Some of you know how I have been struggling with depression and other feelings. There are many challenges and trials that have led up to now. God has been working and last night I was reading through Teach Magazine, when I came across an article by Marily Boyer, Beware of Bitterness. Whew, that stuck out to me and quite honestly I wanted to flip to a new page and find something else to read, but God would not let me, he made me read that and you know what, It spoke to me.

Bitterness is from Satan. Satan uses bitterness to keep us from being close to God. Satan uses it as a sneak attack.

Hebrews 12:15
See to it that no root of bitterness, springing up, causes trouble and by it many be defiled.


Here are a few quotes from that article.

" The bitter person hass a tendency to expect the worst in the person he is harboring bitterness toward. The offender's faults overshadow their positive qualities in his eyes and he tends to live with a defeated spirit."

"If you sense any of these characteristics in your life..., examine yourself for bitterness and relinquish it. Don't destroy the very thing you've been working for all these years by allowing bitterness to dwell within. Learn not to take things personally, but give hurts and disappointments to God."

"..., bitterness is ultimately toward God."

There are many more that are very profound, but those are the ones that struck me in my circumstance.

I have been carrying bitterness over circumstances around for a long time. Some of that stems from 12 yrs ago and some just a day or two ago. Here are just a few of the things that have a tight hold on me.

I have been bitter over the fact that my father died. Yes, he is in a better place now, but I was bitter, I needed that Christian influence. I didn't want to always have my birthday be the day that he died. But, God saw fit to take him at a point in my life that I felt I could not go on. I tried to "get rid" of myself, but it never worked out. I have thought about it many times since too. But, God has a plan for me here, I don't know what it is exactly, but I know that there is something that he has lined up for me. So, I am going to try and let go of my dad, I will remember, I will honor, but I am going to try to let go of the bitterness that I have had over losing him.

Another thing that has caused me bitterness is that my mom, 1 yr to the day after my dad passed away announced that she was getting married, after only knowing the man for a week. Now, that should have made me happy, but he is not a christian, he does not like children, he has devided any sort of a bond that my mom and I had. He seems to think he knows it all about everything. His hate of a Christian lifestyle is very evident and it really bugs me a lot of the time. It makes me cringe when we have a prayer before meals and he is there, as he tends to make rude noises, coughs (as in making fun of what a person is praying about), and other rude things during our prayer time. However, God sees fit for our family to attempt to minister to him. Just maybe we are the ones who will be able to reach him. So, here I am to say, I am going to try and work through that bitterness to and let it go.

I have also held bitterness at other times. I have a dc that seems to challenge me at every turn. There have been times that I literally dread this dc getting out of bed. There are just days that I don't feel up to the challenge, but those are the days that I should reach higher and farther in to help this dc learn to use their talents in a better way. Those are the days that I could be the one that leads this dc down the path to Christ. So, I am here to say, I am going to be happy that I have this dc to challenge me, this dc may very well bring me closer to God as well.


And the last that I will share is a trial that was not brought on by me, but brought along a lot of hurt and bitterness. I won't go into details here, but it caused me to shut myself away from my closest Christian friends. I started questioning whether I even wanted to be considered a Christian as this was a close Christian friend and I didn't want others to associate me with how this person treated others. I started realizing after a month or two of my questions that I did not have to be that kind of Christian. I want to be the Christian that makes others want to find what I have. I want to be the Christian that makes non-Christians realize they are missing something. I want to be the Christian that others feel they can talk to and I would be able to give them answers or advice and help them to know my God. So, I let this hurt and bitterness go, I am giving it to God, as he is able to handle those and he wants me to let him have it so that I may move on and do the things that he has lined up for me.

So, I invite you to help hold me accountable here. I also invite you to take a hard look and make sure that you have let go of any of the trials or challenges in life that may be causing you to harbor bitterness. I think as I work through this I will find a big weight lifted from my shoulders and will be able to see a new light.

