At Home in Georgia

Today was the Christmas program at church. The kids did a wonderful job and the ladies who organized it were great! They had the idea of taking pictures a few weeks ago of the kids in costumes, outside with live animals, and staging scenes from the Christmas story to play as the Scriptures were read and songs sung. It turned out perfectly. The pictures looked like they came from a book, and the kids were able to concentrate on singing and reading their verses without worrying about acting as well. Cassandra sang a solo and a duet with my friend's son.... she did great. She is more composed than I was at that age... actually, she's more composed and calm than I am NOW!

Christmas At Home in Georgia

Ohhhh.... a "stay-at-home-Christmas".... I had no idea how much less stressful it was going to be to stay put this year. The only time we've stayed home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas was when Garrett was a newborn. Thanksgiving was wonderful... my parents came and we had a wonderful time together. And now, as I'm getting ready for a week with each set of parents (mine first, and then Carter's), I'm enjoying just knowing we don't have to travel. I'm going to miss our extended family and our friends in Michigan, but I'm not missing the scramble to finish everything and pack. I enjoy hosting the fun for a change.

We've been having fun making Christmas cards and cookies and candy, decorating, spending time each night singing Christmas carols, doing advent readings, and, a new thing we've started, studying the Westminster Catechism (kids' version!) with the girls and Garrett. Just a plug for the ideas of classical education..... kids really CAN memorize an enormous amount of information! And the conversations that these questions and answers have brought up have been really neat. We've already had the opportunity to (ahem, TRY TO) explain the Trinity to Garrett, 5 years old, and how Jesus could have been present at creation if he was born TO Mary, who was one of His creation, to Emma, 7 years old. We have to keep reminding them that these things are hard for adults to grasp and understand, so it's ok if they don't quite "get it". :)

Anyway.... I'm still working quickly to finish a few handmade gifts, and I do have a bit more shopping to do, but I think we're going to get it all done in time. I super-cleaned the kitchen today... that's a relief. It looks so nice when it's clean... why don't I keep it that way??

Garrett and Carter went out to get some groceries today and to spend some of Garrett's birthday money. They came back with one of those electric racecar sets.... you know, the one that the boy gets for Christmas and the Daddy enjoys just as much as the boy does? They're having a lot of fun with that!

Carter made Emma a house for one of her stuffed animals out of cardboard today too... it's only his first day off work, and he's been busy enjoying his time at home with his family.

Tomorrow is the kids Christmas program at church. Their aunt and uncle in Nevada sent them some new clothes for Christmas, so we gave them each one of the outfits early so they could wear them tomorrow. We'll be sure to get pictures. :)

Have a wonderful weekend and try not to get too stressed out in the busy-ness of Christmas... the reason we feel like this "isn't the way it's supposed to be" is that it's NOT supposed to be this way. Try to take a step back and remember that this all isn't just one big extra birthday party for ourselves or our kids, but that it's a time to remember Christ's birth and all that means for us. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Homestead Kitchen Quiz

2. Do you have a calendar in your kitchen, if so, what's the theme of it? A mom's organizer calendar on the fridge.

4. Are you lucky enough to have a pantry of some kind? Yes!

5.What is your favorite appliance? My dishwasher!!

6. Do you have an eat in kitchen (table in it)? It could be, but we don't have a table there.

7.Do you have a bread box? No

8. Do you have a picture of your kids on the fridge? No, just pictures they've made. :)

9. Do you ever cook breakfast in your PJs? Rarely

10. Do you have a favorite cookbook that you use? Betty Crocker

11. Are you lucky enough to have recipes that were passed down from your mom or grandma? Yes, and I need to organize those.

12. Whats your favorite food? Anything fresh and natural.

13. Whats your favorite thing to cook? Christmas baking!

14. Is your coffee pot electric or stove top? Electric

15. Do you ever make your own bread? Yes, but not as often as we should.

16. Name one thing that you have hanging on your wall in your kitchen. Rooster towel hook!

17. Is there a clock in your kitchen? Yes, on the CD player and microwave.

18. Do you have a bowl of fruit sitting on your table or counter? Yes.

19. What type of canisters do you have? Glass.

Chickens

Sadly about 2 weeks ago, we lost 3 chickens to a dog attack. Our neighbors saved one injured chicken and the other 4 were unharmed. The injured hen that survived seems to be doing well. We kept her isolated and took care of her wounds for a few days and let her back out with the other hens several days ago. We're so thankful that she made it.

Braces

September

I'm so proud of my (one) rose and my peppers. They're the biggest peppers I've gotten all season!

