Happenings from the Bush homestead

Sure has been awhile!

I have been busy busy the last few months.  Baby #6 was born the begining of March.  We added a boy to the 5 girls we already had.  It's not a whole lot different....yet.  The clothes are a different color.  And he nurses more aggressively than the girls did.  I am told, however, that the big differances are yet to come.  I can't wait!  I love having 5 girls and now a son.  And hopefully we'll have more sons (or daughters) to come. 

I have also been busy with my knitting and crochet.  I have a blog just for that though since I could not get this blog to do pictures anymore.  www.sillyjencrochetsandknits.blogspot.com  I am thinking about changing that url name though.  But that's what it is for now.

While I sit here, thinking about what we won't be doing this weekend, I thought I'd put down how our weekends go.  Generally speaking.  If we do not go to the city to my parents that is.  I'm sure you've heard or read all of these tips before, but sometimes it's good to be reminded of some good tips. 

Getting ready for Sunday.  It really doesn't have to be a rat race to get to church!

Saturday night:  Get everything ready.

1.  Shower/bathe everyone in the house if possible.  Or for us, we bathe all the children on Saturday night.  Since my hair is so long and gets frizzy if washed at night, I get up a little earlier to shower on Sunday morning.  Everyone else, including my husband are showered or bathed on Saturday night.

2.  Clothing.  What are you and the family going to wear?  And where is it all?  Get your dresses out for the girls and slacks/shirts out for the guys.  Are they clean?  Need pressed?  Do it now.  I have a helper with the ironing a little now.  She can iron her own dress if needed and maybe one sisters dress.  I don't ever let her do it all.  I want her to enjoy what she is doing.  Not be bogged down by it.  They hang their dress at the foot of their bed or sometimes just back in the closet at the end where they can grab it quickly.

3.  Undergarments.  Does anyone need socks?  Or the girls need stockings or knee highs and a slip?  Hang them on the hanger inside your dress. 

4.  Shoes.  Do you always find you have only one shoe for each child?  I do.  Even though we have a shoe cubby, we still have trouble with shoes missing.  So everyone is in charge of finding their own shoes and setting them in line infront of the shoe cubby by the steps.  They must find their shoes before snack time Saturday night. 

5.  Bibles.  They must be out in the van on their seat before snack time as well.  For those who are too young to read a Bible, which is most of them, they have their bag of colors and paper ready out in the van.

6.  Breakfast.  Set the table before you head for bed.  I put 7 bowls with spoons and the cereal boxes out on the table.  I also put a loaf of bread and the butter dish out.  Incase some want toast instead of cereal.  Like myself.  The baby doesn't need a bowl yet

Some Sunday morning rules:

NO TV!  If the tv comes on, everyone is grounded for the afternoon from playing outside. 

Eat before getting dressed.  You must be up and down to eat withing 5-10 minutes of being told to get up.  Eat breakfast and get kitchen chores done quickly.  When finished with the table/dishes/floor get dressed.  No messing around if your bedroom us upstairs. 

Do your olders help with the younger children?  They should.  They can wipe faces and hands.  Change diapers.  Help with zippers or buttons, socks and shoes, combing hair and generally getting ready.  At about age 4-5 is when we start having them help with the younger children.  Each child has a buddy to help guide.  Mom takes care of the baby.  The 8 yr old helps the 4 and 3 yr old.  Our 5 yr old helps me with baby a little.  The 4 yr old helps the 2 yr old with some things.  They don't do it all ofcourse, but they can sure help put on shoes or help get a dress over the head, small things like that. 

We are about 1/2 an hour from our church.  So we have to be ready early.  Plus it takes about 10 minutes just to get everyone out and into the van with seat belts fastened and ready to move.  We start heading out about 50 minutes before service starts.  We are never early for church.  But we make it on time.  If my husband ever gets a day job again, we will be able to be at church earlier. 

If you have older children who don't think they can shower at night, they can.  It won't hurt them.  If the girls require a ton of time in the bathroom doing makeup or whatever, they can move to their rooms or just be happy with who they are and not put so much emphasis on their makeup.  It is good to be "put together" but it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to be so.  Vanity is not a good thing. 

Just another day

School didn't get completely done for our 3rd grader.  The Kindergartener got her work all done.  But she is still excited about school and learning.  3rd grader, not so much. 

