Our Eight + Five Cousins = Summer!

As of 1:30 PM today, school is officially OUT for the SUMMER!

(More about that, later)

We haven't, yet, experienced a full day of freedom, but here's the scene right now:

Happy Wednesday!

Monday at the Troops

Happy Monday, All!

Just some general randomness this morning.

The cold/sinus infection? Tons better.

The ballet recital?

It went beautifully.

Thanks to a WHOLE LOT of help from a sweet sister-in-law.

Couldn't have done it without her!

And if you happen to be one of my children's precious teachers?

You might want to stop in the office after school today.

Just a hint.

Because the cookies,

I'm trying SO hard not to burn them!

And do you KNOW WHAT?

Only two more days!

I have to survive Son's (#1) speech tomorrow night at 6th grade graduation

- he's going to do great.

I'm the one that might not make it.

Then there's awards assembly and the end of the year DUMP of school stuff back INTO my house where I was perfectly happy to NOT have it for the last nine months.

Then SWEET LOVELINESS we can SLEEP IN on Thursday.

I have a feeling the blogging may have to come to a complete halt until we adjust to the craziness of having eight kids home all day

- we call it SUMMER,

but it's really just a lot of CHAOS.

Can't wait.

In the meantime, come by and have a cookie.

The recipe, you ask?

Sure, I'll share it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

(from my grandmother)

Cream together:
4 sticks of butter

(use real butter, OK?)
1 1/2 Cups sugar
1 1/2 Cups light brown sugar
Beat in:
4 eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla
Mix separately:
6 Cups all purpose unbleached white flour
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt

Stir dry ingredients into wet.

Cut 4 (8 oz.) large Hershey Milk Chocolate bars into small chunks.
Fold into dough.

With medium cookie scoop, place on ungreased baking sheets

and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned.

This makes about 5 1/2 doz. fairly large cookies.

Often I freeze the uncooked dough balls on wax paper and then place in a ziploc bag for later. Then you can just take a few out, let them thaw on the baking sheet, flatten and bake. Yum!

That's all I have today.

Maybe once the craziness of school is through

I can come up with a post or two that have depth.

Until then, eat cookies.

And have a great Monday!

Our Day

I'm feeling a little under the weather.

The Coach sent me to the urgent care last night and I came home with several medications.

There's the Z-pac, the cough medicine, the Mucinex and the Zyrtec (which you all know is my drug of choice).

Thinking I'll feel better any minute now.

But until then, I thought I'd let you know that you should NOT, under any circumstance DROP IN at my house today.

Because my sweet people that I love have a way of doing that.

On days like today.

When I am still in my PJ's at 12:45 pm.

And so are my girls.

And the breakfast dishes are still piled on the counter. And the lunch dishes. The laundry is all piled in the living room waiting to be folded. And waiting.

And never mind the rest of the house.

Just never mind.

Now, normally I LOVE drop in visits. I live for them.

There was a time when I actually didn't mind because my house was always clean. Not so much, anymore.

But after years of therapy, I've over that.

Usually I love for you to come, anyway. Never mind the mess. Because people are more important than my house being clean (go ahead, repeat that to yourself over and over, again).

But today. Don't even bother to call.

And even you come knock on my door, or come into my backyard and knock on my completely GLASS sun room door where you can see into my house and mess and me in my PJ's. . . I won't answer.

In fact, I may run into the back of the house and hope that I remembered to lock the door first.

Because it's that kind of day.

And encase you are ever in this situation, here are some ideas of "What to Play when Mom's Sick and Doesn't Care." I borrowed this from my girls. Because they are creative. And will have NONE OF THAT watching movies all day. Even though I try to make them.

1. Get out all of the sleeping bags and pillows and lay them all over the playroom floor and turn ON a movie, but don't watch it. Just play camp out. Be sure and bring all of the dolls and toys FROM the bedroom to have more company.

2. Go out into the garage (with the door closed) and ride scooters and tricycles around and around in circles. Because the Coach's car is gone and the garage - it's actually somewhat picked up. And yelling echoes beautifully out there.

3. Play "shower". Fully clothed. Still in their PJ's, of course. The boy's bathroom has a nice big shower with sliding glass doors. And never mind that my girls WILL NOT actually TAKE a shower. Pretending to take one while fully clothed with the water off is FUN.

4. Color new Hello Kitty coloring book with new colored pencils (Wasn't such a bad idea to pick those up on Wednesday while I was at Hobby Lobby, after all). Empty pencil shaving in trash repeatedly. Be sure to dump some of that on the floor so Baby Boy can play in it.

And if you are looking for some younger activities, here are some ideas for a one year old.

1. Play in the sippy cup drawer. I know. It's sad. We have a WHOLE DRAWER of sippies. Not all nice fancy ones - some just cups with lids. But it's his favorite spot.

2. Crawl up to aforementioned tricycle in the garage and beg for a ride. They'll give you one. If you don't mind being squished a little.

3. Play in the trash. Anyone say pencil shavings?

4. While the girls are taking turns with the pretend showers, pull the toilet paper off the roll. Endless hours of entertainment.

