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A special offer from a friend of oursA friend of ours, Jim Hodges, has offered to do something really special for our family, and he asked me to post and let you all know about it.Jim is a home schooling dad and Navy retiree who turned his love for history into a business, producing unabridged recordings of the outstanding historical fiction novels written by George Alfred Henty in the 1800's. Henty novels are full of adventure, valor, bravery, high morals, accurate history, and advanced use of the English language. We enjoy listening to these in the car - they really make the time fly. I love Jim's voice and his great expression helps younger ones really "get" the story. You and your children will love listening to stories from Ancient Egypt, the Crusades, the Age of Exploration, American history, and more. The kids will love them because the stories are awesome, you will love them because of the outstanding role models contained in the stories, the accurate history, and the advanced vocabulary. Everybody wins! Jim has also recorded some books for younger children: Stories of the Pilgrims, Our Young Folk's Josephus, and American History Stories, as well as 4 books published by Lamplighter Publishing: all 3 Boys of Grit titles, and True Stories of Great Americans for Young Americans. And finally, Jim has reissued some outstanding Old Time Radio shows that teach history in a really entertaining way: You Are There - World History Stories; You Are There - U. S. History Stories; and Horizon's West - A Tale of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Each of Jim's recordings are contained on a single CD in the MP3 file format. These CDs will play on a computer CD drive or DVD player, or can be copied onto an I-pod or other MP3 device. They will not, however, play on a standard CD player. It would take too many CDs! These recordings are up to 15 hours long! How many CDs would that take? And in this particular promotion, our family will win as well. Jim has agreed to donate 50% of the profit from EVERY SALE to the Estes family to use as we see fit. This should help with Noah's medical bills, food, medicines and supplies. Jim wrote: "This wonderful family has endured much, and continues to shine forth the love of Jesus in all that they say and do. I have never read a self-pitying complaint from them, or heard them ask for anything but prayer." If you would like some really great prices on quality home school supplies AND make a donation to our family, please check out the specials at this link. And thank you! We appreciate you! http://www.jimhodgesaudiobooks.com/helpinghandssale.html Please feel free to pass this link/info to anyone who might be interested, and please pray that God would bless Jim for his kindness and generosity. We were amazed that he would offer to do something like this and we hope that he is blessed for it. Blessings, Kate Long time, no blogI can't believe how long it has been since I've updated. No news hasn't quite been good news, though. Noah is doing OK, but I haven't felt well enough to blog. Back in December when Noah was in the hospital I broke a molar. It didn't hurt and I couldn't do anything about it since I wasn't about to leave Noah and come back to Greenwood to see our dentist. He was in the hospital pretty much non-stop then until Mary Faith was born, then she had to be a few months old before I would leave her at home for a dental visit (we don't do bottles) - so it was May before I got the tooth looked at. Long story short, the tooth ended up with an infection just a couple of days after I saw the dentist. I had an appt. for a root canal that I missed because of Noah being in Atlanta. I finally got the root canal and it was a doozy - involved drilling into my jawbone, cutting gums, etc because of the way the tooth broke. I've been in significant, non-stop pain with this goofy tooth since May and have gone through 4 rounds of antibiotics. Last week the dentist came to the conclusion that part of a nerve was missed, so he REDID the root canal Thursday. I've been on prescription pain meds and haven't trusted myself to blog while under the influence LOL. There is just NO telling what I might say if I had enough pain medicine in me!I sure would appreciate prayers for this tooth. I've honestly never experienced anything like this before and am ready for it to end. ***whining session over**** Tooth or no tooth things have been clipping along here. Jeff's parents took us both out to eat at a nice restaurant as an anniversary gift a few days after our anniversary. After dinner Jeff and I went to Walmart and pretended to shop for each other. I know it's silly, but silly is one of our specialties. We split up with plans to meet after 30 minutes, during which time we selected gifts for each other as if money were no object. We also picked out cards. Once we met up, we took turns taking each other through the store to show off our gifts, then we went to the card aisle and handed each other cards to read. :-) I "got" an espresso maker, a coffee grinder, a 6 slice under cabinet toaster oven ( I LOVE to get appliances as gifts - I really do), a lovely digital photo frame, a big flat