An Almost Christmas Post

I've taken a month long blogging break and I think I'm ready to jump back into it!
Kinda weird to jump back into something at the end of the year I know.

Anyhoo.

It's Christmas time.  And I was thinking about how our family has expanded from 12 of last year to 17 this year.  This includes our fosters, Christian's girlfriend Haley, and Bentley's family.  So much blessing! And to add to it, my parents came here for Christmas this year!!  It was a first.  And I don't know about them, but we had such a great time with them.  Plus they cooked all the food.  ALL THE FOOD!!

A couple weeks ago a great thing happened for this guy.  His case was closed and now he's with his mom and brothers for good!  And I can also show him off.....

This is Bentley.  Our precious. 

And even though he is finally back home, he likes to come for sleepovers.  Isn't he lovely?  I am totally in love with this little baby.  He gets absolutely anything he wants when he's here and never touches the ground.  

About the same time our sweet Ellie got moved to a home with her sister.  So we were down to just BlueEyes for a couple of days until placement called again. This time it was for a one year old little boy who had been bounced around for a few days and needed a permanent placement.  And a place to spend Christmas.  And some love,  

So we welcomed Pumba into our lives Monday night.  He's the snuggly-est little guy with blonde hair and big brown eyes.  He's not feeling good right now but you would never know it.  He's a sweetheart and has been a dream of a baby.  

So yeah, Christmas morning is going to be awesome with these little people.  And big people too.  

My man is on vacation for the rest of the year and we are just being home, wearing out the XBox, and kissing our babies.  

Smiles Of This Week

Have I told you lately that my family is AWESOME?
Honey and the kids took the late night feeding last night.  Then Christian came in late/early from a movie and took the next feeding.  And that meant I got to sleep until almost 5am!

Now everyone is still asleep.  The house is perfectly quiet.  I was able to read my Bible, write a couple of emails, and now blog a little bit too.  I might even get a bit of menu planning done if I can be quick.

Here are a few things that made me smile this week....

A costume party at Meg's!  Since we are not Halloween fans, she decided to host the first annual costume party complete with games and food.  The catch is that nobody could spend more than $5 on their costume so we all had to be super creative.

I was proud of how my kids pulled this together ALL BY THEMSELVES with what we had at home.
And even though Honey and I weren't really part of the party, we knew it would delight the kids if we dressed up too.  So we came up with this Incredibles outfit that I made from red t-shirts and a construction paper logo.   I kept it super secret all day so they were very surprised!

Aren't these flowers pretty?  

Meg bought them for me last week and they are still beautiful.

Now I know I'm not supposed to post pix of my fosters on social media.  But does my blog count?  I don't know.  Besides, he's not really my foster baby anymore anyway right?  

So this guy got sick this week and his mom took him to the walk in clinic where Honey works.  He went down and held him for about an hour while his mom filled out paperwork and waited.  I could look at this picture forever.  I love it.  Look at his poor sick little eyes.  

Remember when Mally and I won ribbons at the fair for cookies and honey?  Well who knew there would be REAL MONEY involved?!

It's true.  We both got a check this week for fifty-nine cents.  FIFTY NINE WHOLE CENTS TO SPEND ANY WAY I WANT!!  Honey said the bees were finally bringing in an income!

But speaking of the bees.  I'll give you a quick update.
My favorite way to winterize is to surround all the hives with hay bales stacked 3 high on 3 sides.
We doubled our apiary this year to 4 hives and all that hay was pretty expensive.  A couple days later we looked out the window to see my neighbor's horses sticking their necks through the fence and feasting on my bee's hay!!!   Next year I'll have to think of something else.

We got into all the hives to check their honey stores before the cold set in.  Everybody looked strong and healthy with plenty of honey.  But just to be sure, I added some dry feed to the tops in case I can't get back in there for awhile.  I was also able to pull 4 full frames in a super they weren't able to finish and froze another frame that was 1/2 full.  I'll extract those frames this week and I already have buyers for the honey. 

Here I go again with another possibly forbidden picture.  Just in case, you might not want to mention it to your friends at DHS.

Anyway, a lot of our kids have a cold and couldn't come.  But for Funday Friday I wanted to take some kids to the lake.  These were the only 3 that were able to come.  We didn't get to stay long because it was colder than we thought and BlueEyes had a short fuse.  But it was a fun few minutes! 

What's Up With The Babies

A LOT has been up with the babies!  And most of the reason I just can't blog as much as I'd like.  My afternoons are not what they used to be.

I'll start with sharing what I posted on Facebook.  A little lazy?  (sorry) 

Everybody says they couldn't do foster care because they would never be able to let the kids go. You guys, IT IS REAL. Today we say goodbye to our sweet baby boy. However, I am hoping that this is just the beginning. God has allowed me to slowly build a relationship with his mom over his four months of life. We text back and forth, send pictures of Little Man, and she asks if I'll babysit (YES!!!). She even texts about other things in her life.

I can't even tell you what an amazing blessing this precious baby has been. And now I'm looking forward to a continued relationship with him AND his mom. Everyone knows someone with a foster care horror story but God has allowed us to be part of a success story.
My heart is selfish and mean and it is nothing we have done but EVERYTHING He has done.

It still hurts. But God sure has a great way of softening the blow.

