Kindness

The day after we noticed the largest amount of deer damage to our garden, one of our sweet neighbors brought over this:

Two large trash bags - one was full of spinach, and one was full of lettuce.  She had so much growing in her garden, that she was giving away extras.  I washed, cut up, and froze most of the spinach (plus made large spinach salads), and we've eaten so much lettuce!  (The two small bowls are radishes and lettuce from our garden).

Then, another neighbor called and said her raspberries were ripe and she was leaving and wasn't going to be able to pick them, so we were welcome to pick all we could.  What a treat!

So, even with what the deer have eaten, we've been very blessed.  

Thank you Kristie and Jami!

I love you deer, but...

 We've been doing this...

...all to create delicious produce to feed...

these little dears.

They come in our garden and mow it down, row by row.  Huge cucumber plants?  Munched down to nothing.  Rows of pea plants just beginning to produce well?  Decimated.  8 pepper plants?  Chewed to nothing.  Beet tops? Swiss chard?  Lettuce?  Squash plants? Gone.

They haven't touched the potato plants.  Yeay (we can buy potatoes for cheap here in good old I-Dee-ho.  Last year we bought 400 lbs of potatoes for $20.  No kidding. So having our own potatoes is nice, but not a huge money saver.)

They also haven't eaten any of the giant sunflowers.  What a crop we have of those! 

Strangely they didn't eat the green bean plants.  Or the onions for that matter.
Still!
Argh.
I think we ought to purchase a hunting license.  That way we could at least get some food for all our hard effort - healthy organic produce fed deer meat.  

  

We've put up a fishing line fence around both garden areas,

and we might purchase a couple of these:

Scarecrow Motion Activated Sprinkler

But I don't want to spend more money on our garden this year!

Anyone have some 10 foot high fencing that's just sitting around their yard?

Well, my plan to record what we did each day for a week did not go so well...I'll try again sometime in the future.  For now, I'll just start posting pictures that I am way behind on. 

A day in our life...Monday

Monday morning was a busy one.  

We start each morning with family scripture study and prayer - today we called the kids in around 7:20, because it was Jace's first day of Driver's Ed.  

Aliysa was not too happy that we called for everyone in at that time, because she has been getting up at 7:00 and jogging, actually I can't call it jogging because it is more intense than a "jog".  She warms up for a few minutes, and then runs for 1 minute with the treadmill on its fastest speed, then walks briskly for 1 minute, then repeats.  She does this for 20 minutes.  And she does it every day.  

I told her she should only do interval training 1-3 times a week, but she said she loves it, and pointed out that football players go to practice and play hard every single day, sometimes twice a day.  So, I'm leaving it up to her.  

Anyway, she's been enjoying her nice morning routine, jogging, walking outside, drinking her water, feeding the chickens, stretching out, and making and eating her own breakfast.  So, she was grumpy when Bob called her into our room (right during her jog).  I talked to her and asked what exactly she wanted to accomplish in the morning, and how long it would take.  She agreed to get up even earlier.  

Each morning we read 10 verses in the Book of Mormon.  Right now we're reading about the stripling warriors - one of our favorite stories.  Then we have family prayer and begin our "morning chores".  Here's how the routine goes:

We have 5 minutes to complete each chore.  Some chores take less time, so the kids hurry to start another chore that may take longer.  Bob times them on his watch and whistles when 5 minutes is up.  The kids have 10 seconds to be in our room (he does a short whistle when the 10 seconds is up).  Then he asks them, in order of oldest to youngest, if they completed that chore.  They get 1 point if they were there when the 10 seconds were up, and 1 point for completing the chore (quickly, cheerfully, and thoroughly).  So Bob calls out each child's name, and they answer "Yes, Yes", (or, "No, yes", or "No, no". etc.)  Bob keeps a tally sheet, one mark for each "yes".  When they get 50 points, they get a Yummy Earth Lollipop.

Here are the chores we do: scriptures (they read the Book of Mormon for 5 minutes), prayer (they have to spend the entire 5 minutes on this, not jump ahead to other chores), dressed, hair, make bed, clean bedroom, upstairs zone, trash/hamper/hangers (empty the first two, and gather all extra hangers out of their closet), farm chore, laundry (we sort all the clean laundry, fold it, and put it away.  Since we do this each morning, it really does get done in 5 minutes. Yeay!), downstairs zone.  

