May you and yours have a wonderful Nativity Season!!
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
HAPPY BIRTHDAY...
to my boy, Nicholas. Today he turns 7!!!
He is all BOY...he used to tell me "I'm not cute ( or beautiful) I'm 'handstom'". He's swords and shields, cars and trucks, rifles and bow. He's BOY!
May God grant you many years!
He is all BOY...he used to tell me "I'm not cute ( or beautiful) I'm 'handstom'". He's swords and shields, cars and trucks, rifles and bow. He's BOY!May God grant you many years!
Friday, December 21, 2007
Crafts
We have been doing a few more crafts then usual and I have invited my children to join me. The scrap wreath ( btw-I love that website)I decided to do for them. It looked easy enough for them all to do. Little did I know that even my BOYS would thoroughly enjoy this one. They really got into it. 
This is Kelsey's finished product. The boys have not finished theirs as of yet. Maybe today I'll set them back at it.
Another project I did was to make mittens for the kids. The only problem was that once they were cut they did not even go over the hand, let alone a thumb in. LOL I didn't know what I was doing. I did finally later, much later, find a tutorial at that SewMamaSew blog that will teach me to do it correctly. In the meantime I turned those not so workable mittens into ornaments and filled them with fudge and sent them to MN to my nieces and nephew for Christmas. Here is what they looked like. I especially love the edging!
This is Kelsey's finished product. The boys have not finished theirs as of yet. Maybe today I'll set them back at it.Another project I did was to make mittens for the kids. The only problem was that once they were cut they did not even go over the hand, let alone a thumb in. LOL I didn't know what I was doing. I did finally later, much later, find a tutorial at that SewMamaSew blog that will teach me to do it correctly. In the meantime I turned those not so workable mittens into ornaments and filled them with fudge and sent them to MN to my nieces and nephew for Christmas. Here is what they looked like. I especially love the edging!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Updates
One week from today is the Nativity of Christ! I cannot believe we are ending 2007 so very soon.
It certainly is true that time flies VERY fast the older you are. It's astonishing.
We are all dried out, or were all dried out. Sunday night we got nearly an inch of rain but it did nothing compared to the storm. I was able to remove the pallets from the chicks stall. We are trying to get the new coop done before the end of the year. So far I am just finishing up the floor. But that is the hardest part, the posts the floor sets on, so once that is done it'll go fast I think.
Last Saturday, the 15th, I took Firefly down to the farm where the buck is. She started really confusing me with her symptoms of heat. I was seeing different symptoms for like a week so finally I just called them and asked if I could bring her down "just to see". At the very least I would get what they call a buck rag. A rag rubbed all over the buck and sealed in a jar. When you think your goat is in heat you open it and they will get all excited over the smell. Smell? you may ask. Ah, the smell is UNREAL! Goats are seasonal breeders, including bucks. They call it "rut" for a buck. He goes into "rut". This (move about halfway down the page to the subtitle "bucky characteristics) is what he does when he is in "rut"....all for the sake of ATTRACTING his mate, and he'll take as many as he can get. Anyway, we introduced Firefly to her buck friend and she was instantly smitten. They "played" for about a half hour doing what goats are suppose to do when breeding. It all looked very much like she was bred. If it took we will have kids right about May 13. Butter will be bred the first week of January. Now back to that smell. See Firefly was with that buck for 30 minutes, playing with him, rubbing on him and he on her. Well, we had to bring that doe home...in our truck....with us. I am certain that if I were to go out to the truck right now it would still smell. I had "buck" smell on my hands ALL DAY!!!! It is UNREAL! No wonder it taints the milk with a buck nearby, and it DID taint the next days milk. She stunk so bad her milk was inedible the next day. Last night Kelsey went to the barn with me and said it still stinks. I don't notice anymore.
James has been blogging about our latest adventure so I guess I don't need to say much there. After the initial shock and not knowing how we were going to make it all work I am now fine with it. We have a plan and the plan will work. So we are car/truck shopping!
Have a blessed last week of Advent.
It certainly is true that time flies VERY fast the older you are. It's astonishing.
We are all dried out, or were all dried out. Sunday night we got nearly an inch of rain but it did nothing compared to the storm. I was able to remove the pallets from the chicks stall. We are trying to get the new coop done before the end of the year. So far I am just finishing up the floor. But that is the hardest part, the posts the floor sets on, so once that is done it'll go fast I think.