I am so grateful for all the support we've received on their behalf. A friend gave me bags of clothes with lots of winter clothes that I can send home with him. Another friend gave 2 twin beds and new bedding. Someone else has donated a bag of clothes just for the mom. And notice the great 31 Tote to pack up his clothes. And none of these friends have ever met her!! That's not to mention all the prayer support and love. Thank you all for loving us so well and loving our baby and his mom!

Update:  He's doing great and he got to come over for sleepover last week!  Oh how we missed Mr. Chunky Love.  

We had a week with just us and BlueEyes.  I was enjoying the slower pace, the little extra minutes in the day, and not having to tiptoe to bed at night.  I told everyone I'd probably just keep it like that for awhile.  

BlueEyes is a work of his own.  We've had a few HUGE poop smearing parties that have left me furious and done for the rest of the day.  The bedtime battles have been intense and I've had to give up the fight for naps.  We fight over face cleaning and getting in the car.  And getting out of the car.  And if my hands are on the shopping cart or stroller.  A typical almost 2 year old except with some extra drama. So we installed a spy cam in his room.  Seriously.  

But then there are those blue eyes.  And that blonde hair.  And those cute little words.  And those times when he brings me books and kisses me and leans back on my chest.  

Our days are spent taking turns with him outside, trying to talk him into using the potty, and answering "no" to the 100th request of "eat?" after he just had another snack.  We read books, sing songs, play cars, and have conversations about moving him back to a crib.  And we clean up a lot of poop.  

His family situation is still very much unsettled though it does appear that Mom is trying.  

So yeah, I had decided that was probably enough for awhile.  He is so much work and I want to be available to babysit our cutie pie if his mom needed us.  

Then the placement center called.  

And ya'll.  I didn't even hesitate!  I acted like I had been waiting for them to call all day.  I am so ridiculous.  

The first call was for a 3 week old baby girl who was placed in an foster home that was on overload.  Everything was fine, it's just that the family was full.  But when I called that foster mom to ask about Baby's temperament/habits/schedule, she had NO IDEA they were going to move her.  She had just bought all new clothes and was looking forward to her staying for awhile.  

I called the placement center back and they decided to leave baby where she was. 
A couple hours later they called again and I wondered if they'd changed their minds.  Nope, but they were looking for placement for a 1 week old whose mom got picked up for theft.  

My man's response?
"We can't help them all.  But we should help the ones we can."

OK then.

One of my favorite things is waiting for a newbie.  Of course this is only my 4th time but it is SO EXCITING!!!  I can hardly sit down.  We start thinking of what we will need.  Wondering what she will look like.  Thinking of what we might call her.  Because her name?? NO.  Just no.

Hours later the investigator comes with a tiny 5 pound baby girl with lots of pretty brown hair.  I didn't even ask her birth weight so I had no idea she'd be so small!  She's the tiniest baby I've ever seen in real life.  So petite and thin.  But yet so strong and healthy.  

"Ellie" is just perfect.

I wish I could show you beautiful baby girl pictures because she is just gorgeous!!  We are all in love.  Again.

This afternoon I got a text from Mr. Chunky Love's mom.  Can we babysit Thursday night?  Another sleepover?   9 bios, a 2 year old, a newborn, and a 4 month old?  Well yes.  Yes we can! 

That Time I Decided I Hated My Pantry

I desperately needed to do some shopping prep and clean out the fridge and pantry.  The refrigerator is easy to clean.  It's bright and pretty and spacious.  I don't let it get gross so it's just a matter of pulling out old food, consolidating containers, and wiping down.

The pantry is a different story.  It's dark.  No light at all.  The shelves are deep and who knows what's back there.  It's impossible to organize and it's ugly.

My mother-in-law is having us over for dinner tonight so I had some extra time to figure out the pantry situation.  I decided to pull it all out and move all the food to the regular kitchen cabinets above the dishwasher.  That space wasn't being utilized to its potential anyway.

But first off I had to make lemonade.  A new pantry calls for a lemonade celebration and I had a new recipe that I am WEARING OUT because we love it so much.

So I relocated the cans and boxes and bags and jars.  I wiped down the shelves and called Zeke in from outside to climb up and do the high ones.  And let there be light!!  I can see everything.  It's organized and pretty and should've been done 3 years ago.

But now I have a huge mess of everything I pulled out of those shelves and put on the counters.
And then I spilled the lemonade.  But since we have someone in our house who cries over spilled milk anything, I need you to know that I only spilled about 1/4 cup and not the whole thing.  Anyhow it added to the mess.

I cleaned up the lemonade but at that point I ran out of steam.  So I shopped Amazon and bought myself a new book instead.  Maybe it'll explain why organizing has to be so messy.

A Talk About Chapstick And Other Happy Things

Did you have a good weekend?  My parents were in town and that always makes for a happy weekend for us.  And all day I've been thinking it's Monday because I was going to do a "from the weekend" post and I guess my Monday totally slipped past me.  The only thing I even remember about yesterday was the BEDTIME DRAMA from BlueEyes.

But it was good even though I didn't get to write about it. Except the bedtime business.  That's never good.

Look who's in town!! TATE!

He just showed up at the game with G'ma and G'pa and we had no idea.  My kids are super excited to see their cousin.  Except there have been a few complaints...something about Christian hogging all the Tate time.  And actually BabyB might have something to do with that since Tate is totally smitten with him.  Tonight we are taking dessert over and trying to squeeze in as much time as possible since they all leave for AZ this week.

