Lots of swimming; lots of lounging; lots of fun...

that was our Memorial Day weekend camping trip at Lake Possum Kingdom, here in Texas.

The first two days, our awesome friends, the Lucas', were with us, and then they decided to pack up early because of the heat (or maybe we smelled too bad?!) and headed home on Sunday. But then the Shepherds joined us for some camping.

The kids really loved swimming there and it was hard to get the older two out of the water! Kellen likes to sit on the beach and play, and Soren LOVES the water... he could sit and splash for hours.

You know, trying to camp while doing the vegan diet was a little different, but we really just planned pretty well. Here is what we had::

Our first night, the Lucas' (Monica really, who are we kidding, did all the cooking!) made chicken kabobs, and I just took the chicken off and had the veggies in a tortilla.

Second night, we shared with our campmates some Black Bean, Quinoa Chili that I had made the day before we left. The kids all ate it, and the adults all enjoyed it as well, although, I am pretty sure some wouldn't have minded some meat thrown in there!

And the third night, we had Spicy Black Bean burgers (from the store) with a Thai Coleslaw... really, I thought we ate pretty well!

We always do oatmeal for breakfast (and hot chocolate), and peanut butter and something for lunches, making it pretty easy to relax most of the time(as you can see from all the time spent in our wonderful hammock!) Paired with these, this hammock is AWESOME! One of the kids (12 year old) even slept in it!)

We did have some noisy neighbors, some ant bites, and a bit of a stomach bug, but really a fantastic camping trip.

We headed home by way of the Fort Worth area so that we could catch a Mariner (against the Rangers) game. Unfortunately, the M's lost, but we were okay with that. Tyler is a die-hard fan, and any baseball in the real form is good enough for him!

Heading home from there, we had a little potty accident (seriously, Colton! A 5 second warning that you have to go pee, before actually peeing all over your carseat, is NOT enough time!!!) But we managed to take care of that before heading home to Abilene through the storm that was headed for us! Lots of wind and rain and lightning, but we made it!

I am loving (still) my new haircut! It is pretty short, and pretty light... 

Our neighbor just had a baby (her 5th!) this morning at home in their house... I kept thinking all morning (because two of her kids were at our place) A BABY IS BEING BORN ON OUR STREET! It was a neat feeling. And the baby is SO cute! They were hoping for a boy (they have one of those, and three girls all 5 years old and under!) but were happy with a sweet baby girl! 

I am sitting here writing this blog with my own sweet little boy sitting on my lap, not showing any signs of bedding down for the night (It is 730pm!) ... we will see how this goes.

I think we will research IPads a little bit more.

Oh, and the running bit is going awesome! I recently read "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall, and put some of what I learned into practice. Instead of running to get it over with, I started running because I can; and it is wonderful. I know it sounds corny, but I started making an effort to run with smile on my face, and it actually makes it more enjoyable and easier to run that 3 miles! By the ay, awesome book and highly recommended by me!

Being off of Facebook has been wonderful, in case any of you were wondering. I find myself with more time on my hands, and less clutter in my mind. Although it does hinder keeping in touch with some people.

REST IN PEACE Uncle Jeff! You will be missed. I remember you as the cool, Harley riding uncle, who always took the time to say hi to us, even when we were little. I have very fond memories of just being around you and your family. One of my favorites is that other house you guys used to live in with the big garden across the street that you tended. I loved going over there and watching how you grew your plants and what not. We ran through those garden rows all the time. Thanks for being a great Uncle.

Enjoy your weekend

(And Monica, in case you are wondering, the reason I don't really have pictures up of you guys is for one, I only had a couple, and for two... I wasn't sure if you wanted them roaming the internet....)

