~ More Outrageous Snow Pictures ~

HERE IS A PICTURE OF OUR CHRISTMAS TREE,
THAT I MEANT TO POST A WHILE BACK...

THE BARN AREA RIGHT NOW...I CAN WALK OVER
THE WIRE TO FEED HOPE...

HOPE WAITING FOR HER BREAKFAST!

OUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW, WITH ABOUT 3 1/2 FEET
OF SNOW!

OUR TRAMPOLINE

We have been keeping extremely busy keeping up with all of the snow, and keeping the house warm. This is more snow than Idaho normally gets (aside from last year), and I think people are really shocked that it is happening again, and may now become the current weather trend for us. I am a bit scared, as it is only still December and we have almost as much as last year, put together. My husband says that Ft. Drum, NY has 8 feet of snow, so depending on where you live, it may not seem like much, but for us, it is a lot to keep up with and I am exhausted. I am ready to move!

I am having a hard time keeping up with the housework, as I have been shoveling every morning and every evening. I am now strong enough to shovel the whole front deck and the kitchen deck, in the morning and the whole living room deck in the evening. I go to bed feeling guilty that my kids are watching movies all day, and I cannot spend much time playing with them. Lately, though, Abbie has been taking a nap during the day and thus can't sleep at night, so I put the boys to bed and we play barbies in the playroom, and then have a bedtime snack and go to bed. She has been sleeping with me a lot, which helps her. She misses her Daddy, and I don't have much time for her right now, so that has started being "our time". Sheldon gets plenty of attention, and is doing fine, but Abigail particularly needs a lot of quality time. Zane has been very busy playing with his army guys and no one wants to even go outside...

Our Christmas was so enjoyable. It was hard work, but we had fun! I had a lot of family over, and we got about 6-8 inches of snow Christmas Eve. We had a huge breakfast of Cinnamon Rolls, Cherry Rhubarb Pie, Eggs, Sausage, Cider and Egg Nog Pancakes. We had a very traditional Dinner, of Turkey, Gravy, Stuffing, Green Beans, Sweet and Mashed Potatoes, Rolls and Cranberry Sauce...and for dessert we had Apple Crisp. Everyone enjoyed the gift giving, and games, and the kids had a blast. I made everyone Rice Socks, plus bought additional gifts for everyone, and actually found a lot of it, at second hand stores... I didn't get any pictures on Christmas, as I had run out of batteries and forgotten to get more before Christmas...oh well!...

I hope all of you have had a wonderful holiday season! :) I am deep in thought lately, about the New Year. I am just considering some New Years resolutions, some things I want to/need to change, and about to delve into my Fruit of the Spirit of the year, study ( I am on Gentleness this year).

The past two Christmas's (2006 and 2007), I would get Christmas letters in the mail and whenI would get to the end of them, where everyone wishes everyone else blessings and a glorious New Year, I would sigh and deal with feelings of utter hopelessness, that my life would ever be the same again, that I would never be an army wife again, and that I would have a trucker for a husband and the life that goes with that, for the rest of my life. I didn't even dare to hope that those things would/could change.

This year, though, as I read the current Christmas letters from dear friends and family, I would get to the end of them and on each one, I cried tears of Thanksgiving to a God who hears my prayers, who is never in a hurry, but is always ON TIME, who has showered my life with blessings and given me back some of my hearts desires.......everyone knows that neither james nor I considered him having to go to Korea when he got back in the Army. We were very sure of going back to Ft. Lewis, but for some reason it wasn't time to go there. Neither of us understand it, at all. That said though....in April of this year, I had HOPE! I knew that that date circled on the calender one year later signified a family re-united, and back in God's will. I am secure and happy in my role. It is hard... but being a trucker's wife is extremely harder and I was never cut out for it. Maybe I am a wimp, I don't know...

The New Year is quickly bringing changes that are putting a smile on my face, even though I don't know exactly what they are, except that we will be a family again. Possible deployments don't bother me....they are "strictly" temporary. Being a trucker's wife was not "surely" temporary. It had the possibility of being long term. Being an Army wife is what I was made for. I don't think I could function well, as anything else. I was brought up Army, and once brought up that way, it is hard to change, or find fulfillment in any other situation.

I am just seeing this New Year as a bend in the road, a new direction, a positive outlook, etc. I am happy to say that I am happy.......extremely tired, extremely burned out with everything, grouchy and hormonal, occasionally...but happy. God has given me the joy I kept asking for. I tried so hard to have joy, through 2006 and 2007, but maybe it wasn't what God wanted, actually. Maybe He had something more in mind for me...something bigger....like serving my country by serving my soldier, which is something I loved deeply and cherished....(no love for the grand state of Idaho, ever measured up to being a helpmeet to my soldier). I can either feel like a failure for not measuring up in '06 and '07, or I can realize that maybe it wasn't what God wanted for us. Maybe He wanted me to fail...so we could save our marriage and family, which is much more important. I don't know, and I don't know why Korea had to be a part of this whole past year, except to show me what life as a regular Army wife is compared to life as a Lady Nightstalker is. Who knows...maybe it happened to make certain friends, or teach me a lesson I won't realize until later....maybe plain and simple, it is just so I know what a one year deployment is like, so I can help other women who maybe do not have a military background, be strong for their husband soldiers who are deployed. I do know, that eventually God will show me why!

Well, I hope all of you are embracing YOUR New Year with HOPE , because I know how it feels to not have that. It is hard, it is depressing and it is scary. If anyone needs prayer in this area, please let me know, because I have been there, for 2 years straight! :( I know how it feels! I am thankful for 2008...it has been a good year...it has been an experience I am ready to be done with but I have made dear friends who I could have never made it through, without! You know who you are! :) Blessings, and Renewed Hope.....Chelle

~Just Outrageous Snow Pictures~

THE KIDS AFTER OUR FIRST FEW INCHES ON THE
12TH OF DECEMBER!

THE BACK VIEW OF OUR SUBURBAN THIS
MORNING!

THIS IS FROM JUST ABOUT FLOOR-LEVEL, LOOKING OUT
AT ONE OF OUR DECKS!

ANOTHER DECK, AND JUST THE SEAT AND HANDLEBARS
OF ABBIE'S BIKE SHOWING THROUGH!

WHAT OUR HOUSE AND CAR LOOKED LIKE THIS MORNING,
PRETTY MUCH BURIED!

CASH WADING THROUGH IT ALL, LOOKING CUTE!

THIS IS A FUNNY PICTURE TO ME, FOR SOME REASON...
THIS IS OUR TRASH BARREL AT THE BARN, WHICH
I HAVE NEVER CLEANED THE SNOW OFF!

We have ended up with about 21-24 inches so far, and I think we will be having a repeat of last winter! It is only the middle of December, and we already have half what we got last year! I am so thankful for great neighbors to plow me out, otherwise it would be interesting to see how long it would take to get an appointment to have someone come out!!! I would definitely be quite snowed in! Luckily, I am a great winter driver, and still venture out to get groceries and things. I am just not happy when I get my car stuck! :) The kids finally were allowed to go outside since the temps rose above zero. Zane ventured as far as the barn, somehow.....i didn't ask him how he did it, as the snow is over half his height. When Abbie and Sheldon realized they were sinking to their heads, they decided to stay on the porch where I had shoveled! :) Keep warm everyone.......by the way, our home is much easier to keep warm as long as it is above zero, so hopefully, it can stay this way for a bit! :)

From My Live-Journal

This is from my live-journal....I figured I better post SOMETHING on my blog, because I haven't recently...so here you all go... my live-journal is more like a journal than my blog is...so have at it....Rachelle