The weather has been perfect in our neck of the woods and that means lots of outside time.  Walking the babies (and the cat), soccer, and just fun outside play.  BlueEyes behaves a lot better when he's not in the house.

I found myself to be almost completely out of all chapstick.  I know.  

There aren't many stores that carry my beloved Chicken Poop Chapstick so I thought I'd try out something new.  Or three somethings new.  I bought 3 different ones that I'd never tried before.

First this one.  (Sorry about the sideways horrible pictures.) 

I HATED this one!  I hated the way it smelled and felt.  In fact, I wiped it right off my lips.  It reminded me of little kids' toothpaste.  No.  I gave it to Meg. 

Now this one.  I got it because it was kinda like EOS but cheaper.  I've never had EOS but I kinda like the soft looking egg shape and would like to try it.  Turns out I don't particularly like the shape and in fact, my husband asked if I was smearing deodorant on my lips.  Anyway, it's a keeper but not my fave. 

Now the 100% natural caught my eye on this one.  And I have to say that it's not bad.  Except that it has a gritty feel going on and I don't like that.  Still it has a nice neutral natural type of scent and it'll do in a pinch. 

But then the most wonderful thing happened. When Nana came, she brought me THREE Chicken Poop Chapsticks!  And now I'm all set and I don't have to make do.  

Pictures of the Season

Or more like three. 

We have 5 kids playing 3 overlapping sports right now.  

It has never been more fun or busy. 

Laura Beth was on Charleston's first ever volleyball team.

She loved it all.

The girls played hard but didn't win much since it was their very first season to play. 

It was also LB's last season to play since she is a senior but she's hoping to play a little in college. 

Speaking of college, she just scored a 31 on her ACT!  

She's not content with that, however, since a 32 will give her more scholarship opportunities and she may be looking at med school.  Sooo, December is her last shot to get that extra point. 

We are so proud of her! 

And of course, FOOTBALL. 

Our junior high Tigers are playing hard and that kicker is amazing! 

I love this shot. 

And this kid. 

I'm pretty fond of this one too. 

And he has good hands for catching that football plus a pretty smile. 

Or maybe I'm a bit partial. 

This is our second season of our NewFire soccer league. 

We opened it up to 3-4yos and OH MY the cuteness!

We have about 100 kids participating again and everyone seems to be having fun. 

The parents are happy too and that makes a very positive atmosphere. 

Joshua has gotten to earn some money referring this season. He's at the age where he wants to earn money but is too young to actually be hired for anything.  So this is perfect.  It helps us and it helps him.  Win Win! 

10 Things Of Late

1.  The fair was a great success.  We managed to spend almost the whole weekend going back and forth and tag teaming the babies.  Our booth turned out the be the most popular because of the soccer goal and there were all ages shooting goals all weekend.  We won some ribbons and lost the raffle for the calf that we REALLY REALLY wanted.  It was a great time.

2.  Our dishwasher broke.
OUR DISHWASHER BROKE

OUR DISHWASHER BROKE!!!

Not only that, but it broke when it was full of dishes AND there was another sink full waiting.   So we washed and washed and washed.  All day.  Because after that mess was cleaned up there were more dishes waiting from all the time it took.  12 people means you almost have to run the dishwasher if you just make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  It runs at least 3 times a day and I have never missed it more.

My father-in-law came to look and couldn't fix it.  My husband was swamped with work and other stuff.  I called a neighbor and by this time 24 whole hours of washing dishes by hand had passed.  So I told my man that if Howard couldn't fix it, I was headed to Sears.  Immediately.

But Howard did fix it!  And I couldn't be more grateful.

3. This is what happens when your toddler sneaks out of bed.

And not only did he pull all the wipes out, he also tore them into little pieces. 

It's a good thing he's cute.

4. HUGE blessing!!

My parents brought meat!  This is only a small part of the steaks. 

And LOTS of hamburger!!  

This also makes menu planning more fun.  

5. I just finished this.

This was my least favorite of all Margaret Jensen.  It was still good.  And I'm always interested in more snippets of Mama's life.   My favorite quote.... "The discipline of the ordinary day makes room to think and plan."  Oh yes, it does.  

6. My new book from the library.  I'm eager to start it.  

7.  But not only that, I learned to get a library book on my Kindle!  I feel so smart.  And when you borrow a library ebook there are no late fees.  For some of us that's a big deal. 

8.  Nathan took his library card to the library, checked out his own books, and brought his library card home without losing it.  If you've ever tried to teach an 11 year old personal responsibility, you will understand that this is a big win.  

9.  My moms came to visit! And my dad too!  I love that they have a house here now.  They buy us food, babysit, let me drive their car, and spoil us rotten.  I could get used to this in a hurry! 

10.  Today was 1/2 price ice cream cones at Sonic.  7 ice cream cones later and it was almost time for lunch and football.  It didn't make sense to drive home, unload babies, eat fast, load up babies, and drive back for football.  So I sent Jes and Josh to school for lunch with LB.  Then bought everyone else burgers.  It was the most beautiful day to eat outside and it was a fun treat.  

It's That Time Of Year

It's fair time y'all! 

