Thanks, but needing more

Thank you so much for everyone that has been praying for me.  It has been a tough month of not feeling so great.  I've been taking my Super-Vitamins and fun stuff from my doctor.  I do have my energy back, so that is great!  But, the pressure I've been feeling in my chest continues to grow stronger everyday. I've even seen Silas and Callie pretending to be Momma with an ice pack on their neck. It's so hard to explain....it's not like it's painful, but by the end of the day, feeling someone has been standing on my chest all day, I'm frustrated and uncomfortable.  And maybe a little grouchy.  (but don't tell my family I admitted that :o)  It's to the point that by the end of the day the pressure is now hurting.  It's so hard to describe.

I called my doctor back this past Thursday.  She just doesn't really know what it the problem is.  She wants me to go and see an Osteopath. We're having a hard time understanding exactly what that is.  I'm not sure if it is the same as in the states which is basically a doctor, but someone that focuses more on the deep tissues and muscles.  I know here there is a big emphasis on massage and that is one of the things that Osteopaths do here..  If you know me, then this is not something I normally do.  I guess I'm just the type of girl that believes that is my husbands job ;o) 

So please be praying for us to have wisdom in this situation.   Pray for me tonight for my appointment too.  I'm kind of nervous.

In the meantime, I'm hoping to get a bunch of posts of my awesome family.  They are amazing, and I have lots of fun pictures to prove it.

Again.

It was about 5 months ago that I had my overnight stay in the hospital for the pressure I was feeling in my right shoulder/neck/chest.  I had been doing so much better... until about 3 weeks ago.  The pressure feeling was slowly coming back.  It was all in the same place, my neck, shoulder and chest.  Thankfully this time it wasn't as hard to breath!

  I began to do my ice packs. When that didn't work I went to heat, then back to ice.  I tried Motrin, motrin, and more motrin.  That made Patrick nervous I was going to ruin my liver, so I used Tylenol, then motrin.  And slowly felt the pressure build.  Not much fun.

About a week ago I also started feeling very tired.  And achy.  Once again Patrick became Daddy and Momma and I went to bed.  After a week of this we decided it was enough and I went to the doctor.  I decided to see the doctor that did the checkups for Callie and Micah and I really like her. She is a little unsure of the problem (just like the other doctor) My bloodwork all came back normal, but after looking at my symptoms and doing some reflex testing, it seems that I'm Magnesium deficient.  I had been taking Magnesium supplements for about 13 years (ever since Brenna was born my midwife recommended me taking Calcium, Magnesium and Vitamin D)  But, after Micah was born, I ran out and never bought anymore.  After looking at the symptoms online, I do seem to have them.  So for now I have 4 boxes of medicines to take and hopefully that will work.  I need to be the Momma again!

Anyone else ever had problems similar to this?
And thank you to everyone who has been praying for me.  You're a blessing!

Can I help?

I love it when my kiddos want to help.  Callie is my new Set-the-Forks girl.

 She does a great job!

Can you tell she's a little proud of her work?

Elisabeth's Birthday

There is so much excitement around here on birthdays.  The birthday person gets their choice of meals and activities and we just love it!

 We always start the day off with our living room full of fun balloons or ribbons, or something that will kick the day off right.  Then, as the person wakes up and comes out the bedroom we all sing Happy Birthday!  (As my kiddos get older, I'm noticing that sleeping in is one of the requested "activities" :o)  Then, of course, it's gift time!

 Can you tell Callie is happy for a birthday! How does she get her neck to do that?

 Beth received lots of thoughtful gifts this year.  Callie just knew she would love the chocolate lady bugs that she picked out for her at the store.

 A HUGE bag of of Peanut M and M's was from Josh.  Can you tell she likes chocolate?  Who doesn't? :o)

 One of her gifts from us was this book called Verses of Virtue.  My Beth loves poetry.  She was really wanting a book full of poems by Christians.  We were excited to find this one on Amazon for a pretty good price.  We were skeptical though, since her birthday was 6 weeks away when we ordered it.  We were VERY impressed with Amazon!  We paid for the regular international shipping (only $13!) that was supposed to arrive in 4 weeks. (mail always seems to take longer than said)  We received it in 4 days!  Wow!  Very impressed for sure!

 Brenna bought Beth her favorite Peach Tea and a gift certificate for a free pedicure (by Brenna of course!)  I think Beth enjoyed getting her toes done while drinking her tea, eating her M&M's and reading her new book!  Talk about being pampered!

Then, after lunch, She wanted us to play Monopoly.  Josh said that it was like God was wanting her to win  because we all kept on landing on her property!

