4-H projects

Here Chick #1 is finishing up one of her sewing projects for 4-H. She still has two more that she wants to finish before next Thursday so we will see how much gets done tomorrow. I wanted to get a few good pictures of her sewing while she is 9 because before I know it she will be taller then me. As you can see my sewing area is small and just takes up a little bit of room in my bedroom.
I also have a very simple sewing machine 2 stitches. One 4-H girl in our group laughed at it. You know, that is just fine because I have made some really cute things with this little machine. Even this cute little flower girl dress two years ago. This was when little chick #3 was only three years old and was the flower girl for one of my close friends wedding.

Here are Chick #1 hands while she is sewing on her strap to her tote bag. Already her hands are about as big as mine.

Jumping

My children are not jumpers. They are not leaper. They do not like to fall off of things either. When it comes to diving boards, lets just say there is some hesitation. We are in the mist of swimming lessons. Daily we are driving to local pool. Note (it is a 20 min. drive) At the end of their lessons there is a free time where the children may jump off of the diving board if they want or play in the shallow water. For some reason my children always want to jump off of the board. But they can't always do it. Chick #1 was the best at this phenomenon. She would have grand ideas at home about jumping off the board. Then when push came to shove, she would stand at the edge of the board. Gaze into the water below and never jump. It was as thou a supper sticky glue was holding her feet to the board and she would not walk off or jump. Finally she would give up and leave. Chick #3 seems to be coming down with this same type of habit. Chick #2 just never wanted to try. "Nope", he would say. "Why wait in line and jump in the deep water when I can play all I want in the shallow water." This past week there has been an adventurous growth with in chicks #1 and #2. During lessons Chick #2 jump off the board and figured out that it was fun. Chick #1 was sad and stressed by the board. She would not even walk up to it. On Sunday, the whole family went to the pool to cool off from the heat. The little Chicks think that it is so much fun to swim with the Rooster. I suggest to him the we should jump off of the board because I did not think that Chick #1 had ever seen us do that. We have always been to busy trying to keep out wee little chick floating. So the Rooster jumped off a few times. Then I jumped off of the board a few times. Then Chick #1 seemed to become a little braver. The Rooster was able to get her to get on the board but she would not jump. He got her to jump into the pool next to the board and just a few moment later she was jumping off of the board. She had been smiles ever since. The photos are ones that I took today during lessons and while I swimming with little chicks after our picnic.




Chick # 1 making a leap into the pool from the board.

Chick #2 is getting reading to jump in. I could not get my timing down to get a good photo of him. Either he runs in our he swaggers up to the end then leaps in a way only a boy could. Cannon ball style
Chick #4 just because he looks so darn cute with these little goggles on. He hardly puts his head under but he loves to wear the goggles.

This photo was taken on Saturday, the Rooster birthday. He had to work over time so we meet him in town and went out to lunch. After we enjoyed some wonderful pizza we headed over to the zoo. Don't you think that it is fitting that the little chicks are "hatching" out of an egg.

Lutheran Carnival LIV

Please visit the Lutheran Carnival LIV and see what fellow Lutheran's are blogging about. I seem to have been noticed this time. Thanks to Pastor Synder for hosting this time.

A July 7th photo

Every year, but one, we have taken a family picture of us on our front porch on the fourth of July. This year we were just a few days late. Our fourth of July day was very busy. We were a little sleepy because of the party that we have gone to the night before. Chick #2 was in the local 4th of July parade for his baseball team. I did not get pictures of that because my batteries died in camera. You have got to hate that when that happens. Then the afternoon was filled with cooking, lighting fireworks and swimming. This photo was taken on the 7th before we went to yet another party at one of our friends houses.

NOW

Then 2002

Sunset

On the 3rd of July we went to one our friends house for a July 4th party. There is always a lot of food, fun and fireworks at this party. Usually we spend most of the time in there front yard which faces the east. That is where their driveway is and most of the kid fireworks are lit there. This year the kids packed their swimming suits because I knew that there might be swimming. I was able to see this amazing sunset because the pool was in the backyard. While the girls were splashing away I was snapping away at God's own fireworks.

Pretty Feet

I have pretty feet today! The Rooster had bought me a gift certificate to have a pedicure and manicure done for Valentine's Day, but who wears sandals in February. So I had saved it for July. We have a parade to go to and a 4th of July party so I want my feet to be beautiful. I had never had a pedicure done before and it was something else. I got to sit in a massaging chair and soak my feet in a built-in jets tub. I did giggle when she scrubbed the bottom of my feet but I tried to control myself. The little painting on my big toes were $5 extra but I could not resist. Hopefully it will last for a while.

