The 2 kittens after milking this morning. When I went in to get the camera, I may have to start carrying it during chores:), they were both balenced on the edge of the bucket drinking milk. I always milk in to the plastic pig bucket so I don't really care if they drink out of it. They can't climb the stainless bucket :) This morning both of them looked hard at my hand before running for cover and the black and white one tried to climb the bucket while I was milking.

Here is a J funny for you!!

Last Sunday during Church J had a battle with himself. After lunch he told Papa about it. J is 4 and we have often told him that there is a good person and a bad person inside of him and that he needs to work at bringing the good person out into his life. Here is what he told Papa "When I was sitting in Church the bad boy wanted to wiggle and play, so I flicked myself on the head and told him to go away!!" It must have worked as he was quite good during Church.

Why we do not 'do' the easter bunny, santa cause, or the tooth fairy.

Well it's rather simple actually. Our job here on earth as Christian parents is to teach our children about Christ. First and foremost. It's not to make enough money so that we can send them to the best christian schools or to find them a great mentor so that they can learn to be like Christ though another person. Those things are good things. But they are NOT our principle job as parents who love Jesus Christ and have a personal relationship with him. Our job is to teach, preach and LIVE the example that Christ left us. Not that we are perfect as He is perfect but with Him living in us He helps us to do our very best. God isn't finished with any of us yet, and won't be until the 2nd coming of Christ. Therefore we do not believe that teaching our children about imaginary 'people' who steal in to our homes in the dead of the night (to leave presents or not). Have you seen God?? You may have seen his works or his hand moving in areas of you life. But the Bible tells us that NO ONE has seen God. Have you ever seen the tooth fairy??? No?? What about the easter bunny?? Now keep in mind. We do celebrate Easter, when Christ died and rose from the dead. We do celebrate Christmas as Christ's Birthday. We do have gifts and trees and lights and all that other fun jazz. But we do not 'do' santa. And we will not. Our children know about santa of course, it would be very hard to keep him from them as he is pasted everywhere for several months. And they know about saint nick. The wonderful man who started the tradition. But they also know that there is no such thing as santa and that saint nick is a story that happened a long time ago. They also know that other kids are told, by their parents that santa, the tooth fairy and the easter bunny are real. But we've chosen not to lie to our children. That's what it is. You can paint a pretty picture around it and make it all fun. But your lying to them. And if you lie to them about the easter bunny, santa claus and the tooth fairy why do you think they will believe you when you tell them about the One True God who loves them and died on a horrible cross and rose on the 3rd day for THEM. They've never seen the real santa (everyone knows those men in suits aren't him.), they've never seen the tooth fairy or the easter bunny. They'll never see God either, not unless they're alive for the 2nd coming or dead. And believing in Him after their dead will do them no good. They need to repent and believe in Him here on earth. There will be no 'changing your mind' when your dead!! Even if they do believe you when you tell them about God maybe they'll believe He is like the easter bunny, santa, and the tooth fairy... and they'll out grow Him as well with out ever having that life changing belief in Jesus. There is only 1 person who is invisible, who loves them and brings them wonderful gifts and He is not found in stores a Christmas wearing a funny hat and shaking bells. Or in some far away fairy land where they 'somehow' know when you've lost a tooth and fly into your home, your very room, and leave you money under your pillow. Or in some hopped up huge bunny world where they make eggs of all colors all year then hide them for you to find one morning. He is here on this earth. The Bible says He is everywhere and He knows everything. And the fact that He loves us should make us grateful that He is here and He does know everything. Because someone who loves us does the BEST for us. Not the worst. And that is why we do not lie to our children. Because we love them and we believe we are doing what is best for them. Even if they feel left out (which they don't) or even if it makes them oddballs or even if it means they come to believe in The One True God and go though tribulations their entire lives!! That is my greatest wish for my children and as a Jesus loving parent that is my calling, my job.

The Neat thing I saw this Morning.

