Is It Really November Already?

Previously on Goodness Grows Farm:  

Labor Day weekend we spent camping (in luxury in our dear friends travel trailer) at Seneca Hills Conference Center - a beautiful Christian camp in Franklin, PA.  We had a wonderful time visiting with friends, despite the rain for the last few days and using the amazing facilities!  

I am so in love with this little guy!  In September, he had just started walking and he kept us on our toes as he toddled around the campsite, making sure he stayed away from the fire!

 Not sure why Maggie looks so desolate and sad, but what a funny picture!  Someone must have told her that it was her last smore for the night.  I look that way too when people tell me that.

 This was taken after Chapel services on Sunday at Seneca Hills.  We're with Jim and Darlene Cossin.  Jim was the director of Seneca Hills the years that Erik worked there as a maintenance man and then as a camp counselor.  He was a mentor to Erik and he delivered the message at our wedding.  It was such a blessing that he did that for us as he knew Erik so well and gave our wedding such a personal touch.  He and his wife are just wonderful and since we're approaching our 10th anniversary, we wanted to have a picture with them.  Not to mention to show off what our awesome little family!

 The Schoyer kids.  We've gone celebrity and combined our last name with the last name of our dear friends.  I would imagine that we spent no less than 10 days without seeing each other this summer, so to say our families were joined at the hip would be an understatement.  Since this photo was taken, our friends have moved to the Franklin area and while they've only been gone two weeks, it's been hard.  I have a wonderful friend in K, a friend like I've never had before.  The way our lives paralleled is surreal and to steal a quote from "Anne of Green Gables" K and I are kindred spirits like no other.  Our husbands joke that we are the same person in two different bodies, but as I point out, I don't like coffee and as K points out, she's not a fan of the sparkly.  I'm working on her though.  I broke out my bedazzler for her Christmas gift : )

 These two little beings are just adorable.  They treat each other like a little old couple who's been married 60 years treat each other.  Even as bully as Willie can be, he's always go time to take care of his Ellie.  On this night, we were on our way to the rec center to play and the bridge across the stream was slippery from the rain, so of course, Willie had to escort his beloved across.  "Don't worry, Ellie.  I will take care of you," is what he said as he extended his hand to her and assisted her across.

Once at the rec center, Whitaker had a ball.  Literally!

He had such a good time that he ended up in a mini bath in the outdoor sink!

 Then camping was over and we were back to real life.  One rainy day Erik quit work early and sat with Willie and Frankie.  Shortly after this photo all pictured were snoozing contentedly.

 Everyone loves playing outside, but Whitaker hates not being allowed to swing on the big kid swings. He decided sitting on Walker's lap was a better option.

 In mid-September, Erik took the boys to Mt. Hope, Ohio to an exotic animal auction where they picked up Cupcake the baby pot belly pig.  Unfortunately, Cupcake did not make it very long here on the farm because of her young age, but they loved her while she was here and I even allowed her to live in the house for a while.  Until she got so stinky and I couldn't take it anymore.

 In August, I started selling Wildtree products.  Wildtree is an all-natural food line and I LOVE it!  This was a picture of all the products that came in my first party order!  Success!

 This was my portion of the delivery!  Since, we've enjoyed a Wildtree meal at least five times a week.

 Maggie did a mini-cheer camp this Fall and got to cheer on the field with the big cheerleaders at our local high school football game.  She loved it except for "It was a lot of standing."

Willie had his fourth birthday this month.  He was the line leader at his preschool on his birthday and we brought mini cupcakes for the class.  This guy kills me.  He's lovey dovey one minute and then Mr. "Get away" the next.  Mostly though, he's a lovey dovey!

 Since Willie's birthday was actually on a Saturday, we decided to have a big party and invited all of our friends.  Our dear friend, KJ, offered to supply the makings for scarecrows - all families had to bring were the clothes to stuff.  It was a huge success!

 As you can see, the kids adored the scarecrow project!

 Another set of new and wonderful friends brewed their own beer and brought it to the festivities.  Now we all want to take classes from them and all brew our own beer!

 The yard after I called everyone in for dinner!
Scarecrow Down
Pennsylvania Scarecrow Massacre
I can't decide which caption best fits this scene.