panel TV for watching DVD's on family movie night or date night, lots of roses, and a pint of my favorite Hagen Daas chocolate peanut butter ice cream. My guy sure knows what I like! I "got" Jeff an ultimate office/retreat with all the best computer stuff, comfy furniture, storage solutions, etc. We were both pretty pleased with our gifts and had a really fun evening. Noah had a great visit wit the cardiologist on Wednesday. He had his best echo ever and the doctor was thrilled with his heart function. The IVIG and the medicine he's taking seem to be doing the trick. On the downside, his labs haven't been looking great and last week they looked even a bit worse. It will be instructive to see what tomorrow's labs look like. It appears as if he just isn't absorbing/holding on to a lot of the good stuff in his TPN. His pre-albumin is low and getter lower, which is generally considered a sign of malnutrition and is associated with poor patient outcomes. His triglycerides are very low even though he gets a great deal of fat (lipids) in his TPN. Toddlers need fat and super-low triglycerides aren't really good. His liver enzymes are up a bit more but not terrible, and a number of other things are lower than they should be. I'm convinced that this all ties in with the astounding amount of urine he passes while he is hooked up to the TPN - it seems that it is passing through him without being absorbed. The cardiologist agreed and wants us to talk to GI about it. Some of these poor labs could be cardiac complications but shouldn't be in light of Noah's current cardiac status. I am very thankful that we had the cardiology visit before Noah's next GI appt. on the 13th so we can go to the GI appt. knowing that his heart isn't causing these problems. I don't know what they will or can do about this all . . . . . Noah is also anemic again. His hemoglobin isn't low enough for a transfusion yet but is heading that way. I had hoped that this last transfusion would last longer. Jeff still hasn't found a job, but we are at peace with that. We've prayed that he wouldn't be offered a job unless it was the job he was meant to have, so all this means that either the right job hasn't come around OR he is meant to stay home full-time. We continue to have our needs met in some of the most unexpected ways. The boys needed to spend some money they'd earned to buy some clothes and shoes, and they found the most amazing sales. A blog reader sent Mary Faith a big box of clothes and some baby toys. Another sent Jeff and I some lovely gifts for our anniversary and some things for Hannah's hope chest. A blog reader who specifically asked that we not mention his name sent a $1,000 check and it came right as the mortgage was due and we needed groceries but had almost nothing left in our checking account! The letter that came with the check was a beautiful reminder of God's love and desire to care for His children. I've even been blessed with Starbucks cards so that I can be ridiculously and extravagantly spoiled. :-) I'll be honest in saying that Jeff and I have always loved to be able to give to others and bless others, and it feels funny (sometimes uncomfortable) to "need" to be on the receiving end. I've battled both pride and fear that I never knew I had, and have been so humbled and awed to see how God has provided. Jeff is working SO incredibly hard with our business and is making amazing changes and improvements, but it isn't ready to support us yet. On paper it doesn't seem possible for us to be getting by, and yet we are getting by just fine day by day. Our children are seeing the very real hand of the Living God and we are thankful for that! Preparations for Noah's blood drive/birthday party are coming along so well and we are very excited. Starbucks has donated gift cards for everyone that gives blood and is also sending a bunch of yummy treats for the party. We've put posters up all over town and are praying for a great turnout. I just can't believe he is going to be 2 next Sunday!!!! (If you missed the announcement/invitation for his party, you can see it here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ourquiverfull/558803/ You are ALL INVITED!!) I want to remind all of you that if you participate in ministries like Operation Christmas Child or other shoe box type ministries, this is a GREAT time to pick up inexpensive school supplies. Our Walmart has had wire-bound notebooks for a nickel apiece and we and the children have been able to buy over 100 of them for Ukraine. At 20 notebooks for a dollar we didn't think we had any possible excuse NOT to buy them! Our Office Max has been selling crayons for a penny a box. It's limit three per person per visit, so every time we go out we all bring pennies and we each get three boxes. We now have dozens of boxes of crayons. :-) I'm not saying this to boast AT ALL, but to say that right now there are ways for anyone to afford to be a blessing and we have been immeasurably blessed to be able to find ways to buy things for the Ukraine mission that we hold dear. There are a lot of different school supplies available at a fraction of their regular prices even if your stores don't have these particular deals. We want to take the dc to the