Jade

Just had to share a Jade photo.

She's growing up so fast!

PJ

Plums...

The other week we got 9 cases of plums from Mr. McCrary. (Yes, 9 cases). I didn't have time to put them up, so I gave them all away... (happy sigh).

But then, I got another 3 cases, and I figured God was trying to tell me something. So, even though it has been crazy busy around here, we put up the plums.

We made a cross between a plum preserve and a plum syrup. Mostly I plan to serve it with pancakes. But maybe also on a nice, gooey peanut butter sandwich, hmmmm.....

We ended up with 14 quarts and 17 pints. Which reminds me - I need to buy another 50 pound bag of sugar from Sam's Club.

I am so running out of storage space, and I haven't even begun canning tomatoes! :D

PJ

New Piles to Move

Remember our monster dirt pile that I made the boys move? Well, since they finished it, there hasn't been a huge pile for them to move... until NOW!

We now have a source of free mulch! Do you know how exciting that is? Do you know what that means?

It means that when the boys say to me, "What can I do?" I can say, "Go move mulch!" It also means that once the mulch is where it is supposed to be, that I will have to do a lot less weed wacking.

Colter handles a large part of the weed wacking, but I have to do all the precision weed wacking close to all the trees and fruit brambles. But if those all have a protective mulch barrier - then it will be safe for Colter to weed wack them!

Yipppeeeee!!!! I HATE weed wacking! More mulch! More mulch!

(Can you tell I'm a bit excited by this???)

PJ

Video Games

We don't own any video games. Nor do we intend to. There is simply too much work to be done around here to have the children get involved with them.

Which is why it is very pathetic that I have found this:


78 words

Speed test

I wouldn't say I'm quite "addicted" to it, but I am working on attempting to break that 80 words per minute mark. (In my spare time, of course).

I'll let you know when I've done it!

PJ

Update:

I DID IT!!!!

82 words

Speed test

Now I can stop playing, right? Or should I go for 85? :D

PJ

Hewitt

Just wanted to let you know that Hewitt is doing great!

Since I took him off dairy he is much happier and healthier.

He's really good about policing himself too. When we went to the zoo, we stopped at McDonalds. I ordered him a double cheeseburger with no cheese (I know - then it's not really a cheeseburger). The tag on the burger said "no cheese" so I gave it to him and turned away.

A few moments later I hear, "HEY! I CAN'T HAVE CHEESE!" Sure enough, they had put cheese on it, but Hewitt didn't eat it. Good boy!

I've been a little lenient. I let him have crackers that had whey powder listed down toward the bottom of the ingredients. And stuff like that. Even with that leniency, he's still doing great.

This isn't as terrible as I had thought it would be. :D

PJ

Don't Hurt My Mama!

Two nights ago, I had a very bad headache.

I was lying on my stomache and I asked Cole to rub my shoulders. Emery came over to help as well. I told him to pound on my neck as it was very tense. They were hard at work and it felt wonderful!

A few minutes later, Indigo came into the room and started screaming (so much for relaxing and getting rid of my headache). After a few moments, we finally were able to understand her.

She was crying and yelling at Cole, "What are you doing to Mommy! What are you doing to Mommy! STOP! What are you doing to Mommy!"

She was bordering on hysterical. I immediately sat up and told her I was ok and snuggled with her and got her to calm down.

She stayed by my side to protect me the rest of the evening, and even massaged my shoulders herself - gently. :D

PJ

Sweet Surprises

The children have not been on their best behavior over the past week or so. OK, that's putting it too kindly. They've been maniacs.

For example - we went apple picking the other evening. The boys were told to bring all the apples into the house so we could sort them and store them. After 45 minutes and no apples, Jim goes outside to investigate and finds the boys having an apple war and pelting each other with our apples.

The resulting disciplinary time was not a pretty sight, and I'm sure the boys won't be repeating that one. ;-)

Brett, of course, does not involve herself and merely laments that the boys always have to ruin everything.