I did more vacuuming with the new Dyson vacuum we bought a week ago.  It makes all other vacuums junk.  I wouldn't touch our carpet with a ten foot pole before, let alone sit on it.  It's old and very discusting.  In an effort to relieve our bad allergies a little before we get to tear out the carpet and replace it with wood flooring, we bought a Dyson.  The carpet looks much better and feels better.  Our socks don't turn colors when we walk on it.  I will sit (if I have to) on the floor in here now.  I will be more willing when not very pregnant like now.  LOL  After many days of vacuuming twice a day, it finally is temporarily acceptable.

I have gone back to making our own bread.  It's just too costly to purchase it at $2.17 per loaf for the bread that isn't full of fluff.  We go through about 3 loaves a week, sometimes 4.  So I drug out the bread maker for the time being.  I'd rather do it myself, but I've had a hard time with this baby that it's better to use the bread machine.  Homemade bread sure makes the best french toast in the world! 

Our children are supposed to be cleaning the living/roy room.  But #3 just "flew" through here in her capes and hats to save the world.  Umm...I'm fairly certain no picking up of toys is being done.  I best remedy that before said toys find their way to my trash bag.  OOPS! 

I'm still here

I just haven't had much to say lately I guess. 

Lately I have been going through the house.  Room by room.  Decluttering if need be, sorting, reorganizing.  The kitchen 'feels lighter' so to speak since I got it done last week.  Now I did the bathroom today.  We only have one bathroom, and it's tiny.  So it's not so bad.  I wiped everything down, including the walls and cabinets and such.  I will paint the cabinets next week.  They are discusting with their chips and cracks and whatnot.  I can't stand to look at them anylonger.  So, I would imagine 1/2 a gallon or way less than that even, and they will look great again.  They haven't been touched, except for cleaning, since they were installed in 1972 I think it was.  It's time.  We don't have a floor (it's just very base floor right now, ok, for the last 6 yrs) but I can't do anything about that. 

I'm still feeling aweful with this baby.  It just won't let up!  We changed out due date to March 6th.  So we're 16, just about 17 weeks along.  Maybe it's running after 5 other very small children, or maybe it's the condition of this house, or just a 'harder' pregnancy.  OR perhaps it's all of the above.  In anycase, it will be over by March.  I can't be pregnant forever.  Although, it sure seems like I have been.  *lol*  6 babies in 8 years.  And nursing everywhere in between pregnancys.  I love it!  But it's wearing on this 30 yr old body of mine. 

I can't compain like many people are lately, about being gone from my home all the time.  We CHOOSE to be home.     

Another long time between

Things here have been normal.  Not too much going on.  2 weeks ago, on August 1, we had a major storm come through that knocked down my husband's family's church.  Very sad.  We were married there and attended there for awhile.  But we hadn't attended there in about 6 yrs.  His entire family atteneded there since it began almost.  It was like a death in the family.  Everyone around here is devistated.  Cleaning up has been hard, but quick.  I had never heard of straight line winds before.  80+mph winds!  It knocked many of our huge trees down and one took out our power poles and lines.  So we were out of power for 2 days.  Many people lost sheds and barns and most of us around here lost our corn.  It's laying flat on the ground.  That was one scary night that I never want to experience again.  It sounded like a frieght train was coming through the house and it blew a couple of windows open.  I've been through tornadoes more than I care to remember, but this was worse because I was home alone with the five girls.  My Father In Law came to make sure we were ok and had us go to their house, since it's just over the hill, for the night and Wednesday. 

Otherwise, we've been trying to save some of the garden, but it doesn't look like much is savable.  It's knocked flat.  And many things were ripped out of the ground and blown away.  We might get a few tomatoes out of it yet, but the peas and beans and other things are all dead. 

Tomorrow we are hoping to determine our due date.  I was thinking the beggining of February, but now I'm wondering if it's not closer to March.  I am hoping our doctor will order an ultra sound to see if we can judge atleast by the size or stage of growth.  I don't need a specific date, because they never come "on time", but an approximate would be nice. 

I've been doing more knitting on the Christmas dishcloths.  The second is just about done.  And I've been crocheting on the afghan for my littlest sister.  She's moving out of my parents house in October, so she'll need a blanket to keep her warm she says.  I hate hate hate acrylic yarn.  Just the feel of it drives me crazy.  So I don't work on it much at a time. 