VBS done!

I am done planning and living through an other VBS week. This was the first year that I ever served as VBS director. It takes so much planning and typing and calling people to prepare for the week. I was a little over whelmed but it always turns out fine. We had enough teachers and helpers. The kids all had fun and I think that we were able to teach them a few things. Chick #3 is sitting just behind the juice pitcher. She was hoping VBS would never end.

As you can see I had decorated the snack area to look like a market place. We used a VBS program that Pam Neilson had written a few years back. Her programs are very no frill and full of good theology and liturgy. The one that we did this year was call "Here I Stand". It was all about the creed, Martin Luther, and the time of the reformation.

June flies

Our month of June just flew by so fast. I can not believe it. It is like I blinked and it was gone.
One of reasons for this happening was because of softball and baseball. We were running to games about three to four times a week. We had to many suckers and a lot of sunflower seed but it was fun.

Chick #1 got the chance to be pitcher. She was hoping all season that the coach would give her a chance and he finally did in the last season game. Then she got a chance to try again during their tournament and she ended up striking someone out.

Here is chick # 1 and 2 in their ball uniforms.

Chick #2 caught a toad I found in our garden. The kids had a lot fun playing with it and watching it hop.

Here is chick #4 at our last ball game. His big brother is on third base and is getting ready to try to run to home.
It was also the rooster and my anniversary. He always buys me roses on our anniversary, so far we have 12 years down hopefully many more to go.

Taged

Barb the Evil Genius tagged me to tell 8 things about myself that people do not know. I think her plan was to get my blogging again. LOL! I have been absent do to having NANA and PAPA porcupine visiting for a week and now VBS is going on. If you want to see pictures of the chicks and me drop by NaNa Porcupin blog.

1. My name is written on the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Yes, it was me that did it while I was in high school.
2. I attended high school in Kaiserslautern Germany.
3. I am afraid of the dark.
4. I have been in 4 beauty pageants.
5. I won first runner-up twice
6. I am awful at grocery shopping and will panic at the drop of a hat.
7. I can sing in front of an audience without panicking.
8. I hate to look at pictures of ships that haven sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Creepy!

There you go. Nothing to exciting but a little interesting. Now I will tag NaNa Porcupin, and Melissa.

Ball games

Here is chick #2 batting the ball at his baseball game. I also tried to post a picture of him as catcher but the computer is not wanting to work well. His team is undefeated so all of the little guys are excited about that. Chick #2 won a game ball the other night for "knocking the snot out of the ball" as his coach put it. He is now hoping to start a game ball collection.
Here is chick #1 batting for her softball team. Their team has not won a game and have a hard time hitting the ball. Chick #1 is about 50/50 when it comes to making contact with the ball. The girls are always more worried about sunflower seeds then softball.
This is the view from the ball field in town. I think that it is just great. You look out into these open fields and you do not see and houses or buildings. The field over in the other town has an even better view. Maybe I will be able to get a picture over there on Wednesday night.

Garden views

Here is a view of my humble garden. It is not a whole lot to look at but hopefully we will be able to get a few goodies out of it. I have planted lettuce, peas, tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumbers. It does not get a lot of afternoon sun so the north side of the garden did not get planted. Nothing ever grows there so I am not going to waste my time putting in little seeds.
Here are the peas and lettuce. I have planted them in four foot squares so that I will be able to weed them a little better. Everything is a little wind blown do to the gusting winds we have had the past few days. Plus the "ugly duckling" has done some damage.
Look at how his paw has stomped this helpless little cucumber. I tell him to get out of the garden but it is hopeless. I am using an organic weed preventer that PREEN puts out. I will keep you updated at how well it works. It is 100% corn meal gluten so the "ugly duckling" had to try it. I thought that it would be best to have safe stuff down in the garden because of him and the children.

Sunday afternoons

You have got to love Sunday afternoons. I have had a very lovely day. Today is the first day that I am trying not to take any Tylenol between the Ibuprofen doses and it is going OK. I am staying busy so that helps. Last night I had remembered that I had wheat soaking so I made up the loaves of bread and mixed up and baked banana bread. The banana bread was made out of freshly ground whole wheat that had been soaked for 24 hours in yogurt. It turned out really nice and it was not as sweet as traditional recipes. It was very hardy and filled us up quickly. The regular bread that I baked was turned into little pizzas for lunch. I sauteed garlic in olive and coconut oil and then I tossed in some canned tomatoes. I placed this on the sliced bread and then put on a little shredded cheese, cottage cheese, Parmesan and then garlic salt. Then were very tasty. After lunch I spoiled myself with a coke and I read the Sunday paper on the front porch swing. Later on, Chick #4 woke up from his nap and I took him into the back yard. I hoed and weeded half of the garden and put down an organic weed preventer. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to finish and then I will post a picture of how well our vegetable garden is doing. After I get this posted it will be time to find a little supper for my chicks and we will enjoy a movie.