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Yesterday my wonderful dear husband decided to get new tires on the van.  We drove to a much larger town then where we live, he dropped us off at a restaurant to eat and then took the vant o the shop and my mom picked him up and brought him back to the restarant.  So, I had my five blessings with me at a large buffet.  I back packed our baby and carried the almost 2 yr old and the other three tagged along to get our food.  By the time we all had a plate my mom and dh were back.  After we all got our bellies full my mom took dh to get the van, the dc and I chose to walk and meet up with dh when he got done.  We ended up walking about 1.5 miles, not far, but, we are in a town that is much larger, walking with a almost 2 yr old, a 3 yr old, 5 yr old and an 8 yr old, I have the baby on my back who spits up and it is running down my shirt into the waist of my jeans.  We sang praise songs sporadically along the way.  My almost 2 yr old is fasinated with the railroad tracks and seems to think they would be a great place to find wonderful treasures.  About the time we finally cross all of them he decideds to sit down in the middle of a driveway to rest, so I end up carrying him for a while.  Then we approach a very busy intersection that we  have to cross 4 streets to get to the bridge  that we have to walk accrss.  My 3 yr old is scared the almost 2 yr old wants to look over the edge by crawling through the rails and my 8 yr old sees a  turtle down in the river, the 5 yr old is trying to convince the 3 yr old to have fun while we cross.  The 3 yr old is wrapped aroun dmy legs and I can't seem to keep my balance with the baby on my back and the almost 2 yr old pulling on me to look over the edge.    I am starting to think that this was not such a good idea at this point.  We get about halfway across the river when the almost 2 yr old again sits down to rest, so I carry him most of the rest of the way.  I look up and there is my dh in our van.  We have to get the rest of the way across the river then we gather everybody up and fasten them down and they tell daddy all about the great fun they had and I am sitting there with that look of  fun??  Hmm, I think I was having fun until we got to that intersection.  lol  So, we survived our walk and I may think twice the next time, however they did all sleep well for the trip to the next town to the chiropractor's office.  My dh was impressed that we got as far as we did.  I imagine even with our little speed bumps along the way it was a lot less stressful then trying to keep them quite in a restarant while we waited the 30 min for daddy to get back. 

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I have been busy preparing for next year.  There are several reasons I have decided to do this now.

1.  I want to be prepared for all the questions when my Grandparents are here at the end of this month. They will be asking how I know I am covering what I need to.  So the evaluations are done except for the last quarter.

2.  We will finish several of our books by the beginning to middle of May and I want to continue rather then stop there.  So, I have created our sylabus for Math, (3 books), and Language Arts (LLATL).

3.  I wanted to have an idea what I will be needing before I head to the TPA conference at  the end of May.  It seemed reasonable to get all those ducks in a row now, rather then doing a bit here and a bit there. 

4.  It just felt good to go through and look everything over that we have done.

I also created some new forms.   I love making things on the puter.  It is very fun for me.  My dh laughs when we go to an office supply store and I want a $200 spreadsheet program to "play" with.  I tell him that maybe I could make a bit off of it.  lol  I may scan them later and try to load them that way.  They won't load from my puter. 

Today I started planning a lapbook for our next History lesson.  It will be a fun challenge as this is something new for me. 

So, for now that is all.  Tomorrow my baby girl will be three. I am somewhat sadden as she seems so big now.  I have two who are younger, but she is the youngest girl.  Here, little brother is heavier then she is.  I should share her birth story here sometime.  It was a wild ride as all of mine have been. 

So long for now.

Blessings to you this day. 

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Yes, I am blonde, I am post partum, I am busy.  Does that explain anything? 

So, I figured it out last nigth at about 3 am in a dream.  So, I am thinking God would like to see me back here.  So, I will be trying to post here more often.  I am not sure in what direction God will have me movng with this blog.  I just know that he would like to see me writing out some of my struggles, challenges, accomplishments and so forth here.  So, until I find something better to write about, Hi and I have missed it here.

Blessings to you.

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Once again PPD is on my heart again today.  I just met yet another young mom who is struggling with it.  So, yet another post today about it.

I have found that there are some wonderful supplements out that will greatly improve the symptoms.  Some of these help me, but may not help you.  If you know of others, please leave them in the comments as I would love for someone to be benefit from my blog.  Here is a list of the supplements I take:

St. John's Wort

Essential Fatty acids--specifically-Nordic Naturals ProDHA

Vitamin B super complex

Prenatal Vitamins--Rainbow Light

Making sure I have plenty of iron rich foods and supplements-alfalfa, nettle, dandelion, yellow dock, lemon balm,chloraphyll, red raspberry leaf, cooing in cast iron, lots of red meat, brown rice, spinach, and few other things not eatten or taken everyday.

Keeping my blood sugar levals even helps tremendously.  Lots of protein.

