The tooth that is in here...

Is no longer in here....

Week of Gratitude- day one!

What would the tapestry of our life be like without friends woven among us?

This heart is so very thankful for hand- holding sisters to walk beside!! Some works cannot be undertaken until you have a second, a spotter for hard tasks of the soul to brace you. Her thread comes beside yours, woven and crossed, and preciously accompanies you across some distance, sharing of her time and herself.

Thank you, Lord, for sisters who walk beside us in darkness and in light, with Jesus-love in their broken hearts that give You glory and cracks to shine through. Thank you for friends to weep with, and celebrate, encourage, rebuke, enjoy.... and LOVE...

You alone, Lord, are more than enough, yet in your extravagance you give more, and what a sweet gift are the friends You have placed in our lives!!

Please tell me you are joking.

Little Man says,"Momma, you are going to be mad at me."

I turn and ask him in my most patient -I-am-getting-ready-for-church-what-is-it-now- voice,"What have you done? Just tell me..."

"I accidentally stuck a glue board to the television."



Someday I will laugh about this.

Dangerous boys!!

Another season, and another rank graduation for the little men!! Trystan is now a beginner ORANGE BELT, and Isaac is a PURPLE BELT!! Purple is halfway to skunk belt (black with a white stripe) Skunk belts are in training for Recommended BLACK BELT. So he is halfway to black belt training. Mrs. Shade had Isaac and two other students get up at the graduation ceremony and show off their current pattern, and boy was he fine!! Parents were commenting to him this week at practice on what a good job he did on friday night!



Trystan is doing great, too - when he is paying attention he is FIERCE stuff in a uniform!



They are learning discipline, and something else that children in this time rarely have the opportunity to learn.... Time plus discipline = reward!! In our instant society, children do not usually have long term goals or perseverance. Isaac and Trystan have voluntarily agreed to pursue their training for the next THREE YEARS. They are learning an important lesson here, and a skill at the same time. If they continue in their training, they could become instructors, and even if they choose wildly different career paths, they could earn a living with this skill while they are training for what they want!!




Can you tell I am proud of them?

Grace for the Mess...

Today everywhere I look the things of day to day living are wandering through the house. Paint pens and hairbands, shoes on the nightstands, sheets dancing down the beds to drop on the floor. Hangers waiting on the floor, towels on chairs, and papers and notebooks and coffee cups sprinkled in every available space, decorating the day with reminders that we LIVE here...

May we do all of the important things today, and clean up AFTER!! And if anyone knocks on the door, give me GRACE, Lord!!

Day Full of Blessings...

Wow!! Sent Trystan off to Kindergarten, after a breakfast of corn pops and pop tarts, courtesy of Ninnie. The kids were already thinking it was the best day since Christmas. Made a run to walmart that went quickly, but in the middle of it had our socks blessed off to see Chuck and Colin Baker.

Colin is one of Isaac's close friends, and last night Colin was taken to LeBonheur children's hospital for bleeding from the eyes and nose. Scarry, but he was sent home last night, and was to undergo a ct scan this afternoon and possible surgery tomorrow for a retrograde hemorraghe. We were praying for Colin all evening yesterday, and Isaac was trusting God, but of course very concerned about his friend, so you just can't imagine the way it blessed our hearts to see him walking around in walmart, waiting to be scheduled in for his ct scan. Thank you, God, for honoring my son's heart for his friend with this incredibly uncoincidental meeting.

Trystan had a great day at school, and is getting better at writing his letters everyday, although he did cut a hole in his new pair of pants during scissor time. Had a delay while trying to get in to the doctor's office, so went to Goodwill and found Isaac 3 pairs of jeans, and 2 for me for about 20 bucks. Awesome. I was really scratching my head on pants for Isaac this year. 12's are snug in the hind end, loose in the waist, and dragging the ground a little.

We spent some time at the park by the library, and the kids had a great time. Then we stopped by the pet store, and they were able to pet the resident store dog, Bubba, that they all adore. We also spotted a lost dog today, and were able to follow her in the car while we called the owner to come and get her for a succesful rescue. Totally awesome. Now we have to conquer TaeKwonDo for the night, and hunt for some dinner.

