I saw this on someone else's blog and thought it looked fun. Try it out. How well do you really know me?


Create your own Friend Test here


***Note***The person on the test that says De U is not me, it is Desti. Can you beat her?

In God We Still Trust

This is a beautiful song.

I was introduced to a new website (thanks Ringmaster!) that has free videos great for homeschoolers. Called Free Homeschool Videos they are putting interesting and fun videos up on there site. So far, all the videos are on You Tube but they are going through and putting the good ones on. They have a mailing list so you can be updated once a week the ones that they posted. Today they are having a contest for anyone who adds a legitimate comment by 8pm. They are also giving away something to anyone who signs up for their newsletter by Monday.

So, most of you who know me, know that I am not really contented in my one horse village. It's not that it is a bad town, it's just that it is so small. But I have been asking the Lord to make me more content here, if this is where he wants me. In my opinion this is a tiny town that doesn't have much to offer.

Giving people directions I feel like a hick.

Go down the county hwy that brings you into town and take a left at the lights. Don't worry, there is only one set of lights in town and you can see my house from there. If you can't find it, stop anywhere in town and yell and I will peak my head out the door and wave ya over, quick like.

Seriously, from one end to the other is a total of 11 blocks. But it can be a nice place to live, and normally I can forget that I live in hickville. Normally.

I went to the park today. It is a nice park. A car pulls up after we had been there for a while. Four adults and a toddler get out of the car. Honestly I wouldn't have paid that close of attention except that the mom was obnoxiously talking to the kid.

"Come here sweety. Honey come on. Sweety...Sweety....Honey.... Blah Blah Blah". And then yelling across the playground for people to come catch the kids at the bottom of the slide.

The dad comes to help with the kid and that's when I notice it. He has his newly acquired marriage license hanging out of his back pocket. Then I start looking at the couple with new curiosity. She is wearing jeans with writing and holes all over them, but she does have on a sleeveless white button down shirt (blouse would be pushing it) and a black hat. He has on jeans and a black t-shirt with some type of sport logo on it. They are both sporting wedding bands. The other adults look just as frumpy. I don't consider myself a snob (even though I probably sound like one right now) but I thought to myself that this could only happen in WI.

"Yeah baby, let's go to the courthouse and get hitched, then we can take the baby to the good park in the next town over. Don't forget to wear your goodfer jeans and t-shirt."

Romance. Gotta love it.

Thursday Thirteen...

Here are thirteen things I never, in my wildest dreams ever thought would come out of my mouth, but I have kids.

1. Stop! You may not take that stick of butter up to your room.

2. No, the point of baseball is NOT hitting someone in the head with one.

3. When is the last time you showered....You thought too long, time to go take one.

4. Seriously people, try to act like humans when we meet these people. I don't want them to see our true selves just yet.

5. I'm sorry, but you are going to have to wait to go back to the dentist. Your next appointment is still a month away.

6. Stop jumping on the couch...Ok, no hopping either.

7. No, you cannot have just Reddi Whip for breakfast.

8. How do you loose one shoe? (we were not at home)

9. Who cut your hair? Yes, someone cut your hair. Go look in the mirror if you don't believe me... I can tell because your bangs are totally gone.

10. I know that Dakota did not pee on the floor because that is your Aunts' dog and they were not over lately. (my sister had to say this one)

11. I don't care if he did ask you to kick him, we don't hurt one another.

12. Why did you tape bugs all over your walls? (if she saw a bug crawling on her wall, she would tape it to it)

13. When I asked you to go outside for a while, I didn't mean go sit on a swing and read.

Since I have really nothing to post about I was going to skip today. Then I took a break and decided to check in on a blog I read very sparingly. Now I'm annoyed and thought I would just scream here instead of on her comments. Basically she posted on how she doesn't believe in punishing children. She's not just talking about spanking, but any punishment. By the way, she has 2 kids.

