'Til the end of summer!

Summer is getting away from us! We moved in here June 20th and have been remodeling ever since. There are little things left to do, and some big projects, like re-roofing the little house/shed (our future "farm store"), as well as painting it and re-flooring it, fixing the leak in the barn (before it rains on all of our Christmas decorations & everything else in there), and having a massive garage sale to get rid of all of our extra junk....But that's all. :) Anyways, at the beginning of the summer, I had the kids help me come up with a list of all of the things they wanted to do with me over the summer. We can't do them all, but I am trying to squeeze some of these fun things in between now and when we start school...So here is our schedule:

August
9--Pick Marion Berries and freeze them for smoothies, go to the library, write Thank You cards for Ruby's birthday presents
10--Pick blueberries & deliver them (our fund-raiser to earn $ for Kaleb to get a milking goat!), go to craft store to get tie dye stuff
11--Make Strawberry Honey Sorbet, pick blackberries on our land
12--Make sun tea, healthy banana bread and yogurt pops
13--Fix Ruby's hair (me--this is all day), and boys have friends over
14--Bring our fishing poles down to our ponds & see if there are any fish to catch.  Maybe go bowling in the evening
16--Returns with mommy (I know, boring :)
17--Paint inside shed (kids help!)
18--Make a kite, fly kite, play on slip 'n slide (find it in the barn!)
19--Make a solar oven and cook something in it
20--Go bowling. Play BINGO at the library :)
21--Help butcher chickens. =)
23--Have friends over, make honey lemonade
24--Make tie dye shirts
25--Make soap
26--go to homeschool park day in Canby
27--Make Honey Marshmallows
28--Go letter boxing, Roast Marshmallows over the campfire
30--Get ready for Keepers of the Faith kick-off at our home! Make some yummy snacks!
31--Have friends over

Along with evening swimming lessons for 4 weeks and soccer starting at the beginning of September, I think we'll be SET for fun summer activities!! Now I'm going to write these down on a blank calendar for the boys to keep in their room so that they can "x" off the days as we've done them. They will be soooo excited! :)

Living in a Project! :)

I tried making a FB album of these pics and it wasn't working! So here are the pictures!

I can post all of these without embarrassment because I know that most of you know I am very clean and organized and THIS is not normal! :-)

I can't get pics to go in any sort of order on blogger...so here they are, random:

Kizzie, our dog, in a pen that was made for chickens or goats or dogs? Not really sure.

These little guys don't know it yet, but in 8 weeks, they'll be dinner!

These girlies are going to make some pretty eggs for us! They go crazy over yogurt, salad, and ham (I found out this morning). :)

The kitties! The chicken coop/goat house/dog house/whatever that building is, is where they live at night time. During the day they hang out right around here.

Ruby and the barn! The barn is a mess!!!

The view from our bedroom window. The trailer will go up behind the barn as soon as we rock it (it's too muddy now). There's a toilet in our yard. YES. And hardy-backer to return to Lowes (I bought the wrong thickness...that stuff is HEAVY....). And boxes of garbage. We have help coming tomorrow to clean up all of this JUNK! :)

more loveliness. :) We have no curtains on our room right now (but nobody can see us unless they drive up our driveway (which we'd hear), walk by our room (the motion light would go on), and come up to the window....so we get this lovely view. :)

Our closet. It's on my list today. Notice I didn't take a picture of the floor, where the dirty laundry is. :) We're hooking up the washer & dryer today.

A shot of our room. Karry moved the dresser over there yesterday. It was at the end of our bed on the opposite wall and made a 1' pathway to get through, and that was it. It looks nicer here!

Our bathroom. Complete with grout sealer on the counter. The shower curtain liner went up today, because the grout was sealed last night. Before that? Baths. Oh fun! We need cabinet doors put on--and paint touched up--and a light put in--and a mirror. I haven't found the right one yet. Notice the Home Depot bucket on the floor. :)

Our bedroom. Smaller than our old one, but it'll do!

