And if I put my head down on the table and you be quiet long enough, I could take a nap.

Even though I haven't blogged for a week, you really haven't missed anything very drastic happening from this side of town.

Except for the fact that I almost had a major break down when I thought we were out of sour cream tonight. Sour cream is one of the main staples I have with every meal (well almost). So -when I finished making nachos for supper, I was pretty frightened that we had run out. But rest assured we were o.k. with the sour cream supply.

Not sure if I picked up a flu bug or what....but I've been feeling just a little stomach flu for the last couple of days. (Maybe it's all the sour cream??) Isabella has a touch of this stomach bug too in case you're wanting to insert a pregnancy joke here. I had a migraine this morning to top off the stomach ache so I was back in bed with full sympathy from Donovan. How sweet of him to let me go back to bed at 6:30. Two hours later and one Imitrex and I was back in business. That is until I tried to eat some cereal. Well - sick again. So I took a break from eating for a little while.

Urghhhhhh! And I love eating!!

In other news we carved pumpkins tonight. A few of our children will put their hands into the pumpkin to actually clean it out. Here was one of the brave ones, Isabella.

Jack has my acute sense of smell...and kept saying, "ohhhh, that smells like poop." I was gagging slightly myself.

Donovan was excited to incorporate power tools into the carving process.


Here I am trying to think past the smell.

If you click on the picture, you can see Jack has the gagging look on his face as well.








The best part of this process was watching their excitement. Listening to their anticipation after school...."Can we carve our pumpkins yet??" This is one cool thing as your kids get older, they remember from last year & how much fun it was.

My pumpkin with her pumpkin.

Another pumpkin with his baby pumpkin.

And my pretty little baby pumpkin with her baby pumpkin.

Quote of the day:

From Jack last night....

"If I put my ear down to the table, I can hear the ocean."

breakfast almost in bed

Last night we had small group at our house for the 1st time. We joined this small group about 6 weeks ago..this was our first time hosting. We are doing an excellent study on a series called "The Bait of Satan", by John Bevere. It is a very good study. Christianbook.com review states:
Are you ensnared by bitterness, seized by anger, held captive by resentment because someone has offended you? Bevere shows you how to escape Satan's grip, avoid a victim mentality, practice forgiveness, experience reconciliation, and remain free in Christ.

I love it. And I am learning so much, about myself and how I relate to others. The things I screw up and the things I need to change. More than the study I love the people in our group. This group has been so accepting of Donovan and I, and our family. They have treated us so kindly as new-comers. They have made us feel like we belong. Here are the girls....

Carol, Carla, Julie, Rose, and I.

And here are the guys.

Willard, Jason, J.B., Donovan, Norm, and Ed.And these are our offspring....13 in all! It is amazing how they can keep themselves entertained during the video we watch...with little help from their parents.

I love our new small group. Thank you guys for being so welcoming to our family.


And this my friends is today....breakfast in the bedroom. Sleeping in too long....and getting a late start....got me thinking. Thinking about how can I multi-task the morning. I've been taking William and Suzy to story-time at our library, that starts at 10 on Thursday's. You wouldn't think that would be an unreachable goal, since I get up at 6:50. That is unless I go back to bed and sleep until 8:30. (Give me a break...I didn't get to bed until midnight.) Anyways...it worked out well. I put William and Suzy just outside our bathroom to eat their breakfast.... while I washed and blow dried my hair. They looked at me pretty funny when I told them they were going to eat breakfast in mom's room today. Started laundry, got the kids dressed and we were on our way.


I've got a cousin (by marriage), Jessica that is visiting from Florida- so she met us at the library today. Then we went to where she is babysitting for some friends while they are out of town for 2 weeks. The kids all played and we had a great time catching up and then having lunch together. I wish everyday could be so fun.
Jessica, Maryls, and me.

So are you wondering about the bread give away?? Are you wondering if you won??
I asked Donovan to pick a number between 1-16 (the number of comments) and he randomly picked #9.

So the winner is.... Joy.

She is the person who had the 9th comment.
Congrats Joy -I will drop your bread off tomorrow.
Thanks for the rest of you who left me some pretty original, funny, and sweet comments. You guys are such cool friends!!


Quote of the day:
Jack, "What if I'm in a hot air balloon and it drops down to the ground?"

