Just A Few Pics From My Phone

 

Taking out the chicken plate and this one met her on the way.  She got first picks.
 

 

Two of my favorite people. 

 

 

Isn't this an incredible picture!  He stole some pumpkin when Josh was making this.....
 

A jack-o-lantern with boogers coming out his nose.  You mommas of little girls will NOT understand this. 
 

LB helping Nate with his science.

I've had a hard time coming up with anything to say this week so I thought I'd just check in and show you the week in pictures!  Have a fun day...


 

A Thirty Pound Catch

It was a good afternoon.

School was over, the big kids had been picked up, and the little boys were fishing.  That's when Zeke came running up to the house at full speed with his mouth wailing out words at the same pitch as a siren.  DISASTER!!

Our dog Korrie had gotten a big fish hook stuck in the back of her tongue while she tried to steal some catfish bait.  There was no getting it out.

Now I woke up this morning with two significant things on my mind.  It was a busy day and promised to be a late night.  Number one, I had a friend coming over that I haven't seen in a long time.  Number two, there was a ladies' thing at church and I had invited my neighbor and she said yes.

But by 9am both things were cancelled for various reasons and my busy day was now a regular day WITH NOWHERE TO GO.  And I think you know how big that is to me.

It totally dictates my wardrobe for the day.  No standing in my closet making decisions, no holding anything up to see if I can get away with not ironing it.

And that's why the disaster found me at 3:30 still in my pjs....which happens to be shorts and a t-shirt that don't even come close to matching.

So while Jes carried Korrie back up the house, I found some jeans and a different t-shirt (FANCY) and gave instructions to the kids staying home.   My nowhere to go turned into an emergency trip to the vet.

I started fighting back tears about half way into town.  I wasn't worried about Korrie...the fish hook didn't even seem to bother her much.  But just thinking about the last time I went to the vet.  My sweet JoeJoe was very sick and wouldn't get well.

There are a few things that I relate to Nathan's babyhood.  We bought our washer and dryer, my parents got divorced, HL died, and we got a new puppy.  That new puppy would turn out to be such a sweet good dog that would bless our family for 10 years.

And we sure miss him.

Korrie had to be left for an hour or so while they sedated her and pulled out the hook.   Meanwhile Honey and I took Jes to Sams for pizza.

By the time we picked up Korrie, she was bouncing around like nothing ever happened.  They even saved the hook for us.

Hopefully next time the boys will use it to catch a catfish instead of a puppy.

Recent Randomness

~First of all, chocolate cake.  I wanted chocolate cake all week but there was no reason/time to make it.  I asked Honey if he thought there would be chocolate cake in Heaven.  He said it wouldn't be much of heaven without it.  I like his thinking.

But finally on Friday I realized something amazing.  WE HAD NOWHERE TO GO!!  And if that's not a reason to break out some chocolate cake nothing is.  I made this recipe from Pinterest and Oh My Word!!  I don't know if it really was incredible or if I just wanted it so much that I imagined the incredibleness....but wow.

~Next up.  2 different friends gave me a jar of their homemade jelly and it has made lunches all the sweeter around here.  My friends are talented.

~Yesterday there were several garage sales in my neighborhood.  Honey, Mally, and I walked the street and hit them all.  We came home with lots of baby gear for our fosters.  A stroller, swing, exersaucer, bumbo, and baby bath.  They are soooo cute and Mally's baby doll has been testing them out ever since.

Tomorrow is our first foster care meeting.  Classes don't start until January but this is the first step and will include our background checks and all.

Also, there has been some great news about Maggie House.  This week the board voted and approved all the money for construction to begin.  So if all goes well, we should have our new children's home next year.

I saw a lot of this all weekend as my man prepared for worship.  I will never get tired of it.  

Baby Girl and I were going to make some candles but we didn't have the right scent to add and it won't be here until Wednesday so we did something different.  We took an old candle that wouldn't light anymore and melted it down in a jar like this.

Then we made 2 new candles out of it.  I was a little concerned that the scent wouldn't be as strong but it seems to be exactly the same.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  

~I also made toothpaste.  Don't even ask me why.  I guess because I had most of the stuff and I was in a Ma Ingalls mood.  That's the only explanation.  It was a very easy recipe but I didn't have the calcium powder it called for.  I made my own by throwing some calcium tablets into my spice grinder and it worked fine.  The end result was kinda gross though.  I can't say that I'll never make it again because you never know when a snow storm will come up and make it impossible to get to the Dollar General just at the time when you are really hurting for toothpaste.  But until then I'm sticking with the real stuff.  

~Saturday was also pumpkin day.  The kids painted little pumpkins that I don't have pictures of, the bigger boys carved a goofy face into a big pumpkin, and we filled a pie pumpkin with potting soil.  

If the pie pumpkin does what it's supposed to do, then the seeds will sprout and it will have lots of pretty green coming from the top.  