But my maniac boys did the sweetest thing today. I came down from working upstairs and went into my bedroom to discover this:

They left me flowers with really sweet notes on my bed.

See, just when I'm about to ship them off to a foreign country, they redeem themselves.

Aaahhhh, the trials, tribulations, and joys of motherhood. :D

PJ

The Louisville Zoo

Normally Fridays are a day of relaxation around here. Jim works four days a week and then spends Friday recovering. But he really surprised me by announcing Friday morning that he wanted to go to the zoo.

The zoo? Really? But it's HOT outside! And we have air conditioning in the house. And it's HOT outside.

OK- I admit I wasn't very enthusiastic about it. And I may have been just a little bit whiney. Just a little bit, mind you. :D

Jim even offered to leave me and Jade behind and take the rest of the children. But I hate being left out, so off we went.

The best part of the zoo visit was the new tiger exhibit. The Louisville zoo has a new Amur tiger. We made it just in time to watch his training session. We were less than 5 feet from him and only separated by a metal gate. He was HUGE! He weighed over 350 pounds. They were training him to sit and stand and lie down. This is him standing. SO impressive!

By the way, Amur tigers used to be called Siberian tigers. They're the largest tigers in the world. And we stood five feet from him and watched him be fed horse meat and be trained to sit like a dog. Wow.

My next favorite part was the reptile exhibit. I usually don't like reptile exhibits, but I like this one. Why? It's air conditioned. And it has lots of benches. :D

Here the children are looking at a bunch of poisonous snakes. Or turtles. Or fish? I don't remember. I just remember that it was in the reptile exhibit. And it was air conditioned. Did I mention it was hot out? And we forgot to bring the double stroller?

It was a really fun day, and I'm really glad that we all went. I enjoy going to the zoo (especially in the Fall!)

PJ

A New Look for My Blog

Do you like the new look to my blog?

The photo in the header is of Jim and some of the children. We were out hiking and exploring some land one day. I had fallen behind with some of the slower children (who shall remain nameless). I was able to take this photo. It is one of my all-time favorite family photos, and I thought it would make a great header for my blog. Unfortunately, it didn't go very well with the blue background, so I changed it.

Hope you like it!

PJ

Our Little Princess

There is no question that the whole house treats Indigo like a little princess. After 5 boys in a row, her arrival was welcomed by all. I'm trying very hard to make sure that she doesn't end up like a spoiled, rotten princess. So far, so good.

The children decided today that Princess Bean (her nickname) needed a proper throne. Ever resourcesful, they built her one.

I can just hear you asking, "Did those cups come out of the garbage?"

Of course! Do you really think I'd buy that many plastic cups?

The throne materials came from one of Jim's customers who is a dentist. Apparently the drug companies are always bringing things by. The dentist often puts it out by the garbage, and Jim just can't stand to throw away anything useful.

Since we didn't need any more cups, they have become toys. The children have gotten quite good at stacking them.

It was shortly after this photo that Indigo used her magic princess wands and turned me into a pink horse. I said, "I've been turned into a pink horse, can I go home now?" If Jim were here he would have recognized the movie quote. Unfortunately, the children were clueless. Oh well, I amused myself. :D

PJ

This is Going to be a Tough Day...

Why??? Because I was stupid. It's as simple as that.

You see, I had this wonderful, surprise present yesterday. A friend of mine came over and cleaned my house for me! Isn't that awesome? She and her sister-in-law scrubbed the kitchen and dining room floors, scrubbed down the tables and chairs, and washed walls! What a super surprise!

Brett did a lot of helping and even enjoyed it. :D Here is a photo of Brett and Emily toward the end of the cleaning session.

So why was I stupid? I'm getting to that.

My friends arrived in the late afternoon and finished cleaning right before dinner time. As I contemplated what to make for dinner, I just couldn't bring myself to dirty my clean kitchen. Afterall, wouldn't it be nice if it stayed clean for at least 12 hours???