Who knows where he comes up with these scenarios.

breakfast for supper

Before kids, I always thought I'd be one of those mom's who showed their kids how to cook, had them in the kitchen- hands on helping me. Then I had 4 kids. Who all wanted to help. Who whined that the other sibling was getting to do a "MORE FUN" job then they were doing. Bottom line, I rarely have the kids help me make supper. It stresses me out. Unless it is only my 8 year old helping....and then sometimes that's over the top for my stress level.

But tonight Donovan was home late from work...and I had no choice. They were all in the kitchen....BEGGING to help. Begging for something fun to do. So I took a deep breath, and tried to use this as a "teaching" moment.

So we were making hard boiled eggs....the kids were helping me peel the eggs and dice them up.

However when I went to get the camera....

Sister bear started dicing the eggs WITH the shell on. William has good reason to be alarmed in the picture above.

So we cleaned up that mess and moved on. Isabella thought it would be fun to peel the eggs. Great I could use help peeling the 16 eggs I hard boiled. However she accidentally broke the egg in half. Cleaned that mess up. Then William dropped some of the egg he was eating --on the floor, then stepped on it. Cleaned that mess up.

Well now you have a clear picture why I'd rather cook by myself.

Anyways dad got home, And I was able to finish up supper....and here it is.

Egg gravy. My kids love it. I'm sure some of you are gagging...but you who doubt should really try it...it is delicious. The recipe comes from my mother-in-law. You make a white sauce/gravy and put the diced eggs into it. Then pour it over bread. We happen to have sour dough bread here, which compliments it perfectly. So leave me a comment and I'll randomly pick a name on Thursday to win a loaf of homemade sour dough bread.

Creamed Egg Gravy

1/4 cup butter melt in pan

1/4 cup flour whisk in with butter

Slowly add:

2 cups milk

Add 6 hard boiled eggs that have been diced , salt & pepper to taste.

Quote of the day:

William: "I wanted to look at that mom, and you didn't wait until I could see it. I'm gonna pinch you."

Me: "If you pinch me, I will spank you. You be respectful."

William: "If you spank me, I'll call 911."

Maybe it's not a great idea to NOT teach your children emergency personnel numbers.

What do you think?

My friend Kim had this link on her blog. And while I very much agree with her on not wanting to make my blog a politcal forum, the issues at stake are so dear to my heart. It is a very long article...but oh so worth every minute of your time. Please be informed. Please take the time to read it.

Here it is....http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/viewarticle.php?selectedarticle=2008.10.14_George_Robert_Obama%27s%20Abortion%20Extremism_.xml

8 things...

I was tagged by Kim to give 8 answers to the following questions...

8 Things that happened yesterday
1. Dropped clothes off at the resale shop, in the rain.
2. Picked up $55 I made from the last clothes I dropped off at the resale shop.
3. Met my sweet friend Julie at the school who took my 2 youngest for me, to babysit while I...
4. Took Jack to the Doctor, in the rain. Shock, he has a Sinus Infection so I...
5. Went to Meijer, in the rain to get a free antibotic.
6. Picked up a pizza for supper, in the rain.
7. Spanked William.
8. Cleaned the bathroom.
9. Lost my patience several times.
10. Finished my Karen Kingsbury book, in bed where it was dry.

8 Favorite Places to Eat:
1. Carrabba's
2. Chipotle
3. Pizza Hut
4. Indigo on 17
5. Cheesecake Factory
6. El Camino
7. Chili's
8. Bob Evans (for breakfast)


8 T.V. shows I love to watch:
This is going to be hard...because I hardly watch T.V. and we don't have cable...but here it goes.
1. E.R.
2. The Today show

8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Heaven
2. Friday (my favorite day)
3. Thanksgiving
4. Going overnight to my husbands Christmas Party in Cincinnati with Travis & Kristen.
5. The day Suzy quits pooping in her pants.
6. Next Summer
7. Relating to my kids as adult friends
8. Going on a date Saturday night with my husband.


8 Things on my wish list:
1. I wish I could finish a book in a timely fashion.
2. I wish I could go on a weekly date.
3. I wish I could go with Kim on her trip to Australia.
4. I wish we could go to Siesta Key for Spring Break.
5. I wish the economy wouldn't be such a mess right now.
6. I wish I had a nanny one day a week, that came to my house, cleaned, and took care of the children for free.
7. I wish I had more self control with food.
8. I wish I spent more time with friends I love.

8 Friends I tag:
1. Deb
2. Sherri
3. Krista
4. Charlotte
5. Darla
6. Joyce
7. Cheryl
8. Jenn


OK, you girls, get busy! I will be checking your blogs!

