Where to Begin??? (updated)

Well, there are so many things I have wanted to blog about, but just haven't gotten around to it. Let's see...A couple weeks ago we had the cool experience of making our own maple syrup out of the backyard. We have been slowly enjoying the fruits of our labors and it is so yummy! We collected sap from two trees and only got to do it for about a week. We collected about fifteen gallons and boiled it down to about two quarts. I did it in the house in our electric cooking pan (I don't really know what the thing is called, but it holds a lot of liquid). The main batch I did, I let cook in there for two days and then when it got near the end, I finished on the gas stove. It is the best syrup I have ever tasted and I'm sure that has something to do with the fact that I processed it myself.

Jedaiah turned six months old last week. He finally rolled over about a week before that. He keeps trying to sit up, but he can only lift his head off the ground (picture, "I've fallen and I can't get up). He has started eating some foods, but not real regularly yet. So far he has only had cereal, squash, apple sauce and bananna. He is quite adorable and many people say he looks like his Momma.

Jesse is still potty training. He's still pooping in his pants too. I don't really make a big deal about it and I figured out today that making him clean his underware would not really deter him from doing it. I caught him going in the bathroom today, taking off his pooped in underware and cleaning them in the toilet (but they weren't getting very clean since he didn't turn them inside out - I'm okay with that). I took over, but he didn't like that, he wanted to do it. So, I let him do a little and left the room for a minute. When he got done, he brought the underware (dripping wet) to me in the laundry room. Yuck (at least it wasn't on carpet)! He is quite a character and I see a lot of Josh in him, but he doesn't seem quite as stubborn.

This past weekend the kids played in the AWANA games. Jon and Josh's team got first place and Jay and Josiah's team got third (out of three teams). Rachel got to play on her brothers' team because they didn't have enough girls. It was quite fun watching her. I hope to get some video uploaded in the next few days.

Baseball has started. Jonathan is one one team and Josh and Jay are on a team together (what a blessing!). We don't have grass to play on yet and we won't for this season. We're supposed to get it seeded this Spring. So that leaves them practicing on the driveway or out in the field. I'm looking forward to watching them play games this year.

Projects I've been working on:
Loosing weight - that is going well, I've now lost around 15 pounds since January. I think Bob beat me and reached his goal already, but I'm in second place in our biggest loser contest. I've only got 2 pounds to reach my goal, so I think I'm going to set a new goal and go for five more pounds. It will probably take until the Fall to reach that goal (after I'm done nursing). I can get into my jeans again, but they are still tighter than I'd like.

I'm in the midst of spackling the garage. I didn't get to work on it last week because I was too busy. There is a lot still to be done, but I'll work on it as I can on rainy days.

I've been doing some researching and thinking on the garden. I bought some berry bushes to plant (Blueberry, rasberry, blackberry, strawberry and gojiberry). I hope to get outside this week and start working on the ground for the garden. I bought a bunch of heirloom seeds that I plan to plant. I also want to harvest the seeds and dry them and start a seed bank for future years. I got the seeds from the Sustainable Seed Company online. This will all be great learning for both me and the kids!

The kids started making their own Easter candy today. I decided I don't want to go out and buy a bunch of candy this year. I thought it would be fun to have them make their own. Today Jonathan and Jay made Tootsie rolls and they were pretty easy and very tasty. They also plan on making Butter fingers, Twix bars, and probably another kind or two. This year we plan to do an Easter scavenger hunt around the house here (per their request).

I'm still in the process of eating healthier and serving healthier foods for my family. Last week I had a few ladies over to teach them how to grind wheat and discuss ways to eat more nutritiously. I learned lots of things. I learned what coos coos is (I don't know if that is how you spell it). It is a grain and works well as a side dish. I think I'll try it one of these days. I also learned about different natural sugars like Agave necter and others. One thing I'm going to try and do more of this summer is making yogurt pops instead of popsicles. I am also going to try and make hummus (another foreign thing to me). We'll see if the kids go for it. I'm looking forward to having a big garden and getting lots of veggies to preserve and have throughout the year.

Today I bought rope for a clothes line. I want to try drying the clothes outside and see how much that takes off our electric bill. My sister-in-law said she saved quite a bit of money doing it last summer. I think I'm going to start by drying the clothes under our back deck. I can set a line there easily and take it down if I decide it is not for me. I never really enjoyed doing it as a kid, but I'm hoping it will be more enjoyable now, it will be a good time to pray. The only thing is there is dirt under there and if I drop a wet something, it will probably need to go into the washer again. If I send the kids out to do it, I think it would be defeating the purpose of saving energy as I'd probably have to rewash stuff. The hope is that someday we'll have a patio under there, but for now we have dirt.

We should finish up the school year at the end of April, but we'll keep going and try to get some hours in when we don't have much else to do (does that ever happen??? it does for the kids, not for me). Well, I'm sure there is more I could write about, but it seems the minutes in a day just fly by and I'm out of time.

Catching Up...