The hall bath. I have a mirror, it's just not up. The shower grout is not sealed yet and the tile still looks dusty from the grouting. The light is ready to go up--it just needs to get done.

The boys' room. On my list today, too! Noah's bed has storage under it, so it's away from the wall on purpose. This is how we live when we don't have a big bonus room for toys! Under the bed they go!

The dining area. Messy, but we can still eat there. :) No light above the table yet! The floor needs some attention. It's been swept, shop vacuumed, hand scrubbed, mopped, etc., but it's got sawdust and paint on it and it's looking dull and needs some shine. Help! Any Pergo pros?

The computer is set up with wi-fi! Notice the blanket on the chair! There's no heating ducts in this room YET. It's on my dad's list. :) The wood floor looks pretty, huh?? Peter did a great job!

Another view of the same room. The bookshelves fit perfectly (I planned exactly where things would go ahead of time). All of the homeschool stuff is unpacked, just in time for the HS convention this weekend (so I can see what I have and not buy duplicates!!).

The unfinished laundry room. It's so much brighter than before though because of the door!! Isn't it lovely!? It had a big brown metal door before.

Ruby's room is the worst. It has no carpet until this Friday, so for now, it's the storage room for the extra boxes. We can't close the door. Ruby is sleeping in the pack 'n play practically in the hallway. There is one drawer of her dresser up on top with some clothes in it, to get us by until I can do laundry, and unpack more.

See? Out of order. This pic is from Karry's b-day! We went to the Farmstead Restaurant in Molalla. Mmm! Organic, local beef! YUM! Ice cream made us get tummy aches though!

Our kitchen! Our island is HUGE!!!! The counter top is on. The counter for the rest of the kitchen will be one this weekend, I think. Karry needs to finish building the drawers. Didn't he do an AWESOME job building that island????!!! I am hanging a little curtain on those open cabinets on the left. Notice the dangling wires where my pendant lights will go, missing trim by the fridge/door, etc. We can't put things in the newly painted cabinets for a couple more days.

The entry way. No light yet! The tile needs grouting. But the entry is SO much brighter than it was before!!! It was dark orange/brown/red. I love this board & batten look!

The boys found the legos! This is our living room. Yikes. What a mess!

We have misc. wood, trim that needs to go up, and a shop vac sitting on our fireplace. Lovely. Just last week there was a table saw right in this area. No more table saws in the living room!

There you have it! More detailed and pretty pictures to come, when we're unpacked!! :)

Isaac's Reading, an update

I really should get going! I just wanted to write. Isaac had testing last week and the week before through the school district (it took 4ever to get this scheduled!!). This week was the "results meeting."

Basically, on all of the tests--IQ, in all different areas, articulation, vocabulary, etc., he was either low or low-average. They did tests on his memory, and said that he has a very hard time remembering things. They said you can't teach memory, you can just work with it and support it. :( His comprehension is low--when you read a story to him, and then ask him what he just heard, he can't remember one bit. I knew this (this is why, though I love the literature based Ambleside Online curriculum, I had to quit using it--he didn't "get" anything :( ). They did testing on backwards letters--not only does he turn letters backwards, but he flips them upside down. I saw the test he did, and there were error marks all over it. :( One of the ladies tried reading a book with Isaac--one that repeats words over and over. She said every time he came to the same word, it was like a new word to him. He sounded it out. He uses phonics, and he does great with that--but he gets stuck on sounds--and all words are not phonetic...She said every single time he came to the word "girl," for example, he'd sound it out "g-i (I like "Isaac")-r-llll"....and she'd say "you read this already, remember," and he didn't remember. She said she has worked 15 years in special education & has a Master's in it and this stumps her, and she can see how it would be frustrating and hard for me to teach him. I started getting teary eyed. Yes, it's hard!

As a homeschool mom, my kids are the measurement of how I'm doing....My 8, almost 9 year old isn't reading. He remembers a few key things we've learned in homeschool, but he struggles big time with "simple" concepts like what the number 13 looks like....

