Lead me, O Lord...Psalm 5:8

It is certainly a rare morning that I am done with Bible reading AND the house is quiet.  I thought I would share a bit of what I gleaned from my study this morning...

I enjoy taking a whole chapter in the Bible and using my colored pencils (I use the Crayola erasable ones, by the way) to mark/shade/color/draw pictures of the words.  This morning I was studying Psalm 5, which the publishers of my Bible have titled "A morning prayer." It was a pretty straightforward chapter for me.  There was nothing new or surprising until I got to verse 8:

Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.

...because of...
 
Can good come from evil? Yes, if we ask God to draw us closer to Him because of  it.

I don't watch the news, and I can barely stomach more than just reading the headlines on the news websites. There is so much evil in the world today, and I don't think it is a stretch to say that the evil is our enemy.  Ask God to lead us today because of the evil in the world!


*****

In family news...
"Toddler" S is 2 going on 16.
G is trying to learn to read (if only everyone wasn't too busy to teach him!)
S will be graduating from 8th grade this Friday night.
S and Sacagawea will be baptized Saturday afternoon.
J turned 16 last week and can now make some recognizable songs come out of his trumpet.
M is home from college until next week, then he'll return for a summer job working for one of his professors.

Whew. Yes we are too busy, but I hope to check in here more often!

A time to sew...Ecclesiastes 3:7

Now for Sacagawea's update.  She is 62 1/2 pounds and 53 3/4" tall.  She's been enjoying a summer filled with swimming lessons, water color painting, and playing with her friends and siblings. She's also spent a lot of time sewing all kinds of things out of treasures she finds in the scrap box. 

This morning she helped keep the little ones corralled in the kitchen.  Baby S has decided she'd rather use a potty chair or toilet than her diapers, so we'll be hanging out where there are easy-to-clean floors for a few days. They had a lot of fun playing together. I call this picture "Playmobil Meets Beverly Hillbillies."

I think I was the most thrilled when afternoon nap time rolled around.  Unfortunately it was over too quickly and Baby S is already awake again...with dry undies! Yay! Round 2 begins now.

End of the year...Exodus 23:15

No more apologies for not writing more here. When I'm at the computer I usually only have one free hand to type, which doesn't make for effective blogging. The Man has taken Baby S to be changed and put to bed. As soon as she's asleep, I'll put myself to bed, so hopefully this will be a short post!

I suppose it is trite to say that I don't know where this past year has gone...but I'm not even sure what happened to yesterday. Twenty-ten has been a very eventful year for our family. I hope that 2011 brings more time to enjoy the everyday pleasures.

I'll try to give an update since my last post. All of these items are very deserving of their own separate posts, but that's not going to happen...

M: Got the results for the PSAT he took in November.
> > BRAG ALERT < <
He scored in the 99th percentile of juniors who took the test. That was his very first standardized, non-mommy given test. I've always known he was a smart kid, but it is nice to get some valid confirmation of that. I was quite relieved that I haven't totally ruined him academically by homeschooling him.

J: Almost as tall as me now. He's been told he can no longer wear my garden shoes to make quick runs outside since he's been stretching them out.

S: Backyard Ballistics was finally available to be checked out from the library. There are PVC weapons in the entryway and I found two potatoes under his bed when I vacuumed today.

A: The Man made her a loom for Christmas so she's learning the fine art of weaving. She LOVES singing and rocking her baby sister to sleep.

G: Cute, cute, cute. And he knows it. Very smart kid, but he still isn't talking. He got a Candy Land game for Christmas so we could "teach" him his colors. He beat me yesterday. I guess he already knew his colors! He absolutely adores his baby sister. Unfortunately he hasn't learned the difference between sharing a doll with her and whacking her on the head with a doll. "Gentle!"