And you may remember when I said I'd never do the fair again.  My opinion hasn't changed....about the Ozark fair.  But the Charleston fair?  I am ALL OVER IT.  Unlike my fair experience of last year, this year has been super simple. 

Joshua has entered 5 chickens for show and will sell one at the auction. (Look how he's holding them!)  And perhaps I'm a little more fair savvy than last year because I didn't miss the chicken blood test day AND I reserved the cages IN TIME.  Unfortunately they do not give ribbons for jumping through the proper  hoops.  

Mallory has been excited about the fair ever since the schedule came out in the paper.  She's been thinking and planning on what she could enter.  Yesterday, she made a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies all by herself and even took them out of the oven without me.  Taking anything out of the oven has been a big deal for her.  

She packaged them up according to proper fair regulations and we dropped them off. 

BEST DAY EVER!!  She was super excited and couldn't wait to get back home to tell all her siblings about the fun of "being in the fair".  

So all weekend we will basically live at the fair.  New Fire Athletics has a booth and we will be playing games, giving out candy, and hopefully getting a few more sign-ups for the upcoming season! 

Grandmother's Cranberry Cuss Word Story

Yesterday was Grandmother's bday.

When I was little, her name was MeMaw. But (I still remember the day) when I got older, she decided that I was too big to call her MeMaw and she changed her name to Grandmother. Not Grandma or Granny or any short cut. But the whole long name of Grandmother. And she's been Grandmother ever since. (I still prefer MeMaw but don't tell her I said that.)

So anyway it was her bday and I called her and we all sang Happy Birthday over the phone because she lives too far away in Texas.

Every time we talk she has a new story.  And when she told me that something happened so terrible that she hollered out a cuss word, I knew I was in for a treat.

The doctor told her to drink more cranberry juice.  She bought a new cup and filled it up.
Well it was the kind of cup that has a straw that pops up when you push a button.  She pushed the button, the straw popped up, and cranberry juice spit out all over her!   All over her blouse, all over her chair, all over everything.

She was surprised and mad and hollered out  BLEEP!!!! 

And just then her sister called. " Isn't that how it always is?", she asked me.

But Aunt Roxy just had to wait on the phone while Grandmother cleaned up the mess, changed her shirt, and treated everything with Spray & Wash Worsh.

Bra Shopping

Boy moms understand.

It is HARD to buy new bras and underwear because the intimate apparel section is the last place you want your sons to be wandering and waiting.   Girl moms....you got it made! 

But I was down to 2 bras if you don't count the emergency one.  That's the sports bra that doesn't have a clasp and just fits over your head and you have to squeeze into it.  The problem is taking it off. Especially if you are hot and sweaty.  That's when you start looking for the scissors.  

But today I got to leave the boys at home and go bra shopping.  I didn't realize how long it had been until I actually starting looking at all the different bra possibilities.   There were thousands!!  Seriously.  All colors of the rainbow INCLUDING the rainbow, plus the moon and stars and flowers and stripes and everything else you can think of.  When did we get so many options?  Then there's the ones in the boxes and WHY EVEN?  

Did you know there's bras that decrease arm flab?  But that's not the best part.  Did you know....

Did you know? 

There's even bras to minimize back fat.  BACK FAT.  I had no idea that was a thing.  

Apparently if you struggle with back fat you have no need for a complicated diet, just buy the fancy bra.  

So yes, I had plenty of options.  Except I didn't.  Because sometime between when I last bought a bra and today, boobs exploded into huge sizes and they no longer consider that SOME girls just don't have all that.  

But if you are a 38D you are golden.  Because there was lots of those in every color and pattern and fat shrinking abilities.  

Girl moms and 38Ds have it so easy.  

Grocery Shopping Prep

Sunday is not my favorite day to grocery shop.  However, it sure beats hauling 5 kids with 2 babies along!  Since school started, my older kids are gone all day.  That means anytime we go anywhere everybody gets to come along.  Unfortunately for Honey, that means date night will be grocery shopping night.  But he's a good sport!

So today I'm getting ready.

~Finalizing the menu
~Finishing the lists
~Making the plan
~Cleaning out both refrigerators.  (This is easy because they are practically bare!)
~Reorg of pantries
~Making sure we have plenty of Aldi sacks in the right car

My dad also told me that he is coming tomorrow with lots of beef for my freezer!!  My parents are THE BEST!  So today we are also defrosting the chest freezer.  It's perfect timing.  I only have 6 bee frames in there that need attention anyway so it'll be short work for one of my sons.  Then we will have a freezer full of meat to feed these hungry babes.

I also have a lot of peppers from the garden  my friends' garden that need some love.  So today I'll have a couple of kids seed those and get them ready to can tomorrow.

The chickens will be happy!

What's Up With The Babies?

Baby 3 had court this week.  His ad litem could not make it and there were 3 in his place.  After much whispering in the court room plus a recess, the judge decided to postpone until next month.

Mom has done pretty much everything necessary and it looks as though the next step is showing stability.  Case Worker thinks she'll get 3 more months to prove she can keep her job and show herself reliable. Talking with mom in the waiting area, she thought the judge was going to award weekend visits.  I'm sure she was disappointed.

I'm still unsure if Baby's case is liked to his brothers'.  CW was trying to separate them.  I really hope mom doesn't get all 3 back at the same time, even if only for weekends.