How do YOU communicate?

Friday night at our Living Free ministry, we were teaching the kids about the role communication plays in conflict resolution, and the different types of communication that there are. The kids had a great time showing examples of communication, like stomping out of a room and eye rolling, and temper tantrums. So at the end we are sitting in a circle and reviewing and Trystan lays down on his back in the middle of the circle and tells us "I know what communication is. My friend Addie and I communicate with our MINDS, and then we communicate with our EYES, and then some times we talk..." I just put my head down, because I was trying not to shake with laughter, and my co-teacher, Niki tells him, "Trystan that sounds like flirting to me." Trystan just smiled his biggest smile and said "YES, IT IS."

He must be like his Daddy...

The other morning before kindergarten, Trystan comes to me with a piece of paper held to his chest and asks desperately, "Mommy, how do you spell going home with?" I told him letter by letter as he wrote it, but as he was writing this I see that on the top of his paper he has written 'Addy' and on the bottom he has written 'Trystan'. We went through 2 pieces of paper until he felt he had it correct, this forgery he was so sure was going to get his teacher to send his friend home with him in the afternoon.

My mom picked Trystan up from school for me, so I sent her a text warning her that Trystan was going to try to sneak home a girl in the car. Apparently she wore a blue dress on friday, just for Trystan, since it matches his eyes... He is working on another version of the note that he is certain will work. I told him that he couldn't bring her home and he said, "Why not, Mom? Addy doesn't make a mess and she is a good cleaner." I'm so glad he has his priorities straight at five.

Fizzy Corn... aka density experiments

You can have alot of fun with some water, baking soda, vinegar, and popcorn kernels.

The kids measured 2 Tablespoons of water into a clear cup (at least 8 oz in size), and stirred in 1 Tablespoon of baking soda. Then we counted out 14 popcorn kernels and dropped them into the cup, observing whether they sank or floated.

Then we added 1/4 cup of vinegar, and.....FIZZZZZ. After the fizz dies down we were able to observe the newly formed carbon dioxide bubbles adhering to the popcorn kernels. This lowered their density, allowing them to FLOAT.

Trystan was at kindergarten, so we reapeated the experiment with our little pirate when he came home.

You can find this, and many other fun science experiments in the BackYard Scientist series.
Happy Day, science experiment that was scheduled for Wednesday finally completed! Now let's see about math and lapbooking!

Homeschool Happenings...

We have been adjusting the last couple of months and are finally starting to pick up some steam!

Isaac has been working on time4learning.com during this time, and we have been adding in other activites as our schedules and sanity has allowed.

This week we have been reading the classic Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. Honestly, this was a move of desperation, because Isaac had been grounded from all electronics, and the kids were climbing the walls. So, we pulled it out WAY ahead of schedule, and I have been surprised by their level of attention. We read 9 chapters the first day, and 11 more yesterday. That sounds like alot, but the chapters are short, and I am reading from a truly ancient copy that was mine as a child, and has ink illustrations on every other page. I am amazed, and challenged to find and implement more things that are above their "level". Even Alyza has paid attention and enjoyed storytime.

I am ramping up Isaac's bible reading, requiring 3 stories a morning from him. He is still doing his time4 learning work, and at this pace will likely finish most of his 3rd grade requirements (math not included) by the end of this year, or shortly thereafter. We are using alot of different sources for our materials this year, and it is very challenging to cohesively implement it all. The Lord is stretching me, and helping me go over things for a few moments the night before, and that helps hit the ground running with play by plays ready in the morning, and can get Isaac started before I get the COFFEE. We are definitely a work in progress!!

I give...

Thank you, Lord, for not giving up on me when I throw up my hands! Help me to see what areas of my heart are unsurrendered to You, and take me deeper in this dance with You than I have ever been before!

I give you my health, for you are my creator and my healer. I give you my finances for you are my provision and my provider. I give you homeschooling for you are my teacher and the fount of all wisdom. I give you my heart, for you are the all-redeeming lover of my soul. I give you my life, for time does not hold you, and you see past this aging form.