So, I packed everyone up, and headed to McDonalds. (No that wasn't the stupid part).

The stupid part was that when I got there, I ordered myself a large sweet tea. And I don't normally do caffeine. That was part of the stupid part.

The really stupid part was that I drank the entire thing knowing I would have trouble falling asleep. Last evening I didn't care. This morning at 2 am I cared. And this morning at 7:00 am when I had to get up and wash the milk tote for Colter I REALLY cared.

So the moral to the story is: when friends scrub your kitchen floor, do not drink sweet tea. :D

PJ

A Fun Friday

Jim doesn't work on Fridays. Usually he spends the day at home physically recovering from a tough work week. However, he declared this past Friday, "Soap Marketing Day."

So.... We spent the day driving around selling soap. It was quite a successful day, too! :D

At one of the stops we let the children out of the car and they got to play around some. I told them it was their recess. Of course, being homeschooled, they had no idea what I was talking about. :D

Here are my matching swan princesses (ok, I know those are ducks, but duck princesses doesn't sound nearly as pretty).

And this one of Fletcher is one of my new favorite photos.

We even managed to pick a few apples.

Overall, a great day!

PJ

Nail Polish

I've never been addicted to nail polish. I don't know why. Maybe it's because when I was a kid I stole a bottle of nail polish. I didn't get caught. But I felt SO GUILTY I went and confessed to my mom. She made me bring it back to the store and apologize to the manager. I thought he'd be all proud of me for being honest. But he actually Yelled at me! It was terrifying. I never stole anything again in my life. (By the way - thanks, Mom!)

I would occassionally paint my nails when I was a teenager. And I did have a manicure and tips put on for the prom. And a manicure for my wedding.

But I've never had a pedicure. A friend in New Jersey kept promising she'd give me one - but we never got around to it. (You still owe me a pedicure, Bea :D )

But when friends from New Jersey came out for a visit and had nail polish with them - they painted Brett's and Indigo's toe nails. And for the first time in my life I had my toe nails painted. It was a fun, girly thing to do with my daughters.


At our neighbor's pig roast on Satuday, we borrowed some nail polish and I painted Brett's finger nails. I'm not sure why, but she chose blue.

When Brett showed Indigo her finger nails, she asked, "Do my fingers look pretty?"

Indigo (a true girly girl) studied them pensively for a moment, then decided, "NO. They look blue."

I don't think she was impressed. :D

PJ

Emery Land

Emery adores flowers. He always has. He's always begging our neighbors for some of their abundant flowers.

This year we gave him a plot of ground. He turned it into his own flower garden.

He's doing a beautiful job with it. Somewhere he got some wildflower seeds. Here he is surrounded by them.

He also has tulips, irises, carnations, lilies, and a few cherry tomato plants (which he also loves). There are some lilac bushes and a dogwood tree. Some friends have promised him some daffodil bulbs this fall. He's a little behind on the weeding, but as his plants mature, that will improve.

We're very proud of him!

PJ

Grandma and the Girls

Grandma came for a visit in July. Here she is with the girls.

Grandma slept in the "big, big bed" with Indigo. When Grandma went home, Indigo cried because she wanted to sleep with Grandma. Brett told Indigo that Grandma needed to sleep with Poppy. Indigo decided that Poppy needed to sleep by himself, Grandma was hers. :D



PJ

Non Dairy Dessert

Since Hewitt couldn't have chocolate cake on his birthday (milk in the chocolate), we decided to roast marshmallows.

Cole already had a fire going from cooking his baked beans and cornbread, so it was just a matter of finding sticks.

It was a huge hit! :D

PJ

Unisex Bathrooms

We were at a pig roast at our neighbor's house yesterday. They have 3 girls. The girls' bathroom has a white floor, lavender walls, and a bright pink shower curtain.