So, even at 5 minutes each, this routine takes almost an hour.  It has taken Bob and I a long time to be totally consistent with doing this daily.  It takes some patience, and I've had to learn to not listen to excuses.  Bob pointed out that the worst thing that happens is they might lose one point, so I don't let them say "I was hurrying to get here", etc.  If they report that a chore was finished (like cleaning their room), and it really wasn't done well, then their points go back down to zero.  

This routine has been such a nice thing for our family.  Before breakfast the whole house is cleaned up, everyone is dressed, has their hair done, the animals are fed, and the laundry done.  It is a great foundation for the day.  

Then we eat breakfast, do our kitchen jobs, brush teeth, and lately, we go outside and work in the yard for a bit.  

Anyway... back to Monday.  I was in charge of the chores because we had:

8:00 - Mallory had to be at her activity leader's home to go to day camp

8:30 - Jace had an appointment with the dermatologist for a curious mole on his back

9:00 - Jace had to be at the courthouse to register for Driver's Ed, and then he had to go straight to Driver's ed.  

We harvested our first cherry tomato!

For Family Home Evening, we went to the Lake.  It was beautiful weather and we had such a nice evening.  

 Courtney & Abby

 Mallykins

 Aliysa & Taycie.  Aliysa sat with me on the beach.  She was too sunburned from a YW floating activity to move her arms, so she didn't want to kayak, and it took all the energy I had just to go to the lake and sit.  We had fun chatting and watching our boys show off.

 Taycie loves being outside

 Jace is getting pretty good and kayaking - he was practicing his roll. 

 Abby kept declaring how brave she was to go so far out in the tube. 

 Why the swim goggles?  Best be prepared for anything!

 Bob teaching Spencer how to roll

 Oh how I love that guy.

 Yes, even when he looks like this.  We were laughing about how his hair looked when he came up from rolling.  So he gave us this look.

Andrew is such a sweet boy

Home we go, happy and ready for bed. 

And one more picture from today - Abby caring for her dearest doll - Grace. 

A Week In Our Life...Day 1

I'm hoping the next few posts won't bore any readers of our blog, but I want to be able to remember later what our life was like at this point in our child rearing years.  It seems like there are so many details we'll forget.  So, here's a snapshot into a typical summer week for us.  I'm beginning on Tuesday, but I'll start by describing Sunday, and then go day by day from there. We'll see what this week holds for us!

Sunday - getting ready for church.  Oh, the woe of getting 22 shoes on 22 feet on Sunday mornings.  (Okay, so it's not so hard to get Bob's shoes on his feet.)  And making sure those shoes are clean, and match all the suits or dresses.  Really this is more of an ordeal than it needs to be, because I often forget to gather up the Sunday shoes right after church...that's my goal for this week.  In fact, I'll do it today.  I'm going to do what I've planned to do many a Sunday: have a tote to store all the little ones' Sunday shoes.  All the shoes go into the tote right after church.  Brilliant!  The older children keep pretty good track of their own, but I'll tell them that if they ever are running behind schedule because they're looking for shoes, then they'll have to put a pair in the tote too.  However, I was missing a pair of mine this week.  :(  Then I remembered that I left them in Utah when we were there last. How can I expect my kids to keep track of their shoes?  Sigh....

Finally, after eating a hasty breakfast of bread and milk, we're off.  Some weeks we really need to get to church so we can get back into a religious frame of mind after preparing to head to church.  But this week was relatively uneventful, and everyone looked presentable.  In fact, they looked adorable, if you want my unbiased opinion ;)

This was my first week back to church after my surgery, and I was planning to just go to Sacrament meeting, but I felt pretty good and decided to go to Sunday School as well.  We have one certain child who has been having some reverence challenges, and I planned to make this child sit with us in our class, but Bob vetoed that idea and just gave the child a warning of dire consequences if this child did not remember to be reverent.  Talked to the primary teacher...and headed to our class.  It was a good lesson, we have a good teacher.  By the end of the lesson I was yawning incessantly and feeling like every bit of energy had been drained from my body.  So Bob took me home where I changed into pj's and collapsed into bed.  It seemed like a minute or two, but an hour passed and everyone was home again.

