Stress Balls and Other Stuff

A quick game of Chook toss

After daddy brought in the newly finished game

There are 3 more for sale with "chooks"

Then because  D____ had one at school we needed to make stress balls too

Fill a balloon with flour and add 2 more layers of balloons and a "mask"

See the video here

They weren't perfect but it was sorta fun. No one made me a stress ball tho'

maybe because I don't have stress?

For weeks my dryer was making a noise similar to a kindergarten on candy canes, or 

a number of small animals with their tails caught in a door,  or

...well you get the idea. He had tried to take the dryer apart a few weeks ago and gave up

"they probably don't want people fixing these things"

We put most of the Christmas bonus in the savings account because we were sure that one of these days there would be no more screeching and the dryer would just give up.

The other night tho, he was perusing a fix-it site and saw the proper way to get to the guts of this dryer. He found the problem, called the appliance store and -small miracle- they had the parts in stock! He used the leaf blower to clear out 10 years of lint and my dryer now runs beautifully.

Unfortunately, the Christmas bonus probably has to fill in the gap of 8 hr work days and no

Faith Builder scholarship fund as of yet.  The state budget hold up has trickled down to  that part of our lives.

I finished my litter of chickens

to go with the toss game.

In preparation for Christmas day, I made about 75 dumplings and 48 egg rolls

and didn't want to waste my quiet day, so I took a con-ed course on Bloodborne Pathogens.

I need to keep up with my con-ed if I want to keep my EMT certification.

The other night I thought I saw something unwanted in my pantry, so I started cleaning out.

I had been hoping to just buy those nice canisters from Rubbermaid, but decided not to wait.

I have glass jars and Sharpie markers. I don't have great handwriting but Hope was in bed.

We will have to see how long it lasts...an no, there is not a" before" picture.

He's Home!

But first a few things so I remember...and you might find them slightly interesting too.

Shekinah gets bored on her stay-at-home days and I quite frankly am not bored. It would be very easy to let her watch B-bear movies all day, but really how much mama and papa bear can we watch?

I remembered a craft from my elementary school days and thought maybe she could do it without too much supervision. Sure enough! I had to start the wrapping but after awhile she got the hang of it.

And best of all the other kids were impressed, they never saw that particular craft.

Hope and I have been saving our dollars from small jobs and finally

we had enough to buy an overlock! I really debated buying a medium priced ($400) machine, 

but settled for the $199 Brother 1034D off Amazon.

My mom ran a couple dozen diapers on it and we did some dresses,

broke a needle (operator error), and changed out threads a few times and I still like it.

It is noisy, but it has speed!

Then the much awaited Christmas Program. 

I only needed to make one dress this year. Faith could wear Hope's dress from 

Big Brother's wedding in 2011

and a dear friend gave Shekinah a hand-me-down last weekend and it was perfect.

Then finally! We went to the Inter-City bus station (I could write a whole blog post about that bus station. I'm pretty sure it was built in the 70's and only recently enforced the no-smoking rules.

The carpet is probably the original floor covering as it carries the odors of  at least 25 years of cigarette smoke. The ticket holders for the next buses were an interesting mix. There was one middle-aged white man making a number of phone calls. His phone calls included a call to someone in FL in which he compared our weather to theirs- it's the same. Then suddenly he took our Lord's name in vain and called another person and asked why they hung up on him-made me flinch he sounded so angry with Him. Then yet another number and asked for 'Nicole on 3rd floor a social worker'  and did she talk to so-and-so and what did they discuss.  We were distracted when Shekinah noted a woman walking on the sidewalk outside with large strategically placed holes in her jeans, 'MOM SHE HAS HOLES IN HER PANTS' I realized that she was opening the door of the bus station to come in  and I quickly, quietly told Shekinah that we won't talk about other people's clothes. That didn't stop the stares. There were other quiet people sitting and waiting and I wondered about their stories.--OK that is enough)

Finally,just before our parking meter needed to be fed more coins, the right bus pulled in the parking area! Sure enough, one person looked very familiar.

I expected a bus load of tired people to come down the steps, instead a total of three people were on the bus. I didn't realize they would run a bus 63 miles between the two cities for 3 people, but they did and I'm glad!