We have been working on some math pages and penmanship pages to get back into school habbits.  We have done thigns all summer, but I think we took the whole month of July off.  No biggie.  So now it's time to figure out where our oldest is in her learning so that I can order the right math books. 

So that's what's been going on.  We had some major plummbing issues over this past weekend too.  But my husband got that taken care of.  So he'll be going to the races with his buddy this Saturday.  Nick races, my husband does pit crew since he built the car for Nick.  And then this winter they'll be building another race car so they can run 2 tracks next summer. 

Laundry is calling my name. 

I'm a baaad blogger

I haven't kept up lately!  Yikes!

Let's see, we've gotten tons more beans and peas out of the garden.  They are in the freezer now :)  It takes lots to feed my crew, so I didn't get too many batches.  3 so far.  But there were tons of beans and peas.  We also got more cucumbers and zuccini.  They get eaten so fast though.  The tomatoes will be ready soon.  They are still orange.  I bet another week and we'll have tomatoes coming out our ears. 

I haven't done much knitting this last couple of weeks.  One slip stitch dish cloth and one K wash cloth that I made with blue cotton for our second child.  I will do each child's initial in a wash cloth in their color.  Just takes time.  And I will be knitting along with a friend on scarves for Christmas gifts as well :)  Time to think about that stuff.  For our Pastors and missions wives, I am going to do a dish cloth set in a cute basket for Christmas.  They don't need more 'stuff' I'm sure, but dish cloths are something we use everyday.  Practical and useable.

Well, I have a screaming 1 yr old who needs me.  :)

Some good news

We are having baby #6 early next year (2007).  Probably February.  I saw the nurse today to just find out about my blood work for my meds and make an appointment to see the Doctor.  So we'll see her in about 3 weeks and probably have an ultra sound to try and determin approx how far along we are and a tentative due date.  I'm not so worried about it though.  Baby will come when she/he comes.  Whether that is in January, February or March, there's nothing I can do about it. *lol*

I really like Felicity Anne for a girls name.  But I'm not sure how dh feels about that.  We've had Garrit William on our list since before our first daughter.  Since we haven't had the chance to name someone that yet, Garrit is it.  :-) 

We (at home) are all excited.  But leary about who we're telling until it's obvious.  I will tell my MOPS group at our September meeting.  And have our church put us on the prayer list.  There is no one there though to rush to tell.  And the children will tell their Grandparents so that maybe we can avoid the comments and stupid looks.  Those of you with many children know the looks I'm talking about I'm sure.

A new weeek :)

It's going to be almost, if not over 100 degrees here this week.  I think today was the last "cooler"day in the upper 80's.  I love it!!!!!

I got lots and lots done here today.  The kitchen top to bottom.  Literally.  I did the ceiling and walls, counters, fridge, table, some cabinets, the floor.  The girls helped with things at their levels.  And did much of the laundry.  I got the watering/weeding done in the garden.   Plus washed the kitchen windows inside and one outside.  Got some of the junk infront of the house moved too.  The old doesn't work grill, the 2 discusting old chairs and other misc junk.  There is more to do tomorrow still.

Tomorrow we will go to town and get meat and possibly a new vacuum.  This one is hardly workng anymore because of being so used and beat up.  There just aren't anymore hillbilly ducktape fixes my dh can do to it.  Plus we will work on this room.  Sewing cabinet clean off, computer desk clean off/out...find the couch under the laundry piles.  I will mop the ceiling and walls.  No more standing on a chair and reaching while trying not to fall.  Tear the ceiling fan apart and wash the glass and change dead light bulbs.  Vacuum and dust piano, cabinets and bookshelf.

My sewing machine bit the dust yesturday.  I've had it home for about 2 weeks.  It worked great again to do the girls star dresses.  Then Sunday morning, when I needed it, it did the same broken timing thing.  *sigh*  So...$50 more down the drain.  I've worn it out though the fix it man said.  Which is very likely.  Absolutely likely.  Guarenteed.  I know they can only take a beating for so long like mine has.  1 1/2 yrs and I've used it nearly everyday most weeks.  And made a couple hundred thing with it *lol*  I feel like a fish out of water without it. 

But that leaves time for other things.  Like big cleaning jobs and cleaning up the front of the house.

Have a great Tuesday!

