Old Story Tapes

Yesterday Buster woke up ornery.

Wouldn't wash his hands,
wouldn't brush his teeth,
wouldn't wash his face,
wouldn't speak clearly,
wouldn't be respectful....

His sister was down in her room
unwilling to make her bed,
unwilling to get dressed,
unwilling to get any kind of speed going....

So, after praying with them,
talking to them,
going over the Bible verses
and encouraging them to do right
with little results

I decided to stop prodding , told the big girls to make sure they didn't leave their rooms and I hopped in the car and went to the licensing department a couple miles down the road and picked up the registration for the suburban.

I was back in 15 minutes, but it was enough to turn Missy around. She didn't want to miss out on any other "outing" that just might happen.

But alas for Buster. He dug in deeper.
I'm begging the Lord for more patience for this child. He definitely pushes my buttons. I had to set him on a chair and just walk away. He would discuss Bible verses with me. He loves to talk. He was interested in what I had to say about planting good seeds and had some of his own thoughts to add to it, but head knowledge doesn't magically turn into heart responses and he refused to obey. I thought maybe if I put his memory verses on a cassette he could learn them faster and I went in search of an old tape.... what I found was a treasure trove of OLD cassettes the girls had when they were little. Your Story Hour Bible stories, Gospel moments, Janice Attic, Children of the King, etc.. I popped one in Buster's player and "time out" lost it's sting as the little guy got lost in a story of Jesus and the Storm. I wasn't sure he would listen to a story tape, but he's listened to this one 3 times over and wants to tell everybody about it. He even went looking for the Bible story books and found the pictures to match the story. I'm only going to give him one tape at a time. He can learn the stories well before he gets the next one.

His attitude brightened around lunch time, but when I asked him to do a little chore he fell to pieces and was back in time out. A couple hours later he was "cured" and went sledding with Bri.

Missy on the other hand was great most of the day... and then turned nasty around 4:30 pm and ended up in bed and slept until 7 when I woke her up.

Discipline

"The object of discipline
is the training of the child for self-government.
He should be taught
self-reliance and self-control."

Education page 287

Checking In

Most everyone around here is starting school today, except us. I'm not ready and I'm giving myself an extra two weeks to get organized. I'm thinking, praying and planning. For the twins getting more than a couple days of speech a week is my goal. We're working with the department at our local hospital where Steve works to get them scheduled for individual therapy. The school can do their combined classes if they want, but I know they need individual attention since their speech issues are so different. Buster is understandable. His speech problems are in the language structure and stuttering and slow recall. For poor Missy it's all about articulation. We went hiking the other day and Missy hiked a long way with my dad and she talked NON-STOP and he could not make out more than half of it.

The twins are doing well. They are going with the flow. We still have cousins here so there's lots of activity going on. Buster has only wet his pants 2 times in the last week. I'm happy with that.
The habit of using the toilet is forming. :-)

I've kind of noticed that Missy is not such a control freak anymore. She isn't telling me how things have to be done or what she wants so much. She's been pretty laid back lately and it's nice. She's also learning that ignoring me, shrugging her shoulders or saying "I donno" doesn't work so well when I'm asking her a question and so she's making an effort to use words and answer. Her inclination to pretend she doesn't know is not necessarily the easy way out anymore.

Well, there's work to do, so off I go....

But there are a lot of kinks to work out first

it might take me a long time to move here....

Considering a Move to Blogger...

Just trying things out...

The Dress

11:56, Wednesday, February 11, 2009 .. 8 comments .. Link

It's been awhile since I posted. Life has gotten too busy and I didn't want to talk about it since living it was more than enough to accomplish. Sometimes when I have too many irons in the fire my reaction is to totally avoid my duty and lose myself in a creative project. It doesn't help me get ahead, by any means, but there is something healing in creating and crafting.

I have wanted to make this dress for a long time. I needed to borrow an old dress to use as a pattern, though, and that was the reason for the delay. The dress has two layers and is simple and feminine. It reminds me of a prairie dress and any girly-girl would would be thrilled to have one. My pictures are not great and the dress could use an iron, but I tried to get the fun details.

pockets

I still need to do buttons and button holes and the edges of the neck.

