Why we avoid this stuff...

We used to be just your average family, buying and consuming anything the 'average' family does, from Kool-Aid to popsicles, not much caring what was in it besides the typical "too much sugar". We always tried to limit the kids' consumption of that dreaded "too much sugar", but we never really gave too much thought about any other things we should potentially be avoiding. Until Jamie came along. Jamie is our challenging child. Not in a horribly bad way, she's just a challenge. Incredibly intelligent, but also incredibly HYPER. Jamie puts Mexican jumping beans to shame! Constant movement, sometimes really erratic and almost uncontrollable. There are times when Jamie seems like she's lost her hearing; she won't notice or even react to anything going on around her, and if she's in a particularly active mode, sometimes that's a dangerous thing.

I'm not overly fond of medical intervention (mostly because we have always had a lack of truly GOOD doctors), so when we started to see the signs a year or so ago of what would surely be diagnosed as ADHD, we began investigating natural treatments for it. One of the first things I came across was the research on artificial food dyes and the very apparent link they have to hyperactivity and what was labeled back in the 1950's as 'hyperkenesis'. I kind of like that term better than ADHD--Jamie is most certainly hyperkenetic! What absolutely floored me was that most European Union countries have actually BANNED the use of artificial food additives in products marketed to children. Banned. We're not talking about a suggestion to parents--these things were removed completely! One British Medical Journal report on the additive 'Red 40' likened it to rat poison for children. I wouldn't say I'd go THAT far, but that's how adamant people are in other countries about this stuff.

The more I read, the more convinced I was to at least try and see what would happen if we removed the artificial stuff from her diet. It was like night and day. Jamie's tasmanian devil days diminished, and she was more just a little dust devil than a full-blown human tornado. Her hyperactivity was more managable, and during the worst days, she can at least hear and respond now.

If we'd not had enough proof that there was something 'up' with the artificial dyes, Pete slipped one day when he had Morgan and Jamie out for a drive and we had our suspicions cemented. The girls got thirsty, and he stopped and got them what he thought was a semi-healthy drink--Tropicana Twister. Thing is, he didn't read the label and didn't think about the fact that the juice drink was bright red. Within twenty minutes, Jamie was doubled over in excruciating pain, and she continued to have pains like that for the following eight hours. The emergency room was a 45 minute drive, so as I asked the nurse on the hotline what I should do, she suggested that the sudden onset of the pain in an otherwise healthy child HAD to be something in the drink--especially since Jamie had consumed it on an empty stomach. I was told it was likely an allergic reaction and that we'd better find out what it was she was reacting to. Everything in the drink was pretty natural--apple and grape juices, some pineapple juice, corn syrup, you know, all the typical stuff. Except the Red 40. Oh, and the artificial dyes? Guess what? They have salicylates in them, which is what causes the reaction--it's an aspirin derivative that is also found (naturally, and in smaller amounts) in apples, grapes, and most berries. The Feingold Diet (named after the doctor who did the research on the reaction to food dyes in children) actually suggests eliminating these natural salicylates as well as the artificial ones.

For the most part, there aren't too many people who will believe us about the change in Jamie's behavior and attention span as it relates to us eliminating the artificial dyes from her diet. However, I now have some good, hard proof showing another of our children reacting to it. Danica's reaction to the skins of apples, cucumbers, grapes, and strawberries was odd to us. We'd not seen anything like it--she breaks out in a red, raised, blotchy 'rash' that is tender to the touch every time she eats something that has either the natural salicylates or the artificial dyes in them. We'd never documented it in pictures before until Friday. We weren't paying really close attention to what was in the sweet and sour sauce at Wendy's until Pete wiped Dani's face and realized that the red marks weren't coming off, and that they were darker than the sauce. What I've photographed below is NOT a stain. It's an allergic reaction. To a food dye. See the red marks around her mouth?


Upon further inspection, we realized that she also had the red marks above her mouth where Pete had smeared the sauce while wiping it off (to the right of her nose under her eye, you can see a light red reaction just starting to take shape), plus where the sauce had dripped onto her chest. This red mark on her chest, I assure you, is NOT a cut, a scrape, or a bug bite. It is from the sauce.
Sure enough, on the label (which I'll not show a picture of even though I do have it, because I don't feel like being sued for libel by Wendy's) was what we figured would be there--Red 40.

