2012 Ladies Retreat

It is always nice to get away and enjoy time with other ladies. This last weekend I was privileged to go on the Twin Peaks Bible Camp Ladies Retreat. The speaker was Kathy Ptazak from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was a very good time spending time with ladies from all over, especially ladies from my church. Here are a few pictures of our time.

Catching Aspen leaves as the wind blows them off.

 The cabin

Taking us up to the cabin so we call haul our stuff down in the gator.

As great as the retreat was for me, I had to take time and plan out meals for my family while I was gone and then when I am gone I wonder how things are going for Gil. He decided to keep a little journal of what was going on at home so here is what Gil wrote with a little editing and my comments in Italics:

Friday night:

Tirzah had started milking the goats before I got home and also helped Azariah and I get the eggs. However, Tirzah left the milk room without telling me what goats she had milked. She allowed a lot of flies into the milk room and failed to get Vanilla into the stall. After milking I come inside and 

Tirzah is listening to Lamplighter Theater while Tally, Tabby and Zuri are outside in the playhouse. The other two (Azariah and Zeb) have Legos all over the living room. There are also clothes all over the table. When I came in, no one knew where Zuri was. And my Wonderful Wife (WW) left no instructions for milk (meaning to save it or separate it), along with the above things, the carrots and potatoes in the chicken stew were still hard. (I didn't get them in the crock pot till about 2:30, I was hoping they would be done, but they weren't). WW did try to have supper made and ready,and i am very thankful for all the preparation my WW made. She is very thoughtful about taking care of me when she is gone. The children stopped playing and cleaned up and Zuri was still alive.

Once Zuri was found and the children started doing what they needed to do, I started separating the milk and turned the crock pot to high. The children, except Tirzah and Zuri, went outside to play. I finish separating the milk and am now washing the milk stuff.

My WW does not clean the sink or the rags in the way I do. Dirty scrubbies, and  wash cloths at the bottom of the sink not spread out and food in the strainers in the drain. I want to scream, but I carry on bravely amidst the messy sink and dirty scrubbies, watching my older boys and younger daughters play. Basically running around on the lawn yelling. All is fine for a while until I look up and see Tabby crying and Azariah on his knees yelling at the top of his lungs at himself. I am not sure what he is saying, something to the effect of "I am so stupid. Daddy is going to kill me. Why did I do that? I killed Tabby…" I watch and Tabby had stopped crying and she was standing up. She seemed ok, but Azariah is still carrying on and on. About this time I am washing the milk stuff, when Megan comes out to her car. She sees Azariah screaming and goes over to see why Azariah is yelling. She then sees that Tabby has an owwie. I can't see anything until she picks up tabby and brings her over, then as she gets closer I see the blood. Her hair on the left side is bloody and there is blood all over her neck and shoulder. So we have a head wound,( nothing new for our house).
( To add a little extra info from Aunt Megan, She was on her way to meet someone, and was already late, but she took the time to go see what was going on. She walked over and tried to console Azariah as he is screaming about being stupid and killing or hurting Tabby, she tried to tell him it was ok, but then Tabby turned and Megan saw the blood. So here is Megan dressed up and ready to go out, and she has this little bloody girl. Megan then carefully picks up Tabby to bring her in, but Tabby is all bloody and so Megan has to hold her carefully so as not to be covered in blood herself. Aunt Megan picks Tabby up so that she is holding her like she is sitting in a chair. Tabby starts to reach around to hold onto Aunt Megan's clothes (think blood on the hand) and Aunt Megan says "Here, hold my hand Tabby." Tabby complies with no problems. She then carries her carefully inside our house. Now Talitha our 4 year old, our empathetic little child, is trying to help. Megan is trying to see if Tabby has a concussion or not so she asks her what her name is, "What is your name?" she asks Tabby. However Tally answers for Tabby of course, "Tabby!" Megan says "Tally be quiet", and asks Tabby again "What is your name?" Tally then whispers, "Tabby". At this point, Megan gives up on getting Tally to not answer and Tabby to answer. Tally isn't very good at not talking. Thank you Aunt Megan for your help.)

