Saturday Smiles

This past weekend the kids and I went strawberry picking. As much as I've wanted to, I have never actually gone picking before, so this was a special treat for me. I chose an 8 quart basket. Tabitha and Seth each got a little green bucket to fill. Tabitha did great, she filled hers in no time at all. She kept telling everyone that we were going to make a strawberry pie and she walked all over looking for the "most perfect strawberry in the whole wide world", of which she found many.

When we went up to pay for the berries I placed my basket on the counter. Tabitha knew the drill and she followed suit. Seth saw what we did and he, in all innocency, placed his empty basket on the counter. You could see how proud he was of himself, because he was sure he was doing what was necessary. That moment made me smile. Seeing him give his empty basket, meanwhile the crime was written all over his face. Red strawberry juice had painted his mouth and fingers. It was indeed precious.

Here are the goodies we got out of our labor:

Strawberry pie This was most delicious. My only advice would be to pile on lots of strawberries.

Strawberry jam My first time making jam! I put mine in five freezer containers (1 1/2 cups each). This is definitely easy to make, just like the recipe says.

Strawberry bread I must say that this isn't the greatest sweet bread that I've had, but it is good. I have four small loaves in my freezer.

I must admit that I am thrilled with the outcome of our little adventure.

Happy Birthday Seth!

Seth turned 2 today! Unfortunately, I'm not able to upload any today pictures of him, but here he is on his first birthday. He has matured SO much (although he gets food all over him just the same). He has about 100 words in his vocab now, give or take 5. He's able to keep up with the bigger kids when running at Tabitha's preschool. One of his newer favorite things is to smother you with kisses. Literally he'll squish your face as he plants 10 plus kisses on you, then hold his cheek to your mouth waiting for a reply. He laughs heartily whenever he hears someone else laugh...or fart! His favorite joke:

Seth: Knock, knock
you: who's there?
Seth:Mickey Mouse or Pappa
you:Mickey Mouse who?
Seth: (hearty laugh)

Saturday Smiles

Ok ladies, I'm trying something new here. I know for myself, sometimes I can get so caught up in disciplining and getting frustrated that, often the important things are overlooked. So, this is a way to remind ourselves of the good in our kids. Saturday Smiles is here so we can share at least one moment during the week that our little one(s) have been able to put a smile on our face.

I'm going to limit myself to one incident: Every morning Tabitha picks out her own clothes and gets herself dressed. That's enough to make any mother smile I think! This morning I found such a cute surprise. She folded up her pajamas and placed them nicely on top of her pillow. As disordered as I feel my house is at all times, I love seeing her and Seth show signs of learning order. Slowly but surely we will arrive, I am convinced.

I do need some help here, so sign in on the fun!

Frugal Friday

I know everyone in the world has heard of coupons, but I've been going coupon crazy lately. I was encouraged from one of Rachel's posts to subscribe to the Washington Post Sunday paper. It so happened that the paper was having a 50% off sale, so for a 6 month subscription I paid a whopping $15.

Now when I get the ads for my supermarket or a nearby store I check the sales and my coupons. Coupling those two together has saved a lot of money. Usually over $15 per trip. I do make sure that I only buy things that I will use. Currently I have about 5 tubes of toothpaste, so I'm not planning on adding any more to that. On the other hand it is nice having a surplus, because you can give some away. At that point you're happy that you were able to get such a good deal and even more happy that you were able to supply someone else with a need they might have.

Often when new items come out they will have a coupon for you to get a free one, no strings attached. In the last two weeks I got a free razor and some Kandoo wipes. I will offer a word of caution about these free coupons. Both of the times that I had mine in the pile of coupons they didn't actually go through, with neither the cashier or I noticing. I had to go back and get a refund. So double check your receipt before you leave the cash register.

For more great tips visit Biblical Womanhood.

Picture Post

This past weekend we went to Greenwood Hills for a Bible conference with everyone else from church. On our way home we stopped at "The Land of Little Horses" with our neighbors. They had many types of animals.