Sunday is Bob's day to cook and do dishes (thus the tradition of bread and milk on Sunday mornings).  He decided to make fried egg sandwiches for lunch, and got creative and made me a sandwich with a fried egg, mustard, ranch dressing and lettuce.  It was not his finest accomplishment, and I choked down half of it before scraping my bowl into the chicken scraps.  Mallory, though, had seconds, and even asked for another the next day for her sack lunch at day camp.  :)

We watched a church movie "The Testaments" as a family, and then Bob and I had some interviews with children, including a discussion with the above mentioned reverence challenged individual, who admitted that the primary teacher had to remind once.  So, this child called their primary teacher to apologize, and then Bob talked with the primary teacher to clarify.  The report was that there had been more than one reminder, but there was a big improvement.  We'll see how it goes next week. 

Aliysa is our ward's stake youth representative, and she had a committee meeting in the evening.  They are planning a youth conference right now. 

Bob had a court of honor to attend in the evening, and so evening farm chores and bedtime routine didn't go as smoothly as they could have.  (Exhausted tearful Mom)  By 10:00 we were finally getting everyone in bed.  Whew...

I was happy again to have Bob home.  He was gone Thursday - Saturday for a High Adventure Scout Trip.  Oh, there's a funny story.  The first night he was gone, I was just about to go to bed (way too late), and realized there was a voice message that I needed to listen to.

It was an 'emergency notification' from the Sherriff's office:  "...[male name] escaped today at approximately 4pm.  Subject is a 39 year old male, that escaped on foot.  He is described as being 5 foot 9, and 190 pounds. He had slicked back hair, brown in color, a goatee, brown eyes, and multiple tattoos.  He was last seen wearing a long sleeved white shirt, with blue jeans, white tennis shoes, and a brown Carhartt jacket.  Fremont County Sheriff's office would like to encourage citizens to secure their homes and vehicles.  Please contact only if you have additional information about the subject."  EEEEEK!  I was instantly so scared!  Of course this message had to come when it was dark outside.  I just KNEW he was sitting in our yard, watching us and noticing that my hubby and oldest son were gone camping!

 I shut every window (we usually leave them open a bit to let the cold air in), locked them all, double checked all the doors, and asked Aliysa if she would mind coming down to my room instead of sleeping all the way up in the attic.  She laughed but did it just to ease my mind.  I saw Spencer's hatchet in his room and picked it up and put it by my bed, turned on all the outside porch lights, and checked my firearm.  After all that preparation and a nightly prayer, I actually slept pretty well, although I did snap awake a few times when children got up to use the bathroom. 

Pretty funny that it had to come the night Bob left.  I'm sure all the other wives of scout leaders in our ward were a little alarmed as well.

Well, it's bedtime for the Lamoreaux kiddos.  And so, this long journal entry must end.  

Hmmm, what is a blog post without pictures?   I'll try to find one...

 Here's one I never posted!  Spencer recently shaved his head...and grew a nappy little beard. 

And here's Taycie in a swing in Utah - oh how she loves to swing!  Lately she has figured out how to climb into her little swing by our front porch.  Even if no one pushes her, she'll just sit there forever.  But usually she has lots of volunteers to push her, and she laughs in delight.  She is a joy to all of us.

Blessings / Update

Monday was my surgery - and I have so much to be thankful for.

I'm thankful that my sister in law, Kate, took so much time to write thoughtful e-mails to me when I decided to write to her about what I thought was another miscarriage.  I hadn't told hardly anyone that I was pregnant yet, but I just wondered why this miscarriage seemed so different than the first one.  Kate felt that she should advise me to go to the doctor, but she didn't want to sound bossy, so it took her 2 hours to write one e-mail to me.  When I read it, I just knew that I should go to the doctor.  It helped me get past my fuzzy-headedness.