I also strive to get in God's word daily.  I read a few verses and really try to focus on them each day.  I also try to read from uplifting books daily too.  Karen Kingsbury is an awsome Christian author if you are looking for something to read leisurely. 

My prayer today is that this post will give somone light, that it will give them hope that there is something out there that may help.  If you need to talk with someone, leave a comment and I am here waiting.  I have felt led to help other moms struggling with depression. 

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This topic is going to be touchy with some, but as a Christian I don't think we discuss this enough.  If we do we don't act upon it.

I have a friend who is struggling with PPd.  I am also.  So, as we walk down this path together we are holding each other accountable for some things.

Get in the word daily

Get dressed daily

Brush hair and teeth

make meals and eat them too

don't eat a lot of junk

take your vitamins

talk it out

Don't let someone else make you feel guilty for it.

There are many more, but that is at the top of our list.  Over the last week I have had a so called friend send me a few emails that are a rather jumbled mess.  They say that there is something wrong with me, but never come to a point of what that is.  They tell me that I take my dc to the dr, and er too much.  I have never taken a child to the dr/er with out dh's approval.  We pray about our decision and so forth and come to the conclusion that it is wisest to be proactive in our children's health rather then inactive and having that child pay for it for the rest of their lives.  We feel that treating something early can prevent life long issues later.  God has given us these children to raise for him, he wants them to be able to do something for him maybe now, maybe later if their health is not good they may not be able to do what he has planned.  So, back to the original topic.

If you had a friend struggling would you send flakely emails or would you give her encouragement and help her get through the issue.  If you decided to send an email are you sure that what you are sending is going to be an asset to her.  If it is going to tear her down or cause her to question herself then you need to reconsider you thinking.  This person is already questioning herself, she does not need you to give her more reasons to question herself.  If you can't do something that will obviously help her then just pray for her.  In fact unless you know and completley understand the struggle she is going through prayer is your only business.  If you understand the struggle then by all means pray and offer your help. 

We all have our down days and you may not know that someone is having one.  If you are going to give un-asked for advice I suggest that you make your that who it is going to is not having a rough time. 

The hurt I felt when reading the emails was very bitter.  I have no desire now to talk to this person or anyone she is associated with.  Therefore it has literally backed me in a corner away from most all my female friends.  I am so thankful that I have God and my husband now as I work through yet another round of PPd and someone's inability to keep their mouth shut.

If you struggle with PPD and want someone who will understand from a Christian perspective I invite you to leave a comment.  I am more then happy to help anyone dealing with this.  I have a few books by Christian authors that have been helpful to me.  I will save them for another post.

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Rather then post the whole thing I will just pull out the highlights.  I don't know how I should handle this, as I am deeply hurt.  I have shown this to my dh, but he is just as blindsighted as I am.  Over the last couple of years there have been a lot of "little"  medical things in our family.  Quite honestly it is unbelievable, but very true. 

The email I received states that I have lied about many of the medical things my family has faced.  It states that I have taken my dc to the dr or er when not necessary.  However, in all but a couple of those my family has received treatment for something.  One of the times we went and did not receive treatment was when my 19 mo had diarrhea for 10 days and had been very fuzzy.  Our pediatrician looked him over and decided that it was "toddler diarrhea" and that he was getting his 2 yr molars.  Now at that time I had a brand new baby and was quite sleep deprived so I feel that my lack of figuring that out on my own was due to the circumstances. 

Here is a quote from that email:

"There are many times when you tell me someone in your family is sick or something has happened...usually medical in nature...that I find myself questioning. "

Here is another quote:

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Over the last couple of weeks my whole family succombed to a respiratory infection.  I was lucky and seemed to excape it.  However, our 7 wk old baby did not and was admitted to the hospital.  It was a very scary and trying time.  He was diagnosed officially at the hospital with RSV.  However, by Monday afternoon our dr was certain that it was RSV. 

Here is a copy of the updates I kept during our trial.

1/4--5 am

I am crying now as dh won't let me go to the ER as he has two hay trucks that have already left headed this way. HE can't keep our other 4 dc while he loads the trucks. I can't take them as they all have this stuff too.

Isaiah has a fever of 101.3 and is coughing a lot. I am really scared. I will get him in as soon as dh is done. THANKS!! I will update or have Amy update later today.

3pm

we are done at the doctor's office and headed to a chiropractor appointment a bit later.  Baby is doing ok, has an ear infection.

