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...