Coop

update- Joe went back to sllep and I had a very nice nap, it was very peaceful and my house still is.

the coop is clean. I say clean loosley. It's a place where birds poop 24/7. Adon is allergic to hay. Which means he can't help me clean the coop anymore. I'm completely exhausted and very thankful that Ephrim and Joe are napping. I am going to go do the same. Our neighbor is back after being away for a month and she's very excited about the chickens. I am so glad that she'll be helping to clean the coop. Especially since it needs to be done every week or so and in a week or so I'm going to have a brand new baby.


Joe's awake.

the more i seek you,

the more i find you

the more i find you,

the more I love you

i wanna sit at your feet

drink from the cup in your hand.

lay back against you and breath,

feel your heart beat

this love is so deep,

it's more than I can stand.

i melt in your peace,

it's overwhelming

-Kari Jobe

Coop

I think I'm going to wait for Dalen to get home to start cleaning out the chicken coop. Boy am I tired today. I think there is a quiet time in our future with my rocking chair calling out to me. I really want to move it up into my room in preperation for baby. I wonder how heavy that sucker is? Dalen may spank me if I move it by myself. Hmmm ;) I've rediscovered my embroidery floss and some cross stitch kits I had. Maybe this will be my quiet activity?

1:00 am again

What's the deal. Well I know what the deal is. I can't sleep because my brain is too busy. I'm struggling a bit, I hurt and I'm grieved in my heart over some things that I've heard lately. Things about aweful, terrible, horrible things done to children.(not mine) Some things I just cannot bear well and they linger in my heart and make me crawl into bed with my children while they sleep and hold onto them and cry.

Then I need "yammer". Fluff to fill my head and let me focus on something else.

I pray, and cry and give it to God. Then I have to let it go. Sometimes that means staying up way too late reading new blogs. It doesn't happen often though.

I was reading over at the Riggs Family Blogg and Brent was sharing why he has so much joy in the face of his daughter fighting cancer. In a nutshell he said that he will one day be in heaven and this life is just a vapor. What's a week or so of not being able to use my hip and dreading waiting to deliver this new little Wiebe?

I've always day dreamed about being one of those moms who's water just suddenly breaks so we go to the hospital and 2-10 hours later our baby is born. I'm not that mom. I'm the one who's labor is nice and gentle. Contractions 10 minutes apart until transition and even then they're only 5 minutes apart. Sounds nice hey. Well it is... but after 30 some hours it gets old. I'm grumbling here and not focusing on the whole "One day I'm going to be in heaven and this will all be a vapor" thing. I guess I haven't had as much practice as Brent and Michelle.

Wasn't God just telling me this morning to "rest". Yeah, time to get over my pity party, eat a sandwich and go to bed!


Well if that wasn't a nice little bit of realism from Momma Bean.

Night

Catching up and finishing off.

Here are the birds that we made. I linked to the tutorial in this post. I decided that I didn't like the birds that were in the tutorial so I copied Robin's. The two older kids had a lot of fun with these too.

I found these grape vine garlands for under two dollars each at Creative Zone. If I could have I would have bought them all for my gift drawer. they are adorning my front porch. Right now they are the only thing adorning my front porch other than my scarlet cord. More on that later.

So this is the soup that we made with the noodles. It was delicious! The noodles were incredible too. I used oat and whole wheat flour for them and cooked them in beef broth from our pot roast last night. I added leftover beef and veggies from the meal as well. I needed to add more water and some chicken boullion for a little more flavour. Delish! The noodles were very very fast and easy to make!

Here is Noah helping me out. Noah and I became buddies a bit today. I have realized that when it comes to kids you can't wait for them to decide to like you. You have to just like them and not give them the choice. Noah had a moment today and was very upset. I just held his little face in my hands and gave him a kiss. Then he liked me :)

And now for a baby update.

I had a Doctor's appointment today. He checked me. I'm 1 cm. The baby is very low. I think that most people are 1 cm. I have been very okay with being overdue because I've always been overdue, but tonight my hips are hurting a lot and my children are getting so anxious to have this baby here, that I'm feeling a little impatient. I would appreciate your prayers. I'm okay right now but it's been a lot more uncomfortable to even sit and nearly impossible to walk at times tonight.