I give you my entirety, for You, Lord, are my eternity.

Endless Gifts October 5, 2009

...61. A grey and rainy day outside that is so soft on my recovering eyes 62. Your reign inside, that dances my soul 63. Boy eager with smiles 64. love on our lips 65. praise in my heart 66. house half cleaned already 67. my man home and smiling 68. bonds of Your love between family and new friends 69. precious burdens of prayer for my sisters in Christ 70. the way you hold my heart in Your hand 71. stars spinning on the breath of your lips.....

What is this??

Apparently part of mothering male children is finding strange things in your freezer.

Today we found a bowl of frozen brown gray icemuck, that we have now successfully identified after several rounds of "What is this?" and boy laughter. They are very creative. I admit that it has never before occurred to me that the water bowl sitting beside your paint tray could be frozen. It is not a pretty looking sight.

Last week Isaac conducted his favorite experiment with ice cubes and salt, but then froze the briny results, and for days I wondered what on earth Jeff had set in the freezer!!

Maybe I should give him his own shelf!

Unbreakable

I find myself stunned at the overwhelming mantle of my king.

He is titanic in scope and complex in nature, involving himself in every single aspect of His creation. How can one respond to a God like Him? Aaahhh, what a space for humility!! At His feet, led into the shadow of His wings, hidden in the warmth of His breast; there I can rest in He Who Is. He keeps me in peace as I walk in contemplation of who He is, He gives me other sight - all the chains of this world look so different to a vision burned with the imprint of the Starbreather!

How thankful I am to be drawn into relationship with my Everlasting Creator, who desires me so intimately!! love, adore, worship... these words are so small against the mountain backdrop of the bond He has forged unbreakingly between Himself and I.

Holy! Holy! Holy!!!

Blessed...

Thank you, Lord for... 54. a slip of a girl with summer for hair. 55. boy bellowing deep laughter. 56. tiny girls speaking veternarian over stuffed animals. 57. chaos that feels just right. 58. warm laundry. 59. one clean room to breathe in. 60. Your presence stirring me up....

They are calling this one Hurricane Elvis II

We had a pretty tough line of storms come through here several weeks ago that reminded me of Kansas weather!! When I went out in the front yard to check it out I saw soooo much fast, rolling rotation that I went in and grabbed the two youngest up out of their naps and took them to the bathtub!! (Isaac was already in there playing his DS)this is a house on our cove during the storm

The sirens had been going off, and as all my plains states relatives know, that is the time to go outside and see what is going on. I have lived in this area for the better part of 30 years now and I've only seen skies like that maybe 2 other times in the south. Normally the worst weather in these parts splits up around the bluff and hits north or south of us. Nothing like in the plains states. Anyhow I started pointing out to Jeff the areas of rotation that I saw coming towards the house then we loose power and he says, "this is not the time to panic, Alecia." I know what he meant, and I love him for having a cool head, but I had to explain to him!! I grew up in tornado alley, I've stood beside adults looking straight up at a funnel discussing calmly wether a cyclone spins clockwise or counterclockwise, and I know when the time to panic is, and it is right now!!!!

He humored me and helped me get all the kids in the bathtub, and we actually did hear the sound, some of you know what I mean. It was muted, but it was THE sound. Jeff went and took a few pictures while I squished the kids in the tub. Afterwards we found out that the air pressure was so tremendous that it blew open the INTERIOR DOORS that cover our AC, heater, and water heater. Those doors are a tight fit.

Anyhow, we were mightily blessed with His protection. The storm shoved our 15 foot trampoline about 12-15 feet across the yard, but it was upright and unharmed. Some friends of ours had one go through their neighbor's fence AND get mangled.

Our swing got flipped around and mangled, but Jeff was able to fix it! Way to go, Jeff!!

Power was out around here, but you can get it turned on really quick if you go to wal-mart and spend 30 bucks on flashlights and batteries! Some people were out of power for 3 days. Our cove was the clearest street I saw anywhere, and of course we drove around and surveilled the damage afterwards. There was nothing else to do with no power! Mom's neighbor lost their entire privacy fence and there is alot of roof damage around town. There were various touchdowns in Olive Branch and Memphis, too, I think.