 We're blesses with amazing neighbors who provided us with even more entertainment for the day.  Our back property neighbor hitched up his tractor to the hay wagon and took us down the road to another farmer's property where we got to pick pumpkins right out of the patch.

 It was a bumpy ride but lots of fun!

We did a count and figured we had 37 kids at our event!  Everyone stopped for a few seconds on the way into the pumpkin patch for me to capture this picture.

 Heading down into the pumpkin patch through the corn field, and nestled between the onion and potato fields.

 Our only rule:  You can only pick what you can carry!

 Baby E's first trip to the pumpkin patch.

 Baby B's first trip to the pumpkin patch.

 Whitaker loved the pumpkin patch.  He thought it was a field filled with balls!

 Two of my book league girls!

The ride back from the pumpkin patch.

 We sang Happy Birthday to Willie on the way home and he thought it was "Too Loud"

 Finally it was Halloween and the kids carved their first pumpkins ever.

 Whit even got to join in on the action.  That is until he started eating pumpkin guts and seeds.

 Poor Maggie.  Her pumpkin had already started rotting inside,  but it was still good enough to carve.

 Erik gets in on the carving.

 I help Willie scoop out the guts.

Whitaker waits patiently for everyone else to finish.

 He loves his jack o lantern!

 We asked Whit what kind of face he wanted on his pumpkin and this was the face he modeled for us.  I think Erik managed to recreate the likeness wonderfully.

 Everyone tried the vampire teeth.

 Walker's were purple.

 Our Jack O' Lanterns all lit up.

And that's what you missed !

Blue Jeans

Maggie got a copy of Tangled for Easter.  As a result we've been watching the movie on a regular basis on these rainy afternoons when the kids have been restless and normal activities are not occupying their time.

Today, after swimming lessons, while Maggie is eating peanut butter crackers, we have this conversation:

Maggie:  Can I play Barbies in my room after Whitaker wakes up from his nap?


Me:  Sure you can.

Maggie:   Momma.  I need to get thin wire.


Me:  Um, Ok.  Why?


Maggie (in a haughty, you ought to already know tone):  You know!  For blue jeans.


Me:  Wait?  Who's blue jeans.  Why do you need thin wire for blue jeans?


Maggie:  For Rapunzel


Me:  Oh, you mean your horse?  Did you name her Blue Jeans ?  (here I was thinking I was cleverly catching on to her train of thought by remembering that in the Hannah Montana movie, she has a horse named Blue Jeans so I thought Maggie had named her Barbie horse Blue Jeans).  What are you going to do with thin wire and Blue Jeans?


Maggie:   I need Blue Jeans so he can marry Rapunzel


Me:  I still don't understand why you need thin wire!?


Maggie, thoroughly exasperated with me:  Mooooommmmmaaaaa!  Thin Wire is Blue Jeans.  That's hims real name in the movie.  When he's a stealer, he's Thin Wire, when he's gonna marry Rapunzel, he's Blue Jeans.




 Let me introduce to you Flynn Rider also known around our house as Thin Wire.  His real name is Eugene  or around our house he's Blue Jeans.

I'm so thankful I can count on my kids to provide some comic relief to my day.  I wish I could capture in printed word the frustration, irritation and exasperation in Maggie's tone as we were having this discussion.

I'm trying not to think about the fact that in just a few short years, she may be speaking to me in that tone all the time.

In case you were in need of some more clarification about the characters of Tangled and all things Disney:

 the horse in Tangled is named Mass-i-mus.  


Cinderella  has a fairy godmudder because fairy godmudders are good.  


It turns out that Mother Gothel, the woman who steals Rapunzel from her Royal parents, is a Fodder-god-mudder.  Fodder-god-mudders are bad.  


I'm glad we don't have any Fodder-god-mudders around here.  

The "Hoopty Cough"

We've got the Post-Farm Show Hoopty Cough at our house.

For those of you that don't know, the Hoopty Cough is that deep, chest rattling, bone jarring, head pounding, voice hoarsing seal-like bark that affects many people this time of year.  

I made the colossal mistake of saying to Erik, "You know, here it is mid-January and no one has been sick!"

The next day I noticed a weight depositing on my chest.  It got heavier and heavier throughout  Monday but I kept fighting it off because I had a Kindergarten meet and greet to attend with Maggie, and a double date with new friends Monday night.  It got so bad I even dragged our new friends to Target Pharmacy for some Mucinex DM!