Starla folded Mt.Laundry.

There's nothing more to say about that is there?

You all love her so much more now don't you?

Don't you wish you had a Starla?

Too bad, she's mine! ;)

Well I am going to catch up on some blogs, have a bath and tidy my bedroom until I'm too tired to tidy anymore. I was up until 1:00 last night baking and cleaning up from baking and I'm really feeling it right now. I think it's time for an earlyish night.

I'm no chicken master, but I can tell already that my girls are loving Jenny today! She blessed us this morning with a big bag of greens!

Of course in my excitement I forgot to document the Ladies excitement. They have come a long way in the last week and a half. I used to have to force them outside to clean the coop. Now when they hear me in the pen with a bucket they all come out!

And the best part is that today, we got six eggs! Yesterday we got four, the day before that we got three and before that we were getting two a day. I love my girls! Jenny you'll have some eggs coming your way girl!

If there are any of you out there who have fruit and veggie scraps (dairy too, but we don't give our girls egg shells) and you don't want them rotting in the garbage, we will gladly take them off your hands!

Friends

We have company today. Starla and I are trading babysitting. Some people think I'm nuts for taking on more children. What they don't know is that it makes my day SO much easier. My children are busy all day long and I only have to deal with the occasional squabble. It gives me freedom to accomplish things uninterrupted. And it's pretty hillarious. You really get to see who your children are when they are with their peers. You can also see things that need work, later, when the peers are gone :)

Joe and I made noodles for lunch today. We'll cook these in some beef broth from last nights supper and enjoy some grapes and orange slices. I'm very excited about making my own pasta. Once I've done it a little more I'll share some about it. Playmobil. Ever wonder what to get my kids? This is it. And Lego. See the guy in the bottom right corner. They lost his hair. He's bulb. He has no hair. Apparently bulb people have less rights than normal hairy headed people. No one wants to play with the bulb people. I get what bulb man is feeling.

The set up.

They have a cage for catching a bad dinosaur. Apparently it was doubling as a person cage. This is one family of 32 people, including the bulb guy. I was informed that because there were so many children that the kids who were being naughty had to go in the cage. I then enforced law over "32 person family land" saying "The people will only go in the cage if they do really really bad things and if your playmobil people are doing really really bad things then we'll put them away"

"Can we put the bulb people in the cage?"

On a side note, literally, check out the comment the Ruth left me. It's in my side blog.

Good morning.

Morning Momma

I'll do the laundry for you

Friends

Remnants. Reminds me that I am poor and just hoping for scraps of heaven in my day.

Dishes

Breakfast. Cheerios for Daddy, fresh bread for littles, old pizza for mom.

Laundry

I have been praying a lot. Reminding the Lord of my heart concerning the delivery of this baby. Part of me wants to get this done. But it's a small part. I remember all too well laboring for 40 hours just over a year ago. The Lord seems to be whispering to my heart, "Rest beloved. Enjoy your children. Things are going to get harder. Spend time in love and peace."

My house isn't clean, I still haven't found the hammock. I'm not concerned. Having a new baby will not change these things. Dishes will still come, laundry will still need to be folded. Mouths will still hunger (just more of them). Washing and preparing won't make the work dissapear.

My children have completed some of their school books. We are taking a little school break over the next few days. Momma will catch up on marking, the children will play and enjoy each other. I will read to them and cuddle them. Make nourishing food and maybe some not so nourishing treats. Food for the soul.

I will wait upon the Lord and rest in peace and joy with what I have. This new babe will be here soon enough, and I will be tired. So very tired. You never know what each new one will bring, what the challenges will be. For today I have familiar challenges. Ones that I know. It makes them simple, usually.

While you were baking.

Since I will soon be having a baby I decided that tonight would be a good night to ignore the couch full of laundry do a bunch of baking. I will freeze most of it to enjoy in the weeks to come.

No bake cookies, chocolate chip cookies (some of these beauties are for Christy and Jaclyn), everything cookies, chocolate pear muffins and a big batch of whole wheat bread. There may be a few dishes with my name on them waiting in the kitchen.

