Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of you! I wouldn't enjoy this day without these guys:

Tabitha, our perfect child, with her mom (that's me!)

Seth, the one who has taught us the most in life.

Patricia, the biggest helper I can find.

Ian, our joy bringer.

Couponing

Recently I've posted info on our frugal Easter gifts, Buzz Operation deal and even our trips to hardware stores for kid's workshops. Can you tell we've been trying to spend less?

Enoch and I would really like to get out of debt, so I've been trying to cut corners on our expenses. I started subscribing to the Sunday paper for the great price of $.59 a week. It is most definitely paying for itself as I easily use upwards of $10 a week on coupons.

I use blogs and the weekly circulars to find the best deals. I was so excited to walk into a Rite Aid last week and come out with 2 pairs of nail clippers (which we needed) and tweezers. I only paid 39 cents out of pocket. These sort of scenarios are happening more and more.

I thought I'd share with you some of the blogs I keep in my Google reader. They help me find lots of good deals. They also inform you of freebies that companies send out, which are great to get in the mailbox, but on top of that, they even come with great coupons.

Here is a starter list of blogs worth looking into:

• Money Saving Mom
• Couponing 101
• Motherhood on a Dime
• Surviving the Stores
• The Frugal Food

Do you have any good websites you'd like to share?

Easter Time

Can you believe tomorrow is Easter already? I love seeing spring unfold with new life. Flowers that burst out of the ground and broken egg shells in the grass. It reminds me of Christ's resurrection. Rising from the dead is a form of new life. And His resurrection allows others to have new life in Him. That is the true meaning of Easter~ Christ rising from the dead.

However, like most kids, my children expect something at Easter time, preferably a large basket of candy. I wanted to give them something, but I really didn't want to spend tons of money or fill them with junk. Instead I gave them two things. I bought them a $5 movie ("The Little Rascals") and plaster eggs for painting.

Do you remember the plaster that the kids painted 3 years ago? I can hardly believe its been that long! Ian is showing Patricia's bug off here, even though he wasn't around at the time:

I bought 1/2 a dozen plaster eggs for the kids to do this year. It came with one "difficult to use" brush, so we each took turns painting ours.

We're spending our Easter weekend at a Bible conference in Michigan, so we were able to paint our eggs early.  The kids were slightly disappointed that they didn't get loads of candy this year. But I'm happy that we get to spend our time learning about our Lord who gave His life for us and then took His life back again.

Quick Update

One of these days I'll get Seth's birthday pics posted. In the mean time I just wanted to give an update on our situation. Tabitha has been fighting a cold. Her colds lead to horrible coughing/wheezing. This particular bout started last Wednesday night. Her wheezing didn't go away with the asthma medication and her fever stayed, so I'm now treating her with an antibiotic given normally for pneumonia. This is the ninth time she has been sick in the past year. I feel so bad for her. She is really tired from taking all the medication she is always given and her body is worn out from the many hours up in the middle of the night coughing.

If you think of us, pray for us. For Tabitha's health and for Enoch and I to have wisdom as to how to prevent this in the future. Thanks. Any advice is welcome at this point.

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)

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:

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.

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.

Travels

Last Thursday we drove to Philadelphia for that boy's funeral. We went up and back in one day. The kids are still kind of recovering. The funeral was not nearly as upsetting as I thought it would be, given the circumstances. Yes, there were tears shed and yes, there was sorrow, but among everyone there was an underlying sense of peace. Even among the parents. I think it was a relief to know that Lucas had made a profession of faith in Christ and his life proved it. It's sad to realize that we won't get to enjoy him on earth, but right now he's with the Lord and that is wonderful.

This coming Tuesday we'll be driving 9 hours to Michigan. Enoch's cousin is graduating from Medical School. We're both a little apprehensive about it. This will be our first big car trip with the three kiddos. I'm taking Tabitha to the doctor's tomorrow to see if she has an ear infection. She's had a fever two nights in a row and was complaining about her ear today. So, it is quite possible that we won't even make it up there. So much for the hand washing habit!

The Writing on the Wall

The other day Seth wrote on the wall for the first time. That is a serious offense in our house. I don't think he'll be doing that any time soon again! Another serious offense is lying. Tabitha is not learning her lesson as easily!

Anyway, he wrote with chalk, so it was pretty easy to clean up. The two times that Tabitha colored on our colorless wall it was with crayon. After trying every cleaner in the house and failing I did some research. It came off almost effortlessly with this little trick. Take a damp rag and dip it in baking soda. Rub away and it's gone! (I believe that's the secret ingredient in the Magic Eraser that they sell).

Morning Conversation

Tabtiha: Eric is my boyfriend!

Mom: No, Tabitha, don't say that. He's your friend. A boyfriend is someone who you are planning on marrying and Eric is too old for you.

Tabitha: Oh, well, Alejandro is my boyfriend

Mom (a bit confused): Who told you that? Why do you say that?

Tabitha: Because I'm going to marry him.

Her future hubby, apparently. He's from her Spanish Immersion Pre-School

Our Little Chunker

Patty Poo-Poo had her two month check up today. She weighs in at 11 pounds. Yesterday I caught her trying to grab a tag off of the side of her favorite chair. She's such a sweetie. Her smile is genuine. And she is definitely a girl. You should here the coos we get out of her. She already seems like she's jabbering with all the different sounds she's making. She'll be speaking in sentances by 18 months. Enoch calls her our little can of coke. She's got lots of gas!

Living with Pre-schoolers

I just realized today that I am in a wonderful stage of life. The kids and I have no set agenda, so we can do whatever we want on a regular basis. Yesterday Tabitha wanted to go exploring, so we went to a nearby battlefield. The trail wasn't very long, but it was fun to be outdoors. Today we're going to spend time making a meal for a family who just had a baby. If they were in school or if I was homeschooling them, I wouldn't be able to do these things on a whim. I'd like to cherish these moments.

Little Surprises

We had a fun filled weekend with my brother and his family. Sunday we all went to church for the morning. It was Patricia's first time! I'm so glad we can start going as a family again. Afterwards we ate lunch at Cici's Pizza. They have good cheap food! We rushed home around 2 so that Enoch and Tabitha could get into more comfortable clothing. They went on a "date" to see a live Diego show. Seth, Patricia and I went to our neighbor's for a birthday party. Monday was another full day. The kids played at a very crowded park for a little while. We had a picnic with Chik-Fil-A food. Then we went to my dad's and the kids decorated Easter cookies. We had dinner at an authentic vietnamese restaurant and parted ways.

The kids went to bed later than usual every night. They were exhausted. I thought today would be a nice relaxing day at home. We could catch up on some shut eye and laundry. I didn't really think we'd get much else done. Tabtiha surprised me twice this morning. You know how most Christmas pictures come longer than a normal photo with the extra space sharing Christmas greetings? Well, I usually cut the wording part off and put the family photo in an album of mine. Yesterday I received my brother's Christmas pic. This morning Tabitha showed me that she cut it out for me. I could've been mad at her, but she did such a good job and she was definitely trying to help. Normally I just lop off one end, but she carefully cut all the way around the picture. Of course there are zigzags all around, but she didn't cut into the picture area at all.

Later in the morning I was giving Patricia a bath. When I was done Tabitha came up stairs and told me that I had to come quick, because she and Seth "did a job for me". I had no idea what to expect. Whatever it was I thought it was something that I would have to clean up later. Boy was I wrong! They took it upon themselves to completey tidy up their toy area. I was soooo happy to see that. I probably hadn't had all of the toys off of the floor in over two weeks. I tell you, I have one sweet little girl.