The Daily Poop =)

2012-01-14T20:13:00.001-05:00

I'm moving to wordpress.

http://nuthousefamily.wordpress.com/

Come on over!

Health comes in all sizes.

2011-11-02T18:37:00.002-04:00

That's ME!

I'm running. I just "raced" my first 5K on Oct 29. By raced, I mean finished.

I'm also fat. Over weight, obese, fluffy...whatever one chooses to call it. I've pretty much always tended towards the fluffy side. A by-product of severe asthma.

That picture up there? In it, I'm 2 mo post-partum from baby number 6. And I weigh 250 lbs. Yeah. I just put that out there. Know why? Because I may be fat, but I CAN FREAKING RUN!

My longest distance to date is 4.4 miles. Best mile is 12:08. Sure, it's not the Olympics, but who cares? I'm wicked proud of myself.

The whole point of this post is to make it clear that health can come in any size. Of course, being overweight does carry health risks. Diabetes, high blood pressure, heart problems. I realize that. I also realize that I'm 30 years old, 100 lbs overweight and healthier then I was at 16. At 16, I was skinny, but I also lived on Coke and Skittles and couldn't run a mile to save my life.

Now, not only can I run, but I'm training for a half marathon. I feel amazing. I eat clean, drink water like it's going out of style, and run at least 3 days a week. My kids will hopefully see my example and start adulthood healthier than I did.

More than that, I LOVE myself. I love me, just the way I am. I feel sexy again, worthwhile, PRETTY. It's been a lot of years..if ever that I've felt that way. And it has nothing to do with weight loss, though I am losing weight. It's the confidence that comes from getting off my butt and getting moving.

Health comes in all sizes. I'm proud of myself and what I'm accomplishing, my size doesn't hold me back!

random reflections?

2011-09-28T10:32:00.002-04:00

This song came on the radio the other day. It always reminds me of my friend Bonnie.

We met when we were 12. Ahh...the good old days of budding puberty and incredible awkwardness. Since we were both extra awkward, even by 12yo standards...we became fast friends.

Bonnie was a christian. I was not. That was ok tho. She was still whole-heartedly my friend, and I didn't make fun of that weird churchy stuff. It was a very good match. Our awkwardness paired well and put us at ease with each other.

Bonnie witnessed to me in the best possible way she could. Like most 12 year olds, I wouldn't have responded to anything telling me anything. Because at 12, I already knew everything, so what could she tell me that I didn't already know? So she witnessed quietly. Gently. With actions instead of words. Loving me beyond my 12yo confusion and general angst at the world.

By high school, I'd decided that if there even was a God, He was a big, fat smelly jerk. Since my home life sucked more than usual and generally went straight to crap, He must not care much.

Our senior year was hard for both of us. We both had troubled home lives, and her parents divorced our senior year. Mine had divorced the summer before. While the divorce was welcome to me, because it meant an end to many years of tension, home life in general still sucked. I solved that by spending at little time at home as I could possibly get away with. I came home to sleep. Sometimes eat. Escape worked at the time. Of course, that meant I didn't deal with anything on an emotional level, but eh, whatever works when your 17 and in denial right?

Anyhoo. While I was filled with confusion and anger and general denial...Bonnie was filled with quiet, calm faith. That's not to say it wasn't hard on her. Of course it was. And she had real, big feelings. But under all of that was a calm I'd never seen in anyone before.

That was when I felt the first twinge of something besides apathy or anger towards Christianity.

I felt jealousy.

I was jealous of her faith. Her assurance that her life wouldn't be a trainwreck forever. Her total trust that her pain had a purpose.

Hmm.

Life moved on tho, I got married and moved away, but we still always kept in touch, visiting when we could.

11 years from when we became friends to when Justin and I came to Christ. 11.years. That's a long time to wait on something you want so badly.

It took a long time, but God is faithful. He had His way in His time.

I reflect on what might have been of my life...and it wouldn't be pretty.

Bonnie and I have been friends for 18 years. Over half our lives! As much as I love her nerdiness, her fun quirks and excellently gross sense of humor, the dearest place she holds in my heart is as the first person who showed me the love of Christ.

Madalyn

2011-08-27T14:20:00.002-04:00

<---minutes old
has arrived. 3 weeks ago. LOL.

It was an awesome, unassisted homebirth. Yes. We did that on purpose.

Why? Well...it started in NY. There are only two midwives that I found in upstate NY. Neither of which were willing to travel to me. Well crap. That left us with traveling to one of them (not an option) or another hospital birth. I didn't want to do that. While the hospital was perfectly fine, I found that I absolutely disliked the OB's there. That makes things stinky. It's also getting more and more difficult to be able to leave Steph. Her needs are increasing. And her ability to cope is decreasing. There are very few people who are able to care for her.

So. A desire to avoid the Ob's, no desire to deal with the crap surrounding hospital birth and a desire to not have to leave my kids prompted me to research unassisted birth.

I met other women who'd done this, found websites and forums. I discussed it with Justin..since he'd obviously have to be on board. He surprised me by really being game for it. Nervous, yes...but willing...

My history of easy pregnancies, uncomplicated births made the decision easier. We decided to do it. We got a birth kit.

The last minute move to Idaho actually made it even more appealing. While I'd had prenatal care throughout my pregnancy, when we moved, I didn't have my records with me. I also had no insurance. So..the idea of walking into an unknown hospital with no insurance and no medical records of care, with an unknown doctor...less than appealing. Very much so.

Birth day:

I'd been laboring on and off for a couple of days. Normal for me. On the 12th (two days past due! The first time I'd gone ''overdue''), I knew it was birth day. I could feel it. We spent the whole day out, keeping me active, while I labored off and on. We went to walmart and got the girls haircuts. Went to McD's for lunch and playing. Headed home to nap and in the evening, things really picked up. Again, typical for me. I labor stronger at night.

Around 930pm, my water broke during a contraction. I had Justin put the waterproof mattress cover on our bed, and got in the bathtub. I had laid out all the birth equipment (which really isn't that much) earlier in the evening.

The tub was nice, but I got cold quickly, as it's a normal tub and I couldn't get all the way in with my big tummy.

So I got out, and wandered aimlessly between the bed, and the toilet. Nothing really felt comfortable tho, so I just tried to keep moving and resting between contractions.

Things really picked up in intensity rather quickly! Fastest labor to date.

After one particular whopper of a contraction, I sat down on the toilet and the baby descended. I had heard of Fetal Ejection Reflex before..but never experienced it. WOW. Holy.Crap. In previous births, I had always had to make the conscious choice to push along with the urge...but not this time. This time, my body took control and I was just along for the ride! I called Justin, who tried desperately to coax me off the toilet. LOL. I stood up just in time and roared that baby out!

Her daddy cradled her head and she was born! 1235am on the 13th. She was slightly wrapped up in her cord, so I whisked her around and sat back down. After a brief moment, she cried and turned a lovely shade of pink!

After another 15 minutes or so, the placenta came and we cut/clamped the cord.

It was a wonderful gentle birth (except that whole ejection reflex. There is NOTHING gentle about that. WOW).

I showered and dressed, we wrapped Maddie up and went to bed. Heavenly. 6.2 lbs, 19 1/4 inches long.

In the morning, the kids wandered in like usual and got to immediately meet their sister! They are all in love and think she hangs the moon. :D

I took Maddie in for a check up that monday. She is perfect.

Yes. We would do it again. At the very least, midwives are plentiful here so we will always homebirth from now on. It was amazing.

Idaho is home now...

2011-08-27T14:09:00.002-04:00

We've made the move. And was it ever a trainwreck...like everything this year it seems...

First was packing up and loading. Penske is apparently run by monkeys. Incompetent monkeys. We wanted a 22ft truck with a trailer to tow Justin's truck. What we got was a 16ft. They refused to rent us a 22ft with a trailer, saying it was against their rules or some load of crap. (never mind that we saw numerous 22ft trucks towing trailers...) We thought we got rid of enough crap to be able to fit in the 16ft.

We were wrong. We lost a lot. Kitchen table and chairs. Furniture. Things that belong to my mom. The kids' bikes and yard toys. The rockers my mom made for them. It was infuriating, heartbreaking and caused heartache to all of us. Justin's hunting equipment. The list goes on and on..

It wasn't about the stuff. It was the sense of loss that went with.

The trip itself was a long 4 days confined in a rental with 4 small kids. Steph rode in the moving truck with Justin, which helped her cope a lot. By the time we got there, my feet were so swollen...the skin was breaking along the creases in my ankle. :/

Yes. I am complaining.

We also had two tire blowouts on the trailer. 12 hours apart. That was fun! (No. It wasn't.)

We made it though! I'm not gonna lie. I cried when we got here. I miss the green of NY. I miss my friends. I miss the small-ness of our last town. I felt very defeated when we arrived. Lonely and overwhelmed. It was a very hard first week or so.

My dad and mom came up and helped us unload the truck, which was blessedly free of trouble. Aside from Justin's back, which is in pretty much constant pain now. But...the VA hospital here is AWESOME. He's already got an appt.

I'm finding things I like about it here every day. Our house is nice, I love the layout. The neighborhood is quiet. The kids' new school is great. We are on the edge of our city, so we've got the benefits of farm land/country..while a short drive from everything.

Resources for Stephanie here are EXCELLENT.

We found a church we like.

So yeah. While things were overwhelming and hard at first...we are getting settled, the kids are mellowing out, and the silver linings are becoming apparent.

And we got a new van! That's awesome.

Seriously can't make this up.

2011-07-19T14:57:00.002-04:00

Yesterday our van exploded. No really. Now, one doesn't really think, "Hey, I wonder if the van will explode", but yeah, it did.

Sexy Man was at a chiro appt up the street, my mom and I were in the living room with some of the kids. A was asleep upstairs, and S was at summer school.

POP! Heard a loud pop and thought that was odd. Mom got up to investigate and started shoutingthat the van was on FIRE!

I called 911 and hubby and set about to try to deal with my kids, who were hysterically screaming at that point.

The FD arrived in less than a minute (literally! They're one street over!) and immediately set to work.

The house has minor siding damage, but the van was a total loss. So sad. Not necessarily about the van, but the circumstances. We could have been IN it.

The blessings are clearand abundant though:

The van was parked in the driveway, not the garage. Had it been in the garage, my house would be been in flames before we even knew what was happening. A would have likely been trapped upstairs.

The van was parked between Justin's bike (full of gas) and our grill (also full of gas). Neither were even touched by the flames.

The damageto the house was minimal.

I had asked Justin to bring my purse in that morning. That means our cash, bank cards, and ID cards weren't consumed.

We have already been blessed with car seats for the kids. Our insurance is paying for a rental, small, but a car nonetheless.

We are all safe and ok. Everything else is arbitrary.

I may or may not be a slacker

2011-07-07T15:33:00.003-04:00

So yeah. Hi!

2011 has been an odd, crazy and not so funny year thus far. I have lots to update on, including the house. So let's get to it, shall we?

Isaiah is having a tonsillectomy next week. This is good news, as he's had strep more than he hasn't this year. His tonsils also nearly touch when he's healthy, causing sleep apnea. Time to get those babies OUT!

I started school. Real, grown up college school. It's been...interesting. I like it, but it's taken some adjusting. That has taken up a lot of my time.

I am ginormous. Baby is due in about 4 weeks! It's a girl!

The house. Ah yes, the house.

We applied for Help for Homeowners again early this year. After much jerking around, they finally ''accepted'' us. Which was very exciting for approx 2.5 seconds. Until we read the terms. Our monthly payment would RAISE by nearly $200. Obviously this is not helpful to us.

This left our options as thus:

1. Decline. We would then be unable to reapply, and Chase and 'guilt free' foreclose.

2. Accept. BUAHAHAHAHAHA!! Ahem. Excuse me.

Obviously we declined. Chase is pushing us to short sale, because it means less work and more money for them. Oddly enough, we are disinclined to do anything for them. Go fig. Our credit is no longer an issue, as that's well past crap now. So. Foreclose away Chase! May you enjoy the fruits of your shameless, unethical labor. And may the fleas of 1000 camels nest in your armpits. Amen.

Where does this leave us? Darned if WE know! LOL. Frankly, it's been obvious to us for awhile that moving out of the area was inevitable. Justin is called to ministry. There is no pastoral work here. We love it here, but can't stay if there's no future in what God calls him to.

It wasn't our plan to consider moving so soon though! Justin is starting school next month for his MDiv (that's right! MY MAN! Going for his Masters. He's brilliant). We had planned to stay here, and then pursue pastoral work after that.

But, God's ways are not our own. LOL. Fo' Sho'. We are totally game to stay here and rent, if we can find anything. The rent is insane around here...thank you DoD for making BAH rates public knowledge.... (a rant for another day)

At this time, Justin has applications for various pastoral positions in a few different places. We are hopeful, but cautiously so. Though Justin already has a degree, and some experience via youth group...he doesn't have any independent ministerial experience. But hey, a guy has to start somewhere! All we need is a chance.

That's that. In a nutshell, Chase sucks and hope they enjoy our empty house that will never sell. We don't wanna move per se, but accept that God's will is not ours, and we will submit.

I know A LOT of friends have been praying for us. People I've never met and probably won't, this side of Glory. It means a lot to me, and I thank you! Truly, we aren't disappointed at the turn of events, as we can see God's will in this.

10 years!

2011-02-15T15:20:00.015-05:00

When we first got married...we'd look ahead to 10 years with amazement. It seemed so far away! Now here weare.

10 years married! I can remember the first time I saw Justin. We were 16, an evening band practice. I saw him standing with a group of other sax players and thought to myself, "that boy is CUTE. I want him" :D

It took awhile. But I got him. He's mine people. Poor Justin lol. I got him and he's stuck with me!

I've posted plenty of times 'our story' (you can read bunches from this post). So I won't post all of that again.

Instead I wanted to do something fun! A couple of 'Top Ten' lists for your enjoyment.

Top Ten Random Anniversary Facts:

10. We got married 10 days before Justin left for Air Force basic training.

9. Our wedding was planned in less than 2 weeks. And it showed. Bless my parents, they bent over backwards for us!

8. In 10 years,we've been blessed enough for Justin to only miss 3 of our anniversaries.

7. Our first anniversary consisted of a terrible dinner, Beauty and the Beast on IMAX and a blown compressor in our crappy car. We waited till 3 in the morning for a tow truck.

6. We have never gone away for an anniversary.

5. I have been pregnant and/or nursing for every single anniversary! Pregnant for 6 and nursing for the other4.

4. This is our first anniversary where Justin has had any facial hair. I love that beard.

3. Justin 'bought' us stars for our 9th anniversary. Silly man! I love him!

2. Other than that, we've never really gifted each other with anything. We usually just do dinner. And lovin'.

1. Our marriage on Feb 17th wasn't really legal. Our actual legal marriage was June 9th, 2001. In Louisiana. We don't celebrate that one tho. It's a long story.

Ten Random Pics:

<--high school!

<--our junior prom

<--We were about 18 here I think

<-- about 18 here too.

<--our junior prom group pic. That's us on the far left!

<--high school graduation

<--junior prom

<---just a random, fairly recent pic

<-smootches! I was pregnant with Babbie in this one

And the fruit of 10 years:

Sorry that pic is older. LOL.

And finally...

Top Ten reasons I love Justin:

10. He's hot. Super super hot. A lot.

9. He is smart! As a kid, he hated school, but now he's fixin' to start seminary for his masters!

8. He isn't afraid to get his hands dirty. He'll change a scary poop blowout, clean up vomit, and wipe up dripping green snot. All without complaint.

7. He puts up with me. That takes forbearance, love, and a grace that only comes from God. Seriously.

6. He is NEVER too tired or in too much pain to play with his kids. EVER.

5. He makes me laugh. No one makes me laugh like him. He's silly, fun-loving and plain hilarious.

4. He treats me like a queen. With my unkempt hair, poor housekeeping skills and horrible hormones. He treats me like I'm the best woman on the planet.

3. He isn't ashamed or afraid of his emotions. He's all man. And it takes a real man to cry.

2. He loves the Lord. He loves Christ and it shows. Every day he grows more and more Christ-like.

1. He loves me. He loves ME for ME. What more can a girl dare to hope for?

2011-02-10T16:00:00.001-05:00

It's about the house, don't worry, everyone in the house is ok :)
We received a foreclosure notice today. This came as a shock, since we had been told we were tentatively accepted to HfH. We were told that 3 months of payments would get us accepted.
Well. An hour on the phone and a disconnect...we find out that was a LIE. An outright lie.
There was never a 3 month trial period. There was no intention of altering our mortgage. They took our money and intended to foreclose anyways.
How stupid we are. No wonder we were still waiting for papers saying we'd been accepted.
I'm not going to lie. I'm heartbroken. Angry and confused.
We have to face the possibility that will have to leave our beloved home and possibly even our new hometown. Our church. Our friends.
I don't understand God. What are we going to do?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone....iPhones RULE!

Autism series pt 1

2011-02-06T12:02:00.002-05:00

I got LOTS of questions on my FB page. So, I'm starting with these:

Where did you start in pursuing the diagnosis?
What made you suspect autism? And how did you know where to go from there?

I was going to do each in their own post, but these go rather well together, so here we are.

What made you suspect Autism?

Stephanie has always had a lot of 'quirks'. As an infant, she refused to eat baby food that wasn't from a jar. Seriously. And if the jarred stuff had the barest hint of anything other than smooth puree, it was a no go.

As a toddler, she wouldn't speak. She sucked her thumb incessantly. She screamed at the slightest provocation. She played with her poop. If I didn't change her right away, it was too late. Layers upon layers of clothing didn't help. She even ate it. She became very interested in picking scabs. I can remember one time she had a bug bite on her leg, and she scratched it raw. Once it scabbed over she would pick it over and over...to the point it was unable to heal. I had to put her in pants for two weeks to allow it to heal (this was in summer). Right after we moved back to the states, she started holding the tags in the back of her shirts or pants. But only the silky ones. I thought they bothered her, so I cut one out. Once. You'd think I'd cut her foot off. LOL. She was not only uninterested in potty training, she flat out refused to have anything to do with it. She would pee or poop herself in underwear and it didn't matter to her. She couldn't do things like brush her teeth or use a fork. She still won't use a fork well, her fine motor skills are very lacking. She became more and more sensitive to food. Especially artificial flavors, colors or HFCS. This was more than just a 'sugar high'. This was a complete loss of impulse control and function. Some people didn't believe me at first. Then I enlightened them :D.

