change of plans

Our daily afternoon trip to the boat ramp was not possible today… the trail was flooded.  The boys had a great time testing the waters, under mommy’s very close supervision!  Just a few feet from where we were standing the river was moving very fast!

 

Happy Birthday to Sam!!!

       

Sam had a sprinklers and popsicles party for his big #3 birthday.  He continues to be the life of the party in our family as our loudest, happiest, most extroverted child.  As long as he is feeling well physically, Sam is having a GREAT day, EVERY day, ALL day, and he wants to tell you all about it.  We are so thankful for how God has brought Sam out of so much suffering and into a much healthier place in his life.  He still has many food intolerances but his sick cycles are not nearly as debilitating as they used to be.  At his 3 year check up, he was up to the 50th percentile on weight, from 5% a year ago.  The doctor was shocked to see how big he has grown.  Thank you Jesus for your merciful goodness to us!  Sam is such a blessing to our family.

Piggies

The boys were delighted to see Abby’s new hairstyle, and wanted to join in…

 

Guilty

 

Sam was banished to the Time Out Chair in the dining room, to remain until the time of his penitence was complete .  But when I came back to get him… there were postage stamps stuck all over his face!

Happy Birthday to Daddy!

To the very best husband and daddy in the whole world.  I definitely got the better end of the deal when I married you.  Thank you for dying to yourself every day to love and serve each one of us- you are truly a picture of Christ to our family.

13 Months

  I may not be walking quite yet…

But I am

into

everything!

Loooong in coming.

Jake and Ben can write their names.  The fine motor skills have a ways to go yet but its encouraging to see they are making progress.

Guns.

These boys are OBSESSED with guns!  They “earned” their latest weaponry by filling up their sticker charts by doing morning chores.  There was much celebrating and rejoicing when I got out the much anticipated GUNS!  Only 5.99 for a 3 pack at Target.  Sweet times that they can be thrilled with these simple prizes, at least for now.

Cure for the winter blues

Swim lessons!  Even little Sam is getting in on this one.  “Coach Josh” at the GJCC is like the Toddler Swim Whisperer.  Amazing results.  Can’t wait to take all my swimmers to the pool this summer. 

Ben in quiet time

I took this picture because it perfectly captures the personality of my precious Ben!  He loves his “things” and the way he carefully arranged them all on his bed and then somehow fell asleep made me laugh.  The red streak next to his ear?  That is a piece of gum.

A perfect snow day!

First, check the quality of snow and see if its packable for making a snowman.  Then eat some snowballs for breakfast.  (Ben likes to wear his bike helmet all the time, not sure why)

Next, spend 30 minutes stuffing children into their snow gear and then commence making snow angels.  The above pictures are actually two different children, who happen to be wearing similar snow gear. 

Now hook up with some neighborhood friends and collaborate on making the largest snowball possible when you only weigh 40 pounds a piece.

Go ahead and eat some snow if you get thirsty from all that work.

Dress your snow people in appropriate attire, stand back and admire!  Nice work fellas!

I can’t wait to read this.

By Ann Voskamp

Happy Birthday to Abby!

Baby girl loved her strawberry cake!

CHEESE!

Sam is tolerating cheese!  Here he is eating his first grilled cheese sandwich.  A momentous occasion for him.  I am so thankful he is doing well…each day is such a gift.

Snow day!

The boys were SO excited to have a “fire” in our gas fireplace.  We hadn’t used it in 3 years, so they had no idea it was actually meant to have a fire.

Suggested amendment to the patient handout.

