Winding down December

We had a lovely Christmas week.  We gathered with my family on Christmas Eve.  We spent Christmas Day at home together and then Randy's brother's family came over in the evening.  Friday, the kids went to Grandpa & Grandma's house to decorate for our Christmas gathering while the parents all went out for supper.  Saturday we gathered with Randy's family.

In between all of that, Randy worked at painting the girls room.  Naturally, I forgot to take "before" photos.  They had trouble agreeing on the color of their walls, so we worked out a compromise.  I picked a very pale lavender grey for the main wall color, and then they each picked an accent color for the walls by their beds.  Autumn went with a lovely purple (Coneflower) and Janae chose a bright light green (Gorgeous Guacamole...or something like that).  It actually looks okay!  Randy is hoping to paint the trim next weekend.

Josiah has been sick.  Janae had it first but bounced back in 2 days.  Josiah is getting better, but it's taking him a lot longer.

Now we face the mostly empty week.  Where there is no school and minimal structure...much more difficult for some of us than others.  On my agenda for today, of course, is laundry.  We'll see what else we get to.  I would like to take the tree down sometime soon as well.

Have a lovely week!

Christmas Break

In 20 minutes or so, the kids will get home from school...and everything will be wild and fun and crazy for the next 2 weeks.  So this morning I'm not doing very much.  Taking time to relax, finish a book, enjoy the relative quiet (after doing a few errands).

I finished the book "The Men Who Would be Kings" An almost epic tale of moguls, movies and a company called DREAMWORKS by Nicole Laporte.  I found it very fascinating.

Last week I read "The Challenging Child" by Stanley Greenspan.  I was hoping to write a "real" book review on it...and still may.  I definitely recommend it.

We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our newest niece or nephew...any day now!

The Christmas preparations are pretty much completed.  We hope to just enjoy the coming days.

I'm also reading "Born on a Blue Day" by Daniel Tammut.  A book about an autistic savant.  I just started the book...but I thought it sounded interesting.

Laundry and Dishes are calling my name.

I continue to experiment with essential oils.  While they certainly don't take the place of God's healing in our lives, I believe that he created the plants the oils come from, and that they can be a piece of the puzzle of staying healthy, both physically and mentally.

In case I'm not on here again for awhile....have a Merry Christmas!

being Mom

Sometimes, when I think about the fact that I've been a mom for 15 years (Josiah will be 15 in a couple of months)...it seems like a long time.  One of the advantages of being an "experienced" mom is that if my kids get sick, I've probably seen it before.

Last week Mark was sick...but I knew right away that it was not the typical stomach bug...that it was probably either related to something he ate or to his stomach issues.  And no one else got sick...so I'm pretty sure I was right.  :-)

This week Zach felt horrible and had a very red rash.  I've seen this before too...Scarlet Fever.  The last time we had this was in December as well when Mark was a baby and my 3 older kids got it.  So I took him to the doctor right away for antibiotics and it was amazing how quickly he bounced back to normal!  I know some people are not fond of modern medicine (or big pharma as many call it)...but I'm so grateful for having a medicine to help certain illnesses!  Now we're waiting to see if either of the other 2 younger ones get it...

Today is Mark's turn to take snack to school for his class.  I forgot.  So I'm going to be popping popcorn here shortly.  I rescheduled his gastroenterologist appointment...and I'm glad as it snowed overnight...so now I don't need to drive in there in this weather.

Hear the kids, gotta run...

December Randomness

I feel like I'm getting nothing done anyway...so let's write a random blog post.

• I'm reading through my Agatha Christie mystery book collection...interspersed by random books from the library.
• We've been watching our favorite Christmas DVDs
• We are currently fans of MasterChef Jr. on TV (watching the episodes a week or 2 later at an earlier time since our kids go to bed early).
• Appointments, Appointments, Appointments!
• My back "went out" last week, so I've seen the chiropractor 3 times in 6 days.
• This morning I took Zach to the doctor.  He is now on antibiotics...very nasty sore throat, but not strep (by the quick test anyway)
• Taking Mark to a pediatric eye doctor.  He failed his test at school, but since he doesn't know all of his letters, it may simply be that.  I've had him at our family eye doctor several times, but thought it best to try a pediatric one considering his delays.
• Mark also has an appointment with his pediatric gastroenterologist this week.  He does pretty well when I'm careful about his diet...so I think that is the answer to those issues.
• Janae has JGAs one evening.
• Josiah has (homeschool) Co-op
• A few friends and I met with another friend who sells essential oils last week.  So...I bought some.  I fully admit to being a skeptic.  At the same time, we have some skin issues here that not much has helped, so it's worth a try I guess.
• Always drowning in laundry and dishes
• Need to wrap gifts.
• And finish shopping.  The bulk of it is done...so I got complacent.  So I'm hoping to take care of the rest of that this weekend...or online!
• I can't remember if I mentioned that we bought a car?  We did.  I'm enjoying taking the car when it's just me and 1 or 2 kids instead of the big van.  Gas mileage is much better as well!  :-)

Well, that's all for now...need to go work on the laundry!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Today we are enjoying a slower day...playing, laundry, new Christmas DVD, baking cookies.