January started out with a biggest loser contest for me, along with my dad, brother and sister. My goal was to loose 17 pounds. So far I've lost 11 and I'm happy with that progress. We're doing it for six months and the last few pounds will probably come off a bit slower.

It has been a while since I've blogged. I guess there hasn't been too much to blog about. We're enjoying the winter, trying to stay warm. We keep it colder in our house after we got a $400 heating bill in January. We've all gotten pretty used to the 62 degree temperature. The boys actually wear more than a t-shirt around the house now.

In January, little Jesse turned two. With all the birthdays around here lately, he's gotten pretty good at singing "Happy Birthday to You". He likes to get into all kinds of things are make a mess. He also likes to climb on the island in our kitchen and wash his hands or play in the water; more messes. We started the potty training process and we're in the midst of that. He's doing fine, but he has yet to poop on the potty. He's got a pretty good memory when it comes to where he pooped. Sometimes I don't know where and have to ask him to show me. Sometimes he takes his underware (with poop in it) and puts it in the toilet, just like Mommy does (only I don't leave it in there). He'll get it one of these days. He still sucks his thumb and we'll be working on that habit once the potty training is under control.

James turned 38 the day after Valentine's Day. We had such a nice weekend and celebration for him. I got him a maul for his birthday, so he can split the wood he's been cutting up with his new chainsaw he got for Christmas. James has been working hard, seeing plenty of patients. He's ready to get outside and get back to hiking and backpacking. He's been on a couple hikes with the boys this winter. Today he and Jonathan worked on the bluff (Frenchman's Bluff which is in the state park next door to us). There's years of trash piled up at the bottom of the bluff and there are a few people working to clean it up.

Tonight we celebrated Rachel's birthday. She turns four tomorrow. She was very excited to open presents and eat cake and ice cream. She has such a great personality. I especially love it when she says, "Mommy, your beautiful!" (and she says it quite often). She loves playing with dolls and holding her Jedaiah. I think she asks to hold him just about every day.

I'm havng problems posting pictures, so I'll try to add them later. So that catches you up on what's been going on around here. Maybe my next post won't be so long away.

Daddy's Breakfast Cafe Opens for Business

This morning we opened a new restaurant. We served up our first breakfast and it was a success! James and Josh were the customers and they enjoyed breakfast together in our cosy dining room (a.k.a. school room). Jonathan, Jay and Mommy were the chefs and servers. We had a great time playing restuarant. Next week it will be Jonathan's turn to have breakfast with Daddy and we'll go on down the line. We hope to keep this up once a week as James' schedule allows (if he has no one in the hospital to see). James used to take the kids out to breakfast occasionally, but that hasn't happened in a long time. This saves time and money and yet gives Daddy special time with each of the kids.

Daddy was already finished, Josh still was eating

The other kids got to enjoy the leftovers

We Love Uncle Mike

We got stuck in the snow on the way home this afternoon. The snow had blown and drifted over our road and was over a foot deep. We only got about three inches, but it has been very windy and very cold. James and boys got up early this morning to shovel, both our house and the office sidewalks. I'm hoping James won't have trouble like I did (he'll be heading home from a meeting soon). Anyways, I got stuck at the end of our road, which is 3/4 miles from our home. Someone stopped to help, but only got me more stuck and landed the back tire of the van right up against a phone pole (no damage). Before I could call Uncle Mike to the rescue another person stopped to help, but I declined. I trust Uncle Mike and his expertise at getting us out of jams. He had to do it once before when we got stuck down at the river bottom in 2008. Anyways, he got me out without a problem. It is so great having him as a neighbor. He called just a few minutes ago, checking to see if James made it home yet. He probably doesn't want to get into his PJ's until he knows he won't have to go out and pull James out of a ditch (His youngest son, who lives in a trailer on our road, isn't home yet either and he may need help getting down the road too). We are so blessed to live out here on the farm.

A Christmas to Remember

Our first Christmas in our house was definitely one we'll never forget. It was not at all picture perfect, but God gave us great JOY in the midst of it all and we have the memory to look back on and laugh at. Here is the long-winded version: It all started with last weekend when we went to the church choir's musical. The boys (Jonathan and Joshua) sang in it and after their part, they left with the rest of the kids to wait until the program was over. During the program, someone came and got James. This has happened before, James getting pulled out of a service to help with some medical issue someone was having. I assumed that was it. Later he returned and Josh was with him. I figured that was just a coincidence that he brought Josh back with him to watch the rest of the program. I did think it a little strange that Josh brought a bowl of popcorn or something with him (I couldn't see in the bowl). "Couldn't he just go without that?" I thought. I found out later that he had thrown up and that is why they came and got James. That was what the bowl was for. He threw up again a couple more times later that night. No one else got sick and that was it (so we thought). James felt nauseous a couple days later, but he never threw up. On Wednesday I had 14 kids (from two families besides our own) I was caring for and half way through the day Jesse threw up. I was hoping and praying no one else would get it (one of the families did end up getting it Christmas night, sorry Charlotte).

