The Small One

Partly these pictures are a record of how cute our youngest is. And she is really really really cute.

She's also not just one handful, but two. She's a pistol, a spitfire. A ton of work.

I am so thankful for Rose. She is healthy and smart and all of those things are gifts from God.  

But I also must say she is very exhausting.  She's busy almost all day every day, she's very demanding, she loves to make messes, and she rarely can be left alone (except in her room, which is child proofed) for more than a few minutes.

All this is to say that parents of small children deserve a lot of patience.  Some kids are mellow. I've had some.  Some are less so.  I've had some of those too.

I have confidence, based on experience, that Rose will mature and stop trying to destroy the house or herself.  In the meantime, a remarkable amount of our time must be devoted to her personal safety.  

May the Lord grant us wisdom, strength, and resolution.

48 years old!

Yes, friends, if you cut me open and counted the rings, you'd see I'm 48 years old as of this week!

Not many 48 years old are blessed with such a nice 3 year old toddler.  She keeps me on my toes. And young, I hope.

Kevin and the kids dug up the sweet potatoes. AND WOW. We got a bazillion. Awesome crop.

And the deck project is in full swing!  Kevin worked on it like 8 hours over the weekend and made great progress. The older kids helped some too.

Update

Mocha has definitely decided we are 'her people'. She gets friendlier every day.  She is still small but has grown quite a bit in the last month.  In about another month we'll trundle her off to get her fixed. No kittens on our watch.

My back is way better. I am so thankful.  Kevin has had an aching back, as has his mother. So apparently this viral thing attacks backs.

This week we took a week off from 'normal school' -- everyone but Naomi, that is, who of course has to keep up with her classes.  Lydia's 1 credit class is done. She did very well.  I'm so proud of her.

Rose has her moments of not being a total terror. And then sometimes she is a terror.  Still.  Often.

I adore her.
4
That's about it for now. And the Terror wants me.

Oh, My Aching Back...

A few days ago, my back started hurting a lot.

Fortunately, it is just a virus.  Really.  That is fortunate. Nothing long term, nothing really serious. Just a pesky virus attacking my back.

That first day I could hardly walk straight.  Since then, it has been better but not great.

I'm extra tired, too.

It is hard being sick. I am blessed with older children who can do almost everything I can do, but the younger and middle kids rather need Mama on their case to make sure they do what needs to be done. The house is definitely a tad on the messy side right now.

Ah well.

I'm hoping by next week I'll be much better. I'm planning to do some major work on the kids' clothing and shoe needs for winter.  Daniel has almost no long pants as far as I can tell.

Kids also get to attend a birthday party next Thursday, which is fun!

Cogitations on TV

I haven't watched much TV in literally decades.  We decided against cable TV when we got married and the natural result was that we didn't watch television. Which was all to the good.  For me, anyway, TV was a temptation toward wasting time that could be better spent in other ways.

We have Netflix and Amazon Prime now, so have access to many shows now, but, and this is the big thing, we can decide when we want to watch something. TV doesn't control our lives since we can decide when and if we want to something.

I like mysteries.  I like forensics.  Last week, I heard about a long running series called Bones, about a forensic anthropologist and an FBI agent.  Our library didn't have the first season readily available so I found it on ebay for $5 and bought it.

So...sigh...in some ways, the first 3 episodes (the only ones I watched) were a lot of fun.  The main characters are amusing, the plots were interesting, the science was fascinating.

But I ended up throwing the disks in the trash yesterday.  Because, by the third episode I realized that 'sexual banter' was a pervasive part of the show.


The underlying worldview by episode 3 is that everyone is and should be having sex regularly, and having sex with random people is totally cool.

It is not cool.  It is not healthy.  The man who supposedly has slept with dozens of women didn't mention any issues -- pregnancy scares?  Worries about sexually transmitted diseases?  Emotional devastation on the part of the women involved?

It bothered me enough, and I had enough of a check in my spirit, that I threw out the disks.

Now I know everyone is different.  This issue really bothers me, far more than the gruesome nature of the dead bodies in the show.  Some people would probably be upset but since I knew it was just acting, it didn't bother me.  Some people can no doubt handle the sexual stuff without it being an issue.

But that calm acceptance of unhealthy sexual relationships was not good for me.

So I am going to try another show out, Rosemary and Thyme, British I believe, apparently very clean.  The library does have that one.  We'll see...

Up Comes the Deck

We have a huge deck out back, and it needs replaced rather desperately.  We've been dealing with splinters and other sundry issues.

So we're pulling up the boards and have replaced one section with new cedar boards.

I'm taking a trip down memory lane right now. When we moved into this house, Naomi was 5, Lydia was 3, Isaac was 2, Joseph was under a year, and I was pregnant with Miriam.

Obviously, the kids were too little help, and I was too overwhelmed by child care duties and pregnancy to help Kevin with the truly incredible number of tasks that needed to be done on our house.  It was a foreclosure, and the project list was in the dozens, I believe.

So I kept the kids alive and healthy, and Kevin toiled away with some help from a couple of male friends.

This year, we have older kids and they are doing such wonderful work on the deck. Kevin's back is not suffering all that much and the work is going so quickly.

It is truly a blessing having a large family of willing, helpful kids.

(And they are being paid, which makes them even more willing!)