I think we'll stick to the honey mustard!

BFS--Don't Leave Home Without It!

In an attempt to streamline my blogging and give myself a tad more structure, I chose recently to be part of just a few select "fun" things within the blogosphere on a regular basis, and I just could not pass this one up--the Blogger Friend School looks like so much fun, and such an antidote to my occasional writer's block! So here goes!

Memory Verse: Matthew 28: 20 - Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen.
Intro: Never Leave Home Without It (Marketing Credit: American Express) Diapers, bottles, wipes, bibs, pacifiers, extra clothing, cell phone, PDA, ipod, iphone, credit or debit cards … what would you never leave home without?
Assignment: In the memory verse Jesus tells us that He will never leave us, not even at the end of the world. He assures us in this verse that He will be with us and that means through everything we go through in life. I thought it would be interesting to write about the things we would never leave home without. For some it might be baby needs, others it might be a gym bag and bottle of water, and for some it might be your Bible and a notepad or small journal, maybe even your son or daughters favorite blankie! I’d like for you to write about something that you would never leave home without.

What would I never leave home without? With six kids, any outing nearly requires the use of a luggage rack, but some are a bit worse than others. For instance, not EVERY time we leave the house looks like this:(For reference, this was us in the Frankfurt International Airport on June 13th, toting 10 checked bags, 3 car seats, 6 carry-on's, a diaper bag, and a cat! You don't even want to know how tightly those bags were packed!)

No, most times it's just a short-trip thing, to the store or a church meeting of some sort. And inevitably, it takes me at least ten minutes to get my act together. Pete has told me I'd have made a great Boy Scout, because when it comes to outings, my motto is "Be prepared"...sometimes a little OVER prepared. I don't like getting stuck in a situation when I might need something that I didn't think to pack! So of course, my purse includes a DayRunner, checkbook, wallet, cell phone, gum, chap stick, and a small "girly necessities" pouch. I don't leave home with just my wallet and keys--ever! I just can't imagine it.

When I've got the littles with me, it gets more complicated. We have two in diapers, so the diaper bag is pretty full. Two sizes of cloth diapers, a wetbag, cloth wipes, a squirt bottle with wipes solution, at least two bottles, formula, pacifiers, a drooler bib, burp cloth, and a first aid kit. Overkill? Maybe, but if you knew my almost-two-year-old, you'd know why I felt the need to be uber-prepared!

There is one thing, however, that I can never leave home without--my military ID card. I can't get on base, and therefore HOME without it. I got used to that in Germany, we had to take our ID's everywhere, and losing it was a big, fat, HUGE deal (we know...Kelsey lost hers three times in six months, I thought the MP's were going to eat us alive that third time we reported it missing). Thing is, every time I put that ID card in my pocket, purse, or wallet, I remember something my great-grandmother said to me when I left home for adulthood:

"Remember whose you are."

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19, 20

Do we dare?

Pete and I did something yesterday that could lead to our life together taking a very, well, *different* avenue than anyone in either of our families has taken for generations. We have longed for quite some time to do something like this, and with Pete's retirement from the Army looming larger every day on the horizon, we have some decisions to make. Of course, since it is new territory for either of us, we wanted to at least see what it would look like, so we took a drive. About twenty minutes north of Huntsville was a property he'd spotted in one of those real estate brochures he picked up, and both of us was flabbergasted to find how "at home" we felt standing there on that ten-acre plot of farmland just half a mile from the Tennessee border surrounded by a lot of nothing.

Granted, the house that sits on the property is uninhabitable. It's a 100+ year-old farmhouse in need of more than just TLC. It's in need of a bulldozer! The barn is not too much better off. However, at $114,000, that piece of land is probably the closest we'd come to getting the best of both worlds--the farm life we both would LOVE to have with the potential to eventually build our dream home with room to breathe, plus the close proximity to a good job for Pete.

Thing is...you talk about risks! We'd have to find a not-so-expensive mobile home to put on the property to live in...immediately...not to mention that house is going to be a bear to tear down! However, the thought of working toward self-sufficience is really sparking our interest even further. Standing there on that big, green piece of land imagining ourselves living off of the bounty that the Lord provides from the land, having the space for our children to live and grow without having to worry about what ridiculousness our nextdoor neighbors are up to...it's a good thing we aren't going to be truly "in the market" for a home for another eight or nine months. This piece of land has been available since January of 2007...I wonder how long it will be sitting there?