And while I was baking Joe was wandering. The other three children were in bed and Mr.SuperFantastic was working on our stairs... which I have yet to take a picture of. Joe likes Mini Wheats

In large quantities. All at once.

He is not holding his mouth open in this shot. There are so many Mini Wheats in there that he cannot close it. Joe does not understand the concept of taking bites. He works like a garberator. He just shoves it in while chewing and swallowing. There is no stopping. Just continuous eating.

Ephrim built this for me today. I love him!

Joe

"I like this Adon guy. He's really nice to me."

"Maybe he'll let me yank his nose off because I'm a cute innocent little baby?"

"He even helps me catch fish in the bathtub"

"Not like that other brother who just steals the fishing rod"

"Oh look I can suck bath water out of this fish's mouth"

And we have molars.

I just have to say that Joe looks a lot like Pastor Bond in this picture. I think it's the hair. Either that or Pastor Bond complains a lot. Or points?

Joe has been extra specially happy the last few days. Today I discovered he has two molars coming in. I hope they come quickly and are out by the time Baby Wiebe arrives.
And for those of you (all five of you who read this blog) who were dissapointed that you didn't get to see my dirty dishes, here are some more for you. Emma is emptying the dishwasher with Joe's help. You have to be fast when Joe is helping and careful not to drop knives on his big toe. yeah, that was a few day ago. Thankfully I did not procrastinate any longer and the dishes are all done. I just have to make some spaghetti and cream gravy for Dalen's dinner and the kids and I will be enjoying cheesey pizza bread with grapes for supper. I'm going very simple lately. At least it's all from scratch!

And yes Joe is holding a light sabre. Well it's a mini version that Adon made for him. He loves to whack people on the head with it sword fight :)

As promised

So just in case you didn't know I have side blog. It's not a huge side blog but it's there. I posted in it last night that I would be posting some pictures of things that I've been making. Here they are. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of my dishes until they were done. But I am very proud to say I did not come on the computer until they were all done. Dalen will be pleased ;)

My mom was getting rid of a bunch of clothes to the Sally Ann so I went through them all first and took out things that I thought I could make stuff out of. This outfit is made from a wrap skirt and a jersey dress shirt thingy. None of the things that I make are perfect but I still really like it. Thankfully most of the imperfections are in the back of it ;)

Some pants made from a shirt. There is also a matching beanie pictured below.I like Beanies and they are a good way to use up short sleeves on a shirt.

These little pants are such a great fabric, they're made from a really nice dress. There is deffinately a matching pinafore in the future for these gems.

Speaking of Pinafores... here's one. I absolutely love this, especially since it has a chicken on it and I love chickens!!!

A day in the life.

I got out of the house alone yesterday and picked up some goodies at the sally ann, after I lost my bank card and spent half an hour looking for it and getting a new one. Just realized that I didn't rotate one of the pictures.. Sorry, I'm not going to.


Electric pencil sharpener... it plugs in which I love because the batteries won't die, leaving it unused. It gets kind of tempermental when it gets hot... but whatever, it works.

I had never played this game before but I really like it. And it's great for the kids number sequencing skills. Dalen even played it with me last night. I won, just in case you were wondering ;)

This old gem of a camera for Adon to dismantle. It was too easy though so it was a bit dissapointing for him... I'll go for a toaster next time.
Here is what our wheat/kamut/rye grass looked like. The oat never did sprout and the spelt didn't sprout much and went moldey. I would love to plant some grain in our yard this year. Not likely though.

They all got hair cuts and the bits we cut off went to the chickens... who LOVED it! Now we have Omega 3 eggs ;)

MMMMMmmmm smells like summer!

The name game.

I have to bribe my husband to look at name books.

If it were up to him we would pick a name by the legally apointed limit and that would be good enough. I do not want my baby to be anounced in church as "Baby Wiebe #5" I know that's what Reuban would say.

So Dalen looked in a name book last night. We've got a girl name but we needed a boy name, especially since I dreamed the baby was a boy two nights ago. I also dreamed that my nurse was a dinosaur, she was really sweet, for a dinosaur?

