Cherries and More Cherries!!!!

Well,we've made it to our due date!.....But, nothing is remotely telling me that "it's time".So, in the meantime, I had the children out this morning picking some more cherries! This hasn't even put a dent into the trees yet.So, they have another chore, added to their morning chores, picking cherries every morning! Matthea wanted to know if it was okay to eat some while picking.I told her,"yes,of course!" and then she proceeded to tell me,"Good! because I have been eating a few here and there while picking". Funny how they ask after they have already given themselves permission to do something.
I forgot to post our "desserts" on my last post. The girls are proud of them and we are still eating leftovers.mmmm....I also forgot to mention that we made homemade ice cream last week.I had Craig get our ice cream maker out and he did most of the work.I just pureed my canned peaches and added it to the mixture and he did the rest. Nothing like homemade ice cream! The children say that it beats Baskin Robbins and all those other fancy ice cream places out there. I agree!

We did our grocery shopping the other day and I really need to chop,bag and freeze all of those veggies that I bought.I also bought more flour and yeast to bake bread.After baking that last loaf, the whole family,including myself,feels confident in my bread baking abilities. It really turned out well. So, I need to get some loaves of bread made as well,before baby arrives,and put away. I also need to figure out what we are having for dinner tonight. I didn't sleep very well Friday night and was pooped all day Saturday.So when he came home Saturday night after work,there wasn't a meal. Sebastian and Matthea made themselves (and Oliver) leftover stew around 4:30 or 5:00,but,Craig doesn't get home until around 7:00. So when he got here,Jade and I quickly decided to do bake potatoes for dinner.Craig was satisfied with that,especially since there were 4 different desserts to still choose from afterward. Phew!!! Poor guy, I've been spoiling him lately with all of the cooking and baking that I've been doing and then he comes home (expecting yet another feast) to a baked potato.He was actually starting to call or text me before coming home just to ask,"So,what's for dinner tonight?". Just because we've been doing something new and different lately. I better not disappoint him tonight. Although,I'm not feeling very creative. He may have to settle for something regular and normal.

Right now,Oliver is up from his afternoon nap,Sebastian is weed eating(weeds are growing like crazy),the girls and I are in from taking care of the animals' food and water and weeding and watering the garden.

Life is good and life goes on......maybe we'll enjoy some of that ice cream today.It's a good hot day for that! Sebastian will appreciate the cool relief of ice cream after weed eating in the hot sun.

Counting Down the Days and Livin' Life....

Well here I am at 39 weeks and 5 days pregnant and no signs of labor beginning yet. I had an appointment with my chiropractor today for an adjustment that was way overdue.I have been seeing him every two weeks,except I had to cancel my last appointment,which was two weeks ago.So,it's been a month since I've seen him.I wasn't going to reschedule until after the baby was born.I just thought that I would be good until then.Boy was I wrong.Within a day or two of missing my appointment,I started having a lot of pain in my pelvis and it just got worse.The past two or three days have reminded me of what I felt like in past pregnancies when I couldn't walk,roll over,get up etc... without being in any pain.I finally called this morning and said that I needed to come in.He told me that I was definitely in need of an adjustment.Everything was out of whack.Thankfully I felt a lot better when I left the office.I'm just a little sore from letting it go so long.It should make me feel a little better while in labor too.
We also had an appointment with our midwife.Everything looks fine,I'm still measuring at only 36 weeks and lost a little weight(which is normal).So, we all are just playing the waiting game....on top of dealing with my ever increasing nesting instinct! I enlisted the girls to help me with my urge to bake the other day and we ended up baking 4 desserts and some bread.We finished harvesting the last of the Rhubarb and made a Rhubarb Strawberry-Lime Kuchen,Rhubarb Strawberry Crisp,Rhubarb Strawberry Cream Pie,Sugar Cream Pie and a loaf of bread.They all turned out delicious!


We've had 5 chicks hatch from our incubator and 2 so far that have hatched from our hen who went broody on us.She was setting on 11 eggs and so far we've only seen 2 chicks.But, tonight we snuck in the 5 chicks that we hatched,hoping she will accept them as her own.We'll see tomorrow morning if they have been rejected or not.