Yes, as a matter of fact, we ARE crazy!

It actually took seven weeks this time, but I finally got cornered and asked "the question" by someone I'd met only minutes before. It's one of those questions I've come to expect: "You're done now, right?" Is it obvious that I'm annoyed by that question when my eyes roll out of my head and onto the floor? It rates right up there with "Don't you know by now what causes that?" and "Are you trying for a boy?", and even "How does someone with that many kids have time to make another one??" Hmm, no, we sure don't know what 'causes that', why don't you explain it to us? And the short answer is no, we aren't "trying for a boy". Last time I heard, it's pretty much up to GOD whether a baby wears his/her plumbing on the outside or not. Besides, Pete's hopelessly broken. The Army and all that radiation from the PATRIOT system, plus the anthrax and smallpox vaccines...they broke him and now we can only have girls. OKAY?? Yes, I know that most of these ridiculous questions are just small-talk and people generally don't know what to say when they come in contact with someone who does things differently than they do, but what confuses me (and raises my hackles...even though it's on the inside) is how having a larger-than-average brood opens us up to have complete strangers questioning not only our sex life, but also our general sanity and even whether or not we're responsible parents!

I dread dealing with the comments about our family size and our choices and convictions FAR more than I worry about how we'll afford another child, how I'm going to handle dealing with the added work, the sleepless nights, and the health stresses. I'm intensely private about a lot of things, and I'm not a confrontationalist. I don't relish getting into debates, I detest going on the defensive during a conversation, and I don't judge someone just because they live differently than we do; I just want to live my life, that's all.

I don't do this very often, but it's worth it!

You simply MUST go read this. I had to try very hard to keep from spewing coffee all over our brand-new monitor whilst reading this. It is HILARIOUS--especially to those of us who can identify!
How to Hide a Front Butt by Cindy Beall
Go read it. DO IT!!!!

Simple Woman's Daybook 10/6/08

FOR TODAY, OCTOBER 6th, 2008...

Outside My Window... it is once again clear and cloudless. That's supposed to change later on in the week as we have another cold front roll in, so I'm going to take the opportunity to enjoy the sun!
I am thinking... that we are going to be in for quite a challenge when we start looking for a house next year. There's that "planner" in me again, hard at work. Pete picked up two real estate booklets yesterday and we realized just how unalike our preferences really are as we looked through them before bed!
I am thankful... that my cyst did not take three or four days to rupture like they usually do. A few hours of excrutiating pain was enough, thanksmuch! God had mercy on this tired mom!
From the kitchen... I'm making up my menu and shopping list, and here's what I've got so far:

• Monday--shepherd's pie
• Tuesday--chicken tacos
• Wednesday--clam chowder, fresh veggies, and dip
• Thursday--baked chicken, spaghetti squash, and brown rice
• Friday--mazotti and green beans
• Saturday--ravioli with meat sauce, garlic bread, and salad

I am wearing... black capris and a white tee (it's supposed to be 84 degrees today!)
I am creating... the last of the girls' nature-treasure-keepers; I got Morgan's and Danica's done last week, but needed ribbon to finish Jamie's. We'll be ready for a nature hike by the week's end!
I am reading... Welcome Home by Emilie Barnes
I am hearing... Dani's little voice practicing the new words she's started repeating the last week or so. It's great that she's finally using words instead of grunts more often!
Around the house... I finally have the girls' room and the master bedroom cleaned up and in order. Today, it's on to the playroom/nursery, and then, thank goodness, I'll have most of the big stuff done!
One of my favorite things... my laundry room. Odd, yes, but this is the first house we've been in that I've had a laundry room that truly works for me. It's big enough for a shelf for my diaper bags and laundry supplies, the diaper pail, a shoe rack, the dog/cat food bowls, the litter pan, and the girls' dresser! I've got hooks on the walls to hang clothes fresh from the dryer, I can fold the girls' clothes and put them right into their drawers, Pete can hang up his uniform top as soon as he walks in the door, we hang our keys there, and I even have a little clothesline to hang diaper covers on! Having a well-organized "work" room really makes things easier on me and that will be one of the things I look for when we go house-hunting!
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: Not much. In fact, other than school and some simple crafts, I have NO plans! Yay!
Here is picture thought I am sharing... of Danica last Tuesday afternoon, bowling like the big girls. Have you noticed how impatient adult bowlers are? Kids are especially content to live in the moment...no matter how long that ball takes to get to the pins. The anticipation never wavers, the excitement never dulls. Even when it takes five minutes...and a bowling alley attendant doing a balancing act between the gutters to go and retrieve the ball that has stopped completely mid-lane!