Sleep interrupted

Sleep.
Something everyone needs.
Something that tends to elude me at every corner.
First off, having four kids means you get less sleep. I know that. There is always one with... something; sickness, nightmares, thirst, hunger, you name it. But for the last six months I have been woken every 2 hours by a sweet little babe who INSISTS he's starving! Every two hours, which means after feeding him and getting myself back to sleep, I might get an hour or hour and a half. Might.
Well, we moved him to his crib recently because we were waking him up with every move (I'm talking just lifting the blankets). But he hates his crib and hasn't learned that he can fall asleep on his own without my boob in his mouth! And he still wakes up every two hours on average. The other night I went to bed at 10pm, got up at 7am. Between those NINE precious hours, I got roughly 4.5 hrs of sleep that was interrupted exactly 7 times (unless I was dreaming!!). This seems like a nightly occurrence for us. Sadly.
You would think we had experience. Turns out; no. But I do have a lot of excuses and books on the subject. Ha! Oh, sleep. I dream about you constantly. My eyes ache I'm so tired.

UPDATE::
After reading two different parenting/sleep books, I made up my mind and decided to teach Soren a very valuable lesson: How to sleep on his own.
First book, Bringing Home BeBe. This is my new favorite parenting book. Not that I don't already know a little something about parenting, but one thing I have always had is a bit of guilt. Guilt over not being good enough as a mama to my four crazy kids. For some reason this book helped with that. It has some great advice, no matter what country you live in :)
Second book, Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child. At first, this book just confused me, which I think was because my lack of sleep altered state. I couldn't figure out WHAT the plan of action was. Then I read just the section I needed to, and voila, I got it! We have used this method the last two nights, and there is a DRASTIC change in the way the night goes... he goes to bed between 7 and 8pm, (cries minimally) wakes up between 12=1am to nurse, back to sleep until 4 or 5am, nurses and sleeps until 7 or 8am. FANTASTIC!!
Anyways, I am on the mend... our whole house is. Sleep is an amazing thing.

A couple glimpses into our living space

So in the move, we changed up a couple things. The biggest one is that we chose not to have the TV downstairs in the living room/family room area. This has been a huge positive change for us. No longer do I get stuck watching a stupid show or have the kids begging to watch something... which leads me to another change... we decided no cable for us. We did however order Netflix and get movies from the library on a weekly basis. The kids get to watch a movie after lunch, while I nap with Kellen or get a project done. This is also a huge improvement. I cannot say enough good things about it. I am such a fan.

The kids have their little corner of the area downstairs, behind the couches. We decided to put up the teepee as a reading corner and that has also worked out fabulous. Plus, it looks adorable. With their books, which was an ongoing battle with me, we decided to pack up most of them, and do a rotating library for them. Each week they pick out a couple books for upstairs and a couple for downstairs, we put them in their baskets and it makes cleanup so much easier! Plus, they really get to appreciate certain books for the whole week, and they seem to really dig it. I was so skeptical of putting the books away, but it has created a lovely amount of peace for the family.

Our downstairs really has become a favorite place to be (maybe because it is cooler?) and I really enjoy the decor we have chosen. We didn't really mean to go with the red and white and blue, but it seems to work! Plus, I guess we are pretty patriotic.

Well, I am off to nap. Maybe.

Ten things

Ten things I am thankful for:

:: fresh raspberries picked from a friend's yard:: birthday presents for special people; mostly done early, one done late :):: finding the picture frame my mom painted for Kellen (which I love!), and adding one of my favorite pics by Alicia:: melons for breakfast:: kids eating healthy snacks, and not complaining about it:: a long awaited box arriving with two specially ordered toys (a mini laptop and a kid camera) just for Colton (he chose to order these with his birthday money).

:: hearing a kid conversation that made me laugh so hard! Colton to Ayla: You can only use my computer if you don't like pink.

:: learning about our next camping destination (Yellowstone and Grand Tetons)

:: books! I am reading The Help (awesome); also reading People of the Book (for book club, also really good!); also reading Our Babies, Ourselves (excellent); and flipping through The Knitted Odd-bod Bunch (so cute! and inspiring!); also just finished The Raw Food Detox Diet: The Five-Step Plan for Vibrant Health and Maximum Weight Loss (very informative, and inspiring... I have lost a couple pounds following some of this!).