It seemed we were all okay and we went to church on Christmas Eve, all doing pretty well. On the drive home I started to feel bad and a hour or two later I threw up. I laid on the couch and watched "A Christmas Carol" in and out of sleep. Then I went to bed and left James to put everything under the tree and stuff the stockings. He came to bed quite late. I was grateful that he wasn't sick.

During the night I awoke to Jonathan throwing up. Poor guy had his new retainer in (he got his extender out this past Tuesday). I went back to sleep, eventually. Then I was up again and couldn't sleep. Jonathan was throwing up again. I got up and him and I watched a Christmas Eve sermon on t.v. Then we went back to bed about 3:30 a.m. Later I awoke to someone running to the bathroom; it was Jay. He started throwing up. I went back to sleep and James and I were awake at 4:30 and laid in bed talking for a while. Then we decided to get up a bit after 5:00. All the kids were up by 7:00 and ready to start opening gifts. We had a few things to do first, including bathe Rachel, Jesse and Josiah, put baby Jesus in the manger, read our advent book and James and Josh ate the traditional cinnamon rolls (the rest of us weren't up to eating). Rachel and Jesse had thrown up in their beds during the night and we never heard a thing. We thought Josiah had gotten thrown up on by Jay, but we later found out that he had thrown up himself.

We finally started opening gifts. We were soon interrupted by Rachel throwing up. We'd get that cleaned up and taken care of and start on the presents again. A few minutes later Jay ran to the bathroom to vomit. We had bowls everywhere. It took us quite a while to get through all the gifts. It is a good thing we told James' parents not to come. It would have taken us a long time to open all their gifts. That worked out better for them since Betty was up until 5:00 a.m. wrapping all the gifts.

By the afternoon we were all feeling better and the vomiting had stopped. I didn't cook anything, since only James and Josh were eating. It turned out to be a very relaxing day. I even got a two and a half hour nap in the afternoon.

Saturday afternoon we ate our dinner we had planned for Christmas Day. James' parents came over and brought their 10 big bags of gifts. They always bless us with a multitude of gifts, although they have scaled back the last couple years (but not in clothes it seems). Another relaxing, but more wonderful day. I absolutely loved having Christmas fall on a Friday. I've come to the conclusion that we should celebrate Christmas on the Friday closest to December 25th every year. It is not like Jesus was born on the 25th anyways. Probably the rest of the country won't go for it. Usually James goes back to work the day after Christmas, so this was quite a treat, especially since we were sick on Christmas.

We were supposed to have James' whole family over on Saturday and we postponed that until New Year's Day. That made the whole weekend stress free. New Year's Eve we are planning (Lord willing) to have a party with friends from our Sunday School class and then the family over on Friday. It should be fun. What a wonderful holiday we have had so far! How very blessed we are. I am trying to fully enjoy these great times with our children. I know they'll be all grown before I know it.

After church on Christmas Eve

Jesse fell asleep on Mommy, who was not feeling great at this moment

Our tree with all the gifts (we scaled back this year too)

Jedaiah was spared from the illness. God's grace to so good.

Josiah wasn't feeling well, but we didn't know it. He carried a bowl for a few minutes, but said he didn't feel like throwing up. I thought he just wanted to be like the other kids. I figured he'd be getting sick sometime soon. He didn't eat anything all day, except some candy. At night James went down to put him in bed and found where he had thrown up. James was pretty tired of cleaning up puked on beds by that point. James asked Josiah about it and he said he had thrown up, but had forgotten about it.
Jay with his bowl
Jonathan before we started opening gifts, he had fallen asleep

Rachel getting ready to throw up. I don't think she really did at this time.

Jesse didn't open his gifts until later. He ate a few tootsie pops and then fell asleep on the floor. Poor guy, he was not feeling well at all.
You can see it on the kids faces. They don't feel good. This wagon was for Rachel, Jesse and Jedaiah

Now onto Saturday's fun festivites

All the gifts from MawMaw and PawPaw

Rachel with some of her gifts

One of Jonathan's favorite gifts. His big gift is a shared gift with Josh and Josiah: a drum set which is on order

Jedaiah with his gifts behind him

Josh with his loot

Jay got this "Green Machine" riding toy. It is soooo cool. I've enjoyed riding it myself. The weight limit is 180 pounds.

Jesse got a trampoline. You can see him jumping on it at dropshots.

Making Gingerbread Houses

Our dear friends the Whitbys gave the kids a gingerbread house village. They each made their own little house, it worked out great. I didn't even supervise it because they couldn't wait to do it the morning after they received it. They put them together while I was on the treadmill. They were pretty proud of their creations. They ate them all up a day or two later.

Second Annual Christmas Program in the Bockhorst Household

In mid December we held our Christmas program and the Hayes girls joined us. The kids put together a play all by themselves. They sang songs and recited poems throughout the play between scenes. We had an even bigger audience than last year. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a great time.

The kids sang songs that they had been practicing to sing with other children at church.

Jonathan played a Christmas song that he wrote last Christmas and discovered this year. You can hear it on a video at dropshots.

Some of those in attendance.