Pictures of My Babies

I took these on Thursday while we were doing school.

Thomas is doing Literature.

Thomas mugging for the camera while doing Literature.

Thomas and Lily coloring between class and lunch.

This is what most pictures of Lily look like when taken with a digital camera. Everything around her is still, and she is in motion! ALL THE TIME!

She is only still in this one because I asked her to show me her crayon.

When Lily is tired she finds a blanket, whether it is hers or not, this one is Eli's from Aunt Leanne, and beds down like a cat or deer. That spot is where she sleeps unless we move her.

I had the hardest time finding a stocking for Eli this year because we wanted to continue the penguin theme. My dad found this one. The running joke was that Elisha could fit in it. As we took down the Christmas decorations and prepared the tree for burning I decided to take this picture. (This was taken New Year's Day)

Once Thomas and Lily saw Eli in his stocking they had to try their own on for size. Their fits were a bit more snug. (This was taken New Year's Day)

Elisha and his ever-faithful friend Lou the Penguin.

Resting on Mom. What's cuter than a diapered baby?

Signs of Good Parenting

At some point or another every parent wants to know if they are successful. We all want to be sure that we are raising little people that will one day be wonderful ladies and gentlemen.

There are thousands upon thousands of books about parenting. Some are good resources. Some are a waste of perfectly good trees.

Everyone is a guru. Spank. Don't spank. Time out. Blah, blah, blah, ad infinitum, ad nauseum . Rarely is anything they say of value.

It drives me crazy to hear, "Children don't come with an instruction book." UHM, Bible, anyone?

Anyway.....those very children often gives us signs that we are doing well. I recently got some hidden affirmations that I almost missed.

• Last week, I got a loaf of sourdough bread which is one of my personal favorites. As it happened it wasn't a very sour loaf. It was rather disappointing. My lovely older children said, "Mom, this bread is weird. Its white, and it doesn't have any stuff or nuts in it." I'm paraphrasing, of course, but you get the idea. My kids think white bread is weird. Dark bread with seeds and nuts is normal! Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!

• Lily and Thomas are such veggie hounds that when they ask for seconds we say no until they eat their meat. They would rather have olives than candy. Thomas goes to a sit down restaurant like Logan's or O'Charleys and asks for the steak. Inevitably the waitress says, "fries with that?" He says, "No, salad with honey mustard, please."

• Family and friends who hold or watch Eli for any length of time ask, "Is he always this happy?" That alone would be great but then I can truthfully say, "yes."

• Just the other day Thomas used his words very poorly and hurt someone's feelings. He got punished and since it was late evening he was sent straight to bed. That's not the victory. This is: The next morning he climbed up in my lap, said good morning and asked to call the person he hurt because he "didn't use good words" and needed to apologize and invite them back over.

• Lily was at the mall with my parents and Thomas. They stopped for a treat. When Dad and Thomas went to the restroom, Lily said, "Nanny, thank you for this drink. It was very thoughtful." What a precious girl! (No, that wasn't paraphrasing. That was verbatum.)

For those that think I am tooting my own horn, well, maybe just a little and some for Thad, too. But the reality is that we just venture to raise them as God sees fit, not us. We planted the seeds but those tender baby hearts allowed them to grow.

As long as I'm here I might as well add my two cents to the blah, blah, blahs of the world.

Children that only eat junk food aren't the problem. Parents that only feed them junk food are the problem. If your kid won't eat vegetables its because you don't serve them. If you serve them and your kids refuse, they shouldn't eat. In our house, I am not a short order cook. I don't take orders. You eat what I serve or you go hungry. If you think that's cruel, you're wrong. Children have a very active survival instinct. They won't allow themselves to starve. They'll eat eventually and might even discover that broccoli isn't all that bad. At our house, this has never lasted more than about half an hour.

Never turning away a hug or kiss shows them that you value their affection. Children that are loved will love others.

"Do as I say and not as I do" is pathetic. Be a good example.

Lastly, we all make mistakes. We all need counsel. Don't turn to a book or a stranger. Go to God first then turn to your parents and grandparents or a trusted close friend that has grown children. They have wisdom with experience. Oprah and Dr. Phil are not parenting or relationship experts, especially when compared with the One who wrote the manual on children and parenting!