DNA testing was ordered and a staffing before next court.  It all took about 5 minutes after the recess and it was over.

I asked CW about the smoking.  Mom smokes.  It's obvious.  And if foster parents have to sign all kinds of stuff saying we don't smoke AND we won't have baby around smoke, then won't DHS have something to say about a mom who smokes with a BABY?  He didn't know but promised to find out.

My thoughts.....
My hope is that the judge will move slowly and award weekends with one or both of the older kids first.  She hasn't had custody of her kids in 15 months.  She's out of momma mode.  Her kids don't know how to behave around a baby.  It would be A LOT for her.  However, she desperately wants to be a good momma.  She adores him.  She does everything she can to take care of him with what I pack in the diaper bag for visits.  He never comes home hungry and he's always clean.

Baby 3 is the best baby ever in the history of the world.  He doesn't cry.  He is happy and sweet and precious in every way.  We will miss him soooo much!!  But I do hope God works in his family to bring healing and restoration.  I also pray we can continue to be in his life.  I wonder if I can get weekend visitation??  :-)


As for Baby 1 (BlueEyes) , all is the same.  Mom is coming to visits but the supervisor told me she doesn't play with him or his sister.  She just sits there and watches.  Baby 1 is always happy to see her now.  I know that makes her feel good.  She brings snack and drinks which shows some forethought.

She has a job.  That's a big deal.

Another big deal is that she is expecting again.  I told CW to let me know if that baby will come into care.  Maybe if Baby 3 goes home, I can save that spot for the new one.

My thoughts.....
She admitted to me that she hasn't ever taken care of him much.  Mostly dad did.  She doesn't know about his poopy diaper issues or milk sensitivity.  She didn't know about his baby formula.

I'm not sure she has what it takes.

Visit days are horrible.  Sure, BlueEyes acts ok around her.  But when we get back home, he is a nightmare.  Of course there are the fits.  But it's more that that.  He does this stress thing where he frantically tries to get into and mess up anything in front of him.  If you hold his hands, he will try it with his feet.  He won't listen and he goes for it (whatever it is at the moment) as fast as he can.  I consider this his most dangerous time.  This is the time he would grab knives or drink bleach or throw glass.

I hate visit days.  He is not himself.  And I know it's because his life is whack and he doesn't understand....yet at the same time he does understand that it's just not right.

Saturday

Did it rain at your house this weekend? Because it did at mine. And I am just THRILLED because it is a good start to a fall honey flow for my bees and I also like the cooler temps. As it turns out, it's also good for sleeping.

So about 11am I checked out. As in I WENT AND TOOK A NAP EVEN THOUGH BLUEEYES WAS STILL UP.

I know.

I laid there for about an hour listening to everyone before falling asleep to the sound of rain. Bliss!

When I came out at 1pm Laura asked me how long I actually slept since I had been in my room for 6 hours.
And this comes from a kid that wears a watch non stop. Somehow on her fancy watch, 6 hours and 2 hours are the same.

I spent a great amount of the rest of the day cooking dinner and loving on a fussy baby.

Baby had shots Friday and since he's in foster care I don't have a choice in the matter. I HATE putting such a stress on a brand new immune system. Friday night was terrible for him but once I got him to bed he slept great. Today was better but nowhere near good or normal. My poor sweet baby.

And while we are on the subject, Baby has court next week. I would appreciate your prayers as this could either be a big day of change or a continuation of the same. It's hard to have his future so up in the air. Most days it seems like he will be here forever and it's as normal as can be. But then as we get closer to court, the reality of the temporary nature of this relationship is brought front and center. I am so torn. But I rest in the assurance that God loves him more than we do and I pray for God to work for Baby's good and His glory.

A Little Bit Of Lately

I took an unintentional break from blogging but now I'm back!  Unfortunately the blog tends to be the low hanging fruit when life gets hectic.  And I hate that because it's a good way for me to record life and unpack my thoughts.  But sometimes you just gotta be living life instead of blogging about it I guess.  

Anyway.  

The pool has been FUN.  And since we drained the water and started over, it has also been a breeze to maintain.  

Pool games!  They look like synchronized swimmers! 

And just take a look at the prettiness!! 

We didn't harvest much but I needed to make some space for the fall.  So we took four shallow frames and I got to work with the uncapping fork for the first time.  I loved it.  

I also had the opportunity to help a friend with her bees.  She had caught a swarm and just put it into some mismatched equipment and walked away for about 2 years.  It was a fantastic experience to dig into it and see some things that were completely different from my hives.  We harvested some and tried to replace it with some better equipment.  

See the darker honey in the quart jars?  That's some of hers.  Different bees.  Different place.  Different flowers.  Different honey.  So neat! 

The Friday before school started this girl got some wisdom teeth taken out.  

She did great and is pretty much back to normal.  That's a good thing because school has started back strong and my kids are busy with another semester.  

Days before my birthday, Nathan was telling me how special his present was.  It was soooo pretty and I was going to love it.  He was super excited to give it to me.






































He was right.  I couldn't love it more.
But then I wondered what I could use such a fancy notebook for.  I certainly didn't wanna just use it as an ordinary planner.  I wanted to find a special purpose for it and I wanted to remember his sweetness every time I opened it.

