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)

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

An October Update :)

Well it has been a while since I just sat down and gave you all an update on us SO I thought tonight would be a good night.. besides I want to try out the new keyboard and see if I like it :) So far so good.

Where to start. Papa I think as he's most on my mind these days. His back is not getting better, in fact, I think it's is worse but he's too stubborn to admit it. He's still on pain meds full time, 24/7, and while they help him get up and moving and go to work that is about all they do. They make him sluggish and 'fuzzy' and he knows it and has to plan around it. I've found my pregnant Swiss cheese brain is doing MUCH better then his fuzzy drugged one. Which, if you know me at all, is saying something!! He is still working nights, so 1pm to midnight, which works well as it gives his back and leg time to warm up before going to work in the morning and gives us some time, on good days, to get some stuff done here at home. On bad days it's all he can do to get up and moving and often means he spends his morning with a heating pad on his back or asleep waiting for the drugs to kick in. For as skinny as he's always been it burns me a little to see that he's loosing weight. He denies it but it's true and I've not been the only one to notice. All and all he's as stubborn as normal and at least now he is eating and back to drinking coffee, thought totally off his beer! (And it irks him to know that he couldn't even MAKE beer if he wanted to as neither he or I can lift the carboy!) In a positive note he's sleeping well on the drugs which was a problem before he started them and finally seems to be catching up on that area.  

 J is growing like a weed and I noticed again the other day that his pants are getting too short!! I just bought him some!! He's doing grade 2 here at home and is mostly enjoying it. He does gripe something terrible about Math but I think he secretly likes it as he always wants to do it first!! We've started a new idea with his schooling which I really like so I'll tell you about it :) He's doing ACE paces and for grade 2 there are 6 subjects. Each subject takes him between 25 minutes and 40 minutes on a regular day. To do all 6 subjects in one day was getting a bit long and stressful so we adapted it to 3 subjects each day switching back and forth every second day. So day 1 he does socials studies, Science and English, and day 2 he does Math, Word building and Creative writing. Day 3 he does ss, sc, and eng again and back and forth. This gives him about the same amount of book work as L and E and doesn't stress either of us out! He still finishes 6 paces in 7 school days because he normally does all the pace tests on the same day. 

L, at the age of 6,  has also decided to grow and finally has almost outgrown his pants!! For our short legged little boy that is quite abnormal!! Rarely have we switched his pants because they were too short.. normally they just start falling apart! He is really into reading independently and enjoys reading what ever odd words he finds to read. He had great fun in the 'city' last time we were there figuring out what the signs say. He does have a few muddles with longs and shorts when he reads but I expect part of that is sheer laziness as he does know them all to say them. He has started his 1st year at AWANA kids club here in town along with E and after several weeks of me tagging along has started to enjoy it. He is quite quick to memorize scripture which surprises me after all the trouble we had with him when he was younger but makes me think he's grown into his brain a bit :) 

E has also started AWANA and is a bit more outgoing then L. Together they make a cute pair, following each other around and helping each other. They are in the same class, L insisted!, and really seem to enjoy the time with just the 2 of them together!! Now that we think we know one of her triggers for her asthma, colds!, and have her use her puffers at the slightest sign of a cold she is doing well in that department and never even got the last cold the rest of us got!! What a wonderful thing to see our normally first sick and last to be better child running around completely healthy while the rest of us battle a running nose and watery eyes :) She is also totally enjoying the freedom that can be found in reading and often helps her older brother with his longs and shorts!! They make a funny pair, he knows what all the letters are and she knows all the sounds and can't remember some of the letter names!! He is one pace ahead of her in math and loves adding but she dislikes adding but LOVES subtraction and excels in it!! Where as L dislikes subtraction so much he'd rather not do math at all!! E is maturing in other ways as well. She has started doing things without being told and being helpful in other ways.. finding a need and filling it if she can. She's quite the little mother and we often see her leading Baby J around by the hand.. playing with him or helping him in some way. These days she is counting down to her birthday and can't wait to be 5!! 

