Dairy Farm Adventure

Kiera was going to Preschool at our church and we decided to end it early, at the end of March.  We decided to do a couple of field trips this Spring, so they had one at the beginning of April.  One of the Moms grew up on a dairy farm, so we went to her parents’ farm.  I have never really been on a dairy farm, so it was a new experience for me, too.  I took all 3 of my kids.  Blake was very unsure, Kiera was very interested and Haley was just bundled up in the stroller, fairly content.  Here Kiera is running to the barn

The first barn was full of calves

I have never seen that many calves in one place before

Feeding time

The next barn was full of big cows.  I must say the smell was horrendous

Can you say "butt ugly?”  Sorry, I had to say that.

Milking time…I had no idea this is how they’re milked.  They have a machine that measures how much milk is coming out, what percentage of the milking is done and it displays the cow’s number.  I couldn’t help but mentally compare it to breastfeeding.  A few differences there…

It was a beautiful morning on the farm!

Smoothies Galore

Lately, I’ve been on a smoothie kick.  I LOVE them!  Last week Thursday, Jared went to McDonald’s.  They had their snack-size real fruit smoothies for $1, so he brought me back a mango pineapple one.  YUM!

On Saturday, we were at the mall eating in the food court for lunch.  Before we left, I decided I wanted to buy a bubble tea to share with the kids, so I got green apple.  The key to a great bubble tea is to get ones that are made with syrup, not with powder.  Some of them use jello powder and I think it tastes so fake and almost gross.  This one was fantastic!  I forgot to ask for no pearls like I usually do, but they were ok.  Kiera thought they were “chocolate balls” so she liked them!

On Monday, Jared and I got to go out on a date!  We went to a nearby coffee/dessert place that we had never been to together and I was thinking about getting gelati, but wasn’t pumped about the flavors they had.  I ended up getting a pina colada smoothie.  Mmmmmm!!

 

Yesterday, Jared surprised me by taking a day off, so we all went to the chiropractor, did a couple of errands and went to McDonald’s for lunch.   There was a Booster Juice right close by and I had brought my BOGO coupon along that I got off the back of a cereal box.  So, we got 2 large Booster Juices for the price of 1.  That’s the only time I can justify getting them because they are expensive, but SO good!  I got Strawberry Storm and Jared got Raspberry Rapture.

They are definitely my favorite treat these days!  I’m really happy that I’ve been able to have so many different kinds from different places.  I wonder if I could find a job as a smoothie taste tester and then I could get paid to drink them instead of paying for them… If anyone hears about a job like that, let me know! :)

Things I Never Thought I Would Hear or Say

With kids around, you never know what kind of conversations are going to take place.  I have been keeping a list of strange and funny comments over the past couple of weeks.  Here are the ones I wrote down:

Things I have said to Blake

-No, I can’t breastfeed your dinosaur.

-Haley is not a popsicle.  Please don’t lick her head.

-Please eat your yogurt with the spoon instead of your fingers.

Things Kiera has said

-I want Jesus to be pink! (while coloring a picture)

-Great Grandma is a mermaid!

Something Jared said

-Blake, just concentrate on drinking your milk and leave your sister’s underwear alone.

I saved the best for last…

Something Blake said

-We were sitting down to eat supper which was soft tortillas stuffed with a pizza mixture.  He pointed to it and exclaimed, “That looks like a penis!”

There are other comments and questions the kids have had about certain body parts recently, and although they’re hilarious, they’re not the most appropriate blog content.  Where do they come up with these things?!  My 2 favorite recent pictures of these silly kids:

Shaving with Daddy

Playing at one of our Easter gatherings

Gifts 1186-1200

“The Lord is my strength and shield. I trust him with all my heart. He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy. I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.” –Psalm 28:7

I got to spend time putting pictures onto the computer and editing them this afternoon, so here are some more gifts I’m thankful for:

1186. Giving a mug full of Skittles to my cousin's fiance who loves Skittles possibly even more than I do

1187. Lite-Brite

1188. That I was only up in the night for an hour and a half with Haley who is sick…it could have been longer

1189. That Kiera can buckle herself up now that she’s in a booster seat

1190. Gorgeous April weather, before it turned cold

1191. Successfully taking all 3 kids for a walk by myself for the first time

1192. When someone is happy to see me

1193. Feeling safe and loved

1194. Dressing up for church

1195. All 5 of us on a twin bed (you just can’t see me)

1196. Sharing a secret

1197. Kiera pointing out the first buds on the bushes

1198. Shaving

1199. My friend painting my toe nails at a girls night…they are happy toes!

1200. This reminder that I put on the fridge

Natural Healing

I am learning new things when it comes to the area of my health.  My Mom has a close friend who does reflexology, so the 2 of them come over and I get reflexology treatments on a regular basis.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with reflexology, it is: the practice of applying pressure to the feet and hands utilizing specific thumb, finger and hand techniques based on a system of zones and reflex areas that reflect an image of the body on the feet and hands with a premise that such work effects a physical change in the body.  She does reflexology just on my feet, but I can do it on my hands in between her giving me treatments.  Since starting treatments, the pressure behind my eyes has gone away, my digestion has improved, I’ve had headaches go away within a few minutes of starting a treatment and I have had a decrease in neck and shoulder pain.  I can also feel it working in different parts of my body as she’s working on my feet.  All of the nerves end in the feet, so what she’s doing is stimulating the nerves and helping the body to heal itself if there’s something not working properly.  It can help for so many different health problems.  I am just so amazed at how God has designed the body!

My 2nd discovery is Echinacea.  I got a cold in February, so I immediately went to the health food store.  I was going to buy oil of oregano capsules because I’ve heard they’re effective, but they were $30, so I decided to try Echinacea which was under $10.  I took 2 capsules every few hours in combination with vitamin C and the symptoms stayed extremely mild and then my cold went away after a few days.  I now had a cold this past week and I tried it again and it worked the same!  Praise God for natural products that work!

My 3rd discovery from when I was pregnant with Blake is D-Mannose powder.  When I was pregnant with Blake, I had a bladder infection that wouldn’t go away.  For 3 months, I tried 3 different antibiotics and nothing worked.  I then went to a Naturopath and I got D-Mannose powder.  It worked within a few days.  Since then, I’ve had several bladder infections, so I just take the powder in water or juice for a couple of days and the infection disappears!  It has a slightly sweet taste, so it’s very easy to take.  The cheapest I have found it is $18 plus $6 shipping on iherb.com. 

I get excited about ways of helping the body with natural methods, so I figured I would share my excitement with you!  

Unwrapping of a Gift

Since Kiera was a year old, it was obvious to me that she has the gift of music.  She could sing songs on key at that age and has always sung extremely well and picked up songs after only hearing them once or twice.  For about the past 5 months, since Kiera turned 4, she has been playing songs on the piano.  It started with me teaching her a few songs, but it quickly progressed into her playing songs by ear and figuring them out on the piano by herself!  Here’s a list of some of the songs she can play (I can’t remember all of them):

-Are You Sleeping Brother John

-Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

-Three Blind Mice

-London Bridge

-Jack and Jill

-A Thankful Heart from Veggie Tales

-Somewhere Beyond the Barn from Veggie Tales

-Veggie Tales theme song

-Blue’s Clues theme song

-Wonder Pets theme song

-Backyardigans theme song

-Silent Night

-Joy to the World

-Angels We Have Heard on High

-Jingle Bells

-Mighty to Save

-God is So Good

-My God is So Big

-the first line of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

-the first 2 bars of Fur Elise

Not only can she play most of them in the key of C (the easiest key), but a bunch of them she has also figured out in other keys or their original key that she has heard them in.  She can also play in the key of G, D, E, B, A and F#!  She sometimes says to me, “Look Mom!  I’m playing it on the black keys (plays the song)…now I’m playing it on the white keys (and switches keys).”  I am totally in awe of God that He has given her this gift and started to develop it at such a young age!  I started playing piano at age 7 and didn’t start playing by ear until I was about 13 or 14.  The fact that she’s playing by ear a whole decade sooner than that is totally incredible!  One of the best parts is that she doesn’t know it’s not “normal” for a 4-year-old to sit down at the piano and start playing songs in multiple keys, whether it has 2 sharps or 7 sharps.  She doesn’t know that is supposed to be difficult because for her it’s not!  Every time she gets stuck trying to figure out a song and she says, “I can’t do this” (which isn’t very often), I simply tell her, “Yes, you can,” and she tries again and 99% of the time figures it out without my help.  I want to take a video of her playing some of them and then put it on my blog if I can.  With my new camera, the files are different, so I have to figure that out.  Glory to God, because it’s all His grace and His goodness! 

The Things You Might Find

These are a few of the many things I have been surprised with when I haven’t been in the same room as my kids:

A destroyed cereal box

A toy Kiera + Blake placed on Haley’s head

A pile of dirty socks (they had accumulated all over the main floor as the kids left them all over the place and I gathered them all up)

The outfits Kiera comes up with when she dresses herself

Stuffed animals piled on Haley, courtesy again of her siblings

A baby monitor that has been chewed on

One of the kids decided to use the piano as their coloring book.  I got most of the pen off after a lot of hard scrubbing

The strangest one yet and one of the funniest…

A fork and knife inside the jug of chocolate milk!