We had a lovely weekend.  We spent Thursday with my family...lots of people, lots of laughter, lots of fun...and the kids did great too!

We have some kids who struggle with the lack of structure during vacation, so we tried to stay somewhat busy.  We decorated the house for Christmas and put up the Christmas tree.  We took a trip to Cabela's.  We pulled out the Christmas DVDs and watched some of them.  We went to church.  We (except me & Janae) went to the local Christmas Tree Lighting/Live Nativity.

Tomorrow it's back to the normal schedule...school, therapy, catching up on what slides when everyone is home...

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Random

Not to much going on...

• I'm reading through Agatha Christie books...interspersed with whatever I find that interests me at the library.  I now go to the library regularly again now that I am down to 1 kid at home combined with having an hour between dropping Josiah off at co-op and picking him up.
• I am almost finished with the book "No Drama Discipline"...I like this one!
• Chicken in the oven for supper.  We've been eating entirely to many quick meals for supper (grilled cheese, eggs, pancakes, spaghetti...)
• cleaning, laundry, and play group today.
• We continue to work at painting the upstairs.  Josiah's room is nearly done.  Then on to the hallway.  I bought paint for the girls' room because it was on sale...not sure when we'll get to it.
• It's really cold around here.  But the sun is shining...and I'll take cold and sunny over damp, cloudy and chilly.

Josiah with one of our broiler chicks a few weeks ago.

Micah with his "teddy bear"

Randy & I went to a banquet with a bunch of friends last Friday night.

Last week Janae turned 10!

A free week...

I have been looking forward to this week ever since I realized it was coming.  A week with no therapies or appointments for anyone!  Well, Autumn still had her violin lesson and Josiah has co-op yet...but otherwise, free! 

While I could choose to get my house in meticulous order (ha!), instead I sat down over the weekend and made a list of those millions of things that just never get done...so I am working on some of those (in addition to the usual cooking and laundry of course).

• I am now on cup of tea #3.
• The Christmas card envelopes are all labeled...but a few of them need addresses yet (but I have a month or so to work that in).
• I went through the kids' baby books and made notes of what photos are still needed.  Then I went online and went through folders to find photos that work.  There will still be some missing unless I can locate whatever flash drive I put my photos on when I deleted them from the computer...because a bunch of them never made it to Kodak/Shutterfly.
• I started working on a photo calendar for 2015.  I like to have it made so that when a good sale comes up I can just order it.  It's not finished yet, but it's at least started.
• Now I'm updating this blog.  :-)

That all took longer than I thought it would...

Next on my list:  Order socks for Zach.  Zach is very particular about his feet (I'm sure it's a sensory issue).  Anyway, there is a particular brand that I can order for him that usually works.  He's on the top size though, not sure what's going to happen when he outgrows them!

Well...

I see that "more frequent blogging" thing just isn't happening.

Quick notes here....we're enjoying the winding down of fall (although I admit to not looking forward to winter and definitely not being ready for Christmas).

A year ago we were in the midst of packing to move...hard to believe!  We love it here.  Anyway, Randy & I do...I think the kids do to, for the most part.  This year's project is painting.  When we moved in most of the walls were flat white paint.  Last spring we took out a wall and painted the kitchen/dining room areas.  Several weeks ago (September perhaps?) we painted the living room and purchased some new furniture.  This week found us painting Josiah's bedroom.  It needs a bit of touch up yet and the trim painted, and then it's completed.  It is fun to see the house get some color/personality.  :-)

I already have my Christmas cards...my goal every year is to have them ready by Thanksgiving.  I ended up buying these really early, so hopefully I don't forget about them!

The kids had half days of school yesterday and today for parent-teacher conferences.  Micah had speech therapy this morning.  Mark has his physical and occupational therapies tomorrow.

Well, I need to come up with something for supper and finish putting the laundry away.

Have a lovely day!

Trying!