nursing home this afternoon just to visit . Jeff preaches there sometimes but we have to leave right afterwards to get to our own church, so we thought it would be fun to this afternoon when we won't be as rushed. I will be blogging again right away - probably tomorrow. I need to tell you all about something precious that a friend is doing for us, but this post is long enough! :-) Blessings, Kate Wordless Wednesday 17 yearsToday is my 17th wedding anniversary. I met Jeff when I was 17 years old, so there is a pleasing symmetry here somehow. I didn't think we did anything special today. Jeff took the healthy dc to church while I stayed home with the sick ones and Noah. When he came home, we made about four bazillion homemade buttermilk donuts together -I made the dough, rolled, and cut while he cooked and rolled in cinnamon sugar. We then served an utterly irresponsible lunch of homemade donuts, home canned applesauce, and ice cold milk. Sometimes we really like utterly irresponsible lunches around here!There were lots of leftover donuts which we all nibbled at all afternoon, so we didn't have the big pot roast dinner I had planned. Instead, we had some BBQ sandwiches from leftover smoked pulled pork that we had for dinner last night. We've been needing a new laptop for the business and Walmart had some for under $400, so we went to Walmart together and picked up a laptop and some scissors. When we came home, we just sort of hung out together while Jeff worked on the new laptop and I sat nearby and chatted with him. No big dinner out, no romantic date, no roses. We didn't even buy cards. I told Jeff that I was afraid this wasn't much of an anniversary . . . then we looked at each other and grinned and both said that we wouldn't have changed a thing. :-) This morning we lazed around in bed playing with the little guys until Jeff absolutely had to leave for church. We had a lot of fun laughing and talking making those donuts. We were blessed to get a laptop for WAY less than we thought, and blessed that the business could buy it. We spent time with 7 of the 8 most wonderful kids in the world. Because Mary Faith is needing lots of snuggles right now, I didn't feel like I had to run around and "do" stuff. I just sat and talked with Jeff while he worked on the computer. We got to laugh (a LOT) at Noah's new dance moves. As soon as I finish this we'll probably get into bed and snuggle with Mary Faith (who still feels really yucky) and watch a couple of old episodes of Get Smart. Life is good. :-) Blessings, Kate PS I recently wrote the story of how Jeff and I met and posted it on a group I'm on. (We were comparing notes!) I thought you might like to hear it so I'm pasting it here. . . . . . Jeff and I met our freshman year of college (PCS). I was 17 and he was 18. I was actually a cheerleader for his soccer team. One day I hurt my arm cheering and ended up on some pain medicine. There was a party for the team and cheerleaders that night and I went even though I was in a sling and couldn't play pingpong or anything. Jeff saw me and felt bad for me, so he sat and talked to me the whole time to keep me company . . . but because of the pain medicine, I wasn't able to remember this! (I'm relying on HIS account LOL). We ran into each other a few days later outside of a class, and I thought he was a friend of my friend's fiancee. Remember, I had forgotten ever meeting him. I walked up and greeting him (thinking he was someone else) and he thought that I was impressed by his kind and gentlemanly behavior from the party. He asked me to go to church with him that night and I agreed. A few minutes later I ran into my friend and her fiancee and mentioned that her fiancee's friend had asked me out. I was horrified when they said that the friend had been off campus all day!!! I didn't know what to do. For all I knew, Jack the Ripper had asked me out LOL, but I decided to go ahead and meet up with him. All the same, meeting at church was surely safe, right? (Not to mention that attendance was mandatory so it would have taken some doing to avoid him, and I couldn't call and cancel since I didn't know who he was!) I sat next to him that night having NO IDEA what his name was, how old he was, or anything. I didn't even realize that he was on the soccer team for which I cheered. As we spoke, he asked me how to spell my last name, which was Till at that time. He told me I was lucky because there was no way that people could mispronounce that name, but that people were forever calling him Jeff Estes (2 short e's) instead of Jeff Estes (1st e short, second e long.) I was SO relieved to learn his name so that I could ask around and get the "scoop" on him. :-) We went to church together the next Sunday, then Wednesday, and so forth. Neither one of us had ever dated before. By October he knew that I was the girl for him, but it took me quite a bit longer to figure out that he was the guy for me. (Poor fella.) Within a year we both knew we would be getting married, and 2 /12 years after we met I got the ring officially. We married in July of '91 right after graduation. I was 21 and he was 22. Here is the funny thing - all of Jeff's life he said he was never going to get married. In kindergarten