Grandma Nancy

There is a special sister at church that really has a heart for children. The first time we met her she said just call me Grandma Nancy, so Grandma Nancy it is. She has a gift of story telling and keeping the children involved in conversation. My children have said many times over the last year that they want to have Grandma Nancy and Cleo over. We looked forward to it, but as busyness goes never made it happen.

I found out today that Grandma Nancy has liver cancer, they have known for a month, but somehow we didn't hear it. They took her to the hospital this A.M. and found out things are progressing much faster than they thought.

My heart is heavy knowing we missed the opportunity to spend some time with an older sister that took an interest in our children. Especially as the children asked for it. She will be greatly missed.

It makes me think of those that are putting Christ off for another time. Perhaps wanting to enjoy the pleasures of sin a little longer, perhaps waiting for their spouse to join them.

Jesus has sent out His invitation and tomorrow may be too late.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
(Revelation 3:20)

AAAAAAH!

I just took off my glasses to see if I could see the splinter in Jared's finger better - and it worked!!! I'm nearing the top of that proverbial "Hill!"

I remember reading part numbers for my dad before he got reading glasses. I guess I'm on my way to bifocals!!!

Needed - Full time maid

O.K. so that is a great big, ain't gonna happen, you must be dreamin' kind of title.

I mentioned recently that Johanna is crawling and finding every little thing she can and taking a taste! Now, she has mastered pulling up; the children even said they saw her walking along something the other day! She has been pulling up to her knees for awhile and a couple times she made it to her feet, but there's not much tryin' needed anymore, she just does it.

Nothing within 2 1/2 feet from the ground is safe! She was trying to grab all my school supplies from the end table today!

What a fun time! I think she will be racing for the earliest walker in our family the way she's movin' through the infant stages. I am enjoyin' every minute, but it sure keeps you alert to little details you might normally overlook!

As for the full-time maid position, I have 6 little maid's in training. One is wearing my apron making pizza, another agreed to slice an onion for the head cook. Two are supposed to be sweeping the bedrooms upstairs. And two are a little side tracked because their trainer is not available. The only problem with training maids is to teach them to see the "little things" especially the Male-maids! :) For a little wisdom from one of the male-maids in training go here.

Measuring up

Javan "Mom, you need to be more like Misty!"

Mom (Now even my children are starting to think so - I think the same thing)
"Why's that Javan?"

Javan "You need to be afraid of snakes like Misty, she gives $5 for every dead snake the children bring her!"

Mom :) "Too bad your Mom is a country girl!" hehehe ~ How about you pay me $5 for every snake I catch for your collection! I think I could handle that!!! :)

Degaje

O.K. in my last Ramblings post I said there was something I needed to include but couldn’t remember, a second occasion happened and reminded me what it was, so here it is.

Jesse has taken to filling his pockets with his things.  So full that recently someone was trying to be funny and jumped on his lap to which he instantly cried out “Ouch!  That hurt!  Get off of me!”  After feeling his pockets I told him I would probably cry out too if I carried that much stuff around!

Well, his “stuff” has proven itself to be valuable, so far be it for me to try to change his ways.

A couple weeks ago Chad took some of the children on a bike ride and part way through the trip someone’s kick stand wouldn’t stay up and they were discussing whether there was anything they could do.  Chad had concluded that they would just have to leave it till they got home when Jesse said “hold on, I might have something.”  He pulled out a nearly used up spiral bound pad of paper, pulled out the spiral wire and used it to tie up the kick stand!

One week later, another bike ride, this time a flat tire.  The question now was whether to have me meet them with the van, or walk it back to where I was parked (my ride got cut short because of a fussy baby).  Jesse again dug into his pocket and this time pulled out a rope with which they tied it to the handle bars of the back seat rider on the tandem.  Javan took the back seat and Jolene went to the bike cart. 

I think he would make a good missionary to Haiti where they have to Degaje all the time.   (Degaje is Haitian Creole meaning to make do with what you have!)

Glutton for punishment

Here are a couple stories I can’t pass up recording for our future enjoyment!

Story #1

About a month ago we had two children with belly aches during the night.  Both ended up losing the contents of their stomachs. 

I was concerned about a virus till Chad brought to my attention that it wasn’t supper that was brought up.  We had meatballs in spaghetti sauce over noodles for supper and THANKFULLY that had already been digested!  What we discovered is that the children had gotten into peanuts and gorged themselves.  They paid the price and hopefully they will remember the lesson they learned.

Story #2

O.K.  I’ll make this one short.  Same story minute changes in details.

Change #1 – time of day (morning)

Change #2 – Child

Change #3 – food source (this is a killer – juice from the just emptied jar of pepperoncini’s “banana peppers”  AND a LOT of it! – GAG!)

Sorry if you can add a Story #3 after reading this account, but it is my family journal and if it doesn’t get recorded here it won’t be recorded anywhere.  I’m tempted to include names so we remember who this was about but for the sake of their pride I will leave well enough alone!

This was my brain this morning

This is my brain now


Any questions?

I think it's bath time!

Ramblings

The Ups Man delivered our History for next school year today. After supper boy 1 was reading a new History book when he was given some jobs to do, boy 2 laid down on the couch with a bellyache and began reading the same book, later taking it to the restroom with him. When boy 1 was done with his jobs he wanted to know where the book was he was reading and then proceeded to argue through the restroom door that boy 2 must give up said book! If only they enjoyed all of school THAT much! :)

A few minutes ago Jolene came to me to tell me that she fell down and accidentally ripped her skirt (I just made it last week!) but that she was sure I could just sew it for her. Thankfully it was a skirt that used to be a dress and I didn't spend a huge amount of time with brand new fabric!!! Unfortunately these things seem to happen in groups, so I will be expecting something else to rip soon!

Johanna is crawling now! She started working towards it last week and is definitely getting around now! Nothing is safe anymore and the sweeper is going to be getting a lot of use for awhile! It amazes me how fast the little bits of trash can accumulate.

Jonas is officially potty trained!!! Woo Hoo! A few weeks ago we brought home a new dresser for the boys room and I told Jonas he wasn't allowed to have diapers in the big boy room and since his clothes were in there now he had to wear underwear like a big boy. He only had a few accidents and now he goes on his own and hollers when he needs help.

I started this a couple days ago and ran out of time. I thought of something since that I needed to write down so we wouldn't forget it but I guess I waited too long because I forgot it!!!

Happy Spring!