By the way did I mention

I am continuing to clean and prepare for our Fourth of July guests, you would think that the house wouldn't be dirty enough to take days to clean by since I shared my dirty car with you, you all know the truth...  Really I'm kidding!  The reason I'm cleaning like the house is for sale is because it's the first time in 7 years that my Mother in law has come to visit, and she is the kind of person who you could eat off her floors has a very clean house.  To say the least I have been working myself to death, and my sweet friend Ruby Wife reminded me yesterday that I need to be me.  I am taking a deep breath, and trying to relax.

Did I mention that my Mother and Father in law are divorced?  They haven't spent more that 2 hours at any family function together and they are both going to be staying at our house for 3 and 1/2 days.  And did I mention they don't like each other?  So I have just realized this house could be a disaster and she probably won't notice.

And did I mention that she is one of the best cooks I've ever met?  She taught me to cook, she makes wonderful food and I feel the pressure, for real people.  Not because she has ever said anything about my cooking, she actually says that the things I make are great, but because I am known for my cooking and she is known for her cooking...

Ok so now that I have all that off my chest, did I mention that if I am not pregnant this month that HD has to have his sperm level checked, and that I am so trying to lay this at God's feet.  When HD had the vasectomy he never went back for his check up (sperm level) and our insurance covers the check up.  So I don't know what to do, I can be totally honest and ask if they will honer the check up even though he has since had a vasectomy reversal, or we can go to the lab for a whopping $500 dollars.  I am of course praying that we will become pregnant this month, but also asking for God's will not mine.

So I think I have been feeling more stress this week that the whole year!  And I just wanted you all to know.  Please pray for me that I will keep a Godly perspective this week, and receive my Mother in law lovingly knowing this visit is alot harder for her than me.  And as far as the pregnancy, you all know I want to be pregnant.

Did I mention that my Mother in law does not read my blog thankfully?

Hamburger and French Fries

Today I had to take my Mom to the Eye Doctor, she has been having really blurry vision and we have recently found out she has cataracts and need surgery.  So we had to go to a large town about an hour and a half away.  We decided to eat lunch on the way and make a day of it.  The kids wanted McDonalds (Kung Fu Panda Toys) my Mother and I have been really serious about counting our points with WW so we even planed before we went that we would have salad.  After we ordered (I had the Asian Grilled Chicken with low fat Sesame Ginger dressing) I found a nutritional guide and get this I could have had a hamburger and small fry for the same points?!?!

I was astounded!  I love salty greasy fries.  But no I ate like a rabbit today and still had no points left for dessert.

My mom will be having surgery in July on her left eye and again in August on the right eye, my mom is only 51 and we were really shocked that she even had cataracts, it seem that the cause is using her inhaler for asthma, it causes cataracts, who knew?  

I will post some yummy recipe tomorrow.  Have a good night!

Sincerely Fro Me To You ~ Age 4

Thank you all for your prayers as we were stricken with the dreaded pink eye.  I will definitely be trying the liquid silver next time thanks to Bunch of Bullers!  I am finally better, I had to take an oral antibiotic and that did the trick.

I have been very busy this week planing for a big fourth of July party.  HD's sister Regan is graduating from Boot Camp, and will be coming to our house on the 3rd, along with her Father, my Brother and Sister-in-law their children, my Mother-in-law and other Brother-in-law and my Aunt Twice Blessed Mommy her family.  We are talking seriously packed house!  And lots of meal planing and cleaning and organizing and going crazy.  SO needless to say I have had to put the blog on hold for a few days.

But I could not miss our Fro me to you party!  I am posting this picture because it really makes me laugh, I just don't know why my Mother gave me this hair cut, I think it looks like a boy hair cut, and to tell the truth my husband had the same hair cut as a child, we were meant for each other....  I think they called it a mushroom cut, and it goes well the the Olan Mills country side back drop don't you think?

Here in my Sweet Husband as a boy with the same mushroomy do.

For more Fro Me to You go over to We Are THAT Family.

A Cooking Meme

The Maid has tagged me to do a cooking meme so here goes...

When was the most recent time you were burned?

I lifted the lid off of a pot of soup last week and the steam gave me a nasty little blister on my pinky, so last week.

Can you cook?

Can I cook, me, well yes,  and I have been told I make the best potato salad in the world and that there is no better soup than MY chicken noodle and that as for Pecan pie I win the prize, since you asked.

If yes name your specialties.

I make wonderful baked beans, peanut butter pie, BBQ chicken, corn bread to name a few.

