Life Lessons.

Everyone is learning something at their own skill level. Just because they are learning something you can do doesn't mean it isn't a big learning curve for them. That's one of the things about large families that I find challenging, but fun. G learning to get herself dressed is just a big of deal as J learning to navigate in the bush or S learning to play pat a cake. Here are some things the kids have been learning and I thought you might like to enjoy hearing about them. 

Lets start with the baby! 

S has really started doing a bunch of cute stuff :) 

He waves, with just his little fingers wiggling.

He pants, breaths hard, and then giggles when you do it back.

He's talking and singing quite a bit, super cute in his little boy voice :) 

He has a couple of words; please, hi, papa

He's clapping his hands, he really likes patty cake. 

He drinks from a cup or a straw. 

He says shhhhh...and then giggles.

He stands up in the middle of the room.

And he just turned one! Pictures to follow! 

G is two and a half.

G has learned to get herself dressed 100% alone! 

She can get both her boots and shoes on alone.

She also is enjoying giving S a drink with his straw cup. 

She loves to fold the washcloths.

She can turn the bathroom water on and off! 

She can open the inside doors! 

She also learned how to move empty cups to the table for meals! 

J3 has a birthday very soon and will be four!

J3 has recently learned how to ride his tricycle! 

He also can count to 10 without help. Until recently he was missing 7 or 8. 

He brushes his own hair.

He also wipes himself now in the bathroom :) 

He sorts laundry by color. 

He can put away all his, G's and S's laundry without help! 

J3 is learning to enjoy water and last week he learned he could float!

R is six years old.

R has learned to ride her bike with two wheels! She just decided one day to do it and within 3 days she was! 

She also is getting much better at soccer and other games. 

She's also quite the little singer and crafter! 

She can set the table and get everyone's vitamins ready.

She can do a pony in her hair. 

She can sweep the kitchen floor.

E is seven years old.

E is really learning how to 'do hair'! She enjoys playing with R or G hair and putting it in pony tails etc! 

E is also learning how to do chick chores. 

She loves to 'baby sit' S and G and is quite the little momma.

She's learning some more soccer skills too!  

E and R do a lot of singing and crafting together :) 

E can clean the whole bathroom, including the mirror! 

She loves to finger knit.

L is nine years old. 

L is learning baseball catching with his new glove! 

He's also learned to wash the milking stuff! 

He's learning some soccer skills too! 

He loves to make things out of clay.

He loves to draw. 

He's learning electric wire fencing skills. 

L is reading the Narnia books :) 

J is ten years old.

J is learning some woodsmen-ship. Yesterday I sent him out with the phone, for communtation, to find the calves in the 30/40 acre lease behind our house. He did really well and he found them! 

He's also honing his baseball catching skills and his soccer skills! 

J is also getting very good and figuring out songs by ear on the piano! 

J has also recently learned how to light the mosquito coil with the lighter! 

J has learned how to make a small cow fence and the basics of electric wire fence building. 

J likes to make swords out of old metal broom handles. He's made one for everyone! 

J3, R, E, L and J are all taking swimming lessons this summer as well. Once a week. They are all doing super good! J3 has improved the most and is starting to enjoy the water more and more. If you remember he was scared of water, in any form; rain would cause him to scream for the first several years if his life, so this is a big improvement. S is just the opposite, he loves water! 

J, L and E are practicing piano all summer as well as doing a 'bit of fun school' with some math thrown in every week. 

Oh and Papa and I? What are we learning? Well...yesterday I learned how to install a toilet! How's that for life skills? Papa?? What is he learning you ask? Papa is learning all about water systems, from the pump to the sink and every bit inbetween. Oh and we are both learning that everything happens WHEN it happens, not necessarily when WE want it to happen. 

Life lessons: Everyone is learning something. Your lesson may feel harder to you because you are bigger and doing bigger things, but it's not. Everyone is learning something and the 'little things' matter as much as the 'big.' 

J3 is BUSY!!

Recently he told me his smile didn't work.. and it really didn't. I worked at it a little bit and then I was hit with a brain wave and took him over to the mirror. His smile still works in the mirror when Mommy tickles him. He is growing again and the pants Grandma F brought over a while ago that were too long, now fit him. He used to beg to play the computer game he likes but now after a couple minutes he's done. I like that. I like that he can feel free to try it out but still not be tied to it. He no longer asks to do school every 5 minutes either. He's quite contented playing critters with G and helping me with little chores or playing with S or R when she's done school. He's really quite helpful and enjoys being my little helper dude. He's never woke up dry ever so we've quit waiting for him too. The best thing we've found is just to teach them to wake up and go in the middle of the night. J3 will have to learn to wake himself up in the night to go to the bathroom. The 3rd day into it he woke up enough to walk to the bathroom himself instead of me carrying him, the first night, or pulling him along, the second night. It will be awhile before he will wake up and go alone. The scariest thing about this stage is having them wandering around in the middle of the night half asleep so I'm OK with getting them up and making sure they make it there and back. I'm up anyway. 

J3 has recently seem to mature a bit. He no longer needs constant supervision, though I still watch him like a hawk as I'm not used to this new stage yet. He is enjoying crafts and coloring more now and seems to have decided to work on his pronunciation as he's getting tired of repeating himself. He and I work on that here and there during the day. It almost seems like we are seeing the fruits from our constant parenting for the last 3 years and I'm hoping that's so. He still likes to be in the middle of anything that is happening but now he also seems to have the skills to DO many of the things he's been wanting too. I think we will have to modify the chore chart soon as he'll be ready for a bit more 'fun' stuff, as he calls it.

