A Series Of Fortunate (and Unfortunate) Events

           What seemed rather simple in theory has turned out to be rather complicated. Every time we turn around there is a new challenge to navigate.
           Unfortunately,  our driveway proved to be too steep for the semi-truck to drive without scraping the bottom of the trailer. Fortunately,  our neighbor has a road bordering ours that they parked on. Fortunately,  they could also rent a u-haul to shuttle boxes back and forth.
            Unfortunately,  the paperwork wasn't finished for us to close on our house before driving to our new house. Fortunately,  a good friend was willing to watch over our house while the packers finish late last night (since the shuttling made the process take longer than anticipated).
             Unfortunately,  due to some assessment issues the bank still wasn't ready to close when we arrived last evening. Fortunately,  a friend of mine allowed us to keep our chickens and ducks at her place.
            Unfortunately,  the buyer wasn't willing to let us take possession by leasing the property till Monday. Fortunately,  my hubby already had a two bedroom furnished apartment that allow dogs and cats. We have somewhere to stay.
             A lot has been challenging; but fortunately,  we are all here together and (other than allergies) are healthy. None of the animals even got sick.

"We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed, we are persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed..." 2 Corinthians 4:8-9

Appetite for Destruction

         Last week, I surprised my mom by showing up with the kids to a birthday party thrown by her co-worker celebrating her 70th birthday.  It was awesome to meet some of the people that she has impacted in the last 18 years of work at a support group for people who have had a loved one die.  It was also a wonderful break from the ordinary, but it was just long enough to forget about the partially burned peanut butter jar that Harley found at the top of the hill on our neighbor's burn pile. Harley, our dog, didn't forget. Food is always on his brain, especially when it's peanut butter. He must have somehow snuck up there after coming home on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday,  I found out about his secret binge when his body began purging the blackened plastic all over our floral carpeting at the top of our stairs. He looked so pathetic as he continued to empty the charred contents of his stomach throughout the next 24 hours. He stared accusingly at me when I withheld his regular meals, so I lectured him all day about making good food choices,making it easier to resist his huge puppy dog eyes.  Eating garbage prevented him from eating his regular nourishing food, but it also caused him to be isolated from us. I love him, but when it comes to puking dogs, they are confined to tile areas with washable items only. I have too many children to spend hours on my hand and knees cleaning dog puke out of the carpet. I had enough fun the last time around to last a lifetime. (If you missed that post, here you go.) I also informed Harley that he chose this isolation by indulging his appetite. The vet mentioned that I needed to be sure he continued his bowel movements. His appetite could literally destroy him (or at least his internal organs). Why would he choose to eat trash?
          I have begun to say goodbye to the familiar.  Sunday was my last service in our home church, where they celebrated a finished balcony by holding a free Mandisa concert. What a treat! She is fabulous!! My daughter celebrated her final birthday with her best buddies yesterday,  and it is just a matter of days till we say goodbye to the town that has been our home for the past twelve years. As I began thinking about all the people we are leaving behind, I began to feel very weepy.
           If I wanted to, I could've thought about all the negative things; but it wouldn't really be any different than choosing to eat a burnt jar of peanut butter. It would make me feel sick and cause me to draw inward, isolating me from those I love.  I chose instead to take my sadness to God. He reminded me that we aren't guaranteed any length to our life. For all I know, I could be exiting earth tomorrow. Even if I never see all my good buddies again in this life, I will have all eternity to spend together with those that have trusted in Christ. (Although I am planning on returning for an occasional visit). I felt a smidge better after those thoughts, but I still told God how special they all are to me. It brought tears to my eyes to think about each friend and the important role they have played in my journey.  He told me that my friends here are wonderful, but I have no idea all the amazing people that He is going to introduce me to in Missouri. God is no stranger to sorrow,  and He knows how hard this is for all of us. I know He can handle my tears, but He can also lift my spirits with the truth of wholesome thoughts. This is what I'm choosing to dwell on, instead of eating the garbage.
          This is why I'm singing with all my heart the song that Mandisa led us in during her concert. It says, "At all times, I will bless the Lord." Thank you, Mandisa for that song; thank you, hubby, for surprising me with the CD; and most of all, thank you, God, for the feast of good thoughts!
     

Waiting to Pounce

         Our chickens love it when we leave them outside for a little free-ranging time. We let them run around a couple of times a day when we move them in between the coop in the barn and their outside fenced enclosure.  The compost pile is their favorite place to forage for scraps of food. Oreo, our cat, loves to watch them. She sits with her ears perked up and her long tail twitching, just waiting for the right moment. She waits until one chicken is left all by itself, and then she occasionally charges. I think she's dreaming of a fresh chicken dinner.

