This Week in Pictures

 

The three youngest and I went to Pearl's Fen, a local park.  A butterfly decided I was wonderful and settled on me for a few minutes.  Or a moth?  

Pearl's Fen has a charming stream and a wooden bridge.

I know this is silly, but this picture makes me feel rich. SO MANY SCISSORS. We often can't find a pair of scissors because unknown people walk off with them and leave them scattered around the house.

The middle four kids just finished a big cooking class with Kevin.  It took them more than a year. Now they are doing their final projects.  Isaac made yummy BLT salad and asparagus.

The pool is open!  It was bitterly cold at first, of course, but now it is almost 80. The kids don't seem to care a lot but I do. I haven't gotten in yet but I think I am about ready.

Unfortunately, we got sick this week with some stupid cold. Kevin and Miriam are the sickest. It isn't terrible, just some coughing and fatigue and running noses.  I was a little sick Friday and Saturday and rested. Today I am better.

Food Issues

 I have been having various gastrointestinal problems for literally years.  Now they aren't a huge deal, but they are annoying.

A few weeks ago I realized that pistachios (which I love) seem to make me feel worse. I looked up pistachios and they are high in fructan.  There are other high fructan foods (like broccoli and asparagus) that seem to cause me difficulties as well.

So I severely reduced my intake of high fructan food and am definitely doing better.  That is awesome but...

I am already dairy intolerant, and a Type 2 diabetic, so I eat no dairy and low carb. Now fructan seems to be a problem, which reduces my potential diet even more.

Sigh.

I mean, on one hand, I am just grateful to have access to lots of food, and that I seem to have figured out another issue. On the other hand, seriously, BODY, what are you DOING TO ME??

I have been wanting to lose a few pounds and I have :-).  I mean, when you cut out whole sections of food that is apt to happen.  

Oops...

 I am usually cheery on my blog. I am not really upset now, but here is an example of too many balls in the air leading to a major mistake.

Isaac is planning to earn a degree in Materials Science and Engineering (which is what Kevin and I studied as well.)  He has been going to a community college, but this fall will start at Wright State University.  I was looking at prospective classes and realized he really needed to take Physics because it is a prerequisite for a bunch of Materials classes.

So we signed him up at Wright State for a summer physics class.

But.

He has been going to Clark State. Clark State has a totally different schedule than Wright State.  I didn't even think to check the summer schedule for Wright State. In retrospect, that was a major fail.

Kevin and I got back from St. Croix and I realized that Isaac's class started May 10th!  He missed the first two weeks and was dropped from the course.

So no physics.

Sigh.

Tadpoles

 Every year, hopeful tree frogs lay their eggs in the water on our pool cover.

Every year, thousands of tadpoles hatch.

Every year, I rescue some of them before we open the pool and try to raise them to full froghood.

Every year, every single tadpole I rescue dies ignominiously.

This year, I decided I was not even going to try.

We have so so so so many tadpoles on our pool cover.

It has been cold and Kevin has been super busy doing some work on the RV, so we haven't opened the pool yet.

Today I discovered that many of the tadpoles are growing back legs.

If we wait another week, maybe they will be mature enough to live without water.

In which case, it will be like another plague in Egypt. Hundreds and thousands of frogs!

Back from St. Croix

 Kevin and I just got back from St. Croix. We were gone for 9 days, which is the longest we've ever been gone from the children.  Things went well here, and we had a great time.

Kevin took hundreds and hundreds, no thousands and thousands, of pictures.  Many of them are absolutely amazing. He has to work on them, though.

I finished a book and we are publishing it this coming Saturday, so that is exciting.

It was wonderful getting away with my darling husband for a time, but it was great coming home. I missed the kids.

St. Croix continues to be a fabulous getaway.  This was our fifth time there.

Mother's Day

 I won a PLANT!!!!!

At church!

This is a big deal as I rarely win prizes :-).

This was for Mother's Day.  They had five plants to give away.  I like that our pastors go with slightly oddball criteria for prizes. For example, one young lady (not a mother yet, which is good, because she is a teenager) won a plant for leading the congregation in the singing of "How Great Thou Art." This was particularly exciting because she didn't know the song at all! But she wanted the plant :-). We all sang along with her.

I won for being the mother with the most teenagers in attendance with me at church.  Now, you'd think I'd be a shoo-in but it was a near thing.  Lydia didn't come, and neither did Miriam, so I only had THREE!!

But I won!  A plant!!  Whee!!

Ok, what else.  I probably have said this before, but when I was growing up, I had no great interest in being married with kids.  God is powerful and I think He has a sense of humor. I adore my kids to the ends of the earth and I am so thankful for them.  I think I am a good Mom even though much of it doesn't come that naturally to me.  God's plan was definitely better than my own, which was to be a single career woman.

Isaac got off his orthodontia this week! He also is quitting his Goodwill job. This summer is looking intense; he is taking two difficult college classes and he still isn't driving well.  Kevin is starting a new position at work which will be very time consuming.  So yes, me driving Isaac back and forth twice a day is just gonna be tough, plus college is more important.

I am nearing the end of another book.  I still haven't finished the epilogues (yes, there will be two) but I am already starting my final edits of the main body of the book.  I hate editing. But it is important. So...

Gratitude

 God keeps hammering away on my attitude about medical stuff and sheer busyness.  This last week was supposed to be mellow, but Sarah needed a trip to the doctor on Wednesday after hurting her foot (it is just a sprain, praise the Lord!) and then a trip to the orthodontist on Thursday to have her fitted for a new retainer after the last one broke.

Isaac is working 4 days this week and Kevin has been busy so I've been running him back and forth.

BUT but but but but...

We can take our kids to doctors and orthodontists. We have reliable cars. We have healthy kids!  What a blessing!!!

My cousin's daughter is making major strides which is such a relief; this is the young lady who was in a fearsome car crash.  It is wonderful reading about her healing and steps forward, but it is also a reminder that having healthy children is not to be taken for granted!

Kevin and I are going to visit St. Croix in the next month for a vacation, which will be exciting and wonderful!  And then Kevin will be transitioning to a new job at work, which is exciting and a little intimidating.

Oh, I have not regretted ONCE quitting my own job on base; it was a great job, but having one less thing on my plate is a relief!

I decided that this week is the last week of normal school for the year.  Miriam and Angela will just take the next few months off. They are very creative, read a lot, write stories for fun, and do a lot of art.  Joseph and I will keep working on math, and I will work with Rose on reading.  I also intend to work with Sarah and Daniel on math.

One thing about only teaching my own kids is that I don't know what is 'normal' where math ability is concerned.  Joseph seems to struggle with math, but maybe he is just normal?  Kevin and I both are very gifted with math, and some of the other kids are gifted as well. Lydia wasn't a fan though she did fine.  There is nothing wrong with struggling. I think struggling to learn in a certain area can be really good for a person.  

I struggle with spatial issues; I have trouble visualizing things in three dimensions. I think that is partly why genes and alleles are so confusing to me.

Anyway, I am rambling. And I need to feed my kids. And I am grateful for food.