He really loved decorating the tree this year! The kids decorated Grandma's tree too and he was so careful climbing up on the stools so he could reach higher and so responsible and careful with the ornaments, hanging them just so, handling them gently. Quite a change from our little rough housing little man last year! 

5 Months Old~ New Picture of S.

Super cute isn't he?? 

He's getting places lately, a sort of odd scooting that I've not really been able to describe, but he can get a couple feet in a minute or two, and is never where you left him. He always has a smile for everyone. He doesn't discriminate: he has enough spit up to go around. He loves to be wrapped like a sausage in his blanket but also likes to sneak one hand out to hang on to his blanket. I'm not sure why he's hanging on to be but I secretly imagine he's worried the noise level may launch him off to never never land. He loves the noise, sleeps great with noise, but is getting to the point in his curious life where he wants to explore the noise.. even while nursing!! OUCH!!! So we have to cover his head, shut the door when he naps and generally help him have some self control. S spent the evening with Grandma F last week and was the life of the party, or so I was told, everyone loved him and I get that cause I'm his mom and I love him too. He makes me smile. He makes me laugh out loud and hysterically, OK that last one may (MAY I TELL YOU) be from lack of sleep, stress or plain old exhaustion or all 4. What can I say we've been busy!! 

Oh and last time I weighed him he was 14 lbs 4 ozs completely nakey (as G says it) which is still maintaining his curve.. and that's a great thing!! His earlier troubles have all but gone and he's a healthy little Mr. G now. 

Oh and as you can see, if you're wondering?, no teeth yet!

But he's working on them :) 

Ants

The kids and I were cleaning up the yard after chicken butchering the other day, picking up feathers and garbage and wandering around the place when I noticed a few of them squatting in a circle looking at the ground. I went over to see what they were looking at, and I'll admit get them focused back on yard clean up. I got closer and I realized that they had found a black ant 'thing.' It wasn't a nest as it was only about 20 ants under a piece of bark but the ants had eggs under the bark and when the kids had lifted the bark the ants had started to 'clean up' and 'hide' the eggs. It was really neat and I joined them in watching the ants as they hurried here and there and slowly disappeared from sight. I looked and looked but it took me several minutes, and over half the eggs, to find out WHERE the ants where taking the ant eggs. It was a hole so tiny the eggs barely fit down it but one by one the ants were methodically finding the hole and taking the egg they carried down the hole to safety. It was really neat to watch. There was no ant overseeing the rest, they just worked together for the good of the hill.

Teamwork is something Papa and I have tried to instill in our children. It's a hard thing to teach. People are by their very nature selfish and it's sometimes hard to catch selfishness if your not looking for it. Selflessness is easier to see I find. I do like to reward my kids for selflessness when I see it just like I do try and show them their selfishness when the need arises. Selfishness can be seen in speech, deed, and attitude. Sometimes all in one horrible swoop. We've found the best way to deal with selfishness in ourselves and our children is to ask 'Is that the way YOU want to be treated??' The answer is almost always no. "Then treat others the way you would like to be treated." A great lesson for us all.

Thankful Thursday. May 2nd

Today's post is being written while I lay on my side in bed, the only mostly comfy position I can find. My back is protesting the lifting I did last week and I'm no longer lifting at all. Even lifting little G is hard. I'm not complaining, just explaining. Stretching and massage help quite a bit as does walking, but sitting upright is out and leaning back while sitting is better but still painful. My chiropractor helped quite a bit yesterday but I think mostly it will just take time.

Poor Papa is now doing all the milking; morning and evening, but I'm thankful that his shift allows for him to have the time to do the morning milking. It takes him about 35 minutes to milk alone and feed calves,  so he has to get up at 6:30 am to milk before work. (Those of you who know Papa know he is NOT a morning person and this a big sacrifice for him!)   I used to  wash milk stuff as he brought it inside and help that way but the sink is too low and its super painful now. When we were able to working together it only took about 20 minutes, and I'm hoping my back will get better enough that I can at least wash again.

I'm thankful for the training I've been able to do with the kids all winter as they are able to keep up on the house work with very little help from me. They also are amazing help with the lifting the littles, dishes, laundry and yard work! A lot of our fun training; things they wanted to learn and still enjoy, is really coming in handy too..like putting cookies on pans, slicing bread, putting mayo or jam on bread, picking out G or J3 clothes, washing baby hair in the tub, organizing the book shelves and more that aren't coming to my mind.

Papa has also taken the opportunity to start teaching J how to get Isabel on the milk machine and said both the boy and the cow did really well! I'm constantly amazed at how strong J is and what he can do! The other day he carried a box of school work that Papa said was heavy and it barely even fazed J.  Having a 9 year old boy sure is a handy thing!  J and L together took a small piece of our 'new to us' kitchen cabinets from the truck to the house the other day with no help from Papa or I at all. They are both fairly good with the wheel barrow and bring firewood, bedding and totes and things where ever they need to be. J's even learned how to take stuff out of the oven recently.. Quite a big deal for him as he's very leery of hot stuff. Yesterday he lit the fire pile in the yard all by himself. (Yes I asked him too and was supervising.)

So it is now several hours later and I'm sitting at the computer to finish this post. Papa is outside getting the chick barn ready for the 400 little yellow peepers that are in transit right now and will be arriving here tomorrow morning. Papa has taken the day off tomorrow to get chicks home and help me get every body fed, warm and happy in the barn.