I clearly remember what made me think Autism. In fact, I KNEW it. I was VERY pregnant with Isaiah. We were in the middle of moving across country from NV to NY and we stopped in OH to visit family. At a family get together, we were chatting with a cousin of Justin's who said that her son (about 18mo older than Steph) had just been diagnosed with Autism. Stephanie had just turned 3. The two of them screamed at each other and behaved exactly the same. I knew then. That's when ASD first occurred to me. Before that, I had thought she was just a quirky, high needs kid honestly. If it hadn't been for that encounter, it might never have occurred to me.

And how did you know where to go from there?

I didn't. I had no clue. In fact, the first thing I did once we got settled, got furniture and had a baby was google Autism Spectrum Disorder. And thus began a 3 year long headache....

Which leads to the next question:

Where did you start in pursuing the diagnosis?

*I* started with the school district. Stephanie was over the age for EI (early intervention) so after that, you call the school district for help. I also talked to my pediatrician who was a totally piece of crap and blew me off (more on that later).

You have several options with seeking help:

--Under preschool age, call Early Intervention. (You can look em up for your area online) If you're still not sure how to go about that, then...

--Talk to your Pedi. Address your concerns and get the number to call EI. Demand it if you have to (but...a good pedi shouldn't make you demand anything. They should listen to YOU!)

--Over preschool age (3+) you call the school district (even if you homeschool). They will put you in touch with the right area of the school district and will send you paperwork to get started. Call over and over for anything you don't understand. The school district is required to help you, even if you homeschool.

I'll share more specifics about the actual process in another post. 'Cause it'll be LONG.

That's part one for now. I'll address more questions in my next post. And then begin a 'beginning to now' series.

Autism series

2011-02-04T17:09:00.001-05:00

I've been working on some posts (mostly in my head lol) about autism. Living with it, getting it diagnosed, the things no one tells you about...stuff like that.
I haven't worked out the deets yet. That's comin'. In the meantime, I thought I'd open the forum for reader questions.
Ask me anything! For right now tho, make the anything special needs related. ;)

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone....iPhones RULE!

We're OUT!

2011-01-10T09:00:00.002-05:00

As of December 30, 2010, Justin is OUT of the military!

It's kinda weird...but not really.

So far, we are really loving civilian life! Justin is working part time, and will be getting disability from the VA. (not much, but it helps)

He should also be starting seminary this fall. And I'll be starting school too!! It's my first time back to college since the fiasco that was college in 99. We're not gonna talk about that tho. ;)

Justin gave me his Post 911 GI bill...so school will be paid for, and we will receive income. (How awesome is my man btw? Giving ME his GI Bill!)

The best things about civi life are not being in constant 'wait' mode. Waiting for the the next deployment. Waiting for the next orders. After 10 years, it's nice to know that we are staying put. 9 moves in 10 years is enough ya know?

This is especially sweet for Justin as he moved around lots as a kid. It's a tender spot for him to know that (unless God says otherwise of course), our kids will grow up in the same area.

I'm not going to lie...it was a little hard to say goodbye to the steady paycheck :P. But God is our provider, not man...and He has never failed.

Here is the BEST news!!

wait for it....

you ready?

Because of the severance $$ we got from the Army.... we have enough money to catch up the house. And we have been tentatively accepted to Help for Homeowners.

We are NOT going to lose our home!!

How's that for AWESOME??

2011-01-10T08:57:00.001-05:00

I'm a guest poster every monday here at this blog! It's a great blog with posts by several awesome women!

Please, come check it out and join us!

Guest post

2010-12-12T14:28:00.002-05:00

Hi all!

I've got a guest post from my Hot Man. He actually originally had it as a comment to my previous post, but my Sexy Man can get a bit wordy when he's passionate about something, and poor blogger was like to explode. So guest post it is!

Enjoy!

~Sandy

To the anonymous individual who commented on my wife's blog. First of all I would extend to you the invitation to try that language towards my wife in person. I trust you will then realize the relationship between Christ's sacrifice for and vicious defense of His bride, and the way a husband is to cleave to His wife as she cleaves to him.

I would also like to point out your cowardice in not trusting one such as the God of the Bible. In denying such a God, you fundamentally give yourself permission to busily strive for money, things, false security (as so many here has pointed out). These ideals have been imposed upon us in such a way that you feel compelled to denounce another in their defense. So I ask, are you a person of conviction, contemplation, and thought, or are you content to have such things decided for you? How could things such as the American ideal of financial security, health benefits, enough food to feed a small community, be adequate measures of good parenting when the majority of the entire world's population past or present has not ever had such things? Is the ideal of good parenting limited to an American context? Are you really suggesting that the only good parents are those who can afford such luxuries? If so you limit the necessary qualities of those who may (by your blessing) have kids to those who are American (or perhaps European or Japanese), who make roughly $70,000/year or more up to two kids and $1000 or more of income for each additional child, who have health insurance, who own land and/or their own home, etc. I hope you can see the absurdity of your position.

Actually, I must admit that your position take far more courage to endure. Mine relies heavily, indeed entirely on the sovereignty of God and His ability to do exactly as He intends; my life revolves around that certainty. Yours has none to rest upon, and indeed you find yourself in open battle with God as you seek to discredit my family and our reliance upon Him. Such a position is dangerous. In fact, now that I think further into this, your position does not carry with it great courage, but ultimate ignorance; as you will eventually come to realize that throughout history, those who stood starkly against God have been destroyed, and the future holds nothing different. You have no more courage than it takes to regurgitate useless drivel which you did not think of for yourself, but that has been spewed to you by others.

As for the comments relative to our children and their states; you are again quite inconsistent in your thought processes. Are you truly suggesting that, before we knew any of these conditions existed that we should have stopped? Is this not a risk any parent takes when having kids? I suppose you would prefer if we simply didn't have children then? Are you American? I am. You may say what you want, but you must endure the exposure of your own ignorance. Do you presume to disallow my right as an American to determine the bounds of my life by the content of my character and how hard I am willing to work? Your ill conceived comments bring up so many questions that I am having difficulty logically organizing them. Please think before you speak and save us all some time. If you suggest the we should now stop having children because we now have children with "special needs", I would ask you, isn't the best medicine for "special needs" socialization? If you have at all researched Autism or the like, you would realize that more children could only help, as the establishment of normal emotional reactions, standards of conduct, etiquette (on a basic level), is only bolstered as that child's behavior is seen to be clearly different and as the other children display acceptable forms of behavior day in and day out. Once again, God's way is proved true by science in this, and every other facet.

I leave you with a sincere hope that you may someday realize the truth of scripture, whether through destruction (as I am not able to say if you are destined to believe or not and may well be amongst those who believe and are damned), or through belief in Christ in this current age, through which you may be reconciled to God and saved from eternal torment.

why?

2010-12-07T17:02:00.004-05:00

Someone ''anonymous'' left a very nasty comment on my blog. (I deleted it, because the language was sick..otherwise I'd have left it and responded!).

Basically, the commenter called me (and my husband) stupid and irresponsible for having another child when we are struggling financially and have two special needs children.

Of course, the language was a lot more coarse and vulgar..but that was the basic idea.

So, I'd like to respond in a post.

But first,

Anonymous poster:

If you'd have cut out the nasty language, I'd have left the comment up. Think (and say) what you please, but no one uses those words on my blog. And in the future, if you have something to say, leave your name...unless you're too chicken to say it with your name attached. In which case, shut up. I have a feeling that either I know you somewhat or you spent a lot of time reading my blog. Interesting ;) Come on back. If you can use real words, I'll gladly take you on.

Now.

The subject at hand. Why are we having another child when we have two special needs children and are struggling financially?

I really had to think and think about how to format this post. I want to make clear what the Bible says about children, what we believe about children and how that effects our decisions.

First and foremost. The Bible says children are a blessing. PERIOD. Not 'they're great if you want them' or 'only when you can afford them' or 'be careful not to have too many and screw things up'. Nope. Children are a blessing. No caveats, no postscripts, no disclaimers.

As Christians, we are living for eternity. Not for now. Of course, our life on this earth matters, and what we do (or don't) in the here and now matters. But, in the long run, eternity is what matters. Yes, we're struggling financially right now. Lots of people in this country are right now. Do I really want to turn away another baby because right now is tough? Not so much. In 10 years, will I care that times were tough when I carried this baby? Not so much. Will I look at him/her and wish I'd never had him/her because times were tough? Of course not! We never go without. Our house is warm, our bellies are full, and our bills are paid. Everything else doesn't matter.

As far as having special needs kids. Yes. It's hard. Would I change it? No. Because God knows better than I. And although I battle against bitterness and anger, I still recognize that HE is sovereign and I am not. Special needs children are NOT a punishment. They aren't a warning to stop having kids now before it gets worse. They aren't a curse. They're still a blessing. Just in a different package than the world would like to see. Messier. Harder. Difficult. The world doesn't like messy. Or difficult. The world likes things to be just right. Well, it's not. Life is messy. And difficult. But I have HOPE. And that's what's key. I have hope in Christ Jesus. My struggles to raise my children are NOT in vain. They are for God's glory and furtherance of His plan. He loves my children even more than I do. How could He not? HE CREATED THEM. In all their messy, imperfect, difficult packaging.

THE SAME GOD THAT CREATED THE HEAVENS AND EARTH SIMPLY BY SPEAKING CREATED US. He created you. Me. He created each of my children in His time and for His purpose. Who am I to say, "No thanks. I don't want your blessing."

I love my precious babies. Each of them is a unique soul. Handcrafted by The Master. Each has a unique purpose in God's great plan for His children. At best, I can humbly thank Him and pray I glorify Him in raising them up.

I want to leave a legacy of children who love God. I want them to have children who love God. Because each child I raise to love God, is in turn, another soul to spread the Word of the love of Jesus Christ to the world.

For some reason I can't understand and could never even begin to grasp, the Lord has chosen to bless us with another child. At a time of huge transition for our family. A time filled with unknowns and lots of 'what ifs' on my part.

He has always provided.

That's the short version. I could go on and on. I really could!

In the end, I trust Him. He is the Author of life. He knows so much better than I.

Oh Lord! That I would even begin to be worthy...

2010-12-01T14:12:00.001-05:00

Make a pregnancy ticker

Yep. TheNuthouse is EXPANDING!

Don't eat the shampoo!

2010-11-21T13:40:00.002-05:00

Weird title right?

I'd always listened with one ear half open when people would go on and on and blah blah blah about toxic crap in everyday products.

Yeah yeah yeah...tree-huggin' hippy crap I'd think...

And again, the Lord laughs at me and teaches me a painful lesson.

One night last week, the kids were playing (read: practically bathing in) some of Amanda's lotion.

Within minutes of Stephanie applying it, she lost much of her function. She stopped speaking, and began hand flapping, growling and barking. Difficult to deal with and eventually just had to go to bed.

So. After some detective work regarding what's actually in that crap...I went crazy and threw it ALL away. All my Bath & Body Works...that was hard. Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion, sprays...all gone.

I did a lot of research on this website: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/ and learned some interesting things...

I've been using this on my hair for years. Holy crap:

http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/product/159040/Back_to_Basics_Sunflower_Leave-In_Conditioner/

Hey sure...maybe it's not THAT bad cause it's small amounts...but I know how MY kid reacted. And it was NOT pretty. If that means I don't get to smell nice like B&BW anymore..so be it.

Did you know that many bath and body products have gluten in them? (Hydrolized wheat protein) Really?? Aveeno does. I thought about that at first, till I looked at the label...no thanks!

Eventually, I'm going to make my own things for us to use.

I know I sound crazy. But I am, so it works out well. But really...consider what that what you brush your teeth with, rub on your skin, and put on your kids may have effects that we see generations down the road...

GFCF update

2010-11-13T13:04:00.002-05:00

It's been nearly a month since we went GFCF!!

There's been a snag here and there, but so far, it's going well. And we're all learning some things along the way.

- Gluten is in flippin' everything. Seriously. Hello, licorice??

- Brand names really ARE better when it comes to certain things. All of the brand name hot dogs do not have gluten in them. Store brand does.

- Bread and pasta are not life necessities. I miss them. Oh how I miss them. But...we are all still living.

- There is no way on God's green earth I'm giving up chocolate. Period. I'm just sayin'. I favor dark chocolate anyhoo...but chocolate is a non negotiable factor in this dietary change.

- All of us are in some way gluten intolerant. Which surprised me. More severe for some of us. But, it shows in all of us.

I've come up with so many new recipes! Like peanut-butter-chocolate-honey Chex Mix. And granola balls. And cranberry oatmeal baked apples! I've learned a new love of corn tortillas! And rediscovered the heaven that is air popped pop corn. I can't go back to the microwave crap in boxes now...

Here's a recipe for you:

Cranberry Oatmeal Baked Apples:

6 apples, cored and sliced (the more tart the apple is the better. Ida's or Mac's are good)

1 cup butter or margarine

1.5 cups brown sugar

1 cup oats

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp corn starch

.5 cup cranberries, fresh or frozen

Mix the cornstarch and cinnamon. Sprinkle over apples. Spread the apples in a 9x9 or 13x9 greased baking dish. (oh yeah. Heat the oven to 325)

Mix the butter and brown sugar until creamy. Stir in oats. Gently stir in cranberries.

Gently spread mixture over apples and let it fall down in between the apples. It's not meant to be a topping, but rather a part of the apple mix.

Place in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mix up well and bake for another 15-20 or until all apples are soft and mixture begins to thicken (it will thicken A LOT as it cools). Sprinkle with another tablespoon of brown sugar if desired.

The berries and apples are tart, but the natural sugar in the apples and brown sugar balances so well! A yummy dessert or side dish.

Curveball

2010-11-13T07:32:00.002-05:00

Did you know that when you have a child with ASD, the chances of other children in the family having an ASD go up? We knew that. We were told that when Stephanie got her diagnosis, and from all we've read.

We've been seeing red flags in Wesley. We pawned it off as him imitating Stephanie for a long time. But, it's gotten worse. And we went to Rochester for Steph's follow up appt and talked the doc for a few minutes about him. She even came out into the waiting room to talk to him for a minute. She said he needs to be seen asap. So. Referral is in, and we are waiting for an appt. We are hoping to get in before the end of the year, since we don't know what insurance we'll have after that.

Based on our own research and reading, I'm betting PDD-NOS and SPD. (That's non specific Pervasive Development Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder.) PDD is mild on the spectrum. He's got no language delays, and much less self-stims then Steph does.

This comes in the midst of some serious changes we've needed to make in our household and in us as parents. It's chaotic, difficult, draining, and overwhelming. More on that later tho.

In the meantime, we are now parents of 2 special needs children. Not anywhere we thought we'd be. And even though we already have been down ( and are still on) this road, the grieving process starts all over again.

How I spent my Sunday afternoon...

2010-10-24T17:24:00.000-04:00

2010-10-22T20:10:00.001-04:00

I was given a Mom's devotional bible after the birth of my third child. The first line of the preface says, "Mothering matters". It's taken me a lot of years to truly appreciate that.
Mothering is a contradiction in terms. Beauty covered in poop and snot. The deepest love. The darkest fear. A roller coaster with highs of joy, and lows of heartache.
Every tear wiped, boo boo kissed, book read; every day that passed whether it ends well or ends poorly is a building block on preparing a precious human created in God's own image for life and eternity.
This baby, and every child is a blank canvas, begging for paint.
How our children are painted is up to us. While God is the master artist, we are His brushes. Will we allow Him to paint our babies into works of art fit for Him?
We so enjoy each precious first our baby triumphs. First smile, first word, first step...but we must remember that WE are THEIR first.
Their first example of love
Of sacrifice
Of gentleness
Of teaching.
Of Christ.
The world tells us our job is second class.
The Lord tells us our work is glorious.
The world says, "don't waste too much time on this"
The Lord says, "take your time, it's but a blink"
The world says children are a burden.
God says children are a blessing.

"raise up a child in the ways of the LORD and when he is old he will not depart from it"

Mothering matters.

Times...they are a'changin'

2010-10-16T08:34:00.002-04:00

We're making some changes here in The Nuthouse.
We are going Gluten/Casein free!!
It's a huge change...well..not really that huge. A lot of my meals were easily altered or already naturally gluten free. Getting rid of hidden gluten/casein is what's hard.
Why are we doing this?
1. Stephanie. A lot of kids on the Spectrum have digestion issue. No. I don't think this is a magic 'cure'. Do I think a dietary change will benefit? Possibly. Yes. Based on our past with Stephanie's digestive problems and reactions to certain foods.
2. Wesley is showing signs of sensory processing problems. Left alone, this will likely only worsen and like ASD, sometimes sensory problems can be traced back to a digestive problem.
3. We all show signs of needing a good change.
4. We are a package deal. If one needs it, we will all do it.

Thankfully, my man and my momma are both on board.

We started this last week. All wheat flour is gone. All milk, cheese, and butter is gone. No more flour pasta. There is a huge list of what we CAN'T have...but I'm choosing to focus on the also big list of what we CAN.
It's also fostering a creativity in my budgeting and cooking that has long since fallen by the wayside.
In the next few weeks, I'll post a few recipes (I'm working on a cookbook!! GF doesn't have to be nasty ;) ), and will share about how the dietary changes are affecting us all. Mostly as a journal for me to use when dealing with doctors and the school.
We are already seeing a difference in Wesley.
Before:
-He was 'twitchy'. Constantly moving. Not just in a boy type way...in a physically can't stop his body way. Twitchy is the only way I can describe it.
-He was mimicking Stephanie's vocal stems when overwhelmed and frustrated. He's well past old enough and mature enough to know this is not ok. From our observation, it wasn't a behavioral issue...it's a sensory issue.
-He wouldn't eat. Anyone who's been to my house can attest. There is a small list of what that boy will eat. Given his druthers, he'd eat PB sammies all day. He was also constantly asking for anything and everything 'bready' and constantly complaining of hunger when he'd just eaten. That spells out digestive trouble/pain. He also gags and chokes on certain foods.
-Physical signs. Paleness, black rimmed eyes, slightly distended tummy (very slight people.) Poor sleep and poor bathroom habits. Difficulty with going pee. He seemed so distracted by his body's other issues that he was constantly having accidents. And peeing all.the.time.

Just in the last week with no G/C:
-Much less twitching. He can sit. And just SIT. Not for long..he's still a boy ;)
- Almost no vocal mimicking.
- More eating! He ATE FISH the other night. FISH people. He didn't like it, but he tried it without complaint and was matter of fact about it. He put a hurt on some steak last night!
-Almost NO accidents!