Now I do not enjoy having to punish/ correct my children. I do it, but I hate doing it. But saying I will not punish my kids because that just makes me a bully? Whatever! I do believe kids need to be shown grace as well as justice. I do not control my kids to make them fit in this little mold that I think they should look like. My concern is for their hearts and their walk with the Lord. He shows me grace, but he also corrects me when I have lost my path. In this I believe that it is appropriate to punish my kids.

I don't know if the terminology is what she is hung up on but if we make our kids think that the world is going to explain every "no" for 15 min, that everyone has the same values and beliefs, that the world is actually fair, then we are doing a disservice to them. I know people that are well into adulthood and still think that others should share their moral and ethical code, that everything should be fair. When it isn't they struggle horribly and work to make it fair.

My parents taught us that life isn't fair. Not that they purposefully were not fair to me and my sisters, but if one of us needed something that did not mean that everyone got one too. Our turn would come when we needed something. "Life ain't fair, get over it" is still a motto that I live by. I cannot expect it, and I hope that I can raise my kids with the understanding that even with life being unfair, you still need to treat others kindly, with grace and love.

I know that any good parent has to have clear consequences for when their child misbehaves. Those consequences is what I call punishment. Am I crazy to think that this is what the Lord means by "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord"?

With our friend up and leaving us for "missionary school" in Texas, apparently it has been affecting our entire families brain. This week I have heard a lot about what kind of house every one wants to live in or where they want to live. It is interesting to me to hear all the differing opinions about how we should live, and we are not even talking about moving. So hear they are...

J-Bell loves our little one horse "village" and would like to stay. Then when she grows up and gets married, she would like to buy a house in town, maybe even next door, and have babies. She likes the library, the tiny little grocery store, and the parks. In her words "this is a great town to raise children in."

Desti would like to build a house that has no electricity ("that is expensive"). You can have an old fashion stove or just cook over the fire that you use to heat the place. You get to use candles for light. She also wants a well (the wishing variety). I think she is thinking Little House on the Prairie. She makes herself clear that she doesn't want a teepee. When I chimed in and said that sounds just great as long as it's a tiki hut in Fiji she thought I was crazy.

Rara would like a blue house with a slide to get down the stairs. She also wants a big garden with a wishing well in the middle of it. She also knows she wants kids.

J-Bird would like for us to sell our house, live in a camper, and be missionaries (starting in Texas) so he can still see Twiggy. He thinks it would be great to live in a RV. I think it had something to do with the show on the Duggar family we were watching. They went on vacation (I think) and they were traveling by RV with all 16 kids, singing and playing games while traveling. I will be honest, it did look fun.

Knight would like to retire in a small cabin. He is leaving the decision on if it is located on a lake or river up to me. He thought we could spend around $20,000 on a "nice one". Yeah, ok. Whatever.

I was helping a friend go through her garage because she is moving :-( we stumbled across a box with her high school mementos in it. There were medals, ribbons, and a big "C" for a letter jacket for the name of her high school. Because her name is Keri, J-Bell asked if the letter was to put her initials on the jacket (home schooled kids are so blissfully unaware of how schools work). J-bird, overhearing the question, rolled his eyes and dramatically proved that it couldn't possibly be for her initials.
"Nooo. Her name is MMMMMrs PPP___!"
Should I look at this as a positive that he knows is letter sounds?

Phil...
Here are the emails I have received from Mom in the last two hours.

Turn of events - Phil is back! He was still fighting things earlier this morning when they turned down his meds to wake him up a bit. They waited for the doctor to get here to get him more fully awake and he is following commands and is staying calm so if all goes well he should be able to get the breathing tube out soon - maybe a couple of hours. Gina and Becca are here but he doesn't seem to want us in the room - he won't look at us so I think he feels bad about the position he's in. I'll let you know when the tube is out and he feels like having people in the room. We're waiting in the waiting room - things looking up! I'll keep in touch. Love, Di

They took the tube out about 11:30 am and he's doing good so far. They were able to remove the straps so all is going great.Just a quick note for thumbs up - I'll keep you posted - Di

This all happened today. Yesterday when they tried to wake him up he got angry and tried to take a swing at mom. We know he wasn't aware of what was going on but it was discouraging for Mom and all of us to have him put under again. Today things are so great. Isn't God good???

