Sibling Love

Yay, Yay, Lily Mae!

Prayer Needs

Baby is due October 5 and I am feeling so tired but praise the Lord that I am healthy and so seems to be the baby. Even though I have been feeling down lately, I can acknowledge how blessed we truly are. We have so many resources- including family and friends that help us so much- and God has blessed us with good health these days. The children have not been sick in months!

Whoever is out there, I beg your prayers for a safe delivery but above that, please say a prayer for my best friend's mother. She has been struggling for so long with cancer but now her body is too tired and she is resting at home under the care of hospice nurses and her loving husband and daughters. She suffers with much grace and her family has been giving themselves to her service at the point of exhaustion for weeks. God gives them strength but they need our prayers too.

Thank you for remembering them (the Lusters) and me in your prayers.

Blogging Down

SO... blogging is pretty hard to do when the Internet isn't connected at my house!! It's also been a little more difficult to get to since my chores are constantly unfinished and my Michael is zapping all my spare energy.

All that to say, the blog is on hold for a bit but you can bet as soon as our new little one is born that I'll get pictures up at least!!! After that, we'll just have to see....

Much love from our house to yours!

Homegrown and Homemade

BOY, have we had a major creative streak lately- making all sorts of things like jelly, preserves, zuchinni bread, grape juice and even real cheese! The garden is flourishing- mostly- and we picked peaches last week from our little peach tree. Here are some pictures of the fun...

We picked wild mustang grapes, cooked them, strained them, juiced them and jellied them!

We have whipped up 2 batches of homemade cheese- 1 mozzarella/ 1 ricotta- from store bought milk.

We gathered wild figs from nearby trees and cooked them into preserves. (They are DELICIOUS served warm, especially with ice cream!)

AND... we mixed up our own grape juice from left over mustang juice.. adding apple juice concentrate and sugar for sweetener.

It was all very inexpensive and educational for us. Plus, now the kids can have peanut butter and jelly all year and we've only spent $8 or $10 on jelly to last that long..now if only we can figure out how to make peanut butter.... look for that in later posts!!!!

Look what flew in!

During all the torrential downpours (courtesy of the hurricane), this little bird must have been lost or confused because he flew right in our front door and would not leave.

We had a fun time running around with nets and things to shoo him out... I was the biggest sissy because I kept thinking of that sharp beak coming at my eyes- Yikes!

And... pictures of my little sweeties!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Haircuts all around!

Daddy gave Michael his first big boy haircut tonight and I used clippers for the first time EVER!

I was so nervous that Jason had to shave his own head (I helped towards the end!) Jason assured me that both of them would be a lot cooler this summer so I choked back the tears and let him shave off my little boys' beautiful hair.

BEFORE...

...AFTER!

Mommy's little man

Minor Emergencies

WELL, we made another trip to the emergency room yesterday. One of Anne's eyes was swollen nearly shut and the word from our ophthalmologist and pediatrician was to be cautious because it sounded like an eye infection. So, off to the ER to be examined (since, of course, these things happen most often on the weekend).

She did indeed have an infection, periorbitol cellulitis to be exact. A shot of antibiotics and an oral course of the same should do the trick. (St. Lucy, pray for the health of Anne's eye!)

As it often goes with a visit to the ER, it took so long to be seen, treated, and released- 4 hours this time- but of course, we are grateful that the thing even exists! However, yesterday was such a busy day in our local ER and since Anne was in no pain, we felt a bad taking up a bed when there were several in the waiting room who obviously wanted a place to lay down and rest. As it was, Anne's roommate was a young man who had been badly burned while working on his radiator and it was difficult sitting on the other side of a flimsy curtain singing playing with Anne while he was hurting so much. But as I sat there thinking of him, I found myself descending into a fearful fantasy. I began thinking of how awful and tormenting it would be to have and injury like that, or worse yet, what if one of the children were burned like that. How could I stand that kind of pain? How could a child endure that? So much fear began to build within me and it sat there in my stomach like a rock.