Baby S: Smiling, giggling, cooing, and sleeping well through the night. She is a very sweet and happy baby. I can't believe that she is quickly outgrowing clothes that were swallowing her up a few short weeks ago. She had her first bite of real food yesterday. She was sitting on my lap next to G's high chair. While my head was turned G stuck his spoon into her mouth. Wild rice soup seems to agree with her!

The Man: Over the course of a few weeks, he replaced some rotten boards on our bridge so we had to drive through our pasture to get to the road. He still has a bit more to do, but it is functional.

The creek started flowing again on Christmas. It has been rather wet the past month. A bit of snow is still on the ground outside and it has been getting down into the teens the past few nights. Brrrr.

I still hear Baby S, but I'm yawning and ready to go to bed anyway. May you have a blessed and happy new year!

Waiting...Proverbs 8:34

I was hoping all the posting I did during the month of July would give me the momentum to keep blogging. Oh, well...I had good intentions!

Baby is growing just fine. Hopefully we will get to meet baby soon. The doctor says any day (hour?) now.

The kids are all doing ok. J and S had sore throats and fevers last week, but seem to be all better now. The Man came down with the sore throat and fever within the past few days and even stayed home from work today (rare occurrence). Tonight he did a strep test which was positive. I'm praying the rest of us stay well.

M is now a few weeks into his junior year of high school. Pre-calculus and Chemistry are the new courses for the year in addition to the standard English, History, PE, Music, and Spanish. He spent a few hours this week with a missionary from Costa Rica to practice his Spanish dialogue and vocabulary. We need to get him over to the local high school soon to sign up for the PSAT coming up next month.

We are still easing into all the subjects for the 3 middle kids. We are trying to work on a routine that enables all the kids to get the varied help from me, the very pregnant mama, while keeping G out of all the "fun" stuff the older kids get to do.

J is in eighth grade this year. S is in fifth grade and claims he loves school more than any of the other kids do. Sacagawea is in 3rd grade and doing very well despite the fact that she has so much more work this year than in years past.

G has tins of cars, animals, blocks, and puzzles that had been in storage. These "new" toys are keeping him quite occupied while the others do their school work.This is the first time we have had a single toddler while trying to full-time homeschool everyone else. It is a new learning adventure for all of us.

Given my most recent blogging history, this is likely to be my last post as a mother of 5! I will try to get pictures up of #6 as soon as possible. They will probably appear over on facebook before here, and we've already promised grandparents that they get a call before info goes on facebook!

I'm trying to decide whether to go to bed now or stay up timing contractions...how's that for a cliff-hanger?

A time to sew...Ecclesiastes 3:7

Nothing new to add to the preservation report today! I started out the morning by having The Man drag some boxes* out of the garage. After riffling through them, I had several possibilities for the projects for the day. M had requested a case in which to carry his tiny Bible. Sacagawea desperately needed something new and summery to wear. I brought my heap of fabric inside and the kids chose their favorites.

Bible Case 1.0 is now completed.
Before it was even finished we had come up with many upgrades we wish to add, so M is going to use it for a few weeks then we'll make another with all the adjustments.
It was done by 11:00 a.m. and then I started on a skirt for Sacagawea. I used this pattern, which I had used a few years ago. After measuring Sacagawea, figuring out the piece dimensions, and cutting out the fabric, the rest went together pretty fast considering all the help I had. I did learn to turn off the sewing machine when I wasn't in direct control of the foot pedal. G found it too fascinating!

The skirt was completed just a bit ago and Sacagawea is currently twirling for M and the camera. G is joining her. He knows how much fun it is to spin oneself dizzy!

*Boxes full of supplies for "someday" when I have the time. I think I finally figured out that I'll never have more time than now!

Sorry this post is late getting up! The pictures were just uploaded this morning (7/14). Hope the pics were worth the wait!

Wound the head...Psalm 68:21

I've been challenged to write a blog post every day for the month of July. Ha ha ha hee hee hee ho ho ho...well, it just might be possible if I catch up on all those bloggable (does that have one g or two?) moments I was too busy to blog about the past few months years. Anyway, here is post #1!

