Thanks, TC, for the tag...

1. What is your favorite bible verse?  Philippians 1:6  "Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."  That gives me hope that He is not done with me yet.  :o)

2. What season of the year is your favorite?  Why?  Well, it used to be fall, just for the joy of being comfortable outside again after summer's long months of stifling heat... and for the apples, and the drives up to the mountains, and the smell and sounds of crunchy fall leaves, planting pansies after tearing out summer's faded flowers that were way past their prime, pretty fall colors, crysanthemums (how do you spell that?), pumpkins, bonfires, and... well, I guess fall is still my favorite season.  It just happens to also be an extremely busy season now, also.  Extremely. 

3. Do you think homeschooling will continue to grow?  Definitely.  Especially if I have more children.  :o)   The big 4-0 is a'comin' though, so maybe the rest of you will have to help me out on this one. 

4. List 4 people that have most influenced your life.  Roger & Carol Carr, who took me in when I was 17 and a mess and showed me Jesus.  Scott, who loves me all of the time.  I'll let you know when I think of the other one.

5. What is your favorite non-biblical quote? I've got several of these...

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held it's ground.  (ha ha that's me)

Could I climb to the highest place in Athens, I would lift my voice and proclaim, "Fellow citizens, why do you turn and scrape every stone to gather wealth, and take so little care of your children to whom one day you must relinquish it all?"  - Socrates

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It's to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  - Elizabeth Stone

6.  Silk, satin, or cotton?  Cotton.  Unironed, especially.

7. If you like chocolate, what is your favorite?  "If"?!?!?  SOME of my favorites include: Cadbury milk chocolate (melts in the mouth, one wonderful square at a time), Nestle semi-sweet chocolate morsels (not "chips" mind you; they are "morsels") - b/c they are my mainstay, Lindt Excellence Intense Orange dark chocolate w/ almond (currently unavailable, but one can always hope),  and Baskin-Robbins chocolate peanut butter ice cream.

8. If you could sit at dinner with 5 people, who would they be?  Well, it would have to be 6 people, b/c I would pick my Mom (1) and have her come and have dinner with my husband (1) and kids (4), so she could meet them and they could meet her.

9.  Who is your favorite author?  Sorry, that's too hard.  (I'm not playing by the rules, am I?)  I love: Jane Austen, James Herriot, Laura Ingalls Wilder, C. S. Lewis, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Ralph Moody, Betty MacDonald, and so many more! 

10.  Who will you tag?  Anyone who reads this and wants to take part.  :o)

This is what happens too often at my house on garbage day:

 After dragging myself out of bed, I go downstairs, and fumble around in the frig for juice and breakfast fixings.  I'm in the middle of drinking my glass of grapefruit juice, still in my pj's, when suddenly, I hear it.  The garbage truck.  Coming down my street.  My heart jumps; I am in a moment of panic.  Did hubby happen to remember to take the can out last night even though I didn't remind him?  I look out the window in the laundry room.  ACK!  It's not out there!  Company's coming tomorrow, and that can is FULL! 

Good grief; I am NOT running out there in my pajamas.  I sprint at top speed up to my room, pull out any pants & shirt combo I can grab, throw them on, and dash back down the stairs.  If any child happens to be in my way, I squeeze by, yelling, "Garbage truck!!"  They know the drill.  Out the door, through the gate, grab the can, pull desperately toward the street.  One child or another may by now have wandered out into the garage or is hovering near the door.  "Did they come yet?" 

To which I reply, "Grab the recycling!"   The neighbors can laugh if they want; we don't care.  We know the consequences of missing trash day.  (Ever read the Henry Huggins story about how Henry deals with an extra week's worth of trash?) 

Most of the time, we make it in time.  Thank goodness, we live on a dead end street; what goes up must come down, so the truck must pass my house twice.  They usually take pity on us and stop if they see us dashing out there on their way back up. 