My back has done much better this afternoon and I've barely had to rest it at all. PTL!! Maybe I will get somewhat back to normal yet :)

Anyway if your the praying sort and think of us; please pray that my back gets better, and that we find time to do all that we need to do; hopefully without stress :) Thanks :)

Oh and don't worry I will for sure take LOTS of pictures of the kids with the chicks tomorrow.... :) ;) and hopefully get around to posting them soon!!

The Snow Melt Continues :)

I took these pictures last Saturday the 19th of April.. exactly a week after we got 13 inches of new snow.. 

Looking out to the road.

Kids play area. 

Looking into the front area from the yard. 

My strawberry bed! 

Looking into the place. 

The front of the house/driveway. 

More kids play area.

The front of the cow pen and the new pig pen. See Papa sitting under the tree?? 

The laying hens winter pen.. with the cement mixer. 

Now this is what it looked like last Saturday!! 

Amazing what a bit of rain and some nicer temps can do in a week!! 

Spring might actually be around the corner!!! 

IT'S MELTING!!!

March 21st/13

6 days Later on March 27th/13.

5 days later on April 1st/13

This really doesn't show the snow melt as well as some other areas in the yard and cow pen but these are the pictures I have. Under the trees in the yard we have grass and the cows have a LARGE patch of grass showing. The driveway in front of the house is almost totally dry except where the snow melt rivers run thru it off to huge puddles below the driveway. Yesterday we got rubber boots out and washed the snow pants and put them and the snow boots away!! Spring is coming!! :) 

Lift Power :)

First I have to say THANK YOU STEVE!!! For the wonderful idea!!! :) 

Lovely little addition to the farm this weekend..

What is it you ask??
It's AWESOME!!! 

L and E trying it out while J and J3 look on. Tucker in the way... as usual. 

The cows were pretty sure we should feed them as we did spend about 45 minutes in the milking area putting it all together and trying it out.

Here is a little clip to show you how it works. 

This wonderful idea makes it super easy to get those heavy milk buckets on to the porch after milking and makes it possible for me or J, maybe ;), to milk the cows no matter how much milk they are giving!! 

Just for reference Maggie is now giving 8 to 10 gallons a day... that makes for a pretty heavy bucket!! Much more then a 9 year old or a 7 month pregnant lady should be lifting!! Papa may even use this system to keep his back in better shape!! 

Good Morning.

We got our camera back from the camera doctors and I've been taking quite a few pictures. Papa was playing with the camera the day we got it home and I thought he was just making sure it was in good working order. Later in the day I picked it up to take some pictures and as it turned on it said "Good Morning." in Papa's voice! Gave me a bit of a start the first time. Of course I turned it on and off a few times and showed the kids and we all enjoyed it. Now every time I turn the camera on a smile comes to my face and I remember just how much I love that guy!!

Forgetful Fridays. March 22.

I think everyone who lives in the North has a selective memory. Wait hear me out. I know I have a selective memory.. Every summer/fall/winter I choose to forget how long it really takes for Spring to come to the North. My sister in law posted on FB yesterday that work she planted peas and got some rows ready for corn. Here are some pictures of our place I took yesterday afternoon... about the same time, as it turns out, she was planting peas. 

The yard. 

Looking into the place.

Looking out down the driveway. 

The plow line.. that lump in the middle there is one of my raised beds....

J on a pile of plowed snow.

L on his 'ship' making a railing beside his captains chair.

OH and this is what it looks like in the summer.....Oh I can't wait to see green again!!  

Camera!

Our camera is home AND IT WORKS!!!! Yay!  Lots of picture taking/blogging happening soon :)

Wacky Wednesday :)

The title really covers it. Wednesdays are wacky around here. It's Papa's first day back at work..so it's kinda our Monday. This Wednesday was wacky in more ways then normal. This morning we woke up to snow falling. About 2 hours later it turned to rain, then a bit of sunshine, then it POURED rain, and then we had a couple of hours of the sun trying to shine and now it's snowing again. When it started to rain I checked the temp and it was -5C. Seriously! POURING rain and -5. It did get up to 0 later with the weak sunshine.

Today was catch up day. The kids and I spent about an hour outside this afternoon. Them playing, me working on the never ending lathe on the house. They also went out this morning to do chicken chores and firewood. They have been sick for about a week, one or more at a time, and today was catch up day for several things. Firewood, egg washing, outside play. We managed to keep up school work by working for short periods of time through out the day. We are doing a bit extra a week so we can take a couple of weeks off in April. Papa has two weeks off and we don't want to have to do school then.

Wednesdays (and saturdays) are also suppose to be shower/bath night. If it goes smoothly it only takes about 45 minutes. Sometimes when we've already had a long day it's hard to get motivated enough to run the gauntlet, I mean showers and bath marathon.  The boys are a big help. Both the older boys can get the shower water the right temp and run a sink full of bath water and wash their own hair/bodies in the shower. So we normally get the baths started, J3 and G together, and then the boys watch the those two while I shower the girls. (Girls hair! ack!) When the girls are done the boys hop in the shower and I get the little two out of the bath and get them dressed and brush hair. The boys have also been washing the littles hair in the tub but only while I'm helping. They like too...honest!

Anyway on this wacky Wednesday we are having open faced egg sandwiches, cupcakes and apples for supper while the kids watch a movie in the living room and I'm writing this post! Easy and requested supper, relaxing evening (before shower/bath time) after a wacky weather Wednesday. We did really good for our Monday. School got done, house is clean, chores caught up and we even played outside! Thankfully only the weather was wacky on this particular Wednesday!