They talked about using word families on him--like what we used to do with bathtub letters when he was 4....Kaleb started reading not long after this. I think it was just too early for Isaac.

He will probably qualify for services, but it won't start until the fall. Before then, they'll be sending me a report with some ideas of what to do with him. They mentioned the importance of *everything* being hands on or visual for Isaac--this is how he learns and retains. Interestingly, of everything we've ever studied, Isaac remembers the most about ancient Egypt. Probably because it was the very beginning of Tapestry of Grace for us--and I was excited about the curriculum--and we did A LOT of hands on stuff. Hands on is good for this kid......This Momma needs improvement in that area. I prefer reading stories to projects....I have to teach the way he needs to be taught, though!!

I am thankful for this service--and for the chance to get some help for my son! They were super encouraging to me. They said that whenever he said "I'm not good at ___," he would quickly turn around and say something like "but I'm a really good spy!" :) They said "way to go Mom!" Awesome. :)

GAPS revelation

Yesterday the kitchen was all taped off for cabinet painting & the refrigerator wasn't in it's place. The boys were with me at the house, and since I couldn't prep a lunch very easily (or eat it there without fumes, or rain on the back deck ;), I decided to bring them to lunch. We went to the Hitchin' Post in Molalla, where, I learned that our new neighbor (an elderly man) is a Republican, and eats his breakfast there (at lunch time) every day. :) But that's beside the point. :)

We had breakfast for lunch. I had an egg scramble with salsa, cheese, etc. The kids either had eggs or a cheeseburger with no bun. We asked for no hashbrowns or toast or french fries, but fruit instead. They didn't get the memo on the hashbrowns on mine--so I just picked around them. So that was Mexican food, technically, for me--a year ago I would have gotten sick after eating that...

Last night we needed to eat out, too. We went to the Mexican restaurant in Molalla, El Charrito. It's hard to find Mexican food to eat on the GAPS diet. Being starving and a bit desperate for food, we agreed that we'd eat rice, even though it's not on the diet (though I think it's less offensive than corn, wheat or sugar! ;) And, we're eating beans now, since it's been over 6 months. We got 3 meals and split them up between our family--fajita beef & veggies (no tortillas), Chicken Crema, and a pork dish with peppers and onions. Again, Mexican food. A year ago--7 months ago--two meals of Mexican food would have put me in the bathroom for a while, and I would have felt awful. I always thought it was the tomatoes, or the spiciness. Nope. It's not. I'm pretty convinced, it's the CORN and WHEAT. :) I'm happy to say, I had Mexican food twice in a day yesterday and I didn't get sick at all. YAY FOR THE GAPS DIET!! I'm so happy we're doing this!!! :)

He's Sad!

Last night Noah was just staring at the wall when I went to kiss him goodnight. He looked sad. I asked him what was wrong, and he said he was thinking about his kitty. He asked if we can bring it to a place where they preserve it so he can remember it. I said, no, sorry sweetie, we're not going to do that. Tears started coming out of his eyes, but he was embarrassed, so he turned away from me. I hugged him and told him "it's ok to be sad. It's safe for you to show Mommy you're sad."

Him being sad makes me sad. I wanted to see him be sad just so that I didn't have to worry about him not valuing life...But seeing him sad is hard, too. Oh, sweet boy. I don't like his heart being broken. :(

Big days

I am blogging when I should be sleeping. :) I feel like writing though...

We are on our 3rd week of remodeling our future home. Karry is out there right now--I brought the kids home at around 10 pm to put them to bed. Yes. We've been working way. too. hard. We finally gave up and hired my dad's painter today--to finish/fix the jobs we started. I tried. I am not a cabinet painter. The house was too dusty (Karry's table saw in the living room & sheetrock and wood floors being done all added to that). Dust on freshly painted cabinets = not-so-smooth-cabinets. Not good. The painter told me the paint I used would eventually peel, and I needed to use a different kind. Oops. I tried....I'm glad we hired him...

