A Bike Ride

On Tuesday, we decided to take the children on a bike ride. Talitha and Zeb road in the bike trailer, Tirzah, Azariah, Gil and I road our bikes. We road all the way into our small town and back. It is 7 miles one way and the children road their bikes the entire way there and back. We ate lunch at the park and bought snow cones. The road was not very busy and the children did well. On the way home, it was more up hill so Gil helped Tirzah and I helped Azariah by holding onto them and pushing them. That was hard work.

Here is Azariah at the park finding a place to park his bike.

Azariah, Zebadiah and Tirzah play on a tree at the park.

The Chicken Project

My friend Rebekah and I have decided to do meat chickens this summer. We are buying a total of 50 chickens. Twenty-five each of two different kinds. One kind will arrive June 16th the next group will arrive June 30 and our plan is to butcher them on August 16th. I have never butchered a chicken. I have only eaten them.

I researched it a little bit and wanted the chickens to be free range, but don't really want 50 chickens running all around the place. So I found a chicken coop design that had no floor and is moved daily to give the chickens the ability to scratch but still be contained. We started working on it a week and a half ago and Gil put the final touches on it today. He calls it "The Tank". I have decided that this is me fulfilling the Proverb 31 verse that talks about bringing her food from afar. I bought the chickens on the Internet and will raise and butcher them, that has to be better than buying chicken from Wal-Mart right?

Rebekah and I will split the cost of the chickens, feed and then our husbands and the two of us with our eight children between us will butcher the chickens. Sound like fun? We will see.

Here is Gil working on my chicken coop. We only bought a couple of hardware items for the coop, everything else was made from stuff around the farm. Gil had picked up logs from work which he cut down with his Chain Saw Mill that he received for Christmas. The logs were free and it worked well. And we are also using the saw dust for the stalls where my goats are. I insulated the coop because I don't really want roasted chicken before we have chopped off their heads. And Colorado summers can get up to 105 degrees.

I will let you know how it goes. The first batch of chickens arrive in two weeks.

Natural Tonics for Garden Plants

I went over to my mom's house today and saw a packet of Red Man Chew. I thought that a little odd. It made me wonder if my 22 year old sister had decided to pick up chewing...(just kidding Megan). Anyway I didn't think much about it.

My parents and sister went to JUCO tonight so Gil and I went over to their house to watch the Discovery Channel. Tirzah and Zeb came over and watched How It's Made with us. After that we were getting ready to leave and Gil went over to the stove and saw a pot of brown liquid on the stove. Their was a box of Woolang Tea on the counter and he figured that they had brewed some of that tea on the stove. Gil took a swig and then saw the Red Man Chew packet on the counter, realized the taste wasn't tea, put two and two together and spit it out in the sink.

On the table were recipes for natural tonics for plants. One called for making a Tobacco Tea. I was just relieved to know that the recipe that called for Tobacco Tea didn't include urine on the ingredients list like some of the recipes did. Tirzah then assured us that Gramgee hadn't not added anything else to the pot on the stove, at least when she was over there.

I hope the tonic works for the plants.

Before being a parent, you never would have said

So, I have now been a parent for almost 6 1/2 years. That in itself is hard to believe. But then again, some of the things Gil and I hear ourselves saying to our children are also hard to believe. Things that I would never even dreamed of saying. Here are a few examples.

Azariah, did you pee on the toilet seat? (I have to remember to check before I sit down next time. I don't usually use the word "pee" but when you have just been shocked by a cold, wet toilet seat it was hard not to use the word.)

Zebadiah, don't point your p*nis at people. (I realize this is a little explicit, but we use the anatomical terms for the genitals in our family and when changing a two year old's diaper, things like this must be said to train him :-)

Don't wipe your nose on the couch or anything else besides a tissue. (This has become a bad habit of my children. Their nose itches and so they put their nose on the couch and rub it. So if you come to my house, beware of sitting.)

3 Months Old and Growing

Talitha is 3 months old today.

Isn't she cute?

Her major accomplishment this month is sucking her thumb. She found it and sucks it a lot. She is the third one of our children who decided to suck her thumb. Talitha loves to smile and Zebadiah continues to love on his sister ever chance he gets.

Fly Fishing

On Mother's day my Uncle and Aunt from Alamosa came and spent Saturday evening at my parents house with our family and my Uncle's and Mom's mom. We were eating dinner and my uncle was talking about fly fishing. Tirzah asked:

How can you fly and fish at the same time?

That same day, Azariah was carring around one of our 7 week old chicks that are fair size now and he was saying "Fly chickie fly." He also put the chick on the tractor tire and was talking to it

You Didn't Tell Me That...

We have a problem with hitting in our family. Tirzah takes it on herself to hit her brothers when she becomes frustrated with them. Because of this, about a week ago I told her that if she hit her brother I would wrap her arm up so she couldn't hit him with it. Within an hour, Tirzah had her hand bound to her side with an ace bandage. She was not happy but did O.K. with it.