Train Trip to Chicago

On Saturday, Isabella and I took a special mother/daughter trip to Chicago. Just us, just for the day. We've never taken the South Shore Train, and I decided that would add to the excitement of our trip. It was $9 for my one way ticket and children ride free!!
It was a beautiful day to be enjoying fall. I loved all the colors. It was pretty fun to be just with my oldest, already 8 1/2 years old! Then when we got off the train in the station I realized I had no map and had not been familiarized myself enough with where we were going. We had planned on taking a bus to the Water Tower Place so I didn't think we would actually need a map. We knew the bus stop was across the street and knew which spot to get off at from reading the South Shore web site. But we were both hungry and wanted to do some walking down Michigan Ave. to find a place to have lunch. And one little problem, I had only been to Michigan Ave. one time, & we were there as a family for maybe 1 hour. We didn't do much just went to about 3 stores on a trip back from Ikea.

So I was thinking, Wow- This was pretty naive to do all by myself, with little 8 year old daughter. What was I thinking?? And feeling pretty vulnerable. I thought I knew the general direction I was going but asked a police officer to be sure. He assured me we were headed the right direction, and then ended the conversation with, "And Ma'am, Keep a good hold on your purse today. Be careful." Well, Gee, Thanks, I wasn't planning on watching my purse or being careful...but now I will." This of course added to the vulnerability state.

After lunch I was in a better state of mind. We were fine, and we had a really perfect day to be out in the city. Isabella's main objective for the day was to spend her birthday money. And guess where she wanted to spend it??

But on the way there....The Nike Store we passed was giving out plastic cards you could take into the store and see if you were a winner of a $1000 gift card they were giving away. So we headed up to the 3rd floor, because of course they want you to navigate through the entire store to entice you as much as possible and then see if you didn't actually win anything. We waited in line on the 3rd floor, for about 10 minutes. I was telling Isabella wouldn't that be something if we won a $1000 gift card and could take new tennis shoes home for the entire family?? We watched as the people in front of us would put their plastic card up to a scanner to see if they were a winner. The results appeared on a huge flat screen T.V. And guess what Isabella won...no, not the $1000....but a sports bag. Which worked perfectly to carry her doll in. She was pretty excited!! Then it was on to the American Girl store.

We had been to the store once before about 2 years ago...and just briefly. So it was fun to let Isabella look around and take her time.

Isabella had been saving her birthday money, allowance, and other money gifts she had been given and we went half with her on a horse. It was something special we wanted to do for her. And want to do with the rest of the children on the start of their 3rd grade year. We will call it our "3rd grade date" The boys will go with their dad when they start the 3rd grade, but somewhere of their special interest. Then again I will be one on one with Suzanna when she enters this phase. We got this idea from our friend Rose. It's pretty cool to glean parenting information from friends who have figured out what works well in relating to your kids in a unique way. I've taken Isabella to many places just her and I. But this was special, this was something of special interest to her.

The horse came in a gigantic box, so we unwrapped it and put her in a shopping bag. She was beyond excited. We generally don't spend this kind of money for a gift. But this was a special day, that came with some special conversations about grown up things, and I wanted her to have a meaningful memento to remember the day by.

We also hit the town for a couple spots of special interest of mom's......the gap and a shoe store. :)

Then made the 4:00 train. What a trip.

Thank you to God for keeping us safe, for my special day with Isabella Rose, and for blessing me with this responsibility of raising her to be your daughter.

Quote from the day:

Me: "Thank you Isabella for being patient when I keep wanting to take your picture. I remember when I was a little girl and my mom would want to take pictures all the time, I would complain."

Isabella: "Well I am getting kinda sick of it."

happy pants

First of all...sorry the video is sideways...my bad. Second of all....you might want to turn off the blog music. Yesterday I took this little guy to the Dr. because his ear hurt. Ear Infection. Poor thing. He hardly complained about the pain. He's just that way. And now look at him singin' while putting the dishes away. Many times during the day he will make up little songs. He is such a happy pants. I love that about William.

Today I took Suzy to the Dr. she has a sinus infection. She has not been as happy. But I caught a little video of her in a brief happy place of her day. She has just learned to say William. Before today she has called him Wee Wee. All of a sudden in the car she just started saying w-i-l-l-i-a-m. Real slow over and over. It was so cute. William and I were so proud of our little pet. So I wanted to get her saying it on video.