1/5 early am

Yesterday at the dr office we found out that Isaiah haad an ear infection. I have never been so excited to hear that one of our dc had an ear infection. I was fearing RSV. The dr said that if his drainage got worse--which it has--to call him back as he is as risk for RSV. We went to the chiro 1.5 hrs away and had him adjusted in hope that that may help clear it up. Last night was bad. He has so much drainage that he is choking on it and I was afraid to go to sleep. He is having trouble nursing too becasue of the drainage--it seems to be mostly nasal, and draining down his throat. He is still running a fever, so I think dh will most likely decide to take him to the ER today. I am not sure what will happen there (obviously) but I do know that the hospitals are full of little ones with respiratory stuff, (RSV) it made the news last night. I have had less then 2 hrs sleep in the last 48 and am just plain exhausted. When I get this tired while nursing I tend to get mastitis. Please pray that doesn't happen as I won't be able to care for him if I do.
Dh was up with our 2.5 yr old most of the night as she is having trouble sucking on her binkie with her plugged up nose. The 19 mo old is ok, but still pretty ucky feeling. Our 8 yr old seems to be doing pretty good, but still coughing a lot. 5 yr old just has a runny nose.

So I will call dr later this am after I see if extra humidity will help. We don't have a humidifier on our main leval, but I do put a pot of water on our stove during the day.

1/6 midnight

Isaiah had pretty much stopped nursing this morning and I was getting that panicy feeling again. Then about 2 pm he started nursing more and is still nursing. not as much as normal, but better. He is still congested and you can tell he is not feeling good. I am watching him like a hawk and praying that he has a good night. I am staying in the recliner with him tonight so I can keep a very close eye on him. I did get to rest this afternoon while he nursed. I have been doing a lot of kangaroo care to keep his fever down. It is working wonderfully and I highly reccommend it if it is ever needed for you. He still is having the choking stuff and I am not sure what we need to do for that. If tonight and tomorrow go well (fever stays doen, not struggling to breathe, and nursing well.) I will give the dr another call on Monday, if not I will call sooner. He is a wonderful Christian, homeschooling Dr/dad. He has never said a negative thing about non vaxing our dc. I really trust him.

1/7 8:30 am
There are times I think he is doing better, then not 20 min later I can see tha tmaybe he isn't. It is so confusing. HE will nurse good and then choke during burping and lose it all. Or he will get raspy and not nurse good or he won't sleep, his poo is funny ect. Just little things that are confusing me. So, I am taking him back to the dr at 1:45 today. I am scared to fall asleep and after 4 nights of not sleeping and only getting a 1.5 hr nap since Friday I need to know that he is ok. I know that sounds really dumb. I do know is respirations are faster then nomral, I do know that his fever is steady at 100.4-101.2 not bad but ugh. I do know his ear still is hurting him, and I know that it hurts him to lay down. SoI will or have someone update later today.

1/7 6:20 pm
It is RSV. When we got there his o2 sat was 87-92, heart rate 190s, they did a nebulizer treatment and his 02 dropped and then went up to 100% Heart rate down to 160s. The dr allowed us to come home for now. We have set up a tent witha humidifier in it for him. He is in the bouncy seat with it. We will be doing nebulizers round the clock too. We go back tomorrow at two unless he shows signs of needing to go earlier.  Anyway, we are in a waiting period still and it does not appear I will get much rest tonight.

1/8 5 am

Isaiah sounds better. However, he gets to coughing so hard and is unable to keep most of his feedings down. Alot of what comes up is phelm. I am concerned that if he continues this he will become dehydrated.

I am getting very worn out. I slept for an hour as I just couldn't stay awake any longer. I am going to ask dh to stay home for awhile this morning so I can sleep.

noon

Dh and I have decided that we will most likely be -staying in the hospital. I am packing for baby and I and trying to get all ducks in a row here at home as dh will be staying with our other 4 dc. He has never stayed home overnight by himself with them.

1/8 evening

His O2 was in the lower 90s and he wasn't as hydrated as they had hoped for. They are testing for RSV right now. He is in a croup tent and I am staying w/ him and  dh went home to stay w/ our other 4 children.

