The Cherry Monster!

She looks like she's playing the leading role in the Halloween horror movie "The Cherry Monster." Bwahhaaaa!

It's cherry pickin' time!

My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE cherries. By the time Abrianna finished her cherry eatin' binge her little tummy protruded and her hair had an unnatural redish tinge to it.

Lucas while washing cherries exclaimed, "Momma look the cherries have freckles!" "Where Lucas?" I asked. He pulled a cherry from the water and intently looking at it. "There mommy!" Water droplets on cherries can be freckles, right?

Conversation with Jesus

I try, truly try, to make Jesus real for Lucas. I explain that Jesus can always hear him, even way up there in heaven.
Sometimes the responses from these conversations can be rather poignant. "Jesus! Jesus!" he'll yell expecting a verbal response.
Several days ago, we were enjoying a coolish summer afternoon in the backyard. Where we live, we usually catch any and all breezes. I thoroughly enjoy that- one of many reasons we choose to buy our house.
Lucas wasn't appreciating the breeze. "when I go up to heaven, I'm gonna tell Jesus to turn off the wind at our house!" he declared emphatically. "Oh, and how will He do that?" I replied. " With the handle."
I love 3 year old logic. Its so sweet and simple.

Bouncin' along.

Yep, he did beem her with the ball.

Doesn't she remind you of "Miss Piggy?"

My oldest caged monkey.

We finally did it. We bought a trampoline. I grew up using one and really have wanted my kids to have one for the past several years.

Rick insisted on a very high quality trampoline. It's VERY sturdy with a 7 foot tall net. Abrianna tested the nets security out for us. She attempt to fall out the side was foiled by the net ( thankfully).
Abrianna seated herself with a grin, on one of the balls that came with the tramp, and proceeded to bounce up and down. I wished I'd had my camera outside to take a video. It was priceless.
This is an awesome way to entertain all three kids. I hold a giggling laughing Jojo and gently walk/bounce, Abrianna runs and face plants, and Lucas bounces all over the place.
I was enjoying it. Didn't realize I'd worked up a sweat until we came back into the house. It was FUN exercise. Maybe I can burn off some more of those post pregnancy pounds. We'll see.

In addition to being great entertainment and exercise, in Kay Kuzma's book "The First 7 Years" she says, that one of the best ways to encourage a higher IQ in your child is... jumping on a trampoline. Supposedly, the more they use their big muscles/gross motor skills the better their brains develop.
All and all I believe this is a great investment. I'm hoping to have some play groups here so we can share our fun. Even the adults can get in to it with a giant hoppity hop ball ( remember those?)

Poison Oak

I haven't seemed to have the time lately to do much blogging. These kids (especially two little girls) are requiring so much time that my housework is remaining undone and I scramble in the evenings to catch up.
We had a wonderful time last Sabbath. Out at Rook's Park Lucas found some Poison Oak. Didn't know we had any around here. I tried putting charcoal on it and covering it with a bandage to keep it from spreading.

It's not working!! It's spreading across his poor little face. The picture doesn't do it justice. His right side of his face is swollen. I got him some hyland tablets. We'll see if that helps.

Father's day gone bad... ( not for the squeamish)

I've debated posting this picture. It's yucky. But it may help explain why I've had a difficult week.
To start with, Sundays are my catch up days. I only have 2 kids instead of 3. I madly clean and shop and cook. Then when Monday rolls around I may be lucky to get any of the above things done. I try to make sure every body is reasonably clean, fed, changed, played with, and read too. It's amazingly time consuming. (I used to think taking care of my two was a challenge. No more do I believe that. I know better now. It's a breeze for me to manage just my two children.)

On Father's Day I rolled out of bed bleary-eyed to begin making a wonderful breakfast of biscuits, gravy, orange juice, and potatoes.
There on the cutting board . in my way, lay a half of a loaf of dry stale bread. Needing to cube it for later usage in vegeburger loaf with glaze I grabbed my serrated knife and bent to the task. About 2/3 of the way through, as I pulled the knife towards me, I had the sickening sensation of the knife tearing through my flesh. Dropping the knife and pinching the wound shut, I yelled for Rick to come and help me. He came. But He couldn't do anything as I lay in a cold sweat on the living room floor, retching. Ughh. Nasty.
Beings we don't have health insurance just yet, I opted to stay home from ER and patch up my thumb as best as we could. The mistake I made was not pushing the wound together before it was glued. It's healing well but with a funny shape to it.
Most of the rest of the day I lay around babying my hand. I didn't realize that when you cut the tip of a digit half way off that your digit with shake and and your hand will throb and wrist throb in protest.
Today is Sabbath. It's been almost a week and I'm finally brave enough to attempt functioning without a bandage. I grateful that it IS healing.
I guess the moral of this story is, don't use sharp Cut co serrated knives when you aren't fully awake. It will be a most painful experience and foul up your possibilities of accomplishing much else for many days afterwards.
Hopefully tomorrow morning, I can make a delicious breakfast for my husband. Happy belated Father's Day honey!