Camera blahs.

We got our camera back from the camera doctor last week. After a frustrating couple of days we finally called the company that should have called us several days before, according to our Internet tracking system and sure enough they'd had it for a couple of days already. Small town businesses sometimes leave a lot wanting! It didn't have a phone number on the package but really how hard is it to type a name into the yellow pages and wait the 2.2 seconds until our phone number comes up. We are the only Griggs in town! Papa made sure they got and wrote down our number in their contacts book so hopefully when the camera gets sent back again this time we'll get it when it arrives in town.

Yes it has to be sent back. The zoom works fantastic (why we sent it off in the first place) but now it refuses to admit there is a memory card in it or store photos at all. Not much use as a camera with actually storing a picture. I can take them but they just don't exist. Are we happy? NO! Did we call and talk to them, yes and they tried but can't do anything over the phone. So will we have a camera for a certain 4 year olds 5th birthday...NO! I'll use my iPad and my mom is bringing her camera so it won't be a total loss, but it just goes to show...all our planning ( the gap between J's birthday and R's birthday has the biggest gap in birthdays until after J3's birthday in July! ) and it still doesn't always work the way we have planned. Makes me wonder what God has in store for us to learn from this. I wonder if we'll ever know :) I just hope we get it back before L's birthday in April.

So I'm very sorry to have to tell you we will all just have to put up with the iPads picture quality until our camera is once again home to stay. Hopefully sooner rather then later...till then squint a little when you look at the pictures...lol...and have a fantastic day!

Camera!

Yay! We finally received an email yesterday from Canon and our camera is on its way home! Can't wait to have a camera again! I've missed it more then I thought I would. It should be home just in time for a little girl's 5th birthday! I'm already making up a list of things to take pictures of.

G's wacky hair do's.
Tucker- looking really nice right now and loves to pose on snow piles etc.
J playing the keyboard.
Maggie in her largeness.

Oh and the list goes on! :)

Oh and yesterday I heard and then saw an eagle on the top of the neighbours spruce tree :)

Forgetful Fridays..

Right now I have spaghetti sauce simmering on the stove... don't let me forget to stir it.. OK? It smells FANTASTIC and may detract from this post.

This weeks posts will be things I want to forget.. forever.

That nerve wracking feeling I used to get all the time with Papa driving a big truck on the road and he'd be late.. and I'd be sure he wasn't coming back. But he would. Every single time. With a smile and a kiss for me.

The hurt/anger/confusion/shock/pain of not knowing and not being able to conceive our first child.. took us 3 years of pain, heartache and stress. Of not knowing why or when or if ever. Of seeing others who conceived without plan or knowledge or trying at all.

The scorn of a 'friend' 'person' 'human'. The pain of not being good enough. Not good enough to fight for, or make it work, talk about it,  understand, or care anymore... being lied too and humiliated and not worth someones effort/time/love/friendship.  The knowing of being used by someone who takes advantage of you. Just. Because. They. Can.

Watching Papa walk the ridge pole of our trusses, no tin, not fully supported, 40 feet off the ground. In his boots. Just little squares of truss tops every 2 feet apart. Heart stopping. What can I say, the man apparently has more lives then a cat!! (Even though I must admit my heart went wild in a exhilarating way when I thought of that moment. It was exciting I'll give him that!! I'm just more of a 'oh what if he falls and breaks his neck' kind of person where Papa is more of a 'neat look what I can do!' kind of person.)

The loss of a relationship of a child. I love kids. I love to see them change and grow and though I may not show it in ways people see I just love them. Some of my biggest regrets are the children I knew that I no longer see. Children I thought I would see grow up, change, speak, interact with others. I miss them and what could have been. Children I'll never know like my sisters late term still born. I wonder how she would have fit in the family. Who she would have looked like. What she would have been like. Who's world she would have changed.

As I've been typing I've been thinking about forgetting. I'm wrong. I don't want to forget these things. Even if I did forget these things there would always be in me the lesson I learned or the grace that God gave me to live every day. The part of me that wants to forget is the part that still hurts. J is 9 this year.. 10 years ago we dealt with infertility. TEN YEARS!!! That's a long time!! The pain isn't as sharp as it was.. how could it be with 6 kids roaming around in my heart. But I still remember the pain of not being able. Of big mouthed doctors and tests and herbs and surgery and being told.. your 19 you can't possibly have trouble with pregnancy!! The pain of knowing each and every month that I failed, my body, my husband, my self with every negative test. But we learned so much. About each other, ourselves, our motives, our plan for the future, our trust in Him who made us and has a plan for us. Without that time I'm not sure we'd be here, now, doing what we are doing. What we believe God called us to do.. raise our family, live our lives with purpose.


Lessons learned are what I hope to remember.. a person is only as good as their word. Pain now may mean freedom with God later. Trust is shaken but the love is there. Bitterness is really hard to get rid of, try not to store it up. Freedom comes in many forms. Sometimes life is better lived apart. Pain never ends. Hormones can really take your imagination for a ride.. :) Never give all of yourself.. others don't treat your heart like you would, even if they say they will. Rarely do people actually think before they talk, don't take it to heart. I'm not 100% sure but I think maybe pain only lives on if you feed it. Sometimes it turns into bitterness, and needs to be dealt with by forgiving those who caused it. 

Papa used to tease me and say 'a man is an island' and I'd laugh and wonder. Now I think about it and wish we were an island. Our family, our farm, our lives. I imagine it would be free from scorn, disinterest, hate, disapproval and pain. It wouldn't be. I know that. My heart and my mind.. but sometimes it's nice to dream..