I don't have any pictures to show you of the latest news at our home since Sacagawea made me promise not to blog the pictures I took of the gash in her head. Apparently she (1) knows that mom likes to post pictures of wounds and (2) had the foresight to forbid such a posting even though I hadn't blogged in a loooong time. Maybe if I catch up and post about her birthday she'll let me show you the pictures!

The Man and I were both up in the city and the 5 children were left home alone. S, the only child up until that point that had received stitches, was somehow involved in the wounding. Exactly how is still up for debate, but playing around in the living room resulted in Sacagawea hitting her head on a bookshelf. By the time I returned the voice mail M left on my cellphone (less than 5 minutes after he called), the bleeding had stopped.

When The Man and I arrived home he briefly checked her head, saw that it wasn't bleeding, and we got ready for the midweek church service in our home. After everyone left, The Man did a more thorough exam and cleaning of her head and discovered that the 1"-1 1/2" gash on the back of her head went all the way down to the bone. The Man said the good thing about that was he could actually stick his finger in and make sure there wasn't a fractured skull. Ewwww. I hope he was kidding.

I parted the hair and clipped it out of the way so The Man could sew it up. I wasn't much help beyond that except for checking her shot records to make sure her Tetanus was up to date.

Since the 5 stitches were put in a week ago last night, The Man said he would probably take them out this Saturday night. Hopefully Sacagawea has learned that jumping on S's back isn't always a good idea.

p.s. She was a VERY brave girl!

Check back tomorrow to see if I actually make it to post #2!

Sixteen years old...2 Kings 15:2

I'm so glad it is Friday, but I don't get to wind down yet. Today is M's 16th birthday!

Happy Birthday, M!

I asked what kind of cake he wanted and he replied that he didn't care. I interpreted that as him saying, "I don't care as long as I don't have to make it." You'll be happy to know that I actually made it the other night and the layers are in the freezer. I'll pull them out in a bit and make the frosting so it will be all ready for lunch. He has requested curried rice and veggies.

Tomorrow is the monthly potluck at church at which Sacagawea likes having her birthday cake. This year we are doing M@rtha Stew@rt-inspired butterfly cupcakes. They'll fall somewhere between these and these. Maybe. The comments on MS said to dip the pretzels to keep them from being soggy if made the day before. Yesterday at the grocery store I looked at the bag of pretzels and the bag of melting chocolate. Then I looked at the yogurt-covered pretzels in the bulk bin. Then I looked back at the bag of pretzels and the chocolate. Ha. That was an easy choice for a tired, pregnant woman to make. The bag of pretzels and chocolate were returned to the shelf and we're going with the ready-dipped pretzels. The actual strawberry cupcakes were made and stuck in the freezer a few days ago, so we'll decorate those this afternoon.

Although Sacagawea has put in the order for her cake on Monday, her actual 8th birthday, we'll see how much cake we still have around the house at that point.

And for the geeks out there like me...next Thursday M will be exactly twice as old as Sacagawea. She's catching up with him!

Family...Esther 9:28

Thought I should do a quick update of our family. We've been crazy-busy...really. You probably wouldn't believe half the stuff I could tell you, so I'll just hit the believable items.

G will be 15 months tomorrow. He is continuing to grow and develop as he ought. He's not saying many words except "Hot!" (complete with the spread-legged stance with outstretched arm toward the word stove), "dog," and the sign for "milk." He definitely understands what we say and can follow simple commands. He loves playing with Benjamin and Rachel, the dolls formerly known as Shue and Da, and all of Sacagawea's play dishes. She thinks that G is almost as good as a baby sister since he likes playing with all her stuff.

Sacagawea is my eager learner. She is days ahead and her school work. She is already planning the type of cake she wants for her birthday in April.

S celebrated Gerald's belated-birthday last week. Yep. Crazy stuff around here. He enjoys talking to relatives on the webcam. He is always checking to see who is available for him to call, and trying to do the math to figure out what time it is in their time zone.

