Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013

Deuteronomy 11:18-19

18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Deuteronomy 11:18-19

New International Version (NIV)

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Haircuts and Kittens.

Haircuts. Last week when Papa had a few days off I cut hair. Male hair. LOL. The boys figured we should cut E's hair as well and she caught on and asked "haircut??" a few times. So we explained why not to her and she was mostly fine with that. But after each haircut the person who's hair was just cut has a quick shower so rinse all the hair off. Well J's hair was cut and he showered, the L's hair was cut and he showered, then Papa's hair was cut and he showered. And confused little E says "Haircut??" Nope. "Shower??" she says with a worried look. I laughed. Nope. Relief!! Pure and simple relief flooded her face. No more questions asked just in case I changed my mind. Once she gets in the shower she has a great time but she really would prefer not to.

Kittens. The kittens are still very tame and the other night I picked one up (the black and white) and pet him and brought him in and got him warm and purring. It's a little male which is what I thought. The other one is still more testy and I haven't gotten him yet. I'm pretty sure they are both males as our two males have accepted them completely. Patches, the mother, is gone again and both Papa and I haven't seen her for over a week. We suspect she has kittens again somewhere as she did this last time as well. Miserable time to have kittens. I need to go dig in the shop and see if I can find them. I don't think they are there though as last time she took herself far off and we did not even see her for 4 weeks. She doesn't even come to the house to eat. We are probably going to fix her this spring. Depending on a few things.

Parade Awe!!




Update Dec 8th.

Well we've had a interesting week, or 2, and this is in no particular order :) Our extended family has grown again with the arrival of Kirsten (said Keersten) on the 4th!! WAHOO. Congrat's D&A and the Oakster!! I told you you'd have a girl!! :)
The kids have all been sick and we went nowhere and did nothing this weekend. Baby R got it first and then L and E Saturday morning and J Saturday afternoon. I've got a bit of it as well, but Papa, as usual, hasn't gotten it at all. E gave us a scare Saturday night, barking and having trouble breathing. She had a touch of croup and we put her in a steamy bathroom and night air in turns and put her mattress beside our bed for the night. But she recovered quickly and last night slept in her crib. Thank You Lord. Baby R was better by Sunday morning, back to her smiley self. L and J were done by Sunday afternoon. Except J still has a cough, very normal for him to keep a cough for weeks after a cold, mild or otherwise. So E is really the only one left. So we had a lazy weekend, watching movies, puzzling, Papa plowed the driveway with the skid stear from work (one of the perks of the new job), Papa also made a new batch of beer (and a mess!!! 2nd time it's ever boiled over!! YUCK). We skipped church and our Saturday night games night with B&B and just spent time healing.
Friday night was the town Christmas light parade and we had a blast. The kids loved it and got pocket fulls of candy!!! We went out for hot chocolate after and had a great time. I have some pictures I'll try and post later.
Speaking of Christmas we also took the oldest 3 kids to the local dollar store and let them pick a gift for each of their siblings. Papa stayed in the travelall with the kids and I took them one at a time into the store to pick out gifts for each other. E is a very fast shopper, L is SLOW, and J took time to figure out what each one would like and did a great job of it. When we got home I took them one at a time into the bedroom and we wrapped them. Lots of fun. J keeps telling me "my mind keeps telling me to tell them what I got them.. But I won't" L has told J at least once what he got him but J pretends, or really doesn't, not to hear him. L also insists that the gift he picked for Baby R is for R and L. We will share!!! E is so quick she really has no clue what she got them. They can't wait to get a tree so they can put them under it. We did decorate for Christmas already, stockings up, lights up nativity set up and awed over, some other pretties up. Bows are everywhere. It was great fun.
We have been having wacky weather. Warm, warm, warm, COLD for 24 hours with 10 inches or more of snow, then WARM and rain, rain, rain. They shut our local highway down for several hours one day dealing with the ice everywhere. One morning I woke up and went to check the pigs and looked out and there was 6 piggies sleeping happily in my milking area!!! So Papa went out before work and chased them in. But he didn't have time to fix the pen so I went out early to fix it and found we had gotten 10 inches or more of snow, wet and sloppy. I found a pallet and was tying it to the hole :) when Papa came back for the shovel. Stuck in the yard. A few minutes later I could still hear him spinning so I went out to lend a hand... or my weight actually. The car is very light in the back and rear wheel drive so I stood on the back bumper and off we went. A few trys later we made it out the driveway. Our road had not been plowed but there was tire tracks so off he went. Pushing snow with the undercarriage. I went and finished my fixing and Bindy still wasn't there so I decided to go have a look down the road and make sure Papa wasn't stuck some place. I got to the end of the driveway about the same time Papa did. He didn't think he could make the turn to the hwy so he'd gone down the side road and was stuck. So he started up the Travalall and called work to say he'd be late and we headed out to pull him out. I love my travelall. She goes anywhere and does anything. She had no problems. We hooked up the car and he pulled me to the nearest connector road (to the hwy) and a few minutes later he was off to work in the car and I drove back home in the travelall. Just in time to milk the cow. What a morning and all before breakfast. He normally would have just taken the travelall to work on mornings like that but I was meeting him in town later for the parade and the car will not fit us all.
Sometimes after the kids go to bed we watch a movie and have a 'date'. With or without friends. When we do this we've been putting music on for the kids so they can't hear our movie (we live in a small space and even with their fan on they can still hear our movies) and will go to sleep. The 1st time we did this we did a CD of hymns. The kids liked it and the next time I assumed Papa would do the same CD. Well we put the kids to bed and he did the music and 20 minutes later I'm still hearing awake noises out of their room so I went in to see what was up. Here Papa had thought the kids would like some change and put his "Natural Guitar" CD in for them. Well the CD is great and I like it. But it has wolves howling in the background of over half the songs. Poor kids are all freaked out!! WOLVES!! LOL. Papa felt bad, he hadn't thought of that. So I switched it for the hymns and everyone was in dreamland in no time. After doing this CD 3 times J comes up to me and asks me if I want to hear a new song. J is very musical and constantly learning new songs and making up his own songs. Sure I'd love to hear his new song. He sang me the entire 1st verse of Amazing Grace. A few words where off a bit (wrench, "mommy why is he a wrench??) but the tune and timing was right. Amazing kid. He's getting a child's guitar for Christmas and we are all wondering if he'll pick it up easily and naturally. He already plays Papa's guitar but can't reach both ends to play properly.