Despite my best efforts to avoid it,  I woke up Tuesday morning still fighting, but by mid afternoon, I had developed the full-fledged syndrome along with a fever, chills, body aches - well, you probably know what it is like.    

No one else seemed to have any symptoms, so I thought I had avoided spreading it but late yesterday afternoon, right about the time I was feeling better, the rest of the house started showing symptoms.  

This little guy is sick, but you'd never know it.  The poor fella even vomited all over me last night then looked up at me with that big four tooth grin!  

This gal told me she was worried because her voice sounded different.  And it did.  It sounds a lot like mine - like there's something stuck in her throat.  I told her that we had frogs struck in our throat.  Now she wants to know how frogs got into our throats.

 This boy may or may not be sick.  He won't sit still, so I can't tell if his too-warm-to-the-touch face and body is from that or from an actual fever.  He keeps telling me that various parts of his body hurt so I will give him cough drops.  The boys knees hurt "reawry bad, Momma.  Serioiuswy!"

I feel the worst for this boy.  When he is sick, it shows.  He gets pasty white, he gets dark circle under his eyes, and he truly just lays around.  Usually when given the opportunity to watch TV, I often find him wiggling and jiggling and playing with other things while he watches.  Today, I hooked up the TV in his room for him so he could stay in his bed, and he was still.  Poor guy.  

Everyone has been appropriately dosed with acetaminophen and is resting quietly watching the TV shows they aren't usually able to watch during the day. 

I'll be catching up on everything I didn't feel well enough to get to the last few days.

And spraying the house down with Lysol.

Busy, busy!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOVEMBER!

I had to say that LOUDLY because I really cannot believe it.  The weather this week makes it pretty impossible to believe also.  Here in Western PA, it has been sunny and warm.  The perfect week for me to ignore all my chores and concentrate on washing linens, curtains, and anything else I can get away with hanging out on the line to dry to get that wonderful smell.  I'm not planning on doing my bedroom linens until Thursday or maybe even Friday so I have the entire weekend to enjoy the smell.  Erik laughs at me, but more than the smell, I LOVE the way sheets taken from the line are so taught and crisp on the mattress.    Seriously, can my life get more mundane?

I have so much to share from the past few weeks, I'm not even sure where to start.  I guess I'll first start with Schwalm family photos.  They went extremely well and turned out great.  Especially since I, the photographer, had to be in the pictures.  I had several obstacles to overcome one being that I was to be in the photos, second, that the location I chose, the neighbor's pond, had no good place to set up my tripod as the entire breastwork was only three feet and then steep cliff!  I wanted to get as much scenery in as possible, but still get good close-ups.  Challenge accepted!  I managed to get the tripod set up with the telephoto lens because I had to set the tripod so far away.  But, all turned out wonderfully.  Except, as usual, Walker had one of his bouts of sullenness (as evidenced by some of the family portraits) and Will ran out of patience pretty quickly but my in-laws all seem pretty happy, so it's all good!  We all even kind of matched.  I had planned that my family would be wearing those shades of green and purple, but it just so happened the rest of my in-laws tried to match too.  You know how I love me some coordinating outfits : )

Halloween.  For some reason (let's not go into the psychosis that is driving me in this post, kay?) I am compelled to try to DIY my kids Halloween costumes. Again with the coordinating!  We went to my hometown because my mom's side of the family was having a soup cook off.  We had the kids walk in the Halloween parade on Saturday in my hometown and then we went trick or treating to a few family and friends homes.  My four are the bees and my nephew is Harry Potter and my niece is a pink pig.  I must be completely clear about her being a  pink  pig.

 As is tradition, the week before Halloween, we went trick or treating at our local Mall.   Here are my little bees at the mall.  I have to say, Walker's costume looks pretty good for doing it last minute.  I got the black sweats (I had to turn the sweatshirt inside out because NO STORES SELL ANYTHING PLAIN ANYMORE!  Everyplace has all that graphic tee  crap on it.  Don't even get me started on all the graphic print crap everywhere!)  So, I just used gold duct tape to make strips on the black inside out sweatshirt.  The headbands were from the Dollar Tree.  I had to rip other crap off them to re-invent them as antenae, but it was easy.  And believe it or not, Maggie's skirt was SUPER easy.  It is just yellow petticoat netting and black tulle.  I found a great place to buy Tulle online.  This way, she has a costume AND a "dress-up" outfit when Halloween is over.  I found Whitaker's costume at a consignment sale for $6 and Will's costume was one I had from when Walker was little.