One Thing After Another This Week

• Dec. 17th, 2008 at 10:09 PM

So, my week so far, in a synopsis................So, Sunday night I happen to wash my hair...........temps are approaching below zero.......didn't really want to wash my hair and go to bed with wet hair, but for some reason did it anyway. Good thing, because Monday morning I wake up to no running water and no idea where it is frozen! It is about 14 below zero, and I am struggling to keep wood on the fires, and find out where it is frozen. Made three trips to the pumphouse which is about 400 hundred feet from the house, through 12 inches of snow, to see if the pump was frozen. It was, so I upped the heater to 1500 watts. That defrosted the pump, but still no water.... So, I call my landlord later in the day and tell her. She was kind of mad because I didn't think to keep my faucets running all night, and then i was mad at myself because i know better.
I told my landlord that tuesday I had plans that i couldn't change and that I would be gone all day. The plumbers would have to come Wednesday.
So, Tuesday I am gone all day and of course the fires go out and it is a frigid 50 degrees in the house when I get home. I have to haul water from the pumphouse for washing dishes and brushing teeth. I got my fires going and tried to warm up the house, but finally went to bed . James tries to call me at 3 am, so I can restock the fire but i think he forgot, and i never wake up until I am cold and that means it's already too late.
This house is really drafty and i didn't relaize how bad until now. So, this morning i wake up to both fires out and it is (no joke) 44 degrees in the house, UPSTAIRS...which means it was colder downstairs.......(40 degrees down there). I couldn't believe it! So now that i am sick of Idaho and being cold, because I spent the past two winters in a frickin icebox camper, and then think i will be fine in this new house, with two wood stoves, and plenty of space, I am getting pretty mad. And starting to move slow, and lethargic like. I call my friend Anne to see if she is still coming over to bake Gingerbread cookies with the kids, which we planned two weeks ago, even though it is spitting snow, and we are under a winter storm watch, until tomorrow. She says yes........she lives on generator power so decided she could do without the running water, since she has been there and done that. Anyway, so today we baked the gingerbread cookies and decorated them..........melted snow for drinking water (the pumphouse water is a little dirty), and for hot tea. Ended up having to use my treasured water down in the basement for washing dishes because I was too tired to go to the pumphouse and we had 5 new inches of snow. James put this tank of water in the basement for me, for power outages, and such. I didn't want to use it, but i was just too tired and annoyed, so now i need to re-fill it.
My brother in law shows up un-expectedly with a whole truckload of extra firewood for me, and shows me in the basement where the water pipe comes into the house from outside. We had to hunt for it, because there were some things belonging to the owner of the house that were in front of the pipe. So he suggests putting a heater near it. I had the heater going in all different areas today, trying to find out where it was frozen, so I try there, and within an hour we have water. Fifteen min later the plumber shows up, and i already have it fixed. I had called his secretary but she couldn't let him know because his cell phone didn't have service where he was at the time...
So, anyway, the water is running right in the nick of time to be able to wash all the gingerbread cookie dishes and bring peace to our chaotic home.
By the time my friend got here, I had gotten the house up to 55 degrees....i decided to get the fires as hot and blazing as I could and try not to worry about saving wood. I have no idea how many pieces of wood I used today, but by the time Anne left we had it up to 65 degrees, and by nighttime it was up to 70, finally. it was like an angel in a pick-up truck that brought me extra wood! :) I have been so worried about not being able to make it through the winter! I am praying that this is our cold snap, below zero week that north Idaho always gets each winter, and that it will warm up, but we;ll see! ...........then I took the hottest bath i could stand and relaxed!
It is 14 out there tonight which is so much nicer then 17 below zero, which was the lowest it got between Sunday and Wed. I told the kids that NOW that we have water they can fingerpaint and paint some rocks they had collected this summer to paint during the winter. They had been bothering me and bothering me the last two days to do it, but i told them there was no way, without running water that we could do that.
So, now we are still under the weather watch and they are predicting 10-15 inches of snow, and we have gotten about 6 of it so far. For some reason, Idaho has been getting more snow than it has in recent years past and seems to be acting more like it did in the 70's and 80's with over 3 1/2 feet. Weird....I'm glad we are moving because I am sick of being cold!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, we'll see what the rest of the week holds!!!!!!!!!

Winter Wallowing

The Sparkie's cars...Zane's is the blue with gold stripes
number 64!

Zane with his 4th place trophy and participation
ribbon!

The little ones, wanting to be a part of it!

Well, winter isn't quite here, and actually noticeably late, compared to other years! The kids are so funny...we HAVE had snow three different mornings, and they never fail to say, "Winter is here, Mommy". Only to find, that winter has left! It hasn't been staying, like it normally does, and boy was I dead wrong about snow timing! I predicted the end of October...but now they are saying not til the middle of December!

It is pretty cold though, and Hope has the water trough heater in her water tank all the time. We burn about 12 pieces of wood a day and we have been wearing a lot of extra clothing! Just waiting on the snow to insulate everything, so it will be warmer. Snow really does make winter more bearable, in my opinion. When it piles up around the house it is noticeably warmer...plus, I detest mud, and snow puts an end to that problem.

Gosh, I have not blogged for a month...of course James was home for ten days during November and it took us awhile to catch up on Zane's schoolwork after James left. When I had planned the schoolyear, I didn't know James would be coming home, and if he did, I didn't know when it would be, so I scheduled accordingly. And I really want to be done with Kindergarten by the end of March, so we can welcome Daddy home, and move to Ft. Lewis in April. Otherwise, we will have to do school, through the summer of 2009. So, anyway, we had to catch up.

Ahh.....having my love home was a breath of fresh air and totally what I needed to re-fuel and realize that I can make it until April! Days are starting to fly by again. It ALWAYS takes me a full two weeks to recover from my husband leaving, before I get back in the groove of things. I didn't think just ten days would require that transition again, but it did. At first the days were just crawling by and now I feel like they are starting to fly by again, which is so nice!

Our visit with Daddy was so nice, but we were all sick the whole time...everyone of us got the flu and was throwing up. Seems like all I did was wash puked on Laundry. It sucked...but at least when I was sick, he was not and vice-versa, so we could help each other through it all. Unfortunately, I lost the treasured 3 pounds I had gained prior to him coming, and i weighed myself the other day and I am back down to 95. UGH! You guys do not know how frustrating this is! Stupid flu...you suck!

So, starting tomorrow I am back to cereal with whole milk everynight before bed and heavy cream in EVERY cup of coffee or tea that I drink, and I am going to up the butter and meat in my diet. I hate to eat a lot of meat, but I just need to. I already eat a lot of eggs and beans, but compared to the amount of protein in meat, I don't think it is enough! Any other ideas, you all? I think that my diet is so healthy that it makes it hard for me to gain weight. Plus, I run around all day long, too.

While James was here, we worked on an oval-shaped puzzle...he couldn't sleep at night because of the time change, so he would be down here working on it at night. We also did make it to AWANA...thankfully no one was sick that day....or Sunday, either! Because we were all miserable we did not get one picture of any of us! Oh, well, we had so much to do, and we all felt lousy so we forgot to do quite a few things, or at least remembered but didn't have the motivation to do them. It was a quiet time for us. We didn't have many people over and we didn't go many places, so it was nice, and relaxing!

Oh, I so bawled like a baby at the airport when James came home and we were in each others arms (with the kids, too) for several minutes before baggage started moving in. I cried a little bit while he was here, but totally had a complete mental breakdown, about a week after he left, which I so needed. Now, I can get on with my life. There was just so much bottled up emotion, frustration, heartache, etc, that Thanksgiving night, I collapsed in a heap on my bed and erupted! That is just how I am...I only wish it had happened while James was home, because I desperately needed comforted. I feel so much better now and ready to take on the world, now! Lady Nightstalkers Don't Quit, right???

Yes, and we are officially going back to Ft. Lewis, WA, so I can officially say I am a Lady Nightstalker again! YAY! We will be moving over there in the middle of April. I am starting to contact and keep in touch with relocation people I have found, and have found good websites to keep up on in case we find something on one of them to rent. There are SO MANY rental homes, it is unbelievable! Really! There are almost just as many to rent as buy, so we won't have any problem finding something. It's just that we really want to find a rental property with an acre or so, for Hope. I found one on Craigslist that would have been perfect, but wrong timing obviously...so if you wonder what you can pray for us...maybe just pray that something like that comes up again. My horse is 20 years old and I really want her with me! <3

Eventually, ...well as soon as we sell our KY home, we want to buy, so if i have to board Hope out until we buy, I will.

Ok, so basic family news....My neighbor, Lori (you can view her blog from my bloglists) and I started a weekly playgroup, where we meet at either hers or my house to let the kids play. It is really nice to have a more scheduled time for them to see each other. We have been doing an art project most weeks, and it makes art fun for me! :) We also have tea and something yummy and try to socialize as moms...but it is hard with 5 kids...sometimes more, if our friend May, comes with her 2 kids.