Now..as a bit of a testimony...
Sexy Man took him with to get new tires put on his truck yesterday. Wesley was just A-Ok at first. They took a walk and then came back to sit and wait. Man time. Justin and Wesley ate a bag of licorice and within MINUTES he was screeching, jumping, running, mimicking vocal stems....a completely different kid. Poor Justin looked at the licorice label...WHEAT FLOUR.

Lesson learned ;)

The differences is Steph aren't as obvious. She still has G/C at school (I have a doctor appt to get a note)..so her system is still confused.

As for me...my digestion is different for sure. I'll leave it at that... ;) it's a good change tho!

I figure this can go two ways:
1. It'll change our whole family for the better. Even if the changes only effect one or two of us...it'll change the whole family dynamic!
2. It'll do nothing. In which case, we've learned some things and we're no worse for the wear.

We've got nothing to lose!

Who am I? ...really?

2010-09-25T11:32:00.002-04:00

I struggle so much with balancing Who I am with Who I *should* be. Please tell me I'm not the only one...please?
Anyone who knew me before I came to Christ can tell you that I was the ultimate in loud, obnoxious, mouthy redhead. (To be fair..the red came from a box ;D)
After coming to Christ, I tried ever so hard to change...from mouthy to meek. Obnoxious to thoughtful. Loud to quiet.
I'm still trying, 6 years later. And still failing.
I still yell when I get *really* mad. I still get mouthy and obnoxious when stressed out. My mouth holds my foot REALLY well. It's spent lots of time in there.
Honestly, I think that's why I love the online world so. Not that I keep a 'facade'..but that it's much easier to cultivate the Me I want to be online, as opposed to the Me I really am most of the time. I can't yell online. Well..I can..but you all can't hear my scary 'Mom voice'
The Word tells me Who I should be. And Who I want to be...

²⁶She opens her mouth in wisdom,
And the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. Proverbs 31:26

Oh how I fail at this. So miserably. I can manage the household. I can manage the kids. I can serve my family...but I can't manage my tongue. No, most of the time, it manages me.
James 3 is a whole chapter about the untamed tongue:

But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. James 3:8

Ugh.

Such a battle against my flesh. My temper and my tongue. Jo in "Little Women" called her temper her "bosom enemy" and how right she was...my temper is my bosom enemy, and my temper seeks to infest my heart and spirit with deadly poison.

But...

⁸The LORD is gracious and merciful;
Slow to anger and great in loving kindness.
⁹The LORD is good to all,
And His mercies are over all His works.
¹⁰All Your works shall give thanks to You, O LORD,
And Your godly ones shall bless You. Psalm 145:8-10

So I can say ~~daily~~ hourly:

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

And...

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight,O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14

Amen.

My new series.

2010-08-26T13:35:00.005-04:00

This is the first in a series I'm going to call "What I wish I'd have said to your face"
It's not going to be nice. Or pleasant. But you know, it's some crap I need to deal with. And I'm highly stressed out right now..and for some reason, I feel like turning the crap inside my head loose.

Dear JRC:
You are morons. Freaking morons. I could probably just go ahead and end it there..but really, there's so much to expound on.
First I had my kid eval'd there at the pre-school level. You people had no problems with the fact that she can't hold a pencil at 4yrs old. Or that she pooped herself during the eval. Hey. It's all good right? But..she did qualify for speech therapy, so thank goodness you were still able to milk as much money out of the school district as possible.
Thanks a bunch for your two hours a day of crappy preschool/speech therapy that did absolutely nothing for her. And thanks a bunch for ignoring all the symptoms she displayed of ASD. And thanks a super bunch for blowing me off and responding to my concerns that she did in fact have an ASD by saying really smart expert crap like, "She can't possibly have Autism. She makes good eye contact"
Sure. I'm her mom. I should totally have pushed it. But I think the fact that I had no idea what to expect with this whole process, 4 small children and a deployed husband gives me a little leeway in dropping the ball.
What's your excuse?
Here I am...2 years later. With a 6yo who still can't hold a pencil or tie her own shoes...who still poops herself sometimes. WHO DOES IN FACT HAVE ASD. Thanks for listening.
I can't help but wonder...if you had pulled your heads out of your butts when I was there, maybe she'd have gotten some help and I wouldn't have a 3yo stuck in a 6yo's body.
Hmm.
So. From a grateful mom,
You suck.

A few meatless recipes

2010-08-19T20:08:00.003-04:00

I prepare a meatless recipe at least once a week. By "meatless" I mean anything from completely Vegan, to something that includes dairy and/or eggs. I wanted to share a few standards, and a few new ones I've found:

Veggie 'pizza' Frittata:
12 eggs
1 Zucchini, sliced
1 cup milk
salt/pepper
garlic
oregano
basil
1 cup mozz cheese
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 cup pepperoni (optional)

Mix eggs and sliced zucchini. Add salt, pepper and garlic to taste. Pour into a 13x9 pan and bake at 350 until set. (Middle will not be completely set)
Take out of the oven and sprinkle oregano, basil and any other pizza seasonings you like. Sprinkle cheese and sliced tomato on top. Pepperoni if desired.
Put back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and middle is set. Broil for 5-7 minutes to brown cheese and tomato.

Chipoltle chili:
1 lb black beans, cooked (2 cans if using canned beans).
1 cup brown rice
2-3 cups water
1 tbls cumin
garlic/salt/pepper
1 small can chipoltle chilis in adobe sauce
cilantro (optional)

Run chilis and cilantro through the food proccessor till smooth. Mix with beans and water, and the rest of the seasonings. Heat to boil. Add uncooked rice. Cook on med for 30-45 minutes.
Serve with sour cream. This is SPICY. And yummy.

Lentil and rice pilaf:
1 cup lentils
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups finely chopped onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3/4 cup brown rice
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 cups water

Cook lentils until tender. Don't over cook!!
Heat EVOO in pan and add onion, garlic and rice, saute about 3-5 mins. Add water and spices, heat to boil. Simmer 30 mins or until rice is cooked. Add lentils.

Serve with yogurt sauce
Yogurt sauce:
1 cup yogurt (can also use sour cream)
1/3 cup chopped cucumber
1/4 tsp garlic
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried mint (I didn't have that. So I use a drop or two of peppermint extract)

Mix and chill. YUM!!

Easy taco cassarole:
1 lb black beans, rinsed and soaked
1 tbls cumin
garlic/salt/pepper
1 cup onion, chopped
Spanish rice (see below)
5 flour tortillas, cut into strips
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Place beans, onion and seasoning into a pot with 2 cups water, heat to boil, simmer over med until beans are cooked. (add a bit extra water if needed) Mush beans a bit with a masher when finished. You want them to have a refried type consistency.

Spanish rice: (got this recipe from a friend. BEST.EVER.)
Spray some oil to coat the bottom of a pan.
Turn on high and allow to heat up.
Add 2 cups of rice (brown or white, though she used brown).
Brown rice until it is a nice deep golden color.

Add in:
1/2 cup of chopped onion.
15 oz (or so) can of tomato sauce.
fill the tomato sauce can 3 times with water and pour it in.

Add the following seasonings:
Garlic (about a tablespoon)
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)
Cumin (about a teaspoon)
Sasan (if you can get it...it is a Spanish seasoning. About a teaspoon).

Bring to a boil on high, then turn it down to low and simmer for 30-45 minutes. Put a lid on it, and DO NOT TAKE IT OFF. DO NOT stir the rice. After 45 minutes, fluff rice.

After the rice and beans are cooked, layer with tortillas in a 13x9 in this order: tortillas, rice, beans, repeat. Top with cheese. Bake at 350 30 mins or until hot.

Those are a few of our favorites. Eating meatless is frugal, easy and can be so tasty!!

House stuff

2010-08-16T08:15:00.002-04:00

So far, not a lot to update on. We're in limbo. After much research, painstaking hours on the net and phone spent by my beloved...and some counsel by a financial adviser on post....
We've decided to withhold payment for now. Apparently it's a negotiating tool. We are withholding payment for now (socking it away) and basically waiting for 4 months. In which time, the bank with either take the house, or be willing to negotiate for a lower payment (any guesses as to which??). Then we'll either move or continue trying to sell. Or just fork over the house. We're not sure what will be our best option at that time.
In the meantime. We wait.
At the worst, in four months the bank tells us to scoot. We're already preparing for that, so it won't be so hard.
At best, they'll stop being crapheads and negotiate. That'll be nice, but seriously. Sha. Right. And monkeys might fly outta my butt (anyone? LOL)

Anyhoo. I can't tell you how much we appreciate the love and support. It's been awesome. I know I serve a mighty God. And if we lose our home, it's for His glory and His will. Thanks for loving us. And praying for us. And thank you for the stories of those of you that have lost your homes. Even tho rationally I know it's going to be fine, it's nice to hear from those on the other side.

25 things

2010-08-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

I posted this on a large families board I post on. I could go on and on. My man ROCKS.

1. He loves me even though I'm fat and covered in stretch marks from birthing babies.
2. He calls me sexy And he means it!
3. He 100% owns our conviction to trusting God with our fertility. He never wavers or doubts.
4. He gets baby fever and can't wait for me to get pregnant!
5. He's incredibly hot. Such a good looking hunk of man!
6. He forgives me readily, despite my short fuse and tendency to speak in anger
7. He works hard physically, despite a back injury that is ending his military career. And he rarely complains tho I can tell he's in pain.
8. He lets our babies sleep in our bed and in our room for the first year and sacrifices his sleep cheerfully for them
9. He is committed to God's will wholeheartedly.
10. He loves the LORD! He shines with Christ-like love
11. He is committed to our family, even tho most around him aren't, and takes heat at work for putting us first.
12. He's a "Mr. Visionary"...it's taken me a lot of years to learn to love this in him, but the man has such imagination and vision for our lives!
13. He treats me like a queen. He never speaks poorly of me, tho I'd sure deserve it sometimes.
14. He plays with our kids every night. No matter how late he gets home, no matter how tired he is. He always gets on the floor and wrestles with them.
15. He is HERE. He's not just the one who brings home money. He makes every moment at home count.
16. He is my encourager, my calmer, especially with our special needs child.
17. He loves his momma, despite a hard childhood and a lot of past hurt. He's welcomed her into our lives, and because of her moving here, she's come to Christ! Praise GOD!
18. He loves MY momma. He welcomed her and joyfully moved her into our home.
19. He serves tirelessly and cheerfully. It's never too late for him to run over to his mom's and serve her. It's never too much for him to serve any of us.
20. He makes me laugh! We have such fun together, even after 13 years and some hard lessons. No one can make me laugh like he can!
21. He has a contagious laugh. When he finds something truly funny, he has a joyful belly laugh that makes me grin
22. He's smart! He can always answer my questions about scripture, and is filling his head and heart with God's word.
23. He's incredibly hot. (I know I already said that. It bears repeating.)
24. He listens to me complain and gripe with a bad attitude, and then gently corrects me and encourages me.
25. He's an AMAZING birth coach

Sandy's Fabulous Fall Pancakes

2010-08-09T08:10:00.002-04:00

....well it's not technically fall yet... but, the days are beginning to shorten, leaves are already changing up here and the wind feels fall like. And my Beloved Hunter Man is counting the days till early bow season.

Fall marks apple season up here in Apple Country! Growing up in the Wild West, I learned about 3 kinds of apples, Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Golden Delicious. Imagine my DELIGHT and JOY to discover that there are many different kinds of apples and they are YUMMY!
My favorite: McIntosh. Tart, Juicy and FRAGRANT! Heavenly. Second fave: Idared. These rock to preserve. They keep a wonderfully tart flavor even after canning, that contrasts wonderfully with the juice I preserve them in :D.
Anyhoo...since apple season is a' comin'...I'm trying to use up the wonderful bounty from last year.
Yesterday I made apple crisp for breakfast. Yeah. I'm a cool mom!
Today it was Fabulous Fall Pancakes. A name I came up with about 5 minutes ago when I started this post. LOL

Sandy's Fabulous Fall Pancakes:
*Caveat: I have a large brood that apparently teeters on the brink of starvation regularly, judging by the griping I hear on a constant basis. This makes A LOT of pancakes. A.LOT. FYI: Pancakes freeze really well.

6 cups of flour (I use All-purpose. Have used wheat. Works fine)
3 cups old-fashioned oats (not quick!)
3 cups brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp Vanilla extract
1-2 tsp cinnamon
3 eggs
12-18 oz milk (I used condensed/canned milk. Use less if you like your pancakes thick, more if you like 'em thinner)
Apples or applesauce or fresh apples, peeled and chopped** (I used my canned pie apples. 1 qt apples with juice included. If using applesauce or fresh apples, plan on a higher milk content to balance out the wet/dry ratio)
**Another wonderful substitute is to use cooked, mashed sweet potato in place of the apples. Makes for some hearty pancakes that have a really yummy fall flavor!

Mix dry ingredients completely. Mix wet ingredients in a separate bowl, combine in one very large bowl. Mix well, but don't mix the heck out of it!

Cook as you do any pancake. I cook mine on a rockin' griddle I've had for years. My preferred method is to cook while shoving bites of pancake in my trap and hope they don't burn.

ENJOY!!

***I just realized I forgot sugar! Lol. That would have made for interesting pancakes! It's been added***

2010-08-08T22:00:00.001-04:00

Abigail is a Booby Monster. That is all.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone....iPhones RULE!

Have you tried...?

2010-07-19T12:57:00.002-04:00

Yes. Yes we have.
Let me back up tho.
I can't say enough how grateful I am for the encouragement and prayers as we are doing our best to prepare for/plan for the likelihood of losing our home. It's awesome!
I thought I'd take the time to answer the questions I've gotten in one spot.
-Have we shopped around for flood insurance? In short, yes and no. LOL. Here's the dealio. FEMA/the government created the flood insurance program, basically taking flood insurance from the private companies and making it a government subsidized program. This is good in that people who live in flood plains/hurricane areas can no longer be told no to insurance. This is also bad. In that private companies no longer write their own flood insurance (why would they? Now it's the government's problem), therefore there is no more shopping around for the best rate. The government determines the flood plains. The government decides the rates. Wait. It gets better!
So. When I was buying the house (Justin was in Iraq. I'm going to blame stress, sleep deprivation and no husband for my complete and utter idiocy in buying this house), our 'helpful' (read: taking advantage of a naive military wife with a deployed husband) mortgage officer called at the last minute to let me know that the bank REQUIRED me to get flood insurance. Fine says I. I call the company that holds our homeowners insurance and tell 'em to get on it.
My insurance agent informs me that our policy will be over 2000 dollars a year. Yes. Really.
I say fine. If that's what gets me to closing, I'll take that and deal with it later (yes. I really did. I know. I'm stupid. Read my excuses above)
After closing, things settle and I begin doing research to see about lowering the policy.
1. FEMA bases flood coverage on zones. Our home is in an 'AE' zone. Our house is also large (3400 sqft). Large house + AE flood zone = FEMA doin' us dry. Sorry to be crass. But really. We are gettin' screwed hardcore.
Chase (our mortgage holder) requires an amount of flood coverage based upon the replacement value of our house, and where certain appliances are in our house (for example, the heater, water heater ect are all in the basement. First place to flood. Makes replacement higher) Therefore, changing to a lower coverage doesn't satisfy them.
But back to the original question. We can't shop around. Flood insurance is regulated by the government. They can screw us just as much as they please. And they sure are.
- What about refinancing with a different bank that doesn't require flood insurance?
We are looking into that. So far, no bank will finance a mortgage for a house in a flood zone without flood insurance.
- USAA for insurance.
For those that don't know, USAA is a military bank. Sort of like a credit union. Best.bank.ever. BUT...not for us in the insurance dept. Actually, they are more expensive for homeowners insurance than anywhere else. Again, our home is LARGE. That's a factor in insurance.

What else we've done:
Justin (the best man on the planet. I'm just sayin') has been talking to the village. I think the reality of homes sitting empty due to foreclosure and flood insurance is coming to their attention. If Chase takes our home, who do they think is going to buy it?? Not with the near 3000 dollars/yearly flood insurance they require! Unless someone has cash. Good luck Chase.
Anyhoo, Justin pointed out that we can't possibly be the only ones struggling. We (as in Justin - best man on the planet) has also called local politicians to see about help.

So...all of that to say. We wait and we pray. As of August, we can no longer afford to pay the full amount of our house payment. So we're giving them what we can and going from there. We will put the house on the market and either it'll sell or it won't. We will lose the house or we won't.
God knows. He'll tell us where to go and when. That's good enough for me. Sort of. LOL

Autsim. A love/hate/hate/really hate/love relationship.

2010-07-16T21:04:00.003-04:00

Dear Autism:
I hate you. No seriously. You've robbed me of a normal little girl. You suck.
However, I also must love you. For you've (by God's mercy and grace) shown me ugly things about myself that must no longer be allowed to fester in my flesh. You've also taught me that love and beauty does not come in the perfect little package the world says it does.
I hate you still. I hate you when my girl won't speak to me. When she kicks and hits me. When she screams and cries for hours. When she can't get her body to cooperate and obey.
But I love you. God is good. And though I hate you, I must also love you. The Almighty God created you in my girl for a purpose. His purpose. For His glory and I can't hate that. I'm grateful to be a part of that.
I hate you in the store when my kid can't control her impulses.
I hate you when she self-stims over and over and over. And does crap that's totally inappropriate.
I love you when the real Stephanie comes out. And tells me she loves me and kisses me. I cling so much more to the real Stephanie because it's such a treat.
Autsim, I freaking hate you.
But I love Stephanie.
And I love the Lord. And I trust Him.
I choose love over hate. Joy and acceptance over bitterness.
So I must love you. Because you are His will for our lives. But I don't love you that much, so don't get all cocky.
Sincerely,
me.

2010-07-16T20:56:00.003-04:00

I did the weirdest thing today. And I liked it!
I asked for the Kitchenaid meat grinder attachment for my birthday last year. I wanted it because we're hoping that eventually we can just butcher our own meat when Justin hunts. And it looked awesome.
Anyhoo. I had a whole turkey in the freezer that's been there forever. I finally got the idea to hack it up and try my hand at grinding my own meat. Ground turkey is freakin' crazy expensive.
It took a couple of hours. And I only cut myself twice. Not bad.
First, I defrosted the turkey. (duh)
Then I hacked it up as much as possible. I did not leave the skin on. But, to add a bit of fat to the ground meat, I didn't trim it as much as I would have were I just cooking it.
Then I put it in the freezer for a bit. (My reading tells me that very cold or even partially frozen meat grinds best.
Then I ground! So awesome!
I even ground an onion into the meat!
Then I cooked it all up and we even had some for dinner. (YUM!)

