K and her cast

It's now been just over 4 weeks since K broke her arm. She continues to have weekly appointments with the orthopedic surgeon, and today was the day - we were there at 8 this morning. First they do an x-ray, through the cast. Then we see Dr. E. Today he showed us the x-ray again, and pointed out that her arm is shrinking (I guess due to muscle atrophy) and said they will perhaps have to do a cast change at some point so that it continues to fit and the bone stays in place. He said that when the break is near the elbow like hers is, sometimes the bones want to drift apart more than they should, but for now it's good. She'll likely have to have a cast another 2-4 weeks.

More info about raw milk

This article about raw milk was in Dr. Mercola's newsletter today. Let me know what you think. Maybe some day it will not be so hard to get around here.

A few months ago, we did get some raw milk. It was great - I made puddings and lots of butter. Butter is actually pretty easy to make in a mixer and tastes AMAZING. The milk tasted a little different from the pasteurized variety, but it was really good, especially knowing that it is so much healthier (if coming from a very clean source).

I made the switch to butter from olive oil Becel margarine a few months ago, though I still use margarine for baking most of the time. I just wish I could make our own butter on a regular basis! I'm hoping that with the push towards organic and health foods, raw milk will soon be allowed to be sold here.

Your opinions, please!!

I'm trying to decide which photo-sharing site to use. Snapfish, Flickr, Webshots, Kodak Easy Share Gallery, Shutterfly, and Picasa . . . are the ones I've heard of. If you have any opinions on this, please comment!

Thanks! :o)

Encouraging Words

I did not write the piece of writing I'm posting today - it came to me in my e-mail, from a homeschool e-group I'm subscribed to. The author was not identified. I just copied and pasted from my inbox, and I tried to get it to look right, but I don't know anything about HTML, so I couldn't do it. So forgive the one-word lines, etc! Anyway - I thought the message was nice. At least it hit home for me. Enjoy:

Encouraging words

Homeschooling moms are the same way.

Mrs. Jones prefers packaged curriculums, and every year her children work through their grade-appropriate textbooks right to the last page. Her homeschool seems so nicely structured and orderly!

Mrs. Smith loves to write her own literature-based unit studies and her children wear out the numbers on their library cards. Her children's unit study notebooks are very impressive and her family seems so well read.

Mrs. Thompson is more of a classical homeschooler and can't imagine a day without Latin, Greek, and logic. Her budding Rhodes scholars seem destined for academic greatness.

Of course, Mrs. Peters is something of a free spirit and really loves to do hands-on projects and real life learning with her children. Last year they recreated the entire city of Rome using Sculpey clay and her children all won blue ribbons at the county fair with their homemade cheese, hand-knit afgans, and their beautiful jams.

Then there is you. You go through each day doing the best you
can. While you pray for God's guidance and really do want the best
for your children, you can't help but think that if you were more
like Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Thompson or Mrs. Peters, your
children would be better off. After all, they each have very good
reasons for doing things the way they do, and they can each make a
case for their methods being the best for children.

Let me let you in on a little secret. If the textbook mama had to
write her own unit studies, she would probably tear her hair out. If the laid-back mama tried to follow an intense classical program, she and her children would all be miserable. If the classical mama tried to just relax and fly by the seat of her pants, she would come undone. If the literature and unit study mama got hit up with a stack of textbooks and workbooks she would feel like she'd been thrown in jail! You see, all of those methods are good - just different.

There was a time that I would end up in tears some nights after
happily settling in with a stack of new homeschool catalogs. There
were just SO MANY ways to educate children! It seemed like whatever I did, my children would be missing out on some essential method or
plan or approach. Just like Jeff had to revamp everything to be a
good "mom," and just like I couldn't function well until things were returned to my ways, we need to remember different families will educate their children in very different ways. God isn't in the business of creating cookie-cutter children, and it is truly
beautiful to realize that He will equip each of us to teach our
children in the way that is best for them and for us.

The whole system works well until we start comparing ourselves to
others in ways that defeat us. If we allow ourselves to be blown
about with the winds of every homeschooling method we discover, our
inconsistency will harm our educational efforts instead of helping
them. Please don't misunderstand - as our seasons in life or our
circumstances change, we will find our homeschooling endeavors
flexing, changing, and growing with us. If God calls a textbook mama to turn Charlotte Mason (or visa-versa), it will be a GOOD thing because God did it . . . . but if that textbook mama goes CM because she feels guilty about not having nature studies, she will just frustrate herself and her children.

Seek your husband's council and surrender your dreams and plans
to the Lord. Ask Him what he would have you do with your children,
then move ahead obediently and don't look back. (I Cor. 15:58 -
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your
labour is not in vain in the Lord.) Re-evaluate your approach
periodically, but if you feel that panicky, guilty need to do more or do things differently, take the time to wait on God before trying to be just like someone you aren't. (Proverbs 3:5,6 - Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.)