To blog more often, that is.  :-)

Here are a few photos from the other weekend.  We went camping at RB Winter State Park near Mifflinburg, PA.  It rained overnight Friday so Saturday we went to Penn's Cave...a place that I've wanted to go to ever since I was a little girl.  We also found the cabin that Randy went to when he was a child.  And...we bought apples!  We found this cute little orchard (13 or 18 acres I think the guy said) up in the mountains.  And I really have no idea why I neglected to take photos of it!  I made some of the apples into applesauce and the rest are still in my refrigerator.  I'm planning to make apple pie filling with them...if they don't get eaten before I get around to doing so!

Autumn

 

Mark

Trying to get a group photo...

Micah

Look at that cute crew (in front of the cabin that Randy went to when he was a boy).

Us

Zach - love this photo of the playful side of Zach.

Randy

Autumn, Micah, Josiah, Janae

going down into the cave

On the boat

light show in the cave

 

Sunday was a gorgeous day!

Janae

Josiah

Reading, reading, reading...

I go through periods of time when I read mass amounts of material...and then it goes awhile again.  With Josiah going to a co-op for an hour once a week, it's the perfect time for me & Micah to go to the local library...which is rather bad in a way because then I spend much more time reading books.  :-)

So, what have I been reading?

• "Parenting from the Inside Out" and "No-Drama Discipline".  Once I stumbled upon a few books that gave me insight into parenting a child from places of trauma, now I just keep reading more and more.  The results - I now know a lot of information.  Translating that into the actual parenting process is the challenge!
• From Fear to Love.  This is a small book that breaks down much of what I've learned into bite size, easy to understand pieces/concepts.  It's the perfect "introductory" book!
• The Grave Robber.  This book explores the miracles of Jesus as found in the book of John as well as miracles today.  I bought it because Kim of the blog (now fb page) "His Hands His Feet Today" is mentioned in it.  I enjoyed the book and thought the author provided a good balance of "God still does miracles" and "We don't get to decide when God does miracles".
• And less you think that I only read serious books...I've also been reading for fun.
• Working through my set of Agatha Christie books (as well as the ones the library has)
• Dee Henderson's books 4, 5, & 6 of the O'Malley Series
• Christmas at Barncastle Inn (and another similar 4 lame romance novels in one book)...sometimes it's nice to read "fluff"...provided that you don't think to hard about how this would actually play out in real life.  :-)
• Story of the World:  volume 4.  I found this in the homeschool section of our library.  I love how these volumes weave the history of the entire world together.  So instead of learning about a specific section of the world to the exclusion of the rest, you learn about what's happening all over the world in any given time period.

The other week I introduced my kids to the show "Master Chef Jr." (season 1) which we could watch on the internet.  Those kids blew me away with their cooking skills!  We all really enjoyed watching the show together.  (Although it provided me lots of opportunities to discuss the fact that in our family there are certain very common phrases that we don't choose to say.)

Earlier this month we got pumpkins and painted them.  Last week we had a lot of rain which washed most of the paint off...but it was fun while it lasted.  :-)

Hmm...

...I see that I blogged all of 2 times in September.  Perhaps I should consider whether I want to continue blogging or let it go.  Has it served it's time?  Or is blogging just kind of dormant right now?  I don't know....

Anyway.  The last time I blogged about Randy & Josiah riding the BR2RB bike ride.  While they were doing that.  The other kids and I went to Cape Henlopen State Park (DE).

Top of the WWII Lookout Tower

She blinked again!

Look at that cute little boy's smile.  :-)

Fun trees to climb.

Exploring Fort Miles

From Fort Miles

Cape Henlopen Beach - It was a chilly, cloudy day...

My lovely daughter...and a bit of Janae shivering because she was SO cold.

We stuck our feet in the foam.  The surf was pretty high...it was kind of nice it was to cold for the kids, because I would've worried about them.

Zach

I love the ocean...

 

Me and my girls!

Micah & Mark

Proud

Randy and Josiah love to go road-biking on the weekends.  This year they decided to do the BR2RB ride to support Black Rock Retreat.  Saturday morning they left Black Rock Retreat.  They arrived at Camp Arrowhead on Rehoboth Bay around 3:40.  I was quite impressed!  :-)

 

Here they are at the end of the ride.

Busy

One of these days I'll get around to blogging more again...maybe!

I thought I'd get more done with 4 kids at school...but not happening...

Lots of appointments:

• Occupational & Physical Therapy for Mark
• Speech Therapy for Micah
• Dentist Appointments for all of us
• Follow-up Dentist Appointments to fix cavities
• Orthodontic Appointments
• Eye Doctor Appointments
• Violin Lessons
• Church Activities:  Youth Group, Jr. Youth Group, and JGA (Jr. Girls Activities)
• Specialist Appointment
• Homeschool Co-Op (Josiah)

Micah's having a hard time adjusting to being the only one here...but we're getting there.

