My Week

Faith: I really enjoyed this scripture this week:

Psalms 31:19-24

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues. Praise be to the Lord for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city. In my alarm I said, "I am cut off from your sight!" Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. Love the Lord, all his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

Our Farm: We let our newest calf out earlier this week. You can read about it below. He is a real friendly one. Now he and Blackberry (the female calf born the week before) are out in the field running around together. The chickens have really been attacking the flower beds in our yard lately. I'm hoping this will actually be helpful to me. As Spring approaches, maybe the ground will be a bit softer because they continually work at it. I need to start planning some kind of greenhouse soon, if that's going to be going by March. For right now we just want to make some kind of passive greenhouse with lumber and greenhouse film to extend our garden's season. We plan on putting it off the back of our garage (which is detached from our home).

Our Home & Our Health: We were home most of the week. We have been doing pretty well eating healthy. Rachel is back on Gluten Free. I need to fine tune that however, and I am considering taking her off milk as well. She is getting an MRI on Monday to check for a possible cause of some problems she has had. I didn't do much more than upkeep on the house this week, except for attacking the dust. Jon also cleaned the furnace filters this week. Natalie & I have had our asthma acting up lately and we are hoping this will make it settle down.

In The School Room: Natalie has been continuing Saxon Math 2 and getting much quicker at it. We have been continuing to read "Carry On Mr. Bowditch". Natalie has also been reading out of the Bible and read the story of Isaac and Ishmael to me - writing down the verse about naming the place where God provided another sacrifice for Isaac. She has such a hunger for Bible reading. Natalie has also been working on a story about our two calves that were born recently. We have been learning about Arthropods this week and the girls made a model of a crayfish this week.

Natalie also practices violin daily and has really been enjoying violin a lot more since she reads her lesson notes herself and follows them. We didn't make it to dance this week as it snowed on dance day.

Rachel has been continuing to do a lot of math worksheets on her own. She has a real knack for math. As soon as she is able to read and to write clearly - she will really take off independently in math I think. She has been "writing" her own stories by having her sister write down the words she wants to use - then she re-writes them onto her paper. We have not been pushing the reading, but rather I continue to read to her and sometimes I will point out a word to her here and there. She said to me the other day that she tries to "read" the books I read but that all she can recognize are "a", "and", and "the". This is much better interest than she had before.

Our Business: Jon has been working long hours at work. He has some accounting due for a state audit next week. Jon has a degree in accounting and he said he had hoped he had put this kind of pressure behind him in college.

I stopped by for a few hours this week and did a couple tasks, but for the most part I haven't put much time in this week. Jon and I are going to go into work together tomorrow, however.

"Me" Stuff: I've been continuing to learn and try to absorb more things about photography. I have some Christmas and Birthday gifts coming on the way late next week and so I am excited for new photography possibilities. I can't wait to try some sort of tripod shot - be it just a crystal clear nature shot, some night photography, or some panning motion photography.

I had the opportunity to go to a sewing class this week - it's one in a series of an heirloom sewing class. This last week we learned about Mexican Wedding Pleats and Shadow Applique. I don't even know how to put a quilt together and I'm pretty much a newbie at garment construction, but I'm really enjoying these classes, and am really looking forward to using some artistic flair in the creation of my own unique garments at some point in the future.

My Week

Faith: I really enjoyed this scripture this week:

Psalms 31:19-24

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you. In the shelter of your presence you hide them from the intrigues of men; in your dwelling you keep them safe from accusing tongues. Praise be to the Lord for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city. In my alarm I said, "I am cut off from your sight!" Yet you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help. Love the Lord, all his saints! The Lord preserves the faithful, but the proud he pays back in full. Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.

Our Farm: We let our newest calf out earlier this week. You can read about it below. He is a real friendly one. Now he and Blackberry (the female calf born the week before) are out in the field running around together. The chickens have really been attacking the flower beds in our yard lately. I'm hoping this will actually be helpful to me. As Spring approaches, maybe the ground will be a bit softer because they continually work at it. I need to start planning some kind of greenhouse soon, if that's going to be going by March. For right now we just want to make some kind of passive greenhouse with lumber and greenhouse film to extend our garden's season. We plan on putting it off the back of our garage (which is detached from our home).

Our Home & Our Health: We were home most of the week. We have been doing pretty well eating healthy. Rachel is back on Gluten Free. I need to fine tune that however, and I am considering taking her off milk as well. She is getting an MRI on Monday to check for a possible cause of some problems she has had. I didn't do much more than upkeep on the house this week, except for attacking the dust. Jon also cleaned the furnace filters this week. Natalie & I have had our asthma acting up lately and we are hoping this will make it settle down.

