Jack-Jack is AMAZING!

Jack is just 5 years old and has "learning disabilities", for lack of a better term. I hate comparing him and try not to, but he is just not your typical 5yo boy. He has a genetic duplication that has caused delays, the most obvious being speech, so most everything has been a challenge for him.....well, if I were to push him to "keep up" with other kids his age, then it would be a challenge. I don't do that, I let him be himself.

The other day he wanted to draw. He has really been into drawing for about a year now, and I must say, he is pretty good at it! He amazes me with pictures of dinosaurs, choo-choo trains, airplanes, etc.....all the typical interests of a little boy.

He also likes to "draw" the letters of the alphabet! And I know for him it really is drawing, not writing, as with most kids his age. He doesn't draw numbers very often, but he likes them too.

So the other day, he wrote drew a "P" on the back of an envelope, then he asked me how to spell my name.

To my surprise, he drew every letter correctly! Then he asked how to spell Jonathan's name, and he did really well with that one too! So I got out a piece of paper (since he was really enjoying this) and had him draw the entire alphabet as I gave him one letter at a time. Then we did the numbers.

Mind you, he has had little to no formal training on how to write/draw, this is something he just enjoys and has picked up completely on his own. I guess he just has a knack for drawing!

You can see in the photo that I wrote some numbers on the side to help him know what they look like (mine are circled), and on the envelope, the "N" at the bottom left is also mine. Everything else is his. He started turning letters upside down in the 2nd half of the alphabet. I thought this was interesting since he ALWAYS "reads" books upside down. I don't know what that means though! I know his little brain just works differently, but is this a sign of a "problem" that can be corrected, or should it just be considered normal???  None of my other children have done this! I don't normally worry about it though, I just turn the book around for him and he happily continues to read. :)

So when he was drawing the alphabet the other day. I really tried not to interfere because I wanted to see how he drew them all on his own. I had to show him what a few of them looked like, but otherwise I didn't correct him when he drew one upside down or backwards. He did great! I'm proud of my little man! :)

Jack is about to start speech again this week, probably twice a week. We're hoping it helps, and I'm sure it will some, but we are also working more on sign language so that he can more easily communicate with us. He is getting frustrated when we can't understand him. His vocabulary is getting really big, but he still sounds like a 2-year-old. In fact, his 20-month-old brother sounds very much like him!

Jack-Jack is also about to start horse riding therapy! We are so excited about this, especially since they are only about a mile down the road from us! He still has weaker muscles than most kids his age and still often trips or falls. This therapy riding should strengthen his muscles and improve his balance, so I cannot wait to see how he likes it and how much it helps him!

This message is for my fellow brothers and sisters in the Messiah.

Don't ya love it when someone makes false accusations about you, then you try to defend yourself with TRUTH and present FACTS, and they turn it around and say you are not "acting biblically"? Gotta love people who throw "religious words" around to sound more spiritual. <rolling eyes>

Honestly, those kinds of people always annoyed me when I was in the church. It just seems forced and fake.

This same "friend" was giving me problems a couple of weeks ago. She deleted me as administrator of a group *without my knowledge* after telling me we would work things out. Long story short, I had to block her AND her emails because the false accusations continued, so I have no idea if she has emailed again or not. I guess it's all for the better.

I am so SICK of people playing the "holier than thou" card and throwing in some religious lingo to make it all sound perfectly "biblical". Like that justifies their actions?! This person was so incredibly rude to me and deeply hurt me on a very personal level, yet I am the one who is acting unbiblically. Wow.

Friends, if I ever try to play this game on you, SLAP ME. I am no better than any one of you, and I still have a lot to learn. If I ever make you feel like a horrible mother, child, friend, etc. shake me to the core. Tell me exactly what I have done in plain English. I know what the Scriptures say, so the Holy Spirit can and will convict me, just as many times in the past.

But at the same time, if you're going to accuse me of something, make sure you know all the facts and have witnesses, if necessary. That is one thing this person didn't have. She had no witnesses and was accusing me of something I knew NOTHING about. FAIL.