The next part of today's story is how I missed my shower searching for a certain color of baseball socks for a certain person to wear to their scrimmage game at baseball camp this morning, and how then we arrived at camp without our baseball GLOVE, an essential piece of equipment when one is going to baseball camp.  And how I rushed home to look for said glove and drove back out to the field with hubby's glove instead... 

I am just hoping that my day gets better after lunch. 

I tried to escape for a few minutes at lunchtime today.  I'd fixed food for all of the kiddos and felt too lazy to fix anything for myself, so I grabbed a bag a mini carrots and went outside to sit down and revel in the quiet.  (Lunchtime is like a big party around here for some reason.  It drives me batty sometimes.) 

"I'll go admire my new tomato garden," I thought to myself.  So I went over to sit down on the side of the swingset and look at the two little plants that I managed to get into the ground yesterday.  Yes, that's my tomato garden.  Two plants.  I LOVE tomatoes, but alas, nobody else in the family appreciates their delicious goodness, and there's only so much I can eat all by myself.  Anyway, it was almost a miracle that I found the time during baseball season to plant them, so I'm a happy gardener. 

I sat for all of about 3 minutes, when suddenly I had a visitor.  With scales.  No legs.  Man, that was the biggest snake I've seen since we've lived here, and I didn't recognize his markings.  We catch tiny brown garden snakes pretty frequently, but this guy was probably almost 2 1/2 feet long and black with yellow markings.  He slithered right by me in the grass, then THROUGH my lovely little tomato garden, and halfway through the fence to the front yard.  I start waving wildly toward the window hoping that the kids will notice me (educational moment, you know?), to no avail.  I tried yelling, but the moving men across the street were looking at me funny, so I carefully got up and went over to rap on the window. 

We had nearly 10 minutes of excitement trying to safely catch him, b/c I thought, if he's dangerous, I'm not letting him go, I'm too chicken to try to chop him with a shovel or something, and even if he's not venomous, I don't want something so BIG and scary in my yard.  He was so strong, it's amazing. 

We did corral him eventually, and after identifying him as an Eastern black kingsnake (harmless, eats other snakes), we decided to release him in the bit of woods behind our house.  He'll probably be back, but I rather hope that I don't meet him again. 

Why, oh why, must baseball pants always be WHITE?!?  This is my laundry lament of late.  I just discovered that I am a few days behind on the white wash, and there are SIX pairs of horribly UN-white baseball pants needing to be washed.  Here is a sample of the variations on UN-white that I am dealing with:

My arsenal includes:  Tide 2X Ultra w/ Bleach, Clorox - NEW! Improved Whitening Power! (Fresh Meadow scent, for fresh as a meadow scented uniforms), SUPER STRENGTH Greased Lightening (not strictly a laundry product, but it works), SHOUT ultra gel (the #1 stain remover*), Spray 'n Wash stain stick (the TREAT NOW WASH LATER wonder of stain removal), and of course OXI CLEAN - the STAIN SPECIALIST.  [ BTW, Oxi Clean just does not work for me.  I keep trying it, but it can't make a dent in these stains I'm facing.] 

Of course we have a game tonight and a practice, then 2 more games tomorrow, so there's no putting it off any longer.  Wish me luck; I'm going in...

Me:  O.K., now you can do these problems.

Girlie:  Can I do the ones with the fish first?  They're so cute!

Me:  Alright; now pick up the pencil and start with this one.

Girlie:  This one?  O.K.  Hhmmm...  you start with the units.  It says 7+5.  Is that 11?

Me:  Nope, try again.

Girlie:  Oh yeah, 5 plus 5 is 10, and 7 has 2 more than that, so it's 12.

Me:  Right! 

Girlie:  You put the 2 here, and you put the 1 up here. 

Girlie again:  Oops!  I was doing this one, but I wrote it on THIS one!  Why did I do that?  He he he!  Now I hafta erase it.  ...  ...  This eraser doesn't erase very well. 