Wisdom teeth update

Ouch! I had no idea that it would take so long for the pain to go away. I have taken more ibuprofen and Tylenol then I would even care to count. The good thing about this is that I have lost four more pounds. Hopefully things will greatly improve in the next three days. Until then I will just feel like a junky waiting until my next fix of pain pills. Yuck!

Water drops

My mouth is giving me grief today. The pain medication is not helping as well as it should so the oral surgeon told me to use extra strength Tylenol and ibuprofen. So, while I am waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in I need some silence. Of course I choose to blog. Yesterday we had a very light rain shower and the drops of rain held onto the plants for hours. I took these shots just after I put the kids to bed. I think that "the rooster" thinks I am a little nuts. But didn't the pictures turn out nice. Right now we are getting a real down pour. I guess that I will be dealing with the mud a while longer. Every pair of my children's shoes are covered in mud.

Holy Matrimony

I heard some sad new last night about a couple that I have known for most of my life. These two people have decided to no longer be married and I find that very sad. What makes a couple decide such a thing. I understand that sometimes there are instances of abuse or unfaithfulness in marriages that cause a couple to be torn apart. But what if those extreme circumstances are not there? While I was thinking about writing this blog I thought I would be able to gain some insight by reading over the bible verses that were read during our wedding. I can tell that I was a young woman when I was married because I did not have the readings printed in the bulletin. I guess I will have to write them down the next time that "the rooster" and I watch the video.
When I was married to my dear husband I had no idea what a marriage involved. I can bet that I thought I did. I did not know that Christ himself had given us a example to look to. It was after I had been married for 5 years that I learned of God's built in guide for matrimony. His Son and His church give us the perfect example. My husband was taking a confirmation class from our good friend Pastor "K". He spoke of Christ's love for the church as an example of how a husband should love his wife. The church is ever thankful to Christ for him giving himself up for the church. He did so that the church would live. I looked at my life and how "the rooster" makes my life possible. I am able to stay home and do my job because of him. He gives me food and drink, clothing and shoes, house and home, children and all I have. He is doing the very job of God. Let me clean up that phrase. It is not him, it is Christ in him. I feel unworthy of all of this love. What can I possible do but to say thanks.

So now why do people give up? Do they know of this example? Do they see Christ in their everyday lives? Or, is it, that when life gets a little easier, it is just that much harder to cling to each other. I do not know. I just ponder such things while I can not sleep.

Living a lie

I love to try and live a lie. I try it often at times and it makes me just a little crazy. If I know that people will be coming over to my house I am consumed with living the lie. The lie is that I live in a clean house. My house is not really a clean house I just try to make it look like one. Remember there are four children and a dog in this house. The lie is huge! I drag the entire family into my lie and they grumble while they are on the journey. We run around and clean, put stuff away, hide things and what ever else it takes to live the lie. You all know what I am talking about. We do not want to show our real selves to people. "I would be so embarrassed if people knew that my toilets were not always clean". I know that some of you also live this lie. But the lie often goes farther than just a clean house. It will cross over to parenting, marriages, and work relationships. All of this hiding of sins is a part of our sinful nature. We are always at a war with in ourselves. Our sinful nature is getting the best of us and Christ is always there in us too. We sin and are evil and our Heavenly Father sees in us his Son, Jesus. We daily need to be reminded of our death in baptism and the forgiveness so freely given to us from our Father in Heaven. You must excuse me, I told chick #1 that her friend could come over so I have to finish cleaning. I am a sinner as always.

Photo information

If any of you would like more information on the photo that I used in my blog about vocation here is a link : http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html
Thank you Mom for doing the research.