Lori's husband got a deer this fall and she so willingly shared several pounds of the meat with me! Yummy!

Zane and I cut down a Christmas tree while Abbie and Sheldon were napping on Friday, after Thanksgiving. Outside it didn't look so big, but we got it in and up and it was past the open beams in our living room, so we had to take it down and cut 2 feet off of it, so we could see the star! I don't think I have ever had such a gorgeous tree! :) I will take some pictures tomorrow and upload them on here!....plus whatever else is on my camera right now! :)

We decorated with every decoration we have and this cabin is beautiful! For two Christmas's our holiday things were packed away so, I was totally itching to get it all out and beautify this house, for the holidays. I have all most of my Christmas shopping done already too, which is a burden off my shoulders! I still have the kids to buy for, though. I can't tell what we are making for everyone for Christmas, so you all will have to wait to find out. We are on a hugely tight budget right now...we havn't been getting much COLA (if any at all) most months. That is cost of living allowance for Korea, and it is so sucking...plus I have medical bills as well, for my Ovarian Cyst, from September, that I am trying to slowly pay. Stupid tricare standard...NEVER again! I will be so happy when I am in a Prime zone, again!

Really though, we are completely lucky....there are tons of people in our area who cannot even pay any of their bills. A lot of mill workers were laid off a few months back and there are virtually no lobs available and people are really hurting...some are being forced to move to find work. It is very sad and I am thankful we can pay our bills, and we have a small amount budgeted for our groceries, and we are making it! And gas prices have been slashed less than half, so instead of costing 100.00 or more to fill up it has been 50.00, which helps.......and you can see the small town business folks in Priest River, walking with just a bit more spring in their step! :)

The kids are doing well. Sheldon is so full of life and getting into anything he can. He is talking a bit more, and just as his brother is, he is finding his love for Army Helicopters! :) He tries to say Copter an Blackhawk. Pretty cute!

Abbie, has been busy playing with her dollies and Barbies. She makes pretend food and just entertains herself. She cooks a lot with me, too.

Zane has been doing well in school. He is done with his Science book. He loved it, so we went quick through that and now he just learns about things pertaining to science through other books and through things that happen during the day, or something that interests him, like bugs. He is almost done with 2 of his other books, so we just have 3 books to finish this winter. Zane raced a car in AWANA on the 22nd of Nov and came in 4th in his division and got a trophy! You wanna talk about excited! He and James put it together and painted it, so it was extra special!

All the kids are in the Christmas play, at church, too. Zane is a Shepherd and Abbie and Sheldon are sheep! :) I'll have to get pics of that, too!

Well, not much else is going on! :) Or at least I cannot remember it! I stayed up way too late making a gift for my husband and now I am dragging and had to force myself to post tonight! I bought a calender and wrote a reason that I love my husband on each day...so 365 reasons! It was much easier than I thought it would be and the reasons were just flowing out on top of each other! I encourage you all to do it! It is such a wonderful reminder of all the many reasons you love someone, that you tend to forget in the day to day, grind! Naomi (my sister), gave me the idea...I don't know where she heard it! :) But I liked it and had to do it! :) I finished it in one night, because I was on such a roll, and the thing about it that was cool...is that I was totally honest....I didn't butter it up. These were 365 real life reasons why I love that man! So cool! :P

Well, goodnight you all and get ready to wallow, especially if you are in the west! :)

More Nature

HERE IS THE LATEST WILD ANIMAL TO WANDER THROUGH
OUR YARD...A BIG TALL BULL MOOSE...VERY CUTE
I MIGHT ADD! :)
(sorry I couldn't get better pictures)

Zane saw this moose this morning while I was getting ready for church. The moose was right by our Suburban and then walked down our driveway, and over to the camper. He then, decided to change course and ran over to the barn, jumped Hope's fence and her water trough, and thoroughly spooked her, as she had no idea he was coming, much less jumping her fence! He jumped over very gracefully which surprised us all! I didn't know they could jump so high!
By the way, I snapped these shots while in my underwear and a shirt! :) I love all the wild-life we have seen thus far! It really does delight the kids and I to see such magnificent animals just wandering around! :)

Chilly Mornings and Nature

THE FROZEN BEAR PRINTS ON THE PORCH!

A VERY COLD MORNING, HERE IN IDAHO

Hello Everyone,

The mornings are getting quite chilly these days and it will not be long before the snow comes! The other morning I found frozen bear tracks on my front porch where a bear had gotten into the crate of old apples I had there. It had eaten the whole box. It is always such a delight when I see God's creatures, or even just the evidence of them. He created each one distinctly, just like you and I, and God's Word says that "Everything that He had made was very good". I wish I had gotten to actually see this bear. They, and tigers are one of my favorite wild animals, so it would have been such a delight!

The same day that we got pictures of the bear prints, we also saw a beautiful bird on the banister. We love birds, and this one happened to show herself just when we were eating lunch, right outside our big kitchen window. I am obsessed with Birds, too. I don't know a lot about them, but whenever we do see a beautiful one, we look it up. This one was a female Northern Flicker. They are from the woodpecker family. Of course, we didn't get a picture of her, because we didn't have time, but it at times like those, that I love being alive! :) She was gorgeous, and very plump...ready for winter. It has been awhile since I have seen a bird so plumb, and even the Blue Jays (which always stay the winter here), are very fat, too. I just have a feeling we will have a cold winter. Probably not as much snow as last year, but colder. Hopefully, I have enough fire wood! Anyway, I heard from a friend, that he had heard that it would be a record breaking cold year (yikes, if it's true), but didn't hear how much snow was predicted. I always get a Farmers Almanac, as they are almost always accurate. I need to grab one for this year, so I will be a bit more prepared for things.

James is coming home on leave on November 10th through the 20th. We are so very excited to see him! I have so missed my love! And the kids are anxious to just see their Daddy after all this time. It will have been 8 months since he left, when he gets here. He will be back for good in April, which by the time he leaves on the 20th, we will have about 4 months, 18 days, to get through and we will never have to worry about a Korea hardship tour again!

I bought a puzzle for James and I to do when he gets home. We love to snuggle close together and put puzzles together and talk, after the kids have gone to bed...a little tradition we started last year, I guess. I'm sure James will want to take each child on separate little icecream or milkshake trips to town (Abbie loves to have a little date with her Daddy) and I'm sure James and I will do something special, as well, though we haven't figured out what, yet! :) Zane has to whittle a little race car for the AWANA Grand Prix car race coming up. So, they will probably go together to buy the paint and finish, and what ever else they want to get for the car. I'm not sure what he and Sheldon could do yet. Maybe just icecream. He hardly even knows his Daddy but I think he's old enough to understand what it means, to go with his Daddy and do something special. We'll see! :)

I am loving being an AWANA leader! It has been so fulfilling! I thought I would be exhausted but it is actually very energizing! :) I think the kids on my team are really starting to like me, too. James will get to go with all of us to AWANA and see what it's all about! Zane is so excited! :)

The dance classes for Zane didn't go well, and he definitely didn't like it! I didn't mind....I don't want to force him to do something that he doesn't want to do and doesn't like.

Well, I just have a few little piddly things on my to do list for winter. I am excited that I will be able to relax and try to enjoy winter. It is my most hated season, but it will be nice to just hunker down and get cozy! One thing I really need to do, is burn some pictures of Abbie onto a CD so I can get her Birth to 1 year, scrapbook done. Maybe I can get Sheldon's done, as well, before James gets home in the spring. I have a table now, just for scrapbooking that is very child proof. You have to sit on a stool to reach it, so Sheldon can't get up there *yet*. Abbie and I did a page the other day and I really liked the table, and how I set it up!

Well, that's all for now! I hope you are all doing well! Blessings!

Autumn Happenings

THE KIDS AND I, IN DONNELLY, IDAHO

MY IN-LAWS JIM AND SHERRI AND US AMIDST

THE BEAUTIFUL FALL COLORS!

Happy Fall, Ya'll!

Fall is definitely here, for everyone. I don't know about you but I was not looking forward to it, at all. I hate cold weather but I do love the feeling of coziness that is creeping in. I sort of look forward to our yearly snow hibernation! We read tons of books, especially at night, make many trips to the library, go to bed early, and eat lots of richer foods. It would be REALLY nice if I had someone to keep me warm in my bed, at night, but 'til then I will have to settle for my Long Johns.