J keeps checking the thermometer to tell us how many tenths of a degree the temperature is falling. He is hoping the intermittent snow and rain we're having this morning changes to just snow and we'll get some of that 20-40" of snow that we were promised by the weatherman last week.

M is continuing to improve his driving skills. I'm eager for him to be able to drive without me putting a death grip on the passenger door handle. I'm contemplating how much it would cost for us to have brakes installed on the passenger side of the van, especially since we'll have to do this a few more times after M. Speaking of the van, we are one of those families now. Yes, it is white (most of the time).

We just started another Depression Recovery Seminar at church. Another health series is due to start immediately after that.

That's about it for the believable stuff! Give us a call if you need to know the rest! I will make an effort to update here more often. Since I've gotten out of the daily/weekly habit, it's been hard to discipline myself to jump back in regularly.

Give thanks...Psalm 92:1

"Mommy, is there a way I can cool this up?" inquired Sacagawea last Friday. Apparently the just-made almond milk was too warm for her. I told her that things are cooled down and warmed up.

"But it can be cool up in the mountains," explained M.

"And it can be warm down in the valley, " added J.

I have such helpful boys! They are such quick thinkers...someday I may appreciate it more!

Speaking of appreciation, Sacagawea handed me this note last Friday...

"You aer the best mommy teacher. I Love you."

We will work on spelling later.

Began to make excuse...Luke 14:18

I almost stole my last post title for this one...we have been busy...but four months? Yes, it has been nearly four months since my last post. Dreadful. Terrible. I am ashamed. I am so, so, so sorry. Please forgive me.

I really don't have any good excuses, other than my limited computer time has been spent over on Facebook. Most of that is while I'm feeding G, so I really can't type a blog post. I should be doing something else right now, so I'm just going to give really quick updates. Ready?

G: The sweetest baby. Really. He is so intense, and smart, also. No, I'm not biased a bit. Since I've last posted, he started rolling, crawling, got his 2 bottom teeth, standing on his own, and any day now he will start walking. Whew.

We are still waiting for the remainder of his second round of blood tests we had done for allergy testing. He's had a rash for several months, and after ruling out all other factors, we had the blood testing. It turns out he is allergic to a lot of the things that I eat. So, until he quits using me for his main source of nutrition, I'm not eating: soy, wheat, gluten, oats, eggs, cashews, almonds, and peanuts. That's a small list, but I quickly discovered that those items are in almost everything I (used to) eat.

I can have rice, corn, apples, oranges, potatoes, tomatoes, yeast, and cow's milk (although I'm slightly allergic to that!), and black beans. We just found out today about the black beans and we are still waiting for the results for other beans, seeds, and nuts.

Sacajawea has lost her two front teeth and has them mostly grown back in now. She has taken up crochet and will be happy to make a hat for you if you send her the size of your head. Color and style will be her choice!

S is thrilled that we actually TOLD him to dig in the front yard. We've spent the last 6 years telling him not to dig in the yard since he has 50+ other acres in which to dig! He helped dig out around some pipes that needed replacing. He also got braces in April.

J's mouth is now metal-free (for now), including his retainer, since some other teeth grew in. We'll re-evaluate his situation in six months.

The biggest news of our summer is that J made the decision to be baptized. The Man baptized him in the same pond in which M was baptized on July 11 surrounded by friends and family. It was a very special day as G was dedicated the same day.

M is growing taller. He's still working doing lawn care for the same place he worked last summer. I can't believe he'll be in 10th grade this year. We are in the midst of ordering all of our books for the new school year.

The Dog is now living outside. He got sent to the back porch when I was painting the inside of the house. Since then, G's blood test also showed he was allergic to dogs, so...sorry, Dog!

We're in the middle of Financial Peace University at our church. The county fair starts next week and our church will once again have a booth there.