I decided to actually have a Thursday Thirteen for the first time. This is partly because there is no news on Phil (they still have not been able to bring him out) and partly because I don't have much else to write about. So here it is....

Here are the thirteen jobs I think would like to be when I grow up. For those who know me, you know that I can get bored pretty easily and therefor I haven't found a job that I wouldn't eventually get bored with. So these jobs would be something neat for a season. If only they didn't have all the training and schooling involved....

1. Airline attendant, stewardess or whatever they call them these days

2. OB nurse

3. Field Scientist

4. Computer programmer

5. Archaeologist

6. Veterinarian

7. Professional Organizer

8. Adoption Coordinator

9. Travel Guide in Ancient Cities

11. Hospice

12. Professional Photographer

13. Architect

Here's an update on Phil that I got yesterday.

Hi everyone - I didn't get back up to the hospital until the afternoon, but there wasn't much change. They had to increase his medication a bit to keep him under cause he's moving around a bit more. The meds that keeps him under ran out as Karen and I were there and he opened his eyes and wiggled his toes for me and squeezed my hand - the more he became awake with the tube still down the throat and restraints on his hands, I could see the questions in his eyes and panic setting in before he went under again. I'm hoping tomorrow they can take the breathing tube out and we will deal with bringing him up to date with what has happened to him and we can get back to putting up with that personality we all love for some reason. Take bets on how long it will take me to say "quiet Philip!" I can't wait! Love, Di

They still have him in sedation so I am going down to be there today. Please pray for wisdom for us as we try to work with the doctors to determine the best care for Phil. Also please pray for the hospital staff that they have wisdom to do what is best for Phil. Thanks all. We all really appreciate your prayers.

I'm a Christ Follower Part 01

I love this video. I think we should all share our faith not wear our faith. I make no excuse for being a Christ follower, even though I may not look, act, and smell "the part" to some.

I am really liking Knights new schedule. It is a little hard to get used to working and schooling on Saturdays but Mondays have been such a blessing. This Monday was no different. I have been getting projects done and things are coming together. Yesterday I finally actually offered something on Freecycle. If you don't know about this, here's how it works...If there is a group in your area, you sign up to be on the email list. Then you can post needs that you have or offers to give things away. No money. I signed up because we have way too much stuff but I wanted to find homes for it. So far I have been able to get rid of a vcr, school desk, and computer monitor. That was just things people were asking for. Yesterday I put my couches on it and they were taken within 4 hours to people who had no furniture. I love this thing!

Next, I took all of our scrap aluminum left over from the soffit being fixed and got $14 dollars for it. I would have just thrown it if the contractor had not told me that I could sell it. Woo Hoo!

So I took the money straight to Menards where I bought bricks on sale. This is where my Tackle it Tuesday comes in. We had an old fire pit. This thing was no longer safe to actually burn fires in.

So I bought 100 bricks (4 for $1). Ripped the handle and legs off of the fire pit. Removed the screen and built me a better looking one from the new bricks. This is what I ended up with. Total cost $26 minus $14 from the aluminum. I love projects!

Update on Phil...
He is looking well. His vitals are good and the fever is gone. They are going to keep him sedated for a couple more days to keep him calm so he doesn't do any damage to his incision. It may be a long road for them but hopefully his health can only improve from here.

Knight took Rara fishing today with a new friend (of Knights). They learned a new way to fish(???) and brought home about 40 crappies. The wonderful thing about Knight fishing is that he has trouble filleting fish and therefore I get stuck doing it. I don't like fishing, the taste of fish, the smell of fish, and filleting them nauseates me, but it is better than having him gut and scale. This is proof that I love my husband.

Hope your Monday is going well. Thanks for all the prayers.

