Good heavens it's been too long. It's funny, I stay so connected to people on FB that I don't do this much, but I often feel the desire to write more than FB allows, or that I think most of the people on there would want to hear.

Fun to look back and read old posts:)

A lot has happened. Currently we are waiting to finalize a new house:) It is everything I ever wanted and more. We are moving my mom into it. At first we will both be paying half, then in the next few years we will take over more of the payment. It's a great place. The owners have a large family and needed a bigger space. I'm so happy for them, they got a place with lot's of bathrooms and acreage.

The house has 4 bedrooms. In the next year we will make it into 5. There is a full, partially finished basement. The boys will go into the large bedroom down there for now. It's a huge space, about the size of our current living room. Also has 2 closets. Then there is a finished 2cd living room down there. It has a door that opens to steps leading up to the out side. We will take that out, make it an egress window, which is required in a basement bedroom here, and make it into the 2cd bedroom. The living room down there is HUGE. It won't be a big deal to cut some of it out.

the basement has the laundry room, and then a huge open area. We may do school down there. Idk, I have to talk myself into that.

Upstairs there are 3 more bedrooms and 1.5 baths. The master bath has 2 sinks, and a jacuzzi tub:D We will give my mom the master bedroom for now. That way she will have enough space to have a bedroom and a sitting area and she can have some privacy.  In a couple of years we plan to make the 2 car attached garage into an apt for her.

It also has a separate dinning room, which I have never had in a house. AND, she built these benches around 2 walls of the dinning room that open up into storage. That was a gift to me from God. I saw something similar done years ago and wanted it. When I walked in and saw them I just stood there w/ my mouth open. I couldn't believe it.

Another favorite thing, a huge mud room with more built in shelves, cubby holes and hooks for coats. It has a nice kitchen, she said people complained it was too small. If only should could see the size of my kitchen now. I have exactly 3 feet of counter space, that's it.

The whole thing is God's doing. We needed a bigger space, they needed someone to take over their house. I don't even know what it was that made me ask her about it. We weren't in the market to buy at this point. We are all entirely grateful.

PIX OF NEW HOUSE

4 and 0 isn't bad baby!!

Well, other than that, my daughter is broke out right now, I don't know what it's from. 

And this Friday is our 16th anniversary. My 9 yo told me I was old, I told her she was a baby;)

We are planning on staying in town, we had talked about going up to the cottage, but decided to just farm the kids out and hang out here. Dinner, a movie and the Apple Fest:) I can't wait!

I've been reminded recently of just how good I have it. I have a wonderful husband who takes care of us. A nice house, altho some people would look at my house and not say that. I am extremely thankful for it. I have more than one friend who are an inch away from being homeless, other friends who have no vehicle,  are drowning in medical debt, and have no money to pay for the medicine they need. Therefore, they just keep getting sicker, and sicker and racking up more debt. I wish I could do more to help. 

This afternoon, someone showed up on my doorstep, someone I used to know, ran into them in a parking lot a couple of weeks ago, we chatted for a few. And handed me a card. When she left, I opened it, there was $100 inside. I barely know this woman anymore. I seriously see her like once a year. She said they felt it was the Lords will. Scott was asked to preach at church last week, and they took up an offering for us. I just feel so grateful. And humbled.

Well, well fall is upon us. If you had asked me 2 weeks ago how I felt about it you may have heard me weeping ;) But now the 3rd week of school is here and..... I'm actually enjoying it. After MUCH prayer and a change in attitude on my part, and many changes in the way I manage it, we are doing quite well. Pics to follow:)

As anyone who knows me knows that my favorite part of fall is.... COLLEGE FOOTBALL!! Go Irish!! And 3 weeks into football season and we're are 3 and 0!! Oh coach Kelly how I love thee... Probably what I would call the funnest game is this Saturday night. Our Infamous rivalry with the U of M. We have a get together with some friends that I think we've done for a few years in a row now. I'm looking forward to it, even tho I may be the only Domer there. I can handle it, we ND fans have tough skin:) 

I'd say my biggest struggle this entire year is the discovery of my daughters milk allergy. It's consuming. Just when I think I get a handle on things she is broke out again, or someone (my mother!) is tempting her with things like the evils of nutella (let me just say the only thing "healthy" about nutella is the wheat bread you put it on. Sis is getting to the point where she won't even try things b/c she is scared it has milk in it. Even things like a cup cake. And then here I am last night making a meal that we all like and that is good even with out the cheese when it hit's me, the seasoning for the tacos has milk in it. ugh. It's things like that that really get to me and make me feel like I've failed. I try SO hard, but it sneaks in. Like, I spent 4 hours getting groceries the other night reading what I thought was EVERY label, but I didn't think about the taco seasoning, or the fish sticks. (the fish sticks that she loves and cried about of course) *sigh* So, I didn't even tell her about the taco seasoning. But with in a few days, she will have a rash somewhere in her body and I will play innocent b/c I can't handle the guilt. This will be me, "hm, wonder what you ate sis..." 

I did find this that I'm going to make from now on tho..
http://www.5dollardinners.com/homemade-taco-seasoning
AFTER I read the backs of all of those spices to make sure there isn't anything sneaking into them...

Great article HERE about vaginal exams in late pregnancy. Worth a read if you're expecting or in the birthy world:)

How was your Mothers Day? Mine wasn't bad, nothing to complain about. After reading that article about the actresses and models encouraging mothers to run away from their families I purposely did things FOR my family ON Mothers Day to spite their wretched spirit :0)


Thought I'd post this link to a new Birth Community I found on FB. It's real woman, that look like me:) And most of the women I know. Actually, the average woman in the US too. It's Plus Size Birth. 

Today we got the results from Zacs EEG. It came back abnormal. If I understand their language, it meant that he has the potential to have more seizures and there was activity in his frontal lobe. Our next step is to see a neurologist. I have still not done any research on this. I'd really like to sit down and have a good cry. My middle child is still traumatized and almost every night is fearful that his older brother will have a seizure during his sleep. This is scary. I told Zac, but I have not told Zai or Sis. I don't need any more fear in the house.


On another note, Scott and I are going away for the night. We're going to this:
 http://convention.homeschoolmichigan.org/


I'm excited and happy that Scott is going with me. I went with a group of women last year, and had a blast. But really wanted Scott to come this year. He looked and it was all about a day off of work too:)

If you know me at all, you know that I am pro-life. You'll have to put up with the fact that I have decided to start posting some articles on here and a few less on FB. I don't buy into "don't force your views on me" argument, b/c abortion obviously forces something on another whole person by aborting it. 


I find this article particularly interesting. I haven't looked into China, but I wonder if the same will be true with them soon.
The Asian Tiger-Japan-is in danger of extinction

And btw, there's always the argument, if you don't like what I'm posting, don't read it:)

So, much to say. Scott graduated on Saturday. He now has his Bachelors degree. I'm very proud of him:) And he graduated with honors, cum laude:) He starts again in the Fall on his Masters Degree. Should be fun. 

Last June one of my cousins that I rarely see was up from Texas, he has lost a bunch of weight also, and we were both running, I got the bright idea for both of us to run a race together. Knowing that he is over 6 foot and much faster than me, I just thought it would be fun to do something healthy together. I found a race, with an extremely easy, flat course. I had trained for months. I wanted this race to be my fastest yet. I started off and all of a sudden couldn't breath. I had old ladies passing me. I got flustered and all my training flew out the window. My cousin finished and came back for me thinking this was a nice thing to do. We did figure out that day that there was like 93% humidity. gimney, no wonder I couldn't I breath. I had chest pains and everything.

Since that failure, I became extremely discouraged. I had worked SO hard. Had BEEN working SO hard. Then in January I remember sitting in a room full of people who were talking about wanting to be more physically fit thinking I'm in better shape than every single person in this room, but I'm also the biggest person here. So, I gave up. I quit trying. I was so tired of working so hard and not getting anywhere. I hadn't lost weight in over a year. Just maintained. Our gym membership came up for renewal, I did all the paper work and haven't signed them yet. I haven't had the money for it, but in the past, I would have found it. 

So, now i've gained some of the weight back. That is extremely hard for me to say. All my life I've been over weight, and one reason I never tried before was b/c I never wanted to go up and down. I haven't even weighed myself lately. I don't want to know. I just know my body and what it looked like before and how my clothes fit. I even have some clothes that don't fit. 