~I am in the middle of the clothes exchange.  It's going slow.  And I'm not enjoying it.  Last week we opened a tub of Jes' clothes to find stuff that I'm sure I have never seen before.  I have no idea who gave those to us but I'm so thankful for them.  Then today a friend at church gave me 2 bags of her daughter's clothes for LB.  I love the generosity of our friends!  

~As I look out my window, I see 5 dogs running, playing, barking, and having the best time.  My next door neighbor's dogs, my two, and Blue are all enjoying the day while my neighbor hits golf balls in my other neighbor's yard.  Blue broke his leg several weeks ago and had surgery.  We haven't seen him in awhile and today his leg looks terrible.  Blue's family has had a rough go at life lately.  Their little boy has a brain tumor and is undergoing chemo.  Please pray for 3 year old Eli.  

And now it's Sunday afternoon and that means only one thing. NAP TIME!  

Just Some Stuff I Want To Do Just Because....

Ten Things.....

Plant flowers...which is unfortunate since I'm not very good at growing things.  But maybe things are changing!


Learn to weed eat...because nobody wants to do it in the bee yard and I hate it to be overgrown.


Switch my honey supers to shallows..... light weight and allows me to harvest solo.


Re-paint my whole house....It's time.


Paint the entryway table coral....bold and pretty.


Finish a big stack of books that I wanna read.....but I have to actually have them first!


Spend more time hanging out with my kids in their rooms.....I love them.


Have more picnics and bake more cookies.....life is short.


Learn to load my own music on my own phone.....because its ridiculous that I don't know how yet.


Be less afraid....of disappointing people, of trying something different, of failing, of whatever.  Except mice.  There is still a place for that.

How To Have A Get Away Without Actually Going Anywhere

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Here's what happened.

We needed a little break.  Just me and Honey.  And we thought and planned about what it might look like and when would be the best time to go and how the kids would manage.  So finally we decided that this Thursday and Friday would be the days.

I made reservations at Bull Shoals because that's just about the greatest camping place we know of and we were planning a camping trip.  I got this awesome spot (so the lady said) very close to the best bathrooms.  Then I got to work making a camping menu plan and a stay-at-home menu for the kids.

But then.

Well as the time got closer I started thinking about all the things that probably wouldn't work.  For one...I'm terrible at being gone.  Especially at night.  I went to LR with friends a few months back and once it hit bedtime I was super close to melting into a puddle of tears and panic.  It's not like a clinical anxiety type of thing as much as I just miss my kids and I want be to home when it's bedtime.  Number two...I am in the car several times a day taking kids to various places.  My teenagers are gone all day and aren't able to help with the chauffeuring.  That leaves a lot to my mother-in-law.  Number three...kids would be at home alone for 3 nights.  Four...we would miss Joshua's football game.  Five...the tent.  

So I chickened out and cancelled the reservations and lost our deposit money and cried because I felt so horrible about it.

But my man....well I do believe he saw it coming because he wasn't the least bit surprised and tried not to sound disappointed.  Really y'all, he's awesome.

At first he said we'd wait until after football season.  Life would be slower, easier, we wouldn't miss as much, and I would have more time to warm up to the idea.  But then he changed his mind and came up with a different idea.

Thursday we took LB to school and loaded up the littles for a day of Grandma fun.  Then we headed out for breakfast.  And it was so quiet in the car!  No music, no noise from the backseat, just the background of road noise as we had uninterrupted conversation.  We ate at a new place and just enjoyed doing something different than working on a Thursday morning.  We spent the whole day in town shopping and eating and talking.

We got home in time for the football game, except a huge storm came up and it was cancelled.  Strong winds, big lightening, and NO POWER.  This tends to happen at this house.  And I must say that I would've totally freaked out if we were camping 4 hours away while the kids had no electricity.  Later my friend Sharon reminded me that the kids might've been better off since they would've been at Grandma's house and they don't lose power like we do.  But nevermind.

And then today was lots of fun.  After taking LB to school and leaving good instructions for the others, we headed to Alma to Cracker Barrel.  Such good food!  Then we walked across the way to the RV place to look at campers.  And that was really good because it gave us a better idea of what might be a good fit.  Pop ups sleep more people but the Toy Hauler can take more stuff and sleep people.  And since most of our kiddos are good with tents, that might be the way to go.  SOMEDAY!!  Until then, we keep looking on Craigslist and saving some money.

After that we headed to the lake and walked the pretty trail and took pictures.  The weather was perfect!  We turned around at the pretty waterfall and headed back.  A quick stop for drinks and snacks and we were headed home to get back in time for football practice.

This is homecoming week and that means PARADE!!  They are such fun around here.  The police stop traffic, the kids line the street, lots of smiles and waves and honks as the trailers and fancy cars drive by and the band marches.  Jes rode on the Young Tigers trailer with his football team.  And this was Honey's first parade to get to watch around here because he's always been at work.  FUN!!

This was the perfect way to spend time together without actually being gone too long and too far.  And maybe sometime I'll actually grow up to the point of being able to leave my kids for a night.  In the meantime,  I think we'll be hitting Alma Lake a little more often!