Hey Everyone. Thank you for your kind words and prayers. In my sleepy stupor I hit the wrong button and accidentally rejected the comments I meant to accept. For those who left comments-Thank you so much. I really appreciate them and the prayers for Phil. I am including the emails from my mom to explain what is going on.

Hi everyone. Just a quick note. Phil is in the hospital because of stomach pain (the same stuff he had 2 years ago) He had agreed to stay for testing to rule out any heart problems because of the symptoms he was having. This was Saturday afternoon. He started getting more worked up as the night went on and after a stress test this morning at about 11pm he was short winded and had pain in his back. His motor skills were very poor, slurred speech, and unbalanced when trying to walk. He was insisting to go home and became more agitated as time went on. One Dr wanted to get a CT scan of the brain to rule out any brain tumors etc. This was at 2PM and he continued to worsen. He was moved to ICU at 5:30 and had to be restrained and respirated in order to get more tests done. Now they
think it's his appendix so they are prepping him for surgery now at 1PM. It will be a long night. I'll keep everyone updated but he is in no shape for phone calls or visitors. Good thoughts for Phil! Di

Hi All - The removal of the appendix went good. It had not ruptured but had infection around it. He is still sedated and ventalized for now so he can rest - he's been through so much. I can home for a bit and will try and rest. They will
call me before they wake him up. They won't know until that time if this was causing all his problems or if something else is going on. So far, the head scans have not showed anything serious going on there, but until he's awake we won't know how responsive he will be to anyone. I'm going to try and rest.

Your continued prayers for both of them is very appreciated. I will keep you updated.

I got a phone call today. My mom's husband is in the hospital. They don't know what is wrong. Test results are coming back good and therefore they can't find what is wrong either.

The best and only thing I know to do is to turn to the Great Physician. He knows what is wrong and he also knows the outcome of all of this. Hopefully, next week this will be a distant memory and he will be in perfect health again.

Knight called the kids in to pray with us. We explained a little and said a prayer asking for wisdom for the doctors, peace and healing for Phil.

When it was done J-Bird was crying. It surprised me. I didn't see him cry the times my mom was in the hospital but now he was crying. I love to see my childrens hearts tender. When I asked him if he's sad his reply was, "I just love Grampa Phil so much!" It wasn't until after he prayed with his own words was he better. A reminder that life is precious and we need to let those in our lives know that we love them.

We hired a contractor to do our soffit and fascia so we can actually keep the bats out. This is what we are paying for!



















Just kidding. He did a great job and even got to enjoy his lunch with his beautiful wife. Ahh young love.

Knight and I have been sleeping in the living room again. For those who know us well, they know that this is a common thing whenever I rearrange the house so we don't have a tv in our bedroom. There was a study that proved that couples that don't have a tv in their bedroom have more "cuddle time" than those who have a tv. We don't have one at this time so we sleep in the living room quite often. So much for that stupid survey.

So last night we were actually going to go upstairs to bed. Not for cuddle time (at least that's not why I was going) but for a comfortable place to sleep. Then Desti got sick. Obviously I didn't want her in her bed that she shares with Rara so back to the living room I go. Knight decides he'll sleep in the living room again too. (Shucks, I was hoping for one night of the remote)

He turns on this unexplained mysteries thing on finding Noahs Ark. Desti and I submissively watch it without complaint. It gets over, we get excited. Maybe it will be something good now. He starts searching through the program guide and we start calling out programs that we would like. Knight tells Desti we can't have anything too exciting since it is late and we need to get to sleep. Then a Wallbuilders program starts. Knight loves Wallbuilders. Talks about the Christian history of our country. It's ok at times, but not at 11pm.

He starts watching and I start telling him how much better house hunters would be.

Knight "But this is great. It's our history. You can learn more to teach the kids. You love educational stuff. This is just perfect for you."

Desti- "But this is too exciting for me. We better shut it off."

Even when she is sick she is funny.

