Our Eldest is 11 Yrs. Old Today

Happy Birthday, H! Our oldest son was born 11 yrs. ago today. I can't believe that much time has elapsed since I became a mother. He was born in a little community hospital south of here. He has kept us on our toes since day one. He walks to the beat of a different drum, and is definitely a non-conformist, though not for the sake of rocking the boat. He continues to make us smile with his quirky sense of humor. We are so blessed to call him ours.

Here is a picture of him at 2 1/2 mos.

It Was Bound to Happen

It happened. I knew it would, and it finally did.

We went to buy mice to feed our snakes. They come home from the pet shop in a little cardboard box. Sometimes the shop keeper tapes it up really well; sometimes not so much. Well, H put the box on the floor of the car, and proceeded to step on it (accidentally) just enough to cause the box to collapse on one end. (In his defense, the box was not taped very well this time, even though I mentioned my concern to the pet shop worker when we were checking out. Also in H's defense, nobody else wanted to hold the box all the way home either, so the burden was not entirely on him.) We didn't know the box had a gaping hole in it until H looked down and saw a white mouse in the car. He hollered, and the mouse ran! He climbed into the panel that covers the wiring, etc. in the front seat foot area of the car. Now what?! H saved the day, redeeming himself! He coaxed him out with a crumb of food, and H caught him. Phew! That was a close one.

And let's just hope we learned a few lessons from this.

A True Confession

I have a confession for you all. You might think badly of me for saying this, but I just H-A-T-E hate to brush my kids' teeth. (Anybody been reading the wonderful kids' books lately about Clementine? If you have, you know what I mean with the spelling.) I try to maintain patience, as my frustration does not help the situation any, but it's SO hard. They don't want to open their mouth wide enough for me to see anything. When I can't see what I'm doing, I poke them in places they shouldn't be poked. Oops....sorry! And their tongue continually stays where it shouldn't: in the way! They have to spit and swish and spit again, something like 50 times during the teeth-brushing session. This really annoys me. And the whole brushing production lasts much longer than it really needs to.

So there you have it. I am a horrible, impatient mom.

My Boys in the Kitchen

This is a funny one. I can't wait to tell you. My boys got out the big brand new jar of applesauce, and served themselves some. They ate 3/4 of the jar (the jar is the big one!), before they reported to me that the applesauce was spoiled, and maybe they shouldn't eat any more of it. In fact, they wanted me to take it back to the store to get our money back because it was bad. You know what was going through my mind now: Oh, no! Will they get botulism because they ate so much of the stuff?

I started my investigation. I tasted the applesauce from their bowl. Yes, it was very BAD. Yuck! But something wasn't quite right, and now I'm starting to get suspicious. I checked for a "Best By" date label and I didn't find one. I wondered if the seal had popped up when they opened the jar, but there was no way to check it after the fact. Next on my list: checking the rest of the kitchen. You know what I found? Ground Cumin with the lid off. I sniffed the cumin, and Yep! Sure enough, it smelled like the "spoiled" applesauce. Do I even need to tell you how my boys are just like their dad in a certain area? If a little of something is good, then a lot of it is even better. They must have used a lot of cumin in their sauce, from the pungent taste of it. Long story short, we need to keep working on our reading lessons, but also on not assuming we know what something says without sounding it out. They thought they had doctored their applesauce with Ground Cinnamon. We all had a good laugh about it. But I still can't get over how they ate so much of it when it tasted so bad!

Menace to Our Neighborhood

We've got a coyote on the loose, and he's getting very bold. Here is a picture of him. (Click on the picture to blow it up bigger so you can see him better.) In the middle of the day, he ran across the entire width of our property, across the property of our neighbor, and into a bunch of pine trees. He's been spotted several times, by many different neighbors. A couple neighbors are planning a hunt soon. This is because the coyote has taken down a couple goats, many chickens, and even a horse lately.

This Moved Me Today

This You-tube video touched me this morning. I don't know how to upload it directly to my blog page, so you'll have to go here to see it. Please watch it to the end. (It's not very long.) That's where it will get you.

Silly Girl With an Imagination

Our little girl has always had quite an imagination. From a very young age, she has never ceased to make up colorful stories to entertain us. For the longest time, she considered me her "pink mama". According to her, she had 9 mothers, each a different color. Luckily, I was always her favorite, though she sometimes missed the others. This story continued for about a year when she was 3 yrs. old.

