My Handsome Son's Birthday is Today

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SON!!!

I can hardly believe you are 9 yrs. old already. We love you dearly.

Love, Mom

He's Happy Now

I just finished my son H's quilt this evening. I wanted to get pictures of it to post here, but he took it straight to bed with him. I'll have to post pictures later.

So, all 3 of my kids have a quilt of their own now, made by their Mama. My son C said he wouldn't sell his for $1000.00 because it's too special. H, on the other hand, is always figuring how to make some moolah! He wants to sell it for $1000.00, and split the money for me. Then, he says, I can make him another one. The wheels of thought are always turning, aren't they?

Check back for pictures.

Liver Transplant Update

My mother-in-law didn't get that liver on Dec. 11th. I kind of left the story hanging, but she got to the hospital and did all her surgery prep. She was on the table, ready to be cut open, and the transplant team called a halt to the transplant. Something on the donor liver didn't look good. We were all very disappointed, but knowing that kind of thing happens, not too discouraged.

She ended up getting a liver for real this time, on Dec. 28th. She had a rough go of it for a couple days after the surgery, but she's home now and doing very well. She's feeling SO much better, it's amazing. We are very thankful for God's care over her. She's got a new lease on life. For those of you praying for her, thank you so much.


Here's a picture of her with our little girl, taken about 1 1/2 yrs. ago.

BIG News!

I had to share this. I just got a call from my mother-in-law. My father-in-law is driving her to the hospital right now for her liver transplant. She sounded chipper on the phone, even excited. I'm sure it must be nerve-wracking, though. If you would, could you please pray for her as she goes through this process? I appreciate it so much, and I know my husband and the rest of the family do also. Thank you.

It's Exciting

I am excited to call myself an honest-to-goodness tutor of children that are not necessarily my own. I officially started tutoring a couple weeks ago. My idea was to tutor children that are at the level of my boys, or below, since all that stuff is in my recent memory. That's not how it turned out for my first student, however. A homeschool mom approached me a couple weeks ago about working with her 11th grade daughter when she has essays, reports, etc. Wow! I am not the best writer. Sure, I did fine with it when I was in high school and college, but to teach somebody else how to do it? And this long since I did it myself? I didn't know how I felt about that. I guess I don't have much confidence in myself as an upper-level teacher, but figure I'll work up to it right alongside my own kids as we homeschool through the years. I did it once; I can do it again, right?

Well, I worked with her for an hour a couple weeks ago on a history paper, and I wasn't sure it helped her. Our mistake was to start with her paper already half written, and try to fix it up a bit. We weren't sure of the instructions for the paper from the on-line school. Since she forgot to bring the actual assignment along for me to see, we ended up winging it. The other problem was that she was writing about something I don't know anything about. We didn't have her history book to look stuff up in, so I wasn't sure what was going on. I can say that we did our best. One good thing, though, as an added bonus, my kids were perfect angels and let me work with K for a whole hour and a quarter without interruption. I was so proud of them!

Well, she called me to work with her again, and I went to her house this time. My kids were able to play with her 12 yr. old son while I was busy with K in the dining room. We were able to start from scratch on the project, review the lessons that they were "testing" her on, and write the paper. You know what? The grammar concepts I was supposed to help her with didn't look like anything I have ever seen before in my whole life! I needed the review in the beginning of our session probably more than she did. (Do you guys remember verbals, gerunds, infinitives, participles, and complex vs. compound sentences? I think the terminology has changed in the past 20 yrs!)

It took us 2 solid hours to complete the assignment, including the review. We both felt great about the paper, and she was even smiling when we got done because she felt like the lesson material finally made some sense to her. I was so excited. We called her mom in to see what we had accomplished, and her mother asked her to save it (again, since we had made several changes since the last save). Her computer has been having troubles, and it deleted instead of saving it! So all she had was about half the paper saved. She had to replicate the rest of it by herself before turning it in to the on-line teacher this morning. It was getting late, and I had to get the kids home for supper. It was getting dark when we left their house, and I knew it would take about 50 min. to drive home.

I have been sick about this whole thing, since we had that paper fixed up just right before it was partially lost. I just called K to see if she had any news about how well her teacher received her assignment. She was elated to say that she got a 95% on the paper. I am so proud of her. I can't help but wonder how she would have scored had the paper not been cut in half before she could turn it in.

If anybody knows any other students to send my way, let me know. I could get into this, and it sure helps while we're struggling with our business right now.

MIL Update

I am happy to say that my MIL is out of the hospital and home where she's much more comfortable. The internal bleeding must be finally contained; after a couple surgeries and several blood transfusions, she's feeling much better.

I was able to give her the quilt I made for her, and she loves it. It even matches their sitting room perfectly. (I'm really glad she approves of the colors I chose, as I'm not as good with colors and design as some of the other women in my family!) My in-laws spend a lot of time in this room, so she'll get ample use out of it. She loves that it's soft on her skin, and therefore doesn't aggravate the itching she gets, as often happens with liver patients.

