eat sleep and farm

This year we greeted Easter with the stomach flu! Yeah... not as fun as I made it sound.  My parents were here visiting the week before Easter and mid-way through their visit, my Mom had a day where she felt really off. Her stomach hurt and she had no appetite, but nothing else to report. A couple days later Miles began throwing up. I wasn't sure if he was sick or reacting to new food he ate. He vomited all night long, every 45 minutes.  Then nothing for a few days.  The night before Easter Sunday Rachel went to bed and woke up an hour later, vomiting. Ah, the flu for sure. We were planning to host 15+ people at our house the next day for a big ham dinner, followed by a bonfire in the backyard. So I quickly started sending out texts and emails at 11pm, letting everyone know we had to cancel. Huge bummer, but life nonetheless.  We put Rachel on the sick bed on the floor in our room and took turns getting up with her every hour to help her and get her cozy back in be

Dear Miles,   You're 1 month away from turning 1 year old! I keep saying it. I say it to Daddy, I say it to your siblings and I say it to our friends. It still hasn't sunk in. I'm in denial, and yet I can admit that I am and just move on. You're getting to be such a big boy and yet still retaining a lot of baby qualities. You are SO cuddly. You love to have your hand held in the car, you lay on shoulders, cuddle up before nap/bedtime, you love to be held around the house, you still lay with Daddy and me during the night and very much seem the happiest there. But you're adding more and more big boy things each day. We noticed the other day, you are definitely standing a lot more and 'walking' around the house with the use of random toys or furniture. When we put you down, in a standing position, you stand by yourself for a few seconds before carefully sitting down, and you definitely climb a lot more than you used to. You eat like none of our other

This article pretty much sums up most of my feelings about all holidays these days. Thanksgiving remains my favorite, only because it hasn't been over commercialized like all the others.  Because we homeschool, I definitely haven't felt some of these real/fake holidays the way she has, but I could write my own post on the subject, if I wanted to :) I could probably fill a post right now just on the outrageous ways kids birthday parties are being handled these days. But I won't. The article is a good read. Enjoy.

Dropped Ethan off at basketball practice. Its his last one of the season, so we lamented that all day. I love that he kisses me goodbye as I drop him off and tells me to drive safe while I'm out ;-) While he's at practice the kids and I go do something... Today we chose Target. Pulled into the Target parking lot, which happens to be next to Panda Express. Kara exclaims that she *needs* Panda for dinner. Its necessary. She tells Rachel that she loves the mandarin chicken there and is sad mommy NEVER takes her there anymore. Rachel tells her the reason she loves it so much is because its not really chicken meat, it is in fact, panda meat. Kara agrees without question. Apparently whatever comes out of Rachel's mouth is gospel truth. I'm parked here, dumbfounded. Why on earth does she think its actually panda meat?! I guess Five Guys burgers and fries is made with.... Nevermind. Gross. Also: pics from the day. During Rachel's quiet time she decided to

It was a mild winter and has definitely been a lovely Spring.  We'v had a great mix of winter/early Spring weather mixed in with  definite Spring weather.  We have a hard time staying indoors during any weather, but when its  this nice out, we venture somewhere.   First, we did PE out back.      the kids played while I packed lunches for our trip and cleaned up the breakfast mess. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Then we drove to Seattle. Its our go-to place when we want an exciting adventure. Seattle is different every time we go and we live so close, so its a no brainer. The kids asked if we could go by Noah's Bagels on our way. So we stopped off and found out that Noah's has been renamed! Einstein Brothers bought Noah's several years ago and for some reason just now changed the name. Still tasted just as good.  I had fun being artsy fartsy with my iPhone.     someone things he's all big and grown

Is being consistent with things as hard for you as it is for me? I guess I'm consistent with stuff that's not good for me. Usually because it doesn't take a lot of diligence or willpower. Those things are usually the easy things to do. Not work out. Eat fast food instead of homemade food. "forget" to pay a bill on time. stay up late and ignore the fact that tomorrow's wake up comes pretty early. watch tv or spend time online instead of time with God, or my family or friends in real life.  For me, the area I find the most difficultly being consistent is in parenting . It is a daily, minute by minute challenge for me. All of my kids need consistency from Jason and me, but there are two in-particular who crave it. They just don't know they crave it ;-)  In fact, the two of them think they hate it, but like all discipline, what we hate the most is probably the best for us. I used to hate being patient. It was like pulling teeth. In fact, I would rat

February felt long. Probably because I was sick most of the month. But here's March and here's me hoping its a month of health and wellness. My Mom's Doctor told her to take a medicine called Mucinex {expectorant only} and she said it was helping her, so I ran out and bought some last night and only 12 hours later I am noticing a HUGE difference! So yes. I have high hopes for you, March. You better be good to us. basketball has been so much fun for Ethan!  He's playing through Upward Sports which is through a church near us.  He has a few games in March and then season wraps up.  My good friend Jess had her baby today! And my Father-in-law retires this month, so its already off to an amazing start. I can't believe it will only be a couple months and the daily school schedule is over, welcoming in amazing days of summer fun! I feel like I should say lazy days of summer , but in our house, we're much more active and adventurous in the summer than win