Jaden William's Very Belated 10th Birthday Post

Yes, William turned 10 back in June, but he wanted to go to a junkyard for his birthday trip, and he simply wouldn't give any other suggestion.  I told him that some day his daddy would just have to take him, that it wasn't really a birthday trip for the family.  And this year has been nothing short of crazy and somewhat not-as-usual.  For some examples:

*Both the boys' birthday trips were delayed (through Trusten's only a month-and-a-half).
*We took very few walks (I think this was mostly due to a strange-to-here number of mosquitos that would feast on us each time)
*We didn't read most of our magazines during the summer (but kept them back for later), which has never happened for months at a time, before.
*We've had times of less school more-than-usual. 
*And more!

But that's life, isn't it?  Sometimes things happen, and life gets jumbled around differently for a time, but then it gets better again, or there becomes a new normal...or whatever!  And you know what?  It'll be ok.

So...for a FLASHBACK, going back in time four months, here's a picture of Jaden William with his birthday gifts (which were meager this year--used books off Amazon and a few Smencils, whereas Trusten got a few Smencils and three pair of different fun socks, as he loves novelty socks), but that's ok, too, as it doesn't need to always be extravagant, which is a good life lesson!):

Trusten didn't want to miss the opportunity to have his picture taken with Brother.  

Then we took Jaden's birthday trip two weeks ago.  I finally decided it was time we go SOMEWHERE for his trip, so we decided to surprise him by going to the Crystal Bridges art museum.  We didn't get to see everything before we had to go (the twins certainly weren't as enthralled about it, if you know what I mean), but we can easily go back another time.  There are plenty of gardens and walking trails outdoors, too, and we got a nice day of exercise, sunshine, and fresh air.  I bet the gardens are beautiful in spring and summer.

I took a few pictures of my favorite paintings and other things.  There were several paintings of birds and things, but I'll only post a few here.  Jaden didn't have any favorites over the others.  He said, "I didn't have any favorite.  I liked all of it.  A lot."

 I should have gotten the kids to stay closer in the foreground in the above picture (not to mention not having them stare into the sun), but I was disappointed I had to hurry to get a picture at all, as Nathan took off with Elizabeth in the stroller and was making a rather speedy getaway!  LOL  I think he'd heard enough of Liv's whining and Trusten's transgressions of getting too close to the art.  But anyway, isn't that metal tree so neat?  The sky was perfect!

 Some of my personal favorite paintings are shown above. 

I keep wanting to call the branch creature a deer, but I believe it's a horse.  I don't know why I want to think of it as a deer.  I just had to get a picture of the kids with the pig!


Coming soon is an update on what the kids have actually done in "school", as well as fall pictures, and a general update on the kids. 

Until next time...

What We've...

This was supposed to be posted for the new month (new moon), but no one is really surprised it didn't get done then, right???  (Because if you are surprised, then you don't me very well, now do you?!)

So this goes back through most of "September" to "October" 5.

What We've Been Reading...

I think Trusten left the newspaper in the floor, and Elizabeth decided to "read" it.

LOL! Those Scholastic News were left from May.  We were behind on our beloved wildlife magazines, too.

And several books, of course!  We read children's books, history textbooks, bible storybooks, the bible, etc.

What We've Been Doing...

We took a break to go visit family and friends, which we had planned to do back in July, but we kept waiting to see whether Nathan could take off to go, but I just decided to take the kids myself and go.

Of all my school friends, there are only two with whom I still care to maintain relationships, and those were my two best friends, Lindsey and Gena.  Above I'm pictured with Gena, and her children and mine are together (her firstborn is her biological son, and the other three are her adopted blessings).  I enjoyed a wonderful visit with my dear friend while my kids and her three youngest, plus her current foster child played at the park.  The kids all had a lot of fun together, too.

Another day I was blessed to enjoy a visit with my other dear friend, Lindsey, and I'm pictured with her above, and her precious girls with my babies.

The kids also got to play with their cousin Layla, my sister's precious girl.  I'm so blessed to have a baby sister and a precious niece.  LOL, we couldn't get our picture to turn out to suit us.  I look like I've had a stroke or something.  Really, I am somewhat lopsided, I think, lol, but not as badly as that picture shows. We've got our faces turned.

We visited Nathan's dad, too, and I got pictures of the kids with him, but he'd likely choke me if I posted them, lol, so I'll stick with posting a couple of the cool little dog.  Such a friendly thing.  He'd make a handy cleaner-upper on our dining room floor, I'm sure. My father-in-law once talked us into selling my beloved boxer Artemis to him, so maybe I should talk him into selling Bud to us. ;-)

Sweet Elizabeth and Layla, at my parents'. 