In case you were wondering I turned the sauce off awhile ago.. it still smells fantastic and I wanted to keep it that way :) 

This is more of me then I normally give, but I guess that was a bit of the point. Humans all of us.

 Every. Single. One. Of. Us. Is. A. Person.

 DON'T FORGET IT!!! 

What you feel others feel too. 

I always love those charming proverbs, but can never remember them. So I made this one up :)   

May the sun shine on your face,

 May the rain be warm,

  May your heart swell with love of our Creator,

   May your life never be empty of the good that can be found in this world.

    And May you remember that this world is not our home. We are just passing through. 

 It's never to late to love as Christ loved us. 

Good night. 

Thankful Thursdays. Jan 24th/13

Ah well it's been a long day and there is still a fire to stock and a cow to milk. So this will be brief. Apparently I'm also having trouble typing... I guess my nap earlier didn't do me as much good as I'd hoped. It's 9:25 pm. Kids are in bed, G is still chattering and kicking her feet. We've recently found if we leave their bedroom door open she is much happier at bedtime and will go to sleep with much less fuss and carrying on. This is suppose to be a thankful post so I'll tell you about my day and why I'm thankful for pretty much every minute of it.

I woke up 3 minutes early. I almost never set the alarm but yesterday I did. I really didn't want to be running late today. I got up, filled the stove with wood, made myself a cup of coffee, did my morning devo's and checked my email and FB. Then after a glass of water, granola bar, banana and shower I jumped in the car to go to my doctors appointment. I left the house, alone, at 9:20. By 12 I'd seen the doctor; both baby and I are fine (heart rate was 135), had blood drawn, read a good chunk of my book while I waited in various places and eaten a Teen burger.. fulfilling a craving I've had since Tuesday. :) I was going to get a chocolate shake to go with it but they don't sell them this time of year?? It must only be crazy pregnant ladies who want a milkshake when it's - 5 or what ever it was outside.  What is with that.?. for sure a good thing though if you talk to Papa :) or know me much at all.

I got home and found my wonderful hubby working hard on the house... The way he was half asleep when I left I half expected the kids to still be playing and him to be in bed. Instead they'd had, and cleaned up, breakfast and had even done their morning chores!! Impressed!! Papa and I chatted out in the house for a bit and caught each other up on happenings and got a few little things done while we were there.

Papa went to work a little while later and as the big kids were happily playing outside in the snow, I fed the little 3 a snack and got them ready for naps. Big kids came in, did an hour of school while I sat with R and J and had myself a little rest while making sure they napped. Then the bigs put leftovers together for their lunch, ate and cleaned it up and went back to school, while I did some laundry and some prep for some school stuff I'm hoping to do tomorrow. Bigs finished school. Little's got up from naps. Play time!! And nap time for me. I set the alarm on my ipad but it didn't wake me up. I woke up to E screaming with a bump on her head. I needed to get up anyway. We worked together and cleaned all the floors. Very nice!

Supper was a salad with beef roast, hard boiled eggs, crackers, Ranch for the kids and Blue cheese for me. Kids ate theirs with 'Animals Are Beautiful People' and I ate mine with "The Nanny" on Netflix in the entrance... the only place I can get a good enough connection to watch Netflix.

After everyone got ready for bed J read them a chapter in a Robin Hood book he enjoys. I picked out the kids new reading assignments for the morning, we prayed together, gave hugs and kisses.. and I went into the entrance to finish the Nanny I'd put on hold. Now I'm here at the computer. Typing slowly so my fingers don't have to re do every word more then once!! Oh wait.. I ate a very yummy chocolate my wonderful sister in law sent me up for Christmas.. I still have half the bowl as I've been hording them for those moments when you just NEED a fine chocolate. My oh my are they fine!!

I got a few things done today that needed doing and a few I put off for another day. I washed and hung a load of laundry. Washed another load and dried it. They are both still either drying or sitting on the chair in the living room. I got my regular clothes out of my dresser and in a tote and my newly found mat clothes in the dresser. I got the load of girls 24 month clothes, that had previously been stored in the bus in a black plastic bag that I washed and hung to dry yesterday, in a tote. Which has been on my to do list for ages.. but I didn't have any empty totes and I found one :) I started my 'puzzle swap.' An idea that Papa's mom does with hers. You cut the top pictures off the puzzle boxes and one of the little pictures off the side of the box. Then you put the puzzle pieces in a ziplock bag with the little picture and store the big picture in a tote with the bags of puzzles. I plan on doing all our puzzles as it's a great space saver!! But alas I ran out of ziplocks a while a go so I could only do those puzzles that were already in ziplocks. I also played with J3, cuddled with R, chatted with E, helped L with a problem, listened to J and played with G... she is walking quite well now and she loves it if you pretend she's scary and run away while she's walking at you. So I must say all in all it was a GOOD day. And now I must go milk Miss Isabel.. while checking FB :) Oh and I have a date with a large cup of tea :) and a book after that.

So good night all!! Hope you had as Thankful of a Thursday as we did :)

Merry Christmas!

Hope you have a wonderful holiday from life in general and wishing God's blessing on you and your family for the new year!