Wanna share your simple thoughts this week? Go visit Peggy's site and see how to!

Homeschool Weekly Report #2

Okay, so this was supposed to have been Saturday's blog post....but considering that I was out of commission thanks to a nasty bout with a rupturing ovarian cyst....it waited!

Last week was sort of a "light" week with the littles. We stuck with the read-alouds and the girls decided on Monday that I just had to repeat that day's reading in Mother Goose for the rest of the week. We must have heard "One, Two, Buckle my Shoe" six hundred times last week! Both Morgan and Jamie find it side-splitting that the rhyme to "nine, ten" is not what they hear on Barney, but instead, it is "A big, fat hen"! You can only imagine how much giggling went on here over that! We are learning about seasons as well as calendars, and this week (now that I finally have the printer cooperating) we are creating the girls' very own calendars.

Kelsey still had a full workload last week. Interestingly enough, she's enjoying the work on taxes that she's doing in consumer math. She is a bit shocked that the government takes THAT much of our money. Welcome to reality, my dear! She was a week ahead in chemistry, so instead of being another week ahead, she opted to just skip that subject this week and replace it with reading her new fascination--the Twilight series. I'm rolling my eyes, but allowing it. I did tell her that it's not something I'd choose to spend my time reading, but this is the first time she's voluntarily read ANYTHING, so I'm not protesting too loudly.

This week, the public schools are out for Fall Break. We aren't! Nuff said?

Have a ball?

Tonight is the annual Ordnance Corps 'birthday' Ball. Kelsey is babysitting for Pete's boss, and we're not going. I'm just not the Ball type. I don't do formal well, I detest shopping for formal wear, and personally, I feel ridiculous all dressed up. We've gone to one formal military ball, and it was...well, an experience. That's about all I can say about it. Sure, there was lots of pomp and circumstance, everybody looked amazing....but it is REALLY difficult to get comfy and enjoy yourself while you're dressed to the nines and your husband's commanding officer is sitting just feet away from you. Nevermind we were surrounded by a dozen or so drunken idiots who found it hilarious to see how high they could stack their beer bottles...

Pete is in charge of having the HIMARS launcher there and on display at the Ball, so at least he's got something to do tonight. And something very odd is crossing my mind...maybe we should plan to go next year, just one last time?

Never-ending kitten craziness

It has been 13 years since our house has been graced with the presence of a kitten. Murphy was our last little fluffy baby, and she was 11 when she died a year and a half ago. I miss my furbabies dearly, but for the most part, this little psycho black ball of fluff that we have in our house now is helping me cope. If nothing else, he certainly gives us plenty of entertainment! Ty may be the typical four-month-old kitten, but we tend to think he's got a few neuroses at work in that little brain of his! Why else would we regularly find him in places like...

the dishwasher, harassing the Jet-Dry basket...

the pantry, asleep in the mesh bag we use to hold all of those dozens of plastic shopping bags...

the refrigerator (and no, we did NOT close him in there, he simply jumps in as soon as the door's open)... ...and of course, there's the washing machine, the bathtub (while it's full), behind the TV, and climbing up the windows to attempt to sit ON the locking mechanism that is only 2 inches wide! Then there's his little fascination with attacking our very large German shepherd/husky mix and stealing Jake's bones and toys right out from under his paws! Oh well, cats will be cats, and they've all got "issues". I guess it's a good thing they're just so cute!

The eyes have it!