Happy first Halloween, precious boy!

We ended the weekend in my hometown with a soup cook off among family members.  It was a blast.  We had eight entries and four independent judges.  I won't go into how it was fixed because I didn't know that two of the judges DON'T LIKE MUSHROOMS and I made MUSHROOM BISQUE!  I'm not bitter about the fact I came in DEAD LAST with a recipe that is absolutely delicious!

The judges had privacy in the formal dining room at my grandfather's house so they could judge the contest.

 My mom dishes up four servings of her soup for the judges to taste with help from my Aunt.

 My Uncle (the guy who thought up having the contest), my mom and my Uncle's wife.

 The rest of the family noshes on fresh bread and other tasty items while waiting for the judges to deliberate.

My brother in law, also a soup contestant, got his dad to be one of the judges.  His family does lots of fun stuff like this, so JD & Mr. Mik have lots of experience with food contests.  I wish I would have had my camera handy when Mr. Mik was reading the official contest rules - they were awesome!  I did have have it when they read the results.  Not good for me.  Not good at all.

Ironically, my sister, who made chicken noodle dumpling soup, was the winner.  Even though my Uncle (the creator of the contest) kept telling her, "Kate, no one is going to win with Chicken Noodle Soup."    

I'm not bitter though!

We're having a meatball contest winter, 2011.  All I can say is watch out family.  This loser is ready for redemption!  I'm pretty sure I have a pretty good advantage as my soup contest winning sister is pregnant and expecting her third child in February.  I'm hoping by the time we have the contest, she'll be in that stage of pregnancy where she doesn't want to do anything.  At least I'm counting on it.  

Fwee!

Happy Birthday, Dear Willie!

My third born is three.

I don't know what to say about this boy.  Right now, he's a Momma's boy.  If he's hurt, hungry, angry, sleepy, happy, or one of the other seven dwarfs, he runs to Momma.  It's a blessing and a curse.

He likes to wear princess dresses.

He cracks me up every day.

He's scared of giants and locks all of our doors at night to keep the giants out.

He loves to help his daddy and is not afraid to try anything.

I'm afraid he may try to jump off the roof one day.

He's our 95/5 child.  95% of the time he is good, 5% - well that's the percentage we're worried about.

For those of you that may of missed it, here's his life (thus far) in photos.

A Day In The Life Pictorial

In the morning, I wake to this little lovey.  He lies in his bassinet and coos and talks until I get up and get him out to feed him.  When I peek over the edge of his bassinet and he sees me, he gives me a huge smile and my heart swells with love.

Walker loves helping me with Whitaker.  I taught Walker how to make a formula bottle and feed Whit.  I'm thinking this may come in handy!  Walker got his teacher and bus assignments yesterday.  It's really hitting home how much I'll miss him.  This morning when he woke up, he was telling me something as he picked out his clothes, and I kind of got lost listening to him -  flashing back to him as a little guy and looking at how grown up he is now - how he seems more like a boy than a little boy.  *Insert sobbing here.*

After supper when I went outside, here's what I saw.

This is one Cookie.  She is a pygmy goat and is pregnant.  Heavens, does she waddle.  I feel for ya, sister.  I think she's very glad the temperature has dropped finally.

 Erik cleaned out the barn last night so the herd was released to the yard.  We have a couple really cute babies too.  They are so fun to watch.  The large furry animal on the right is our LLalpaca or Allama - it's an Alpaca/Llama cross.  He tends the herd and watches for predators.

Three months ago, this little guy didn't like his baths so much.  His tub must have felt so big and scary.

Last night, this big guy got a bath and now look at how small the tub is.  He's going to be able to go in the big bath tub soon.  I can't wait until he enjoys splashing and playing in the tub.  But then, he'll be growing up.  I'm not ready for any of them to grow up.

