Birthdays and other misc.

I am trying to catch up as I have been gone for awhile.

I could not get the internet to work ont his computer, and come to find out what i was trying was not working because it was unplugged…..

I am reading some interesting books right now, mostly on the Holocaust. The one I am reading is about a family of Lilliputtian dwarfs. The father was a dwarf and had 10 children and 7 of them were dwarfs. I have not read all of it, but it is about how they survived because they were dwarfs and were experimented with. I also read a book called Run,boy, Run also on the Holocaust and got several others.

Yesterday H. turned 7!! P. is going to be 9 this wednesday also which I can scarcely believe! Am I old enough to have a 9 year old?

Of course I go back to when they were born.

When I was pregnant with P. I was in MN, away from my family, had almost no prenatal care and was very, very sick my entire pregnancy. I would get so weak I could barely function, and the heartburn was awful! I was given a gift froma friend that really brightened my entire life! A train ticket for F. and I to go to MT to have him. We packed up and left 3 weeks before I was due. I was a few days overdue, the midwife who had seen me a couple times left on a trip which I was a little worried about, so after an all day shopping trip, I started having an idea something was happening. I ate a roast chicken dinner with lots of cranberry relish (which I threw up the next day) and in the middle of the night I woke up after being soaked with my bag of waters rupturing! The labor started with a bang from the beginning, but my weakness from being so sick the whole pregnancy really told on me and I was pretty out of it. I was dehyrated, weak and listless and probably could have used an IV, but I managed to get into the shower which saved me and I had him in my parents bathroom shower after 7.5 hours of hard labor.

H. was born 3 days short of 2 years later in MN. We were living without electricity, running water, in a small cabin. I was a little concerned about having him there, so found a small house to use in town nearby. I was very scared to go into labor this time and resisted it with all my might until I was about 9 days overdue and just said “Okay!” I was in great physical shape this time as I walked 2 miles everyday or more, and felt really good.

Since that was the year of Y2K, my in-laws had sort of fraked out and bought a huge store of food. When nothing happened, they said good-bye and let me tons of food! It was great except that we lived without electricity and suddenly everything started getting warm outside. The night before I invited everyone in the church over for ribs and we ate them all up! (I think there were a couple turkeys too as well as salami, cheese and ramen soup to last a lifetime almost)

I do not eat pork usually so it irritated my stomach and praise the Lord, started labor! I was half asleep and did not realize for a few contractions that that is what it was! I woke up F. and mom and they loaded the van, but F. was so nervous, he grabbed pretty much anything he could find and loaded the van so packed full that it was a major job to get it all home again. Poor guy!

I felt great, was able to handle the contractions well, but thought it was weird my water had not ruptured so figured it would be a long time. I started to feel like pushing though just a few hours after we got there and ignored it and did not tell anyone because I figured it was too soon, and the water had not ruptured! All of sudden, there I was pushing the baby out….H. was born after only 3.5 hours of labor that was not that bad.

Sad to say, though recovery was not fun. I tore very badly, from my position and he was 8 lbs. 9 oz. and only 19 in. long. and resolved to not ever tear again! Anyhow, P. got a little brother for a birthday present that year! The other ladies got together and made him a nice celebration and cake as I could not move.

What makes a boy tick?

Do you ever wonder the answer to this question? I have found myself wondering this several times this past week!

I mean what makes a almost 9 year old boy think it would be a fun thing to do to use liquid paper to paint circles around your 4 year old brothers eyes? And the bigger question in my mind, why would the 4 year old stand there and let him?

What makes it fun to stand on your head on your desk with your legs halfway up the door, somewhat bent in half? I can understand avoiding schoolwork….but why is that fun?

There may be something wrong with me too, as I was tired, making tea in the dark, and heated up the teapot, steeped it and drank it and it was not until the next morning that I realized there was a strange yellow substance on the tea pot. After attempting to clean the teapot, I realized it was a yellow CRAYON! Yeah! I boiled the tea pot, melted it all over the inside, made tea with the water, got crayon all over the pot I steeped it in and DRANK it without noticing? Why do you stick a crayon in the teapot? Second thought, maybe mom needs a break when she drinks crayon and doesn’t notice!

When i wonder these things I seem to remember an article in No Greater joy before about the ways of boys and when I had my first one, I was a bit frightened by it, he said at the end of the letter that if you pray for patience God will give you 5 boys!

I have prayed for patience alot, so I guess God thought I needed 4 boys!

My BIL often teased me about it because I have a voice that I guess is quiet, so he said I needed to say things like I meant them with my first one. I say, I guess it is quiet as it sure doesn’t sound quiet to me….but I have been told it enough so I believe it by now!

If he could hear me now, I think they usually know when I mean things, I say things maybe not louder, but firmer!

So, have I answered the question of how boys work? I don’t think so, I don’t think it is “Slugs and Snails and puppy dog tails” though!