It froze last night and Hope had a somewhat thin layer of ice on her water trough. She is hanging around the barn area and not grazing much. She is acting paranoid, which she does when the weather changes, and also when we will get snow. I can usually tell by her behavior when a big snow storm is coming. For now, I think it is just the freezing nights that are making her anxious, and hopefully, I do not need to worry about snow. I do think we will have it in late October, or early November, though. We'll see I guess.

I am an AWANA leader now, for the little Sparks (Kindergarten-2nd grade). I am really enjoying it, and will be taking my friend Leeah's, kids to AWANA, since I can pick them up on my way. Conner is 5 and is friends with Zane. Tori is 8 or 9. Abbie is doing really well in Cubbies, and got her Hopper Patch last week. She is opening up to her leader and saying verses without much prompting. She is definitely opening up socially, as well. I use AWANA as part of our daily homeschooling. After we are done with our regular devotional time (Bible reading, prayer, singing, and a children's Bible story) we work on our verses, for the week and practice saying them to each other. I want to *possibly* be a certified AWANA Sparks leader, so I have certain verses I am trying to memorize,as well, for my certification. I admit, I am not as good as my own children at Bible verse memorization, and that has been a VERY weak point in my walk with God, my entire life. I especially forget references, so maybe AWANA will be a good thing for me. I desire SO much that God's Word be hidden in my heart and ingrained so deeply into my head that I can draw from it when needed. Zane loves the games at AWANA, and is very competitive, but a good sportsman, too. Some of the games he doesn't know very well yet (one in particular), so hopefully he can master that and get his team some points! :)

My awesome friend, Anne, called tonight to ask if Zane could be in her dance class. I guess they were short one boy, and Anne was having to dance with a little girl, who had no partner. Of course I jumped at it, so Wednesdays Zane will start learning .....yes, this is hilarious....Ballroom Dancing. They are starting the Waltz on Wed. I love dancing and Ballet, so I am looking forward to just watching it. Plus, what could be cuter than K-3rd graders doing ballroom dancing!? Zane could do any other sport, and I know he could do them well, but we are waiting until we get stationed to put him in Baseball or something else. For now, I think it's cool that he will learn to dance and possibly take an interest in it. I will get pictures of this, because I know it will be cute!

I have been getting sick of recipes calling for bread crumbs and then having to grate a piece of bread for it. I decided to save all my heels from store-bought bread. I do not like the heels from store bread and always throw them out. I do love the heels off my home-made bread, especially hot out of the oven, though. Anyway, for a few months I have been keeping a bread bag in my freezer and throwing all the heels in there, and some other pieces of home-made bread that got dried out. Yesterday, I had a whole bag full of bread and took it out of the freezer to thaw. When it was done, I tore them all into small pieces and ran them through a mini food chopper. It made wonderful bread crumbs, and now I will always have them on hand, and I can season them however I want. It worked really well, and will save time in dinner prep!

Our trip to Donnelly, Idaho went well. This is near McCall (two hours north of Boise) for those of you who don't know. My brother in law was supposed to get married but his fiance' decided to wait/bail out on him for the time being. So, he was left with a reserved, non-refundable beautiful town house on Tamarack resort. My in-laws had non-refundable plane tickets. So we all met at the honeymoon destination for a family reunion instead of honeymoon. It was interesting and Clayton did his best to not be depressed, I think. We went to the Hot Springs in Golden Fork or someplace, which I did not get pictures of. It was totally awesome and I will definitely go again, sometime. There were 6 pools all inlaid with stone. The water poured in from a spring and down over huge rocks. Beautiful! One pool was 108 degrees, and the rest of the pools cooler as they went down. There are all kinds of minerals in the water and it made our skin feel so great....it was the first time that I have ever felt my skin, truly moisturized! AWESOME! The kids loved it. I would love to go with my husband (alone) sometime. :)

My in-laws enjoyed seeing the kids and we all relaxed as best we could. My drive to and from was 6 hours and was very uneventful, which I was thankful and my Suburban did very well. It was our first long trip with it. We bought it in February, and had never taken it on a trip.

Zane is doing ok in Homeschooling. We have come to a sort of math book block right now. We had to stop totally in the book and work on some concepts that he was not getting. He can count to 100 perfectly fine, with a little help on the 30, 40, 50....etc. But when I ask him to show me a certain number or ask him what a certain number is, he cannot tell me. I repeatedly have to keep telling him. The number 20 is especially hard for him. I ask him what number it is, and then tell him....ask him two minutes later and he doesn't know again. Frustrating! And we cannot continue in the book until he knows them. So, who knows how long that will take. I am using flashcards, an Abacus, a hundreds chart, dot cards, etc. I know he will get it, eventually. I have decided to just work on something different, and drop it, because I am getting frustrated, and he is getting burned out. I will try again in a few weeks, and maybe his brain will be ready for it then. We are a little ahead of schedule in his math book, so it won't hurt to stop, but only for two weeks at the most, otherwise, we will be behind. Anyway, all his other subjects are wonderful. His handwriting is gorgeous, and I can almost say "perfect"! :) He does really well in that.

My Bible study is going well. I have learned a lot and it has actually been very painful at times. Faith is never painless! ....and Beth Moore is just so right! She said it might not be fun! It hasn't been but I am hopeful that it will be well worth it!

I am desperately missing my husband right now. We have talked about him coming home for R&R next month, but haven't made a decision yet. It might be worse for our finances than it would be worth, in the long run. I would so love to have him home, though. I would pay a thousand dollars to just see him and hold him for one day, I think! I am almost at the point that I cannot stand it, and I cannot sleep some nights. I think I will get over it, if we decide that he shouldn't come home. We'll see. Today is actually our 6 month point, and we have exactly 6 months left to go, until he is home and we can get on with our lives!... Won't that be nice, after 3 years of hell?

I can't think of much else that is going on, recently, so this will be it, for now! :) Get nice and cozy you guys....winter is coming, especially for us northern folks! Blessings!

Are You Prepared?

One of my best friends, Colt, is my sharer of economic doom and gloom. He explains to me what is going on in the economy. He answers my questions when I read the stuff in the news and I don't understand it. Mentally, I have a hard time understanding economics and I can't tell you much about what is going on, because I just don't really know, but I do know it is bad. I know our economy is crumbling. I think everyone has known this for awhile, but how many of us are prepared for it? I know that most of my blog readers, including myself, would not be ready in a crisis. No one wants to think about this...not even me. No one wants to think about long term power outages, which would be the worse case scenario, in this situation. Even I know that America is going to fall. We don't know when, but it could be soon.

We all live in this country and feel it is the strongest and wealthiest, but it's not. We are billions of dollars in debt. Most of our soldiers are overseas, when most of them should be here on our grounds. They can't keep us as safe, if they are not here. The media covers a lot of it up, so we don't realize how bad it is. We can't continue to live with this false security. We have to stop being so naive. At the same time, those of us who are Christians, must have faith in God for our provision AND meet Him halfway, at the same time. I am not saying to go all out crazy like during the Y2K scare. Even Backwoods Home Magazine said Y2K probably would not happen. I am not saying something terrible is going to happen, tomorrow. At least with Y2K, people had a time-line to get ready for the possible power outages. With this, we have no time-line. Eventually, I think our country will fall, just like Rome and countless other countries.

I occasionally read www.survivalblog.com It has some good stuff on it. The thing they are talking about right now is threats of Bank Runs. This is where people run to the bank to get their money out ....their fake money, that is, but they can't because it was never real in the first place. So, the first thing you should all do is go to the bank and get a lot of your savings out, go home and hide it in your house. Leave some in your account, depending on how much you have in there in the first place. This week, I am going to get half of our money out. Please don't hide it under the mattress, you guys! :) The first place I would look if I was a thief would be there or in your dresser. Think of somewhere creative and put it there. Even Dave Ramsey (the financial peace/debt-free guy... www.daveramsey.com) says to keep your emergency fund ($1000.00) in your home, not your bank.

Some places in the southeast, are running out of gasoline, and those who have it are selling it for $5.00 a gallon, or more. Right now, there is a Global Lemon Shortage! I rely on Lemons for medicinal purposes, and I just like them, a lot! Did I know the shortage would happen? No! Would I have stocked up on them, and dried them, or froze the juice? Probably! My point? You do not know what tomorrow will bring! I know the Bible says not to worry about tomorrow, but at the same time, people stocked up for times of famine, in biblical times.