Do you enjoy cooking?

I absolutely love cooking so much!  I love preparing for large family dinners I find it fun to read cook books really I do that for fun!

What color is your kitchen?

My kitchen is barn door red, with farm animal decor, like a picture of a dairy cow and a flying pig and lots of red things.

Do you bake?

All the time!  I love to make dessert, fresh muffins and breads.  I bake at least twice a week.

What do you like to bake?

My favorite thing to bake is dessert, and my favorite dessert is Cherry Dump Cake.  I will have to share that recipe next week.

What color is your apron?

I have a fancy white apron for company, I have a Thanksgiving apron and a Christmas apron and I have a pink every day apron and a white and blue gingem one those where my great grandma's, my favorite apron Twice Blessed Mommy gave me for Christmas it's a Vera Bradley.  And I am waiting to see what the Apron Queen sends me, for helping her promote Rick Rack Attack.

** I will tag We Are THAT Family, Double A and M, Confessions of an Apron Queen and One More Equals Four.

Nothing is worse than Pink Eye!

We have been riddled with nasty eye's, really nasty!  And I would be glad to tell you that nothing in this world is worse than pink eye, and just when I was convinced of this, Daisy started throwing up and having mass quantities of diarrhea...  So nothing is worse than a bought of diarrhea and vomiting while you have pink eye!

I have the nasty eye's much worse than the kids, my vision is blurry and my eyes itch.  This is just disgusting.  And must go away before I poke my own eye's out!

And I really need to go to Walmart, despite the fact that I look like I have been smoking something illegal, I just can't go in public like this.  Even though we probably got this from the carts at Walmart anyway!

This will pass and I will be able to see again, I just needed to rant about it for a few minutes, because we are missing a pool party and cook out at Ruby Wife's, and I think it really stinks!

Baked Oatmeal

On Saturday I normally take part in Saturday Stirrings with Dee Dee at It Coulda' Been Worse, but she is at She Speaks for a blog convention so I will not disappoint, I am going to give you a really easy recipe, we have this all the time!

Baked Oatmeal

3 Cups quick cook oatmeal

1/2 Cup white or brown sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

1/2 cup of applesauce

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix it all together (dry oatmeal) and put in a 9x13 pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Eat and enjoy!

This recipe can be changed in so may ways, sometimes I mash up 2 small banana's and add 1/4 of a cup of walnuts omitting the applesauce and cloves.  Bake the same.

I also chop up a large can of peaches and use those instead of applesauce I also change the milk for cream and no cloves.  Bake the same.

You can put 1/2 a can of pumpkin instead of applesauce, I then also add ginger it is like pumpkin pie.

You can add just about any fruit you want and it is great, I have done pears and mixed fruit.  I hope you all like this very easy recipe!

Daisy

Luke was 3 and Bo just 15 months old when I really started wanting more kids...  It was on our ninth anniversary 10/29/04 that Daddy and I sat down with a good bottle of champagne and discussed our past our present and our future.  I let him know I really wanted a daughter and he let me know he really wanted to wait,  we went to bed that night agreeing that it is hard having really little ones and putting an extra year in between wouldn't hurt.  On November 6 just a little over a week after our long talk I found out that you really should consult God on Your Big Plan because I was already pregnant.  I was happy, Daddy was not convinced, I took 3 tests and he said Ok, not our plan but it will be ok.

Of course as the next few weeks unfolded we both became even happier about our baby growing inside of me and the possibility for a daughter.  I had been praying for a daughter since right after Bo was born, don't get me wrong, I love my boys with all my heart but I wanted to have sons and a daughter.

I had lost so much weight before I became pregnant with Daisy, I was worried about weight gain with her which was my only worry.  Until January, Dana and Joe got married, I was the Matron of Honor and I had to fit into my dress so with all the weight loss I was in a size 8, well on baby number 3 I think I was showing by week 6.  I had to get this whole body, booster which was so tight I felt sick.  I almost didn't even look pregnant with all the under garments...

The next day Joe' s best friend had a brunch in honor of the newlyweds and everyone was shocked at my stomach, I was evidently pregnant!

I started feeling Daisy kick very early like around 16 weeks and she never kicked as much as the boys, it felt different.

Around this time I had a dream I was holding a baby girl in a large stadium and I held her up and told all the people here is my daughter **** (her real name, which is also a biblical name).  I loved the name Madison and I was sure I was going to name my daughter Madison so when I woke up from this dream I was like no her name will not be ***** it will be Madison.  I dreamed this same dream again, and I talked to Daddy about it and we decided if God was going to bless us with a daughter we would name her what he was telling me.