I really hope to get photos up of our summer, but the battery in my camera is dead right now. Hope you all have had a good summer, thanks for being patient waiting for an update from us!

Busy here and there...I Kings 20:40

As busy as a beaver. That's us! Only 15 minutes into April 9 and I've already learned my "new thing" for the day. I finally had the urge to figure out how to get a picture off my cell phone and on to the computer. This is a picture of Sacagawea examining a beaver fall at the nature center last week. Beavers are such industrious critters. I bet they wouldn't wait until a week before the deadline to start on their taxes. I just finished got ours "done enough" to drop them off at the CPA's tomorrow for review. I still need to round up a few more receipts and verify a few of the numbers. I'm seriously contemplating filing an extension for the very first time. I simply have too many other things to do during the next week.

TomorrowToday is M's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, M!!!) and we are going here after S's ortho appointment. Sunday is Sacagawea's birthday. Monday we go up to the big city for M's music lessons (we were just there today yesterday) and I really don't know what is happening after that. Hmmm.

And then there is this blog which I've been rather neglectful of lately. I've sooo much to update here. Since my tax returns are printing, I think I'll go to bed. Only a few more hours until I need to get up to restart my day!

*If anyone can tell me the trick to get my cell phone's memory card out of the USB adapter, I'd be grateful. It doesn't want to slide out as easily as it slid in.

The same things...Acts 15:27

I had my visit with the FNP yesterday. She is as anxious for me to have the baby as my doctor is. After assuring her that I am patient enough to wait until my due date (although I wouldn't be upset if baby decided to come early) or beyond, I made an appointment with my OB for next Wednesday. Although I fully expect to cancel that appointment, if I do make it there, we will discuss other options at that time since nobody likes to let pregnant ladies go beyond 41 weeks these days.

So, one way or another, I will have this baby by a week from tomorrow. Aren't you all glad that there is a definite end in sight? The FNP said I'm at least 3 cm. now, so progress is happening. I fully expect the baby to arrive Saturday on the due date. I think The Man is making sure that it happens then since, as far as I am aware, he hasn't lined up anyone to preach for him that day!

Sacagawea lost one of her front top teeth the other day. She had been wanting it out for quite a while since it was so hard for her to eat with the wiggly tooth there. We had wondered if her tooth or my baby would come out first. She won! I think she would have preferred for me to win that one.

P.S. The Man says he doesn't see a need to post an entire blog post when the baby comes, but he will leave a comment in my most recent post if need be.

Six years...II Kings 11:3

Happy 6th Birthday, Sacagawea!

12 months-helping big brother with his schoolwork...

14 months-helping Mom pack up the house for our move... Should I immediately grab the child off the pile of boxes onto which she has climbed, or go find the camera first? Documentation is so important!

Last Saturday morning with the daffodils at church. The strawberry cake... With a chocolate cake mix, I did a heart-shaped, circle, and a mini-heart. Then I did the same with a strawberry mix. The chocolate and strawberry hearts were layered with strawberry jam between the layers. After the icing, mini chocolate chips were added for the strawberry seeds. Sacagawea was pleased. The mini-hearts were made into a mini-strawberry so everyone at church wouldn't have to eat her spit after she blew out her candles ;).

Making sure Mom put right number of candles on her cake... We enjoyed the circle cakes later that evening with real strawberries for a family celebration.

I asked her Saturday morning if it felt any different to be six. "Not yet, but it might if I didn't have to ride in my car seat anymore!" Sorry! Even though the law is six years or sixty pounds, she going to have to wait until Mom and Dad think it is safe. She currently tips the scales at 42 pounds.

Berries in the top...Isaiah 17:6

Here's a picture of M's birthday cake...The accidental indentation on top was actually quite necessary. All the berries would have rolled off the cake otherwise. We had extra berries and whipped cream on the side to add to the pieces as needed.