Legacy Museum on Main

Here are some of my knitted items on display at the Legacy Museum On Main's gift shop in LaGrange, GA.

Garrett Rides His Bike!

My little boy is riding his bike without training wheels! I can't believe it. He's been so determined. A few crashes, but no tears. Usually he gets mad when something "doesn't work", but he just keeps working at it. He's (obviously) very proud of himself. :)

Thinking About.... Routines

Today, for the first time, I realized that routines really ARE helpful. I've always heard and even known in my head that routine is important, and I try to keep to a routine, but I found them more enslaving than freeing... not what I really want in my life. :)

Today, something clicked. I was washing some dishtowels and cloths that I'd been saving up to add some bleach and wash because they were smelling... not so fresh. And I realized that there is quite a bit of laundry to do. It used to be that I'd sigh and start a load and then get sidetracked and forget it was there, etc. But today, I realized with relief that I do laundry on Mondays! So it's ok if I don't start it today, because that's my Monday-Thing to do.

So I got to thinking about what else I have a routine for that's been helpful and yes, even freeing. Things like looking at the kids' bathroom on Friday and thinking it doesn't look so great, but then realizing that Cass cleans the bathroom on Saturday mornings in between Paws and Tails and Jonathan Park (radio shows). So I don't need to do it! And after she gets done, she puts the cleaning supplies into MY bathroom, so they're staring me in the face all day on Saturday until I clean the bathroom. Because we do this, the bathroom doesn't get forgotten... for weeks... until one ambitious day I scrub both bathrooms top to bottom and end up exhausted and crabby.

And even though we're low on bread today, I don't need to do it today, along with making granola and tomato sauce, and frying up hamburger for tonight's dinner and cleaning out the garden, because I make bread on Tuesdays!

I get energy spurts... when I have a "spurt", I work until I'm exhausted, and when I don't have a "spurt", I can hardly motivate myself to do much of anything. But knowing what has to be done at certain times helps offset some of the chaos of living on energy spurts. It does hugely help that I can now have my 8 year old help me with these things... she does the "kid" laundry on Mondays while I do "adult" laundry, we kind of alternate loads, and we help each other out when needed, but having help really HELPS.

So after 12 years of marriage, and "knowing" routines make things flow better... I now really KNOW it's true. Hopefully I can keep them going now. :)

Little Boy Quote of the Day!

Heritage Day

Yesterday was a very enjoyable day for me. It was the Heritage Day at the Harris Homestead about 11 miles from our house. I got to sit on the front porch and spin all day. :) And I got to share what I was doing... there's nothing like talking about something you love to do! Everyone was so interested and I got to meet a lot of very gracious people. The main lady running this huge event was wonderful too, making sure all the participants got their free lunch, and plenty of time to look around at the other events taking place.

I had a chance to meet another spinner who just happened to be a judge at the Georgia National Fair each fall. She told me to be sure to enter my handspun yarn into the contests because she thought it would do very well there. That was pretty exciting and encouraging to me to keep working on this really fun skill.

So it was a wonderful Saturday... what more could you ask than to sit on the front porch of a log cabin and spin?

Pictures I Promised

Here are the garden pictures I promised. We're still getting plenty of rain, and today is sunny and HOT.

This has nothing to do with gardening, but it's my latest skein of handspun yarn. :)

Garden and Weather

How about that weather? Wow... this year has sure held some crazy weather for the whole country! So far, this year, we've had snow in March, hail the size of quarters in April, and RAIN!

We are so very thankful that our drought is over. Every time it rains, I'm first of all surprised and then, thankful. The pessimistic side of me wonders if we're going to end up with too MUCH rain, but I just can't worry about that... for now, I'm going to praise the Lord that we have water again.

Yesterday, we had a "pop-up" storm that dumped 1.9 inches of rain in about 20 minutes. Then the sun came out. You can imagine my tomatoes think they're in heaven. Everything looks great, actually, beans, watermelon, tomatoes, peppers, even my lettuce and peas are still looking good for so "late" in the season. I'm still not used to southern gardening.... up in MI, most gardens are just getting planted!

Today, we've had those pop-up showers all day. It's so strange to me... the sun comes out for a while, and then all of a sudden, up comes a storm or shower, drenches everything and then clears up. Last summer, we never even thought that an event might get rained out. That was nice in a sense, but not good at all in another. It's odd to get used to needing to have rain dates or alternate locations again. It hasn't slowed my children down any, though... as long as there's no thunder, they continue doing whatever they were doing outside and love getting soaked.

