Playing Catch-up

Just thought I'd give an update on what's going on 'round the homestead. Grab a cup of something nice and warm while you catch up cause it's cold and rainy again here--and I feel so much better thinking of you all cozy and warm!! :-)

DH drove his parents down to our place yesterday in their RV. They'll be staying at least a couple of weeks so that we can help them out with food and stuff. My Father in law is doing great and looks the picture of rosy health. The doctor says that he can't life anything over 5 pounds so he just gets to take things easy for a while. And it's nothing for us to cook for a couple more people. When you're already cooking for 10 on a daily basis a couple more small servings ain't nothing!!

This has not been my "month" for appliances.

• First my vacuum cleaner broke down but DH managed to find a part from an old, spare vacuum we had sitting around. It worked great until I broke it again. Grrrr...
• Then my washer went out on me (needs an expensive part) and I managed to locate a free washer on Craigslist that someone wanted out of their basement. DH got it installed and discovered that the motor was locked up. Yeah, the nice little old lady swore it worked--and it did after a good dose of wd40 and some tlc. It's still working fine though we did have to tighten the belt a bit. What do you expect for an appliance that's "free"? And while the free machine works fine I really miss my awesome front loader that washes twice the clothes for half the soap. But since I make my own laundry soap the cost isn't terribly bad. It's just not as convenient to have to make it more often.
• Now my stove is out of service with one of the parts leaking gas and we have to order new parts for it too. I'm using my crockpot, a little countertop electric burner and the microwave (sparingly!) to cook.

When it rains, it pours!! We are trying to as frugal as possible since money is very tight for us right now. It certainly makes for interesting and creative moments around our place.

With the colder wet weather here now there's more chores for the kids to do. The goats have to be brought into the barn at night now and thus taken back out to the field in the morning. The sheep always stay out. We have a small shelter in the field but I'd rather play it safe than have the goats coming down sick.

I got my first (heirloom) seed catalog in the mail last week!! I've devoured it a couple of times already. A passionate gardener is either IN their garden or thinking about it!! Ha Ha!! If I could only accomplish half of what I dream up!!

Last week I discovered this amazing herbal site. I found their blog first...
http://learningherbs.typepad.com/ The videos are just great!! Thanks to their site I am now making my own soda culture!! Check it out if you are interested in herbs and healthy living. They have a free e-course too. Lots, lots, LOTS of great information.

Well, that's about all of the interesting stuff going on, aside from the "interesting" daily stuff. Never a dull moment!! ;-)

Update on Father-in-law

Just thought that I'd give a quick update on how my Father-in-law is doing after his bypass surgery...

I'm happy to report that he is doing great!! They anticipate that he will get to go home on Monday morning. It will, of course, be a long road to full recovery but I don't doubt that he will be his spritely, humorous self in no time!

DH has been on the scene to drive his mom back and forth to the hospital and help out however he can.

Your prayers for continued recovery and strength for my Father-in law are most appreciated!!

On This Day 16 Years Ago...

Occasionally, at this time of year I tend to want to write about our dear daughter Jessica who died at birth from a lethal dwarfism called Thanatophoric Dysplasia. Tomorrow is her birthday. She would be 16 this year.

Jessica was our 6th child and 3rd Quiverfull baby. I became pregnant 9 months after Daughter #2 was born and was so not ready to do it all again. After the pregnancy test came up positive at our local Birthright where I used to volunteer, my friend who was with me began to cry on our way home. She was sad that I was pregnant and not wanting to be and she wanted another baby desperately. For reasons unknown I felt those tears were very fitting.

When I was 6 months along our home was flooded and we had to evacuate. DH had just started our family business about a 3 hour drive away and was only home on the weekends--which was fine by me because our marriage was not doing well at all. When we were together we just fought. This, of course, was before the Lord began working on my heart regarding submission. :-)

After we evacuated our home, we lived in DH's parents RV in an RV park close to where DH was working. We tried for weeks to find a place to live but no one wanted to rent to a family with 5 children and one on the way, 2 dogs, 2 hamsters and a bird. They all cited their rental home to be too small. So we continued to stay in the 23 foot RV in the trailer park. Oh the irony.

