Sickness

It was recently pointed out to me (Thanks Auntie M.) that I haven't posted anything since Mother's Day. I guess I will claim as one reason that we have had a terrible stomach sickness running through our family. As you can probably imagine, it is bad enough when one or two people get it but when it starts through a family of 11 sometimes there seems no end in sight. For most of the ones who have gotten it, it has only lasted about 12 hours or so but with B# 8 it has taken all of about 5 days with two visits to the pediatrician. He just couldn't seem to kick it and keep anything down. The pediatrician basically gave us a set amount of time to get some fluids in him or he would need to go to the ER for an IV. Praise the Lord he finally came around and we were able to find a Pedialyte popsicle that he liked. Between that and some antinausea medicine he finally started keeping things down and even eating peanut butter. Although you wouldn't normally think of giving a sick one peanut butter, he had lost so much weight for such a little guy (4lbs 3oz) that the Dr. wanted to get something in him with some fat and calories and he was willing to eat peanut butter. So far 8 out of the 11 of us have gotten it. Only DH, me and B#1 haven't been sick. I certainly am praying that it ends here and the last of us will be spared but time will tell.

Mother's Day

Dear Hubby brought me home these beautiful peach roses for Mother's Day. Peach roses are my favorite.

B#4 made this triple layer chocolate cake with dark chocolate frosting for us to eat after dinner, which the kiddos and Dad made for me. It was a nice relaxing Mother's Day. Hope you all had a good one as well.

Character

I read this quote on one of the blogs that I follow and since I can figure our how to put a direct link to things I thought I would just write it out for you....

Character, for the most part, is a product of our everyday life and those things which we allow each day will become the building blocks that will eventually shape the character of our children.

Jeff and Marge Berth

Oh that I could remember this everyday as we are raising our children! Why is it that we as a culture think that we can allow garbage and whatever into our children's lives and not think it will affect their character?

Chocolate Almond Biscotti

Yesterday I was reading a blog that I follow and the lady had a post on a recipe for Chocolate Almond Biscotti. I love biscotti but I am kind of strange in that I don't really like it to be rock hard. I love it when I get one that is hard on the outside but softer on the inside. I looked at the recipe and shockingly, I had all of the ingredients that were needed to make them. So I gave it a try. It was so quick and easy to put together. After baking them for the first 25 minutes you are supposed to let them cool for 15 minutes, slice them and put them back in the oven for another 20 min. I decided to keep one "log" out of the oven after the first 25 minutes and then put the other "log", sliced of course, back into the oven as the recipe said. I only cooked them for 15 additional minutes but the came out so hard that even dipping them in milk didn't help a whole lot. But the recipe was definitely worth the effort as the batch that I didn't cook twice was wonderful. I left out the almonds for my non-nut-eaters but the chocolate and chocolate chips in it were great. We all scarfed the soft batch down so I had to quickly make another batch for after dinner. If you would like the recipe go to www.davidlebovitz.com/2009/01/chocolate-biscotti/

My Birthday

I kept thinking I would post through out the month. I can't believe it is almost May now and I have only done one post. This month has flown by. I have been extremely exhausted of late and just haven't had the energy to post, please forgive me. After B#1's birthday comes mom's birthday. The girls always worry that daddy doesn't have any plans but he usually does just fine. This year was a good birthday. DH says that my birthdays keep getting more lucrative. Fun for me:). This year all I wanted was for my van to get a good washing and waxing. Sounds silly I know but if you haven't seen my van then you just can't appreciate why I had to ask for this as a birthday gift. I drive a big red 15 passenger van but of late it has turned more of a pink color instead of a lovely bright red. So in and of itself just washing something that big is a chore but then to wax it to its original bright red made it something I had to ask for as a birthday present. The kids and DH worked on it most of the morning of my birthday and it looks wonderful. I had hoped to post some pictures of it but it has rained here almost constantly since then so I haven't gotten any yet. My mom had sent me some of those little people stickers that you put on your back window and I really wanted to put them on but I didn't want to do it until the van was clean. So once it was all shiny and new looking B#4 went out and put them all on for me. They also gave me a digital photo frame and preordered the Duggar's new book for me so I will have another gift to look forward to in June or so. B#1 and a friend of his went in together and bought me an IPOD Shuffle so I can listen to my own music or sermons. I have been enjoying that quite a bit, like when the older children and dad are watching a movie that I don't want to watch. I can just plug it in, listen to some pleasant music while reading some of my favorite blogs. For dinner we had our first cookout of the year with some hotdogs, hamburgers and brats(for DH). It was a nice dinner and night with my family. I am very blessed to be the mom of these many mennes

20?!?! Really??!?!

Am I really old enough to have a 20 year old? It just doesn't seem possible but b#1 turned 20 this week. It seems so strange to have a 20 year old and then to be starting over. Such amazing differences!

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