his written answer to "When I will grow up, I want to be ____" was "not married." No joke. In his senior year of high school he refused to write a paper about the qualities he wanted in a future wife, because he said he was never getting married. He finally had to write it or get an F, but the only criteria that I match is that I am female LOL. He did say he was going to find a cheerleader to date when he went to college, though! When he told his mom midway through his freshman year that he had found his future wife, the poor lady almost had a cardiac event. He now fondly and happily tells people that I ruined all of his plans for his life, and that he is glad I did! (I never did tell him about the whole mistaken identity thing until a couple of weeks before our wedding. He just LOVED to tell people about how I was so moved by his kindness at that party. I hated to burst his bubble, but couldn't stand it any more.) :0) Blessings again, Kate welcome to my worldOverheard at my house recently:Wiliam: "Mom, if I tell you something, do you promise not to scream?" (Please note that I'm not a screamer, so this got my attention pretty fast!) Me (smiling): "Of course I won't scream, Sweetie. Why would you think I would scream?" Wiliam: "I can't really tell you unless I'm sure you won't scream. Are you REALLY sure you won't scream?" Me (still smiling, but not as much): "Yes, I'm really sure I won't scream. What do you need to tell me?"  Wiliam: "I mean, you're feeling OK, right? You aren't feeling like you need to scream, right?"Me (forcing a smile and fighting a snarl): "Yes, Dear, I'm fine. I. Don't. Need. To. Scream." Wiliam: "I mean, even if you DID want to scream, I didn't do anything wrong, so you wouldn't scream at ME, right?" Me (giving the evil eye to William): "William Lawrence Estes! What is wrong??!!" Wiliam: "You're starting to sound like you want to scream. If you need to scream, will you wait until I leave the room?" Me (voice taking on a distinctly shrill tone): "If you don't tell me what you need to tell me, I WILL scream and I will NOT wait until you leave the room, Buster, so get to the point NOW!" Wiliam (sighing): "Fine. I just thought you should know that ******(fill in small child's name) is playing with matches." Wiliam (muttering to himself as he left the room): "I KNEW she was gonna scream." Matthew and Mary Faith(Hannah Update Below This Post)Matthew has been complaining just a little bit about a sore throat for a couple of days. When he woke up this morning, he was feverish and his throat hurt so much he could barely talk, so Jeff took him to the express care place around the corner from our house. (side note - WHY does this stuff always happen on the weekends??) Anyway, it turns out the poor guy has a nasty case of strep throat. Mary Faith has been acting odd for about as long as Matthew has had a sore throat. She wants to nurse but doesn't want to swallow, and a couple of times I've found her drenched in sweat. When I dressed her this morning her tummy was covered in a rough red rash. By the time Matthew and Jeff got home, her whole torso was covered and the rash had spread to her arms and thighs, so I took her to express care. I was concerned that it could be a scarlatina rash - and it turns out I was right. My little sweetie actually has scarlet fever! Thanks to modern antibiotics, this isn't the scary disease of old novels, but she does feel really yucky. (Of course, when the heroines of these old novels would get scarlet fever, it seems like they always required a long convalescence at the sea side . . . . . SURELY it would be irresponsible of me to put too much stock in these new-fangled antibiotics . . . . SURELY the only safe course of action would be to go to some balmy tropical paradise and hang out in a hammock . . . .  ) Ahhh well, I don't see a beach trip anywhere in our future, so we'll just have to settle for amoxicillin and lots of mama-snuggles! All silliness aside, I'm so thankful that these things which used to be so devastating and grave can now easily be treated with some oral antibiotics. We are so blessed to be living in this time and in this place.Of course, the big concern here is keeping Noah safe. Matthew "graciously" informed me that he would be "willing" to just spend the next few days alone in my room so Noah won't be exposed further. He said that if had a laptop, lots of cold sodas, and a stack of old b&w Superman DVD's then he could probably handle the isolation. < Noah has been doing really well. He has discovered that apparently money CAN buy happiness, because he has found it for sale in Walmart. :-) He hasn't been to Walmart much at all. He spent so much time in the hospital, then was on "house arrest" for the influenza season, and now I try to leave a few little ones at home with an older one so I can use the minivan to save gas. The other day Jeff and I went to Walmart and brought Noah along. He went NUTS when he saw the lobsters, and I was reminded of the fish aisle. Noah LOVES fish. We spent literally hundreds of hours in front of the huge fish tank at the hospital in Greenville last year, and the fish seldom failed to soothe and amuse him. We took him to the fish aisle and let him get out of the