New Puppy Pics!

08:48, Thursday, February 5, 2009 .. 2 comments .. Link

page 2 of Harmony Hollow

Love this Weather Station

12:07, Sunday, June 15, 2008 .. 1 comments .. Link

We are always looking for ways to involve our youth in ministry. Yesterday our church joined with another in an effort to share Jesus in a rural town. It's quite a neat little town with beautiful old homes and pretty little gardens. 1st Street is gravel. 2nd Street is tire tracks through the grass! Cute town! The people are friendly and we had an enjoyable afternoon. We had to laugh when we came across the weather station! It was worth a picture.

The girls want to go back to visit a couple of older ladies they met in the town. They are shut ins and lonely. My daughter was mortified to realize she had given the gift of a book to a blind woman! She wants to go back and give her something more useful. Also, there were a couple of families that were open and interested in fellowship. There used to be a lot of churches up in that town. Two a year have closed their doors. I think there are only two left.

An Antique Store Find : Beautiful Modest Dresses!

04:53, Friday, June 13, 2008 .. 2 comments .. Link

YUP! You heard me. I bought my girls dresses at the ANTIQUE store. What's more , all three were slated to play for a recital in 1 hour. I went into the antique store - (to find an old, 4 paned window frame, by the way ) and I came out with 3 dresses and a beautiful blouse! I should have known long cotton dresses with a little battenburg lace is considered an antique!! My, but I guess I am old fashioned!!!! Anyway, I went in the store and came out with 4 outfits. The girls quickly put them on - they were a perfect fit! We drove to the recital and they played Sheep May Safely Graze perfectly on the flute, violin and piano.

Recently I gave the girl's little oak beds to my brother for his little children all the way over in Tanzania. So, for the last month or so my girls have been sleeping on the floor or on the squeaky bunk beds. I am determined not to spend too much money on new beds so it is taking me awhile to replace them. Brianna and I stopped at the Goodwill the other day and we found an nice full size bed frame. It was scuffed and a little rough, but nothing a little paint can't fix. I still need to find a good matress for it, but I am sure we will. The Lord is always good. Thus far we have spent $28 on her bed.

This Earth is NOT my Home....

08:37, Friday, June 13, 2008 .. 3 comments .. Link

The battle still rages in the garden and I got to thinking there must be a lesson in all of this. Surely, the Lord has something in this for me. Perseverance would be a lesson to learn. More patience is, too, a fruit of the Spirit to cultivate. After all, this garden is only temporary and, while it may make the rough times ahead a wee bit easier, the production of the Fruit of the Spirit in my life would have a lasting effect on my eternal life. Malachi 3's promise to pour out a blessing so great that we will not have room enough to receive all of it probably has a Spiritual implication as well as a temporal. Which blessing is of more value?

Besides the effect on character qualities... the earwigs remind me that this world is NOT my home. There is a better land and Jesus promised that He has "gone to prepare a place for me" in that land. He promised to "Come again, and receive me unto Himself that where He is, there I may be also." I believe His coming is very near. I just might get too comfortable here if everything went "just right".

Last night we made more of the molasses, oil, soy sauce mix and set out about 8 containers in the garden. They are all full of dead earwig bodies. It seems like a lot of dead, but my daughter and I discovered thousands more hiding in the leaves of the lettuce. We disturbed and caught a bunch of them, but I know it is only a fraction of what is living in hiding. My sister says she knows a farmer that sprays his fields with blackstrap molasses to kill bugs and to fertilize his plants. She says it kills grasshoppers, even. I am considering trying it, but I have no idea what the proportions of the mix would be. Anyway, something to research

Unorthodox Garden Progress Report

05:17, Thursday, June 12, 2008 .. 0 comments .. Link

It's planted! I was only able to allow a week and a half for the lasagna layers to settle. No time to decompose or anything. It's June 12 after all... can't wait forever, summer would be gone. I planted more tomatoes, cabbage, spinach, green beans, parsley, collards and a few other things. Also, under the hay marked by a drip line is my row of potatoes. The potatoes were planted last week and they haven't shown their leaves yet, but I peeked under the hay and they are growing! As part of our UGLY Yellow Barn "Remodel" we filled the flat tire trailer with layers of manure, hay, soil, peat, etc.. and planted pumpkins, and other squash and sunflowers.