Verdict:
Rockin'. Not only did the freshly ground meat taste fabulous, but for a bit of hard work and some time, I got several pounds of turkey for a fraction of the cost of buying ground from the store (I'll do an actual price work up. Eventually. Really. )

Where do I start?

2010-07-15T13:57:00.003-04:00

Well. Let's just get it right out there shall we?
We are losing our home.
It will either sell, short sale, or be lost to foreclosure.
God knows best. God is good.
I'm a little heartbroken. Okay, more than a little.
I'm sad about our house. Our wonderful house that fits our family so nicely. Our back yard. My home.
I'm sad that we have to move. Again. I hate moving. Holy crap I hate moving. Did I mention that I hate moving? 'Cause I really hate moving.
I'm sad that years of hard work to overcome our past mistakes with our bankruptcy may have been for naught.
God knows best. God is good.
I'm also angry.
The reason why we are losing our home is simple: FLOOD INSURANCE. We have been FORCED into flood insurance.
The tide has turned, from people NEEDING flood insurance and not being able to get it (which is wrong) to be being FORCED into it whether we like it or not, to the point of losing our home (also wrong)
We have no choice. No "you live in a 'flood zone', here are your options". By the way...our 'flood zone' is a creek on the other side of a wooded lot next to us. Seriously. A creek. A CREEK.
Chase bank would rather take our home, then allow us leeway in flood insurance. There is no shopping around for the best rate, because flood insurance is government controlled, government provided, and the rates are government set. Thanks Big Brother. Next time, BUTT.OUT.
BUT God knows best. God is good.

Our dreams and visions have changed since buying this house. We are ready to rent and regroup, but I still have doubts and fears. Who is going to rent to a large family with a bunch of kids and two dogs? Will my mom still want to stay with us when we're cramped in a much tighter space? What if she can't stand us anymore? (I'm awesome and all...but still ;) )
Will we be able to buy a home again someday?

God knows best. God is good.

I'm trying not to let anger and sadness and doubt rule me. This IS another of God's adventures in our lives...and boy have there been many!
A house is a place where you sleep and put your crap. I need to remember that.
My mom will love us anyways. She has too. It's in the bible.
We will never go without shelter. We will never go without food. My God is Jehovah Jireh. Provider. My God is my Abba Father, and He cares for His children.

I don't wanna move (I.hate.moving.), but at least we are staying here!
I don't wanna lose my house, but it will be nice to not be paying the equivalent to two mortgages.
(One of these days, I'll do a blog post about God's serious amazing provision)

God knows best. God is good.

God knows best. God is good.

God knows best. God is good.

cloth diapers

2010-06-21T06:55:00.002-04:00

I love cloth! It's so much fun! I've seen those stupid new Huggies that look like jeans. Yeah. Cloth rocks way harder.
I use cloth for 2 reasons. They're CUTE. And they're CHEAP.
I've been using cloth off and on since Amanda was a baby. I saw an ad for Mother-Ease in a mag when I was pregnant with her. 8 years ago! Wow.
I loved the Mother-ease. They were terribly bulky tho. That was 8 years ago and I'm betting they're better now.
When we moved overseas, I left off cloth, I didn't know what our laundry situation would be.
Then back in the states. 3 small babies in diapers. The cost of disposables (even the cheap ones) for 3 kids was giving me hives!
So I bought Haute Pockets. Crappiest diapers ever. CRAP. Within months the waterproof covers were trash.
Thanks to the addiction of a fellow cloth momma and dear friend, I began getting other diapers. Prefolds mostly. As her youngest out grew/potty trained, I was the lucky recipient of many of her diapers. Most of them handmade by our friend Sarah. Yeah, they're awesome.
I'm also lucky enough to belong to an online Mom's group and one of my online friends gifted me with even more cloth dipes! Super awesome as well!

Anyhoo..all of that to say, I've tried a lot of dipes. A LOT. Handmade, store bought, 'fancy' (read expensive) and cheaper.

Since I've had lots of friends ask me my opinion on diapers...I thought I'd put it all here for posterity...since I forget a lot.

Brand name diapers I've tried:
BumGenius: ROCK. I like these a lot. They cost a freakin' fortune tho. I mean really. If I was made of money..I'd prolly buy these, but otherwise, they're aren't THAT awesome kwim?
Pros: last forever. The ones I have are hand-me-downs that barely seems used. They hold up amazingly well. Very streamlined, no unneeded bulk.
cons: Seriously $$$. Enough so that I wouldn't buy these unless I had 400 dollars lying around. Which I don't. That would be nice tho. But I digest.
Mother-Ease: Great! First cloth diapers I ever used. NEVER leaked. Held up wonderfully.
Pros: affordable. The packages are a great price, very worth it.
Cons: The covers are very un-cute. White and kinda lame patterns. The diapers come in cute colors now (they didn't when Manda was small)...but that's no fun if the covers are boring! Very bulky. Much more so then needed IMO. Of course, that was nearing 8 years ago. Might be better now.
Haute Pockets: LAME. L.A.M.E. Are you listening people? These diapers suck. The waterproofing inside the covers wore off in a matter of months. I would NEVER buy these again.
Thristies: Awesome! The covers are ADORABLE! And the terry diapers are so very soft. My only complaint is the the velcro waistband has come quite loose, but that's an easy fix.
Pros: CUTE! Stinkin' CUTE.
Cons: None really. $$ Some, but most websites I've seen have sales on Thirsties pretty often. They're a very good deal on sale.
Bumkins: Best.covers.ever. I LOVE them. I also have a couple of AIO's and I love them too! So cute and the covers are amazing. My favorites for overnight.
Pros: The covers are EXCELLENT. Hold up wonderfully and I've never had an overnight leak with these covers.
Cons: The AIO's leave no room for extra stuffing. Can't really add an extra insert, because there's no room to spare inside the diaper. While it does make the AIO's very streamlined, it also makes them no good for long jaunts. I.E. naps or overnight.
swaddlebees: These are nice diapers. Just nice ya know? Not amazing, certainly not crap...just good diapers.
Pros: easy to use. The pockets are easy to stuff. VERY roomy, easy to add extra inserts for heavy wetters or overnight.
Cons: Very thin crotch area. However, mine are a bit older (hand-me-downs) and from the website, it looks much better! The ones I have have a very skinny crotch area. I'm all for streamlined diapers...but not there! LOL

Types of diapers I've used:
Pockets: Quick and easy. Also expensive! The only work pockets take is stuffing the pocket with the liner either before you diaper baby or after you wash/dry. Nearly no effort needed.
AIO's (All In Ones): Quickest and easiest. Also tends to cost the most $$. Convenience costs more! No stuffing needed. However, since they're thicker, they take forever to dry, and *should* be hang dried, since the waterproof cover is attached and those can be damaged by the dryer. There's also no option of bleaching them, or drying the crap out of them to kill any germs. Kinda sucks.
Prefolds: Cheapest by far. They cost nearly nothing. Since they are just the cloth, they can be bleached if needed. Can also be dried at high temps. They take a bit of getting used to, getting them on the baby just right. Very difficult on a waller-bug LOL. Prefold+good cover= awesome.
Fitted (used with a cover): Great middle of the road between prefolds and AOI's/pockets. A good cover makes all the difference tho. If you go with fitteds/prefolds, get good covers. Just do it.

Then comes the choice between snaps or velcro. Snaps are a pain when the baby is squirmy, but velcro gets caught on everything. Even with the little fold in tabs. So annoying.

That's not even all the options. That's just what I've tried. It can be VERY overwhelming.

To sum it up:
If money was no object, I would absolutely invest in a good pocket system. BumGenius or Fuzzibuns would be my first choices.
Thirsties and Bumkins are the best covers in my experience.
In the end, I prefer fitteds and a good cover. Works wonderfully, and leaves lots of flexibility. Easy to bulk up for overnight, easy to leave streamlined for better fit under clothes.

I hope you all enjoyed my rambling!
Any questions that weren't answered? Ask away!

I know a man

2010-06-20T09:11:00.003-04:00

...who is so much more than a man
He's a leader
a lover
a wrestling partner
an archery teacher
a book reader
a teacher
a protector
a dragon slayer
a snuggler
a pray-er
an encourager
a discipline-r
a disciple-r
a Christ-like servant

A DADDY.

doins'

2010-05-31T12:58:00.002-04:00

Yeah. I'm a bad blogger. Sorry.

It's been hoppin' around here! I always think about how I need to blog something or other and always forget. Or get busy doing other crap. Like feeding my kids and laundry. Go fig.

anyhoo!

Last week, we had 2 birthdays! Wesley turned 4 on the 24th, and Stephanie turned 6 on the 26th. That's funny when I have it typed out! Weird!

Wesley's birthday was spent in Rochester. That's because the long-awaited appt for Stephanie was that day. And since that little man is easy to please, we got McD's for his birthday and sung to him. He was as happy as a pig in mud. The lunch was made better by the cute girl taking orders and Wesley took great pride in telling said cute girl that he's 4 now and it's his birthday. And he'd like a Happy Meal please.
Steph's birthday was spent at home with pizza. And as a treat for mommy, we paid someone else to make the pizza. Normally I make it at home, but getting pizza from somewhere else is a real treat!

Then we had a BBQ on friday with one other family and the grandmas. Easy and quiet. Nice.

Happy birthday to my big kids!

The Dream

2010-05-28T21:07:00.002-04:00

Once...quite a bit ago, (it was right after Justin left for Iraq, so almost 2 years ago) I was struggling so with Sissy. I had no idea what was going on with her. I had no idea how to deal with her (still don't many days...) and just couldn't understand what goes on in that head of hers.

So I prayed.

But not just any prayer. I prayed for a dream. One night before I went to bed, I very specifically asked God to give me a dream. A dream showing me what it is like to be Sissy.

And He gave me one.

My dream started simply. I was on a familiar street in my hometown. I was alone. I walked over to my car (our Suburban) and got in, intending to go a few streets over to a familiar place. I put the key in the ignition, and I started the car. And all hell broke loose. The radio was up all the way, the wipers were on, much like when a friend plays a prank on you.
I put the car in drive, and it went backwards. I hit the brake and the car wouldn't stop until I hit the brake over and over. I tried to put it in drive and it wouldn't go forward. I steered and went the opposite way. I screamed, I cried, I struggled against this car that held me captive. I tried to get out of the car, and was locked in. Forced to try to get this car to do my will so I could get to where I needed to be. It went on and on like that until I woke up.

It was awful.

I woke up with a new understanding of what it must be like to be her. She's a smart kid, but her brain and her body can't communicate. She can't get her brain to settle down and her body to obey her.

I'm glad God gave me that dream so I could better grasp what it's like to be in her body, but I hate that my girl struggles so.

2010-05-23T09:29:00.002-04:00

Me:
"Smile nice for me Steph"

Steph:

Ok. Thanks.

Motherhood: the hardest job you never get ''paid'' for.

2010-04-21T13:22:00.002-04:00

I love being a mom. To me, being a mom is as natural as breathing. Which is funny...because breathing isn't always easy is it? I'm an asthmatic, so there are often times where breath is a struggle. The simple act of inhaling becomes a battle to get enough oxygen to my lungs. When I'm very ill, I constantly feel like I'm suffocating, and my lungs will begin to spasm, my bronchial tubes squeezing shut and creaking open just enough so I can gasp for air.
Sounds rather dramatic...but any asthmatic (or anyone with a breathing issue) can tell you the same.
Not being able to breath freely = scary.
But back to motherhood.
Natural doesn't always equal easy.
It's natural to breath, but outside influences (in my case, environmental allergens, viruses, extreme physical activity) turn what should be natural into a struggle.
It's the same with motherhood.
I was created by God to be a mother. He's blessed me with 5 little ones to raise up in His image. Living, breathing, tiny images of God entrusted to my care. Since He sent them to me, and I was created to be a mother, it should come easily right?
Not so much. What *should* be natural, as easy as breathing is often marred by outside influences. Everything from my own anger, to my children themselves. They may be made in the image of God, but like all people, often act under the influence of satan. Can.I.get.an.AMEN?
In a ''perfect'' world, all children would be clean, well behaved little angels. Obedient and darling.
But what fun would that be? And by 'fun' I mean, how would God stretch us as mothers? Grow us? Bring us to our knees in agony crying out for His guidance...that's not just me right?
When I can't breath, I take medication created specifically to help me breath. I cling to it. I carry my inhaler everywhere I go. The medication for my asthma, should the need arise, is never more than a room away.
I have a 'medication' for motherhood. It's Jesus. It's The Living Word. He is my breath. But His is a daily medication. I can't leave Him in a drawer waiting to be pulled out when I can't breath. I MUST take Him daily. I NEED Him daily. If I take my daily dose of God's love every day, the days where my chest weighs heavily with my failures as a mother become fewer and farther between. I struggle for breath less. I breath more freely.
I've neglected my medicine lately...*sigh* and the result is my own struggle in the very job I was created for. A double dose of medicine brings me back to where I need to be, on my knees at the Throne of my Father.
But I can't get up. I must stay and soak in the medication that keeps me going in the hardest job I've ever been blessed with.

A funny thing happened to me on the way to the shrink...

2010-04-14T11:44:00.003-04:00

Actually it was on the way home.
And yes. A real shrink! Haven't been to one of those in a loooong time. (Is anyone REALLY surprised? We all know I'm crazy right? Yes? Ok. It's important to have our facts straight.)
Anyhoo. The reason for seeing said shrink stems from a lot of years dealing with the trainwreck that is Stephanie. Not just her herself, but also the ~~red tape~~ ~~bureaucratic crap~~ stuff that goes along with having a special needs kid. Paperwork, evaluations, waiting for appts. Being blown off, lots of time on the phone, lots of reading. Grief, anger, doubt, frustration.
We'd been talking about the possibility of seeking counseling as a family, and last night we met with a counselor. A really funny, sassy kind CHRISTIAN woman! Recommended by our pastor, who is well aware that we are a nuthouse.
She said something to me.
'You have a disabled child'

...

No one has ever said that to me exactly like that. And she was the first ''professional'' to say it. I *need* that, but I wasn't quite ready for the reality.

We talked a bunch and described Stephanie and her behaviors to her. She listened and said it.

On the way home, I said to Justin (this is the doubt talking folks. Stick with me here), "Steph always sounds to 'bad' when we describe her to people. She's not that bad. Don't you think it's over exaggerated? Maybe we're wrong and she's just a weird kid"

To which my wisdom-filled man said, "If that's how she sounds, maybe it's because she IS that bad"

I'm having to face reality. I don't like it.

This is not what I wanted in my little fantasy about having a family.

This is not what I signed up for.

I do NOT want to deal with the reality.

But I have to. I have to face the fact that we have a special needs, developmentally disabled child. Don't get me wrong....she can do lots! She's smart and strong and hilarious. She also does random crap like lick windows and pee in a cup and dump it on the floor. (yes really)
God made her ON purpose for HIS purpose.
But that doesn't mean I can't grieve.
I can grieve that little girl I SHOULD have. The little girl I WANTED to have. The little girl I CAN'T have.

Super-shrink wants to see me next week. Alone. I'm trying to come up with ways to avoid it ;)

But whether or not I go, the fact still remains that I have a kid that isn't like other kids. And I gotta deal.

2010-04-02T09:06:00.003-04:00

Since today is Autism Awareness day and April is Autism Awareness month...I thought I'd do something I NEED to do...and haven't done in a long time. Too long.

Talk about my Stephanie.

But only the great things about her.

I've been so defeated lately. Overwhelmed, bitter. I don't like that.

I love my girl. She's a blessing and I love her. She's not a 'perfect' blessing...or even an easy one. But she's still a blessing.

-She can sing! She loves to sing, and can sing remarkably well. Singing calms her down very well. She doesn't always sing in words...but her tone and pitch are lovely!
-She can EAT. She stops people dead in their tracks with how ...ahem...well? she eats. She can out eat any adult when it's food she loves.
-She makes me feel good about my hair =) She loves to 'tag' my hair. That means my hair must be good and soft. LOL. Nothing like that to make you feel like you have some silky locks!
-She loves her family. When she's willing and the mood strikes her, she is very affectionate. Those times are rather rare, but when they come...boy howdy! She'll hug ya till yer blue!
-She makes us laugh. Sometimes we have no choice. The things she does can either make us crazy or make us laugh. We *try* to choose laughter. Hello? Window licking anyone? =D

Lord,
I know you made my girl just the way she is for a purpose. For YOUR purpose. For YOUR glory. To refine me, and us as a family. Oh that I would be worthy of such a task as you have given me in being her mother! Create in me a new heart Oh God! A heart that embraces her as she is. A heart that is up to the challenge of raising her up as You see fit.
I am so blessed.

bagel recipe

2010-03-29T17:58:00.002-04:00

Yield:
8-12 bagels

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups warm water (112-115 degrees F)
2 tablespoons dry yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
4 1/4 cups bread flour
8 cups of water, for boiling
1 egg white, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl, mix yeast, sugar and warm water together and let stand 3 minutes.

2. Mix 2 cups of flour with the salt in a large bowl; then add the yeast mixture. Stir until combined and slowly mix in the rest of the flour.

3. Knead dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes, adding additional flour if necessary. Dough should be fairly smooth and somewhat firm. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise until double.

4. Punch dough down (if making cinnamon raisin bagels, add the cinnamon and raisins now -- knead just enough to swirl the cinnamon through the dough). Divide and shape into 12 balls. (For larger bagels, make only 8 balls.) Allow to rest for 5 minutes.

5. Bring 2 quarts of water to boil. Make a hole in each ball of dough and pull open about 2 inches, making a bagel shape. Place the shaped dough onto a cookie sheet and cover for 10 minutes.

6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drop 2 or 3 bagels at a time into the boiling water for about 45 seconds, turning each once.

7. Drain cooked bagels on a wire rack. Mix egg white and water; brush tops with egg white mixture and top with optional toppings, if using. Place bagels on greased baking sheets.

8. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, turning once half-way through baking. (If making plain bagels, you can flip the bagels; otherwise, just rotate.) Bagels will be lightly browned and shiny

I got this recipe from Tammy's Recipes.

I used half bread flour and half all-purpose. I didn't have enough bread flour for 3 batches, and frankly, I prefer all-purpose because it's cheaper. Worked great. Next time, I'm trying all-purpose only.

I seriously LOVE this. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be. Next time, I'll make smaller bagels, some of them are HUGE lol

Bagels!

