Kingsley Corner

Sherlock Holmes in the kitchen

2012-01-27T16:23:00.001-06:00

The crime scene was brutal. On the kitchen counter a murdered plastic horse dripped with 'blood'.

Next to the carcass was a note. It read:

I've killed this horse for dinner!

There are so many carnivores in this house, you'll never figure who I am!

Bwahahaha!

Signed, 'L'

From across the kitchen, a Fisher Price toy screeched, "It was terrible! I saw the whole thing! There was a loud roar, then a flash of brown, then the horse was dead! Oh somebody help!"

Sarah, Matthew and Daniel came running in to the kitchen, and with surprised glances at each other took in the entire scene. They read the note and investigated the carcass.

Daniel solemnly proclaimed, "Yup, it's dead alright." Matthew whispered, "How can plastic be dead? It never lived!" Dan replied with finality, "No, no. It's DEAD."

The witness toy sobbed and begged for the criminal to be found. He proclaimed no toys would sleep safely that night with the crimnal on the lose. (By the way, this toy's name is BobJohn.)

The letter was bagged as evidence to use in court, and the children dashed to every room of the house, searching each toy box for brown carnivores and arresting them on suspicion for murder. They did a thourough job of it. Our police lineup included tiger puppets, plastic lions and lion puppets, two T-Rex dinosaurs, stuffed dogs (including a Doberman wearing bunny ears....he's trying too hard to look innocent, I think!), and our cat, who was caught sulking under the couch (isn't that very suspicious behavior?).

The line up of suspects

Saffron topped the list of suspects

The 'policeman' (who was really Matthew), asked BobJohn to recall the crime scene. What exactly did he see?

"He was running on four legs and moving really fast!" (The kids removed the innocent citizens during the monologue, so the T-Rex toys were set free at this point, even though I would never trust a T-Rex.)

"He was all brown...I didn't see black markings anywhere." (The tigers, a pug, and the doberman were shown the door.)

"He was twice the size of me!" (Goodbye teeny plastic lions, huge lion puppet, and the live cat.)

It was narrowed down to a lion puppet, Sir Scruffyneck. Sir Scruffyneck wailed and demanded to call his lawyer.

Amazingly, the court was unscheduled that afternoon, so the trial was set to commence in 5 minutes. (Oh I love the efficiency of imaginary judicial systems!)

The prosecuting attorney scrambled to build his case agianst Sir Scruffyneck, and the list of witnesses was assembled. While I ran to the kitchen to get dinner into the oven (and think up the arguments that would be presented in court) the children constructed a courtroom out of dollhouse furniture.

Oh this is too much fun! What a fun game to play! I think I'm having as much fun as the kids!

The trial itself will begin in Part 2 of this story.

Gardening Stupidity

2012-01-27T08:43:00.003-06:00

Our kids toast to my own foolishness

Lest I be accused of glossing over my life and portraying only the pretty, photogenic moments, let's take a little look at the other side of reality.

I've planted my garden more than once already. Why? Because I'm an idiot. I was so excited to buy plants and get them in the ground that I didn't want to wait for the garden fence to be built. I bought onion starts from our local hardware store (which also happens to be the only place I've ever seen autographed John Wayne photos for sale....honestly, who would buy those things? This establishment is part hardware store, part garage sale.....odd). I could hear them calling my name in little aromatic onion voices as I looked into the box of plant starts. I couldn't resist. I bought a little bunch of 50 baby onion plants. Excitement began to well up inside of me from the moment I held them in my hands and smelled the sweet dirt clinging to their roots.

Onions are the most instantly-gratifying thing to plant in the garden. You just pop them down into the soil and 'presto!' there's pretty green rows of plants smiling at you. I thought I'd use those little plants as a way to motivate me into building our garden fence. You know, because now I had a deadline. I had to get that fence done before the plants could go in the ground. I was so motivated now to get it done, but several things happened that week.

1- It rained for most of the week. Have you ever tried to do ANYTHING in a muddy, overgrazed pasture? Not happening.
2- I had a lot trouble getting the fence supplies over to the garden plot.

Before I could build our fence, first I had to take it down. Seriously. I didn't want to actually BUY fencing materials (you'd know why if you priced fencing- oh baby!- it's not cheap!). So, genius that I am, I decided to reuse the fencing already on our property. There were two goat pens built into our lawn space. It was good fencing material just sitting there. Those goat pens needed to come down for more than one reason.

1- I could reuse the $150 worth of fencing.
2- More importantly, there is a fantastic tree branch just waiting for a swing to grace it....but it hangs right over the fenceline. We must make way for progress, er....swings. Down it comes! (I'm happy to get that swing off the lawn....it's been sitting there each day, asking me when it will finally be hung up.)

I thought I'd pop into the yard and pull down the goat fencing in one afternoon, then relocate the materials into the new garden plot and install everything in one more afternoon. Two hard days of work and we'd be done! I could just imagine my little seedlings happily growing behind the protection of my fence line.

Um...I had those thoughts 2 weeks ago.....and no, the fence still isn't built.

Ignoramus that I am, I didn't realize how difficult it can be for a 5'5 weakling to wrestle fence posts out of the ground. I spend hours on this darn fence (even spending those most-coveted hours, "baby naptime" on this!). I removed a lot of fencing from the posts, then tried to tackle the posts themselves. I threw my weight against each one, trying to use leverage to loosen it and wriggle it out. After lots of effort, sweat, and panting, all I had were bruised hands to show for my time. Not one fence post had yielded. Erg. This was a job for Mr. Kingsley.

Unfortunately, he gets home after dark (it's surprsing what a hour-long commute does to the family schedule!). This also means it's too late at night to send him tackling a fencing job for me. One day last week he went to work extra early just so he could come home early and work on removing this fence.

Sometimes I tease him that he must have the Jedi force. I feel like he waggles his fingers at a problem, breathes a command, and the offending problem quivers in awe and rushes to obey. At least that's the way it looks to me. Stuck jar lids? Gone. And he only used one hand to do it. Surely it must be the force.

In less than an hour he had a row of posts out of the ground and a roll of fencing ready to be moved to the garden. Thank goodness for the strength of our husbands! (Unfortunately it rained several days right after this, so the fencing materials are still sitting on our lawn, waiting for a sunny day.)

While Mr. Kingsley wrestled fence posts, I had been focusing on building the garden bed. After spending all afternoon digging in the dirt, I could hardly wait to plant something.

Back in the house, the onions were looking wilted...after all, it had been more than a week since I purchased them. They really needed dirt. The fence line wasn't protecting our garden yet.

"Do you think the deer will eat onions? They don't like onions, right? Maybe the chickens won't eat them either. Surely nothing will eat the onions because they taste so bad," I tried to convince myself I wasn't doing something stupid. Sarah tried dubiously to dissuade me as I pushed each onion into the fluffy garden bed.

I was right, nothing ate the onions, but they were still all uprooted in less than 24 hours. Our chicken flock had been irresistably drawn to the freshly-dug soil. It was the perfect place for them to scratch for bugs. They didn't eat a single bite of onions, but flung them all out of the garden in their search for tasty morsels. By the time I discovered them, they were wilted and mostly dead. What would be the use of rounding them up and replanting them? There was no fence yet. The chickens were still irresistibly attracted to the garden bed. Our dog Bella was having a grand time chasing them out of the garden for me, but this was no long-lasting solution.

I learned my lesson the hard way. I have to curb my enthusiasm and sprinkle in some wisdom (I'll even settle for some good ole common sense, since I seem to be lacking that as well) and work. Today it's supposed to be sunny, so I'm heading out to dig fence post holes. Then I'll go buy new onion transplants.

(Editorial update: It's been 2 hours since this entry was posted, and I DID IT! The fence posts are ALL set into the ground and ready for the fencing to be attached. I even reclaimed some more posts from other areas of the property, and uprooted them all by my self (BooYA!!) since the heavy rains loosened the soil. Thank you, Rain!)

Capturing childhood

2012-01-24T22:08:00.000-06:00

Sarah, age 9

Today I had a little panic attack in my brain when I realized something huge.

My daughter is nine years old.

NINE.

That might not sound significant all by itself...but I realized that my daughter's life at home is officially half-over. I only get to have her with me for nine more years until she's eighteen and moves away forever. That's not very long. I feel a mix of sadness (at the thought of missing her wonderful personality) and panic (have I taught her enough to prepare her to face the world on her own? Nope.).

She was my first baby, my introduction to motherhood. (Does anyone else cringe with regret when they remember their first feeble attempts at parenting?)

Poor girl. I pushed her too hard to hit milestones she wasn't ready for....I should have just cuddled her more and enjoyed her fleeting stages of babyhood. (I'm really good at enjoying babies now...in fact, I don't accomplish much else around here when Diego is awake. I can't rip myself away from him most of the time.)

I always wanted her to move on to the next development- I'd help her practice sitting, crawling, walking, eating.

I was obsessed with growth charts and parenting books, worried about how she would compare. I drilled her with daily scripture memorization at the age of three. What kind of parent does that?

Forget about silly child's board books teaching colors and numbers...I read the books of J. R. Tolkein aloud to her before she was one year old. All of them.

If she ever wanted a fruit snack, I'd make her recite the alphabet to earn it (when she was two). That was for one measly fruit snack.

Luckily for my boys, I think I've really learned to lighten up and enjoy life more. I'm a much funner mother now, and I don't care what charts say at all about developmental milestones. I laugh at the numbers that attempt to manage my parenting techniques (who are we kidding, I don't use 'techniques' anymore, I fly by the seat of my pants!).

Today when the boys came home, I said, "Anyone wanting a sugar-high can have a cookie for each hand! Do you pick Snicker doodles or Chocolate Crackle cookies or both?"

Today I felt driven to simply enjoy Sarah's disappearing childhood. We jumped on the trampoline together for recess (I haven't stepped onto our trampoline since I became pregnant with Diego....it's been a loooong time and boy was it fun!).

This afternoon we played the Nail Polish Game. I have a very happy daughter today!

This is how it works: we take a bottle of nail polish and spin it on the floor (Done in 'Spin-the-Bottle' style). When it stops spinning, the lid points to the winner of the round. The winner paints one nail with the color. Then we pick a new color and spin it. We keep doing this until our nails are all painted with a rainbow. It's immensely fun.

I like to add a white dot to each nail to bring a semblance of unity to the manicure.

Quick note: If you are actually going to try this game, be sure to only use polishes of complementary colors {complementary as in 'look good together', not as in 'opposite the color wheel', although that would also work, I suppose} If the colors don't match intensity, it will look terrible. Deep burgundy might look sophisticated all by itself, but when it's juxtaposed with bright pink....that burgundy looks brown and drab and just...terrible. Don't do it.

Museum Madness

2012-01-16T15:17:00.001-06:00

We visited the City Museum in St. Louis last month. I can't possibly say enough about this creative playground. This museum is filled with tunnels winding in all directions (they'll start as a large walkway, then shrink smaller and smaller until I had to slide on my belly to get out the other side), slides disappearing into the floor, caves winding up and down through several floors, and crawlspaces that twist smaller and darker until you can barely squeeze through. It's equally fun for adults, teens, and children.

It's simultaneously terrific and terrifying.

It's a spelunker's playground, and it's all man-made of recycled materials. There is no map of the building, and the complex spans more than 10 floors of factory space. The biggest slide is a winding 10 stories tall.

We explored and played all day (after I got over the initial panic of believing it to be a kidnapper's paradise, that is.) Most of the museum space was too dim to accommodate photography, so these pictures are very limited as far as representing the entire museum. If you ever chance to travel through St. Louis, I recommend this place as the one stop you make. It's unlike anywhere I've ever visited before!

Nate inspects a wall of Coke bottles

The human hamster wheel

Daniel climbs in a tunnel 20 feet off the ground

Nathan tops the castle tower in the outdoor play space

Matthew peers through the floor at me

Looking up the winding stairs leading to the 10-story slide.
Freaky.
I only made it halfway up!

Daniel exploring aerial tunnels

Looking up one of the slides

Kristi disappears in a tunnel leading to the basement

Cousins playing in a tree house

Part of the outdoor playground. This is 50 feet off the ground!

The museum wall is a giant dragon with spikes.

Matt exploring more dark spaces

Random Thoughts- Monkeys, Perfume and Seeds

2012-01-16T14:26:00.000-06:00


A beautiful quiet moment

One of my life dreams has always been to play with a real monkey. Aren't they so captivating?

I finally had a chance to hold a Capuchin monkey last week at one of my face-painting gigs. It was a circus-themed party and one of the entertainers was a clown with a trained monkey. It was SO interesting to let him climb on me and wrap his tail around my neck. She instructed the monkey to kiss me, so I presented my cheek... but he kissed me on the lips! Yikees! Who knows where those lips have been?! (And he used his tongue.....yuckers. Monkey slobber on my mouth is not appealing) Even with the unexpected 'surprises', I still relished the interaction. It was magical for me.

Remember our recent experience with a cat flea bath? Some product developer wasn't very bright. The flea shampoo we used must be 99% perfume. Poor Saffron smells like old grandma perfume (and his bath was four days ago! He still reeks!). You know....the really nasty kind of overly-floral perfume that stings your nostrils and makes you cough. I can smell him from 10 feet away. We smell his arrival into a room the instant he enters our space. I feel really bad for him. What kind of person loads animal products with perfume? Don't they know how sensitive animal olfactory glands are? I'll be amazed if Saffron has ANY sense of smell after this week.

I'm planting seeds this week! I have several seed flats lined up and ready to welcome little vegetable seeds. I'm using plastic storage totes (the big flat kind that fit under the bed) for seedling flats. In our city house I used to store seasonal items under every bed. I can't handle having anything under the beds in our country house. I am too paranoid about insects hiding behind the totes. (I'm kind of OCD now about keeping the space under each bed EMPTY, just so I have peace of mind.)

Instead of throwing those totes away, I now have a ready supply of seedling flats to use all year. This week we're planting peas, lettuce, and spinach. By the way, I discovered Malabar Spinach this year (technically it's not spinach, it's a tropical vine that tastes just like spinach)....it sounds like a 'miracle' plant for hot humid areas like ours. It's supposed to produce greens ALL SUMMER LONG! (This is virtually unheard of in Texas...it's too hot for Spinach to grow for 6 months of each year.) And it's a perennial! I can hardly contain my excitement. (Look it up if you are a Texas gardener! You might LOVE it!)

Tea Party

2012-01-13T11:37:00.000-06:00

Tea Party table decorated with snowflakes

Yesterday Sarah invited over some friends for a tea party with their dolls. I was so excited to take pictures of such a cute occasion. Just my luck, my camera battery died after I took only one picture. Drat. I think I'll just have to arrange another tea party soon so I can snap away and practice my s-l-o-w-l-y evolving photography skills.

The girls chattered with excitement as they lovingly dressed each doll in beautiful clothes. They adorned their dolls with crowns which are really silver bracelets my mother-in-law gave me.....I can't handle wearing bracelets because they get in the way. As soon as I saw their true purpose in life (adorning doll heads) I knew they were keepers.

Sarah and her friends had such fun drinking hot cocoa and eating treats. It was so fun to listen to their chatter while they practiced their manners. They reminded each other often on 'the proper way' to hold a teacup, with pinkies pointing straight up in the air like a radio tower. I hid my giggles so as not to offend them.

It is so fun to watch my little girl create these fun memories. It's the meaningful moments like this that I feel like I'm being a good mom.

New enemy for life

2012-01-13T11:19:00.001-06:00

It all started with a single insect.

Some of you may already know how much I detest insects, even benign ones like ladybugs. I can't handle bugs of any kind in my house. I do routine pesticide treatments around my house and have sticky-traps strategically scattered in corners so I will always know the first signs of infiltration. (Even though not a single bug has shown up in the traps for the past several months, I still check them weekly...when they DO start invading, I want to know as soon as possible.)

The particular insect discovered this morning was (horror of horrors!) a flea. Parasitical insects are a whole different ball game. Panicking, I squealed to my sweetheart that my plans for the day were canceled. It was time for all-out war.

Arming myself with thick gloves, flea killing-shampoo, and fine-tooth combs, I prepared for battle. Poor Saffron (our cat) had no suspicion of what to expect. This cat is pretty wild (which is exactly what we wanted in a farm cat, but he's not friendly by any means....he literally bites to show his affection....it's cute, really) so I was quite apprehensive about trying to bathe him. It's funny.....I had seen Youtube videos of determined pet-owners trying to bathe their frantic felines. I used to laugh at the foolishness of these people- what idiot tries to bathe a cat? It's a ball of fangs and claws and desperation. Yeah....there was no laughing this morning as I prepared to make a fool of myself.

I locked myself in the bathroom with this feisty cat, hoping to emerge without too many scratches. Saffron tried to escape every second. He tried to crawl out the window, under the door, in the toilet, even down the drain. Poor thing. I was almost as unhappy as he (I say almost, because can anything be really more unhappy than a cat getting a flea bath?). He gave me such pointed looks of disgust as I continued the unpleasant task.

When we emerged from the bathroom (which looks like a monsoon stopped by for a chat) I was almost as soaked as him. It's a cold day today (yes, you incredulous ones....Texas does get cold snaps!) and I didn't want to leave our drenched cat to air dry on cold tile floors. So, genius that I am, I decided to gently blow dry him so he wouldn't be cold and wet all day. Bad idea.

Now when he sees me, he drops to the ground and slinks away as quickly as possible to hide in a secure corner out of sight. I think I've lost his affection for ever. I made a new enemy for life, even before doing the breakfast dishes.

Random thoughts- history and bribery

2012-01-12T08:12:00.003-06:00

I love history. I'm so excited to teach it to my kids in a way that excites the imagination.

This week I started teaching an Oregon Trail unit to our home school co-op. I'm stoked. This is my favorite unit study for history. We are doing an Oregon Trail simulation where the children all have imaginary wagons and families to travel with. They are keeping 'journals' to record their journey; these will be turned into story books at the end of the semester. This week they all bought supplies from my general store to outfit their wagons and today they will leave Independance, Missouri to begin their journey. Along the trail there are differenct scenarios they encounter and they have to figure out what they will do (for example, the water is contaminated with larvae....what will they do about that? Will they trade with this Native American tribe or not?) Nathan pointed out that it's basically an RPG like Dungeons and Dragons....except instead of being elves, they are pioneers....and instead of fighting trolls, they're trading with Native Americans. It doesn't sound as gripping somehow.

I wore my historical reenactment dress from our days of volunteering at the Pioneer Farms museum. (Can I just say here that I think corsets were never intended for breast-feeding mamas? Yikees.) The kids were delighted. (I was happy for an excuse to wear the darn dress. It took forever to make, so by golly, I'm going to wear it any chance I get!)

Earlier this week my house was so cluttered. I get so tired of clutter....it seems to suck the energy out of my body in a parasitcal way I can't control until the clutter is annihilated. I told the children we were going to clean for 2 hours. I wrote every chore I could think of on slips of paper, then we dividing into teams. Each team drew out 15 slips of paper to tackle, then we raced to see which team could finish first. They did it without any whining!

