Me and My Family

The Etch-A-Sketch has become very popular around here.  It seems that all of my girls really enjoy it.  One seems to have something akin to a gift in this medium.  She can sit down and produce a picture in under 5 minutes.  Which daughter do you think I'm referring to?  Let me know after you check out these pictures!  :)

Ria showing her reindeer with spots.

Kat with her first ballerina.

 

Tea with her squares.  ^_^

 

 

If you think Kat may be the prodigee, then you and i think alike.  She has produced MANY of these ballerinas.  Each takes no longer than 7 minutes, with most taking a lot less time than that!  She has also produced some other pictures i seem not to have taken pictures of.  I'll do better and share them wtih you in the near future.  Maybe we'll make an Etch-A-Sketch post a regular thing!

If you would like an official print of one of these creations, i KNOW my girls would love to sell them.  They have so many goals and business ideas... all of which require money to begin their ventures.  So, if they could sell pictures of their etch-a-sketch creations... that would definitely help them!  Oh... and each picture will be available only in a limited number of prints... these could easily be REALLY valuable in the near future!  Don't miss out!!!  ^_^

A Very Merry and totally Miraculous Christmas!

It all started back in late October or sometime in early November.  Projecting our finances, especially after the demotion at River Grille on The Tomoka, I knew we wouldn't be able to afford our "regular" $10 gift Christmas (giving each person $10 to spend on each other person in our little family).  While our norm is really quite reasonable, when you do not have enough coming in, there isn't anything else to go out!

While, in truth, this was at first sort of depressing to me, I came up with a plan that was exciting to me and would include wonderful lessons for our whole family...  The plan?  To allocate only $50 ($10 each), which would be a stretch but much easier than the alternative, and spend it on gift certificates which we would then give to individuals at the homeless camp near-ish our home.  When we discussed this plan as a family, the girls were, at first, sort of disappointed about not getting any presents themselves, but then they caught the vision and were excited about giving to those who need so much more than we.  Ria even came up with a plan to have an art show to sell their art work so that they could have more money to buy gifts for those in need.  Jess agreed with the plan.

Unbeknownst to me, Jess began to reconsider our family agreement.  He was trying to figure out ways he could have gifts to give our girls on Christmas.  Then he was fired from RG and he became, it seems to me, even more anxious to provide gifts for the girls even though the way for him to do so in and of ourselves was even more impossible.  All this without telling me a thing about his thoughts or feelings.

Then, one day in early December he received a phone call from our midwife.  He was out grocery shopping.  She told him about an organization that chooses 100 Chef's in the area each year and then provides gifts for theChef's children.  (My midwife did not know Jess had been fired from RG.)  Jess told me he was in shock when he heard her tell him this and then ask if she could submit wish lists for our girls.  He thanked her while on the phone, but the magnitude of the magnitude of the blessing only hit him when he got to his car, where he promptly began to shed tears of gratitude.

He came home and told me all about it.  I felt angry at first (because he started by telling me he'd been trying to think of how to get gifts for the girls), but as I listened I became aware of the blessing and miracle.  My reaction: "You know this is not about our girls.  This is about YOU.  This is a gift from Father to YOU for our girls because He knows your heart and the wishes of it and He wants to show you that He loves you and that you are worthy in His sight."  I think Jessie heard me this time....  He acknowledged the truthfulness of what I said, at least.

There's more.

My Ward family (earth angels, in my sight) gave us gift certificates to use at Wal-Mart for the girls.  A lot of them.

There's more.

A really sweet family in our Ward was given dresses (just about the sizes of our daughters), which they wrapped and gave to our girls as well as a matching shirt for Mama.  Then, Christmas Eve that same thoughtful family came over to deliver gifts for the girls (2 each, I believe, plus a few gifts for all three)!  A whole family of earth angels, that!

So, our Christmas Tree, when we moved all the gifts to places around it, was so very FULL of gifts.... More full than any Christmas I can remember from my childhood... and I have 5 siblings!  More full than any Christmas Jess can recall (though he does have only one sib).  The only "match" for this Christmas is the Christmas Jessie's sister Anni visited and my sweet, dear friend Heather came to deliver more than 3 large black garbage bags full of presents for our family on Christmas Eve back in 2008 (I think)....  We are so very blessed!!!

Now, some might consider all this story a series of sweet coincidences.  Some might write it off to synchronicity.  Others might say it's a chance collaboration of unlikely events.  Another might say it's luck, or a happy accident, fate, or some other such verbal "write off" of what is REALLY miraculous.  You see, to see miracles, I have learned, it takes an Eye of Faith.  It requires Spiritual Eyes, which are only ever opened BY Fiath, to see what can not be seen by those who would name away that which is plainly seen through Faith... who would close their eyes to what is real and readily before us, but easily explained away.  Yes, it IS easy to explain away!  I used to do it.  Jess has only recently stopped!  But let's call a miracle a miracle and open our dimmed eyes to see the fine threads, invisible without Faith, of Father's awesome plan.  Let's see them as they intertwine and combine to create this magnificent tapestry we live, it makes up our lives!  God's got it!  For sure.  Let Go, Let God.  He will bring so much more than we can provide, if we'll just WAIT ON THE LORD in ALL things!

And so, seeing with my Spiritual Eyes, opened by Faith, I proclaim that THIS, my friends... this Christmas is for Jessie (as well as our daughters, of course... and for me, too, I'm sure, but I just feel SO much that it's FOR Jessie most of all cause it's the wishes and hopes of HIS heart that was answered upon the heads and into the hearts of our children!).  Do you see how the Lord loves him??  And our Father loves us ALL this way!!!  Isn't His Love amazing??!!!??  The way our AWESOME God knows the wishes and hopes of our heart and manifests them in the world when we are simply TRYING to live as He would have us do to the best of our ability at any given time!??!!

Our God is a personal God.  He knows us as individuals and Loves us no matter what.  He knows what we are capeable of right now... as well as what we MAY do in the future if we'll just submit to Him and His knowledge and His guidance and do our best understanding of His Will!  And He blesses us so tremendously for our pitiful and puny efforts to be like our Dear Savior, Jesus Christ.  I must confess Christ in all things.  We are commanded to do so and so I do: This is ALL from Him and we are SO VERY THANKFUL!!!  We are so thankful to those who have acted as instruments in His hands to bless our lives, to bring such temporal manifestations of God's Love into our world this Christmas.  THANK YOU!!!!

Thank you, God.

Merry MERRY Christmas!  I hope His Birthday was a lovely day for you and yours and that some of the wishes and hopes of YOUR heart were manifest in this temporal and saddly fallen world of ours!  :)

This is my truth.  This is my testimony.  And I bear this, my testimony, in the name of our Savior and Risen Lord, Jesus Christ.  AMEN!

Bummer

In our short sight, it feels like a bummer to have learned a couple days ago that the house with which we were under contract will not become ours. It is certainly for the best. You see, our mortgage bank will not approve the loan because of two factors. One we could fight. The other we are glad to know about now and leave off pursuit of the property. What would such a factor be? Well, the land on which the house sits is surrounded on three sides by a farm... which we, of course, knew. What we did not know is that said farm's owners use the method of crop dusting to disburse herbicides and pesticides. While I was well aware that the farm probaby used those chemicals, which I did have some concern over... there is absolutely NO way for crop dusting to be done selectively (especially to try to avoid a measly 5 acres in a huge farm like the one surrounding those 5 acres we hoped to own)!

Thankfully Heavenly Father is guiding and protecting us in this our pursuit of happiness by way of buying a home (which we believe is that path Father would have us travel at this time). I'm certain there would have been plentiful physical (negative) repercussions of living off of crop dusted land... not to mention living IN the dusting! YIKES!!! :( So, though we are disappointed to once again begin the process of searching out our place, we are relieved, too. I was actually thinking the other day how totally windy and convoluted this path to buying a house feels/seems to me in my regular perspective of forward looking, ground level, not always with spiritual eyes wide open. But then I looked at the whole thing (of course looking back) and trying to have my spiritual eyes discerning through the process and it seems as if I'm standing in this path and looking back at a totally straight path, but then I turn around to face forward once more and it seems that the path disappears again around a corner of some sort. But I believe that if I could see from Heavenly Father's perspective, looking down on us where we stand in this path, that I would see a perfectly straight way to the house Father has planned for us. What a comfort! I'm so thankfuly that Father has been changing me and I hope (only?) that I can do better than run in place along the path He has in mind for me and my family!!!