2010-03-29T14:23:00.001-04:00

I made some homemade bagels for the first time today. I'd read and checked out recipes, but was just too lazy.
Today I finally got off my butt and got to it!

First I mixed up the dough. I actually mixed up 3 batches of dough for about 2 dozen BIG bagels.

That's the first batch. I made plain, onion, and cinnamon raisin.

Bagels boiling!

That's what they looked like after boiling and before baking.

That's the onion egg wash. The plain and cinnamon bagels were brushed with plain egg white

Plain

Onion

Cinnamon

Verdict:
Freakin awesome. Seriously. A bit tedious with all the steps, but once I got going it didn't take as long as I expected. And they taste amazing!

That's my beautiful Momma tasting my handiwork!

I'll post the recipe in a bit

BBQ beans

2010-03-20T19:52:00.002-04:00

I made this recipe up last summer. We like beans. Cheap, easy, and filling! Pair with brown rice and you've got a protein just as good as meat.
BBQ beans:
1 can kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can white beans (it doesn't matter what kind)
2 cups brown rice, cooked
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup ketchup
1/2 cup mustard
1 tbls Worcestershire sauce
a bit of garlic/onion
bacon (if you want...but hello? Bacon ROCKS)
Cornbread mix

Drain the beans. Mix beans with rice. Mix ketchup, sugar, mustard, Ws, garlic/onion in small bowl, pour over beans/rice. Top with bacon.
Bake at 300 for several hours (I start mine in the morning and sniff it till lunch time! MMMM.)
Crunch up the bacon and mix it in, or take it out if you wanna.
Mix up cornbread, pour over the top and bake again at 375 for 45 minutes, or until cornbread is done.

thinking outside the box...

2010-03-20T19:43:00.003-04:00

..when it comes to cooking.
I made enchiladas for dinner tonight. It was rather last minute, as we had plans for a BBQ with friends, but we couldn't make it.
So I pulled out some of the freecycle beans and mashed 'em up. Mixed with a can of tomatoes/chilies, and added in the leftover turkey from a turkey roast a few days before.
That's what I mean about thinking outside the box. Some of my best/most frugal meals come from using leftovers from a previous meal. I didn't have enough turkey for another meal, but adding it to the enchiladas used a leftover that might have gone to waste otherwise, and made our dinner super tasty!
A chopped green pepper, some cream cheese, and some onion...and I had enough enchilada filling to make 10 enchiladas with a bit of filling leftover (I'll make wraps for lunch this week!)
My favorite leftover uses:
Leftover side veggies: freeze until soup day! Throw 'em in the pot and soup's on baby!
leftover mashed potatoes: potato pancakes! I've also taken chopped ham and added cheddar cheese to the mashed potatoes for some stinkin' good tater pancakes. Leftover mashed potatoes also make a really good creamy soup base. Add ham and veg, thin with some milk. Oh.yeah.
Leftover chicken/turkey: casserole. Cream of whatever soup, some veggies (like the frozen sides!), some noodles...dinner! Or if you don't have enough for dinner, it makes a nice lunch too.

March Madness!

2010-03-20T19:16:00.002-04:00

Not basketball though...basketball is dumb. Yeah, I said it. D-U-M-B.
By madness I just mean in general, and I thought it was a clever title. And just because I think (occasionally) doesn't necessarily mean it makes sense...but in this case--....Uhhh...I forget.
Anyhoo!
Groceries! I promised totals spent and whatnot for my march grocery shopping, and here I am! Just 'cause we're lookin' at the back end of march and front of April....
At the end of Feb, we had a few extra dollars, so I spent a bit in anticipation of March (which I like to do, if I have the $$. It makes it nice to not hafta go to the store the minute payday rolls around...)
Summary:
4.92 this and the next one were the aforementioned 'end of month random' trips. I had a few extra bucks so I snagged a few things I was running low on.
14.85 Aldi's
34.42 was spent on one of my random trips to P&C. Big cans of hunt's tomato sauce was on sale, so I snagged 'em (10 for 10!). This trip also included yeast (9 bucks! YIKES! Note to self: get that at walmart next month) and baking powder...Aldi's has been out for like a month.
143.36 on my ''big'' monthly trip to Aldi's. I do one big trip a month, and stock up on everything that can be frozen, put in the pantry, or can be in the fridge and not go bad right away. Things like lunchmeat, cream cheese, coffee creamer, coffee, flour, sauces, canned/frozen veg, meat. You get the idea. Duh.
23.98 was spent on Schwan's *blush* Yeah. I splurge on Schwan's once a month. Yum! It's so flippin' expensive, but some of the stuff is worth the money! Two words people: Green Bean Fries. Oh wait. That's three words. Whatever. Eh.
6.44 at P&C. I got some cookies and something else. We *had* to bring something for a stupid mandatory meeting at Justin's work. So I got some cheap cookies and chips. Take that Establishment! Choke on your sub-par cookies and funny-tasting nacho cheese 'chips'.
84.53 this was my monthly trip to walmart. This month I got the girls' new spring hoodies (5 bucks each on clearance!), pull-ups, diapers (for Isaiah at night), and a few random toiletries. The pull ups and diapers cost the most. Whew! It hurts. I will do another post about cloth vs throw away for pull ups, and why we are using sposies....

That's it folks. Well, I'm pretty sure. Might have been a few bucks here and there, but I tried to be extra diligent this month with saving receipts.
Grand total:

307.58

Not bad eh?
Caveats:
I do not buy a lot of meat. This month I did...'cause our venison stash is getting smaller. I bought a pork roast, some chicken, and ground pork to mix with our venison. I also bought some spicy Italian sausage, our family fave!

I guess that's it. I snagged like 10 cans of beans for free on freecycle a couple of weeks ago (freecycle rocks.my.world.) So I've been coming up with some creative uses for those LOL

2010-03-06T20:06:00.000-05:00

This is AWESOME!

From HERE:

Why Big Families Might Be Easier
Share
by Matthew Archbold

A woman said to me recently that my five children were very well behaved. It’s one of the best things I can hear so I thanked her. Then she asked me “how do you do it with so many?”

I told her that I don’t think I’d be a very good parent of one child or two. She didn’t believe my answer but honest to goodness, I sometimes think that having many children is easier than just one.

Why big families are easier:

Patience. I never have to teach patience. My children know that I can’t drop everything for them if I have a baby in my arms.

Work Ethic. My children have learned to work because there are always chores to do in a small house packed with little messy lunatics. And they all learn quickly that sometimes they have to clean up a mess even though they didn’t make it.

Humility. My children have learned it’s not always their turn. They’ve accepted they can’t always get their way because other people have to get their way sometimes. They’ve learned that some children are better at certain things than they are.

Foreign language skills. You can learn a lot of Spanish by watching ten years of Dora the Explorer that you just can’t pick up in two. And now with the Diego spin off I’m practically fluent.

Laughter. The children have learned to laugh at the insane non sequiturs of younger siblings. They’ve learned that laughing just feels better when seven people are doing it along with you.

Competition. Do I really need to go into this? Everything is a competition in big families. The children compete over who reads faster, who drinks their milk faster, who gets to the bathroom first…etc. Everything is a competition and they’re all keeping score.

Balance. The floor of the front room of my home is a minefield of toys and childhood paraphernalia. Just walking through the room requires great skill and balance. I’m absolutely convinced my two year old will be a favorite for Gold on the balance beam in the 2016 Olympics. (She might have to lay off the cookies a little but I’ll deal with that later.)

Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you just give it to the baby because you want a little quiet. Not all the time. But sometimes.

Just say “No.” Being able to say “no” may be the most undervalued skill in this world. The need to be liked is pervasive. The need to be cool even more so. Having brothers and sisters teaches children to say “no” about 143 times a day. It’s a good skill.

Praying. They learn that nothing beats praying together as a family.

Nature/Nurture. Having many children has taught me that nature has a lot more to do with who my kids are than nurture. This is helpful, especially when your children misbehave you don’t have to feel bad about it. Just say “Stupid nature!!!” and blame your spouse’s genes.

Namecalling. You can occasionally call your child by the wrong name and still not be considered a terrible parent. They know who you mean just from your tone. Sometimes if you need something done you can call the wrong name and someone will still show up. That helps.

Spying. My children have learned that they can’t get away with anything. I have spies who look a lot like them who are willing to drop the dime on them for anything. Even at school I’ve got a child in just about every grade. If they do something I’ll hear. That keeps them nervous. And I like keeping my kids a little nervous.

Friendship. The children have many friends. They’ve got girly friends, crying friends, fun loving friends, consoling friends, and crazy friends. And they all have the same last name. And they’ll be there forever for each other. No matter what.

Love. I think my children have learned to love because there are others around them to love and who love them. I honestly can think of no better way to teach children to love than siblings.

Funny...but not really

2010-03-06T12:32:00.002-05:00

I was so blessed this morning! I got to go out to breakfast with two of my dear friends. Without kids! Can I get an AMEN??
anyhoo, I arrived first, and claimed a table. Got me some coffee and sat people watching.
My attention was immediately grabbed by a young man sitting at the counter. What grabbed my attention was his LOUD swearing.
"F this"
"Sh that"
LOUD.
The table of little old ladies behind him was obviously uncomfortable. I was grimacing at his obnoxious swearing. THERE WERE CHILDREN WITHIN EARSHOT.
This wasn't as disconcerting as the fact that older men sitting nearby did nothing to stand up for the women and children whose ears were assaulted with verbal garbage. He was a seemingly decent young man. The men all bantered back and forth like regulars. They obviously were familiar with one another. How hard would it have been to say, "There are kids here. And women who might not want to hear that. Tone it down k?"
I came dangerously close frankly.
Until he stood up.
And I saw his shirt.
What it said made me sick.
It said, "Jesus rules"

Oh.snap. At that point, saying something was no longer possible for me. I would have been rude to the point of angry.
And I was angry. A man bearing a shirt with the name of The Savior spitting filth out of his mouth!
Hey. You wanna be obnoxious, rude and loud. Fine. You wanna swear in a family restaurant, hey, it's a free country. I think you're a jerk. But I can, 'cause it's a free country.
But doing it while wearing a shirt that proclaims Jesus?
That's where I get MAD. It's bad enough that Christianity gets lumped into the same category as freaking idiots like the Pearls and Pat Robertson (who by the way, DO NOT REPRESENT JESUS. No matter what they say).

Here's a thought. Before you claim the name of Christ, try reading His Word. Might give you a hint on how sitting in a family place swearing like it's going out of style might be FREAKING WRONG!

Idiot.

Honestly. I would liked to have said something. But I didn't think I could rebuke him without punching him in the face. And I didn't feel like going to jail. Maybe next time. Bail is expensive.

Grace and Mercy

2010-02-28T13:18:00.005-05:00

My MIL comes to bible study with me. This in and of itself is something amazing. But it's even more so, if you know our history. (The middle of my testimony HERE and HERE)
MIL moved up here right after Abigail was born. It's been nice! I miss my Mommy (hurry up and come home MOM!!) but I love my MIL a lot and we get along really well now.
Anyhoo, one night at bible study, upon finding out that MIL and are in fact MIL and DIL, a woman says, "You're her MIL? I thought you two were friends" That cracked.us.up. We then told the long, sordid, icky story of our past and left the room with dropped jaws...which is always fun.
Anyhoo, since then I've been meaning to blog that story and share how our relationship has changed since back in the day when we first made up and got to know each other again.
And I have sat down several times to do that. But it just never came to me. The story wouldn't come out right. So I left it for awhile.
Now, MIL depends on us for transportation. Often, the kids and I will pile in the Blue Torpedo, pick up Gramma Zoo (as the kids call her), and begin what usually ends up being an entire afternoon in the car. But it doesn't suck. We end up tired at the end of the day, but we have fun! The kids get treats from Gramma. Sue is always generous and will be game to stop for numerous little errands that I would never get done otherwise (she waits with the kids in the van). And Mcdonald's is usually involved. Yeah. I like fries!
These trips also give ample opportunity to talk. And talk we do! Sometimes it's just random chit chat...but often the talks turn to church, God, the changes in our lives, the way He works, sometimes even theological questions which I usually can't answer and save for later, in order to ask Sexy Man, our resident expert.
Justin and I so wanted to be a witness for her.

And we have.

And it's mattered.

And now I see why the words weren't coming properly for me to post earlier. It would have been too soon.
If I had posted already, I couldn't share about Sue asking me how to be saved a few weekends ago.
Or about how she finally realized the extent to which the Lord loves her.
Or about how she's accepted His love.
Or about how she's prayed to Jesus. And loves him. And accepts His gift of life and love eternal.

It was so worth the wait.

I have 3 crock pots...

2010-02-22T14:54:00.004-05:00

Well, that's not true. I gave one to my MIL. So I only have 2.
But I love them. A LOT.
Hands down, my favorite recipe is Italian Sausage Spaghetti Sauce.
So easy and so stinkin' good! And by good I do NOT mean healthy. Let's call a spade a spade here people.
Simply place:
2-3 packages of hot italian sausage (use the spicy. The mild or sweet doesn't taste as good. It's not overwhelmingly hot.) Frozen or thawed. Doesn't matter
3 large cans plain tomato sauce
V-8 (fill up one or two of the sauce cans with V-8)

into a crock. I use my smaller one and it just barely fits. A 5qt is probably best.

Cook on low 4 hours, high for 2-3. Or just low for about 6 hours. Turning it up to high for a couple of hours cooks the sausage so much better! Like cut-with-a-fork better. I turn mine on low while we're at church and then flip it on high when we get home for a couple of hours.

No spices needed. The spice is in the sausage already. V-8 adds a bit of zing, not to mention some secret healthy-ness.
Serve over pasta, or on rolls. Seriously. It's so good, anything you serve it on is hardly even noticed!

Visit Connie@SmockityFrocks for more great crock pot ideas!

The frugal secret....

2010-02-19T13:57:00.003-05:00

I get asked a lot how I keep my grocery budget low. I'm too lazy and disorganized for coupons. There isn't a huge selection of stores here, and driving a long distance to hit sales isn't an option.
I shop at Aldi's. If it's something name brand, I get it at the commissary if I happen to be on post, or at walmart when I take MIL once a month for her shopping. 5 kids + grocery shopping = major lame. Grocery shopping must be easy before it's frugal. That's just me though. I know there are mommas who go to 4 different stores and shop for 3 hours at a time. Not me thanks.
But, I do find ways to cut costs. I thought I'd share the 3 biggest money savers that work for me:
- menu plan. Again, I'm lazy. I do not plan daily menus, nor do I plan every meal. I do, however, make a list of a months worth of meals, and then shop accordingly. I make what I feel like, off the list each day.
- shop monthly. I shop once a month (though it ends up being 2 trips, one to Aldi's and one to walmart...not in the same day). I get all the staples then. Flour, butter, canned goods. Anything that can freeze (like produce on sale!). Things like that. It took me a couple of months to figure out how much of things I go through each month (one month I bought 6 bags of flour. Whoops LOL) Things like milk, bread and produce are bought as needed. I usually make my own bread, but sometimes Aldi's bread will go on sale for pennies and I'll stock up and freeze it.
- do it yourself. Honestly, this is my biggest money saver. Cooking from scratch and avoiding convenience/processed foods saves us a ton of money. Pizza dough, bread, pancakes, muffins, rolls...those are all things I make for a fraction of the cost of pre-made and freeze. Meals too! For example. A box of macaroni and 'cheese'...less than a buck at the store right? Seems cheap, but it's one box. It takes 2 of those to feed my kids for lunch. And it's barely real food. I can take a few bucks, go to Aldi's, get butter, milk, elbow macaroni and cheddar cheese. With that I can make 2 HEAPING 13x9 pans of homemade macaroni and cheese. And still have milk and butter left for the rest of the week/month. 1 13x9 pan of mac and cheese feeds our family (of 6 eaters) for one dinner and many lunches. In fact, I usually end up freezing half. So in essence, I get 4 meals out of the 2 pans. And it's so much better! Need to save even more money? Sub canned or evaporated milk. Tastes the same (when baking or cooking with it) and is even cheaper.
With one bag of flour, some yeast, oil, sugar and salt, I can make 6 pizzas. BIG pizzas. A bag of flour at Aldi's is 1.69. Yeast is spendy, but lasts forever. The cost of oil, sugar and salt are pennies because I use so little. Basically, 2 dollars and some time and I've got the same as 60-70 dollars of delivered pizza. MAYBE 5 bucks with toppings. Sauce is easy to make, throw on the cheese and you can even splurge and put fancy stuff on top for almost nothing.
It's amazing how much cheaper it is to make it yourself.

For our family of 6 (Abbie doesn't eat with us yet!) I would say that I spend an average of 300 a month. Maybe.
In fact, next month, I'll get more specific. And I'll post recipes. Maybe I'll make it a weekly thing. Hmm. Thoughts?

new shoes

2010-02-15T16:20:00.002-05:00

I started running at the beginning of the year. Like on purpose, in order to get into better shape running.
In a way that's typical for me, I decided to start running, got my shoes on and hopped on the treadmill. These shoes are shoes I've had for a few years. Servicable, sturdy, WALKING shoes. They aren't meant for running, but I figured, ''Eh. Shoes are shoes.''
Wrong.
While I've been doing well the last several weeks, after my runs, my joints would ache some, my feet would hurt, and I kept getting a wicked mean blister on the back of my foot.
So Sexy Man bought me new shoes. Amanda picked them out. They're purple =)
Oh.my.heck. Running in RUNNING shoes is AMAZING. No more joint aches, my feet don't hurt anymore, and my run time has improved (2 miles in 27 minutes!)
While I thought shoes were shoes, I was missing out on the full effect of a good run in good shoes.
The point?
What kind of shoes are you wearing?
The Word tells us what kind of shoes we *should* be wearing:

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Eph 6:13-18

Hmm. Are your shoes fitted with the Gospel of Peace? Or are they worldly shoes? Shoes of discontent, anger, bitterness? Shoes of sin?
Those will make your feet hurt. And give you a wicked mean blister.
It's much nicer to walk (or run) with the proper shoes.

Another year...