Okay, before you hand me the mother-of-the-year award (which I would promptly misplace anyway) I should confess I bribed them. We played for high stakes this week with full sized Snickers bars awarded to the winning team. It was a very close finish after hours of mopping, scrubbing, sweeping, and vacuuming. It actually ended up being a tie, so the consolation prizes were abolished and the kids cut the Snickers bars into equal portions to share. They were delighted (we don't usually have junk food in the house, so it's a big deal to get a candy bar). I'm just happy my house is clean.

Garden plans

2012-01-11T09:16:00.001-06:00

I just ordered our seeds for the garden this year. So exciting. This is the best place to buy seeds, and they have the most unique collection of heirloom seeds from around the planet. (Absolutely NO GMO's allowed, it's not owned by Monsanto or Cargill, and they proactively preserve natural genetic diversity.) I haven't bought seeds anywhere else for years. I love curling up in a blanket each winter and perusing the seed catalogue. I can hardly wait to get the seeds in the mail.

Nathan and I started measuring spots and digging holes for our fruit orchard this week. (Chuckling....) Have you ever tried digging a hole in bedrock? I thought not. Most people have something called common sense and don't even attempt breaking up bedrock. We have about 6 inches of very rocky soil before we hit solid limestone. Erg. I'm trying to re-map our property plans or else figure out a way to coax baby fruit trees to grow in that soil...er....rock. I was feeling so disappointed after spending what seemed like hours digging and excavating rocks, only to have a beensy little hole to show for my efforts. I was even less excited at the prospect of attempting to grow a vegetable garden in this stuff. In our last house it took several years to build up healthy soil. We'd be starting at square one again (or negative one, if you count all the clearing we'd need to do before we could even work the soil....I was not excited to cut out tree stumps to make way for a vegetable plot.) I was feeling so flustered at this point.

We walked around the property scouting out our options. Nathan experimentally dug a hole in the pasture so see how bad the rocks are. He dug....and dug.....and dug without even seeing a single rock. Oddly enough, the bedrock wasn't in sight either. How could there be such a drastic difference? I suspect the years of horse manure and oak leaves just naturally composted and created rich soil. There aren't even weeds for me to clear, and the spot seems perfect with morning light and afternoon shade. I'm giddy.

It's time to get dirty.

Ugly Soup

2012-01-11T08:46:00.001-06:00

This soup is uglier than anything I've ever made before, but it's SO yummy I can't eat just one bowl. Ha, isn't this a great introduction to this recipe?! Aren't you excited to try it now? (laughing to myself here) If any of you kitchen-savvy cooks have a suggestion on how I can improve the appearance of this one, please let me know. It's definitely a keeper in my book, but I need to make it look more appetizing to the children. Erg.

It's technically called Mushroom with Tortellini soup. Here is the recipe for one batch of soup:

2 slices bacon, diced

2 cups onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups fresh mushroom, diced (I make these really small so the kids don't know it's mushroom.)

8 cups beef broth (real broth, none of that bullion garbage. Trust me, it's worth it to use real broth here.)

2 Tablespoons fresh basil, minced

1/2 cups fresh parsley, minced (no cutting corners here- don't use dried parsley.)

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1 9oz. package cheese tortellini

2 cups fresh spinach, chopped

For serving day: Fresh Parmesan cheese and garlic croutons for garnish.

In a stockpot, saute the bacon. Remove bacon and saute the onion until golden. (Don't try to cook them together. I did this the first time and the onion juices ended up boiling the bacon, so the bacon didn't get crispy Disgusto.) Add mushroom (you could substitute cooked Italian sausage if you don't like mushrooms), beef broth, basil, parsley, garlic, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. In a separate stockpot, cook tortellini according to package directions. Drain. Add tortellini and spinach leaves to soup. Simmer until tortellini is heated through (this is what the original recipe says here, but I'm thinking, wouldn't the tortellini still be hot from the boiling water it just came from? I skipped that step, but included it since the book said it.) Remove from heat and cool. Pour soup into a labeled gallon-size freezer bag. Freeze.

On serving day, cut the plastic off the frozen block of soup. Place soup in a crock pot and set on LOW for 8-10 hours, or until heated through. (You can also thaw the soup and reheat it on the stove if you have an aversion to crock-pots, just be sure not to boil it.) Top with generous amounts of fresh parmesan and croutons. Enjoy.

Okay, okay, I know it takes forever to make this soup. That's precisely why I make a super-huge batch all at once (Think 6 to 10 gallons.....yeah, I have a huge stock pot.) and freeze enough to last for several meals.

My sweet husband set up speakers and his MP3 player in the kitchen so I can listen to audio books or lectures while I work. I detest doing tedious work without something stimulating to occupy my mind (and in my world, chopping 20 pounds of vegies=tedious). Since I was listening to conference talks, it was a beautiful, uplifting day in the kitchen. (Isn't it so rare an occasion that we can say that we loved working in the kitchen?)

Butternut Squash Lasagna recipe

2012-01-09T09:17:00.002-06:00

Sarah on a lovely winter afternoon

Nathan and I have very different views on culinary arts. For me, food usually serves the utilitarian purpose of filling hungry tummies.....it's basically a chore to check off my list everyday. For Nathan, it's an art. He's happy to spend hours on a beautiful meal because he enjoys the process. He's a true artist in the kitchen....and his creations nourish not just the body, they feed my soul. You know what I mean? His food is made with so much love and care that it satisfies me in a very deep way. I usually want to get the cooking finished as quickly as possible so I can move onto other activities. I hate cooking.

Some people go to restaurants when they don't want to cook. I would rather not, for two reasons.

Reason #1- I hate feeling like we are a circus sideshow with all of our children squeezed into teeny little restaurant tables, all vying for elbow room or whispering urgently that so-and-so took the wrong straw or stole a crayon that is needed RIGHT NOW or bumped a glass and sent ice water sliding across the table. (Okay, it's really not that chaotic in reality, but this control-freak mama FEELS like it's always a madhouse. If it's like this in my brain, it's almost as bad as the real thing.)

Reason #2- I'm frugal with our food budget..... because honestly I would rather spend money on something that will last longer than one meal. It kills me to pay $40 for a mediocre restaurant meal when I could make several amazing meals at home for the same price.

So....we almost never eat out, unless we're on a long road trip or it's a birthday.

This is why I love using freezer meals. I can make a bunch of dinners all at once and stash them away for later when I don't want to cook. I like to make several batches of the same recipe all at once, because it's so much easier to do it that way. I line up several lasagna pans on the counter and just go down the line layering the noodles, cheese, sauce, etc. It usually doesn't take much more time than I would have spent making just one lasagna anyway. I like to make between 3 or 6 meals of each recipe. I bring them out once a month for the next several months when I don't want to cook.

If you have a Costco Membership, this is a really great way to do your cooking. All the food comes in such huge quantities, so it's perfect for this culinary approach. (Honestly, who could REALLY eat a 15 pound bag of carrots before they go bad?)

I like to take one day each month and cook all morning so I have a stocked freezer full of meals waiting for me. This week was my cooking day, and I made 12 gallons of Creamy Vegetable Chowder (imagine it topped with bacon and served in crusty bread bowls- YUM!), 6 gallons of Mushroom and Tortellini Soup (Oh my word, I feel like I can't eat enough of it! It's SO delicious!), 10 pounds of orange-glazed carrots (for a side dish), 3 Butternut Squash lasagnas, and 24 marinated Pineapple/Lemon chicken thighs (It's a sticky sweet and sour dish served over rice).

Can I interject here how much I love soup recipes for the freezer? On serving day, all I do is plop the frozen block of soup/stew/whatever into our crock pot and turn it on Low for the day. Done! No mess, no dishes, no work. I love it. (Unfortunately, Nathan's not a soup fan unless it's below 40 degrees outside....in Texas weather this means I don't get to cook soups very often! I have to seize the chance during our cold snaps of winter.)

I've been asked to share some of our favorite recipes for the freezer. Here is my favorite lasagna recipe.

Butternut Squash Lasagna -A delicious vegetarian dish I find myself craving often!-

For one lasagna:

2 lbs butternut squash

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup flour

3 1/2 cups whole milk

1/8 tsp nutmeg (freshly grated is best!)

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup fresh basil, chopped (In a pinch, use 1/3 cup dried basil instead)

12 lasagna noodles

2 1/2 cups shredded mozerella cheese

1/3 cup grated parmesan (in a pinch use romano cheese, it tastes so similar and costs half as much)

Slice squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seed. In a 9 x 13 baking dish, place squash facedown in 1 inch of water. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-60 minutes, or until squash is soft enough to scoop out with a spoon. Scoop squash into bowl; mash with fork or potato masher.

For the Bechemal sauce, warm butter and milk in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour, salt and nutmeg and cook, stirring constantly, until it begins to thicken. Pout sauce into a blender; add basil, and blend until thoroughly combined.

Cook lasagna noodles until slightly firm, according to package directions. (or avoid this step by using 'oven-ready' noodles that don't require cooking). Drain noodles. In a 9 x13 pan, layer 3/4 cup bechamel sauce, followed by a layer of noodles, squash, and finally mozerella cheese. Repeat three times. Top with parmesan cheese. Cover pan with plastic wrap, excluding as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn. Cover with a layer of foil and freeze.

On serving day, thaw until slushy and remove plastic wrap. Bake, covered with foil, at 350 degrees for one hour, or until bubbly. (I never can remember to bring it out of the freezer early enough to thaw for hours....so I just bake mine at 350 degrees for 90 minutes, or until bubbly) Serve with cheesy breaksticks and green salad.

Okay- here's the deal with this recipe. It looks really bland. How can this be tasty without at least garlic added to it? And who cooks anything without onion? That's exactly what I thought the first time I read this recipe. I decided I'd make it as written ONE TIME so we could at least see what the original authors intended, then we'd modify it with a bunch of flavors to make it savory and flavorful. I was shocked with how much I adored the flavors in the original recipe. The nuttiness of the squash combined with the aromatic nutmeg and salty/savory cheese in an unexpectedly appealing way. I couldn't get enough of it. I actually had visions in my head of hiding the leftovers so I could eat them all alone without sharing with anyone (Okay, I didn't really do this, but I thought about it for a couple seconds).

Day in the snow

2012-01-06T19:36:00.005-06:00

Are words really needed? I think not.

Christmas Recap

2011-12-28T10:19:00.000-06:00

Christmas this year was spent with family. In my book, that's pretty much a perfect holiday. I absolutely adore spending time in Grandma Kingsley's home. I'm like a sponge, soaking up all the good feelings of love and laughter, storing away these priceless memories to relive later.

Aunt Betsy's room was a favorite hang out for all the little girls. Betsy the Beautician played with everyone's hair and spent an hour curling all the lovely tresses on the girls. Sarah really felt beautiful. Thanks, Betsy Buttons!

Sarah with Auntie Betsy

Grandma Kingsley directed a bell choir on Christmas Eve. We all held pipe bells and created music by striking the pipes with a spoon. It was so fun and the children all really enjoyed it. We participated in a new tradition this year. Christmas Eve dinner was held as a picnic on blankets spread around the Christmas tree. It was very fun and casual. The children thought it was such a treat to do an indoor picnic.

Grandma Kingsley directing music


Matthew enjoys playing his bell

Hazel enjoying her picnic under the Christmas tree

I feel so blessed this year. Spending a week with a family like this rejuvenates my soul.

The cousins on Christmas morning, waiting to see their gifts.

Merry Christmas!

Poopberry Club

2011-12-21T15:40:00.000-06:00

Matthew made an exclusive club last week. He told Sarah and Daniel that only 'cool' people can belong to it.

(This reminds me of a Joke Journal entry from Nathan's childhood. One year his brother gave Christmas gifts consisting of a single piece of paper stating, "Merry Christmas! You belong to My Club.")

The name of the Matt's club was carefully planned, calculated to impress even the most dubious observer. It is The Poopberry Club.

Daniel came up to me imploring, "What cool thing can I do to convince Matthew I'm neat enough to join his club?"

Sarah walked pass, telling Matthew he could use her bracelets as tokens of club membership-ness if he would let her join. He inspected the colorful glass beads and charms, made concessions that they were indeed girly, but announced grandly that they would do. Sarah was delighted and passed out bracelets to the members. They set to work making a large club sign announcing their coolness. Their adoration of all things "Calvin and Hobbes" was manifest in the sign:

"G.R.O.S.S. Get Rid Of Slimy girlS.

Except Sarah. She's cool."

My curiosity was piqued. I asked Matthew to tell me more about his club. In a conspiratorial whisper he exclaimed, "In the Poopberry Club we do cool things, like finding sticks and poking them into old horse poop in the pasture. The poop stays on the stick, then we put berries on the poop. Those are our "poopberry sticks". When intruders try to invade our clubhouse we'll throw our poopberry sticks at them! Isn't that so exciting?! It's the awesomest idea EVER! Our club ROCKS!"

New Camera

2011-12-14T08:02:00.000-06:00

I'm doing my happy dance this week. My new camera arrived! I've wanted to learn photography for years, so I'm super-excited about this. I still don't know how to use my camera very well yet, but I'm plugging along through the instruction manual steadily. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from last week.

Value of a Moment

2011-12-11T20:48:00.000-06:00

(Editor's warning: This blog post is more of the journaling variety than anything else. You are welcome to read it, but will most likely find it immensely boring. These are just a few thoughts I wanted to put down for my children to read someday. Proceed if you like... but don't say I didn't warn you! )

Yesterday, I read a quote. It said:

"...you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory."

I am fascinated by which moments a mind decides to hold onto and which ones it lets slip away. What do you remember?

I remember my first conversation with Nathan. He was sitting outside his apartment reading a book. I was interested in a boy who enjoyed reading (because I'm a hopeless bibliophile myself) so I struck up a conversation. It went like this:

Me- Hi! What are you reading?
Nate- Poetry.
Me (giving brownie points to him mentally, because of all things, he's reading POETRY! He's already winner in my book.)- How neat! Would you read me some?
Nate (reluctantly)- I could, but you wouldn't understand it. It's in Russian.

I remember thinking, how often would a girl find a man who enjoys cultivating his mind with poetry, and in a foreign language to boot? That's when I knew I wanted to be his sweetheart.

When I was pregnant with Sarah, I was so sick I couldn't even drink water for several days. It was scary. I was barely surviving. After a doctor's appointment for IV fluids, Nathan wrapped me in blankets and took me to the park. He spread out a quilt under a huge tree and carried me there. He brought me bottles of bubbles to blow to boost my spirits. We laid on the quilt and watched bubbles dance in the breeze for an hour. This was a pattern he has repeated throughout our entire marriage. He is always helping me find joy in the little things in life.

One of my sweetest memories is the first time we saw Matthew on the ultrasound monitor during my pregnancy. The first thing I saw were his little fingers, shaped with the exact characteristics of Nathan's fingers. I was surprised at the way my heart swelled with love for this little person that I hadn't even met face-to-face yet. I'm surprised I recall this so well, because much of his actual birth is a blur. I don't remember holding him at all that day.

Another memory I have is playing in the empty farmer's field next to my house as a child. My sisters and I thought it was so fun to collect the old bleached animal bones in this field. We were so dismayed when my mother wouldn't let us keep the bone collection in our room. We used to explore for hours in this field, looking for similar 'treasures', like stray golf balls from the adjacent golf course. It was like pirate's gold to us, isn't that silly?

I remember taking Sarah to get her first immunizations as a baby. I remember the doctor's office perfectly. I could even tell you the picture on the wall (An embroidered picture of a mother rocking a baby...it looked like it was made in the 70's). I cried harder than she did. I thought it was a cruel thing to ask a mother to hold down her baby while it's being inflicted with pain. I cried with all of my babies when they were given shots, but with Sarah it was the hardest for me. After it was done, I rocked her and sobbed with her all alone in the room.

In second grade my mother told me she just couldn't bring cupcakes to school on my birthday. I don't remember the reason why she wouldn't be able to make the cupcakes. Was she sick, or too sleep-deprived, or too busy, or out of baking supplies? I don't know. I just remember I was so sad. My teacher felt bad for me and gave me some little suckers to hand out on the desks during recess. Just as I finished placing the suckers on the vacant desks, my mother walked into the room with decorated cupcakes. I remember feeling so relieved and happy. It meant so much to me. I'll never know what she sacrificed in order to make those treats. I wonder what little things like this my children will remember from me.

Every time I smell apple butter, I remember my grandmother's house. She would bake bread and spread it with either apple butter or honey butter. I loved her bread. It was so comforting to sit in her kitchen (where the decor seemed to never change) and eat her bread. I hear her voice and see her smile in my mind each time I taste apple butter.

My sister and I shared rooms for most of our childhood. We used to lay next to each other at night and pretend to 'draw' with our fingers on each other's backs. It was very soothing. We would talk while we made these imaginary pictures. I missed this after we moved into separate rooms as quarreling teens. I'm so immensely grateful we are good friends again.

I loved all the pets we kept in my childhood. It seemed like our house was teeming with a miniature zoo: gerbils, rats, mice, hamsters, hedgehogs, turtles, cats, dogs, parakeets, and the occasional stray wildlife we took in (like ducklings or snakes). My mother must have been driven crazy with the chaos of so many animals. I loved it and pitied anyone who was so deprived as to live without pets. We used to make colossal mazes for the rodents by taping together a hodge-podge creation built with toilet paper rolls and empty tissue boxes. I remember thinking this was the coolest way to spend a Friday night.

I remember visiting my dad in the hospital when I was seven. I seem to have more memories of my dad in the hospital rather than at home. In his closet was a box of candies. We were allowed to choose one at the end of our visit. I picked Lifesavers one week and was saving them so I could bring them along on a school field trip that was happening soon. My little sister ate my candies one day before the trip and I was devastated. After my mother came home from visiting my dad that night, she gave me a new roll of Lifesavers. It overwhelmed me that she did this. She had such heavy burdens to carry of her own, but she remembered my distress over a few paltry pieces of candy.

I remember my insecurities my first night in my new apartment in college. I felt so incredibly lonely and was just wishing someone would ask me to join their activity. I sat alone in my room, not knowing what to do with myself. I learned that I can't sit back and wait forever for someone else to take the first step. As soon as I plucked up the courage to introduce myself to someone new, I had a great time.

I remember being bullied in middle school. It was so heartrendingly difficult to just get through each school day. I dreaded interacting with anyone, so I walked to school instead of riding the bus. Even in winter. I think this is when I grew to love books so much. Books were never cruel to my heart. There were two classmates out of the entire school who stood up for me in the face of bullies. I'll never forget them or their names. They were my heroes. The value of courage was imprinted deeply on my mind from this. I also learned the meaning of true friendship.

The first time Nathan's mother met me, she swept me into a sincere hug where she held me tightly and whispered, "Welcome to our family! We are so happy to have a new daughter!" His little brothers and sister swarmed me with hugs and excitement. His littlest sister was seven at the time, and she had spent all her allowance money on little gifts for me. I felt so incredibly welcomed...they actually were eager to love me, little me!

I remember the way Daniel loved feathers. Instead of picking me blossoms like most children do, he would lovingly select the prettiest feathers from our yard. He'd bring a chubby little fistful of feathers and give them to me like it was the greatest treasure on Earth. I kept a tiny vase on my kitchen windowsill where I kept his feathers just like a bouquet.

