Our Quiverfull - Froggy with a chance of tomatoes

Mar. 26, 2008

Froggy with a chance of tomatoes

We have been up to all sorts of things since I last blogged - nothing earth-shattering, just lots of things. I haven't posted sooner because we have been so busy and because I had a really hard time kicking my sinus infection. I do feel better now, praise God. I'll share as much news as I can before I have to fix dinner. :-)

Froggy tomatoes: We have had some bad weather here. The other morning Sarah loudly announced (with her nose smashed against the window) that it was "Sooo froggy out." Yep, it was. We could hardly see across the street. Later that day we had severe weather including hail and what Sarah described as a "tomato (tornado). It was just a little tomato so the only damage we had was a bit of heavy limb fall. A couple of days ago I was looking for something on Amazon and saw a "Pet Tornado" for just $4. It's a small glass jar with water (?) and some cloudy liquid. There is a Kansas-looking background, and when you shake the jar, the cloudy stuff comes down from the top and makes a tornado. It was SO totally worth $4 to give Sarah her very own pet tomato. We are all in stitches as she shows it to everyone who comes to our house and as she talks to it LOL.

Casting Crowns: I had the joy of taking the four oldest children (and Mary Faith) to a Casting Crowns concert in Greenville. We couldn't get a sitter who was "Noah qualified" so Jeff offered to stay home with the three little ones. We had a great time worshiping and enjoying the music, and the Jeff had a great time playing with the little guys. I heard he even took them out for ice cream. :-)

Noah News: Noah FINALLY got over that upper respiratory thing, and developed an extremely upset tummy. I'll try to be delicate here, but a *sample* was required from his diaper. The problem was that most of the, errr, sample material was so forcefully produced that it was running down his legs instead of sitting nicely in his diapers. The nurse told me just to line his diaper with Saran Wrap. My first thought was that might sound nice on paper. My second thought was that I really need a raise. My oh-so-precious husband informed me that I could have a raise - a 200% raise. Again, that sounds nice on paper, but 200% of nothing is . . . .

I lined diaper after diaper with plastic wrap and the little stinker (literally) wouldn't produce. He woke up every morning with a big sample, but they were no good because we have to know what time the sample was produced. Yeah, I forgot to mention the fact that I had to keep an eye (nose) on him at all times so I would know when he produced. He would wake up from naps the same way. We finally got our sample today. Ugh. I really, really need a raise. I'd take a trip to Starbucks LOL. It smells good there. :-) I am SO thankful for a washing machine and dryer instead of a rock and a river.

His IVIG went really well - no problems at all.

When I took those photos of him walking at the park, I noticed that he seemed to be rolling his feet in when he walked. You can see it if you look at the pictures. His physical therapist came over yesterday and she saw the same thing. There is a medical name for it which I can't remember, but it means that his leg/ankle muscles are really working right. We'll need to get him fitted for orthotics and new shoes to help correct the situation.

Mary Faith news: She is almost 2 months old now and is getting cuter and cuter all of the time. She smiles almost as soon as she makes eye contact with someone, and is really ramping up the cooing. I could just eat her up. She is a happy, contented, beautiful girl who fills our days with more joy than I can say. Our lives are so full and so blessed, yet every time God gives us another little one, we find ourselves wondering what on earth we ever did without him or her!

Resurrection Sunday: We had a lovely Easter. We had an egg hunt and lunch cookout with Jeff's parents, then an egg hunt and dinner with my parents on Saturday. We had an egg hunt and lots of family fun at our house after church on Sunday. We decided to let Noah come to church with us Sunday as we didn't want to be apart on Easter. It was the first time he'd gone since he started walking and it blessed me so much to see the joy (even tears) of our church family as they were blessed at the site of Noah zooming all over the place.

We all tried our level best to teach Noah to pick up eggs, but he just wanted to stagger around behind everyone else. They all shared with him since he wouldn't gather any of his own. We learned that he does NOT like jelly beans but DOES like chocolate bunnies LOL. It has been nice and warm lately and we were saddened to see that Noah really overheated on Saturday even though it was just in the low 70's. He was dramatically heat-intolerant last spring/summer and really couldn't be outside at all when it was at all hot. I had hoped that his autonomic nervous system had matured even though I know that mito-related issues almost never improve. I would love for him to be able to leave the house this spring/summer especially since he is older and there are so many fun things to do as a family. We did some research and found a company that will custom make cooling vests for toddlers and children. Their standard vests are for adults (for military, under body armor, for athletes, etc.) but their tailor will make one especially for Noah. They even offer special pricing for children with mitochondrial diseases. I'm going to email off his measurements today and we should have the vest in a couple of weeks. I hope it provides enough cooling that he won't be housebound for the next 5 or 6 months.

Hannah's big plans: Hannah is going on a misson trip to Minnesota this July. Our former associate pastor recently moved to Minnesota as a missionary to a Native American tribe. He is right on the Canadian border and the tribal land straddles the border. Those going on the trip will be ministering to Native Americans on both sides of the border as well as building a gargage/redoing the basement for our former associate pastor. Neither Jeff nor I are going and this will be the first big trip she has ever taken without us. She will be 15 (!) by the time of the trip and we both feel that she is ready for it. She is responsible for raising all of the money herself and has been working very, very hard at any job she can find. Please pray for her!

I was very blessed the other day when she came home and told me that one of the other teens only had to raise about 1/3 of the money and his parents were providing the rest. She told me that it wasn't really fair, and I started to worry about her attitude - until she told me that it wasn't fair BECAUSE this teen's parents were robbing him of the chance to really work hard, to take full responsibility and to see God move and provide for him. She also felt that he would appreciate the trip much more if he had made all of the sacrifices needed to be able to go. While I don't necessarily think it is wrong for this young person's parents to pay most of his way, I was really proud of her take on the situation!

I can't ignore dinner any longer - I have two assistant chefs at work but I need to step in and organize the last minute stuff. :-)

Blessings,
Kate

PS Some of you have asked for photos of all of the dc. There are photos of all of them scattered through various blogs but I will try to get up Easter photos of each of them as soon as possible so you can put names with faces.

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Comments

Mar. 26, 2008 - Happy Spring

Posted by mamaof7

Hi Kate, It's so nice to hear all of the wonderful news from your household. It's such a joy to hear about Noah and how he is walking and getting more adventurous! My little guy walked late...nearly 17 months and it's such fun now watching him "run" and get into things. The docs weren't sure he would walk correctly and have hip dysplasia, but Praise the Lord, he is fine! I look forward to the photos! Keep on keeping on with Jesus by your side! PS. We would love to give to the Mission Trip, so if you can tell me where/when to send it, that would be awesome!Hugs, from Pennsylvania