Our goat,Jane Doe, hasn't given birth yet.But she is still getting larger and a little more crankier.LOL. Craig and Sebastian have finished her kidding pen and she has been in there,but,has figured out how to jump over the wall!!! I can't believe that she would even attempt to do that in her condition and just the fact that she is so large,you would think that she couldn't possibly get over it.Oh boy.

Anyway,Craig and Sebastian butchered a couple of roosters last week and well...we ate them for dinner. Very good indeed.Those two guys are getting the hang of it.We have a whole lot more to butcher and freeze now.

The garden was finally weeded and tilled.Unfortunately the kids and I did it the old fashioned way,with our hands and some shovels.The tiller is still not in working order...But,the garden was finally planted with all of our plants and the kids each have their own plots to work with.We still have plenty of room for more.It's a big garden.Matthea has,by far, the most tomato plants.She went a little nuts with the seeds when they were picking out what they wanted to grow.But,now we are thankful that she did,because there should be an abundant crop from her!!!Another cool thing is that we have two Cherry trees that have produced a huge crop of cherries.The kids just started harvesting them today.I will have to get photos of all of the cherries on here soon and the garden.Also,sometime last year,someone had told us that Asparagus grows wild out here and you can find it almost anywhere near water,especially the canals.Well,Sebastian was out by our canal the other day and found some!! Pretty cool! We steamed the asparagus and had it with our dinner last night.Yummy.

We have also given Oliver his first haircut! He did so well for me and sat there very patiently while I used the trimmers and scissors.Now he looks older and not like my baby anymore. :(

We've had a lot of things breaking on us around here too. You know the saying "when it rains it pours",well I was already thinking of that when the first thing went....when the tiller went out,that was what I was saying,"what next,you know something else is going to go"....then it was the lawnmower (twice!!)....then the garage door...then the reverse in the van (ughhh,that is the worse thing so far)...then our washing machine ( which turns out to be more expensive to fix than to buy a new one).So,the first thing on our list to fix is the van.Luckily,when we had the technician out to come and look at our washer,I was mentioning how everything just keeps on falling apart around us.I mentioned the latest thing was the van.The guy asked what was wrong with it and said that he use to be a mechanic.So I told him and he went into detail on what was probably wrong with it and what we should do before the whole transmission goes out on us.We took it in to run a diagnostic on it and the tech was right about what could be wrong.But,something else was coming up with it.Well, we have ordered the part and Craig is hoping that he will be able to put it in himself.If not we'll have to take it somewhere and have someone else do it.If that doesn't fix the problem then, it's the other problem and it will cost us a couple of thousand dollars to have a new transmission put in.Oh BOY!
So,in the meantime,we will be washing our laundry at the Laundromat and not opening the garage door until we can fix the van and move on to the next item on the list.


Hey,life could be worse. One day at a time, one thing at a time and still praise God for what he has given us.Even when "bad" things come our way.

Another Year For the Two of Us.....God is Good

Last week, Craig and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. The girls and I made a special dinner and we finally cut some of our Rhubarb and made a strawberry rhubarb pie, for the first time! Unfortunately we all ate dinner and then ate the pie so fast that we forgot to take a picture of our pie! It was actually the best pie that we have ever eaten and the best pie that we have ever made.But,on the bright side, there are still some more stalks left on the plant that we can still make another pie and "share" it with everyone in a photo.


We were just reminiscing about this time last year...when we were celebrating our 12th anniversary....We had been planning an anniversary vacation for some time and it happened to coincide perfectly with our trip to Illinois.After watching my son John graduate from high school and visiting with friends, we started our anniversary vacation.A road trip,back to Nevada....we also had a newborn baby along for the ride.Which made things a bit challenging. But,we took our time and made our way through Missouri,Kansas,Colorado to spend time with friends,then south west to the "Four Corners" Colorado,New Mexico,Utah and Arizona(the kids loved that),then we headed to the Grand Canyon for a couple of days (that was the highlight of the trip),next was Hoover Dam and Las Vegas (Las Vegas was the worst part of the trip),we drove North to Mesquite,Nevada and stayed at a resort for a few days and relaxed by the pool before making our way home to Jackpot! In between all of those stops were of course a lot of hotel stays.The kids still talk about our "trip" and we all hope to be able to do another trip with just the family again. I thought that I would post some of our vacation photos from last year.