In The School Room: Natalie has been continuing Saxon Math 2 and getting much quicker at it. We have been continuing to read "Carry On Mr. Bowditch". Natalie has also been reading out of the Bible and read the story of Isaac and Ishmael to me - writing down the verse about naming the place where God provided another sacrifice for Isaac. She has such a hunger for Bible reading. Natalie has also been working on a story about our two calves that were born recently. We have been learning about Arthropods this week and the girls made a model of a crayfish this week.

Natalie also practices violin daily and has really been enjoying violin a lot more since she reads her lesson notes herself and follows them. We didn't make it to dance this week as it snowed on dance day.

Rachel has been continuing to do a lot of math worksheets on her own. She has a real knack for math. As soon as she is able to read and to write clearly - she will really take off independently in math I think. She has been "writing" her own stories by having her sister write down the words she wants to use - then she re-writes them onto her paper. We have not been pushing the reading, but rather I continue to read to her and sometimes I will point out a word to her here and there. She said to me the other day that she tries to "read" the books I read but that all she can recognize are "a", "and", and "the". This is much better interest than she had before.

Our Business: Jon has been working long hours at work. He has some accounting due for a state audit next week. Jon has a degree in accounting and he said he had hoped he had put this kind of pressure behind him in college.

I stopped by for a few hours this week and did a couple tasks, but for the most part I haven't put much time in this week. Jon and I are going to go into work together tomorrow, however.

"Me" Stuff: I've been continuing to learn and try to absorb more things about photography. I have some Christmas and Birthday gifts coming on the way late next week and so I am excited for new photography possibilities. I can't wait to try some sort of tripod shot - be it just a crystal clear nature shot, some night photography, or some panning motion photography.

I had the opportunity to go to a sewing class this week - it's one in a series of an heirloom sewing class. This last week we learned about Mexican Wedding Pleats and Shadow Applique. I don't even know how to put a quilt together and I'm pretty much a newbie at garment construction, but I'm really enjoying these classes, and am really looking forward to using some artistic flair in the creation of my own unique garments at some point in the future.

Milestones For Abigail

Two more milestones for Abigail. Well, these aren't official ones, but they are important to me and I want to remember them.

Yesterday, Abigail (15 months) learned to move her stool where she wanted to climb up on it.

Today, she learned to climb up on the couch without anyone sitting there.

Our 2nd Calf & The Momma Cows

Here is our Bull Calf. He was born Saturday at about 10:00. We aren't sure on that though, as my DH was not home at the time. The other calf was born a week earlier and she weighed 74 lbs. We are naming her Blackberry. We still haven't named the two black Momma Cows and the one Red Angus Momma Cow, if anybody has any name suggestions for them. Our calf last year was named Annabelle. She is getting really big now, but she is still tame as can be. We won't name this Bull Calf, well because he is a boy and he may become meat not too long in the future from now.

Here are some pictures from today:

A New Tooth & Some New Bread

My second-born daughter lost her first tooth. Isn't she cute?

And, I made some yummy whole-wheat sourdough bread. I blogged about it here.

Daddy's Girl

This is what happens to you when you are a Daddy of all girls:

More Toddler Adoration

Well, I'm still mesmerized by my toddler. Especially when she's fallen asleep in my arms. Enjoy the pics. I did!

 

This was my favorite picture of the batch.

 

 

 

 

 

I just love this picture.

Memories

One of the reasons I started writing a blog in the first place was to have a place to easily set down memories and milestones for our family. So, I share two memories from today.

The first memory is of my baby Abigail. She is really almost 15 months, but she is still so much a baby. I pulled her up to sit with me and to read to her on the couch today. She picked up one of her sister's books - the ones we try and keep her away from because they aren't board books and she wears them out very quickly. She starts turning the page on the books and each time she turns the page she says, "la la la." Isn't that just cute? She knows you turn to a page and you talk, then you turn to another page, then you talk again.

The second memory is going on a walk with Natalie down to the barn to see the calf, and then down to the far end of our property, while the other girls were napping. Natalie was pretending to be an eagle - which is a popular theme of her play right now. She would hop up on rocks and flap her wings and try and make an eagle sound. She showed me her eagle nest she had made. She brought her new "eagle egg" over to her nest with her talons. Then, as we approached the barn she almost forgot about the calf, she was so wrapped up in being an eagle. The calf was cute as always. I went into the pen and pet her, which she seemed to enjoy. Her mom didn't, however, she was bawling at me. I hope we can keep this calf tame like the one we had last year. Then we went on down to the "pond". It was soooo blustery and I'm guessing about 40-45 degrees - so it felt really cold even with my warm winter coat on. I was wishing I had brought my gloves.