Even at this time we still had not chosen a doctor for my pregnancy since we didn't know where we would be living. We still had ties to the flooded home and were in the area often.

One thing extraordinary about the baby is that she didn't bounce around, kick and cause me severe discomfort like all of my other babies had. I just thought she was a gentle baby. How could I have not known something was wrong?

Finally, in late September a friend of our let us move into a house they had just bought and were renovating. Oh the joy of not having to constantly be in each other's faces with no room to do anything. Amazing.

Upon the move--that very night, in fact--I got sick. Very sick. Shortly it turned into pneumonia. But at least with our housing dilemma resolved we could think a bit more clearly and we decided to see the doctor back in St. Louis that I had seen when pregnant with Daughter #1 who leaned to the more natural side of things. Aside from prescribing me antibiotics for my pneumonia, he informed me that I had way too much amniotic fluid and the baby was breach and that I needed an ultrasound right away. He said things just didn't seem right. And yet I was still oblivious to it all. Never in my life had I been so UN in-tune with my body and what was going on in my pregnancy.

The day of the ultrasound came. Oh the heaviness as I drove the 3 hour drive to the hospital alone (DH stayed home with the children). I cried most of the way knowing in my heart of hearts that this baby would not survive. The scales had fallen from my eyes and I could see everything as it was. But that was nothing compared to what was yet to come.

The doctors were so very hard on me. When the ultrasound was done, the doctor, in such an accusing tone of voice, told me that things were very wrong with my baby--as if I had intentionally caused her problems. "Just look at this. And this" as they pointed out her deformities. I cried and cried. Next they did an amniocentesis which was extremely painful and then sent me over to talk with a geneticist who, amazingly, was very kind. She explained that this was nothing we had done and that it wasn't anybody's fault. It was just one of those things that happens. Most babies with her problems usually don't make it to birth. My body just has a hard time letting go of a baby.

After speaking with the geneticist another doctor wanted to do another ultrasound and she asked me if anyone had given me any pictures of my baby. I started crying again and told her no. She shook her head and muttered under her breath--and printed me up several pictures of our unborn daughter.

The doctors had told me to wait in the waiting room but I had endured too much already and practically ran for my life away from there. On the way home I cried and had to pull over to throw up. The 3 hour drive home was so long.

When I got home I told DH and then we told the children together. Son #1 was only 11 and he probably had the best grasp of what we were saying. Such a hard time.

At our one and only prenatal appointment we went to after finding out about our baby's condition, the doctors hounded us unmercifully to have an abortion. They tried to whitewash the whole thing. At one point the doctor flat out told us that we just needed to terminate the pregnancy--the baby was only going to die anyway. Oh how I wanted to pull a gun on that man and ask him whether I should pull the trigger. After all he was only going to die someday anyway. But being a woman of God...

We didn't have a phone in the house we were staying in but we did have a cell phone. It was one of those big ugly "bag phones" that was the norm for cell phones back then. The doctors and hospital called us all of the time to try to get us to come in for an appointment. There was no way that we were going to "terminate the pregnancy" so there was no sense in putting ourselves through any of that again until it was time to give birth. Our baby was just fine and alive as long as she was inside of me!!

It was decided that I would go in to be induced two weeks early. They didn't want the water in her head to be so much that I couldn't give birth naturally. The words "emergency cesarean section" and "never have another vaginal birth" were verbal weapons used to try to scare me, as were the scare tactics of all the horrible things that could possible go wrong IF I didn't do everything their way. It was so difficult to sort out truth from propaganda. Yet there was peace.

We finally decided to go to the hospital at the Lord's leading on the evening of November 5, 1993. First we had to drop off all of the children at my mom and dad's and then make the hour long drive to the hospital.