Here we are a year later and we are expecting another new baby to join our family! God has grown our family and blessed us with these precious gifts.Craig and I are just filled with happiness and joy and can't wait to see what else He has in store for us this coming year! We have just 13 short days left to the baby's due date and everyone here is just so excited and wondering at every moment if today may be the day.God is good....so very good.

Life is Good....

Well,the last time that I had posted I was almost 33 weeks pregnant,32 weeks and 5 days to be exact.Here it is already June 14th (Flag Day!) and I am at 38 weeks.The last month has gone by way too fast and a lot has happened here too (and not happened...ahemmm).
We are still having GREAT weather,thankfully.We have not had to use our heat(for low overnight temps) or our air conditioner yet.I turned the heat off about 4 or 5 weeks ago and the day time temp in the house hasn't been over 81,which was the hottest it has been.It usually stays around 71 inside,so far. That should change for sure by next month.I should mention that that is the temperature for upstairs.Because downstairs is a different story,the temperature is usually about 15-20 degrees cooler and the kids love that. I think we will all be lovin' it when it does get unbearably hot outside and we can go downstairs and cool off.

Our flowering trees that I had mentioned last time have been replaced with their summer foliage,still just as beautiful.All of the tulips are done blooming,we have a group of Iris plants that have only produced one bloom :( and the summer blooming bulbs that we planted in the flower bed in front of the house are sprouting along with the Lavender plants that we planted with them. I spent 3 days weeding that bed! The weeds had gotten to be as tall as the leaves on the Iris plants! Jade helped me out on all 3 days,but, on the third day I enlisted the help of EVERYONE! My body said,"No more Michelle!".We bought five bags of mulch and couldn't believe that that wasn't enough! That isn't the only area on our property that needs mulching either! We have decided that we will call and have a couple of truckloads of mulch delivered instead.But,for now,that flower bed looks pretty good,if I should say so myself!The kids and I have been trying to keep the flower bed in the backyard weeded as well.That is a chore,let me tell you.It is larger than the one in front and goes around the sides and back of the yard, along the fence line.The children loathe that chore,well just two of them. I love to weed, to me it's a good way to relax, and luckily,Jade doesn't mind it either. She and I could sit out there for hours and just weed and talk! Unfortunately,during all this time that I was "working" outside it was causing a lot of pressure and contractions and my midwife finally said enough is enough.She cut me off of all laborious work at my 33 week appointment!She had a talk with the children and Craig and they were told to "watch" me and not let me lift a finger until I reached my 37 week mark!!Understandably of course,we didn't want a preterm baby.Oliver came 3 weeks early and we didn't want a baby any earlier than that. I was not happy,ONLY because I was in my nesting zone and I was on a roll.I had "things" to do to prepare us all for our new addition.Right??? I wanted to scrub our wood floors and polish them too and now I had to wait to do that after week 37???? UGHHHH..... and the Boise fundraiser walk,I was also banished from.I was instructed to,well, instruct....instruct everyone else to do things for me.I'm not wired that way so this was a challenge for me.I did get caught several times doing things that I should not be doing and then being chastised by my own children and then they would "tell" on me.LOL. Well, we all went to Boise for the walk,but I had to stay at the pavillion and wait for them to finish.Beautiful day trip and I didn't mind so much having NOT to walk. As soon as I hit week 37 I was back to "work" and scrubbing the wood floors and moving heavy furniture.I'm at week 38 now and baby is still doing fine.Although it went from being in a face down(towards my back) to a face up position(looking out right below my belly button)within the last week.There is still time for it to turn around so that I don't have to endure back labor. We have decided to go ahead with a water birth and use the birthing tub at the birth center.This should be exciting.I am still doing some mental preparation for having a med free birth.Out of the other 5 deliveries I have only had 1 epidural,the rest I was on Demerol or Stadol.So knowing that I don't have the option of "crying" out for some drug "help" is a mental hurdle that I need to cross and I am moving towards a more confident state of mind.Thank God! I was really wavering a few weeks ago and very unsure of myself.But I'm better now...I think.LOL. The kids helped me go through some boy clothes and girl clothes to wash, we've packed a baby bag, we got a snack bag (I should say bags) ready,my things are ready to go into a bag,we took a TV and DVD player to the birth center and donated it (the kids will now have something to watch their movies on while they wait)We've secured a girl name and are almost certain on a boy name.We found our crib hardware,Craig put the crib up right away. We also found the girls hardware to their beds.Matthea's bed is up,but Jade's bed needs some repair with wood glue before that can go up.Everyone has their bets on what day the baby will arrive and now we just sit and wait.