It's kind of a sad day--one of our kitties died. :( I don't know why for sure. They were out of water--the kids were in charge of that--we aren't certain when they got it last. I know, we should oversee this--I feel bad--we've just been so. busy. This kitty was the sweetest one (I thought). It was Noah's, and it's most recent name was Mittens (it's had a few). It was gray with white paws. Noah preferred playing with the other kids' cats because this one was timid and shy and not as "fun." Come to think of it, it may have been weak all along. It was the slowest to run to the door when I opened it (they live in the chicken coop unless the kids have them out).

We've had 5 chickies die (out of 52), but that's sort of par for the course when you get mail-order chicks. But a kitty? It's bigger, and more cuddly, and this one was my favorite.

Noah wasn't sad at all. I'm half worried about him and half not. The half of me that's worried thinks; maybe he doesn't value life.....The other half justifies his emotion (almost a smile when he told us his kitty was dead...very strange) by thinking, he wasn't crazy about the cat anyways...or maybe he doesn't really "get" it yet....Or, well, this is farm life, maybe it's good for him to not get too emotional over the death of an animal.....I worry that this might be a RAD issue though.....

I miss my kids these days. Friends have graciously watched my precious gems while I work at the house. I am almost to the end of the things I can do (that aren't too technical)--but I need to be there to give opinions about how high to put the wall cabinets and how far apart to space the board & batten, etc., etc., etc.......And I'm the clean up girl. Contractors are messy people! Today I installed 3 door knobs. By myself! ;) And removed 2 other door knobs without replacing them (they need to be routered, I guess). So the bathroom (the only bathroom that is hooked up right now) has no knob and just a big hole there. Nice. ;) At least the bathrooms are closed off to each other now. We had torn the bathrooms down to the framing in some parts, and you could see through from one to the other---and the door was taken off of one to get the tub out....SO....imagine that.....I would stop at Safeway to go potty on my way there, or call my friend Dawn to see if I could use her bathroom. ;) The men/boys made use of our many bushes and tall grass, or just went in the toilet with NO problem while another guy worked on the plumbing on the other side of the wall (in full view). ;)

I'm tired....gotta sleep.....gotta stay up and wait for my husband too....or sleep and just wait for his call to say he's driving home? My dishes are piled up--I couldn't make scrambled eggs this morning because I didn't have a pan. The laundry in the washer stunk and I re-ran it, and then forgot it (until now). I still have to pack boxes. WE. MOVE. TTTHHHHIIIIIIIISSSSSS SATURDAY! Wow. There is much to do. I should sleep....No hesitation...I should sleep!

Dear Dr. Blah

If I was gutsy, I'd write something like this and send it to him....but I'm not....So I write it for all of you....

Dear Dr. Blah,

Seriously? Halls?

I went in to see you, my “specialist,” because I have pain down low in my throat. It was there the last time I saw you--8 months ago. It was there when I made an appointment with my x-primary care physician and begged for a referral to you, almost a full year ago. It is worse lately, and I thought that maybe you could offer some hope? Or at least help?

You suggested Acid Reflux. How much of a kick-back does your hospital get from Prilosec? I am seriously wondering, because in my experience with multiple family members, acid reflux has been the most commonly diagnosed cop-out disease. “Try some Prilosec and see if that helps”--it’s all trial and error, isn’t it? Dr. Blah, I know what Acid Reflux feels like. I used to have it--bad--and then I stopped eating gluten, and I have not had Acid Reflux in a year and a half.

Speaking of gluten, you mentioned that you know there is a connection between thyroid problems and gluten intolerance. You said that studies have shown that the majority of the people with autoimmune thyroid also have Celiac--but you don’t tell your patients this because it is “such a pain to eat that way.” Shame on you, doctor. Seriously? You know the connection, and you don’t tell them? You could be saving your patients from a lot of heartache--er--gut ache, as well as a whole host of other health issues.