At first I was hopeful I would be able to reconcile this "friendship", but after seeing how haughty she truly is, I'm not so sure now. I am still hurt, but trying to keep it in perspective and realizing that SHE was not acting biblically really helps me to know that the things she said about me really hold no water. I know she was assuming things about me that were not true, but I still have no idea how it all even started. I have an idea though that there were some seeds planted through gossip, as one of her good friends doesn't like me (never has, no explanation). I don't think this person is an active part of gossiping, at least not intentionally (wow, still giving her credit after what she did to me!), but those seeds can still be planted when someone else just makes a comment here and there.

Control the tongue, people! And that includes in text form! Sometimes emails, blogs, facebook, etc. can be really bad for communicating such things, and I have been guilty of this myself. Sometimes it's just easier to type it out, but it can get really ugly, really fast. That was how this all started and ended, and the damage has been done. We both have a copy of what was said (not good on either part.....but especially not for her!), and we could not see facial expressions, body language, hear tone of voice, etc. I definitely think it could have been worked out if we had talked in person right away, I just had no idea she was harboring all these (wrong) ill feelings for me!

I guess, all this to say, be REAL and stop throwing around a verse here and there or some "religious lingo" just to make it sound like you are in the right and the other person is wrong. GROW UP. Truth be told, you're probably both in the wrong, but just concentrate on your own actions/words. Know the facts, have witnesses and STOP GOSSIPING.

What a horrible witness we are when we can't even get along with each other!

The end. I hope.

This Is How We Brew It!

Our family has not been sick at all in about a year. The only symptoms we've had are the youngest two boys having *slightly* runny noses, a couple of the kids had a very mild cough for a day or two......and that's all I can think of! Even through those mild symptoms though, no one has felt bad, but we have been able to continue all normal daily activities. We  have been very blessed!

Oh, I just remembered, there was a couple of days that Jack started coughing, not often, but hard. It seemed to be Pertussis coming back (he got it bad in the summer of '10), but our Naturopathic Doctor had us take a homeopathic remedy, and it was GONE in less than 24 hours. Seriously. I highly recommend her, even if you do not live close.....she can still help you!

Right after Joe was born (he is 17 months old now), we were all sick for two months straight, and then off and on still for a while. I think there are many factors as to why we have been healthier; we moved to the country, we are eating better (more whole, organic, raw, higher fat and protein), we are following Scriptural guidelines for eating "clean".

We also us Young Living essential oils and brew our own probiotic drinks. YHWH's ways are MUCH better than our own! HalleluYAH!

Always changing......From left to right: 2nd ferment water kefir (I'm buying brewing jars in a couple of days), quart jar beside it is a batch of water kefir that is WAY too fermented and will be used for cleaning/fabric softener/hair conditioner, 1st ferment of water kefir (see grains at the bottom?), Kombucha in the corner, two jars of milk kefir and on the far right is milk kefir getting a 2nd ferment with some strawberries. That was YUMMY!!! I don't care for it if it is super sour, but I thought it was nice. My kids added just a little Sweat Leaf Stevia to it though.

I had the lids just sitting loosely on top, of the jars that have cultures in them, but now they are covered with a cloth and rubber band so the cultures can breathe better. I had so much water kefir grains that were sent to me back in December from my Raw Mom, that I just gave away about 3 cups of them yesterday, and I still have more to give! I love her photos and instructions on how she makes her own kefir. You can read about it here, here and here. She has been very successful, so if you are just beginning, her method (which always changes slightly) is a great place to start.

Happy brewing, and good health!

We just stack 'em!

In a recent post, I shared how we turned some of our free scraps into a loft for our oldest son. Now it's time for pictures of the boys' entire bedroom. It's taken a while to get the whole room clean all at once for pictures. In fact, these pics were not really taken at the same time. HA!

Jonathan has a loft, Jacob has a cave and Jack has a box (get it?), and under the loft is a "fort" that we intend to close off with a curtain soon. (One thing at a time!) There is a lot packed into this little 9' X 11' room! (I thought it was bigger, but I just measured, and it isn't very big at all.)

As you enter......

Are you diggin' the green carpet?!

Pan to the left. Notice the shelves above for storage.....the hubby's brilliant idea!

