funny 12 days

I thought this was a cute video. Expect for the second day I think we have heard them all too. Seems like in this day age if you have more than 2 you get the comments.

Christmas Card

We are so slow, that I doubt we are going to get to mail any cards this year. But I wanted to share our Christmas card with everyone. My friend Jess helped us put this together, unfortunately she is too far away to actually take the pictures for us but she did put what we had together nicely!! Thank you again Jessica!
Wishing you a Very Merry Christmas! Hope you have a wonderful holiday as you celebrate Christ's birth!

"Twas the Night Before Jesus Came

I went to a Christmas tea one night last week and the speaker read this poem. I thought it was worth sharing.


'Twas The Night Before Jesus Came'
written by Unknown Author


'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.

The children were dressing to crawl into bed.
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

When out of the East there arose such a clatter.
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!

The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "it's not here" my head hung in shame.

The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound.
While all the rest were left standing around.

I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!

Snow day

and a couple of our ham.



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Just checking in to let you know all is well. We've been happily busy over here. I have a few pictures I need to get off the camera, #4 was being a ham last week!

Children are counting down the days until Grandparents arrive.

The big news of the day is James' finally received his new orders! His last day on the boat is December 30th and he starts Shore duty in 2009.


Our Thanksgiving verse this year was Psalm 118:1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

Just about ever time I asked the kids what our verse was they would say the verse and then sing this song:

Give Thanks

That is the name of the song the keiki learned Praise Hula to for this Thanksgiving. We performed today at a church on base. 4 girls and 2 moms. #2 was asked to be the point yesterday because the young lady that was to be the point ended up unable to come today. #2 was thrilled to be asked and had no hesitation to say yes. Being point means she was the one that got to stand in front and the others were to follow her lead to help them all stay in sync.

So here it is for you viewing pleasure;)




Forgot to add: this was a quick rehearsal to get use to the stage area at this location.

We started our day with some fruit soup as we ended our week in Norway.



The children really liked it. I found it too sweet for my taste though.


It was another rainy day. What to do, we haven't gone out a lot this week and were feeling a little stir crazy. I decided we should go play in the puddles. So off we go on a walk by the shore with a sidewalk full of puddles. The fun they had splish splashing along! Then we found lots of little creatures along the shore.

Some crabs crawling along the wall. It is kinda like the I spy books, can you find them?




Everyone trying to see the crabs, talk about making mom nervous! But I'm happy to say no one fell in.


Some pretty fish.

cough syrup

The above picture is about an hour after I made some yesterday. I used an organic raw sugar, it no longer has the brown look to it but is nice whitish liquid.

When my oldest was small I bought the book Kids, Herbs, and Health by Linda B. White and Sunny Mavor. I've found this a good resource and it is where this recipe for cough syrup came from.

If you'd prefer not buy the common food dye variety at the store or just can't get to the store this is a great alternative. We've always had great success with it.
You take one large onion and about 1/2 cup of sugar. Slice the onion in 1/2 inch rings. Put a slice in a glass jar and sprinkle about a teaspoon of sugar on top and repeat process until you are out of ingredients. Cover the top(lids are a great thing so the house doesn't smell of onion!) Let set about 3 hours. You take a teaspoon up to 4 times a day until cough is gone.
My children have never hesitated to take this, I think I was more so then them! But the sweetness overpowers any powerful onion bite that might be there and it coats your throat just great.
They share other recipes for coughs (and other things) in the book. We've never tried any other cough remedy because this one has worked so well for us.

Drummer boy

Every instrument he plays he says the name of instead of trying to make the sound of. :)

Bubbles

Tuesday nights #2 and I are gone as we have class(we are both participating in praise hula classes) So I usually prepare dinner and have it ready for the boys. They usually do a fairly decent job of cleaning up. Tonight when we came home my daughter came upstairs and I went downstairs as soon as we came in. She said something to me about looking at the bubbles, since I had told her to go say goodnight to daddy I assumed she was talking about something he was watching/ doing. Well as it turns out she had found a lot of bubbles around the dishwasher. See I had used the last of the dishwasher liquid yesterday and I had intended to say something about picking up some more tonight(which didn't happen because I left my list at home!) So he had used the hand dish washing soap,which created many, many bubbles. To be fair both are the same brand and as he pointed out what he used did say dishwashing liquid;)
So we had some fun bubbles going on tonight!