This last Friday, I was inside and the children were getting things out of the van. I heard voices rising and took a peek out the window to see Tirzah hit her brother. She was upset because I wanted her to get my wallet out of the car and Azariah locked the car door before she was able to get it. I called Tirzah in and got the Ace Bandage. This is the diologue that we had.

Mom: Tirzah did you hit your brother?
Tirzah: Yes, but...
Mom: No, it is never right for you to his him, I don't care what he did to you.
Tirzah crying: He locked the car door...
Mom: Tirzah I am going to wrap your hand up because you hit your brother.
(I proceed to wrap her hand up and then wrap it to her side, she is crying and protesting the whole time.)
Tirzah: You can't do this, it isn't fair.
Mom: Why isn't it fair?
Tirzah: Because you didn't tell me that you were going to do this.
Mom: Tirzah, did I tell you a week ago that I would wrap your hand up if you hit your brother?
Tirzah: Yes, but you didn't tell me toodaaay.
Mom: I told you last week...
(At this point Tirzah becomes hestarical and we go to her room)
Mom: Tirzah you are going to be disciplined because you are crying and screaming.
Tirzah crying and yelling: You can't do that, you can't do that, it's not fair.
Mom: Did I tell you the consequences for hitting your brother?
Tirzah: You didn't tell me today.
Mom: It doesn't matter, I told you last week what would happen.
Tirzah: But you have to tell me everyday.
Mom (starting to laugh): So I have to tell you everyday what the consequences are for every offense you might commit because you can't remember?
Tirzah: No. But your yelling at me. (She was yelling at me when she said this.)
Mom in a calm voice: Tirzah I am not yelling at you, you are yelling at me.
Tirzah: You didn't tell me you were going to wrap up my hand if I hit Azariah today.
Mom really starting laugh and not being able to hide it: I didn't tell you I was going to wrap up your hand when you hit Azariah.
Tirzah starting to smile: No you didn't.

The conversation went on a little longer...

I did discipline her for screaming and yelling at me and she finally came out of the room with a good attitude. She wore the wrap for about 30 minutes and then because of her good attitude I took it off. It struck me as funny that she wanted me to tell her everyday what the consequences of her actions would be, but in reality when I repeated that back to her, she found it funny also.

When I went to leave she didn't want me to leave, but she also didn't want to pray and ask Jesus to forgive her for what she had done. I pray with my children after something like this, but if they refuse to pray after I have prayed I leave them in their room telling them they may come out as soon as they change their attitude and get right with the Lord. Tirzah is pretty quick to come out most days and when she does her attitude is good. Isn't the Lord amazing. I enjoy seeing how he is working in my children's lives.

Zebadiah has a little accident

The above pictures is of Zebadiah clinging desperately to the side of a Rubbermaid Tub with dirty water in it. My friend Leann came over and I massaged, washed and waxed her feet and this is the tub I used to wash her feet in. Well we were talking for a long time and then near the end of our time together Zeb starts crying. We look over and he is trying not to fall into the tub anymore. The water is really very dirty, but is was hilarious. I made him stay their longer so I could take the picture. We aren't exactly sure what he was doing that caused him to fall into the tub, but it sure was funny.

Tirzah gets ready for Church...

This last Sunday, Tirzah asked if she could go into my room to pick out a dress to wear for Sunday. I told her she could but to be quiet because Talitha was asleep.

She then turns to her Azariah and says, "Come on Azariah."

I looked at her knowing that two are more likely to wake a sleeping baby than just one. She see my concern and says "I want him to help me pick out a dress for me." I thought it was cute and thought it would probably be good for him to learn now since he may be married someday. They went into the room and picked out a dress without waking Talitha.

Tirzah wearing the dress Azariah and she picked out.

About 5 minutes later as I was cooking breakfast I hear Tirzah say. "How do I look Azariah?" And Azariah responds "You look really good Tirzah." How it made my heart smile to hear my son loving his sister by affirming her with the way she looks. It was really cute and it made me know that he must be learning from his wonderful Daddy.

The Princess and the Pee

You all know the classic story of the Princess and the Pea. The princess arrives at a castle on a stormy night and needs shelter. She doesn't look like a princess so the prince's mother puts a pea under her bed with twenty mattresses on top. If the princess can't sleep than she truely is a princess.

Well we have our own princess who can't sleep with a pee. She is very sensitive to wet and dirty diapers. Gil was changing her the other day and called her the Princess with her Pee.

Isn't this a cute outfit that some friends from Texas sent us? Thank you Linda and Bryan.

Goats For Sale

Mocha's Kids

Brownie -- Doeling

Fructose's Kids

Snowflake -- Doeling

Vanilla's Kid

Anne -- Doeling Nigerian/Nubian Mix