The second thing to have is at least one gun and plenty of Ammo. Unfortunately, for those of you who live in the city you cannot hunt for your food. But, you will have to protect your homes from raids. This will be hungry, in-sane people, who have been to relief organizations only to find that no one can help them. For the kids and I, we have 2 guns and not much ammo. We would need a lot more ammo to hunt, as we don't have any food stored up, unfortunately. We would need to protect our home, as well, but not to the degree that you people would need to.

I hate the thought of losing power, in a worst case scenario, where the economy falls, and eventually there is no power. Fortunately, we would probably have somewhat of a warning that power would soon be out. It's not like during a storm, where you suddenly lose power, or a tree falls on power lines and you have no knowledge of it and boom, your power is out. You don't want to be the ones driving around looking for food and water at Wal-marts or other grocery stores, just to find that it is all sold-out. I know when there is a storm, I always fill pitchers and the bathtub with water, in case the power goes out. Did you know, I read on survival blog that a woman didn't know that she could flush her toilet without electricity? All you need is water to flush the toilet! If your tub is full you could flush your toilet for awhile!

In Idaho, we have a lot of power outages during the year. I have some things I need to stock up on before winter. Affording it all is the problem. I have all my wood and hay in (for this winter, anyway). No problem, there. I have a wood stove for our main heating. We have a wood cook stove to cook on if we lose power this winter. The kids and I have to collect branches and kindling, before the snow comes, to burn in the cook stove, though. Other than that, the thing I worry about the most is refrigeration and water. No one wants to have pitchers of water setting on their counter all the time in case the power goes out. I have a nice water tank that was in our horse trailer, that I have on my to-do list to clean and fill and put down in the basement, for an emergency. We can't drink from it but we could use it for washing dishes, cleaning, etc. In the winter we can melt snow, but we have nothing for summer time. We are on a plateau, with water downhill from us, and it would be terrible to have to haul it up, but we would do it, to survive, obviously. I have nothing for emergency refrigeration. I wish I did.

Some basic things I need to stock up on are LOTS of: candles, matches, ammo, batteries, certain tools and food. The list goes on and on! I have two wonderful first aid kits, from the army worth hundreds of dollars, so I am good there. Are you? I need to stock up on basic herbs and things I know work for infection. Garlic Oil, Vinegar, Honey, Cayenne Red Pepper,Lemon, Cinnamon and antibiotic cream. Other than that, I need basic Chamomile, St Johns Wart, Echinachea, Dandelion, Mullein, Yarrow, and others that I regularly use. Unfortunately I didn't dry it this year. I should have but I got lazy. I can easily buy the first 8 things I listed, though.

WORST CASE SCENARIO:

I encourage everyone to learn about, identify in the wild, experiment for yourselves, and USE herbs. Read about them. Have a good basic book for identification with good pictures in it, of wild, edible and medicinal herbs and plants. Dandelion is the most abundant herb available to everyone! It cures, heals and it is highly nutritious. I would not go a winter without it in dried form. In a worst case scenario, what would you do if you did not know what herbs are poisonous, or even how to identify them? What berries? What mushrooms? Learn it and have books that you can have on hand to read in case there is a long-term power outage! Would you want to die because you were starving and ate the wrong thing? Of course not! Some good books are: Practical Herbalism by Philip Fritchey, The ABC Herbal by Stephen Horne (this is an herbal book all about children and I highly recommend it) and Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Rockies by Linda Kershaw. She might have others for whatever region you live in. If not, find something else for your region. You need a good first aid book and medical book. Could you become pregnant after a long term power outage? I would have a good mid-wifery and natural child-birth book handy. Also, baby products....diapers, wipes, and things like that...use your head... Your best asset is your brain and resourcefulness! :) Have you ever thought about what women used for feminine hygiene a long time ago? What would you use after your supplies ran out? Have lots of old flannel sheets put away. Stock up on cotton material, and don't throw it away. Keep old towels for rags. I took a big stack of jean material (hot pink, red, black and blue) to the thrift shop and now I regret it...what would I use to make clothing once my kids ran out? Jean material is so durable! What was I thinking??? :[ Who cares if it's hot pink! Do you have enough thread and needles? I don't! What about when you have a cold and need to blow your nose? What happens after there is no Kleenex or toilet paper? Do you have washable handkerchiefs sewn up? I have about twenty of them made from old, soft, flannel pajama pants, flannel pillow cases, and old, soft shirts that I liked. They are a whiz to sew up and they last ages. We love them for when we are sick. We put dabs of peppermint, spearmint, eucalyptus, or clove essential oils on them, and keep them in bed with us to breathe better and blow our noses on. We never buy Kleenex. Do you have a favorite shirt that you don't want to throw away? Cut it up in squares, sew wrong side out leaving a hole, turn it right-side out and machine or hand sew the opening. I have about 10 or more ready to be sewn up, in the near future! Don't even ask what I would use for toilet paper....the indians used Mullein leaves and God knows what else....

I do not know how to make soap, which is something I would need to know. I do not have a wash board. A good initial stock of cleaning supplies, and hygiene products would be good, but what about after it's gone...would you know how to make soap? Shampoo? Laundry Detergent? I need a good soap making book...would you have the ingredients that you needed to make soap?

As far as food goes...I don't even want to think about it, because we have no reserve. I don't even care to think about the cost... same with gasoline. We could never afford what I know we would need but at least I know about wild edibles and can hunt. I know how to fire a gun! If you live in the country, two good animals to have are chickens and rabbits. In an economic crisis, these would be easiest to feed through the winter! No gas, no hay...larger livestock would probably die during the winter.

I know I am missing tons of things, that I could write in this post, but you guys get the idea, I hope.

I don't mean to scare anyone and I don't think you should go overboard unless you and your husband feel you need a 1-5-10 year supply of things you would need. I recommend this and wish we could afford to do it, but we can't. We have subscribed to Backwoods Home for a long time, and I know we should have been stocking up all this time, but we haven't. We need to start, though. The economic future looks very bleak and I am not one to freak out, but I want to stock up, and probably will finally start. It never hurts to learn things, either...like soap making, first aid, animal husbandry, etc.

My Little Girl is Growing Up

ZANE AND ABBIE HELPING MAKE LASAGNA FILLING
Unfortunately, these were the best pics...the rest were more blurry!

A BIG SMILE FROM MY LITTLE GIRL! SHE LOVES COOKING!

HERE SHE IS AGAIN!

I just wanted to jot some things down about Abigail, today! She has become quite the little home-maker, mini-mommy, cleaner/organizer and definitely a big joy in my life and our home! It's a little hard watching her grow up. She's only three but has always been very mature for her age, so she helps me a lot and really surprises me with the things she knows and can do! Of course, she would not normally be this way, to this degree if I had not diligently trained her and taught her how to do things and made her a part of my everyday life (every part of it). She has finally stopped disobeying all the time and that is mostly because I have worked one on one time into our schedule and she isn't restless during school time!

This morning and yesterday morning she made her bed all by herself, beautifully! :) I didn't have to ask her, spank her or force her to do it, like I have had to in the past 6 months. She understands why she has to do it. I have explained to her, that I do not have time to make it for her because I make Sheldon's bed and my own. She understands that Katie (our cat) might sleep on her bed during the day and if the bed is not made that cat hair might get in her bed and I will have to waste time and energy washing it. My cat is very clean, and doesn't shed hair much. In the fall she does and it's fall right now, so I explained this to her.

The other day Abbie totally amazed me! She asked if she could put a new bag in the bathroom trash can. I have never taught her this...I guess she just watches me, a lot. Anyway, she left and brought me the bathroom trash. I threw it away and then she proceeded to get a big trash bag out from under the sink. I didn't realize what she was doing with it. I was on the phone with my husband. She took it upstairs and came back with the Diaper-pail trash bag (it is just a trash can, not really a diaper pail, but we use it for one). She had taken the upstairs diaper trash out and brought the full bag downstairs to me. I just stood there with my mouth open! :) You guys, she is three years old! I told my husband and then I went to check in the bathroom and upstairs to see how well she had put the new bags in. I was amazed, again. The bathroom trash can had a new bag in it and the diaper pail upstairs was perfect, as well. I told my husband that I couldn't believe it! :) I had never taught her this... my boys would never be coordinated enough to do something like that, at her age.