R recently had a bit of a coming out as she was the flower girl for my cousins wedding!! She did a FABULOUS job and played the princess with ease! I do have a few pictures but will have to post them later as I'm on the new computer and there are no pictures on it yet. R has also been 'doing' school. At 3.5 she's got a while before she'll be doing real schooling but she totally enjoys her little 'finding and circling' books and sits at the table with us listening to the stories in the reading program and coloring/drawing pictures. She's gotten pretty good at drawing lately and we can actually tell what she's drawing!! Bonus!! She does enjoy playing alone while we do school as well as playing with Baby J if he is not napping. The other day I went through R and E's clothing and both of them have finally grown out of their sizes!! YAY!! Because they are both so little I've TONS of size 2 and 3 clothing!! R is in 3 pants still but 4 shirts and E is in 4 pants and 5 shirts! While I haven't weighed them lately I think it's pretty safe to say that Baby J is still as heavy or heavier then R!! 

Baby J whom I think I will from here out be calling J3 as Papa is a J and J is a J as well :)  No more J's for this family!! 3 is quite enough! J3 also got a new wardrobe recently and is now in 18 month to 24 month clothing. Except pants.. most of those are still 12 month. I guess he's got Grandpa G's short legs :) J3 has been getting his 1st year molars lately and just popped the 3rd one through the day before yesterday! That last one better come soon as I need to start to get some sleep before the new baby comes! J3 is still our worst sleeper and now with these molars is often up several times a night. Mostly I drug him and give him a drink and hope he sleeps a few more hours. Seems to work most nights :) All 5 of our children had the most tooth problems with their very 1st tooth and the molars. Other then that you could hardly tell!! I'm very thankful that his last one looks like it might be soon and then we should be done for a bit!! He has learned how to be helpful and really enjoys putting stuff in the garbage.. even if it doesn't belong there! Oh and he LOVES socks.. just not on his feet. He favorite toys right now are the little peoples bus which he carries around one armed or pushes around making bus noises and a very heavy toy cow which, as Papa found out, hurts when he throws it at your toes!! 

Well I guess I'm up. What with the reading program to get done, J's school, the critters,  meals, laundry, housekeeping and my new ipad :)  Never mind watching out for Papa (He seems to forget almost everything!!) and parenting.  I keep busy!! I've managed to talk Papa into once a day milking for ease of backs and we'll hopefully start that soon. Maggie is having a very long lactation *she calved Nov 29/2010*  and still giving almost 5 gallons a day and the hope is that we can go to once a day and still get about 3 a day. We shall see. Baby G is doing wonderful  (My belly is measuring right on and my weight gain pretty much non existent I may actually loose weight this time around. Normally I just sort of stay the same!)  and other then eating a lot of tums lately for heart burn *maybe she'll have hair!!* I seem to be doing really well at almost 37 weeks! Which for some people would mean I'm almost done or could have a baby at any time! But not so, so far anyway, for me. According to my previous pregnancies I still have a least 5 weeks left which is actually kind of nice this time around as we've still got a bit of things to do yet. Today we did clean out the entrance of tools and the bedroom of tote able books and fabric which are some good first steps. We still need to move my laundry sorting station to the entrance (somewhere?), find newborn girls clothes, set up the playpen in our room (where the laundry sorting station is now) and finish her blanket which I only started in the last week. I already moved J3's clothes out of our room and into the kids so after I wash her clothes they already have a place to live. 

In general farm news the piglets are now all about 8 weeks old or older and we put them up for sale. So if you or anyone you know needs a couple of weaner pigs we've got just what you need :) They are ready to go anytime! We have two sold and are hoping to sell about 11 more as to keep 4 for ourselves for next year. 

In Maggie news Papa went to the vet today and picked up a little bottle of cow hormones. He's found a AI guy who is willing to AI her for us and set the whole thing up. I'm not having anything to do with the whole process as I'm pregnant and the cow hormones are not to be messed with while pregnant as they also use them to abort and it does go through the skin if you touch it. Though it does not go through the milk or the cows skin so I can still drink milk and milk her.  SO Papa will be the one giving Maggie her shots and the rest of it. I do know she'll get a shot on Sunday and then another one 11 days later and then 3 days after that the AI guy does his thing and in 9 months we should have a Holstein jersey calf!! We are really hoping for a heifer!! I'm not sure why except that we normally do and a half jersey might not have to be as bad as Bindy was. We would like to have two cows taking turns with their dry spells so we have milk year round so a little heifer off our own place might just be the ticket! Besides if we get another little bull calf, and we've never had a heifer!, he won't be nearly as nice as the half beef we've had previously. With that in mind Papa also talked to our nice neighbor Jim today who has agreed to let our two little knot heads (Steerseye and Meatloaf) winter over with his herd!! What a blessing that is as we'll not have to worry about getting hay home for them or water or anything. They will be with his herd of 60+ cows and might even learn some manners. Imagine that!! All we are out is some cash and Maggie will likely pay their way. Maggie's hay was paid for this summer with the trade of a butcher pig and we're making arrangements to pick it up soon. All she'll need then is a heater in her water tank and she'll be ready for the long cold winter. 