1/9 am

the RSV was positive and his O2 falls when he is out of the tent but not unusual at this point, but he has improved and the doctor thinks we may be able to go home tomorrow if he continues to improve.

update from Friend on 1/9

Baby has been out of tent since 3:00 p.m. (about 3 1/2 hours) & has done great. Sleeping good now! He's still on an IV & she imagines he will be taken off some time tomorrow. Please pray that every one in her family gets healthy ... her hubby is sick as well as 2 of the other children.

My final update with a bit of humor. 1/10

Thank You all for all the prayers, calls, and pms. It means a lot. It is awsomely amazing how quickly he has gotten better. He still is not 100%, but so much better then when we went into the hospital. He will be receiving nebulizer treatments until Tues, when he is re-evaluated. He really hates them and cries very hard (hold breath and turns purple) through them, so please pray that I can manage to time so I give them while he is sleeping.
It was so amazing, when dh and dc came to get us at the hospital and I was putting him in his car seat he looked around and smiled for the first time. It was really cute.

Considering that dh was not feeling well and that he was taking care of 2-3 sick dc our home is in pretty good shape. Now my dishwasher on the other hand may need help as MIL put powdered water treatment stuff in rinse agent hole. I am hoping it works when I run it later tonight.

Dh and all our dc are also feeling much better. It will be awhile before we find the sense of normal I have been really looking forward to and I am praying that God helps me accept the normal he has me in for now. Isaiah lost some weight and is nursing a lot right now. On Monday he weighed 9 lbs 8 oz, on discharge he was 9 lbs 1 oz, so he has some catching up to do.

That is our stay in a nutshell.  Our room was very small, and I was becoming quite stir crazy in there.  I left the room for a total of ten mins during our stay, once to go get a snack and once for an extrememly lousy shower-no hot water and ver little water pressure lol. 

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When friendship hurts.

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It seems so funny now, but when I went to fix the few things I needed to for Christmas meal nothing went right.  The first batch of bread was a flop, then the second batch i dropped the cinnamon container  and it spilled all over the dough, then when making a cheesecake I dropped half an egg shell into the mix as it was mixing.  UGH!!  Anyone want some eggshell cheesecake?  It turned out ok after I sifted through all the batter with my figures as i put it into the pan.  lol 

on Christmas day all family came to our home.  Dh didn't get up until 9 am, so that set us a bit behind on getting our own family Christmas traditions done.  We like to open presents as a family and then we eat cinnamon rolls for breaky.  By the time we got all that done, and then cleaned up our mess ect it was 11:45.  I still had not had a shower nor were any of my dc dressed, dh wasn't dressed either.  We had company arriving around noon, so hurried and got a shower and dressed, and two of my dc got dressed.  My mom and her husband showed up just as I was walking out of the bathroom.  My dining room table was not ready nor had my kitchen been vaccuumed.  I still had dishes in the sink.  My MIL showed up about 10 min later.  She came unglued that there were dishes in the sink and went on about how I should have not opened gifts with our family and been cleaning up my kitchen.  I was ready to tell all who complained to leave.  I am 6 wks post partem, and have a VERY fussy baby who take most of my time.  I did not care that my house was not in perfect condition, I was happy that i got to spend some time with my family.  However, by the time my mom and mil had their say I felt guilty for spending time with my family.  I know that I was most likely right in the fact that dishes will wait, floor messes will wait, but my dc will only remember that mom either took the time to spend with them or spent it cleaning up things that were not emergent.  My mil doesn't even clean her own home, she has a housekeeper come in for 8-10 hours a week.  They have a small house, 2 bedroom, 2 bath a family room and a den, and kitchen.  She only works about 30 hrs a week, why can't she do her own?  And why does she feel the need to grump about mine? 

Friday I have family coming to stay for 5 and 6 days.  My house again is not perfect, but if they don't like it they can pick up a rag and broom and help me out.  My baby is not sleeping, I am not healing well, and my dc need a mom that is not so concerned that her house is spotless that she becomes a basket case.  I did become that basketcase before Christmas, and that is not how I want my dc to remember me if something should happen to me.  So, for those of you who are like me, concerned about housekeeping, but also concerned about how you come accross to your children.  Ask yourself if a clean house is worth more then your children?  Do you spend as much time with them as you do cleaning?  IS the house going to matter in the end?  Is your house actually a mess as in germ filled and gross or just look like 5 or 6 or 8 or however many dc live there are there?  Mine looks like 5 children and a mommy and daddy live here.  There are days the beds never get made, the floors may have crumbs, and there may be dishes in the sink and clothes to fold and put away.  Does it matter in the end that those things need done?  Most likely not, at the end of the day I want to be able to say, I know what my dc did and know that I was there for them. 