Lately, she's come out with some interesting play-acting scenarios. They crack me up. Here, she's a "Native American Indian Woman." The "feather" sticking up in the back of her head is nothing more than a play cooking spatula, stuck in her headband.


In the pictures below, can you guess who she's supposed to be? Why, she's "Bindi, the Jungle Girl". I had to laugh when she came into the school room carrying a giant green rubber snake with her brother's grabber. The snake, of course, was held at arm's length so it wouldn't bite her. She also has a very good memory! She's only seen the Bindi show once that I know of (and it wasn't a snake show!). If you look closely, the two pictures of her holding the snake without the grabber, she's holding the snake behind the head properly so he can't bite. It was so cute to see her painstakingly pick him up ever so carefully "the right and safe way" she said.

Of course, I do take the time to teach her not to ever touch a snake unless I tell her it's safe. This is a precaution we must take since we have 2 pet corn snakes that a fellow homeschool family passed on to us several months ago. She is not to be outdone by her brothers, and loves to hold them too.

Hornet Sting Update

Son C's hand and arm have finally lost most of their swelling, though it's still itching. He was stung early Sunday morning, so this has gone on for several days now. We did visit the doctor, and yes, we need to get the epi-pen, to have on hand, just in case he were to be stung again. The next time could be the "biggie". So, we'll get our insurance in a syringe, just in case. The doc gave him a DVD and a pretend injector that he's been practicing with. He's most interested in the fact that the shot can shoot right through his blue jeans if need be. Boys are so practical sometimes!

The OTHER Labor Day

I got this "meme" from Hillside Hollow. It looked like fun.

How long were your labors?
#1--About 20 hours. Pitocin sped things along artificially. Actually, this (early) labor was several days long, but I'm only counting from when my water broke to delivery.
#2--About 12 hours.
#3--About 16 hours.
What does it say about me, the mother, that I can't remember exactly how long my labors were?

How did you know you were in labor?
#1--My water broke with a slow leak. I waited several hours to call my doctor, to be sure it was really a broken water bag. I didn't want to look silly and be sent back home!
#2--Contractions getting stronger and closer. My water never did break with him until my first push for delivery.
#3--Water broke at home again, but more gushing this time.

Where did you deliver?
#1--Hospital. Pitocin, Epidural, Doctor, the whole 9 yards.
#2--Birthing center. Midwife, Doula, Water birth.
#3--Home birth. 2 Midwives, Water birth.

Drugs?
#1--Pain-causing pitocin. Yuck! Epidural. Scary. I don't want to do that again!!
#2--No drugs except for antibiotic for beta-strep.
#3--No drugs at all. (Still beta-strep positive.) I used natural methods to fight beta-strep.
Water birth works wonders for pain control.

C-Section?
#1--The doctor thought I would need a C-section. I would have had one if I had gone another hour.
#2--No.
#3--Very close to c-section again, but because she was in breech position. I prayed non-stop for 2 weeks straight, then God helped me turn her with my own hands in utero, at home one morning in the peace and quiet of a sleeping household on a Sabbath morning. I still claim this as a personal miracle.

Who delivered?
(Stated above.)

How big was your baby?
#1--7# 5 oz. Born 4 days after due date.
#2--9# 2 oz. Born nearly 2 weeks after due date. He was over-cooked!
#3--8# 6 oz. I used several natural methods to induce my labor. She came on her due date.

Now it's your turn. How about sharing your labor stories?

Bad Luck With Bees and the Like

Our family has had more than our fair share of bee, wasp, and hornet stings. But one of us seems to get stung the most. It's happened again. Our second son C got stung by a wasp or hornet or whatever yesterday on his right hand. Now his hand is so swollen up he can't even snap his pants, use a fork to eat, build with his legos, or anything else with it. It just so happens, he's right-handed, so the problem is compounded. He is simply miserable. It's swollen half-way up his arm also, and it stung him on the hand. I figure I need to get him to the doctor to see about the need for an epi-pen just in case it happens again. It could be worse next time!

I took pictures of his 2 hands, the swollen next to the other "normal" size hand as a comparison. He forbade me to put the pictures on my blog. He's embarrassed because it looks "so ugly", he said. Just picture a latex glove that somebody decided to make a balloon out of. That's what it looks like.

I've given him benadryl a few times to help the reaction. If it helps most people to feel drowsy, it's caused him to be either hyper-active/anxious, or maybe he's just over-tired. I can't figure out what the trouble is, but he hasn't slept from it at all. We are, to say the least, miserable from the benadryl as well. It's going to be a long rest of the day.