In other news:
My girls are getting more and more excited about the impending road trip! They are giddy about seeing some of our extended family, especially cousins... both those they do know and those they will meet for the first time. I told Ria a while back that her Aunt C. had mentioned that her cousin K. was dancing around the house because she was so excited that Ria was coming. Since then Ria has danced around the house and said, as she's dancing, "I wonder if cousin K. is dancing right now, too!?" So fun. Additionally, they both pray about our trip each night and sometimes each morning (as does Jess!). It's so very wonderful that they are so completely excited. Hopefully it will make the driving easier (and I hope they are so excited to return to see their Daddy to make THAT drive easier!). ^_^

I receievd some compliments from our Story Time ladies this morning. :) As I entered the children's books area one of our ladies said, "Look at how skinny you're becoming!" Now... skinny is NOT a word I would assign myself, but I certainly did feel some warmth of gratitude for the lovely compliment (which both of our awesome ladies said to me)! I received another glorious compliment a couple hours later when a dear friend told me the way her husband summarizes me. And it went something like: "You know, Tori is a good person. She's just a really good person who is REALLY trying." I actually cried (which, believe it or not, I rarely do much of any more unless I've eaten wrong in the recent past!) because I was so touched by that glorious compliment.

Just some random commentary about me:
I still have a problem with not thinking about what I say before I say it... and putting things in not the most gentle or tactful manner. I did that this very morning and I fear I may have hurt a lady I just met and I totally did not mean to and DID try to apologize just in case I had. Anyway... there are a few people who think I believe I'm better than them... or believe that I think I'm better than others in general. This is really truly NOT true of me as I am now. I still have very strong ideas and/or opinions, but I also believe (and always have, but am able to sort of express it better now) that everyone else has the right to their own position/beleif/feeling as well!

While I may yet have some problem with thinking that "my" way was the one right way... and probably did to some greater extent in the past... I know I surely seemed to others to think my way was the only way ALL the time... I'm ever and increasingly having much less problem with such feelings/thoughts (and have had much LESS of a problem with such thoughts since we came here). Currently, I believe the only one right way is the Lord's and I try to determine what His way is and then change mine to be in accord with. I actually have had to change one position I had/took on a pretty big subject because I believe that I was standing on the side of the philosophies of men rather than the Lord's side. It was very difficult to come to the point that I could see the reality of that and then change my stance! Anyway...

I've actually begun to see my own problems more compassionately when they exist in me, which is such a treasure trove, really.... As a result, when I see those same problems in others I can SEE that they are mine as well and since I feel compassion for those problems in me I feel it for those who are dealing with them, too. If that makes sense. There is actually a hymn that talks about that sort of thought process and it has come to mind regularly lately, but I can't think of it right now. How annoying. Well, anyway... if you're a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints you'll probably know which one(s) I'm talking about and perhaps may be so kind as to comment about it!? That would be lovely. Thank you, in advance!

Back to the House subject:
I'm feeling more and more that we are unlikely to remain in this county once we move. When we first started this whole process, I actually didn't mind either way (staying or moving out of the county), but now I'm feeling mournful over moving out of this county. Having said that, though, I feel the desire/need to say also that I'm working on maintaining an accepting and joyful attitude about the whole thing so that I will be more like Nephi and Sam in this moving experience than I was when we moved here a bit more than 3 years ago... I was definitely a Laman or Lemuel in attitude at that time (and totally thought I was doing so well to simply DO what the Lord so obviously wanted us to do)!!! Isn't it wonderful to see personal progress!!! ^_^ I'm so grateful for the glimpses!!! ;)

So you'll have to come visit us after we actually move... especially cause it's likely to be a bit removed from where we've been! And we might actually end up with more land than we've been looking at. What an awesome thing THAT would be!! More land equals more ability to live off of it!!

News

We had a lovely quiet Thanksgiving. How about you? Jessie helped me with the awesome gift bird, by preparing a brine and parting the succer. It wouldn't fit, whole, in the brining container. Man, that bird was GOOD! The girls (and little bit of Jessie) and I whipped right through it. Today we're enjoying some lentils made in the broth with some turkey bits, carrot slices, and celery slices. The broth we made from the turkey drippings and carcas is amazingly delicious... so anything we put it in takes on that same amazingly awesome flavor. Could it be that the flavor is enhanced by the love of the gift? Me thinks the answer be YES! :)

The trip to Virginia seems secure, which is such an amazingly tremendous and unexpected gift and blessing. I'm still nervous. I mean, COME ON... I'm driving 12+ hours with three littles on my own (and that's just ONE WAY)! Additionally, though not a cause for nervousness, Jessie has this Christmas off. In case you didn't know, that's THE FIRST in MANY years that he'll actually be around ON Christmas. Unfortunately (and fortunately?) we won't be!!! How ironic, eh? I prayed about whether we should go up North after mention was made of the intended gift. I did actually feel really conflicted. The Lord made it very clear to me that He would have me in Virginia. So, VA is where the girls and I will be....

We found out only moments ago that the seller's bank has signed the contract AND wants to close on the house by December 30 (in the contract we have the closing set for January 31st). So, we're excited. Still nervous about not having the closing costs, though! I've developed a plan, but am nervous even about the application of it. I keep talkin' myself UP, though, with phrases like: "God's got it!" and "Let go, let God." and so forth. I'm still struggling, but truly trying to remain focused on the fact that we really are doing this because we believe it is what the Lord would have us do. As a matter-of-fact, because of the closing cost stress, if I didn't firmly believe that Heavenly Father made it clearly known to me that we SHOULD be doing this, I would feel strongly (of myself) that we should cut our losses now and pursue this course no more! Seriously. Since I feel so strongly that Jess and I are understanding the Lord's Will clearly on this, I 'simply' (HA!) have to keep talkin myself up that He truly WILL work it out.

In other, and really unrelated,news; so far my Ward has three families growing in 2010. Two of them are expecting their very first babies! I'm excited because Jess and I, though not preggie, have been expecting to welcome an addition to our family sometime in 2010. So, we'll have a big YOUNG nursery in 2012, eh? :) Oh, and then one of my sisters (the one I grew up with) is expecting... so I'm also rather hoping that the other actively growing family in our family will turn up preggie, too. It happened about a year and 9 months ago... so it could happen again! And to me (and I think my sister, too), this would be SUCH a joy and pleasure because then, when we ever get together (especially the whole family!), there will be play groups of cousins! What a pleasure that would be!!! I know... I'm a goofball. I know.

The Short and Long of It

Nothing and everything has been happening lately... keeping me from post here. That's the short of it. :)

The long of it? Well, we've realized it's time to move. Can you believe it? I mean, it's almost 3 YEARS we've lived in this house by the shore and we seriously thought we would buy a house after 3 MONTHS when we first moved here! Well, His ways are not our ways, for sure. ^_^

Part of the hold-up, me thinks, is that we had to plod through our pride... or perhaps, treading ON it would be more correct. If you didn't know already, Jess and I live in a mobile home in a trailer park before we moved here. It wasn't the best experience ever (primarily because of the trailer park part of it!). When we moved here we were determined to get into (and not just our lovely rental home) a foundation home. Well, we were so determined we were not considering anything else. I do believe that the delay in finally deciding firmly that it's time to buy our own place is not just about our pride... I think the market needed to come down to where it is; otherwise, even had we been sufficiently humble 3 years ago, we wouldn't have been able to afford what we're looking at buying now.

There are some SWEET deals abounding around here! Let me tell you about one I just found: 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 car garage, fenced yard, corner lot, 13x26 family room... and only $99,500. I know, RIGHT! Oh, and in this area, you can offer 20% less and often get an even SWEETER deal! Homes and deals like that are pretty readily and regularly available.

And we're totally not interested. Can you hazard a guess as to why the disinterest? Well, it's likely you already know since I have only a very few regular readers. ^_^ We're planning to buy a mobile home! Funny, right? Not just any mobile home, though. It will need to be a double wide. (heehee... we're on our way to becoming real "hicks"!) Oh... and the most pertinent detail... ON LAND! Okay, so almost all homes are technically on land... but the characteristic we are most interested in is the amount of land. We want more than 2 acres and a double wide trailer for under $100,000. Yes, we truly are going full on redneck! We've found a few places that fit the bill... or, er, my description. ^_^ Lately Ria will start many sentences with something like, "When we move to our farm...." heeheehee I'm just tickled!