(later) Me:  Hey, we're not doing coloring here; we're supposed to be doing the problems. 

Girlie:  But I was just making them have funny lips, see?  And somebody's trying to catch them, because I made a hook with a worm on it over here. 

Me:  No more drawing on the page.  Let's see if we can get the top row done.  What's the next problem?

Girlie:  Oookkkaaaayyyy.  These take a long time. (begins the next problem)

Girlie again:  Oh, look, I made a funny six!  Wanna see my six, J?  It looks like he's lying down on his side.

Big brother, also at kitchen table:  Let me see...  Yep!

Big brother again:  Hey, cool!  I have this one math problem, and the answer is 12,345.  Get it?  One-two-three-four-five!

Me:  O.K., are you almost done with yours?

Big brother:  Sorta.

Me:  Girlie, pick up your pencil now and start the next problem, please.

Girlie:  I'm kind of hungry.  Can I have a snack?

At this point I decide that it's time to go and fold the laundry, which gives me a little sanity break.  It makes me feel like I've actually accomplished something visible, plus it gives me a chance to sneak a few chocolate chips on the sly.  Recharged when this is done, I am able to reenter the kitchen with a smile on my face and try again to get through the math. 

Tomorrow should be even more interesting, b/c we get to do our math while in the orthodontist's waiting room.  At least we got through that fish page today. 

Nothing can keep the dedicated sportsman from his game:

Especially when in competition with his brother:

The fans went wild (for the sand pie refreshments):

The Atlanta newspaper reports that our county is one of the top 10 counties in the nation for overall population growth.  This is not new, but now this county (pop. 757,104) has more people than all of Alaska (670,053), Vermont (623,908), North Dakota (635,867), Wyoming (515,004), or the District of Columbia (581,530).  In the last six years, we've ADDED more than 168,000 residents, which is 40,000 more than the population of Savannnah.  We had well over 13,000 births last year, and less than 3000 deaths. 

What's more, our local high school teaches 3,551 students.  That's bigger than the enrollment at 12 of GA's public four-year colleges.  No wonder it's a little difficult to drive past the school when classes are letting out in the afternoon.  I should remember that when driving down to the park to pick someone up from (homeschool) baseball practice.  There's an elementary school near here with an enrollment of 2008 students.  More amazing numbers:  the county school system employs more than 27,000 people, making it the largest employer in metro Atlanta.  The school system's annual budget is $1.4 billion.  That's bigger than the budget of at least 102 foreign countries!

Someday, I am moving a place where I can have some space around me.  Some woods and maybe a pond.  When I go out to get my newspaper or mail, I will not be seen by dozens of people who have a clear view of my driveway from their windows and driveways.  I will plant tomatoes in my back yard, where nobody will be able to see me from their decks.  My mailbox will not be the same as everyone else's in the neighborhood, and I will paint my shutters whatever color I want.  My grandchildren will come to visit me, and we will not have to worry about a kickball or a frisbee going into the neighbor's yard.  There will be butterflies, birds, and bunnies... tadpoles, turtles, and toads to watch.  I will have a screened-in porch where I can sit under my overhead fan with my book and escape from the mosquitos. 

Of course, that will be when dh is no longer tied to his commute into the city.  In the meantime, we will put up with the traffic and make the best of it!

Oh, man.  My youngest lost her first upper front tooth this week.  I knew that the day was coming, but I am not happy.  Yes, a gap-tooth little kid is always cute, but knowing that she will never again have that little girl smile is making me sad.  We'll have these gap-tooth days and then the big, huge new teeth slowly growing in days and probably the braces days after that.  How can she be getting so big?  She is so proud to have finally gotten that tooth out; she worked and worked on it.  She tries to stick her tongue through the gap, drinks through a straw through the gap, and can't wait to get her hands on a lollipop so that she can suck on it with her mouth closed. 