The Color of the Soul

The Color of the Soul by Tracey Bateman

This was a very interesting book about a young man who returns to the
south from Chicago to write the memoirs of a dying woman. There is much
animosity in the south still towards his race and so he is almost killed a couple
times by the Klan.

His fascination with the story of the Penbrook family
is heightened when distant memories are stirred within him when he sees the place.
His discovery of his past as well as healing with his wife are all part of
this story, but intermixed was the whole shocking part of history of
treating someone less than an equal simply because of their color.

Since this is Black History month we have read alot about the different
people involved in slavery, abolitionists, underground railroad and many
other topics on this subject. This book seemed to go along with it and made me once again just wonder how people can look at skin color as a way to judge one another.

I saw this on a friend’s blog and it looked fun!

4 Jobs I have had

Baking cookies in bakery

Library Page

Ordering department for small bookstore

Ad Salesperson

4 place I have lived

Yreka, CA

Rexford, MT

Hubbard, OR.

Washington DC

4 TV shows I like

Extreme Home Makeover

ER Supernanny

4 foods I like

Anything spicy pretty much

Cheese-a really good cheddar cheese or pepper jack

Bread- A good whole wheat roll or toast

Cream of broccoli or mushroom soup

4 Vacations I’ve loved

Bolivia, South America

Santa Ana, CA- all the times I have been there have been great

4 places I’d rather be

I really like where I live right now, but there are a few people who I would love to have live closer to me! I would love to have 1/2-1 acre of land with a basement for the boys to run in to put our mobile home on!

People I tag

Anyone who thinks it looks fun

Baked French Toast and other things!

I have never made baked French Toast before, but decided to try tonight for the morning! I have wanted to try this recipe I found for awhile. It has a sort of brown sugar sauce with peaches on the bottom with the bread on top. i will let you know how it is! <p> I was planning some  meals around ground beef that I had a coupon for, but it didn’t come in at the store so I got a couple of chickens instead. <p>I also made a large batch of  fruit tapioca. It is a nice way if you do not have much fruit to stretch it to feed alot of people. When we lived in MN. We would make it often with orange jello and mandarin oranges. We were given several gallon cans of oranges and enjoyed this treat, because one gallon could stretch to feed all of us….which was alot when made in tapioca! We would set it in the well to set up, the water was 40 degrees and it could set jello really fast! Anyhow, it you do not have much fruit, you can make it seem like a good fruity dessert with not much cost to you this way.<p> So, good night! I hope you all sleep well!

Baking and Grocery shopping

I enjoy baking, but for some reason I do not do very much of it.

When I lived in MN, I had this stove, that worked really good up on the top, but the oven leaked propane. Since we were in the place we were and there were several thngs that did not function the way they were supposed to, we had gotten several stoves free or really cheap. For a long time I did not know it was leaking, i would feel weak and get a headache, but we often had the windows open as F. loved a hot roaring fire so even when it was below zero outside, it could be up to 90 degrees inside so when the windows were open, it felt good and probably kept us from dying!

Anyhow, when we discovered it was leaking, I had to turn it on by going under the stove and turning a small screw type thing to open the gas line to bake. It was a hassle and I felt bad while things were baking so when one day I did this and there was a small “pop”,I lived without an oven for a long time. (it was a small explosion!)

Eventually I got the stove replaced and had an oven again, but it was awhile.

I guess that habit just has sort of stuck as I do bake on occasion, but like I baked cookies yesterday for the first time in months! I think it was the beginning of Dec. when I did it last for a cookie exchange! They were good though and made me wonder why I do not do it more often! <p. I made Crystal's Whole wheat chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and some applesauce, oatmeal muffins.

One of the boys took some applesauce and mixed it with milk in a cottage cheese container one day when I was not looking, I saved it to make muffins out of and the boys liked them!

I am having such a time meal planning this week, I am sort of having a hard food week and nothing sounds any good, so grocery shopping and meal planning is so hard! Any ideas?

Some days….

You have to wonder what on earth is going on! Day before yesterday, i did something to my arm and I think mabe a nerve or something got pinched, I have not the slightest clue how to fix it, except leave it and see if it resolves itself. It feels some better today than yesterday, but it hurts really bad, enough to make me cry out a couple times! It really put a crimp in my day as I can’t do most of my normal stuff!

On the same day earlier, the car was doing something weird, I couldn’t really figure it out, but realized that after thinking about it, consulting a mechanic by phone, that it was probably just out of gas! Yeah….

What I was really proud of myself for, was I DIDN’T freak out! I did really good, I did think about it, research it, and calmly went about trying to get it fixed. It was a bit nerve-racking, but I was so pleased with myself and I know God helped me through that one! He can help me with this arm thing also!