I'm going to work on getting garden pictures posted. Everything is so green and lush and growing well... only problem is that the bugs are growing well too! :)

Chicken Update

The chickens are doing great. We're getting 2 eggs a day right now, because the third hen has "gone broody" on us. So she thinks she's going to hatch a golf ball. I'm hoping this will only last another week or so and she'll be back to normal. The six chicks are now about 9 weeks old. And one of them is quite obviously NOT a pullet. So we had to rename Annabelle.... Moses. Moses, because as long as we can keep him quiet, and no one knows he's there, he's safe. But as soon as someone figures out he's a boy, we're probably going to have to come up with another plan. Here he is. The really sad thing is that he's one of the gentlest of the chicks. Wouldn't that figure?? And out of 14 chicks to start with, how did I end up with the one boy, when I only kept 6 of the chicks?????

Things Are Looking Up...

The three munchkins had dentist appointments this week, and no cavities there. This dentist is so good about scheduling all three at the same time so we can get it done in one visit.

Then Emma had her appointment with the allergist on Thursday. The skin testing was not as helpful as we'd hoped. The allergist thinks she just didn't react for some reason. All she reacted to was grass, cats, and (outdoor) mold. Grass is just now starting to be a problem, she's never around cats, and her allergies are year round. So none of those three are likely to be the main culprit. He was disappointed, too, by the results. My choice was to have her further tested with the actual under-the-skin injections or just treat the symptoms. I opted for treating symptoms for now. So we're going to try Zyrtec and see if it helps more than the Claritin did. He said he could add a second nose spray if she needs it, but we'll take it a step at a time. She did so well this week without any allergy meds, except the Flonase. I was so thankful, because I'm miserable even with my Claritin and Benadryl!

Garrett will need to be re-tested when Emma goes back in 2 months... once again, no problem getting both appointments for the same time! I can't believe it's been 2 1/2 years since Garrett's first peanut episode. It's now been over a year since his last reaction. We were at a baseball game a few weeks ago and the lady behind us asked him if he wanted some peanuts. I didn't even hear it. It registered what was going on when I heard his little voice say, "No thank you. I'm allergic to peanuts. They make me sick." After I recovered from my near heart attack, I told him what a BIG kid he is to remember that. He and the girls are all so careful about checking before he eats anything questionable.

I'm feeling better this week... things feel more settled, and we got a few solid days of school in this week. With the nice weather, I guess we're all just ready for summer!

Ugh... Rough.... Week

I'm so tired! It's been such a crazy, busy, nothing is normal few weeks. Family visiting from out of town, more family visiting from out of town, visiting family out of town, homeschool conference, childrens' choir performance (Cassandra, not me!), co-op family night, demo-ing spinning for a friend's farm event, Carter's golf team's party (here), gardening, chickens, homeschooling (when does it fit in with all of that?? I'm not sure!), changing curriculum for next year (kind of scary, chucking one curriculum and style of teaching for another!), standardized testing for Cassandra, AWANA awards night, dentist appointment, allergist appointment, there....is...no...end...in...sight!

Really, I'm not complaining... It's been fun! It's just the lack of anything like a normal routine that quickly turns this Mommy into a BEAR. So... it hasn't been so much fun around here this week. I'm tired, the kids are tired. And things just look kinda... bleak... when you're tired.

Why is it that every year, I hear all the tributes to moms and realize that while Mother's Day has creeped up again, I've been crabbing at my kids, zoning out when they talk to me, spending too much time on the computer, just wanting a BREAK! It's so hard for me to just enjoy... being... I get task-oriented (laundry, cooking, kitchen) or else I want to do MY thing (spin, knit, read). The messes drive me nuts. I feel like telling my kids not to DO anything, because they leave behind such a disaster in their wake. And I do remind, remind, remind them to take care of their things, stay out of each others' things, etc. When I hear how my kids talk to each other, I realize that must be how I sound when I'm talking to them - not very nice. And when I think of how I take motherhood for granted, when so many wonderful women have not been blessed with children, I feel so... bad. Anyway, I don't feel worthy of being "honored" by a holiday for all the things I should be, but am not.

This isn't a very upbeat entry, is it? I'm tempted to delete it, but since so many people say how blogs only show the fun exciting things, I'll leave it. :) If you're having a rough week too, maybe it will help a bit to know that this blogging mommy doesn't have it all together either! And if you're still with me, would you please pray for me, that I'd have the strength and discipline to do the things I need to do and the wisdom to let some things go and just enjoy BEING with my kids.

At Home in Georgia

Proving the Bible?

How We Deal with Snow in GA

Georgia Snow!

Cold Chickens in GA

Children's Christmas Program