The boys losing their baby teeth didn't make me sad; I guess b/c there was always still another little one around.  (BIG boys possibly losing BIG teeth is another story for another blog entry.)  But my baby should not be growing up so fast!  At least she can still fit on my lap.  When she grows out of that, I will have to get myself a puppy.   

Whew!  March has definitely come in like a lion around here.  We've had our kids at 3 hospitals and 6 doctors' offices so far this month for various reasons... and we're a pretty healthy family!  Really! 

We got good news today for these two kiddos:

EG went in to retest after having endoscopic surgery in December to correct her kidney reflux, and we found that the procedure had been successful.    She can finally quit taking antibiotics, and will hopefully never have to undergo those NOT FUN tests again.  Woohoo!!

And:

C had his arm set, and the orthopedist said that he can get the cast off in TWO WEEKS.  He'll be back on the baseball field again (oh dear... ) in 2-4 weeks.  This still does not make sense to me, and the break was pretty clearly visible on the x-ray, but I trust this doctor, and we'll see what he thinks after the cast comes off.  (This is the 7th injury in our family that we've seen this orthopedist for.  Of course, 4 of those injuries were C's.)  Anyway, we're thrilled for him, that he won't have to miss the whole season.  He's been forward to this season for a long time, and it was shaping up to be a stand-out season for him - until the jaw injury 2 weeks ago (see his blog for details).

My wonderful friend Lisa took the other two boys for the day, and they had a great time playing with her boys.  I was almost home from our church's women's retreat Saturday when I got the news that C had broken his arm, and I am SO VERY THANKFUL that I was with my friends at the time.  I'm also thankful that I'd just spent the previous 24 hours or so listening to some great teaching on moving "From Fear to Faith", which was the theme of our retreat.  The Lord really prepared me to face the fears that began to flood me, and he provided great friends to be there for me when I needed them. 

So, I pray now that March would go out like a lamb, because I'm kinda worn out. 

How did I end up with a family that has 12 baseball practices in one week?  This isn't quite how I imagined things when they were little. 

First, I grew up in a family of girls.  My sisters each had a boy already when we were expecting our first, and that was back in the dark ages when most of us didn't know whether to paint the nursery pink or blue.  I didn't have a conscious idea of whether a boy or a girl was on the way, but subconsciously, I guess I never imagined that an actual, real live boy might actually be coming along.  In the first moments after he was born, nobody mentioned "girl" or "boy", so I had to ask.  A boy?!?  REALLY?  WOW!  What will I do with a BOY?  :o)  Well, I quickly realized that he was just the baby I'd always wanted, and I loved him to pieces.  Then came boy #2... and boy #3.  Boy oh boy, I knew all about boys now; they are wonderfully fun little critters.  As a matter of fact, everyone in our generation of our family has all boys now except us.  On both sides - even our cousins. 

So, what do little boys like to do?  Play ball.  Yes, we started with the big bouncy kind you get at the grocery store, but eventually we graduated to organized sports.  At first it was more of a social event for us parents I guess, b/c 5 year olds can have a pretty good time in their own backyard without even buying a uniform.  But we did it.  They loved it.  Pretty soon we were committed fall and spring (that would during be all of the prettiest months of the year here) to soccer teams and baseball teams.  I gave up on cooking most nights when we had practice, and allowed the kids to have horrible things like Happy Meals and concession stand hotdogs.  The kids love that, too.  Have you ever seen a vegetable in a Happy Meal? 

So here we are, scheduling the rest of life around baseball practices again.  If we let one play, we have to let them all play.  They have Big League hopes and dreams, and in the meantime, they have something to be passionate about.  I'm bracing myself for the season ahead and investing in hot chocolate and a comfy folding chair.  GO BARONS!!!

For my first official blog entry, I thought I'd try to post some pictures of my kids.  Try being the operative word...

This first one should be my oldest 2 boys:

Here's me with the younger 2:

Our buddy, Casey:

And one more favorite pic of our girlie: