Fear

Is it something that creeps up through the shadows of the night that makes us fear? Is it the well known realm of unfulfilled dreams, money lost, family gone before us or illness? Is it the world, the flu, the changes that our world is enveloped in right now?

Fear is nothing new. It’s been here for longer than any of us and will be here long after we’ve gone on. The problem with fear is it’s soo real! A child really believes he heard something under his bed. A Mama really believes her child is beyond hope. A father really believes he’s failed his entire family. A sinner really believes he’s beyond God’s forgiveness.

The good news is that God is REAL. Heaven rejoices over one sinner that comes to HIM. . God cares about “your” world, right now. God knows just what you need. Some people fear they’ve just done too many bad things. They will just “try” and live, what’s left of their life, the best they can. Be kind. Give to others. But in the darkness of their hearts….they know it’s never enough. They can never give enough, do enough, say enough prayers, think enough “good” thoughts to make up for what they’ve done.

And guess what? God knows it too! That’s why He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Accept Him. Accept forgiveness. Accept a new life. Accept freedom from fear. Accept His love. Accept Peace~

I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, For thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety” Psalm 4:8

Boys~

It’s been beautiful here these past few days. In the upper 60’s and the warmth seems to draw each of us outside to soak it up. Gavin and Gunnar started throwing the football and soon Granton was drawn over to them, like a boy to dirt, they embraced his presence :-)

With so many oldest sisters, our boys feel it their brotherly duty to keep Granton well grounded in boy things. Today they played football :-)

Granton loves throwing the ball, any ball, so this was good practice.

Gavin was explaining to Gunnar which way to run. Poor Gunnar was sweating from running all over. Gavin was standing there throwing the ball, Gunnar was running all over :-)

I got it! I got it!

Whew~ this is hard work!

Go speed racer~

Gotcha!

Gotcha again!

I’m so glad our backyard is big enough to accommodate a mock football game :-)

Gavin’s football team is undefeated this season. They are on their way to the Semi Finals Thursday. If they win that then they play for the State Championship, which the Lenox Tigers won last year! Go Tigers!!

Brothers having fun!

Romance?

Next time I am going to watch even a remotely romantic movie, someone remind me NOT to watch it with my children. We were watching the film The Note, a christian movie and there’s a tiny kiss and my kids, all start going “yuck!”….”ugh!”….”not again!”…ruined the entire moment for me :-)  I should have known better, romance with 7 children in the room :-/

Well on to more fun things :-)

Gianna loves to give Granton rides on her old bike. She pulls up and tells him “get in  Granton” and he climbs in the backseat. Can you see him standing in the bucket? Too cute! They ride round and round in circles in our front room.

 

Granton loves playing the piano! “Bang, bang, bang, thud, thunk, crash”  is what it usually sounds like, but it’s soo cute~

 

Grace noticed Granton was “quiet” in the other room and found him writing. What was he writing you ask? His memoir of course :-)

 

“Bye everyone!”  Thanks for stopping by~

A day in the life of our littlest one~

Granton discovered his tongue a while back and can usually be found just like this :-)

Tasting crayons is a favorite too~

Laying with his blankie and his doggie~

Did we tell you he’s taken up Guitar? hee hee

 

 

I caught Granton turning the ice cream bucket over in the kitchen. He slid it over to the table (there were homemade tortillas there), climbed up on the bucket and squalled “ahhhh…ahhhh…ahhhh” his way of saying “someone pay attention to me” :-)  Of course I gave him a piece of the tortilla, which he promptly shared with the dog :-p

More than just one child~

In an effort to prove to new comers we really do have more children than just sweet Granton I’ve posted some pictures of the other children :-) But first we start with the cutie pie~

Granton loves to read books. He plops himself down, gently turns each page and “reads” his book. He’s done this from the very beginning.