I went to the drawer to retrieve some candles and discovered we didn't have enough. All I could find was a package of some "sparkler" candles left from the previous owners of our home. We gave it a try. It took about 5 matches to get them all lit, and it took more than one breath to blow them all out. After scraping all the wax drippings off the cake we all enjoyed it very much.

We got him his very own maul to help split wood. The Man's maul was a bit too heavy for M to use effectively, so until he builds up his muscles a bit more, we got him a smaller one. I haven't taken a picture of it yet, but if you've seen one, you've seen a maul. I'm so sorry. It is late and way past my bedtime. As soon as the load of laundry in the dryer finishes drying, I'll go to bed. I promise to not make such punny statements tomorrow.

He also got a game of Risk, several books on flying, and a package that arrived today from New York. We got out the Risk game this evening. It has been about 20 years since I've played, but I know the game was changed...a lot. We did the set up and played one round just to get the hang of things. Tomorrow they plan on playing a more in-depth game. S enjoyed it a little too much. He kind of reminds me of the way my little brother used to play. S exclaimed, "One each!" and it took me back a few years.

For those that are still reeling over the fact that M mixed up his own cake...tonight after all the younger kids had been sent to bed, I found the package from New York in the pile of mail. I took it to M's room where he was staring at the mountain of laundry that needed to be folded and put away before he could put the clean sheets on his bed and actually get in bed. I handed him the package for him to open. In the time it took him to open the package, read the card, open his gift, and admire the nice shirt, I had folded all of his laundry. I even started putting the bottom sheet on his bed. I'm not such a mean mom.

Sacagawea requested a strawberry cake for her birthday on Saturday. We're having potluck at church, and Sacagawea loves potluck. All the instructions I could find on the net to make strawberry-shaped cakes say to use heart-shaped pans. I don't own one, and they can't be bought in our town in April. Today while at music lessons I asked if they had one we could borrow. They did! Yippee! I came home and made those cakes (all by myself) and they are now wrapped and in the freezer. Tomorrow I will trim and assemble.

While I'm waiting for my laundry, I'm going to put the finishing touches on Sacagawea's gift. Good night!

Two bags...II Kings 5:23

Yesterday J came inside and told me that some of Sacagawea's clothes and blankets were in the bike shed. What? Her church clothes and shoes, even. I asked him to tell her to bring them all back inside, and that I wished to speak to her also. She has taken things like that outside to play dress-up with before, but I had asked her not to use her nice clothes to play outside.

She came inside, her arms full of blankets and a bag of clothes. She dragged her feet as she brought them to the living room. "Why did you have all these things outside?" I questioned.

"I don't know...."

At that point I called all the children in for an "I don't know" lecture. That's not an answer I accept, but a few of the boys have been trying it lately, and now Sacagawea had picked up on it. During a talk about how they are each responsible for their actions, they need to figure out why they are doing things, and be willing to tell me why, I got a good look at all the things Sacagawea had outside: A dress, tights, two pairs of dress shoes, her favorite outfits, her favorite blankets, some dolls..."Were you planning on running away?" The boys started giggling at the absurdity of my question, but Sacagawea nodded her head and burst into tears. I sent the boys on their way as I gave Sacagawea a hug, partly to comfort her and partly to hide my face which I was trying so hard to keep composed. This wasn't a laughing matter.

I called The Man over, briefly explained what was going on, and I tried once again to compose myself. I could tell she was perplexed as to how Mommy knew she was going to run away, so I shared a bit of information about myself. When I was her age I got a bag and filled it will all my favorite games so that when I ran away I could take them with me. She thought it was funny that I only packed games and no clothes or blankets. Of course, I wasn't really going to run away. My older brother tried it once, and I was crying hysterically that my parents actually let him walk out the door. They waved good-bye! Of course he only made it to the corner of our yard before the neighbor's dogs started barking, and back home he ran. While I was telling her my story, The Man went and got the camera and started snapping pictures.
Pajamas and some of her favorite outfits.
That tiger backpack contained two of her smallest dolls and six pairs of clean underwear (at least I've taught her that correctly).
Her blankets, dress, tights, and socks wouldn't fit in a bag so those were just out there in the shed. We need to wash them before they are returned to her room.