Meanwhile my oldest three were playing in the pool.  William also spent some time fishing in the pond, and we got to eat fish before we came home from our trip.  When I was a girl, we fished and at fish from the pond a lot.
I took a lot of other wonderful pictures on our trip.  Won't share them all.

The kids got to learn about tree-trimming and mulching, because our electric company hired Asplundh to trim and cut down trees in the county.  They spent several days on and around our property.  I even had one of the desires of my heart fulfilled through this.  I've been wanting the large sycamore right in front of our house trimmed, because it's been blocking too much sunlight from the porch for the last year or two.  We love its shade, but it's become too much, and I've been limited to what kind of flowers I can put in pots on the porch, and the grass has become nonexistent in the area. Soooo...I kindly asked the man who came to the door whether they'd mind trimming those branches, even though that part of the tree did not affect power lines.  In the end, he chose to fulfill that kind deed, and I praised God for that wonderful blessing!  It only took them a few extra minutes.  Another blessing is that all the mulch that came from the cut tree branches will help our gardens.  While the kids were supposed to be working on their workbooks, they instead stood at the door and windows watching the action outside!

What We've Done for Laughs...

I truly live with a silly bunch.  Yes, that is a price tag on Liv's nose. She peeled it from her notebook and stuck it on her nose.  The last picture is of Liv taking a self-portrait.  That's a favorite past time of hers.

 
What We've Been Eating...

So I got my homemade coleslaw perfect on the second try!  Soooo good.  Nathan was very pleased.  None of the kids like coleslaw, sadly, but we enjoyed it.  Then lasagna (shown before cheese topping), as you may see, as a square without sauce, and that is because my sweet boy Trust absolutely hates anything tomato.  He's worth going to the extra trouble.  Then suki-yaki steak and vegetables!  Oh, so good, and yes, I make my own white sauce (aka steak sauce or yum-yum sauce), too!  Another fruit salad.  They're one of Nathan's favorites (they are indeed pretty good), and making them is a good excuse for me to buy fresh berries. ;-)  I looooove berries, especially blueberries.  Of course, my fruit salads vary.  Bread! Homemade bread.  I'm transitioning back to making my own bread. I really want to make all my own bread permanently.  I love making big salads, too, including some chicken or steak (chicken here) and eggs, lots of cucumber (one of my favorites), no tomato for mine lately, as it seems I'm reacting to them again, and covered in cannabis seeds for nutritious omega-3 fat and complete protein (so this salad would be great without the chicken or egg).

Raspberry cheesecake was one of William's Sabbath dessert picks.  Yes, I even mixed up some raspberry in the cheese.  I topped mine with strawberries, however, as I'm not a big red raspberry fan, but they're his favorite berry!


Speaking of Sabbath...




What We've Done on Sabbath...

Sabbath afternoon visit to Roaring River, the very last time the kids got to swim and play in the river for the season, in early September.

Jaden William, Elizabeth, and I started going to church services and fellowship (UCG).  I hadn't been to UCG Sabbath services (besides some years at Tabernacles) since JW was two years old.  We're enjoying it, though.  William loves it.  I think I'll start taking Trust and Liv, though it will be a challenge by myself, but Nathan has no desire to go.  He can't even make up his mind whether he believes as I do or whether he is agnostic, believing in a Creator but nothing beyond that.





Coming soon will be Jaden's belated birthday post, as we finally took his trip, then an update on what is going on in school with the kids.

Until next time...

Feast of Tabernacles and Eighth Day 2013

Week of Sept. 15 thru 21 and cont. thru 26:

First of all, I'd like to apologize to my email subscribers for the mistake in the last post.  I realized it only after publishing, and I've updated it. 

The days leading up to Tabernacles were busy, but we did some of our regular schooling.  The 15th of September, the first day of the week, was a day of cleaning and laundry, and I had Trust and Liv work on Explode the Code and preschool workbook pages, respectively.  I don't know what Jaden William did that day...there's no telling.  I imagine he probably did something with his daddy, but whatever it was, I didn't record it.

Second day of week was reading and math, as usual.

Third day of the week I had a doctor's appointment with an ENT.  Good news is that I don't have some tumor or something in my throat or ear or head, and I tested with "excellent" hearing, toward the top of the chart.  Bad news is that I guess I'll just have to live with the clogged/full feeling in my left ear, as I have the last two years, or maybe successfully get rid of it by getting a retainer to wear at night, because it's believed by both the doctor (who suffers the same issue herself) and me that it must be due to problems with my temporomandibular joint, and I grind and clench my teeth at night. 

Our regular reading and history on the fourth day of the week.  Then the night of the 18th was the beginning of the Christian holiday, the Feast of Tabernacles (or Tents or Booths), and the first day is a sabbath, meaning no servile work.  We had our traditional hot dog and marshmallow roast.