    Last week, I had my trouble sleeping for the first time in a long time. Three days in a row, I found myself awake at tr four in the morning after nursing our baby with a tight, panicky feeling in my chest. I began thinking about how I will get all five kids to sleep quietly in two bedrooms. I began thinking about smaller living quarters and wondered if all of the things we have will fit. I'm using nice words like "wondered" and "began thinking" but "worried" and "panicked" are closer to the truth. By Friday, I was exhausted. While I ran, I asked God what was up with all of these feeling. He reminded me that Satan lies in wait looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). He brought to memory what He'd done in the past two years of my life...all that He'd provided. He hasn't gotten any smaller. He's just as capable as He ever has been. I was limiting Him with how I was thinking about the situation. Just because He hasn't answered my prayers the way I've prayed them lately doesn't mean He hasn't heard them. It means He has something better planned than I could even conceive of. It means that He is in control, and I am not.

          I think a lot of my restlessness was a deliberate attack by Satan. He was sitting there like Oreo, waiting to pounce. He was feeding me negative thoughts as fast as I could swallow them, fattening me up for the kill. He sat there and watched, waiting for the perfect moment when I'd be alone. The middle of the night can definitely be a lonely time. What he didn't know is that I'd be sharing my concerns with my Owner, that I'd believe His positive thoughts,  and I'd bring a few hens back with me. As soon as I talked to God, I started to feel a lot better. I asked Him to take control of my thoughts, and fill me with His Holy Spirit.  I also told Satan where He could go to. Friday went so much better after that. My burden was lifted...I was no longer carrying it.

          I have seen Oreo go after one chicken when it is alone; the chicken shows extraordinary flight skills for a couple of seconds and escapes to her group of hens.  However, when there are several chickens together, they rule the yard; and the cat just watches. It may appear that they are oblivious to the lurking would-be predator; but actually, they have fun of their own, charging the cat together at the opportune moment. Will you be my hens to support me in prayer and help me get Satan on the run. This coming week is going to be a busy one. We are scheduled to move to our new home on September 6, in a little over a week. I'd be happy to join you as well. Just leave what I can pray for you for in the comments below...or e-mail me or shoot me a text.

Tortilla Chips and Butter

          There is something about food that just makes me feel warm and fuzzy. With all the changes going on around our house, eating good food has helped to preserve some normalcy. My mom has a sensitivity to any sweeteners except for honey, so almost all of the food I ate growing up was made from scratch. To this day, nothing tops a peice of her fresh homemade oatmeal bread with a little honey drizzled on it. I have her recipe,  and she says my bread tastes just like her's...but there is no comparison in my mind. Maybe it's the shape. She uses old fashioned round lard tins to bake her bread in. I have the square pans. It's probably also the love that she kneads into every loaf. Instead of thinking about how much I love my family, I find kneading good for taking out my frustrations.
           Can I be honest and say that sometimes the thought of taking five kids grocery shopping is enough to make me want to stay home and make do with the food I have? On one such night, I found the lovely combination listed in the title of this post. Well, what are you going to do without salsa? You should try it. Your arteries will not thank me, but it sure tastes good to me. Want another true confession? Some days when I run out of normal sweets like cookies or ice cream, I drink a tablespoon of maple syrup. I think I might be part elf (since according to the movie "Elf" they have four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corn, and syrup). I stumbled upon this weirdness when the girls were taking some ibuprofen for strep throat this spring. I decided to take a dose of "medicine" too.The reality is that maple syrup also feels like home. Remember how I said that we didn't have a lot of sweets growing up? Well, at least once a year, we'd take a trip to a place that made fresh cheese. While we were there, my dad would let us have some candy made from maple syrup. In the course of our mainly sugar-free diet, that was one of the highlights of my year. Of course, the sugar rush that I had the entire hour ride home wasn't exactly compatible with sitting still. I think I bounced most of the way home.
            One of the most frustrating things for me lately has been when someone shares a recipe or seems to rate it before actually preparing it. I tried a recipe for crock-pot beans that had me singing the  baked bean blues. After following the recipe for 8 hours, I had nothing but a pile of mush to show for it. I wanted to scream at the idiots who rated the recipe five stars. (I guess I should've read the rating first because almost all of them talked about altering the recipe.) This has brought me to the conclusion that you need to consider the source before investing time and money into the food. You know who I trust?  Martha Stewart.  Her recipes are amazing. I hardly ever have them flop, and she uses really simple ingredients (not a bunch of processed junk),  which means my sugar-challenged mom can usually eat the meals when she visits. Other than that I pretty much stick with asking friends for their recipes when I have eaten something they made that I like.
          I love food (and butter and maple syrup); but if I relied on that to do all my comforting, I would weigh three hundred pounds and waddle everywhere. This past week's negotiations have been a bit stressful.  We're going through repair negotiations,  and the reality that we are moving to a new location without as much room (in terms of the home, not land) has been challenging.  God is not silent though.  In the midst of all this, this is what I read this week out of 2 Corinthians 5. Verses 6-8 in the Message translation says, "That’s why we live with such good cheer. You won’t see us drooping our heads or dragging our feet! Cramped conditions here don’t get us down. They only remind us of the spacious living conditions ahead. It’s what we trust in but don’t yet see that keeps us going. Do you suppose a few ruts in the road or rocks in the path are going to stop us? When the time comes, we’ll be plenty ready to exchange exile for homecoming." I felt like God was speaking right to me, telling me that this is all just temporary here anyhow.
          If your going through a rough time and feel tempted to pick up the butter (or maple syrup), try picking up your Bible and reading some truth. Ask God what He thinks about your situation. Let it fill you up, and give you the warm fuzzies.