Family snapshot:

I know he doesn't look it, but he was exhausted, hence the stroller:
The kids went on their first hayride. They're in the back sitting on our neighbors' laps. They had different scenes setup throughout the woods like Snow White and the seven dwarves. We also went under a huge spiderweb complete with a non-scary spider.
Tia Glaucia, this is for you. Patricia is holding onto things more and more these days. She played quite nicely with the lion you guys got for her:

The girls were wearing matching shirts today. I let Tabitha hold Patricia by herself for the first time. As you can see, Tabitha is thrilled, while Patricia is not too sure about her well being:

Newbery Challenge-Book Report 1

I read my first book for the Newbery Challenge! It was "Sarah, Plain and Tall" by Patricia MacLachlan. I was pleasantly surprised at how short it was, considering the fact that I don't have much reading time.

The first person of the story is Anna. She has a younger brother and a dad. Her mother died several years back. Sarah is a woman who quite possibly will marry her father. This is the very basic storyline.

Sarah has spent her whole life in Maine living right by the ocean. Anna and her family live in prairie lands. So, the main idea that the story brings out is the adjustment that Sarah goes through. She misses the water terribly. So much so, that the kids don't know if Sarah will just decide to go home instead of staying. A neighbor friend comforts her with the words, "there's always something to miss."

In the end you find that Sarah discovers new pleasures in this new terrain and that she's able to share some of the joys of Maine with Anna and her family. They both learn from each other and... the world is a better place. (Cheesy, I know!)

Birth Story

Maggie's post inspired me to write mine.

I have to admit that I think Patricia and I were both a little stubborn when it came to giving birth. This obviously was not my first time around, but I was not looking forward to it. The whole pregnancy I was fearing it, as a matter of fact.

Here's a quick synopsis of my previous two deliveries. Tabitha's heartrate was dropping after each contraction, so they induced me. I didn't use any pain medication, but I had nothing to compare the painfulness with. Seth came a week late, but on his own. It was painful, but definitely managable compared with the pitocin induced delivery. Again, I did not take any pain medication.

That leaves us with Patricia. I did not want to be induced. If I was induced I knew it would be much more painful than it should be. The doctors "allowed me" to go a full two weeks past my due date. (Note to readers: I have always been delivered by doctors, not midwives, due to my husband's choosing, for which I am thankful. Doctors do have protocols that they must follow to make sure they aren't sued in the future and their patients don't risk their lives. So, yes, in that sense it was them allowing me and not me allowed to decide what I wanted.) At two weeks late my cervix was still high, I wasn't really dilated and there wasn't much going on in the contraction area. I went into the hospital bright and early in the morning. They started off with some cream that went onto my cervix and was supposed to soften things. This in and of itself can sometimes trigger labor. After two applications and no increased activity I unwillingly allowed them to break my bag of water. For many hours (about 4 or 5) my contractions were coming every four minutes. I was not progressing, my cervix was still high, nothing was going on.
At this point they were able to coax me into starting pitocin. That's when the pain I had been dreading began. After approximately 3 hours I just could not bear it any more. I have always been afraid of getting a needle in my spine, so I readily accepted some form of narcotic they were able to shoot into my IV in it's place. It was just about an hour later that I was pushing. There was a pretty funny moment in there for me. Patricia must've fallen asleep because of the drugs, but she woke up and moved around as if to say, "Alright, already, leave me alone, I'm coming out now." By that point, my narcotic was wearing off. Now, anybody who's ever been in a delivery room with me (i.e.-Enoch, my mom and hospital staff), knows that at pushing time I scream my head off saying I don't want to push. Mind you, my first two deliveries I would actually push while screaming this. This time was different, I was tired from the drugs, tired of being in labor and I DID NOT WANT TO PUSH! Be that as it may, she was born at around 2 am Feb. 6. She did her crying thing a little. When they cut her umbilical cord she screamed. They tell me that the babies can't feel it, but she wanted to know where her next meal was coming from. Nursing began shortly afterwards. She's the only one of my three who was born without the cord wrapped around her neck.