Street crews were busy for weeks picking up huge piles of limbs, and you could hear chainsaws going everywhere that evening! We lost about half of our willow tree, but amazingly the pear tree was unscathed. We were blessed!! Our cove was mostly free of leaves and debris, but everywhere else we drove, we could barely see the lines on the road for all of the leaves and limbs!!

kaplink, kaplank, kaplunk!!

Last week we read Blueberries for Sal, the Blueberry Mouse, and Blueberries for the queen, and today we finally went blueberry picking!!

We got a ride on an atv out to the current picking spot, an racked up 3/4 of a gallon in about 1/2 an hour. Then the heat got to most of us, and a little rebellious attitude in one child got contagious!! It took another half hour to help them all get their hearts back in the right places and finish picking the gallon!!


Alyza probably picked a quarter of the blueberries all by herself, serious as can be.

After that she got overheated, took off her shirt and pants, sat down on an overturned bucket and ate a whole bunch of blueberries. That made the boys a little crazy, and I had to convince them that I was outpicking what she was eating. They were getting worried that we would never fill a whole bucket and go home to the air conditioning.

It wasn't just them, I got so hot I started to get pretty nauseas, too. It was fun, and if we still have another picking day without a HEAT ADVISORY, I'll go pick another gallon to freeze for winter coffee cakes, smoothies, and cereal! We were out of there by 10:30, but the heat was so intense that it has pretty well shot our day, and the kids are cranky!!

Oh, and another thing...

"TRYSTAN?? We do not eat pancakes on the couch. EVER. Yes, mam?"

From Camp...

Isaac told us,"The people who owned the horses said that there were ticks on the trees and that we shouldn't touch them. That's why we had to wear the helmets."

Glad he is home. Even if he and Trystan started fighting instantly, we are still glad that he is home. Really.

Happy Fathers Day!!

Happy Father's Day to the Daddy of the AWESOME THREE!!
We love you!

Powdered donuts.

I thought that I would be surprisingly nice, since the boys had a sleepover last night and present the tired little munchkins with powdered donuts after they had cereal this morning.

I desperately needed a cup of coffee, so I gave the sweet boys specific instructions about their donuts, their plates, their surrounding area, and handwashing. The only child at the table under 5 was a girl, so I thought I could drink my coffee in relative peace.

I did.

Then I came around the corner to supervise the handwashing and to survey the damage to be greeted by an adorable boy with an incredibly white face. Did you know that boys will rub powdered donuts on their faces to make war paint? In all fairness, he was washing his hands... but the face. Oh, my. Covered. All the way to the hairline.

I have since been notified that girls occasionally do this to look like Geishas. Beware.

Will Summer please slow down?

Summer has the potential to be full of fun, lazy, science experiment, treasure hunting, water drenched, cloud watching days. So far it has been full of closet rearranging, house sitting, hurry up or we'll be late kind of days.

I feel like summer is underachiving this year around my house. Is it like this at your house, too? We've not sat on the swing once and dripped popsicles all over ourselves. We haven't seen a single tadpole, although we have looked. I DID see a lightning bug last night, but the children were already in bed. I am looking for those lazy days of summer, but they are lollygagging on someone else's lawn.

I am getting a tan, although I've been so busy I'm not sure where I got it, and was pleasantly surprised when I discovered it wasn't dirt. I would really like to spend the whole day at the park (are there portapotties there?), or the pool, or on the trampoline, on the couch, or even in the flower beds with no other commitments that we have to hurry up and go home and get naps for or else someone will be cranky...aaaaaahhhhhh.

Summer better hurry up and get here and get it's tire stuck in the mud of my yard. I need a break.

More things I should not have to say.

"Why did you wipe lipgloss on the television?" was followed about 5 minutes later with the classic question "Did you just wipe a booger on my cat?". If you don't believe me I have witnesses to verify these comments. Yes, both quotations were said in front of company.

My children are the funniest people I know, and apparently we need to work on our manners. Are ALL boys like this?