Granton proud of himself for finding Psalms in the Bible:-) hee hee

Grace loves to love on Granton. Lately Granton has been giving out hugs and kisses. So throuhgout the day you’ll hear Grace saying “Give sissy a hug?”…..”Give sissy a kiss?”….and sure enough he comes and gives her a sweet hug.

See, I warned you that pictures of the other children contained “camo” and dirt :-) The kids have been working on their “house/fort”. Here’s a picture of their progress so far. They put one side of the roof up today. It only fell down once :-/

And our beautiful little girls. These three love to play together. But sometimes Gaela (on the far left) and Gladys (on the far right) decide that Gianna (in the middle) needs to be kicked out of where they are playing. Upon hearing this my 15 yr old son said “you know you have a big family when you have “clicks” within the family”. That gave us a good laugh~

As you can see everyone is feeling better. Praise the Lord!

We watched a film called An Old Fashion Thanksgiving. It was taken from a short story written by Louisa May Alcott (aka Lousy May – right Garrett :-). Very similar to Little Women just shorter. I love watching old timey movies. Such beautiful clothes, quilts, a huge fireplace, long braided or styled hair, and an enormous home that overflows with love~

We hope you are all enjoying these cold fall days and keeping warm~

It’s been a while~

Last time John took this oath was over 20+ years ago. Now again the Lord has allowed him to join the military. John is now in the National Guard~

 

 

I know what you are thinking. WHAT!!! Are you crazy??? Don’t you know????

Yes, we know. We are well aware of what comes with this. Some of you, who have known us a while, know that John’s Army Reserve Unit was activated when our oldest son was just one year old. John ended up going to Saudi Arabia for Desert Shield/Storm. But the Lord allowed it and put this desire in John’s heart and I am fond of the saying “the safest place to be is right where God wants you”.

We all went with John to watch him be sworn in. The kids are so proud of their Papa and me of my hubby~ While we hope all the disasters he gets called to are close by, we know that wherever he goes the Lord goes before him.

Him again~

Is that just too cute! I mean look at those beautiful eyes. Those kissable lips. Those pudgy cheeks. The wave of his hair that most of our children have (we have two children with bone straight hair). And those rolls in his arms, pinchably sweet!

John says I take waaay too many pictures of Granton. I just don’t see it. My husband is smiling right now. He says I don’t see a lot of things :-)

Really the other children are here and I could take their picture but when I look over at them, they are either dirty (in their camo climbing through bushes) or they have these little sticky things in their hair (the girls get them daily lately) or they are wearing their “play” clothes which are stained beyond recognition. Sooo, you get pictures of cute little Granton who loves to play with “goggie”.

After the kids spent hours outside yesterday they spent most of today inside due to rain and being worn out (because they aren’t fully recovered from being sick) from playing all day yesterday.

The girls built a fort. They tried to get Granton to go in but he wouldn’t have any of it. Granton likes the stairs lately. He goes up about three steps, then sits down and slides down, one by one. I don’t know how he learned this but it’s funny to watch.

Tonight everyone was feeling well enough to eat real food (something besides soup) so Gunnar and I made tacos. Gage sliced up our last bell pepper and Grace sliced up some apples for dinner. Gladys was looking for something to eat so I put her on the job of making cupcakes. Our children love to make cakes, brownies, pies…anything sweet because they know I will let them like the bowl (as long as I get a lick too. No Garrett I will never change :-)

We all frosted the cupcakes and had them with dinner. What a treat :-) Tomorrow we cut up our pumpkins and put little candles in them. We will be baking our pumpkin seeds and everyone is under strict orders not to put any in the sink. That’s what caused our dishwasher to clog and stay clogged for months before John took the entire dishwasher apart to see what was wrong.

We are half way through our book we read at night and I’ve already got two more books in mind for future reading. Don’t you just love sharing good books with your children? There’s a song that the little boy in our book sings and lately you can find the girls and I singing this song as we go about our day. It makes us all laugh and giggle as we sing it again and again.