I remember the night I gained my own testimony of the gospel for the first time. I had been reading one of my mom's books about the Book of Mormon. I felt so strongly that I should pray and ask if it was true. The answer came so unexpectedly strong and I was overwhelmed with love. I recall crying in joy for a long time in my room that night.

I wish I remembered more.

I wish I could remember the words Nathan said to me the first time we attended the temple together.

I wish I remembered my last conversation with my dad when he knew he was going to die.

I wish I could remember holding each of my babies for the first time.

I wish I remembered every special moment of my children's lives.

I wish I remembered every bit of advice my mother gave me.

I can remember times when I had to stick up for what was right.

I can remember being offered my first cigarette and beer, and turning it down.

I can remember my baptism day.

I remember learning the pain of sin, and the shame I felt when I admitted my wrongs.

I also remember the clean feeling of repentance, and the pure joy found through Christ's Atonement.

I remember laughing so hard with my brothers and sisters that tears streamed down our faces.

I remember a million positive things- Christmases, family trips, family games, service projects, feeling loved.

I don't remember how clean (or not) our house was. I remember the interactions I had, not the decor.

I am so thankful for our memories. They make me who I am- the mistakes I made and subsequent lessons learned. Aren't we each essentially a collection of past choices and memories?

I wish I knew what magical event occurs that turns a moment into a memory. There are so many important moments that I can't remember, even when I read the words I wrote about it in my journal. There are other memories of events that seem pretty trivial, but they are rendered in surprising detail in my mind, like when I cared for stray cats in college and bought them cat food even when I didn't have enough money for my own groceries.

I wish I could know which interactions with me are being recorded in my children's minds. I doubt my mother knew I would always remember the day she brought cupcakes to my class. I try hard to 'create' special moments that will linger with my children as they grow- like having a tea party with their favorite stuffed animals with teeny loaves of bread made into doll-sized Nutella sandwiches. I don't know if they will remember that party or if it is already erased in their minds.

I realized today that I feel such a close bond with my siblings because of my memories that are shared with them. Memories are what build our relationships with each other. I think it's crucial to our identity.

I'm hoping each time I create a unique moment, perhaps one of my children will record it mentally. Perhaps it adds just a little drop of glue to our family unity. That lasting value makes my efforts worth while.

I'm so thankful for each day we are blessed with, and I am thankful for each fleeting moment with our families. I hope I can use my time wisely.

Our Anti-Black Friday tradition

2011-12-11T01:54:00.002-06:00

(Editor's note- This was a post I wanted to write a couple weeks ago. How lame is that? Tough luck. I've been too busy with my family. Now you're thinking sarcastically: "Great! A post about old news!" That's okay, I'm not at all offended if you skip this one. In fact, I won't even know.)

How do you spend Black Friday?

I have a confession: I have never attended a Black Friday sale. Ever. My friends know that I am very anti-Black Friday.

Why? There are a few reasons.

1. They never have sales on the type of toys or things I would buy anyway. I don't care how cheap the sale is; if I don't need it, I'm not buying it. I also don't 'do' electronic toys that flash, beep, play music, whatever. If it requires batteries, it's not welcome in my house (with the notable exception of the Wii). Have you ever noticed there is NEVER a great sale on classic toys, like...say, wooden blocks? Legos? Magic sets? Chemistry sets? The loss leader toys are always either A- electronic in nature or B- stupid name brands that I refuse to support (Barbie, anyone? How about Elmo? Or even better, Bratz brand. Ug, I cringe.)

2. Even IF there is a sale that interests me (everyone could use new clothes, right? Especially at the rate my kids wear theirs out!) I still don't go. The entire spirit of the thing bothers me. I am a competitive person, but I try very hard to keep that competitiveness friendly and under control. Black Friday is competitive by its very nature, and I don't want to be around people acting competitive, frantic and greedy.....those feelings are all too contagious. I don't want to feel greedy or care so much about 'stuff', so I avoid stores like the plague on Black Friday. I don't like any of that bad karma saturating the stores to touch me.

Usually we just stay at home on Black Friday, enjoying games and puzzles while enjoying Thanksgiving left-overs (I feel terrible referring to Nate's cooking as 'left-overs' because the very word inspires images of gross food past its prime.....his cooking is too good for that and needs a new name.... perhaps Thanksgiving abundances? Nah.) It's usually a quiet day to rest (and recover from hosting the large group we invite every year for the Thanksgiving feast.)

We found a new family tradition to celebrate Black Friday this year. We attended a Homesteading Fair and celebrated the 'Simple Life' of self-sustainability. I can't tell you enough how much FUN we had! I was actually shocked....it was more fulfilling than I expected. It was so...what's the word?.....REFRESHING and INVIGORATING to be so removed from the rampant materialism in my world. It felt a lot like a state fair, except without sponsors/advertising/sales pitch guys.It felt like a good, old-fashioned idyllic state fair full of good food, handmade crafts, and a deeply agrarian base to everything.

This fair is hosted by a religious community who operates a self-sustaining village. They don't buy anything....it's all made at home. It's very similar to the Amish, but it is a different group. I was so impressed with the entire village.

There are residential master craftsmen who create the necessary supplies for EVERYTHING a family needs: farmers provide food, blacksmiths make all the tools needed for a home/garden, women spin wool and weave their own fabric for all the clothing, potters make all the kitchenware, leather shops even make all the shoes for the village, etc. Isn't this so fun?! I ADORE visiting Amish shops, so this was even more fun.

There were educational demonstrations all day. Our favorite demo was watching the sheepdogs herd the sheep through an obstacle course. Other highlights included casting aluminum in the blacksmith shop (Nate has been wanting to build a blacksmith shop in one of our barns, so this was a great class to attend), shearing sheep, milking goats, building brooms, making soap, distilling essential oils, and weaving fabric. Of course our kids adored all the livestock, poultry, and petting zoo. We spent a LOT of time playing with animals. (You'd think we didn't already have several dozen animals of our own.)

Our children made several souvenirs to remember the day. Daniel learned how to make a leather bookmark punched with his name.

Matthew made scented soap balls and used a printing press to make his name on a bookmark. Sarah stitched a purse and made soap. Their favorite activity was hammering brass spoons and punching their initials into the handles. At each of these activities, village members (I guess I should say church members) taught the children how to create the project themselves, so it was very hands-on.

We brought a picnic for our lunch. Can I just say this was the BEST picnic I've ever had? Thanksgiving leftovers (er..."abundances") worked so well as a picnic- the boys each had turkey legs (isn't that a staple in state fairs?), and we all feasted on rolls, turkey breast meat, fresh veggies, fruits, sweet potato ambrosia, and strawberry/rhubarb pie with whipped cream. Oh, it makes me salivate just to remember it.

Nathan and I were surprised to discover we kind of wished we could move to this village. I always thought the perfect place to live would be next to Amish neighbors, and this place was so similar in principle. I learned so much and felt so empowered to go home and get to work on our own property. Luckily we have several friends from church and work who are gung-ho on self-sustainability the way I am, so there are lots of resources for us to learn from.

Just tonight we went to a Christmas party at one of these homes. The owners built their own house (even down to extruding their own electrical wiring- just to see if they could do it) and cleared some of the forest to plant a large vineyard. Now they make their own wine and beer (sweetened with honey from their own beehives). The vineyards are watered from rain water collected from their home and barn. They make their own cheeses (amazing kinds we've never tried before, like smoked gouda and Shropshire) and process their own deer that are shot on his property. Actually, the way they harvest deer is interesting. He sets up a night vision camera at his deer-feeder so he can monitor which animals are patronizing his property. He simply picks out what animals he wants to 'harvest' whenever he wants to stock up on more venison.

Doesn't this all sound so amazing? Who wouldn't want to be friends with people like this? I feel so blessed to be surrounded by interesting people.

The day my life changed forever

2011-12-02T09:43:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I aged 5 years in one day.

Daniel was missing.

He didn't come when I rang the bell for dinner, which is unusual. I realized I hadn't seen him for a long time, so I began searching the house to discover where he might be curled up with a book or asleep under a pile of blankets. A cursory glance of the house didn't yield any results, so we all began searching deeper and calling for him loudly. I checked under every bed, under every couch, in every closet, inside the dryer, even in baskets of clean laundry to see if he burrowed under the clothing. There was nothing...but it was likely he was playing outside in a far corner of the property. I checked all the barns, sheds, and chicken coop and turned up no sign of him. I had been looking for him for almost an hour. This is when I began to feel worried.

Nervously I called my neighbor on the phone. "Did Daniel by chance come over to your house to play without my permission?"

She replied, "He tried to earlier but I asked him to go home and get permission first."

He had never came to me to ask permission. The conversation between Daniel and my neighbor had happend much earlier in the afternoon. That was the last time anyone had seen him.

Our property is completely fenced in, so Daniel would have to walk along the road for a long distance before he could reach our gate and enter the yard. It would be so easy for a passer-by to pause and kidnap him. Usually I go outside and watch my children walk along the road until they reach the safety of our gate, but this time I didn't know he was out there. He was gone. Every parent thinks this will never happen to them, but suddenly it was happening to me. My mind was racing with all the terrible possibilties and I began to tremble as I dialed 911. Darkness was falling rapidly, making it hard to search outside.

I continued to search the house, the garage, the vehicles, everything I could think of where he might be while I talked with the dispatcher. They dispatched 6 deputies out to our home, but it would take a long time for them to arrive. They also said a helicopter with infrared cameras was on its way to help search in the dark. The dispatcher told me I shouldn't have waited so long to call 911....the longer Dan was missing the farther away a kidnapper could get, reducing the chances of finding him. My neighbors searched their property with flashlights in case Daniel had stayed to play in the groves of trees. When they found nothing, they volunteered to begin driving along the country roads looking for him in case he wandered off and became lost.

Inside my house was utter chaos. Children were alternating between praying for help and searching in more hiding places for Daniel. Diego was hungry and crying for food, but there was no way on earth I could handle sitting still and feeding him, so I asked Sarah to feed him pinches of bread. We knelt for a quick (but very heartfelt) prayer begging the Lord to protect Daniel and help us find him.

I called our bishop, asking him to contact local ward members to come help in the search-and-rescue efforts. A calling tree began to notify friends that we needed help, but our friends are all scattered across the countryside so they wouldn't begin arriving for another 15 minutes. I also called my mother-in-law with this quick message, "Please pray for our family! Daniel's missing and the police are looking for him, he may have been kidnapped- we don't know. Just pray for him, we need all the prayers we can!" Left with that unnerving message, she began to call all our extended family to ask for immediate prayers for Daniel. I also called Nathan on his cell phone and told him what was going on. He wouldn't arrive home for another 30 minutes.It was a living nightmare to be dealing with this situation alone...without my other half, my strength, my dear husband.

I couldn't leave my house and help search for him because officers were calling me on the phone, asking his description so it could be posted to police departments across the state. Weeping quietly I took his photo out of a frame so they could use it in identifying him. I felt numb...my actions were strangely mechanical. Daniel had been missing for several hours. My heart was full of silent prayer the entire time, begging the Lord to watch over my son.

While I updated an officer, my sister called to chat. It went something like this: "Hi Renae! Is this a good time to talk?" I spoke quickly, "Actually no. I have to go, Daniel's missing and the police are here." What a great conversation, right? She began calling more extended family to update them.

This was all happening so quickly, but it seemed to take an eternity. In this moment, I learned a powerful lesson. I realized that I would happily trade anything for my son's safety: my possessions had absolutely no value compared to him. I didn't care if I had to sell everything (even our home) and live in a tiny apartment for the rest of my life. Family matters more than anything. It's strange how crystal-clear this thought was in my mind.

Another strange occurrence was the 'movie' playing in in my mind. People speak of seeing their life flash before their eyes. Oddly I was seeing Daniel's life flashing through my mind. His fistfuls of feathers, his love of animals, his cherished rock collection, his passion for music, his gusto for life.

I was talking with an officer outside when Sarah and Matthew came running out of our home shouting, "Daniel's here! We found him! We found Daniel!" Words can't possibly describe the relief and joy that washed over me. Maybe 'washed' is too gentle of a word. It's more like I was hit by a tidal wave of relief.

We ran inside and found him inside the tiniest cupboard on one of our bookcases. I never would have thought he could possibly fit more than half of his body in there. He evidently had crammed his body in this cubby and closed the door on himself, then fallen asleep. I believe the wood muffled our calls when we were looking for him.

I learned several things in this experience. Most importantly, I was given a powerful eternal perspective. My life seemed crystal clear, with all threads of doubt or indecision wiped away. I knew that God would lift me up if this burden was too heavy for me to bear alone. Event though my heart was breaking when I thought Daniel was stolen, I knew I could rely on our Savior's atonement to heal my pain. I realized that Christ doesn't only heal the affliction resulting from sin, He has power to heal any anguish from any infliction.

I realized on a deeper level how important my children are to me. The 'stuff' we own is all icing on the cake of life, but it's all worth absolutely nothing eternally.

I also was taught a powerful lesson of peace from my sweet husband. After he arrived home, he held me close and spoke soothingly. He pointed out that even if Daniel had been kidnapped and died, our family was sealed for eternity in God's holy temple. We know we would have been with Daniel again. It's amazing how much this comforted my heart.

God lives. He hears our prayers and knows our hearts. Surprisingly, I'm thankful for this harrowing experience. The Lord has taught me so much. Most of what I learned cannot be framed in words....it was a spiritual schooling.

Your family matters. Make sure you let them know.

Cherish every moment with your loved ones. You never know when your time with them will be gone.

Camping with a baby

2011-11-13T20:19:00.000-06:00

I was hesitant to participate in our annual ward camp-out this year. I didn't want to be 'those' parents who were foolish and brought a baby who cried all night. Tent walls don't provide much of a sound barrier, and I couldn't bear the thought of being responsible for 50 sleep-deprived people.

Our kids love camping and look forward to this tradition of camping with friends. I intended to send Mr. Kingsley and our three older children happily on their way to the camp-out while I stayed home and enjoyed a quiet (albeit lonely) evening at home with Diego. Diego really doesn't like being without a rocking chair during the infamous 'witching hours'.

Nathan couldn't bear the thought of being apart from each other for a weekend. Characteristically, he had a clever solution to the potentially-cranky baby problem. He packed along my rocking chair and set it up in the pecan grove where we were camping. (Okay, I'll admit, we DID feel a bit self-conscious carrying the rocker to our tent {like the people who can't handle camping without the luxuries of home....we might as well bring along a refrigerator and DVD player!}....but as soon as I sat in it with my baby, I didn't care what people thought.) Doesn't this look fun?

Nathan ingeniously purchased several boxes of glowstick necklaces to bring along and share with all the children. He and I sat at a table and passed them out to any child who could recite a scripture or Article of Faith from memory (or sing a Primary song if they were too little to memorize scriptures). All the children were so ecstatic to have a glow necklace. Their faces were lit with anticipation as they waited in line.We felt like Santa and Mrs. Claus on Christmas Day. It was so fun watching the children all get so eager to recite scriptures!

Dozens of children danced and played night games with their glow sticks lighting the way. It looked like a party with all the bright colors swirling around in the dark.

After the potluck dinner, stories, and games, I sat in our tent and rocked my baby while listening to coyotes calling in the woods behind me. It was a surprisingly relaxed evening for me. Cuddling with my soft, warm baby while enjoying the nature around me was a perfect way to end the day.

Everyone slept quite well (even Diego) and we enjoyed playing all morning with friends before I ran away for a face painting gig.

I love the friendships we have been blessed with in our new congregation. Life is so wonderful! It was a delightful weekend to create family memories. I feel so very blessed.

10 Things You Might Like to Know

2011-11-10T09:12:00.000-06:00

1- Living with dial-up internet is frustrating. There's not much else offered in our neck of the woods (unless we want to pay $500 to install satellite internet, but it's not a much faster connection than dial-up, so why bother?). It takes literally 2 minutes to load anything I click on. If the webpage has a picture, my computer will take around 5 minutes to load the page. If there's multiple pictures, it's best to forget about that webpage altogether. Facebook doesn't really work here.

2- Matthew loves to play 'chicken' with our rooster, Pavarroti (by the way, I found out this rooster really IS Italian! Minorca birds come from an island off the coast of Italy. Cool, eh what?). Matthew will crouch down and crow at Pavarotti, who will then crow back. They'll have a vocal battle of sorts, crowing back and forth louder and louder until the rooster can't stand it anymore. He'll makes his feathers stand on end and charge right at Matthew, who laughs and runs away squealing. Last week Matthew ran shrieking past my bedroom window. Along the bottom edge of my window all I could see of the rooster was a bright red comb streaking by. Good times.

3- Yesterday the boys discovered that if they sit on the tire swing the rooster can't reach them. It's hilarious to watch the rooster dance around the swing trying futilely to peck the boys. The boys tease Pavarroti almost everyday now.

4- I finished another painting last night. There's good news and bad news. Good news: It's a study of Renoir's techniques and I discovered I love dry-brushing the canvas. More good news: I think it's the best painting I've ever done to date. Bad news: it's going to be given away this Christmas. It'll be hard to see it go. Sarah begged me to keep this one and give away an earlier painting....but I think it's better to give away my best work to the people I love rather than a second-rate item.

5- I LOVE this time of year with all the holidays. I play Christmas music every day and Sarah plays the MoTab Christmas Album everyday in her room. The house feels so delightful with the strains of music praising our Savior filling our walls. I love it.

6- Sarah's birthday is this weekend. It's on a magical day: 11-11-2011. We are having her friends come over for a Glittery Girls' Night. We're doing manicures, make-overs, and applying glitter liberally on everything. We're making jewelry for the party favors. She wants trifle for her birthday cake and we're doing a tea party. I can't believe my baby girl is growing so fast! I miss holding her in my arms and cuddling with her soft cheeks.

7- I haven't started my Christmas shopping yet.....usually I'm FINISHED with our Christmas shopping before summer even starts. This year the pregnancy and our move kind of threw off my groove. Surprisingly I don't feel stressed at all in this regard.

8- We try really hard to have a modest yet meaningful gift exchange and keep the focus of Christmas on our Savior, not on 'stuff'. This year we adopted a poem to guide our gift giving to our children: Something they WANT, something they NEED, something to WEAR, and something to READ. Four gifts and a stocking of treats and trinkets. Sounds good to me.

9- Our children are already asking if we're doing a Bethlehem dinner again this year. Every other year we do a biblical dinner by candlelight (flat breads, baked fish with rice, dates and raisins, savory yogurt dishes, cheese and olives, etc.) While we eat, I tell the Christmas story in a way that invites the children to imagine the story better. Just imagine Joseph's burden of responsibility as he searches for shelter, or imagine Mary having contractions during the long journey. We usually do this on Christmas Eve for a reverent way to end the night.

10- Yesterday Matthew volunteered to help Daniel unload the dishwasher. They danced and sang while they worked. It was so cute. I'm so happy to glimpse these fleeting moments of their childhood.