We went for our ultrasound at 20 weeks and we found out we were indeed having a little girl I cried and cried!

My pregnancy with Daisy was really relaxed except that my hated and I say HATED with a passion my OB.  At one of the first visits a child was crying one room over and the actually said "I can't believe they bring that brat here, I thanked God they didn't bring him into the delivery room"  I was so shocked!  I just sat there with a paper gown on mouth open wide staring at him.  A few weeks later I receive a letter in the mail that said No children are allowed at the OB office.  If you come with your children over 6 weeks we will reschedule your appointment.

At 26 weeks we took the glucose tolerance test.  I remember well that my number was 139 and I  was diabetic because for gestational diabetes you must be under 120, but not here in po-dunk...  I was really distraught they kept telling me that I was not diabetic but my time at the diabetic institute taught me totally different.   So needless to say I had absolutely no faith in my Doctors and was fearful for our daughter.  I watched what I ate and tried to follow a point system and prayed alot.

At 38 weeks My Aunt came to visit, because I was really over being pregnant, it was hot, it was July and I wanted to be done!  I had never been pregnant this long before, and to this day I swear 40 weeks is overrated!  I was just so tired.  I even went to CVS and bought a bottle of Castor Oil, but I never used it.  I begged the Doctor to induce me but she wouldn't. Dana came just in time, the next day Bo who was almost 2 started throwing up, I then started praying please don't let me go into labor.  Funny I remember thinking how God always knows better than we do!  

At two days before my due date I had an appointment and the Doctor said that I was measuring a little on the big side so she said she would induce me the next day, I had been begging for so long...  

Happy Daddy, Dana and I dropped the boys off at a friends house and headed to the hospital we arrived at 9am on July 11, I was dilated to a 2 at admittance.  The Doctor on call was actually a mid wife.  She was very kind and said that she had orders from the Doctor who I didn't like to give me some kind of gel that could maybe make me go into labor.  I laid there all day it was really 5 hours of nothing and boy was I getting hungry!  Finally at 3 I begged (I begged alot in  my pregnancy with Daisy) for her to just break my water, see with the boys once they broke my water we were able to get down to business.

She broke my water at 4:30pm and gave me pitocin, I started having really strong contractions right away.  But with only one anesthesiologist on staff, I had to wait, and wait and wait.  I remember Daddy reminding me to breath, I'm not a yeller I just hold my breath.  Finally at 5:45 I received the epidural and could rest for a few minutes and then they told me to push...

I didn't feel well, very sleepy and funny.  But 2 pushes and our beautiful baby girl was born.  The mid wife allowed HD to deliver her, she stood beside him and told him what to do, he rotated her and helped ease her out on the second push, it was amazing for him to be able to deliver her like that!  I held her right away, and then Daddy and Aunt Dana, at some point I kept telling my husband I can't keep my eyes open, he said just rest, and with everyone paying attention to the baby, no one was listening, I got louder NO SOMETHING IS WRONG!  The nurse came over to me, at that point I got sick every where, and my blood pressure dropped so low they slammed the bed down and gave me a shot of epinephrine.  I started feeling better right away, I found out later that this can happen to woman with the kind of epidural that I received.  

I was able to hold our beautiful girl with a head full of black hair and nurse her right away.  About 2 hours after her birth they checked her blood sugar level and told me she need formula, (so all my fears about gestational diabetes was accurate) I have never done anything but nurse and I had been through this before with Luke, and I insisted that they attach a tube to my breast so that she could nurse and still receive small amounts of formula to raise her blood sugar level, the nurse left the room and came back with another nurse who said that I really need to think of my babies best interest and stop arguing with the staff....  WHAT!  I am totally thinking of my babies best interest, I don't want her to get confused, we don't even own one bottle, she will be nursing and what in the world is the problem with my request!  I guess, no one in this small town had ever asked for such a thing and being that Luke and Bo were born is a large city they received more state of the art technology, you know like a small tube.  Ultimately I won and they found a tube (its called pinkie feeding) and Daisy did fine with that.