Looking through the end of the "box" where Jack sleeps, into the fort.

Continue to the left. Opposite side of the room, looking into the "box" where Jack sleeps (the door is just to the left).

All the toys that are too big for the shelves go behind his bed in the closet floor. Almost all of them are Little People toys that we've accumulated through the years!

Jonathan hung some random pictures on the wall to decorate Jack's box. :)

A closer look at some of the toys on the shelves up under the loft. Trucks/cars, balls......

foam blocks, wooden blocks, and (not shown) Little People figurines, letter/number cookie cutters, Lego Duplos.....

and the medium sized toys and books on the opposite side.

I also want to get a gutter and screw it to the wall to use for the board books.

And here is the "cave", a.k.a. the middle bunk where Jacob sleeps and keeps all his personal belongings. He's got approximately 4' X 6' all to himself, and he LOVES it.

And now for the loft. Jonathan was taking pictures of the new chicks a few weeks ago, and his loft was actually clean, so I'll use these. :)

Just barely to the left of the picture here is his bed, the top bunk. To the right is the window, behind the shelf (which he built himself).

This is his top bunk, looking into the shelf of the closet. We added the shelf to match the height of his bed and made it strong enough to hold a lot of weight.

The shelf he made, looking through to the window.

And here's his little nook he created, shelf on the right and window to the left. The TV (used for gaming and DVDs only, and only with permission!) is sitting on the outside edge of the loft on a little coffee table he built for himself. He did a great job creating his own storage and arranging the room to fit his "needs". :)

And there you go! That's the whole room! We all just love it. Every aspect of it works so well for each one of them. It couldn't be any more practical, so I don't care that we have old, green carpet or that the walls and wood could use some paint. We feel proud of what we've accomplished!

Has anyone noticed there are no dressers anywhere in the room? That's because the 4th bedroom, which is right next to our master bedroom, was turned into the family closet. Maybe I'll post pictures of that another day, but it has ended up being just the boys' closet, all four of them. All of their clothes are in one room, and it is so convenient! But that's another post for another day.....

Turning Trash into Treasure!

We were given quite a bit of scrap building materials of all kinds, from several different people, when we first moved to the country 10 months ago. 

This is just some of what we were given. All of these boards were given by one family who was about to move, so they tore down their son's fort! We were sure grateful, and we have put much of it to good use!

We now have 4 bedrooms, but we I had another purpose for the "extra" room, so we I insisted that all the boys go into one room. Jonathan, the oldest at  almost 12, has been BEGGING for his own room for, well, pretty much his whole life (no one else does this!), so we finally gave him his own space using these scraps. Here's what we did.....

We still have the baby with us, so 3 are sharing the small-ish room. They still have their triple bunk bed though that doesn't take up much floor space, so honestly, they had more floor space than their sister! But they also have more stuff, and with Jonathan in Boy Scouts (a.k.a. knives and other things dangerous to little ones) and not really into toys anymore, I racked my brain to find a solution that would work for everyone.

Though the ceilings are only about 7 feet high, we decided to make a loft. The height divides the room almost exactly in half. We put the bunk bed up to the closet, which is just about the same size, built the loft to go between the middle and top bunks, and then we just closed off the area going from the middle bunk to the loft (it can be pushed open though for a 2nd way off of the middle bunk, in case of emergency). We also put in a new shelf in the closet to extend his bunk bed, basically doubling the width of it. And here are a few pictures of the process:

Myles wasn't going to help, but I really needed his help with the frame at one point, then he ended up taking over! We did have to buy the plywood, but the rest of the wood was free, and it is VERY sturdy! It is free-standing on four posts, but it is such a snug fit that it will not budge AT ALL! We joke that if a tornado comes and levels the house, this loft may very well be the last thing standing. No lie.

All the kids got to help out a little, but for some reason I didn't get a picture of Jonathan! He absolutely LOVES his very own space and actually thinks it is much better than a regular ol' bedroom (though I'm sure he would still prefer a whole room to himself). Our long-term plan, if we are here for several years, is to help Jonathan build himself a "tiny house" in the back yard, then Jacob will move up to the loft and Jack will take over "the cave" (Jacob's middle bunk, where we added a shelf in the closet to match his bed height). Then Joe will have "the fort" (the bottom) all to himself, unless we have another boy by then!