So I decided to use it to record LOVE moments in the day.  I'm calling it my LOVE project.  I think back on the day and the small and precious moments with my kids that I'm likely to forget.  Like this....



The way he belly laughs with total abandonment while kitties crawl over him!!  Swoon!!
And when Joshua trusted us enough with a confession of his heart then ended it with hugging me LONG and TIGHT.  I want to look for the good and not forget it.  It's easy to see the frustrating and irritating and the work of it all.   But I want to look for these moments, treasure them, and focus on all the reasons that I'm crazy in love with these kids.  .....and my man.

You may have guessed.  FOOTBALL is here!!  

I won't bore you so early in the season, but suffice it to say we are excited to have 2 boys playing this year!  Tiger Football....BRING IT.

Fun Fridays And Homeschool Art On The Cheap

Fridays are going to be a little bit more special this school year.

Friday is our house cleaning day.  With all of us working hard together we usually get it knocked out pretty quick.  It will also be our art day and tea party day.

Mallory loves getting out the pretty tea dishes.  I do too.  But I don't like the clean up and the putting them away.  It's just easier and quicker to grab regular dishes or paper towels or coffee filters for our snack.  But tea parties are special and I have a little girl who loves them (the boys do too) so it is worth the extra effort now and then.

So Friday afternoons will be our tea party day.  The house will be clean.  We will have a snack and some kind of drink.....not usually tea.  And I will read aloud while they act all fancy and try not to break the thrift store pretty dishes.

It'll also be our art day.  I've been looking around and thinking about how I wanted to handle art.  I've decided that Pinterest and the library is going to be my friend!!

I'll use the library to pick out books about famous artists, art history, drawing, painting, etc.  I'll use Pinterest for some fun ideas and projects.

I snagged a couple of cases of the seventeen cent spiral notebooks at Walmart and passed one out to each of the kids this morning.  While I was reading the Bible aloud they were decorating their notebooks and being far more attentive than when I have them just sit.  This notebook will be their planner...the place to log their work, their chores, their assignments.  I want them to make it theirs and use colored pencils/pens and decorate and organize it just the way they like.  They can also use it take notes about our read alouds or Bible and illustrate whatever I'm reading.

So our first art day will be super simple and just an example of some fun doodles that I printed from Pinterest.  They can copy these in their notebooks, color them, and embellish them however they want.

I am looking forward to Fridays!

This Week's Goals

Saturday turned out to be a great day for a reboot. 

We had 3 crock pots going at once, 5 loaves of bread baking, and muffins for Sunday morning.  In addition to that, I even came up with a menu.  Wonder of wonders! 

In the meantime, Honey had the boys washing windows and doing outside chores.  I can't even tell you what a difference the clean windows make.  I had no idea they were so disgusting. 

Yesterday, Laney and I spent the whole morning in town shopping.  We did the huge grocery haul and finished the back-to-school shopping.  So now  I have a plan AND I have groceries.  That simple thing has given me such peace. 

I also came up with some goals for the week....

~Fire drill.  One of my foster care requirements that I haven't done in 3 months.
~School lunches
~Swimming! This is the free time activity I've chosen for everyone for the whole month of August.  After swim season, they can choose their own.
~Work on some school stuff.  Our back-to-school party is Friday!
~Teach Zeke to care for the roses as one of his new chores.
~Write notes to both my babies' moms telling them how their baby is doing. 
~Finish reading aloud Trumpet Of The Swan and pick our next book.
~Tea party during read aloud time Friday
~Pick Sharon's garden while she's on vacation.
~Baby visits Tuesday and Friday

And here's our 2 week menu...

BLTs with potato salad
Crockpot chili dogs
Beef stew with cheese toast
Tuna melts with apple salad
Pizza Pockets - a new recipe we will try out for the college kids' lunches
Crockpot Ziti
Meatball Sandwiches
Smothered Chicken with rice
Big salads with chicken
Tomato soup with cheese toast
Black Bean enchiladas with rice
2 date nights
Tacos on Sundays

Other stuff: energy bites, chocolate smoothies, watermelon, morning glory muffins, carrot cake

Almost everything is a crock pot meal on this menu.  August is just like that!!

Life Reboot

A new month!

This summer is flying by and is almost over.  School starts around here in only 16 more days.  That's just 2 weeks!!  My teenagers will be driving off for another semester of college.  LB will start new concurrent classes at CHS.  And my boys will start football.  Sixteen More Days.....sigh.....

Our official start day for our home school is still up in the air.  We took off the month of July for speed camp.  Monday we will start back up with math, Bible, spelling, and some more basics as well as piano.  This year, I have private teachers for civics, writing, and science but those won't begin until September.  I still have some details to iron out before our big back to school party.

These last couple of weeks have been challenging weeks with our BlueEyes.  He's testing boundaries, cutting molars, and making Momma crazy.  But he's also talking like crazy, signing lots of words, and has his precious moments.  I feel like I'm just barely keeping my head above water and everything has gone by the wayside.  My days are spent making bottles, changing diapers, and hovering over a little boy standing in the corner.  Again.

And I will confess right now that my reactions have not been the best.  There's been lots of tears, Lots of rants. And lots of "checking out".   But I will also say that I love it.  I love him.  I love them.  And I am so glad this hard and crazy life is mine and I get to be the momma.