 The 2 little white pigs that we have been pig sitting for the last several months will be going the way of great pork at the end of the week. Papa is doing the messy work and the owner is picking them up to take them to be cut and wrapped. Then we will be done butchering until chickens next summer. *sigh of relief! 

Fall has come quickly this year just the opposite of spring and summer which didn't seem to really come at all. The leaves were beautiful for only a few short days before the wind hammered them all to the ground. We've had a fire in the wood stove for several weeks now and are enjoying the heat after a cold summer. We made a deal with an uncle and had 3 loads of firewood delivered in a dump truck on to the front lawn, beside the house. What a blessing that is!! What should be a winters wood supply or more dumped in just the right lengths right next to the house!! We are still getting some poplar to burn from the back that Papa cut up this spring for warmer days but with the skid steer to move it even that seems like an easier job! Papa played with the mounds of firewood this weekend and managed to move them into a row which we will be able to cover with a tarp. We really do need to figure out where we want our woodshed and build one already! The addition holds a LOT more heat then last year and we are looking forward to seeing how much less wood we burn this year compared to last year. The boys are quite happy to have the wood so close to the house as it will make their wood chores very much less. E is determined to help them this year and I think she'll be able too.. R might even be able too if she can find the smaller ones to carry and still walk in snow *her main problem last year. Of course now they are all doing it.. each one bringing in a piece fitting their size. 

In General news the dishwasher has finally been behaving it's self since Papa took the whole thing apart and cleaned it in early summer!! The washer has been acting funny for several months and the middle churny thing no longer turns if the load is anything bigger then the smallest setting. Today it started making another weird noise which is fine as we ordered a new BIG top loading washer just this morning so this washer only has to last another 10 days :) Now Papa needs to plumb it in so I don't have to use the milk sink hose and wash the entrance floor if I forget about it and we can do laundry like semi normal people. It's been an expensive month as we've also ordered a new mattress for ourselves after hearing about and reading about how terrible old mattresses can be for your back health. As our mattress is as old as Papa or older we decided we really did need to replace it. I wasn't super convinced until laying on a mattress like the one we bought at the store... for 3 minutes.. and it wrecked my sleep for several nights as I could not believe how uncomfortable our mattress was after that bliss for just 3 minutes.  That convinced me when little else would!! The new keyboard I'm trying out is from the new DELL computer we ordered this year with the kids school funds. We also used their funds to buy the reading program we've been using so I can keep it just like I've got it and not have to redo it again when R starts school in 2 years. Or J3 a year or 2 after that.   So far, we just picked the computer up yesterday, we are all really enjoying the new computer! The kids found a few cool games on it which is always fun! 

Wow I think this turned into a book! If you got this far Thanks for reading and caring :) God Bless and Goodnight :) 

Thursday, October 13, 2011

OH ME!! OH MY!!! What A Fun Day Sped BY!!

What a dirty little man!!
Grandma F called last week and invited J out to go HUNTING with her and Grandpa. (They didn't see a thing :( ) They were taking a few of the older boy cousins but didn't want too many as they understand little boys. So J went with G &G F for the day and went hunting with cousin Luke. The girls and little J and I stayed home and had some fun of our own. And L got to go with Papa instead for a day of FUN!! They picked up the chicken plucker and our new home school center, which is still sitting out on my front porch!, they brought the dump truck home with a load of wood on it and dumped it in the yard, they went out for donuts and brought the girls and I some timbits :), they worked at Papa's work shop and got VERY dirty!! Oh and they HAD A ABSOLUTE BLAST!! 
Then they got home late at night and ate a quick supper before heading out to help Papa and I move the last CC birds to their final pen before being butchered the next morning! It was so light outside with just the moon that we didn't even need flashlights. It was beautiful!  What full fun day! 