We are going for a sort of family farm, actually. Immediately we'll have just our square foot gardens (Jessie is sure they will transport without a problem... hmmm). The first other acquisition we're hoping to go for is chickens. Isn't that a hoot! I mean, me... chickens? If someone told me when I decided to marry Jessie that we'd end up doing what we are currently planning I would've laughed them to the Moon! Seriously. But I'm actually really excited about this huge change and tremendous transition. :) After chickens... well, I'm interested in any number of animals for various purposes like: fiber, milk, and meat (in no particular order), specifically: goats, rabbits, sheep. and maybe some more types of fowls (like ducks and turkeys). I've started the research and chickens and rabbits will be the easiest to do with less land... we'll all just have to see what happens!

So, I have been BUSY. I've worked on finding homes to look at in person, packing, as well as all the REGULAR stuff I have to do... oh, and we've all been sick this last week (or more, depending on the person). BLAH!

In other news...
Tea is walking like a pro. She doesn't fall down a bit unless she's tired, throwing an attitude, or walking on other things. The newest of the news on Tea is that she pooped in the potty today! ^_^ Awesome, right?!! New as of yesterday: she's taken to babydolls! She's found some baby dolls in the girls' room and taken to carrying them over her shoulder (the way she's often carried). She also talks to them... she raises her voice and sort of sing-songs to them... no real words that I can decipher, but she's definitely talking to her baby! Generally she is a funny little girl with a mobile face. She'll set her eyebrows down and pucker up her lips when she's not happy... or scrunch up her nose and raise her upper lip to play... or head-butt ya to get your attention (mostly with Daddy, but sometimes with me and her sisters, too). She's a doll! Can you believe she's almost ONE year old!

Kat is now THREE years old!!! She's still progressing nicely in her efforts to learn to read. She still sits with books and "reads" them regularly and loves for Mama, Daddy, and Ria to read to her. She also still loves to color and most recently has begun to actually cut when she has scissors (before she would try, but the paper would just slide between the blades). She loves to be with Ria, doing anything Ria is interested in doing. She also loves to take things away from Tea. :( ugh! She knows she's not supposed to and gives it right back if she realizes I saw what she did, but she definitely tries to get away with snatching from the baby. Kat is able to ride her bike (with training wheels) more than 2 miles! She did it with Jess on our last day of bike riding for PE in September! I was really amazed because she hadn't done nearly so well for me the weeks preceding that feat.

Ria is working on her school pretty well lately. Not as much fighting and resistance as I'd been dealing with through the end of the summer. We're actually working on the scheduling aspect of homeschooling more currently. We've been doing a sort of block schedule the last two weeks and it's worked better (with all our outside activities) than trying to complete each of the classes every day that we did successfully for most of the summer. We'll be experimenting some more to try to find an even more compatible way for her to work. Ria rarely fusses about practicing piano lately... she actually seems to enjoy that the most of all her classes. Easy to understand why.... It's because she's gotten quite good (especially for her age). She plays the major chords: C, G, D, E, and A (I think that's the order she's learned them) and it's a pleasure for me to watch her little hands move in concert to play them! She's in the second level books and currently finishing up the third song in the practice book. She a few pages into the theory book as well. I love to watch her play and she really does quite well, I think. :)

Jess is immersed in Biketoberfest Week at work right now. It's not actually a whole week. He's been working even longer hours than normal. If Bike Week, in early 2010, is this plus some (the way his boss tells him) I REALLY hope we're able to make it to VA to visit. At least then the girls won't be upset about not being able to spend time with their Daddy in the morning. I think that'll be in March. I really don't know what the dates are for sure. The trip really depends on whether we've got secondary transportation (cause Jess will still need a way to get to work when we're away!). So, if you think of it and so desire, please pray for a miracle of transportation to come our way. With the way things are currently (and will be, at least, until our tax return) we cannot afford any change in our budget. Hopefully that WILL change with the home purchase... we'll see.

Oh, and just to let you know... the girls will participate in a "homeschool fair" at the end of January and sometime in either May or June. If you're going to be around then, let us know and we'll send an invitation your way. ^_^ If not, no worries... I'll try to get some video of it and get it online... SOME day! ^_^ I know... I'm super bad at getting it up here, but seriously, homeschooling is really rather difficult and time consuming! I love it. Wouldn't change it. But it's not easy, either.

Sometimes It's Okay to be Sick

Okay, so it's really not okay... but I can more easily see some purpose to it... perhaps. :)

The girls (starting with Tea, then to Ria and finally getting Kat) ended up with another cold type thing with upper respiratory congestion and such. Herbs are awesome. ^_^ Jess has come to value the education I am trying to give myself on the "medicinal" application of culinary herbs. I decided to start there because they tend to be the easiest to access AND grow. I do hope to start my own herb garden before too long. What a pleasure THAT will be....

Tea is basically fine now, but the girls were still coughing up a storm last night. Tonight neither has coughed a bit. YEAY!

The purpose I see? Well, it has forced us to lay low. We had SO much going on the two weeks before. While all of it was quite nice and fun and educational and everything, it was SO much! We had to cancel a few things this week. We missed participating in them, of course, but the time to cool it down was really good, too.

Today was especially nice. The girls and Jess missed church today. I went with the baby. Jess actually stayed awake more of the time time he was home. And then he went to work. Ria and Kat read and played all afternoon. And then time for the sun arrived (we tend to prefer evening time because the weather is much more temperate AND we can actually get outside then most days without interrupting "school"). Since that is really part of the flow of our days (most days), we stick with it for Sunday.

Well, the past few times we've spent hanging out on the driveway, Tea actually investigated the inside of the garage. She was SO excited to have a whole new area to crawl around in and SO many new things to look at. She even crawled over, under and through... there's not a real way to do that much in the house. But today was THE coolest, by far.

Ria and Kat were riding scooters and trikes (Kat on the latter, both on the scooters). Tea started to crawl around in the garage, but then sat for a while and watched her sisters. Eventually she made her way over to a sort of trike (but not the high red flyer kind) and started pushing it around (almost like a push toy, but she was pushing while holding onto the handlebars!). It was so sweet and fun to watch. After a while she even tried to climb to sit on it. Well, that didn't work terribly well. I decided to put her on it and see if she would allow me to push it for her. This particular model (^_^) has a sort of stick thing that you can put in a hole in the back to make it easier on the parent's back to push the thing AND a little drop down foot rest for the child! Nice, right? Another of Father's gifts to us through an earth-bound Angel! :) Well, she LOVED it! She even stood up on the little foot rest as well as bounced to get me to push her more. It was really fun for me. After many revolutions around our driveway we even went on the street. The street is sort of uphill when you go East. So, we did that. I was worried that Tea might not like the faster ride on the way back to the house. Well, I was totally wrong. She LOVED it! So funny to me because she tends to be a bit of a scardy cat.

Well, after I was finished pushing her, Ria took a turn. When Ria was done Tea decided to continue working. And, MAN, she was TOTALLY working! She was so intent and intense. She resumed her efforts at using the "trike" as a push toy, holding the handlebars. She fell a few times. But not once did she fuss!! I decided to try to make things easier (cause she kept running the back wheel into one of her feet), so I positioned her behind the trike. She was really rolling then! And she seemed to REALLY enjoy it. Not in a grinning sort of "This is FUN" sort of way, but more of a "This is really enjoyable work" sort of way. And she worked SO hard!

It was really awesome and interesting to watch. For a while now I've known that Ria likes to work hard... of course, NOT always, but she tends to focus more easily and works hard when she's into something. Kat enjoys watching and DOing. When she was a baby she wasn't too interested in books. Ria was sitting for me to read to her at 6 months old and bringing books to me for me to read to her at 9 months old. Kat didn't bring me a book to read to her until she was around 15-18 months old. Tea brought a book for me to read to her at about 7.5-8 months old. She enjoys sitting and watching her sisters for bits of time, but then she'll get right in the middle of things (just like Kat, our cat!). ^_^ Today seemed to me to be another confirmation of my idea that Tea is sort of a cross between Ria and Kat, leaning toward Ria.