How-to do a Halloween face painting

2011-10-28T10:54:00.000-05:00

With Halloween just around the corner, I wanted to share a fun spooky face painting video I made with my sister last year.

It's always hard to find feminine costumes that stand out from the parade of fairies and princesses that inundate town every year. (I admit, it's SO FUN to dress up as royalty or mystical creatures....and yes, I have a princess gown, elf costume, and fairy wings hanging in my closet.) I'm a nonconformist at heart....so I don't often want to blend in with all the other same old costume ideas.

Here is a unique face paint pattern that perfect for Halloween. It is a spooky butterfly pattern. I did it in a video so you can see how to paint it yourself. Accompany this face with a cute black dress and -VIOLA!- the best costume ever.

Even though I used professional paints, anyone could imitate this pattern with eye shadow for the background colors and a good liquid eyeliner for the black and white lines.

Halloween face painting ideas

2011-10-28T10:52:00.001-05:00

Just in time for Halloween! Here are some of my favorite Halloween face painting ideas.

Try painting a spooky pumpkin pattern like this one. This one can be made using eyeshadows as the background and a good liquid eyeliner for the black pattern. You don't have to have high-quality face paints to get good results on some of these patterns.

Princesses don't need face paints, right? Wrong!

I love adding a face painted masquerade mask to a princess costume.

Can skull paintings still be feminine? Kinda sorta. This was my attempt at making a 'girly skull'.

It's fun to paint exposed muscle tissue for an interesting costume. There is supposed to be an illusion of skin stretched across the face and stapled in place over the exposed facial muscles. This one is a bit tricky, and I'm not very good at it. I still need practice on this one.

Even fairies can add face paint for a colorful twist to their costume.

I love painting eye masks.

Masks compliment almost any outfit and make a great costume addition.

This is a mask I wore with an elf costume.

This one was painted entirely with eye shadow and eyeliner.

Abstract patterns are my favorite. It's SO FUN, like doodling on someone's face.

A tiger mask is super easy to paint. I like this stylized tiger pattern.

Here is a different abstract painting.

Almost any kind of swirls will look great if you use two or more colors in your pattern.

Butterfly patterns are the most popular requests I get. Here is the standard butterfly face painting.

For a more elegant, adult look I shrink the butterfly and make it into an eye accent. This picture was taken at a sorority prom night. The pattern complimented her formal gown nicely.

This is my favorite butterfly pattern. It's a spooky butterfly. My daughter calls it an evil butterfly. We morphed elements of a skull with the butterfly mask. Isn't it perfect for Halloween?

I made a video of how to paint this pattern. I'll be posting that soon.

Birthday kidnapping

2011-10-23T23:32:00.000-05:00

Be patient with this pathetic rhyme.

I didn't have abundant time

To sit and think, through my language sift.

My time was spent preparing this gift.

Your trusty car was long neglected.

I thought, "It's time this was corrected!"

I drove it to my favorite lube shop

Where attendants laughed and shouted, "Stop!

"This car is four thousand miles o'verdue!

Don't you know what could happen to you?

We'll change the oil and inspect the brakes."

The good news is those both look great.

However the tires are much too bare.

We don't have a choice, they must be repaired.

If we drive much longer they will explode.

Then what would happen? Your head may implode!

I've ordered new tires after worry and fuss,

Tomorrow they'll arrive and be waiting for us.

I know you don't have a lot of spare time,

That's why this gift is especially fine.

I included a vanilla-scented tree

So each time you drive you'll remember me.

Happy Birthday!

This was the poem I left in Nathan's car for his birthday as one of his gifts. Sarah and I kidnapped it from the train station parking lot. We cleaned it completely out, vacuumed the carpets, and had maintenance work done. He never has enough time after work to work on his personal projects (like building a winch to remotely open the gate across our driveway), so we took care of these tasks as a way to free up some extra time for him.

Rooster antics

2011-10-20T09:20:00.001-05:00

Sarah with our favorite hen

If males torment girls as a way of showing affection, then Sarah has an admirer who can't get his mind off her.
Our Minorca rooster, Luciano Pavarotti, loves Sarah. He loves to peck her more than anyone else.

He is normally the scaredy-cat who is the first to run from any sign of danger (or even just a loud noise from something not even remotely dangerous). He abandons the hens and runs lickety-split across the yard towards the safety of the chicken coop. Even the docile hens peck him viciously when he has the audacity to try to steal kitchen scraps from under them. He squeals like a girl when that happens.

He's really such a coward. I think he realizes this, and is ashamed. Perhaps this is why he torments Sarah. It's like he has to prove something to the hens.

He actually makes a point of seeking her out and pecking her without the slightest provocation. For example:

Yesterday Sarah and I were sweeping the driveway. There were no chickens in sight (a strange situation for me). We were happily listening to the birds sing in the trees.

Out of nowhere, Pavarotti came streaking across the yard like a black bullet. He sprinted right to Sarah and without any hesitation, pecked her ankle. Then he cocked his head at her and made all his feathers stand on end, doubling his puny size. It was as if he said in a mocking voice, "Ha! What are you going to do about it? Huh? Huh?" while he danced around her feet looking for a fight.

She squealed and tried to escape his pecking beak, but he followed her in haughty dancing steps, striking at her ankles. He didn't even see me. I yelled one sharp sound that made him leap and squawk in fright, then he was gone. All we saw was his tail disappear under the safety of the bushes where he hid in fear until we went inside. Dumb rooster.

Breakfast time for the poultry

2011-10-20T08:58:00.001-05:00

Recently I was outside working on cleaning up the property (still a big project even after working on it for months!). I heard a strange sound....like leaves rustling loudly, or wings flapping, or...what was it exactly? Like feet running through the leaves.

Suddenly our entire flock of 30 chickens came running from around the corner of the house. They ran at full speed straight for me, where they surrounded me, looking up at me expectantly for kitchen scraps. As I walked to the barn for regular chicken food, the flock followed me like a group of ducklings. Strangely, that made my day. It was so fun having chickens following me around the yard.

Usually I give them plate scrapings from our mealtimes (who wouldn't love Nathan's cooking?). They have been developing a discerning palate and they much prefer human food to chicken pellets. Can I blame them? Not really.

Now whenever they hear my voice they come hopefully running. They come no matter where I am on the property.

Yesterday I was painting our driveway gate posts (they transformed from being ugly, rusted, and dirty color to being clean and white!). I sang while I worked, so naturally the chickens heard my voice and congregated around me. Soon they were investigating the gallon bucket of oil paint I was using. Afraid that they would knock the bucket over, I quickly turned to chase them away. In the process my hair flew right into the wet paint on the gate post. Did I mention it's permanent white oil paint? Drat.

Matt's first real painting

2011-10-16T00:02:00.000-05:00

Matthew has decided he wants to be a professional artist when he grows up. He has spent months drawing animals and making art projects in much of his spare time. His room looks like an art gallery. Seriously. He has like 50 pictures hanging on his wall.

I finally decided to let him try his hand with real acrylic paint (instead of Crayola's watercolors) and a real canvas (instead of printer paper). I spend an entire afternoon with him, teaching him different techniques (like how to do that mottled background) and answering his questions.

He's so proud of his finished product. I personally was just happy to spend the day in my pajamas making art alongside my son! (The painting I started is a study of Renoir, and won't be finished for a while, so no pictures are up for my own art.) His love language is 'quality time', so this was a perfect day in his eyes. He gave me the biggest hug and kiss that evening. That completely made up for all the neglected housework that day.

Cage Fighting

2011-10-14T12:48:00.003-05:00

We watched a cage fight between Bella and a raccoon at 4:00AM this morning. Bella caught the raccoon inside our chicken coop.

Bella was declared the winner by default as the coon forfeited after a couple encounters with Bella's teeth. There were no fatalities. Unfortunately.

Canadians sound like what?

2011-10-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

We recently purchased "Homesteading for Beginners". It's a 3-DVD set teaching homesteading skills.

The DVDs are so interesting! They are made by a homesteading family that live near an Amish community. Read how they became started in homesteading here.The family learns and shares a lot of 'common sense' treasures from their Amish friends. Isn't that SO NEAT? I always wished I had Amish neighbors! (That's the one thing Texas lacks- no Amish communities!) They even sell clothing from their Amish friends and old fashioned kitchen tools for a farm kitchen. You can see their website here.

The videos teach things like:

-how to butcher a pig or cow and preserve the entire thing in ONE DAY (remember, the Amish have no refrigerators so they HAVE to do it quickly.)

-how to make a variety of breads without yeast or sugar (How cool is that for food-storage freaks like me?!)

-how to home-can almost everything (even bacon and sausage- YUM!)

-how to milk a cow (which I've never seen done before, this was so valuable to learn!)

-lots of ways to garden and preserve your harvest for later (right up my lane!)

-how to make maple syrup (this made me wish we actually lived up north, where is actually snows and sugar maples grow!)

-how to make your own daily multivitamins from powdered plants(okay, this clip is seriously funny. It looks like she is making a witches brew, with green and red smoke raising out of the pot! We couldn't stop laughing!)

My kids have really loved watching these videos with me, and we have learned so much! Now we are so excited to begin experimenting with some new ideas (This is where I became convinced that I wanted to own a Jersey cow instead of goats.)

The family has such a cute Canadian accent. After watching these videos for a while, Matthew said, "These people talk so weird....oh I know what it is! They sound LIKE MUPPETS!"

Bwahahaha!

Home Remedy- Chamomile

2011-10-07T08:18:00.000-05:00

I'm always very fascinated with home remedies (not the old wives' tales....I care about the ones that WORK). Medical care is a lost art in homes these days. I often think of my ancestors....they didn't have accessible doctor clinics. What did they use? I love asking my grandparents for treatment recommendations they remember from their childhood. I am passionate about learning how to use natural remedies and recording the ones that are effective.

Last year three of my children all had pink-eye at the same time. If I took them all into the doctor, that would be $90 of just co-pays, let alone the prescription fees. I wanted to at least attempt to treat it myself.

I had read in pioneer journal accounts (dating around 1850) that chamomile fixed eye infections.

I steeped chamomile tea bags in just 4 tablespoons of water. I used such little water (instead of an entire teacup) so the chamomile would be more concentrated. I soaked cottonballs in the chamomile tea, then placed them over my own eyes to see if it stung or irritated my eyes in any way. I didn't want to try it on my children until I knew what it felt like so I didn't harm them. It didn't feel like anything other than soothing hot water on my eye.

I had the children all lie down in a row and close their eyes. I placed cotton balls saturated with the chamomile tea on each of their eyes. We left them in place for 5 minutes before removing the cotton balls and rinsing their faces. I did this once in the morning and again at night. Every sign of infection was gone in 2 or 3 days! In the past when I had gotten prescription eye drops for pink eye, it took 3 days to heal. I was impressed that this natural remedy worked just as well as the prescription.

I loved that I only had to pay $1.99 for a big box of chamomile tea bags, instead of $100 for the doctor. Now we always keep chamomile tea on hand for any eye infections.

This came in handy again this month when Daniel's cornea was scratched. I was worried about infection in this wound, but the chamomile treatment kept his eye free from complications and it healed completely in 2 days.

I feel so strongly that the Lord created many plants with useful properties that we can use for our health and healing. I'm so interested in learning about more of these plants and applying them in my family.

It was pretty difficult to know where to begin learning about healing plants. So many online sources were tainted with ridiculous claims and it was difficult to sift through the outrageous stories to try and find the credible treatments. Honestly- how could anyone think that tying a dead fish to your feet will make your cough go away? Or that wearing a bead necklace will cure tooth pain?

I found a book that I absolutely love on this topic. It's written by a BYU professor. It's called "From the Shepherd's Purse". It lists the helpful plants and has directions for extracting the beneficial oils from each of them in various ways. There are directions for various ways to apply the plant extracts (oral syrups, teas, lotions for skin ailments, poultices, etc.) It also has a chart for calculating dosages based on the patient's weight. I love it!

I thought I should start sharing the home remedies that we have used so others can benefit from this information.

Why Homestead?

2011-10-06T09:43:00.002-05:00

(This is part of a two-part post. Read HOW I am making a difference in our family's food here.)

Am I crazy?

Some people have asked if I'm crazy in my desires for self-reliance. It's so much work. It can be tedious or boring. Don't I have loftier goals for myself?

It's hard to explain all the reason's why I feel so strongly about the food we eat and where it comes from. There is so much to say. There are entire books on this topic alone. Here are the summarized points I want you to consider (there are a lot of links so you can explore the topics more in depth):

1- What are the ethics behind your food? Did you know America's sugar is almost exclusively made by slaves? The sugar for your candy is made by modern slaves in the Caribbean, and they are owned by AMERICAN companies. Try finding an ethical source of sugar- I tried and had a very hard time finding it. Learn about the corporate practices behind your food labels. So many of them are ravishing the environments or spewing poisons. Animal products are processed in the most disgusting ways. I don't like the idea of supporting meat companies that are so cruel to animals. Simply put, I don't want my consumer dollar to support any corrupt companies.

2- What is the health cost behind your food? Many foods are contaminated with harmful or deadly bacteria due to the unclean practices used on the corporate farm. What are you ingesting along with your salad? What pesticides are on it? Did you know the fertilizers are often sewage sludge? (Doesn't that explain why there are so many food recalls from contaminated produce?)What about E coli? Salmonella? Read more about food safety issues from the Union of Concerned Scientists. What is in your milk? Did you know that milk is tainted with steroids, harmful hormones, and antibiotics? (Lactating mothers know they can't breastfeed their babies while on antibiotics because the medicine crosses into the breast milk.....so why are people okay with giving antibiotics and other drugs to dairy cows?) You can find good food in your area by clicking here or here. See why Jersey cow milk is healthier than the store-bought Holstein cow milk here.

3- What do you spend on food? As fuel prices increase, so does the food price. Remember all the oil used to grow the food? Farmers have to increase their produce price to compensate for their increased fuel costs. In the next year alone, the grocery prices will almost double, according to Marjory Wildcraft. Watch her lecture here to see why.

4- Food politics are a nasty thing. I feel like it's SO IMPORTANT to grow my own food or support local farms and avoid inadvertently giving money to Cargill and Monsanto (read or watch just about ANY food documentary and you'll learn about these corporations. It's too corrupt and too in-depth for me to try to share any of the issues here about those companies. You'd probably never come back after reading one of my lengthy tirades against bad food politics...politics like this.)

5- Why are you eating GMOs? Genetically Modified Food, aka Frankenfood. These have so many problems! In America these products aren't labeled, so you don't realize that the Kraft mac and cheese on your table contains GMO ingredients. These foods have been proven to cause health problems, and GMO foods are banned in most developed countries of the world. Japan's stance regarding GMOs is essentially "we'll watch what happens to America's children after eating GMOs for several years before we allow it in our own country. America can be the world's guinea pig". Aren't these red flags to you?

6- Do you realize what would happen if there was an oil embargo or trucking strike? America would starve. Our food is produced almost exclusively with fossil fuels. Tractors are used to plant, fertilize, pesticide, and harvest the food. Tractors require a LOT of fuel. Then consider all the shipping fuel required to transport the food from the farm to your grocery store. What would happen with a trucking strike? Grocery stores would have empty shelves in less than 2 days. What would you do for your children? Do you really want to leave your food security in the hands of others?

I didn't used to think about my food, beyond the decision of what to make for dinner. I was first exposed to the concept of food origin (and it's accompanying politics, ethics, and health issues) in a book club. Then I learned some more in my own library digging.

In every book club I join I now recommend "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan. He was several books published about food, but this is a good one to start with.

I opened my mind to moving on a farm only after I read "Animal, Vegetable Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. (It's the second book I recommend to friends.) Her family ate only what they could produce for themselves (or buy from a farm within a 5 mile radius) for an entire year, just to see if it was too difficult to be a lifestyle choice. It's a fascinating (and entertaining) read. Nathan and I enjoyed reading it aloud together in the evenings. She's a great writer. Her bibliography at the end lists a comprehensive list of books to read regarding the differing aspects of food safety, sustainability, and politics. There are too many for me to list here. Visit her website here.

"Fast Food Nation" is a great one to read particularly regarding meat-processing plants. I thought most things had changed since the writing of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". I'm not as correct as I had thought. There are still so many glaring problems with just the food safety issues at these plants, let alone employee treatment.

I highly recommend you check those books out from your library and peruse them. It's so important to at least be educated about food issues so you can make your choices without ignorance. As the parents of our homes, we are the ones selecting the menus for our children. They trust us to do what's best for them. How can I encourage my loved ones to eat contaminated food?

If we don't know how to produce our own food, we are irretrievably chained to corporations. We lose freedoms. How? We depend on these companies for our own lives, literally our daily bread. Get to know your food. I'm a fiercely independent person and I refuse to be enslaved to company greed. I am not just a number in a statistic for their marketing teams to analyze. I am a free person, and I refuse to partake in the mass consumerism gripping our nation.

The answer for me was to be as self-reliant as possible. Not everyone can do that, but You CAN make a difference. Learn how here. Learn more about food safety here. Those of you who prefer visual documentaries should watch "Food, Inc." to learn more about food issues.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~Margaret Mead

If you have learned something new here, share this post online with others. Facebook. Twitter. It's so important that we know where our food comes from!

Homesteading for Beginners

2011-10-05T14:13:00.002-05:00

(This is part of a two-part post. Read WHY I chose to move onto a farm here..)

We dabbled in urban homesteading when we lived in the city. Our teeny yard was filled with raised garden beds, a small flock of chickens, and a couple of peach trees. In that house I taught beginner gardening classes several times and we helped other families build gardens in their own backyards.

Our interests grew to include beekeeping and a desire to expand our collection of fruit trees.

We had a couple minor problems:

1- We couldn't keep a rooster (Well, LEGALLY we could keep one, but we didn't want to be bad neighbors....I'm sure no one would thank us for the ruckus a rooster makes at 5:00am)
2- There wasn't an isolated corner for a beehive (where it would be safe from the ravaging appetites of our chickens)
3- We couldn't fit any more fruit trees on the property (and we REALLY wanted to plan some pomegranates, pears, and plums.)
4- We couldn't fit a dairy goat on our property (even though I was so excited when I discovered a legal loophole in Round Rock's city laws that actually would allow us to keep a goat, sheep, or even a pig on our property. Cool, eh what?)

We already made our own bread, jams, yogurts, kefirs, and the occasional cheese. We wanted to dabble in more. We didn't have the land to do so.

Fast forward a couple years. Now we have plenty of land to do all of our experiments. Here is our four-year plan for this place:

Year One-
Move nto our new property. Give birth to our new little boy. Repair the house and make the necessary improvements. Start our large chicken flock, including guineas and roosters this time. Incubate eggs so we can perpetuate the flock sustainably, without buying chicks online. Begin the compost pile so we will have soil amendments for our veggie garden. Start fencing in the garden plot. Plant our herb garden this year. (Seriously, have you seen how ridiculously expensive fresh mint and tarragon are? Yikees!) Begin vermicomposting with kitchen scraps. Raise enough meat birds to produce the meat our family will eat this year. Slaughter the birds and preserve the meat in one long weekend. Participate in 4-H so our children can learn how to work with livestock. Continue studying permaculture techniques to implement in our farm design.