So we've narrowed it down to two names. Of course I can't tell you because my husband is a meanie. But you can feel free to guess and if someone gets it right you'll get a huge amount of credit and bragging rights when the baby is born. And I'll tell the names we didn't use as well.

Have fun!

Oh, and here's some Ephrim cuteness for your day!

The Smock/Pinafore

I had posted that I was going to make this smock. After spending time looking at the instructions I realized that the apron part didn't go all the way around, it was only in the front. I wanted more of a pinafore. So I spent some times and figured it out. Three pinafores later I am really happy with the final product and will be making a lot more of these.




Emma is wearing this one over her jammies. She is loving them! So am I and I think I'll have to make one for myself for an apron. Or for pretending I'm a chubby version of Caroline Ingalls.

There are three buttons in the back so she'll be able to grow into it. I was suprised when I put it on her and she was already on the second button.. good thing my kids grow slowly ;)

What a good way to use a pillowcase!

Popcorn!

Well I realize that I'm deffinately not a photographer and I do not have a photographer worthy camera. But I've still been trying to take a lot of pictures of my children to share... wether they are great to look at or not. Last night we let the kids stay up with us to watch and Extreme Makeover Home Edition. My children love this show, like Mr.SuperFantastic and I, and I usually spend most of it crying and making Mr.SuperFantastic laugh. We had popcorn and Joe is a bit of a popcorn hog! So he got his own bucket.

Don't you just love Ephrim's shorts.. they're pretty much the closest things I've seen to Jersey speedo's. He looks so stinkin' funny and cute in them and he wears all the time for bed. I love little kids little bodies and how sweet and squishy and cuddley they are!

We're big hockey fans....

Actually Dalen and my children are big hockey fans. Anyway imagine my suprise when I discovered how commited Joe is to the sport.

In case you haven't figured it out.. check out the right front tooth. Yesterday he was with me in the bathroom when he fell and schmucked his face on the bathtub. He cried and wailed for a long time but I couldn't find any swelling or bleeding so I figured he was just tired and needed his Momma. Then last night when I was getting him ready for bed I saw his tooth. It didn't have that corner missing before. Is this a sign of things to come? Will he be the first child with a broken bone...

or heaven forbid, a mullet?

My first Mistreatment.

I dont' know if you could call it a mistreatment or not. If you dont' know what I'm talking about then you need to check out this blog. Okay so this is the naughty chair, either you know what I'm talking about or you don't. Time outs happen here... that's it. It's a chair that we inherited when my Uncle moved years ago. It's lacking style, and while I am now just discovering my style I wanted this to look nicer, especially since it's by my front door. So this is how I did it.

I took the chair apart with the great little drill that Joni gave me for Christmas! At this point Adon, realizing the purpose for the chair asked me if I was trying to make it more uncomfortable. Yeah. Sure.
Then I layed the cushion on the fabric and cut the fabric to size-ish making sure that there was enough to wrap over to the bottom of the cushion.

Next I stapled each side on. Make sure your fabric is straight and not sideways or upside down.

Then I stapled the corners. You want to pull the fabric tight but not too tight or it won't lay nice and will make creases in your cushion.

Since the corners on my chair are curved my next step was just to pull all of the fabric tight and use a lot of staples to gather the extra.

This is the cushion all done being stapled. I cut off all of the excess fabric.

And flipped it over to check it out. Is it perfect? Nope, but I like it!

The top cushion for the chair was round so it required a lot more gathering and staples.

And since you can see the back of the top cushion I put a piece of fabric over the edges to give it more of a finished look.

The finished top cushion.

Okay so this is where things got interesting. I put the cushion under the chair and started screwing it on.. then the screw bit into the fabric and proceeded to chew it up and pull all of my staples out. So I fixed that and re-stapled it and decided to lay the frame on the cushion and use a sharpie to mark where the holes are.

Here are the sharpie marks. See how the fabric is all twisted up?

Okay I took the frame off and cut out chunks of fabric where the marks were and PRAISE THE LORD!! I found the screw holes from before!

The bottom cushion didn't want to screw on so well. The holes from before were stripped out and I had to move things a little to make new holes but at the end of the day I think it looks great!

Our first victim. ;)