What have you read that's encouraged you? What recipe sites do you trust? What is your favorite comfort food? I love reading your comments and getting to know you better (as well as learning from you)! If you recommend a recipe as five stars though, I expect it to that good.

Amo, Amas, Amat

           School began in our house this past Monday; and if you couldn't tell by the title of this post, our new coursework includes...Latin! I'm so excited to learn this along with my two oldest. I got a small dose of Latin when I studied medical terminology in college and I really loved learning it. I feel so smart understanding large medical words like hysteroslapingo-oophorectomy. Now we are learning fun phrases to use in everyday conversations like "Que me amat, amet et canem meum." (This means "Love me, love my dog"... we'll try this on our new neighbors.)
          I have two years of homeschooling under my belt, but we are adding a few new things into the mix for this year. First off, this is my first year teaching kindergarten.  I love my five year old's enthusiasm (and that color by number is educational for her...my older two enjoy calc-u-color) She runs to get up and make her bed in the morning. She has been waiting so long for school.This is also my first year repeating any material.  (It's a bit comforting to know what's coming up in third grade math).
              We are also planning on moving which makes a big impact on the rules concerning homeschooling. Although my hubby's job is in Kansas, it's located close enough to the border that we are actually looking at living in Missouri. Missouri's laws include a mandatory number of hours, and that you maintain documentation of it. You must complete 600 hours in the core subjects (400 must be at your primary residence), with a whopping 1,000 hours total. In Illinios, you are required to teach your children the equivalent of what they'd learn in public school, but they don't tell you how to do it. The new rules for our new state have left me with some questions: Since my kindergartener isn't seven yet (and school isn't compulsory till seven years of age in Missouri), do I need to do a thousand hours of school with her or just ensure that she learns everything a kindergartener should know?  Does anyone know if Latin counts toward language arts? How do foreign languages work? Do I have to stop my clock when we have recess and lunch? If you know these answers, I'd love your help!
            I've decided that these hour stipulations are going to give me more excuses to be creative in how I conduct school. We are doing more projects and other enrichment activities for history. Today the girls played a game of "Steal the Spanish Treasure" (think scaled-down game of risk meets checkers) after reading about the Spanish conquistadors and their mining of gold from South America. I'm also counting the time I read out loud "Little House in the Big Woods" to everyone,  and "A Princess of Mars" to the older two (some of Edward Rice Burroughs word send me to the dictionary).  I can't wait to try out some awesome field trips in our new location as well.
          My girls gave a little groan when they realized we were starting school a little earlier this year, but after the first day they all had grins on their faces. Even my nature loving girl decided her "Easy Grammar" was actually easy. It's going to be a great year not to merely scrape by, but to dig in, find new adventures, learn Latin, et cetera. (I've already learned that Latin has no soft "c" sound...so go try that last Latin word again.)

      If you have any advice about my questions, please fire away in the comments below. 