Toddler Feet Are Cute Too

Toddler Feet Are Cute Too!

Momma Cow & Calf

Little Calf was just born at 1:41 this morning. And she is a girl, which means I can get attached. Yay!

 
This was the Momma Cow a few days ago looking longingly out of her pen.

These pictures aren't my greatest. It was very dark.

Here was the Momma Cow during active labor tonight (before the calf was born).

Baby Calf.

I woke the two older girls (Mariah - 10 and Natalie - 7) to go see the birth. They both appreciated it a lot and were very thankful.

Our Baby Calf

Here are two more pictures of our first baby calf of the year.

Another Sunny Day! Sort Of

It was another sunny day. Well, sort of. It was bright and sunny here at our house. But when my daughters and I drove just a short distance away to go to our nature walk, it was mostly foggy. I liked the effect, however. Do you? Which is your favorite photo of the day?

This is the same river of two days ago - different falls. No salmon this time, but an equally compelling place to visit.

I love the fog effect of this photo.

My girls on a walkway.

Do you think there is a bird in that hole?

"Can we go to the calm water so we can skip rocks?"

The Falls. It was really roaring. I had the toddler in the front pack, so I couldn't really climb to a good angle to show the impressiveness of the falls.
 

Natalie says she just wants it to be a Spring day that is sunny and that she wants to spend the entire day going on a nature hike. What a girl!

Should I go to bed?

Update: Oh, yes, I definitely should have gone to bed. Still, nothing is happening. Early labor for a cow is less than three hours. Early labor for a heiffer is usually three to seventy-two. And, nothing much is happening with her - except for the initial signs of early labor and a little bit of irritation. My DH is at work. I am checking her every few hours. Last year (our first year trying this), Jon talked about installing a webcam. But, he didn't, so we get to go check on the heiffers/cows.

Last year we had one successful birth. We had one still birth that happened pretty much before we got home from being out a recital. Then, we had a third birth that was a difficult birth, but the calf seemed fine. However, we didn't know how important it was to make sure they get a lot of colostrum (for immunity and nutrition) the first half hour. The mom didn't mother him well at first, and we lost him a couple of weeks later.

So, we did at least two things wrong last year. We didn't make sure the mom mothered the calf, nor did we have a way of giving colostrum on hand. Then, also, we didn't realize how serious to get a "Heiffer Bull" for first time moms and all our calves we 90-100 pounds - which is HUGE. Pinzgauers are known for having large calves (and good growth) anyhow.

This Heiffer (a Heiffer is a first time momma cow) that is going into labor now is a Black Angus and they are known for low birth weight calves and for easy deliveries. So, this Heiffer should do well. We then have one other Black Angus Heiffer that has been bred to another Black Angus. After that we have a Pinzgauer cow (2nd time momma) bred to a low-birth weight Pinzgauer Bull and a Red Angus cow (2nd time momma) bred to a low-birth weight Pinzgauer Bull. Then, we have a Pinzgauer cow (2nd time momma) bred to a Black Angus (that one isn't coming until summer). And, possibly we have a Free Martin (which a girl twin to a boy steer - they only have a 5% chance of going into heat) that looks like she may have cycled and may be pregnant for a summer birth.

So that should be...

• 2 Black Angus Calves
• 1 Pinzgauer Calf
• 1 Red Angus/Pinzgauer mix
• 1-2 Black Angus/Pinzgauer mix

We like to mix it up around here.

 

 

Original Message:

Should I go to bed? I am up because my husband is down with a cow (well, really a Heiffer) that looks like she will be giving birth sometime in the next day (which could mean a half hour). I am a night owl, but really at 1:45 in the morning, even I am getting sleepy. I think I should go check on the progress, then go lay down. I have a hard time going to sleep without him. :(

 

It was a sunny day!

It was a sunny day today. And, it is supposed to be followed by several more. That's a big deal during the winter around here. I am sharing with you some of our photos from the day. The first is a picture of Rachel in the sun shining in through the windows. The latter ones are from our trip to Lucia Falls. We last took our camera to Lucia Falls in October and my how different it is right now after all the large amounts of snow, then rain that we got here in the Northwest.