Given all that, it probably will not surprise you to learn that Tea took her first hands-free steps the other night to Ria. :) I'm sure you guessed as much already. My Mom got it right!

Not Done Yet

So, amazingly, the van was repaired in time for Jessie to get to work by 3pm on Wednesday. He was supposed to be there at 8am, as normal, but because of the van problem, the General Manager reworked things and he was able to be in later. The guys at the shop Jess took the van to (via a tow) were awesome and moved our job to the head of the que and finished it lickity-split. YEAY! Another miracle. And if you question THAT, you obviously haven't had to take your vehicle to a mechanic lately!

Thursday we took Jess to work because it was Ward Council day. We stopped at the grocery store and purchased the diapers (among other things) that we were ABLE to afford thanks to Heavenly Father and the miracle of the Publix gift card, which wouldn't have happened if the van hadn't broken down. Then we had a friend over for a little while before Story Time and played at the playground for a little while after, then on to Dance later in the afternoon. Ward Council was canceled. Probably that was best for me cause I'd been feeling a bit groggy and had a slightly swollen right neck lymph node. (This particular swollen node seems to indicate, in my body, the setting in of some illness. When the other is throbbing or swollen, I usually need to drink some water. Interesting, eh?)

Friday we took Jessie to work again because we had a homeschool group Firehouse visit. What a GREAT time. The Firefighters did acceptable talks (could've been more specific and clear, but it was still good). The tour was great! Nice Firehouse!!

Today we went AS A FAMILY! to work for Coastal Cleanup (it's a national thing) here in our area. We really enjoyed it. We received two of the fabric grocery bags with equipment for picking up trash including gloves and some claw-like reaching tools. We joined up with two other homeschooling families and spent about 2 hours cleaning up with them. Among our families, we had 6 girls! Jess kept watch, counting: 1-2-3-4-5. He didn't have to worry about Tea, she was in the sling. It was funny to me, but also very sweet! He didn't learn the other little girls' names, but he sure had an eye out for them!

TEA
So, in the last week (or maybe a little less), Tea has cut two teeth! They are located in the bottom front. Totally normal, but SO exciting for all of us here. She's been pretty aware of her sisters' pleasure and Mama and Daddy's excitement over it. Jess actually found the first one! And I was lucky to find the second... a couple days later! So, our baby is totally growing up! heehee ;)

KAT
Today Kat made friends with the oldest girl child present. It was REALLY sweet to see how those two seemed drawn together.

Just some interesting Kitty Kat tidbits.
Kat has a tendency to name people (mostly adults) "teacher" and SOME kids her age "friend". The Wednesday that we worked at bag stuffing, Kat said, as we were leaving, "By mine friends!" Those were all adults. Today she named the oldest girl her friend. It was really sweet.

On Friday we went to Publix** to buy diapers and groceries. As we were leaving, she said, "Bye cuties." to the ladies that had been helping us. This is one of the funniest things I've heard her say to adults. She really is a funny little girl.

RIA
This little girl had a BLAST today! Talk about a dream come true... TWO little girls, right around her age to hang out with for hourS. She was thrilled. They worked hard, too, which was a pleasure to see.

Ria is learning how to ride her bike without training wheels. Say a prayer for us all! ^_^




**In the checkout for Publix the cashier was very encouraging (like a pusher?) of purchasing some cookies that were on sale. I refused, not giving a reason initially. But she insisted it was a good deal and showed a bag we would get for free. I said we couldn't because we were gluten free. She continued, saying we could use the bag. I told her that I would like to buy them just to give them away, but honestly didn't have money for it at all. She asked something about government assistance. Now, honestly, I'm not totally against asking for help. Heaven knows we've asked MANY times and received abundantly. But I really feel government assistance is a LAST resort, thus my steering away from it even though I know we are technically eligible for any number of things we could get.... Anyway... I said something like, "I REALLY don't want any help from the government." As I said it I felt a sort of anxiety because when this sort of conversation has come up before, whomever I was speaking with would sort of try to argue me into using the assistance. Truly, I want them to accept assistance if that is what they feel is best for their family... but why pressure me. My choice is NO reflection on them or any opinions I may have about their choices. The cashier pleasantly surprised me. Her body language was sort of shocked and then she said, "That's just like I was!" She continued on into an explanation of how she had worked to make ends me. (And she'd done a good job from what it sounds like.) I had to respond, "Well, I can't brag in my own strength or worth, but I know Heavenly Father works it all out for the good of my family." And I proceeded to explain how we had the gift card I was preparing to use. She was impressed and went on to tell me that I shouldn't ever let anyone take my Faith and that I had to make sure to guide my children to have it and never let it go. What a great and encouraging conversation, huh? Well, as I was leaving, and right after Kat made her cute little comment, our cashier was bustling to get us 3 coloring books with crayons... like she wanted to help us as much as she could think to do because she was impressed. What a good feeling!

On The Personal Front

Dad Gollihugh mentioned that he thought I was not posting nearly enough about the grandkids. Well, he's probably right. I apologize for making it difficult to find the personal stuff. If you come here to read what I have to say about our family, you will certainly miss it if you don't look beyond the first post. I'm purposefully sort of burying these posts "after" the political ones. Not because I want to hide my family, but rather because I'm trying to make the things that will effect my family (especially in the long-run) easier for anyone who wanders this way to view.



So... what's new? Well... and this may seem pretty random to most of you, but I want to apologize to my sister-in-law: Anni, I'm sorry. I really am sorry.



In other news...

Tea
Wow... this little girl is basically walking, but a scardy-cat. Jess told me a few nights ago that she ran across the bottom of the bed (feet on the floor, hands on the bed). This was not news to me, but it was the first time he saw it for himself. Now he believes me! So, yes, she is basically running as well as walking. She's starting to test out her "hands free" balancing more and more, but she's still a scardy-cat even in that respect. It's really funny to see her knowingly LET GO and then either grab whatever she just release in a sort of "I'm FALLING" snatch OR plop herself onto her butt.

She's still nursing strong. I hope it will continue into the future. She's also eating a lot more from the things we eat for meals. Unfortunately, much is off limits because our foods often have nuts, but she LOVES what I allow her. Her favorites still seem to be butternut squash (with salt and butter), figs (we were treated to some of these lucious fruits by Mom and Dad Gollihugh! YUM!!!), and bananas. But she's tried basically everything I eat now. And she has LOVED almost all of it.

While our family was visiting, Tea started making a LOT more jokes! She has the funniest, cutest little "I'm going to get you" laugh! Her Pop and Mema got to experience her sweet funny little laugh. What a pleasure!

Tea's jokes are often involve 'bothering' her sisters. For instance, during our family's time here (and for a few nights since their departure) our girls have slept in Mama and Daddy's room. Ria has been on the floor on sleeping bags. Well, Tea has crawled over there (when Ria was awake AND not) giggling her little "I'm going to get you" laugh and then head-butted or otherwise 'tormented' Ria. When Ria was awake, Ria intereacted a little with Tea and they ended up going back and forth in some silly giggles. When Ria was asleep, Tea would try a few times to get Ria to interact and then give up and try Kat (who was sleeping in the crib in our room). It was REALLY funny to watch!

Oh, and the head-butting thing comes from Jessie's play with Tea. He'll push her over with his head when they play. Or he'll rub his bristly short hair on her belly to make her laugh. So, of course, she does the same thing when trying to play with others. Though, I don't think I've seen her specifically try to rub her head on anyone's belly yet. That'll be a hoot, though, if she does!

Kat
Have I mentioned that she pesters me to "do school"? I love it, of course. She is determined to read. I asked her a while ago if she wanted to, but she wasn't into it. Probably nigh on a year ago now and she didn't want to, but more recently, she told me she DID want to learn how to read. So we started in the book I've mentioned before (How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons) and she's currently on lesson 17. Can you believe it? She's amazing! The going is slow because we are working for mastery, but she's excited about it every day. What a joy!

Because Ria decided she wanted to start Spanish, Kat is totally into it, too. (Of course!) So, when we "do Math" we work on Spanish counting as well. Kat basically has it down (1-5, which are the numbers we've been REALLY focusing on... because I want to know that she understands that each number represents a value, not just counting numbers) and almost through ten (in Spanish, she can count to 20 in English). Amazing. (But of course I would think so!)

