Beckys Blog

Crackers and soda for nausea - $3  New pants - $30 Another car seat - $100 Medical bills - $5000 Adding another member to our family - Priceless! It would be a shame to waste such good DNA on a only a couple kids, so we have decided to bless another child with our genetic code.  That child will be introduced to the world in July of 2011.  :)

Well, shortly after last nights post on food, We bought our first cow!  Or rather, quarter of a cow.  We had been looking into buying grass fed beef by the 1/4 cow for a while now.  Thad called a farmer from church last week to ask about a cow and we were too late.  The October cow was already spoken for, and he wasn't butchering again until January.  Well, a miracle happened.  One of the people who was splitting the current cow went hunting and got a deer!  So he backed out on the cow AFTER it had already been butchered!  Yay!  So we got a call late last night asking if we were interested in our quarter cow this month instead of waiting...of course, Thad said YES!  Now we are getting 161 lbs of Grass fed, organic, Black Angus meat delivered to our house next week!  Where on earth are we going to put it!?!  We do have a mid sized chest freezer, so this week, my goal will be to primarily feed the family from things currently in ...

It's no secret that there are a lot of food allergies in my family.  We get by by only avoiding the worst offenders and not all of them.  If the whole family was to avoid everything that we are all allergic to, I would not be able to use wheat, egg, dairy, blueberries, sesame, garlic, nuts...and a LOT of other things I can't remember.  Recently, I had been having regular bad head aches and stomach aches.  Around that same time, Thad did a job at a commercial chicken farm...it was absolutely the most disgusting thing ever!  He suggested that maybe if we take chicken out of the diet, my stomach would be better...surprise!  It worked!  The theory is that the antibiotics fed to the chicken may have been killing the good bacteria that is suppose to be in my digestive track.  So...no more chicken now too.  For the headaches, I came off of caffeine 2 weeks ago, and for 8 days now have eaten NOTHING that I am allergic too.  Amazingly...the heada...

The harvest season is starting to wind down, but it's not gone yet.  We happened to plant late season tomatoes, so they are finally ripening!  I am actually being overwhelmed with free produce this week.  I have a box of pears in the fridge from Marjorie waiting to ripen so they can be canned.  A couple from church brought us corn, zucchini, bell peppers, cucumbers, celery, cauliflower, and squash.  My own tomato plants are producing 200 or more ripe tomatoes a week!  And that is off of only 3 plants!  So it looks like canning and processing is in the near future for me.  I am holding off a couple more days on tomatoes until the weekend, then I will can diced tomato for use in homemade chili over the winter.  Today, during the kids nap, I washed and chopped up all the celery.  There was enough for 3 potato soups, so I added the onion and put it into 3 gallon size freezer bags.  Then I started on the bell peppers.  I have 2 quar...

   A family picture from a couple weeks ago.    Raquelle    Keziah     Titus

Awana started last night.  Both Titus and Raquelle loved it.  Titus was thrilled that he is big enough to go with this year.  Raquelle's vest from last year is missing.  I feel  bad that she is the only one at club not wearing a Cubbies vest.  I am hesitant to buy a new one, because the old one has all of last years awards on it!  Thad and I agreed that if we haven't found the old one by the time she earns her first patch this year, then we will buy her a new one.  It goes later this year then the club we went to last year, so Raquelle was an emotional mess by the time I got her to bed.  She doesn't nap anymore and getting to bed at 9 pm is just too much for her.  I think I am going to start trying to get her to nap again just on Wednesdays. Our church's choir practices on Wednesday nights during Awana!  How convenient!  I haven't done anything with music since I graduated college with my Bible /  Music degree!  I w...

I have a full house again.  After spending the summer with just my kids and 1 extra, I took on 2 teachers kids.  Now I have 6 kids during the day ranging from 6 months to 4 years old.  It is busy here during the day!  I was searching for a movie to watch this evening and came across one that said it was about a busy mom of 2.  I seriously laughed out loud.  Busy?  How is that possible with only 2 kids?  Nothing against people with 2 kids...I loved having 2 kids.  I can't imagine being busy enough with 2 kids though warrant a movie.  Needless to say, I did not rent that one. I've only had all 6 kids 3 days so far so I am still getting adjusted to it.  The baby still takes 3 naps.  The older kids take 1 nap, Raquelle doesn't nap.  We are homeschooling and Raquelle started Kindergarten this last week.  My challenge is fitting in her schooling, preschool for the younger kids, and keeping the baby happy.  We have ha...

Because I'm sure everyone is dieing to know how it is going, here is a potty update.  Kezzy is now COMPLETELY out of diapers!  She is staying dry at nap time and over night too!  However...she has yet to figure out pooping on the toilet.  I am hoping that by letting her wear her panties, she will catch on to pooping faster then if I kept her in diapers.  She stays dry most days and tells me when she needs to pee, however, she hasn't figured out the timing on poop yet.  Here is an example of one of her episodes... Kezzy - "I stinking mommy!" Me - "Go stink on the potty!"  I take her potty...she sits for a while and doesn't go. 5 minutes later Kez - "I stinking mommy!" Me - "Go stink on the potty!"  Take her potty, she sits, doesn't poop...sometimes might pee some. 5 minutes later Kez - "I stinking mommy!" Me - "Go stink on the potty!"  Taker her potty...nothing. 1 minute later Kez - "OH NO mom...