Never give an angry mother peanut butter.

Once upon a morning, five year old Trystan woke up in a delightful, cereal eating type of mood only to discover upon his mother's remark, that indeed, quite shockingly, he had gum stuck in his hair.

At first this completely unlooked for surprise brought on fit after fit of giggles and wiggles, and was the subject of much laughter and mirth at the breakfast table.
Trystan wondered how ever he would remove the gum from his hair. He and his brother Isaac thought perhaps they could pull it out. This idea was ALMOST immediately discarded, and replaced with the theory of BRUSHING IT OUT.

Sadly this idea, too, was found to be without merit, and although many more theories were forthcoming, Mother stepped in to the fray. She said words along the order of NOT and TOLD and REASON, but being relatively uninteresting, the connecting words have been forgotten by all parties involved.

Unfortunately she brought with her several things, including a bit of a twinkle in her eyes and a bit of a glower on her face. She also brought peanut butter, a comb, and a roll of paper towels.

This was met with peals of laughter and some dancing of the feet. Mother grinned a strange grin. Someone asked mother whatever she was planning to do with the peanut butter, seeing as how we had only finished breakfast and were clearly not at all hungry enough for sandwiches. Quickly, however, her intentions became evident.
There was much fussing, and sticky parts abounded everywhere. Someone had to hold the paper towels, and someone had to hold onto the peanut butter, and mother had to hold on to Trystan, who's attitude became full of scowls and growls the stickier he became.
Poor Trystan. At one point the jolly little man even begged to have his head shaved along the order of his Uncle Jake's. We think that mother entertained this idea for a while. Not only did she indeed SAY that she was entertaining the idea, she LOOKED as if she was entertaining the idea. Then, SQUISH, in just the right moment before drastic things would begin to occur, the last of the gum came free from Trystan's hair!! There was much dancing, laughing, and checking to be absolutely certain that there was no more gum hiding on his person.
So, quite luckily, Trystan attended his preschool graduation in much the same hairy state in which he had cutely spent the year. However, though he may have looked the same, he was much wiser. He learned a great lesson.

Never give an angry mother peanut butter.

Wordless Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Up went the pool.

If I ever need to write another resume, I can now add pool assembly to my experience.

Mom, Christina, Latisha, and I spent the weekend assembling Mom's new 18' pool. Wet denim, sarcasm, sore fingers, a twisted kneecap, great amounts of handwringing and billions of gallons of water were involved. There was also a little hair raising part where the men had to get involved with a sledgehammer while the women hid their eyes and prayed.

One of my favorite parts was where three tired women gave up trying to stay dry, only to remember that Mom's clothes dryer was, um, out of order.

But the fruit was endured by all on Memorial Day. We braved the icy depths and watched each other's purple lips tremble in the rain and thunder as the children splashed and swam and made us nervous wrecks with their fearlessness. Isaac was obsessed with swimming under water. Alyza was so very excited about anything pink that was floating in the water. Trystan repeatedly dodged any and all safety devices. The adults laughed like crazy that the rain was warmer than the water we were swimming in, and watched for lightning.

Wonderful fun!!

in which nothing and much happened...

I love the things that come out of the mouths of mothers everywhere. Things you simply should not have to say. Words that should not, in a sane world, be put in the same sentence.

"...So who glued the rocks to the patio?"

I should not have to ask. It sounds absurd once it comes out of my mouth, and indeed, I know the answer. But the why is always entertaining, even though for safety reasons I MUST NOT SMILE.

What things have you had to say lately?

Spring fun 2009

Easter 2009

Wordless Wednesday May 13, 2009

Choices...

I know I am behind in posting. I will get Easter pictures up sometime soon.

Jeff is out of town with a church event; I was gone last weekend. This week was my little brother's birthday - Happy Birthday Jake!! He got a new house for his birthday, so he is finally big enough to receive old person birthday gifts like weedeaters and hoses!

