What Should Be...Pic Week Round Up #11

Notice the title says, "Should Be."

That's important.

Because I dropped my iPhone doing chores this week.  And busted the screen. 

And of course I did this BEFORE I connected to the computer to get the pictures.  So I can't actually share them with you. And I didn't take pictures for half the week.

Well, I did.  But I took them on an old flip phone.  That I can't connect to the computer.  But I can send them as pic message to my iPhone.  But since that's busted, it doesn't help right now...

Thankfully my wonderful husband Bryan watched a video on how to replace the screen.  And we found the part online for $12--including the tools we needed.  Yeah for having an older phone! That price was a blessing. 

So right now my phone is turned off and not being used.  The drop didn't damage the LCD at all, but I read that if you continue using the cracked screen it will eventually cause pixels to go out.  Don't want that to happen! 

Instead of a week's worth of cute pictures, I'll leave you with just one.  I had to share it. Even though I actually took it on 3/6.  So you know--not this week at all.  But that's okay! Hopefully by next weekend my phone will be back up and running beautifully again. 

Ellie told me she was a Grandpa.  It was adorable!

Have a wonderful weekend!

11 Years!

Today Bryan and I are celebrating 11 years of marriage.  Yes.  We married on Pie Day (3.14).  And my husband loves math.  What can I say?  It was the day that worked best.

 He got leave approved between A School and reporting to his first duty station in San Diego.  My Grandpa's 80th birthday bash was on 3/15, so a bunch of family was already in town.

It was a crazy wedding.  Planned in a week.  Well, we knew for a while that we'd be getting married at some point, so some planning was done before.  But not much. I did have my dress though!

A cake.  A ring. A church.  So many decisions.  So little time.

But it was a blessing. 

And you know what?  A wedding is just for a day.  It was over in a few hours.  We made some memories.  Like having to call the Pastor back because he forgot to sign the marriage license.  And staying late with some of my family to clean up.

There were some things that we would have done differently if we'd had more time.  But that's okay.  The wedding event isn't the important part.  The marriage is.  

Our first three years we were mainly separated--Bryan in the Navy in California, Jayme and I in Washington so I could finish college.  I remember flying down to San Diego to celebrate our first anniversary.  With the top layer of our wedding cake (that had been in the freezer a year) in a shoe box as my carry-on.

I'm so thankful for my husband.  He's helped me to grow in so many ways.  He works really hard for our family, and puts in crazy hours of overtime helping us work towards our goal of being debt free.

So today, I'm going to celebrate with my husband.  He was able to take today and Monday off of work, so it'll be a nice long weekend.  We haven't had one of those for a while.  My parents have generously agreed to keep Owen overnight.  It'll be nice to get a good night's sleep.
 
I have porterhouse steak already to grill after the kids get tucked in for the night.  We'll watch a movie together. Maybe play some Wii. And celebrate another year of beating the odds.

We weren't supposed to make it you know.   We had a baby in high school.  We married at 19--too young for a successful marriage.  We survived a long distance relationship.  With my husband being in the Navy and deployed for a long period of time.

Here's to the way the Lord can change odds.  How he can take two sinners and bring them together in a marvelous way.  Here's to marriage!

Have a great weekend!

11 years of marriage, almost 14 years of togetherness, 6 kids, and lots of love!

Growing Up...Some Random Thoughts

Simon's growing so quickly!  He's seven months old now, and crawling pretty well.  He has the cutest little crawl.

 He gets up on all fours and rocks, looking like he's going to really have a nice form.  And then he gets impatient, drops his chest to the ground and army crawls to where he wants to go.  He also uses his knees at times to propel himself--kind of like a frog jump thing. 

It's neat to watch how quickly little ones learn, and how all of their skills really work together.  How everyone kind of develops in their own way.  None of our kids have crawled the same at first.  They all eventually end up in a traditional, four point crawl.  But they each took a different route to get there.

Owen's developmental delays have really taught us to be aware of how many steps there are in eating, sitting, crawling, walking...all of the things that we always took for granted before.