How To Lose A Laying Hen In 7 Easy Steps.

Step 1. Water pigs.
Step 2. Have laying hens in the same pen as Pigs.
Step 3. Laying Hen falls into pigs water
Step 4. Laying hen cannot get out and drowns. 
Step 5. Pigs find dead laying hen. 
Step 6.. It's a pig. They are omnivores... what do you think it's going to do?? 
Step 7. Find a few feathers floating in and around water trough. 
OR
Step 1 to 3 is the same. 
BUT 
Momma SEES dumb laying hen floating on the water
 (they have their own water!) and calls to Papa and
Papa is a HERO 
and rescues said dumb laying hen from a certain fate!! 
I do need to add that we have once or twice found feathers floating here and there in the laying hen/pig pen. I will also admit that I would rather they drowned themselves in the pig water then the COW water.. at least the pigs know what to do with a dead chicken.. The cow.. not so much :) She just refuses to drink and Papa has to go clean out the water tank. Better him then ME!! :) 

A Tired Boy!

They were finishing off a movie the other day and Little Mr. J was getting into ALL KINDS of TROUBLE so I put him on Papa's chair and told him to SIT! for a bit!! He did, yup surprised even me :), and promptly fell asleep. He looks so much more grown up with his hair cut! I still have not decided on a screen name for him, not that I've had any help!! My computer tells me I often get as many as 28 to 40 hits on my blog a day but I'm not sure I believe it :) (Some days it tells me I only get 1 or 2, now that I can believe!) Oh and that is NOT counting ME!! So come on people let me know your out there!! 

They're BACK!! At Least For A Few Days :)

Looks like slave labor, doesn't it?? 
It's not.. it's a work of LOVE!! 
Mr and Mrs. B are back from their mountain big game guiding for a few days break before heading out to a different area for another 6 weeks! Mr.B had a bit of a sore back and the kids offered to rub it for him. They even got our well used massager down and used some of their new skills, from working it on Papa's back, on Mr. B while Mrs. B (feels so weird writing that as we don't call her that :) ) and I had a nice visit! They all loved it :) They came over for supper one night and spoiled us with appys, then showed up again the next morning for coffee and to help Papa. Mr. B and his brother Mr.S and Papa went out and Papa cut piglets while the brothers caught and sorted them and Mrs. B and I had another nice chat :)  
Turns out there were only 5 males in the bunch. A nice short job! Now the piglets are 8 weeks old and ready to go! Want one?? :)
 The brothers took some shots at the ravens that plague our place as well... but they are still making a pain of themselves by eating every egg they can find. Time to move the laying hens in for the winter.. maybe then we'll get some eggs again!! They also took some time to give the kids a sword lesson and gang up on each other with our nerf swords!! What fun it is watching grown men play with little children and everyone having a wonderful time!! I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the brothers :) 
Anyway!! Mr & Mrs B will be around for a few more days yet. Mr.S is going with them this time and they have a wedding to attend first.. as do we! Our little R is the flower girl! Don't worry I will take lots of pictures.  

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A New Skill.

Papa informed me the other day that I would have to take 'skid steer lessons.' I wasn't super keen on the idea but as he still can't sit it sure would come in handy if one of us could use the skid steer. So after grabbing a pair of ear plugs and inwardly building myself up to learn a new skill, Papa and I headed out to fire up the skid steer. I climbed in and sat down and Papa started to tell me how to start it... I'm thinking turn a key.. he's going to great lengths to tell me about ether!! A few minutes later I'd gotten it started.. ether works wonders and we were OFF and crawling :)

First thing I got to do was move the pigs 1 ton bag of feed, only about half full, to the barn where we had just started feeding the piglets, creep feed style. It took me a while to figure out which directions of the petal moved the forks which way.. Feels totally backwards to me! But I moved the feed bag without any trouble! Then Papa attached a ball to on of the forks and I got to move this
Yup all the way from the back where Papa had cut it up this spring and the boys had filled the trailer earlier. It actually took almost as long to hook the trailer to the skid steer as it did to drive the trailer backwards all the way to the house! It steers really super easy believe it or not! As you can see though Papa was a bit leery of my 'driving' and moved both the car and the travelall out of the way!! The kids were watching a movie inside and the baby asleep so I didn't have to worry about them. Papa wanted to dump the trailer load himself which suited me just fine. As it was he ended up just lifting the trailer part way and pulling most of the wood out by hand. Then I drove the trailer back to the piles of firewood to be brought to the front and parked it so we could re-fill it. After I got back to the house I got to 'play with' the chunk of metal that we took off our old addition and move it to a better spot. It went pretty well :) 