Violet Becomes You

Yesterday Abrianna had a Dr.'s appointment for thrush. Dr. Wren gave me a bottle of Gentian Violet to treat it. Works like a dandy but certainly does stain- click on the pictures to get the full
effect :-)
I'm happy to report that she is now up to 19lbs 11 oz and 30.75 inches. She's gained over a lbs and grown almost 3 inches the past 2 months!

The Wheels are Turning...

Several days ago, we were enjoying a warm late spring day, watching our chicks ( would they still be considered that? They've lost all their fluffy down) peck around the grape vines. The vines must give them a false sense of security and protection.
I looked up from my book when I heard a chicken start making a racket.
There stood Abrianna, as big as life, clutching tightly to a chick's tail feathers. The chick who was upside down loudly protested it's current place in life. Amazingly, Abrianna just stood there, chick held at arms length with a deadpan look on her face. Didn't faze her a bit.
Several minutes later, the squawking started again. She'd caught another one. This time it wasn't in the bushes. Either she's good at it, or the chicks aren't intimidated by one so small.

Today, Lucas was using the bathroom loudly protesting Abrianna's offers of help with the toilet paper. "NO BABY!!" he hollered.
I herded her out of the bathroom. "When you get bigger, you won't have to wear diapers anymore and you can use the potty too." I explained, returning to my work in the kitchen. Several seconds later, I glanced down to see me daughter had taken off her cloth diaper ( no small feat. Those snaps are hard to undo). She looked at me as if to say, "well, let's get on with it!"
I pulled the potty chair out. She enjoyed sitting on it. Never did do anything in it, or on the floor for that matter- thankfully. She knows it's hers. She complains vigorously whenever Lucas takes it away or moves it.
I'm always amazed at how those wheels turn in little peoples brains.

Thank God!

I just arrived home from book club. Rick relayed an earlier experience. Being a responsible daddy, he had given the kids their nightly bathes.
Rather than the normal 2-3 inches deep, the tub was 7 or 8 inches tonight. (Rick's always given me a hard time about how little water I use. Why are you stingy?? ( my wording) I have my reasons. If somebody tips over they aren't as likely to choke.)
Rick left the bathroom for just a minute. Suddenly Lucas screamed. As Rick rushed back in the bathroom, it was to discover Abrianna flat on her back, submerged in the water, fighting and struggling to sit up.He quickly pulled her out and smacked her on the back. She squalled.
Rick told me that Lucas had the presence of mind to pull the plug right away. What could have ended in tragedy was instead subverted. Thank GOD!
Thank you GOD!!

Uncle Reggie's birthday

Who has had a birthday? We're so glad... Let's count and see how many he has had... As we count the pennies we are told... Uh Oh! Not enough Pennies! Uncle Reggie's 28 years old!

Abrianna loved sampling my butter finger milkshake. YUMMY!

Lucas is now big enough to have is very own ice cream cone. I said he wouldn't finish it. I was wrong. Rick was right. He ate all

So reminiscent of the 80's. Thanks for sharing them Andrea.
This post has been in process awhile. Reggie's birthday was clear back on the 8th of June.

You should've seen the other guy...

I suppose that this is an awful picture to post. I'd think that having a boy first, that he'd have been the first one with a black eye. Lucas just sported many fat lips and dented heads.
I was nursing her and set her on the floor. I thought she had her feet under her. I was wrong. She crashed against the wood work on the glider rocker. Poor baby :(

Mother's day present

"Come here baby!" says Lucas

Lucas was trying to feed the chicks feed from his bobcat bucket.

It's a struggle to keep her out of the coop. She thinks that it must be her special little fort.

This chick is big enough to flutter to the top of the coop. Must be about 4 feet high.

This year for Mothers' day Rick started building me a chicken coop. I've wanted chickens for years and we finally broke down and got some. Technically the chicks belong to Lucas. We used some birthday monies from his great grandparents to purchase them and their apparatuses.
The coop belongs to me :-0
Considering the many hours that went in to it... It means much more than simply a meal out or flowers. Thanks Rick!
I'm also very happy to have those stinky little birds outside where they belong! No more scrubbing chicken droppings off my massage room floor. Whew! I'm sure my clients will appreciate the lack of farm air in there.
Actually the birds have been in there coop for at least a week. I'm just really behind in my blogging.
Hope you all have a great Sabbath!

Frog noises

Abrianna made her own whistle or noise maker. Doesn't it sound like a frog?