BUT.  Some things need to change.  I need to step up my game to meet this challenge.  I need to reboot life this weekend.  I need a menu, a grocery list, a chores list, and a plan of attack.  I need to shop, cook, and clean out the fridge.  I need to make a lot of salads, drink water, exercise, and read my Bible.

I got up this morning with my sweet baby, fed him, changed him, and put him in his bed.  Then I STAYED UP (!) and started working on some goals.  I read my Bible, jotted down a Verse to memorize this week, and made a plan on the white board.

I feel better already!  It's amazing how being up first sets the whole morning right.  I don't feel like I'm at the mercy of every body's "urgent" needs.

So I'm ready.

New Month.  New Plan.
BRING IT.  

Because A Lot Can Happen In Only A Week

Never mind about a lot of that stuff I said last week.  This week life is different and things have changed.

Last week it wasn't so hot so it was ok to give up on the pool.
This week OH MY it's so crazy hot.  So we cleaned the pool and filled 'er up.
Now the trick is keeping it nice.  We've had a hard time battling the green and the gunk so I set an alarm on my phone to treat the pool every week.

Last week I was apparently more optimistic about my energy levels and decided to have a garage sale.
This week, no thank you.  And some lucky folks who shop at Savers might score a good deal.
I am in serious clean out mode.  Problem is I get half way into a clean out project and either get called away to never return or I get distracted and break off in the middle of the chore.  Either way I walk back in there only to find a huge mess that I drug out and didn't put back.  Crazy thing is that I'm genuinely surprised every time.

And remember how I told you that my baby is getting big?  Well he had a dr appt in which we discovered he's gained 4 pounds since birth!  And he's only 5 weeks old!  That puts him at a whopping 10.10 lbs.  Not only is he gaining weight but he's also skipping the midnight feeding SKIPPING THE MIDNIGHT FEEDING!  This means we are only up once in the night.
A lot can happen in only a week.

Hallelujah!!

Some Quiet Time Goodness

I have been praying for the Lord to clear some space for me.  Space to think and read and pray and blog and journal and maybe even make my bed.

Today 3 kids got invited to a friend's house and Honey took everyone else shopping except the babies.  Both babies are asleep and I have been working furiously!

~Pulled out some things from the freezer that I am trying to empty.
~Made guacamole
~Made stuffed jalapeno poppers with Haley's peppers
~Made cabbage and sausage
~Made juice and grapes for BlueEye's snack later
~Pulled old food from the fridge
~Journaled both babies (!)
~And now I am blogging!!

BabyBee is about to wake up so I'll make this snappy.....

1. Our refrigerator went out in the garage.  We didn't notice it for about 4 days.  You can imagine the smell.

2. We gave up on our pool.  We spend $250 in chemicals trying to get it right and it still is not even close.  Since we have lost so much swim time we decided to take it down and not spend any more money this year.  So disappointed!!

3.  LB bought a car!!  She is so thrilled.  Honey has been driving it a little and he feels like it was a good purchase.

4. Our garden is not so good but my friend's gardens are.  We've been given cucumbers, squash, zucchini, peppers, basil, and sage.  We are blessed!

5. Honey and the boys are taking a small engine repair course together.  After the course, they will need to pass a test to become certified to fix small engines.  We have plenty of broken lawn mowers and such to practice on.

6. I'm cleaning out a bunch of junk and wanting to have a garage sale when it gets cooler.

7,  My parents' house is the best date night spot!  They are still in TX so we get to pretend we have 2 houses.  We take dinner over there and record our shows on their DVR

8.  You should see our babies!!  BabyBee continues to be a happy baby.  He's now a month old and getting rather chubby.  BlueEye's is a busy toddler that is into everything.  He's changed so much in the last 2 months.  He says a new word almost everyday.   Today's word is "help".  We are working on please and thank you.

That's it for now!  I made it through this whole post without anybody crying and I'm thinking I better not press my luck.  Off to get some bottles ready.... :-)

15 Minutes of Better

One of my summer reads is called A Sane Woman's Guide To Raising A Large Family.  I love all Mary Ostyn's books and I'm sure we'd be fast friends if only we could meet in person.

One of the ideas in the books is doing something fun or sweet or great with your kids for just 15 minutes.  15 minutes of better.  Because it's unrealistic to think you can be a better mom all day every day....more present, more attentive, more fun, a better listener, a better everything.  But you CAN shoot for 15 minutes.  Everybody can do that right?

So I started asking myself some questions.  When this whole parenting gig is up what are the things that I will be happy I took the time to do?  What do I NOT wanna miss out on because I'm busy doing stuff that doesn't really matter and will only be undone later anyway?  What do I count as important relationship building activities?

Here's some of them....

tea times
read alouds
listen to all the stories with eye contact
play something
walks
games/puzzles

So this week Mally and I found ourselves almost alone and the babies were sleeping.  

We made some apple juice, broke out the animal crackers, and pulled out some pretty tea dishes.
We read a chapter from a girly book and sipped our "tea".  

The dishes stayed in the sink and the broom hung on the hook and it was all just fine.  

It was a great 15 minutes or so until our people starting coming home and our babies woke up.

I'm going to be looking for more of these opportunities!!

PlayDoh FAIL

In an attempt to bring a little more structure to BlueEye's day, I've been looking up some fun toddler activities and busy bags on Pinterest.  