 Maggie has been so worn out at night lately that she just fell asleep on the daybed the other night after supper. I am glad that sending kids to bed dirty is not cause for protective services to take your kids away from you.  Because I'd wager that this summer at least 5 out of 7 nights a week my kids go to bed with a considerable amount of dirt on them.  That's ok - skin, hair, clothes and sheets all wash up pretty easily.

Because moments like this go pretty fast!

My Sensitive Soul

As first grade approaches, I've been struggling with what I assume are normal worries about what is going to happen when Walker gets on that bus in September.

What will he learn from the big kids on the bus?
Will his teacher care for him as much as his Kindergarten teacher did?
Who IS his teacher?
Who in their right mind thought it was appropriate for a six year old to leave their mother for 8 hours a day?

All of this stems from the realization that he will be away from me more than he will be with me during the day.

If you are at all familiar with this blog, you know that I do not suffer from a delusion that life is simple and smooth when all the kids are home.  I know from other hearing other mothers that it is kind of nice to have a little extra time in the day to devote to the other children - to be able to run an errand and not worry about getting home in time to get a kid on or off the bus within a two hour time limit.  I know in my heart of hearts that Walker likes the structure of school and like me, enjoys the academic time and like his father, enjoys the social time.  I know that teachers are wonderful people and most of them are in the profession for the right reasons.  They will not only teach my children, but care for them and show them kindness and empathy and be sensitive to their little souls.

It's just scary to think that he will be gone so long without me there to supervise and protect him.  Walker is my sensitive child.  Maybe I'm a little hyper-sensitive to this because I was allegedly a "sensitive" child.  Except when my family refers to me as sensitive, I don't get the feeling that they found it as heart wrenching and endearing as I do when I say it about Walker.  They refer to it as if it was a fault.  I don't see it that way so much with Walker.  Sure, being sensitive has its drawbacks, but it also puts you in tune with things that other people don't notice.

For instance, last night was the 4H dance at the Butler Farm Show.  I could see that Walker wanted to dance and he just kept wandering around the dance floor hoping to get integrated somehow.  Luckily, another lovely lady happened to be there and she asked Walker to dance with her and her friends.  Walker was in heaven when Ms. Stacy had him join her on the floor.  

He was so excited.  Not only because Walker has a thing for older girls, but because someone included him.  Walker is usually very brave and social, but in situations like this, he becomes shy and awkward.

He had a great time dancing with those lovely ladies and I thank them from the bottom of my heart for being so kind. And I thank their parents for teaching them to be inclusive to the little kids too.  I hope that my parenting allows my children to be so generous.

Unfortunately, I still have some work to do.  Despite my best lecture about being a gentleman and being kind to the girls, Walker had some trouble finding his rhythm with one of his little friends.  Miss Maggie (not his sister) came to the dance hell-bent on dancing with Walker.  Her mom told me she had been telling her all day that she was going to go the the dance so she could dance with Walker.  When that slow song came on, she put him in a choke hold so tight, no one was cutting in.

     

Walker didn't take it so well.  I had a hard time getting good pictures of it because it was so dark in the tent and I was shooting one handed so I couldn't manipulate my camera settings,  but the above pictures show Walker's extreme joy at being manhandled by little Maggie.  In the photo on the left, Maggie is attempting to do some "Dancing with The Stars" type spins.  In the second photo, well, I'm not at all sure what is going on, but he just looks miserable, doesn't he?  I'm betting part of him wanted to dance with Ms. Stacy again, and part of him was embarrassed by the extreme affection Maggie was showing him.  My guess is that he was torn because he knew he couldn't show her blatant disrespect by telling Maggie he didn't want to dance, but he wanted to make it known to Ms. Stacy that he was available for future dances if she was interested.  As soon as that slow dance was over, Walker asked to go home.  We walked over to a nearby bench and talked about how it is important for a gentleman to be kind to all the ladies, and that it is OK to dance with lots of girls and be kind to them as their friend.  We talked about how some girls don't get asked to dance and that how it makes them feel good when a nice young gentleman asks them to dance - it doesn't meant you have to like them as anything more than a friend, etc.  

I don't know how much of it is sinking in, but my hope is that by the time he's a teen, he has incorporated my lectures and is a kind gentleman who will treat the ladies with respect and thoughtfulness and that he will find pleasure in doing so.  