Her blood sugar level came up just fine but then she started gagging, she choked several times and we had to clear her out with the nasal aspirator, she then started turning a funny shade of red not pink our girl was RED!  The nurse noticed that she was sighing, I thought how cute listen to her she is talking like her mama already, but was quickly informed that no she was having breathing difficulty.  They need to take her to the nursery for a better look, let me just confess right now, I have cast a whole lot of judgement on this issue and I have stated before that ever single judgment I have cast especially as a parent comes right back on me!  I have in the PAST been under the impression that it was lazy to seed the baby to the nursery, I wait 9 months to see this baby and no one but me is going to take care of her!  And now I was left with no choice she was having breathing difficulties.  I cried and cried and cried some more, I instantly realised that some of those babies at the nurses station the ones whom I had judged their mama, need to be their, I asked God please don't try and teach me anything here Lord, I am tired and I love that little girl enough to die right now for her, please let her breath ok and come back here to me quick!

After several hours Daisy perked up.  I was able to be with her and Dana brought our boys to meet their new sister, Luke was in love he is one of those kids who just loves babies and still does,  Bo was more interested in the hospital equipment than the baby but he gave her a little kiss and off they went to play with Aunt Dana.

We came home on a Wednesday, my best friend Susan was here waiting she had come up and watched the boys all day so that Dana could go to an appointment with Joe.  Susan is one of those friends who you can hand your kids to and go lay down and that's just what I did!

Our sweet girl still was red!  We found out at around 8 months that our girl who by now had already had 7 ear infections needing antibiotics was severely allergic to milk (that's why she was having breathing difficulties after the formula)  I will have to write a whole post one day about how she went into anaphylactic shock after eating peanut butter.  She had tubes put in her ears at around 7 months.  And she had also was tongue tied she had to have that little skin under her tongue cut.  So our girl had a rocky start, but I assure you it has not held her back one bit!  She is our princess and she loves to sing and dance!  She loves Jesus and prays for everyone we know (literally) each night,  she is such a blessing our whole family!

Sincerely Fro Me To You ~ age 4 or 5

Today is my 200th post!  

The picture today is of myself on the far right, next is my cousin Justin, then his brother Adam and my cousin Emily.  We are in my Great Grandparents back yard maybe for a birthday or holiday of some kind.

We all used to love to get together we would play for hours in our Grandparents basement pretending to be a family of bunnies.  We would eat and giggle and have a great time!  I think I was bossy though...

Justin and Emily are both Teachers now, I guess that runs in the family.  Adam is married with 2 children and is doing well.  Emily is a wonderful Christian woman who I don't get to see often enough.  Our Great Grandparents are no longer with us, and I really miss the family get together's, we see even less of each other now that my grandparents and mother have moved to live closer to us.  My great grandma was a wonderful cook and I think of her often, I wear her apron all the time, and love to cook just like she did.  

Go over to We Are THAT Family for more great old photo's!

I've been tagged

The ABC's of me 

A. Attached or Single?  Attached HD and I have been together 14 years now.  And will be married 12 years in October

B. Best Friend?  Of course it's HD he is my favorite person in the world and the best friend I could ever have!

C. Cake or Pie?  Oh Pie because you can make so many different kinds

D. Day of choice? Friday because we can relax and hang out for the whole weekend

E. Essential item?  My mixing bowls, I love to cook.  And lipstick, because I love makeup

F. Favorite color? Red

G. Gummy Bears or Worms? Worms the sour kind.

H. Home town? Huber Heights, Ohio

I. Favorite indulgence? Ice Cream

J. January or July? Oh Both January because I love to curl up with a hot fire warm cocoa and a snow storm.  July because I love the lake, the sun and a BBQ.

K. Kids? We have 3, but want more, HD had a vasectomy reversal in Feb. and we are just praying to get pregnant soon.

L. Life isn't complete without?  A good book and coffee

M. Marriage Date? October 29, 1996

N. Number of brothers and sisters?  I am an only child.

O. Oranges or Apples? Apples gala or pink ladies and you can make pie with apples!

P. Phobia's? I don't want my food to touch on my plate.

Q. Quotes? Making the decision to have a child is momentous; it's deciding forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  By Elizabeth Stone

R. Reasons to smile? Salvation

S. Season of choice? Fall my birthday is in September

T. Tag 5 people. Twice Blessed Mommy, Mandigirl Muses, Well Behaved Woman Seldom Make History,  Gotta Grow With It and Fearfully and Wonderfully the Maid. (I tagged people I have never tagged before, and if you want to play please do, and leave me a comment so I can read your answers too!)