cart. He rushed to the first tank and gasped, then yelled "feeeesssshhh!" at the top of his lungs. He stared for a minute or two then moved to the next tank, gasped in astonishment, and yelled "feeeeesssshhh!!!" again. He kept this up for more than 15 minutes. We were laughing sooo hard because every time he stepped in front of a tank he would gasp in shock like he was SO surprised each time. We went back to Walmart a few days later and as sooas w got in the door he put his hands on my face and said, "Feesh, Mommy???" You all have seen his pictures and are aware of the Big Bottomless Blue Eyes thing . . . . . . .I was obviously powerless at this point and was compelled to take him back to the fish aisle. We've created a monster LOL, but at least the fish aisle doesn't charge admission. :-) Fish aren't the only aquatic joys in Noah's life right now. A number of VERY sweet and creative blog readers have sent Noah a lovely supply of Aqua-Guards! I'm working on individual thank-you notes, but most of the shipments don't indicate who sent them, so if I don't email or write with a thank-you, that is why. Please just know that Noah is unbelievably happy with these. He has started taking my hand, leading me to the bathroom, pulling back the shower curtain, and saying "Peeeese, (please) Mommy??" while kicking in the pleading eyes. You guys already know I'm a pushover for those eyes, so Noah is taking a lot of very happy baths right now. One reader even sent him a little bath boat that sprays water and spins around. It is so cute and Noah doesn't want to let go of it when he gets out of the bath. One of us dries him while the other one distracts him and gets the boat so we can put it away. :-) Because Noah's TPN starts at bedtime, he has a lot of fluids running in all night. We've tried all sorts of diapers including the nighttime diapers, but he is almost always soaked when he wakes up in the morning. By soaked, I mean drenched from toes to upper chest. It is so sad that he wakes up cold and wet most mornings, and it was incredibly sad that I had to give this cold wet shivering toddler a sponge bath to freshen him up while he cried and cried. That is just NOT a nice way to start the day at all. Now instead of a shivery sponge bath, he can get in a nice warm shower with Mommy or Daddy then play in the tub. It makes me so happy to be able to do this for my sweetie pie. Mary Faith's antibiotics are supposed to be ready for pickup now, so I'm gonna run to the drugstore. We appreciate your prayers so much. (Oh, and Hannah appreciates them too! She read your comments and is planning on an update sometime after she gets home Monday. I miss her SO MUCH! Don't forget to pray for a safe flight late Sunday night for her, please.) Blessings, Kate p.s. I THINK you can give blood elsewhere and credit it to Noah. I'm working on that and will post details when I know that I've got it right. update. (from Hannah)Hi everyone! Well, we finished VBS today, and there is something really sad I need to share. There was this little girl who came everyday to VBS. She is about 3 years old, and so cute. When it was almost time to go, she came up to me and told me that she wanted to come home with me(!) When I told her that she could not come, and that she had to go to her own house, she shook her head no and said that if I left her she would be all alone and scared. : ( I have no idea what her family is like, apart from the fact that her grandma brings her to VBS every day. Please pray for her, Nessa.On the other hand, we are leaving Sunday around 7ish PM. (Is that even a real word??? 7ish?!?) Anywaayyy.... got to run. In Christ Alone, Hannah Grace Estes. It's Time for Some Campaignin'!
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MemorizationWith our new school year just around the corner, I'm getting in to planning mode. {grin}For our memorization time, Noah will be memorizing our First Year Poetry Memorization poems. We've switched gears for memorization with John this year -- most of the things he'll be memorizing relate to what he and Noah will be studying in History this year. 1) The Books of the BibleRather than memorize one piece a week (like he's done in the past & like Noah will be doing), John will be working on one piece a month. I think this list is a little ambitious, but completely do-able. As it is, it is only enough material to get us through March, so even if a few pieces take us longer, we'll have three months of wiggle room. Greetings from Minnesota!Hi, this is Hannah updating the blog. The Danielsons (the family I am staying with) are awsome folks, and since they went to our church when they lived in SC, it has been fun catching up. : ) We did our first VBS session today. It was fun playing with the kids. I am going to do my own Blessings List, then I have to go.1. We arrived safely. Plus, our plane landed EARLIER than we expected. (And, no I am not kidding.) 2. When I called mom this morning, she said Noah is doing pretty good. 3. I have NOT been eaten alive by the "state bird". : ) My bug spray works! I am so sorry this is so short. In Christ alone, Hannah Grace Estes. { Last Page } { Page 2 of 5 } { Next Page } |
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