2010-02-12T16:04:00.003-05:00

My Love doesn't like the movie "Fireproof". I was a little surprised, as I think it's a rather nice movie. I asked him why.
His response? "It reminds me too much of how we used to be"
Before you all throw out the obvious redemption and salvation at the end...I must say that I can understand why.
We really were like that. We ''loved'' each other, but really had no idea what true love was.
(you can read my/our testimony pt 1, pt 2, pt 3, and pt 4 . You can also read our story a bit more in depth here)
Another anniversary approaches. I feel like the year ran away from us! I can't believe it! 12 years together and 9 years married. 9 years. Almost a decade. Not much to some...but for 2 kids who shouldn't have made it this far, it's a lot. For 2 kids who came from divorced families, legacies of generational sin, it's a lot. 2 kids who began a marriage built on fear, ignorance and laziness, it's a lot.
~~All because 2 people fell in love.~~ All because Christ redeemed us.
Happy Anniversary Sexy Man! (on the 17th lol)

I got skooled

2010-02-05T16:17:00.002-05:00

Well. Having been properly chastised by those I love best...my facebook friends =P ...I can safely say I feel better. That and a good run with my new purple running shoes always makes things better! (Amen? Anyone?)
Honestly, no one has given me a hard time about putting Amanda in school. Everyone has been supportive. My anger is directed at myself (as my wise Sexy Man pointed out). I don't know why I'm angry.
I seriously thought about deleting that post right after I posted it. I have a 'thing' about icky negative feelings ya know?
But...as my wise Sexy Man pointed out again, if I can be real and nasty with my ugly emotions here, where can I be?
So. Thanks for the love. =)

Change is good...I guess.

2010-02-05T13:26:00.002-05:00

Well. I'm officially a failure as a mother. At least I *feel* like it.
We're enrolling Amanda into school. No -- I do NOT think that putting your children in school makes you a bad parent. I'm being really honest and open here. Let's not give Sandy any crap k? Thanks.
We've been thinking/praying/debating this for a month or so. We finally decided to go for it, and were going to wait till fall...but what's the point? Like that's going to magically make it easier for me? Not so much.
What makes me (feel like) a failure? Actually, it has little to do with homeschooling.
I've been seeing resentment in Amanda. Anger. Frustration. Sadly, mostly directed at Stephanie.
Stephanie is a lot to handle. I'm her MOM and sometimes I can't take it ya know?
Frankly, I think Amanda needs to get out. Sure. There are lots of moms/christians/anyone who would say that the answer is more training, more time together, more talking blah blah blah...however, you people are not in my shoes so...hmm...shut up.
I do realize that some of this stems from my own failings as a mother. But, unless you have been where I am, you can't realize that most of the time, I have no freaking clue how to deal with Stephanie...so how can I teach Amanda how??
You have no idea how agonizing this is for me. Amanda is exactly like I was as a child. Innocent, sensitive, emotional. I remember things from school I wish I didn't remember...I don't want that for her. At the same time, I don't want her resentment and frustration to breed to the point where she hates her sister. Or her family.
I have some hopes for this time:
1. That the time away will help her appreciate Steph (and the rest of us) more.
2. She'll make some friends
3. She'll see that public school isn't all fun time =P

If she is unhappy/not thriving I'll bring her back home in a minute. (But she WILL try this for the remainder of the school year)
Yeah. I have issues with things that public school teaches.
Yeah, I have issues with things that are tolerated.

But. God has given us permission for this. He has moved us into this for a season at least.

I don't want to be rude. But if you don't approve, I don't care. Support me. Encourage me. Don't give me crap. I can handle that on my own.

so much stuff I can't even give this post a title...

2010-02-02T21:50:00.003-05:00

Yeah. My head is FULL...of more than just air. I know that's shocking.
It's only February and God is really working me over this year!
Our awesome pastor talked about 10 minutes a day of reading in his sermon this last week. (which you can watch on video if ya want. You can also follow on twitter, subscribe on itunes, and view it on the website. My church is run by geeks. But geeks rule so it's all good...and my pastor is a star trek fan. Making him EXTRA cool. But I digest.)
What? Get to the point?
Sorry.
10 minutes! We decided we're ''in for 10'' as he called it, and urged us to seek some accountability. And I said to my self, "Self, what better way than to post your successes and failures on your blog for the whole flippin' planet to see?" and then I thought, "Self, you're an idiot" to which I replied, "Then so are you. Duh"..but again, I digest.
I've decided to share the passages I read every day here. I'll share the passages, and what I glean from them. This is of course, assuming I actually read them. If not, I'll come here and pretend I posted no such thing and that I have no idea what you people are asking about.
Good plan I think.

one word

2010-02-01T18:30:00.002-05:00

I was listening to KLOVE the other day, and the morning show hosts were talking about one word.
This one word website talks about taking all of your resolutions and condensing it into one word.
From the website:

Our resolutions seldom work because they focus on the type of person we want to become rather than who God wants us to be. Many people do not see God at work in their lives simply because they don’t know what to look for. So, what if our hopes for the year centered on who God wanted us to become instead?

So. One word to sum up who/where/what we should be at the end of this year.

Hmm. I'm still pondering that.
There are lots of things I want to accomplish this year. Lose weight, be better organized, read the bible every day..blah blah blah. But those are all superficial accomplishments. What about ME.
What does God want of me this year?
I dunno. I know I need to be a better wife, a better mother, better homeschooler...but 'better' doesn't seem to be the right word either. Again, that makes it about me.
So. After much thought, I've decided my word is LESS.
I want to be less.
Less selfish
Less needy
Less angry
Less fat ( =P )
Less negative

And yes, I could also have summed that up with 'more'. Because I DO want to be more. More kind, more gentle, more active...but I don't want to be MORE. I want to be LESS. LESS me and MORE God. Less of my flesh and more of God's grace.

I want people to see less of me and more of Christ.

Less.

What's your word?

2010-02-01T13:46:00.003-05:00

Amy @ RaisingArrows is hosting a giveaway.
I like Amy lots! She's friendly, honest, kind, and funny. But that has nothing to do with the giveaway, I was just sayin' =P
Anyhoo..she's giving away a 25 credit to cover your hair! WOOT! Even if you don't ''cover'' , they've got wicked cool stuff, scarves, tichels, headbands, hats, you name it!
head on over. But don't enter. I want to win. Just look.

2010...the year of ?

2010-02-01T07:00:00.003-05:00

I dunno what this year has for us. It's only February and it's shaping up to be a crazy year! Of course, crazy is our nature: we have 5 small children and we're military. Every day is crazy. It's just a matter of the source of craziness. But I digest.
Some of my bloggy readers know that Justin had surgery on his back in Dec. It was to help a bulging disk that was pressing against his spinal cord. (OUCH anyone?). While the disk is better, his back pain is not. Add to that, degenerative disk disease runs in his family...and the sum is most likely a discharge from the Army.
That's an odd feeling...Justin has been in the military for 9 years. Our entire adult lives! The military has taken good care of us....we've never had to worry about Justin losing his job, or taking a pay cut, or losing our insurance.
For the first time, we're facing uncertainty..should we get out? Should Justin suck it up and stay in? That's not really an option though, as that would most like leave him disabled at a young age...uh, no thanks! What if he gets out? Can he find work enough here to support us? There's not much here in the way of pastoring. God forgive my selfishness....I don't wanna move anymore. I'm so tired of it. I want to stay here, in my house, in this town with the friends we've grown to love, in the church we love.
But...God is nothing if not firm in His will. I've wanted that sort of thing before, and His answer was a gentle 'no'.
In the end, I'm ready for Justin to get out, if that's God's will. ...But I'm still human and I wonder just how it'll work.

In which I get wierder...

2010-01-31T07:18:00.003-05:00

I have a nice little breadmaker...it's several years old, but works wonderfully. A few months ago, I got a hankerin' for a fancy schmancy one. More buttons and such.
So, in consulting with Sexy Man...we decided I could get a new breadmaker, and send my 'ol faithful to my little brother, who is a fabulous cook!
Except...I'm not sure I want a new one. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally going to send mine to my brother still. But I think I might just forgo getting a new one for now.
Sure, it'll make breadmaking more work.
But, it might be more fun! And the kids love to help me make bread....so it'll be more interesting for sure!
hmm. I think I'm crazy.

Calling my bloggy pals!

2010-01-23T09:01:00.002-05:00

Okay. So we all know my Man is fabulous. But he's also brilliant and wonderfully articulate!
He started a blog while deployed, and it's gone by the wayside some since he's been home. (a year now! WOOT)
He revamped the blog and has a post up about...*gasp* abortion. He (and I) would really appreciate it if you would drop by, read, and give your opinion.
Justin's blog

Thanks bloggy pals!

2010-01-17T10:36:00.000-05:00

Another reason to love cloth dipes!

Cool contest I found to win free groceries for a year

2010-01-16T08:43:00.001-05:00

"Click! Enter! Maybe win! ...even if you don't enter, clicking might help ME win...=)"

Hey, I just entered this contest on Cozi.com to win free groceries for a year. All you have to do is put in your email address.

Even if you don’t enter, please click the link to help me win. (I get an extra entry for telling you.) Thanks!

View >>

answers...

2010-01-12T16:21:00.002-05:00

Your ~~burning~~ ~~intelligent~~ ~~smartie pants~~ questions answered.
Hmm. Not quite what I'd imagined when putting this forth. But upon further reflection my friends and family are a buncha stinkers. I should have known better. =P
Bonnie asked:

What is the answer to the universe?

And then promptly answered her own question...42 of course. Unless it's been one of those days. And then the answer to the universe is CHOCOLATE.

Diana asked:

Where do babies come from?

Which ties into the question Anthony asked:

Where do the storks that deliver babies come from?

The answer to Diana's question is the Stork. And Anthony, the storks come from the Cabbage Patch. Duh.

Unless you've joined this club...in which case you know the truth. Ew.

Sarah asks:

Did Jonah come out slimy from hanging out in the whale? (courtesy of her Gracie)

Answer: Yes. Jonah should be glad he didn't come out as whale poop in my opinion.

Now for the ~~non-silly~~ ~~real~~ other questions:

Natalieh asks:

How do you manage your time?

That's a great question, and I really pondered it deeply...after I stopped laughing. The short answer...badly.
We should be good stewards of the time God has given us...as wives, mothers and women. It's hard though. Each role in our life brings more commitments and they seem to add up to more hours there than are in the day.
My best answer: learn to love the word "No". It's not about being rude. It's about recognizing your limits and not committing to something you shouldn't. Your time belongs to God to use as He pleases. If God has given you a husband and children, they get your time first. Everything else is second. Hope that helps. but probably not lol. I WILL do a more in depth post on time management. =)

Abbie asks:

Your kids ever go through freak out from the dark?

Yes. Not much though honestly. Steph has the hardest time. Nightlights are on all the time here. It should be mentioned that since you moved a lot of A's insecurity is probably due to the move. A new home, new people, new area. Encourage her to be a big girl. Lots of hugs and a bright night light. It.will.pass.
In answer to your other question...According to Amanda it will be when she grows up so she and D can get married.

'Cause my Momma said so...

2010-01-10T14:14:00.003-05:00

...My mom says I need new poop. And I do. I've just been going through a particularly dry spell in the 'ol noggin lately. Boo.

So..in 'true' writer fashion - I'm swiping an idea and making it my very own! =P
Connie@SmockityFrocks opened up the floodgates for questions. I think that's a stellar idea, and although I'm no where near the authoress she is (nor do I have anywhere near the readership =( ),
I'm going to do the same!

Both here and on FB (where my blog imports) leave me a comment with your questions (ANYTHING. Seriously.) and I'll answer them honestly and as in depth as I can.

Homeschooling ROCKS

2009-12-28T17:19:00.003-05:00

Got a hankering to do something fun/educational today (mostly fun). So I decided to make homemade marshmallows. I got like 3 bags of powdered sugar free on freecycle, and a bottle of corn syrup from a friend that moved, so I hunted around trying to figure what to do with it, and found the recipe for marshmallows. It was easy and wicked fun! Great science lesson too!
Recipe:
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup hot water
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 egg whites, room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
geased 13x9 pan. GREASED. I took cling wrap, laid it on the bottom of the pan with some hanging out each end. Then sprayed the crap out of it. Then sprinkle powdered sugar all over. A lot. Really.

First, mix the gelatin and cold water in your mixing bowl, set aside. In a saucepan over med heat, mix hot water, sugar, corn syrup and salt. Heat over med heat until sugar is dissolved. (excellent time to talk about Super Saturation, or the 3 stages of water). Once sugar is dissolved, boil without stirring for 5 minutes or so, until a candy thermometer says 240 degrees, or until it reaches ''hard ball'' stage. (Also great science when dropping the hot syrup into cold water. How does the cold water effect the syrup? Touches back on the 3 stages of water!!)
Take the sugar mixture and pour into the mixing bowl with the gelatin. Stir, then beat on high for 5 minutes or so, until thick, white, foamy and tripled in volume. (good time to talk about gelatin and why it does that to the sugar syrup!)
In another bowl with a clean beater (I only have one whisk for my mixer, so I just washed it off right quick), beat 3 egg whites until stiff peaks form (I accidentally only used 2. Was fine.). Combine egg whites, vanilla, and sugar mix, beat until mixed well. Pour into your super greased dish, throw in the fridge, uncovered for at least 3 hours.
Then...spread out some wax paper, maybe sprinkle with a bit of powdered sugar. Turn the dish over and carefully peel off the cling wrap. Cut with a pizza cutter, then throw all the squares into a bag with still more powdered sugar and coat each piece well.

caveat:
*Yes, I realize this has corn syrup in it. It's pretty much sugar coated in sugar. But ya know...I would rather give this to my kids then store bought. It tastes better, was fun to make and contains nothing that *I* didn't put in there. Not the healthiest project ever, but honestly, it was much easier to ration these then store-bought ones. Probably because I see how much sugar they have! LOL.

Want to make them flavored? Substitute hot juice for the hot water. Or change the extract. Try peppermint! MMMM!! Coat the mallows in cocoa powder for something different.

Over all, this was great fun, a sweet treat with some hot chocolate, and a good lesson.

Pics next post!

My Christmas present

2009-12-24T08:40:00.002-05:00

Lookit what my man got me! Isn't it awesome? There's a guy he works with that draws amazingly and Justin made a deal with him to have him do this. I was so surprised!
From top left around:
Justin, Abbie, me, Amanda, Steph, Isaiah, Wes.

Justin and him had a good laugh over the funny differences/similarities between our kids. They look so different, yet so alike.

This has been an amazing ''season'' so far. I'm glad to have Justin here. He was gone last year. Might be gone next year. But now, he's here. He's healthy and getting much better after his surgery.
We've been beyond blessed this year. God has provided abundantly, in everything we need.
I so hope all of my readers have a wonderful CHRISTmas.

Jesus, God born into flesh for us. Do you know Him?

Why we only do pics once a year....

2009-12-21T10:31:00.011-05:00

"Okay, let's get a nice christmas pic before we go to church. Everyone sit. Okay, 1, 2, 3, CHEESE!"

<---notice the baby has her eyes shut. Try again.

<---No Isaiah, look at ME. Try again.

<---better, but could we sit up nicely and look less like monkeys? Try again.

<---Dangit Wesley, I said look.at.ME. Stephanie...stop trying to smother Amanda. Try again.

<---go ahead. Let's be real here. Now...let's try again.

<----much better! Hmmm...cut the baby off some. Try one more time.

<----Tongue hanging out? Baby flopped over? Everyone's eyes open and looking the same way? Good enough.

Merry Christmas!

2009 in review...

2009-12-16T18:06:00.003-05:00

Holy heck...another year passed. Sometimes I feel like life is passing so fast I can't catch my breath!
The year started off AWESOME. Justin came home from Iraq in early January! That was a wonderful present for us.
So, here's our year in review for each of the residents of The Nut House:
Justin:
Came home from Iraq in January. Awesome. He went back to work and life settled into a nice routine. He had all kinds of work-y fun over the summer, as the band travels tons in the summer. He's ending the year closer than ever to his Bachelor's degree in Religious Studies from Liberty University. He's also ending the year with a wicked awesome scar on his back. He had back surgery a couple of weeks ago to correct a bulging disk in his lower back. O.U.C.H. He's such a man though! Never complains and is trying so hard to get better quickly.
Sandy:
I had a baby. This seems to be the report every other year or so =P. I was glad to have Justin home early, as I also spent a good portion of the year throwing up. My report is not as exciting as Justin's lol.
Amanda:
Turned 7. =( Where does the time go? I can't believe it. My baby is 7 years old. Amanda lost a bunch of teeth this year, and made a nice bunch of pocket change because of it =P. She finished first grade and is well into second now. We call it ''second grade'' but really, it's a mish-mash. She reads at at least a 3rd grade level. Amanda is also learning a lot about selfless service. Especially when it comes to her siblings. She helps me constantly, and rarely complains. What a treasure she is!
Stephanie:
Turned 5. Again...I can't believe it! This year has been an adventure with her, like always =). We ended up taking her out of the preschool, as it was doing little for her, and they refused to listen to my concerns about possible Autism. Next year should be a good one, as I spent much of the fall getting referrals and appts. Stephanie had a new eval with the school district and will be starting OT soon! WOO HOO!! Stephanie is constantly teaching all of us about true love, patience, grace and tons more. Such an adventure she is!
Wesley:
He turned 3 this year! Such a man! He's often too busy for hugs and smootches, but when he feels like dishing them out, he is generous. He loves cars and Transformers. Nothing makes him happier than some wrestle time with Daddy. He also potty trained this year, much to Mommy's excitement!
Isaiah:
Became a full-fledged 2yo. Oh.Snap. That kid keeps me on my toes for sure! Besides being disgustingly cute, he is a stinker. Which balances out I'm sure. This year has been one of tremendous growth for him, his language has exploded and his motor skills have blossomed. He climbs like a monkey. No really, he uses his feet and everything. It's amazing.
Abigail:
Joined our family on Aug 6! It was a wonderful labor and delivery. The kids think she is wonderful, and can't get enough of her. So far, she rolls over, smiles, coos, and is beginning to grasp objects (including her feet) with her hands. God is so good! Another precious blessing to be sure!
Bestemama: (Sandy's mom)
Spent most of the year in NV =(. My grandmother had a scare with cancer and a heart attack...so my mom has been caring for her, and working on her house and dealing with other crap. We miss her a ton here...although she was able to be here for Abigail's birth and a couple of weeks after. We are hoping and praying that she is able to be back by Christmas!

We had another addition to the fam this year! In late summer (actually, the day after Abbie was born), Justin's mom moved up here! This was exciting and made for some adventures in getting things moved and finding her a place to call home. This is also a huge testimony to the goodness and grace of God, as anyone who's read my testimony knows that ours was a tough relationship at best. The kids love having Grandma Zoo here, and I've enjoyed having the childcare back up...when my mom gets back, I'm going to be spoiled rotten.