God gave Ben three seats to himself for the entire flight, so he managed to sleep some of the time.

Madam Shekinah was suddenly shy around "my Ben" but till evening she stuck like a leech.

We saw some of his pictures tonite. It is good that he saved some of the stories till he got home, but he had a stretching time, learned much independence <insert sad face> and will probably find our small house a bit confining.

I saw the title of an article tonite "Go and Let God Stop You" I reluctantly showed it to Ben and he said, "yeah, that's what I've been hearing the last four months."

Zeke responded with " Well, Jesus tells us to be like children, it's like 'get in the way and then He can tell you what to do'."

Well it's time for bed, the house smells good because I finally remembered to make baked oatmeal for my DH's breakfast, maybe I'll have a bowl before bed. I also started some kefir. Update on that tomorrow...or the next day. edited to see if e-mail works

Cyber Monday- updated 1

Cyber Monday didn't go the way it was supposed to. I was going to be busy sewing in the morning and about 10 AM was going to post all the things I have for sale. I am making Faith and Shekinah doll dresses for their dolls this Christmas and figured I could just make an extra couple of pieces and sell them...

Instead I was paying the credit card bills, and shopping for bread flour etc with a herd of cats.

The little chicken bean bags that are almost finished are missing the "beans" because my E-bay order did not show up on Saturday. Any way here are the little last minute things that Hope and I threw together in the last few days. Shipping should be around $5 per order, unless I can put it in a large envelope then it should be around $3.

2 zippers (one hidden) 5 x 7"  $7

one zipper 6 x 7"   $6

one zipper  4x 7  $5

#2 available  $10

one zipper  5x 7  $6

doll dress, fits 18" dolls (American Girl, Generation doll)

$6

same size $7 bodice is lined- sold

I sold this particular one, but have fabric to make another

$7

pink panda PJ pants flannel $3

dotty outfit $7 sold

Pillow, pillow case and sleeping bag

$15 (polka dot is sold)

sleeping bags close with velcro and are filled with quilt batting.

They are fun to make!

Hope was busy making clutch purses out of a pile of fat quarters I picked out.

She is letting some friends have first pick and then the rest will be for sale.

These are the chickens. I have a few finished but am waiting on my pellet order.

$4 a piece or $20 for 6... 

Our Thanksgiving

This year we had no Thanksgiving dinner invitations.

We should probably have done something more radical, but

I like what we did.

My hubby decided that each of the children should pick one or two dishes and make them for our feast. He chose the turkey and gravy.

Joe chose the mashed potatoes and cheesecake.

Hope made broccoli salad and candy kabobs.

Faith made pumpkin pie and pilgrim hats.

Shekinah made jello.

I made little chickens....actually I did make baked corn.

Much of it could be prepped on Wednesday, but the turkey needed careful watching on Thursday.

We actually only made a half of turkey that's why it looks so small.

He added apples and onions and fruit juice to the pan (he wanted cider but didn't see any at the store he shopped)

After church on Thursday Joe was chopping potatoes for the kettle

and Zeke was measuring the ingredients for corn bread.

We actually sat down by 1PM. I even pulled out some glass plates!

We might need to make this a tradition!

It was all very tasty, but we learned that pumpkin from a tin can does not taste as good as home canned pumpkin. We also learned that reading recipes is very important  1/4 does not equal 1 .Raisins are not necessary in broccoli salad at our house and "salad dressing" does not mean Ranch dressing.

The only thing that kept it from being perfect is that we were missing Ben. We had a record of 3 people dreaming the other night that Ben was home.

Things You Learn

Today I learned that there are new ways to use your ironing board.

If you turn the board "backwards" you can iron a shirt faster. Use the square end and the whole front of the shirt is on the top of your board.

That's what you learn when you tell your friend to bring her kids over and the ironing so she can stay longer and we can solve the world's problems.

This week I improved my pizza crust!

I was reading how to make Chinese  scallion pancakes here and the author said that the trick is to "laminate" your dough. Now in the woodworking industry  laminates are sort of "fake" and "not the best"  but let me tell you, in cooking "laminating" is quite tasty.

I oiled my pan, stretched out the dough, spread a thin layer of oil on top of the dough.

Then fold the dough in quarters. Now you have 6 layers of dough with a thin layer of oil between!

