Tag Archive for Family

#40 Saturday Top Five Laughs

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I am trying to get back into the groove of writing a Saturday Top Five Laughs post. I am still trying to find my blogging barrings after a month off, plus the holidays and so on. Without further delay let’s join The Mommyhood Chronicles for Saturday Top Five Laughs – week #40 (for us)!

5. When we were at Victoria Park Nova Scotia, our son said the water looked like root beer! 😉

4. Last week would have been Elvis Presley’s 80th birthday. I grew up listening to Elvis because my parents were Elvis fans. When I mentioned Elvis to the children, some of the younger ones asked who he was so I told them briefly who he was and then I shared a couple of music videos. As we were watching the first video, Jr., our three year old goes, “He can sing.” Just matter of factly. I forgot to tell my mom this when I was talking to her. She will get a kick out of it!

3. Jr. called a red pom pom a pimple and when I chuckled, he goes, “What’s this called again?” 😉

2. One of our son’s bemoaned, “Ohhh, I think I broke my tailbone.” Not the funny part. The next part is…A younger son responded, “But you don’t have a tail.” He said it seriously. 😉

1. The children were all reading Calvin and Hobbes…need I say more? It was fun listening to their pure-hearted laughter.


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Week #4 Saturday Top Five Laughs – Join the Blog Hop!

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

I think I did better writing down funny things as they happened this week so it is officially time to laugh with the Goulds again! We have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #3 – for us – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. We were discussing what to do with the eggs from the day and probably throughout the week since the little ones haven’t been good at being thorough in their egg gathering! I suggested we not wash the eggs so they’d last longer and keep them for us. My husband proceeded to tell our daughter to put a “U” on a piece of paper and put the paper on the egg cartons in the fridge. My daughter went, “Huh? A “U”?” My husband and I said at the same time, “Yes, for us/unwashed.” She goes, “Why not WW for us unwashed?” Baffled we said, “WW?” and laughed. Then she clued in, laughed and put her head on the table!

4. I was working on photos for a blog post, the rest of the family was playing RISK and my little guy was in my chair with me singing in my ear and giving me kisses. I have no idea what he was singing but it was cute…until he took my glasses off my face and covered my eyes with his hand!

3. This week my little guy has been asking me, “You my mommy?” I always respond, “Yes, I’m your mommy” then he gives me a hug and kiss. After a few times I started asking him, “Are you my baby boy?” and he responds with, “Yep!” Sweet times! 🙂

2. My second oldest, “B” and I stayed up a couple nights and played with the kittens. We just laughed at their antics as they chased anything that moved. Boy are their nails sharp!

1. I was sitting on the computer writing this blog post eating a bowl of blueberries and my third daughter was sitting next to me. Then she says, “Mommy I think I flicked boogers in your blueberries.” I was like, “What!?” Then she laughed. Mean. Mean. Mean girl. She just read this and laughed again. Evil I tell you!


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5 Random Facts About Our Family

What would we do without family? Family is so important to each of our existence….unless of course you are a hermit. A friend from my teens and I use to talk and joke about becoming hermits. On hard days I am still tempted to become one and live in a cave somewhere all alone, but know in reality I’d be very lonely.

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Each of our families are so different. Our families are made up of not only completely different DNA, but personalities, experiences and history. We are totally different packages. That’s why I want to share 5 random facts about our family.

1. We love pizza. ALL ten of us.
2. We rent a 30+ year old home.
3. We have awesome landlords. Example: A few weeks ago the furnace went out and they offered to put us up in a hotel until it was fixed. We opted to stay at home because it was just easier with all the animals etc. We had to really convince them we would be ok. We all bunked in our master bedroom like one big sleep over. They even brought us heaters.
4. We usually make homemade banners and decorations for birthdays. Decorating the night before so the birthday person wakes up to a festive house.
5. We live with mice that just don’t seem to want to go away or get caught in mouse traps. 🙁 Wishin’ we could have the cats inside to clear the varmints out!