But thank goodness for MARY! She came to my thoughts and I asked Anne if she would like to pray for our roommate... but she wanted to wait until we got to the car. But I knew it was really ME who needed to pray and so I turned my thoughts toward the Lord.- thanking Him for our health, asking Him for protection for our family and seeking the intercession of Mary on behalf of those around us who were truly hurting.

God comforted me so much after our trip to the ER by reminding me of His diligent protection and constant comfort. During all our family's illnesses and injuries, He has kept them under control, guided us to helpful medical treatment and protected us from true danger. How good He has been to us! He knows how much we can handle and I am so humbled to be reminded of this amidst the chaos surrounding us in this world.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

Merciful God, thank you for minor emergencies.

Old Fashioned Barn Raising... er, something

LAST Saturday, we had the privilege of hosting a slew of free laborers (our good friends in disguise) out to our house for a family work day. The idea is that between these 4 families, each family gets one day to have the rest come over and put 'all hands on deck' for whatever work is needed at that home. We were picked to go first and boy did we have WORK for our friends!

The men worked all morning to dig holes, set posts and tie wire to fence in our vegetable garden.

Only 2 people could fit in our guest bathroom, but it did get patched, primed and painted!

Priming the walls in our 3rd bedroom- this room was a disaster! I got some 'tough love' advice about needing to organize the closet in this room better... and, er, get rid of some stuff too.

The two babies were trying to sneak out of the house all day so they were ELATED when they were set free to play on the trampoline. Since several of the men were fencing out there, they had plenty of people to watch- and distract too!

And, here we see the precious baby boys FINALLY taking a nap. A short car ride down the road was what did the trick because there was way too much sibling noise in the house!

!!MOVIE TIME!! There were 13 children between our 4 families (4 of them are over 10) so movie time was a great way to corral, cool and calm their warm bodies. ...We don't have cable but I'm just not sure if I could part with the TV/VCR... I'm just not there yet...

maybe someday...

Thanks be to God for the heavenly workers he sent us that day!

Our friends here are so sincere- the kind of people that offer you help and mean every word of it.

It was a truly beautiful day- 4 Catholic families, working together,

eating together, sharing life, making memories.

After scattered showers this weekend, the garden continues to thrive. We have healthy tomatoes growing, butternut squash on a wild vine, serano peppers, still a nice bed of lettuce, and some very questionable eggplants (the plant, that is).

There is still a small area of that garden that needs to be tilled and planted so today I started seeds for pole beans (green beans), more bell peppers and a few herbs. Our herb bed has oregano, parsley, salad burnett, basil, mint and lemon balm but half of those are looking really pitiful. I REALLY want to have a couple large basil plants so I tried planting purple and green basil in planters on the porch.

Gotta go, Baby Brother is up from a nap!

EXQUISITE!

It was a truly glorious day as our pre-school group toured the Wildseed Farms onWednesday. Poppies, butterflies and smiles abounded in plenty. Oh the beauty of God's color wheel!

Blossoms and Buds

Our yard is bursting with life! The flowers are high, the weeds are higher but it really does look lovely. Here are two varieties of wildflower/ weeds that we think are nice...

And here's our first little broccoli...











...a bed of mixed lettuce...













...sugar snap peas...













...and peach buds growing right
outside the back door!

Up-update

Yikes! It has been way too long since I've updated my blog but now that we finally have internet service at home, this will be much easier. Also, things are really growing out in the garden so there will be lots of 'delicious' photos that I want to share soon.

Recent highlights for the family include: wonderful Easter celebrations, tilling and planting for summer crops, Michael take his first step, we're expecting #4, recent trip to ARCH (Houston) homeschooling conference and a yummy tour of the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham.

Happy Birthday Rose- January 18th!!

Mi Tortillarilla

Merry Christmas and Happy Tamale!