I felt like a lamb being led to the slaughter. I honestly believed that not only would my baby die but so might I. Yet there was peace. At no other time in my life did I feel as though I had literally fell over a cliff backwards knowing that the Lord would catch me. Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Such bittersweetness.

Shortly before we made it to the hospital, a song that I dearly loved came on the radio and I knew with all my heart that the Lord was speaking directly to me. Those words were my soul's cry to take up my cross and follow Him.

The Man with the Nail Scars
by David Meece

There are roads that take you everywhere, but where you need to go,
There are roads that don't go anywhere, and one that leads you home.
The way is rough and steep; it is the path to the one I seek,
And I must go on.

Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
His love is everlasting, and his mercy never fails,
Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
I'll follow in the path of the man with the nail scars in his hands,
The nail scars in his hands.

There are times I feel I walk alone, in shadows of my doubt,
There are times I fear I can't go on, and strength is running out,
But there, upon my knees, his strength he freely gives to me,
I stand by his power.

Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
His love is everlasting, and his mercy never fails,
Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
I'll follow in the path of the man with the nail scars in his hands,
The nail scars in his hands.

Though the road is rough and steep, my heart can hear him call to me,
"Follow me, follow me home."

Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
His love is everlasting, and his mercy never fails,
Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
I'll follow in the path of the man with the nail scars in his hands,
Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
His love is everlasting, and his mercy never fails,
Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
I'll follow in the path of the man with the nail scars in his hands,
Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
His love is everlasting, and his mercy never fails, (the nails scars in his hands)
Shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah, shad-din-nah-yah,
I'll follow in the path of the man with the nail scars in his hands,

To make a long story just a little bit shorter...
After the worst labor experience that I won't describe out of kindness to my readers, our Jessica was born and lived for only a few short minutes. Her chest was too small to allow her to draw air into her lungs. The amazing thing was that she had the most beautiful blue eyes I have ever seen. Normally my children are all born with murky dark blue eyes, yet her's were bright and clear with lines and sparkles like a toy baby doll's. Just gorgeous.

I know that we will meet her again in Heaven and that makes Heaven all the sweeter to me.

Just felt like sharing.

And Some More Pictures...

I told you that I had taken a "few" pictures!! :-)

My kefir culturing in my china cabinet. It looks so pretty in there--and fits in perfectly.


I've been using my crock pot a lot lately. It's so helpful to not have to worry about what's for supper in the afternoon. This is beef roast and vegetables. So yummy!! I do think that it might be time to buy a bigger one though. I always pack it a bit too full! Also, the jars to the left are chopped peppers that I dehydrated. The taller quart jar is sweet peppers and the smaller pint jar is hot peppers. I'm working on clearing out the garden and these are what was left on the pepper plants. Ya know, every time I cut hot peppers I promise myself that next time I'm going to wear gloves but I never do. This batch was super hot and I washed my hands and arms for hours after cutting them--and even used some Solarcaine spay to help ease the burn. I'm telling you, they were HOT!!


These are beautiful Moonshadow Hyacinth Asian Beans that my Uncle shared with me when we were visiting after my grandma's funeral. These are heirloom beans. He called them Jefferson Beans. Historically they were grown in Thomas Jefferson's garden at Monticello. Sharing these bits of history are a passion of mine!!


This is my tub of beautiful pinapple mint. It dries up very fine and tastes tangy. I bought a sprig at the Baker Creek Planting Festival (in Mansfield, MO) last May--and boy, did it flourish!!

Aren't these mushrooms gorgeous??? This is a shagbark Hickory stump. I was surprised to see them there. Don't know if they're edible or not.

Also, if you feel led, please pray from my wonderful Father-in-law. He is in the hospital planning to have a double or triple bypass heart surgery in the next couple of days. Thanks in advance. It means a lot to us.

More Pictures

Just thought I'd share a few more pictures...

We finally had a chance to harvest the birdhouse gourds last week. This is a big wheelbarrow full. And some of the gourds were really big!! I need to get them drying on our shelves in our warehouse so that in a few months I can make birdhouses!! :-)

Here's Son #4 and adorible Grandson filling the birdfeeders.