Abbie has also learned very quickly, recently how to fold every type of laundry...that is pretty detailed for a little girl to know! :) I do the big bath towels and my clothes. She knows how to do it, but they are just bigger than she is, so I don't think she should do them, yet.

As far as cooking goes, she always cuts the butter in little pieces for me, for pie crust, graham cracker crust, or biscuits. She stirs everything and really does a good job helping me. A lot of times, her or Zane, keep the scrambled eggs moving for me in the morning, while I am doing other stuff, so they don't burn. They get cereal bowls, spoons, the cereal and milk out when they know we are going to have cereal.

This morning Abbie unloaded the dish washer, and then fed the cat, while Zane was playing upstairs. She thinks helping is more fun than playing in the playroom! Can you believe that?

Why am I writing all this about her? Just to show you that 2 and 3 year olds CAN and SHOULD be trained to do everything adults have to do. I see so many kids who cannot do anything and don't do anything, but make huge messes in the house. My kids clean their own messes up. I WILL NOT help them clean it up. Sheldon makes messes and I do help them by going through the house and putting things on the stairway, to go upstairs later. I will not clean the playroom for them. Our playroom is completely organized, meaning that every toy has it's place. Even Sheldon knows where they go. I will sometimes guide Sheldon through the playroom cleaning-up process. That's how he knows where things go. But, I will not help the older two to clean it up. When they tell me they are done, I go check it and make sure everything is put away right. If there are things in the wrong places, I remind them where they go, and I will usually put it away for them, while they watch me....or they do it.

Why do I go to the trouble of teaching them? It's so they become efficient in everything. It's so our home runs smoothly. It's so our home is orderly and thus glorifies God. God is a God of order! Look at the seasons, sun and moon, animal patterns and everything else that He has created. It is orderly....we know that winter is coming every year. In the winter we know and are comforted by the knowledge that spring WILL come! It will be warm again. It is the same for kids. They need order. It is one form of security that is tangible for them. They do not yet have the security that the Lord provides to believers. Kids need to know that they will eat, bathe, brush their teeth, clean/help/do chores, be a part of their parents life and not just a cute little accessory! That they will have shelter, and a kiss and hug from their mother and father. That they will be loved for who they are and trained to be useful, efficient, competent and prompt adults. Whatever you are, is what your kids will be. Train them to be better than you!!! Do the things that your mother didn't do for you. Teach boys and girls to cook, clean, organize, work with their hands, be creative and resourceful. To be frugal, selfless, loving, giving and kind. To minister to others, and to love serving the Living God. No parent is perfect but we can all strive to do things better for the next generation! If you lack order and organization skills, work on them...if you don't have time, make time. What are your idols? They are standing in your way. Don't bow down to them. I like my computer time. When I was in the camper, I didn't have a computer, so it was nice when we moved here, to have it. Sometimes, it is my idol, and that is so terrible. So, I have limited my time on here, and it works great. What are your idols? Are they television, trashy novels, the computer, shopping, eating and being a slob on the couch, scrap-booking, talking on the phone (for crying out loud....get off of it)...your kids are drifting away while you share the latest gossip, tidbits or whatever, and they feel like you ignore them. Why do you think they act up when you are on it? I know....I am on the phone quite a bit, but it is mostly with my husband. I really don't talk to my friends much on the phone, these days. I wish with all my heart that I didn't have to talk to my husband on the phone, but I have to. It sucks and I hate it. I really hate being on the phone. I know my kids hate it, too. I like talking to friends occasionally, but really, I have my life to live and I refuse to waste it away on the phone! :)

Well, that's my speal for the week, you guys! :) I love you all...........and now it is getting cold in the house and I need to build a fire..... :( Ugh, I really don't like when it gets cold. Spring comes every year, though, right? :) And dear friends, your kids grow every year, too....please re-evaluate how your time is spent. I have been doing that all summer and I can see good results in my life and my kids! :) Well, I hope this was encouraging to someone out there! Love Rachelle

Goings Ons

PAINTING WITH WATERCOLOR!

SHELDON FINALLY UNDERSTANDS THAT YOU DO
NOT EAT THE PAINT! :)

TWO OF THE JUICE LID SUN-CATCHERS
A SUN AND A BUTTERFLY

OUR LITTLE GRASS GARDEN FOR KATIE
THIS IS ON TOP OF OUR WOOD COOKING STOVE

Well, we have been busy here in the Phipps home. James went to the field (in Korea) for two weeks, so no phone calls for me or the kids to look forward to. Actually, this is the first time my husband has been to the field...they didn't do that stuff in the 160th... In case someone doesn't know what I am talking about...going to the field is where you go out and play war, paint your face up in cammo, and do other stuff like that...eat MRE's (Meals Ready to Eat), and get stinky and muddy...

The kids started AWANA (Approved Workman are Not Ashamed). It's a Bible club that is pretty popular here out West. They have it in the East but it doesn't seem to be much of a focus there. Kids around here love it, and my kids really seem to be enjoying it. They learn verses and play competitive games, etc. I bought each of my kids canvas totes for their books and decorated them with names in glitter pen, and appliques. On the backs I sewed on patches and name tags from my husband's old uniforms. The Army went to a new uniform design in 2007, so I had a lot of old uniforms down in the basement, to get the patches off of. I also put different Army pins on them. WAY cute!!! I will put a picture on here of them all.

In art, the kids planted some grass in an adorable pot that I got at a garage sale, and decorated the inside of the pot with fake cat-tails, silk flowers and two fake robins on sticks. The grass has come up...it will be nice to see it in the winter when we have 3 feet of snow! It is also for our cat, Katie, to eat/munch on in the winter, as she likes fresh grass. I know that sounds weird/gross, but she really is a super clean cat! :) We just put the pot up by her cat-food! :)

We also made juice-lid sun-catchers. You take old tin lids off of concentrated juice cans, place a pattern on top (we got the patterns out of the Art book we got from Christian Liberty), and then pound a little nail in all around it, wherever the pattern says to, with a little hammer. Then you put them on strings and hang them in the window! Cute, cute!

We are still doing well on our schedule. We have found that some chores do not need done weekly, but instead, by-weekly...such as dusting, and mopping (we take our shoes off, so it takes awhile for our floors to get mop-worthy).

I went into the ER last week with pain on my left side (which I have been having at certain times of the month now, for 6 months). I thought it was an Ovarian Cyst from the very beginning, and each month the pain got worse. I had read that cysts will go away on their own, so I waited. Well, this month, the pain was unbearable, and making me very tired and feverish. They ultra sounded it, and said that I had a cyst that had just ruptured, so hopefully I will no longer have pain when I ovulate. So, to say the least, I have not been getting up at 6:00am, like I like to. It's been 7 o'clock recently, when I get up, which isn't bad, but forces me to do my Bible Study, devotions and prayer some other time. I am really hungering for that time with my Lord, in the morning. Maybe now that I feel better, I can be better about getting up.