Last Saturday, the 15th, I took Firefly down to the farm where the buck is. She started really confusing me with her symptoms of heat. I was seeing different symptoms for like a week so finally I just called them and asked if I could bring her down "just to see". At the very least I would get what they call a buck rag. A rag rubbed all over the buck and sealed in a jar. When you think your goat is in heat you open it and they will get all excited over the smell. Smell? you may ask. Ah, the smell is UNREAL! Goats are seasonal breeders, including bucks. They call it "rut" for a buck. He goes into "rut". This (move about halfway down the page to the subtitle "bucky characteristics) is what he does when he is in "rut"....all for the sake of ATTRACTING his mate, and he'll take as many as he can get. Anyway, we introduced Firefly to her buck friend and she was instantly smitten. They "played" for about a half hour doing what goats are suppose to do when breeding. It all looked very much like she was bred. If it took we will have kids right about May 13. Butter will be bred the first week of January. Now back to that smell. See Firefly was with that buck for 30 minutes, playing with him, rubbing on him and he on her. Well, we had to bring that doe home...in our truck....with us. I am certain that if I were to go out to the truck right now it would still smell. I had "buck" smell on my hands ALL DAY!!!! It is UNREAL! No wonder it taints the milk with a buck nearby, and it DID taint the next days milk. She stunk so bad her milk was inedible the next day. Last night Kelsey went to the barn with me and said it still stinks. I don't notice anymore.
James has been blogging about our latest adventure so I guess I don't need to say much there. After the initial shock and not knowing how we were going to make it all work I am now fine with it. We have a plan and the plan will work. So we are car/truck shopping!
Have a blessed last week of Advent.
Monday, December 10, 2007
My complaints are completely unfounded!
In this post you'll read of the work I had to do on the day we got 7 inches of rain. I take it all back. Not the work, I had to do it, but the complaining. It was completely unfounded and I sit back now and say a prayer for these folks. These dairy farmers whose total income rests in this farm, or shall I say, what's left of it...
She is walking through their front yard.
Their livelihood laying there covered in mud.
This last picture has nothing to do with the farm above but I just had to say, this is what happens when you build a road where you shouldn't build a road. You see it all the time. They just have to use the land for something even though it is steep and unbuildable. They build up these big cement walls fill in behind them and then build on top of it. Well, this is the outcome when it rains hard. Gee, I wonder what happened to that housing development in Bothell on Bothell/Everett Hwy. that was built completely on top of these big huge cement walls with back fill underneath them, with a big huge hill behind.
Lord, have mercy.
She is walking through their front yard.
Their livelihood laying there covered in mud.
Raymond dairy farmer Terry Smaciarz and his wife Lana survey damage to their 63-year-old barn. "I guess Mother Nature really kicked me in the butt," he said.
There are so many stories like this and the pictures are just unreal. Please keep the flood victims in WA in your prayers.
There are so many stories like this and the pictures are just unreal. Please keep the flood victims in WA in your prayers.
This last picture has nothing to do with the farm above but I just had to say, this is what happens when you build a road where you shouldn't build a road. You see it all the time. They just have to use the land for something even though it is steep and unbuildable. They build up these big cement walls fill in behind them and then build on top of it. Well, this is the outcome when it rains hard. Gee, I wonder what happened to that housing development in Bothell on Bothell/Everett Hwy. that was built completely on top of these big huge cement walls with back fill underneath them, with a big huge hill behind.
Lord, have mercy.
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Sewing project
I don't get much time to sew and I don't feel like I know very much about it to warrant the time it takes away from other duties. But with Christmas drawing near I decided to do a little project. After making a test "lovey" and tweaking my sewing and design this is what I came up with. I'm very pleased with the outcome. This is my own design and I call it a "lovey". It's small, only about 20"x20" (probably not exactly square either). After my own experiences with my children wanting to carry around large "blankies" everywhere I think having a smaller "lovey" that is soft and comforting would be be of great benefit. So I decided to try my hand at creating something for some of the MANY babies coming. Kelsey was playing around with my machine, testing all the different stitches one can use, and that's how I came up with the stitching along the edges. I've never experimented beyond the regular, simple straight stitch. Doing this edging made it so much easier to finish off the edges without the folding of the thick fleece. I hope the babies love it as much as I do. Here is the finished product.
Embroidered face:
Embroidered face:
Edging:
Folded and ready to be gifted.
Friday, December 07, 2007
Today was an interesting day. Despite my handicaps today I feel that I had a very productive day.
My handicaps? I've been fighting a minor cold all week and yesterday evening it got the best of me. I completely lost my voice. Not just a little hoarse but COMPLETELY! Nothing above a whisper would come out of my mouth. It was pretty amusing for awhile. Kelsey quite enjoyed being "my voice", as she would say. And during the day today Charissa made some phone calls, she felt so grown up. James took today off and I'm very glad he did! He didn't know it was to help me out in this way but nonetheless I'm glad he was here to answer the phone and run errands and help me preserve jelly. Yes, that's where the productive part of the day comes in. I FINALLY canned all the juice I put away into the freezer from blackberries and apples.