It is my prayer

as election time closes in, that you vote for whom the Lord has put upon your heart.


if my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14

And that you continue to pray for the elected officials as they fill their term.

Today I've learned

-That when you wait the Saturday before an election to get something notarized you will have a long wait.
-It took 31 books weighing 21 1/2 lbs to crush an egg(I'll post a picture later). The children also learned that if you use equal pressure you can not crack an egg by squeezing it.
-If you put the mixing bowl slightly crooked in the mixer then it will take 2 people to pull it out.
-A double batch of oatmeal cookies in the mixer above is too much batter to easily stir.

edited to add:

Here they are at the beginning of the experiment. I didn't get a picture of the really tall stack of books as I was starting breakfast. Bet you can't guess what breakfast was!

Some things make me glad my children are at home and not public schooled. Things like this. The things kids are hit with as soon as the enter the school system. Here is an interview with a family and Dr. James Dobson dealing with the topic ofsame sex marriage and the school.

If you want to see a Free movie (only free for the next few days) Here is a neat little film to watch.


There stops my 'political' post of the day.......

We just got the children down for bed, all is quiet and calm! I have some more Pear sauce going in the crock pot(they were on sale for 53 cents/pound this week!) and I'm signing off to work on some odds and ends.

Funny of the day

We were sitting down for lunch and the little one was playing with his food. I told him to put the food in his mouth and fill his belly. I looked over and realized he was doing exactly that-placing food in his mouth with one hand and rubbing(or feeling) his belly with the other!

Born Alive

I saw this posted on another blog today and had to share them with you as well. I feel her message is very well said, so take a little time to watch.

We went to Ho'omaluhi Botanical Garden today. I have been wanting to take the little ones for the preschool nature program, thinking it'd be fun and we could wander around and play outside afterwards. We arrived a little late but did enjoy the story and looking at some seeds(which was the theme today) There was another homeschooling family with older kids so that was a bit exciting too. They also had 4, 3 boys and one girl-same birth order-how fun!
Before we could get to the lake we had to walk around some tree cutters. I think the little boys could have stayed here all day, they were cutting some tall trees.

Mom, do you have your camera? Why yes,yes I do.

We took #1 to art class this week but #3 had been running a fever so we went first on a walk(with the little ones in a stroller) then played under some trees while waiting for big brother. They found all these big sticks to play with and were content to use their imaginations for the rest of our wait.

Big news of the day,

if you haven't heard, is we are staying here another 3 years. Woohoo! Our minds have been rolling around as we adjust to everything that means.
The kids seem pretty happy about it. I was kinda wondering how they would take it as they seemed pretty excited about moving but they seem to be pretty good about rolling with the punches so yay!

Some pictures from the last few weeks.

What is this you ask? A Mess you might say....and you wouldn't be wrong but no, there's more......


Well, they were carving animals(cats I believe and they being #2 & #3). We had been talking about Inuits.
Apparently that was a little more difficult than expected(or soap was more crumbly) so they made snow instead;)

Pears were on sale for 69 cents a pound! If any fruit is on sale for 99 cents or less I am all over it! So we got 7 1/2 pounds and made some Pear bread and Pear sauce. Both were really yummy and all gone now:(


Earlier this week we went on a walk up to a lighthouse. The day was very overcast so the view wasn't as good as usual but it was kinda neat too to see the mountains covered. I didn't take any pictures of that as I haven't figured out my camera well enough to get a good picture but here are a few of the family.

#1 running to catch up with the rest. That he didn't hurt himself I am amazed he kept walking right along the falling apart path and would fall himself.

#4 was a little tired near the end. He kept wanting to take his hat off but we were insistent that it stay on. So he then pulled the bill over his face so he could lay flat against daddies back. We thought it was quite funny.

Just a little taste of what we've been up to.

We were away at church or family camp this weekend. The kids kept calling it summer camp-I kept trying to explain that it is October(fall!) but it's all the same to them!

Checking out the tidal pool-don't you love #3 with the life ring on in ankle deep water!

Sorry if this appears sideways-not sure why?