Christmas hasn't started here yet this morning. The tree lights are on. The fire is cracking and popping merrily. The stockings are full and waiting. My mocha is almost finished. Papa is sleeping beside me. The kids are in their beds, asleep, I checked. We watched The Nativity Story with them last night and they got to bed after 10, so it's not too surprising. The house was a bit chilly with -15C outside, but the fire is warming it up. When the kids get up we'll pour Papa a cup of coffee and bring him his Bible and he'll read to us the Christmas story in Luke. Last year he planned on changing it for this year and going through Jesus's life with the kids Christmas morning. The prophecy's surrounding Jesus before his birth, his birth, life, death on the cross, his resurrection and the second coming of Christ. I believe he's changed his mind though as our wonderful friend Mr. M preached that very same thing last Sunday in our house church. What a wonderful way to see the WHOLE gift of Jesus and what he did for us.

After the Bible reading we will decide what gifts to open and when to open the stockings. The kids used the stocking like mail boxes this year for gifts to each other. I added a few things after they went to bed. I think the new minnow nets I found for each of them are going to be a big hit! At the beach last summer they were catching minnows in cups which is a LOT harder then nets :)

Papa wants to make waffles with bacon for breakfast. I'm hungry already :) Being pregnant I will probably eat a little something, like cinnamon rolls :), before then! The kids requested blackberry sauce on their waffles and we still have some, I've been HOARDING it, so we'll have blackberry sauce on our waffles...maybe even with whipped cream :)
Anyway I better go Papa's waking up and it sounds like I need to shut my fire down.  Hope you all have a very merry Christmas and enjoy the smiles and awe of your children this morning. Make many happy memories and maybe even a new tradition :) Merry Christmas!!

Fall Update. 12

Well I realize that other then my Thankful Thursdays post I've not posted very much lately. Partly because we are busy but I'm also working through some things in my life and blogging seems to be more on the bottom of the list then the top. But I've got a bit of time right now so I thought I'd update you all a little. As most of you know I blog for myself and my husband, my family; near and far, and my kids. I blog as a memory keeper. I back it up onto my computer and keep it for later. Sort of an online scrapbook. And bonus the relatives like it too as they can share our days with us :).

I also try to be a very positive person so I very rarely post anything negative  I don't want this to be a place to complain. Actually I try to never complain on Facebook or the blog and rarely in person. It's a personal preference of mine. Though I realized the other night my Bible study ladies probably hear more then they'd like. I'm sorry. I'm working on it. God isn't finished with me yet. :) Love you girls!!

Anyway now that I've got that off my chest I'll update you on our life at the moment.

Kids first :)

Baby G is almost 11 months old, she is still nursing several times a day and is so focused while she nurses I wonder how hard she'll be to wean. She is a habits girl and changing her habits is always neat to watch. You can just about see her thinking and readjusting. She is standing up and balancing and cruises on the couches or whatever but has only taken 3 steps. I expect she will be walking soon. She has quite the personality and chatters away at you, cocks her head and waits for you to chatter back. She is learning signs and already does please.

J3 was 2 in July. We were so busy this summer that we waited to potty train him for several months. It took about 6 weeks but he's now mostly trained. He still will not tell us when he has to go but will go several times a day and will stay dry for hours. Good enough! He gets a 'choc bar' (a mini one) if he tells us he has to go so we are working on that slowly. He is talking a lot more and stringing words together nicely. He loves animals and being outside. He gets upset when ever R does school because then she's not playing with him. They are best buddies and play together very nicely. He is learning that soon he will be the 'big kid' in the living room with Baby G and they are working on staying in the living room during school and playing nicely together.


R is 4.5 and loves to do school. I made her a work book with letter printouts and she is learning her letters and how to write them. This will be all the school besides crafts and coloring she will do for awhile as Papa says she is too young to do more. I think she needs to play more as well.  Next year she will be 5 and might do grade 1 then. She is really enjoying the little work books we got her from Walmart that she does dot to dots and colors in. She has a baby doll that she plays with, dresses, naps, etc and I often enjoy hearing her teach her doll things. She has been a great help in toilet training J3 as she would really get excited for him which made him excited too. She loves to snuggle and read books and play all kinds of games. She also enjoys computer games like purple place and jump start preschool.

E is almost 6 and grew like a weed this summer. Both her and R went through 2 sizes in the last 6 months. Mostly they grew taller, though E is almost at 40lbs which makes her excited as she can almost go into a booster seat. She is enjoying school and amazes me with her memory.  They are starting math drills and she did her page in 2 minutes! She really loves science Paces and, I think, she'd finish one a day if I let her. We are working on her writing neatly as she didn't have the control last year but does this year. She enjoys our new puppy Tucker and likes to mother him. She's been experimenting with laughs and is making us all laugh at the same time. She loves to tell stories.

L is 7.5 and loves to draw and do Kung fu. He is a very active child and needs to stay active outside or he drives us all crazy inside :) He is the first in the wrestling match and the last one out. I can always tell when he's walking in the house because that extra bounce in his step makes the trailer floor thump just a little. In the kids games L is often the monster or creatures of terror. He loves it and plays his part really well...too well sometimes and scares us! He is the fastest kid in school and loves his social studies paces the best. He is also the neatest writer of the three. Surprised me!

J is almost 9 and wearing my boots! He's grown 2 sizes this summer as well and I think will soon be wearing his fathers shirts. He can haul totes, 5 gallon buckets half full and 3 gallon buckets mostly full! He and L have been in charge of the laying hen chores and firewood for the last year and it has really beefed them both up. He is finding school a bit long this year as he often works for over 3 hours a day, but he is working on being diligent and working hard to get it done during school hours and not 'free time' hours. :) He loves to read and do crafts and experiments.