And the best part of my week was Meijer. That's right because Meijer gave me free antibotics for both children. Did you know Goshen Meijer does that? They have a list of antibotics are they give totally free. Now I love free! Don't you?

Quote of the day:

On the way home from the Dr. yesterday....

William: "Mom, God can make nice things, can't he? Like the trees."

Me: "Yep, William he sure does."

Welcome to our new office

One month ago I had it. I had it with the piles. I had it with the clutter. I was finally fed up enough to do something about it. I don't really think of myself as unorganized, but the office was a different story. It is in our basement so it has been pretty easy to ignore. My objective was to re-organize and give it a face lift for little or no money. After all is said & done I spent about $13. It was well worth every cent.

Before

Say hello to After

-First of all way to much clutter that had to be addressed obviously. After I finally found my desk, I emptied it and gave it to Donovan. He then took the desk he was using and painted it for me. Loving the new black desk! And what a deal we found the paint at Home Depot on the mis-tint table for $5, and it is outdoor paint so I think it will wear well.

-I also got rid of the metal file cabinet containing misc. junk that I needed to be rid of. Some was kept and put into my handy new desk drawers.

-I also got rid of the magnetic board that was hanging above the desk, it was becoming an eye sore.

-Replaced the lamp, with one we were using in the living room.

-Also I decided rather than fabric under the glass on the desk top, to use some of those pictures I'm probably never going to realistically scrapbook. Here's a shot, Don't mind the glare.

Love it, Love it, Love it!

Another Before

After

A beautiful after. I love the black. This had been our changing table for the first 3 kids. It served us well. But then we got an actual changing table. So this was converted into a wrapping station/eBay shipping station. I had seen this idea in a magazine and loved the idea of having somewhere to keep all my wrapping supplies. However as you could see from the before picture, I had lost my vision for this. Donovan repaired the broken drawer and painted it. The drawers are now cleaned out and the ribbon is organized in plastic containers, gift bags and tissue paper are also in drawers 2 and 3. I am down right giddy about having a home for things again. I also had seen in a magazine the peg board that was in the before picture. But that really wasn't all it was cracked up to be. The hooks did not serve me well. So we covered that with batting and fabric that together cost about $8. I love the splash of color it adds.

Before

After

Now hubby has more desk top space with my desk. He also did some re-organizing, cleaning out, and throwing away. Ahhhhh, beautiful. I also found some pictures we were not displaying in the storage room to decorate the once empty wall.


Now the next picture is not a before or after...it just is. It's the only thing I would like to change in the office. In a perfect world I would love to get matching albums & coordinating fabric covered boxes/baskets. However this is not priority right now, & it's not something I want to spend $ on for now. So it just is. Unless one of you has something that would fit into these shelves and I would be helping you with a decluttering situation at your home. :)

Overall I'm still giddy. Just love our new space. Donovan is esp. happy since he works from home, and his office is now a more organized place to be. I just love to walk by this room and see the beautiful glow of organization.

Quote of the day:

Me: "William, I like your new haircut."

William: "Mom, can you see it grow?"

Me: "Not yet."

William: "In a minute will you?"

He must hear "in a minute" often.

the years go fast, but the days go so slow.....

What happened to the baby??? The first picture was taken last fall, just as Suzanna was learning to walk. I had gotten this cute little shirt off of eBay, now this year when putting it on her again it's getting just a tad short on the arms. Hmmmm....Sweet little Suzy please quit growing up so fast!!! Some days seem so very long when having 4 children, and when I look at these pictures I think how did we get here? How is our littlest member of our family already 2? Someone told me recently when having toddlers the years go fast, but the days go slow. Oh so true! For the first time in 8 years we have no children in diapers. That is just crazy! But just when you think you're going to start saving money, by not buying diapers....Your oldest has her first orthodontist appointment next week. Oh well, it was a nice thought.








Remember me, back on August 31 talking about our problem here at home??? Our office problem?? You can look here if you have no idea what all the drama is about. Well we're working on it. We are almost done, but the "painter" is holding me up. I won't name any names....But Donovan finally just finished the last coat of paint. "Someone" will not allow their wife to touch a paintbrush. Which really, is just fine by me. Anyways...Here's a sneak peak of the office and the furniture painting. I LOVE how it turned out!!!

Here is the quote of the day:

Yesterday while cuddling with William.

Me: "William, I love being home with you all day!"

William: "I love going to the babysitter."



Wow, I feel the love.