U. Unknown fact about me?  If I am really worried or scared I pinch my bottom lip with my thumb and pointer finger.

V. Vegetable? Potato or Tomato

W. Worst Habit? I never check my e-mail or voice mail.

X. Xray or ultrasound? ultrasound!

Y. Your favorite food? pasta

Z. Zodiac sign? Libra

WFMW- Going Green

I am not a environmentalist by any means but I do want to be conscientious of our environment.  It is really hard to go Green, it's expensive too.  So my tip for going Green is take it one step at a time.  A little Green is better than nothing at all!

I started with buying Clorox Green Works for my cleaning, it works great, smells good and is not much more expensive than any other cleaner.  I mop with it and I clean the windows with it.

I use it for the bathroom and the kitchen it is a great product

and I feel good about using it.  Did I mention it smells good.

Another thing I did was start buying reusable grocery bags,  at first I thought this was impossible because I get about 30-40 plastic bags at the store on any given grocery visit so in my mind I thought using reusable bags was going to cost me a fortune.  I tend to be an all or nothing kind of girl so I wanted to buy them all at one time but at $1 a piece....  So with some advice from Twice Blessed Mommy who has been buying them one at a time I started getting some too.  I have 5 now and I try to get a bag every week or so.  I will eventually be using all reusable bags.

Palmolive now carry's a Eco friendly dishwasher detergent.  I have always used Cascade or even a store brand detergent and I started to notice a bleach smell while the dishes were washing.  I was concerned about what we were eating on and we have a septic system so bleach is a no no.  The Palmolive Eco is good for septic systems and safer for lakes and streams.  It only costs a few cents more than other detergents but it is safer.

I can't always buy organic veggies or fruits but when we can we do.  We grow alot of our own veggies in the summer, we grow tomatoes and cucumbers, squash, zucchini, corn, beans, and peppers, we don't use pesticides we make a natural remedy found in Jerry Bakers book.  Milk is one of the things that is hardest for my family, we drink about 2 gallons a week and with milk at $4.00 and organic at $6.00 I just can't buy organic.  So again I do what I can, and doing some is much better than none.  Oh but since we have chickens and we feed them organic feed we have organic eggs, I know you all can't go get chickens, but it works for me and I know that Bunch of Bullers has chickens so she can go organic egg as well.

The gas prices have kept me home so I have been very good to the environment by driving less but that going Green move is not my idea, it's simply a must with the prices!  So those are a few of my tips, for more great and helpful ideas check out Rocks in my Dryer.

Aprons

Be sure to click on the link for Rick Rack Attack on my sidebar.  Confessions of an Apron Queen has a great site!  I have 3 of my Great Grandma's aprons and dearly love them.  I really enjoy her blog as well as her store.

Surgery

Update:  HD did beautifully!  The surgery went really well!  The greatest part is a friend from church was able to be the anaesthesiologist that assisted with HD's surgery, that really set my mind at ease!  The kids are feeling a little better and the pink eye is getting better with the medicine.  Thank you all for your prayers!

We are off to the hospital for HD (Happy Daddy = Husband) to have surgery on his knee.  Please pray for him.  He is scheduled for 9am surgery.

Yesterday when we woke up Bo and Daisy had pink eye, and a major cold.  I woke up this morning with my right eye caked shut, nothing like sharing....

Twice Blessed Mommy has been doing a fine job teaching her babies how to share, I really am joking we love them very much and kids are gonna get sick anyway!

High School Confessions

This morning while scanning through the blogs I read, I read a very funny post from Big Mama about high school, and you know what happened I started thinking about a time back in gym class...

I was one of those girls who was chubby all through grade school and then about 7th grade grew 4 inches and started wearing makeup, got noticed by boys and lost my mind altogether.

In the 10th grade I started hanging out with the more popular crowd, I even sat at their table for lunch which consisted of Diet Pepsi and french fries.  I had a friend who was a very sweet girl her name was Mandy Campbell, we weren't come over to my house kind of friends but we did hang out in gym class and at lunch.  She was a very sweet girl but the best thing about old Mandy was her hot and older boyfriend, his name was Bobby he was a big flirt and made me feel pretty and for the life of me I can't remember his last name.

It started pretty innocently he started flirting and I flirted back.  I am sure you can figure out by now that I was becoming one of those girls the girls we don't like!

It was almost the end of the year and Bobby slipped me a note, we had testing at school and we went in late on that doomed Wednesday.  Bobby had a plan, he wanted to come over and pick me up early and take me to school, I was hooked line and sinker.  We exchanged very incriminating notes all day on Tuesday.

My BFF Danielle thought this was a really bad idea, she just knew Mandy would find out.  I'm not sure if she was as worried about me as she was about loosing our spot at the cool table.