5 things about this and that

5 Things in my Refrigerator:

1. Organic cottage cheese
2. Chicken
3. 5 dozen eggs
4. Organic milk
5. Organic Rice milk

5 Things in my Closet:

1. Books
2. DH's bill files
3. big scrap material boxes
4. Empty hangers
5. Photos

5 Things in my Purse:

1. Green and purple pens
2. Receipts
3. Bandades
4. Cell phone
5. Hair ties

5 Things in my Van:

1. Camping things

2. Diapers
3. Wipes
4. Blankets
5. Worship CD's (Casting Crowns, Veggie Tales, Randy Travis and Alan Jackson's praise and worship)

It's Thursday

The garden work is done for today.  Just a little watering is all.  I weeded enough and mulched in many places with weeds, so there is not much to weed.  I still have some tall weeds though in the corn, but that's on tomorrow's list if I feel better.  I did a second planting of peas yesturday.  Hopefully they'll come up alright.  I have a great ant population out there. :-/ 

The kitchen is mopped and shiny.  Only for another hour or less though.  Dinner time comes, and my nice shiny disinfected floor will be dirty yet again.  Go figure though with lots of small children *lol*

There is still laundry to do.  But that will wait until I've finished my Doritos black pepper jack chips.  Don't try these unless you like spicy food.  I love spicy food, so these hit the spot.  And my RRLtea. 

I have nothing important to say today.  I have more on the hot pad/pot holder done.  Crochet is so much faster than knit for me.  My Great-Grandmother used to crochet when she was alive.  She made more things that I can even imagine.  One of these things were pot holders.  She liked pot holders for some reason.  My mom has some that were left after she and my Grandfather passed, so that inspired me to make pot holders.  They are sooooooooo easy!  Chain as long as you want it to be wide.  I did 38 I think this time.  Next time I think I would do 30 maybe.  Then just sc or hdc around without increasing at the ends.  It will fold up on its own.  Just keep going around with the sc or hdc until you have the size you want.  Then sc the edges up and you've got a pot holder.  You could chain 8-10 and slip stitch it in a loop or hanging too.  Very easy.  I've seen patterns for them  But I went off what my GGrandma did :-)

A few things going on in the garden.  We've an huge amount of rain which has kept me from weeding the grass/weeds.  I did not get out there today again because of the rain.  Maybe tomorrow it will be dry and sunny to get out there and finish the hoeing job.

Anyway, in the photos....

top: the lone surviving watermellon plant.

next: one of the many many bean plants and one of the many bell pepper plants.

then: one row of tomato plants and then a couple of the pea plants.

So instead of garden work, we've been working on moving our oldest daughter to the upstairs 'dormer' sort of room.  She wants her own room of sorts.  She won't be having it to herself, since there are 5 girls so far, but atleast she can share it with child #2 and be out of the babies room.  So we're making the house into a 3 bedroom instead of 2 bedroom.  We will have to replace the windows up there.  Either this fall or next spring.  A bonus for her, is that is has purple shag carpet straight from the 70's? I think.  I hate it.  But they love it. 

And working on laundry too.  Sheets and that sort of thing.  But it all fits in one load with the bigger washing machine now :-)

I've implimented a new summer reading plan.  We don't do the "book it" program from Pizza hut or anything like that.  So I thought we would do our own :-)  For every 5 full pages of reading books for their reading level, they get a sticker on their reading chart.  So after 150 pages, they fill up one sheet.  When 3 sticker pages are filled up, they can go choose their own mini pizza OR get an ice cream cone.  Since the flu is going through our house again, they've been sorting the books shelves and making piles of what exactly makes 1 sticker.  Many of our books are minimal words becasue of the ages of our children.  Though, the oldest is getting quite a collection of 'real' books for her third grade level.  But if she reads a stack of books to her sisters, they get 1 sticker.  After today she will have to read books that challenge her reading ability to get stickers. 

I bought a new large chore chart to keep stickers on too.  A month per child is on the chart.  And they'll get the star sticker at the end of the day when the cores are done.  I sure hope it kick starts their drive.  With summer upon us, it's harder to be excited abotu doing chores.  It's nice from dawn to dark.  I don't want to be in the house either all day doing chores.  So some incentive might be fun :-)

Something else we are doing is the ABC memory verse program.  Obviously, we're starting with A this week.  In 26 weeks, we'll have learned 26 verses to memory.  And have a good way to remember them by too.  It was kind of expensive at $8 for the book, but it's reproducable, so I can scan it for each child paper and mini book.

Laundry is calling again.