Kat is WAY into coloring. She's in a monochromatic phase, for the most part. She'll color everything, or almost everything, on one side of the page in one color. While she doesn't strive to stay inside the lines of the internal parts of a picture, she DOES almost stay inside the outer lines of any given part of the whole! I've also noticed, when she does use more than one color, that she has a natural tendency to choose complimentary colors (opposites on the color wheel that heighten the intensity of the other when placed next to one another... just in case you weren't sure). What an eye on my Kat, right?!

Kat LOVED having our family visit!! She especially loved the trips to the beach with everyone. It was such a pleasure to see her loving her Mema and Pop SO well! She was very sad that they left and has asked much about them since their departure on Wednesday afternoon.

Ria
Our eldest daughter was DISTRAUGHT when she realized her cousins were gone and not coming back, which happened earlier than initially planned! She cried inconsolably for quite a while. It was heart-breaking for Jess and me. So, she obviously loved having her cousins here to visit. It was a pleasure to see how much they really did seem to enjoy one another!

Ria also loved having her Pop and Mema visit. When Jess asked (the first time) what her favorite part of having them visit was she thought for a few moments and then replied, "Holding their hands." Of course, Kat's response was the same. ^_^ We loved having all of the Gollihughs here to visit for the short time they were. We hope it will happen again much sooner than later!

Subsequent questions about what the favorite part of the visit was brought up answers like, "Going to the beach," and "Playing the game," and "Going to eat at Daddy's work". The last one Mema and Pop treated us to the first night they made their presence known.

Ria is regularly working on piano. She's still reading lots. Of all the things she does when she doesn't HAVE to do something, reading is the most regularly occurring activity. For "school" she is almost through all of the Narnia series. She's finished the Little House on the Prairie series, but I just found a book by Laura's daughter that Ria will read soon. She's read the first 3 Nancy Drew books and the first 2 of the Mandie books (really great Historical Fiction). Unfortunately, Ria is still resistant about "doing school", but thankfully she really gets into most of it once she's done complaining.

Ria will be starting History, Science, and officially doing Spanish once we receive the items for those subjects (I do have to order them first... on the TO DO for Monday). I'll be using my allowance. That use of "my money" is totally worth it, of course, but the selfish part of me does wish I could spend it on something for me (like save it to make a trip to VA... which, Mema and Pop generously contributed to!!! or something JUST for me). I have been feeling more okay with 'always' spending what was intended as allowance for me on things for the girls and/or our family because I think it's just my time for that. Ya know? After I "cover" the expense of those, (it's going to take a little more than 2 months of "my allowance" to pay for the items mentioned above) I'll purchase a Language Arts and Character Development curriculum... hopefully by December. That'll be another 2 months of allowance. *sigh* If only the taxes we paid "for" public schools we don't use could be kept in out own account. It would be that much easier to fund this difficult enterprise (homeschooling). I would surely give it up (especially with all the difficulty I've faced with Ria) if I didn't know Father directed our path in this as well as other difficult choices.

Jess
Talk about a happy guy! He was super happy to have his family visit. Sad his sister left early, but still enjoyed his Mom and Dad's presence. He was supportive and comforted me through the difficulty of an early departure, which was a tremendous blessing to me. He's a good man.

Did you know Jess was, basically, working as the General Manager for his restaurant? Yep. And he did a good job at it. Awesome, right? It was two weeks worth (three Sundays) of being the General Manager and he liked it, from all I could tell. It was a little more stress, but he handled it admirably.

Did you know Jess teaches a monthly Food Storage Food Preparation classes for my Ward? Yep. He's taught at least 6 classes now. I think it's been more, actually. His classes have been really well attended for the past couple/few months. The attendance has sort of peaked because members of the Stake have been attending. This last Tuesday, he had about 20 and the time before it was around 30 attendees. Awesome, right? He loves it. When he talks about it, he says that he hopes he is able to reinforce the importance of having AND using food storage. I'm so glad!

Me
I'm still feeling a lot of urgency to share the political stuff I learn about and know. Thus the messages easiest to access here, on my blog.

We've officially joined the main homeschooling group for our area, a homeschooling PE group, and a few Yahoo!Groups for homeschooling families (specifically LDS, I think). There's another local Yahoo!Group I can now join (since I know some of the members) and will do so soon. I also hope to and expect to sort of form another homeschool group that will not meet at a Church and will not be focused on Christianity. I learned that there is a desire among a number of families in the area (larger than my specific location) and that they would be willing to drive for it. Just hoping/trying to answer a need. Thankfully I will not be doing it alone. One of the homeschooling Mamas in my Ward will be working on it with me. WHAT a blessing!

I'm still trying to write as much as possible. Not able to do it much, but still trying.

Most of my "extra" time is spent reading ahead of Ria. I've got a few series lines up for her after she finishes those she's working on now. I received a few suggestions from my sister, Evelyn, that I wanted to pass along because they are particularly wonderful books. Goose Girl and Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale. I also did read Princess Academy and they are ALL wonderful. There are good messages and they are not "too heavy" either.

The house is not a total disaster area. I'm especially noting this because it has tended to be a total disaster after family visits. I'm SUPER happy it is not one right now and hopeful that I'll have it back to the sort of medium I've felt happy with lately. I'm still behind on dishes, but that tends to be the bane of my homemaking existence. ;) We all have one, I'm sure.

I'm often tired, but not in the way I used to be. I think that has a lot to do with SCD and trying to eat healthier these last 3+ months. I'm almost to 4, I think. My guts seem much healthier. WHAT a blessing!

Some Bits

It was a few weeks ago now that the Sister Missionaries were here when Jess was home. Spontaneously Ria sat on Jessie's lap and started to talk to him about quitting the smoking and getting baptized. It was really funny and one of the missionaries even said something like, "This is just too perfect. It's like a total set-up!" Ria has recently set herself on a quest to get Jess to quit smoking. On his days off, when he goes out to smoke (if Ria knows) she'll tail him all the way to the front door telling him he shouldn't go out there to smoke, that he needs to quit smoking because she loves him and doesn't want him to hurt his body, and any number of other chastisements. If I hear it, I do tell her to stop because she's not speaking to her Father in a respectful manner. I know, you might think that I should let her do her thang, but I really feel and believe that she needs to respect his agency just as she wants us to respect hers... but more so because he is her Daddy!

Thursday night, on the way to The River Grille, I was singing Primary songs to the girls. Tea was very fussy and it was a way for me to keep more calm than I otherwise would have felt. One of the songs I sang was Nephi's Courage. I definitely felt the Spirit as I sang it, especially the third verse (which I was really surprised I remembered correctly!). I know Ria felt it, too because right after finishing it she requested we sing it again. After we sang it again she, in a VERY determined way, told me that we needed to sing it for Daddy when we went to pick him up AND, she added, "When he hears this song, he's going to decide to stop smoking!" I thought that was really sweet, but I didn't think she would really expect us to sing it OR for him to decide to quit after hearing it. Well, I was wrong. As soon as she saw Jess she reminded me that we needed to sing for him. He was curious, so we did. He had a cig in his hand (cause he came from the smoking area to greet us) and went back to it after we finished singing. So much for quitting! But I just love my Ria's determination, even though I cannot condone the manner in which she lets her expectation or desire be known most of the time. :)

Ria definitely is my little missionary. Kat has taken to telling me that she wants to serve a mission! :) She LOVES the temple song, but really enjoys Called to Serve, as well.

Last night was our June Ward Activity. I think it was my favorite one so far! VERY few people were present when time to start rolled around. We had 3 families!!! By the end we'd more than doubled our numbers. heeheehee But it was FUN. I was easily able to speak to everyone present, which has been pretty difficult in the past - especially with the running around I generally do to keep pitchers/punches full and so forth. I was actually able to sit and eat my banana with Tea while everyone else ate. It was nice.