I must hear fifteen times a week how much our girls look like their dad. It's a bit odd, considering how much they really don't look alike, to all somehow look the same. Well, it's their eyes. They all have Daddy's eyes. They've all got that really pronounced "Harker brow", and deep-set eyes, just like Dad (and Opa). All except Jamie. Poor Jamie got her eye-genes from MY side, and try as she might, she just canNOT do the "mean face" that the rest of the kids can do. Wanna see? Oh, and even though I don't have a picture, when Kelsey does this, her eyes nearly disappear!

Here's the original, in close competition with Mr. Potato Head's "angry eyes":
Morgan's interpretation of "mean face":
And Danica's:
And now, Jamie's....she just can't do it no matter how hard she tries, bless her little heart! She's too cute to look mean!

The Simple Woman's Daybook 9/29/08

Oh, how I long for simplicity! Life is just far too complicated and busy; it's so nice to be able to start the week focused on some of the simpler things instead of poring over that overly full to-do list that just screams at me. I was so thankful to have stumbled across Peggy's blog The Simple Woman...at home and I think her weekly simplicity meme is a wonderful idea! If you'd like to 'play' too, go check out her guidelines and have fun!

FOR TODAY, SEPTEMBER 29th 2008...
Outside My Window... it's cloudless and sunny, and if predictions are correct, today is one of the last days we'll have our A/C running, because it looks as if Autumn is on its way with a cold front tomorrow! We're just starting to see little shocks of color here and there on the mountains, but in our front yard is a tree that is giving in to Fall color-changing a bit early--we already have a yard that needs raking!
I am thinking... that it won't be long before we'll be enjoying some beautiful walks through the nature trails on Monte Sano on cool, crisp Saturday mornings like we've dreamed about for so many years. I can't WAIT for this sticky summer heat to give way; I LOVE the Fall!
I am thankful for... God's provision through Pete's job. As stressful as military life is, and as meager an existence as we're sometimes forced to live with, even in tight times we've never worried about where our next meal was coming from or if he'd have a job next week. I just know too many people who have life very rough right now, and I'm thankful we don't.
From the kitchen... we'll feast on steak and potatoes tonight! I've had a London Broil marinating since Saturday, and my mouth is already watering!
I am wearing... white yoga pants and a t-shirt I borrowed from Pete; it's laundry day!
I am creating... some scrapbook pages from our time in Germany. I'd better get to it before I forget what all of those buildings are!
I am going... grocery shopping later on today after the girls' naps. Eventually, everything needs to be replenished!
I am reading... Homeschooling With a Meek and Quiet Spirit by Teri Maxwell....again!
I am hoping... that this illness will finally leave our house so we can all get some much-needed sleep instead of having someone coughing all night long!
I am hearing... little baby sounds. Music to the ears! Shelby is finally figuring out how to make little noises on purpose, and right now she's intent on grabbing the dragonfly that is dangling in front of her on her bouncy seat, so it needs to be 'talked to' too!
Around the house... is the evidence of a long-sick mom and the typical busy Sunday--a pile of laundry (thanks to Jon taking over my laundry room this past weekend, I didn't get anything washed!), the remains of a carrot cake we took to potluck yesterday, a diaper bag that needs to be restocked, and a playroom that is in DIRE need of an overhaul!
One of my favorite things... a steaming cup of coffee with creamy chocolate creamer--YUM!
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week: I'm hoping this week to be able to get to the boxes of Fall/Winter clothes to rotate some of the girls' things. It's going to be far too chilly by the end of the week for shorts and tees! I'm also hoping to get to Michael's to pick up some plastic canvas so I can make the girls each a little nature treasure box so when we do get out for those nature walks, they will have containers for their 'finds'! Pete wants me to try out my German goulaschsuppe recipe and to make my first attempt at brotchen too, so with this cooler weather on its way, this week might be a great time to put it on the menu!
Here is picture thought I am sharing...This was a picture I found during my print-to-scrap task that didn't really fit into the sightseeing annals but is such a great reminder to find joy in unexpected places. We'd spent the day wandering through Worms, Germany, among cathedrals and cemeteries that begged to tell their stories, walking through the streets where Martin Luther walked and the Edict of Worms was penned. Reformation history, so serious in nature, was a true bore to Morgan and Jamie, but this little bubbling fountain and the sight of a few birds taking to flight struck their curiosity and they just had to join in. They make their own fun where there is none to be found, and that's something few adults can remember to do! When life gets dull, play in puddles and flap your "wings", you never know how far you could fly!