You said that my thyroid felt normal. So has my dad’s, even when he’s had cancer. You said that my thyroid hormone is normal--my dad’s has been too, even when he had cancer. You said that my ultrasound was “clinically insignificant,” but I read the report--it is full of 2-3 mm “hypoechoic” areas. Hyperechoic means benign--hypoechoic, which I have, means that they could be malignant. This is not clinically insignificant.

You said that hair loss, and muscle cramps, and pain in the throat are not thyroid issues. Does the Web MD Symptom Checker know more than you, doctor? And every other medical website I’ve read about these conditions? Because they all point to thyroid. You’re the specialist...it seems like you should know these things.

On another note, my jaw surgeon requested that my primary care physician check my serotonin level before surgery, to see if I need medication with anesthesia. For some reason, my pcp contacted you, and you suggested a different test. I had my blood drawn back in February, all the while believing it was for the serotonin test, knowing that it takes a while to come back. I wasn’t asking to be checked for Carcinoid--I’m pretty confident that I don’t have Carcinoid. I was asking to have my serotonin checked because I know that it has been high before. Thanks to the test you selected, I know with 80% certainty that I don't have Carcinoid (which I pretty much already knew), but I have no clue what my serotonin level is and if it will cause my blood pressure to spike during surgery. Now, I have to have my blood drawn and wait at least another month before I can even schedule my surgery...You said “well, your urine serotonin is normal.” So I explained to you that my body (and my whole family) does not metabolize serotonin and it does not secrete in our urine--and you looked at me like I was crazy. I mentioned the pineapple test and you laughed at me, saying you’ve never heard of that. Well, Doctor Blah, my dad sees Carcinoid specialists across the country, and THEY suggested this test....thank you very much for laughing at me.

You asked me if I ever have allergies or hay fever. No. Never in my life. Then you suggested that maybe that’s what this pain in my throat is--allergies. With your hand on the door, you suggested that I take Halls. Seriously? Halls?

I made this appointment with you during a very busy season in my life because I thought you could help. I made the appointment even on a day when I knew my husband would be out of town and could not help me with the kids, because I thought this was urgent. A friend graciously watched all 4 of my children for 3 hours while I drove in to the city to see you and drove back to her house. I drove my big fat van into the city--no, you don’t understand--I don’t do this often--but I felt like it was important. I even attempted to park my big fat van in your tiny little city parking lot (and did terribly, by the way), all because I thought this appointment was necessary. I spent $30 for a co-payment--during a time when we’re saving every penny in hopes of remodeling, setting up a farm, and adopting another baby...$30 waisted, in my opinion. I attempted to get out of the city, and got lost, driving across the Steel Bridge TWICE on accident, because I thought this appointment was critical....I did all of this, thinking you would help......and you suggested Halls....

Come to think of it, Dr. Blah--I’m glad you didn’t look at me more than 5 minutes. I’m glad that you said “come back in a year” rather than doing anything about my pain. If it came down to it--if this pain is in fact from my thyroid (I am pretty certain it is), what would you do? Your answer (the medical answer) is to remove the thyroid and put the patient on hormones for the rest of their life. Those hormones, you know, lead to osteoporosis and heart attacks. No--I’m glad that you didn’t really care. This buys me time--to search for alternative methods. I’m sure there are some that work, I just need to figure it out....

In the mean time, my throat hurts, and it’s hard to swallow....Take Halls? Hmph!

Your un-helped patient.

What a week! (so far!)

Monday = inspection of current home

rewind

Saturday = cleaning house, more packing, and doing things we would have to re-do on Sunday because we have 4 kids and we LIVE in our house. :) Saturday night I couldn't sleep. :(

Sunday = me sleeping, Karry took the kids to church. :( I felt a little better by late afternoon (it seems like it takes MUCH daytime sleep to catch up on little night time sleep...goodness!). Well, then we re-did many of those jobs we did Saturday--vacuuming, mopping, wiping down bathrooms......

Monday = had a breakfast casserole ready to pop in the oven. Ate, cleaned up kitchen, left after breakfast. Inspection wasn't 'til 2, but I didn't want to have to re-do all of those Saturday + Sunday jobs again just by living in the house all day. :) Saw chickens, went to 2 libraries, fed the kids fruit & cheese plates from Starbucks for lunch (TREAT!), went to New Seasons, played at the park.