After all, he may be my only hope.  So far the only signs of sensitivity the other children show is the injustice of them not getting their own way.  I guess my first lesson with them will be empathy.

Fair Dance 2010

Last Friday night we braved the torrential rain and headed up to the fair to participate in the Pedal Tractor Pulls and to let the children go to the 4H dance to celebrate the end of the week.

Here is some not so great video I took with my trusty Canon point-n-shoot of the pedal tractor pull (which Walker took 1st place in his age division) and of the dance later in the evening. Erik and I got so much joy out of watching our kids dance and play. It took them a long time to warm up to the whole dancing thing - well, except for Willie J. He was very enthusiastic about dancing and sidled right up to the speakers and got his groove on. It took Maggie & Walker a little longer to actually start dancing. For a while, Walker kind of just ran around the barn and Maggie just sort of stood there with her hands in her pockets and wiggled. It was quite comical. Finally, during that line dance song that is so annoying where it's a series of slide to the left, slide to the right, jump 5 times, etc., one of the older girls encouraged our children and told them what to do and they LOVED it! I think Walker developed quite a crush on her because the rest of the night he tried to dance within five feet of her. She was so lovely to take time to encourage the children and I don't know her name or anything about her except I love her because she was so lovely to my children.

Watch how Will weaves his way around the dance floor to find someone willing to boogie with him. He'll wander into the middle of a line dance just to get some attention. He doesn't care - he's going to find a dance partner if it kills him!

I'm looking forward to many more years of watching my babies grow and do fun things like this with them and for them. I hope they become treasured memories for them the way they already have for me!

Enjoy!

P.S. Please ignore my cheering during the pedal tractor pull portion of the video - it's hard to be the videographer and mom at the same time. Oh - and I think that is my (insert sarcasm here) wonderful voice you hear singing along during some of the dance video. I didn't realize that little camera had such a good sound recorder!

**Due to some problems, I've removed the video from here and included a link instead:

Tractor Pull and Dance

Time in Perspective

 When this guy got on the school bus for the very first time to go to Kindergarten:

This guy was just a figment of our imaginations:

                                   Whitaker

It's amazing how fast life can change.  It still feels like yesterday that this guy was born:

                                  Walker

And now six and a half years later, he's having his last day of Kindergarten!

First day:                                                                                  Almost last day:

 

I can't even believe this outfit still fits him.  I'm glad to see at least that the shorts are a little shorter on him 10 months later.  If only his hair was a little longer!

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer and the rest of summer brings you great joy and countless memories!  

Randomness 1-16

1)  I would not have made it through the last 4 weeks without the help of my very good friend seen here:

I only have one at lunch time and somedays I want to cry with joy at the cold fizz sliding down my throat.  Most days I'm praying that the cold fizz will provide me that extra boost around supper time, as all mother's know is the "witching hour" when I'm at my most tired and all hell seems to break loose in and around the house.

2)  Whit is an absolute angel.  He sleeps and eats and dirties diapers.  He's just starting to have more "awake" time during the day and shows extreme fascination with my hair line.  I highly suggest to all blond mothers that they color their hair dark because infants find the contrast between the white of the forehead and the dark of the hairline irresistible.  People comment all the time on how intently Whitaker watches his Momma.  I smile and say "Thanks" but I know the reality is that the contrast on my hairline is what is most interesting to him.

3) Potty training a 2 1/2  year old in the weeks after his new baby brother is born is a stupid thing to try to do.  Maybe I will write a book:  The Eight Stages of Potty training:

                  1)  Excitement:  In this phase, both parents and child are excited to start the process

                  2)  Encouragement:  In this phase the parents try to encourage each other and the child to                keep trying.

                  3)  Bribery:  In this phase, parents attempt to bribe the child with candy and toys to use the potty consistently

                  4)  False Accomplishment:  In this phase, the child has consistently gone to the potty several days in a row and has successfully been wearing underwear with no accidents.  This phase lasts just long enough to get parents excited that they have officially potty trained said child.

                  5)  Regression:  In this phase, the child starts pooping and peeing in his pants again.  