A peek into our homeschool week

I have been wanting to do something like this for a while, to have some sort of written "progress report" of sorts but just never had the right format--every time I tried, it just looked dumb to me. Lo and behold, Mrs. Cuddles has a weekly meme on her blog Cuddles on the Couch, see?

Neato mosquito! I'll play! Sounds like a great way for me to keep myself in check...not to mention to disspel the myths that all I do is sit on the couch eating bonbons all day long....'tis to laugh!

Kelsey--week 3: Kelsey is finally getting into the groove of what independent learning really feels like. It is SOOOO much easier not having to prod her along, but rather to say, "Here's your schedule, I will trust you to grade your daily math work with the understanding that if you don't pass your quizzes and biweekly tests with flying colors, all grading rights and privileges return to Mom." She's loving it, and so far she seems to be learning BETTER this way! Consumer math, while it isn't really a 'tough' math course, is still rather meaty and full of practical application (something Kelsey desperately needs work in), and once we got past the inevitable "Mom, they're asking me to do something that's not in the book" arguments that have happened EVERY year since the first grade, she did just fine. She is truly enjoying her Starting Points worldview/philosophy/literature/history/Bible course. She says she likes being able to see HOW things make sense. Funny, that's what I've been trying to.....oh, forget it. I'm not going to get into that again. All in all, great week. No fighting about getting anything done, chemistry is not stumping her like she thought it would, and she is finally starting to look like a high schooler, academically speaking.

Morgan/Jamie--week 2: This week went incredibly well, all things considered. Last week, our first "official" week of kindergarten/jr.K, did not go so well, but week 2 was much better. For starters, this week, Mom had a voice and wasn't coughing up a lung every ten mintues! So yes, we actually got our reading DONE! Sonlight's Pre-K (ages 4-5) program is a great fit for us, and I'm supplementing with 'Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons', Horizons Math K for Morgan, and Comprehensive Curriculum pre-K/kindergarten workbooks for Jamie. As I had guessed (and partially feared), Jamie is catching on to writing, while for Morgan, it's a chore she'd rather not deal with. I think for now I might just go ahead and focus on learning to read with Morgan and leave the handwriting for when her fine motor skills catch up. No hurry, she's only 4!

Jamie is continuing to shock us all weekly with the things she can memorize. She can spell the names of just about every family member (we haven't quite gotten Shelby's and Danica's names in the mix yet), and thanks to a couple of really neat PBS shows, she's learned how to spell several other words as well.

She's also the one who will analyze a story, making sure I stop so she can ask WHY the mouse would be so nice as to help the lion when the lion wanted to eat the mouse....while Morgan just loves to listen to the stories. Morgan is not thrilled with the Poky Little Puppy--the injustice of Poky's siblings not getting the pudding, chocolate custard, and strawberry shortcake is just too much for her sensitive little mind! OH the injustice!

Of course, Dani can just not abide with being left behind in anything, so we had to make sure she had some "school books" of her own to scribble on while the big girls are doing their own seatwork! You'll notice, by the way, that she's wearing a pajama top that is not her own, a cloth diaper on bottom, and Morgan's flip-flops. Standard homeschool uniform, is it not?

"Mama said there'll be days like this..."

Every mother knows what I'm talking about. You wake up with a stiff and sore neck because you spent the entire night with the pillow wrapped around your head just trying to squelch the ear-piercing snores coming from your beloved, the kids all wake up "in a mood", fighting about every little thing that could potentially be fought about all day long, the coffee is too weak, you forget to take anything out for dinner, the two-year-old gets into literally everything that you have ever proclaimed "off limits" (spilling powdered baby formula all over the bathroom floor, "digging" in the coffee creamer, unrolling an entire roll of toilet paper, emptying the whole soap dispenser to wash her hands), your attempts at occupying the kids with art projects goes awry when you take one two-minute trip to the bathroom and the two-year-old paints herself, the kitchen table, and her now-screaming three-year-old sister's hair with finger paint (and then drips finger paint all the way down the carpeted hallway to come tell you "Mess, mama"), the four-year-old spills every single drink poured, no matter who the owner of the cup is, and the three-year-old spends the entire day picking up the cat (which, of course, you've told her umpteen bazillion times in the last three months NOT to do) and taking away every toy the two-year-old tries to play with.