Carefully pull/push your dough back out to the pizza pan size the viola! After you bake that, you have crispy, chewy layers of dough.

BTW the Chinese pancakes were tasty too!

Did you know? If you irritate your five year old she will draw house plans that  have you living separate from your spouse and she will live in yet another house (above).

BUT if you are nice, she will relent and build just two houses with mama and daddy living in one  and "me and my husband" living in the one beside.

We don't know who "T" is.

I am thankful tonight that she had her "feet hurt" fit while daddy was home and we could share duties.She ended up allowing me to rub her feet with peppermint oil and give her a dose of  "medicine". The medicine is pancake syrup in a syringe. I was suspicious that the pain was in her heart and not in her feet when the dose of Motrin the other day worked in mere minutes. I'm pretty sure that tonite's episode was set off by extreme tiredness.

Pray for Ben's decision making: He is considering a ten day stint with Samaritan's Purse in Greece before he comes home. Pray that if he is to come straight home it is clear to him and all doors are firmly closed.

My Learning Curve and other Fun Stuff

This year I was a bit on edge during the month of October because last year Shekinah did a lot of crying during October, it was also the 2nd anniversary of her leaving everything familiar.Last year daddy and I went away for a weekend in September and the children stayed with their cousins. I always sort of wondered if that had anything to do with it.   This year she is in Kindergarten and I really wondered if that would help or make things more difficult. This year we also had an out-of-state wedding to attend in September, so we took Shekinah with us. October raced on by and I really didn't think I was noticing any extra crying or grieving. The dreaded "my feet hurt" that I heard over and over last year, didn't show up until last week.
My heart sank when she sat on the sofa at nap time and pointed her toes and said "my feet hurt". I cuddled her and read her a book. After her nap I asked if her feet still hurt, she gave me a grin and said "no".
Yesterday our congregation had an ordination for a bishop. Our Mennonite churches (maybe all Mennonite churches) use the lot to allow God to choose the man that is to be the next minister or bishop. Anyway, it is a very sober service and yeah, we decided to take our children with us. After all the big kids can sit and the little one will be sleepy and she will probably crawl into my lap and sleep. Right?
Well part way through she started her funky sighs that she makes when I know she is building up to something. I settled her a bit, and then "my feet hurt!" After awhile I decided we need to do a bathroom break and see if we can slow the coming storm. Her little feet pitter pattered with no pain down the steps to the bathroom. Even tho she didn't "have to", she did. I asked if her feet hurt only when she is sitting. She didn't answer such a silly question.  Finally I realized that this she is worried, she really didn't understand what was going on and it worried her...it really wasn't about the snap on her purse or the velcro on her shoes. I knew if I didn't settle her soon I would miss the whole reason we came to the service.
I sat her on my lap and quickly thought "how do you explain an ordination to a 5 y.o.?...they are going to make a bishop ( I know that is a very PA Dutch phrase)...no that won't work, she can clearly see they are not making anything up there. They are ordaining...no that takes too much explanation." So I settled on, " they are waiting to see who God picks to take Dwayne's place, you know they are going to Thailand, watch, the men are going to put those books up there and then Dwayne is going to open the book, can you see?"

Now her attention was caught, she had been off-balance ever since we sang a song in the middle of the service , "mom we going home now?" Strange church, different minister- he had a ringing voice and a missed afternoon nap. I almost didn't catch the next worrying thing, after the book was opened and we realized who God had called, she glanced at me. "Mom why you crying?"(There were really only a few tears) Then she looked up front and all the ministers had gathered around the new bishop to pray for him and his wife. I have no idea what was going through her mind. She looked worried all over again. I tried to explain what she was seeing. Then finally we sang and the service was truly over. We made it!

I have seen her pull things together a lot lately, I'm not sure if it is just maturity or does it have something to do with the vitamins and probiotic we started her on? Whatever, I am just thankful that not all the hard stuff comes at once.


Things she is learning:  "mom that is a NEW-nited States flag"  "That sign says four-zero"  "Did you know that people need to give the mail even if it is raining or snowing every day, but not Thanksgiving" "The teacher has a Toyota."
"When this baby came to me his name was 'Zel, now her name is Teddy."
And tonight she brought home papers with the words "mud" "man" "men" and "mop". She will soon be reading!