Shad playing in the sand with #4


#3 and Lala looking for crabs-they caught a couple!


Had a great time, everyone was sad to leave. Hope to update a bit more this week.

Next week we are going to be talking about marriage

in bible study and I just love the way the Lord works. As I'm cruising around the web today I come across two posts which correlate well with our study. First my friend Naomi has a post about women's role. Then I find this article titled the Seven Secrets for Wives on Above Rubies website.


*******
We took some food to our friends that had the baby last week and got to hold the little guy. He was so tiny, we couldn't get over it!! You must realize our smallest baby was 9 pounds. Little Lewis weighed in about 6 lb 3 oz, it was like holding a feather! He was very sweet(those newborn expressions are so precious!) and the family seems to be settling in very well with the new addition.

Birth

A friend of ours had a little boy last night or this morning depending on your point of view(just after midnight).
I'm struck by the treatment she was shown at the hospital. Upon being admitted she was whisked away to be tied down to all the monitors and told she needed to have an epidural. This was not what she wanted at all! She ended up being able to transfer to the midwife side of things where she was able to walk around, sit on a birthing ball, EAT, and use water as a means of pain relief. Such a difference in care depending if you were in the doctors care or midwives care. I was just shocked that there was such a Jekyll/Hyde care in the same hospital.
I think its unfortunate that doctors tend to have the mindset that giving birth is a problem and not a natural process. I hope that women will become more informed over the whole pregnancy/birth process. Whatever each women chooses is her choice but too often I have found the medical field will not be exactly truthful in giving positive and negative of each situation.

**I'd like to note that I do not think all doctors are bad, there are some great ones. Also not all midwives are great, there are some bad ones.

So yes I have strong opinions in the birthing world;) I talked to my friend several times yesterday and the last time I spoke with her I said have fun. She was like, um yeah-you're crazy this is painful. I said yes, it's like a marathon. There will be lots of work to get to the finish line, but what a prize you will receive when you cross that line!
I'm sure she still thought I was a little crazy but it's such an awesome thing to be around when a baby is born. Really had me thinking that I'd like to get back to working in that field sometime in the future. Right now I feel like I'm right where the Lord wants me, ministering to my children. I do try to stay up-to-date in the birthing field and am happy to help out when I can.

Edited to add: I just finished watching The Business of Being Born and I highly recommend watching it. Loved it! It brings up many of the same points I ponder or support depending on the issue.

What did we do last weekend?

Saw a volcano up close and personal.....



Dressed up as 'good' and 'bad' animals(good animals being native bad being introduced animals)



Sat on an African Giant Slug

......saw a lot of Hawaiian artifacts in a few older buildings. It was fun to see the buildings, didn't realize until we were there that I kind of missed seeing older buildings. Saturday was museum day and we were able to get our whole family into the Bishop Museum for free! Wish we wouldn't have taken so long to get there-it has been on my list of things to do for quite awhile. We had a nice afternoon there.

BTW we have a new toothless wonder.....can you tell she has two missing on the same side?

My little helper boy. I was opening the oven to clean one night and this little guy grabbed a napkin and started going right to work for me. I thought it was the funniest and sweetest thing! So glad I have such joyful helpers! (although must note it isn't always so-we are all working on that)



We had another birthday this week. Our girl is 7!! She was very disappointed to find out we were still going to do school on her day. She complained "Why can't I have a summer birthday too!" (Note: all the boys are in June/July) Well the thing is we had a fun day dispite having to do some 'school'. Had great morning at the beach-now when we can't go to the beach in September I think we'll have to move her birthday to the summer;)

Ever since we had our pictures taken she strikes a pose, silly thing:)



Can I say that I love fall? Yes, I am talking fall Hawaii style but it is a nice cool evening. Perfect for the pot of potato soup I have simmering on the stove, which will go lovely with the freshly baked bread that we worked on this morning. Yum, the smells of fall. So what if I'm cool because it got a little cloudy and I'm sitting here under the fan in shorts. I'm going to enjoy this fall where we can eat out on the lanai. Who knows what the next fall will bring.

Speaking of food, I am oddly excited to share that our little guy, #4, will now eat salad. I've always give him a piece or two but he is finally at the point where he will eat a real serving of salad! Hip Hip Hooray!!