Year Two-
Prepare the soil for garden beds (this one will be a doozy of a chore). Plant one vegetable garden bed this year, 100 feet long and 4 feet wide. Begin planting fruit trees for our orchard. Expand poultry flock to include ducks and geese, which will live in pools made in the fruit orchard area (the geese eat grass, so they'll keep the orchard area mowed and fertilized on their own, isn't that neat?) Expand herb garden to include medicinal plants. Improve the barn so it's ready for livestock. Reseed the pasture so it has a healthy ecosystem of grasses. Build a beehive and begin beekeeping in the pasture.

Year Three-
Add another vegetable garden bed, 100 feet long and 4 feet wide. Add grape vines to the property (not the wild Mustang grapes that already grow here, just to clarify. Those are mostly used to make wine....not helpful to sober Mormons!). Plant native berry bushes. Add some dairy goats or a Jersey cow so we have our own milk supply, then we can produce home made butter, cheese, cream, yogurts, kefir, etc. with farm-fresh milk. Yum! (I'm really looking forward to this particular goal! Milk is SO much healthier when it's not from a dairy plant. There's no pharmaceuticals in the milk.)

Year Four-
Add another vegetable garden bed, 100 feet long and 4 feet wide. By now I'm hoping our food production will be largely self-reliant. Unless calamities occur to set us back, we'll be using plenty of veggies from our three garden beds, fruit from our bushes, vines and trees, eggs and meat from our chickens, milk from our large livestock (either cow or goats), and sweetener from our beehive. It is presumed that we will preserve the harvest each year with canning, dehydrating, and freezing so we won't have to buy much produce during the extremely hot or cold months of the year.

My aim is to be as self-reliant as possible.

Children and Classics

2011-10-05T13:24:00.001-05:00

Sarah and I have been reading "Anne of Green Gables" aloud together each day. It's delightful. We read whenever Diego sleeps.

I used to read her the abridged versions of classics, but then I realized that she would never be exposed the rich language in an abridged form. When I was little I didn't enjoy Charles Dickens' books.....then one day I read Oliver Twist in its true unabridged form. It was a different world for me. The abridged versions only kept the essential plot. They removed the rich humor and wittiness that made Dickens loved by readers for over a century. Now I adore reading Dickens!

I began to read only the unabridged classics to Sarah. I was worried that she might not understand the vocabulary and out-dated phrases, but I find it's not really an issue. If I think she might not be familiar with a word in a sentence, I explain it to her and we move on.

It's so fun to watch her face as I tell the story. She is so expressive in her emotions regarding this book. Her face lights up with delight when Anne is ridiculous. Sarah's mouth drops open in gaping shock each time Anne is so scathingly rude to Gilbert Blythe. She giggles behind her hand when she realizes Gilbert loves Anne. Sarah hides under a blanket in embarrassment when Anne is particularly naughty. We have laughed and laughed together every afternoon as we read Anne's adventurous exploits.

I am so happy that my daughter has learned how to enjoy classic literature. It's so important to me that she be familiar with note-worthy books. Too many children's books published today treat children like they are idiots with over-simplified plots and no creative vocabulary. There's nothing to prompt the reader into thought. (Can I mention here how deeply I detest the abominable Junie B. Jones books?) I call those books cotton-candy books....all fluff. There's no content to savor, nothing to wrap your mind around.

This book has helped create memorable afternoons for us as a mother and daughter, reading on my bed wrapped in quilts. Her pleasure in this book is contagious...last night even DANIEL joined her on my bed to listen and laugh with Anne Shirley.

Masquerade!

2011-09-29T09:56:00.000-05:00

Masquerade!

Burning glances,

Turning heads....

Masquerade!

Stop and stare

At the sea of faces

Around you.

Masquerade!

Seething shadows,

breathing lies...

Masquerade!

You can fool

Any friend

Whoever knew you!

(lyrics from Phantom of the Opera)

We all wear masks. Masks of Perfection.

The mask of a perfectly clean house- the kind that always look ready for a magazine photo-shoot. It makes me wonder how people actually live there.

The mask of a perfect body. Isn't it such an elusive concept? No one's body is always perfect- there's always hidden problems or stretch marks, or at least stray pimples that have the audacity to announce themselves on your face right before date night.

What about social masks? Don't we want to impress everyone we interact with? Sometimes it's like a contest: who is the wittiest of all? Who is the prettiest of all? Who is the most fashionable? Who is the smartest? Who is the richest?

I see everyone around me dancing in a never-ending mental masquerade.

I'm tired of these games. It's all so superficial. We can try our very hardest, and it's never good enough. It's never PERFECT. If we all know perfection is always elusive, why do we even try to pretend we have it?

I"ve been doing a lot of serious introspection this week. I try really hard to be 'real' and non-pretentious. I usually don't care what people think of me. Even so, I've noticed my own mask.

What mask do I wear? I wear a mask over my post-partum depression. I try to always hide my inner struggle with a mask of colorful clothing (seriously, how can anyone be depressed while wearing bright yellow?) and smiles. When I'm REALLY depressed (on the verge of tears) I sing to hide it. Oh sure, friends ask me often how I'm doing emotionally. I don't actually lie, but I change the subject quickly to something else. A more comfortable subject. I don't tell them my daily battles with myself.

I have prayed and searched the scriptures for comfort each day the past 3 months. It's impossible to wear a mask or hide our true selves from Heavenly Father. He knows all our secret struggles, even before we decide to tell Him about it.

I have spent so many nights on my knees, weeping to the Lord and confiding all my inadequacies and weaknesses. It's interesting how He teaches me in these conversations. He has reminded me of the scripture: "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me". He also has reminded me (again) that through Christ, I can always have deep joy and inner peace.

Something else amazing happened. God has lovingly (and powerfully) reminded me that true perfection is NOT an illusion.

Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I literally can be perfect. He has given me immeasurable peace by teaching me that after I do my best, He will make up the difference.

The most important thing is this: Perfection through Christ is never a mask.

It is our true selves, with nothing left to hide. It is joyous.

Rocket-launcher

2011-09-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

Nathan and Matthew prepare to fire their rocket

Nathan invented a rocket-launcher with the boys. They made it out of PVC pipe and valves from a tire store. He constructed card stock rockets for each child. They each decorated their rockets, then launched them into the sky over our pasture. It was immensely fun, so Nathan made more rockets for the friends who came over to play for a game night.

The men had such fun launching the rockets. Everyone would count down and yell, "Blast off!" The boys loved racing into the pasture to see who was first to retrieve each rocket as it landed. The rockets sometimes went so high we couldn't see them against the bright sky.

I love good clean fun like this! I'm so thankful for a husband who enjoys playing with our children. They absolutely adore him!

Just Another Manic Monday

2011-09-26T13:47:00.001-05:00

Let's begin at midnight this morning, since that's when I crawled into bed-

12:00am- Diego's cries stop and he finally falls asleep after literally hours of rocking, singing, and massage. He's allergic to cow's milk and evidently I unknowingly consumed dairy products at the church potluck earlier. Poor baby!

1:00am- My dear sweetheart arrives home from a 5-day business trip- YAY! I've missed him so much! I sleepily welcome him home.

1:30am- Diego wakes for a meal.

1:35am- Diego's diaper leaks on a colossal scale. Now I'm in a puddle.

1:36am- A quick diaper change occurs and we're both back in bed.

1:45 am- My sweetheart's snores are getting louder and louder....I can't sleep. I try to jostle him awake; no good. I contemplate sleeping on the couch.

2:30 am- Somewhere around this time I welcome uncounsciousness- finally!

3:06 am- The chickens start squawking frantically. Drat. Something is trying to eat them. They aren't safely sleeping in their coop because they insisted on roosting on the chicken coop roof out of my reach earlier in the evening.

3: 07am- Bella comes to my room, whining to be let out so she can chase the chicken predator. I drag myself out of bed, turn on the outdoor flood lights and we go outside together.

3:08 am- Bella chases a black shape through the dark pasture. I am satisfied that the creature is gone, so I catch the wandering chickens (all sixteen of them...yeah, that was fun) and lock them safely away for the night. The roosters think it's morning and begin crowing at me. Have you ever had a rooster crow right in your face inside an echoing metal chicken coop? That sure erased any lingering webs of sleepiness in my groggy mind.

3:10am- The chickens are safely secured, but Bella won't come back. I call louder and louder.

3:10 and 30 seconds am- I sweep my flashlight beam across the pasture, looking for her. Her eyes glow in the night, giving me quite a fright. Now I'm too scared to stay outside with the dark emptiness looming around me.

3:11am- I call for Bella from the safety of my back door. No answer. Drat.

3:15 am- After several minutes of calling, I venture back outside to find her. She's trapped the animal in a tree and won't leave it.

3:17am- I manage to drag her back inside the house, turn off lights and fall into bed.

3:30am- Diego wakes for more food. Drat.

3:40am- I fall asleep- thank goodness!

4:00am- Evidently I didn't find all the wandering chickens- they start squawking again. A couple of hens can't get into the locked coop and join the rest of the flock. They are frantically pacing in front of the coop door and calling the flock on the top of their lungs. Sigh.

4:05am- I venture outside with the flashlight to let in the chickens. The predator gives me the scare of my life before running off to his tree again. Bella is now growling and chasing him.

4:07am- It's not worth the battle to drag Bella out of the pasture again. I leave her outside to protect the chickens (and wishfully I hope she'll catch and kill that darn predator- whatever it is). I return to bed.

4:15am- Bella is barking nonstop, trying to get the animal out of the tree. It's so LOUD. She's getting more frantic-sounding. Blast. I can't leave her barking all night, keeping the neighbors awake.

4:17am- I convince Bella to come inside, I lock up the house, then run to bed eagerly.

4:25am- Diego is cranky and fussing. Maybe he's uncomfortable? I soothe him back to sleep.

4:30am- I finally fall asleep...hopefully it will last longer this time.

5:00am- My alarm sounds off. Groan. I refuse to budge. Who cares if the kids are late for school today? Not me.

6:30am- Diego wakes me with cries of hunger. He is fed. I resign myself to my fate of fatigue. I rouse the family and we get ready for the day. Amazingly, the boys were not late for school.

Welcome to another beautiful day! As I drove into town, I admired the sunrise peeking through the trees. I said a silent prayer thanking the Lord for blessing me with another day to live. Isn't it wonderful just to be alive?

Random Thoughts

2011-09-23T19:07:00.000-05:00

Daniel has found another treasure to add to his Nature Collection: snakeskins. He's so pleased, it might as well be pirate gold. His bookshelf is full of treasures: polished rocks, rabbit fur, pretty feathers, and antlers.

Our cat Saffron is such an avid hunter we have to lock him out of our rooms at night if we hope to get any sleep. If he's in our room, he sits at the foot of the bed, watching and waiting for one of us to inadvertantly twitch in our sleep. As soon as that happens, he's all claws and teeth, killing his prey. It's pretty funny. He tries to eat anything that moves.

We decorated for Halloween early. It's Nathan's favorite holiday. We choose to decorate only with 'harvest' themed decor....no ghosts, skeletons, witches, etc. We have cheerful pumpkins, scarecrows, and leafy garlands draped on the mantles and hutches. It's delightful.

We rode bikes yesterday on our long driveway so Matthew could practice riding without training wheels. It was beautiful. The sun was setting, crickets were singing, and bats hovered above us. There wasn't any sound of traffic or any sign of people. It was so peaceful.

Matthew has a very strong spirit. He fell over and over again, but promptly tried again each time. He laughed exultantly any time he traveled more than 10 feet without falling. He really conquers challenges well when he puts his mind to it. Nathan and I were both impressed with his determination.

That evening Matthew made my bed and left a handmade thank-you note on my pillow. It said, "Thank you for helping me ride my bike. I love you."

What's in a name?

2011-09-23T13:36:00.000-05:00

Matthew and Daniel with Gwendolyn

Our little patch of country needs a name. I can't decide on only one name, and I can't imagine having 10 different names for our little farm-to-be.

I can't decide if I should go with a cheerful name evoking images of happy children playing with baby animals or if I should lean towards more humor. (What? Humor in a name? Our chicken coop is called "The Chick Inn")

Here are my favorite names:

Royal Oaks (the children's current favorite since it plays on the KINGsley name)

Bit of Heaven Homestead

Sunnyside Cottage

Bella Vie Farm

Heart's Desire

Belly Acres

Pitter Patter Plot

Serendipity Acres

Justamere Farm
Busy Solitude Farm (from a quote by Voltaire:"The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude")

Kingsley Croft ('croft' is a Scottish/Irish word meaning a 5-10 acre farm)

See what I mean? They are all so cute/funny/meaningful. Blast. How can I ever pick?

I'm tempted to make a dozen signs to post on our driveway gate, they can all have a different name. I suppose that would look too messy/ugly.

This is where I need your help. I want to know which is your favorite.

Home school in the kitchen

2011-09-23T08:18:00.000-05:00

We decided to cook together a few times each week as a way of combining math lessons and homemaking skills. Sarah really loves to cook, so we practice her multiplication skills by having her triple every recipe.

Today she made several chicken pot pies: one for dinner tonight, and two for the freezer for later. There were two pie crusts left over, so she proposed we make pumpkin pies.

Pumpkin pies don't freeze well, so we kept one pie for our family and she walked the other pie over to our neighbors.

She was pleased that she could share the fruit of her labors. I was pleased that we finally caught her interest with math.

Wayside Treasures

2011-09-22T20:58:00.000-05:00

We live near the edge of a huge wildlife refuge. I really mean huge. Nathan had taken Matthew and Daniel for a hike there when we first moved in. It was time for a family hike with all of us.

I was so impressed with our children. They enthusiastically agreed when Nathan proposed a five-mile hike. To be honest, I was not excited about such a long hike in the intense summer heat. I tried unsuccessfully to convince them down a shorter trail. I could just imagine them getting tired half-way through the hike and complaining the rest of the way back to the parking lot. Boy was I in for a surprise.

They did a great job and didn't complain at all. I was amazed that Daniel would have so much endurance for such a small body.

We hiked up and down several hills. On the grassy hill tops the wind was so powerful it almost blew us off our feet. It was strange to jump across the stepping-stones where the rivers have dried up. We passed a waterfall site....I've never seen a dried-up waterfall before. It felt surreal.

We hiked through a valley literally covered with fossilized shellfish. The ground was littered with them. It was so fun to find the prettiest fossils. It was so hard to leave them behind.

The children were such a great example to me of cheerfully enjoying God's beautiful creations. They were ecstatic to discover teeny snail shells along the path. They stopped and admired shells for several minutes, exclaiming in joy over each new shell.

It brought back my own childhood memories. There was a time for me when little shells were my greatest treasures. I was so thankful that my children helped me rediscover the magic under my feet.

Toasty Texas

2011-09-20T12:42:00.001-05:00

This year is the worst year in recorded United States history for wild fires. Texas has had fires raging for over 250 consecutive days and over 1400 homes have been destroyed.

Smoke fills the air around our home often. I watch fire trucks rush past our house and I feel nervous. The horizon shows a wall of smoke, but I can't gauge how far away the source is. We know several families from our congregation who have lost their homes to these wild fires. These fires have spread faster than 20 miles per hour, so evacuations are very hasty. Most people have been allowed less than 5 minutes warning to leave their homes as the fire line approaches.

I'm so thankful to have our 72-hour kits already assembled and waiting. Sarah and I have moved the kits near our front door, so we can be more efficient with our evacuation time. I figured there's be some time lost in trying to catch the cat and dog.

I've been thinking about some things in the wake of this local tragedy. It reinforces to me that 'stuff' is just 'stuff'. Yes, it would be sad to lose our possessions, but it would be a worse tragedy to lose our family pictures and the associated memories that go along with them. Thankfully Nathan backed up all our pictures (ten years of marriage= thousands of pictures) on DVDs so I could put them in our emergency kits.

I've also had this scripture running through my mind: If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.

Whatever happens to our home, will happen. I can't control the weather or where the next fire will strike. I can only control my action. In the midst of this area's worry and danger, I still feel peace. I've done what I can to prepare and protect my family.

If it is the Lord's will, He will help us escape harm. If not, then we have a trial ahead, which still has its blessings. It would help us grow spiritually in ways that wouldn't have happened otherwise. So you see, either outcome brings something positive.

Quilting Bee

2011-09-20T12:41:00.000-05:00

Some friends from our congregation lost their home in the wildfires plagueing our area. The house burnt to the ground. The family had no insurance and lost everything. They were out of town when it happened.

In the course of one week, our congregation collected all the necessities for starting a new life in a new home. We filled a couple of storage units with furniture, clothing, bedding, kitchen supplies, etc. Sarah and I were also able to participate in a quilting bee where 4 new quilts were made for the children. I loved watching her learn to tie quilts alongside older women in our ward. What a priceless way to learn new skills.

Our friends returned to town to find a home in ashes. They also found hundreds of friends rallying around them in loving support, providing everything they need to start over.

Isn't it amazing what the true love of Christ will accomplish? This is the way Heavenly Father would have us show our love for Him: serving His children.

Night Games

2011-09-20T12:01:00.000-05:00

Matthew learns how to use a power drill

One of my favorite memories from my childhood is when the neighborhood children would gather to play night games on our quiet dead-end street. It was so exhilarating to dash through dark yards trying to catch shadows of friends. Did you ever do that? I fondly remember playing Kick the Can, No Bears are Out Tonight, and Freeze Tag.

I wished my children could play games like this and experience the fun that I recall.

This week I had an epiphany. We CAN play night games here!

Our yard is large enough to accomodate these games, and we have 10 children living next door to join in our games.

I've been teaching a new game to the group of eager students each evening. Now our friends beg their parents each day to let them come over to play at our house.

We have had SO MUCH FUN together! I've found a great book full of group game ideas. Now our kids are eager each day to discover what new activity we'll learn.

I'm so giddy.

The boys enjoy Popsicle while chickens watch with envy

Happy Thoughts

2011-09-08T08:39:00.000-05:00

My heart sighs in contentment when I glance out my kitchen window and see my children swaying back and forth on the tire swing. For a long time I've had a deep-felt desire to raise my children under the branches of old trees. I'm so happy here.

The window above my bed is located less than 2 feet from the towering trunk of an ancient elm tree. The leaves dance in the wind and make the dappled sunlight on my pillow bid a cheerful 'good morning'. I love looking out my window!

Daniel sets off exploring our property for 'nature treasures' each day. Earlier this month he caught a walking stick bug. He brought it home for a pet and named it "Chopstick".

I feel so fulfilled when I watch my children set off into the pasture on grand adventures together. They astound me sometimes. They prefer walking in their bare feet, even though the ground is covered with various brambles, insects, and sharp sticks. The soles of their feet are often black as evidence of their travels. The skin on their feet is getting thicker, like leather. It's so strange to watch Sarah walk in the pasture in her swaying white skirts, with her bare feet black from the dirt and a content smile on her face.

Our yard is huge, so there's finally enough room to play Badminton, frisbee, or Bocce. We LOVE having enough space to kick balls and play fetch with our dog. (Our last house had a teeny-tiny back yard, and we couldn't even kick a ball in our yard.)