As I'm sitting in the hotel room I feel the first contractions come on. These, I can tell, are not going to be the slow progression to a long labor. These are hard, and fast, and I can feel the baby getting right into position.

Ok, take a deep breath. There is no way this is going to happen too fast. None of my deliveries happen that fast. I make my over to where Knight is sleeping. As I do this I need to push. Oh, no! It's only been 45 minutes since the contractions have started and this baby is coming, NOW!

"Knight, wake up! I need you to catch this baby!"

He tells me that he's too tired to get up and I need to take care of it myself.

What!?! Fine then! See if I care!

I prop myself up so I can reach down and grab ahold of the baby as it comes. I bring it up to me, and clean it off. It is such a beautiful little girl. Blond hard. So tiny. I forget how tiny they are at first.

Knight finally wakes up and wants to help. I don't think so! You've lost your chance. You were not there to help deliver, I can do this all on my own. I don't think I have ever been so mad. Can you believe the insensitivity of him!?! Ahhhh!

I wake up ticked off. I can't believe he did that. Wait. He didn't do that. It was a dream. I actually am a little sad that the dream baby isn't real. Ok, I've officially lost it.

This is the way I dream. Every night. Do you see why I am always so tired?

Wordless Wednesday...

Easter Cookies

I found these videos on a blog that I have been reading. I am enjoying the blog called Laughing Through the Tears and finding these videos came at a perfect time since I needed something to laugh about this weekend. It was a good weekend but pms was SO bad. When it gets that bad I really should just go away from this house for a couple days. Poor Knight. And we have three daughters he will have to go through this with too. I think he's secretly building a cabin for he and J-Bird to go and hide out in when the house gets full of hormonal girls.

What Old People Do For Fun

Tom Mabe funny phone call

For anyone who hates getting telemarketing calls, this is a great clip

The Easter Bilby came by and we had a great time with it. The first basket found happened to be the one in the attic, but the kids did end up finding all of them before church. The kids also found all the eggs with the help of some hot and cold. Knight and I stayed in bed listening to the sound of the kids searching through the house for a good portion of the hunt so I didn't get any pictures. At one point J-Bell came to our room with a revelation. "I know why the Easter Bilby came instead of the Easter Bunny. The Easter Bunny is in jail for sneaking into peoples houses." What a clever girl.

After church we were able to visit my whole family at my sisters house. A great time and we even put on another Easter hunt for the kids. The kids were able to spend some time with their cousins and we always enjoy that. We have a lack of boys on this side of the family but the closest boy cousin to J-bird is finally getting fun to play with so he is enjoying him more and more.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter. We have been taking the time to remember the sacrifice made for us. It is so sobering to know that Christ did all that for me, because of me. How could I not praise him?

This article is my submission to the blog challenge sponsored by Darlene Schacht, author of The Mom Complex

Like every mother I have certain things that I feel the need to instill in my kids. Compassion, understanding, love for others. As I try to lead by example I will pray that my efforts are not in vain. After all, we are in a small town in Wisconsin. That doesn't naturally lend itself to diversity.

I did not grow up in a small town, but I did grow up with diversity. In fact, my parents tried to explain prejudicism to me, but I honestly thought that in today's world it didn't exist anymore. I was not aware of any honest prejudicism until I was 15 and moved to Wisconsin. Then someone said something around me about "those people" and used a term. I was SHOCKED! Not only was this person serious, but I was also related to them. A true wake up call.

When new people would come into their lives they would accept them, no matter what they looked like. The interaction has been limited but I have not seen fear, judgement, or shyness. Just an attitude of there is someone new.

Until Micah.

Micah was three or four when he first came to the church and into our lives. Micah is a sweet boy that has cerebral palsy. Here was this kid in a wheelchair that didn't talk. His parents accompanied him to every class. And he cried, a lot. To be honest, my kids were nervous. This was new.

