eat sleep and farm

This has been a rough week, to say the least. We've had very little sleep, we've been at the hospital probably the same amount or more than we've been home, and 3 of our 4 kids have needed to be at the hospital for one reason or another. At this point Rachel wins the healthy award! This morning I took Ethan in because he woke up swollen and covered {head to toe} in hives. Turns out he's now allergic to Penicillin. Oh the joys. Its easy to get totally bogged down and feel like a semi truck is pushing its way through our home, but at the same time, it really makes me stop and think about perspective. How bad things could be. So we've had a rough week. Some people have rough years. Some people know suffering as their normal way of life. This isn't that bad. We found out we have to move from a home we love and unexpectedly found ourselves looking for a new place to live, in 30 days. It means we had a great home for 2 years that we enjoyed living in.  And a...

I am no longer posting about this stuff on Facebook. Took me 8 years, but I've learned my lesson. Here on my blog I can post things I want to talk about and if people don't like it, they can stop going out of their way to see it :)  I understand that with Facebook you're sort of stuck seeing a great many things you may not choose to see, but with blogs, that's not the case.  So, do me a favor. If you don't like this article or you're wanting to fight about vaccinations or call the lady in this article crazy, please find out how to get ahold of her and complain to the author, not me.  With that said, this article is really interesting, educational and well written. My kids have this vaccine and I've never actually heard this side of the 'argument' - I only ever hear how deadly it is for kids not to have this one. Anyway, enjoy!  **Sorry, I'm posting from my phone and can't actually put a link on here all fancy.  http://www.mommypotamus.com/whe...

Miles was cleared by the surgeon and we were told he's going to be ok!  The fracture is clean, his brain looks great and he's doing really, really well. Praise God!  We got home around 4pm and our older 3 came home around 7 and 8pm. Ethan walked in the front door, hugged me and said "hi mommy!" And I knew right away.... He has Strep throat. He's had it twice before and I've gotten to where I can spot it fast.  So this morning we got all ready to go to the Dr's office and on the way out the door, Miles took off down the porch and slipped, hitting the back of his head on the porch step. He has a little cut and a knot where he hit it.  So we're buying one of these now... Seriously.  Found out at the Dr that Ethan and Kara have strep. First time for Kara- she's very excited. Mostly because she gets bubble gum medicine :-/  Thankfully they both seem fine. Other than sick throats they're acting totally normal. Another praise.  What's that saying....

Miles had a bad fall yesterday. To keep details short and sweet: I went to the bathroom and in that time he found his high chair, wheeled it across the kitchen to the banister overlooking our family room, climbed it and ended up falling over the banister onto the family room floor {approx 5 feet}.  The goose egg bump appeared on his head right away, he screamed and cried like I would expect him to do and I called our pediatricians office because injuries to the head scare me.  Our Pediatrician said he felt more comfortable having us to to urgent care and getting a cat scan if needed, which he couldn't do.    The urgent care Dr felt like it was a 'typical' fall and thought Miles seemed to be in very good spirits and didn't see a need to radiate his body if we didn't need to.  You know when people tell you to go with your gut? I wish I had. I had a nagging feeling that he needed the scan, but didn't want to appear to be that over protective mother.  Miles did...

God provides. Always . Not always how we expect, but He always provides. We're moving into our new house in 11 days! Last week we had no idea what we'd be doing or where we'd be living and today we pack and clean with a purpose :)  The home is closer to Jason's work, closer to our church, amazing freeway access and near several friends {still near our community of friends now too} We were looking and checking out what we thought was right for us and what we thought God was pointing us to, and then He laid this place in our laps. Literally; we stumbled upon it as we were closing the laptop and giving up on looking for the night. There it was.  Its the same rent we pay now {which seems like a miracle} and is the same size as our current home, which is perfect.  We will miss being country folk, that's for sure. We've loved living in this home. We've loved the memories, the times spent with family and friends in it, the amazing yards to play in, ...

We think we found 'the' house. Still waiting though. We've done our part and now we wait to see if we're picked. For the first time in this hunt we are first in line for a house. It feels good :) In the meantime, I'm packing. Today I got a bunch of produce boxes from Costco {thank you, Costco!} and packed up all our books, movies and some kitchen items I don't use on a daily basis.  It actually feels good to begin packing . Feels like we're moving forward and not just standing still.  Yesterday was super rough. I think the tiredness came crashing down and the emotions of what's really going on hit me. I had many times during the day where I just randomly cried. No real reason why. It seems like its in those moments that Satan capitalizes on everything that's wrong in my life and tries to get me to forget the blessings and to forget the amazing fact that, good news or not, I  always serve an amazing, gracious God.  Jason got a few panicked messages f...

Alright, so we have to move. I keep sitting down to blog this and getting side-tracked. Its been confusing to people because some people assumed we owned the house we're living in {we wish!} while others assumed we were going to eventually buy it {that's what we thought too}. Our landlords decided rather suddenly that when our lease is up at the end of June, they will be putting the house on the market. We can't purchase a home right now because we're still being punished for short selling in CA. So we have to move. But the rental market is tight. Prices are higher since its summer = the perfect time to rent here in WA. We've applied for two homes, lost one and we're waiting on the 2nd. What we have going against us is our 'large' family size and someone seems to get in line right before us and gets approved before us. So right now we're moving out of our current home, into.... nothing ! {fake excitement}  I have my moments where I {at l...

Our trip to California went well! Traveling was long, but went very smooth and our time spent with family and friends was wonderful.     Miles opened his birthday present from Grandpa and Grandma We were so happy to spend time with both Grandmas.  Grandma Anita is home and doing well.   My parents took us to a park I used to go to when I was little called, Happy Hollow. We had so much fun! However, I did decide that theme parks are not for the faint of heart (totally wore us all out!)    I was able to meet up with my old piano students and good friends.  My Nephew Sam with Miles  Finally met little Miss Vesper (my friends baby)  Ethan with buddies he's known since he was 18 months.  Me with their amazing Mamas.  We ended our trip in Chico with Jason's sister Jenny and her husband Jeff.  Auntie Jenny put together a fun dinner in the park, complete with s'mores!  Left Chico at 2:30am and got to watch this beauty ri...

July is over. What a packed full month! Its August - we're in CA to see Jason's Grandma, when we get home we're moving (more details on that later) and then school starts. Maybe one year I will have a calm ending to my summer.  I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to blog. Its getting trickier the older my kids get (there's less and less I want to share with the World Wide Web for their own privacy) and Instagram has made picture viewing for the Grandparents amazingly easy. I will probably set this one to a private setting (as in, only I see it) and if I want to resurrect it someday I can. I think any major news I'd have to share, everyone is on FB and can see it.  This is what our world has come to ;-) Anyway, happy August!  Here are pics from July. They're in backward order, sorry.      End of July backyard fun     July's before church group pic           With Nana at Alki beach     Miles on a date ...