Sarah was delighted to find another horse shoe hiding in the barn. She has four in her collection now, and she's convinced that she's the luckiest person in the county.

Nathan and the boys will often work on projects together. They worked as a team to put up our tire swing and start a tree house. I feel so happy when I watch our boys learn how to use power tools with their Dad.

I LOVE hearing our roosters crow each day! It makes me feel so nostalgic. Our roosters are hilarious. They are often doing silly things worthy of a comedy show. They make me laugh almost every day. Their names are Mr. Doodle and Pavarotti. I love how their feathers shimmer in the sunlight.

I feel so safe on this property. In our old house, I couldn't let the children play in the front yard alone. It's a totally different world here. Our children can run all over our four acres without me worrying about kidnappers. Our property is completely fenced with a gate across the driveway. I love it!

The gated driveway is SO handy. I don't have to ever answer my door to find salespeople. Our city house was bombarded by multiple sales pitches every day. Seriously. I hate hurting people's feelings, so it was always so hard for me to tell them to go away. It's so peaceful here.

Last week I noticed an endangered species of bird taking a drink from our pond. We have been keeping our kiddie-pool stocked with water for the wildlife. Every day it's visited by squirrels, various birds (even hummingbirds), wild cats, and deer. I love being surrounded by God's creatures.

I feel a deep contentment here that is hard to describe. Our whole family is so happy here. I'm SO thankful that I can raise my children in the country!

Peace isn't an illusion

2011-09-05T22:12:00.000-05:00

I spent a lot of time the past two months looking for peace. I learned some things. First of all, I learned what peace ISN'T.

Peace is not a spotlessly clean house.

Peace is not a quiet house.

Peace is not a perfectly toned body.

Peace is not cute clothes to fit my post-pregnancy body.

Peace is not reading alone for a couple hours.

Peace is not creating art.

Peace is not a perfect relationship with my kind husband.

I found myself chasing illusions, trying to find my inner peace whilst I struggled with depression that I couldn't control. I had thought that if I could control my environment, then perhaps I would feel peace. Hence the obsession with a spotless house, a quiet house, my own appearance, and activities to fill my time productively with projects.

I realized that I couldn't find true peace on my own. I turned to the Lord in prayer and He gently reminded me of things I had forgotten.

True peace comes from our Savior, Jesus Christ. That's the secret. It really has nothing to do with my environment. I think Corrie Ten Boom explains this concept so well in her book "The Hiding Place". In the middle of a Nazi concentration camp, her sister was still able to feel immense peace because of her testimony of Jesus Christ.

Our Savior lives, and we can be MADE PERFECT through His Atonement. Isn't that AMAZING?! Little me, the one who always feels inadequate, can be perfect through Christ.

This is reason enough to sing in joy every day. This brings immense peace. Nothing else really matters.

Late night date

2011-08-31T11:31:00.000-05:00

Our little Joesph-Diego

Last night Nathan and I were startled awake by the sound of chickens squawking frantically. We have been losing several chickens to predators in the last few weeks. Now we were evidently going to catch our predator in action. Nathan ran outside with Bella to investigate the scene.

Inside the chicken coop there was a large wild cat enjoying a meal of fresh chicken. He dashed away at the sight of Nathan and was chased across the pasture by an enthusiastic Bella. He disappeared into the darkness. By moonlight Nathan and I fortified our chicken coop defenses with boards, wire and fencing.

The severe drought in our area has made the wild life desperate. Animals every where look thin and starved. I can't blame the cat for eating our chickens. We know it has kittens to feed. We've seen the kittens in the forested areas bordering our property. We do like having the wild cats on our property because they eat the field mice and rats.

I haven't seen a rodent in several weeks. They are all gone, leaving no food source for the cats. I didn't want to throw the chicken carcasses in our garbage and waste the precious food source when our local ecosystem is failing. I threw the carcasses out into the pasture where the cats could find it. I think I need to start putting out cat food for them until rodents return. Perhaps that will happen when the rain returns.

It was after midnight by the time we returned inside and washed up. I giggled and mentioned that this was the first time we'd had an evening alone in several months. Strangely, I felt like we had been on a date night, albeit an adventurous one. We decided to end our date with desserts, so we enjoyed ice cream sundaes with home made hot fudge.

Did I mention that the stars are breathtaking out here?

Greek Profanity

2011-08-25T09:21:00.001-05:00

Daniel wanted to say an expletive. He knew he isn't allowed to swear in English, so he tried Greek instead: Aphrodite!

Glimpses of our move and transition

2011-08-03T19:59:00.001-05:00

Nathan went exploring in our wall space and found lots of repair projects to add to our To-Do list.

Before we moved, we would drive out to the new house each evening and work on making the house livable. The children seemed to enjoy our many indoor picnics at the new house.

Matthew and Nathan worked together to seal one of the dog doors that had been permanently cut into the exterior walls of the house.

Another weekend was spent ripping off rotten roofing and replacing it. It was 104 degrees that day. I think Nathan drank more than two gallons of water that afternoon while he worked!

The children joined Nathan on the roof and had a grand adventure.

Nathan's mother Cindy came to help with the actual move. This picture was taken the night of Moving Day. I think it was around midnight, and she had been working like a whirlwind ALL DAY. I can't believe she still read the boys some bedtime stories after such a long day....she must have been absolutely exhausted!

This is what the house looked like for the first couple weeks. We couldn't unpack and put things away because there were so many projects still needing to be addressed first. We had wanted to move into the house as soon as it was barely livable so we could spend most of our energy fixing the house instead of driving back and forth between our two houses. (It is a 40 minute drive each way.)

Cindy played games with the children each day before bed. Here's a picture of the ultimate multi-tasking. She played chess with Sarah and Uno with Daniel at the same time.

She didn't miss a night of bedtime stories, no matter how late the work was done. I think her stories were a highlight of the day for our family.

Remember our story of Daniel's spider-taming tendency? We went to a zoologist presentation at the library and the host asked for a brave volunteer to come interact with a very large scorpion. Danny was only too eager to go up. This picutre is VERY blurry but look closely. The zoologist was letting the scorpion crawl all over Danny's hair and face while the audience of children squealed in shock. Dan thought it was fantastic. I didn't agree with him- do you see the SIZE of that bug?!

Here is the obligatory prego-picture. Let's move on. Quickly.

We adopted a cat this month. The children adore him. I like him because he catches flies in midair.His name is Saffron...which is perfect for our family. We love cooking and we love Indian food more than any other cuisine. Interestingly enough, our cat loves Indian food, too. He keeps trying to eat my vegetable korma.

Diego or Joseph?

2011-07-09T14:49:00.003-05:00

We found out the gender of our new baby months ago during an ultrasound. On the drive home that afternoon, Nathan and I told our children that they'd have a baby brother. I asked them if they had any suggestions for a good name.

Sarah piped up with glee, "Diego Sarsparilla Kingsley!"

We all laughed at the absurdity of this name and thought no more about it that day. Nathan and I couldn't decide on a name we liked. As the days passed, we didn't want to refer to our unborn child as an "It", so we called him "Diego" while we continued looking for the 'right' name.

Days turned into weeks and we all called him Diego. Matthew would ask if he could 'kiss' Diego goodnight, then he'd kiss my growing belly and tenderly say 'Sleep tight!'. Sarah would ask if she could feel Diego kick inside of me. Daniel would sing Diego Primary songs while resting his head on my torso.

The name Diego came very naturally to us now. Even extended family and friends began refering to him as Diego. We even received a package from family in Alaska for "Diego S. Kingsley".

After months of thinking, I finally found a 'real' first name that I loved: Joseph. One of my dearest heroes is Joseph Smith. I love reading his words and studying his life. I wanted my son named after this amazing man. So Joseph it was going to be.

Nathan and I seriously began to consider naming him Diego on the birth certificate, as a middle name. It was going to be either Diego or Aaron. I liked them both and couldn't decide. We delayed filling out the birth certificate until the very last minute, and I waffled back and forth every moment on what to write down.

I had put so much thought and care into selecting meaningful names for my other children. For example, Sarah's name is Sarah Esther, which is Hebrew for "Princess of the Stars". I wanted her to always remember that she is literally a princess from heaven. I didn't want to explain to this child that his name was only a joke that stuck around.

His legal name is Joseph Aaron Kingsley, but we call him Diego for short.

Birth Story

2011-07-09T14:41:00.001-05:00

Our new baby boy was born June 29th!

I had been so worried about his birth. Our new house is an hour's drive away from our hospital. I had nightmares of me delivering my baby in a pasture in the country. I had experienced early labor so my doctor recommended a week of bed-rest.

I tried to be obedient, really. My bed rest lasted a whole 3 hours. I couldn't handle staying in bed all day when there's so much work to be done and boxes to unpack.

Since we are so far from our doctor, I decided to schedule an induction for the following week.

Our children spent the night in the home of a dear friend. This allowed Nathan and I to enjoy one last date night together before the big day.

I slept a total of 3 hours that night. The excitement, anticipation, and nervousness for what lay ahead prevented rest.

I was very nervous when the anesthesiologist walked into my room in the hospital. He didn't look professional at all. He looked like a scruffy college student. I prayed very hard that his hands would be steady and all would go well. The Lord was very good to me and we had no complications with the epidural.

The labor progressed nicely and the delivery itself was very positive. Joseph was delivered and promptly placed on my stomach. He didn't cry or whine at all...he just looked at everyone attentively. The nurses were worried since he was so quiet, so they rushed him away for his inspection. They thought he must have a lung problem. It turns out he is just very laid back. His Apgar score was a 9 and he was healthy. He seems to have a very mild temperament.

We were so excited to hold him in our arms and finally meet our son face-to-face. We've looked forward to his arrival for so long. It seemed surreal to finally have him here. I kept him in my arms instead of putting him in the bassinet for almost the entire 3-day hospital stay. I couldn't bear to put him down or let the hospital staff ever take him away to the nursery. I feel so blessed and so happy!

Adoration

2011-07-09T14:34:00.001-05:00

Blissfully content when I kiss his dark, velvety hair.
Love fills my soul as I gaze into his innocent eyes.
His fingers: impossibly small, yet grip my hand so tightly.
I love to kiss his soft, tender cheeks.

He laughs and grins in his sleep. I am delighted.
His sweet smell is intoxicating. I crave it.
The world can pass in its frenzied pace. I don't care for it.
I am perfectly happy to rock my baby for hours.

I adore him.

Challenges and Triumphs

2011-06-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

I keep thinking of myself as a modern pioneer in our new adventure. It makes the challenges seem more adventurous and conquerable. What do I see as a challenge?

Here's "The big one": BUGS.

Our house exterior is not sealed well. Or at all. I've discovered that pesticide doesn't make a big difference if you have cracks providing a personal invitation to any bug that wanders by. We also discovered to our chagrin that much of the 'landscaping' that had been done by the previous owner merely created the IDEAL breeding ground for scorpions. I'm not exaggerating. We've delcared an all-out war. Luckily no one has been stung yet and we've only found 4 of them actually in our house....but still.
I. Hate. Scorpions.

I keep finding spiders in places- even though I've thouroughly cleaned, scrubbed, pesticided, disinfected, etc. I can't figure out where they are coming from. It's very frustrating. We've adopted several new family rules in light of our unwelcome guests. We don't let any bedding touch the floor and we don't use bed skirts any more. I can just imagine creepy-crawlies hiding under the bed, hidden from view by blankets hanging down. Now we make beds with hospital-corners tightly tucked away. All the furniture is kept several inches away from the walls so I can easily check behind them for webs or bugs. Everything is elevated off the ground, so there's no hiding places left. I'm much more meticulous on cleaning now, which I suppose is a blessing in disguise. :)

We adopted a cat last week. Several neighbors have told us that indoor cats help with the bug problems in the country. It's an orange kitten named Saffron. He fits right into our family- we love cooking and we adore Indian food. It's a perfect fit. I was very hopeful that his hunter-instincts would help him chase little bugs. As an experiment I rolled a live rolly-poly bug (wood louse) towards him last night. When the little ball touched his paw, Saffron leaped away in fright and shook his paws in disgust as if he'd just been contaminated. Bother. He might not be much of a help in our war. At least he's cute and the children love him.

Blast- the library computer I'm using says I'm out of computer time. I'll have to finish this article next time. Coming soon: some triumphs of our experience!

Changes

2011-06-21T11:41:00.000-05:00

I love waking up and looking out my new bedroom windows. It looks like I've slept in the middle of a beautiful park. The tree branches wave in the wind and birds break into song all around me. It creates within me the most deeply peaceful feeling. I'm really enjoying many parts of our new life.

I love watching my chickens scratch for food under the sprawling oak trees. My kids spent an entire afternoon digging a 100-foot long trench in our pasture. They were so excited to show me their project. They could never play like that in a suburban backyard. They play hard every day and come inside covered in dirt. I think it's a sign of a good day when they get to explore and be creative in the outdoors.

Yesterday Nathan and the boys built a new ladder for the treehouse. The boys would run inside on errands to fetch measuring tape, nails, a protractor, etc. They'd overflow with enthusiasism as they gave me periodic updates on their progress. My heart is happy- this is such better family time than watching TV.

Did I mention earlier that we have no TV or even a DVD player? There's no internet access at our new house- it's not available yet in our neck of the woods. It has been an interesting change in our lives. We've played board games together as a family multiple times each day. There's more music being made in our home. We work on projects together. Everyone reads more books and uses imagination to create grand schemes.

Our quality of life has drastically improved, even though I was already very sparing in the past with screen-time. It's interesting to see what we do with our time without any access to any computers or TV. Overall I really love this change- although sometimes I do wish I could let them play an educational computer game while I take a nap. We haven't hooked up any computers yet. I go to the library to do any computer-related work now.

A week with an angel

2011-06-16T11:07:00.000-05:00

I was feeling overwelmed and getting burned out last week. I can't imagine how my sweet husband felt; he's been carrying much more of the weight around here since my pregnancy limits my activity so much.

One night I was crying and praying to the Lord for more strength. I asked that if I couldn't be blessed with more physical strength, would He please send someone to help me. Queue our angel here. Nathan's mother came to stay with us for a week and help with the move. I didn't expect the Lord to answer my prayer in such a perfectly delightful way. I'm amazed at how generously He answered my selfish plea.

I wish you could meet my mother-in-law. She's always serving the people around her and blessing them with her unfailingly cheerful demeanor. I feel so incredibly blessed to have her optimisitic spirit as my companion when I was so exhausted and spiritually drained.

She swooped into our lives for a whirlwind of work. She single-handedly painted three huge rooms in our home, transforming our dingy grey walls into a bright and welcoming atmosphere. She worked ceaselessly to load and unload the moving truck with Nathan. Twice. She scrubbed out nasty closets and bathrooms, cleaned ceaselessy and ran long errands for me. The only time she sat down was for quick meals, then she'd whisk herself away to work some more. She even would tiptoe to my bedroom door and close it in the mornings so I could sleep undisturbed after the children awoke each morning.

Even though she worked nonstop each day, she'd still take time to play with her granchildren every evening. No matter how tired she was, she'd read several pop-up books to my kids at bedtime. She was so patient and loving with them all the time. She even rubbed my swollen feet and ankles for 30 minutes one night. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness and I learned so much from her example.

I had been selfishly focusing on my own discomforts and fatigue for so long. I'm sure she was more tired and sore than me each day, but she never complained or said anything unkind to anyone. I felt very humbled as the Spirit gently reprooved me for my recent poor attitude.

I feel like she bouyed our entire family. I feel like she rescued me when I was floundering. She is amazing and I'm so thankful to be a part of her family.

Spider tamer

2011-06-08T12:40:00.000-05:00

We have a lot of spiders residing in our new home. Really. I've never seen so many spiders in such a short period of time. I've also never seen such big spiders (tarantualas excluded). The legs on some of these span 5 or 6 inches! Imagine THAT living in your cabinets or closets! Yikees.

I used to be terrified of spiders. I'd run away squealing when I saw one. Now I'm thankfully desensitized.

I've been smashing every arachnid I find. I should have kept count how many have met a sudden demise in my home. I found over 25 in just one closet.

I think they are disgusting, but Daniel loves them. He loves all animals- even fire ants. He saw me killing spiders one day and was appalled at my apparant cruelty.

He scooped up a large spider (the legs were each 3 inches long) and cradled it in his hands to protect it from the ravages of my broom. The spider scamperd all over Daniel- crawling up his head and around his face. Daniel was delighted and giggled like it was the funnest game ever invented. I couldnt' believe my eyes.

Daniel played with this spider for a long time like it was a pet. I don't tell him when I'm going to kill spiders anymore.

One step forward, Two steps back

2011-06-03T07:20:00.000-05:00

I'm thankful for the lessons the Lord has been giving me. I feel thankful and cheerful even though we're taking a couple steps back in our progress.

This weekend we are working on the new house. We made so much progress! Nathan filled in the dog door that was permanently built into the side of the house. He patched all the broken drywall in the house. We scrubbed more rooms and prepped for painting. I scrubbed out bathroom cabinets and the master closet- which was full of spiders and dog poop stains. How does that get there?

Nathan and the children spent a sweltering day on the roof, ripping out the rotted roofing and replacing it. The children thought it was a grand adventure being on the roof among the oak branches and birds.

Nathan took off a wall in the master bathroom and we discovered crumbling drywall damaged from water. The tub tile doesn't have any wall to hold onto anymore. Nathan experimentally tapped a tile and it literally disappeared backwards into the wall space. Yikes. It looks like we have an non-functioning bathroom and it will be a huge project fixing this one. We'll have to remove another entire wall in the master room so we can replace the damaged drywall. Then we get to learn how to re-tile a bathroom.

Strangely, I didn't feel panicked or depressed over this new discovery. I thought to myself: "The pioneers bathed out of rivers or buckets of water- when they were lucky enough to have access to water. I can handle not having the luxury of using the bathtub/shower. At least I have running water! Thank goodness!"

Matt's writings

2011-06-01T22:15:00.000-05:00

I wanted to share a snippet of Matthew's writing journal. I think it's interesting to read how his mind thinks and what he chooses to record.

This first entry was written immediately after we returned home from a grueling road trip for my sister's wedding. I was surprised what came to his mind for this writing assignment. I can't decide if this should be a commentary on the vacation or on his boredom in the public school system.

Acrostic Poem about Vacation:
Very boring
At a gas station
Can't play on the compyooter (computer)
A very boring thing
To Grandma's house
I do not like vacations
Oh how boring
Not very fun

These remaining entries are various journal entries. I thought they were cute and wanted to record them. His spelling is preserved in my transcribing, but I added parenthetical clarification where necessary.

4-27-11
Wut I did on the weekend. I went to my Grandma's hows (house). I went to a easter egg hunt. Everyon got 12 eggs. I got jelly beens and skitls (Skittles)and manemse (M&Ms). The candy was yumy. My favrite was the skitls.

4-25-11
I went to my Ant's weding. My grandma and grandpa came to the weding. We tuk pickters. I wus in two pickturs.