Frugal Friday-Saving money on magazine subscriptions

I enjoy getting magazines, I am not able to subscribe to many of them, but I do have a couple of favorites! <p> Sometimes I have gotten magazines for free without knowing why!! That is always fun! There are a couple that you can get for free  if you are expecting a baby or just had one. American Baby and Baby Talk. Sometimes when  you sign up for these they will often send your name to others like Family Fun and I have gotten Better Homes and Gardens Magazine also somehow although I am not sure how!<p> There is the free cooking one like Kraft Food and Family.<p> There are others like TEACH magazine you can get  by blogging for the magazine. <p> Ask your friends and family too, because  there are some magazines like Light and Tasty magazine and Taste of Home Magazine which will sometimes give them a free year subscription to give to a friend. I have gotten a subscription to both of these that way, costing both my friend and I, nothing! <p> Keepers at Home (They do not have a website, but is one of my all time favorite magazines) had a special awhile back where you buy a subscription and you got one free for a friend. The Old Schoolhouse and TEACH magazine also have great giveaways when you do subscribe to their magazines which is always fun!  <p>  As a warning, sometimes you can get signed up for magazines you do not want  when you sign up for some free magazines. I got one that was sort of new agey health magazine and had to write and tell them not to send me anymore. It ended up going out of business at the same time I guess though and  I get a different subscription to a okay, but boring health magazine. So, look careful before you sign up for things.  Do you have favorite magazines?

Book Review- Pioneer Doctor

Mollie Moore was a fairly young woman still when she decided to defy the odds and become a doctor when there were not very many women doctors and it was very hard to be trained as one and then to practice as one was even harder. Since she was married to a doctor, she figured it would be easier and her husband was behind her during her training and as she began working in the practice with him she was frustrated that she felt like she did not have her own money and living with her mother-in-law who hated her beloved dog made her feel like she wanted more for her life. <p. Mollie left her husband, with only a small amount of money, and went to serve in a remote place called Bannack, MT. She felt out of place because not only was she a female doctor, she was without a husband.

This story continues through her struggles as a female doctor, a women’s right’s activist, etc.

I found it interesting although I could hardly believe the story! She divorced her husband because her mother-in-law kicked her dog basically and she wanted her own money and not to ask her husband for it. I cannot comprehend the that, myself. Her husband comes to her in the book, crying, begging her to come home, yet she felt like it was more important to do what she wanted to do “be a doctor on her own”.

She speaks of how a man lobbied against birth control and made it illegal to mail it through the US postal service. She was angry because she instead treated women who attempted “abortions” that were self-induced by taking large amounts of dangerous herbs and dying, or almost dying. She teaches one such woman how to attempt to prevent pregnancy without her husband’s knowledge by using a homemade thingy

She divorced her husband and later remarried with the understanding she would have no children. The other thing that surprised me was her stand against abortion! She believed it was wrong as a doctor to harm life in any form and was very angry with women who attempted this. When she was older though she was surprised with a pregnancy of her own and although the thought crossed her mind to end it, she was also angry at herself and she had a beautiful baby girl.

She even though she was married, wanted a life that was independant and free to do as she chose, she would have left her 2nd husband I believe also if she thought he would stop her from what she wanted.

It was a interesting story, a biography that was well written although I totally disagreed with most of her beliefs, it was interesting to read the history of MT. One of the thriving towns she served in is now a ghost town and not really anyone lives there!

Her daughter grew up to be a regular housewife and mother, in spite of her mother attempting to control her to stop her from ever having children also. I guess she went to buy birth control for her daughter and the pharmisist told her “Isn’t that your daughter’s decision?” and she left in a huff!

Anyhow, it was interesting historically and oh, so sad!

You can be so selfish and not really see the selfishness of your deeds, but others who look back over your life can see them and cry for you!

A long time ago…..

…about 14 years apx. ago in fact, I was babysitting my baby brother who was playing on the floor along with my younger sister. He was playing with the phone cord and could not crawl or anything, but by wiggling the phone cord managed to get a small bottle of what is called “Fray Check” off the filing drawers and grabbed it.

Being an inquisitive infant as most are, he squeezed it and got a direct hit in his eye!

There was no way to reach our mother- no cell phones then in our family, so we called poison control who had never heard of the stuff, but instructed us to rinse his eye for 10 min straight, I think it was.

He screamed for the entire 10 minutes and was so tired as were we that he fell asleep and we never forgot it!

So, why am I telling this story now? Am I simply boring you with the story of what can happen to infants tended by sisters? Sad to say, no!

Last night, two little boys got out of bed and managed to get a hold of the tube of the same brand, but the same stuff. The one boy managed to squirt into the eye and hair of the other boy and great screaming ensued! Mom, who was “highly trained” in this art of taking care of such matters proceeded to rinse his eye for 15 min. (the container said 15) then called the doctor at home, then poison control, which said I did everything right and to rest the eye with a cold compress. They now had Fray Check in the system (I wonder if from 14 years ago) and said there is nothing corrosive in it, but just rubbing alcohol and nylon in it, so just the rinsing worked well with a cold compress afterwards to rest to etc.

So that was the end of my exciting evening…thankfully it ended well!