The Lactate Consultant and the Dr.

Kelsey is nursing little Toby.  She was having some problems and remembered that she was told that she can call the hosp. and be able to talk to a lactate consultant.  So she called the hosp. and they said that they would transfer her to that dept. just hold on.....

ring...ring....ring...

A deep MALE voice..."Hello"

"ummmm, is this a lactate consultant?" 

(dear Kelsey's mind is racing...why do they have a man doing this job?)

'a WHAT?"

"a lactate consultant?"

"WHAT is a lactate consultant?"

"someone who helps women with nursing their babies"

"Oh, God, NO!  I am just a patient!!"

Hospital blooper for sure!!!!

  Haven't laughed that hard in a long time.  Visions of this man laying in his hosp. bed and gets a call with that kind of question!   We are hoping that he found it as humorous as we did!


Then she reminded me of another phone call she made in the middle of the night when she went into labor with Morgan.  She needed to call her Dr., so she dialed the number....


ring....ring....ring...
a very sleepy voice, "hello"
"is this Dr. Weiner?"
"who?"
"Dr. Weiner?"
"oh, no, you got the wrong number"


I am sure that poor woman was certain that someone was playing a prank on her.


What makes these calls even more humorous is the fact that Kelsey does NOT like making phone calls and didn't even before she made these 2 calls.  She is just so thankful that she does not know the recipients of her calls and that we can get a good laugh about them.

Until next time.....

Computer Fast So Far

We have made it to day 4 of the computer fast and here I am - on the computer!! 

This is what we have learned so far......

It is impossible for me to stay off this thing, due to having to do orders, research, school stuff, news, weather, etc.. How did we do all these things before computer age?  I actually remember using an encyclopedia, reading a newspaper and ordering through catalogs!   Anyway, the last 4 days, I felt guilty being connected, because the boys stayed off their computer and did not complain at all.  Dave & I decided to allow the boys to play on the computer on the weekends as a reward for staying off all week, and I can be on Facebook and blog spot only Sundays.  We are attempting to keep up with the journals, but not with much excitement so far.  We will only journal during the week and not weekends.  We will see how this week goes.  Can we continue for a month?   Verdict is still out.

Here are a few things we did this week.....

Rescued our run-a-way wagon that decided to take a hike down the barn ramp, across the road and over the bank....

 

discovered we no longer need tractors as long as we have these boys around...... :)

 

ate our lunch around the campfire.....

 

and made hay.......

 

It was a good week!

Until next time.......

Computer Fast

My, how it sucks us in!  This machine that I happen to be typing on.  It is spelled C.O.M.P.U.T.E.R and somehow I feel like it has become my enemy.  I haven't been brave enough to actually keep track of all the time that I spend on it, all the wasted minutes turned into hours.  I understand there is much good and so much we can learn from the internet and I am not condemning that.  It sure has made our lives easier and we have gained much knowledge.  I am referring more to the games, the videos, the entertainment, and yes, here is comes......it is hard for me to say and so I will quietly utter it under my breathe.........FaceBook! 

This past winter was a difficult one.  We seemed to be sick all winter and having to be in the house,
we ended up being on the computer, while impatiently waiting for Spring to arrive.  And when it did arrive, habits had already been firmly in place.  The first thing I do upon getting out of bed is head for the keyboard and fix my eyes on the screen to see if anything new happened through the night and the boys would head right for their game computer to sit, eyes fixated to the screen.  I also began to see some attitudes that concerned me, including my own.  

Today, I knew something needed to change!  Enough!  No More!  And I told myself "you have to toughen up, mama!"

  If it is "No More" computer for awhile for the boys, than I also have to do the same for myself as much as possible.  I still have my internet business and need to check emails, so that is where I will draw my line - no extras - with the exception of movie night.  Anyway, my dilemma is....how do I occupy these boys?  I still don't quite have the answer, but tonight while watering the flowers, an idea started churning around in my head (thank you, Lord!).  Make them journal!  JOURNAL!!   Boys journal?  I will soon see if I lost my marbles, for all they know is that I have a "project" lined up for this summer and I am waiting till everyone is in the house this evening to make my announcement.  I am really counting on Dave coming to my rescue on this one!  It IS a good idea, or isn't it?  

In our journals each day, we will have to write:

Date:

Weather:

2 Things I am thankful for: (cannot repeat from other days)

Bible Verse:

Someone I prayed for:

Something I found in nature: (will keep this as a collection)

Something new I learned today:  (could be anything from a new word to a new fact)

Book I am reading:  (we will have to read each day)

Project I am working on:

Something that made me happy:

Something that made me sad:

Something nice I did for someone else:

My exercise of the day:

This journal idea also applies to me. I will be doing it right along with them.  I am still hoping to come up with a project that we can work on together.  Haven't got that far.   I know that there are other mothers who are in the same dilemma and I am really hoping that they will share some of their great ideas in the comment section of this post.  After a month of this journaling, I will update on this blog what we learned and how it really panned out. My goal is for it to create some motivation, some quality family time, and new interests.  As of tomorrow morning, (Thursday May 30th), this all begins.  So, stay tuned, have a wonderful month of June and feel free to send prayers Heavenward on our behalf and all families that struggle with putting technology in it's proper place.  It could be the first prayer in your journal.  :)

Until next time......

