ANSWER OF THE DAY (rather than question)

No, I am not pregnant! I know that this is great fun to speculate about - but I'm not. I've simply been thinking about it because the last time Mike deployed I WAS pregnant and delivered Nolan shortly after he returned.

I promise if I ever have an announcement like that to make again I will tell family first and then post it here...ok? I won't keep you guessing ....though feel free to keep guessing if you enjoy that sort of thing. ::::snort:::

I DO need to come up with an even better way to announce such a thing to Mike if it ever happens again. These things take planning. Last time I waited until Christmas and gave him a quiver with 9 arrows in it. Each arrow had one of our children's names on it....and there was an extra arrow with a due date on it. It was hilarious. I told him to wait until I had the video so he knew this must be his main gift but you could tell he was thinking "WHY did she get me THIS?" It was great fun to watch as one by one Mike and the kids caught on......

Of course there is an implied question here....if some of you have some great ways your broke this news to friends and family it would be huge fun to read about it.....but still this is an ANSWER OF THE DAY!

SATURDAY
I was tempted to sleep in today…I’m running on empty…BUT today was MELON DAY at the Farmer’s Market…and melons are BIG around this house. I’ve been amused at how fanatic some members of this family are over melons. I’ve got a reputation of being pretty hit and miss in picking out good melons. I announced last night that I was going to the market at 7:30 a.m. in order to find the best TX melon for us to enjoy in the next few days…..Early this a.m. as the little ones began to wake up, I decided to take the “youngers” with me.

We’d go to the market, drop by Adrienne’s and drop off a check and pick up some fruit, then go to breakfast. This would let Mike and the “olders” sleep in. I was SHOCKED when Mike got up and prepared to come with us. The sad truth is that he wanted to be 100% sure we got a good melon. We picked out two – a yellow flesh melon and a big ole baby…..here’s Mike with the yellow flesh melon…the other one was MUCH bigger.

We ran into “our family fun” at the Market.
Isn’t she cute? She’s due in just a few weeks. I got to proof a paper she wrote for an advanced communications class – it was on VBAC and was good. I’ve always wanted a home birth – but that was not meant to be…..so I’m having fun living through friends here who are having home births. OH the picture reminds me – I put on my red shirt today and remembered Grams. I’ve been wanting to name a daughter after my grandmothers for years….but Mabel, Wilda or Kathryn weren’t right. I had a dream in the past week and had a little girl named Maryna (Muh – ryn – a). Now I just need a baby girl….Zander informed me today that “Stacia is ENOUGH baby”. He also got very irate when I told him that he was still my baby and Josiah was still my baby. He bristled and said, “Mom!! Josiah is a MAN and I’m NOT a baby”.

Back at home my wonderful husband told me to take a nap. I took the NARHS handbook and class descriptions to bed and fell asleep in a few quick moments. I do really LIKE this Course Description book – it gives samples of how to write course descriptions that allow a child to explore their interests and still earn high school credit. We are strongly considering letting Jamin choose a science other than chemistry next year. :::gasp::: The book had a long list of “lab sciences” and I was surprised at the concept that a lab science didn’t have to be biology or chemistry. :::snort:::

I slept through this:

After my much needed nap Krista called. We’ll be seeing the girls in just one week! Yippee!!! I can’t tell you how excited I am at the prospect of having all my chicks gathered around for a month or two. I called Mom and enjoyed a good chat. Dad is in rehab again and beginning the long journey back from the second hip/leg surgery. He is still not to put more than 30 lbs of weight on his leg…that is slowing down his desire to walk…all in time. THEN I got to talk to my friend Julie. Julie and her family recently moved from AK to CA. I got a laugh out of the fact that she reports they are most always in fog and that the high has been 72*…..she said it was warmer in AK. We talked homeschool – she has adorable twin boys – 5 years old maybe…I think. She had a homeschool question for me and I had an Academy question for her. She and Paul are both Academy graduates and I wanted to see if Civil Air Patrol would work as well as being an Eagle Scout for Jared’s resume. Paul is a big CAP fan.

Unable to put it off any longer, I made an apple crisp and brownies to take to the chapel potluck tomorrow. I’ll also take a big fruit platter and the yellow fleshed melon. I’ll make some pasta to take and reheat for Zander so that he has something to eat….as a special treat and to keep him away from the chapel lemonade I will most likely let him take a Blue Sky soda. He won’t be able to eat the Apple Crisp as I used the Pampered Chef recipe that calls for a cake mix on top. I’m not fond of this recipe but several in my family LOVE it – so taking it to an outing is safe…they can taste it and I won’t have to have it sitting around here for to long. The brownies are “Zander safe”.

I’m starting to worry about how we’ll handle his eating needs on the road….we went to McDonald’s today and I chose pancakes –which I thought would be safe. I asked and they told me they had whole milk. We got to the table and the syrup was full of artificial stuff – of course it would be but I’d forgotten. The milk was low fat and had BHT…the margarine most likely had yellow dye in it. Mike took the milk back and got us juice. We threw out the syrup but had to use the margarine….ugh. Not sure how to handle this on the trip…..

OH – last night we watched two Netflix movies…*The Minnesota Cuke* and *Best of Mark Lowry and Bill Gaither*….both funny. I had thought it was a Mark Lowry comedy tape but oh well – it was still funny and I’m sure we found parts funny that weren’t meant to be funny. Brownies are done – I’m gone.

A frightening sight to greet a groggy Mom in the a.m. I was so thankful he'd not tried to take her OUT of the crib....

