil Soap and lemon oil and I think it took care of the smell.  It was a perfect day for cleaning...I had all the doors open and everything.

  Now I'm trying to make headway in the laundry. It's the craziest thing...I know dirty laundry is dirty ok, but HOW can I have a fresh swept floor, and after I finish sorting laundry I have another dust pan full of dirt? Does anyone else have this problem?

 Besides that...I'm currently debating the wisdom of trying to scrapbook a bit this evening. Hmmm.

 It's very tempting but I'm not sure but what all my work today would be undone if I did it while the kids are awake. Unless...I put on a movie. But then, Friday night is movie night so I'm not sure that I should. Decisions, decisions.

 Guess ya'll will just have to find out later what I decide.;) C'ya.

Dry skin anyone?

This weather has been really hard on my skin. It tends to be a little dry anyway, but lately it has been painfully so. So I switched to a more natural soap ...which I tend to like to do anyway but it's pricier... but even that didn't really help, and lotion just feels ok for the minute but not long term.

 Well, when I was getting my bath the other day I  had an inspiration. I have this little glass spray bottle that I keep a solution of lavender diluted in olive oil in all the time. It's great for treating cuts, scrapes,  etc, and lately I've been using it for little cheeks and noses after wiping them so much.  It suddenly occurred to me to try it on my washrag, so after bathing I sprayed some on the rag and then "bathed" again, I even used it on my face. Let me tell you, it did the trick. My skin felt so soft and moistured but not at all greasy. And it lasted all day long, too. I will definitely be doing this again. 

 Just thought I would share that in case anyone else has the same problem. If you don't have lavender, I feel sure just plain olive oil applied to a rag while you're in the tub will do the same thing. 

Week in review

It's really late Sat. night and I should be doing a number of other things like laying out sunday clothes, cleaning the kitchen, getting my bath, etc.....But I know I haven't blogged in a few days and wanted to just give an update while I had a minute (or not).

 Today was another gorgeous day, just like last Sat. and we ended up doing alot of yard work. Ed went to work early this morning only this time he will be gone 4 days instead of 2. He is having to do basic refresher courses and had to swap days with someone so he could get in on the classes. Anyway, I hadn't planned on working outside it just sort of happened. The kids were out there playing and I went out to put Ky in the wagon (she loves to be out there too) and then ended up staying. We started doing clean-up in the back...toys, random flip flops, plastic cups, pieces of trash that blew into the yard, and an endless amount of sticks. It was so inspiring that I moved into the front yard and borrowed a rake. We have pine trees so we have a steady supply of stuff to rake. Then I even ended up cleaning off the porch and the carport.  We were all pretty tired but it was a good tired and everything (outside anyway) looks beautiful.

  You know how it is when you move into a new place....you move in and then after being there a bit you find what works and what doesn't so you tweak it and perfect it. I've been doing some perfecting this week. I got the boys curtains finally up and they look adorable in my opinion. As I get each room just where I want it I'm taking video and when it's done I'll post it on here. I think it will give a better idea than pictures.   Oh, and.....

    I've gotten back into scrapbooking again. It is something I LOVE. I'm able to incorporate everything I enjoy into the process and when I'm done I have something that will last longer than 10 min.,.. and I'm recording history and capturing all those adorable pictures in a way we all will enjoy looking at. Anyway, as you can see I have lots of reasons, and if those aren't enough I'll find more. Ed is  sort of the one that got me back started again. He knows how much I enjoy it and he really encourages me in it. I have a whole little nook carved out in the main area so even when I'm doing it I'm not "out of the loop". I'm still able to see what is going on with the kids or visit with family who happens to pop in. It will probably end up being something I only do when Ed is home though because it can become all-consuming. =) I've actually completed 2 pages this week.

  Besides that, it's been business as usual...does anyone know what usual actually stands for. Around here, I think it means taking care of the necessities of life but that can be so many things for us. 

   I got my menu/grocery shopping done again yesterday. so. good.

I think I'm running out of steam here so I'm going to say Goodnight to all and have a blessed Sunday!

  

  

  

Pictures of the Zoo

"Confessions of a super-mom"or "A trip to the zoo"

Sat. we took the kids to the zoo, and we really had a great time. The last time we went Isaac was in the stroller instead of Kyla....

 It was sort of a spur of the moment thing, when we woke up it was such a gorgeous day that we both thought a field trip would be fun, and we both thought of the zoo. We live within walking distance (yes, with 6 kids, so you know how close that is),and I guess the only reason we don't go more often is that they do charge an entrance fee. It's not much, but it used to be free so I guess it's the mental thing of having to pay now. Anyway, we got ready....translate that, I waded through the chaos everywhere to find clean cute clothes suitable for public display for every member of the family including myself; fixed hair, found boy's hats, checked faces, wiped noses(10 times at least), packed diaper bag, meanwhile telling the boys to "FIND YOUR SHOES". We finally realized that they were probably left in the truck, Oops! (at any given time we probably have 4 or 5 pairs of socks and 1 or 2 mismatched shoes in the floor of our truck). Yep, they were, so the boys were excused for not having them on and I FINALLY got everyone lined up at the door. Our routine is to line everyone up age order at the door before we leave. Gives me one last chance to check them over and make sure Isaac is wearing socks with his shoes and has underwear on. I know, I should have that under control better...working on it.

 Since we do live so close, we decided to walk...we all needed the exercise. Overall the kids did pretty good...they have some new exhibits, and we were just in time to make one where the lady brought out a parrot, a tortoise and a giant iguana. You could pet them, or in the parrot's case listen to him talk. It was pretty cool. Then we made the rounds of all the animals. Levi's favorite was the tiger, Lela's was the tapir, Aaron's was the giant land turtle (or is it tortoise),Kyla liked everything, Alyssa liked the peacocks, and Isaac's favorite was the alligator. It's not a huge zoo but still big enough to be fun. Ed got tons of pictures and by the time we got home and ate we were all beat. We all napped for almost 3 hours after that even though it was late afternoon. Oh well, at least I had the energy to see about baths and such after that.

Oh, just FYI, Super Mom is the name of my vitamins (that I forget to take half the time)as you can see, it doesn't really apply in my case.=)