A Surprise Gift

Today, we received a gift that God had so graciously moved in some one's heart to purchase for our family.  It has created a myriad of feelings - surprise, amazement, unworthiness, curiosity (who would be so generous to us?), excited (SUPER excited!!), loved and oh so very thankful.  We were not asking God for this, for we were able to get ours in working order, (go here for more details) even though it still has several things wrong with it . However, He saw fit to bless us far above any expectations through an unknown giver.  So, whoever you are.....THANK YOU from the very bottom of our hearts and may blessings be returned to you 100 fold!  

Here is the gift and I LOVE it!!!

Until next time.......

Best Gift for Our Birthdays!

This month marks 47 years for both Dave & I - on the 1st for me - on the 10th for him.  They were very low key days, no big celebrations and that was fine with me.  However, we both received a wonderful gift!  A new grandson!  

Toby Nelson David was born on May 8th - strong, healthy and just adorable! 

Welcome to our family sweet Toby and Happy Birthday to us!!

Until next time......

Organized Chaos

Oh, it can be done!  You can have organized chaos.  I know because we did it this past winter.  For almost 9 years on this farm, we have accumulated stuff.  Stuff, you know like....too big/too small clothing....decorations....toys....and lots of other stuff that we just might be able to use "tomorrow".  It don't take long to become overwhelmed by stuff. 

Since we are no longer milking in the evenings, we (orchestrated by Dave) decided that it was time to de-stuff.  Now I don't know how you and your spouse work together deciding what needs to be de-stuffed, but things got somewhat heated around here at times.  Don't get me wrong, I was more than ready to clean out and get rid of and simplify!  However, the value of "stuff" depends on the eye of the beholder and for some reason what I beheld looked different to some of the other pairs of eyes around here.  So, we had to come to an agreement.  If it was junk (worthless or broken), it got tossed onto the back of the dump truck to be burnt (yep, yep - fine with me), but if it was something that someone would buy at the Salvation Army Store, or we could give away, it got boxed and loaded into the back of the van (and here is where we had trouble.  "Nobody is going to buy that!"  "Yes, they will, I would!"  (and obviously I did and now am needing to get rid of it and I am wondering how we got to this chaotic state????))   Hey, if everyone would decide to just burn everything they don't need, there would be no second-hand shops, right?  :)  And this family right here would be running around in rags that belong on the back of the dump-truck!

The men started in the summer house, and I was too chicken to ask what all they put on that dump-truck, but so far nothing of importance came up missing.  Then the house, ahhhh.....more my territory.  We started in the attic, every box, every barrel, every bag (well not quite "every", but close enough) got investigated.  Bags and boxes were brought down to the next level to be sorted and either returned to attic, lugged to the dump-truck or van.  I just had to take a picture of this amazing "organized chaos".....

Made my mind want to shut down and plead with the men to just load it all onto the back of the dump-truck, which they would've complied happily, however, in the midst of the mess, there was "value", I beheld it.  One thing that was confirmed in my mind again is that although de-stuffing can be a painful process - it is extremely freeing!!  One box at a time and very soon the room was tidily empty.  EMPTY looks good!  I like empty!  So empty that sounds echo off the walls. :)

We traveled to our bedrooms, sorted all our clothing and trinkets and either boxed or tossed what was not absolutely necessary.

Next was the school room/laundry and once again, boxes of stuff got put in van and shared with fellow home schoolers or dumped.  Our porch was next in line.  This room was started on our Thanksgiving/Christmas break last year and is now almost finished except for a door on the pantry and something on floor.

The warm weather arrived before we had a chance to complete all the organizing we had planned but, now outside work ranks higher.  The rest will have to wait for rainy days.  

A thread of thought kept running through my mind as we organized our chaos.  What we have accomplished was all external organizing - creating organized messes so that we can clean up our physical belonging!  I am longing to do the same thing in my soul.  Open the doors to all the rooms in my heart, rip them apart and de-stuff.  What about that room where pride is hidden behind the spotless mirror?  What about that room where impure thoughts are hidden under the righteous talk?  Let's peek in the room where gossip, criticism and condemnation are hiding their ugly heads behind the beautifully hung curtain of faked niceness.   And THAT room!!  You know....the one where you just want ALL the stuff to be loaded on the dump-truck and be able to start afresh with God's peace bouncing off the empty walls?   One room, one box, one bag at time - only you and the Heavenly Father above - sorting, tossing, keeping - and the end result is pure, genuine peace of heart and a love for the Maker of our souls.

Until next time........... 

New Career

When we are young, we want to be older, when we are old, we want to be younger.  When we are in school, we want to be out and then when we are out of school, we wished we were back in.  

Well, now as a wife, mother and grammy, I regret being in a hurry to be "out" and not taking the time to pursue more knowledge and a nursing degree.  That medical knowledge would've been quite useful in the past years, and future years, of raising children.  But, school just wasn't my thing at 17-18 years old - out, out, out - I wanted to get a job, earn money, have fun and that is what I did.  

Now at the ripe old age of almost 47, I am going back to school - to be that nurse!   I am hoping to join a medical team that is doing research on the benefits of sunshine and the mental effects of too much or too little of it.

Aren't you excited for me?
   

Thanks, I thought maybe you would be!

Well, guess what.......

I gotcha!

April Fools!!

No nursing school for me right now anyway.  Maybe when I am 60.......
and the mental effects of too much or too little sunshine?  Well, this post is a typical example of "too little".  Lack of Vita D does funny things to the imagination!

Until next time..........