Taking flight~

Now who actually came up with the idea to make a “hang glider” I’m not sure. Grace and Gaela were out back when I looked out the kitchen window and saw them climb up on the playhouse. I ran to get my camera, figuring this ought to be really good :-)

Grace is actually in mid air here. Can you see her huge smile? After she landed safely I told her “you’re not high enough climb up on the house” hee hee. Then I didn’t see them when I peeked out the kitchen window so I sent Gunnar outside to check on them with instructions that if he sees them on the roof to tell them to get down!

Now it’s Gaela’s turn. The kids “helping” her get her hooked in.

Gaela in mid air too! They had so much fun with this. As you can see they are feeling better :-)

Don’t forget to peek down and see Granton’s new bib~

New creation~

Amidst all the sicko’s around here I decided Granton needed a bib. He is at the point where he makes a mess on his shirts, not on purpose, but food dribbles down there or his hands swipe across it. I had some fabric my mom had sent me long ago. Boy fabric. It’s been a while since I’ve sewn any boy cloths, since my last 3 babies (prior to Granton) have been girls :-0 It was so fun and so easy.

I like to cut my pattern out one time and then sew it up another time. It’s more do-able for me to cut sewing into smaller projects. I didn’t have a pattern for a bib but I thought “really how hard could it be?” I cut out two bib’s but only made one so far. It took me all of a half hour, with interruptions, to make this one bib.

I put a nice big button in the back and it is wide enough to slip over his head, but if it gets stuck on his head, he looks like a crazy lion :-)

I also made it short, as I didn’t need a long bib, just one that covered his shirt to above his belly. I can’t wait to make more. Better yet, when Grace is feeling better this is a perfect project for her to get working on :-)

Everyone is feeling better, mostly, except Gavin came down with “the sick-a-ness” today. He’s home for a few days. He didn’t even go to his football game tonight. His team made the playoffs. They are undefeated this season. Wooo-whooo!! I love watching them all play.

Tonight we cooked up homemade bread (the recipe I posted yesterday) and chicken soup with wild rice thrown in. Everyone loved it and gobbled it up.

Chicken Soup with Wild Rice

8c water

1 cup of chopped carrots

3T of powder chicken broth

1 cup of wild rice

1/2 package of frozen corn

3 chicken breasts (brown in pan, then chop up and throw in pot)

Bring to a boil, simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serve with bread and enjoy~

Something for everyone~

A friend over at Life and Tales of a Mom to 9 (check out all her delicious recipes, yum!) asked about meals that everyone likes. This was in regards to having picky eaters :-) She asked readers to share a meal that everyone likes.. Well we just happen to have one.

Tonight Gunnar was making, Mama’s Corn Chili which everyone in our family loves and always asks for seconds. Here’s our recipe (sorry I don’t have a picture. John took the boys to the shooting range today and he took the camera. It's still in his truck)

Mama’s Corn Chili

3 lbs ground beef (can use turkey) 1 1/2 T of minced garlic or 2 garlic cloves 1 onion chopped

Cook together until meat loses it’s red color.

Add:

1 can of diced tomatoes ( I usually leave this out as one of my children is allergic to some tomato products)

2 small (8oz) can tomato sauce

2 cans of great northern beans (undrained)

2T sugar

1 t salt

3/4 t cumin

2T chili powder

1 large bag of frozen corn

Simmer 30 minutes.

You can leave out the corn but we use corn to replace the gobs of cheese we normally would put on it. Since I’m allergic to dairy I try to stay away from cheese, which I love, and this is really a great subsitute.

Along with this we have homemade bread, french bread style.

(We named this recipe after the lady that shared it with us)

Grandma Darlene Bread~

First mix 1/2 c warm water with 2T yeast. Let sit while you mix up the following ingredients:

6 cups flour

2T oil

2t salt

2T sugar

2 c water

Blend together. Add yeast mixture. Then set timer for 5 minutes, letting dough set. When the timer goes off, mix up dough for 5 seconds, a quick on and off of the switch. Then repeat. You do this 5 times (Set the time for 5 minutes, then mix).