I've been looking at our homeschooling materials and choosing what we would like to do next, and praying about whether or not to send Trystan to Kindergarten this fall. I am so torn about this!! I really like the kindergarten program we sent Isaac to a few years ago, but I hate that Trystan will be gone from our routine EVERY morning during the week. I like all of the scripture memorization they have poured into them, but I kind of feel like REAL homeschooling is on hold until we are ALL home to learn together. I really like the Tapestry of Grace program, but when I envision it in my mind, we are all doing it together... It feels like planning a party without him being home.

So in the meantime, I'm looking at other options and evaluating where we are. I like the language arts portion on Time4Learning.com, and Isaac loves that he just blows it out of the water on tests. Everyone needs an attaboy, and he likes it. The math part, he hates. Of course he hates math workbooks, too, so this is not unfamiliar territory. He can not tolerate missing a question, and to him 4 out of 5 correct is just the end of the world and the beginning of self recrimination. We are working on this. I'm looking into MathMammoth books to add a little skill mastery over the summer, and if we like them we might continue them next year. They are extremely affordable! We are also considering MathUSee, it sounds like a great program, although it is more expensive. If Math Mammoth can't help us stop the pencil grinding, perhaps a change in format like Math U See might be in order. I really like the theory of a mastery approach, and I think Isaac will respond to one.

For Science we are planning on adding Apologia's study on astronomy. It is so affordable! Isaac and I discussed the different options available through apologia and he immediately gravitated to this one. We will be finishing up our current book of Backyard Scientist this summer with our friends, the Thompsons, and are looking forward to a summer full of experiments. Boy fun!!

I like the Weaver curriculum we have been looking at, but finding all of the books for each unit is time consuming. We enjoy the books, but having to choose substitutes for most of the titles looses the coherency in a unit. I feel like I am stretching it to make connections between the books we have available and the information in the guide. I am torn about this one, because we really do enjoy the incredible variety of books. We may use it a little more over the summer...

We like the looks of Start Write for handwriting. I can use it for each child and make their handwriting lessons go hand in hand with scripture memorization or anything else that needs reinforcing. It works with print and cursive, and depending on our choices for next year, may be in our budget at around $40.

For Alyza I would like to start Little Hands to Heaven. I like Heart of Dakota, and I think this would be fun for Alyza. She is always wanting to do school and coloring... They also publish Drawn into the Heart of Reading, which I may add in for Isaac. Especially if I go with booklists from Ambleside Online or other similar Charlotte Mason booklists for next year. If we send Trystan to Kindergarten we will probably go this route and save Tapestry for the next year, starting as soon as he graduates.

For the summer, at least, I will keep Isaac on Time4Learning's site. Since we will have company several days a week, this is an easy way to keep Isaac moving forward. I just don't know about long term, but it is serving it's purpose for now!! I'm still getting the hang of how many assignments to give him each day, and how to implement this effectively. It is geared towards use in schools as a supplement, and takes a little digging to figure out how to use it in homeschool.

Oh yeah, and Latin. Affordable!! Prima Latina and it's sister programs are pretty affordable!! If Trystan goes to kindergarten, we might wait on this for a year so I can teach them on the same level. That would be so much easier for all of us.

And at dinner tonight...

We were all gathered 'round the table having baked potatoes for dinner, topped with bacon, cheese and sour cream.

Trystan was eating with his fingers and Isaac tells him, "Eat with your fork, man!"

Trystan shakes his head and declares, "I'm a vegetarian!"

Hopping on to Easter...

This year we are keeping our regular Easter traditions and adding a new one.

Monday, the boys and I gathered rocks and limbs and made an Easter tree. Each day we are doing a few minutes of additional bible reading and creating an ornament. I'll post pictures later this week, as we only have two right now!!

We are just copying some corresponding illustrations from Trystan's bible, pasting them on to card stock and hanging them with ribbon. If all goes as planned we will hang an ornament every day this week. On Easter Sunday we put all of the kids' goodies in one basket and hide it. Then we tie yarn to it and trail it all over the house. Around door knobs, under furniture, through the refrigerator handles.... every year we make it a little more complicated. The kids have the most fun searching for their basket!!