Took a *bunch* of vitamins/supplements I bought at New Seasons (and researched at the library) to support my thyroid. It's acting up. I've had so much hair loss lately (don't look) and strange muscle cramps and a sore throat down low in my throat for quite a while. It's scary. I know I have autoimmune thyroid--and I know my thyroid is lumpy. If I really wanted to I could have a nuclear scan to look for "hot and cold" nodules...(cold is bad), but being that radiation can *cause* cancer, I opted not to check that yet....

I eat *healthy*--zero sugar, zero grains, nothing processed at all, tons of veggies, fruits, only good meats (pastured, etc.), and homemade yogurt...but I think my body needs more than that, maybe from years of previous damage when I wasn't eating healthy? So I took all of this stuff...TONS of stuff. 1200 mg of kelp. I'm not positive if my thyroid is hyper or hypo, sometimes I think it's both, at different times. My hormone levels are always normal. But I often have symptoms of either, and my autoimmune levels are crazy high (which means those hormone levels are inaccurate). So there....kelp is awesome for hypothyroid, terrible for hyperthyroid (can put you into iodine poisoning...no good).

I don't know if it was the kelp, or what, but I woke up at like 2 am feeling sweaty, clammy, hot, nauseous, and like my chest was going to explode. I looked up stuff online and found that for iodine poisoning (if it was that), you need to drink milk. I don't drink milk. I eat yogurt, but I don't drink milk. I drank milk. ;) It helped with my symptoms, and FAST. I felt better. I could fall asleep. YAY!!! :)

Tuesday = No supplement day. Rest day from whatever it was that made me so sick. Funny, my throat pain felt better in the morning (was it the supplements? Maybe the milk ;). Now it's back again tonight (lack of supplements? lack of milk? ;).

We signed today!! YAY!!! That means we get our property SOON!!! We saw my cousin at the signing (our loan officer). My mom's our agent. My dad and brother are our contractors. Yeah, kinda crazy. :)

We went to Lowes and spent a wad of cash. Anybody have Lowes or Home Depot coupons to share? We need more! :) Nobody break into our van tonight, there's nothing that would be of value to most people, but to us--wood that's ready to extend the island and build a "farm kitchen" style island that I love. 5 incredibly heavy boxes of tile that are smooth and will make nice shower tile for two bathrooms. A very cool front door knob. Locking knobs for 2 bathrooms and the master that were $20 each and match the ones I found (thankfully) for $5 each for every single other door in the house. Some cabinet door knobs for the bathrooms. Grout--the sand kind, not the pre-mixed, per dad's instructions. 2 heavy boxes. Yeah, I'm sure there's more---screws, nails....we have more on our list to get, of course!

We went out to McCormick and Schmidt to celebrate signing! We kept saying we were going to go out to eat and celebrate whenever it happened. It was 8 pm by the time we went there. Bed time. My blood sugar was crazy low. The kids were being amazingly good for it being so late. French onion soup with no thickeners and no crouton on top. AMAZING. That's all I can say! Then wild salmon--oh--too full from the soup! Lunch tomorrow! :) The kids ate salmon & fruit or cheeseburgers w/no buns & fruit. They're great eaters!

Then--to Molalla to let the chickens into the coop. It was dark. Hoped they were ok. Karry couldn't find them at first. They were huddled into a corner sleeping! He grabbed all 3 at once and brought them to the coop. My babies are safe! Yay!

We have many more fun chicken names. We're thinking president's wives would be great laying hen names. Jackie O. Hillary. What do you think? :) Our current chickens are Chipotle, Rootbeer and Blackberry. Very cute.

Long drive home on country roads....dishes still not washed from the whole day---finished that up, garbage night, kids in bed, wa la! Felt like writing. Here it is. :)

Goodnight! Let the work and the -CRAZY- days begin!