Let's see.....we haven't had our consultation yet for Oliver.But he is doing dramatically well.We actually took him off of goats milk too,it was causing alot of diarhea.He's been drinking rice milk.We noticed another reaction after he had some of our snow cones.It was on a Saturday and we had given him just a few bites and his eczema flared up a bit.Then three days later we went out for snow cones again and he had consumed a large quantity this time.He had some of Craig's snow cone,Sebastian's,Jade's and mine! His eczema was the worse that we had ever seen it was all over his face,legs,back,stomach,arms...everywhere and he cried for HOURS.So,we were now down to a couple of culprits,dairy and food dye allergy.The dairy,we have been slowing reintroducing that recently and he has not had any reactions.So we think that the main culprit is a food dye allergy.We checked out the yogurt that we thought was the problem in the beginning and low and behold,it has red food dye in it!That was the last thing on our mind.Our initial reaction was that it has to be dairy.Because that is a common allergy.Our chiropractor suggested to reintroduce the dairy to see what happens and then try the food dye.We are afraid to try the food dye at this point,only because of what happened to him when he had the snow cones.So,for now,we are staying clear of anything that has food dye in it,for his sake.Poor boy.He also has been nursing more frequently,he was just nursing here and there,once a day maybe and then he'd go a few days without nursing.Now it's back up to about twice a day.But we feel that it has been an added benefit to his condition.The fact that he's been getting a lot of colostrum,we feel, has helped to clear up his skin and given him some more enzymes and antibodies.He definitely is a different child now that those symptoms have waned.A much happier boy.He has been walking all over the place and getting into things.Trying to talk,picking up after himself,finding bits of debris on the floor and throwing them away,even throws away his own dirty diapers (I'm hoping he's got the neat gene from me,he'll be the only child so far),and telling us when he has a dirty diaper.He still loves being outside. He will cry so hard if someone goes out and leaves him behind.We bought him some new sandals and tennis shoes and he loves having them on and going outside to walk in them.He has fallen in love with flowers and wants to smell them ALL!!! We even had to give him some fake ones to walk around with inside the home.He makes us all smell them over, and over again.

As for Matthea,we took her to see the chiropractor and YES she was definitely a "Crooked" child!!He said that her whole spine was out of alignment and asked her what kind of acrobats had she been doing?? He put her on daily supplements for some gastrointenstinal things that were going on and just to make sure she was getting a daily vitamin,told her to drink more water, and "straightened" her spine out too! She was shocked that she could stand and feel that both legs were "even" again. She doesn't need to go back unless she starts having problems or we notice her alignment off again. Overall she's doing well,has way too much energy,a bottomless stomach and legs that go up to her neck!!!!