Inspired by another one of Mama Kat’s Writing Prompts: 5 Random facts about you and your family.

 

 


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My 3 year Old Broke My Elbow! Ouch!

How about this for a freak accident! I’m laying on my side with my hand under my head.  My 3 year old daughter came bounding on the bed, which is nothing new.  She kneed my elbow perfectly on the corner.  OUCH!  But, being a mom I blew it off.  It’ll go away, right!?  That was Saturday the 21st.  By Monday, when I got up my elbow was still not moving well and was still was hurting pretty bad.  I went to my regular doctor, who told me it was acting like it was broken and sent me to x-ray. The x-ray place tells me I have a “comminuted fracture of the electronaut”. Not having an ounce of medical knowledge, I’m thinking my elbow exploded. They sent me home and I had to call the orthopedic the next day.  I prepared myself all day for the worst.  The orthopedic doctor put up the x-ray, Which unfortunately I don’t have the picture of and reveals my daughter had broke the corner of my elbow off!  It’s floating around and the reason it hurt so bad is that the tendons were/are rubbing that broken piece around.  Upside is no surgery and only a sling!  Hooray!

My 3 Year Old Broke My Elbow! Ouch!

So, she sent me on my merry way. Wednesday the 25th rolls around and my elbow was as red as Rudolph’s nose and hot. To me that’s infection.  Ugh…..  Back to the doctor I went this past Friday.  He told me I need to relax more and stop doing so much. Ok, I’d LOVE to do that.  However, I need to care for my family.

As of today, the swelling has gone down and I’m feeling better each day. I have a feeling this is going to be a long healing process.


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Children at Work & at Play!

I captured some shots of our children at work and at play yesterday. I used the flickr slide show again. I just wanted to try it this week to see how I liked them and how you all liked them. Might try something different next week. Not sure what yet.

The first photo is of one of our older daughters (the third oldest) playing with her horses. I snapped a shot because soon enough she won’t be playing with them any more. Sniff. Sniff. She’s growing up! The second one is of our youngest daughter with our reading lesson book, 100 Easy Lessons, which I have used with all six older children to teach them to read. Blondie is doing wonderful and I really believe that the foundation that ABCmouse.com – Over 3,000 Educational Activities – First Month Free – Click here! gives the children has helped her supersede where she would have been otherwise. She is nearly sounding out the words silently and saying them fast – we are only on lesson 14! We are very pleased with ABCMouse.com. I don’t have to conj-ole or bribe the children to do their school work on ABCMouse. It’s that much fun. Ok, enough of my shameless, unpaid plug! 😉 (Update: I have since added an affiliate link above due to the amount of searches for it leading here! So we earn a few dollars if you click on our link and purchase a subscription.)

Back to the photos…next comes the blocks that were scattered on the floor. And if I was participating in my old friend’s “The Children Were Here” posts this is one that I would post as we always seem to have these blocks scattered. Then I shot one of a couple of school books that were laying around.

The next photo after that is of our two older boys shoveling the driveway for their Dad. The thing is I didn’t send them out there to do it, they volunteered. Granted they have always loved to shovel snow for some reason, but still it does this mama’s heart good when they do things like this without asking and especially thinking of their Dad who had to drive home on messy roads!

My oldest daughter has taken a dislike of being caught on camera, she’d rather be behind the lense these days! So when she put her laptop up in front of her face today as I was snapping a picture I told her I was going to post it! So that’s why that one is there! She’s a hard worker that one and has some solid work ethics already. She won’t go to the barn if she has too much work to do, nor will she goof off until her work is done. We are proud of her.

The rest of the photos are of two of the younger children doing their best to help shovel a little bit, the snow plow (the boys wanted me to get one of all the snow flying over the truck but I kept missing it) and just of our time outside.