This past week I started putting into motion some of the things I know I need to do to be healthy again. Drinking water, walking, controlling my eating. I walked I think 5 or 6 days last week. I'm hoping to start our membership up this week also. May not happen tho. I have an Open House to help pay for:) 

I just thought putting it out there, owning it would help me be accountable. I know that once I started talking about it before, it helped. 

So much, too much...

So, I have so much on my mind tonight. I'm sitting here filling out a form to see if my middle son will be diagnosed with ADD. If so, that would mean that all 3 of my children will have either have ADD or ADHD. I can honestly say that when I dreamt of having children, I never dreamt of this.

And then there is my oldest. Who had a seizure yesterday afternoon. It was terrifying. I've never seen anyone have a seizure before, much less my own child. We spent the afternoon in the ER. All the tests came back normal, they said that it's very common for strobe light toys to send people into seizures, but were surprised that he had never had one before, since there was so much family history. I have a lot of questions. Usually in things like this I dive into it and find answers. I haven't touched it. I'm too scared of what I'll find. We have an appt on Thursday with his primary care giver. I'm not sure what will happen then, the ER doc said they will probably order an EEG.

And then there's my mom. She had hip replacement surgery on March 19th. And it's been a whirlwind ever since. I had no idea it would be this hard. I love her so much and I'm so happy to help her, but it's really hard. My kids were really helpful in that first week when I had a birth in the middle of it. And one of her friends has taken her to a couple of appts, my aunt took her to one appt, but other than that it's been all on me. She has 2 or 3 appts a week. Add that to the appts that my own kids have and my calender is a nightmare. I wish she had more people to help run her places. I'm taking her food, cleaning her house, taking her to all these appts and then she wants to go to the store while we're out, which of course I would too. I'm just exhausted with all of it. And I know it will be over soon.

Sooo, good news?? I can always find good news:) My baby girl enjoyed her birthday:) Her and her bff made bunnies and Build a Bear. Terribly, terribly expensive. I mean ridiculous. Things at the PCC are going really well. I was privileged to be part of an adoption plan with a young girl earlier this year. It was an amazing, beautiful experience. I feel that the Lord is leading me down a new path of ministry that involves adoption. That said, it involves much prayer, heck, my whole life involves much prayer these days! I couldn't possibly get thru a day with out it.

It appears I'm blogging on a once a month basis, haha:) Ah well, I started this blog for my own sanity, not yours;)

I'm going to Grand Rapids today with a bunch of women from the nonprofit that I volunteer at. We are going to visit this awesome crisis pregnancy center that was once used as an abortion clinic, have dinner and then see a movie. This movie. I don't normally watch things like this. I was adopted. I know very little of my birth parents. I didn't have the best upbringing. I blame no one. It was what it was. But I have never been able to watch those Oprah shows where people find their birth parents. I have no plans to search for mine. I've always felt that if it was the right time, the Lord would show me. I'm not sure why I'm even going today. I really want to see this center, and I really enjoy these social events:)

Maybe I'll even post pictures, now that I know I can easily pop the little card in and out, lol!

So I thought I'd post a favorite recipe of mine now and then. This is one I discovered this past summer, who doesn't love a good oatmeal cookie? I'm a bit on the prejudice side when it comes to oatmeal cookies, I don't believe there should be chocolate chips in my oatmeal cookies. I'm deaply offended by that. I'm a raisins only type of girl!

One of my aunts gave me this cook book for Christmas one year:

The All American Cookie Book

I honestly hadn't used it much up till this past summer. I had found a good choc chip recipe in it and was interested b/c it gives history of the recipes in it which is kind of fun. But anyhoo, I wanted a good oatmeal raisin! And I found it! The best ever imho... and trust me, we made lot's of them! Took them to the beach all summer.

Dairy Hollow House Oatmeal Raisin Cookies 2/3 cup (1 stick + 2 2/3 TBL) unsalted butter soft

1 cup (5 oz) raisins 1/2 cup white shortening

3 cups old fashioned oats 1 cup packed brown sugar

2 cups flour 1 cup sugar

1 tsp cinn 2 large eggs

1/2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp baking soda 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

1/2 tsp salt

preheat oven to 375 grease several cookie sheets

in a small bowl combine raisins and enough hot water to cover them, set aside

In a large bowl, stir together oats, flour, cinn, baking powder, soda and salt, set aside.

