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Showing posts from 2016

Catching Up On Fall

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We've had lots of fun this fall, so I though I would share some photos! Going to the arboretum in September/ October is one of our favorites because they set out tons of pumpkins! They have a pumpkin patch and a pumpkin village. The girls love it! Brendon went on a work trip to Philadelphia and filmed in an aquarium. While we don't love him being away, I did think this was a pretty cool photo! The girls' favorite thing we've done lately would probably be the State Fair of Texas. I hadn't been since college, and the girls have been itching to go. We went on a Thursday, which is when you can use homeschool tickets. It's great because it wasn't too crowded. It reminds me a lot of the Houston rodeo, sans the concert and bull riding. There's a lot of animals, artwork, and kid exhibits to go see, and almost all of it is free.  We were surprised by all of the exotic animals there! It was more like a zoo than a petting zoo. Ther

NYC

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Recently I took a quick girls trip to visit Anabelle in NYC! It was a quick trip, but so much fun!  I actually wrote a longer post sharing what we did, but it somehow got deleted. And I'm just a little tired these days, so getting any posts up on the blog is big time. So for now, I'll just let you enjoy the photos! Love you, Bananabelle! We loved coming to see you in your new city!

Home Sweet Home

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Alas it's fall! It feels AMAZING here in Dallas. Hopefully the cool weather won't be too short lived. Anyway I probably have one million updates to post, seeing as this blog is mainly to keep friends and family up to date on life. A lot has happened in the last two months! I only have a few minutes tonight, so let's see what I can cover in that time. (I apologize in advance for typos.) Of course, our biggest update is our house! Finally after THREE months, we are back in our house, and dare I say, the whole leak fiasco/ renovation is complete?! It's been an adventure. We were delayed up front due to mitigation taking forever to start and then uncovering mold that we had to deal with. Once that was finished, we could actually start the rebuild process, which was much more promising and exciting. We used that time to choose new wall colors, open up a wall between the living room and kitchen, and add wood floors to our living room. The girls figured out about this time t

Just a few summer updates!

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This post is so overdue that frankly, I'm not even sure where to begin. I'm backing way up a few months, so bear with me! After I started seeing my naturopath and Dr C, I started to see improvement in my symptoms. I had more energy, though sleep was just so-so. I actually got comments that I was looking better physically, not as drained. I could feel my vitamin stores improving. As for sleep, I did stumble upon tart cherry juice (the concentrate, no dilution) though, which helped me to start sleeping like a normal person! Essentially tart cherries have natural melatonin in them. The average person needs 20-30 MICROgrams of melatonin; however every OTC melatonin I've seen contains 1-5 MILLIgrams of melatonin, which is 5-25 times more than a person needs; hence why it makes many people restless, rather than inducing sleep. Two Tbsp tart cherry juice contains about 50 MICROgrams natural melatonin, so it's not surprising that for many people this is a better option. It&

House Leak, Insurance, and Hotel Living

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I have several blog posts that need to happen in the near future. Lots of updates and thoughts here. But I think what most people want to know is why exactly we are living in a hotel and what is happening at our house, so I'll begin there. At the end of May we started hearing an air-like noise in our kitchen, and we could not figure out what it was. It sounded like it was coming from near our air vent, so we sorta figured it was an issue with that and hoped we would figure it out soon enough. Probably four days later, Brendon went into the kitchen on a Sunday morning and could hear water running - under our house. (Our house is built on a pier and beam foundation.) When he went outside, near the wall adjacent to the water sound, he felt steam. So we finally knew the culprit - a pinhole leak in a hot water pipe under the kitchen. The next day a plumber came out to fix the pipe. He said it was humid under the house, due to the steam, but he seemed to think it would dry out fine. Howe

Meet our baby chick!

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Meet our broody hen Honey.  Someone recently posted on Facebook some fertilized chicken eggs, so we let Honey sit on them. This was both to make the most of her broodiness, have a homeschool lesson in chicks, and to hopefully get a new hen out of the deal.  When I came out to see her with them out in front of her, I was a little concerned.  We candled her eggs to find out if any were viable. From that, I found there was one potential. I wasn't holding my breath. It takes 21 days for eggs to hatch. On day 22, I  told Brendon I would give that egg one more day to hatch. That evening he came in and asked if I had wondered why Honey was being broodier than normal. (Umm no, I wasn't. Broody is broody.) Then he led me outside and lifted her up.  Eeek a chick!!  Seriously this has been such a fun experience! And the best part is momma hen is raising the chick, so literally all we have to do is provide shelter, food, and water! (FYI chicks are easy to kill when you raise them heat lamp

Balloons, Camping, Mercy, and Chicks

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Seriously this should've posted a couple weeks ago... Oops :)  These last few weeks have been so busy!!  On Good Friday, we sent off balloons for Austen, our tradition on the anniversary of his passing.  Easter weekend we went camping. I began the week with the crazy sleep experiment to see if I could reverse my circadian rhythm. And we ended with camping - because what's better for sleep than being in nature? The second night I slept like a rock. It was amazing. I'm not entirely sure my sleep experiment held but it helped for a time... I'm still deciding. Camping was way fun though! Adeline was my snuggle buddy. And we came home to meet Mercy Belle Wideman!!  I love this precious momma! Speaking of mommas, we decided to let our broody hen sit on fertilized eggs. After candling all six, only one has potential to hatch. I'm hopeful but not counting on it. It's been a fun experience nonetheless! xoxo

Samaritan Ministries Q&A: Share the Burden

I have people ask me constantly about our healthcare with Samaritan Ministries, so here is a post to answer many of those questions! Some are based on what I hear, and some are ones you've actually sent me. Always feel free to send more my way. I do ask if you join because of us that you would write us down as your referral. Here we go... Q:  How is this different from insurance? A: I wrote extensively on this in my first post , so this answer here will be the short version.  There are many ways Samaritan is different. The first way is that Samaritan, unlike insurance, is not a guarantee. Honestly, I'm not sure I ever viewed insurance as a guarantee, but since our government  does , I'm going to note it as a difference. Samaritan sees healthcare much the way the Acts 2 church is described - we all need to share in each others' needs! That is done by joining together with others, who have committed their lives to Christ, to share the burden of healthcare. With in

Adeline at 2-1/2!

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This girl keeps me on my toes. She also keeps me embraced in her arms for "mommy-only" snuggles!  She has courage. High slides aren't a problem. This picture was taken at The Heard wildlife sanctuary and museum. They have large, fierce looking dinosaurs there that roar. Adeline hates them. She's actually been having nightmares about the "monsters from the Heard" lately. That poor girl. And poor mommy and daddy since we are the ones up with her. Yawn. Yesterday we sang our Joshua 1:9 song, prayed for a peaceful night, and made a "no monsters/ dinosaurs allowed" sign for her door. Last night she slept through the entire night. Praying that lasts! She still takes good 2-hour naps. Sometimes longer, but usually right around 2. Mommy loves good sleepers. We love Pei Wei! This weekend I took just Adeline on a date to Pei Wei. So special! We went to the park to swing afterwards. Adeline's favorite thing to do might be to swing.     The girl