Monday May 16^th.

Hey! I made it again!!  Can not believe I am updating everyone just a week later.  Well that was my goal.  Let me see here.

This one’s for Aunt Jennie in VA!!  I’m told she has a favorite!! :)

Monday we hit the chiro again.  My friend Kristina was there at the same time.  Boy, did we draw some looks!!  Her kids are 8yo twin girls, 3yo girl, 5month old foster baby and 7 week old foster baby.  We went in our room, she was in her room and in the room across the hall was a couple waiting for Charlie that was just fascinated with the whole going ons!  ROFL  I was standing in the hall chatting with Kristina who was in her examining room, Jeff was standing in the hall listening to us, the kids were in our examining room (and the hall of course) and this other woman was standing in her doorway listening and interjecting questions! LOL J  And Dr. Charlie takes it all in stride!!  He is so funny!  He is perfect for our family.  If one of the kids loses a tooth he makes a comment like “Oh I see you were rough housing with this one and knocked his tooth out.” Or the other day Jeff had a big bruise on his arm from Jenna.  That is why he should pick on someone his own size.  When we went in I said “If you see any bruises…….it was not from me.  The *kids* did that to Jeff!”  Charlie laughed and I said “I didn’t want you to report me for spousal abuse!”  Jeff had to have his *toes* popped as he hurt them somehow when he went around the neighborhood handing out flyers regarding our battle with the HOA.  That was interesting.  I was adjusted BEFORE Jeff so I didn’t have stinky foot hands all over my back. ;)

Tuesday was a lazy day for the kids and a busy day for me and Jeff.  We are frantically trying to put together stuff for the HOA and figure out what our options are.  The HOA has said that we can not park our bus in the community.  I may have told you guys this already……who can remember? ROFL  So anyways, we are just compiling paperwork and information and proof and blah blah blah.  I did get a nice phone call of encouragement from a family down the road that has 6 biological children.  It was interesting to hear her take on it as she has had similar problems with the HOA.  It seems that unless you “party” with the board members you can forget having anything approved.  Maybe it is time to have a BBQ at our house?  ;) 

Our “everyday” lunch of salad and tuna.  You can see the containers of cheese, cucumber, tuna, crushed Doritos, green onions, salad dressing.  Sometimes we have radishes and celery as well. J It is kind of a buffet, serve yourself type deal. :)

We went out to Chinese food Tuesday as nobody was interested in cooking!!  It was so nice and not busy!  The staff and owner there are SO NICE!!  My kids all run up and hug the hostess.  Her name is Lin (pronounced more like Leen) and she is young, no kids but just loves to talk to them!!  She stands by our table and chats with the older kids for a large portion of the meal.  It is a wonder any eating gets done!  When we come in she hugs them and pats their heads and as Jenna said “pets me”.  They are petters, this is true.  And the kids beam and giggle. :)  Helen, the owner, stopped Jenna when she was getting ice cream and asked her some questions about homeschooling I guess.  I was not there and don’t remember the conversation now but Helen adores our family and has asked that once they move into their house in June can they come over and “You teach me, train my son the way you train your kids.  My son scream and hit me all day.”  Her son is 4 years old!!!  They are building a new home just several blocks down the road from us!!!  There was a little boy sitting at the table down the way from us.  He was interesting as he climbed up on and lay on the tables, screamed and just generally made a ruckus.  He was about 4yo and my kids just shook their heads and we exchanged knowing glances. ;)  Our waitress was SO nice!!  We have not had her before.  The first thing she said was “Oh you pregnant again?” and when I did not quite understand what she said and I hesitated she quick said “Oh nevermind, nevermind.”  Then I realized what she said and said “YES!!  YES!!  I am pregnant!”  She breathed a sigh and I said “Oh you thought you were going to get yourself in trouble there!”