I was just finishing up my morning chores, I do all my chores before the kids wake up, and was walking back to the house from where the pigs are when I heard a funny sound. It sounded like a VW car horn, you know a little Beep Bleep. Sort of. I couldn't place it. It repeated it's self over and over and finally I looked up where the noise was coming from and there, flying over our place, were 20 white swans. 2 different groups but a full 20 in total. I had time to count them twice as they flew over me. I've lived here most of my life and I've never seen that before. Never 20. Usually in groups of 2 or at most 4. I have seen swans grouped together on a field or lake in large numbers but never flying. They call to each other the same way geese do. They also switch up to rest and take turns in the front like geese do. But instead of a honking goose noise they sort of go Beep Bleeepeep. I believe they are trumpeter swans as I looked them up in my bird book and the only other swans we have a lot, the Tundra, of make more of a cooing sound. Now if only I took my camera on chores!! What a picture I could have gotten!!! Beautiful!!

J on our 'big trip'. He'll be 5 in January.

L with his mischievous smile. He is 3 years old and loves trucks and all things with wheels or moving parts. He is the closest thing we have to a 'family clown'.

The little Griggers sitting on our new (to us) 1970 International ambulance.

E, J and L having a tea party with E's new tea set. They had hot chocolate, crackers and chocolate chips. Lots of fun!!

Update!!

Well Papa loves his new job and we are all loving the family time it gives us. We have always tried to do family devotions after supper but it was hard to keep up with Papa gone so much. But now that he is home every night we have finally been able to make it a nightly event. Papa is also getting a lot more sleep which is good as neither of us realized how sleep depraved he really was. Now that we are almost a week in to the new job he is finally starting to feel rested up. Amazingly enough he has only had to do one thing, so far, that he has not done before working on our own rigs or his last bosses trucks. Papa has also been trying to read the 'little house' books to the kids and I before bed and with his new job that has again become a nightly occurrence.

Baby R has found her moving motivation. LOL. She learned to roll back to front a while ago but now she's rolling here and there and scooting backwards and forwards. She gets stuck under the couch, chair or table regularly. This morning she was stuck beside the couch but managed to roll out of it!!! Good Girl Baby R. She has started 'talking' too and loves to 'talk' (little noises that sound like a foreign language) to people, toys or whatever. She started saying "Da Da" a while ago and now will sometimes say it to you if you ask her too. She has also learned how to spit. She is still toothless but is working on her 1st tooth. It is almost through but it doesn't slow down her eating at all. Yesterday I gave her the heel of bread (whole) and she ate almost the entire thing with out help. All that was left was two pieces the size of a quarter. This picture was taken at E's Birthday Party. Baby R is almost 8 months old.

This morning while I was milking the cow one of the kittens, the orange one, drank out of a bucket I was holding. (I almost always milk right into the pig bucket, for those of you who were worrying:). Later on I moved the cat's milk dish closer to me, about 1.5 feet away and both of the kittens still came to drink. Whenever I moved they would either look at me and then run or just run. But they are getting tamer little by little. Soon I hope to pet one.

"The City and Timbits of Other News"

Yesterday we headed out to the nearest big city for our oldest son J's eye specialist appointment. Our appointment was a 10:45 and we got there at 10:35 (early for once). We sat in the waiting room until 12:30 when we got to see his doctor. His doctor is a wonderful person and we like her very much. We only wish they could get it together a bit better:) This not being our 1st time we knew that we'd have to wait. So we come prepared with a novel for me and a bunch of "Graze" mags for Papa. They have toys and books and chairs for the kids so they are entertained. When we finally got in the room Dr. V greeted J and then turned to Papa and I, I was nursing Baby R and Papa held both E and L on his lap, with a stream of praise for the behavior of our children in the waiting room. She told us that every one of her patients that had come in (there was at least 6) while we were there had very good things to say about our kids. Some of them even told her that they wished their children/grandchildren were as well behaved as our 4. I think she realized that she was embarrassing us when neither of us said anything and Papa's face got all red. I'm sure mine did as well. I did manage to smile and say thank you before she thought us daft. J did really well with the eye testing and we learned some great news. His eyes are, with his glasses, now 20/20 vision. His lazy eye is responding very well to the glasses and she said she could get it to turn out but it took a bit of confusing it. With his vision she said that there is a very good chance, now that we've found the right prescription, of him not having to wear glasses once his eyes mature. Usually just before teenagedom. We like our eye doctor as she always checks all the kids while we are there. So while her nurse was checking L and E's eyes with this neat little card with some kind of pic on it (neither Papa or I could see the pic but both L and E could), Dr. V was busy talking to J. I overheard some of it but not all of it. I told Papa about it later and we both smiled about it. Dr.V always asks J what he wants to be when he grows up. J never really has an answer (sometimes he'll say he wants to be a Papa) and this time he must not have either. So Dr. V was putting the idea in his head to become a eye doctor. Tricky lady!! :) :) I know they are few and far between here and I know that people who grow up in the area are more likely to stay in the area and if they will get a needed profession all the better.