Wednesday morning came and Bobby showed up early as planned, we had a heavy above the neck make out session and then went to school.

By second period I knew all was a bust, eyes were on me, whispers from the back of the class room, and worst off all Mandy's best friend Charity, just rolled her eyes at me and wouldn't even speak to me.  

At Gym Mandy marched right up to me, I fully expected to get punched or something, but she was crying, she threw the notes at me and told me Bobby told me how he tricked you into thinking he liked you to see if you were really my friend...  I was just as dumb founded as she was I said I am sorry Mandy she did not forgive me, she loved him, he made a fool of me, both of us lost out that day, I never got to sit at the cool table again and ol' Bobby went on to cheat on Mandy many more times.

Funny thing is I really thought for years that he had tricked me as I grew up I realized he was a cheat, but so was I that day, never again.

His name was Bobby Schroeder I just remembered.  If you ever Google your name and find your self here Bobby, I hope you grew up, and thank you for teaching how to never act again, getting caught sucked way more than the excitement of kissing you!

I hated high school the drama the never knowing how to fit in, the lying and partying.

I'm glad to be grown up!

Father's Day 2008

First things first my camera my beloved camera in which I take all pictures for this blog and the camera in which I capture my children's moments is broken!  Can you hear me crying because I am!  It has been having this funny flashing light and it was having some trouble on our vacation but today it gave up.  Daddy did some research on the net and found that it is a common problem and can only be fixed by a professional...  At a minimum of $281.00 not $282 or $290 but $281.  I guess that's what happens when you buy a $2000 camera it costs a lot to fix.  We love our camera!

I woke Daddy up with breakfast in bed, an omelet and fresh fruit and hot coffee.  Then we went to church had a great service and came home had a little lunch.  We had a water balloon fight after that.  That's when we realized the camera was broken, because you all know I am a blogger and I would have given you pictures of our lovely water fun.   The kids all have a little bit of a cold, you know runny nose and sore throat but mostly really cranky, so we had them all take a nap before the rest of the family came over for dinner.  Even Luke who is almost 7 was asleep in 5 minutes.

Daddy and I sat out on our front porch, in our rocking chairs under the outdoor fan rocking and reading our books, it was so peaceful sitting in silence with my best friend the man who made me a mother, the man I love with all my heart, the most wonderful father.  We saw several humming birds and then our family arrived.

I made BBQ chicken and my famous beans, a big pot of collard greens and better than Robert Redford cake.  We all got really full and played a game of corn hole.  Corn hole is kind of like horse shoes, but you have two boards with holes in them set 30 feet apart and you toss corn filled bags at the hole trying to make it onto the board or in the hole.  

My Grandpa had very pressing matters today so he could not participate our corn hole battle, see Tiger Woods was playing golf and it is Fathers Day so we let him do what he loves watch golffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff  oh sorry I fell asleep just typing it...

All in all we had a great day!  Please keep Daddy in your prayers he has knee surgery on Tuesday morning.  I have been putting it off in my mind but its here ya'll so please pray for his safety and that he won't hurt to bad!

Saturday Stirrings~ Jelly Muffins

I am up early and making muffins today!  My kids love muffins!  This recipe is great because you can use any jelly you like, I am putting apple butter in mine.

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 beaten egg

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup cooking oil

Set oven at 400.  Combine flour, sugar and baking powder.  Make a well in the center.  Combine egg, milk, and oil now add all at once to flour mixture.  Stir just till moistened (batter will be lumpy) lightly grease or spray with non-stick all muffin pans, fill 1/3 full off batter and top with 1 teaspoon of jelly, jam or preserves then top with enough batter to fill each muffin 2/3 full.

Bake for about 20 minutes.

For more tasty recipes head over to It Coulda' Been Worse.

My friend and a list

We have the day off from watching my friends little girl, the friend who is in the hospital.  She is still pretty much unable to walk but no longer paralyzed, she is getting stronger each day.  It has been hard on Daisy having a little girl around, she is a bit jealous, and clingy.  I keep explaining to her that we are serving her family by helping with "K", and that it makes God happy when we help others.

I can't even imagine not having control over who is watching or where people are taking my kids while I was unable to walk or take care of them.  My friend has found comfort in knowing that "K" is with us every day, (we pick her up at 8 and take her back at 4) so as long as she is in the hospital she will be with us.

So temporarily, God has blessed me with a fourth child, not exactly what I had been praying for, funny how God does that to us sometimes to teach us things, but still I love her and am caring for her like she is mine while she is here with us and thankful for the opportunity.