 That afternoon we took a relaxing stroll down on the harbor.  Gustavia is so beautiful!  We love watching the boats, looking for fish and just enjoying a nice walk.

 For her birthday "cake" she wanted us to try a new dessert. Fried Ice Cream (except it's not really fried)  We loved it!  And will definitely be making it again!

 Happy Birthday (again :o)  my Beth!  It was so much fun celebrating with you!

St. Barths Pillows

When I received my Sanibel Fabric a few years ago, I knew I wanted to make many projects with it, especially some throw pillows for my couch.  I loved it!  But, soon the orange color became too orange-y for me.  I love oranges around Fall (my favorite season!) but other than that time of year it sort of wears on me.  So after two years of throw pillows with too much orange, I decided I needed a change.  When I opened up Seaside Cottage for Christmas from my Mom, I knew I needed to make some new pillows for my couch!

 I had so much fun making these!  And they go great in our Living Room with just the right amount of fun color.  I love having the grays and browns together.

 I knew I wanted to make two fun striped pillows with my favorite print, the aqua and gray.  Then, when I made our tablecloth (still in the works, but hopefully I can post the finished result soon) I wanted to copy the pattern for one of the pillows.  Patrick loves patterns with squares and clean lines, so I think he likes the pillow on the right the best.

 And then I tried something a little fun.  Around here you see lots of things with the shape of the island, so I attempted to do a little applique on the pillow in the shape of St. Barths.   It took quite a while to cut and then sew around all the pointy parts, but I really like how it turned out!

I decided to make the pillows in more of a slipcover fashion.  With this crazy family you never know when something will need to be washed.  I hate how pillows get all clumpy when you wash them.  So, if it's just a little spill on the fabric, I can take the cover off and throw it in the wash.  No problem!

What a fun project!

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom quilts for her Finish it Up Friday.  I love to have finished projects that were fun, fun, fun!

Happy 15th Birthday to my Elisabeth Kristine!

Today my Elisabeth is 15 years old!  What a treasure she is to our family!

 I remember, 15 years ago, waking up around 3 am to not feeling well.  Around 4 am I finally realized I was in labor. This was our first homebirth, so we were nervous, but pretty excited, too.

We quickly called our midwife, Judith. When she talked to me on the phone for a minute or two, she asked for me to pass the phone back to Patrick.  I watched his face turn white as she explained to him that she was going to hurry to our place, but she could tell by my voice that she wasn't going to make it.  I thought she was crazy since everyone told me that for your second birth you can expect labor to be cut in half.  I had 6 more hours to go!  (or so I thought)

Feeling confused and thinking maybe we had a crazy midwife (which she wasn't, she was an amazing lady!)  I headed back to the bathroom while Patrick began making chipped ice raspberry cubes.  Before we knew it, my water broke and the baby was coming!  Talk about panic!  He quickly called the midwife back on her cellphone and she began explaining the instructions to Patrick. Within minutes she lost signal.  Patrick was in a little bit of shock himself and kept saying over and over, "I should have read the book from Judith, I should have read that book from Judith."

Of course by this time Joshua (21 months old at the time) was awake and amazingly calm.  He even seemed to know what items Patrick needed from the birthing kit and helped his Daddy out!  After trying to not give birth for what seemed like forever, I could hold back no longer and our sweet baby girl was born at 5am.  Wow!  Talk about an amazing morning!  Judith arrived at 5:05am.   I remember saying "I have a daughter!  I have a daughter!"  What a wonderful memory that I will forever cherish!

 15 years later and we are still blessed beyond belief with our Elisabeth.

 She is diligent in everything she does....schoolwork, helping me and in her relationship to the Lord.  She faithfully reads her Bible and keeps a faithful prayer list.  I've even caught Silas and Callie pretending to be Bess (their nickname for her) and praying like her.

 She sees me working in the kitchen and she comes right in and asks, "What can I do to help?"  A Momma's dream come true!  She notices a dirty diaper and changes it.  She lovingly prepares Sunday School lessons that will point her younger siblings to Christ.

She loves her Daddy and seeks his approval.

 She's learning to deal with the aggravations of living with 4 boys in the house! :o)

 She loves her new baby goat, Kiddie.  And has a special place in her heart for all the little animals that keep finding their way into our yard.

 Blessed beyond belief, and so thankful for my daughter and my friend.  I love you Elisabeth!

Happy 11 Months Micah Reuben!

 As I took Micah's "11 Month Old" pictures on his quilt tonight, I realized we only have one more photo shoot on his blanket like this.  12 months is up next.  It wasn't supposed to go this fast.