The last photo is of a masked man…not sure where he came from or what he was doing in my house but my daughter caught him red handed! Isn’t he positively evil looking? Ha! 😉


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A FREE Nativity Booklet

If you are observing the birth of Jesus this Christmas, you may want to check out this free Nativity booklet from Answers in Genesis:

Direct link: http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/files/2010/12/nativity-booklet.pdf?utm_source=AiGSuperSpecials&utm_medium=email&utm_content=FreeDownload&utm_campaign=SS12222011

Merry Christmas!


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Confessions on XFactor Night

Ok, I admit we are XFactor junkies at our house. My husband is a huge music buff (it was at a Christian music concert that he found a relationship with God!) and I…well…get pulled in by the contestants’ stories. When my husband was laid off a few years ago we discovered Britain’s Got Talent through Susan Boyle’s sensational audition that went viral, that in turn lead to us finding out about the UK’s XFactor. I am actually almost ashamed to admit this but we watch the UK, Australian and now the US version of the show. My husband and I usually watch it first, as with tonight’s US show and then watch it with our children. That way any scantily clad dancers, inappropriate lyrics etc. can be screened out of their view. Most of the time the show is pretty much ok, but it’s the music/entertainment industry’s standards that mess things up – at least for our family.

The girls categories on both the US and UK versions are strong this year. It was the boys category that was strong on the Aussie version.

So are their any other XFactor fans out there? Any thoughts? We think Simon Cowell makes the show and the chemistry between him and the other US judges is pretty fun to watch. After all the show is for our entertainment, right?

Now off to my cheap date night with my husband! (I did not get this posted because as I nursed my son to sleep he lulled me to sleep! I know all you nursing moms understand! 😉 )

The results of last night’s show are on tonight on Fox.

I have started three posts this week and have not got back to them, so I am trying to get them posted now.


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Playmates & Brothers


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Fall Canning and Apple Picking Photos

Thrifty Thursday is all about canning and finding ways to provide good food for our families. Canning can be expensive, but if you are going to do it for the long haul then the initial investment is worth it. I bought canning supplies back in 2001 and we have only used them a handful of times until this year. Friends have been good to us providing produce and jars.

Apple picking. Check local orchards, neighbors who do nothing with the apples just falling to the ground in their yards and gleaning programs set up by non-profit organizations and farm partnerships. This applies to other fruits and vegetables too. We do this not only for ourselves but to provide local food pantries with fresh fruits and veggies – the ones that take them anyways.

This is actually fermenting sauerkraut and it is a before photo as I think it was a failed first attempt….maybe….haven’t tasted it yet to know for sure. Kind of scared to and you’ll know why by the next photo. A friend told me it should be fine, but I still have my doubts….

And here is one of the second batch with the first batch….notice the difference in coloring:

This is our stash of some of our canned tomatoes. We also have salsa, jam and applesauce. We are planning to make more applesauce tomorrow with two families. We will have three moms and 24 kids…..thankfully we will have a few over the age of 16! Plus some other young ladies helping equal the number above age 12!

Gleaning often means taking the leftovers that have fallen to the ground and are not perfect. However, they are perfect for canning and dehydrating.

Apple picking/gleaning is also a wonderful way to spend a beautiful day together as a family.

Happy Thrifty Thursday!


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What I Hate About Photography

I love taking pictures of our family, of our outings etc. Photos seem to make memories last longer.

What I hate about photography is is getting the image so it can be used in multiple ways. For example: I changed the theme of Faith and Family Reviews last tonight and discovered that I could customize the header. I thought, “This will be great because then I can use family photos and make it more personal!” Yeah, right.

I went through dozens of photos only to discover that many of our photos are completely useless in regards to being a header. As with the one featured, it is blurry. Bah humbug. So bear with me as I learn the art of taking photos so they make great headers.

Perhaps we will take a vote on this month’s header from the few that are sort of useable. I will try to remember to switch them out over the next week so please let me know what you think.

Just maybe I will get some shots taken that will be useful….either that or I will find out my camera is the problem…..


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