She had smuggled all those clothes out of the house and into the bike shed 2 days previous. The day before she was actually planning on leaving, but J came outside and foiled her plans. I had sent J outside, and I was soon to follow. When I went outside she was trying to tell J to go back inside, because she didn't want him out there. I told her we had over 50 acres, there was plenty of room for both of them. Now I know why she was so upset!

Where was she planning on going? To the B home, about 5 miles down our road. She was going to ride her bike. Between our 1/4 mile driveway and the amount of stuff she was planning on taking, I highly doubt she would have made it to the open road. Even so, The Man says we're moving to somewhere with a longer driveway. I think I aged about 5 years (at least) yesterday at the thought of my baby girl riding her bike down the road without us.

So, we finally answered the who, what, when, where, and how questions. I told her that if she ever really needed to go somewhere, please let Mommy or Daddy drive her. It really isn't safe for her to be by herself out on the road. We have mountain lions and such around here (and other dangers which I didn't see the need to bring up at the time). She agreed. I asked if she would stay home until her birthday (next Saturday). Again, she agreed. Then she decided she would stay until J's birthday in June. After consulting a calendar, she said it would be after the new moon in October. Of course, that is so close to November, maybe she should wait until after S's birthday. After all of that, she announced that she would postpone the event until she was 16 so she could drive herself. Whew. That gives us about 10 years to prepare her and us.

Why? She doesn't like feeding the Dog. She's always had an aversion to strong smells, and I can't say that I blame her on that one. M readily announced that he would love to feed the Dog again if she could help him feed the chickens. Done. We needed to redistribute pet responsibilities anyway since the lizard's demise. S will assist J with feeding the horse in the morning, and now everyone is happy.

"Is feeding the Dog the only thing you don't like about our house?"

"No," she said, "I don't like taking naps.* Also, I only have brothers here. The Bs have sisters, too."

I later asked the boys if any of them ever had plans to run away. They all admitted to wondering what it would be like, but they had never seriously considered it. The Man said when he was a boy he had some food set aside, but his brother talked him out of it. Did you ever have plans to run away? Did you follow through with any of it?

*Sacagawea gave up naps long ago. We did have the kids lie down for some naps/rest on Saturday afternoon since we were planning on being out late that night and getting up early the next morning for the dog sled rides. Other than that, I really don't remember when her last nap was. AND I happen to know that the B mother still makes all of her children utilize a nap/rest period in the afternoon.

Falls...and rises again...Proverbs 24:16

Spring has arrived! The snow is gone (other than a few flurries that haven't stuck), the daffodils are blooming, and the fruit trees are ready to bud. We hope that we don't get another hard freeze after they bud as we did last year. Another big sign of spring is that the children have put away the snow sleds and have been able to ride their bicycles again. Yippee!

A few weeks ago I looked out the kitchen window and saw S pushing Sacagawea around on her bicycle. I noted that the training wheels weren't on and was trying to remember when they had been removed. I certainly didn't remember blogging about such a momentous occasion. Then, I saw it...the pile of training wheels. S had just taken them off for her!

I watched them play while I was fixing lunch. S gave her a running push and she pedaled down the hill. Just before the bike stopped she would put her feet down and jump off the bike. It would fall over, then she would pick it up and take it to the top of the slope again.

When they came inside I sent S back out to reattach the training wheels "just in case she wants to ride when you're not outside." It wouldn't be good for her to fall when she was by herself. I couldn't believe he took them off all on his own, but M & J could.

A few days later The Man took the wheels off for good. She's doing a great job at riding on her own, even when she doesn't start at the top of the slope. She is also perfecting her stopping technique. She discovered that trying to jump off before the bike hits the ground doesn't always work out as planned.