My neighbor, Leeah Davis, started a Bible Study. She lives just down the road. We are good friends already. We are doing a Beth Moore study called "Believing God." It is a real eye-opener and very thought provoking. She wants us not only to believe in God, but to BELIEVE Him. To believe that what He says in His Word is true...that He will and can do what He says He can do. It's a really good study, so far. There are five main points right now that she is trying to ingrain in our brain... 1) God is who He says He is 2) God can do what He says He can do. 3) I am who God says I am. 4) I can do all things through Christ. 5) God's Word is alive and active in me! I recommend this study if you have trouble believing that God loves you and cares for you, and has good plans for your life. I think sometimes that God's definition of "good" is sometimes not ours, and so, sometimes when we think something bad is happening in our life....to God, it is good, and is happening for His reasons and for His plans. I know, that is so hard...and I struggle with seeing the good in bad situations, too..........sometimes, I see NO good in the situation! I know God does, and He has higher plans than we do! See my post titled God's Plans, from June, for more on this subject. This study has been good for rounding out my faith. I sometimes feel that my faith is like a circle....and that sometimes it looks like a moon that you think is full at first, casual glance and then when you really look, you see that it is missing a large sliver...making it not full, after all. Sometimes my faith feels like a half moon....I think I am past crescent-moon stage, though! :)

Abbie is doing well in preschool. She likes to cut and paste, especially. I have a 12 inch stack of worksheets that we got from a preschool that was going out of business. Last week, I stapled them together in little stacks of 4 sheets. Each stack has a cutting and pasting sheet on it, a sheet to color, a sheet with number practice and a sheet with letter practice. She does these everyday, plus Bible with us and Art on Mondays (sometimes more). I am still not very good about loving art....so that's why we do it on Mondays....I'd like to start doing it Mon/Wed/Fri, so we'll see! :)

Sheldon spends his day getting into stuff, and I have been having a hard time making a time in the day to do something productive with him. He gets bored easy, and makes raids in the fridge, or the pantry, writes on Zane's school when no one is looking, or gets into stuff in the bathroom. He likes to find my eye-liner and write on the mirror with it. Yesterday, he found my eye-liner sharpener and found out what happens when you stick your fingers in there! I had three bloody fingers and you know how babies don't like band aids. It was a mess! I need prayer for finding things for him to do, and carving out time for one-on-one with him, since he is no longer nursing!

Well, that's our most recent news, I think! :) The weather is getting cold fast, and I know this week will be our last of warm weather. I am thinking that we will have snow by the end of October. Just a hunch. Well, take care and God Bless! Rachelle

Italian Hot Chocolate

ZANE AND ABBIE DRINKING ITALIAN HOT CHOCOLATE!

Have you been throwing your cold, leftover, coffee out? We discovered how to make Italian Hot Chocolate with the cold coffee left in the coffee pot! Even Zane and Abbie like it! I can't afford the roadside latte stands or Starbucks coffee, unfortunately, but this does the trick for me! :) You can also make iced coffee at home, I have heard, but don't know how to do that yet! :( I think they put Icecream in the Frappucinos, that I like. With Fall coming, though, the hot coffee/chocolate mix in this recipe satisfies my sweet tooth, and wakes me up! :) We really like the Kirkland brand coffee from Costco!

ITALIAN (MOCHA) HOT CHOCOLATE (Phipps family version):

3 cups cold coffee (use a measuring cup because the marks on coffee pots are not always accurate).
3/4 cup Ovaltine Powder, or other instant Hot Chocolate Mix.
3/4 cup half and half or milk
1/8-1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)
dash Cinnamon and vanilla extract

Add all ingredients to a medium saucepan. Whisk and simmer until hot. Ladle into cups, and top with Whipped Cream or a handful of Mini Marshmallows. Makes about 4 small coffee mugs full.

The Italians make a much thicker Mocha Hot Chocolate and thicken it with cornstarch, but us Americans make it much thinner, even at the Espresso stands! :) Enjoy!

Herbal Beauty

I love herbs, essential oils, wild-crafting herbs, and studying natural/herbal medicine. I especially love making my own little beauty recipes! Here are some of them:

CORNMEAL FACIAL SCRUB:

1/4 cup stone ground cornmeal
1-2 teas honey
2-3 drops Essential Oil ~ Rose, Lavender or Ylang-Ylang is nice. I use Aura Cacia essential oils, as they are 100% essential oil, unless otherwise stated on the label.
A dash of Lemon Juice
Enough water to make a nice paste

Mix altogether and store in a baby food jar. Keep refrigerated for longer storage. You can also add fresh, finely chopped, gathered (or bought) herbs such as red clover blossoms, wild rose petals, pineapple weed blossoms, or yarrow leaves (do not use Yarrow if your skin is sensitive to it).

Wet your face and lightly massage scrub into your face in circular motions, especially around nose and hairline. Rinse with warm water, dry your skin well, and follow up with a Bentonite Clay Mask.

BENTONITE CLAY MASK:

Bentonite is volcanic ash. Taken internally, it absorbs heavy metals, toxins, etc and is expelled out the body. Used on the skin, it attracts toxins through the pores and binds them to itself. If you have trouble with acne, you can use it to pull the toxins closer to the skin, faster than if you were to let them come up on their own. I love Bentonite Clay. I have trouble with hormonal acne and use this mask recipe every month to ease the pain caused by it.

I don't have an exact recipe for it...I just put the ingredients into a bowl and add little bits of water until it is perfect for a mask!

About 1/4 cup Bentonite Clay Powder
Water
A dash of Grapeseed Oil...I buy it from the health food store. It is very cheap. You can also use Sweet Almond Oil or Jojoba Oil.
A dash of Lemon Juice
1/2 teas or so of honey
2-3 drops Essential Oil...I like Rose or Clary Sage

Mix, adding water until it is a thick paste. Store in the fridge for longer storage. Spread on your face after you have washed and dried it, and let dry until just crinkly. Rinse with warm water. Your face will feel lovely. Do not use Bentonite more than 3 times a week if you do not make it with some sort of oil added like I mentioned above. It is a bit too drying for the face without a high quality skin oil.

I love to put about 2 Tablespoons Grapeseed oil into my evening bath water and 5-6 drops rose essential oil (my favorite). Use less of other essential oils. Most Rose essential oil is only 1/5 rose and 4/5 Jojoba Oil. Pure Rose Essential oil is $50.00 for 4 ounces!!! :[ So, if you can afford that, use only one or two drops! :) Anyway, after soaking awhile, I wash my face and skin with the cornmeal scrub, rinse and then dry my face well, and spread the Bentonite Mask on nice and thin and rub it in for 2-3 minutes. It will not dry, as your face will sweat some in the tub! :) I just rub it in good and rinse! You will feel like you have been to the spa! :)

That is my evening pampering bath! :) I love it....and a good devotional book and a few candles makes it especially nice! You can use any essential oil that you like in bath water! I have Ylang-Ylang, Rose, Clary Sage, Lavender, and I have used Orange and Eucalyptus when I am sick! Your local Health Food Store should carry a good variety of oils! Some are expensive, such as Pure Rose and Sandalwood. Others are more affordable! A good book that my husband bought me is The Essential Oils Book- Creating Personal Blends For Mind and Body, by Colleen K. Dodt

There are also other books in this series that I want...The Herbal Home Spa, The Natural Soap Book, etc. They are by Storey Publishing, and have a variety of other books by different authors!

A Day in The Phipps Family - 2008

People probably wonder what we do all day, especially since my husband is in Korea. We have seven more months until he comes home and we move. In 2009 our schedule and days will be different because Daddy will be much more included, obviously. For now though, I have found that having a good, flexible and expected schedule in everything, makes for a faster, more productive day. I am into a good groove now, since I moved in, in April, and got everything organized, including the whole entire basement (which I wanted to do in the summer while it was hot). Now that everything that was in that semi-truck trailer (a better word, is "thrown" into the semi-trailer), is in a real home and organized (which I spent all summer doing, literally), it feels great, just to be normal! :)

I am normally a very organized person, anyway. I would get everything done that needed done in the day, and sometimes more. I get a thrill in crossing off stuff on my to-do list. I cannot usually be idle. I will lay on the couch for ten minutes and it is HARD for me to do it. Certain days of the month force me to be on the couch most of the day, and I guess that is nature's and God's way of slowing me down. My friend Linda says I am "a machine", and my friend Lori says I am "so organized". My mom says I am "too organized"! I feel those things are true, but it would do me good to probably slow down a bit, so I try to schedule down-times for myself, during Abbie and Sheldon's nap.

However, even though I am organized, I have never had a time schedule. I was forced to do this though, after I began watching my nephew 3-5 days a week. He and Sheldon are only 9 months apart (Sheldon being the older), so it was a chore to try to get everyone fed and get their naps and play times to coincide. I had to have a schedule out of shear need and MY sanity! It has been a great experience, so I thought I would share what our schedule is, and how it works.

I get up at 6:00 am, now. On some mornings when I know I do not have much to do that day I will sleep in until 6:30 (which is my comfortable rising time, anyway....6:00 is pushing it a little). And sometimes, when I am totally exhausted I do not get up until the kids get up. Sheldon or Abbie climb in my bed for cuddle time, which is a special treat for me and them. Zane loves to sleep so he is sometimes not up until 8:00, but usually 7:30.

