More random photos and other tidbits.

For those of you who might care about such things, my other blog at http://www.homesteadblogger.com/tryhardhomemaker/, which had been sorely neglected for almost a year, is now active again. It's more craft-and food-related, and less family- and kid-related, than this one. Larry also has a blog at http://going-to-the-ant.blogspot.com/, although he has trouble finding time to post on it. I know he has things in mind to post though, and as soon as I give him some time to do it, he will.

In other news, Larry's garden outside is coming along. He's been planting boxes of lettuce, beans, marigolds, peas, and perhaps other things that I can't remember right now. I'm loving this; growing some of our own food is something I've wanted to do for a long time, but a) I don't know how and b) I am scared. LOL. Well he's not scared, and he's doing great.

I was supposed to have surgery yesterday, but the surgery was postponed by the hospital at the last minute. Now it's scheduled for next Tuesday, so if you could pray for me that would be appreciated. Even without surgery, yesterday was eventful as we had to take Evelyn to the ER. She had a hair wrapped around her toe so tightly that we couldn't tell, after we'd tried to remove it, whether we'd been successful or not. We took her in to be on the safe side. She is fine now, after a bit of a rough night. I'm guessing her toe is kinda sore, and she was sad about that and looking for reassurance. Poor lil baby. :(

My work with the pregnancy support center is going well. I have finished rewriting and editing the main part of the curriculum -- that was the largest and most intense part of my work, I think. Now I have a bunch of admin stuff to do to wrap that up, and then I can work on expanding the curriculum to cover more topics. It's been interesting so far, and I've learned a fair bit about a few different things, so although it's voluntary work, there are definitely benefits for me as well.

The children are doing really well, except for Evelyn's little toe issue yesterday. They are generally very healthy, although we have a few skin-related issues with Seth and Evelyn. No surprise given the sensitivity of both parents' skin...

Jonathan and Mae continue to excel in homeschool. They are each at the head of their grade. :P They are also taking piano lessons, thanks to their beloved Mammam. We have yet to succeed in practicing regularly but we'll get there. The other kids are quite a handful, but only because there are so many of them. Separately, they are quiet and well-behaved children. LOL. We were stopped twice in one shopping trip recently by mothers telling us how they don't know how we do it; they each only had two children and couldn't control them, and our six kids were so well-behaved. We get that a lot -- it's not really because we're awesome parents but we do have some awesome kids!! Plus we have an awesome God and He certainly helps us every step of the way.

Anyway, here are some photos, as promised. I don't have one of Jonathan from the last week or so but I'll try to remember to snap one soon. :) Also, I can't remember why Mae was so cranky in her photo but it's a genuine representation of who she is right now so I'm gonna post it anyway. :P

I can't remember what this video is about....

Oh yeah, that's right. Nothing. :)

Sharing the love...

This is what we hear from our precious girl about 70% of the time that she's awake -- she is a wonderful blessing and this time will pass, but I didn't want anyone to miss out on the experience of this six-week-old's crankies. ;-)

Ack. I'm such a blog slacker. :(

I sincerely apologize. Time goes by so quickly! Yikes.

At this point there's nothing much to report so I'll mostly just post some photos, since that's probably what you really want anyway. :)





At some point I'm pretty sure Evelyn was 4 or 5 days old...and then, all of a sudden she was 4 or 5 weeks old. I don't know how it happens. All I know is you blink, and it's here. She's not a newborn any more, she's an infant. There are some ways in which this is happy, and others in which it is not. I am sure that most of you can relate.








My girls and I had a girls' day out at the markets...nothing exciting, but it was lovely. I love having little girls in my family. They already seem to "get it"...not going to say anything else because those who get it will get it. :-P

My two "big girls" ended our girls' day out like this (above) which made me feel a little less doubt about us having had "so many" children, as I'm pretty sure my children will have lifelong friends in each other, and that is priceless (believe me, I know this. I would do anything for my siblings. They are my best friends.)




Today, Evelyn is 5 weeks old. Her face is growing up. She does smile a bit, but she's had the snuffles and hasn't been as smiley for the past couple of days. :(


Jonathan is about the sweetest kid I've ever met. He loves Evelyn. :)


Seth will be two next month!! He's got all kinds of words and phrases now, it's easy to figure out exactly what he wants, and unless you tick him off, he's as sweet as pie. :-P


Okay, these are radishes. Not just any radishes, though. These are the first ever ever ever vegetables successfully grown by either Larry or myself. They seemed photo-worthy to me. :) Hopefully more photos of garden-related efforts will be forthcoming in the near future.

Homeschooling is going well. Jonathan and Mae are both now enrolled with the distance ed. school (based a few hours south of here) and they're doing a great job. We had a teacher from the school visit us about a week ago, and she was really happy with our family's program and where our kids are at academically. This was very encouraging to Larry and I both, although we're also aware of areas in which we'd like to improve and develop our teaching methods, etc. I don't think we're ever going to feel like we've got it down, and I think that's a good thing.

If anyone has any input, I'm interested in feedback/thoughts relating to homeschooling and a vegetarian/vegan diet specifically (current areas of research in our household)...so leave your thoughts in my comments if you feel up to it. Thanks.

--Love, Deb xox