Without Prompting

Last night we were working on verses.  Bethany decided to write out her verses.  She was so precious!  Kneeling at the couch, she was copying down the verse in her little notebook.  Without my prompting.   

She's also learning to read.  Without my prompting.  She's asked to learn before.  But, like most things, she finds them entertaining for a short period of time and then she's on to something else.  She asked to learn to read so we started the lesson book for reading.  It didn't last more than 10 lessons.  In school, she's been learning all the sounds of the letters.  Last week while working on her verses, I was scrubbing dishes and she was waiting for my help.  While she waited, she was sounding out the words.  It was so neat to hear!  And tonight, she continues sounding out words.  She doesn't have many sight words memorized.  The ones she knows aren't the easy ones either.  Regardless, she'll be reading in no time.  I think it has recently clicked.

Thank you teachers are teaching Bethany to read.  Her excitement to read is priceless!

Football Night at Awana

AWANA is the midweek youth program our church does.  We have various theme nights throughout the school year.  Last week was football night.  Scott wore is Cyclone football uniform.  Bethany wore her daddy's high school jersey plus a pink tutu because she insisted on being a cheerleader.  She was a bit dissapointed that she didn't have pom-poms.  

This is my sweet boy.  

And my sweet girl.  Ready to head to AWANA with her brother.

Bethany with one of her little friends from school.  It was so cute to watch them have fun.

Sporting the jersey and the tutu from teh back side

 She didn't get her food finished in time.  But she wasn't willing to give up her hot dog because it had relish on it.

 

Loved this picture.  You can't see that he's reading his book but he was quietly reading with his helmet nicely sitting on the table.  So thankful that this boy can sit still when appropriate.

I love my little Sparkies each week.  Especially these two!

Pat Myself on the Back

No one pats me on the back.  For good reason... I don't deserve it.  But this week I've tried hard so I'm patting myself on the back :)

Last Saturday I decided to grab some groceries and do a once-a-month cooking event.  Only I had to pair it down a bunch because I wouldn't have a helper in the kitchen and I would be spending the morning grocery shopping instead of cooking.  I planned a hand full of meals: Taco Soup, Wild Rice Soup, Chili, Bean & Ham Soup, Chile Verde, Traditional Chinese dish, Pulled Pork Sandwiches, Chicken Enchiladas, Crockpot Lasagna, Baked Jambalaya, Breakfast burritos, fried potato burritos, and who knows what else.  It was a lot to take on, especially since my burger and chicken was frozen.  Before I even had one meal completed, I ran outside to help Ryan move our cyclone-fence dog kennel.  Instead of taking it apart and moving it in pieces, we moved it as one big piece.  As we moved it, I stepped in a hole, twisted something in my foot funny, and fell to my knees.

Guess how much I got accomplished after that?

Quite a lot actually.  But not a ton of meals.  The kids also had a couple of friends over.  So between prepping foods and not getting very far, I assisted with a hide-n-seek with 5 kids, made several snacks and several meal for said kids, chased out kitties who snuck in the house, and stayed pretty busy.  While painful, I tried to ignore my foot because I had a ton to accomplish.

I'm all for being able to cross things off my "to-do" list.  But sometimes even I realize that accomplishing those tasks isn't near as rewarding as taking some time to play with my kids and their friends.  The picture shows the three boys.  The two that aren't mine are brothers.  One of them is in Scott's class and one is in Bethany's class.  The five of them did good all playing together most of the day although at the point the picture was taken, Bethany was feeling really left out because her classmate was playing with the other boys.

We had a great day.  Two of the best parts of my day were having some time with Ryan while the rest of the house was quiet.  Ryan works every other weekend.  The Saturdays that Ryan works, he quietly sneaks out of the house letting me sleep as long as the kids will sleep.  That usually isn't a ton longer but I'm so thankful for those 30 minutes.  Last Saturday I actually crawled out of bed and headed down stairs to make Ryan breakfast.  It was boring 'ol scrambled eggs.  I so enjoyed the quiet time with my husband that I didn't even notice the plain eggs.  Later that afternoon Ryan stopped for a few minutes and we sat on the porch together and we chatted.  We don't get that time very often.  We're always on the move it feels like, so this time was precious.