As a group the kids are enjoying pretend play, chicken teams (apparently the chickens need teams like `the dirty bum team`and the `commanders`) swinging, playing with Tucker, enjoying home church and their kids church. Singing, jokes, and stories are often heard.

Me, well since I sat down to start this blog post I've; sat in the bedroom with J3 until he fell asleep as he's not been napping well, given out school assignments to J (x2) and L and E, sent L and E out to get a garbage can of sticks for kindling and 5 pieces of firewood, helped R with her 'school' assignments, checked out a cool home school newsletter and got some ideas for fall leaf projects, wiped a bum, turned the oven on to bake my bread, gotten J3 up from his nap and fed him his treat and put him on the potty, helped J with his assignment, drank a little bit of coffee until I saw that a bug had committed suicide in it, switched to the computer for faster typing :) Today I've managed to get Baby G's new size clothing sorted out and put away, putting some aside for a friends much rounder baby girl, made two meals and what I call directed traffic.. in other words.. boss people around :) I THINK I know what supper will be ( movie night as Papa is gone to the city for a course. So leftover chicken breast, crackers, apples, carrots and popcorn.) My kitchen is mostly clean and my fire is still going :) BONUS!!! lol fall is always a remembering time for me.. I MUST remember to keep wood on the fire! And I have made some plans for tomorrow.

Papa is busy these days too. Between work, sleep, farm and family he keeps pretty busy! Never mind the house and keeping our car and Travelall in great working order. This weekend he has a course in the city Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I may have to brave church alone.. with 6 kids. ( Church itself isn`t the problem. It`s getting the cows milked, chores down, kids ready and breakfast ready and eaten that is making me rethink my Sunday plans. Normally Papa does chores and cows and helps with kids ready when he`s done. I think I can do it alone.. I just have to get up really early! :) ) Anyway, Papa`s back is doing really well and he is normal again.. as much as ever anyway.

House building is coming along. Papa was sick last weekend which set us back a little. I`ll post some pictures soon.

Farm. Cows. Norma Jean goes home next week and after that we are planning on bringing Maggie and the two steers that are at the neighbors home for the winter. Well the biggest steer will go into the freezer :) We`ve made a deal with a friend of ours for the AIing of Isabel. Star has learned some cow manners from the two milk cows but is still very tame and easy to handle.. perfect!! She is still getting some milk every day but that will stop with Norma Jean going home.

Pigs. Well... we butchered the biggest pig in the back group and we are really enjoying the pork on the table!! We also sold 9 weaner piglets so far and 6 more are going early next week. We have 9 more 200 to 300 pound pigs in the back to butcher. Two are sold and whatever we don`t sell will go in the freezer. YUM!! We hope to only keep 10ish weaner piglets and the two purebred sows over the winter.

Layers. The hens are molting and nit picking and generally doing everything but laying eggs, though we did get 12 yesterday and 5 today! so hopefully soon we`ll be enjoying eggs in great number again.

Dogs. Chip is now 3 years old and I don`t know if it`s the puppy or what but he has taken a great disliking to a particular van and it`s people who come twice a week. Papa actually met them on the road the other day on their way here and hopped in the van with them to `deal with`Chip as Chip had growled and snapped at the man the last time he`d come. Chip behaved and has done much better since! He likes to play with Tucker and the two of them are often seen rolling around chewing on each other. Tucker is fitting in well and the kids enjoy taking him for walks and feeding him. Now that it`s colder at night he has a blanket that goes over his crate on the front porch and gets a warm breakfast :) He`s gonna be a big dog!!

Cats. The two kittens we got this summer have made themselves right at home and seem to be a great addition to the place. They are both about the same in friendliness now and we are enjoying seeing them playing and goofing off at all hours. They will wrestle with Tucker which is super cute! Hunter, our oldest cat, the orange tabby is semi friendly and is a very good mouser. He sits on the raised beds and waits.. and gets quite a few mice! Midnight, the about 1 year old black male which someone dropped off here last spring, is the strangest cat ever.. he lets those kittens suck on his belly fur like they are nursing.. and yes we checked.. he`s a full male!! He takes care of those two like they are his own. I often see the cats and the puppy playing tag in the dark. Hunter really likes to attack Tuckers leash if he`s got it dragging behind him :)

Well that`s life here on the Griggs Family Homestead. Well no not really.. homesteading wasn`t talked about.. we still do quite a bit of that in our daily life. My breads ready to come out of the oven. Papa has bacon curing, the kids recently made sauerkraut and there is normally some kind of milk product in the fridge. Papa`s beer fridge is freezing at night now but it`s still got home brew in it. Apparently it needs a place inside.. or a system like the milk fridge. We still eat what we raise and can make for ourselves as a large part of our diet. We are getting into winter mode and staying home more, doing school daily and having a lot of fun together doing projects like our recent Great Clothes Swap! or our Get the toys in the bus so they don`t get buried in snow  project. Or our Canning adventures, De-cluttering 101, The Great Surprise Puzzle,Move The Baby Day and many many more. 

A couple of things we will be working on in the next few weeks are
*Getting the rest of the firewood to the winter pile.
*Winterizing the trailer and animal areas.
*Getting the kids 1st term supplemental work done.
*Shelves in the dining room area for the school stuff.. to the ceiling.
*Shelves in the entrance area for shoes and boots as we outgrew ours.
*and many many more..

I`ll try and blog a bit more of our adventures but for right now I`m outta here.. time to go try out that great looking bread on the oven top.. hmm.. movie night.. ah.. yup!