Some recent conversations with my kids. Me - "You need to obey me now because I am all out of patients!" Raquelle - "Why are you all out of patients?" Me - "Because you used it all up!" Raquelle - "Well mommy, maybe you should pray and ask God to give you some more patients!" Titus is in the stage of mispronouncing most of his words.  Sometimes we can tell what he is saying, sometimes we can't.  There are a few though that I cringe when he uses in public... "A-hole" = apple... this one is embarrassing at the grocery store as people standing near the apples think he is talking to them. "Fruck" = truck...imagine him excitedly yelling about a "big fruck" as you go through a parking lot! "Hor" = horse ...he consistently misses the "S" on the end.  He has a horse costume and will run around the house saying "I a hor!  I a hor!"  Thad and I have a hard time not laughing as I t...

Now that Titus has received his new car seat in the mail, we are back to rear facing.  Why?  Because it is safer!  Technically, it is safer for EVERYONE to ride rear facing, but that just doesn't work.  Someone has to drive!  In a forward facing seat, a child's torso is held in place while their head whips forward potentially breaking the neck of a young child.  Rear facing, the head and neck are cradled by the seat and protected in a crash.  Titus outgrew the rear facing limits on his old seat, but the new seat (Sunshine Kids Radian 65) can be used rear facing up to 45 lbs!  He thinks it is cool to ride backwards.  The AAP recommends that children remain rear facing to the limits of the seat.  The law is 20 lbs and 1 yr old before they can turn around.  Moving up in car seats is not a milestone I look forward to.  Every time they outgrow a seat (turn forward, then move into a booster, etc) they are a little less protected in a...

I am currently potty training my 3rd child before the age of 2 and keep coming across people asking me how I do it...or commenting that my kids are amazing.  So I thought I would dedicate a post to my methods on how to potty train a toddler. I will start with my philosophy.  I do not believe in "waiting until they are ready" like you hear from the Dr's office and on all the suggestion fliers you get from diaper companies in the mail.  I believe in teaching them how to succeed.  30 years ago (and still today in other countries), it was totally normal for kids to be potty trained at 18 months to 2 years old.  Why are people waiting until 3 or 4 now?  I believe it is because they are waiting for the kid to be ready.  By waiting, you are then dealing with an opinionated preschool rather then an eager to please toddler which I believe CAN make the process more difficult.  There are plenty of success stories of kids being trained in a few days at olde...

We have had a lot going on lately!  We had a garage sale 2 weeks ago, followed by our 6 month inspection today.  Add to that 4 kids 4 and under most days and our house tends to take a beating!  We had to sort through everything in the garage and closets in a very short stretch of time for our sale, then we had to get everything organized and put away after that.  Here are some before and after pictures.  Before pictures are areas that were torn apart due to garage sale aftermath, or areas that were just plain neglected for 2 weeks.  After pics are after a fair bit or work.  More to come.    It's not perfect, but it is much improved over the last week!  I still need to finish up my room and Raquelle's room.  I tried to give her a chance to clean it on her own first, but her standards of clean do not match mine.  Thad has been working mostly in the garage.  We are close to having it organized enough to turn into a game ro...

At Keziah's last check up, her dr told me that she has the vocabulary of a 3 year old.  I believe it!  She talks more then any of my other kids at this age...however, with that vocabulary of a 3 year old comes the tact of a 1 1/2 yr old.  Here are some of the things she has been saying lately. Kez - "I love you!" Me - "I love you too." Kez - "No mommy!  I love you waffle!"  (points at the waffle iron) As I am chasing Kezzy down the hall with a rag after dinner Me - "Kezzy, where do you think you're going?" Kez - stopps..."Um, I don't know...church?" Playing with her little friend Kez - "Ring round rosies, posies, ashes, fall down!  (pause) Stand up Charlotte!  Again!" Potty training...she comes running into the kitchen - "Help mommy, Help...Oh no!  Poopies!" She also has "That's not nice" and "Be nice to me" down quite well.  She calls any bird the flies in the sky ...

From the dr's this week Raquelle Height - 40 1/4" - 40% Weight - 36 lbs - 44% Vision - 20/30 Titus Height - 38 3/4" - 65% Weight - 34 lbs - 60% Keziah Height - 33" - 58% Weight - 24 lbs 2.5 oz - 31% Head - 49 cm - 93%

Titus Raquelle Keziah

Yes it is possible. We are not there yet, but we are on our way. We first started attempting to pay off debt almost 3 years ago. We learned about Dave Ramsey and his program about 2 years ago and are now following his plan. With this years tax return, we feel like we are debt free now! Although we aren't actually. In the Dave Ramsey plan, first you set up emergency funds (he recommends $1000 for that) so you don't have to use a credit card for the unexpected things in life. 2nd, you cut back and put everything you can into paying off debt, from the smallest to the largest, rolling the payments from each thing you pay off into the next debt. He recommends paying off everything except your mortgage here. 3rd step is to get 3 to 6 months worth of income into the bank for a fully funded emergency fund. So far, we have our emergency fund, and have gotten rid of $42,000 of debt!! It's horrible to admit that we ever had this much debt, but $15,000 of it is what insurance di...

Well, long time no see! I have been out of the blogging world for a while, but I was considering starting it back up...mostly of a way of journaling both what my kids do and say, and also my own thoughts and growth. A lot has happened since my last post on here over the summer! My brother got married, we went to Sea World and the Zoo while we were in San Diego for the wedding, Thad lost his job, we changed churches, and of course, Keziah has changed a ton. Updates on the kids... Raquelle will be 4 next month! It is amazing how time goes by so quickly. I believe she may be ready to start kindergarten, but of course, she isn't old enough yet. She can count, knows her numbers, shapes, letters, sounds, and tons more. She can write her name and is starting to sound out and read and write simple words. Titus is perpetually potty training. He has been in underware for almost a year now, but still has accidents several days a week. This mostly occurs when he is interested in some...