Jade is doing very well. She is becoming more and more of a responsible young lady.She helps me out so much with everything.She is getting the hang of how to run this household with little help from me and the way she takes charge of taking care of Oliver is just amazing.Craig and I are so proud of her. She has blossomed right before our eyes and has transformed from a little girl to a young women in just a few months!! Even people from our area that see her on a more regular basis have made comments on how different she looks from just a couple of months ago.Our midwife's assistant just saw her a couple of days ago and didn't recognize her.She asked us,"Is this your daughter Jade? Oh my gosh,I don't even recognize her!! She has changed so much". She has. She's grown several inches (4 feet 11 1/2 inches tall,almost hitting the 5 foot mark, she was 4 feet 7 inches) in just a few months and "lost" her little girl look.

Sebastian is growing just as fast as Jade is,he's 5feet 4 inches now.He has been working so hard along side his father.I don't think I have ever seen him this tired before, or sore!! They have been working every spare minute that they have.They have even been working before Craig leaves for work and after he gets home,until it's too dark to see anymore. It is helping to mold Sebastian into a totally different boy/man.He's learning some hard lessons on working hard and turning away from laziness,but it has been well worth it.More for his sake than ours, for sure.It's a work in progress, I see the light at the end of the tunnel.He has been working with the Llamas the last few days,trying to get them use to being handled.Noel and Bess will now will let Sebastian pet them and brush them,but only if he's giving them some grain while he's doing it.But,it is progress.They wouldn't allow anyone to touch them before.He's helped his dad put up some more fencing for the goats and chickens,they've been building a chicken coop,they just started on a kidding pen for our doe,he's been keeping our grass cut,he's been setting mouse traps out in the potting shed and showing us his kills (loves that),they are still working on the garden...we've had some problems with our tiller,but that should be close to being done soon too(luckily their plants are still alive and waiting).The other thing I should mention is Sebastian's ingenuity! It amazes us each and every time when we are out there scratching our heads trying to figure out the best way to "fix" or "do" something and can't,Sebastian comes up with a way.Or Sebastian will build something during his "free" time and come in to show us,and we are just astounded at his ability to build something from just his head without plans or anything and it works!!! He's cut out an airplane from styrofoam,put it together and it flies! He's made some arrows from twigs and chicken feathers that work with his cross bow! Those are just a couple of examples of what he's done.Just amazing.....

Craig has been doing well too,though tired,but a good tired.In just a few months he's gone from working a night shift,which he has been doing for years, to a twelve hour day shift(6am-6pm) for about a month and now to a normal 8 hour day shift 10am-6pm.We all are adjusting well to this schedule,even though he is working like a dog from the time he gets up until he lays his head down at night.But,he's happy that he does have this time now to work on things around here,when he didn't before.Before he only had his off days and felt as though it was taking forever to do the things on his list.Which it was taking a long time and he wasn't getting enough rest.Now he can at least sleep 8 or more hours and still do something everyday and as a bonus we get to see him before AND after work AND have breakfast AND dinner with him AND..there's progress at home...life is good....

Also, the eggs that we were trying to hatch in the incubator didn't hatch.They all died.Most of them looked as if they made it to full maturity and possibly died a few days before they were suppose to hatch.So we tried again.This time only with eggs from our hens who were fertilized with the Polish rooster and a few eggs from our Rooster "Cocktail" and our hen "Dorothy".(Before we had purchased 6 fertilized eggs from someone and used some of our own too)Cocktail is no longer with us due to his increasingly vocal,all day,communication! I don't remember how many eggs altogether,but,we've had a successful hatch finally.Four chicks from the Polish rooster,so they are a mixed breed except for one.We got two Buff Orpington/Polish chicks,one Golden Laced Wyandotte/Polish mix and a full blooded Polish chick! And only one chick from Cocktail and Dorothy which is a Buff Orpington/Silver Laced Wyandotte(we think) mix,this one is by far the cutest. The Polish chicks all have the "crest" of feathers on top of their heads.It will be very interesting to see how they all turn out.Probably very funny looking.
Our Doe (goat),Jane Doe,is suppose to be giving birth this month as well.So, we've been keeping an eye out for the "signs" and hoping that she doesn't kid while we are "kidding" at the birthing center!!LOL...

Again, life is good,God has blessed us and continues to do so.
Thank you Lord for my blessings....