Rachel's Puppet - she has red glitter glue for the mouth, Rachel wanted me to make sure I told everyone that.

Here is a picture of Lucia Falls from October. This is a lot more water than in the summer. Below I show you Lucia Falls today. It was beautiful. I wish I had a tripod and a little more light than I had. The salmon were out.

It's all one falls now. If you look closely you can see a salmon trying to jump up the falls. I love the color of the water. Don't you?

Here is a closer up shot of the salmon. Aren't they persistent?

Lucia Falls from above the falls.

Rachel & Natalie walking by the river.

This is Natalie telling me that if she were to climb rocks, she wouldn't choose a winter day to do it on. She says this because she is feeling cold because she chose to stomp in ice cold water with her tennis shoes.

I hope you enjoyed our little trip!

Peekaboo

So, I was just having too much fun with taking pictures of my baby girl. Here is a cute animated GIF.

Stefanie asked me how I did this. I have Photoshop CS3 because I make product images for our business. At one point, however, I used to use Paint Shop Pro - which at $90 is a lot more affordable and does a lot of things that Photoshop does. You could make an animated GIF with that program too.

If your familiar with Photoshop, here is how to do it in Photoshop:

WARNING: FOR THE PHOTOSHOP SAVVY

Open up an image. You make your background image into a layer by right clicking on it in the layer's pallet, and choosing Layer From Background. Then add another layer. You can do this by selecting Layer > New > Layer, or by clicking the add a new layer button on the lower portion of your layer's pallet. Open the second image that you want to add to your animated GIF. Select all (CTRL-A) and copy (CTRL-C). Then, click on your second layer in your layers pallet of your original file. Paste (CTRL-V) your copied image into the second layer of your original file.

Now, go to your Window menu and click on Animation. An animation strip will open (if you have CS3, earlier versions have more steps). There is one animation open in the animation strip. For a two frame animation, click on the new layer button of the animation strip to add another frame. Now click on the first animation frame. Go to your layers pallet and unclick all layers except the layer that you want to show up in the first frame.  That will be the image in the first frame. Click on the second frame. Go to your layers pallet and choose the second frame image by unclicking all but the image you want in your second frame. If you look at your animation strip - you will see options for how long the frame should last and also whether it should run once or forever.  Save the file as a gif.

A Good Tutorial

Anyhow, I know that probably sounds really confusing if you don't use Photoshop much, but it's really pretty easy. There are lots of tutorials on the internet that teach you how to do this both for Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. Here is a good animated gif tutorial for Photoshop:

Digital Scrapbook Place's PS Animated Gif

Life

My life has seemed pretty straightforward lately. With all this darkness and rain we've been having around here, I've felt a struggle to spark my own creativity and excitement about each day. Yet, we've been having good days. The girls and I got into school this week.

Rachel showed progress in her reading. I kept my work with her really short. A reader of my blog suggested that she might be a right brained reader. I read some about that and a brief synopsis is that right brain learners like to go from the big picture to the small details - or from whole to parts. Repitition turns them off. They are also often late bloomers - not really reading till 7 or 8. So I read some phonics readers with her throughout the week. This time what I did was I read them - then pointed out some phonics here and there.

Natalie faithfully did her work as always. She takes forever on her Saxon math. I like Saxon math because I think it is good and solid. I know about Math U See, I just prefer Saxon. I'm just always surprised how long she takes - because she knows the answers and she is always curious about the new steps. Part of the time she takes I think is drawing the pictures. She is totally the artist and when they ask her to draw a picture, it is a full out drawing that she makes. Then, we do copywork, we read books, she plays her violin. If we are lucky we do some science experiment she reads about or we crack open our science text. It seems a challenge to move forward what with her constant desire to play or talk to her baby sister or stare out the window, and with the activity going on in our house with a one and a five year old. Yet, Natalie is smart and is so obviously learning, that I feel I shouldn't sweat not "getting that much done".

This week we also took a trip to the E.R. Now, before you think this was a big deal...I must ask you, have you ever taken your child into the E.R. and after you've gotten there and gotten settled in - thought I shouldn't have brought her here. Yet, how did I know. She had really intense abdominal pain and she was screaming and shaking. She didn't point to her right side, but I have heard that sometimes kids are really poor self-reporters about where the pain comes from. And her sister did have a ruptured appendix two years ago - all the while I was asking myself, "should I take her to the E.R.?" In the end, Rachel just had some bowel issues and possibly a mild UTI. I have to go to the doctor this week. I'm also getting some tests run on Rachel this week. She's been back on wheat for a month. Even if the tests come back negative, I'm taking her back off of wheat. She is totally worse on wheat. This time I've tracked her symptoms on an Excel spreadsheet - and it makes it really clear to me that regardless of what the tests say, she has issues with wheat.