Monday 19th

Hoeing the garden is torture.  Especially when you have not weeded it in a week due to the rains.  My weeds were very tall.  I hand weeded to begin with.  Then my Father-In-Law took pitty on me and welded the blade back on the handle of my hoe.  I busted it straight off a couple of weeks ago.  I got about 1/2 of the garden done.  Not too bad considering the large size of the garden.

I guess I'll finish the post tomorrow.  I'm tired and baby is asleep. 

Some more from Tuesday :)

Here is another photo.  Maybe one you can see better?  This is the view South and a tad East of the church.

I went out on the tandem bike with my Father-In-Law last night.  That was fun.  I hurt today though a little.  I defentely need a different seat for captaining.  Tomorrow is the family ride to pizza/birthday party for our oldest daughter.  We'll have two tripple bikes and a pull-behind buggy.  I am going to captain the santana bike with my two oldest daughters.  My In-Law's will have my third child on the back seat and the two babies in the buggy.  I sure hope they do alright.  I hope I do alright being captain.  Yikes!  We were supposed to go out and practice again tonight, but two of the girls are asleep and one is fussy with a fever.  So no practice for me tonight. 

My garden is coming along nicely.  Even some of the weeds are growing nicely.  I'm finding it hard to keep up this summer.  With this many little people in the house and being gone at VBS all week, it sort of got away from me.  I did spray the thistles along the edge with something.  But nothing IN the garden got sprayed.  The roots were just too deep for me to hoe out.  Besides that, I busted my hoe right off the other day.  That's on my husbands to-do list this weekend.  Weld the garden hoe.  My garden claw just doesn't do the trick sometimes. 

Tomorrow, I am going to purchase a large camping tent and small grill :)  We can't wait to get going with learning to camp.  I've never done that before.  We may also get an ice cream maker.  I love fresh ice cream. 

So, speaking of ice cream, time to go get some Well's Blue Bunny sweet and salty ice cream and watch some I Love Lucy episodes on dvd. 

Happy weekend :)

VBS is over for us now.  The girls program was last night.  They did a wonderful job.  The program was very fun and cute and they all did the actions and sang!  We had a good time.

While we were there, there was a downpour of rain.  YEAH!  When we went out to the van to go home, there was a most beautiful rainbow.  I took several photos, but now I can not find the cord to dowload them to the computer.  AK!  Again, I put it in a safe place, away from little fingers and I can't remember where that is.  So I will look again today and try to get some of the photos up here. 

  with some much needed  overnight.

So today is catch up day on laundry and other chores.  I'm exhausted though.  When you're not used to being gone all week, it's hard to adjust.  We were supposed to go into the city today, but I think we'll wait until next week.  My sewing machine is down though, so I may change my mind and take it in to my parents in the city.  I just can't go without it anymore.  I have many dresses to sew up still and other thing to sew as well.  It's so very windy though.  What to do...what to do....

Happy weekend part one

I came upon these sites last night before I shut down.  Some excellent information here http://www.the-color-green.blogspot.com/ and here http://www.theorganicvegetarian.bravehost.com/index.html.  I have been growing my garden organically this year.  It's a lot more work than just going and grabbing chemicals to kill the bugs or kill the weeds.  Especially the ants who like to carry my seeds away.  Since what's left is already sprouted, now I have to fight them off the plants.  I would try the organic ant deterant and such, but that would be against my spend-no-money-after-seeds garden theory.  *lol* 

I hope you enjoy these links  as much as I am. 

This is a busy busy week for us.  Vacation Bible school week at our church.  I'm working in the nursery.  We only have a few children though.  Two of which, are my own.  So it's fairly quiet in there.  I miss my computer time.  But with VBS all morning, then the 1/2 hour drive home, gardening and feeding/caring for the children and husband, plus house chores.  Yikes!  I'm exhausted.  Everyone is in bed, so I should head there myself.  Next week!  I will be back at this more :)

In our 1/2 hour drives to church and home again, I've been thinking more about how to pair down and simplify.  I was talking to a missionary family at our church.  They are getting ready to head overseas in September and just got their crate packed for shipping when ready.  So I started thinking about what exactly we could not live without if we went to the mission field.  We are not, but it's a base I'd like to go from.  What do they take with them?  What can they and do they live without?  We will keep our electric appliances and certainly my new washer/dryer set.  But other things.  Toys, clothing, books, whatever else.  So I am going to talk some more with our missionary friends who are getting ready to head to the field this year and early '07.  Perahps they will have some ideas.  If missionaries can live without it, why can't we? 