5. That Spanish moss in the bottom of the silk ficus tree? Great fun!

6. Almost empty water bottles with the lids on tight are the best toy ever. Forget those expensive educational toys that someone with one child gave you. Go with the water bottle.

So now you know what's going on here at the Troops today. And don't ask what I've been doing. Let's just say there have been a few messes to clean up. Just a few. And I'm good about going around saying "Careful!" so they don't hurt themselves.

~Leave me a comment and tell me what's going on at YOUR house~

And to be honest - the kids, they've been great. Completely entertaining themselves while I go around cleaning up the messes. They're great that way.

Fabulous Friday Favorites

Morning, All!

It IS still morning, right? I'm a little out of it - haven't been feeling great. Started antibiotics last night, so I'm going to feel GREAT by later today, I'm just sure of it.

However, life still continues on, whether I'm a bit slow or not!

Today for FFF, I'm going to share something kind of embarrassing. Well, it's not embarrassing, I guess for ME, but the fact that we NEED something like this at our house is gross.

However, I'm all for keepin' it real, as you well know, so here it is.

Yeah, I know. Urine Gone. Told you it was embarrassing. And I won't mention names. But we have one child who walks (and not to the bathroom, if you know what I mean) in his (or her, I'm just sayin') sleep. Frequently. Not every night, but almost. I'm just glad when I FIND where he's been.

And then there is the child who wears pull ups, but they don't always do the trick. I'm just sayin'. Sometimes it's nice to have some help with these household clean up issues.

I really like this product. They should spend more on the spray bottle - it's horrible. But the stuff works. You blot up any moisture, then saturate the area with this and let it air dry. Works on mattresses, carpet, sofas, you name it. I know, now when you come to my house you're going to wonder. . .

So I hope you DON'T need this, but if you do, I'm glad it's available. I bought mine at Wal-mart, but the WWW says it's cheaper at Walgreen's.

What do YOU use and like that you want to tell us about? Leave your link below. Be sure and link to your specific post and not just your blog. And make sure to leave comments wherever you go. Comments make me especially happy when I'm sick.

Happy Friday!

In Bloom

One week ago, our rose bush looked like this:

Have you ever seen so may buds?

So much potential?

Today, it looks like this:

But at our house, we mostly grow other varieties of flowers.

Like this:

Daughter (#5) in her Kindergarten program Tuesday morning.

She's in the center of the front row.

*Disclaimer*

I am not a photographer. I do not claim to be a photographer. I have a cheap, point and shoot camera. Please do not judge me. I still think the roses are pretty.

Happy Tuesday!

Mother's Day (a little late. . .)

Wonderful post to share with you from over at One Thing.

My thoughts exactly. . .

I often wonder if any mother DOES feel like they are doing a good job? I can't imagine it. There are always things to do better. Areas where I fall so short. Ways I need to GROW.

Occasionally we have a "breakthrough" and I think that maybe something somewhere is sinking in with my kids. But I can't really take credit for that.

And every now and then we have a complete disastrous collapse of where I am trying to head with them. And I certainly don't want to take credit for that, either.

Even when we didn't have a house overflowing with kids, I knew I wasn't the mother I wanted to be. I knew there were things the Lord was teaching me, changing in me.

It seems that the more children we've had, the farther I am from being the "perfect mom".

There's something about trusting the Lord, there.

I used to picture God's grace like putty filling in the cracks of my mothering.

Now I realize that I all contribute are the cracks. ALL of it is God's grace. Every bit of good that comes from my mothering. Every bit of glory that we give to the Lord through our home and family. That's God's grace.

And I'm certain, as well, that we mothers are NOT some kind of super human amazing beings that we are made out to be for at least one day of the year.

Fallen. Sinner. Ruled by Flesh. Inconsistent. Selfish. I know that's what I really am, even if others don't see it.

My children certainly do.

And yet,

"My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most glady therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." (II Cor. 12:9-10)

So today I'm going to be real. I'm going to admit my WEAKNESS. And forget trying to do it all. Forget trying to do it all right. Forget trying to be the perfect mother. For today.

For today I'm going to glory in my weakness. So that I can be strong in the Lord.

It's the only hope I have of being the mother He wants me to be.

Our (old) House

We moved out of our old house in November of 2005. What a blessing that little house was! That we even had it was God's miraculous provision. We were so grateful for it. We had such fun fixing it up little by little in the nine plus years we were there.

The Kitchen after remodeling

Easter 2003 by Azaleas in the back yard

Play set that Granddad Designed. Before it was finished.

Kids (not all mine!) eating on the deck

Our cattle tank pool

As you can see, a great house with lots of memories. One of the best being that we were next door to my Granddad and the kids were able to see him often and know him well.

We brought six babies home to that house (Son #1 was a baby when we moved in). All 1,650 square feet of it. Good thing they were all little, then! We had three bedrooms and a small "sun porch" upstairs. Three boys in one room, three girls in another, and the baby (Daughter #7, at the time) in our sun porch/nursery. All sharing one bathroom.

Such fun.

Thanks for letting me reminisce.