                  6)  Exasperation:  In this phase, parents are tired and worn out.  Mom is especially tired of changing underwear and washing them but is equally tired of cleaning up poopy diapers.  This is usually when parents tell their friends they think something is wrong with their child and that "this one" probably won't be going to college.  In fact, they are pretty sure the kid won't even make it to Kindergarten because he won't use the toilet.

                 7)  Denial: In this phase parents deny that they have started the potty training process.  The phrase, "He'll let us know when he's ready" is thrown around a lot to grandparents and neb-nose friends who want to compare kids achievements and gloat that their kid has been potty trained since he was 18 months!

                 8)  Acceptance:  In this stage the parents just accept that they will not be potty training this child any time soon.  They give up and buy another jumbo pack of 100 size 5 diapers.  Three diapers into that jumbo pack of diapers, the child will decide he wants to wear big kid underwear and use the toilet all of the time and will potty train himself in a matter of minutes.  Parents will then accept that they are stuck with 97 size 5 diapers.  

Right now we are in the Exasperation phase and rapidly approaching the Denial phase.  My hope is that the Acceptance phase will be fast.  It seemed to work with Walker - as soon as we "gave up" on potty training, he started going on the potty all the time.  And just so I don't feel like a total failure in the potty training department, I'd like to point out that Maggie was potty trained at 18 months.  We won't discuss the fact that her being potty trained had  nothing to do with me other than me forgetting to pack diapers for her one day when she was visiting her grandmother and Mimi put a pair of underwear on her and she never looked back!

I'm still taking credit for it!

4)  I got Mastitis this time around and boy was it awful. I felt the milk duct getting clogged on a Thursday night - tried to circumvent the mastitis by using warm compresses, pumping or nursing every hour, etc., but to no avail.  I woke up Friday with a mild fever and by afternoon had a temperature of 103.  I attempted to get to the Walgreen's clinic and the new FastER care emergency center - Walgreen's staff was at lunch and the new FastER care did not take my insurance yet.  So, I had to come back home, wait for Erik to get home from work and then drive myself to the ER where I was given IV fluids and IV antibiotics and waited for blood tests to come back. Luckily, the infection hadn't affected my blood counts so I was able to go home with a prescription for an antibiotic and instructions to REST!  Easier said than done, but I was feeling much better by Saturday morning.  Sunday was even better, but I was so tired still.  Now I'm all healed and feel much better.  

5)  I don't remember feeling so tired with the previous three babies.  I guess running after three kids and then tending to an infants midnight feeding demands is really exhausting.  

6) I forgot how much I love my hair postpartum.  It is even thicker and longer and curlier.  It will start falling out soon and look gross for a while until my hormones level out again.  

7)  The "big" kids have been so great with Whit.  They love him dearly and try to help me out as much as possible.  The possibly love him too much!

8)  I am both bothered and glad that Walker has still had school this past week.  It has been nice to still have a routine where I have to get him on the bus and to school and the three "little" kids all go down for a nap in the afternoon, but I feel like he is missing out on summer.  We went to visit my mom for a quick overnight Saturday to Sunday and the weather was so gorgeous and it was so relaxing sitting at my Papa's pool and letting the kids swim with their cousins.  I wanted to stay a few more days but we had to get back so Walker could finish school.  He'll be done Friday and then we'll really start having some fun!  

9)  I already worry about what type of relationship I will have with Maggie as she grows up.   

10)  I worry more about how we're going to afford to feed three boys!

11)  Whit had jaundice when he first came home from the hospital and the visiting Nurse and the PA at the pediatrician's office said they wanted me to supplement my nursing schedule with formula.  Ever since, I've been giving him a formula bottle about once a day and each time I prepare the bottle, I think how easy it is to do and have about three seconds where I think about giving up nursing.  Then I feel guilty.

12)  Walker devastated me a week ago by getting a "buzz" cut.  In my opinion he was scalped!  I cried when he walked in the door.  I'm still having a hard time getting used to this "hair cut."  Thank goodness it has grown in so much already!

13)  We did a family photo at my Mom's house the other day.  Walker was having a particularly difficult time getting in the mood of posing for pictures.  His dad gave him a little lecture and my sister managed to catch it on film.  This is one of those photos that needs no words - you can tell right from the start the jist of what is going on.  It will be one of those timeless photos we have in our album.  