:: An absolutely fabulous dinner cooked by husband (salmon, potatoes and carrots and green beans!)

Hope you all had a wonderful Thursday! Remember tomorrow is a giveaway from Seaworthy!

Easter pictures

Here in our house, we don't really celebrate Easter in the traditional sense.... we just do a little celebration with the Easter bunny bringing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. An egg hunt, and a good hearty breakfast. This year we didn't even dye eggs! But we had fun. I tried to keep the candy to a minimum... but my kids really like their chocolate. Also, we decided to not be candy police, and kind of let them decide what they would eat and when (for the most part!).

I love the books I got them...The Sun Egg, Children of the Forest, and Peter in Blueberry Land, all by Elsa Beskow. And The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle Von Olfers. Our Easter selection was expanded with The Easter Egg by Jan Brett. I know, it seems like a lot of books, but we are book hounds around here, and good books are worth it!
Oh, and we did a shared easter basket... we can get away with that still!

the "shared" basket

meeting the chocolate (and books)

Look!

chocolate for breakfast! Yumm!

getting creative

looking in the moss garden

my fav. pic of Easter... something about it!

How cute are they? This is their loot.

Earflaps and Booties

I have finally finished a couple things for the babe that is to be here soon... and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out! The booties and hat are from the book, Knitting for Baby: 30 Heirloom Projects. I love this book, and have so many things I want to make, but narrowed it down to these for now! I chose this green, because it is one of my favorite colors, and pretty neutral for a baby, either boy or girl.

The swaddler is from the book, Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for Baby. I got this book from the library, and LOVE it! Such simple projects that are easy to read and easy to put together. This turned out better than I thought, and I just love the little sea horse, and I finally practiced a little embroidery... love.

Our February Change

Before we get to February, let's just note here that our January change was successful... at least in my mind!
We did lower our meat consumption, and by doing this have come to the conclusion that we can live on less meat, but it did take some getting used to for some people in our family. Not going to name any names!
One thing we have decided is that, besides our venison, we will be buying better quality meat when needed. I was watching Oprah the other day, and it was about our food choices. I think we already make pretty good whole food choices most of the time, but there is always room for improvement. We don't buy organic chicken or pork, because we buy in bulk at our local Costco for the convenience of it. But not everything needs to be convenient. The images of the chickens falling over under their own weight really stuck with me as wrong. So that is where our decision comes from, along with some book research I have done in the past (Micheal Pollan: The Omnivores Dilemma; Nina Planck: Real food-What to eat and why, to name a couple). If we stick to this frame of mind and make an effort to really buy local and organic than maybe we will reduce our meat consumption EVEN MORE!

Now on to the next challenge:

This one is going to be tough.... for Tyler.

We (I) have decided to try the family cloths for our February One Small Change. I know, I know, some people might have a problem with this just for sanitary reasons. But let me tell you... if we are willing to use cloth diapers and wipes on our babies, why wouldn't it be natural to use cloth wipes for ourselves? I myself already use cloth feminine pads when needed, the kids are wiped mostly with cloth wipes depending on which bathroom we are in (for some odd reason, we thought it was necessary to have 2.5 bathrooms (or somebody did!) but that is just more for me to clean!). So the biggest change is to have cloth wipes in every bathroom, along with a basket/bucket for the used wipes to go in.

I have to say that the reason Tyler is most skeptical and reluctant to do this is because we are getting the house ready to sell, and he is worried that the wipes will be a nuisance. I however know that it is all what we make of it. We will just have to dump used cloths in the diaper bin more often, and wash them every 3ish days... not too hard. But we will see.

Today, I contemplated changing our challenge to not using lights for the month (or using very sparingly)... Tyler was again skeptical! I thought this would be fun, mainly because candlelight makes your blemishes appear much less (ex: stretch marks!) and that is always a plus when you are 4ish weeks away from having a baby! We do try to unplug most of our appliances, or at least the little ones (coffee maker, toaster, grinder, etc) when not in use... but again, always room for improvement!