But, for the most part, I am up at 6:00. Between 6 and 7:30, I have a set list of things I do. It doesn't matter how much time is devoted to each thing, as long as they are done between that time. I get up and go feed my horse. I sometimes ride her down our easement driveway, to the road, and back to the barn. I jog after that (I am working up slowly to getting to the road without feeling like I am going to die). Right now, I am as far as Lori's driveway, which is two thirds to the road! :) In the house, I start a small pot of coffee, take a quick bath, dress, and read my Bible, and pray while I drink my coffee. On the days that I get up later, I skip riding my horse, jogging and the bath, which are not all that important to me, because I can do them later. For instance, the kids and I ride Hope after school sometimes, and I take a bath at night instead of in the morning. The jogging is not really that important. I am just doing it to build up my cardio, and I can do it if I want to, during naptime.

By 7:30 the kids are up. I help them dress, and they attempt to make their beds. I help them to see where the bed is not made correctly every morning, in hopes that eventually, they can do it perfectly. Abbie is very efficient in making her bed, though! She is a horrible wiggle worm in the night and sometimes the bed is beyond her ability to fix but I make her try. Zane can do it, but I have to help him get it perfectly smooth and nice looking. Sheldon throws away his diaper and that is really the only chore he does in the morning. Mostly he runs around like a maniac in the morning. I make his bed for him.

Between 7:30 and 10:00 am we eat breakfast, do household chores, and morning devotion. While I make breakfast, Zane and Abbie unload the dishwasher. They take turns on who gets to stand on the counter. The other one hands up the dishes, to the one on the counter. Zane feeds the cat and Abbie feeds the dog. We eat and then start chore time, which is a good hour or hour and a half (sometimes more). On cereal/oatmeal mornings we do more chores, than on a morning where we eat Waffles or a bigger breakfast. We only need about 15-20 min to do our morning devotion, which we do after chores. If we do it before chores, it breaks up the routine too much. If we do chores right after breakfast, we have a good break between chores and schooltime to sit together on the couch and do devotions. Ashton usually comes at either 7:30 or 9:30, so we work him into the schedule. He has a 2nd breakfast with us, and then plays while we clean.

We have chores we have to do everyday. Some we have to do weekly, and some are monthly or bi-monthly. The kids help with most of these. I want my kids to learn to enjoy chores, so that when they are older, they will be efficient. When they are littler they think it is fun, so this is the perfect time to teach them. Right after breakfast I load the dishwasher, and after every other meal. At night I start the dishwasher before bed. As far as daily chores go, we have to do one load of laundry everyday. I put a load in right before breakfast. Later I put it in the dryer. Zane puts the dry clothes in a basket and brings them up from the basement. We all, except Sheldon, fold together on the couch. The kids do towels, underwear, and find sock mates. Abbie knows how to fold t-shirts and small pants already. Zane just likes the towels and underwear, so I let him do those, mostly. I have to sweep everyday, but I can sometimes do it every other day. Sheldon's chore is to follow me around with dust pan, as our floor is very big. I throw the dirt away and give the dustpan back to him. We do a weekly chore every morning, as well. Once the snow comes, Monday will be the day we bring firewood up from under the deck (we have a daylight basement with double doors out to the wood pile which is under the deck), and stack it in the house for the week. We have a large area for stacking near our wood stove. We do Art on Mondays, so besides wood, we do not have a weekly chore assigned to Monday. We have to have extra time for Art and clean-up. Tuesday we sweep and Mop the floor and make/edit the grocery list and menu plan, for the next two weeks. The kids get to play upstairs on Tuesdays, while I mop, if they have helped with the daily chores. Wednesday I vacuum the upstairs and balance the checkbooks. I also sometimes do any bill organizing this day. On the 1st and 15th of the month, I do the Family Budget and major bill-paying, and re-lay the budget to James, via instant message....that way we do not spend much of our phone time talking about the budget. I just leave him a long, detailed message on instant messaging that he can read the next time he logs on. On Thursday we dust and wash our three sliding glass doors (inside and out). The kids do the majority of these chores, as these are there favorites. We use lots of Murphy's Oil soap and Windex! :) Abbie loves to dust. I just fill the mop bucket with warm water and MO soap and she has a little cloth that she dips in and rings out and cleans everything with. She even washes the legs of my computer chair which get dusty. She is a wonderful helper! Zane usually has more patience for window washing but he sometimes switches with Abbie, and dusts. He uses a stool to wash the higher parts of the sliding glass doors, and I help him by doing what he misses. I also do any mending or ironing (that is not church-clothes-related) that needs done on Thursdays. On Fridays, we clean the bathroom and even Sheldon gets in on this and cleans the toilet or something else. I also organize school-papers and do the lesson plan for the next week on Fridays. By the way, I don't do the checkbooks, budgeting and lesson plans during the morning chore time...they are just organizational chores that I have to do SOME TIME on that day of the week. I reserve them for a time that is free and quiet for me, so I can think! :) Our home is completely clutter-free, and is at most times ready for company to drop by, which is SO nice! :) I love it!

On Saturdays we do a couple monthly chores or bimonthly chores....whichever need done. They include Vacuuming the Suburban and using Armorall on the interior, sweeping the basement and wiping down the washer and dryer, washing and changing everyone's sheets, cleaning the inside of the fridge and freezer before the 1st and 15th Grocery Shopping, organizing the Tupperware Cabinet and under the kitchen sink, wash/steam the upstairs carpets, organizing and cleaning the bathroom cabinets, and every Saturday we iron clothes for church, trim everyone's fingernails and pack the diaper bag, and set out the kids clothes for church. If you have ever had to get 3 kids ready for church, by yourself, you understand why I do it on Saturday. I would never make it to 9:45 Sunday School if I didn't do this.

So, that is our chore schedule. For family devotions we read 1/3 of a chapter of Proverbs everyday, sing hymns or praise songs, pray and sometimes recite memory verses. We also talk about the day and things we need to stay focused on....(getting along, being kind, obeying, doing school work diligently, or anything that is becoming a problem). Sheldon MUST sit still during Bible reading. This is his training time for sitting still and listening to the Bible...a book with no pictures. He must also fold his hands and close his eyes during prayer. We started family devotions when Zane was 2 years old, to teach him to sit still and it has helped tremendously for all of our kids, with sitting still through church (our church does not have children's church).

At 9:45 or so, I lay on the couch for 10-15 min and relax while the kids play in the play room. Ashton is usually asleep by 9:00 am, so the kids must play quietly. At 10:00 am, I call Zane down for school. We work diligently on Bible, Math or Phonics, Handwriting and Science or History, for an hour. During this time I do preschool with Abbie, and sometimes Sheldon. If Sheldon wants to continue playing in the playroom, he can. When Abbie is done doing school, she goes up to the playroom again, and continues playing with Sheldon.

At 11:00, the kids have an hour to watch a movie or play outside. I lay down with Sheldon on my bed and we have a quiet time. Occasionally, he falls asleep and I rest for 15 min or so. Ashton is usually still napping at this point. Around 11:45, I start lunch, Ashton usually wakes up, and we are done eating and cleaning the kitchen by 12:15.

From 12:15 til 1:00pm, Zane finishes his schoolwork, while the kids run around, and Abbie watches/plays with Ashton, or I spend time playing with just her, if Zane doesn't need my help. At 1:00 Abbie and Sheldon nap, I have computer time, Ashton plays downstairs with toys, and Zane has a free time. He plays quietly upstairs, and when I am done on the computer (when I do the checkbooks, budget, etc) he likes to play his computer games.

So, from 1:00 to 3:00, Abbie and Sheldon nap....Abbie naps longer than Sheldon and sometimes he is up by 2:00.

Ashton naps again at 3:00, until his mom comes to get him. After 3:30, our day is unscheduled. If I need to run errands I do it after 3:30, so we do not disrupt the school schedule, and I take Ashton to town so Sarah doesn't have to drive to my house. We get home from errands at about 5:00, usually.

If we do not run errands, the kids have a riding lesson on Hope, we work outside, or play on the trampoline. The kids bathe while I make dinner. We have dinner, I clean up the kitchen while the kids clean up the playroom. I also pick-up the downstairs while they are upstairs. I read aloud to the kids, and have them in bed by 8:15. I take a bath, write on my blog, or read, and am usually in bed by 9:00pm.

That is a day in our life! :) God Bless!