Divide dough evenly. Shape into a french bread loaves and place on a greased baking sheet. Let rise for 30 min. Bake at 400* for 30 min.

Serve up with a salad, carrots, sliced apples or applesauce and you’ve got a delicious meal that everyone loves.

What love~

With most of the children sick we hear the most interesting things at the dinner table….

*would you stop coughing on me!

*could you sit over there?

*can I eat in the other room?

*did you wash your hands?

*stop touching ~all~ the food?

Isn’t it funny what a little sickness will bring out in us :-)

Gavin and Gunnar are the only two children who haven’t gotten sick yet. So I still have some help. Gladys is doing much better, still has a bit of a cough but actually asked if she could go outside and play.

Today a couple girls got Ginger baths. I just grate about 2T up and mix it into their warm bath water. It’s great at helping your body sweat your sickness out. Normally, after a Ginger bath our children, get a drink of water (so as not to dehydrate from sweating so much) and go to sleep. While they are sleeping they will sweat so much they wake up with a wet pillow. But they always wake up feeling better :-)

Today we also had more Ginger Tea.  I love the smell of Ginger. We slice it up and put it in on to boil with a couple Cinnamon Sticks…..yum~ We also made some Cough Tea, with Red Clover,  (remember we had it growing like crazy this past summer) Ginger and Honey Lemon Tea. I love being able to give our children something that is good for them, even when it’s tea.

 

Buried under children~

This could be the picture  you might see at our house if you stop by, but with everyone sick I don’t recommend a pop in visit. The kids are getting sick, one by one. It  started with Gladys and has slowly worked it’s way into Gage, Grace and Gianna. Fevers, coughing and feeling dizzy.

Granton, who is just in the beginning stages (runny nose) gets GOOT on his feeties 3 times a day. He doesn’t like it because it’s cold when I put it on. But today I distracted him with an iced oatmeal cookie :-)

As usual Grace, who is not quite as sick as the others yet, has been playing the nurse maid to Gladys in the middle of the night. One night when Grace was up getting Gladys a drink of water, she heard Gage moaning and went in to help him. She’s getting a crash coarse in mothering. She’s so good at it, so gentle and always on call. I love her!

Today, while everyone was feeling a bit better, since laying around all day, we went up and cleaned up the girls room. When Mama has to come help clean it’s a deep cleaning. I noticed a couple things while cleaning:

1. When the girls say they went up and cleaned their room what they really meant was they successfully stuffed everything into a dark corner of their room.

2. When the girls say they picked up their clothes what they really meant was, they either put all their clothes, dirty and clean back into their drawers or dirty and clean, all into the laundry basket :-0

So this afternoon, we pulled everything out of those deep dark corners and swept under the beds. We packed up a huge doll house that had been played with over and over and over and was now just taking up space. We loaded ~all~ dress up clothes and all stuffed animals into bags and put them in the basement till springtime.  They picked up a bunch of  tiny bits of trash that had been tucked into baskets, drawers and notebooks and threw them all away. We ended up throwing 2 trash bags of papers away :-0

Sheets and comforters were washed. Beds were re-made with clean smelling sheets and pillows. Rugs shaken out and laid back down. Old shoes taken out of the ever crowded closet. Jackets hung up. Blocks, train tracks and marble game pieces were all put back into their correct baskets.

There’s just something about going to sleep in a clean, fresh room.

Prayer said, story read….Oh our newest reading time book is The Tunnel of  Hugsy Goode….it’s sooo funny!

I tucked the girls in, kissed them while trying desperately not to catch their cold (how does  a Mama with very affectionate girls do such a thing?). God is merciful and keeps me well, for now.

Thank you Lord for clean rooms, unending forgiveness and warm cozy beds~