Mmmmm....that's what I call a good "hot dog."  No ketchup on mine.  I don't like sweeties on my hot dog.  But this picture is making my mouth literally water.  LOL!  Organic beef hot dog and whole wheat bun with mustard, mayonaisse, pickle relish (I prefer dill over sweet), and one of my recently newfound loves, sauerkraut.  Mmmmm....doggie!  Ha-ha.

It was too cold most of the nights during the week of Tabernacles to sleep in tents outside, and it also stormed one night.  But there were two nights during which we did sleep outside.  The first night we did we stayed very cold, despite the fire and warm clothes with our blankets.  The second night wasn't as bad.  We did not camp this first night.

We enjoyed the next day, mostly outside.  It was sooooo wonderful outside. Not too hot, but it was sunny and beautiful.  We sometimes even listen to a sermon outside (with iPad), though we listened inside on this day.  I made an experimental Mexican cheese dip and included ground beef.  Oh, it was good!  I poured it on chips in bowls for everyone, and we enjoyed!  A friend of ours, Dave, came over for a bit, and he ate with us.

The kids had fun riding in their dump trucks down our hill road, and the boys took turns pulling the girls in their wagon:

I took a video and tried to post.  I do not wish to wait for it to load again.  You can see Trusten to the left of the picture, and Liv is toward the base of the hill road, at the woods line.  They sometimes pick up quite a speed and roll a good ways across the yard.

      If you are an email subscriber, you must click the link to the blog in order to view the above video.

The second day of Tabernacles was preparation day for the weekly Sabbath.  I stayed very busy on that day, because I also blogged in addition to my cleaning and cooking, and I fixed an extra big feast.  I also needed to bake a big pumpkin so that I could make pumpkin pie for dessert, and I also put back three additional bags of pumpkin pulp for later pies. 

I wasn't able to find a good turkey anywhere, so I baked chicken.  I baked cornbread to make dressing and then baked that.  I made baked macaroni and cheese, boiled and mashed potatoes, and I also served green beans, turkey gravy, and cranberry sauce with whole cranberries.

 Everything but the cranberry sauce, which I almost forgot to take out of the refrigerator for us to eat!

Delicious homemade pumpkin pie

This night of the Sabbath was the first night we camped out, in two tents, toward the back of our property, up the hill.  Brrrrr….

We then enjoyed a nice Sabbath day, eating delicious leftovers for lunch.  We listened to a sermon, and I read to the kids about Tabernacles.

The fourth day of Tabernacles we enjoyed a family day.  We went to visit the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks near Fayetteville, AR after a breakfast of peach and cinnamon muffins.

This last picture is of the boys running barefoot across the grass in the center.  Ahhhhh....  I saw a sign that said, "Please Run in the Grass."  WELL...you don't need to tell ME twice!  I took off my sandals and took off!  It was luxurious!!!  No rocks, nothing pokey.  All the kids loved it, too.  I even took Happy out of her stroller and let her walk barefoot in the grass.  Nathan declined.  That's too bad.  It was soooo nice.  My feet felt refreshed for a great deal afterward.  The flowers, butterflies, and bees were all very nice to me, but running through that grass and wiggling my toes through it was truly the highlight of my day.

After we left, we then ate in Rogers at a brick oven pizza restaurant that we'd not tried, yet, since it's fairly new.  It was good.  Then we went next door to the bowling alley and played a game.

 

Math Day:

The fifth day of Tabernacles, on the second day of the week, Nathan worked, and the kids and I went to get groceries.  Since it was normally our "math day," I weaved in the topics of "numbers" with "temporary" and "tabernacles" and "eternity" and "infinity."  I compared the meaning of TABERNACLES and NUMBERS with the meaning of the coming holiday of EIGHTH DAY and ETERNITY, even talking about how a sideways 8 is the symbol for INFINITY.  I used "bread" as an example, asking the children whether they thought there was any number of loaves of bread that they could be given that would last them, for food, for the rest of their lives.  They agreed that there was no bread they knew of that would last that long, but even if they were given a fresh loaf every day for the rest of their lives, there is still a limit to the number of their days and the number of loaves of bread.  That's like tabernacles, I explained to them.  But, the 8th Day symbolizes eternity, and directly following the temporary existence on this earth with the limited number of days and loaves of bread is eternity on a new earth, where there is NO limit.  And the "bread of life" will not ever run out. 

When we got home from town, I took a picture of Jade with one of the new chicks.  The other picture was taken another day, I think on the weekly Sabbath.  Yeah.  Most of them hatched out two days before that, on the first day of Tabernacles.  Yeah, all the chicks we've had have always hatched on either the weekly Sabbath or an annual holy day (except for the two of these, maybe, that hatched the following day).  There were seven in all.  There was a runt, and something has happened to it since, but the other six are doing well.  All but one are Little Hen's chicks, but she sat on all the eggs, so the one is her adopted chick.