We did our best to explain that even though Micah may not be able to run, play, and talk like everyone else, we know that Jesus loves him and we know that we need to show the love of Jesus to him. I noticed for the most part the kids, all the kids at church, just ignored him. They didn't know how to include him, but they really didn't want to leave him out so they silently accepted him into the group but rarely actively made him a part.

There is a group of us mom's who now help Micah during children's church so that his parents can be in the adult worship. When I first started helping I couldn't help but to hold his hand, rub his arm, and even take him out and sit him on my lap during class. This made my son curious and sat there holding his hand. My heart swelled. He knew then that Micah was just another kid.

Soon, J-Birds Sunday school teacher, Micah's mom told me how cute J-Bird was in class. He would purposefully sit by Micah, trying to hold his hand. To be his friend. A lesson I am glad my son was able to pick up on early in life.

As I was sitting at McDonalds with the kids a couple of weeks ago one of them looked out and said "Mom, that's a cool car!"


I looked out the window, but I didn't see anything. Maybe because they were sitting on the raised dance floor (our McDonalds is a 50's theme) they could see something I couldn't. My view was blocked by the cars sitting in the drive-thru.

"Where?" I asked, completely stumped.


"Right there! The one right next to the building with the stuff in the back seat."


It was the car in the drive-thru. You know, the 1980's silver station wagon with rust all over it. Yeah, apparently to my kids that is a cool car.


It's a good thing they are happy with a station wagon. We have a friend with a car lot. We let him know when we are looking to get something new to us and our price range and he starts looking. Knight talked to him about a month ago and told him that probably within the next year we were going to be looking. He then let us know he was getting out of the business and had only two left. Both above our price range.


Then someone backed into one of the cars and made a dent. Didn't hurt the function of the car just the look. Knight then asked him what he would sell it to us for if he didn't get it fixed. Since insurance was paying to have it fixed he said he would talk to the insurance and see if he could sell it without getting it fixed and they would basically cover the difference.


So we were able to purchase the car. It's a station wagon with a third seat that faces toward the back so it fits our family comfortably, better gas mileage than either vehicle we have now. And we paid less than $800 including registration and taxes! The Lord again has provided in a big way. Some days it can be hard to pay cash for everything but he has been so faithful to provide wants and needs without credit.

Surfing through my favorite blogs I found this post about the Easter Bilby in Australia. So naturally I had to tell the kids that as of this year the Easter bunny has now turned into the Easter bilby. She is better at hiding the baskets and puts different things in the baskets with the exception of the chocolate cross. The Easter bilby would never let the kids forget why we are celebrating this holiday.

They are having fun with this idea. A little too much fun. We were walking around Walmart picking up the chocolate crosses among other things and the sight of the Easter bunny reminded them of the Looney Tunes opera What's Opera, Doc? For those who need their memory refreshed Elmer Fudd is singing "kill the wabbit, kill the waabbit, kill the waaabbit". So they proceeded to start singing and whispering "be vewy, vewy, quiet" as they are tiptoeing to hunt the easter bunny.

This is my kind of humor. I know, it's sick. But SO funny! They did not do this around other kids. They know not to spoil the fun for other kids who play the Easter bunny game thinking that it is real. We play, but only for fun. At least someone shares my humor so I have someone to laugh with.

Wordless Wednesday....

A homeschoolers idea of peace in the morning

We takled a big project yesterday. I got the living room and dining room painted. I have been wanting to do it for a while and since I basically only watch HGTV I have really wanted to paint. Since the new couches should be here soon I thought I should get the painting out of the way before they are here. All the kids helped paint and we were able to get everything done yesterday and spent this morning putting the rooms back together. It is amazing what a little paint and rearanging of the decorations can do to spruce up a room.

I just thought I'd put a quick note to let everyone know we are all still alive. Very busy day. House project. I will share once the "after" picture is ready to be taken. I actually remembered the before shot.

A big happy birthday to Molly! She is hopefully having a great day. If you don't know her she had a great experience renewing her license that she blogged about that I'm sure she would happy if you would read. It even has her picture from the license on it!