Things I am learning: There is a place called Office for Vocational Rehabilitation who very well might be able to help us figure out how to fund some very expensive driving lessons and adaptive driving evaluations that a certain son will be needing in the next year. We were very thankful to find out about them.  I also learned that it is illegal, at least in PA, for a person to drive using a prosthesis. Meaning that the prosthetic limb cannot be touching the controls of the car. I also learned that it would be illegal for me to use the adaptive driving paraphernalia in a car unless I am trained to use it. (Updated: Apparently the person that gave me that information was misinformed. You do, however, need an evaluation before you can drive with a prosthesis.)

I also would like to see someone write a piece contrasting self- esteem and self-worth   also, humility and worthlessness.

Our Boring Hum-Drum Life

Life in these parts is just moseying along. Last Thursday my hubby came in from splitting wood with his hand dripping blood. He looked a tad pale. We got the bleeding controlled. He told me he was using the wedge to split a log and a piece of the wedge must have split off and hit him.

"Do you think there is anything in there?"

"No, I think I could tell. It just hurts- the whole way up my arm!"

I left the decision up to the expert, after all, he deals with splinters and foreign objects more often than I do.

Then five days later when it wasn't healing up quite as expected, he was playing with a magnet and ran it over his hand. Guess what!? The magnet stuck to his hand!

He thought I should just use my skills and carefully incise that spot and take out the piece of metal.

"Sorry dear, I'm not that skilled."

The doctor was impressed with the magnet trick though and took a picture to use in a future speech.

Since this one goes to school, I normally go shopping alone.

But this week I took her with me to W-mart, I forgot how loud she is!

AND that she has no filter.

We walked in the door, "MOM, EWW! look at that guy!"

I froze, and looked around whew it was just a Halloween decoration and it was "ewww".

Walked past the toothbrushes and she declared that she needed one.

"no dear, you just got a new one ,"

"You never get me anything!"

" I know I'm terrible."

Next aisle, loudly with an audience "You are just a terrible mother!"

Turned the corner and needed to wait until some little girls moved out of the way

"Mom they are just standing there!"

Next aisle a lady with no hair and a kerchief on her head, 

"Hey! She's wearing a covering."

I had enough, I stopped and talked very quietly and close to her ear, "It is NOT OK to just say everything you think. You need to talk quietly."

I thought I had told her this before.

Maybe it worked, because she missed some announcement opportunities on the way out.

Blowing the milkweed seeds.

We didn't find any Monarch caterpillars this year.

Then Thursday night I got a text from Zeke (who was in a nearby inner-city kids club) saying 

"We're not exactly sure of motive but there was an attempted shooting outside. Karen (one of the teachers) had a bullet hole through her skirt. Caused general chaos. And we had to take all the children home in car rides. Check Fox news."

I figured that it was a case of "wrong place at the wrong time"

But it turned out that it almost could not have been a case of mistaken identity.

So really not sure what was going on. 

Between the boy that is sleeping in a bamboo house on stilts somewhere "over there" and the boy that sends texts like this, I'm getting some extra prayer time.

Gotta remember the Praise story too

A number of weeks ago, Ben was headed out on the first missions trip from Bible school he is attending. He was headed to a desert that has yurts for houses.

The day before he left, he sent a "urgent prayer request"

"A small pimple that was on my knee has suddenly grown and is getting painful. Advice please."

Since I sleep when he is awake, he got my advice when he was sleeping.

When I woke the next day, the e-mail said.

"going to the hospital to have it seen, it grew to the diameter of a baseball."

Finally caught up to him mere hours before he was to leave on a fourteen hour journey of layovers and plane flights.

"It feels better, they lanced it and irrigated it and wrapped it. Gave me antibiotics and told me to come back for the next ten days to have it wrapped."

Umm, "so are you still going?"

"Of course"

"Well Lord, he's yours, but take care of him for me."

Got a precious e-mail, text message "we're here, knee looks good"

Eleven days after they left, we were able to Skype again and it turns out that God had it all taken care of before they even left. The contact that they met, was a medical doctor.

She took care of him.

So the fact that I'm not quite as worried while he is on this trip is because my faith muscles are stronger?  I hope so.