3-29-11
I went to the swiming pole. I put on my gogls (goggles). I hopt in the water. It wus frezinge (freezing). I raced my sister. She won. I had lunch there. For lunch I had a apl (apple) and a sanwich and a joos (juice) box. My dad came too. I had fun.

Tender Mercies

2011-05-26T15:11:00.000-05:00

Today I was visited by two angels. They came and folded all of my laundry while they insisted I sit and rest. They are Sister A and Sister W from my current ward family. This is the second time they've visited and served my family this month. Last time they scrubbed bathrooms after cleaning the laundry. While they worked they talked of faith in our Savior and appreciating life's joys. My spirit feasted on their friendship and I was left feeling so strengthened and loved. I will sorely miss them when I move away.

The Lord has been blessing me with many moments like this one, where tender mercies are extended to answer my prayers. I feel like I need to start writing these down before I forget.

Last Saturday our new congregation welcomed us into the ward with a large service project to help us clean the property and scrub the home. We met many friends and the many hands made light work. I felt especially blessed by the brave souls who volunteered to tackle the messiest or most difficult jobs. They saved me weeks of work! (A new post about this project will follow shortly- as soon as I can upload the pictures.)

Brother O offered to tackle the largest pile of trash in the pasture. This particular pile was as tall as Sarah. This man carried the debris by hand across the property, and he did the entire project while smiling and joking with those around him.

Sister W in my new ward cheerfully stayed an extra hour so she could scrub out all of the kitchen cabinets. Goodness gracious, I'm so thankful for that service! The kitchen is the most important part of the home to me, and I really dreaded cleaning out the webs and grime from all those nooks and crannies.

Sister S has volunteered to come help me scrub the house a few times. The last time she came, she was prompted by the Spirit to bring her leaf blower and garden cart. Those two tools have proven to be much-needed and very valuable. I'm so thankful for her thoughtfulness. The Lord worked through her to help avert some minor emergencies.

Sister H has helped me many days to prepare my current home for the real estate market. She helped me pack boxes, deep clean, stage the house, and landscape the front yard. Friends like this are better than earthly treasures. The Lord has been reminding me repeatedly of our blessings- and true friends are such a priceless blessing!

We were notified by the county that we had made a mistake in where our friends relocated the trash pile. Even though it was still on our property, we were going to be fined by the county for 'illegal dumping' unless we could clean it up immediately. Boy, were we stressed about this! The F family let us take their vehicle and trailer for the day so we could haul away the trash. Nathan took the afternoon off work and we worked together all day to remove this monstrosity. The Lord blessed us with health and strength to get through the long job. I was so very thankful.

I have been a bit worried about providing for our new baby. I haven't had time to hunt thrift stores for baby clothing or basic supplies. I figured if we just had a car seat (so we can take him home from the hospital), we could make do without the other accessories. The Lord knows I have been thinking about this and has blessed me abundantly. I've been given a car seat, baby swing, baby carriers, and a crib. I'm so thankful to have friends who ask if I'd like to inherit their old baby supplies.

Our family has been blessed with health so we could work hard and prepare our new home to receive our family.

It's temptingly easy to be negative--- I'm 8 months pregnant and trying to fix up a new house, sell our old house, and pack everything. I'm so tired all the time. But this experience has been a fantastic time of personal growth for me.

As I've read the scriptures in my daily study, the Spirit keeps whispering the same lessons lately:

1- Express sincere gratitude to the Lord for our blessings, for they are many. Appreciate the little things.
2- Be cheerful and not down-trodden. Even if everything else fails, I can always have deep joy through our Savior and His gift of the Atonement.
3- Trust in the Lord and exercise more faith.

Lisa's Wedding

2011-05-20T22:28:00.000-05:00

I love the temple so much! The Spirit of God is so powerful and the peace and joy are as thick as pudding. I can never go as often as I'd like.

My sister was married in the temple to her sweetheart last month. I loved seeing them hold hands as they listened to the inspired words of the ceremony. I was filled with so much joy for my sweet sister. I'm so very happy for her. Celestial marriage embodies the greatest promises and blessings of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My heart is so full. The Lord is wonderful.

Here are glimpses of the wedding day.

Grandparents House

2011-05-20T19:18:00.000-05:00

Here are glimpses of our stay with Grandma and Grandpa Muir on their farm.

The cousins all enjoyed Grandma's wooden swing that overlooks the farm.

Daniel found something to conquer. Doesn't he look pleased with himself?

Visiting the horses is always a much-anticipated part of every visit.

Daniel really wanted to help Grandpa drive in fence posts for the new pasture.

Sarah with cousin Abigail. Sarah LOVES playing with babies.

We enjoyed a Spring Egg Hunt in Grandma's home with all the cousins.

We really enjoyed staying up late and playing games and laughing. It was such a treat to deepen our family friendships. We only see each other once every few years. I really cherish the time we were blessed to spend together!

Road trip rest stops

2011-05-20T18:44:00.000-05:00

Adventures in Albuquerque

2011-05-20T18:26:00.000-05:00

We had the blessing of traveling to Idaho for my sister's wedding last month. We had the treat of bringing my sister-in-law and nephew along with us. Albuquerque is the half-way point for our travels, so we always stop there for the night. There is a delightful aquarium and botanical garden that we have a tradition of visiting. It's a nice way to let the kids run off energy after driving an entire day.

The children's fantasy garden is our favorite part. The entry is a big castle and the inside is made so the children are the size of bugs. It's like the movie "Honey I Shrunk the Kids".

We have lots of memories in this park. I'm so thankful we can explore unique places like this together.

Progress is slow and steady

2011-05-19T22:23:00.000-05:00

Some highlights of the new house from the past few weeks-

We've been going to the new house several nights a week to clean it up. Our kids love playing on the property. They've climbed up to an old tree house in the pasture and created another play house amidst a circle of juniper trees. They all purchased slingshots with their birthday money this year. The pasture is the perfect place for target practice. We encourage them to shoot the cacti and bugs they find.

We didn't have water available at the house for several days, so we had a perfect excuse to meet the neighbors and fill up water containers. They seem very friendly and they have five kids. We're SO excited to have children living next to us! They are very kind and have let us borrow several tools already. They saved the day by lending us a shop vac when we had a water leak fill the laundry room with hot water. (Yay for running water!) We are so thankful for our kind neighbors!

It's been a bit of an adventure to turn on the water to the house. Each time Nathan switched the water main on, we'd find new leaks in diverse places. Luckily the neighbors had a wrench for us to borrow and fix the spewing faucet. The other leak was in the pasture, so no big messes happened. It just created a colossal mud puddle to play in.

We had a family party and ripped off all the old wallpaper in Sarah's new room. It was lots of fun when the paper came off in big pieces. The remaining bits and glue was more tricky to remove. It took two afternoons to get it most of it off. I'm still working on it. I'm never wallpapering anything. Ever.

It's been like a treasure hunt at this place. Our children have so much fun discovering what 'neat' trash has been left behind. Some of their favorite discoveries include a train set, dolls, cool wire springs, a horseshoe, and a bright pink bowling ball. Doesn't the landscaping look terrific? What a great modern art sculpture we get to have in our pasture!

We transported our chicken flock to the new house. We're testing out the chicken coop facilities with out old flock of birds. We'll see how predator-proof it is before we invest in our new batch of chicks. (I can hardly wait for the new chicks!) I have been told that we have bobcats, coyotes, snakes, and raccoons that will eat our birds. So far everyone's accounted for and happily scratching up bugs.

There's the update of some of the things we've been working on. I feel like there are a lot of challenges as I find more things that need repaired (only one toilet works), replaced (all the baseboards, window screens, etc), or removed (we found a strong, healthy colony of mold growing in a wall). It's easy to feel completely overwhelmed.....

The Lord has great ways of reminding me to count my blessings. I was asked to give an hour-long devotional last Sunday on the topic of the pioneers who sacrificed everything to cross the plains. I was reminded by the Spirit to bear all things with cheerfulness and gratitude.

Compared to the pioneers I live a posh life, right? How can anyone complain about anything when they have air conditioning and running water? Compared to my ancestors, I'm living the high life. I need to keep reminding myself this.

The Hitchcock House - our moving story part 2

2011-05-03T15:37:00.000-05:00

Let me tell you about our new home. I guess I should call it a house. It's not a home yet. I affectionately call it my house of horrors for now. But I see it's potential- that's important to remember.

Apparently the previous residents didn't own a garbage can of any kind. They'd throw trash on the ground wherever they happened to be standing. The 4 acre property has wrappers, bottles, cigarette butts, and other random garbage scattered across the grounds. There's also large trash. Imagine the queen-size mattress on the front lawn. Bucket seats from a missing vehicle. Pipes and tires and tarps galore. Behind a thick stand of trees there's an actual dumping spot full of rusting cans, bottles, and other garbage. The interior of the home is similar. Did I mention the dishwasher full of dead leaves and cigarette butts? How about the attic full of pornography? Yikees.

Let's move on. The previous occupants kept dogs. A lot of them. There were nearly a dozen dogs on the property, given open access to the house and outdoors at all times. There's even two dog doors cut into the walls of the house to let them roam freely. The dog doors were always open- there's not even a flap to cover them. Imagine all the dirt and pests they brought in. The animals chewed up the door frames and baseboards as well. There's a LOT of scrubbing to do.

The entire home smells....really badly. I think they were chain smokers. We'll be repainting every surface in the home. This is the only time I'm not happy to own vaulted ceilings. I'm scared of heights. I should clarify this: I'm TERRIFIED of heights. I can't imagine climbing a ladder high enough to reach the ceilings.

There's literally pages full of home repair items waiting to be addressed (honestly, who in their right mind BURIES the dryer vent?!). The 'to-do' list will keep us busy for a long time, but I can deal with it.

There's only one thing I really can't deal well with: pest infestations.

This is where the Hitchcock-element comes in. Imagine cobwebs in the corners and ceilings of every room. Cobwebs draped in the windows. Various beetles crawl along the floor of literally every room. Some of them are cockroaches- shudder! There isn't a space without a resident insect.

The pest inspector was kind enough to point them all out to me, then he'd try not to laugh at my reactions.
At the end of his inspection he asked us to sit at the table with him while he presented his report. I could only imagine what was crawling under the table, but gingerly pulled up a chair, trying to touch as little as possible. At one point of our conversation, the inspector asked Nathan, "Will you please get that off your sweetheart?" EEK! There was a beetle on my forehead!

After the inspections were complete, Nathan and I were a bit in shock. How could people live like this? Could we handle the repairs ourselves? Was it going to be worth it? Should we back out of the contract after spending almost $1,000 on inspections? I felt a bit panicky and we couldn't sit to think anywhere in the house. We sat on the front steps to talk.

We listened to the birds and looked at the trees while we thought. We love the property, specifically the trees. They are perfect, like from a fairytale. Huge ancient oaks spread their limbs across the yard. They are beautiful, and will only become more beautiful when they support a tree house and swings from the branches. All I can think of is my children playing under these trees. I've long fantasized about owning a home with huge trees for my family to enjoy.

Our kids hate this house. The rooms are smaller and the house needs a lot of work. They ask me, "Why on earth would you want to leave our big, beautiful home in the city and move to such an ugly, dirty little house?" I tell them it's an adventure.

We've been reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series this year in home school. In one book Laura lives in a sod hut. I keep telling them that anything is better than a sod hut. That makes my new home look like a palace.

We can fix the house, even if it takes a long time. We can make it into a lovely home full of love and laughter and cleanliness. We decide to go for it.

So now it's official: we own 4 acres of Texas hill country.

Still Alive- Our moving story part 1

2011-05-02T08:28:00.000-05:00

Yes, we're still here. We ARE indeed alive, just crazy.

Who in their right mind would think it's a good idea to do a major lifestyle transition and move into a major fixer-upper house? Isn't it crazy to do this when I'm in the last trimester of my pregnancy? Let's add to the fun mix that my sweet husband has a major deadline this month which requires extra hours at work. Sound fun yet?

Miracles have been happening in our little lives.

Let's start at the beginning of our 'moving' story.

Originally I planned on placing our current home on the real estate market AFTER we moved out. It sounded so easy that way. There'd be no home staging to worry about. It's hard to keep a home staged and immaculate when we're a home schooling family. We're always HERE.

After some praying, Nathan and and I felt like we should list our house as quickly as possible. We were leaving in a week to drive across the country to attend my sister's wedding. Could we get our house packed up and cleaned and staged in one week? Not a chance.

Enter miracles here. The Lord poured out blessings on us abundantly. Several friends offered to come over and help me pack boxes. It was such a blessing- especially since my pregnancy fatigue severely limits how much work I can do in one day.

Some days I packed all day only to realize around 6:00pm that I had hungry children and had no idea what to feed them. I had put off the trip to the grocery store and had no food for them. More than once I answered my door to find friends standing there with a meal for my family. The Lord answered prayers, even when I didn't have time to actually kneel to pray and was merely carrying a prayer in my heart.

One day I was feeling completely overwhelmed and exhausted emotionally and physically. I was doubting myself. I prayed for increased strength and confirmation from the Lord that we were doing the right thing. That afternoon I opened the door to find a friend that I hadn't seen in over 3 years. She asked if I like Indian food (how could she know it's my favorite cuisine?) and gave me take-out from a local Indian restaurant. There's nothing as comforting as hot Na'an and Chicken Tikka Masala after an exhausting day. It was such an amazing 'coincidence'. I feel like the Lord was blessing me with a tender mercy through this friend. He wanted me to know that I was loved, that He knew me, and He was watching over me.

One of the biggest challenges was this: how could we hide all our food storage? I didn't want to rent a storage unit for it. Nathan stacked all the 5-gallon buckets and boxes into the shape of a queen bed and two nightstands. Viola. Doesn't it look like a nice guest room? No one knows it's all long-term food storage.

Several friends from our home school group and church congregation helped me stage the house, landscape the front yard, and deep clean. With their help we were able to list our house on the market the day before we left town. I am so thankful for their generous hours of service. I feel so richly blessed. Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.

A grand adventure begins!

2011-03-29T08:34:00.000-05:00

Our house full of boxes waiting to be packed

We are moving.

A crazy whirlwind of events are happening.
We've been interested in moving to the country for a while now.
We want to experiment with livestock, gardens, orchards, and bees.
We started a casual search of houses a month ago...just for fun.
We had strong feelings that the Lord was directing us to a particular house.
Suddenly we are barreling full-throttle forward.
We are closing on our new house on April 28th.

We came across a great-looking property at an amazing price (it's so cheap because it's a fixer-upper). Here's the details:

It's 15 miles from the nearest grocery store.
It's 5 miles outside of the nearest 'town', population less than 2,000.

It has 4 acres of property.
It has very old oak trees towering over the yard.
It already has a pasture fenced off for livestock.
It's in a nice equestrian neighborhood.
There's a neighborhood pool.
It will take a month of hard work to make the house even habitable.
We can't move anything into the house until then.
If we're lucky, we can move in during the last month of my pregnancy.
We have two Cub Scout troops volunteering to help clear all the trash.
They get a merit badge for the project.
The house and yard are absolutely filthy.
The current occupants never used a trash can. Or the dishwasher.
The dishwasher is full of dead leaves and cigarette butts.
Our new church congregation is already arranging a service project to help.
Families will come together and deep clean the house in one big day of service.
I'm a complete stranger to most of them.
I feel so blessed by the Lord to have so much help.
So many little and big miracle are happening with this transition.
It's very humbling to see the Lord so completely taking over.

The front of the new home

My favorite tree in the yard. The trunk is over 3 feet in diameter!

In our current house we are working at breakneck speed to get the house ready for the market. There is so much to do- repainting, new carpets, moving out furniture so it will stage nicely, cleaning up the yard, etc.
We are trying to get it on the market before we leave for my sister's wedding. That's not much time.

Maybe more miracles will happen to get us there.

Sunny Moments

2011-03-11T19:20:00.000-06:00

Dan enjoys a music lesson from Daddy

I was blessed with a wonderful day full of life's little sunny moments today. I'm so thankful for life's little joys.

Daniel and I took the van for scheduled maintenance. We sat on the pavement in front of the van and watched the process while I taught him the little I know about engines and how oil functions in the engine. To Dan's delight, the mechanic in the pit waved to Dan from under the car, then the upper mechanic brought over the new oil filter for Daniel to sign before it was installed. Dan was so proud to have his signature incorporated in our vehicle. The mechanics brought parts of the van to us and explained to Daniel what they do. They also secretly gave me a discount for the services- which I didn't realize until I checked the receipt after we left. It was so nice of them!

While we waited for the van work to be finished, we explored a little grassy meadow next to the store. We picked dandelions and had contests to see who could blow the most seeds off in one breath. We giggled and enjoyed the sunshine and the butterflies. We played for an hour together, watching the little bugs scurry about in the grass. I'm so happy for little moments like this!

We went to a park and hiked in some undeveloped oak woods. It was so fun to explore the little creek and listen to the water babble on it's journey. The birds were calling loudly above our heads and the breeze made the leaves dance on the trees. There's something so fulfilling in wandering around large trees, out of site of the houses.

We watched squirrels dig up hidden nuts, then Dan dug in the dirt with a stick to find more. It was like looking for pirate's treasure to him.

I feel so blessed to have a day like this with my son. We found such pleasure in life's little joys. It makes me want to move. To the country.

What we've been up to...

2011-03-10T08:33:00.000-06:00

Here's a rundown of our family's activities for a while...

Guns. I've always felt uneasy around them, and have never wanted one in my home. Recently we had an experience where I believe we had a home intruder (can't know for sure since I hid in my room with the door locked until Nathan came home, so I never actually saw the person). I was so terrified. I realized that I needed some sort of home defense, so I began researching guns. I arranged a girls-day-out with some friends to the indoor shooting range so I could at least fire some guns and start practicing. Here are the results of my first try:

The one on the left is the target from a 12-gauge shotgun. They only let me use slugs on this range, so the kickback was really intense. I had a bruise the next day and I only fired 5 bullets on that gun! It really helped me overcome my fear of the guns though, so a handgun was a piece of cake after dealing with that monster.

I should tell you that I hate loud sharp sounds like gunfire. I can't stand hearing a balloon pop- this is why I don't take gigs requesting a balloon twister. I was so nervous to use these guns and hear them explode. When I first entered the gun range, there was a man on my left firing an AK-47, and a lady on my right practicing with some sort of cannon- I don't know what it would be called, but the barrel was a couple inches in diameter. Imagine those going off right next to you in an enclosed cement building. It was deafening, even with ear protection. After a few minutes of that noise, my own gun seemed like a baby's toy.

Valentine's Day- I completely missed posting about this because we were in the midst of drama with Sarah's intense infection last month. The children woke to a Cupid-style breakfast. Scottish oats with blueberries, homemade bread with homemade peach-blueberry jam, and pink milk. Daniel took a few excited bites, then tentatively tried to fly!

My sweet darling made me a complete Indian dinner from scratch. He worked on it for hours, then we enjoyed a delightful dinner together after the children were asleep. MMMM! Chicken Tika Masala, Palak Paneer, Hot Naan, Saffron Rice, and chutneys. A perfect meal! I love gifts of time, they are so meaningful.