Son #4 hanging a birdfeeder near the woods. We love looking out of our schoolroom and watching the birds eat.

My garlic bed all tucked in for the winter. I planted 10 varieties this year.

My pretty garlic braid hanging in the kitchen from last years garlic. So tasty!!

This has been a busy fall for us. We're having "normal" weather again and trying to get as much work done as possible before winter sets in.

Fall Means... Playing in the Leaves!!

I've been walking around with the camera taking pictures these past few days. The children always love raking leaves and playing in the piles they make. I'm sure they get tired of hearing me tell them to be careful and not poke their eyes out with sticks while they are jumping in and rolling around. Who can resist a leaf pile???

"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity." Psalm 133:1

Working hard together.

Lots of fun!

Getting buried in leaves

Posing for the camera.

Olivia likes the leaves too!!

Where is Oliver??

A Few Thoughts on "Skillet"

Around our house the hot new music item is the new Skillet CD, Awake. Even Son #1, who usually likes a softer style of music, loves it. In fact it's not uncommon for little 5 year old Son #6 to walk through the house singing "I feel like a monster" in a gruff little voice!! Way too funny!!

Over the years I've had sort of a love/hate (not "hate" really--more like "frustrated") relationship with Skillet. Many of their songs are on my most favorite list of songs. On the other hand it's not difficult to see that the band/band member has some issues. I'm sad that many of their songs have a serious spirit of unforgiveness. Nevertheless, it makes for some really good discussions with my children, for which I am very thankful. Anger, unforgiveness and blaming are spiritual issues we deal with in our family very often and so it's helpful to have this object lesson via one of our passions, music, to turn to for child training in taming that particular beast. :-)

From this new CD Awake, there is one song in particular that speaks to me in this time of my life...

One Day Too Late

Skillet

Tick tock hear the clock countdown
Wish the minute hand could be rewound
So much to do and so much I need to say
Will tomorrow be too late

Feel the moment slip into the past
Like sand through an hourglass
In the madness I guess I just forget
To do all the things I said

Time passes by
Never thought I’d wind up
One step behind
Now I’ve made my mind up

Today I’m gonna try a little harder
Gonna make every minute last longer
Gonna learn to forgive and forget
’Cause we don’t have long, gonna make the most of it

Today I’m gonna love my enemies
Reach out to somebody who needs me
Make a change, make the world a better place
’Cause tomorrow could be one day too late
One day too late
One day too late

Tick tock hear my life pass by
I can’t erase and I can’t rewind
Of all the things I regret the most I do…
Wish I’d spent more time with you

Here’s my chance for a new beginning
I saved the best for a better ending
And in the end I’ll make it up to you, you’ll see
You’ll get the very best of me

Time passes by
Never thought I’d wind up
One step behind
Now I’ve made my mind up

Today I’m gonna try a little harder
Gonna make every minute last longer
Gonna learn to forgive and forget
’Cause we don’t have long, gonna make the most of it

Today I’m gonna love my enemies
Reach out to somebody who needs me
Make a change, make the world a better place
’Cause tomorrow could be one day too late

Your time is running out
You’re never gonna get it back
Make the most of every moment
Stop saving the best for last

Today I’m gonna try a little harder
Gonna make every minute last longer
Gonna learn to forgive and forget
’Cause we don’t have long, gonna make the most of it

Today I’m gonna love my enemies
Reach out to somebody who needs me
Make a change, make the world a better place
’Cause tomorrow could be one day too late

One day too late
One day too late
One day too late
One day too late

Not long ago Son #6 was on the scale to see how much he weighed. I told him that he was growing and is such a big boy now. He looked up at me and said, "Mommy I want to be a baby again. I wish we could rewind." I hugged him and told him that we can't do that. All we can do is "press play". It was sad and cute all in one. Poor little guy. I know just how he feels!!