Today is total home cleaning!  Four kids is hard work and the house is a mess.  We are changing sheets washing clothes and mopping floors.  I want to take the kids on a walk before it gets to hot so I better go.  

Pray for my friend.  Pray for her husband and 4 children who really need her!  

And a list of the top 10 house hold chores in order from not so bad to I hate to do!

10. dishes

9. vacuum

8. changing sheets

7. windows

6. dusting

5. bathrooms

4. laundry

3. folding laundry

2. mopping

1. changing cat litter

Sincerely Fro Me To You ~ My Husband in honor of Fathers Day!

All week long Kristen who is hosting this lovely and fun blog carnival has been talking about Dads.  As we all know Fathers Day is coming this Sunday, so get your recipe books out ladies and cook Daddy something yummy because we all know the way to a mans heart is through his stomach.

Anyway I wanted to share some photos of my husband, he was such a cute little thing!  Although this was the awkward stage you know the one with the horse teeth.  Funny thing is Luke is really starting to look like his Daddy and as soon as those two loose front teeth come out we know what he has to look forward to.

I love those little freckles and the nose is the same as our sons for sure!  Here is a picture of Luke taken at the pool.

And this last photo I just had to through in because well it really made me laugh!  My husband is from TX and I am afraid this photo might have been take right in the middle of a tornado, and it was trying to suck the hair off his head or he used a whole bottle of 99 cent DEP gel to get it to stand up like that and in the TX heat I am surprised he didn't catch on fire.  No really do you all remember when boys did their hair like that?  He was really cool!

For more fun go to We are THAT family.

WFMW- Keeping the kids learning

For this weeks addition of WFMW I wanted to share what we are doing to encourage the kids to keep learning over the summer.  We home school which most of you already know if you read me on a regular basis that is, and we have a pretty hard curriculum but Luke is learning by leaps and bounds and will be entering 2nd grade in the fall.  Bo will start Kindergarten.  We purchased a program called Click N Read, its a really fun phonic program and encourages reading, we have a chore chart and we have the boys do computer time as part of their daily routine.  We have also placed a chart on the refrigerator that is a summer reading goal.  Luke is to read 100 books and when he reaches his goal we will have a pizza party with the friend of his choice.  This has really helped with continuing to read and learn even though we are on summer break.

For other great WFMW ideas head over to Rocks In My Dryer.

What time of day are you?

You Are Noon

You are upbeat, ambitious, and never at loss for energy. You have a lot that drives you in life. The desire to be the best, and a secret hope of fame and power. And while you definitely have a Type A personality, you are still fun to be around. You have a ton of charisma and a genuine interest in others. You are adored by many.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Pool and a squirt gun

I will never understand why it is "I" that's "ME" "MYSELF" bought my boys a squirt gun.  I was temporarily out of my cotton pick'n mind, obviously!  I am sure you know by now that I have been squirted from head to toe by these sweet boys whom I gave birth to, who found great enjoyment and humor in my yelling to stop.  My daughter also has a deep rooted hate for squirting apparatuses, yelling for help in a deafening scream anytime either one of her brothers even comes near her.

We have a small hard plastic kiddy pool which I would like to stay clean so that when I am just about to burst into flames I can take a very quick dip and resume position in a chair reading a book while the boys chase each other and squirt.  But my like to stay clean request is also very funny, see the pool wasn't filled even 15 minutes before my son Bo who will 5 (I state his age because he knows better) pees in it and yells "a fountain" I do not see the humor but the oldest boy laughs his head off.  I will just have to melt!  I drain pool threaten lives and we start over.

About an hour into our fun, Luke says "nasty" Daisy has poop , I jump up and she tells me it's ok I just pooped in the pool.  Let me say now with pool drained and log scooped and tossed into forest these children are crazy and they must get it from me, because I bought the water guns and the stinking (literally) pool, I had delusions of basking in the sun reading a novel, yes sounds even crazier as I write it.

Oh and to boot, the 103 pound dog took a dip in the creek that's pronounced CRICK here.  I had to hose her down and get the mud off of her, I was dry and clean  she shook her muddy dog germs all over me.

So here's to summer and my plan to watch very little TV.  Maybe tomorrow we can try again, MAYBE!

leap'n Lizards it been a long week!