Wednesday I took the morning to reconnect with the kids as I felt so out of the loop on Tuesday.  So I spent the morning with them…….let me think…..I was cracking up.  At one point Jillian and Lina were arguing so I had Jill come sit by me.  I told her “Sit here and be quiet.”  But she started making conversation with me and saying things like “Mom, I’m not sitting down.” So I would stifle a chuckle and say seriously “Jillian, sit down.” And then she would.  Then she would take her little toy and make la la la la noises while looking at me out of the corner of her eye.  I would look at her and she would smile and say “Mom, I’m not being quiet.” And I’d get stern and say “Jillian, be quiet!”  The funniest thing Jill and Lina do now is have arguments.  One night Jeff and I were each reading the paper and the kids were all around playing but it was pretty quiet and Jill and Lina start in “Dollie (Jill) you stop.”  “No Baby(Lina) you stop.” “No you stop.” “No you.”  “No you stop Dollie.”  “You stop Baby.”  Around this point I started chuckling under my breath and Jeff looked over at me.  Then he heard them.  They were playing on the floor on opposite sides of the table.  They each had their own toys, they were playing happily, they were just having this little bickering time! ROFL  So Jeff started laughing quietly and one by one each of the kids realized we were chuckling and they heard what was going on and they all started chuckling.  Then I said “Jill and Lina!!!  (mock frustration) Stop!” and they both giggled.  How did they get so SILLY???  That must be a gene from Jeff!!!  ;)

Now writing this on Wednesday…….this was a LAZY day today.  The kids are in front of a movie.  We are getting Taco Bell for dinner. YUM!  And Kristina is going to let us borrow a new movie for after dinner.  I will make popcorn and kids will watch a movie and Jeff and I will go to bed when the kids do (EARLY for us!!) 

The kids spending “quality time” with the TV! ;)

Thursday we FINALLY made it to Sam’s Club.  We had been out of food for so long, hence the eating out all the time!!  We are just finding it difficult to find time!!  I know things will even out once Jeff gets back from his training and this HOA thing blows over.  We went to Del Taco first (remember, no food in the house! LOL) and ate lunch.  Then Sam’s is right across the parking lot.  It was funny because we used to go Friday afternoons or Saturday afternoons and everyone knew us.  Thursday NO ONE who worked there knew us.  Not one familiar face.  There were some older shoppers there though!  Older people always appreciate what we are doing.  You know, they use words like “You have those kids *trained* well!” and “Looks like you have them all in line!!”  You do not hear the younger generation using words like “train” and having “kids in line”.  LOL  Now-a-days it is all about how the children *feel* and not *stifling* their ability to explore.  One older couple looked at all the kids, got big smiles on their faces and then the man said “Hey!  You need more little ones!!!”  What a funny thing to say!!  I held my shirt against my belly and said “Hey, I’m working on it!”  Another woman stopped and asked if they are all ours and I said “Yes, and the two around the corner with that good looking guy are with us as well.”  Where she was she could see Jeff as well.  She said “You have very nice kids.”  Funny how all they have to do is have manners and they are considered “nice kids”.  I mean, they were being people.  They were chatting and hanging out.  I guess if you are a kid and you don’t run around kicking the old ladies in the shins and stealing their purses then you are “nice”. :)

It is so reassuring to know that I can use God’s road map for discipline and child rearing and I never have to lose control of myself!  I was telling a friend of mine that the recipe for child rearing a simple one.  Just read the Bible and follow the directions.  Really there are only a couple things you have to do to do it right!!  Why does everyone want to complicate it with tons of analyzing and too much emphasis on feelings (feelings are not always the truth!).  Perhaps that is why Jeff and I are never undone by our kids.  That is why people just don’t understand why and how we have so many kids.  Our perspective, our motivation and our mode of operandi is so foreign to most the world that they can not wrap their brains around our situation.  They can not understand that we are not just fraught with tiredness, feeling overwhelmed and wondering when it will all be over.  Their perspective is not our reality.  I think I have just had a revelation and my own personal epiphany.  I am starting to understand the other side. ;)  LOL

Here is a great article that made me want to stand on the rooftop and scream “We are a large family, hear us roar!!”  It is written to Catholics but so much of it applies to us that I thought it was fabulous!!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/849466/posts

Jessica!!