When you have to break down a skill like that and practice each individual component, you realize just how complicated some of these "easy" things are.  Before you can crawl, you have to have balance.  You have to have strength.  You have to have coordination.  Your brain has to be able to tell different parts of your body to move.  Your body has to respond. 

First one leg, than the other. You have to alternate hands and legs.  Not run into anything.  Be aware of your surroundings.

And more!

So when a baby just picks it up without being taught, it reminds us of what an amazing God we serve.  So many skills.  So many steps.  And babies normally just figure it out.  Without being taught.  And they can pick it up in so many different ways. 

Then suddenly, without warning, crawling turns into this...

Pulling up.  Which will, before we know it, turn into standing.  And then walking.  And then running. 

They grow up so quickly!  Remember to slow down and enjoy the progress.  The little steps to mastery that are so easy to take for granted.  Be thankful when they learn new skills. And don't ever wish that they'd stay this way forever.  Trust me.  Growth is good! Celebrate it.  And get an extra snuggle in today, because they are growing fast. 

Better Late Than Never...Photo Wrap-Up 10

Ugh.  Sickness has hit here at the farm.  Owen had a neurology appointment last Thursday, and the doctor is housed at the Children's Hospital.  His seizures and tremor have returned, and we're going to try to up the dose of one of his seizure meds and hope it helps.  On a positive note, the slightly increased dose is appearing to help with sleep...that's always good!

Unfortunately, it seems like every time we go to the hospital, we end up leaving sick.  Probably has something to do with the ER being there as well, and sharing the elevator with all kinds of little germies. 

Anyways, we had a sick weekend.  And I'm super thankful to be feeling a little better today.  As the kids wake up, we'll see how they are. Hopefully better!

So since I didn't feel up to sharing my photos on Saturday, I wanted to get them out this morning. 

Hope you are all feeling well!

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Sunday, March 2nd

Bryan is learning how to braid paracord, and decided to try a dog collar.  Cinders looks rather handsome in this beautiful blue and black braid. 

 

Monday, March 3rd

I'm trying to get better at re-purposing things around the house to help get organized.  That way I don't wait to get organized until I have money to buy fancy matching containers with. :) Bryan and I upgraded beds to one my grandparents gave us.  And that meant we had this headboard to figure out what to do with.  It works well for holding little baskets and boxes of toys.  It's still a work in progress, but it's definitely helping to keep things neater. 

 

Tuesday, March 4th

Expo markers work great on windows, and come off clean with a dishcloth!  Jeffrey and Ellie were getting some school practice in while I was cooking.  They wrote their name, letters and numbers.   

 

 Wednesday, March 5th

I started a blog post about looking for spring in a snow covered winter.  We went on a walk taking pictures of signs of spring.  Here was one, the "river" running parallel with the road from snow melting.  I never finished the post though, because rain hit that night, and by Thursday morning, there wasn't any snow left, the temperatures were in the low 50s, and it was pretty clear that we found spring!

Thursday, March 6th

Successfully made a protected book for Owen.  And learned, thanks to a reader, that when you add tape to ziploc type bags you can hole punch them.  I had no idea! 

Friday, March 7th

Jayme and I took advantage of the snowless, warmer conditions to start building a fort during our special time.  Here, Jayme is trying it out.  The pine needle roof provides pretty good protection from rain! We were hoping to work on the fort more over the weekend, but since we were sick didn't get a chance.  Here's to finishing it this week! 

Saturday, March 8th

No pictures....sick day!

Hope you had a great week!

Protecting Books: Help Needed!

A while back I shared about Owen eating books. I was struggling with trying to balance having books out for the kids to read with knowing that a book left out would be destroyed. 

After writing my post, I felt better--just writing about it helped my mental struggle.  And then, one of my readers offered a great suggestion--to deconstruct pages of a book and then protect them in page protectors and seal them with packing tape.  (Thanks for the inspiration Michelle!!!).

Except...I didn't have any page protectors.  What I did have was a bunch of low quality gallon sized Ziploc type bags.  And so I selected a book that the kids love.  And one that we have two copies of (you know...in case I really messed it up!).  Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. It's a book we read frequently in our homeschool.