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I can honestly say that I am not.  I have been grumpy and snappy.  I know I need to work on this area of my life.  This is where I need the most work really.  I need to find the good in the trials the Lord has me walking through.  I have a big list of trials that I am dealing with.  Dh says part of the reason I am not handling things is that I have nothad time to adjust to our new blessing before our lives were turned upside down by numerous other things.  It will still be a couple weeks before there is any sense of normal around here.  Our baby was born by emergency c-section on Nov. 15.  I ended up with 9.5 inch incision, then on Thanksgiving I got an infection in my incision.  Then on Dec. 2 my best friend's 5 mo old baby went into the hospital.  She has been in the hosptial ever since with numerous issues.  Then on Dec. 6 we had an ice storm, then another on Dec. 7-11.  then on Dec. 14 it snowed 9.5 inches.  We have not had constant power since Dec. 10, when also got mastitis.  Today we are running on a generator, and i am so far behind on things that it is depressing me.  I have company coming in on Dec 23 and they will be here until Dec. 26 and then on Dec. 28 another set here until Jan. 2.  I have many things that need to be done before all of them come, but cna't with out electrcity.   I am just running on fume.  I am tired, achy and just out of sorts.  My dc know it and are feeding off of it.  Ugh, just a small sense of narmal would be nice.  When the power does come back on I am not going to know where to start.  Ok enough blubbering.  Maybe later I can look at this and find the joys and good that are going to come from this.

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We live in an area that has been hit by the ice storm--3 inches, and then 9 inches of snow.  We were without electricity for 3 days and had to rely on  a generator for heat.   This is a picture from our house. 

Today my son was playing outside when he heard a kitten weakly crying.  He found it and brought me a half frozen, limp kitten.  I warmed  it up and gave it the only milk I had on hand, my breastmilk.    It is now four hours later and running around our house chasing us.   Unfortunately his three litter mates did not fair as well. 

While we didn't have power and were relying on the generator, I learned how to cook hot meals without my stove, oven or microwave.  I fixed large batches of things in the crockpot and then reheated them in it. 

Now we have power and I am still in awe of how I managed.  It was a fun adventure for a short time.   I wouldn't want to do it often though. 

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We are a family of seven.  Our children are all young.  P, is an energetic 8 yr old boy who enjoys lots of science and history.  He would love to fly one way or the other.  L, is a very talkitive girl who has the personality to go with her beautiful red hair.  H, is a happy smiling 2 yr old that loves to be with her entire family together.  N, is a 18 mo old boy who appears to be the brute of the family, always ready to wrestle with someone.  I, is the baby, really only 1 month old today.  He is our "runt" at weighing only 8 lbs 4 oz at birth.  All of my other children weighed over 9 lbs and N, weighed 10 lbs 7 oz. 

We try to be as "natural" as possible on a very limited income.  We buy some organic foods, cloth diaper, use natural home cleaning products, eat homemade from scratch foods, use herbs for medicine as much as possible, use chiropractic care, but am unable to do homebirth as we have had complications with each birth.  I hope to someday have a garden, but in our present situation it is not workable.

My dh farms and helps other farmers keep their farm equipment running.  Our crops include alfalfa, and wheat.  We have all older engine run equipment 1972 and older.  We do not own a tractor with a cab.  We do have newer balers and so forth that are not self-operating.  We care for approximately 1000 acres of land.  We have plans of adding a cow/calf herd to our farm in the future.  We also dream of building an energy effient home on some ground that has been in the family for 4 generations. 

As for how we homeschool, and our curriculum choices, we use a mixed batch of things.  For my 8 yr old we use Singapore and Developmental math, Draw Write Now for handwriting, All About Spelling, Simply Grammar, reading are books that interest him, normally covering science and history.  For my 5 yr old, I do simple things daily.  She likes to work independently in many of the Kumon books.  She works with the 2 yr old on counting,  letters, shapes and colors.   We have read alouds several times a day, lots of outdoor things, my dh teaches my ds mechanical things, and hands on activities.

I enjoy cooking, baking, sewing, scrapbooking and many other crafts.  I also enjoy horseback riding when not pregnant.  Which is not very often. 

That seems to be a summery of us in a nutshell. 

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