Love to all....

Eli's Eyes

It's scary to think that something is not quiet right with one of your children. Thomas was in the NICU for 11 days after being born 6 weeks early. God once miraculously healed Lily of Meningitis, and now, Elisha needs surgery.

Bea, I, and many others have noted how cross-eyed Eli is. He is 5 months old now and his right eye tends to settle right up against his nose, while his left eye is tracking straight or off looking at something else in the room.

My sister, who also had a lazy eye when she was young, and currently has a son with a lazy eye, said, "Hey little brother, you need to get Eli's eyes checked out. They are a little too crossed." We didn't really pursue it initially because both Thomas and Lily had googly eyes that passed with age. A few weeks later Bea took Eli in to have a rash looked at when the Dr. noticed how his eyes were tracking differently. (They sometimes remind us of those plastic eyes that wobble all over everywhere.) She says they are "way too googly." It noticeably concerned her.

So, she made the arrangements for Eli to go see an ophthalmologist. I managed to arrange for some time off of work, and off we go.

The nurse that first examined Eli was wonderful. She had definitely worked with kids before. She was able to keep Eli's attention, and get all her initial testing done fairly quickly. She also worked well with Lily and Thomas in the room.




Then the Dr. came in and did several more tests (pictures below). After some discussion, the Dr. did confirm that Eli is cross-eyed, and that it is pretty severe. Ultimately, he recommend surgery to reposition muscles on his eyes. The surgery is more successful when the vision in both eyes is even. Of course the vision in his left eye is stronger. So in the interim, we will be using a patch about 3 hours a day to try to get the eyes to equalize for the next 2 months. In February we will go back to have his vision reevaluated and to see if the disparity between his eyes has improved. Surgery will probably be scheduled that day. It is possible but highly unlikely that patching alone will cause improvement enough for the surgery to be unnecessary.

We have been patching for a couple of days now, and Eli seems to be dealing with it well. He is starting to look at things more with both eyes, instead of just with the one.

Lumber Jack Family

Last week during some heavy winds, a mostly dead tree in my in-laws yard was blown down. A couple of months ago, I got a new electric chain saw. Fallen tree, Chainsaw... What better combination....

So, I start out triming limbs off and making my way towards the trunk. After a couple of hours, I have things mostly cleared up, except the main trunk and a couple of large branches. Thomas always wants to help with my tools, so I figure these logs are good, thick, and stable. It should be safe for Thomas to help, and learn how to use another tool.

First order of business, some talks about power tools safety. Note: Thomas has his ear and eye protection on. He was very attentive to the instructions, and I was there with him every step of the way.

He looks like an old pro now. He did a great job cutting carefully. He was safely able to make a couple of cuts, then he wanted to go play some more. Something about being at Nanny and Granddaddy's house that he wants to play as much as possible.


Well, Thomas wasn't the only one who wanted to get into the act.






Ggggrrrrrrrr!!!!


Bea decided she wanted to use the saw too. So, another safety lecture, a few helpful tips, and off she goes.





She made a couple of cuts as well. She too found a reason not to make any more cuts....




She got saw dust in her shoes... My wife, the girly girl :)


It was a fun time had by all. In the end we got most of the tree broken down and stacked. And, the yard was mostly cleaner than we found it. There was also lots of family fun. And that's the most important part.

BTW, does anybody need any tree work done.... I happen to know a crew.... :D

Beautiful Minds

My husband is brilliant. Plain and simple. He can have entire conversations in nothing but acronyms and numbers. He can tie a hundred different knots. He has an uncommon amount of common sense. He can tell which spiders are poisonous and which aren't but he kills them all for me. He is just awesome. He astounds me sometimes with what his mind produces.

Which is why this quote is so funny......

Tonight we were driving home trying to be cryptic with our conversation so we could get surprise plans past Thomas because spelling doesn't work anymore. I told Thad we were going to have to develop hand signals or facial expressions or something.

His reply?:

"Yep. I'm thinking we should go to the Tennessee School for the Blind to learn sign language."

It doesn't get any better than that! My near-genius husband gets the prize for quote of the year!