When we scheduled Sam’s surgery, they gave us a cute little handout complete with cartoon illustrations entitled: 5 things to expect after tonsillectomy.  The five things were: sore throat, bad breath, fever to 102 for up to 3 days, ear pain, and white scabs at the surgical site.  We were told there is a wide range of recovery experiences, depending on the individual child.  I think it would be helpful to expand the patient handout to include the following:

Pain: Caregivers should plan on sleeping 1-3 hours per night for the first 10 days after surgery.  You will be holding your child upright who is writhing in agony for most of the night.  Your child will be unable to sleep due to coughing and choking on secretions, in addition to high fevers.  The liquid pain medicine provided by your surgeon contains the alcohol equivalent of Bacardi 151.  It will burn like Hell’s fury on the 3 open surgical wounds in your child’s throat.  Two adults will be required to successfully administer the medication to your child.  Expect your child to scream, gag, vomit, and have bleeding from the surgical site as a result of trying to swallow the medicine.  Any therapeutic benefit that can be realized after such administration will last up to 2 hours after which time the writhing in agony will resume.  Administer the medication every 4 hours around the clock.

Fever: In excess of 104 degrees for 5 days or longer.  Due to increased bleeding risk, medications like Motrin may not be used to reduce fever.  You child will refuse to drink due to intense pain at the surgical site.  Plan on coming back to the hospital 18 hours after discharge due to dehydration. 

So Sam went back to the hospital on Thanksgiving day.  It was actually a huge relief to us after a horrible night at home with him.  We were blessed to have family in town to spend time with our other children.  Jason and I enjoyed a delightfully peaceful meal brought from the family gathering to the hospital while our little boy was zonked out on IV morphine.

What does a 2 year old recovering from tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy want to eat?  Popsicles?  Applesauce?  No, just potato chips dipped in butter of course!

 

The whole gang came to cheer Sam on- this was the night before the final discharge.

 

Thankfully Sam has made a full recovery in every sense.  He seems to be breathing better at night and shows no sign of the obstruction he had before surgery.  We are so thankful the Lord has brought him through this difficult recovery safely and pray he will continue to grow be as healthy as possible.  Thank you to all our friends who prayed for us and little Sam through this time.

Sometimes, tonsils are not our friends.

Sam had his tonsils out today.  Here he is before surgery:

Here he is after surgery one hour later:

The doctor said the tonsils were much bigger than they looked so there is a good chance having them out will really help his breathing and sleeping so that is good news.  He is quite the little trooper.  Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery little buddy!

On being real.

Amy is one of my all time favorite people I hang out with at the “internet back fence.”  I started reading her blog because of its homeschooling/farming/large family kind of flavor.  When she moved from the suburbs to a farm, I was vicariously living a dream through her stories.  What I have come to appreciate most is that she constantly breaks out of the stereotypes associated with the above mentioned flavors, for the sake of the gospel, for grace, for being authentic.  There is nothing more refreshing to me than truth and authenticity, even at the expense of being nice or heaven forbid at the expense of pride.

So this post was so well said it kind of rocked my world.  I get hung up in the information acquisition phase of things.  In school I always enjoyed compiling and perusing enormous amounts of current research, but when it came down to taking the next step and coming up with my own original material I ran out of steam.  This is a profound weakness.  It carries through even now in my individual journey as a wife and mom. 

“The collective thing about women, mothers in particular, is that we are trying to do our best. In general, we know we only get this chance, and so it’s important to make our lives count. I want to get this right because it matters.”

So I am always longing for a formula, a picture of what this is supposed to look like, desperately wanting to live out the gospel in a way that is so much more than  typical American suburban life.  When you have to make hard choices you want to look around and see if anybody else is with you, and what does it look like for them?  There are a lot of good ideas out there, but oh help I am drowning in them.  The consumption of good ideas can become a paralyzing addiction, and the “fruit” it produces looks more like confusion and turmoil.  At some point it becomes time to step away from the distraction and learn to simply become what it is supposed to look like in me.  I have to accept that this is something God has designed, He will reveal it as I seek Him and walk with Him, and it is not subject to the many bandwagons that I am so drawn to.   God is not the author of bandwagons, they are often a manifestation of our desire for works based righteousness.  I am not saying anything new here, its just taking a long time for me to finally get it.

We love Gentry’s Farm- every year!

 

2010

2009

2008

(missed it in 2007)

2006