Tea has a fever again today. I can't help but think that a large part of the reason for her constant illness must be teething. I mean, we did go to Story Time on Thursday, but only one person touched her and that person was not sick. *sigh* If you think of us, please pray for her and an easier time at cutting teeth (if that's what it is) OR just generally improved health for her (especially). I'll thank you, in advance... THANK YOU! :)

The Recital

Ria did well in her dance Recital. I think one of the things she was most excited about was receiving a flower afterward. We did give her a flower last year and she seemed to expect that was a part of it (and so does Kat now!). She was SO excited and pleased that she received not 1, but TWO roses. We couldn't locate a purple one, which was her special request, but she was just tickled to received 2! :) Ria was definitely a good line leader for the Tap and pretty good for Ballet. For the dances she was placed on opposite ends of the stage because, I guess, they could count on her most to do the steps she was supposed to do. We could tell she was checking the teachers who were off-stage and that was pretty funny. During one of the dances Ria was doing what she was supposed to do, but the rest of her line was not... so she ended up totally away from the rest of the group. The audience laughed and she looked pleasantly surprised. Ria definitely loved being on stage again this year! She's been talking about it a lot and VERY much looking forward to performing again next year.

Additionally, (I'm pretty sure I already told you) since her piano teacher told her she's going to do a Piano Recital she has had a renewed focus and desire to work on her piano practice. Well, today she told me she was going to play "Red Drum" instead of "Ten Little Indians". It's totally fine with me because Mary Kay told her she could choose her recital pieces. But now she has to memorize Red Drum... I think she did that, for the most part, already today! Can you believe her? She's just amazing to me.

OTHER NEWS

Jess
Still working LONG and hard in all his roles. He's also been helping me in important ways when he is home. I'd been having some tremendous difficulties getting Ria to focus on school and Jess stepped in a couple weeks ago and things have been improving dramatically, yet still bit by bit. He's being Daddy-teacher! I've read about other homeschool families and it seems Daddies most often take a stand-back-and-watch position. I'm so grateful that Jess is willing and able, in such a productive way, to take an active part in our homeschool!

Jess works Wed. through Sun., though Sundays he's off in the morning to go to Church with us. It's a pleasure to have him home on Mondays and Tuesdays, but having him gone from about 8am until 9:30pm or later is really rough much of the time.

This past Tuesday he made it possible for us to go to the temple together as a family. Every month I feel such a renewed gratitude for him support of my Spiritual Life!

Jess agreed to start having "Couple's Prayer" each night and he also reads his Bible out loud to me almost every night. I think I've mentioned this, but I'm just so thankful and... really... joyful over it, I can't brag on him and my God enough over it! I know Father has been working on his heart. Jessie's prayers are amazing! And when he has prayed over the anxiety and other problems I've been experiencing I've always felt a greater peace than when I was praying for myself. I know Heavenly Father is creating miracles in our lives (SO OFTEN!!!) and I know Jessie is recognizing them more, too! What an awesome blessing and even miracle, in itself!

Jess also makes our garden happen. It's been ridiculously difficult to get any work done the times I have tried to do it on my own, so it waits until Jessie's weekend. So, our garends are still not all planted out (one box is untouched as far as seeds being put in the ground while the other is almost completely planted now), but I'm going to pick my first BIG zucchini today! We'll have a BUNCH of yellow-crookedneck sqaush ready soon! I'm so excited! We have eaten quite a few raspberries and I even made some raspberry frozen yogurt (out of my homemade yogurt)! The girls LOVE the berries and enjoyed the "ice cream". What fun! I would like to get some blueberries from the Spring Hill Nursery that I got my raspberry plants from. No moolah for it right now, but I may be able to scrape some together next month? I DO hope so!

Me and SCD
So, I've been plugging along with the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It's difficult still. Even though I have more variety of things that I can eat, it's still very difficult for me to NOT be able to eat everything I fix for my kiddos. I'm pretty sure I'm through the worst of the "die off" period. Lots of the peeps on SCD go through such a period, but MAN, I had no idea it was SO difficult and even traumatic!

How "die off" was rough: anxiety became much worse, my chest hurt a lot and often, diarrhea was basically non-stop (it had been regular, but not every hour on the hour previous to SCD), I was more exhausted than when preggie!, my "fuse" was shorter than ever, head aches, cold/flu symptoms, and generally feeling BAD. Currently anxiety is much much decreased. I still have had troubling thoughts, but not in the overwhelming-can't-do-anything sort of way I was having. My chest hurts less often. I have not had diarrhea at all in at least 3 days! Energy levels are improving. Fewer head aches when I drink enough water. Cold/flu is basically gone.

I'm in the Pecan Bread Stage 2 of implementing the diet. I'm most excited about adding in nut butter and nut milks. :) I also successfully added in eggs recently, which will broaden my food preparation horizons!

So, it seems good.

Ria
She's fighting less. As I implement "Bible Character Studies" more regularly, she seems to understand why the way she was behaving was wrong. She's totally NOT doing all her work independently and happily, but there is a lot less fussing and fighting about it! Currently her favorite classes are Math (MUS) and piano practice.

Can you believe she's almost through the Laura Ingalls Wilder books? She's read more of the series than me! I definitely want to read more of them, but am currently reading ahead books that I would like her to read before too long.

Kat
Did I tell you she's starting Dance this summer? She is SO excited! She's already been talking about going on stage a getting a flower! :) Isn't that so cute?

Kat is progressing slowly (but wonderfully) through Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She also enjoys numbers, though she's still not identifying them correctly on a regular basis... except for #s 1 and 2, maybe.

Kitty Kat loves playing with Tea, but Tea doesn't enjoy or tolerate her well, much of the time. Every once in a while Tea will enjoy Kat and I feel hopeful that they will be good friends like Ria and Kat are almost all of the time.

My middle daughter does not enjoy hanging out outside as much as Ria. I think Kat doesn't tolerate heat terribly well. In this way she's definitely more like me. I suppose she must needs be like me in some ways since she's SO much her Daddy's daughter in most ways. It's kinda funny, too, cause Ria is more like Jess in heat tolerance and more like me in personaily (among other things)!

Tea
Almost 8 months old. Can you believe it? She's cruising confidently now. She crawls like a Speedy Gonzales on all 4s! ^_^ She loves to play Peek-A-Boo. She has started to prefer having her LONG bangs in FRONT of her eyes (a-la-Ria... do you remember?). Tea has been pulling her hair out of it's clips and ties to get it in front of her face. I think she has too adorable a face to hide behind her hair. I guess she doesn't agree. Who knows!

Tea is still a happy girl, but she DEFINITELY wants attention when she wants it! She does NOT like it one bit when I can't make time for her right when she wants to be with Mama. Thus, she can be pretty fussy sometimes. She also does not sleep more than 7-10 minutes without me with her. This is definitely reminiscent of both of her older sisters! I think my babies just become this way after about 5 or 6 months.... It's exhausting for me to have no time alone. I NEED my temple time to be completely off duty!!! I'm so grateful Jess is so willing to make the trip so I can nurse my nursling right before and right after my work/time off! ^_^

Tea and Fam Update

TEA IS SEVEN MONTHS OLD TODAY!!!! ^_^ To celebrate, here is an update post:

Have I mentioned that Tea gave me an awesome Mother's Day gift? She crawled well for the first time that day!!! Since then she's become a pro. Sunday evening she left the kitchen (where I was working) to hang out with her sisters in the dining room. It was a relatively short distance, but THE first time she has willingly left my presence! :)

Did I tell you that she has been cruising for the last 2 weeks or so?

She's pulling up to stand on anything she can reach (including trying to pull up using clothing!).

Tea has gotten brave about letting go of things to test her balance. As an example of her balance testing, she now leans her belly on the tub (I put her in it when I use the toilet) and then she lets go of the sides!

Tea has also become the little standing-turner. For instance, she'll stand at the open dryer door and slowly turn, let go, and hold on to the dresser behind it. She's also done a similar move in my bedroom between my bed and some shelves, which I recently rearranged. (I changed our bed area all around to make more room for Food Storage!)

