Worn out

It has been almost three weeks that we have been battling a nasty virus in our home.  It slowly made it's way down through each of the younger children.

My days have been full of caring for (and carrying) the younger ones, my nights have been full of suctioning noses and hot running showers and my bed has just been full, full of both kids, their blankies, stuffed animals and used tissues.

My big baby and little baby have been taking turns in the sling.  Pictured above is Henry after a particularly rough day.  Still wrapped in the sling I sat him on the floor while I fried up some rice and then found him fast asleep beneath my feet just minutes later.

Feeling compeltly exhausted and worn out I have repeatedly drawn on the recent messages from conference.  Here is my favorite from Sister Beck :

When women nurture as Christ nurtured, a power and peace can descend to guide when help is needed. For instance, mothers can feel help from the Spirit even when tired, noisy children are clamoring for attention, but they can be distanced from the Spirit if they lose their temper with children. Being in the right places allows us to receive guidance. It requires a conscious effort to diminish distractions, but having the Spirit of revelation makes it possible to prevail over opposition and persist in faith through difficult days and essential routine tasks. Personal revelation gives us the understanding of what to do every day to increase faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and seek those who need our help. Because personal revelation is a constantly renewable source of strength, it is possible to feel bathed in help even during turbulent times. 

Some of the words that jumped out to me included diminish distractions (blogging?sewing?facebook?), difficult days (sick kids, overtired mom), essential routine tasks (piles of laundry?piles of dishes?piles of paperwork?) then the words that brought tears to my eyes were renewable source of strength and bathed in help.

This week is going by quickly, I can't really recall how we've spent our days.  I feel bad that the beautiful Easter dresses I designed (along with a long list of other sewing projects) are yet to be cut out, the laundry (both clean and dirty) is piled high, meals have been mediocre, and my hair has not been blown out for days!  But - I have not lost my temper all week and though worn out there has been a definite increase of peace and love in our home so I can't say these worn out days were wasted.

Booby Traps

A few of the boys have been carefully planning for April Fool's Day.  Here are their plans and how they work - and yes they worked!

I'm still trying to come up with a plan to get them before the evening is through.

Wordfull Wednesday: A Father's Role

Here is a picture of me (age 17) riding horses with my Dad .  We spent a good many Saturdays at our farm not too far from our home and while most of those Saturdays were filled with sweaty soiling work, it was worth the occasion of riding horses.  I especially liked riding with my Dad because to be honest the horses never listened to me unless he was along.

The Family Proclamation states the following:

By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families

The word protection stands out to me today. I believe it is of utmost importance for fathers in our day to protect their families by teaching moral discipline.  This is something my father did for me and I am forever grateful.

Paul just recently taught a lesson on moral discipline from Elder Christofferson's last conference talk.  In preparing for the lesson Paul asked me, "so what made you want to choose the right"?  My honest answer was ..... "I didn't want my parents to get mad at me".

There is nothing wishy washy about my dad and so there were no fine lines on the moral standards we were expected to uphold as a family.

There was no question on what was right and what was wrong because it was frequently discussed in our home.

My parents were legendary in their commitment to protect their children even to the point of marching into a movie theater and dragging teenagers out of an R-rated movie, ringing our friend's doorbells looking for us past curfew, and requesting that we go back upstairs and change our outfit while our dates were left waiting in the front hall.  Needless to say it wasn't until I was a parent myself that I really appreciated those efforts.

But here I am today thanking them. I suppose I stayed "in line" for the same reason the horses stayed on the trail..... because of my dad.  And I'll also add that he was a pretty great provider and still fun to hang out with but I already wrote about that .

More Wordfull Wednesday here    

Ticket to Ride Michigan

Last Christmas Santa brought Ticket to Ride Europe and it has since become everyone's favorite game.  The boys beg to play it every night so it has also become a great motivating tool for chores and schoolwork.

While having fun they have mastered European geography and strategy crushing their mom in countless games.

The game is so much fun that James created his own version copying the state of Michigan and its major cities onto poster board.  Last night he beat me again but we still had fun.

Peter created two more boards, one of the whole world and another of a fictitious island called Dork..... that one is probably the hardest to play because it is hard to keep track of such cities as Sad, Oval Town, Hing, Hwing, Shark Place, Cold, Toot, Bad, Hmm, and Square Town.

Games have become the newest addiction in our home and for the most part it is fun..... and when the fun turns sour we have found priceless opportunities to teach character development (including the unforgettable evening when mommy tossed the Risk board upside down onto daddy's lap!)  

Digital Artwork

I never gave proper credit to William for the new header he designed .  He was also the artist behind the old thumbprints but with the arrival of George it was time for an update.

We all love arts and crafts - the messier the better.  But with the new baby I'm limited in my ability to participate and clean up big messes so..... much of our creative urges have been filled on the computer.

One thing I've learned though is even computers can be cluttered.  My kids still struggle with keeping their rooms clean now we've got to work on clearing out their picture and document folders!

Still it is fun to see what they create - I still remember playing around with the original Mac Paint program in the late 80's.

Cortido

The kids saved me a piece of maple sugar candy and it was so sweet I spit it out then cleared my palate with a few bites of this yummy cortido (Latin American sauerkraut).

I already posted about how much I love kimchi  but knowing it might permanently stink up my kitchen I never attempted to make it.  Cortido is not as strong but fills my craving for fermented foods just the same, it is also very easy to make.

I got the recipe from my new favorite cookbook Nourishing Traditions and learned that fermentation boost vitamin levels and aids in digestion (no wonder I crave it so much during pregnancy).

Here it is - and just so you know it tastes really good on top of tostadas!

1 large cabbage
1 cup carrots, grated
2 medium onions, finely sliced
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoons whey (I use it from my kefir but if you don't have it you can use an additional tablespoon of salt)

Mix in a large bowl and pound with a wooden pounder or meat hammer for 10 minutes until juices release.  Place in 2 quart size jars and pound down with the hammer until the juices come to the top.  Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for 3 days before transferring to cold storage.

Maple tree tapping by William

Last Saturday we went to the Nature Center with Nanny and Poppy.  We tapped maple trees there.  We learned that Vermont is famous for its maple trees (you can see it on the Vermont quarter) but we still had fun tapping them here in Michigan.  March is the perfect time for tapping.

You tap maple trees by first drilling a hole in the tree then hammering in a spout to collect the sap in a bucket.  It is important to cover the bucket with a lid.  When you have 40 gallons of sap you can make 1 gallon of syrup.

Maple syrup is hard to make.  You make it by boiling the sap for a long time and if you boil it too long it would turn to candy.  It is worth the work to make it because it tastes so good on pancakes and waffles but you should only use a little bit.

There were samples of the syrup and we tried some but it made us very thirsty.  We also bought some maple candy and it tasted familiar because when I was 5 years old I use to pick the dried syrup off the jug.

It was a fun day and I also liked seeing the geese and deer there.