There are so many creative moms with great ideas on the cheap.  I hit Savers this morning and also the dollar store and grabbed a few things to get started. 

Today we tried PlayDoh. I limited it to two colors and added an ice cube tray. I showed him how to squish it, roll it, make a snake, tear it apart, and dump it in and out of the containers.  He wasn't impressed.  He was slightly interested in the newness of it but I could never get him to engage.  

Mostly he just wanted to eat it.  He kept putting it in his mouth and even though he didn't like it, it didn't stop him from doing it again.  Every single time.  I spent most of the time saying, "Not in your mouth.  Yucky!  Spit it out.  Not in your mouth."  Over and over again.  

So I'm thinking he's not quite ready for this activity.  I'll save it and try again in a couple of months.  

Baseball Greatness!

I've spent quite a bit of time sitting behind this cage lately watching some fantastic baseball.  ZBoy has promoted to machine pitch this year and it's almost as cute as T-ball.  

He is one great little first baseman! 

I've decided baseball is one of my favorite sports.  It's so laid back. 

Our boys had a good season and played well in the playoff tournament. 

They won the first game but lost the championship and came in 2nd place. 

Ice cream afterwards because that's our new tradition. 

And a little posing because his momma loves this shirt. 

And a fantastic trophy to end the year!! 

A Little Bit Of Lately

~Our BabyBee is 2 weeks old today!  It's fun having a baby baby again.  He's such a sweetheart and hardly ever cries.  We are getting up once or twice or three times in the night but he is worth every bit of sleep deprivation!

~BlueEyes has been a good sport.  He likes to love on BabyBee and is not usually jealous since there are so many other laps to sit in anyway.  He is saying new words, running faster, learning to come when he is called, to stay in a room without leaving, and he loves to throw something in the trash for you.  Bedtime has been more troublesome than usual but we are working through it.  Tonight has been better.

~A few days ago I listed a request for a double stroller and a carrier.  I got a great deal on a double stroller and yesterday a friend of a friend GAVE me her carrier.  Someone I don't even know!

~Look at the bounty!

Lots and lots of newborn baby boy clothes.  Hand-me-downs from some friends whose babies are getting bigger.  Such fun!  There are way more clothes than BabyBee can wear so I am picking out my faves and saving the rest for future babies.  There are also some teeny tiny preemie clothes I'm saving just in case.

~We are enjoying the laid back routines of summer.  And it is the perfect time to adjust to new babies and plan out the next school year.   Laura is busy in the MASH program plus working at the school.  Laney and Christian have enjoyed being home more and getting to know BabyBee.  The boys have had friends over.  And summer workouts have started for football.

~My parents bought a house just a couple of miles away!!  That's 2 sets of grandparents in the same town.  We are looking forward to helping them unload and unpack.  Such a blessing!

A Foster Update

Our BlueEyes has been with us almost 2 months now.  In some ways it seems like he just got here and in other ways it kinda seems like he has always been with us.  He just fits right in.

Or maybe he fits right in because my kids have been awesome and have adjusted to this new life so well.  I'd even say one of his strongest attachments is LB.

His new siblings are quick to help him with anything.  They change diapers.  They read books.  They rock.  They play.  They give stroller rides.  They swing.  They give baths.  They do it all and then some.

It is not all perfect of course.  There are some very looooong days.  And some nights when we are just killing the hours before bedtime. There's lots of loud crying, huge fits, time outs, hair pulling, messy everything, and constant concern over his future.  Add in plenty of DHS errands and you get a pretty tired family by the end of the day.

And when I say my man has stepped up to the plate that would be an under statement.  This man has been a GAMER.

I am tremendously blessed with a husband that not only loves his family well, but loves other people's kids just the same.  He is always amazing.

When the placement center called the first time this week I turned them down.  When they called the second time, I did something new.  I told them I'd call them back after I talked to my man.  It was an out-of-county placement and that is never our first choice.  We talked about what it would mean and how it would work.  He left it up to me with the closing statement of, "Jesus loves the little children and so do I."

So tomorrow we welcome Baby #3.  A perfectly healthy 6 pound, 15 oz baby boy born yesterday!  And to make it even better, his case worker seems super easy to work with.  That's huge.

Our family is eager to lay eyes on this little bitty and to see how we can help his family.
It's about to get crazy around here!!

Our Saturday

A weekend without rain?  Amazing!!  

But I'm not one to complain about rain.  Really I love it.  And look how pretty and green everything is because of it.  This weekend we enjoyed some beautiful weather.  

Our pool is getting closer to ready.  The kids have been working on it and we've been dumping lots of money chemicals into it.  

Honey took some boys fishing early in the morning.  So I woke up the other kids and made them work the bees with me.  This was not a popular decision but they had great attitudes anyway. 

We built 2 new stands, moved a nuc into a hive, installed some foundation, and took a peek at everybody.  The bees are happy and working and growing.  

BlueEyes is happy when he is outside.  This was the perfect day for it.  We don't have a baby pool yet so I filled this tote with water and he did this instead.  He LOVES water.  I'm guessing we will have high water bills this summer. 

We bought a swing last week and that has been fun for him too.  

The guys came home and told all their fishing stories. 

And my son took charge of the kitchen with his little siblings and made this dinner. 

A great Saturday!