That's the Nuthouse this year. What does next year have in store? Only God knows, but:

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

Thanks to everyone who reads my little 'ol blog. I treasure each of you, and am grateful for the friendships I've made out in internet-land. I hope God blesses each of you and the end of the year is a sweet one.

Sandy and the Nuthouse

kid pics

2009-12-10T17:33:00.004-05:00

<--how cute is THAT?

<--snow has finally gotten around to coming up here. Went almost halfway through december and now it's supposed to crap 4ft by the weekend. Nice.

Finally got around to putting up the tree! I was just unmotivated...but Amanda helped me drag everything downstairs and we got it up while Daddy rested.

perspective

2009-12-06T07:59:00.003-05:00

It sure is funny how things are different when you grow up. Things that seemed one way as a child are seen through drastically different eyes as an adult.
For example,
The Little Mermaid. I loved that movie as a kid (it came out when I was 8). Just thought it was the best thing ever. All I saw in it was a beautiful princess/mermaid, handsome prince and romance!

But now as a grown up I see it drastically differently. Seriously, she's freakin' 16! What the heck? The ''moral'' of the entire movie is backtalk, discontent and self-service...and of course everything turns out wonderfully in the end.
I still let my girls watch it. But, we do talk about how true love is not based on beauty, it's not like a flash of lightening and the way to live happily ever after is certainly not based on disobedience. I also find it shocking that her dad actually lets her go get married at 16 flippin' years old. DUDE. Justin and I were 16 when we started dating and 19 when we married, we were MORONS. I don't care if you are a prince and princess, everyone is dumb at 16 lol.

My mom laughed at me when I first realized this and shared with her. She felt the exact same way when I first watched this as a child. LOL. I've become my Momma (which is fine, my mom RULES)

Interesting.

Christ-centered friendship

2009-12-05T18:25:00.002-05:00

"How can we ever begin to pay them back? We can't. I guess that's the point of Christ-centered friendship"

True words! Spoken by my husband after we dropped off our sons at my friend/pastor's family's house. At 5am. In the morning. 5am. Gross.
Justin had back surgery yesterday. I didn't mention it here I think, but if your my pal on facebook, you probably already knew.
Finding out we had to be at the hospital at 6am put a small kink in the plans. Could we really ask Justin's disabled mother and friends to watch our children at 5am? At first, I thought we could just take them all along (I blame that delusion on stress. And lack of chocolate.) But I came to my senses and asked MIL to watch our girls, and a dear friend to keep the boys. I also asked another dear friend to come and pass the boring hours with me at the hospital so I wouldn't have to sit alone.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you." John 15:12-14

Now...my friends and family didn't die for me in the obvious sense (thank God!)...but in my opinion getting up at 5am to take care of someone else's children is dying to self. At least some! I mean really. It takes a lot of love to do that kind of thing. They kept my kids for 9 hours.
My friend stayed with me all morning at the hospital. All morning, along with her son. That's a pretty big sacrifice. She brought her preschooler to the boring hospital just to keep my company. And she brought me dinner tonight. Just to bless me.

Honestly, I'm usually in the other position. I usually do the kid-watching or meal making. I must admit, I really struggled with allowing others to bless me, to the point that at first I refused meals and said I'd be fine. And while I'm physically capable of making our dinner, I'm tired mentally. The last week in particular has been difficult. A bout of bronchitis knocked down 3 of my kids, including our special needs child. And then the surgery. Just a lot on my shoulders.

I feel so very unworthy of such love and sacrifice. And I am just as unworthy of the love and sacrifice of my friends as I am of Christ's sacrifice. And that's what makes them both so wonderful and sweet.

Awkward...

2009-11-27T10:51:00.003-05:00

....So. There is this club. Most of us belong to it. It's a scary club.
It's the "I saw my parents having sex" club.

Yes folks.

I'm trying to post this as discreetly as possible. It's funny. Sort of. Well, it's not really funny as much as awkward and weird and must be funny, but only if we don't think about it too long.

Really, we knew it was only a matter of time. We have 5 kids people. The odds of one of them catching us is pretty high.

Our poor oldest has now joined the club.

I knew 'the talk' was coming, just didn't think THAT would be the catalyst ya know?

I'm not sure who is more traumatized, her, or me.

New tradition!