A dear friend (who really needs to start her own blog) has requested that we remove a certain object from our yard so she won't hurt herself. I can't imagine Sacagawea attempting that, but I will have a talk with her about it.

She is doing a lot of things on her own now, including picking out her own clothes to wear.
Hmmm...short-sleeved tee with snow boots? By the way, she does own a helmet. We'll dig it out of the closet when we put away the snow boots.

They were read...Esther 6:1

Last Tuesday The Man took the boys snow skiing. Sacagawea was disappointed at not being able to go with them until I suggested an alternate activity for us...getting her library card! She's been begging to get her own card ever since S got his.

The main requirement for a child to get a card at our county library is for the child to be able to write their own name on the back. She's been able to write her name small enough for quite a while, but we haven't been able to take the time to do it. It seems most of the time that we do stuff like this it is someone's first day on the job and they have to learn on us, which tends to take a lot of extra time. Last Tuesday was no exception. But she did get her card. She was only allowed to check out two books the first time. The next time we go she can check out up to 20. Wheeeeee.

We celebrated by going out to eat at Taco Bell. Sacagawea asked me to buy her four bean burritos. I didn't.

Coats and garments...Acts 9:39

Since I joined in with Shereen's Sew Crafty Friday last week, I wanted to continue on with it. However, the only project I completed was sewing buttons on a coat. I found a long leather coat at the Goodwill the same day Sacagawea found her rocking chair. It is a nice (and doesn't smell like it came from the Goodwill, if you know what I mean), but it was missing a few buttons. The total cost for the coat and new buttons was under $10, so I was excited, but not very excited about sewing on the buttons.

On New Year's Day, while the rest of the family were off skiing, I stayed home and sewed new buttons on my coat! It took about an hour to sew the four buttons on the coat through the leather. I knew it would be time-intensive, which is why it hadn't been done sooner. That's my completed project for the week, but it is not my featured Sew Crafty project.

Meet Liesl (von Trapp, of course!) She is 16, going on 17, and one of Sacagawea's new friends. Sacagawea had requested a new doll with long hair, so this doll arrived for Christmas.
Since her wardrobe was rather small, J helped me pick out a few patterns to go along with her. Sacagawea chose the dress in the upper left corner to start.

She chose the blue-flowered fabric from the scrap box and we ironed it and the pattern pieces. That's all we have done thus far. We will be out of town for some meetings most of next week. I'm planning on taking the dress along and hand-sewing it. Actually, I think it is a skirt and blouse. I'm not sure as I haven't taken a good look at the instructions yet. We'll do the pinafore, hat, and pantaloons later.

Sacagawea can practice her hand-sewing by stitching a pillow while I'm working on the dress. Head over to Shereen's to see some of the (more) crafty things other people are doing.

Look to the hand...Psalm 123:2

Sacagawea lost her first tooth this morning. She has seen her brothers pull out their own teeth so often that she thought nothing of just yanking it out herself. I knew it was pretty loose, but I didn't know it was ready yet. She brought it to me, quite proud that she had pulled it herself. As you can see, her bottom right tooth is just about ready to come out also.

She had another orthodontist appointment the week before last. The orthodontist was impressed with the wonderful spacing that she has. He said in another six months or so we'll see about a quad-helix for her.

I wrote the date and information about the tooth on our calendar. Someday I'll gather all of our past wall calendars and fill out the kids' baby books. Someday...

Dust thou art...Genesis 3:19

Our church had a booth at the county fair again this year. We had another good year and lots of great conversations with people. Fortunately, the VeggieTales people weren't right next to us this time.

Grandma came and stayed with the kids for the week. She even brought them over to the fair so they could make some dirt babies for her to take home.

Here is A posing with her baby:
S:

J, notice the headgear:

Speaking of headgear...The orthodontist was very impressed with his progress at the last visit. He now only wears it 12 hours a day (rather than 20). He puts it on right after supper and takes it off before breakfast. The orthodontist also put brackets on his upper 4 front teeth so he has braces now also.