However, I'm pretty sure I have the second best quote locked in with this:

I was getting ready to pump breast milk for Elisha while Thad was making dinner. I don't like when he has to do one of my jobs because I can't so I say this:

"Sweetie, I can finish dinner if you want to do the pumping."

This just goes to show that no matter how intelligent people are they can still suffer from flatus of the cerebellum!

I'm Addicted

My wonderful, intelligent, logical, analytical, handsome husband enjoys Sudoku. One night as I was reading in bed and he was working a puzzle I asked how they work. I had no idea what I was getting myself into! Up to this point I had not even tried one or had the desire to try one. He explained them to me and the rest is history.

I now do one online every time I log on. They are addicting. I swipe his Sudoku book when he's not using it. I do the one in the back of the TV Guide and Sunday newspaper. I am hopelessly addicted with no hope of recovery.

For those who don't know Sudoku is basically a logic puzzle that uses the process of elimination to fill in a 9x9 grid with numbers or letters. I've even found them that use symbols. They are enjoyable and thoroughly frustrating and infuriating at the same time! They make me crazy. Yet I can't avoid them.

So now that I am hooked, I'm doing my best to get everyone else addicted, too! Check out this website or this website or the side bar for a puzzle!

Tennessee State Fair - A Late Update

We had great fun this year at the State Fair. It was held in the first half of September but I'm just now finding time to update everyone.

The fair had all the usual trappings (rides, overpriced food and drinks, rigged games, etc) and the traditional agricultural exhibits which is what we enjoyed. We don't do the rides for obvious safety reasons. We limit games to one per child. As for the food, only because we have too!

At any rate, we prefer the traditional in almost all things. The fair is no exception. Once you get past all the flashy, shiny moneypits there is a great deal of education and fun to be had. We visited the veggie exhibits and saw gigantic pumpkins and a couple of 200-lb watermelons! There were beautiful specimens of vegetables, fruits, canning, and crops all around. The kids asked questions and were engaged in one thing after another. The dairy association had a booth that was manned by Purity and Mayfield with free chocolate milk and ice cream! That was a big hit with Thomas and Lily, not to mention Daddy and Mommy!

We visited an exhibit called Tiny Acres Farm. It was an interactive exhibit that taught farming from harvest to market. Thomas and Lily had great fun!

Thomas' plan for getting his milk to market was to drive his tractor right up to the cow, milk her into the trailer, and head to market!

Thomas was careful to walk among his crops!

Lily wanted to ride the calf.

She also wanted to plant her eggs instead of digging potatoes.

Eli and Momma with the Tiny Acres cow.

The animal barns were a hit, too! Chicken, ducks, geese, rabbits, mules, hogs, cattle! Every barn was fascinating and exciting. And stinky!

Petting the mules was a new experience. It was relaxing until my allergies kicked in!

The allergies were a nice problem to have when we got to the hog barn. I couldn't smell a thing!

We also checked on my entries into the fair. I entered 2 photographs, a framed cross-stitch project, and a pie. It was the same pie I took to the National Pie Championship last April. I didn't place with either of my photographs which was alright because my competittion was stiff! There are many wonderful amateur photogs in Tennessee.

I got an Honorable Mention for my cross-stitch project. The picture is blurry but it is a large version of the poem "Footprints" surrounded by shells, seaweed, waves, and footprints.

As you can see, my big win was with my pie! I baked the best fruit pie in the state! I got first place with my "Delightful 'Pear'-ings Pie." I was astounded. I had to double check the results sheet more than once.

After the National Pie Championship in April I said that I would give out my pie recipe should anyone want it. If you do want it, you can comment on this blog or email me. I only ask that you keep it for personal use.

Though the prize was only $8 which covered all of my entry fees, just participating was grand, indeed. I highly recommend participating in your county or state fair. I am already thinking about what projects I'll do, what pies I'll make. Will I do other baked goods? Its up for consideration. And everything I see gets evaluated for photograph potential!

At the end of the night we had an overwhelming and fulfilling time. Partly because of the animals and exhibits, partly because we spent a day as a family but also because we helped to keep alive the traditional of the fair.

This is what we found when we were getting out of the car that night:

How do they sleep in those positions?