14)  Me and my sisters:

15)  All the grandkids & Nana enjoying their favorite "toy" at Nana's: 

16)  My blessings:

Camp With Me 3

Camp With Me 3, originally uploaded by Seneca Hills Bible Camp.

Walker and his cousin are at Seneca Hills Bible Conference this weekend for Camp With Me Primary. Their Mimi Schwalm is there helping them enjoy their camping experience. Next year, they get to camp all on their own! Looks like they are having a pretty good time. Can't wait to hear all the stories when Walker comes home Saturday!

Where did those days go?

I didn't sleep well last night, so I am up early - well, early for me.  I'm not really a morning person - not a good trait for a farmers wife.  Anyway, I visited all my usual morning websites and blogs and nothing had changed since yesterday so I decided to look through my iphoto library and realized I took a bunch of pictures I hadn't realized I had!  Since this blog is aimed mostly at keeping family and friends updated on what is going on here at Goodness Grows Farm, I thought I'd just post pictures and some little stories inspired by them.

This boy just melts my heart.  He works harder than most grown men.  Everything he does, he does with all of his heart.  He's kind, responsible, caring, and sensitive.  In fact, there are times I fear he is too sensitive.  I worry about his heart and am afraid it will be broken many times in his life.  He is innocent and everything a little boy should be!

Did I mention how much I love his freckles?  These photos were taken back in March, right after a hair cut - his hair has grown out a lot since then and on humid days, it gets really curly.  He hates it and wants to get a buzz cut for the summer, but I keep putting him off.  I fear he won't stand for it much longer.

This little boy also melts my heart, but he challenges me in ways I never would have imagined.  

He is stubborn and strong willed and at times quite a bully.  He is independent, yet is fearful of doing things without his siblings.  He, like his older siblings,  has been blessed with impossibly long eyelashes.  We recently had a bit of a melt down because he was having a problem with the new sunglasses he got.  He was telling me they were broken and I couldn't figure out what he meant by "broken, Momma!"  Finally, I had him put them on and I looked all around his face to see where they were broken.  When I looked down on them from above, I could see his eyelashes were smashed against the lenses.  Poor guy's eyelashes were too long for him to wear the glasses so far up on the bridge of his nose!  Who complains about that?  

We're also working on potty training this little guy.  He went through a phase for a while where he always had to be wearing this blue skirt from Maggie's dress up bin.  On this particular day, he has on sweat pants, pull ups, the blue skirt and his muck boots.  I told him if he was going to wear the pull ups he wasn't allowed to pee in them.  Well, that worked, but he decided to pee outside, far away from me and then couldn't get all of his pants back up.  He was pretty stuck.  Of course, being the good mother that I am, I had to take pictures of it before I could go help him.

This little princess is something else!  She's smart and sassy and quite the tattle tale.  She doesn't restrict her tattles to things the boys are doing wrong - she gives me updates on everything that is going on.  She tells her stories with such passion and animation that even when she is being a tattle tale, it is quite funny to listen to her story.

She and Will are my big sweets eaters.  They would eat sweets 24/7 so I have to be very careful on what they are allowed access to.

Maggie & Walker have their very own cowgirl/boy hats.  On this day they were playing cowboys/cowgirls and were wearing their hats and boots.

Will was very disappointed to not have his own hat.  All we had left was a costume type hat that I had to modify to fit him.  He was pleased as punch, which is all that matters in the moment.  However, I have a feeling that when this photo comes to surface sometime in the future, I'm going to get in trouble.  Something along the lines of "sure, typical third child, always getting the left overs!"   Willie J, my consolation to you is only this:  Imagine the short end of the stick your new baby brother is going to get!"  Poor guy - I had to find a super larger rubberband and wrap it around his hat and chin to keep the at on him!

Scenes from fishing camp at my dad's.

Enjoying the last days with the puppies.

Will is obsessed with goggles.

Will falls asleep in our bed.  Typical male.

Maggie exerts her sisterly dominance and applies lipstick to her little brother!

Will isn't such a photogenic model demonstrating his recent lipstick application!

Walker holds Tubby - now named Levi as we say good bye!

I can't express with words how much joy these creatures bring to my life.  We wait with great anticipation for the arrival of this little guy.  We're at two weeks!  But we wouldn't be too disappointed if he came sooner!