I learned a few things that day!
How to drive a skid steer and move the forks at the same time! 
That Papa and I can hook a trailer to the skid steers fork ball without me having to see what was going on without too much frustration and only a bit of time :) 
Papa has more patience on pain killers then he does normally :) 
That driving a trailer bed backwards isn't as hard as it looks :) 
If you hit a bump/stump with the skid steer Hang on!! It rocks pretty good. 
If you happen to be 8 months pregnant and driving a skid steer and hit a few bumps/stumps your belly muscles will hurt afterwards! 
Driving a skid steer while pregnant makes me motion sick :( 
That starting an engine with ether is not as hard as you might think.
That it really is FUN to drive a skid steer :) Even if it makes me a little motion sick!! 

Monday, October 3, 2011

Down Time And Jr.Monopoly!

Papa recently had two weeks off work. If your wondering what wonderful project we got done in that time I'll tell you! Nothing.. Well unless you count the fact, and I do,  that Papa can now get off the couch, walk, drive and sit!! (I on the other hand lost 2.5 lbs!!) He has had sciatica pain before but NEVER like this! Turns out, after several doctor visits, rides to the 'city' to see our favorite chiropractor, several pain meds and a trip to the ER that Papa has a bulging disk in his lower back which is pinching his sciatica nerve!! It was a bit stressful!! I've NEVER before had Papa ask ME to drive him to the 'city.' Normally he avoids me driving at all costs. *Something about waking up heading backwards towards a ditch? I'm not sure what his problem is? We survived after all!! :) Besides that it was years and years ago!! 
Anyway so if your stuck pretty much flat on your back for about a week when your normally a pretty active working man you find things to do.. when your awake anyway. His pain meds made him sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep!! The kids of course loved having Papa home and several days he helped me with school.. when he could keep his medicated muddled mind on it that is. Note to Self.. E, our little airhead *lovingly said, and Papa on drugs = very little school done!! He did teach them the Jr. Monopoly game which they all love. L, so far, is our little Mr. Monopoly much to J's dismay! :) The 4 kids play and Papa is the banker. They are all even learning from it. R is counting better and better and E, L and J are all working on their adding and subtracting skills.

Papa has now been back to work for 3 days. He's drugged pretty good and has a 'helper' at work to do all his heavy stuff but he's working!! PTL!! The kids and I are getting used to him being gone all afternoon and evening again and doing school like crazy people to get our extra's done as well as the reading program before little Miss Baby G comes along. On that note, I'm not sure doing the chores twice a day for a week did anything good for my pregnant self but I'm really grateful to be doing chores only 4 times weekly again instead of 14!! And looking forward to being chore free as I normally am at the last few weeks of pregnancy. Papa's back could take awhile to heal completely but they are expecting him to make a full recovery. For now though we are still slowing down life, which is surprisingly hard to do on a farm, and still trying to be ready for winter when it hits. We still have some meat birds of a friends to butcher, hay to haul, Maggie to get bred, calves to provide for, piglets to sell and cut, and firewood to finish!! Never mind the cold weather prep like water and hoses and heat tapes. Things are looking up though! In the last 2 weeks we've gotten two dump truck loads of firewood brought right to the house and dropped off in the yard which has blessed us amazingly!! We've also got a Papa who can drive, walk and work again!! 

Baby J is Growing Up!!

He got his 1st haircut the other day!! Here Papa is holding up his LONG hair so we can see how long it was before we cut it!! 
And here he is after his fairly painless haircut. He took it better then either of the other boys did at his age. Papa gently held his head still and I cut as FAST as possible!! It only took us about 10 minutes TOTAL!! I'm getting super duper fast with my scissors!! I cut all three boys hair and Papa's in just over an hour!! Not too shabby as it used to take me an hour to do ONE head of hair!! Baby J is looking much older these days after his haircut and I think it's time to drop the 'baby' in his name on my blog. Not sure what to use instead though?? Some idea's are LJ for Little J, or J2? Anyone got any other ideas?? The new baby is almost here as well so it's about time to change his screen name :)