This year I bought some Easter Egg ornaments (we don't usually do candy eggs, the kids get their quota of candy from Ninnie on Easter!) too, and we are going to hide them and let them decorate the easter tree with them. It's just a gaggle of sticks in a pitcher filled with rocks, but He makes all things new, doesn't He?

The onesie that went around the world

At church on Sunday, Jeff was talking to some friends of ours who were having a 'meet the baby' shower later that afternoon, the Phans. While visiting, Wes, the teenage son of a couple of friends of ours came up to Jeff and handed him a gift bag. When Jeff asked him what it was, he said "It's from my Mom and Dad, for you and your family." Jeff thanked him, finished talking and went to his car.

Curious, he opened the bag and unwrapped the gift to find a pink baby outfit, size 9 months, adorable and all, with the cutest elephant on the front. So he arrives at my Mom's house for lunch with the bag, and as we are all sitting down to eat explains what has happened, and asks me if I have been talking to Jackie Greer about something I had NOT been talking to HIM about. We all had a good laugh and figured it was a teenage boy mixup and that the bag had been for our friends the Phans and their new baby girl. Of course it changed all the lunch time conversation, and Jeff kept talking about if we had another baby, would he wish it were a boy or a girl ( we have differing opinions, we discovered), so forth, to the point that I'm asking him,"have you prayed about this and not told me? are you wanting more babies?" We were all laughing and joking, but let's face it, I think the question is now very much on the table now, thank you, Jackie.

So a few hours later, Mom and I head off to the Phan's shower, deliver the Greer gift, and even make sure that Kristen, who was writing down all the gift info for Ruth, knew who the gift was from. There was no card attached. Everyone loved the outfit, ooohed and aaahhhed over it.

Later that night at a leadership meeting another friend commented to Jackie what an adorable gift she had sent to Ruth's shower, and puzzled Jackie said,"Well, that's who it was for then." Jeff told her how he had delivered the gift for her and Jackie explained that she had actually sent Wes with the gift that morning to give to JERRY West, NOT Jeff!! Then later my Mom told her about our lunch discussion...

So, if you read this Lexi, the gift that was meant for you and precious Audrey went around the world instead, put babies on my husband's mind, and gave about 5 of us the best laugh we have had in quite awhile!!

Update on Trystan...

Trystan is doing much better today, praise the Lord!!

All day yesterday he kept getting worse and worse, and my Mommy hackles were really up! He was just laying on my bed staring at the wall for hours at a time. His fever had broken, but he was acting worse than ever. No TV, no games, he even refused Popsicles. He was already dehydrated, and still would not drink more than a sip of water all afternoon. He wouldn't walk, wouldn't talk. He took a long nap, so I waited to see....

Around 2:45 he got really bad, his stomach pain was really intense and he started throwing up bile. Yuck. Of course all over me. You know I was really worried about him, I told him he was doing a great job throwing up. At this point things were so bad I felt like we were looking at appendicitis. I've seen stomach viruses before, I've WORN stomach viruses before, and this was not it.

Then things changed drastically. He asked for a sucker (which he fell asleep trying to suck on), and then he wanted ice cream. I'm not out of my mind, so I said no to the ice cream, but I told him if he could eat a popsicle and keep it down we would go to sonic and get a milkshake. I remember that it was 3:15, because I told him he had 30 minutes to eat a popsicle and we could leave at 3:45 and make it to sonic for 1/2 priced shakes by 4pm.

That boy was determined. He took a few licks on the popsicle and he was just begging for that milkshake. I'd just like to say that I don't usually give dairy to children with fevers and queasy stomachs. This is not my usual mode of operation at all. I figured what is the worst that can happen? He's already upchucking... and he desperately needed some kind of fluid. He walked down the hall with a bowl under his chin throwing up in it as he went. We just cleaned it in the hall bath as we went and proceeded to the van. With the bowl. BUT HE WAS WALKING.

We got to sonic, and he started slowly sipping his shake. He kept his bowl beside him, but he didn't need it. Jeff came home and made them frozen pizza (again, not my usual m.o. for a sick kiddo) and he ate some and kept it down. He even ate some popcorn (it was movie night) and kept it down, too.