Happy Birthday!!!!

Yesterday was my husband's birthday......
Wow, I have so much to say that I can't, LOL!
So I'll just leave it at this, I'm so thankful that the Lord placed you in my life!!

I love you!

Stacey's funeral was today. The children are all in different stages of grief. The good thing is it sounds that they will be supported by much love in their community. I did not attend the funeral as it is many states away but have had tales related to me as to how everything went. The story of little Saylor brought me to tears. A little background, Saylor is 5 years old, the youngest of the crew. Stacey was expecting Saylor(and a twin that was lost) when she found out she had brain cancer. The doctors told her she needed to abort the pregnancy but that was not a choice for Stacey. When Stacey was 7 months pregnant she under went brain surgery while awake. She did well afterwards and was so happy when Saylor was born. It just breaks my heart that these children are without there mother. Saylor was seen stroking her mothers hair, upset that she wouldn't open her eyes....that image has been running through my head today. I know the Lord has a great plan in this, I have not lost site of that.
Again I ask that you keep Stacey's children on your hearts and in your prayers. Logan, Kelsey, Avery, Bailey and Saylor. There is to be a trust set up for them that they can have access to when they reach 18, I'll post more info on that when I get more details.


*********************
I have spoken with #2's doctor and have good news to share. After seeing the images from last week and consulting other doctors she says there is no strange mass anymore!! Thank you for your prayers for #2!

Remembering a dear friend

Stacey is a beautiful person whom I believe is currently dancing with her Father up above. I can just imagine her singing praises to Him amidst all His glory.



Please keep Stacey's children in your hearts and prayers as they grieve for their mother. May they hold on the the legacy of her faith and look to the Lord for strength. She leaves behind 5 wonderful children.


This photo is courtesy of another friend

Company sure keeps you busy

We have some grandparents in town, the children are in heaven! Due to company and my computer being in the 'shop' I haven't been online much but I have my computer back-woohoo!! and it works yippee!!

#2 had another follow up Ultrasound Tuesday. Everything looks good(that's my thoughts) the us tech and head radiologist dr. disagreed with what they were seeing (or weren't seeing) #2's doctor is on emergency leave so we won't find out her thoughts for awhile. As of right now it looks like we'll probably go back in 6 months for another follow up.

Our little painter


The kids surprised the Grandparents with a sign they had made for Grandparents Day.


We surprised Daddy with an early birthday party.

Stuck in the sand

Weekend

It has been a nice weekend for us. Spent some time working on the home to-do list and also some fun times together. Got one quote for the downstairs carpet(it's being replaced) and another quote in progress. James steamed cleaned the upstairs carpets so just need to get after the stairs and we'll soon be able to mark that off the to-do list.
We also got some doors painted. #4 was very intent on helping in this area, I had set the paint can and brush out and then come in the house. Next thing I know he is 'painting' the screen door. It was one of the cutest things! He was carrying an empty paint can around and dipped his brush in then took a couple swipes at the door and then would dip the brush again. Then he'd paint with the brush in one hand and the other hand on his hip-I ran for the camera but when I left he finished up and put the painting gear away.
Another busy week in our home, short school week for us and the start of our bible study group. Much to look forward to! Should be sending the laptop off to get worked on this week so probably be awhile before I post any new pictures of our crew.

Please Pray for the Drews family

Marsha and David have had to face one of the most difficult things a parent can face. Their sweet little guy 'Dozer' as he was known or Christian went up to heaven Tuesday. Please wrap this family up in you prayers, they have 2 young boys that are also going to be missing the youngest. May they find comfort in their memories of sweet Dozer and be able to rejoice that he is with our Heavenly Father.
There is a tribute to Christian on The Heart of the Matter, which is how I am acquainted with the family. This has had me in tears today-I just can't imagine-I don't want to imagine losing a child. Yet we never know when we will be called home...and what a home it will be!

The view

One of my favorite things about where we live is the water. I tried to capture the beauty but this was breakfast time and the sun was too bright for the camera. But this is one of the many parts of Hawaii I will miss! To be working in the kitchen or vacuuming the floor and look up to see the blue blue water is just so wonderful!! We are so blessed in the time we've had here.

First is silly face boy.