The barn is looking good. My husband had planned to put wooden siding on it, but I went ahead and started painting it because I knew 1) it would cost $400 to side the barn and we could use that money elsewhere, 2) he doesn't have time to put siding on the barn. He was shocked as he drove down the driveway and saw the barn. He LIKED it. He said, "Why didn't we do this a long time ago? and just think how much money we saved!" I did spend $8 per gallon on the barn paint. So far I have spent $16. We are not done. One thing leads to another... it takes time and energy.

I did not photograph the whole garden as I don't want you to see that the raspberry patch is still a mess!

EARWIGS

08:47, Thursday, June 12, 2008 .. 2 comments .. Link

I am really thankful the damage done to the garden by the puppy was not worse. In fact some of it was reversable and we reseeded some of those things that were lost completely. I am not quite as discouraged as I was. But we continue to battle the earwigs. I have battled them every year and I knew this was going to happen I just had never been able to come up with a reasonable solution. Spraying never worked, the diatomaceous earth worked a little but not like I had hoped. Anyway, we are trying something new found on the internet. We mixed molasses, oil, and soy sauce together in equal parts and put it in containers in the garden. It really does attract them. My daughter was worried we were attracting more from the surrounding area.. but I assured her that these guys LIVE in our garden. You hardly see them in the day... just the damage in the morning. We hope that we can cut the population down if nothing else. I need to make up more batches of this stuff but I don't have any oil in the house. We use coconut oil ( one of the more healthy oils) and it goes solid at 76 degrees. That won't work in the garden at night.

I can only do what I can the rest is up to God. I claim this promise from Malachi 3:10,11

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

Here is a picture of the dead critters.

The damage they cause!

Everything has holes... You would think leafy greens were meant to be lacy!

Updated picture of the garden.

Major Discouraged with Gardening

03:02, Monday, June 9, 2008 .. 3 comments .. Link

I am so discouraged.. the bad puppy was allowed free roam of the yard by a kiddo "who knew better". It went crazy in the garden and things don't look good... I just want to cry.

I am also having a serious earwig problem that no one seems to be able to help me with. I have asked everyone and researched to absolutely no avail. Doesn't anyone know what will kill an earwig??!!!

The Old Yellow Barn

09:23, Monday, June 9, 2008 .. 1 comments .. Link

This is the neighborhood eyesore... Well, okay, maybe not the only one. But this one belongs to us and it is our responsibility and I really want to change the "look". My hand is swollen from working on it... but I need more ideas. Got any ideas for me? My girls are busy helping me and we have made some headway. Here is the Before Look:

Later I will show you the After picture...

Garden Flowers

08:55, Sunday, June 8, 2008 .. 2 comments .. Link

This is my favorite time of year for my flower beds. This month is when the beds are waist high in flowers... very Cottage Garden look. So colorful and bright! I have not weeded a single weed out of the beds this year. I have been way too busy with the vegetable gardens, but amazingly they look great anyway. Brianna picked and arranged the flowers for the altar at church this week. She loves arranging the flowers.

Simple JOYS!

09:20, Monday, June 2, 2008 .. 2 comments .. Link

Wonderful homemade granola made by Christina.

home grown lettuce salad...

Hidden Mountain lakes and friends to hike there with!

Blossoms on the mountains - where it is STILL spring.

Hearty laughter... Dad giving the kids a drink after a hot and dusty hike.

BEES

06:21, Sunday, June 1, 2008 .. 2 comments .. Link

You could call us weird parents, but it's what she wanted. For my daughter's 13th birthday we gave her bees! Yep! You heard that right, she got bees. Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle even pitched in to set her up. She loves creatures of all kinds and especially birds - button quail, bobwhites, chuckars, chickens, etc... She is a real outdoorsy kid. Friends of ours had a hive for each of their sons last year and she would borrow an outfit and go watch their dad work with the bees. He suggested that she ought to have one of her own and really learn to care for bees and enjoy the end product. So, this year for her 13th birthday, she got a hive and a package of bees. So far she has been having to feed them and medicate them. Soon they should be strong enough to go foraging on their own.