When Hewitt asked if he could go to the bathroom, I took him in there. He took one look around, looked at me and said, "No. I need the boys' bathroom." :D

PJ

Sunflower Skyscrapers

We grew some mammoth sunflowers in the garden this year. The goats really love sunflowers and the fat and fiber are very good for them.

I had no idea they would be so huge!!! Now granted, my children aren't the tallest in the world - but still! Those are some tall sunflowers.

They are just starting to form their seeds, so they'll probably start bending over as the seeds get heavier and heavier. Which is fine - that will make them easier to pick.

PJ

Creative Gift Giving

The children like to make each other presents for their birthdays. Sometimes they have them ready in time, sometimes they don't.

Emery had wanted to make Colter a butterfly net for his birthday. He finally completed it. He used an old broom handle, a wire hanger, and some old screen material. He made it all by himself. (They definitely get this from their father.) :D

Colter was very pleased!

PJ

Happy Birthday, Emery!

I'm a little behind on birthday posts - sorry!

Emery turned 8 in April! Do you believe it? EIGHT!

Here he is removing the candles from his breakfast birthday cake. See his missing tooth? It has been gone for almost a year. But it is now finally coming in.

Emery is becoming quite the young man. He graduated from "chicken boy" to "rabbit boy" and has been keeping the rabbit stall really clean. I've been very impressed.

He's also getting really strong. Here he is giving Brett a hug. Apparently, Brett thinks he's getting a bit too strong! What a squeeze! :D

Happy, Happy Birthday, Spud!

PJ

Dairy Dilemma

Some of you may remember when Hewitt was hospitalized last year for double pneumonia. Ever since then I've had my doubts about whether or not he was going to deal with asthma. But to be honest, I wasn't quite prepared to deal with it quite yet. I kinda felt like Scarlett O'Hara - "I'll think about that tomorrow."

Here he is having a breathing treatment during a recent cold that settled in his lungs.

Well, I finally knew it was time, and so I did the unthinkable. I removed all dairy from Hewitt's diet. It is NOT an easy thing to do. Especially for a family such as ours where dairy is a main component in our diet.

Poor kid - no milk, cheese, butter.

So far, he's handling it ok. He'll cry occassionally because he wants something he can't have. But I've done some special stuff just for him. I got him orange juice - and he's the only one allowed to drink it. I got some rice milk so he can have the occassional bowl of cereal.

The worst part was that we could not make our normal breakfast birthday cake (b/c it is very heavy on the butter). So we made a blueberry cake instead - it just wasn't the same. :(

Here is a photo of another special thing - I let Hewitt lick the icing bowl. Afterall, if the kid can't have dairy, he should get extra sugar, right?! ;-)

The good news? It definitely seems to be helping him. A lot of his symptoms are gone. No more perpetual runny nose. No more drooling. No more swollen sinus. No more vomiting because he couln't stop coughing.

I still don't know whether or not Hewitt has asthma, but he definitely seems to be allergic to dairy. So for now, we'll keep him off the dairy. I really don't want another hospital stay with him.

PJ

Chef Colter

Colter asked if he could cook dinner.

Of course, I immediately said, "No."

Yeah, right!

My actual answer was, "Go for it!" So here he is cooking baked beans over the fire pit.

He did a great job. They were really yummy. He also decided to make corn bread for his Dad. He ran into a little bit of trouble on that one. But he persevered.

When he discovered we were out of cornmeal, he called Farmer Fraser. Farmer Fraser always has cornmeal. The question was whether or not they were home. Since they were home, Colter and Emery got to run the half mile to the Fraser's house to pick it up. (They get so excited when I let them do that). :D

Here is a photo of the cornbread. It was good even though Cole did burn the bottom. He didn't realize the pan needed a lid to hold in the heat. That prevents the bottom from burning before the top cooks. But we'll just chalk that up to a learning experience.

It was a really nice dinner. :D

My little boy is growing up...