I have added pictures of their entire bedroom in another blog post. The loft was the biggest part of it, but we've been adding more to the whole design over the last few weeks.

Needless to say, Jayla wants a loft in her bedroom now. Though she has a whole room all to herself for the first time in her life, she is actually jealous of her brothers and spends most of her time in their room, often even sleeping on the bottom with Jack. Well, it IS pretty cool!

Peacock wall hanging

My oldest son, who is almost 12, now has an heirloom that once belonged to my grandparents, his great-grandparents. My mom still lives in the house they had built in 1975, but she is alone now and has been doing some remodeling and redecorating.

Jonathan always slept in "Grandpa Farmer's" bed whenever we went to visit my parents. The bed was no longer slept in by anyone else, but everything stayed the same as when they both still occupied the room, including this giant peacock that was above their bed.

I always loved it. I'm not exactly sure why, maybe because it is simply beautiful, maybe because it is a peacock or perhaps just because it was so unusual. My grandma was very stylish (unlike me!), so I'm sure this was expensive and very modern at the time. But now it is vintage.....and worth a little something! I thought it would only be worth a few dollars at a garage sale, but we actually found one on the internet that already sold recently for about $375!

This past weekend, we helped my mom repaint the room (pink!!!), and she was just ready for it to be gone. So she sent it home with us, and I decided, kind of spur-of-the-moment, to give it to Jonathan. He was so excited, so much so that he wanted to put it in the storm cellar just to keep it safe! LOL! Silly boy. We told him it would be safe on his loft, and it needs to be out where we can see it and enjoy it. We told him that if it did get destroyed in a storm or something, insurance would pay for replacement value, and the money would go to him. His words of wisdom......."If I replaced it, it wouldn't be the same since it didn't belong to Grandpa Farmer." True. 

He loves it and has no intention of ever selling it, and I am so happy about that. :)

Passover and Unleavened Bread

Now, I know there are all different opinions on who, what, when, where, why and HOW. What's that saying? If you have 10 people, you'll have 11 different opinions, or something like that (I totally don't remember at all, but you get the idea). Well, this is MY blog, so I am going to share MY opinion. :)

A 24-hour day is rendered from sunup to sunup, not from sundown to sundown (more on this later). Today is the 14th day of the first biblical month, and after sunset tonight it will still be the 14th, so tonight is Passover (ALL of the Scriptures fit this way). Pesach is not an entire day, but an evening meal.

Ex. 12:15 - We are to eat unleavened bread with the meal, and the *following* 7 days are the days of unleavened bread, when we do not eat it or have any leaven in our homes. We are to remove any leaven from our homes on the first day. (Personally, we remove all leavening agents, but some just remove yeast, as that is the only thing they had when the command was given.)
Ex. 12:8 - The Passover meal itself only needs to have 3 foods: lamb, unleavened bread (matzah) and bitter herbs (maror).

Ex. 12:11 - We also should eat it in a way that we are prepared to run out the door, so to speak, not reclining on a pillow just chilling out.
Ex. 12:3,6 - We should slaughter a lamb on the 14th day at evening that we have kept since the 10th day.

You are welcome to have a different view, and who knows, maybe I will look back on this post one day and smile, seeing how much MORE I have learned and grown. Or maybe you will. Or maybe we BOTH will! :) The point is, right now we are all going to have different understandings, and I respect that. Won't it be nice when Yeshua comes back and sets us all straight?! :)

There is so much more to this, so many more things yet to learn, but I just wanted to share these thoughts for now. I will share more later on when the 24-hour period of times begins.

So whatever you believe about the who, what, when, where, why and how......enjoy YHWH's Passover. It is a memorial, a reflection of what Yeshua has done for us, and a reminder of how much He sacrificed for us. This day is NOT about us or what we believe, it is YHWH's Pesach, not ours. So let's do this for Him, because we love Him. ((((HUGS)))) Shalom.