2009-11-27T10:35:00.003-05:00

We had a really nice Thanksgiving yesterday. We originally had planned to go to the chapel on post for a pwoc sponsored get-together, but at the last minute, decided to stay home.
It was awesome!
And I broke tradition and served homemade pizza. I made a huge breakfast for us and a few guest. Sweet potato pancakes, bacon, sausage. Mmmmm. (I'll post the recipe for the pancakes later)
For dinner I made 6 pizzas using Amy's big 'ol batch of dough recip e. It makes enough dough to make 6 13x9 pizzas. Thick pizzas too. If I have stretched out the dough more, I could have easily made 8 I think.
It was easier, cheaper and more fun than traditional Thanksgiving. We've decided that our new tradition will be homemade pizza.

~~~~~~~~~

We also got really crazy and brought down my mom's tv for the morning. We did this because we had a couple of guests and not everyone is weird like us. Some people like tv.
We also wanted the kids to watch the parade. And it was hilarious! They have never seen the parade before and enjoyed it immensely.
I noticed several things about having the tv back in our main area:
1. That thing is noisy. It wasn't 5 minutes before I was asking for it to be turned down because it was so annoying.
2. The kids are like zombies. They rarely get to watch 'real' tv, so they are almost so they.watch.
3. They also fight more. Lame. It's not long before the 'I can't see' and 'He's in my spot' crap starts up.
4. It makes me wicked lazier. I know that's hard to believe. My middle name should have been 'lazy'...or perhaps 'procrastinate'. But tv really does make me lazier. It was easy to find myself sitting and watching, when I should have been working.

All in all, the tv was a fun treat for yesterday. It will come back out at Christmas. Until then, I am glad to go back to our weirdo-no-tv-ways.

series

2009-11-21T08:28:00.004-05:00

I've come up with an idea for a blog/writing series. But I need help naming it before I can make a button!
the idea:
An alphabet series. We'll start with 'A' (duh.) and each letter will stand for the theme of that week's writing assignment. I have not decided whether they will all be Christian based or not. (thoughts please?)
For example:

'H' is for Hero. Who is your hero? How did you meet? In what ways has this person impacted your life and changed how you are as a whole person?

That's an example of course. We'll work through the entire alphabet, one letter a week.

So. I need a creative name! Something that sums this up, but is also fairly short, as it has to fit on a reasonably sized button.
Fire away!

2009-11-16T15:27:00.002-05:00

I have SO much to share! God spoke to me this weekend, so gently and lovingly...it was wonderful. I WORSHIPPED!
I'm pondering a ''series'' and I think I'll make it an open series. I want everyone to participate! I'm going to pray more and work out the logistics...so stay tuned for that!
In the meantime, I have tons to share from the weekend (by the way, I went to a pwoc NE regional conference this weekend) I'm going to get my notes this weekend and get it all posted. Including adventures with hubby/kids while I was gone, and an example of my rampant stupidity. You do NOT want to miss it!

Say what??

2009-11-06T14:01:00.002-05:00

Crystal posted this on her blog. HILARIOUS!

no tv

2009-11-06T09:31:00.003-05:00

I shared last year that we went tv free. No more tv in the living room. There is one up at my mom's house, and a small one in our bedroom. Both are not accessible by the children (except amanda who is allowed to go to my mom's alone and watch movies)
If we watch a movie as a family, it's on my laptop. Or a small portable dvd player we have.
I've noticed lately the movie watching has become more frequent. *sigh* It takes work to do this kind of thing ya know? It's hard not to just put on a quick movie.
Well. This morning we had to get up at "0 dark thirty" (that's the time between "why am I awake?" and "holy crap, what time is it?") to take Daddy-O to work. Came home and put on a movie. There has literally been nothing but fighting ALL flippin' morning.
I finally got tired of it, put the dvd player away and before I could ~~yell at my kids to knock it the frick off~~ tell them to go play, they had already stopped fighting and started playing nicely.
Hmm. Another kick in the ~~pants~~ skirt from God.
Not that everyone should get rid of the tv. I'm not saying that.
BUT, God did tell US to get rid of the tv because it's best for OUR FAMILY.
And we obeyed, but allowed movie time to creep back in enough that we might as well have a tv again. Getting rid of the tv was mostly about the crap showed on it, but also the added noise, time spent in the same room but not really with one another, and me making it an excuse to ignore the kids in the name of ''getting stuff done''
So. More movie time = more fighting, more noise, more chaos.
In the 5 minutes since I shut the movie off, and started this blog post, I've put on the radio and the kids have been playing sweet as can be.
The room is quieter. The kids are calmer. So much better!
I'm not sure I have a point to this. Well I do. It's that it sure is easy to become lazy. Doing the right thing isn't easy. It doesn't say ANYWHERE in the bible that God promises things will be easy. But when He tells you to do something, it's a crapton easier to obey then it is to try it your way first. I'm just sayin'

Babbie the Bear

2009-10-27T08:30:00.000-04:00

simplify -- update 3

2009-10-26T14:08:00.002-04:00

Did inside my basement door today. SKEERY.
...
Anyhoo. The weekend was spent being lazy and just keeping things up. It was nice.
Today I decided to tackle the makeshift shelves right inside my basement door. To date, most of it was crap I'd shoved in there because I had no room anywhere else. Or kitchen gadgets that didn't fit inside my cabinets, like my canner and my griddle.
I cleaned out a trash bag full of random crap, a box full or equally random crap, organized all my empty jars (and discovered that I do in fact have enough to can 2 bushels of apples that I'm buying next week.) I even have some extra space there.
I also cleaned out one of my pantry cabinets. The one that was filled with random crap (I know, I know. I have a lot of random crap)
Now, all the filled cans that I've done so far are in there, so I won't be finding random jars of applesauce next year LOL.

Much better!
Done so far:
2 bedrooms
the mud room
the basement shelves
1 pantry cabinet
the bathroom/laundry room

To do:
our bedroom
shoe room
rest of the kitchen/pantry cabinets

My goal is the get that finished this week, so I can have my friend Diana over. She's simplifying too, and I suggested a play date at my place with celebratory tea/coffee and chocolate if we're good girls and get our work done this week.

Note to all picky 3yo...

2009-10-24T07:54:00.003-04:00

The following distraction techniques do not work when trying to avoid eating your breakfast (which was really yummy...you were just being a pill. I'm just sayin')
"My back hurts"

"I'm tired"

"There's monsters in here"

"But my eyeballs will fall out"

"There is snakes on my chair"

"I need a haircut"

*Note: all of these were said by my 3yo this very morning. Not in that order*

Creative writing

2009-10-22T19:37:00.003-04:00

Amy@RaisingArrows has come up with a wonderfully clever writing group. Click the pic to join if you wanna!!

The Message

1. Who is your audience and what is your purpose?
Honestly, my main purpose is to make others laugh. I love to make people laugh. And talk about poop. Or...talking about poop makes people laugh? I'm not sure. It sure makes my kids laugh. Say the word poop and they're off to the nuthouse.
...
*ahem* Sorry about that. What was I talking about? Oh right. My audience and purpose. Well, I suppose my audience is other moms for the most part. Online friends, family, ~~people who don't know any better~~ people who find my blog by accident.
I really do love to make people laugh though. And I write how I speak. Really. I am this crazy in real life too.
And I love to write devotionals! A lot. Those are my most popular posts, aside from pictures.
Such as this one on being thankful.
Although, posts that are funny (I don't mean that in a ''I'm freakin' hilarious'' kinda way. Just posts that I intended as funny) are rather popular too. Remember the bat?

2. What do you know?

Ask This:
What does my day consist of?
--poop. I thought we covered this.
How is my life unique?
It's really not. I'm just like most other moms. Some days are fabulous, some days are good, some days I just try to get through to bed time without ending up in jail. Or the nuthouse. Possibly both.
What things do I know that could help others?
I know how to survive deployment with lots of small children in an area that's butt deep in snow for 6 months out of the year. I know that VERY well. I also know a little about having a child with special needs. Since I have one.
Have I seen another blog post about something I do, but in a different way?
Most people aren't as ~~obnoxious~~ ~~weird~~ different as I am. Well, some people are. But I think I'm weirder. I'd have to ponder this one.

A list of 5 topics that I could/would write about:
Having a larger than ''normal'' family
Having a special needs child
Being a military family/surviving deployment
Pregnancy/birth
Dealing with either PPD or chronic depression. Or both.

3. Is the topic worth discussing?
Do This:
From either the list you made for #1 or the list you made for #2, pick a topic and begin brainstorming ideas for a post pertaining to that category.

Okay. I pick...dealing with PPD/chronic depression. I just don't think that gets talked about enough ya know?

4. What do you want your readers to feel and know after reading what you've written?

Ask This:
Do I want my reader to DO something with this information or do I want them to FEEL something? Am I able to take this topic and clearly convey a message?
Can't I have both? Can't I make my readers feel something and then take those feelings and turn them into action? I want it all baby!

Do This:
What would I like my reader to know about the topic I've chosen?

I want my readers to know that depression is shockingly more common then we realize. It is NOT something to be ashamed of, and can be dealt with. It doesn't have to rule your life.

5. Choose an analogy and make it the driving, yet subtle, force behind your post.

Do This:
Brainstorm anything and everything that comes to mind when you think of your topic. (this is just like a word association game) Choose one thing from that list that makes a good analogy for your topic and then brainstorm all the ways you can make that analogy "work" for the message you are wanting to convey.

Okay!
For my topic: PPD/chronic depression:
the blues, fog, medication, herbal alternatives, counseling, anger, helplessness, exhaustion

Fog:
Both PPD and chronic depression are like a fog. You can't see the end of it, you can't see anything in it. But it can lift and life can become clear again.

Now, one last exercise:

Why is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?
This question, asked by the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, is the perfect example of taking random everyday stuff and meshing it in a creative way. So, here's how it works...

1. Look up from your computer. What is the first thing you see? My computer cat gargoyle (it's a silly little statue that my mom gave me.)

2. Pick a room in your house. My living room

3. Answer this question: Why is [the room you chose] like [the item you saw]?

My answer: My cat-goyle is like my living room because it's special to me, and comforting.

simplify -- update 2

2009-10-21T21:23:00.002-04:00

So. Today we moved the girls' clothes upstairs to their new room. Up until now, I'd had all the children's clothes in the mud room closet downstairs, to make things easier for me to put away and keep track of. A family closet of sorts.
But, the girls are going to have to accept the responsibility that comes along with a new room. So up the clothes and dresser went. They really enjoyed putting them away (like that will last =P) and their room is coming together nicely.
This got me going in the mud room. With half the clothes and one of the dressers gone, I was able to rearrange what we store in there to make more room. I also cleaned out a box of crap from our entertainment center that we got rid of last year. Yes really. It sat that long. 80% trash, 20% interesting stuff I'd forgotten about, and 10% paperwork that I'd needed at various times and hadn't been able to find. Figures.
So. 3 rooms down, lots more to go!

simplify -- update 1

2009-10-19T15:46:00.003-04:00

Let's see. Today, I did lots upstairs in the kids' room. We're actually splitting them up. Till now, all 4 big kids shared one really huge room. Now the girls will have the small room, and the boys will have the great bit room. Next year, when Abbie is bigger, she'll be in with the boys.
I purged all the toys upstairs. Now there is one toy box in the boys' room, that holds some blocks and toy cars. The girls have one small bin that holds some dress up clothes and dolls. Everything else was either trashed or bagged up for freecycle.
I also went through the dresser and packed up most of the sheets and some blankets. Same with the towels downstairs. I'm not done with that sheets and towels yet. I'm going to go through them and decide what I'm keeping, what's going to be given away and what I'll keep for the fabric.
Tonight when Daddy gets home, the beds will be rearranged, and the rooms will be done!
More updates this week as I hopefully get all my goals reached!

Simplify

2009-10-19T10:05:00.002-04:00

Oh its time. Past time. Way past time. Our house is so full of crap.
I confess, I am a horrible pack rat. I was much, much worse before the military gave me a crash course in "How Not to Become Attached to Your Crap -- Because We (the military) Will Most Likely Lose/Break It." Not to mention, less crap = less headache when moving for the 9th time in 7 years.
But..this being the first home we've owned...and being here for 2 years already, it's become easy to settle. And to start accumulating things that we (as in me) think we need, but don't really. Like toys.
For all of my family reading this: No more toys for birthdays/Christmas. This will be discussed in depth more later...
And linens. Holy crap. I have sheets and towels comin' out my freakin' ears. That's funny. I didn't really realize it, but years of moving around and not having stuff, left us buying towels and sheets much more than the average person. Leaving me with no place to put them, and drawers of sheets and towels that have only been used once or twice.
Well. Momma is cleanin' house y'all.
First things to go-
1. All extra towels. I'm keeping one for each of the kids, and 3 for Justin and I (I use 2). The rest will be made into diaper liners and cloth pads for me (yes. I am going THAT crunchy. 'Nuther post though)
2. All extra sheets. Again, 1 set for each bed, along with 1 extra in each size. (Toddler, twin, queen) This will have the added bonus of forcing me to do laundry when it's time. No more changing sheets and leaving them for 2 weeks till I get around to it!
3. Most toys. The kids fight so much more over the toys. Justin has been telling me this for months LOL...but I've been ~~ignoring~~ pretending I didn't hear. Then he put his foot down and took ALL the toys out of the car. Well. I hear and now in front of the entire net world admit that he was right. No toys = MUCH less fighting in the car. They are allowed to bring the "special" stuff, but nothing else. I am now doing the same in the kids' rooms. In the girls' room: one bin with dress up/dolls. In the boys' room: one toys box with blocks and cars. Both rooms have books. Books are exempt. There is NO such thing as too many books. Downstairs will be the same. The shelves of my big bookcase will hold all our books, and toys on the bottom. And one bag with small toys. The rest will be given away, or taken to Grandma Zoo's house. (Don't worry Grandma...it's only one small bucket LOL)
4. My clothes. I have craptons of clothes that I have been too fat for for years. Time to love me. LOL. I'm fat. I will no longer keep anything I do not fit in, maternity being the exception. If I do finally get off my fat butt and drop some weight, I'll get some things as I need them. I will keep enough for a couple of church outfits, my every day skirts and shirts for winter and summer. My shoes will also be pared down. I have way too much. I collected a lot of flip-flops overseas, but it's too cold here to wear them for more than a few months of the year =( Obviously, anything hubby is partial to will also stay =P
So. That's my goal. I'm so tired of holding on to crap!
Pics and posts will follow. There will be no before pics. Sorry folks. I am SO NOT sharing that LOL. After pics for sure!

friendship...

2009-10-13T13:23:00.005-04:00

...there is nothing like it. It's a blessing...and sometimes a curse, especially amongst women. Can I get an AMEN??
Anyhoo. I didn't have much in the way of real friendship growing up. Most of my ''friends'' were kids who were much smarter and more wiley than me. I was naive, gullible and easy to boss. A good kid to have around when it comes time to have someone to pick on. They weren't all like that of course. I have many friends that I still keep in touch with on facebook and email.
But I mean FRIENDS. Call after 6 months of being too busy to call and it's like you've never stopped talking -- that kind of friend. That's a good friend ya know?
I didn't know *real* friendship until I became a christian. Well...I did...but I didn't know it. Bonnie was my best friend in jr. high/high school. She was a christian. Not one of the ''weird'' ones, but a patient one. Unashamed of her faith and unafraid to befriend those who didn't believe. We've been like sisters for 16 years. 16 years people. We go for months without talking and then pick up right where we left off. Bonnie was the first one I called when I accepted Christ. She deserved to know first. We were friends for 12 years before I became a christian, and she prayed for me for a long time. She was patient and loving when I declared my atheism. When I did stupid things and was unkind. Due to my own stupidity and unkindness, we didn't speak for several years, but God is good, and that is long since past. Bonnie was the first person to SHOW me Christ. Not just talk about Him, but SHOW ME. And I never really realized how much that meant until I came to Him.
Then in the first of my adult trials, God gave me Lona. A sweet heart. Gentle and friendly. She never shuts up. Seriously. That was the first thing I thought about her. =P In His amazing wisdom, He brought her to me in a way that (seemingly) had nothing to do with Him. I began babysitting her child when she and my Amanda were both infants. We became easy friends and thought it great that we were both moving to Okinawa at the same time. It was a beautiful blessing to have a friend in a place so different. We tagged along church hunting with her and her man (also named Justin! Isn't that funny??) and found Koza together. We've been best friends for 6 years. Another friend that will call randomly out of the blue and it's like christmas!!
She hasn't a mean bone in her body. A wonderful example of sweetness and kindness. The kind of girl that's beautiful, but you can't be jealous or hate her, because she's so freakin' kindhearted LOL. Just sweetness. I cried for weeks when we moved. Saying goodbye to her was almost as hard as saying goodbye to my husband.
I went through a lonely year or so in NV. When Justin was in training and the kids and I were living with my mom. I was so lonely. I made no friends. It took me 6 months to find a church. I cried every sunday after visiting yet another church that left me dry when I was so thirsty. My mistake was seeking to quench my thirst in earthly friends. I needed to ask Jesus to be my best friend. That was a hard lesson.
Anyhoo. Then we moved up here, and the first person I met was Wendy. I'm a moron and had to meet her twice. I met her at a unit picnic (our men work together) and she was so kind and picked up my fussy newborn Isaiah and had him asleep in about 5 seconds. I then had to meet her again, at MOPS the next week when I walked up to her and introduced myself...and she was gracious enough to remind me that I had just met her. Idiot. When Isaiah was an infant, the playpen was in the main traffic area of our old house. Whenever she came over, she'd better pick him up or he'd start hootin' at her. Every.time.
A few months after that, we met Abbie. The three of us lived very near each other and were in the same boat, all our men were gone with DSTB. So we started hanging out. We'd get together at least 3 times a week and go for walks, have dinner, or just ~~ignore~~ watch our kids ~~fight~~ play. Over the months our friendship grew deeper, and we became 3 dear friends. The first ones any of us would call when we needed child care. Or to vent. Or chocolate. Or possible all 3. We've shared the hardest time in our lives with each other..and have rejoiced together over the good times too. The soldiers call them ''battle buddies''. Wendy and Abbie are my battle buddies. A bond forged that can't be explained and won't ever die. I love them both dearly.
I'm not really sure what the point of this post is. I've been thinking of my friendship with Abbie in particular lately, as she's moving away in a few weeks. This is the first time I've been left behind...usually I'm the one doing the moving. The yuckiest part of military life is the constant good byes. I'm so selfish. I'm so glad she's moving. It's what her family needs. It's God's will. But I'm selfish and I want her to stay here. I need her. Wendy and I won't be the same without her.
I was busy feeling sorry for myself because the move is getting closer, and in our pwoc board meeting today, I realized that Abbie's last week will be really soon. So I was sorry for myself.
But God gently reminded me that He has given me good women friends in abundance. How many women can say that they have 4 women they love so dear? Yet I do. Each has been a profound influence on my life. Each is like a sister. In my ideal little world, we'd all live someplace quiet and safe right next to each other LOL.
I know you all read my blog, and I love you all dearly.

thankless...thank FULL

2009-10-12T18:23:00.002-04:00

Seriously. I heard my 3yo son crying in the bathroom, and assumed he was doing something other than peeing, which he was supposed to be doing. Instead I see him sitting naked on the floor and bawling because he had just dropped his beloved toy car into the toilet. AFTER he peed in it. My first response was to hand the baby to Justin and declare my joy at having to go fish it out. My second response was to be thankful he hadn't just pooped.
I fished out the car. Washed it thoroughly in wicked hot water (OUCH) and anti-bacterial soap and handed it to my boy, hoping for gratitude, or at least a thank you.
I could tell he was happy, but it wasn't the reaction I'd hoped for. He did say thank you, but it was prompted, like thank you's from 3yo's often are. I actually felt a fleeting moment of sadness.
A thought rather like, ''Dude. I just reached into your pee water for that stupid car and I don't even get a flippin' hug??" flashed through my head.
I was faced with the realization (not for the first time) that motherhood is sometimes thankless. Not just sometimes, but often. Of course, I know most moms work hard to teach their kids to say 'please' and 'thank you', and try to instill the idea that we should be thankful to those who do a kindness for us...but honestly, sometimes serving our families simply goes unnoticed. I highly doubt that my son realized what I had done for him, just that I had done what Mommies do.
But Someone did see it. Someone did realize that I reached into the toilet without complaint and didn't give my son a hard time for dropping his car in the toilet when I've told him a zillion times not to keep his toys with him on the potty. That someone is God. I know He saw my act of simple motherhood and was glad.
He always sees. He always sees our small acts of service that go unnoticed. Even if we do get appreciation (which I do. My Sexy Man is so good about that! He gives me far more praise than I deserve), it can still be tiring to be ''on-duty'' all the time.
But God sees.
And He cares.
And He is glad.

Happy birthday to my man!

2009-10-06T14:18:00.005-04:00

My man is awesome. He's incredibly sexy, a fabulous father, fearless leader, gentle guide, and shameless lover of Christ. He's just an all around amazing man of God. And he's fun! And did I mention sexy? Oh. I did? Well he is. Hello? We have 5 kids people. Obviously he is hot stuff!

<--out in the big sandbox last year.

<--more sandbox LOL. At least he can smile about it!

<--see? I told you he's fun!

<---man time! WOO HOO!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

2009-10-06T13:46:00.010-04:00

<--yes. A picture of me. Don't look so shocked. And don't run away. I promise it won't happen again for a long time =P (random factoid....I went to this same haymaze last year. And wore the EXACT SAME OUTFIT. *not on purpose!* Seriously. Same skirt and shirt. I guess I really like it LOL)

Fall fun!

2009-10-06T13:23:00.009-04:00

we went to a local place today that always sets up a hay maze and bouncy stuff for the kids. It stays up till Halloween and it's free. It's an awesome shop! So homey and country!
I went with my friend Abbie and her cuties...I'm going to miss her when she moves =( Such is military life...

<---all the kids

<---Babbie. 2 months old already!!

<---the boogers and I

<---hidden baby. ''Do you have a baby in there?'' is a question I am asked frequently while wearing my sling LOL

<---kids on the blow up slide.

<--the hay maze...can you see them in there?

<---there they are!

Such a wonderful morning! We'll be going again next week, since my other friend, Wendy had to miss out today.

what smells like poop?

2009-09-30T14:21:00.002-04:00

You know. It's just been one of those days. Not stressful, not bad. Just one of those days where you have a headache and wonder how a day could be that weird.
First, approx 80% of my children are sick. Amanda is sick, Steph is very sick, the boys are getting sick. It's all the same thing, pre-winter/weather change crud. Just yuck.
Anyhoo, Steph woke up at 4am to climb in bed and whine at us. Whatever. She's sick. I'll indulge. Wesley woke at 5:15 to poop. You know it's going to be an interesting day when your 3yo trots into your room at 515am to ask you to get up and wipe his butt. Yay.
Then an absolutely insane morning ensued, which involved me running to the pharmacy to get a piece for the nebulizer for Stephanie, the store for something to eat for breakfast, picked up Justin's mom, ran to town for a paper she needs, dropped off said paper, then returned home to wander around for about half and hour wondering, "Why does my house smell like poop?"
Hmm. A mystery is afoot.
I found the source.
By the way, it's a good friend who won't avoid your house after you tell her you are cleaning poop OUT OF THE HEATER VENT.
I'm just sayin'

forgiveness

2009-09-28T07:21:00.003-04:00

So. Sometimes we're idiots. It happens less frequently then it used to (at least to Justin, I'm an idiot much of the time! =P )...but still.
When we moved here we joined a fantastic church. NCF felt homelike right away. In fact, the first time we visited, Justin and I both felt that we'd have joined that day if we could have. They treated us wonderfully, and have always had a Christlike spirit of giving. When we (as in me) bought the house last year, they came and helped mom and I move. I can't imagine the nightmare it would have been to move alone...but I didn't have to. It was a given that I would have help. Several men and women gave up their saturday to help me move with only some pizza and a heartfelt thanks in return. Many christians would say, ''well of course. That's what we should do for the body'' and yes that's true, but not having grown up with that sort of self-less christian love, it's a surprise to me still.
Last fall, Justin made the decision that we were to attend the chapel on post. It wasn't because NCF did anything wrong, just a decision based on where Justin felt God leading us.
But, having never changed churches before, and not being as ''old'' in the faith as some, we did it the wrong way. We simply stopped attending NCF and started attending the chapel. Whoops.
We didn't mean to hurt anyone, but intentions don't much count when people are hurting you know? These were people who have invested time and love in us, and we just left. That was a mistake that we regret heartily. We didn't even think of it in that manner until after. But by then the hurt had been done. For the most part, over the past year, we had been able to repair hurts and heal friendships.
For the last several weeks, Justin and I had both missed NCF. We finally agreed that we wanted to go back, but would they have us after we had left and caused hurt?
the subject was broached with both pastors. Both answered with a resounding, "Duh. Of course you can come back!"
The reaction we'd hoped for but didn't expect!
We were surprised, mostly because we're human and wouldn't have been surprised if no one wanted us back after our unintentional hurt.
So, the kids and I went last weekend (Justin was out of town). It was a little awkward (for me), but like coming home after a long time away. So awesome! Lots of hugs and catching up.
Yesterday was even better. Justin had the same feelings I did last week, but we've been welcomed home, much like the prodigal son returning to a loving father.
God is so good!
I'm so glad to be back!

2009-09-26T17:30:00.004-04:00

Forgive the crappy quality, I snapped these with my phone on a whim.
Abigail, or Babbie-girl as she is called around here (that's what her name sounds like when Isaiah says it) is the princess of the house! She's quite popular, so popular in fact, that if Momma sets her down, she is swarmed by other short people. It's tough to be so flippin' cute.

She's smiling often now, and has begun to attempt laughter, which comes out as cute and tiny squeaks. A pleasure to be sure!

devotional

2009-09-24T19:08:00.000-04:00

*I gave this devotional at pwoc this morning

I got nuthin’ . I have never had such trouble writing a devotional before. Nuthin.

As of this morning, I had no idea, no scripture in mind, no thoughts to share. I was telling this to my husband on the way home last night…and he asked if I’ve been in the Word like I should be.

Uhhh. No? Dangit. He was right, like usual. Don’t get me wrong, I’m doing my studies for pwoc, but I’m not in the Word like I should be. Like I need to be.

Then I thought, I’m in a leadership postion, I certainly can’t stand up in from of all of those woman and admit that my quiet time is basically non-existent. Stupid pride.

So. I’ve been up since 6am trying desperately to write something of substance to share today, and have not come up with anything other than the stinging realization that I’ve not met God alone, though He’s been pursuing me. He’s been telling me quite a bit that I’m missing Him. I know I’m missing Him. I need to slow down and take time to meet with Him, but like every other, wife, mom, and Christian on the planet, I let my ‘’real’’ tasks keep me way too busy to face the fact that I desperately need time alone with Him. Because I don’t want to hear what He’s going to tell me. I don’t want to hear that my lack of time with Him has made me shorter with my kids, harsher in my words, and more resentful of my obligations and duties. Because that’s what He’s going to tell me. And I don’t want to hear it.

It’s not just about ourselves though. It’s so vital to spend time in the Word to feed ourselves of course, but it’s also a responsibility. How are we supposed to be doers of the word if we’re not in the word? As Christians we are not only given God’s word as a gift and a blessing, but also as a responsibility. We are entrusted with God’s Word as a tool to witness and share the gospel of Christ with the world. It’s pretty darn hard to do that if we’re not in it.

This isn’t meant to be a guilt trip, just a reminder. As much for myself as anyone else. So many of us are suffering trials of varying degrees, and the Word should be our first balm. The only ointment that can sooth our hurting souls. ²⁸ My soul is weary with sorrow;
strengthen me according to your word. Psalm 119:28

I hope this is taken in the spirit it’s given. Love and gentle encouragement! I would really like to think that I’m the only one sorely neglecting my time alone with God…but alas, I know better. We’re all so busy! We’re wives, moms, employees, and it’s so easy to get overwhelmed with the busyness of life.

Take some time. Take it back. Do it for your families, your friends, and yourself. We not only owe it God because He has asked it of us, but to ourselves, for how can we fulfill our responsibilities to be witnesses if we’re starving ourselves of Him?

I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you. Psalm 119:11

God is so funny

2009-09-22T14:55:00.003-04:00

He knows just what we need when we need it doesn't He?
Not long after my Holland post, God has been sending people left and right to reassure me.
We changed pediatricians, and got the referral we wanted! WOO HOO! Now we wait for Tricare...and an appt.

Holland

2009-09-01T19:35:00.004-04:00

Every mom with a special needs child has read this essay before. And it's true. Being given a special needs child changes a lot of things in your life.
Of course, my Stephanie isn't as special needs as some kids. At this point, we're not even 100% sure what her special needs are. And that makes things tough. I'll be really honest. It freakin' sucks. It sucks to have no idea how to deal with her. It sucks to have no idea how to communicate with her when she shuts down. It also sucks to have to structure my day/schedule around how she is doing that day. If she's having a hard day, we ALL are. If having a special needs kid is flying to Holland...then not knowing what the needs are is like flying in a holding pattern for a really long time.
Of course, I don't mean that to sound like I don't love her. I do so very much. Quite frankly, I just don't understand why God chose her for our family. I am so ill-equipped to handle that you know? I am not worthy of that kind of challenge.
I'm actually not even sure what the point of this post is even. I'm feeling rather isolated lately. My friends are all supportive and kind and so tolerant of Steph and her trainwreckiness...but I don't have anyone to say, "Yes! That makes sense. You are NOT a crappy mom. It's NOT in your head!" I NEED that. I can't even tell you how much I need that. I know it's selfish...but I am aching so badly to be validated. To be reassured. For someone ''in the know'' to tell me that It's not my fault and it's okay.
There are so many days I get really tired of Holland. Days when I just wish I could have one whole day with no hand flapping, no tantrums, no screaming. A day where a trip to the store is easy.
But...God has not chosen that for me. And I've no right to lament what He has chosen to bless me with. For though it's work and trying at times, it's still a blessing.

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure. Psalm 16:5

That's all I guess. I love my family. I love my little people. I love my God.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

2009-09-01T09:08:00.001-04:00

The Ultimate Secret in motivating a reluctant reader....

Pizza.

Everyone loves pizza.

Sorry...and pics!

2009-08-30T18:58:00.005-04:00

Sorry bloggy pals..I'd like to say that I've been in baby-heaven and therefore too busy to post...but the truth is, I'm sleep deprived, busy and fuzzy-headed from allergies that make me want to stab myself in the head...but baby-heaven sounds better. So I think I'll stick with that. Yeah.
Speaking of baby-heaven...
Flippin' cute! Also cute, Isaiah just pointed to her pic and excitedly proclaimed, "Babbigail!'' I vote that her nickname should be Babbie.

She's cute. And sweet. And cute. Did I mention cute? 'Cause she is.

AM NOT!

2009-08-15T07:25:00.002-04:00

I was challenged by the awesomeness that is My Man. So here we are.
What the heck am I talking about you might wonder?
Well...yesterday was a wonderful day (aside from being the day Earth was graced with my presence for the first time..) We went outside and washed the cars, and just spent time together. The kids had a great time washing the cars and getting wet.
Afterwards, they stayed to play outside with Justin, and after not too long he brings them in covered in muddy water. Normal stuff.
Until he tells me that they were all laying face down in the puddle at the end of the drive. Drinking the puddle water. Yes really. Driveway puddle water people.
He didn't think I was brave enough to post that.
Well. Apparently he doesn't remember this post.
If anything, it's probably good for their immune systems.

Things that make you go...what?

2009-08-12T03:03:00.001-04:00

Notice the time people. I know I'd probably be awake with the baby anyways, but this is a much more interesting story.

Imagine with me a moment.
The normal quiet and faint snoring from various little people that graces our home at 230 flippin' am. When suddenly I hear several loud thumps.
"What the heck was that?" says I to Justin, and then we both see our roomie 'R' in the hallway hollering, "THERE'S A BAT IN THE HOUSE!"
...

...

...

I know it's the middle of the night, but I'd like to think I can still hear.
A bat?

Yes. A bat. As in yucky little thingies that fly around at night and ...well are yucky.
So. Justin gets up to valiantly help encourage the bat to leave our house. We're hospitable folks, but no bats allowed okay? I briefly considered getting up to help him with said bat-removal, but decided against it for 2 reasons:
1. Hello? It's a flippin' BAT.
2. Well, I really only had one reason. But 2 sounded better. I just didn't wanna 'cause bats are yucky.
About 30 minutes later, my hero comes back to bed to proudly tell his bat-banishing story, which involved lots of blanket flappin' and running like a scared little girl. (His words, not mine, I think he's all man baby)
His closing words?
"Are you wide awake?"
"Yes" says I
"Good" he says, handing me my laptop, "Start blogging"