On our way out of Sam’s my fabulous husband picked me up a berry sundae from the snack bar place there.  Oh YAAAAAA!!  You have not lived until you have had a berry sundae from Sam’s.  I’m not really into sweets so I don’t get them very often but they are SO good!  Real ice cream (not ice milk) and real berries.  John and I pushed the carts outside to wait in the warm (stores keep their A/C so low in the summer!!) and then Jillian held my ice cream on the way to the bus.  She said “I have your ice cream when you done?”  I said sure!!  But by the time we were 2 minutes down the road Jillian was asleep so Jeff was forced to eat it.  Poor Jeff! ;)

For dinner we had the vegetable beef soup again!  I was so excited to have “real food”.  I had been feeling funky all day so I had barely eaten anything for lunch or dinner.  All the kids had cheese on theirs and Jeff had cayenne on his.  Weird man.  Just talking about that soup makes me want a bowl.  I almost bought a BIGGER stock pot at Sam’s yesterday.  I’m not sure what I would have done with it as the one we have now is almost too heavy for me to lift when it has food in it! ROFL  But last night we filled our big stock pot with soup and I intend to eat soup every meal (the kids can eat other stuff if they want :) ) until it is gone.  I really like that soup!  Jeff made the soup last night.  That was so nice!!  I sat at the dining room table and cut some veggies.  My legs hurt from walking around Sam’s (it seems everything has gone to pot earlier this pregnancy) and so Jeff handled the standing, stirring, tasting, seasoning, stirring, tasting, tasting, tasting…..

Jeff has been such a saint this pregnancy!!  When I was sick for a week not too long ago it was not unheard of for him to handle all three meals and take care of the kids all day while I just lay in bed.  So he handled the cooking and serving last night.  I think he is afraid he is going to miss us when he goes on his training to WI next week. ;) 

After dinner Jacob (age7) started in with his new thing which is multiplication.  One night he said out of the blue “I know what 12 times 6 is.” And then he proceeded to make up multiplication problems randomly and tell us the correct answer.  It turns out he is using the base ten system to figure out how many “tens” there are and then counting out the remaining “ones” in his head.  So he is telling Jeff his “problems” and Jeff is listening intently.  Then Jeff says “ok, what is ______?”  Jacob thinks for half a second and Jeff says “Hurry hurry.  What is it?”  Jacob answers.  Jeff fires off another one and “Hurry hurry, what is it.”  By now Jacob is melting into a fit of giggles trying to be fast. J  After a couple more questions by Jeff I say “Oh ya, and homeschooling is not good…..”  There had been an anti-homeschooling letter to the editor in the paper the day before.  “Here is our 7yo spouting off multiplication problems and giggling like crazy over math problems!  Ya, homeschooling is awful!”  ;)  I went and puttered around the house and when I came back Jeff had Jacob, Andrew and John sitting around him and he is showing them “the tricks”.  You know, the 9 times whatever thing you can do on your fingers and some others.  The boys (especially Jacob) are eating it up!  He made up a “multiplication table” that he drew on the back of a scratch paper.  Jacob came in later when he told me goodnight and he was clutching his new treasure in his hot little hand.  You woulda thought Jeff just invented the stars!!  Now Jenna has a “multiplication table” as well and both hers and Jacob’s are printed from Excel. 

Thursday on the way back from Sam’s Club Jenna says to John “The older you get the more you play with *real* toys.”  And I said “As opposed to *fake* toys.”  And then she explained…….no, fake toys are like the Hot Wheels cars and train set, etc.  Real toys are her guitar, her computer, cooking, sewing, doing real things!!  I thought that was a GREAT observation!!

Friday we had Kristina’s kids over in the morning.  They are such nice kids!!  Kristina had a foster care thing to go to.  She learned that her one foster baby will be going to some family members in the next week.  She was devastated.  Oh well.  She will move on and now she is focusing on the fact that God must have another baby that needs her help and her love more.  That one that is leaving is wanted by someone; there are others that are all alone.  She can help those.  She was also upset that it looked like the baby would end up in daycare.

Jenna and Kristina’s baby!!

John and Kristina’s daughter, Tana.