In another large bowl, with a mixer, beat butter and shortening till creamy, add sugars, mix, then eggs and vanilla till light and smooth. Stir or beat in all but 1 cup of oat mixture until even. Thoroughly drain the raisins. In a medium bowl, stir together the remaining oats and raisins, add to dough until evenly mixed.

Shape into balls about the size of golf balls. Place on greased sheets pat down slightly. Bake 8-10 minutes.

(I don't add nuts, and if I don't have shortening, I use butter)

If you try these, please let me know what you think:) They are brown sugary, buttery, chewy, and all around delish!!

btw, i added the nutrition tag, b/c i really do try to make as many of our snacks as possible instead of buying them.

Tears for the Duggar family morning. I also pray that God would protect and shield them from any negativity that this will inevitably bring. It never ceases to amaze me how cruel people can be. Michelle did not have a miscarriage in the sense that people are thinking. They did an ultra sound at 6 months and found no heart beat. Now she will have to have a forced/induced delivery.

I'm so thankful that I can cry and my Father knows what to do with these tears. He knows how to comfort her. He knows how to protect her. He already had a plan for that baby. I'm most thankful that Michelle Duggar knows that as well.

Cause when you're dead, you're dead, but until then there's ice cream. ~The Mentalist.

I LOVE IT!!

An update on the hair.

I am def in the "oily stage" and I no likey. I'm washing everyday b/c of it. It's not a big deal tho. What is a big deal is that I was seeing flakes. That is not exceptable. Kristal does not have flakes in her hair. Ever. If that does not go away, I will have to go back to shampoo. But I will be buying something all natural. I am trying to give this a full month, I figure I haven't given it a full chance if I haven't done it for a month b/c I won't get out of the oily stage or see if my hair adjusts.

My husband is a rockstar. Plain and simple. He worked full time, and went to school full time for 2 years while still being an awesome husband and dad. Last night he did his last class of his bachelors degree. And I think he is going to graduate with honors. I could never do what he has done. Now we get 8 months off and then he starts on his Masters degree.

I did make the laundry detergent. Seems to be working fine and will last us forever. I also found a very similar recipe for dry detergent that I might try next time. And I found another bonus, the homemade stuff is better for the environment:) No phosphates.

Changing the name of my blog yet again. I guess I just feel like a blog should fit the blogger, and it wasn't fitting anymore.

An update on the hair:

Day 4: washed and rinsed. As I was getting ready for work I noticed up toward my crown it looked oily. This could be the start of the oily period that they talked about, or it could be that I didn't do a good job washing, yes I scrubbed but maybe I didn't dispense it well. We'll see. But, since I'd about die before I'd go out of the house w/ oily/dirty looking hair, I quickly baby powdered the crown.

Today, even tho it was oil-ish last night, I will probably still not wash it today. I'm thinking it's a pony tail or braid day!

And on to other such life. I've gotten into this wanting to escape groove the last few days. It started when I went to the store with all the kids the other day and they were wretched! At this age, they usually aren't. It caught me off guard and to be quite honest, pissed me off. I have been in the house a lot lately, with every one being sick on and off. I was so thankful to go to work last night, just to get out with out the kids and be around adults! I've been begging people to DO something with me, something fun, but no one can lately. Mostly because it's like the middle of the week and they all have to work in the morning. I have to teach, but I guess it's a little easier for me to get up and deal than it is for them.

My point is that this escapism is a shaky path for me. I tend to be all or nothing with everything in my life, and when I feel this way I usually end up not being present in my head even when I'm here in body. Hoping I get out of the house soon and relieve a little stress before I go off the deep end!

that is the question...

Day 1, I washed w/ the baking soda

Day 2, I did nothing.

Day 3 I washed w/ the backing soda and conditioned with the apple cider vinegar. I also dried my hair, and flat ironed it. I was concerned that b/c I am used to using shampoo and cond with smoothers in them that I would have an issue with it, but I didn't. It styled just fine. I ran into my cousin at the store and she commented on how pretty it looked.

