December 13, 2012

• I’m Thankful For:

  • My friend Ali’s surprise.  On the Third Day/Fourth Night of Hanukkah, a package came in the mail.  Ali sent our family FIVE Hanukkah gifts… one for each child to open (don’t know if she planned it that way or not).  And somehow she timed it so that there’d be one gift per night to get us thru the rest of Hanukkah.  A Hanukkah miracle!!
  • ANOTHER (and this is huge) Hanukkah miracle… I don’t vaccinate my kids, so I need the chicken pox.  I don’t believe in injecting my children with chemicals to substitute what Yehovah set up… and then RE-inject them again, and then add on new injections for Shingles (that only have a 50% success rate, anyhow)… I just think that’s chemical warfare on a child, and wrong.  We choose to do it the old-fashioned way.  But finding the chicken pox?  Near to impossible.  I’ve tried Yahoo! groups, e-lists, FB groups… I’ve seen people willing to drive two states to get them.  They’re HARD to find… but – well, I found them!  Tuesday we took a LONG drive and spent the morning playing with pox-covered children (ELEVEN children, together!).  The hope is that some kid, some how, will get some thing.  We didn’t lick suckers or anything that nasty, just played together and gave hugs when we left.  But I’m crossing my fingers!!  The timing would be perfect, because Lydia is twelve, and we don’t want to wait any longer than that.
  • ANOTHER Hanukkah miracle – since talking about adding on to the house, we realized we need to move the chicken coop.  And if we do, we need to make the boy goat pen bigger when we move them – they’re in mud, because they don’t have enough room.  So I found REALLY cheap chain link fence panels (long ones – SIXTEEN footers!), so we went a-Craigslisting a few nights ago out to Saugatuck to get them.  Thing is, I’d taken my wallet (with the cash) out of my purse four days before – to pay Excavator Brian for re-grading our driveway – and it got thrown in the spare bathtub (don’t ask… I just glanced and saw it there and thought, “Hrm?” but didn’t pick it up at the time).  I went to the Lowell Showboat Santa Nite, to Otsego for portraits & shopping, and to Byron Center… all without my wallet.  Even forgot it wasn’t with me – I keep my credit card separate, and use that for $$.  But Craigslisting, you need cash.  So anyhow, as we were leaving to get the fence panels?   Somehow the wallet ended up ON TOP OF my purse!  I asked if anyone had put it on my purse, but they said they didn’t.  A Hanukkah miracle!!
  • We had a funeral visitation this week, too (we’ve been BUSY!!)… and it was for Brian’s side.  We decided to go at the earliest time… and so we got there at 2pm (when the doors opened), and left at 2:45 (when the kids had had enough of being there, playing with great grandma/grandpa).  The grateful part?  Brian’s mom showed at 3pm.  Yehovah got us out, just in time!  (((beams a smile)))
  • Gift Suggestions.  Every year, great-grandma calls and wants to know EXACTLY what to get the kids.  I mean, you have to know what it is, the brand name, the size, the price, and the store it’s found at.  You can’t just say, “Lydia could use some new white socks”… it has to be the Hanes Sportspack in size 5 for $4.29 at Target on Aisle 15.  I’m not kidding.  So I’ve designated Brian as the one to deal with that, because… I can’t think that way.  If I say, “Ethan would like any boy-ish stickers for his scrapbook – just anything kewl”, that’s as far as I take it.  But THIS year, I got ideas, and amazingly I knew exactly what/when/how much/where… and it wasn’t a big production.  TOO kewl!!
  • I’m grateful for being rescued from my weight loss thing.  I know that’s NOT what you were expecting – you want to know how much weight I lost, right?  Well, I bought a new scale, cuz ours sucked.  And the new scale registers TEN POUNDS HEAVIER than the old one.  So my weight loss records, my data at MyFitnessPal?  All of it is bogus.  And I thought, “Wait, I’m busting hiney just to find out that I’m back where I started?  That SUCKS!!”  And you can’t adjust stuff.  It doesn’t WORK that way.  So forget it.  I don’t care.  I’m screwed.  And it’s the holidays, and I’m NOT going thru all of that again.  We’ll regroup after New Years.  But as for making my goal?  Yeah, THAT’S not gonna happen.  So I’m now free to buy a carton of eggnog, and I’m happy about it!  Fry-nite isn’t a national issue.  And gelt chocolate isn’t evil, anymore!  LoL!!! 
  • I’m grateful for a fantastic adventure to Lowell.  There was ice carving, and live reindeer, and warming fires, and horse-drawn carriages, and strolling carolers, and roasted chestnuts and hot toddy and Santa visits on the Showboat, and cookies and cocoa, and twinkling lights… we had a good time.  I might post pictures, later… after my Hanukkah posts are done.
  • ((((sneaking in a Grateful in the middle of my Hanukkah blitz!))))
  • Baby Owen turned THREE, and potty trained, at the same time.  Have I mentioned it here?  I’ve had a really humorous (hour by hour) thing going at FB about how our potty training has gone.  It’s been NINE days since he’s wet in the night, and in those nine days, he had four accidents (two the first day, one each of the next two days).  So we’ve been almost a week with NO accidents, night or day.  He’s not even bare-bottomed… he won’t wet pull-ups, so we’ve got him fully dressed!!  I’ve never had such an easy trainer.  He didn’t even balk at going on a public potty (on the way home from pox party).  I’m just stunned at how smoothly it’s gone.  He did poop on my foot Day #2 (NEVER had that happen, before!!), but it was his first bowel event outside of a diaper, and he decided NEVER to miss with that, again, so we’re good, now!
  • Getting the three drywall areas cleared out and ready for Drywall Bob to come.  He’s supposed to be here early next week.  We shall see.  But Excavator Brian came last… Tuesday?  The kids were ALL shades of excited, with the big dump truck full of gravel and the CAT excavator driving back and forth in front of the house…!!
  • Did I mention we have been BUSY!?!?!?!
  • FINALLY finding something that works on my uber-sensitive skin for acne care.  I’ve been experimenting, because after ditching the pregnant/nursing scene, my hormones needed some major straightening out, and my face was a MESS.  I tried vinegar, cleansing pads, alcohol, just soap/water, aspirin washes… but I’m finally having success with baking soda scrub and lemon juice as the astrigent.  This week is the first niddah I’ve had where I didn’t have some volcanic eruption on my chin.  SO nice…!!!!!
  • Side Work.  X-mess is always a busy time for Brian’s trade… he’ll work thru the ‘holly-daze’ pretty heavy, and the side work is coming in, too.  That’s nice for us!  And he’s got the heater up and piped out and the electrical MOSTLY run… we’re having a electrician tech come out and make sure he did it right (so we don’t burn up the barn or short out anything) tonight.  But it’s nicer for Brian to have it warm(er) in the barn, too!
  • Pictures turned out GREAT this year.  Wait until you see!!!  The girl was new and didn’t know enough poses for five children, but we’re old hat at this – twelve years’ experience.  So we helped out, and they really are cute.  Now I just have to put together framed arrangements for the families…
  • Okay, so I’m a pretty happy, grateful gal right about now.  And I wish blessings for you, too!

  The Hanukkah post will be up at 11:11am!!

  • 10:52 am
  • 3 Comments