We enjoyed having visits from Cupid- have I ever explained our Cupid tradition? I don't recall if it's already on this site. Cupid flies to the windows to peek in the rooms. He hates chaos and messes, so it's important that the children clean their rooms so Cupid will want to stay. He is also very shy and will fly away if there is contention, so if we want to make him feel welcome, w sing songs together. If there is love and harmony in the home, he will stop for a visit. When he visits, he leaves treats and little token gifts on the doorstep. The gifts are given in one big bundle, and the children practice equality skills in working together to divide the treats amongst themselves. It's really fun and the kids look forward to it every year. It's one of my favorite days as a mother- the children were cleaning cheerfully (gasp!) and singing together all day. It really makes for a beautiful day in our home.

We took a home school field trip into Austin to see the Slim GoodBody show. It's a musical comedy show that teaches children about anatomy and physiology. It's done in a kind of Broadway style. It was a-maz-ing and we really enjoyed it. Before you ask, yes- yes I did check Matthew out of public school for the day. I'm one of 'those' parents. I think he learned more at this than he would sitting in a desk all day anyway.

Afterwards we played on the UT campus grounds for a long time. The children all played in the fountains until they were absolutely drenched. Thank goodness for warm Texas winters!

The rest of February was spent dealing with Doctor's appointments and severe illness with Sarah's infection. We were worried for a long time. Thankfully the Lord blessed her with a return to health. Her lab work yesterday came back clean, so now it's time for the specialists to investigate her kidney function, access scarring, and do lots of invasive exploring to make sure her body is working properly so we can avoid another round of this E. coli playtime. We are immensley thankful for modern medicine and for health insurance.

Something to pray for

2011-03-02T08:10:00.000-06:00

What do you pray for each morning and night?

I pray very fervently that my children will be safe from evil influences and their testimonies will grow strong. I am a very protective mother and I feel so strongly about protecting our children's innocence as long as we can. I really want them to know WHO they really are (sons and daughters of a heavenly king) and WHY they are here (to learn how to return to God's presence and serve others).

I feel very overwhelmed at times at the way the world is trying so viciously to attack our families. I cry in frustration and anger over the filth is being pushed towards our bright young children by the media (this is why we don't have TV reception). There are so many ways our children are being targeted...I don't care to go into a long depressing blog entry, so read this website if you want to know ways to analyze your own family life and see the subtle ways Satan's messages or dulling influence can creep into your home.

I know that I can't keep them safe from everything, no matter how much I desire to be the shield between them and Satan. I know I need the Lord's help in raising a strong family.

This week I had an epiphany moment. Some day, my children will get married. Those future spouses are growing up in this same world and being forced to make tough choices each day. Some day those people will join my family, and they will become my new children. I feel like I should pray for them now as much as I pray for my own children.

I shared my feelings with our family and asked if they would also like to pray for their future spouses. Matthew's prayers have been the sweetest. Yesterday he said, "Bless bless my sweet wife to be safe from evil today". Today he prayed, "Help my future sweetheart make good choices today." I love how he used the words 'sweet wife' and 'sweetheart'.

Matthew enjoying our weekly Sundaes on Sunday

I am glad for many things

2011-02-23T20:13:00.000-06:00

I am thankful for the blessing of modern medicine. Sarah has a really intense and very resistant E. coli infection. I am so thankful for the lab techs who discovered the source of Sarah's intense pains. We made 4 trips to the doctor's office yesterday. I was home for less than one hour the entire day!

I'm thankful we already had a meal in the fridge so I didn't have to panic about dinner that night.

I am thankful that our pediatrician's office has such bright and cheerful decorating in each room to make the children feel more at ease.

I am thankful for antibiotics, even though it's being a slow battle (even after getting a double injection of HUGE doses of medicine. I've never seen such large syringes used for injections before!)

I'm thankful for the colossal fort Nathan built with the kids this past Sunday, because Sarah couldn't walk up the stairs to her room since her legs were so swollen and sore from the injections. She's been living in the fort surrounded by pillows and books for two days.

I'm thankful for ice cubes (what a wonder it is to have ice whenever we need it! Could you imagine being a pioneer? How inconvenient!) that can help counteract a raging fever when Sarah can't keep down any oral fever reducers.

I'm thankful for the Little House on the Prairie books; we've been reading them aloud together to distract Sarah from her pain. I can't imagine trying to deal with this illness in 1840. I'm SO thankful for the opportunity we have to compare our blessings with daily life from the American frontier! It makes us thankful for all the little things- running water, soft beds, electricity, etc.

I am glad that she's been able to finally keep down the first food in 2 days- a vitamin-fortified Jamba Juice smoothie. I'm so thankful that Jamba juice can put an entire day's worth of nutrition in one smoothie.

I'm thankful for all the friends who have offered to run errands to pick up prescriptions or Popsicles- even though I didn't take anyone up on that. It seems like it's always at bad times that I needed something. I hate interrupting people's family time to ask them to do random things for me.

I am thankful for the primitive medical practices I've been learning for fun lately, so I could stay up with Sarah at night and help cool her fever when she couldn't keep down any fever reducers. We had some neat talks while I bathed her skin with water and rubbing alcohol.

I am thankful for Pollyanna's 'Glad Game'. Sarah and I wrote in her journal and listed everything we could think of to be glad about. She's thankful that grandparents are praying for her recovery, and for antibiotics, and for family, and that she can at least use her imagination to distract her mind.

I am so especially thankful for my best friend, Mr. Kingsley. He knew I was up a lot last night. Even though he has a pressing deadline at work this week, he stayed home this morning to get the boys breakfasted and dressed. He drove Matthew to school and returned home to wash the dishes from last night. He made me breakfast and whistled cheerfully as he worked. I felt so taken care of. What would I do without my dearest friend? In order to make up for lost time this morning, he is working until 10:00 tonight. He is so selfless and I'm so thankful for the way he blessed me this morning!

Month in review

2011-02-22T20:14:00.000-06:00

So much has been happening- and it all seems so overwhelming to attempt to catch up on everything, so I've stayed away from the blogging realm. Unfortunately, I use my blog posts to supplement my hand written journal. I usually write the meaningful, spiritual experiences in my personal journal and use the blog to record the temporal affairs of the family. There's so much I don't want to forget about the past two months, so here's a quick highlight of our happenings while I've been silent online:

In January-

For home school I taught a unit study about the Opera. We did opera puppet shows and filmed our own movie production of Peter Pan. The kids loved it! We studied Mozart and 'The Magic Flute' then we attended the Austin Lyric Opera for a field trip. The girls loved dressing up and eating out at a restaurant together. We really enjoyed the trip and created lots of wonderful memories!

I face painted for the Texas Governor's Inauguration at the capital. We carpooled since parking passes were worth more than their weight in gold for this event. I drove my van- since I'm the only one with a large family vehicle like that- and it was full of clowns. The inaugural party had over 10,000 attendants and served 5-star free BBQ to the public. We feasted and enjoyed our food on the beautiful capital grounds. Most of the politicians didn't bring their kids, so the work load was very light. Too bad my agent booked this one- I couldn't pass out my personal business cards. :(

I felt energy returning after the three months of severe morning sickness, so I felt excited and motivated to get things in order again. Three months of the children foraging for themselves in the pantry sure did a number on my organization in the kitchen. In January I couldn't even see the pantry floor. A dear friend came over and helped me with the task of completely emptying the shelves, washing and re-papering the shelves, and reorganizing the foodstuffs. Ah! It felt so good to get it clean again!

I focused a lot on our emergency preparedness and felt very prompted to start teaching other women about it. I've promised to post the lesson material and 72-hour kit information on this blog---and haven't done it yet. Hopefully I will get to it soon. I taught an evening lesson about family evacuation plans and everything I've learned over the past 5 years about 72-hour kits and how to improve them for your family.

Drum roll please.....

2011-02-22T10:37:00.000-06:00

We had our ultrasound last week and found out that we're being blessed with a baby boy!

Sarah with baby Daniel 5 years ago

We are so excited for this special new friend to join our family! Sarah is pleased that she won't have to share a room with a baby sister, and Daniel is happy to have a new friend to impress with his endless antics.

We're trying to decide on the name....and it's taking a long time. Sarah's suggestion was Diego Sasparilla Kingsley. Now the family all affectionately calls him Diego. For a nickname, it has a lot of character. The real name is still unknown. Suggestions?

Priorities

2011-02-11T12:30:00.000-06:00

Our family art project this week. The windows are full of hearts!

I've been absent a lot from this blog lately. I've found an interesting phenomena happening this past month. My heart has been changing in so many ways. I think they are changing for the better.

I've kept a printed copy of this talk about priorities in my bathroom for a long time. I would read it and think about it each time I visited the bathroom (which honestly, happens a LOT with this pregnancy). I've also had a copy of this talk about motherhood in there as well. Since I spend a lot of time there each day (I think I would win an Olympic event for the highest number of bathroom trips each night!), I've been getting very acquainted with the gems of wisdom on those pages.

I've asked myself a lot of searching and sometimes difficult questions. What are my true priorities? What do I spend most of my time doing? Am I using my time to focus on my real goals, or is most of my time being wasted on petty distractions? I was disappointed to discover that most of my time was spent on things that don't really matter. (This is one of the reasons why I haven't been blogging much lately.)

I've found out several things about myself this month, and I've made some tough choices that I hope will improve my time management and realign myself to my most important goals.

One of these regards face painting. Remember this post when I wished I could focus everything on aggressively pursuing a body art career? I used to feel so competitive in that market. There was a frantic feeling within me, that I HAD to go to more festivals or I was missing big chances to earn a lot of money. I was constantly thinking about how to get more business. I realized that I was not focusing on my family as much as I should. Prime face painting gigs are always on weekends and holidays- which is the prime family time. I realized that I was missing the opportunity to create life-long memories with my own children just so I could make a buck or two. It sounds pretty pathetic, doesn't it? I thought so.

I don't really care for the face painting gigs anymore. IF I want to do them, I do. But I no longer feel obligated to accept every job that comes my way or actively promote myself or seek work. I'd honestly rather be with my own kids. It's funny- I was hired to work for the state governor's inauguration party last month. It's the biggest event of the year with 10,000 servings of free 5-star BBQ to the public (remember, this is Texas- nothing important happens without BBQ) and prestigious clientèle (who wouldn't love to pass around your name to the state's Senate members and top politicians?). My agent told me it was a big deal to be picked to work for this gig. Honestly- I didn't even want to go. Not a bit. I didn't care how much they were paying me. Isn't that an odd reversal from my feelings a few months ago?

As I've prayed about my true priorities, surprising things have changed. I haven't even read a book yet this year- I feel like there are so many other more important things to delight in. I've started focusing more on helping others, teaching my children the principles of good character, developing my own faith and testimony more, and delighting in family time more fully. I've felt much happier than I have in a while (although, it was really hard to feel cheerful during the 3 months of my hyperemesis...that may have something to do with it!).
I feel more energized and positive as I focus on what really matters.

Sarah reinventing hopscotch this morning.

I'm really looking forward to Valentine's Day. The Lovers' Holiday is also my anniversary. It will also be the 20-week mark of the pregnancy: we're halfway done! We also get to find out what gender our baby is (even though Nathan and I already think we know what to expect. If we're wrong, it will really throw me for a loop!)

Tonight my lover and I are going on an early Valentine's date. We're enjoying dinner (if it's my pick tonight, we'll eat some nice Indian food. But I always pick the same cuisine- maybe it's Nate's turn to decide.) then we're going to Latin dance lessons followed by dancing. Doesn't it sound lovely? Actually, I don't really care what we do. Whenever I get to spend time with my darling, I'm happy. Some of my favorite dates were just walks along a lake enjoying the sunset and chatting. Everything is wonderful when I'm with him!

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home...

2011-02-05T00:27:00.000-06:00

I love my Mister Kingsley so very much! He's really the highlight of my life. He's always doing little acts that make my day joyful.

I love the fact that he always comes home from work whistling cheerfully the moment he walks in the door. We can hear it from every corner of the house, and the children and I all come running in excitement to welcome him home. I love it so much. Now whenever I hear whistling, I involuntarily smile and look about myself for my sweetheart. He always whistles the same melody when he enters our home. The lyrics start out with I'm so glad when Daddy Comes Home. He really does bring so much joy into our family!

Today it snowed here in Texas. It's a bit funny. No one here knows how to drive on ice, and society literally shuts down after a light snow storm. We had only an inch of snow this morning, but school and work were both canceled. While a mere inch of snow doesn't impress a girl from Idaho and a boy from Alaska, I'm delighted that we were blessed with an extra day together as a family this weekend. I love having Nathan stay home from work. I felt like it was really a holiday! I'm so happy being surrounded by my little children and the love of my life.

I hope your weekend is delightful! I'm looking forward to more cozy family time tomorrow.

Joke Journal Entries

2011-01-28T21:20:00.000-06:00

Matthew and Daniel were playing pretend and were both dressed up as Batman. I was working outside when Matthew marched across the driveway announcing in a very authoritative voice,

"Make way! Batman's looking for his tricycle!"

Background- Sarah never wears pants. Ever.

Daniel is taunting Sarah, "Liar, liar, skirt on fire!"

Daniel was drinking some soda pop, and giggled. He exclaimed to Matthew,

"I love drinking pop because it feels like popcorn is popping in my stomach!"

Nathan was snoring, so I gently jostled him. He replied, "I'm snoring? What fun and great games!" Then he promptly fell asleep.

Christmas Catch up, Part Two

2011-01-14T08:42:00.000-06:00

I'm surprised how long it is taking me to catch up with our Christmas vacation entry. Now that I"m healthy again, I have so much work to catch up on around the house. Needless to say, blogging has quickly fallen off the priority list. Here is the second half of our Christmas story-

Sarah dancing near the Christmas tree

All the children would beg Uncle Andy to take them on walks near the little lake in Grandma's backyard. They really loved going out with him each day! He's such a great uncle to them- the boys think the world of Andy. He rock climbs, he's really strong, very funny, he wears cool clothes, owns his own business, and he plays with the boys. They think he's just about perfect.

Every visit the grandchildren look forward to seeing Grandma's pop-up book collection. Nathan's mom has collected pop-up books for years. It's so much fun to see their favorite books again. We all gather together on her bed to listen to the stories- even some of the adult children squeezed onto the bed to watch the books unfold. I think they will always remember Grandma Kingsley as reading books to them. A trip to her house wouldn't be complete without this story time.

As if feeding huge crowds of guests (a house full of 19 people for 2 weeks!) full meals three times a day weren't enough, Grandma offered to give all the men and boys haircuts. She did 7 haircuts in a row- between cooking lunch and dinner. Isn't she amazing? Do you see why I want to be like her? She does this all while cheerfully smiling and laughing. She's the type of person that naturally attracts people. I noticed that wherever she was in the house, that is where the people gathered to enjoy chatting. Like flies to honey.

I was still quite sick on our trip, but it was such a huge blessing to have someone else cooking meals for my children and doing the dishes each day. It was so nice to be able to stay in bed and not worry about the work I should be doing. I have a hard time ignoring the messes when I should rest. When I am at home, I usually try to push myself too hard and 'power through' the fatigue so I can have a clean sink or clean floor. I really appreciated all of her kindness so much!

We decided to do a formal dinner for Christmas Eve this year. We fed our children their own dinner, then tucked them away downstairs. The adults enjoyed a late dinner on the family fine china. It was delightful to have a formal affair together and laugh together. The meal was scrumptious, even though I was still not able to partake of much. I decided it was actually a mixed blessing being sick over the holidays- all the candies, cookies, and other treats were so unappealing to me, so I didn't gain any weight during all the weeks of feasting.

Nathan's family has a tradition of letting the children all sleep in the parent's room on Christmas Eve so they can all wake up together. Uncle Andy really wanted everyone to squeeze into the room together, so he covered the entire bedroom floor with mattresses and blankets. Everyone fit so snuggly in this one bedroom and there was no spare floor space anywhere. I really wish I had taken a picture of it!

Daniel and Matthew really love playing with Bucky Balls. They are THE neatest toy around. It's a bunch of individual, really powerful magnets. They can be manipulated in a million ways to create all sorts of shapes. They are so incredibly fun to play with, and it fosters creativity. Many of their uncles have Bucky Balls, and Daniel would play with them for hours. It's really a shame that I can't give them their own sets- the magnets are too dangerous to have in the house with a new baby on the way. Much of Christmas break was spent on the floor playing with these magnets.

We all drove to the Science Museum in St. Louis one day. We spent a few hours there enjoying the Math puzzles and Natural Science section. There was a room where the children could play with hands-on science toys for an hour. Daniel's favorite part was the giant cockroaches. He loved playing with them while I cringed. He giggled in delight the entire time and exclaimed, "Isn't it so cute?"

It was such a pleasure to spend so much time with uplifting company over Christmas. We had 9 out of Nathan's 10 siblings all together this year. With our family living scattered all over the country from Alaska to Georgia, this is a rare event. We played games every night until we couldn't force our eyes to stay open, we feasted every day on delicious treats and yummy meals, we played in the snow, read scriptures together every night, conspired together over secret gifts for each other, and explored St. Louis. It was such a memorable vacation and I left that home with my emotional and spiritual batteries refueled. Isn't that the perfect way to return from a vacation? I'm always so thankful to be a part of this family!

Christmas Catch up, Part One

2011-01-08T08:58:00.000-06:00

We were blessed very much to have Nathan's 20 year-old brother, Adam, stay with us for a couple of weeks and help take care of the family while I was sick in bed with hyperemesis. It was so helpful to have him here! I'm so thankful for his service. He is now making final preparations before leaving next week on his 2-year mission to New York City. Yay!

We drove him back home to Illinois the week before Christmas. It was SO lovely to spend Christmas with Nathan's family! His mom's home is just like a slice of heaven. I feel like a sponge, just soaking up all the wonderful feelings of unrestrained joy and love pervading the home. I feel so motivated to go home a kinder person, a harder worker, and a better Christian.

Daniel reacquaints himself with 'snow'.

Here are some highlights from our trip.

The day before Christmas we were surprised with a wonderful snow storm! Our Texan children were ecstatic. They played in the snow and sledded in the backyard for hours on end. They take after their dad and really love the cold. They played without even coats, and at times they went shoe-less in the snow.

Daniel and Sarah impervious to the temperature.

I couldn't persuade them to dress warmer. While they were behaving like penguins, I was huddled by the crackling fire, dressed in military-issue thermals and sweaters...I must be a true Texan at heart. :)

Grandma Kingsley is famous for her beautiful gingerbread houses. This year she made gingerbread homes for each grandchild to decorate. It was so fun! They each had their own little piping bags of royal icing and tables full of candy to choose from. They were so proud of their designs. It was a sad sad thing when we drove home and left the gingerbread houses behind.

The adults took a day to visit the St. Louis temple and attend a session. I really love attending temples around the country. They are each so beautiful and I relish the spiritual power within the building. I was very grateful for the opportunity to attend the temple. I love having such unrestrained communion with the Lord and finding out where I stand with Him. I learn so much about myself and God every time I go.

Afterwards Nathan and I treated everyone to dinner at an Italian restaurant.