Day 4, I had no intent of washing my hair today. Unless I work out and get sweaty, I typically wash it every other day. But last night I noticed flakes up by forehead. Then it occurred to me that when I had "washed" it, all I had really done was rinse with it. I didn't do the typical scrubbing that I am used to doing. So this morning, I did. Feels much better.

So, here's a pic of it after flat ironing. It smoothed out with out frizziness fine. I would like to add that this is an experiment. I don't know if I will do this forever. I wanted to try it, so I am:)

To poo or not to poo...

So, I have always been slightly on the crunchy side on things. I sometimes think I like the idea of living that way more than the effort it takes to do it. But one step at time folks. Before I put my adhd kid on meds I spent 2 years making my own bread because I couldn't find any w/o high fructose corn syrup or food dies in it that cause my kid to react to it. We didn't buy ANYTHING with those things in it. SO, I can't say that is always true. But I do take my time b/c I do get overwhelmed with the effort these things take sometimes.

Anyhoo, I have been concerned lately with the things we use on our skin. I do believe that skin is our largest organ and we're constantly filling it with chemicals. This can't be good. So I am slowly turning us natural and organic. I read recently, and I have read this before and dismissed it b/c I loved my products too much, lol. But the time seems to be right now, about washing your hair with baking soda and water. I have decided to give it a try when I ran out of my shampoo and cond. I did it yesterday and it was fine. I used a mix of 1 TB soda, to 1 cup water. I concentrated it most at the roots and around my face which seems to be my most oily spots. At the end it still felt a bit oily, but then I realized that I am used to shampoo stripping my hair of it's natural oils. And quit. After my hair dried it didn't look oily at all. I didn't wash it today (gasp i don't wash it every day!) it doesn't look oily today. The blog I read about this said you may go thru an oily period of about 2 weeks. We'll see. To condition, she instructed the same mix of 1TB to 1 cup but apple cider vinegar, she said you can't smell it after you rinse. It is supposed to soften and detangle the ends. I know my mom has always told me when I run out of fabric softener to use vinegar. I didn't do this yesterday, but I plan on making the mix up today and using it tomorrow, I'll post about it later.

My future endeavors in this will hopefully be home made facial cleanser, body wash and laundry soap. I have to take them one at time or I will get over whelmed and quit.

Here is a link to the blog I read about this on, http://simplemom.net/how-to-clean-your-hair-without-shampoo/ She also gives a good explaination as to why not shampoo. NOT MENTION HOW MUCH CHEAPER IT IS TO NOT!! Also, her blog is simply amazing.

So, what's new? Nothing exciting here. Thought I'd post some pix from when we went up to St. Joe to see the Nina and Pinta docked with out homeschool group. They were surprisingly smaller than I could have imagined. We were told that, but to see it was unbelievable, and to think of the amount of people that were on them. And the remake of the Pinta is even bigger than it was in real life. It's 8 feet wider and 12 feet longer than the original.

Above I think are all the Pinta. The Pinta is on the left below.

I am crabby today. Just to be quite honest. I've been fighting a cold, I started my period, woke up w/ a headache, and am just plain crabby. Thankfully my kids are being ok. One of those days when I don't have a lot to do, so I can curl up on the couch, but I just can't comfortable! and being nice to the people around me is a real effort.

that is all.

wascally wabbit!

We are thinking about getting a rabbit as a pet. In all our years of parenting, we've not had a lot of luck w/ pets. We had a cat, then found out that Zac was allergic to them, we sent him to live w/ his sister at my friends. We had a dog, but she was too much for us. Our kids were toddlers, literally, toddling, and she would knock them over all the time. I have trained dogs before and could NOT get this sweet dog to train. I also then found out I was expecting Sis. I took her back to the pound. I'm pretty sure she got adopted quickly b/c she already had all her shots, and I saw her on out local morning show. It broke my heart to take her back, but I had to keep my sanity. I knew I could not handle 2 toddlers, a hyper dog and a new baby. Then my little girl had a pet mouse, whom she named "Little Bert." He died about 3 months after she got him. BROKE HER HEART.

In order for us to have an animal that we don't have to pay a $250 deposit on, it has to be a caged animal. We would keep the rabbit outside. We have a pretty awesome hutch for it. We were thinking about getting 2, not wanting it to be alone, but then we have 3 kids. So, not sure yet. Anyone have any experience w/ rabbits??