My youngest is no longer an easy baby and I totally look forward to her full-on walking days! She doesn't sleep in her stroller any more. She won't sleep longer than about 15 minutes alone in bed. So, if I want her to sleep well, or nap enough, she's on me. I guess this is probably what happened with Kat and Ria... but with Ria I didn't have anyone else to care for and I had to work so when I was around her I wanted her on me! With Kat I pretty much always wore her in the sling so I didn't really know when she was sleeping. It's always different, this Mothering thing! We sure can say that for it, eh? :)

Ria
This girl has a Dr. Jackie, Mrs. Hyde thing going on!!! Seriously, one day she's SO sweet and loving to all of us and the next she doesn't want to cooperate with anything and is mean and nasty to Kat all day. It's alarming how much like my 12 year old self this little 5 year old of mine is! I love that my kiddos are advanced and all, but this is ridiculous! She doesn't want to do school even on her good days. Glad for some consistency, just not glad about the issue over which she's consistent!!!

I love her endlessly, even on her bad days. She's a helpful a wonderful girl more often than not and I'm lucky she's my first! It's just amazing to me, this "new development."

Kat
I'm not sure if she's having growth regression or emotional... but Kat has been peeing in bed at night and some naps lately. After washing way too much laundry (and being EXHAUSTED because of the extra food prep and other stuff) Kat is back in diapers at night. I'm not happy about that, but I am happy not to have as much laundry!!!

Kat has definitely learned how to throw a temper tantrum. They are JUST like Ria's. When Kat does what she does, I look at Ria and she's got this look on her face like, "Oh, THAT's what I look like?" I've told her enough that she knows it is.

Kat has adopted a habit of doing just like Ria. Ria might tell me about a booboo she just found or got. After Ria has finished, and usually walked away, Kat will come right over and mimic everything Ria just did: body posture, tone of voice, and repeat what Ria has said and done. It's amazing. I can't help but think my Kat is a kinesthetic learner and body intuitive! I do feel for her because I've realized I'm the latter, though not the former.

Kat and I are working VERY slowly at reading class. She tolerates it relatively well, especially when a movie is on the line. My kiddos and movies!

Jess
My sweet husband is still working hard and sleeping hard. :) Actually, he's been striving to be awake more on his days off. At least, when I'm up he does. I appreciate that SO much because he usually sleeps at least 6 hours straight... I can only dream about such luxury with all my issues combined with night nursing. On nights like Sun, Mon, and Tues, he usually sleeps at least 9... Oh, how I WISH! So, it's was extremely frustrating when he has (in the past) fallen asleep every time he'd sits down. It's SO much nicer to get to actually INTERACT with him when he's home. I only get so much adult-speak most days. It's wonderful to have my partner around as a companion, too! I love my three little companions... and Ria is ever more interesting to chat with, but conversation with her is just not the same as iwth another adult quite yet. :)

He actually loves his job. His short day is 8 hours, if he's lucky. But the other 4 days of his work week are still 12-15 hour days! Saturday night he conducted his first firing. He didn't like it at all. Especially because the guy reminded him of one of my brothers. He was obviously down and sort of sad when he got home, as a result. So, I gave him a pep talk about good business and stuff and he seemed a little bit better. One of the negatives to take with having a job that is a move in the right direction for his career. On a more positive note; because he's a Manager at The River Grille on the Tomoka, Jess gets a nice discount. Plus, right now, Monday nights kids eat free!! So, we're planning to eat out sometime soon as a Family Home Evening thing and it'll probably only cost around $20 WITH tip!!! Isn't that awesome? A perk for all the time he's gone, I guess.

Oh, did I tell you... they made cards for Jess? You know, business cards with the company logo and EXECUTIVE CHEF under his name. It was a pleasant surprise to both of us. You see, they have a policy of a 90 day trial. This step seems (combined with getting Health Insurance soon) to indicate a determination to keep him beyond the 90 days. Of course, there's every reason they SHOULD, but still....

Me
My biggest news has already been mentioned in a previous post. The whole 'trying to figure out how to heal naturally' stuff has been consuming my available time. I was planning to start reading the Harry Potter series (I told Ria what it was about and she almost tried to take one of the books out of my hands she was so excited!). But I haven't begun yet because of the learning curve on this celiac and SCD stuff (especially SCD).

I've been feeling a greater peace and wellness since getting off sugar and ESPECIALLY since starting this SCD. I think it's likely and very possible that my anxiety/panic/depression issues were, in part, due to hormones as well as bad gut flora die off after I went off sugar. My limbs still feel pretty weak a lot and I feel out of breath too much sometimes... but then there a moments like Sunday night when I was getting out of bed and felt like I jumped because I overestimated the energy necessary to get up from where I was. That could also be partially due to losing 14 pounds in 4 weeks... but who knows. :) That last little tidbit is some good news! I keep hoping and praying that I will be able to get down to or nicely below the weight I was after Ria was born before I get preggie again. It totally seems possible at this point! Thankfully. YEAY!

We Keep Choosing Us
Jess is praying with me at night as well as reading the Bible to me now. I would guess that his agreeing to pray with me has been just to please me, but he was reading the Bible on his own. I just asked him to read it out loud. This activity is one of my favorite times of the day. And I feel like it's done some good beyond the few minutes the actual activities require. YEAY!

Catchin Up a Bit

So, there are a few funny little things I've been meaning to share, but I've been super busy with ChaCha (when I'm on the computer), so I haven't been over here much. Weird, right?

Ria has some funny little things she says. I'll start with the most recent: at some point after dance class (Sept. 4) I was talking to Ria about her Leotard. It's a pretty black one that someone gave to me for her. She was very excited about wearing it. After the issue of the shoes, I was worried that she might not have been quite so happy with her black leotard since almost all the other girls were wearing pink. So, I asked her about it. We were having a little bit of a conversation, and, as is normal lately, Kat realized she wasn't a part, so she came over and included herself as she does. Ria corrected her and said, "NOoooo, you don't have a black Riatard." I was caught off guard, but immediately started smiling when I realized what she said and how she might be thinking. I let her know how to correctly pronounce the word, of course, but didn't continuously correct her because it was really cute (and I think most people wouldn't even hear the mispronunciation).

The other thing I wanted to share is something she's been saying for a while. When she wakes up, one of the first things (jobs) she does is to open the windows. Sometimes they are very difficult to see through because of an accumulation of mist and water. Jess once told her that it looked foggy through our windows when they were like that. After a while she started talking about it and often says, before she opens the windows, "Mama, do you think the windows will be FROGGY today?" I LOVE it! I think it's soo cute! I let her know what the real term is every once in a while, but FRoggy is stuck. And I don't mind a bit.

September 9, 2008
Mom Farrell turned... oh, I won't reveal it. But she had a birthday on this date! I totally have been super bad about birthdays this year and even didn't call my OWN MOM until we were getting in bed around 8pm or so! I felt even worse since she didn't answer the phone. Hopefully she got the message, at least.

I'm making a gift for her with my girls that I think she will really like and use... well, perhaps Ria and I are making with some scribbles by Kat. ;) So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

September 10
I woke up at least 30 minutes later than I intended, which frustrated me because that meant Jess would leave for work 30 minutes after I got up as opposed to an hour (family time). But I was really tired from the day before... so I couldn't be too mad at myself. And it was really sweet to see how Jess had occupied himself for at least the past 5 minutes (which probably wouldn't have happened had I been up). He was sitting on our BIG chair with Ria on the ottoman in front of him and he was painting her toenails! She was, of course, JUST THRILLED with that situation and the outcome! And he was pleased with himself, too, even though he had no clue that the "nail polish" he was using was total crud and would wipe off in two steps of her foot. (It's play stuff she received from somewhere and REALLY no good! But she LOVES it, so I haven't had the heart to throw it out.) She was super happy, though... and I think Jess was trying to win some points.

You see, Sunday Jess took Kat out for a walk so Ria and I could have some special time just the two of us. I'd been feeling like I really needed to be with just her and connect/reconnect and let her feel how much I appreciate her. We sat down and read her new book, which she'd wanted to do since we purchased it. Actually, she'd already read it, she wanted ME to read it to her. So, I did. Then we went outside and she rode her bike around the driveway and chatted me up a LOT! It was really relaxed and just a sweet time. Jess was gone for, maybe, an hour. Most of that time Ria and I were outside and I was just sitting while she talked and rode.

Subsequent to this (like the next day) Jess and Ria ended up doing something together and somehow (I think he asked) she told him, "Mama is more fun than you!" When he told me this he seemed rather chagrinned. This is a TOTAL reversal from the norm. It's been YEARS since I was cool to Ria! I TOTALLY attribute it to how much LESS time I've actually been around AND awake with her and Kat. So, I think the toenail painting was a way Jess was trying to win some COOL points with Ria. ^_^ Pretty sweet, right?