TGIF

I woke up at 4 a.m. (yes I went to bed at midnight) and I cleaned the oven, started a load of diapers, did some study and then crashed! {G}

I finally got some progress made on the boys’ portfolios. They’ve pulled it all together and I simply need to make sure everything is there and award grades and write a few notes for NARHS. I’m hopeful that I can get this done before we head for WA.

We went to the pool this afternoon with Tricia and one of her daughters. While there Stacia ate BIRD POOP! ARGH!!!! She was gagging and spitting and it was gross. :::Gag::: ::::gasp::: Zander was not ready to get out of the pool when the whistle blew….sigh….but other than that it was a great day of visiting around the pool…very few people there once again. The lifeguards are almost fun when no one else is around.

I tried to make pan pizza tonight. YUCK. Well it was good – but it wasn’t pizza. I made 7 grain dough and kneaded in oregano, marjoram, sage, basil, garlic and parsley….yum. I used the asiago cheese sauce I had left over from dinner earlier in the week. I put left over chicken and some spinach and cheese on it…it tasted good but I used way to much dough….. Ah….*Veggie Tales: The Minnesota Cuke* is on….gotta run. I can tell I’m going to like this movie…..I just heard a classic line “remember with GREAT chocolate comes GREAT responsibility”. :::snort::::

Mike is home and exhausted – and Sunday will be a busy one as he’s the only protestant chaplain on duty….and it’s 5th Sunday potluck Sunday x 2 or 3….LOL but he’s home and survived the training (not everyone can say that). I think we’ll relax tomorrow…maybe.

I Was Wrong....

In an earlier post I note that I said there were only "8 mentions of rod in the Bible" - I meant to say that I'd found 8 mentions of rod in PROVERBS! Big difference.

I'm still checking the comments on "Teachable Moments"/22 July; "Discipline Thoughts"/26 July and "Request"/26 July....just in case you think it's to late to leave your comments. Basically I'm asking in Discipline for a list of the attributes that describe the character of God/Jesus to you....and in Request I am asking for Scripture references that sanction the use of the rod for child rearing. I'm aware of the Proverbs passages. Are their others that I should be aware of?

Don't forget to leave Dinner Time ideas for me (26 July) - I'm still checking those too.....and really I don't care if you leave summer ideas of winter ideas.....but summer ideas are great since it is certainly HOT around here.

Still burning CD's of photos.....I'm up to June 06....I'm almost done....

UPDATE
Jamin’s dinner was wonderful. I’m telling you some sweetie some day is going to THANK ME for raising this boy! I’m gonna be an awesome MIL….:::snort::: He even made the pie crust out of 7 grains – I’m going to need to make some more of that mix “right shortly”.

Jared got info today on Civil Air Patrol. He’s very interested and the base has a chapter that meets on Monday nights. He also wants to do House of Faith – a local ministry. Now that he’s determined to enter the Air Force Academy in 6 years…..he reminds me that he NEEDS to do extra-curricular activities. I only wish he could drive.

Four folks in Mike’s ongoing training “fell out” with heat exhaustion today. One was bad enough that an ambulance was called to take her to the hospital. This is all teaching them how to survive in full battle gear in the desert. I will be glad when it is over – tomorrow.

After dinner the kids and I went for a run/bike ride to the park nearby. It’s sad that there is no grass left at this park – weeds and cockleburs….it looks like it must have been a nice park at one time. I discovered the way to up a workout on a bike ride is to pull a trailer with a 4 yo in it.

Zander got in trouble today for doing something I didn’t know he could do. The lifeguard said that he preformed a “perfect dive” – into the 3 feet. I watched later on – when there weren’t many folks there and so the guards were relaxed….he did a dive…complete with bounce and arms – head first right into the 5 feet…..which is also against the rules. THEN he showed me how to tread water. I had a blast throwing him up and into the water. Mike asked if he could go in the deep end. He’d have to pass a swim test and I’m sure they don’t expect 4 yo’s to attempt the test…but he seems to have been watching the older kids pass it and taking notes. OH - I think I forgot to mention that Arielle and Nolan passed the big ole swim test and can now go in the “deep end”. One last little swimming trick of Zander’s….he kept coming out the slide on his tummy. This is evidently a big no-no. Near the end of the day he looked at the guard and said, “I start on my bottom but the slide switches me”. ::::rolling eyes:::::

Now all little ones are asleep and all bigger ones are home from work…I’m outta here. When will I learn to go to sleep while the older ones are out?????

We began the day by heading to the park. Today was the first meeting for planning graduation. Yikes – hard to believe that number 3 will be graduating this year. We’ll have a 1/3 of our children through high school. The younger kids got to play with their friends and the meeting seemed to be productive.

I came home from the park, got lunch, ordered food for Sunday’s chapel potluck, picked up Jamin from his job and then headed to the pool.

We spent several hours at the pool and came home about 4:30. Jamin had made dinner. Now THAT is how I need to handle this. He made it all from scratch (including grinding the flour) and has two chicken pot pies, a huge salad and watermelon. I can’t wait. He also did a lawn while we were swimming.

I’ve been burning CD’s all day….trying to back up all our photos…then I guess my journal and some women’s ministry files…maybe my teaching notes from past workshops and retreats…..then if the computer dies…I can live.

Due to the fire safety things that we’ve been hearing I think we need to buy a fire proof box to keep the CDs of photos in…that way no one needs to run in for the photos…though the scrapbooks…ARGH….what do you all think you’d do with scrapbooks? I could NEVER carry them all out in a fire…and frankly getting all the children out would certainly be the first priority. I’ve learned that there are so many toxic things in our homes these days that toxic gasses are a real problem and you should GET OUT and not worry about taking things or calling 911 from inside the home…..so do you all keep your fancy scrapbooks in a fireproof box…or next to an escape route????