Learning Endurance

          I have great news! We now have a house that we are planning to buy. It is a lovely three bedroom ranch situated on more than 25 acres. I haven't seen it in person; but thanks to Google's "Hangouts", the girls and I were able to see it via my hubby's smartphone. We begin inspections this week; and as long as nothing major pops up, we will be moving in just a few weeks.
          The people who put their house on the market in order to buy our house sold their home last week. We begin home inspections on this end this Thursday,  so we can close on September 20th.
            The other notable news from this week is that our duck Splashes has begun laying her clutch of eggs. We are up to  six eggs. Malards typically lay one egg a day. After they lay 12-18 eggs, they begin sitting on them. If she lays 12, we should have baby ducks around September 22. (18 eggs would put us around September 28.) I'm not sure how the ducks will handle our move, but I think two ducks will be easier to move than a dozen...looks like we will just be moving eggs.
         Yesterday when I was getting all befuddled about how this is going to work out, God brought my mind back to our hike in the woods Saturday. We all went as a family for a trip through the wooded part of our property.  This was my first time hiking in our woods, and I was amazed by how beautiful and serene it was. Everyone walked except for the baby, who got to ride on my hubby's back. In the beginning, it was almost impossible to get our three year old to hold my hand, even on the steep ascent into the woods. I stood behind her ready to catch her at a moment's notice. It wasn't until we came to a couple of large logs across our path that she showed any signs of hesitation.  What was knee high for me was almost waist high for her. She began asking me to pick her up.  Most of the time, I smiled at her and offered my hand to guide her instead of carrying her. Her requests increased in frequency the longer we went on. She was getting tired.  Occasionally I did pick her up when the obstacles were too much for her to do alone. However, I wanted her to continue to walk as much as possible to help her develop endurance.
          That's what I think God is doing for me right now. He is with me every step of the way holding my hand, but He only carries me when the way is really difficult. He knows I'm tired, but He also has the perspective of being so much bigger than my obstacles.  He can see where the path gets easy again, just like I could with my daughter.  2 Cor. 5:7 tells us to walk by faith not by sight.  Continuing to trust God enough not to worry over every detail of our move builds my own faith-filled endurance. I know He is right there to catch me if I fall, and that is enough to keep me pressing on.
   

Five New Things I Learned the Fifth Time Around

             I've been in the baby stage of mothering since 2002, but I still keep learning more about myself and children. Here's a few things a that even I didn't know until the last year.
           1) You can run during pregnancy safely. With a little research and encouragement from fellow runners, I ran up until the day before I went into labor. I had to slow down. (I ran at 5.3 mph at the beginning of my pregnancy; and in my third trimester, I had to slow down to 4.5 mph). I hate running,  but I loved the energy I had during my pregnancy.  I felt fantastic!  I had barely any swelling, and I had cravings for more proteins than carbs...which meant a more balanced diet for my little one. In the previous two pregnancies, I had gained around 35-37 lbs. This time around I gained 24 lbs. I wondered if this would effect the baby's size, but my fifth weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz. (making him my biggest baby so far)
           2) Homebirth's are awesome and much safer than is generally believed.  I was surprised to find out how many precautions they take with homebirths...all the way from having IV fluids and emergency drugs available to the intensive history and listening for any signs of distress. I would have a homebirth again in a heartbeat...if there were a sixth time around.
           3) Olive oil is great for newborn bottoms. Every time I had bought some thick gunky diaper rash cream because the first poo (meuconium) stuck to the skin and caused horrible irritation. I was told by my midwife to simply apply olive oil after each diaper change with a cotton ball, and viola, the poo doesn't stick...which means it's easily wiped off...which means zero diaper rash. Super natural and effective!
             4) Washclothes are essential for baby boy diaper changes. Instead of getting peed on, the washcloth will take the brunt and save your shirt. It didn't seem to matter how recently he'd peed, he always was ready to fire. After the first couple of months, he stopped being so dangerous.
              5) Babies don't need constant bathing. I had no idea that the white coating (vernix caseosa) would actually be helpful. We never washed it off but rubbed it into his skin as our midwife suggested. Instead of having the nasty peeling skin (that all my other babies went through at a week out), his skin was all soft and sweet-smelling. Our midwife explained that it is like awesome baby lotion that protects the skin while in utero and also will protect them after birth. I swear his spit up just wiped off so much better...like natural Rain-X. (Ok, so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the point.) I also found that sponge baths were completely sufficient for most days. Once a week after the cord healed, I gave him a complete bath making sure to scrub his head with a gentle brush to keep the cradle cap at bay. I did miss brushing a part of his forehead with a small patch of hair...when it started turning yellow like a week old bruise, I gave it a good brushing too. Although he needed his neck area washed a lot due to all his spitting up, he didn't need a full bath every other day (which was the regiment I had imposed on all of the previous four babies from the day they had come home from the hospital).

           This may be my fifth child, but it is my first boy. My mother-in-law used to talk about how good of a baby my hubby was. My newest child is a real chip off the old block. He is the most easy-going, low maintenance baby ever. I can't imagine any girl ever finding him less than that...but I'm sure she'll be tempted to once she's married.  When I pray for his future spouse, I ask that God will give him a woman that will love him and truly appreciate him, who will encourage him and enjoy his adventures along side him. This makes me reflective about how I respond to my adventuring partner. Am I enjoying the journey that we are on together? When I look into my sons eyes, I can see his father, and it makes my love and appreciation for both of them grow even more. The gift of a fresh perspective has been the greatest blessing the fifth time around.

What have you learned in the past year?