I take Tabby and set her down in the sink and start to see just how much of a head wound she has.  First I take off her shirt and start to run it under cold water to try to get the blood out and Megan reminds me that hydrogen peroxide is good for that. (Thanks for that Megan, I had forgotten that) Tabby is perfectly quiet  and calm as I examine her. She had a deep split on her head, about ½ inch long, a pretty good cut. A fair amount of blood, but not profusely bleeding. Some pain but not so much that I can’t look at it and clean it. Megan asks if we have any paper towels. Talitha, the ever helpful child says "I'll go get one." She runs out to the barn, gets a paper towel and runs it back in to me. Megan saw that it was one little paper towel, this was rather comical as it was so small. As Megan was bringing Tabby in, Azariah finally gets up and I see he is swinging something around which I think is a chain dog leash. I am already guessing he was swinging that and whacked his little sis in the head. He runs off and doesn’t come in yet. Tally is in helping me with Tabby. After she went out to the milk room and got me a paper towel she then tries to be very helpful by suggesting a shower and special soap. I go out to the barn to get some bactine, and I tell Azariah and Zeb to come inside which they do. Megan has left by this time.

 Tabby's wound

I give Tabby a shower and ask Tirzah to help me, she had been asleep since I started washing the milk stuff. (What Gil didn't know was that I had asked Tirzah to start milking before Gil got home, but since she tends to sneeze and itch when she is in the barn around the goats, I told her to ask Gramgee for allergy medicine. That is why she had gone to sleep, but Gil didn't know that at the time.) I got upset with Tirzah because she was not helping with anything, I asked her to bring me some soap, and she just laid on the couch. She finally got up to help me by getting supper for everyone else. Azariah was taking care of Zuri for me. I finished washing Tabby and then I tried to find some thing to close up her cut, I couldn’t find anything and since it had stopped bleeding I just put medicine on it and a band aid and as far as Tabby was concerned she was as good as new. Tirzah got Zuri ready for bed and gave him a bottle. She then read proverbs and I prayed. Azariah, and Tally crashed on the couch, and Zeb and Tirzah went to bed.  They fell asleep fast. Tabby was up for another half hour or so. I finally finished washing the milk stuff and everything at 9:00 pm.

I thank the Lord that Tabby was not hit in her eye or face, and Azariah was not being mean or angry when he did it. It was just a careless mistake. I talked to him about needing to help Tabby and not feel sorry for himself, but I found out it was not a chain that he hit her with, no it was a rope which Megan told me, but seemed odd that just a rope would make the cut Tabby had. Well a rope will do that when it has a rock tied in a knot in the rope. Picture my hand to on my forehead here. This is my son…

Well some people thrive on stress, not me I have a very low stress tolerance level. When stuff goes wrong, I feel like the world is ending, so this evening I am tired and stressed but yet thankful for the Lords grace, and writing about my wife's different ways of doing things helps me to be less frustrated and puts them in perspective.

Saturday:

Basically a normal day. Chores, pancakes, mow the lawn. I thought I might try to do something with the kids, but Paige called and asked if I wanted to move a car for them, so I did from about 2 pm to 4 pm. Mike and I picked up the old nova at his dads place, we had to put the rear wheels on and air up the shocks and put some blocks in, but it worked. We took it to the guy Mike was trading it to for a jeep. Mike picked up the jeep and drove it home. Paige came over and watched the children for me.

Tirzah did very well with breakfast and lunch and supper.  All the children had a  good day. They were excited to have Paige, Parker and Sterling over. Thank you Lord for your help this day. And thank you Gramgee for your help with showers and baths for the children. Sorry Parker that you hurt your ankle on the trampoline, i hope that it heals well.