Growing up, my mother had this shelf of bells.  She loves bells.  And they are/were all so pretty and shiny and sounded beautiful.  She still has them, and lots more now.  But, it was my chore to dust these shelves and the bells every week.  ACK!  I hated that job!  I had to climb up the chair, get everything off the shelves, dust top to bottom, dust each bell and try not to drop them, then arrange them back the way they were.  I tell ya, I hate dusting to this day.  I hate clutter too in part because of that.  The bells mind you, weren't clutter.  They all have sentimental value that is obvious when she talks about them or shows them to someone.  But I remember having to dust those things and shelves.  I'm not as clean and tidy as my mother is.  So I can handle some dust.  Doesn't bother me much, except my allergies.  So it's good that I don't have a bunch of little things like that to dust.  I used to, at the old house.  I threw it out when we moved over here. 

Another new week :)

Another new month and another new week  

I finished 2 little dresses for a friend's baby girl.  They were soo cute.  It's a good thing that they were too small for my youngest or I wouldn't have been able to give them away.  *lol*  I took a photo of them, but we got a different computer last week and now we don't have the software to dowload the camera.  UGH!  So I'll have to take the memory card to the store and get prints to scan in.  And then, but a real camera that doesn't require the use of a computer.  I like the digital though.  Oh well!

The crocheted blanket for my nephew is still not done.  One of these days it will get to Florida.  He's not due for another month anyways.  I also started a burial gown for a tiny baby who didn't live long.  I'm doing the knit-along with the www.lucybug.org ladies.  Check it out and knit along with us.

My husband is out mowing the farm as I type.  He started tilling my garden yesturday before it got dark.  But needed to mow since the storm is coming in.  I'm so excited to see my garden getting tilled up to plant! 

This was my first and last year for starting seeds indoors.  I will never do that again.  Everything died just about.  I still don't know what I did wrong.  I watered sufficiently, even got a 'sun' light bulb for the light above them.  So I guess harvest will be all at once and not spread out.  Oh well!  That just means we can until my hands fall off for a week or two in the fall.

There is laundry to get to since baby is playing on the floor now and the others are out helping dad and Papa with the farm stuff. 

Have a wonderful day :)

This time change

This time changing is hard on a mama.  Now everyone's bedtimes are messed up. 

Toddler turned 2 today.  She is enjoying the SeSeame Street playdough toys and her wagon.  Now I need to make more playdough.  Maybe I'll post the recipe sometime.  It's the first one I've found that wasn't sticky and gross. 

We've started potty training Toddler.  But tomorrow had something come up, so we won't get a full day of good training in.  Oh well.  Maybe my mom or little sister can offer some encouragement to her tomorrow. 

I have been doing some research lately on a body's pH levels.  Interesting stuff.  I get the Above Rubies magazine, and was reading it the other day.  Pearl wrote an article on pH levels and how it affects a person.  I am convinced I am an acidic person, so now it's time to get my level to about an 8.  If I think of it, I will get some pH paper tomorrow at the health food store.  Here are a couple of sites if you are interested....

http://www.essense-of-life.com/info/foodchart.htm

http://www.alkalizeforhealth.net/salivaphtest.htm

Tuesday.

Tonight is the homeschool meeting for the area.  We have to drive an hour to get there.  But my parents live in the city, so the girls get to spend a few hours with them while I go.  They love it.  It's been a month since we've been in to see them.  We've been so sick constantly and they've been busy busy with Great Grandma in the hospital and funerals of friends who've died this month.  It's been a long month for them. 

Toddler's birthday is next week.  I can not believe that our little severely jaundice baby with major allergies is going to be 2!   I'm thinking she'll get a big box of blocks for her gift.  But I'm not sure yet. 

Time to get crackin on the homework. 

Rambles from Friday

We are doing a Bible study on finding and keeping joy.  Thus, the reason for the list of 10 things that bring joy in each day.  I hope to keep that up for the 7 days of the assignment. 

On my friends blog she talked about what they consume in a certain period of time.  I keep pretty good track of what we go through.  Mainly, because money is extremely tight and there's no room for double of this or that anyhow.  Here are a few things off the top of my head...for one week...

16 red rasberry leaf tea bags (I love tea too!)