The happy little bee keeper

Bunny Update...

07:15, Friday, May 30, 2008 .. 3 comments .. Link

Just had to show that the bunnies are the cutest things ever...

Whatch Out! Unorthodox Gardening in Process !!!!

03:30, Friday, May 30, 2008 .. 2 comments .. Link

I finally started on the lower garden. Considering I have put all my gardening energy into the upper garden since March... this garden is in sincere need of help. I am thinking we didn't plant it last year, either. Every time I looked at it so far this year I felt overwhelmed and tired. Today was no different, except that Brianna proclaimed that the strawberries were quite tasty and she was on her way to pick them. I was done with mulching the upper garden, so wandered down to see how the berries looked. She had a bowl of smallish - sweet berries picked. I got to looking around and decided I needed to take my husband's advice and take the weed whacker to the place. Then I took it a step farther and used the lawnmower to cut down the weeds between the rows... AH! Looked so much better already!

The kids have been dumping all the manure from the horse in the first row of the garden. They had almost filled in a whole row with manure four feet wide. Dear hubby had said that it would take a backhoe to till the garden because the soil is hard and compacted. Forget that! I don't have a backhoe... and I am not about to try tilling it myself. SO, I left the manure right where it was - supplementing the corners with generous helpings from another pile. Then, I mowed all the orchard and lawns and dumped all the clippings on the manure bed. I am downright exhausted! I look like a weed. BUT the new garden bed looks so promising! Of course, it needs a ton more help. I feel like I have turned into an organic material scavenger. Grass, hay, straw, manure, barn litter, leaves, peat moss, compost - you name it, I use it!

Ohh... and I have some ideas for fixing up the old, ugly yellow barn. Better keep that secret 'till I can manage to actually try out some ideas.

Yeah for spoiled hay!

11:09, Friday, May 30, 2008 .. 1 comments .. Link

Unfortunately for my friend, she had a whole stack of hay go moldy. Being in the gardening mode, I thought of a great use for it! She willingly obliged and we got a load of it yesterday. I have been mowing it with my lawn mower ever since to chop it up. I think my lungs are full of hay dust ... and I know my skin is itchy! I was surprised to see my big stack of hay grind down to a fraction of what it was! Ubelieveable! It just disappeared.. .I had planned to use half the stack for the lower garden. I guess I will have to see if my friend has any more icky hay . I had just enough to do the upper garden with not an ounce to spare. Now we can kneel and weed and not get dirty knees. Also, all those little seedlings in the manure we added to the lasagna layers are buried deep in hay. Like we keep saying, "if nothing else, next year the garden should be very fertile". That was a pickup load of organic material added to that plot of ground.

This was the most weedy section of the garden. So satisfying to see it so clean! In case you are wondering, we applied some gypsum to the garden here and there. You can see patches of white... that is to add calcium to our very alkaline soil.

one puppy to go

09:53, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 .. 1 comments .. Link

We have this one puppy left. He is a sweety - and what a beautiful golden retriever! He's so calm that it is getting tempting to keep him and the kids are sure he isn't going anywhere. I need to advertise him - we really do need the money for our trip to Africa! He's 12 weeks now and already knows to sit and lie down on command. He is kennel trained and very docile, but he sure makes a great companion for Holly...

Good things and bad - in the lasagna garden

09:10, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 .. 1 comments .. Link

Well, I harvested a huge bowl of greens to eat from the garden this evening. Some of the garden is looking good. Some of the garden has problems. I am not sure why, but I have some pepper plants growing bright yellow leaves. Is that too much watering? Not enough nitrogen or too much manure???? Some of the herbs have that same yellowness in their new leaves.

As you can see I am beginning to put a top layer of mulch on the garden - at least around plants I am sure will not be affected by earwigs. We had to sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the more sensitive plants as the earwigs are causing havoc on the more tender varieties. I am getting a load of spoiled hay to put down between the rows on Thursday. Hopefully that will stifle the weeds.

It's been about 20 days since I planted this cabbage. It's kind of fun keeping track of how fast they grow.

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