 

Ongoing Argument

My seven year old and my five year old have an ongoing argument going on. My seven year old says, "God was the cutest baby because he creates babies." My five year old adamently says, "no, Abigail is the cutest baby." Abigail is our one year old.

Fussy Toddler

I had a fussy toddler tonight. So, what did I do? I thought I'd get down on the floor and try and entertain her and take her picture. I got a couple of good shots when she wasn't trying to climb all over me. But, here are two shots from tonight:

Abigail with her Little People

Midnight The Cat (our Christmas kitten that showed up on our doorstep last year)

It'll be ok

I just have to remind myself, it is all OK. It really is.

Natalie

My Natalie is sick again. She has CVS (which stands for Cyclical Vomiting Syndrome). Basically, periodically (every month to three months) she just gets extremely nauseaus and usually throws up. It can last from a few hours to quite a long time. Last time, it lasted a long time (over six days) and involved a trip to the E.R. But, I think she also had a virus that started it last time. Also, since last time we have gotten some medicine to give to her when she has an episode. So, Nat threw up twice today, but I'm optimistic that she'll be feeling better soon.

It's just hard, because understandably she is very irritable and well, you just don't know when she'll be better. CVS is related to migraines and as they get older the kids with this can often sleep off an episode or the episodes turn into migraine headaches instead. Yet, I do know too that I need to trust Jesus in this. He is our healer and our peace and our comforter and our guide.

Update: Natalie was completely well the next day. Yeah!

Rachel

Rachel has been back on wheat for about three weeks. I've been keeping a daily log on her for about five weeks, and boy is there a dramatic downturn since going on wheat (three weeks ago). She is having multiple potty accidents a day. It really feels discouraging. In another week, I am going to get her tested for Celiac. But, even if she isn't clearly Celiac, I think I am going to take her off wheat (gluten). Her symptoms are definitely clearly out of the norm. This isn't just one of those cases of I want my child to be a little healthier, or I'm that I'm attributing some general behavior issues to some a popular dietary trend.

However, that said, I have been reading even more about intolerances and their relationship with learning issues. We are also having some learning issues with Rachel. This is frustrating too. If any of you have any input for me, I'd love it. I wonder what to do if we go through Kindergarten and she still hasn't learned to read?

Even if I wanted to, I feel like I can't send her to school because of the potty issues. They say, the earlier you catch learning disabilities etc., the better. But, with these issues, we have no record of how she performs in school or away from me, so what do I do? What do homeschoolers do out there when they suspect one of their children might have a learning disorder? My older daughter learned basic reading at three, without any pressure from me. I don't expect them to be the same. I know God gives us all different strengths, but Rachel seems resistant to even learning the sounds of her vowels. And, I struggle with this. I also know that some say that some kids are better able to learn at age 7 or 8. Yet, if there is some kind of help I need to get for her I don't want to wait that long. On the bright side, she can add in her head as far as she can count, which is about fourteen, pretty easily.

I thought Rachel would turn five and things would start clicking. I've read that for some kids if you get them off gluten and milk (that's a really hard one - I think that would be harder than gluten) and food additives - that their learning issues just clear up. Basically, what some are theorizing is that certain people have this leaky gut syndrome and that there are some drug like substances that make their way through to their brain that originate with gluten proteins and milk proteins.

Then, of course, a lot of the food additives out there are just plain chemicals that have nothing to do with the real food God gave us to eat. Particularly, I guess, some of the food coloring first was intended to be used as a pesticide (I'm going off heresay here - I haven't researched this myself), but it wasn't a strong enough pesticide, and now they use it as food coloring here in the U.S. - including in things like ordinary toothpaste where they don't even have to list it as an ingredient.

So, all of that may be a future area I pursue. After I got going, going gluten free for Rachel wasn't hard. But, it seems like it might be a little more difficult to further purify our diets. Your prayer for God's direction is definitely wanted.

Abigail

On a bright note, Abigail has never given us any cause for concern whatsoever with any health issues.

Company

<p>We had company last night. These are our friends with SIX boys (as of recently). Their baby is 7 weeks old. Here are two pics of their Little Man, and one of the whole gang (minus the baby).