We watched a family Christian movie this night called Lukewarm.


Art and Music Day:

Time to listen to one of the kids' favorite songs, "Dreaming of the Kingdom," on Youtube.  I also gave the kids God's Kingdom-themed coloring sheets to color.

William's on left, Trusten's upper right, and Olivia's lower right.  Olivia was very excited when she handed me hers and pointed to all the colorful streaks in the "air."  She said they were fireworks!  Yeah, you can tell I need to work more with them on coloring.  That's something I've never been into doing much, and Trusten doesn't like it, I don't think, either.  He was content to hurry up and finish his.  His picture brings to mind "God Loves the Children" song...."...red, yellow, black and white," except there are purple children in his picture instead of "white."  LOL  That one child is a mix of red and purple.  

This was the second night we camped out.

The boys and Olivia slept in a tent together, and Elizabeth slept with Nathan and me.  The girls hung out for awhile in the tent with me, while I read and watched the boys around the fire. 

History and Geography Day:

My plan had been to talk about biblical history regarding the Feast of Tabernacles, both how it was kept under the old covenant and how it was kept early in the new covenant and how it's kept now, still under the new covenant.  BUT, I was very depressed on this day.  I let the kids play outside a lot, and I tried to keep my depression at bay by reading a lot in one of my books that I was reading.  I recently finished another Christian historical fiction trilogy, set in the first century A.D. in the Roman Empire.  This was the second set of books I've read set in that time period, in that genre.  I loved the Mark of the Lion trilogy by Francine Rivers, that I read two summers ago.  This time I read Debra Diaz's Woman of Sin trilogy (Woman of Sin, then Man of God, then Child of the King).  Another excellent story, with the exception of a few problems with doctrine that are mentioned here and there, like the wrong Sabbath day and a trinity god and coming fully equipped with eternal life so that you either live in heaven or burn (somehow) in hell for eternity.  Oh, and the not understanding things about God "not what's important."  Thankfully, these details only cropped up here and there, just once or twice each, and did not affect the overall story.   I downloaded the books to my iPad and iPhone with my Kindle app, and two of them were free, and one of them was $2.99.  What a fantastic deal! They're all showing up for the latter price now, so I guess I must have bought them during a special or something.  The entire trilogy is available for $4.99. 

Anyway….I know the kids enjoyed all their free time that they got. This was the last great day of Tabernacles.  It's a shame I was down, but it could have been worse.

Eighth Day:  The 8th Day holiday was better than the previous day, but I was still somewhat depressed.  Nathan was home this day, but he was in a bad mood (for which he profusely apologized later).  I failed to make up for it, so I was pretty guilty myself.  I listened to a sermon (without inviting him, which was the wrong thing to do), and I do not remember at all what was said.  I don't think I listened much to it, really.  I love to meditate deeply on the 8th Day, and I did enjoy some of that outside.  Some parts of the day were good.  I think the kids had a good day overall.  Nathan grilled hamburgers, and I cut up potatoes for french fries, and I also fried onion rings.  I believe the Enemy was working very hard against me or against us during these last days of the fall holiday season.  But his kingdom failed overall, because ultimately, good things have come about.  And it's all good, anyway, to remind me of how bad things won't happen in God's Eternal Kingdom.  

I also wanted to do a "science" theme on this day, since it was our regular science day.  I'd wanted to take a family walk, but in my state of mind, I didn't go through with my plans.  I thought it would be neat for the kids to collect nature things of their choosing and then do a craft, gluing everything on individual sheets of construction paper to form the numeral "8." BUT, the bright side of this is that I STILL can do this soon with the kids.  There's nothing stopping me.

It's been three years since I've attended services during the feasts, and this year we didn't keep the feasts with any other believers, and I suffered in part because of this.  I've also decided to go back to the United Church of God nearby.  There wasn't much I opposed when we went before (unlike in some of the other congregations), and I know the things that I did won't bother me so much now, and I realize perhaps I could even be a valuable person there to change those specific things.  It never occurred to me before.  Jaden William is also excited.  He, Elizabeth, and I will start attending this upcoming Sabbath, and Nathan will decide later whether he wants to attend.  I will not take Trusten and Olivia without him.

**********

I've got one more post to do before I'm caught up.  The kids and I took a much-delayed trip to visit family and friends.  We waited for months, hoping Nathan would get to go, too, but I finally decided to just take the kids and go.  So, I'll post pictures of our visit.  This week I'm getting caught up not only on blogging, but also on things around the house and finalizing preparations for a baby shower I'll be hosting in early November, as well as preparing for at least one CLEP test.  I'll be soon signing up for college classes for next spring.  Nathan has signed up for some for the second eight weeks of this semester.  He'll be starting soon. 

Until next time...