PJ

Creating Addictions

I've been very fortunate in my life to have had very few addictions. I don't like coffee, I've never smoked, and I'm not a drinker.

My biggest life-long addiction has always been books. I just can't seem to start a book and not finish it in one sitting. This usually causes me to stay up to 3 am reading. It's terrible. Jim gets so mad at me.

Another recent addiction has been chocolate. In that case - it was mostly Jim's fault. :D The amount of chocolate that man would bring home was insane. And after having eight children and not drinking caffeine, I got hooked on the stuff.

After a while, I told Jim he had to do something about it. In typical Jim fashion, he found a large tackle box and locked all the chocolate up in it. Only he knows the combination. If we want to bake something with chocolate - we've got to notify Jim first. It's been a huge success - I haven't had a chocolate craving in weeks.:D

Generally, addictions are not very good things and I try to avoid them.

But I admit - I'm creating an addiction in my two year old. Indigo is becoming hooked on scents. She is constantly going around sniffing my soap. Her favorite is lilac. I think she thinks that lilac means "smells great" or something like that because any soap scent she likes she calls lilac.

Here is a photo of her with her nose pressed to a soap log that hasn't been cut into bars yet.

Alas - I fear I'm setting her up for a life long addiction to good scents. She's going to be in trouble someday when she becomes a mom and has a house full of boys! :D

PJ

Seventh Inning Stretch

Friends of ours had some extra tickets to a Louisville Bats (minor league baseball) game. After much deliberation, Jim decided to take Greyden and Fletcher with him. At the last minute, he realized that Hewitt could also go if he sat on Jim's lap.

So off they went.

Last summer Jim had taken Emery to a Bats game. They weren't very prepared. They forgot a baseball glove, had no cash, and spent the whole evening squinting into the setting sun.

This year was much better. Jim had each of the boys get a hat, sun glasses, and a glove. They also each brought $2 so they could get a cookie (Emery still talked about his cookie from the previous year).

The boys had a great time. I wish I could say the same for Jim. While he was glad he went, he said the whole thing was rather stressful. Apparently, answering the non-stop questions of 3 little boys while being on constant guard in case a fly ball headed their way is not the best way to enjoy a baseball game.

I wouldn't know - I was home with my feet up eating bon bons. Or was that just a dream? ;-)

PJ

Pickles Everywhere

Here's where part of my July went...

Gotta love pickles! :D

PJ

A Hole in the Storm

I just had to share this photo with you.

We were having a storm - and the sky was pitch black. Then, just at sunset - this hole appeared. It was beautiful. The picture doesn't quite do it justice.

PJ

Mozzarella

I've been making mozzarella for quite a while. I made some for my brother when he visited a couple of months ago. I proudly served it to him. His response? Let's just say he was less than impressed.

It was not quite the reaction I was after, so I've been working hard at it. I've tweaked the recipe a lot, and I've really improved it. I'm quite pleased with the results.

We've been eating it with the tomatoes and basil from the garden. And the other night we made pizza with it - yummm.

I haven't tried freezing it yet - but I will since I have pounds of it in the refrigerator. But that's ok, my first cheesemaking workshop is in a couple of weeks, and I needed the practice.

PJ

Blanket Trouble

I've crocheted each of the children their own baby blankets. Those of you who know us personally know that these blankets come with us everywhere. (Ok - Brett leaves hers at home most of the time ;-)

Since they're dragged around everywhere, the blankets tend to get rather filthy. But they don't get washed very often because the children won't release them long enough for me to get them in the washing machine.

But I successfully managed to grab them the other day and wash them when nobody was looking.

Later on that day I was working on the computer and Emery came to me and said, "Mom, we have a problem."

Now most of you mothers know how much I dread hearing those words. In this house it could mean anything from, the barn is flooded to the goats ate the apple trees, to Colter broke off his front permanent tooth, or equally disastrous events.