Wisdom Teeth

Yesterday the whole family was up early so that "The Rooster" and all of the chicks could take me to town for my appointment with the oral surgeon. It was that day to have my top and lower wisdom teeth on the right side pulled. Before any medical procedure you have to sign papers saying that you have read all of the risks involved with the procedure. I was just about ready to walk out that office while reading them. But I calmly remember that God the Father is in charge and I would be in his hands. So I signed my life away, paid my $215 and walked through the door. The doctor had very kind nurses and they were trying to be so gentle with me. I then told them that I had had four c-sections and I could handle getting an I.V. just fine. They said that often times they will get young 18 year old girls in there passing out or crying while there are getting their I.V.s. They of course had to stick me three times. I do not know why God gave me such tiny veins. They were finally able to get the I.V. going and I fell asleep while I was talking to them. I woke up to sound of chick #4 laughing in the waiting room and then saying Mama. The dentist said "I think that little guy wants you." That was that and I was up. Thank goodness I do not remember a thing. They had to break one of my teeth into four pieces. The dentist also thought that it was a little strange that I wanted to take my teeth home. But any true homeschooler would make a lesson out this. He told me that they were still dirty and I should clean them, but what is a little skin when you are talking about science. Chick #3 wanted to borrow one to put it under her pillow but I told her she would have to wait till she lost one of her own. Chick #1 and 2 thought for sure I should put them under my pillow. So far the pain has not been to bad and I am hoping that holes in my mouth will heal up soon. For now I will just have to take little bites of food and chew slowly on my left side.

Vocation, Vocation, Vocation

What is your vocation in life? Are you a daughter, sister, wife and mother like I am? Do you constantly care for children every minute of ever day? Do you push everything aside so that you can be there for you children. Do you humbly bow your head and ask the Heavenly Father to give you the strength just to get through one more day. This photo made an imprint on me the first time I saw it. I think that it was a few years ago but I do not remember the exact moment I saw it. What I remember is the feeling it gave me. It made my stomach feel uncomfortable. The worry on this mother's face is haunting. Is she hungry, are her and her children with out a home? Is her husband gone? Then the thought wonders into ones own mind. What if that was me? How would I every handle it. The vocation of Mother is a trying one. We must forgive children when our sinful nature still feels anger for them. We must guild them daily in their learning. We have many sleepless nights staying up with sick children or giving comfort to scared ones. Do you think that I am sounding a little preachy now? Oh, these are things that you must do. You must also teach them the scriptures and the catechism. Plus you must not become angry with them or provoke them. It is a large bill to fill, isn't it. Many of you are saying, "I can not be perfect, I can not do it all". Let not your hearts be troubled. You can not do it all but one was sent who can. He was raised by an imperfect mother yet he was perfect. He could freely forgive the worst of sins while we struggle with minor ones. He gave more than any of us could ever give. His blood washed us and we were crucified with him in our baptism. Jesus Christ the Son of God has lead the perfect life in our place. His blood has washed us clean. In our baptism we died and He lives in us. He is the one fulling the vocation of Mother. We may grumble about our job but he will be vigilant and raise our children under his wings. My nine year old daughter stated it very plainly once for my five year old daughter. The 5 yr old asked me, "Where is Jesus?". Then the nine year old said, "He is sitting right here, and you know what? He made the pancakes this morning." I must say that He does a pretty good job making pancakes.

Beer Anyone?

This did not turn out to well but it is funny.

It's gone!

I am warning you now that an embarrassing thing is about to be revealed about our household. Do ever suddenly realize that you forgot to buy toilet paper. Suddenly you are walking through the house and looking under the cabinets looking for and extra roll stashed somewhere. Upstairs in the bathroom you find the same thing, none. Oh no! Where did it all go. With four children we seem to go through toilet paper a lot. Probably way to much. I am sure that all of the liberal green people would be upset with our house. So at the moment my toilet paper holders look like the above photo. All I can say is thank goodness that we had runny noses last month and there is plenty of Kleenex on hand. Otherwise, well lets just not go there.

I also thought that I would give my blog a new look for the summer months. It is a little daring for me to change it but I think it fits.

The Big Blogroll O' Vark

It seems that my blog has been noticed at the http://aardvarkalley.blogspot.com

aardvarkalley is one the first blogs that I ever read thanks to a friend who sent me a link about Charlie Brown. At that time I had no idea what blogging was or how to even get started. Thank you aardvark for placing me on the bbov.

Little Dancer

A Dancer in waiting

My little dancer is not such a little girl any more. She will be preforming in her fourth dance recital this month and yesterday was picture day. These are a few of the shots that I took.

Practicing a few steps

Our town is being invaded by Munchkins

Oh No! You caught me on film

Flapper Girls

The girl's instructor makes all of their dance costumes for the recital. She always makes sure that there is plenty of coverage and the girls do not reveal to much. Everything is very tasteful and I am so thankful for that. She very strongly believes that the little girls should be little girls and have fun. The classes are also very small so that is nice. One of the girls from the class was sick yesterday so we just had two getting their pictures taken. Next week is recital and that always makes for a busy weekend.