As the week continued, I attempted to get up early and get supper all prepped before I went to work.  That went pretty well except one day.  I unplugged the crock pot because I needed the plug-in to shred chicken in the kitchen-aid mixer.  But, I was in a hurry and running late so I forgot to plug the crock pot back in.  My chile verde was cold when I got home.  Doh!  Tonight I played catch up on dishes from my chile verde mishap.  I had a lot of dishes to wash.  You know you have a lot of dishes when you creatively place serving spoons and spatulas in your dish drainer to allow you to make the sides higher allowing me to stack more dishes.  It's that creativeness that has me patting myself on the back tonight.

Thank you Lord for the Little Things

I tossed and turned again last night.  This morning I drug myself out of bed and headed downstairs.  Already behind schedule, I sat down briefly and could feel the ache in my back and thought to myself "oh how I could use a day off of wo... DAY OFF, I do have a day off today."  So, I headed back upstairs and announced to my husband that I was crawling back in bed.  Sure that my kids also had the day off, it was going to be what we call a "stay at home day".  But no, the kids don't have the day off.  In my sweats, we started into the morning routine with the kids.  But it looked a little different this morning as we snuggled on the couch and read books, reviewed verses for SPARKS club, and did not rush.  Instead of the usual morning craziness, it was a different crazy this morning.  We headed out the door, with a 3-legged cat in my coat, the children fighting over seats in the van, and winter coats and hats on.

Back home, I enjoyed my coffee, caught up on some reading and now it's time to start on my to-do-list for today which is incredibly too long.  After a long weekend hosting Brett from Stand to Reason, I'm ready for a nap!  Alas, that to-do-list is calling and I'm going to thank the Good Lord for the little things today - like a day off to catch up around the house... or call up some farmer friends and see if they'll let me do some more of this:

Pepsi

Meet Pepsi.

  

She's one of our baby kittens from last year.  She's also our momma kitty of those 3 cute kittens Bethany has shown you recently.  But most importantly, she's Bethany's cat and she's well loved.

Friday night when I got home, Pepsi snuck in the garage, as the cats try to do each day.  As I shoo'd her out, I saw that she was limping, with her back leg pulled up near her body.  But it wasn't firmly against her side.  In fact, the leg was dangling back and forth.  I just knew that it was broken in two and so I called the vet.  Our Friday night plans got put on hold and our family headed to the vet clinic with Pepsi in hand.  

Boy and I glad to be married to a veterinarian! 

The kids got to learn right along side their daddy.  They stood behind the protective wall during the actual x-ray but they dressed in x-ray appropriate attire, helped Ryan develop the x-rays, and snuggled Pepsi in between x-rays to help keep her warm.

sideways, I know.  But notice big brother as he nurtures his sister and her kitty.

The x-ray found that her right femur was broken.  

It also confirmed what Ryan suspected.  Pepsi had also been shot.  See if you can find the bullet in the above picture since I forget to put an arrow towards it.  I was angry and frustrated that someone shot my cat.  Our mommy cat.

The bullet hole is the spot mid thigh on her.

We love our animals.  Pepsi is a farm cat.  If Ryan wasn't a veterinarian, Pepsi would likely not have the treatment she received.  Because Pepsi is Bethany's kitty and because Bethany is daddy's girl, Ryan was sure to provide the best of care for this sweet, but partially wild, cat.

Oh how I love my veterinarian!

I tried to leave out the gory parts.  But I just had to share this one.  All these pictures are sideways thanks to blogger but you'll get the picture.  Below is Ryan sewing the muscle together after removing the broken leg, trimming the bone (the worst part for this country girl), and tying off several vital parts of the cats' inner workings.  If you want the technical gab, you'll have to ask the Doc.  

With the surgery complete, and a little cleaning up to do, here is Pepsi.  Otherwise known and Pepsi 3-D or Diet Pepsi.  We'll take your suggestions on other fun ways to change the Pepsi name.

 We carried a groggy Pepsi home that night, 3.5 hours later.  She may lose a little of her wild-ness in the coming days with all the attention she's getting, the time in the house, and the special attention to her diet and medications.

A few days later, here's our Pepsi.  Still a wonderful momma kitty.  And in the world of veterinary care my husband is a rural veterinarian and not a specialized surgeon.  But if you look at that picture closely, he did an amazing job of sewing her up!

We're four days post surgery.  She's doing well.  She's getting around with much more ease outside and is starting to keep on her feet on the wood floors in the house.  With that said, she's still getting watched closely.  Because that bullet that was up above her break was left inside.  Ryan was afraid he'd do more damage than good by removing it.  With antibiotics, we have our fingers crossed that we can keep infection at bay and maybe, just maybe he can remove the bullet at a later date.