More good news--she's first on the liver transplant list for our area. It could be any day now, when they call her to come in for the transplant operation. She's ready to get it over with, and we're hoping it's sooner than later.

Our Thanksgiving

I'm not getting on to moan about our Thanksgiving Day. I have plenty to be thankful for, and I am thankful for so many things.

Our thankfulness is overshadowed though with news of my husband's mother. She went in the hospital Wed. morning, and is still in tonight. She was not able to share Thanksgiving dinner with us and we missed her.

I just got off the phone with my father-in-law and he said she just got out of surgery. Hopefully, they were able to fix some leaking around a shunt near her liver. She's been bleeding internally and they haven't been able to figure out what the problem is. She is very ill this time. She is in desperate need of a liver transplant, but I fear she's too ill at this point to even get one.

I am frustrated with waiting. My FIL is a loner much of the time. He doesn't want to "put us out" to have us drive all the way in to the hospital with all 3 kids, only to find she's gone the whole time for procedures. We wouldn't mind going in, but he does seem to want to go through this in his own way. I feel so helpless just sitting at home waiting for the phone to ring. So, I leave it up to my husband to make the decisions about when to go in to see her or not. It's hard for me to just wait.

I did call her on the phone today (finally got her, since she was out of her room most of the day.) She could hardly talk to me, and most of the time she was not even thinking clearly. Plus, she was simply too weak to speak.

So, I wait and I pray. And I wish I had given her quilt to her long before now. I was saving it for Christmas. Then, a week ago, I decided to give it to her for her birthday/Thanksgiving, since we aren't exchanging Christmas gifts this year. And now, I wonder if she's too sick to know when I give it to her. I made a custom personalized quilt label for it 2 nights ago, but I can't show the pic here since it's got personal names on it. (If you want to see the label, email me and I'll send it to you. It was an iron-on, colored in with crayons and set with a hot iron. It turned out really nice.)

So, I'm off to pray some more. And hope we get to see her tomorrow at the hospital, feeling better than she has for the last several days.

Quilted Tote Bag

Phew! It's finished. I've never done anything like it before. I got inspired by the "freebies" I won in the quilt shop drawings. I decided to make a quilted tote bag. It sounded so easy, but I can admit now that it was pretty hard, and much more time consuming than I ever imagined.






Now for some nitty-gritty. The body and inside are made of Moda Cranberry Wishes charm squares. They are pre-cut 5 inch squares of various coordinating fabrics. They're wonderful for people like me that have difficulty choosing fabrics that "go together" nicely. I had to cut all those squares down to 4 7/8 inches, so I don't know why I didn't find a pattern for straight 5 inch squares. I will next time!

The bag inside and out is quilt "as you go" patchwork. I used an internal stiff interfacing. I think the interfacing was a little too stiff. Next time, I'll choose one that's a little lighter.

All in all, I think I've learned a few things through this sewing process. (I've been denying that I've been sewing these past few months. Quilting is easier if you ask me!) My son H thinks that I should make these bags to sell. I don't think that's an option, given how long it took me to make it!

Something to Brighten My Day

I have been hit with a cold. It started Mon. night when I was at the quilting club, which I have attended for about 6 mos. now. It meets monthly, and works on various projects for charity. I should have skipped this month's meeting, coming down with a cold, but I so enjoy sewing for charity groups. I took my little girl with me this time, and she was an angel. The other ladies really enjoyed her, and were pleased to find her so well-behaved. They invited her back next time.

Anyway, I've been muddling through the last couple days with this cold, trying to maintain my sanity with all 3 kids underfoot, without as much direction/school activity from Mom to keep them busy, and it's hard. My other HS friends know what it's like. : ) Well, today I got notice that I won (2) drawings for quilt shop merchandise from a recent Shop Hop that I participated in. I am so excited, because I never win anything! I won $100.00 store credit to a local shop for anything I want. Second, I won a $75.00 gift basket to another local store. This surely brightened my day.

Little Girl B's Birthday Quilt Finished (Late Post)

You all may remember I was working on a quilt for B's birthday. I did actually finish it just a few days after her B/day, the 4th of July. I have been informed, however, that I never posted pictures of it! So, here it is. She is pleased with it, and it is on her bed to cover her every night when she's sleeping. She doesn't seem to pack it around the house as much as C does with his, but she still tells me thank you frequently for her birthday present.

Some specifics about the quilt: B picked out several fabric prints, and I had to find something "to go" with them to finish it with. It is narrower than C's quilt, but still pretty big. There are 5 applique blocks on the front, and each of them are different. I pieced the back of the quilt with all manner of leftovers I had from the front, so I didn't have to buy more fabric. It's a hodge podge back, but functional. I wish the pictures showed their true colors. They don't look near as nice in these pictures.