He went to bed with his bowl, his spiderman blanket and his glow puppy. He even brought all three to bed with us in the middle of the night. He never needed his bowl.

Today he is acting like Trystan. Diluted Trystan, but him just the same. He is not eating much but he is giggling and playing nintendo and fussing at his sister for bugging him...

The really cool thing is that last night I checked my email and saw that our church had sent out a prayer request email yesterday with several different requests. Trystan was in that email, and I didn't know it. The email was sent out at 3:13 pm. How awesome is that? He asked for that popsicle I had been begging him to eat all day at 3:15. When he asked that we were going over a child's pain diagram that helps them to explain to you how bad their pain is. Trystan was showing me that his pain was as bad as it could be, and in the next sentence wanted a popsicle and a milkshake.

Thank you for praying for Trystan. Thank you all for dropping what you were doing when your inbox chimed and praying for this sweet child!

Stillness...

Last night I took Trystan to the after hours LeBonHeur Clinic. He's had this recurring high fever with no other real symptoms. It had been responding well to ibuprofen and came and went with Tinnie acting pretty much normal until yesterday evening. He started acting like he was actually ill, and the fever was not coming down as well so off we went.

The doctors did a strep test, which came back negative. Then they checked his white blood count (they said he was as tough as spiderman. High-fived the guy WHILE they were drawing blood.) which was normal. Urine clear, too. We left scratching our heads, with orders to see his regular doc today. Sigh. There is a very good reason we went to the clinic instead, and it involves the regular doc, so we're not sure what to do.

I thought things might look clearer in the morning, but now Trystan is acting like he feels much worse, his fever is barely responding, and he is refusing popsicles. The doctor said last night that he was dehydrated, so this is concerning. He is drinking small amounts of water, though. Now he says that his throat, tummy and legs hurt and is refusing to walk. I've carried him to the bathroom, and finally he wanted to go out to the family room and I carried him there. He tried to crawl to his bedroom and gave up and wanted me to pick him up.

If you know Trystan, you know how uncharacteristic this is. Last night at the clinic he was extraordinarily STILL. That's part of why I took him. Trystan is only still while snoring.

I'm sure this will probably turn out to be some extremely strange but harmless virus, but we would appreciate your prayers. I am enjoying the chance to cuddle our little blonde tornado, but I'd much rather have him whirling about in good health!!

First Day of Spring....

Worms.

Yesterday Isaac came in the house with a couple of earthworms he found in the backyard. (How he found them is beyond me, he was on the trampoline) Daddy and I helped them fill an empty peanut butter jar with dirt (more like mud) and the boys dumped in the worms. We made a couple of holes in the top, and set them up on the breakfast bar. The worms immediately tunneled down in the mud, obligingly along the sides of the jar, so we could see what they were doing.

Today I googled worms and found out that they like to eat kitchen scraps, paper, that sort of thing. We had eggshells in the sink from breakfast, so the boys had fun crushing them up and feeding the worms. They haven't told us if they like them, I don't think they have even come up to see what is for lunch, but here they are.....

I've had this spring feeling lately, and had begun saving every emptied jar and milkjug that has passed through my hands. I knew that the bugs would be coming soon, and if I don't want every "look what I found, Mom" to be running loose in my house I had better have temporary apartments ready for all of them. There's not a single container that makes it into my house now that I don't think "hmmm.... that would be great for tadpoles, or caterpillars, or pillbugs.......".

For spring break...

The boys' TaeKwonDo instructor asked me last week if we celebrated spring break. That was funny to me. I laughed really hard and she just smiled and I told her we absolutely would if we weren't behind from all of the extra time we spent goofing off after Christmas.
So, for spring break we are doing schoolwork. I had a grand plan to surpise the kids with a day at the zoo LAST week before everyone in the tri-state area had spring madness, but on the planned day, Trystan woke up with a mystery 103.5 fever and we will have to reschedule. He had the fever for 2 days and no other symptoms. AT ALL. Then it completely disappeared. I wonder if when we get to Heaven we will get to find out about all the things the Lord protected us from.

Anyhow, last week went well. We had a friend's children with us for several days and really
enjoyed their company.