Next week I have 3 days in a row at home...I'm very excited.  :-)

Canning and Freezing

Once again it is that time of the year when preserving food for the winter is in full force around here.  Today I was doing applesauce.  My mom and Josiah helped.  I'm now all finished except for running it through the canner.  The pop of the sealed jars is music to my ears.

So far this year:
Pickles - Banana Pickles, 5-Day Pickles, Pickle Relish
Tomatoes - Salsa (2 types)
Peaches - 4 baskets Red Haven
Apples - 2 baskets Ginger Gold mixed with 3 baskets Summer Rambo
Corn - 20 dozen
Green & Wax Beans - Still freezing as they ripen

I have 2 gallons of chopped tomatoes in my freezer to do something with as well as a gallon of tomato juice.  My counter has tomatoes on it and there are more coming in the garden.  I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing with them.  Lots of options:  Pizza Sauce, Spaghetti Sauce, Tomato Soup, Sauce, Diced, Juice, Stewed...

I plan to can 3 or 4 baskets of Bartlett Pears.

I also want to can (or freeze) another 5 or 6 baskets of apples worth of applesauce and make apple pie filling.

I am running out of quart jars...

I love to see the jars lined up on the shelf.  :-)

Homeschooling

Josiah is homeschooling this year.  He had started working through his grammar book, health book, and on his art lessons in July/August.  He started "for real" on Thursday when his siblings went back to school.  I'm enjoying having him & Micah here with me during the day.

For those of you who wonder about curriculum and such:

• English/History/Bible - a combination study from Notgrass Company studying US History and American Literature and how religion affected people in the US.  Lots of great books to read and papers to write.  Lots of critical thinking.  Also studying grammar.
• Math - Algebra 1 - Teaching Textbooks.  I've heard mixed reviews on this...so we're trying it.  And if it doesn't work for him (seems to depend on how your brain works) we will try something else.
• Science - Apologia Environmental Science - at the local Co-Op meeting one day a week with daily, on-line assignments starting September 4.
• Phys. Ed. - Physical Activity.  Currently focusing on Road Biking as he has a big ride coming up.
• Art - We are currently working on drawing.
• Music - He will continue to work on his bass guitar skills
• Foreign Language - Rosetta Stone Spanish 1
• Health - Currently focusing on First Aid

So we will see...I said that we can try it for one year and then re-evaluate.  So far, so good.

First Day of School

Mark is all ready for his first day of Kindergarten.  At our school, Kindergarten children go either Monday/Thursday/alternate Wednesdays or Tuesday/Friday/alternate Wednesdays.  Because Mark has some challenges, he will be going every day.  He will miss a few hours every other week when he goes to occupational and physical therapy.  He will have speech therapy at school.

Autumn is now in 7th grade.

Janae is in 4th grade this year.

Josiah is in 9th grade.  As our private school only goes to 8th grade, he has chosen to homeschool this year.  He had started art, health, and grammar already.  Today he added history, English, and Bible.  In a week or two we will add Science and Math.

The whole crew.  At first it was quiet with only Micah and Josiah here, but Micah soon started making lots of noise to fill in the gaps.  I remember Micah & Mark doing the same thing last year.  There is usually a week or two (or more) of the preschoolers adjusting.

The first picture that I took of Zach had him looking away from me (as is typical when I try to photograph him).  Mocha was the ticket to getting a great smile and eye contact.  :-)

 

Everyone came home with smiles on their faces so the year is off to a good start!

End of Summer

Today we plan to enjoy our last day of summer.  Tomorrow the children go back to school...For the first time we will have 5 children in school and only 1 preschooler.  That will seem very strange to me!

While there have been times this summer that they were arguing or fighting and I couldn't wait for them to get back to school, over all I am sad to see them go back.  Sad to think about having to pack lunches every day again and having to get them up whether they are ready or not so that they can catch the bus.

On the other hand, I keep catching myself saying things like "I'll just wait to do "x" until next week when the kids are in school".  I do hope to get caught up with some things around here that have been put off.

In September Randy & Josiah are planning on doing a 125 mile bike ride to raise money for Black Rock Retreat.  If anyone is interested in sponsoring them...here are the links:
https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/RandySauder/BR2RB
https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/JosiahSauder/BR2RB

Before we went to the beach I had canned peaches.  Sometime soon I need to start canning/freezing applesauce, apple pie filling and pears.  Our tomato plants are producing abundantly so I plan to start with 2 types of salsa and then move on to some other things....not exactly sure.

Off to begin the day...

Another quick post

We got home today from a lovely week at the beach.  Hoping to get back into updating my blog more regularly soon!