Son C's Quilt Finished

I made a pretty big quilt for our middle son. It has duck fabrics, feathers, etc. He's just thrilled with it. Of course he hasn't told me so, but his actions speak louder than words. In this picture, I laid it out on a double-bed, and it's hanging over all the sides. That will give you an idea how big it is. I am glad, because it needs to be big enough for a tall boy/teenager. These kids just keep growing, and C is bound to be our tallest child. I'm glad he can grow into it. Oh, he sleeps with it every night, and brings it downstairs every morning. He's not carrying it around like a blankie, or anything, but he's using it for our story time each day during school, and also snuggling with it when we watch TV or something. For those of you interested in such things, the pattern uses (5) 1 yard cuts of fabric for the front, with hardly any waste. Don't make a mistake cutting it out, or you'll probably be headed back to the fabric store for more fabric.

I'm working on H's quilt now. 2 kids down, 1 to go!

Pain in the Eye

Hubby Ch got a metal shaving embedded in his eye. He woke up Thurs. night/Fri. morn. with pain. He didn't think too much about it, so went to work. When he got home, he worked on stuff around the house. Then he mentioned he wished he knew what he had done to his eye because it hurt. He's asked me before to look in his eye to see if I can see anything. Well, this time I did! Of course, everything like this happens on the weekend. We waited until after 9 a.m. to start calling around for an eye Dr. open on Sat. I finally found one, at the local Wal-mart. We took him in, and the doc proceeded to scrape the metal out. It was no easy feat. Evidently, the longer metal sits in the eyeball, the more it starts to spread out, molecularly! So, he waited about 32 hrs. to have it taken out, and it made it much worse. This is a picture of the metal fragment "before" it was removed. It's the small black speck below the pupil. He's feeling better now. And I am hounding him with taking the eye drops as prescribed.

Too Much to Write About

I will attempt to catch you up on our recent happenings. I can hardly believe I didn't write one blog post during October, but I did have a lot going on. This post will give you some of the goings-on, while keeping it a brief summary.

• Brooke started speech therapy at the local public school. It was a major pain getting her set up. In fact, it simply cements my belief in homeschool. I cannot believe the disorganization and hassles that went on just getting her started, and I am not exaggerating. In fact, today, when I took her over to the school for her scheduled session, (and it's a solid 17 min. drive one way), they made us wait 25 min. before they finally told me (after I asked them again, where the teacher was!), that she was sick today. She was sick yest. and called in again today. Hello!! Why didn't anybody call to tell me? We had to turn around and drive home with no session for our efforts. So, though it's a royal pain in the neck, we're going faithfully 2 times a week for 20 min. a session. Our drive time almost doubles her treatment time.
  
• I have been attending a women's seminar at church. It's about every 3 weeks. It is by a well-recognized local homeschool leader in our community, actually, and the meetings are very good. I've been to 4 meetings now, and there is one or two left. They have been very inspiring, and are helping me to think about how I can be a more Excellent Woman, able to influence and nurture my family for the good.
  
• The economy is hurting our construction related business pretty badly. This has been a major stressor. Trying to figure out what to do to help, I have sought part-time work that won't require me to put the kids into school. Also, hubby has a hard time getting home at a "set" time since he's running our business in town. He can't simply punch a clock and leave stuff for the next day. I had 2 solid job possibilities, but they both fell through.
  
• Another option for making some money, and certainly hubby's idea was selling stuff on ebay. I got it all set up, and sold 3 things, but the time involved, and the hassles of not getting paid, then the fees for listing the stuff, cement my distaste for the value of making any appreciable money on ebay. If it works for you, I tip my hat to you.
• Quilting--I have been quilting. I've finished 2 quilts since my MIL's quilt, and have 2 more half done, with one more started. I'll show you pictures in separate blog posts soon. Not only have I been quilting, but I've got 2 neighbors hooked as well. They are quilting away, and bring me their quilts to show me. It's neat to see them so excited about it, and it's neat to have some quilting friends to share with. My one neighbor L hadn't used a sewing machine since 7th grade in home-ec. She's about 7 yrs. older than me, so it's been a long time. But I love to see her having so much fun with it.
• Our homeschooling endeavors are going pretty well, though. We are finding much more consistency and less resistance this year. It's kind of nice to see the kids growing up in a lot of areas. Are they perfect kids? Certainly not. But we see progress in certain areas. This has not been easy either, when our school time has been cut into so much with the speech therapy.
• And finally, we have been very involved in following politics and the economy. It's pretty comical to see our kids "talk" politics and issues with people they meet when we go into town to run our errands. Even the little one can tell you what she thinks about what's been going on. All three of them are full of opinions. : )
  

Well, it doesn't look like much when I put it all down on "paper".

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.