A Life Update ~July 28th/12~

Well I haven't sat down and just updated for quite some time so I thought I would take a minute to do so.

The homestead is busy these days, moving chicks(meat birds), and cows around on fresh grass. Feeding critters several times a day. Milking two cows takes a bit longer then one. Checking sows and the one gilt for piglets. Keeping up with the watering and sprinklers, the tall uneaten grass and the raised beds. Playing in the kiddie pool and riding bikes and doing school with the kids. Actually I don't ride a bike, the kids do and I push little Miss G in the stroller. And then there are outings; to town, the beach, church and friends houses. Never mind the sweeping and vacuuming, dishes and meals, bread and cheese. We keep busy and we like it that way.

Then there is the unexpected.

This last week I went out to do chores and check for piglets and found a dead sow. Just laying there it the bush. I thought she was about 600lbs but Papa says no more like 800! Full of piglets, I think there were 7 or 8 inside her, a couple weeks from due as the has no hair and their eyes were still shut. 4 year old purebred Bershire bred sow. Just dead. I called Papa. We brooded a little. It's such a disappointment to find such a animal dead. We raised her from 8 weeks old. The night before she was following Papa around waiting for a scratch, begging really. This would have been her 3rd litter. Papa said there were. Some white barnacle looking things on her liver and that was all he could find that was strange! We cut her up into chunks and froze them. Chip will eat good this winter. Half filled a small freezer. What a waste!

But mostly we are doing good here on the homestead. The kids are back to school part time, homeschooling of course, and they each finished 2 PACES yesterday, their 1st two of the year which was exciting. We also have a new science course that we've started and they LOVE! Apologia science Flying creatures of the 5th day. We found that L and E were starting to forget stuff like how to write letters or numbers and sounds of certain letters after their almost 3 month break so we started some verbal review and now are starting school part time just to keep them learning and remembering and busy :)

Papa is back to hobbling about with a sore leg. Praise God it doesn't seem to be his back this time though his sciatica is still the thing most affected. He is seeing a new chiropractor in town who is also a bit of a physical therapist after our normal chiropractor didn't seem to be helping anymore. The new chiropractor says its in the muscles, not his back like last time, and whatever she's doing it seems to be working. His mobility after just one appointment was better then he'd had in weeks and it lasted until his next appointment and he got more mobility after the second appointment. We are both really hoping and praying that this does not turn into the 4 month painful drugged fall that he had last fall. I will keep you posted.

J spiked in growth again this summer and turned his winter chubby-ness into several more inches and size 5 boys feet! He is gleefully awaiting the day he is taller then me! J has made several new friends in our homechurch and completely enjoys our times with them. They are all homeschoolers to and I think it's good for him.

L got a sketch pad for his birthday and spends hours drawing in it and making up stories to go with his pictures. He tans very nicely and looks very brown with his hair bleached by the sun. L is really enjoying his school work and flys through the pages with precision. Adding is still a strong point along with very neat printing.

E is doing very well. She's been off her puffers for a couple of months and doesn't seem to have any problems with the summer pollen! She is eating like a skinny person and staying skinny much to her dismay. She is trying to gain 5lbs so she can go into a booster seat and sit in the back seat of the truck! I think she might just get there about the time J grows out of it!

R is our bubbly little girl. She got some new school books for her birthday and begs to do school with the others with her little books. I let her for a few pages a day. She and J3 are becoming fast friends again during the school days and I enjoy listening to the communication between them now that J3 is older and talking more.

J3, I'm pretty sure, has past R in the weight department and the way he's going will likely be as heavy as E in no time! We started toilet training him 3 days ago just after his 2nd birthday. He's taken to it quite well and only had one Opps yesterday. He loves the animals and we often see him hanging on Chip, who loves him!, or packing a kitty around. He also loves to be doing what everyone else is going and I rack my brain several times a day for little chores for him as he likes to be helpful when we are choring. He goes and does his chore then runs back to me and says 'mom mom' (his version of yes mom) and waits impatiently for the next chore!

Baby G is acting more like a toddler and less like a baby these days! Crawling, climbing, trying to cruise on the couch but it's too high so she cruises on Papa laying on the floor or a box or a kid or whatever she can find. She is eating 3 large meals a day and sleeping about 11 to 12 hour nights with a couple of day time naps. She is still toothless but by the looks of her gums when she gets her teeth she will get a few!

Anyway I've got to go! Papa is up, Baby G is up and it's time to get started on this wonderful day called Saturday :) Have a great day and God bless :)

The Car.. Good bye Car~ Large Family Home School Thoughts.

A home schooled teenage boy who lives down the road came over last week and asked about our car out front. It's been there for several years and we were just going to get it taken away so we gave it to him. 

They had a bit of fun getting it going as one of the wheels had seized up. But they got it moving and the teenager drove it home. He said he wanted it for a project and we were quite glad to help him out! 

We knew there was a home schooled family down the road but we've not had any contact with them until that day. They also have 6 children, 3 natural and 3 adopted. I believe the boy who got the car is the oldest? or second oldest at 13. This brings the total of home schooled families, that we know, of with 6 kids up to 4 families, not including us, in our area. Though we are the only ones with six in such a short age gap. For instance one family's oldest is 16 and the youngest is 1. Where is our oldest is 8 and our youngest is 6 months. M's from church are the closest age gap as their oldest is 12 and their youngest is 3 months. :) 

Thinking of the age gap helps me understand how people with as many kids as we have still think 'wow that's a lot of kids' simply because we had ours so fast while their 6 kids are spaced out over more years.