Later today I will add a picture or two, and catch up with my picture a day... I have 11 to do! Hope everyone has a great day, week, month!

Book Club

My friend, Jill and I have started a book club here in Kalispell. So far we are on our 2nd book, and I have reserved our third one. Our first book was "Three Cups of Tea" by Greg Mortenson; which I thought was really good, although there was a little too much every day stuff, and not enough of the results (if you read it, you probably know what I mean). Our discussion was very nice and civil, with some of the readers liking it and some not so much.
Jill picked our second book, "Water for elephants" by Sara Gruen, has been a really interesting book for me. It is a story about a circus act back in the day when they came into town on a train, and a very intriguing, interesting inner story that goes along with it. I was definitely pleasantly surprised when I finished this book and how much I enjoyed it.
I picked our next book to be "The Tenth Circle" by Jody Picoult. I am unsure about the storyline, but I think it is about a teenage girl who is date-raped. Sad, but a definite scenario in today's society. I am hoping the other readers in the group are okay with this selection. Most of us have daughters so I figured it might be interesting to all.
Currently, I am reading the first book in the "Twilight" series. I am for some reason captivated by the story, and find myself unable to put it down! Ughhh!
Happy Wednesday... I really need to go clean my house a little bit! Ha, Ha!

Happy Valentines Day!

Hope everyone is having a happy Valentines Day so far! We finally got some good sleep last night, as the kids slept almost all night without waking up! Only once for each! Colton woke up with two arms... for the last 3-4 days he has been keeping his right arm limp at his side, and doing everything one-handed. We were so happy for our little two armed boy!
So, Tyler and I watched the "Kite Runner" last night, and were pleasantly surprised with the way they followed the book. Tyler had been setting himself up for disappointment beforehand because good books usually never make good movies, but we thought they did a really good job.

Last night the kids were being crazy (as usual). They decided they wanted to be naked and run around like banshees! Then Colton stole Ayla's boots and Ayla was very unhappy... but it was cute at the same time.

These are my latest project... and if you're a guy, you probably don't care... but I made a whole bunch of cloth pads out of the diaper remnants... they turned out pretty nice and colorful.

Choosing Simplicity

So my friend Jill lent me a book to read that she though I might be interested in. It is called Choosing Simplicity by Linda Breene Pierce. I have just started reading it, but am already seeing that this is exactly what I have been looking for. Simplicity is so simple, yet seems so out of reach. We are always trying to get more and more and our society says less is not best. But is it? I am leaning towards the answer being yes.
Choosing to live simply is a big step though, and I am not sure that Tyler and the kids would be fully on board. But maybe it's worth a try. I believe that we already live towards "simple". We don't spend extravagantly; we don't have a lot of debt other than our house and car; we don't go out to eat too much; etc. However, there is a lot more we could do. Such as: walk more places; not waste so much food; grow a vegetable garden with stuff we know we will eat or gift; think about everything we do buy and ask ourselves if we really need it; pay off the debt we have now; save some for later; etc...
One decision I made last night as I was reading was to NOT get the gym membership that I have been wanting to get. I got a trial membership to the gym and really like it; however, I now realize that I can buy a couple workout videos, watch them on our TV and dance around with the kids when I need a workout, instead of spending about $30 a month on a gym membership. When we move to our next duty station and if we live near the base, I will have a free gym membership! Yeah! Anyways, that is just one thing.
I am going to give it six months.
I'll let you know how it is going!
In other news, I FINALLY finished my second knitting project, and I am SO happy with the final results. It is a kicking bag for infants, or as Colton calls it, a sleeping bag. Just slip the baby in it instead of using a blanket. I got the idea from the Soulemama blog (located in my favorite blogs) and signed up for the pattern... turned out wonderful. I might modify, so it doesn't take quite so long (chunkier yarn) who knows.



Here are just a few random pictures from the last couple of days... tractor pancakes from this morning; Ayla with her first barrette in her hair (didn't last long) and the kids playing in a box from Costco (which kept them entertained for at least half an hour!)