This week has been a whirl wind of unpacking, help in a friend who is in the hospital with her 4 year old daughter, (please pray for her she has 4 children and her husband is working 2 jobs and she is very sick) my grandma went into the hospital today for an obstruction in her intestines.  Wow this week has felt like 3 weeks and it is a good thing our vacation was so wonderful and relaxing or I just don't know what I would do.

BUT, in the midst of it all some very interesting animals have shown up at the happy family abode.  Our little squirrel dog who was supposed to be a present for our children and who really belongs to my husband was barking his fool head off the other morning which normally means I tune him out and Daddy flys to throw his boots on grab a shot gun and tear out into the woods, but as my sweet squirrel hunting husband checks out side to see where the dag'on is barking he sees him jumping all around on the ground (next to the kids swing set ) Daddy says I know he has a snake....  And he did!  When Daddy went outside to see and stop the dog who got bit by a copper head last year and should fear snakes with his life, but as Daddy went out the dog comes running up and barking like he was saying come here come here.  

So there you have our unwelcome visitor he is a brown water snake and if you can tell he has a round pupil which means he is not poisonous, its when the eyes are slits  up and down that the snake is a poisonous one.  Now let me say that snakes fascinate me and Daddy, we all ran out side and watched Daddy catch it, I ran for the camera so you have the picture.  We are the kind of people who stop in the middle of the road to move a turtle or a snake so they don't get squashed.  We were destined to home school, our kids also find our bug, snake, lizard fascination very interesting, we catch the snake and look up what kind it is in our North American Reptile Guide and release them back to their home (away from the swing set) We should also have an entire colony of turtles in our woods because my husband stops and brings them home every time he sees one in the road.

Then tonight just as our day was calming down and Daddy was weed whacking around the kids swing set (and let me say this find puts a whole new meaning in Jungle gym) and I hear him yell come here its a huge spider and this is what we found, I think it's a wood spider.

As I was running for my camera it occurred to me that not all people would run for a camera to take a picture of a spider or a snake and that I totally had something to blog about today!  Look really close at the next picture this mother spider has hundreds of babies on her back.  

Sincerely Fro Me To You ~ I like white

I was thinking back on the family photos we have had taken or have taken our self and realized I am always doing a white theme of some sort...

Now let me say I am all about matching outfits!  I love for us to match, I want the boys to match each other and me to match Daddy and Daisy to match me so on and so forth.

So for this week I will show you my examples of matching and of the over use of white in my family photos....

This was taken pre Weight Watchers, Luke was 2 and Bo was about 4 months.

This was taken last summer in Hilton Head, my family and my brother and sister in law and their children.  (my sister in law reads this blog but she never comments so maybe a picture of her will bring her out of the wood work)

This family picture was taken after my sister in law Regan graduated high school last year.

This was taken last summer.

This was taken last week in Ft Lauderdale.

For more great Fro Me To You fun head over to We are THAT Family.

Vacation pictures

On our last day we took family pictures.

My sweet boys.

Daisy and I.  Look how beautiful the scenery is here!

My Family.

It started raining right after this picture.

Bo loves the water, he could swim all day!

Now Tate, he did not like the water but as long as he had his thumb he was happy!

Daisy found a plastic fish in the pool.

Here is my dark tanned, Luke.

Here I am trying to cool off. Like how I crop out my legs?  It makes for a much better picture really it does.

Bo found so beautiful shells.

Daisy and I tryed to find some shells too.

Luke is holding the only fish we caught the whole week.

Reese taking a little nap in the beach tent.

My beautiful girl playing in the sand.

I'm BAAAAACK!

We had the most amazing time!  We swam at the resort pool we ate lunches in the cabana we swam in the ocean, built sand castles walked on the beach every day.  I loved Ft Lauderdale!  The water was warm and beautifully clear.  Daddy and I went snorkeling at a reef which was a first for me, and that was great except the throwing my guts up over the side of the boat in front of 16 people I hope I never see again I got a little sick....  We ate dinner at some really wonderful restaurants too.  Every thing about our vacation was great!  My favorite part was being with Daddy all day, and spending time with our kids!  We love being with my Aunt Twice Blessed Mommy and Joe!  The babies are so sweet, we watched them one evening so Dana and Joe could go on a date, we took them out for ice cream, and I will say 5 kids was not so hard.  The reaction that people had was funny, people would stop and point at us, it was like we had 10 kids not 5....  But people love twins we got lots of attention!

I have a ton of unpacking to do so I will blog more later, it nice to be back home and I missed you all.

We woke up to this beautiful view out our window each morning!

Look what Daddy caught, I'll post more pictures later.