On the other hand, the time I've been unavailable lately has TOTALLY cinched the whole "Daddy's Girl" phase with Kat! It's rather... okay, VERY... sad for me when she runs to Daddy when she has a booboo! I mean, for a few more days or weeks she's still my baby! And anyway, I've felt a special closeness... like the way it seems like Jess has felt for/with Ria since she was super tiny... I've felt that way for/with Kat. So, perhaps that makes it even more heart wrenching for me. I dunno.

September 11
Jess thought he might attend a memorial, but didn't. Jess talked to me about the day and it was all I could do to not cry and boohoo! I purposefully do not think about the whole thing because of all the experiences attached to it PLUS, just the whole idea of it all. Anyway... I was bummed that it's still so very raw.

Another DANCE CLASS day. Ria's performance/behavior was very disappointing. It's SO obvious she is a TOTAL social butterfly! It pleases me that she is able to easily socialize and I even made sure we arrived to the studio early so she would have time to spend with any girls already there. She did and had fun, but didn't end upon entering class.

I was very pleased with myself for NOT interfering during all of Ria's disruptions and poor behaviors. I sat frustrated and annoyed that she was behaving so poorly. We went, together, to speak to her teacher after class. I apologized for her behavior and asked Danielle to suggest something we could do to improve her attention and participation. Danielle did tell Ria that she needed to focus and not distract the other girls, but no "plan of action." So, I suggested that next week, if Ria behaved improperly she could get 1 warning. If she didn't shape up, she's be sent out. She can return, but if she behaves poorly she'll be sent out and have to depart for the day. Hopefully it won't get to that, but she was REALLY disruptive today and I wanted her to know the repercussions for such behavior in the future. Danielle was quick to point out that Ria knew all the steps and did them, which I'm grateful she could see, but I don't want to pay for Ria to disrupt other children!

Kat, on the other hand, was SUCH a big girl during dance class. She was actually asleep through the beginning of our time at the studio. When she woke up she was very peaceful, which is a HUGE blessing! She ate some snack and then got out of the stroller. She sat on my lap and when she got down to go to the class she stopped right in the doorway and plopped her little bum down to watch. She was SOOOO good! She was bummed and pouting about not being able to dance. It was even worse after the girls came in to get their tap shoes on. Kat was just sure that once she got her ballet slippers on. It was so sad for me to have to tell her she couldn't! I don't think I'm going to get used to telling her she can't dance at the studio!

At least I can encourage her to dance at home! She DOES! Whenever there is talk of dance, dancing, ballet, or anything of the sort, Kat gets up on her tippytoes and flitters around the room in circles wide and loopy as well as some that are tight and dizzying AND NEW THIS school YEAR, she holds her hands up over her head (ballerina-like) with her fingers and thumbs together (making a little diamond over her head). It's just adorable!!!


FIGURE THE ODDS
"How do I know if Mormonism is true?" came as a question in ChaCha to me. I responded with my testimony and urged prayer and listening to the Holy Ghost. Wouldn't it be cool if I made a difference!?!?

I've actually received a few querries about the Church and respond with lds.org as my reference site and some REAL info. I like THOSE. Now to get rid of those darn explicit querries!

News, More News, and a Silly Moment

Some of you know that I wanted to "go raw" about a year ago. I did do about a 70-75% raw diet for about 3 months and it really made a big difference in how I felt. But I didn't have the courage to do it on my own. Well, attached with my education about eating "raw" I also learned a bit about microwaves. I know I still need to inform myself more completely, but the little bit I did learn caused me some great concerns and I was moving toward completely letting go of that modern "convenience" when a friend gave us one that they weren't using. It was a brand-spankin-new one. I wasn't completely set on the change, I just figured it was sort of meant to be since the microwave we did have (from Goodwill for $5!!!) was going caput. Anyway, the gift compeltely sapped my courage for the change. Do you see a theme that I lack courage? Well, I feel this about myself, anyway.
~NEWS~
Well, as it happens, a few weeks ago the microwave we received from friends actually went caput. I felt this was a really great thing since I'd been feeling ever more strongly that I was ignoring a change that would only benefit my family (even if it did inconvenience me a bit). So, I didn't try to fool with the plug or even really TRY to get it to stay alive like I would have had I wanted to keep it. I told Jess it was dead and told him I did NOT want to replace it, was he cool with that. He already knew what I'd been thinking a year ago and at that time he wasn't really encouraging. Now, he was completely fine with it.

So, we are a microwave-free household!!! It's really not been a horrible adjustment. I'm learning how to re-heat things on the stove and using my little toaster oven (I LOVE THAT THING!!!). So, that's the first bit of news. :)
~NEWS~
The second bit it extremely exciting to me. I've been rather concerned about what I would do, with regard to Ria and Kat, when I'm in labor/delivering the new baby. This would be an obvious concern for anyone who did not live near family and was going to have another baby. The matter is further complicated for me, however. You see... and hold on to your pants if you don't know my past birthing experiences as yet... I'm going to labor AND deliver this baby at home. Well, not so much a problem in iteself. That is, until you learn that I'm a NAKED birther. Women like me are pretty common, really. It's a sort of hypersensitivity of the skin during labor that makes it, basically, impossible to tolerate cloth of any kind on my skin.

This factor wasn't a problem before because my Mom was close enough to come at a call and I didn't think anything of her seeing me nakie under those circumstances. So, the problem: WHO, in the WORLD, would I feel comfortable looking at AFTER the birth!?!?!?! I had sort of narrowed it down to my visiting teachers and my visiting teaching companion, but I still felt unsettled about it all and certainly had not asked any of them.

So, this morning we went to Joy School. It was only Sage, Victoria, Mary, Ria, Kat and me. But I, honestly, REALLY love it when it's just us because it gives me a chance to spend time with Sage. And Sage is... well, SAGE!!! She's herself AND she's what her name means: wise! She's probably my hero right now. Currently she has 6 children and works nearly full-time to keep her family's business going. Her children are sporty (all of them play something!) and so she's SUPER busy. The only way I GET to spend time with her is by getting out kids together. So, I LOVE Joy School.

Anyway, we were talking about all kinds of things like we always do. I brought up my homebirth and some topics related to it. Through the conversation about all that stuff I brought up my concern over who to ask to help me with the girls while I'm laboring (we WANT them to observe the birth, so they'll be present for THAT). Anyway, as I was talking to her about itI felt an overwhelming desire to ask her to be my "call" person to come and watch the girls. She mentioned something about her daughters, but I thought that would make it even more perfect because then Ria and Kat would have other kiddos to distract them from Mama being noisy and pained. I did tell her that I was worried that the person I would ask would have to be okay with seeing me NAKED and she sort of laughed at that. And somehow I managed to make it clear that I would love it if she wouldn't mind being the person I called. She seemed really okay with it and even sort of interested. I was wondering if that meant I should call or not, but didn't want to press the issue. So, right before we're leaving she mentioned, "Just to make it official, I would be honored to help you with the girls while you labor and deliver at home." !!!! YEAY!!!! I'm sooo very happy!!!! Sage is really perfect for this because she has had her children naturally in the hospital (AND chose to do it that way... naturally), so she understands more than others. If you understand this issue, you will also know what a HUGE blessing this is for me. I'm SO blessed!!!!
~SILLY MOMENT~
Jess came home for lunch, as he always does. It was basically ready, but I didn't have it all served and ON the table as I sometimes do. He helped me set up the chairs and then move plates to the table. He has really desensitized hands as a result of his work in kitchens, so I asked him to get the forks for the table as they were REALLY hot, right from the dishwasher. So he gets them and as he's bringing them to the table he comments, "You know you have FOUR forks, right?" as if there was something off in my count. I pause for a moment and then turn around to look at him funny and say, "Well, UH, there ARE FOUR people in our family!" He seemed to almost miss a step in pondering that fact and then responds, "You're right. I just wanted to make sure you were on your toes and that we were on the same page." This strikes me as very silly and funny because it's as if Jess is sort of preparing for the increase in our family by reverting to his memory of a smaller family than we have. Perhaps this is not funny at all to the majority, but it brought an out loud laugh out of me! :)