Yesterday was one of those "Calgon, TAKE ME AWAY!!!" days for me. By 7pm, I was ready to run away. Thankfully, though, the little balls of mess and energy do go to bed. And thankfully, only ONE woke up coughing and crying in the middle of the night. It was just "one of those days".

Thing is, though, for some odd reason, once you have the third child, people become far less sympathetic. One of the weirdest things I've noticed is that mothers of "many" (whatever that means) are expected to NEVER have "days like that", and when we do, it's inevitably blamed on the number of children. "Bless your heart, you've just got your hands too full," or "Well, of course you're overwhelmed, there's SO MANY of them," is the typical response. Why is that? You know, I've really noticed that my inevitable awful days aren't really a reflection on the number of kids in the house, because I'd have "those days" even with just one child. Kids are kids. They need training...and the days when I completely lose control over everything that is going on around me is more of a reflection of ME--I lose control because I've failed in some aspect of training. I see that with my teenagers so much more as the days progress--their rebellion doesn't have to be considered "the norm", because that "norm" as society knows it is a relatively new development. It's a result of a very child-centered way of life; give the little guys everything their little hearts desire when they're teeny, and what on earth else could you expect but teens who expect to have that same treatment?

Maybe I'm just ranting and raving because I'm reaping the "rewards" of the new way of thinking with regard to child-rearing. It's days like yesterday when I really do wonder how moms like Michelle Duggar, Marilyn Boyer, and Teri Maxwell do it. But then, they did things MUCH differently when their children were younger.

Praise God, "those days" don't come in direct succession. I get to take a long, hot shower after the girls are in bed, spend some time in prayer and studying life's "owner's manual", and I can hope in a new day...one that looks more like this:

And so begins the madness.

Since we arrived in Alabama just a few short months ago, Pete has had to confront a very obvious elephant in the room--his looming military retirement. As we've learned, one can pretty much do an entire military career without *too* much planning. Pete's not a planner. He's a dreamer. He is perfectly content to take life as it comes, and for the most part, that's perfectly fine. But this is one time when it's just not going to happen. There is too much that he/we simply must do--real, live legwork. We live in military housing, so at some point we're going to have to get real about finding a mailbox to put our name on outside the gates of Redstone Arsenal. Of course, then there's another biggie--his post-retirement JOB.

God is amazing us over and over when we see how well 'staged' this move was in preparation for Pete's Army retirement. But there was always the possibility of just riding out the last few years without making any real efforts at making a civilian life until he's pretty much forced out of the Army. We've spent a LOT of time the last few days talking about that, and he admitted to really not even knowing how to go about making that decision. I told him it would be a great idea to go talk to some men who have actually transitioned from the military to civilian life and get their take on things, get advice, etc., but I also asked him if he would rather spend the next few years wearing camouflage or donning civilian clothing to go to work. He finally said it--"I want to be a civilian."

Yesterday, he went and had a conversation with the installation antiterrorism head honchos to ask about the job they're advertising vacancies in. He came home with a TON of paperwork.

And so it begins!

Why the fascination?

I don't get it, truly. I struggle to find just ONE outfit to wear every day, why on earth would Dani revel so in the neverending delights of dresser-diving for a new fashion every fifteen minutes? SERIOUSLY, kid......I wonder sometimes why I even put clothes away when all Dani is going to do is take the dresser's entire contents out, turn them all inside-out, and put EVERYTHING on. WHY??????

We already relocated the girls' dresser downstairs into the laundry room so Dani didn't disappear into silent rummaging upstairs where I couldn't at least have a chance at intercepting...plus it makes it easier for me to clean up after her fashion experiments. But so far today, she's put on four different shirts, two pairs of [Morgan's] shorts, a sundress, and three of Jamie's pajama tops. All before lunch. What's next, locking the dresser up? Of course we'd also have to lock up the diaper closet where all the dozens of cloth diapers "live", because her second favorite fascination is dressing her dolls (and everyone else's) in hers and Shelby's diapers. No WONDER my diaper laundry has doubled, yet the diapers seem to be so clean!

If this wasn't so funny, I think I'd be a basket case.