As I anxiously awaited what Emery was going to declare, in storms Indigo with this mad look on her face, blanket in hand, as she announces, "This NOT me blanket."

I looked at her blanket, wow, I didn't know it could still get that bright yellow.

"Yes it is sweetie, Mommy just washed it for you."

"This NOT me blanket."

So I wrapped it around her shoulders and snuggled with her on my lap. Now normally, she holds the blanket fringe in her right hand while she sucks her right thumb. I noticed she was only sucking her thumb and not holding the blanket. So I kept trying to shove the fringe into her fingers. But she held them tightly closed and was having none of it.

"This NOT me blanket."

Hmmmm..... Now what?

Sudden inspiration! I told Brett, "Go rub the blanket all around in your bed and put Indigo down for a nap."

Brett did that, laid it out flat and put Indigo to bed on top of it.

A couple of hours later, Indigo woke up and exclaimed, "Me FOUND me blanket!"

A good ending and a picture of Indigo asleep with "me blanket".

PJ

Where's My Unga Bunga?

The other night we sent Cole upstairs to find a book. When he came back saying that he couldn't locate the book, Brett told him it was on bookcase #5.

You need to know that Brett and I are redoing our entire library. All the books are being reorganized and moved to the appropriate bookcase. We've numbered them so we can differentiate the bookcases. The problem is - we didn't label the bookcases. Brett and I just know the numbers in our heads.

So when Brett told Cole the book was on bookcase #5 - that was meaningless to him. But he dutifully went back up to look again. Upon his return, he announced that he still couldn't find the book. Brett said (a bit more sharply this time), "It is on bookcase #5."

This went on for a little while kinda like this:

"I can't find it."

"It is ON Bookcase #5!"

"I can't find it."

"It is ON BOOKCASE #5!!"

"I can't find it."

"IT IS ON BOOKCASE #5!!!!!"

At this point, mom (that's me) intervened and patiently explained that Cole did not know which bookcase was #5, so repeating the same information was not going to help him locate the book.

With a little help from me, Colter went back upstairs once again. (I may point out that both Brett and I were working in the kitchen and couldn't go upstairs ourselves). This wasn't about torturing Cole. :D

At that point, Jim (who had been silently watching this whole thing) says to Brett, "Would you please get me that unga bunga?"

Brett looks around puzzled and doesn't move.

I immediately chime in, "Brett, Daddy needs the unga bunga now."

Brett doesn't move.

"Brett - when are you going to get Daddy the unga bunga? Please hurry up."

At this point, Brett is looking really confused and kinda dazed (she's not used to not knowing something).

I must admit that Jim and I were both deadpan throughout this. But when Brett looked at me, scrunched up her face and cocked her head, I couldn't help it. I burst out laughing. Now she looked REALLY confused.

While I continued to laugh, Jim patiently explained to her that telling Cole the book was on bookcase #5 was as meaningless to him as "get me the unga bunga" was to her.

Jim is so awesome - he's great at coming up with object lessons that are both meaningful and memorable. It was part of what made him such a great teacher.

And at the conclusion, when Jim looked at me and said, "I knew you'd understand what I was getting at," it made me all warm and fuzzy knowing that God has also made us such a great team.

PJ

Laundry Woes

The other day, we held a family meeting to reassign chores. Among other things, Fletcher is now responsible for folding and putting away the laundry.

Well, apparently a few hours after our family meeting, Fletcher approached Jim.

"Dad, do I have to fold mom's clothes?"

"Yes."

And then, in his loud, raspy, Fletcher voice:

"But I don't know how to fold booby covers!!!"

I don't think I'll post a photo for this entry... ;-)

PJ

What Happened to July?

I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted! For those of you who like to keep up with our lives - I'm so sorry! What can I say? It's summer!

I've got a whole bunch of photos and stories to post. They've been on my "to-do" list for a while - I'll have to bump up their priority. :D

PJ