Sunday:
Ah here we go, Daddy trying to get 25 goats fed, chickens fed and watered, horses fed, dogs fed, and 14 goats milked and the milk saved and the milking pails cleaned. Of course I oversleep. What are the chances of getting us all to church on time? So thankfully WW has taught Tirzah how to cook some basic stuff. Tirzah does a great job this morning of cooking the muffins and helping with some basic things. But when I come in my children have already begun to allow the stuff to start to take over, clothes, toys, just clutter stuff is creeping everywhere, and not only clutter, but my flyswatters have been swallowed up in the devouring stuff somewhere, and I have what is probably an unreasonable hatred and need to kill flies, So Daddy suggests that if the children want to eat, than the house must be picked up, and my flyswatters must be found. Always seems like a simple basic thing to me, but what to Daddy is obvious clutter and mess, to children seems invisible. So after a few parental frustrated explanations of what has to happen, and tears, Azariah is finally able to figure out he needs to keep cleaning until Daddy says it is clean, and they have found one of my 2 swatters. Unfortunately Daddy is still missing a flyswatter and I am overly frustrated. So when Azariah whines at me asking me if he can eat, because he is on the brink of death I am sure, I refuse until he can ask without whining. Thankfully after a few more tries he regains his composure and is able to ask calmly without whining and have his muffins. Of course he sees that the one flyswatter has been right under my nose the whole time. Yes this Daddy over- reacts and makes mistakes, more often than I care to admit.

So everyone was told Saturday night to make sure that they have their shoes for Sunday. They are told again Sunday morning to make sure they have their shoes. Well 3 out of 5 isn't too bad i guess.
So by the time I finish washing the milk stuff and getting everyone ready, it is 8:55. I still need to take a shower and get myself ready. We managed to leave around 9:18, which is pretty good. We get to the church about 5 minute late or so, and of course Tally and Tabby don't have shoes, not the end of the world, but because I had so carefully told Tally to make sure she had them it was a little frustrating. Still, I don't care a lot if Talitha and Tabby don't have shoes, they take them off usually anyways. Tabby finds some (hideous) flip flops on the floor of the suburban and puts them on. Actually she finds one and doesn't want to get out of the car without the other one. Miracles still happen and I find the other flip flop and we are ready to go....or not, because now Talitha is distressed because these are "her flip flops". I get to explain in no uncertain terms that "no you will not get these flip flops because you did not obey and get your shoes earlier when I told you to." A few corrections  and many tears later we are finally on our way into the church. Sunday school was peaceful. I did have a sneaking suspicion that the loud noises and laughter from the 3 yr old- first grade room were from my children. Now the thrill of a wifeless Daddy braving church time with 4 children. What could possibly go wrong? Amazing how the privilege and pleasure of holding two children can turn a peaceful Father into a frustrated Father. I am trying to sing and praise the Lord in song and my two children that I am holding, decide that arm positions around Daddy's neck is a matter of life and death, and worthy of physical violence. There is nothing like having children who are yelling at each other and fighting in church, so I put them both down and then we just had crying and pouting. We are then sitting down and of course it is the law of the pew that the child on my left side must touch and annoy the child on the right side of me until the child on the right yells out. At least he stopped before his life was forfeited. After continuing noises and general child like pew unrest during the rest of the sermon, my oldest daughter needs to use the rest room. No big deal right? When she arrives back at our pew, she has the hiccups. This is not a child who is good at keeping noises quiet, no she just lets it out even magnifies them if possible. After looks and mouthing to her to try and be quiet which resulted in blank stares from her, I am ready for duct tape therapy. I survived, we made it through. I told my children that if they ever acted that way in church again that they would be in big trouble. Well it is good to know that even as frustrated as I was with them they were able to still say they believed I loved them.

Now we have nothing to worry about except lunch with Gramgee and Papa and then going to the Fruta fall festival. Thank you Gramgee and Papa. Of course i won't mention the lost blanket, the door lock that was flipped out of place so that the door wont shut on the Suburban, or the overreacting father who is going crazy. We did finally get us all to the fall festival and enjoy seeing WW again and being together as a family.

Gil held down the fort pretty well, but I know he missed having me around. I arrived home to find out that they were picking me up and we were headed to the Fall Festival with my parents. It was a good day too and it was fun to spend time with my family at the Fall Festival.