I am thankful for modern medicine.  I am a big believer in natural healing, but there are times when conventional doctors have their place, and this one one of those times.  I was so grateful to have an explanation of why I was so extremely sick, had the chills, was exhausted, and why this "miscarriage" wasn't going like I thought it should.  There was no way that I could have known that I had a large mass that was causing my pregnancy hormones to be hundreds of times higher than they should, which in turn caused my thyroid to become hyperactive, etc. 

I don't know what I would have done through the weekend if I hadn't gotten in to see the doctor on Friday.  I was going to try for Monday, but decided to call first thing Friday morning.  The tumor grew a lot just from Friday to Monday, and I was in so much pain, so sick, and just hurting!  If I wouldn't have known what was going on, I bet I would have tried to get the "miscarriage" going, instead of just resting.

I'm thankful for a loving husband who takes such good care of me.  All through the weekend, he was giving me my iron supplement, vitamins, and food, even when I just wanted to be left alone and felt too sick to take those things. 

I am thankful for all the prayers, fasting, and help that family and friends have been willing to give.  My surgery went well, and I already am feeling so much better.  Better than I have felt in months!  I can tell that it may take a long time for my strength to be back.  Yesterday I tried getting up and going downstairs for a couple of minutes, and I found out that even that was way too much.  (I'm bored from being bedridden for almost two weeks!  Luckily I'm tired enough to sleep a LOT.)

I'm so grateful that the surgery went so quickly and well.  We were really worried about blood loss, and I did come close to needing blood transfusions (my blood level got down to 7.5, and they would have done a transfusion if it got down to 7). 

Anne and Kristi, my sister-in-laws, have taken our children every day this week.  They've come home so happy each day.  Others have brought in food for us.  Since I had already been in bed for over a week before the surgery, there were no meals planned, and only sparse groceries, so the food is so appreciated! Our RS president brought over a delicious meal on Sunday with Beef Stew - it was the only thing that sounded good to me before my surgery.  Yum!

My Mom came up to take care of me, which is always a huge sacrifice for her.  She has had health problems of her own for over 40 years.  We all love having her here, and the children are so excited to have Grandma around.  Everything goes smoother when she is here. 

Next Monday I go in to the doctor again to find out what the pathology report says - hopefully no cancer.  Then I'll go in each week until my hcg levels go down to zero.  They'll need to be monitored for at least 6 months, staying at zero, to be sure that this tumor didn't leave any cancerous cells.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, help, and kind wishes.  I'm looking forward to being out of bed and becoming an energetic person someday!

Another miscarriage...sort of.

For the past week, I've thought I was having a miscarriage...but nothing seemed the same as the last time.

I have a wonderful sister-in-law who gave me some advice and helped me decide to go into the doctor.

Today I went to the doctor.  I have a molar pregnancy - a large mass, no baby.  A 25 % risk of cancer (which needs to be monitored for 6-12 months to make sure there isn't any cancer).  On Monday I go in for surgery (D&C). They are taking extra precautions to avoid hemorraging - which sometimes happens with these growths, and which I seem to be prone to.

Now it all makes sense - why I've felt so extremely sick (pregnancy hormones are way higher than with a real pregnancy), why my skin has felt like it is crawling, why it just didn't seem like things were happening as they should.

So now, I am resting, taking supplements to get my iron up, and spending time loving my little ones who are tired of seeing a lethargic Mom laying in bed.  We have read a lot of stories lately, though.

I feel peaceful, but if I don't feel like talking for a while, please don't think I'm being rude.  This past little while in my life has been such a trial and a learning experience, I'm kind of being an anti-social hermit right now.

My, what big eyes you have!

Bob found these funny glasses when he was dejunking our room.   Taycie was pretty proud of herself.

A few weeks ago, we headed to Utah for my Grandpa's funeral.  It was amazing to be reunited with so many family members.  It reminded me of how much I love all of my extended family, and it was really interesting for me to look at everyone and to notice how their choices have affected their life courses.  It strengthened my testimony of the gospel, and the power that comes into our lives when we try our best to do what is right.

My Grandpa was a professional boxer who won the Golden Gloves and was the featherweight champion of the world.

My sister Lisa posted some photos of him and pictures of the funeral... you can check them out here:
http://prestonandlisa.blogspot.com/2012/05/goodbye-champ.html

 

Inspiring Mother's Day Thoughts