10-14 peppermint tea bags

generally about 2 bags of flour

1 bag of sugar

5 gallons of juice

5 gallons of milk

1 bag of raisins

3 dozen bananas

2 dozen apples

6 cans of mandarine oranges

1 pound of butter

1 large box of rice

approx 4 pounds of carrots

1 bag frozen pineapple

1/2 bag of other frozen fruit

5 pounds of potatoes or more

I will be adding lemons to our list this week too if I can find them.

There are currently 7 people.  One child who is allergic to wheat and dairy, so she has her rice breads and rice/almond milk.  We use only organic dairy products.  Organic milk, cheese, sour cream, egs, etc.  And other things like apples and carrots that hold the chemicals, we buy organic.  We are trying to find a meat source for organic meats.  But out here, it's hard to find.  I'll keep looking though.

So anyway, there are just a few things without doing much thinking about it.

I've started my "spring cleaning".  The bathroom, since it's small and gets wiped everyday, didn't take so long.  I haven't done the window yet though, since it's still cold outside.  And my bedroom I started too.  Still need to declutter the desk and dust.  But this can not be done until tonight after my husband is gone to work and some children are in bed.

Time to go take some exederine for my working migraine and get back to the laundry.  I heard the buzzer from the basement.

Whew! Another week

Another week is almost over.  And again, we've had sick children.  The toddler has been throwing up for two days.  No one else is sick though.  Yet.  There are seven of us, so I'm sure it's bound to get passed around.  We shall see.  Maybe, one of these days, we won't have anymore sickies.  Come on hot sunshine!

I baked two bread loaves this morning.  We were out, and with this blizzard like storm, I couldn't go anywhere.  Made some milk from the powdered dry milk too.  Then lunch was sour creme swiss steaks.  Apparently, I'm the only one who liked them.  *sigh*  So chalk that recipe up to the trash can.  Isn't worth puttin gin my book if I'm the only one who liked it. 

I also started to try the chevron stitch in my knitting today.  I tried it eons ago and it flopped.  So I tried again today.  I counted extra carefully and paid extra close attention.  It still just doesn't seem right.  But maybe I"m just not far enough in the length to judge that yet.  I'll keep plugging along.  If nothing else, I'll have one weired looking scarf for next fall/winter.  HA!  I'm using suede, so I can't just use it for a dish cloth if it doesn't turn out.  I suppose I could undo it and use it another way.  But that is not fun to do.  Frogging?  That's what ripping it out is called right? 

I wish I had more interesting things to write about.  I've read some pretty interesting blogs in recent days.  Things are frozen up solid outside, so I can not garden.  My greenhouse is not built.  Yet.  We only have 3 roosters right now as far as animals go.  Soon we will have a gazillion chicks and some hens!  Our nieghbor is hatching some soon for us to buy.  We're very excited!  We hope to be self-sufficient on the eggs once we learn how to do that.  We had a beautiful duck for a short while that would lay one egg every morning.  The girls fought over who got the duck egg for breakfast that day.  Then the duck met its demise with our idiotic dog.  Who, btw, almost suffered the same fate.  But the children talked me out of it.  He is still here.  But will be on a VERY short doggy leash by April 1.  We have him a two foot leash last year tied to his doggy hut.  I was hoppin mad with that dog.  Buddy, the sutpid dog, is a miniature greyhound.  The funniest, weiredest lookin dog in the world.  Faster than I've ever seen a dog run too.  I hate dogs!  We love chickens and ducks and geese.  We had a few geese several years ago.  Did I mention that I hate dogs?

Today has been a frustrating day.  Much like yesturday.  With a sick toddler, a crabby husband who is doing hog chores for his parents (who are out of town) after working a 14 hour night and then again before he goes back to work.  I tried to get some sewing done.  But didn't.  I did get a few pinwheels cut out for the quilt for our oldest daughter.  And laundry has piled up again thanks to all of the washing of gross sickie blankets, towels and sheets.  Tomorrow is MOPS.  I'm hoping the toddler is well enough by then.  She's been doing much better this afternoon.  And if the weather isn't bad still.  And if we can get the van out of our yard and down the lane and then down the dirt road, we will go.  If any of these things is not in order, we will be home. 

There ya have it.  Another peek into my days at home.  Yesturday was much the same.  And tomorrow (if we do not go to MOPS) will be more of the same.  We did manage to get school completely done for today.  A lot has been accomplished, but there's still more to do.