 Micah is still my happy baby.  He loves to smile, laugh, and play.

 He consistently sleeps 8pm-6am.  Whew!  It feels good to get a good night's rest!  He also has a morning nap that he's trying to grow out of, and a good afternoon nap.

 He's a great eater and loves just about anything.  Especially crackers!

This month Patrick has snuck him a couple cups of chocolate milk.  He loved it.  sniff sniff.  I'm not ready to wean my baby.

 He loves to play, "Where's Micah?"  It's so cute how he covers his ears instead of his eyes.  Such a cutie!

Love those eyes! They still have that dark blue that he was born with, but you can see the chocolate brown creeping in.  I love it!

 Mom, you wanted a good one of his teeth!  He has 6 of them and they are so adorable!

He is doing so well walking and takes 4, 5,  and 6 steps at a time.  He loves to walk around.  He giggles and he's getting so fast.  He's very proud of himself.

Oh Micah, you're growing up too fast on me.  I'm loving watching you grow and learn new things.  I love how you clap your hands together when you sit in your highchair to say you are ready to pray.  I love how you always want to hug me after we pray.  I love how you hug me when I sing goodnight to you....you suck your thumb, and with your other hand you hug my neck and play with my hair.  I love how you smile at me with your eyes.  I love being your Momma.

Where's Micah?

My Micah Roo has become quite quick!  He switches between taking steps and crawling and manages to be in any corner of the house in a matter of seconds.  Last week, during Silas and Callie's naptime, he escaped from my watchful gaze. I searched and searched.   Naturally the last room I checked is the one that he was in...

The kids room!  I think he was ready for Silas to be up from his nap and ready for playtime!  He loves his attention from his brothers and sisters and loves to play!

Do you wanna help me feed the chickens?

Patrick and my kiddos are the ones who take care of our chickens.  They faithfully feed and water them and clean out their coop.  They love it!  Silas was thrilled when Patrick asked him if he would feed them.  He loves to help!

 And I thought he looked so cute in his jammies and his tennis shoes.

He was so proud of himself for a job well done!

Pretzel and Movie Quiz Family Fun Night

We really look forward to our Friday Nights together!  It's fun to plan during the week, and by the time school is done on Friday, the excitement just seems to build!  

Last Friday the girls and I made Pretzels to go with our dinner!  So yummy and fun!  We had a honey mustard dip and a cheese dip.  My favorite was the cheese!

 I love my time in the kitchen with my girls.  I told them that it has gotten to the point where I don't know how to cook without them in there helping me!  And when we cook together there is usually lots of giggling and singing.

I love how my three younger ones pick up on our excitement.  

 Callie loves to eat anything that she can "dip"

Then for our fun thing to do we had a movie/quiz night.  We watched the first 45 minutes of one of our favorite movies.  We chose Facing the Giants.  While the family was watching, I was taking notes.  I wrote down crazy questions like, "What color is the  bathroom wallpaper in the Taylor's home" and "What color was Bobby Lee Duke's Lollipop in the commercial?"  I couldn't believe how many they got right!  It was tons of fun!

Addition to Command Central

Do you have one of these spots?  You know, a place where there's a calender, or perhaps your weekly menu, a family photo or drawing...just important stuff that needs to be hung in a highly visible spot.  For us, we have our board in our dining room.  We always seem to need to glance at our calender, or read an important post-it message.  

This week I made an addition to our "Command Central"

 I decided we needed a place to put all of our out-going mail.  I've seen some of this fun-sewing technique and wanted to try it myself.  Basically you just start with a small scrap piece of fabric and sew another small piece to it.  Then, just keep adding, not being concerned with even-ness.  (Oh, I love that!)  When you have made the block the size you want it, then it's done!  I think I'll be trying this again!

And what do you know?  There's a letter all ready to be mailed.  Oh how I love when organizing tricks work! :o)

And while I'm on the subject...have you written a missionary kid lately?  Let me tell you, your letter of encouraging words could be just the thing their sweet heart needs. I love seeing the looks on their faces when they receive a letter to them. And I'm not just talking about my little ones.  My teenagers love it the most!  Faithful penpals have been such a blessing to us!

  God called my husband to be a missionary.  And He called me, too.  My kids?  Yes, God has also called them to be missionaries at this time in their lives, too.  But, sometimes they miss the good 'ole USA.  Sometimes they miss their friends.  Sometimes they miss English and familiar foods.  I say "sometimes"  because we have made this our home.  Our life is wonderful and we love serving God together in the place He has called us to.  But it's for those "sometimes" that I write.

Write a missionary kid.  It will be a blessing to them.  I promise.