If you allow God to direct your children's education, they may or
may not ever learn Latin, bake with freshly-ground wheat, or take
weekly nature walks, but they will receive the education they need to be equipped for God's purposes in their lives!

I'm a little sad . . .

that A and C have gone to a Bible conference without the rest of us this weekend. Not that I didn't want them to go - I did. But it just didn't work out for the rest of us to go this time.

J has taken a lot of time off from her part time job at the grocery store for other trips, and for an upcoming trip in July and she just took 2 weeks off this month for an exchange program to Toronto for school (which I should post about another time). So J couldn't come.

If K and I went, we would have to miss all the meetings on Monday and drive home that day, missing the picnic, too, because K has a follow-up appointment with the surgeon who set her broken arm early Tuesday morning. I tried more than once to change the appointment, but was told she must come that day, first thing in the morning.

Besides that - I've been dealing with a cold for over a week. Right now I'm in the irritating dry cough stage, where you cough until your eyes water.

So - it was obvious that it was not the Lord's will that we go as a family this time. I'm really glad that A & C got to go though. C has been looking forward to it for months. They left at about 5:20 this morning, so should be getting there sometime this evening. Hopefully A will stay awake - I stocked the car well with caffeine and crunchy munchies. And he says it should be easier than usual to stay awake, since I'm not along to depend on to keep him awake. Not sure about that logic, but I can kind of see it. :o) I hope they (and everyone there) have a real encouraging weekend.

Not again!

On Sunday, K was outside running towards the soccer ball and tripped on the screw-in thingie for tying the dog to. She landed on her hand, but had a lot of pain in her forearm. Poor kid! I hate it when my kids are hurting! This is the same arm she broke her elbow on when she fell while ice skating just over 3 years ago. I took her in to the hospital right away, and the doctor said that yes, it was broken but it was a straight break. She got a half-cast, held in place with a tensor bandage. He wanted her to come back the next day to see the orthopedic surgeon in case it needed to be pinned. So, off we went, back to the hospital on Monday morning to see the orthopedic surgeon. He said it was not straight, but out about 17 degrees, and that she needed to go to the operating room to get it put back into place (it's called a closed reduction, meaning there is no incision). K didn't like to hear that news! I tried to assure her that she would be given medicine to put her into a deep sleep, and she wouldn't feel a thing, but it was hard for her to believe. We were put on the bottom of the OR list for the day, and since she had eaten breakfast (they told me to go ahead and let her have breakfast, since we didn't know when her appointment would be) she needed to wait until at least 4 p.m. anyway. It was a loooong day of sitting around in waiting rooms, trying to keep her comfortable and occupied enough to not think about food or going into the OR too much! At 5 p.m. it was her turn, and off she went. She was out by 5:45. When she woke up she said, "Is it over?". She said it felt like she went to sleep, turned her head, and woke up a second later, but she couldn't figure out why she was in a different place. The surgeon said it was not easy to get the bone back into place - it took a lot of force. She has a cast for 6-8 weeks, and is to see him again for a follow-up x-ray a few days from now. They had 5 unexpected OR cases that day, and we were the last to leave the outpatient surgery department. The nurse there was working her regular 12 hour shift - she was supposed to be done at 6:45 or 7:00. We didn't leave until 8:45, so I wonder what time she got to leave - what a long workday for her!

K is collecting autographs on her cast.

The Home Stretch with Painting / Garage Sale Finds / Gardening

Ahhhhh - I think this long drawn out painting process is ALMOST over. Whew. So many interruptions with working the weekend, errands, chauffering, etc. We decided on a light green for the hall/entry - it's not what I originally envisioned, but it's growing on me. What I envisioned just does not look right with our woodwork. Which I would have known from the beginning if I had better color sense. Interior decorators are for people like me.

Last night I started on the trim painting - we have painted baseboards and casing. Let's see - there are seven door frames and one window frame to paint, that have edges that require a little craft brush to get it to look right. It's going fairly well, but it's time consuming.

Thankfully we've had no big boo boos such as spilling a can of paint. (That happened when we were first married - a can of oil-based paint got tipped over on the carpet one morning in our rush to get ready for work. I called in to work to ask if I could have the day off to try to save the carpet, and he said yes, and I worked on it ALL DAY. I managed to get it looking good again, using thinners and a lot of elbow grease. Not the way I like to spend a day off. But at least the carpet was saved!)

On a different note, I came across a garage sale last Friday and there were perennials for sale. I bought some yellow irisis, a lily, an anemone, and an Annabelle hydrangea - they grow these big white mophead flowers. Yesterday I planted all except Annabelle - needed to find out where to plant her. It seems she needs morning sun, so I guess she'll go in my front bed. I also bought a 2 gallon Red Wing crock in excellent condition for $12. That was a steal of a deal, I think.

I was going to add some pics of my new baby perennials, but they look pretty boring. So here are a couple of pics from last summer. This one is my south bed:

And here are some containers I had by the front door. I can't wait until things are in bloom again!