I was talking to my friend the other day about the fundamental problems with daycare……….she was explaining to me how she could never do daycare as philosophically she could not support a mom who chose to abandon her child 10 hours a day.  Her argument was that if you, as a Christian, leave your child to be raised by others then you are out of God’s will for your life.  The Bible has a lot to say about mothering and being a wife.  Leaving your child is not one of the things that is mentioned as good or condoned!  We were saying to each other that it seems our time would be better spent teaching these women to raise, train, discipline and enjoy their children then just rescuing them from their children.  THAT is Biblical.  Older teaching the younger to love their children!!  You know save them from their own misguided perceptions that children are a burden and an inconvenience.  By just removing the children from their care we have not accomplished anything besides post-poning the inevitable break down of the family structure and relationship that their mindset continues to propagate!  The same thing with schools…. if they do not homeschool, they must admit that they are delegating this awesome responsibility to raise Soldiers for Christ to someone else.  It is NOT the government’s job to educate our children.  That is certainly not biblical and the government does a horrible job of raising children for Christ anyway.  That should be OUR first priority!!   Beginning from infancy we are told the gov’t or some “educated” individual knows what is best for our child.  Has everyone forgotten the very basics in the Bible?  God gives us the perfect child for US!  He makes no MISTAKES!!  And if he says “Katie, this one is for you.  Teach him in the morning and night and when you sit and walk.  And oh by the way, I’ll give you enough grace and patience and strength to do this well.  And when your kids grow up they will call you blessed and you will wear a crown of glory.”  Is that enough for me????  Is that sufficient?  Can I find my joy in that???  Is it true what society says about not everyone being cut out to stay with their child?  Do some moms NEED that break, that adult interaction that working outside the home?  Do some moms have kids that MUST go to school because they are too bright, not bright enough, over sensitive, not socialized or need peer pressure to learn how the world works?  Perhaps what these moms really need is what I mentioned above.  Help these mothers!!  Come aside them and explain to them that the world has been lying to them.  There is a higher calling than a j-o-b.  More important is caring for your children, supporting and encouraging others that have chosen this higher calling and then to help the widows and orphans.  Heavens knows there is more than enough work to go around in that regard!!  We as Christians need to step up to the awesome responsibility that God has given us and stop assuming someone else will fill the gap!!!  Putting my soapbox away!!  I am fired up about large families and parenting in general right now! ROFL

Friday afternoon Channel 12 news came by.  The news reporter was Veronica and she was very nice!!  She tried to interview our neighbor but our neighbor made a BIG scene and called the police for no reason.  It was a little amusing.  Funny how people make themselves look so silly.  The news report was fabulous.  I think we are making headway with the HOA as well. :)  We had a movie night and all the kids stayed up until 10pm to watch the news!  How exciting!  Jeff woke me up Saturday morning at 9am!!  Ummm, I guess I was tired!! 

Heidi should be so proud of her son!!  All week he has been preparing the house for his absence!!  We went to Sam’s and I would say “Oh we need _____” and he would say “Let’s buy two so you don’t run out and don’t have to run to the store.”  Saturday he cleaned out both the kids’ pools,

(ok, I finished cleaning the pool!!) did some laundry, mowed the lawn,

(before the mow)

scoured the backyard for bugs to spray (we have been over run because of the rain, we plan to call an exterminator when Jeff gets back), ordered pizza for fun and just in general made sure things were done before he left.  Jenna said “You are excited to be leaving us.  I can tell because how happy you have been lately.”  She said it with some sarcasm in her voice.  Jeff and I were like “Whatever!!”  And explained that Dad had been acting especially happy and been especially nice and especially attentive because he knows he will not see us for awhile and he wants to make his last days here nice because he will miss us a lot!!  It is interesting to see how little people’s brains work sometimes.  Jenna just learned a lot about how some people respond in these situations.  I’m glad she is observant. :)

Jeff bought a book titled “A million and one guitar chords” for Jenna.  Ok, that was not the real title, but it should have been!

Sunday:  Dropping Jeff at the airport was an adventure! ROFL  Jeff set the alarm for 3:30 and we did not get in bed until midnight!!  He was packing and I was hanging out with him.  We are used to that type of schedule. :)  Well, around 5am Jeff jumps out of bed and says “It is 5am!!  I’m supposed to BE at the airport!”  his flight left at 6am!!  Well so much for that shower and shave heh?  We loaded all the kids in (I was frantic and counted them like 5 times! LOL) and ZOOMED to the airport.  Man oh man, no time for long goodbyes!  It was 5:45 when we got there and by the time I sat down in the drivers seat Jeff was long gone in the building with nothing to be seen of him.  Turns out he missed his flight but they put him on a new one that will actually get him to his destination sooner with a shorter layover!  :) Right on!!!  Turns out Jeff had set the alarm for 3:30PM!!!  LOL