And so, with a quick thrust of a knife, I removed all three staples from the book.  And then took advantage of the marvelous creases to carefully pull each page apart.  My spatial sense definitely got a workout trying to get everything back in the correct order.  But I did it.  I now have all the pages in bags.  And I'm ready to put it together.

But I can't...I'm just not seeing how to make this work.  I'm hoping you can help me.  It may be that my bags are just too tough. In which case, I'll just have to pick up some page protectors next time I go shopping.  I was just hoping to get this one book done while I'm waiting. 

Here's what I've got....

A book with each page in a ziploc type bag. 

My problem...

These are too thick to hole punch, even one at a time.  I was hoping to tie them together with some natural bailing twine we have rolls and rolls of.  But without being able to punch the bags...I don't think that'll work. 

I'm not quite seeing how to make taping them work.  I know it probably would...but I don't see it.  I tried using packing tape, and I got the covers taped together.  But then...the inside pages all fell out. I'm sure there is a way to tape the pages to the next one somehow.  But yeah...I couldn't make it work.  Did I mention that spatial sense is my lowest intelligence?  It is...

I thought of stapling, but my stapler won't cut it. 

So....I thought I'd ask   beg for help.  Any ideas?  I'm totally seeing how page protectors would work.  And I'll pick some up for the next book(s).  But anyone have a way to make this work?  I'd love to let Owen have this soon. 

Thanks so much!!!

Keeping the Chickens In...And Safe!

I don't like waking up to the sound of a dying chicken.  Don't know anyone who would actually.  Definitely a gruesome sound.  Coyotes are terrible.  And they can get into spaces they don't look like they should be able to. 

And so we had to do something. 

Now when we lock our chickens in, we take one leg of their ladder and shove it in front of the door.  We also wanted an early warning system, so we could get woken up by something besides a bird yelping.  And we wanted something that would hopefully convince predators to leave.  Without a bird.

Those systems are expensive though.  But we noticed in our research that noise played a big part in scaring predators away.  So we got creative.  An old cow bell.  And a chunk of bailing twine.  Hello early warning noisy system. 

Touch the door trying to get in, ring the bell.  Get scared away. 

Cheap.  Simple.  And we haven't lost a chicken since!

Weekly Pic Round Up: Week 9

Another week come and gone.  Another week of memories.

Here are the pictures I took to help me remember this week.

Sunday, February 23

A weird sight...See that lumpy thing in the tree?  Yes folks.  That IS a robin red breast--the true sign of spring.  On a branch covered in snow from the overnight storm.  Crazy!

 Monday, February 24

We don't usually break out this gadget.  It used to be we could only hook it up out on our porch.  Brr!  I don't want to be standing outside grinding wheat.  But Jeffrey pointed out that he thought it could fit on this portable cart Grandma gave us.  Turns out he was right.  Here's Ellie preparing to grind some of the wheat we grew two years ago.  Bread anyone?

Tuesday, February 25

Our first ever batch of lotion bars.  It was exciting!  We really like these things.  And making them ourselves is much cheaper than buying them.  Only three ingredients! 

 Wednesday, February 26

Timberdoodle -- a homeschool supply company based in Washington State-- was having a doodle contest.  Here's Jayme's doodle that she entered. 

 

 Thursday, February 27

Who would have thought that an annual appointment at Shriner's Hospital for Children to check Owen for scoliosis (it's typical in kids with Angelman Syndrome) would result in a cool craft idea.

Sure enough!  I had to ask the kind lady in the x-ray check in area if she minded if I snapped a picture of this cool thing.  Yes indeed.  It's made out of Mountain Dew cans.  Recreating it is on my to-do list for March!

Friday, February 28

An organization project in the works.  Those are two of our upstairs bookshelves.  After three boxes were selected for donation.  I decided it's time for a major purge.  We have TOO MANY books! You can't even figure out what to read because there are so many.  And if you do pick a title, good luck finding it in this mess of double layers!

 Saturday, March 1

Look who decided not to go back to sleep after his morning nursing.  He accompanied me out to the barn to chore.  He seems pretty happy about not being in bed!