7 Things

Ok, I don't have much time, but I'll try to type fast. Eryn tagged me.

Here's the rules: Here are the rules: Each player starts with 7 random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose 7 people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

7 Random facts:

• I've had 1 appendix removed. All the others are still in good shape.
• I've owned 2 cars. This does not include our minivan
• I earned my bachelor's degree in 3 years, because the program was three years long, not because of the smarts
• Enoch and I have been married for 4 years.
• It took me 5 years to complete my four year high school
• Enoch and I have been to 6 weddings since our own.
• I have 33 first cousins. (There had to be something random!)

I'm tagging:
Enoch
my dad
Sam
Eric
Glaucia
Maggie
April

Sickness Strikes Again

The story of my life, I tell ya. Seth is sick. This winter has been one sickness after another. I have been faithfully washing their hands before every meal and don't remember being around any sick people, but here we go again.

I wonder what lesson I'm supposed to be learning through all of this.

New Life in Spring

The dead of winter is over and we now see life springing up everywhere. Flowers are blooming, trees have leaves again, the grass needs a trim and animals are reproducing :D The other week we found two baby birds in our backyard. Their nest must be in the tree right outside of our bedroom window. It was nice for the kids to be able to take a close look.

Just a couple of days ago we were out back again, trying to plant sunflower seeds. I was pulling up some vines that had over grown in an area of the yard. When suddenly I picked up a big pile of fur. Just as I was saying, "what is this?" This cute little guy came scurrying out. There are two baby bunnies nesting very close to us.

With all this new life coming back springtime after springtime, it makes me contemplate about life in general. So, I have a question for each reader, please think about it and make sure you know your own answer. Year after year, trees shed their leaves and die, in a sense, only to be brought back to life in spring. Have you been born again?

Michigan

We had a fun, fast paced, short, but not too short trip to Michigan. We were able to go to Enoch's cousin's medical school graduation. He's pictured here with his wife and one of his two sons (also his father-in-law and sister-in-law):
The next day they flew off to India. The previous weekend they moved into their new house. They've been pretty busy, but they were still kind enough to let us stay at their place for an evening. I have been corresponding to Rosie (the wife) for the past several months. The only time I actually met her was at my wedding for less than five minutes, so this was a nice reunion.

During the following days Tabitha and Seth became close friends with Joel, Enoch's other cousin's son. He is like a flea on a hotplate. ALWAYS moving, jumping, running. It was hard for me to get him into a picture, so this one will have to do. He is only a couple months older than Tabitha. Though we met up with them in Michigan, he and his family actually only live a couple of hours from us, so we'll have to get together more often.


The drive to and from was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. They were spaced out enough that the kids were able to manage. Actual driving time was in the range of 7 to 8 hours. We saw trucks. Lots of trucks. We saw looooong trucks:


And HEAVY trucks. I saw several of these, which is carrying I don't know what, but I do know that it has 42 tires! The front axle has 2 and all the other axles have 4.


This is Tabitha and Seth before stopping for lunch. (Yes, they did eat Doritos beforehand)


In Ohio, ALL of the rest areas look like this. At least all the ones on the turnpike. They're very nice inside and out.


Waiting patiently (but very loudly) for the lunch:


Well fed:


The highlight of our trip was a talk that Enoch's uncle had with us. He pointed out how there are many Christians who live good lives, read their Bibles and pray, because they know that's what they're supposed to do. He encouraged us to rise above that and really PRAY. Set apart a good amount of time each day to pray, individually and together. Often we use fatigue as an excuse, but how many other things do we find ourselves doing when we're tired? Why isn't prayer a priority? Through much prayer, we will see the Lord open doors in our lives to minister for Him. The impact that this simple, very gentle conversation had on both of us made the trip well worth it. It was a word spoken in season.

quick post

I'll write more about our trip when I have more time. In the meanwhile, I leave you with this picture: (Patricia is waiting patiently for her next meal)