We got home and I did not think I was tired.  You know, 5 hours of sleep is sufficient for anyone, right?  Around 8:30am I put the kids in front of a movie.  Around 9am I thought “I’ll just lay down and watch TV for a second.”  At ten I was awoken by the phone! ROFL  Jeff was calling to update that he arrived in MI safely.  He has a one hour layover and he was planning on taking advantage of the myriad of restaurants they have in their huge airport in Detroit.  One of the first things he said was “You thought Sky Harbor was big!!”  And I said “No, actually I knew Sky Harbor was not so big and I felt quite silly after I dropped you off when it took me a second to find my way out!!”  he said the airport in MI is more like a mall and he had to walk almost a mile to switch planes.  He rode the conveyor belt part way but then got off thinking he had reached his destination and ended up walking the rest of the way.  Good thing he bought some nice pull luggage.

Anthony has been especially cute these days.  His speech has just exploded.  Adam has always been the one with *better* speech while Anthony has more to say! ROFL  So for Anthony to finally come into his own and be able to express himself instead of just make noise is great!  A couple nights ago he came running over and said “Adam, Lina, Lina, Adam, er, Adam, Lina, Lina said I am a bad boy.”  It took him a second to spit it out but it was so cute all the effort he put in.  And he is making these LONG sentences.  I end up just raising my eyebrows at him in amazement!!

I wanted to share an instance of being able to train the kids and nip things in the bud before they got out of hand.  Yesterday Jacob, John and Lina were playing together.  At one point Lina started crying.  When I asked what happened I was told that Jacob slapped Lina’s hand for touching something she shouldn’t.  Let me explain right here that none of the children are allowed to strike, spank or in general discipline for another child for anything.  They can give verbal warnings out of love for their brother like “You know Mom said not to do that.”  In fact, we encourage that.  But they never use physical consequences with each other.  So……when I questioned Jacob his answer was to validate what he did by saying that Lina was touching something she should not have been.  My choices were then to just ignore it, tell him to knock it off, have him give Lina a hug and move on, allow that type of behavior or to take care of it right then.  Well, I gave Jacob quite a lecture.  I explained to him that he has no authority in this house.  He is at the same level as Lina with regard to his standing in this house.  He is no more nor less important than her and they BOTH answer to me and Jeff.  That is the chain of command and he is not part of it!  I explained that I am tired of his constant usurping of our authority (this is a common theme right now) and that I will not tolerate it.  He stood in the corner a good long while yesterday!  Jacob is a smart boy and I am sure we will have this problem in hand shortly. ;)

Oh how exciting!  I just ordered these CDs!!  http://www.mariebellet.com  How fun is that?  Songs about motherhood and large families!  I can just see me and the kids singing these as we walk down the WalMart aisle!!

Jenna and Jacob were discussing who is good in math.  Well of course this conversation COULD quickly turn into “I’m better than YOU in math.” Or whatever.  Well, Jacob says “I’ve got a head for math.”  Wonder where he learned that verbiage! ROFL  Jenna says “I’m really good at reading!” Which is true, she is now reading “Chronicles of Narnia” and then one of them asks “What is John good at?”  Well John does ok at academics but really he is not a bookworm.  So I quick said “John is good at seeing a need and filling that need.  Taking care of what needs to be done.”  Jenna and Jacob nodded.  Whew! I saved the day.  Then THEY started in on finding each of the other kids’ “gifts”.  “What do you think Andrew’s gift is?”  “Andrew is always smiling and it makes everyone else smile.”  :)
  “What about Jessica?”  “Jessica is very outgoing and makes friends really easy.”  “She makes new kids feel comfortable at the park.”  This is true.  I always make her the welcoming committee for any new child age 4-6 at our home school park day.  She is totally in her element being a new friend to someone!!  :)    “What about Junie’s gift?”  And we were stumped there.  We could not figure out the rest of the kids.  I said “Well, when they are little sometimes it is hard as their personalities are harder to read.”  But it was SO NEAT to hear the kids finding the good and building up their brothers and sisters!!  I told someone the other day that I have my own little Utopia in my dining room!!  :)

Andrew!!

WOO HOO! Jenna just made peach/strawberry smoothies!!

Life is good!!!

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