They did not die

This spring we had some very cold weather that I thought would kill my bleeding hearts. There was a pile of frozen foliage where the plant was making it's annual debut. As you can see it came back and is almost in its full glory. The kids just love this plant and wait for it to bloom every year. I guess that I am having a flower day.

What type of flower?

Can anyone guess what type of flower this is? I will give you a clue that it is somewhat mutated. I do not remember the blossoms ever looking like this or the anthers being so numerous. Maybe the testosterone in the flower just got the best of this blossom.

Race Day

This is the medal that all of the finisher received. I must say that I am still wearing it. I earned it baby!
You can barely see me in this photo. My shirt is that little white things just off of the lady in pink shoulder. I had been by her during most of the race and of course I had to past her and cross the timing mats before her.
My daughter took this photo in front of the wall that we are taking the wall paper off of. It looks pretty good. I am not wearing a stitch a make up and I am a little tried today so my photo is not glamorous. But then running is not a glamorous sport. At least I crossed the finish line strong and I did not puke. My husband had taken a picture of me before I left the house at 5:45 AM, but they did not turn out. Sorry.

Some of you may know that over the past three or so months I have been training to run in my first half marathon. For those of you that do not know how far a half marathon is, it is 13.1 miles. Today I can proudly say that I ran 13.1 miles in 2 hours 30 minutes and 51 seconds. We had a little timing chip that we had to tie to our shoes. That way your time waiting to cross the starting line does not count. There were about 5200 participating in the half and full marathon together. My husband took the above photo of me. I am the one in the white jersey with my knee up in front of the army truck. He does not claim to be a photographer so it is a little blurry. I was able to make a good sprint to end, if you can call it a sprint. I must have pasted about 20 or more people in the last 1/2 a mile. At that point you do not have a far to go at all and the fast you run the less you feel your legs. I will not tell you how I feel now but it was worth it. It was worth every ache and pain to be able to say that I had the guts to try. As we began the race my heart was pounding from the excitement from the crowd. I had never experienced anything like ever.

What????

I guess we do not have enough to do around here. My husband got that

itchy feeling that we should start a new house project. He wanted to rearrange our bedroom, but I said no. I have such a hard time sleeping when we have changed things around. So I guess we will redo the living room. It is only fitting since we have new furniture. We will be doing this room one wall at a time and I will keep you all posted on how this is progressing. I just hope he realizes that this means I will have to buy new curtains too.

Daddy breakfast

My husband has a wonderful tradition of cooking breakfast on Saturday mornings. It gives me a little break and the children so look forward to daddy's breakfast. As you can see it is a real man's breakfast. The meal is always the same bacon, toast, and fried potatoes and onions with eggs. The potatoes and eggs are fried in the same pan that the bacon was fried in so they are extra good. He also cut up all of the potatoes and onions to go with them. He learned to make this dish from my Mother while we were camping. It was always known as our camping breakfast while I was growing up, but Birk loved it so much he wanted it more often. That is why he decided to start making Saturday morning breakfast. This has been a tradition for about 9 years.

Where did the puppy go?

Remember that we got a little puppy last October? You can always look at my past blogs if you would like to see a puppy picture. Well this is what he looks like now. A fifty pound teenage dog.

He loves to tease our children and this morning he let me brush him. Hopefully, some day, he will let me trim his hair so that his dark brown grown-up hair will show through. He still has the softest fur. For some reason he prefers toilet water to water in his bowl. It must be a dog thing. He still wiggles everywhere when he wags his tail, I guess we should have named him wiggles. This morning he crept upstairs after the kids had let him outside. He laid his head down on the bed right by me and began licking my arm. He then crawled up into bed and actually behaved. He usually is not supposed in our bed, but he seemed rather sweet this morning, so I let him. Maybe he will grow out of the teenage years and become a trustworthy dog.

Shoes

My little two year old son was given a job to do the other day. We try think of very simple things that he can easily do so he can feel that he is helping the family. All of the other children were helping pick up in the living room after the school day was over. My husband told my son to pick up the shoes and put them by the door. There were probably four shoes scatter about in the living room. What my husband meant was that the shoes were to be placed on the brown rug by the door. Our little son picked up every shoe that was already on the rug and moved them to the door, just as my husband has said. Birk, had to laugh at the way a two year old mind works. He told Wyatt "good job, son" then Birk fixed the shoes.