Last night, I took my children for a walk to the golf course. Lucas took his dump truck with in preparation for playing there. But alas, there were golfers. We decided ( or Mommy decided) that it wasn't safe to play and we headed back.
All during the walk we were admiring the dark cloud formations. Lucas thought it was getting dark. At one point a large portion of them was shaped like half a star, very cool.
As we were approaching home, we began to see lightening and hear thunder. What was disturbing was a brownish wall quickly moving in from the west. I wasn't sure weather it was a wall of rain or a dust storm. We hurried into the house with just a couple of minutes to spare before the wind storm hit. Lucas was afraid as it was fairly dark. Then it seemed to lighten and I thought the storm had bypassed us. Into the tub went my munchkins.
A few minutes later, I was walking through the house and noticed how dark it had become again. I calmly went into the bathroom and informed my dear children that bath time was finished and it was time to get out due to the weather.
I tried to explain to Lucas that lightening can travel up pipes and electrocute people in bath tubs. His understanding was that the thunderstorm would sneak through the cracks and get him in the tub and kill him, sigh...
The storm raged onward through worship. Lucas' prayer consisted of, "Dear Jesus, please turn the thunder storm OFF! Amen."
All is well this morning. Cooler temperatures and several small branches need to be picked up. But all and all, not too bad.

An Update

Whew! Where has the time gone? I can't believe its been almost 2 weeks since I've written anything on the blog. I suppose is simply lack of time in which I can use my hands.
When I'm seated at the computer it is with one or the other and sometimes both of the beautiful little girls in my lap, either feeding them or putting them down for naps.
It does provide a lot of time for reading as you may have noticed by how quickly my list of books I've recently read has grown.
I'll try to remember and post of the high lights and funny stories of the past several weeks. Hope my memory can conjure up some :)
Let's see...
The current Bible story for Sabbath school is the story of Daniel and the Lions' Den. Melissa does a wonderful job of making it very interactive for the little ones. The "den" is a large card board box. She tells about an angel telling the lions to "shut your mouths!".
We were the recipients of a large file cabinet box for Lucas'. He has a large stuffed lion that Rick bought him when he was all of a week or two old - he was also terrified of it at about 6-8 months old and would try to climb me to get away from it!
Lucas had his box and lion in the back yard. He was the angel, yelling "LIONS SHUT YOUR MOUTHS!" Monkey see monkey do I suppose. I'd rather he copy that then some other things.
One of Lucas' favorite phrases of late has been, "don't be afraid mommy!" It can be used in really funny ways. A week ago, he peed his bed three times in one day! Can you imagine that? One was during his nap. The other two were intentional. I asked a more experienced mom, Nicole Scruggs, what she would do. She said that she would talk to him and explain about it making a lot more work etc. Also make him lay in it, yuck! It didn't quite come down to that.
I had a heart to heart with Lucas at bedtime. And he responded, "Don't be afraid mommy. I won't do it again. Don't be afraid."
We had some excitement today as well. Lucas is 3 years old now. He can be responsible. I think I expect more out of him than what he's capable of sometimes.
I left Josephine and Abrianna in the back yard with him with instructions to leave the gate shut while I hurried into the house to make a bottle for Josephine. It would only take a couple of minutes. Then I heard Lucas yell, "No Baby!" accompanied by the slamming of the gate. Uh oh! I quickly looked out the window to see my 13 month old daughter toddling towards the road. I ran for the door. I didn't see her when I first made it outside. But did find her safe and sounds in a couple of seconds. Talk about heart pounding.
I walked to the gate, where Lucas' was bent over, and explained to him how scared I was and how he was NEVER EVER EVER to do that again.
I also discovered that he had gotten though the gate and was now stuck. His concern in getting out quickly dissolved into tears when I couldn't get him out. His head would NOT fit back though those slats! (Somewhere during all that time, Josephine had begun to wail so I was carrying both babies.)
I rushed into the house calling for Rick to come NOW! He did too. (Usually he doesn't but there must have been something about my tone of voice that cued him in.) Rick tried to force Lucas head back through, but it was a no go :( Just as he was getting ready to physically tear the fence apart with his hands, I had a bright idea. It had to be divine prompting here. We had Lucas continue to crawl though as far as he could and then we each got on either side of the fence and eased him out. Success!! Thank GOD!! What and adventuresome 10 minutes. Enough to take a couple of years off my life span.
Thankfully those types of days are few and far between.
Oh and by the way... I'm catching you all up and must return to trying to clean up. Tomorrow promises to be a busy day.
I have a massage in the morning and then we're supposed to go to the community colleges bar b que and get the grills going. Need to come up with something to fix for Sabbath too. Any bright EASY QUICK ideas?

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