We made jelly!
There are 36 jars total of varying sizes, some only hold probably less than a cup and large portion of them hold just over a cup and others are pints. I do know that I prepared 36+ cups of juice all together. I can't wait to try it on toast in the morning.
My handicaps? I've been fighting a minor cold all week and yesterday evening it got the best of me. I completely lost my voice. Not just a little hoarse but COMPLETELY! Nothing above a whisper would come out of my mouth. It was pretty amusing for awhile. Kelsey quite enjoyed being "my voice", as she would say. And during the day today Charissa made some phone calls, she felt so grown up. James took today off and I'm very glad he did! He didn't know it was to help me out in this way but nonetheless I'm glad he was here to answer the phone and run errands and help me preserve jelly. Yes, that's where the productive part of the day comes in. I FINALLY canned all the juice I put away into the freezer from blackberries and apples.
We made jelly!
There are 36 jars total of varying sizes, some only hold probably less than a cup and large portion of them hold just over a cup and others are pints. I do know that I prepared 36+ cups of juice all together. I can't wait to try it on toast in the morning.
Monday, December 03, 2007
The snow is gone and now we are floating away!!!
I am completely astounded at the amount of rain that is coming down as we speak. We went from this....
To this....
The water above is over ankle deep to walk through. That's our driveway.
In just 12 hours. Our driveway is flooded, Diamond Dr. is flooded our neighbor has a HUGE pond in his front yard and my own yard isn't much better. I can't imagine what it would look like if we hadn't dug the trench. The trench is flowing! My rain barrel filled up 3x since last night and fell over. I finally rigged the pipe into the trench for now. We definitely don't need to SAVE the water! The kicker....I am guessing, based on my rain guage and a bucket that was outside (and emptied last night) that from 8pm-8am we got over 4 inches of rain!!!!! Now since 8AM(it is noon) we've had another 2 inches.
There are record breaking river flows happening. At Central Market in town their rain gauge says the MONTHLY rainfall has been 5.94 inches. IT'S THE 3RD OF THE MONTH!!!
Here is the latest from KOMOTV.
Lord have mercy!!!
UPDATE
It is closer to home than I really like. My BARN IS FLOODED!!! I have 2 goats and 43 chicks swimming!!! I spent an hour hauling pallets into the chicks to raise their floor up 6 inches, spreading many inches of straw into the goat stall and rescuing wet chicks!!! ARGH! I've soaked through 4 outfits with my needed outdoor work.
OH do I hope it doesn't back up the drainfield...this is UNREAL!
3.86 inches of rain since midnight at Central Market in town.
To this....
The water above is over ankle deep to walk through. That's our driveway.In just 12 hours. Our driveway is flooded, Diamond Dr. is flooded our neighbor has a HUGE pond in his front yard and my own yard isn't much better. I can't imagine what it would look like if we hadn't dug the trench. The trench is flowing! My rain barrel filled up 3x since last night and fell over. I finally rigged the pipe into the trench for now. We definitely don't need to SAVE the water! The kicker....I am guessing, based on my rain guage and a bucket that was outside (and emptied last night) that from 8pm-8am we got over 4 inches of rain!!!!! Now since 8AM(it is noon) we've had another 2 inches.
There are record breaking river flows happening. At Central Market in town their rain gauge says the MONTHLY rainfall has been 5.94 inches. IT'S THE 3RD OF THE MONTH!!!
Here is the latest from KOMOTV.
Lord have mercy!!!
UPDATE
It is closer to home than I really like. My BARN IS FLOODED!!! I have 2 goats and 43 chicks swimming!!! I spent an hour hauling pallets into the chicks to raise their floor up 6 inches, spreading many inches of straw into the goat stall and rescuing wet chicks!!! ARGH! I've soaked through 4 outfits with my needed outdoor work.
OH do I hope it doesn't back up the drainfield...this is UNREAL!
3.86 inches of rain since midnight at Central Market in town.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Snow Snow Snow
James posted some pictures from earlier on in the afternoon....this is in the evening.
Above is the start of the HUGE "Mr. Frostbite."
Below is the finished "Mr. Frostbite."
Joseph built his own little snowman.
My Little Baby Butter ready for the snow for the first time in her life-Kelsey
They say it is suppose to disappear in the night...but I'm skeptical that 4 inches can disappear that quickly. We'll see.
At any rate...it's been AWESOME!
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