We always take the kids out for a special meal after J's appointments. To thank them for being good and because we are all hungry and thirsty after waiting so long. So we go to our favorite "swordfish" place. And we always make the appointments for Tuesday because it's all you can eat fish and chips on Tuesday. So Papa and I have fish and chips and the kids get to pick from the really cool kids menu. Their kids menu is pictures on a place mat in rows of main dishes, sides, drinks and dessert. They boys always get 'worms and dirt' for dessert which sounds nasty but really is great. It's chocolate pudding with Oreo crumbs and whipped cream on top, but the best part is the candy worms that stick out here and there. The 1st time we got it L refused to eat it. YUCK. Was all he'd say. Papa had to convince him that it was good and take the worms out so he could see that they were candy. Now he inhales it like a beast. The best thing about the 'swordfish place' as the kids call it, is that we only go a few times a year which keeps it special and a huge treat.

We had a few hours to spare so we went shopping. Mostly looking for Christmas gifts and seeing what caught the kids eyes. We've done a bit of Christmas shopping but we are not nearly done. Yesterday I did find Christmas shirts for the boys, on sale 30% off, and a CARS ornament for L for his stocking. Papa and I have decided that we are going to get a babysitter in a week or 2 and leave J, L, and E at home while we go Christmas shopping. Baby R is still nursing so we will take her with us. We want to go all day and hopefully get done!! We are also going to go out to our favorite fancy place to eat. Yum. We normally go for our anniversary dinner but we were out of town this year so we missed it.

Our surprise kittens are getting tamer everyday. They moved from the shop to the chicken barn to the milking area/trailer area where they seem to be staying. They come out every morning and evening for the 1st squirts of milk and are getting a bit rolly. The other day one came and sat right behind Bindy's front feet as I was milking. It sat there and stared at me. We've decided to let them make the 1st move, so I just kept on milking. They are really cute and we often see them playing on the porch or in the milking area. I've tried taking pic's but they move so fast that they are all blurry.


E is now two years old and the day after her birthday I told her no more diapers. So far she is doing very well. I did this same thing with J and L and they both did very well. That is not their 1st learning experience with the toilet. In fact they all start sitting when they are about a year old or whenever I can start to catch them going regularly. We also do "dry training" which is simply teaching them that dry is good... wet is not. I put underwear on them and then praise them and give them a chocolate chip or treat if I find them dry. It takes no time at all and I have a small child running up to me yelling "DRY DRY" while checking their bums for dampness. I always recheck as they are still learning and then they get their treat. This took E all of 2 days about a month ago, as the boys learned really fast that they will get a treat if they are dry as well. In those two days I heard "E are you dry??" Then "SHE'S DRY MOMMA" about 200 times a day. LOL. Then everyone gets a treat. Even momma 'cause I'm dry too don't you know!! LOL. She's on day 6 and the last two days she's only gone thru 2 pairs of underwear. (she wears one pair most of the day then the other pair the rest of the day.) Yesterday in the city she wore pull ups or 'travel underwear' as we call them and she stayed dry until after their nap on the way home. If you ask her if she has to go she will tell you 'yeahas' or 'no tanks' in her little girly girl voice.